Time went on, Thursday, when lunch came around, I did my nails with Samantha as discussed. Thursday night, Terada invited me again to join them at the bar, I wanted to decline, but I ended up going.

  It went well enough, it was a bit awkward, but nobody appeared to have any serious issues with me. I tried to confront Tom, but he did everything he could to avoid me, which made me think… Was he really behind the rumors?

  Friday came and went, after work I went to the gym and home. On Saturday, work came and went, and when it came time to clock out, I turned down Terada’s invitation. I had plans tonight.

  After work, I went straight to the warehouse. Inside, it was as I left it, which was fairly bare. Cobalt was, as usual, standing by inside the cold storage. Something I hadn’t really paid attention to was just how dry the air was.

  Not dry, as in dry, but more like, lacking in magical energy. The air lacked that little tinge of something. It wasn’t hard to imagine why, with Cobalt actively absorbing it, and with the warehouse not being on a ley line or even a power spot, the magical energy in the air was limited.

  Part of my plan for being here was to add arrays and hopefully relieve the issue. It was unlikely I could solve it with what I had on hand. I spent all my bronze coins, well, save for a single coin left in reserve. Of the coins I earned in the last event, most of them went to refilling my coffers and paying back Liche and Joan.

  Of course, I still owed them more. They had given me more than just what we had earned together, but also what they had squirreled away. Which was the only reason I could afford to pay off the division.

  I needed more coins, which meant, I needed to go back into the sewers. Before, I had been cautious of doing it, if only due to being short on time. From what éclair said, and what I can guess from what she said, there is a minor time displacement the further down I go.

  My watch, the watch Mr. Torres gave me, had a function to help me keep track of the passage of time. An invaluable tool, especially if I do go into the sewers on normal days.

  Going alone though, or at least with just Cobalt sounded like assisted suicide, not an actual plan. Nor did I want to drag Liche and Joan with me on normal runs, not unless I had too.

  Meaning, today, for the first time, I was going to be using a bronze coin.

  Standing inside the cold storage, I looked over the coin. It was no different from before, a bronze casino coin, the face had a rabbit on it, the tail a simple star.

  Ingesting the coin would restore my magical energy, but would put me at a deficit, reducing my natural regeneration for a time. Using it, by crushing the coin, would boost my power at the cost of weakening my control over my magic. It could also be used to enhance my magic briefly to cast a wider spell or ability instantaneously, to a point.

  The final usage, was, apparently, being able to use it to exchange for goods.

  Much like with the silver coin, and the single gold coin I had used, I let my magic flow into the coin and flipped it. Thinking, surely that would work?

  The coin sang out, as soon as it hit its apex, the coin exploded into flecks of bronze light. Before my eyes, the bronze flecks of light formed into a bronze window. I stared, a good minute or two before hesitantly touching the pane of bronze before me. It felt solid to the touch and flickered in response.

  From it, I felt a query that pinged in my very being. I thought of what I wanted, needed. Doll bodies. Suddenly, words scrawled on the pane before me. It was a shopping page, almost like I was perusing an online shop.

  Various options were presented, with numerous types of dolls, with each using different materials, with make and models. A few swiftly added details parsed down the results to a minimum. Titanium dolls, with ball socket joints. The cost was… Fairly decent.

  I had a budget of ten thousand dollars, based on the series of icons and numbers I was seeing. A slider appeared, asking how many I wanted of the product. I could get about a hundred, but I chose to parse it down to fifty. A bit extra was saved by having them come unassembled and by choosing cheaper options. With what was left, I bought simple titanium spears. Rather, more like titanium spikes. Leaving me with some leftovers, which I directly exchanged for cash.

  However, despite being done, I wasn’t actually done. With my cart filled, budget spent, I looked over what else I could buy before hitting that bronze finalize button.

  Raw materials were unusually expensive. Finished goods were, however, oddly less expensive. Buying a pallet of Moxie was almost dirt cheap, but buying an equivalent amount of water was abhorrently expensive.

