In the shrine where Nowa lies on the futon, Marisa draped a wet towel on his forehead. "Can you believe it? The mysterious Dragon God told from the tale and the very foundation of our world? It never shows up, and… it did that." The disbelief was palpable in Marisa's usual bravado.
Reimu who was standing in the doorway looking at the sky where the Dragon God's eye was. "No… That's not it… It shouldn't… I refuse to believe it." The suspicion of its stupidity leaves them silenced. She turned and walked inside, and then sat on the opposite side, facing Yukari now.
"Talk, I want to know what's going on… Especially this threat." Her voice was so serious that it left no room for cryptic messages from the Gap yokai. Yukari nodded, knowing full well she had no reason to deny this mystery over these two.
But for the man on the futon, their voices were already fading, drowned out by the tide of a memory he could never outrun.
In a Dream of his.
A thin child figure, ragged clothing, no footwear. Ran on the sidewalk with grim determination, lungs burning as he chased the black van with all his might.
"Kahit ano wag lang sya! Kahit ano wag lang sya!(Anything but her! Anything but her, please!)"
The scene shattered. Now he was facing two men while one had a machete with his blood stain on the steel, both of his small arm wrists sliced to the bone, bleeding, crying, shrieking, yet standing his ground.
"Alis po kayo ate, sige na!(Run, Please Lady!)"
The woman on the floor scrambled up, her face a mask of terror and heartbreak as she looked back at him. "W-what?" She couldn't understand him yet, but she knew the action itself. "You should run, you idiot!"
The child didn't look back.
The memory swam, shifted, softened. To a different alley, a different day. The same woman, her eyes full of tears and warmth, reaching out a hand to the fully healed but hollowed child.
"You wanna be part of my family, my hero?" The memory dissolved.
Nowa's eyes snapped open, a phantom ache flaring in his wrists. He stared at the familiar wooden ceiling of the Hakurei Shrine, the echo of her words—"my hero"—clashing violently with the Inferior copy of The Dragon God's accusation.
'Amy…' he stared at the ceiling before he glanced at the side. He noticed a warm blanket and a towel on his head and a soft pillow beneath his head.
"Huh." he muttered.
"Oi! Nowa has wokened up!" Marisa quickly ran towards him, he met her gaze. Then at Reimu and Yukari, and a Fox lady.
"How are you Beckitzer?" Reimu began. Voice low, losing its edge.
He could only stare then close his eyes.
"Sleeping. Exhausted. A living Meme." The muffled voice came from under the pillow, followed by a deliberate, tense stillness. He was hiding, plain and simple.
A brief, heavy silence filled the room. He broke the silence.
"How long did I slept?" A muffled voice.
"two hours. Old-Timer." Marisa's voice was somber. He noticed it. "What's with the tone?"
"We learned what's going on and why you're here." Reimu replied. A long pause.
"So what's with the tone?" he repeats.
"Huh..? What do you mean old-timer?" Marisa was confused.
"...Nothing." the arm on top of the pillow on top of his face. Suddenly, a pair of eyes opened on his arm, looking at them. They blink in confusion. The eye in his arm blinked in return.
Marisa's jaw, which had been slightly agape, fell silent for a moment before she managed a strangled whisper. "...Okay. That's… a new one. Old-timer, you got a… uh… an eye. On your arm, Ze."
Reimu's hand had instinctively gone to her Gohei, but she hadn't drawn it. Her mind was racing, overriding the instinct to purify. "Beckitzer. What is that? Is it a rune? A familiar? A… a part of you?"
'Heh… I like these reactions. Be scared of me… Then it should scare them if I show more of my weird biology. They should throw me out of their realm if I keep this act…' Under the pillow, Nowa's voice was flat, tired, and held a note of grim amusement. He dryly chuckled. "Part of my human biology. A quirky trait I have."
"That's not how humans work." Reimu's voice was utterly flat.
"Then what am I?" the muffled voice retorted. "I am bleeding, I didn't vanish. I'm just a living, breathing human before I even got magic and whatnot. It's handy. An extra pair of eyes to gawk at." As if on cue, the eye on his arm squinted, then performed a perfect, cynical eye-roll.
Marisa snorted, then a giggle escaped her, breaking the tension. "Heh. Okay, fair enough. Can it see behind you? That's actually kinda cool. And creepy. Mostly cool, Ze!"
Reimu pinched the bridge of her nose, the beginnings of a headache forming. Their world was dealing with a cosmic-level threat and now a man who was also a petulant, exhausted man-child with independently sarcastic body parts. This was beyond any incident resolution protocol.
"Whatever it is," Reimu said. "Just... keep it to yourself. And get some real sleep. Your 'human biology' looks like it's about to crash out again."
The eye on his arm winked at her once. Before Reimu could muster a retort, Yukari spoke, her voice laced with a scholar's intensity.
