There's quite nothing like a cold soak during a humid summer. I could have turned on the AC and enjoyed the cold air but it seemed too dry for my taste, if that even made sense.
But I do like warm breeze from the open balcony as they run through my damp hair. It just reminded me of back home, is all. If I had a wind chime then it would have been perfect.
As if reading my thoughts, soft chime sounded out in my room.
"I appreciate the gesture, but you really don't have to." I said, addressing the small bell on top of my table.
Speaking of home, I got the pictures from my old one. Sneaking from here to Tokyo and back took the entire night.
There were four photographs of questionable age. They have colours but are heavily faded, and none of them have rotted or have been damaged from insects which is good.
I only took a quick glance back then, but now I get to have a closer look at these.
On the first photograph was the image of an infant peacefully sleeping on a crib, nothing more to take note of.
The second photograph was of a young girl not even ten years of age in an shrine maiden's apprentice uniform. She has a bright smile while sweeping the shrine, the golden bell hung from her side.
The third photograph was what I can only assume was her family, the girl now a teenager standing by the right side. What's note worthy here is that the faces of everyone else has been cut out, leaving only the girl's visage untouched.
The final photograph was of the interior of the shrine. The only thing in the picture was the girl looking back at the camera, gently smiling. Behind her was a small altar with the unbroken mirror resting on it.
They weren't as helpful as I hoped they would be. I had wanted to clean more information from them but the only hypothesis that I can clean from the information at the moment was that there was some sort of terrible event or fallout with the girl and her family, perhaps she was even the --if not one of-- founding member of Neo-Shintoism.
The small insight I have of her life doesn't paint enough of a picture for me to have an accurate grasp of her character, and the likelihood of us meeting isn't exactly high to begin with.
Moving on.
The patient from that night was non other than the Touma, himself.
I honestly glad than I'd have inherited my dear sister's poker face. Being so close to something that can casually kill you on the slightest touch from the right hand was nerve wracking to say the least.
Hevun-sensei did most of the work, thankfully. My presence that night was really only need to help regrow what brain matter he had lost.
And, I could not stress this enough, The eyes from within him staring at me was scary. I did my best not to show any way, shape or form of hostility to their host otherwise they might have initiated some kind of automatic defensive killing mode of sorts.
I still remember that spine-chilling scene from the anime where the dragons-like beings devoured the giant black sphere from a Misaka that was rampaging when she was ascending close to level 6.
Call me a coward, I don't care. I'm not reckless enough to provoke greater powers when I'm a mid-tier boss at best!
I'm glad that the dragons remained docile during the operation...
No joke, most of his frontal lobe was gone. If I wasn't there on time, forget about being an amnesiac, Touma would have become a vegetable. And the only reason my spell worked in the first place was because I localized the healing specifically on his brain and didn't allow even a single essence of spiritual energy to go even remotely close to his right arm.
The one who called for the ambulance was his teacher, didn't know her name, and no one else came here with him. No sign of Index or mages, just the pink-haired legal loli sensei so there was no confrontation between the 'evil' Youkai and the 'righteous' church, yay~
After that was the place that Mugi-chan found... It was pretty average. The whole thing was inconsequential, a basic clean-up for a regular drug thing.
So now here I am, with nothing to do. Or do I?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sounds of numerous impacts can be heard throughout the place. Me and Haru met up in a batting center to hopefully hit a few home runs and relax.
I don't have a lot of guy friends my age to hang out with, and it's been a while since it was just us guys so we decided to play ball.
What was that? Why not go to the gym and bulk up, you say?
Well, sorry but Haru tried building some muscle last year and he told me that his roots would dig in between the fibers and nerves. Not a comfortable image. As for me, I work hard at training too but my physique does not sway from my slender frame.
We couldn't really go for other sports too, like soccer or boxing because either Haru is too clumsy or someone or something would knock my head off my neck, literally.
Baseball is a pretty popular sport in Japan so spending time in a batting center isn't weird. It's a good way to de-stress too, simply hitting the balls as hard as you possibly can. --Not like I know much about sports either so I can't really play by rules or something.--
It was Haru's turn in the net as he wears a helmet and did a few test swings with the bat. Meanwhile, I was by the table with full view of the pitch machine and scoreboard.
Two hits later, Haru timidly asked me a question.
"So, uh... How's work?"
"Same as usual." I shrug. "Just the normal expected amount of blood and gore, especially with instant villains popping up."
"Right, normal he says." He lightly scoffed. "...Does it not bother you?" Haru's tone softened.
