Avur had finished eating and was about to go to the bathroom to take a shower when someone next to him said, “Wait.”
He flinched, but then he saw that it was only Kaname, leaning against the wall with his hands buried deep in his trouser pockets.
Avur wanted to ask what he wanted, but Kaname wouldn’t let him, instead saying, “What is this new ability of yours?
Do you believe that your true self takes over as soon as you feel panic or are close to death?”
That made Avur sweat.
How does Kaname find out about such things so quickly?
That makes Kaname frightening; you can’t hide anything from this young man.
“Will you tell me, or do you perhaps have no idea either?” he asked in a calm, casual voice.
“I…have no idea either,” he whispered, almost to himself.
Kaname nodded.
“Understandable.
Do you already have a name for your new split personality?”
Avur shook his head, whereupon Kaname said: “Phantom.
Call it Phantom, something that says you will be in a state where you have no control over your body and feel no emotions at all.”
Avur raised an eyebrow: “How do you even know that?
And if you knew what happened to me, why didn’t you try to help me?”
Kaname shrugged casually: “I had no idea you were in danger, and you said yourself that you don’t know what happened.” He sighed before saying: “Maybe you got into a fight with some people simply after Phantom took over your body and eliminated them for you.”
Avur tried to think about it.
He couldn’t remember what had happened, but he did recall that it felt like he’d been hit with a blow.
Therefore, Kaname’s theory could be correct, especially since Avur had seen this system thing appear when he opened his eyes.
“I think you’re right… but let me go take a shower now,” Avur said.
Kaname nodded, and Avur went into the bathroom and began to shower.
Meanwhile, Kaname stopped leaning against the wall and went into the living room.
He flopped down on the couch and ate cookies he had just retrieved from underneath it.
Who would be crazy enough to put cookies under the couch?
Why, Kaname, of course.
Kaname’s inner monologue was filled with dead roses and swirling words: “Why did I lie to Avur?
Because telling him the truth sounds exhausting, and keeping him in the dark is the only way to keep us both alive.
I know exactly what happened to him, but right now, he’s a walking hazard.
If I force him to face the truth, he’ll panic.
He’ll spiral, betray us, and probably try to use Yuka as a hostage just to force my hand—and then I’d have to execute a fifteen-step plan to save them both.
No thanks.
I love the guy, but I don’t have the energy to clean up the mess of his reaction.
Let him wonder.
Faking ignorance is safer for all of us.”
Kaname sighed audibly, continued eating his cookies, and whispered, “I wish my brain had an off-switch.
It’s exhausting seeing a dozen ways every single person could ruin my life just by saying hello.”
Then Yuka came home from work and, upon entering the living room, said: “I hope nothing bad happened while I was away, but now I’m ready to hang out with friends!”
Kaname looked up with his usual poker face and said, “Nothing happened.”
Yuka smiled, gave him a thumbs-up and put her left hand on her hip, “Good!
I knew Avur would be fine if I left him with you.”
Kaname just nodded, too busy eating his cookies, and then started watching television.
Yuka smelled herself before saying, “I’m all sweaty because of the heat, I’m going to take a shower, so say hi to Avur for me.”
Kaname then spoke up and said, “Avu-” Before he could say anything, Yuka was already in the bathroom, so Kaname just nodded, while his inner monologue said, “Well, I tried to tell her, it’s not my problem anymore.” Read the latest chapters at g.com.
Yuka saw Avur in the shower, and Avur turned bright red when he saw her.
Yuka hadn’t even noticed Avur showering because it wasn’t very loud outside.
“Oops…
sorry to bother you, but how long will it take you?” she asked kindly.
Avur covered himself with his hands and said, “N-not for long, but could you maybe not look at me while I shower?
It’s a little uncomfortable.” He whispered the last words embarrassedly.
She nodded, then assumed a saluting posture, said “Understood,” turned around, and waited.
Avur finished his shower as quickly as possible, but then whispered to himself: “How can it be that she is so unbothered by seeing a teenager naked?”
Yuka definitely heard it and said, with her back to him: “That’s because I’ve had to shower Kaname many times, and because I have patients I sometimes have to see naked due to their injuries, or if they need more blood, or have serious injuries that are very bad.
I also saw you naked when I first brought you here; that’s because I was the one who changed you into the casual clothes you were wearing at first.
It was simply because I had to give you a lot of my blood.”
Avur tried to calm himself down, as he didn’t want to fall in love with her, but he felt something, although he thought it could only be normal feelings because he thought he was just embarrassed.
Avur had finished showering, took a towel to dry himself, and then asked: “How could you even give me your blood?
Wasn’t that a lot?”
She gasped when she realized she hadn’t told him yet: “Did I keep it a secret that I’m a heavy blood?
Heavy bloods are a race that has 4.5 liters of blood in its body, but it can expand to 45 liters.
So even if I have a cup containing 200 ml of my blood, it expands to 2 liters.”
She then added: “Of course, I still look like a human; I just have more blood.
Some heavy bloods can even manipulate their blood to use it for defense or attack, but I can only transfuse it.”
