SNAP!
It felt too elastic. He could almost hear the sound of his eyes snapping open.
'What… happened...' His mind was foggy, the last thing he remembered was the…
Immediately he jumped up!
Or at least he tried to, before he fell flat on the floor almost breaking his nose in the process.
'This is not looking good.' He began to panic, and it wasn't until a while had passed, that he managed to calm himself down.
Immediately he ran a risk assessment. 'I am not dead or captured, meaning for the time being, I am safe.'
When he had this thought, his blood cooled and he was able to regain some semblance of uniform thinking.
"Doors. Limiters?" As soon as he regained his cognitive abilities, the other factors came rushing in, he remembered those doors. But he couldn't really think of them like that.
It would be more accurate to call them…Limiters?
This was too confusing. Since when did he have limiters?
Taking a deep breath, he calmed down. Questioning further wouldn't bear any results. He didn't even know what those doors meant.
'Or was it…' Before the thought could even form, he shook it off.
"What's this?" He was too muddy-headed to notice before, but his movements were more fluid and the constant pains from hidden trauma weren't present.
'Interesting.' He tried moving again, and as his movements slowly sped up into a daily workout routine his mind seemed to spark.
It was like there was a constant feedback loop between what he was seeing and how his body moved in response. It felt almost like…
"Puppetry." Reaper wiped off the sweat.
"I don't feel sore." For him, this was a game changer. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time his body had felt so… free!
All the imperfections in his build had been corrected, but the trade-off seemed to be a weaker build overall.
His flexibility had taken a step up as well, "Hmm?"
He ran his fingers down his throat. "Hmm, it seems whatever this is didn't get rid of these scars."
It might have healed his trauma but did nothing for his scars. The one that ran from his lips to his neck was still evident.
He shook his head. He was already grateful for this much. He knew just how much his body was suffering. He was constantly on the verge of collapse each time he came back.
But for the first time in years, he felt completely energized.
'I'm unusually sweaty though... Hmm?' There was a ton of sweat sticking to his skin, having appeared during his sleep. 'Strange. I don't recall having a fever.'
He looked down towards his chest, "Could it have been this thing?"
But he knew that he wasn't getting any answers out of it. It seemed to have its own will. He scanned the room.
Despite how shabby the place looked, it was properly ventilated. Considering what was possible with Arc Technology, it wasn't very surprising.
In the end, he decided to take a shower first and analyze everything else later.
...
He stood in front of a mirror staring at himself, showing his teeth. Somehow his teeth had also been strengthened.
He remembered the audible cracks from the previous night, and he was glad that they weren't permanently damaged. After all, a man of his age walking around without teeth wasn't exactly attractive.
He wiped himself down, and switched off the lights, ignoring the scars that ran over his chest.
He was born like that. Not that he believed it. That old man, if nothing else, was certainly sketchy. He promised he would protect him but wasn't he six feet under?
'Sigh.' Realizing how childish his thoughts were he chuckled internally, shaking his head.
On the other hand, he noticed his hair seemed brighter and his eyes seemed to have gained a hint of more life.
"Eyes!"
That's what it was. He realized why things still seemed off. His eyes seemed to have gained something. He just couldn't quite put a finger on it.
Feeling an oncoming headache, from the various pieces of information, he could only let it fall to the back of his mind.
'...I guess I'll have to push my plans forward.'
The original schedule was for him to stick around till the end of the year to properly complete his final preparations, but it seemed what he had already prepared would have to do.
After all, he had a ticking time bomb on him and had no idea when it would rear its ugly head.
He looked at the last survival tracksuit he had, got dressed, and walked out of the door.
He had a pair of white shorts and an unzipped hoodie with a black vest inside and finally dawned his black face mask.
Unfortunately, he truly had no shoes, opting instead to wrap his feet with the cloth from his torn clothes.
Though it looked like he was out of it for a long time, he had already adjusted his body to only sleep as much as needed.
A deep slumber to him was 5 hours at most. On a regular sleep wasn't even part of the equation. So in reality the day had just broken, and only 6 hours had passed.
Unknown to him, a full 3 days had passed, which was the real reason for his decrease in size.
Just as he was packing his stuff and getting ready to leave he noticed something in the corner of his eyes.
'Shoes?' On them was a note. 'Happy Birthday.'
He looked at the piece of paper for a long time. He looked towards the set of doors he called home. He stared for a while, then left.
He promised himself one thing, 'I'll come back. Soon.'
...
"Wake up brat! Breakfast is ready!" Old Maki snorted as she entered the room with a basin and towel, only to be greeted by a beautiful but empty cabin.
On the table, which she had long since changed out… she saw a sealed envelope.
After a moment of silence, she finally put two and two together. 'Sigh.'
"At least he finally learned how to clean a room. The damned brat!" With that she headed for the door, she looked at the letter and mused for a bit, but shook her head pocketing it.
She didn't need to read it.
'The kid is some level of stupid.' She scratched her hair ignoring her swelling eyes. 'It's about damn time I retire, no?'