178 Calmness

Evening, June 25

Pokemon Center

New Bark Town

There was pin-drop silence in the room.

After saying a strange goodbye to his "friend", Kai and Item-M had come to the Pokemon Center. New Bark Town was a hub for Pokemon Trainers, and thus, they found it was unnecessary to go to Alto Mare before 27th.

Item-M had already registered herself as a Contestant for the Water-Chariot Race. Even the plans Kai and Petyr had made before leaving the water town, had undergone earth-shattering changes after the things Item-M had told him regarding all the worlds, especially Multiverse Interdependency.

But let us return to the silence.

This pin-drop silence was choking the joy of getting all the things they had got in New Bark Town.

Kai sat there on a chair, wearing a black night suit, and facing the window. Stunned and stupefied.

Behind him, on the bed, sat Item-M. She, too, looked troubled as her eyes roamed about Kai. A blue velvet night suit, patterned with pink flowers, had replaced her yellow priestess garb. And her long loose red hair felt like fire dancing over the water.

-/I don't understand./- Kai thought openly. -/Never have I desired to devour a tale so badly, and yet, I couldn't. Why? The book shuddered. It shuddered for five days./-

Silence answered Kai.

The stars twinkled outside. Tweets and cries of some wild Pokemon came now and then, lingering no longer than they were welcomed. There was a sadness on Kai's charming face, and a mirror on Kai's right reflected this sadness to Item-M.

"Master, may I have a look at the Book?" she asked.

Kai snapped his head towards his right. In the mirror, he saw her sitting on the bed gracefully. Though, the breasts trying to pop out her smooth shirt buttons, and her long full legs, almost betrayed that gracefulness.

'Still no desire,' Kai thought. She was his servant, but he had never wanted a mute and mindless servitude. With the soul-blood drop that gave him all the power over her, Kai would never hamper her growth, let alone her words.

-/Why?/- Kai asked, not unkindly. -/What's the point of that?/-

"I had growth-type Items," she explained. "I have seen many such Items of others too. But The Tales of Beedle the Bard seemed to have toppled my understanding of growth-type Items. I want to see what's so special about it."

-/Curious?/- Kai said, raising an eyebrow.

Item-M nodded.

Kai's hand flicked, and he took out the Book. Giving her Item won't make it hers, he knew. Until he dies, the Book would always belong to him. Though if Item-M could use its Acts or not, Kai wasn't sure.

He threw the book, and she caught it with a cat's agility.

'Let's see what the 100-year-old monster has to say about my most-prized Item,' Kai thought, permitting himself the tiniest hint of a smile.

He observed her as she examined the Book's stats. The tiny smile became full when he saw her eyes widening with every passing moment. Her breathing had sped up, her breasts vividly heaving up and down out of rhythm.

'She is reading about the Thousand Tales Parasite,' Kai guessed, when Item-M suddenly lifted her head to look at him. Their eyes matched through the realm of the mirrors before she plunged her thoughts back into the Book.

Kai felt her riling emotions, her shock, and her incredulous amazement. He licked his lips. Now, this he did desire. He wanted to suck her dry of her happiness. He had a taste of her hoard in the town, Alto Mare. Happiness, hoarded for over 100 years, had a taste Kai could never forget.

"Master…"

Item-M's sharp call brought Kai out of his reverie.

-/Yes./- Kai said. -/I know about the hidden dangers of it. You don't have to repeat them to me./-

Opposite to Kai's expectations, Item-M just shook her head.

"No, master," she whispered. "I know a Contestant of your caliber must have already thought of everything that needed to be contemplated. No point in wasting time on those things. But I just wanted to ask one thing."

Kai frowned. He stood up, fed up with looking at her through the mirror, and faced her.

-/Go on, then./- Kai permitted. -/Ask./-

"I went through the Book's Stats over twice," she began. "But I couldn't find any mention of what this shuddering master has talked about."

Kai silently laughed. -/No, it's not mentioned./- he explained to her. -/It's like an unwritten phenomenon. Whenever I meet a Character, whose tale is worthy enough to be devoured, the Book shudders to let me know./-

Then Kai told her about all the shuddering he had felt, and about the moments when he had met Jon Arryn and Lysa Arryn but had gotten no response from the Book.

Item-M became silent for a while, listening to all that. After a few moments of deep brooding over something, she stood up and approached Kai. She was taller than him, he realized. Just not tall enough for him to look up to admire the beauty of her wild brown eyes. The smell of thousands of roses hit Kai when she came to a stop in front of him.

She returned the Book and took a deep breath. "I will not sweeten my words, master," she said bluntly. "But have you considered that all this talk of the book shuddering to let you know of a worthy tale is just rubbish? It seems you have mistaken an unusual response of the Item to be some kind of signal. I have no means to verify what you have told me, other than that it's your assumption. And assumptions by nature are dubious, even if they have come from scientists of high intellect."

