SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 31: Area 5

Hide walked through the door and the bell chimed. It was quite old fashioned... and as usual. He found the whole cafe empty except for the last seat which was occupied by a guy in red hoodie.

It was Kai.

"Welcome back Hide," And old and rather slow toned voice greeted him. It was the old lady that ran this place, she was crooked and had a disfigured face, that she told, she had gotten from a gate incident many years ago.

For some reason, not many people visited this place, even though she made better coffee than most of the Area 17.

Hide walked to Kai and sat in front of him. For some time, none of them spoke.

"You cam early today, huh." Kai commented, his gaze fixed on the table.

"Thought I would arrive before you for once... but the bitch is sitting here already."

Kai laughed and then stopped abruptly. "I am sorry, I am really sorry. I was supposed to save you both, but I was the first one to go out."

The old lady served two cups of Ice latte. Hide thanked the old lady and took a sip from his cup.

"We are not here to talk about that, you fool." He chuckled. "Anyways, how is this?"

Hide summoned the beast core he had kept in his inventory. The brown black ball left behind by the gatekeeper appeared in his hand.

Kai looked up, his eyes were almost teary, but he wiped them with the back of his hand and touched his ring on the Core.

"Its an E-Rank Beast’s core!" He looked up at Hide. "Where did you get that?"

"Long story short, in the gate training facility." He shrugged.

"So, what you gonna do with it? You are not affiliated with an agency yet, are you?"

"No."

Kai nodded. "This thing can be sold for 10k credits by official channels. But It would go for around 7k in the underground market. Or perhaps you can find a smith and get yourself a weapon made."

"Uh, I don’t want a weapon." Hide winced and then placed the beast core in Kai’s hand. "You can go do whatever you want with it, maybe sell it from official channels and give me 50%. That’s a good deal."

"It was a wood-type Beast," he said quietly.

"The Gatekeeper, was called a Rootshell. Its Shell was petrified bark, dozens of tentacles and the whole body was wood-organic."

Kai turned it over once more. Set it down with careful hands. Picked up his communicator.

"I’m paying fifteen thousand credits for this," he said, already typing.

"What?!" Hide was dumbfounded. "But you said its only worth 10k"

"I have always wanted a core of a wood type beast for a shaft. You see I am a mage and I need a weapon to control my mana flow as well. This is perfect... I will not hear another word." kai explained while he typed and transferred the credits over to Hide.

Hide sighed and said nothing. Then he opened his mouth and spoke. "I’m leaving tomorrow, to Area 5. And maybe I will join the NEA as well."

Kai was quiet for a moment. "NEA?! Are you for real. God damn, I heard only invited people are allowed to join. Congrats Hide!"

"Oh yeah! Is it safe?" he asked, at the end.

"I don’t know yet."

"That’s not a reassuring answer."

"I know." He finished his coffee and stood up. Walking to the gate... he paid the bill and showed a thumbs up to Kai. Kai returned the gesture and said nothing.

--

The next day, Hide and Fuu stepped out of the Air bus and onto the ground. Hide had his first experience in an airbus and it was... quite unpleasant.

The airbus from Area 17 to Area 5 took two hours and forty minutes at standard altitude, longer at luxury cabin pressure, which was marginally more comfortable and came with food that was marginally better than the standard cabin food and a seat that reclined four additional centimeters.

Fuu had booked the luxury cabin tickets without argument, which told Hide everything about the state of his compliance.

He had also arrived at the airbus terminal with three large bags, which was two more bags than Hide had brought, which was one bag containing a change of clothes, his mother’s three books and some normal stuff.

"You’re carrying those," Hide said at the terminal, looking at Fuu’s three bags.

Fuu looked at the bags. Looked at Hide’s one bag. Looked at the bags again with the expression of a person doing very careful arithmetic on whether this was the hill.

’Damn it. Why will I tow bags for your F-Rank Ass.’ he glared at Hide.

"Do you perhaps not want to?" Hide asked with narrowed eyes, and as his cold gaze swept over him. Fuu’s mouth twitched and curled up into a smile.

"Of course, I will. Why would I not? hehe."

He picked up three of his bags and Hide’s forth one over his shoulders and followed Hide.

They walked through Area 5... and looked around in awe and amazement. It was completely different from Area 17 where they come from. This place had an almost clear sky with white clouds visible against the blue beyond.

The buildings were tall and elegant, with several floors, and each floor having its personal tram passing through it and merging into the larger line, that went ahead and formed the main station.

Which was as wide as a whole soccer stadium with several trams coming and leaving each second.

The road was filled with robots picking up trash, promoting businesses and hotels. Serving food for the stalls.

It was a whole new world here.

The National Exterminator Agency headquarters was visible from the descent — a wide building in the government quarter, its emblem on the facade facing the main approach route, the kind of building that was designed to be seen from the air by people arriving for the first time.

Then he looked at the NEA card in his hand, which the old-young man had given him in the rest room of the gate training facility and which he had not yet called.

He put it back in his pocket.

One thing at a time.

First they needed a hotel to stay in.

Suddenly, Hide felt a very strong and oppressing presence behind him, he turned and saw nothing. But the presence was still there, clawing over him... moving towards his heart. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The small hair on his body stood to their end, and only after turning around several times did Hide realize that the source was in his pocket. He pulled out whatever was in his pocket and suddenly a jolt ran through his whole body.

Everything fell to the ground, and the coin that the Joker left behind turned to dust.

Leaving behind a sentence that repeated again and again in Hide’s head.