Multiversal: The Shop

I'm back, as promised now.

Hand over the stones!

Cause it's monday.

—

I stared at the woman who shouldn't be here at all, to say I was surprised was an understatement.

Shiraori, who noticed the intense look on my face couldn't help but avoid it with a shy look, or at least in my perspective.

As in reality her face barely changed at all, she's mostly stoic, but I know that she was internally screaming inside.

For those who aren't familiar with her, they would think that she's cold and rarely talks at all, when in reality she doesn't know how to properly communicate with another living being.

"Surprised aren't you?" D words managed to snap me out of it.

"D, why the hell is she here?" I blurted without a filter and ended up making it sound harsher than it should be.

Naturally, Shiraori heard it, and her stoic face cramped for a bit, showing a hurt look. I could even see a slight trembling in her hands but it quickly disappeared as if it was never there and became more stoic, like she was imitating a statue.

I instinctively felt it; she didn't want to be here anymore, and that's why, before the misunderstanding could escalate, I quickly reassured her. "Wait, no, I didn't mean to sound harsh; forgive me if I sound like I'm telling you that you're unwelcome; I'm not angry, well at least not at you."

I glared at the culprit of this mess, to which she replied. "Tehee~!"

As if to sound cute, however, in my perspective, it was far from cute; instead, it only made my glare sharper than it was.

If it was anyone else, they would no doubt find her adorable, but I wasn't just 'anyone' as I know her from inside and outside.

I know that I couldn't control her, as she's the very definition of a wildcard, but despite how I acted like an asshole to her and the fact that she deserved that treatment, however, I'm also thankful that she doesn't go into a killing spree which she's totally capable of.

That's why I could respect that, even if she's doing it out of selflessness and not because of benevolence.

That's why she was considered 'safe' although it's a loose term, as she's still extremely dangerous, even more so than the majority of the Dead Apostle Ancestors.

But unlike the majority of the ancestors, she doesn't kill, drink blood, or simply destroy human lives because they find it amusing.

As she treats this world as a vacation spot, and as a tourist, she doesn't want to harm the planet as it would take the fun out of it.

This is the only reason why my sister and the entire clocktower weren't sending any enforcers to try and eliminate D, pointless as it was.

Because she's harmless compared to the rest of her kind, and yes. She is now categorized as an ancestor although unofficially.

That's why the clocktower and its enforcers would rather use their manpower to track other ancestors who caused more harm to humanity like a plague than look for a pointless conflict that doesn't really help at all, as they would only gain another powerful enemy for no reason which was no brainer.

At least that's the situation with the Clocktower, but the church is different as those fanatics wanted to eliminate all supernatural, which also includes magi on the list.

If they find out about D, there's no doubt they would send their executors to destroy her; even if they know how powerful she is, it wouldn't stop them; like I said, fanatics, a lot of them are.

But I'm getting off track, I let out a sigh as I can't really find the energy to get angry at her as she didn't cause any destruction.

"Look, I really don't understand why I'm doing this, as I'm halfway giving up trying to understand you; I just hope whatever your scheming is doesn't harm anyone else," I said while looking at her, D smirked and confidently answered.

"Of course, it won't harm anyone else. But I can't promise the same thing for you though." 

D boldly admitted that she is scheming something, which isn't a surprise, but I'm quite worried about the part where I am not included in the list of being unharmed.

But I'm probably going to be fine, while people die when they get killed.

I'm different because if I die, it doesn't mean I'm dead.

As I can return by death at will.

This means if I die, I won't die.

Just because I'm dead it doesn't mean I'm dying.

Alright, I should stop this line of thought as I'm getting infected by my brother-in-law's stupid quotes.

"That's fine." Then I shifted my attention back to D's fragment soul, who had calmed down after I cleared the misunderstanding between us.

"As for you, well…I'm not sure why D brought you here, but please tell me if it's against your will. Because I will help you go back to your world." I'm not quite sure if she treated the Earth as her home planet to start with. However, I'm sure that at this point, she considered the other world as home.

After all, she spent the majority of her life there compared to a measly month's worth of time on earth.

Not to mention, she isn't exactly living well as she was nothing more than a pet spider in our classroom, knowing that doesn't really help.

If that was me, I wouldn't think of this world as my world either.

"I…" Her soft, beautiful voice came out from her mouth, but rather than continuing she paused and remained still.

I'm not saying anything anymore; if it was anyone else, it would feel awkward, but I know her well enough as she wasn't intentionally doing this thing.

That's why I have to use my [ Path To Victory ] unconventionally rather than using it to calculate the probability of my victory. I use it to calculate her facial expressions, and muscles to accurately understand her thoughts.

—

-Shiraori-

"I…." Shiraori couldn't continue her speech as she had already forgotten what to say at the moment.

It became unbearably awkward for her, and her anxiety was catching up, and she screams internally. 'Ahhh! Why do I always do this?! Why can't I reply normally? I can just communicate normally with Ariel! Why can't I do the same with him?! Now he will think of you as a weirdo! Good job! You just made a first bad impression!'

After so long, she finally met the guy who constantly appeared in her mind whenever she felt lonely or a constant reminder as to why she needed to survive.

But only for her to find out that her 'boyfriend' wasn't hers, to begin with, but even with that world-shattering revelation, she still longs for this man as despite not having any actual relationship with the guy, she still loved him very much.

Even knowing that her feelings for him weren't real, at least that was what she thought at first, but eventually, she begins to accept that those fake feelings eventually became real.

It was ironic really, but she doesn't mind as it's one of the very few things that makes her alive.

And now, their fateful meeting was happening, but she screwed it up by not saying anything; at this point, her skill of parallel thinking might be as well useless as she couldn't think of anything.

Amid her despair, the man she adores spoke. "I don't think you're a weirdo, nor did you make a bad impression."

'Eh? Did he just..?' Shiraori's eyes widened.

"Yeah, I did." As if to confirm her initial suspicion, this time she was definitely more anxious than before.

'He can read minds?! How! It shouldn't be possible considering I have a skill that prevents any mental skills?!'

"I think you're misunderstanding something; I haven't read your mind, as I'm only speculating about what you were thinking; what I'm doing is more of a cold reading than reading your mind," Alexander said.

'What! That's possible?' Her eyes widened, it's something that she never thought about. From his words, he said that he wasn't reading her mind, which made her significantly calm down.

Shiraori knew that it wasn't a lie, or else she would definitely know that he was trying to read her mind.

It was no wonder why her mental blocks weren't warning her from any sort of mind-reading abilities. Instead, he was reading her thoughts through her body.

She doesn't know what to think about that; however, if it was him, then she wouldn't mind his ogling.

Oh, she wasn't a stranger to lecherous looks which normally doesn't bother her, but thanks to a certain incident, she became more conscious of the leering looks of men and women.

That's right, it's not only men. Just because they're girls it doesn't mean they are an exception.

"Well, it's normally impossible, but thanks to a certain skill, it's possible, although I could accurately read your surface thoughts but not the inner core of it." Which was honestly a relief to hear or else she'd be really worried.

No one else wanted their thoughts to be broadcasted, even she wasn't an exception.

'Then, can you understand me?'

"Yeah, I do." He nodded.

What a fascinating skill; either way, that's for her to think about later, but right now, she could finally have a proper conversation with him!

—

It's kinda hard to write this chapter. I don't know why, but it took me longer than it should.

Support me on [email protected], even if it's just for a month I'd be grateful.

[email protected]/charlottes143