"Dante-Kun, is Kiana-Chan ok? She didn't come today."
Mei asked as she glanced back down at the special lunchbox of food she had prepared for Kiana specifically.
"She's fine. She just had something important to do." I lied through my teeth as I gave a reassuring smile.
"O-oh, really? Ok then." Mei still looked a bit down that one of her more close friends wasn't able to come due to their own important issues.
Raiden Mei, the daughter of the CEO Raiden Ryoma of the ME corporation is the strongest technology company in the world today, it is also a family business of the Raiden family.
She had a reputation to maintain due to this, in addition she had many friends. Though her naive kind nature blinded her to the real reason they stayed by her side, only Dante and Kiana were real friends to the observer.
As for her father's past, Raiden Ryoma was a young leader in the science and technology field. After taking over the throne of the ME president at the age of 30, he transformed the ME Corp from a commercial electrical appliance manufacturer into a smart electronic company with the world's most valuable technology secrets for more than a decade.
1 out of every 10 electronic devices in the world is equipped with electronic chips produced by ME.
Raiden Ryoma once became a representative of Japan's domestic technological innovation and business thinking revolution and was sought after by countless young people.
However, little is known, based on unpublished statistical data, ME has become the world's largest military supply provider, and has maintained a hidden cooperative relationship with many major countries, secretly developing the next generation of combat weapons.
For this reason, although Raiden Ryoma has not been publicly involved in the political arena, it has a small impact on the ruling and opposition mpattern.
ME Corp is mainly researching and developing conventional weapons, information equipment, and communication equipment. One of their most successful projects is making mechs using Honkai Energy.
If Dante had retained more of his past life memories he would he remembered one secret about the ME corp, and that Raiden Ryoma works for an organisation known as Anti-Entropy.
What is Anti-Entropy? Well that is another can of worms on its own while explaining all the other factions and powers of the world.
"Don't worry Mei, she'll come next time. Also I told you before to not use honorifics with me, it's weird since im a foreigner, im not use to this way of speaking."
"I-im sorry Dante-ku. *ahem* Dante!"
Dante visibly sighed and Mei just gave an awkward smile while scratching her head.
"Uh Dante, you said that you're a foreigner. I mean you told me before but didn't say where from. If you don't mind telling me that is?"
"I don't. Honestly I don't remember much, it happened a long time ago. I just know that my dad died from the global disaster event back in the year 2000, and my mom wasn't able to support me as she was struggling to survive with me as it is. She took me to an Orphanage that her cousin had originally wanted to create. Sadly she also died back in 2000. In the end I grew up at the orphanage and eventually I wanted to make a life of myself so I was recommended to come here to Nagazora city with some funds and after I proved I could take care of myself and earn money to support myself alone. And as for me, I got my foreign looks more from my father who was from the west."
Mei as at a loss for words, all she wanted was to ask him a simple question but it became a very depressing topic.
"Dante I'm so sorry for bring-"
She didn't get to finish before I raised my hand to stop her.
"Don't worry about it, I guess I got a bad habit from my father, he rants a lot too."
I lowered my hand only to see her blushing before I realised my blunder…I put my hand to her lips by accident…oh well, she'll forget about it in the future…maybe
After that we just ate our lunch in peaceful silence, until Mei broke it with another question.
"Dante, you said you are living alone? Are you doing well supporting yourself?"
"Yes and yes."
Mei was expecting more but she pouted not getting any more out of me.
I just chuckled as I let out an amused comment.
"If you want my address that badly, sorry to say that I can't give it. A certain Tuna would never leave me alone if she found out."
"N-no! I-i didn't mean to-" she stammered out a response but I cut her off yet again mid speech.
"Oh and Mei, if you give me Kiana's lunch I'll be sure to
pass it along to her."
Mei was left confused at the sudden topic changes but has gotten used to it since Dante has been doing this ever since they first met.
She didn't know what to say about the previous topic so she just internally sighed and replied to the current topic.
"Really Dante, then here. Please deliver it to Kiana-Chan for me."
"But of course."
'Ha as if! Thanks Kiana for the free meal!' Dante thought to himself as he celebrated in victory at having tricked Mei with emotional talk to lower her psychological defences before going for the attack and catching her off guard with a topic change so she wouldn't have the rationality to refuse me.
…
The day went by peacefully, especially since I had skipped classes to avoid Kiana who shared my time table schedule for subjects.
And I'll be damned if I go back, especially after I framed her to get caught and stole her Mei-Lunch-Special.
Before I knew it, it was 8:19pm and I had just ordered Pizza 35 minutes ago.
*ding*
"Ah finally, my Pizza. That took long enough, im starving!"
I said to myself as I got off my bed of the apartment I was in and made my way to the door.
When I reached the door, regret hit me like I was stabbed in the heart and sliced up into a thousand pieces since the Pizza delivery man…was a Pizza delivery girl!
And a damn familiar one at that! One with goddamn white hair and blue eyes!
"Here's your order! W-Wait! You!" She roared as her mind processed sho i was!
"K-Kiana-Chan! H-hey! I-i wasn't expecting to see you here! HEY! WAIT! DON'T! NO NEED TO DO ANYTHING CRAZY!"
"DANTE YOU MEANIE!" Kiana shouted as she pounced at me like a jaguar.
Luckily I had dropped to the floor to evade her predictable move.
"Your going to pay for what you did to me earlier today! A-and you stole Mei-Senpai's cooking from meeeeeee!"
*initiate Tuna defence protocols!*
I rolled to the side and grabbed a nearby chocolate bar and lighter which I stuck under the table with tape.
I turned on the lighter, which was those high speed burning ones, and readied it near the chocolate bar which halted Kiana in her tracks.
"One more step and the chocolate gets it!"
"Hey! Come on now! No need to do anything drastic!"
My eyebrow twitched at her mimicking my earlier words.
"Back off or the chocolate bar will be a melted murder puddle in a few moments!"