"Alright, let's try it again Guide. Boot it up!"

'Yes sir.'

Kuro's environment turns dark. From around him, multiple humanoid figures surround him, wielding weapons, some have swords, some have bows and some have shields and maces.

Kuro positions himself, with his left leg behind him and his blade sheathed on his left hip with his left hand holding the blade tightly to the point of bleeding, with his blood acting as a catalyst, making the blade blood red.

The battle starts with one of the figures lunging at him with a mace. Kuro, with his eyes closed, dodges to his right and then stepping forward as another figure tries to stab him. Kuro then steps back as he stabs the figure behind him with his sword, disintegrating it and avoiding another mace strike from a figure in front of him.

"One!"

Kuro unsheathes his sword, making his left hand bleed as he swings his sword left to right. However, the sword emits a sound as if metal had struck metal. The figure had blocked his attack with its shield, but that one simple swing made it crack in an instant due to Kuro's enhanced blade. Sadly, the blade's stuck onto the shield.

With that, the figures take advantage of that and dash onto Kuro. Kuro retracts his blade by dispersing the top half of the blade, then he rotates around with mana already shining the barrier blade.

'Moon style: Full Moon!'

In an instant, all the figures without shields were slashed and turned into dust. Those with shields were pushed back, however, Kuro had no plans of resting for a moment. Kuro prepares his sword like a rapier, and thrusts it with mana.

'Moon style: New Moon!'

In an instant, each of the figures' shields were pierced through, killing them and making them turn into dust as well.

"Hoo... Tiring."

Kuro sits down on his butt with his blade retracted.

"As I thought, Dragon Slayer magic is tiring to use."

'Indeed. You need constantly expend mana to gain Dragon mana and use that as well after all.'

"Haa... Annoying... This wouldn't be possible if you weren't around."

'Of course sir, after all, I manage most of your mana circulation AND your battles. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here at all, you would be dead.'

"True... I really need to stop depending on you at times, or you would control my life like it's some sort of AI conspiracy shit."

'You know I would never do that.'

"Well, I still trust you, but I just hate being useless."

Suddenly, a bush near him starts rustling unnaturally. Kuro immediately transforms his hands and destroys the bush... Only to find a sleeping child and a certain scarred wolf [1] around it.

"You... You're from that time?!"

The child slowly awakened from Kuro's incessant screaming at the wolf. As she sees him, she becomes scared.

"Hey hey hey woah woah! I won't hurt you or your friend here... Where's your family-"

As Kuro tries to reach for her, she hides behind the wolf, slowly awakening the wolf as well. As the wolf sees him, it licks Kuro's face.

"Ah hey- THAT HURTS! Geez, they weren't lying when they said their tongues are sharp."

As the child sees Kuro's interaction with the wolf, she sits down. Suddenly, her stomach rumbles loudly.

"Errmm... Wanna eat? I can catch us some food if you want. For the both of you of course, I can cook well too! You in?"

Kuro smiles gently as he holds out his hand, waiting for the child's response. As she was too hungry, she had no other choice but to accept his welcome. The moment she held his hand, Kuro pulls her in, making her sit in his shoulder while the wolf is under his arm.

"Well now, since both of y'all are tired, I'm gonna put you 2 at the porch. Stay there for me, okay?"

As the child nods, Kuro pats her and the wolf's heads. Kuro then casts a barrier around the house [2], protecting the child and the wolf within it. As Kuro walks far away from the house, Kuro then exerts mana around him. Not too much that'd scare other monsters, but not too little that they'd disregard the prey. Rumbles come in and show up, messing up the trees and bushes around them.

The child get scared, but then, Kuro takes his sword from the ground and prepares himself.

'Moon style: Full Moon.'

In a flash, all the monsters around him get sliced in half, instantly dying. Kuro stops exerting mana as he looks back to the child to see her surprised face.

"You like that? Wait up for a bit, I'll cook us up some nice meal."

Kuro then takes his pouch, but he suddenly remembers something.

"Shit, this isn't enchanted to the point that it can hold up this much huh... Hey, both of you! Make sure you're REALLY hungry, we're gonna feast on all of this!"

Kuro laughs upon looking at the amount of food he'll have to cook while the wolf's ears and tail wags and the kid's wings flap.

"Wait, wings? Flap? You're-!"

Immediately, the kid gets scared from Kuro's reaction.

"Ah-! Sorry sorry, I must have startled you there. I'll just... Keep my distance until I cook up some food."

Kuro goes inside the house to get his condiments such as spices and oil. Skinning off the monsters' skins, scales, plating and fur, Kuro then proceeds to hang them like wet clothes on a rack by shaping his barrier like a rack in order to drain the blood. Kuro creates another barrier and shapes it as a bowl in order to gather the blood.

Kuro then cuts up one of the trees tumbled by the monsters from before and turns it into firewood. After gulping a mana potion, Kuro then takes up a huge chunk of meat of a Gigapede. Without any blood that needs to be drained, Kuro slices it into cubes and places each one into another barrier which is above the burning wood, with its design being similar to a barbeque stand. Its oil oozes out as it sizzles more and more, making the 2 gulp with its smell being overpowering.

