Book 3. Chapter 12.
“In the News.” Part 2
While Sakura turned on the TV and put on the news, Kalysto took out two slices of pizza and gave one to Tsuki.
Don’t worry, we’ll sneak into the tower that sprouted at the university and you’ll level up, then we can dig a little deeper into the seal.
The fairy champion took a bite of her slice of pizza, enjoying the taste and letting out a soft moan, but she felt Tsuki’s piercing gaze fixed on her.
It’s safe to eat it. She assured him, realizing a little late that she generally split the food in two and gave him half of it. The little guy sniffed the pizza in front of him before taking a tentative bite and Kalysto smiled at the sight of him getting excited about the food until she saw herself in a video along with the girls killing monsters on the seven o’clock news.
“What the hell? How come the video looks so good even though they were so far away? And who the fuck gave them permission to film us?” growled Kalysto, who didn’t even like to have her picture taken. In fact, only Alice, who had begged her for weeks to take a picture together, and Sakura, had a picture of her, though the latter had gotten her drunk first to get it.
“Is that really the only thing that worries you?” Sakura questioned after taking a bite of her hamburger.
“Did you know about this craziness?” Refuted, clearly observing Natasha’s face on the TV, even though the young girl was still a minor.
“Since last night. When my dad and older brother started calling me like crazy trying to contact me, my dad has even written me demanding that I come home,” she muttered sadly.
“I guess leaving the country doesn’t sound so bad right now,” she muttered, as they listened to several people being interviewed, some thankful for being saved, others were angry claiming that they should have arrived earlier and even helped with the disaster that happened two weeks ago in the City of Los Angeles. “Why do I suspect that my long-awaited peaceful vacation will not be as peaceful as I had planned?”
“Really? Because if you ask me, the fact that you closed a portal was amazing! Too bad it knocked you out for three days!” Sakura assured her, completely excited. “Oh, that and you helped me not only get a system and level up, but you saved a lot of people in just a few hours!”
“Thanks, but I don’t like having my face in the news. Nobody asked me for permission for that. I don’t even like having my picture taken!”
“Don’t worry! I doubt they will get your data so fast,” she commented just when the face of Jessica, Kalysto’s Spanish teacher and Sakura’s ex appeared on TV.
“Kalysto is one of my best students! And of course, I have worked with Professor Lee during the last years and she has always been very diligent with her work at the university...” Before she could finish the sentence, Sakura threw the hamburger she had been eating against the TV screen next to the Coke can, damaging the TV.
“Oh, shit!”
“You fucking traitor! You’re nothing but a fucking liar!” She shouted, angry at the sight of the woman’s face, whose pregnancy was already beginning to show.
“All right, that’s it! Katia, go take a bath! I will call your father to see if I can take you with him today. After seeing you in the news, he must be very worried about you,” announced Kalysto while he hugged Sakura, comforting her.
“We were dating for almost seven months! How come she is three months pregnant?” sobbed the Japanese teacher while Katia looked at the scene with discomfort and Kalysto had to signal her to take a can of coke and finish her hamburger in the other room.
Almost twenty minutes later Sakura could finally stop crying as she cursed her ex-girlfriend.
Just then, Kalysto’s phone rang.
“How about if I take care of Natasha for a second, and then you come with me to take Katia to her father and then we’ll get drunk like there’s no tomorrow?” Seeing that her friend nodded her head, Kalysto answered the call.
“Hi, Kalysto! How are you? Sorry to call you so early in the morning, but I’m at the hospital!”
“Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”
“Oh no, I’m fine! It’s just that we lobbied for my mom’s discharge because the doctors wanted to do more tests and we decided not to do them! My mom wants to talk to you, but you remember you told me to explore my skills, right?
“Yes”
“Well, I’ve been leveling up the inspection skill like you explained to me what you did when you were in prison.”
“Kalysto was in prison?” Katia’s mother intervened.
“Mom, she was kidnapped! And let me finish the story! Kalysto, are you still there?”
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“Sure, I’m listening. What happened?”
“It’s just that I checked my mom’s stats, and it says she has two of zero mana. Is that normal?”
“...No, it’s not," she answered, closing her eyes. “It’s normal for the second digit to be larger than the first one, not the other way around. That means that she now does not possess the capacity to have mana.”
“...Is there any way to cure her?” she asked, frightened. And Kalysto was silent for almost a minute before looking at Tsuki, who approached her, rubbing his head against his mistress’ leg to encourage her.
“...There is something we can do, but I don’t know if it will work. But if it does, it might solve her problem.”
“Is it a potion like the ones you’re taking?”
“No... but maybe if she acquires a system that regulates the amount of mana in her body, just like when you level up and manage points, then her body will be able to handle that amount of mana without affecting her," seeing that Natasha and her mother were silent on the other side of the line, she continued speaking. “I’ll meet you in an hour at the Starbuck’s near my university.” it was strange to refer to herself as a student again, especially since the contract with the queen would not allow her to continue her studies for the next few years.
