I know, on my profile, I said I'd update by the 14th...and I was going to...but then I fell asleep right before I finished editing...
Please forgive me, I had 13 hours of class. (It was far from fun.)
Anyway, I have been meaning to announce that this story's main plot points have been laid out in full now. As such, for those who like this story, I am happy to announce that there will be a large number of chapters (ranging from 45 to 100+).
Also, to better accommodate any readers who might be reading on a device with low memory, I will try to chop up further chapters. Unfortunately, this one was laid out before I found out that someone was having trouble loading the full page so it is a bit long...(I'm sorry!)
As usual, special thanks to my reviewers on the last chapter, akin, Brillerai, Delirium and Keiichi-Keii.
Now, on with Chapter 10...
°¤~ ▪《{Arc TWO: Technological Frontier}》▪ ~¤°
PART THREE
~ 010: Saturday With A2 ~
A2 sits upright, with her legs folded, arms crossed and nose held high, like an aristocrat, in the largest sofa in her suite's living room before Kai, who is standing and towering over her a small distance away.
"So?" Kai begins their conversation.
The day before, after she had brought him and Linnea back safely and saw Linnea off at the edge of her forest, A2 had told him to come to her suite at nine in the morning and stressed that he should not arrive late. Kai had asked if this is for a favor but as usual, the uncommunicative A2 chose to withhold information. Likewise, she answered none of the questions that either him or Linnea asked of her machine, the LPF-01 Nymph. Throughout the entire way back, Kai could not help but notice Linnea's interest in A2, despite the more slender girl's clear apathy towards her. Kai continues to stand still before the light haired girl.
"What do you want?" Kai asks, wanting to get this over with already. He had originally intended to spend the day finishing the math packet A2 had given him and various assignments from his other classes since he doesn't get to work on them much during the weekdays.
There is a pause as A2 eyes him up and down for a moment. She then says, "You should choose more subservient words, servant."
Kai stares at her, partly annoyed and partly in disbelief at what she had just called him.
"I've taken some time to think what would be appropriate…" A2 goes on.
Kai watches as she gets up and strolls casually to the living room window.
She continues, "Originally, for saving you, I was going to have you become my eternal servant…"
Kai retorts in an audible mutter, "Maybe in your wildest dreams…"
A2 turns to him. "…but I've decided instead to only have you serve me for a temporary period."
Kai glares at her, irritated by both her demand and the fact that she ignored him.
A2 adds, "The thought of having you by my side at my deathbed sends shivers down my spine, after all."
Continuing to glare at her, Kai comments, "That's my line."
Hearing that, A2's bored features begin to display the same grumpy look as that of the one on Kai's face as she stares back at him. She asks in a snobbish voice, "Tell me, how much is your life worth to you?"
Kai answers her, "It's obvious that my life's important to me…"
"I'm glad to hear that, you ungrateful freshman." A2 then bends down for the TV remote on the coffee table before the sofa she was sitting on. She turns the TV on with it and a reporter comes on screen. Behind her is a colorful image of a familiar, mechanical silhouette in the sunset.
"…three sources spotted an unidentified machine in the shape of a humanoid yesterday around evening. Sixty two year old Richard Finkelstein, who was stargazing around six o'clock in search of the evening star found instead, what he called, "a titan in the dusk sky". Around the same time, Dr. Ralf Ashwood, a professor of astronomy at one of the local universities, and his students reported having observed a similar "titan" during a club exercise. They are not alone; two airline pilots claimed a frightful experience when this machine crossed the trajectory of the civilian jetliner they were flying. Luckily the machine did not crash into them…"
A2 interrupts Kai's concentration on the reporter. "This is all over the news now. It's being reported worldwide on every news media network in the world. Some idiots are claiming it's an invasion by space aliens while others believe it's some secret weapon like in those mecha animes from Japan."
Kai continues to listen to the report. Some expert being consulted by one of the reporters on the news is now speculating that the technology powering the machine involved is about at least fifty years ahead of what is currently considered state of the art.
"So what about it?" Kai asks nonchalantly. The world's impressed with A2's creation; she should be happy.
"The Nymph was sighted by three, separate sources simultaneously. There's even a photograph of it. That's more than enough to attest its existence to the world. Everyone wants to find out more about the mysterious titan in the dusk sky now." A2 states. "And, as a result, I'll be in a load of trouble."
Kai watches as she turns the news off. "Why?"
"Because I'm not permitted to publish or make known any part of my research without authorization." A2 tells him. "Once my sister finds out about this, I'll be receiving a sure and long lecture along with a potential penalty."
Kai watches as she places the remote back where it belongs. Although he had not really had the time to think too much about it the last few days, he guesses that the lab must exist for some profit related reason and that the research there must be a form of trade secret. From the appearance of her sister and the monetary funding required to maintain the lab, he wouldn't be surprised if A2's family ran a huge business. Even the interior of the lab and the technology guarding its existence seems to be too elaborate for one spoiled daughter's enjoyment. He asks coolly, "Isn't that your problem?"
