III. My new toy: Mister Manga Artist

Modern Earth, 20xx

Kyrie had never been listless after that. Months continued to pass as she lived her life as a free spirit living at Ingrid's Apartment Complex unit8. While away from their mansion, her daily tasks went simple:

Gain knowledge through internet,

Polish and maintain her arsenal on top condition,

Daily tea time,

Sleep at the floor of the living room,

There were times that she does muscle training but not daily, she just kept her physiques in check. She needed a body that could wield all her weapons at her arsenal after all.

The location of her tea time depended on her mood. Sometimes she just have her tea at the living room. Sometimes she does it at her balcony. Sometimes she does the bother of moving the couch and the tea set at the front yard, inviting Ingrid for a cup as they watch the sunset. At times she brings her whole tea set at Ingrid's

Never was a non-calming evening as long as she does her daily tea time.

There were times that she won’t be able to have one. She really gets pissed off, but it doesn’t really show on her face. It was that time when she discovered Ingrid housing a male tenant on her, there was one instance that her tea time was interrupted due to the cigarette smoke coming from below her unit, which was Ingrid’s.

Days after that, she was walking back home from the grocer when she saw the lights open from unit6.

“So we had a new tenant.” She told herself.

She began to wonder if it was the boy from that day.

Climbing the stairs, she had to pass unit 6 before arriving at hers. She looked at the tenant board, it still didn’t have a sign.

“We’ll he will eventually make contact with his neighbours.” She then proceed towards her unit.

Few days later boredom had been killing her again. As she lay down the living room floor with her usual dress. She’s so bored. It’s the kind of boredom that’s unusually different from the ones she felt before. Having random thoughts, she took a flashbang from her arsenal and lay again on the floor.

She put on her glasses, pulled the pin, and gave a thumbs up.

“Humu, this should take their attention.”

A blinding light shined for a few seconds inside the room. It was so bright that light went out from the windows and any form of holes where light can exit from the unit. That moment source of blinding light was seen near the area of the town where Inrid's apartment complex stood.

She’s grinning.

“I can’t see.”

As if a pair of sunglasses could fully protect someone from a frontal assault of light coming from a flashbang. She still hadn’t recovered yet from the effects of flashbang when she heard the door opened and she was hit by a harisen at the head. It all happened within the span of a few seconds

Fucking nerf fan

“Please stop hitting me with your traditional nerfing fan. What I went crazy or got amnesia”

Another clean hit.

“Ouch.”

“I told you not to put me out of business.”

She heard Ingrid walked towards her ‘Arsenal’ and she immediately tried to catch up. In attempt she successfully caught one of Ingrid’s foot and begged.

“Miss Landlady spare me. No!, spare my arsenal. I promise I won’t! I won’t do it again!!”

Ingrid showed signs of irritation and crouched towards her. The anger on her face scared shit tons out of Kyrie.

“Behave or I’ll put your arsenal to another dimension.” Ingrid exaggerated her sentence for disposal to let Kyrie know she’s dead serious.

Kyrie turned pale. She had to obey. She had to obey this one last time if she wanted to still be together with her arsenal.

Later that night Kyrie was lying on the floor as usual. She was so dead bored that staring at the ceiling with lights off is now quenching her boredom. She has been stripped of her usage to her arsenal. For her this was like telling her to go back to her good old house where the choices she make should always matter.

She nearly fell asleep when she suddenly heard the doorbell. She thought it must have been Ingrid, but she was not really one to use the doorbell. Kyrie thought it was perhaps, because Ingrid was trying to abuse her Landlady access to all other rooms via spare key. After waiting for a few more seconds and there was no one that entered, Kyrie's assumption that the one at the door was Ingrid fell off. Still there were continued doorbell sounds that was waiting for her to answer and open the door.

“Who the fuck~ Oops I almost slipped. YEES!! Who’s there?! You can enter!! The door’s unlocked!!” – is what she shouted on her most minimal volume voice.

She shouted on her most minimal loud voice, but it was as if someone could hear something like that from outside a closed room.

There was silence for a while. She went back to sleeping. She just slept over the sound of the doorbell that keeps ringing. Every point of the scenario as you can tell is wrong.

