When the ship floated on the sky, the young Suin looked the Aakhen city from above excitedly. In the past, he did hike with his parents to look over the Constella city. However, the difference between looking down from a flying ship and a high mountain revealed clearer. From this flying ship, Al could see the clouds floating alongside the ship. Everything looked so small but beautifully stunning. Al swore he could look at the city for all days. Seeing how he was excited, Yuna was glad that he really enjoyed the trip. According to her, it would take three days to fly from Aakhen to Reingar.
Accompany with Al was Tamarinne, the young singer. She was having a hard time following him and explained the new stuff he saw around the ship. Thanks to her, Al knew another fuel to cook foods without using coals and woods, and Tamarinne did not forget to remind him that the gas was not safe for health. Whenever he smelt the gas, he must find a source and stopped it from spreading. Obviously, Tamarinne alone was not enough to satisfy his curiosity and it was when Yuna stepped in. She was the one who explained to him how the ship could float and fly and showed him how the machine worked to make it happen.
Another thing that surprised Al was the ship flew lightly and did not shake like normal ships on the water surface. Inside the cabin and the ship itself, everything was placed perfectly and did not give a sense of tight and narrow space. The restroom was very comfortable and had a glass window to look outside. The ship also had a common room where everyone could gather here, chatting, reading books, or spending time with their friends, and playing some games. Eventually, Al was invited to play some of them and he was so bad that he could not even win one. However, seeing everyone was laughing joyfully, including Tamarinne and Yuna, he did not bother much.
Three days later, the ship nearly returned to Reingar. Looking down, Al saw an island and a city placed next to the edge of the west island. Although the view was not clear, he still could see many houses and buildings surrounded by a big tower in the middle of the city. The city also had some walls placed inside it, separating areas.
But it was not until the ship landed and I could not speak anything. He was totally surprised and shocked at how strange and modernized this city was. It had a combination of the gothic and modern style. When landed, Al saw some strange machine came in and came out, bring goods out of the ship. It looked weird and funny at the same time.
"Welcome back, President Yuna.", a group of students welcomed her warmly.
"Thank you, everyone," – Yuna responded politely. She then asked, "Is everything okay?"
"I hope you will…" while Yuna was talking with the group of students, Tamarinne looked for Al but he already disappeared. She searched and asked everyone around the ship but he was nowhere to be found. Worryingly, she rushed to Yuna and asked. "Yuna, I couldn't find Al."
"Wait… what? But he was with you the whole time," Yuna was surprised to hear so.
"Was he fallen out? Please don't let it happen," Tamarinna asked while looking around the landing zone.
"I think we should post leaflets to find a missing cat," Yuna suggested.
"Perhaps we…" realizing something was wrong in Yuna's sentence, Tamarinne spoke annoyingly. "He's not a cat. Now it is not the time for joking. I really don't want Katis to find him."
Back to Al, he was so excited to explore the Reingar's school. He totally forgot what Yuna and Tamrinne reminded him before the ship landed. At this moment, he was in a long and wide corridor. When his sense turned back, he realized he was lost.
"Which way to the landing zone?" Al mumbled and tried to remember how he ended up in this place.
While walking along the corridor, Al looked outside the windows to find the path back to the landing zone. But he was straying too far and did not realize he was walking the wrong way. Despite the heat from the sunlight, Al still felt a cool breeze blowing slightly. He wondered where the breeze came from. He did not know it was coming from machines called "air-conditioners" placed around the school.
"Stop right there."
Suddenly, a voice screamed out loud. Al turned back and saw a tall man, who had long black hair standing behind him. The man had two red eyes. He wore black clothes and some red lines on them. He also wore pieces of armor protecting his shoulder. And for some reason, he looked at Al angrily and annoyingly. Sticking with him were two bipedal machines, whose arms were replaced by Gatling guns. Between those bipedal machines was a cylinder machine whose size was small and had a red light on his head.
"I haven't seen you before. You must be an intruder coming here to steal Reingar's property," the man said without thinking any second.
"Well, that feels familiar somehow…" hearing what that man said reminded him of what happened back in Aakhen.
