The next morning after the party Tengoku was sitting in a garden.
He wasn't hungover, since through the night Yuki had pretty much consumed all the liquor they had at the party. A bummer for him, but he liked Yuki and thought she was beautiful. If he could appease her, then that worked for him. Besides, liquor was always around. Liquor was never a necessity for him, and he wasn't addicted by any means. When it was available, he always tried to get a taste. He sat on a bench admiring the flowers.
"I wonder where she is..I was going to take her out today..."
The prior day he had asked to take her to breakfast. She was drunk so she probably said yes just off of that factor, but he trusted her judgement enough to understand that she would've probably said yes had she been sober.
Yuki Zenin woke up and yawned, her head was pounding and her stomach was rumbling, she winced in pain and keeled over, holding her stomach in pain.
"Damn… I got carried away again…"
Yuki was usually pretty tolerant to alcohol but it's been a couple months since her last drink. She used to get Cynil to take sips here and there to peer pressure her into having fun. However, they slowed down recently due to their parents catching on.
Tengoku quickly moved and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Hey..sorry..It's probably partially my fault for letting you get carried away. Do you need help?"
Yuki shook her head no to Tengoku's question, she slowly got up, wobbling left and right from her current hangover.
"No…No I'm fine… I'm just seeing double and it's not your fault… sometimes I just can't control myself…"
"Well...still up for breakfast? The least I can do is feed you...maybe you'll feel better then?..I don't want to be weird.."
Yuki nodded. She thought about what could possibly help this hangover.
"Anything with bread… lots and lots of bread… my body burns it quick so it won't be an issue for me at all."
"I like waffles but..The restaurant i'm taking you too does toast as well...and you could probably use some water..."
Yuki sighed knowing that she might only really be able to stomach toast or any bread. That was about the only thing that could stop her from puking.
"I'm fine, as long as I get bread and water… I just can't eat anything else or I might actually die!"
"W-Woah!..Don't say that...I'd prefer that not to happen...I just asked you out to a meal.."
He let out a nervous laugh, a bit concerned with her pessimism regarding just a hangover.
Yuki pouted and nodded her head. "You don't understand! I could literally die if I puke up everything, it just wouldn't be good and it would be super embarrassing for myself…"
"Die just from puking?..Are you sick or something?..I can take you home if that's better..." *He genuinely looked concerned and frowned at her comments.
Yuki waved her hands infront of her face.
"NO!! I can't go home like this! My parents will kill me too!! You don't understand… they spoil me rotten but have high expectations of me!"
"Ah. I forgot you're royalty. Sorry. No home then. Well can you walk?..I don't have my travel license yet so..no car or public transformation..."
Yuki sighed to the thought of Tengoku not having a travel license or anything like that. Typical behavior from a girl her age.
"Yeah I can walk, I don't really want to but it will work. I just want to eat and find out anything on Cynil"
"Alright then..." Tengoku helped and lead her toward a restaurant that sat outside of the zen garden, a feel hundred feet down. Not a long walk whatsoever.
Yuki entered the restaurant and sat down at a table with Tengoku, twiddling her thumbs as she had still had bad vision from the hangover, she watched the people in the restaurant cautiously, not trusting a single person. Tengoku had insane rapport at the restaurant, and thus they tended to him immediately.
"Order whatever you want i've got it Yuki.."
Yuki looked at the menu and read what she wanted aloud. "The big breakfast with Toast A LOT OF TOAST. Is that okay with you??"
"Whatever you want I got it.." Tengoku whispered to the server who left. A few minutes later he came with Yuki's exact order. Big breakfast with a lot of toast. They laid it in front of her and bowed before taking Tengoku's order afterwards.
Yuki smiled with her tongue sticking out before digging into the meal immediately almost like a rabid animal, she ate fast and didn't even wait for Tengoku to get his food.
Tengoku watched her eat silently. It was strange but, if it meant Yuki would feel better he compromised.
Yuki finished her food quickly and let out a sigh of exhaustion, wiping her face off with a napkin, she had a big grin as she finished her food.
"Looks like someone is happy…"
Yuki nodded and thanked Tengoku for the food. "Thank you!"
She raised her arms up to the air and rested them behind her head.
"Now I'm back to myself! I think I'm gonna be able to kick some ass if I need to!"
"Well feeling like yourself is better than not feeling like yourself I suppose..I'm glad I could help. Although I wanted to have a meal with you."
Yuki nodded and agreed with Tengoku, she knew that being herself was what truly mattered to her and if he was willing to still be her friend after then that would make her happy.
"So. I made a phone call to my family this morning. I've got a slight lead on your sister...I know that's what you really came for.."
Yuki cocked her eyebrows at the mention of her sister. "Well you read me like a book then. What's the lead?"
"There's a serial killer going around and her target is usually 14-16 year old girls. She'll kidnap them, and use them as slaves for a larger project that has yet to be disclosed. That's the best i've got..nothing is confirmed yet."
"So… Cynil is possibly taken by that killer… and she also left that Star scar on my fucking face?! The underworld must know more about this dammit… if only I didn't get drunk last night and actually went to Shibuya…."
