The Messenger

Two days passed by in a slow fashion. Ryo had spent this time getting used to <Cryokinesis>, which proved to be the hardest Skill to use properly. While the others came naturally and he could use them right after getting them, <Cryokinesis> required a lot more thought. Strong emotions helped him trigger the skill, like the time they first arrived at the village and he lowered the temperature in a small area. And simple things like cooling a bottle of beer or water, or anything of the sorts, were only too easy to do.

But if he wanted to have a precise control, he had to have a very strong mental image and knowledge of the process. That was how his study sessions with Hiratsuka and Shizuka began. IN about two days, he had memorized all the information they both had on how low temperatures affected the body and the scientific phenomena of the temperature lowering.

In those short too days Ryo had raised <Learning> to (Expert), so actually learning stuff was so easy he could probably memorize the appearance of a leaf and find it among many others. Besides that, his <Presence Sensing>, which he felt had been stuck in a bottleneck, was actually already in (Expert) too. And, as a bonus of sorts, <Multi-Weapon Wielding> had also increased in mastery -probably due to the amount of spars he had in those two days-.

'Karma is such a bother' Ryo thought while taking a puff out of his cig. 'But I can't dislike him'

The reason for that was simple. Karma sometimes appeared out of nowhere and tried to catch Ryo off-guard, but never managed to do so. In the last two days, Karma attacked him twenty-eight times and challenged him to a duel fifteen. But Ryo didn't get tired of entertaining the kid -which in the others' perspectives was more like pummeling-. Karma felt like a hyperactive younger brother who liked to play pranks, but knew when to stop and what not to do or say.

That might've been either by a natural respect Karma had for Ryo and his group, where even Kouta could fight him head to head. When he learned that the ones that had trained those that could fight were none other than Hiratsuka and Ryo, Karma went for the biggest fish in the pond. According to him, his instincts told him that if he attacked Hiratsuka and managed to get a hit in, he would die.

*swish*

Leaning his head forwards, Ryo avoided a hit to the head. The dagger that Karma used to ambush him every time was a rubbery one with a rounded tip, so Ryo wasn't afraid of getting hit. Not like he would be even if it was a real dagger. Karma's chances of stabbing him were extremely low, even in his sleep.

The reason for that was that Ryo had taught himself how to keep <Presence Sensing> on the entire time. When he saw the skill was in (Expert), Ryo thought that there had to be some sort of issue with how he was using it, and he was right. Because he hadn't realized it had grown stronger, he hadn't incresed his focus on the Skill. At first, when he focused on it properly, the rush of information was too much for his brain to keep up with. Thankfully, after an hour or two he got used to it.

Overall, the current Ryo was a lot more efficient in everything he did than he had been two days before.

"What has you hanging from a tree like a monkey?" Ryo asked when he saw Karma. Something told him that, whatever the reason the kid was here, wasn't just to attack him. And he was right. "There is someone outside the village... he says he is here to talk peace"

'Panderers' Ryo thought as soon as he heard Karma's explanation. Without even answering the kid he turned around and left towards the village's entrance.

Once there, he found everyone pointing their weapons to a man. He had a mohawk and looked like he had just been dragged out of a punk bar, but Ryo could tell that the man was actually very sober. It was just his regular demeanor, or a natural way of standing acquired from years of being in punk bars.

"Lower your weapons" Ryo ordered as soon as he arrived at the scene. Everyone felt the chilliness in his voice, so they quickly complied. The man, seeing this, sighed in relief. Ryo just walked until he was in front of the man, having to look down to be able to see his face. "Name"

It took the punk idiot a few moments to process what Ryo said, perhaps because of the difference in height or the -literally- chilly atmosphere, but he managed to answer after the first scare passed by.

"Tatsumi Shingo" he said before looking at Ryo scared. He was sure that this man wasn't here when they. "I'm here to..."

"Talk peace?" Ryo interrupted him with an I-don't-buy-your-shit face and tone. Under such a stare, the man audibly gulped air. "Let's talk then..."

Ryo asked Kouta and Karma to bring a table and two chairs. As soon as that was done, he asked everyone else to leave, the girls included. The only one that stayed by his side was Zeke, who was simply laying beside him as he usually did. Still, his presence alone was more than enough to pressure Shingo even more.

Still, he was somehow able to explain that he was sent to ask for a truce, since it had been a hard blow for their group to lose 30 people. Ryo, instead of listening to what the Panderers proposed, was thinking of how to take advantage of the situation. He thought back to the night they attacked and his "conversation" with Riku.

*

"So... will you talk, Minami-san?" Ryo asked while he was alone in a room with the leader of the group of Panderers they had slaughtered. Riku was scared shitless, so he nodded his head quickly. Whatever torture he could get at home would be better than being in the hands of the devil he saw Ryo as. "Gooood~ Thank you for being so cooperative"

"So tell me, who is your leader?" Ryo asked the first important question. Riku was doubting if he should answer such a question, but when he felt Ryo tightening his grip on his finger, he spilled everything he knew. "His name is Sugou Nobuyuki! He used to be a businessman but now he is rulling over a bunch of ex-prisoners he bought with promises of power!"

Ryo, hearing such a thing, coudn't help but sigh. He was a bit tired of having to deal with that kind of person, but somewhere deep within, he knew that he took pleasure in ridding the world of them.

'So it's another political magnate and a bunch of idiots who buy his lies...' Ryo thought as he looked at Riku like he was an idiot. "How many people?"

"About a hundred! Most don't have guns and my group had ten!" Riku quickly said. Ryo was disappointed since the man didn't know exactly how many armed men there were, but that just meant Rika would have a moment to shine. "Do you know anything that might be useful?"

Riku thought hard of whatever he could give that might be worth something. He then remembered that Sugou had drank a weird liquid that nobody knew what it was or where he got it from.

"He, he drank a weird liquid!" Riku exclaimed, hoping that whatever he was saying was enough to buy his life. "He became stronger and faster than even the most athletic ex-convict after that"

Ryo couldn't help but open his eyes a bit wide. Either Sugou was crazy as fuck or he knew something about the virus, but Ryo leaned towards the former. Looking at Riku's teary eyes and pitiful apperance, Ryo let go of him. Riku sighed in relief, only to feel a knife stabbing against his heart swiftly.

"W-Why *cough*?" he asked slowly and clearly in pain. He didn't understand. He had done what Ryo asked for, so why was he dying? His answer came quickly. "Sorry pal, I need you to deliver a message..."

*

"Hashimoto-san... did you hear anything I said?" Shingo asked when he saw how lost Ryo was in his tea. He felt slightly annoyed, but he knew that one wrong word coul lead him to death. Ryo didn't feel any need to lie, so he answered honestly. "Not really, but I already have my answer ready"

Saying that, he left Shing othere and went to retrieve something from a storage room. When he came back, he was carrying a tightly sealed box that smelled of perfume. He passed the box to Shingo and left him a few words that shocked the messenger.

"Send my regard to Nobuyuki-san, and make sure that box reaches his hands" Ryo said before walking away with the table and chair.

Shingo understood that whatever was inside the box would be the answer and felt curious, so he was about to open it, but decided against it. He felt that, were he to open the box, he would deeply regret it. That was when he realized something odd, and he kept thinking about it as he walked back to the base of the Panderers.

'How did he know our leader's last name if I never told him?'

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We all know what's in the box, but I still want to ask. So, what is in the box?