  Even that had limits though, the further I dug, the stranger the options became. Guns and cold weapons were sold. Guns all used standardized munitions. Cold weapons could be designed a bit, but equally, they were all rather cheap.

  That in itself wasn’t odd, but was odd, was the option to purchase tanks, heavy vehicles, cars, and even, after some digging, mecha. Literally fighting robots with cockpits and lasers. Only, the cost for these reached the heavens themselves. A single tank, cost hundreds of bronze coins at minimum. With the mecha being in the millions.

  I highly doubt they’d be worth the cost to be honest… But the fact they were even here was odd in itself.

  Still, after a bit more window shopping, I finished up and confirmed my purchase. The bronze window flickered, then dispersed out, and formed into hazy images of my purchases.

  I could choose the doll parts to appear in a pile, a slight bronze hued hologram showed me how they would be haphazardly stacked. I could have them appear in crates, or on shelves, though, it would cut into what I was exchanging for cash. The holograms shifted with my touch and according to my whim, so I had them placed on shelves that would be placed along the walls. As for the weapons, I had them placed on a series of weapon racks on the opposite side of the room.

  With both placed and set, the hologram fitting and resizing according to my needs, a final confirmation came through and mentally, I confirmed. The bronze light flickered, air displaced with a low crack, and where nothing had been, was now rows of shelves filled with doll parts, and on the opposite end of the room was a set of weapon racks covered in titanium spears.

  None of the items bore signs of production. No signatures, no serial codes, and yet, it seemed a bit odd how they just appeared like this, shelves and all. Didn’t help that I now had some cash out of seemingly nowhere. I could probably just use the coins to directly exchange for cash, but I could make more money by getting finished goods and reselling them but doing that felt like a waste of time and energy.

  Shaking my head, I get to work. With Cobalt’s help, it turns out to be fairly simple to put a couple of the dolls together. They were mostly hollow, but still weighty. A small opening in the back made for a perfect point to begin animating them.

  I wasn’t sure if I could properly etch the lines into the doll bodies, but such concerns were swiftly abandoned. The dolls had channels cut into their forms, making the process surprisingly painless. What I hadn’t expected though, was the sheer cost.

  The ice soldiers, though difficult to make, in truth hadn’t been very costly. Most of the cost came from etching the lines in their body for the magic to flow. Creating the core was almost too easy, as was the rest of the process.

  For these dolls, etching wasn’t necessary, and establishing the channels was almost too easy, but creating the core was costly. It took a good hour of me pushing magic into the doll before it finally took. With a crack and pop, an ice core settled at the heart of the doll. The hollow body slowly filled in with ice until it finally stood up.

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  Its movements were stiff, but leagues above the ice soldiers I had made way back when. While the first soldier righted itself and tested its limbs, I went ahead and started working on the second doll. Another hour or so later, I had a second one done.

  By this point, it was getting late, but I had just enough time to squeeze in a final addition. Using some chalk, which I had some issues with, I managed to etch a basic dispersal array. At the center, all of the silver coins I had on my person were placed down. Which wasn’t much. I had four coins after all the events up to this point. Not counting what I had already spent…

  The four coins easily sat inside the circle and after a few minutes, like having a humidifier in someone’s room, the dry air started to gain some life to it.

  Additional work would need to be done to secure and prevent leakage, especially as I use more coins to increase the energy in the air, but as it was, this would do for today.

  As for making additional soldiers and etching enchantments into the spears, that would have to wait for another day. Tomorrow, I was meeting éclair, and on Monday I wanted to head to the gym. Tuesday, I could probably plan on raising a few more soldiers and etching the spears. With Wednesday, maybe, heading down into the depths for some coins…

  Plan in mind, I headed back home…

  The next day, I woke early, ate breakfast, the usual, and headed over to the lower quarter, there, I met up with éclair and she led me too somewhere familiar.

