"H-Hi... I'm searching f-for Hui Kaku" I say nervously at the person on the other side of the counter, he puts down his newspaper and looks at me.
"Please wait a minute" He puts on one of the fakest smiles I have ever seen and proceeds to check a list of patients in a notebook, he skims through the list quickly, so fast that he misses her name the first time, he looks at me with suspicion but he looks more closely for a second time once he sees my innocent face.
"Hui Kaku right?" I nod at his statement.
"She is is on room 24, just take the hallway on the left, rooms are numbered, if you get lost annoy anyone but me" He points at the hallway, then just shoos me away with his other hand.
[How unfriendly].
"Thank you, have a pleasant day" I bow lightly, he is quite shocked at my kindness, I start slowly walking through the hallway seeing all the numbered doors, I'm too short to see through the little square windows they have in their upper half.
["I see, they like to keep their secrets from short people"].
[I don't think that's what they're doing].
I mentally applaud Sauriel's statement as I make a mental note that he is absorbing my mannerisms, I see all the numbered plates, they have engraved the numbers starting from 20 to 30, eventually, I reach the door labeled 24, I knock gently on the door-
["Why do you knock? just press the doorbell"].
[There are no doorbells in the inside of buildings, especially hospitals, actually, doorbells are not that widespread in the world, so knocking on the door is the accustomed way to let people know you're there].
"Come in" I hear a usual modulated voice, I twisted the doorknob and open the door slowly, I see a slumped figure with bandages over her body, she has crocked glasses with no 'glass' in them, she is wearing the typical white with grey dots patient gown, her figure seems a little weak as I approach her.
"Hello there!" I waved while walking towards her, she is surprised by my presence and sighs in relief.
"Oh, it's you" I see her calm down significantly.
"You seemed worried, what happened?" I ask in curiosity.
[Did they discover that she is a Magical girl and perform some experiments on her?].
"Oh I was expecting Bellatrix to kick the door open and jump at me, but you are more reasonable than that dumb knight" Hui does various hand motions as she speaks.
["You have an outstanding imagination"].
[Shut up].
"Are you feeling better? when I saw how you were I almost passed out" I say as I take a seat beside her, I look into her eyes, they are filled with questions and unending curiosity.
"Of course I'm better, what about you? Marchosias wasn't exactly an easy enemy to defeat" She says as she stares me down inspecting every nook and cranny of my body.
"I'm fine, I was just tired in my bed in the morning due to exhaustion" I say as I shrugged it off, not willing to admit that I was almost defeated by my bed.
"I see, well it's good to see in great health, as for me, I'm probably bedridden for at least a week" she says as she stares into her legs, I'm curious about her condition but I stop my feelings to not overwhelm Hui in questions, I nod in understanding.
"...".
"...".
[Fuck now what do I do? I have no social skills to speak of, Sauriel helps me].
["Well just leave, you already checked up on her"].
[That's not how it works Sauriel!!! well, I think that's not how it's done... actually I have no experience maybe I should leave].
I decide to do nothing and stare at Hui with a smile, I use all my muscles deliberately to combine happiness, cheerfulness, melancholy and worry into my face to maybe get a response from Hui, she looks at me with her yellow eyes, they are inspecting me.
"Ahem..." Hui clears her throat.
"Yes?" I ask nervously.
"Why do you worry about me so much? I have absolutely nothing to do with you Amy" Hui says as she gives me a suspicious look.
["I agree with her Hui"].
I sigh in defeat of these 2 smart but dense people.
"Well you helped me twice, I only helped you once, so I have to take care of you" I say, Hui doesn't buy my excuse.
"I don't see your point, I dissolved the poison, you got us out of the container, so we are even" she remarks looking away from me.
"Well... you helped me open the crate, so now I owe you one".
"You defeated Marchosias, now we are even"
"I would have defeated Marchosias anyway, and you held Magda back, so now I owe you 2" I immediately rebuke her previous argument, she puts her hand on her chin and begins thinking, after a while she looks at me.
"Marchosias was still my target, so you defeating her was also something I needed to do, and you also brought me here so now we're even again" I get a clear frown from her statement.
"Why do you insist on not getting help?" I ask her, annoyed at her antics of trying to get rid of me.
"Why do you want to help me?".
"Because I want to and will continue to do so until you get better".
"WHAT?".
["Amy, I can't conveniently 'sleep' if you keep visiting her"].
[Shut up dumb cat, I still have some suspicion about you, so stay dormant in my mind while I deal with her].
I pout at Hui and whisper incoherent things, she is disconcerted at my actions at remains grumpy for the rest of my stay, I eventually leave the hospital after waving goodby at Hui and start walking back home.
["So... what are you going to now?"].
[Simple Sauriel, I will get on the thing about the group of magical girls, and also visit Hui more until she gets better].
