Chapter 115: 115. “…huh?”

Arima was staring at the weapon he was holding. It was a sort of glaive that was slightly bent and had some little dents across its blade.

"…This is not what I expected," Arima muttered and Scatha chuckled in amusement.

"It's already a really fine piece for your first work," She remarked and grabbed the glaive. “I can tell you what's wrong with it if you want. The weight is not even, it's heavier and lighter at places it shouldn't. That solely means that you badly distributed the steel. It's not a grave mistake since it's something that needs training and experience."

"Also, while you were making the shape of the blade, you were too rough," She smiled and put the blade down. "These are all basics that you need to learn until a certain extent before you can start working on things more delicate like gun parts."

Arima nodded and noted that down in his mind.

It had been a week since he had been adopted by Scatha and she started teaching him since then the ways of an artisan per his request.

“In the future, I think it’d be a good idea to teach you some swordsmanship as well.”

“Swordsmanship? Why?”

“Because you need to a least understand what you’re making. If you know how to wield a blade, you will be able to picture how you want it to be after forging.”

“You learned it too?”

“Of course, I did. I don’t want to brag, but I’m legitimately a master when it comes to swing a weapon. But, well, since I don’t think you really need to go that far, perhaps it’ll be a good idea to just teach you some reputed techniques. Starting off with kendo for instance.”

Arima mused and nodded. “I guess it’s a good idea. I have nothing to lose learning it.”

"Yep, even these days, especially for an enhanced soldier like you, a sword can still be and is one of the deadliest threats on the battlefield,” Scatha chuckled. “In any case, with this said, let's take a break. It's already been a week and all we did was practicing forging. It makes me happy to see my son enjoying my profession but that's not how a family should act all the time," She said and turned off the stove.

She then went up the stairs and signaled Arima to follow her. When they came back to the living room, Scatha turned off the workshop's lights and closed the door.

"So, what are we going to do?" Arima tilted his head and asked.

"Well, of course…" Scatha put on a coat and smiled. "Shopping," She stated and Arima frowned.

“(Why does it sound so dreadful?)” He had a bad feeling about it.

They left the house a few minutes later and Scatha drove to the nearest market hall. When they reached their destination and Arima exited the car, he once again admired the vehicle.

"By the way, why do you still use this type of car? It’s quite old, isn’t it?" He asked Scatha and she smiled as she closed the vehicle’s door.

The car was an old-style black mustang. Although it had been modified to function with Eion energy, it was still rare to see this kind of car and in such a good state.

"It was my father's. He really loved it. I remember the day he told me about how he got this car and wouldn’t stop grinning throughout the entire story. Although I had to tune it because it worked on gas before, this is my memento and I’m obliged to keep it as long as possible," Scatha declared and Arima solemnly glanced at the car.

They entered the shopping mall afterward and started wandering. The whole place was very clean and open, it was full of people and the shops were very varied.

"Oh, you still don't have a phone, right?" Scatha abruptly joined her hands as if she had thought of a great idea. She brought Arima into a certain shop and directly went to the display cases with him.

"Their form didn't change a lot in the last years," She commented whilst grabbing one of the smartphones. "Maybe one day they'll perfect virtual technology but we'll have to continue with this until then," She paused and took two thin phones which she showed to Arima. "Which one do you prefer?"

Arima raised an eyebrow. "Do I really need it? I never used one and I'm good this way."

Scatha smiled and chose the phone herself. "They're really useful though. You can track your position from absolutely anywhere, you can obviously call people, and more importantly, you can search for anything on this, anywhere, anytime. You have unlimited access to the net. Isn't that the dream for you?" She said whilst concluding the transaction for the phone.

Arima's expression made a full 180 as he extended his hand for the phone. Scatha chuckled and handed it to him. He immediately began to familiarize himself with it.

"Thanks." He configured it for five minutes and then put it away. Although he never used a phone before, the complex military equipment was more than enough to introduce him to portable technology.

"No problem. You're also really smart, so you should get into hacking or basic programming at least. Even if your squad already has someone like that, believe me, it’s really useful on the field depending on the situation," Scatha added and Arima nodded in understanding.

"Now, it's time to do what we came here for," She then grinned and dragged Arima into a clothes store. She had come here today with the goal of being able to fill an entire wardrobe for her newly adopted son.

At first, Arima didn't think much about it. He was just trying on some clothes. He, of course, realized that Scatha was a bit picky and took her time but he patiently waited.

His expression started sinking when they visited their fourth shop. At that moment, he started to really question the situation. They had been there for an hour and the only thing they bought was a shirt which he had to carry himself.

Two hours after that, there were only two more clothes chosen and Arima was quite on his wit's end. Then, at some point, he witnessed an annoying scene while he was waiting for Scatha to come out of a shop. It was merely a simple group of young men harassing a couple of girls.

Nothing too shocking nor too deranging. It wasn't the first time Arima came across something like that since he entered the market. On top of that, it was usually a very light kind of harassment; just some guys trying to flirt a bit. In any case, since he was walking along with Scatha, he didn't try to do something and just assumed the security would intervene.

But now, he was already quite annoyed himself and since they were just a few meters away from him, not caring about how loud they were being, veins began to pop on his forehead.

Arima slowly put down the bags and cracked his knuckles and neck to relieve his tension. He slowly made his way toward the group with a passive face. Right now, more than helping these girls, he just wanted to let off some steam. When he stopped right behind the guys, the girls that were being pestered looked at him in surprise.

Arima tapped on the shoulder of one guy.

