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 ant exposing his ho'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 so ergency rations in the convenience store in preparation for a ti like this.
Once they arrived, the girl blinked a few tis 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 seed 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 basent 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 extrely fast reaction speeds along with precise movents, and caught the bag of food with ease. Cyanide, who had purposely threw it at her like that, held a glimr of acknowledgnt 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, montarily 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 ga, but it feels so real. It's fun, that's for sure."
'But is it truly just a ga?' 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 ca here? Fun?"
"Hm that's part of it, I suppose, but not the main reason. What about you? Money, power, or fa? Or, perhaps, are you wanted by every single country's governnt, and so ca 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 co here to run away."
"H-Huh? That ans 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 ti. Tell about the 'auras'."
The girl, hearing this, frowned slightly. "Give so ti 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 beco 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.
" You can call 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 na is Kirika. Kirika Kishi. It's a pleasure to et you."
"Kirika, huh" Cyanide murmured, rubbing his own chin as he fell into thought. When he had used [Inspect II] on her earlier, the na had not popped up, only her number: SURVIVOR-102].
"Indeed. A fine na, 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 that! My na 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 ti as you fabricate an elaborate lie. You should know that that ans."
"A-All right, I get it! Just stop calling 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 ditate a certain way everyday, but eventually, you'll be able to reach a stage where I'm at right nowable to sense a person's emotional aura despite their physical bodies being undetectable or invisible."
" Hm."
"Just any ditating won't work. You need to do it in a very specific manner, which I can help ntor you on. So, how about it? You let stay here, and I'll train your aura reading abilities. It's a win-win situation, no?"
After so intense thought, Cyanide gave his answer.
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