Chapter 37: Calm Sea Voyage
They sat again on the sun chairs. Charlotte wasn't in a good mental state to speak anything, even less to walk towards their assigned room they hadn't even seen. So they stayed there, she was staring blankly at the sky and Gut looking at the sea, seeing how they moved on towards their destination, getting farther and farther from the mainland.
After being in there, motionlessly, for around half an hour, Charlotte finally got her bearings good enough to walk again. She stood up and looked towards Gut.
"I'm good now… Thanks." She said with a small smile, still looking a little pale.
"Then we shall go to our room." He stood from his seat and looked to the old man who was still waiting for them next to the only door of the deck.
The man approached them and bowed a little bit. Looking as composed as before and without much change, even though it was already late in the night.
"What's it you desire to do, sir?" He asked with his rusty voice.
"Bring us to our bedroom." Gut said without change in his voice, as stoic and expressionless as ever.
"As you command."
The old butler turned around and started walking to the cabin's door. The duo followed without a word, each in their own mind. The went down two floors and stood on the first room after the stairs.
"This is your designed room, if you need anything, there's a caller on the wall just besides the bed. The food shall be served at 8, 14 and 20 tomorrow and the next few days of the voyage." He paused to get some air in his lungs. "If you can't come at the provided time, feel free to inform through the phone, but your food will be colder as we can't waste too much energy on it. Please understand."
"Right." He planned to stop there but remembered something to add. "Another thing, he has a voracious appetite, so please make one or two more dishes for him."
Hearing Gut say that, the butler looked at the kid who was behind them. Raising a brow, he nodded, turned around and left without answering Gut's request.
They went in through the opened door, it had no handle, only a device that read an electronic card. On the desk's room was the corresponding card of the room. Gut headed directly to the farthest bed, putting his backpack on it, and looked back at Charlotte.
She was standing at the entrance of the room, without going in or completely closing the door. She saw how Gut was still walking, limping, and the scenes of that finished massacre were brought back to her mind. Now she was trying to get it out of her mind so she stayed still until they were no longer there.
"Not coming in?" Gut said after seeing her standing still for a solid minute.
"Yes… Please, don't hurry me that much… I'm no good right now." She said with impotence in her voice.
He nodded at her and continued unpacking his things, he had to check on his feet and see what was damaged and what not.
After some minutes of gathering her thoughts, she was ready to move again. She got in the room and closed the door. Looking at Gut, she saw both his legs were off and he was prickling on them with a screwdriver. Even though she was interested on it, she decided what was best for her and went to her assigned bed. After putting her things on the side, she was about to change when she heard Gut talking to her.
"Are you not concerned someone is watching you?" He said without looking at her.
"There's only… Oh, well…" She looked around and saw there was nothing visible that could be regarded as a camera.
<If he says that, then it must be true…>
"Worry not, I can handle a little spying from these perverted ones."
Gut looked at her in wonder, raising a brow. He didn't think she was stupid enough to not understand his words so there must be other meaning.
<She got some plan against herself being exposed?>
<Heh! I can finally see his astonished expression!> she thought seeing his expression, changing her mood in the process.
Even if he saw her nude self, she wasn't worried. He had already seen her birth suit before on the warehouse and she often walked shamelessly in his house, having only some pieces on herself. So he wasn't a worry for her. The only concerning thing about him was he getting to know more of what she could do, but he had already proven himself to her, so there was little worry on that regard too, only a little... What worried her the most was if she had the required energy to do what she wanted to do without passing out after a while.
After yesterday's event, she had thought about ways to keep on her disguise. Her face was already fine as she could keep it on with some twinkling in the Crystal's Space. As for her body, it was a major concern as she had the curves and bearings of a grown-up woman body, even if everything was smaller than a normal person's.
So she devised a new 'skill', she called it Disguise Form: Kid. It wasn't as impressive as it sounded. She did it on the bathroom that very morning. She played with herself, making her butt a little pressed to herself so she wouldn't show much curviness. Her breast were the same but a little more difficult. They had to keep their consistency or smoothness even if they were pressed to herself, so there wouldn't be any doubts to the uncalled eyes.
She entered the Crystal's Space as fast as she could, put on the External Projection Rev and activated this newly created skill. After that she went out of it, spending only around five seconds in the process. Getting back to her senses, she felt a little restricted on her chest. It wasn't the same as having the bandage so it felt weird and unfamiliar to her.
The External Projection Rev was something she made after learning of the changing characteristic of the normal External Projection. It allowed her to spend way less energy but limited what she could maintain on the one-meter radius.
If it could change its shape, then it could be compressed, she thought at first. After trying it, she noticed that it wasn't spending her as much as when she used the normal version. Even when she kept herself outside, it still used much less energy than having the normal External Projection activated on the inside. The only problem then was that she was also doing multiple things: She had to maintain her behind and posterior in shape to not arouse any suspicion, as well as her makeup for when she wakes up.
<It may be okay once I go to sleep, but I still need to keep the one on the face…>
She decided to not mind the current circumstances. Taking off her bandages, she felt herself still be restricted and the burn still aching on her back. It was already healing, but there was some time until it was fully healed. She had 'eaten' portions of it but not too much. She was more worried about the black spots, so she prioritized it.
