COTE: The Unfamiliar Familiar World

Chapter 1 (Ported): Glacial Skies

"You're still not telling me anything substantial, Kiyotaka, you're always vague with me whenever it comes to this. And here I thought you've already trusted me enough to tell me what your home life is like" She remarks, her voice appearing even and calm, as if she was already at the verge of blowing up. I can understand her woes and complaints, yet I haven't really been honest with her due to the sole fact that whatever happened in my previous home shall not be mentioned by me to anyone who was never involved to begin with.

Agreeing on keeping her around me is already a threat to her well being enough as it is. It didn't help that she is a prime witness to the attempts that man had done in order to retrieve me from both ANHS and outside of said high school campus. She witnessed it and I'm pretty sure that Kei suspects that what I'm dealing with is something much more substantial than an abusive household but she had refused to address this during each session we have.

"I really don't know what to say, Kei. My father had way too high of an expectations and my mother never really was around to be there. The only person whom cared for me is dead at that point." I explained to her, or more like repeated, as she pinched the bridge of her nose out of annoyance.

"Yes, Kiyotaka, you've already told me that before, but I feel like you're still hiding things from me. We've trusted each other ever since high school, even if you were using me at that time"

"You trusted my abilities, I trusted yours. That's what out relationship was like initially."

"Yeah but like we started dating after like months after we started using each other?"

Raising her hand, she gestured towards the golden ring that wraps around her finger, glistening in light as if it was brand new. Not only that, but such ring was adorned with beautiful diamonds upon it as well. "And I'm pretty sure we trusted each other enough to the point that we ended up like-" She gestured to the ring "-this"

"Yes, however, there are things I can't say to you, Kei, not because I don't trust you, but it's because it's for your own good"

"My own good? What about your own good, Kiyotaka!"

"I can handle myself" There are nuances that differ between her sake and mine. In my belief, I am a dead man walking, reborn the moment I found some sliver of humanity within my heart. She, however, is someone who had yet to see how deplorable humans can get due to their greed and megalomania. Sure, she had seen the darkness of humanity in her middle school years, yet compared to what I've seen, what she saw was just a glimpse of the abyss that awaits her and the abyss that i keep her away from.

"And I can't?! Is your past that troubling that I wouldn't be able to handle it?!" Kei is a strong girl, I acknowledge this, I know this, I am aware of this and I am aware of what's she's capable of...

But...

"You can't Kei"

...I know there's a line

I emphasized the word 'cant' as I looked at her with a piercing gaze. She immediately froze up and pursed her own lips as if she was holding back her tongue from saying anything else further. It's a rather useful skill that we manage to have. Just by our gazes, we were able to communicate. It's why we were able to handle our involvement in the behind the scenes of the class battles without getting revealed unintentionally.

The word can't would be enough of a note for Kei to understand the weight of the details about my past wasn't light. She immediately knew that anything else she would say, would be futile as I wouldn't change my mind about the fact that my past could become her own downfall. In that moment, she felt useless to me and she hated that, thinking that it was her usefulness to me that lead her to the life that we now share.