Midday slipped the ring onto his index finger; somehow instinctively aware the ring’s effect would only activate if it was wrapped around that specific digit. He realized that he oftentimes got the same sensation with the Elvanerean Ring too, feeling internally that the ring had to go on his pinky finger whenever he dug it out of the soil and held it in his palm. Weird... In any case, The Voice spoke as soon as the ring was secured close to his knuckle:

“Effect Added. Raincoat Ring: Unwanted water is weakly repelled while this ring is equipped.”

There was no immediate observable difference because of the ongoing coverage provided by the invisible ceiling stemming from Mulberry’s Umbrella Ring but, upon closer inspection, he noticed that the mud on his feet—which was so saturated with rainwater by that point that there a thin film of stagnant water had formed above it—seemed to propel itself away from his feet in such a way that his toes had almost seemed to take on the characteristics of a shovel, cleaving through the soil with moist soil with ease. He also noted that the water on the baggy long-sleeved tunic he wore as part of his uniform seemed to be dripping out from the fabric somewhat faster than before, seemingly racing to become dry as soon as possible.

All said and done, Midday wasn’t especially impressed—though he reckoned that might soon change it was true that the rain would continue for a whole month.

“Like it?” Mulberry

“Sure.” Midday looked away from the head guard of Neighborhood 3 and let out a subdued sigh. “Not sure if it’s worth the price I paid for it, but I reckon it’s too late to back out now.”

“Damn right.” Mulberry grinned. “You’ve got a good cynicism about you, kid. But there’s more to this ring than I think you realize. If you ever obtain a water-related ability, this ring will have good synergy with it. One of my Opuses actually requires me to be wearing this ring to activate. Care for a demonstration?” Her lips curled into an even more intense grin, which gave Midday the impression that she was moreso looking to brag about how awesome she was than to show him anything of value. Even so, he decided to humor her.

Midday sighed once again. “Sure.”

She pointed the finger on which her Raincoat Ring resided up towards the sky and then said: “Raincoat Beam.”

The fog directly above Mulberry instantly cleared, resulting in the near-instantaneous formation of a several-hundred-feet-long narrow tube of clear sky—only a few feet in radius—that shot upwards vertically through both the fog and the rainclouds, leaving a tiny ray of bright sunlight in its wake for a few seconds before the fog rolled back into place a few moments later and covered it up.

“My Raincoat Beam is an Opus that repels any moisture it comes into contact with such that, if I were to use it on a normal person, the water inside their organs would strain itself to escape their body with enough violence to make them explode. Pretty neat, right?”

“Uh-huh,” answered Midday, trying to ignore how casually brutal the example she had provided had been. “I guess I’ll keep that in mind for if I ever get an Ability?”

“Sounds like a plan.” She put pointed her index finger at him. “Now get moving! I’ve got to see this Netari person.” Midday started walking once more, with Mulberry following close behind as she provided the details for his upcoming trek into the forest. “So, as for tomorrow evening, you and the other people will rendezvous at Slave Quarter #200 immediately following Siempre’s announcement. The sooner you guys leave, the better off you guys are going to be.” She sighed. “And, during the announcement, make sure you and the people you care about stand near the back of the crowd.”

“Why is that?”

“Just trust me on this.”

Midday just nodded, failing to offer a spoken response.

After another 30 seconds or so of walking, the two had arrived at Netari’s territory. The wolves that were keeping guard at first snarled at the intruders, but Mulberry paid them no mind. Mere ordinary wolves, regardless of quantity, posed zero threat to someone like her. She simply walked up to the only cabin that had the lights on and knocked on the door.

“You can go now,” she said to Midday, who had followed her to the doorstep. “Our business is done.”

“Right… But I need to ask Netari something really quick if that’s alright. It’ll take maybe 10 seconds at the most.”

Mulberry narrowed her eyes. “You can either tell me now so that I can relay it to her on the way out or wait outside until my business with her is finished. I must remind you that I’m on a tight timetable here, and I’m not especially inclined to let someone like you squander it—not even if it really would only take ten seconds.”

“But there are wolves out here,” remarked Midday as he eyed seven wolves that had them surrounded so closely by then that it would be impossible to react if one of them chose to pounce. “They might kill me if I stay here too long.” Midday spoke matter-of-factly, hoping that perhaps Mulberry would be gracious enough to follow her inside.

“So what? Just kick ‘em away if they give you trouble. If a few little wolves are giving you that much headache, I hate to say it, but you’re probably going to die fairly soon—regardless of if you actually follow through with this deal of ours.” She shook her head like a disappointed mother. “Just tell me what you wanted to say and I’ll see to it that you can leave without the dogs bothering you… Also, wow, what is taking this person so long to answer the door?”

Midday sighed. All things considered, whether or not this unknown person got a third strike or not really didn’t matter all that much to him. Even if they did accrue 3 strikes as a result of him, Mulberry had explicitly stated that daily quotas would soon become a nonissue anyways. There was a good chance that this person would be able to skip the wheel even if they really did make it to 3 strikes and, with that thought in mind, Midday ended up sharing his request to have this person’s work canceled for the next day with Mulberry in hopes that maybe she would bring it up at some point.

Mulberry nodded after hearing his request. “Is that all?”

“Yes.”

“Okay then. See you later.”

With a half-assed grasping motion, Mulberry somehow managed to “catch” all of the rain in a 30-foot radius such that all the droplets were hovering magically in place, seemingly unable to fall any further despite the force of gravity that should have been pushing them down. The rain droplets then began to squeeze in on each other until a gigantic, perfectly round ball of rainwater had formed.

With the floating ball created, Mulberry pointed her finger down, sending the orb down toward Midday at breakneck speed. Before he could move away, the water crashed down on him and, just like that, scooped him up. He was now floating breathlessly at the center of an enormous prison of levitating water. His natural reflexes kicked in and made him try to swim his way out, but the effort was hopeless. The water was actively working to keep him at its center. What in the world?

A flick of the wrist launched Midday and the water orb away with the speed of a cannonball fired fresh out of the barrel. He flew several hundred feet into the air, the surroundings disappearing into the fog that smothered him on all sides, before crashing down hard only a few seconds later, with the now dissipated orb somehow having cushioned his fall such that he was miraculously uninjured.

Struggling back up to his feet, he realized that he had landed just inches away from the front door of his cabin, which was now heavily leaking water through the gap between the door and the ground beneath it.

“Fucking hell…” Midday let out the sigh to end all sighs. It seemed unreasonable to him that anyone was allowed to possess the kind of power necessary for the feat Mulberry had just performed—sending someone probably more than a thousand feet away in total in mere seconds while still maintaining pinpoint accuracy without leaving even so much as a scratch—but that was reality. She hadn’t even uttered a technique name, which meant there was a good chance she had done it without using an Opus. He had always known himself to be powerless, but it was never fun to be reminded of just how huge the disparity between the weak and strong truly was.

In any case, now that he was home, Midday, who was now soaking wet even with the help of the Raincoat Ring—which was currently working to the best of its ability to dry him off—stepped inside.