After she took her bandages off, Gut stared at her in surprise, her chest was still plain as a driveway. He thought about it and realized what she had done: her magic tricks! Nodding at his understanding, he let her body out of his sight, continuing at what he was doing with his legs. There wasn't much that happened to them. Only some movement engine getting overheated at the lack of support from other parts. He was tuning them all and making everything become stable again.
Seeing him show almost no reaction after his initial spout of surprise, made Charlotte pout a little.
<At least say something!... I know we're being watched but still!!>
"Hey, don't you want to at least check?" Charlotte finally lost to her impulses.
Gut tore apart his eyes from his left foot, the right was 100% functional and the left required some more attunement. Raising one brow, he couldn't help but snicker at her pout.
"Yeah, those burns are still a little worrying, wait a bit until I am done with this."
"Oh, right, sorry." She then sat and waited for him to finish.
Her scorches were still a little worrying but there was nothing wrong with them anymore, they were healing naturally now. The brown spots were disappearing while expanding themselves, she had discovered they were 'edible', too. She had not felt anything wrong, not with them expanding and not with her eating them. White Prism had 'told' her that her body was normal from what Prism could see. And that the only worrying thing were the black spots, as she could also somehow perceive the pollution of her 'soul'.
After he was done with his legs, he walked towards her, his legs functioning perfectly this time and without the need of any external help to maintain his normal balance. He then crouched behind her and slide up her shirt, he gave her chest a fast glance, seeing that it was still as flat as before, and then looked attentively at her burn marks.
"Though still a bit slow, it is now healing properly. Do you know the reason?"
Charlotte shook her head, she didn't know it at all, knowing that the cause for it was the brown spot wasn't the same as knowing why it did it, it was still a wonder to herself.
Putting some ointment on it, he took out a clean bandage and banded it up on her torso. He also put double of it, thinking that she may need it sooner than later. From what he could see, she spent too much energy on doing things while in her blank state, and that was the reason she ate that much. How she did it was still a wonder for him, though.
He was planning on contacting James as soon as they landed, though he would still keep quiet about what she could do, he had promised her that and he was a man who kept his words. She had also reduced her teasing so she had proven her part of the truce true.
"Well, you are still a kid, so be sure to eat well and grow up beautifully." He said when he finished with her, mocking her a bit at the end.
"You! I'm already full grown up!" She said without thinking, not minding her words, she continued. "Just you wait and see!"
"Ha ha ha, yeah, whatever you say." He walked to his bed while shaking a hand at her.
She pouted at him, truly looking like a kid. Seeing him lay on his bed, she then noticed she had double bandage, thanking him in her mind, she decided to go to sleep without having a good shower, she would leave it for the next morning. The room had a bathroom connected to it, though the water it used was a little salty, even after being purified in an engine on the yacht.
She entered her blankets facing down. Once in a comfortable position, she entered the Crystal's Space and saw how she was faring in it. The External Projection Rev only showed her laying body, not even the bed or the clothes she was wearing were shown. She willed for the projection to be expanded a little bit, enough to cover her clothes and bandages. She then put them up over her chest, trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible, so the hidden camera she didn't know where it was couldn't see it moving 'alone'.
The process was a little slow, as she had to get out of the Crystal's Space continuously and shift her body so it could be done without much trouble. Once finished with the task she finally went to sleep.
*****
The next few days went on without a problem. The yacht had a camouflaging device on at all times so that the government instruments wouldn't catch them. If they were looked from afar, the prying party would only see some kind of weird wave, the blue part of the boat was designed to function that way. The same happened if a satellite looked at them.
Charlotte was starting to feel completely tired all the time, even if her disguise skill didn't use that much energy, it still was something that tired her. She was eating close to five dishes on every meal, making the chef wonder what was wrong with her stomach. At some point, she thought that it wouldn't matter if the ones on the boat noticed her appearance, but thought better and persisted on it.
She had kept the makeup of her face on at all times, and only at some moments in the day or night the one on her body. She needed it on when taking a shower, so it couldn't be called a relaxing blast but a nerve-wrecking voyage. Gut had asked how was she faring with her disguise in an inconspicuous way and she had told him it was fine, with a tired face, so he couldn't help but smile wryly at her.
On the fifth day, they finally saw the mainland in the distance, it was almost 5 in the afternoon and there was the possibility of being spotted by Igny's naval force if they approached the coast. So they had to wait until it was midnight to approach a hidden place Kent had told them about. At the end, Charlotte didn't have that much of a bad impression of him.
At some point, she had asked him why he had such an expression at the previous get together and he answered that it was necessary, there were so many criminals there that having a weak and powerless demeanor was akin to giving up his life. It was all a show he had to give to be the one in charge.
She still had no idea how he got all his fortune. Only knowing that he had stolen something important from the government and that he was to be a wanted criminal like her. All in all, she believed Kent was a pretty nice guy, if he only got rid of that hair of his and his piercings he would seem much nicer.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone