A Path Unobserved

Rumia hated having a guard follow her around.

It felt like she wasn’t allowed to do anything. There was absolutely no room to breathe, and she had been stuck in the same mundane routine for a while. The worst thing about all this was that she could not work on an escape route.

“Does he really need to be everywhere I go?”

Rumia quietly said to Anise, while waiting for her next experiment in the lab. Grimace was currently standing at the door, watching over the two of them.

“I don’t know,” Anise responded. “Officially, he’s in charge of me too. So, I guess that makes him in charge of both of us.”

Anise paused for a moment, before smiling a little bit.

“But since you’re my test subject, I guess that makes me in charge of you!”

“Ugh,” Rumia rolled her eyes. Anise began to attach Rumia to the machine, and Rumia prepared for her daily dose of electricity through her body.

It hurt, and it sucked as usual. But she had gotten used to it by this point. The tingling sensation in her insides became familiar to her as Anise’s machine searched her internal energy, whatever that meant.

The second that she was done, Rumia took off the wires and sat down on the side. She always needed a bit of time to cool off. She also needed a plan, now. The first thing that came to her mind, involved taking a hit to her sleep schedule.

There wasn’t a sun in this world, which made tracking the day and night cycles pretty difficult. However, she could tell that Grimace roughly had what would be considered a normal daily routine in this world, and that included sleep.

The world was set to a “common time” in that sense, and luckily Grimace followed that pretty closely. If there was one thing she noticed as well, is that Grimace had been pushing them to sleep relatively earlier as well.

She didn’t know why, but that was theoretically a bigger window where he was absent. A window where Rumia would be totally unsupervised.

So, she would sneak out at night. But, there was a second problem.

Anise very loosely followed common time as well, but she was definitely stretching it. She could stay up very late if something interested her, and so she might notice any sneaking out.

Though, they have hung out together a few times. Maybe if she just talked to her, Anise wouldn’t mind all too much.

“It’s closing in on bedtime,” Grimace said, interrupting them.

“Huh? The results aren’t done processing yet,” Anise said.

“I can get them tomorrow. For now, I think it’s time we return to your rooms until tomorrow,” Grimace responded.

“Alright, then,” Anise said.

That was the suspicion she had. This was quite early compared to their usual bedtime, yet Grimace was pushing for them to return to their rooms. Curfew was closing in, but normally Grimace would let them wait until he had to make them go to bed. Perhaps he had something he wanted to do?

Regardless, Rumia raised no objections. She allowed the guard to escort the pair back to their room.

“Be sure to be awake for classes tomorrow,” Grimace said as they entered.

“Yeah, we will,” Rumia said, before the door was shut behind her. The school did have a curfew, so sneaking out would be a bit of an issue, especially if she spent a lot of her time poking around.

She made sure that Grimace was gone, first off, before looking around her surroundings. That included Anise, who was busy tinkering with something.

“Uh, Anise? I wanna head out,” Rumia walked up to her.

“Huh?” Anise seemed a little confused. “Curfew’s soon, but alright.”

“Really? No pushback?”

“Why would I have any pushback?” Anise said. “I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong to me specifically, yet. Just, don’t get me in trouble, okay?”

That was easier than she expected.

“Though obviously, it’s difficult for you to get out of the school. PASCAL doesn’t sleep after all,” Anise added.

“Does she see everything?” Rumia asked.

“If you just walked out the door, probably. For privacy’s sake though, she can’t hear us inside our rooms unless we specifically call her.”

“So, what then?”

“I dunno. You’re the one that wants to sneak out. I’d expect you to have a plan for it.”

That was a fair point, though it’s frustrating that it wasn’t that easy.

“How connected is PASCAL to the outside?” Rumia asked.

“To the walkways, though it wasn’t as complete,” she said. “The grass should be fair game, I think.”