A2 turns back to him.
"My family will no doubt think highly of the idea of removing me from the university along with the equipment in the lab here to avoid any further risks." A2 then adds, "You should recall the second condition of our contract."
Upon hearing that, Kai begins to feel a little uneasy. He turns from her, 'So it'll be my problem as well…'
"Luckily for you, I don't have any intention of leaving this university just yet." A2 says, having noticed his change of facial expression. She assures him, "I'll try to convince them to relax and to let me stay. While I'll likely succeed, do know that this hassle that is now upon me is the result of having to save you."
Kai turns back to her.
She finishes, "So if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you showed some gratitude."
Kai feels a little guilty for his earlier attitude now. He does indeed owe this girl his life, after all. Since the two of them never got along too well, he even half expected her to ignore his request for help when he contacted her during his ordeal.
'It is true she could have left me to die…' Kai admits in his mind. No one could have proved she had what it took to save him or that she knew of his situation; her lab is apparently a secret from the world and the modifications on the pair of earrings that they share is no doubt known only to the two of them.
This thought, however, leads him to realize something else – the fact that there was no way A2 didn't know the consequences of saving him. She is way too intelligent not to, after all. It wasn't as though it was impossible for him to have survived if she left him to wait for the police, just less likely. Even in the case that the police asks how he could contact her despite the lack of a phone signal in the area and the secret to the pair of earrings they wear were exposed, she could just find another way to help him cheat on the exam. Why did she rush to his rescue? Did she care about him? Or was it simply her conscience? Could it be that she actually has a kind heart?
Deciding he might as well satisfy his curiosity, he breaks the silence between them and asks, "Why did you use the Nymph to save me?"
A2 looks at him, confused by his question. "Hm?"
"I'm sure you knew it'd be trouble for you." He continues, "You could have either left me to die or left it to the police. Why didn't you?"
A2 looks at him for a moment, surprised by his question. She then turns away, her features displaying some hint of frustration. A while passes and she remains silent.
"Well?" Kai pushes the question on.
A2 ignores him, continuing to keep her gaze away.
Just as Kai was about to ask again, she finally answers, "Noblesse Oblige."
An awkward pause follows as Kai raises an eyebrow and stares at her, dumbfounded by her reply. "…What."
Now, Kai knew what the phrase meant despite his lack of background in the French language but of all the replies he had expected, this was most certainly not one of them.
"It was within my power to save you." A2 explains to him in a conceited tone. She adds, "Even if you are an inferior creature compared to myself, the fact that I had the means to help you obligated me to do so."
Upon hearing that explanation, Kai thinks to himself, 'What kind of retarded logic is this…?'
There is another moment of silence as A2 turns back to him and takes note of his speechless and somewhat offended state.
Put off by the condescending and surprisingly silly reasoning, Kai turns from her. "Forget it, I'm leaving."
As he is about to head for the door, he finds RE:Mordred before him, staring at him with its blank, robotic expression. Kai stares back, irritated by its presence in his path. Its mistress then calls out to him, "Wait."
He turns back to her as she proceeds to approach him calmly, stopping a mere few inches before him. He notices that her usual, wintry expression has returned and although faint compared to the last time, he is again able to pick up her scent. Finding it pleasant as before, he quickly forgets his impatience and desire to leave.
"Regardless of your emotions over the matter, the truth is that you owe me for saving your life." She says.
She then takes another small step towards him. Kai can smell her fragrance growing stronger as she does. While a part of his mind wonders if this is her natural scent, she places one hand gently on his chest and comes yet closer until their bodies touch. Feeling her breasts slightly pressed against him through their clothing, Kai feels his heartbeat speed up. She looks into his eyes and whispers in a rather alluring voice, "So do pay your dues sometime."
Before Kai could process her words just now, she abruptly steps back from him with a smug and devious look on her face.
Kai, now recovering, eyes A2 suspiciously, not sure how to interpret or react to her strange actions just now.
A2 then asks, "Tell me, how important is the sport of beyblading to you?"
Kai is confused by the sudden change of topic. "It's what I worked hardest at my entire life. Why?"
A2 smiles devilishly now. She then remarks, "Good."
Heading to the door, she puts on her sandals and turns back to him.
"I'll be at the campus bus stop. If you come across a reason to find me, I'll be waiting there." She says, pulling the door open. She then adds, "Also, RE:Mordred will lock the door when you leave, so don't worry about it."
With that, she steps out of the suite and lets the door close behind her. Kai stares after the door for a moment, still confused by her actions and wondering why she had suddenly brought up beyblading. He was pretty sure that she didn't blade herself; it'd be hard to imagine that she did when she can't even take the trash out on her own. He then realizes something else that's strange.
'Why did she tell me she'd be waiting at the bus stop?' Kai goes over her words again. The university's bus service had buses that came about every hour while the public buses arrived at ten minute intervals; A2 would never need to wait over an hour. Did she expect him to look for her within a maximum timeframe of an hour?