Kai's face paled instantly. Old memories bombarded his mind. Now it was the turn of his breathing to speed up. He remembered the first vibrations. It was him seeing the Prince, Joffrey, and the Hound, Sandor Clegane. He remembered the second shuddering. It was him seeing the King and the Queen. And then he remembered them all.

Yes, it was true. All the time he had found himself facing a major main-storyline Character the book had shuddered. But the statement, it had shuddered to let him know he could devour their tale, was nothing but what Item-M had thrown at his face.

An assumption.

'Oh, no!' The words rumbled in Kai's mind. 'What have I done?'

Only men of science like him could fathom how grievous a blunder it was to assume something without considering all plausible explanations. It was a horror beyond the hideously patterned yellow door from his Blood Prophecy. It put a question mark on his very intelligence and cunningness.

Kai almost staggered to the bed, his mouth open.

Item-M sat down beside him. "I have never heard of an Item influencing the outer world before," she said, her sweet voice entering his ears. "At least not while they are in the Inventory. But then again, I have never heard of an Item that could show living characteristics. If even the topmost Contestants were in your place, they would have made the same mistake, I am sure."

Her words meant nothing to him now.

Kai never compared himself to others like this. His ambition forbade him. He was the one who would stand at the peak of Absolute Power alone. Others could afford to make a mistake like that. Not Blood Demon.

With every next second, anger welled up in his heart. How could he not see it before? Not knowing what your Skills and Items could do was a rookie mistake. Was he some run-the-mill newbie? Had he fallen so low that he now lived on his momentary assumptions?

Kai's face became red with shame, blood rising to his eyes, aiming for his brain.

He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

'Yes, just like that, son,' a voice sang within him. 'Every mistake opens a door to a hidden opportunity. Remember that those who have never blundered can never know the actual taste of victory.'

'Yes, mother,' Kai told himself, calming down. 'You… are right.' He snapped the book open.

-/Petyr./- Kai commanded.

Petyr walked out, wearing a night suit similar to Kai.

-/What's the difference between Jon Arryn, Cersei Lannister, Petyr Baelish, Pokeball Expert Kurt, and Professor Elm?/- he asked, keeping Item-M in conversation. But he had already found the answer. And the reason for the Book's vibrations was hidden within it.

"The obvious difference is their names, my lord," Petyr quipped slyly. "That's an odd question to test my intelligence."

Kai glared at him. If there was ever a look that said he would kill Petyr, then it was this.

Petyr chuckled. "I was wondering when you will ask me this question," he said, his tone becoming grave. "Jon Arryn is a match. You light this match, and boom, now you have a story. His tale is words forced together on the corner of a piece of paper. Kurt and Professor Elm are more than that. They are the torches that light the path when one walks through a story. Yes, they are important, and their existence is crucial to the story. But they are nothing more than that."

Kai gritted his teeth.

The book shuddered not to tell him he could devour the tale. It shuddered whenever he met a significant main-storyline character. It shuddered in excitement to include these significant characters in the tale it was writing. A hidden tale of Kai Stormborn.

It was the fucking Thousand Tales Parasite, Kai concluded.

Petyr continued. "Cersei Lannister and Petyr Baelish," he said, smiling, "Well, my lord, surely you must have guessed by now. They are not matches to begin a story, and they are not torches, either. They…" Petyr trailed off.

Kai stood up, walked to the window, and completed Petyr's words.

-/They ARE the Story./-

For long Kai gazed out, looking at the stars, his thoughts going beyond them. This was a moment that would either make him the most powerful Contestant in the Primordial Tower or a nobody.

This idea that had just come to him after going through these emotional upheavals would dictate his destiny. Not his Glitch, his Skills, or his Abilities. It would be this sudden moment of realization, Kai knew.

When he turned back, he was again himself. His face was calmer than he had ever been. And if Item-M could describe him, then she would have said that Kai's black eyes were two wells, reaching an abyss, and they were emotionless and depthless like a dark, frozen lake in the thick of winter.

-/I have decided./- he declared to himself, to Item-M, to Petyr, and the world. -/I will devour the tales of all the most significant scientists spread across the Multiverse. Characters of Science who won't be a match or a torch, but who would be a Story by themselves. This will be the Multiverse Interdependency unique to me./-

Item-M stood up and fell to her knees. "Command me, master," she said, her voice shaking.

-/Prepare a list, my servant,/- he said calmly, but his voice boomed. -/Prepare a list of such Characters. And put Orochimaru at its top/-

*********

AN: A detailed explanation of how Items works is pinned on Author-Interaction channel of discord server. An image reference of the Pokedex is available too. If you are planning to be with the novel for long, then I would highly recommend joining the server. Thank you.

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