Chapter 32: Gut's Home
<Ohhh! I-I can do whatever I want!>
Charlotte said as she started to mess up with everything around her. She destroyed the seats, made holes on the floor and broke the windows. The ceiling fell down, it was the end of the world!
<HAHAHAHAHA!>
Only for the 'image' 's tiny world of one-meter radius, though.
Everything she destroyed stood still, all motion lost. She started to zoom on the image, to see until what point was it all captured. Everything was the same, the dust wasn't moving, nothing was moving at all. She got shivers on her back at that point, she was frightened and excited at the same time!
She was an avid enthusiast of seeing things no one has seen before, and now was her chance of looking at the reality of the speculations in the current realm of physics. On how the subatomic particles really looked like, on what was beyond those tiny particles, if they were particles at all. Or even how the 'plank space' looked like!
She was scared of that tiny world, though. It was an established truth that everything at that scale worked randomly and without a set rule. Everything was uncertain there, even the concept of time was nothing in there. And if time was a nonexistent concept at that scale, then should this stopped 'image' still be frozen? Was it still moving? If there were some kind of movement, how would it affect her? Would she be kept there until she died, for all eternity, or would nothing happen at all and her scaredy self was getting overly cautious?
She didn't know what to do, she just stared at the frozen dust in front of her, it was way bigger than 'her' now. However long she stayed like that, she wasn't sure. At some point she felt she was being jolted 'awake'.
<O-oh, right, I was in a train... We must be there now.>
She exited the Crystal's Space and looked around.
"We have arrived, Shucks, let us get moving." He moved his hand from her shoulder once she had opened her eyes.
"R-right, sorry. I was, uhm, thinking about things, hehehe." She scratched her right cheek on shame.
Deciding on leaving the exploration of the subatomic world for when she knew everything she could do with White Prism and the limits she had with the physical world.
"We are going to a residence I have." He said once they were out of the train, Charlotte following closely behind.
"Uh? You have a house here?"
"Yeah, I told you before. I was enjoying some free time in here. It is one of the properties I have."
"You said that? I don't remember…" she tilted her head in wonder.
Looking for her memories, she couldn't find where he had told her that he was in Gercy. She promptly let it go, if she didn't remember, that was it. She knew she didn't have a good memory concerning unimportant things. What those unimportant things were, only god would know. If something was important but some big event happened, she would forget it, though.
"That said, let us take a cab. You should be able to explore the city in the next few days."
"Okay~ uh? Wait, few days? We're not leaving as soon as possible?" Surprise apparent in her voice.
"As soon as possible, yes. But that possible time needs its preparations."
"Oh… Yeah, we're leaving Gercia."
"Have you not gone out of Gercia before?"
"Yeah. Not to Luria, though. I went in a trip with my family to Atalasia two, no, three? years ago."
It had been four years since that trip to Atalasia with her family. She just wasn't aware of the time it has passed since then. She did it after ending her first College year.
Getting into a cab, they traveled through the city while seeing the state it was in. People were walking while keeping a somber expression, it had only been two days since the U.S.A. gave its ultimatum, there wasn't much they could do, depressing the people even more.
Regardless, the festivities had continued, albeit a little reserved. One could see places that still had decorations and people going in and out of parks.
"It didn't change that much, huh?"
"That is a given, even though it is worrisome, people still have their lives… The real change will come after this month, if the war really breaks out between them."
They were sitting in the back seat of the taxi. The driver had certainly heard their talk, he abstained from saying anything while looking somber.
"I hope it doesn't come to that. It'd be awful to have a war because of it."
"Yeah." He nodded at her words, ending the conversation.
Silence came, Charlotte didn't want to discuss about the things that were to happen because of her seemingly harmless actions, and Gut was thinking about the things he had to do to get out of Gercia as soon as possible.
They came to a stop in front of a building more than 20 stories tall. It had a reception desk with some couches to sit on and a water tank to drink from. There was a man manning the reception desk, he looked tired with a look that told the guests he didn't want to be there.
"Hello, Cris." Gut greeted with a little bow.
"Oh, sir Xavier. Glad to have you back." Cris waved at him, changing his expression to one of interest.
"How were these last few days in Gercy?"
"Not good, people had been leaving the city, saying that it'd be a mess once the war breaks out. No one thinks the girl is going to be captured."
"If it was that easy to capture her, she must have been caught long ago." Gut gave his verdict on the matter.
"I guess… So, who's your guest?"
"Oh, he. Allow me to introduce him. He is the grandchild of a deceased friend of mine. His name is Shuck Stellar." He made her walk forward to be introduced.
"… Hello." Charlotte answered while being a little meek.
She didn't know for how long she would stay here so she needed to behave herself. Being meek and timid was the best thing to go unnoticed, she thought.
After the greetings, Gut started talking with Cris. They talked about the political situation that was happening currently in Gercy, the rumors and how there seemed some insurgent groups were trying to disturb the perpetuated peace of the country. Apparently, there were a lot of people who didn't like the way the current president was doing things. Calling him the quiet fool as he hadn't said anything regarding the proclamation the U.S.A. had made, something that inspired more and more people to join the new groups of insurgents.
The protesters had not done anything yet, though. Only instigating people on the web and making plans for a march that was to take place next weekend. Even though there were more than a million people who had joined the protesters, the people of the news believed that the marchers wouldn't amount to even a tenth of that number.
In the meantime, Charlotte was seated on a couch while playing her video game and drinking a cup of water Cris has given her. Even after all she had done in the Crystal's Space, she wasn't feeling that tired, not mentally nor physically.
