Chapter 5 A blade to fit the right.

After being asked to convince someone to take a break from their work, now turned into looking for that said person's tiny screwdriver for them in their own mess of a workshop they managed to make a mess in only just two days, and was more surprised that this Valérie person could actually manage to work in this mess with everything scattered about in the first place.

"Why is this so messy!?" yelling back at her, while underneath her worktop desk to search the piles of papers underneath it.

"The mess helps me okay!?" she yelled right back to me, while she was kinda cleaning up her mess when searching for this mythical tiny screwdriver of her, "Did you check in that pile over there?" she pointed at another pile of drawing by her trash bin.

"Why would you're screwdriver be over there!" yelling from underneath her desk, now feeling a bit heated for looking for this screwdriver much longer then I expected.

"I dunno know?" she sounded genuinely confused by her logic, thinking it couldn't be worse then having a airhead helping me with searching for her lost item. She then stopped moving around after my outburst from her airhead moment, "Hey Mr. Guard." she knocked on the desk from the top, "I don't have time for you," now picking up another drawing of her off the ground, "and my name is Grey." mumbling away while tired of picking up her drawing of some sort of weapon she planned on making.

"Well Mr. Gris," she then tipped on her desk again to make me come out from underneath, "Look what I had all this time." she said happily towards me while now laughing, "I had this little guy on me the whole time, isn't that's funny?" she kicked my left leg lightly, not to actually hurt me, but to get my attention.

"Funny isn't it?" she continued to laugh, "We basically been searching for this little guy for five minutes straight, and it just been in my pocket the entire time!" I could only hear her laughter continue, "Well mostly you been searching for it while I take a well deserved break," she again kicked me, "it's a win-win right?" she hummed to me.

Only feeling pain in this moment, more then pain then I felt this day; Nicole's beating, knowing this world is basically dying from the chaos, or having to sacrifice someone for the majority of the people around, it's all quail in comparison to this moment in time. After hearing this new, that my endless searching was for nothing; I did what felt right in that moment, I then turned my body to my back then proceeded to buried myself underneath all the drawing she made while still lying on the floor.

"Aww," she then started to drag me out from her desk, "Don't be like that Gris." she finished saying, once she finished dragging me out, "I'll pretend I needed your help with fixing my project, so you could take it easy after all the things you do for me." she then started to lifted all the papers off my face, "Yeah?" she reached out her hand to me, offering me a great deal at the time, "I guess.." taking her offer while making little grumble noise.

Once she finally found her screwdriver, she then continued working on her project when she opened up her strange looking contraption with a lot of little cogs in this small project of hers with this strange line attached to the contraption that was long enough to stick out of her contraption with at the end of this line was a ring. And seeing there wasn't anywhere or anything to do or go in this hot room, I just stuck with her for the majority of the whole time with my guarding job since I came here.

"This is a short shield compared to the others," poking her unfinished shield, "How do they made them that long if the furnace can't fit that much in?" now wondering how they could do that, if they started their shield like this kinda size, she only sighed at me when I asked, "Guess I'll give you the water down version." she placed her project down safety.

"Yes the furnace can't make make them that long," she pointed to the finished ones, "And we could only make small ones that could cover a average teenager's torso," she pointed at her shield, "So we make two shields and make a little piece then we wield all three of them as best as we can." she said, "Isn't that dangerous?" questioning their work style for making shields we'll use, "Wouldn't the shield be weak if you do that?" not knowing completely how forging worked, but still knowing enough from a show I watched about forging.

"Hmm, someone knows more then I expected." she was about to continue working on her project, but stopped to give more details, "Yes, wielding them together would make them weak and won't hold up if put in real action." she then kicked some of her drawing that was piled up covering a makeshift furnace she made, "This is what's we use to not make them weak as best we could," she brought up her makeshift furnace up to her desk to show me, "Since our blast furnace is limited to this," she pointed at workshop furnace, and seeing there was only one entrance to work with, "We needed another furnace that had both side to it opened to smelted them together. So we made these little guy to help us forge our shields strong enough to (hopefully) withstand our enemies bullets." she smiled at me.

