Shattering Humanity-Chapter 152: Takamagahara Brunch

{Sanpaku Cafeteria, 12:35 P.M.}

All of Takamagahara, both Divisions, are eating an early lunch at a large table in Sanpaku’s cafeteria before heading to Roronora City.

Saku at one end of the table and Katsu at the other. Their respective Vice-Captains to their right and everyone else is grouped in their own discussions.

Dom and TayTay are having another eating competition. Taylor scrapes his plate clean while Dom still has a half plate of food and is struggling to finish.

Sol is watching, unimpressed, with a napkin in the same hand that her resting chin is in. Once Taylor easily beats Dom, Sol raises the napkin up and wipes the food off her adopted son’s face.

Sol: "Like always, you win. Now hold still, Big Guy."

Tay smiles as his "Mama" cleans his face up.

TayTay: "Thank. Mama."

Sol smiles back at him, not correcting his grammar.

Sol: "Of course. Anything for you, Big Guy."

Dom, still in a competitive mode, doesn’t admit defeat and looks at the dirty napkin in Sol’s hand. He points at it while he still has a mouth full of food.

Dom: "Ouu- dch-iin fii-nishh."

Sol gives him a look of disbelief and a pity chuckle.

Sol: "Really? You can never just except-"

To her surprise, Tay quickly takes the napkin from her and eats it. After he swallows it, he turns to smile at Dom and the losing eater faceplants into his plate with a *CRASH!*.

Across the table from Tay, Dom and Sol, Charybdis is sitting next to his own older sister, Scylia. To her left is Daisuki and Zoram on his left.

Daisuki: "So it’s settled! The wedding will be in three days, this Sunday, on the waterfront beach in Tomodachi Town. Then we can use the giant dance hall within the Demon District for the reception afterwards. Sound fair for both of you?"

His two future wives nod in agreement.

Zoram: "I just hope, after all the hunting you guys did for those monsters, we don’t get other uninvited guests trying to ruin the day for everyone."

The fellow bride disregards the worry with a single wave to the side.

Scylia: "Oh that’s what all of us brides hope for on our wedding day, my beautiful, soon to be wife, teehee."

Zoram blushes.

Char finishes his drink with a loud straw sip behind his sister.

Char: "Sure, I guess that’s okay."

Scylia quickly turns around.

Scylia: "You guess that’s okay? What, do you have other plans on a Sunday?"

Char blushes and scratches his chin while looking away from his sister.

Char: "Ca-Can I bring a ’plus one’?"

...

...

...

The older sister realizes the significance of the question and immediately gets nosey.

Scylia: "Chaarrr, do you have a new little girlfriend that you’re afraid to tell me about?"

The teasing older sister looks at her two future spouses.

Char: "It’s nothing like that, okay? We’re just friends for right now. I just figured, since I told her we could go out on Sunday, before this was planned, it lines up perfectly."

Daisuki: "So, who is the lucky little lady, Char?"

Char rubs the back of his neck and starts sweating.

Char: "Her name is Persephone, and we met outside of Tomodachi Town a week ago when I was doing the daily ’sweep’ of my area. She said she didn’t know how she got there, where the Icemen came from, what my IceEye was, or where she was originally born. The only thing she could remember was her name, but she seemed really cautious and told me ’she didn’t know why, but she has immediate feelings of fear in the presence of men’. So I sat a few yards away while we talked, so she could get more comfortable."

Scylia has comedic heart eyes and her hands clasped at her cheek in adoration of her little brother’s chivalry towards a female stranger in need.

Scylia: "Ohhhh, Chaarrr!"

On Katsu’s end of the table, Drakaina is across from Shelly and Jormungand is on his biological sister’s left. Aiden is sitting next to Shelly on her right.

Katsu’s eyes are comedically large stars, and a huge smile is on his face as he stands up in excitement.

Katsu: "OH MY GOD! NO FREAKING WAY!YOU CAN TURN YOURSELF INTO RUBBER?!" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

From across the shaken table, Saku eyes his rival with an annoyed look.

Saku: "Take it easy, Spaz!"

