Chapter 149 - Brothers
Hawks, whistling happily, stopped at the sliding doors of the building, his hands in his pockets.
He smiled and pointed to the 'Higanbana Senior Residence' sign as if he'd been a TV presenter and the shithole behind him was the jackpot.
The way he chose to ignore the little scene I'd made the other day in his office was admirable.
- Welcome to Higanbana, where we look after your parents as if they were our own children !
- Is this your 'incredible' activity ?
Hawks dropped his hands.
- At least pretend to be happy
- I can't, I'm trying to stop being a liar
Hawks clapped his hands.
- Exactly ! That's the state of mind I want to see
- You told me this would be a great outing
Which, in Hawksian language, meant either an extended meal or hanging out in some obscure bar that smelled of air freshener, where I'd be bored stiff listening to him rattle on for hours about obscure stories whose protagonists I didn't even know half the time.
Hawks straightened up.
- Just because I've given you two days off doesn't mean you're on a vacation
That's exactly what I thought.
Still, anything's better than working in a suit that hasn't been washed since I was born.
Hawks lifted his hand to rub my hair: I took a step aside, irritated.
- Stop treating me like a dog
He raised an accusing finger.
- Remember that I could have taken you to an orphanage, but I took your tastes into consideration and decided to do you a favour for our volunteer day
- Say clearly that no orphanage wants a murderer hanging around its wards
Hawk's smile widened.
- Touché
He looked up at the windows, his wings low but not touching the ground.
He liked to complain that his wings took on all the dirt of the city and that it always took him hours to brush them and make them silky and shiny.
Over his shoulder, through the sliding doors, a bespectacled woman and two orderlies could be seen - their eyes on Hawks - clearly nervous but patiently waiting for him to finish his big show.
- You told me you had a grandmother you liked, didn't you ?
- I never said 'liked'
- Now's the time to learn a few things if you ever have to take care of her
The idea that Teka could get sick - or die - seemed absurd to me.
To me, this ageless creature would cling to her ageless beauty until she'd buried us all.
- What's your motto ?, Hawks asked.
- Humility, I muttered in a low voice
Hawks put an arm around my shoulders.
- Smile, Shoto. This is going to be a great day.
*
It was anything but a great day.
The old people smelled of piss and drugs, the green carpet was full of dark stains that I avoided stepping on, the carers were sprawled on chairs, cigarettes and coffee in hand, as if they were the ones who needed help.
The whole building reeked of cancer and senility and every second I spent there threatened to turn me into a hypochondriac.
My eyes swept over the thirty or so chairs that had been set up in the 'living room' (note the irony) for the occasion.
Apart from a handful of occupied seats, the rest were empty.
In the front row sat an old black man with an unkempt afro, hands crossed on a wooden stick, chin resting on his hands, snoring.
Next to him sat an old man with a chessboard on his lap. He had only one pawn and was moving it from one square to another in a way that was so illogical it was maddening.
An old woman with stringy grey hair and a wrinkled chin tucked into her mouth, as if swallowing her lips, watched the scene intently.
A man sat alone by a window looking out at the falling snow. His eyes were pale blue, so clear you'd think they were made of water. His head was turned outwards, but his gaze was too low, fixed on the edge of the wall.
A nurse arrived with an old lady in a wheelchair: she manoeuvred her next to the one who gave me the distinct impression that she had no teeth.
Hawks laughed and threw a piece of curtain at my back, which I pushed back more curtly, annoyed.
Red curtains had been put up on either side of an old television set to act as a backstage area.
I could hear Hawks giggling behind the curtain, over-excited.
He's the only one having a good time.
My phone buzzed against my thigh.
I discreetly pulled it out of my pocket to check my Twitter messages:
Boom Boom Boy: Aizawa asked me to show the new guy around Yuei (11.21am)
Boom Boom Boy: He said he was a fan of your old man (11:22am)
Then there was a series of tweets and videos that had nothing to do with anything.
Katchan must have been really bored to send me so many in such a short time.
Boom Boom Boy: He emits waves from his whole body (1:10 pm)
Boom Boom Boy: He just turned the basketball court upside down (1:12pm)
Boom Boom Boy: Aizawa's going crazy (1.12pm)
It's just like him to talk about the new guy's Quirk without mentioning his name.
Probably he hadn't remembered and had already made up a nickname for him.
Icy/Hot: What do the others think ? (1.13pm)
Boom Boom Boy: Aren't very happy (1.13pm)
- Shoto, curtain !, Hawks shouted.
