I decide to call this ability "All-Seeing Eye."
Sounds cool, right? Plus it fits perfectly with the purpose. Observe whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want. I like it.
"All-Seeing Eye..."
I repeat the name aloud while the floating eye stares at me.
Well, technically it's me looking at myself. I play with the eye for a few minutes. I make it spin, make it float in circles, even make it do a little flip in the air.
Umu.
I also discover something important. I can hear what's happening through the eyes. They clearly don't have ears, yet the frequencies of sounds interact with the frequencies in the eyes, and are transmitted directly to my brain. That way, if someone speaks there'd be no problem understanding what they say.
But then I realize something.
"Being the size of a fist is inconvenient."
I look at the eye that's approximately the size of my closed fist. If I want to go unnoticed, then I need to be as discreet as possible. And a giant eye floating around is definitely not discreet. So I concentrate my will on it.
—Squelch... squelch...
The eye begins to shrink. Until it reaches the size of my thumb.
"Much better."
I do some more tests and discover I can freely manipulate the eye's size.
The standard size is that of an adult fist. But I can make it bigger or smaller as needed. However, there's a problem.
Size directly affects the ability's quality. The smaller the eye, the shorter its vision range and it sees things more blurry at a distance. The example that comes to mind is like trying to look through a poor quality camera.
The bigger the eye, the farther it can see and with greater clarity. The vision radius expands enormously. But making it very large has a cost.
It consumes much more energy from my brain frequency to manipulate it.
"Tsk... nothing's perfect."
The distance the eyes can move away from me is directly tied to my brain frequency reserve. Just like the quantity of eyes I can materialize at the same time.
I close my eyes and do mental calculations.
With my current brain frequency reserve...
"I can materialize three eyes and have them travel up to a kilometer from my position."
If I wanted to send them farther, I'd have to reduce the quantity to two eyes. If I use just one, I think I can send it freely up to two kilometers.
And if I want to use more than three eyes at the same time, the distance traveled must be cut enormously. Maybe only a few hundred meters. But that's not all since there's another important problem.
Mental load.
Setting aside my brain frequency reserve, seeing many different images simultaneously will undoubtedly impose a great mental load.
It's like trying to watch multiple television screens simultaneously, and each one showing different things. My brain won't be able to handle it.
"I need to find a way to strengthen my brain..."
Maybe by eating more parasites, after all, they improve my mental capacities. Or maybe there's another type of creature I can eat for that purpose that's better than a parasite.
Well, that's something to investigate later. For now, I need to focus on what I have.
Still, setting aside those limitations, I'm quite satisfied with this new ability.
"Let's get to work."
—Splash! Splash!
I materialize two more eyes.
Now I have three eyes floating in front of me, looking at me. And me looking back at them. It's a bit disturbing when I think about it that way.
I reduce the size of the two until each is the size of my thumb.
I mentally manipulate them and send them in different directions. One goes north, another east and the last west.
Their mission is to search for the entrance to the 24th Ward. They'll fly through the sewers to explore every corner until they find the damn entrance to the 24th Ward.
"Hehe... this time they won't be able to hide from me."
×××
During the day and during the night, the small eyes worked tirelessly. Well, technically it's not them working, it's my brain. Because controlling three eyes simultaneously while watching live and direct everything they capture is fucking exhausting.
It's like having three different thoughts at the same time.
"Ugh..."
I rub my temples.
It's not like it hurts, but I definitely feel the mental fatigue.
To deal with this, I keep my own eyes closed most of the time. I discovered that helps reduce mental consumption a bit.
If I only focus on what the eyes see, without adding my own vision to the mix, it's more manageable.
Fortunately, it seems the eyes have built-in night vision, since they see in the dark sewers as if it were daytime. Which is quite favorable for me.
I don't have to worry about missing anything important just because it's nighttime.
Also, being small and silent, nobody notices them.
Well, almost nobody.
—Meow!
"What the fuck...?"
One of my eyes is being chased by a stupid cat.
