Divine Milking System

Chapter 271: 271 | Reaper’s Edge Within Reach

"It’s my job." She resumed walking. The distance between us expanded with every step. From behind, Misato Ayame looked exactly like what she’d always been to me: my coach, my captain, the person keeping me alive through pure competence and relentless standards.

Black compression gear hugged the athletic curve of her back and defined muscle of her shoulders. Her waist tapered to hips that moved with compact power.

She was a walking weapon system, someone who could split into six copies of herself and overwhelm any threat through numbers and violence.

She rounded the corner of Building C and disappeared from sight.

I stood on the path for a moment, replaying the conversation and trying to figure out why it felt like I’d missed something important. Misato had been insistent. Almost aggressive about coming along tonight. The security argument made sense on paper, but Misato was a tactician.

She knew better than anyone that acting normal during surveillance was optimal strategy. She’d said as much during our coffee meeting that morning. So why the sudden push to insert herself into my evening plans? Why the resistance when I’d declined?

I ran through possibilities while walking toward my apartment, mind working through the angles.

Option one: Misato was genuinely worried about Cassandra. Valid. A Diamond-tier investigator on campus was cause for legitimate concern. Misato had more to lose than anyone if my secrets got exposed. If Cassandra started digging into Obsidian’s recent activities, my connection to Misato would eventually surface. Her reputation was on the line.

Option two: Misato was testing my judgment after the heist debacle. Also valid. She’d caught us dressed like burglars less than two days ago and might reasonably want to monitor whether I was about to commit additional crimes. The text earlier had carried that warning tone—don’t do anything stupid tonight. Maybe she didn’t trust me to keep my head down.

Option three: something I couldn’t identify and didn’t have enough data to evaluate. An unknown variable I’d need to circle back to later.

I shelved the analysis. Tonight had a specific objective that required my full attention, and I couldn’t afford distractions.

That objective involved a woman who carried dual scythes and ate lollipops like cigarettes and who, according to Aurora’s extensive intelligence reports, was currently stress-eating her way through a family-sized bag of cherry flavor because she couldn’t stop thinking about the lottery kid with amber eyes who made her best friend scream through a hotel room wall.

I texted Aurora back while climbing the stairs to my floor, thumbs moving quickly.

7 works. tell addison the grey henley is retired. wearing the leather jacket she picked out fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Aurora responded in four seconds flat.

perfect. she’s going to lose her mind. bring chocolate.

the good kind costs 200 points a slice

then bring 200 points worth of chocolate you cheap beautiful idiot

fine

also jace?

yeah?

tonight is going to be fun. trust me

A fox emoji followed. Then a knife emoji. Then an eggplant.

Aurora Fitzgerald did not believe in subtlety and I loved her for it. The woman had all the restraint of a hand grenade with the pin already pulled.

I showered, changed into dark jeans and the black leather jacket over a fitted black v-neck Aurora had selected during our shopping trip last week. Checked my reflection in the bathroom mirror.

The amber eyes hadn’t changed, but everything surrounding them had. Months of training and Limit Breaker’s relentless reshaping had carved away the fat, replaced soft tissue with lean muscle, turned the body of a lottery winner into something that looked dangerous.

I looked good. Not Aurora-level good, not "stop traffic and cause accidents" good, but the kind of good where women glanced twice instead of once and men’s eyes narrowed with the particular hostility reserved for guys whose presence made them feel threatened.

Good enough for tonight. Good enough for Addison Baxter.

I grabbed my wallet, checked that I had enough points for chocolate, and headed for the door. My phone buzzed in my pocket—another text from Aurora, probably reminding me not to forget the chocolate or show up early. I ignored it. She’d sent me three reminder texts already today. The woman operated on the assumption that I had the memory retention of a goldfish.

Hikaru’s room was quiet when I passed it. No light underneath the door. She was probably at the rec center working through her evening routine with the mechanical discipline of someone whose entire identity depended on maintaining control over every variable in her environment.

I hadn’t seen her since morning. The apartment still smelled faintly of green tea she brewed before dawn. A scent I’d begun associating with the five AM hour the way most people associated roosters with sunrise.

She’d been waking up earlier lately. Training harder. Whatever pressure she was under, it was getting worse. free𝑤ebnovel.com

Not my problem. Not tonight, anyway.

The hallway was empty. Elevator was empty. Lobby was empty except for a second-year Obsidian student studying at one of the common tables who glanced up, registered my existence, and returned to her textbook without comment.

I recognized her vaguely from house meetings—brown hair, serious face, someone who took academics too seriously for her own good. She didn’t say anything. Neither did I.

I stepped outside into the California evening. The sun was low on the horizon, painting the sky orange and pink. Temperature had dropped to something comfortable after the day’s heat. The campus felt quieter at this hour. Most students were in their apartments or the dining hall. A few stragglers walked between buildings, heading to the library or rec center. None of them paid me any attention.

Seven o’clock. Aurora’s apartment. Addison waiting.

Reaper’s Edge within reach.

The walk took nine minutes across campus and I spent every single one not thinking about the way Misato’s face had looked when I turned her down. The slight tightness around her eyes. The way her jaw had set before she’d turned and walked away. Something about that expression bothered me. Something about the entire conversation felt off.

I pushed the thought aside. Tonight wasn’t about Misato. Tonight was about theft, seduction, and adding a goddamn A-rank ability to my collection.

Everything else could wait.