Lily: "Are we there yet?"

Gabe: "Not yet."

The group in the small monorail car collectively sighed at the exchange.

Lily: "Are we there yet?"

Gabe: "Nearly."

Everyone sighed again, this time even more audibly.

Lily: "Are we there yet?"

Gabe: "Yes."

Lily: "Really?"

Gabe: "No, but almost."

Around this time people were positively groaning, and this was the moment when Soketsu couldn’t take the situation anymore and decided to look for some kind of outlet. As luck would have it, he just happened to be parked in the space between Pabloc and Gabe, the people he considered the most and least rational person in the group, respectively.

Lily was sitting opposite of the mad scientist while Ahazkun and Tiari were sitting a few seats to the left of them, apparently looking for Tiari’s pass. After a small sigh Soketsu had to conclude that there are some things that never change.

After a moment of hesitation he made up his mind and slowly leaned closer to Pabloc, careful not to disturb the sleeping on his lap with her head propped against his chest. Kay was apparently completely exhausted by spending the last few days at his bedside and, on the advice of Gabe of all people, she decided to take a short nap while they were riding the underground train.

As such Soketsu did all he could not to wake her up and spoke to the scientist with a whisper toned down to almost completely inaudibility.

Soketsu: "(Psst… Pabloc… Psssssssst…)"

For a moment Pabloc appeared to be in a sleepy daze, then he finally noticed the other man’s clumsy attempts at getting his attention and he leaned in as well.

Pabloc: "(Yes?)"

After a moment of pause, during which the man with the eye-patch was clearly contemplating on the right words to use, he spoke up with a slightly more audible voice.

Soketsu: "(Are they always like… that?)"

Pabloc glanced over to the duo of Lily and Gabe, currently busy with playing some kind of clapping game, and just shrugged without changing his expression.

Pabloc: "(Pretty much.)"

Soketsu: "… (I see.)"

After the tired sigh, Soketsu took another look around the small train car they were in. It bore the same aesthetics as the rest of the facility with its simple curves and bright white lighting.

It was the second car in the underground monorail they boarded and he honestly couldn’t wrap his head around how this thing could operate without anyone noticing on the outside. As for how it worked, he politely refused to even speculate courtesy of the fact that he was simply too tired. Not to mention, the girl weighting on his legs didn’t really help matters either.

Lily: "Are we there yet?"

Gabe: "In a moment."

Soketsu: "…"

The injured man rolled his eyes again, in a covert fashion so that no one would take offense, but then a sudden question emerged in his mind, and he decided that this was as good a time to ask it as any.

Soketsu: "(Psst. Pabloc?)"

The scientist only straightened himself a second or so ago, so he was a little bit peeved when the man prompted him to lean closer again.

Pabloc: "(Yes?)"

Soketsu: "(Say, I have been wondering about this for a while, but what’s up with the girl?"

The scientist’s eyebrows slowly knit themselves into a small frown as if in slow-motion.

Pabloc: "(The ‘girl’?)"

Soketsu: "(I mean Lily, of course.)"

Pabloc’s expression slightly softened up and he gave Soketsu an understanding nod.

Pabloc: "(I get it. She is the only one you haven’t met before, so I guess it’s only natural you are curious.)"

Soketsu: "(Yeah, I knew you would understand.)"

Pabloc: "(Still, I think you should ask her directly. She is a sweet little thing, she won’t bite you.)"

Soketsu: "(I’m sure about that, but…)"

He glanced over at the two one his other side…

Lily: "Are we there yet?"

Gabe: "In the nick of time!"

Lily: "Yay!"

… then returned his gaze to the scientist with an embarrassed smile.

Soketsu: "(She is already engaged.)"

Pabloc dropped his shoulders and nodded reluctantly.

Pabloc: "(Fine, what would you like to know?)"

Soketsu: "(There are actually quite a few things, but first… Is she really a su’bloli?)"

The scientist blinked at the man like he just asked something incredibly stupid, an expression Soketsu was getting more familiar with lately than he ever wanted to.

Pabloc: "(What do you even mean? Of course she is.)"

