Chapter 6: Doctor's Appointment

"Good afternoon, Professor Smith." Shido said quietly as he left the classroom after a day of school. His fellow classmates started to talk amongst themselves about the future trip to Arubi Island as they paid little to no attention to the blue haired boy leaning on a side of the hallway. Rain poured over the city, the droplets splattering on the glass windows.

"Good afternoon to you too, Shido. I take it that you wish to have an appointment?" The Professor asked him as the young man looked around.

"Yes, I a-" And before he could properly respond the Professor continued.

"Excellent, do take note that no one should be following you. You should however take care to tell the others where you are going, like that Tohka lass, she seems nice enough and she would probably tell others as well." Shido looked around to see if anybody else would be nearby and listening in. He found nothing and responded back.

"Why would somebody follow me?" Shido asked, perplexed.

"I'll explain later. For now, get to my office, I will be sending you the coordinates to your phone after this call. Understand? Good." The Professor quickly ended the call as a GPS was activated on Shido's phone. After taking a quick glance he noticed that it was surprisingly near the school right beside a convenience store. He once more looked around as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket and walked back into the classroom.

He sighed as he still had several questions for the mysterious Professor, yet he seemed so keen on dodging and evading them.

"Shido, is something wrong?" A familiar voice rang out beside him as he noticed Tohka looking up at him, she was always able to notice when something was off about him.

"Oh-er uh nothing Tohka. I'm going to clear my head." He responded rather quickly, still trying to think of a better response.

"Can I come with you? Kotori said I should start to take better care of you now." Tohka said with a rather worried look in her eyes. He couldn't exactly say no to her now, can he? Although the Professor did specifically say not to tell her of all people. What to do now he asked himself until he heard a voice in his ear?

"Oh, for God's sake Shido, listen to me, and do exactly what I say." The Professor said in a rather exasperated tone.

"H-how are you talking through my ear-"

"I didn't say you can question me, did I?" Shido didn't have time to question as he followed through with his demands.

"Tohka, it's best that I go do this alone. I promise to make it up to you later with a date. How about that? I promise that I'm alright and would I ever lie to you?" He said as he cupped her hands together with his as he wore a genial smile.

Tohka blushed at his forwardness, and his proposal of a date. However, she remembered yesterday, at how much pain he seemed to endure, especially how tired he was last night. "Shido, I have to take care of you now more than ever. No matter what."

"Tohka, trust me, I'll be back before you know it. I promise." He said as he looked straight at her, slowly clasping her hands tighter.

"You promise?" She said as she stared back, her purple eyes shimmering with uncertainty.

"Yes, I promise. I'll be back before dinner" He patted her head as he started to leave, rather quickly with a small wave, turning a corner as he walked away with an exasperated sigh.

"How did you do that?" Shido exclaimed quietly as he lightly jogged down the stairs.

"Shido, if you're going to ask a question, please be more specific. If you meant how I am talking to you, the earpiece you have on your person is incredibly defenseless, it's almost laughable. Now keep walking, and stop asking questions until you get here." He responded rather curtly as Shido continued with his stride, not even noticing he passed by a white-haired girl along the hallway that was approaching him.

A few minutes after Shido left, Reine walked down the hallway, keeping to the side until she noticed Tohka walking by herself with no sign of Shido around.

"Tohka, where's Shin?" She asked as the purple haired girl perked up.

"Mmm? Shido is clearing his head."

"Why aren't you with him then?"

"Because he said he needed to do it by himself and said he'll be back before dinner. He even offered a date to make up for it." Tohka said with such joy that she was simply giddy. Reine on the other hand remained as stoic as ever.

"Tohka, you realize in the state he is in, he is highly vulnerable. At any given moment he could simply faint and fall down several flights of stairs. He could wander outside of the city without supervision."

"Mou, but Shido promised me he'll be okay. He promised me he'll be back before dinner, and I believe in him." She said with such a stalwart approach.

"Shin told you that so you wouldn't worry about him, but Tohka, we have to worry about him now more than ever. We need to save him from himself. Do you really want to risk him getting hurt and to live with the fact that you weren't there to stop it?" The tired analytics officer stared back at her. She never raised her voice, not even once.

Tohka began to think about it. More and more she began to realize the danger that Shido was in without her. She began to panic as she began to imagine what could happen to Shido, all the things she wouldn't wish him to suffer.

"Thank you Reine, I understand now umu." She said as she began to run as fast as the wind towards Shido's last known location with renewed vigor.

