She looked at Dantalion while chewing and eating her nuggets. She did not speak for a few seconds and just continued eating while looking at him.
Then, after some minutes, finally.
"What I have is different," Kujou Sara reasoned, "Mine was something I orchestrated. Unlike yours, who... everyone just genuinely doesn't want to be involved with."
"Bullshit."
"You have to be joking." She replied to his delusion.
"Name ten people who don't like me."
"Barely five people even know you exist."
"Nah, your opinion is so biased, no credibility at all."
At that, Kujou Sara looked at Dantalion incredulously.
You can't make this up.
"Fine, let's ask an unbiased third-party," Dantalion added. He stood up, placed his plate on the table, and proceeded to go to the back of the car to get a third chair.
In no time, he came back and placed the third foldable chair along with some plates and eating utensils on the table.
Dantalion took his food back from the table and sat back down in his chair.
Then he asked.
"Do you find me likable?" With a smile.
"Ah--How?--WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" A woman appeared on the chair.
The woman looked around in panic. She was at the encampment just having her lunch when the surroundings suddenly changed.
Even the things she was holding prior were gone.
Her gaze caught a man smiling at her.
But before she could ask a question, from the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar visage, indigo hair cut into an uneven bob, pale skin, and golden eyes with two pairs of wings on her back; she focused on it, her gaze leaving the man, and drifted to the familiar color palette.
What she saw was Kujou Sara.
"General--"
But just as she was about to stand up, a hand reached out to her shoulder and pushed her down back to her seat.
"That's not the question, Miss Atsuko," Dantalion interrupted her.
"Do you think I am a very likable person?" He repeated.
Kujou Sara just watched; she's certain that Dantalion wouldn't harm Atsuko.
This needs no explanation.
"Uh-Uhm…" Atsuko's eyes wandered from left to right, right to left, up and down, in a random sequence.
She looked at Kujou Sara, but found that the General was just watching the ordeal.
She had to handle this on her own.
She had to adapt!
Nah, I'd Adapt! [1]
Atsuko hesitated for a moment and said, "I have yet to know you... sir, so I have no idea how to answer that?"
She chose the safest, most neutral answer she could think of at the moment.
Dantalion smiled, smiling so much it stretched further, almost inhumanly.
Atsuko saw that monstrosity of a smile and shuddered, her hair stood on end, goosebumps all over her arms and back, and she could feel every hair on her scalp.
Then, she heard the man say;
"I guess we had no choice, you'll be with us for the next few days to get to know each other."
"Ah…"
'What the hell did I just get myself into?!' She screamed internally.
Where's her adaptation?!
She genuinely thought that if she answered in such a way, she'd be brought back to where she was before!
"You were just about to eat, right?" Dantalion asked her casually, regaining his casual tone.
"That plate was prepared for you, everything is on the table, serve yourself."
Atsuko looked at the plate on the table, and it indeed seemed to be prepared for an extra person.
Then she looked at Kujou Sara, the way the General was eating was just like the man.
They were not using the table but instead opted to lift their–if Kujou Sara were to be the reference–bowl, while their other hand used the chopstick.
However, the reason she pointed out that the way the man and the General were eating was the same was because the man, also holding his–this a time–plate, while the other hand used the spoon.
…And a fork was floating, acting like an extra hand.
Because of that, as the one on the table was a plate, spoon, fork, and not a bowl and chopsticks just like the General's, Atsuko was in conflict; should she request one just like the General's?
'Why was a plate prepared for me when I am clearly Inazuman!' She felt like crying. This is so hard!
She doesn't want to be preposterous and entitled in the presence of the General and the unknown man who seemed to be the reason she was brought here.
Misfortune seemed to have started after she got caught escaping Inazuma.
It wasn't really a problem for her to eat from a flat plate.
The problem was holding it.
She couldn't support it with her other hand, and she didn't trust her weak, injured arm enough to manage with just one.
To make matters worse, the chair sat slightly lower than the table--only by a little, but enough to make eating awkward and uncomfortable...
…However, If there truly was no other choice, then enduring it would be fine, Atsuko thought.
Suddenly, seemingly like an angel distinguishing her dilemmas.
"Give her a bowl and chopsticks," Kujou Sara uttered.
Inside Kujou Sara's head, Dantalion's intention lay bare.
He did that on purpose to watch Atsuko's ever-changing expression.
It's a sick way of getting entertainment.
Atsuko had only two options. She could endure it: sit on the too-low foldable chair, struggling with her plate on the table while juggling both fork and spoon in her hands with her injured arm.
