Chapter 93: Fists and Roses, Part Six

Rin blinked. With her mouth open and her eyes wide, she struggled to speak.

"What?" She finally asked.

"Yeah," Elisa shrugged. "I saw Xhez. She told me she's a sprite. She explained how you two met, that you aren't sisters, all of that."

So many different thoughts were swarming Rin's mind right now, that it made it hard to process this.

[How did this happen?] She asked herself, as Elisa stood in front of her. [Actually, no, what matters is...]

"Are... What are you going to do?"

Rin's voice sounded exceptionally worried, and with good reason. However, Elisa didn't look angry at all. Instead, she just smiled at Rin and put her hands on her hips.

"What am I going to do? Nothing," Elisa shrugged. "I just wanted to let you know."

Out of everything she could have said, that was the last thing Rin had expected to hear.

"You're not mad?" Rin asked, and Elisa outright scoffed.

"No. I was just saying because I wanted you to know that you can trust me with this sort of thing." She smiled at Rin, then, with some hope in her eyes. As far as Rin could tell, she was being genuine with her.

And she didn't know what to say to that. She hadn't expected this sort of attitude from her at all.

"I..." Rin, as shocked as she was, tried to string some words together. "Thanks. I'm just... Wow, I didn't see this coming," she said, chuckling nervously. "I don't know what to say."

"Eh, I have a tendency to leave women speechless. It's understandable."

With a little wink, Elisa continued to ease the tension in Rin's body until, soon enough, the two of them were sitting down at Rin's bed.

"So, who else knows about this?" Elisa asked. "Just in case Xhez and I end up out in public together, for whatever reason."

"Just Maria and Dylan," Rin replied. "As for everyone else, I think it would be alright to tell Eve, but I... I don't wanna do that unless I have to. As kind as some of you all seem, I, you know, I can't be sure that people won't freak out. For sure, I know I can't let Cara see Xhez in her actual form. She'll probably cut her head off on the spot."

"Yeah, I get you," Elisa nodded. "But... Yeah, just know that, in my case, it's alright. And, uh, good luck with her. Showing her around Libera, and all."

Rin looked up at Elisa, with a warm smile on her face. If for whatever reason, this was just some elaborate way to score points with her, Rin couldn't deny that she'd succeeded.

---

The next day, on Sunday morning, Rin decided she wanted to investigate something before her next training session. This meant heading into the city again, but as her sprite companion had missed out before, Rin figured she may as well have the girl accompany her this time.

She'd offered Elisa the opportunity to come, but the noblewoman said that she would be busy.

So, as they usually did, Rin held out Xhez's bag for the girl to jump out of. Only, on this occasion, Elisa was watching by her bed. The sunlight-haired woman had a curious expression as Xhez flipped out of her container and grew into her normal size in midair. Elisa flinched when she saw it happen.

"Holy shit."

"Heh," Rin chuckled, as Xhez heard that and looked over at the woman.

"Elisa!" She noted her presence. "You..." She said, turning toward Rin. "You spoke?"

"Yeah, she told me she knows," Rin nodded, as Elisa stood up and walked over to her.

"This whole time, you were right there," Elisa stated, looking Xhez up and down.

"Y-Yes, I was," Xhez replied. "Um... So, should I make my disguise?" She asked Rin. "Are we heading out?"

"Mhm. There's a place I want to check out. I figured you'd want to tag along."

"Is she coming?" Xhez quickly asked, pointing at Elisa with a smile.

"Nah," Elisa shot down the idea. "I've got to, uh, go somewhere. I hope you two have fun, though."

Saddened to hear that, Xhez's shoulders slumped in an endearing way before she then quickly cast her disguise. At the same time, Rin searched for some clothes to give to her.

[Been a while since I washed my stuff,] Rin thought, grimacing a bit. [I've been so busy though.]

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By the time she picked something out, Xhez's body was glowing and changing colors. The process unfolded right in front of Rin's roommate, who looked completely shocked.

"Wh-, that was it!?" Elisa asked, a disbelieving smile on her face. "You just changed colors and... That was really it?"

"You'd be surprised how effective subtle changes can be," Rin said to her, as she passed her clothes over to Xhez, along with some sandals. "In Xhez's case, as long as she looks just a little human enough, most people just shrug off whatever weird things they notice about her."

[And,] she added in her mind, [back in Dren, all I had to do was change my hair color and a lot of people wouldn't recognize me anymore. Iris didn't either, for that matter. It doesn't take much effort to fool someone.]

"Mmmph!" Xhez slipped into the shirt Rin had given to her. Then, as she finished putting her sandals on, Rin checked to make sure that she was ready.

"Okay, I think we're good to go."

"Goodbye!" Xhez waved at Elisa. With a smile, Elisa did the same.

"See you later," Rin told her, and with that, both of them were exiting the room, as Elisa remained inside.

With Xhez's help, as Rin only vaguely remembered where the place was, they returned to that building. It was earlier today than when Rin had gone before, and as the two of them reached the street that the building was located in, Rin saw that there was barely anyone there.

Instead, only two people were at the place, waiting by the closed door, seemingly looking to be allowed inside.

As Rin saw one of them, she sighed.

[Ugh, really?]

Seth, her classmate, was there, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, with one of those large cylindrical bags by his feet. The other guy was a bit smaller-looking, and slightly older, wearing a black business outfit.

[Should I even go any closer?] Rin wondered. She didn't exactly hate Seth, but she sure didn't like him either.

Xhez, however, was completely unaware of the ongoing struggle inside Rin's mind. She walked up to Seth, and before Rin realized what she was doing, Xhez touched Seth's elbow.

"..." Seth's eyes quickly opened, and they looked down at Xhez.

As he saw her, a brief look of confusion surfaced on his face.

"Excuse me," Xhez said, politely. "The door is closed today. Why is that?"

Rin quickly walked up just to prevent anything bad from happening to the sprite, though she didn't think Seth was just gonna deck her on the spot or anything. Still, she wanted to be safe. As she came into his view, his eyes turned toward her.

"Why are you here?" He asked Rin, completely ignoring Xhez's question.

That brought Rin's true objective to her mind, and she guessed this was not that bad of an opportunity to ask about it. If Seth was a frequent visitor to the Arena, then maybe he would know.

So, trying to put aside her distaste for this guy, she said:

"I wanted to learn more about the Arena." She tried to inject as much confidence into her voice as she could. "How much money the fighters make, mostly."

All that did was make Seth laugh.

"... Don't tell me," he said, smirking at her, "you aren't actually thinking of signing up, are you?"

In truth, the idea hadn't really come to her mind up until now. She was mostly just curious. However, as he asked her this, she narrowed her eyes at him.

"And, if I am?"

"Then you're fucking insane," he stated. "As scrawny as you are, you might be good enough to beat up a few mindless beasts every now and then, but the only way that fighting actual human beings is going to end for you is with you getting laid out on the canvas. If that sounds good, then, hey, go ahead."

As soon as he finished saying that, the door opened. Someone walked out, looked over at Seth, and gestured for him to come in.

Without another word, Seth did just that, with the other guy dressed in the business outfit following behind him.

And, although Rin hadn't even considered it before, just hearing Seth demean her like this made a spiteful voice rise up inside of her. 

[... Yeah?] Rin asked in her mind, and her pride felt challenged. [We'll see about that.]

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