Chapter 26 - Relax
...
'Agh...'
I rolled over in my bed as I tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in, but I simply felt uncomfortable in any position was starting to frustrate me.
I rolled over in bed to stare tiredly at the ceiling of my room. 'I can't sleep...'
BANG!
A shudder ran through my body as I rolled to one side of the bed and closed my eyes tightly, wanting to forget about today.
But even with my eyes closed the image of Lena lying on the floor with half her head sticking out and blood pouring out was still very fresh in my mind.
I took a shaky breath to calm down, it didn't work but at least the image disappeared from my head only to be replaced by Reaper's mask staring back at me.
I stood up abruptly as my breathing suddenly quickened, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears and my Jacks twitched restlessly. My hands balled into fists as I clenched hard enough to make me wince in pain.
My mind couldn't get me out of it, constantly reminding me how helpless I felt, how useless and clumsy I was.
And the price that was almost paid because of me.
It was so frustrating that it made me burn with anger directed at myself.
The more I thought about it the more unstable my emotions became. Rationally I knew I couldn't have done anything under the circumstances and that I had no reason to feel this way, no reason to despise myself.
But the feelings just wouldn't go away.
Reminding me that even now, I'm still a weak person.
"I'm... crying?"
I blinked in surprise as I felt small tears fall down my face. I gritted my teeth in anger as I felt the small droplets of water fall down my face. "I-"
I shook my head as I staggered up from my bed and made my way to the bathroom, turning on the faucet I splashed some water on my face to clear my mind.
I let out a sigh before looking at my reflection in the mirror. My face looked tired, my black eyes were red from tears, my black hair was a complete mess and my shirt was stained with the splashing drops from the faucet.
It was a pathetic sight.
Shaking my head I arrested myself heavily towards my room-.
Ping!
Just then my phone buzzed with a text notification. As much as I want to go to bed and get this day over with, I don't think I'm going to go to sleep anytime soon.
I reluctantly picked up my phone and opened HeroNet.
[Invisible Lady - 23:58] {Hey, are you awake?}
[Rocker Girl - 23:59] {Yeah, I couldn't sleep no matter how hard I tried...}
[Invisible Lady - 23:59] {We're in the same boat! Look I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out with me and Lena to the mall tomorrow taking advantage of the days off that the Academy gave us. I already asked Momo but she said that her parents wouldn't let her go out after the incident at UA}
[Invisible Lady - 24:00] {I'd like to relax with my friends in these free days, you know ( ~ ~ ▿ °)}
[Rocker Girl - 24:02] {Don't worry, I'm free... I need to relax a bit too and I doubt playing my instruments will help}
[Invisible Lady - 24:03] {That's great! Now all that's left to do is talk to Lena who for some reason isn't answering her phone}
At the mention of Lena my face twisted in bitterness, I was still in shock from everything that happened and acted unnecessarily cold to her. 'I should apologize to her...'
***
"Uff... I don't want to do anything..." I mumbled as I leaned back comfortably on the living room couch.
I felt tired both physically and mentally, I wish I could turn into a turtle and stay in my house all day but now that I'm doing exactly that, it feels... monotonous.
I absentmindedly turned my gaze to the TV, they were showing a movie about Heroes and Villains who traveled back in time to alter the timeline and eliminate the Heroes, or something like that.
I watched it for a moment before grabbing the remote control and turning off the TV.
Movies, series, shows, cartoons, interviews, everything revolved around Heroes and Villains, every now and then something outside of the genre would pop up but the vast majority focused on Heroism.
Being honest I think they ran out of creativity at some point, although in their defense it's understandable that they over-exploited everything Hero related. After all Heroes sold like hotcakes and not including them in some show or movie was foolishly losing money and audience something that doesn't benefit the production company.
"Haa..." I sighed as I buried my face with a couch cushion, at least tomorrow we would go back to school and we could get out of this boredom....
"...What's wrong?" Winston asked walking into the living room, he just raised an eyebrow as he saw Lena's state.
"I'm bored..." I said with my face still buried in the cushion. "More like tired... and bored is a strange feeling."
