World's First Demon Lord 91 Regroup, Part 3 Worry and Trus

May 11, 12:22 pm, Tokyo, Japan

In the corner a cat was crying. Sakura knew it wasn't really hurt, but she approached it anyway. She knew that fake crying was often a symptom of other trauma. She should at least try to help.

Because that was who she wanted to be.

But as she reached out, the cat hissed and scratched her. Sakura had expected it, but it still hurt. She sighed, and tried again.

"Don't you have something else to do?" the cat hissed.

Immediately, Sakura fell back into consciousness.

She sat up covers falling away. She blinked, confused at the soft mattress under her and the purple, painted walls.

"Sakura!" Michi immediately grabbed Sakura's arm to hold her down. He had been sitting beside her bed, on his phone from the hurried way he put it away.

Quickly, Sakura took in her surroundings. She was in a small, single bed with an amazingly comfortable mattress and black sheets. The room was small, but tidy, and had been painted blue. The door to the room was to Sakura's left, and that wall had been painted black. The bed itself was against the wall, a large, curtained window on her right showing downtown Tokyo.

There was a dresser, with a large mirror in front of Sakura, and a wardrobe against the accent wall Michi was sitting on a wooden chair beside her, in a plain green t-shirt and fashionable dog tags. She realized that she had also been changed out of her clothes, and into comfortable, moon-and-star pyjamas. Her arms, legs, ad waist were wrapped in bandages underneath.

Gingerly, she touched her face, to find that the wounds were still there.

"We treated those a while ago," said Michi. "Just don't touch them for now, or they'll open up again."

"Where are we?" Sakura asked, still looking around.

Michi opened his mouth to answer, then stopped. He bit his lip.

"That's...hard to explain," he said.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, but before he could answer, the door opened.

"Oh, you're awake," said the woman walking in. "I was worried for a while there."

Muscles. That was the first thing that Sakura noticed about the woman walking in with a tray of food. Those arms looked like they could crush a watermelon between them with ease.

The second thing she noticed about the woman were her eyes. They were a startling green, which matched her short, dyed hair. She had a cute, pixie like face that seemed to watch the world with mocking distaste.

Sakura's gut immediately told her that they would not get along. But she swallowed that feeling, and simply looked between her and Michi.

"My name is Ayai Tachibana" said the woman, bringing the tray of food and placing it on Sakura's lap. Sakura stared at her as she tried to process the name.

"It's Ainu," Michi clarified. "Ayai is Ainu."

"I figured," said Sakura immediately. Ayai raised an eyebrow at that, then stepped back, folding her arms. Sakura couldn't help but notice how they cupped her rather full breasts.

"She's the researcher Bunta was trying to get before..." once again, Michi hesitated. "Well, I suppose I should tell you what happened."

Sakura soon forgot her annoyance with Ayai as Michi told the story of how Jason had raided the internet cafe.

"I was picking up Ayai from the train station, which was the only reason why I wasn't there," Michi explained. "We managed to get back in time to see Jason and his team push Bunta into the car."

"Sedan," said Ayai. Both Sakura and Michi looked at her, and she raised her hands in defeat.

"Not the point, my bad, my bad," she said, and fell silent again.

"Did Jason get in contact with you afterwards?" Sakura asked.

This time, Michi and Ayai exchanged a look.

"What?" asked Sakura, not liking how the two of them seemed to have some sort of secret that she didn't know.

"He did send a message," said Michi eventually. "But..."

"Michi, you are killing me with the pauses," Sakura growled.

"He said that you were taking too long, and that he was taking Buta because you obviously needed some motivation," said Ayai. "He said to tell you that when you had the monster, you could come in to Neurix to trade."

Michi glared at Ayai, but she simply leaned back against the dresser and gave Sakura a look. In the end, Michi looked back to see Sakura's reaction too.

For a moment, Sakura's mind was completely blank. Then:

"What day is it?"

Michi told her.

Sakura thought for a moment.

"I was out for three days," she said. "The monster...the monster!"

"We took care of it," said Ayai, uncrossing her arms and looking up. "When Mr. Arakawa first contacted me about the papers, I had been skeptical. But the more he sent me, the less fanciful it became...and now, well..."

She let the end of her sentence hang in the air.

"So the papers..."

"I'll still need to look over them. There's quite a lot," said Ayai. She then looked very pointedly at Sakura.

"He mentioned you were the one to get them. How exactly did you do that?"

Sakura ignored the question.

"How soon can you get on working on the monster body?"

"I'm sorry, monster body?" said Ayai, narrowing her eyes. "Not corpse?"

