Ride on Time

Yayoi snapped her eyes open, quickly patting herself down before peeling out of her ink patch. She got on her feet with her hands raised and winds surging around her. Saying that she was out for blood was not an understatement.

Teri met her bloodlusted glare, breathing low and slow. Though it was more like he glanced at her and then ignored whatever she was doing. He was sitting cross legged in front of her and Taku, his eyes sharp and focused; there was some kind of translucent aura or energy enveloping his body, and it bulged and pulsed for every puff of air.

But the next second came and Teri gasped, clutching his chest like he was having a heart attack, and fell over backwards. Yayoi would’ve kicked him to see if he was still alive, but Teri raised his hand to tell her that he was okay.

“That…” Teri groaned as he pulled himself back. He smiled at Yayoi without much thought and wiped the blood off his nose. “That wasn’t it.”

“Getting violent n-nosebleeds at the sight of me is flattering, r-really. Though Taku did say you like men, so…” Yayoi sat in front of him. “But first… Two questions. How long have I been asleep? What the hell have you been up to?”

“I like women,” Teri said firmly.

“I see.”

Teri sighed. “I know it doesn’t sound convincing if I said it like that.”

“And you did it anyway,” Yayoi replied in a much cheerful tone. “Though do answer my question. Please.”

Teri held up a finger. “You’ve been asleep for roughly four to five hours? Considering how well you were sleeping, I thought I’d see you around hour seven or eight. Never crossed my mind to wake you up. Thought you needed it more than us.”

Teri dug out some bread from his backpack and broke it in half. He gave the larger piece to Yayoi. She picked up her share with both hands, flashing Teri a faint smile.

“What about you?”

“I figured that someone has to keep watch.” Teri took a bite off his bread. “Besides, I'm not a fan of sleeping in unfamiliar areas—even in familiar areas too, I think.”

“How about Taku?”

“Oh, I tried waking him up. I shook him. I rolled him over like a log. I tried slapping his cheeks, which made him open his eyes but not enough to keep him awake. Then I went for his ass—”

“See, now I’m doubting you again. Why would you slap a sleeping man’s ass?”

“I have no defense, your honor.” Teri grimaced and raised both hands, earning a chuckle from the both of them. “Seriously, the guy wouldn’t wake up. I thought he was dead. And I was bored, so…”

“So?”

“Remember our last fight?”

“Did you just change our topic—” Yayoi shook her head. “Go on…”

Teri sighed. “I tried getting back to the feeling I got when I was fighting those rats. I sort of got a hint when I watched you do that… scan… thing. At first I thought it was just the wind, but then I realized something stuck to me. Either it was your energy, or mine reacting to yours. I also remembered what Taku said when he talked about learning some spells from scrolls. So back then, when I focused on that sensation, it cleared my thoughts and I became more in control with my actions. I felt badass.”

Yayoi cupped her chin.

“Well, I did break my body.” Teri lowered his head. “I know… I know it's dumb. But I wanted to see if I could tap into it again. And so… here we are.”

“So now, you’re just breathing with it?”

“Baby steps,” Teri replied, avoiding her curious gaze. “I also tried jogging, but I ended up running like the wind—like really fast. But as soon as I lost focus, the pain came and I had to crawl my way back here. So that’s how I discovered that the ink had healing properties.”

“Aura… huh?”

Yayoi leaned back, crossing her arms. She closed her eyes. After taking a deep breath, she summoned a wave of energy, beginning as a ball of colorless, flickering flame from her heart before extending and enveloping her entire body. Compared to Teri's, hers was more intact, fluid, and pronounced.

Yayoi chuckled. “Oh wow—this is harder than I thought. Never imagined you could do this to just your body… But how does this look? Is this what you’re trying to do?”

“You could talk while you’re in this state?” Teri rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m convinced that you’re doing this to spite me.”

The feeling he gathered from her “aura” was different. Going back to what he initially thought, it was more contained. It seemed she was defining her very own existence to him. Yayoi doing the scan spell felt like she was spreading her entire being thin so she could extend her senses and explore the corridor safely through the wind. In terms of quality, Teri felt like he was holding a candle in front of a great bonfire.

“Pretty much,” Teri smiled, powering through this sense of defeat. “That’s what I was trying to do, but I feel like I’m missing something. Is this related to what you’re going to tell us about?”

“Yeeeeeeeeep.” Yayoi took a slower, deeper breath to make her aura subside. “Taku is asleep, so I’ll talk more about it later. But as thanks…” She smiled—which didn’t look like murdery. “And also because I’d also be bored to death if you decided to sleep… I’ll teach you. But imagine the look Taku would have on his face when he wakes up and us being able to do this…”

Teri grinned. “That’s stupid.”

