Why He Did It - The Zeroth Day (Part II)
Despite Sekai's words, Annabeth nonetheless successfully convinced him to take a tonic she had on herself, before chugging one down herself. Despite it's bitter and unpleasant taste, the drink nonetheless began mending Sekai's bruises and the pain from earlier began to increasingly lessen.
"It's a healing potion. My master always require I keep a few on me for situations like this in the event of something like this." Annabeth explained, "I'm just glad they didn't break in the chaos."
Sekai nodded, beginning to stand only to begin vomiting another round of blood and white matter.
Annabeth immediately began to unstopper another tonic, but Sekai held his hand out to stop her.
"Save it for later. I'm going to die anyway so we should save it." Sekai told her,
Annabeth looked hesitant, but sighed and put the potion away.
"So what are we going to do now?" Sekai asked, "I'm not knowledgeable in all of this magic stuff so I'll need your help."
Annabeth sighed, "We will need someplace to stay and new clothes, thankfully, I have this." She proceeded to showcase a black debit card.
"You had that? Then why didn't you tell me that when you were living with me?!" Sekai questioned, and Annabeth shrugged.
"I prefer to save where I can, and I don't know if they have the ability to track card purchases or something. Right now, we don't have much of a choice." She explained, "We will keep moving consistently until my Master finds us. However, right now we need to get out of the city and get you to another hospital."
Sekai nodded, not wanting to explain why he needed Kotono Hospital in particular. He didn't want to involve her in his own issues.
"The only problem is finding a clothes store..." She sighed,
Sekai suddenly squinted at something across the street, before pointing at a Matsuzakaya store across the street.
"There's a Matsuzakaya across the street." He noted, and Annabeth beamed.
"Alright! Tell me your size and you stay here! I'll get us a change of clothes, given you can't exactly be seen in a bloody hospital gown." Annabeth gestured at Sekai's current wear, causing the boy to promptly blush and Annabeth to smile slightly.
"Alright, I wear medium." Sekai told her, and Annabeth nodded before walking into the Matsuzakaya.
⸻
Several minutes later Annabeth came out packed with bags of clothes, approaching Sekai she proceeded to hand the boy several of them.
"Clothes." She stated, as if it explained everything.
"Yeah...but where am I going to change?" Sekai questioned,
Annabeth flushed red, "...Here...I guess." She coughed out,
"Here?! In an alley?!" Sekai hissed,
"It's not an ideal situation for me either!" She whined abashedly, "I won't look if that's what your worried about."
"What about other people!?" Sekai replied, and Annabeth sighed.
"Perception Altering Spells can be expanded to a degree. Don't worry about it." Annabeth explained, and Sekai finally relented.
"...Fine...turn around!" He quickly began to unwrap and open the clothes. Which included a gray hoodie, simple black polo and black jeans.
Sekai slid it all on as Annabeth had her back turned to him, after a few tense moments. Sekai stood up, his hospital gown was then promptly disposed of by Annabeth with fire magic.
"Let's go." She nodded,
⸻
"I've locked onto her mana signature." Vaelea stated,
"Well? Where are they?!" Artois demanded,
Vaelea shot him a look, but only proceeded on with what she was saying.
"Downtown Kotono, Near the Matsuzakaya." She stated,
The Huntsmaster nodded, "We can't let them escape this time."
The group of Witch-hunters expressed their agreement, either verbally or non-verbally as they moved out of their base in a unified mass of black clothing.
⸻
"Alright, now that we don't look like we just broke out of a hospital. We can find a place to stay." Annabeth said,
"Yeah...shouldn't we do something about your own attire?" Sekai asked tentatively,
Annabeth raised an eyebrow, and then chuckled. "You'd be surprised at just how willfully ignorant you normals are."
"Normals?" Sekai raised an eyebrow, and Annabeth sighed.
"People who can't use magic are called normals." She explained, "Anyway, even without perception altering spells. Most people tend to dismiss me as some kind of foreign cosplayer, so they rarely ask questions."
When Sekai still had an apprehensive look on his face, Annabeth sighed. "Fine, I'll prove it." With that, Annabeth took him by the hand and proceeded to drag him to a nearby hotel. Given that it was Downtown Kotono, the nearest hotel turned out to be a Marriott Hotel.
The clerk at the desk looked up, "Welcome to the Kotono-Marriott Hotel, how can we help you today?"
"A room for two please." Annabeth slid the black card over the table, and the lady took it without hesitation.
"I don't see a reservation here, so I'll assume you're buying on the spot?" The clerk asked,
"Yes, thank you." Annabeth replied,
"Alright then. Room 304. Third floor, second room on the right." The clerk handed them their room key and promptly waved them off,
Once they were out of earshot, Annabeth turned towards Sekai with a smug smile. "Told you, willfully ignorant. By tomorrow I'll just be nothing more than another odd foreigner. You Normals are so accustomed to your average lives, so content with normalcy, that the occult can slap you in the face and you'll still try to find some way to justify it that fits within your 'normal' definitions. And when you can't, then you seek to eliminate anything that threatens your 'normal' lives." Her tone turned slightly bitter at the last part, and Sekai genuinely couldn't formulate a comeback to that.
"Come on, we still have to make it to our room."
⸻
Once they made it to the room, Annabeth flopped directly onto the bed, not even bothering to pick up her hat when it fell to the floor.
"Man...when is your master going to find you?" Sekai questioned,
"She's probably getting chased herself." Annabeth was quick to defend her Master from the perceived disrespect,
"I know that, but we can't keep running forever." Sekai stated, "I am still dying, don't forget that." With that, Sekai flopped onto the bed, not bothering to change clothes before climbing into the bed.
Annabeth fell silent at that, unlike her, Sekai had nothing beyond this. Not anymore. He wouldn't be dying with his friends or family, but with her. For her. A stranger he didn't even know.
"Hey, Sekai." Annabeth asked, rolling over to face the boy on the bed beside hers.
"Yeah? What is it?" Sekai questioned,
"Are you really okay with this?" She asked, "With spending your last hours on the run, protecting me?"
Sekai was silent for a few moments, before quietly saying: "...Yes."
"Even though you don't know if my Master will come after you're gone?"
"Yes."
"Even if we might end up dying before we are rescued?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you so okay with this?"
"Because...it's really cool." Sekai admitted,
"You're helping me because it's 'cool'?" Annabeth asked incredulously,
Sekai didn't respond at first, leaving the two in silent darkness, but he finally spoke. "You're right, you know."
"About?"
"About normal life. About how far people are willing to go to preserve it." Sekai answered, "But...I always hated those endlessly repeating days. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends, Antei, Shiro, Hokura, mom and dad - they're all precious to me. But I just couldn't stand how monotonous each day was, I woke up, went to school, hung out, went home, ate, did homework, slept, and repeated that with little variation." He laughed mirthlessly, "Looking back on it...I enjoyed those days more than I thought I did."
"So why not enjoy them now?" Annabeth asked, "Use these last hours to make up for all the time you didn't realize you enjoyed."
"Because while I'll miss those days, I wouldn't be able to pass on easily knowing that I could've had more in my life. That I could've been a protagonist of my own story, even if it was just for a short while." Sekai confessed,
"...So you're risking everything off of some hyper-advanced stage of eighth-grader syndrome?!" Annabeth asked, and Sekai chuckled,
"Well when you put it that way..." Sekai said embarrassedly, and Annabeth huffed.
"Honestly...you really are an idiot, Sekai Kaeru!" Annabeth stated, albeit this time, Sekai was almost sure her voice was much softer.