Chapter 23 : Molly

A/N: Here's last chapter! Thanks for waiting! Keep the stones coming guys, I'm really thankful.

And thx for everyone, I saw your answers in the poll. Well, the book is 100% harem (was like that from the start, just look up the tags).

For the people who are worried, each harem members will have a development close to Rumi's (still she is my favorite, so I guess I'll still develop her more).

https://discord.gg/pRaqNADp7C

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Kurai jumped out of the window and held onto its windowsill, even though he possessed the highest flat in his building, thanks to his parents, he still had to climb it to reach the rooftop.

Tonight, he planned to spy someone.

Someone, someone who even after all those years, still hide things from him.

It wasn't that he was hurt or anything, but he could see that whatever the person was hiding wasn't something healthy at all.

So now, he had to go back to his old ways, thankfully he already knew where her house was.

'It makes it faster.' Kurai thought while climbing the side of his building.

His strong grip allowed him to hold onto the wall firmly and continue his ascension steadily.

He didn't find anything wrong with him spying on his best friend, no, it could be said that what he was doing was for the greater good.

One 'evil' deed for a greater result, where the outcoming of the said result is something good, so good that it can overshadow the 'evil'. Or that's what he thought…

'Am I going out of my way for someone?' Now that he reached the rooftop he observed the city, Hiroshima.

It was night, the lights were shining beautifully, the scene looked serene and calm. Taking a deep breath, he could feel his soul cleansing, both literally and figuratively. The building was a bit higher than 100 meters after all.

'I still remember Gramps' words 'You should only care about yourself'...' He shook his head when his nostalgia hit him.

Looking down at his feet, where a hundred meter void was awaiting him, he pursued his thoughts, 'And where did that bring me? A life full of vengeance, a lonely life, a depraved life…?'

'Maybe I already started caring for people?' He asked himself, the images of Akio and Miku slowly overlapping in his mind.

"Heh." A low chuckle escaped his mouth. He then started to laugh derisively, thinking about his situation.

An assassin like himself changed more than he would think he had, maybe it was for the better…? He couldn't yet answer this question.

Stopping, his gaze focused on a building further down, "So what?!" He declared out loud, spreading his arms.

'Is life worth living? Living alone, emotionlessly, like a machine? Without people to care about? Or interact?' He stepped out of the building and let his body fall over the edge.

'I'm a human, and even when I was a kid back then all I ever wanted was to live normally!'

'So I'll do whatever I want, without the shadows of my past dictating me!' Diving freely he dangerously approached the other roof.

Just before reaching it, he kicked the air in front of him, enhancing his feet with lightning, making them more resistant, and thus negating a bit of his momentum so as to not crash onto the ground.

*Tac*

Instantly, when his feet made contact with the ground, he rolled forward to redirect the force from his knees to his whole body, like a gymnast, his landing was flawless.

This was the fruit of his training, slowly but surely he was implementing lightning into his moveset.

He developed quite a few attacks, but absolute speed remained his main focus, so that's why he looked forward to creating his own Shunko.

For now that's all he could do, his own remastered Shunpo with a bit of lightning was already enough, and way above what he needed.

He already started feeling his calves sore, showing him that he wasn't yet to Yoruichi's level. 'I should train more.'

Then he started to run, never stopping, and never missing a breath. If it wasn't for the impracticability of the terrain he was stepping on, he would've already passed 200 km/h, but he was still thankfully to his Shunpo.

It allowed him, only with a few kicks, to reorient his body, even on sharp turns. He had yet to reach realms of speed where he could form after-images, but to the naked eye of an average human, seeing a 9 years old kid moving like that didn't seem too far off from an after-image, or even an illusion.

Even though he did a slight detour to stretch his legs, the whole thing didn't take more than 5 minutes. He was now in the outskirts going to the centrum where her house was.

His cat-like agility even in his human form was impressive, it allowed him to jump from tree to tree with high dexterity, while maintaining a relatively high speed.

He could even lightly change his direction mid-air with a few kicks if he wanted to.

Settling on the top of a tree, keeping his focus on his equilibrium, he transformed to his second form, the half-human, half-cat. Each time he changed back to this form, he could feel his capacities enhancing further, his senses becoming better, and even his whole body felt more natural.

It was like in that manga Miku used to read and he saw once, where a big dude with black hair suddenly gained an impressive boost in strength after it started to become yellow.

'Though he needs to shout, while I don't.' He added, shaking his head from his straying thoughts.

'Anyway…' For the last few kilometers, and using his ability to the maximum, he resumed his sprint.

Attaining an even greater speed thanks to his now boosted physical abilities, he could feel his vision becoming more blurry. Instantly, he infused lightning into his eyes, and brain, since they were connected.

'Dang!'

His vision expanded, while he was running faster than the wind, he could see everything in front of him, every detail, every movement of the leaves. Even his brain was more focused, it filtered useless information and only left him with useful ones.

He was so quick that he already reached the center from the outskirts, after only 2 minutes.

He was so fast in this form, that he started to feel exhausted. 'Again… I need more training.'

Now that he reached the city, he stopped on a rooftop, and transformed directly into his cat form. Having jet black fur really became useful in those times.

Although he was slower, he didn't want to rush it just like a few moments ago, no, before he just wanted to try it out. Now he really 'started' his mission.

And there were people down in the streets too, so he had to move with more caution, 'Well… it's not like they can see me.'

His golden irises scanned everything and found the best way to reach his destination, jumping agilely from roof to roof, he went unhindered and unseen through the bustling city.

Finally he reached a lone house in the corner of the street, going down from the roof he landed on a tree, and discreetly walked on its branch to the closest window.

