Continued from [http://www.xeneth.net/urpc/index.php?topic=2918.45]

Dyss heard Izumi leave the room, but he didn't really understand the haste. The pains in his stomach were... Not something that could be easily addressed, he imagined. The disconnected memories in his head sometimes had similar pains, but they had always ended in death, as far as he could tell... What was Izumi going to do? She was going to make him... Eat? Dyss didn't even know what that meant...

Izumi's fears about him going too far were unfounded, anyway. Without the ability to see, he wasn't able to effectively go anywhere. He didn't have any idea how to leave the house, and could hardly leave his room. His last adventure to attempt to learn the place had ended with an extremely awkward encounter between himself and the sleeping girl who had taken him in. He still hadn't brought that up to her, but he didn't want to have to explain what exactly he'd felt (both physically and otherwise) during that last night...

"Nhhh, I hope this works . . ." Izumi sighed.

She had returned just moments later, setting herself nearby Dyss (by this point, he'd be able to recognize objects that were closer than others). Practically forgetting that he had a disability, she had place a thick piece of rigid paper on his lap, upon which sat two crispy squares, one on top of one another. There was more, but she wasn't setting that on Dyss's lap--rather, she was waiting for a moment.

"You--you can't eat anything too heavy because then your stomach will cramp up and you might just toss it all back up anyways, s-so . . . so I figured that maybe some soup and lightly buttered toast would help you out more than anything like, um, a heavy sandwich or something . . ." Izumi near absentmindedly ranted; had Dyss been around this place for awhile, he'd understand, and possibly get a bit tired of Izumi's habitual sprees of talking without pauses, but he was actually getting information out of this.

Dyss slowly put his hand across the paper, feeling for whatever she had placed on top of it. It would only take him a few moments to feel the small square objects, but he didn't know what they were or what to do with them. They were soft but textured, and covered with some sort of grease on one side... What was he supposed to do with them?

"Um... Thank you, Izumi..."

Dyss felt embarrassed to ask what to do with them, but on the other hand, he simply held the toast in his hand without doing anything with it. And until Izumi helped him, he wouldn't really do anything with the toast. How was a man who had never eaten supposed to spontaneously learn to eat?

"Y-your welcome," Izumi replied.

Dyss wasn't eating, though. Not knowing that he didn't know how to eat, Izumi was left to come up with her own conclusions. Maybe Dyss was a picky eater in the first place, and rather than toast, he just liked buttered bread--or maybe he didn't like his toast so dry, or maybe he liked it to be drier, or maybe burnt. Burnt toast was terrible, though! Terrible to eat and terrible for you.

All those possible conclusions made her feel a little bit self conscious, though--just a bit more than she had already been feeling, of course . . .

"Umm, a-aren't you going to eat? Or is the toast too dry? I could go make more if you want, um, but--but--but you should really eat! If you haven't eaten in awhile, you might get sick and your body will start to eat itself--like body fat and then protein . . ." She remarked with great hesitation.

"Um..."

Dyss wasn't sure how to respond. He didn't think there was anything wrong with what Izumi had given him, but he just didn't know what to do with it... And he sure didn't know how the materials he'd been given were somehow supposed to make him better. It didn't feel like something that could be recovered from, in any case...

"How do I 'eat'?"

It sounded sort of worrying, really... Especially since his body his body could apparently do it on his own... And possibly kill him. The real world was really a scary place, even if Purgatory wasn't much better...

Izumi didn't reply for a moment. She was shocked, really. For someone to not know how to eat was just beyond her. It was a motor skill--something that a person learned how to do when they were extremely young. Maybe this was part of Dyss's loss of memory?

"Y-you forgot how to eat?" she asked rhetorically.

Still, it was strange to imagine that someone would ever forget how to eat, even with a bad case of amnesia. Dyss seemed to remember quite a bit, actually, so losing something as simple as a motor skill just didn't seem reasonable. Fortunately for Dyss, Izumi was more than willing to believe in the possibility that he had just forgotten.

Dyss would then feel her hands upon his--soft skin, almost completely devoid of callouses. He already had one piece of toast in hand, so she didn't have to do too much work for him. Hopefully, though, she wasn't going to have to show him how to chew. Considering his blindness, that might have been impossible.

"Here . . . you, um, you put the food in your mouth," Izumi said as she gently guided Dyss's hand, holding the toast, to his lips, "Then, you take a bite, chew, and swallow. But you have to chew real good, because you might choke if you swallow your food whole."

Dyss let Izumi guide his hand, his face turning a bit red from embarrassment. The way she had implied eating was so common that he couldn't have possibly have forgotten... It seemed really embarrassing. What other obvious things didn't he know about the real world? Of course, the slight flush on his cheeks could have also been interpreted in any manner of ways...

"...Thank you."

Dyss would take a bite of the food tentatively, starting to chew reflexively. He didn't have memories of eating for any particular purpose, but he did have memories of the later steps, chewing and swallowing. He was still tentative, though. At least, until the food hit his stomach and he immediately started to feel better, and crave the rest of the food. At that point, he wouldn't need any prompting...

"Y-you're welcome," replied Izumi with a nervous laugh.

It was just the strangest thing, Dyss not remembering how to eat. But it seemed to come back quick once he started to eat, and Dyss chowed down without break. The two pieces of toast just didn't stand a chance. Hopefully, him eating so quickly wouldn't cause any problems . . .

After a moment, Izumi tapped something on Dyss's lower lip--something thin and metallic, with a spot of liquid just beyond that. She paused before withdrawing; that was going to be a bit awkward. Since Dyss was completely blind, she was going to have to spoon feed him.

