"Well, now that you combined them. What's next? You have a whole day with nothing to do, want to go look at the town?" Soul asked me. I nodded, and Ruby begged to join as well. Ipa and Ken, however, decided to stay back at our temporary base as we walked outside.
"What's the first thing you guys would like to see?" Soul asked Ruby and me. We walked together in a line at the huge city, watching the streets littered with people slowly crawl into buildings and shops all around.
"Where did you grow up? Did you grow up in the outskirts or inside of the city?" Ruby asked Soul. Soul explained that it was only five years ago that she moved inside of the city. She used to live on the outskirts with her uncle on a farm, but got enough money and moved to the big city. There, she learned to become a General Mage just like me and then was sent to Sieve.
"Why did you go to Sieve of all places? I feel like you explained it before, but I forgot." I asked her again.
"It was to scout the new heroes for Borealis, in Dorrendale. He wanted to know what kind of people you were." She said. That was right, I remember her saying that before.
"How is Dorrendale? Has it been attacked yet?" I asked her. Soul explained that she talked to Borealis this morning and it was still in good shape with no signs of an impending attack, which means that Yggdrasil did send Fuki and the others to the other side of the planet. I wondered how much time we had to mess around here, however.
"Ruby, did you get enough rest?" I turned to her after speaking to Soul and must've caught her off guard.
"Yeah! I'm good. I slept." She sleepily said. I smiled, bumping her with my elbow while we continued forward.
"Just say if you need a break. Oh, what's that skyscraper over there?" I switched the topic over to Soul once again.
"That's Zeus's Tower. It's made for his inauguration into Godhood, as some call it. He's put into the air by his Apostles and lightning strikes him to grant him the true powers of Zeus from the stories an old hero used to tell us. Other than that, the tower is off-limits to the general public." She said.
"So, Zeus is chosen from a real person who's good with the air element. But without Zeus, the person can't be trained without it. How does that work?" I asked again. We stood looking up at the tower as people walked past us.
"It's one long selection process. The one who can lift Zeus the highest is immediately trained as the next contender for the position. A hand-me-down until the end of time. Maybe you'll be Zeus one day." Soul teased me.
"No thanks, I have better things to do. Then, the other locations where I can learn about the elements... do they all have things like Zeus has? Who were they... Hera, Hades, and Persephone? The factory, tower, and cliffside? Whatever, anyway, I can't become a cult leader." I told them.
"So, you're still dead set on going to all of those places... Well, they sort of do... Hades could be compared to Zeus, so I've heard. Hera and Persephone are really nice, but I'd be amazed if you could find them. They've been off the map for probably a century, who knows what they are by now." She said.
"I swear... you guys withhold information unless I continuously ask. No matter, we'll figure it out. What about that building over there? That one looks pretty big." I asked Soul.
"That's the bathhouse. For males, females, and families. We all usually go there in groups, so we can head there now if you wanted to. It's been a while since I've taken a bath... a whole day I believe." Soul said.
"Day? You were with us, how did you get one so soon?" I asked her. It's been about three for the rest of us...
"Midnight river baths. Quite the delicacy." She said with a fine tone. I forgot you could probably do that in this world. I've read about that, and nobody on Earth would dare try it because of all of the creeps.
"Then yeah, we can go right now. Should we go back and get everybody?" I asked the two of them, but they both shook their heads.
"Ruby and I will go, and you can go with the other men we're traveling with separately." Soul commented. Ruby nodded in agreement.
"Uh, okay. Are you two that self-conscious?" I asked them both. They got red in the face and denied all of my accusations.
Which meant I was right.
"Alright, I got it! You don't have to desperately try to defend yourselves like that, it's weird." I said, looking at the buildings again.
I never had a problem with that kind of stuff. I usually walked around in the early morning without a shirt on and didn't care if anybody had seen me, so I didn't understand the concern. I wasn't exactly muscular either, so I didn't have anything to show off.
"It's something you wouldn't understand as a guy. What are you, eighteen? You should've gotten it by now." Soul asked me.
"I do get it, and I'm sixteen, not eighteen. I just don't understand the big deal, I'd take my shirt off right now if it wasn't impolite, I just don't care." I told her again.
"Well, I'll leave you two to go to that bathhouse while I wait at home, come get me when you're done," I said, waving them off.
"We won't be long," Soul said, taking Ruby's hand and pulling her forward.
Shouldn't they need a change of clothing? Well, I didn't really care to be honest, but I wonder if Ruby would look cuter with washed hair instead of greasy hair.
Huh?! What am I thinking about right now?! Dammit...
"Hey Anima, where are the other two?" Ipa asked while throwing knives at a wall.
"They went to the bathhouse, they'll be back and then we can go," I said, putting my shoes on the shelf by the door. Ipa grabbed my collar and pulled me in with a fierce look.
"You're telling me... two cute girls went to the bathhouse and you came back here?! Anima... what were you thinking?!" Ipa yelled at me.
"Oh? I had no idea you were such a pervert, Ipa. This looks like the perfect blackmail." I said, smiling with a smug look. Ken rose his hand and spoke his piece as well.
"I agree, you should've gone. That was a stupid move, Anima." Ken said. Huh?! Even him?!
"You two are gross..." I muttered. They put their shoes on and nodded their heads together while pumping their arms.
"Come on, we have a journey to take!" Ipa declared as Ken agreed with him.
"Anima, you're coming with us!" Ipa grabbed my collar with his iron grip and dragged me out of the house.
"Wait, I need my shoes! I don't even want to go! Think this through, you don't want to freak them out too much!" I told him while putting my shoes in midair from Ipa's iron grip.