Chapter 261: Stalker
“Creak—”
The heavy wooden door, characteristic of medieval Europe, was slowly opened, and the expressionless black-haired girl walked out of the exquisite small restaurant, carrying her handbag. Kazumi took out her mobile phone from her pocket to check the time, then looked back at the building behind her. She slowly lowered the hand holding her phone and walked away with her head down.
Kazumi felt that the situation had gone a bit beyond her expectations, but in the end, it was due to the disparity in information that the newly acquired information completely exceeded her imagination.
She had to admit that the words Black River Iori had told Kazumi contained too much important information. Even without considering the hidden meanings behind each sentence, the content the other party originally wanted to express had already made Kazumi’s emotionless heart boil countless times.
“My parents are high-level researchers in the [Dark] Organization? And this drug that can stimulate people’s abilities was developed by them? Then what is the organization’s purpose in mass-producing dark ability users? Were my parents’ deaths a coincidence?”
“Is Uncle Fukada protecting me only because he wants me to live a normal life? As a researcher of this level, will they leave something for me?”
Kazumi gripped the strap of her handbag and strolled leisurely on the path by the roadside, but her delicate eyebrows were tightly furrowed.
The girl was not a heartless person. Perhaps Su Xun was, but Kazumi Shimizu was definitely not.
In Kazumi’s view, even though the previous host girl was influenced by uncontrollable abilities, hurt by the miserable childhood of being abandoned by her parents, and protected herself with a cold and indifferent shell in the dark corners, she had never given up her pursuit of beautiful brightness. And that boy, who shone like the sun, was the most precious ray of light shining into the girl’s dark world.
In comparison, the impact of her abilities on Kazumi now might be much greater than before. Perhaps it was because he had not undergone the tempering of the Hero world, so his willpower was not as firm as the girl’s, or perhaps Kazumi now was not resisting or actively using this power, but more so, it was the pathological pursuit of power after the soul, suppressed and confined by the chaotic social morality, was freed from its restraints.
She might be a born villain.
Kazumi was a selfish person. The girl would readily accept the power increase and various conveniences brought by her undead abilities, but precisely because of this, the girl could not tolerate the various drawbacks caused by the lack of emotions after completely abandoning them.
Pain was a function produced by living organisms to protect themselves. It was precisely because of the sensation of pain that living organisms would feel harm and avoid danger. In Kazumi’s opinion, the function of emotions was exactly like this. Timidity, caution, and worry were all forms of emotion.
Indeed, machine-like thinking had unique advantages, but pursuing the stripping of emotions without the precise thinking speed of a machine was, in Kazumi’s opinion, like courting death.
And if she truly reached the state of complete undead transformation, the end result would be that she would be directly killed by the heroes who arrived after slaughtering civilians on a large scale.
Based on Kazumi’s current understanding of herself, Shinichi Sato was one of the few who could awaken the emotions within the girl. Her gloomy and calm emotions always dispersed like sunlight when she met the boy, making the girl feel the unique taste of human emotions every time.
And the other point that could awaken her emotions was: Kazumi Shimizu’s parents.
Although the effect was unfortunately not as good as that of a certain blonde, when it came to her parents, the emotions hidden in the girl’s heart would rarely fluctuate.
Therefore, whether it was her obsession with the deep-seated emotions of the previous host or to better integrate with this body, or to gain some benefits to improve herself, Kazumi was very willing to understand the story behind this dark and cold little girl.
Although she, a grown man, could not fulfill the previous host’s wish of falling in love, she was willing to avenge the body’s owner within the scope of her abilities. After all, she had taken over someone else’s body, so she should bear some responsibility, that’s what a man does.
However, neither of them would probably want this.
“Will the abilities I have be related to Kazumi Shimizu’s parents? It seems I still need to find time to ask Uncle Fukada.”
“Karu now attributes my abilities to the contingency left by my parents. This is good news. I exposed too many abilities before because of that bitch. This way, I can slightly increase the upper limit of the abilities I display and slowly disguise it as ability growth.”
