Ch4

On the way to the dorms area, Charles introduced the various other rooms to the ancient Fae; the door leading to the botanical area, the labs area, the lounge, the entrance, and many other areas, before they finally arrived at the dorms area.

The dorms area was far from the main research building itself, and sometimes served as the meeting point if anything happens. Like the labs, which has high-tech security gadgets protecting not only the rooms, but also the equipment and research materials, the dorms also had high-tech security.

They first had to go through a one-way passageway, before they arrived at a fingerprint scanner, which the researchers used to advance towards an area that releases gas that could sterilize all sorts of foreign substances that might've clung to researchers when they weren't paying attention, before they arrived at a double door that finally leads to the dorm area.

The Fae looked astonished when the gas was released, before his expression took on the 'interested' look, with his eyes widened slightly and his hand lifting to reach out to the Manna-filled gas that suddenly spread around them. Charles stifled a laugh at his child-like reaction and continued to lead the ancient Fae.

The dorms itself was divided into two sections, one for the girl's section and the other the boy's section. "But there are areas like the lounge and kitchen, where people would mingle and relax at. Though we don't really use them most of the time since research takes a lot out of us mentally."

The Fae nodded, his gold-silver eyes turning to look here and there in interest. Despite the many tones of silver, white, and blue the main building had, the dorms area were very colourful. It was vastly different from what he'd remembered experiencing so far.

"This is where we'll be sleeping," Charles stopped at a door that looked like an electric display board that displayed both the room's number and the inhabitants of the room. There were only two names being displayed, Charles Xabel and the Fae.

"Ah yes, we still don't yet know your name, so..." Charles said with an embarrassed smile.

The Fae shook his head. "I don't have a name."

"You don't?"

This surprised Charles, because it was just unexpected. "It's not because we wouldn't be able to pronounce your name, is it?"

The Fae shook his head once more.

"I don't remember, even if I had a name," he said.

"I see… How about you give yourself a name?"

The Fae thought about it, "Okay," before he closed his eyes and focused on gathering information on names through Manna.

Charles, thinking that the Fae was having a hard time deciding a name for himself, also thought up of a name for him. His brown eyes subconsciously traced the Fae's gorgeous features, and he thought back to when he'd first seen the Fae with his own eyes.

Back then he'd jokingly thought of a single name, "Shaquille." It meant to be 'well-developed and handsome', very fitting for the being in front of him.

His friends had laughed at him for naming a research subject when he wasn't even a researcher yet. But after he became one of the researchers in charge of researching more about the frozen being, he'd completely thrown that thought to the back of his head, busy as he was with debating over theories with his co-researchers, along with other research projects that he'd been a part of.

But then the Fae opened his eyes after a long while of contemplation. "Shaquille… sounds good."

Charles froze when he heard him. It couldn't be that the Fae had heard him name him back then? But then again, he did admit that he'd woken up several times in the time where he was still frozen in ice. And he'd admitted that he remembered what he'd seen then. Who could say that he wouldn't remember what a small human like him had said before he started working as a researcher?

"Er, Shaquille it is, then," Charles stuttered.

"Yes, Shaquille," the Fae looked at him, wondering why he was so surprised. He was, after all, the one who'd given him such a good name. Others had also named him before, though he didn't like them and what they'd mean sometimes.

Charles coughed.

"Then, let's have a happy cooperation then, Shaquille."

"Cooperation?"

"Yes, cooperation on teaching you this world's language, and cooperation on finding out more about you," Charles extended his hand for a handshake.

Shaquille stared at the outstretched hand and nodded, before slotting his hand into Charles'.

"Happy cooperation," the Fae repeated.

----

And so a few days passed, with Charles (and sometimes Samantha) teaching Shaquille the language they could understand by the way of conversation, and Shaquille giving information about himself as much as he could, which was very minimal.

He'd also learned many things about this world. One of them was about the human body.

"So a girl and a boy needs each other in order for humans to multiply?" Shaquille had asked them once.

"Yes. To put it simply, a guy's cells could stimulate a woman's cells to start multiplying, which in turn evolves the cell into a fetus, which will later grow into a baby," Samantha explained.

"That is over-simplifying everything, but basically she's right," Charles sighed as he wrote down his observation on the sample put under the microscope.

"How about you? I'm sure you at least remember something like this," Samantha asked, curious. Although they were both of the Fae kind, she'd found that many things he knew differed from what she knew about the Fae kind. In other words, both of their tribes must've been fundamentally different, and maybe their missions were completely different.

"Well, I think we use Manna to do it," the Fae said thoughtfully. "We bind an essence, or a few essences, and they will become an Innocent."

"... Innocent?" Interest piqued, Charles asked.

"Yes, beings that aren't fully conscious, but do have consciousness," Samantha supplied. "But, huh, Innocents huh."

Both Charles and Samantha once again felt the differences between species once again. Charles, due to obvious reasons, and Samantha, as the Innocents that she knew of were usually referred to as fetus and babies.

"So, am I considered a guy or a girl?" Shaquille asked curiously.

"To be honest, you're genderless, but appearance-wise, you'd be considered as a guy," Charles said contemplatively. "You're neither a guy nor a girl, after all."

"A guy, huh," the Fae closed his eyes contemplatively.

"Well, to be honest, we've been referring to you in a masculine way since before you woke up," Samantha explained. "And besides, your silhouette would easily be identified as a male's, if one doesn't look too closely."

"Understood," Shaquille nodded, and started gathering Manna.

"Understood? What did you-- wait, what are you doing?!"

Charles' shouts fell on deaf ears, as Shaquille concentrated on gathering Manna to change his body to fit into the world's common sense. He had a feeling that if he didn't 'fit' into the world's common sense, more trouble was bound to happen. His body had started shining, before the shine dimmed down and--

Shaquille, sitting on a chair, looking no different than before, looked up at the surprised researchers in front of him.

"What… did you just do?" Samantha asked, a tremble audible in her voice.

"I'm a boy now," Shaquille said matter-of-factly.

"What?!" You can do that?!

Once again, both Charles and Samantha felt the differences between them as a species. To change one's body without surgery was impossible, even for the Fae kind. But they were of different tribes, maybe Shaquilles' tribe really had a different mission than Samantha's, and thus their different skills and ways of using Manna.

To be able to bind essences, to be able to change the body, it's basically saying that he was able to just absorb Manna not just to survive.

Everyone knew that the Fae are peaceful beings, they'd been created specifically to bring peace to the world, or else said world would completely destroy itself. Then what kind of turbulent world was Earth before, for a Fae like Shaquille to exist in the first place?

Shaquille tilted his head innocently.

"Is there something wrong?"

Maybe there is, both Samantha and Charles shared the thought. His very existence indicated that something must be wrong, for such an OP being to exist on Earth.

And said OP being was just sitting there with an innocently curious expression, looking like the embodiment of the calm before the storm in their eyes. Both human and demi-Fae shuddered.

After all, according to Murphy's law, things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance. The question is, when?