Chapter 37 - Hideki Again

As if moving in slow motion, blood starts leaking from Fumio's finger and soon, a droplet of blood falls and lands right at the center of the white paper slip. Fumio and Gorou then watch and wait for something to happen.

However, aside from the blood starting to dye the fibers of the paper, nothing else is happening.

Fumio is the first one to take his eyes off the strip of paper. He then looks at Gorou in confusion but Gorou's eyes are still on the strip of paper. Seeing as Gorou does not seem to be taking his eyes off the paper anytime soon, Fumio gets worried.

"Gorou-sama. Did I do something wrong?" He asks, taking Gorou's attention.

"No. You did well." Gorou sighs.

"If I may be presumptuous. What was the purpose of that?" Fumio asks.

He receives a look from his question.

"I-I mean… It was my blood." He adds, almost forgetting that he should act meek.

Gorou finds reason in Fumio's words so he nods. "I was just hoping that you had a late superioris awakening." He explains as he points at the piece of paper. "And this is a test for that."

"Ah… I see." Fumio shows a disappointed face. "But seeing as nothing happened, I guess I don't have no hopes of becoming one."

He is relieved however. He has now confirmed that Red's arts does not make one a superioris while allowing him to have the abilities of one.

Gorou on the other hand, finally drops his suspicion of Fumio. The evidence right in front of him overrides his gut feeling.

"Late awakening is after all, very rare. Being a superioris is not all there is to life. Look at you, you seem to be doing better than most superiori." Gorou butters Fumio up to prevent the situation and misunderstanding from getting awkward.

"Anyways. Did you have plans before I asked for you?" He asks.

"I didn't, but I have to do a lot of preparations to do for an important appointment tomorrow." Fumio uses the chance as an excuse to leave.

"Very well. I will not take anymore of your time. I will have Sayuri escort you back to your home." Gorou gestures to the door.

"Thank you, Gorou-sama." Fumio slowly props himself up, feeling relieved that the conversation went well.

"NO!" Suddenly, from the side door, Hideki's figure bursts in the tea room and tackles Fumio.

While Fumio is startled, he gets over it immediately. While he could have avoided Hideki, he figures that doing so will arouse Gorou's suspicion so he can only let himself be taken down to the floor.

Hideki quickly mounts Fumio and "You're not getting out of here!", he growls to Fumio's face.

He then presses down on Fumio's face, takes a knife out of his pocket, and stabs down.

"N-no!"

It is easy for Fumio to catch Hideki's hand, preventing the knife from burying itself to his body, but he is putting more an effort of wearing a face of fear while making it look like Hideki is slowly overpowering him.

When he was still in the clan, and when he was still a target of Hideki's power trips, he learned to act like he is about to piss himself in fear. He learned such skill figuring out that Hideki will only stop bullying his victim once he is satisfied with the look of fear on his victim's eyes and face.

"Y-you!" Seeing the face that Fumio is making, makes Hideki freeze in action in confusion and doubt.

His desire to kill however overrides his doubt and he resumes his effort in stabbing the knife down. His hesitation however was enough for Gorou to take action.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Gorou, with his speed and strength easily intervenes.

He then takes the knife from Hideki's hand and throws it to the side of the room.

Hideki, now weaponless, resorts to a more barbaric measure and brings his hands together to choke Fumio.

"If you're not a superioris, then you have to be a demon!"

"ENOUGH!" Gorou, seeing Hideki's actions, finally loses his patience, and with great control of his strength, slaps Hideki's face.

This is enough to stun Hideki and he loosens his hold on Fumio's neck.

Fumio takes this chance to take Hideki's hands off of him, makes use of a defensive maneuver of the Hasegawa style grappling, and topples Hideki to the side.

Fumio, now sure that Gorou is on his side, turns to lie on his stomach to feign an injury, not caring at all if Hideki will jump on him again.

"*cough* *cough* *cough*" He feels fine but he starts to wheeze his breathing to add another layer on his act.

