Debuffed Farmer

We were once again walking on the uneven pavement and uncomfortably social environment that were the streets of Gram Village.

I kinda want to talk to Clara again.

I would justify it as wanting to learn more about the power system and all that jazz. But a little bit of me just wants to talk to her—for who she is.

Before someone says that I’m into masochism or have a degradation kink (proven false earlier), it’s just that she feels genuinely intelligent—someone who is analyses things on a deeper level than they first seem. Also, something about her personality feels a little off, likely due to me not understanding her well enough to really know what’s going on inside.

Anyways, that can be saved for later.

“So Seria, what did you end up learning?”

“Ah, um, there was a lot of take in.”

Mhm.

“That’s fine, just lay it on me slowly.”

“Er. Okay, I’ll start from the beginning.”

Anyway, to spare you all the stuttering and thinking, I will briefly summarise all the information I received from Seria in the last 25 or so minutes.

****

Dubiously Accurate Information From Seria (separated into nice dot points, in no particular order since she did not seem to know the order):

– D-waves are converted to EM-waves using some sort of Realiser™.

– Realisers come in three main forms (but Seria only remembered two). One of which is a little device planted into some vein, which she forgot the name to. The second was to be injected with some liquid, which she also forgot the name of.

– To create EM-waves, you simply let your aura (whatever that is) run free? I personally would need to fact-check this information since it doesn’t seem consistent with everything else I know.

– To convert EM-waves to other substances, it depends on your affinity, and you simply will it into existence (I assume the same way I travel to the oasis)

****

Anyway, that was about all that she could tell me.

“Did it say anything about where to get these Realisers?”

“I don’t remember. I don’t think so.”

Sigh.

Oh well, I guess I’ll figure it out sooner or later. Maybe I’ll dig through the trash and inject myself with any syringes I find. On second thought, that may not be the best idea. Where on earth would I get a Realiser? I guess I’ll ask around.

“Seria, do you know where Yuki went?”

“Yuki? Um, I think she told me yesterday that she went to her boyfriend’s place.”

That’s good, it sounds like she took my advice.

Wait.

Something doesn’t seem right. I was expecting that she’d come back to stay with us since she was running away from home. She was also reluctant to stay over at her boyfriend’s place, so why the sudden change of heart? Surely I wasn’t that good of a public speaker. I don’t think I’ve ever had a lesson in motivational teaching or public speaking or politics (in this context) in my life.

“How convincing do you think I am on a scale of one to ten.”

“Huh? Are you a werewolf?”

“No, how persuasive I am.”

“Um, probably a zero.”

Figured.

But in that case, where did Yuki go? Quite odd indeed. I mean, it was possible that she decided to make up with her parents, that’s the most likely conclusion. It was just a little weird that it seemed to have happened after seeing her boyfriend.

*

It was a little while later and Seria was at the toilet.

“I walked all the way to your house and you weren’t even there.”

What the hell?

Also, a certain raven-haired girl with a poisonous tongue was standing right behind me. How do I know that without looking? Well, there’s only one person who can say a seemingly normal sentence and still have it sound like an insult.

Slowly, I twisted my head around and looked up at the undeservingly attractive person.

“Well yeah, I’m in the city.”

“Whatever. Anyways, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Talk to me?”

Well, this was new.

She grabbed me by my collar and pulled my ear up to her lips. Shit. Hold on a second, what’s going on? I could feel her breath pressing against my skin, sending mixed signals all through my body.

“Huh? W-what are you doing?”

“I need your help.”

This was a surprise.

“Coming to me for help, you must be desperate.”

“Shut up, imbecile. I don’t talk to anyone else after school hours since it’s annoying.”

“I’m not annoying?”

“You are incredibly annoying. I was more looking for Seria, but you’ll work as well.”

Ah, oh well.

“Anyways, what’s the issue.”

“Basically, Yuki’s been crying all day.”

“And you want me to give her a kiss on the lips to cheer her up, I assume.”

“I would stab you if you did that.”

“Hey, you’re the one coming to me for help, what do you even want me to do.”

“Something happened to her, and I don’t know what.”

“Have you tried asking her?”

Clara was looking down at me with a stern yet clueless expression. Surely someone as smart as she was could figure this out.

“She won’t talk about it. She says she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”

“Her boyfriend probably broke up with her.”

“What do you mean? They seemed like they were going well together.”

Sigh.

“Hey, let me tell you this. When a teenage girl is crying during the day and won’t talk to anyone about it—there’s usually only one reason.”

I guess her EQ stat wasn’t high enough to deduce this.

“Alright then, how do we fix this.”

“How do we fix this? I don’t know, just let her deal with it? It’ll heal with time.”

Surely she’s consumed some literature related to this or anything. How is this girl so utterly clueless with these things?

“Anyways, you came at a convenient time. I had some things to ask you as well.”