A slick, rounded, white car sat idle in a small yard, just enough to fit 2 cars, behind a sliding gate and wildly designed walls that match the uniquely designed house that it's protecting.
Inside the car, Sitting in the backseat were two kids; one of them had sky-blue hair and oddly had a blindfold on, while the other kid, sitting beside him, had pearly white hair and seemed to be keeping the sky-blue haired kid in check.
"Shry, are you sure you have everything planned?" The kid with white hair asked, poking at the kid sitting beside him.
"It'll be fine, Tiy; we even prepared some fun things... Hehe." Shry deliberately left his statement vague, giggling at what's to come.
Tiy rolled his eyes, used to Shry's antics.
"Anyways, what are my parents doing? Can you describe it to me?" Shry stopped his giggling and turned in the direction of Tiy's voice.
Ever since Shry entered the car, a blindfold was put on him by his parents, only allowing Tiy to see everything that was going on, since he wouldn't know any of what the couple was preparing.
"I'm not telling you anything; your parents want to surprise you, and I'm not about to reveal their surprise to you unless... you reveal yours." Tiy turned Shry down, making a counter offer that he's sure that Shry wouldn't accept.
"Fine... Actually... can you open the window? It's getting a bit stuffy in here," Shry casually asked, trying his best not to sound suspicious.
"Sureeee..." Tiy stretched out his answer as he hesitantly rolled down the windshield.
(This is pretty annoying, but I guess that's because it doesn't use Node.) Tiy complained to himself internally.
All throughout the car door, although not the most obvious, it looked like the lever to lower the windshield wasn't just one small part of the door. Because, like a stream of water separating the land and river, in order to replace their previous Node-activated windshields, a whole section of their car doors had to pretty much be completely gutted before the new system could be installed, leaving a clear mark from its surgery.
(Hehe, good good), Shry thought to himself, rubbing his hands together in his mind, making sure he doesn't expose himself.
Feeling the wind from outside blow into the car, Shry went completely quiet, and even his ever-grinning face stopped smiling as he focused on his senses, listening to the footsteps of his parents running to and fro, gathering sound data from the constant bouncing of the footsteps.
As Shry adjusted to the environment, it was like he could see an outline of everything around him, a 360° range of vision, as a 3D render of around a 10-meter form inside his mindscape.
(Noooo, don't just be boxes; I want to see more), Shry thought to himself, complaining internally as he wasted all his time and effort just to see outlines of boxes.
...
After 10 minutes of lifting, Shelt and Kanum finally got into the car and, without further delay, drove away to the Resonance Hall.
During their journey there, the conversation they had in the car didn't feel like normal conversations at all; it felt more like a military report from a soldier to a general as Tiy exposed all the details on what is happening to Shry at school.
Shry would occasionally pop in and try to ask questions about what was happening when he was blindfolded, but every time he did, he only received an answer deflecting the actual reason before returning to the subject of Shry's school life.
"He definitely needs more of those disks; the bullies are beginning to team up on him," Tiy sighed as he stated, clenching his fist as he thought about the problem.
"Don't worry about it; Hytile has a whole arsenal full of them, so there's no way it would be running out anytime soon, from bullies at that. Those disks were made to hold back lower-tier Quardes." Kanum explained, his face scrunching up slightly, annoyed that his son is being treated so unfairly.
"Yup, Mr. Luftra has a mountain of them from our experimenting; I have enough to make it rain... rain fire." Shry joked, his lip curving into a confident smile to show his lack of fear for the bullies.
...
2 hours after Shry and co. arrived at the Resonance Hall, a luxurious yellow car stopped outside of the Resonance Hall's parking lot, and inside it were a woman and a girl.
"Are you sure this is the right address, Yuwwe? Because..." A woman with black-blonde hair wearing a doctor's uniform glared at the Resonance Hall with her golden eyes.
Beside the woman was a 10-year-old girl that looked like a younger and brighter in color contrast version of her, quietly checking her messages before she answered.
"Shry said it's here, big sis... I even sent him a photo" Yuwwe answered, clearly still skeptical despite her friend's confirmation.
As the two girls were speculating without getting out of their car, a familiar face to the woman was spotted walking up to the Resonance Hall like it's just some normal everyday shop.
"REN SPARK, REKKA SPARK, are you guys participating in the, emm... party here?" The woman called out to the duo to get their attention.
"Huh? Hold on, Rekka, is that..." Ren held Rekka's hand to stop her and gestured toward the direction of the woman.
"Oh! It's Doctor Estin!" Rekka cheerfully said before running to the woman's car.
"What brings you here, Doctor Estin?" Rekka asked with a smile as she knelt down slightly to meet with Estin's eyes as she arrived in front of her.
Not bothered at all by Rekka's informality, Estin calmly raised her question again, glad that she found someone that could potentially help solve their current conundrum.
"I'm here to drop off my little sister; apparently a friend of hers called Shry invited her to a party and claims that this is the location."
Contrary to what she expected, when Rekka opened her mouth, it wasn't the answer Estin expected; in fact, it was something she expected the least.
"Oh! You did come to the right place then, because we're going there too!" Rekka said in an excited voice.
For a moment, after hearing Rekka's answer, both sisters were frozen in shock. They both couldn't fathom how a sacred place like Resonance Hall could be the location of a party, a party run by a 10-year-old at that.
"Hey! Are you the friend Shry invited? Nice to meet you, and thank you for being friends with him." Clueless to the befuddlement of the sisters, Rekka greeted Yuwwe after seeing her behind Estin.