The setup was deliberately awkward, making the meal an ordeal rather than a simple act of eating. That, too, was why neither Kujou Sara nor Dantalion had bothered to use the table themselves.
Or, Atsuko could ask--request an extra bowl and chopsticks.
Kujou Sara doubted she would.
Not because Atsuko lacked courage, but because she was a conscript bound by Inazuma's rigid hierarchy.
Her instincts told her to endure minor inconveniences rather than make a request, to prove loyalty and not seem entitled--even for something trivial.
"And you wonder why people avoid you," Sara scoffed at Dantalion.
He sighed then, long and almost weary, as if she were the one misunderstanding him.
"You're arriving at your own conclusions," He murmured. And with a flick, the plate became a bowl, along with the utensils to chopsticks.
"I was only used to offering plates," He added softly, as though explaining something minor, "Not bowls and chopsticks." [2]
"..." Kujou Sara stayed silent. There was nothing else to say.
"Look at Atsuko," Dantalion muttered, contempt dripping into his voice. "She barely knows me, yet thanks to your words, she's convinced I'm some sadistic freak."
Atsuko froze mid-reach, chopsticks hovering over the tray as if the whole table had suddenly turned into a crime scene.
Her thoughts spiraled even faster.
'Eh?! Why am I the example?! W-wait, now it sounds like I'm guilty of something! Am I guilty?! No, I was randomly dragged here--'
Dantalion's gaze didn't shift, but his tone sharpened.
"Have you really learned nothing? Say that sort of thing around the wrong kind of mind, and they'll twist it into something else entirely… Gay, for instance."
Atsuko did not express her thoughts outwardly, even though her name was mentioned.
Carefully and silently, she served herself Rice and Dino Nuggets.
'Saurians?' Atsuko thought, seeing the shapes of the fried delicacy in front of her.
She knew about these things because it is in a coloring book when she were a child.
She used her forearm to wipe her forehead even though there was no sweat... She just felt like it.
But then, she has another dilemma.
'Oh no... How many should I take?'
She doesn't want to seem like she doesn't like the food by getting a small amount, but she doesn't want to be rude and seem greedy if she takes too much.
'W-what should I do?!'
"See that, you should stop creating shit about me," Dantalion gestured toward Atsuko with his hand while looking at Kujou Sara.
Dantalion had noticed this change in Atsuko after Kujou Sara caught her and was conscripted.
Still, the changes were not bad.
He liked this version of her better.
From what he'd gathered, Atsuko had always striven for independence since childhood. Whether it was to prove herself or to avoid being a burden to her family didn't matter. Either reason would be valid, but neither was important to him.
Not only did he have no intention of probing her mind for the truth. He didn't even want to know. To him, that was something only the uncivilized would stoop to--digging through another's thoughts as if rummaging through their pockets.
What a barbaric act.
Truly.
Such things were beneath a being such as himself.
As a creature of thought: if you couldn't reach the answer through logic and deduction, what right--what audacity--did you have to dig into another's mind?
Truly uncivilized.
'Can't be me,' He thought.
But who gives a shit, really?
This was about Atsuko, not about some principle he cobbled together in two seconds.
Anyway--summary: he liked this version of Atsuko. Still, the old one wasn't exactly undesirable either.
It wasn't as if the "old" Atsuko had vanished. Nothing fundamental had changed, just the surface ripples of her thoughts.
"Uhm… If it isn't too rude to ask, where did you buy this? It tastes really good," Atsuko asked the man.
It would seem she wanted her parents to taste it too--
"I'll give you some to take home for your parents once this is over," Dantalion replied casually, his voice carrying no particular emotion--like he was reading a line from a page.
His reply doesn't contain the answer to the question, but the intent behind it was addressed.
"Thank you!" Atsuko bowed her head a little, then continued eating; she didn't forget to observe her surroundings.
Behind her was some sort of metal carriage, painted white, that also contained tinted windows all over.
Thick and wide wheels that contain an intricate design that almost reaches her waist in height.
It looks alien compared to the environment they were in and the carriages usually seen all over Inazuma.
Then, without even Atsuko asking.
She heard the General speak, seemingly addressing her.
"This man's name is unimportant; you can address him however you like. As you would be with us for the next few days, it would be important for you to be informed of this." Kujou Sara looked at Atsuko, who was studying her surroundings.
"We are finding the reason as to why the Tatarigami was released." She continued, "We will be going directly to Fort Fujitou."
