Seeing Fedyenka wide-eyed, Phantom laughed out loud. A gentle breeze blew his hood. For the first time, his eyes and hair were visible. His eyes were like Fedyenka's. Scarlet with a little bit of orange tinge. His hair was gray like an old man but it was still gleaming.
"Why are you laughing?" said Fedyenka.
"Seeing your expression of course. Couldn't you guess that even a bit?" said Phantom.
"How can you say this out so loud?"
"Because I am a sage. I bear something really important so they listen to me. It's the same reason why they love you so much Fedyenka."
"Why should I trust you?"
Phantom rushed toward her in the blink of a eye. Speed is his main weapon they say.
"Because you were created by a part of me. You get it?"
"What? What if I am and what if I am not. It doesn't make any sense. Why should I trust you?"
Phantom pushed her away and told her, "I cannot wake someone up unless they realize they are asleep."
Saying that, he left the place. The counselor and Abir came along with many other people all at once. Abir asked her,
"Fedyenka, what happened here?"
"Huh?"
"Did something happen? Why are you here? You and Phantom were both gone."
"I don't know where Phantom is. I came here to get some fresh air mainly. The buildings are suffocating. It has no other color than blue, black and white."
"There are other colors in the buildings. You are not so familiar with this place yet so you still feel bored and uncomfortable."
"Little Miss, don't ever leave without a word again. Remember, you are a gift to us. We don't feel so relieved if we find you missing. You get it?" said the counselor.
"Yes counselor." said Fedyenka.
"Good now go with your papa or whatever you call him these days. Seriously, you damn brat, you made us worried."
"Who? Me? And who is my papa?"
"No I was talking about Yuri. Now scram and eat something. You haven't eaten anything in TWENTY HOURS. Can you not even feel pain of hunger?"
"No I still can't. I will be going then. Goodbye counselor."
Fedyenka went toward Yuri and asked him,
"What the hell did you say to the counselor?"
Yuri didn't answer her. Instead, he grapped her nape and pushed her to the door behind him.
"Ow."
"Get the hell out of this place this instant." said Yuri to Fedyenka. Fedyenka had no choice but to leave.
"Abir." said the counselor.
"Yes, Sir." said Abir.
"Start arranging this place."
"But Sir, the seminar is three days later."
"Just do what I say."
Fedyenka heard the conversation. She looked at them for a bit then headed to the training room again. She was thinking, "Why am I the only one practicing here? There are other trainees right? Is it like this to every trainee?"
"Fedyenka what you did was irresponsible. You are under my custody yet you left with Phantom without a word. Do you know how much trouble it caused me? The other sages were questioning me. It was an embarrassment. Don't even dare to leave like this again. Even if you leave for a minute, I will be the one facing all the troubles." said Yuri.
"Um...custody?" said Fedyenka.
"Yes, you are under my custody. You are a specialized thing made by this organization so there was an international debate for your custody. I won among all of them."
"Wow...How did you win though?"
"Do I seem inconvenient?"
"No. Not at all."
Fedyenka got curious about Yuri's origin. At the exact moment, she saw some information popping again.
"Gender- Male.
Age- 34
Name- ?*&#$@ "
"His name is Yuri right? I don't know his last name though. Maybe I should ask him." thought Fedyenka.
"Hey Yuri, what's you last name?" said Fedyenka.
"It's Yuri Jamal." said Yuri.
The incomplete part of the information that popped up filled with 'Yuri Jamal'. She thought, "Maybe this thing in me can't detect this sort of people's name."
"Why are you acting so weird, Fed? You've been staring at the celling for a while. What's up?" said Yuri.
"Uh...nothing actually."
"No, there is something."
"Well, you grabbed my nape to hard. It hurts now."
"Does it mean you have gotten your sense of touch now?"
"Maybe. I don't know."
"Okay...Have you eaten anything?"
"No not yet."
"There is a box of pizza on the desk. It's all yours. Oh and here, take this. Study and memorize every single word of this notebook if you can. I have to go now. Everyone you know are busy at the moment so fill yourself up with that for now."
"Gladly!"
"You kids know nothing else than snacks."