"It's still alive," Sakura confirmed.

"You're telling me I have live chimera in my guest room right now?" said Ayai, stepping closer to Sakura. "An actual, live monster in my-"

"Are you two done testing at each other?" Michi snapped. "So we can focus on the issue of Bunta being kidnapped right now?"

The girls glared at each other for a moment. Ayai was the first to look away.

"I'll be in the kitchen," she muttered, heading to the door. "If anyone here, in my apartment, actually wants to tell me what the hell is going on!"

She slammed the door on her way out.

"Why are we trusting her?" said Sakura as soon as she was gone. "We don't know if she-"

"Because Bunta trusted her," Michi snapped.

Sakura was forced to admit that he had brought up a good point.

"Not to mention the fact that she let me stay here with her while I was practically homeless AGAIN, despite the fact that I did not tell her anything more about what it was that we were doing. Or why I was receiving threatening calls from some foreigner. Or why the person she had been talking to was taken away by the police." Michi was on a roll now. "Because, oh yeah, apparently Jason is officially a police officer now, that's a new development. And then she helps me when I get a call at six am in the goddamn morning, to find you in some sewer, bleeding to death and-"

"I'm sorry," said Sakura quietly.

Michi blinked in surprise, then bit back the rest of what he was going to say. He was surprised to find himself standing, panting as he had been yelling at Sakura.

"I'm sorry for making you worry," Sakura added. Her face was burning with shame.

Michi seemed at a loss for what to say.

"Why...why didn't you tell me?" he ended up saying.

"I...I didn't want you to worry," said Sakura, ears burning. She knew that answer would make Michi mad, and braced herself for the oncoming rage.

But it never came.

Instead, she felt him take her hand. She looked up, to find his face streaming with tears.

"I'd rather worry and know where you are, than worry and think you're dead," said Michi. "Don't you understand that?"

For some reason, Sakura felt like there was something stuck in her throat. She tried to say something, but all that came out was a small sob.

Suddenly, she was crying too, and hugging Michi, holding him tight.

"I was so scared," she cried into his shoulder. "I didn't know what was happening, or how long I was there."

"You're okay now," said Michi. "You're safe."

The two cried together for a while, safe in each others' company.

A couple of hours later, Sakura walked into the kitchen. She found Ayai there, chopping up some spring onions angrily. The scent of beef stock boiling slowly wafted towards Sakura, making her mouth water despite the fact that she had just eaten.

"Hey," she said, awkwardly.

"Here for food?" asked Ayai without turning around. She angrily shoved the spring onions to the side, and started cutting up some ginger.

"I came to apologize," said Sakura. "I...you've been through a lot it looks like. I'm sorry for being such a b**** about it."

Ayai stopped chopping up ginger. She sighed, and looked up, then turned around to face Sakura.

"If it were up to me, you'd be in the hospital right now," she said, pointing her knife at Sakura. "Those wounds are freaky, and I'm not a doctor. I only know basic first aid, and that doesn't cover how to bandage face wounds. That means you're probably gonna end up with a bunch of scars. For life."

Well. That wasn't something Sakura wanted to hear. She had spent a lot to get the body of her dreams, and scars had not been a part of that plan.

But that didn't really matter.

"I know," said Sakura. "And I know Michi didn't tell you stuff because of me. The thing is..."

Sakura hesitated a moment before going on.

"You've seen how dangerous our world is," said Sakura. "Bunta got captured. Monsters are real. This isn't something you can take lightly once you're in."

"But I am now, aren't I?" said Ayai. "I can't just forget everything I've seen."

"But you can," said Sakura. "If you wanted to. If you want to leave, and have nothing to do with this, then we'll respect that. Michi and I will leave as soon as we can, and you'll never hear from us ever again."

Ayai bit her lip, frowning. Sakura felt a pang of annoyance as she noticed how cute she was even when her forehead was creased. How did she manage to be so buff and so cute at the same time?

"I'll...think about it," she said. Then, after a moment.

"Thank you," she said. "For trusting me enough to make my own decision."

Sakura smiled, despite her mixed emotions.

"It's not like I had a choice," she said.

"You did," said Ayai, turning back to chop her ginger. "But the fact that you felt like you didn't makes me think you might not be as big of a b**** as I thought you were."

"Uh...thanks."

Ayai chopped up some more ginger as Sakura stood awkwardly in the kitchen.

"Don't you have something else to do?" Ayai suddenly asked.

For a moment, Sakura froze. No. It was just a coincidence. She shook her head, clearing it.

"Right," she said, turning and leaving the kitchen. "We need to save Bunta."

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Chapter end