The ride back to the apartment was deathly silent, both teenagers rattled by what they had seen. Neither of them reminisced on Humphrey's scolding, as it was the least of their concern. Shinso remained in his seat even after the carriage had stopped in front of the Parterre de Fleurs. It was only when Ayumi had pulled him from the carriage that he finally moved again.
"L-lets ...just go back to our rooms," Ayumi's voice carried a slight tremble as she spoke, her eyes not looking towards Shinso. Instead, they were fixated on the snow-covered sidewalk beneath them. Above them, the snow-filled clouds had already begun their daily pummel upon the kingdom. Neither of them bothered to cover up; it was also something they didn't worry about.
When they stepped into the lobby, no one was present, not even the cooks or maids cleaning up. No one stood behind the desk to accompany guests to their rooms or to file any paperwork. It was completely silent. Ayumi slumped into a chair, snagging the complimentary drinking chocolate from the plate on the table. As she sipped loudly, Shinso's lips parted.
"Was it worth it?" He asked, his tone deadpan.
He hesitated to ask the question. The images of what he had seen, the scene of Stanton underground, that brutal surgery, were imprinted in his mind like some sort of brand. What happened most likely wasn't murder, as whoever had done that to him most likely didn't need him anymore. The only way that Stanton could have died was through some internal issue or suicide.
Ayumi set her cup on the plate before abruptly pushing it off the table. The sound of everything breaking echoed across the lobby, causing Shinso to flinch slightly. The black-haired girl lowered her head and crossed her arms over her chest, huffing.
"Why can't I be like Isaac, like you, like anyone else?" She spat, her voice almost acidic.
Ayumi gazed back up at Shinso, scoffing. "Look at you, you don't need to disobey people and find adventure to feel good about yourself!"
The words hung in the air like an invisible string was suspended nearby. The entire apartment seemed to fall silent, except the ragged breathing of Ayumi and the slow, methodical dripping of the hot cocoa onto the marble floor, which had already begun to spread and pool around Shinso and Ayumi's boots.
Shinso remained silent, his inability to comfort the girl was like a hot iron against his chest; he was never the best at comforting. The boy knelt down, grabbing a nearby rag nestled against the plate, and began wiping up the mess of hot chocolate. The heavier and denser the rag got from absorbing the cocoa, the heavier and harder it was for Shinso to keep his mouth shut.
The indigo-haired boy looked up at Ayumi, whose gaze was fixed on the ground below. A small amount of moisture accumulated in the corner of her eyes, threatening to spill over in an ugly mess of tears. At that moment, Shinso let out a low chuckle.
"Wishing you were like me would be a nightmare, Ayumi."
He finished cleaning up the mess, tossing the rag into the nearest disposal bin. After unbuttoning his tunic, Shinso sat down in the chair beside Ayumi, scoffing.
"You were quirkless, right?" Shinso's voice now lowered to a whisper.
Ayumi looked towards Shinso, her eyes flickering softly. "Yes, but I was supposed to ...h-have a quirk, actually."
Shinso arched an eyebrow, partially stunned by this revelation. "You were?"
The girl poised her legs into the chair, folding her arms on her knees as she lowered her head. "It could only be something we'd call a miracle."
Ayumi's tone gained a reminiscent edge, as her eyes drifted to the ceiling above her. "My parents were both quirkless, and they thought I'd be the same way. But when I turned five years old, I suddenly gained a really, really terrible stomachache, and I was rushed to the hospital."
Her hands habitually coiled around the hem of Shinso's sleeve, gently pulling the fabric. "When they did all the fancy x-rays and all that stuff, they discovered a strange, tumor-thingy growing in my lower stomach. After a little more research, it actually contained those Perogenic Quirkitoids we learned about in our science classes."
Shinso listened quietly, but the urge to ask a question quickly washed over him. "Why don't you have a quirk then?"
Ayumi let out a shaky sigh, letting go of Shinso's sleeve. The girl shuffled away, burying her head in her knees as she kept speaking. "M-my parents ...h-had it removed because it would have killed me ...and t-they didn't like people with quirks."
Shinso silently watched as Ayumi's body became overwhelmed with small, shaky sobs and muffled snuffles. "If they didn't do anything and my quirk manifested, I would have been kicked to the streets and left to die."
When Ayumi lifted her head, her round face had reddened, her glasses foggy and wet with tears that now freely poured down her face. Her bottom lip trembled even more as the words kept pouring out.
"Isaac may also be quirkless, but he's never wanted to kill himself over it. You have a really cool quirk; you seem to have everything going great for yourself!"
At this moment, Shinso placed a hand on Ayumi's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "That's where you're wrong."
