The professor left after that, saying that she wanted to plan things out for their shopping expedition, and that marked the end of the meeting. Nalia went back to her Room in order to catch up on some more sleep and Yura went to the hotel room paid by Whitmoore, given that her own mindscape Room still wasn’t complete. Meanwhile, Nina stayed behind, saying that she still wanted to keep watch for any dangers to Elise.

The contractor understood that the rabbit girl wanted to talk to her about something, but needed some time to psyche herself up enough to actually speak, so she didn’t try to force it and simply waited patiently for Nina to bring it up, while mentally planning out how to train her newest partner.

“Big sister, eh… It might be silly for me to ask, but…” Eventually Nina did began to speak, but stalled midway through.

Thus Elise decided to help “You don’t need to worry about asking silly things. I know you’re worried about whatever this is, and that alone makes it something important to me.”

Nina let out a small sigh and then spoke “Okay. It’s about those last fights we had.”

Elise nodded to show that she was listening and motioned for Nina to continue.

“Even I feel that it’s a bit weird, but I think those were the first times I killed people in such a direct way.” The rabbit girl said “I know that my blows were strong enough to potentially kill people while we were participating in the big battles back at the forest, but they were so chaotic that I couldn’t be sure whether any of my attacks killed the enemies or if they were finished off by someone else. But now that I have killed people in a way that leaves no doubt… I feel a bit weird.”

“I see…” Elise replied empathetically.

“And then I remembered that you killed Loran personally.” Nina continued “You never seemed to have any problems of that sort, but I don’t know if you were just hiding your feelings. So I wanted to know how you felt about it, and perhaps ask for advice…?”

“How I fell about it? That’s a bit difficult to explain.” Elise replied “I’m not completely unaffected by it, but I had already made up my mind long ago. I knew that deaths of others would be inevitable in the path of strife, and since I’m the contractor, that would mean my partners would mostly be the ones to kill other people.

“But I didn’t want them to be the only ones to bear the burden, so I needed to resolve myself. I decided that I wouldn’t kill unnecessarily, but if I decided to kill someone, I would never hesitate and I would never regret. That’s something for which I’ve prepared myself for years. Your situation is very different, so I can’t say much about it.” Elise paused for a moment “But there’s someone else who can. Not Nalia, she’s a fairy, so her mentality is a bit different regarding that type of thing, but I think Yura should be able to give you some advice about this situation.”

Nina nodded and let out a small sigh “Okay. That sounds like a good idea. And I already know where she’s staying, so that’s fine too. But there’s something else I wanted to ask: The professor brought it up before, but have you already decided where we’re going to go next?”

“Not exactly.” Elise replied “I want to go to one of the two countries to the north, but I haven’t decided which one yet, much less which route to go through in order to get there. I’ll tell you girls once I’ve decided.”

Nina nodded at that and then left. It wasn’t like a guard was needed, considering that Elise could simply wake up Nalia in case of any trouble. The contractor, now mostly alone, took that chance to think more about the exact subject Nina had just talked about.

The area they were currently in was a buffer zone in between three countries. The west and east boundaries of that zone bordered the countries of Lordran and Analatia, which also shared borders with the north boundary. Meanwhile, the south boundary of the buffer zone was completely taken by the massive country of Rindou.

There were complicated political and historical reasons behind the existence of the buffer zone, but it mostly boiled down to the difficulty in managing an area with such a variety of indigenous people and cultures along with the tense relationships between the groups living in the nearby countries, which tended to flare up a lot when said countries shared borders in that particular area.

Due to this, the buffer zone served an important function by limiting the amount and scale of conflicts in the area. There was no central authority over said zone, which was split into numerous villages, cities and city-states spread across a wide area. Elise had enjoyed starting her journey in such a place, given how easy it was to find sharply different experiences just from moving around a bit, but now she was ready to try her luck on an actual country and deal with all the complicated circumstances involved.

The danger posed by the Inishie was also part of the reason behind her decision. Elise and her group had been quite close to death because of that strike team, and they had no recourse other than fight themselves. Being in a country would mean the Inishie wouldn’t have as easy of a time hunting people down to kill them without attracting attention, meaning Elise would have more tools at her disposal.

With all that said, all that was left was for the girl to decide which place she wanted to go next.

