HP: The Arcane Thief-Chapter 68: Flustered Martina and Training with Akiko

Martina looked at Axel, lost in thoughts. Her heart was still hammering in her chest due to the near-death encounter with the giant poisonous serpent just now, and she couldn't calm down at all. She had almost died! Twice!

Just because she had gotten very powerful in this life, she had naively assumed that her fear would go away now. But, she had forgot to take into account that some fears are irrational. A tiny spider, or a cockroach, can't really hurt you. But don't most girls still hit the ceiling whenever they actually see one?

The same thing happened to her when the Basilisk suddenly attacked her. It was only thanks to this boy that she was alive right now. The scene of Axel hurling down the knife mid-air with skull-shattering force was still playing in her head.

At this moment, Axel happened to look back at Martina.

"Come sit," he said calmly, beckoning her to sit on the ground beside him as his sight went back to the dead Basilisk in front of him. He had a headache just thinking about what he was going to do now. She had seen too much.

"....??"

Martina looked at Axel in a daze. The way he was so calm in this situation gave her a sense of incongruency. Especially since she still couldn't even look at the creature's corpse without freaking out. So, the sight of Axel's small body casually sitting in front of the giant Basilisk he killed just moments ago, looked oddly striking.

Still in a haze of emotions, Martina found herself agreeing to his suggestion as she plopped herself on the ground beside him as she also turned to look at the Basilisk. Somehow, after sitting beside him, she no longer felt so afraid. Her frantic mind slowly calmed down as the two of them just sat there on the cold stone ground, looking at their trophy.

After a while, Axel turned to fix his gaze on her. "You can't tell anyone about this."

Martina flicked her hair to look at Axel in daze. This was the same boy who had made her trip on his first night at Hogwarts. In their second meeting, she had gotten a glimpse at some of his painful memories, making her traumatized by just witnessing them and wanting to know what led up to those memories and what happened next. Then the troll, Dementors, Lethifold... Looking back, Axel had always been mysterious. But the more she knows about him, the deeper the mysteries surrounding him become.

But, he guards his secrets strongly. This was not the first time he was asking her to not tell anyone about his secrets. And every time she tries to know more about him, he always shuts her out.

This time though, the things she has found out are too shocking. How is he doing the things he did? How and why did he sneak into the 3rd floor corridor that night? How did he appear here? How was he able to fight fearlessly against the Basilisk? And most importantly, how is he so powerful? Martina had so many questions, and she badly wanted to know the answers! But, she knew that even if she asked, Axel wouldn't open up.

So, she only nodded her head. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone," she said reassuringly.

She'll save the questioning for later.

Axel nodded, but still didn't look convinced. "Would you sign a secrecy contract?" Axel couldn't help but ask that. The things she had witnessed today were too big for him to risk it.

Martina tried not to look hurt by that, "O-Okay, I'll sign it if you want," she said.

"Though I thought we would have enough trust between us by now," she murmured in a lower voice.

But Axel still heard it. "Hey, it's not your fault. I've just... stopped trusting people due to certain reasons," he explained, not wanting to hurt her. Martina was not a stranger. He knew her well and he knew she wouldn't reveal it if she said so. It's just that, he doesn't trust his judgement on this matter anymore. It's better to be on the safer side since the secrets are too huge.

'Stopped trusting people?' That made Martina think about his circumstances. He was an orphan, that much she knew, and from the brief glimpses of memories she had glimpsed when she had tried reading his mind, she was sure that his life had not been pleasant.

She could understand some of his pain since she was an orphan herself in her previous life, but, compared to him, her life was quite smooth sailing untill the end since she had good relatives on both sides as well a few nerdy friends she could trust. And in this life, she had her loving family whom she could trust with almost all of her secrets. So, it saddened her a lot to think how his life until now must have been, to have this outlook towards life.

'No, this isn't right," she thought. Having this state of mindset is wrong. Axel is missing out on too much. She decided in her heart that she'll find out more about his circumstances and help him out, especially since she might have died tonight if not for him. But right now, since she had regained her composure, she needed to properly express her gratitude.

So, she smiled, "Don't worry, I don't mind signing the contract. After all, you just saved my life. I don't even know how to thank you!" She exclaimed, giving him a hug.

Axel froze. 'There it is again...' he thought uncomfortably as he attempted to push her away. Though, in the next second, Martina opted to separate on her own initiative as she turned her face away from him, her long purple hiding her face completely like a curtain.

Martina touched the tip of her ears, which were feeling hot for some reason. As a recluse, close contact with the opposite gender was, of course, a big no for her, but she had been comfortable with Axel since she viewed him as a person very younger than her. But, for some reason, when she hugged him just now, she felt a bit flustered. She reasoned that it must be because Axel's temperament and physical appearance don't match his age, so her antisocial tendencies were kicking in.

"A-Anyways, how did you end up here?" She asked, changing the subject to hide away her mortification.

Axel rolled his eyes, "Don't ask. Just be glad you're not good at being stealthy. If you weren't so sloppy, I wouldn't have followed you, and you'd have been dead by now."

Martina looked at Axel in disbelief, "You actually detected me? How?!"

"Well, there's only one person I know who smells like Lavender…" answered Axel as he got up to examine the Basilisk in front of them.

Martina looked at Axel with her mouth slightly agape. "Y-You… You actually…" she was speechless as her whole face went red this time.

But Axel's attention was already on the Basilisk now. "Anyways, what are we gonna do with this thing?"

Martina sighed as she cleared her head of the messy thoughts in order to answer him. Because, he had actually raised a valid question. They had won the war, but what to do with the spoils?

