Chapter 71:

Liar's Mask

I sighed.

Sometimes life can be very tiring, you know?

One moment a girl apologises and the next thing you know she is holding a gun against your head.

I watched Snowflake from the corner of my eyes, seeing if she would do something.

To my disappointment, the white Ninetales was just watching the scene unfold with a child-like curiosity as if she was watching a movie. She clearly had no idea what was going on, otherwise she would surely intervene, right? On the other hand, maybe it was better if she just stayed there doing nothing, after all, there was no guarantee that she would do something smart if she would act at all.

Sabrina's hand was shaking, the same hand that was holding me at gunpoint.

"Sabrina," I stuttered, my throat feeling dry, "You seem quite triggered."

Upon hearing the code word my two Pokémon shot into action.

Sand appeared in front of Sabrina's eyes, seemingly out of nowhere.

Instinctively Sabrina shut her eyes. The next logical step for her would be to pull the trigger but the girl had not the chance to act on it because Riolu leaped forward and slashed the gun out of her hands. It bounced against the wall and hit the ground, I proceeded to kick it away from me as far as possible. Just as I did that, a silver gun dropped out of the air in front of me, followed by a silver knife with the blade pointing to the ground.

I managed to grab both of them before they dropped to the ground and a second later I was armed, gun in my left hand and knife in my right.

Sabrina was still blinded by the sand that was thrown into her eyes.

That moment I realized how easy it would be for me to kill her right now. I could slash her open, shoot her or order any of my Pokémon to murder her. It was tempting but in a 'what if way''. Like how you always have this urge to jump off a high building or jump straight into traffic. You have no actual intentions of doing it yet the question keeps lingering in your head.

I didn't answer the call of the void though, I was pissed, yeah but that's no reason to do something stupid.

I kicked her straight in the chest, Sparta style and she fell backwards and hit the wall with her back.

"Aaah!" Sabrina cried in pain and she dropped through her knees, she frantically tried to rub her eyes clean. Leaning on the wall to give her some semblance of gave me the perfect opportunity to hit her in the head with a second kick that looked cooler than it had any right to be, considering I had no idea of what I was doing except for the fact that kicking her would hurt my knuckles less.

It blew the wind out of her lungs and with a loud cry she crashed on the ground,

Sabrina stopped struggling after that, instead, she just lied down against the wall, her body slumped and her eyes cast down. She made no attempt to move but she was alive and I assumed she was conscious, considering her eyes were open.

I had defeated her.

Adrenaline rushed through my body and my heart was beating like it was trying to escape my body. With a few deep breaths, I managed to calm myself down

I hadn't felt scared at all, it was kind of puzzling me. Maybe I was getting numb to people trying to kill me, or maybe it was just my disappointment.

With my gun pointed at her head, I stood over her, Fay standing next to me while Luna was behind Fay in case she needed to assist her.

Sabrina didn't meet my eyes as I knelt down in front of her. She steadily refused to look at me. With a bitter voice she spoke; "If you're gonna kill me, do it."

I arched my eyebrows, "That's all you have to say?"

Man was I disappointed.

She fixed her blue eyes on mine and I noticed she had blood leaking out of her mouth, not a lot but definitely painful. "What do you want me to say? I already apologized."

"Nine?" Snowflake seemed really confused, I ignored it.

I was kind of at a loss for words, I had expected her to be angrier but instead, I got this hollow shell of a response. She had stopped struggling which made it a lot harder for me to stay angry at her. I certainly was but I'm not the kind of person who gets joy out of beating the shit out of someone even if they deserved it.

"You are fucking stupid," I told Sabrina with a glare, "What the fuck were you thinking?"

Sabrina did not answer me.

There's one thing I hate, stupidity. Not that I'm not stupid sometimes but when other people do it I just get so annoyed.

"What was your plan? Walk up to the guy you suspect to be an S level threat with a fucking gun? In what kind of reality would that work. If you saw me wield magic, why would you think I can't stop a bullet?!"

It was stupidity in the extreme, there were so many other ways she could have done it. Snipers, landmines, poison or even just pretending to be my friend to figure out a potential weakness. Everything besides jumping me with a gun would have worked better.

"It was an Aura infused bullet," Sabrina muttered defeated while looking at the ground. "And the gun was made of anti-Psychic steel."

What is an Aura infused bullet? I wanted to ask but since I was holding her at gunpoint it wasn't really the right moment to ask that. I eyed the gun that was now lying on the floor and I noticed the weird color; probably the anti-Psychic steel that gave it the weird color.

I shook my head, confusion, relief and other emotions flooding into another. "I really did expect better from you, at least try to separate me from my Pokémon before trying to assassinate me. I expected you to snipe me or to poison me instead you do this? You couldn't kill a baby with a plan this half-assed."

