Chapter 13 – Saving & Fake Philosopher
"What the hell is going on, Hiroshi?" The fat teacher seemed to be the most cowardly among them and his legs were already slightly shaking.
"How the fuck am I supposed to know? Doesn't this shitty country have legends with ghosts? Where the fuck is Fujibayashi?" The tall black man was clearly not a natural Japanese, as his nervousness caused his accent to blurt it out.
But no matter how hard they tried to look for what the hell had happened, they couldn't find anything.
"You know what, I'm getting out of this shit. I don't know why I got involved with you guys!" The fat professor immediately turned towards the door and started running, wanting to get away from there.
Too bad that's not what Buddha wanted for him. Not even the cleaners...
Bang!
"Uuurhgl!" With a violent impact, a shock wave went through the fat man's stomach, but he strangely seemed quiet. That is, before everything he'd eaten for lunch was vomited out of his mouth.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, man? What the fuck is going on here!! I'm from the church, you won't get me, demon!" The black guy watched his colleague run to the door before stopping and starting to throw up. He swore he saw a shadow pass at that moment, and it made him mistake it for some kind of spirit.
"Church? Serious? Yours seems to be quite liberal, carrying a sinner among the flock..." A voice came from behind the remaining professor, like the speech of the devil.
"Aaaah!" The teacher screamed in fright when he jumped back and saw a student standing there, with a mask on his face. Putting together the uniform without a vest, he appeared to be a schoolboy, "Who are you? Are you the one doing all this?"
"Who else would it be? The Pope? He's too old for that." Kai shrugged as he stared at the last remaining one. His body itched for a more interesting fight, but unfortunately he couldn't find that here either. Pity.
"Are you alive? If you are a student at this school, as a teacher, I demand that you stop this and turn yourself in to the principal!" Thinking fast, he realized the situation he was in and had no idea how he was going to explain it to the other two, or even the principal. After all, they had come after Kyou and made their intentions clear, but now she was missing. He would use this student as a scapegoat for everything and he would come off as a good teacher in the story!
"Demand? Do you still have the nerve to demand it, man? You really are too good to stay alive..." Kai made a slightly surprised face, but put his pretensions aside. He started walking towards him.
"Stand still, if you come near me I-"
Bang!
A spin kick later and the next stop would be an orthopedist. Neck treatments are expensive.
{You probably forgot about me, but I didn't forget about you, baby! And don't worry about the lack of courage in the fights now. You are already very strong by ordinary standards, and as you are not much of a fan of direct murder, you hold back a lot. But don't worry, in the future this won't be a problem!}
'What would become of me without someone who knew me so well, right?' Kai cracked his neck, feeling irritable and sleepy at how fast and boring this all went. But then his eyes brightened slightly as he remembered the rest of Kyou's story. 'Exactly, they contacted a gang soon after, I think I'll pay them a visit later, when I'm adjusting after taking the potions!'
With his spirits revived, Kai went to Kyou. He took out an earplug and spoke quietly.
"I'm going to pick you up right now and get you out of here. Keep your eyes closed and put this on." He handed another mask to Kyou. He personally hated the strong smell of vomit, hence the mask.
"Uhum!" Kyou had already stopped crying, but his previous tears had already left traces on his cheeks. When she felt her body go light, the initial fear made her hold on to Kai's neck.
Walking to the gate, he saw that Kyou still had her eyes closed. He opened the gate, went out and closed it again. Since they were the only two left on the court, he locked the storeroom gate with the key and then turned off the court lights and closed everything. He also made sure to grab Kyou's things, all while carrying her.
"You can open your eyes now." Kai spoke softly. He was at the back of the gym, which luckily wasn't visible from any corner of the school. And since it was late too, there was no one there. He was sitting with his back against the gym wall and Kyou was in his lap.
Kyou opened her eyes, only to see Kai's calm face. Her heart, which had remained a roller coaster of fear, anxiety and panic, began to relax more, knowing that she was already out of that place.
"What did you do with them?" It was her first question, and even she didn't know why.
Kai knew it was normal curiosity in cases like this, but he couldn't be too rough with her.
"I prayed to Buddha to punish them, but the Pope appeared. Which doesn't make much sense, but Jesus is the boss. Continuing, the Pope picked up a metal cross and began to-"
"Puuft! Haahahaha!" Kyou couldn't stand the mixture of the serious face and the nonsense that Kai was talking, so she started to laugh a lot.