Shido sneezed, covering his nose as he wiped it with a tissue. The rain slowly dissipated to a drizzle as he walked down the street, looking left to right as he crossed the road to the convenience store, an open sign by the glass window. He checked the coordinates while looking up to see if he was in the right place, and to his surprise, he was.

"Was this here before?"

He gently pushed open the door. Inside was a seemingly ordinary store, about 4 aisles filled with frozen produce, junk food, kitchenware and the classic side vending machines at the very end. The counter was manned by none other than the Professor, still wearing a brown leather coat and an egregiously long multicolored scarf around his neck, alone and with something akin to a scowl on his face.

"You took too long." He said as he stood up, the scarf dragging along the floor as he then tossed it around his neck. He walked to the front of the store and flipped the sign to mark that the store was closed as well as wrapped steel chains by the handles to secure them in place.

"What do you mean I took too long? I came here as fast as I could and what's with the scarf?" He said as he quite literally pointed the scarf out.

"That girl, Tohka, she somehow managed to track you several minutes after you left? Like some kind of hound. The scarf is because Japan is chilly and it's something I had lying around to help with the drafts." He said as Shido looked a little taken aback from the comment on Tohka.

"Hey don't call her that-" Shido said as the Professor pressed a button on a remote which powered up a small television. Its screen flickered to life as in the colored images, Shido can see Tohka wandering the streets of the city alone.

"Shido…I could have sworn I smelled him nearby." She said as she looked around a corner to an alleyway.

The Professor looked at Shido, who stammered for a response, clearly dumbfounded as the Professor turned off the screen.

"I told you not to let yourself be followed, didn't I?" He sighed as he walked to a vending machine before taking out his metal wand and pointed at the contraption, in doing so the tip illuminated red and emitted a high pitched whirring noise for a second. Afterwards, a can of soda fell to the opening as the Professor grabbed it.

"Catch." He said as he threw the can to Shido who caught it confused.

"First on the list, the Artron pills. You will be needing one a day to stabilize the Validium if you remember from last night?" The Professor walked back to the desk as out from his pocket was a glowing gold and blue pill encased in a small glass cube that fit in the palm of his hand.

"Take it quickly, I rather not have any of the possible effects here." He opened up the cube and offered it up to Shido, who gingerly took it. Within his hands it was rather light, it even seemed to hum and radiate some heat. He then popped open the soda and downed the pill in one swift gulp. His body started to glow a little, he also felt a warmth spreading all over originating from his chest, and once it reached his head, he began to feel calm, more relaxed as the mental strain on his mind loosened up.

"W-wow, that was amazing. What is Artron energy?" Shido asked in wonder as the Professor sat down.

"A special kind of radiation." He said as briefly as he could whilst pressing a small button on his desk. Suddenly a table appeared right behind Shido, a lengthy metal table with beige cushions and rounded edges.

"Get on the table Shido." He said as he took out his metal wand once more.

"Wait you didn't answer fully answer my question though-"

"I'll explain later, right now this is much more important."

"You keep saying you'll explain later, do you actually-"

"Well later isn't coming if you keep asking questions! Hurry up, on the table now." The Professor replied quickly as he got up once more.

Shido sighed as he laid down on the table behind him. The professor walked slowly; his strange metal wand once more lit up as it was now pointed at Shido. He circled around the young boy as he muttered to himself.

"Vitals…stabilized, everything seems to be in order…" Shido stayed still as a million questions buzzed in his head a thousand times over. Why was he here? Why didn't he like questions? How was he so good with technology? Who was John Lennon? Why does he hate being called a doctor? Over and over these questions floated and buzzed around hard as he closed his eyes and tried to relax himself. The Professor noticed as he turned on the screen, as it appeared to be the news section.

"Now a few words from the newly elected President of the United States, Ulysses-" Was all Shido heard as he tuned the audio out and relaxed, the rantings of politicians acted as white noise as he entered Zen.

"Mou hmmm…Shido should be around here…" Tohka said as she looked around perplexed, in front of a convenience store with the sign marking it closed.

"Where could he be…" The purple haired girl said as she began to look at every corner. Unbeknownst to her, in the distance by a lamp pole was a girl with short white hair, an emotionless face, and the answer to her question: Tobiichi Origami.

She wondered where Shido went as well; he was rather quick, not even noticing her when she tried to come up to him - not even a hello.

After his confession of his nightmares and blackouts yesterday she went home and tested his blood, nothing seemed to be abnormal about it other than the high iron contents. 'If he's in danger, she must save him.' With this in mind she made her way towards her rival in the affections of Shido.

Tohka perked up, before even turning around she knew who was behind her.

