After having a nice sleepover party I had to go to sleep, but I did it some hours behind since I had to do a lot of research about some stuff regarding the meaning and symbolism that our Magical girl group would need, after all, it needed to be badass!!!, the problem is that I can't go too overboard because it is still a magical girl group, but when I asked for examples from Sauriel he gave some weird names and seeing how everyone else forsake 'normal' naming conventions I decided to it as well.
I heard the names of these groups and just facepalmed hard, 'The nobles' sounded dumb as hell but they were our enemy since they were named in the letter that Ophelia delivered, 'Louvelle Family' sounds like a mafia name, with all the family stuff, 'The Fayries' was one of the most 'normal' names, even then it had some weird implication since it was actually a shorthand for 'Fairy tales', so I decided to my own thing and go for 'deep meaning', but so far all I got is either cringy or completely stupid, which I expected, so I ditched those and decide to finally sleep.
The next morning, I opened my eyes and checked the injuries I sustained during Marchosias one last time, they were long gone to my pleasant surprise, they were estimated to last at least 3 weeks, but in a matter of simple days, I already was at 100% capacity and ready to go, when I asked Sauriel about it apparently meant that my Ather reserves were enormous, not that I wasn't aware, and my body naturally consumed more to repair itself, which caused me to eat a lot more, but I disguised it by consuming highly caloric foods so my mom wouldn't go broke by how much rice I was eating.
It was time to get out of bed, I got out and started to do my normal routine, get a change of clothes, get out of my room, bathe all the usual stuff, after drying myself I decided to go to the guestroom, that room used to be the 'washing machine room' Mary changed that since sometimes, she decided to stay in our house for extended periods of time, all thanks of her parents 'dumbass' parents as she put it, because of that my mom decided to put a bed in the room, a closet with some spare girl clothes of various sizes and nightstand, and alas new guestroom, the poor washing machine had to be moved beside the refrigerator.
[Mom really did leave that kitchen more dumb-looking than it needed].
I opened the door slowly as to not disturb Hui, who was sleeping peacefully in her little bed, she was wearing green pajamas with some flower stamps that were in the closet since she was in her deep slumber I decide to continue my 'research' of important things that may or may not influence my group name, trying to come up with clear stuff, or at least cool-sounding.
After about an hour, Hui finally woke up, she asked to be let another change of clothes and then promptly got a bath, my mom tried to do some teasing remarks about her having 'permission to sleep with me' but I decided to stop her midway to not make her uncomfortable, after that, we had breakfast and finally got back in my bedroom, but this time, Hui was the one pulling me to enter and closed the door.
"I need to talk to you" Hui said in a serious tone, I sit on my bed while she takes the chair, successfully reversing our positions from yesterday.
"Okay, what do you want to talk about?" I say while inspecting her body language, she seems extremely hesitant but eventually made her stance firmer and spoke.
"Since your hospitality has been TOO kind, to an infuriating degree I might add, I decided that I will repay the favor as promised".
"Promised?" I tilt my head in confusion.
"I did promise to repay you somehow when you brought me to the hospital" I search through my memories and remember that it was true.
"Ah that! no need to bur-"
"I'm not doing this because I feel guilty, okay? actually, take this as a favor that I'm asking you!!!" She immediately replies, cutting me off, as I stare at her while raising an eyebrow.
"That doesn't make sense" I say with a deadpan look.
"Well it doesn't, but who cares? the answer is no one, anyway, I know how I will do it, sooo~" She starts fidgeting with her fingers, I give her a deadpan look before she speaks.
"Are you free today?" I get surprised at the invitation, but I quickly regain my bearings and look at her with a smirk
"It's summer vacation, time is all I have" I Try not to tease her since she already had enough of that from my mom, but I still found it cute how she hesitated while seeing my small smile.
"Then good, prepare to leave in 20 minutes" She says as she leaves the room, I'm left confused about how quickly she actually wanted to help me, but I just shrugged it off.
[She must hate having to do a 'favor' in the future, why is she soo keen on making me forget about that?]
["Maybe she likes you"]
[Doubtfull, I already knocked her unconscious once, that's not something you easily forget].
I ready myself with a normal attire for my 'expedition with Hui', I decided that apart from the usual food, snacks, and clothes for a picnic I will bring a notebook and a pen since it is very possible that I will find inspiration about something for the Magical girl group which has its name pending.
I and Hui got ready at the door, my mom waved us goodbye as we began walking through the street until we found the bus top and sat down to wait for a specific bus, I decided to finally speak up after 3 minutes of waiting.
"So where are we going?".
"The best place ever, anyway it will take some time to get there so get used to waiting" She says while hiding her emotions-
"How much time will it take until we reach this location?" I ask, again since I want to guess in my head where we will go.
"Around 40 minutes".
"40 MINUTES!!! we are taking the bus, how far away is this location!!?" I almost jump from my seat startling the only person on the bus stop, she decided to take a step away from us.
"We will take 2 buses" Hui replies, to add to my injuries.
