Midnight Maiden, Part Six

{A Few Hours Later}

"You, uh, really didn't take it easy on us, huh?" Rin asked with a chuckle, as she stood across from Maria, at the Meditation Center.

It took another two attempts before Rin and her team finally managed to land a hit onto Maria. It got to the point where, honestly, Rin wondered if she had done something to piss Maria off, and she had just taken it out on them this way. But, eventually, they had achieved it. The students all vacated the obstacle course, ate at the cafeteria, and now, Rin was standing in front of the woman who had just put her through hell a few hours ago.

"Of course, not," she replied. "This sort of mission will be unlike the ones you've done before. You need to be ready. Hence why, later, I will be just as hard on you again."

"Yeah, I get that."

By now, the healing food Rin had eaten at the cafeteria was beginning to soothe her body, and she and her teacher would soon begin their usual training, all while Rin wondered if there was anything she could do to raise the chances of her team's success. Sara was a very talented fighter, from what Rin could see, but she feared Sara may not be enough to carry them through whatever the teachers have in mind.

"Today," Maria said, grabbing Rin's attention, "I will teach you another bread-and-butter technique."

"Oh, okay, cool," Rin nodded. "What is it?"

"The Dancer's Fury," Maria stated. "A series of complex kicks with the particular effect that, if you perform each one correctly, each kick will be stronger than the last."

"Ohhh, nice," Rin smiled, nodding. "How do I do it?"

"First, as you push your Essence out through your legs, you open with a crescent kick," Maria said, performing the move in front of her, "then, with the same foot, you transition into a side-kick, and then, you jump up and perform two quick spinning kicks," Maria said, before leaping into the air and doing just that, in an incredibly graceful manner, ending with something that resembled the crescent kick that started the sequence off.

"If you get it right," she said, as she landed, "the final two kicks will destroy most enemies at your same rank."

"Alright," Rin said, taking a deep breath and readying herself to try the same thing.

[So... Start with this,] she thought, performing the crescent kick, [then, do this,] she thought as she did the side-kick, [and then...]

But, as she jumped for the last move, she lost track of her own movements in mid-air and fell on her knees.

"Agrh," she hissed, "my bad."

"Eh, don't worry, that last move is tricky. Take some time, practice it a bit, and we'll see where we go from there."

Nodding, Rin did just that. However, as she stood up, a question popped up in her mind.

"So, where did you learn this stuff from?"

"Hm?" Maria tilted her head. "Most of it from a handful of people at Cradle, some of it from the outer villages. Even then," Maria shrugged, "I am sure I have not discovered every single technique there is. Our path is one others rarely choose to take, which makes acquiring this knowledge somewhat difficult. But, don't worry," she told Rin, giving her a thumbs-up, "that's what I'm here for."

---

Once their training was done, Rin walked down the stairs and went to her room. As she stepped in, finding it empty, she began changing out of these clothes and into something slightly more suitable for heading into the city, a longsleeved white shirt and some high-waisted black pants.

Although her first little excursion downtown had been a success of sorts, she slowly came to realize that she just didn't have enough knowledge of Libera yet to gather where she could go to do this in.

She felt it was time for a sort of scouting mission, to get to know this place. And, as she had that thought, she knew there was someone just a couple of steps away who would appreciate tagging along on that.

Rin opened up Xhez's bag, tapping it once or twice to wake the sprite up.

She saw the girl's eyes blink open, and a little smile came over the shrunken sprite when she saw Rin.

"Hey," Rin greeted her, producing one of her own. "Had a nice rest?"

"This sort of schedule still feels strange," Xhez replied, "but, I feel I will get used to it."

"Good to hear," Rin replied. "So, listen, I'm heading into the city to look around a bit. Want to come?"

"Oh, sure!" Xhez quickly replied and Rin stepped back, to give her space to do her thing. One flip later, and Xhez was standing in front of her in her full size.

"Get your disguise ready then," Rin told her as she looked for some clothes to let her borrow, "and we'll get going."

"Right!"

Once she was done, the two of them were about to exit Rin's room, with a pair of excited smiles. Although there was definitely some anxiety under Rin's skin, since the whole point of this was to explore places neither of them had seen yet, she couldn't deny she was eager to get to know the city.

However, just before they did, Rin's messenger bird suddenly arrived at her window, carrying a letter.

"Huh? Is this from mom?" Rin asked, as she quickly walked over to it and retrieved the envelope, which made the bird turn to wood as it sat on her bed.