  “Raiju!” A shout broke out through the clearing, guns were raised, safeties flicked off, rounds chambered. We were at the Wizard Gang checkpoint, the same one éclair had beaten down, some time ago…

  Wanting to avoid further conflict, I stepped up to speak for her, but… “It’s her! She’s the one that called the hospital on us!” Almost immediately, half the guns shifted from éclair to me… Even if I wanted to defend myself, their ongoing accusations prevented that…

  “Do you have any idea what we went through!?”

  “I was saving myself for marriage! How could you!?” And so on…

  Just when I thought we would actually be shot at, a familiar figure swooped in.

  “Stop! Stop!” It was Black Hawk, currently wearing his tight-fitting uniform and all. He shouted down the checkpoint guards and, somehow, managed to get them to back off with a few short words and comments. Though still disgruntled, they weren’t pointing their guns at us. A huge win.

  Once settled, Black Hawk came over to greet us. “Been awhile hasn’t it?”

  “A bit, how you been Blackie?” éclair asks, as nonchalant as ever.

  “Good, very good! Especially with my new weapon!” Out of darkness, a set of… throwing stars appear in his hand? “In fact, I’m raring to test these babies out, if you got the time.”

  “Maybe later, I wanted to take her to your training hall for shooting practice.”

  “Is that so? Well, I don’t mind leading you there.”

  “Great! Saves us a lot of time.” éclair replied back.

  Just like that, we were now being escorted towards the Wizard Gang headquarters. We walked further into the lower district, at first, nothing really changed, up until we took another turn and passed by another checkpoint. From there, the streets began to change significantly…

  With one checkpoint, the seemingly abandoned and rundown homes, with uncared for lawns and homes, transitioned into what could be considered a proper city street. Only, this street was completely militarized. The roads were well taken care of, to a point. The houses were gutted, walls shorn away, and in their place were sandbags and wooden platforms.

  Near every corner, there was a sensor or camera of some sort keeping an eye on things. Alleys were either blocked off with barricades, and a thick forest of barbed wire, or mined to hell with plenty of signage warning of errant mines. Wider roads and crossroads were manned with guards. All of whom wore distinctive Wizard Gang hoodies.

  Sirens and speakers had been set up along every corner of the inner part of the lower district. Vehicles patrolled, rumbling by, armored vehicles, trucks with machine guns attached to the back. With the closer to the headquarters we got, the more hectic it became.

  An bustling open market greeted us as we neared the central part of the district. The place looked like it could have been a central square or street before, now turned into a massive bazaar. Simple stalls and shops were set up, where just about any good was sale out in the open. People milled about, bought what they needed. Exchanging cash or goods for what they need.

  Flourishing gardens, planted in sparce green spaces grew abundant food, literally maturing in front of my eyes as a man using nature type magic helped them flourish before harvesting them. Entire workshops were dedicated to individuals working together to form small ingots of metal. Other goods were made as well, even with ice types like myself working together to form big blocks of ice out of the air.

  It was mind boggling, and I couldn’t help but ask, “Is this all necessary?” It wasn’t like anything I expected, the whole quarter seemed like an active warzone. Only, there wasn’t any shooting yet.

  “Definitely.” Black Hawk replied back. “Truthfully, even if our gang controls a majority of the district, that majority only accounts for about a third of the district. The rest is split between other gangs, and the roaming monsters that occupy the deeper portions of the district.”

  He said while exchanging nods with a few passing patrols, armed to the teeth with weapons, and even a few others like himself, wearing their uniforms. Which were distinct against the seemingly drab attire everyone else wore.

  “On full moons it can get dicey, and at night we have to constantly deal with incursions. Better to have everyone grouped up in barracks with proper schedules and watches instituted. Monsters tend to crawl into places thought secure and cause issues, so everyone is armed to an extent.”