The latter immediately turned around with an exclamation and saw Arima standing behind him, perfectly straight with his hands behind his back and a smirk on his expression. Although he was only thirteen, Arima looked on the outside like a fifteen-year-old boy and he also was tall since his height was already close to 1.7 meters.

"What do you want, kid?" The man frowned and asked. He wasn't exceptionally rude and Arima had to give him credit for that.

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"Nothing, really. I just wanted to ask you if you could leave them alone," Arima pointed at the girls with his chin. The two girls looked at each other and nervously waited for the man's reaction.

As expected, he just laughed.

"Listen, boy, it's none of your business. Go back to your mom," He placed his hands on Arima's shoulders and snorted.

Arima nodded. "Fair enough," He snickered and grabbed one of the man's hands. The guy grimaced when he noticed he couldn’t move his hand anymore.

"But sorry," Arima spent a portion of his strength and the wrist made a scary sound as the man fell on his knees crying. "I'm not in the mood to be diplomatic. Don’t worry, I didn’t break anything. At worst, it’s just fractured," He smirked and hit the man's stomach with his knee. His eyes rolled and he fainted just after.

The moment he fell flat on the ground, Arima moved like a ghost. One of the three remaining thugs was sent flying for a few meters by a kick. Arima then disappeared in the eyes of the average people and kicked the tallest guy in the leg before grabbing him by the collar when he bent down because of the pain. He flung him over his shoulder toward the last thug and the two fainted when they crashed together against the wall.

Arima's smirk gradually lessened and it slowly reverted to a natural smile. He dusted his clothes and turned toward the two guards coming over.

"What is going on?" One of them asked Arima with an odd look; he had witnessed his performance on the way.

"You can take these guys in custody," Arima casually waved his hand and showed the two guards his dog tag which was had now been finalized with the name 'Blade'. The two guards trembled and saluted right away.

Of course, it wasn't nearly enough to be a soldier for them to behave like this. But on Arima's tag, there was a golden star engraved on it. That generally meant 'special forces', but not only that, it also meant 'enhanced soldier'.

Arima returned to the shop and spotted Scatha leaning against the wall with an amused smile on her face. Arima shrugged and picked the bags up again.

"You're really a little soldier, huh?" Scatha smiled and commented as they walked away.

"Well, yeah. That’s not new," Arima responded and Scatha smiled wryly.

"True."

Arima glanced at her and wondered. "Can I ask you something?”

“Hm? Yes?”

“Why did you want a son? I can understand why you chose a military orphanage since someone connected to the dark world can't really hope for more, but why did you decide to adopt in the first place?”

Scatha's eyes darted. "Well… whether it was a son or a daughter, it would have been okay as long as I had a good feeling with-"

"Don't change the subject," Arima interrupted her.

"Fine…" Her expression turned even bitter. "Well if I had to say why. It would be because I was lonely. I don't think I will ever marry in my life. But I always wanted to have children. In the end, I opted for adoption. Also, I wanted someone to give my legacy to. Passing over my forging skill was not really my intention at first; you wanting to learn it is more of a bonus."

Arima seemed to a bit surprised. "It's surprisingly honest and innocent," He remarked and Scatha felt a bit awkward to be judged by someone of half her age. "But it's fine with me. You are a good person. I don't think you would ever fail as a mother," He affirmed.

Scatha giggled and increased her pace. "Then let's continue. We need to finish your wardrobe," She announced and entered another shop.

Arima opened his mouth and scowled. He blankly stared at her as she stepped inside the freaking shop. But when he saw the genuine happiness in her expression, he could only shake his head and follow her.

He told himself that it couldn’t be that bad. That's what he thought, and that's what he immediately swallowed back the next day when they went to a different mall. And five days later, he collapsed on his bed after Scatha had finally finished Arima's clothing collection. She had even picked clothes of higher sizes to anticipate his growth.

That day, Arima swore that he would always go shopping alone. Then, within the same week, Scatha went to him and said something that really poured wine on his gears, "You'll attend school starting from next week. At least until you're sixteen."

"…huh?"

***

Fortunately for him, his squad was designated and called for a mission the next day. That allowed him to have some time to think.

"Isn't that a good thing? I never went to an actual school," Farro uttered as they were flying toward their next zone of operation in a helicopter.

"Yeah…" Arima mumbled. "But I don't really want to meddle with a ‘world’ so alien as a school."

"Well, I can understand that," Farro shrugged.

For an accomplished and full-time soldier, going to school was almost a torture. A peaceful but at the same time ‘naïve society’ was kind of deterring.

"She just wants you to be a bit more social. I think she's a great mom," Tiria also gave away her opinion.

"I think so as well. I would want to meet her. I heard of the name Scathach several times. She is a reputed independent and skilled manufacturer," Tieria complemented.

"Hey, focus! We're almost reaching the target!" Moria shouted from everyone's radios. "Arimane, take care of the enemy chopper scouting the area. Direction north-west. Our heli will move for you. Be ready."

Arima silently nodded and assembled his rifle He crouched down in the middle of the helicopter and tied himself with a belt. He lifted his weapon and pointed the barrel toward the closed door. He nodded at Tieria and she opened it for him. Powerful gusts of wind and pressure instantly came in but Arima indifferently looked through his scope. He locked on the target and inhaled.

After a second, he abruptly shifted the barrel to one side, obviously not pointing at the target. But when he pressed the trigger, Tieria closed the door without any sort of doubt or hesitation on her face.

The targeted chopper started acting strangely and crashed on the ground a moment after as Arima was already back on his seat with his rifle stowed in its case.

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