"Why don't you go exercise to kill some time?" Winston asked as he looked at Lena with a roll of his eyes, not that Lena could see it.
"I don't feel like working out, I want to do something else but I can't decide what" I replied pushing the cushion away from my face to see my father give me the "Really daughter?" look, yes that look.
Thinking about the exercise I remembered that I still hadn't told dad about Kairos and my Energy. Yesterday after talking a bit with my dad about what happened at USJ I went straight to bed as I was very tired and my head was spinning.
Today after 'looking' at my Energy for a while I came to the conclusion that some 'leaks' had closed up a bit, it was still a mess but not as terrible as it was before.
'I could mold my Energy to seal the leaks?' I thought absentmindedly as I closed my eyes, that feeling of being submerged in water was coming back to her allowing her to feel her Energy. 'I think the exercise can wait a bit while I focus on this...although she won't say anything to daddy, I don't want him to analyze me all day and lose one of the two days off.'
"You know, you could go for a walk around the neighborhood" Winston replied pulling Lena out of her concentration. "Maybe go to the mall"
"I could but almost always some villain interrupts at the malls and the last thing I want right now is more villains" Lena said as she stretched her legs.
The doorbell rang suddenly.
"I'll get it" Said Winston as he walked to the door to open it.
I for my part put the cushion back on my face, for some reason I found it very comfortable possibly because it smelled so good.
I vaguely heard a series of footsteps stop abruptly, heard an amused chuckle and a tired sigh before the cushion was pulled away from my face
"Hey! Give back-"
"Wouldn't it be better to sleep in your bed?" Kyoka asked as she looked at me like I was crazy.
My brain shut down for a moment as I analyzed Kyoka from head to toe. Kyoka was dressed in a black jacket which was over a white shirt, she was wearing blue short jeans and black converse shoes.
Kyoka raised an eyebrow as she squinted her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, hey Kyo what's up?" I said as matter-of-factly as I could muster in my voice so as not to sound surprised by the sudden appearance of shorter girl. 'Why are you at my house?...no rather, how do you know where I live?!'
"Muh, Kyoka's not the only one here you know!" Said a familiar voice in an annoyed tone, looking in the direction of the voice she can see a dark green shirt along with a black skirt and long black stockings floating in the air. "Are you ignoring me on purpose?"
"Sorry Toru I didn't see you, by the way what are you doing here?" I asked curiously, I hadn't been warned that you were coming to my house. 'Come to think of it I forget I haven't touched my phone since yesterday...'
"Well, we sent you several messages to your phone but you didn't answer so we decided to come straight over" Toru explained to me as she sat next to me on the couch and ran a hand over my shoulder. "We wanted to know if you wanted to go out to the mall for a walk and maybe buy some stuff!"
"Oh" I exclaim a little puzzled. 'Literally less than two minutes ago I said I didn't want to go out, but well it looks like fate has other plans'
I smiled slightly "Sure give me a minute to change my clothes I can't go to the mall in my pajamas."
I was going to go downstairs but Kyoka was waiting for me with her eyes closed as she leaned back from the couch, she looked a little tired maybe she got up with her left foot or something.
"Alright! Let's go!!" Toru exclaimed with a jump as she jumped out of my house.
I quickly said goodbye to my father before catching up with both girls.
It took us a while to get to the mall due to my house being a bit far away, but we made it without too much of a hitch. Toru quickly proposed us to go shopping for clothes and try on different outfits, to which we had no problem.
In fact I even bought a few pairs of clothes that I thought looked nice. We joked a bit about Kyoka's gothic taste in choosing clothes and how she seemed to love sweaters.
We then passed near a music store with different instruments that caught Kyoka's attention, she didn't buy any as they were very expensive but according to her they seemed to be of good quality.
As we walked through the different stores I saw a lady taking care of her two children before she saw us walking in a reflection of a glass.
"Come to think of it..." I spoke out loud without realizing it. "I look like a mother walking with her two small children."
Kyoka and Toru stopped abruptly as a vein burst on their foreheads.
I looked at them confused for a moment wondering what happened. And it was that precise moment that allowed a Jack to connect on my arm and shake me like a liquidator when that ended came a blow to the head leaving me seeing stars.
