Chapter 48: Resistances are Painful and so are new people
"Bye."
Kumi said to the two maids as she made her way out of the bathing area, her towel sitting on her shoulder and her hair still slightly wet.
"Goodbye, miss."
"Goodbye."
The maids bid their farewell with slightly concerned smiles on their faces.
Kumi, wearing her new clothes, made her way back to her room where she placed the towel on the windowsill, letting it dry.
It was rather late, the sun was setting and the moon was clearly visible in the sky.
'Slight hunger.'
She held her stomach as she thought so, placing her hands in her pockets, she felt the bracelet.
'Gifting torture machines to children. Sheesh.'
Kumi thought while slightly rolling her eyes.
Opening the window, Kumi jumped up on the windowsill only to slip slightly as she landed on her wet towel that proceeded to fly out of the window. A second later, she heard a wet splat as she gazed down towards the ground.
'Ah. And here I just wanted to enjoy a dramatic view.'
Kumi sighed slightly and closed the window after another glance at the sunset. She then jumped back down to the floor. As she formulated her next actions carefully.
'Get the towel, bring it back and get a snack from the kitchen. Plan set. Go.'
She thought to herself as she lightly jogged out of her room, closing the door behind her. Speed walking downstairs and outside where she greeted the guards on duty, she did a half circle around the building, looking for the window on the upper floors that led to her room.
A minute later, she found the place where her room was visible from.
Closing in on the building and having a look around the place, she found the wet towel half a metre away from where it had landed.
'Wind, most likely.'
She thought as she picked it up, folded it into an imperfect square and started moving back towards the entrance.
Though she almost immediately stopped herself after two steps as she heard rustling from the bushes behind her.
Turning back, she analysed the area.
'No red, no danger. Yet. Nothing in the surrounding trees, rustling only from the bush at my front. Possibility of being surrounded is low. Possibility of a dangerous enemy is low but not impossible. Possibility of random wildlife, high. Possibility of me overreacting to a random noise... there is a possibility for that too, yeah.'
Kumi quickly surmised that there was most likely no danger to her outside of her own room since that would be stupid.
'This entire area has pretty high security. Probably has a lot of features that I don't know about either. So breaking in requires a ton of skill or an insane amount of luck. And I doubt there's a highly skilled assassin squirming around in a bush.'
Kumi calmed down.
'Probably just a squirrel.'
She still stayed silent and still for a moment.
And a few seconds later, when she was about to take a step away, she saw a dirty hand reach out from the bottom half of the bush as it seemed to be dragging itself out.
'... Nahhhh. That's a full-on undead. I'm not dealing with all that.'
Kumi waved her hands in front of her while slowly shaking her head and walking backwards away from the bush.
A second later, the hand dragged out a head attached to a body.
'Mmmm. Red flag. Bad flag.'
Though the body that was dragged out seemed to belong to a child. Before Kumi could come to hate the situation, even more, the body's other hand moved and helped in dragging itself out.
The head attached to the body looked up.
'A kid. A dirty evil undead kid. Probably.'
Kumi thought as she made eye contact.
The kid had messy and pretty long dark purple hair that almost completely covered their upper face, the stems of their hair at the top of their head were green and their difficult-to-see pupils were dark violet.
After a second of looking around, the kid grinned. Their teeth were sharp like an animal's.
'I don't know what to think about this situation...'
The kid dragged the rest of their body out from the bush, and attached to the kid's legs were two other kids.
The previously mentioned purple-haired one was wearing black pants and a dark purple tank top.
The one stuck to their left leg was wearing mostly white, brown stained clothes of similar design to the purple-haired one but also had a light grey winter jacket on, their eyes a light shade of grey and small ponytail hair coloured light cyan. The cyan kid seemed annoyed beyond belief.
The kid stuck to the right leg was wearing a dark teal-coloured no-sleeve sweater, underneath of which, they had a dark purple jacket-like shirt, their hair a light violet and eyes the same colour as their sweater. Most of their face hid behind the dark purple bucket hat that had fallen off their head. They seemed rather frightened of the situation.
'What gang have I stumbled upon here? And since when does this place have kids crawling around the forest?'
The dark purple-haired kid started talking first before the two stuck to his legs could even comprehend their escape from the bush.
"Hey! You new?"
He said rather loudly as he stood up.
'... I'm hungry. Time to leave.'
And so, Kumi turned around and walked away.
'My personality just doesn't work with kids.'
"Where do you think you are going? I'm talking!"
Kumi glanced behind her, making eye contact with the two others who were dusting themselves off from the dirt. The bucket hat one avoided her stare while the ponytail guy held for a while. Kumi didn't make eye contact with the guy whose eyes she couldn't see because of his hair so she just ignored him.
'Weird. Should talk to Hilde about this. Maybe there's some orphanage or kid garden around the area.'