Kuro then takes up a small bowl and scoops up the Deathboar's blood with it. With a fork, Kuro takes up a cube and dips them into the blood before grilling them back again. He does this with every cube.

"No touching both of you, I'll be right back."

Kuro runs quickly, getting 3 plates and 2 pairs of spoon and fork, as he knows they wouldn't hold themselves for far too long. He comes back just in time to stop them from even getting close.

"Geez luiz both of you. Alright! It's almost done. I'll be getting the food now."

Upon handing out the Gigapede barbeque, Kuro runs to the kitchen once more in order to grab some more condiments. Ones that are needed to make sweet and spicy sauce. Upon arriving, the 2 were already gulping down the food like it was nothing. Immediately, Kuro puts down his ingredients and runs back to the kitchen to get 2 cups and a big bowl. As he comes back, Kuro opens up his water jug on his waist and pours down water for the both of them.

As they drunk down the water, Kuro started making the sauce whilst flipping each of the Gigapede cubes.

'Wait, why am I torturing myself to cook food?'

But, as Kuro asks himself that, he looks at the child and the wolf, eating the food. Savoring the oozing oil, the juicy well-cooked meat of the Gigapede makes it seem like it were a real pork barbeque instead of a huge monstrous insect. However, above all, one particular thing stood out. And it's the fact that they're happy eating the food he himself cooked.

'Maybe it's for the best.'

Kuro feigned ignorance and continued cooking (torturing) himself. Looking behind him, he notices that some of the meat had their blood mostly drained out. Kuro takes out one of the Deathboar's meat and beats it with his barrier covered fists to avoid getting his dirty hands on it. By beating the meat, the blood is drained out and the meat is tenderized.

The child and the wolf is amazed at Kuro's speed, being able to beat his meat while being able to cook more Gigapede barbeques. 

"Heh, if you think that's tasty, this will be even more!"

Grabbing both cornstarch and flour that was in the kitchen, Kuro then mixes them both along with butter and some Angel Cow's milk in a separate container. Kuro then slices the Deathboar's meat into smaller strips, dips them in the makeshift buttermilk and the cornstarch and flour mix. Then, Kuro pours in a lot of oil in the pan-shaped barrier and carefully places the meat in order to ensure that the breading won't be removed.

"AH GEEZ LUIZ THAT FUCKING SCARED ME!"

The popping scalds Kuro for a bit before making sure he's well protected. Drinking more mana potions again, Kuro proceeds to do the same for the rest of the meat, flipping each one in order to cook all of the sides perfectly and to not burn any of the sides.

Then, Kuro gets a pressure cooker from the kitchen and puts water in it, along with the Deathboar belly meat. After lighting up the fire under it, Kuro runs back to the kitchen to get a huge pot. As he went outside, Kuro then grabs some of the old vegetables they planted in the past. Picking out the best ones, Kuro comes back to his cooking station and proceeds to chop up the vegetables he harvested. Putting some of the water in the jug attached to his waist to the pot, he begins to put in the necessary ingredients for his hometown's food, such as water spinach, chopped up white and long radish, ripe tomatoes, and finally, some green peppers and chopped up onions.

Finally, as the broth was still being slow cooked and the meat was pressurized, Kuro sees the fried Deathboar meat fully cooked. Kuro takes it out and puts it on their plate.

"Wait, why are you 2 close to me? Must be real hungry, the both of you huh. Come, I'll give it to you 2."

Suddenly, someone appears from the woods. In an instant, Kuro grabs his hilt, pushes the 2 behind him, activates his sword and takes up a battle stance.

"Who is it?!"

"Kuro! Surprising how you haven't gotten weaker. Is it me or did you get stronger?"

"Hah. You scared me, Miss Karin."

Kuro deactivates his sword and places it down.

"I didn't know you can cook."

"Well, I can only cook a little. Mainly, the easy ones like this."

"What's that?"

As she points to the pot that was whistling a little, Kuro panics a bit.

"Oops, hold on."

Kuro then weakens the heat being exerted under the pot of broth by weakening the fire under it.

"Alright, so uhh, this is a pressure cooker. It helps make the meat softer to the point that it becomes a melt-in-your-mouth kind of experience. It uses the pressure being exerted from evaporated water and its vapor in order to soften it up."

"Hoo... I didn't know that. Where'd you learn it?"

"From my family. We ARE a pretty closed village after all, so I can't blame you if you didn't know that. It was something my Dad taught up when one of my first tooth fell off because of the tough food."

"Hmm... Must have been a caring family huh."

"Yeah... Indeed."

'I can't really tell her that I was the one who suggested it in the past using my knowledge.'

As the whistling of the pressure cooker finally die down, Kuro opens it up and pours in the heavily softened pork to the broth that was being slow cooked. As he mixes it, the strong smell coming from the pot makes even Karin's stomach rumble.

"Okay Miss, uhh, if you go inside, there'll be a kitchen if you go straight 5 doors ahead. You can get a huge bowl there, along with some spoons and forks."

