8] I... Are we just going to ignore what happened?

(Shin POV, Shin's house)

I spend a few months living together with the girl, whom I've named Hikari Nai Vide. She's living with me as my sister, and I finally have identification for her.

Hikari- "When can I come to school? I hate being left alone for so long."

Shin- "Whenever I can get you totally healed, so in about a month." She seems a bit downcast, while at the same time excited about the prospect of being healed so soon.

We have a daily ritual where I consume her Flair's 'energy'... I've got to come up with a name soon, I can't just keep calling it 'energy.'

Hikari- "By the way, how are you absorbing my aura?" She brings this up during one of our sessions.

Shin- "Your what?" I look at her a little confused.

Hikari- "You know, the thing that people use to generate the effects of their Flairs." I look at her with a blank/shocked expression. 

"What, don't you like the name? It just looks like someone's aura to me, and each aura is distinctive per person." It's a wonderful name, I'm disappointed in myself for not coming up with it.

Shin- "Wait, other people? How many people have you seen?" She looks to me with eyes eerily similar to mine.

Hikari- "Just the people who walk by the house, and myself in the mirror."

Shin- "Interesting, what does my aura look like?" She squints her eyes, as if trying to delve deep into my soul. 

Hikari- "It's like... It looks like... hmm..." She seems to struggle in describing it.

Shin- "What color?" She responds with:

Hikari- "The absence of one? It's like it's trying to consume the light surrounding it. It's not black, that I can tell. But it looks like one of those things in space, the ones that destroy everything." I gulp.

Shin- "Like a black hole?" She pulls out the phone I got her and looks up the term.

Hikari- "Yes, it shows very similar properties. But it's not totally similar, I can't describe it." I guess I'll have to wait until she's healed. She looks into a mirror.

"I need you to do that thing again, my monstrous aura is back." Something clicks in my mind.

Shin- "Is your Flair the ability to read people's Auras?" She shrugs. "Well, can you just not? Your monstrous aura seems to only appear after using your Flair." She tenses up her body, and looks slightly more relaxed afterward.

Hikari- "Did it work?" She picks up a mirror and looks at herself, immediately noting her eye color. "What is this? Why are they yellow now?" I pull her face to me, because she was facing the other direction.

Her face reddens at my actions, or because my face is only a couple inches away from hers.

Shin- "Just like Kiriko... Dang, if I knew this..." I started mumbling to myself after letting go of her face, and she just stands there frozen.

She flinches after a couple of seconds, nervously beginning to speak.

Hikari- "W-who's Kiriko? Is she someone bad? P-perhaps an ex?" Hearing her voice snaps me out of my rant.

Shin- "An ex? No way, how could I date someone who doesn't exist?" I say, in a playful manner seemingly to brush her off.

(Hikari's POV, Shin's house)

I freeze and look down slightly after hearing his words. I think I reminded him of someone who isn't alive anymore, he's just too nice to let me see him be hurt by it.

He sees my saddened posture and places a hand on my head, which causes me to look up at him. He has a smile on his face, I'm pretty sure he's doing this so I don't feel sad.

Meanwhile in Shin's mind- 'I wonder if I can get us some good food... I kind of want steak, but I don't know about Hikari... Hmm... I'll just ask her."

Shin- "What do you say about going out today? I feel like steak, what about you?" I can clearly see that he's trying to change the subject. It must truly be a painful memory, especially so since we've never gone out to eat before. 

Hikari- "Yeah, steak is fine by me." He gives me a weak smile before patting my head once more, he goes and gets money from god knows where. He comes back and opens the door, waiting for me to go first.

Hikari- "Can you change my clothes first? I'm not going outside in pretty much nothing but an oversized t-shirt." 

Shin- "Well, what are you feeling?" I think for a moment.

Hikari- "What about a school uniform?" He sighs before shifting my shirt into some dark school clothes.

Shin- "Why are you so into school? It's nothing but a nuisance."

Hikari- "Then why do you still go?" He turns his head and clicks his tongue.

Shin- "I never asked, but how come you don't wear normal clothes?" 

Hikari- "I just hate the way clothes feel on me, your shadows feel much better."

Shin- "You do realize that you're technically naked, right?" I shrug, as it doesn't really bother me.

Hikari- "It's not like they can see anything, and what about when you sneak out at night?" He freezes slightly before coughing.

Shin- "I still wear underwear at least." I roll my eyes.

We eventually get to the restaurant, and we head inside. The person at the front desk looks down at us as we come in, and this causes my temper to rise. 'Nobody looks at us that way!'

Shin waves a stack of cash, and the man's whole personality shifts. This angers me a little more for some reason, but all my anger dissipates instantly.

Shin places his hand on my back, and all my previous anger is forgotten. All that's left is embarrassment from his touch. He leans in close to me and whispers.

Shin- "Hey, are you okay? We can go home if you want to." His concern pierces my ears, and my face begins to heat up once more.

We eat at the restaurant, and the bill ends up over $800.

"Whoops, I forgot about that... Huh... I ate way more than I probably should have." I nod my head agreeing with him. I only ate about half as much as him, but he ate for like, ten people.

I begin to panic, as I didn't think we had enough money to cover this. The waiter stands there waiting for us to pay, and I start shifting nervously.