'But why would I have a reason to go find her?' Kai wonders. He then recalls A2's question regarding beyblading and her proximity to him right before she said everything. The possibility that this might somehow involve his beyblade pops into his mind and he reaches into the inner sleeve of his trench coat where Dranzer is usually kept.
RE:Mordred watches him with a blank expression as he comes to the realization that his precious blue blade is not there. As he begins searching his pockets just to make sure he had not misplaced it, the clock's second hand reaches the zero mark on the wall and a computerized voice announces, "Trigger Command: ID RT005. Now activating."
Kai stops and turns to the robot near him.
It goes on, "Relaying recorded message."
A familiar voice speaking in a pompous tone is played. "Dear Intellectually Inferior Freshman,"
An annoyed grumble sounds in Kai's throat upon hearing the unpleasant greeting.
"If you are listening to this, you must still be standing near RE:Mordred like the idiot that you are, possibly trying to find your beyblade. Well, I had expected you to be less than honorable enough to repay me for saving your life. Thus, I have taken hold of your beyblade as reassurance. Rest assured, it will be returned to you once I feel your debt to me has been repaid. I believe I will have left you with my location by the time you receive this message, so…"
Kai does not bother to listen to the rest as he storms out of A2's suite, more annoyed than ever in his life. Behind him, RE:Mordred stops playing the message and begins to close the door after him. As it does, it says in its usual mechanical voice, "Have a nice trip, Mr. Kai Hiwatari. Be sure to trip over something on your way."
Hearing this, Kai stops in his tracks momentarily, a vein threatening to pop. He glares back at the door of A2's suite for a moment, wondering if A2 programmed her robot to say this to every guest or if it's just him. Deciding it'd be pointless of him to think about this right now, he resumes his way to the university's bus terminal.
...
Elsewhere, in an abandoned building filled with graffiti somewhere in a rather rundown area in the city, two men, one bald with facial tattoos and the other one chubby with piercings, sit lounging in different parts of the room. One of them is busy pigging out on some fast food while the other one stares out of a broken glass window with a burnt out cigarette in his mouth. Suddenly, without warning, the door of the place opens, alarming the two of them and a young man with shoulder length hair in punk styled clothing walks in.
"Yo." He greets the two in the room.
There is an air of uncomfortable silence in the room as the other two simply stare at him.
"Uh…hi boss…" the chubby guy says meekly.
The boss of the trio turns to his chubby underling. "How's Bobby doing?"
"Oh…uh…he's still in the emergency room." He replies.
"I see." Their boss acknowledges the piece of information. He then curses the one who caused Bobby's condition. "Dam that kid to hell."
The other two are silent.
Their boss notices this and eyes them both. "You two are unusually silent today. What's wrong?"
The guy by the window turns away and the chubby one becomes anxious from that. He answers shyly, "Well…uhm…that's because of yesterday…"
"What 'bout it?" the boss asks him.
"Are you…really being targeted by the military?" the chubby guy asks.
"I doubt it." He replies. "I mean come on, it's not like we do anything that gets us national attention. Besides if the military were seriously after me, then why didn't that thing chase me? I got away safe and clean, didn't I?"
There is silence again as the other two are still not comfortable being around him.
"What?" their leader looks at them both who, in turn look away. "You two don't believe me?"
The chubby one looks up at him, somewhat frightened. "Well…it's just…if you didn't do anything, the military wouldn't come after you yesterday at all to begin with…"
"Bigs, do you even watch movies" His boss argues. "Since when does the military use those things like that thing? We can't be sure they're from the army when there were no uniforms or nothin' from them."
"Then how d'ya explain that thing itself?" the one by the window asks. "We've never even seen a machine like that except on cartoons. Even if it's not with the army, it's from somewhere big and with money. If ya did nothin' to piss'em off, then tell me why the hell they were after ya."
The man with shoulder length hair eyes them both angrily. His hand moves as though to reach for his pistol but relaxes. He turns from them and begins to make his way to the door. Before leaving, he says to them. "Fine. Don't believe me then. But if that's the case, go find yourself someone else to be your boss. I'm outta here."
With that, the other two watch him leave. Moments later, the sound of him spitting on their door before exiting the building is audible.
...
Back at the university, Kai stomps through a rather clustered plaza filled with students waiting for the bus to do their weekend shopping or to otherwise just hang out with some friends. At this point he is annoyed beyond reprieve with everything that has happened today so far. Never mind the fact that A2 had stolen Dranzer from him in the ridiculous and embarrassing manner that she did and the fact that even her robot was teasing him on his way out of her suite, but right now even finding her is an irritating experience for him.
'Where the hell is she…?' he curses while scanning the area as efficiently as he can. He had no idea which bus A2 is waiting for and thus, has no choice but to check every section of the area.
As he checks through the crowd around the third bus, a voice speaks to him from close behind him, "You're here."