Shelly, stands up and a clearly visible pink/gold SeiõrShield begins covering her. She shoots a look at him from all the way down the table, which makes Saku turn his head away, still annoyed, and sucking his teeth.

Saku(quietly): "Stupid bitch."

Aiden watches as the Valkyrie descendant sits back down, the visible aura surrounding her fades, and with a quick 180° in attitude, Shelly giggles while looking at the worried older sister.

Shelly: "Sorry about Katsu’s enthusiasm, he’s just really excited because one of his favorite heroes had a body of rubber too."

Katsu is quickly bouncing with his fists up to his pectorals and nods in unison, like a hyped up child.

Aiden thinks for a moment, with the second knuckle of his pointer finger resting on his bottom lip, his broken heart tattoo on his pinky showing.

Aiden: "Personal Matter Manipulation. Wait...So do your internal organs also transform into the same material as your external organs? Like to compensate for the stretching of your bones, muscles, and skin?"

Jormungand’s nervous face looks down at his food and the youngest member of Takamagahara shrugs.

He looks back up at the smiling captain of the rival division, then the Vice-Captain, and finally the member with the #1 intelligence.

Jormungand: "Technically, I can change my own personal matter into any solid source of material that I look at, so I suppose all my inner matter does as well. It just so happened, the first time I used my ability, I was looking at rubber tires. But since I tested it out, I’ve also turned my personal matter into the wood they were using to build the houses, aluminum from a car, and asphalt from the roads."

Drakaina gets a shocked, startled look and turns to her brother quickly.

Drakaina: "Be careful not to turn into the glass from windows, Jormy! You could easily break!"

Jormy: "I know Sis. I know. Captain Saku already got on me about that."

He raises his pant leg and shows a giant bruise on his calf.

Drakaina(gasps): "Jormy, what happened?! Hold on, I’ll go get ice!"

Jormy: "I’m fine Sis, really. When I changed into aluminum, I got a dent by accident from a thrown football and when I transformed back, I had this bruise. So Captain Saku told me I’m forbidden to manipulate myself into easily malleable metals or anything that can shatter into pieces easily."

Aiden, Shelly, Katsu, and Drakaina stare across the table at Saku, who is already staring back with his arms folded and he lifts his nose as he looks away.

They all watch as a smiling Itsuka leans her chest on his shoulder, and grabs his empty paper plate for him. She kisses the top of his head and whispers something to him before walking to put their empty plates in the garbage.

Shelly looks back at Drakaina and admires the care the older sister has for her biological brother.

Shelly(thinking): *If Katsu had that ability, I would’ve told him the same thing right away, just like she did.*

Her expression turns to a worried look.

Shelly(thinking): *Does that mean I am destined to be Katsu’s ’older sister’ figure after all?*

Katsu notices Shelly’s changing expression and his focus goes from the infatuation of similarity between Jorm’s power and his admired hero, to Shelly.

Katsu: "You okay Shell? Are you thinking of what my Ma would say if I had the power to make myself even more fragile? HAHA!

And don’t worry about Saku, he just hates seeing other people happy. As long as we’re together, he’ll always hate on us."

Jorm side eyes the Izanagi Captain over the remarks towards his own respected captain.

Shelly blushes and smiles off her concerns while nodding in agreement.

Shelly(thinking): *But I guess that doesn’t matter right now. As long as we both get to have more of these meals with the rest of Takamagahara, life is good just the way it is.*

On the other side of the table, to the right of Saku, Princess Kawaii is drawing on the back of a paper plate while petting Friend with her socked feet under the table. She’s singing her original song about the 4 year old pup.

Princess Kawaii: "He’s my Bubby, and I love him so muuuch. Yea he’s my Bubby, and he’s sweet to the touch. Oh he’s my Bubby, and I love him so much, yea that’s you! Lah-dee-doo-Lah-dee-doo."

Itsuka returns from the trash bin with a smile, after hearing the song.

Itsuka: "Did you think of that song all by yourself, Sweetheart?"

The Vice-Captain brushes her tanned hand across Saku’s upper back as she passes him to get back to her seat, sending a chill down the captain’s spine.

Princess Kawaii: "Mhm! I-It’s a song from the- from my heart!"

