Chapter 57: Kirika Kishi

With no other good place in mind, Cyanide brought the katana-wielding girl to his hideout, Aterra Headquarters. He had attempted to convince the girl to just wait where she was and he would bring her food, but she didn't believe him and thought he was just going to leave. But why would Cyanide leave before learning about the whole deal with 'auras'? He tried persuading the girl with that reason, but she once again stubbornly refused to listen.

With no other alternative in mind apart from letting the girl starve to death, Cyanide was forced to take her to his hideout. This meant exposing his home's location, but there was not much he could do. This girl didn't pose much of a threat to Cyanide even if she did turn hostile, though, so it wasn't all that bad. The only thing Cyanide regretted was not leaving some emergency rations in the convenience store in preparation for a time like this.

Once they arrived, the girl blinked a few times in surprise.

"Wow… this is a nice hideout. You cleared this whole building on your own?"

"Touch anything, and I'll kill you."

"E-Eek… you don't have to be so scary, I already lost…"

The girl, who had seemed so confident and triumphant earlier, was now like a little lost lamb following behind Cyanide's bold steps, biting her quivering bottom lip tightly.

Together, the two headed down for the basement where all the food was stored, and Cyanide suddenly catapulted her a bag of chips at Mach 5 without any warning. Thankfully, the girl had grown up in a Sword Academy, and therefore had extremely fast reaction speeds along with precise movements, and caught the bag of food with ease. Cyanide, who had purposely threw it at her like that, held a glimmer of acknowledgment in his deep teal eyes that read 'Not bad'.

"Mm… so this is how chips taste like…" The girl murmured as she munched on a potato chip curiously, carefully savoring the flavor as if she's never had one before.

"You've… never eaten potato chips before?" Cyanide asked, raising his eyebrow, momentarily distracted from the whole aura business by the girl's unexpected words.

The girl shook her head. "At the place I grew up at, Sakura Sword Academy, we weren't allowed to have any fast food or snacks like these. Only rationed, proportional diets, giving us just the right amount of nutrients needed without caring about taste. I know this is just a game, but it feels so real. It's fun, that's for sure."

'But is it truly just a game?' That question lingered at the back of Cyanide's head, and despite knowing the answer with 99% certainty, he refrained from saying anything out loud. Instead, he asked more questions to the girl.

"Is that why you came here? Fun?"

"Hm… that's part of it, I suppose, but not the main reason. What about you? Money, power, or fame? Or, perhaps, are you wanted by every single country's government, and so came here to run away?" She laughed, adding the last part as a joke. But little did she know…

"None," Cyanide replied calmly, silently acknowledging how the girl dodged his previous question without going into any details. "That last one was half-right, but I did not come here to run away."

"H-Huh? That means… you're actually wanted by… ahaha, good joke! I see what you did there!" She laughed out loud again, thinking Cyanide only answered like that to humor her. But really, Cyanide wasn't into humor. Not this kind of light-hearted humor, anyway.

"… You done eating?" Cyanide said at last, unfolding his arms. "If so, let's not waste any more time. Tell me about the 'auras'."

The girl, hearing this, frowned slightly. "Give me some time here! I've barely even started eating… oh, I know! Why don't we introduce ourselves to each other? Since we're here now, might as well become allies, right?"

Cyanide personally had no intentions of becoming allies with her, but since he wanted to learn about this 'aura-reading' technique, he sighed and humored her.

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"… You can call me Cyanide."

"H-Huh? Cyanide…?" The girl blinked in surprise. "Isn't that a bit… dark?"

"And you are…?" Cyanide prompted, ignoring her question.

"Oh, yes, where are my manners?" The girl smiled briefly, then cleared her throat as if about to make a speech. "My name is Kirika. Kirika Kishi. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Kirika, huh…" Cyanide murmured, rubbing his own chin as he fell into thought. When he had used [Inspect II] on her earlier, the name had not popped up, only her number: SURVIVOR-102].

"Indeed. A fine name, isn't it? My mother spent many hours thinking it u-"

"Too long. A hassle. Just 'Kiri' is better."

"E-Ehhh?!" Kirika's eyes widened at Cyanide's sudden proposal, who still had a perfectly monotone expression on his face that made it impossible to read what his emotions were.

"So, Kiri, are you done eating yet?"

"No! And don't call me that! My name is Ki-ri-ka! With a 'ka' at the end!"

"I see. Well, you have another minute to finish that bag of chips, Kiri. Go over, and I'll consider you as trying to stall time as you fabricate an elaborate lie. You should know that that means."

"A-All right, I get it! Just stop calling me Kiri!!!"

*****

- 5 Minutes Later -

"So… auras are a person's emotion's physical form, in other words?" Cyanide asked after hearing Kirika's explanation.

"Pretty much, yes," Kirika replied with a shrug. "You'll need to do tons of practice and meditate a certain way everyday, but eventually, you'll be able to reach a stage where I'm at right now—able to sense a person's emotional aura despite their physical bodies being undetectable or invisible."

"… Hm."

"Just any meditating won't work. You need to do it in a very specific manner, which I can help mentor you on. So, how about it? You let me stay here, and I'll train your aura reading abilities. It's a win-win situation, no?"

After some intense thought, Cyanide gave his answer.

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