Chapter 170: A Little Rest For A Spell

It took another good thirty minutes before something else came to break the grueling bouncing tedium. Pretty sure Ash was also scraping the bottom of the paper bag with the ever-growing pileup of discarded balls off to the wayside. 

Footsteps on a gradual approach came to merciful spare my shoulder from popping off its socket. Accompanying those approaching steps was a voice, sounding just as weary as I was feeling.

"How's progress?" Irene stopped short beside the pile of balls, eyeing it with a rather peculiar look. "Judging by your pileup…"

I huffed, lowering my throbbing arm to the side. "Working on it still…"

My eyes turned her way, and my lips were straining hard not to form a smile. 

Irene looked like an escaped set piece from a monochromatic museum. Head to toe she was splotched in either the darkest black or the lightest white. Her blouse was originally a spotless white, now it came patterned with blotches of black here and there.  Contrasting that her black skirt and leggings had spots of white scattered across its length.

Her hands, her fingers… the side of her cheek, there were even some clinging to loose strands of her hair. 

Painting sure is a messy job. The smell of it even overpowered the scent of her pheromones to the point that I was wrinkling my nose from just a mere whiff in her direction.

The sternness in her eyes made it plainly clear she wouldn't entertain any funny-man remarks made about her disheveled appearance - and hell, I wasn't one to go against the wishes of a Succubus… especially one that looked ready to gnaw someone's head off. 

"How are you feeling now?" She asked, a hand on her hips. "Are you getting the hang of it, at least?"

The truth was an obvious no. But I don't think she came waltzing all the way from the fourth floor just to hear me say that. I glanced at Ash hoping she'd step in, but her face was a blank slate.

"I haven't yet," I said, but kept my head held high. "I will though." 

A quick blink and a sigh were all I had to go off of. Irene was no open book. 

"Okay," She said, her tone so vacant. "Keep at it, then." Then her eyes fell on Ash. "Elf, keep watching him."

This was the second time she came to drop by on me, and just like the first, it was just as brief, with the only disparity being that she wasn't as black and white as she was now.

I watched her spun around and walked away. How many times was she gonna walk away throughout the night? How many more 'no's must I give before I finally pull it off?

Stop thinking like that, you'll only distract yourself. The last thing you need is wasted time… get back to throwing, already.

"Lady Irene!" That echo bouncing these decrepit walls shook me in place. I turned to the side, and Ash had a foot stepping forward, her gaze straight ahead. "May I offer a suggestion?"

Irene was already at a corner-turn partway through the exit, one-half of her body consumed in the pitch-darkness of the halls, while the other half slowly turned to look back.

"What is it?"

"Twenty minutes," Ash said. "A little respite. Isn't that too a customary for this particular style of teaching?

"A break?" Irene sounded surprised, her eyes widening off-guard, before she vigorously shook her head. "He can't, you know he can't. He doesn't have time to go on break."

Ash kept firm. "I insist." 

And so did Irene. "No."

I stepped in before tensions skyrocketed. "Ash, it's fine. I'm fine. I can keep going no problem."

"No, you cannot, Master," Ash gently said. "Need I remind you the risk of overexertion? I'm afraid you simply have to defer for the time being. It is necessary."

"Oh," That wasn't me that said that. Irene walked back to us with her lips tightly pursed. "That's what you meant. I nearly forgot."

Meanwhile, I was stepping back with my eyebrows slanted. "Overexert? I'm not even using any magic… am I - wait, was I?"

"Not in the proper sense, no," Ash explained. "You recall the purpose of this practice, yes?"

"Tossing the ball is the easiest way to forcefully expel a person's magic. Try to channel everything onto my palm - to the ball - the motion of throwing it makes it easy to direct the magic. If I make the ball disappear using the FDIs then I don't need the ball anymore to use magic."

Irene repeated it like five different times on the way over here. It'd be amazing if I didn't manage to recite it.

"Why ask?" I glanced at the ball, spinning around its dusted green exterior in the palm of my hands. "Am I using magic now?"

"Yes."

I stopped spinning, started staring at her. "But the ball's still bouncing."

"Because the magic isn't focused," Ash said. "You're discharging it unconcentrated, the ball gets none of it. Like light sprinklings of sand…"

"Basically you're sprinkling water instead of jetting it out like a strong stream," Irene said, crossing her arms. "You're using magic, just not in the way you want to, and inadvertently you're wasting it all."

"I see," I slowly muttered out.

"We don't want a repeat of the bathroom incident," Irene started walking again, urging us with a nod to follow. "The Elf's right. A break's necessary to continue. Twenty minutes is the bare minimum… where do you want to go?"

A jangle and a chink rang around, and suddenly Irene was twirling Amanda's car key around her finger.

"Where I wanna go? I repeated, a little bemused. "Can't I just sit here and play with the rubble?"

"You rejuvenate more effectively outdoors," Ash said beside me. "Especially in places you find yourself most at peace. Do any come to mind?"

I shook my head, frowning. "Not at the moment, no."

"Better think fast, then," Irene said leading us through darkened corridors from the front. "You got till the ground floor to decide."

That's Easier than done, really. I'm not much of a city guy, really. I only ever go out for the bare essentials. My place of peace was obviously home, yet alas, the stretch of road from here to there would far exceed the time limit so that's, unfortunately, a no-go.

Sad.

When we walked the corridors of the fifth floor, I entertained the thought of paying my old apartment a quick visit… a little trip down memory lane? Nostalgia is usually the greatest serenity, so hell yeah, why not?

Blight says otherwise. My humble abode had the greatest misfortune of being in the epicenter of where the Blight most devastatingly struck. Unless I'm keen on experiencing pain, and bellowing out screams and sentences that weren't mine, guess we're taking a hard pass on that.

Fourth floor I didn't think of a place. The stench, it reeked of paint… even the broken windows all around had failed to air it all out. The ground had bold imprints in the shape of feet both in black and white, forming a trail that ultimately led to an open room somewhere on the right.

Soon as we walked past it, a head came peeking out of the doorway, along with a cascade of sandy-blond hair hovering only inches from the floor. The head furrowed its brows, narrowed its lips, and nudged at us, tilting itself off-center.

"You going somewhere?" Amanda asked.

"Just for a little drive," Irene answered for us. "Keep painting the room, we'll be black… we'll be back in a few…"

"Uh-huh…" Amanda stepped out of the room, revealing herself in her entirety, and apparently, she went all-in on cosplaying a zebra, she's stripped worse than Irene. "I'm more paint than skin now… are you trying to turn me into a mime?"

"It's just twenty minutes," Irene assured. "I'll be back to help out soon."

Crossing her arms, a wet paintbrush loosely dangling from her fingers, the angry zebra scowled. "And you're also being awfully liberal with my car."

That's when I stepped up to try my hand at appeasing the angry, pouting monster in monochrome. 

"She's doing it for me, it's to speed up my training," I said, attempting to placate with a smile. "Well? Think you can paint by your lonesome for me too? Just twenty minutes."

"Hah. Nice try, but I'm not the one that's head over heels."

"Head over…?" Ash frowned.

Behind me, Irene opened her mouth, but I stopped her in time… My smile growing wider, my gaze softer. "That a no?"

For a moment - nothing. Then out of the quiet, the black and white girl released her pout in an explosive groan, lifting her gaze back up at me, her blinks begrudging.

"Fine, whatever you say," She conceded with a sigh. "For you, your highness, just for you."

I bowed my head. "My thanks, little zebra."

Amanda just shook her head, strolling back into the room, paintbrush in hand. 'Funny…"

With that over with… we resumed walking, past the third, the second… then we reached the ground floor, that's when the question arose again.

"Have you decided, Master?" Ash said, glancing at me from the side.

"Yeah, have you?" Irene readily followed up, still twirling the keys in hand.

Only this time, I finally had an answer to that. That little peckish creature back at the fourth floor gave me an idea. 

That creature coated in black… yet also in white…

Mr. Black and Mrs. White… 

My one place of peace.

"Just drive," I said. "I'll lead the way."