THERE WERE MORE THAN a few things to say about Toshi-kun, certainly, but nothing more so than when it came to his family.
Certainly, he was peculiar enough on his own. It wasn't just the fact that he wore a scarf in the middle of summer because one of his aunts had apparently once told him it made him look "cute," or that he was at least ten years younger than most of the Path of the Astronomer adepts. And apparently, that wasn't enough for him, as he was also studying the Path of the Warrior. Concurrently.
("Huh? No, the Warrior lessons are not too hard, so far," he said. "But I'm not as good as my brother was, at this age. That's okay, though!")
How he did that was rather unclear, considering he usually seemed to be either spacing out or sticking things together with what could only be chakra — the dominant supernatural substance to living beings from the Rings, which was apparently very different from what was called shinsei, according to Toshi-kun. Why that was, however, remained a mystery to Shizuku.
She had only arrived here — this Celestial Ring place — about a week ago, after all, and joined the lessons they called Path two days after that. Mostly to keep herself occupied while the Healers took care of Grandpa's sickness. Supposedly. She had no high hopes about that: no doctor had been able to figure out what exactly was wrong with him, back home. In the same way, it had been a few days since Grandpa had gone, and she basically had no news from him, aside from the usual perfunctory messages she received through a strange device — a Ring Core.
"Treatment is progressing. No significant changes today. Resting comfortably,"or"Your grandfather remains stable. We are monitoring closely. Will notify if any changes occur,"and"We hope you are adjusting well. Remember to take time for yourself during this period. Your mental and emotional health is important to us."
It wasn't so different from home. She understood what the messages truly meant: nothing. They were probably studying him right now, intrigued by his condition, treating him like some curious, unsolvable mystery. Cold, unfeeling men in white hospital gowns, taking notes about the peculiar case that was her grandpa.
If there was even the smallest chance they might be able to do something, however, she would take it.
[CONTINUED]
AN: Hello there. Just wrote a little something to follow up on this. The full chapter's on my profile. See you there, maybe.