The Boy With The Blank Stare: Future

Chapter Nine: Sixteen

Ouma's POV:

"Do you think she wants Bok Bok Choy?" Kiibo asked as I shrugged. I didn't know anything about cooking, the most I could ever accomplish seemed to be making things edible. That was back when I had two eyes that could read labels, I don't dare to even think of trying to make something other than a bowl of cereal or toast now.

"I guess she would, it's kind of hard to run groceries when half the list isn't very specific like what's 'some vegetables' mean? She doesn't even say what she's using them for so I don't know what kind to get!" Kiibo ranted frustrated. It was true Aunt Mayumi was never known for being clear on what she wanted or what she needed and only seemed to get frustrated whenever someone didn't understand what she meant.

But my pity for him was depressingly low because despite my protests Kiibo still dragged me to the store with him, apparently, this was so we could 'bond' or something similar. He was probably just paranoid from what had happened at school though, I didn't have the heart to tell him that sometimes the rest of the district was worse. It never occurred to me what little Kiibo likely saw over the years, the student body though probably didn't need to bother hiding their actions in front of the teachers.

Saihara's Aunt...well she certainly never received any reprimand for anything she ever said to me, so I doubt anyone would ever lecture them over me. If it had been Chiasa though...

Still, this was a bit safer than most stores in the area. It wasn't a gas station already a good sign, from the admittedly long list of gas stations DICE and I had harassed with prank calls and the occasional shoplifted from over the years, the graveyard shift employees I'm sure are out for blood now from the years of abuse. The store Kiibo and I had come to though was on the opposite side of the district from the school, and the store from the sound announcements loudly advertising the organic food made it clear DICE and I likely didn't stop here often, we never could have afforded this regularly. If we ever did go here it wasn't to target them for pranks, instead, we just bought the few supplies we couldn't find at Daiso here.

I hadn't come back to the store since middle school, so the employees probably don't have any sort of grudge against me but that didn't do anything to stop the nerves inside of my body as I traced over the bandages on my hands.

I just wanted to go back to the house.

Kiibo continued to try and grab the items from the grocery list, though it was becoming closer to a scavenger hunt at this point with neither of us at times being able to tell what a certain ingredient even was.

It might as well have been written in a different language, google so far had been our sole saving grace for deciphering the list, and finally our now three-hour-long trip ended.

Or should have ended.

"Oh wait," Kiibo said abruptly, I raised an eyebrow hoping we didn't forget something again. "I was going to get pomegranate..." he muttered conflicted. 'Where is it?' I asked making sure not to drop the basket on my lap, the only advantage to having a wheelchair. "It's on the other side of the store, we can just check out its nothing" he insisted quickly.

...

'Just get it, I can wait for a bit' I assured him, "what? No really you don't have to, it's nothing" he argued. 'What's one...ok whatever a pomegranate is going to do? Just get it and come back it will be five minutes, if you run maybe three' I countered.

"I don't have to" Kiibo started but I groaned slightly 'just go already' I signed getting annoyed, finally after a beat of silence Kiibo ran off.

I told myself I would be fine as he ran off. This was a nice area, and I had never harassed the owner here. Nothing was going to happen if I'd already been in the store for so long.