+0+

After leaving Elise’s presence, Nina went straight to the hotel room where Yura was staying and knocked on the door, only having to wait a few seconds for the elf girl to let her in.

“Hello, hello, it’s nice to see you.” Yura said.

“Likewise.” Nina replied while looking around.

The room truly looked high-class and expensive, with tons of delicate furnishings all over the incredibly large space, which was divided into several sub-rooms, each of whom almost three times the size as the hospital room Elise was staying at. But the room also kept to the same high-tech theme of the city itself, as it included several mechanical appliances, including a small flying robot that kept busily going around looking for things to clean and several other machines of unknown purpose, not to mention the decorative things, such as the small waterfall in the bathroom that went against gravity and the floating planetarium suspended above one of the windows.

However, the first thing the rabbit decided to comment about was the pile of earth on Yura’s hands, which she kept manipulating into assuming different complex shapes.

“Are you practicing?” Was Nina’s question.

“Yes. This doesn’t look like much, but it’s a good way to train my precise earth manipulation.” She sighed “Though recently I’ve been feeling like the training isn’t doing enough. There’s a lot I still want to be able to do, but I don’t know how I’d get to the point of doing those things.”

“You don’t need to worry too much about that.” Nina reassured her “Elise is a really good trainer, to the point of making someone entirely untrained like me into a strong fighter in weeks. There’s no chance you’re gonna have any trouble progressing once she starts training you.”

“Really? That’s great, I can’t wait.”

“Just be aware that it’s gonna be rough, though.”

Yura opened her mouth to say that she wasn’t gonna be afraid of training, but was dissuaded by the pained expression on the other girl’s face “Well, it will be fine as long as it works.” Was what she said instead “But while it’s nice to talk to you like this, I’m sure you have a reason for visiting me.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Nina admitted “I asked big sister for advice on something, and she said that it would be best to talk to you about it.” She sighed “It’s hard to admit, but I’m bothered about killing those people from the Inishie strike team, even though they were trying to kill us.”

Yura looked at her for a moment “Was it the first time you killed someone?”

“Yes, or at least the first time I’m sure I did.”

“Then it’s normal. I also took a while to really get to grips with the fact that I had killed people, even though they were members of the Inishie.” Yura shook her head “And that’s not the worst part, either.”

“What’s the worst part, then?” Nina asked.

“The fact that it gets easier.” Yura replied emotionlessly “As you kill more and more, that sort of thing affects you less and less.” Her tone then changed to an anguished one “Feeling that happen to myself terrified me completely. I felt like I was turning into a monster.”

“How did you deal with it?” Nina asked after some hesitation.

“I decided to do my best to help people, instead of simply seeking out Inishie members for revenge.” Yura replied “That was why I decided to help the professor with saving the city. As long as I don’t lose track of that goal, I feel like I’ll be able to remain myself.”

“I see…” Nina took a deep breath “Then I think I know what I’m supposed to do. I won’t let killing become my standard approach to fights. Big sister vowed that she wouldn’t kill unnecessarily, and I think that’s a good way to do things. Unless I have a reason to kill my opponents, I’ll try my best to win without taking their lives.” She let out a small smile “It will be a good way to practice my control, too.”

Yura smiled back “That’s nice to hear, but in case you do have a reason to kill, like in a fight against Inishie…?”

“Of course, I’ll show them no mercy.”

+0+

Nothing special happened throughout the rest of the day and night. The following morning, when Elise received the okay to leave the hospital (and after she took a few seconds to get used to walking again), the professor was right outside to receive her as promised.

“Okay everyone, we have a full day ahead of us, so the first thing to do is make sure we have enough energy to keep up. Let’s go eat!” Whitmoore declared to the assembled girls.

No one had any objections to the idea (and Elise had also received the okay to eat food normally) so they went to a restaurant the woman indicated, called Starlight Kitchen.

It was a very pretty location with decorations based on galaxies as you’d expect from the name. The group took up one of the tables, which had inbuilt computer screens they could use to check the menu and order. In contrast to that high-tech approach common in the city, the food itself was quite normal, featuring rice as its main ingredient and including meat and vegetables of the same types as the meals they got back at the forest.

“Food is something that’s pretty hard to automate in general, and often not worth the trouble if you also care about taste.” The professor explained when Nalia asked about that.

