Chapter Nine - [World: Mob Psycho 100]

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Pov - Lee

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What does the "truth" mean? To many, it means what they want to hear. To others, it means speaking of events as we perceive them to have happened. However, the small lies we tell each other every day can warp this perception. Everyone has their own "truth" and just because you speak facts doesn't mean they believe it's true.

"So, go ahead, Lee." Tsuyu says with a sultry glance. She stares deeply into my eyes as if she were trying to read my mind. "Tell me who sent you."

She gently caresses my neck with her knife. It's just a simple kitchen knife, but its edge is still sharp enough to end my life.

"You want to know the truth?"

She nods.

"You wouldn't believe me."

A soft chuckle slips from her lips. She looks down at me with a smile that says I have no idea what I'm talking about.

"Foolish little Lee, if that even is your real name," she says, casually flicking my hair with her free hand. "The world is bigger than you know, and in the darkest depths of it, there are things you would not believe are real."

What?

"I.. what are you talking about?" And here I thought maybe we could talk. She's obviously far crazier than I thought.

"The hidden world- the world of twilight. Have you heard of it?"

...

"No, I can see it in your eyes," she says and shakes her head. "Then, let me show you how I've survived for so long."

She lets go of the knife, but it continues to sit in place. Wait, that's-

"I've killed people, I've killed monsters, but the most difficult prey to kill were psychics."

She raises a hand. From below the bed, dozens of knives slowly rise up. They hover above the bed, entrapping the two of us in a maze of sharpened blades. One wrong move and they'll all come falling down, cutting us to ribbons. Whatever happens now, I can't just sit around and do nothing.

I bring up the golden energy within my body. Slowly, but surely, it takes the shape of a small sheet just above me. Not a single scrap of my flesh is left unguarded. If the worst comes to be, then I can hopefully knock all of them away in one fell swoop.

"Men who could bend steel with their mind, women who could pop your heart like a balloon with just a look," she whispers the words like someone reading from a script. "They relied far too much on those powers of theirs, so when my blade came down, they might as well have been toddlers in their cribs."

"I know about the psychics," I say slowly. If it's the truth she wants to hear, then I'll tell her as much.

"Your eyes don't lie," she says with a nod. "But if so, then why would they send you? Normal assassins can't touch me."

"That's because no one sent me." I hiss. "We met by coincidence!"

Silence envelops the room.

"The more of them I killed, the more I began to understand their powers. Eventually, I found myself able to do much the same as them." And she's just ignoring me?! What?! "I wonder, maybe they're trying to use the very same weakness I took advantage of to kill me?"

The knives draw closer, cutting off even the tiniest chances of escape.

"Final chance," Tsuyu says with a disappointed sigh. "Tell me who sent you. Are they in Japan?"

There's no point. She's not listening.

"I'm not from Japan," I grumble. "Hell, I'm not even from this world."

Do I really have to kill her? I... I don't want to. Ghosts are one thing, but she's a living breathing human being. My hands are trembling at the thought.

"Please... please don't."

If I didn't have these powers and If I was just a normal person, would I even be considering this? Would I hesitate? Is it not because I have a safety net that I can choose? A life taken in panic, fear, and desperation seems so much easier to carry. But now? It would be as simple as clenching my fist.

"Not from this world?" Tsuyu blinks and slowly pulls away from me. Her naked body is once again on display, though the shadows cover most of the important bits. This is no time to be "feeling" anything, but my body clearly doesn't understand that. I'm a growing, healthy boy!

"Oh my~" Tsuyu giggles as she looks down at me. "You must be the best liar in the world." One of the knives floats into her waiting hand. "Either that, or you truly believe what you're saying."

"Is it really that ludicrous?" I counter. "Here you are, lifting knives with your mind. Ghosts are real. Can you seriously tell me it's impossible for other worlds to exist?"

This gives her pause. She blinks and furrows her brow.

"Ghosts, huh?" the knives slowly start to move away. She blows a sigh. "Lee, I'm tired. Tired of all the running. Tired of constantly having to watch my back."

Weary eyes stare down at me, cutting through the darkness.

"Another world, one where I can escape... it all sounds like a dream come true..."

Escape?

"It's the perfect bait to make me drop my guard."

"I'm not lying!"

She smiles.

"You don't know how much I want that to be true." she takes a small breath. "So, please prove it to me."

Prove it? how the hell am I going to do that?!

"How?!"

She stares at me wordlessly. With a blink, Tsuyu shrugs.

"I don't know." She smiles wryly. "But, If you're telling the truth. If you can help me, then I'll make it worth your while."

She leans back down, pressing her valuations body against mine. Her heartbeat drums against my chest and her warmth slowly washes over me.

"At this point, I'm ready to believe you, Lee. Anything to get away from this. So, please prove it to me."

