Gacha God: Dance Like No One Is Watching (ch. 21) (Patreon)

I opened my eyes, and it felt like I had been blind for my entire life and now the settings were kicked up to HD. I winced as Peter finished taking off the bandages while I sat on the machine that just did the transplant. We went right to cutting as soon as my plane arrived. As the last of the bandages fell away, Peter spoke, "You took to them pretty well according to Mr. Starks machine, but rejection is still something we have to worry about. So, erm, I'm going to keep your… eyes," Peter informed while I was busy looking around.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," I said, looking up at the ceiling and it was like I could see every groove like I was looking at it through a microscope. The detail was actually kind of overwhelming. "My power doesn't usually give stuff that could hurt me," I told him, rubbing my new eyes and ignoring Peter's fretting.

"Usually?" He prompted, sounding worried as I slid off the machine. It was a long table with a bunch of arms that were ripped with scales and other medical equipment. As far as I could tell, it worked like a charm. No lingering pain, no funny vision. The only issue was that my brain was struggling a bit to keep up with the rather dramatic increase in detail. Hell, I could see every individual thread in Peter's shirt. I could see Ned's pores from across the room, who was half paying attention and half trying to keep up with everything that happened in Italy.

"I get the occasional cursed item," I admitted. "But it's more of a 'this power comes at a price' kind of thing rather than my power giving me something that I can't use." I blinked rapidly a couple of times, my brain didn't feel like it was getting stabbed anymore. "I'm getting used to it."

Peter didn't stop fretting, looking at me worriedly, "Are you sure? Because they look like your normal eyes. They were red before- ah!" He cut himself off as I… well, it was like flipping a mental switch, almost. So the items required energy. What that energy was, I wasn't so sure -- could be life energy, it could be my stamina, it could be a lot of things. I used to have a weapon that could replace itself after it broke, but as a kid, breaking it once exhausted me. Once I started growing up though , I could do it all day long without feeling tired. Items like these used that energy, so it was only a question of how much it would use.

"Pass me a mirror?" I asked him, and Peter scrambled for the mirror that we had set aside for the occasion. Taking it from him, I saw that my eyes were now blood red, but something was weird. Floating in the jar, there had been a single tomoe around the ring, but now there were three in each eye. They spun lazily as I focused more energy towards them, trying to get a reaction-

I got one. My pupil hollowed out while the three tomoes in each eye bled together, forming an odd triangle shape. "Huh," I noted, feeling a little bit of pain behind my eyeballs, like a muscle being pulled too tightly rather than surgical pain. "That's pretty weird," I decided, letting the energy fade and my gaze went back to its usual bluish gray. At least I didn't have to explain the change in eye color.

"I wish I had a superpower that gave me free stuff," Ned sighed, glancing my way. "Are you sure you're okay, though? I'm not sure where eye transplant lands on the invasive surgery list, but it sounds pretty invasive."

"I'm good," I said, shooting Ned a thumbs up. Peter was looking at me weirdly for a moment and glanced away as he scratched at his cheek when I cocked an eyebrow in his direction.

"It's… I mean… you really just… cut out your eyes," he confessed, and it did seem a little late to voice his doubts now. "Like it was nothing." Peter sounded weirded out by it, his lips pressing together in a thin line. Maybe it wasn't that he had doubts, but more… he had some trouble with it? I don't know. His issue was hard to pin down, but it seemed to be rooted in concern.

"Course I did. Why have boring lame eyes when I could have much better eyes?" I questioned, sliding to my feet. I activated the Sharingan again, and this time I looked at something beyond my reflection. Peter shifted where he- no, okay, that was weird. I saw Peter's movement before he made them, seeing almost a phantom hand reach up to scratch at his neck before his actual hand moved. That was disorienting. I was really getting the enhanced perception and prediction. I doubt that I would be fighting many ninjas that could throw around 'jutsu', but I'm sure I could translate that into something else. Like Ki, or magic, or something.

As for the Genjutsu bit, I was currently at a loss with. I knew it meant illusions, but how was I supposed to cast them in the first place, much less with something as simple as eye contact?

"That easy, huh?" Peter questioned, sounding like he took something from that answer. Did he want his own set of super powerful eyeballs? I guess if I rolled an extra set, I would pass them to him. Or if those were better than my current ones, I would give him the Sharingan.

