A Long Lunch Break (part 2)

"But, still… the boss was moving so quickly yesterday. We will need something to protect ourselves."

"In that case, we can wear a motorcycle helmet. I can borrow some from my classmates!"

Uh… how do I tell him that not even motorcycle helmets can protect us from the boss's claws? Plus… you can just borrow them from your friends?? To get destroyed?

"What if… we used some kind of holy water on ourselves? So, if the demons touch us, it will instead harm them."

I suggested the idea, but Nico shook his head.

"But, they will already be harming you, no? Because they will only touch the holy water on our bodies when they are already about to harm you. You will still get wounded."

"That's true… that's not real protection, then…"

I began to ponder deeply as to what we can use, but nothing truly comes to mind. I have no experience with going against spirits or demons, so naturally I know nothing around this area. I just have the ability to see them, that's all.

"In that case, what if I looked for some items that can protect us?"

Nico suddenly suggested. I turned to him quite confused, and Nico took out his phone. He went on the web for a while, and I stayed silent while playing around with the water gun that he brought.

Man… these things are actually heavy. Not only do they store tons of water, but they also shoot powerfully. They seem to have good accuracy, too.

What is this, military grade toy water guns?? Who invented these!?? Why are they so absurdly good?!?

"Ah, found it!"

Nico suddenly shouted, and he approached me closer to show me. He leaned so close that I could actually feel the heat of his body. His face was only centimeters above mine, and I felt very conscious of his existence right now.

If only time would stop…

"This one. See this necklace?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and focused my eyes onto his phone's screen, and I even leaned in closer to see properly since I have terrible eyesight.

"… Is that amazon?"

"Hey! They sell supernatural weapons too, okay!?"

"I'm just worried… that's all…"

Of all the places that have the largest scam history in the entire internet universe… An E-Commerce website.

"Even if it's a scam, it's very cheap! I think I can afford that if you don't want to."

"It's not about being cheap or not. If that thing is indeed a scam, then we won't just lose our money. These things are supposed to protect us, remember?"

"Oh… right."

Yeah, it's not about the money. If those things were actually fake, and the demons managed to land a hit on us, we would actually lose our lives. That is why we shouldn't trust something like protection items on such a scam website.

"In that case, do you know where we can find a trustworthy supernatural shop?"

Nico asked me, and I began to deeply ponder.

There is… one…

.

.

.

Afterwards, we promised to meet up again after school to visit the place that I know of.

Lunch break ended, and we both went back to our classrooms. I didn't end up eating my lunch box and was quite hungry for the entire day. Fortunately, Nico had a worse fate because not only did he skip lunch, but his water guns got confiscated by the headmaster because he nonchalantly carried them openly as he walked past the headmaster's office.

He got his water guns back after school, but not after he had to write five pages of promises to not bring a toy to school.

Boy… if only they know what else he brought to school…

As promised, we met up by the gate after school. I had to wait an extra ten minutes because the guy had to make a deal with the headmaster to get his water guns back, and he appeared at the front gate with those long boys in his arms.

"I got the guns back! Phew~, that took a while."

Nico said as soon as he arrived by the gate. I studied the guns and they seem to look fine. Hopefully the headmaster didn't tamper with the guns. Our lives are on the line, after all.

Not far from us, a student called out to Nico from afar. Nico then excused himself to me because it seemed pretty important, and he left the guns with me.

Now, I'm the idiot carrying two long toy guns. Man, this is just so refreshing.

"She really is shameless, huh?"

Very quickly, my hearing became sharpened over ten times. Right outside the gate, on the other side of the exit, I can hear voices of girls talking. I wasn't sure if they were talking about me, at first. But as soon as the conversation started going further, I knew immediately what's going on.

"Clinging to the hero because she had nobody else. What's next? Betraying him?"

"Yeah, she was lucky that Nicolas was so kind. Otherwise, I bet she would've stopped coming to school yesterday."

"Looks like Peach didn't slam the desk hard enough."

It's the same old mockery, coming from the same old group of girls, with the same old reasoning. Only this time, they brought in one more name to the table.

Hearing myself getting dissed was acceptable to an extent. But, for them to also talk about Nico…

Damn… if only I'm holding real guns right now…

Wait.

"Yeah! I think we should wake her up from her beautiful dream of going out with the prince."

"Haha! The prince and the frog. Except this time, the frog is actually a frog."

"Wasn't it the frog and the princess?"

As the girls were talking loudly about me, I placed my fingers on the trigger of the water guns. I still pointed them upwards, because these guns can actually hurt if you fire them directly to people.

Now, there is no need for such violence. All I wanted was to just… teach them a lesson.

SPRRT!!!

