-Chapter 8: The Holding of a Secret!
"Kara, you have been silent all day long," Hiiro says. "What has happened to make you so silent? Are you still mad about what the other day?"
Hiiro has noticed the change in me? Well, I can't be honest with him on this matter. A promise is a promise and that is that.
"I just had a rough night," I tell him, placing my head against the table. "I couldn't get much sleep."
I have been hanging out with a Bugster. And I didn't know that the Bugster was a Bugster. How come this is happening to me? What did I do wrong in a past life or whatever? I just know I must have done something to someone in order for this to happen.
"I see. Well, I guess you can just stay here and relax. Or possibly have the day off." Is he trying to make up for upsetting me the other day? I bet I'm not the only one he got upset. Emu was upset too.
"I'll just take the day off. I'm going to go and relax now, okay?" I lift my head off the table and get up, moving away from my seat. I push it in and look at Hiiro. "Take care of yourself."
"Okay, I'll do that."
"Good." I nod and I step to the exit and leave the break room.
I approach the elevator and press the button. It opens up a few moments later and I step in. I press the first floor button, not the underground CR button, and step back. The elevator door closes and it bounces a bit. Well, feels like it is bouncing.
I close my eyes, listening to the music. What song is this an instrumental of? It seems super familiar. Like I heard it on TV or something.
Ding!
The elevator stops and I open my eyes, staring out the elevator. Kuroto Dan stands outside of it, holding a briefcase and looking totally official. Officially hot. Did I just really think that about him? Yuck!
I step out of the elevator, moving around him. Don't look at him. He's only a huge jerk who has no regard for sick people who need help.
"Hey, Kara," Dan says and I stop. Why in the world am I stopping for him? He doesn't deserve me to do this!
I move forward, stepping towards the front doors of the hospital. I push it open and step out, looking down at the ground. Something pulls me back and I look up, staring straight into Dan's eyes.
"Dan, I see you're stopping me. You have to let me go, it is my off day," I tell him, glaring.
"I told you to call me Kuroto."
"Sorry, my bad. It just slipped out," I lie. "It just came out of my mouth before I could stop it."
"I'm sorry about the other day. However, I was saying the truth and you should understand that. People will take advantage of people like you and Emu. You two are very kind and you want to help people. I just wanted you to know that the wrong people will take advantage of that and get you into trouble. As you see, the criminal that took the gashats wasn't good at all."
"Hiiro filled you in on what took place," I say. "I see then."
"He told me that you two found the rider who is using the prototype of the gashat Emu uses."
"Prototype?" I look at him in confusion. What is a prototype gashat?
"It is the original version of the gashat. I fixed them up because those prototype gashats were the ones that caused Zero Day," Dan explains, answering my question. "Kara, I'm trying to help you guys."
"You can't possibly help me. I have nothing to do with what your riders do," I state. "And I wouldn't want to be one under you anyways."
"Kara, why are you being like this? Don't you trust me?"
I shove his hand off of my arm and push him back. "Why do you keep bothering me about this? Go away and leave me alone! I hate how you are and I don't wish to be around someone like you!"
"You don't mean what you are saying. You need to calm down right now, okay? You're causing a scene," he says, pointing out that people are probably staring at us like we're some couple that is breaking up. Wait! That gives me a great idea!
"How can you go out there and cheat on me!" I shout at him and I push him back again. "I thought you loved me! You're a liar! I was going to marry you one day!" I am going to use my amazing talents to make him look like trash to people. That will show him for messing with me and hurting my feelings!
"Huh?" He looks at me with a confused look on his face and I shove him again.
I turn away and cross my arms. "I don't want to see you ever again. Don't come back and start begging for me to take you back." I look over at some girl who has her phone out. She's recording this entire scene. Ha-ha!
"Kara, what are you doing?"
"I'm leaving for good! Don't bother me here again!" I step away, keeping my arms crossed over my chest, and I frown. Gosh, I'm such a good actress!
