Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
May 14, 2xxx - Izumi Pov
"You've been looking at that map for almost an hour. Is everything okay?" Taylor asked, slightly concerned, as she finished packing. We were in my room, finishing up getting ready for our internships. Well, Taylor was finishing packing. I had already finished a while ago.
Like Azula and Ruby. The former because she was practical and organized enough to do it ahead of time. Ruby was going with Summer, so she didn't need the extra baggage while sleeping in a strange place for a week. So they both hung out in my bedroom. Azula was reading a book on the couch, and Ruby was lying on her lap, playing with her scroll.
"I'm trying to memorize it," I said simply, still staring at the map being projected by my scroll as if it were my worst enemy. And it might be.
"It takes you an hour to memorize a map? I've seen you flip through books and remember them in just a few minutes," Azula said without looking up. I grimaced.
"Maps are stupid, maps are horrible things, streets are tricky. They move when they shouldn't. They twist and turn, loop and cross. Streets shouldn't pirouette and slide along a line to get where they shouldn't. They shouldn't jump around and change places the moment I look." I hissed in hatred as I glared at the map. The damn streets couldn't stay still for at least five minutes for me to memorize them all in one sitting. No, I had to do it piecemeal, very slowly. And even then, it wouldn't make sense because they'd change again the next time I looked at them.
"Izumi… do you have dyslexia?" Azula asked softly, her voice cautious. I snorted loudly and turned to look at her.
"What are you talking about? I don't have disl— " My words died in my throat at the look of concern not only from Azula but from the other two girls as well. My eyes widened. Shit. Shit. Shit.
"Izumi, it's just us. You can talk to us." Taylor said softly. I grimaced. It was too late to hide it anymore.
"I don't have dyslexia," I said simply. The three of them stared at me in disbelief. I sighed tiredly. "I have developmental topographical disorientation." Now, all three of them looked at me with blank expressions. I snorted in amusement. "It's the inability to orient oneself in one's surroundings," I explained simply.
"So… you have little sense of direction? Do you get lost easily? " Ruby asked, confused. I wrinkled my nose.
"More than easily, I'd say. I'm unable to generate a mental representation of my surroundings—a cognitive map, that is—so I can't find my way around in any way. I also can't find my way around using landmarks or similar things. I can't draw maps, and I definitely can't read them properly. I'm capable of getting lost in familiar places, like the town I grew up in or even the house I've lived in since birth." I said simply. All three of their eyes widened.
"Okay, that sounds impossible," Taylor said simply. I shrugged.
"I'm not lying. I was diagnosed when I was 5," I said simply. It was more due to my insistence than anything else. Mom, as good a mother as she was, was a first-time mother when she had me, so she knew little to nothing about child development. Therefore, to her, it was normal for children—meaning me—to easily get "lost," even in their own home.
I had to insist quite a bit that I wasn't lying or being clueless so he'd take me to some specialist doctors for a proper diagnosis. I hate you, Zoro template, for all the good that came with it. The confusion was downright annoying in virtually every case.
"Yeah, but I've seen you navigate around the house with ease, even around town. You have a motorcycle. Your mom sends you on deliveries to different places, and you don't get lost. Now that we're in school, I haven't seen you get lost very often," Taylor replied. I grimaced.
"I cheated on most of those," I confessed with a grimace. "I simply familiarize myself with someone enough to identify them with my Observation Haki, and then I follow them until I reach them. I just have to go in a straight line, or as close to it as I can while respecting traffic laws," I shrugged.
My Observation Haki was something I was truly proud of. Everything else, from my swordsmanship to my Armor Haki, came with the templates. Oh, I had to train a lot to get to where I am, but it was as if I were walking a predetermined path; I just had to follow the steps to reach the highest point of the templates in the shortest possible time, something I'd already achieved.
But Observation Haki? It was all mine, solely mine. Zoro's Observation Haki wasn't that developed, he definitely had it. He was sensitive to malice and hostility directed toward him, so he could sense attacks coming his way, and he could also sense really strong people from a distance. But the more ... delicate forms of Observation Haki? Impossible. Zoro couldn't accurately sense and identify every person in a building.
I did, and I was proud of it. My Observation Haki could extend over a large area, and it was developed enough to be able to see into the future for a few seconds when necessary. Was it difficult? Too difficult. But I was proud of having achieved that.
"Wait, you use Haki to move around the city? How great are your observation skills? " Azula asked incredulously. I shrugged.
"I can easily cover almost all of Musutafu," I said honestly, the three of them looking at me, almost horrified by the fact. I rolled my eyes. "I can see the future, and that doesn't surprise you, but you're terrified that I can sense every person in a city?" I asked mockingly. The three of them snorted.