"Tobiichi Origami! What are you doing here?!" She asked as she spun around pointing at the white-haired schoolgirl.

"Looking for Shido. He didn't greet me, and he seemed to be in a hurry." She said with her usual monotone voice.

"Hmph I was looking for him first. He should be around here somewhere hmm…"

"I see, did he tell you what he was doing?" Origami asked as she looked to the ground, it rained recently so there could be some dirt or mud that could lead them to Shido, as she knew how long his strides were and the size of his usual shoes.

"He said he was clearing his head… but he's been having these blackouts recently. These daydreams that make him wander away… wait, why am I telling you this?!"

"Because you want what's best for him, the more people that know the situation the more that can help it. And Shido already confided in me about his blackouts and nightmares." She responded quickly as she knelt down beside a wall and stared at the floor. Her idea was correct, she saw mud stains that have a faint image of Shido's soles on the ground in the exact stride he would take, and all of it leads right up to the closed store right in front of them both.

"I located him. He's inside the store, no mud tracks that seem to be leading out of it so he must be inside." She said as she stood up.

"Ehh? How did you find out that quickly-how do I know this isn't another trick to get me?" Tohka said, her eyebrows furrowing at Origami.

"Shido is a priority, and he's sick. He needs my help; I will be going in if you don't want to help him." She said as she tried to open the door, however to her surprise it wouldn't budge.

"W-why you! Shido, I'm coming!" Tohka yelled out as she thrusted herself deep first, breaking through the chains behind the door as she rushed to the inside of the store. And to her joy she simply saw Shido at the fresh food aisle simply picking out produce.

"Tohka?" He asked, looking at her with a wry smile.

***Quite literally just before that happened. ***

"Ah, I should have known. Your girls tracked you down here, faster than I expected." The Professor said as he helped Shido up from the table as he turned on the screen showing Origami and Tohka outside.

"Quick, act natural as if you're just grocery shopping. Tell them nothing of what truly happened here, and don't tell them about me." He said as he tossed a basket at Shido who caught it.

"Wait I can't just lie-"

"Shido, do you want to keep passing out on the streets? Because I'm the only person who can actually make sure you don't, now trust me."

"Ugh, fine! But you owe me answers!"

"You humans and your incessant questions. Fine." The Professor said as he groaned and pressed the button to turn off the screen and to allow the table to collapse and disappear into the ground.

"And I want them answered properly." Shido added to the Professor's visible annoyance.

"You get as many properly answered questions as girls you fend off." He responded as he headed to the back door, exiting the store.

"I'll be watching and hearing you to make sure you keep your end." He added right before he fully disappeared from view.

Shido went to the fresh produce section picking up products here and there before a familiar voice in the distance yelled out:

"Shido, I'm coming!" Suddenly the chains binding the doors broke as if made from wet paper instead of steel and Tohka came bursting in with a look of pure joy as her eyes met Shido's.

"Tohka?" He asked feigning surprise as she hugged him. Origami sneakily went off to his back, hugging him as well as sniffing him.

"Shido! You're alright!" She exclaimed as the encumbered boy patted both of their heads.

"Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?" He asked, reassuring them both.

"Because you went off alone and you keep having these blackouts more and more!" She cried out as she bearhugged him hard enough he started to gasp for air a little.

Shido pats her shoulders "A-a little too tight, and well good news. I didn't have one today." He smiled at them both as Origami and Tohka released him from their hug.

"None today? And what were you doing here in a closed convenience store." Origami asked, with the sniff earlier, she smelled the scent of another person on Shido. It was recent, but why was this place empty?

"Yeah, none and well, picking up groceries, the usual." Shido said, quickly trying to make up a backstory to his lie.

"Where's the cashier then?" Origami pressed on as Tohka went to the counter.

"He said he had to leave for important business and trusted me to close up the shop, and offered me a discount in exchange." He said as he followed Tohka to the counter with Origami by his side.

"I see. He trusts you that much?" Origami asked as Shido nodded, trying to watch Tohka's movements to make sure she didn't press any buttons.

"Yes, and how about we go now? I was just making sure I had everything needed." He said as Tohka looked around the counter, she felt something was off in this scenario.

"Shido, if he asked you to close up, why were there chains already on the door?" Origami pointed out as Shido nervously gulped, trying to think of an excuse.

"W-well he meant the backdoor, yeah I was going to be leaving by the backdoor and he asked me to lock it up." Shido said hoping it was enough as he looked at Origami.