Kai wheels around to find himself face to face with the light, strawberry-blond haired girl he is looking for. Getting straight to the point, he demands, "Give Dranzer back right now."
"'Dranzer'?" A2 repeats the name. She takes out his beyblade. "This?"
Kai reaches out to grab it from her but she evades him with a simple sidestep and twirls a good few meters away from him where a few moving passersby bars him from reaching her quickly. He then watches as she drops his precious blade in the space between her cleavage and her dress.
"You want it back, right?" she asks playfully.
Kai glares daggers at her, visibly vexed by her actions.
She then puts on an innocent smile and says, "Come and get it!"
This makes Kai really hate when she smiles now as each time so far, something displeasing for him generally followed. He continues to glare at her as dozens of colorful curse words form in his throat and threaten to come out of his mouth. In a place like this, there is nothing he can do to get Dranzer back from her. If he made a move to try to take it from her, it'd look like he's sexually harassing her which would not only leave a bad impression on anyone around who might recognize him from any of the classes he is taking, but would also leave A2 with an even better way to control him since she could charge him in court for the action easily with the amount of witnesses she'd have if she screamed.
Kai sighs, annoyed still, but defeated. Deciding that this doesn't make a very big difference to him in practicality anyway since he already owes her an unlimited supply of favors this semester, he approaches her slowly and then says, "Fine. You win. I'll play servant for a little while, but only until I find a way to get Dranzer back, got that?"
The smile on A2's face now returns to its true, devilish nature.
"Good," she then turns from him to a nearby line of people. "Follow me."
...
They soon end up on one of the buses that were boarding. A2, being of the slender build that she is, easily slips past other passengers for a seat but Kai on the other hand ends up standing diagonally before her. The bus soon pulls out of the terminal and begins driving on its route.
Kai, having no clue where they are headed, decides to ask, "Where are we going?"
"To an Asian supermarket." A2 replies, staring out the window.
"Grocery shopping?" Kai deduces.
A2 nods, "Yes, we're going to buy some sushi ingredients."
"Sushi?" Kai looks at her kind of surprised. He was under the impression she didn't eat anything but junk food, instant food and butter.
"Yes, making me sushi for lunch happens to be your first task as my servant." She says mundanely as she leans on the glass of the bus window, watching a nearby puppy on the sidewalk sniff around the base of a tree.
Kai looks at her for a moment, wondering why she wants him to make sushi of all things as his first task. Is it because it's the most well known family of dishes to foreigners? From her appearance, A2 does look like she is of European descent. Believing this to be some form of stereotyping, he says to her, "If you want sushi, I can just take you out for lunch."
A2 instantly protests in a spoiled and assertive manner, "I don't want packaged or restaurant-made sushi."
Annoyed by this, Kai asks, "Why not?"
"It feels empty." she replies.
'Empty…?' Kai repeats in his mind. He wonders what she meant by that but shrugs it off. Sighing, he asks, "Well, what kind of sushi do you want?"
"細巻と握り寿司。 (thin rolls and nigiri.)" A2 answers simply.
Kai notes her surprisingly fluent speech but ascertains, "Just those two?"
A2 nods.
Kai then asks, "And what toppings and fillings?"
"鮭と鮪でいい。(Salmon and tuna are fine.)" she replies.
Kai blinks at her for a moment. Both ingredients she listed were fish. Now, it is true that he only has a vague idea how sushi is made, but the real problem with this is that he has no experience in selecting for fresh fish and it's common knowledge that bad quality fish in sushi can lead to some nasty infections. Since he needs her in reasonably good health to tutor him, he points out to her, "You know, I'm not trained to tell fish quality…"
She turns to him, "I never said you need to know how to tell fish quality."
Kai looks at her confused.
"I already have the salmon and tuna shipped by air. It's defrosting in my refrigerator right now." She tells him, returning her attention to what's outside the bus window. "The only thing we're buying is the rice, seaweed, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger and wasabi."
Kai nods in acknowledgement, a little surprised that she even kept something in her fridge that wasn't junk or instant. He wonders if she planned this ahead of time but decides not to bother asking.
The remainder of their ride goes by quickly and without much conversation. Kai can't help but notice A2 seems to greatly enjoy the views of the city. He is a little surprised to see that side of her but keeps quiet. Additionally, he also takes note of her choice of clothing. Although no exception to her tradition of wearing white every single day, today, she is wearing a much more elaborately designed halter top dress. Unlike her other, more plain and loose fitting dresses, this one wraps nicely around her figure from the waist and up and the skirt of the dress flares out in an elegant fashion. He wonders if she had purposely dressed for the occasion but chooses not to bring this up either.
Soon enough, the bus arrives at their intended stop and they get off. Kai immediately notices the liveliness of the neighborhood as he follows A2 down the boulevard. Glancing around at the various shops nearby, he also notices the place seems to be predominantly Chinese with the occasional Japanese or Korean shop. They soon pass by a small café and A2 buys herself a large sized cup of iced bubble tea, which she makes him hold for her, before continuing on. Shortly after, they stop before the entrance of a large supermarket.
