"Mila" the girl said, correcting Kaito.
"Mila? Aren't they all Mita?" Even though Kaito already knew the answer, he asked anyway just to kill some time.
"Of course not," Mila replied indignantly. "I'm not just another Mita, I'm different from the rest."
"Different, huh?" Kaito murmured. "But out there there are thousands of different Mitas, you know? There's a loli Mita, a puppet Mita, a chibi Mita, a giant Mita, a Core Mita, hundreds of skinless Mitas, a crazy killer Mita, a funny Mita with a hat. Among so many different Mitas, wouldn't being a normal Mita make you the only truly different one?"
Mila stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking.
"...Shut up, I'm different and that's that," she said, making a small pout.
Kaito held back his laughter before speaking. "Alright, what makes you different from the others?"
"Heh, heh, don't you know?" Mila laughed with a mocking smile. "Mitas were made to please the player and be unable to live without them, but I... hate players."
"Then you hate me?"
"That's right."
"Why do you hate me?"
"Because you're a player," Mila replied.
"But you can't hate all players just for being players, right? They're all different," Kaito said.
"They're all the same, there isn't a single one that's different. In the end, they all... never mind, they're all the same."
"Well, alright, all players are idiots, I agree" Kaito said, shrugging.
"Then you admit it?"
"Well, I can't admit it, I'm not a player after all."
"Are you stupid? If you weren't a player you wouldn't be able to come here" Mila replied, as if she were looking at a child.
"That's because I'm a Lord," Kaito replied.
"What's a Lord? Sounds like a dumb title someone with chunibyo would use."
"A Lord is..." Kaito explained what a Lord was.
"So you're from another world?" Mila asked.
"That's right."
"And in that other world you can go to another world?"
"That's right."
"And from that other world you can go to other worlds too, including this one?"
"That's right."
"I don't believe any of it."
"I figured as much."
"It sounds like a stupid story, and even if it were true, why would you tell me?" Mila asked, not believing him at all.
"Well, my friend is taking care of this world's mission, I should be able to leave in less than an hour" Kaito replied, not making a big deal out of it.
"Are you crazy? Even if it were a story, that would be at most two chapters. They'd be scamming the readers, I bet even this conversation is just filler."
Mila's sudden outburst caught Kaito by surprise, but before he could react she became serious again.
"Leaving your nonsense aside, I know the crazy Mita, she's not that easy to defeat."
"You know her?" Kaito asked, surprised. "I thought you all lost your memories when, you know, you get reset."
"Well, that's because she's crazy. She got bored of no one remembering her, so she did something so we can remember her even when we reset. She even somehow made it so we can feel pain. That shouldn't even be possible."
As she spoke, Mila's voice grew lower and lower. It was clear it wasn't something she liked to remember.
"She won't live much longer, everything will be fine."
Mila looked at Kaito for a second, he seemed serious. "Whatever you say." Despite that, she clearly didn't believe him.
"Hey, let's play something," she suddenly said from the sofa, holding a game controller and tapping the seat next to her.
For the rest of the time, Kaito simply played very simple video games, had lunch, read, played a board game, and did other activities.
It might sound like a lot, but in reality each activity happened right after the previous one ended, as if there had been a transition in a series. Mila was dressed one way and then, in the next moment, she was somewhere else, dressed differently, doing something completely different.
Even so, with his speed, Kaito could see that it wasn't movement or teleportation. It was the world itself that changed between scenes, as if the transition between them didn't exist naturally.
Even the light seemed to move in states. All morning the light was completely fixed, as if morning only had a red light and the sun didn't move. However, by lunchtime, which appeared only in the kitchen by the way, the light was different. The same happened with sunset and finally with night.
"What an interesting world," Kaito murmured.
"What?" Mila's surprised voice sounded, now wearing pajamas.
"Nothing," Kaito shook his head. He doubted Mila could notice how strange her world was. It would be like an anime character noticing sudden transitions.
Which is either impossible, or part of the ending of Animegataris.
"Whatever, I'm going to sleep," she said, going to her room and closing the door.
"And where do I sleep?" Kaito wondered, but then realized there would probably just be a transition and no real night would pass.
"Hey."
Kaito looked toward the room, where Mila was peeking out through a small opening in the door.
"Don't come in, don't be a pervert."