And because the preparation was mostly low-tech, the food would take around twenty minutes to come after they ordered, but they were not without entertainment, as the table computers could play music (which wouldn’t leak out even to the neighboring tables, another high-tech function), show videos and they even had some games, but the group didn’t play around with the latter, only hearing music and talking while waiting for the food to arrive.

Nalia and Yura had gotten into another discussion about applied earth magic while Nina asked Whitmoore about the sorts of things she was studying, with Elise interjecting once in a while when something she had heard from her older sisters became relevant.

It was a nice, pleasant chat, which couldn’t go too far because they simply didn’t have enough time, given that none of the group were the type to talk while eating. And the food was fantastic, to the point where the ones who had eaten meals made by Hiroka couldn’t really decide whether they liked it more or less than what the fox woman produced.

With that done, the group went to a different area of the city to start what would be the biggest part of the day: Clothes shopping.

There were just so many clothing stores in that area, carrying clothes in so many different styles, and Whitmoore seemed determined to have the younger girls try out everything. Not even Nalia was spared, as some of the stores visited carried doll clothing and possessed machines that could do on-the-spot adjustments to make them fit not only her smaller frame but also the position and size of her wings.

They didn’t really mind that treatment, as it was a nice way to unwind and the professor seemed to be really enjoying herself in seeing what styles worked on the smaller girls and buying anything that both her and said girls themselves liked. Elise thought that, if Whitmoore had children, she’d probably be a really doting parent.

The contractor eventually had to stop her due to concerns about not having enough space to carry all that clothing, though, so the group moved on. They were already wearing some of the new clothing: Elise had a combination long-sleeved jacket, shorts and a flat cap, all in light brown, along with a white undershirt and a red necktie. Nina had a black crop top and choker, along with blue jeans shorts. Yura had a yellow dress with short white-sleeves, a pink neckerchief and a purple capelet. And finally Nalia had an orange dress with yellow highlights, white puffy sleeves, a red ascot and a purple rose-shaped hair ornament.

Together they made for a pretty disparate-looking group, but no one could deny that they looked nice.

Still, the next destination in their program was much more serious business, as proven by the fact that they had to go into a black building that was quite a bit out of the way and through several security sensors as they headed down into the underground levels of said building.

Finally they arrived at a waiting room with a small table, where it only took about two minutes for a man to arrive carrying two packages. He sat on the table, opposite to Elise, and introduced himself as Ricardo Ferreira.

“And you’re the one we’ve customized those two for, right?” He asked Elise.

“I suppose so, but the Professor neglected to tell me what ‘those two’ actually are.” She replied.

“I wanted it to be a surprise.” Whitmoore defended herself.

Ricardo smiled at the byplay and opened one of the packages to show what was inside.

“That’s… a vest?” Nina asked.

Because that was what it looked like, a thin gray vest with a complicated pattern of lines on it plus shoulder straps, and the vest looked like it would completely cover Elise’s trunk if she were to wear it.

“That’s right.” He turned to Elise “We’ve adjusted it to your measurements, based on the information gathered by the security sensors. You can try it out right now if you want, since it is designed to be worn either above or below one’s clothing equally well.”

The girl nodded and put on the vest. As expected from something adjusted exactly to her, it fit perfectly.

“This is called a Barrier Vest, and rather than just explaining its features, it’s better to show a demonstration.” Ricardo said and right on cue, part of the wall opened up to reveal a screen that lit up to show a video.

It was a very instructive video, starting with a message saying that none of the people in the video had received any special training, before showing several scenes of people wearing the same vest being stabbed, slashed, smacked and shot at with several different weapons, from a small dagger to an actual cannon, with them always seeming perfectly fine afterwards.

“Any questions?” Ricardo asked once the video was over.

“How did you manage to convince people to test that?” Nina immediately asked.

“They saw the effects of the vest through tests without people involved, they got well paid and there was always medical staff ready nearby just in case.” Was the answer.

“I’ve heard stories of people thinking pillows would be sufficient protection to defend against shotgun shells, so all that wouldn’t even be necessary if the ones involved were idiots.” Whitmoore commented, causing Ricardo to snicker and say “We don’t hire people who are that stupid.”

Nalia was the first to have an actually relevant question “What kinds of mechanisms do those vests use? I mean, is there any sort of situation where they won’t work?”

