The Path of Ignorance

The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed with their usual monotony, a low hum that normally helped Kaito concentrate. But today, they only seemed to echo the chaos rattling in his mind. A real, bona fide supernatural secret agent—who happened to be a beautiful girl—was now living under his roof. A surge of anxiety rippled through him, tangled with a strange, unplaceable excitement. He questioned his sanity for taking this course of action. Every logical part of his mind screamed at the sheer recklessness, the danger he'd invited into his quiet life. Yet, a deeper, unwavering conviction held firm: it wasn't out of regret. This was the right thing to do. He couldn't have left her there, his body moving on instinct to make a decision his mind was too overwhelmed to process. The thought of her bleeding out in that grimy alley kept any semblance of regret at bay.

His thoughts were interrupted by a hushed conversation from the row in front of him. It was one of the wealthier, more boisterous students, chatting with a friend.

"Mate, you won't believe what my old man was saying last night," the first student muttered. "You know, about that auction house collapse?"

"Yeah, my dad's firm took a huge hit from that insurance payout," his friend replied.

"About that," the first student continued, lowering his voice further, "my old man swears it wasn't just some structural failure. He said it was, like, a proper supernatural event."

"No way, dude. From your old man? Of all people?" his friend scoffed.

"Yeah, I know, right? But he was serious about it. Said he saw things, and he's usually such a stickler for facts, you know? He looked freaked out. He's pulling a bunch of investments, and we might be moving out of the UK soon. Fearing 'something unknown' is brewing."

Kaito's blood ran cold. Supernatural event. Something unknown. The words hammered in his mind, instantly linking to the injured woman back at his apartment. He subtly pulled out his phone, letting it rest on his lap under the desk. He quickly typed "London auction house collapse" into the search bar, his thumb hovering over the results. The official reports were all about structural integrity and unfortunate accidents. But Maria... It couldn't be a coincidence. He had to know more.

The school day crawled by, each minute stretching into an eternity. Kaito's backpack felt heavier than usual on the walk home, filled not with textbooks, but with the weighty questions swirling in his head. The snippet of conversation he'd overheard, and the unsettling realization that the "accident" at the Blackwell auction might be anything but, gnawed at him. Every familiar landmark on his walk home—the bustling high street, the unassuming corner shop, the scent of exhaust fumes mixed with blooming flowers—felt subtly warped, seen through the lens of a new, unbelievable reality.

He made dinner, the familiar scent of simmering miso and grilling fish a small comfort in the strange new reality he inhabited. The rhythmic chop of vegetables, the sizzle of the pan, were grounding in a world that now included self-healing secret agents. Maria, still pale but with a noticeable improvement in her color, ate slowly, meticulously, seemingly unfazed by the mundane act of sharing a meal with a stranger who had rescued her from an alley. She moved with a quiet grace, despite her injuries, a silent testament to a hidden strength. The long, gun-like bag remained by her side, a constant, silent reminder of the dangerous world she carried with her, a world that had now bled into Kaito's.

After they finished eating, and the dishes were neatly put away, the silence in the small apartment grew heavy, charged with Kaito's unspoken questions. He finally gathered his courage. He sat across from Maria in his small living room, the space feeling suddenly vast and tense. He fiddled with the cuff of his school uniform, a nervous habit, his heart thumping a frantic rhythm against his ribs.

"Maria," he began, his voice a little shaky, barely above a whisper. "I... I heard something today. At school." He paused, taking a breath, his gaze fixed on her face, searching for any tell. "About the auction. The Blackwell auction. Do you… do you know anything about it?" The words tumbled out, laced with an anxiety he couldn't quite mask, the desperate need for answers overriding his usual caution.

Maria looked directly at him, her startling green eyes unreadable, reflecting only a calm, unwavering depth. There was no flicker of surprise, no hint of alarm at his question. Her composure was absolute, a stark contrast to his own churning turmoil. She simply set her cup down on the low table, the faint clink of ceramic the only sound in the room, her gaze steady, almost pitying.

"Kaito," she said, her voice soft, devoid of any anger or annoyance, yet carrying an undeniable weight. "For your sake, it's best you don't look into it. There are things in this world that are best left unknown."

Her words were a gentle warning, yet they held an authority that brooked no argument, a quiet finality that chilled him to the bone. It wasn't a threat, but a statement of undeniable, dangerous fact, delivered with the weary wisdom of someone who had seen too much. Kaito felt a shiver trace its way down his spine, a cold confirmation that the rabbit hole he'd stumbled into went far, far deeper than he could have ever imagined. The world Maria inhabited was not merely strange; it was perilous, and she was subtly, perhaps unknowingly, drawing him into its depths.

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The fluorescent lights of the classroom still hummed, but today, Kaito found a fragile peace in their monotony. He'd taken Maria's words to heart. "For your sake, it's best you don't look into it." Unlike the protagonists of a shonen manga, he wasn't driven by an insatiable need for adventure or a hidden power waiting to awaken. He was simply an ordinary person. Although he'd encountered something extraordinary in the form of Maria, to deliberately go deeper into a world of the supernatural and covert agents would be suicidal. His anxiety, while still a dull throb, lessened with the decision. He would help Maria, but he wouldn't seek out the chaos she carried.

He noticed the wealthy student yesterday was absent again today. Kaito thought nothing deeper of it.

After school ended, Kaito walked home, a huge weight lifted from his shoulders with every step. The decision to embrace his ignorance, to simply focus on Maria's recovery, was a relief. Afterward, she would leave, and then he would return to his quiet life. Perhaps this was his once in a lifetime encounter, something he would recall in his twilight years, a fleeting brush with the unbelievable. 

As he turned onto his street, a man walking in the opposite direction brushed past him. Kaito barely registered him, his mind already drifting towards what he'd make for dinner. But then, the man suddenly stopped, then a low, almost imperceptible whisper carried on the breeze.

"Found you."