"This is the place." She states as she leads him inside.
Upon entering, Kai recalls A2's rather weak physique and wonders if he should grab a shopping cart for them but decides against it when he sees her walk straight towards the snack aisles. Following her there silently, he watches with some astonishment as she begins to pick through the snacks on the shelf like a small child. She soon begins to practically hand him the store's entire supply of a particular brand of Japanese potato chips one by one, prompting him to stop her.
"A2…" he addresses her, rejecting the nth bag she's handing him.
She eyes him up and down for a moment and asks, "Need help?"
"…What do you think?" he glares back at her.
She then turns to an approaching store clerk and addresses him, "You there."
The passing clerk turns to her and responds, "How can I help you, M'am?"
"Go get us a cart or basket." She commands.
In response to the commanding tone and the obvious fact that she's standing there neither doing anything nor holding anything, the clerk looks at her oddly for a moment but complies, "Uh…okay, I'll be right back with that."
Kai watches as the guy goes off to bring her what she had demanded and recalls their initial interactions. 'I guess she's this bossy no matter who it is.'
The guy soon comes back with a cart and A2 dumps all fifteen bags of chips into it before moving on. She also picks out some sweets and again practically buys out the entire supply of that kind on the shelf. Now beginning to have some concerns for how they will bring that back, Kai addresses her again.
"A2," he calls to her as she begins picking out some chocolate.
She does not respond, but Kai expected this.
He suggests, "Instead of buying so many in one go, why don't you come back and buy more another day?"
"No way." She protests. "It's been years since I had a chance to shop for things like this."
Kai raises an eyebrow. The store is only a short bus ride away from campus. Since she's been here for a few years already, shouldn't she have had plenty of chances to shop?
Casually, he asks, "Why so?"
A2, now done with packing their cart with chocolates, leads them to the next aisle. "I simply didn't know about this place until recently."
She continues while picking out a bottle of soy sauce, "It's not like I spend my time looking around for new stores when there's no need for a particular item anyway. Besides, since I can't carry much on my own, I've always either had someone else shop in my stead or had Mordred do it."
Kai continues to follow her as she dumps more sushi ingredients into the cart. He is thankful when she skips pass the soft drinks aisle as those would be fairly heavy to bring back. Soon finished collecting the necessary ingredients after going through a few more aisles, they begin to line up to check out the items in their cart at the cashiers. As they get on the line, an alarm rings some distance away at the door. Turning in the direction from which the sound originates, they see a woman being approached by some store employees while entering. Near them, a man dressed in a suit grumbles and complains about the seemingly malfunctioning alarm.
"Now that's one stupid thief." A2 comments as she follows the woman who just entered with her eyes.
Kai turns to her, surprised to hear her call the woman a thief since she just came in. The woman, who heard the last word of the sentence, eyes her nervously as she continues to head down towards the aisles.
Sensing his curiosity, A2 explains for her companion, "That woman is carrying either a magnetic object or some other form of conductive item, such as a loop of wire. Her reason for bringing such an object with her is to set off the alarms at the door upon entrance, thereby causing the employees to believe that the alarms are malfunctioning. She likely intends to walk out with expensive, but small items in her purse while possibly paying for only a much cheaper item at the cashier to earn trust."
A2 and Kai move up in the line as someone finishes checking out in front of them. Having heard her explanation up until now, the suited man keeps his eyes on them, waiting for A2 to continue. The woman returns to the front of the store with a small bag of candy and goes up to a cashier who handles only quick check outs of less than ten items. As she finishes and proceeds towards the door to leave, the alarms are set off again. The man in the suit near them, possibly a store manager, struggles with the decision to listen further or to believe and act on what he has already heard.
"Of course, one can argue that she brought in the magnetic object from a different store." A2 goes on. "However, since today's Saturday, the typical electronics store doesn't open until about an hour or so from now so the woman's seemingly perfect plan is hilariously flawed by her poor choice of timing. Not that it'd matter in a store run by mindless imbeciles, though…"
Now, the man near them storms away to talk to the employees near the door. A2 watches him go with her usual, bored expression.
Kai, feeling a little bad for the store's employees, asks, "Why did you wait to finish your explanation?"
A2 answers him, "If I didn't, it'd be unfair to the woman."
Kai wonders to which party was that really more unfair to.
"That woman likely isn't stealing food for fun." A2 goes on. "She probably needed it."
"Then why explain what she was doing right next to the manager?" Kai asks.
"Because if I didn't then it'd be unfair to the store." She explains.
Finding it hard to understand her, Kai asks for an explanation, "Why?"