A defenceless girl living alone on a unit sleeping on the floor

A stranger that keeps ringing the doorbell even if nobody answers

Girl leaving the door unlocked.

Girl sleeping on the floor…

What would she do if it was a burglar or a forceful molester? Should she wake up now and defend herself? But what if it was a concerned tenant? Suddenly her train of thoughts were halted by mild slaps of someone saying “wake up! Are you okay?! Wake up!!”

Kyrie slapped her assaulter.

“You shit. You dare woke someone like me in my deep slumber. Now prepare to die”

Kyrie walked half-asleep towards her arsenal and get the sharpest katana she could ever get. Kyrie have done muscle training so swinging a katana to kill must be of no issue. She took a stance.

The poor soul that might die was Fred. He was just concerned about what’s going on with unit8 and tried to check the situation of his neighbour. Now he’s about to be beheaded.

“BUSHIDO?! What are you, Ingrid’s disciple?!”

Kyrie was still half asleep. She must have been dreaming that she’s on a fantasy action movie.

“I don’t want to die yet! Haven’t fulfilled my promise with Ingrid yet!”

Hearing the name must have shocked Kyrie and brought her back to her senses. She is now awake and looked at the scene in front of her. Her analyzation was quick and accurate, it’s just as what happened.

“Humu, this is an assault defense drill for defenceless girls 101. Thank you for your participation mister unit6.”

“Hey your slap still hurts! That’s unfair for someone your size! Also the name’s Frederie, your caring neighbour from unit6 that checked you out of concern and found you lying on the floor so I rushed in to check if you’re okay. You’re welcome and please don’t accuse me of assault. My love won’t falter.” –Fred told the exact situation, trying to escape being accused. Not that Kyrie misunderstood at the first place.

FU FU FU… IDIOT 100

“Fufufu, don’t misunderstood me misunderstanding you. I’m just trying to light up the mood. You’re not even on my level.”

“Then why a katana?!”

Kyrie began swinging her katana just like those of the award-winning historical action movies. She stopped at another stance.

“Feel the eeedge~~ This is Gothic Ronin Aesthetica. Black Edge: Samurai Gothica”

Fred finally lost interest. Ah, she’s a lost cause.

“Humu, imma slash ya.”

“He, he he he… Well, I guess you’re okay. Good thing.”

Fred lost interest anymore. He really thought that he was the one in grasp of the situation, but it was really the other way around. No one living in that apartment complex could ever hope to challenge Kyrie’s ingenuity.

Kyrie’s real aim was to bring out multiple emotions from Fred, the different expressions on his face, which you can say she have achieved. A huge amount of boredom was immediately slashed off of her. Everything went as planned from when she woke up.

Fred started to leave the unit while Kyrie was still doing her practice swinging and multiple slashes.

---

Everything went smoothly after that.

It was like discovering an old civilization. A trading and a lot more advanced country would want to keep in touch of the older one, for who knows what reason: maybe expanding territory and resource or colonization. The same aspect above applied to Kyrie.

Now that Fred has made contact with her, she will casually pay Fred’s unit a visit every once in a while to play. You could say that Kyrie visits every time she gets bored and forces Fred to abide with her boredom. The first few visits had Fred really surprised by Kyrie’s tricks and pranks. Eventually he got used to it.

Fred found a job, but that didn’t stopped Kyrie from visiting. The number of visits just dropped. Fred realized that Kyrie must have been considerate of him despite all the things she wanted to try.

---

Months have passed and events that led to Fred wanting to write a manga happened.

It was one day at Fred’s unit.

“You see, never was an event with you that’s not an uneventful one.” Fred told Kyrie while he’s sitting at the couch and reading a manga volume Ingrid has lent him.

Kyrie was standing at the open space near the couch and at her usual stance holding a spear.

“Humu, that’s to be expected of me.” Letting out her usual monotone voice, Kyrie started swinging the spear back and forth as much as possible while avoiding hitting Fred’s head. A hit from a polished and maintained blade is lethal, so she had been very careful on handling it.