"Did you just say hope-"

"Great aren't they?" she cut me off, "We had the home ec. classroom to donate their smoked grills to make these guys. We had to tinker on them to reach our blast furnace heat, but they break easily when we force them to go that high, so had to make them resilient enough to withstand the heat so we could smelt the others pieces together. Then after a few time of trying them, we have to fix these little guys." she patted her little war machine, "My shields are made out of tungsten if you're wondering." she expected me to understand the metals she was using.

"I know a bit about forging, but have no clues when it's comes to the difference metals." smiling at her.

"Aww," she looked saddened, "I was going to talk about all the exotic metals we found once we came here.." she looked disappointed in me for not being a connoisseur of metals, "Well I hope this shows you we don't half-ass our craftsmanship." she huffed at me for my lack of trust in their work.

After she tried to gave a water down version of how they made shield to a evolved explanation once I showed I understood a little bit they were doing. But now once she was done explaining, she only continued to work on her project.

So having nothing to do, I decided to just watch her build her project the whole time, and thinking it's was nice watching someone who could make something out of nothing while working with these complex mechanical thingy in play. It's would have been a nice time just watching her; but having this familiar feeling once I kept my scars out for this long.

"Hey Valérie?" poking her to get her attention, "Mmm?" she didn't look at me, but still have her attention still, "Mind if I use these bandages?" saying that while holding her bandage in my hand, "Sure I don't mind," she hummed, "I don't need them anymore since I never injured myself while smiting or forging anymore." she now started closing her project and gave off a toothy grin once she was done tinkering with her project.

After getting permission to use her bandages, I started rapping it on my once freed left arm to cover up my awful scars. And after getting done my left arm nice and covered, I started working on my right; but being stopped before I could even begin with by the craftsmen herself.

"Wait why are you covering your arms up? Did you get hurt?!" she started getting scared by me covering my arms up, "No," swatting her hand off my arm, "I'm covering them up because peoples are looking.." now continuing to cover them, "Aww, I didn't know you were so sensitive about your arms." she jokingly replied at my reasoning, "Well at you know the feelinhg of us girls have went peoples look at our boobs." she gave a proud statement at this random fact that I probably share with female, "Well I can't relate too you sadly..." coming at a complete halt on my rapping; she was confused by my statement, "My scars are larger then you're breast," now placing my right hand to her shoulder, "So people with generally look towards me instead of you."

Once my sick burns was shot at her. Our conversation came to a complete halt and only filled with silence, and thinking maybe I went too hard on that joke, I thought she'll probably hit me or get angry for it. But all she did was laugh at my joke, "Oh boy," she started to tear up a bit from that joke, "You got me there!" she slapped my back pretty hard, "I'm actually pretty sad and angry at that," she then again slapped my back harder then before, "But, that joke was too hilarious to be mad over." she then wiped a tear from her eye.

"But hey." she then stopped me again from covering my arm, "I'll let you have my project for that laugh." she then passed her project with her another hand, "But don't go breaking this quickly okay?" she looked at me with eyes of seriousness, "Okay?" I grabbed her project from her hand, "Do I put it on my wrist?" now looking at this strange contraption of her, "You don't know what this is?" she looked at with eyes full of confusion.

"Nope." now figuring out where this strange thing goes on, "This craftsmanship is inspired by the hit game series called 'Button man'!" she expected me to understand once she said the game called 'Button man', but the gameplay life wasn't my thing back then, "Nope, haven't heard about that game?"

"What!?" she dropped everything, to now give me a explanation of this game, "Button man was game created back in 2007! It's features a lot of new thing to the gaming world back then, and I felt in love with the weapon they mainly used to kill the enemies!" she then pointed at her craftsmanship again on my wrist, "Oh," she then noticed how I placed it, "You're supposed to place it here." she then turned her contraption to the opposite side of my arm, "It's supposed to hidden at all time! So you need to place it behind your arm instead of the front." she left her work on my arm once she finished placing it right.

