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The scrawny boy preferred to lean against the wall, even though Imobach flattened the sheets beneath him and made room for him at the level of his legs.

“I'm glad you guys spoke up.”

“Oh… Deep down you have your little heart.” Coral's lips pressed together in an attempt not to show a smile.

“No. It was just very uncomfortable.”

“I'm telling you, in someone else's house and with all the tension. Well,” Imobach jumped up, gathered her hair into a high ponytail, most of the hair on the back of her neck came loose within a few seconds. “I'm going to make breakfast. Pancakes with honey?”

He left his room after seeing his sister nod.

“Let's go to my room, even though he left us here I know he'd rather there wasn't anyone there.”

“At least he has a room.”

“Does the young gentleman have any complaints?”

“Everything can be improved. But I am still quite grateful.”

The girl stood up, tried to get up on one foot, and managed it, but taking a step was more difficult. She staggered and then made eyes at the boy. If she thought he was going to pick her up, she was wrong, but in return he brought her the crutch.

“It smells musty” the boy commented upon entering.

“I'll be writing down your complaints, then.”

As she sat down, Coral pulled her feet back up, tucking her hands under each sole and resting her head in the hollow between her knees. She was ready to open up again, but Yuusuke had other plans.

“Since I've been here, I've discovered unconscious fears that I thought didn't exist.” she crossed her legs. Whenever Coral did this, I thought it gave her a stylized touch, like in the boys love of 2010. “What defines me as a human being? What is the difference, in me, between being alive or dead? Do I exist or have I gone crazy? These are the questions that have haunted me since then, then I read the definition that is given in this part of the universe, it comforts me at times and I move on to something else.”

“Oh…” she felt really bad, for everything that had happened and she didn't know anything. “I'm really sorry…”

"Don't get distracted," he ordered with a slap to the forehead. "I'm telling you that things don't make sense on their own, it's you who gives them the meaning. Use it to your advantage."

“Chimo,” Yuusuke was surprised but easily deduced who she was referring to. Coral surprised too, it had been a while since she called him that, “he mentioned something to me about it, I didn't know why you had really come” she involuntarily incriminated her brother. “Have you come to toughen up?”

Yuusuke's eyebrows raised without needing to give them any orders.

“No.”

“So? Tell me” Coral stomped her feet softly, out of curiosity and urgency.

“You'll find out in the next volume.” he said ironically. “I'm not worried about things that don't happen in this universe.”

“But your brother…”

“That my brother is a dizzy flash mental man,” Coral undoubtedly knew that Adassa had secretly given him English lessons, “is known in my universe and in yours.”

He made no further statements, despite the girl's insistence.

“Do you understand why this happened to you?” he continued with his explanation.

“Yes…” there it was, although he expected it he couldn't help but feel a pressure in his chest, fleeting but alarming. “If I don't try hard, I feel like I'm worthless. My parents only called when I had achievements and… I learned that if I didn't do it that way, they would walk away.”

“That,” he paused, which emphasized his veracity, “is what you wanted to interpret.”

“You're wrong. Deep down, I know that I'm a nuisance, I'm a selfish person who can only help in exchange for a simple recognition.”

“Your fears are the ones talking.” he retorted, Yuusuke's eyes seemed sharper than usual.

“It's like there's something warning me, an alarm: Annoying! Help! Annoying!” Coral's voice became deeper, trying to simulate a computer.

Yuusuke left his support behind and walked up to Coral, crouching down at her height, leaving his legs in a constant bend, which seemed endless, long and thin, stylized, like in Nakamura's style.

“I'm rarely wrong. I speak when I'm sure.” He lowered his chin to intimidate the girl's reasoning. “Not everyone is looking out for you and not everyone is waiting for you to disappoint them. Telling them No won't make them reject you, and some crude criticism isn't the end of your world. It was days ago and here you are.”

“I had promised Agoney to look after his brother the other day and I couldn't, now he's not answering me” she pointed to the mobile phone on the table, although the screen was off.

