By the time Yuriko and Elsie finished their errands, it was well into the afternoon. Elsie led her to a building in the Shopping District where they could deposit the bag of bones. It was near the central restricted area and was clearly labelled: Acquisitions.
From there, Elsie asked Yuriko to input her bank account number through a REI-space link with her watch and then dumped the entire baggie into a funnel. Yuriko received a notification for a deposit as well as a tracking receipt. She opened the second one. It read: Fresh Scourge Skeleton, 48 Jin, 49,328.00 AC.
They deposited the second one and the notification read in a similar vein, except that the weight was different and the ACs were more than a bit lower.
“It took too long to scavenge,” Elsie shrugged. “Do you intend to do this regularly?”
“It’s a good source of funds.” Yuriko nodded.
“I guess you only see it that way, huh,” Elsie muttered as she shook her head. Yuriko felt a spike of fear within the other woman, but also anticipation. She seemed genuine in her wants, and as long as she played true, Yuriko didn’t mind helping her. But she needed to know what the common practices of Mystics were. They may not be Ancients, after all.
More importantly, she should ask what the results of Gwendith’s search were. The Conclave of Authority, according to the Ancients her lovers encountered, should have been informed of the two’s existence. Gwendith said that she and Heron had mentioned Yuriko’s existence, too, though they had not named her. Either way, it wasn’t as if she were capable of hiding her true nature away.
It was easy for Heron and Gwendith since their reach was still below a hundred paces. Far below it based on the last time she checked them. She was coming close to three hundred paces, and fitting it all inside her body wasn’t easy. She always had her protections up, and most of her reach was actually occupied with restricting her body. Not all the time, however, since she needed to get used to her bodily strength. It wouldn’t do to be so clumsy.
Her training regimen included training with the restrictions off, followed by when she boosted her body completely. A single mistake would probably destroy everything around her, so it was an exercise in absolute control. The full awakening of her Mien had made that bit trivially easy, however, and all she needed to do was be mindful, and let loose once in a while, so she didn’t forget the feeling.
That said, if she grew absent-minded, the Radiant energy within every particle of her would shine through her skin, especially if she was full of it. As it were, she constantly drew excess Radiant energy from her body and stuffed it into her Essence Core. The second stage of Ennoia, Colligia, involved penetrating the Animus Core with Radiant and infusing it completely with it. That wasn’t to say that she’d run out of unaspected Animus. She still had her reserves in her outer Anima, which she’d incorporated into her Anima Armour. It served well in blunting incoming attacks, and should they burst, her Anima armour absorbed it and used it to rebuild the fissures. Plus, it wasn’t that difficult to turn Radiant energy into Animus, but ironically, that was easier than denaturing already aspected lumens.
Radiant Animus had the advantage of allowing her techniques to come into being with her Colligia already supporting it. It was why her sunblades didn’t take as much time to conjure as before, aside from the sheer amount of practice she used. She also always had Adamant Guardian Seal ready within her body and Anima, totalling five activations ready now. Using Radiant-flavoured Animus to cast the technique gave the same flavour to her ultimate defence In other words, it not only stopped powerful attacks but burst out Radiant energy into the attack too. Anyone fighting her in melee when she used that would regret it in the short amount of time they had left to live, ehehe.
All that being said, anyone who looked at her with any kind of Chaos Sight, Elemental Sight, or even just Enhanced Senses would probably notice the motes of Radiant energy and the condensed aura she always had around her. Retracting everything under her skin would force her to abandon her outer reserves, and that could not be done without fanfare, not here anyway. An excess of thousands of lumens of Animus vented into her surroundings would be bright, to say the very least. Animus was basically refined Chaos for human usage, and it contained the endless possibilities of that particular flavour. The vented lumens wouldn’t just become ambient Chaos, it might also become ambient Elemental energies, or actual manifestations that could be construed as spells. And if anyone without an Animus core was nearby when she did so, there was a chance of Chaos poisoning, though that was a low possibility. Yuriko figured it could be a way to acclimate people to Chaos too.
So, yup, she was too obvious to hide her nature, but thankfully, her Mien actually overshadowed that obviousness. Anyone who looked at her would focus first on her looks before thinking to check whatever power she held if they ever even thought of it.
All this she realised in the few days after her Mien matured, and the fact that most people practically shouted their emotions and lust at her, though the threads. She wondered if every Mishala experienced the same. Their Miens were probably more developed than hers. It answered quite a few questions she had, one of which was why they didn’t mind their scions having sexual relations in their teens.
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Elsie brought her to the area in the Shopping District that catered to furniture after getting rid of the bones. She also pointed out a vending machine, those metal cabinets that sold her food yesterday, that also provided Flensers and Scourge baggies. They weren’t too expensive, and she got an extra vial of Flenser for a hundred ACs, and a dozen baggies for the same price. Those things could only be used for transporting bones anyway, and nothing else would enter it.
‘Should study the things later,’ Yuriko decided.
Yuriko didn’t have any particular taste in furniture, and Gwendith had only tasked her with getting beds, a larger one for her apartment since it was unlikely that she’d be sleeping alone, and was as like to have Heron and Gwendith beside her at night, and four single beds. She went to the first one they came across and bought the bed frames for about half what she earned from the Scourge today. Then she had to go buy mattresses too. A dining table would be necessary, so she contacted Gwendith through the threads.