"Y-You expected me to assassinate you?" Sabrina coughed painfully.

"Duh, why'd you think I asked for an hour alone with my 2 Pokémon? Just to train?" I chuckled, "And you called it paranoia, " I said to Fay.

Fay shrugged. "It seemed paranoia at the time, especially some of the scenarios you presented to us."

I did cover quite a lot of scenarios, each with their special counter strategies and trigger words although most of them boiled down to Luna teleporting my weapons from the training room I had hidden them in and Fay tanking whatever was going to hurt me, seeing how Pokémon have insane durability compared to the fleshy human that was me.

Hmm, what to do? Sabrina had attacked me, although poorly but still. However there was this one redeeming factor that I kind of baited her into doing it with my little display of 'magic.'

After all, better to set off the bomb at an early stage when I expect it then to let it linger around in the background and bite me in the ass the moment I least expect it.

I snapped my fingers twice, a magical blue spark flashed to life. Sabrina watched it with what seemed to be genuine distress.

"So, quick question. Why in hell's name would having powers make me an S level threat?"

This part had bothered me the most, considering the amount of humans that had an S level threat rating can be counted on one hand.

Sabrina refused to answer and kept her mouth closed.

"Please?" I added, slightly twisting my knife. Not that I was going to stab her but she does not have to know that.

"You're a blindspot," Sabrina said hesitantly. Her eyes alternated between my knife and my fingers. "The amount of damage a single rogue Psychic can do is catastrophic, I would know."

"So?"

Sabrina swallowed painfully, "The biggest weakness to a Psychic are other Psychics, with you being a blindspot there's no telling how much damage you will cause."

"So even if, what makes me an S level threat?"

Not that I'm not flattered but the actual amount of human-S level threats are extremely small. Barely a few.

Sabrina refused to answer at first but Luna's eyes started to glow red suddenly, {Speak!}

"Fine," Sabrina spat, "The Deleter was an A level threat, his only weakness was other psychics. Now take someone with similar powers but without any of the downsides, that would make a true monster."

Aah, the infamous Deleter. I had read a little about him online but not a lot was available about him. Only something about him taking a Legendary Pokemon hostage, apparently he had the power to literally remove the abilities of Legendary Pokemon. Not sure how, but this world had never been sane. However it made me understand Sabrina's view a little better.

It was still a rash action of her but somewhere in her twisted logic it makes sense. Even if there's a small chance I'll use my powers to do evil-bad guy things then it should still be taken as a certainty because of the massive potential damage I could cause. Although it's not how math works, morality does. After all, if I could see the future but my opponent's couldn't then I'd be a massive loose end.

Of course she overlooked one small step.

"Huh, well let me clear that up for you. Luna do your thing."

A bright glow began to illuminate the hallway. In front of Luna was a symbol glowing in the air, three triangles interlocked into a bigger triangle seemingly appeared out of nowhere and glowed fiercely like a divine symbol summoned by the gods.

"Ni?" Snowflake eyed the emblem with great interest. Her head tilted as if she was really thinking hard about how it could stay afloat.

Sabrina watched it with fearful eyes. "What is that symbol?"

I scoffed. "Just a distraction, Luna, show what's really going on."

{Do I need to?} The Kirlia eyed the psychic suspiciously, {Why reveal our cards? Keep her guessing.}

I sighed, "Because otherwise we might be in actual trouble, the kind that uses a gun the way it's supposed to be used; from a distance."

The last part was aimed at Sabrina.

{Fine.}

The symbol disappeared into a haze of sand that dropped from the air.

It landed on the floor in a small pile. The light disappeared and all the magic was gone.

"See that?" I asked Sabrina, "Luna was teleporting sand grains in and out of a formation. For some reason teleport objects give off a soft glow...get it now?"

I had early on figured out that teleporting sand was one of the most energy-efficient things to use for summoning glowy symbols. They were small enough to barely drain energy and the glow effect a teleport gave off would often overshadow what was really teleporting. It was a whole lot of pain to figure out the right amount to teleport in which formation and at which frequency but with enough trial and error I think I did a nice job of it.

Sabrina paled as she too realized what had been happening all the time. Just Luna teleporting sand and me pretending it's magic.

"No-no..." The girl groaned loudly, her fragile body shaking "You're joking right?"

I lowered my weapons. "Nope, you are just a fucking cunt for falling for my tricks."

Aghast Sabrina kept staring at the pile of sand lying at her feet.

"Bu-but I actually sensed psychic energy in the air."

Her eyes snapped towards Luna. "It was your psychic energy I felt!"

"It's kind of ironic," Fay thought out loud. "Your own power fooled you."

