It was a late night, Kenji fumbled around in bed. His pillows and and sheets getting kicked up in the process, he'd been having the same dream for the past few nights lately, even though it wasn't exactly horrible, it still managed to keep him up.
'I just can't get her words out of my head...' Due to his internal struggle, Kenji clutched his inky brown hair thrashing his legs about in a frustrated rage.
'She couldn't have been serious, why would she just tell me that out of the blue! I couldn't even do the cliche of acting as if I didn't hear her!?'
Settling down a little, Kenji bit the inside of his cheek trying to subdue his anger, 'No...She was being totally honest, there's no way Akko would lie about that...I don't know how or when she started liking me, maybe it was when I did.'
Taking a second to let out a long sigh, the wizard to be fiddled with the crystal hung around his neck slumping his posture of the side of the bed, 'Why would she tell me that though, what does she even want, I have to go home...at some point, does Akko really think I could have a relationship here?'
Peeking through his legs, Kenji blankly picked up the giant instruction sheet. Originally, when it was blank at least he'd assumed it would lead to a map and possibly somewhere else in Luna Nova, but no it seemed to be instructions to build a portal.
Honestly it all seemed a little too easy, would building it really be the way to getting home or would it just lead to another remedial adventure towards it.
Either way, he had to build it just to have a shot of getting home.
'Although...'
He wasn't anywhere near being an inventor, and it would take a good one at that to build the damn thing! Constanze was the key to that. He'd trying saying her last name, but it had only led to his own humiliation.
She was the small girl, who was also dormmates with Amanda and Jasminka who was known around Luna Nova for either fixing or building items for everyone. Whether it was a phone or a helper robot, Constanze held no thought in easily building it for them.
Except for him that is.
Kenji hadn't really talked to her that much, especially compared to the amount he had with the other girls. So, it was no surprise that she didn't like him all that much...but for god sakes, he didn't expect the inventor to harbour such a distaste against him.
And yet, after all of his pleading and following her about. He'd come to the conclusion that she simply didn't like him.
'Ehhhhhhhhhhh...everything's a mess!' He rustled back and forth across the sheets messing them up once again.
It was currently 7:30am, not too early in the morning considering classes usually started at 9:00, and the fact that it was a free day for everyone to clean up the Samhain festival.
'Right! My goal today should be to get Constanze to build me a portal! It probably won't be done for a while, but I could at least try and get started...'
Rubbing his sore eyes, Kenji tucked himself into bed. He was definitely still tuckered out since the festival, so right about now he'd need his sleep.
'I'll make sure...to sort out everything with Akko...later'
Kenji's peaceful slumber was interrupted by a ruckus of girls screaming outside, it was right outside his dorm room. They may as well have been screaming right in his ear.
'So noisy...so early in the morning'
Making sure he was at least somewhat decent, Kenji picked up his phone and thrusted the door open. He was met with several girls blankly staring at him as if, he was some ghoul who'd arrived from the depths.
He was too jetlagged from being woken up too early to feel nervous, "Can any of you tell me why your being so loud on a day off!?" He exclaimed fairly lowly scrunching up his face into an ugly look.
All of them looked a little frightened, until one of them answered, "We think we saw...a monster."
'Are there not monsters everywhere in this school...?'
"So that's why you're all screaming...uhhhh alright can you show me exactly where you last saw it, I can at least get some decent sleep if you all would be quiet," Another one of the witches began to lead the way, somewhat confused about his groggy, stern demeanour.
'So, he's not a morning person..?' They all thought at the same time.
"W-We last sort it scuttling about like a crab, but it went up into the roof before we could try and catch it..."
Sighing into his hands, Kenji mumbled some unintelligible words to himself, "There's not much I can do about it, the best thing I'd do is to either get Diana or maybe one of the teachers...unless you wanna handle it yourself.." He deadpanned at the three, judging by their shuddered reactions he could say he was right.
"C'mon Sucy I think I heard them this way!"
It was Kenji's turn to flinch, suddenly feeling as awake as ever he bolted the other direction of the voices, steaming down the hallway, 'Shit, shit, shit...I know I said I'd deal with it but not right now!?'
