(...You know, I feel oddly serene right now. For starters, I don't feel sore anymore. And considering all that training I have been through the last few days, I figured I would not be able to even get up…
Yet, why do I feel like I'm missing something?…
Ehh, whatever, if I can't remember, then it's probably nothing…)
And as the silence was starting to overtake once again…
"How is he?" A distant echo…
"Stable. He's stable." Another blurry, distant voice responds.
"So, it won't get any better?" The other voice asks again.
"There is nothing left there for it to get better. We should consider ourselves lucky that that was the only thing that got, eaten..." The second voice answers…
(...Noise. Why can't you be noisy somewhere else…)
"I know we're trying to fight an enormous foe. But, is it really worth, this?" The first voice asks again.
"If you are even asking this. Then you still don't understand the danger this planet is in yet." The second voice answers with a slight sigh.
"I do, it's just..."
"He's waking up." The second voice interrupts.
…
…
.
(Ugh. I suddenly feel like my whole body got run over….)
I groan as I slowly open my eyes. Or, at least I think that I opened my eyes…
(...Black…)
That is all I saw, eyes closed, eyes open, everything remained black…
(Well, black 'is' my favorite color, but this is kinda ridiculous…)
And just as I finished that thought...
The sound of a metallic lock opening up, the rushing of decompressing air, and a thin line of light, that slowly grew bigger, and bigger. Until all I could see was white.
"Are you sure this is a good idea Isshin? What if he attacks us." A voice asks as I hide my eyes with my left hand, which felt, oddly cold...
"Grow a pair Aikuro. We have countermeasures." The other voice, Isshin snarks.
"Can somebody turn down the lights…" I groan as rub my eyes…
"See, everything's fine." Isshin replies.
"You don't know that yet…" Aikuro replies.
"Damn man, show some faith. And why is my hand so damn c..." I groan as I lift my hand and open my eyes, and get greeted by a dark blue hand. The darker part on my palm seemingly being made of a wavy texture, while the lighter parts on the top part of my hand being completely smooth…
"My hand's blue…" I whisper as I keep staring at it.
Looking down to my arm, I find that the blue hue continued up to my elbow, where it came to an abrupt end, with only a couple of blue veins digging into my arm.
"Why is my arm blue? I ask as I 'show' it as Isshin.
"See, everything is fine." Isshin responds as he glances at Aikuro, though he 'was' holding the scissor blades. Aikuro just throws his arms up in defeat and turns to leave.
"So, you don't remember what happened huh?" Isshin asks as he turns to me.
"If you mean the blue fibers hijacking me? No I remember that, I mean it happened what, five hours ago?" I respond.
"Five days ago." Isshin corrects me.
"...Whut?" I ask back.
"You have been asleep for five days, give or take." Isshin continues.
"O, k. Won't that be a big problem for my, you know. Extensively strict school?" I ask.
"Oh don't worry about that, Aikuro had you covered." Isshin dismisses my question as he walks up to me.
"So, uhh. I gotta ask. What is this and why am I not dead?" I ask as I lean my back on my metallic tube bed.
"...Where to start…" Isshin takes a deep breath as he glances away.
"From the start?" I reply as I tilt my head. Isshin nods slightly.
"After you passed out, the blue fibers kept expanding on your body. By the second day, they had covered almost ninety percent of it. While In the meantime, your condition kept deteriorating." Isshin folds his arms.
"By the third day, you could be considered, well. Dead. Other than your brain, all your other organs had stopped functioning…" He continues.
"So, I'm a Zombie now?" I ask.
"No. You are fully alive. So if you let me finish." Isshin answers. I just shrugged with a nod.
"It was then when the life fibers just, uhh. Retreated for the lack of a better term…" Isshin scratches his cheek as he sighs.
"They just started rolling back, restarting your vitals as they retracted to your arm. If I had to make a guess. I'd say that they didn't want to kill you." Isshin shrugs as he shakes his head.
"...You guess?" I ask as I glance at my hand.
"This is a first for me, life fibers never acted the way these here do. And, I can't really study them either, with how unpredictable they are…" Isshin responds.
"Great, so now my arm is filled with a type of life fiber that even the life fiber expert can't recognize..."I lift my hand and wiggle my fingers as I speak.
"Actually, there are thin strands all over your body, even right now. But they seem to be inactive, or at the very least seem to be draining enough to just, exist. And, uhhh…" He sighs as he looks at my blue arm.
