Chapter 160: Chapter 159
Dio was really regretting being so cautious about Rose's situation.
It would be easier to handle than going on this trip with her, even if he were drawn into some other plot about her getting caught in the act of escaping.
What's it like living inside a metal box?
Dio won't say it's as nice as living in the Tower, but it's not too good considering they have plenty of security.
They might not have internet, computers, or TV, but he brought a good stock of books and magical research to study and read during this journey.
That should be more than enough to kill his boredom.
In addition, Dio benefited from being here because when the Titans returned to the Tower, Batman would be there, and he didn't like that they took the lead without telling the League about everything.
There seems to have been an argument and some punishments after this talk, which Dio didn't fully understand from Kori's communication call.
The problem is that Rose didn't think to bring anything to pass the time during the trip.
So, after the first few days of cleaning, taking apart her weapons, and then doing exercises that made the whole metal box smell like sweat.
She found another way to pass the time, and that was to bother Dio.
The exercises continued, but she eventually took off her shirt and slacks, threw them on the bed, and went to the bathroom in panties, winking at him and inviting him.
Of course, it was just a playful tease, and she was trying to embarrass him, just like the first time she had done this.
It seemed she created a game, with the ultimate goal being to provoke him, and these provocations continued throughout the day.
After five days, when they were halfway through the trip, she made me another game with the goal of extracting information from him.
She asked her very good and silly questions while observing his reactions and trying to guess the answers without his response.
"Hey, why don't you answer some questions? It's really getting boring, and maybe I'll have to come up with another game. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
Rose threatened on the sixth day.
She was lying on the bed with her head hanging off the side and her white hair touching the floor.
Rose's regeneration had fixed the disguise paint she used and also made her hair grow back to the size she had before cutting it.
She said this was the regular size, while it grew quickly and stopped at this length before growing properly.
Meanwhile, Dio was sitting on the other side of the metal box, with his feet stretched over a bench and a thick black book floating in front of him.
Next to him was a cup filled with hot coffee that he had just asked his Aurae to make for him.
Dio didn't respond to her immediately. First, he picked up the cup, took a sip, and put it back in its place.
Then, he turned a page of the book using his telekinesis, which has become quite refined after years of training.
He still can't lift a car with it, but picking up a cup of coffee from a distance is possible.
"The last person who asked something personal from you almost had his head ripped off, and now you want answers to personal questions from me?"
Dio asked her and looked into her upside-down eyes.
"That was due to the fact that that quick-witted moron was staring at me as if I were a piece of meat, and I was also quite suspicious of the rest of you. In my world, it's almost impossible to find genuinely charitable people wanting to help unless it's a trap."
"Spare me, you're curious, and you're on the verge of boredom, and that's the truth."
"Guilty!"
Rose shouted while jumping off the bed and standing up.
Dio didn't need to sleep, so that part of their metal home and the bed became hers. He mostly likes reading and testing some things in the chair.
"But can you blame me? You're the first real magician I've ever seen in my life, and you're also easy on the eyes."
Rose joked while smiling and looking at his whole body with her single eye.
Dio ignored her jokes once again.
She knew his resistance to them was high, but she didn't care; it'd become something automatic.
"So, let's play question-for-question?"
Rose asked while going to the mini bar, opening its door, and grabbing a soda.
Like Dio, she was wearing simple clothes—a shirt and jeans.
"Question-for-question?"
"Sure!"
"I ask a question, and you have to answer, and then you also ask a question for me to answer, and so on."
Rose explained while opening the soda and bringing it to her mouth.
"Too easy, you could lie, or I could, and it makes things less fun."
"You're the one lying now. You can listen to my heart and know if I'm telling the truth like Superman, I can't."
"Yes, I can hear your heart, but determining a beat while someone is lying from a truthful one takes years of practice, and it was something I can't do at the moment."
Dio told the truth.
"Great, that makes everything more interesting since distinguishing lies from truth is the fun of the game."
"Does this work for you?"
Dio asked while looking at the beer cans she grabbed after downing her soda in one gulp.
"Not much; the most that happened to me was getting dizzy for a few seconds. Here."
Rose handed me one of the cans.