"Here, it's chicken soup. It's really light on the stomach, so it should go down easy, but--but, ummmm, you should blow it off, first. It's hot . . ." Izumi warned Dyss. Even though he couldn't see, he'd just have to guess that the liquid was edible. There was a bit of sustenance to it, too--something short, thin, but soft, with specks of circular objects that could be chewed and swallowed, too. As she warned, though, it was hot, and if Dyss didn't blow on it, he'd wind up burning the insides of his mouth.

Dyss was surprised when the metal object touched his lips, but didn't recoil back or anything like that. In a way, he was starting to get used to not being able to see. At least, while Izumi was around. If he thought someone else was around, he'd feel a little more after. He'd met four people in this world, and one of them had nearly killed him while two others watched...

Dyss couldn't really talk and couldn't really tell there was liquid on the spoon, and so, he would breath in slightly, and blow out, as if he was trying to blow out a candle. He was perhaps capable of eating, but he certainly wasn't familiar with the concept of blowing on food to cool it down. As such, the liquid would of course leave the spoon in a violent way, but Dyss could immediately tell something was wrong, calling out in a sheepish voice.

"Sorry!"

"Ah!" a shout of surprise escaped Izumi.

There was "silence," with the only sound being from Izumi herself. She was wincing. There was no way for Dyss to discern what exactly had happened, less he take the gamble of reaching and trying to find out with his bare hands. More than likely, hot soup got on her somehow.

"Nhhh, um, i-it's okay--don't worry about it . . ."

She was silent again (for a moment) afterwards. There was a soft scraping sound--more like a rubbing, but it sounded like some sort of thicker cloth was being rubbed against something or the rather, causing some traces of a "scraping" sound, but mainly just rubbing.

"Ummm, okay--here, let's try this, instead," there was a subtle blowing sound, before the thin metallic object was up against Dyss's lips again; if he'd let her, she'd slip it into his mouth. "You just have to open your mouth and treat it like any other food, but . . . don't chew the spoon--it'll hurt your teeth real bad."

Dyss would reach forward, just in front of his face, unsure of what he could really do. The damage was likely already done, but it still seemed right... If nothing else, he could hold whatever she'd held to his mouth while she wiped off whatever hot liquid had spilled. He really hated to think that he'd just hurt Izumi without even realizing it...

"I'm so sorry..."

After a moment, Dyss would return his hands to sit on his legs, opening his mouth to allow Izumi to feed him. It was really sort of frustrating, not to mention embarrassing... Not only did he not know what eating had been, he wasn't even able to do it on his own. And the rest of his life could well be like that, even if it was short...

"No, no--i-it's okay," Izumi replied quickly, trying to sound as reassuring as she possibly could--which actually came quite easily for her, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll remember what to do soon. It might take some time to get used to it again, but you should be moving around as you want eventually . . ."

Whether that be walking or eating, Izumi didn't elaborate, but it may well have been both. It was possible for Dyss to eat on his own, but Izumi wasn't going to risk letting him do that (with hot chicken noodle soup) just yet. He was so clumsy at the moment, letting him eat soup on his own was an equation for failure. Next time, definitely. She'd be sure to show him how. Izumi even had a few ideas of how to do it, too, but for now, those would just have to wait.

As emasculating as it was to be spoon fed by someone, Dyss had to get sustenance in him, or else he'd wind up getting deathly ill. It was truly no wonder that he wasn't already in that state. Izumi would continue to feed him, hoping that he'd wind up getting used to it enough that he wouldn't accidentally get anymore soup on her.

"Feeling any better . . .?" she'd ask a few moments later, after Dyss had consumed the toast and a majority of the soup she had for him.

Dyss smiled a bit at her words, though he wasn't entirely sure he'd ever be able to move around how he wanted to. Without his sight... He felt impossibly vulnerable, as if he shouldn't really even be around, still. It was only a short time ago, really, that he'd discussed with Recheov how his sight was different from a normal person's... That was still accurate, if nothing else...

"Yes, I feel better... Thank you, Izumi."

Dyss was still frustrated at the situation, but in a way, he was lucky. If he hadn't encountered someone so kind, he might be dead right now, and even if he wasn't... He'd have been very angry. Angry that everyone he'd met in the real world was selfish, even as they enjoyed full lifetimes. At least, there were people like Izumi who tried to help people. The food in his stomach, for example, had been provided by his benefactor, and he would lay back on the bed, his stomach sapping away his energy to process the things he'd eaten.

"...Much better..."

"You're welcome," Izumi replied cheerily.

That was good to hear. He'd still have to get some more food in him over time, but for now, just a little bit would do. If she fed him too much too soon, he'd have stomach issues, and that would make for quite a miserable experience for the both of them . . .

Tomorrow, she'd have to feed him again, but that'd also have to wait a bit. Most things were taken care of now, so she could just being the process of relaxation after work. Usually, that was what was on her mind first: come home from work, sit down, relax for a few minutes, and then start working on something else. Anything else. She lived alone, after all, and had to keep herself busy somehow.

"Hey, I'll be right back, I need to clean up and get changed . . ." the girl remarked as she plucked the thin piece of "paper" off of Dyss's lap, and started out of the room.

"Okay..."

Dyss wasn't really in a place to object. He was sort of sad to let her go, perhaps, if nothing else because the room around him offered so little in the way of stimulation. He couldn't really leave, or read, or do anything else like that. Anything at all, really, without Izumi. He couldn't just keep her, though. She was doing more than enough for him already. His face turned a bit red as he thought about something, though...

"I'd like to get cleaned up at some point, too..."

Not that he had any other clothes to change into or any idea where the bathroom was... He wasn't going to smell particularly good, though, and he didn't even know how dirty he might be...