Chapter 64 - Stay Out Of The Kitchen!

The day had come when Kiki finally reached Level 10, the mandatory minimum level requirement for acolytes. Meaning, she now had the option of leaving whenever she so chose; although, she could just as well remain as a full-time employee or field laborer.

So, with this decision weighing heavily on Kiki's mind, she and a mostly despondent Akira were sitting on the bordering wall of the monastery, discussing plans for her future. All the while, gazing out across the windswept fields at the empty horizon, cast in a pastel pink early morning glow with thin purple streaks of cloud.

"I'll go wherever you go!" Kiki declared, excitedly pumping her fists. "Yeah! I'm with you for the long haul!"

Akira sighed, leaning back with her hands planted on the roof tiles. "Where have I heard that before?" she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Kanna and Vash are leaving the party. Ai has been sleeping with that master chef, and acts like we barely know each other."

Suddenly, Kiki broke out in a giggling fit. 

"What's so funny about my problems...?" Akira asked, with a suspicious squint.

"Sorry, sorry. I know I shouldn't laugh," Kiki said, trying to calm down but ultimately still retaining a smile. "Just, your life right now sounds like an NTR manga."

"Meh. I never read manga, so I don't know what that is."

Kiki was shocked. "No manga? Really?!"

Akira shook her head. "I became the world's richest, youngest, cutthroat playboy billionaire CEO at the tender age of 18. So, it'd be an understatement to say that I didn't have a lot of free time."

Akira Maximilian then laid down against the roof, turning to Kiki with a jaded smile. "You're going to someday betray me too, aren't you?" she asked Kiki warily. "Just like the others."

Kiki sharply stood, outraged. "Akira!" 

"How could you think that after everything you've done for me?!" she snapped. "There's no way I would turn around and betray you, for just some other person!" She turned away, huffing. "Kiki is a loyal girl."

Akira chuckled. "I gave a lot for them, as well…" she mused, staring vacantly up at the sky.

Kiki was about to stage a rebuttal, but suddenly lost her footing and fell off the side of the roof, faster than Akira could react to grab her.

"Kiki!" she yelled in distress.

Quickly, Akira peered over the side of the several meters high wall and was surprised to see Kiki, levitating, a mere few inches from the ground below, while comfortably reclining atop a fluffy cloud of the chi energy she could channel outward from her fists.

"Ow...I'm okay, I'm okay," she mumbled, eliciting a relieved smile from Akira.

"See, this is what I meant when I said I could tell you possessed a special quality," Akira said. "One that outshines all others, in my view."

Kiki gawked as she looked up at Akira, dying to know.

"W-what is it? Will you tell me…?"

"Like this," Akira replied as she stood up on the roof, grinning while doing a few stretches. Then, following up with a sudden drastic, bold leap—down off the roof, landing directly toward Kiki!

Kiki shrieked, rolling off her chi cloud right away to escape Akira's trajectory, while still letting the cloud cushion their drop.

"Gwah! Couldn't you warn me first...?"

Akira said nothing, wearing a blank smile as she flipped her legs over the side of the cloud.

Immediately, she launched an attack on Kiki: swapping between stances she'd learned in her time at the monastery to deliver a flowing flurry of lightning-fast, unpredictable punches and kicks.

"We're fighting now?!" Kiki exclaimed.

She blocked and deflected Akira's punches. Dodged, ducked, and wove around their kicks with amazing flexibility.

"I...can avoid your attacks?" Kiki said, incredulous, while she continued to do so.

After a while of this, Akira jumped back; ceasing her assault just as abruptly as she had commenced it, without having landed a single blow through Kiki's strong defenses.

"Instinct," Akira firmly said. "A strong survival instinct is what you possess, which most other people lack."

Kiki blinked. "I-I-Instinct…? Kiki repeated, with a small giggle. "Kinda almost makes me sound like a badass when you phrase it like that..."

Akira walked up, holding Kiki by the waist.

"I know that you're a secret badass, Kiki," she said. "You just haven't fully tapped into it yet."

Kiki was wide-eyed. 

Was it just her, or had Akira grown…

Shorter?