"That easy," I agreed, grabbing a pair of sunglasses that I prepared for this occasion. Sliding them on, I noticed that the Sharigan didn't care about the tinted glasses, and I saw through them normally. Pretty sure that's not how light was supposed to work, but whatever. "Now, come on. We have to see MJ's play," I said, grabbing a jacket and shrugging it on.

Ned poked his head up, "I don't think I should. Shield is… being weird right now. They know we were in their systems because of Malta. And I still need to coordinate with Dr. Hall about the Gravitonium." Both valid enough reasons to miss out on a play.

"I-" Peter started before he glanced over at the surgery table. He was hesitating, looking for an excuse.

"It can wait. Both of you. Mary Janes a friend, right?" I asked, earning a couple of hesitant nods. "She personally invited both of you, right?" I got two more confident nods. "Then wouldn't it be a total dick move to not show up? Leave that stuff for later. It'll be fine. Or it won't, and we'll deal with it," I dismissed their excuses with a wave of my hand. I saw them share a glance before they actually did and I saw Peter start to speak before I heard him.

It was actually kind of hard to deal with. I tried to focus, seeing if that would help and… no. It sure as shit did not, because I'm pretty sure I'm looking at a Peter's cells right now and… what the fuck was… energy? Ki? The fuck? I was so distracted by whatever the fuck that was, I barely noticed that Peter was speaking. "I mean, this stuff is important too. We can't just drop it-"

"I'm not the boss of either of you two, but if you said you were going to be there, then you should be there," I told them with a small shrug. It was their call in the end. It was a dick move, though. "I'll just tell MJ that you both bailed," I tacked on and that sure changed their tune while I tried to not look at Peter's cells. Kind of like zooming out with a phone, I scaled the microvision back to get a better field of view. I saw a flow of energy in Peter. Not so much in pathways, but I knew enough about chakras to recognize the pattern.

"Dude!" Peter protested, and I just gave an unrepentant grin.

"Your call," I told them both and I wasn't at all shocked that they both scrambled to follow. As much as the Riding Tide or whatever was up with Peter mattered to them, their high school rep mattered more. I didn't really get it, but that was probably because I'm an asshole that didn't care about other people's opinions. I'm sure the high school rep was very important to most people, but I didn't exactly go to high school, so I wouldn't know.

The two of them got dressed -- Ned was wearing a rather ridiculous hat, but he looked so pleased with it that he rocked it. Peter tried to get his messy hair in order all the way to the train station that would take us to their school for the play. There was a pretty big turnout for it, I noticed as we strode up to the theater room. This school had some serious money going through it, I had to admit, because it was decked out to actually look like a professional theater.

There was arranged seating and Mary Jane hadn't been lying that she secured some of the best seats in the house. While I sat, my eyes still hidden behind some sunglasses, I got used to the influx of high def vision and the predictive capabilities. Another thing that I noticed when the lights started to dim was that I could see in the dark. There were shades of darkness and light, but it was kind of like movie darkness -- where the character would see pitch blackness, the viewers saw everything in low light so we could actually see what was going on.

The play started not long after we took our seats, the lights dimming more while the stage became brightly lit. And so began a highschool rendition of Beauty and the Beast with Mary Jane as the beauty in question. I knew precisely fuck all about plays, but as the hour and a half started to tick onward, my general impression was competence that was carried by heart.

The costumes were fine, the staging was fine, and the script was fine. Not bad, but not exactly something that would blow anyone's socks off. But, it was elevated because everyone on stage was doing their best. Acting their theater kid hearts out. It wasn't just MJ who was giving it her all either. The Beast was too, the side characters were doing their damnedest to convince everyone that they were talking tea pots and brooms. It had heart.

"Boo! Get on with it!" Some punk shouted in the middle of a monologue from MJ, her red hair styled in a long tied up braid, wearing a grown that fit her reasonably well, but it clearly wasn't made for her. And I saw it. A brief note of panic on her expression. Something that made the two kids a few rows behind me start cracking up despite the harsh looks that they were getting.

Teenagers were assholes.

I saw her eyes flicker to me, so I gave her a thumbs up. That seemed to reassure her and regardless of the brief stumble, Mary Jane continued. She finished off her monologue, and the play continued onward to the final act. The Beast became the prince that he was, Gaston died, and they lived happily ever after. The final curtain was met with applause. So, now that it wasn't at risk of ruining the play, I very calmly stood up and looked at the two disruptive shits that seemed all too pleased with themselves.