Tohka herself found another interesting tidbit, black and white photos on a desk. One of them was a young girl in a sweater, wearing what seems to be a baseball cap that doesn't fit her head. Right under the photo was a name.

"Susan… Foreman?" She said as her head tilted before Shido tapped her on the shoulder, right before taking notice of the photo as well.

"Tohka, let's go, there's a feast about to be made at home." At that prospect with a Shido that's mentally stable, Tohka excitedly perked up, forgetting all about the photo as Origami took note of it.

"I'm joining too." The white-haired stalker quickly said as she hugged Shido's left arm. Tohka, aghast, pouted as she was about to say something before Shido held her hand.

"Tohka, let's go quickly. The faster we get there, the faster the food will be made, alright?" He smiled, and she couldn't say no to that smile. She swore that she even saw him glowing a bit.

"Umu, fine, let's go back home." She said, hugging his right arm as he sighed and began to lock up the store. He first went to the back door, checking outside to see if he could see the Professor to no avail. Then he went back up front, cleaning up the debris of the fallen chains with the help of the girls before he closed down the store.

Behind it, however, was a small, abandoned brick hotel, however abandoned no longer as within it was the Professor, hiding within the darkness and many cobwebs as he held up his metal wand as it illuminated along with several monitors and screens, all of which seemed to be crudely made from old and decaying materials, however despite their age they began to show the inside of the Fraxinus alongside the audio. The Professor sat down and looked at the screen.

He saw Kotori with her arms and legs crossed as she looked at her monitor with something of a scowl on her face.

"Why would he go into a convenience store, we already have enough at the house. Especially going out on a school day… something's up with Shido." She unwrapped a Chupa-Chups lollipop as she began to suck on it furiously.

"Was that convenience store always there? And do we have cameras that show the inside of the store?" She asked the members of Fraxinus as Bad Marriage responded.

"Negative for the camera question, but yes, it was always there as the records show." Kotori grimaced at the response; how could they overlook such a simple place? And why did it feel like that store wasn't always there despite the reports?

"Send a drone there soon, we need a full scan..." She said as her eyes trailed over to her screen. It held and showed several paragraphs of information about John Smith, a supposedly talented British professor who travels the world. Nothing within it contradicted anything he said last night. Everything seemed to just fall right in place, and that's what's making Kotori so worried.

She clicked her tongue.

"Just what are you hiding…Professor?"

The Professor sighed as he switched to another monitor, in it he saw Shido alongside Tohka and Origami walking to his house. While he watched he grabbed several broken items scattered around the table, scraps of the hotel as he began to build. Slowly forming the framework, then attaching several wires together and somehow in less than half a minute, he created a new monitor and set to his side, attaching it to his main system.

He turned it on, and it worked like a charm, this time this monitor showed him the streets of Tengu city, sprawling with life as the sun was slowly dipping to the west. It was going to be late afternoon soon.

He looked over to his right, one of his monitors didn't showcase any live video footage, instead it had data constantly being made and sent worldwide over and over again.

"Talented and bright John Smith huh." He read aloud a few lines of data from the monitor as he gave a light wheeze of a chuckle. He shook his head as his weary eyes watched all the screens at once, analyzing every facet of what was going on, who was in play and deciding on what to do next.

"Shido Itsuka…what a fascinating boy."

Shido was tired, having to deal with Tohka, Origami, Yoshino and even a grumpy Kotori who just wore her black ribbons for the remainder of dinner.

He sighed as he flopped on the bed, about to fall asleep until he suddenly remembered the promise the Professor made him. Bursting awake Shido then activated his earpiece.

"Professor? Are you there?" He asked quietly, waiting for a response.

"Yes, and you're lucky I soundproofed your room." The Professor replied quickly as Shido bolted up.

"Wait, soundproof? When and how did you do that?" He asked perplexed as he looked around the room.

"Do you really want those to be your two questions I will answer properly?"

"…No."

"Well then, to answer those two in order. When I had the time to and because I'm good at that sort of thing." Shido sighed at the rather brief and uninformative response.

"Hmm…who are you? I want that question out the way, and I want the truth. You said humans as if you weren't one yourself…" Shido said as he looked out his window.

"…I'm a Professor, that much is true, but yes, I'm not human. But that part hopefully doesn't matter to you. Consider me as an ally much like Ratatoskr is to you. Just like them I'm going to protect you, help you. In this case help you with the Validium, it needs to be recovered and detained before it does more harm to you and others. And just like Ratatoskr, a secret. A very important secret."

"Why are you here? And that is my final question you can answer truthfully."