"If I didn't say anything, the woman could've probably just continued stealing from here and this store will keep loosing money. If I said something to allow the manager to catch her earlier, she'd be in trouble and if she were stealing to feed someone else, that person would starve. By my timing of words, I gave both parties a compromise." A2 elaborates as their turn to check out comes up. "This store will not loose more money to the same thief if they are cautious, and the woman will have a chance to escape trouble by simply choosing to steal from a different store next time. It'd suck to be the manager of the next store of course, but life's life; it's never fair."
As Kai begins moving the items in their cart onto the table for the cashier to scan, he wonders why A2 bothered at all to interfere the way she did. Did she feel sorry for the woman or did she feel sorry for the store? She doesn't normally seem to care for the affairs of others, after all. Or at least, it's what he's observed of her during class since she doesn't seem to care about the troubles of their peers one bit.
...
Soon enough, they arrive back at A2's suite where A2 tells Kai to begin preparing the food. Not entirely sure how to prepare the sushi, Kai ends up looking up a recipe online. A2 didn't seem to care too much about that and just waits patiently. Once he begins cooking, however, A2 starts to watch over his shoulder like a curious child watching a parent cook. Although annoyed by this to some extent, Kai decides to tolerate her under the conclusion that she probably has little to no experience in the kitchen. Her habit of consuming mainly instant foods and junk food seem to support this perfectly anyway.
Two hours go by quickly. Kai had messed up seasoning the rice on the first try, but luckily they had more than enough rice for a second try. A2 had watched him work on it most of the way through, occasionally nipping off parts of the fish or a few grains of rice to taste it. When finally done, Kai sets down two plates of sushi on the dinner table as A2 sits in one seat, calmly awaiting her meal. She inspects it intensely for a moment and then looks up at him.
"You suck at this." She tells him. "The rolls are uneven in size, some of it is falling apart, and the ends are loose."
Kai looks at her, not even sure if he should be more amazed with her audacity to insult his work after not doing a thing to help or be more annoyed at her for the fact that he had spent two hours on this just to receive an insult from her.
"But," she goes on, "It shows you put effort into it and I think that part gives it an important touch that more than makes up for the visual aesthetic qualities that it lacks.
Hearing this, Kai smiles just a little, glad that at least she appreciates what he did.
"いただきます。(Bon appétit.)" A2 says, before digging in happily.
Kai returns the phrase but watches her for a moment before beginning to consume his own plate. This is the first time he's seen A2 actually seem purely happy, and not because she was about to pull another prank on him. Somewhat glad to see that she has a non-demonic side to her, he smiles, unnoticed by the girl before him as he eats the lunch that he had toiled so hard to prepare.
Soon finished, A2 calls her robotic servant RE:Mordred to her to take their now empty plates away to be cleaned. She then places a hand near her chest, as if about to take Dranzer out but lowers it. Turning to Kai, she says to him, "I have one more request."
Kai turns to her to hear her out.
"There is a place I wish to visit." She states. She then politely requests of him, "Please escort me there."
...
Getting off a different bus than the one they took earlier to buy sushi ingredients, Kai and A2 arrive at the entrance of a large park. They enter and walk along the main path for a while. Around them, colorful autumn leaves fall from the nearby groves, like thin rain, to the ground. The wind occasionally picks some of it up and scatters it around.
Soon enough, they arrive at a fork in the road. Between the two paths is a large sign with a map. A2 scans through it for a few moments and then leads them down the left, quieter path. They continue to walk on from there as before, occasionally passing a person or two. Soon there is another split ahead but as they are about to go down the smaller of the two paths, they notice a frantic, aged woman nearby begging a jogger for some form of aid. The jogger however, appears baffled by her and signals a "no" or an "I don't understand" before moving away. Noticing the woman turn to them, they wait to see what she needs.
"Entschuldigung, sprechen Sie Deutsch?" she asks.
Kai looks at her as baffled as the jogger before them. She seems to be of European descent so he guesses she was asking in a European language other than English.
Next to him, A2 replies, "Ja."
Kai turns to A2 and steps aside a little to let her deal with the woman who seems to be in a fit of thankfulness. From A2's reply and from the way the words were pronounced, he guesses they must be conversing in a Germanic language.
The woman goes on, "Können Sie mit bitte helfen, zurück zum Haus meines Sohnes zu finden? Ich komme aus Österreich und besuche Ihn derzeit. Ich bin ein wenig raus gegangen, aber ich habe mich verlaufen…"
A2 answers her, "Sicher. Sagen Sie mir wo er wohnt."
Kai watches as the woman takes out a small pouch from her bag and from it a small piece of paper. Unfolding the paper, she shows it to A2. A2 then replies to her, seemingly asking something. In response, the woman takes out a pen and gives it to A2 who then writes something down on the back of the paper in numbered steps. They converse for a little while in the process, mostly with the old woman asking questions and A2 answering them in seemingly short replies. Finally, the woman says, "Vielen Dank junge Frau. Sie waren eine große Hilfe."
After that, the woman waves them good bye and A2 watches her go before motioning for the two of them to continue on their way. As they pick up their pace again, Kai decides to ask, "Was that German?"
