A Warning For the Future

Rumia woke up in the moonlit morning. She had to be up early for classes, though she was dead tired due to what she did yesterday.

She had spent a while in those sewers, and climbing back up was a pain. Luckily, Anise was brainstorming throughout the night so she had a lifeline to get back in. She still didn’t get a lot of sleep though.

“Morning!” Anise said. She was far more functional than Rumia was at this hour, despite staying up later than her. Rumia still may not be used to the lack of sun here.

“Have you slept?”

“Well, I did a bit, I was just thinking of some new inventions in the meantime. I’m gonna need to go to my lab to get the printed report of yesterday’s results.”

“Alright,” Rumia said, getting out of bed. “I’ll see you in class, then?”

“Sure!”

With that, Anise ran off. Afterwards, Rumia did a relatively simple morning routine. Some hygiene, some cleaning, before finally going outside herself. She had a few things she wanted to do today.

“Morning,” a voice came behind her as she stepped out of the room. Rumia frowned, she forgot for a moment that Grimace was still watching over her.

“Do you have anything else to do with your day?” Rumia complained.

“Depends on the day,” Grimace said. “Yuzu has been doing a lot of work for me, so my days have been more free.”

“Who’s Yuzu?”

“The executioner of Oscur.”

That was an ominous title. Rumia was simply not going to think about what that entailed. She had to go to classes in the meantime, and think of a way to shake Grimace off of her for now.

***

Rumia, for all her time here, has never paid much attention to her classes. She saw very little point in them if she was going to be escaping this city to never return. It wasn’t that she disliked learning, Adelyn taught her so much back home after all. It was just that sitting in class made her feel inactive. It was an awful feeling.

She turned to Anise, who was sitting next to her and taking notes.

“Hey, are there any fighting classes?” Rumia asked.

“Huh?” Anise turned to her. “Ah, well. They’re more electives, but there are magical arts and physical arts. Speaking of which, despite you having a lot of energy in your body and literally glowing, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you use magic once.”

“Oh, yeah. I never learned how to properly use magic myself. That was always Adelyn’s thing,” Rumia explained. “She was also much more magically capable than me.”

“I’m surprised, cause as said, you have a weird amount of energy inside of you,” Anise responded. “But I’m not really a magic person myself.”

“Maybe I’ll try one of the physical classes then,” Rumia said. “It’s at least something.”

“Good luck. I don’t really have a guide for you on those,” Anise said.

It would be helpful to practice a way to fight.

“Are you doing anything after class, also?” Rumia asked.

“Me?” Anise said. “Not in particular.”

“Do you wanna go shopping, then?”

“Huh?” Anise seemed to freeze upon being asked that for a second. Rumia didn’t exactly understand. It was a fairly normal request, but she waited for her to properly respond.

“Yes! I’d love to!” Anise said, a bit loudly.

“Shh-” the entire classroom shushed her. There was still a class going on after all.

“Ah… my bad,” Anise quieted down. “I’d love to go with you. What shop?”

“I’d like to get some new clothes, and maybe some new equipment too. Do you have any store recommendations?”

“Oh, I have a few in mind. I can show you after class!”

“Thanks.”

At the very least, the day was going according to Rumia's plan so far.

***

The marketplace at this time was always busy. People were just finishing school and were looking to enjoy themselves a little. The crowd here was big enough that Rumia was hoping that she could lose Grimace in the crowd. She missed having time to herself.

Unfortunately for her, the judge was quite good at trailing her. The fact that she glowed didn’t help very much either. She stuck out like a sore thumb even in a crowd of people. Regardless, she was letting Anise lead her to one of her favorite stores.

After quite a bit of walking, the trio finally reached a quaint little store on the edge of the marketplace. The doorway was embedded into a large gear, and a glowing sign stated ‘Prillya’s Parts and Services’.

“This place is my favorite!” Anise said as they entered. “They have everything here, big and small. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper than you’d expect while the parts themselves are still great!”

“So, is this where the scholarship money we’ve been giving you has been going?” Grimace said. Upon stepping inside, the entire building was filled wall to wall with metal gizmos. Gears, fasteners, screws, and whatnot. In the middle, more complicated machines were at the spotlight. The skeletons of each were exposed to reveal their complicated inner workings. It smelled of oil and metal. A loud clanking sound could be heard in the background.

The clanking sound soon stopped and a girl, around their age, came out from around the shop.

“Oh, Anise! Good to see you again.”

“Hey, Prilya. I brought some friends with me today!”

“Cool! It’s nice to see that you’re-” Prilya began to say, before looking exactly at the company that Anise brought. A strange glowing girl, and the Judge of Oscur. Her voice began to drift off.

“Uh, are you okay?” Anise asked.

“ANISE! AREN’T THESE PEOPLE CRAZY IMPORTANT?” Prilya began shouting and shaking the engineer.

“Ah-! I mean, yeah I guess. They were just with me, Rumia asked to come along and Grimace followed her-”

“Oh my god. Mom would want me to take advantage of this. PASCAL-!” Prilya shouted before a blue light formed and appeared in front of them in the shop.

“How can I help you, Prilya?”

“Take a picture of these two endorsing our projects, now!”

“Do you have their permission?”

“Ah,” Rumia raised her hands a bit. “I’m good. I don’t need more publicity than I already have.”

She didn’t want to get too intertwined with the economy of this city, especially when he was trying to escape.

“I’m not photogenic,” Grimace said. Rumia could believe that as well, he always looked so grumpy and scowling all the time, it would probably reflect badly in a photo.