Soketsu: "(Then where are the… you know…)"

When he noticed the scientist’s confusion, Soketsu leaned closer and toned down his voice even further.

Soketsu: "(You know! The tentacles and stuff!)"

Pabloc: "(Oh, those…!)" The scientist smiled at him like he just got the punchline of a good joke, then his jolly smile immediately turned into a casually sadistic one. "(Secret.)"

Soketsu: "(… Excuse me?)"

Pabloc: "(It’s a secret.)"

Soketsu: "(Oh come on! We have known each other for, what, three hundred and sixteen years and you just brush me off like that?)"

Pabloc: "(Technically it’s only nine actual years, and no, I still can’t tell you.)"

Soketsu: "(But why?)"

Pabloc: "(That’s also a secret.)"

Soketsu groaned so loudly that for a moment he thought he might have awoken Kay with it, but thankfully the girl seemed to be sleeping tight.

Still, there went the ‘most rational person in the group’ thing out the window in the span of about ten seconds, which was pretty impressive for the rehaul of one’s entire impression of another. Not that Soketsu had the time to dwell on it, as the scientist was apparently still waiting for his next question.

Soketsu: "(So it’s personal?)"

Pabloc paused for a second and then sharply nodded.

Pabloc: "(… You could say that, yes.)"

After quickly repressing the urges to imagine things along the lines of Pabloc plus personal matters plus tentacles and silently cursing being born in the internet-perverted age of the late twenty-first century, the injured man decided it was time to change the subject…

Soketsu: "(You know what? Let’s change the subject.)"

…with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Not that the scientist seemed to mind. In fact he looked downright amused.

Pabloc: "(Yes?)"

Soketsu: "(So… Errr…)" Roughly this was the moment the man realized that ‘changing the subject’ might have sounded all nice and dandy in his head, but in his hurry he kind of forgot that he needed a topic to change to for it to work. A common mistake; not that it made it any less embarrassing. "(Umm… So… When did she come here…?)"

Pabloc: "(You mean to this world?)"

Soketsu: "(Of course.)"

Pabloc: "(It was… let me see… Five years ago.)"

Soketsu: "(I see…)" In retrospect Soketsu had to note that blurting out the first question that popped into his mind was not exactly the best way to carry out a conversation. Thankfully by this time he actually came up with a proper question that had been bothering him for a while. "(So, is she really an ambassador?)"

Pabloc: "(Secret.)"

Soketsu: "Oh come on!"

Finally snapping, Soketsu’s voice rose out of the ‘whisper’ range and flopped right over to ‘very muffled shout’. Still, it was quite loud enough to reach the ears of the girl on his lap.

Kay sheepishly opened her eyes and proceeded to engage in a cute little yawn, apparently completely oblivious to her surroundings. For a few short seconds she kept uncomprehendingly blinking at the unfamiliar interior of the train car. Finally recalling where she was she quickly glanced up at her partner and her face immediately flushed red.

Kay: "Ummm…"

Soketsu: "Errr… Morning?"

Kay blinked at him and returned the greeting with a small nod of her head while still trying to wipe out the lingering drowsiness from her eyes.

Kay: "Mohr… ningh."

With that the communication between to the two hit a roadblock the size of an iceberg, which wasn’t unexpected, taken how conscious they both were of the other’s presence.

In the meantime the mad scientist flashed a mischievous smile towards the duo and a moment later his elbow casually buried itself into Soketsu’s side.

Gabe: "Real smooth, man. Real smooth."

Soketsu: "Oh, shut up."

Soketsu tried his best to return the poke but his injuries gave the black-coated man the definitive edge when it came to dodging. In the end he just let out a small groan under his breath and decided not to fall into the mad scientist’s pace.

On the other hand, the girl squirming on his lap reminded him of another issue that had been bothering him for a while at this point.

Soketsu: "Guys, just for the record, how long have we been sitting here again?"

Without missing a beat, the mad scientist reached into the pocket of his black labcoat and procured a small pocket watch.

Gabe: "Twenty four and a half minutes, give or take one."

