My eyes snap open, still remembering the events before I fainted vividly. I was in a dimly lit room, no windows except for some sunlight filtering through a hole in the ceiling, and I could hear the faint noise of water running in the distance.

Is this a prison? Did I win? If I remember correctly Avery saved me at the end there. I flail my head around wildly trying to gain sense of the situation, because depending on the outcome I could be in very big trouble right now. My hand soon rubs against my face, brushing against something that felt very hard.

Oh... That's not good, I'm still wearing my mask aren't I?

I slowly get up with my hand on my mask. Damn, I need to take this off as soon as I can before the side effects become unbearable, but first I need to figure out where I am before I lose all my senses.

As I initially saw, the room was quite dark; however, it was also spacious at the same time. The room had a couple of crates, a long table, a panel full of tools, and there was that metal box I saw Shaz tinkering with. Other than that, it was mostly empty.

I look back at the light coming from the ceiling before making a realization. Am I underground right now? I look around for some sort of an entrance, a door... I quickly find the entrance, it was also where the sound of running water was coming from. I open the door and peak around, not that I could see anything. It was basically pitch black, although I could see the silhouette of someone carrying a lantern in the distance.

This is some sort of tunnel, or sewer judging from the water running next to the walkway. I squint my eyes and concentrate my Anku, trying to make out the details of the figure in the distance.

Oh, it's Avery, I could see as soon as she lifted the lantern, illuminating her face. I open the door fully and step out, surprising her in the process. I guess I need to ask her a couple of things.

"Hey, what's going on?" I say as I begin jogging towards her.

She reacts strangely, turning her head back as if looking for something. "Hey! Um- I, uh-" She begins stammering.

Is she shy as well? I guess this is our first time actually talking, but is she really having this much difficulty before we even start?

"A shy coward... Don't they need some sort of qualifications before getting transported over from tetsuland?" I murmur to myself.

"Looking for Shaz?" I immediately say to her as she looks around, I then catch up to her and come face to face; she immediately averts her gaze. "Come on, why would I do anything after I risked my life for you two? Don't be so tense."

"I'm not trying to, you're just a little..." Her voice trails off into a muffled word.

"A little what? I couldn't catch that last bit."

"You're un... predictable? I think?" She says reservedly.

"Hehe, thanks, that's what I'm going for." I try to break the ice with the friendly comment, but immediately, from her body language, I could tell that she shrunk back even more.

I sigh, this is going nowhere.

I then pause, it's the mask isn't it? I need it right now to function at a basic level, but to people unfamiliar with it... Actually, to everyone else, it might be a little intimidating.

"Hey, let me ask you an unpredictable question. If I collapsed right now vomiting blood, would you leave me here or help me out?"

"What?"

"A or B."

"Uhhh, B, I think."

"Alright, I'm counting on you then." I take off my mask and immediately fall to my right due to extreme vertigo.

I lie down embarrassingly as Avery squeezes my clothes dry.

"Can you uhh, not just use your Tetsu to remove all the water?" I ask her. “Also move in a little closer, or else I won’t be able to hear what you’re saying.”

"I can only manipulate water that comes from my hands, sooo sorry." Avery says sheepishly as she scoots a bit closer.

I fell head first into sewer water, Avery had to quickly fish me out before I drowned leaving us in this situation.

"Then how the hell did that rock kid do all of that." I murmur to myself, however Avery overhears.

"Oh no, it's possible to manipulate natural stuff, but I don't know how to do it... Sorry." She admits.

"It's fine, it was my fault anyways, sorry if I gave you the wrong impre- Belghhhhhh" I dry heave into a bucket laying to my side.

"Are you... Okay? Do you need some water?"

"The longer I leave my mask on, the worse I feel when I take it off. It also takes some time to recover, also yea, I'm parched."

Avery hesitates for a couple of seconds. "Alright, close your eyes and open your mouth, I'm going to do something."

“Something like?"

"You know... Like a massage with water... Actually it's nothing like a massage. It’s formally called a Flimi... In any case, it'll help you relax. Don't worry, I'm pretty good at doing this. I've given them to my parents and siblings and… Every day since I was a kid." She lets out a sigh after saying those last words.

