2 – Believe in the chocolate
Yukki quickly tucked his sideburns behind his ear and covered it with hair, he rushed down, slipped his shoes and went out of the house. Then he power walked to the store, quickly both what he needed and power walked down–
He gulped.
He stopped at a sweets shop and bought dangos before resuming his pace and getting back home, he slipped off his shoes and placed the eggs at the table, before dashing back to his room. Locking the door and then looking at the mirror.
He stared at himself. His dark brown eyes had golden spots on them. His hair had white-blonde strands and his sideburns were white-blonde. His skin underneath his socks was turning pale. He grimaced. Whatever that stab did, it was giving him the weirdest albinism ever, he tried to wrack his head for whatever information, sadly all he had was about servants in general and the class card.
What the hell was happening to him?
Yukki sat down on the floor. Did he catch some sort of sickness? Soul Cancer? He started to hyperventilate.
What if it was a life-threatening change? What if he will actually die? Was it painful? He touched the pale skin.
It wasn't, Yukki sighed in relief and hugged his knees. He already looked subpar, what else would happen if he ended up looking even weirder. Would his parents disown him? No, he was too smart for that. He was a child with a future. His mother liked to brag about him to the next-door neighbours. They revelled in bragging about him.
He didn't like it though, but he let them.
Now though? How could they brag about their son with a weird sickness? What if people think he was contagious– No, what if it was contagious? He would get quarantined? Would they experiment on him? Should he tell them about the things he knows? He had the sword for proof. No, they'd only see him weirder. Tears started to drip from his face.
He was only 14 years old, what was happening to him?
He just wanted something else, he wanted... he wanted sweets. Japanese sweets if possible. Yukki's eyes widened.
He just thought of something he wouldn't even dream of. Yukki was not a stress eater, he was a stress reader. He read to shove off stress.
Then, his mind went back to Ecchan.
White-blonde, pale, golden eyes, sweets... stab him with the sword... reason for being there... merge...
He wiped his tears and stood up.
"Include"
The sword appeared.
"Uninclude"
The sword was gone.
He checked himself.
The albinism progressed. Now, the tips of his hair near the neck were white-blonde. A whole circular spot was golden on his left eye, and his entire feet were pale.
...
"So... this is what she meant by merge," Yukki said. Relieved that it really wasn't anything life-threatening.
Yukki laid on his bed. Looking at the clock. It still wasn't that late. He took his wallet and went out once more. He was going to buy some hair dye and contact lens.
ICDM
The next day, Yukki woke up still a little weirded out by yesterday's events. Or panic.
He made sure to stare long and hard at the golden spot near his eyes, then he covered them with contacts that were the same color as his eyes were. Eventually, he looked the same as he always did.
Except that his face a bit... softer. Nothing that bad so he ignored it.
"I'm heading out" Yukki shouted at the doors.
Coincidentally, he went out at the same time as Issei Hyoudou. They both glanced at each other.
Issei gave a small nod and continued on his way. Yukki returned the nod. Though, he never really respected the guy. He was aware of his perverted antics and didn't like mingling with someone like that.
Too bad they were neighbours and from the same middle school. They found themselves walking to school at the same time. Arrive at the same time. And then, a weird rumour spawned.
Issei and Yukki were friends. Issei the pervert and Yukki the once and future valedictorian were friends.
His social– if it even existed– remains withered by the end of the day.
His walk home was filled with countless detours, just him eating sweets from here and there in different stalls. Other than that, it was entirely boring. Once he got home, he wanted to try the soul thingy again and slept.
...
To his surprise, he awoke standing up again. In front of him was Eccha who was wearing more, casual clothing.
Something like a school uniform and a thick jacket, red scarf and glasses. The one that was bottom rimmed. And it ends with boots.
She was sitting down salivating.
"Unfair. Yukki ate all those sweets and didn't even give me any. Ah. I don't feel like lending to you my Necrocalibur anymore." She said, her tone still as low... but a smidge of envy was there.
Yukki looked around, he never really did the first time around. The place looked like what people imagined space to be. He was still curious where the light actually comes from, but first, he had an idea he wanted to try.
He forcefully woke himself up, by biting his tongue. Took a red bean bread to his hands and went back to sleep. Forcefully. By punching slamming his head into his bed's metal stuff at the side. Exactly at the jaw.
He read about it somewhere.
And, quickly he was back at the space, on his hands was the bread.
"Here. You can have this" Yukki smiled proudly as if he did something really smart and cool.
Ecchan stared at him.
"You just had to think of the food to make them appear here. I can't do it because it's not exactly my soul, that was a waste of effort. Goodjob Mast- Yukki" Ecchan said. Clearly not impressed.
Yet. She took the red bean bread. And ate it with gusto. Or nibbled it with gusto.
Yukki felt it.
He loved this thing.
It wasn't something unusual, everyone loves Saberface. Still, for Yukki. He had the inherent weakness to anything cute, eating something cutely. He spent a lot of his time as a child when he was not at home playing online games with the rabbits and other cute animals. Especially when his parents took him for the countryside vacation.
He watched them eat carrots and all sorts of other things.
The view before him emitted the same feeling.
So. Out of habit. Yukki patted Ecchan in the head.
...
She stared at him and his hands. He stared at her and his hands.
The hands were the point.
Ecchan didn't care and continued nibbling. Yukki didn't care either and continued patting.
It was a satisfying time for the 2 merging beings. And, because of this, the merging sped up.
Yukki got his first skill.
[E King's Invisible Hand]
King's Invisible Hand is more or less the ability to use psychic powers and levitate stuff. Ecchan uses them for her Alter Choke. However, at E, Yukki couldn't do anything that big, as his limit to lift up were things he could with his strength. Rocks, pencils, chairs among other things.
Cars and building were still not possible.
The information about the skill came automatically. Yukki stopped patting Ecchan and tried something. He heard her say something about spawning food. He eyed her red bean bread that was nearly gone and... using his fine imagination. He conjured a head-sized version.
Ecchan looked at the giant bread. She then held out her hands. Eyes conveying the message 'gimme or I'ma plock plock your face'. Still, message or not, Yukki planned to give it to her.
"Here." Yukki dropped the thing to her lap. It was small, but Yukki saw a small smile at her lips.
...
He quickly covered his mouth.
'C-Cute...'
He watched her eat the whole thing until he decided he had enough and woke up. Which was, until dinner time.
In other words, Yukki was the type of person to watch someone eat for about 5 hours on end. He woke up with a stupid smile.
"Yukki? Did you have a good dream?" Yukki's mother said she woke her son up from his slumber.
"I pat cute things," Yukki said, still a bit out of it.
"Ah..." Yukki's mother gave a wry smile and a very intelligent answer. For all the smarts her son has, he really needed a friend. Girl if possible. She shook her head and went back to her cooking.
...
Yukki then realized he was awake.
"Ah..." Like mother, like son. He grimaced at the fact that he lost all sorts of intelligence with cute things. It wasn't like he was the only one, he remembered his father saying something about falling in love with his mother just because she was small and ate cutely.
He stopped in place.
It was ridiculously similar.
He placed that thought and recollection to the back burner of his mind. Never to see the light of his brain cells ever again.