"Hey, I know you-" one of them started before I smacked the shit out of him, much to the shock of his friend and the ones standing near him. Though, they didn't exactly look displeased.

"It takes a good bit to actually piss me off," I told him, smacking him again and forcing him back into his seat so I could smack his friend. "But laughing at someone who's trying their best? What the fuck is wrong with you two? Tell me how many times I gotta hit you before I smacked enough sense into you?" I asked them both, and I saw it. The defeat and shame.

Fuck me, dude. "Fuck off, both of you," I grabbed them by the shirts and hauled them out of the chairs and into the pathway, gesturing to the door in disgust. That just rubbed me the wrong way. You're going to act ashamed when some consequences smacked you? You're going to act sorry when someone calls you out? Shit. If you're going to be an asshole, then be an unrepentant one.

They scampered off and the bystanders seemed to really have no idea how to react to that little scene, but hardly anyone else took notice as everyone was performing their final bows. Though, when I looked up at the stage, I saw that MJ was all smiles. The cast took a final bow before scampering off behind the red curtain.

When I came back, Peter and Ned were giving me some concerned looks. "Erm… do you really think you should be drawing attention to yourself, Sebastian?" Ned asked me, adjusting his hat while he looked around, glancing at those that were not so subtly looking at me.

"I only lay low when it's funny, and they had it coming," I answered with a small shrug. I wasn't under any delusions that I would be flying under the radar for much longer. Not when Shield had my face. My only shot was getting an item that could change my appearance, but I couldn't count on getting one. So, realistically, I needed to look for an opportunity to reveal myself on my own terms. Mostly because I didn't want Shield thinking that they caught me. Their ego was overinflated enough as it was.

Ned and Peter shared another glance before shrugging, "If you say so." Peter decided, before I led the three of us over to the back stage. There, I saw a number of familiar faces.

"Oh my God, it's you," Liz Allan uttered, her eyes widening dramatically the moment that she saw me. "I thought- you're here!" She gasped again, giving a death grip with white knuckles on… Randy's arm. Poor guy. He seemed similarly surprised to see me here.

"So I am," I agreed, finding that reaction a little weird. Is this what celebrities felt like? I kind of hated it. I glanced at Peter to see that he was looking at Liz and Randy with a conflicted expression on his face before sharply looking away.

"You were in Italy, right? That was you?" Liz said, letting go of Randy's arm to pull out her phone and showing off a video of me carrying Skye out of a wrecked plane, snapping at some moron with a phone before stealing his car. The video itself wasn't that interesting -- I was there when it happened after all, but what was interesting was the number of views. It had been less than a day since the video was posted, but it was already sporting a good fifteen million views. Less to do with me and more to do with the fact that a super big plane nearly crashed on the highway. Or it was the massive pillars. Either or, really.

Peter and Ned immediately went into damage control mode, "Pfffft, what? No! No way, that's… someone else." Peter tried, cringing even as he spoke, but he rolled his head like he was taking a punch and nodded to himself, accepting that he had started digging his own grave.

Ned, ever the loyal friend, picked up a shovel. "Yeah, totally different guy," he pitched in, offering a nod.

Liz gave them the dullest and most unimpressed look I had ever seen in my life, and I had to say -- that was saying something. "It's someone else? Who just happens to look exactly like him?" She really was pushing to see how far they were willing to go, and to my infinite amusement, the answer to that was all the way.

"Statistically speaking, you know, everyone has a doppelganger in the world, so…" Peter kept on digging and I was watching with a smile.

"That also has a scar on his lips in the same exact place?" Liz pointed out, gesturing to me with a hand. Interesting rebuttal. What do you have to refute?

Peter glanced at me, as if he really expected me to… I don't know. Bail him out of this one, or something. Not happening. Why would I do that to myself? "Statistics," Peter answered, licking his lips nervously. "They… er… I mean, it sounds unlikely, but so… is like the creation of the universe. Or earth. I mean, what are the odds that earth would be in the goldilocks zone with everything needed to create biological life, huh? So, in comparison, it's not that unlikely that someone happens to have a scar because… of…?"

"An older brother came at me with a knife."

"Because- wait, what?" Peter did a double take, looking at me with wide eyes. I gave a shrug. It was less of a knife and more of the manifestation of a soul condensed into a sword, but that was just details. "Er… yeah. That."

Impossibly, Liz looked even less impressed. "Are you really trying to compare the creation of the universe to Sebastian having a look alike? Who just so happened to be in Italy, when I already know that he's…" her voice dropped to a lower octave, "Audacity?"