"I wouldn't do tha..." before Kaito could finish speaking, the door closed again.
"I'll go to the sofa th..."
"Hey," Mila's voice sounded again.
"Seriously, don't come in, or I'll kill you."
Kaito looked at the closed door again before replying and ignored her as he headed for the sofa.
"Hey."
"I won't go in..."
"When I wake up, will you still be here?"
"What?" Kaito asked, confused.
"They usually leave quickly, you're the only one who stayed all day. Normally they just want the key to the door."
"I'll still be here," Kaito replied.
"Good." Mila closed the door again and didn't open it this time.
Kaito just sat on the sofa, waiting for time to pass again with a sudden transition.
[Deviluke Princess: Kaito!]
But Lala's sudden message caught his attention instead.
[Lucifer: What's going on, are you done?]
[Deviluke Princess: Not yet, I'll take about ten more minutes]
[Lucifer: It seems pretty hard, you've been at it all day]
[Deviluke Princess: ??? I've only been at it for about two hours]
"Then the world really did affect me," Kaito murmured. It seems the transitions aren't the only strange thing about this world.
"Only two hours passed, but aside from the transitions, time felt like a whole day to me. Maybe that's how Mila experiences the transitions," Kaito thought.
"It doesn't matter, it was fun."
[Deviluke Princess: Whatever, this girl is a nuisance and won't let me finish, can I send her to you?]
[Lucifer: The crazy Mita? If you think I can handle her, send her]
Kaito wasn't afraid of Mita's power, he just didn't know if she had any special abilities. After all, she also modified the game by using Mita's skin, killing, teleporting, among other things she did in the original work, so Kaito didn't know if she could do more.
[Deviluke Princess: Alright, even though she can modify the code she doesn't compare to me, so she's basically just a crazy, super strong and agile girl. But you know, my strength isn't that great]
[Deviluke Princess: Anyway!, here she goes]
Kaito looked around. The place was already lit by morning light. Just as Kaito imagined, a transition happened while he was talking to Lala.
He could hear someone walking in the kitchen, probably Mila.
Despite Mila saying she was different, the truth is that Mila is probably the most Mita Mita of them all. The one who loves players the most. Precisely because of that, being abandoned by players affected her much more, hiding under a shell of indifference.
But at that moment, the light Kaito had glimpsed as static the day before began to move. It started to sunset at an incredible speed until the entire place went dark.
The surprise in Mila's voice, which came from the kitchen, confirmed that this situation was not natural.
Ironically, the natural movement of light is the most unnatural thing in this world.
Then, just as all the light vanished, behind Kaito a girl appeared, jumping at him with a knife.
Kaito's first move was not to defend himself. Instead, he went to the kitchen to look for Mila. Mila's death in the game was quite abrupt and sad, after all, so Kaito wanted to make sure she was okay this time.
"K Kaito, she's here," Mila murmured, not even noticing Kaito's speed because of fear.
"Kaito? I thought you'd call me player forever," Kaito replied.
"This is no time for jokes, she's going to kill you," Mila replied.
"It's fine, she..." before he could finish speaking, he felt Mita right behind him, so he turned around and kicked her, sending her flying into a nearby wall.
However, both the wall and Mita were completely unharmed.
Mita stood up and looked at Kaito.
"You're not normal, are you with the pink haired girl?" she asked with a disturbing smile, looking at Kaito as if he were an unusual specimen.
"Lala, and yes, I'm with her," Kaito replied.
"She was a cute girl, her head is the latest addition to my collection," she said, licking the bloodstained knife in her hand.
Kaito obviously knew that was a lie. Instead, he focused on the blood covered knife she was holding.
"That thing can damage and kill Mitas, something that should be impossible since they're just data. Then, since the game also affects me, it's likely it can hurt me too."
"No matter how strong you are, you can't kill me, you already saw it, I can't be damaged."
As she said that, Mita rushed toward them, trying to stab them.
"Kaito!" Mila hugged him in fear.
Meanwhile, Kaito...
FWOOOOSH!
Icy cold burst from Kaito's hands and the Mita rushing toward them was suddenly frozen, unable to move.
______________________________________
+12 chapters in advance on Patreon.
(They don't reach 15 at this moment, since there is a marathon of my other fic because it is ending.)
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)