Kumi turned away from the group and walked off, trying to ignore the yelling.
Walking behind a nearby tree and breaking sight with the group, she started making her way towards the kitchen.
'Still slightly famished.'
She thought, trying to forget the entire experience.
...
"Oi!"
The dark-haired kid started walking off towards the same direction Kumi had left in.
"Nope! Stop right there!"
The light cyan-haired ponytail boy grabbed the loud one by the ear and pulled them back.
"Aritooo!"
The loud one yelled as he hit the ground and looked towards the ponytail boy.
"Kamunomiiii!"
The light cyan-haired boy named Arito yelled back in a mocking tone of voice.
"Arrghhh! What was that for?!"
"Lushikii..."
The bucket hat-wearing boy said out loud in a quiet tone.
Eyes turned to him.
"Ah... I felt left out."
Arito turned to the boy named Kamunomi as he sighed.
He crouched down as he pointed his finger at him while talking.
"You drag us out here, this far away, barely saying anything."
Arito poked Kamunomis face after every word, lifting his chin up with an annoyed look in his eyes.
"After passing the fence and refusing to stop on your stupid adventure, literally dragging us behind you. Do you not see that it's sunset? The caretakers will have our heads after they shame them!"
"I didn't force you to come!"
Kamunomi yelled back only to have two fingers poke at his eyes.
"If we hadn't you would have died!"
"Afghaaahh!"
Kamunomi held his eyes in pain. He yelled too, but that isn't very surprising at this point.
"Ughh. What would have killed him Arito?"
Lushiki asked as he raised his hand.
"Probably the guards or maids who would have taken him for an intruder."
Kamunomi rubbed his eyes as he spoke.
"I just wanted to check this place out! We have only been here once and weren't 'Allowed' to explore the place so I wanted to see what's up!"
"I will gouge out your eyes."
"Try it, ponyboy!"
"Umm. Guys? Stop fighting...?"
Arito and Kamunomi ignored Lushiki as they were about to start fighting like child gangsters.
"Umm, ah. Who do you think that girl was? I haven't seen her around before."
Lushiki said louder than usual, trying to divert the topic from a fight to a discussion.
"Ah. Right. That one."
Arito stopped halfway from kicking Kamunomi.
"Oh, yea. I guess she was someone new? She acted way too high and mighty though. She probably just thinks she can continue living here and is being prepared to be moved back home."
"You mean our home, right?"
"Duh. What else do you think pony?"
"Well I don't know, her clothes looked pretty high quality," Arito said through grinding teeth before calming down.
"Umm. She had a wet towel that looked about her size. So she had a bath somewhere here maybe."
"Huhh? We never got that when we all visited the place! We just got some food after looking at some strong people train!"
"Yeah, the food was great."
"Mhm." Lushiki nodded.
"I still dream of it." Kamunomi said with drool on his chin.
Akito held his chin as he thought out loud.
"Hmm. Maybe she is some special kid and is living here?"
"Everyone at home is special. It's stupid to think one special is more special than another special." Kamunomi snapped back at Akito's comment.
"Just a thought. She might be some big guest's daughter. There is honestly no way for a kid to be living in in the same place as the upper echelon."
Arito said, before looking at the sky.
"There should still be some time left before the gates are locked for the night. Want to try exploring then?"
Arito turned to Kamunomi with a light smile. Kamunomi lit up as he said rather loudly.
"I knew you were interested too! Let's go to the dining place and get some of that food!"
"Well be caught though." Lushiki butted in.
"It'll be fine! We're in trouble already! Might as well go out satisfied." Kamunomi said with a smirk that was followed by Arito.
"Well, I agree with that."
And the trio started walking in the same direction Kumi had left in.
...
Kumi was sitting in the dining area. The place was filled with people. This was actually one of the times she was there at the correct time, happy hour.
Kumi had yet to see a waiter approach her, she was hard to spot in the sea of people and there were only so many waiters and so many tables.
'I just want a snack or something.'
Kumi was visibly devastated.
'Can't I just go into the kitchen and ask there? Raymond should be able to hook me up with a sandwich or something. No one has told me that I Can't go there soo.'
Kumi considered it deeply for a while, and after a minute or so passed, she saw the doors open again.
'Ah. More fish to the sea. How sad.'
She thought as she could only see the top of the large doors. Nevertheless, she kept waiting.
'I guess this is where I get my Starving Resistance or whatever.'
Before she could make another comment, she was surprised to see three chairs being pulled out from her table.
'Witchcraft.'
She immediately thought as she saw no one near the table even move their hands. But a moment later, Kumi was surprised. And definitely not pleasantly so.
"Ah. Finally a free table." Akito the ponytail boy had jumped up on a chair, as he made eye contact with Kumi, he immediately turned quiet.
