Player 2 has joined the game

"EH! You're a boy?"

"What?"

"Of course I am."

"..."

"Uhmm, maybe my eyes were playing with me... but were you naked before"

"No."

"That's got to be it!"

"..."

"Wait no, but I did see you!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. You must be imagining things."

"Wha-wait! No! Why would I imagine a guy naked!!! I'm not gay!"

"I never said you were gay."

"I'm sure I saw you naked! How did you put your clothes back on so quickly? Are you a Player?"

Player? Did he think that by having that much experience with cheating girls that one could put their clothes on so quickly to escape being caught?

"So are you here to kill me or not?"

"I..."

*KIEEEEE*

A screech came from a humongous rat - the size of a dog - pounced at him from behind. As he turned around, his sword swung clean through. It was sliced in half.

Hikaru wanted to strike at him at this moment but felt an attack coming from behind him too. Hikaru turned around and fired a spike from his palm which knocked it back from the air. The rat fell to the ground before a mob of rats of similar size.

Hikaru looked back and saw that the guy in the suit was engaged with a mob as well. Hikaru summoned a scimitar sword made of bone. It was curved, which is perfect for cutting through bones and dismemberment.

There were about 20 of those giant rats for each of them, but it was easy for Hikaru.

He wasn't stressed. He simply swung at them casually as they came at him as if he was clearing a forest path with a machete.

When there were only a few hesitating rats left, he charged at them, disappeared in the air and appeared behind them.

They had all froze.

After a moment, their bodies fell into diced meat.

This only took 20 seconds.

He glanced at the other guy who was still fighting but almost done.

'Huh?'

The guy was now holding a small round bronze metal shield in his left hand.

Where did he get that?

Hikaru couldn't see any pockets, bags or compartments in the sewage proof suit of his. While the metal shield was small, it couldn't have been concealed unless the suit had hidden storage compartments.

The guy blocked a pounced with his small shield and then sliced the rat with his sword, which was a plain white sword with a green hilt.

Hikaru could tell that his footwork was trained at an intermediate level yet his speed was unnatural. It couldn't have been his footwork skills so his physical strength must be great.

'Could this guy be liberated?'

After the guy finished the rat, he turned around and was a bit surprised that Hikaru had finished up earlier than him. He saw the bone sword in Hikaru's hand.

"Are you a parasite?"

"Yes."

"Why are you killing your kind?"

Hikaru's eyes flashed.

"I have the powers of a parasite but my mind remains human."

"Huh? How is there such a thing?"

"I'm guessing you're just a human then?"

"Yea... I am."

Hikaru scanned him from bottom to up.

"A parasite had infected me and tried taking over my body. However, I fought it off in the battle of wills and woke up with its abilities."

"Huh! Really? You must have some pretty strong will power. I'm not sure if I could have fought it off. But how do I know you're not lying?"

Hikaru brought his finger to his chin and thought for a moment.

"There are more of us who are free from their control also, how many of them do you want me to kill to prove it?"

His eyes moved to his upper left as he was thinking.

"Well, we can clear out the parasites from the sewers and I'll think about it... and also can you lead me to the group of good parasites?"

"Sure, but I need to know that you're not a spy sent by them."

He seemed taken aback.

After a while, he took off his helmet.

Hikaru was a bit surprised.

Blond hair and blue eyes. He was an attractive guy but only half as good-looking as Hikaru.

Hikaru was wary that this guy was sent by the higher-ups to test him but he was willing to bet on his intuition. The look in his eyes and his facial expressions, Hikaru knew too well what it was. He had seen it many times.

Innocence and naivety. He could see it all in the face of someone around his age.

"My name's Hikaru, what's yours?"

"Elijah."

"Are you... not from around here?"

Elijah shifted uncomfortably.

"Ahh yeah. I'm from Australia."

"Well, you've learnt our language very well. You're speaking perfect Japanese."

"Ahaaahah, yea I practised a lot for years." He said shyly while rubbing the back of his head.

"That's awesome! Could I test you then with a tongue twister?"

"Huh? Yea why not?" Elijah smiled nervously.

"kono takegaki ni take tatekaketa no wa take tatekaketakattakara , take tatekaketa"

(The reason why I have propped up this bamboo against this bamboo fence is because I wanted to prop up bamboo, so I propped up bamboo.)

Elijah shyly repeated it faster than Hikaru had initially pronounced it.

"Whoa! You're better than a native speaker!"

"No, you're too nice! Trust me, I'm not that good."

"Don't sell yourself short. I'm sure you could win the Japanese Speech Award if you competed!"

The Japanese Speech Award invites international students to compete with each other. The one who speaks the best Japanese will win the award. Japan has a strong sense of pride and nationalism just as the U.S.

It was disturbing.

It wasn't scary that Elijah was more proficient in Japanese, it was that he spoke perfect Japanese even though he was mouthing some other words!

When Hikaru noticed Elijah's lip movement wasn't following the Japanese syllables, he made him do a tongue twister to be sure.

Lip reading wasn't 100% accurate because not everyone uses the same movement patterns in their lips, face and tongue. However, the better their proficiency in a language, the closer their form must be to perfection.

Elijah's lip movement didn't match the tongue twister nor did it match the Japanese language. Instead, it matched that of English. Elijah said the tongue twister sentence in English yet they were somehow audibly translated into Japanese!

First the ball of light, the hidden compartments and now this.

'Elijah, who are you and what is your power!'