A Certain Scientific Shadow Crafter

Chapter 6: A lightning

Fran nodded without comments, then he got up from his bed and started pulling off his hospital coat but with lots of difficulties due to the fact only one of his arms was working.

«You can now stop the storytelling, Yomikawa-sama. What is the real reason you are here?» Fran asked as he threw the coat away.

«It was so obvious, huh? Well... someone told me you decided to leave the hospital earlier. I'm here to change your mind.» The Anti-Skill woman said while slowly approaching Fran.

«A centipede exoskeleton's chitin has a peculiar regenerative capacity on wounds. I can get back to work immediately.» Fran quickly got a jeans on, the grabbed a shirt.

«You are already looking better, sure, but I want to remember you have an injured arm and your leg wound makes your walk limping!» Yomikawa replied worried.

«Do you really think a centipede cares if it has a bunch of limbs taken away?» Fran exclaimed as he wore the shirt starting from his working arm.

«Fran-san... you are not a centipede...» Yomikawa said in embarrassment.

«My esper ability doesn't need my body to be healthy to be used. Even I was armless, my shadows can still move by their own therefore I can fight! Aaaaah! It doesn't enter, damn! Where is my coat?!» Fran tried to wear the shirt through his arm in cast but it seemed impossible.

«Your coat is in tailoring... soon it will be as new.» Yomikawa went next to Fran and helped him removing the shirt; she opened a drawer in the room and picked up a new shirt, giving it to Fran. Fran looked at it carefully: it was a one-sleeved shirt; This way, Fran could have worn it without bothering of his broken arm.

«I know I could have never convinced you to stay... so I came here prepared. Damn, you kids are always so stubborn! Please, at least don't push yourself!» Yomikawa patted the boy's head, then she went back sitting next to the bed.

Fran quietly put the shirt on and then went to the exit door of the room, grabbed the knob and spoke. «Thanks, Yomikawa.» He opened the door but then stopped once again on the exit.

«One last thing before I go, Yomikawa...» he said, and the woman turned to him. «Did someone else try to visit me on these days?»

«No, nobody. Why? Were you expecting someone in particular?» Yomikawa asked, surprised by the weird question of her student.

«No, absolutely. Forget about it... Goodbye.» Fran closed the door behind him and left the place, walking in fatigue due to the cut under his leg.

Fran decided he needed some fresh air so he went to the usual park he likes and, even if it was pretty far from the hospital, he chose to go by walking instead of by public transport.

«Eventually that girl overcame her hesitations and started a journey to her dream... who knows, did I really have the right to blame her so much? What am I doing myself instead? It's almost two months I'm here already and I still haven't discovered anything... I couldn't keep not even one of the promises I made...» Fran, arrived to his destination, sat on a bench and, lulled by a gentle breeze, went through some deep thoughts. «Nothing... I achieved nothing but I still expected to be noticed from her... I'm not different from Ayuzawa Akiko, not at all. We both believed the person we love would've come to us without doing anything to deserve it...» Fran lowered his sight to hide his bitter eyes from people passing by who were looking at him due to his patched body but, thanks to his embarrassment, he noticed the light coming from his mobile phone's screen from his pocket; Fran never had his phone on anything besides the silent mode so the only way he could find himself on a phone call us because he started the call himself or because, randomly like in this case, he has his eyes on the phone.