Peter, to his credit, knew he was well past the point of no return. "Yes," He answered with a nod, managing to sound surprisingly convincing about a blatant lie. I was proud of him.

For his sake, we were interrupted before Liz could retort when I was slammed into with a sideways hug, "You all came!" Mary Jane exclaimed, brimming with excitement. She wasn't wearing the dress anymore, but she still had the make-up and hairstyle. A quick change. Standing up, she whispered in my ear, “Thanks, Sebastian.” So, my good deed didn’t go unnoticed. I loved it when that happened.

“You were amazing!” Liz quickly gushed, sweeping Mary Jane up in a hug after she let go of me. The two of them were practically giddy with excitement, bouncing in place. And then they devolved into a language of trading rapid-fire questions and answers that I genuinely couldn’t keep up with. Leaving us dudes standing off to the side, and Randy sent me a sideways look.

“So… what’s up with the sunglasses?” He decided to ask, and I gave a lopsided smile.

“Cuz wherever I go, the sun is always shining on me,” I answered, offering a shrug. He seemed a little put out with the nonanswer, but it wasn’t like we knew each other. He had been tangentially involved with that whole alien invasion business, but this was the first time I had seen him since then.

Peter glanced at Randy, “So, are you and Liz…?” He ventured, earning a shrug from Randy.

“We came here together?” He said, sounding like he had no idea either. Peter seemed to nod to himself, keeping his emotions off of his face but his body language screamed disappointment. That sucks. It did. But, it wasn’t the end of the world and he was taking it well. I couldn’t lie -- if Peter instantly went incel, my respect for him would have taken a huge downswing. That being said, it was also too early to give up. Sounds like there was some wiggle room in their relationship status.

“There’s going to be an afterparty for the cast. If everyone wants to come?” Mary Jane spoke up, her eyes flickering to me.

“Well-” Ned started, but I swiftly interjected.

“We’ll come,” I decided, glancing Ned’s way. If he really wanted to go, then I wouldn’t stop him. That was his choice. But, the vibe I got from him was that he felt like he should be working behind the desk, and if he didn’t go, then I wouldn’t want to. It would be a total dick move.

“Great!” Mary Jane said, her tone relieved as she linked an arm around mine and practically dragged us all away.

…

The afterparty had a lot more people than I expected, I decided, walking up with Mary Jane hanging off an arm. It was more of a house party, complete with blasting music that I could feel traveling through my feet. I saw flashes of lights through the windows, revealing a metric shit ton of very drunk teenagers.

The door swung open for us, and we were blasted with heavy music and the party goers cheered when they saw more people coming without an adult in sight. Peter and Ned shuffled together, clearly uncertain and not used to the scene. I think it might genuinely be their first party and they felt like they stuck out like a sore thumb, but in reality, they blended in just fine.

The party itself was pretty weird when I looked at it through the Sharingan. I was getting a handle on the new vision -- everything was crystal clear while I could predict the movements of everyone that was jumping around, shaking their asses, and having the audacity to call it dancing. More than that, though, I saw the weird energy that was in people. The colors were different -- blue seemed to be the default color, but I saw flickers of brown, purple, green and reds. What that meant? I genuinely had absolutely no idea.

Moods, maybe? The intensity of the blue and how it flowed seemed to be linked to physical activity as far as I could tell. But, before I could examine it too much, I found myself being thrust onto the dance floor with Mary Jane and the others. Their mistake.

I'd show them dancing.

"Why are you like this?" Mary Jane laughed as I absolutely broke it the fuck down on the dance floor, quickly becoming the center of attention. Peter and Ned both looked like they were terribly ashamed to know me with Ned unable to even look in my direction.

"Because I can't be bothered to be any other way," I answered, doing the typewriter. To be embarrassed, I had to feel ashamed. And shame wasn't something that I had. So what if a bunch of kids made fun of my slick moves?

And someone clearly felt threatened because they approached with a moonwalk, spinning directly in front of me, placing a hand on my chest before rotating their shoulders, shuffling their feet, and miming pushing me away as they took a step back. The teenagers lost their absolute shit, throwing up their hands and 'ohhh'ing at the top of their lungs. The guy started dancing, a cocky smile on his face the entire time.

Oh, he shouldn’t have done that. He should not have done that.

