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Keiko

As strange as the food seemed, the "biscuits" were delicious, though she left a few of them for Haruna. Keiko took the time after that to rest. Eventually, though, the door to the room opened and Keiko looked back to find her teacher walking in with a few bags. 

She placed them on the ground by the bed and sat down on it. Keiko took the plate of biscuits and offered it to Haruna. 

"Ah, thanks," Haruna took the plate. "Well, I bought a bunch of food. We can honestly go right back there as soon as you\'re done resting, but, if you want to look around, I mean, you might not come back to Onyx after this for a long time, right?" 

"Yes," Keiko nodded. "Uh, sure. I\'d like to walk around." 

"Alright. Let me have a bite of this first though, I\'m starving." Haruna dug into the biscuits before speaking again, a bit of food still in her mouth. "We should also go to the Citizen\'s Office to get you an ID. They\'re restricting travel in and out of the city pretty harshly with all the robberies recently." 

"Okay." 

Then, someone knocked on the door. Haruna was standing up but Keiko stopped her. 

"I can get it, you\'re eating," Keiko said. 

"Mm." Haruna hummed and sat back down on the bed. 

Keiko walked over to the door and opened it. Caroline was there, holding a pitcher full of some blue juice and two cups. She smiled and said:

"Hello, love. Just something to wash those down with, psst," she leaned in conspiratorially. "This ain\'t on the house, this one\'s on me," she winked. Keiko nodded and bowed. 

"Thank you." 

"Aw, it\'s no trouble, uh..." She waited. 

Keiko then realized she was waiting for her name. 

"O-Oh, uh, Keiko." 

"Keiko! Right, well, anyway, gotta get back to work. Enjoy!" 

"Thank you." Keiko bowed again and Caroline closed the door. Keiko took the pitcher and the cups inside and put them on the dresser with the mirror. Haruna raised a brow. 

"Well, she wastes no time." 

"Hm?" Keiko asked. 

"She\'s trying to make a good impression on you. Probably for a tip, I\'d guess." 

"Oh. I see." 

"Anyway, I think that\'s lisonberry juice. It\'s a fruit native to the area, tastes pretty good. Give it a sip." 

Nodding, Keiko poured some of the blue liquid into a cup and brought it up to her lips. It was sweet, but a bit too tangy for her taste. Still, as it was what Caroline had brought, she decided it wouldn\'t be polite to not drink it. 

A few minutes later, the pair finished the juice and the biscuits together, and Haruna stood up, walking over to the door.

"Time to get to know the city a little, come on." 

"Right." 

Keiko followed her then as they walked out. 

Once again, they were back on the streets of Onyx. Keiko\'s first impressions were simple. Compared to Jade, this place just seemed kind of dirty. Although there were things like the armored horses, the strange crossbows the guards were carrying, and the flashy architecture on some of the buildings, everything just seemed so grey. 

The citizens who walked by them were dressed plainly, all wearing some shade of white or black. She didn\'t see too many people her age either, most were either very old or very young. At first, because of the New Age Inn, she\'d thought this place would be different from what little she\'d heard of it, but, the farther she and Haruna got, the more it seemed like the serious, dreary location she\'d heard about. 

"This street," Haruna gestured from where they\'d come to the north, "this is where most of the businesses are. Then the streets on the right are mostly houses, and the rest are governmental, I think." 

"So... where\'s the smoke coming from?" 

"This way." 

Haruna ended up taking her to a larger building unlike any Keiko had seen before. There were men with soot stains on their shirts, hauling black rocks from one place to another, pulling all manner of strange objects around. 

"This is what they call a \'factory\'. I\'ll be honest, I don\'t really know what they\'re doing but, yes. This is where the smoke\'s coming from." 

The smell was horrible. Even though Keiko had her Spirit Eye, her other senses, though slightly lessened, were still better than the average person\'s. So, when the fumes hit her nostrils, Keiko coughed and took several steps back. 

As Keiko watched people working, she noticed that on occasion, there\'d be a wagon that would come in and replace some of the workers with other fresher ones.  Seems like quite the process. 

"I was thinking," Haruna suddenly turned to Keiko and said, "I could buy you a spear." 

"Hm?" Keiko tilted her head. 

