12 Chapter 12

"Hah!! Serves you right old bastard!!", Hiro laughed holding his stomach at the side as Vi, the seemingly invulnerable entity was unceremoniously nursing his cheeks and swollen head. This had been the outcome of Infi machinations. Vi's sudden draw of power in their previously had not gone unnoticed by the motherly entity. Seeing Hiro blown literally several kilometres backward before crashing on the ground caused Infi's motherly instincts to stir. And oh boy was she not pissed.

She immediately appeared beside Hiro's body as she waved her hand over Hiro's body several bruises and swells seemed to repair themselves. As if the time around them had been reversed. The very next moment Infi scanned her vision over the surroundings just to find a fretful and sweating Vi who was desperately trying to escape her clutches. Thus, though they were purported to be eternal equals, Infi appeared next to Vi near instantly and lightly bonked him on the head.

Vi was instantly plastered on the ground as a sickly crack sounded throughout the room. Vi had let his childish nature take hold of him and released a little more power than intended. Though Hiro was sure Vi had done this to give him an idea about how monstrous adversities he was going to face, Vi had probably forgotten about the ever-watchful affectionate Infi.

Infi had watched a multitude of worlds during the expanse of time but never had she experienced what it meant to have a real family. But, now that she had cute little Hiro-kun around, she could finally experience being a Big-sister. Yet as fate would have it, just as she had decided, a loud boom sounded from the training section. Making sense of the situation, she immediately moved to the site. Feeling extremely annoyed over her foolish counterpart, she immediately bonked his head.

Hiro didn't have anybody to rely on but that didn't mean he didn't accept wise words. One of the first things he learned during his childhood is that only by accepting can you grow as a person. Be it accepting new information, respect, wisdom, or even the love and care of others, it can leave a positive impact on you. For example, just accept responsibility for your mistakes when you are in an argument next time. The person you are arguing with will then naturally incline to accept his/hers as well.

"You didn't get hurt too much right, Hiro-kun? If you sustained any damage please let me help you!" stated Infi bringing Hiro back from his internal ramblings. Hiro himself knew that Vi was trying to help him so he answered he was fine. It won't be much of training if the instructor is crippled from the start.

As if waiting for this moment, all injuries on Vi simply vanished as he stood back up with hints of a smile on his otherwise calm face. Hiro had probably overlooked it but if you were to see closely, Vi was sweating bullets. He didn't even have half the courage to confront the woman when she was serious. But now that he had seen what happened, Vi had discovered('trapped') the most effective counter + meat shield against the dangerous woman that would help him out of any confrontation against the mad demon. Because matter how powerful he may be, even he feared a woman's wrath.

Hiro would have laughed more but as he was about to throw another fit of laughter, a sudden jolt of pain ran through his body. Wherever the surge passed it felt like a condensed stream of electricity contacted his body, hellbent on electrocuting him, burning him to death.. Hiro tried to move his body to rid the immense pain but found himself paralyzed.

He felt as if he was being torn apart into multiple threads. A grave, deep chill spread through his body again. It proactively tried to allay the pain but as soon as it felt like the pain would subside, Hiro felt a brutal tug in his chest. From the outside perspective, it would feel like Hiro was performing strange maneuvers. But only Hiro knew what was happening. It was some of the worst things he had ever experienced in his life. Like felt his soul was being stripped from his body. Whenever the attempt would be even a little successful, Hiro would feel himself going numb as even the burns of pain seemed nonexistent.

Gritting his teeth to desperately resist the pain and numbness, Hiro could only hope this blows over.

Just as his consciousness seemed to fade, words etched in red dominated his mind

<"Soul seize initiated. Current cool down T-minus 7 hrs 52 minutes 39 seconds.... and counting.....">

<Timeskip?>

Hiro had woken up eventually after some time but was in pretty bad shape. He felt like all the sensations in his body had faded away yet he could somehow still feel pain, he felt as if all the air had been forced out of his lungs, making breathing extremely difficult. For a moment, for better or worse, he felt he didn't even have lungs to breathe into. Yet before he could express his growing distaste, his stomach rebelled against his, as bouts of nausea began to rise in his stomach. Hiro felt really sick as his stomach desperately tried to expunge its contents.

He had not eaten or drunk anything during his stay in this dimension as he didn't really need it. He was a spirit given astral form his own will and didn't need to function like humans. Yet his stomach would not have any of it as it went on with its sufferings.

After what felt like years, the feeling finally subsided. Hiro regained his bearings. He was still in deep shock as he had not expected that <"Soul-Seize">, a term Vi had jokingly produced had such a drastic outcome. He had nearly died and didn't even imagine what going through this constantly would be.

But believing things couldn't get any worse, Vi decided to disclose the truth to Hiro, and said, "This is something that you would have to deal with all the time. You would have to visit worlds, save people and maybe potentially turn them into allies, but not before you do something about 'Soul-Seized'. Because you wouldn't be of much use after becoming vulnerable like that!! This thing is sort of like a ticking time bomb on your back, so try to solve things as swiftly and neatly as possible."