It was an unusually quiet day for the both of them. Kyrie usually bugged Fred with playing around leaving him with no choice but to tag along. That day they was unusually quiet.

No cicadas could be heard from outside. It’s not particularly hot so the air conditioner nor the electric fan were turned on. Fred could only hear the thin slicing of Kyrie’s spear blade on the open space. Kyrie, on the other hand, could only hear the pages of the manga volume Fred is reading as he turn them to the next page.

Fred decided to break the silence.

“You see, I’ve quit my job.”

And there goes the sound of her last swing.

“And what do you think will you do after? Do you really think world is easy enough that you can live on unemployed?”

It was one of Kyrie’s serious questions. Fred was surprised, for someone who was actually living alone while depending on her parents, those words were rich coming from Kyrie. Yes she was a genius but she still lacked life experience. Compared to everything Fred experienced, Mytherion events added, he tried to argue and make sense with her.

“It’s not like I quit my job and lost purpose. I just… I just found something I wanted to do.”

“Like drawing a manga?”

She really is a genius to the extent that it’s making me envious -Fred thought for himself.

“I will be busy to the point that I could not play with you anymore. You won’t want to associate with someone who could not cure your boredom.”

Fred really went straight to the point. They fell silent for a moment.

Kyrie decided to stop playing and left his unit.

---

It was decided. Fred asked Ingrid to extend his unit to unit7 in exchange of paying both of the rents. All the renovation to make this studio was covered by Ingrid, a loan to be paid once Fred becomes a full-pledged manga author and have a stable source of income.

The renovation took place in a span of 1 week. Ingrid won tickets for two to the hot springs and decided to bring Fred, hoping he would be able to find ideas for the story of the one-shot he’s creating. She have entrusted taking care of the complex to Ara on unit3, whom which by that time, was already working as a hostess at a nightclub. Entrusting the complex to Kyrie would be a grave mistake.

Kyrie never went outside that time. She knew Ingrid and Fred went on a vacation together.

She’s been bothered by the sound of construction going on next door but was not bothered much.

She looked at the window. She’s…. not lonely, she’s just bored to death.

Construction was finished right before Ingrid and Fred got back. With that, Fred’s manga studio has been constructed. He spent nights drawing manga and finally completed his one-shot, which later on, won the award for ‘Fresh-Aspirants’ entry competition.

It was a night that Kyrie, on her most minimal form (long white dress and straight long hair) was staring at her blinds. She was looking at Ingrid and Fred going out, Ingrid dressed up, and Fred on his casual outdoors. She put on a sly smile.

---

Weeks after that Ara became one of Fred’s assistants. They were about to start an adaptation project proposed to Fred by the old man. The setup of the room was spacious. There was a connecting door towards unit6, Fred’s unit. From after the three desks positioned near the sliding door towards the veranda, a spacious area where one could still put on furniture is available. A bed was placed on the left side near the door to unit6, and cabinets for supplies were placed at the right.

The two were working hard. Both of them were silent. Ara was still getting used to the job, but Fred seemed to be experienced already even though it was his first project.

A serious and silent work environment could also be nice sometimes but things turned out different.

…

“DOKAAAAN!!!!”

BANG!!

SMASHING!!

The expression within the two could not be painted. It was distorted, the same as how distorted the mindset of the lady lurking in unit8 was.

The wall was broken. Debris were scattered everywhere. Dust was everywhere, the smell of concrete filled the room.

There from the hole entered the person that would soon fill the spot on the 3rd desk: Kyrie.

It was the Kyrie on her final form: Twin drills, Gothic Lolita outfit, aviators, and

“Humu, The Sledgehammah~~”

Kyrie took a deep breath, and shouted:

“OHAYOU GOZAIMAAAA—”

Flying Harisen Assault Lvl 10

She was hit by Ingrid’s flying traditional nerf fan.

Fred rubbed his forehead in pain and said, “Took you long enough.”

Ingrid entered the studio due to the ruckus, furious, grabbed Kyrie, and dragged her back to unit8 with her.

Two things happened that day afterwards:

Fred employed Kyrie as his second assistant

The Arsenal has been disposed off by Ingrid.