Eternal Saṃsāra: The Wanderer of Worlds

[35] Off to The Trip

Chapter 35: Off to The Trip

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I gently patted and she pushed herself to sit up when she realized someone was there. Her eyes met with Rias' blue ones as the two of them had a moment of silent stare.

"Does she know she has a Longnius?" Rias suddenly asked after turning to me.

"Longni- what?"

"She doesn't," I replied as I ruffled her hair, pulling her head on my shoulder. "She's new to all this, Rias. I don't know if you have heard about her, you might have since she is kind of a special case, but she's the deaf girl of our school."

"Ahh- is it that Nishimiya girl? Sona told me about her before. But is she really her?!" Rias' head turned to look at Shoko. "I don't know, she seems healthy though...?"

"I... might have done a little something to cure her," I cleared my throat. Both of the girls were looking at me. "Err. It was related to her Sacred Gear being faulty. I just fixed that little part."

"Is a Sacred Gear also called a Longnius?" Shoko asked in a cute confused tone. She knew what Sacred Gears were from the new information she had, but she didn't know what a Longnius was. Rias looked at her with a much softer expression now. "Um... I am fine now, you know. You don't have to look at me with pity."

"Oh, er, I wasn't-? Hah, never mind. Sorry, My bad." Rias apologized with a small blush. It appeared that she wasn't expecting the recently deaf girl to be so observant.

This ability to perceive her surroundings didn't come from her Gear, Shoko's other senses were naturally better than normal people because they had to be developed that way for her survival. While her eyes couldn't understand all emotion, she was too used to pity-filled looks to not notice.

"Anyway, let's change the topic," I said as Rias looked at me, about to open her mouth. "Nope, don't say anything. Otherwise, I'll be hurt knowing you came here after sensing her Longnius and not because you wanted to talk to me. I thought you'd come meet me yesterday, you know? You even texted me right before school."

Rias gave a nervous laugh. "I was caught in a bit of a situation, actually. I didn't even get to attend school yesterday."

"Oh? What happened?"

"...I'll tell you later," Rias looked at Shoko, suggesting she wanted this to be private. "Just know that it's a family issue, with my marriage at its center."

Shoko blinked. "Marriage? You're just 18 though, right?"

"Yeah, haha." Rias sighed. "Let's not talk about it. You two should return later. Seeing you two like that earlier, I almost thought my Aqua-kun had started dating, but this seems a little more special than that. He is so protective of you, how lovely."

I gave her a dry stare as she took it with an amused smile. Shoko was blushing a little now, even when she showed no such thing when we were hugging and cuddling.

"I'll get going too, then," Rias said and added one last line. "Before I go, Aqua-kun, make sure to enjoy your trip to Fuji."

"...?"

How did she know?

Blud, explain yourself before you go.

What kind of stalker behavior is this? What a crazy bat-girl.

* * *

Shoko and I returned to class after that. The teacher didn't say anything or even ask where we were, as it was Shoko's first day after returning healthy. I was glad for that.