'They'll be down here soon where to hide, where to hide!'
Surveying the rooms around him, darting his eyes around quicker than he'd ever done before. He scrambled into the only room he recognised, 'Sorry, Amanda, Jasminka I'll be borrowing your room for the time being..'
He couldn't tell if they were getting closer or not, so much to his own chagrin and embarrassment he begrudgingly bunkered down on one of their beds, deciding he'd make his way back to his room within 10 minutes.
'This feels so creepy...can I really just go into a girl's dorm room, even if I know them...'
Shaking the poor feeling down his back, deciding he'd dwell on his impromptu thoughts later. He grabbed the handrail of the bunkbed; it was a reflex manoeuvre with how he'd get out of bed after sharing it with his sister.
What he didn't expect was the rail to move downwards and to the side like a lever, a clicking sound emitting from it.
Even worse, a small trapdoor opened from the floor directly under his feet...
Kenji plummeted faster and faster down the pit, he actually expected it to end to his death, 'This is what I get for going into a girl's room...'
Eventually, and thankfully he landed straight into a cart. There were lights dimly lit in the damp tunnel, within seconds it zoomed down the rails twisting and turning at an immeasurable speed.
"SHIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTT!" Kenji let out an audible scream tracking it down the entire trip.
Finally, the horrible ride came to end. Kenji plopped out of a hole and onto a worn-out green couch.
'Did...did Constanze build all of that!? When the hell did, she has the time to do any of that!'
'She could totally build that portal...'
Rolling off of the couch, Kenji checked for the map in his back pocket, it was a string of luck that he'd fallen asleep with it and had subconsciously brought it with him, '..What a coincidence!'
Taking a quick glance around, Kenji could see that Constanze was nowhere to be seen. He continued to wander about, making it to another largely scaled room that he gawked at for a while, there was a rough woodwork of what looked like a ship but it was too much in a beta stage to be able to tell.
'Yeah, that's right I'm smart, I know what beta means!' Kenji thought snobbishly, praising himself a little.
"Intruder! Intruder!" Something alerted from behind him, startling Kenji into the wall.
It was a small robot, walking around on peg legs, "Intruder!" It beeped much louder this time.
Kenji wasn't an idiot, anyone could tell that it was signalling for Constanze, "Shhhhhh, shhhhhh I'm not an intruder I'm just looking for Constanze! Do you know where she is?" He tried to hush the machine, kneeling down to its level.
The robot paused for a few seconds, giving the brunette a sense of relief. That was until it ejected an ambulance looking light from its head, bleeping even louder than before.
'No, no stay quiet please!'
As expected, Constanze emerged from around the corner a gun held tightly in her hands, "Woah, woah don't shoot I got here by accident I swear!" Kenji blurted out, throwing his hands up into the air.
The short green-haired girl exhaled, clearly annoyed by the intrusion. She shimmied with her hands, poking him with the end of the barrel getting him to move back into the room he'd first appeared in.
'Oh...she's kicking me out, is that right?'
Angrily, Constanze thrusted one of her fingers to what looked like an eject seat, "W-Wait, I'll go I swear I will I just need you to look at these instructions, there for a portal and its sort of my only way home..."
As he began to unravel the scroll, the small robot stopped him with one of its hands held out, "She won't make it, she'll never make that for you..."
Kenji almost felt lightning strike behind him, not only did the robot speak but it had shut him down entirely.
"W-Why n-not...I get t-that I've been a little on about it, but I can do whatever you need to help..."
"No! Its not the building that is the problem, its you, I won't build it for you, you are the problem..." The little robot finished, actually managing to stare daggers through its metal plating.
The tension in the air began to grow increasingly thicker, Kenji threatened to choke on it swallowing the lump in his throat, "I-It's like I thought, d-do you really not like me, how come?"
Constanze didn't look conflicted in the least, beginning to write something down on her whiteboard. She displayed it to him with her usual dystopian gaze, only now looking more annoyed.
