Right now, Koda was tied to a chair in a small office, sitting across from an administrative worker.
The worker seemed friendly enough to ignore Koda’s state and started with the interview.
Straight away, the guy offered Koda psychological counselling, but he once again shook his head.
He wasn’t going to fully tell the dude every little thing about his aspect ever, especially not that he can devour his echoes and steal their attributes.
“Would you mind telling me about the type of Aspect Ability you received, as in combat, sorcery or utility?” Koda thought for a moment and scratched the side of his face.
“I’m… not sure.” The man smiled softly.
“That’s alright.
Are you able to directly deal damage with your ability?” “Uh… I suppose?
It essentially allows me to eat anything.
My teeth are strong enough to shred through anything I’ve come into contact with so far.” Koda said.
The man hummed in thought for a moment.
“That’s a strange one, since it doesn’t directly cause harm and is more tied to survival and allowing you to survive off eating whatever you can find…” he continued.
Things went on like that.
In the end, Koda had shared enough information to create an impression that his Aspect was pretty versatile, useful and required a heavy price.
He did actually end up mentioning his flaw, he hoped that it would give them an understanding of why that incident happened earlier and it did!
Koda was excused for his actions and would be given suitable treatment from now on.
After this, he returned to his room, undressed, looked at his new, skinny body before going to sleep.
Koda thought that falling asleep again would be weird, but he didn’t even end up falling asleep until it was too late.
The hunger in his stomach was too much to bear, it was right.
Even though he had devoured so much food in the cafeteria, he was still starving and so… sleeping was a tough task.
… The next morning, Koda washed up in his bathroom, put some new clothes on and hurried to get breakfast.
He wasn’t tired, he was more eager to get food.
The moment he entered the cafeteria, everyone’s eyes widened in horror and they scrambled to get as much food as they could before the beast went wild.
Koda’s mouth began to water, but before he could lunge at the stalls filled with food, he was redirected to a separate side of the room.
When he got there, he realised why he was there.
His nose scrunched up and he stared at the mountains of food piled up on top of each other.
He turned to face the man who had brought him here, it was the nice interviewer.
“All of this food is either out of date or are leftovers.
Since you can eat anything without falling ill, you can eat as much as you want.
Feel free to eat the tables and chairs here too, if you’re alright with it, I give you permission to empty the bins and eat as much as you’d like.” He said, smiling at Koda.
Koda didn’t know if he was being bullied by a grown man right now, but he didn’t really care.
He was okay to do exactly what he was just told.
He dug right in, slaughtering pile after pile of rotten food.
But he didn’t really care, the taste didn’t matter to him.
He just needed to try to fill his stomach.
Which was funny considering he wouldn’t dare even look at a piece of rotten meat before his First Nightmare.
Something Old Bram said really stuck with him.
“Starvation makes all meat equal.” Really stuck with Koda, he now understood the meaning behind those words and couldn’t agree more.
But at that moment, something drew him out of his ravage.
Fischer was sitting on a chair behind him, peeking over at the mountain of food.
“How is that fair?
Look at how much you have!” He said with stars in his ever shifting eyes.
Koda turned to look at him for a moment before going back to eating.
“Most of it is rotten.
I wouldn’t be too jealous, your stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I think they’re using me as a trash can, but it’s alright.
I’m satisfied.” He said, wiping his mouth.
Fischer raised an eyebrow.
“Seriously?
What the hell is your Aspect, dude?
I’ll tell you mine… why don’t we trade?” He said, curiosity seeming to take over.
Koda thought for a moment and finally turned to face the other boy.
He didn’t know if it was because he looked like Riley, or because it was some sort of ability, but Koda felt oddly compelled to comply.
He felt like he could trust this boy, he didn’t know why.
“Would you care to go first?” Koda asked, making sure that he wasn’t gonna get scammed.
Fischer thought for a moment and shrugged.
“Sure, I don’t really care.” He said, picking up a plate from the table he was sitting on.
Koda looked at the plate with interest.
Suddenly, the plate levitated a few centimetres off Fischer’s hand.
Koda raised an eyebrow.
‘Is that it…?’ He thought to himself.
But then, the plate started spinning.
And kept spinning.
And it spun until… Fragments of the ceramic plate exploded outwards, nearly shooting right at Koda’s face.
Thankfully, no one was nearby, or else this guy would’ve just gotten himself a criminal record.
Fischer coughed awkwardly and looked around to see if anyone noticed, thankfully, they didn’t.
Koda raised an eyebrow.
“What did you do?” He asked.
Fischer rubbed the back of his head.
“I can induce and control rotational movements in myself and nearby objects.
If something is already spinning, it’s easier to control.” “Yourself?
You can make yourself spin?” Koda asked with both his eyebrows raised.
Fischer just chuckled.
“I can… but my flaw is that excessive self induced rotation makes me… drunk.” “Ah.” “Anyway, what’s yours?” Fischer asked, feeling a bit awkward.
“I can eat any substance.
My body reduces everything I eat into nourishment, even if it’s gross and my teeth can go through essentially anything.
That’s probably why they’re giving me all the gross stuff, because I can actually make use out of it.
I feel a lot stronger after eating loads…
I like eating.
Lots of stuff… like meat…” He said, drifting off topic as he started thinking about food.
Fischer clicked his finger.
“Hey… buddy, wake up.
Let me guess, your flaw is that you are always hungry?” Snapping back, Koda nodded his head quickly.
“Y-yes.
My flaw is that I will never truly feel satiated, no matter how much I eat.” He said.
“That is brutal.” Fischer said with empathy.
Then, a sudden commotion drew their attention.
Koda raised an eyebrow and looked into the distance.
He noticed that a lot of Sleepers were gathered around the large screen hanging on the wall of the cafeteria, their faces filled with horror and fear.
On the screen, a list of names was displayed, ranking the new batch of Sleepers from weakest to strongest, most likely deduced from their interviews.
Koda was partially interested, he wanted to see where he would place in here.
He and Fischer both walked over, but the noise was a bit too much.
All they could hear were mumbles or whispers.
“How… what the hell!” “This can’t be…” “Who is he!” Koda noticed Fischer in fifth place, Koda was eleventh and Irene was fifteenth.
And in the first place, the portrait of a bald guy with several bleeding wounds on his face could clearly be seen.
To the right of it, two simple lines were displayed.
“Name: Dale.” “True Name: Price of Stillness.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Rikud0u cool cool, hi guys how are you all doing ?