“That would be very funny. But for starters… have you watched anime before?”

“Have heard of it.”

“That’s not a yes, which means it’s a no.” Yayoi sighed. “Don’t tell Taku I know… it would probably send him over to the moon. Anyway, if you don’t know… then that’s okay. What have you been doing so far?”

Teri met her serious gaze and proudly clutched his chest. “I try to find this sensation within me. Then, I try to focus on it.”

“Focus on it, how?”

“Thinking… about it… harder?”

Yayoi squinted, her lips cracking a smile. “I see.”

“You’re judging me again.”

“Oh, definitely.” Yayoi chuckled.

“Fuck…”

“Let’s just do this. Try to imagine this sensation within you as something. It must be something you can stretch, mold.”

“Like bread?"

“Oddly specific.” Yayoi widened her smile, a bit confused. “But fuck it. Let’s go with that.”

“I’ve seen commercials on TV.”

“I see, I see. Then picture it!” Yayoi continued, her voice slowly becoming a bit more dramatic. “Turn the aura in your heart into a delectable bread dough. The clearer it is in your head the better. Imagine the smell of it, the touch of it… the temperature, even how it feels in your hand—I never actually had the chance to get my hands on a bread dough but you get the gist. Though for example, you can just look at me again. What do you think I tried to use?”

Yayoi summoned her aura once again. It was still intact but more flowy and pronounced than it had been the last time. Teri didn’t know what to think, but he oddly felt comfortable at the thought of Yayoi calling him dumb.

“Water?”

“Right…” Yayoi seemed a bit impressed. “I didn’t go through the bread thingy. Instead, I imagined my spiritual body touching this essence in my heart and spreading it to create a picture of myself on the beach, admiring the sea and overjoyed at the thought of its pristine, salty waters enveloping me as I swam on it. You get it?”

“Thanks, I got it.” Teri did not understand what the fuck Yayoi was talking about. “I’ll take a crack at it. Let’s see what happens…”

“Nice,” Yayoi replied. “But remember… you don’t have to think about the bread harder. Do something about the bread, turn it into something… anything.”

Teri closed his eyes and breathed low, just the way Yayoi did it. He didn’t imagine his entire body. It was too complicated. Instead, he pictured his essence as a ball of bread dough. He wanted to touch it, so he imagined himself as a pair of hands similar to his own. Though he figured that he could be cooler with it, he pictured that this pair of hands had many golden rings and tattoos. Yeah. Teri smiled.

The more he focused on this essence, the more he forgot about the room around him—the paper floors, the roses, the ink. They were gone. At first he wondered why Yayoi used the sea. Must have been from a pleasant memory. But he didn't have that. The thought didn’t matter much as soon as he started touching the dough.

Teri played with the dough at first. He felt himself smiling, almost laughing, as he molded it like clay. He folded it into itself. He stretched it to form a snake. He made a boob out of it. But none of it really stuck to him.

What now?

He realized that he had to make it personal. It was his essence, after all. Molding it wasn’t enough. He had to know what it really was—if knowing it was really a part of the experience. He froze. He felt his smile fading. For a moment, he felt a bit of fear at the thought of spreading that dough and seeing what it really was. But he had to. If it meant increasing their chances of survival. If it meant that it would allow him to protect Taku. Yayoi too. He wanted to laugh about it.

Teri touched the dough with the intent of knowing what it really was.

It responded, forcing him to remember his home.

There was trash everywhere he looked. Smoke was belching from the ground, devoid of the memory of whether someone had actually started a fire. There was smoke, the very same his mom puffed and smelled like as she hugged him, in tears and telling him that everything was going to be okay. Teri grimaced. He had wanted to create a place better than this shithole. It was a child’s innocent dream. He followed it to his death.

Teri stretched his hand further. His resistance greeted him. He wanted to take it, but he found himself within it already. The sensation felt new. His thoughts weren’t shut out. Instead, it became one with him. It existed by itself. Like it was isolated in a different yet accessible space. It became strings of information that he could process without affecting what he felt and what needed to be done.

It was a state where he could act without a sense of guilt or morality, a state that needed him to cling to his values all the more.

“I think I got—” Teri opened his eyes. Yayoi was in front of him, her face frozen and her eyes glistening. “What… What happened?”

“You were crying… what the fuck?” Yayoi said,looking as if she wanted to punch him in the shoulder. “But… But that was cool…”

Teri smiled and raised his right arm. This aura of his, on top of being more pronounced, adopted a dark gray color—sometimes turning black and purple. It seemed calmer and bubbly compared to Yayoi’s. “So, what does this look like to you?”

Yayoi gave him an uneasy and melancholic smile. “A fire that reminded me of home.”