The board read in clear bold ink, "Your someone who doesn't seem to mind what they say or do, as long as you get what you want. I make and fix things for everyone in school, because they'll treat me with respect, or at least help me out with something, I don't mind doing it.."
His face began to shift even more pale, Constanze didn't take too long to rub out and finish her writing, "You may have made friends with Amanda, Jasminka and everyone else, but to me you just someone who does what they can to get what they want I've only seen you wanting to get home, that is your only selfish intent."
"I-I see..." Said Kenji, a blank stare on his face.
He hobbled over to the eject seat, pushing the red button against the wall with no needed help. It shot him back up the tunnel and back into the room, slamming his head into the roof.
Not that he cared though, his thoughts were elsewhere.
'Is that really what she thinks of me...I come across as someone that selfish?'
Kenji made his way back to his room, not bothered if he bumped into anyone along the way. Once in his room, he hurled the scroll at the wall in a moment of agitation, "What the point in getting angry..." He spoke to himself falling onto his bed, having no reason to stand up anymore.
As he laid and sulked in bed, Kenji was unaware of the nefarious plot hatching inside the building.
Small creature began to scatter inside the walls, grabbing, stealing and destroying whatever they could.
The next day, Kenji reluctantly stumbled out of bed and stubbornly made his way to class.
He didn't exactly feel the best about what had happened, but there were still classes and of course, awkward interaction still had to take place.
'God, do I feel like shit...'
He didn't even bother worrying about the conversation he'd have with Akko, his thoughts were elsewhere, 'I don't think I've had anyone say that about me, one-sided maybe, or a little bit too driven, but am I really someone who does what they want just to get their way?'
Humming lowly to himself, Kenji pushed the door open to a creak surely alerting most of the class to his presence. Unknowing to him, it had been in an uproar for the past hour and a half.
"My pillows were gone when I woke up this morning!" He heard a girl complain.
"I know, I tried to study one of my textbooks before the test today and half of the pages were ripped out!" Another witch added groaning alongside her friend.
Constanze seemed to be in the middle of the chaos, nervously getting her robot to explain herself.
Barbara had a hairdryer in her hand, the wires inside were completely entangled, "It was even worse than when you gave it to me! What did you do!"
"These earmuffs you gave me were completely worn out from the middle!" Someone else berated her.
Her small robot hopped up onto the table to defend her, "When Consey made these they were perfectly fine, she would never make mistakes like that!" It beeped loudly to the group.
Now that he thought about it, Kenji had noticed some tears in his sheets when he woke up that morning. Luckily, his phone and map were completely fine but there were small parts of the room that seemed visited.
'What exactly is going on?'
Suddenly, Kenji was noticed by the small croup crowding in the row of seats above him, "It was him; he was in my lab he must have messed with something to ruin it all...!" The robot accused point its finger at him.
Stepping back startled, he flailed his hands about in denial, "Woah, woah yeah I was there, but I didn't even get the chance to touch anything!" Kenji argued sulking a little at the false accusation.
Although she wanted to poke him further for questions, Constanze couldn't deny that there was nothing out of place after she'd kicked him out. So, her brain was puzzled on what else could've disrupted so many of her inventions.
Just as he was about to sit down, Kenji came to the realization that he was seated next Akko, Sucy and Lotte so that was going to be a problem for the sudden predicament he was in, 'I should deal with it...I really should, but right now I just want to sit by myself'
Finding another seat wasn't really a problem to be honest, considering her big the classroom was there was always an empty seat somewhere.
From the other side of the classroom, Kenji could see Constanze staring at him, silently judging him, 'Dammit, she definitely thinks I did something. Although it is too big off a coincidence that I was the only one in there and something happened..'
As Kenji began to mull it over, thinking of a plan of action he could take. Akko kept her solemn gaze over him, she'd been watching him for the past day and she was getting increasingly more nervous that maybe she shouldn't have confessed to him.
'Ah, no, no! I got to caught up in the festival and I told him how I felt! Now he's avoiding me, he doesn't feel the same way and I've ruined everything!'