Luckily my fears were unfounded, as he pulls out a thousand dollars.

We're leaving the restaurant, and I turn to him.

Hikari- "Where do you get that kind of cash to just throw around?" He laughs nervously, before scratching his cheek.

Shin- "Let me answer your question with one of my own. Are you willing to die for me?" I freeze in place as I process his words. "Let me try that again. If I was going to die, but you had a button that would save me at the cost of your life." I answer without hesitation.

Hikari- "Press the button, simple. I owe my life to you. So my answer is this. I'm not only willing to die for you, but I will live FOR you." I say this in full seriousness, and my expression mirrors that.

I look at his face, which is totally red. He seems paralyzed, and I can almost see the steam rising from his head. 

He then runs off, at top speed.

(Shin POV, Somewhere in City B5)

I run and run, seemingly never getting tired. As I run I reach up to my face, feeling that it's still red.

Shin- "I wasn't prepared for that!" I take deep breathes, clenching my hand to my chest. I can't understand what's happening, because I'm not tired. I can run for hours, why do I feel like this?

I run into an alleyway and stand with my back against the wall, sliding down to where I'm sitting down still against the wall. My labored breathing slows as I take a deep breath.

"It's like brother always said, 'Take a deep breath and calm yourself. Rational decisions aren't made with emotion.'" I exhale, resetting my emotions. My face temporarily devoid of any emotion.

"Alright, time to head back. I need to make sure Hikari didn't get lost." I robotically get up, and start making my way to where I left Hikari. I see her walking to the direction of our house, she appears to be walking faster than normal.

I approach her, and she runs up to me with teary eyes.

Hikari- "I thought what I said made you hate me! Please forgive me! I'm sorry!" She starts breaking down in my arms.

Shin- "I could never hate you, you just surprised me with your confession." She audibly sniffs and looks up at me with glassy eyes.

Hikari- "What confession?" My heart hurts slightly as I hear that.

Shin- "You mean what you said wasn't a confession?" She just looks at me with a confused expression. 

"Wait, you're serious?" She then thinks back to what she said.

Hikari- "Just that I'd do better than dying for you, and instead live... for..." Her face heats up, and she's clearly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like that." I clutch my heart slightly.

Shin- "For some reason, that hurts even worse than not even realizing what you said... It's like getting rejected before even asking someone out."

Hikari- "I meant it in a way that was like, as a maid or something. I didn't know you'd take it that way." I take a deep breath, exhaling slowly.

Shin- "Well, now that that's been cleared up." I say that with my face devoid of any expressions.

"Let's go home then." Hikari seems confused at the quick change, but follows me in silence anyway.

***

Shin- "What the heck happened to me? I'm not one to normally feel such emotions, Father insured that I'd never feel like this. Did this new body influence me?" I contemplate all of this on the way home. All Hikari hears is nonsensical mumbling, but she doesn't feel like she should interrupt me.

"Hey, Hikari... What do you think about me?" I ask this to clarify whether or not I have changed. She seems flustered, and stutters a bunch.

Hikari- "U-um, You're really nice, y-you are the only person I like, I find you a-attractive." She blushes hard at that, but I didn't even recognize what she said. All my current mind is focused on is trying to decipher my mental state.

Shin- "Nice? I don't really see myself as nice, but I don't know about what I'm like to others... Hmm." She seems to not really have heard what I said.

"I'll have to ask Atlas and Aiya what they think about me as well." Hikari heard that, and her flushed expression turns into annoyance.

Hikari- "Is my opinion of you not enough?"

Shin- "For my experiment I need the opinions of some other people, it's pretty important." She seems to have calmed down.

Hikari- "Wait, an experiment? You weren't asking me to confirm my feelings for you?" My eyebrow raises.

Shin- "I guess in a way, but I need to see how much I've changed from before." Luckily for me, Atlas just so happens to be walking in the street in front of me. I wave him down, and he happily runs up to us.

Atlas- "Hey shin! Who's this?" He motions to Hikari.

Shin- "Sister. How do you feel about me?" His face deadpans.

Atlas- "Sorry, I'm into women." I shake my head.

Shin- "On a personal level, not romantically. Tell me about my personality." I can almost see the lightbulb above his head.

Atlas- "Gotcha, an experiment?" I nod, prompting him to continue. "When I first met you, you were gloomy and mysterious. You'd ignore me most of the time we talked, and your facial expressions seemed fake to me." I smile weakly in response.

"You'd never act any differently than how you usually were, no matter what happened. Honestly, you were pretty cold. But that made you really cool." I nod, deep in thought.

"Recently, you aren't too gloomy. You still ignore me when I talk too much, but you listen pretty well at other times. Your facial expressions are still faked, but I can sense a hint of realness behind them." I say nothing and just look at him expressionlessly.

"*Shudder* That was real, 100%. You act the same most of the time, although when you get embarrassed you tend to turn a little red. You've also warmed up to me and Aiya, everyone else gets the fake you."

I reset my emotions once more, calming myself.

Shin- "So it's true, I'm changing."

Atas- "For the better?"

Shin- "You can leave now, I got what I wanted." I turn and walk away, Hikari following me.

Atlas- "Ah, there he is. That cold exterior is back to below zero... I hope it thaws again..."