I put my phone away immediately.
Across from me a caregiver pressed the power button on the portable CD player.
I crouched down, numb, then slapped my palms together.
A thick cloud of steam left my hands and invaded the scene.
It was like a damp mist that curled up like smoke.
The old black man woke with a start and jumped to his feet, legs shaking, back arched, shouting something confused that sounded like 'what the hell'.
Hawks jumped onto the stage and I thought the old man was going to have a heart attack.
Dressed in feathers and what looked like a buffalo skin, Hawks walked noisily, banging his geta on the floor.
He looks like an offensive version of a native American.
- I am the great Chemnashaovirodaintrachivu, the man with the head of eagle and the heart of snake !
I think that's actually why we didn't go to an orphanage.
I watched Hawks from the side, arms crossed, trying not to look too disgusted by his performance.
- Hey, who is the big bird ?
- We want the wheel of fortune !
The old woman - with a face more wrinkled than a dried plum - took off her drooling dentures and threw them at Hawks.
Quickly, Hawks leaned forward and the dentures smashed into the television behind him.
One of the medic sighed, but none of them felt the need to leave the circle of peace - and depression - they had created for themselves.
- Fear my power !
Hawks straightened up, wings outstretched like an owl scaring off a predator.
Then he began to flap his wings and fly away with a great diabolical laugh, arms outstretched.
- I am the son of fire !
I stifled a sigh and raised my left hand.
A serpent of flame sprang from my palm and wrapped itself around Hawks - albeit at a great distance - like a vine around a tree trunk.
- Fear my wonder !
The volume of the music became deafening: knowing what was about to happen, I twirled the dragon around Hawks and then sent it flying over the audience.
Horrified, the nurses and patients watched as the monster opened its mouth as a deafening roar came from the CD player.
I clenched my fist and the dragon dissipated in a spray of sparks, extinguished in mid-air by the humidity.
The commotion had attracted other pensioners, who looked around the room with surprise and interest.
A little redhead with a mottled face was blocking the entrance with her walker : a nurse ran to help her, while the others helped the new arrivals settle in.
I glanced at Hawks : his malevolent god facade faded for a moment, giving way to a stupidly happy smile, then he returned to character.
- I am the king of the oceans !
He raised the palm of his right hand, and I condensed the moisture to create a vortex of water in his palm.
The old men looked on in amazement and I laughed dryly, slightly disdainfully at their silly expressions.
I increased the humidity and suddenly hundreds of water bubbles appeared in the air, floating like frozen crystal.
Some of them touched the bubbles and they burst, drenching them. They began to laugh, their faces lit up with an innocent light.
I could feel Hawk's gaze on me : it wasn't in the script, but it didn't matter.
- Fear my wrath !
A huge bubble of water formed in the centre of the room, just below the ceiling.
The other bubbles swirled around it like the planets in the solar system around the sun, before suddenly colliding with the largest one.
I spread my hands and a fresh rain fell on everyone.
The old people looked at each other with joy, and even the nurses had lost their glum expressions.
- I am summer and winter !
The heat rose sharply, drying everyone out, and then ice spikes sprang from my feet to Hawks, before a frozen castle was built behind him, from the ground to the top of the tallest tower.
There were delighted 'wow's', which I accepted without an ounce of humility : I deserved at least that much, given the years of hard work I'd spent honing my finesse.
At first I could only manage a ten centimeters cube...
The music got louder and Hawks got carried away, going completely off script.
- I am spring and autumn !
A gentle warmth and then the beginning of a rumbling storm echoed through the room.
- The beginning and the end !
How am I supposed to represent the beginning and the end ?
- Chaos and order! Light and darkness!
I did the first thing that came into my head without thinking, a slight desire to strangle Hawks suddenly taking hold of me.
- I'm-
I turned a deaf ear to his nonsense, concentrating on the entertainment as best I could.
Looking around at the lit up faces, no one really cared if the pictures matched the sound, as long as it was visually stunning.
I was almost tempted to put them in a mass genjutsu to avoid tiring myself out needlessly but the potential for failure was still too high.
Too long later, the music stopped and Hawks flew away in a swirl of feathers and sequins, which he tossed out of his pockets so eagerly that he looked like the Sandman.
The carers applauded, the over-tired old men stomped their feet on the floor or clapped their hands on their thighs. It didn't last long, though, due to their stamina.
