Yuri opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry while she got up and rubbed her eyes.
“Uh..Hikaru..?”
Looking around, she found Hikaru laying next to her. They were still in the same room, except now, they were surrounded by several floating metal balls. With eyes growing on them, watching Yuri.
“Finally awake, good, I was growing impatient.”
The old man they had talked to earlier walked out from behind a desk.
“Uh..we were just here to try and..have another talk with you..yeah..”
Her eyes shifted between the old man, the floating balls of eyes and the still unconscious Hikaru.
“I know what you were here for, I saw it all with my own eyes.”
He knocked on the green container which contained an eye.
“Well maybe not my own eyes, but you understand my point.”
Hikaru was kicked at by Yuri, who was slightly worried when he wasn’t giving a response.
The old man noticed her expression and slowly reassured her.
“Don’t worry. He’s just sleeping, he will wake up soon. I need him to be asleep for longer, so I could talk to you. I got some very interesting results when my little creations here gave him a scan.”
He gave a small wave towards one of the floating balls filled with eyeballs.
Yuri began to visibly sweat and began to kick Hikaru when even more force, making the old man frown.
“Again, don’t worry. Here in this city, we might not have gods to force their petty rules onto us. But we do follow strict codes in order for everyone to be able to do their research in peace. Fair trade is part of that.”
The old man offered her a seat while sitting down on one of the desk chairs.
“You’ll have to forgive me, I’m not as young as I used to be..”
“Now..another thing is that is part of our code here. Theft is not taken kindly to, as I am sure it is in most places.”
He observed Yuri’s reaction.
“Well..I figured..”
She said quietly. Unsure of what to actually do. Usually after getting caught, she would quickly find herself restrained and brought to a cell, so this situation was unfamiliar to her.
“This is where the fair trade part comes in.”
Snapping his fingers, he made some papers appear in front of him.
“Here is my offer to you, from the way you got inside here, I can assume you are fairly skilled at retrieving things.”
Looking at her, he waited for Yuri to confirm his statement.
“Yes, well you would be quite right, in fact I am the best thief in the world, and soon enough in two!”
She declared shamelessly.
The old man coughed slightly.
“Yes, I’m sure you are..”
He muttered while surprised by Yuri’s bluntness.
“Here is my offer, I forget that this little incident ever happened, no on has to know, and trust me you don’t want anyone here to know, no matter how good you are at whatever it is you do. It is best to not break laws around here.”
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His gaze became stern.
“In return.. I want you to…retrieve..something for me.”
He spoke slowly, as if unsure if he used the term correctly.
“No deal”
She simply said.
“What. Do you realise what you are saying. I can simply turn you over to the guards and you might never see the light of day again. You might not understand how serious that really is?”
He was shocked and in disbelief over her casual response.
“No, I understand, and I also understand that me and Hikaru can break out of anywhere, no matter how secure. Besides I’ve been in much worse situations, I am the greatest thief that has ever lived after all.”
She bragged again.
“Right..well you seem to wholeheartedly believe that. Even though your belief is incorrect. Well maybe can offer you something more. Maybe whatever it is you came here to retrieve?”
The old man’s head tilted slightly
“Oh yeah! Let’s see..how about a magical sword for my friend and some info for me.”
“Well the sword I can easily acquire or even make one that suits your preferences. They are fairly simply creations. The information however..it would depend..”
He spoke cautiously.
“Well..let’s see..this is extremely magical right?”
She continued when the old man nodded.
“So it must use up a lot of magical energy, which I highly doubt you could power with just human energy, even if you combined everyone’s power. So there must be something else powering the city..”
She inquired.
“You are correct, keenly observed. Seems you have some knowledge in magical power management. “
The old man seemed impressed.
(It’s just similar to electricity….) She thought to herself.
“The magica that humans posses would never be enough to even power a quarter of the city’s functions. That is why we use the energy that exists outside the human body. The so called elemental energy, or Nature mana.”
He waved his hands around him slightly to imply that it was in the air.
“We collect it by using cables that are magically fabricated and have a high conductibility rate for magical energies. We place very small rare crystals on the outside, like a cover, that have the property of slowly absorbing the magical energy around them and storing it. The energy then travels along our custom cables and into a storage device until we use it as we choose fitting.”
He kept explaining in a scholarly fashion.
“Waaaa, that seems amazing. Is there a difference between this nature mana and normal human mana? If so does that make it harder to use?”
She acquired an interest in the subject once it became about nature mana, the very thing that had caused her to travel here when she was struck by lightning.
“Yes, it is a completely different type of energy, which is why we are forced to convert it into usable energy.” He kept talking when he noticed Yuri’s amazed expression.
“All the elemental energy we collect is first buffered through a central hub before being led back to our own private storage devices.”
“Amazing, how do you actually convert one type of energy to another, is it another crystal based device?”
She asked eagerly.
“Well..to be honest with you. I have lived here my whole life and I still do not know. It is a heavily guarded secret..all I know is that however they do it. They do it in the central hub area. Although I am sure it is something of great power if they choose to guard its secret so heavily..”
He scratched his head.
“Object of great power..i see.”
Yuri muttered.
“Anyway, back to the subject at hand, will you accept my offer?” He stopped scratching and looked at her intently.
“Fine, but you get me the sword now and once I’m done I want full maps and schematics of the while city, or at least all you can get your hands on. Sound fair?” She asked.
“Wonderful, then I shall go fetch your sword, I have had one made very recently, today In fact. I am sure you will like it.”
Searching through his lab, he finally found what he was looking for inside a big drawer.
Showing Yuri the item he was holding, at first glance it looked like any normal longsword but with some runes inscribed on its side. Upon closer inspection however, the guard of the sword had a small white ribbon attached to it, which extended towards the handle and formed the handles cover from white soft cloth.
“This seems familiar..”
Muttering, and before she could finish her thoughts, the ribbon wriggled slightly upon her touch as if in delight.
“Ribbon, it’s you!”
Softly patting the ribbon attached to the sword, she gladly exclaimed while the old man looked on in confusion.
“Right..well adding this ribbon that I received today to the sword allowed me to add in some very interesting tricks..I am sure you find them very useful”
He handed the sword to Yuri, and as if on cue, Hikaru began to wake up. Hikaru quickly got into his feet, confused and on edge.
“Hikaru look, I got you a new sword AND Mr. ribbon is back on the team.”
She beamed at the still groggy Hikaru.
“Oh and we have a job to do~!”