"Is this also a part of your unique biology, Beckitzer?" She revealed a single, black feather, holding it delicately between two fingers. Everyone's attention snapped to it.
"Come to think of it," Marisa interjected, squinting at the feather. "It grew out then fell off when you passed out, Old-timer."
"Oh, right…" Nowa finally sat up, the pillow falling into his lap. The eye on his arm closed and vanished back into his sleeve. Then, with a soft, unsettling sound, the two eyelids slid open on his cheeks, brown-gray irises focusing and blinking in unison with his natural eyes.
"Every time I heal up, a feather grows out of me," he stated, as if commenting on the weather. "So yeah, my recovery is abnormal." He now looked at them with four eyes, his expression a mask of weary resignation. "That's part of my weird biology. If you're going to ask what it is, give it up. I don't know the answer either." The silence was thick enough to chew on.
Marisa was the first to break it, her voice a mix of awe and horror. "So... you're... what, part bird? Part... eye-monster? Is there more? Can you, like, see in every direction at once? Can you cry from all of them?"
Reimu simply stared, her previous headache now a full-blown migraine. She was looking at a man who was quite literally coming apart at the reality, unraveling into something... other.
"I don't know about the bird part. But the eye I get it." As he spoke, the eyes on his cheeks slid, leaving unmarked skin behind until they settled, blinking, on the sides of his neck. He pointed at one. "I can do this neat trick. And yeah, I can see wherever I put the extra pair. I'm basically a glorified four-eye." A hollow smirked, a grotesque expression with his primary eyes weary and the secondary ones alert and scanning.
"I'm going to start listing your weirdness as 'You being You,'" Reimu muttered, massizing her temples. She looked back at the Yakumo duo, silently pleading for a professional take on this.
"Beckitzer," Yukari began, utterly unfazed by the eye migration, her focus entirely on the blackfeather she held. "If you don't mind, we will be taking this feather for analysis."
"Yeah, sure," Nowa said, his smirk widening into a grin of dark amusement. "You can take my pubic hair. Knock yourself out."
Marisa snorted, then burst into uncontrollable giggles. Ran and Reimu looked like they wanted to strangle him with his own blanket.
Yukari, however, simply gave a slow, elegant nod. "Noted. Though the metaphysical signature would be decidedly different." She tucked the feather away with the care of a museum curator. "The cellular structure of it is fascinating. It's more than a biological feather… it's a manifestation of something ancient. Your body isn't growing it so much as shedding excess power."
The neck-eyes swiveled to look at Yukari, then back at the rest of the room before the eyes closed off.
"Great," Nowa deadlined. "So I'm not just a monster, I'm an ancient leaky one. Can the old, freaky leaky monster get some more sleep now, or are we waiting for me to sprout wings?"
"Wait a minute, Ze." Marisa stood up and walked to the table. Nowa's primary eyes tracked her. She took a cup of steaming tea and carefully handed it to him.
He took it, looking from her hopeful face down to the liquid. 'A… tea? I don't want this. I don't want any of this crap. Shet.' He looked back at Marisa, who was smiling at him, a real, unguarded smile. 'No forced kindness… She easily befriended me, huh..'
He let out a weary sigh that seemed to come from the bottom of his soul. 'Putang ina, putang ina, putang inaa… (Fuck*3)'
He chugged it all down in one go, a consumption of duty rather than savoring the flavor, and handed the empty cup back to her.
"Thanks." The word was quiet, but clear.
He then stared at the fox lady with a familiar look, altho the color from what he knows and he deeply cared for, was not this yellow, as if needing to immediately counterbalance that moment, he pointed a lazy finger at the fox lady. "Who is that? Why is there a furry cosplayer here?"
The fox lady—Ran—flinched as if struck, her nine tails bristling. "I am not! The audacity..!" she hissed, her composure cracking.
Yukari merely glanced at her, a silent command. Ran met her master's gaze, took a sharp breath, and calmed her tails, though a twitch of irritation remained at the tip of her nose. She stepped forward, her posture rigid with practiced dignity.
She bowed slightly, a picture of impeccable form. "I am Ran Yakumo, a Shikigami of Lady Yukari." Her voice was calm, but there was a frosty edge to it. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, despite your… unique manner of introduction."
Nowa's smirk returned, but it was weaker now, influenced by the warm tea and Marisa's kindness. "Yeah, sure. A pleasure." He let his head fall back onto the pillow, closing his eyes. "The welcoming committee is noted. Now, for real. I sleep. Or I might start growing ears next."
"Sure, go ahead. Take all the rest you need." Reimu's voice was calm and there was no hostility. "We will be discussing in the other room. Don't do anything stupid. Got it?"
Nowa gave a tire and lazy hand wave. "Sure. I don't sleepwalk, I sleep snore." Reimu ignored the joke, and Marisa giggled. He shifted to the side, back on them and tucked himself.
They all moved to the other side leaving Nowa alone.