Part 5

The girl stood in the large master bathroom of Haruko Matsumoto's bedroom.

Black sink counters and white tiles.

A large walk-in shower

She looked around.

Haruko had left some clothes on the counter for her, mostly one of his white t-shirts and a pair of black gym shorts to change into.

Right now, he was on his balcony, sweeping up the debris and cracked tiles.

(How in the hell am I going to explain this to Alexis and Reiko? I don’t know what's going to be harder to explain: the condition of the balcony or the girl.)

Haruko had stopped sweeping.

(The girl.)

He looked at the bright skyline of NEO New York City off in the distance.

The peaceful city.

Those thoughts were soon interrupted when he heard his bathroom door open.

Haruko exited the balcony and went into his room. As he entered, he saw her standing there in front of the bathroom door.

The girl.

Haruko looked at her.

She was wearing a white t-shirt. She handed the cover to Haruko, who took it and placed it in the hamper.

"I think there is a pair of house slippers somewhere around here. I try to find them, so you don’t have to step on the cold wooden floor."

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Oh, uh, no problem," Haruko replied, rubbing the back of his head.

Haruko was nervous. It had been a while since he had anyone in his room, let alone a girl in his room.

The two of them stood there, watching each other.

Neither moving.

What was either of them supposed to say?

There was a noise that broke through the silence that had alerted Haruko.

It sounded just like a growling stomach.

"Huh," Haruko stared at the girl.

The girl then lowered her head.

"If you don’t mind me asking, do you have any food that you can spare that I can eat?"

(Oh, right, she said something about food earlier.) Haruko looked at his kotatsu and saw the food container on it. Haruko sat near his kotatsu.

"Um, yeah, I've got several burritos that I don’t mind sharing; just have a seat.”

Aoi followed after.

They both sat there at the kotatsu on the floor.

Haruko opened the container, and her face lit up like a dog expecting a treat. He grabbed one of the wrapped burritos and handed it to her as he grabbed one for himself.

She grabbed it and began inspecting it as if it were a foreign object. She then started sniffing it.

"Are you okay?"

She did not answer him as she opened her mouth to eat the burrito that was still wrapped.

"Whoa, hold on there," Haruko blurted out.

She paused with her mouth still open and looked at Haruko.

"You may want to take the wrap off before you start eating.

"Wrap?" she questioned.

"The thin paper on the burrito is like this." Haruko removed the wrap from his burrito.

"Oh," she said, then copied Haruko, removing her wrap.

To her nose, the burrito smelled much better now.

She took a large bite and started chewing for a few seconds.

There was silence that filled the room.

"Mmm, this is so good," she said cheerfully as she took another bite of the burrito.

She was lively.

"So, what is your name?" Haruko said, resting his face in his palms. "If you don’t mind me asking,"

The girl stopped eating and swallowed.

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"Aoi," she answers softly.

Blue.

The color blue.

"And yours?"

"Haruko Matsumoto."

She pouted.

"That's too much; make it shorter," she whined.

Blank.

"What?”

Haruko lowered his hand from his face.

"So...." Haruko trailed on, "Why did you crash-land on my balcony?"

The question was direct and to the point, and the aura in the room changed.

Aoi placed the burrito in the container on the kotatsu.

"I’m really sorry about that; it kind of happened by chance. I smelled your food and landed here without a second thought."

Haruko sat up and said, "By chance, what do you mean by that?"

"To tell you the truth, for the last couple of days since I arrived in this city, I have been searching for something. I haven’t been able to find it, but I know that it is here within the city.

Aoi looked at her right palm.

"I'm not good at sensing things, so when I got here, I didn’t know where to start, so I was searching blindly to no avail, running around in circles, if you would. It is of the utmost importance that I find it."

The answer was odd.

(She arrived in the city; is she a visitor?)

A tourist—no, she was more than that.

(A couple of days, searching for something. Is she one of those artifact finders?)

But she had nothing.

No money.

No clothes.

Nothing.

(Nobody would come to a city without clothes or money. The border agents would have certainly stopped her.)

"If you don’t mind me asking, how exactly did you get into the city?" Haruko asked.

With her empty hand, she pointed her finger to the roof.

Haruko looked up.

"Through the sky," Aoi said as she took another bite of the burrito.

Blank.

He paused.

"Through the sky," Haruko repeated slowly, trying to make sense of what he was saying. He then slammed both of his hands on the kotatsu.

"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?"

The girl looked at him.

"It's the truth," she replied to him.

"And I am supposed to believe that."

"I never once asked you to believe anything."

He paused again before calming himself down.

"So, let me get this straight."

Haruko looked at her.

"So, you are illegally in the city, with no clothes or money. You have been running for days searching for something you can’t find, but you’re so certain that it is here."

"Yep," she replies quickly, smiling without a care in the world.

"That would make you a criminal."

"I suppose so."

Aoi closed her eyes and smirked.

"Rules have no meaning to GODS like me."