Yuri left the room in a hurry. Fedyenka was left all alone in the room. She ate her fill with the pizza. After eating, she started studying. It took her four hours to memorize every word of it. She went to the door to go outside. Two guapas stopped her. They said,
"We have orders from our superiors that you cannot leave this room without his permission."
"Okay." said Fedyenka.
While she was wandering in the room all alone she wondered, "Does this room really have no CCTV camera? Before doing anything I have to know on which places they has their spectator's vision. Otherwise, if I do something that opposes them in front of the spectators, I'm gonna be in trouble. Hmm...if I remember it correctly, the counselor told Abir to check the cameras. It means it does and it's recording everything. The ones on the top spot will check it when something happens. Does it mean the counselor is superior to Yuri? Could be..."
Fedyenka kept thinking about it for a long time, sitting on the chair of the room.
"Ughh...this won't do. I have only known about python and where the cameras could be. I gotta do something fast. There is only one way. I gotta do something so that I can leave and enter this place without a hinch."
She heard some clicking on the door. The door opened. She saw Kristen.
"Hello Fedyenka. What's up? Yuri sent me to check on you."
"Hey. Nothing's up. I'm just wandering around this room."
"You are wandering in a room. Ha ha."
"What's funny?"
"Your words are."
"Oh...how have you been?"
"I have been totally fine! I got a date tonight. Wanna come and help me? Yuri has permitted you to leave for three hours with me."
"Yes! Where is it?"
"The date? It's outside but we are gonna shop inside this area. It's a palace actually. It's now used as a building complex for research, international scientific debates blah blah blah. Anyway so you wanna come along?"
"Yeah...I thought I could go outside."
"You can once you start getting big missions. You can even go out of this planet!"
"Damn really?"
"Yes. Now come with me."
They both left the place as if they are in a hurry. Kristen told her to put some other clothes than her casual one. She picked the least casual one from the wardrobe.
"Is that your 'fancy dress'?" said Kristen.
"Yes. I don't like too much fancy things." said Fedyenka.
"Okay, at least let me put some hairclip on you. Only if your hair was long, I could do cute pigtails!"
Fedyenka moved her head whenever Kristen wanted to put hairclips on her. At last, Kristen was defeated and she agreed to keep her in her least casual getup. They went to the shopping mall. There were mostly robots in the place. Kristen told her that most sages are too busy to shop by themselves, so they send their guapas. The receptionist was a robot too. Certainly not what Fedyenka expected.
Kristen and Fedyenka had a long conversation about the things they like, their favorite animals so far, the things they hate and a lot of other things friends would talk about. Most of Fedyenka's answers were bland because of her lack of experience toward basic things of life. Yet, Kristen enjoyed talking with her. After a long walk, they finally noticed a human. The human was no other than Miss Charlotte. Miss Charlotte was picking some vegetables.
"Miss Charlotte." said Fedyenka.
"Oh, it's my dear Fedyenka! How are you dear? Oh and Kristen too." said Miss Charlotte.
"Yes. I'm out shopping with her for my first date tonight. How have you been?" said Kristen.
"I have been alright. I assume you are doing fine as well. Fedyenka, tonight I'm gonna make something with pufferfish fished from the sea. I hope you will enjoy it."
Something crossed Fedyenka mind, "Pufferfishes can be poisonous right?"
She felt an urge to rush off and tell it to Phantom and Yuri. But she resisted her urge of curiosity.
"I'll be waiting for it!" said Fedyenka with a lively face as if she is really excited for it.
"Oh we have to go now. Bye Miss Charlotte."
They said goodbye and left the place. Kristen told her along the way that Miss Charlotte is an excellent cook. She suddenly remembered about a thing she read on a book, "If one dies after getting the child's custody, the opposing one shall get the child's custody."
After recalling that she got worried about Yuri. In all of a sudden, Yuri showed up out of nowhere.
"I will be taking her now. I wish you a happy night."
Saying that Yuri left with Fedyenka. Along the way, she whispered to Fedyenka, "We are gonna be in trouble. For now, focus on the seminar and do me a favor by not winning the gauntlet fight."