(Written while listening to: "Motteke! Sailor Fuku" by Aya Hirano, Emiri Kato, Kaori Fukuhara & Miyuki Takara on Youtube)
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Laito needed a few seconds to calm down.
'Inhale…. Exhale… Inhale… Exhale.'
Laito tried breathing exercises and it helped.
It was quite a peculiar sight seeing a pi… a dove! doing such human actions, but he had no other choice.
Floating orbs of light don't have lungs, as established many times already.
'Okay. I am ready. Let's see the pleasant one first.'
Avatar's Aspect Ability Description: [You can place a seal upon the chosen ones. This seal is a blessing.]
As Laito read that he had furrowed his dove brows.
'Does that mean it's once more a supporting ability? Could I get something that would let me do something on my own please?' He asked the Spell despite knowing well that Nightmare Sell had no influence over what powers he received at that point.
—
—
'Then it's time for my SECOND Flaw. How exciting.' Laito thought completely unamused and turned his focus on final strings of runes
Avatar's Flaw: [Cardinal Sin].
Avatar's Flaw Description: [You cannot acknowledge those who has ever blasphemed against you.]
—
Laito tried to come up with the meaning of what he just read.
'So those who "blasphemes" my Avatar become invisible for it? What does even "blasphemy" mean in this context? Thankfully, at the first glance it seems much more manageable than my original Flaw.'
'I dunno. I guess I'll have to find out.'
—
'Now that I think about it, there are many things I have to "find out" about.'
'It's time to go back.'
With that thought Laito exited his Soul Sea and found himself back in his room.
He connected back with his body and moved a bit to recover the blood flow back to appropriate level.
'And now…' He prepared himself.
Laito attempted to summon his new Avatar the same way he manifested his Echoes.
It worked.
From the tiny motes of white light appeared a small dove standing proudly on the ground in the middle of the teenager's room.
'Can… I fly?' Laito asked himself and attempted to do just that.
It worked. Somehow.
The Keeper of Souls was by no means a master flyer, but Laito's inherent adaptability has let him to use the unfamiliar body with relative ease.
'Still needs some practice… but I can work with that.' He thought while observing the dove circling above his head.
At the same time he could also see himself from the perspective of a dove.
'Ugh… this is going to take some getting used to it… I feel my head spinning.'
Let's test that ability.
Laito-dove perched on top of the Laito-human head and tried to invoke his Dormant Ability.
It worked!
He saw with his both perspectives a small mark glowing with golden light being placed onto his forehead where the Avatar had pressed his beak.
Human-Laito felt… blessed.
Like he had small, but all rounded increase towards all his capabilities.
But that was not all.
He also felt his body being… cleansed? and his mind gets filled with some sort of…
How to place it?
Sense of slightly unnatural peace and comfort.
Like if his very being was covered in a warm protective blanket.
That feeling was very weak and fleeting, but it was there.
'It indeed does feel like a blessing… not at all on the level of Nephis's blessings but still. Much better than nothing.' Laito thought as he checked in the mirror his new "mark" on the forehead.
It slowly faded as if it completely disappeared, but Laito could still feel its effects.
'As a Sleeper, Keeper of Souls can only mark three other Dormant beings at most.' Laito checked dove's Essence reserves.
'With me included, that's two more free slots.'
'But here comes the big question.' Laito's analysis turned sharply towards a more important question.
He stared intensely at the dove's body while it sharply inhaled air.
"Can it speak?" The dove spoke with a soft and melodious voice.
—
—
"I guess I can. Nice. So I can do magic." Laito ended his inspection with a big fortunate discovery.
"Now… you need a name. "Keeper of Souls" is such a mouthful." Human-Laito reached out his hand and allowed the dove-Laito to land on his palm.
"I am in a peculiar mood, so for now I will just call you…"
"Steve!"
—
He(the dove) stared at himself(the human) for a moment with a dumbfounded expression.
'What? You don't like it? It's a good name! Everybody likes Steve!'
"Alright, enough of the tomfoolery. You can go and try to not himself get yourself hunted by some random cats." Laito told to himself and opened the window so that… Steve… could fly out.
He did. Steve needed flying practice so that's what he would get.
'As for me…' Laito turned towards his computer.
'Time to select a school I will be attending until I'll be able to apply for U.A.'
'What junior-high schools would be willing to accept a guy who has woken from years long coma I wonder… Especially since I will be falling into another coma very soon.' He wondered.
'I'm sure there's some. You gotta believe!' Laito nodded to himself with growing reassurance that from now on everything will go according to his plans.
—
—
[Week Later]
Not everything went according to his plans.
But he did find a school.
He tried to get to the same school and even class as Mineta so that the presence of a friend would somewhat lessen Laito's social anxiety that flared up whenever he was in a school environment.
But Mineta attended a public school and they were reluctant to accept Laito with his supposed "need" to catch up.
So Laito had to choose private school.
And now he was standing at its gates.
Dressed in a nicely put japanese school uniform and staring at the place that will provide him education in the next one and a half year(minus his time in the Dream Realm).
Laito steeled himself.
'I would rather fight corrupt abominations than enter there! What was I thinking?!?' Regardless of his own doubts, Laito still entered through the school's gate.
He also passed the sign that was placed on the wall next to it:
It read in kanji:
"Musutafu Private Middle School"
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[1,5 years left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
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