'Not this one!' He looked inside and saw a bathroom, his mission would become harder if he couldn't see her room from outside. The branch offered a peek into another room, he really hoped that it was the one.

'Ooof! Lucky me!'

Inside, a lone bunny girl in her pajamas was looking at her reflection in the mirror.

The sky was clear tonight, and the moonlight reflected beautifully on her white hair.

Finishing her girly stuff, Rumi turned back, locked her door and walked toward her bed. Her red eyes were glistening like rubies in the night thanks to the light coming off the moon.

She sighed, or that's what it looked to Kurai, who was observing the scene with squinted eyes. He was still in his cat form, his whole body was hidden to the sight thanks to the leaves and the darkness of the night.

'Now, I only need to wait for her to sleep.' He continued to look at her, she then went to bed directly and forced herself to close her eyes.

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...

It actually took quite a bit of time for Rumi to sleep, Kurai remained there lazily watching her, it's not that she wasn't tired or anything, but it looked to him like she was reluctant or 'afraid'?

Kurai didn't really know.

Although, it could be explained, such aversion to sleeping shouldn't be possible for a young girl like her.

'What could a 9 years old little girl possibly experience to react like that?' He asked himself, his black tail swaying over the edge of the branch.

Then for the first few minutes, Kurai could see that her sleep was quite normal, until her eyelids started to vibrate or when she started to grip the bed sheets.

He could also see her sleep-talk, or that's what it looked like to him, she was shaking her head from side to side on her cushion.

'..."No"?' He tried to decipher.

Trying to get closer, Kurai got up on his paws and walked delicately, reaching the very edge of the branch. He was now quite close to the window.

'In any case… It looks like a very bad nightmare…' He noted as he saw her sweating now.

'Doesn't her mom know? Ah… Nevermind she locked the door…'

All of a sudden, he saw her widening her eyes.

She sat up on her bed and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She was still in a sort of 'sleeping-daze' but her movements were done almost mechanically, as if… 'It's not the first time…'

She got up and went to her personal bathroom, turning on the light, she was blinded for a few seconds. Even Kurai had to lay lower to avoid the lights coming out of her window from illuminating him.

She washed her face for a bit to clear up, after that though, she kept both of her hands on the sink's edge while having her dead down.

From his position Kurai couldn't really see, but it looked to him like she was murmuring some sort of mantra on repeat.

She then hit her cheeks with both hands, leaving red handprints, and looked at herself in the mirror, with a smile. 'Weird…'

Although Kurai couldn't really understand why she was laughing, this smile seemed very genuine to him, as if it came from very deep inside her, or as if she was thinking about a very fond memory…

Unfortunately for both the rabbit and the cat, the night was very long, and neither of them slept.

Almost every hour, Rumi woke up from her nightmares and went to wash her face, she repeated this action each time. To Kurai who was watching all that, she looked like an old mine-worker from his time, someone who got so tired and annoyed that a menial task became a common hurdle on his path.

He wasn't really well versed in psychology, so he couldn't really understand what was going through her mind, that's also why he didn't sleep that night.

One thing that he learned from his reincarnation is that you can find anything on the internet.

So around 4 or 5 am, leaving the poor bunny girl 'sleeping', he went back to his flat.

This time, he didn't play around and got back directly, he even skipped his scheduled training. Even though he said that he won't ever skip one training session.

'Well, I can do it this morning." He thought while opening the door.

Changing his clothes and wearing something more comfy, he sat in front of his computer and started looking up for anything useful.

'Do little girls have nightmares?'

'Nop it's not that.'

'How to reduce nightmares?'

'No.'

'What is a nightmare?'

'...'

Well, the Internet would've been useful if he knew exactly what to look for.

It's only after 45 minutes of intensive research that he stumbled on a good article.

If he had to be honest he could've found it sooner if he didn't stray away from his initial goal…

It all starts with one video and then he suddenly found himself watching a 'girl' with a little something between her legs in the middle of the night. 'Japan and its fetishes…'

Fortunately he caught himself up pretty fast, and so here he was, reading the headline of the article:

"A mental battle: dream or reality?" He read out loud.

"Meet Mr. *********, who still, to this day, suffers from nightmares." He pursued, reading the publishing date, he saw that the article was already 3 years old.

He continued, "His nightmares were induced by a drug, yes, 'that' drug from 2 years ago, which was said to be eradicated."

It clicked pretty fast in his mind, "Wait that makes it 5, 5 years ago there was indeed a drug… Pr Doofenschwartz!'

He hurriedly read the next part, it was a testimony from the censored person. The latter was talking about how he didn't know how he consumed the drug nor when. But what interested Kurai was…

'Jackpot!'

The man talked about his struggles against it, and how he fought it, sadly he stayed too vague to be helpful to him or Rumi. It was as if some personal things kept him from expressing himself.

'But now I have a clue.'

The article ended by saying that there must be a lot of people still out there suffering from the drug, even years after, mainly because its effects weren't immediate or deadly…

Looking at the watch, '5:24 am.' He stood up, quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper and went to bed. [1]

'Welp I gotta wake up in an hour.' He nonetheless laid there waiting for the clock to reach 6 and start his training.

'Yikes what a day…'

His simple spying mission transformed into a whole other thing, he didn't really know if it was bad or not. Though he was sure that he'll see the end of this… Even more so after reading its effects, and knowing what she had to endure for those last 5 years…

'Or more…'

One thing that he was sure…'Pr Doofenschwartz, huh?' ...Was that hearing this bastard's name once again after all those years didn't please him at all.

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[1] : funny thing, that's what the clock is pointing rn lol, and yeah I gotta leave in an hour too… Welp