“... See you in an hour," the teenager replied before hanging up the call. And Kalysto turned to her friend, who was looking at her with surprise.
“So, are you interested in sneaking us into the tower that appeared at the university, or at least taking me there?”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Hearing her answer, Kalysto smiled before answering and taking another bite of his pizza.
“What’s so exciting about being sane?”
Forty minutes later, while Sakura was getting dressed and after Kalysto got tired of calling Katia’s dad without receiving an answer, she gave the phone to the girl to leave a voicemail message, hoping that the man would finally answer the phone.
“Katia, if he doesn’t show up today, tomorrow we call him at work. Do you understand me?” Seeing that she was about to refute the rules her father had set, Kalysto interrupted her. “Do you know how worried your father must be without hearing from you all this time? I’m sure he can forgive you for calling him at work on a Monday.” she didn’t want to have the talk again about whether this was an emergency or not. It was obvious that hadn’t worked last time.
Someone needs to explain to her the meaning of an emergency! Obviously, a fire isn’t the only emergency that’s valid!
But Kalysto knew that wasn’t her job. So instead of trying to intervene again, she hurried Sakura to get them there on time.
“Are you going to leave me here alone?” interrupted Katia when she saw that they were going to leave without her.
“I would take you with Sakura’s brother but she is ignoring him right now, and I don’t think it’s safe to go the three of us riding a motorcycle,” seeing that she seemed to feel rejected while looking at her like a puppy that has been abandoned by its owner, she ventured to say while putting Tsuki in her inventory: “do you want me to put you in my inventory while we travel?”
“Yes! I’ll definitely be much safer there!” And Kalysto did so, feeling a bit strange for locking her in when it wasn’t really necessary.
An awkward silence fell in the apartment when only the two adults were left.
“I think we should take her to a psychologist. Something is definitely not right with her," Sakura worried.
Kalysto let out a long sigh.
Maybe it would be a good idea to suggest it to her father.
When they arrived at the Starbucks, Natasha and her mother, Mary, were already there. After a warm reunion with Mrs. Tanner, Kalysto made her sign the same kind of contract he had made with Natasha after explaining a bit of his plan and having them go to the restroom at the mall two blocks away, where Natasha showed her mother the status window of her system before Kalysto pulled Katia out of her inventory.
“How the hell did you do that?” Mrs. Tanner shouted before the rest of the group reminded her to be quiet.
“I have one too!” Natasha perked up, putting the glass with the drink she had ordered in hers as they waited for them.
“Oh, my God! The world has gone crazy! First alien monsters! Then magic portals, kidnappings, things out of a video game and now this!” Mary muttered, feeling too old for everything she was witnessing. “Can you connect to the internet with that too?”
“I wish!” Natasha scoffed.
“No, Mrs. Mary.”
“Stop calling me Mrs., Kalysto! How many times do I have to tell you? “
“I’m sorry," she replied awkwardly. “Shall we go then?”
Natasha and Katia stayed at the Starbucks while they waited for them and tried to contact the blonde’s father. After Kalysto put Mrs. Tanner in her inventory, she left with Sakura and they parked two blocks away from the university.
“Are you sure about this?” Sakura questioned as she parked the motorcycle on the side of the street, away from the pair of armed soldiers guarding the corner.
“Don’t panic, and above all, don’t scream," Kalysto warned her.
Stealth! thought the fairy champion, just before taking off her helmet and getting off the bike.
“Why would I...? What the fuck...?” The Japanese teacher was surprised to see that her friend had disappeared. “Kalysto? Please tell me I’m not the one who needs to see a psychologist! Or that I’m not trapped in the belly of a monster that causes hallucinations!”
“You are not trapped in the belly of a monster, but I do warn you that I have met some that cause hallucinations. If you ever see monsters that look like a small version of a Dementor, run.”
“Are you serious? Are there monsters that cause hallucinations?”
“Yes, I saw some inside a tower. Fire helps against them,” she assured her while she left the helmet that her friend had lent her on Sakura’s lap, noticing how it stopped being invisible as soon as she stopped touching it.
“...I don’t know what to say to that... but if you manage to get in, could you please bring the copy of the keys to my apartment that I left in the left drawer of my desk? With everything that’s going on, I don’t feel safe with them there.”
“Sure. I’ll call you as soon as I get out.”
Three hours later not only had Kalysto managed to infiltrate the university despite the military guarding the place, she rescued Sakura’s keys, entered the tower, and helped Mrs. Tanner not only acquire a system but also level up to level six, focusing on her adding the points gained in mana and stamina.
It was when she was on floor seven that something out of place happened.
“Tsuki, what’s wrong with you?” Kalysto panicked as she saw the strange light that suddenly started to come out of the puppy’s body, which spread like a wave of energy all over the place.