Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 407. Carp

I colored the apple, not only using red but also other colors because I gave it a bit of shading.

In the end, I smeared the wax a bit with my finger to give it an extra matte effect.

The kid was meanwhile on his second card, and when he looked up at me, I showed him the apple.

He applauded silently while my grandmother looked through the other cards.

I smirked; it’s just an apple, and nobody really uses wax colors because they are terrible to draw with, so there’s no need to make such a fuss.

The next card was ’Boat’, and I also added a sea around the black outline of the boat and a sunrise on the horizon.

Showing it to the kid, he got even more excited.

I slowly figured out the way this lesson was going and wasn’t surprised when I got a carp as the next card.

So I gave it a very heterosexual rainbow skin without using pink or purple.

In the end, we went through the whole fucking thing—the whole alphabet—and I eventually had all the colored cards stacked beside me.

My grandmother looked at my dirty fingers with disgust the moment she finally gave a bit of attention to her INITIAL grandson again.

"What? Art is dirty; what do you want?" I asked her with a shrug.

"Art?" She scoffed, somehow again provoking me.

"Yeah? You want to play this game?" I conjured a drawing block up, together with a proper pencil, and leaned back in my stool, placing my right ankle on my left knee and using my right thigh as support.

I hadn’t really touched a pencil since I sketched my tattoos inside the prison of the Commander-World, but some things aren’t forgotten.

The first time I really put effort into drawing was when I tried to come up with a picture for the catalyst of my ability—the coin.

Back then, it was just pulling an image inside my head out into reality, although the intended eye morphed into that woman with many hands in the end.

Anyway, later, when I was isolated by my family, drawing was the most logical thing to do while listening to music. I am not the type who listens to the lyrics and stares into the distance or anything, so it was nice to do that on the side.

And I had a talent for it, so I continued to draw until I became too cool for it during my teenage years.

Now, pulling out a picture I was imagining was something that had become absolutely effortless.

"Here you are." I turned the ring block with the scrawny, bent-over figure, sporting sparse hair, big eyes, pointed teeth, and long nails, and that was holding onto a ring obsessively.

"HEAVENS, WHAT IS THAT?" My grandmother yelled and covered the child’s eyes.

"..." I swallowed what I wanted to say when I saw how dangerous her eyes had turned.

Not the unusual glare, but the ’I will stab you if you say something wrong, and I know exactly where and how to do it’ glance.

"...Nothing." I sighed and put the paper and pen back into the past.

Henry would have cherished my picture... he would surely make a big deal out of it and put it in a frame or something equally adorably cute.

Which was also a reason for me to put it back into the past because I don’t want him to hang it up in our room to ’worship’ it—nobody wants a picture of their grandmother inside their room.

I laughed, finally able to make the joke, even if it was just to myself.

But the next second I was kicked under the table and stopped laughing, instead forcing a tired sigh out.

"I am numb to all your abuse," I said stoically without looking up at her.

My grandmother broke into amused laughter.

"Be quiet." She kicked me again, this time more tenderly, and continued to chuckle while she went through the cards I had colored.

"How should the kid know if that’s a carp or a rainbow fish?" Finally finding something to nag at me with, she showed me the carp card.

"The four lines under the picture should give the hint?"

"Carps don’t look like this."

"Have you ever seen a carp that was not on your plate?"

"Have you???"

I sighed, thinking for a moment if I should conjure up the fish that I had thrown at Lauren at the lake back in my childhood.

You know what?

Why the fuck not?

I conjured the fish up and slammed it on the table.

My grandmother looked from the wet dead fish drenching her desk to then eyeing me in a very offensive way.

"Here you go." I pointed at the fish.

"That is not a carp," she hissed viciously while the kid leaned over the table to poke the dead CARP.

"Stubborn." I pointed at her.

"DON’T YOU DARE POINT AT ME!" She pointed at me.

In the end, we pointed at each other in silence so as not to startle the kid, who was busy examining the fish.

I heard urgent paws running to us from the floor downstairs but ignored it.

Being the bigger person, I took my finger back to myself and showed her my palms.

"Calm down, old lady. This doesn’t have to escalate." I chuckled.

She harrumphed to mask a smile and put her long green fingernail away as well.

"Get rid of that," she finally grumbled.

The paws arrived and bolted through the door, carrying Kitty, who came to the table, his eyes fixated on the fish.

"YOU!" My grandmother had found the next target for her long, dark green finger (nail).

A second later, Henry materialized in front of me. He should have been able to hear that it was just Kitty running around; nevertheless, he showed up and glanced at the fish.