“The potion can stimulate abilities, but the side effect is death. But Little Black also underwent such a change after eating the potion. Death as a side effect is almost useless to undead. So, can I get more to try to strengthen my subordinates? Even if it has side effects on undead creatures, the current subordinates are all expendable cannon fodder.”
After briefly organizing the temporary information in her mind, Kazumi shifted her focus of thought to another direction.
“As I thought, Karu has the ability to disguise itself as others, but the ability to create a persona with shallow memories is too powerful. In this case…”
Karu’s abilities were very strong, even excessively strong. Not to mention the disguise of the main body, which was almost flawless, the “puppet” ability that had just explained to Kazumi was already beyond what Kazumi had thought. Replicas with shallow memories were, in a sense, no different from the main body, not to mention the suggestive and manipulative control methods.
Kazumi herself had thought of countless ways to manipulate it in just this short period, and this was only the ability that Black River Iori was willing to reveal to her, which meant that his trump cards were far stronger than he appeared to be.
And with an organization that had almost strategic-level disguise and the black mist that could control people’s minds, they had been suppressed by heroes for so long. From this, one could infer how powerful the Hero Association was now, and how powerful the hero who stood at the top without any controversy was.
“The shallow memory replicas would make the same choices as the original person, and the puppet at that time failed for some reason.”
Black River Iori’s words echoed in her mind again. Perhaps because she was thinking in this direction again, the girl’s thoughts involuntarily started to deviate in a strange direction. The emotions displayed by the puppet at that time were definitely real, otherwise Kazumi would not have believed the other party foolishly in that situation.
And the point of mental breakdown they estimated should have been when [Kagemori] maliciously gave him a dagger. After all, compared to being pushed off a cliff, this kind of test of humanity seemed more logical.
Human nature could not withstand testing. Even Kazumi had felt a chill in her heart at that time. She had never doubted the other party’s feelings for her when she was using the boy, but sacrificing one’s life for the person one loved, in Kazumi’s opinion, only happened in those beautiful fairy tales.
This was also why Kazumi was willing to show him her abilities later. Perhaps it was due to the surge of emotions caused by the battle, but more importantly, she was moved by this incredibly foolish guy. And later, Shinichi Sato’s reaction was that he accepted her almost without any resistance, instead showing a look of pity.
Of course, all of this was in the past for Kazumi. She had been moved at the time, but after realizing that it was all just a manipulated puppet, that trace of gratitude was suppressed in Kazumi’s heart. More importantly, she was fortunate that her abilities had not been exposed in front of the real dog. But now, Black River Iori’s words had reactivated Kazumi’s dormant heart.
“Does that mean he is willing to accept my abilities…”
Reaching the key point, the girl stopped in her tracks, tapping her chin with her fingers as she pondered carefully. However, a faint rustling sound from the distance interrupted Kazumi’s thoughts.
“Who!”
No longer caring about the previous questions, the girl instantly assumed a defensive posture. The skull phantom in her hand reappeared, and the Black Coffin, hidden in another dimension, was ready to unleash its power, staring intently at the rustling green plants nearby.
“Is it someone from the Heroes Association? Has [Shell]’s identity been exposed? The reason for not acting is to draw out the person behind me? I need to notify [Shell]. This is not far from the school, so I absolutely cannot expose my abilities here.”
The death aura flowed constantly within her body, but Kazumi was quickly analyzing the current situation. No matter what, someone had followed her immediately after her secret meeting with Black River Iori. It seemed she had to retract her previous evaluation of Black River Iori’s perfect disguise.
“……”
Silent silence spread through the space, but Kazumi made no move, maintaining her defensive posture and looking at the grass in front of her. The originally quiet bushes rustled again. The dense leaves were pushed aside by the movement of something, and a human-like shadow emerged on the surface.
And just as the girl’s Black Coffin was about to break out of the ground, a familiar golden head emerged from the grass, its usually sunny face wearing an extremely embarrassed and strange expression.
“Ka… Kazumi…”
(Ps: Resumed updating. Hmm, please give some recommendations and reviews. I will update diligently next month. Starting today, I will update twice a day. If there is no update, please enter the reader group and @ me to urge me to update QAQ.)