“Aw…” Prilya said, calling off PASCAL. She seemed disappointed at the missed opportunity.

“It’s fine. You still have me as a customer!” Anise said with a smile.

“Yeah, I guess,” Prilya said, still a little bit dejected. “You can go and buy whatever you want. I’ll be at the counter.”

The girl slumped behind the countertop. Meanwhile, Anise went to the fasteners section to pick up some bolts for her project. That left Rumia alone with Grimace to contemplate what she wanted to buy.

Rumia began to walk around the shop. Parts and gizmos weren’t too useful to her specifically, but she was checking to see if something was.

The first thing she grabbed was a very long rope. It seemed like these were normally used for basic machines, but she wanted a different way of getting down from her room after curfew.

“What do you need that for?” Grimace asked.

“Hm? I’m helping Anise with some projects, is there anything wrong with that?”

“I suppose not. I was just curious.”

She was hoping that Grimace didn’t scrutinize her on every decision. Though, now that she thought about it, some tools would be useful. If she was going to be sneaking around the city then she might need to get access to vents.

With that, she picked up a screwdriver for herself. She also bought some other tools, like a hammer and some measuring tape to not look suspicious. Normally, she would like something that gave off light in the dark sewer tunnels, but she already glowed naturally so it didn’t really matter.

After that, the two of them walked back to Anise who had finished with a bag full of parts.

“This should be good for today,” Anise said. “Just for a few pet projects of mine.”

“Have you gotten anything for your main project?” Grimace asked.

“You mean Rumia?” Anise said. “I have a few things to make her more comfortable. Maybe some shock absorbers as well…”

“Anything to improve data collection?”

“Yeah. Instead of just measuring her energy, I want to see how her biology reacts as well. I’m no biologist but I think I can make something to check her heart rate too. Any abnormalities that need to be monitored.”

Rumia was probably going to have to get shocked later. Though the absorbers might mean that it wasn’t going to be as bad this time. It was still never fun.

“I think that’s all though,” Anise finished. “That’s everything I needed to buy in particular. What about you guys?”

“Just some tools. I wanted to get some new clothes after this,” Rumia said. “If that’s okay.”

“Oh! That would be nice. Actually, I’d like a dress for any special events at school. I haven’t gotten to that. There’s a clothing store down the street.”

“I was thinking of more practical everyday clothes, but you can do that too, sure,” Rumia nodded. “Lets get out of here then.”

The trio walked towards the still dejected Prilya, who was groaning at not being able to get the pictures of Rumia and Grimace.

“Three hundred and fifty lunar for all of your things,” Prilya said.

“I have to ask,” Rumia said to the girl. “You seem pretty young, yet the store’s named after you?”

“Oh, yeah! My mom named it after me when I was born. It’s a little bit embarrassing but, meh. I got used to it.”

“Where is your mom, anyways?” Anise asked. “Isn’t she usually out here-”

“Thank you for your support, Mr. Martyn,” a woman’s voice came from the back and then two people came out of the backdoor. One male and one female.

“Hey mom,” Prilya said.

“Hey sweetie. I was just making a deal with Mr. Martyn here,” her mom responded. Rumia vaguely recognized that name. She then looked towards the pair, and recognized the look. A figure she only ever saw through PASCAL’s display.

The man had a stylish black suit and a smile. He stood as the tallest person in the room, holding a cane in his left hand. However, he didn’t necessarily look that old. His hair was combed to perfection and a completely upright posture.

“Jaelin,” Grimace said.

“Grimace, my boy! Didn’t expect to run into you here. I was just making a few deals for the economy. You know how tough the lockdown is, ahaha. The government has to do their best!” the man responded.

“Oh, isn’t that the Judge of Oscur? Sweetie, did you get a picture?” Prilya’s mom asked. Prilya responded negatively, with a resounding sigh.

“Well, regardless,” Jaelin said. “How have you been holding up, my dear boy? We haven’t been keeping in touch for a while.”

“It’s fine. My schedule has increasingly revolved around these two. Has Rebecca already delegated my work to somewhere else?”

“Give or take, you know. You were always the best man for the job, but perhaps the ‘best man’ should be used on more important tasks!”

“Like keeping an eye on a girl all the time?” Rumia complained, interrupting their conversation.

“Why, yes! Wouldn’t you appreciate the safety, my glowing darling!” Jaelin said, nudging her with the cane.

“I’d appreciate some alone time,” Rumia shot back.

“Regardless, Grimace. Some lucky news for you while you’re here. Rebecca has decided you could do with some fresh air. So once Yuzu comes back she’ll temporarily take your place! You’ll be heading to Lune, I’ve heard.”

“Really now? First break I get away from this city and it’s to deal with them?” Grimace responded. “I appreciate the concern, at least.”

“Woah woah. Yuzu? Didn’t Grimace say that was like, an executioner lady?” Rumia said.

“Yes. That is her title,” Jaelin said.

“She’s not scary is she?” Rumia asked. She didn’t like having a guard around at all. However, she could at least recognize that Grimace was far more lenient than he probably should be. If she got someone worse, then her life could get a whole lot harder.

“You’ll see,” Jaelin said. “Thank you for the talk, Grimace. Perhaps I will see you another time.”

The suited man walked away, leaving the trio with some information to contemplate about. Anise took all of their purchases and looked at them.

“Well,” Anise said. “Isn’t it time we go clothes shopping then?”