Chapter 15: The Inventor Girl
The day was sunny, and the breeze was pleasant.
Bianca walked calmly through the streets toward school, enjoying the moments of peace.
As the days went by, Bianca continued learning about magic. Since Lux came into her life a week ago, she had learned a lot about how to control the magic of her ring. It turned out to be linked to her feelings, emotions, and memories in a harmonious amalgam that made her uncomfortable to keep in mind.
Her relationship with Todd, Lux's grumpy cat, had been improving—not as friends, but now she could tolerate talking to him with a bit of confidence.
On the other hand, there was Lux, who, with only a week at school, had managed to adapt well to the academic environment. He was kind and liked to help, and he always got excited whenever something he didn't know about the human world caught his attention.
She would never forget seeing Lux inspecting a calculator with great curiosity.
She set her thoughts aside when a brown head of hair appeared in front of her.
"Hello, Lux" she greeted politely.
"Hello, Bianca" Lux greeted her as he walked alongside her. "The other day you improved your time controlling the magic of your ring. If you keep it up, it won't take long for you to learn how to cast spells" the boy praised her for her effort, his voice sounding cheerful and proud, as if he were watching his own daughter learn thanks to him.
"Lux, be careful talking about that in public. I don't want anyone to hear us talking about magic" Bianca warned, looking around at the nearby students, a shiver running down her back. She worried that someone in particular—a certain green-haired girl—might overhear their conversation and create another misunderstanding that would torment her all day.
The boy with yellow eyes simply nodded and continued on his way to school.
He just had to avoid talking in public about magic, mages, and anything related.
It wasn't difficult.
—
Elsewhere.
We can see a dimly lit room, where various tools such as drills, welding equipment, and several cables and circuits are scattered all over the place, along with a curtain covering something large and a wooden desk.
The sound of a screwdriver was the only thing that could be heard in the room.
In front of the desk, a person showed signs of hyperactivity—a rather small girl, her white school uniform stained with oil, her long yellow hair messy and moving in a disordered rhythm, her brown eyes intensely focused on the desk.
"Almost…" the person murmured, holding the screwdriver in her hands as she adjusted something.
"It's ready!" she shouted joyfully, dropping the tool and lifting a strange device with excitement.
"A device capable of tracking clean and pure energy!" she shouted fervently, her voice becoming even sharper than it already was.
"The great inventor Gul did it!" the girl now known as Gul finally said. She looked at the clock on her device, surprised.
Was it already the next day?
The dark circles under her eyes were prominent; it looked like she hadn't slept in a long time. Being locked in the school workshop, busy with her project, made her lose track of time.
She had to get ready for the boring classes, packing her backpack. A yawn escaped her mouth; she was far too tired to try anything else.
Beep, beep, beep.
Gul froze in place. Her device began to emit a sharp beeping sound; it was detecting very intense energy signals.
She stared at the screen intensely—two green dots, close together, moving at the same pace on the radar.
They were very close.
She ran out of the workshop at full speed with the device in her hands, passing by students and teachers who looked at the blonde girl's behavior in confusion.
"Two mobile energy sources?" Gul asked herself.
Was it real?
If it was real, then it meant she was closer to fulfilling her dream.
She stopped abruptly; lack of sleep and food were catching up to her. Her breathing became irregular from the physical effort. She kept her head lowered, listening to students talking and to the beeping of her device, then raised her gaze to find the source that was driving her tracker crazy.
She caught sight of a pair of students walking together while talking casually—a girl with black and pink hair and beautiful pink eyes, and a boy with brown hair and yellow eyes like her own.
Gul checked her device again; there was no mistake. The device was receiving intense, constant energy signals from them.
How was that possible?
"Everyone, get to class!" the voice of one of the teachers snapped Gul out of her thoughts. Reluctantly, she turned around and went back the way she came.
She was going to find out what was happening.
—
In the classroom, Bianca was very quiet, sitting at her desk. Her breathing was slow, and she wasn't paying attention to anything outside her mind after the first class of the day.
Everything that had happened from a week ago until now had changed her life—the mage's attack, the power of the ring, the existence of mages and magic, Lux's appearance. It was all exciting and filled her heart completely. A small smile formed on her face, and a soft laugh escaped.
"Are you thinking about your boyfriend?" a familiar voice reached Bianca's ears. The peace she felt vanished as soon as she saw that green hair and those yellow, feline eyes stalking her like a lioness whenever she was calm.
"Don't you have someone else to bother?" Bianca asked with a bit of annoyance. Even though her routine had changed for the better, she still had to endure the desperate rumors her friend created.
She had nothing against Lux, but it was uncomfortable to think about that, knowing the kind of relationship they had.
"Hahaha! Not today!" Zelena showed a lot of hyperactivity. Since Lux arrived at the school, she had noticed the change in her friend. Before, Bianca was more reserved; although she socialized with everyone, she didn't maintain a close friendship with anyone besides Zelena herself. The close relationship she had with Lux, and how suspicious they looked together, made Zelena interpret it as love.