"That’s your breakfast?" he joked.

"You want some as well?" I raised my eyebrows in challenge while pushing Kitty’s head away.

Next, it was Ethan who stormed to the door, assessing the situation and then sighing.

He turned to the child.

"I found a new toy for you in the attic. It’s in your room; do you want to take a look?"

The kid obediently nodded and hopped away, while I took the fish from the table and threw it to the other side of the room.

Kitty sprinted after it and devoured the fish in one go, while Ethan explained,

"We have to ask Omar about the situation on his side. What worries me currently is that Henry showed his powers while he destroyed a camera."

"Who knows what your powers look like?"

I answered for him.

"Dr. Lawrence and whoever she told."

Henry nodded.

"She and her assistants, and a few people inside the center who saw me teleport." Henry went behind my stool and sneaked his hand to my neck, drawing circles on my skin.

I let him be, already happy that he was this ’well-behaved.’

"What exactly had he done?" My grandmother asked, apparently not clear about it.

"...He killed Eugene Lawrence Junior."

My grandmother tapped the table with her long nails, seemingly still deciding between yelling, beating, or complimenting Henry—she didn’t seem to be a fan of the Lawrence family herself.

"Have you found out about the place we can lure the rats into?" I asked.

Ethan pushed his glasses up.

"If we need a big and empty building with an open space in the middle..."

"The center?" Henry asked, and Ethan nodded.

"It’s still empty?" I raised my eyebrows.

Ethan nodded again.

I thought for a moment. The center would be an ideal battleground.

"But the rats are good at digging; fighting them inside a garden gives them a chance to flee."

Henry softly pinched my neck to get my attention.

"The underground laboratory is under the garden. They can’t flee."

"Oh, yeah."

"What about the worms?" Ethan halted and informed my grandma.

"They can turn into people and are bulletproof."

"What?!" The old dragon scrunched her face.

"Yeah. Is it clever to get rid of the worms’ natural enemy in the first place?" If we got rid of them, wouldn’t we be enabling the worms even more?

Though the rats yesterday, or the day before, or whatever, probably went after the worms because blood had splattered on them, while the pink ones did go for humans—to spread more worms or something.

Ethan shook his head, reading my thoughts.

"The rats attack preferably humans. How do you plan to lure the rats? Livestock didn’t work."

"My blood. They really love it." I smirked.

"Absolutely not!" My grandma intercepted.

"...Mr. Howard, as far as I heard, your blood nurtures them..." Ethan reminded worriedly.

I looked up at Henry.

"Show them the shield."

Henry raised a hand and let crystals dance on top of his finger before adding more and more, making a small shield.

Then suddenly, the three of us were engulfed in a crystalline see-through barrier.

Kitty looked up in alarm from the spot where I had thrown the already devoured fish at.

"...Incredible," Ethan praised with amazement, looking up and to the sides, but he did not dare to touch it.

"For my plan, we need Henry. Then, inside the Center-garden, I will spill a bit of my blood. We’ll wait for the rats to come, and then—" I conjured up the arrow gun and glanced at Henry.

He hummed, so I fired at the wall outside of the shield.

The arrow passed through the shield, penetrating a wall.

"WHAT DID THIS HOUSE EVER DO TO YOU?" My grandmother kicked me under the table yet again.

I ignored her and looked at Henry and Ethan.

"I’ll kill the rats from inside the shield. Then we’ll pick up the corpses."

"What about the Worm Zombies? They will also be lured to the center, and just killing one had drained my power significantly." Henry let the shield disappear.

"... You also noticed that they needed time to turn into real worm zombies, didn’t you? Or they would already be running through the city. If we are lucky, then there are no real worm zombies out there." I halted, amazed by the blind optimism of a specific person that had apparently rubbed off on me.

"I’ll flip the coin before the operation, just to make sure. And I don’t want anybody other than Henry and me there because we can teleport away in the worst case." I looked up at him and saw him nod.

I let the arrow gun in my hand disappear as well, together with the arrow in the wall.

Nevertheless, a hole was left there, easily spotted if—for example—one sat on the throne.

"YOU WILL FIX THIS!" The old woman screeched, but I didn’t give her any attention, given that she only searched for reasons to yell at me.

I looked at Henry and Ethan.

"What are you saying? Is the warehouse ready for a bunch of rat corpses?"

"Yes..." Ethan nodded.

"Alright." Henry shrugged and smiled bloodthirstily.

"We have a plan."