When Rin looked opened it up though, she quickly realized that wasn't the case.

"... This," she muttered, "this is from June."

"What?" Xhez asked, quickly sitting by Rin's side with a wide grin.

"Yeah, hold on, I'll read it out. Ahem," she cleared her throat. "Dear Xhez. First of all, I hope you're having a wonderful morning, noon, or evening, or whatever. I wanted to let you know that I got your letter and everything you said made me very happy," she read out, pausing as Xhez let out some excited-sounding noises when she heard that. "I didn't really know what to tell you, here, since, ironically, I've always been better at talking face-to-face than through writing, but, we may have the chance to... do that soon?" Rin tilted her head as she read that. "I will refrain from saying anything more, so as to not get your hopes too high up, but I believe a chance for us to meet again may be on the horizon. Love, June."

Rin blinked, as she took the letter and folded it up.

"Wow. Holy crap."

"Um, did I understand it right?" Xhez asked, leaning in. "She said she's coming soon?"

"Maybe," Rin said, chuckling. "Though, she didn't really specify a time at all."

"Ohhh, still, how wonderful!" Xhez moved from one side to another, in an excited, but funny-looking way.

Giggling a bit, Rin stood up.

"Okay, ladykiller, come on," she told the sprite. "Let's get going."

"L-Lady killer!?" Xhez asked, paling.

"No, no, it's an expression," Rin waved a hand. "Come on, I'll explain on the way, we have a city to explore."

---

"Hmm... This is all so... busy," Xhez said, as she and Rin walked down a street filled with people.

They had ventured to the southwest parts of Libera, in the exact opposite direction of the academy, south of the train station. Here, it almost felt like they'd entered an entirely different place. People were carrying bags of materials that looked far too heavy for any normal person. There were some younger-looking citizens reading books as they walked down the sidewalk, nearly running into a few others as they walked by them.

However, the most perplexing thing they came across were the sounds of fighting going on down the street.

[Is something happening?] Rin wondered, as she and Xhez continued their walk before realizing that those noises were, in fact, coming from a building to the right. There was a line of citizens looking to enter, but each one was stopped by a bouncer-looking individual, standing by the side of the door. He would search them, then cast a quick spellsign in the air, before letting them through.

"We should investigate!" Xhez whispered to Rin.

"Uh... I don't..."

However, just as she was about to explain to Xhez that this could be a bad idea, a small car pulled up right ahead of them.

And, when Rin saw the people who walked out, her eyes widened.

It looked like a married couple, but the both of them were dressed in such flashy clothes that Rin doubted they were actually from this part of town. A few of the citizens looked at the car with blatant greed in their eyes, but a couple of glares from the owners shot them down, and they moved along.

They walked up to the guy standing by the door, and he quickly let them in without any such vetting like he'd done previously.

The effect it had on Rin was simple, though. Now that she knew this was a place where nobles went, she was too curious not to ask about it.

But, she didn't have to ask him.

[I can talk to Elisa, or Eve, when I get back. I'd be shocked if this was some super-secret thing even they didn't know about,] Rin thought, pulling Xhez lightly by her elbow.

"R-Rin!?"

"Don't worry," Rin told her, under her breath so they didn't hear. "I'll find out, but there are definitely better people to ask than them."

As they walked away, the sounds of a crowd cheering and men grunting filled the street, making Rin's curiosity grow with every step she took.

[Okay...] Rin thought. [Definitely a few interesting places, but, maybe it would be good to...]

However, just as she was thinking of heading back to the Academy, she saw one of her classmates walking down the street.

Seth was there, keeping his head low, and carrying a large cylindrical bag of some sort, as he moved up the sidewalk.

Just as Rin caught sight of him, he looked up and noticed her as well, and he stopped just a few steps ahead of her.

"..." Neither of them said anything. They weren't friends, and, from Rin's point of view, Seth was just a regular asshole. His eyes, however, went to Xhez, and he raised a brow, before looking back at Rin.

"... Hmph."

Without a word, Seth lowered his head again, and kept going, walking right past them and nearly bumping into Xhez.

Rin turned around and watched him go.

[What the hell is that guy's problem?] She wondered, but then, as Seth stopped, her lips parted. [Huh?]

Seth went into the very building she and Xhez had been curious about, and, like the nobles from before, the guy didn't even vet him. He just let Seth walk in.

"... Okay," Rin shrugged.

[Well, if that's the kind of people I can find in there, then I suddenly don't really want to go in anymore.]