Later, Karen returned and thanked Kaito and Shiho for taking care of Mike.
Kaito did the same and also thanked her for letting Shiho and Eleven stay, and finally left the place even though Karen told them they could stay.
Although Kaito did not have a place to stay, with his abilities creating a basic facility to live in was easy, and with the amount of things he had in his inventory just in case, what were originally only covered stone walls quickly became a habitable place.
In this place, after a long time, Kaito took the time to talk with Shiho.
"So, what is your plan?" he asked, glancing subtly at Eleven beside her.
Although it might seem that Shiho only brought Eleven to keep up the excuse that she was her sister's daughter in front of Karen, Kaito saw how Shiho actively went to get Eleven and kept her close the whole time while Kaito built the house, clearly Shiho was not treating her like a stranger.
"I want to take care of her" Shiho replied with determination.
"By taking care of her you mean..." Kaito asked.
"I am going to adopt her."
"Do you understand the problems that brings? You are only nineteen years old, and you know that I will leave sooner or later. This is not a decision you can make so lightly."
"I know, but... she has no one, she lived her entire childhood between four white walls without having anyone she could trust, being used as a tool.
She... is like me, even if I could not help her before, now that she is in front of me, at least during her adolescence she will have someone she can trust."
Kaito stayed silent for a few seconds before sighing.
"Alright, it is your decision after all and I cannot change it."
"You cannot" Shiho nodded as she pulled Eleven closer to her. "What about the objects? Do you have them all?"
"Of the four remaining, I got two here along with the information about a third one, I will ask Hinata about the fourth later" Kaito explained. "I will go for the third one now, are you coming with me or..."
"I will stay here" Shiho replied before he could finish his question.
"Alright."
---
In a large white mansion with thousands of black armed guards, in the safest room of the place, a middle aged man with black hair and a determined gaze held a VHS tape in his hands.
While he waited calmly, he felt a sudden gust of wind.
The man did not react with surprise, he simply raised his gaze slowly, meeting a pair of blood red eyes.
Immediately several weapons and red laser dots aimed at Kaito, but the man behind the desk simply raised a hand, signaling everyone to leave.
Seeing this, Kaito smiled and calmly sat on the office sofa, leaning back comfortably.
"A smart choice, Mr. President" Kaito said.
"Lucifer, you came for this, correct?" the president said as he threw the tape he was holding toward Kaito.
Kaito caught it with one hand, making it disappear instantly.
"Of course" Kaito nodded.
"So what comes next? Will you kill me?" the president asked, already having accepted his fate.
"After what you have done, of course. I am just curious, why would you do something like that?" Kaito asked. Someone with the power of a president did not seem to need to do what he did, and he clearly did not act like someone who had been forced.
The president sighed with nostalgia at Kaito's question before beginning to speak.
"Since I was a child... I had a dream.
I lost too many people because of crime, people close to me, acquaintances, even people unrelated to me.
I always wanted to end crime in the country, that is why I grew up and entered politics, all with the goal of changing the country, but in the end I realized that crime is impossible to eradicate completely, it is like a human necessity, an instinct that the more it is suppressed the stronger it will eventually emerge.
Then one day, I met him, Vecna. He offered me a deal, he gave me an object.
Tape of society it is called... it was called. Its use is simple, you record something on it and once a year this tape can show its content, anyone who watches it during that day, whether the original or any type of copy, will believe the words spoken in it without questioning them, when the day ends everyone will forget and will not notice any of the changes that happened while they were following orders.
Thanks to it I created a special event, I called it "The Purge".
One day for everyone to release their repressed instincts, a day where they can commit any act without laws restricting them. Thanks to this, thanks to this day where everyone releases their repressed instincts, crime in the country dropped by ninety percent.
You can kill me Lucifer, I know that in the eyes of others I am a monster, but in my own eyes I will continue to believe that what I did was necessary."
"If it was so important to you, why did you stop?"
"I did not want to" the president said. "But Vecna forced me, he told me that if you take the object my goals would never be fulfilled, in the end I had to stop.
Fortunately, besides Vecna and his people, only I know about the purge so you never found me. After all I do not have any kind of ill feeling toward you. Like I said, I understand your point of view, I understand that anyone would see me as a villain."
So they figured out how I find them, Kaito thought.
"You are an interesting person, an interesting madman" Kaito said as he stood up and walked toward the door without any intention of continuing the conversation.
BANG!
Once the room's door closed, Kaito had already disappeared. The only sound in the place was the guards shouting the president's name in front of his corpse, but he never reacted.
---
"Good morning."
Kaito woke up the next day in his room in his improvised house and found Shiho and Eleven having breakfast outside at a table that Kaito had created the previous night by cutting down some trees.
Since Kaito had made the place in an empty field near the forest there was a beautiful view of the nearby woods while they ate.
"Good morning."
"You woke up."
Both greeted him in their own way while Kaito sat next to Eleven.