"I'm actually gonna die, can't I at least know the location" I say, regretting accepting this tour.
"It's a surprise since it will help you immensely" she says confidently while showing a caring smile towards me.
"Are you sure?" I'm still skeptical of this 'best location', especially knowing that she technically is still a criminal, but I give her the benefit of the doubt.
"I put my pride as a scientist on the line!!!" She moves her hand towards her chest as if she was willing to die for this promise, she then looks at me and continues, "Don't worry, I'll lose my fame willingly if you don't agree".
"You need to have fame in order to lose it " I say while rolling my eyes.
"Hmph!!".
We took 2 buses in order to get to our location, or at least near it, so in total, we waited 8 minutes for the buses to appear and 37 were wasted on travel time, we only got 2 red lights on the whole trip so it was rather quick since there were 10 traffic lights, I watched the landscape of the city while Hui was fidgeting with a Rubix cube solving it 3 times in that span of that time.
We got to the east side of the city, while my house is on the edge of the urban in the south, although it was on the very edge of the city, it still passed as a city, while this part looked more disheveled, it was obvious, the pavement suddenly changed from the usual tar with rocks and instead became a dirt road made from years of travel, the houses were still made of cement and concrete but they were barren, not a coat of painting and definitely not refined, trash lied around in the corner of some blocks as it accumulated and broken electronics and furniture were lying around in the patches of greenery and trees that rose from being unattended.
[I'm in a hate-love relationship with this area of the city, it's cool but it gives me the creeps].
This was the 'underdeveloped area' or 'abandoned area' as the residents called it, basically, the city decided to stop trying to spend and modernize this area since it was plagued by people who didn't pay taxes, and so, they just left it be, the unoccupied houses became occupied illegally by families suddenly entering them, houses made from wooden planks and placed on stolen land appeared and were a common sight, and the poor electrical development made for extremely dark nights.
It is basically a lawless zone when it comes to 'territory', still, people were happy since even though the condition were trash at best, they still had access to the city goods, so it isn't unusual to see a family living in a badly constructed wooden house with no electricity while they were watching television, powered by a car battery that was charged at a 'local store' that really only was a house with the miracle of having some electrical outlets.
[I mean, it's extremely bizarre seeing a cybercafe housed in a wooden cabin with leaks, but it works somehow].
The only reason I know of this place and how it worked is because I come from this area, or more precisely, my mom and dad come from this area and lived through it for at least 6 years, I left it when I was 2 years old and barely even remember it existed on my head, only reminded of it when my mom had a rant about how I had my life easy compared to hers, so I knew about it too a shocking degree, even if I technically don't have anything to do with it.
[Still, those stories my mom told me are actually fucking unbelievable, Like why the f*ck did dad decide that instead of buying meat like a regular human being, he needed to save the money by trespassing the barricade into the jungle to hunt birds with a hand-made slingshot, what an idiotic brute].
["Maybe that's why you're so tough"].
[That's a good theory, considering his incredible survivability of that man, it that why my aether pool is so large?].
["Doubted, aether is not related to body physique"].
After 5 minutes of walking through the underdeveloped area, we reach our destination, I looked up at the sign hung above the entrance of a barricaded place, the barricade was a makeshift fence made from broken wooden planks, various metal fences melded together or tied with electrical wire insulator since the copper inside them was taken out to recycle, the sing made from 2 badly welded metal plates had the words 'Scrapyard' painted in house paint that barely even stuck to the metal.
"The Scrapyard?" I say trying to hide the fact I didn't even know we had one of these in the city.
"YES, isn't it amazing!!" Hui leaned and showed me her eyes that were sparkling with joy and filled with anticipation, waiting for my reaction, her sudden change of mannerism took me by surprise, so after 2 seconds I decide to take a look at the scrapyard.
"Right..." I say, Hui immediately straightens her posture, clears her throat, and pushes her glasses back into place to look rational again.
"Well you might be wondering why did I lead you here" She said trying to sound more professional, but she definitely had an elated aura covering her.
"Yes" I say while nodding and paying attention to her.
"Well you see, while I was trying to sleep in that comfortable bed yesterday, I was pondering on how to repay you" Hui says while stroking her chin trying to look like some sort of sage at the ground like some sort of sage.
"I already said that you don't nee-".
"I'm doing this because I want to, not because I need to repay you okay?" She immediately says I think about the familiarity of these words, remembering that I said them at the hospital, I look at Hui and she is wearing a smug face.
"Using my techniques against me, how mean!!!" I pout while looking at the side.
"Cry me a river, anyway back to the topic, I elected to do the same thing I did last time" She dramatically started walking in front of me, towards the entrance of the Scrapyard.
"And that is?" I raise an eyebrow, thinking about what she was talking about.
"I'll help you train!!! after all, you're a 3 star, and I can see that you are a clear novice at this" She says with her hands extended as if presenting the Scrapyard, I move my head to the side seeing past her, a bunch of disassembled cars lied around, some of them being almost completely destroyed and rusted, various pieces of electronics where involved, I look at her and she was nodding to herself.