I fired the water gun upwards, and after testing out the water gun at the school backyard earlier, I knew exactly the right angle to land them on the girls.

Now… what do I say in my defense?

"Kyaahh!!!"

"What's happening!?"

Oh, it looks like the water lands.

Now, to act as if I fired it by accident.

I waited until the girls came inside the gate. I already prepared what things to say once they appeared, and I acted as if I'm just playing with my phone while holding the water guns.

To my surprise, the one who approached me first was Nico.

"Done! Ready to go?"

Nico took the guns from my hands, and I can only stare at him blankly as he took them.

N-No, wait… this can be good…

Beforelong, the girls peeked their heads inside the gate and found Nico walking with the water guns. I was following behind him, and I turned my eyes towards the girls.

Woah… I can see the results a little…

The amount of water that the gun can shoot is quite a lot. Almost half a cup of water per round. While it's not enough to completely wet their clothes, it's definitely enough to create some soak marks on them.

Just like Nico, I ignored them as we exited the gate. We kept on walking until we were quite far from the gate.

"So, how are we going to go there?"

Nico asked me, and I took out my phone to play around with it. I opened an app and showed Nico the screen.

"Taxi?"

"Yeah. It's quite far away."

Technically, it's only three kilometers away from the school. But after walking two kilometers yesterday, I decided that an extra kilometer of walking will deplete my stamina. So, we're taking an online cab.

The cab arrived not long after I ordered it, and the trip there only took about twenty minutes since the road was quite empty. Nico and I didn't share a word during the entire ride, mainly because we didn't want the driver to feel left out. So, we stayed silent, and we arrived at the destination without realizing.

"Where… is the place you talked about?"

Nico asked while looking around, because we sort of stopped in the middle of a rather crowded street. I lifted my hand and pointed at a small alley not far from where we stopped and began walking there.

After a little walking that took two minutes, we arrived in front of a small shop. From the front, the shop sells all sorts of necessities like a minimarket. But, I know who the owner is, and they don't only sell these things.

I walked up to the desk and called out the shop waiter.

"Excuse me."

As soon as I called, a head popped out from below the table. It's a young boy at the age of twelve.

"Ah! Sis Ellie!!"

The boy called out to me, and I chuckled hearing him talk. Seeing the boy suddenly appear from below the table, Nico got startled.

"Hai, Jay. Can you fetch your daddy?"

"Okay!"

After I told him that, Jay quickly ran to the back. While waiting for him to fetch his dad, I turned around and saw Nico waiting behind me.

"Who was that?"

"That's Jay. Son of the man we are going to meet."

"And who's Ellie?"

Ah… yeah. I forgot to tell him my nickname, after all.

"Never call me that. Strictly."

"Okay, El."

"… And don't make up names, either."

Nico chuckled hearing my cold tone, and I turned around because Jay is back from calling his dad.

"Daddy said you can go inside."

"Thanks, Jay!"

After being allowed in, I turned my eyes to Nico and tilted my head, signaling him to follow me. Nico followed behind me while awkwardly holding the water guns, and we began slipping through a rack of rice to get inside. I patted Jay in the head as I walked past him, I went inside the tray that separates the shop and the back.

Nico followed behind and entered the back side of the shop, and we arrived in a storage room that keeps all the shop items. These are for the items that didn't get a space to be shown on the shop racks, but they were kept here in case the ones on the racks ran out.

I continued walking to another tray at the far back of the room, and Nico continued walking following behind me.

Now, we are entering the old man's house.

"Oh, it's little Ellie!"

An old man suddenly welcomed me from the dining table, and I looked around right after Nico and I passed the tray.

The house looks pretty much the same as I remembered. The room we entered is an all in one room that has the dining table, the living room, and the guest room.

The TV is on the right, along with the entire living room and the guest room next to it. There are two doors on the right, which leads to the bedrooms belonging to the old man's family. On the left is where the dining table is, and that is where the door to the kitchen and backyard is located.

This very room itself is already the entire house. After all, the old man wasn't exactly what you call rich.

"I'm not little anymore, Uncle Deve."

I said as I walked to him. Uncle Deve was reading a book on the dining table, and I decided that I should sit down with him on the oval dining table. Right after I sat down, I turned to Nico.

"Come sit, Nico."

I told him to sit on the chair next to me, the furthest away from Uncle Deve. Nico probably still felt rather uncomfortable being in someone else's house, but that's okay. He will come to like it. After all, I'm more comfortable here than in my own home.

After Nico sat down, Uncle Deve lowered his book and studied him.

"Maybe a little introduction, Ellie?"

"Ah, right. Nico, this is Uncle Deve. The old man I told you about. You can say that he is a supernatural expert. But in reality, it's not that simple.

He is an exorcist."