Dio was not a big fan of beer.
He couldn't feel the effects of alcohol on his body.
The taste was truly terrible compared to the wine and cocktails he'd come to appreciate after spending so much time at Bewitched.
Dio took the beer and opened it to avoid dealing with insults again.
"Let's start!"
Rose said it excitedly.
"First question, what's your name?"
"Diomedes."
Dio replied.
"You really said it!"
"How do you know I'm not lying?"
"Diomedes is a very strange name to make up; you could have said something more common that would have been acceptable!"
Rose explained.
Dio thought about lying, but he knew so many details about Rose that her not knowing his name seemed wrong.
In addition, she won't be able to trace his civilian identity without his last name.
There are indeed hundreds of Diomedes scattered around the world.
He already checked, but only one had the surname Inwudu, so he only told her his first name.
"Your turn."
Rose said that and took a sip from her can.
Dio started with something simple.
"How old are you?"
There wasn't much information about Rose, even in the files Major showed them, so this is a good start.
"I'm eighteen. How about being with an older woman?"
Rose teased him.
"If your lies are going to continue like this, it's going to be a very boring game."
"Haha!"
Rose laughed.
Then the game continued.
...
"Rose, how did you lose your eye?"
As soon as Dio asked the question, Rose stopped drinking her beer and looked at him.
That really killed the cheerful mood a bit, but he was curious.
Rose remained silent with the can raised until she put it down and spoke to him.
"Well, you know my mother was a prostitute in Cambodia?"
Rose began.
"No."
Dio replied honestly, without showing any disgust or pity for her mother's profession.
That seemed to satisfy Rose a bit, and she continued with her story.
"It wasn't so bad, you know. We had a good roof over our heads and food. My mother also made sure I didn't know about her profession, so the days were happy and full of play until she was murdered."
"What was her name?"
Dio asked.
"Lillian Worth."
Rose replied with a small smile on her face—the same smile anyone has when they remember something happy from a long time ago.
After downing the rest of the beer in one gulp, she continued the story.
"When I was ten years old, a gang boss in the city wanted my mother just for himself, which meant she had to live with him all the time. He even said he would accept me into his house, but my mother and everyone else knew about his reputation and what happened to the children in his house, so she tried to escape with me, and well, they found us. During the confusion of the escape, one of the idiots from the gang fired at us. I woke up the next day lying in a dumpster with her beside me."
"Did your powers awaken?"
"Yes, but I didn't know yet. I thought I was just lucky."
She paused after grabbing another beer and drinking it to take effect.
"Anyway, after going through all that phase of mourning, I started living on the streets to do anything to be able to eat day after day, until two years later, my father found me."
Rose continued a bit later.
It must have been terrible to live on the streets, particularly in that country.
Dio's childhood in Gotham was quite dangerous and lonely, but at least he had a roof over his head every night and food every day.
"My father told me that my mother was a contact during his army days before she started working as a prostitute to support me, and only recently did he receive a letter that she sent years ago, but that must surely be a lie. I know he was probably using this situation to train me. It's the only way to learn how to live on the streets. Well, after that happy reunion, he dragged me to where the gang that killed my mother was, and he killed them all in front of me in a few minutes."
Dio now knew that Rose always wanted to tell all this, but she never had anyone close to her since she had no one to trust.
"My father and I traveled for a year and a half. He trained me in martial arts, weapons, poisons, explosives, and even how to walk without being detected. Thanks to my newly discovered powers, I absorbed all of it like a sponge. Then, one day, my father took me to a place where there was a fat man kneeling tied with his arms behind his back. He gave me a sword and told me to prove my loyalty to him."
"Did you?"
Dio asked.
Rose shook her head to deny it.
"I recognized the man; he was a good man, worked close to where we were at the time, and had two daughters. I couldn't do it, but denying my father wasn't an option either, so I took his sword and stabbed it into my eye!"
"To prove your loyalty?"
"Yes, and it really worked; I saw it in his smile. Then he killed the man kneeling on the ground. To avoid future problems, he said. That same day, I packed my things and started to run away."
Of course, after that conversation, the mood died, and the game was over.
...
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