12 Roses

17 | The Road of the Heartless

"This seriously cannot be what we're doing on Christmas," Maki muttered.

"Hey, the kid's missing in a forest bursting with cursed energy. It's dangerous to turn a blind eye to it. Right Megumi?"

A boy with dark spiky hair and a face that looked like a sharper but unhappier version of Tsumiki's stood beside you, his eyes averted from you. "Sure."

You continued through the trees, peeking behind them as if you were just playing hide and seek. "There aren't a lot of curses around right now."

Your hearing aids were a special cursed item that not only restored your hearing completely, but also amplified the sound of curses roaming about.

The thing was that they also amplified Toge's cursed speech, so it was pretty dangerous to have on during battle.

"So that means you can use your cursed technique, right?" Megumi asked.

"Well... it shouldn't attract anything if they're not nearby." You pulled out your hearing aids and pressed your hands against a nearby tree.

Connection was what you needed. Like an invisible string that tied everything together.

People were tied together even if they simply passed each other on the street. Similarly, plants were tied together even if they simply were planted in the same soil.

This was how you heard.

You didn't listen to the bustle of people on the street, the sounds of cars honking and moving across the asphalt, the beeps of a scanner, the rustle of leaves.

You listened to memories.

The softened ground that remembered how it was dug into. The hardened roots that reminisced about being a seed. The sprouting buds that remade the seeds from which they came.

Your cursed energy just gave them a voice.

.

.

.

"...The boy is that way," you signed after a few seconds, pointing in the direction of a cluster of trees that looked just about the same as the rest of the forest. You grinned in Maki's direction as you put your hearing aids back in.

"I still don't know how you do that."

"You just have to listen."

"That is really rich coming from you."

•••

You felt the vibration of a door somewhere in the cabin slamming and sat up on the couch, awakening abruptly from your nap. Maki stomped into the foyer with something gripped in her hand, and the old lady walking calmly after her.

"Dear..."

"Why do you still have this?!" She waved the thing in her hand in the air as if it were insulting her.

You put your book to the side and started to your feet, looking unsurely at everyone else.

"Maki, that is your family."

"Family," she spat like it was a bad word. A curse. "No one in this picture even knows what that means. They couldn't care about what it means."

You looked at what Maki held. It was a picture frame, the photo inside facing away from you. Whatever it was, it was angering her.

Maki stormed off, opening the front door and disappearing into the cold winter night.

You stood, about to follow, until Toge grabbed your arm, knowing your lack of tolerance for the cold.