---
"Tsk.. Get away from me!" Minyoung refused Kaito's help and stood up on her own. She didn't bother to dust off her clothes and went straight to the bathroom. It left Kaito confused and unable to say anything. Wondering if it was just him being too worried or an explosion doesn't really bother these two ladies that much.
"H-hey, Calista. What should we do about the--"
Just when Kaito was about to ask about the aftermath of the explosion, the ventilation on the ceiling started to diffuse the smoke, and a small machine was collecting the dust and little grubble.
'It's like.. this kind of thing happens everyday' Kaito thought to himself. He was worried for nothing.
He heard beeping sounds from beside him and he saw Calista swiping on a translucent floating screen. He was surprised, not because he hasn't seen one, but because such advanced technology shouldn't really exist in this world. It makes him wonder how the system wasn't able to track them until now.
"Don't touch or clean anything. The materials are reusable even after that." Calista seems to be unfazed, and she noticed how Kaito isn't processing this very well.
Well, understandable. Exploding things are not normal. But so was Minyoung and Calista.
'I wonder if Minyoung can talk right now.' Calista tried to assess the situation, thinking if Minyoung is rational enough to have a conversation.
'79% chance that she needs a distraction but she doesn't know what the distraction has to be. 21% that she's pissed off right now and will most likely shout at everyone.' Figuring that out, Calista stared at Kaito for a few seconds. 'I bet he can receive both very well, this will also solve both of their problems, and maybe get along for a little bit too.'
She has decided. The merits were too good to be ignored and the risk wasn't bad either. It would somehow look like she's setting her up, but she doesn't want to deal with questions and a hot headed individual tomorrow while headed to Houlte.
"Why don't you follow Minyoung?"
"But she refused my help earlier. I doubt that she wants anyone by her side right now."
"That might just be the opposite. I know her better than you do." Calista suddenly yawned, her body must've finally found a time to relax, and is telling her to rest if possible.
"I'll try. I think you should rest now, Calista."
"Yes. Do wake up early and prepare. We will leave for Houlte tomorrow." Those were her last words before being carried by a cloud, covering her completely, until she disappeared. At this point, Kaito had enough surprises, and only had questions ready. He was ready to believe anything, as his eyes has seen things that weren't supposed to be realistic.
Minyoung went to the bathroom earlier, Kaito couldn't obviously follow her there. So he decided to go to the balcony. Probably the most vulnerable place in the whole facility, but you cannot say it's not guarded. Kaito can feel that if a trespasser comes through here, he wouldn't even be able to leave a trace that he had set foot in the area.
"What are you doing here?" A voice from behind almost startled him. Minyoung, still covered in dirt because of the bomb, came out to the balcony. Making Kaito wonder what Minyoung did in the bathroom instead of cleaning herself.
"Does that happen everyday?" Kaito asked out of nowhere. He felt like he needed to start a conversation. But Minyoung only raised a brow, maybe implying to be a little more elaborate.
"The explosions. Does it happen everyday?"
"Yeah. It's not usually that dangerous so you don't have to freak out. It's not real life." Minyoung looked at the sky. It was already dark but the stars bring little spots of light, and unlike the night sky from their world, which is terrible because most of the stars have been tampered with by human activities, this sky, reminds her of the skies the past generations used to look at. Peaceful, magical, twinkling little lights.
"But I felt real pain."
When the explosion happened, Kaito protected Calista from the flying debris. It all hit his back, and he felt pain from that. Which also makes him wonder. If this thing happens everyday, Calista should've been able to get away in time, but she stayed in that particular spot, like she wanted the debris to hit her.
"You felt pain, but it's not real." Kaito's thoughts was interrupted once again with another thought.
'Not real? Does she mean I only feel pain in this world and my body outside is not really affected?'
"You guys are so cool."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Minyoung seems to be getting annoyed little by little. Although for some reason, this doesn't scare Kaito anymore.
"Like Calista, she may seem like a really smart girl, overanalyzing everything, so calm and composed. But I think it's hard to overthink like that. It's also hard to keep that composure even if you wanted to just panic. I want to see more of how she acts." Kaito's eyes twinkled like the stars in the sky, having found something interesting. Minyoung just quietly listened, maybe because she's tired, or that it was unnecessary to speak when someone's babbling like a child.
"Also you! You're really cool! Aside from Calista, I think you are the one who mostly made all this technology stuff, and the bombs! Oh! That time where you fought with the Ice Maiden too! That was really epic."
Minyoung really didn't like talkative people. She was just waiting for him to get tired, but it seems like all the things he wanted to say earlier, was now being poured like a dam being opened.
'It would take forever to make him stop...' was the thought that came into Minyoung's mind after listening to him for 5 minutes. She went inside as she already felt the exhaustion from earlier events.
"Oh, and when you--- Where are you going?"
Minyoung didn't answer. She doesn't really care if it was rude to leave like that, but her drowsiness was already unbearable.
"Wait! How about teaching me how to control my... werewolf form? It'll only take a couple of minutes, promise!" Katito shamelessly asked this to Minyoung, who already had her brows meeting up in the middle.
'Fine, so he can finally shut up for once.'
"I will not repeat my explanations." Minyoung said this and made one ear appear. Kaito's eyes were full of amazement and curiousity, and his own ears came out of excitement.
"It's basically just self modification and control. If you want it to appear, then it will. You should also have control, because it'll be fatal if you get injured in your werewolf form." She then, made her ears, tail and claws appear one by one.
"That is so cool! But I think I need to train hard for that one, I can't seem to control them at will." Kaito tried making his tail appear, but instead, both of his ears lifted up.
"That's right, you should control them, because they are advantageous."
"What do you mean?"
"They enhance your basic human senses." Minyoung made two of her red ears appear.
"Like these, you should be able to have a clearer and farther range of hearing. But like I said, control them, because if somehow, someone throws a sound beam at you, it will be pretty painful to hear that in an enhanced form." Kaito felt shivers imagining how loud that could be.
"Got it."
Minyoung hid her ears, and then revealed her fangs.
"I'm guessing you already know what these enhances." Kaito nodded repeatedly and tried to manifest the fangs, but they weren't coming out.
"It's the same for these." Minyoung then unsheathed her claws. "It would be ideal to train the ears and tail for now, it's quite dangerous to try your fangs and claws."
"But I'll definitely need them for fighting."
"A fair warning though, we use our tail for social signaling, if you feel like a werewolf is stronger that you, lower it for now, or you'll get devoured."
"There's even hierarchy now. Wow."
"Just continuously practice, until you can do a full form." Kaito was waiting for another real life example.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I won't use up my remaining energy to show you my wolf form." but there wasn't a hint of disappointment in his face.
"It's alright. You must be tired, sorry for annoying you too much. I will be going now." Kaito left the balcony and entered the room designated to him.
'But I felt real pain.'
These words rang into her mind, formulating the worst case scenarios. Hoping that suspicions weren't true.
'I should rest. It's pointless to ponder at this point. It's too late'.
She couldn't tell whether it was a nice evening because all that ever happened today seemed to be wrong. All the things she dislikes was coming at her everytime. She thought only that Starry Sky lightened up her tensed soul, and let her feel relaxed for once.
In conclusion, it was a nice evening indeed.
***