At first, Al intended to explain. However, he did try before and it did not work out well. Nevertheless, getting caught and imprisoned was even worse and either Yuna or Tamarinne would have a hard time finding him. After a few seconds, he made a decision.
"Stop," seeing Al running away, the man chased after him. After a few runs, he spoke loudly. "Dead or alive, eliminate the target."
"Target! Eliminating!" the machines spoke robotically.
"Great. Another psychopath," Al mumbled but he knew he did not have time to think anything else besides running.
The chasing was getting louder over time. Al was trying his best to dodge the bullets from the Gatling guns spreading bullets crazily. He dodged, took turned left and right, jumped and ran on the walls. While he was running, Al was glad that no one was here. They could get hurt innocently. When he saw a big open door, he ran into the room and closed the door quickly.
"Hold!" the man and his machines stopped. He looked at the small whiteboard above the door. It wrote "Biological research laboratory" in red words.
Catching his breath, Al wondered what made that crazy man stopped chasing him. He then looked around the room he just entered. It was a big room painted in white. He looked at the light and at this time, the electric light did not surprise him anymore. He saw some bookshelves and glass containers around the room. He looked into some of the glass containers and saw some tubes containing different color liquid, or small stones, or plants. He also saw a big container that had many white mice inside.
"They aren't to eat."
Suddenly, Al heard a girl's voice while he was wondering what those mice were used for. He turned and saw a young and beautiful girl. She had red long hair and wore full white and pink clothes. Her eyes had the same color as her hair. She wore a big knot that had the shape of a pink butterfly. From the first looks, it was like she had four cat ears but later, Al could see her human ears. Different from the man, this girl gave Al a friendly look but he could not lose his guard.
"May I ask who are you and why are you here?" the girl came closer to him and asked.
"Someone is chasing me. I know I am a strange man intruding your room but please, I have no ill intention," Al politely responded while keeping a distance from her. He did not want to make any more misunderstanding.
"Before we continue, can you please put this on your wrist?" the young girl gave him a brown bracelet that had a green light on it. "If you don't do anything wrong, you don't have to be afraid. Please trust me and put this on."
Although Al had no idea what the bracelet was for, he looked at the girl for a few seconds and decided to put it on his wrist. After that, the girl smiled and said. "Thank you. Now if you can, please answer my questions."
"I came from Aakhen and I was invited to Reingar by Tamarinne and… Uhm… President Yuna. I came here because I wanted to study. Back to Aakhen, I was curious about everything the Reingar brought to the city so I asked if I could come here. But when I came here, I forgot what Yuna and Tamarinne reminded me and got lost. I was chased by a man and some machines. I think you already knew what happened next," Al answered calmly.
"Thank you. Can you please tell me what President Yuna and Miss Tamarinne reminded you?" the girl asked the next question.
"Uhm… they told me to always stick which them and not to wander around Reingar myself. But I got too excited and I totally forgot what they told me," Al answered embarrassedly.
"It would be enough. Thank you for your co-operation. You can remove the bracelet," the young girl smiled satisfyingly before retrieving the bracelet.
"Can I ask why you believed me that easily?" Al wondered.
"This bracelet I asked you to wear is a lie-detecting machine, created by President Yuna. If you lied, the bracelet would have electrocuted you with a high voltage, enough to knock you out," the girl smiled. "Don't worry. As long as you're here and without my permission, no one can come in and arrest you. I will try to contact President Yuna later. Please make yourself as home," she comforted him.
"I…" Al felt surprised and relieved at the same time. He nodded, "thank you."
"Oh, we haven't introduced yet. My name is Carrot. I'm a researcher and this is my lab," the girl introduced herself and extended her hand.
Al politely did the same thing. "Please call me Al,"
"May I ask if your ears are real?" Carrot looked at his ears and leaned her body towards him as she was interested.
Al moved back and did not have courage to look at her directly. "Yes, and they are cat's ears," he hoped that Carrot would not see him as a test subject.
Realizing she was embarrassing him, Carrot backed off and complimented. "They look cute, really."
"Thank you," Al scratched his cheeks. No one had ever said that before.
While Carrot returned to her job, Al felt secure and started looking around. He still had no idea what her job was about, but she kept looking at something and wrote on paper, as if she was writing a report and so.