Avur listened attentively, already dressed: “You can go take a shower or whatever you wanted to do, I’m going into the living room now, as I’m ready.”
Yuka finally turned around and said, “You’re the first person who hasn’t asked why I shower Kaname.” Then she thought for a moment before asking, “Why is that?” She really wanted to know why he hadn’t freaked out when she said that she sometimes showered Kaname.
Avur shrugged: “Perhaps because you two seem like siblings, even though you’re not blood relatives, and Kaname doesn’t have any feelings anyway, and as calculating as he seems, I doubt anything else is important to him other than staying out of danger and being lazy, so I don’t think he’d care if someone gave him a shower.”
She beamed at his answer: “Yes!
You’re right, we’re like siblings, that’s why I told you I wished we were blood relatives.”
Avur went to the bathroom door.
“Yes, I’ll leave you alone in the bathroom now.
I’ll see what Kaname is up to.” He forced a smile; his hands were clammy with sweat and his heart was racing.
He left without waiting for Yuka’s reply.
Yuka thought, “I guess he’s in a hurry.
How nice that Kaname finally has another friend besides me to spend time with.”
Yuka then began to shower, singing softly to herself.
Avur went into the living room, where he saw Kaname lying lazily on the couch.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you anywhere but on the couch,” Avur said.
Kaname just shrugged; he had eaten all his cookies, but he was still watching television.
“Okay…
I guess that’s another way to avoid a conversation.” Avur then sat down on the couch and watched TV with Kaname.
Avur looked at the television and then back at Kaname before asking, “What’s the name of this series?” He waited for an answer.
Kaname continued watching and said, “It’s an anime, and it’s called Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World.” Then he glanced at Avur when he wasn’t looking to see if he recognized the anime from his world.
But Avur still couldn’t remember and had no idea that this anime wasn’t supposed to exist in this world.
“Who is the person who will be featured most of the time in this anime?
And does this person have any powers?” he asked, wanting to know what kind of anime Kaname liked.
He had no idea that Kaname wasn’t watching the anime for pleasure, but to see if it would awaken memories in Avur’s mind.
Kaname sighed, typical of his laziness, as he didn’t want to waste energy talking.
“It’s called main character, and the main character in this anime is Subaru Natsuki.
Avur’s eyes widened.
“Return by death?
That doesn’t sound good.” Kaname nodded.
They both kept watching, they were on season four, when Subaru fell down the stairs because he was pushed by someone.
This made Avur flinch, and he asked, “How could you watch that…?”
Kaname then said in a drawn-out voice: “Either you watch or you leave.
It’s your decision.”
Suddenly, a loud bang came from the bathroom.
Avur reacted immediately, but Kaname remained unfazed, as he felt no panic.
Kaname calmly stood up and went into the bathroom, closely followed by Avur.
Avur grabbed his shoulder as they were about to enter the bathroom and said, “What if she’s naked, man?
We can’t just walk up to her like that.” He said it out of jealousy, then let go of Kaname and noticed how he reacted.
He thought, maybe he really did love Yuka, maybe that’s why he didn’t want Kaname to ever see her naked again.
He ignored Avur.
He already knew Avur liked Yuka, but either way, Kaname could not care less.
Maybe Avur had feelings for her, but what if she was actually hurt in the bathroom?
It was better to check on her instead of just waiting outside for a response.
Who knew—maybe she was choking or something.
He entered, and Yuka had slipped and sprained both hands.
She said nothing because she was trying to heal herself with her own sanguine tether magic.
“You look fine.
Dry yourself off and get dressed,” Kaname said in his usual calm voice.
Kaname’s inner monologue was now jumbled with thoughts like, “Are you okay?
I hope it didn’t hurt,” and many other things.
While he worried deeply about Yuka, he was so emotional at heart that no one would understand how much he cared for others, but simply couldn’t show it.
Avur pushed Kaname aside to help Yuka up.
“Are you alright, Yuka?
It was so loud, we came to check on you.
Did you hurt your hands?” he asked worriedly, giving Kaname a look that said, “You are a heartless monster.”
Kaname simply left, leaving Avur with Yuka.
He figured it wasn’t worth wasting his energy when Avur already seemed to be giving the impression that he didn’t want him around.
Kaname took his headphones and went outside; it was already night, so he took a night walk listening to lo-fi music.
The reason for the existence of lo-fi music and anime is that Avur isn’t the only one from another world.
In the past, several others came to this world and brought anime and similar genres.
Lo-fi music originated in the 6th century, about 500 years ago, but remains very popular today because many musicians produce lo-fi music.
And people even built time machines, and Kaname once used one that took him to another world, but he came back due to a mistake; it seems that the worlds are unstable when a person travels from one world to another.
Kaname spent the night observing the other people going about their daily activities, while Avur and Yuka ate at home, having almost missed dinner.
Yuka had left some food for Kaname, which he ate before going to bed upon his return.
He then simply went to his room, where he found Avur and Yuka already asleep.
Not wanting to disturb them, he went into the living room and fell asleep on the couch.
His inner monologue was full of questions he tried to ignore, as he hated wasting his energy on overthinking.
The night passed peacefully, however; everyone was asleep.