Iced tea with milk

"Why did you ask if I was religious?" Hikaru asked a bit confused.

"I heard its rude to say god bless you if you weren't religious but to people who believed in god then saying it would be correct."

"... I'm not religious."

"Then bless you."

"Thank you." Hikaru's manners forced him to say it.

"Someone must be talking or thinking about you~"

"I don't believe in that either."

"Then what do you believe in?" Junpei asked.

"Empirical data. Concrete evidence. Replicable results. Science."

"Yea, I don't get that stuff at all." Junpei shrugged.

"Hikaru," Hiromi called.

"Hm," Hikaru uttered for her to continue.

"Do you get hay fever?"

"No."

Hiromi could think of someone who was thinking about Hikaru. However, she had no ill feelings towards her little sister.

The taxi finally reached its destination. They all got off and followed Hikaru's lead to his front door. The app automatically takes the payment once a taxi is hired. Hikaru wasn't worried about money since he looted all the cash from the people he killed.

The cash that was absorbed, were automatically deconstructed within his body. When he manufactured them, they weren't the same as the original. It was the same when he was cloning Aimi. They were cheap counterfeits.

The fake money was better than play money but worse than the professional counterfeits. He found that most small and big businesses couldn't tell the difference when he was paying the clerk. Only a couple of times they would call him out for it. Of course, he was wearing another person's face at the time. It would be a nuisance if the police were looking for him.

He found that the current quality only worked in 1 out of 10 banks. The real money was put into his bank accounts since they passed their detection system while the counterfeit money was tested in person.

He had bought the Koala March earlier with the counterfeit money. So, buying Hanae some confectionary didn't cost him anything except for time.

Hiromi was eager to see the inside of Hikaru's house even though the outside seemed like a regular modern house. She had lived in an old house that had been renovated to look new, so the place looked half old and half modern.

Her real motivation was that she wanted to see the place that Hikaru spent his life in and what his bedroom looked like. What his belongings were and the feel of his bed...

Hikaru inserted the keys to the house. It was a little stuck and he had to jiggle it to open the door. Once he opened it, he gazed at the teeth of the key.

It was a replica he made. It was the fourth copy and was the first one that worked. The key itself was much simpler to copy than the security pattern of paper money.

He had already absorbed over a hundred notes and still had difficulty making quality counterfeit. Although he could perfect it, he was only testing the least important of his abilities. He didn't have the time for it.

The solution was to absorb and analyse more of the original material.

Hikaru turned around and looked at the two.

"Would any of you like a drink?"

"No."

"Yes."

"We have iced tea, coffee, milk or orange juice." Hikaru listed them to Hiromi.

"Iced tea with milk."

Hikaru blinked. He was expecting both of them to say no but what surprised him was Hiromi's blend of the drinks.

He went to the fridge and pulled out both bottles. He filled a mug with mostly original jasmine iced tea and then added a shard of milk. Hiromi excitedly came over and took the mug from his hands.

"Restroom is at the end of that corridor" Hikaru pointed to the corridor behind the staircase and then walked up the stairs. Junpei glanced at Hiromi who took a sip of the drink. She smiled with glee after swallowing.

Junpei followed behind Hikaru while Hiromi stood there for a moment before chasing after them. She was happy about drinking the iced tea that Hikaru made and touched, more so than the taste itself.

Hikaru waited for Hiromi to enter his bedroom before shutting the door.

"Before we begin, I'd like to address a couple of things. So, are you all okay with our names?"

Typically, strangers wouldn't begin to start using their first names which were reserved for friends that were much closer than acquaintances. Also, suffixes like san, sama, etc. were added at the end of the name out of respect for the person's social position and relationship to another. It would be impolite to call someone by their first name when the other person hasn't permitted it.

"Yes, please. Politeness doesn't mean a thing when the world's going to end."

"I'll call you whatever you want my lord," Hiromi said reverently

"I don't feel comfortable until I lead an army or something so please save my lord for later," Hikaru complained.

"As you wish, Hikaru-sama."

Since Hikaru didn't react, Hiromi assumed it was okay to do so.

"Next, did you both feel that?"

"!"

"!"

"I think..." Hiromi said in confusion.

"My arm just then..." Junpei said as he squinted at his arm. "Did you..."

"Yes, I touched both of you just now with the smallest tendril I could make. Look here."

Hikaru grew a tiny tendril from his palm and extracted the flesh from it until it was as thin as a strand of hair. He then removed the pigments from it so that it became albino white. The tendril was so thin and white that it was similar to an invisible razor floss that can amputate limbs and slice people to pieces.

Both of them looked at Hikaru's palm in shock.

'Is this Hikaru's ability?' They both thought.

"Earlier, I had touched the taxi driver with this and he didn't notice. I found out that he was human."

"I see..." Junpei cupped his chin while in thought.