Ricardo smiled “There are no particularly special mechanisms on the Barrier Vest, and that is one of its strong points. It is pretty much just materials being pushed to the limit by technology, so it’s a very reliable defense.”

“Reliable sounds good.” Nalia said, giving Elise a pointed look “What are the actual limits of this defense?”

That started a very technical discussion about how well the vest would handle different types of attacks. The most obvious limitation was the fact that it would only defend the parts of the body which were covered by it, but there were also several other considerations.

The barrier vest was quite good at dispersing thermal energy, so blocking a standard fireball would be no problem from either the explosion or the temperature standpoints, but things that heated up the surrounding environment could get around that, as the wearer wouldn’t want to take a constant stream from a flamethrower, for example, even if the fire didn’t hit anywhere other than the vest.

There was also a limit to how much force the barrier vest could disperse. It was a pretty high limit, though, to the point where even someone on the level of Nina would need to put a lot of strength into their blows to deal critical damage through the vest. Piercing type attacks, by their very nature, would need less energy to do the same, but it was still quite a lot, to the point where standard armor piercing ammunition wouldn’t be enough.

“Very high-grade protection.” Was Yura’s comment after hearing all of that.

“Indeed, because this is military-grade hardware.” Ricardo replied “Though it is very expensive, so it’s normally used only by special forces.”

“Very expensive, huh…?” Elise said, looking at Whitmoore.

“I have more than enough money for it.” The woman replied unapologetically “I even considered buying that for all of you, but Yura told me she didn’t need it, and that the other two would probably be the same, so I decided not to.”

“Wearing something like that would hinder my inner earth armor.” The elf justified herself.

“And she was right, neither me nor Nina need that kind of thing.” Nalia said.

“For the kinds of fights we’ll be getting into, that’s probably true.” Elise said “But now I’m wondering what is the other thing you bought.” She looked at the remaining package.

“I suppose it is about time for you girls to see it.” Ricardo said, before opening up the box and showing the contents to them.

“That’s a gun.” Elise noted.

It was a white colored pistol with a strange circular cap on the base and a dial on the side.

“This is a MMLG, a multimode laser gun.” Ricardo explained “I’ll show you a video about it and then answer any other questions you may have afterwards.”

And so another video began playing on the same screen as before. That video showed that the gun truly lived up to its title of ‘multimode’, as it had several different settings controlled by the dial that had different functions. The lowest setting only pushed things and was the equivalent of a long range punch, above that was the ‘stun’ setting, which worked by delivering a shock to the target’s nervous system through the shot.

Above that was the ‘heat shot’ which burned things and then came the maximum setting, which was designed to kill via both burning a hole through the target and delivering a powerful shock. Each of those settings could also be further changed to alter their potency according to the situation.

The circular cap it had could be removed, as it was actually the gun’s recharger, which could be fueled by solar energy. At maximum charge, the number of shots the gun could fire depended on the setting, around three hundred shots in the highest setting and over fifty thousand in the lowest.

After hearing all of that, Elise asked a single question:

“Would a shot at maximum charge break through the barrier vest?”

“No. It would take several shots to manage that.” Ricardo answered “And the reason behind that is simple: While the barrier vest you have is military grade, the gun isn’t, because we are not legally allowed to sell military grade laser guns to the public. And before you ask, a maximum charge shot from a military grade laser gun probably wouldn’t kill the wearer of the barrier vest in one shot, but they would certainly be quite injured.”

“I see… Well, if it is not a military-grade gun, I have no doubt it will be quite useful. I’ll have to practice with it, of course.” Elise said.

“If you want, we have a target practice range down here you can use free of charge.” Ricardo said.

“That would be nice. Let’s go, then.”

And so the group got up and Ricardo waved them over before walking through the same door he had entered from. But Elise grabbed Whitmoore’s wrist to get her attention rather than immediately going after him.

“Do you need something?” The woman asked.

Elise sighed and gazed at her with a serious look in her eyes “I understand that you decided to do all this in order to thank us, so I’m not gonna refuse, but I want you to remember one thing: If there come a day where you really need our help for something, feel free to call. Nalia is getting better and better at teleportation, so we’ll be able to get to you very fast.”

Whitmoore looked back at her and replied “Okay. I’ll remember.”