Smoke (part 1)

1.8 - Smoke

-----

‎

In front of me, Nico seemed to be losing his mind.

"I'm good over here, so you guys don't need to check--"

"No, no, no. We're here simply to learn more."

Suddenly the tall glasses guy called Link cuts off Nico from talking and gives their reasoning. Jerry and Randy both agreed to that, and they are still keeping an eye on me.

"We just wanted to see what kind of girl has been getting you in trouble, that's all!"

Jerry said openly towards me, even though he was talking to Nico. Hearing his mockery, I became quite pissed.

"… Girl? Trouble?"

I repeated the key message that Jerry was trying to say, and Link quickly confirmed.

"That's right. Nick has been avoiding us recently! He wasn't like that before until he met you. Now, we're not possessive of Nick's behavior, so--"

"What the hell are you saying, dumbass--"

"Silence, peasant. The lawyer is speaking."

Jerry suddenly silenced Nico from talking, and Link bowed slightly at Jerry.

"Thank you, Judge. What I was trying to say was, we would like to know exactly where our dear Nick has gone."

Link continued, and it seems like they have talked it out about their individual roles before coming to confront me about this.

Also…

"… Nick?"

I asked, and Jerry nodded.

"Yeah. Nick."

I then turned to Link, and asked him.

"Nick…?"

"Yes. Nick."

Finally, I turned my gaze to Nico, and asked the question to him instead.

"Nick."

"Okayyyy, my friends called me Nick!!"

Nico suddenly shouted as he raised both his hands as a sign for giving up, which confuses his friends over there. Meanwhile, my brain goes to overthinking mode.

But, he told me his name was Nico… why?

His name is Nicolas. But he told his friends to call him 'Nick', and then told me to call him 'Nico'. Why?

Is it because Nick sounded more like what friends would call? And Nico to be something much… closer…?

Like, if I have the name Nicolas, my family would probably call me Nico. But then, my friends would call me Nick or straight up Nicolas.

So… why exactly…?

"D-Don't overthink it! It's just a name. I promise."

Nico suddenly panicked and lifted both his hands at me, and I simply folded my arms.

"Uh-huh…"

"What are you talking about?"

Jerry closed in and broke the bubble between me and Nico. And this time, I'll go on the offensive.

"So, what is all this about, 'Nick'? Your friends seemed to be curious about your well being, 'Nick'. So, why don't you talk it out and tell them the truth? Okay, 'Nick'?"

I said, and I made sure to thicken my tone when I said the name 'Nick'. Hearing this, Nico can only look so uncomfortable. He then stood up and quickly walked up to his friends, and he pulled them away from the classroom by their collars.

Ah… he left one. The tan bald guy, Randy.

"He won't get hurt again, will he?"

Randy asked so purely, and I know that this one genuinely cares about Nico's well being. After all, everybody noticed when Nico came to school wearing a ton of bandages on his right upper arm. And if they are his friends, then naturally they too will get worried.

I nodded at him and gave him a thumbs up.

"I'll protect him. Don't worry."

Hearing that, Randy smiled softly at me and nodded. He then turned around and followed Nico and the others to leave the classroom.

Those guys… they were quite popular as well. They are a part of the widely known smartest guys from class A. The three geniuses who were also at the top of the scoreboard during the class placement test. And they are the ones who are always glued to Nico, basically his best friends.

I see… best friends.

They are Nico's best friends. They called him Nick, and he does not hold back in dealing with them. They were also brave enough to shut him up, and Nico did not sit around peacefully when he got shut by them.

Very different… compared to how he acts around me.

Silently, a smile formed on my face.

God, this is just bad for my chest.

.

.

.

School has ended, and it is finally time for us to go and hunt down demons. Before that, however, Nico and I had to run as quickly as we could to escape his friends.

Apparently, his friends were actually keeping him captive in the classroom right when school ended. He had to jiggle them to get out of the classroom, and it suddenly became a chase.

I somehow came across Nico when he was going down the stairs, and he immediately grabbed my hand to pull me with him. He pulled me to the front gate, and I had to run following him from behind. This time, however, there are three dudes chasing us and Nico is not slowing down his run for me. I will have to run as quickly as I can.

Surprisingly… my legs felt like running.

