Unspeakable bubbles

The bartender thought for a moment and said, "I have a friend who awakened after eating his own daughter."

"Huh?" Nakamura thought he had misheard.

"Don't be so surprised, he was born into a cannibalistic family."

"And some I've only heard about—some awakened while fighting chaotic creatures, some suddenly awakened after years of accumulation, and others..."

As Nakamura listened to the bartender's story, his heart sank.

If what he said is true, then the ways of awakening are varied and almost everyone is different.

In this way, it would be impossible for me to get his guidance in this area.

Nakamura was feeling down, and he couldn't help but clench his fists.

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

"Is there any way to awaken a specific ability?" Nakamura hesitated for a moment before asking.

"Oh, what ability do you want?"

The bartender glanced at him: "No problem."

"Is there...is there a way?"

Nakamura was both surprised and delighted. He himself had given up hope on his doubts, but unexpectedly, he was certain.

"That's not a problem at all. Do you think awakened abilities are random?"

Kubo shook his head: "Take me for example. At the time, all I wanted to do was burn that monster to death. I didn't have any other thoughts. As a result, the awakened mysterious power fulfilled my wish."

"I don't know what ability you want, but if one day in the future you awaken."

"The power you receive will inevitably be the one your heart desires most."

Nakamura's breathing became heavy. What he longed for most, there was only one thing he longed for!

The bartender wasn't surprised to see Nakamura like this.

Over the years, he had seen many people like Nakamura. But in the end, none of them were able to achieve their desired awakening.

"Senior, do you have any suggestions?" Nakamura asked finally.

The bartender reached out and drank the scalding hot drink in front of Nakamura in one gulp.

"Actually, there's not much to say. After all, everyone's situation is different. By the way..."

"If you can observe someone's awakening up close, it might give you some inspiration."

Chapter 35: Naïve and Stubborn

"Eat, eat."

In the cafeteria, Bubble looked around while carrying her lunch.

"Ah, Kimiko!"

She jogged over to Kimiko, who was also carrying a bowl of food: "Let's eat together."

Kimiko's face lit up with a happy expression, but she also looked somewhat troubled.

"...Not today. I'm going to eat on the rooftop with my friends; the view is better there."

"Are we going today too?" Bubble was quite disappointed. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Then Bubble will come along too."

“Eh?” Kimiko’s eyes flickered.

"Ah, about Bubbles, there's something... that..."

Kimiko was not good at lying, and she stammered for a long time without being able to come up with a plausible reason.

"I go first!"

Finally, Kimiko turned her back to the bubbles and ran away.

"..." The little girl stood there blankly, holding her lunch, looking rather listless.

"If you don't mind, shall we eat together?" A familiar voice came from behind.

Sakakibara Ikuko appeared behind Bubbles at some point, and then spoke with a smile.

"Okay," the little girl nodded, "Let's go with Yuko this time too."

The cafeteria is now packed with people, and it's really difficult to find an empty seat.

Bubble, however, wasn't worried at all. Why?

Sakakibara Ikuko walked straight to a table, and before she could say anything, the group of people who were enjoying their meal suddenly changed their expressions and obediently stood up to give up their seats.

This was something that greatly surprised Bubble. Even though she had seen the same scene several times before, Bubble still couldn't help but ask, "Yuko, why did they all suddenly leave?"

"Who knows? Maybe something urgent just happened," Yuko said casually.

"Oh, we're really lucky then, they always seem to have something on their plate."

Sakakibara Ikuko glanced at Bubbles with a somewhat speechless expression. Well, it wasn't that the little girl was really stupid; after all, she had seen her progress in her studies these past few days.

Well, I can only say she's a little too naive.

At first, Yu Zi put a lot of effort into making up several reasons, such as that they were her friends, or that the teacher had something come up unexpectedly.

After discovering Bubble's naive side, he stopped bothering to come up with excuses and just used one reason each time.

"Yu Zi, do you think Bubble did something wrong?" the little girl asked suddenly after taking a few bites of her food.

"How to say?"

"Kimiko hasn't been eating with Bubble these past few days, that's so strange."

“Didn’t we say we were going to eat on the rooftop with friends?” Sakakibara Ikuko said.

The little girl shook her head. "Kimiko must be lying. How could Bubble be fooled!"

Sakakibara Ikuko sighed after hearing this, thinking, "You can't even fool a little girl like Bubbles. Kimiko, you're really useless."

"She must have been doing something bad behind your back," Yu Zi said maliciously.

"No, Kimiko is a good girl!"

Bubble looked at her very seriously, "Don't speak ill of your friends."

"That's hard to say. There are a lot of people who say one thing to your face and another behind your back these days. Bubble, young girls like you are the easiest to be fooled."

"Kimiko is a good girl."

"How do you know? Bubble and she haven't known each other for very long."

Sakakibara Ikuko smiled and said, "Speaking of which, there are actually a lot of bad rumors about the class president in the class."

"Rumors? It must be just some people making things up." The little girl seemed quite certain.

"This isn't just one or two people saying it. If you don't believe me, I'll take you to ask them later."

"Why listen to others? Isn't it enough that Bubble thinks Kimiko is a good girl?"

“Even if they all say bad things about Kimiko, Bubble won’t listen!” The little girl said something that completely surprised Yuko.

“This…” Sakakibara Ikuko suddenly discovered another side of Bubble. Even if everyone said that Kimiko was wrong, Bubble would still stubbornly stick to her own opinion.

'Really stubborn, surprisingly difficult to deal with.'

Ikuko Sakakibara originally wanted to open a breach from the bubble side, but now it seems that was a bit of wishful thinking.

Seeing that Yu Zi remained silent, Bubble spoke up again: "Yu Zi, a good child shouldn't talk badly about their friends behind their backs."

Whether he's a good kid or not is another matter, but, friend?

Hearing Bubbles repeat the same thing again, Sakakibara Ikuko frowned.

"When did I say that I was friends with Kimiko?" Sakakibara Ikuko tilted her head and asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Kimiko is Bubble’s friend.” The little girl pointed to herself, then to Yuko.

"Yuko is also Bubble's friend."

"So, you must be good friends too!"

Hmm, this kind of bizarre logic.

After a moment of contemplation, Sakakibara Ikuko decided that the best course of action was to either casually agree or remain silent.

However, there are also aspects of her that she cannot compromise on.

"Wrong, Bubble."

Yuko revealed an unprecedentedly serious expression: "We're not friends. If you really want to say something, we're just acquaintances who occasionally have meals together."

"Isn't that right?" The little girl looked completely confused.

“No,” Sakakibara Ikuko said firmly.

"Friends? Humph, I don't really have any friends."

"Well, but, but we ate together, chatted together, Yu Zi even taught Bubble in the dorm, and..." The girl refused to give up, listing these 'evidence' one by one.

"No, absolutely not."

Sakakibara Ikuko looked at Bubbles with amusement: "What's so special about this? Doing these things together makes you friends? Your standards for friends are really low."

"Then, how can I become good friends with Yuko?"

Despite being scolded, Bubble still didn't want to give up.

Yuko twirled her chopsticks in her hand, remaining silent for a moment.

It has to be said that the bubble problem really stumped her.

She had never thought about friends or anything like that.

“Yuko,” for some reason, Bubble looked at the silent girl with a look of sympathy.

"Although you don't like to listen in class, like to talk badly about others behind their backs, have an ugly smile, are always daydreaming, and always like to suddenly pop up and scare people."

"But don't worry."