“Well,” Rumia thought for a moment, before walking to the window, holding the cloak that she bought from the marketplace in her hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Wait, wait. You’re not seriously considering jumping out the window, are you?” Anise asked.

“Why not?” Rumia said, opening it.

“Because look down-!”

Rumia turned to the window and looked down. She forgot she was on the fourth floor. That was a massive drop.

“Uh…”

“Yeah,” Anise said.

“Do you have anything that could be used as a rope?”

“I’m not tying up my bedsheets for this, I just made them,” Anise responded.

“...Any inventions…?” Rumia continued to prod.

“No. If I had one, I’d give you it,” Anise crossed her arms.

This was the first major hurdle in Rumia’s plan. She thought that this would be far less of a problem if she were Adelyn. That girl’s proficiency in telekinesis magic would have made floating down so much easier.

Herself, on the other hand, never managed to learn magic that well. She could have tried, but she was more focused on making Adelyn happy. She really wished she hadn’t brushed it off now, though.

“I’m going to scale down, then.”

“Are you crazy?” Anise objected. “Unless you’re a professional climber then you’re going to fall and break every bone in your body!”

“Well, do you have anything that can help me then?” Rumia said back. “Even besides an invention?”

“...ugh,” Anise seemed to pause to think for a moment. “If you really need my genius help that badly…”

The girl walked to the closet and pulled out a box of gizmos. She began ruffling through them one by one, shaking her head at a few, before finally pulling out one.

“Oh! I completely forgot I made this,” Anise said, pulling out a small gun-like object. “Maybe this will do something.”

“What’s that?” Rumia asked.

“First iteration of the tooth brusher, I think. The problem with this is that I tried to make custom toothpaste as well,” Anise explained. “I… I don’t know how to make toothpaste.”

“...how does that help me?”

“Well,” Anise walked up to her, before grabbing her hand. She then pointed the machine at Rumia’s hand and a white paste came out.

“It’s sticky, as long as you don’t put too much pressure on it, you should be able to climb down.”

“Really?” Rumia responded. “Thank you very much!”

With her escape route planned, Rumia looked towards the window. Once she opened it, she stepped out and placed her hand on the wall. Then she placed her other hand, then her other. It was a very slow scale downwards.

It took longer than she liked. Rumia tried to not look down, though she glanced a few times. She held her breath, as she scaled downwards. One hand at a time. Every time she let go with one hand, she felt like she was about to fall.

But eventually, she touched the ground. She took a deep breath, and looked back up at Anise, who was looking down from the window.

“Don’t tell anyone!” Rumia said, before heading off onto the grass.

The cloak she was wearing managed to cover her natural glow a fair bit, though she had to be careful to not show her face. She was walking on the grass, so PASCAL probably wasn’t able to see her.

The issue was, how did she get out of the school. The main entrance point required walking on a pathway, so it was likely observed by PASCAL. So, she needed a different way to escape.

The front garden itself was very beautiful. Shimmering flowers glowed in the night sky, and little critters ran about around them. She wondered if those little animals had the answer she was looking for, but as of now, not much.

However, there was something glowing at the very center of the garden. A pond. It didn’t look natural, but it glowed extraordinarily. It being artificial might mean that it’s a way out of here, though.

The water has to come in from somewhere, right? There was no way they kept the same water all the time, after all. There was a small river leading towards the pond, and that seemed to be her best bet.

She walked along the riverside, against the current. Luckily, it did not seem to intersect with a path by any means. It was quite the trek though, going around the massive garden that the school had.

By the end, she eventually found something. A rather large pipe that was flowing water into the river. It seemed to be blocked off with a chain-link door, though. Rumia tugged on it a few times, but unfortunately it did not budge.

That was frustrating. She needed a way to get this open, but not damage it permanently. There was a lock on the door, but no key anywhere. There had to be a way to circumvent it, there was no way she came this far just to faceplant at the first obstacle.