"It's only a theory. It's nothing set in stone from that statement. It could've been anyone..but that's the lead I got from my father and mother."
"I'll get my vengeance on that bitch even if she isn't the one that took Cynil… I'm an assassin..but straight murderer?… that's just pointless in this world."
"As I said though it seems she's aiming for something more when she's targeting these girls. It may have to do with feminism..that's what my father suspects any how…She's using these girls almost to push that ideology."
"An ideology? That's crazy. Why use the women if they could just kidnap anyone and bring them instead of just girls?"
"Probably something more sinister at hand..Something we're probably not acknowledging or aware of yet. Regardless I think this person should be stopped either way like you said."
"Of course, it's like I said in lots of nations assassins work is legal. This is absolutely worth doing. Not only because they could have Cynil, but also the cash reward must be crazy high…"
"So that's what you want? You want the money? That's what you're after?"
The waiter ended up bringing Tengoku a coffee. He tipped him a small hundred dollar bill before looking back at her.
"Is that what you truly care about?"
Yuki nodded her head no, obviously she was after Cynil but in her regular daily life it was something more…
"No, I think it's the legal way to vent your frustrations without having to murder someone in cold blood. There's plenty of people that do it just like me and there's plenty of others that see it as a disgusting profession."
"So you do it for stress relief? Huh. That's pretty interesting. I understand. That's what's most important. The relief of your stress. I would hate to see you moping around. Plus this isn't an easy time for us, we're changing..a lot."
"Who isn't changing Tengoku?? We were kids just about five years ago so it's really nothing to any of us at this point. Our parents fought for their lives fifteen years ago so honestly not that long in the grand scheme of things."
"I mean that we're changing because we're teenagers. Of course everybody is changing. That's obvious. But this is the time we're we are changing the most."
"Yeah and the fact the world's so quiet… it's almost unsettling to be honest. It's all we know yet other places are fighting like crazy for power."
"With the attack the news says it may happen soon. That's why I want to become stronger. I'm living everyday like it's my last..because tomorrow could be the last day of this peace."
"That's kind of ridiculous though, living everyday likes it's your last means you won't notice the smaller things in life. I take things slow to see those great things."
"The two aren't mutually exclusive to me. You can appreciate the little things while caring about living like it's your last…I don't see the long game..I don't have a lot of patience with things.."
Yuki nodded, understanding his position as her own was quite similar but also a little different.
"We have to find out if we can get more information on this serial killer…"
"I could take you with me back to my home town and you could speak to my family. We could have lunch and dinner together too and on top of that…I could see about getting some work from my parents for the both of us. We'll make some extra cash, be able to work and find your sister."
"That wouldn't be bad for me honestly, but I just want to be able to get the information on Cynil and get to the bottom of this shit now. Unfortunately you'll be getting no more dates out of me."
"Understandable. No work. Find your sister. Got it."
"Exactly. I'll claim the bounty for that murderer and find Cynil then there's just what's left…"
"What exactly is left?"
"Finishing up my current contracts and finding out what I can do from there for work. You definitely influenced me a little bit with your words" Yuki giggled at her comment.
"You mean to finish out your work with what I said? I see. I don't necessarily want to get in the way of that..for safety reasons..and out of respect."
"Of course. You should know Shibuya contracts are something you can't default on, I'm going to have to finish them out or face the consequences…"
"I think i'd rather you kill one million people than face the inner workings of that nation. That would break my heart..it's a fate far worse than death."
"The cybernetic enhancements are something else though, people without a mana affinity using natural technology to rival mana users. I admire it a little bit honestly."
"It doesn't personally impress me. It feels rather cheap. There is no honor in mimicking something for the purpose of surpassing it."
"In adversity, humanity always seems to find a way… even those without the use of mana. It's admirable, if only it didn't come from that cesspool of a place we call Shibuya then it would honestly be humanity's greatest modern invention."
"Some people are meant to fight and some aren't. The usage of the enhancements, outside of maybe medicinal use..has zero benefit. In fact, all that it does is encourage people to go the easier route when it comes to understanding what mana actually is. It grosses me out, i'd even imply that it'll ruin humanity most likely."
"Nah see that's where you're wrong, humanity will always improve and grow as technology grows… these could really bring the world to a better understanding under the right people."
"I just don't see what that future looks like..but we can agree to continue moving forward…that's something we agree with.."
"I guess so huh… so…where should we be looking first then? I mean we only got a serial killer and that's about it…"
"My father told me she operates in santa monica..and occasionally on the outside of the nations in the outskirts..So if we're going we should start there."
"That's fine with me, I think it would be best to hit the borderlands first, there is bandits out there so we should be careful…"
Tengoku stood up and held his hand out to Yuki, an attempt to help her up.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"You know…I guess so…" Yuki stood up after grabbing his hand, she looked around and summoned her holstered pistols onto her hips.
"I'm ready whenever you are…"
Tengoku and Yuki left out the restaurant, heading towards the outskirts of the nations that made up the world.