Hitori suggested they should take the shortest route and teleport to the hospital. Kakashi and Eya would have had no problem with that but since they were full of time and low on mana, Eya explained:
"We need to use a mana booster that costs around ten thousand yen to teleport to the hospital, it is enchanted with the anti-teleportation spell. Although we have been to every room of the hospital when we were students, with the current distance from the hospital, it was impossible to teleport without dying of mana loss."
They discarded the idea and stuck to the route they had come from, the Forbidden Forest. Since the city was getting dark and a few guards were slacking off, the trio managed to slip into the academy. They teleported to the men's room and paused in front of a certain stall.
Kakashi appeared behind them. "What do we do with him, Eya-nee?" he asked.
Kakashi locked the men's door and strode beside Eya. She was studying the stone body lying in the stall, the person's mouth was wide, his eyes were bold, his gun was pointed at them, and his limbs were rigid.
"What is the possibility of him informing the community about three mage spies who invaded the science academy at midnight and petrified him?" Eya asked.
Kakashi sighed. "We can not leave him like that."
"We should kill him, I say. The spell will wear off within two or three hours."
"He is innocent," Kakashi said. "He did not hurt us anyway."
Hitori remembered an incident from the last month. "I know just the perfect spell for him." He stepped forward.
"Spell? Boy, do not kill him."
Hitori pulled out his wand and pointed it at the person. "Shoukyo."
Kakashi licked his lower lip, then pursed his lips. "Such an expected blunder from a brat with no experience with magic."
Hitori's grin dropped. "If we can not kill him, we can make him forget about us---"
"Hitori-san..." Eya sighed.
"Deal with him, Eya-nee, he is a hopeless case."
"Oh, Hitori-san," she groaned, pushing her hair behind her ears, "that would not work."
"Do you think we are dumb, boy? And we would not know about such a silly charm? We would let you make move so that you impress us just because you are the protagonist of your life?"
"Kakashi," she nodded, "I am dealing with him." She turned to Hitori. "The scientists have found a way to restore human memory if erased by magic. That indeed was a stupid move but---" she paused and looked up, as if memorizing something, "but... but maybe we can derive another charm from it! Oh, god, Kakashi!"
Kakashi raised his eyes. "What? Did you find another charm?"
"Yes, yes! How could we forget it?" She looked at Hitori and moved towards him. "Thanks, Hitori-san!" She threw her arms around his shoulder. "If you had not used the memory-erasing charm, it would not have clicked to me."
Hitori's hands started trembling. He could not move his limbs, he felt as if he was petrified. He tried harder but still could not. His face went red as if he was choking, the anger was getting the best of him.
Kakashi noticed the slight change in Hitori's expressions, then suddenly he saw small tears forming in Hitori's eyes.
"E-enough," Hitori said, "I said enough!"
His eyes were fidgeting in disbelief. "Eh?"
Eya pulled her head from Hitori's chest.
Hitori lowered his gaze, Kakashi followed him and found Hitori's wand against Eya's stomach.
"Eya-nee---"
"Move. Away," Hitori said, his eyes widening with every word he said. "Get away from me!"
He shouted and cast the explosion spell. Eya would have flown meters away from Hitori if there were no walls to stop her. Kakashi drew his wand. He grunted as he tried to stop his sister from flying toward the wall.
"Fuck!" He dropped the wand and raised his hands. "Levitation!"
He grabbed her, and her back collided with the wall before she stopped in the air on her way back to the wall after the bounce.
Hitori stood still. Kakashi rested Eya on the floor and threw Hitori a glare. Hitori collected his thoughts and ran inside the stall.
Kakashi cast a spell on Eya that healed her immediately. They both rose from the ground, Eya with a little trouble.
Kakashi moved past her. "I will fucking kill him." He bit his lower lip.
He felt a tight grip over his wrist. "No," she said, "let me talk to him."
She limped over to the counter, then regained her balance. She knocked. "Hitori-san? May I talk to you?"
"I am sorry," he said, "I am sorry, I am really sorry for that!"
"I would appreciate it if you could tell me the reason behind instead of apologizing."
Hitori rubbed his eyes and sniffed. "My childhood is responsible for that. I have grown two phobias since then."
Eya was taken aback and so was Kakashi. They had never heard of it before. "What phobia, Hitori-san?"
Eya went closer to the counter than before. She pressed her palm against the door and cast: "Burglar's magic, open the lock."
Hitori dropped his head and grabbed it with his hands. "Fear of... women. Gynophobia, when I come too close to girls, I fear they might---"
"Eat you?" She giggled. "I am pleased you think of me as a woman of interest, though."
"No... I fear they might... ridicule me for being myself."
"Oh, I promise I would not." She smiled, she decoded the digital lock.
"It was not the fear of women that made me do it... a fear greater than that made me do it. It was the fear of touch."
Her smile dropped. And she was about to hug him again.
"Alright, what the heck is that boy talking about?"
Eya stretched her hand, signaling Kakashi to stay put.
"Fear of what, Hitori-san?"
"Haphephobia. When mixed with my fear of girls, I am afraid I might burn to ash if a girl touches me."
"But---"
"Yet. I felt the same I felt when Kiku-san touched me when you touched me. I felt safe. I felt, yeah this might be the time I will not burn, but I guess... a hug was too sudden for me."
"Ah... so that was the problem." Eya glanced at Kakashi. He threw his hands.
