Check Author Notes for changes in the previous chapters. And ability explanations.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four hours later, Rakuro sat down with his family.
Lunch was the fish his dad had caught early in the morning.
"I'm going to try again."
"I'm going to watch him." Rumi announced as she ate the bowl of rice in front of her while poking at the fish.
Rakuro frowned, "Weren't you going through all the fashion magazines for this week?"
She shook her head with a wide smile, "Nope! Towa Amane's magazine drops tomorrow. And every magazine that follows from the next month will just be imitations of whatever she wears, in Japan at least. All the other fashion magazines from outside Japan release five days later."
"And?"
"I've preordered them already. So I have nothing better to do." Her smile widened further, "And instead of watching the TV or something I can watch you instead."
"I'll be watching too." His mom spoke, "Its too cold for the insects to be out and about and watching you figure out the sand thing was pretty fun to watch."
Rumi and Senji frowned, "Sand thing?"
"Sandrush." Rakuro clarified, "It is the ability I pulled earlier. Lets me turn into sand when I move."
"He was zipping about with it you know?" Eika said as she placed her chopsticks on the bowl. "Went through walls and everything."
Rakuro shook his head, "Went through the ventilation hole. Not through walls."
"A strong ability?" Senji asked.
Rakuro nodded, "Pretty strong. No impact damage. And I could easily cause harm with it. Good for saving people as well. Can get into hard to reach places. Very very useful."
"Then try again now." Rumi pushed, "I want to see what you get this time."
Rakuro nodded and closed his eyes.
Four hours of ability usage every time he used his quirk. No cooldown on the quirk itself. This meant that he could use it six times a day. Counting out sleep time, of around eight hours, he had four uses a day.
This was the optimal case.
He often spent multiple hours without using his quirk, so that number would fall lower.
That meant his quirk usage was around two to three times a day.
And this was his second time rolling for an ability today.
PING
PING
PING
ZEN MODE
"Zen mode?" He said aloud.
Senji looked at his son, "What does it do?"
Rakuro shrugged, "I don't know. Let me think of using it and see." And he voluntarily wished to activate it. A single thought.
His body shifted into a gray daruma doll with its eyes drooping.
"A daruma doll?" Eika asked aloud as she reached over and touched him, "Feels like stone." And then with concern in her eyes, she asked, "Can you turn back?"
The doll shifted back into Rakuro the moment she asked the question.
"So you just become a doll?" Rumi asked.
Rakuro looked at his arms and then to his parents, "This needs more testing.... can you take a picture of me when I transform? I can't feel anything when I transform but I can hear and see. There is one other thing....."
He transformed back as he changed into a giant daruma doll.
CLICK
A light flashed as his sister took a picture of his transformation. She flipped the phone around and showed the doll the picture.
The droopy eye on the doll blinked as it took in the picture.
Rakuro looked at himself in the picture.
He did look like a daruma doll. Unlike standard daruma dolls, his eyes were both complete.
Daruma dolls were popular gifts. The owner gets a doll without the eyes drawn. They make a wish or decide a goal. Once the wish is fulfilled, or the goal is achieved the other eye is filled in.
This meant that he wasn't a traditional doll.
"Does he flip over if he is pushed?" Senji asked as he softly pushed Rakuro. But the doll did not budge.
"Hmm?" He muttered confusedly before applying more force. The doll didn't budge. He pushed with more and more force but the doll stayed in the same position.
Pulling back and taking a seat, he huffed from the strain, "I think he cannot be moved from his position."
The eyes on the doll suddenly widened as a wave of psychic energy leaked out.
WHOOSH
The doll floated in the air.
It spun around and left the dining table toward the glass sliding door. It floated in the air until his sister came running behind him.
"Want me to open it?" She asked but received no reply. Rumi rapidly looked between the doll and the doors before shrugging and opening the door.
The doll floated outside and then lifted itself higher into the air.
Then suddenly, it dropped.
BOOOM
A small cloud of dirt was kicked up as the doll slammed into the ground.
Senji walked outside and checked the doll, "Are you hurt?" He asked as he inspected the stone for cracks.
But he didn't get a reply.
Eika rested her chin on her palm, "If you stay like that for the next four hours..... insects could bury under you. I can even make it damp for them."
"What are you planning with your son?" Rakuro asked as he transformed back into his normal self.
"Are you hurt?" Senji asked again.
Rakuro shook his head, "All fine. Didn't feel a thing."
"So you can turn into stone and fly around?" Rumi asked.
"I cannot be moved in stone form and I am pretty hard to break." Rakuro estimated as he thought aloud, "I might be indestructible but that is very unlikely and I do not want to push my luck..... not without a controlled environment. But right now I am a big heavy hammer. Maybe a platform. Or an interesting mode of transport..... but that would depend on how fast I can move...."
Eika's hand landing on his shoulder broke him out of his thoughts.
He looked up at her and his gaze landed on the spray bottle in her hand.
"Transform back." She said with a smile.
He shook his head wide eyed.
The hand on his shoulder clenched hard, "Transform back." The smile looked almost demonic.
Rakuro gulped before turning into the doll once more.
"Now stay there for four hours." She said as she sprayed both doll and the surroundings with water. "Float for a moment." She ordered.
He rose a few feet in the air as she began to spray where he would be landing.
But then curiosity overtook his mind as he tried to test how fact he could move. The psychic energy leaked out once more as he moved across the length of their backyard at speeds similar to that of a person walking quickly.
"Hmmm not viable for high speed chases then.... Every interaction would need to be preplanned and set up. I guess like the chalkboard duster trap, I could float around an edge and drop on someone..... but that would kill them since height doesn't seem to be a problem." He tried figuring out uses for this ability, "Well I guess this would be very useful as a rescue quirk. Wait.... can I lift someone with this?"
"Rakuro?"
His eyes drifted downward to spot his mom holding onto his side, dangling a couple inches off the ground.
"Ah..." He thought to himself as he saw a soft smile on her face. But her eyes were anything but.
He lowered himself slowly as she stepped away from him and pointed to the spot that was freshly sprayed.
"Four hours." She ordered.
And for four hours, Rakuro stayed in the same spot as the stone daruma doll. Not daring to move an inch.
Senji and Rumi began playing around as they tried to stack different things on this head, snickering to themselves as they tried to one up the other.
His mother walked to the end of the garden and returned with a centipede perched on her finger. She placed it beside the doll and stared at it. Her quirk Insect Speech active as she communicated with the insect.
The centipede then buried itself under the doll.
"What'd you tell it?" Senji asked.
Eika looked at him and then at Rakuro, "I told her that I found her a cozy little spot for a couple hours."
"And she's going to bring in more of her friends?" Rumi asked.
Eika nodded.
Senji nodded as he understood his wife's plan, "But..."
"But what?" She asked.
"He transforms back in four hours no?" Senji asked.
"Yes."
Senji looked at Rakuro, "Won't he squish the insects?"
Eika froze before looking at Rakuro and then to the clock inside the house. She sprinted inside the house and returned with her phone, "I set an alarm for three hours later." She placed the phone outside, "Float away and transform back when it goes off." She ordered as she walked inside and shut the glass doors.
Rakuro sat still outside for the next three hours.
Truly Zen Mode.