A2 nods, "Yes, she told me she's visiting her son from Austria and got lost when she went out from his house."
Kai didn't have anything to say to that; it seems like a fairly mundane matter to him, after all.
A2 then asks, "Were you impressed that I could speak German?"
Kai shrugs, "Maybe a little."
"Don't be." A2 tells him, "I'm a citizen of Germany by blood and nationality, after all. I ought to speak the language."
Kai then wonders if she has any ties to Japan but her fair skin, light hair and blue eyes leads him to dismiss the idea. Instead, he considers that she might simply be interested in Japanese culture like many foreigners are.
They soon come to a sizeable lake or pond. Upon spotting the pool of water, A2 leaves the pathway and walks quickly towards it. Kai follows behind her calmly, walking at a much slower pace. He watches as she bends down by the edge and brushes a hand through the clear lake water.
As he reaches where she is, she says to him, "When I was a child, I used to live near a beautiful, clean lake like this one. I visited it very often."
A2 removes her hand from the water to remove her sandals. Once those were off, she ties up the skirt of her dress and wades slowly into the water. She then begins to wade deeper and as she does, she begins to hum softly.
Kai watches her for a while like this, listening to her soft melody. A bright, red, maple leaf floats toward her and she picks it up. He notes her skilled singing voice and concludes she must've been interested in music at one point in her life. However, even more striking to him, is the resemblance of the tune in style to that of a typical Japanese children's folksong. He continues to listen to her hum for a while until she stops.
"Say," A2 says, turning partially to him. "That necklace of mine… Is it still safe?"
Hearing that, Kai figures she must have saw the one on Linnea's neck. He tells her, "Yeah, it's hidden in my room."
"I'm glad to hear that." She then asks a moment later, "Also, if you don't mind, what is the name of the girl who was with you yesterday?"
Kai is a little surprised that she asked, but answers, "Her name's Linnea. Why?"
"Linnea…" A2 turns from him again. "I see. I was just curious."
After a little while more, A2 begins to head back to shore. As she is about to step back onto the grass, however, her balance begins to fail her and she falls to the ground. Kai, having been standing near the shore, rushes towards her. He picks her up from the grass and asks her, "Are you alright?"
She nods softly. She then tries to sit up but falls back into his arms.
Kai scans her for a second, wondering what to do. She hasn't exactly fainted so there's no real need to send her to the emergency room but like this, she's not exactly okay either. Should he just take her home or maybe to a clinic?
He checks his phone to see the time until the next direct bus back to campus. According to the time displayed and his memory of the time the bus is supposed to arrive, they have about ten to fifteen minutes. Recalling that they had to walk quite some ways from the entrance to get here and again noting A2's current condition, he asks her, "A bus going back to campus will be here soon. Want me to take you home?"
A2 nods.
Following her reply, he helps her put her sandals back on and helps her up. He then leads her towards the paved path. As he is about to walk down along the road with her, he recalls the way the path had curved like an arc or semi-circle and wonders if they can cut through the trees to make it back to the entrance faster. Deciding to do just that, he leads her into the grove of trees off the side of the road carefully, making sure to guide the dizzy girl through the thickening trees as they go deeper in.
For a while, they traverse this way in silence. Kai was starting to get a little tired from having to support part of the girl's weight but didn't mind it too much; he had trained much harder in the past, after all.
However, as they approach a clearing, they hear a familiar voice muttering curses. Kai recognizes this voice immediately as that of the thug with the pistol from yesterday and stops in his tracks.
'Crap.' He curses in his mind.
It is too late for them however, as the thug had already heard them. Kai soon finds himself in nearly the same predicament as the day before: him standing before the thug with a girl who is helpless and the thug pointing his gun at him.
"This must be a joke." the thug says while eyeing Kai up and down. "It's like destiny wants me to shoot you."
'What a joke indeed…' Kai agrees with him mentally. He refrains from commenting out loud, however.
"Anyway, I was told that machine threatened to kill anyone who was in contact with me." The thug goes on with a smirk, "And I was also told that you and that little girl were the last to run."
Kai waits for him to make his point.
"The fact that you're standing here before me must mean that the machine from yesterday somehow spared you." the thug deduces. "I refuse to believe that thing couldn't catch a single person it was trying to pursue."
Kai stays silent.
"You and that lady pilot know each other, don't you?" the thug takes a step closer. "I saw when you started shouting to yourself back at the junkyard. You were somehow contacting that machine, right?"
Again, Kai chooses not to say anything.
The thug moves onto his main point, "Tell me who that machine's affiliated with? Is it really the military?"
He shoots at the ground directly before Kai's feet.
"Or is it someone private?" he aims the gun at Kai again.
Kai simply stares back at him. Chances are, they're not going unscathed this time. No matter what he tells him, this guy isn't going to let them go so they can rat him out to the police and surely he can't be happy with what he did yesterday to one of his underlings. Additionally, if A2 says a word, he'll recognize her voice and then things will be really troublesome then. Not sure what he can do to protect them both and knowing that this guy isn't into negotiations, he does not answer him.