Sucy watched with a mixture of amusement and pity, she was for one enjoying Akko as a flustered mess, but on the other hand seeing her friend look so sad when she was usually as bright as day was definitely strange.
She leant her hand against her cheek, messing with her potion lids again, 'I didn't expect Kenji, to avoid her maybe act awkward but not full blown ignore her...'
Once classes were over, Kenji pulled his bag over his shoulders booking it out of the classroom, '..It won't stop bugging me, I mean c'mon it's not just the stuff Constanze made..' The school itself had small tears in it...lamps were missing from their pedestals; several curtains were ripped shorter than others.
Were there thieves? No, who would just rip and destroy certain objects...it didn't make any sense.
Coming to the end of a hallway, he inspected a relatively large crack in the wall. It was maybe big enough to fit half of his body size, or a little less, 'Whelp, may as well stick my hand in it if I'm doing some form of investigating..'
Slowly edging his hand, it the hole, he ran it around the floor trying to feel around for anything that might be inside, 'Maybe this has nothing to do with it, Luna Nova is kinda run do-'
Something sharp dropped down onto Kenji's hand with as much force as a brick, 'OWCHHHHHH!'
Instinctively, he whirled his hand back through the hole throwing whatever bit him into the wall behind him. Luckily the wound wasn't that deep, which was honestly surprisingly considering her harshly the bite seemed.
'What the hell bit me though...'
Kenji darted at the creature, it was slumped over the wall seeming frazzled and confused. It rubbed its ears like a dog would, although its appearance was nothing compared to it, with its small but lanky structure it was completely black almost as if it were a shadow, it self.
Its eyes were a pure white, but still they seemed darker than the creature body itself, considering how dull and lifeless they were..
'I don't like this...what the hell even is it..'
Once the little horned thing noticed Kenji's presence, it was as if it sprung back to life crackling spinal cord up and back, seeming to rearrange itself. Like a blur, it leaped from the ground, baring his white fangs at the teenager.
Before it could even try to attack him, a lazar blast shot through the air striking the monster in the shoulder forcing it to keel over to the ground.
"C-Constanze!?" Kenji exclaimed, gasping a little at how quick it had all happened.
The green-haired inventor hummed in response to her name, not bothering to face him in the slightest, 'Well those hurts, I mean it's not like she'll stop hating me after just a day...especially after she thinks of me'
Yet again, her little talking machine stepped up to him, "Why are you fighting a gremlin, you'll have no chance against it...just trust Consey to deal with it! This must've been what messed with all of her inventions!"
'Great deductions bot...I'm starting to hate that thing'
As Constanze inspected the gremlin, she poked it before walking away, "W-Wait where are you going now?" Kenji queried slowly following after her as she trekked down the hallway.
The robot answered for her, "To run a video on the gremlins, Consey's smart so she has camera's all over her labs...she'll find out where the gremlins are hiding and stop em!" It pumped its little fist into the air.
"They have to pay! For wrecking all of Consey's inventions...after all she cares so much about them.."
Constanze quickly side-kicked the robot, quickly getting it to shut up.
Kenji was about to let her walk off, deciding it'd be better to leave Constanze to her own devices, "Please!" He clasped his hands together, "Let me help you with those gremlins, you might not like me, but I really want to stop them!"
'And maybe getting her not to completely despise me is also a plus...'
Her peg-legged robot wanted to retort with something immediately, but Constanze held her hand clearly signalling for it to quiet down, she nodded her head silently waving her head for Kenji to follow her.
'Yes!' He yelled internally, following close behind her.
"Let's make sure we can take down these gremlins, huh Consey!" He teased patting her on the shoulder.
Frowning and again regretting agreeing to his company, the short witch jammed her gun into his side, "Right, right sorry I'll calm it down..."
Now back in her workshop, Kenji crouched beside the Constanze sized monitor and desk. He wasn't exceptionally taller than her, but she was still a lot shorter than most girls he knew.
"What're we looking for exactly? Do you think you can find any more of those gremlins sneaking about in your workshop?" Kenji asked simply, watching as Constanze blipped through each of the monitors.
