Book 2: Chapter 19 (1/2)

“Hakaru?” her voice came over the telephone with a curious tone.

It was Sunday, one day left before I went to school and started my plan to earn the credit I needed to save my sister. However, I was antsy and thus decided to try to settle a few other issues and get my cards in order. First off was Akiko, who I had never ended things with completely. I didn’t know if I could deactivate my locked promise over the phone, but I should have been able to. Either way, I didn’t want to see her in person anymore, and talking over the phone seemed the best way to resolve the issue.

“Yeah, it’s me.” I responded, “I heard that you dumped Derek.”

There was silence on the phone for a moment. “I realized… that he wasn’t the one for me.”

“Yeah… I know. You couldn’t wait to suck Jack’s dick, right?”

“It isn’t like that!” Akiko’s voice sounded angry. “What Jack and I have is…”

“He’s manipulating you, you know?” I snorted, not really able to keep the anger from my voice and not caring how she took it. “He has an ability. Sort of like my promise, but different. He’s just with you to make me angry.”

“I… know…”

“What? You know?” I couldn’t believe the filth that came from Akiko’s lips.

“He’s not manipulating me,” Akiko said. “I’m with him because that was the choice I made. Do you understand?”

“Yeah… I understand.” I responded bitterly. “You like assholes.”

“Yeah… I do…” Akiko shot back. “You can’t understand. Why are you calling anyway? Aren’t you busy making other women leave their boyfriends and ruin their lives?”

“I came to tell you it’s off.”

“It’s off?”

“The promise. I wasn’t clear before. I am now. You owe me nothing. I owe you nothing. Your promise has been lifted. Okay?”

There was another pause. “Is that all you wanted?”

“Yes.”

“Then… thank you.” Her voice sounded strangely genuine.

“What?”

“I feel… more… confident for some reason, now that you said that. I no longer doubt…”

This girl was really aggravating to talk to. At first, I thought she was just being mindfucked by Jack just like my sister Maria. However, now that I talked to her, she felt more lucid. That meant that she was with Jack on her own volition. At least, that’s what she claimed. Was Jack just feeding her lines so that he could screw with me even more? Or, was Akiko an even bigger whore than I could ever imagine.

“Goodbye.” I ended the conversation quickly with a click.

I leaned back and gave a sigh afterwords. With that, my relationship with Akiko was completely over. Even if I did gain a certain skill and use it on her, it would be absolutely useless. She had her own interests, and I had no desire to chase her anymore. I had my fun, and now we were done. Maria was a different story though. She was my sister, and I loved her. I wouldn’t allow her to be manipulated by that bastard.

I walked over to her room and knocked on her door lightly. The door cracked open a moment later, and Maria popped her head out. She was always introverted, but since whatever Jack had done to her, she had rarely left her room. Thankfully, he hadn’t been back since that last embarrassing time, but that had more to do with Mother always being home than anything. Jack was half-American and was definitely someone she wouldn’t approve of. She would kick him out on his ass, and even manipulation wouldn’t be enough to stop her. That was the level of her dislike of white men.

“Hakaru… what is it?”

“Maria.” The second I saw her, my heart throbbed just a bit. “The thing about next week…”

“I don’t want to get into it with you,” Maria blushed and looked away. “What you did last week was wrong…”

“Maria, the Halloween party…” I tried to redirect her conversation, but I had a feeling she was not hearing me at all.

“Just be lucky that I won’t tell anybody about what happened.” Maria’s voice sounded forced and bitter, “If dad or mom knew about what you did, they would definitely be angry. This is my last warning…”

“You don’t want to do this…”

“Jack is my boyfriend now. I’m only with Jack. Next week, I’ll be the most popular girl in school. Jack will make me popular. He said it.”

“Can you just promise me something? Can you promise me that whatever you do, it will be what you really want to do?” I asked.

Maria froze for a second but then sighed. “Jack said you would try to make me promise things, and that I shouldn’t go along with it. Jack is looking out for me.”

“He’s going to ruin you!” My voice rose just a bit. “He’s going to embarrass you in front of everyone! He doesn’t care about you at all.”

“It’s enough… Hakaru.” Maria bit her lip. “Please leave me alone from now on.”

Maria closed the door right on my face. I wanted to start knocking again, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I knew her answers would be the same. She’d deflect and ignore me. Getting her to accept a promise, any promise, was completely impossible. My fists clenched to the point I thought they’d bleed, but I finally let go. None of this was new information. What Netori had told me I needed to do was no different than before. Tomorrow would be the day I’d confront my teacher and finally earned the points I’d need.

“Hakaru?” A voice came from the living room.

It was Mother, who was currently on the television watching something. I walked out and let out a noise, turning away.

“Mother… shouldn’t you wear something a bit more decent in public?”

“Eh?” Mother was on the couch, wearing nothing but a robe. “We’re in private though?”

It looked like she had just taken a bath and come out. She was now drinking sake. Her face was flushed and her hair was wet and matted to her face. However, the robe she wore wasn’t done up at all, and the result was that it was wide open. I got an eye of a black patch of fur and a boob before I managed to turn away a tad too late

“This is the family room. We all live here?” I tried to explain helplessly while avoiding seeing her private parts.