V.Vizard! 7

I didn't manage to sleep well last night.

The mere thought of being watched by Homei every single day is really getting on me.

I feel my eyelids drooping, yet just barely, just barely, I've managed to force them open.

Sue's saying something, but I can't hear him.

I'm too tired to bother about all of those things.

I can't rest easy knowing that my cousin was that big of a stalker, to have observed me every single day. Her school hours are probably shorter than my work hours, so she can technically stare at me going to and fro here and there.

Even that has got to have a limit on how creepy it can get, but I'm just not used to this level of discomfort.

Speaking of which, am I even in the condition for work now?

I'm tired, I can barely focus, and even the coffee's not doing me much good.

Should I have another cup of noir?

... Well, whatever. Let's just get work done with so I can rest.

*** ***

Despite being really tired, I finished all the maintenance work by 11.45am. That was actually really quick, since I usually finish the regular checks and repairs by 2pm. My record time for finishing work was 10.56am, but that's because I rushed and ran around the rooms instead of walking casually.

I guess since I was too tired to dally around, I wasn't distracted by the talking and lecturing of the foremen on other coworkers, nor the background noises. It just came to me to get my job done, and rest.

... Somehow I can imagine Palchou saying something like "You're this fast when you're tired, and you're even faster when you're motivated. You're a really scary person." Well, he usually ends work at around 6pm every day, just to get the boss's favour. He's a pretty obsequious fool who probably gloats about his position and extra pay in secret.

"Really? You seem a lot more tired than I am, Vance. And yet, you managed to finish before I did! If anyone's scary, it's you. Unless of course, you still think I'm an incapable woman?"

"Oh, uh, no, Sue, I didn't mean it like that. Sorry, it's... I was just thinking, what Palchou would have said if he'd seen me today. Don't worry about it."

"Ah. You and your mental impersonations again. Someday you'd land into real trouble with a bad habit like that."

He's right. I think I've hurt myself enough with this bad habit.

There has been a load of problems because of this bad habit, ever since primary school. I've lost count to how many times it's landed me in trouble. Recently, these shenanigans have reached a new level, but I guess it's something that makes me unique, so I never bothered to change. Or rather, I had no intention to change it in the first place.

"Nah. Without this stupid habit, I can't be called Vance."

"... Well, you're right on that, but be careful not to get yourself in too much trouble."

Whatever fate throws at me, I can probably handle it. It's not like my life would be intertwined into some sort of wide-scale battle anyway.

"Are you two just going to laze around here?"

Oh, here comes Palchou.

"Well, Sue and I finished our rooms, so the only thing left is to update the weekly damage report. With that done, we're practically free to go."

"... Okay then. Carry on," and he just leaves. No friendliness in there whatsoever.

Sometimes I feel like Palchou's getting a bit too indulged in his Chief Engineer position. He should already know that being the veterans, Sue and I work a lot faster than the others, and we haven't slipped up for years now, so he really shouldn't have any reason to doubt us and our capabilities.

Then again, since we both run off pretty much the moment we finish updating the weekly damage report, Palchou's been stuck with guiding the inexperienced coworkers, so it's understandable that since we pushed the burden on him, he's under more stress and could be a bit cranky. I kind of feel bad for the newcomers because we rarely stay behind to teach them. Heck, the only time I've stayed behind specifically for that was when there was a group of new employees and I had to replace Palchou because he was ill.

"Strange..."

? Strange? What's strange?

"Xavier's not with him?"

Oh yeah, Xavier, that guy which always follows Palchou.

... Seriously, how does that guy withstand all that hollering and stress coming from a person made to do at least 3 men's worth of work?

Whatever. I'm too tired to think about it.

*** ***

I ended up staying the whole day in the company, helping out as much as they asked me to. It's been 10 years since I did, so I'm not used to the prolonged fatigue. I spent most of it sleeping for a few hours, only to be rudely awoken for aid for around twenty times, and finally, the night was about to begin.

I haven't forgot the meeting I had with Dekon tonight. It's just that I'm too tired to focus even if I did go. I only wish he'd understand from Homei's psychological torture on me that I can't really afford to care too much about anything at this point.

The good news is, it's really close by, but I didn't feel energetic enough to participate in it properly. Ahh, might as well show up, I don't want to be rude.

Let's see... Enter the door, talk to the bartender. Tell him 'I want to smash up some scraps'. That's the password for entry, huh.

"What do you want?"

Wow. The bartender's pretty fierce. Usually, I'd imagine a meek, sassy bartender who asks politely what kind of drinks the customer would like and such, but this man's really crude.

"... I want to smash up some scraps. Please."

His eyebrows twitched up upon hearing 'Please.', and then went back down. Had I been more alert, I would certainly have found that funny, but I'm too drained to find that funny.

