Chapter 50: Shizuku Takes the Initiative...
"Shizuku... are you there...?"
His voice was a raw, scratchy whisper.
"Mm. I'm here." Her voice was calm. Close.
"How long... How long was I out...?"
"Five hours."
Five... hours?! That's the longest blackout yet... The explosion, the sudden, overwhelming flood of "Death Aura" from all those innocent people... it had been too much. His heart, his new body... he was terrified to even open his eyes, terrified of what he might see in the reflection of the cheap motel mirror.
"Shizuku... you still there?" he whispered, a thread of panic in his voice.
"I'm still here."
"Good... good..."
A moment of silence passed.
"You're awake," she stated, not asked. "Why are you keeping your eyes closed?"
"You... you wouldn't get it..."
"Oh. Okay."
Another beat of silence. He couldn't hide forever. He had to know.
"Shizuku..."
"Yes?"
"This is... going to sound insane. But... how old... how old do I look right now?"
She didn't answer.
He heard the faint sound of her standing up, the soft scuff of her boots on the carpet, and then the sound of her walking away.
A jolt of pure, cold terror shot through him. Is it that bad? Is it so bad she can't even describe it? Did I... did I become an old man?
He heard her footsteps return, stopping beside his bed.
"Here," she said.
He felt the cool, smooth edge of an object being held in front of his face. A mirror.
He forced one eye to crack open. Then the other.
He stared.
The face in the mirror... was his.
But it wasn't.
The soft, round features of the five-year-old were gone. This face was thinner, the jawline sharper, the cheekbones more defined. The eyes... his eyes... held a weariness that didn't belong on a child's face. He wasn't a child anymore.
But...
A massive, crushing wave of pure relief washed over him, so strong it made him dizzy.
He wasn't thirty. He wasn't middle-aged.
He looked... young. Maybe twelve? Thirteen, at most.
He snatched the mirror from her hand, his own hand trembling slightly. He sat up, his entire body feeling strange, alien. He stared at his new reflection, his new face.
He threw off the covers. He was still wrapped in the black trench coat he'd stolen. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and for the first time... his feet touched the floor. They didn't just dangle. They rested flat on the cheap carpet.
He stood up.
The entire world had shrunk.
No... he had grown.
He turned to Shizuku. She was sitting at the small desk, just... watching him. With her usual placid, unblinking curiosity. He was almost at her eye level.
He had to break the tension. He had to act normal. He pointed to the old book on her desk. "Are you... still reading that thing?"
"Mm." She nodded.
"Haven't you finished it yet?" he joked, his voice raspier than he expected. "Wait, don't tell me. You read a page, you forget it, and then you read it again?"
Shizuku looked at the book, as if considering his words. "That's possible," she said, her voice thoughtful. "If I forget it... then even a book I've read many times can still be interesting."
She slowly, gently, closed the book. He was right. She'd read it a dozen times.
She turned her full, analytical gaze back to him. "What is it?"
Kai just stared at her, his mind struggling to recalibrate. "Stand up," he commanded.
She obeyed, standing from the chair and facing him.
He couldn't help it. A short, sharp, slightly hysterical laugh bubbled out of him. "Look at this. We're almost the same height." He held his hand up, measuring the top of his head. It came to just below her nose.
"Is this also one of your Hatsu's abilities?" she asked. No shock. No surprise. Just simple, placid curiosity.
Kai was completely floored by her lack of reaction. "Can you please, for one second, be a little more shocked?!" he burst out. "I was a five-year-old five hours ago! I just aged, like, eight years! Aren't you freaked out at all?!"
"But you always acted like an adult," she said, her glasses slipping down her nose. "It just feels like your body has... caught up."
Kai stared at her, speechless. "...I can't even argue with that logic." He reached out—an unfamiliar, longer arm—and pushed her glasses back up. It was then he saw the dark, seared fabric on her sleeve, and the dried blood beneath it.
"You're hurt."
"My own healing is slow," she said, as if reporting the weather. "And I couldn't use Zetsu to accelerate it. I had to stay on guard... to protect you."