Soketsu heard the answer, but at the moment he was more interested in the object in the man’s hand. It was a curious little machine, its components apparently scavenged together from several different sources and with the second hand missing. All in all it seemed quite anachronistic in Gabe’s hands, so much so that it prompted a question even against Soketsu’s better judgment.

Soketsu: "Weird watch you have there."

Pabloc: "Now that you mention it, I don’t think I have seen that either."

Gabe: "This?" The man raised the pocket watch and began to speak with obviously fake modesty. "Ah, it’s just a silly little thing I made a few days ago, not even worth a mention."

Pabloc: "Were you sleep-working again?"

Soketsu: "Sleep-working?"

Gabe: "Kinda. I pulled an all-nighter before Soketsu’s arrival and I wanted to have a little nap before he showed up. So, I just gathered a bunch of scrap metal and before I knew it it was the next morning and I had this thing."

Soketsu: "Wait, I think I’m missing a step here… You wanted to take a nap so you made a watch?"

Gabe: "What? This?" The scientist looked at the thing in his hand and then back at Soketsu. "This is no watch, this is an alarm clock."

And thus, as per accordance of the laws of inappropriate comedic timing, the ‘pocket-watch’ suddenly roared up with a volume generally reserved for bombing alarm sirens.

Needless to say but Kay, still half-sleep after the short nap, didn’t take the sudden impulse well.

Gabe: "Silly me… It seems like I forgot to turn off the alarm. Sorry." The man turned off the siren with the most blatantly fake apologetic smile in the history of ever and slipped the ‘watch’ back into his pocket and theatrically stretched himself. "Oh well, where were we?"

The mad scientist looked at his left and the previous mischievous smile immediately returned to his face.

Gabe: "Ah, I remember now!" He once again casually dug his elbow into the Soketsu’s defenseless side with an almost childish glee. "Smooth man, real smooth."

