9 The People Who Have It And The Person Who Doesn't

With the doubt about the girl who later introduced herself as Amatsuki Toki cleared up, Ban kindly offered her a place in the house until she learned how to control her new power.

The motives behind Ban's action remain unclear... Is what I would like to say but unfortunately, Ban only decided to do so because I embarrassingly begged him. 

Thus, with the addition of an extra person, days have peacefully passed and the month of March gave way to April.

"Old hag Toki!" I called out to Toki who had finally reappeared after vanishing for a while.

Apparently, according to what her Devil Fruit, Millenium had said, the best way for her to practice was by using her ability to travel a short time into the future.

Millenium has also mentioned that I somehow had some sort of magnetic attraction to Time-Time Ability which explained how Toki arrived at Nanimonai Island through time travel when she intended to time travel a year earlier than today.

I hugged Toki's leg and began to explain what had happened in the days while she was gone, mostly bragging her the achievements I had accomplished today. 

"Old hag, listen! Today, I learned addition, subtraction, and multiplication."

Explaining everything that had happened in such a short time would take a while, but long story short, Toki once explained to me that she came from a certain country, 800 years ago. Since then, I started calling her 'old hag' because, in my mind, she is a person who was born 800 years ago, and lived 800 years ago.

As for how I became so attached to her was because of how coincidentally Toki's personality matched mine. She didn't get angry at my lack of manners, common sense, or how I spoke. In short, her kindness was 'directed' to me, for no other reasons than her natural kindness, and that greatly delighted me.

Such kindness was unfamiliar to me, but I grew attached to that, and like a chick that had just opened its eyes, I considered the person in front of me as my mother, though I will never admit it.

An annoying sister, a crazy old man, and a kind mother—surrounded by this heartwarming family, even if we weren't blood-related, I felt like I had finally found where I belonged and truly felt at ease for the first time.

"You can do math now? That's great, Heylail! Then here's a question for you: what is 3 x 11?" In response to my bragging, Toki smiled and asked me a question.

"What! That is unfair! I was only taught to multiply up to 9... urgh..." At the moment, I didn't know what to do but didn't give up and tried to improvise the situation.

'3 x 9 is 27, and 11 - 9 is 2. So keeping this in mind, I need to do 3 x 2 which equals 6. So I just have to add the 6 to... Wait a minute, what was 3 x 9? Oh, 27! Then... What do I have to do?'

It took me a full 30 seconds to reach the conclusion, which was 33. Although I felt satisfaction over the fact that I managed to arrive at my own answer, I also reached another conclusion.

'I hate math.'

"33? Ban-san, is that the right answer?" Toki listened to the answer I said to her and asked Ban if it was correct.

Ban who was sparring with Mistella at the moment, suddenly fell to the ground when Toki asked him. 'The heck, why would you ask him the question if you don't know the answer yourself?'

With his front face to the ground, Ban found a contradiction in his own thought. 'Wait a minute, isn't it because she doesn't know the answer that she would ask a question?'

As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Ban rolled on to dodge Mistella's attack when she tried to stomp on him.

Ban then stood up, looking at Mistella with a discriminating gaze for attacking him when he was down. He responded to Toki's question, "It is 33."

"Oh, you got it right, Heylail. Congratulation!"

"I am a genius! Even if something is not taught, I can figure it out on my own..., old hag, I will study really hard and learn everything I can so that I can teach you in the future! until that time comes... Can you wait for me?"

"That is a very tempting offer," Toki smiled gently.

"But sorry, I can't take that," with a sweet reassuring smile on her face, Toki rejected my yearning.

"Oh is that so. That is a pity for you! Hurry up and get your time leap training done!" I smiled back at Toki.

Without realizing it, the room had gotten much quieter.

Swallowed by the tranquility of the room, I made up my mind and asked the question that had been stuck with me for a while.

"Old ha-... Toki..-san, is a dream really that important to you?"

The person who wasn't allowed to dream asked the girl who had set her heart.

Toki who had shown a smile, let out a surprised face, "Ah, you stopped saying old hag, hmm~... I wonder if a dream is really important."

"To me, a dream, a goal is the source of power that keeps me going. Without a dream, it's no different from endlessly wandering inside the prison of darkness without a destination," Toki explained in a profound way.

"But isn't that enough? As long as you can live, isn't it enough?" I tried my hardest, in my own way, to understand Toki.

"Sure, as long as you are alive, that may be enough. However, isn't a person with dreams shining so brightly? Aren't those who are willing to throw their lives for their dream, seemingly fascinating to you?"

My eyes swayed at Toki's words. I've never considered of 'dream' like that.

"B-Ban, Mistella... what is your dream?" I asked.

"To erase discrimination," Ban answered, referring to his dream of ending discrimination against Fish-Men and the Fish-Man Karate he admired.

"Equality," Mistella answered expressing her dream of ensuring that every human being possesses basic human rights and that no one is subjected to the same experience she had in infanthood.

"I..." I was taken aback, unable to find the words to respond.

At that moment, I felt ashamed for considering myself on the same level as the people in front of me. 

Compared to those who have experienced unforetold tragedies yet still shone so brightly, I, whose only inconvenience was not having parents, complaining about prejudice and so, felt so laughable.

Suddenly, I had no idea what to do, so I ran away.

I kept running until exhaustion overtook me, and amidst my fatigue, I began thinking about what I was, what my purpose was, and what I wanted to do.

It wasn't until I wore myself out completely, unable to catch my breath, that I fell to the ground.

"Magnificent child," in this island of nothingness, I faintly heard a voice before losing consciousness due to exhaustion.