Our Lives are all Stories, in the End...

Chapter 4: Basics For Assassins

Warnings:

Cussing
Killing beasts
Rich interactions
Very respectable or non-respectable insults (Depending on how you want to take it.)
Breaking the fourth wall slightly

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Karasuma was already inspecting the damage when Jelavić woke up. Her hair was flattened down as she sat up. Her clothes were still in impeccable shape, unlike this area they had gone to. She picked off the stray leaves sticking to her pants. Their imprints stuck on as an ugly stain. Her backside must have been ruined because of the leaf on her pants. She groaned at the thought. She hesitated in walking. One of her shoes hovered over the dirty ground. Jelavić inhaled sharply as she placed her foot back down. Her shoes were most likely going to be ruined by this whole situation. When she returned, her outfit was going onto the bill for her pay.

Around the two stood the remains of their protected experiment. Chunks of metal covered the dirt. Some more intact pieces held vines around them as if freshly laid as a blanket. The weeds had penetrated any cracks within the metal to get to their insides.

Karasuma kept to himself while looking through the metal parts. Insects scurried from under the objects. If the portal the scientists were working on had been this decayed, how long in the future would they been tossed into? Has the ground aged in the split second they were gone? Are they even citizens still with proper papers?

Water dripped along the trees above the two. This area had been abandoned long enough for a full-grown forest of trees to appear. Jelavić joined Karasuma in investigating. "So are we just supposed to watch every little bug for questioning later?" She kicked the nearby object, sending a crowd of bugs from the sound. "We can't exactly interrogate the metal." She gestured to his strict stare on a poor leftover piece.

"We must ensure no one can recreate this portal without permission." He bent closer to the wiring. He used a free hand to disconnect the rubber cremation from the metal. The cords cracked under his handling. "Even if it is this dilapidated..." The cords hit the ground with a soft plop.

Jelavić shook her head in an awkward agreement to the man. The wiring had already been so badly welded together from weathering that she doubted even Ritsu with the instructions to rebuild the portal could do it with the parts here. The metal has some parts even welded with other materials. The glass parts held metal splashes from whatever this portal had been through.

Around them, what was not left on the ground had wound up either within the trees or on top of those trees. The trees chose to grow around the rust, leaving hollowed holes within the tree. "I don't think there is anything we could even destroy further." She placed her nails under the loosened boards. One pull and the material was bending to show its guts. She checked inside of it to find the same thing they had been talking about. More super-destroyed parts. She tsked at her nails. "Now my nails are dirty!"

Her eyes looked back at Karasuma. Her tears went unnoticed by the other. He stayed alert in looking for any possible survivors of the wreckage. "Get over yourself. I know you can handle more than that."

She scoffed in rebuttal. Her stance copied typical 'Can I Speak to Your Manager' poses. Her expression followed a look of fake hurt. Seeing still no reaction from the other, she dropped her act in the tip of a hat. Her hands wiped along the leaves she gathered from the floor. "I swear you used to fall for those skits."

"That was never the case. Only Korosensei did so to you. I have a better mission to strive for." Jelavić dropped the leaves onto the ground once more. A few of them crunched under her foot as she followed the other. "I still have the backup plans for if something like this had happened to the project. So you just need to follow my lead and we will get back to the testing ground in no time."