["You need to be careful, She is a criminal"].
[She is also a 15-year-old girl, geez can I have some friends around me].
["She is not your friend and I don't think she will accept"].
[Just wait and see, I recognize people I would like at a glance].
["Then why don't you have more friends"].
[I have no idea].
After that, I kept visiting Hui every day, I brought her some food because apparently the hospital only had gelatin and salted crackers for decent food, so I slowly got to know what Hui liked, she enjoyed having soda too much, even for me, a fellow effervescent drink lover was completely overwhelmed by Hui's thirst, I jokingly mentioned that it was her manifestation of her 'thirst for knowledge' and she laughed harder than I have ever seen her, which now I have engraved in my mind for teasing later.
I have also have kept my 'Sauriel in my head' training going, and is a success, I don't get startled by him suddenly saying dumb stuff while walking, I only crashed into a stop sign 2 more times since that first one, even the hospital receptionist has taken a decent liking at me by actually doing his work when I get there, today, is when Hui is discharged from the hospital, I have readied myself 2 hours earlier than usual to surprise her.
I see the building of the hospital slowly getting bigger on the horizon and I see Hui standing in front of the building, she is quickly looking at her surroundings, she is wearing her normal lab coat and her glasses are now magically back as new, I notice that she probably was expecting me to come at the usual hour and planned to evade me.
[You're 300 hundred years behind outsmarting me Hui!!!].
["No she doesn't, you just got lucky"].
I completely ignore Sauriel's remark as I approach Hui, she looks quite down as she walk on the street, suddenly I jump from the bush i was hiding and entered her field of vision.
"SURPRISE!!" Hui is dumbfounded as she stares into the leaf-covered me.
"Uh huh..." she says as one of her predetermined responses.
"Are you happy to see me?" I ask with a wide smile trying to provoke her.
"I don't know, you're not supposed to be here at this hour"
"Neither should you big meanie, trying to evade me so blatantly!!!" I point my finger at her in an accusing manner, Hui's eye twitched for a microsecond, I giggle as I successfully annoy her.
"Well, I gotta get going" Hui says as she walks past me.
"Where are you going?" Hui freezes in place, she is deep thought about my question, I can see her eyes moving about trying to find a suitable answer that didn't exist.
"Ummm... I don't really have anywhere to go" Hui accepted her situation with a complete stoic look as if she was contemplating all of her life decision.
["Ah, the life of a criminal"].
[15 years old].
["Yeah, yeah I know"].
"I can offer you to be in my house for a while".
"Really?" Hui raised her eyebrow in complete disbelief and doubted me.
"Yeah, the only problem will be my mom, but as long as you can answer her dumb question she will leave be" I say, trying to calm her doubts about the whole ordeal, it wasn't a lie, it was just a half-truth, Hui pondered for a while, I only attentively look at her while looking at all the passers-by.
"I guess I can crash for a while" she says as she looks at me, she is still has a hint of suspicion but she already accepted.
I guide Hui through the city to my house, I was pretty sure that she actually only wanted some knowledge so being in my house wouldn't hurt me, also I liked her personality, and having a friend in the house would make time fly by in these boring summer vacation.
We eventually arrived home, since it was still the middle of the day I press the doorbell and my mom opens.
"You came back pretty ea..." My mom stops and looks at Hui and immediately inspects her with her eyes, Hui perceives my mom's eyes darting around her body, it went from her face, breast, thighs, cheekbone, ears, hands, stop at her fingers analyzing their length, lab coat, pens, breasts... again with a single micro second of disappointment as she saw the flat wasteland on her chest and finally back at her face.
[Oh no].
"Oh my~ what a lovely girl, are you one of Amy's friends?" My mom says while showing a caring smile.
"Yes mom!" I answer immediately, preventing Hui from voicing her opinion, I sense her death glare burning a hole in my head, my mom only chuckles at Hui's reaction.
"I see, you are welcome, my name is Sarah"
"Hui Kaku Ms. Rochelle". Hui politely bows,
"My my... no need to be overly polite, you are welcome here, my house is your house after all!" Hui looks surprised at my mom with a smidge of genuine gratitude.
[She already got tricked].
"Anyway, let's go inside Hui" I gently push Hui inside by her shoulders, she just pouts and lets herself get pushed, still too prideful to enter on her own.
On the inside of the house, I let Hui look and inspect my house, she puts special interest in the corners of the room, my eye twitches a little at the sight of a second person thinking my house is small, I let it pass since Hui is still a curious enigma for me, once she gets kind of accustomed to the feeling of the house I lead her into my room.
"So soon Amy? you have to invite her to dinner before doing that"
"Shut up mom" Hui looks confused at my interaction with my mom by being blissfully ignorant, I know what she meant so I just quickly pull Hui's hand into my room.