"Don't call us midgets you fucking giantess!" Toru exclaimed as she talked like a yakuza.
"Next time I won't be so nice...." Kyoka muttered with narrowed eyes and emanating a murderous aura.
After a few hours of walking we headed to the food center, to eat, duh.
We ordered three large pizzas, while Kyoka and Toru can't eat all the food I on the other hand have no problem with that much food.
"Hey Toru, if you don't mind me asking, where were you during the USJ incident?" Asked Kyoka curious to know how I had dealt with the incident at USJ.
"I was with Todoroki! It was a sight to see him defeat all the villains with a single wave of his hands it was amazing!" Toru explained as she seemed to do different poses as if to simulate the confrontation, but it was a bit hard to see it because.... well, she's invisible. "With his cool aptitude I think I might fall in love with him!"
"Well, Todoroki is very strong almost anywhere due to the versatility of his Quirk... although I guess it counts as two Quirks, don't you think?". I said as I chuckled, someone with more than one Quirk would be terrifying, and Todoroki even if he doesn't have more than one Quirk, he's still terrifying with the handling of his two elements. "Although you should have seen Kyo's power at its peak, Momo with my help created a guitar that unleashed Kyo's power to the max, I wiped out all the villains in less than the blink of an eye."
"Really?! You did that Kyoka?!" Toru asked almost jumping out of her seat getting too close to Kyoka's face for Kyoka's liking.
"W-Well it wasn't that impressive..." Kyoka replied as she walked away from Toru with flushed cheeks. "It was mainly Momo and Lena's help."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, nonsense" I smirked as I slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer to me. "You became a weapon of mass destruction, no matter what."
Toru just watched her friends exchange with a big smile on her invisible face, she was enjoying this relaxing time together they didn't seem too cheerful after leaving USJ so it's a relief that they are okay.
***
After that we headed back to my place to hang out before it got too late. Toru had gone to a train stop since she lived a little further away than Kyoka or me.
Before knocking on the door Kyoka stopped me by wrapping one of my hands with her Jacks.
I turned around confused. "Kyo? something wrong?"
The shorter girl simply averted her gaze for a moment as she retrieved her Jacks. "I... I wanted to apologize for yesterday."
I cocked my head. "What do you mean?"
"I was a bit... an idiot when we left USJ" Kyoka spoke softly as she shifted uncomfortably. "I didn't mean to, I just... I had a lot on my mind and.... well."
I blinked twice before smiling of grabbing her and lifting her up in the air before giving her a hug. "My God! you're so cute when you look guilty!!"
"E-Eh?! Careful!" Kyoka exclaimed as she tried to get out of my embrace, finally with a giggle I released her which earned me a scowl from her.
"No need to apologize! To tell you the truth I was stupid to do what I did too but at the time it seemed like a good idea, so the one who should apologize is me" I smiled as I scratched my head nervously.
Kyoka looked at me for a moment before letting out a small giggle which quickly turned into a laugh.
At first I look at her puzzled before joining in her laughter as well.
And we stood there laughing together for a while....
***
"So you want me to come to I-Island in 3 days, right?"
"Yes, we will meet, You, Me and Angela, to start with the Project: ARCANGEL, I also want you to help me with 'it'" David's voice on the other end of the phone replied.
"Can't we delay it a bit?" I said bitterly, I didn't want to be separated from my daughter after seeing her in that state yesterday. "It's a little sudden."
"It is, but we can't delay any longer. Besides don't worry about Lena, you can come back to watch her performance at the UA Sports Festival" David said trying to dispel my doubts.
"Haa... well I trust you my friend, although I don't like leaving Lena alone at all" I reluctantly replied looking at the stairs tentatively. 'But it looks like her friends got her spirits back at least...'
"She's a teenager now Winston, trust her more" The voice on the other end of the phone said calmly. "At some point she'll have to leave the nest."
"I know" I sighed audibly. "Well, I'll see you in three days"
And with that the communication between two renowned scientists was cut off, unaware that two more people were listening intently to their conversation....
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