Kai stopped talking and just smiled at that, knowing that everything was going in the right direction. If it was a normal r*pe situation, this funny approach wouldn't work, but in Kyou's case there was just intense fear and she had someone to confide in. She laughed for a good two minutes, pushing away the remaining nervousness and tension.
"Do you want to do something with them? Call the police, the principal, cut off their balls or something?" He spoke with a serious expression after he felt Kyou get ready.
This question made her heart flutter anxiously again, as it was something that would have repercussions. Even if only the principal and the police knew, it would escalate to her parents and Kai as a witness. It would be a thousand times better if it all just disappeared, but that was impossible. For her.
"It's okay, you don't have to think about it too much. I'm going to talk to the director and I'm going to say what happened, but without saying your name. And I'll be sure to delete the camera footage." He didn't insist on it anymore and took the responsibility away from her. It would be easier for everyone, and he could order them out of sight in moments.
"Thank you so much, Kai-san!" A few naughty tears again fell from her eyes, and all she wanted to do was hug him tighter.
"You don't need to say thank you. You've done this too much today. Here, put your clothes on." Kai patted her back lightly and handed her the bag of clothes.
"Ah, yes yes... Wait!" When Kyou's mind finally reasoned and calculated the "space time" around, she realized the "space" she was sitting in and the "time" being "now".
With a jump from Kai's lap, Kyou blushed a lot as she tried to cover herself with the bag.
"Cover your eyes!” She demanded of Kai as she looked around and didn't realize where else to change. And she definitely wasn't going back onto the court.
"No." Kai smiled as he looked at her.
"Please!" Kyou pouted as she threatened to cry.
"Only if you agree to go out with me..." Kai was too lazy to talk more before asking so he made his move.
"Alright!" Kyou bit her lip and nodded repeatedly as she blushed redder.
"Monday night?"
"Go noow!"
***
Kai had already said goodbye to Kyou a while ago, as she had to return by train quickly. But as he insisted thousands of times to pay for a transport service, she ended up accepting and went with a chauffeur. Again, someone who worked for him.
After going home with Kaori and a noisy Kaede, Kai said goodbye to each of them and walked home. There was still some distance to go there, and he had been thinking about the effects that the potions would have. Whether his body would get bigger, just stronger, physical or chemical changes, etc.
He was currently passing a playground, taking the shortcut. It was a popular square where some people exercised and walked. He was passing the children's hangout area, and his attention was quickly drawn to a loose swing to his left.
Looking over there, he saw a girl with dark red hair, cut to the base of her neck, almost in a bob. She was dressed in the girls' school uniform, but had the vest in her lap. Holding the handles of the swing and swaying calmly, her beauty with the sunset made the picture quite beautiful and ephemeral. A scene that would never be captured by other eyes.
_________________________________
| {Name: Akane Nanao}
| {Status}
| [Strength: 0.8]
| [Dexterity:1.0]
| [Constitution: 1.3]
| [Intelligence: 1.3]
| [Charm: 2.3]
| {Skill Tree}
| [Basic Education Skill Tree]
| [Basic Training Skill Tree]
| [Daily Care Skill Tree]
| [Swimming Skill Tree]
| {Destiny}
| [Lovemeter: 15/100]
| [DP:350/1000]
_________________________________
Despite stopping his steps, Kai's calm expression still showed what he was going to do with that information. And the answer was obvious. He picked up his backpack and threw it towards Akane.
Thud!
Like a sack of potatoes, it flew towards the swing in her sider and slammed into it. The backpack even fell to the ground after hitting it. The noise ended up startling Akane, who looked scared at the person who was arriving.
"Sorry, I accidentally dropped my bag..." Kai still carried a stoic expression even with such a brutal lie.
Akane stood still, the swing movement also stopped and her mouth opened slightly. Thoughts of what Kai was doing there, why he was there and how the hell did his pack fall so far.
"Can I sit here?" Even without the answer, he had already sat down. Without waiting for Akane to return from her astral travel, he started the conversation, "You're Akane, right? Don't mind how I know your name, I have a good memory." He really had a good memory, but only worked with names and dates. Other details such as images, sounds or any other types of memories were always very blurred, but the potions improved that aspect.
"Y-yes. And you're Kai, former captain of the basketball team..." Akane gave up on trying to reason any further and just nodded. She then turned her face away, not out of shyness, but because she really couldn't bear to look at Kai's face.
