78 S'mores

He saw that he had everyone's attention and pulled out marshmallows, graham crackers and some hot chocolate.

Realization dawned on them, "Ehhh?? Where did all this come from?"

Chuckling, Light walked over with the food and began passing it out to everyone. While they were in the store, he conveniently grabbed all the items needed to make s'mores as a treat. Since they were in it for the long haul, he had expected there would be nights where they had to camp outside. He just never anticipated it to happen so fast.

Rin and Yukio's eyes lit up when they saw the items. While they had never been camping nor made s'mores, they had seen it on t.v. before. When they were younger, Rin had begged Light to take them out camping but Light adamantly refused. He was terrified that one of them would be kidnapped or killed if he let them leave the house. It was a little overbearing, but Light's concerns were not unfounded. Fortunately, the twins were finally getting their wish.

Aida's eyes also lit up brightly when she saw the food. She had never had the opportunity to enjoy s'mores before either. Whenever she had gone on an extended trip in the woods, it would usually equate to her lying on damp grass as animals and insects crawled all over her for days until she got a clear shot at her target. Thankfully, she always had Xiao Ai on those trips, keeping her company.

Her eyes dimmed at the thought of Xiao Ai, if only she were awake. Xiao Ai would have loved this experience as well. Aida determined that she would do s'mores again when Xiao Ai was awake so she too could enjoy it.

As they were making the s'mores, Light prepared hot chocolate for everyone to enjoy. He meticulously explained the mechanics of maximizing the enjoyment of s'mores by dipping it into hot chocolate before eating it. Everyone watched on curiously, and followed suit.

One by one, they exclaimed in happiness. It was so tasty! The crunchy texture in combination with the smoothness of the marshmallow melted into their mouths. The group, circling the fire while stargazing and enjoying s'mores, warmed up. They chatted amongst themselves as everyone slowly relaxed.

Ace took out a deck of cards from who knows where and the guys were playing blackjack with s'mores as their chips.

Aida took this time to instruct Rin and Yukio a little more. She had discussed on the car ride here that if the opportunity presented itself, she would help Light and Yukio acquire gems and become Variants as well. Now that Aida had determined a guaranteed route for converting them, it was worth the slight risk to be safer.

Light understood that in any world or society, power spoke volumes. Only with power would they have the freedom and flexibility that they wanted. Additionally, obtaining superpowers was worth far more than staying "human" in his eyes. He had seen many humans who were incredibly inhumane, yet the Variants before him were leaps and bounds kinder and more open minded than humans.

When it came time to sleep, they decided to stick to the same sleep schedule as before. Light and Ace would take the first shift. Aida had also steeled her heart to begin training Rin and Yukio. She demanded that Rin sleep within the shadows so that he could train even while sleeping, it would also be the safest location for him regardless. For Yukio, she reminded Light to ensure that Yukio had an alert mind even while sleeping.

Aida also left her scan on and kindly requested the system to remind her when there was something nearby. She was usually able to sense when anything approached, but wanted to add an extra layer of security just in case. The system didn't respond, but Aida knew it could hear her thoughts, so she threatened it, "If I go down, you go down too."

With that, she felt assured and went to sleep.

While everyone else was asleep, Light asked Ace casually, "How is the song coming along? Have you picked a new one yet?"

Ace shook his head, "No not yet. I need to find something that will suit my style. Maybe I should sing a rap song instead? Show off my cool and suave self to appeal to her."

"Rapping takes skill, can you do it?"

"Yeah! Uh huh, okay! You know it, you know it..." Ace stood up and began rapping to show off his skills to Light. He gestured with his hands as he rapped.

Light on the side, gripped a piece of wood and almost threw it at him. Ace had no potential for rapping! Aside from singing the very first line, he wasn't able to sing the rest of the lyrics. Resisting the urge to scold Ace, he said, "Maybe you'll want to try a song with fewer words so you can focus on conveying your thoughts."

Ace adopted a serious look as he nodded and went off to research other songs. Sighing gently, Light turned to focus on his tangled up mind. He had made a small amount of progress yesterday and today, but he could feel the speed of the process getting easier and faster as time went on.

Half way through the night, she woke up and traded places with Ace and Light, who were exhausted enough to collapse immediately. To her surprise, Rin was nowhere in sight, which led her to believe that he was able to maintain his shadow state this entire time. It seems Rin had a talent for using abilities.