["I mean that's a good way to pay back a favor"].
[Yeah but I only wanted friendship].
["Well now you have 2 of them"].
[I guess? anyway, this feels weird].
"I see... so how are you are you going to train me?" Hui's expression immediately flashes a sinister grin, some shivers crawl on my back, she takes my hand and I reluctantly enter the scrapyard.
Inside the scrapyard, apart from the normal sights, it was plagued by dirt and sand, no a lot of rocks and no one was here, which weirded me out since these places are supposed to have people, As we stroll through the mountains of scrapped metal and electronics I see a weird mound, it was a human construction that resembled a house made from everything lying around, inside this metal cave a blackboard, a broken-down sofa, and some chalk were there.
"This is?" I asked while pointing at the obvious construction.
"My secret base!!" She says proudly, I stare at her in disbelief, it quickly turns into pity as I started to realize the implications of this.
[This is worse than I imagined].
["What do you mean"]
[Don't worry about it, I need to take a better look, from outside preferably].
"Cool" I say trying to maintain a facade of cheerfulness.
"I know, I constructed the entire place myself, here let me take you inside" She waved her hand inviting me inside.
"Uhhh..." I look at the entrance of the cave, trying to gauge how hasn't it collapsed.
"Don't worry, I got some civil engineering and architecture books so the place should be able to resist even an earthquake!!" she said while pointing to a bag that was hanging from a coat hanger on the wall of the cave, it had some square bents, I assumed they had those books stored.
[Well, taking into account her findings of aether, she probably did make this resistant to earthquakes, but I don't want to be the one to find out].
"Right... anyway Hui what exactly is your definition of 'training' ?" I asked while taking a seat on the sofa in the entrance, She just giggle and position herself in front of the blackboard.
"Unlike your stupid ass guardian angel, 'm going to tell you exactly what I know, and then put into practice, I think this way your development will be better overall since just sparing is only something an idiot or an unware person would do" Hui said while remembering Bellatrix, I sigh while remembering Aqua and Akari's unawareness.
[Well, she is right, I guess fighting and sparing will only take me so far, and I don't want to lose my friends so might as well take preventive measures].
["I won't abide for this"]
Sauriel immediately jumped out of my hairpin and landed beside the sofa, he immediately start at Hui while she just glared at him, the clash of an unaware but powerful angel against a prideful scientist, their blinking competing almost made sparks fly between them.
[I guess they really are polar opposites].
"You really are a criminal," Sauriel said while he kept threatening Hui with his piercing eyes in form of an 8-pointed star.
"Sauriel!!" I say reprimanding him, pushing him to apologize immediately.
"Criminal or not, I think you are interested in helping her, I'm right Angel of guidance?" She said while adjusting her glasses, her eyes getting dry since she's been keeping up the staring competition.
"Hphm... whatever, it's not like you could help" Sauriel said dismissively.
"Umm hello? I was the one who suggested bending metal" Said while growing trying not to pull out her hair in anger
"You didn't suggest it, she did on her own" He said while leaning forwards.
"Yeah I agree, but I at least helped while you just watched didn't you?" HUi leaned forward as well, now being almost touching each other, I look in awe as now I could truly see what a rivalry this would be.
"Cal down you two, There's no point in one-upping each other anyway" I say as I pull both of their ears, they stare at me with discontent until I let go, they turn away from each other, Sauriels hair is a spike up still from how aggressive he is and Hui's is angrily tapping the ground with her feet.
"What about this dumbass cat, I get to train her, and if she massively improves, then it's my win and I get to oversee her training" SHe said, still not looking at him.
"I see... you are proposing what you call a 'bet' aren't you?" Sauriel said, in an abnormally curious and testing tone, he straightens himself and both decide to turn and face eachother.
"You up for it scared cat, Sauriel?" She says with a wide green that would scare even army veterans
"More than ever 'Mad scientist' Hui Kaku" Sauriel says in extreme confidence.
I stare in awe, my mouth wide open for any flies to enter, I'm dumbfounded at the sudden change of reactions, which I would normally toss-up to coincidence, but the sudden feeling of deja vu doesn't stop nagging me.
[I mean, no matter how I look at it, it's just too sudden to be a coincidence right, but why???? something is not adding up, why are they now fine with each other?? just interchanging challenging gazes and nothing more as if they knew each other more suddenly, and what is this feeling like I missed something important].
I complete a brainstorm different ideas and realizations come into play, I snap in their direction in complete disbelief.
"Did you just make a verbal contract?"
""YES"" Both of them said at the same time.
"So this is how it feels, no wonder" I remain of the time when I signed the contract, not only did I nearly die, apparently I had to say it out loud while time froze, I came to realize that's what just happened.
[Is deja vu a side effect of this? what the hell, I don't wanna think anymore].
"Anyway, now that that's done, let's get down to business," HUi said while happily skipping towards the blackboard and grabbing one of the chalks.
"This is going to be a long day isn't it?".