"I know we're skipping a lot of steps in this newfound relationship, but I guess I could take the liberty of asking why you don't like me?" Kai kept swinging with his legs on the ground as he leaned a little on the handle of the swing.
Akane looked at Kai and then snorted, a little irritated, "Pretty weird for you to call it a relationship, but yeah, I'm not a big fan of yours. And just as you were direct, I also have the right to question: Are you selfish?"
Kai raised his eyebrows a little, really surprised. But he wasn't fazed, "Yes, I am. And I don't consider that a defect. But I don't understand why you associate that with not liking me."
"You're not the smartest, so why not guess?" Akane rolled her eyes at Kai, not really wanting to look at him. All the hurt she had at being kicked off the swim team was turning to anger at being pointlessly accepted into the basketball club.
Kai finally smiled a little when he saw the gap, "Well, my dear stalker, would I say you have a problem with me joining the basketball club and right after I left? Do you really think I would never notice you, despite the many days you've watched me train?"
Akane was caught off guard by the question, but never mess with an angry woman without a good argument, "So at least you have eyes to see it. It didn't seem like you cared, as you never looked at me."
"Excuse me then, princess. I didn't know your royalty needed someone to pay attention to you..."
The two looked at each other and spoke at the same time.
"Selfish..."x2
The silence that followed, along with the breeze of the wind, was really calming. The anger that was building in Akane stopped and started to subside little by little. This intimate conversation felt really freeing.
And as strange as it was to start that way, not every conversation starts with friendly encounters and sometimes they get skipped over in too many parts. It's the lines between the lines that need to be captured to make everything more interesting. Not to mention that if Akane REALLY didn't like Kai or was indifferent to him, her Lovemeter wouldn't be at 15.
"You were part of the swim club, weren't you?"
"Yes. But they kicked me out for excessive growth."
"I see why..." Kai looked at Akane's large breasts and chuckled a little.
"That's harassment..." She finally looked at Kai, but her narrowed eyes didn't send a wave of peace and friendship.
"You gave up swimming then?" Changing the subject to avoid criminal issues, Kai picked up his backpack from the floor and started walking away.
"I don't know." Akane also got up and started walking with him. It was getting late and dusk, so she forced herself to get up. And unfortunately they were heading in the same direction, something she found irritating.
"Sitting on the fence is the same as taking ten steps towards failure. Was this just a hobby for you? From the expressions I saw you make sometimes on campus, it looked like something more than that..."
Akane looked at the twilight in the distance, and she didn't know if this was some kind of divine sign to indicate the end of her passion for swimming, "I honestly don't know anymore..."
"I see..." Kai stopped his steps and waited for Akane to join him and then continued, "I wanted to feel what you feel. Although I'm good at basketball, that's more due to talent and training than true passion. I can't really get attached to something as material and futile as a sport. But I really wanted. Feel the euphoria of every shot, every dribble. Show your opponents that their strategies would crumble with just your presence. That their best performance was just your warm-up..."
Akane was silent, listening to everything Kai had to say.
"But I don't, and that's the point. In this way, I don't really have any concrete dreams with this as a focus. Yes, I have dreams and they are the most important to me. I won't stop until I make them come true. You should do the same. That's what makes us stand above the , and, more importantly, above ourselves."
"But what if they are right? What if I can't perform well anymore because..." She looked down at her breasts, which were now more of a nuisance than a blessing, "Because of this *Sigh*!"
"Then I suggest you read up on Heraclitus. But to paraphrase him beforehand: Nothing stays the same, not you, not the things you choose to dedicate yourself to. Everything changes, nothing is true, everything is permitted." Kai smiled slightly at Akane, noticing that she looked a little better.
"Did you really paraphrase Heraclitus and Assassin's Creed in the same line? Wow!" Akane actually got rid of her immediate depression and even cracked a joke.
"Good to know that you are a woman of culture! Well, I'll go then. See you tomorrow!" Kai said goodbye to her and started walking towards his house.
Akane didn't say anything back, just watched him go. A small smile could be seen at the corner of her mouth, no matter how hard she tried to contain it.
"Maybe I'll give you another chance... Hunf!"
___
Author Note: Any grammatical errors or wrong spelling, please let me know. Sometimes it passes... :)
Bad Joke#13:
RIP, boiled water.
You will be mist.