He then opened up the bar door for me, and opened another bar door for me, this one leading to a flight of stairs spiraling down.

Leaning against the rugged wall, I take my steps slowly. I can hear screaming, screeching, clattering noises from down below, but I'm too tired to care. I've completely drained myself out for this.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, there was a huge, heavy door in front of me.

It was designed probably to filter out noise specifically, since I've seen these on those huge ships before. This was the kind of heavy-duty door that safeguarded the food storage compartments.

Turning the valve in the center, I retracted the mechanisms on the sides and allowed the door to be swung outwards. Doors like these have an auto-lock mechanism using the weight of the wheel, a gear contraption and a weight that eventually falls back down, pulling on the wheel and forcing it to close. It's random facts like these that pop out in my brain when I'm tired to the point that I can't neglect such trivia from coming out whenever I stare at an object.

... And yet, I open the heavy door, to reveal another heavy door in front of me. This one's no different, but there's no light in the small room and space between them.

I turned the mechanism once more, and finally, it opened up to a huge underground room.

There were some slides above, there were loads of seats, benches and madeshift chairs from just about anything - Wooden crates, stone slabs, anything that looks comfortable enough to sit. In the center was a huge stage with a pile of random rocks, a covered drain was literally half of the stage, and in there was a person, forcing a huge blob of water apart into two seperate blobs, and tossing them forward. There were a rather large crowd of people, just cheering and rooting for that guy.

The slides above them slid out rubbish, scraps of things that couldn't be recycled. Some of these slides lead directly into the arena itself. There was already a small pile within, which the person threw two blobs of water towards. The two blobs of water started evaporating, creating smoke in the junk, and- Wait, that's not water.

That's corrosive.

Yeah, that explains it. The water blobs he threw were corrosive, which is why the broken wardrobe door was dissolving and releasing smoke now.

... I would have been very, very excited about this, but I'm too tired to care.

I just climbed onto a stone slab, and rested on it.

*** ***

"Yo, Vance!"

Yet another rude awakening. Sometimes I wish these coworkers would take actual notes, and refer to them.

"I told you, you need to check the fuse ratings on the machines itself before choosing the fuse. The technology nowadays actually checks if the fuse is at the right rating before it operates normally."

"Wake up, sleeping beauty."

Oh my lord. What have they gotten themselves into this time?

"What?"

That's... not my coworker.

That's Dekon Strüger.

"Oh! Dekon! Wha- Where am I?"

"You slept here of all places?! I thought tonight's Acid Master and Space Distorter were pretty entertaining!"

"Ahh... Sorry, I couldn't get any sleep at all last night. My cousin kept reappearing in a nightmare, and I started work anyway so I was really drained."

"Oh, well then. Anyways, welcome, to the Trash Arena for True Atheists!"

... Wait, wait, Acid Master? Space Distorter? This place... It's a v.vizard arena!?

"Trash Arena?!"

"Yeah, trash arena. The company next to this place specialises in trash assortment and disposal. They recycle the salvageable trash, usually metals, and the rest of them are further seperated and divided. I heard a contract two years ago gave it special permission to dispose hazardous materials as well, like explosives, corrosives, oxidisers, radioactive, all sorts."

... Well, I should know, I worked there before. I haven't noticed the difference between the trash coming in, and the things being processed, not until he mentioned it. Dekon seems pretty well-informed outside the v.vizard world too.

Two years ago, the government requested a new block to be built, made to specifically discard the dangerous trash like faulty equipment, hazardous materials and of the like. A team of specialists were to work there to handle it with delicacy. Sue and I could probably repair the equipment there, but I can't handle emergency situations like accidental gas leaks so we weren't asked to maintain the machines there.

"... I missed the whole arena in my sleep?"

"Yup."

Oh man. Just when I was looking forward to today, i can't even keep my eyes open long enough for it.

"Is there another event like this?"

"Well, yeah! It happens twice a week. Every Friday and Saturday. You can come here again tomorrow. Of course, for Friday it's at night, but for Saturday, it's for the whole day."

That's nice to know. I'd probably be able to meet more v.vizards like the one he mentioned, the Acid Master and the other guy.

"Wait, what's an Acid Master?"

"You mean you didn't see the guy making acid and alkali from water?"

... Oh. That guy.

"Him? I saw him before I rested a bit... Wait, how DO you make acid and alkali from water?"

"He probably used the Concentration theory to achieve that."

Forget knowing what that is, I still don't understand the whole theory thing.

"You still haven't explained what a theory is, though..."

"Ahh, right. I said I'd explain today, didn't I?"

Somehow I had a vibe it'd be a long talk, so I wanted to get up for water.