"How the fuck is he supposed to make kids, heck, how will he make love, then?" he whispered.
She clicked her tongue. "He says there are exceptions!" she whispered back.
"No way in hell I am letting him make love with you---"
"Shut up, himbo!" She turned to the counter. "Kaki Omoide," she whispered, "use this charm to rewrite his memory. Make it as authentic as possible."
Hitori raised his eyes, nodded, and walked out of the counter. Without making eye contact with anyone, he raced to the counter next to him and bent in front of the petrified scientist.
"Do it from the heart, boy, or you will end up casting another half-assed charm."
Hitori gulped. He first came up with a scene to replace his real memory. Then he looked at the person and swung his wand. "Kaki Omoide."
The fog was thicker than before. All they saw in the distance was the blurred image of the trees and snow ahead.
"Maybe we should light a forest fire."
"Himbo." Eya took another step. "You want to set fire in the forest and trigger the sleeping monsters so that they can get us finally?"
"You do not care about burning down the fire?" Hitori asked.
"Of course not. If the forest burns, other creatures burn with it. The fire might reach the city but fine." She stole a glance. "What the concern is awaking the sleeping monsters."
"What possibly could wake up? A dinosaur maybe? We are not that deep into the forest I think." Hitori was not holding her hand on the way back.
"The rumor says, our city is haunted by a forest-loving adult green dragon. One adult dragon is enough to clear the science prefecture in a few hours."
So they continued. Crossed the river, walked past the partition, then entered the safe area. On the way, they killed a few more monsters and collected rare items like Rare dust, giant minotaur bones, and a special stone only found in a mutated wolf. They collected a few important herbs obtained from mutated plants.
Kakashi summoned their adventurers' cards. When they reached the ministry building they presented the items obtained on the journey. Surprisingly, Eya knew a lot about what items to keep and what to sell. She sold a few herbs and gems for money and kept the cores with them.
She said they were not worth selling unless you want them to be sold underrated. The Guild Master has tones of the minotaur, Satyr, elf, duergars, and wolves cores lying around like nothing. If you sell them to someone who does not value the cores, you are likely to sell them cheap. You need to sell them to someone who is in need of it, they will pay you overrated prices.
Hitori did not know what the real use of the cores was, but if someone was ready to pay overrated rates for them, they must be of huge importance to the buyer.
Anyway, after he stopped gaming and failed as a gamer (in his eyes) he needed to find another source of income. This one was huge, he had killed most of the monsters.
"Where to next?" Eya glanced between Kakashi and Hitori.
"If you think Tengoku attacked, then we run to the Vr-cade. And if he has regained the Vr-cade, he must have set deadly traps. Whatever the possibility is, we are not going back to his house."
"I am hungry," Hitori said.
Eya looked at him and said, "Let us hit a restaurant." They teleported to the nearest restaurant.
He sat with his elbows over the table with Kakashi on his side. They ordered their dinner while Hitori just ordered a Blue Lagoon when he was the one who said he was hungry.
He was not sitting idly, the recent events did not let him. He remembered the flashes from the past. 'Tengoku. What about him? We are doomed if go back and find his army waiting for us.'
He took a sip of his drink. Their dinner arrived, Eya offered some to Hitori but he declined and continued sipping on his mocktail.
'What then? Shall I abandon my house? No. Heck with that, no. It is MY house. But I need a plan... what do I do?'
He grabbed his hair as he continued to think. After a while, when they were almost done, Hitori rubbed his feet together. He was uneasy, he wanted to go into a slumber. He could not come up with a plan.
'Men power? We do not have any. Magic? We lack the mana capacity to take down around fifty scientists. Where do we sleep today? In a hotel? He will come. If he can track me to my house, he can track me down to the hotel. We can not face him, we can not stand him, and what if Onogi makes his move?'
Hitori thought about different possibilities. The only way to find out the most authentic and possible outcome was to think of what would happen, not what will happen.
After a good five minutes, when Eya and Kakashi were done, Hitori felt like crying. For a long time since middle school, he felt he should let himself break down and cry his eyes out.
"Do not do that." He heard someone. At first, he thought it was Eya.
"Please, Eya-nee."
"Look at me, Hitori-Kun, and listen." He raised his eyes in disbelief. He knew that sweet voice. "You can not break down. Be a man and stand for yourself."
He closed his eyes and saw her. She was standing in the bright background with nothing around. "K-Kiku-san?"
She smiled. "You are stuck, are not you, young master?"
"You already know my thoughts, yes."
"And what if the problem you are stuck in?"
"You know it, Kiku-san." He looked at his feet, he was standing in the air.
"You are wondering where should you take them. Where should you take your two new friends and your old friend."
Hitori nodded. "I am still arguing about my old friend though."
"You need to be clear with yourself. You need to trust your heart, work on it in your brain and then make a decision. Just remember, he is an old friend. And you know what he has done to earn the title 'old'."
"Somewhere safe. I need to take them to somewhere safe where no one can hurt us. Not the Onogi, not the Tengoku, no one."
"I can not tell you where the place is, Hitori, but I can tell you what the place is."
Hitori took a glance at Kiku. She was as beautiful as ever, he realized he was not that short either (after seeing Eya).
"All I can tell you is: Get strong. Learn magic, experience magic. Learn to use your magic talent and tame your skills just to protect yourself, at the least."
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