"Well?" the thug impatiently demands.
A2, who is now feeling a bit better, looks up from the ground and at the thug. She had been conscious this whole time and had been following their situation perfectly. Probably having realized the same as Kai, she uses all of the strength she can muster to shove herself from his support. She then moves in front of him and positions herself directly between him and the thug before whispering to him in a low voice that only he could hear, "Go."
Kai, however, is too shocked by her actions to move from his spot. She is using herself as a shield for him so he could get away. Why? It just didn't make any sense to him. Did she have some way to save herself after he leaves? Was she going to somehow contact her robots to fly here again and save her? But even if her robots came, she'd be dead by then; the guy already has his pistol pointed at them. Was this so she could make sure that he won't expose the secret of the Nymph to the thug? Why would she do this? His thoughts continue to circle round and round in his mind as he stands there.
The thug on the other hand looks at them confused. "What the hell is this?"
A2 neither answers him or moves.
"Hey girl, move out of the way if you don't wanna die." The thug tells her. "He's the one with the information I want."
A2 does not budge from where she is.
The thug warns her again, "Look girl, I don't know what your deal is, but I just want some cash outta him and right now, any legit info about that machine just happens to sell for some nice prices, so move it and let a man make some money."
Again, she does not move.
Fed up and realizing she's probably going to stand there to protect him no matter what, he moves his finger to pull the trigger but is interrupted when the gun is knocked out of his hands by a fast moving object.
"Stop right there!" a female voice shouts.
The thug nurses his twisted wrist and turns to the source of the sound as three more of beyblades fly out from the trees and circle him
Emily steps out from behind a nearby tree, followed by Max, Michael and Rick.
"Boy, that was close!" Max comments. He then turns to Kai and A2. "You guys alright?"
Kai looks at his former teammate in surprise and nods slightly. A2, seeing that they are no longer in danger, collapses again but Kai catches her.
Max then begins to surround the thug with Michael and Rick while Emily goes to where the pistol had landed and kicks it further away.
"Alright, hands in the air unless you want us to get rough." Rick tells the thug.
He doesn't listen however, so Rick grabs him by his injured wrist and pins him to the floor instead, causing a painful yelp to fill the air.
"What are you guys doing here?" Kai asks.
"We were having a picnic earlier and we started playing a game of volleyball but then Rick lost the ball…" Michael tells him.
"Hey! You were the one who couldn't set the ball, so don't blame it on me!" Rick protests with the thug wriggling in pain underneath him.
"What are you talking about?" Michael argues with him. "You were the one who served the ball too far!"
Max then takes out his phone to call the police while the two of them go on and on behind him about their lost ball. In a mere few minutes, the police arrive to take the thug away. Everyone there also gives a brief testimony on what happened. Luckily for A2, Emily, Max, Michael and Rick didn't seem to know what the thug was talking about when he was threatening them due to being a little too far away. When it is Kai and A2's turn to be questioned, they pretend the same as well, only emphasizing the thug's use of a lethal weapon to threaten them. Of course, the police did want to know why they were being threatened but they simply told the police that the thug was not speaking in a logical manner and, as a result, they were not sure what he wanted from them.
...
Once they were done with the police, they all returned to their respective universities. Kai and A2, having parted with Michael upon arrival back at the university's bus stop, now walk quietly in the setting sun towards the residential community in which A2 lives. Although A2 had gotten much better now, Kai insisted on walking her back anyway. They soon arrive at the entrance to A2's dorm where they stop.
A2 digs a little into the front of her dress and pulls out a familiar blue blade. She turns to Kai and holds it out for him, saying, "Here."
Kai reaches a hand out to take it.
A2 smiles, this time genuinely, without her usual hint of devilishness. She adds, "I had fun today. Thank you."
Kai puts Dranzer away and returns the smile. However, to his surprise, A2 comes up to him and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. He touches the spot where she had kissed him as she backs away from him again.
"That's for having fulfilled both of my requests today." She tells him. She then goes on, "Since you did say you'd only serve me until you got 'Dranzer' back and I did only want you to serve me for a temporary period, I guess as of this moment, you're free to go."
Kai looks at her, somewhat surprised by that. He says to her, "Thanks…I guess."
A2 then turns to go inside but looks back to him. "By the way,"
Kai waits for her to go on.
"Tomorrow, no matter what happens, don't come here." She tells him sternly. "You should also refrain from contacting me until Monday."
Kai is rather perplexed by her request, but nods.
She smiles, "Well then, I guess I'll see you in class on Monday."
With that, she enters the glass doors of the building and disappears inside.
Okay, as usual, let me know what you thought. Thanks!
By the way, disclaimer: Don't go shoplifting, but if you do, neither myself nor A2 are responsible for your actions/consequences! (The full method was not disclosed anyway =p)