"And so, if you finish the equation with two, you need to subtract…." Aikuro was lazily writing on the chalkboard with his back turned towards the class.
I was staring at my book, silently tapping my pen on the paper.
(I'm. So. BORED. Fuck the end of the world, attending school classes will kill me before Ragyo. And who's the smartass who thought that having math TWICE a day was a good idea?! And to rub it in, one was at the start of the day, the other at the end...)
I let out a yawn as I covered my face with my hand.
(Waking up at the crack of dawn ain't any better either. I worked hard to have a night shift before coming here. Now I'm back to needing to wake up at four am. Bullshit. Though, well, I 'did' get fired so I guess my point is null.)
And, as I was starting to think of taking the easy way out, the bell rang. The students seemingly springing to life as they packed their things up and left the classroom with energy that was nowhere to be seen during the class itself.
"Alright class, remember too.." Aikuro turns to speak, only to see that less than half of the class has remained...
"...do your homework." Aikuro finishes his sentence with a small sigh.
(Well, time to bail.)
I pack my things and get up. And as I start to head towards the exit.
"Oh and, new student." Akuro speaks up
(Still don't remember the name I came up with you derp?)
"Your, father called. He needs you back at the house as soon as possible." He continues as he casually turns to look at his bag.
(Father? So I'm Ryuko's and Satsuki's stepbrother now?...)
I nod, and turn to leave.
(Let's bail then.)
"AAA! class is over?!" I hear a girly shout from inside my class.
"Yey! I can finally go eat!" The same voice shouts.
I glance behind me to see Mako hurriedly packing her things, before pretty much jettisoning herself off her seat and making a beeline towards the exit. The same exit, I was next to.
(Oh you gotta be pulling my leg...)
I quickly try to sidestep to avoid the incoming crash.
" Aaaa! Watch out! " Mako shouts as she skims right past me, and, probably from her loss of focus, runs right into the wall…
"Ouf! Uuuuu, my head…" Mako takes a few steps back as she starts massaging her head.
"You have it out for me or something? Second time you try to knock me out in a single day…" I fold my arms as I stare at Mako.
"Ehh? Uhhhh..." She turns to look at me, and then narrows her eyes, before a lightbulb seemingly flashes in her head.
"Ahhh! You're the guy that wanted to meet the teacher!" She exclaims.
"Umm, what are you doing here?" She asks as she tilts her head.
"...I'm a student in this class, since today morning?" I responded.
"Ohhh! Welcome! I'm Mako Mankanshoku! " Mako excitedly smiles at me as she grabs my hand, and violently shakes it.
"Uhhh, yea…" I nod slightly as Mako keeps trying to rip off my arm.
"Try not to waste too much time with your new friends. Remember your father n…"
"Yes, yes I know." I cut off Aikuro as I glance at him.
(Hmm, why the rush? Did he find something?)
Mako glances at the teacher, then at me.
"Oh you need to go? Sorry for holding you back! See you later!" Mako makes a quick small bow before turning to run out of the class.
"Food~ Food~ Food~ Yummy Foooooood~ Mystery croquettes with surprise Saaaauce~" And she starts singing, her voice slowly fading out as she kept walking…
"...She's certainly, hyper…" I whisper as I also exit the class.
And so, after following the students towards the exit of the building itself. Because I'd get lost otherwise. I pick the emptiest tram, and start going down towards the slums….
-15 minutes later-
I was at the tram's stop.
(Ok, If I remember correctly, the highway is on the sixth turn to the right.)
I nod, and start walking.
(Wonder what Ryuko's dad found to need me back this much…)
With my mind occupied, I kept moving. Which, in retrospect, would explain why I didn't see it...
Until, I felt something violently pulling one of my legs...
(Wha...)
Before I could react, a chain had warped around my shin and pulled my leg back. To keep my balance I lean my upper body forward, only to end up with something crashing into my back, which in turn, sent me flat to the ground…
(...Fugh?!)
"Ha! Second time we caught you Hobo! By the way, nice outfit! Now empty your pockets~" A childish voice I know a bit 'too well' chuckles from behind me.
"Hate to break it to you Mataro, I'm still broke as ever." I respond.
"Hey boss! This guy knows you?" Another childish voice asks.
"What?! Of course not! I don't mingle with damn Hobos!" Mataro, who was now sitting on my back, shouts…
"Well, better hurry it up. Mako was behind me when I left the tram…" I add...
