Chapter 115: …huh? (1/2)

Arima was staring at the weapon he was holding. It was a sort of glaive that was slightly bent and had some little dents across its blade.

”…This is not what I expected,” Arima muttered and Scatha chuckled in amusement.

”It's already a really fine piece for your first work,” She remarked and grabbed the glaive. ”I can tell you what's wrong with it if you want. The weight is not even, it's heavier and lighter at places it shouldn't. That solely means that you badly distributed the steel. It's not a grave mistake since it's something that needs training and experience.”

”Also, while you were making the shape of the blade, you were too rough,” She smiled and put the blade down. ”These are all basics that you need to learn until a certain extent before you can start working on things more delicate like gun parts.”

Arima nodded and noted that down in his mind.

It had been a week since he had been adopted by Scatha and she started teaching him since then the ways of an artisan per his request.

”In the future, I think it'd be a good idea to teach you some swordsmanship as well.”

”Swordsmanship? Why?”

”Because you need to a least understand what you're making. If you know how to wield a blade, you will be able to picture how you want it to be after forging.”

”You learned it too?”

”Of course, I did. I don't want to brag, but I'm legitimately a master when it comes to swing a weapon. But, well, since I don't think you really need to go that far, perhaps it'll be a good idea to just teach you some reputed techniques. Starting off with kendo for instance.”

Arima mused and nodded. ”I guess it's a good idea. I have nothing to lose learning it.”

”Yep, even these days, especially for an enhanced soldier like you, a sword can still be and is one of the deadliest threats on the battlefield,” Scatha chuckled. ”In any case, with this said, let's take a break. It's already been a week and all we did was practicing forging. It makes me happy to see my son enjoying my profession but that's not how a family should act all the time,” She said and turned off the stove.

She then went up the stairs and signaled Arima to follow her. When they came back to the living room, Scatha turned off the workshop's lights and closed the door.

”So, what are we going to do?” Arima tilted his head and asked.

”Well, of course…” Scatha put on a coat and smiled. ”Shopping,” She stated and Arima frowned.

”(Why does it sound so dreadful?)” He had a bad feeling about it.

They left the house a few minutes later and Scatha drove to the nearest market hall. When they reached their destination and Arima exited the car, he once again admired the vehicle.

”By the way, why do you still use this type of car? It's quite old, isn't it?” He asked Scatha and she smiled as she closed the vehicle's door.

The car was an old-style black mustang. Although it had been modified to function with Eion energy, it was still rare to see this kind of car and in such a good state.

”It was my father's. He really loved it. I remember the day he told me about how he got this car and wouldn't stop grinning throughout the entire story. Although I had to tune it because it worked on gas before, this is my memento and I'm obliged to keep it as long as possible,” Scatha declared and Arima solemnly glanced at the car.

They entered the shopping mall afterward and started wandering. The whole place was very clean and open, it was full of people and the shops were very varied.

”Oh, you still don't have a phone, right?” Scatha abruptly joined her hands as if she had thought of a great idea. She brought Arima into a certain shop and directly went to the display cases with him.

”Their form didn't change a lot in the last years,” She commented whilst grabbing one of the smartphones. ”Maybe one day they'll perfect virtual technology but we'll have to continue with this until then,” She paused and took two thin phones which she showed to Arima. ”Which one do you prefer?”

Arima raised an eyebrow. ”Do I really need it? I never used one and I'm good this way.”

Scatha smiled and chose the phone herself. ”They're really useful though. You can track your position from absolutely anywhere, you can obviously call people, and more importantly, you can search for anything on this, anywhere, anytime. You have unlimited access to the net. Isn't that the dream for you?” She said whilst concluding the transaction for the phone.

Arima's expression made a full 180 as he extended his hand for the phone. Scatha chuckled and handed it to him. He immediately began to familiarize himself with it.

”Thanks.” He configured it for five minutes and then put it away. Although he never used a phone before, the complex military equipment was more than enough to introduce him to portable technology.

”No problem. You're also really smart, so you should get into hacking or basic programming at least. Even if your squad already has someone like that, believe me, it's really useful on the field depending on the situation,” Scatha added and Arima nodded in understanding.

”Now, it's time to do what we came here for,” She then grinned and dragged Arima into a clothes store. She had come here today with the goal of being able to fill an entire wardrobe for her newly adopted son.

At first, Arima didn't think much about it. He was just trying on some clothes. He, of course, realized that Scatha was a bit picky and took her time but he patiently waited.

His expression started sinking when they visited their fourth shop. At that moment, he started to really question the situation. They had been there for an hour and the only thing they bought was a shirt which he had to carry himself.

Two hours after that, there were only two more clothes chosen and Arima was quite on his wit's end. Then, at some point, he witnessed an annoying scene while he was waiting for Scatha to come out of a shop. It was merely a simple group of young men harassing a couple of girls.

Nothing too shocking nor too deranging. It wasn't the first time Arima came across something like that since he entered the market. On top of that, it was usually a very light kind of harassment; just some guys trying to flirt a bit. In any case, since he was walking along with Scatha, he didn't try to do something and just assumed the security would intervene.

But now, he was already quite annoyed himself and since they were just a few meters away from him, not caring about how loud they were being, veins began to pop on his forehead.

Arima slowly put down the bags and cracked his knuckles and neck to relieve his tension. He slowly made his way toward the group with a passive face. Right now, more than helping these girls, he just wanted to let off some steam. When he stopped right behind the guys, the girls that were being pestered looked at him in surprise.

Arima tapped on the shoulder of one guy.

The latter immediately turned around with an exclamation and saw Arima standing behind him, perfectly straight with his hands behind his back and a smirk on his expression. Although he was only thirteen, Arima looked on the outside like a fifteen-year-old boy and he also was tall since his height was already close to 1.7 meters.

”What do you want, kid?” The man frowned and asked. He wasn't exceptionally rude and Arima had to give him credit for that.