8. Shelf-portation.

"Well then, I'll take my leave now." I said, picking up my crutch.

"Yeah. We'll see you next week, when we get discharged. Until then, remember, no parties in the hideout. And clean up after yourself, got it?" Soga teased.

"Oh, of course, I'm the one that needs to be told to keep it clean, huh?" I replied sarcastically.

"Touche!" Soga replied as Rapt snickered.

"But please do keep it clean. I don't want to come home to a filthy mess." Soga reiterated.

"And if you could wash my clothes, that'd be great!" Moyuru added.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll bring the lot of you a fresh pair the day you're let out. See ya!" I replied, getting into the cab.

As the cab led me through the city, I recalled all the things I had to do today.

I had been checking Himiko's book every two hours as a means to keep a tab on her and aside from the recent depressive bout she's suffering, she was at the very least feeding herself and Kuribo.

The cleaning part though, was the point of contention here.

Not once in the past four days had I read a single mention of Himiko cleaning the room or even bathing for that matter.

And if the book was anything to go by, she'd likely turned the shelter into a pigsty by now.

As I alighted the vehicle, hobbling on my crutch, I saw her frantically carrying out bags of garbage, dumping them just out of sight by the next warehouse's trash disposal, and run back, only to trip on one of them and rip the ones she was carrying open, as the garbage showered her.

I sighed.

This ditzy bitch!

If she doesn't know how to clean, she might as well wait for me to do it, jeez.

I walked up to her, tapping her shoulder with my crutch.

"Hello there Mr. Trash Panda, you wouldn't have happened to see a blonde girl about ye high, running about here would you? Because I'm sure I told her to keep the house clean while I was admitted to the hospital and I'd hate it if she were to say, accidentally hurt herself in a desperate attempt at last minute cleaning, you know?"

Himiko sighed in defeat.

"I know, I know. You don't need to remind me, MOM. I'm sorry. I should've taken the trash out earlier.

Won't happen again." Himiko drolled.

"It better not. Or I'll have to beat that lesson right into your ass." I said, spanking her with the crutch.

"Now get up, and pack your stuff. We we are leaving this place. Unless you plan on camping here tonight?" I teased.

She got up, dusting the trash off her, and asked.

"And where are we going?"

"Home." I answered.

"This isn't your home?" She asked, shocked.

"No. This is a bunker that belongs to a friend." I replied.

"Now get going. And take a shower too while you're at it. I don't want you stinking up the car!" I ordered, as she ran into the shelter ahead of me.

I called a cab, and waited, playing with Kuribo as she packed her small rucksack of stuff, and came over.

"I'm ready, let's go!" She said.

I stood up as her scent wafted into my nose.

"You didn't happen to use Moyuru's medicinal hair gel, did you?" I asked.

"The fancy bottle with the Detnerat Co. label? Yeah, why?" She answered.

I sighed again.

"Did you miss the big fucking red warning that said for medicinal use only?

It's custom made for his flaming hair. And expensive. How much did you use?" I asked.

Her eyes went wide as she looked away.

".....a little....." She muttered softly.

"Oh good. Maybe he won't notice." I said, relieved.

"No. There's only a little left, maybe a good squeeze worth." She repeated louder this time.

I palmed my face in irritation.

Rob is testing me, yes. He is testing me and my motherfucking patience with this girl!

"We'll have a talk about this." I growled, taking her shoulder in a vice grip, "A nice long chat about not using other people's medicine."

"U-uh o-okay." She chattered, as the cab rolled up.

"Where to?" The driver asked.

"Musutafu Heights." I answered as I turned to Himiko with a murderous smile.

She squirmed in her seat uncomfortably, as Kuribo nipped at my fingers demanding my attention.

By the time we reached the apartment and settled in, I'd made sure Himiko wouldn't touch things that didn't belong to her.

Hell, she even swore she wouldn't even touch stuff that did belong to her, as she was reduced half to tears, and the driver gave her sympathetic glances.

Getting her settled in, I stuffed Kuribo into my slingbag and returned to Tokyo for some training.

I had a year and change before the events of the manga took effect in full swing and I had many things to do before then, least of all, practicing my control over the finer bits of my quirk, including a possible way for me to teleport via shelf.

The library had a curious condition, one I had found out early at the age of 8.

If a foreign object is placed into the shelves, it does not go back to the library with the shelf.

It just drop to the floor, when the shekf disappears.

But what happens when I put a piece of my body, like my hair in it?

It actually went into the library and returned unharmed, when I resummoned the shelf.

I know Rob said it would leave me trapped in the library's dimension, but he didn't outright deny that it was possible.

Which means that it was certainly possible to teleport using the library, just that it was highly improbable that I would ever be able to do it.

And if the impossible ever stopped me, I wouldn't be myself, now would I?

And to that end, I set about increasing my perception and reaction time, partly through training and partly through Pen of Fate.

Nearly a month of gruelling training later, I sat outside the shelter, and summoned two bookshelves, on both of my sides.

Touching one, I unsummoned it, and took note of the process.

A fraction of a second after I commanded the unsummon, the desk disappeared, but not all at the same time. The time between the activation of my command and the complete vanishment of the shelf was a near imperceptible delay that I had noticed over the last month and today, I had finally quantified it.

Now, if my orders and their execution have a delay, even an imperceptible one from the activation to the vanishment, that means that from when I command one shelf to vanish, to when it actually does, in the few microseconds of delay, I can resummon that same shelf somewhere else, and me along with it, since I could be considered a part of the library.

Here came the tricky part. How do I know when the time delay is going to occur?

Too early and I won't go with it. Too late and I get trapped in the fucking phantom zone forever.

And to that, I say, two factor authentication.

It would be nearly impossible to detect the delay and act on it if my frame of reference was just one shelf, like telling how ugly you are without someone to compare yourself to.

But what if I was simultaneously in command of two shelves, one vanishing and one staying.

The one staying would lose it's connection to me just as the disappearance happened, as it would be out of my 200 meter range, because I would literally be out of this world. And that loss of connection was very much perceptible.

That's how I would do it, to time it right.

One plane of reference that is stationary and the other that is moving with me.

I summoned the bookshelf again and aimed at a nearby wall, burning its position into memory.

Touching both the shelves, I gripped one tight, and raised my alertness to the maximum.

This was the do or die moment.

I gave the command to unsummon the shelf I was gripping tight, and noted.

Slowly, my cell receptors gave off a faint signal, and I lost all feeling of touch from the stationary shelf.

Immediately, I resummoned my mobile shelf by the wall, as a force pulled at me, squeezing me through what felt like a toothpaste tube, as my heart nearly stopped.

Then as quickly as it had began, it ended, as I was plopped out with a soft thud, and I appeared back in the world, with the stationary shelf in my sights, a couple of meters from me.

A mad smile creeped upon my face as my stomach had the distinct feeling of butterlies, adrenaline near bursting through my veins.

I was giddy with joy.

Teleportation via shelf was a resounding success!