Kaizer nodded as he guessed it might be about this. He pushed his upper body up and adopted a sitting position as he seriously glanced at Rina, who sat near him.
"There was some part of the story that I did not tell our folks, and it concerns the two of us specifically."
Rina nodded and looked somewhat interested, beckoning Kaizer to continue.
Kaizer cleared his throat and spoke. "Do you remember the promise we made back when we were kids?"
Rina looked at Kaizer strangely, wondering if this was a trick question. Of course, she remembered that promise; she could bring up every single detail from that moment as it was one of the most vivid memories in her mind.
She thought about that moment day and night, and whenever she saw Kaizer with another girl or going on a date, she would often spend the night crying in frustration, thinking back to that promise and feeling deeply betrayed.
So to hear him ask about it now, Rina felt a profound absurdity in it all.
"I do, what about it?" She could only respond with in the end, holding back the countless years of complaints and rants she wanted to release at this moment.
She had only just started patching up her relationship with him; now was not the time to devolve back into fighting with him.
"Well, at that moment, we were truly young and fully intended what we said. Because we are both espers and our powers had been with us since birth but hadn't fully awakened, our promise formed a covenant between us." Kaizer stated with a cough.
"We promised to share everything with each other and be together forever, yes. How does that equate to a covenant?" Rina asked with confusion.
"Well, our powers are quite special. You have the power of death, which is usually about forming contracts, though you aren't a necromancer type, and I have psychic power, which is mostly about connecting minds."
Kaizer made a gesture with his hands showing something exchanging from one side to the other while interconnecting afterward. "As such, a part of your power merged with me and a part of my power merged with you."
Rina coiled her legs onto the bed with a look of interest, gently brushing a strand of her fiery red hair to the side. "Okay, so what does this mean for us?"
"Well, according to Anir, she was created by your subconscious to handle your death power and its stringent requirements for control while you remained as you were. Ideally, you two should be able to switch between each other to utilize your power."
"However, you obtained a part of my psychic ability, specifically in elemental control, so you can actually use death power on your own without Anir. The only downside is that you cannot use your death power fully, but have to train from scratch." Kaizer explained succinctly.
"So… if Anir can use our death power at 100%, I have to start training from 0% and climb upwards, basically?" Rina asked after she mulled it over in her head for a bit.
Kaizer nodded with satisfaction. "Precisely. While out of combat, you can spend time training your death power after consulting Anir, but in combat, I'd advise you switch to her because her usage of your power is even greater than mine at the moment."
"Sure, we can train together then, right?" Rina requested casually, but internally her heart was beating with trepidation as if sending a risque text to a love interest.
Kaizer pondered this and nodded slowly. "That should be fine. That way, we can monitor each other's progress and cover for the gaps in our thinking."
Rina almost wanted to jump up and do a little jig, but she could only suppress it by revealing a smile. "Okay, so what about you then? What did you get out of our covenant?"
Kaizer hesitated. "I didn't want to tell our folk about it because of how it sounds, but you will know soon anyway."
Rina tensed up, realizing that Kaizer was about to confide an absolutely important secret to her, which also made her understand that this was her chance to get closer to him by showing she could be trusted.
"Well, I gain your power to harvest death energy from corpses. Though it's been weakened to requiring me to have to personally kill those people, and rather than death power, I harvest all their mental power and convert it into psychic energy for myself." Kaizer revealed in a deep tone.
However, Rina's reaction left him speechless, for she simply blinked and tilted her head in confusion.
"That's all?"
"What do you mean 'that's all'? I have the ability to grow the base of my psychic power endlessly thanks to our covenant. So where I would have been capped as a very strong psychic previously, I now theoretically have no limits." Kaizer retorted with a frown.
"And as long as you personally kill people, right?" Rina asked again to be sure.
"Yes, as long as I do it. So you see the problem, right?" Kaizer answered immediately.
Rina was silent for a bit before she suddenly covered her mouth, but the soft giggle she released could not be hidden. Kaizer's eyes narrowed as he glared at his cousin with dissatisfaction.
"What's funny about that?"
"Sorry, it's just that in these years we haven't interacted much, I didn't know you had become so dramatic." Rina revealed after stifling her amusement.
Kaizer's brows twitched. "I am not dramatic, just cognizant of the problems this presents."
"Right, right, of course, the problems. Let me guess, if you kill a killer, there will be one more killer in the world?" Rina asked while rolling her eyes.
"No… well, yes, but actually no. I'm more worried that in order to seek quick results, I'll start blurring the lines between enemies and neutral people, as well as bad and innocent." Kaizer said slowly, realizing that Rina slightly misunderstood him.
"Oh no, that's fine, but it's also dumb. You like that sci-fi stuff with laser swords, right? You always used to complain to me how short-sighted the good guys were by refusing to even look at the stuff about the bad side, which led to their downfall."
Rina pointed at Kaizer with an accusatory tone. "You are doing the same thing now."
"What?" Kaizer was confused, brows furrowing deeply.
"No matter how you feel about it, the power to reap from death is now with you. Whether you kill a person willingly or by accident, you will increase your psychic power, no? So then, rather than lock it away under the guise of morality, why not create a set of hard rules for yourself that become your creed or sorts? Or even like a geas?" Rina suggested while gesticulating with her hands.
Kaizer sighed. "I've naturally thought about that, but who will enforce that creed on me? It's easy to say that I myself will hold myself accountable, but anything could happen to change my ideals and perspective."
Rina pointed at herself arrogantly. "Then I will be the one to enforce your creed on you!"
Kaizer was about to retort when he thought about it. It didn't seem that far-fetched since she was powerful enough to subdue him - at least for now - and she was always someone he trusted. Even if he went down the wrong path, Rina's opinion was something he wouldn't brush off, so there was merit to the idea.