Chương 74: Chapter 73: Just smile and wave boys, just smile and wave

There are only two honest reasons to pick a difficult weapon. Either it does something no easy weapon does, or you have already decided what kind of fighting you intend to do and have not admitted it out loud. - attributed to a chain weapons school, Area 6 Kara crossed the waterway past the residential section and then took the long way round to the Council Building, which took him four minutes longer, but allowed him some more time to think.

It was dark out by this point and the red coral was at full luminescence, throwing its light up the walls of the atrium and across the internal branches drifting somewhere above him. There were perhaps six people in the whole space. He climbed up his usual way, and got three doors wrong before a door opened further in before he reached it.

"Come in. Sit down before you thank me, it saves us both a minute."

"Uh, yeah, sure. Thank you, Sir."

"You did that anyway." Narak took the chair opposite rather than the one behind the desk, which he had done at every meeting since the first, and pointed at a one seater sofa on the side.

"Sit." Kara sat. The umbrella went across his knees. He wasn't sure why he'd brought it along, bit it had somehow felt important.

"So," Narak said, after looking at him for a while.

"Let's get this straight. In eight weeks. You have acquired a rare weapon, built for you personally by a master of the craft. You have toppled a faction head. And you have come home with another exotic partner." The heat came up Kara's face fast enough that he was grateful for the mask.

"Uh, well, I had a lot of help."

"Of course you did." Narak commented.

"Do you know how many people approach Mr. Tanaka for an apprenticeship? And how much people have offered to get a custom made war umbrella from him, only to be rejected? Also, do you think you are the only one who has tried to topple Tomas over the years? A man like that has many enemies and many more friends in significant positions. You were given the opportunity in both cases, and you made the most of it." Kara did not know how to react.

"Um, thank you, Sir. None of this would have been possible without your and Mr. Shanks' support. And I'm sorry for any trouble my actions might have caused."

"Oh, your actions sure caused a lot of trouble alright." Narak's mouth moved slightly.

"But not for me. You should also know it has done this University a service, which I doubt was on your mind at the time. An arrest that size gets picked up everywhere, and every outlet that picks it up plays the recording. Every time it plays, more people hear a woman explaining that a great deal of what happened here about a year and a half ago came out of her own private agenda." He let that sit.

"I have spent all this time being asked about that incident and the University's role and screening credibility by people who had already decided what it meant. This week, for the first time, a lot of people have gone quiet." Kara looked down at the umbrella and said nothing.

"Your arrival this afternoon on the other hand, has got a lot of people buzzing again - someone walking in with a couple of animal companions no one can find in any reference library. I'm assuming you've thought of a plan to handle that?"

"Yes, sir." Kara explained the plan.

"Well, that's as good about plan as any." Narak brought his hands together.

"As long as you do not explicitly mention the organizations involved, you should be fine. Besides, as you've mentioned, you do have the paperwork from PfP, transferring Pip to your possession for the time being. Now, I need you to understand one thing about this whole situation. If something goes wrong, it has to come to me. Anything that happens on this campus, any incident, is mine to manage.

So if something happens, and I mean even small things, like someone asking the wrong sort of question, someone standing where they have no business standing, you come to me the same day. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir. Same day," Kara said, a small smile forming on his face.

"Good. Now let's move on to the subject selections, unless there's anything else?" Kara shook his head. Narak pulled the selections up on his interface.

"Symbiotics and combat arts. Both approved. Anything you want from me on either, or shall I release you to your dinner?"

"There is something." Kara straightened.

"Related to combat arts. I've got the umbrella down now, and I can practice the forms taught to me. It helps me with defense and area control, and to some extent with close range offense."

"Mm-hmm."

"I want something more offensive, maybe mid range, and I want also to be able to fight while I'm moving." He said carefully.

"Not like fight, then move, then fight again. Move and stay dangerous the whole time, and control the ground between me and whoever I'm facing before they close it. The umbrella can't do that."

"That is a clear ambition. What is the problem?"

"I don't know what to take up as the secondary weapon." Kara turned his hands over.

"I mean I've had the chain dart for months and I'm barely better than the day I got it. Half the time the return goes somewhere I didn't intend. I've looked at throwing weapons, at a spear, at a rope dart with a shorter line. I can list the options and I can't choose between them, and I don't want to spend a second year on something just because I started it." This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Narak was quiet for a moment.

"Throwing weapons are out," he said.

"You are one person with two hands and it relies on always having a supply line. It can be a supplementary option, but it is a little risky to completely rely on it as your secondary weapon. Everything you throw is gone until you go and fetch it, and you have just told me you intend to be moving. A spear does most of what you want. Good reach, good control of the ground, and it will make you competent inside a year." He paused.

"It will also root you more than you expect, because a spear needs a stance to be most effective. While it can be used mobile, it is not the best for it."

"Which leaves the chain."

"Yes, and it is the only category that lets you strike from a platform that is itself moving. Everything else assumes your feet are on the ground or you have to adjust." He leaned forward slightly.