"So you also have a sort of localized omnipresence like mine?" Taylor asked, and I grimaced.
"I said I can do it, not that I do it all the time. It's pretty annoying to keep it on for more than a few minutes, and it's not like I can keep track of them all. I have to focus on looking for something or someone specific if I want to find it. You're a monster." I said honestly. Taylor smirked at the insult. "It wasn't a compliment."
"Too late, I took it as such." Taylor mocked with a smile. I rolled my eyes while smirking.
"So, do you believe me?" I asked again. The three of them looked at each other uncertainly. I snorted but pulled out my phone and immediately dialed my mother. Once she answered, I put it back on speaker.
"Izumi, are you okay?" Mom asked immediately.
"Yeah, but the girls don't believe me about my DTD," I said simply, the phone going silent.
"Did you tell them about your confusion? I honestly thought you'd keep hiding it for another few months, maybe years," my mom snorted, and I rolled my eyes.
"I let it slip. I told them about it, and now they don't believe me." I looked at the three of them accusingly; they both grimaced. Mom sighed tiredly.
"Am I on speakerphone?" she asked.
"You are."
"Okay, listen, it's true. He has developmental topographical disorientation. He was born that way. No, he doesn't have any apparent brain damage, neurological condition, or general cognitive defect. He just... can't orient himself in any way." Mom began.
"But… I've never seen him get lost." Taylor said uncertainly. Mom snorted.
"That's because you've never really let him lead the way in unfamiliar places. He always follows some of you around when he's not following an aura with that elegant haki of his, and if you haven't noticed, he's always holding your hands or tangling his arms with yours so he doesn't get lost." I blushed slightly and looked away at Mom's words; they weren't a lie.
"Wait, I thought it was just Izumi's thing. He's like, super affectionate and likes touch, and I'm the one saying it!" Ruby exclaimed in surprise. Mom snorted.
"That's partly it, but most of it's because he's capable of getting lost even when he's following someone if they're not dragging him," Mom said mockingly. "He was seven once and got lost while we were shopping. I let him out of my sight for five seconds and he just disappeared." I groaned loudly, even more embarrassed.
"Can you stop mentioning that! I was 7, I thought you were following me! " I exclaimed, embarrassed. Mom remained silent.
"Izumi... you somehow crossed 3 prefectures and ended up in Kyoto while trying to get back home. We were 5 blocks away from our house." Mom said condemningly. I felt an arrow pierce my chest. "You're lucky you have a good memory and memorized my phone number. You had to ask a hero for a phone so I could pick you up." I groaned loudly.
"When you were 5 years old, you got lost looking for the bathroom for half an hour and ended up in the yard. You decided that doing your business in the yard was much easier than continuing to look for the bathroom or waiting for, in your words, your bladder to explode."
"Mom!!!" I screamed, completely blushing.
"There's also that time you bought that stupid boar's head and put it on your head, but you didn't realize that your field of vision narrowed so you couldn't see properly, and you lost sight of the house. You decided you had to make a camp for your survival."
"I was really surprised. You made an excellent shelter, a bonfire, collected berries and fruit from the trees, and somehow you managed to get some fish to roast over the fire in just a few hours. I must admit it was surprising."
"I thought I was lost in the woods! I was worried about surviving! It was terrifying!! " I exclaimed, completely red.
"You were 14, and you were still in our yard. I could literally see you doing your whole survival trick from the window. If you'd taken off your stupid boar's head, you would have seen the house. I thought you were just playing camp." Mom said dryly. I blushed even more.
"Then there was that time you decided you wanted a motorcycle at 16, and I let you. The first time you tried riding it unsupervised, you ended up lost for 6 hours, only calling when you ran out of fuel. The crazy thing is that this time you didn't even leave Musutafu, and when you called me in a panic, you were literally right around the corner from my house."
"Gah!"
"It's a good thing I decided to put a GPS in one of those piercings you like so much, otherwise I would have already filed more than a dozen missing persons reports looking for you," Mom said dryly.
"Okay, enough, I'm finishing the conversation. Thanks for nothing, see you Mom!"
"Huh? But I still have a dozen more stories to tell the chi-" I immediately cut the call. And that was all it took for the three girls to burst out laughing. I could feel my face heating up even more, and I felt warmth all the way to the tips of my ears.
"Stop laughing, it's not funny!" I yelled in embarrassment.