"You might want to sit down for this, it's a bit... tedious."

"Let me grab water first then, I feel giddy."

I got up and looked around. We were in a small, compact room with a few crates, a cabinet, a fridge, a simple bed and a tiny window.

"Where is this place?"

"This here's the injury bay. When people get injured, they come here to rest and heal. The medic's not here anymore, since it's already 1am, but it's still a rather comfortable place."

There's a small bottle of water on a crate, so I just picked it up and drank it. I shouldn't have, but my thirst was prioritised in a situation like this.

"So, what's a theory?"

"Well, think of it this way. It's like trying to fry an egg. Problem is, you have to decide how you want the egg fried. You can put the pan over a normal stove, an electric stove, or, if you're nuts, over a Bunsen burner. Depending on what basis you have it on, the effects will be different."

"Okay, how do I use this on actual v.vizard magic and techniques?"

"Just as how a pan with an egg needs a stove and a marshmallow is best over a campfire for the wood smoke taste, you need to apply the right theories to the right techniques in order to achieve potent, desirable results. Place that bottle on the crate there."

"Okay."

I place the bottle on the crate.

"Now, use Southenise to suck it over to your hand."

Southenise? What's that? Oh whatever, I'll use Vacuum Pull. Easier said than done actually, the key didn't even get pulled towards me yesterday, how is a bottle supposed to reach me with such little space to vacuum?

Oh well, might as well try.

I imagine the column of vacuum... Expel the air.

"! That's Vacuum Pull!... Well, that makes sense."

And suction it segment by segment...

Vacuum... Pull!

The bottle is sucked towards me, but droops a little in its trajectory before it reached me.

"That's Vacuum Pull, isn't it?"

"How did you know? You just called it Southe-whatever a moment ago."

"I sensed the air pressure around me grow. That can only mean you're rejecting the air in the column and creating a vacuum."

Wow, he seems really sensitive. Or rather, perceptive should be the right word for him.

"Well, it's no wonder it was weak! You're using a space-air technique on a metallic object like a key!"

"Huh?"

"Well, simply put, instead of thinking of the key as a South pole that attracts to the North pole, you simply controlled the space between you and the key. Is that right?"

"Uhh... yeah, I guess?"

"See, what you used back with the key, was a demonstration of how useless an incompatible theory is. what you used there, was demonstrating how useful a compatible theory is."

"So you're saying, the reason why my key didn't travel towards me fully was..."

"-Because you used a theory and technique that didn't suit the nature of the object."

I roughly get it now.

It's like a whole key-to-the-lock system.

"But, had I used that Southe-technique on the bottle..."

"It would make the attraction very weak, and the bottle would most likely only tilt slightly."

Ahh.

"But, when I used Vacuum Pull underwater, it seemed to be so effective!"

"Water is a lot denser than air, when you suction water like that a lot more energy is generated. Generally, Vacuum Pull is useful in dense situations, and Southenise is useful against metallic objects."

... The book did mention that beginners should practice in an area with a thick medium...

"Also, those aren't the only methods of pulling an object close to you."

Dekon flashes a cheeky grin, and places the bottle on the crate again, and this time, he extended out a hand to it.

"There's also the acceptance - rejection theory, which works much better on space-air technique than the theory in that guide of yours."

He sucks the bottle onto his hand almost instantly.

"Wow! That's amazing!"

"That's not all I can do!" Dekon closes his eyes to focus, as I stood up and walked in front of him. I thought he was going to compress the bottle into a very tiny cube.

The bottle suddenly flew toward my face.

*** ***

That was way more painful than the inflatable beach ball.

My nose is still bleeding from having an empty plastic bottle flung at me. Fortunately it was soft plastic, Dekon said, or my entire face would have caved in and I would have been sent flying to the wall.

It's good to be alive.

"Ahaha... Sorry about that. I was about to show a combination of flinging it into the wall and gravitizing it so it stays on the wall. I didn't expect you to stand in front of it."

"It's my fault too, I thought you were going to compress it into a cube or ball."

"Well, sorry about that."

"Arrgh, my face... What time is it now?"

I looked around, and saw a broken clock which was no longer ticking showing 10:20.

"It's 2.24am in the morning. You were out cold for about an hour."

Huh. Where is my phone then? I want to see the time for myself. It should be in my pocket... Ara?

Four messages?

" Where are you, Vance? Are you taking another route and hiding from me on purpose? Or did you ride in that green car? - Homei "

" Are you at home now? Can you open the door please? I want to see you... - Homei "

" Don't tell me you're outside flirting with women. I'm at your house now, so come back now and open this door for me. - Homei "

" I hate you. - Homei "

... Oh my lord.

I'm going to get an earful for this.