A Second Chance

Part 36 - That's what I like to hear

"Uhhh..."

My eyes opened slowly. I was on a couch, a pretty normal one in fact. Wow, it must be privileged for me calling a couch with a automatic recliner normal, but that's how I've been for a while. It was very comfy though.

I was alive, barely, but alive.

The lightning wasn't flickering through my body anymore. It did hurt a bit, but I was fine with it at this point. I could move again, more or less... that's all that matters.

In a way, resonance did save my life. No way I can doubt about that. My body must have reacted instinctively to the thunderstorm, kind of like how Nya once controlled the rain to make sure the bounty landed safely.

It simply found a source, locked on, and kept me alive. This was something I never would've learned as a ninja, not unless I wanted to piss Wu off. Well, it turned out to be a lifesaver. Drunk or not, I ended up survived.

"You seriously got drunk?"

This voice was familiar.

I turned toward the sound and saw her. She sat across from me, pressing buttons on an xbox controller.

Her violet hair fell loosely around her shoulders, completely unstyled and unbothered. One of her eyes was covered by a bandage. She wore a black sweater with dark sweatpants. Her expression was unreadable, but her eyebrows were raised like she was constantly unimpressed. Yeah, by the way she spoke, I expected something like that. She looked like someone who didn't waste their time with irrelevant things other than any hobby she had.

Oh yeah, and she was hot. Like, stunning as hell. The cab driver wasn't lying in the end when he saw her.

Holy, people would lose their train of thought mid-sentence. She did say that she gets annoyed by how people always go up to her to ask her out. It makes sense now... seeing it myself.

I made a horrible first impression! She was, sitting on the other end of a couch, judging me for smelling like whiskey and being battered with blood.

"I'm Emily Coldstone," she said. "Looks like we finally meet."

I kept staring, completely entranced.

"Ugh. Quit staring," she muttered. "You look like you've never seen a woman before. It's creepy."

I blinked and turned to the TV. Call of Duty: Cold War was on. She was near the final mission, the one where Belle goes through their memories to uncover the truth.

"Call of Duty Cold War?"

"Yeah. I was playing God of War Ragnarok's DLC earlier. I got the secret ending yesterday, so I decided to play something different before I sleep today."

Huh? Did I recall something correctly?

"Wait... you look like Nightshade."

Her eyes narrowed a little.

"Seriously?" she said. "You're just now realizing that? You're stupid..."

Nightshade...

The second-ranked fighter in The Vipers. A name that I thought was going to be the secondary antagonist. She also beat me with ease once. The "secondary antagonist" was right here, playing videogames comfortably and talking to me.

"You... you... damn it, I should've figured it out-"

"No, that wouldn't really make any sense," she cut in. "You didn't have the information, and frankly, you're not the sharpest needle in the haystack. I didn't make it obvious for a reason."