"Yeah! Finally! Let's hope the waiters don't take long." The loud Kamunomi was next to plop out from below and onto a chair. Looking at Kumi, the next noise out of his mouth was simply "Ah".
The last one to show their face was Lushiki, the bucket house boy. Who remained silent the entire time, even after making quick eye contact with Kumi.
Kumi herself stayed unreadable on the outside. On the inside, however.
'Why the hell are these three small dirt worms following me? And again, since when are there kids beside me here? Don't tell me they're other weapons of war that I need to work with! Both sides already left bad impressions!'
Kumi thought very loudly.
"Hello, we didn't get to exchange names back there. It's a pleasure to-"
And Kumi again avoided all possible problems by standing up and walking away.
'It's definitely not that they came to my table but that I had already planned to enter the kitchen.'
Kumi told herself as she walked off.
And at the perfect time, the door flew open as a few waiters rushed out with plates of food, providing the perfect opportunity for Kumi to casually walk inside.
As she took a look around the hectic kitchen, she chose not to disrupt the flow of work and sat down on a tall metal table where she waited.
'Awkward Situation Escape Attempt Successful.'
Kumi thought as she simply observed the chefs as they did their work.
'So fast.'
...
"What was that about?" Kamunomi asked in a slightly irritated manner.
"I guess she doesn't like us." Arito said.
"It might be that we are covered in dirt and forest stuff." Lushiki commented quietly.
"Ah. That might be it too yeah." Arito said as he looked down at his clothes.
"Shame. She looked cute. Well, let's call some waiters and get some food while we're here." Kamunomi said and received stares from the two other boys at the table.
"K-Kamunomi ?" Lushiki asked.
"What?"
Arito butted in before Lushiki could lose his hat and eye.
"Kamunomi. Did you say she's cute? You?"
"What's the problem?"
"You are completely the fighting adventurous type. Who knew you could appreciate the finer things in life?"
"What? Finer things? Don't talk like you're a grown-up pony. You're seven."
"Yes. And as mature as a seventy-year-old. Which is why it strikes me so deeply that you of all people is showing interest in girls?"
"Why are you so weird sometimes Arito?"
"I-I think she's cute too." Lushiki butted in himself before Arito could go on a weird tangent.
The three continued their conversation for a minute, in the end, all coming to the same conclusion. Yes, they all agreed.
And as they finished the fierce debate, they were surprised to hear a waiter shouting from near the kitchen.
"Excuse me! Orders from the head chef! We will be closing early today, please leave your tables within the next 3 minutes."
"Huh? We just got here!"
"The head chef? Didn't that girl go to the kitchen before? And now they're closing early? I heard from the last time we were here that the head chef is deeply feared by everyone who isn't a member of the high echelon. Could it be that the girl was his daughter?" Arito mumbled to himself as the two others listened on.
"Doubt it. High echelon Chefs don't close down early even when there's a fire is what I have heard from the caretakers." Kamunomi said.
"L-Let's go then, we don't want to get in trouble."
"Yeah, we can try again some other time." Kamunomi said as the group left.
...
In the kitchen.
Kumi was sitting on the table for a minute.
After said minute, Raymond had taken notice of her.
"Actually at the right time. But at the wrong place. What's the matter?"
He said, cutting some meat with a cleaver as he waited for Kumi's answer.
'Uhhh. Don't know.' So Kumi made something up.
"No tables and waiters didn't see me."
Raymond let out a light laugh.
"Still too short ay? It's fine, we'll be doing a little competition now anyway. Want to join?"
'Sounds fun. Sure.'
Kumi nodded her head at the surprisingly sudden invitation.
"Alright then."
Raymond turned towards one of the waiters and told him something that Kumi couldn't really hear.
The waiter then nodded and rushed out of the kitchen. He yelled something or other to the people there before walking back in and informing each chef individually.
What Kumi could understand from the things she heard and over the top reactions she saw was not much at all.
After quiet returned to the kitchen, Raymond yelled out the rules of the competition.
Introducing Kumi to the group, he started the explanation right after asking Kumi if she wanted anything.
"Something light, snack maybe."
She said and received a nod.
"You heard the girl! You all have 15 minutes to make two dishes, I will be judging along with Kumi here. Chop chop! The winner gets the day off and a ticket to the spa!"
'Oh. Okay. Sounds fun.'
Kumi thought with a barely visible smile as she looked at the men and women getting to work.
Raymond led her out to a free table that was clean as ever as the competition began.
...
Outside of the building, the three boys had heard some noises from the dining area and peeked through a window only to see Kumi and the head chef sitting at a table together.
"That's so unfair!"
"I have to agree."
"I'm hungry..."
...
A little late into the night, Kumi was in her room as she removed her clothes.
Jumping on her bed, she stared at the bracelet in her hands.
'Might as well get some training before going to bed.'
She thought as she placed it on for a moment before removing it and redoing the process a few more times before ultimately falling asleep.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone