You'll Be Just Fine (BxB Budo x Taro Next Gen Main Ship)

Chapter 17 - An Ally of a Sort

Taro had returned back to the rest of the guests and sat down next to Budo. Budo was rubbing his back.

"Oh I'm sorry about that, Taro," Ryoba said, "I just never get into little talks like that anymore. Reminds me when I was young-"

"Mother, I think you and Taro need to take a small break..." Ayano said. Ryoba waved a little hand, saying "the stage is yours." Taro couldn't handle the small talk anymore.

"Ayano... Why are you like this?..." Taro finally asked.

Ayano nodded, "it's... a genetic thing... It tends to pass through the girls in our family... It starts off with a sense of complete apathy to all things around us..." Ayano looked at her mother, "the tried and true lore is that we're supposed to find someone, and that someone.... somehow reverses those bleak feelings we have... It's not sadness... It's just genuinely not caring enough to go about in life meaningfully..."

Ryukon paused hearing this description. He remembered when he first met Keito and his world filled with light. He still has Keito's old umbrella, which still gave off the same aura as it did when he first kept it. It had become nostalgic.

"It's a strong sense of boredom and a persistent lack of urgency... However, when we find this person, we start behaving normally... Well, close to normally. We begin to care for things like other people do. We begin to feel things, such as emotions from watching a sad movie... Both the important and mundane just starts to really matter.... and well..."

Ayano glanced at Info White. Info White just wiggled her brows weirdly as a hello. Info just shook her head, "there seems to be another gene that's in circulation..." Ayano held up two fingers, "there's two other ones. There's the Apathetic one, which is what my family seems to be dominant in, the Aggressor one, and the Semi-Normal one..."

"Semi-Normal?" Budo asked.

"The Semi-Normal one is basically that you live a relatively normal life until you meet this person... Then after that, you tend to develop a little more of the... associated traits... They're not... 'yanderes'..." she gave a slight eye roll at the word, "but they do have the tendencies of one if we're speaking in those terms... They're aggressive when they need to be... It's like a switch."

Budo nodded, "sooo they start off 'normal', but when they meet this personnnn-"

"Their brain chemistry pretty much changes to unlock those traits," Ayano said, "so they have their normal mode, and their... second mode at the same time... The other two don't have a proper personality beforehand... They're just blank and have to wear a mask they've created."

Keito just looked at Ryukon, while Budo carefully glanced at Taro. Mr. Aishi held in a laugh from Budo's gesture.

"With the Apathy one, we genuinely feel indifferent to everything when our love is not around," Ayano continued, "when they are around however, we start to become more opinionated about the things around us. Things start affecting us more. Semi-Normals tend to just revert back to how they were normally before meeting their love... Although they do tend to have a severe distrust in most people at first..."

"Passively I might add," Info said and looked at Taro, "Semi-Normals tend to be ambiverted, Apathetics are more introverted, while the Aggressors are extroverted~"

"Learn something new everyday~" Info White said.

"Indeed~" they both took a sip of their soda. Taro couldn't speak a word at the moment. Every thought he had was jumbled up. Budo rubbed Taro's back as a reminder to breathe.

"I may not look it, but I myself am an introvert~" Ryoba said, "I prefer not to speak to people as often as I do, but it comes with the job~"

Mr. Aishi just looked away from his extroverted wife from the lie. Taro rubbed his neck. Ayano noticed the look on his face.