"For the fight against the mage," Haruna explained. "Even though you\'re better with a sword, I was thinking that we can mitigate the issue of your speed by giving you extra range so that when you go in, you can hopefully take the mage down before they have a chance to teleport."

Keiko thought about it, keeping her eyes on the workers for a moment. 

"That makes sense, I suppose. Though..." Keiko sighed. "I don\'t think it\'ll be enough." 

Metallic clangs and banging ensued as they spoke. 

"Nonsense," Haruna said. "We won\'t know until we give it a try. And, in any case, if that strategy doesn\'t work, we\'ll find another. You don\'t have to beat yourself up over failures, Keiko. It\'s normal." 

"B-But if I can\'t beat that thing after years of training..." 

"How long do you think that mage spent training? Do you genuinely believe you\'ve trained for longer?" Haruna interrupted her and Keiko stopped. 

"Well, no, but..." 

"Then, in that case, the fact that you\'re so close is a testament to your talent and effort. And that\'s all you should be thinking about." 

Internally, a small part of Keiko understood Haruna was making some amount of sense, but she still couldn\'t get over it. Still, she nodded and didn\'t respond as the two made their way to a nearby armory. 

However, before they could enter the shop, a couple of men jumped straight through a window, crashing outside onto the street. Both Zayamas stopped, watching as they desperately tried to get up and run away, carrying weapons on them. 

Thieves? Keiko thought. 

Someone else on a horse came by, trying to pick one of them up. Then, a second horse grabbed the other thief and Keiko watched as they ran ahead. They didn\'t get far though. A couple of guards, armed with those crossbows placed themselves between the thieves and the gate they were heading towards. 

And then, they fired. 

The metal bolts sailed through the air, reaching the people on the horses. Keiko gasped as the bolts pierced through them, leaving the horses unharmed, but with four people skewered. Then, she saw that there were black lines attached to the bolts. The guards pressed a button, and the line started rolling back, pulling the bodies all the way to them, a stain of blood marking the path. 

Keiko was speechless. 

"Damned thugs," one guard said as he removed the bolt from the dying criminals. "Nothing but scum." 

"Keiko," Haruna tapped her shoulder. Keiko didn\'t respond for a moment. 

They just killed them,  she thought.  Cause they stole a few weapons? 

As the guards inspected their bodies, Haruna tapped her shoulder again. 

"Come on, let\'s keep moving." 

"D-Did you see that!?" Keiko asked. 

"Yes." 

"T-They..." 

"This is how Onyx\'s guards deal with things around here, it\'s of no concern to us. We\'re pretty far from home, Keiko. Just stay focused, we\'ll buy that spear, rest up, and head back out in no time." 

Haruna all but dragged her away pretty much. Keiko looked down as she walked into the same armory that had just been robbed. 

Haruna did all of the talking, ignoring the broken window nearby, while Keiko just stood there. 

Afterward, Haruna took her to the Citizen\'s Office, but at this point, Keiko may as well have been a backpack she was carrying, as she barely spoke at all. The Citizen\'s Office was full of citizens dressed in muted colors, all waiting with no emotion on their faces to be given their identification. 

Keiko and Haruna reached the front of the line an hour later, and yet, to Keiko, whose thoughts continued to playback that moment where the bolts pierced the thieves, it passed in the blink of an eye. 

She was asked for some basic information and soon when it was done, she was handed a card with all of that information on it. 

Sometime later, they were back at their room at the inn, with Haruna holding the spear she\'d bought for Keiko, one made of red wood, with a long blade at the end. She twirled it and said:

"It\'s a well-enough made weapon, should be serviceable. Of course, since you\'re slightly less proficient with this, you\'ll need to make up for that with more thought put into your attacks. Calculate your offense in such a way that..." Haruna trailed off as she noticed Keiko wasn\'t really listening. 

She sighed, let the spear rest against the wall, and sat down next to Keiko. 

"Still thinking about it?" 

"Yes, I..." Keiko cleared her throat. "I\'m not too used to seeing people die like that." 

The only comparable moment was when she and the citizens of Pearl were attacked by the demons, and even then, she\'d been so focused on her Spirit Eye, both trying to unlock it and eventually being successful with it that she didn\'t concern herself too much with the carnage going on around her.

This time, that was all she could focus on.