‘I’m thinking of knocking down the walls between the apartments so we can share living space.’ Gwendith sent back. ‘Just get a dining table big enough for all six of us and six chairs. We’ll shop for other stuff later.’
‘Alright.’
That errand was easily accomplished and now they were another fifty thousand ACs down. The beds and dining table would be delivered within the day, and since they finished just past the lunch hour, they decided they might as well have it in the food court. It was a square on the opposite side of the lift lobby they came up on, and the centre had several rows of long tables and benches. There were food stalls and vending machines around the edges. Yuriko followed her nose to one of the stalls where a man wearing a white apron was cooking.
There was a vertical bar on one end with several slabs of what looked like beef skewered on it. A heater was on one side and the skewer slowly rotated, roasting the slices of meat. The chef carved one side of the meat skewer, making thin slices that resulted in small chunks of meat. He then scooped it up with a pair of metal tongs, placed it on a circular flatbread, added some other colourful stuff, drizzled it with an aromatic white sauce, then wrapped the entire thing into a cone, and plopped it into a paper holder. It was handed over to a hungry customer who moaned in delight once it crossed her lips. The sign on the side had a list of prices, and the cheapest one was at 5 ACs. The double XL portion was priced at ten.
Yuriko’s tummy growled in desire, so she went in line. It was actually a bit long, seven customers deep, so it was a bit of a wait.
“Hey, a bit of celebration, eh?” Elsie chuckled.
“Smells good. Should be better than XXL Burritos.”
“You ate those? Cheap and filling but tastes like rat crap,” Elsie commented.
“How do you know what rat droppings taste like?” Yuriko asked curiously, and the chrone-eyed woman blushed.
“It’s just an expression,” she muttered, “But rat meat is a bit stringy and gamey. I’m not quite sure if it's better than the force-grown meat Bio-core churns out.”
“Force-grown?”
“I’ll forward a file,” Elsie said dryly. A moment later, Yuriko’s Autotab pinged with a notification. She noted with some interest that the REI-space connection that came from the side of Elsie’s neck didn’t go directly to Yuriko’s device but went up towards the ceiling. She received a similar thread from the same source, but it had some minor differences in texture and colour.
Yuriko read the file while they waited, and after she finished reading the article, she hummed in deep thought. Dragon Fall City had several hundred million people living in it, and probably an equal number going through it. The land wasn’t enough to grow enough food, either grains or livestock, to feed everyone, so some corporations forcefully grew and replicated meat and grains. The methods were varied, according to the article. Some were just bred to grow fast, other methods called for applied, proprietary technology, and some used Arcana Weaving to accelerate time. The latter was rare, she gathered, since only one corporation in hundreds used time acceleration. It rather reminded her of her fight with that elusive clone, when his movements suddenly sped up. Hmmm.
By the time Yuriko got her meal, she was somewhat reluctant to partake. But hey, it couldn’t be worse than ration bars. Those literally were made from whatever was handy and controlled Chaos. Speaking of, that ration bar fabricator would have been really useful now.
Her hesitation faded once she took an actual bite. The white sauce on the force-grown meat was incredible, and she couldn’t help but moan in delight as the flavour exploded on her tongue. Much better than XXL Burritos.
Elsie had a smirk on her face as they ascended the lifts back to the 152nd floor, though her expression was neutral when they reached apartment 1023. The door was ajar and the deliveries had already been made. The walls on either side of the living room had been opened and smoothened out. Gwendith was also handy with the Move Earth and Shape Stone spells.
“Yuri! Your new clothes are here. Ah, we need a wardrobe, too,” Gwendith muttered as she came out of the bedroom. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Hello,” Elsie said. Gwendith’s eyes shifted from the dark-haired woman to Yuriko.
“Picked up a stray?”
“She’s part of an organisation,” Yuriko said. “A hometown gang, according to her. The Fang Eyed. She also helped me with some things.”
“The seventy thousand AC deposit?” Gwendith asked. “Scourge bones, according to the receipt.”
“Yeah, we made a deal,” Yuriko said. “Tutelage on Anima awakening in exchange for inside information on how things work here. Things that aren’t mentioned in the guide.”
“Hmmm, a worthwhile exchange,” Gwendith said. “So what now?”
“Well, I think I’d like to visit one of the local places where they try to awaken Anima,” Yuriko said. “You know a place, right?”
Elsie nodded slowly. “I do. But the good ones aren’t easy to get to for me, and the…regular ones aren’t too reliable.”
“That’s fine. Where’s the one that’s easier to get to?” Yuriko asked.
“In Junktown. At the bottom of the towers.”
Yuriko raised her brow. “Right where the Scourge come from?”
Elsie nodded reluctantly. “Yeah.”
“Should be interesting. Wanna come with?” Yuriko asked Gwendith.
“You’re leaving now? I have to stay and wait for the deliveries!”
“Oh well.” Yuriko shrugged as Gwendith pouted. “Let’s go.” Yuriko said, but not before she dropped off the purchased guns.
“Take Fluffy with you!”