(Haven't written in a while (University...) so quick reminder. Last chapter ended about Riku trying to figure out Telepathy.)
(Short chap. Explanation at end )
(POV: Tokoyami)
Rays of sunshine shone down upon the city and a calm atmosphere had settled, as was fitting for a summer day.
It was a late afternoon, joy and laughter tainted the playground. A cacophony of ignorant bliss.
Surely... nothing could go wrong on such a perfect day?
"So they think..."
What a foolish thought.
"I can feel the world's darkness writhing... creeping towards the surface... doing so beneath the deceitful safety of the Sun..."
Indeed. A rather recent realization which the "Dark blade of oblivion" had faced.
"The sun... does not banish the darkness... it merely hides it..."
T'was a terrifying realization, one which the vast majority of people... would never come to know.
'...A truth i alone should bear... for the sake of everyone else...'
He had learned of that truth while on a perilous expedition, late at night. He had informed his father of the darkness which emerged at night and requested (begged) to go fight it.
And so ensued a patrol (evening stroll) through the streets in which shadows whispered and villains plotted.
Each alley a nest of evil... each passerby either a future victim... or a perpetrator.
But... he would not act without proof. So he kept up his watch... carefully analyzing each and everyone, his vigilance the only shield for the innocent.
And then... he (and his dad) arrived at the Plaza.
A place in which lights shone bright, seemingly mirroring it's entire atmosphere.
The Plaza was filled with people in restaurants and bars, talking and laughing.
Tokoyami had been on high alert on their way to it, as they walked through mostly empty streets. But upon his arrival at the lively Plaza... he had lowered his guard.
"The mere presence of the light... was enough to extinguish all suspicion..."
He had only noticed it while on his (and his dad's) way back to his home.
The entire time during his stay at the Plaza... his guard had been down... his vigilance all but present.
He could have been walking past a villain... and remain unaware for the rest of his Life.
'A humbling thought...'
A thought he wanted to explain to his comrade... who at the same time... tried to convey something to him as well.
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Tokoyami and Riku were currently sitting at their favorite spot. Hidden from the (cruel) sun beneath a tree, the two of them sat, facing each other with serious expressions as they had been doing for the last 30 minutes.
'My friend... i bear an urgent message but... your progress comes first.'
Another wave of emotion crashed down upon Tokoyami as his comrade in shadow made yet another attempt at communication.
The attempt seemed to end in failure as headache and ear ringing accompanied it, but... Tokoyami would bear it!
But... the same could not be said for his comrade.
If Riku's emotions had been controlled at the beginning... Tokoyami was starting to feel his comrade's frustration after each failed attempt. The strange static which reverberated through his head at the beginning had now disappeared.
Yet... Riku kept trying, seemingly stubborn about improving said aspect of his quirk.
'And all that... for the sake of becoming a Hero!'
It was truly impressive. Dedication and preparation... to better save those in need.
'Soon... i will be ready to train as well...'
He couldn't train his quirk as of now. Not only was it too dangerous... but it required space and mental preparation... in order to resist the darkness.
"Until that day, I shall temper my darkness... so that when my comrade calls, I may stand with him as a true hero."
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(Pov: Riku)
'Goddamnit.'
Another failure. It was frustrating. And that, in turn, made his results even worse as his cursed energy faltered.
He had been sitting in front of Birdman, repeatedly attempting to develop upon his newest discovery.
'Sound travels at a certain speed, which in turn regulates it's vibration... now i need to find a way to get my CE to move the message at the speed of sound...(343m/s)
And that was, as one could expect, not exactly easy.
He had no way of measuring the speed at which he could move and control his CE, but he highly doubted to be able to do so at such an insane speed.
Yet, it remained his only way to emulate the correct vibration for someone's brain to interpret it as a sentence.
'Like a slingshot... or a cannon? A stream is too slow... won't work.'
So, to solve the issue of his CE's speed, he had managed to compress it and release it at a high speed which had created static if his dad was to be believed.
That should be a good sign. Yet, according to his dad, the entire thing had also felt less invasive. More like a wave washing over him than crashing down on him.
Now, the problem was this. How could he get the static to turn into something like Hanami's speech? Did he need speed? Or should he actually vibrate his Cursed energy the correct frequency? Or something else entirely?
'Amount maybe...?'
He usually pushed his emotion + thought as a bundle... maybe he should add a little more cursed energy? To... maybe strengthen the whole thing? Or would it weaken it? He didn't really understand the Mechanics of cursed energy after all.
'Here we go!'
Tokoyami soon received the message... took his hand and braille'd "Static again."
'Goddamnit, i wish i had some kind of Sensei for this.'
And so, time kept passing as Riku attempted to use different amount of CE with each message.
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A few hours later (POV: Masaki Shindai)
It wasn't difficult to guess where he and his son were.
A garage which reeked of sweaty naked men, where the noise did not consist of speech, but rather grunts and screams as barbells and weights hit the ground or the rack.
A place where a bunch of middle aged or old dudes flaunted their chesticles and those were around as visually appealing as an ancient slice of cheese laying in a bathroom.
Masaki's gaze shifted over to his ever-grinning son who followed his elders example by... wearing nothing but that Hakama.
'...He's becoming like them.'
