'He's more thoughtful than I thought?'
Taking the pen and paper from the plant-like hands, Cale begun to write while thinking miscellaneous thoughts....'Wait, was this why I never saw him again after yesterday?'
Cale stared at Fiend for a few moments.
Trrrr~
Trrrr~
A familiar bell tolled as Cale wrote and scribbled down everything needed.
[It's already that time]
Fiend's lips lowered along with his head which drooped and sagged.
"..."
Cale walked to the wall opposite the window and started writing quickly on it before the gentle darkness started consuming his surroundings.
[What are you...?]
Fiend noticed this and asked.
Cale, however ignored his question and just focused on writing on the paper, the skittering and screeching like drifting tires across the paper.
'Done'
Completing what was written, he turned it around and showed it like a kid showing his father the cute drawing he made only to see a monstrosity. The paper hit the gentle breeze as it snapped forcefully at Fiend, revealing the contents of what was written.
[Meet me again next time]
Fiend's eyes were filled with life and vigorously, he nodded his head.
It felt weird, strangely very human.
Only then did Cale closed his eyes, waiting to come back. He didn't know why on earth a monster would be this timid and honestly, he didn't care as long as the creature before him didn't kill.
His heavy laced eyelids opened to take in the light again and see a familiar classroom, the middle far end was where Cale was sitting this time.
'I know what to do now'
In the end, for survival there was an obvious task that needed to be done.
'I need practice, training and reflexes'
The minimum.
'There is clearly no way I could survive like this with my current physical abilities, even more so when I can't activate my abilities and can only use its passive ability of detecting danger'
Of course It didn't mean that he should get all buff thinking It would help greatly. It should be the opposite, fighting didn't mean you could survive after all.
'I already experienced their damn strength and speed firsthand, I don't want to get toyed with again'
But running on the other hand?
'You won't lose something when running away, you only gain and win'
Essentially a game of tag, though pride may be wounded, it isn't much of a problem.
Cale needed to learn techniques centered on running away. Agility and dexterity were going to be a core aspect for that.
'But the most important thing that I will have to focus on has to be...'
Flexibility.
The ability to move your limbs freely and turn them into spring-like tools centered on escape.
Agility and dexterity were the prerequisites for learning this type of technique, without flexibility, escape becomes difficult when it is needed.
Great reflexes would help with this, but there wasn't any good way to make them better aside from rhythm games. To Cale's knowledge anyway.
'I'll just have to make do with what I have'
He didn't have his own personal trainer after all.
And flexibility also had its cons, aside from its pros. For one, it took too much time to get any real results, there were only four months left till the first practical exam.
"It should be fine If I do it every day..."
If only it were that simple, no one who actually says this at the start kept their word till the bitter end.
***
"..."
[...]
Both Cale and Fiend stared at each other as they sat next to each other on a wide bench In the Cafeteria.
Cale slightly kept his distance and observed Fiend who misunderstood it as taking personal space and making it known.
'I'm not trusting him that easily'
Fiend might be his friend now but Cale feared that might not stay that way for a long time.
It was a reasonable fear, just meeting him was dangerous enough.
[So...why did you want to meet me?]
Slowly taking out the paper and pen he had given, Cale checked Into one of his pockets to see if the Dwon was still there.
'It's still here?'
Having changed clothes from yesterday he expected it to be gone but the Dwon was still there, albeit In a different pocket than before. Cale didn't dwell much on it and just thought it was a nice, surprising fact.
Bringing the paper to his thighs he started skittering with the pen while organizing the information he had confirmed from his slight dive into the internet after searching through his phone.
Before coming back to Gardenia, Cale had asked the physics teacher to go to the restroom, he had said it was okay and let Cale to do his business.
'But I didn't want to go to the restroom so I can do my business, I had done it so I can search the meaning of the unfamiliar terms Carlos had spouted'
[Echo]
Tapping on the screen multiple times a result soon surfaced.
[-a repetition or imitation of sound-]
The rest of the paragraph didn't have anything important so it was skimmed through.
He scrolled trying to see If he could find a different meaning, but nothing caught the eye as they were all the same.
'What could it possibly mean?'
Cale couldn't wrap his head around it no matter how hard he had tried to make sense of it.
'I should've just asked....'
Hesitation clouded him for no reason whatsoever, stupid was the word he kept hitting himself in the head before finally going onto the next unfamiliar term which was so generously Dumped on by Carlos.
But the results had been devastatingly disappointing, Which weren't even worth mentioning.
[What did you write?]
Cale showed what was written on the paper, he stayed silent. Slowly, his eyes widened.
[Y-You need my help?]
Fiend stared at Cale as If he had said a word he had never heard In his life coming from someone's voice.