Tale of Discovery

Chapter 255: Mana Takamiya ; Return Home

The self-proclaimed little sister continues to hug for quite a while before finally letting go and backing away a few steps.

She then gazes at the corpse of the dead guy with furrowed brows as she mutters, "How unusual."

You're unusual! Why is a Binary Factor a part of some organization that seems to hunt down spirits? Could it be that not all Binary Factors are considered as spirits?

Letting out a small sigh, I ask, "I'm sorry to say that I have no memories regarding who you are."

Unexpectedly, the girl just chuckles lightly and responds, "To be honest, neither do I."

"Then how can you be so sure that I'm your brother to the point of hugging me as soon as you could?" I ask with a dubious expression on my face.

"Well," she responds while looking to the side, "I just had a hunch that it was you and I recognized you."

"You recognized me without having any memories of me?"

"Yes, from this," she responds as she pulls out a pendant and shows it to me.

Looking inside the pendant, I find a small picture of what seems to be a younger version of the girl in front of me smiling alongside a young boy that looks like her.

"So, you're saying that you managed to recognize me from this image?" I say, "Even though I have changed so much?"

If there is anything that I've noticed recently, it would be the fact that compared to the other two Platforms I've been to so far, the residents of this one are much better at recognizing the changes that befell the original body.

"Like I said," the girl replies with a smile, "I had a feeling that it was you."

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Knowing that this conversation isn't going anywhere meaningful, I decide to ask her something that has been on my mind from the moment I saw her, "Are you a part of the AST?"

Hearing my words, the girls' eyes widen as she exclaims, "So you do know about spirits and the organization. That somewhat explains the reason you don't seem to be disturbed by that dead body..."

Suddenly, realization seems to dawn upon the girl as she squints her eyes and asks, "Big brother, why were you hanging out with Nightmare?"

"Nightmare? Ah, you mean Kurumi. Well, you see, we had plans to go on a date, but then you appeared."

"You wanted to go on a date with a spirit?!" she directly yells in a bewildered tone.

"Hold on a moment, there is a reason for that," I say with a serious expression.

The girl goes silent as she stares at my face while waiting for my explanation regarding this matter.

"She was seriously hot," I say while trying to sound as serious as possible.

The moment she heard my response, the girl's expression turns weird as she lets out a deep sigh before asking me, "So, where do you live now?"

"In a house along with a few others," I respond, "How about you come over and talk there? That would be better than staying here near this guy's corpse, no?"

Glancing at the corpse that I'm pointing at, the girl nods her head once before she says, "Let's go."

Following her words, she reaches her right arm to her head before pressing against a small device connected to the battle attire she is wearing. This results in light to cover her body from head to toe before fading and revealing the girl dressed in casual clothes.

--

"So..." I say on our way back home before my words trail off.

"Mana. Mana Takamiya," she says.

"So, Mana, why did you appear in the park?" I question.

"Well, I had received a report concerning a certain target that needs to be kept under sight from the higher-ups. What I didn't expect was for you to appear with Nightmare on a screen that was supposed to show the target," she explains.

"Was Kurumi the target?" I ask.

"I don't know," she responds, startling me a little, "Upon seeing you on the screen, I immediately left the base and made my over to here without reading the rest of the report."

No way... Could they have prioritized me as a target due to the recent events? Either that or Kurumi is much more important than what she appears to be.

Logically speaking, the latter seems to be more likely to be the case, after all, I was just told that Kurumi was supposed to have died yesterday. Yet, she was here early morning at my house as if nothing had happened.

In this case, either the information received by Kotori is false, or Kurumi has some ability that grants her a type of immortality.

Leaving that aside, Kotori has been rather silent. I assumed she would want to say something regarding all that has happened right now. Not only did I kill a human, but a girl claiming to be my sister appeared. Surely, she has something to say about this, right?

As if she heard my words, Kotori's voice reaches my ear, "Hey, idiot brother! Can you hear me?!"

Knowing that they're most likely watching me through some camera of sorts, I simply nod my head twice.

"Alright, finally! Now, tell me what happened. Who is that girl beside you?" Kotori says in a tired tone.

This girl... I think it's about damn time that I taught her a lesson. For now, I will just ignore her. That should irritate her to some extent. The rest will follow at home.

"Big brother, did you see how Nightmare killed that human? The method used was unlike any other time before..." Mana's doubtful voice reaches my ears.

Kurumi has killed before? Usually, at that? It seems like unlike Tohka and Yoshino who are simply hunted for being what they are, there is an actual reason for the AST and the organization behind it to be so adamant about hunting her.

I suddenly feel like I can get along much better than before with her now...

Anyway, Kurumi seems to have helped me in a way before leaving. She stated that her 'objective' had been completed, which Mana must've misunderstood as her having killed the guy.

Deciding to not let her favor go to waste, I adopt a complicated expression as I say. "Unfortunately, I didn't. My vision seemed to have blanked out for a short while and when it returned, I found the man just standing there with blood flowing out of him."

This explanation might be useless soon. After all, I doubt that Mana's higher-ups wouldn't tell her about my abnormality after what I did the other day.

During this whole time, Kotori has been spewing a multitude of derogatory terms while exclaiming into the earbud, but I have been heeding her close to no attention for the sole reason of irritating her extensively.

"I see," Mana says while looking down for a few seconds before shaking her head and asking, "How far is your home from here?"

"Well, I'm not sure exactly, but it's not that far," I respond vaguely.

--

Finally, we reached our home. Using Clairvoyance, I check out inside the house and notice that Yoshino and Tohka are still asleep.

I also find Kotori seated on a sofa in the living room with a slightly dark look on her face as she stares at the TV screen in front of her.

She seems to have returned home sometime, or for all I know, she might've been speaking with me from home.

"Mana, before we head inside, there is something that I need to make clear," I say in a solemn tone.

"Hm? What is it?" she asks with curiosity apparent in her eyes.

"You are to not display any acts of hostility in the house. Am I clear?"

Hearing this, a confused and troubled look appears on Mana's face but goes away the next second as she adopts a serious expression before nodding her head once.

"Good girl," I say before as per habit reaching my arm out to pat her head.

Mana is a little startled by my actions but doesn't seem to mind, in fact, she closes her eyes as a peaceful smile appears on her lips.

Looks like she missed her brother very much... How cute.

"Well then," I say, "Let's head inside."