Chapter 147: Nejire?

Upon finishing his bath, Kai left the “medical room”, finding himself in a wide, white, well-lit hall that had different numbered metal doors and was connected to a corridor ending in a flight of stairs leading upward. Kai climbed them, lost in thought.

Pacts were truly powerful and useful, possessing the ability not only to enhance a skill depending on how risky and restrictive they were. But even allowing Kai to do things he normally could not or did not know how to do, such as wielding the sword [Secrets Keeper], capable of blocking clairvoyance. But since it was directly proportional, there were limits.

In the case of [Secrets Keeper], for example, although Kai initially had some ideas on how to achieve the effect he wanted, he really had no certainty, so he had to use a pact. But because it was not excessively restrictive, he had to study in detail not only his own clairvoyance abilities through Haki and Nen, but also Tomoko’s quirk and others’, raising his own skill level to the minimum necessary for the pact to be sufficient.

For the same reason, Kai and Sage theorized that the reason they could not develop teleportation abilities or the like was because their knowledge and skill level were far too distant from the goal—so much so that not even using highly restrictive and risky pacts would make it possible. Therefore, they needed functional examples to study them and, hopefully, reach the minimum threshold.

…

After walking through a small, dimly lit hallway guarded by different security cameras and sturdy metal doors that opened as he passed. The hallway ended at a wall that automatically slid aside like a door for him to go through, Kai arrived once again at his beloved workshop. The moment he stepped in, the wall slid back into place so seamlessly that it was almost impossible to detect anything unusual.

After checking his workshop one last time, Kai left it, then stretched lazily. By force of habit, he extended his Observation Haki to scan the surroundings, which allowed him to sense a familiar “voice” far off in the forest. This confused him so much that he couldn’t help but murmur to himself.

“Nejire?”

Without giving it much thought, Kai headed in the direction where he sensed Nejire’s “voice”, quickly crossing through the forest until he reached a small clearing. There, he found the beautiful light-blue-haired girl lying on the ground, staring at the stars with a vacant gaze and red eyes. She was hugging her cat-shaped Accomplice tightly and wearing a blue pajama set of pants and shirt.

“What happened to you? Did someone do something to you?”

Kai asked as he approached Nejire, who turned her head to look at him and fell silent for a moment. By the time Kai got to her side and sat on the ground, she finally spoke.

“Kai… Did you know about Dad?” After a few minutes of silence, Nejire asked in a broken voice, which inevitably made Kai sigh. Shortly after, he nodded and spoke in a serious tone.

“Yes, I was one of the first to know.”

“Why didn’t you tell me…?” Nejire asked, tears falling from her face, feeling hurt. In response, Kai asked while looking at her straight in the eyes.

“Because it was better for Aunt Yumiko to be the one to tell you. Or tell me, if our roles were reversed, would you have told me?”

“…”

Faced with the question, Nejire could only remain silent. She then turned back to look at the sky, letting out sobs full of pain. Kai could only sigh and begin to gently stroke her head until, after a while, she started speaking again in a voice trembling and filled with pure sorrow.

“…My dad betrayed us, Kai… He wants to take everything from us… He’s one of those damned traitors you hate so much… Now I understand why you lost control of your powers that day… You wanted to finish him off, didn’t you?”

“…Yes. There’s no point in lying. Even now, I think he doesn’t deserve to go on breathing. But I won’t do anything to him. I promised I wouldn’t.”

Kai replied in a serious, solemn tone, never stopping the gentle caress on Nejire’s hair. She took his hand, then pressed it firmly against her chest, her eyes squeezed shut as she began to speak in a soft, halting tone.

“Kai… I don’t know what to feel… From the start, I knew Dad had done something to Mom, but I never imagined he could be such a ruthless, lying person… I loved him, but he wants to take everything from us.

“He wants to take away all of Mom’s life’s work with his lover’s help… He’s despicable… and I can’t hate him… I only feel afraid… Kai… I’m afraid that everything around me is a lie, that one day, everyone will turn against me and betray me the way he did… that one day even you will do something like that to me…”

Hearing the emotion-laden words from Nejire, Kai let out a heavy sigh as his mind drifted into his own experiences—back to the day he lost everything, to the fear and helplessness he felt when he was thrown out like a dog from the very company he had built with his own hands, how everyone who knew him abandoned him, which ultimately led him down a self-destructive spiral that left him in the most miserable state possible.

But now, after so much time and a reincarnation, Kai knew that the scariest part was not losing everything, nor discovering that the people he loved had betrayed him, nor failing at everything he did. No, the most terrifying thing was that, after all that, he became unable to connect with other people, constantly terrified that the same thing would happen again. Convinced that everyone would betray him at some point, and therefore the safest path was to remain alone.

“‘The worst part of betrayal is that it never comes from an enemy’—it’s a cliché and somewhat silly phrase, but in a way it encapsulates perfectly how painful betrayal is. Apart from the initial loss, it always leaves an indelible wound. And the more you cared for the rat that betrayed you, the deeper the wound, to the point that you might go your entire life without ever being the same person you once were…”

Kai spoke in a deep, somewhat melancholic tone as he gazed at the stars, causing Nejire to open her eyes and turn to look at him. She then asked him softly, almost whispering, and laden with all sorts of emotions.

“Kai… do you trust us?”

Hearing the question, Kai could only let out a bitter smile while looking at the stars. Then he took a deep breath and turned to look into Nejire’s beautiful, tear-filled blue eyes. His voice came out almost defenseless, with a hint of guilt.

