A bell rang as I entered the Workshop, already seeing a familiar face.
"Nahr-" I then heard a loud obnoxious yell that made my eardrums feel like bursting.
"RXBOTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!"
The loud one clocked in today, I tilted my head away from the loud source to try to dampen the sound to no avail.
"Don't be so loud the second I walk in, Maki."
I gave her an annoyed glare while walking up to Nahri who was standing at the reception desk, seeing Maki's tanned face dirtied with smudge while she was waving at me with a wrench in her hand.
How did she even yell that loud all the way from her workbench?
"Hey Nahri I wanted to test this weapon here." I held out Enenra in front of her and she was entirely focused on it, her eyes were tired and her hair was messy with her goggles atop her head. Her complexion was pale, probably from working long hours.
She didn't even notice me walking in...
I looked around the workshop and noticed that it was more empty than usual, I set Enenra down on the reception desk and walked over to Maki who was sitting down at her workbench.
"Are you guys planning on relocating?" I gestured at a box on the ground with my thumb.
"Yeah! We are. No way we're staying in a Nest that allows a syndicate to come in and out, so much for protection! Me personally I might as well just stay in the backstreets."
Is she talking about the Kurokumo clan? Those bastards under the Thumb. Though this Nest's situation isn't one I'm interested in, and I won't stay here for long, so it'd be nice to stick with people I know.
I looked back at Nahri who was holding the blade with both hands now.
"Well, where are you guys moving to?"
Maki answered for the distracted Nahri.
"We're going to a big residential area in District 11's Backstreets. K Corp is really popular, so our business is going to be Boomin'!!"
My eyes widened and I was about to say something then I felt a poke from my side, it was Nahri freshly out of her trance her red goggles now over her eyes. I looked down and saw that she poked me with the kashira of Enenra.
"Where did you get this from?"
Her voice seemed a bit strained from holding the heavy odachi.
"Not going to even say hello to an old friend?"
I looked at her face just to see that she was serious, I paused a bit, my jaw was tight before I answered her.
"Nana threw it at me before she kicked me out of the office."
Their faces weren't surprised; I guess they already knew. I'm surprised Maki didn't talk about it as soon as I stepped inside here.
"So, what is it? For you to make a face like that." I pointed at Enenra that she was holding with both gloved hands.
"It's a relic, these materials aren't things I recognize."
My eyes widened behind the shades, and I heard Maki do a shout behind me before taking a look at the blade herself while leaning over her workbench.
"T-This... THIS IS REALLY A RELIC!?!"
I winced from Maki's boisterous yell.
"Keep it down!" I chopped the top of her head; her thick hair couldn't save her from my chop. "Do you want the whole area to know we got a relic in here?"
I took Enenra from Nahri's hands, holding it now felt different.
"Even though it's a relic it doesn't change the fact that I came here to test it out."
I sighed and looked down at Nahri expecting her to still look serious, but she had a big smile on her face.
"That's all you had to say Rxbot!! C'mon what do you want to test out!"
Did she not hear me say that when I came in? But... It's whatever it felt off when she was talking seriously.
---
We moved to the back area of their Workshop. There was enough space for me to swing Enenra around without hitting something. There were 3 thick sheets of metal in front of me being held up by rope and 2 dummies wearing clothes made out of reinforced fabric, there were marks on all of these though. I heard grunting and saw Nahri holding a small cube of metal I was very familiar with.
"X Corp alloy."
I bit my cheek being reminded of painful times in District 24 mines.
"I didn't even know you had enough to afford that much."
Nahri placed it down on a small table and crossed her arms with a smug smile.
"I stole it."
"Ah..."
"Cmon hurry up, I want to see how well this thing cuts!"
I sighed and walked up to the first sheet of metal.
My left hand held the handle of Enenra and my right hand gripped the blunt part of its scabbard as I slashed down at the thick sheet of metal. There wasn't much resistance, it was like cutting through butter. I looked at my left hand briefly before moving onto the next sheet of metal. I took a closer look at the metal, I'm familiar with it but don't know exactly what it's for.
I slashed down again; this time it felt like cutting through a wheel of cheese, but the scabbard went through it just like the first sheet of metal.
If I didn't let go of this sooner my hand would've been cut in half...
"Well, this is what should be expected of a relic... hurry up and cut at the harder materials!"
Now even Nahri's rushing me while Maki is jittering in place.
I moved onto the last metal sheet and repeated the motion I did for the other two.
"Hh!!"
This time I saw sparks as I cut through it, there was way more resistance compared to the other two, if I was fighting someone they would've been able to deflect my attack. It felt like cutting through frozen meat.
"What a steep jump... did you actually buy this one or steal it, Nahri?"
"Of course, I bought it with Ahn... who the hell do you think I am!?" She huffed at me.
"Hurry up with your tests I want to see how well it does against the X Corp alloy."
Your credibility dropped not so long ago, Nahri...
I continued the test with the reinforced fabric dummies, the first one had visible cuts while the second dummy resisted a bit better but still got cut. They survived better than the metal sheets though, it was more like they made the scabbard drag along it, but Nahri held me back from doing more test slashes. It's these things you don't notice when cutting people down.
Now we moved onto the last test, the cube made out of X Corp alloy. It was mounted on a table with a wall behind it, I shifted my stance, my left hand next to my head and my right hand had a lower grip on the handle as I thrust Enenra towards the cube.
"Hnk!"
There was a loud clang and a bright light from sparks as I shifted my stance and brought Enenra down on the cube horizontally.
"Ha!"
I looked at the cube after the sparks went dim... barely even a scratch, even with my eyesight I can only see the most miniscule mark on the alloy... my technique is still lacking.
I set it down on a nearby counter to rewrap the bandages around my left hand.
"It's a bit disappointing that it didn't leave that much of a mark on the X Corp alloy..."
Nahri had her hand on her chin looking at Enenra that was settled down on the counter.
"But Nahri you're forgetting one thing!" Maki's head popped up from Nahri's shoulder, she was excited, so her natural blush was a bit redder. Maki pointed at the chains from Enenra's tsuba.
"Imagine how good it would cut if it was the actual blade."
I finished tightening the fresh wrapping around my left hand and heard a question from Nahri.
"Do you know how to unlock it?" She was close but that was how she is when asking questions.
"I don't know... I tried..." I looked at Maki who was trying to unsheathe it. "Doing that but it didn't quite work out well for me." I walked over to Maki and chopped the top of her head; she crouched down looking up at me with teary eyes while covering her head.
"Do you guys have any guesses on what it could be?" I said with a satisfied grin.
Maki stood up and shrugged while Nahri did the same thing.
"Seriously... y'all were in sync for something stupid."
I walked back to the front of the workshop.
"You shouldn't allocate all of your work to the testing area... you'll leave your co-workers alone..." I looked around the empty workshop. "...I was joking by the way."
Nahri looked unamused so I headed out, Maki stuck her tongue out and then started walking back to her workbench and while turning away, I saw Nahri smile at me. I started walking back to my apartment, the rain ended a while ago but there were still some puddles on the ground that I avoided.
Tomorrow you'll taste some blood, Enenra. I held it in my left hand, my grip tightening.