Does it think it's fun to hunt it?
"Go away, silly cat!"
I make the eye fly upward, out of its reach.
The cat jumps once more, fails miserably and falls on its butt to the ground.
—Meow...
It makes a pathetic sound before giving up and walking away with its tail between its legs.
"Fly if you can, dumb cat!"
I'm currently in a park, and some humans are looking at me with strange expressions. They probably think I'm crazy or stupid. But honestly I don't give a shit.
×××
At the Takagi mansion, after dinner, I'm quite excited about my new toys.
That is, my new abilities.
"What's with you?"
Saya looks at me suspiciously. She's sitting across from me at the table, with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.
"You have a silly smile on your face. What are you planning?"
"Nothing, nothing."
Saya narrows her eyes behind her glasses but eventually sighs and gives up investigating the matter further.
We finish dinner and after washing our plates and glasses, we prepare to go to our respective rooms.
As I watch Saya walk toward the stairs, I think about my new ability.
The All-Seeing Eye.
When I increase the quantity I can use at the same time...
And when I increase the range from which they can operate...
Then I can assign one to Saya, one to Rei, one to Touka, and one to Mrs. Yuriko.
That way, all four will always be under surveillance.
Of course, I know that can be considered stalking, and I don't deny it since it's totally stalking.
But I think in this dangerous world full of ghouls, parasites, vampires and who knows what other shit, it's necessary. It's for their safety.
Then there's a consideration I must take into account.
Just seeing them might not be helpful if they really find themselves in a worrying situation.
What good is seeing through an eye if I can't do anything to help them? What if they're being attacked and I'm kilometers away?
I could only watch helplessly.
"No."
I shake my head violently since I don't like that thought at all.
I need to find a way to make the All-Seeing Eyes able to attack somehow.
Mm...
Since they have no will of their own, and are just tools I control, maybe I can find a way. Maybe I can equip them with some kind of offensive ability.
Shoot rays from the eye? Like a laser? That sounds cool.
Or maybe they can explode when I command it. That also sounds useful.
Well, after taking care of my own business in the 24th Ward, without doubt my next objective will be to equip those eyes with offensive abilities. Or at least, I'll train to make that possible.
I approach Saya who's already on the last step.
I smile at her and stroke her head full of soft pink hair.
"Good night, Saya."
She stays still for a moment, then nods. I see a blush growing on her cheeks, turning them a pink shade.
"G-Good night..."
After her soft voice, she lets out a huff and recovers her tsundere attitude.
"Sleep early, idiot. Tomorrow I'll wake you up again when the sun rises and the birds sing."
She has big eyes that observe me from below up to the top of my hair. She gets a bit closer and raises her chin slightly to meet my gaze.
"You... really have grown... Tsk! Is it that easy to grow? Well, considering you didn't eat properly, I guess it's normal you grew with the meals this young lady has made you."
She puffs out her chest a bit with pride.
This young lady?
I want to kick her.
I mean, the only thing your food does is give me a stomachache.
Still, I pinch and stretch her face while she starts scolding me. I don't stop until leaving her cheeks red.
"Hehe. Much better."
"Y-you! Don't you dare!"
"Hm? Though I already dared."
She furiously stomps the floor while steam comes out of her head.
She quickly turns around and flees to her room. It's quite fun to mess with this cute tsundere.
I laugh before entering my own room and lie down on the bed, looking at the ceiling.
The three eyes are still active.
I close my own eyes and concentrate on the three visions.
I see dark tunnels, dirty water and mice running near the walls, however, none of that is especially interesting, apart from reminding me that in the past I used to eat those rats.
×××
The next day, I'm sitting on a bench under some trees near a bar.
My own eyes are closed while I concentrate on the visions of my three explorer eyes.
They've been searching for hours. And finally...
Suddenly I open my eyes.
My lips curve to form a wide smile.
"There it is."
One of the All-Seeing Eyes has found the right entrance to the 24th Ward.
×××
20 advanced chapters on Pa-treon.
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