"Gorou-sama!" "Hideki-sama!" Suddenly, two guards, barge into the room after hearing the commotion from outside.

"Take Hideki back to his room please." Gorou orders defeatedly, and the two guards obey immediately, taking each of Hideki's arms to secure.

"Let me go! You fucks! Once I get my powers back, I'll fuck you two up!" Hideki can only struggle and yell curses.

The guards however smirk in their mind knowing about Hideki's condition.

"FUMIO! This isn't over! RUN! HIDE! One of these days you'll wish you never made it out of there alive!" Hideki gives Fumio one more threat before being dragged out of the room.

Gorou puts his attention back on Fumio to see Fumio still holding his neck. But seeing that Fumio is fine aside from the Red handprints on his neck, Gorou sighs in relief.

"Are you fine, young man?" Gorou asks.

"I-I'm fine, sir…" Fumio says in a strained voice as he shakily sits back up.

Gorou shakes his head looking at Fumio trembling in fear.

"It was unfortunate that you had to go through that. Is there anything the clan can do for you? Maybe something that can help you with your life out there?" He asks.

Fumio has a lot to say, but holds himself back. He does not want any help from the clan after all.

"I'm fine, Gorou-sama ... All I need is a sense of normalcy. I want to go back to my life." Fumio refuses Gorou's offer.

"I see. How about visiting your family before you go? I heard from your father that you haven't seen them since you left. You can calm down at your former home before you go." Gorou suggests.

Fumio this time, is tempted. However, thinking about how none of his family members did not contact him for three years, to even check whether or not he is still alive, he drops the idea.

He does not blame his family as he knows that they considered his act of leaving the clan a form of betrayal as a fellow clansman. But that does not remove the resentment in his heart that his family never tried to understand his situation as a non-superiori in a place where the non-superiori members' purpose in the clan are to serve and attend to the superiori members.

"It's too sudden of me to do so, Gorou-sama. And I'm not in my right mind right now." Fumio says as he stands up.

As a one last layer of his act, he feigns shaky legs and a stumble.

"Are you sure you're fine?" Gorou asks, fooled by Fumio's state.

"Yes, sir." Fumio takes a deep breath. "Well then, if you would excuse me." He bows to Gorou.

"Uhn. It's good to see a young man raised by the clan doing well in society." Gorou has nothing else to say.

~

"Hn?" Fumio is surprised seeing his sister still in front of Gorou's house, leaning with her back against the hood of her car. He is about to ignore her, but Sayuri saw him and she gestures him to come to her.

"Sayuri-san, you're still here?" He asks, confused that Sayuri waited for him.

"Ehh.. Yes." Sayuri almost does not know how to react at Fumio's question.

She feels odd that Fumio thinks that she will simply leave after escorting him to the clan head's house.

"I was curious." She can only say as an excuse. "So, how did it go?" She asks.

"It was a pleasant talk. Except when Hideki barged in and almost killed me." Fumio says as he wears a fearful face.

This surprises Sayuri. "A-are you fine?" She asks.

"Yes. Thank goodness Gorou-sama was quick on his feet." Fumio smiles bitterly.

"I see. You seem shaken up. How about coming to the house with me?" Sayuri offers.

"No. Maybe some other time, some other place. I just want to get out of here." Fumio says as he starts walking away from Sayuri.

Sayuri seeing Fumio's back looking so downtrodden compared to its confident look earlier, guilt start scratching on her heart.

"Fumio. At least let me drive you to the train station." She offers, making Fumio turn around.

"Then I thank you in advance." Fumio gives Sayuri a subtle smile.

While he feels bad deceiving his sister too, but him showing that he is fine and unaffected by the earlier events, will leave a risk of rousing suspicion.

…

...

...