"Please be careful. Inside those bottles contains extremely toxicity," Carrot reminded him cautiously when he picked up a bottle containing a purple liquid. However, seeing Al was just being curious making her unable to be angry. Then, she saw him looking through a microscope and startled, Carrot came to him and asked. "What did you see?"
"What are those… things?" Al removed his eyes from the microscope and tried to find what he just saw, but he could not.
"Let me see," Carrot looked through the microscope and answered. "You just saw a type of bacteria."
"A… what?" Al did not understand what she was talking about.
"Bacteria is a small organism founded everywhere. They can't be looked at with normal eyes. We need to use a microscope, the thing you just looked through, in order to see them," Carrot explained to him but looking at his "I have no idea what you're talking about" face made her could not hold her smile. She continued. "To use simple words, bacteria can be seen as a living being, but they are so small that we can't look by our eyes, without the help of some devices," Carrot pointed to a microscope. "This thing is called "microscope", a device that helps us to see the bacteria."
"So… this "bacteria" thing… we can't see by our eyes, and they are everywhere?" Al asked doubtfully.
"Yes, even on and inside our body," Carrot nodded.
"But I thought our body contains only blood?" Al struggled to understand.
"And inside blood has a lot of bacteria. I can't explain to you the whole thing but since you come here to study, I can spend sometimes to teach you," Carrot smiled and suggested genuinely.
"It will be great. Thank you," Al wanted to learn more but he realized Carrot had works to do and he was taking too much of her time for his selfish curiosity.
Outside the laboratory, the man who chased after Al was nervously walking in front of the door. He was not sure if he should charge into the room. Meanwhile, the machines were waiting for his order.
"Should I storm in? This room is dangerous and I don't have Miss Carrot's permission," the man mumbled. "But Miss Carrot can take care of herself… Wait, it's been too long, what if that worthless criminal already captured her and forced her to do as his wills," the man started being paranoid and thought dirty things between Al and Carrot. And he quickly made a decision.
"Charge! And eliminate the criminal!"
Inside the lab, while Carrot was working and Al was happily and curiously looking through to see many types of bacteria and viruses, they heard a loud bang startling them. Afterward, they saw the bipedal machines stormed in and started shooting, whether if they recognized Carrot or not. Without thinking any second, Al rushed and used his whole body to protect Carrot. They ducked down trying to avoid the crazy shooting. Suddenly, when the bullets hit some bottles, they created loud explosions and different color smokes. And the fire started flamed on.
"Katis, stop!" Carrot shouted loudly but her voice could not reach the man.
Seeing the fire was on and the smokes were bigger by time, Carrot realized she had to do something before it was too late. She tried to reach her table and slammed a button on it. Realizing she was trying to do something, Al used his body to cover her. After she had succeeded, the laboratory's lights changed from white to red and flashed rapidly. Then, from all around the lab, white smoke and water were released to extinguish the fire. But potentially, something else even more dangerous was released.
"Hang on Al, and don't breathe," holding two gas masks, Carrot saw Al was coughing very hard and he had the shortness of breath syndrome. She could easily wear the mask but Al was unable to wear it due to his cat ears and Carrot had to hold the mask for him. She carefully told him and softly stroking his back. "Okay, it's okay. Just keep breathing."
"Katis, stop right now," From outside, hearing the alarm, Yuna, Tamarinne, Hazel and Karin rushed to the laboratory as fast as they could. They then saw Katis and his machines were shooting recklessly and non-stop.
"President Yuna, I want to report you that a filthy criminal has infiltrated our school and capture Miss Carrot. I request for termination the target," Seeing Yuna, the man named Katis reported his action.
"Whatever it is, stop immediately!" Yuna shouted and the machines stopped. When they entered the lab, Yuna screamed, "Carrot, are you okay?"
"We're okay." Seeing the machines had stopped shooting, as well as Yuna's voice, Carrot helped Al and they both got up.
As for Al, his view started being blurry. He could not stand still and his body moved unwillingly. He felt very tired and could not hear anything anymore. He then looked down and saw something was coming out from his body. The floor started getting wet by some liquid and the last thing he saw was Yuna and Tamarrine rushed towards him.