That cocky smirk promptly slid right off of his face I started to match his movements. It started off a little jerky, the timing not quite synced, but I had a lot of experience adapting to whatever my power threw at me, so in a handful of seconds, I was perfectly copying his entire routine. If the crowd was losing their shit before, they were absolutely feral now. That was the very last thing that any of them expected.

The guy was a good sport about it, though, both of us falling into a routine and it became less of a dance off and more of a… duet? I had no idea what to call two people dancing together. Even without seeing the moves, I recalled them all perfectly. Maybe it wasn't quite a photographic memory, but it did seem to be perfect recall when I was recalling movements.

It was stupid dumb fun. The kind of fun that I enjoyed. I loved the high octane fighting back of alien invasions and rubbing some dirt in the eye of Shield, but little moments like these were no less entertaining. They had charm, in their own way. If I had to put it into words…

It was a memory worth making.

"Okay, dancing king, I think that's enough," Mary Jane seemed torn between delight and regretting letting me on the dance floor in the first place. I just tossed a smug smirk her way before I noticed Ned was still on the dance floor while Peter was awkwardly shuffling next to him as he spoke to Liz and Randy. Couldn't tell if the awkwardness came from Randy or from speaking to his crush. I was about to start wingmanning, but Ned caught my eye.

We were on the same wavelength because he tossed two thumbs up my way and jerked his head in Peter's direction. Ned really was the best kind of friend, I decided, leaving the wingmanning to him and following behind Mary Jane as she led me through the house party by one hand. She brought me to a balcony thing, overlooking a pool -- telling me that whoever owned wherever we were, they had money.

She leaned against it, flashing a smile in my direction. "What did you think about the play?" She asked me, batting her eyelashes.

"I think you were the best part of it," I replied, earning a warm blush in response to my directness. I've never been one for pussyfooting around. The whole 'will they won't they' crap never had any appeal to me. It was shocking at how many problems could be solved with a simple conversation. Or a punch in the face. Or both.

"Was I?" Mary Jane questioned, fishing for compliments, though the slight smile she had on her lips told me she was satisfied with the one that she already got. "It does mean a lot that you all came, Sebastian. I… was really nervous. It was my first big play and my first time being a lead. My mom… she… she was with my dad," Mary Jane admitted lamely.

Her dad? Why- oh. Ohhh… of, yeah, I completely forgot about that. "He's still in the hospital?" I questioned, a little surprised. That ass kicking had been rather light all things considered. How fragile was he?

Mary Jane shrugged, "He's being released soon." A fact that she didn't sound too enthused with.

"If he does anything, let me know. I'll send him right back," I told her and that got a wane smile from her.

"I know," she said, sounding like she genuinely did know that. "But, I need to deal with him myself." That was her decision to make, but I also knew myself. If I got a whiff of anything, I'd shatter his legs. He'd look at his last beating with fondness.

"If you say so," I replied, my tone neutral. Mary Jane sighed in response, lightly shifting from foot to foot.

"What's with the sunglasses?" She finally decided to ask, turning to face me fully with a small tilt of her head.

"I got a new ability, and it's taking some adjusting to," I admitted, reaching up and taking the glasses off. Mary Jane looked interested, so I pushed some energy into my eyes, making the tomoes spin-

I felt a sharp pain behind my eyes and when I winced, clenching my eyes close, and when I opened them…

Mary Jane was still in front of me, but she seemed frozen in place. The assault of noise that the party goers dared to call music was suddenly gone. But, then again, so was everything else. We stood in a white void devoid of anything until I started looking at it. Then, almost as if a paintbrush was being placed to parchment, hints of something were taking shape. I knew what it was even before the whiteness faded…

We were in a room. Nondescript, except for the fact it was made of stone. A stone slab was in the heart of the room, surrounded by arcane symbols that were carved around it, and on top of the altar itself.

"Ah," I muttered, scratching at the back of my neck, feeling every hair I had standing on end. I looked around, but I didn't see Dad anywhere. Or any of my siblings. This was where we learned lessons he wanted to impart upon us. This was where we were punished for failure.

This was where I had lived a thousand lives, and where I suffered for millennia.

"Fuck this, I'm- oh," I uttered, the room vanishing and returning to a white void. Then it dawned on me. "Is this that Genjutsu stuff?" I asked myself, realizing I had control of my surroundings. This was an illusion. That… honestly, kind of really fucked up, but this was useful. Very useful.

A slow smile tugged at my lips, "I can use this," I decided. And that was the highest praise for an item that I could possibly give.