The wheelchair-bound Rover tried to turn his face towards the man, though it was admittedly a futile effort with Kay hugging his head in post-startled embarrassment. In the end all he could muster was a mumbling ‘shut up’, but even that was drowned out by the mad scientist’s mirthful laughter at his side…

~~~

The hallway was silent. Everyone has been dead silent the moment since the group got out of the monorail and while they all seemed to be conscious of it, no one even tried to bring up a conversation piece.

They have already passed by three security checkpoints at this point. Each one of those took about five minutes to scan them from head to toe and Tiari also had to scan her pass, which took another minute and had to be done separately. In this tedium Soketsu lost even that little enthusiasm he had before about the whole secret town thing, though he had to admit he kind of admired the tightness of the security.

On the other hand, there was one particular problem that has been bothering him, and him alone, namely that he couldn’t feel his legs anymore.

Kay: "…"

Kay, still sitting on his lap in dead silence, was as stiff as a plank of wood and hasn’t even twitched or spoke a single word ever since he managed to peel her off himself after she finally woke up for real. That wasn’t the main issue though. It was, cruel as it might have sounded, her weight.

Not that he could ever tell it to her face, but it was the truth nevertheless. Of course there were a few circumstantial factors, like her density being affected by being an alternate and such. On the other hand these didn’t actually change the fact that she hasn’t moved an inch in about an hour and Soketsu’s legs were quite adamantly protesting against her blocking their precious blood supply.

Thanks to said urgings the man was just about to discretely ask her to shift a little, but then a strange light grabbed his attention just as he was about to get around to speaking up. He carefully narrowed his eyes to shield them from the glare and at last he could make out the source of the light at the end of the arduously long white hallway.

It was a metal gate. More precisely, a giant metal gate akin to the one he entered the facility the first place. Big, shiny and utterly sophomoric; it stood in a small hall at the end of a narrow corridor that was about a fourth as wide and tall. In short it was exactly the kind of construction he associated with Gabe.

In the end though it was not its sheer size that managed to captivate his eyes; it was the light emanating from it surface, or rather from the thing covering its surface. It was a bright, swirling something that looked like a pure white layer of semi-transparent glowing paint, but the moment he tried to focus his eyes upon the field itself it immediately unfolded into a chaotic mass of countless colors blending together with strange shapes dancing and fading in and out of focus as its distortions warped the very air.

It was a breath-taking spectacle he couldn’t even liken to anything he had ever seen before and after a while he actually had to avert his eyes from it because the swirling colors started to make him feel nauseous. For lack of better options he turned to the mad scientist grinning at his side.

Soketsu: "What is that?"

Gabe: "This is the main gate of the city. Neat, huh?"

Being ‘neat’ or not wasn’t really a question, so Soketsu simply nodded and asked again, this time a little more directly.

Soketsu: "Sure, but I was mainly referring to that… whatever is over the gate."

Gabe: "Ah, that? That’s just the barrier of the pocket-space that contains the city."

Soketsu quickly rummaged through the drawers of his memory, looking for the dusty old recollections related to the familiar-sounding term, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t connect the ‘barriers’ in his memory to the huge spectacle right in front of him.

Soketsu: "You want to tell me you built a pocket-space big enough to encompass a whole city?"

Gabe: "Yup."

Soketsu: "Then that’s not a pocket-space, is it?"

The mad scientist’s smile faltered for a second while he tried to suppress the urge to hit the eye-patched man on his pedantic head, but then just gave a shrug.

Gabe: "I suppose, but what else are you going to call it? Largerthanapocket-space?"

Soketsu: "Whatever." Sensing an incoming argument, Soketsu ditched the topic and his gaze quickly returned to the barrier in front of him. "Seriously though, since when did we have such technology?"

Gabe: "Hehe… If you are impressed by this, wait until you are inside."

Soketsu: "Inside? Don’t you mean ‘outside’?"

Gabe: "Do I?"

Before the man could ponder the meaning of the mad scientist’s riposte, Ahazkun’s voice interrupted their discussion.

Ahazkun: "Let’s get in, shall we?"

Gabe: "Yeah."

The mad scientist skipped ahead and walked up to a faintly shimmering console built into the wall next to the huge gate. He quickly typed in a few commands and then gave a thumb up to the group as the bottom of the screen turned green.

At first nothing happened. Then, just as Soketsu was about to speak up, the ground shook under them as the swirling light on the gate began rapidly fading, revealing the beautiful ornamentation underneath. Soketsu had to realize that the strange shapes he initially thought were only the barrier’s light playing tricks on his eyes were actually intricate reliefs etched into the gate’s surface.