"But isn't Fort Fujitou occupied by the Watatsumi troops now?" Atsuko expressed her concern, they are just three--... No, two, the man and the General, because Atsuko thinks she'd be practically useless in this operation,
In her thoughts, she'd be assigned to safeguard this white thing.
"That is correct, but you should know, within Inazuma, the number of beings stronger than Kujou Sara could be counted only with a single hand!" Dantalion declared, his tone swelling as though he were a bard singing of ancient heroes.
"Everyone knows that," Atsuko chuckled nervously, "But they still have numbers…"
"Atsuko-chan~," Dantalion dragged her name out with mock sweetness.
Atsuko's mouth twitched, while Kujou Sara's expression contorted with faint disgust.
Kujou Sara hearing him use such tone for some reason make every hair on her body bristle.
"Do you think the Raiden Shogun cared about numbers during the Archon War? Inazuma was brimming with yokai and rival gods -- yet the Shogun said, 'Nah, I'd win.' And so she did. The gods fell, the yokai bent the knee, and Inazuma became hers."
"But that's different, that's the Shogun..." Atsuko then panicked and added, "Not that I was saying the General was wea--"
"There is no mortal in this nation that can beat Kujou Sara!" Dantalion continued his glazing.
"ATSUKO! ARE YOU SAYING SHE'S A FRAUD?!" Dantalion pressed on. "SARA, SHE SAID YOU'RE JUST A STREET TIER!"
"I did not say that!" Atsuko profusely denied such absurdities.
---
After their meal, they cleaned everything up and brought it back inside the car.
As they sat inside.
"Do you want to change into something more fitting for our journey?" Dantalion asked. Atsuko was still in her purple, standard Inazuman soldier's uniform.
She glanced at what Dantalion was wearing, then at the General's attire.
"The clothes you'll be wearing for the next few days are in the back. There are two suitcases there with your name on them."
'Ah… I was expected from the start--… No, wait. The only suitcase I saw earlier had the General's name on it--' Atsuko thought, bewildered.
"There are now," Dantalion said flatly. "There are four suitcases back there."
His eyes stared at her through the rearview mirror.
"Mhm… okay. I'll check them out later. Thank you." Atsuko decided not to press further.
'Did he just read my mind?--'
"No, it was on your face."
The question of why there were suitcases for her and the General, but none for the man himself, slipped away before she could form it.
Now, Atsuko sat in the backseat while Dantalion sat on the driver seat, and Kujou Sara rested in the passenger seat.
Curiosity took hold of her--she squirmed a little, running her hands along the seat to feel its texture. She drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. The air inside was pleasant, fresh in a way the outside--the cursed Yashiori Island--could never be.
Then the vehicle rumbled to life. Atsuko stiffened, panic flickering through her chest--but seeing that the other two didn't so much as flinch, she forced herself to relax.
After that, sound started coming out inside the vehicle...
Was it a voice of a man?
[I'm gonna start you up with some of your top songs from the past few months, starting with--]
However, Dantalion cut it off and said.
"Play Playlist White Girl Bangers."
Atsuko blinked at the words that left Dantalion's mouth.
"...White girl, what?" she whispered under her breath, not loud enough for him to hear.
The device--or whatever strange magic box it was--obeyed instantly.
A powerful voice erupted through the interior, backed by a pulsing beat unlike anything Atsuko had ever heard in her life. The leather seat beneath her seemed to hum faintly with it.
Kujou Sara reached forward and calmly turned the volume down a bit.
Atsuko glanced at Kujou Sara, who remained impassive, eyes half-lidded as though this were perfectly ordinary.
Meanwhile, Dantalion's fingers drummed on the steering wheel in sync with the beat, his expression unreadable.
Both Kujou Sara and Atsuko couldn't understand the words sung in the track.
The difference was that Sara had long grown used to this strange, foreign language spilling from his music.
But how can Dantalion retrieve these music when he doesn't have any connection to Earth--his previous world--anymore? Even to the point of the number of songs being enough to make playlists of songs?
It was thanks to his [Perfect memory] and his already good memory from his previous life.
[Perfect memory], making it so his already good memory wouldn't deteriorate any further.
He painstakingly stored and cleaned the songs from his memories. Painstakingly because of how the songs were somewhat jumbled with his thoughts at the time he was listening to each song.
He'd been forced to save multiple copies of the same song, each tied to a different moment in his life. Then came the part where he had to cross-reference each version, cutting away the warped fragments of memory, until only the clean thread of music remained
It's not really hard for him, per se.
The painstaking part was because of how repetitive the task was.
The monotony was exhausting.
There are even songs that were just completely unsalvageable.
