Chapter 13

“I know that this is a ‘safe area’ and all,” Yayoi asked, “but should it really be like this?”

“Yes,” Taku said with a straight face, his limbs moving up and down to make a black angel out of the patch of wet paper roses he created himself. “I’m afraid this is necessary.”

Teri forced his mouth shut. He’s not part of their conversation right now. Which is the best. He’s doing the very same thing as Taku. And yes, he also feels like this is necessary.

The rats had nothing notable with them. They had waterskins, which they used to refill theirs. No weapons either. They probably caught those rats about to end their patrol. Teri suggested butchering them and eating them, since they smell like stationery. But the two looked at him in disgust. They were so in tune with each other. Taku firmly said no and nothing else. Yayoi let out a strongly-worded litany about why she wouldn’t eat rats and would eat Taku’s leg instead—which made Taku blush for some reason.

Teri let out a long, relaxed breath through his nose. If he had to be honest, he didn’t immediately believe Taku when, upon getting to the starting area, he found himself a nice patch of roses and started rolling on it. He did it for the memes, he said. Teri asked what memes. Taku shrugged. Taku said he was partly curious. It got Teri curious too, so he did the same. He actually liked the feeling when his body crushed a him-shaped patch of roses. There was the initial worry of his clothes turning black. But black is good anyway. But the ink. Oh, the ink. Teri could feel himself smiling as its cold, slimy touch combed through his skin to suck the dirt and tiredness away. Now, he’s focused on making his ink angel. Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In his own space. Focused. Flourishing.

“For what?” Yayoi asked, casting her shadow over them. She kicked Teri’s foot. Teri opened her eyes, glanced at her, and closed it. Unbothered. Yayoi’s eye twitched. She kicked him again. “Seriously?”

“For my mental health,” Taku started, “I need to feel stupid once in a while to offset the amount of brain energy I burn by thinking too much all the time. You should try it.”

Yayoi raised a brow. “Taking care of my mental health?”

“Being stupid.”

“Thanks,” Yayoi scoffed, “but I’d rather die.”

“Than take care of your mental health?” Taku also let out a relaxing sigh. “That’s rough, buddy.”

“It’s fun,” Teri finally said, his body squelching the ink. “I think you should try it at least once.”

“But won’t it stain my clothes?”

“I thought so too, but…” Teri sighed. He reluctantly peeled himself away from his patch, making Yayoi see the ink, with its slimy texture, refuse to part from the ground and let him go. Then, Teri patted himself to show that he’s dry and twirled and bowed like a princess to show that his clothes weren’t stained.

“Well, isn’t that oddly useful,” Yayoi said. “I can wash myself without taking my clothes off. How does it feel?”

“It’s cold. Relaxing? It sort of… sucks the tiredness away from you. Also, I don’t feel itchy or anything. My skin feels like I washed it with those expensive soaps that my mom used to have when I was a kid—it feels clean, silky, and baby-butt smooth.”

“You know that stuff is just for the face, right?”

“Nope.” Teri grunted as he got back on his patch, giggling as the ink welcomed him once more. “But I did clean everything with it. I mean, it’s fine because it’s soap. It’s clean.”

Yayoi crossed her arms, glaring at the boys. Unnerved by the silence, she found herself a patch of roses beside Teri. She looked at Teri again, silently asking if it was okay. Teri just smiled at him. She sighed once again and carefully let her body down the bed of flowers. At first, it was silent. A good ten seconds, about the same time when the ink found itself clutching into her skin. Then, she started moving her limbs to make her very own ink angel. Her lips. From nothing. To a smile. Then to a giggle. Then a laugh. It just felt right for Teri to get his eyes away from her and let her have some fun.

Taku, on the other hand, seemed to have seen better days. He moved his head slightly to look at Teri. Both his hands at his belly. Tears streaming down his face. His body glowing with a golden light. “So… the healing spells can’t heal a broken heart.”

“What happened?” Teri whispered.

“Something precious was taken away from me. It feels weird.” Taku faced the pink ceiling. “I like this ink. It’s cool, soothing. It recovers our stamina. But I guess it’s only natural that these blessings have their curses too, in one way or another. It’s painful to think about…”

“What are you on about?”

Taku looked at him. “Being able to take a shower without having to remove your clothes is just… plain wrong, Teri.” Taku stifled a cry, his lips shaking. “It’s wrong. And I feel robbed. There’s a lot of things that can happen. Maybe we’ll stumble upon a hotspring. Maybe a river. A lake. Or the sea. Anything can happen. We could’ve made a fanservice episode based on that, Teri. Think about it. I didn’t even get the chance to peep at someone.”

“Yeah, you’ll fuckin’ die,” Teri said. Yayoi came to mind, and smiled even wider at the thought. He found his hands resting on his belly too. Like his best friend. “Don’t do that. Just don’t.”

“Have you tried peeping, Teri?”

“Yeah…”

Taku sniffled. “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck…” he whispered, his voice almost breaking into a cry. “What happened?”

“I was young. Like, eight… maybe nine years old. Our house… in the slums, Like… Our houses were so close to each other that we sort of knew what our neighbors were doing. That includes fighting… taking a shower, and even you know…”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Teri chuckled. “We even had a code word for it—bembang.”

“Bembang…” Taku said dramatically, his voice full of admiration. Then, he shivered. “Sounds icky, though.”

“Well, you’re not supposed to like it,” Teri continued. “But yeah… there was this one time that our neighbor, my friend’s mom, was taking a bath. Me being curious, I decided to check out. Let’s say that I liked what I saw, but I was later caught. She beat the shit out of me. Her husband did too. My mom came to the rescue. But upon hearing the story, she joined them too. It sucked. But it gets worse. Everyone heard about it.”

Taku’s eyes glimmered. “But was she hot?”

“The lesson of the story is you should not peep,” Teri replied. Then, there was a moment of silence. He entertained the thought and snickered. A big mistake. “Yeah,” he replied to Taku, and both of them laughed.

“Hey, Teri…” Taku yawned and turned his back to him.

“Yeah?”

“Can you take the first watch?”

“Sure…”

Taku mumbled something, but it seems that sleep held him hostage even before he could finish his thought. Teri smiled at his friend’s back and peeled himself away from his patch. Then, he realized that he had forgotten someone important. Yayoi. Fearing her reaction, Teri snapped his head towards her.

She’s afloat a puddle of ink with a larger, more impressive black angel. Unbothered. Moisturized. On her own. Flourishing. Sleeping. Teri laughed at the thought of her proclaiming that she’ll kill them in their sleep. A part of him wanted to slap her awake and say to her that he caught her lacking. But nah. It looked like she deserved this kind of peace once in a while. Her strained eyes looked a bit more relaxed, with strings of her hair falling softly on her skin. She’s beautiful, even with the sound of Taku snoring.

Teri sighed and scanned their surroundings. He’s going to watch over and protect two people now. But something tells him that it’s not bad at all.