She was clearly rewinding back to last night, as she did Kenji noticed how she was clearly keeping her distance from him. It made sense, but he didn't expect such a blatant reluctance towards him.
'At this point, I just want to get along with her...building the portal would just be a bonus'
Once they arrived to the time, Constanze surveyed the screen replaying back and forth. There was several of the pitch-black creatures, leaping about ripping up the resting inventions collecting inside of a large trolley to the side of the room.
"So, it was them...I guess now you know it's not me but what are we going to do about it-"
Constanze cocked her gun, reloading it with another blast practically poking out of the barrel, "Consey's going to deal with them all, if we don't stop them, they'll just keep multiplying!" The robot huffed jumping up and down on its pegs.
"Right..." Kenji said scratching the back of his neck, "I'll do what I can to help! Put me to work!"
With a low sigh, she shoved her finger to the tool bench, gesturing for him to bring some to her.
'Well, I did tell her to put me to work...'
Just like that, the two got to building. Kenji complied in the brutal amount of manual labour Constanze was subjecting him to, he'd been told that the best way to deal with gremlins was to subject them to a lot of light, which would either disperse or erase them.
So, they...well mostly Constanze had come up with the idea to lure a bunch of the gremlins in with her broken and disregarded inventions, that she hadn't used within the past couple of months.
It was simple, but still something that had a high chance of being successful. Besides, Kenji wasn't exactly going to have a chance to turn it down and think of one of his own.
Soon enough, they were done, and were stuck scouting out behind a desktop. Kenji had been given a small hammer tool, it could barely be considered as a weapon, 'I'm just gonna have to make do for now, I mean Constanze does have a gun...'
'Still don't know how that's allowed in this school'
They'd been hidden behind a desk for the past few hours, and admittedly, without Constanze exactly being the most talkative and her hating him, it had been a a very long a dull couple of hours.
"So Constanze...why'd you come to Luna Nova?" Kenji nervously asked, trying to start a conversation.
Of course, her small robot answered for her, "Luna Nova was the perfect school for Consey to practice her inventions, for when she makes them for other witches.."
Kenji made an 'oh' sound with his face, nodding to what he'd heard, "That makes sense...I didn't really think you wanted to practice and learn magic, helping out people with your inventions suits you much better..." He laughed a little at that playing with the hammer in his hand.
Constanze stared at him for a little bit, feeling her annoyance to him boil down a little.
A loud crash came from the back of the workshop, before a light sound of scratching against the concrete floor as the creature who had caused the noise running away from the scene of the crime.
The two of the exchanged a quick glance with each other, before rushing into action. Kenji run towards the right while Constanze on the left, they had agreed that they had to run the gremlin into a corner or rile it up enough to follow it towards the pile of scrap metal.
Back down in the open area of the workshop, the small pitch-black creature noticed them both in a matter of seconds scrambling to make an escape, presumably through the way it came.
However, with a couple shots from her gun, Constanze scared it off from its escape. Kenji acted as soon as he could, tossing a net over the gremlin dragging and then throwing it onto the upper deck and closer to the scraps.
Like clockwork, the gremlin switched its attention to the haul of metal slobbering its sharp teeth and jaw into it, completely forgetting that it had been thrown up there in the first place.
Watching with slight admiration at how well her plan was going, Kenji remembered how the next part would go, 'Like Constanze wrote down...gremlins usually travel alone, but are collectively a colony and we'll come together if there is a reason...'
The gremlin's whole spine shivered up to its forehead, "RAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" It let out a bloodcurdling scream, so loud that Kenji could swear his eardrums were actually starting to bleed.
'Well there's no another reason to call on your pack then when there's food...'
A whole tidal wave of darkness splurged out from the crack in the wall, quickly beginning to pool out over each other and the pile of glorious food they saw before them.
Using what his given tool was meant to be used for, Kenji smashed into the dull brick exterior that was surfaced around the floor breaking it underneath all of the gremlins beginning to slide them down into the trap below.