General Masaru Hasegawa Hospital, Psychiatry Dept. - 9AM

The hospital's psychiatric 50 something year-old professor and best attending doctor drops by a hospital room. There are other psychiatrists in the hospital who can take care of the new patient but because the new patient has a special identity than average, he was put in charge with him.

"…Hideki-san. How are you feeling?" He finds Hideki lounging on the hospital room couch, watching TV.

It has been five days since Hideki's outburst in his home.

Due to Hideki's mental instability, Gorou had no choice but to send him to the nearest good psychiatric facility.

"I'm good, doctor." Hideki says in acknowledgement, but his eyes are still on the TV screen.

"…" The doctor in his years of experience knows when a patient is keeping something to themselves.

"Hideki. Come on. You can confide in me. What is bothering you?" He asks.

Hideki looks at the doctor for a moment before returning his eyes to the TV.

"What makes you any different from them?" He scoffs.

"Well, help me understand." The doctor takes a seat at the arm of the couch.

"You already know what happened to me … Do you believe me?" Hideki asks.

"Well. I believe that you were a victim. As for the identity of the perpetrator, it leaves too much room for doubt." The doctor goes with honesty.

"Hmph. Quack." Hideki snorts in disdain.

"I may not know exactly what you're going through, but I can empathize. Before we go fixing the problem about the perpetrator, why don't we start with yourself first?" The doctor is already used to insults from mentally unstable patients so he smoothly moves on.

"No. Get out." Hideki however points to the door. "Because if you're really a doctor, you'd know that I'm not sick in the head." He can barely suppress his fists from flying out to the doctor's face.

He would have acted out if he didn't know that there are guards sent by his father waiting right outside his hospital room.

"Alright. I will." The doctor sees a violent tendency when he sees one so he stands up.

"But my advice to you, Hideki, is to solve your nightmares about the incident first. The earlier we work on them, the better." He adds as he leaves the room.

"I'm not fuckin crazy. How can they not see that?"

As if all the strength left his body, Hideki sinks further down to the sofa.

[[That's right. You're not crazy…]] a distorted voice suddenly reverberates around his room.

"Who's there?!" Hideki is startled.

[[Someone who believes in you.]] The voice responds.

"…Have I really gone crazy?..." Hideki curls himself to a fetal position and covers his ears with his hands in fear.

[[Well… Believe what you want to believe. But know one thing. I can help you get your powers back.]]

Hideki is stunned, unsure if what he heard was really said.

"Say that again?"

[[Not only can I get you your powers back, you'll even be more powerful than before.]]

"What's the catch?"

[[Just let me in your body.]]

"You're a demon?" Hideki's eyes almost pop out of his body and he looks around in fear.

[[So what? Right now, I'm the only one who can help you. Don't be too choosy.]] The demon says.

"I-I…" Hideki is stumped, feeling that the demon is right.

[[Just welcome me to yourself. Be one with me. Use my strength to exact revenge on those who wronged you.]]

Hideki at this point, no longer cares if the voice is from a demon.

He just wants to get his powers back.

"B-be one with me."

[[Fantastic.]]

Black smoke suddenly comes out of the vent of Hideki's hospital room and soon, the room is filled with it. Hideki is both fearful and excited seeing the proceedings. Soon, the black smoke convene in front of Hideki as a focal point.

Soon that head of the smoke smashes towards Hideki and before Hideki can scream, the rest of the black smoke in the room enter his mouth, ears, and nose.

A few seconds later, the room is now clear.

Hideki meanwhile seems unconscious.

But not for long.

His eyes open but unlike his natural white sclera and black irises, his sclera is now tinted pink and his black irises have a red shine on them.

"Puhup… Fool." He suddenly snickers to himself, his smile looking sadistic than he could have ever made before.

"That was delicious. And lucky." He continues to utter as he stands up and starts hopping on the balls of his feet.

"A weak unstable mind ready waiting to be possessed. A broken SPARK easy for me to swallow… I should hang out in hospitals more often.." He proudly says as tentacles of black smoke grow from his fingers.