"...What do you mean by that? I... I don't think I really noticed anything different, is that bad?" Miko answered nervously. She didn't think much of it, after all, her days were way worse in the past.
Every time she walked outside, Miko must be extra careful, thus making her always on the edge. If she accidentally met the eyes of any cursed spirit, it could be the end of her life. That threat often hanging above her head like the Sword of Damocles.
But after awakening her Sacred Gear and gaining control over her special eyes to a certain extent, Miko rarely ran into any danger. Of couse she occasionally saw something she shouldn't, her luck just won't let her be peaceful for a week, but nothing that would put her life at risk. Ultimately, now she knows these scary monsters can be defeat by the very power that once makes her life inconvenient. In fact, she had even 'exorcised' a couple of weak spirits by herself.
After all, Hana seems to be a magnet to these. Everytime she comes to school, there are always a few tagging with her. Kousuke had checked and confirmed that her friend just had particular case of bad luck, and presumably her positive energy that drawn them to her like moth to a flame.
Kousuke should be able to do something about it, but Miko thought she could handle it for now, hence, she didn't ask him for his help. It could help her with controlling her Sacred Gear better, so it stands to benefits her more by just leaving the problem to as it is. Even Hana didn't think much of it.
"It's nothing much, I've got a source that tell me some bad people are making pretty suspicious moves lately." He muttered with a serious look on his face. However, the fact that he still rested his head on Belfast's thigh makes the situation rather comical to the onlookers. But he continues, "These are the type of people that wouldn't hesitate to do anything to reach their goal, so I'm just informing you ahead of time. After all, you have a Longinus Sacred Gear, that includes you too my dear sister. You know very well how dangerous they can be so I won't elaborate."
"What I'm getting at is, watch yourself when you're out there. Your Sacred Gear might gives you some assurances, but not completely remove the risk itself. Who knows, one of them might even a Longinus, god knows how despicable they are."
If anyone in the knows heard of what he said, they'd mock him for the sheer bullshittery. Longinus were few to begin with, it can be count with both hands as only few of them had revealed themselves. So rather than underestimate his enemies, Kousuke always think of the worst possible outcome and make his plan around it.
After all, it's better to overestimate them than being caught off guard for letting down his guard at the most critical moment. Plus, Longinus weren't the only dangers out there. There's also Vali, White Dragon Emperor. And if someone like Ruri could exists, that means there could also be some other dragons still roaming out there. Maybe the real Tiamat might actually popped up one day for the copyright infringement in the virtual world.
"That... sounds more serious than I expected." Miko mumbles softly to herself. She still couldn't forget the accident at the old shrine, it haunted her for a couple of nights. If Valerie wasn't there with them, she couldn't imagine what kind of fate would befall them, at the very least it won't be a happy one that's for sure.
"Yeah, I could've just sent the message using the Sister Delivery Service—which, by the way, is the greatest service there is. Excellent courier, very charming. Anyway, I figured you wouldn't take it as seriously as you should, so here we are." Kousuke sneakily glanced at a certain dhampir, smiling when he heard her response.
"There's no such thing as a Sister Delivery Service, mou!" Valerie muttered, her tone indignant—yet the corners of her lips betrayed her, curling upward despite herself.
"I see, is that why you ask something like that in the beginning?" Miko asked as sudden realization hit her. She initially thought he meant like some powerful spirit possessing a random human to hurt her or something, but it was way worse.
"That's right, I thought asking that to you so abruptly might jolted your memories up but it seems you're fine... well, for now that is."
"That didn't make me feels any less worried at all."
"Because that was my intention to begin with. I need you to be on guard and maybe increase the intensity of your own training as well. The better prepare you are when the inevitable day comes, the less thing I have to be worried." Kousuke said calmly. Valerie visibly widened her eyes at his words, as if she was enlightened all of sudden. 'Could it be... this whole prank is him trying to scare Miko off so that she have the motivation, and now a reason to train harder? less thing to be worried... that means he IS in fact worrying about her friend?'
"...I see, but that's easy for you to say. I don't even know where should I increase the intensity... running more laps? double the squats? Physically, I can cover that up somehow, but how am I going to earn any experience in combat?" Miko muttered helplessly. It feels like her teacher suddenly tell the class to team up for a science project, but she didn't even know where to begin since she missed most of the lessons.
"You're asking that? Look around you," Kousuke said with knowing smile, at this point Belfast took the chance to clean his ears with the smart ear picker. It feels slightly ticklish to him, but he didn't stop her. Miko tilted her head at first, oblivious to what he meant yet she did exactly as he said—looking around.
"I don't get it? Why are you telling me to look around—ah."
"That's right, you should have some experience with combat since you already led 3 parties to victory against the boss from each floor. If it wasn't for you, they might have taken a lot longer to even find the boss's weakness. Though the first one was pretty messy, I even ended up lending a hand—oh woops, I wasn't supposed to say that, pretend you didn't hear anything."