Ayame bounded over to her father, her voice bright with relief. "Dad! Nurse-sister says Renji can leave tomorrow!"
While the two spoke, Renji's attention drifted inward. Just before Ayame and the nurse entered, he had felt something stir—a faint awareness brushing against him. Not sight, not sound… something else.
'Was I detecting ... their hair?'
His eyes narrowed slightly.
'Could this be connected to my cheat?'
Almost on cue, a new icon blinked beside the braid-shaped symbol in his vision. When he focused on it, a message appeared:
[Skill Creation in Progress]
[Condition: Please absorb compatible energy to accelerate development.]
Renji's lips curved faintly.
'So the System is still working after all… and it's creating new skills. This one feels like some kind of sensory ability.'
'But then… why only those two? Teuchi's here, and there are plenty of other patients in the ward. Why didn't I sense them?'
He let the thought trail off with a sigh. 'Guess I'll have to wait until the skill finishes developing.'
The nurse exchanged a few last words with Teuchi before leaving to tend to other patients.
Teuchi turned back to the bed. "I need to check in on some people I know. Ayame, can you stay here with Renji for a while?"
"Mm!" Ayame nodded quickly.
Renji offered Teuchi a small, reassuring nod of his own.
After Teuchi left, Ayame wasted no time. She clambered up onto Renji's bed and plopped down beside him, her small legs swinging back and forth.
"Hey, Renji, guess what? I saw Mom's village has this huge well! And—and the water was so clear you could see the bottom!"
Her hands waved animatedly as she tried to capture everything she had seen during their trip, her words spilling out in an endless stream of chatter. She jumped from one topic to another, painting vivid pictures only she seemed to understand.
Renji smiled faintly, nodding at intervals. But his attention drifted, his gaze drawn again and again to the movement of her swinging braids—something about them tugging at more than just his sight. There was another sense, one that prickled faintly beneath his skin, pulling at his awareness.
Ayame soon caught on to his wandering attention. With a pout, she suddenly leapt onto his lap, her small fist thumping against his chest out of habit.
"Hh—!" Renji sucked in a sharp breath as pain shot through him. The bandages held, but the ache was still raw. He knew he should be kept under observation for another week at least, but with the hospital overrun by patients, less critical cases like his were being released early.
Ayame flinched at the sound of his pained hiss, her eyes going wide. "Oops… sorry." Her voice wavered as she blinked, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. She quickly wrapped her arms around him in a hug, trying to make up for the mistake.
Renji froze, surprised. But then he remembered Teuchi's words—that he and Ayame had always been close, like siblings. Gently, he raised a hand and patted her head, running his fingers lightly over her hair.
That was when the System stirred.
[Demonic Energy Detected]
[Would you like to absorb it to accelerate Skill Creation?]
At the same time, the strange sensation he had been feeling all along suddenly snapped into perfect clarity.
In his mind, he could see it—an exact replica of Ayame's hair floating in a strange mental space. Twin braids dangled there, swaying like a wig suspended in the air. Their every movement mirrored Ayame's real hair in perfect detail.
Instinctively, Renji fashioned something like a hand within that space—or perhaps it was simply the skill's way of translating his intent. He reached out and tugged gently on the left braid.
In reality, Ayame's head tilted to the side, her body reacting involuntarily to the invisible pull.
"Eh?!" she yelped, blinking in surprise. She glanced around in confusion, but when she found nothing unusual, her expression quickly softened, and she returned to hugging him as if nothing had happened.
Renji's eyes widened.
'So… this is what my skill can do? The braids in my mind feel almost identical to the real ones. No, maybe they aren't replicas at all. Maybe the skill is just translating the feedback from interacting with Ayame's actual hair into something I can understand.'
He frowned slightly as the earlier System prompt echoed in his vision:
[Demonic Energy Detected]
[Would you like to absorb it to accelerate Skill Creation?]
'Demonic Energy, huh… The name I gave it sounds ominous, but in truth it's supposed to be a mixture of chakra, emotional energy, and yin source.'
'Chakra can be explained. It exists in everything on this planet, even if only a little.'
'Emotional energy… maybe hair holds a kind of attachment—memories, bonds, feelings tied to a person.'
'Yin source—perhaps because she's a girl, supposedly a source of yin in old stories. That would explain why I could only sense Ayame and the nurse.'
'Maybe this mixture is an attempt at replicating the dark energy that Umbra witches use.'
'I can't pass up this chance to absorb energy, but I can't hurt Ayame. I need to run a careful test.'
He steadied himself and focused on the braid in his mind-space. The mental replica hummed faintly under his touch, impossibly vivid now that he knew how to attune to it. He imagined a single strand between his fingers and, with a precise tug of will, snipped it.
In the ward, the corresponding hair strand severed cleanly, slipped out of her braid, and floated across the gap as if carried by an invisible current. Following his will, it landed in his other hand.
A tiny thrill rippled up his arm as he concentrated on the strand, willing the Demonic Energy within it to flow toward him.
[Energy Transfer Initiated]
[Source: Demonic Energy — Chakra / Emotional Energy / Yin Source]
He felt it then—a faint trickle of warmth flowing through his hand before vanishing into him. He felt like he heard some laughter, but then, maybe it was his imagination. At the same moment, the strand in his palm withered, crumbling into fine dust that scattered away.
Renji immediately shifted his focus back to the new icon still blinking.
'The skill… it barely changed. It seems it would need more energy for the skill to form.'
He narrowed his eyes, replaying what he had sensed.
'In my mind-space, the strand's presence faded gradually with each bit of energy I absorbed. But in the real world, it only crumbled after I drained it completely.'
A thoughtful hum left him.
'So as long as I stop short of one hundred percent, the hair itself won't be affected.'