Theoretically, if she could open one of the links to make a wide enough hole, she might have been able to squeeze her arm through and unlock it on the other side. Her arms were pretty thin, after all. But even still, it was just a little bit too small.

That did not stop Rumia from trying though, so she pushed her arm through one of the fence holes and began attempting to reach for the lock. The fit was really tight, but she managed to get her arm through.

Pushing it through, she turned her arms and reached for the lock. After a little bit of uncomfortable fiddling, she heard a click sound. The door was unlocked, and opened.

“Got it,” Rumia said, in relief. Now, all she needed to do was pull her hand out of the door.

So she pulled.

Then she pulled again.

Then she pulled again another time.

This was not working.

She tried pulling again even harder, but her hand just would not come out.

“Eh…?”

Rumia looked at her hand stuck in the gate confused for a moment. The door was open, but she could not leave for as long as her hand was stuck. She kept on pulling and pulling, but it just was not coming out at all.

“Uh… come on now. You can do it.”

This cycle repeated for a while, and Rumia was starting to get worried. The worst thoughts came to her mind immediately. What if she was stuck here until curfew was over? What kind of punishment would she get for sneaking out and trespassing in places she was not supposed to go? How was she supposed to meet up with Adelyn in any timely manner?

The thoughts spiraled in her mind, as she kept on pulling on the arm that was stuck in the gate. Until…

“Are ya like, okay?”

A voice came from the other side of the open gate, with a confused tone. It was a girl, probably three to four years older than Rumia herself. Her clothes were very ragged as if she had not changed them in a long time, with a brown shirt and short skirt. She also had a bandana wrapped around her neck.

“Eek-!” Rumia immediately jumped away, the door swinging alongside her. “Don’t tell!”

“I won’t,” the girl reassured her. “Do ya need like, a lil’ bit of help?”

“...yeah,” Rumia said, defeated.

With a little nod, the girl walked over to the metal fence and pushed the link with her finger, widening the gap. That allowed Rumia to easily slip her hand out of it. After she did so, the girl bent the metal link back in place, probably from some kind of magic.

“Thank you…”

“It’s no problem,” the pipe girl responded. “Though, what are ya doin’ around this time? Ain’t it curfew?”

“I…I could ask you the same thing,” Rumia responded.

“Well, I don’t go to this school, so I don’t really have a reason to have a curfew. I just heard ya struggling so I was wonderin’ what was up.”

“Was I that loud…?”

“Yeah.”

Rumia was now doubly embarrassed. Her little moment almost cost her the entire mission.

“Regardless, I jus’ live in these pipes. It’s better than the streets if ya know how to make do,” the girl said.

“O…ohhh,” Rumia responded. “I was… looking to sneak out, I guess.”

“Ah, well, I suppose you picked the right place then. One of the rare places that the damn robot ain’t connected to,” the girl responded.

“Really?”

“Yeah. You can travel across the whole town from these sewers. This part is an automatic filter, so it’s easy to get clean water from here. Obviously there’s some dangers but ya just need to be ready.”

That part was fantastic news for Rumia. A way to travel around without having to be watched, it was good to keep in mind.

“If you don’t mind… can you show me around?” Rumia asked, hoping the girl would be helpful.

“Sure, I ain’t mind,” the girl said. “I don’t get a ton of visitors.”

This may have been her lucky break. Some real, tangible progress on a way out of the city. She might be able to meet back with Adelyn in no time.

“What’s your name, also?”

“Ah, my full name is Amethyst Rose. Though, I like to be called Amy,” she smiled. “And yours?”

“Rumia,” she said, taking off her hood.

“Wait a minute,” Amethyst looked at her. “Damn, are you that glowing girl I’ve been hearing around about?”

“What, am I that known?”

“Considering your entrance, I’d say yeah. It got brushed off eventually, but there are still rumors. You’ve gotta tell me about your situation, I’ve been curious.”

“Well… alright then,” Rumia said, stepping into the pipe. This may be the start of something new.