Amelia was suddenlygreatly regretting agreeing to let Tsukuru train her.
She felt like a targeting board in a firing range for automatic weapons.
Every time she saw a volley of three daggers fly towards her, her heart instinctively jumped before she repelled them using her Ability.
Meanwhile, Leo and Shizuka watched the whole thing.
While Leo remained calm, Shizuka looked like she was loving this.
The whole Beast Weapons Hall was filled with a series of non-stop pings, as the Neodymium daggers were repelled by Amelia's electromagnetism, bouncing off and spinning into the air before landing at some random location on the floor.
Every once in a while, Shizuka would glance down at her watch, checking the time.
Eventually, their hour was up.
Shizuka smirked, and looked up towards the two in the center of the room.
"Alright!" Shizuka yelled, catching both Tsukuru's and Amelia's attention. "Time's up, you two!"
Tsukuru put his hands down and deactivated his Ability, causing his new-created batch of daggers to clatter on the ground.
Amelia began to take in deep breaths.
"Thank…God…" She huffed.
Her heart was racing.
She felt like she was stuck in a horror movie, and had just spent hours running away from the killer.
Tsukuru went along the floor of the Beast Weapon Hall.
Each time he reached a dagger, he would bend down, and touch the dagger.
He would then think about putting the dagger into his System's Inventory, causing the System prompt to appear.
He thought 'yes' to each one, causing the daggers to one-by-one break apart into pixels, vanishing away into his System's Inventory.
He then used mental commands to bring up his System's Inventory, causing a System screen to appear in front of him, showing the Inventory's grid pattern.
The newest square showed an image of the Neodymium dagger, and had a "30" in the lower-left corner, telling him that he had thirty of them in his System's Inventory.
Tsukuru then walked up to Amelia.
Amelia was still breathing deeply, trying to calm down from Tsukuru using her as a living targeting board for the last twenty minutes.
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her bicep.
Looking down, she saw Tsukuru standing in front of her, a gentle smile on his face.
"Alright, I've taught you the basics." He replied. "You wanna continue off first thing tomorrow?" He asked.
Amelia's eyes widened, and her heart raced.
Her feelings were mixed.
One on hand, he had just used her as a dart board for the last twenty minutes.
On the other hand, he had also shown her how to use her electromagnetism in a fight.
A part of her wanted to forget she ever met this kid.
Another part wanted to see what else he could teach her.
Eventually, the second part won.
A smile crept across Amelia's face.
"Yeah." She replied. "Sounds good."
With that, Amelia, Tsukuru, and Shizuka all left the Beast Weapons Hall, allowing Leo to return to his meditating.
The group of three parted ways, splitting into two groups down the hall.
As Tsukuru and Shizuka began to walk, she turned to him.
"So, what are you going to do now?" She asked.
Tsukuru glanced over at her.
He folded his arms behind his back.
"I think I'm gonna go catch up with my other friends." He replied. "See what they're up to."
Hearing him, Shizuka raised an eyebrow.
"And pray tell, how are you going to find them?" She asked. "They could be anywhere on the base."
Tsukuru smirked, and tapped his head.
Shizuka interpreted this to be him referring to his "System".
"The same way I always know when you're nearby." He replied with an amused smirk.
Hearing this, Shizuka's eyes narrowed.
"So it was because of that thing that you knew that I was behind those trees." She muttered, thinking back to how she had been surprised that Tsukuru knew that she and Layla had been hiding nearby after Tsukuru and Quinn had defeated Riley a few nights ago.
"That thing have a tracker in it, or something?" She asked.
Tsukuru glanced to the side.
"Hmm…It's more like a radar." He replied.
Hearing this, Shizuka grit her teeth in annoyance.
She now realized that stalking him like she had been doing up to this point would now be impossible if he could tell when she was nearby.
The two walked out of the front entrance of the school.
"Vorden said he was going into town to get supplies." Tsukuru replied. "I'll start there."
Shizuka raised her eyebrow.
"You gonna walk all the way there?" She asked.
Upon hearing this, Tsukuru let out an amused snort.
"Hell no." He replied. "I have my own transportation now."
Tsukuru held out his hand in front of him.
"Summon." He replied.
Instantly, the sound of electronic interference emitted from the space in front of him, and pixels began to appear.