There were definitely some emotions behind that sigh, but...

"Sounds interesting, I'm all yours." I close my eyes and open my mouth wide, deciding to not get too personal with her.

"Alright... Just relax and let yourself go..." I take my first breath, only to sputter as I choke on a giant gulp of water. I instantly panic and reach for my mask.

"Just relax! Just relax! I'm not trying to hurt you! It'll just be like breathing air, but underwater, which... might sound weird to you but just trust me." Avery tries to soothe me.

"Just breath the water, come on, say it with me." Despite her timidness, Avery was oddly in control here, a lot more in her element.

"Just breath in the water." I repeat after her. "Sorry about that, I've just been a little on edge after a bunch of random women tried to kill me." Most of them were females actually, except for Rudeus and Tetsu boy and Shaz… Actually I’ve been pretty much fighting everyone I meet.

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"No, no, I totally under... stand?" Avery says confused.

"It's a long story."

"Ah." And she leaves it at that.

I close my eyes and open my mouth once more.

"Alright, when the time comes, exhale deeply, and breath it all in, you won't choke, you won't drown, none of that. I guess I should have warned you about this beforehand."

I exhale, once more, noticing as the sensation of being underwater returns. My natural instincts were fighting against me, telling me not to breathe in, but meh, if she wanted to kill me she could have done it ages ago.

I crush my instincts underneath my foot and breath in deeply, feeling as water floods into my mouth and nose... And then I breath out, and then in...

My body begins to fall apart, it was like dropping salt into a glass of water, dissolving, turning into the formless shape of water.

All stress, all headaches, all nausea, all my sensation in general simply disappears, as if I was a piece of nothingness, suspended in an endless ocean.

"I'm not dead are I?" I open my eyes, curious as to what she was doing. She was holding her hand to my face, a strange liquid coming out of her hands, it was like water, it flowed like water, but it was almost completely white, reflecting light like it was a liquid mirror.

"You are not dead, don't worry." Avery chuckles at my comment. "It's liquid air, normally when something other than air goes down your windpipe you choke, but this water has almost the exact same composition of air, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon, just in liquid form. Even though normally the air has to get to negative 200 degrees to turn into a liquid naturally."

"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about even a little bit, I never went to school."

"Oh, I thought you would know those things, you know, being a time traveler and all."

"Already have the nerve to make fun of me huh?" I let out some playful banter, seeing how much more comfortable she has gotten with me.

"Oh no! It wasn't on purpose, I'm so sorry if that came off rude!" I purse my lips, half-expecting this response.

"I wasn't annoyed before, but now I'm a little bit annoyed that you think my skin is that thin. Stop apologizing for the most mundane of things, it makes me feel like an asshole."

"I'm sorry— Ah?" Avery's brain shuts down as her natural response is denied.

"In fact, say something really mean to me right now."

"What?"

"I know you can do it, don't be shy."

"... Huh?"

"There are so many insults in this world, just choose one of them. I know I'm being annoying, let out your darkest thoughts."

"...Uhhh."

At that moment Shaz walks through the door. "You have got to be the worst person I've met in my entire life." He immediately says as soon as he sees Avery hunched over me all flustered.

"Yea, something like what he said."

"I-Idiot!" Avery breathlessly shouts with absolutely no backbone.

I snort. "Wohoo! That's the spirit!" I gleefully cheer to an embarrassed Avery.

...

"What the hell are you two doing?"

"So this is the new base?" I ask while munching down on a stick of a mysterious dried meat. The three of us were sitting together in a circle, eating our lunches… Or dinners, I wasn't too sure of the time.

"Yep, we're still bringing supplies back from the city but this is where we two are going to stay from now on. At least until this Kekta machine is completed." Shaz nods at the box sitting in the corner.

Kekta... Kekta... Kekta... Where have I heard that word before? I keep thinking until I remember a certain sandwich incident...

"What does the machine do?" I then ask.

"It creates a portable Kekta. Surrounding us in a sort of barrier, which blocks all Tetsu energies and Anku infused objects from coming in."