  I nodded to that in understanding. However, “It doesn’t sound easy.”

  “It’s not, most people who come here though, take to it like a fish to water and all. Most, if not all of the people here are magical girls, or more specifically rabbits, since with the state of the city and all, there are next to no normal citizens here in the slums. As it is, we manage with what we have, and a lot of work is done to improve the utilities and frankly, just being free to do whatever makes a huge difference.”

  “I imagine you don’t have issues with troublemakers.” I state.

  “Yup, an armed society is a polite society and all. Anyone tries anything, you got a dozen people armed with weapons, and with magical powers ready to throw down at a moment’s notice.” He agreed.

  By my side, éclair was looking around, her strand of hair that stuck out was wildly shifting back and forth, much like an antenna. I couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind, or even begin trying too, so I just left it. She wasn’t causing issues, and she was the reason I was here.

  As we walked through the marketplace, we came to a larger area, where buildings were all clustered together. I imagined; it might have looked like a more rundown version of the residential district. Smaller complexes dotted the place, along with larger community centers of a sort. The complexes had been shifted into a mix of a barracks and share house, where everyone just kind of milled about. Looking into the buildings, gave me a glimpse of ammo boxes piled up, weapons haphazardly lain about, along with the doors and windows all being reinforced.

  The larger community centers had their doors open. Allowing me to see inside and note the vehicles all being stored and cared for. That, along with countless crates of supplies for just about any need. Further ahead, we came to what was likely going to be our final barricade.

  The checks here were far more stringent. A pair of fellows wearing odd attire stood guard. One looked like a barbarian of sorts, with a comically large sword strapped to his back. He wore a wolf head on his head, and I could almost feel the magical energy just seeping out from him.

  His eyes focused on éclair, and gave her a grin, exposing sharp canine teeth in the process. Undeterred, éclair gave him a challenging smile back.

  Beside that man, was another, he wore voluminous robes that shimmered oddly in the daylight, almost like a ghost. In his gauntleted hand, was a book, a grimoire of sorts. It looked rather ornate, the cover and spine covered in silver plating, with midnight blue satin as the base. I couldn’t see his expression under the hood of his robe, but I could see him lower his head a little at the sight of éclair and his partner grinning at each other in challenge. Likely with a sigh of exasperation.

  After a bit of back and forth, we were let in. A large metal gate shuddered open, giving us access to the main area of the Wizard Gang. In here, it looked like a true military camp. Military vehicles, armored troop carriers, tanks, and even helicopters were placed about.

  I did my best to keep up as groups of people moved from place to place with purpose. A final obstacle, a final series of walls were set around the immediate vicinity of the headquarters, a giant, mostly unfinished skyscraper by the looks. However, that wasn’t our destination. Within the clearing, was a larger place, that almost looked like it had been a community center at some point or another.

  Inside, it became clear, that it had been retrofitted, heavily. With half the main floor turned into part shooting range, part bowling alley, with the other half being a full-on bar complete with pool tables, darts, and arcade machines. And that, was just the first floor…

  Greeting people as he went, Black Hawk finally led us to the front desk. Where a muscular man, with hairy arms, and a surprisingly well trimmed and maintained mustache stood.

  His arms were crossed and the moment we approached, his eyes shot to éclair before drifting to me. He said nothing as Black hawk approached and explained the situation. Once done, he invited éclair off to an arena to practice and spar, to which she agreed eagerly, however…

  While that was happening, my attention was fully on the man before me.

  “Whelp, I’m told you have a gun type weapon? Mind showing it to me?” He starts gruffly. He looked weary, though, I had no idea why. Still, at his words, I summoned my rifle, with a crackle of ice that barely stood out amongst pins being bowled over, and the steady gunfire that cracked out, or the clack of billiards...

  Seeing my rifle, he raised his eyebrows and immediately, I could tell his wariness faded away to nil.

  While he inspected my rifle, I took in the surroundings.