"Nah. I'm past that point already. If I had time to be disturbed by every drop of blood or guts, then that means I have time to help them in the first place." I pointed out. "What brought this on? You're usually louder and, I don't know, happy? Popping? Something like that."
"Well... I was just thinking how cool you are, all of you." He said as he hit the ball to hard, it went towards the ceiling. "It's kinda hard to catch up, y'know."
"Please don't tell me you're considering on using Trigger."
"Wha- No!" He denied. "I'm not, it's just- how do I put it..." He sighed as he left the left the net and took off his helmet. "I think I'm at a bottleneck, or I'm just stumped. I don't know... how do I even improve from here?"
"Hmm..." I hummed as I wore the helmet and entered the net, it was my turn to hit some balls.
"Like, bulking is obviously out. My roots are too thin and fragile for me to fling around and such. I don't even have basic resistances to the poisons I make so I'm at risk from those too..." He sighed deeply. "I don't know man. Even Saten is stronger than me... I tried to come up with a bunch of stuff but they really don't seem to work. I- Am I just stuck throwing tiny cactuses?!" He exclaimed loudly which briefly gathered the attention of the people in the batting center before they turned back.
"Use a gun."
"Huh?" He asked, baffled.
"Or use other gear." I nonchalantly replied as I hit another ball.
"But... Isn't that against the point of getting stronger?"
"The way I see it, aren't you focusing too much on your quirk and body? Why not try some external tool." I said before pointing out some things. "Look, Uiharu uses guns, Saten has her bat, Kuroko normally uses needles, even I use support gear from time to time."
He looked at me, suprise evident on his expression from the quick glance I gave him. "But, I never seen you with any..."
"Support gear doesn't have to be the offensive kind." I shrug as I hit another ball and it hit the home run target near the ceiling. "My boots are the no-slip, silent and enforced heavy soles kind for better kicks. I also have a mini-map monocle or whatever they were called." I thought for a moment before continuing. "And I also have a standard stainless steel knuckle duster."
"...You have a knuckle duster?"
"Never really used it, to be honest." I shrug. "It's just collecting dust in one of my drawers. Wanna have it?"
"No thanks." He said while raising his arms. "As you can see, I wouldn't pack much of a punch." I snickered at his pub. "Besides, I wouldn't really be that accurate, having only one eye and all. That means guns are out too."
"Right... How about a sniper rifle? Don't you only need one eye for the scope?"
"That's too lethal, man." I can practically feel his deadpan stare boring into the back of my head.
"Never said it had to be an actual bullet." I shrug while stepping out of the net and passing the bat and helmet back to him. "Doesn't even need to be a sniper. Just coat some other weapon with something, yea? No one said to mix chemicals inside your body. Like stuffing traqs inside a bullet or poisoned needles. Either way, we're working on your accuracy."
"O-oh, right." He didn't move from his seat as he just stared at the table in front of him. "Guess I was too shortsighted. Tunnel vision made me doubt myself, sorry."
"It's fine." I pat him on the head, much to his chagrin. "That can happen to anyone."
"Anyone?" He asked after he brushed off my hand. "Hard to imagine you being set back. You kinda know everything."
"I don't know everything." I mused a bit. "I only know what I do know." I smile, stroking the ribbon on my head as a memory resurfaced. "Yeah, the first major setback I had, my sister pulled me through. It's a bit personal though, so I don't wanna share details."
"She sounds like a good sis."
"She's great."
I remember the day like it was yesterday. I wasn't really born with a floating head --Not like I had parents either.-- It was shortly just after Cirno befriended me and showed me all sorts of cool things.
She made igloos, frozed a good chunk of the lake, even shared the underground misty cave she hung out in every now and then.
Looking back, it was pretty childish of me for trying to compete against someone with tons of practice. Wanting to be stronger, I asked Sekibanki about it, and she told me there was a way but that it wasn't exactly natural.
Should have guessed, As a Youkai, Both Rokurokubi and Nukekubi had to be decapitated first before they had a flying head trait.
She tried coaxing me out of it and tried teaching me a lesson to deter me, but I was pretty adamant and eventually she caved in. Guess part of the reason why was because I wanted to both impress and copy her or something.
It only hurt a bit. And my neck was a bit itchy for a few weeks as it settled down but despite it being a quick slash of a blade, I was still really scared enough that I bawled my eyes out a bunch.
It was how I got my scar.
But it also made me curious as to who gave Sekibanki her scar. If we go by the usual legends alone, she must have either been cursed or a male relative forced her to bear his punishment for his crimes.
Just thinking about is making me a bit angry but I know she's pretty happy the way she is now.
'I'll give her a big hug when we meet again. One day.'