12: Shinichi Izumi

"Ouch! You are pressing too hard; it hurts!"

Sitting on a bench in the playground, Kana held a frozen bag of peas against his face.

"Sorry," Kana apologized softly, immediately easing her grip and pressing the bag much more gently against his face.

"Just give it to me. I'll do it myself." Natsuo snatched the bag from her and pressed it against his own face.

That bastard's punch had been strong. Now that his head had cooled down, he could feel the pain radiating across his entire face.

"Sorry," Kana sat down beside him with her hands resting on her thighs. Lowering her head, she apologized once again.

"I told you it's not your fault. Stop apologizing; it's unlike you," Natsuo said with a wince, the sudden movement making his bruised cheek sting.

Ever since what happened, Kana had been unusually quiet and meek. She had run to the grocery store to buy him a bottle of water, a frozen bag of peas, and some bandages. She had tried to treat his bruises herself and even wanted to take him to the hospital, but Natsuo refused.

Seeing her act this way felt strangely amusing to him. Under normal circumstances, if he asked her to buy him a bottle of water, she would definitely refuse and say something sarcastic like, "Are your legs broken?"

"Really?" Kana looked up at him with slightly watery eyes.

She usually did not give the tiniest fuck about other kids getting beaten up. In fact, she watched her friends beat up other kids almost every single day without caring. However, when she saw Natsuo getting punched, she panicked and was overwhelmed by a crushing sense of guilt.

"Yeah, although you purposely led that simp on for years, playing him like a fiddle and giving him the illusion that he actually stood a chance, it's not your fault," Natsuo said, holding his chin with his free hand as he put on a thoughtful expression, as though he were carefully trying to articulate his words. "Hmm, when I put it that way, it really does make you look pretty bad."

Each word that came out of his mouth pierced through Kana's heart like an invisible arrow. She shivered and twitched uncontrollably before glaring at him fiercely and roaring, "Fuck you! You deserve another punch, damn it!"

"You wish," Natsuo replied with a smirk.

He had finally gotten back at her for what she had said that time. He was petty, and he knew it. In fact, he was incredibly petty.

"You! Hmph! I won't care about you anymore! You can die for all I care!" Kana huffed, puffing out her cheeks before turning her head away with a cold snort.

It was her own fault for trying to care about this ungrateful bastard. Why couldn't he appreciate her kindness instead of acting as if he were entitled to it?

Natsuo smirked at her, then took out his phone and sent a text to Chelsea. When he looked up, he saw Kana waving her palm in front of his face.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She replied with a serious face, "Casting a spell."

"A spell? Since when did you learn magic?" Natsuo asked with a blank expression.

"It's a healing spell," Kana said, pursing her lips before flashing him a provocative smile. "Only smart people can see the spell."

"I see. I can see it now." Natsuo blinked as he watched the movement of her hand, then nodded confidently.

"What color is it?" Kana's lips twitched.

"Green," Natsuo replied calmly.

"It's transparent," Kana said, rolling her eyes at him.

"Indeed, transparent green." Natsuo looked at her with a surprised expression before exclaiming, "Kana, you're smart. That's unexpected!"

"Why are you always so mean?! Fuck!" Kana's face darkened. The hand she had been pretending was casting a spell suddenly smacked him on the shoulder.

"Hey! How can you be so cruel, hitting a critically injured person?!" Natsuo hunched over, clutching his shoulder as he groaned in pain.

"Bullshit!" Kana glared at him before looking away. She took out her phone and opened Instagram.

"Some people asked me, 'Why did you move to Japan?' It's actually not because of the great food or because it's cheap. It's because there are no black people here."

"Watashi wa, hungry nigger daro, korewa Bomboclat patty, omae janai, emm! Itadakimasu, bismillah! Emm!"

As soon as she started scrolling, her feed did not disappoint. She glanced to the side and saw Natsuo twitching as he desperately suppressed his laughter. The effort made him wince in pain before he looked at her and asked, "Dafuq was that?!"

"It's weird, but it's funny. What's the big deal?" Kana rolled her eyes at him.

"Can you turn on your hotspot? Also, send me this reel!" Natsuo asked, waving his phone at her. He had not gotten an internet provider in this world yet.

"No! The hotspot will drain my battery! I have an iPhone!"

"Don't you have a power bank?"

"I have three."

"Three?! What are you going to do with three? Go camping?"

"I have an iPhone!"

"Hmm, makes sense."

...

Imagine waking up one day only to discover that your hand had been taken over by a parasite. It sounded like some bizarre science fiction story of a manga from the eighties, but that was exactly the reality Shinichi Izumi was living.

