Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 140: Failed talks

"I think we went a little to far!"

Ruby said, looking at the dents and cracks on the wall.

They should have just switched rooms, but they had gotten carried away with their small fight. Luckily, they retained enough sense not to use their abilities or the damage done would have been much worse.

"Hey! Thanks for that!"

Ruby said to Jake, feeling a lot better than earlier. All the pent up frustration and urge to beat someone up was gone. She had spent it in this fight that neither of them had won.

Jake looked at her with a soft look in his eyes and nodded.

"You can go out first. I’ll practice my movements and pay for the damages after."

He grunted, picking up his weapon and getting into a stance.

One thing she had also picked up about this young man was that he wasn’t just a battle maniac, but he was also equally crazy about training.

She couldn’t believe that it had taken her that long to actually take note of that given their long history.

’Still not up to him though!’

Kieran’s face flashed across her mind for a second.

He was the only person she knew that was more crazy about training than Jake, and he didn’t seem to know that about himself.

He randomly had months where he went into seclusion and disappeared from anyone’s radar, just to return and claim that he had been in training. Whatever his training was, his instructor seemed to be very supportive of it as he was the one in charge. That was what head chef Danzo had told her, when she asked him.

With Kieran’s closed off personality and almost nonexistent social circle, it was rather easy for him to go in and out of long training sessions without worrying too deeply about the events that went on around him.

One thing she did know for sure was that just like her and the vast majority of recruits here, he had a goal he was chasing.

One that made him ignore the fact that fully awakened people had an impossible advantage over those who weren’t awakened or in his case, partially awakened.

He had even gone on to surprise the whole of their batch and upper year recruits, by managing to get a rather good spot at his first try at the ranking list.

She had spectated that battle and she had to admit, she was more than surprised. What Kieran lacked in power and abilities, he made up for in skill and cunning.

The fact that he still depended on the basic fighting technique she had trained him with, bringing to the extreme and utilizing it in ways she didn’t even know were possible, spoke volumes about his resourcefulness.

He was using techniques like that against people who were learned in advanced and more sophisticated martial arts and combat techniques.

She didn’t know what to think. Whether he was just overpowered within his range or if his opponents were just disappointing to lose to someone who had yet to awaken his ability fully.

The thought of Kieran brought back the memory of their last encounter.

She had seen him at the last place she expected to see someone like him. Somehow, for some reason, he had chosen to attend a gathering party like that.

They had exchanged greetings from afar and she could still remember the cold feeling of unfamiliarity as he nodded and withdrew his attention immediately.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t approach him. Kieran wasn’t strong enough yet and she couldn’t afford to get close to him under the eyes of those whe was after.

It was best to keep him out of her business still she was done. Then, she could approach him and apologize for the actions of her and Jake.

"He should understand, right?"

She muttered walking through the lobby of the training center.

"Understand what?"

A family cold voice entered her ears and a firm hand was placed on her shoulder, preventing her from hitting the one who stood in front of her.

"Kieran?"

Ruby’s muttered in a daze, her green eyes widened in realization. He was standing in front of her.

’Don’t tell me I was saying all that out loud!’

Her cheeks flushed red, as he prayed he didn’t get any of that.

Luckily for her, her worries were unfounded as Kieran withdrew his hand on her shoulder and asked again.

"Who is understanding what?"

"Ah! It’s nothing, I was just lost in thought. I should get going."

She said trying to avoid holding a conversation with him.

Kieran thought wasn’t having that as he pulled her back and pushed forward.

"You were just the person I wanted to see. Why are you in such a rush to leave, friend?"

Kieran said, placing more emphasis on the last word, ’friend’.

Those words put Ruby in a rather complicated spot as she couldn’t reject him now that he had put it that way. Rejection would mean she had severed their relationship as friends and there was nothing more between them.

"Do you have a room?"

She asked and Kieran just dragged her into a room he unlocked with a swipe of his watch.

"So, what did you want to ask. You said you wanted to see me after all!"

Ruby asked the moment the door closed behind them.

One could easily tell that she was feeling awkward staying the same room.

Kieran remained silent, observing her reactions.

He had been thinking about approaching her since the events of the gathering and he just happened to stumble into her when he was about to train.

He was forced to rent a reinforced room in the training center now that his previous spot had been compromised.

"You’re too tense. Makes you easier to read."

Kieran commented making Ruby freeze in place. He was right. She was tense, scared that he would approach the very things that she wasn’t ready to go over yet.

"I won’t hold you any longer. What was that back at the gathering a few nights ago?"

Kieran stayed true to his words, going straight to the point.

’So direct, just like him!’

Ruby thought feeling an impending headache.

"It was not—"

"I’m not taking that for an answer this time."

"If I know you.well enough, you and Jake are probably keeping me out of this because you fear for my safety"

"You should change how you see me!"

Kieran said, hitting the matter at its core.

Ruby was at a loss as to what to say, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit that he was right.

"So, tell me what was all that talk about revenge and all? You and Jake have been acting weird for a long while now. In fact, ever since we stepped into the second stage"

Kieran’s voice was cold and emotionless, but behind the unreadable face that had become a part of him, was a guy who felt the need to step in, not just out of concern for his friends, but for himself.

Back at that gathering, he could picture himself in the halls and classes of his high school, getting bullied, laughed at and ridden on by the ones who targeted him for his status, believing themselves to be above him.

Meanwhile the rest of the class just watched on, enjoying the show that was being shown to them. In Kieran’s opinion, they were just as bad and guilty.

Seeing that scene of the gathering few nights back, opened up a part of himself that Kieran thought he had moved on from. It seemed like he was wrong.

"You don’t need to worry"

Ruby denied him any information again.

Kieran’s eyes narrowed at that reply, he had long made up his mind to involve himself.

She was dealing with nobles who were of backgrounds and connections that were unknown to him and with the dangerous moves they were all playing, just like the scheme of Sabrina he had overheard, Kieran thought it would be more tha okay to make sure of somethings personally.

"I said I wasn’t going to take that as an—"

"Enough! It’s my business Kieran, I can deal with it. Stay out of it!"

Ruby cut in, storming out of the room after finishing her words.

She knew how impossible it was to convince or push Kieran away when he had set his mind to do something, and he did look like he had set his mind on getting the words out of her.

So, she did the best thing she could think of shut him off and bolt before he could find something to make he stay and interrogate her anymore.

Kieran watched as the door of the room closed in front of him, unbothered.

"Sigh! Unfortunately, talking to you isn’t the only way to get what I want."

Kieran muttered, his mind going to the next person he had in mind to contact if talking to her failed just like it did.

Ring....ring...

"Kieran?"

A surprised voice came from the other end of the call.

Adjusting his watch, Kieran replied the surprised voice.

"Jake! We need to talk!"