"And it's called a 'lame cachée', nice name for it right?" she jokingly asked, "Meaning hidden blade if you don't understand France," she laughed at my 'what the hell face' when she said those mythical made up language with her made up country, "It's actually the reason why I started my path in forging and mechanics," she then looked to me if it's was okay to tell her backstory, and having nothing better to do in this moment; I nodded my head to.

"My father was an inspiring blacksmith, and my mother was an genius mechanic." she smiled while remembering the both of them, "My father wasn't the greatest blacksmith out there, but he kept on improving himself everyday!" she pumped her hand up, "Our family history is basically our ancestors being blacksmith from my father's side, so it's inspiring when he never given up on our family tradition." she looked back at the shield she was crafting.

"As for my mother," she gotten into a serious tone, "She was a prodigy be on her years, working for major companies; till she settled with my father and setting as well with the Chika's company for our source of income, but thanks to that," she looked sad, "she was always over seas, and never home as much." she smiled sadly at remembering her mother's greatest, "She was the head of their research on the invention they made, key word 'was'." she looked up to only sigh, "She was working on her dream project she wanted to work on since she started working in the field of mechanical science, but her prototype was unstable..." she only smiled when she mentioned her mother dead, "Ohh," she looked back at when I looked terrified at why she was smiling when mentioning her deceased mother, "I was just remembering how I hated mechanics and forging, and how I almost never wanted to try it out because of her death." she had a slight tear coming down.

Deciding to just listen to her, I just gave her all my attention through her whole backstory without me talking.

"And after my mother's death, my father lost his passion for his craftsmanship and anything for that mattered." she then started tinkering with her hidden blade on my arm, to make sure it's was on more perfectly, "And the Chika's company looked after me and my father thanks to my mother service to them all those years and her inventions still helping them to this day." she could only find happiness in mentioning the Chika, "The very thought of mechanical worker only brought me pain and anger," she scuffed at that statement, "funny isn't? It's just a job, and that's all it is, and those who goes into that job work so hard just to follow their dreams like my mother." she then placed the line's ring on my middle finger.

"But I could only feel hatred for them." she slammed her hand down on the desk to grab the rest of the bandage, "If my mother hadn't spent her time away from her family to work on her dream project, then she'd still be alive." she then started wrapping the bandage around my arm, "If my mother hadn't dedicate her life to her dreams and passion for this craft, she'd still be alive." she wrapping the bandage a bit too hard for my arm liking, "If my mother hadn't become a mechanic," she then stopped wrapping the bandage midway; now letting it all her progress be undone, "she'd still be alive..."

All you can hear in this moment was her somber crying on the arm she tried to wrap, "And as time went on, the house that I grew up with my family only brought me and my father pain if my mother wasn't there anymore, and all the memories of her only made it worse as time went on..." she then returned to wrapping the bandage on my arm, and expecting to be as tight as it was last time; she started wrapping it more on the loose side, "So we decided to move away from our house, to escape from her memories.." having been doing anything at all, I then started patting her back for support in this moment, "Once we finally finished packing everything up, we were stumped on if we should pack my mother's stuff with us." she stopped wrapping and only took a deep breath in, again letting her hard work be wasted.

"I was so angry when I looked at all her stuff," she snuffed out to talk properly, "that I started smashing her items she left behind." expecting to cry a bit more because of her past actions, she only smiled when she explained what she done, "I then threw a box she once told me to never look inside." she stopped everything, to only start a mad laugh while knocking down the bandage, "What's inside was a small hidden blade that was about the size of my younger self arm." she lowly laughed at her story, "Confused, I went over to check out this weird contraption my mother left behind. And it's was funny how all this time, she never had the time to work on that side project she started all those years ago."

She didn't even bother picking up the bandage she dropped, she only looked down at them, "..That's all she left behind for me..." she then again brought herself to my arm to cry on it, "..She left behind wealth, a great name, and nobility after she passed." she then started patting my hand, "But I never wanted richest! Nor a fancy title! All I wanted was a happy family life with my parents when growing up! And she selfishly threw her life to her work! The last thing I told her was 'I don't want all this mom! I want us to be a family again!' when she left to her job!" her shouting was started to attract some students nearby her work station, the nearest one was about to come over and see if she was okay.