Kuro: 'Is there rice here though? I gotta try it out next time.'

As Karin heads on inside, she sees their open rooms. Bea's room being the first, she could see that the rooms was well maintained and well cleaned. Her room was quite girlish too, with a sweet scent still remaining, albeit barely any left. Levy's room was pretty normal, except for the fact that there was a huge and tough container hanging from the ceiling. It was something Karin had never seen before, but she had a feeling it would be a good thing to punch it. As she punches it, she felt that it was hard, but it wasn't to the point that it hurts her too much as well. Looking inside, it was filled with sand for some reason.

Going to the next room, she saw it was Kenny's room. It was also pretty normal. Gran's room however, was pretty open, having a much bigger window than all the others. It wasn't even a window, it looked to be a door to another porch outside. It felt eastern. As she looks at Kuro's room however... It was messy. Unlike the others' rooms, Kuro's room had its blanket torn apart in the lower half. Not only that, but some of his pillows were even about to fall off the bed. But even then, the other parts of the interior was the most minimal out of all, having only a book about magic.

Finally coming back with a plate, Kuro had finished the finishing touches of his food.

"So, how was the museum of our rooms?"

"Well... Yours was certainly unexpected."

"Can't be helped. Mine is the only one that's used as of the moment."

"I've been meaning to ask... Who built this house? And who owns it?"

"Rai. Remember? He's our mentor."

"Ah... So that's why..."

"Come, bring your bowl. I'll give you some porridge."

The sour smell coming from the food frightens all 3 of them for a moment, but as they bite in into the meat, they couldn't stop eating. Kuro, happy with the results, also took some food he spared and ate alongside them.

"You know, I never expected you to know how to cook food, especially delicious ones like these!"

"Well, being a leader figure makes you learn a lot of things. To be honest, I didn't want to be a leader, but after seeing my friends, I told myself 'Fine, just a bit.' and what do you know, I'm already their permanent leader."

"Well that's a weird method of even becoming one."

"I know right? But, they're my only family left. The rest... I don't know what happened."

"Ah, right. You guys were the last survivors... Wait, what do you mean 'the rest'?"

"Ah, well, we aren't the only ones to escape. There were still some children and 2 adults that remained. We had to split off, else that monster would kill all of us. One of the adults there told me she'd signal us to meet in the place she fired a signal. Sadly, that never came around."

"Hmm, but that doesn't mean they are dead, right?"

"I know. We have no confirmation, nor do they even have any confirmations, so I believe that they're still alive, same with them to us."

"... Sorry if this will be uncomfortable, but can I ask... What did the monster look like?"

Kuro carefully places down his food.

"Ah! I'm sorry, do-"

"Nah nah, it's cool. I was just deciding if I should tell you or not."

As Kuro wonders to himself some more, he sighs.

"Aight, fuck it. As if telling you would make things bad. That monster's a Dragonkin, AND he's a purple one at that."

"P-purple?"

"Yeah..."

Kuro's pupils became slit as he stares into her eyes. The wolf and the child suddenly get scared at this sight, and Karin was no different.

'Wha- what is this?! This killing intent... If I make a mistake here, he could kill me even if I'm not involved!'

The weight of Kuro's pressure was different from when she first saw him. It was even more than when he first attacked the barrier when Kuro and Zane first fought. It really seemed as if he can kill her now.

"Unless of course... You know about it?"

Karin gulps down as fear keeps on strangling her.

"Yeah... I saw someone with purple hair when I left the school-"

"Wait, you left the school? Like, temporary or permanent?"

"Eh?- I mean, yeah, permanently."

"What... Well, that's your choice anyways. Can't control you or anything. So, what's your plan now?"

"Hmm... I don't know, maybe open up a shop?"

"Can I give you an idea for that?"

"Hmm?"

"Well, since you still have no idea about what to put up, how about I help you?"

"What about school?"

"Meh, I'm bored. And besides, I need someone else to take care of this kid and the wolf."

Kuro caresses the heads of the now-calm pair.

"I see... Then, what are we-"

"Well, we'll think about it. For now... Do you know where we can keep this much extra meat?"

Kuro points to the meat that's being hanged.

"Lucky for you, I brought my storage ring."

She stores the meat in her ring. Luckily, all the excess meat was stored.

"Alright! I'll go fix myself up now. Let's decide where we'll make the store once we're at the city... Yeah, I'll have to pick some clothes for the kid too. Come with me."

As Kuro carries the wolf and the kid inside the house, clueless as to what they'll do, Karin finally loosened up.

"GAH... HAH... HAH... That... Kuro, WHAT are you? And how do you possess such eyes?"

Karin could still remember clearly the fear she got from his eyes, his deep red eyes that had no qualms about killing her. She shakes her head, deciding it would be best to always be on guard around him. She waits with unease as Kuro takes a bath and cleans the kid and the wolf.

"STAY STILL YA BASTARDS!"

 

Chapter 29 -END-

[1] This is the wolf he fought as a child

[2] This is the house where Rai, Kuro and his friends lived and trained in in the past.