"Do you know something about this?"
The wooden counter gives off a loud thud as he smacks it. Almost shaking the glass bottles and jars lined up in the bare shelves of the establishment. A small package wrapped in cloth rest on top of the counter.
"Oh? What we havin 'ere?"
The old man lifts the item as if to inspect it. Except, his eyes are totally covered in bandages. Though his smirk suggests he's taken interest in the object.
"Are yer sellin to me or what?"
"I grabbed it off a strange creature"
He rests his elbow on the countertop,
"Made of flesh but eats Reichitsu"
"Oh? That's strange alrite. Maybe ya oughta ask Takesuke 'bout 'em"
"Yeah that tengu is my next stop, just tell me what you know first"
"Hmm I hafta look into it, I'll get back to ya after-"
He turns to the shelf behind, swinging the door open. But before he can store it, Daisuke's sharp voice halt his move.
"Drop the act, Oldie"
Daisuke cast a sidelong glance towards the merchant.
"Isn't this what you were going on about last month?"
Still showing his back to the impatient hunter, the old merchant can only smirk. And he turns.
Away from that abandoned newsstand in the forest,
In the training ground, whilst lying on Nekomori, Daisuke asks.
"Mizuki kun, have you heard about the Yashin Incident?"
Though it sounds like it's her first time hearing it, the mention of the incident sparks several instances of memory from within her. Could it be from when she randomly passes by news of it from the TV? Could it be from those obscure online forum she'd browse on the net? Or perhaps even the talk of her classmates at one point? She could not put her finger on it, but-
"It sounds... familiar, I think?"
Hesitant. As she rests her head further into Nekomori's belly, her pupils cling upwards trying to remember.
"Basically some time ago, there was a strange event that took the entire world by surprise"
He starts explaining,
"The 'Night Tremor', or the 'Yashin Incident' as it's known here, follows a single night where millions of people across the world claimed to have felt something strange"
"Ah that, I remember reading about it-"
Mizuki adds,
"Those who experienced it reported feeling a tingling sensation all over their body"
"Oh? You're quite well read on this"
He compliments.
"Hehe~ don't underestimate me, Daisuke kun. I've dug into thousands of rabbit holes online"
Her nose rose up height, but at the same time she realizes,
'In fact, I'm surprised YOU know about it.'
She elaborates,
"-a lot of people are saying it might just be a mass panic or something"
"Nope, the Yashin Incident was very much real"
"Eh? Mnn.. that's what I'd like to believe too but"
She tilts her head,
"there was no medical records or evidence to support it"
"The reason nobody found any medical evidence or record was because,"
He pets the beast's head, looking her way.
"The Yashin Incident was a Reichi Mutation event"
"Reichi Mutation... event?"
Mizuki looks back and forth between the beast's yawn, clueless to being the topic of discussion, then back to him.
"Wait a minute, I thought it was only about the tingling feeling"
"And if you say Reichi Mutation event, how come we don't see cases of people evolving like Nekomori"
"Calm down, calm down"
He tries to quell her growing curiosity.
"I'll get to that eventually"
Daisuke rises up and slides into his back pocket,
"Basically some time ago, a supernatural event occurred that tore into both the Physical Realm and Ghost Realm"
"As a result, some of the animals in the vicinity become affected. Their Reichitsu becomes unstable and stays in a reactive state. But after a point, that state reached a boiling point and leaks out in a big burst of Reichitsu-"
He grabs his chin,
"No- to be more precise, it was a burst of Reihado"
"Reihado?"
Mizuki took notice, she raises both her palms up to her face.
"But that's... what we were training the other day.."
"Exactly. As you already experienced, Reihado is a highly reactive transitional state of Reichitsu before turning into a different matter"
He demonstrates the substance on his palm,
"But what I didn't tell you was that, depending on the configuration-"
He brings a piece of chicken to it,
"It can even destabilize a foreign Reichitsu in other living things and-"
as the Reihado on his palm kisses a portion of the chicken, a gel-like fluid drips down from the area of contact.
"Once it stabilizes back, it becomes something else entirely"
as the mysterious fluid drops on the grass below his feet, it sprouts into something new.
The stem of the grass grows taller, a tough white formation envelops it. New blade of leaves sprout from the central stem, though they differ so much from the existing ones. Embroidered on either side of the leaves are lush green hairs, supporting the fan of the resembles a quill more than a stalk.
"W-what did you just do?"
Mizuki brings her head closer to observe that bizarre new life.
'no more importantly, why do you have chicken drumstick in your pocket..?'
But she did not speak out that part.
"When these unstable formation makes contact with other life,"
He picks the peculiar stalk of grass,
"they break it down and integrate the new Reichitsu source into their own"
"and then rearrange into a new life form using the combined memory from both Reichitsu source"
"Th-that sounds dangerous!"
"It is, so imagine what happens when these process involves several animals at once"
Still holding that peculiar plant, he now holds it in front of Mizuki, overlooking Nekomori behind it.
Though clueless of the topic, the beast simply sniffs the boned plant a couple times and put it into it's mouth.
"Ah Mori chan don-"
Though his gesture tells her it's fine.
"But if this Reihado is so dangerous, why did you even teach me in the first place?"
"Not exactly, you need a very specific configuration of Reihado to achieve that effect. It is not something you just stumble onto by accident"
He sits and pets Nekomori's head as it leans further into him.
"Several things have to go right for such an unfortunate event to happen..."
He lingers on that last statement, like he's pondering on something, or thinking of a distant thought.
A silence sits between them. Daisuke still lost in his own reminiscence while Mizuki is fidgeting, stealing a glance towards him every now and then.
"Hmm, what's wrong?"
He finally addresses.
"You look like you have something to say"
"Huehh!?"
Finally meeting his eye, instinctively her arms draw inward.
"Umm.. it's.."
"No need to be wary, just tell me what's on your mind"
He presses,
"The earlier we clear things up, the better"
"O-okay.."
She finally works up the courage,
"Do you remember? that parcel my dad sent me the other day..."
Her fingers twisting a lock of hair that fell against her chest.
"that was from his work..."
"Your dad's work.. the idol agency?"
"Not that one!"
She retorts. The earlier anxiety already slipping away from her.
"Haha sorry sorry, you mentioned he was a researcher for Agency, right?"
He finally stops messing with her,
"What about it?"
After a short exhale, the girl regains her composure.
"The package he sent me was, a giant bat claw"
She finally reveals, before looking him in the eye.
"Do you think Dad... could be involved?"
"Hmm the Agency huh..."
Setting his eyes on the horizon, as he recalls the events of that day. The curve on his lips give way to his smirk.
"They surely are something..."
"Daisuke kun?"
Mizuki breaks his musings.
"Unless we hear from him directly, we can only speculate"
As usual, a non-answer.
But before Mizuki can press further, a loud buzz interrupts that serene afternoon rest.
"What's this all of a sudden?"
Irritated, he reach for a brush in his back pocket. As he lifts it up, a stretch of paper shoots out from its side, turning into a scroll.
"What is it?"
"This is..."
He investigates the content of the scroll.
"..oi oi, You can't be serious!"
As he's examining the scroll, the buzz from earlier turns into ringing. Like the sound from a distant bell. But unlike the previous time he use them, this time there are several of these ringing noise, one after the other. As he observes the severity of the situation on the map, the ringing only grows in volume and frequency.
"Daisuke kun? Is there something wr-"
Before she can finish her sentence, a distant boom coming from the city pulls both their attention.
Daisuke lifts up the scroll overlooking that same city. Comparing what he's seeing, comparing the location.
"Good grief, that.. was fast"