"Nice to meet you too, emm..." Yuwwe paused her greeting upon realizing that she didn't know the name of the stranger who greeted
"My name is Rekka Spark, and I'm Shry's cousin" Rekka introduced herself as she caught on to Yuwwe's confusion.
"Oh yeah, big sis did mention your name earlier," Yuwwe answered, a glint of acknowledgement appearing in her eyes while looking somewhat apologetic.
"Hehe, it would be really funny if Ren was called Rekka." Rekka giggled, imagining her brother in a dress with her name.
"What are you laughing about?" Ren said as he finally caught up with his sister, Rekka.
"Nothing!"
"Anyways, are you going to join us, Doctor Estin?" Rekka asked as she backed away from the car window to stand next to her brother.
Not expecting an invitation, Estin didn't know what to say; part of her wanted to just forget about this and continue with her everyday research.
But in the end, her curiosity won, and accordingly, Estin spoke up, affirming her stance.
"Maybe... Depends if it's worth my time," Estin answered, partially confirming her participation.
"C'mon, sis, all you've been doing for the past week was looking over the same data over and over again, so it's not like you have anything better to do today anyway" Yuwwe brutally countered her sister's answer, exposing her in the process.
"Eh...!" Estin let out a cute surprise peep as her demeanor fell apart for a brief moment, feeling wronged.
"You can come back later; we're still close to 2 hours away before the party starts. We only arrived here early to help out." Rekka consoled Estin.
It was then that a specific detail in Rekka's words caught their attention, causing both sisters to raise an eyebrow.
"Wait, we're 2 hours early!" Yuwwe asked in surprise, stunned by the information she just received.
"Did Shry tell you the wrong time?" Ren cut into the conversation, immediately suspecting Shry of pulling a trick.
"He told me that it'll start at 3pm, so I only meant to come here an hour early," Yuwwe revealed, her face looking apologetically at her sister.
For a moment, Ren and Rekka looked at each other, telepathically communicating using their sibling link, eventually leading both of them to laugh.
"It's fine; this conversation had already taken up 10 minutes, so we're only 30 minutes earlier than planned," Estin said, trying to comfort her sister.
Estin is a very meticulous person with all manner of things relating to her life, a side effect from her work as a 3-circle doctor.
Although many may envy and crave such an ability, unfortunately for Estin, it comes with a price, causing her to tire out faster than anyone.
"Woah, that much time had already passed!? Let's get going; I'm sure Shry is definitely in some hot water right now." Rekka, surprised by the amount of time they wasted, quickly beckoned for Yuwwe and Estin to go with them.
"Haaah..."
Hearing that, Estin sighed in slight frustration, but having made up her mind, she made the first move by flaring up her node and making her hand glow ocean blue.
Reaching for a tiny circle behind the steering wheel, Estin immediately pressed her glowing against the circle as she released some Node, causing the car to be powered down as all the machinery slowly became quiet all at the same time.
"You guys are sure this is the place, right?" Estin asked again to clarify, closing the car door as she did so.
*Paap* the car door sounded as it fully closed.
"Yeah, he comes here pretty often," Ren answered blankly, like his mind was not all there, making Estin suspicious and even a little worried.
Over the past 3 days since Ren experienced the rejection phenomenon, though it doesn't affect his mind anymore, his thoughts seemed like they didn't want to let it go, making him unable to take his mind off the imagery he saw during it.
For a moment, it looked like Estin was about to pounce into doctor mode, as her instincts beckoned her to jump into action when she saw how Ren acted. But luckily, she almost immediately stopped after realizing that Ren was in full control of his thoughts.
However, after that, Estin made a mental Node to keep a close eye on Ren whenever she can.
...
"Hey guys, we finally made it!" Rekka greeted loudly as they approached the Resonance Hall, causing some people to wave back.
After giving out her greetings, Rekka immediately ran, wandering in and searching for a specific crimson-haired woman.
Not long after, Ren followed, not saying anything, only quietly trotting and taking his time to look through the area, searching for the same crimson-haired woman.
"Uhhh... How did..." Estin stood stunned at what she saw, speechless at the sight of the dignified Resonance Hall.
In front of the entrance of the Resonance Hall, it wasn't just the lonely canopy anymore. Somehow the usually serene environment surrounding the Resonance Hall had been transformed into something akin to a carnival.
Dozens of colorful canopies sat around the forestry and nature-themed decorations strewn everywhere in between the flora and fauna, seamlessly blending the foreign inclusions with the environment all around.
"Wow, there are so many people here already!" Yuwwe partially screamed in surprise.
Even though the party was still in its preparation phase, there were already 7 people around the grounds finishing up the final touches before the guests arrived.
(This is not vandalism... right?) Estin thought to herself in concern.
"Hello! Welcome to the, um... Happy party." Hytile greeted their guest, gratified by their arrival, his voice hesitant at the end as he reluctantly said the name of the party out loud.
"The happy party..." Estin looked at Hytile as she repeated the name of the party, her voice sounding conflicted and off.
"The happy party?" Yuwwe, repeated as well, but more in confusion than anything else.
"Yup, this is the happy party." Hytile shivered as he repeated the name again.
"That's a weird name for a birthday party..." Estin tried to express without being too judgmental.
For a moment, Hytile's face twisted in confusion, because he knows when Shry's birthday is.
"Hold up, this... This isn't a birthday party," Hytile corrected.
Both Yuwwe and Estin were shocked. This entire time, they thought it was a birthday party for Shry; they even bought presents for him.
"What..." Yuwwe muttered, expressing her confusion for both her and her older sister.
Finally realizing what was going on, Hytile gestured for the sisters to walk with him, promising to answer their questions as he walked with them while making sure everything for the party was in place.
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