I ran so fast that I even ran past Nico who was in front of me. Nico laughed when I passed him, and he followed behind me as we left the school perimeter. Jerry and the others didn't chase after us and stopped at the school gate, catching their breath.

I ran all the way until we were on a small alley between two buildings right by the road, and Nico was still following behind me. As soon as he noticed that his friends were no longer chasing, he called out to me.

"Wait! They stopped!"

As soon as I heard that, I stopped running immediately. I turned around and found Nico catching his breath by the alley walls, and I quickly walked up to him.

"Gahhaaaa~!!! I've not run that long for a while now."

"Good thing we're wearing exercising pants. Thanks to this, I was in the mood for running."

I tapped my hip that is wearing the exercise pants, and Nico nodded while still catching his breath. He must've been tiring himself out while escaping from his friend's grasp. Then he had to run from his classroom all the way here. Surely, his stamina ran out.

"I'll order the online cab from here. You can catch a breath."

I said while taking out my phone, and Nico sat down on the alley floor while laying his back on the wall.

"How the heck can you run so fast… Haah~."

"Hmm? I told you. It's the pants. Surely, you feel like running too when wearing them, don't you?"

"Huh…? Yeah, you know what, sure."

I giggled hearing his tired reaction.

I let Nico rest for a while as I ordered the online cab through the application. I asked Nico about the location, and he told me the name of it for me to put into the app. After waiting for about three minutes, the car arrived not far from the alley since it was close to begin with. I helped Nico get up and even carried his bag as he walked to the car.

Inside the car, I requested the driver to pump up the AC. Nico was sweating badly, so he definitely needed that cool air right now. Fortunately, the driver didn't mind and turned up the AC. But, as a result, I'm freezing.

I never really had AC before. It's genuinely cold. But, for Nico's sake, I stayed silent. The trip to the location took a while since it was over five kilometers away, but we made it.

After the two of us got down from the car, I studied the environment that we just arrived at. Immediately, I turned to him with a confused face.

"Why are we at the mall…?"

We really are at the mall. It's one of the largest malls in the region, even though it was probably the only mall here. This is not that big of a region to begin with, so this mall is probably the only one, which automatically makes it the largest one.

I turned to Nico, and the guy had already started walking.

"No, it's not in the mall. Come, the building is right next to it."

Nico led the way towards the haunted location, and apparently it really wasn't that far. Two blocks from the mall, there is a large storage building that seemed abandoned. Just like the construction site, this place was covered by thin metal walls, as if to stop any humans from entering the area.

Nico walked until we reached a certain part of the metal wall, and he pulled one out so suddenly. The paper thin wall was opened to the side like a door, and he allowed me to enter first.

"Ladies, first."

I walked in after he opened, and using my weird eyes, I began to have a look around. This is still outside the building, and the door to the building is probably somewhere on our right or left. So far, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

I turned to Nico, and the guy was already running towards the left side of where the hidden entrance was. He walked towards a stack of boxes that was placed next to the building wall, and he picked all the crates up as if he was looking for something.

I walked closer and spotted when Nico first lifted the items up. Immediately, I knew what he was looking for.

"Here!"

Nico threw me one of the water guns, and I had to unreadily grab them from the air. I'm surprised because they were very heavy, probably because they were already loaded with water.

"It's filled, already?"

I asked Nico to confirm, and he nodded while pointing his gun at the thin metal wall.

"Yep. It's already loaded. All we have to do next is shoot the demons. As usual, I'm counting on you!"

Nico gave me a thumbs up, and I annoyingly began walking forward.

Haa~hh… I can't believe we are doing this again…

Then again, I am very curious as to how we would do against the demons with upgraded weaponries. We also have the defensive artifacts that Uncle Deve gave us, so this might be much easier than two days ago.

Nico led the way towards the entrance that is on the left side of the building. I followed behind him while getting accustomed to the water gun and its trigger. I held it up, down, and tried aiming at random things we walked past.

This… definitely feels like a gun. The weight made me feel like I'm holding a real rifle. It might seem different since the weight was caused by the water inside the gun's tank, but it still feels similar.

After a short walk, we arrived at the entrance of the building. The entrance was wide open, and we both took a glance inside.

It's… a factory.