Chapter Sixteen
The chestnut door swung open, revealing a medium-sized room whose interior was done in soft, pleasant colors. A light, unobtrusive beige reigned on the walls, from which hung several paintings of delicate landscapes. Various green plants sat along the windowsill. The desk behind which the specialist sat was made of pale wood. A barely perceptible, pleasant scent of air freshener drifted through the room. The atmosphere inspired in the average visitor a feeling of calm and peace.
Behind the desk sat a stately woman of about forty. Thick glasses perched on her deep-set eyes, and a straight nose pointed toward the doorway. A white doctor's coat rested on her shoulders, her acid-green hair pinned in a bun at the nape of her neck, with strange antenna-like protrusions of the same color rising from the crown of her head. She created around herself, on the whole, an atmosphere of kindness and understanding.
The first to enter was a woman of medium height with a mop of blonde hair and amber eyes. Kohaku drew little Doma behind her—he was smiling, and his beautiful diamond eyes brimmed with interest. His pupils, narrow as a cat's, darted over everything in the room, studying all they landed on.
"Good day." The boy's mother addressed the pleasant woman. "Sato-san, please take good care of my son."
There was no such thing as too much politeness among the Japanese. Nodding with considerable energy, "Sato-san" fixed her gaze on the beautiful boy. His astonishing pallor didn't even give the woman pause—in Japan, even completely white skin was considered closer to a standard of beauty than a flaw. That was to say nothing of the variety human appearances had achieved with the existence of Quirks. The sweetest, kindest-looking creature one could imagine. An absolute darling.
Bowing slightly, the demon spoke in a polite and respectful tone:
"Please take good care of me, Sato-san."
"Of course, Toga-kun…" The woman's voice was deep and warm, the kind one wanted to keep listening to. "Please, have a seat."
She gestured to the chair with a look while her eyes ran over some papers. That didn't take long, and soon the silence that had settled over the room was broken by conversation:
"How are you feeling?" Her tone carried genuine concern. "Is anything bothering you?"
Doma shook his head in an amusing fashion and tilted his head to one side in thought, casting a glance from his beautiful eyes toward the ceiling. A finger with a sharp blue nail was raised to his pale lips, from which came a short, childlike "Mm."
"Everything is fine." The oni said with considerable cheer. "Nothing to complain about."
While the psychologist's eyebrow shot upward, Kohaku stared tensely at her own son, barely catching her lip between her teeth. The answer clearly unsettled her. Rather than asking questions that might provoke a defensive response, the doctor checked her notes once more. Arriving at some decision, she turned to the boy with a gentle smile—an expression that made their faces nearly mirror images of one another:
"May I use my Quirk on you?" The woman asked, glancing at the mother from the corner of her eye as she did. "It will help me help you."
"Of course!" A note of interest slipped through the boy's high childlike voice.
Meeting no resistance in the form of objections, the specialist got to work. The teardrop-shaped tips of the protrusions lit up with a soft glow, and the antennae themselves began to move like a pendulum. The woman narrowed her eyes, peering into those beautiful rainbow irises that tracked the persistent movement.
"Like fireflies!" Doma exclaimed brightly, watching the scene with interest.
The doctor's eyelid twitched almost imperceptibly when she detected not a single grain of childlike happiness or sincerity in that phrase. In truth, there was nothing in the boy's emotions save the faintest, most detached interest and a thread of wariness. A clean white page.
The whole procedure came to a stop, and the green protrusions returned to their resting position in an instant. Their owner's gaze crossed with the boy's mother's—her eyes filled with worry and anticipation. With a quiet exhale, the psychologist looked again at her small patient, on whose face a trace of pique and mild offense had settled—the kind that exists only in children. Though for some reason, that face no longer inspired quite the same trust as before.
"Doma-kun, your mother and I need to speak privately for a moment—would you mind waiting outside, please?" The woman asked gently.
"Sure!" The sadness on his face switched instantly to agreement and enthusiasm.
It was so unnatural that it sent a brief parade of goosebumps marching down the doctor's spine. She and the other woman watched the boy hop down from his chair. He stepped out the door, shutting it quietly, and flashed a pair of fangs from behind his smiling lips as a parting gift.
***
Doma was decidedly not in a good mood—his extraordinarily faint emotional range had been detected. His demonic hearing was exceptionally keen, allowing him to eavesdrop on other people's conversations with ease. Even so, things were considerably better than they could have been. The woman said nothing incriminating, merely advising Kohaku and the boy's father to spend more time with him. Having reassured the anxious mother that there would be no further cause for concern, "Sato-san" sent her on her way in peace.
That was better for the woman herself, as the former Second Upper Moon saw it. Since she had clearly learned nothing compromising through her Quirk, there would be no need to address the problem of her continued existence.
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