Chapter 21: Calm Before the Fire Storm

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲,𝟐𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥,𝟐𝐗𝐗𝐗

I can feel the cold mist filling the room that I'm in, lights from the outshine sun shine through the windows of my house, as water stream and fall down into the sink. The clock ticks and tocks with every second goes by, whilst someone's footsteps echoed throughout the room. Not even a minute later, I can hear a book being taken from it shelves and flipped, by only the pace of it, the person who's holding the book, wanted to only flipped the contents of the book and not reading it.

After the sounds of flipping pages stopped, it seems the person put the book that he or she's reading back to it original place, followed by a couple of footsteps with every step, the sounds got softer and softer, until a door was opened, and the person stepped outside and closed it.

Disturbed by probably a student coming into my house uninvited, I hastily came down from my bed and went to the front door and checked if I already locked it.

Confirming that it's locked, I went to the bookshelves and saw if there was a book that's unnaturally placed from where the place should be. Minutes wasted only to searched a single book, until Analysia told me that the book that I'm looking for is in the middle of the middle row, I quickly grabbed the book and flipping it page by page to see if there's something that the student maybe left for me, like a letter, note or some sort.

Before long, I found a piece of paper, stuck between the most middle part of the book, at first I thought nothing of it, it was a plain piece of paper with nothing on the either side of the paper, but just right before I wanted to throw the plain shred of paper into the trash can, I noticed a string of numbers like a binary or some sort.

"1010011 1001000," I mused aloud.

"The translation is 'SH' master," Analysia offered with a hint of nonchalance.

"Could it be someone's initials or an acronym?" I wondered aloud.

"The probability of someone's sneak into your house just to give their initials is quite low, master" Analysia responded, a trace of irritation seeping into her voice.

"I see, so what is this then?" I inquired, a flicker of curiosity mingling with my words.

"I myself do not even know what is SH even mean in the first place" Analysia admitted, her virtual tone carrying a touch of exasperation.

"heeeh... I guess this acronym is too hard to be even cracked by the smartest AI that was ever created by humans then" I remarked, playfully teasing her.

A brief pause ensued before Analyisa's rejoinder, "I'm going to leave you alone if you keep this up, Kiyoko Izu-san"

"Why the morning hostility, Anna-san? I've done nothing to deserve it," I countered in confusion

"I'm currently sick organizing your memories, there's so much pieces and cracks here and there, you know what, let me just end it off with you, please don't do anything rashes like last time, alright bye"

"Wait! Why did you always do this to me-"

I could hear a short pip in my head like someone hanging up an old telephone, and before I could even finish off my sentence, she already left.

"Why did she always leave me just to do things that I didn't order her to do, for goodness sake", I muttered.

"Well I guess I can't be too mad, she helped me narrow down the suspect, well...", I paused before I continued saying my sentence in my mind. "𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺"

***

"Hello, is there anyone there?" I rang the doorbell to Aoki's house several times hoping that someone would opening the door for me, at first I'm skeptical that there's even anyone in his house right now, just because Aoki is probably in school, but as soon as I realized that the girl that we rescued yesterday might be inside, I rang it several more times, before I heard a soft yet childlike voice from the inside.

"Kiyoko-san, right? Come in"

After I heard that soft voice from the inside, the door in an instant opened with the door knob swiftly sliding to the open position. I quietly excuse myself whilst my feet already stepped onto the floor. The door creaked open and there she was, lying on the sofa just right beside the hallway to the inside, while reading from what I can see, a chat conversation.

"Ah, it's you. You're looking rather well," I remarked, striving to convey a friendly demeanor.

"Of course, it was thanks to you two. If not, I don't even know if I'll live to this day", She said, still paying attention to her holographic chat.

"Is it you who sent me that binary-encoded piece of paper with your initials?" I inquired directly, my curiosity getting the better of me.

Upon hearing that, she stopped scrolling through her chat, turned it off, and sat up neatly on the sofa. She looked at me with a smile.

"What led you to conclude that the contents were my initials?"

"I just felt that this was you who wrote it", I replied with no further explanation and proceeded to sit down on the opposite sofa.