Till the leader seen them slacking off, "Oi!" she yelled at them, "Get to work! Leave Valérie! She on break!" she then started going back to her work. Seeing how they were about to get in trouble for not doing their work, they quickly blasted their forge to high, to get back the heat they lost.

"..Funny isn't?" she once again calmed down, "How I'm right here now? Someone who hated forging and mechanics is now standing here with talented people for all over the world?" she questioned lowly, "It was my hatred for my mother that brought me here." she then dipped down to retrieve the bandage she dropped, to then try again on the wrapping, "I hated how she couldn't have finished this simple looking project she started all those years ago, so I started working on it after we moved; to prove that mechanics are idiot and that even a beginner like myself could beat a genius like my mother." she then quickly started wrapping the bandage to fast, "I hated why if I mess up on a simple placement of one of the cog in my project, something would come undone, or worse; one of them not interacting well with each other so the entire process is ruined and I'll be back to square one." like throughout the whole process of this 'eventful' wrapping, she stopped once she made it half way of the hidden blade.

"I hated how my father easily discarded his pride and joy of forging. The man I looked up to for strength and inspiration, now a hollow shell of that proud man I looked up to. I hated how I needed a blade for me to actually finish this stupid project I started; and once I finally gotten the cogs working as best as I could for this to work and the person only who could make this blade was my father, but my father could never bring himself to go near his workshop or work on any of his craftsmanship; so I couldn't get a blade from him." she then started rolling up her sleeve to show her scars of her working on the forging alone with no experience or guild to her help.

"I can relate to you on why you have the need to cover your past." she looked at my arm, "I hated how I was stupid enough to think that I could start forging on my own, and I hated how my father caught me in this after I hurted myself..." she then started rubbing her scars, "He then took me to the hospital as fast as he could to see if my arm were okay or see if this wound would be infected." from all this serious talk, she finally showed a small semblance of a smile.

"After I told him my reasoning for why my stupid reason in trying to forge, all he did was laughed at my reasoning, saying 'You're lucky you didn't have the furnace on high! Your arm would have gotten more then a scar.' was all he said while he laughed," she then covered her arm to hid her scars, "but he then told to give up on my hatred for my mother and to stop this idiotic obsession in proving myself." she didn't even bother with wrapping anymore, and just sat down in her chair.

"I told him he wasn't anything different between my mother and him, how he easily dropped his passion for his craft and how he couldn't even make a simple blade." she sighed, probably giving me the water down version, "Angry at my comment, we made a deal that I'll stop this unhealthy behavior when he crafted the blade, and seeing that's all I wanted and needed to finally end this long obsession, I happily agreed to his deal." she then looked back to the hidden blade, "At first my father was shaky about working with his equipments for a very long time, but after many of tries and seeing the man I thought died with my mother; now reborn when crafting my final piece." she gave off a little sly grin when remembering her father being reborn.

"After thinking that everything that I went through was a decent trade for my father finding his passion back," she slammed her fist onto the table, "Till my hidden blade broke after the first try I used it." she looked broken when she said that, "The cogs were rusted after all that time sitting in that box," she only looked into the void of the unknown with a broken look to her, "I was filled with rage and anger for my mother to leave basically nothing to me after she passed, no personal gift she holded dear, no letter or book to see her talk to me through it," she looked me dead in the eyes with a terrifying look, "I just wanted her out from my life permanently."

"I hated, no I loathe her." she looked back to the hidden blade on my wrist, "The only thing that was in my mind at that time was to erase my mother from my life by ripping her out from our family portrait..." she only stared at the blade in that moment, "With the same weapon she tried to make all those years ago," now she gave off this creepy vib when she said those last words, "But my father stopped me before I could cut her out of the portrait." all the bad vib she brought, all faded away when she made a dumb look while placing her fist on her head.

