This park bench groans a protest once more, 'nnnngh!' as if the very act of holding my weight is an unbearable burden, can't it just be quiet for a damn second?
Yes, I am talking about 'this' one right here, it's not made of stone or anything fancy like those big blocks near the fountain, I passed by, right in front of me.
No, this is a classic, old-school park bench.
The slats are wood, worn smooth, probably from countless students sitting here over the years.
Kind of faded golden-orange color, like honey or something, definitely stained from sun and rain.
You can see grain of the wood, and where the paint's chipped a little.
Horizontal, laid out neatly, with gaps between them.
The frame supporting wooden slats, no armrests, and legs are made of dark, sturdy metal, probably cast iron, painted black.
It's got a simple, solid design, no frills, just functional.
The air's definitely cooler now. Sun's long gone, replaced by that deep, velvety blue you get just after twilight, before real darkness sets in.
Streetlights are already humming, a faint, almost imperceptible zzzzzt sound, those tall, bone skinny things lining up the path.
They're dark poles, almost black, but distinct.
Each has two light fixtures, on both sides, like you know a pair of glowing 'eyes' unlike me.
A neat, rectangular block, glowing with a soft, warm yellow-white, spilling just enough to guide your way.
Earthy. That's the word. Smell of cut grass, fresh and slightly damp with regular watering by gardeners, fills my nose, birds are chirping, a distant, muffled cheep-cheep-cheep coming from behind.....
My right hand, almost on instinct, drifts up. Fingers brushing the black fabric of half blindfold covering my right eye, wrapped around forehead.
Cotton. Soft, but there is a faint, irritating scratchiness to it where it meets my...just on scarring.....
It feels… weird. Not like clothes. More like a Basilisk skin, or maybe a part of me I've grown, something I can't just shed.
I adjusted it, pushing it up slightly, feeling elastic pull tight for a second against my temple, 'thwip!' a sharp, temporary noise, then settling back down with a familiar, almost comforting pressure.
Light, yeah, but the weight of it, always there, pressing down on those jagged lines, those raised ridges of flesh where my eye used to be.
Hazy. Messed up. Every time my fingers graze it, my stomach will twist, a cold, sour knot? I just don't like, something...I am irritated, why is time just passing like this? What is that?
I was just there in Mikato's room, but now suddenly here....
I force my left eye to focus. Not that it does much good. That artificial fountain, I am outside of the shopping street...maybe a couple of steps away, is just a blurry smudge of water and stone.
Like looking through a dirty window, permanently fogged over. I reek of antiseptic....
Rem Kujou, this right eye… it's done. Irreparable. Bastard could have been more empathic, could have softened the blow, giving me flat news, well...what else was I expecting?
He was just doing his work, Ichinose almost fainted on certain medical terms she hadn't heard before. I don't want to remember it, going into that kind of heavy atmosphere.....
From what he can assess, there's been significant trauma. Something's punctured the cornea, likely damaged the optic nerve severely.
There's extensive scarring, both superficial and deep within globe.
Functionally, there's no light perception, no neural response. It's… a total loss. No fixing it with current medical capabilities.
My throat feels like I've swallowed a handful of dirty mud with vomit inside.....Dry. Scratchy. I already figured it was bad. But still, better than an empty socket.
His words made it permanent. It's a good decision to not go there at first.
I think Ichinose has already gone home, she's not coming back, an empty promise of going to buy some light new made sandwich or 'Ichigo milk Suntory~?'
A sweet, well-intentioned lie from her, a transparent attempt to salvage the mood.
I saw it then, worry in her eyes, way her shoulders slumped as she turned away.
But Ichinose has duties. Her own life.
Maybe she sensed my crappy mood, and had to leave, not wanting to intrude further on my private moment of processing. It's fine. I don't need pity. I don't need... a caretaker.
Or she just fled from the wreckage of my life, before having to provide any kind of new assistance to a random nobody like me, a broken thing.
And why should she? What am I to her, anyway? Just another problem.
That stupid penlight he used on me, I wanted to break it right there, a childish impulse....
Read those symbols, I had two minds to ask why are you making designs with hyphen, and wave emoji in certain words....?
'Your left eye, too.'
'Residual scarring on the retina, particularly in macular region.'
'No direct puncture?' Some inflammatory response, he was muttering in his notepad.
My visual acuity is severely compromised.
It works, yes, it's seeing 'something', but only up to about what I knew from myself, he said meter, maybe a meter and a half.
Beyond that, it's just… fog.
Ichinose, bless or curse her. I don't know what to say exactly, pointing out methods from her brain, whatever she could think of for treatment, only to get my hopes crashed....how futilistic touching.
'Can't… can't we do 'surgery?' To fix the left one, at least? Reconstructive surgery? Lasers? Anything? Surely there's 'something' we can try? For Rem-kun, he needs his sight back!'
She sounded so desperate. It almost made me want to believe her.
However, particularly its location, any attempt at surgical intervention right now would be… extremely risky.
2015, especially in Asian, Potential for causing further damage, even total loss of what remaining vision has in my working eye, is too high.
Risks far outweigh any potential benefits.
It's a situation where 'do no harm' must be a guiding principle.