They were simple patterns, leaf and flower motifs woven into elaborate pillars stretching vertically from the bottom and fanning out into the shape of a gigantic tree. Amongst the branches he could see the figures of winged humanoids carved into the metal. They all looked in the same direction, to the crown of the three where a man’s form could be seen.

The figure in question stood at the top of the gate with his arms wide open in a welcoming gesture and even a quick glance was enough to recognize the familiar face he wore.

Soketsu: "(Seriously?)"

He could only gawk in bafflement. He knew all too well how the mad scientist had quite a taste for overblown imagery, but putting himself as the centerpiece of a relief was a bit tacky even or him. In fact he even thought about calling him out on it when he noticed how he was staring at him with a smile so broad it barely fit onto his face.

Gabe: "A friendly advice; hold onto your jaw."

Soketsu had no idea what he meant by that until the wings of the gate started to move. As the gap in front of him became even wider something warm hit his face. He almost recoiled from the odd yet strangely familiar sensation.

For a moment, his head was in a blank daze but his eyes immediately poped wide open as soon as his nostrils took a deep breath. He finally recognized it, the smell in the air. He had never felt in his ‘new life’ but it was all too familiar for his old self. It was a pleasant kind of warmth that gradually washed over his entire body and mind and he finally recalled the word: Spring.

The lukewarm wind carrying the fragrance of myriad flowers and the promise of sunshine was the same as in his old memories except that it was all too real… but just as he was about to immerse himself in the sensation, something began tugging at his attention in the back of his mind. It was that oftentimes underused part of the human mind most often referred to as ‘logic’ and it was screaming at him as loud as an anthropomorphized avatar of a concept could.

As for what it was complaining about, it was one of those things that felt quite obvious in retrospect but was so silly at the time that one simply skimmed over it. In this case the detail in question was the simple fact that the group at no point have moved in a vertical direction whatsoever. In other words…

Soketsu: "Aren’t we… still underground?"

The mad scientist gave him a knowing smile as he stepped through the threshold of the gate and beckoned the wheelchair-bound man.

Gabe: "Come and see it for yourself."

Even without those words, Soketsu’s wheelchair was already moving towards the warm light that emanated from the other side, and what other side it was! If he didn’t know any better Soketsu would have thought he crossed over into another world, and in fact saying so was probably a lot closer to that actual facts than one would guess.

Soketsu: "Are you… serious…?"

The sight in front of him was something he would never have believed if not for the fact that he saw it with his own two eyes. In fact he had a hard time believing it even then, not a small achievement by any standards. As for exactly what baffled him… it was probably easier to count the things that didn’t.

For starters, there was the issue of the deep azure sky reaching into the horizon. Its beautiful blue was occasionally spotted by herds of fluffy white clouds herded by the gentle afternoon wind. The sun was sheepishly peeking out from behind said clouds, as bright as ever yet without the scorching rays Soketsu was so accustomed to. It was exactly the kind of weather that awakened one’s irrational urges to get outdoors and just throw themselves upon the emerald grass of a rolling hillside.

Speaking of rolling green hills, the scenery had quite a few those as well. For example, they were standing right on the top of one with a great view on the thousands of buildings stretching as far as the eye could see. It all looked like one of those postcardesque panoramas that one would see in the fake world of advertisements, with rows upon rows of tidy little homes with finely cultivated flower gardens covering the suburban landscape.

Parks, lanes, modest skyscrapers, shopping malls and elaborate water fountains in the middle of busy squares… the sight in front of Soketsu was the definition of a sprawling metropolis. Its sheer size alone was daunting enough, but then his overwhelmed brain slowly began to register the sounds tickling his ears as well.

There were a myriad noises floating on the wind, the sounds of a bustling city filled to the brim with vigor. What it lacked, however, was the constant honking of horns and roaring of engines. In fact, the roads seemed to be too narrow for cars to begin with. Their alternative, on the other hand, was holding dominion over the sky above the entire city. Monorails.

Not that it was easy to tell at first glance. The sparkling white threads in the distance looked like the fata morgana of a giant spider’s web forming a loose dome over the skyscape, but a second look have quickly ascertained the improbable: all those thin white threads were actually rails seemingly suspended in mid-air and the sparkles were nothing less than the shiny windows of a thousand small bullet train cars sliding towards their destinations with the quiet hissing of parting air.

