4 The Black Beast (3)

''Speak''

'Thought'

____________________________________________

Extending my hand toward the girl, she hesitantly tries to grab my hand, and I simply frown before forcefully grabbing her hand and pulling her to stand back up.

When she stands up, her head or reach my head, clearly showing the difference in height between her and me. She kept looking down toward the ground, afraid of making eye contact with me.

Grabbing her hand, I told her, ''Let's go; staying here is not safe.'' I said

With that, I start to drag her away from here. I have nowhere to go, and assumingly, the girl also has nowhere to go either.

Walking in silence, I decide to be the one to break the silence.

''What's your name, kid?'' I ask

''M-my name is Mia.'' she answers

Huh, what a coincidence.

''Are you sure name is Mia.'' I said, just want to make sure this time.

''... Yes, I'm sure.''

I look back at her, and she also seems to be looking back at me like she is waiting for something.

''What is it?''

''Um... What is your name?'' Mia

My name? Should I just tell her my true name? But why should I tell her my true name? Using my real name would just remind me of memory about them, my parent.

''Ryunosuke Akutagawa.'' I answer

In the end, I told her a fake name, a name that does not belong to me, but this is my name now from this point onward.

''That sound like a Japanese name. Are you Japanese?'' She asks me

''No'' I answer before silence descends upon us again.

What should I do now? First thing first, I need to find a new place for me and Mia to live in. After that, I should start thinking about what I should do with Mia, but what should I really do? The old woman told me to be a good person, so that means I should act like a good person, right?

But how do you act like a good person?

I don't know. I guess I could sort that out later.

After a few minutes of walking, I decided to break the silence again

''Mia'' I said, causing her to stiffen immediately.

''Y-yes?''

''Where is your parent?''

''T-they're dead.'' She answers, and visibly her mood drop even further.

''Ho? How did they die?'' I ask her; it gets me curious seeing her reaction. Why is she even sad about it? Death comes to us all, and the fact that her parent is dead should not even make her sad. So I don't really understand why?

''I killed t-them. It was an accident!! When my power awake, I accidentally killed them all!!''

After she said that, she started to break down, but we did not stop walking and, and I let her cry while we were walking. It seems to attract a lot of people attending, from the fact that Mia is crying.

Why was she even crying? I don't really get it. She killed her parent, and so what? If I had a chance to meet my parent again, I would, without a doubt, murder them on the spot. So I don't really understand why she is crying about it.

Anyway, from the look of it, this might be the reason why the police were after her. She killed her parent, which caused her to run away, which caused the police to go after her because she would be the number one suspect in the murder case.

But from the look at it, she was scared, so that is why she kept running away instead of turning herself in. She was scared of what the police might do to her, and that is my theory anyway.

Maybe the police were after for a different kind of reason.

While walking, I look at Mia, who is still crying and walking behind me because I start to feel something. She is holding my hand tightly, but that is not what caught my attention. It's the fact that the same black particles from before start to come out from her body.

The particles coming out from her body are not the same amount as when she was fighting the polices, but she might kill me here if this keeps up.

Many people seem to notice it too, but they only spare a glance before walking away. It was not uncommon for them to see other people with a superpower; after all, this town is full of people with superpowers.

They seem to be ignorant of the fact that these black particles can kill them in a second.

I need to stop this somehow.

From what I can see, I only see her activate her ability one time, and that time was with the policies. Now it's happening again. So let's think about what the common thing between back then and now is. There need to be something that links them together that cause her power to activate.

When she was with the police, she was trying to get away from them, she was scared and panicking, after that her ability activated. As for this case, her ability activates when she starts to cry.

Hm...

I see; her power might relate to her emotion. From its look, when she becomes too emotional, her power would activate, and the more emotional she gets, the more particles she produces. But does that mean her power would also activate when she is too happy because emotions are also considered?

Or is it only activated when she only has negative emotions?

I should investigate this further.

What I should do now is stop her crying and make her emotionally stable again, but how?

I have no experience in this kind of thing, and I cannot ask other people, which might cause further panic for her.

Quickly thinking about what to do, I made my way toward the nearest alleyway with Mia still holding on to my hand.

After that, I turn around and face her. She seems to be startled from this and start looking down at the ground while still crying, and those black particles are still coming out of her body.

I raised my other hand that was not holding her hand and slowly extended it toward me, causing her to become somehow even stiffer, if that was even possible at this point.

My hand slowly made my way toward her; finally, it reached her and landed on her head, causing her body to become less tense. I slowly stroke her head, causing her to look back toward me.

I don't know what kind of expression my face is making right now, but it seems to help her become less tense.

I think I heard about this action before, and it is called head pat; I read about it once, and I heard that it help calm people down, so this should be fine, right?

''Everything is fine. It's not your fault.'' I said, my voice still as monotone as ever.

But from the look of it, that sounded like a wrong thing to say because the moment I said that, it caused her to immediately cry even harder and launch herself toward me while starting to hug me in a tight grip.

Maybe it was not the right decision?

But when I look around, I can see that those black particles from before start to disappear. How is that even possible? She is still crying, so that means she's still sad, right? So her body should continue to produce more black particles, so why is it stop?

I don't get it; I don't get it at all.

After a few more minutes, the crying finally stopped, and when I looked down on Mia, she had her eyes closed, looked like she had fallen asleep.

I can only sigh before activating my Rashomon and command it to put her on my back, so I can easily give her a piggyback ride.

Stepping out of the alleyway, I continue my walk while having the sleeping Mia on my back.

I kept walking, trying to find a place to live. I could try to go back to my old home, but there would be more policies there, and it will cause too much risk being there.

Step after step, I continue my walk, and I start to get tired. I don't know how long I had been walking, but I know it's had been more than an hour, considering the sun's position, looking toward the nearest clock, I see that it's now 3 p.m.

Look like I had been walking for two hours while carrying Mia around.

Finally, another thirty minutes passed, I finally found a perfect spot. It seems to be another abandoned apartment complex, perfect for Mia and me to live in. It might be quite far away from the old woman shop, but that is fine by me.

Walking inside, with Mia still on my back, I go toward the second floor. When I was there, I could hear that they are other people inside this abandoned building. It's not really surprising, and a place like this is perfect for poor and homeless people to live in.

Plan start to form in my mind.

Having strangers living in the same abandoned building might cause more harm than good. Most of them would be homeless people, but there is no proof that they are not drug addicts living here or maybe they are gang members inside this building.

All of these are risks that I'm not particularly eager to take, and they can cause more harm than good. And if I want to help Mia, I need to make sure that there will be no risk at the place we live. So I make my decision.

I will kill everyone inside of this building so that no harm can come to Mia or me.

After all, that is what a good person would do, right?