22 Earth

Author Note: I will present you the unedited (not edited as in weird (weirder than already weird) grammar), unproofreaded version of this chapter. The reason will be provided in the last paragraph 

===

The man looked at his watch and turned at me in confusion.

I similarly opened my eyes in confusion as well. 

""???"" 

The two of us squinted our eyes in confusion.

The door opened distracting me for a short time but after turning back to his side, the middle-aged person was not there anymore.

"You woke up!!" the familiar high-pitched voice called out for me.

'She is...?'

[Master, she is the person who called the hospital for you when you fell.]

"Is that so... she brought me to this resting place..." I muttered to myself while responding to AI at the same time.

It was a world between the two when the black-suited person was here, but upon the girl's arrival, I became more perspective of the outside world.

The rays of sunlight poured through the thin gap in the curtain as a faint smell of summer stimulated my nose.

"Thank you," I spoke, turning my head toward the girl who was not much older than me.

The girl nodded. Then, she noticed AI hovering around me without a disruption in the air. It was at least 500 years ahead of Earth's current technology.

"That device..." The girl pointed her fingers at AI.

"Ah, him? He's AI. It's not his name, but... never mind," I cut my word abruptly.

I was not feeling to talk right now.

"AI, as in artificial intelligence? I've never seen an AI as advanced as that one, nor a device that can hover around without propellor..." The girl muttered to herself.

As if to figure out my feelings or that she didn't like talking much initially, the girl nodded at me, laid down the fruit basket by my side, and began leaving.

The atmosphere was as awkward as possible, but I didn't have a feeling developed enough to detect awkwardness. Therefore, I paid attention to the fruits in the basket without a care in the world. 

Intending to eat the fruits but lazy enough to get up, I hooked my index and middle fingers toward me as a pair of feathers carried grapes one by one.

'It's delicious...' I've never eaten this orbital purple food. 

The girl widened her eyes at the motion of me seemingly controlling the feathers to bring fruit individually.

The girl who was about to leave through the door, got her curiosity stimulated. 

Why was he so injured? 

How did he appear out of thin air?

How did his injury heal so fast?

Originally, the girl had many questions but her personality of not getting related to a person kept her from asking those.

It's not that she didn't have any interest in the people around her. 

It was that the people around her generally avoided her causing her to become more introverted, and keep things inside her, and solve them by herself.

But after my ignorance display, her mouth had opened unconsciously. "What are you?"

"A human?" I answered.

"Where are you from?" She continued.

"Nanimonai Island."

"Island of nothing? Where is it?"

"I don't know."

"Were you originally from here?"

"Probably."

Whether I had a person who showed interest in me or because I purely had someone to talk with, talking about myself eased me, and I began expecting more questions from her. 

It was completely contradictory to the feeling I had before. Which was not wanting to talk about anything.

"Why did you look so sad?" 

The question let my mouth agape as I stopped the pace of my answering. After pausing for a while then, the answers finally escaped.

"That is because..."

---

In a different room, a doctor stared at the microscope as the antibodies ignored the foreign red blood cells.

"This is incredible!!" the doctor exclaimed at the result above the microscope slide. 

The doctor has seen many people carried to the hospital, regardless of their age and gender. 

However, the person brought to the emergency room this time was particularly interesting. 

Despite having blonde hair that reflected even the sunlight, the child didn't have the features of a foreigner. Instead, his face structure was thoroughly Asian. Even so, his radiant hair didn't look dyed.

The same child was treated soon after the doctor underwent a rapid blood test as the patient this time had gone beyond the line of 'excessive' bleeding.

Initially, the doctor treated the patient assuming a positive AB blood type given his compatibility with any blood types.

However, upon further investigation after stabilizing the child's condition, the doctor found out that the child's blood was universally compatible as it was accepted by any blood type.

In short, the immune system of any person, regardless of their blood, didn't react to it.

This, by itself, was extremely abnormal, 

Further experiments would require approval but the doctor felt that the blood of that child hid more magical effects. So without sparing a time, he headed toward the patient room that the child was brought to, to look at his condition.

'Still, I wonder what sort of torment did he receive that every single bone in his hand shattered? It's as if his hand was pressed with a hydraulic press, heated with a burning magma, then smote with a hammer...' 

The doctor would be in surprise if he heard that it was self-inflicted.

---

I explained every single thing about my life from my arrival in the world of One Piece to my encounter with the girl who leaped through time, to the loss of my grandpa who supported me from my shadow.

