Chapter 8

Sighing again, this time more deeply, he openly displayed his disdain.

"Just tell me what you want."

She looked away from him, and stopped petting the cushion her leg was already occupying.

Looking at the television, while in a flat, monotone voice, she said:

"The old man, Ishizu, needs your assistance with a project."

Shikina walked over to behind the couch, and leaned over it.

His arms rested on the back, and he watched the game with her.

"Tell grandpa I'm not doing shit. None of you can really do anything to order me around at this point."

Entirely deadpan, his eyes were wide open, with no trace of malice or movement.

"I think I proved that point when I was the last one standing."

His eyes shot to her, now.

The look of them were disturbed.

"But really, though. 32 people, against just one person? To you guys, it only seemed to last a minute."

He clenched his hands into a fist, enough to make the palm start to bleed.

"I saw an eternity in that fight, none of you can ever fucking understand it."

Blood trickled down and slowly dried, soon leaving him with stained fingers.

"I'll step out, now… fair warning, though; your blessing still doesn't match up to me. Massive strength doesn't mean a thing to someone who's slowly trudging through time."

Shikina pulled his arms away from the couch, bringing them to his side.

"Satsuki are you still hungry? I think I have gummy bears hidden around somewhere."

Her reply came all too quickly to his question.

"I found them behind the DVDs in your bookshelf. I already ate them all."

Looking around the details of the room, he said, with great annoyance:

"Of course you already did. Christ."

He left the room, with the same caution he had entering it previously.

Satsuki's eyes looked at the screen, yet they were turning red, as if irritated.

Her eyebrows quivered and twitched.

As if she was ready to cry.

She put her left hand under her chin, resting her head on it.

No longer having her legs outstretched, the cushion of the couch warped in response to her elbow resting on it.

Quietly, she said:

"I really fucked up that day, didn't I."

Few tears came out, trickled down, and stained her face.

Though she was only in that state for a few seconds.

She slowly got up from the couch and put on her shoes which were next to her feet.

Pure white, the shoe was a rare edition from a popular brand, which ran well over a hundred thousand yen.

However, that amount was nothing to her at this point.

She made that much in a minute when she appeared on TV.

Satsuki reflected on this, as she looked around his mostly normal home.

Nothing grand or lavish.

Everything he had was bought at popular chain supermarkets.

"I was the clueless one, huh."

Satsuki didn't bother to walk around the house to find Shikina.

She quietly went, opening and closing the front door to his little home, leaving as quietly as she had came in.