"The first thing we do it is to cast preservation spells on its whole body. Every part of a Basilisk's body is extremely precious, especially since this one is around a thousand years old," explained Martina, also getting up to join him. Now that she had calmed down, she no longer felt afraid, and her excitement replaced her fear as she looked at the treasure trove in front of her.

She continued, "Its skin has magic resistant properties, making it a great research and development material. Its venom is one of the most poisonous substances in the world. Its eyes, which are the main conduit for its deathly gaze also have diverse uses in potions and rituals. To sum it up, its body is a treasure from its blood, down to its bones," she concluded.

Axel's eyes were already shining after hearing her. "So, how do we divide it?" He asked. They had both contributed in bringing this Basilisk down. Martina hadn't contributed much to the fight, but she had brought him here and restrained the Basilisk at a critical moment. So now the question was, how should they divide it? Axel was thinking 50-50 would be good enough, but they would have a problem if she asked for too much.

Martina thought about it, "I only want the materials for research and experiments. Just lend me the materials. I'll return them to you along with the things I make out of these. I will just keep a few things I make out of it." Even if she did keep something, it would be for her and the three members in her family.

"???" Axel was confused at first, but then remembered that this girl was filthy rich, and also a genius who had invented a lot of things.

'It's good to be rich,' he thought, skipping this matter for now as he asked the most important question. "How do we sell it?"

Martina looked appalled at his words, "Sell it?! Why would you want to sell?! Basilisk are already an almost extinct species. And this is probably the only thousand year old Basilisk in the world, hatched and nurtured by Salazar Slytherin himself. Its properties are much superior compared to any other Basilisk. If it landed in the wrong hands, it could end up causing a lot of damage."

She then scratched her head embarrassedly, "Besides, we don't know any reliable channels to sell it. Whoever has that kind of money would try to directly rob it from us instead of buying it. And if I ask for my family's help, they'd find out that their precious daughter was in close proximity with a 1000 year old Basilisk, which would be the end of my days at Hogwarts.

"So, it's better if we keep it to ourselves," she concluded.

"...." Axel sighed. Martina did make sense, but he was still disappointed to hear that. The expenses for his diet and potions are only increasing, and stealing little by little can only get him so far. He needs a different source of income. He had thought that he had struck it rich just now, but his hopes were dashed in the next moment. It would seem that Damien Malcolm is going to have to be robbed again soon. The guy had been a nuisance these days anyways.

They got to work after that. The Basilisk's body was massive, and they had to cast the preservation spell on every part of its body and move it to Martina's storage bag. It was the first time Axel found out just how big the storage bags can be from inside. Apparently they're rare, but they do exist. For example, a certain Magizoologist used to have a suitcase with a whole wildlife sanctuary inside. Compared to that, Martina's storage bag still seemed much tamer.

So, by the time they were done, it was already time for his morning training. Sighing, Axel had decided to choose training over sleeping.

"Aren't you coming?" He asked, glancing back at Martina.

Martina shook her head, "No, I'm going to explore the chamber more. I'll tell you if I find something."

Axel shrugged as he waved her goodbye. He got out of the chamber and made his way towards the forbidden forest.

But, as he arrived at his training spot deep in the forbidden forest, he wasn't alone this time. A familiar silhouette was present there, casually leaning against the tree.

"You're late," said Akiko, pushing off the tree.

Axel smirked, glad to find out that she was out. He had thought that she was deliberately avoiding him due to the training. "Late? Me? Who was the one holed up in the VIP ward until now."

Akiko's perpetually calm face had a ripple of annoyance at the mention of that.

"Anyways, you ready to train me now, sensei?" Asked Axel, figuring it would not do to annoy her too much. He's already getting free training from her, through blackmail, if he must specify. He should at least not make this more unpleasant for her than it already is.

Akiko nodded, looking slightly uncomfortable at being called sensei, "I'm ready. Let's start with the absolute basics," she said, doing some light stretching.

"What's that?"

Akiko tilted her head, as if the answer was obvious. "Hand to hand combat, of course," she said, cracking her knuckles.

'Damn, does she know?' Thought Axel, not so confident anymore at the mention of Hand-to-hand combat.

It was already too late though, since Akiko was already rushing at Axel with a punch.

Whoosh

Axel had barely dodged it when a volley of punches followed, some almost hitting him. Then all of sudden, a kick landed on his side, which he had noticed too late.

'Fuck…' Axel grunted as he did a side roll using the momentum of the kick to take some distance.

'She knows,' he realized. Looks like after her loss, this girl has been closely analysing their earlier fight in order to find his weak points

Sure enough, even though Akiko's face remained passive, the hint of triumph in her eyes could not be hidden.

"As I had thought, despite your exquisite skills in knife, you somehow have little to know skills in Hand-to-hand combat," she derived, looking slightly puzzled herself. After all, any person with his level of skills is normally first trained in Hand-to-hand combat first. So Axel, with his peerless knife skills and shitty Hand-to-hand combat skills, was indeed an oddity.

"Sigh…"

Axel shrugged while sighing, not rejecting her words. When he used to be on the streets, with his small and scrawny body, he couldn't do shit against grown thugs no matter how much he tried to improve his Hand-to-hand combat. That was when he first got his hands on a knife. And suddenly, the doors to a new world had opened to him. He realised that you don't need strength for knife fighting, and he had talent in this field as well.

Since then, he had never looked back at Hand-to-hand combat. He was still quite good at it compared to most people, but if the opponent is someone like Akiko… yeah, he's weak as fuck.

"So, first I'll need to train you in Hand-to-hand combat," said Akiko, showing more enthusiasm than she should.

'Bitch... karma,' thought Axel. He could easily tell that this girl wanted some payback for the painful days she spent recuperating in the Hospital. And training just happened to provide a very good excuse for that.

***

A.N.: : Sparring with Akiko and A Stalker?