'If I find another otherworlder just like me, and if fate allows it, one that came from a similar world, I'd claim their memories of music.' Dantalion thought, his finger tapping the steering wheel in sync with the beat of the music.
As to what he said earlier about prying into the thoughts of others? Forgotten, abandoned, and was probably a lie from the start.
Truly a hypocrite.
He glanced at Atsuko through the rearview mirror.
It seems that she had finally settled in and was now just in a relaxed mood.
She was gazing at the window--I mean, what else is there to do inside a car when you don't have a phone on you?
"Atsuko," Dantalion called out, his voice at ease. "I was watching your failed escape back then."
Atsuko didn't react much, as expected.
Though Dantalion didn't hear any reply.
"Don't mind Kujou Sara's presence, she won't mind if you speak your mind honestly," Dantalion reassured her. "As long as you expressed it in a civilized manner, that is."
"...What is there to even say?" Atsuko replied. "It was my fault for going against the will of the Shogun..."
"I have been treated with mercy with a way to amend my wrongdoing despite committing something that could be treated as treason..."
Then, out of nowhere, Atsuko heard something nobody would ever dare try.
"Damn, the Shogun is fucked up in the head. I think we should replace her, to be honest. I can probably do a better job--like, bro, what a shit ruler! HAHAHA! I'd run Inazuma better while half-asleep and fifteen shots in!"
The way it was said, the vocabulary, and the tone that was used were those of an idiot.
"If I were in the Archon War, that shi woulda been halted the second I snapped my fingers! Like think about it, did the Shogun managed to do such a thing? No? It's because I'm better!"
Atsuko froze. No one--no sane person--would dare say something like that.
Her eyes darted to the window. Any second now, lightning would fall. She hunched down, covering her head as if it would help.
"What are you doing?" Dantalion asked, his voice back to normal, as if he hadn't just spat blasphemy into the air.
But none came.
Thus, after waiting for a few more seconds, she just awkwardly reverted to her initial position.
With a sigh of relief leaving her body.
"You see what I did?" Dantalion questioned Atsuko, "It's called honesty." [3]
"If I said what I said simply out of malice and ignorance, then Kujou Sara would've taken action." His explanation was expressed in a way that feels easy to absorb.
"Atsuko, Sara may be violent, extremely violent, and sometimes violent, but that doesn't mean she's an idiot." His words turned into exaggerated nonsense as everyone in Inazuma already knew that Kujou Sara was extremely loyal to the Shogun.
So it doesn't have to be stated for Atsuko to understand.
"Her eyes and senses can view things that normally can not be observed; she 'feels' the intention of every person she's talking to, regardless of their words."
"From what I know of you, there would be no problem if you spoke your mind honestly."
In truth, if it were anyone else who uttered such words, Kujou Sara would have probably personally struck them down with lightning herself and restrained them.
The only reason Kujou Sara didn't take action against Dantalion's blasphemy was that it was Dantalion.
Basically, she couldn't do anything about him.
Kujou Sara, in her mind.
'Only less than 5% of that is true,'
In short, Dantalion was blatantly lying to Atsuko.
Kujou Sara, listening silently. It was not her way to indulge lies -- even if this one served its purpose. Atsuko was calmer and open, and Dantalion… well, he was Dantalion.
Still, Sara decided she would remind Atsuko of the truth. Her lips parted--
"For some reason, I can't seem to trust your words at all." Atsuko said.
Sara's mouth closed again. Well… it seemed her worries were unfounded.
"…" Dantalion turned his head toward Atsuko, his gaze fastening onto her. His body leaned halfway in her direction, though his left hand stayed firm on the wheel.
"I... Am I ugly?"
"N-No?"
Then, just as abruptly, when he heard her reply, he shifted his focus back to the road again, as if nothing had happened.
"Man... Is it actually because of whatever my race was?" He muttered under his breath.
And no, it was not because he is now a BLACK smoke-like being.
'What the fuck is my race?' He asked himself. Even now, he doesn't know what he was supposed to be.
Anyway, for now, he gave up on Atsuko.
Like a child losing interest in a toy--
'It doesn't seem interesting anymore.'
He discarded the thought and moved on.
But all is clear.
The question Dantalion had asked Atsuko before.
With just a few minutes--hours of interacting with him.
'He is not a very likable person.' She thought, though she kept the words buried deep inside.
-Chapter END-
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[1] : Man... It was a great read.
[2] : If you think he is lying here, then you are also caught in the same effect Kujou Sara/Everyone is suffering from when interacting with him, as addressed in the earlier chapters before.
[3] : Why is he lying?