“One less burden.”

The boy raised an eyebrow, if those were the few arguments he had, it would be very easy.

Coral hesitated for a second, by burden did she mean a task or that people themselves are a nuisance?

“Do you know everything or what?”

Without a doubt, ever since I met him, even if he took a while to respond, he always had an appropriate answer for everything.

“That's the appeal of my manga.” He looked up at the top corner of his eyes, grimaced, and nodded to himself. “It's mine too.”

“Snooty…” she gave him a light tap on the shoulder to make him lose his balance, but he didn't.

“I'm not arrogant for acknowledging my virtues. You have an inferiority complex.”

Without realizing it, Coral was smiling, she kept repeating that he was a conceited asshole but she had grown fond of him, she shook her head without taking her eyes off him and then her mouth became serious again.

“Do you really think I'm not pathetic and dramatic?”

“I didn't say that.” Coral got a thorn in her side, she would have liked me to deny that I was one. “I tell you that due to social factors in your growth and, probably, genetics, you have created a wrong perception. It's not bad to refuse, not to please, not to sacrifice yourself to do something that the rest don't want, not to be the best, etc.”

“And how do I do it? It's not like I have a bell that when I ring it, it stops being like that” she repeated to herself, but she really wanted it to be like that, it was the only way she saw possible to leave all those insecurities behind.

“The brain is malleable, and at sixteen you have plenty of plasticity.” he stood up quickly and agilely, he certainly had good joints. He took a few steps back to lean against the desk.

“I swear I try not to think about it, but it's not that easy. I say I don't care and when I wake up that thought is already in my mind. It stays with me for the rest of the day.”

“You'll get over it. Everyone does, don't be so self-centered as to think that anything different will happen to you.”

Coral retreated even further, only to reflect and try to listen to her logical side, which, although tiny compared to her sentimental side, did exist. Finally, she stretched out on the bed.

“You're right.” she walked to the edge of her bed and sat down, swinging her legs. “It's not like Madoka and Akemi don't end up together, that would be horrible,” she snorted with a smile.

“About that…” the boy rolled his eyes, but when he wanted to continue talking he was interrupted.

“I'm glad you say that!” Adassa entered through the door like a miura, imposing and strong. She stood between them and showed them the screen of the device. “We have a new mission now.”

“How long have you been listening?” Coral covered herself with the sheet because of the nakedness of the conversation.

“How long have you been talking?” She scolded his eyes and, after a second, as he didn't care, he continued. “It's close and it doesn't seem complicated.”

Coral stopped listening to her and looked towards the door, expecting to see someone else, but there was no one. It distressed her, especially since she knew it was her fault and she hadn't had the courage to fix it. Yes, that would definitely be her next goal.

“Hey! Listen.” Adassa held her by the cheeks to make himself heard. “Before leaving the apartment, Muscles 2 told me that he was signing up, he is interested, that…”

"Well, that's a good thing!" Coral complained, partly because she was expecting to spend the rest of the day with her brother, partly because it meant breakfast was over and she was drooling over pancakes.

Yuusuke didn't care, he had been smelling them for a while and was waiting for the moment to go and taste them. Was there any filling to make a savory one?

"Tomorrow," Adassa ordered. "It's in the north, but we'll go early anyway, I've already calculated the route. It will be hot but the forecast says it will be cloudy, and there are some rest areas and, on the way back, the typical bar in the middle of the road."

“Do we risk it being another joke?” Or something worse, Yuusuke thought.

“They better not,” a half smile appeared on the face of the curly mohawk girl. “I've already recorded the IP and address.”

The two brunettes looked at each other, with the adrenaline of taking on a new challenge, then, almost at the same time, they sought the approval of the third.

Coral hesitated, still feeling uncomfortable about risking herself and being exposed again, not physically but mentally. She took a breath, avoided her thoughts by mentally chanting Akuma no ko, and clenched her fists. She would have time later to regret it.

“In any case, it's an experience.” She slid onto the furniture to sit up. “May I have a moment?”