Hawks, delighted, bathed in the cheers (little cries muffled by the toothless) and general joy derived from these walking corpses.
I may prefer old people to children, but they're so senile they're practically infants.
They clapped their hands like sea lions being taught a trick for a treat.
A group of old men in plaid berets and waxed canes, giving the impression of a clique - or a gang of snack stealers - approached Hawks and asked him to make them fly with his feathers.
He happily obliged, and - feeling a dozen pairs of eyes fixed on me - I slipped discreetly out of the living room.
I walked to the water pump and took a plastic glass, which I didn't fill, my senses glued to Hawks. If he asked why I ran away, the glass would be my alibi.
I leaned against the wall and counted the seconds until the end of the day.
My eyes went to the door before he had even stepped through it.
The old blind man was walking alone, his cane sweeping left and right in front of him.
Over his rounded shoulders I could see the nurses watching him go, not trying to help him.
He passed the top pump with ease and I moved my feet out of the way.
He stopped at my level, his crystalline eyes looking up at me for a moment.
Then he turned his head to the side, his gaze settling on my earlobe.
- You're the boy who did the show, aren't you ?
Head tilted to one side, eyes narrowed, I studied his face for a moment.
- Aren't you supposed to be blind ?
He smiled.
- Visually impaired from birth, he said, Is not the same as blind
- I don't see you wearing coloured glasses
- I'm not photophobic and I'm not ashamed of my eyes
I pondered his answer for a moment.
Suspicious, I held two fingers in front of his face.
His attention was drawn to it, albeit a little more to the left than necessary.
- I can make out shapes, though blurred...
His face crinkled in displeasure.
- And I still know when someone's giving me the finger
I lowered my hand.
His gaze reminds me of All for One...
- What's it like to be blind ?
He pressed his lips together, clenching and unclenching the cane in his palm, as if reluctant to leave the rough guy I was in the lurch.
- I can't describe it, I've never known anything else, he said. But from what my doctors have told me about my descriptions, I can only see patches of colour
- Were you able to see the show with this handicap ?
The wrinkle between his eyebrows disappeared and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
- Blindness doesn't mean deafness or insensitivity. I enjoyed the sound of the storm and the feeling of my hair getting up on my neck, just as I enjoyed the drops of water falling on my skin like fresh rain
I almost expected him to go off on a tangent and recite a poem, so I waited longer than necessary to answer, and he took another step forward.
- Would you like me to perform again
He raised his eyebrows.
- Would you mind ? (Then, hastily, as if afraid I might change my mind, he added:) Yes, very much, please.
The way his eyes widened in amazement and the childish nervousness that almost made him stomp on the spot reminded me of Kenta and slightly stifled my irritation.
- Chin up, I said.
He did as I asked.
I raised the palm of my left hand: a horse of fire sprang from my hand and galloped over my head.
The old man smiled with delight.
Without taking my eyes off him, I transformed the horse into a serpent of fire that wrapped around his arm and climbed up to his collarbone.
- What do you see?, I asked.
Distracted, he replied:
- It looks like a very hot red tube or cylinder revolving around me.
The snake was reflected in his glassy eyes.
Suddenly, a clone appeared to my right.
He covered himself with a genjutsu that would make him invisible to the outside world.
I scanned his face carefully, passing the snake in front of my double's face.
His gaze - always late - followed the snake, then he gasped.
He blinked and rubbed his eyelids with two fingers.
- There must be something wrong with my eyes, he muttered.
- How so ?
My chakra seeped into his nervous system as the clone dropped the illusory curtain covering him.
- It's very strange, he murmured, his eyes still riveted to my left, where my clone stood. The contours are very precise...
- You should see one of the nurses, I said. I'll call one for you.
I walked away without waiting for an answer, feverish from the discovery I'd just made.
All for One doesn't have a Quirk that allows him to see through my illusions : it's because he's practically blind that he manages to notice the finesse of what I'm doing over the chaos of his own perception.
I smiled.
All I have to do is gouge out his eyes.
*
Author's note :
I have a confession to make.
Sometimes the chapters' titles are extremely befitting, and sometimes I am just bullshiting my way out with some cryptic shit that means nothing.
But it's definitely befitting. Most of the time, at least.
Part 2 of the now infamous chapter, The Eyes of God, out today.
It's the beginning of the end everyone - the pace is picking up.
If you want to read way ahead of schedule then go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG
See you in the next update everyone !