I keep walking, not looking around or back. I hope he enjoys dealing with what I have done to him. That is what he gets for being such a jerk about how I am. How can he boss me around and tell me what is wrong with me?
"Kara, what are you doing out?"
I turn and see Parad. "Parad, what are you doing here?" I thought we wouldn't see each other again.
"Aren't you supposed to be working right now?" Parad moves closer to me, smiling brightly. "I just saw you chew out some guy. Were you two actually together?"
I laugh and push a piece of my wig out of my face. "Uh...I was just causing a scene. He was annoying me and people were staring at us already. He pointed it out so I started making up some stuff to cause him some trouble. He's going to be mad at me." My face feels so hot right now. He wasn't supposed to see that.
"You're crafty."
"I can be." I smile. "Parad, do you want to grab something to eat with me? I am sort of hungry. You don't have to eat because I doubt you need to."
"Well, I do have a human body so I might be able to eat something. Though I don't know how it is going to work," he says, laughing. "I'm sorry for not telling you about what I am. I really did think you would hate me and ignore me if I told you."
"Did you know about me knowing about you know what?"
He nods. "Yeah, because I know Hiiro is a Kamen Rider. I have seen them here and there and I make sure to stay out of sight. In this form, they can't detect if I'm a Bugster. They couldn't tell that Graphite was one after all. They thought he was sick."
"Anything else I should know?"
"Well, I know a lot of things but I can't tell you them. I'm not going to put you in danger," he answers. "But you can trust me now. I'm going to be completely honest with you about anything you have to ask. Minus anything that would cause harm to you."
"Why did you save me?"
"Because you're interesting. Something about you caught my attention."
"What did?" What could make a Bugster want to save a human like me?
He shrugs. "I actually don't know but I think it was fate for me to see you that night. When I saw you get hit, I felt like saving you. My instincts didn't want me to but something in me did. You know my instincts are to infect humans, right?" I am kind of doubting what he wants to do to humans right now. He seems to do what pleases himself.
"Right." I nod.
"But I'm not going to infect you. You being near me isn't going to cause an infection."
"Good! I don't want it anyways." I don't plan on dying to it anytime soon or having Hiiro treat me for it.
He laughs. "So, where do you want to eat at? I can see a lot of street vendors."
"We should go and eat at one of them, okay?"
He nods. "Okay."
~.~
I stand on the rooftop and look down at the beautiful city. Graphite snorts, obviously being a hater. I swear, he wants me to be infected right now. He would definitely like that to happen to me.
"What are you upset about?" Parad asks Graphite.
"Why did you bring a human up here? We should be infecting them," Graphite answers, sounding angry. I look at him and glare. "What? I'm being honest about what we should be doing as Bugsters." What will happen once they kill all the humans? A party?
"Why don't you go and be in your human form? You don't to walk around in that form right now," I tell him. "If you try being a human, you'll see that it isn't so bad and maybe you can live amongst us."
"I am going to take over this planet and make it for Bugsters," Graphite replies, switching into his human form. "I'm surprised I had to save you the other day. You really like causing trouble for the others don't you?"
"I was only trying to help my ex," I state. "Hiiro never takes care of himself and he needs someone to look out for him. You would understand it if you could put aside your differences with humans and try finding someone you can care about besides yourself and your race."
Parad laughs. "Graphite, cool it. Kara is fine to have around and she isn't going to go telling anyone about us. She won't even tell anyone that she knows you," he says, touching Graphite's arm gently. "Besides, she isn't one of them. She can't do anything."
"If she could, I wouldn't have to save her for you. She would be able to defend herself."
I pull out my cell phone. "I see that I have a text message from Hiiro. He is asking me why I was fighting with the CEO of Genm Corp outside the hospital. Guess I'm part of a viral video." At least I'm good at something. I'm good at ruining that loser's life.
"I wonder how he is going to deal with that. Did he issue whatever people issue when they get caught in something?" Parad asks me and I shrug. "I guess you don't care what he does."