"You won't find an 'arm' there." He points at my hand.
"Excuse me?" I respond as I turn to look at my hand, flexing my fingers into a punch before spreading them as open as I could.
"No matter how much I scanned, all I found was life fibers. No bone, no muscle. As for why they 'act' as an arm. I think it's because they are connected to your nervous system. And if I had to guess, you are probably able to control them subconsciously, thus making them look like an arm to where your arm used to be." Isshin folds his arms as he keeps looking at my hand.
"Uhh, great…." I groan sarcastically as I keep looking around my hand.
"So one day it might just up and decide to run off and leave me without an arm." I add.
"That, I do not know. But remember these fibers seem to only feed off you. And, they seem to know it. Because if these were normal life fibers. There'd be nothing left of you by now." Isshin shakes his head.
"Sooo, can I touch stuff? Or I'll start disintegrating everything with my touch?" I ask as I press my finger on the metal lip of the tube.
"Touching should be safe, as long as you are not grabbing anything organic.." Isshin turn to head to the central part of his lab, pick something, then come back to me
"Wear this." He responds as he hands me, a new gauntlet its looks exactly like the old one, minus the hair strand carvings.
"Uhh. You know the first one failed miserably right?" I ask as I take the gauntlet with my normal hand.
"This one is meant to hide and keep the life fibers where they are. Different functions." Isshin replies.
"Riiight…" I sigh as I wear the gauntlet on my 'new' hand…
"Hmm, fits rather well." I whisper as I make various motions with my fingers.
"Now, if you excuse me. I have a lot of work to do." Isshin just turns to head towards the Kamui in the center of the lab, whose eye was now closed...
(...Uhh, so. Guy nearly kills me, rips my arm off and sticks a life-sucking parasite on it. And just ups and tells me he has 'work' to do. I know that I 'signed up' for this but jeez.
'Oh sorry for fucking up your arm'
'Oh don't worry its cool.'
'Oh cool. Now get out and farm some slimes or some shit')
I grumbled under my breath as push myself out the tube. And with a few unsteady steps, as I keep holding on to the tube bed, I try to shake off the numbness in my legs. All the while glancing at my new arm…
(God this feels weird. I can feel normally from it, but I also can't really feel it itself. Weird, I don't know how to explain it…)
"Also get ready to head to school." Isshin adds with his back turned to me.
"Uhh, can't I get a day off for losing an arm?" I ask as I lift my left hand.
"Go ask the student council." Isshin replies.
"...I'll go get my bag…" I sigh as I turn to leave.
"Oh, and try to get into a fight with a one start or higher if possible." Isshin casually adds.
(...Yea, I think I won't dad….)
I just shook my head as I left the lab and headed towards my room. In between though, I passed the living room. Where Aikuro waited while sitting on a couch.
"You look rather, blue." I say as I stop next to him. He turns to glance at me, then at my hand.
"Was that a pun?" He asks.
"Yee, I'll hand it to you, you got me there." I responded.
"Please stop." Aikuro sighs.
"I would, but my hand is full…." I add…
"..." Aikuro just, gave up and shook his head.
"Well, I better go get my bag. Long walk to the school." I say as I turn to leave.
"So you don't want me to drive you there huh?" Aikuro 'asks'.
"I get the feeling that it's you that don't want me in your car." I retort.
"Don't take it personally, but what wriggles under that gauntlet is the reason the nudist beach exists." He responds.
(I'll take it he didn't know Ryuko was half-life fibers? Or is it because I'm not a cute schoolgirl?)
"Well, I'll go get my bag, if you don't want to drive me there, just leave before I'm back. No hard feelings." I say as I shrug and turn to leave.
"Way to turn me into the villain…" Aikuro whispers from under his breath.
And so, I headed to my room, dressed in my student clothes and took my bag.
And yea, I hid most of the gauntlet under the jacket's sleeve, my hand being the only thing visible…
"Welp, let's go…" I sigh as I turn to leave my room.
Upon reaching the living room, I find it empty.
(He bailed huh. Oh well…)
I shake my head slightly as I exit the house.
"Took your sweet time. Come on hurry up." Aikuro nodded at me as he leaned on his car.
"So you didn't leave. I'll admit, I'm surprised" I say as I tilt my head.
"Uhh well, I just need to keep a close eye on you." Aikuro shrugs as he turns to slide on the car's hood in order to get to the driver's seat.
