Chapter 388: Pop Culture References are a little Lazy…
Kamiko was of the opinion, that if being impaled counted as a 'small wound', she didn't actually want to watch Kat deal with anything that would be consider 'a moderate wound' or heaven forbid 'a rather nasty wound' because she already considered having the bones in your hand destroyed as a somewhat serious matter.
"Right… well… I'm glad your ok" said Kamiko after more thought then she cared to admit.
Kat nodded along, noticing the uncomfortable face Kamiko was making and directed her attention to the forms that were stacked on a table off to the side. She hadn't noticed them before and walked over, picked up a pen and quickly filled it out. She had to place the item on the paper in question, tap it twice, and that would transfer a picture to the box on the top corner of said paper.
It reminded Kat that despite appearances she wasn't in some random warehouse, this was a demon warehouse in the Hub. It had magical devices everywhere, and fancy paper was just one part of it. Kat then wrote down what the amulet did and what testing they had done on it so far. Kat was tempted to point out to Kamiko, as a joke of course, that they hadn't seen what colours the later lights would show up as and she needed to be stabbed again, perhaps through the heart this time, but decided it wasn't worth it.
*This amulet probably doesn't need a report anyway. It's good practice though. The form is simple and I understand how it works. More or less just What did it do, How did you test it, and the picture. Wait… where are we supposed to put everything once we are done?*
"Hey Kamiko, where are we supposed to put items we've looked over" asked Kat
"Huh" said Kamiko "I… I hadn't thought about it? I mean… I guess just back in the box probably? I'm sure a warehouse as sophisticated as this has some organising system. Even if they don't know what each thing does, they are probably all marked in some way so they can be found easily. Did you notice how there aren't any markings on the boxes? That's why. It's an external system that keeps track. Boss probably has something in his office."
*That makes quite a lot of sense. Well, it does still make me wonder why they don't have records of these things, but I suppose if that central server is destroyed you'd lose everything alongside it.*
Kat moved over to the box and reached inside, ready for the next item. The feeling of the slime was weird. Her succubus skin seemed to repel it, and her hand glided oddly through the substance even as it tried to stick to her. Reaching in Kat found something and pulled it out.
It was a cylindrical object, about the length between her wrist and elbow, with a button that was set into a divot in the thing to ensure easy access but a lack of accidental presses. Taking a distance from Kamiko just in case, Kat pushed the button and found a beam of light shooting out from the top end.
*Thank science class for basic safety protocols. I am ever so glad I wasn't trying to watch that turn on and get impaled on the beam.* Kat waved the glowing stick around a bit and it made a weird noise as it cut through the air.
"You recognise this?" asked Kat
"Not really, but I'm no… weapon? Toy? Expert really? I mean, it could be either depending" said Kamiko.
"Depending on what?" asked Kat.
"Well… it could be contained plasma and exceptionally deadly. Or it could be fancy hard-light and about as deadly as a snowball. Give it a go against one of the dummies" said Kamiko
Kat slashed out at the nearest dummy and watched it get cut in two easily. "Welp. Deadly it is I guess" Kat mumbled somewhat under her breath.
Kamiko had rummaged around in the box and found another similarly shaped device. Where the first one was silver, this one, was gold instead. Kamiko moved to another dummy, pressed the button to activate it and slashed. Instead of cutting cleanly like Kat's though, it bounced off.
"Hmm." Mumbled Kamiko "Were you pushing anything into these? Demonic energy flow?"
Kat shook her head and said. "Nope I just pushed the button and whacked"
"Let's quickly switch" said Kamiko pressing the off button and moving towards Kat who was doing the same. "just to see if it matters who is holding it. I think there are a couple more in the box. They were all sorted together."
Kat's dummy had regenerated at this point, so she took another swing. Instead of bouncing of like Kamiko though, the blade shattered. Pieces simply disappeared as they spread out and the end sparked for a second before reforming into a blade. Kat checked Kamiko's swing which cleanly cut through the dummy.
"I think I found the strength limit on this one" said Kat "But I didn't think I hit it that hard…"
Kamiko hummed for a second as she thought. "Could you turn it back off and then on again, before testing it once more Kat?"
Kat did so and found the rod didn't break this time, despite, what she was almost certain, was the exact same application of force. Kat frowned at the development. "What's going on here?"
Kamiko spoke up. "I think I know actually. What you have is a training weapon, and what I have is a plasma sabre. The hard light ones are designed to break once they take a certain amount of damage. It isn't actually their limit, just an artificial one. It's used for training control. My mum used wooden moulds that did a similar thing."
Kat nodded. *That makes a lot of sense. Does that mean if I swing this again…* Kat swung once more and watched the 'blade' shatter once again. Satisfied with the result, Kat turned it off and looked towards Kamiko. "Did you say there was a few of these? Do we need to test them all?"
Kamiko shrugged while saying. "Maybe? I think they fit one of the two schemes. Either mostly silvery or mostly gold. I'd guess that the colour specifies which type they are but I'm not sure if we want to assume"
Kat nodded and said. "How about we test them all and put them to the left of the table if they are deadly, and to the right if they are hard-light. If the pattern holds true, then we can do them up as a big batch otherwise we'll have to individual label them"
Kamiko grimaced at the thought of having to write out a bunch of extra reports on virtually indistinguishable items but nodded knowing that Kat's idea was the right one. They quickly started with working on the idea. By some unspoken agreement, Kat went for the mostly silver ones and Kamiko mostly gold.
It was just slightly safer that way, and as they progressed through the contained, the pattern continued to hold steady, with the colour defining the type. That is, until Kat was on the second to last silver one, which bounced off the dummy when she swung.
*Shit.* "Kamiko I got a hard-light over here" grumbled Kat.
Kamiko frowned and picked up the last of her gold coloured ones and swung. She was happy to report it DID follow the pattern and bounced away. "Seems like that is the only odd one out." Sighed Kamiko
"Guess we can do them in batches and then have this one as the odd one out? Would that work? Oh, and you should probably swing one of these at me" said Kat.
"What why? I mean, that batch idea works, but why attack you with it?" asked Kamiko
"Well, it occurred to me that we don't know if these more dangerous ones actually hurt people or not. Sure it cut the dummy fine but maybe it has some sort of fail safe so you can't hurt people" said Kat.
"Look Kat… I… I dunno if we should. I mean would they really?" asked Kamiko.
Kat just shrugged in response and handed the hilt over to Kamiko, who sighed, and met Kat eyes. They stared at each other, and Kat watched Kamiko's eyes swirl slightly in a slow manner. Finally, they broke eye contact and Kamiko took the sabre, before very carefully lowering it down against Kat.
Kat felt it make contact but not much more than that. Kat raised an eyebrow at Kamiko who sighed and pressed down harder… but nothing happened. The blade refused to budge in the slightest. "Damn… I can't believe you're right."
"Ah" said Kat realising something else. "We might need to test the other 'deadly' ones now"
"Why?" said Kamiko with a long sigh, not wanting to have to try cutting Kat up with more swords.
"Well… that was the odd one out remember? Maybe the others are different. I'd really hate to say these are safe to use against other people and then find out some kid got cut up with it because we labelled it improperly" said Kat. Kamiko just groaned and walked over to the moderately sized pile of 'weapons'
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