The next few days were spent helping Mei acclimate to living in Kiana's home as well. All of us knew that school was very clearly not a priority at the moment whilst we got our purple haired chuunibyou settled in.
Kiana's apartment wasn't the cleanest in the world. I was somewhat used to that, but Mei, being the eldest young lady of the Raiden household, may not be so… used to it.
Thus, Kiana and I needed to clean up a bit with Bronya's help.
Lemme tell you though…
It wasn't a fun time.
Mei wanted to help out, but Kiana wouldn't let her due to her being a guest thing.
Though I wonder how long it would take for Mei to take over as her nanny though…
Definitely not speaking from experience.
Nope.
And thus, we ended up here, with a nice little cooking session the night before school began.
Mei didn't want us to eat takeout all the time, calling it unhealthy. Therefore, she decided that she would learn how to cook to help out around the house.
The results?
It…
It was…
It was frigging amazing!!!
What? Did you expect me to say that Mei was cooking absolute garbage?
So, I only have one thing to say to her now.
"Keep cooking. You can cook, Mei!" I said as I shovelled a well-made ebi tempura into my mouth.
Ok, maybe it wasn't very healthy after all. But it still beats all that stuff made outside!
Mei blushed slightly as she heard my praise. "It's nothing. I just followed the instructions I saw online."
"That just means you're talented!" Kiana sighed in satisfaction and patted her belly. "As expected of Mei!"
"The Bronya hates agreeing with Kiana Idiotka, but she is correct." Bronya wiped her hands on a napkin. "Sister Mei's an excellent cook."
I grinned mischievously.
"I think that it would be ok to say that if making good food was a sin…"
Kiana and Bronya immediately caught my intentions as they shouted out.
"Then Mei is a sinner!!"
Mei's happy expression turned miserable immediately as she groaned into her hands.
"Please… stop!" Her voice became high pitched. "That isn't funny!"
"You're right. It's hilarious!"
A round of laughter filled the table as we continued to dig into the food.
The clean-up later went fast. We worked together, laughed a little more, and for a moment, the burden seemed to be lifted off of Mei's shoulders.
—-------------------------------------------------
"You want to go back to school?"
My jaw was wide open as I stared at her.
"Is that bad?" Mei asked unsurely.
"That's abso-fucking-lutely terrible! Those guys at school will rip you to shreds with the drama!"
"It can't be that bad!"
I looked at her with the deadpan stare as if saying, 'Seriously?'
She looked away sheepishly. "Ok, maybe it could be that bad."
I really wanted to shake my head at her naivety at the moment.
Did she think that just because things were getting a little better that everything could go back to the way it was before?
"But I believe that they'll understand me! Our friendships aren't so-"
"Shallow?" I rested on the sofa.
"R-right."
"But you don't sound, nor look mind you, like you really believe that."
Mei looked down and kept silent for a moment.
Her nails dug into her palms as she fidgeted under my stare.
"I…" She began. "I know that it's probably a bad idea but…"
"I really just hope that everything can go back to the way it once was again…"
I froze.
How could I have forgotten about this?
Honestly, it's quite reasonable for Mei to want to hold on to some semblance of her old life again.
Even if she knew that she was being naive.
Even if she knew that it likely was just her wild thoughts.
She just wanted for something in her life to remain the same as it was before.
My expression softened as I rubbed my hair slightly.
"You… you really want to go?"
"Yes."
She spoke with confidence.
And that confused me for a moment.
She seemed quite brave in being willing to face the students right now. Thus, wasn't she just being rational that day about handing over her jewelry instead of being a coward that day?
Or maybe… this wasn't bravery.
This was just another way of running away.
In the end however, I chose not to think too much about this.
"Fine. But don't regret it."
Mei's mood visibly improved. "Thank you, Gojo!"
"What are you thanking me for?" I brushed her off. "I can't control what you want to do."
"But you've been helping me so much all this time…"
"Hey, I'm doing it for myself just as much as I'm doing it for you."
"Are you acting like a tsundere?"
"I'm going to bed."
I left a laughing Mei in the living room as I removed myself from the conversation.
There was no way I'm going into that type of conversation with her.
As I walked to the bathroom in order to brush my teeth, my eyes widened for a moment before a hint of gloom appeared on my face.
How annoying…
With a brief clasp of my hand, I disappeared from the room.
I reappeared in a van a bit far away from Kiana's apartment, a few people were silently listening in on the conversations that had happened in the house.
At the moment, they didn't seem to realise that I was behind them as they kept listening while writing notes.
"Can I have a pen, Bob?" One of the persons asked while holding up a hand.
With me being the nice guy that I was, I decided to help out a bit.
How?
I made sure that he didn't need that pen anymore of course.
As I exited the van, a pool of blood flowed like a river from behind me. I grimaced a bit as I checked the soles of my feet to check if there was any blood.
Nothing.
It's so great to have Infinity sometimes. Unfortunately, I still couldn't help but subconsciously check when I step on things sometimes.
Regardless of that, these people…
I looked behind me.
ME Corp again.
Cocolia was being really annoying now wasn't she?
I suppose that I'll have to find some time to deal with that place, and maybe find myself a few fancy new toys while I was at it.
Please have a mecha there…
That would be so fricking cool.
Don't ask where I would keep it though.
But there was just one thing that made me hesitate from my actions right now.
It was the fact that Ryoma had actually contacted Schicksal already.
Were they watching in the background now? Did they know about me already?
No… I should operate under the assumption that they do. Cocolia clearly knew my name back then already so it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that they should at least have some knowledge of me.
Oh well…
I can't let fear and overthinking paralyze my actions again. That would just result in nothing being done.
Still, I want to train a bit more before going…
I need more strength…
Only then would I be able to live well and truly without fear…
After all, the reason for strength was for peace of mind wasn't it?
(A/N: How is the chapter? Please give powerstones and comment. Please review as well if possible!)