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78. Lost Sleep

Rule 82: Forgiveness is not a requirement.

Explaining that Oboro was alive because she'd accidentally fuelled him with nomu energy was an exercise in how good TT was at guessing the words on the tip of Otsuka's tongue. Which, as it turned out, was pretty good, not perfect, but pretty good. She wasn't entirely sure how great the overall explanation was because Oboro still looked visibly confused but TT seemed to be getting it— though maybe that was just because years of knowing one another meant he had a stronger grasp on how Otsuka's twisted mind worked.

"I can remove what's left of the energy," she offered. It was her fault there was a poison in his veins, sure, it was what had saved his life (like how Foxglove could start a heart or stop one) but his body was standing on its own two feet now, the energy was only keeping him up at night.

"I mean, does it need to get out?" Oboro asked. "Is it, like, bad for me?"

Otsuka shrugged, carefully letting out the sensing mist again so she could take a bit of a better look at what exactly the energy she'd tainted was doing in his system. It was pretty cool. She'd never tried to focus in on one person before, so she had no idea how much detail she could see if she tried. Nerves spread out like the roots of a powerful tree all through Oboro's body, the brain in particular was more like a bonsai, branches small and clustered close together. The tainted energy was burning through each and every nerve like a signal at too high a voltage for a wire to handle. The only difference here, was that the same burning energy was fixing everything it damaged before anyone could notice. "Not technically," she said, though she wasn't sure how healthy it was for nerves to be broken and fixed so many times in such quick succession. "But I think it might be why you can't sleep."

"So-" He glanced to one side, looking with almost bird-like nervousness. There was a smile on his face, soft, anxious, uncertain, but also hopeful- "if you take the energy, I'll be able to fall asleep?"

"Missing nap time?" TT jibed, one side of his lips curling up.

Oboro glared at him but didn't rise to the bait.

"I can't, um-" What was the word?- "promise-" That wasn't the word but it worked- "that it'll fix it, but I think it should."

Oboro glomped her into a hug without any warning and she hugged him back, not entirely sure what she'd done to deserve this. "Otsuka," he said holding her shoulders, eyes wide, grin bright, "I could kiss you."

"Please don't?"

"But how else does a man repay his beautiful saviour?"

She blinked, glancing up at TT who was too busy cringing at the trashier version of Prince Charming to offer her any assistance. "I'm good, thanks."

"How about just a future favour?" he offered. "Anything you like."

She really didn't feel the need for it, not when she was merely correcting an issue she'd caused, but she got the feeling he wasn't going to stop insisting until she agreed. "Fine." She shrugged his hands off her shoulders and raised one hand, preparing to act as lightning rod. "Ready?"

He nodded, and just like that, Shirakumo Oboro was a boy living on his own steam.

Otsuka meanwhile, had to give herself a moment to shudder at the screaming echoing in her ears now that the energy was part of her system again. She pulled it back into her hand and let it dissipate into the air around them, finally putting the nomu to rest. She felt lighter for it.

"Emi?"

She summoned a smile. "All done."

Oboro grinned. "I'm going to sleep for the next week!" He cheered, leaping up into the air and pumping one fist.