( Date : September 20th 2023 )
( Location : Quadra Island )
Hiro grunted softly in pain as he slowly removed the blade from his shoulder. "You sure you don't want to eat?" Ryuji asked.
"No, I'll be fine. Eating more than needed will just waste food for the others, I can just ask Nyoko to heal me," Hiro took a deep breath as he firmly pressed on the wound to stop any extra bleeding.
When they both entered their home, they split ways. Ryuji made his way to the kitchen to put away food, and Hiro walked to Nyoko's room.
He knocked softly on her door. Whispers and fumbling were heard behind the door, and within a few seconds, Nyoko finally opened it to greet Hiro. Hiro glanced behind her as he noticed Toku sitting on the edge of her bed.
"Weren't you just getting food? What happened to your arm?" Nyoko asked worriedly as soon as she noticed the blood staining Hiro's shirt.
Hiro lightly shook his head as he remembered the reason he walked to her room, "Some guy attacked a girl, and I kinda got stabbed helping her," Hiro explained while Toku politely exited the room past Nyoko and Hiro.
"Go sit on my bed, I'll get you a towel to wash it off before I heal you," Nyoko said as she sped her way to the bathroom connected to her room. Hiro glanced around her room curiously, though there still wasn't much to be seen yet.
Even though it was his choice to ask her for aid, he's never really been in a woman's room besides Yuki. So he couldn't help but feel a little flustered.
He sat patiently on her bed until she returned with the wet washcloth. "Go on, take off your shirt," Nyoko said quickly before using a hand to help Hiro remove his shirt.
Nyoko carefully began to wipe the blood on the wound, the stinging sensation was strong, but Hiro's mind was more focused on his girlfriend.
How close she was to him, how concentrated she was on healing his wound.
He was lovesick.
When Nyoko glanced into his eyes, he felt his cheeks burn brightly. "There, all done," Nyoko said proudly with a soft smile as she looked at the scar that was left behind.
"Thank you," Hiro said softly, his voice nearly in awe. Nyoko only nodded softly in response.
A small sigh escaped Hiro's lips as he slowly reached out to gently cup her cheek, his plan to lean in closer to her was abruptly cut off when Nyoko grabbed onto his wrist and removed his hand from her cheek.
She grabbed his bloodied shirt and placed it in his hand that was once upon her cheek. "You should go wash this," was all she said before she carried the blood washcloth to the bathroom, leaving Hiro alone in the painful tension of her rejection.
He ran his fingers through his hair before standing up and silently exiting her bedroom.
"Hey, Hiro!" Isao called out when he saw Hiro walking to his bedroom. Isao's large grin faltered when he saw Hiro enter his room without acknowledging him.
"Nope," Isao said aloud, both quick and blunt. He booked it to Hiro's bedroom door, bombarding the door with small rapid knocks.
It only took a minute for Hiro to open the door, "We're hanging out," was all Isao said as he grabbed Hiro and began to pull him down the hallway.
Isao glanced back quickly to close Hiro's door behind them with gravitational pull. "Did something happen?" Hiro asked confused.
Once they reached the living room, Isao reached from behind the couch to grab onto Yuki's hood firmly.
Yuki coughed and quickly stood up to prevent herself from choking as Isao dragged both her and Hiro outside to the front porch.
Seina pouted lightly as her conversation with Yuki was cut short. "What's up with Isao?" Kurai asked curiously.
Keiko just shrugged her shoulders as she sipped her glass of water.
"Next time you strangle me, we're fighting," Yuki said as she rubbed her neck with one hand, adjusting her hood with the other.
"I brought you guys here with me today..." Isao said slowly as if trying to build tension, instead of being interested both Yuki and Hiro just stared at him silently as if he were a clown in an empty circus.
"To talk about your feelings," He finished, putting his two index fingers in front of his lips as he looked back and forth between them with his eyes open wide.
Yuki blinked, when she processed his reasoning for dragging her by the hood and interrupting her conversation she took a breath of agitation while placing her fist on her forehead.