Above anything else, I just wanted someone to listen to me. Vocalizing my pain made me understand how sorrowful I truly felt at that time and lightened my heart right now.

"...It's not your fault," the girl said clearly. 

In response, I blinked confusedly.

Then, she continued as if to explain why it was not my fault, despite that, I could have saved them if I hadn't been distracted by the portal that appeared in front of me.

"A person can't be by their most important person's side all the time. You didn't know that their pursuer would attack your grandpa at the time. It's not your fault for not knowing and if you knew them you would definitely have saved them."

She gave me one little push.

"Besides..."

"When do you think people die? When their brain stopped working? When their heart stops beating? No. It's when they are forgotten and when they stop existing in anyone's cognition. At least, that is what my research book said." 

The girl continued.

"Even if your grandpa disappears from you, his will is passed inside you..."

*Sigh* Reacting to what she had just said to me, the girl sighed.

"I'm not usually a person to speak like this..." The girl rested her fingers on her forehead, then she opened her mouth once again as if to finish what she had started.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"Besid-" The girl was about to say something but the sound of knocking and the door opening interrupted her.

"You're awake already? It has only been hours since the treatment!" The doctor who came to check exclaimed in surprise. 

"That is very timely, then. Young child, would it trouble you to donate your blood to us?" The doctor said.

The doctor's terrifying words turned me off.

'How could he ask for my blood?' I thought terrorized.

"Eh, why..." I returned a question with another question.

My question rather threw the doctor off as he thought of a reason. "It, it's for the greater good. Your blood has the potential to end the cancer in the world." 

'First of all, what is cancer? Second, he sounds suspicious. That's what every bad person tells to lure their prey. That's what Grandpa told me!' 

I concluded that this room was a trap disguised as a resting room. Fortunately, I had found a glass leading to the outside.

While the doctor was distracted, explaining how magical my blood was or could be, I headed toward the curtain that blocked the sunlight and then charged over it.

*Shatter*

The windows shattered as a few glass fragments slit me up. Fortunately, I had used the thick bandage on my hands as a shield, blocking most of the slashes.

"Wait!!" The girl shouted, but I had no patience to wait and get caught by the (supposedly) vampire in disguise.

I innately decided not to turn my back and continue to fly forward but the 'sound' of 'falling' I 'heard' caused me to turn back only to see the girl jumping off from the window I just broke out.

Looking below from the spot I was standing, I initially judged that the height could kill if not, paralyze a person their entire life. 

As a person who could fly as he wanted, I didn't look down on the power of gravity.

'Are you serious!!' I panicked and rushed toward the girl who began falling. 

Then with a woosh, I caught her mid-air.

Below us, is a journalist who carried a camera pointing it to us.

However, such device was unfamiliar to me. For that reason, I ignored it after judging that it did not do harm.

"What are you doing!! Why did you jump!!" I raised my voice, our clothes fluttered from the wind after flying to a high altitude.

"I had something to tell to you. I thought I wouldn't be able to see you anymore... This is a logical action in my opinion," the girl said.

'What does logical mean?' I could only learn about it later but I had the gist of what the girl wanted to say.

"What if I didn't catch you!? You may have died!!" I responded.

The girl narrowed her eyes disturbed, "...You would save me." The girl said and in fact, I did. So I couldn't complain about her actions.

I looked at her with ridicule.

Then, I started to understand what Randel felt when I intruded on the palace in Arabasta.

It was humorous. Absurd. Yet, oddly settling.

"Ahyahyahyahya"

Then, I laughed. 

I laughed without a care for the world.

I laughed while holding my stomach as the feathers scattered like falling petals.

"Haaah." I took a deep breath to suppress the pain in my stomach as I wiped off the tears that flowed out from laughing.

Then, I leaned the girl close through the feathers and introduced myself. "I'm Amatsuki Heylail!" I said and extended my hand

"I'm Isshiki Wakaba, nice meeting you, Heylail," Wakaba responded.

"It may come late, but would you be my friend?" I said with the tip of my fingers slightly trembling in nervousness.

Wakaba smiled and took my hand. "Gladly."

I turned my head away as our hands shook to hide my reddened face.

===

Additional Author Note: I just don't know too much about Isshiki Wakaba. 

The wiki said her personality is similar to her daughter but that's it. I don't even know why she started researching on cognitive pscience as it was not mentioned

I don't even know much about cognitive pscience because I didn't finish the true ending of Persona 5...

I'm hitting a wall here

Additional Note: I edited this chapter now. It should be easier to read (at least compared to before). 

About Wakaba, let's see what my future self do about it