"Of course." I chuckle as I move to enter the passenger's seat.
After entering the car, Aikuro starts driving.
And, after a few minutes...
"I kept you in the daily attendance. So for the school, you have never gone missing for five days. So try to not blow your cover." Aikuro speaks up.
"Ehh, since everybody seems to fall asleep in your class, nobody would probably have realized that I was gone …" I chuckle.
"...I'll ignore this side jab. And not because it might be partly true." Aikuro glances at me as he keeps driving...
"You just hand, hand-le the truth" I answer with a deadpan face. Aikuro just lets out a groan as he kept driving.
-1 hour later-
After Aikuro dropped me off in the slums, I went to the tram. And since most of the students had already left towards the school, I just entered the first one that arrived...
And while in the tram…
(...My arm is starting to feel weird. A slight numbness. Are the blue fibers reacting to the fibers in the school?)
I flexed my fingers as I kept looking at the gauntlet. Other than the fact that it was well, a metallic gauntlet that really stuck out like a sore thumb, the blue fibers were not visible at all.
(Well, I really should not be scared. I mean, let's not forget that miss eyebrows up there is actually on our side. If I get found out, I'll just do what I did with Aikuro and lay her own plan in front of her. Hopefully, she won't just rip my arm off and toss me into a bin.)
I stop looking at my hand and turn to look towards the school building.
(But I'd rather not get caught. I need to first find out 'what' these lifers can do. The strongest characters in the anime were the ones with life fibers in their body after all….)
I sigh as I fold my arms.
(I could be considered the same now. Still..)
I stop leaning against the metal pole and do a couple of jumps in place.
(I'm feeling as 'normal' as always…)
I stop jumping and lean back against the pole.
(Isshin said that I also have strands of fibers in my whole body, but they are inactive. Hope that does not mean they can just randomly activate and turn me into a raisin. And to add to that fact, I wonder if the fibers still affect my brain somehow. As I still don't seem to be alarmed by the thought. Or, I'm just fucked in the head overall...)
Another thirty minutes later, and I was at the school's entrance…
And, I'm not going to lie, I did end up constantly looking over my shoulder. With how the school uses life fibers I expected my new 'arm' to draw attention the moment I set foot in. Yet…
Nothing…
I went to the center like normal, I followed the students to my class as normal, and I took a seat as n..
"Ohh Hey! you're alive!" An excited female voice shouts from my right…
Normal?...
Turning to the voice I find Mako waving at me…
(...Out of all the people who could remember me…)
She then gets off her seat and trots up to me.
"What happened?! You were gone for like a month!" She asks as she excitedly slams my desk with both hands, a questioning look on her face…
(...Hmm, I know I should not. But I can't resist, I want to try something….)
"What are you talking about Mako. We were talking two days ago." I respond. Mako looks at me for a few seconds as she blinks blankly at me.
"We, were?" She asks with obvious confusion.
"Yea, you kept telling me how your mom makes those mystery croquettes that you can't get enough of." I answer as I fold my arms.
(I'm digging my own grave here, ain't I?)
"Ohhhhh!" Mako then exclaims.
"While I can't remember telling you that! If you know it then it must have happened! " Mako responds as she giggles.
(...I would say that I can't believe that this just worked. But I if I really believed that then I wouldn't have tried it in the first place…)
"See, so, I was here." I respond as I raise my left hand.
"Humm? Hey what's that on your arm?" Mako then asks as she leans towards my gauntlet, switching the subject like a child whose attention span can't last more than five seconds...
(...And of course she would stick her nose in.)
"I like dressing up as a medieval dark knight." I respond flatly. Mako turns to stare at me with a slight frown, or more like, deep focus.
"Where is the rest of the armor then?" She asks as she keeps staring at me.
"Now Mako, I 'do' have to follow school regulations." I respond as I chuckle.
"Ohhh! Right of course!" Mako then nods multiple times.
Just then, Aikuro, now in his lame teacher getup enters the class, causing Mako to run back to her seat…
"Alright everybody, open your books to page…."
And Aikuro starts speaking, which meant it was my que, to stop paying attention.
(I know Isshin told me to pick a fight. But hell if I'm going to make myself a target. I've seen how that goes with Ryuko. Last thing I need is having a constant stream of two starts after my ass….)
Now the class, thankfully passed without any real incident…
And so, once the bell rang, I picked my stuff and turned to leave the class.
