[PRP] Somewhere and something

[Zoobey]

"A pretty big bag?" said the escapee, not really processing Shu's question. He was just using the sheet now to wrap the carrots, one bag of socks, and the bag of bagels.

"My name - I dunno, but everyone just calls me Carl," he paused, "It's a really stupid name." The other alias Oz wanted wouldn't have actually been better. "Do you count as helping me? It shouldn't take too long, and I promise I wont say anything."

Since the concept of portals had absolutely no sway or meaning to him he didn't actually remark on any of that, and instead, relatively satisfied with his botched packaging attempt, was already waiting on the door. "Let's go."

Meegane

 

[Meegane]

He said he called Carl, which matched Rep's tweet of the suspect. Alright, maybe she should guide him back to Rep if the Death Lead had asked him to take care of his boy. If Rep couldn't do what he was asked his ability would be judged, that not what Shu wanted.

"You mean a big backpack?" She mused for a while before she went on. "How about one which is 48cm x 28cm? Is that big enough?" The petite Asian rolled her eyes wider at the boy, "Carl, w-what do you mean 'you dunno'? You can't remember anything?!" She raised her voice knowing how dangerous it is letting someone without memories to get off the island.

S-Shut up! I-It's not like that!

Shu didn't answer if she was helping or not, but gave him a nod and followed, impressed by the boy's strength without bonding. In regards to Rep's tweet, he hadn't bonded with any weapon yet, which in turned made him extremely vulnerable. Hence, she had to accompany him while selected who she should contact in her anxiousity.

She didn't wish anything bad happen on him. "You're not gonna get a weapon?" Shu tried again. "I can prove it but we've to go to some open spaces."

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"Yes," he repeated, getting quite infamously impatient now, "A bag or backpack is great." Why was this so hard to understand?

And now his accomplice was having a breakdown. He waited, just untying and retying the bundle while she worked herself out. Between the talk of portals, weapons, and magical summons, he was about sixty-percent sure this island was actually some sort of mental care facility. His amnesia would probably go away; yelling about summoning weapons into open spaces really seemed like a long term problem.

"Actually, I'm fine without a weapon." Yeah, because he wasn't crazy, "I think I'll be fine from here, if you could just point me to the nearest um, portal?"

What the heck was a portal anyway?

Meegane

 

[Meegane]

From the slight change in his attitude, Shu knew she had messed it up. It kinda upset her for a moment that things always went against her plan. Even she was intermediate trainee, she wasn't trusthworthy enough. Her eyes dimmed for a second, recalled what her mother last said to her in the hospital.

"Nope, you won't be fine. You'd be too vulnerable if those creatures find you, even worse, the horseman." She stated. "Besides, you need someone to open up a portal for you. I can tell you the nearest one is located at lighthouse, but you can't use it without a technician setting it up for you." It was spoken as a matter of fact. "It's accessible only for external missions and leaves."

The beast expressed his disapproval but Shu had another plan.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

Nope. That was enough for one day, or possibly forever.

"That's great," he managed to say between gritted teeth, still waiting for Shu to leave the room so he could lock it up again, "I'll just - I'll just head over to a lighthouse then."

A long pause.

"Are you going to leave the room or not?"

Meegane

 

[Meegane]

Shu sighed lightly, there were some traits their Death Lead inherited to his son, mainly impatience, impatience and impatience. Besides thinking listening to people is a waste of time. She smiled and walked out the room. "Yup, I'm going with you."

She couldn't deny that some hunters were dangerous, even they didn't look like that. If Carl irritated any of them on his way to the lighthouse and they wielded their weapons against him - It could be a fatal injury and she must prevent it from happening when she was there.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

It took him a long time to figure out how to lock the door, only because there was no lock, and the understanding of key cards was still just barely weighing on his mind. After two minutes of just staring at the door secretly willing it to lock (it was already locked), he just gave up and sighed, picking up his odd bundle of stuff. "Lead the way, I guess. To this lighthouse."

The last word was definitely said with a lot of reluctance.

Meegane

 

[Meegane]

The petite Asian stood aside Carl, curious of the reason he stared at the door instead of moving. She didn't ask but waited until he asked her to lead the way to lighthouse after exact two minutes. Of course, unlike the boy, she knew well the door would lock automatically the moment you closed it.