Blank.

(There she goes, proclaiming here a god again.)

Haruko looked at her blankly.

"What is with this God crap you keep going on about, and why do you keep calling yourself a god?"

Abilities weren’t a rare thing in the world. He had seen plenty throughout his young life.

"But I am a GOD, over one of the elements of the universe, water, and I can prove it to you."

She stood up.

Fetch me a cup of water, and you’ll see me as the god that I am, mortal," she proclaimed proudly.

Haruko paused.

(Mortal.)

He began to look around.

A prank. This had to be a prank. All of this had to be a prank.

"What are you doing?" Aoi asked as she looked at Haruko with a puzzled look on her face.

"There has to be a camera somewhere because there is no way."

Aoi began to stare at him across the table. "Do you not have a cup?"

Haruko sighed and picked himself up from the floor.

"Fine, you know what? Fuck it; I’ll get you your cup."He said this as he headed to his bathroom. "But when you can’t prove that you are this so-called god, I am putting you in a calf crusher."

He walked into his bathroom and walked to the sink counter to open the mirror cabinet.

Haruko stood there, looking at his reflection in the mirror.

(A god. Natural elements, natural elements She has to be crazy. This is starting to sound like some bullshit.)

As he stood in front of the large mirror, he noticed that the bandage on his check was beginning to peel off.

"I guess I should see how the cut is coming along. I can probably start working out a lie for Reiko."

Fidgeting with the bandage Haruko managed to peel half of the bandage off, wincing as he did.

"I've got to shave when I get the chance," Haruko said as he looked into the mirror.

He paused.

The cut was gone.

"What the hell?" Haruko said as he rubbed his check.

(Did Alexis heal my cut? Why did she leave the bandage on, and how in the hell did I not feel this?)

He pulled the rest of the bandage off his cheek and threw it in a trash can nearby.

Haruko grabbed a cup from the bathroom sink.

As he was filling the cup, a sudden realization came to him.

Spellcasters, magicians, espers, and fragments all use their surroundings to use their abilities. If he brought the girl a cup full of water, she would use any one of those abilities as proof.

No.

She had claimed that she was a god.

He needed a way to prove her wrong without a shadow of a doubt.

He empties the cup.

(Am I really going to shatter this girl's delusions? I am no better than parents who tell their kids that Santa Claus or the tooth fairy do not exist.)

Haruko sighed.

(No, no, she is going around with no clothes on, claiming that she is a god; it is best I deal with this now before she hurts herself.)

With that thought in mind, Haruko walked out of the bathroom and into his room. He saw Aoi at the kotatsu, eating another burrito.

As she was eating, Haruko walked up and placed the empty cup on the kotatsu.

"You’re a so-called god, right?"

She looked up at him, puzzled.

"If you are a god, as you say, then you shouldn’t be bound by the limitations we mortals’ are bound to. So, fill the cup with water with no tricks; a god like you should have no problem with that, right?"

He was taunting her.

Aoi placed the burrito down and stood up.

Haruko was watching her closely now.

She just stood there.

Alright, how is she going to do this? Chants, sigils, maybe bring water from somewhere else, through a portal.)

Haruko clenched his fist.

(Watch closely,.)

She closed her eyes.

There was a soft exhale from the girl.

There was silence in the room.

(What the hell? She's just standing there doing nothing,.) Haruko thought as he watched her closely.

As he was watching her, he noticed something floating in the air.

Small.

A small drop of water.

(Huh.)

Then there was another drop, much larger, that appeared again, floating in the air.

(What the….hell is this?) Haruko thought as he watched more drops appear.

Suddenly more water droplets appeared in the room; it was as if it were raining, and the droplets froze in the air.

(Where the hell is all this coming from?) Haruko thought as he began looking around.

Haruko turned his attention to the girl.

Aoi was still standing there, not moving.

The room was filled with floating water droplets.

Her hair began to sway.

Large amounts of water began to swirl violently around the girl, creating a huge gust of wind. Everything in the room was shaking.

Haruko was trying to shield himself from the wind. It felt like he would be blown away.

Shockwaves rippled across the room.

And still, throughout this vexing chaos, the girl did not move. Her eyes were still closed.

Her facial expression was calm, as if the outside world had no effect on her.

The water spiraling around her became more intense and started moving in an unnatural way. There was no way to explain it. Water was flowing around the room. Out of the spiraling water, a head began to emerge.

A dragon’s head.

Sure, the abilities in the city and the world were amazing and allowed for some incredible feats, but this was different on every level.

Haruko was frozen in fear as the head was staring at him.

"I have the ability to create and manipulate water at its highest level without any limitations, natural or manmade." Her soft voice spoke through the chaos in the teens room.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, and the dragon's head roared, creating a shockwave. She stared at Haruko with an intimidating expression on her face.

"So, do you believe me now?"

Haruko lowered his arms.

"What the hell?!!" Haruko shouted out.