"S-sorry Izumi, but it is!" Taylor exclaimed between giggles. I just growled in her direction. I had to wait several minutes until they finally stopped laughing at my expense. "Has that been enough?" I asked dryly. I was still slightly blushing, but I had already backed away quite a bit.
"Y- yes, goddess, yes, I'm sorry Izumi," Ruby exclaimed, catching her breath. I rolled my eyes.
"Now that you're finally done, you better help me figure out how I can get to the Draw Sword Guild without getting lost. I forgot to consider that the guild headquarters is in Tokyo." I grunted annoyedly.
"Using the phone's GPS doesn't work?" Ruby asked curiously. I grimaced.
"I can't read maps, and the voice assistant instructions are also confusing, so it doesn't really help," I said honestly.
"No need, I'm going to Tokyo too," Azula said simply. "Endeavor's agency is also in Tokyo." My eyes widened at that.
"Azula!!" I exclaimed happily as I launched myself at her. "My hero." I playfully kissed her jaw. Azula blushed a little, but rolled her eyes.
"Aren't they in different neighborhoods?" Taylor asked, amusedly. Azula shrugged.
"Once I make sure I've dropped Izumi off, I'll just take a taxi there or run there. As long as it doesn't take hours to get there, there shouldn't be a problem," Azula said simply. I sighed in relief.
"Thanks, Azula. I was thinking of using Haki to get there, I'd just have to look for the largest aura signatures in the place, hopefully one of them would be inside the building. Or else I might call someone from the Draw Sword Guild to come get me" I grimaced.
"No problem," Azula said as she nodded.
"Now that that problem is solved. Do you really have a GPS in your ear? " Ruby asked curiously. I snorted but nodded.
"Yeah, I have it, and now that I think about it, you guys should link your phones to the tracking app. I'm sure I'll end up in another country at some point." I said simply. The three of them chuckled, but took out their scrolls. They were much more durable and had better reception than regular phones.
"Even so, I'm... glad you're sick." Ruby began with a crooked smile. I looked at her incredulously. "Not like that! Obviously, I don't like you suffering or getting lost or anything happening to you! " Ruby quickly corrected herself. "But you always seem to try to be perfect despite being, in your words, 'an agent of chaos. ' It's fun to see you bad at something." Ruby said with a smile. I wrinkled my nose.
"What? Perfect? I? What are you talking about? " I asked foolishly. The three of them snorted at the same time.
"Oh, I'm so strong while using swords that no one can defeat me." Ruby changed her voice to, like, imitate me? In a very horrible way. I was almost outraged by that.
"Oh, I get perfect grades, I'm so smart." Taylor immediately joined in with her own imitation.
"Oh, I'm so sociable and well-liked, I have all my classmates eating out of the palm of my hand," Azula added.
"I don't talk like that! And I don't do any of those things." I exclaimed, embarrassed. I couldn't avoid two of those things! If I was strong because of the templates, it wasn't exactly my fault! And it's not hard to be sociable when you were practically just one of two kids in a class of 20, they'd obviously pay attention!! And I try hard to keep my grades high. Thank you very much!
The three of them giggled, their eyes twinkling with amusement. They were enjoying this more than they should have!
"Oh, and the way he walks? Did you notice it? " Ruby asked quickly. The other two snorted.
"Oh yeah, I noticed. My brother is practically the leader of the nation. We were raised with high standards of behavior, and that includes the way we walk. But even he doesn't walk like Izumi. Izumi is so proud, so elegant, so regal, like he's walking in front of a crowd of his subjects praising him even when we're alone in the room." Azula laughed. My eyes widened slightly.
"What are you talking about!? I'm just walking!! " I said, completely confused. The three girls stared at me for a few seconds before bursting into laughter once again.
"Oh, goddess, he really doesn't know." Taylor chuckled. I blushed slightly as I gritted my teeth.
"I don't walk funny!" I insisted again, embarrassed. They let out another laugh.
Really! I don't know what they're talking about. I just... walk! Zoro walks clumsily and stiltedly, and Yoriichi didn't care about it either, so it didn't make any sense!
"Yes, you do, but we still love you," Taylor said, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
"I just realized!" Ruby said with a big, amused smile. "He walks so confidently, almost strutting, but he's capable of getting lost without anyone watching him." The three of them burst out laughing again.
"Ruby!!" I exclaimed, embarrassed. I groaned loudly. This was going to be a long night.
Author's Note: Well, I didn't really plan on including Zoro's disorientation as a real problem! In fact, I'd been ignoring it until now, but I felt the urge to include it at the last minute, so... here it is! Sorry if there are any discrepancies with the previous chapters; this is a last-minute addition!
Thanks for reading and supporting!