Chapter 12: Abilities Come in Different Forms (3)
The next act to follow the red-nosed humorist was a pair of acrobats of darker skin, a brother and sister as my neighbor explained. The waitress soon brought dessert for me, more snacks for Natal, and a fruit platter with a glass of wine for Eris. Our bad example seemed to be contagious.
I watched the acrobats' performance without much interest. After finishing their balancing act, the pair, while being commented on by the humorist, who was catching up with emotions with stories about the "deadly number" and cruel southern customs, began to walk on their hands among daggers placed blades up.
To be honest, the female acrobat's statuesque figure appealed to me the most in the performance. Of course, she was far from Eris, like most of the girls from the Base, but her bright makeup, semi-transparent attire, and her flexible athletic body inadvertently drew my gaze. Unfortunately, the performance itself was quite dull.
However, the acrobats were well received by the unspoiled audience. When they moved from the handstand to the position to the "bridge" stand right among the blades sticking up, and then, each holding a dagger in both hands, synchronously moved to the standing position, simultaneously throwing their weapons at a target located a few meters away from them, the audience began to applaud in unison. The box with which the boy ran between the tables was quickly filled with coins and small bills.
I couldn't help but snort.
“Did you not enjoy Ali and Padmé's performance?” Eris asked, surprised. She seemed to have enjoyed the act herself, judging by her sparkling eyes.
“I won't say anything about the acrobatics; they did well there,” I shrugged, “but the dagger act wasn't great.” Natal nodded in agreement. “Okay, the blades were dull,” and I noticed that all the knives, except the ones thrown at the target, were blunt. “But throwing knives at a stationary target a few meters away...” I disdainfully snorted. “Anyone can do that.” To back up my words, I took a fork from Eris and, assessing its balance, swiftly sent it into the target. “Something like this,” I said to the startled neighbor, noticing that my throw was a little unsuccessful. “A real target should move, deflect your strikes, or send counter-gifts. Isn't that right, Natal?”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed how another one joined my fork, as well as a table knife, which plunged into the target under the bewildered gaze of the acrobat, who began to look around. It was Kay who threw his instruments with two hands. His projectiles had entered perfectly in the center, parallel to each other. The guy proudly puffed up and looked at me with superiority. I nodded briefly, acknowledging defeat. What could I do? I had always preferred to improve my defense against projectiles rather than throwing them.
“That's right,” Natal nodded, “do you remember that game too, Kurome?”
“Exactly,” — I smiled, recalling a couple of fun moments during one of the active training games.
“What game are you talking about?” Eris asked, curious.
“We took dull knives, shurikens, and such, and we threw them at each other. You could just throw them, or you could take the weapon and defend yourself with it. Whoever got hit in a vital spot or several times, or those who ran out of weapons, were considered eliminated. It was quite fun.” Given that only a few had decent reinforcing techniques back then, the projectiles were only different from real ones in terms of blunted tips. We threw them as hard as we could, making hits not only hurtful but also painful. But that added to the excitement.
“Do you remember when Remus mistook the dull knives for sharp ones and hit Lex in the leg?” Natal smiled a little sadly.
It seemed that I wasn't the only one remembering a similarly unlucky girl. The initial groups were formed based on the members' own preferences and were very close-knit. It was no wonder that not only I had been unable to forget the badly wounded friend and comrade who had somehow been brought to the Base only to be mercilessly killed. "A useless assassin must die," we all remembered those words.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
"Yeah!" I replied, making sure dark thoughts didn't show on my face. "After that, he chased that fool around the hall with the same knife," I laughed, remembering the scene. A tall boy, with a face twisted in anger and fear, cursing awkwardly and ignoring the blood running down the inside of his leg, chased a fleeing girl who was trying to apologize on the run. "Sometimes I thought Remus was only pretending to be so forgetful and clumsy and that it was all deliberate, and that all these accidents were not accidental."
"Haha, that would explain a lot," Natal responded, taking a sip of the burgundy liquid.
"I'm telling you the truth!" I nodded with an exaggeratedly serious expression. "Thanks to her, our group had to clean up the stage with dummies just as often as all the others combined. What else is it if not sadism? After those training sessions, I can handle a bucket and a rag just as well as a sword now! I've got a side specialty in cleaning. I can even place an ad in the newspaper: 'Quickly and efficiently remove garbage and dirt from your home'!" I added with a smirk.