"Therapy Arisu time," Isao added in a whisper. Hiro couldn't help but laugh at the scene before him, once his laughter died down a small sigh of defeat escaped his lips and he sat down on the porch steps to look up at the night sky.
If Isao already knew he was upset about something, then there was no use trying to avoid it.
Isao smiled softly as he sat beside Hiro, tapping the small space on the opposite side of him to signal Yuki to sit down as well. Yuki listened to his silent suggestion and sat beside him leaving Isao in the center of the trio.
"OK, so what's wrong?" Isao asked Hiro as he watched him fiddle with his fingers and looked down.
"It's just... A mix of things I guess," Hiro said softly as he racked his brain for a starting point. "When I was out with Ryuji, we saw that people in power are blaming demon attacks on each other as an excuse to start a war with other countries,"
"So what we went through was an isolated incident?" Isao asked as his smile completely vanished at the news.
Yuki nodded before sharing the information she knew. "Yeah, Calista saw to it that there was no evidence of demons for humans to find,"
Her words had left Hiro baffled as he turned to look at her with his brows crinkled. "Why?"
"Because a scared human is a dangerous human. People grow irrational when given any form of negative emotions, they're unpredictable. So she saw it best to make people believe it was a mass hysteria," She answered.
When Hiro struggled for a response, Isao chimed in. "Maybe we can help them? I mean, we all have a lot more power than before and we managed to save a town,"
"I'm not sure it's that easy," Hiro said reluctantly, thinking over Yuki's words and how the gods must've left humans alone for a reason.
"Calista never tells me much... But I can tell the gods have given up on humans a long time ago,"
"Then what made us special? Why help us?" Isao asked, but Yuki just shrugged once more. She couldn't understand it either, all she could do was accept her current life at face value.
"So I'm guessing none of us were told why they chose us?" Hiro asked and the other two just nodded as they all got lost in their thoughts trying to put the pieces together to a puzzle they'll never understand.
"Why did the gods turn their backs to humans, yet open their arms to us?" Ran through their minds in unison.
After a few minutes, Isao was the first to give up as he knew there was no way to understand the gods. "So what about you, Yuki? Anything you wanna get off your chest?"
"Nope. I mean, doing missions isn't a good experience. But I got used to it," Yuki explained.
"What about you Mr therapist? Got something on your mind?" Hiro asked in a playful tone.
Isao hummed softly. "Nothing major," Isao said as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
Yuki raised a brow as she watched him, "What is it?"
"When I was training a little with Den the other day... I think she thought I was trying to make a move and she seemed awkward about it, it kinda felt shitty y'know?"
"Well, you did like her for a long time, it would make sense she'd get a little awkward if she read the situation wrong," Yuki explained as she tried to think of both sides to Isao's story.
"I know, and I still find her pretty. I'll admit it. But I can accept she doesn't like me, so I wouldn't make a move on her if she wasn't comfortable with it," Hiro nodded softly along with Isao's words to signal his understanding.
"Love is complicated, huh?"
"You're having trouble with Nyoko?" Yuki was surprised to hear Hiro relate to Isao's struggle. She never pried, so she always assumed Hiro and Nyoko had a great relationship behind closed doors.
Hiro's love for Nyoko was very blatant after all.
"Yup, I'm not sure what but I think I did something wrong. That's what I want to believe at least, I'd rather make a mistake I can fix than..." Hiro's words trailed off as he tried to steady his breathing.
"Than?" Yuki questioned.
"Than assume she's hiding something from me. She's so distant, I don't want to think about it being because she did something she's guilty of," Hiro rambled as he tried not to upset himself from the heartache of his assumptions.
"You think she's cheating?" Isao asked hesitantly.
"I'm probably just overthinking it," Hiro shook his head as he attempted to clear his thoughts.
Isao hugged Hiro gently with the hopes of comforting him, none of them wanted to believe the possibility of Nyoko doing stuff behind Hiro's back.
After a handful of minutes, a knock from the window gathered the trio's attention. "Hurry up and get inside, Kurai and I made dinner," Ryuji called out from the other side of the window with a wide smile on his face.
"We'll be there in a second," Yuki responded before standing up.
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