She then returned to trying to wrap the bandage around my arm a fourth time, "After that, expecting my father to be disappointed in me for doing that or angry at for disrespecting her; but he understood my reasoning and feelings for my mother," this time went wrapping the bandage around my arm, it felt nice and comfortable from her previous tries, "She didn't leave any personal items she hold dear to my father as well when she passed, but he told me 'if all you gained from all you're experiencing till now was just more hatred when working on something beautiful and amazing with your very own hands; then you haven't gained anything from this pointless revenge.' was all he told." she went a little hard on the wrapping, but not to the point of discomfort, "I was about to give up on my pointless revenge, but my father laughed at my weak feelings, telling me how my mother would have gotten right up if somebody told her that. Angry at him for comparing me to my mother in this moment, he said 'But you're not your mother huh? But look how far you've gone, are you really going to give up at the end so easily mon petit marteau?' was all he said went I was about to give up." she sighed when she told her embarrassing nickname.

Surprisingly she when slow when wrapping this time, so it's was taking her a extremely slow and long time when wrapping, "Taking my father words, it's wasn't right to just given up once I finally made it's close to the finish line; so we set out to find the material needed to make this." she pointed at the hidden blade on my wrist, "So after we gotten the material for the blade, I was about to work on my own, but my father decided to help me work on my project..." she only looked happy when she mentioned her and her father working.

"It's was the most happiest moment in my life working with my father, and teaching him on how it's actually worked or where to place a cog in the contraption." she tipped on the hidden blade, "And expecting him to make the new blade for this new contraption we built together, but he only brought me into the forge to teach me how to make the blade. Working together for a week to make this is a moment I'll never forget." she now had the most brightest smile on her face once she said she was finished.

Once she finally finished her story, she as well finished wrapping my arm; but left the hand undone.

"After everything I done to make this stupid thing." she paused and looked back at it again, "I finally gotten a sign at why my mother poured her everything into her work and craftsmanship, seeing what you could accomplish with pure joy and hardship when you put that into you're work," she only gave me a sad smile, "it could make you cry." she only gave a small laugh that was only filled sadness, "But when I used mechanic and forging, they're were only filled with anger and frustration when I build the hidden blade, and my source of fuel wasn't the beauty of the craftsmanship," she let some of her tears coming down in front of me, "It's was only filled with anger, vengeance, and the bitterness of not being my mother."

She didn't let go of the wrapping, but she did put her face to my hand; while somberly letting out her regrets, "I was disgusted by myself for defiling this beautiful art for my corrupted purpose..." she continued to letting the tears come, "I promised myself that'll I'll never touch this art again if I only used it's for my hatred from the very beginning.." she then lifted up her head to face me once more, "My father wanted to teach me more about forging once I was done my whole revenge was over, but I couldn't bring myself to look at his workshop, not even my father who was a true craftsmans." she only looked ashamed of herself by this.

"But my father slapped me after I told him my reasoning." she looked to me bluntly while the crying came to a complete halt. Surprised at this information, I was about to laugh, but she beat me to the hit, "He awful really, slapping his young daughter when she spilled out her heart for her father." she only laughed more when I started laughing as well, "But he told me, 'You may have started this because of your hatred and you're vengeance, but when I seen your face when working on this project, you looked more happier then you have ever been since you're mother passing, and that's happiest wasn't because she died; it was you seeing the passion in this art," she stopped midway from her father speech, to only chock some tears, "You have more then proved yourself that you've given up this hatred when you first started.' he said for my reasoning, but I couldn't believe that my weak heart won't go back to that hatred was all I responded with, he then responded, 'You have the passion of- no, you don't have the passion of a craftsman, you have the heart of one, and that's heart is stronger then any hate could be.."

Once she said the last thing about her story, she finally finished wrapping the bandage around my hand; after what felt like a whole chapter to finish some simple task, "That's was a hell of a wrapping, really surprised me it took you about four tries to finally do this," I waved my arm around to see if it was okay to use this wrapping, "Mmm." now looking at this gife she bequeathed me.