'Manage it for now.' The words echoed in my head. Just manage it. Not fix. Not improve. Just… survive.
A sleek black case inside a vinyl bag, which is in my lap right now.
A pair of glasses. Black frames, thin not flashy at all, which I appreciated.
The lenses had a faint blue tint to them. Prescription. Specifically tailored to correct for residual and refractive errors in my vision, within its limited range of focus.
But more importantly, they incorporate a high-grade blue-light filter.
Constant screens – phones, PCs, tablets. The blue light emitted from these devices can cause significant retinal strain, especially for an already compromised case like me.
Using these consistently, especially when interacting with any digital display, will significantly cut down on the glare and reduce overall strain on my remaining function....
The goal is to protect what I've got left. To keep it safe, prevent any further degeneration from environmental factors.
'Rem-kun! Like… like a secret agent from a movie. Or a really cle-----'
Yeah, cool..... about that.
With these two… maybe blue light won't fry what's left of me.
They're not perfect, not a cure, but 'something.' This cloth, a new accessory, elastic stretching obediently as it's tied.
Brain, is constantly trying to interpret signals, even from an eye that isn't sending any. It's working too hard to make up for complete lack of input from my right side....
In doing so, it's causing significant strain on my remaining functional.
By covering it, I'm essentially telling my brain to 'switch off' that input entirely.
It will help reduce cognitive load, and hopefully, reduce frequency and intensity of my headaches, watery and red eyes
A form of visual rest, allowing to fully allocate its resources.
It's like I am suddenly hiding something, now with my strands, and fabric, covering rough.....Will I ever get used to it fully? Or will it always be this strange, necessary appendage?
While immediate surgical intervention isn't advisable, field of ophthalmology, particularly vision prosthetics and augmentation, is advancing, but at a very slow pace, not what I want.....
AR, VR glasses can help me a lot, but not yet developed.
That guy said Japan is at the forefront of some truly groundbreaking innovations. Zoom-in camera glasses.
Not just a concept, but tangible prototypes.
Sony, yes, it exists here, for instance, has a remarkably sleek design with integrated micro-cameras.
Nikon's prototypes focus on incredibly sharp, high-resolution feeds.
JINS, known for their lightweight frames, are exploring ultralight designs.
Olympus… they're venturing into augmented reality overlays, real-time spatial mapping directly onto your field of vision.
It's like a completely personalized visual overlay, adapting to your environment. Kinda like bionic eyes....
It's complex, but core principle is a tiny, high-definition camera integrated seamlessly into glasses frame itself.
This camera constantly streams what you're looking at to a miniature, high-speed processor embedded in the temples or a discreet pocket unit.
This processor then performs real-time digital magnification, image stabilization, and even light filtering.
You'd activate zoom with a subtle button press on the frame, or, in more advanced prototypes, even via subtle eye movements or direct neural interface signals like what I did with my phone, though that's still years, decades off. 2030's---40's
There's eSight back in my world, those clunky-looking glasses, sure, but they're real. You can buy them. They magnify, and enhance.
Not a cure, no, but they do help.
Then there's also Envision Glasses, reading text aloud, recognizing faces. Apple's products, yes I'm talking about those graphic ones, with Jarvis like Artificial intelligence.....It's not some vague concept anymore.
Just a tiny question. 'Cost?' I asked. It's the crucial one, always.
Initial models are incredibly expensive. He was talking five to ten million yen, just from his view, but it should be more.....
Ichinose really would have lost her soul again, if not for less privacy.
It's new, specialized, so production scale is small, and cost is prohibitive, not for public.....
But like all new technologies, price will plummet with mass production and refinement.
Maybe it could be available for a few hundred thousand yen, maybe less, but I might not even live to see that day for myself.....
It's a matter of time and investment.
Direct biological repair. Retinal fixes. Gene therapy, even. Stem cell regeneration.....
Major research institutions, like University of Tokyo's Biomedical department and a guy named Johns Hopkins in the States, are making strides in cellular regeneration and neuro ophthalmology.
I listened. But it feels like reaching for smoke. Millions of yen. Twenty to thirty years. It's so far off, so abstract.
A dream wrapped in a medical textbo--Um, my world is spinning. Not physically. Inside. A sudden, this blurry figure.
Am I really here? Is this live hallucin--pc first perso---Why does this view from my point of....no could it be a memor----?
I try to move my hand, but for some reason can----'Red hair?' Wild. Tangled. A woman's face, too close, her breath hot, reeking of something metallic and sweet. What's going on---
Panic. This isn't just a memory. It's reliving.
"Yes, yes-hehe…Chumm. Min---"
A distorted cooing, it's slurry.
Her lips. On my right eye. 'Sucking.' Biting. Not pain, not at first, but this sickening, wet pull. 'Sluurrp. Chomp-slurp---!'
Squelching sound? I'm inside somewhere, something....Warm. Like being swallowed whole, consumed by a tunnel but it's soft....?
Then sharp, searing sting of a needle.
'Zing!' Right into socket, wher ---Hmm...What is this.. feeling? It's so warm and fuzzy, surrounds my body, like I can even fly without a cape if I want to. Am I high on drugs? It's not a good joke anymore, hey....!