'That should be it...they're so engrossed in eating that they haven't even noticed what's happening yet'
As the floor at the top section of the lab began to crumble with chain reaction, more and more of the traps that had been set out began to activate.
Burning strings of light shone out from the walls and floor, singing into the gremlins skin, black ooze dripping out of it. Kenji almost took a step back, about to relax and simply let the plan happen.
That was until the other box, filled with Constanze's inventions began to disconnect from the drilled hold it had against the shaking wall. He moved without thinking, closing the distance as the gremlins tried to crawl back up to the platform, letting out howls of pain at not being able to.
'Her inventions! I can't let them fall off!'
Kenji clutched on the rolling box of inventions, struggling to keep a grip over the side of it, 'It was attached to the wall...so it's not a surprise that it doesn't have a handle, but still! I can't let go!'
Slowly but surely, Kenji began to slide down as well. He had no way of picking himself up, seemingly having to lay on the ground as the inevitable happened.
Constanze watched from the loading bay floor below, she'd moved her ship plans elsewhere to leave space. There was a giant net at the bottom, ready to ensnare and burn the gremlins to cinders.
"What's he doing up there!? He'll fall in to, its not like this light isn't unable to hurt humans, how stupid the fall alone could kill him!" Her robot belittled him stopping its little pegs in frustration.
"What are you doing!" The small machine, yelled much louder through its speakers.
Kenji heard it, letting out a weak cry, "It's Constanze's inventions they broke off the wall, the box is too big for me to hold onto.."
"But you could just let go!" It exclaimed, already knowing it was a stupid observation, "Worry about yourself!"
"I CAN'T!" The brunette yelled much louder this time.
"You said yourself...that these were what Constanze cares about the most! I can't just helplessly watch them fall to pieces when I can catch them, I don't have my wand, so this is all I can do!"
'No, my grip...it's slipping! Dammit, even if I let go now, I won't be able to let go the floor will fall underneath me..'
Her face crinkling up a little, Constanze reloaded her gun switching what was shot out. A swift and sharp hook came out from it attaching to the secure part of the lab, swinging her small stature up and around to Kenji.
He was seconds away from skidding right off, 'Shit, shit, shit-'
As if they were in a film, Constanze swooped in just before he could fall throwing the two of them on the other side of the upper area, Kenji watched with guilt as the box filled with inventions she'd spent months on fall to the ground shattering completely.
"...Ah, sorry Constanze I did try but I guess I couldn't do anything after all.." He spoke sorrowfully, biting his bottom lip aggressively.
Moving to write on her whiteboard, she showed it to him, "You almost died trying to get them, I'm sad that there gone...a lot of them took months to finish, but I can just try again, and make them better than before."
She rubbed it out and wrote something else, "I think I was a little wrong about you though Kenji, I just assumed from what I saw that you had a selfish personality but maybe you just need to present yourself more.."
"Burn...but thanks I appreciate it!" He smiled a little at her.
"Stop with all the talking!" The robot intervened sticking out between the two, "The gremlins are dealt with but because of the trap, Consey's lab is all messed up, we need to clean it!"
'It's right, half of the downstairs is pretty much rubble...gotta get to work then!'
"Right! I don't think this'll get done in one go, but if you're alright with it then I come down to help clean it..." Kenji asked somewhat awkwardly, not wanting to overstep his boundaries.
Constanze kept quiet for a few seconds watching Kenji wait for a reply... "Thanks."
'HUH!?'
"You spoke, you said a word, I heard you c'mon say something else!" Kenji immediately bombarded herself with a bunch of words that she began to get flustered with, shooing him off with her gun.
"...Eh!? Alright, sorry sorry I got a little ahead of myself," He apologized going back to cleaning.
As he did his thoughts lingered a little on Akko, 'I've got no excuses, I don't know if Constanze will build it...but I have to talk to Akko!'
I hope you enjoyed, been a while since I've commented on these chapter hasn't it? The stories starting to come along and don't worry I won't delay the chapter anymore I just want the Kenji and Akko one to be the best it can be, so until next time see yah!