Prove it to her? If she wanted proof, then I'd show her proof.

I squirmed under her, trying to do my best to push her off. The knives looming above me definitely hampered the attempt. I stopped the second they moved closer.

"Come with me and I'll show-"

Tsuyu's many knives draw even closer. The smile on her face faltered and she blew a sigh.

"That's too risky." She shook her head. "You could be leading me into a trap."

"It's the only way I can prove it. How else do you think I'd be able to?!" Anger started to seep into my words. She was so damned stubborn!

The woman looked down at me, a tiny hint of disappointment in her gaze.

"I... I don't really know."

She was an idiot.

"I didn't actually expect you to stick so closely to this story of yours." There was a hint of desperate hope in her eyes. It was one of the few things stopping me from just breaking her arms with my powers.

...

"Alright. I think I have an idea."

"Oh?" A small smile returned to her lips. "And what is that?"

I reached out, twisting Fim's energy. He'd been silent until now, watching. And then he finally spoke.

"She seems quite mentally unstable."

His words acted as the signal for my attack. With a thought, my vectors slammed into her body. She was flung across the room, crashing into a wall and being held there with enough force to keep stopping her from moving. Of course, the floating knives above me instantly came down. A normal person would have been skewered. There would be no surviving that.

Thankfully, ever since Fim came into my life I've been anything but normal. I summoned a "bubble" of Fim's energy and surrounded myself with it. Unfortunately, the end result was more of an explosion than what I had hoped. The bed was ripped to pieces, but the knives were likewise tossed aside. It might not have been what I was aiming for, but it worked.

"So you-"

I don't give her a moment to talk.

"Stop. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

Her knives rose once more and launched themselves at me.

No more!

This time, I had been prepared. The small "bubbles" of energy I had placed around the sharp weapons compressed. Though speeding balls of metal were still painful, they were far from deadly. Still, I made sure to launch them away with another wave of force.

I stepped closer to Tsuyu. She was struggling, desperately trying to worm her way out out of the invisible force's grip. It was incredibly difficult to hold her down without accidentally snapping her wrists like twigs. I had to constantly push a force against her libs otherwise she'd break her restraints. It was surprising that I was able to stop all the knives when most of my focus was on her.

I stepped closer.

"Look, I'll prove it to you, just follow-"

"Dodge!"

She pursed her lips and spat something at me. It shimmered in the dim light of the room's candles. It was only thanks to Fim's warning that I managed to evade the tiny needle. Of course, I wasn't just going to assume the attack was over. I snapped my eyes around and saw it flying through the air, right back at me.

Son of a-

Like the knives, I crushed it into a tiny ball. This one, however, still hit my cheek. It was too small- too fast to push it away. Thankfully it did little more than leave a small bump.

"Can you please STOP!?"

The building rumbled as I roared.

"IF I WANTED YOU DEAD YOU'D BE DEAD!!"

All the rage and frustration that had been building up within me finally exploded. I blew up and lashed out, smashing a "fist" of energy against her head. It wasn't much force, but it was enough to knock her head back against the wall. A loud "bang" echoed through the room and my heart leapt into my throat.

Stil...

I wasn't taking any chances.

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After the anger wore off, that's when guilt came. Was she ok? I didn't want to kill anyone!

Though I was scared she might suddenly jump up and bite my throat out or something, I still got closer and checked to make sure she was still breathing. There was a pulse and her breath did come out, if somewhat slowly.

"I'd suggest turning her head three hundred and sixty degrees to make sure she won't try and take your life when you're distracted."

Fim's words were casual and without a care in the world. He spoke of killing her as if he were telling me that the sky was blue.

"I'm not going to kill her," I said with a sigh. "She's crazy, that's for sure, but the look in her eyes..."

It reminded me of myself. Tired and without purpose. Obviously, I wasn't crazy, but a part of me wondered if she was a glimpse of what I could have been.

I sighed and took a seat, focusing energy around her limbs.

"Maybe she'll be smart enough to see that I'm not trying to kill her when she wakes up?"

"It's a possibility, but she's just as likely to try and kill you the second her eyes open."

I hated that he was right...

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A few minutes passed and then she finally raised her head.

"I'm still alive," Tsuyu muttered, eyes glancing around the room before finally ending up on you. "Why?"

I sighed.

"I fucking told you I wasn't trying to kill you..." I hissed.

She blinked and then let out a dry laugh.

"Oh..."

"Oh? Oh?! You nearly skewered me with knives! I was half tempted to just fucking leave you there!"

The words, "you crazy bitch" did not roll off my tongue. I really did want to say them, though.

"Hmm, seems like I did."

...

Her eyes locked onto mine and a small, curious smile tugged at her lips. Amusement danced in her sharpened orbs.