While this discussion was happening, a yellow head of hair observed the situation from the shadows.
From the doorway, without wanting to draw attention, Gul wrote nonstop in her notebook, watching every gesture and attitude.
"Interesting" she murmured. She turned the page and continued writing.
Subject 1: Bianca.
Her hands are full of calluses, which indicates skill with weapons, possibly a fencer.
Subject 1's social status is high within the hierarchy. She associates with people of the same level and is always surrounded.
Although the reason is unknown, the energy she emits is low but constant.
Further investigation is required.
"Why does she have to be popular?" Gul asked herself quietly, clenching her teeth. During the first class, she couldn't stop thinking about that morning. She couldn't stop hypothesizing about why two people were emitting constant energy.
From radiation exposure to chemicals that could interfere with her tracking device.
As soon as recess had begun, she searched for Bianca's classroom to investigate her, discovering her worst fear: Bianca was popular.
Of all kinds of people, Bianca was popular, always surrounded by people like Zelena—very extroverted people who said whatever they thought.
Zelena's loud laughter snapped her out of it, and a bitter memory came to mind.
"You want to be an inventor? You're useless! Hahaha!" the mocking, hate-filled voice of the boy reached her ears.
Little Gul clasped her hands, holding a device she had built, now destroyed by the boy who laughed at her.
Even though she wanted to say something, she couldn't. Her words were drowned in her crying.
Gul slapped herself, returning to the present.
"People are evil by nature" she told herself, trying to forget that moment.
She returned to her notebook, looking at the other page.
Subject 2: Lux.
New student, little information available.
Unlike Subject 1, the energy he emits is more intense.
So far, his social skills are high, but he is not surrounded by many people, except for Subject 1 on occasion.
Although he is a mystery, he is the best option to establish first contact.
Gul looked at her own notes and began forming a plan in milliseconds, writing one last thing at the bottom.
"Objective: Intercept Subject 2 after classes" she finished.
—
The bell rang again, signaling the end of another school day.
The students gradually began leaving the building.
Lux walked calmly out of his classroom, thinking about what he could teach Bianca in today's magic practice.
He stopped when someone suddenly appeared in front of him—a teenage girl slightly shorter than him, her messy yellow hair moving slowly, her brown eyes with dark circles staring at him.
It was Gul.
"Subject 2… I mean, Lux…" the girl's voice was firm and authoritative.
"I have intercepted you because I need your cooperation" Gul finished, a blush appearing on her cheeks. She had made a mistake and called Lux "Subject 2." She had the whole day to prepare what she would say during first contact and had already ruined the first impression by calling him by his investigation code.
"What?" Lux asked, not understanding what was happening.
"Come with me!" After hearing his confusion, Gul shouted authoritatively, grabbing Lux's hand and dragging him down the hallway. She couldn't look Lux in the eyes because of the embarrassment she felt, but she didn't stop moving.
It was awkwardly adorable to anyone watching.
From afar, someone observed the scene, eyes wide and a gasp escaping their mouth, having only one thought.
The sound of a camera shutter was heard—Zelena had taken a photo.
"I need to tell Bianca" she said, watching the direction they went.
—
Bianca was standing at the school exit, leaning against a wall, enjoying the wind and the birds singing. Today she had magic practice and was waiting for Lux so they could go to his house together. She wondered what kind of training awaited her today—maybe she could learn to create wind gusts like him.
"Bianca!"
Maybe she would learn to create fire with a single movement.
"Bianca!!"
Or maybe to transform dust particles into particles of light like Lux showed her that time.
Her thoughts were abruptly cut off.
"Bianca, react!" Zelena grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her nonstop.
"Zelena… w-what's going on?" Bianca asked, annoyed and confused by her friend's worried expression.
"It's about your boyfriend!" Zelena's answer made Bianca's eye twitch. She really wasn't going to stop with that.
"I already told you Lux is not my boyfriend!" she complained; she couldn't take it anymore.
Zelena let her go and searched for something on her phone.
"Look! Another girl is trying to steal him from you!"
She shoved her phone into Bianca's face, and out of curiosity, Bianca looked at the screen. It was a somewhat blurry image, but clear enough to identify—Lux being led by the hand by a girl with messy yellow hair.
"Who is that girl?" Bianca asked.
"She's Gul, the crazy scientist!" Zelena replied worriedly.
"The boys in her class say she's a super genius who experiments on people who get close to her and chooses certain students to test her experiments on" as she said that, Zelena felt a chill.
Bianca couldn't believe it. The things Gul's classmates said about her were very cruel. But on the other hand, if someone discovered that Lux was a mage, he would be in serious trouble.
She had to act.
End
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Happy new year!!
What do yo think about the new character?