Sabrina's eyes met mine. "And you predicted I would do this?"

I shrugged, "Just expected you to."

Sabrina slumped even more, she buried her head in her hands and whined. "I can't believe I did all of this."

That wasn't really true. I had baited her into attacking me, after all. If I want to clear myself from any suspicions of being from another world I had to do something extreme and Sabrina seemed just unhinged enough to actually fall for it.

I put away my weapons and offered Sabrina my hand. "Now you were apologizing?"

Sabrina looked suspiciously at my hand. "What?"

"You were giving me a heartfelt apology, now I want an even bigger apology. After all, you tried to kill me."

"You want me to apologize, after all this?!" Sabrina asked with an urging and surprised tone. Her voice sounded broken and desperate. It caused her to cough up some blood and spit it out, quite disgusting. "I tried to shoot you and all you want is an apology?!"

Were those tears welling up in her eyes? It looked like it.

"Oh shit, I'm such a horrible person." Sabrina muttered. She started choking and crying at the same time. Her head down and tears welling up in her eyes, she tried to hide it by rubbing it out of her eyes but she horribly failed at it.

"Uh, I got to kick you really good," I said, "And from all the murder attempts yours was the worst one ever."

I didn't wait for her and instead just grabbed her hand myself and pulled her up. "Besides, now the world's number 1 psychic is in my debt. There are worse things in life."

"You're gonna blackmail me?" Sabrina finally asked when she had managed to stop crying, a little bit embarrassed and red.

"No, of course not." I chided, "But you definitely owe me a big favor."

"I'll do anything," Sabrina said quickly, "I am willing to repay for my mistakes!"

Sabrina was too important to ever end up in jail and with the current circumstances she could even get away without any charges considering she can claim to have acted with the world's best interest in mind and even if I could file charges would be useless for me to do such a thing.

Things were way better this way, I got rid of both suspicions and a very powerful friend.

"Though I am not the world's strongest Psychic," Sabrina added darkly. "The Deleter is, that's why I was so afraid."

"You are scared of the Deleter?" I mused as I proceeded to pick up the gun Sabrina had dropped.

It looked a little bit like a revolver but with some modern touches to it. It had a dark gray color and it felt heavier than my own guns. I decided that this was my price for winning a duel. A gun with aura infused bullets, no idea what they do but this weapon was definitely a keeper.

"No not scared," Sabrina finally muttered "But if you had the same power as him while being a blindspot you would definitely be the world's strongest Psychic."

She arched her eyebrows as if she was suddenly thinking about something.

"Well, it's a shame I'm not actually a Psychic."

"Don't say that!" Sabrina almost shouted. "If you truly were that powerful I wouldn't be the only one you had to worry about. Leagues all over the world and crime syndicates would want a piece of you."

I blinked. "Dafuq would a crime syndicate want with me?"

Sabrina folded her arms, blood dripped down on them but she didn't seem to notice it, or care. "You could literally crash the world's economy. I was terrified of you for a reason."

"Eeh?"

"You don't understand how dangerous your power is," Sabrina insisted, "It's illegal to use special abilities to influence the economy, things like precognition and Pay Day are detected by other Pokémon and Psychics who keep it safe but you can literally crash the stock market with a Pokémon power and no one in the world could stop you."

Talking about 'he's too dangerous to be left alive.' I kind of am glad all of the sudden I don't have such power. Would be cool but just the thought of how many lives I can ruin accidentally is terrifying.

"Well, I learned something new today," I said with a cheerful tone. "Guess murder attempts are good for something."

Sabrina cast her eyes down.

"Come on," I continued with the same cheerful tone, knowing fully well that I was guilt tripping her. "Let's get you to Doctor Coldheart, after all you still promised to teach my Luna a new trick."

"Yip!" Snowflake barked happily.

Fay and Luna followed, Luna keeping a watchful eye on Sabrina while Fay was mostly just lost in her own thoughts.

Victory surely does feel sweet.

A/N Writing this story is like playing Minecraft because I keep stumbling into those writer's blocks...yeah that was the best I could do. Not so sure about this chapter but got to upload something right? And considering I always doubt myself with this story I am no longer a reliable judge.

Anyway leave your reviews and if you have liked this story please favorite it, there's quite the gap between followers and favorites and it keeps laughing at me.

Writing tip4: When making an 'Ash Betrayed' story, make sure to always have his friends throw a party to announce their betrayal. This way you can skip actual personal motivations and just add it to the 'you suck pile.' but make sure that the girls for the harem don't speak up, otherwise they might be more than cut out cardboard characters.

Ps: The amount of Persona references, I never saw it coming.

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Cya all later!

-CaptainMoonShine-