“Thank you for coming, Captain Ney.”
“Hello. ‘Tis been a while, Sister.”
Ney returned the smiling nun’s greeting. The two of them seemed like friends despite their height difference making them look like mother and child.
Maha, Ruri, and Ney had arrived at a convent near the Base. This one belonged to the same Spiritual Church that ran the soup kitchen and was full of nuns who spent their time praying. The alchemists occasionally used their skills to make food for institutions like these. The three of them were here for just such a delivery, pulling along a two-wheeled cart laden with provisions.
The convent wasn’t particularly big; the plot it occupied wasn’t even a quarter as expansive as the Base was. Although they somehow still ran the soup kitchen, the Spiritual Church looked to be going through financial difficulties as everything down to the hinges of the convent’s doors needed repair.
Maha and the others met the nun at the gate of the convent. Upon entering, they saw a number of children playing in the small courtyard.
“Thank you for coming as well, Miss Maha,” said the nun. “We appreciate you always fighting for everyone.”
“It’s nothing.” Maha kept her reply curt.
The nun smiled wryly, then noticed the small girl at Maha’s side. “I don’t believe I’ve met you before. Hello, dear. Are you an alchemist as well?”
“Y-yes. My name is Ruri. Nice to meet you.”
“Ruri, is it? It’s nice to meet you too.” The nun dropped her formality for Ruri and flashed a heartwarming smile.
“I have some business with this nun here. You two can kill time however you like,” Ney said.
“I’d love it if you played with the children,” the nun said.
“Sure.”
“O-okay.”
Maha and Ruri left Ney and the nun to their discussions and entered the courtyard. The eyes of the children all immediately gathered on Maha. She was a familiar face, but none of them dared approach her. For the fourth time that day, Maha sighed.
“Still not good with kids, huh?”
“So what? They’re scared of me. I’m doing them a favor by staying away.”
“You should try smiling more. You’re cute enough already, you’ve just got to do something about that stony face of yours. Come on, smile, smile.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
Maha and I were having one of our usual exchanges when…
“Hello!” Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Ruri called out to the children. Her cheerfulness seemed to stun them. “Everyone! What you playing? Can I play? I’m Ruri!”
All smiles, she ran over to the children. They regarded her curiously.
“Huh? Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Who are you?”
“Who? I’m Ruri.”
“Are you here with Miss Maha?”
“You know Miss Maha? Yes. Miss Maha is my instructor.”
In no time at all, she became part of the children’s little group.
“What you playing? Can I play too?”
“We were playing tag.”
“Okay! Who’s ‘it’?”
“Um… That would be Yac. The boy in the green shirt there.”
“Okay. Sorry for interrupting. Let’s play! Ready. Go!”
On Ruri’s signal, their game of tag resumed. Yac quickly caught Ruri, and she became the one to chase everyone else.
“She has a talent for working with children.”
“…I guess.”
Though wary of her at first, the children quickly understood that Ruri was harmless and started to let their walls down around her.
“Why not join them?”
“No thanks.”
“I don’t think you have a choice.”
“What?” Before Maha could ask what that meant, Ruri appeared before her.
“Miss Maha! You play too!” She pulled at Maha’s sleeve.
“…Thanks, but the children are scared of me.”
“It’s fine! Everyone! Come here!” She clapped her hands to signal the children to gather, and the children quickly shuffled over.
“What’re we playing next?”
“Ruri, you suck at tag!”
From the way they spoke, it was clear they weren’t wary of Ruri in the slightest anymore. Maha was astonished by how quickly she got them to warm up to her.
“Next is special tag game. Everybody must catch Miss Maha!”
“What?” Maha gave Ruri a look. Surely the children wouldn’t like that, she thought.
“That’ll be too easy!” one child complained.
“Yeah! We caught you super fast, Ruri!”
“No! Miss Maha different! Catch her and I give you present!” Ruri pulled out a leather bag from one of her pockets. “Hand-made biscuit. Yummy!”
“Yay! I’ll play, I’ll play!”
“This’ll be easy!”
“I’ll be the one to catch Miss Maha!”
Ruri’s promise of a reward got the children quite motivated.
“Okay! Miss Maha! Run! Ten second head start!” Ruri said.
“Uh, are we really doing this?”
“Yes!”
“…All right.” Maha made distance from the children, winding up near the middle of the courtyard.
Ruri counted off. “Three. Two. One. Go!”
“Get her!”
“Go, go!”
The dozen-or-so children rushed toward Maha all at once. It would be easy to just outrun them, but she decided against that as it wouldn’t be any fun for the children.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“No way!”
Instead, she dodged around the children using footwork alone, remaining in the center of the courtyard as much as possible.
“Everyone! Work together to catch her!” Ruri called out.