[Damm mom!!! not every girl that enters my house is as shameless as you! well, maybe Akari since she doesn't understand social cues].
Once we entered the room I close the door behind and locket just in case my mom decide to 'take a peek' since she always did at suspiciously good timings and I wasn't going to let Hui experience that kind of embarrassment on her first visit, Hui started looking around my room while hiding her smile, I could see that her mouth slightly bent upwards, she took a good look at my pile of manga and started seeing all the figurines I had, she then looked at me with some evil intentions.
"Can I?" Hui said while pointing at a figurine, I just nod and she takes a good look at the figurine,
"You really like Magical girls huh?" Hui remarked while inspecting the figurine from top to bottom, it depicted a girl with grey eyes while holding a staff with a pair of scales, she had a nun colored in dark purple and white streaks, the outfit clearly had religious symbolism stamped on its back but I was too bored to actually research its meaning.
"Yeah... I do" I nod in shame because I didn't think she would point that out so soon, Hui look at the nameplate of the figurine.
"Cecilia - The holy priestess, have you met her?" Hui asked while showing me the figurine.
"No no no, I don't even know if she is fictional or not!!! also, I haven't met anyone I recognized, all magical girls or 'users' i have encountered so far are kind of mentally unstable" I say remembering Ophelia and Lark's intention and gazes.
[Seriously, why are they all like that?]
"Well it makes sense" Hui said, I only pondered for a while about her statement before moving into another topic, I see Hui sit on my bed while I take the only chair in the room and sit in front of her.
"So Hui... tel me about.. uhh" I stare into her eyes, she is looking at me with a clear glint of suspicion.
"Actually I don't know what to ask, I'm not very good at making conversations, only following them" I exclaimed, Hui look at the ceiling for a while thinking about what I just said, her head snapped back at me as if she found an answer.
"I see, you act like that because you're socially awkward" she points at me.
"You don't have to put it like that!!" I pout while Hui smiles at her being correct in her hypothesis.
"You're not denying it".
"Well, I like the truth even if it hurts".
"Okay then, I guess I'll lead the conversation and you just follow it, okay?".
"Okay!!"
Although it was awkward at first, since neither of us really hid our intention, I with my social ineptitude and Hui with her honesty, but after a few minutes we settle down pretty well and the natural conversation began.
The first thing that I noticed while talking is that Hui doesn't have a caring family, it seems that she liked to show her intelligence and 'unusual emotional maturity' to her parents so that she was let loose for her own devices, which meant that she could do basically anything without her parent's concern, but that also meant that not even once they visited or cared for her own safety after she was 12.
[That's why it's better to be childish while you can].
["You're 15, yet you act like a 9-year-old"].
[No one asked your opinion].
Shockingly, when asked Hui about her Magical girl outfit the only response I got was that she was already in it, I glared at her when she untransform, she was now in casual clothes with a reach coat trying to emulate the lab coat, I judged her on her decision and transformation but the answer I got was unexpected, she was 'training' by being in her transformed state for long periods of time, this time was the longest as she was transformed for 8 months without a break, I apologized for breaking her streak as even me would find that near impossible, but she just brushed it off as a sign of 'respect for me.
[I don't think I want to be respected like that].
["Well you're a 3 star, so you better get used to it"].
[*mentally groans].
And now we are currently discussing some things about magical girls, like important figures and stuff, Hui had a lot of intel about this stuff and because she was human, she actually didn't need to be requested to speak, unlike some stupid angel cat, I decided to prepare as I ask her something important that I've been slightly delaying for some time now.
"So I was tasked with forming some sort of symbol for a magical girl group, do you have any suggestion Doc?" I decided to nickname Hui Doc since she looked like a doctor, very serious, Hui didn't mind since 'Doctors are just human body scientists' I was tempted to rebuke her but that would complicate my naming schemes.
"Let me think for a bit," Hui said as she closed her eyes for concentration, I stare at her attentively thinking while she used her fingers to massage her head as if to make her think faster.
"Well, try to add some symbolism and sentiment into it" she said.
"There are multiple, and I need code names for each member" I added as I forgot to tell her earlier.
"Same thing, as you know feelings and emotions re integral for the usage and power of aether, soo by instilling some sort of 'meaning' into things like rings or names, you could theoretically make them like magical items" Hui explained, my eyes widen in surprise as I start brainstorming many ideas of how to proceed.
"That's genius!!" I say while jumping in joy and hugging Hui, she tries to push me away but I know she secretly yearns for some sort of affection so I don't relent my hugging attack.
"Of course it is, I said it after all" Hui nodded proudly while puffing her nonexistent breast.
[Flat as a table].
["Is that bad?"].
[Depends on the context I guess].
And as soon as Hui starts getting sleepy, I get to work on making these symbols and magical girl members.
"Oh, it's going to be so good!!".