The pixels clustered together into the form of a slender, female humanoid with wings growing out of her arms.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru's Harpie Summon was standing there in front of him, her arms crossed over her chest, her long wings draping down her front like a cloak.
The sudden appearance of the beast caused a ripple of gasps to be heard from nearby students and military personnel.
Seeing the Harpie, Shizuka smirked.
"Ah, yes." She replied, glancing over at Tsukuru with an amused smirk. "You do, don't you?"
The Harpie then bent down on one leg in front of the two.
Like before, she held her left hand over her chest, her left wing draping over her, and extended her right arm outwards, assuming the same "curtsey", with her using her wings in place of a dress.
"How many I serve you, my liege?"
She asked.
Tsukuru smiled.
"I require a lift into town." He replied. "Can you take me?"
Hearing his words, the Harpie smiled.
"Why, of course." She replied. "It would be my pleasure."
The Harpie then turned around, and kneeled down to Tsukuru's height.
Tsukuru smirked, and crawled onto the Harpie's back like a piggy-back ride.
As he wrapped his arms around her sternum, the Harpie lifted up her arms high into the air, and swung them down in a single, fast motion.
The motion produced a strong just of wind, and created a draft underneath her that lifted her into the air.
The Harpie then began flapping her wings, flying higher into the sky.
As they rose, Tsukuru looked down at Shizuka with a smile.
"See you later, Shizuka!" He said with a wave.
The Harpie tilted slightly forward, and flew straight forward into the air.
On the ground below, Shizuka waved back, as she watched the Harpie fly away, her little brother in tow.
Suddenly, Shizuka heard footsteps from behind her.
Two sets of footprints, to be exact.
Turning around, she saw Sergeant Faye and General Nathan walk up behind her.
General Nathan had a bag of chips in his hands.
"Nice Beast." He replied in a nonchalant, casual tone between popping chips in his mouth. "New one, huh?"
Sergeant Faye narrowed her eyes at Shizuka.
"How did the stalking mission go, helicopter parent?" She asked with an annoyed tone.
Shizuka let out an annoyed huff, and looked away.
"Oh, will you just let it go?" She muttered in an annoyed tone. "What, are you gonna throw me in the dungeon for caring about my only surviving family member's wellbeing?"
As Tsukuru and the Harpie flew through the air, Tsukuru looked down at the ground below.
The view was breathtaking.
He could see the whole base below.
As they flew, Tsukuru paid special attention to his System's "Minimap".
Though it had a limited range of a 30-foot radius around him, he knew that as they got closer to town, the two green dots symbolizing Vorden and Peter, and the purple dot symbolizing Quinn would eventually pop up.
His hunch proved right, for as soon as they reached the borders of the town, the three dots appeared.
Tsukuru noticed that all three dots seemed to be bunched over in a single location, indicating that the three were still together.
Tsukuru had the Harpie circle around the town, using the distance between the group of three dots and the white triangle, representing himself, as a sort of "tracker" to find their exact location.
Once the group of three dots were right next to the white triangle representing himself, Tsukuru looked down.
Directly below him to his right, he saw a large movie theater.
Tsukuru smirked.
Judging by the proximity between the dots and the triangle in his System's "Minimap", this was it.
"Down there!" Tsukuru yelled, pointing down at the ground. "In the movie theater!"
The Harpie smirked.
"Hold on tight, my liege!" She replied.
Before Tsukuru could question what she meant, she began to dive down.
Tsukuru's arms instinctively clamped around the Harpie's sternum, and he felt the wind blow back his hair and skin like he was standing in a wind tunnel.
Meanwhile, down below, a few military officers looked up, wide-eyed at the sight of a humanoid Beast dive-bombing towards the base.
They all began to point.
However, before any of them could act, the Harpie instantly halted in the air, coming to a complete stop.
She then began to slow the flapping of her wings, gently descending to the ground.
As she touched the ground, she turned back to Tsukuru on her back.
"We're here, my liege." She replied.
However, Tsukuru didn't respond.
The Harpie raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"My Liege?" She asked.
Tsukuru just stayed there, frozen.
His eyes were wide, his teeth were clenched, and his arms were wrapped around the Harpie's sternum in a death grip.
It looked as though he had just seen his life flash before his eyes.