"I am here because I was stranded, how I got here was compromised and needs some time to be fixed. I was never supposed to be here, and that's why I'm taking great pains to minimize my presence and to ensure that I do not manipulate events that occur. I will only be here for the Validium and until my means of travel is fixed, after that I am out of your life forever."

Shido was taken aback by the last line, someone like the Professor, with his intelligence and ability, couldn't just up and leave. He could do so much good here, he was already helping out Shido with a problem seemingly no one else can solve, and despite his sour attitude he managed to hack into technology so advanced they can create flying airships, holograms, and teleportation, in less than a days' worth of time.

"Why don't you stay? You could stay here and help us. We could use someone like you, you must know about the Spirits, you can help locate and figure out what they are."

"Shido, do you know what a lionfish is?" The Professor asked out of the blue.

"No? What does that have to do with you staying?"

"A lionfish is a species of fish native to the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, one day it was brought to the waters of the U.S and began to invade, causing the extinction of numerous native plants and animals. Now you can't really blame the lionfish for this, they didn't just swim there, no they were brought there and then left to their own devices, what they consider as normal every day routine was disastrous to the ecosystem. Of course, their presence was natural in their own habitat, but in unknown waters they had few predators and bountiful prey. In this scenario I'm the lionfish and all of this is the U.S waters. The longer I stay and act, the more this ecosystem or in this case, this world will suffer for it. The same goes for the Validium, the longer it stays, the more damage it will do. It's simply the rules of nature.

Shido was dumbfounded, unable to fully retort that as he lay down on the bed he made as he thought up another question.

"How did you know about me? How did you track me down?"

"I suppose you would say it was a complete accident, it would seem like that to anyone else, but the universe doesn't do accidents. I simply found you in the park and examined you. As for knowing your name, I have the ability to reach into people's minds and read them as if they were a book. Very simple really."

"W-wait you can just read people's minds?" Shido bolted up surprised.

"Yes, only for a little bit and if I can get close enough to them. A simple parlor trick really." Shido was amazed at the ability to call mind reading a simple parlor trick.

"What? Wait… when I asked you about Ratatoskr you talked about a tea party hundreds if not thousands of years ago. How old are you?"

"Old enough to forget things I shouldn't and young enough to remember things I don't wish to." He responded cryptically.

"Those visions of the future… you saw them. What is the likelihood of something like that happening soon? I saw the date, December 1st, this year. If something like that is the future, then…"

"That? Well, that's hard to tell, it depends on what caused it, how, and why. Generally speaking, the likelihood is quite low from what I can gather." Shido sighed in relief.

"Unless of course, it's from a trigger outside of the futures you can see. In that case the wheel has been set in motion and has begun turning even before I got to you, and it's just a matter of time." Shido looked down, devastated as he gripped his hand.

"How do we stop it?"

"We simply look for a trigger, some source to trace it back to. I have a suspicion it was what I was pulled here for." Shido perked up at that.

"So, you're staying here for that? I thought you said you were leaving since it would bother the ecosystem and so on."

"Only if it becomes necessary. I told you, the universe works in mysterious ways." Shido tapped his fingers alongside the table, a small wry smile appeared on his face.

"In any case, it's also because the vision was given to you by the Validium. And because I saw myself in those visions, I will play a part sooner or later, although hopefully I don't." Shido saw the starry sky, streaks of white light falling down like a meteor shower.

"How did you get a convenience store that quickly? I don't even remember one being there."

"Oh, there wasn't, I built it myself." He said nonchalantly.

"W-what? You just… built yourself a convenience store out of nowhere? Why didn't anyone notice? Didn't anyone find that weird? Or question it? Surely someone would have figured out that it wasn't there?" Shido noticed that the falling lights seem to split apart and fly off in random directions.

"Shido, people are a lot easier to control, manipulate and trick as a collective rather than an individual. You yourself probably thought to yourself 'Was this here before?' without giving it a second thought, didn't you? Same thing applies to everyone else that walks by. They thought about it for a second, then went on their merry way. Because they all think 'If no one else has pointed it out, it must have just been there, or maybe it's just new.' Shido, you know that you can get into a lot of private places if you carry a ladder or a box of pizza and act as if you belong there. Try it out sometime." Shido was stumped once again, sitting down by his desk as he thought he saw a black cat on a rooftop watching him.

"A-alright… who's Susan Foreman?" And without missing a beat, the Professor answered.

"Shido, get some sleep now." And with that, the audio ended as Shido was once more alone in his room. He stared back at the cat as he laid on the bed he made. He looked up at the ceiling, closing his eyes as he prepared himself for what was soon to come.