Tale of Discovery

Chapter 26: Idiot ; Ayumi

"Corn again..." I murmur as I look at the corn being roasted on the barbeque grill.

Nao seems to be proud of it, as she is just standing there with her hands on her waist.

"Um...", we hear a voice behind us from the direction of the forest. He finally decided to come out, huh...

We all look in the direction of the voice and see the same guy I saw yesterday. He's wearing different clothes but still has the blue bandana on his head...

"What are you all doing out here?", the guy asks.

Nao takes a step forward and says, "We all ran away from home and ran into each other on the way. We hit it off and so we decided to stay together."

Seriously? Please don't tell me this guy is going to believe the nonsense she's spouting...

"Do you mean you're going to keep on staying here?", he asks in response.

This guy is an idiot.

"Yes. We're planning to stay here forever, as people won't find us if we do that."

"I found you. I'm sure your parents are worried about you as well.", he says as he pulls his phone out from his pocket and begins to fiddle around with it.

I want to punch him square in the face so badly... His idiocy is limitless.

"You'll be detained as well if you do that," Nao says.

"Why?", he asks as he looks at her.

"This is private property.", she replies cheekily.

Say what now? This whole place is private property? This girl never ceases to amaze me...

"Also, this too!", she remarks as she raises the news article about the "UFO" showing the human figure in the sky.

"This is a scoop article of you, practising flight."

The guy's brows slightly furrow when he hears her, but he tries to keep his composure as he asks in a mocking tone,

"Flight?"

"Right. This is a great place to practice such an ability. But, you were hindered by us coming out here to camp. Once you saw that we showed no signs of leaving, you grew restless and exposed yourself to shoo us away.", declared Nao confidently.

"You must be insane to think that I can fly. I will call the cops on you.", he says before turning around.

"You're the one to talk. You came out here all alone.", Nao taunts him.

"I am here to pick chestnuts.", he says as he stops in his track.

Yeah. Pick chestnuts in a private property. Absolutely genius.

"It's too late for that now. I have recorded you being here.", she says as she pulls her camera out of nowhere. When did she...

"You're so annoying. Give me that!", he mutters before exclaiming and jumping down from where he is in our direction.

As soon as his feet touch the "ground", he falls. Through my senses, I see him have a look of panic on his face as he breaks his fall using his flight and then directly flies out of the pit.

"Of course, you would use your flight ability to get out of a hole that you don't know the bottom off.", Nao says smiling while holding her camera and recording him fly out.

He's on the ground as he looks her way, anger covering his face. The guy then runs in Nao's direction and attempts to grab the camera from her hands.

As if I'd let you do that.

The next moment, I dash and appear right in front of him and give him a "light" push on his chest. The difference in our strength is immediately displayed as he is launched backwards and rolls back several times.

After the momentum has broken, he raises himself from the ground, with fear visible in his eyes. He gets up on his feet, and as it seems, has made running away his top priority. He launches into the air at a great speed, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

It's about time I used this ability again.

The next moment, I find myself in the air. Damn, this is high. Having taken over his body, I fall as I don't know how to use his ability yet. Attempting to break the fall using flight is what I'm planning to do. The fall is obviously going to last much longer than five seconds based on the height.

I succeed in stopping the fall mid-air, right on top of the forest. I then find myself in my body. Getting up from the ground, I follow after Nao who has run into the forest to where the guy had fallen to.

As the height of the fall and my attempts at flight had changed the course of his fall, he is quite far away. Taking this as a chance, I lift Nao from behind and position her so that she's riding on my back as I hold her and use my superior agility to run without using Godspeed.

She seems to be enjoying it as she laughs and records the whole thing while using one arm to hold onto me. It doesn't take me long to get to where the guy is. He is lying on the ground, a look of utter confusion on his face as he asks,

"Wh-What happened?"

Nao, who has already gotten off my back, approaches him and says while crossing her arms,

"A bruise or broken bone. That's good enough for an end result."

"Who are you guys?"

Nao begins to explain to him who we are and that the abilities we all have are diseases. She tells him about future scenarios of him falling to his death if his ability disappears mid-air or something along those lines.

This goes on for a while, long enough for Joijiro and Misa to catch up to us. Nao asks Misa to use her ability, making the stuff she had told him about earlier more plausible.

The guy says,

"I thought I was the only one that was granted an ability... but there were others. I wanted to fly high in the sky one day and had even dreamed of becoming the Skyhigh Saito the Hollywood Star."

That corny name though...

"I understand how you feel, but try to not use your ability anymore henceforth.", Nao tells him.

The guy looks down at the ground, and then replies in a dismal tone, "Got it."

"That ended more peacefully than I thought." Joijiro states.

THAT was peaceful for you? What the heck have you been through before for this to be considered peaceful to you? Oh right...

------

"I'm home!" I loudly announce as soon as I step right through our front door. As soon as I say so, I hear loud footsteps, as Ayumi appears in front of me, a look of excitement covering her face.

"Brother Yu!", she cheerfully exclaims before jumping right at me.

I hold her with my left arm and say while lightly patting her head with the other,

"Sorry, it took me so long to get home."

Ayumi lightly shakes her head and says while smiling, "It's okay. Brother Yu has taken care of Ayu for so long, that being outside for a few days doesn't even matter."

How sweet...

"Let's go out and camp together once we've gone to the observatory, okay?", I suggest to her.

"Yes!", she gleefully shouts.

"Because of Brother Yu's return, we are going to have a feast!"

And so, I find myself in the kitchen, looking at the food on the table. It's not red...

"Ja~an! Chanpon noodles with lots of vegetables!", she says as she presents a bowl of it to me.

I immediately dig in and the next moment, I find myself absolutely amazed at how delicious it is.

"Actually, I wanted to use the pizza sauce as a secret ingredient, but there wasn't much of it left...", she answers the question in my head.

"It doesn't matter. You don't need a secret ingredient for anything. As long as it's your cooking, it is the most delicious food ever.", I tell her.

As we are eating, I notice that she seems to be coughing regularly. I asked her about it, but she said that she's fine.

"Ahhh. Ayu had so much to tell Brother Yu about while away."

Hm?

"Ayu was suddenly asked out by a boy classmate!", she says as she holds her cheek.

Ah. I accidentally broke my chopsticks.

"And what did you do?", I ask her calmly.

"Let's see..."

"Don't put on airs."

"I politely declined the offer."

Oh crap. Why is my hand glowing in red?

It went away... phew.

"Brother Yu, what do you think of Ayu having a boyfriend?"

Over my dead body.

"I don't believe there is anyone worthy of my precious Ayumi," I say while maintaining a smile.

"They have to be better than Brother Yu, after all...", she mutters.

Good luck with that.

Suddenly, Ayumi coughs several times once again, but this time it's way worse than before. Worried, I move closer to her and check her body heat. She has a fever. Once she's done eating, I use a thermometer to take her heat. After a while, I grab it and take a look at what's displayed - 37.8 C; definitely a cold.

"Go take a bath. After you get out, crawl into the futon immediately, understood?", I instruct her. I'm taking no risks with her health.

"Okay. If Brother Yu says so..."

------

In the room, Ayumi is resting in the futon, with a wet towel on her head. I am beside her and planning to continue to do so.

I gently caress her cheek.

How warm...

She seems to be enjoying my touch, as there a smile on her face even after she's fallen asleep.

I don't care if I catch her sickness. As such, I lie down beside her, drift off to sleep...