65 - Dark ruins that err

*

After school, we swiftly arrived at the nearest culture zone in the mid afternoon.

"So it's here, it certainly looked different than what I thought." (Arin)

"... I still doubt this place will have any clue, the gap in time is too much." (Sariel)

"I know. Trying to relate the previous era to my curse, with a disparity of thousands of years, it's obviously a hail Mary.

But, y'see? I have nothing, so I will lose nothing either. Let's go." (Lastia)

Without giving Sariel time to rebut, I stepped into the so called cultural zone. Most often, they take the form of museums due to the enclosed nature that works to shelter and preserve ancient artifacts, with the largest museum matching the size of a commercial zone's train station.

This place... Certainly wasn't the standard. When they walked in, it looked like any other street in the residential zone. Even though it was marked on the map, the differences were not glaringly large. The streets were equally narrow and the buildings were off the same height, if not for the souvenir shops lining the street on both sides of the entrance, they wouldn't know if they were actually at the right place.

There were many souvenir shops along the way and outdoor restaurants that sate the visitors and tourists, for this specific place the culture they preserved layed in the food and goods they were making. Not only the choice of esoteric food ingredients, embroidery l, and cloth making was their specialty, selling a multitude of different cloth products such as towels, cloaks, robes, mufflers, scarfs, and other apparel.

We bought tickets and walked the streets, buying street food on the way like tourists... Well, it was true that our interest lay in its history, it wasn't wrong to conflate us with visitors from afar when we're here for the same thing. Paying customers are paying customers.

School was... Interesting. In the end, nothing out of the ordinary happened and we... Simply walked to the cultural mini zone. There was no strict definition of zone, but due to the size of the 2 main zones, residential and commercial, the cultural preservation regions that are relatively smaller, became inevitably referred to as mini zones.

There were certain things that stood out as odd when it happened... During school.

***

A individual whom I had never met approached me. Well, it was accurate to say I've never met anyone in my life, but this person was only mentioned in passing in one of my entries. A classmate, Fu Dan. He had shaggy black hair and a skinny built, his pants were slightly baggy and held well by his belt. The uniform for guys was a white short sleeved button shirt and trousers with a belt, the colour was consistent for everyone in the highschool section.

"Why did you call me out here?" (Lastia)

"I've been observing you for a while." (Fu Dan)

"Hah?! What the heck, you creep!" (Lastia)

He brought me to this secluded place just to tell me that?! Well, it isn't secluded. It's in the middle of a hallway, so no one is paying attention. Blending in a tree into a forest and all. If anyone was suspicious, I would pass it off as some role-playing game. Exasperated, he continued with his voice audibly higher pitched.

"W-wait! NO!! That's not what I meant! I mean, it IS creepy and exactly what I meant but not in that way!

Haa~ jeez. You're going to send me into cardiac arrest." (Fu Dan)

"It's YOUR fault, anyway! Get on with it, lunch break doesn't last long." (Lastia)

What was his goal? How much did he know? From his words alone, it seemed like he uncovered something. It's important to gauge how much information he had if I wanted to negotiate, of course this was assuming he was trying to blackmail me. Worse case, I could eliminate him on his way home. I'm not a Trace, an event will NOT trigger, and nobody can bring him back to life if I grounded the corpse.

Now, what grounded entailed, it could mean both definitions.

"... There aren't only 3 of you fighting Traces. You guys are doing it out in the open and it makes you guys easy targets.

Traces are still relatively unintelligent, making them a prime target to train your body. Magical girls are more dangerous and they could be lurking anywhere.

I just wanted to let you know, bye. " (Fu Dan)

He waved his hand back as he walked away, leaving the scene quickly. Although he was just going back to class, the same class at that. We were classmates after all. It was a relief that he had no intentions to expose us, but... Assuming magical girls kept their powers even after graduating from highschool, and that there could be ones who were male too... There would be a lot more than 3 magical girls per residential zone...

As for the ones that are commonly known... That would be us, who are always in the open. We cooperate with each other and perform the noble duty of Trace extermination, Trace attacks could occur at any moment but typically do so at an average of once per week per zone.

***

"It looks like there isn't much here." (Sariel)

Please don't tell me that...

"We might have to try another day, or another place." (Arin)

I don't have 'another day'!

"This zone only had history related to textile production and the symbolism that lay therein. Nothing about magic, much less curses." (Sariel)

I know! I know how painfully normal this place is! That even though being normal is supposed to be a good thing, supposed to mean that the people here lead safer lives relating less to the world of magic, I'm so deeply disappointed! Perhaps... Perhaps I am a failure of a magical girl, I would wish danger upon others to satisfy my curiosity. I knew, I understood how this could have all been futile, that it would more than likely be a wasted trip.

That's just reality. I wonder how my face looks right about now...? It's an expression of someone who is selfish and greedy isn't it...?