"Hup… ho… hup… ho…"
Ash jogged along the narrow metal path, his breath creating small puffs of mist in the morning air. The underground city was waking up slowly, the pipes still warm from the steam cloud's early blast. Every footstep sounded lightly against the steel plates beneath him.
He was heading toward the dumpsite again.
Not to pick up junk today.
Just to think about some tricks.
Just to train a little...much.
He passed by the massive pipes, the ones that connected to the surface. Steam drifted lazily out of them like warm breath leaking from some giant sleeping creature.
Ash slowed down, staring at them.
"What if these malfunction… like in the dream…" he whispered.
The dream. The explosion. The collapsing ceiling. The siren. The thick smoke was turning into a monsters.
He shook his head quickly.
"Worrying won't help… I need to prepare for the academy first."
He glanced at the slums nearby. It wasn't disgusting like the stories of old-world slums, but it wasn't pretty either. The metal walls were rusty. Bolts sticking out. Pipes are leaking small droplets. Clothes hanging on wires. Kids sitting on crates and pipes.
He smiled a little.
"Can I really… achieve my dream here?"
He didn't finish the thought.
His feet kept moving.
The dumpsite was getting closer.
Then his body paused.
Something felt wrong.
Ash looked back slowly.
At first, he didn't see anything. Just the long walkway behind him, covered in morning, faint mist, faint enough to see the surroundings.
A few lampposts.
A stray cat is climbing on pipes.
Nothing is unusual.
But his chest tightened.
His heart suddenly started beating faster, like an ambulance speeding up for no reason.
Ash squinted.
Someone… was following him.
A small silhouette. A shadow. Quiet and careful.
His fingers twitched.
"Illusion manifest."
The energy responded instantly. A soft ripple with a purple hue.
"Invisibility Cloak."
He whispered the name proudly. Very chunibyo. Very dramatic. And he liked it that way.
His body faded into a blurry outline. The air around him bent slightly, hiding him.
Ash smirked.
He slipped between two metal walls, entering a narrow alley. The effect of his Invisibility Cloak slowly faded, but he didn't panic. He prepared the next one.
"Wall of Illusion."
The illusion snapped into place like a thin glass sheet, blocking the alley's entrance. Anyone looking would see an empty path, normal.
Ash stepped deeper inside, pressed against the wall, and waited.
Soft footsteps approached.
A small figure appeared. Ash's eyes narrowed. He studied the silhouette.
That familiar shape.
"Wait… that's…"
The girl stopped right in front of the illusion wall.
Ash canceled the skill.
"Cancel."
The illusion broke like smoke fading in the wind.
Laura.
Ash exhaled deeply.
"False alarm." he thought
"Psst!!. Laura. Here."
Laura jumped like a startled rabbit. She touched her hair repeatedly, acting shy and panicked at the same time.
"Hehehehe… e-ehm… I kinda… wanted to give you something, so I started following you."
Ash stared at her. This girl looked nervous. He didn't know if she feared him or she's guilty?
"Anyway," he said, pointing ahead. "We're near the site. So let's go."
"Y-yes uncle," She froze. "I mean, brother. Brother!"
Ash stared at her flatly.
Laura looked like she wanted to disappear into the ground.
He sighed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
material gathering site...
"So, what are you gonna give me?"
"Ah, well… yesterday, when I bandaged you…" she said, twirling her fingers, "I noticed a device in your pocket."
Ash blinked.
"Device? The dumbphone?"
Laura nodded. "Y-yeah. I got curious and… kinda tinkered with it."
Ash's eyes widened.
"So that's why it was warm when I powered it on…" he thought.
Laura continued, gaining confidence now that the embarrassing part was over.
"I checked the wiring. Some parts were almost gone. But the structure inside… It's weird though. Not like old dumbphones. I even asked the Boss for advice. You know how rare this stuff is. After the siphon apocalypse, almost all technological things vanished or got converted."
She reached into her small pouch.
"So I asked him… begged him… like many, many times… to give me this thing."
"What thing?"
"This."
She opened her hand.
Ash stared.
"… It's a glowing rock?"
Laura smacked his shoulder lightly.
"No, idiot! This is a materialized siphon!"
Ash raised an eyebrow.
"Materialized?"
"Yeah!" She lifted it proudly. "Pure siphon that condensed into a solid form. Most of these break instantly. But Boss kept a stable one. He didn't want to give it away at first. But when he found out I wanted to give it to you… He reluctantly gave it to me. So be grateful."
Ash stared at the glowing materialized siphon. The light inside looked alive, like a tiny star beating in her palm.
He wondered…
"Is this the missing piece?"
His hand moved instinctively. He took out the dumbphone from his pocket and slowly brought it near the materialized siphon.
The moment they got close.
The siphon pulsed.
The phone vibrated.
Both objects started to merge.
The glowing siphon melted like liquid light, sliding into the cracks of the dumbphone. The device's whole body glowed. The taped battery vibrated. A small bar blinked rapidly on the screen, like it was charging.
Laura's mouth hung open.
Her eyes sparkled like she had found treasure.
"Ash… It's merging! It's really merging!"
Ash swallowed.
The glow got stronger.
Then weaker.
Then, silence.
The dumbphone stopped glowing.
It looked normal. Same scratches. Same cracked corner. Same old keypad.
Ash then pressed the power button.
Whoosh
A powerful pull dragged illusion energy out of his hand. Another pull dragged out the space energy. The two energies flowed to the dumbphone. His whole body shook.
"What… t-this thing is sucking my energy…" he thought.
Laura didn't notice anything. She was too busy staring at the glowing screen.
The phone vibrated sharply.
Ting… ting… ting…
The screen flashed white.
"N O K I Y A"
Ash froze.
He knew this intro. This exact sound. This exact boot-up animation.
He stared at it, dumbfounded.
"It really… behaves like an old phone…"
But when the intro disappeared, the home screen came up.
And it was almost empty.
Nothing is almost there. No messages. No contacts. No settings. No tools.
Just one lonely app.
Ash clicked it.
Notepad.
That's it.
He pressed the keypad. He held the buttons. He tried every combination.
Still… nothing.
Only one app.
Only Notepad.
A single square icon in the middle of a bright screen.
Laura stared for a moment.
Then her face twisted.
Then she burst into laughter.
She dropped to her knees. She punched the metal floor. She gasped for air. She laughed again.
"Hahahahahaha! You can save papers now! Hahahahaha!"
Her laugh echoed loudly across the dumpsite.
Ash stood there holding an energy-hungry, glowing, ancient dumbphone
And the only thing inside was a Notepad.
He stared at the screen.
Laura rolled on the ground laughing.
Ash sighed.
"…my source object…" he whispered.
And the phone's screen flickered faintly, as if it heard him.