Shinso's usually stern eyes softened just a sliver, his expression melting a little under the weight of his friend's words. "My quirk isn't a blessing, it's a curse. I can brainwash people if they wanna talk to me."
His gaze drifted away from Ayumi, fixating on the floor beneath him. "When I was young and it first manifested, I thought I had the world in my damn fingers. But after some accidents and stuff, everyone looked at me like I was something to be feared."
The boy let out a shaky sigh, his grip on Ayumi trembling slightly. "That night I prayed, I even wished upon a little star that I would wake up and have no quirk to be worried about, to have people look at me like I'm a monster."
He let go of Ayumi, his hands resting on his sides as he sighed again. "Eventually, a few people in my life made me feel like this 'curse' I had received wasn't one to feel ...ashamed of. Sure, the power is inherently one for a villain, but it's always what the user wants to do with the quirk, not what the quirk is."
"What's that gotta do with me?" Ayumi asked, her voice still trembling a little, the tears slowly letting up.
Shinso suddenly smiled again, leaning back in his chair as he let out a low chuckle. "You said a few minutes ago that you wanted to be like Isaac, right?"
The mere mention of the boy's name sent a warm shiver down Shinso's spine, causing him to blush and turn his face away from Ayumi.
"Yeah ..." Ayumi couldn't help but smile. "He may not have any power, but I want to learn how he does it."
"Does what?" Shinso cocked his head a little.
"How is he so strong like that? Sure, he's a bit of a twerp, but, how does he always make the right decisions, how can he still smile, still keep going even if he knows he'll never have power?"
Shinso immediately recalled what he had seen during his bout with me in the hotel, the illusory, glowing sigil on my forehead that barely permeated my bangs. He wanted to tell Ayumi that I actually had gained some abilities, but the boy shoved the thought back into his throat and looked towards her.
"I don't even know." Shinso couldn't help but chuckle again, leaning back in his chair.
"Did you know I actually found the damn boy in the park at night? Dumbass was resting on the bench like a damn baby. He was also pretty beat up for some reason, so I took him back to my house and got him taken care of. So, in conclusion, he's not entirely invincible as you may think."
"Please, if I was found in the park looking like shit, I'd be so embarrassed I might have just died of a heart attack!" Ayumi couldn't help but snicker, the tears now having completely disappeared.
A noticeable redness coated Shinso's cheeks as he turned away again, feeling the irresistible urge to cover his face to prevent Ayumi from seeing anything she shouldn't.
"But hey, look at it this way." She spoke up again, her tone now bubbly and lighthearted.
"Huh?" Shinso didn't look back, still recovering from the flurry of emotions coursing through him.
"We may not have solved that murder case, but at least we managed to make a dent in it."
Shinso's body tensed the moment he felt a pair of arms wrap around his lower torso, pulling him in tight. His cheeks flushed even more as he attempted to move, but the girl was unrelenting in her genial affection.
"Stop moving y'old goof," She cackled, smiling at him.
"Shut up, dumbass..." he folded his arms over his chest, his face still red as a cherry.
"You do know I know what's happening between you and Isaac, right?" Ayumi's lips curled into a Cheshire smile.
The mere mention of the attempted kiss sent Shinso spiraling, he quickly squirmed out of Ayumi's grip and pouted like a toddler.
"Shut up." he barked.
"Have you two even kissed yet?" Ayumi's body seemed to ring with provocation, purposefully aggravating the taller boy.
Shinso violently shook his head. "Not yet, but if we ever do, I hope to hell you aren't watching."
It was at this moment when Shinso felt a strange, warm pit form in his lower stomach. An eerie sense of calmness, bordering on euphoria and dizziness coursed through his body. Shinso's indigo eyes flickered with a tint of blue as a realization crossed his mind.
He had just digested his Scale-Shifter potion!
Upon realizing this, Shinso couldn't help but smile as he spoke up. "I digested my p-potion..."
The boy tried his best to suppress his happiness, for the sight of anyone seeing him act so giddy was too embarrassing for him to handle. Ayumi suddenly leapt forward like a tiger, wrapping Shinso in a bearhug.
"Congrats! So damn proud of you!" Ayumi's smile bordered on radiant this time, paralleling the glow that emanated from Shinso's stomach.
"Maybe we can have a celebratory dinner, break into the hospital and get Isaac, maybe even Raymond and Wilfred!"
"I don't think our friends would like that..." Shinso quickly turned down the proposition.
"Heh, you're right. Catherine seems like a feisty woman." Ayumi made a gesture reminiscent of a bear clawing at prey, mimicking some sort of rage.
"I guess you're right, but we can still have a fancy dinner with everyone."