Groping a woman's breasts against his own will because his hand moved on its own, going to the toilet to take a piss only for his hand to start beating his meat, or scrolling through social media at school, which always got him reprimanded by the teachers, were just a few minor things to complain about.

A few days ago, on his way to school, he was attacked by a flying dog. A parasitized dog with its head split into three and fleshy wings sprouting from its body. Fortunately, Migi managed to kill it before it could do any real damage.

Speaking of Migi, or Righty, it was the parasite that had taken over his right hand. This thing was incredibly cold. Even after killing one of its own kind, it did not show the slightest hint of emotion or remorse.

Migi had also told him that other parasites could sense him whenever they got close. Didn't that mean he would be attacked even more often in the future?

Shinichi desperately wanted to report everything to the authorities, but he was afraid of Migi. It had already warned him that if he tried something like that, it would kill his family and everyone close to him.

Shinichi was terrified that if he showed even the slightest intention of going to the police or contacting the authorities, Migi would go on a rampage without the slightest hesitation.

Another thing that made Shinichi even more stressed was what Migi had told him about parasites. They were cannibals who fed on the same species they parasitized. If their host was, for example, a dog, they would eat dogs. If their host was a human, they would feed on humans.

His entire life had been thrown into bloody chaos. Then, a couple of days ago, he encountered a human parasite. It was the first time he had ever seen a dead human body.

Shinichi could not sleep that night. Every time he closed his eyes, he kept hearing the man's voice echoing in his ears over and over again.

"Izumi-kun, you are Shinichi Izumi?" Satomi Murano's question pulled him out of his deep thoughts.

"Of course I am!" Shinichi replied with a forced smile. Her question scared the crap out of him all over again. Satomi's instincts were terrifying. It was as if she could sense the changes within him.

It was early in the morning. The two of them were walking along the path to school together, surrounded by other students making their way to class.

"You've changed, Shinichi," Satomi said with a gentle smile.

"You've already said that to me," Shinichi replied, averting his gaze. He felt as though he were under a microscope.

As the two of them drew closer to the school, Migi suddenly spoke up and told Shinichi that it had sensed another parasite nearby.

Parasites could sense each other's presence. If another parasite was within roughly three hundred meters, they could detect its brain waves. Kana possessed the same ability to sense the brain waves of other parasites, but her range was much smaller, and she did not emit the same kind of waves. Because of that, other parasites were unable to sense her.

When Shinichi arrived at school, all the students gathered in the school gym. It was because the school was about to make an announcement.

They introduced a new math teacher. She was a beautiful woman named Ryouko Tamiya. The moment Shinichi looked at her, the two of them sensed each other's presence, which scared the shit out of him.

He spent the entire day on edge, continually worrying that she would suddenly attack him or, even worse, go on a rampage and massacre everyone at the school. More than once, he had the overwhelming urge to pull Satomi Murano out of her classroom and run away with her.

After school, he was called over by the new math teacher, Ryouko Tamiya. The two of them had a short conversation, during which she asked him to meet her later that afternoon at a cafe near the station.

"She can't be trusted. What if she has some kind of plan?" Walking out of the school, Shinichi spoke to Migi, his voice filled with worry.

He really did not want to meet Ryouko Tamiya, but he had no choice. He could not leave her at the school, and it was not as if he could simply run away. Somehow, he had to find a way to solve this problem.

"Excuse me, are you Shinichi Izumi?"

As he was walking, Shinichi was suddenly stopped by four good looking people, three beautiful women and one handsome man. The one who spoke was a young woman with reddish brown hair.

'Are they foreigners? Did they dye their hair?' Shinichi gulped as he looked at them, especially the older woman. She did not look Japanese at all. Her fiery red hair was incredibly eye catching, as were her huge fun bags. They were absolutely massive.

His gaze shifted between the four strangers before he answered, "Yes, it's me."

"Would you mind sparing us a little of your time? We have something we'd like to discuss with you," Chelsea asked with a warm smile. "It won't take long."

Shinichi glanced around and saw many people staring at them. These people were simply too eye catching.

In the end, without even bothering to discuss it with Migi, he nodded and agreed, "Err... Alright."

The four of them led Shinichi to a remote park behind the public toilets. Shinichi felt that something was off, but he did not think too much about it. He had Migi to protect him, and since these people were not parasites, he was not that worried.

"What did you want to discuss? I still have something to do, so please make it quick," he said.

"Hmm, understood." Chelsea nodded with a soft smile.

Then, without any warning, her hand flicked forward, and a needle shot from her fingers, embedding itself into the wall behind Shinichi and piercing through his sleeve, stopping just a single millimeter away from his right arm.

Keeping her smile, she said, "We'd like to speak to your right arm."