“…You’re really perceptive… and to be honest, for me it’s impossible to ‘trust’ anyone. I’m absolutely convinced that at some point you and everyone else will end up betraying me…”

“But we would never…” Nejire tried to argue in a trembling voice, hurt by those words, but Kai shook his head and cut her off.

“Everyone is a good person until the day they stop being one. And even if you ask the worst villains, rats, and traitors out there, I’m sure most would give you endless reasons, justifications, and excuses for their actions because it’s easier to be the victim. The majority want to be seen that way, even if they’re the perpetrators. Those who assume guilt and consequences for their actions are a tiny minority.”

“So you don’t love us…?”

Nejire asked in a voice almost guttural from the pain, filled with a profound sense of disappointment and betrayal. Kai could only reply bitterly as he lifted his head to look again at the starry sky.

“Didn’t I just tell you? The worst part of betrayal is that it never leaves you. So even if I want to, I can’t stop seeing everyone around me—even those I love from the bottom of my heart—as potential traitors, people who at some point will sell me out for a few coins.”

The more Kai spoke, the more painful Nejire’s crying became, sobs trembling sadly as tears poured down her cheeks like waterfalls. That led Kai to look at her again, and he gently extended his free hand toward her cheek to wipe away her tears while continuing in a warm tone.

“Still, even though I carry that with me and probably will until my last day, I don’t want some rat to have that much influence over my life. So I decided to find a way to deal with myself and with the people I love, which led to imposing a rule upon myself—or something like a personal vow.

“Those whom I love and who I can see love me, who strive for my well-being, have a free pass to betray me. And no matter what happens, I won’t complain. I’ll just walk away, never to see them again. That way, I could ‘trust’ again because even though I ‘know’ they’ll betray me at some point, they have my permission to do so, and therefore it’s not really betrayal. They simply failed a ‘test’. And since I’m ‘testing’ them, they need to know me and have the ‘opportunity to fail’. So practically speaking, it’s the same as trusting—I just twist it a bit.

“That’s why I can tell you and the whole family: I don’t trust you, but I give you something even more important to me. I give you permission to betray me once, at the mere cost of never seeing me again for the rest of your lives. And well, if you’ve already decided to ‘betray me’, never seeing me again is more like a reward, so in a way, it would be my thanks and payment for everything you’ve done for me. From that moment on, we’d be nothing but strangers.”

“…”

Kai’s words were met by Nejire’s pained sobs. She used one of her hands to push off and throw herself at Kai’s chest, hugging him with all her might and burying her face against him, at which point her beautiful blue Accomplice vanished. Immediately, her sobs became cries of pain, helplessness, and rage.

Kai, for his part, gently wrapped his arms around Nejire’s back and began softly stroking it in silence, letting her release all her pent-up emotions. After a while, he could hear Nejire’s hoarse voice asking him in an almost exhausted tone.

“Why does it have to be like this…?”

“Because that’s life. But don’t focus on that—don’t let yourself become someone as pitiful and pathetic as I am. You’re better than that.” Kai replied calmly, never stopping his gentle caresses on Nejire’s back. She clenched her fists, grabbing his clothes, and spoke angrily.

“My Kai is the best in the world. I won’t allow you to say something like that.”

Hearing Nejire’s words, a warm and loving smile inevitably formed on Kai’s lips. He tightened his embrace slightly and then gave her a tender kiss on her light-blue hair, speaking with warmth and affection.

“Thank you. And you know, I’m sure you’ll overcome this. Soon you’ll show the world your beautiful smile again. You’re [Nejire-chan], the heroine who saves the world with the most beautiful smile of all.”

In response to Kai’s words, Nejire made a small sound of assent while nodding her head, keeping her face buried in Kai’s chest. That began a long silence in which she cried quietly, while Kai gently stroked her back. Finally, after a while, Nejire started speaking again in a soft, hoarse voice.

“…You know, I feel like a fool. I always thought Dad had simply gotten himself a mistress, and although it hurt me to see Mom suffer so much, I was sure that with time she would forgive him, and everything would go back to how it was. After all, men are like that. They can’t help themselves when they see a pretty woman.

“Even when Mom started telling me what happened, I could only feel a secret happiness when I heard that I was going to have a younger brother or sister. I even began to think of ways to convince Mom to accept the baby and his mother and have us all live together as one big family—imagining how I would raise my new sibling along with Momo and you.

“But he’s trash. He wants to destroy us so he can have his new family. He doesn’t want us—maybe he never did. And I will never forgive him for trying to take away the company my mom loves so much, just to give it to that woman… It hurts so much, Kai… It hurts that I took Dad’s side first, instead of Mom’s… I’m a horrible person.”

Nejire inevitably started to cry again, and Kai held her a little tighter before speaking in a calm, understanding voice.

“You’re not a bad person. You just see things from a different perspective. And if, for you, infidelity isn’t that serious, it’s just something personal to you—though try not to impose that on others. Also, not all men are like that, trust me.

“As for feeling happy about having a sibling, there’s no reason to feel guilty. I don’t know what it’s like to have siblings, and since I’ll never be able to have them, I gave up hope. But at one point, I did have the dream of having one. Being an only child is quite lonely.”

Hearing the unmistakable bitterness in Kai’s voice when he mentioned that he could no longer have siblings, Nejire instinctively clutched Kai’s sports jacket tightly and fell silent for a moment. But after a small sigh, she spoke in her hoarse voice from all the crying.

“You can’t have siblings anymore, but you can have lots of children…”

***

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