"Am I dead?"
The surroundings where pure white. Nothingness was what all Raigi can see.
He chuckled to himself, "Not that I'm complaining." A light flashed in front of him. "My time has come." He reached his hand out. Suddenly, he noticed..
"My wrist. It's glowing. That's odd. I'm not surprised about dying. But why did my Figure activate? Hmmm.. What was I thinking about that surprised me?"
...
"Of course. It still lingers in my head after all this time.... Ko-.. Kinako... I'm still getting used to that name.."
*
"Brahmastra!" Aichi summoned his spear and lit its tip. Slowly burning Raigi's abdominal wounds, "I managed to stop the bleeding! It will be really painful when he wakes up though."
As Seiko wrapped the wounds in bandaid. She suddenly slowed down. "Hey Seichan, what's wrong?" Kokoshi asked. "Kone-chan.. His heartbeat.. it's.."
"N-no.."
"Kone-chan! Seiko! Look!"
They all glanced at whatever Aichi was pointing at.
"His wrist! It's glowing!"
His body became surrounded in electricity. Electrons rushed through his blood vessels and then suddenly his heart began to start again.
"He.. defibrillated himself.."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" Raigi springed upwards.
"Senpai! Are you okay?"
"nO.. My abdomen feels like it's being acupunctured by flaming needles!"
"Sorry, I had to use Brahmastra to close the wounds."
"You guys took care of me? Well then, I should get fatally injured more often! Hahahaha!"
Raigi glanced at Kokoshi who had a weird look on her face.
"..ha..ha.. That wasn't nice. Sorry."
Kokoshi leaned forward resting her head on his chest, "I was.. worried.."
He smiled, "So was I.."
"Don't worry, Senpai. The ambulance should be ok it's way here. You'll be taken to professional care."
"Are you nuts?"
"Huh?"
"I'm fine. The last thing we need to do is to go near a public place."
"Why?"
"We're being hunted down by the Gendaishi Organization."
"What?! Why?!"
"I don't know." He stands up, Kokoshi still resting exhausted on him, "But, we might have just found the true secret of this phenomenon..and now we're gonna pay for it."
"What do we do?"
"We need to get out of Seijo as soon as possible. From there, Destiny will lead us to victory. Are your parents fine with going for a little trip?"
Seiko says, "My parents won't be coming home for 2 months."
Aichi silently nods.
"Okay. How about you, Ko- oh right."
"What?"
"It's nothing. Everyone pack up! Were gonna go on an adventure!"
*
They all changed to new clothes. Fancy ones, in fact. Aichi still had his Green Jacket but under it is a fireproof shirt and pants. Seiko had the same clothes only with leather pants under her skirt for mobility. Raigi replaced his blue engineers coat with a dark silk jacket with the word Future at the back. Kokoshi(Kinako) had a purple silk scarf covering her mouth with heavy winter outfits. She also removed her buns.
"What are you looking at?" She asked to Raigi.
"My, my. You look better without them."
"Oh yeah, I brought a book too."
"Hey. I'm still injured, you know."
*
They rushed to the train. As they boarded it, Aichi glanced to the side. A slim doll-like girl with a ponytail and bell-sleeved clothes caught his attention.
He shrugged the thought.
As they rode the train.
"Hey Kone-chan.." Aichi asked
"What is it?"
"Senpai's been talking about destiny and fate lately, is something up with him?"
"I don't really know. But he was like this ever since his Idiom developed. Do Gendaishi suddenly have their own puberty? Like they have personality changes or something?"
Kokoshi obviously meant it as a joke but Aichi, as the overthinking timid boy as he is, remembered what happened a few years ago.
Transformation..
Developing an inferiority complex..
"I need to go to the bathroom."
The restrooms were located in between the train's carts. So Aichi headed there. There was no girls or boys sign at the doors. "Well, we didn't have money on us to get a fancy train. This should be expected."
Aichi knocked on one of the doors. "Occupied." The sound of a girl echoed. "Sorry."
