"Hello there!"
"Gojo Satoru"
The two of us made eye contact for a moment before I sat down, Kiana was drinking what I assumed was a vanilla latte based on the smell.
I could appreciate her taste. I liked me some of that as well. I could never get into normal coffee, even with the help of adaptation.
My brain just went "NO!" at the sight of cafe lattes.
"So I got the device."
"That's gre- what?"
"Yeah. I have with me right now."
Kiana jumped at that. "Are you trying to start World War Z in Starbucks or something?"
Huh, that movie exists here?
Regardless, I just waved her off. "Meh... it's not working anymore. I checked it on the way."
A brief explanation to Kiana on the cause and effect later, I was left with an exasperated girl sitting in front of me.
"They were literally transporting it by hand? That's ridiculous!"
"Yea. The lady was from ME Corp too. She had the uniform. I'm not too sure if it's really related with them yet though. The girl could just be bribed."
Kiana's expression was hard to describe since it swapped between curiosity, anger and then determined. It felt like she just went through a whole season of character development.
I went closer over to Kiana and showed her the thing in my pants...
No not that you perverts. It was the Honkai device.
"So this is the that thing. It looks kinda banged up." Kiana said.
"I did tell you that I made sure it wasn't working anymore." I said as I quickly pushed it back into my pocket.
"How'd you do that?"
"Violence. It solves everything. If it doesn't, it meant you just didn't use enough of it."
Well the main reason why I broke it was because I realised that there was probably going to be a tracker inside. I didn't want to have to open it up, so I just ruined the device.
Kiana's eyes brightened up at my words. I swear I could see the gears turning in her head.
I... am not very sure I like where her mind was taking her.
"So... what are you gonna do with that thing anyways?"
"I honestly don't know. I made sure this thing doesn't work anymore and I've gotten the clues I wanted so I guess I should just toss it away."
"You're gonna almost kill yourself again." Kiana deadpanned at me.
"No..." I defended myself. "I am a pro mechanical engineer with a huge library of information to help me."
"The... internet?"
Damn it Kiana. When did you get so smart?
As we both got up from our seats, our shoulders accidentally brushed. At that, Kiana froze and looked at me.
"Your body... it has so much Honkai energy! I literally touched you and felt myself getting burnt by it!"
"What do you mean? I don't really feel any dif-"
Oh wait, I did feel different today. Haha silly me.
No wonder that lady from last chapter acted so weirdly after I touched her shoulder.
In that case, wasn't I technically a big nuclear reactor walking around?
Kiana noticed my sudden silence and then grabbed my arm. She dragged my back to my seat and then looked at me. "How are you not turning people around you into zombies?"
"I'm just that guy I guess."
Kiana's face did not change at my provocation. Now that she wasn't falling for my tricks, I let out a sigh. It wasn't fun if she didn't respond. "Relax. I've got it handled. I'll find some way to deal with it."
"Serious? You're not like half-way to becoming a zombie yourself are you?"
"Aren't guys supposed to turn into ashes?"
"If you have enough resistance you can be a zombie too."
Ok. That was a bit less bad. Still, why do girls in general get more resistance?
Oh well. That doesn't matter to me. It was more important to get some training done.
I'm gonna need to do some training if I want to make sure I was not going to get blasted if anyone OP was sent after me. I had felt the effects of Honkai on my body already. I really doubt that people in this world would not weaponise this thing as well.
I bid goodbye to Kiana, only to hear her shout in the distance.
Something something about "I forgot to ask him about my dad again!!"
Just text me woman...
-------------
At the backyard of my home, I stood in the middle of my yard.
I had a choice to make. I had this energy surrounding me that I couldn't really control right now. While I could adapt to it, something about this energy, given that I was so much stronger after it, made me want to try something else.
I closed my eyes, steadied my breathing and then calmed my mind. Then, I stood there in silence as I let my senses do the work.
After a while of standing motionless in the same spot, I still couldn't feel anything. I wanted to use adaptation to help me to figure it out but I hesitated.
Adapting does take some physical exertion, like using my limbs does. The heavier the work(more complex phenomena), the longer and more effort it takes to come up with the adaptation.
Though... I believed that this may not be the case anymore considering that Honkai energy was there to act as the energy source now.
Just when I overcame my hesitation, I felt it.
A gentle flow around my body.
Despite it's appearances though, I was not fooled. I knew that it was Honkai energy, That calmness was just a facade that could be broken at any moment.
As I watched the Honkai energy flow around me, I traced the source to somewhere in my chest.
Prodding it a bit, I was greeted by a larger current emerging from my core. It felt like drawing water from a spring.
When the current reached outside my body, I instantly felt the effects. My body trembled as I tensed my body. The surrounding space seemed to purple as I felt the most powerful I've ever been in my life.
Unfortunately for the grass under my feet though, they need not feel very powerful when got ripped to shreds.
So Honkai energy was this powerful huh?
I let out a breath, feeling accomplished.
Now I just had to work on doing the opposite so that I wasn't going to cause Chernobyl everywhere I walked.
Closing my eyes again, I tried doing the opposite of what I did just now. I tried to urge the flow of the energy back to the core.
The energy immediately turned unruly, causing the ground to tremble. It liked coming out, but didn't like going home. A bit like my dog that I brought out for walks in my previous life.
Sweat formed on my skin. But no matter hard I tried, the energy just wouldn't listen.
Fine. Be that way.
*Clunk*
At that, it really started to flow back. However, it was still very sluggish. I didn't care though, I was just happy right now that I actually got a controllable energy.
I wasn't quite sure if it was a renewable source or not. For now, I could not feel an end to the Honkai energy, but that was something I think was easily fixable with adaptation.
After some work, I managed to drag back around 10% of the energy surrounding my body back into my body. It wasn't much, but it was honest work.
I let out a deep breath. I was very sweaty from all that training but the sun was still high up in the sky. I still had the whole day ahead of me.
In that case, let's go onto the next step of my training.
Weapons laid all over the floor as I made my pick.
Maybe I should start with the knife first?