Chapter 19: Childhood - 18
At the sight of the monstrosity, all of the adults instinctively backed away a few steps.
"What the fuck is that?" Genzai muttered, before Kako smacked him across the back.
"No cursing!"
"Hey! There’s no way that isn’t your first reaction!" Genzai shot back, gesturing wildly at the thing hovering before them.
The creature hung awkwardly in the air, staring at them with a greedy, unfocused gaze. Its mouth opened and closed as thick, blood-stained drool dripped from leech-like teeth.
"Well..." Even Kako couldn’t argue with that, and she clicked her tongue, backing off.
Genji cautiously stepped closer, circling toward the creature’s swollen midsection.
His eyes narrowed as he noticed something protruding through the flesh—deer antlers, unmistakably so. He glanced back at Isshun.
"It’s safe to approach, if you want."
As Genji moved in, Genzai leaned toward Isshun and whispered urgently, "Are you sure it’s safe?"
"Why would I lie?" Isshun snapped back quietly, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "So I can watch Nejire’s grandpa die?"
Maybe it was the creature’s sheer presence, or maybe the information influx from Hypercognition giving Genzai a headache, but Genzai’s common sense seemed to have short-circuited.
Flushing, he nodded quickly and retreated to Kako’s side instead of digging himself deeper.
Genji examined the stomach more closely, then looked back at Isshun.
"Can you take out Moriyama?"
"Yeah...?" Isshun replied, hesitant but certain.
With Omniscient Domain in its natural state, Isshun constantly received topographical data, normally supplemented by his other senses to create a coherent picture.
That was why, when Precognition activated, it didn’t just return vague outlines like radar, giving the ’future projections’ color.
However, if Isshun deliberately shrunk the range of the Omniscient Domain the accuracy increased qualitatively.
This meant that Isshun could basically see inside the monster and analyze everything perfectly like it was X-Ray vision if the Domain was small enough.
Shrinking and increasing the Domain in exchange for increased or decreased information did require some focus.
Genji glanced between Isshun and the stomach. "...Is he alive?"
Yes. Somehow, there were two heartbeats inside the creature. One came from its chest—where a human heart should be. The other pulsed weakly from within its stomach.
When Isshun focused there, the image made his stomach twist violently.
Moriyama was barely recognizable—reduced to a mangled mass of flesh.
Bones were bent at impossible angles, blood pooling freely inside the creature’s stomach. Worse, his flesh was fusing with the monster’s inner lining.
Isshun barely had time to turn away before vomiting what little he’d eaten that morning.
His enhanced senses betrayed him completely.
He could smell the rotting and fusing flesh, see the flowing blood, hear the further cracking of already broken bones.
His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees, heaving.
"Shun-kun!" Kako rushed to his side immediately, rubbing his back.
Tomoe followed close behind. Even knowing Isshun for less than a day, watching a child in pain was unbearable for any mother.
Isshun had always thought of himself as somewhat desensitized to gore.
Not because he was edgy or cared about blood or anything, but having a childhood with unrestricted internet access meant that he inevitably saw some fucked up things.
He could watch movies that people considered cursed, and look at images of gore with only a wince and a weird feeling throughout his body.
This was different.
This was a four-dimensional version. Smell, sound, depth—no screen between him and reality.
’Damn it... this is killing me,’ he thought hazily as tears streamed from his eyes and his throat burned.
However, desensitization was the best method with his mind, as Isshun instead of automatically dismissing his hyperanalysis, merely kept paying attention to it, but trying to also distance himself from it mentally.
Kind of like how an experienced doctor could look at a patient from a detached point of view.
After throwing up the rest of his meal, Isshun started dry heaving, a natural physical reaction.
However, his mind was already ignoring the pain and focusing solely on the monster.
Tomoe pressed a water bottle into his hands. Isshun drank automatically, barely registering it.
If Isshun didn’t do anything about Moriyama, then his death was only inevitable.
His heart may still be beating, but he also had to stop the fusing inside the monster’s stomach.
However, this fusing also told Isshun something.
This monster wasn’t just a monster.
It was something with a Quirk.
Hyperanalysis confirmed it: a human brain, a human heart. This thing was—had been—a person.
And inside its flesh, there was something like a tracker.
After confirming that, Isshun immediately dismantled the device. He didn’t know its purpose, but leaving it intact wasn’t worth the risk.
Finishing the bottle, Isshun took a few deep breaths.
Only then did he finally register the worried faces around him.
"I’m fine now," he said quietly.
Yet even with that reassurance Kako still hovered close to Isshun, worried that something might happen again.
Isshun turned to Genji. "The person inside is still alive."
"Is that so?!" Genji exclaimed.
Before he could say more, Tomoe yanked his ear hard. "Is that what you’re focused on right now? Didn’t you see the kid nearly collapse?!"
Genji winced, chastened.
"I’m really fine," Isshun insisted, cutting in.
Tomoe shot Genji a glare before exhaling and letting go.
"I can get him out," Isshun continued, voice steady but strained. "But he’s..."
He didn’t need to finish.
Every adult present understood, their expressions darkening.
"What do we do, then?" Mitsuru asked tightly. "The nearest hospital is an hour away—and it’s just a clinic."
"Even with an ambulance it’s impossible," Genji added.
Silence fell.
One by one, their eyes drifted toward the same person.
Isshun.
With what he’d already shown, getting Moriyama to a proper hospital would be easy—for him.
But after watching him break down, after seeing how hard he was forcing himself to stand—
No one could bring themselves to ask.
This was supposed to be the adults’ responsibility.
Leaving it to an elementary schooler wasn’t right.
No matter how capable he seemed, Isshun was still just a child.
So... what were they supposed to do?
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A/N: College lowkey gives me little time for long chaps, so if i wanna keep up the schedule, small chaps are lowkey necessary cause my wpm is really low and i write pretty slowly.
Thanks for all the support tho!
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2200PS - Not Complete
4500PS - Not Unlocked