"Kaito."
"Yes?"
"Shiho told me you are not her boyfriend, so what are you?"
"I am her...close friend, something like that" Kaito answered Eleven's innocent question. She seemed to understand something because she stopped asking and simply continued eating a sandwich in silence.
"So close friend, do you already have the location of the last object?" Shiho asked jokingly.
"I asked Hinata last night and she told me" Kaito nodded.
"So... once you get it you will simply disappear from this world."
"That is right."
"And... when will you go get it?" Shiho asked with a bit of hesitation.
"...I will go today."
"...I see."
"What is wrong? Are you leaving today? Why?" Eleven asked, noticing the atmosphere.
"Yes, I have something very important to do."
"...you will not come back?"
"Probably not" Kaito replied.
"When I met you..." Kaito was thinking about what to do when he heard Shiho's voice speaking, drawing his attention. "...I hated you, you forced me to return to the place I hated the most.
Then I discovered you were a demon and, as a scientist, everything related to the supernatural interested me a lot, but somehow... it became boring very quickly...
Even so, I kept following you, because you needed me, more than you realized...
I did not realize at that moment that that was not the only reason I followed you.
When I suggested that you focus on a hobby, I did not expect that you like an idiot would decide to open a restaurant, and on top of that you forced me to work in it, how stupid can you be?
But... I liked it a lot.
Spending time in a normal way without anything paranormal involved and without having a reason or a goal to chase all the time, simply... living with you, it was fun, I liked it a lot, much more than I thought.
So this ordinary life, can it not... can it not last a little longer? With Akemi and Eleven included in it?"
"...I am sorry" Kaito knew what she meant but even so he could not accept.
He responded so quickly that Shiho opened her eyes, first surprised... then hurt.
"...I see, I... have to go do something inside."
Without saying anything else Shiho stood up and went inside the house without looking back.
Kaito watched her back slowly moving away while it trembled slightly. For some reason he felt that he would probably never see her like that again.
"Is she alright?" Eleven asked.
"She will be. Come, I will show you a trick."
Eleven was still a little worried, but the emotional intelligence of an eleven year old girl is not very high so she trusted Kaito and followed him.
In the enormous green field in front of them, Kaito took a rectangular black box out of his inventory.
Inside there was a body, a young woman whose body was perfectly preserved.
After Kaito failed to revive her, Miyano Akemi's body remained in perfect condition but did not wake up, being in a state similar to a coma. Since Kaito stored the body in his inventory where time does not pass, it remained exactly the same until now.
"Who is she?"
"She is your aunt, Shiho's older sister."
"Is she okay?" Eleven asked worriedly.
"She will be" Kaito replied and approached her.
He placed his hand on her head and activated his new ability.
[Soul Manipulation
Class: Skill
Description: You stole the ability of an object created by higher beings, this has never been done before and could have unforeseen effects.
Effect: Allows you to manipulate souls, from summoning them, damaging them, erasing them, modifying them, etc.
Note: Each use has conditions. Example: to summon a soul the target must be dead and you must have something very close to them from when they were alive ]
What could be closer than her own body, Kaito thought.
The moment he activated the ability he saw a kind of thread connecting the body in the box and reaching into the sky where it mysteriously disappeared. Kaito felt he could use that thread to locate the soul and bring it back.
He closed his eyes and followed the path in his mind. Soon he found a young woman in a completely black space drifting aimlessly, however the young woman had a smile on her face as if she were in complete peace, only to frown when she felt movement and open her eyes in annoyance to see Kaito.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Takayama Kaito, I need you to return to your body. As long as I have your permission I can take you there" Kaito explained.
"I already died, I have nothing to do there" Akemi said somewhat annoyed at the stranger for interrupting her eternal peace.
"You have something to do, she needs you, she is alone, she even adopted a girl just because she reminded her of you, how stupid is that?
She does not even know anything about raising a child. Even though she acts tough she is more childish than most. If you do not go help her she will definitely end up making a mess" Kaito said.
"Shiho..." the soul murmured, recognizing who he was talking about. "It seems you care a lot about my sister, why do you not stay with her?"
"No... I cannot."
"It seems you have a complicated story with my sister... but I will not interfere in it.
Alright, let me take care of my foolish little sister a little longer" Akemi said with a gentle smile.
"Then I will take you there..."
"Wait!" Akemi interrupted.
"What is it?" Kaito asked at Akemi's sudden outburst.
"I just want to warn you. Since you can reach this place you must not be someone ordinary.
This place is not normal. When I arrived here I could see the infinite number of other souls here, there are far more than normal, it is like they are infinite. I do not know if this is heaven or hell, maybe neither, maybe both, but I can tell you that it is extremely enormous, and there is someone powerful enough to watch over this place, someone who will notice you if you interfere.
I feel that once I leave here I will not be able to remember any of this, so I am warning you now. Be careful."
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)