"W, what?! Oh shit! Bail bail!" Mataro shouts as he jumps off my back.
"Uhh, bo.."
"Shut up and run you idiot. I don't want to have to deal with my crazy ass sister!" Mataro cuts the other kid off as his voice starts to sound more distant.
"Oh this is stupid…" Another kid groans as it also starts to run, the other two that had joined the 'raid' following shortly after...
And now, I was alone, on the ground…
(...Done in by kids, and using a girl's name to make them flee. This is fine….)
I let out a huge sigh as I get up, dust myself off, and start walking again...
Thankfully, the road to highway was clear of any more 'events'. So all that was left, was a long-ass walk towards my new home…
(...At least I can shut my brain as I walk...)
And with that thought, I started walking, the highway slowly picking height, until the sea was a sharp drop to my left, with the wind getting relatively stronger…
-1 hour later…-
(At least there are no turns. Because I really feel lost right now…)
-1 and a half hour later…-
(The house is nowhere to be seen, my legs are killing me, my back hurts, my head hurts. This is, fine…)
-2 and a half hours later-
In the distance, finally, I could see the house, my house. As for me…
" I'm, really, not, meant, for, this…." I keep taking deep breaths as I keep walking.
"Wish, I had some, music…." I groan as I stop to lean by the railing.
After a few deep breaths, I turn to look behind me, then towards the sea under me...
(Falling here should be enough to kill me?)
I shake my head and back away from the railing...
(Ugh, pull your shit together. You just got beat up by a bunch of kids, everything, is fine…)
With a huge sigh, I start walking again.
Reaching the house took me another thirty minutes or so, so in total, three hours, just to get through the highway…
After reaching the front door, I knocked on it, as Isshin didn't give me any keys. And not as soon as I knocked, the door flew open.
"Come! Quick!" Isshin commanded as he turned to head towards the living room.
"O,k…" I whisper as I close the door, then follow Isshin to the living room, then to the hallway to the lab, then the lab itself.
"Found something?" I ask.
"See for yourself." Isshin responds as we enter the lab.
"Hmm? Look at whaaa...is that?" I ask as I enter the lab, next to the scissor blades, a new computer, along with a new, circular, transparent containment chamber. In the center of it, a ball of life fibers.
"Why are those life fibers, blue?" I ask as I close into the containment chamber.
"Don't get too close." Isshin puts his arm in front of me before I could take more than two steps towards the new chamber.
"And I thought you'd tell me" He continues.
"Uhh, what?" I ask...
"These are the same life fibers that I tested on you yesterday." Isshin folds his arms as he starts speaking.
"Part of the mass started acting erratically, detaching themselves from the mass of life fibers in the main chamber, attacking the rest of the mass. I had to separate it." He continues.
"After some time in the new chamber, it turned blue. And, well, much more aggressive.." Isshin takes a few steps towards the chamber as he speaks, the ball of fibers seemingly waking up, and quickly 'jumping' off the center and to the glass wall of the container, aiming straight towards Isshin.
"Life fibers don't normally act like this." He adds as he keeps walking to sit next to the chamber, the fibers inside following Isshin by rolling along the glass wall.
"And, then there is this…" He taps a few buttons on the led screen and turns to look at the chamber.
A small hole appears in the center, and a small petri dish with a few drops of blood pops up from inside the hole.
The blue life fiber quickly jumps back to the center and onto the petri dish. They then instantly recoil back with hissing jump, and land next to the petri dish. And, using a tendril that it extended out of its main 'body', it slapped the petri dish away.
-THUK-
And the petri dish loudly crashes into the chamber wall. The lifer fibers then contract themselves and turn into a cobra-like shape, lifting part of their body the air and hiss towards the petri dish.
"Did that thing just get, mad?" I ask.
"Yes, it did." Isshin replies as he presses another button, and a new petri dish appearing.
This time the life fibers didn't instantly react, instead, they used a tendril to 'poke' the blood in the petri dish, and...
They then turned back into a blob, jumped, and landed on it. This time staying on it…
"Let me ask you now, whose blood you think was first, and whose second." Isshin asks as he turns to me.
"Uhh, yours first, mine second?" I reply
"Half correct. Yours is the second. The first one, is my daughter's" He responds as he folds his arms.
(Ryuko's?)
"You see, my daughter is, 'special' and the fact that this batch of life fibers refuses her blood, makes them highly irregular." He continues.
"So what you telling me is, we got a highly aggressive life fiber blob, that's out for my blood, literally…" I sigh.
