15 Cured!

It was already past lunch time when Shino finally calmed down and everyone was happy to see that she looked better.

Shino finally let go of Keane's hug and said to him, "Thank you for that, I feel better now."

"Don't mention it, but I can do more for you." Keane didn't want her to suffer when he left back to Tokyo.

"How can you help me even more?" Shino was confused as he had already helped her enough.

Keane then put on a smile and said to her, "If I could make your fear of guns disappear would you accept?"

Looking at him with wide open eyes, Shino quickly nodded her head and responded, "Yes! Please! If you can that would be amazing!.... But can you?" She was excited at first, but was confused as to how he could be capable of such things.

"Can I? Obviously I can! Humph, I try so hard to increase my power to match my looks, yet I am doubted. I will show you my strength, so trust me!" Keane looked at her straight in the eyes with determination to gain her trust.

Shino -while a little weirded out by his personality- stared back into his eyes and said, "I trust you, please help me." She sounded a little desperate when she said those words. Most likely because she didn't want to be weak anymore.

Keane nodded and then activated his charmer ability. As it would look weird if he just told her to not fear guns and she would be fixed, Keane said to her, "Okay, please follow my finger and don't take your eyes off it." Listening to him, Shino followed his finger that moved side to side, "You are feeling sleepy. Once I snap my fingers you will fall asleep. When you are in this sleep you will listen to my words and follow them. You will wake up once I snap my fingers again."

*SNAP*

With a loud snapping sound, Shino's head sunk with her eyes closed. Seeing that she was in a sleep, Keane continued, "You will no longer fear anything that resembles a gun. You will still feel fear in the face of a real gun, but will not be affected by it. Fear is only meant to be used as a safety mechanism in front of danger, do not be controlled by it." As Shino feared anything that similar to a gun, Keane made it so she won't anymore as there was no need to be scared of something like that. He made sure that she would feel fear if she was in actual danger, but made it so she wouldn't be so scared that she was stiff.

Satisfied with his words, Keane ended it, "You will now wake up from your sleep in 3... 2... 1...."

*SNAP*

With that Shino looked back up while opening her eyes. She looked at Keane for a few seconds wondering if it worked. Then she saw Keane begin to form a gun in his fingers, "So? How are you feeling?" Keane asked this while looking at her state.

Shino was now in a state of confusion as she didn't feel anything. If anything, she felt too normal. Realizing that it worked, tearing started to gather in the corner of her eyes, "Yes.... I'm cured! Thank you so much Keane!" She then hugged Keane again while letting out tears of happiness.

"Now now.... Your tears will ruin your cuteness you know, no need to cry." Keane pulled her off of him while wiping of the tears on her face.

"...Cute?" Shino blushed a little.

"Yup! Take pride in being called cute by me, after all I am dashing! If anyone knows about beauty it's me!"

Shino blinked a couple of times looking to see if she heard him right. She was glad at being called cute, but his way of speaking felt odd to her. In the end all she could say back was, "Your weird you know that?"

"Eh? Me?" Keane then looked back to the other three in his group. Two of them had a question mark appear on the top of their heads as they didn't find him weird in the slightest. On the other hand, Finna was crying as if she finally found her long lost friend.

"Waaaa!!! You get it don't you! Finally someone understands!!!" She then went to hug Shino while saying, "Call me big sister! I always wanted to meet someone who could say that to this delusional boy!"

Startled by the woman's behavior, Shino shouted out unconsciously, "Wa? You're a weirdo too, lady!"

Hearing that from the small girl in front of her, Finna felt something break inside, "Me? I'm the weird one! How!? He's the weirdo! I am perfectly normal!!! Normal!" She denied the words from Shino.

"You're anything but normal! Now please get off of me!" Shino then tried to shove Finna off of her.

Keane, forgetting that he himself was called weird, then spoke up to Finna, "Finna you are going to crush her, so let go." He then helped Shino pull off the angel on her. Then when finished, he then clapped his hands together, "Now I am hungry, let's go get something to eat. Shino would you like to come with us?"

"Ye... Yes, if I am welcome that is..." She stuttered a little as she didn't want to continue to bother him.

Responding with a smile, Keane said,"Of course you are! We're friends now!"

"Friends?" Shino hadn't had a friend in a long time, so she was doubtful that someone wanted to be her friend.

"Yup! Now let's go!" Keane then took her hand and said to Miyako, "Can you lead us to the restaurant?"

She was a little zoned out, but noticing that the question was directed towards her, Miyako got out of it and said, "Yes, I will show you the way right now." She was curious how the Young Master was able to use hypnosis, but knowing she shouldn't ask questions about Keane's secrets, she kept it to herself.

During this Nero just had a cheerful look while watching her Master do amazing things. She thought, 'Praetor is incredible! I must continue to show my worth to him! I am happy I got a lot of ideas for my movie! It will be beautiful!' Nero paid attention to many things on their tour today and she planned to use it as reference for her setting.

As for Finna, she was still in a broken state due to the shock of being on the same level as Keane. She kept mumbling, "Weird.... me..... ha.... We are the same..... Weird....ha...ha.....ha...." She just followed them listlessly on the way to the restaurant.

---

The group which now included one more went on to eat their lunch. Shino was surprised at how high-class it was and was hesitant to go in, but after being encouraged by Keane she followed them inside.

While everyone was happily eating, Finna was still in a daze while slowly eating. It wasn't until Nero pointed out to her that she was spilling some of her food that she snapped out of it. Finna slightly blushed at what had just happened and tried to regain her composure.

When they finished eating and paid the bill, the group walked Shino back to her house. They invited her to the aquarium, but she turned them down saying she needed to go back. By now Finna was able to get back to normal and stayed silent while they walked along the road.

They finally arrived at Shino's house after a short ten minute walk. Shino turned around to Keane as it was time to say goodbye, "Thank you for everything Keane, I really am happy now."

"Don't mention it, anything is possible for one such as I!"

"....Anyway will I be able to see you again?" Shino decided to take a similar approach as Finna and ignored his narcissism.

"What about next Saturday? We can spend some of the day together then, so how about it?" Since he had Saturday free, he might as well spend it with Shino. That's what Keane thought at least.

"I would like that, see you then. Goodbye everyone."

Responding with an affirmative, Shino said her farewells to everyone, and Keane ended it by saying, "See you next time Shino."

Nodding back at him, Shino went up the stairs to the porch of her house, then opened up the door and went inside. Seeing it close, Keane let out a sigh of relief as his first encounter with an SAO character was nerve racking. He hoped he didn't change her whole personality or something with what he pulled. Finna actually asked him about the same thing he was thinking, "So? Was that really okay?"

"Yeah, she is happy, there is no reason to regret what I have done." While Finna and Keane were talking, Miyako was confused by what it was about, but similarly kept silent like earlier. "Anyway, let's go to the aquarium, we should still have some time before the dinner with the branch head." Keane then motioned to go on ahead.

Deciding it was once again her turn to lead, Miyako led them back to the car and off to the aquarium.