“All right, I’ll cover this side!”
“I’ve got over here!”
“I’ll come from behind!”
The children formed a ring around Maha.
“Ready? One, two!”
Matching their timing as best as they could, they rushed at her, like ants that had found sugar. She evaded them as nimbly as a feather danced through air. After dodging the last one, she let out a deep exhale, sighing for the fifth time that day. “…You all almost had me there.”
She was older and had a better physique, but evading all dozen-or-so of the children was still quite impressive. They say even masters of martial arts could only fight up to three people at once. Perhaps Maha’s fighting experience was just that abnormally high.
“My, my, how disappointing. Not even all of you working together could catch her?” Having finished her discussion with the nun, Ney approached the scene.
“I had her! I had her, but…then I didn’t.”
“Miss Maha must have cheated!”
“…I did not.”
The children looked baffled by what happened, unable to comprehend the level of martial prowess Maha displayed. Ney decided to tease the children.
“Shall I show you all how it’s done?” she suggested.
“Urk.”
The children cleared the way. Maha gave Ney a look of displeasure, but that only made her laugh.
“Let’s see just how much you’ve improved.”
“Don’t think you’ll be stronger than me forever, shortstack.”
“Who’re you calling a loli?!”
As they traded banter, Maha took a low, defensive stance. Meanwhile, Ney just stood there nonchalantly. Maha wouldn’t let her guard down, though. She paid full attention to Ney’s each and every move.
“Ready?” Ney took a step forward.
“…Huh?!” Ruri expressed surprise, which was understandable given two copies of Ney had suddenly appeared. With another step forward, Ney split into four copies of herself. “Wh-wh-wh-what?!”
“…That’s new.”
“Ha ha ha! Do you think you can avoid us all?” The copies of Ney spoke in unison. They charged at Maha, doubling further with every step. This wouldn’t go the same way it did with the children earlier. Maha would have had difficulties evading Ney one-on-one as it was. Maha tried to use all her footwork and speed to flee for as long as she could, but she didn’t last long at all.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” Before she knew it, she was being squeezed from behind around her midriff. The dozens of Ney copies had become one, and she now hugged Maha from behind.
“You talked big, but you weren’t hard to catch at all. You lack training!”
“I give up! I give up, so let me go already! I’m going to hurl!” Maha floundered like a caught insect, making the children roll with laughter. Satisfied with this response, Ney finally let her go.
“…That was awful,” Maha groaned.
“Captain Ney! That was amazing!” said Ruri.
“This much is nothing, dear.”
The nun came over then. “All right, everyone, it’s time to eat. Let’s say thank you to the alchemists and bid them goodbye, okay?”
“Awwww!” The children started to complain.
“I want to play more!”
“I’m going to catch Miss Maha too!”
“Ruri still hasn’t given us her biscuits!”
“Yes, yes. Let’s save that all for next time.” The nun’s experience with children showed in how she handled them.
Ruri gave out her biscuits to the children as a consolation prize. After they all said their thanks, they went inside.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen the children enjoy themselves to such a degree. Thank you all so very much,” the nun said.
“Not at all. It was a good experience for Maha and Ruri too,” Ney said.
“I had fun!” Ruri said.
Maha wasn’t sure what to say. After they left the convent and were on their way back, she murmured, “How can they smile like that?”
“Hm? What do you mean, Maha?” Ney asked.
Maha was just talking to herself, but her words came out louder than she expected, prompting looks from Ney and Ruri. She continued with, “Well… The kids come from difficult backgrounds. They were all either abandoned, abused, or had their family killed by demons, and yet they can still smile like nothing bad has happened… How?”
Her words made it sound like she was calling the children heartless, but her expression showed her question came from genuine wonder.
“Hm, well… Ruri, what do you think?” Ney asked.
“Me?” Ruri was a bit surprised to be asked but began to ponder it. She eventually sorted out her thoughts and said, “I’ve only been alive for short time. But I think it’s because those children had fun.”
“…Fun?” Maha said.
“Yes. Fun is powerful. Even if bad things happen and you cry in past. If you have fun you can smile again.”
Maha wasn’t sure what to say to that. To her, life was one hardship after another. She typically felt a strong affinity to the children of the orphanage, but seeing them smile and play without a care in the world today made them feel so different from her.
“Miss Maha? Are you not having fun now?”
“…Huh?” Once again, she didn't know what to say. She couldn’t recall ever thinking about whether or not she was having fun. She’d spent her whole life struggling, going through one fight after another, ad nauseam. It had gotten to the point where she even felt weary of her own life. She’d long forgotten what it was like to experience fun.
“Maha, you might be much older than Ruri, but it’s starting to look like she knows more about life than you!” Ney’s teasing lasted a moment, but her words remained with Maha for a long time.