"Okay, this way." She didn't believe he could find the lighthouse on her own when he had difficulty to locate the stairs which were just at both ends. Maybe he could, but it going to spend him quite a lot of time.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

A little reluctantly, he followed her, slowly at first. It wasn't until they crossed the threshold of the main headquarters walls that he got increasingly nervous, and suddenly stopped following. "Wait, this lighthouse, the people who leave, do they come back? I'm- I'm not sick if that's what you mean."

Meegane

 

[Meegane]

Shu blinked at his weird question and wondered the possibility he didn't know what a portal was. She tried her best to explain the concept of a protal. "Um, it is like a door, you went in to go to place A, and at place A, you pass through it to head back here. It's your decision of whether to come back -" She made a short pause. "- If nothing happens." Yet, no one had mentioned to her what if the subject using the portal was a normal human being.

"If you feel unwell, you should go to infirmary and ask for some pills." Shu tilted her head, bonded hunters seldom get sick at all. Is that why he became nervous? She halted and readied for a U-turn. "Better ask for pills to prevent motion-sickness as well," she mused quietly.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"No pills!" came the rather sudden reply. "I'm not sick sick, but I'm not sick either." This probably made no sense and he was trying to use airquotes over the third 'sick'. "I just mean um, the, the portal, it's not going to for example, um, lobotomize me is it?"

The thought suddenly occurred that maybe he had already been lobotomized, thus not remembering anything. Sure, all kids had a great imagination, but it didn't help that Shu did nothing to dismiss his growing list of concerns.

Meegane

 

[Meegane]

"Ok, no pills." It shall be a common thing that kids hate pills, maybe. If he insisted he's fine, then he shall be alright. Shu had a difficulty understand what the individual "sick" mean, and she guessed she might need to work harder for her English.

She didn't answer that right away, but looked at him in confusion. Portal was just something convenient, like elevator. Where the lobotomizing idea came from, she was amused by kid's endless imagination. For a moment, she pondered over if a harmless lie would stop the boy from thinking escape and thus achieve her objective.

At last, the thought that she didn't want to lie to Carl won over. "Nope, it, mostly give you motion sick maybe. However, I'm not sure how your body react with the twists and distortions involve."

Knowing he probably didn't get it, she made some supplementary comments. "After all, it temporarily connects two spots of the dimension. Um....Sorry, I dunno these science things well enough to explain it to you. You can imagine we have an invisible shields with us so when we pass through the portal, we feel little or no impacts. And you, without said shield."

Actually she wasn't sure about what would happen and she spaced out to think about the method those hunters recruited her used to bring her to the island.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"And if I walk into a portal," Carl said, trying to internalize everything Shu was trying to explain as if it were actually fact, "I'll what, die terribly? I mean, how do you even know where it's supposed to go and where do I get a shield?"

He sighed. "Forget it, let's just go back, I don't even remember if I should be remembering what you told me."

Meegane

 

[Meegane]

Shu was still trying her best to explain stuff, "Um, I'm not sure. Only the technicians know where a portal links to, and those technical stuff - we can go ask uncle Mark if you want!" Even though the Death Assitant had severe hygiene issues, she won't deny his talents over technology.

"Go back where?" She blinked her eyes at Carl, seemed to skip part of his question. "As I mentioned before, you will get your shield when you acquire bonding with your weapon."

She smiled, looked around and gestured the boy to step back. Then she summoned her big pink hammer and made sure she didn't hit him. "See? This's what we use to fight. Mine's like a hammer, if you have one, what do you want it to be?" It would be adorable if his weapon is in giant size, she heard Gale was petite when he was a trainee but having like a big weapon. The contrast must be a delightful scene.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

There was just a very long pause, where Carl's expression was still fixed transitioning from doubt to surprise and then a definite sort of awe as if he realized in that moment that Shu wasn't crazy, and he probably wasn't either.

"Is that- is that real?" He didn't move, for fear that it would just disappear or something, but the next question was more than inevitable. "Can I got get a weapon too?"

Meegane