There was no question about it, this was a metropolis, one several magnitudes greater than even the biggest city the Order had ever rebuilt. In fact it wasn’t really fair to compare them in the same way it wasn’t fair to compare a brand new luxury car to an old pickup truck with a fresh coat of paint. Not that it stopped Soketsu from trying, and every single time he did, he could feel his breath being caught in his throat. No words could convey his shock and absolute disbelief.

Every time he blinked he was prepared to the revelation that it was all an illusion, a part of one of Gabe’s twisted jokes, but no matter how many times he closed his eyes the sight in front of him never seemed to waver.

Gabe: "I told you to hold onto your jaw, didn’t I?"

As the injured man finally managed to tear his gaze away from the scenery he finally noticed Gabe’s figure in front of him. He looked into Soketsu’s eyes then opened his arms with an honest smile.

Gabe: "Welcome to my city. Welcome to Avalon."

Soketsu: "A… valon?"

The black-cloaked scientist nodded in response and let his hands fall to his side

Gabe: "Yes." He turned around and looked over Avalon like he was basking in its presence and spoke with a soft voice. "The safe haven, untouchable by the sword, where the once and future king rests until the times call for him again." Suddenly the scientist faced Soketsu again and his lips curved into a subdued, proud smile. "Fitting name, don’t you agree?"

Soketsu was still far too thunderstruck to answer. He raised his eyes upon the sky again, trying to collect his thoughts, but then the little voice at the back of his head suddenly reared its ugly head again. Something was wrong with this picture. Something had to be wrong with this picture, and he was just getting an idea what it was.

He focused his attention on the blue sky, seemingly staring into empty space, but then his eye finally picked up something. There was a thin, almost ethereal crack on the sky. It only flickered into existence for a moment but it was enough to tell its shape. Most of it was a straight line except its end that suddenly tilted away in a very distinct angle.

The more Soketsu looked at the sky, the more of these cracks he could notice. They were like barely visible threads plastered over the skydome and as he started the flickering lines slowly piled on each other in his mind and added up to a fascinating picture.

Apparently the ‘sky’ was covered in countless hexagons of at least three different sizes, though by the looks of it even the smallest ones would have been at least several dozen meters in diameter.

Soketsu: "We are… still underground, aren’t we?"

Gabe nodded without any of the teasing the man would have expected after such an obvious-sounding question.

Gabe: "Yes. Avalon is a self-sustaining city built an average of one and a half kilometers under the Black Desert."

Soketsu: "So the sky… It’s not real after all."

Gabe: "No, it’s part of the artificial environment system that mimics a mediterranean-continental climate complete with a synchronized day-night cycle as well as dynamically changing weather and seasons."

After absorbing all this, Soketsu’s brain was just about ready to throw in the towel for the day.

Soketsu: "But… How?"

Gabe: "With meticulously planning, careful execution and the best technology we could muster."

Soketsu stared at the mad scientist for several long seconds in silence. At last his lips slowly curved upwards and a moment later he broke out into small chuckle.

Soketsu: "Oh god, this is so typical of you!"

Gabe cocked his head to the side in confusion.

Gabe: "Is it?"

Soketsu: "Yeah. Totally!" He paused as he carefully wiped his eyes while trying to suppress his laughter. "If anyone else told me they built a metropolis under a bloody desert of all things, I would have called them insane. For you I bet it was just a Friday."

Gabe: "Well, no. It took a little longer than that. And I had help."

Soketsu: "Hehe…" Still chuckling to himself, Soketsu let out a surprisingly relieved sigh. "Now I finally feel like I’m back."

Ahazkun: "Really?"

The oracle, suspiciously silent all this time, finally raised his voice and Soketsu promptly answered.

Soketsu: "Yeah. It’s just like back then. You show me something crazy, then you show me something even crazier and then you just when I think I cannot be shocked anymore you finish things up by casually blowing my damn mind." Soketsu let out another sigh and beamed a satisfied smile at Ahazkun. "I swear I missed this."

Ahazkun: "You didn’t even remember it until today."

Pabloc: "Don’t spoil the moment." Finally joining the conversation, Pabloc also caught up with the rest and gestured to Gabe. "Let’s move, we should show him around the shopping district while the shops are still open."

Soketsu: "Wait, there’s even a shopping district…?"

Gabe: "This way."

Their group began their descent on the paved promenade leading down the hill and into the outskirts of the city.

On the way Soketsu took his time to admire the carefully tended flower-beds and the forested area beyond them. It looked absolutely idyllic and he didn’t even try to guess how much time and effort it must have taken to maintain the area in pristine condition.

Soketsu: "Say, Gabe?"

Gabe: "Yes?"

