I almost fell forward, but thankfully I managed to regain my balance.
"Why do you keep kicking ?" I asked as I brushed off the suit.
"Just 'cause." She shrugged, saying it like it was obvious.
What kind of answer is that?
Though… that is just like her. I'm already used to it. But that doesn't an it doesn't piss off.
I tilted the belt and undid my transformation. I had way too many questions right now, and part of wanted to rush her imdiately and interrogate her for answers.
I handed her the belt. She took it, her palm ate the dals and the belt.
…Okay. That was kind of uncanny.
Deciding to call it a day, we started walking back along the path we'd taken earlier. My energy was pretty much spent, not gonna lie.
"Let's just go ho," I said.
"Let's go to a convenience store," she replied.
We stared at each other straight in the eyes.
"No, we're going ho," I said.
"I want convenience store," she said.
I raised my hand. She read my mind and raised hers too.
"Rock, paper, sci—"
========
"Thanks for your purchase," the cashier said with a smile.
Once outside the store, we sat on a nearby bench. Isadora tore open her popsicles, three of them, and started licking them without a care in the world.
"So…" I said, unwrapping my own popsicle and finally deciding to break the silence. "Mind If I want it now?"
I looked at her. She continued enjoying her icy snacks as if nothing else in the world mattered, only glancing at after a few monts.
"You rember when I said I'm a being foreign to this planet, right?" she asked. "Well, the one who made you wear the bracelet, the bracelet which was in disguise, is the reason I'm basically trespassing on this version of Earth."
I nodded, listening closely. Finally, no dodging and no vague nonsense.
"You know, I'm not even human," she said with a small smile. "In fact, I'm just a manifestation of desire."
She paused.
Eventually, she began straight to the beginning. Explaining the history and the origin of OOO.
Centuries ago, there was a king. One so thirsty for power that it consud him entirely. He gathered alchemists, people who studied forbidden arts, and through them he created the Core dals.
The sa dals I used earlier.
The ones that let transform into a Kan Rider.
The sa power that made strong enough to defeat those bastards from Mato.
The king abused that power and committed atrocities, burning villages, conquering territories, and killing people without distinction between the innocent and the guilty.
Each set contained ten dals. The original OOO took one from each set, leaving nine behind. That absence created an overwhelming desire to beco whole again, giving birth to beings known as the Greeed.
They lacked the emotions and compassion humans possess. Their instincts drove them to consu human desires just to feel complete, just to feel sothing.
The Greeed even rebelled against their creator, only to discover that one of the Greeed, Ankh, was secretly on the king's side. Shortly afterward though, Ankh was backstabbed by the king as well.
The king's own selfish unparalleled greed eventually turned on him.
He attempted to assimilate all thirty Core dals at once. Not being able to hande it, he and the rest of the greeed was sealed for many centuries as stones.
Even I knew how absurd that was. I had felt how powerful I beca with just three. I could not fathom how my body would survive that kind of insanity.
The idea of Combos caught my attention instead. Using three dals from the sa set resulted in a stronger form than the non-combo ones due to synergy, with Combos even granting unique abilities to the user.
"No, no. You are not allowed to use a Combo yet, Hideo," she said in an uncharacteristically serious tone, as if she had read my mind.
"Your body might be stronger than that of a normal human right now, but the burden will not be a joke."
Why, though? She said the last user was using Combos left and right. To be fair, he was already a semi-Greeed with those ominous dinosaur dals she ntioned. He also kept using them despite the consequences. Maybe he had built so kind of resistance.
She scolded and firmly said no. The dals I was using right now were stronger versions than the ones that existed on her world, which ant I had to be careful when using them.
According to Isadora, I was the third user of OOO.
"Wait a minute," I said, frowning. "Why didn't I hear your na among the Greeed?"
I rembered nas like Ankh, Uva, and Kazari, but not hers.
She looked down, her expression turning lancholic. With a quiet sigh, she finished her last popsicle.
"I'm not even a proper Greeed like them," she said with a wry smile. "I can't create a Yummy. I don't even have my own proper dals."
She clenched the empty stick in her fingers.
"I was just a girl born from a broken Core dal, manifested through a man's desperate desire to see his old friend brought back to life."
Alright. Now I was starting to feel bad after seeing her face. Still, a broken dal?
"Aren't you curious about why I was acting that way during our first eting?" she asked, clearly dodging my unspoken question about the broken dal.
"Curious does not even cover it," I replied, not ntioning it out of respect and choosing not to cross that line.
Grinning, she tapped on the shoulder.
"To be honest, I was skeptical about why he chose you to be next in line as OOO," she said bluntly. "You look like an average guy you would see on the street. No redeeming qualities, not soone destined to do anything great."
Ouch. That one hurt.
"Do not take it to heart. Let finish," she said, flicking my forehead.
In her eyes, I was normal. She had deliberately acted the way she did to lower my guard. She even admitted she wanted to cringe when she first started calling Master during our initial eting. The guy who gave the bracelet told her to behave and treat with respect, though I still did not understand why calling Master was part of that instruction.
Her opinion of began to change after she saw how I treated people.
I helped anyone I could, as long as it was not sothing wrong. I pushed an old man's car even though I did not know him and never asked for compensation. I cald a crying boy at the playground after he fought with his mother. I did small things, but I always tried to give off a positive presence to people around .
Despite not being blessed by fate or fortune, and despite constantly complaining about how unfair society was, I never showed that bitterness to others. I simply did what I could without dragging people down with .
She said my eyes reminded her of the man who once changed a certain bird Greeed's outlook on life.
From that point on, the way she treated was genuine. Her banter, her teasing, and even the shenanigans that annoyed throughout the week were things she never had the luxury of experiencing before.
"I did not show you the belt yet because I was still deciding if you deserved it or not," she said. I rembered how silly that getup looked during her tutorial, but it had actually been useful when I used the Kan Rider suit earlier. "That surprise thing was just being stubborn."
"I know you're worthy after seeing you transform into OOO earlier, so stand proud."
She gave a light hit on the arm and chuckled.
"I admit it," she said softly. "You are already a hero in my book even without being a Kan Rider."
Rising from her seat, she gazed up at the moon above us, lifting her hands toward it as if she could grasp it between her fingers.
"May we have a great journey together," she said, looking back at . "Partner."
Bathed in moonlight, her face looked like sothing straight out of an artist's masterpiece.
So still, so beautiful, it almost felt unreal.
Smiling to myself, I stood up from the bench and raised my fist toward her for a bump.
"Well, you better not change your attitude after this," I teased.
She simply shrugged and snorted, then raised her fist and t mine.
___________________
Author's Note:
I might make two chapters tomorrow if my calculus professor doesn't give us another annoying work.
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