Chapter 36: I See You
"What are you doing?" Her voice was dripping with emotion. It was strange; she looked more angry than scared. Her eyes were burning with hatred. "I won’t just let you do whatever you want!"
"Then fight back," I countered.
In a fit of frustration, she got up to leave, but I swung the back of my katana at her feet, knocking her off balance. She collapsed to the ground with a thud.
"What’s your rank in the class?" I asked, though I already had my suspicions.
"I’m ranked very high. Why do you even care?!"
Again, she lied without batting an eye. It almost seemed like second nature to her.
"If that’s the case, why are you such a coward? Why not just fight me and get it over with?" I asked.
"I’m done answering your questions. You can’t do anything to me, or else the whole school will learn about the different ways you touched me."
She was quick-witted and headstrong; a normal girl would’ve been terrified and quickly given in to whatever I asked.
I lost. She called my bluff. I had no qualms about hurting her to get my way, but she simply wasn’t worth it. Word games were never my strong suit, but I wouldn’t win this without them.
She got to her feet and proudly brushed off her clothes before heading for the door.
"You’re weak, Kiki," I said as she neared the exit. "Sooner or later, everyone will find out. But I can help you."
She stopped and turned to me.
I caught her attention—that was what she was trying so desperately to hide. I saw it from the moment I first laid eyes on her. Everything about her screamed how weak she was.
"Help me how?" she asked. "You’re working with Amelia; I don’t need any help from you."
"We both know that no one volunteered to join your team for the upcoming competition. If you don’t find people, everyone will discover how incompetent you are. Plus, there’s the added danger of you entering a dungeon; you could end up getting injured or worse."
The fact that she hadn’t left yet told me she was at least a little interested in what I was saying.
"But how can you help me with any of that? Why would you?!" she asked.
"Because I need your help too. I’m proposing a partnership—one that would benefit both of us. Kiki, let’s team up."
"You don’t seem like the teamwork kind of guy," she shot back.
She was being clever, trying to steer the conversation. Make it a joke, but I noticed the slightest quiver in her hand as she brushed her hair back from her face. She was scared—scared that someone had finally noticed her for who she truly was.
She portrayed the kind girl who was often silly, the one everyone could call on to lighten the mood. But it was all an act—an act to hide her true self.
"I’m not asking," I said. "I’m ordering you, just like Hikari did today."
That seemed to hit a nerve, causing her to furrow her brow in anger.
"What do you know?! You don’t know anything about me! So just stop pretending—"
"I know everything about you," I said, making my way closer to her. "I see you, Kiki—the real you, not the mask you hide behind. Out of everyone else, I see your worth; that’s how I knew you were special."
I had been approaching this the wrong way from the start. Demoralizing her wasn’t the answer; I needed to say the words she needed to hear about herself. I had to make her believe that I understood her more than anyone else—that was the way to gain her trust. I leaned in and calmed my voice as I locked eyes with her. In response, she crossed her arms and stared up at me with needy eyes. I couldn’t lie—she was captivating.
"You’ll protect me?" she asked in an awfully girlish voice.
"No, I’ll use you. You’ll use me. How else are you going to compete with Amelia?"
That was the driving force behind everything—her jealousy of Amelia. The attribute I gave myself, Serpent’s Gaze, allowed me to see everything; even the faintest body movement would give away her true intentions. That’s how I knew how she really felt. I noticed everything—even if I didn’t want to.
When she was putting on an act, her movements felt rehearsed; when she wasn’t, her movements were sharp and sometimes clumsy. I noticed this in the moments when she thought no one was watching her—like when she was taking notes from the board or in the rare moments when she was by herself.
Even now, I could see her lips quivering and her fingers slowly tightening on the hem of her skirt as she finally came to a decision.
"Fine, but this is a partnership. I won’t be taking orders from you like a lapdog."
She folded her arms, looking like she was granting me some kind of favor. Her subpar attitude didn’t matter, since I needed her for what I had planned. But for that, I needed to know more about her; there were certain things I couldn’t discern just by looking.
"What system do you have, and what’s your rank in the class?" I asked.
She looked at me skeptically before answering.
"Why do you want to know that? It’s not important."
"I’ll need to know it so we can properly work together."
She glared at me and bit her lip, acting as if she were handing over her soul.
"Fine, but if you ever tell anyone, I’ll murder you," she declared. "I’m... Haah... I’m ranked 40 in the class."
She was ranked dead last! I thought it would be bad, but not this bad.
"And as for my system," she continued, "it’s called the Echoes of Illusion. It allows me to create illusions like this."
She held out her hand with her palm facing up. It looked like she was trying to show me something, but I didn’t see anything, which caused her to frown at me.
"You’re not seeing the fire on the palm of my hand, are you?"
My eyes must’ve been preventing me from seeing the illusion she was creating.
"I thought so. I kept trying to use it against you, but it wouldn’t work. You really do see me, don’t you?" she muttered under her breath.
She clearly didn’t mean for me to hear, because she immediately started glaring at me.
"You still want to partner with me after hearing all that?" She gave a self-deprecating chuckle.
"Yes," I answered, "As it turns out, your system is perfect."