"So you two are trying to cross the rift right? Over to the land of the Tetsudo?" I immediately entertain a shaky conclusion. I remembered Serim mentioning that there was some sort of Kekta that he had to remove from The Eye before the storms could run it over, and I really couldn’t think of any other use for it.

“Wha- Say, if you were wrong, how would you react?" Shaz says after losing his composure for a split second. Looks like I was right.

"Looks like we’ll never know judging off that reaction.” I say in response, I was once more proud of myself for that original lucky guess and a clever response. Take that smartass!

"Well, I won't deny it then, that's exactly our end-goal."

"It isn't just a bunch of wind you know. I saw it with my very own eyes, fiery volcanic zones ripped straight out of hell, transitioning seamlessly into blizzards that appear to form a solid wall of ice and snow into the sky, hurricanes and flooding that makes the ocean look like a small pond, you're telling me that tiny box is going to stop it all?"

"Well, you aren't going to be traveling there with us are you? And that's why I have to spend so much time on this box, I have to make it absolutely perfect." Shaz clenches his fist. "From the ancient texts I've read, the rift is a amalgamation of both Tetsu and Anku, both energies feeding off and benefiting each other, naturally forming various Tetsu effects that no Tetsudo could possibly replicate."

I pop the rest of the jerky into my mouth and rest my head on my arms. "How does it work?" I ask curiously.

"It's simple, most Tetsu usage involve manipulating your body's energy to jerk around, flow and ebb, move rigidly, it's a lot of different things for a lot of different techniques. It's very mentally exhausting to track and keep up, which would make it impossible to use for an extended period of time. So, as you probably know, blood can carry Anku and apply it to objects, but it can similarly carry Tetsu." Shaz opens up a panel on the side of the box, revealing a hive of tubes and various other hollowed out shapes. "If I can manipulate the flow of liquid, I can manipulate the flow of blood, and therefore the flow of Tetsu, no mental strength needed."

I nod my head then frown. "Didn't you say you could block Anku infused objects too? Is this not just pure Tetsu?"

"Well... Yea, if we're to get through the storm we need both Anku and Tetsu infusions within the box... Which is why you saw us at the library. I didn't know there was a way to do that until a couple months ago either."

Man, if I knew how to do that... Fighting someone like Toena would have been a walk in the park with all her blades.

"Alright, I'll help you figure that out then." I say.

"I didn't ask."

"I don't care, this is in my self interest, plus, I know someone that might know more about the subject, I was there when a kid took down the Kekta in The Eye."

"Really? Who was it?" Shaz asks.

"The kid's name was Serim."

Avery immediately chokes on her jerky, coughing up a storm until she brings her finger up to her mouth, gushing down a stream of water, washing the meat down into her stomach. Shaz tries to help her, but she waves him off.

"It's nothing. It’s nothing. I just… Didn’t expect his name to be brought up again.” Avery then gets up. "I'm going to fish around the lake for more supplies." She says. "We're still missing quite a few items on the checklist." She then takes out a lamp and exits into the sewer.

I look at Shaz questioningly.

"I told her to flood all the stuff in the old base all into the lake. This way, they can't get their hands on my inventions." Shaz leans back on his hands and says.

"And about our promise?" I ask.

"Three weeks. I believe a trip to him costs ten doons in total, give me three weeks to scrap together the money. It'll be faster if I can get the base put back together quickly.” Shaz then sighs. “So, if you would like to help us rebuild, I would not be against the idea.” He asks for help in the most roundabout way possible.

“I don’t know… I kinda want to sit in this little hideout all day, it’s pretty comfy.” I couldn’t resist acting like an ass.

“Alright, hope you’re comfy in here for the next month.”

“I’ll help, I’ll help.” I smile and extend my hand out for a handshake.

Shaz looks at me bewilderedly.

“What are you doing?”

“A handshake?”

“What the hell is that?”

“You don’t have handshakes around here? I thought it was a universal gesture of agreement?”

“Just kidding! I know what a handshake is you dumbass! Ahahah!” Shaz chuckles like an idiot before reaching out to shake my hand. A small prank to get back at me earlier.

“Very funny!” I say sarcastically.

…

It was kinda clever.