"So your initial instinct with the chain dart was spot on. It is not an easy weapon to master though. It will take time, practise and a good teacher."

"Instructor Ken told me something last year," Kara said.

"When I asked him. He said the fundamentals were as far as he could take me, and that there was somebody who could take me further, but that wouldn't happen until my senior years."

"Did he."

"He wouldn't say who."

"No," Narak agreed.

"He would not have. Ken is careful and he was right to make you wait. Keep the dart. Put it in your selections and do the fundamentals with your group."

"And the rest of it?"

"Soon enough," Narak said, with a touch of finality. He stood, and Kara stood with him.

"One more thing. The first years arrive in eight days."

"Oh right. Thank you again for your guidance." Narak nodded and Kara made his way out. Kara had forgotten about them completely. The first years arriving meant they had to do the orientation and select the newest member of the SDC. They, as in, him mostly, going by what happened last year. He pinged Phinx, informing her that he was back. Kara was six steps into the atrium when his interface chimed. A reply from Phinx. Good, I was just about to ping you. Let's catch up tomorrow after classes? Sure.

He stood under the coral light for a second and then started walking. Plan's approved, he sent to the other two. Just don't name any organization. Otherwise, he's fine with it. If something happens, we can approach him. Vixen's reply came before he reached the bridge. THE CHAIRPERSON SIGNED OFF ON OUR COVER STORY!! I'm going to be insufferable. See ya in the cafeteria. We're eating in public. Kara headed to the cafeteria and sat on a table for four.

It was the evening before their first classes, and the cafeteria was fairly crowded. The moment Vixen and Glasses entered with their entourage, all eyes moved to them. Most tried to look discreetly, but some were openly staring. A table by the window gave up on discretion entirely and simply watched, all six of them, forks down. Vixen walked in confidently, Waggy sticking to her feet. Vitaly came in behind him and immediately went the wrong way toward a table that had fish on it.

Glasses had a disgruntled look as he maintained a tight grip on Pip while she rode on his shoulders with both hands in his hair, taking in the ceiling, the lights, the queue, and all the people looking back at her, and she stared at all of it with her mouth slightly open.

"She's fine," Vixen said, watching her.

"Look at her. She's having the best day of her life." Vixen looked at the corner table Kara was sitting on and immediately turned direction to a table near the middle. Kara looked at Glasses, sighed, and followed.

"Not the corner?" asked Glasses.

"The corner is where you sit when you've got something to hide. We're sitting in the middle, and we'll eat like we have all the time in the world and you two are going to look relaxed even if it kills you." Kara brought the food for everyone. They even had bowls for their partners. It took a few trips, but he'd rather do that than have half the cafeteria staring at him.

Vixen waited until the plates were down and the room had settled into pretending, and then she raised her voice about fifteen per cent, into the register of somebody having an ordinary conversation and not caring who overhears it.

"Honestly, though," she said, "I still can't believe they agreed to let us do this study. I know the paperwork was weeks ago, but they don't just hand these out. We were lucky our internship supervisors knew each other and they had faith in us to do this right."

"Mm-hmm," Kara said. Glasses smiled and nodded.

"Obviously they wouldn't allow us to simply have them, we need to report in regularly too. Better keep our notes tight. Weekly observation logs, monthly assessment, all of it going back up the chain. Good thing we have Glasses on our side." She gave Glasses a friendly bump. Glasses smiled and nodded. Pip nodded alongside him.

"Which is fair enough. If you're going to place animals like this with students you'd want oversight, and honestly, I'd be more surprised if they weren't watching this closely." Glasses nodded slowly and thoughtfully. Kara nodded along. Waggy was watching him closely.

"It's the sensible way to do it," he agreed.

"It's the only way to do it." Vixen turned slightly, so her voice carried a little further to the left.

"Anyway. It helps that Kara did his eight weeks in the field and I did mine at the research facility, and of course Glasses is an expert at handling all the equipment. The interviews sure weren't easy, right."

"Oh yeah, it was tough. Some fairly advanced equipment they've got." Glasses added, and Kara nodded. Pip was just bobbing her head at this point. Waggy was looking at each of them in turn. Vitaly had finished her bowl and was now finishing his. At no point did she name an organisation. Kara noticed that and admired it considerably. She mentioned the internship, the field work, the research, the regular assessments and let everyone fill in the rest with whichever institution they thought were behind it.

Kara had no problem mentioning PfP as where he did his internship to anyone who asked. He would just smile and nod if anyone asked anything further. Vixen got up.

"Back in a minute. That's Adaeze." She was gone eleven minutes. Kara tracked her across the room in stages: the Animal Affairs senior rep by the drinks station, a long stop at a table of third years, two Lifesciences girls from last year she hugged, and somebody he didn't recognize who laughed at what she said and put a hand on her arm. At each stop, at some point, the faces turned. And each time, they just smiled and waved. Pip happily joined in.