As she sits down, Itsuka takes a glance at the artwork of a princess from across the table.

With only the black, blue, and red pens she has to work with, there are three well made, happy stick figures, one with all black hair, one with long not colored in hair, and one slightly smaller self portrait of herself. Next to them, a smiling dog with water in the background. Small blue dots falling from the clouds resembles the SeiõrSnow that has always existed in her own personal consciousness.

Saku(thinking): *Usually, kids wouldn’t draw snow and the beach together, since they represent opposite seasons. But she only knows of this world that is always snowing.*

Itsuka: "That looks so good Princess Kawaii, but where’s your Papa? Shouldn’t you draw him too?"

The princess looks at her art and thinks of her answer.

Princess Kawaii: "This is a picture of the future, for when I’m big and strong like you Big Sidder. Daddy is getting more skinny everyday, and I can’t sleep in that stinky tent anymore because of his throw up."

Itsuka gives a concerned look at Saku, who then gets up and puts his hand on the princess’s head, making her *Squeak!*. She looks at her ’Big Brudder’ figure with her big pink eyes.

Saku: "Your Papa will always be in your future, because of him, you survived this dangerous world. So any future you have, he will live on in here."

He pokes her heart.

Saku: "You only become an adult, once you become grateful for the lessons you’ve learned from others in your life.

Directly or indirectly.

Even for people like myself, I didn’t have a father at all and my mother blamed my existence for her failures. I learned things most people never learn about their mother, and even through bad times life has to have."

Princess Kawaii: "But I’m scared of the ’bad’, Big Brudder. I don’t want to live without my Papa..."

Tears begin to form in her eyes but then, everyone sitting at the table is caught off guard by Saku’s next move, except Itsuka, who is smiling.

Saku is hugging the little girl and softly talks to her.

Saku: "I promise you, Princess Kawaii, even if your Papa doesn’t end up getting better, I will always protect you with my life."

Itsuka puts her hands over her mouth and tears fill her eyes. A stream falls from her human eye and a blizzard falls from her IceEye.

Daisuki, Char, and Zoram smile at the scene while Scylia wipes a tear.

Scylia: "So beautifully poetic."

Saku breaks the hug and looks at the tear-filled eyes of the 6 year old ’little sister’ of Takamagahara.

Saku: "I never want you to live through the loneliness that I had to endure. With nobody there..."

He glanced over at Katsu, who is watching the scene with an Above Sanpaku stare and Saku delivers a Below Sanpaku look back, then continues while looking at the princess.

Saku: "Because of certain things I learned in my life, I know how it feels to be alone and left to the side like trash. I don’t want you to feel that way. Ever."

He stands back up and turns to sit back down, but a small hand grabs his sweatshirt sleeve. He looks back at the adorable princess.

Princess Kawaii: "I-I love you, Big Brudder Saku."

Saku gets shocked by the philia love from the innocent girl who admires him like a Big Brother.

The ’Head Coach’ of the entire squad looks at his still functioning golden watch from the Sister Mountains.

"12:45 PM SE"

He stands up and breaks the heartwarming tension. Looking at Shelly.

Daisuki: "Okay! I guess it’s about time you guys head out and see what you hauled in after your personal conquering over Don Laban and Roronora City."

Shelly and Katsu nod then stand up. From across the table, Saku also stands up.

Saku: "I’m going too. I want to see if Laban actually changed for the better, or if she was just using crocodile tears to make me feel bad for her."

Itsuka gets up as well, looking at her Captain.

Itsuka: "Then I’ll go too."

Saku looks at her toned legs that got injured in her 1on1 with the DæMon, one month ago.

Itsuka: "It’ll be a good starting test to see if she truly has changed. If she apologizes, then that’s a step in the right direction."

Saku gives her a snide smirk

Saku: "You know, she’s probably listening and watching us all right now in either anticipation or as a way to catch us slippin’. Actually..."

Saku pops off his Anjell Eye and a Yin aura is expelled from it. He chuckles and then relaxes it back to the base-kit.

Saku: "Yea, she was spying on us, but for what purpose I’ll let her keep that a surprise."