Chapter 96: Moonfish

Time dragged on slowly in the room.

They’d gone out in the morning, so there was still a good chunk of daylight left.

’If the conditions out there can even be considered daylight.’

It was closer to dusk if anything.

With everyone unanimously proposing to move the next outing to tomorrow, Miles found himself swimming in free time.

While Mia still hovered around Ryan, he’d joined the others in washing up by the kitchen sink. Luckily it hadn’t been destroyed in the ghouls’ rampage, and with the corpses all dragged and burned outside, it wasn’t as unpleasant to walk through anymore. Besides the bloody ground.

Unfortunately, however, only a thin stream of bitterly cold water poured from the tap this time. The pipes were almost completely frozen already.

He’d cupped his hands together, letting the water gather, then scrubbed his face, hair, and fingers raw with it. Then he cleaned the gunk off his weapons, and fetched water in the now empty bottles they’d taken from the gym.

The others roughly did the same thing.

Once they retreated back to the storeroom, they had their lunch, after which they were each left to their own devices.

Grimm had, unsurprisingly, decided it was best to take a nap then. Mia and Ryan spoke to each other in hushed tones, occasionally one of them would chuckle at something the other said.

Chloe flipped through the same book she had been going through the day before. Mia, sitting nearby, watched her read, staring over her shoulder like a lost puppy.

Brandon ignored them all for the most part, tapping his foot impatiently and occasionally looking at the corner where the bean crate lay, as though he was counting the seconds till dinner time.

He probably was.

As for Miles, initially he’d pulled his phone out and did his customary check on Anny and Henry. There were no new messages.

Then he examined his status sheet for a few moments, staring particularly at his point balance, like it would magically change the number from 96 to a 100.

After fruitlessly doing that for a couple of minutes, he gave up. Then he considered going through the diary and camera in his bag to pass the time. But shelved those ideas too.

In the end, he’d settled for his current activity. Practicing [Delusion].

’I doubt anyone would call this practice though.’

He felt a growing pressure in his head as he watched the whitish bodies of cleanly sketched moon fish floated around the room. The lines that made them undulated as they swam.

Some split off from the main group, feeding on scattered stalks of kelp, their leaves floating in the air, that he’d placed around the room. Most of them, however, fed on the little kelp forest growing on Sarah and Chloe’s heads, obscuring their faces from view.

A large bass chased a tiny fish in circles around Brandon’s head, never getting any closer to it. A group of urchins and sea snails surrounded Mia and Ryan as they talked, a particularly determined snail already crawling halfway up his leg.

Miles watched it all silently, tapping the small wooden stick in his hand on the ground, before looking at Grimm.

’Hmm...’

He dragged the stick along the ground in the rough shape of a star, his mind unconsciously doing the rest. Its rough features were smoothed out directly from his memories. Gaps in the texture, appearance, and orientation neatly filled out.

It was him, yet not him at the same time.

’A beautiful mind, huh?’

The trait had certainly made it easier for him to visualize things. None of the creatures floating around had an inkling of sentience of their own. He had to constantly make those changes in his head, or he would’ve if not for that trait.

It let him focus on the larger picture.

The moment he drew the last line, a starfish appeared on Grimm’s face, covering it entirely. It undulated as he breathed.

The pressure in his mind suddenly worsened, making him drop his stick in surprise.

’I’m getting closer to my limit.’

Gritting his teeth to shake off the pain, he looked up again to find a face hidden behind moon fish and kelp staring directly at him from across the room.

"Is there something on my face?"

’Ah...’

It took his mind a moment to catch on to what was happening. He closed his eyes, deactivating the ability, and kept them shut for a second more so the transition didn’t feel too jarring.

When he opened them, he found Chloe staring at him with a questioning look. All the animals and kelp were gone.

"It’s nothing, I was just... uh, looking at your glasses."

"My glasses?"

"Yeah."

The confusion on her face only deepened. She pulled off her glasses by the blocky black frame, her eyes squinting, inspecting them as though to find if she was missing anything, before she placed them back on her face.

"They aren’t really special, though."

"I’m just sort of a glasses enthusiast."

She perked up slightly.

"Oh, do you use glasses too?"

"No."

"Oh."

Thankfully, she decided to end the conversation there.

’Phew.’

She stared at him suspiciously, then decided reading her book was more important. Sarah glanced between the two, but wisely chose to keep her mouth shut.

Ryan cleared his throat. Brandon gave him a tired glance.

"Oh, are you finally done flirting? I’m hungry."

The moment he finished the sentence, he ducked, barely avoiding the empty can that came hurtling his way. He set a glare on Mia as he sat up.

"Hey!"

The girl in question scratched her nails distractedly before looking at him with a dismissive glance.

"Are you talking to me?"

"You-"

Ryan cut in, raising his voice, before he could have another outburst.

"There’s still some time before dinner. It’d be best if we perform any upgrades all at once this time, so we can at least have some idea of the process."

For whatever reason, Miles felt Ryan’s gaze focusing on him as he said that.

’Strange.’

Either way, it was his turn to act oblivious. Mia gave a secret thumbs-up behind Ryan. If the boy noticed anything, he didn’t comment on it.

"Miles, do you want to go first?"

"I only have about 96 points. It’s not enough for an upgrade."

Ryan’s brows perked at that.

"In that case, I could give you some of mine."

"Wait, what?"