Unlike the camp that Gaius had been in for the past few days, Heritage Basestation — the official name of this place — did not sound bugle calls in the morning. In fact, they did not sound bugle calls at all, and for good reason. By and large, Harvesters were all highly motivated, which meant that instead of sleep, they would cultivate the whole night long.

Well, unlike the refreshed-looking Gaius, it was highly likely that none of them had the ability to blot out pain, and even if they did, it wasn’t to the extent of Gaius. To the person in question, however, once he had gotten into the rhythm of exhaling slowly every hour, cultivation felt very refreshing to him.

But it was boring. Gaius could see why few people cultivated to the extent and the way he did — the sort of pain that trapping the chilly energy wasn’t the kind that he suspected even masochists would like. Even his fellow Harvesters had to take a rather long break in between every cycle. He could tell, as there was this fellow who screamed out fairly regularly, around the time when Gaius was at the two-third mark of his own cycle.

As Gaius tried to wake the sleeping Nakama up by poking her cheek, he wondered if anyone had started on the second step of the mantra yet. And how would he know if he was ready to start on it? 

Questions, questions.

At any rate, Gaius’ method of the first step was something that he could call his own secret manual. No one else could replicate it, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell anyone else either. He didn't want to explain to others how to ignore pain reliably and with such a degree. After all, if he ever had to assassinate anyone in this world, the last thing he wanted was for his target not to black out in shock immediately, for a multitude of reasons.

Gaius winced inwardly as the still-sleeping girl bit down on his finger. With his free hand, he brought her up to a sitting position, and started to knead her cheeks until she woke up in a practiced fashion.

This body, after all, had done such a thing hundreds of times.

“Big bro…” She yawned and rubbed at her eyes.

“Rise and shine, Nakama,” Gaius smiled. “You promised me that you’ll go for class, right? We have one in an hour.”

“Oh.” Her face fell, and then she tilted her cheek. “We?”

“We’re going to attend the same classes. Didn’t I tell you?” answered Gaius. Other than making sure that she was under his supervision, Gaius felt that if she was around, the other Harvesters wouldn’t be that hostile to him. Who would, if the target’s sister made you feel like a horrible person for treating her brother badly? Her eyes, once filled with tears, would even guilt-trip anyone to next week.

I feel bad using her as a shield though.

“Great, I’ll be able to protect you from these bullies!” Nakama nodded vigorously. “Humph. Bad people, they all are!”

Never mind. Rather, don’t go labelling them as bad people off the bat, little ancestor…Gaius patted her head. “Go wash up,” Gaius added, “and then we’ll look for what other classes we can attend together.”

“Okay!”

After a five-minute period in which the sounds of water splashing around happily filled the air, Nakama was sitting on Gaius’ shoulders. It didn’t really matter that the boy was just two years older; Nakama was really light, and as Gaius walked over to the relatively dust-free schedule near the tent entrance, he made a mental note to make her eat more.

“The first thing we’ll be doing in the morning is Apothecary, which you are going to attend with me.” Gaius peered at the piece of paper. “I want to go for Advanced Combat in the afternoon, so unless you promise to not take part in the actual fighting, I won’t bring you along.”

“I’ll cheer you on!”

Gaius repressed a smile. “Ok, you can come with me. Hmm, that’s all for the day, unfortunately. Let’s go on a walk first, then we’ll head to the Concoction Hall.”

Snow fell from the sky as the little duo trudged along. Given the climate, the little duo had naturally worn a winter cloak over a set of fur-lined tunics, but Nakama had thrown a small tantrum at the fact that Gaius’ hood was preventing her from grabbing at his hair.

After a compromise in which Gaius removed his hood, but Nakama would wear hers, the two of them had started their walk. From afar, it probably looked like a oddly-built adult was walking, but a closer inspection would then leave them laughing uncontrollably.

Gaius could attest to that fact very much, after a small patrol had stopped them for inspection. He could still hear the jerks laughing, even after he’d left their vicinity.

“There’s a big tower over there!”

Gaius looked up, and saw a black tower rising into the skies. His head had been lowered thus far, so he hadn’t really noticed such a landmark. “Let’s go check it out, then.”

“Yay!”

When they finally reached the tower, a set of ominous black doors barred their way in. His cheek twitched as he looked at the sign on it. What is this monstrosity? Simplified Chinese, Japanese Hiragana and Hangul mixed together?

The two…characters, if Gaius wanted to call them that, looked like a horrible mix of characters layered over each other. He didn’t know how to even begin reading the end result, given that the strokes were crossing each other randomly. He could make out small bits of it, like the small O that Hangeul used in its characters, and the possessive indicator for Japanese, but that was it.

“What’s that, Gaius?” Nakama pointed at the sign.

“I have no idea,” he replied. He wasn’t being perfunctory or anything. Was there meaning in a whole bunch of grammatical particles from at least three different languages mixed in together to form two words?

Not really, no. Gaius looked at the sign again, and then tried to shake his head, before remembering that Nakama was still hanging on to it. “There’s nothing we can do here. Let’s go to the Concoction Hall instead.”

The two of them glanced at the sign one last time, and then began to retrace their steps.