Sitting down with a burger in hand, I opened Homugram on my phone and went to a profile of a person.
The person? Raiden Mei.
I had my suspicions about her.
In some animes, you'd have the high school senior type who was going to turn out to be some sort of secret agent that was decently strong. Combined that with the Honkai energy I felt from her, and I felt that my suspicions were pretty reasonable.
Of course, I shouldn't take anime tropes overly seriously despite the similarities this world has with other anime worlds.
This world was real to me, and I need to respect that.
Treating the people of this world like they were idiots was a surefire way to find myself killed.
Regardless, it was better to be safe than sorry in this scenario. Even if I don't get much information from this, it was better than nothing.
My eyes scrolled through her profile, which was surprisingly barebones for a 15 year old girl. There were at most a few photos of her and her father, but I didn't see any with her friend group despite how often they hung around her.
Hmm…
A few thoughts entered my head about those people but I pushed it aside quickly. That wasn't too relevant to what I needed to know right now.
As I continued to look through her profile, I eventually found out something…
Her father…
… was the CEO of ME Corp?
That company again?
Did I… just hit a goldmine here?
"So Gojo, actually stalking girls on Homugram now ay?" Kiana's gloating voice, as if she had just found some blackmail material on me, filled my ears.
"This is not stalking. This is merely espionage."
"That's exactly what a stalker would say."
I glanced at her. "I'm going to touch you." With a hand covered with a crap ton of Honkai energy of course. But she wouldn't know that until it hit her.
The white haired girl didn't even flinch. "Hmmph. Try it. We'll see how you enjoy a few broken bones and some prison time."
"Kiana. I'm rich. I'm not going to go to jail even if I kill someone." I waved my hand.
"… damn rich people" Kiana grumbled. "So what are you doing? You're not just getting off…"
Kiana leaned over to peek at my phone, only to freeze at the image of the girl.
"Who… is that? She's so pretty!"
"Oh her? She's just one of those rich people you hate so much."
Kiana stared at the screen for two seconds before whispering,
"I love rich people"
(A/N: No yuri here)
"Wow double standards much?"
"Hehe, pretty girls can't be bad people."
Now it was my turn to be silenced by her words.
I let out a cough to clear the mood before changing it back to topic. "Her dad's the CEO of ME Corp."
Kiana's face turned serious as I brought up that company. Placing a hand on her chin, she asked, "The company that was taking back that device that day right?"
"It could be someone who was bribed, but it's feeling a bit more unlikely now…"
Kiana cracked her knuckles, fist slamming into her palm. "Let's go to ME Corp to get some answers then! If they don't answer, we'll just beat it out of them!"
Oh boy…
"Kiana… you'd be on the news the next day." I deadpanned. "Teenage foreigner committed suicide with 47 gunshots to the back of the head."
"Oh yea… but why 47 though?"
"I dunno. I thought it was a funny number."
Yea… the both of us were kinda idiots…
I'm smarter though.
—————-
In the end, I chose not to tell Kiana about the Honkai energy I felt on Mei yet. I was unsure whether Kiana would do something impulsive given what I knew of her thus far. Therefore, I wanted to keep an eye on Raiden Mei more for now.
From the class rooftop, I was looking at Raiden Mei in the school field. It was PE period for her class.
I wanted to track whether she would show any hint of supernatural physique or abilities or not but I am not going to lie…
I really did feel like a perverted stalker.
Well… at the very least, if Raiden Mei was actually someone strong, I could use that identity to my advantage?
I genuinely don't want that name to stick around on me though…
I would never hear the end of it from Kiana.
As for my class?
Haha I'm skipping it again. Kiana will be the one enjoying History class without her phone.
Raiden Mei's movements on the field were graceful. I could tell that she had some form of training as well.
I wasn't too surprised. Her dad was some sort of Kendo master or something, so it was probably that.
Although that did add another layer of suspicion onto their family, I couldn't draw conclusions yet.
Other than that, everything about her screamed ordinary. No signs of her trying to restrain herself or being superhuman in general.
She ran as fast as a normal girl, and she started getting tired with a moderate amount of exercise as well, if not slightly better than others.
I let out a yawn and rubbed my eyes. Espionage was honestly a very boring job. Maybe some people would enjoy watching girls running around like that but I wasn't one of them.
Just as I wanted to pull out my phone to do stuff however…
Buzz
A Honkai pulse?
Again? Here at school? And conveniently around the field as well?
I immediately jolted up and looked down. Though the pulse was very weak this time, who knew how much it took to cause harm to others.
Luckily, it seemed like none of the students were affected. At least, it seemed like that at first glance.
And then, I saw it. Raiden Mei was clasping at her head slightly in pain.
Hmm… that was strange…
Was she feeling the effects of the Honkai energy?
But it was so weak? The other students weren't even affected by it.
Given the Honkai resistance I believed she did have due to the amount of Honkai energy she had, she shouldn't be affected by this amount at all.
So why was she reacting like this immediately after the pulse?
I saw a few people go over to check on her. They said a few things to her, but she waved them off before she slowly walked off on her own, probably to go to the infirmary.
I guess she didn't want to bother anyone.
And that was my cue to follow.
The pulse I felt could wait. It wasn't very strong right now so it wasn't an urgent scenario. On the other hand, Raiden Mei's situation could give me some more insights.
Well… if it got worse, Kiana would probably handle it.
I quickly left the school roof, and went to where I believed that Mei should be at around this time. Peeking from around a wall, I saw the back of her slouched figure slowly make its way to the infirmary.
One of her hands was supporting herself on the wall while the other was still grabbing her head.
I slowly followed her from behind, making sure I didn't make any noise.
Eventually, we neared the door of the infirmary. It was at that moment though that the hallway lights flickered briefly.
And then she stopped.
"You've been following me for a while, haven't you?"
Her voice made me go still. The smell of ozone filled my nose, like scorched air. Goosebumps prickled along my skin, as the surrounding suddenly felt… electrifying?
My eyes widened slightly.
Elemental control?
Raiden Mei's figure slowly straightened. Her head slowly turned to exactly where I was hiding, letting me see her eyes…
Her cold, inhuman eyes…
And their pupils were gleaming hot pink