Four weeks passed in a blink of an eye.
After he was released from the medical bay, Otto completely gave up the idea of "getting experience." Not only because his body would hurt each time he stepped into the dojo, or because his stomach would twist each time he held his Jian, but also because he decided to focus on something more important. His body.
After what happened, he finally gave up and started exercising. He would wake up every day to run at 6:00 AM sharp. It was a sacrifice, one that he wouldn't do it alone, as he basically obligated Luke to do it with him. All part of his "training."
Logically, he didn't abandon Shapening, quite the opposite really. Now that his body was starting to get a little stronger, he could maintain the words that he knew for a few more seconds. Although some new scars and a burn mark appeared under his shirt. Slowly but surely he was getting good at it.
Speaking of Luke, the poor boy had been through an almost spartan train, not only to his body, but also to his brain.
Since Otto suddenly had a lot of time in his hands now, he decided to teach him everything he would need to survive. He went as far as saying that his "clan" had special information and straight up just taught him how to fight each Creature that lived in the Forgotten Shore, the ones he could remember at least.
His hair had grown over the past four weeks. This time, instead of using dull scissors to cut it, he went to a real barber. At first, he found it strange that there was a barber on the Academy grounds, since this had never been mentioned in the novel, he thought that it probably wasn't any good. But after going there, he saw that, in fact, it wasn't all that bad. Now he looked presentable. His hair was no longer an abomination, as everyone had claimed it to be.
He never learns other people's opinions though.
After being the talk of the place for bleeding literal radiant blood, Otto went into hiding.
No one knew where he went. The "second" strongest vanished into thin air. Of course, he never truly disappeared, just fully abused [Inexistent] like there was no tomorrow and after two weeks people finally were starting to forget him. Except Luke, obviously.
Speaking of the poor boy once again, Otto discovered why he was the only one who could actually see him. At first Otto thought it had something to do with his Aspect, but as the weeks passed this theory fell to the ground. Not because he discovered what it was–Luke refused to tell him for some reason–but because he discovered what really caused it: Friendship.
Yeah, turns out the power of friendship was real and strong enough to counter an Attribute that shouldn't exist.
In any case, after all that, the big day finally arrived–his last day on Earth! And what was Otto doing, one might ask?
Currently, he was laying on his bed, music playing loudly in his earbuds. He bobbed his head to the sound of one of Kai's songs. Surprisingly, they were good.
'Who would have thought that one day I would be hearing this?'
One day he would have to meet the archer and ask for an autograph.
Suddenly, something dropped on his forehead. He didn't need to open his eyes to know it was Silk.
"Get out."
She started tapping her legs on his skin to attract his attention.
"Stop it." He tried to shoo her away, but she was persistent. Eventually, after annoying him for an entire minute, Otto gave up and finally opened his eyes.
He saw what she wanted him to see.
Over those four weeks, Silk's web had grown exponentially. It occupied half the entire room and, now, the ceiling above his bed as well. It was not merely large, but dense, too. Every day, he found himself wondering: how could a tiny little spider like her weave something so vast?
"I swear to God, if the Government ever comes charging me for this I will sell you."
Silk was offended. How could he talk to her like that? Couldn't he appreciate her fine art?
Otto picked up his communicator and looked at the clock.
"It's still early. We won't be going to the Dream Realm until evening…what do you want to do as your last day on Earth?" He asked Silk.
Silk didn't even need it to think, she pointed towards her web. On her last day here she wanted to relax and enjoy the warmth of her home, perhaps her little brother could join for once.
Otto's eyes followed to where she pointed.
"You're right." For an instant Silk's eyes were filled with hope. "We should go and see the snow."
Her hopes crumbled. Like any other spider, Silk hated the cold, there was no way she would leave her web for that.
She prepared to leap back onto her web, but as she did so, Otto caught her in mid-air.
"Come on, it will be fun." He got up, pausing the music, and letting the earbuds hang loose on the collar of his hoodie. "It's just a little cold and you barely leave my clothes anyway."
Without giving her time to protest, he grabbed his scarf, bennie, gloves, and left the room.
Instead of going directly outside though, Otto headed towards the cafeteria first. He wasn't exactly hungry, but since it was his last day on Earth, he decided to finally try the Academy's coffee.
After that incident his Flaw was acting up like crazy. Everything that he ate tasted bad. His mind would automatically compare whatever he put in his mouth to the best version of it he could remember. Which made him completely avoid coffee, afraid that he may start to dislike it.
But today was special, hopefully with all that was happening, it would actually taste good.
The place was, as always at this time, full of Sleepers, yet the mood was completely different. Their usual cheerful and youthful mood had completely disappeared. Replaced by some sort of melancholy that spread around the place. Everyone seemed down, with the exception of the Legacies like Caster and Nephis, they appeared to be calm and composed.
Not that he cared, knowing their Fate, it made sense why they would be like that.
Crossing all the way towards the coffee machine with a smile on his face, Otto picked up a plastic cup and pressed the button. As the machine poured coffee into his cup, Silk peeked her head through his scarf.
She looked at everything with great curiosity.
It was technically her first time here, since she no longer needed food to survive, she rarely accompanied Otto there without being inside his body.
Looking at the many new faces, she noticed how their strings were…weird. While some were weak and soon to snap, others were bright and vigorous.
Nephis, for example, had many attached to her.
Her strings stretched far, too many to count, too bright to look at it directly. In another table a bit far from her, seated a black haired, pale boy. He was…how to describe it…unlike anything she had ever seen.
Otto, oblivious to Silk, finally finished filling his cup, when he took a sip, he almost split the foul thing. But he didn't, forcing himself to swallow, not to attract attention.
'God, this thing is horrible, how can anyone drink this?'
"What are you doing?" Luke said, appearing out of nowhere at his side.
"Drinking coffee," He responded, unsurprised by his sudden appearance. "But this is hella bad, do you drink this?"
"Really? Let me have a taste." Luke took the cup and tried. "It seems normal to me. Perhaps it's your legacy tongue who isn't used to normal coffee."
Otto raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Anyway, what are you doing on your last day?" Luke asked.
"Me? I was planning to see the snow."
"See the snow?" Luke frowned. "Haven't you been seeing the snow everyday?"
"Of course, but today is a special day."
Luke shrugged.
"Then, if you get bored, me and some girls will be having lunch. If you want to come, send me a message."
'Girls?' Otto still couldn't get over how many girl 'friends' this guy had. Really, it was ridiculous. Not that he was jealous…surely not.
Walking towards the exit together, they bid goodbye and went in different ways. It wasn't long before Otto was seated on a bench watching as the snow slowly fell over the trees.
He didn't particularly like the cold, it was more like he enjoyed the feeling of warmth that came from using winter clothes.
'Right, I still have to tell Luke the two secrets I promised.' He suddenly remembered.
He put on his earbuds and raised the volume. Losing himself in thoughts.