He and his son separated, each going through their own regimen. As much as he clowned on the place, he had to admit that he enjoyed the gym, especially the feeling of a pump surging through his muscles.
His son seemed to try to go for lighter training, seemingly a warm up, probably planning on asking Genzo and Kenzo for fight instruction... but ended up being joined by a certain nameless old-man who had the veins in weird places.
Light training was obviously impossible in such conditions and his son's attempt at explaining the reason for his light training... obviously weren't understood by the man who simply added more weights to Riku's formerly light regimen.
And so... his little weirdo soon gave up and ended up going along with the old man whose disapproving gaze never changed.
It was only a short while later, when Genzo explained that Riku wanted to learn how to fight, that he was finally freed from the old man's training.
'Hell no, i better get over there.'
He had learned his lesson. To summarize it: "No letting Riku fight in a cage."
Masaki wasn't going to stop the kid from learning how to fight... but he was at least gonna make sure that he learns how to throw and dodge a punch. Given his lack of fighting skills, he'd simply translate whatever Genzo and Kenzo said, so that Riku could follow instruction.
He quickly joined them and was relieved to hear that they weren't planning on another Cage fight. Well, they weren't planning anything, they had been waiting for him to come act as a translator.
A short talk ensued, which soon led to a groundbreaking discovery.
'These two don't really know Martial arts!'
Masaki was aware as they had mentioned that before, but he didn't really realize what that implied.
'These two learned how to fight... through real fights?'
He was currently conversing with people whose fights were probably illegal.
That was a sobering thought. 'They might have learned while clobbering random people.'
Despite that, Masaki swallowed down his anxiety and simply did his job as a translator. It ended up being more of a lecture about the specifics which had been right or wrong during Kenzo and Riku's fight, but there was probably some helpful advice. Not that he'd know if there was.
After that, the conversation died down a little and they simply stood in awkward silence... because teaching a blind kid how to fight is a ridiculous and difficult endeavaeour. And both dudes had absolutely no clue how to teach.
Riku was then sent to simply throw punches against the sack, while his newly branded teachers did their best to make sure his punches were done with solid form.
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Pov: Riku
'Turns out hearing is more important than seeing.'
Yeah. He had always considered blindness to be worse than being deaf, but he had been rethinking about this topic and deemed his earlier opinion as incorrect.
'Although it might be because i can use CE as a Sensor. I couldn't imagine living without that now.'
He was still hitting the sack, simply trying to get used to punching. No CE reinforcement, simply focusing on not losing his balance while throwing a punch.
At the same time, he was busy pondering his anatomy. His tail, the wings, his organs, he was pretty curious how it all worked.
He didn't really know his own anatomy, x-rays had been performed and his organs could be seen... the problem was just that they couldn't all be recognized.
His entire Anatomy had main components which were strikingly similar to that of a human, yet had a different structure, as if being a copy or an imitation.
He had a heart, but it simply wasn't the same as that of a human or any animal for that matter. He had an organ where his liver should be, but like the heart, it simply seemed different than a normal liver.
The same applied to most of his organs. His lungs for example, were present, but simply didn't work. Instead, he had a capillary network beneath his skin seemed to absorb the air through his skin.
But the worst thing? His blood circulatory system.
It was a mess. Not in the sense that it didn't work, but simply the way it was constructed. His body was basically filled with veins and arteries in a way it didn't make sense. A good way to describe it would be a messy assortment of cables, arranged in such a disorganized fashion that nothing could be understood.
What did that mean? It meant that he didn't really have a "major artery" or "major vein." It also meant that dying by bloodloss was a lot more difficult, because his blood simply had many paths to flow through.
'So, my body is pretty awesome. I just need to solve the deaf issue.'
CE could take care of blindness, but not of the fact he was deaf. And that was a major problem.
He distinctly remembered his little spar with Kenzo and he also remembered that he really struggled to pin-point Genzo while he used that ice-quirk of his.
His CE had allowed him to see his outline, but the lack of emotions hand basically nearly rendered him invisible.
'Like an invisible man in a pool.'
You'd notice someone in the water, but you'd still struggle to see him.
'And sound or sight would solve the issue in my case.'
He needed eyes or ears. These weren't easy to come by.
'Hmm.'
The only way he could think of was either adaptation or a self imposed pact.
'Can i even do that?'
He had not tried that, given that he didn't understand the first thing when it came to pacts or heavenly restrictions. He remembered it being stated to being fair, in a way that you had to give something up in order gain something else.
That was rather vague. And he hadn't really experimented with it, so he didn't know much about it.
'I suppose it doesn't cost anything to try.... or does it?'
CHAPTER END.
Exceptionally short chapter here. I don't have time to write much this week, so i decided to pop this one quickly.
I'll be blunt, as mentioned before, my writing will slow down a lot. So i'm considering diving into a timeskip in the midst of the next chapter.
Problem is that i don't really know how to do that smoothly. So if you have advice or ideas, i'll take them.
It won't be a timeskip to UA, but rather middle school, then stay there a few chapters before transitioning into UA timeline.
I just can't stay on Kindergarten time for too long after all.
The next chapter, depending on your advice would be the one which leads into the timeskip.
Oh, i created a new "book." It's basically an itinerary of Info and ideas for new fanfics.
Checkt it out if you're interested. I won't start writing new fics now, but maybe when this one reaches 25 chapters.