<So I only get tired when messing with the real world or my soul. Is it really Prism's mind? If it is, then it explains a lot, like, in one's mind one wouldn't get tired no matter what was done, it's all about the power of the imagination, after all. Also, what is projected, from what I can see, it uses what I eat as energy, so if there's no constant projection and only an image, then it wouldn't matter. The question is, if that is indeed her mind, then why could she not create anything in there? There are no colors in the projection… Oh, how does she perceive the exterior?>
As she arrived at that question, Gut approached her, making her lose her train of thought.
"Hey, Shucks, let us get going." He signaled for the elevator and started going towards it without waiting for her to answer.
"Hey! Wait for me!" She got up as fast as she could and ran towards him, with the big bag on her shoulders and the playing console in her hands.
Cris, the clerk, chuckled at how the little 'boy' ran towards Gut. They went up to the 17th floor, where his apartment was located.
"You take the guest's room. While in here you can do whatever you want. But if you want to go out, you have to wait for me." He said after opening the front's door, signaling her where the room she was going to be using was.
"Huh? Are you going somewhere?" She tilted her head after hearing him being so cautious.
"Not now, but yeah, I need to arrange everything so we can depart without problems."
"I see; then, I'm going to look at the house. Bye~" She said as she went towards the first room she saw.
He sighed at her expression, she was happy to be here. Why was so, he didn't know.
The apartment had three rooms, two of them were used as sleeping rooms, the other one was his study.
The study had a wall full of books, most of them were about fighting styles, medicine and technology, there were some about philosophy and economy, along with novels. The room's walls were painted all white, as if there was nothing else to look at it. At the wall opposite of the library was a desk with a desktop, some notebooks and papers scattered around. The desk had two drawers which were locked, so Charlotte couldn't see what was on the inside.
Getting bored of it, she went out of the study and into the master's room, Gut's room. In there she saw double sized bed, big enough for her to spread herself open without having her arms out of the bed. Besides the bed was a nightstand which had a lamp on it, some vials and flasks which she assumed had some kind of medicine. The room had a big wardrobe on the wall besides the nightstand. It wasn't as big as Dordive's as hers occupied another room, but it was big enough to take the entire wall, it was locked. On the wall where the nightstand and the top of the bed was touching, was a window with its curtains closed. At the right side of the bed was a big sky-blue wall with only a small frame on it. She felt it was a little lonely for the small picture to occupy the big wall, but that just meant it was that important to him.
In the picture was a man and a woman who was carrying a baby. The man didn't look like Gut at all. He had a smiling face without any scar, his eyes were clear, maybe green, maybe blue, she couldn't tell. He had a slim figure, without much muscle on his body. He was wearing a clear blue shirt and brown shorts that went down past his knees. The woman had a white long dress that went past her knees, too; a violet hat and glasses. The two of them were smiling, they looked like a happy family in an outing. The baby she was carrying was covered completely by a pink sheet. Her hands, Charlotte assumed it was a girl, were extended, trying to touch the woman's face. She couldn't see her face, though.
"You have a bad habit of looking at things that should not be looked at."
"A-ah, sorry, I just saw this picture and thought it was lonely on the wall." She was startled at his sudden calling.
He was in the living room before, looking at the news in his phone. When he saw Charlotte was going to his room, he decided to follow her. He didn't want her to mess things in here.
"Just be sure to not cause any damage." He said as he went to the room's bathroom.
She followed him without much thinking, wanting to see the bath, too.
"I want some privacy, please?" He turned around and asked her with a mocking smile.
"A-hahaha, yeah, sorry." She blushed and looked away.
Going out of the bathroom, she decided to finally go to her room. She wanted to know how the place she was staying in for some days looked like. Inside the room she saw, nothing remarkable. A single bed, a nightstand beside it and a wardrobe. The walls were also white.
"Really, nothing much to see here, uh… We didn't have dinner."
She left her ¬things on the bed and went to see what could be cooked. Seeing the kitchen as clean as it could possibly be, she couldn't help but mutter to herself:
"It can't be…"
Opening the fridge's door in a hurry, she was certain of her worries. There was no sign of it being used, like never! There was only some canned food that could be heated in a microwave and packed closed juices. Opening the other compartments of the kitchen, she could only find some salt and sugar, along with chips and cookies. Storming back to his room, she shouted when she saw his door was closed.
"HEY! Open up! We need to talk!"
She hit the door a little too hard as her knuckles hurt after hitting it three times. She waited for a bit before the door was opened. He had changed to comfy trousers and a loose t-shirt. He didn't have his sunglasses on, either.
"…What?" He said as he saw her mouth hanging open.
"Ahem! Hey! You don't have any food! What are we going to eat!"
She wasn't sure she was talking to the same stoic guy, he was too casual, too normal, right now.
"Oh, that. I usually order my food."
"And that's the problem! That's no good, you know! We need to make our own food or it'll become a bad habit!"
"… You can go and buy it, I am resting right now."
"…! You! Fine! But don't ask for anything then!"
Turning around, she went to her room to get some cash and put on a cap she bought while in Atives. Gut had told her that wearing a cap and sunglasses was a good practice to go unnoticed. Once ready, she went out.
Gut was resting, it's been somedays since the last time he had a really good sleep. Seventeen days to be exact. All that time, he was watching over Charlotte before she was framed and then, coming with her while being vigilant of his surroundings. The only time he got a wink of rest was when he had drunk that wine with her, he had fallen asleep without noticing for some two to three hours.
He had to keep his eyes open all the time to be sure nothing wrong was going on, that they were not being followed and that there were no traces left of them. He was always in a constant stressful mood!
Now that they were in a place he knew was somehow safe, he could sleep without worries. That is, if she had not gone out.
"I need to keep an eye on her… Sigh, stop moving so much." He said as he turned on his laptop.
On it were some programs which would allow him to do the surveillance without much trouble, he had his network connected to the cameras around the building and to all the places where the troublemakers were. He could monitor her from there without needing to move much.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone