Chapter 219 - Cloud In A Jar

"You still haven't answered my question before. Did you take another sip from your potion so you can stay as a human while teaching us or are the effects from yesterday still not wearing off?" Lei asked while catching up to Petunia who was just floating down the stairs to the basement with her Gummy imbued dress.

"It still hasn't gone off until now. I know it's weird and inconsistent from the first effect that turned me into a child and only lasted for a few hours. There, I already answered your question clearly this time, satisfied now?" Petunia said and suddenly stopped gliding down as she turned around to face Lei with crossed arms, making Lei almost bump into her if he was not able to pull his breaks at the right time.

"Why are you so curious about that anyway?" Petunia pried even more and moved closer to Lei while examining his reaction.

"Nothing in particular. I was just worried that you might be wasting that limited potion that yor friend gave you for unimportant purposes when you should have been saving it for training," Lei said while looking away.

"Do I seem irrational to you?" she said with a pout and went back to gliding down through the stairs like a glowing purple ghost in the dark.

"No, I just thought you'd do that."

"For what?"

"Because of your power trip?" Lei said, which made Petunia stop again.

"What do you mean power trip?" she said with a straight face that reminded Lei about their difference in status as of the moment.

"N-Nothing. Let's just focus on what we came here to do," Lei said and went ahead of Petunia even without lights of his own, forcing him to rely on his moderate night vision first instead of asking Petunia to lead the way for him with her glowing dress.

"Hmph. You're making me want to not do this anymore," Petunia said and overtook him in a quick second.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Lei shouted and started running down the stairs again even though he could almost not feel his legs anymore.

"I really need that flight potion right now. I don't think I can catch up to you guys if I just keep on walking my way to where we're headed to, same with Gem and the others," Lei said even though he knew Petunia would not be able to hear it anymore before proceeding down the stairs while shouting for Petunia to wait for him.

"Petunia! Wait for me to go down first! We still don't know if the thing that shot you before was still there!" 

"It's okay. I'm okay now."

"We didn't even notify Venedette about the broken door! Who knows if someone else already went here before us?!"

"If there's someone else then I'd probably be able to sense them right now," Petunia said in a normal volume while casually looking for the ingredients that the flight potion requires.

"Really?!" Lei suddenly said with ragged breathing on the door while roaming his eyes around in the dark to look for her.

"Boo!" Petunia crept up behind Lei and surprised him with a little punch in the shoulders which almost made Lei knock her down.

"Sh-! You scared me!" Lei said and put his defenses down while watching Petunia look at him as if she was not amused with his reaction.

"You thought I was someone else huh?" Petunia said and proceeded to turn on the lights to the whole room manually.

"I… I'm not so efficient in the dark."

"So that's your weakness? You're afraid of the dark?"

"More like my senses aren't as strong as they are on the day when I'm in the dark."

"Oh, I see. You're just like me right now. My senses are also in a nerfed status every time I change back to my human self."

"But isn't that one of your strengths?"

"My senses?"

"Yes."

"How about you then? Isn't it ironic for a ninja to be weak in the dark?"

"Who says I'm a ninja?"

"Who says you're not?" Petunia said and grabbed a bottle of something that looked a lot like cotton candy and tossed it to Lei who immediately caught the item without even glancing at it.

"Should I test your sense ability in the dark?" Petunia asked while getting amused by a fact that she had never thought of before.

"No thanks," Lei said, flat out rejecting her offer.

"Fine. Just carry this then," Petunia said and grabbed another bottle of the cloud-like thing and tossed it to Lei.

But because Lei's hands were both already full with the cloud jars, Lei panicked when he saw another one incoming his way.

"Wait, I still-" he said and closed his eyes, expecting for the impact of the jar to hit his face, but it never came.

"Hmph," Petunia muttered from the back of the jar, seemingly controlling it so it wouldn't fall on the floor.

"What's this?" Lei asked and finally took a closer look at the cloudy thing that he was holding.

"A filtered version of the cumulus cloud from outside," Petunia said while admiring the heaven-like aesthetic of the glowing cloud inside the jars.

"What does it do?"

"It contains a toxic acid that reduces the mass of anything or anyone."

"Isn't that dangerous to use?"

"If used without a prescription from an expert like me," Petunia said and shrugged before proceeding to throw the jar carelessly into the air which only made the jar float on its own.

"How did you do that?" Lei asked and also threw his jar lightly in the air which he also eventually caught with caution.

"You need to turn it on first," Petunia said as if stating the obvious. But then she remembered that Lei's expertise differs from hers, so she just let it go and let out a deep sigh while telling herself to just teach Lei how it's done instead of arguing about it.

"How?" Lei asked, seemingly interested in the peculiar-looking cloud inside a glass jar.

When Lei looked at Petunia again, he noticed a naughty grin on Petunia's face while she was thinking of something, which she then immediately covered with a straight face.

"You should try wiping the lid of the jar like Aladdin," Petunia said and raised an eyebrow at Lei, waiting for him to do as he was told.

"O-Okay," Lei said and pulled the hem of his vest so he could wipe the lid of the jar with it.

But instead of it turning on or glowing like Petunia's cloud jars, Lei was just met with a burst of loud laughter from Petunia whose plan was to fool him all along.

"You actually believed that?!" Petunia said with tears of joy in her eyes while Lei was just at a loss for words.

"Here, I'll teach you how to turn it on. Although you won't be seeing anything like this ever again since we'll be using it to create the flight potion," Petunia said and grabbed the dim cloud jar from Lei who was still speechless after falling for one of Petunia's obvious lies.

"You just have to shake it and it will automatically turn on. See that?!" Petunia enthusiastically said after seeing a little lightning flash from the inside of the cloud.

"And then it will just float on its own. Just like that," Petunia added while letting go of the jar softly, watching it float closer to the other jar who was also shooting little strikes of lightning inside its little cloud on its own.

"That's how they reduce the weight of whoever eats it, we could also refer to it as burning fat and excess baggage stuff," Petunia said before looking back at Lei, whom she did not even notice was already standing beside her while also looking at the floating jars as if they were stars in the night sky.

"How did you find out about it?" he asked while taking a moment to appreciate the calm atmosphere between them and the floating clouds in a jar above.

"I saw it first from my mom's notes, she likes astrology and has always wondered about how levitating works."

"Oh," Lei said, finally coming back to his senses and just forgetting about the little joke that Petunia did earlier.

"Come on, we still have a lot to pick up before going to the lab," Petunia said and pulled the two floating jars back to them with a string of gummy which she then gave to Lei so he could use it with the jars like a balloon.

"But how about my question earlier. Isn't this dangerous to consume?"

"Like I said, I know what I'm doing. I'm the expert here. Just trust me, alright? Do you trust me?" Petunia suddenly asked which flustered Lei.

"O-Of course," Lei said with a little bit of hesitation.

"It doesn't seem like it," Petunia said and pouted, "Don't worry. I'll make sure not to kill you just yet," she then added and smiled before leaving Lei in the first storage room.

"What does that mean?"