Walking back to her dormitory after dinner, Laura caught sight of the changing rooms for the Campus' swimming pool, which did hold more than enough water to quench her blade in. That of course wouldn't help unless she could figure out a way to hold the metal in place even when it became hot enough for quenching. But if she did, she might just be able to pull this of using the pool as her water tank, if she could keep up a decent enough illusion at night.
After getting ready for bed, the Kitsune lay in it, wrapped in her tails instead of under a blanket as she had done most nights since her change, and was pondering ways to make this all work, settling on asking Gabe for help and welding some tongs onto a flat piece of metal he could stand on to keep it all in position.
After Kendo practice the next day, having secured Gabe's assistance with a promise of letting him pet her tails again after they were done, Laura had headed into her workshop, and welded a pair of similar sized tongs onto a piece of leftover metal long enough for Gabe to stand on, and hold into the water with enough distance from the hot metal that he would not get any burns when wearing gloves. Last she added a thinner pieces of metal to connect the tongs other handle bit to let him hold both closed at the same time. Picking it up, Laura covered the strange contraption with an illusion, before making her way to the pool, where Gabe would meet up with her for this little stunt.
As she reached the meeting spot on the side of the pool, night had already fallen, and the American was waiting for her. Giving a friendly wave with her free hand, Laura put the cobbled together contraption on the ground, before pulling her unfinished blade from its sheath and out of the illusion hiding it.
"Thanks for helping with this." The Kitsune greeted him with a smile.
"It's nothing, I scratch your back, you, eh well let me scratch your tails." Gabe mangled the common saying in response.
"Mhm." Laura simply replied with a nod, before beginning to share her plans for the night. "So before we begin with the actual work, I'll need to put up an illusion to hide what we are doing, so could you please take a step back?"
"Sure" the human student said as he took a couple steps back from the Kitsune.
Seeing him in position, Laura began to focus on what she wanted to show, which was a set of four illusory pictures making it seem like everything was normal in between them. While this would certainly not be an ideal solution, the young woman deemed it good enough with the amount of people that would be out and about at this time. Slowly the air between her and Gabe, as well as on her otherside, before and behind her, began to shimmer before slowly the illusion of normality settled in place.
"How does it look from outside?" Laura asked Gabe once the magic had been done.
"A unfocused, and the water in the pool stops moving half way across, but it should be enough I guess." the other student replied quickly.
"Good, now step through and help me with the actual work please." the Kitsune asked him as she clamped the blade into the tongs of her makeshift tool.
"Now just put your weight on this end for now, and put on the gloves for later so you don't forget." Laura explained as he arrived next to her again. "I don't have anything to treat burns with me after all."
Gabe simply gave a nod as he took the protective gloves Laura was holding out for him while at the same time putting his food down on the far end of the metal holding the blade above the pool's water.
"Great, now don't panic, I got this under control." Laura said confidently as she summoned tongues of blue flame licking all over the sword, before adding quietly enough she barely heard it herself "I hope."
Slowly the metal began to change color, although more than once the Kitsune needed to adjust the fire she conjured to make sure this change occurred as evenly as she could manage. Once it had reached an even bright orange, nearly yellow, coloration, Laura spoke up again. "Okay now be careful, most of the metal is likely hot right now, so hold it as far from the glowing bits as you can. Then submerse the sword completely in the water."
Doing as he was told, Gabe shoved the glowing hot metal beneath the surface of the pool, causing an eruption of steam and a loud hissing. A few black flakes of scale drifted of the metal into the pool, while much more of it covered the blade for now. Gabe pulled the metal back out of the water, neither of the two students were quite aware how lucky they were that the blade was still as straight as ever, let alone in one piece.
"Okay that should be it, just put it down on the paved area here, or it'll burn the grass." Laura said, gratitude in her voice as she leaned back and dropped the illusions hiding the two of them, the strain upkeeping them and the flames had had on her evident by the relief she felt. The American student sat down as well, putting the hot metal between the two of them.
"Well this was, interesting." Gabe said after the two had simply watched the metal cool down for a while "But I'll head to bed for now, see you tomorrow I guess."
"Sure, I'll be in the workshop once I get up." Laura replied with a tired smile. "I'll just be waiting till this thing here has cooled down enough for me to take it to my room."