"Oi! Wait up~" A female voice shouts as I exit the classroom, Mako dashing up to me with a wide smile.
"Hey where are you going now? Got a club to be too? As your older classmate I do recommend that you don't end up late to a club. Us no stars can get harshly punished for being late." Mako pretty much opens the floodgates as she starts walking next to me.
"Not really, I'm not in a club yet. I want to see what exists first." I responded as I folded my arms.
"I see , I see. Makes sense. But you better not delay, not being in a club for too long means a random club can force recruit you!" Mako nods multiple times as she keeps speaking.
(They can? Well that's retarded. So much about avoiding clubs…)
"Hmm, good to know…" I answer as I nod.
We then kept walking for a bit among the crowd toward the exit…
(Uhh, my arm is starting to feel even weirder now. What gives…)
I raise my hand slightly and flex my fingers, a weird numbness enveloping my palm and forearm…
"Is something wrong?" Mako asks.
"What do you mean?" I ask as I turn to her.
"You have been staring at your hand. Are you sick? My dad is a doctor if you're sick! He can look at you!" She responds as she leans towards me.
"Nahh, I'm, good…" I answer as I lean away from her.
"Well remember to see a doctor if you're sick! People can die from feeling sick!" Mako nods back excitedly…
(With your dad there's a bigger chance I end up dead from him, rather than the 'sickness'. Plus I don't think he can do jack about alien parasites…)
"By the way are you not in a club? Since you told me that you need to be in o.."
"Oh NUGGETS! You'rerightcrapgotagobye!" And Mako throws her arms in the air as she makes a full turn and starts running with a rather, inhumanly fast dash…
Only to crash into a person, a middle height dude that was wearing a long coat with the life fiber pattern on the inside, a newsboy hat with life fibers on the visor. And two big round glasses that consisted only of the life fiber pattern, hiding the guy's eyes.
Much to my surprise though, it was the guy in the life fiber outfit that got knocked over, rather than Mako.
And, as Mako disappeared, the guy in the outfit darts his head towards me while still on the ground.
"Oh sh!" The guy exclaims as he quickly gets up and disappears inside a group of moving students.
(...I'm having a really bad feeling about this…)
Nonetheless, I let out a deep sigh and turn to walk again…
Yet…
(That weird feeling in my arm has skyrocketed after I spotted that guy in the coat. I'm being followed, am I not?)
And with that thought, I exit the school field, and stop by the tram stop. Glancing around me every few minutes…
(...Hmm, I don't see the guy anywhere. Guess he's…)
"Sniiiiffff. Interesting…" A new voice speaks up. From where my arm was at…
Turning to look at my arm, I find the same guy, holding my arm with both hands and, sniffing it?
"OH WHAT THE F!" I quickly jerk my arm up and jump away from the weirdo…
"Hummm. Yes, yes. That arm…" The guy responds as he gets up.
"That arm is making my senses tingle!" He then dramatically points at me.
"The hell are you?" I ask as I narrow my eyes.
"I'm Bob. Bob the HEAD OF THE DETECTIVE CLUB!" Bob exclaims as he strikes a pose.
"And you! Your arm is making my suit tingle!" He adds as he points at my gauntlet again…
(Ohh this is not good…)
"Tell me no star. What club do you belong to?" He asks as he pulls a, magnifying glass from a spot I do not wish to know, and quickly trots up to me, essentially almost shoving the glass to my face…
"None. I'm new h…"
"Perfect! You're recruited!" Bob shouts as he cuts me off.
(What?! Oh come on!)
"Now come on! Our club room is…" And as he spoke, the tram arrived.
"Bob right? Look, I'm actually looking at the clubs in the school right now. I'm still looking at what to join ri.."
"Nonsense arm-man! You are now part of the detective club!" Bob cuts me off.
"Arm? Man?" I ask as I tilt my head…
"Of course, as a detective helper, we can't use your real name." He responds, then closes in on me and puts his hand over the side of his mouth, as if to whisper me secret.
"Bob is not my real name either." He chuckles…
(...Oh this is going to be 'great'. No actually, wait. This 'could' be a chance. Club members can become star wearers. Hmm...)
" Fine, 'Bob' I'm not letting you peek at my arm though." I responded.
"Ohh! A challenge! I LOVE challenges! Fine! I'll solve the mystery of your arm! Like a TRUE detective!" He exclaims…
(...Is he always gonna be this loud?...)
