They waited like that until past midnight. Shinichi was still unconscious.
The right arm he'd lost when Migi transferred had started to regrow. Half an arm had already formed.
Suddenly, Migi turned its large eye toward Ivan.
"Do you have water and something with sugar? To repair Shinichi's heart, I consumed a large amount of nutrients from his blood."
"There's a convenience store not far from Mount Takao. Should have sugar and bottled water."
Under the moonlight, Shinichi's face had sunk in, looking like a guy who hadn't eaten in a week.
Ivan stood up, brushing dirt off his pants, scanning the surrounding forest.
"If something in the woods comes at you, you can handle it?"
Migi answered by turning into a blade.
"Alright. Wait here."
Ivan headed off, thinking to himself, Keeping an eye on me, huh… Figures. No emotions. In the original story, Migi starts developing something human after merging with him. Looks like that takes its sweet time.
About an hour later, Ivan came back with a bag of supplies.
He pulled out a bottle of water, twisted it open, and set it on the ground. Then he took out a bag of sugar, poured it in, and shook the bottle hard until it fully dissolved before placing it back down.
"Your turn."
"Understood."
Migi extended a thin tendril from Shinichi's arm like a straw, dipping it into the bottle. It sucked the sugar water down fast, its body swelling as it absorbed it.
Then it slid the tendril into Shinichi's mouth, feeding him water and sugar.
Meanwhile, Ivan tore open a sushi bento and started eating.
The moment he bit into a piece, he frowned hard.
"Fuck… this is dry as hell."
He chewed it a few times and swallowed anyway.
"The seaweed's not even crisp. Garbage. The rice quality is shit too. And this meat floss? Dry as sand. Total failure."
Even while complaining nonstop, Ivan still finished the entire box without wasting a single bite.
"Wonder when this guy's gonna wake up."
Ivan lay back on the grass, breathing in the earthy smell, staring up at the moon.
…
By noon the next day, Ivan finally woke up, squinting in the sunlight. The warmth felt damn good.
"Morning, Migi."
He greeted it casually, but got no response.
While he was washing up, he heard movement behind him.
Shinichi had woken up.
The first thing he did was look for his glasses. Luckily, Ivan had picked them up yesterday and left them by his hand, so he found them immediately.
His face was pale, drained of all color. He put the glasses on out of habit, only to find his vision getting worse. When he took them off, everything snapped back into focus.
"Drink."
Ivan tossed him a bottle of water.
Shinichi caught it and chugged it down without hesitation. As the water hit his system, yesterday's memories came rushing back.
He looked down at his chest.
His white shirt was soaked red with blood, a huge tear right over where his heart should be.
"My heart… I remember getting stabbed through it… so why the hell am I still alive?"
He stood there, stunned, muttering to himself.
"Ask the thing in your hand."
Ivan pulled out a rice ball from last night's haul and bit into it, tossing another one to Shinichi.
Shinichi raised his right hand.
Nothing.
"Migi… Migi."
No response, no matter how many times he called.
It felt… wrong.
"Ivan, where's Migi?"
"It burned a lot of energy fixing your heart. Probably resting."
"Haah.. alright, wait!" Shinichi's expression changed instantly.
"My parents… what about them? And that parasite from yesterday?"
Shinichi stepped up to Ivan, tense as hell. "Tell me."
"Your mother's at Tokyo Third Affiliated Hospital. They got her there in time. She's stable. They reattached her arm, but it won't be the same as before."
Compared to how things should have gone, Shinichi got lucky.
He let out a heavy breath. As long as his parents were alive, that was enough.
"…And that parasite?"
He pressed on.
Ivan pointed toward the cliff. "I'm guessing the body it was using was already failing. That's why it tried to take your mother. When it failed, it jumped off the cliff. If it got unlucky, maybe it died on the way down."
"No. It's still alive."
Shinichi pressed a hand against his chest, over the healed wound.
"It almost killed my mother. I'll find it. In the crowd, anywhere. And I'll kill it before it hurts anyone else."
"Let me know the second you hear anything. Judging by its speed, it's at least on the same level as Mr. A."
They made their way down Mount Takao. Ivan flagged down a taxi.
The driver dropped Shinichi at the hospital, then took Ivan to the café.
Inside, Ivan found Ryoko Tamiya already waiting.
"Heard you quit teaching?"
"Mm. They found out I'm pregnant and started asking about the father. I had no interest in answering, so I resigned."
She lifted her coffee and took a calm sip.
"So, why did you call me here today? I've already given you all the information I have on parasites."
To fuse the "Transfer" ability, he needed to kill a parasite while it was switching hosts. Ivan couldn't track one down on his own, so he reached out to Ryoko Tamiya. As a high-ranking member of their group, she definitely knew where to find them.
"I need a parasite for an experiment."
Ivan didn't bother dressing it up.
Ryoko's lips curled into a faint, cold smile. She set her coffee down.
"And why would I help you? I still can't confirm whether you're human or one of us. Either way, I don't see any reason to assist you."
"Heh~" Ivan leaned back slightly, calm as ever. "Ms. Tamiya, are you really trusted within your group?"
He didn't wait for her answer.
"If you were, Mr. A wouldn't have gone rogue and slaughtered people at the school on his own."
His tone stayed casual, like he'd expected this pushback from the start.
"From what I can tell, your ideas already make a lot of them uncomfortable. So tell me… how do you make sure they don't go after your child?"
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69