-Vol 5: A New Life-

-An argument-

“I should! Like what?” Yuki feigned ignorance again. In fact, although she acted like that, there was a look of guilt on her face.

“Do you really want me to spell it out for you?” Aoi narrowed her brows further as she glared at Yuki, who visibly shrunk a little. Their relation wasn’t normal, as both see each other as a sister. Back then, when Yuki volunteered to come to this place, she hadn't told this to Aoi, knowing that she wouldn’t allow her to go there.

Also, before she left the main office, she had arranged a few jobs, especially for Aoi so that she wouldn’t be free for a year. If everything had gone according to her plan, she would have had a whole year for herself to rampage around Kenshin. Alas, although their relationship advanced to the point of both agreeing to love each other, something like this happened.

“Spell it out? What will you spell out?” Still, Yuki stuck to her act, not wanting to say anything.

“Hmph! Have you forgotten what my skill is? I can easily say what were you doing and will do in the future just by looking at you. And let me tell you, I know what you did at the main office before you came here.” Aoi couldn’t keep calm at that moment, as she gave Yuki an evil eye.

“Ah, that!! Hahaha…sorry!!?” Yuki smiled awkwardly. She knew she would be discovered the instant this girl suspects even just for a second, but she wasn’t afraid. Its because she had made enough arrangement for her to not have free time until a year. Unfortunately, something like this happened, and that failed her whole plan.

“Hmph! You have any idea how worried I was all this time? You know your own situation better than anyone, how can you act recklessly?” when Aoi mentioned about her situation, a look of anger flashed on Yuki’s face, but it faded instantly. Sighing calmly she looked at the younger girl and said, “I never asked for this thing you know. And I don’t want to suppress myself just for this.”

“Yuki, even if say so, you can't change what’s already done. You should know how important you are to the Elders’ Council, you are actually doing a great service for the future of mankind. How can you be so stubborn?” Aoi said with a frown. She was trying to implying something related to Yuki.

“You!!... I can't believe even you are also talking to me like this. You…how, can you not understand my situation? Important to Elders’ Council? Yeah, that may be true but as a tool that is…” Yuki suddenly stopped ranting and took a deep breath to calm herself. Then he glared at the younger girl “We had this discussion before, and I asked you not to bring this up ever again. Drop this matter, or else our relationship will be over.”

“I don’t understand why do you harbor such deep resentment towards Elders’ Council? What they doing is for the future of mankind, but you don’t understand. This is not an ideal behavior.” Aoi argued. She didn’t care about Yuki’s threats. She had already given that exact threat many times before, but they had never broken their relationship.

“For the future of mankind? Do you really believe in that? If they were really doing this for the future of mankind, the tragedy of 5th November wouldn’t have happened all those years ago. Go and look at what happened to ‘that’ place, it had turned into a ghost town. you can still hear people’s screams of that night there.” Yuki had a red eye as she said these. She was close to crying just by mentioning that date.

Ting!! Ting!!

Suddenly her phone rang. Looking at the caller tune, a smile appeared on her face. Wiping her eyes with her hands, she accepted the call.

“Yes Kenshin, when did you reach here?”

“I see. Okay, I will meet you in the lobby in five minutes. Yes…bye.” After hanging off the phone, she looked at Aoi and said: “I am going to meet my boyfriend, don’t mention all these things to him.” after saying that she turned around stormed off.

“Wait! Boyfriend? Yuki, wait a minute, why don’t you mentioned that you have a boyfriend before? Who is he? Wait Yuki…” shouting behind, Aoi ran up to catch-up with Yuki.

…

After hanging off the phone, Kenshin sighed and thought of the correct way to chose his wordings. He was also considering if he should mention about his relation to Core. It took him 18 minutes to return while running at his full speed. After returning, he discovered that he recovered his stamina in almost a minute. Then he consulted with Suguro about the result of the discussion but was disappointed.

But he also felt weird, despite knowing the real reason, he couldn’t tell it to them. But he didn’t care if they manage to find the reason or not, his concern lied somewhere else. It was what Core mentioned before his departure.

A few minutes later, he finally sensed Yuki nearby. Looking around, he found her coming along with a shrine maiden, looking a little gloomy. Kenshin instantly recognized the shrine maiden, it was her, the very lady who saved him and also there at the very start of his new life.

If there was one thing Kenshin realized, it was that his control over his emotional state after his awakening had gotten a lot stronger. Even though he saw such a big celebrity and the person who had saved him, he could still maintain a poker face. If it was the past Kenshin, or even the Kenshin before his awakening, he was sure he wouldn’t have kept his cool this efficiently.

“Hey Kenshin, meet my friend Aoi Yamazaki, you know the one that you told me who saved you…” Yuki smiled as she introduced her to him as if an argument between them never happened a few minutes ago.

“Hello. I am Kenshin. I know you might not remember me, but eight months ago, you saved me from death, I am very thankful for that.” Kenshin gave her a formal bow, the typical Japanese style bow that they do when they pay their gratitude.

“Ah…yeah…I…” suddenly Aoi was caught off-guard as she stuttered, not knowing what she should be saying. She gave a look at Yuki, asking her to help her. Yuki just smiled and backed away, pretending to not see her look. She was also snickering inside her head. she knew how much Kenshin respected Aoi, not for her strength or beauty, but for her kind nature. A person who could save a stray, weak, and dying hunter and even take him personally to the hospital and pay for him, not many hunters would do that. Especially those powerful and influential hunters, they would never do something like this which would waste their precious time.

“I…its okay. Please stand up.” Aoi said as she tried to remember when this happened. Ten months ago, she had perceived a great calamity to her country, to stop that she had done many random things which could change the flow of the future. For those three months, she had traveled far and wide and helped as many people as she could to accumulate enough Karma to stop the calamity from happening.

Of course, the calamity happened, in the form of that accident in the North, but thankfully, it was resolved even before it could transform into something dangerous and unstoppable. As such, she really can’t remember helping him or even where she helped him.

It was very embarrassing to her. The fact that he was the supposed boyfriend of her sister figure only added points to the embarrassment.