Speaking of which, although Kiana felt Shu was a bit ascetic, she didn't dislike it. On the contrary, she actually found it quite endearing.
Because the drunks she usually had around her were way worse than Shu!
That Himeko... the moment she drank, she would completely forget where her own room was. The living room sofa, the entryway, or even Kiana's bed!
She seemed to be able to fall asleep anywhere. Heaven knows how traumatizing it was to be sleeping soundly, only for a Himeko reeking of alcohol to suddenly crawl under her covers?!
It made her so mad she could only cry and throw a tantrum as she ran to Mei's room—
Ahem, but compared to Aunt Himeko, her stupid dad was even more annoying.
If he couldn't find her mom, he would use his incredibly prickly stubble to rub against her cheeks. He did it when she was little, and he still did it when she grew up.
Fortunately, she eventually grew up and had the power to fight back. Her stupid dad seemed to realize she wasn't to be messed with anymore, so it had been a long time since he tried to nuzzle her while drunk.
Compared to those two, wasn't Shu merely becoming more talkative a great thing?
Besides, she had used this opportunity to coax quite a bit of information out of him.
Shu's drunkenness had three stages. The first stage was being tipsy. He would intermittently spill the truth, and his actions and words became much bolder.
During this stage, Shu seemed to really love singing. He sang his lungs out—all emotion, zero technique. But Shu just had to be a stat-monster with incredibly high natural talent, so even under these conditions, his singing still sounded really good.
He sang so well that Kiana wanted to join in, and so she sang two lines with him...
And then Shu absolutely refused to sing anymore, entering the second stage.
During the second stage, Shu seemed to completely drop all his defenses. He talked so much, it was exactly like... like Aunt Theresa giving a speech at the opening ceremony!
Super naggy!
But she absolutely couldn't let Shu hear that comparison, or he'd definitely get his feelings hurt and hide away whimpering like an injured puppy.
At this stage, Shu was actually a bit delirious. He would often blurt out completely disconnected sentences, acting on a very denpa wavelength.
But getting Shu to open up and be cheerful was something Kiana and the others had tried to do for ages without success!
Now that the opportunity for success was right in front of her, how could Kiana possibly back down?!
Thus, Kiana immediately made a decision: she would exhaust a lifetime's worth of communication skills to match Shu's denpa wavelength! Just like how Shu used to perfectly match their topics and preferences!
"F*** that kind of romance!!"
Kiana: "?"
What the heck was this guy talking about?
Facts have proven that denpa types in reality, much like yanderes, are existences deeply romanticized by various stories.
The yanderes in stories are characterized by deep attachment and confinement—"You are only allowed to love me, look at me, and talk to me."
A yandere in reality wants to chop you up into minced meat, make you into dumplings, and then carefully savor your flavor.
And what about the denpa type?
A traumatized boy or girl with a psychological shadow, physical defect, gloomy inferiority complex, or antisocial chuunibyou, waiting for you to raise their affection meter so you can have special interactions on specific holidays.
And then, during a mysterious inner-world event, their affection maxes out, you complete their redemption arc, and unlock their special CG?
That's a f***ing Galgame.
A denpa type in reality is just a psychopath, and only another psychopath can empathize with a psychopath.
Obviously, while Kaslanas are hailed as superhumans, they are ultimately not psychopaths.
She couldn't empathize with Shu at all.
Kiana couldn't even understand what Shu was saying. She felt like Shu's words were like the Whispers of the Warp, currently testing her loyalty.
Fortunately, this stage of Shu's didn't last long. Soon, Shu entered the third stage.
Perhaps it was a return to his true nature, but Shu's third stage of drunkenness actually reverted back to silence.
But this silence was a bit different from his usual silence.
If the silence Shu usually displayed hid surging thoughts beneath the surface, and the act of being silent was merely a helpless move after weighing the pros and cons...
Then Shu's silence yesterday was simply because his brain had checked out.
Kiana was way too familiar with this state! Wasn't this exactly what she looked like during class?!
An empty head, a blank expression, poking him only resulted in a single syllable, and opening his mouth only produced babbling "aba aba..." noises...
Wasn't this just being a total idiot?!
Oh no! Could Shu have drank himself stupid?!
The only people Kiana had interacted with in her life who liked to drink were Himeko and Siegfried. She didn't know if Shu's current state was considered normal, but it definitely looked pretty abnormal to her.
At the same time, she also found it incredibly cute.
The evil Kiana Kaslana decided to take advantage of his precarious situation!
"Shu," she called out to him, feeling a little guilty.
Shu slowly turned his head, gazing at her with hazy eyes, like an out-of-focus camera.
"Let's go to the amusement park another day, okay?" Kiana took a deep breath, her face flushed red as she made her request.
Shu stared blankly at Kiana for several seconds, then gave his answer.
"Okay."
There was no convoluted hesitation, no unpredictable shifting in his gaze, and certainly no struggling, pacing thoughts.
During those few seconds of silence, Shu seemed to be thinking about only two things:
What is "Let's go to the amusement park another day"?
And what does "another day" mean?
Shu's usually effortless language processing—a skill so sharp it was basically instinctual—seemed to have transformed into an alien script in that moment. It took him a long time to decrypt it into a string of bizarre little code that only he could understand.
Shu had completely turned into a baka. This was the conclusion Kiana reached.
She wouldn't actually hold him to any promises made in this state anyway; she was just treating it as teasing him for fun.
And so, Kiana began to push her luck.
"Then can we go mountain climbing?"
"...Yeah."
"Can we go to the aquarium? I super want to see it!"
"...Sure."
"Do you want to go skydiving? Or drive race cars? I'll have you know, this young lady is super amazing at that!"
"...Oh."