Soketsu knew that he had a question to ask, something about the trees or whatnot, but once the mad scientist looked back at him his attention was grabbed by another detail. The man somehow seemed, for the lack of better words, serene. Almost dignified to a degree. Compared to the underground wonderland it might have seemed like an insignificant issue yet he still made a note of it, probably just because of how anachronistic it felt.

Still, even he knew this was not the right opportunity to bring something like this up so he quickly filed it away in his head and returned to the topic at hand by quickly recalling his previous question.

Soketsu: "Just for the record, how much did it cost to create this haven of yours?"

Gabe: "Cost? As in money?" Gabe’s brows arched in a way that indicated he didn’t fully understand the question. "Nothing. I did the planning and the girls did most of the heavy lifting. They made the building materials, did the construction and now they are all living here."

Soketsu: "Wait, just have many people are we talking about?"

Gabe: "Wait, let me count." To Soketsu’s surprise the man simply closed his eyes for a few seconds, his brows furrowed in concentration. "The current population is two million, three hundred and twenty-four thousand six hundred and sixty-nine…"

Soketsu: "…" The man’s eyes opened wide like he just saw a ghost. "Pardon?"

Gabe: "Two million, three hundred and twenty-four thousand six hundred and seventy-one." The man repeated, and then quickly added. "We had two births in the meantime. Twins."

Soketsu: "How can you feed that many people!?"

Gabe: "Well, to put it frankly, I don’t have to."

Soketsu was about to raise his voice but the answer to his questions suddenly flew by him with a sharp whirring sound usually associated with large insects.

???????: "He is back already! The Fairfather is back!"

In the span of a few seconds the air around them exploded with the buzzing and cheerful voices of dozens of small, humanoid creatures. They flew in from all directions and strangely enough they all seemed to hover at an average adult’s eye-level. Familiar as he might have been with them, it still took several long seconds for Soketsu to finally register the sight.

Fairies. They were small, about thirty centimeters tall on average and they gracefully soared through the air with their pearlescent dragonfly wings sparkling in the sunlight. On a quick glance Soketsu could count about thirty of them with varying ages and most of them were bustling around Gabe as he greeted them one by one.

Gabe: "Aw, Mia! I told you not to call me that in front of the others! It’s embarrassing!" The first fairy only giggled, but by then the black-clad scientist already moved on. "Hi Talli. Oh April, I haven’t seen you in a while, how have you been?"

He addressed each of them as if they were old friends and Soketsu couldn’t help but be amazed at the sight. The Gabe that stood in front of him could not even be compared to the idiot he knew. This man was gracefully swinging between the many fairies, dividing his attention equally between them all, and he did all that without the unbelievably warm, fatherly smile ever leaving his face.

The more he looked, the louder the question became: Was this even the same person he just spent his afternoon with? Was this the same man who hit him on the top of his head in the infirmary? The one talking about the ‘romance of science’ and playing silly clapping games with the blonde girl on the train?

He couldn’t get far in the line of inquiries though as, at long last, the fairies finally noticed the rest of the group and they immediately focused their attention on him. To his surprise the girl in his lap greeted them first with a cheerful voice.

Kay: "Hi girls!"

Fairy1: "Look, it’s, Kay! You are back already?"

Kay: "Yeah, we are showing the town to Soketsu."

The small group of fairies, apparently acquaintances of Kay, looked over the man with curious eyes.

Fairy2: "He’s Soketsu? I thought he would be taller…"

Fairy3: "Oh, you said it again! You said it again!"

Fairy4: "Stop that, you are being a nuisance!"

Fairy2: "We are just having fun!"

Fairy3: "Yeah!"

As the tiny women kept arguing over his head, Soketsu couldn’t help but wonder. They seemed completely different from the fairies of his memories. They were noticeably taller and they wore an assortment of casual clothes including dresses, shirts, various types of tops and even pants, something he had never actually seen on the fairies of old who generally only wore stereotypical frilly dresses.

Actually, once he got over the discrepancy, Soketsu had to conclude that they looked more like tiny humans with wings than the classic fairies that used to accompany the mad scientist. He had no time to contemplate on the issue though, as Gabe turned to him with two fairies sitting on his shoulders and cocked his head towards the city.

Gabe: "Let’s go, we are making them wait."

Soketsu: "Who?"

Gabe: "My girls just told me that they threw together a welcoming party for you. It’s a bit of a tradition, you see."

‘Your girls?’, Soketsu murmured under his breath, but he had no chance to call Gabe out on his words as the man had already started walking, leading the way as they headed into the heart of Avalon.

Gabe: "Let’s get going! It would be rude to be late from your own party!"

And just like that, before Soketsu could even say a thing, they were engulfed by a swarm of fairies as they picked up the pace upon the paved streets of the city…