Chapter 63 - I'll make it unforgettable

This time, however, it wasn't just down to a few hours. Alita's fight had truly taken everything out of her, and her body needed a significant time to recover. 

During this time, Damian leaned out of his window to observe the police and Rustborn goons investigating exactly what had happened in this alley. He'd cloaked himself in shadows during this time, so no one noticed him, but he figured it'd be useful to listen in on the police investigation. 

Or, rather, the way the Rustborn casually bribed the officers to look the other way, while they themselves looked into it. This time, however, there wasn't any Alita to immediately give the game away by dropping from the sky. The Rustborn were stumped… as well as worried. 

They could clearly tell that whatever happened here involved the use of myst, but to their knowledge, Alita was not a myst-wielder. They spent a few more moments looking at the surrounding buildings, but they obviously had no way to follow whatever faint trail Alita or Damian might have left behind. 

Eventually, they quickly left, seemingly in a hurry. 

"Time to inform the boss, I guess," Damian chuckled casually as he watched them scurry around. "Let's see if anything interesting comes from that…" 

When they were gone, he closed the window again and sat down again. "Nova, let's continue scurrying the Net for interesting information. Oh, and see if you can break into the police systems. I'd love to see what information they've got stashed away over there…" 

"Understood, Damian," Nova's female but emotionless voice echoed in his mind. 

Immediately afterwards, a screen was projected on his cornea, filtering through heaps of data, mostly involving general information about this world, its history, and its inhabitants. 

One thing he discovered was that this part of the Net was essentially just the top layer. Underneath it was something called Cyberspace, which could only be accessed using specialized equipment that he had no access to right now. Even Nova herself did not have the means to do so. 

In the end, Nova was a sophisticated AI running on just a small chip in his head. This was impressive enough, but asking that same chip to also handle the computational load of interacting with the Cybernet or hacking sophisticated systems, was perhaps asking a little much. 

That said, Nova had started a background process that would continuously attempt to break into the police network whenever they were in range of a Net router, as this apartment had. Unfortunately, she had no clue how long it would take. 

* * * 

It wasn't until morning the next day, a full twenty hours later, that Alita finally began to stir again. Blinking slowly, she opened her eyes and immediately narrowed them. 

"Oh, glitch me… my head," she groaned as she palmed her face and started sitting up. Her limbs felt like dead weight. Her muscles screamed with every twitch, and the dull ache in her skull pounded like a war drum. 

"Hehe, such are the consequences of overburdening your body with myst usage," she immediately heard a voice, which… she felt conflicting emotions about right now. 

"But don't worry," the voice continued. "I'll teach you how to use myst efficiently, and how to notice when your body is reaching its limit." 

Alita looked up wryly, noticing Damian was grinning at her from his chair. Still wearing the same black, silver, and purple suit as before, he slowly twirled Nox Aeternum between his fingers. Unbeknownst to her, several screens of information still filled his cornea, but he shut them down to focus on her instead. 

"I—" Alita muttered but then fell silent again, unsure how to act or what to say. Everything that happened before she fell unconscious came back to her, as well as the choices she made. She blinked slowly, stared at Damian thoughtfully, and wondered if she regretted it now. 

But the answer came to her surprisingly quickly when a small, excited grin spread across her lips. She still remembered his promises and the way she felt when she finally had a taste of the power she'd craved for most of her life. 

"Thank you…. Master," she then said, earning herself an approving nod from Damian. "I look forward to growing stronger under you." 

Damian inspected her closely and couldn't help but smile when he noticed her sincerity. He still had a little work to do, but he was glad to see how far he'd gotten with her in such a short time. Although, to be fair, her personality made this a little easier on him. 

Her eyes were filled with ambition and a desire for power that he could appreciate, as well as a kind of bloodlust that didn't quite fit as well with him, but that was fine. 

'I'll need her to kill for me, anyway,' he pondered to himself. 'As for the reason… it's probably got to do with her original Eldkin bloodline, which seems to have somehow become integrated with my kintype. Which is interesting, considering her sister…' 

But then he shook his head and cleared his thoughts. These were matters for another time. 

Alita could see Damian was in thought and made herself a little more comfortable, but sitting up, crosslegged. 

Then she spent a little inspecting her body. Her headache was already fading away, but her limbs still ached a little. She was surprised to find that the clothes Damian had provided her were still in one piece, but there was some blood and grime sticking to her everywhere. 

"I should probably shower again…" she muttered to herself. 

"Indeed, you should," Damian agreed with a small smile. "Don't worry about your clothes. They can fix small tears and holes themselves and should be easy to clean with a little warm water." 

Alita's eyes widened in shock. Although she knew little about Glowrat fashion, she doubted any of them wore clothes like that. Yet, she wasn't curious enough to wonder too much about Damian's origins and simply shook her head. "I'm not even going to ask…" 

"That's a good instinct," Damian chuckled before waving at the door to the bathroom. At the same time, a curious glint passed through his eyes. "Now, go take a shower, and when you come back, it'll be time for the second part of our agreement." 

Alita blinked in surprise. "S-Second part…?" Her voice wavered. "What sec—" The words died in her throat. Her stomach flipped as the memory rushed back, heat creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks. Her body froze in its current position. 

Her mouth opened and closed a few times while Damian looked at her with amused curiosity. "Don't tell me this part's more of a hangup for you than serving me is…?" 

Alita blinked rapidly… and then suddenly relaxed a little, smirking wryly. "I… I guess not… I'm just… I guess I didn't really think you'd be interested in that for some reason…" 

"Oh…? Why wouldn't I be?" He stood up from his chair and walked a little closer to her, noting with satisfaction that she didn't flinch from him, even when he cupped her cheek. "You're a beautiful girl, Alita. Sex is not specifically what I want your service for, but it's an added benefit that I'll be making use of…" 

Despite the casual tone, his words brooked no disobedience, and Alita didn't plan to offer any. She, as a rough, ganger girl, had been confronted with sex her whole life. Truly, it was a small step to take after already offering him basically her everything else. 

She gulped and nodded, causing Damian to smile and lean forward to softly kiss her lips, much to Alita's surprise. Yet, not as much surprise as when she heard the next words he whispered in her ear. "Relax, Alita. I'll make sure your first time is… unforgettable." 

Truly, bloodsense could uncover all sorts of interesting information about someone…