"Yes." Isshin answers flatly.
"Burn it with fire?" I ask again as I turn to look at the yarn blob.
"Don't be stupid kid! This could be a breakthrough, these life fibers act hostile towards other life fibers!" Isshin shouts.
"And towards me." I respond I point towards the containment chamber, the life fibers, just as before, quickly jump off towards my hand. And slam into the containment wall…
"Don't agitate it." Isshin glances at me before turning to his computer.
You know, I don't know 'what' I was thinking, but….
"Sit back down your blob." I command as I keep looking at the blue life fibers. And, the life fivers jump off the wall, and land on the chamber's floor.
…
A few seconds passed in silence, the blob now unmoving.
"Uhh, Isshin? Look at the chamber for a bit..." I ask...
"What, I'm busy here, I don't have time to waste." He groans as he turns to look at it nonetheless.
"Roll around..." I twirl my finger as I speak.
"Uhh, look I don't have…" And Isshin stops talking mid-sentence as he keeps looking at the chamber, the fibers now rolling around the floor…
"Jump" I said, and the fibers jumped.
"Roll" I said, and the fibers rolled.
"Play dead" I said, and the fibers sprawled out on the floor, before contracting back to their usual round form…
"Roll" Isshin speaks up right after. And the life fibers…
Shoot a single tendring towards him, which slammed on the glass wall before retracting back into the main body.
"Why you cheeky little…" Isshin frowns.
(Huh, what next? Ask it to do the singing frog meme?)
And just as I thought that, the fibers started vibrating, before contracting, and taking the form of a frog, standing on two legs, it then created a top hat on one hand, a cane on the other, and, it started dancing...
"What, the? It's doing whatever it wants now…" Isshin whispered as he kept staring wide-eyed...
"Uhh, I just thought of what it's doing a few seconds ago…." I respond as I keep staring at the blue yarn frog...
"...I, need to research this! Now! " Isshin jumps off his seat and runs, yes runs, towards a nearby door in his lab. And yes, it looked as commercial as you might think…
So now it was me, alone in the lab. Well, mostly alone. I had a dancing frog made out of blue life fibers and the unnamed Senketsu with me…
And by the way, Senketsu's eye was wide open, staring at the dancing blue life fibers, but was not having any other reaction...
(Uhh, you can stop dancing now.)
Just as I thought that, the fibers stop dancing. Just then, Isshin enters the room again, carrying several more vials in his hand.
"You're still here? Go! I don't need distractions!" Isshin shoo's me with his hand as he sits on the main chair next to the scissor blades. Senketu's eye turning to look at him now.
I just nod and turn around to leave and.
-THUD! BAM! THUD! THUK!-
Several very loud bashing sounds echoed from behind me, turning to glance around, I found the blue life fibers spazzing out, launching themselves from wall to wall at insanely fast speed.
"Uhh, I don't think they want me to leave." I point at the fibers as I speak up.
"I, can see that…" Isshin responds as he keeps staring at them.
I turn around and walk up to the life fibers, that stopped going nuts the moment I got near.
"Intresting…" Isshin mumbled as he turned towards the computer screen in front of him, throwing the occasional glance at the fibers as he kept working.
"So what, Now I stay here?" I ask.
"Do whatever you wish." Isshin responds as he shoo's me with his hand, not even bothering to look at me.
(Oi, I need to leave, will you stop spazzing out?)
Just as I finish that though, the life fibers make a quick jump in place. Then jump again towards me, Spreading out with a loud -splat- on the chamber's transparent wall…
(No I can't take you with me. Probably because you'll drain me dry.)
The life fibers respond by sliding off the wall and onto the ground, and it stayed there, spread out on the chamber's floor. If something would make you think that the thing could feel defeated, this would be it…
(Don't be like that, I'll be back. And behave, this weird old man next to you is trying to help, I think.)
In response, the Life fiber contracted back, and jumped again, this time towards Isshin, another loud -splat- as it met the chamber walls...
"Did you just order the thing to attack me?" Isshin glances at me before turning towards the life fibers.
"Uhh, no, I told them that you're trying to help…" I responded...
"Interesting. Dominant hand?" That was all Isshin said as he turned back to his work.
"What?" I ask back.
"Your dominant hand." Isshin asks again.
"Left?" I respond. Isshin just nods without turning
And with that weirdness over, I turn to leave, this time for real. As, I was starting to feel rather, sore...