The weight of her words hit him. She had been wounded, in pain, and had actively chosen not to enter the one state that would have healed her fastest, because she couldn't leave him, and herself, completely defenseless. She had been his shield.
He felt a deep, unfamiliar pang of... gratitude. "I... see."
He focused, sensing his Hatsu. "My birds... the markers are still active."
"Yes. I put them on the window ledge," Shizuku replied. "They're guarding the room."
"Tell me everything," Kai said, sitting on the edge of the desk. "From the moment I passed out."
"Okay," Shizuku began, her recall perfect. "I ran. I found a shopping mall and hid in the underground parking garage. In the first hour, your body began to change. It grew... very fast. From about 1.1 meters to just over 1.5. A... strange energy... a warm Aura... was released from you. My own internal injuries from the blast... they healed completely. My hair also grew a little." She touched the ends of her black hair, which did seem a fraction longer.
"When the changes stopped, I carried you. I told the motel clerk you were my younger brother, and that you had a high fever and were asleep. I've been here, reading, while the birds kept watch. That is all."
"You... you remember all of that? In that much detail?" Kai asked, genuinely surprised.
"Yes," Shizuku said, as if it were obvious. "It was important."
Kai reached out and, for the first time, did something he'd been wanting to do for weeks. He ruffled her messy black hair. "Ha! I can finally reach," he said, his voice a little gruff. "Thank you, Shizuku. You... you really saved me. If I'd transformed like that in public... my life would be over."
"Exposed?"
"This... 'ability' of mine," Kai said, his voice low. "When a living thing dies near me, I absorb... something. That 'Death Aura'. When I absorb too much, this happens."
"Oh," Shizuku said, processing this. "So... you'll be short-lived."
"...Has anyone ever told you you're brutally, painfully honest?"
"No."
Shizuku tilted her head. "Or... when you reach the end... will you just de-age back to a child? Like a cycle?"
"This isn't some fantasy novel..." Kai groaned, burying his new, older face in his hands.
He sat there, the grim reality of his situation pressing down. He was a fugitive from Kakin. He was a biological anomaly. And now, he was stuck in a teenager's body. He thought about the hospital. "Shizuku... do you know what the 'International Server' is?"
"Mm." She nodded. "Everyone from Meteor City knows. It's the database that holds the identity of every 'official' person in the world. Everyone... except us."
"Except you," Kai repeated, a dark realization dawning. "That's my problem. I have no idea if I'm in that server. If I am, and I go to a hospital... they'll scan me. They'll know. It's the same as announcing to the entire world that the 'dead' prince is alive. I can't risk that. Not until I'm strong enough. Not until I'm off this continent."
Shizuku was silent for a long moment, processing this new, grim information.
"So," she concluded, with her perfect, terrifying logic, "you really will be short-lived."
Kai reached out and, with a groan, grabbed her cheek and pulled. "Stop... saying... that!"
He let go and flopped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. "I will not be short-lived," he muttered. "I'll make a vow. A Restriction. I'll find a way to solve this... before my body... matures... past 28."
"Why 28?"
"Because... after 28... every year of forced-aging just... it just feels like a personal insult."
Shizuku, as usual, had no idea what he was talking about.
Kai laughed, a dry, humorless sound. He sat up, looking at her, a new idea forming. "My Star Marker... it can heal. Remember Butch's neck? It's slow for lethal wounds, but for your injuries... it should be fast."
Shizuku's eyes widened, just slightly. She understood immediately. "You're going to use it on me. To heal my arm."
"Do you mind?" Kai asked, his voice serious.
Shizuku shook her head. She looked down at her torn, bloody sleeve, as if deciding on a spot.
Then, without a single word of warning, without any hesitation at all, she took the hem of her black turtleneck in both hands... and pulled it up.
She lifted it clean past her ribs, baring her pale, flat stomach and the sharply defined, athletic lines of her abdomen.
She pointed to her left side.
"Put it here."
(End of Chapter)