The green mass jumped at the boy.
Shouta froze, instinctively putting his arm in front of his face. The thing moved with impossible speed, launching itself from inside the sphere and sticking to his right wrist as if it were magnetic. It immediately began to spread, enveloping his forearm in tentacles of green flesh and metallic circuits, molding itself to his skin as if it wanted to merge with him.
And then came the pain.
It was as if a thousand needles were piercing his flesh simultaneously, penetrating deeply, tearing muscles and nerves, fixing themselves to the bone. Shouta fell backward, sitting down, a scream vibrating in his throat as he held his arm with his left hand. Blood spurted from the points where the thing penetrated his skin, dripping between his fingers, staining the ground around him.
"Get out! Get out," he yelled, pulling desperately, but the thing only tightened its grip, the metal branches sinking even deeper.
The pain was unbearable. Every nerve in his arm was on fire, as if it were being burned and frozen sequentially. His vision began to darken at the edges, and he felt a bitterness rise in his throat.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the pain stopped.
Shouta gasped for breath, sweat dripping from his face, mixing with tears he hadn't even realized he had shed. He looked at his arm, afraid of what he would see, and blinked, confused.
The blood had stopped flowing. The wounds... were closed.
The thing had changed, too. It was no longer that shapeless, frightening mass. Now it looked like... A bracelet? Yes, it had turned into something that looked like a high-tech bracelet encircling his wrist. The surface was black and smooth, with silver branches that looked like veins or nerves running along its entire length. In the center was a circular panel, also black, which perfectly reflected his greenish hair and his frightened, pale face.
"What... what are you?" Shouta whispered, staring at the thing, the bracelet, the device, whatever it was.
There was no response.
He stood there for several minutes, just breathing, trying to process what had just happened. His heart was still racing, but the adrenaline was beginning to subside, giving way to a mixture of fascination and fear.
"Calm down. It's over," he said to himself, trying to control his still irregular breathing. He closed his eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again. "Everything's fine. You're fine. You're alive."
Shouta slowly got up, testing his balance. His legs trembled a little, but they were steady. He looked around; the sphere was empty now, just a hollow metal shell. The thing that had been inside it was now inside him.
He tried to move his arm, shaking it, closing and opening his hand. It worked normally. There was no pain, no discomfort, except for the slight increase in weight. It was as if the device had always been there, a natural part of his body.
"What do you do?" he muttered, turning his wrist to examine the bracelet from different angles.
***
After a few minutes analyzing the device, Shouta tried the obvious: removing it.
He ran his fingers over the smooth surface, looking for some kind of lock or release mechanism. Nothing. There were no seams, no buttons, no indication of how to take it off. It was as if it had grown out of his skin.
He tried to pull it. The thing didn't budge an inch, firmly attached to his arm.
He pinched the edges where the device met his skin. Nothing happened.
Determined, he even bit one of the branches that extended over his forearm. He tasted his skin, along with an unfamiliar, metallic, and strange bitterness, but the device remained intact.
"Great. Just great," he muttered, spitting the bad taste out of his mouth.
He looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows among the trees. He had spent more time there than he thought. And now he had this... "thing" stuck to him.
But, come to think of it, it wasn't doing any harm at the moment, was it? It didn't hurt; it didn't interfere with his movements. Maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe he could figure out what it was and how it worked at home, with more time and the right tools.
Yes. That seemed like a reasonable plan.
Shouta put his hand in the pocket of the sweatshirt he had taken out of his backpack, pushing it down to the bottom. It was deep enough to completely cover the device. With his arm hidden, no one would notice anything strange. At least, he hoped not.
He took one last look at the crater and the empty sphere before starting to walk back to school. He had to stop by to wash his arm.
***
The walk back was a blur in his mind. Shouta barely remembered crossing the woods, entering the school through the side door, and washing his arm along with the object in the school bathroom. All he could think about was the device on his arm and the thousand questions that kept popping up.
What was it? Where did it come from? Why did it stick to him? Did it have a purpose? Was it dangerous?
When he finally got home, the sun was already setting, tinging the sky with orange. The house was quiet, as expected. His parents were still at work and wouldn't be back until evening. Perfect. That gave him time to study the device without interruptions or inconvenient questions.
He locked the front door, ran up the stairs, and went straight to his room. Without wasting any time, he opened the desk drawer and began to gather tools: pliers, scissors of different sizes, a kitchen knife he had borrowed months ago and never returned, and even a screwdriver.
He sat on the bed, placed his arm extended across his lap, and began to work.