Tantalizing Secrets (2) - 11

...before lovingly embracing each other in the folds of the other's body, as if we had been born to be reconnected in this way.

"You were always smarter than me... Sigh, you probably found out the moment you laid your eyes on me, right?" I whispered into her ear, as we stood their, still connected.

"Man, your face when you realized was hilarious!" She said, whispering back.

"But, let's table this conversation for another time, people are watching."

Hearing this, I immediately separated from her before allowing her to slap my face, sending me flying through the air.

"Pervert!"

'Oof.'

Of course, it hurt being called that by the only one you loved, but it was a necessary measure to take so that none would be suspicious of our sudden embrace.

It would be far more beneficial for us if our relationship was kept as secret as possible.

And, with the fact that we could almost communicate without any words, through only our body language, we could hide our coordinated movements even better.

Oh yeah, you were probably wondering why I wasn't trying to kill her or anything, right?

After all, she had betrayed me.

But, there was a stark contrast between not trusting somebody and not loving them.

Like, do you actually trust everything your parents say? No (ie. Santa, tooth fairy, etc...), but, do you love them? Absolutely. (A/N: Sorry to all those that don't have parents, just think about your siblings then. If you have neither, than, well, you probably can't relate. Just know that what I'm saying is true.)

So, did I trust Yukina? No. Did I love Yukina? Yes.

It was that simple.

And, judging by her actions, which I could read with extreme clarity, it didn't seem like she had an insidious motives against me right now.

I mean, even when she betrayed me, the signs had already been there for weeks, I had just been too out of my mind to even notice them until after the fact.

It was a lapse on my part, not hers, but I wasn't going to tell her that, lest I lose the upper hand when she betrays me again, if she would that was.

Right now, I would just play along, as she tried to accomplish her goal of whatever it was.

After all, during the years in which she disappeared, only she knew what had happened in them, as even god, the kid, didn't know what happened to her.

But also, for all I knew, she could be trying to repent this time around, who knew?

Well, only she did, and that was why I was going to step back and work in the shadows, as she did all the hard work on the outside for me.

It would also allow me to grow stronger without interruptions, so that one day, if she did betray me, or if the protagonist was just too much for me to handle, I would be able to at least come out with my life, scathed of course.

After all, I never knew if I would once again live again after my death, there had been absolutely no rules that I could follow looking back at my travels thus far.

It was confusing, as if it followed no order, so I wouldn't hedge my bets on any perceived "guarantee".

"Be cautious." This was a lesson I had learned the hard way, and so I wouldn't put those teachings to waste.

I just hoped my heart wouldn't cloud my thoughts, as that could possibly be the only hinderance to my plans.

I was never going to go through that experiment again, so I wouldn't have to worry about THAT clouding my mind.

Anyways, there was a pretty easy solution to the above problem though, and that was to just drink some whiskey every time I thought about her.

"..."

"..."

"..."

On second thought, that wasn't the best of my ideas.

But then, how would I solve it?

After thinking about it for a few minutes, still sitting up on the floor of the training room as I watched Yuki run laps around me, I just couldn't figure it out.

'I guess I'll just table the processing right now until I can actually find a solution, because nothing comes to mind at the moment.'

But, what was that saying back on Earth? Love was the most powerful force in the world, as a man could move mountains and evaporate seas for his love, or something like that.

For the current me, it was a nuisance that I wanted to get rid of as soon as possible.

That was akin to asking myself to make a hole in my heart though, as a love lost is a void formed.

It was something that those philosophers had said over and over again across the centuries, but it was also something that that kid had experienced first hand.

Seeing his experience, I knew that I would never want that to happen to me.

Unlike my smile, or my last words, the void in one's heart when somebody they love died, in both the physical or spiritual sense, would leave scars that could never be consumed, and would often lead to one consuming themselves.

'At least some good came out of it.'

Without the kid consuming himself in his studies, I would never have been able to do the thing that I was about to do now.

Having picked myself back up, walking myself to my room, I quickly got on the bed and entered a lotus position on top of the soft sheets.

It was time for me to use a few pieces of knowledge that I had from both my first life and the kid's life to make my mana awakening a lot easier.

'Universally Aggregative Magic.'

An explanation once again: it was a technique that allowed the user to use all types of magic, the power being dependent on the user's talent.

Remembering the breathing pattern to first get it started, I started inhaling and exhaling in an irregular way, aligning my rhythm with the beat of this world.

And then, suddenly, but naturally, mana started flowing into my body.

As my body grew hotter and hotter, I started focusing the mana into certain points on my body, my meridians, as I broke through the blockages that were there, before taking all those shattered pieces and focusing them towards my brain.

You see, there were three places a person could store their "mana heart", which had the ability to generate mana, using the material that had blocked one's meridians to act as a catalyst.

First was the "dantian", a spot behind one's lower stomach, second was the heart, and third was the brain.

Each one had its own benefits and disadvantages, but I would explain them later, right now, all you needed to know was that I was putting my mana heart inside my brain.

"ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!"

But, something had gone terribly wrong.