"Why didn't you, then?"

"Isn't it fucking obvious?" I shot back with a snarl. My patience had all but run out and I just wanted to slap this crazy woman across her face.

Seriously?!

"Not really," Tsuyu said with a hesitant shrug. "It's entirely possible that you were waiting for others to come here. Maybe you wanted me alive?"

...

"No. I just didn't want to kill you, you idiot!" I roared, my raw throat cracking. This... this was just too much. She was like a stupid, stubborn child!

"I-I've never killed anyone in my life! I never even thought about doing that!" No normal person does! Maybe they get angry, but really contemplating murder was not normal!

"This whole thing was a stupid misunderstanding and it could have lead to one or both of us being killed!"

I took a ragged breath.

"You... you fucking remind me of myself," I said with barely restrained frustration. "Those eyes are so god-damned familiar."

"So you're saying you are an assassin, just one that never killed anyone?"

She had to be trying to distract me, right? I looked at her, but no, she wasn't moving or trying to escape at all. Maybe she was just messed up in the head. It took a certain kind of person to work as an assassin, after all.

"No! I'm saying that- that I could have turned out like you too." Obviously not the whole assassin part. "Our pain, our suffering... it can make us do horrible things. I... maybe I saw a bit of what I could have been in your eyes and that's why I followed you here."

A free bed was also somewhat tempting, but she really reminded me of a younger me. Lost and unsure what to do next.

"Look, before all this crazy shit went down, you seemed like a nice person," I said with a sigh. "When we spoke, I could feel that you really liked talking to another person. Maybe it was just an act, but  you really seemed to be enjoying yourself."

Maybe she couldn't even see that fact herself. They say that If you wear a mask for too long, you'll forget when it's on and when it's off. A life of constant running and hidding is not one I'd wish on anybody.

"I'm not from this world, so its problems aren't my problems," I said with a sigh. "These powers of mine are something new, and I honestly just came here to explore."

"I could tell you were the curious sort, yes," she said with a nod. "The kind of cat that would eventually get themselves killed by poking the wrong lion."

It was obvious what she was getting at.

"But I'm alive, aren't I? This little 'cat' took you down while trying to keep you alive."

She hummed a little tune and nodded.

"I guess you're right."

"Yeah... I don't know what your circumstances are or why you were an assassin in the first place."

It's obvious she doesn't want to be one now. She said all she wanted was to be left alone and to live a normal life, but that was impossible, wasn't it? Her sins would forever crawl behind her and weigh her down, as they should have. She didn't get to just ignore the things she'd done. She would remember.

She glanced away, eyes softening just a tad.

"What about you?" she asked. "What sort of world do you live in?"

Was she talking about my home, or something else? Whatever the case, I only had one answer to give.

"I won't say it's peaceful, but there are no psychics there. I'm the one and only."

Though that might change if she decided to come back with me. Honestly, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea, but leaving her here would mean her death. It would mean a life of constant fear and looking over her shoulder. She was good, but no one could last forever.

A small part of me refused to believe she was just a crazy psychopath. She had felt real in the short few moments we talked.

"After the stunt you pulled, I'm incredibly hesitant to take you back with me."

Her eyes narrowed into slits and I found that I had her full attention.

"I'm not planning on heading back just yet, so how about we make a deal?"

She took a moment to think. She tapped her fingers against the wall and tried to wiggle out of her restraints.

"What sort of deal?"

A small, relieved sigh left my lips. Was this really it? Had she finally decided to stop trying to kill me?

"I'm planning on staying in this world for a little bit, mostly to train my powers and explore."

She nodded.

"It was thanks to our constant chatter that I sort of learned Japanese, so how about you let me stay in this house with you?"

She blinked.

"You would trust the person who drugged and then tried to kill you?"

"No," I said blankly. "I'd be an idiot to just assume you wouldn't try anything."

"Then why?"

"Because when I look at you, I see a cornered animal that's too afraid to ask for help. You bite at everything and everyone assuming that they're out to hurt you."

Her silence was telling.

"Let me stay here, and maybe by the time I decide to leave I might change my mind about taking you along with me."

It wasn't a promise to bring her back and she knew that.

"And that's all?"

"That's all." I nodded, shoulders falling like dead weights.

Tsuyu hummed for a second before slipping out of her restraints as if they weren't there. I blinked and then she was standing up as if nothing had happened. When-

"Alright, I accept your offer," she said and held out her hand. "But, know that if you're lying to me, there's nothing in this world that'll keep me from finding you."

I chuckled, holding back all the anger, frustration, and exhaustion inside me.

"You can try to find me, but I'd be in another world."

I stood and gripped her hand, eyes constantly watching for any sort of sneak attack.

She smiled and then pulled away.

"It seems my bed's been destroyed," she said softly. "Would you mind sharing yours with me?"