I am bewildered, so much so that I just stare at red curls dropping over my shoulder, I want to look around but strangely it seems that I am unable to turn my head.....Paralyzed.
It's so soft! Fluffy, but have the elasticity to swell up, it's a hardened chewy tip, dripping some kind of liqu---Am I sucking? It's going down my throat. 'Slorppp---Gulp~?'
It's sweet, no I know, I have tasted it before, what what---Goa--no Creamy cow milk, not reduced?
The taste is so familiar, yet in this context... Like the richest, freshest milk, impossibly creamy, coating my tongue, leaving a sweet aftertaste that lingers...'Ghmmm---!'
Lick~! MmHmm~It's pistachio, cake?
Cake? In this situation? The absurdity of it....
"Angg~~won't go anywhe---"
A guttural moan, not mine. Someone's here, it's that voice again.
Secreting a large amount, drops come by and gulp down so rapid----'Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!' A torrent, I can't stop, drowning my stomach in it.
My tongue is moving, not under my control, like it's already been done, a pre-programmed reflex, I am just a witness...to this puffy inside my mouth, it's so fucking long, and I seem to have completely wrapped up organ on chewing it, like I will di-----
'Chew-chew-chomp. So long~'
It's soft, then firm, then almost melts, then gets chewy again for some reason? My teeth are grinding on pipes here inside my mouth, jaw aches. This isn't food.
"Pahhh.. pahh~~Hyaaaan!"
A high-pitched cry.
What are those skinny hills? Why are we shaking so much...? Such noise coming from....Am I dehydrated, I feel like I do? Wait, I didn't fell unconscious, right...? Hey, hey, Ichinose, are you pouring down your suntory drink inside me?
The thought of her pouring that sweet, milky drink directly into my mouth, not a glass, not a bottle, but... just directly into me using a straw, is my condition that bad....?
Guchi!~~~
I immediately circle those nips with my tongue repeatedly, and try to bite as drink comes ou-------It's like a button, with straw having some kind of holes, as it spread sideways onto my gum----Flick~Flicck~~---
Mmm!~Gulp!~
I grind my teeth, as if munching it to save from going heatstroke.
"Oooh!~~Ha!~Ah ha!~~~Um hum!~~hung ---toda? Aren't yo---!"
I then faintly hear heavy breathing, it's pretty quiet but as it is only me and Ichinose here. My ears perk up to make out what situation I am under right now...
This woman's voice, broken by gasps, by what sounds suspiciously like ecstasy on my response, but her voice is a little different..... Ichinose?
What is she doing? What am I doing? The sound of my own ragged breaths, mixing with hers, is almost as horrifying as the acts themse----
"Let Onii-ch!~~Huff!~~Huff~~"
It's twitching, extremely sensitive, what is, wipe this flowing sno----
The thought of something alive, flowing, wet by licking over my chest, not under my control… it's terrifying.
Hmm!~~~!! Oooo. A tingling electric current immediately hit me on my chest, particularly around nipp---I violently tremble all over due to painful stimulation! It's long, alive, moving, fucking bit me like a crazy animal----Snake!
It's biting me. Something is biting me. What the hell is a snake doing here?
Where is 'here'? This isn't right, what type of venom are you counteri---
"Gluckk.. gluckk... Gluckk.."
It's a wet sucking, gagging sound. It's viscous, leaking on me, with me too releasing. More of it. Ahnnn~~!
"Ah!~~Leave m----"
Hey, what the fuck is going on down there, am I being swallowed by an octopus or what?!
The feeling of being pulled, engulfed, from below. Octopus, it just... sticks. A squirming, sucking pressure on my thighs. What is this?
"You bad friend, you only know how to bully me!~~~Now feeding him with cake, I will eat too!~~~"
"Ugh!~~~Ugh uh!~~~Hmmm!!~~~"
Choking sounds, barely human.
'Schloop~oww--!' Wet, squelching pull taking me inside, it's terribly warm and sticky, leak---And screams. My screams. Echoing in my sku----
I try to shake it off, but an echo, a voice that crawls under my skin, whispers.
"This pain…Muuah~~---eyes no--Ahnn~?!"
Drinking from those buds, it's getting hard to breathe, my entire cheeks are pressed against such big pillo----
The suffocating softness. The desperate gasps for air. Taste of something sweet and milky, mixed with metallic tang of… blood? Whose blood? Is it mine? Is it hers?
I am unable to move, or think of anything yet, for waking up, do something even a little than just being laid down hel----Aaahhh! I, I think I'm going crazy, I'm going crazy from all this felling..... throwing all my frustrations into poking, biting hard onto those open straws, I try to empt-----
Burrrr---! Why are these plumps shaking? Sta----... I can't catch my breath, soft fleshy mounds are suffocati----Zooooooo?!
"W-what's going on---?"
"K-k-k-kyaaaa....!"
"Waaahhh!"
xxxxxxx
Author's Note
Now, you gotta wait for a few days for next update. Enjoy this one! 🎉❣️
Try to guess number of women in this scene? Who they are, eh? 😏
Power Stone's! 😉