Previously, whenever they stood close to each other like this, Kiki could look up into Akira's chin. Whereas now, it had since become the other way around: with Kiki being the noticeably taller one, and Akira like a plump little supporting wife at her side.

Akira likewise noticed the muscles that had sprung up along Kiki's arms, gliding her fingertips across one of them gently.

"I said it before, but you're a—"

"Remarkable woman," Kiki finished for her, as she held Akira by the face and stared deeply into her eyes. "So are you, Akira-Kun. Those rotten girls who turned their backs on you just aren't appreciative enough." She smiled. "But I am. So when I say I'll never leave your side, I mean it."

Akira smiled back, though it was weighed with lingering sadness.

With Kanna...it was fairly predictable since she'd always shown a jealous side to her. As with Vash's situation, she could relate to their turmoil.

However, when it came to Ai's betrayal…

It came so out of nowhere, like a coin flip: one moment she was sharing a lustful moment with Akira in the mud bath, and the next she was head over heels for another. It just seemed like much more than mere feminine fickleness at play.

Akira had lowered her head while engaging with these troubling thoughts. But now, raised it upright again—meeting Kiki's growing concern with a fiery determination.

"Meet me at the canteen, later"

The canteen: an open, outdoor space on a bed of raised stone. A large grill and stove, underneath a tiled roof.

Food was prepared here by on-duty cooking staff, to be served to the acolytes during their lunch period. From the simplest bowl of white rice or dumpling soup to the most lavish gourmet dishes; all prepared by elite Master Rank chefs, served while hot to the starving monks.

Guy Fly was among the chefs on staff, gullibly thinking he was becoming more popular lately because of the larger crowds, like today's, gathering to watch his showman-like cooking antics…

But in actuality, these crowds were mostly made up of horny guys and girls—ogling at the eye candy waitress he now had working with him.

"One at a time, please!" Ai announced, raising her cute voice above the noise of the crowd and sizzling food on the grill. Following, with a wink and a giggle, while sticking out her buttocks in a lively pose: "unless my husband says otherwise." 

She was dressed in only a black flame-patterned bikini top, her demonic belly hanging out, her meaty thighs swishing audibly as she whizzed about with a notepad and stick of graphite in hand to jot down food orders. And as Akira watched, from where she was seated beside Kiki at one of the arranged dining benches, she would occasionally stop by Guy Fly's side for an exchanged slow kiss on the lips, her eyes sealed shut in passion.

The sight of these casual romantic exchanges made Akira Maximilian furious...yet also deeply aroused. And he didn't like it one bit.

"Ai-chan!" Akira yelled, standing on top of the bench to be seen above the crowd.

Ai's wandering gaze met theirs, and she smiled. 

"Oh, hi Akira! I'll get to you in a second."

Guy Fly observed the communication and immediately let out a huge bellow, waving his spatula in the air.

"Akira!" He laughed. "My condolences—" he said as he wrangled Ai close to his side with one arm, smacking a palm against her milk chocolate toned fat as she responded with a pleasantly surprised gasp—"for your recent losses."

"Give her back, you bastard," Akira growled. "She's not thinking straight, to want to associate with a fucking burger-flipping freak like you!"

Guy Fly lowered his head, peering at Akira through his sunglasses.

"We've done a lot more than 'associate.'"

Akira briefly cringed, but remained steadfast: proceeding to stand up unto the bench, ignoring Kiki's feeble attempts to hold her back. "We'll fight!" she challenged, pointing a finger. "And whoever wins, gets to claim Ai's heart!"

"Yay!" Ai cheered. "A chance for my husband to show off his amazing power!"

Hearing this, Akira gasped.

Amazing power…?

And that's when Akira realized—

Uh-oh. All this time, his level has been hidden.

She watched the [Level ???] floating above his head transform, slowly, into [Level 50] Letting out a stunned gasp as Guy Fly displayed all his teeth, in a menacing wide grin.

Kiki subsequently got Akira's attention finally, through all her repeated tugging at their clothes.

"Akira, don't," she firmly said. While Akira watched, in a nervous sweat, as a threatening glowing golden aura enveloped Guy Fly—still bearing his eerie ear-to-ear grin.

"There's no way you can win," Kiki continued. "Because that man isn't just a master chef…!"

"He's also a master chi practitioner!"