I almost smashed my face against the nearby wall.

Nothing had changed. She was still crazy.

But at least, she wasn't trying to kill me.

=====

A groan left my lips as I tossed and turned.

"Are you certain it was wise to turn down her off?" Fim floated just a bit above my face, his head tilted slightly to the left. "As a human, isn't it in your interest to accept those sorts of advances."

"Fim, do you really think It would be wise to sleep with the person that just tried to kill me?" I shot back with a growl. It was the middle of the night, and only his voice and the sound of water striking the nearby window could be heard.

"She seemed to have agreed not to do that, right?"

I blew a sigh and rolled my eyes. If only people were that simple.

"Yeah, but she could have been lying. Frankly, I don't trust her." There were way too many ways she could just screw me over. A knife in the back was the most direct, but not the only choice.

"That is a possibility," the godling said with a curious hum. "I suppose I'll have to wait to see how humans perform their mating rituals."

...

"Really? If I show you, would you stop talking about this?"

"That would be wonderful!"

"Alright, then I'll just... do that when we get back home."

Sometimes, I wondered If I actually did go insane- like, fully broke my mind and everything was just a very vivid hallucination. Seriously, what kind of situation was this?

"Anyways, I'm going to try and get some sleep. Let me know if she tries to sneak up on me."

Fim nodded and I slowly shut my eyes. The sound of the small storm outside was soothing and before long, the sweet embrace of unconsciousness took me.

I awoke to the sizzling and popping of something. The salty scent in the air roused my addled mind and I got up, letting out a tired groan. My stomach rumbled and I brushed the sleep from my eyes. They burned, causing me to miss a step and slam my shin against the glass table by the couch.

"Gahhh!" a pained roar left my lips. "Son of a bitch!"

I hopped up and down on my good leg, cursing as the pain began to fade. A burst of soft, amused laughter came from my left. The kitchen?

Wincing, I limped towards it.

"Are you making eggs?" I said cautiously.

Tsuyu gave me a soft nod and flipped them over.

"Would you like one or two?"

"None," I said with a huff. "Don't think I forgot what happened the last time I ate your cooking."

Her smile turned upside down and she gave a small pout.

"Please. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

"Really? Cause I think that's what I was saying to you last night."

"Oh, my~ I didn't know you were into that sort of extreme stuff~"

...

She was a real piece of work.

"And what's with the get-up?" I motioned to her dress. "It's as if you lost like eight years."

"You do know how to please a lady~"

Was this how it felt to have an annoying, crazy older sister?

"But, since you're so interested, this young lady will reveal her secrets," she said and turned off the stove, quickly snatching some pepper and salt. Those eggs of hers looked mighty inviting, but no. I wouldn't be touching her food at all.

"You see, I wear all sorts of makeup and disguise to blend in."

"Make sense," I said with a nod. "People are looking for a young, crazy assassin, not an old one."

"Oh my, oh my~ Are you sure you wouldn't like to try what I have to offer? With compliments like that, I don't know If I can hold out for long~"

Yeah, right. I might have been a super hormonal teenager, and my cheeks were probably reflecting that, but I wasn't an idiot. I cleared my throat and looked away.

"No thanks. I think I'll have take-out."

What would be a nice, traditional Japanese food I could try? Ramen? Yeah, that might work. There was only one problem...

"Can I borrow some of your money?"

Her eyes sparkled mischievously.

"I'm afraid you'll have to work for it~ But don't worry, I know just the job you can fill for m-"

"I could always just go out and sell something. But, I think this is a great opportunity for you to try worm your way into my good graces."

I said with a smile. She knew what I meant and the playful smile on her face dropped into a slightly annoyed one. Was that just another act? She was an incredibly dangerous assassin, so I wouldn't be surprised.

"Fine~ Here's some of my change," she said and then dug out a few notes. I didn't know if this was enough to actually buy anything, but I'd figure it out.

"So, what do you plan to do today?" she asked me suddenly.

I shrugged.

"I guess I'll try and look around the town, maybe hunt down a ghost or two."

"A... ghost?" she asked hesitantly.

What? Did she never meet one? Now that was something I couldn't believe. She was a psychic assassin or was she a psychic psychic assassin? Terminology was weird. Anyways, she'd have had to meet one at some point, right?

"What? You wouldn't happen to know where one's at?"

A soft smile rolled across her lip. The glint in her eye was like that of a shark. Crafty bi-

"Why, yes I do," she answered softly. "Would you like me to show you where it is? It's not a very strong ghost, so you should be able to easily kill it if you wanted."

Once more, I was reminded that she was as smart as she was deadly. She'd looked to be in her mid-thirties before, but now, she looked like a young woman in her mid-twenties.

And she was still a real crazy bitch.