"That's some rare skill that you had there, Kiyoko-san, a skill to know instantly who wrote that piece of paper, mhmm, very impressive"," she remarked, her tone tinged with morbid curiosity beneath its childlike veneer.

"Your praise is well-received, especially at a time when I can use it the most," I responded, my tone matched to hers in an effort to conceal my own insights.

"I see, I almost forgot about your altercation with Fuyuki-san. It seems that memory still retains its hold on you," she continued, her words like a double-edged blade, capable of slicing through my defenses and revealing my vulnerabilities.

...

"Oh my, looks like your face has turned pale from my words, I didn't know that you still fear him, my apologies", she giggled.

I can feel her words stabbed through my heart like a spear, my sweats ticks on my body and my face went pale, the thoughts of "How did she knew that", "Why did she even knew that detail" and most of all "Did she form a group with Fuyuki-san before this" was then unanswered because I can noticed that something was coming for me.

𝐓𝐀𝐊

Suddenly, a sharp sound echoed—a sound eerily familiar, like the impact of an arrow against a surface. Instinct propelled me to shift my gaze, and there, lodged in the wall behind me, was a weapon of some kind. In the same breath, strands of black hair drifted down in front of me, severed from their roots.

A surge of adrenaline coursed through me, my body instantly primed for action. I shifted my focus back to her, finding her hand poised, her fingers having released the projectile. Four small knives jutted from her palm, all aimed directly at me. Yet, even as she drew me into her sights, her features bore a grin—a smile that stirred a familiar dread within me.

"Well, looks like you're about to experience something similar to what I went through (Chapter 5)," I said with a warm smile.

In a swift, seamless motion, I evaded the barrage of projectiles. The knives embedded themselves in walls and ceilings, their presence a stark reminder of the peril I faced. My body propelled me into motion, dashing across the room and onto the sofa's surface. There, I circled and sprinted, each lap around the room spawning a new set of knives. The air seemed to crackle with danger, the metallic glint of blades weaving an intricate web.

And then, as abruptly as it had begun, I ceased my dizzying race, halting before her. An exchange of words was set in motion, a subtle dance of verbal maneuvers. As I posed a query, her silence echoed in response—a silence that was brimming with unspoken intent.

In an instant, three knives whizzed toward my head. I dodged them by tilting my head. In the blink of an eye, I leaped onto a sofa table, then circled the room several times. Almost every wall had around thirty knives lodged in them. Finally, I came to a stop in front of her.

Surprised by my agility, she retracted her knives. She attempted to punch me in the face, but I skillfully redirected her punches to the side. She followed with a series of strikes—side punches, uppercuts, and direct punches. Recognizing the fight's impasse, I attempted to sweep her leg, destabilizing her and allowing me to pin her to the ground due to her small size.

However, I failed to anticipate her move. She slipped between my legs and aimed a punch at my neck. In response, I instinctively formed my right hand into a knife shape and spun it behind me.

Suddenly, a small squeak echoed, and the girl collapsed onto the floor.

"𝘛-𝘛𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩?" I thought as I healed her, likely broken, neck and the resulting bruise. I then dragged her to the sofa and let her rest.

After some time, I noticed that her fists remained clenched. Upon opening her hands, I discovered small anesthetic needles placed between her fingers. She had likely intended for me to be incapacitated if struck. I sat on the sofa next to her, breathing deeply, and relieving stress while contemplating the potential consequences of her needles.

An hour later, I felt a cute, childlike yawn fill the room, followed by a sentence.

"Where... am I?"

"Why did you even try to kill me earlier, hmm?" I said, while still focusing on plucking the knives on walls and ceilings.

Silence, that's the only answer that I was given from her. She might have been grinning, regretful, or merely displaying a neutral face of disappointment. I couldn't be sure since my back was turned, too focused on plucking out the knives that has been thrown by her earlier. The absence of a response implied the latter.

Breaking the silence, I questioned her more amicably. "What's your name, the girl with white hair and beautiful blue eyes?"

After a ten-second pause, she answered,

"𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐬, 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐢 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐬."