"Shizuku. You there?"
Silence.
"How long was I out this time?"
More silence.
"It felt longer. Way longer. Are you near the window? Shizuku, can you hear me?"
"If you're awake, why don't you open your eyes?"
Liam's heart nearly stopped. "You wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
He cracked one eyelid open. Shizuku sat at the small table near the bed, watching him with her usual expression: mildly curious, completely unbothered, like she was observing an interesting bug.
"I need to know." Liam's voice came out hoarse. "How old do I look?"
Shizuku didn't answer. She stood, left the room, and returned a moment later holding a hand mirror.
She held it in front of his face without a word.
Liam stared at his reflection.
The face looking back at him wasn't drastically different. Not middle-aged. Not elderly. Just... older. Definitely older.
Thank God. At least I'm not bald.
He took the mirror from her and studied himself more carefully. Shizuku returned to her seat, watching him like he was a science experiment.
Liam turned his head left, then right. His jawline was sharper. His cheekbones more defined. The baby fat was gone. He looked like he could be anywhere from ten to thirteen years old, depending on the lighting.
He rolled out of bed, bare feet hitting the floor.
The world felt different. Lower. Closer.
No. He was taller. That was the difference.
He turned to Shizuku, who looked up from her book with mild interest.
"You've been reading that same book this whole time?" Liam asked, pointing at the worn volume spread across the table.
"Yes."
"You still haven't finished it?" He grinned despite himself. "Or did you forget you already read it and started over?"
Shizuku looked down at the book, then back at Liam. Her eyes widened slightly, like she'd just realized something profound.
"Maybe that's true," she said slowly. "If I forget, I can read the same book many times and it's always interesting."
She closed the book with a soft thump.
Liam stared at her. "Are you serious?"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just... stand up."
Shizuku rose obediently.
Liam stepped closer, then held his hand flat against the top of his head, extending it horizontally toward her.
His palm lined up perfectly with her lips.
"Look at that," he said, grinning. "We're almost the same height now."
Shizuku didn't pull away. She just tilted her head slightly, studying him. "Is this also one of your abilities?"
"Aren't you even a little shocked?" Liam gestured at himself. "A kid growing this much in a few hours? That's not normal!"
"You already acted like an adult before." Shizuku adjusted her glasses, her expression completely sincere. "So it feels like only your appearance changed."
Liam paused. "That's... actually fair."
He reached up and pushed her glasses back into place, and that's when he noticed the injuries. Shallow cuts on her arms, bruises on her shoulders. The edges of the wounds looked inflamed.
"You're still hurt," he said.
"I couldn't use Zetsu," Shizuku explained. "My recovery is slower without it."
Right. To heal faster, she'd need to seal her aura completely. But doing that while protecting an unconscious body in a hostile city was suicidal. So she'd stayed in Ten the whole time, alert and ready, letting her wounds fester rather than risk an ambush.
For me. She did that for me.
Liam sat down at the table, grateful he didn't have to hop up anymore. "What happened after I passed out? Just the short version."
"Okay." Shizuku sat across from him. "I carried you away from the explosion site. Your body started changing while we were running. I found a shopping mall and hid in the underground garage. You grew for about an hour, from one meter tall to over one and a half meters. While you changed, you released some kind of energy. My injuries started healing faster, and my hair grew a little."
She touched the ends of her purple hair, demonstrating the new length.
"After you stopped changing, I carried you out of the garage. I pretended you were my sleeping brother and checked us into this hotel. You've been unconscious for most of a day. I've been reading and keeping watch. Your three birds are outside on lookout."
She tilted her head. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You remembered all of that?" Liam smiled. "You're not making it up?"
"No. I remember."
Liam reached over and ruffled her hair, grinning like an idiot. "I've wanted to do that for a while, but I was never tall enough. This is great."
Shizuku smoothed her hair back down with both hands, restoring it to some semblance of order.
"Anyway. Thank you." Liam's smile faded slightly. "If you hadn't gotten me out of there, I would've been exposed."
"Exposed how?"
Liam hesitated, then sighed. "When creatures die near me, something flies into me. Death energy, I guess. If it builds up enough, this happens." He gestured at himself. "Instant aging. No control. No warning."
"Oh." Shizuku nodded slowly, processing. Then she asked, "Do you need to go to a hospital?"
Liam went very still.
"You don't know how old you'll be when you wake up," Shizuku continued, her tone as matter-of-fact as ever. "That means you can't control it. If this keeps happening, won't your life be very short?"
"Has anyone ever told you," Liam said slowly, "that you're kind of brutal sometimes?"
"No."
"Or maybe," Shizuku mused, "when your body finishes aging, it'll loop back to being a child again?"
"What kind of settings are you giving me? Am I a video game character now?"
"Maybe."
Liam patted the seat beside him. Shizuku moved over and sat down, waiting.
"Everyone in Meteor City knows," she said quietly. "The international database has identity information for people all over the world. Except us."
"Except you," Liam corrected.
A pause.
"That's the problem," Liam said finally. "I don't know if I'm in that database. If I am, walking into a hospital could expose me. And I can't afford exposure. Not yet. Not until I'm strong enough to protect myself, or at least until I leave this continent."
Shizuku thought about this for a moment. Then she turned to him and said, "So your life really will be short."
Liam reached over and tugged on her cheek, not hard, just enough to express his exasperation. Then he flopped backward onto the bed.
"I won't live a short life," he said, staring at the ceiling. "Here's the deal. When my body hits 28 years old, maximum, I'll figure this out. No matter what."
"Why 28?" Shizuku asked.
"Because after 28, every day you age feels like a waste." Liam closed his eyes. "The Zodiac's Dog, Cheadle. She's a Disease Hunter, right? Specializes in rare conditions. When I'm 28, I'll have enough clout to talk to her. Maybe she can help."
He sat up, looking at his hands. Flexing his fingers.
"The Star Mark has a passive healing effect," he said, more to himself than to Shizuku. "As long as the mark isn't destroyed, the target won't die even if they're decapitated. Recovery's slow for injuries that severe, but they won't die immediately."
"That's amazing," Shizuku said.
Then she paused. "Do you want to mark me? To speed up my healing?"
Liam met her eyes. "You don't mind?"
Shizuku shook her head.
Then, without hesitation, she grabbed the hem of her black sweater and lifted it.
Her stomach was pale, flat, lined with muscle. A faint curve defined her obliques on one side.
She pointed at the spot. "Draw it here."
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