Kei joined us, throwing in a jest from his place. — "The hardest part is not accidentally removing the owners along with the trash, by habit," — he commented, amidst Akira's chuckles.
"Not for long did his grudge last," I thought to myself. "But what am I thinking? It's Kei! He'll even crack jokes about dying."
"Um, what are you laughing about?" the now quieter Eris spoke up.
"Just an old joke about cleaning up the training dummies. Don't pay it any mind," I said.
Soon a new artist appeared on the stage, a tall, broad-shouldered athlete, and Eris began to talk about him. Taking a sip of wine, the blonde continued to share information about the performers and their acts, sprinkling it all with gossip, funny stories, and additional details.
Gradually, the conversation turned to the strength of spirit warriors. The cheerful girl was very curious about how the gifted surpassed ordinary people physically. For some reason, she didn't believe me when I honestly told her that I was significantly stronger than the performing athlete. She even tried to goad me into competing with him. I was momentarily taken aback. Judging by her sparkling eyes and mischievous smile, the blonde wanted to tease me.
"Ugh!" playing along, I let out a heavy sigh. "You're living your life like a normal creature of the Darkness, spilling rivers of blood, sowing terror and death... and then, instead of trembling in fear, you're offered a test of strength against a circus strongman. How low have I fallen! And what's next? Are we going to dress up as friendly animals and perform at a children's morning show?"
From Natal and the rest of the table, chuckles and snickers could be heard.
"I think Akira and Babe wouldn't mind," the blonde smiled.
"I don't doubt it," I replied, shrugging slightly. Both Akira and the healthy guy loved children. However, unlike Akira, Babe didn't aspire to cuddle anyone, portraying himself as a parent. The guy preferred charity, consistently spending his meager allowance on gifts for the less fortunate. An unusual hobby for an assassin. "I just doubt that my suggestion to play with dolls would be appreciated by the little ones," I added, feeling disapproval from the others, except for Kay Lee, who grinned and just gave me a thumbs-up.
Indeed, it wasn't a very successful remark. While I enjoyed killing, I had no taste for non-combatant slaughter. If the "evil necromancer" didn't really enjoy cutting down women and children, it was even less inspiring for the others. And humor on this topic was no exception. Only our joker, as befits a proper killer, did not feel any pity for any goals. In this respect, we were similar, but after a part of the Earthman's personality awoke, such "wit" began to jar on me myself.
Taking a large sip, I looked at the ruby liquid in my glass.
Almost like blood...
"I think you're talking nonsense about yourself! You're sweet, kind, strong, and definitely a heroine who saved everyone, not a creature of the Darkness!" the blonde said and moved her chair closer to me, hugging me with one hand.
"It's nice," feeling the girl's hand on my shoulder and inhaling the delicate, flowery scent of her perfume, I felt lighter and warmer in my heart. I returned the hug.
"And I also think you would look great in a kitten costume," the blushing blonde giggled. "And we can dress Natal as a lion," she said, smiling at the bewildered guy.
"I don't even want to know what ways her thoughts went to generate this idea," I thought, giving a sidelong glance at my bewildered friend, who was looking at me with some envy. "Uh, no! Don't open your mouth to someone else's kawai! Look for your girlfriend!" I stuck my tongue out at Natal. Although, judging by the interested views of Eris towards my "such a kind and good" friend, it's me who will have to look for my girlfriend.
"Uh, thanks, I guess," the blond responded sheepishly.
As always, Kei Li couldn't resist tossing a couple of questionable jokes our way, but after Akira delivered a powerful elbow jab to his side, he settled down.
"Eris, lay off the wine," I said. "You still have a performance ahead, and Hunter is already giving us the evil eye."
"Oh, come on. But seriously, old man Hunter is kind and won't scold you. Now, if my father, hee-hee, saw this debauchery, we'd be in big trouble," her lips formed a wry smile, and her voice took on a sadder tone. "I feel like I didn't escape from a family home but rather a prison. If it weren't for the library, music and singing lessons, I don't even know what would have happened to me," the blond let out a quiet sigh. But soon her somber expression gave way to a bright smile. "But now, I'm happy! I'm happy to have escaped my father and to have met Uncle Hunter and a friend like you," her green eyes sparkled suspiciously. "And I can laugh, talk, and do whatever I want! Hugs!" She exclaimed cheerfully, getting up from her seat and hugging my friend and me. "Hee-hee, I always wanted to do that!"
"Yes, I'm glad I met you too, Eris."