"I don't like him. He's a huge jerk who is so entitled and annoying," I say, smiling. I place my phone back into my pocket and move over to Parad. "I wish he could be more like you. At least you're kind despite being a Bugster who wants to take over the world."
Kuroto may be very good looking but his personality completely tarnishes his looks. He's trashy. And he's a cheapo. I mean, who doesn't get amazing security for their company? He should at least get some security guards to protect his building. A Bugster was able to get through everything he put up so easily! See? Guards needed.
"Ha-ha!" Parad finds me funny.
"Laughing about my comment on him, right?"
"Right." Parad nods. "I wouldn't doubt that he is like that. Graphite got in so easily. Anyways, if you ever wanted to be a rider I bet you could be. You wouldn't have to work under him at all."
"Are you trying to suggest something to me?" I ask him and he nods. "I guess you're suggesting that you can take something from him and make me a rider?"
"Yeah, I can do that for you. It'll be a piece of cake. If you disable the cameras, I can easily break in due to my abilities as a Bugster. Besides, you would be an amazing Kamen Rider."
"What would I need to be one?"
"As far as I know, a gamer driver and a gashat." Parad smiles. "Graphite, I'm going to break into Genm Corp. Do you want to come with me?"
"Do I have a choice in the matter?" Graphite asks, looking at Parad coldly.
"Nope."
"Then I will help you out. Kara, can you disable the system at all?" Graphite thinks I can't do that can he? I so can do that.
"Actually, I can easily do that. I was a thief during my teen years," I admit and I look away. "I was kind of out of place and I found a group of people who seemed to fit with me. They were bad and ended up in jail. I managed to dodge it and become a nurse down the road." I had to do something with my worthless teenage years. I don't think it was right now, but I wasn't in a good place. Not that it excuses my bad behavior and I'm lucky to be a nurse now.
"That is good. We're going to steal something from that jerk CEO you hate. I bet he has some gashats lying around," Parad says. I look at him and he smiles. "Kara, I'm going to make everything up to you. I'm going to earn your complete trust."
"Parad, stealing this might just restore my trust in you. This is very important to do. When he is out of the building, I'll disable everything. The power will go out and the cameras won't work. Then you can teleport in and get what we need. Pick me out something cool, okay?"
"I will do that."
Parad moves next to me and wraps his arms around me, holding me against him. He touches my hair as I place my head against his chest. I don't know why he wants to hug me but he does. Maybe he feels like this is something that is going to cause a lot of trouble and is hugging me because Kuroto will kill me once he finds out I stole something from him.
"I wish we could hug a lot more. I see guys hugging girls all the time," Parad says, running a hand through my wig. "I hate your wig. It gets in the way of your hair, which is really pretty. It reminds me of my pants." Only he would compare my hair to his pants.
"She's wearing a wig?" Graphite asks. "What is that?"
"Fake hair. That is the simple way of putting that. You know what hair is, right?"
"I'm not that dumb. Of course I know what hair is. I have some on my head right now," Graphite tells me. "I am only tolerating you because of Parad so don't push my buttons. If you keep pushing it, I can't promise I won't destroy you with an infection."
"Graphite, you aren't going to hurt her. If you try, I will do something about it." Parad sounds so serious right now. I bet the look on his face is very serious.
"Fine."
"Good." Parad moves back a bit from me and I look up at his face. "Your face is so close yet so far."
"Why are you saying that?"
"Because this is the point where most people kiss. Would you allow me to do that?"
I push him away, shrieking. "No way!" I exclaim. I have no intentions of kissing a Bugster!
He laughs. "You're so funny when I tease you! Did you think I would kiss you that fast?" he asks me, laughing. "Ha-ha! You're like a game!"
"Are you really into games? Like really, really into them?"
"Yeah, I am. Games are fun and life is like one. Fate is like a puzzle game you know." So, he sees me like a game? Is he trying to beat me at something?
"Why do you speak like that all the time?"
He shrugs. "Why not?"
"You confuse me."
"So, how about we go and see if our buddy, Kuroto, is out of Genm Corp yet?"
"Alright."