Stein walked over to the unconscious Anastasia and bent over her motionless body.
"Naturally, she wouldn't have been perfect for what I wanted, but who would've thought she would last this long. quite surprising for a mere infant and she wasn't even groomed in my lab." Stein said.
Stein looked like a really young man despite his pale skin and its stitches.
He looked like someone in their late twenties, but for some odd reason he referred to a female that looked like a Teen as an infant.
It made me meaninglessly wonder about Stein's age, it didn't even seem natural that someone who had achieved what Stein had was that young.
Either Stein was so amazing that his breakthrough speed was unfeasibly quick or he had something to boost his common mortal longevity.
"Should I dispose of her, Azur?" Stein Suddenly asked.
It was unnerving and startling to hear The Dr Edward Stein requesting for my opinion on something he would have otherwise not even thought much about.
Naturally, from the way Stein tended to behave, it was highly likely he would just use Kage and rip her to shreds.
But if he was in a really good mood he would send her to his torture dungeon for a rather slow and painful death.
For some reason I felt an odd intent bloom from within my soul, I wanted to see her die. I wanted to see her suffer.
-{No} Athena advised.
"N-No. Sir Stein, Please, don't do that." I said in a very shaky voice that denoted the crippling fear that gripped me along with me suppressing these weird thoughts of death.
Why I was still afraid of Stein was something I still couldn't figure out.
His very presence this close to me would have made me wet myself in my own urinal fluid but fortunately I still hadn't ingested anything so that was impossible.
"Oh, okay. But I don't want her here. So, since you don't wanna see how cool I look when destroying my subjects then you can dispose of her." As he said this A tentacle appendage crept and swirled around Anastasia while she was laying on the ground.
Then very quickly she was thrown in my direction.
Her body's impact on mine actually threw me off balance.
She was thrown against my chest and since I wasn't Enforcing at that moment I felt an unusual spike of pain.
She was much heavier than her stature suggested.
I carefully put her aside and stood back on my feet and faced Stein.
"I just don't want to watch you do anything cruel to anyone. I've seen what you can do and I think I've seen enough." This was a lie of course.
I made sure to say this in quite a confident tone.
Because he seemed to be getting entertainment from seeing me shiver in fear and if I actually entertained him it meant I lost.
I declared a psychological battle, he seemed to know and he was loving it.
He was just smiling in blissful and ecstatic glee.
It was like this bastard reached the seventh heaven.
He watched his supposed servant die by my hand and he seemed to hold no grudges. He respected my opinion and didn't kill Anastasia.
"Was he high off his cigarettes?"
I couldn't help but think maybe he was intoxicated or something.
"You are making me so happy. I feel like tearing up. Initially I thought you would also be a failure because you weren't brewed and bred in my lab. In fact I have no idea where you came from but you turned out so perfect." Said Stein.
"Although that is thanks to my expertise. I did alter a lot of your DNA and your general body-" he added at a rather quick and hard to follow pace.
I cut him off before he could finish because what he was saying seemed like it wouldn't be beneficial and because I wanted to see the look on his face when he began to think maybe I wasn't scared of him anymore.
"You get to have those clothes I promised." His mood suddenly changed and the atmosphere felt even thicker and more menacing.
I felt like I was being choked and then I saw Hoax from the high up control panel/observation room that Stein was originally in.
Hoax was poking his head out where the glass would have been had it not been broken and then he threw down what seemed to be a three-piece attire.
I caught it and poked around looking at the clothes in safely concealed excitement.
It didn't look like much but it was much better than the slightly burnt rags I was putting on.
[A/N: Remember, Azur is shirtless too.]
The most prominent color on it was black.
Just like what my hair was and I indeed liked the color of I and Athena's hair so, hence I liked this color. The only other color on it was white.
The attire itself entailed long and very warm slacks that seemed to have a perfect fit, and an upper attire that had a few horizontal white stripes on its left side.
It was truly exquisite and there was what seemed to be a black cloak with similar white stripes on the hood and at the end of it near where the feet would be.
I was so excited that I pulled off the burnt and tattered rags I wore as trousers and went stark naked in front of Stein.
I began pulling on the underclothing that seemed to also come with the attire, which I thought would be the natural thing to do before I wore the main suit.
Stein without a word just turned around.
I felt like it was necessary to also turn around but unfortunately for me Anastasia was already regaining consciousness.
With my male shame all out in the open I realized that my clothes should be on my body before she realized.
I instantly tried to quicken up the clothing routine.
But it seemed that right before I finished covering myself she caught a quick glimpse when she regained herself completely and as soon as she caught a glimpse her face grew abnormally red and what seemed like steam began emanating from her skull as she fell on her face once more.
"Athena, what is this weird feeling?" I curiously asked her.
What I say to her isn't audible to others, as long as I just want her to hear it.
-{Oh, That's Called Shame. You Bore Your Hidden Parts For A Seemingly Underage Female To See. Such Blatantly Lewd Behavior} she teased me very obviously and she seemed to be enjoying it.
Just like when she was merely just the Recurring words, now that she said something about this I understood basically everything there was to know about it, or at least everything I could be allowed to know about it.
"A-Am I a criminal now?!"
I never really wondered about this before but I have no idea how old I'm supposed to even be.
"Criminal? Not even in the slightest bit." Stein said as he turned back around realizing that I had finished equipping myself with my new attire.
All that was left to be worn was the cloak but I had no intention of using it.
I had mistakenly spouted out what was meant for Athena and Stein heard it.
Before leaving another comment he popped out another cigarette from a pocket on his white lab coat and lit it in his usual way while utilizing a piece of Kage's weird skin.
Smoking in deep and long whiffs Stein seemed to be enjoying himself and he went back into what seemed to be a routine.
Almost each word or phrase was followed by a large exhale riddled with white smoke.
"You aren't even close to a criminal now. Anyway, Hello I'm Edward Stein, I'm known with many aliases; Inhumane, The Stain, Majin Worthy, Demonic Nightmare, Overconfident Heathen, Treacherous, Temerarious and dangerous. There's quite a lot actually and these are just the ones I like. Care to work with me?" He basically just introduced himself and his bad reputation to me.
It felt oddly eerie again.
I was not sure if this was another attempt at scaring me but either way I think it was working.
"D-Depends." I replied while audibly stammering
"Depends? On what?" He replied.
"On whether or not you accept my demands. I just want to leave, and if we fortunately happen to meet later on then I'll maybe follow a few of your orders, but not now. Don't you think?"
"You do need to understand a few things before you achieve my great goal. Okay then. Follow me."
I grabbed Anastasia and put her above my shoulders and followed closely behind Stein.
He was moving with help from the tentacle-like appendages on his back thanks to Kage.
Maybe he didn't want to touch the ground or something, because I definitely saw no reason for him to do that other than maybe to waste energy or to show off.
In what seemed to be the shortest walk I had ever witnessed and trekked in my life we had reached a wide-open field.
One much, much more-wider than anything I had seen in Stein's facility. This was apparently the outside of Stein's facility.
It had lush green grass and nicely placed, beautiful and luxuriant flowers.
Although this was outside, from what Stein said there was supposed to be some kind of gate but I saw none.
Simply meaning the sheer size of Stein's front porch was so large I couldn't see the gate.
I looked at Stein's exhausted face and saw his blank eyes and then I looked at the field I was currently standing in and then my mind exploded in utter awe.
How the hell did someone like Stein even do this, his garden was already shocking enough as is.