"Yeah, and thanks you for listening to my story." she moved back to her shield she left till now, "Now I have the motivation to work till I die!" she pumped up her arm, confused by this statement, I looked to her to explain, "Well any sane person wouldn't wouldn't give out their weapon and whole backstory to a random person they just met for free." she laughed, "So you aren't a sane person?" sarcastically sounded while trying to raise my brows up.

"I don't know, probably not if I did what I say a moment ago," she snickered at what she said, "But I actually don't want to be forgotten about here..." she smiled at me with sadness behind her fake smile, "I don't want to be over looked once I die. I want someone to remember me, that isn't my father who only knows my story." she revealed why she explained her whole backstory, "So I'm sorry if I'm taking up your memory for my unwanted story." she tried to play it off by with a laugh, but slowly started to tear up a bit midway, "I see now," finally getting up from that uncomfortable sitting position, "So is that's the new price for this hidden blade?" asking her, "I'll happily pay for that if it's for this work of a masterpiece you're offering." I took out my hand to see if this was a deal. She only looked happy at my offer and happily shook my hand, "Heh, you're the first ever customer since I started my blacksmith/mechanic workshop!" she then slapped my back for this great achievement of being her first, "Next time you shop at my store you'll have to pay materially instead of feelings okay~" she then wrapped her arm around my neck to make sure I get the point.

"Okay," she brought up my arm to face the opened air, "So how you use this is-" she was cut off by a big explosion coming from her desk.

"Mr. Guard!" Cristina yelled towards us, "It's Grey actually." again needed to give out my name, "Grey," she again slammed her hand down to make a explosion sound, "I'm going to check on our sister group!" she expected me to know this 'sister group' of their, "Right you woken up! Basically the wood working classroom is making bows and arrow for us to actually fight back with instead of just using shield, and I haven't checked on them since yesterday, so I'm putting you in charge for now!" she started walking towards the door, "Wait!" I was about to try and catch up with her, but she rushed to the door like nothing.

"..."

"..."

We both did expect her to be that fast to reach the exits in that short amount time, nor her to be that active for someone working in a forge.

"Urg, taking a short break..." one of them put their furnace on low, and now resting on his desk.

"Same," another person said, put their furnace on low for the metals to keep it's heat, "I'll put a timer for five minutes for us~" she followed suit with the previous person.

Like a domino effect, they all followed when another person put their furnace on low.

"The hell!" yelling at all of them for their instant laziness, "You guys were all 'We'll work to the bitter end if you're leading us!' where's that spirit now?!" shouting at them.

"Chill man~" one of them responded to me, "We're just taking a well deserved five minutes break," he looked at me with this easy go look in his eyes, "we'll get back on it, promise." he then winked at me.

"Yeah," another agreed with the same person, "plus I just finished my shield here." he pointed to his now finished shield.

"Ok-" getting cut off by Valérie, "No point in fighting this unwinnable fight," she smack me on the head, "Plus they deserve it for their hard work." she then patted my back with her signature pure strength on my back.

Seeing no point in fighting with them, because if I did, they'll probably turn into a mob if I kept preaching to them to get back to work; but feeling awful for falling into peer pressured and letting them get their way from me being their leader just a minute ago wasn't the best feeling.

"Wow, I'm a great sub leader." sighing while about to laugh at how quickly they didn't listen, "Don't worry Gris," she pulled me to her, " You made the right choice," she tried to cheer me up, "Okay then," she brought up my arm again with the hidden blade was on, "So..."

I couldn't fully concentrate to what she was saying in that moment. Something felt wrong when everything went quiet for me. And thank to them not working anymore and having the classroom go quiet enough to hear a lot of things, and hearing a faint sound in the background that I couldn't describe, but still know what's it meant.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!"

Having no time, I dragged Valérie down with me.

The next thing that happened was a loud explosion near the back of the room.

"See?" hearing someone from the back, "I told you they're in this room."

"Aww," one of them said, "Is are little game of cat and mouse over now?" the same person asked.

"Heh," a graft voice came into the picture, "Nope, we still have one more game to play with them." I peeked out to see how many there were.

Shocked to see more people flooding in from the hole, "And it's called hide n' shoot."