Mind Reader - β

Chapter 8 - Strategizing

I wasn't stupid enough to go for a handshake. She wouldn't understand the gesture, anyway. Even now, I was careful not to get too close to her.

"...I'm Aginaci."

I smiled at her and concluded our discussion.

"Let's go now. It's not too far from here, we can go on foot."

("Does that mean he possesses another means of transport? Does he own a horse? Is his family rich enough for that?")

Since she was sitting next to the window in the classroom, she had seen cars driving around but she hadn't realized that those were means of transportation.

Before leaving, I remembered to fetch my bag next to my seat. I had cowardly abandoned it when I escaped from the place in the morning and now was the perfect time to get it back.

We exited the building and went to the streets, me in front and her a few meters behind. It was her safety distance in case she needed to escape from me.

It was now early September and the temperature was still warm enough at this time of the day. I only had a T-shirt while she wore a light dress but we weren't cold at all.

Now that our destination was settled, I thought it might be a good idea to explain a few things to her. I rotated to walk sideways so I could talk to her while still going forward.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions in your head right now. I'll try to teach you as best as I can but first of all, I need to tell you about our next move."

She slowed down and looked at me warily once again.

("Didn't he say we were going to his home? Did he trick me?")

'I hate being so bad with words.'

"What I mean is that my parents don't know about you and they don't expect you either. I just want to warn you that I'll need to convince them about letting you stay at our place."

She stopped frowning, nodded, and resumed walking.

"And so, how good are you at convincing strangers?"

("If I was good at it, would I have found myself in my previous situation?")

"...Terrible."

"...Yeah, thought so. I'm also terrible at it. It sucks."

I sighed and she looked slightly worried. I could only give her a most pathetic grin.

"Well, I'll try my best. If it doesn't work, we'll find another solution. Something. Yeah. Okay, anyway, can you try to look pitiful in front of them? That might help a bit."

"Yes."

("I don't even need to fake it...")

"Great. And about your reason for staying with us. Hmm... Well... Let me think for a second."

("What's a second?")

'...I have a lot to teach, I see.'

I wondered how to explain the circumstances to my family.

'What does a guy say when he wants a girl to stay at his parent's home for a few days? Wait, does that situation even happen at all?'

'Hey Dad, Mom. Can you let this total stranger girl live in our apartment for a few days? Hahaha. No, it's not a joke. The door? Okay.'

This is how I envisioned my very near future. I needed a good idea. What could convince them to allow this to happen? Explain that something bad happened to her? That she had nowhere else to go? That she got into trouble with her family? All of these might work, maybe. Or maybe not.

Then, I suddenly had an interesting idea. Perhaps, I could transform a previous defeat into victory. I just needed to be strong. What was the worst that could happen? I was already close to death by being part of my current class. Being sent to the streets together with Aginaci was nothing in comparison.

When my thoughts became clear, I explained my idea to her. We then agreed that she would keep quiet unless she needed to talk. She was too out of sync with this world. She was bound to say something strange at some point. If my parents found her weird, that would lower our chances even more.

We were still some minutes away from our destination and I decided to start satisfying her curiosity.

"Alright. You must have a lot of questions. Ask away. I'll try to answer as best as I can."

For the first time, an emotion other than distrust or anger appeared on her face. She looked at me with slight curiosity.

"Where are we?"

Even though this question was vague, I knew what she meant.

"It might be hard for you to believe but you're still in the same place."

"What? What do you mean?"

"You didn't move much physically. You moved in terms of time. It's hard for me to say how much exactly but something between 500 to 1000 years into the future?"

She stopped moving to glare at me like I was crazy. However, she also couldn't immediately deny it. When she woke up in the morning, she had been sitting in her seat in the classroom. She had panicked hard at the impossible-to-understand situation. For a long time, she even thought she was dreaming. Her usual environment was completely gone, everything around her was foreign, and she didn't recognize anything.

And then, the first few other students had started to enter the classroom and she didn't dare to move until lunchtime. She didn't recognize any other person either. She believed she had gone insane due to her lengthy suffering. Even more so when her name was called by the teachers.

However, no one cared much about her. She still felt pain normally when she tried pinching her arm and someone was teaching the other young people things in front of her. Even though she didn't understand much of the content, she realized that she probably wasn't crazy. For some reason, she had moved to this foreign place. Her thoughts continued to rotate for the rest of the day and she wasn't sure what to do in her situation. And that was when I came to meet her.

I waited for her reminiscence to finish and made my move. It wasn't too hard to prove my words. I took her picture using my smartphone and showed it to her. She moved back when I turned the screen in her direction but I didn't stop what I was doing.

"Look at this. It'll help you understand."

She slowly approached me and checked the screen. A mix of surprise and curiosity flashed in her eyes.

"This is... me? What does that mean? How's that possible?"

"It's proof that this is the future. This thing I have in hand is a tool that can do many things. And one of them is to instantly make a painting of someone or something. Interesting, right?"

Her mouth was now opened wide in wonder. For the first time since I saw her, she looked like her actual age.