Ergo, Aichi knocked on the other door and it was unlocked. He went straight in. "4 years ago..Oh, man.. I wouldn't really want to remember that again.. Huuuuuhh.. Still, I'm happy that I changed, though not completely. My prideful side is starting to come out again.. That time I used Brahmastra was the first time in a while.. Besides, my Figure runs on insult factor which is connected to one's ego. So, I should only be able to use Brahmastra to lightly burn objects, like closing wounds. Any more and I would need to bring that side of me out. Daang, this really does suck.."
...
"Augh! Augh!" A female voice echoed from the other stall.
"Hm?"
"AUGH! Oh!"
"Is that... MOANING?!"
"AUGH! Oh my god!"
"This is..awkward.."
Aichi glanced at the floor as small streams of water slapped violently.
"W-what?! What are these?" The water streams seem to stick to each other forming tentacle-like water limbs.
The streams attacked and Aichi managed to dodge most of it. He headed straight for the door. Outside was the doll-like girl from earlier. Her eyes showing literally no emotion.
"You... please help me! These-"
"You are a Gendaishi, correct?"
"That voice.." It was the same voiced that moaned earlier.
"Yes is what you're implying."
"Are you.. the attacker?"
She flashed her wrist, showing that it's glowing.
"So you've been sent by the organization.. I haven't seen you yet.."
"I am not affiliated with them in any way.. I am legally not a Gendaishi, as I hunt them."
"A Gendaishi hunter? W-what are you going to do with these tentacles?"
"That's what she said."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Huh?"
"I'm sorry. I have this habit of calling out dirty jokes."
"Okay? But are you-"
The tentacles attacked. But they managed to whiff Aichi. "Not letting me finish is kind of insulting! Alright! Roaste-"
"Not so fast.. Sniff the air, a bit."
"Huff.. Ah- This is.."
"I cut open a gas pipe earlier. Don't worry, the gas is only within this area. But open the door to the carts and you'll make the entire cart full of flammable gas. Anyway, you can't use your figure or else this entire room would explode and you can't run away either. Besides, Fire beats Water."
"This is bad.."
"Once I'm done with you, I'll take down your comrades as well."
The tentacles attacked again. This time they managed to hit the back of Aichi's hand.
"Ow! It's.. really hard.."
"That's what she said.."
"..."
"S-sorry.."
"I can't help but think that's quite a weird habit for a quiet girl like you to have."
"I- I don't like it. I hate it. I hate it."
"You have something inside you that you hate? Something you bottle up but still manages to get out? Something that ruins your life and that you really despise? Hm.. We're one of the same, then."
"..."
"We don't really need to fight here. Can you tell me why you hunt down Gendaishi?"
"No."
"I see. I guess you attacked me without knowing who I am?"
"I knew your ability. Anything else.."
"Well, then, I'm Aichi Shirogane.."
"I'm Mi-"
"What's wrong?"
She stabs a hole through one of the walls of the train using an umbrella that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"I won't tell you who I am. This hole will ventilate the gas out of this room, so that it won't spread when we open the doors."
"I-.. Thank you.."
"I'm letting you off, now. But I still have eyes on you." The tentacles began to defuse back into water. "I'm not afraid to attack another time."
She opened a door and walked away. Aichi opened the door to the opposite side and returned to his friends, "What a bizarre girl.."
"What took you so long?"
"I had an existential crisis."
"Your hand, there's blood on it."
"I tripped."
"Don't tell me.... Aichi! Are you on your period?"
"I'm a boy. Thank you very much."
"Nothing bad happened, right?"
"Nope."
"Like, a Gendaishi randomly attacked you in the bathroom but let you live because of some reason?"
"Nope. That totally didn't happen."
"Alright, I'm glad."
*
"Hey, Senpai. Can you explain what's going on now?"
"Gladly. It's pretty simple. We discovered that The Effect is related to the organization's head, Lieutenant General Dabu Jinosuke. After which, the organization sent a sniper to attack us. Most probably, to silence us from telling the truth."
Seiko's wrist glowed. Outside the train..
was a Mojidori.
"I-I forgot.. The Mojidori.. We can't just leave or else there won't be anyone to combat them! We- We're trapped here in Seijo!"