At a familiar ground blooming with forestry
A boy with glistening sky-blue hair walks out of a slick white car, rounded in all its corners, giving off an elegant and cool vibe.
Without stretching or taking time to get used to standing again after a long period of sitting down, the boy, instead, quickly ran to the parking meter and waited for his father there.
"These parking meters are such a hassle; isn't there anything I can buy to make this easier..." Kanum complained while he got out of the car and made his way to the parking meter.
Right as Kanum was about to start babbling, he stopped, and his face looked like he had just encouraged a revelation.
"I can make it!" Kanum suddenly raised his voice while the parking meter collected his Node.
"Woah!" Shry stumbled in surprise from his father's sudden exclamation.
After that, Kanum got quiet; however, in his thoughts, if someone were to look in them, it'll look like a hurricane was actively being stirred up and getting stronger as time passed, as inspiration kept on coming one after another.
"Dad, it's done... Can we go now? Shry pulled on Kanum's sleeve, trying to get him to move.
"Hmp?" Kanum shivered as he snapped out of his immersion.
At first Kanum was a bit disoriented, like he had just woken up from a night's sleep. He looked around for a moment, forgetting where he was, but after he laid eyes on the familiar empty parking lot, he finally remembered that he came to drop his son off at the Resonance Hall for his visit.
"Oh yeah! Let's go..." Kanum said cheerfully with a hint of dizziness as he led the way.
(It still feels strange looking at how empty the Resonance Hall is), Kanum thought to himself as he looked around the odd piece of land.
Even though they're still in a city, every time they walk from the parking lot to the Resonance Hall itself, it always feels otherworldly, and now, with no people here, the sight becomes even more foreign.
As they got closer to the Resonance Hall, Shry, who was walking in front of his dad, suddenly sprinted faster, leaving his dad in the dust.
(No, I shouldn't.) Kanum shook his head rigorously, trying to shake off his intrusive thoughts.
Watching his son leave him like that, Kanum's right hand moved on instinct. His hand formed into a plucking shape out of instinct, wanting to mess with his son by imprisoning him like usual, but as he thought about it, he regretfully made the decision to not mess with his son today, as he has something to do today as well.
"Oh shoot! What time is it!?" Kanum suddenly yelled and clumsily tried to pull his phone out of his right pocket.
When Kanum was debating to himself if he wanted to mess with his son or not, a memory suddenly sparked within his mind, like a subtle background noise that occasionally gets your attention to aggressive howling that the whole neighborhood could hear.
"HYTILE, I HAVE TO LEAVE NOW. TAKE CARE OF SHRY!" Kanum yelled in a panic as he frantically ran back to the car.
As Kanum's panicked voice sounded, it caught the attention of a man with brownish-silver hair, prompting the man to step out of the Resonance Hall to check on it.
"Good evening, Mr. Luftra... Bye-bye, Dad!" Shry cheerfully greeted, spreading his positive energy.
As Hytile heard a familiar greeting, he instantly figured out who it was that was making a ruckus outside of his Resonance Hall.
As Kanum got further and further away, Hytile's right hand started to glow green, and in the next moment he put that hand up to his mouth and moved his fingers in a quick and experienced manner, repeating a sequence.
"TEXT ME HOW IT GOES, KANUM!" Hytile yelled into his hands, and moments later an accelerated gust of wind carrying his voice was sent out.
As Hytile's statement traveled through the air at the speed of sound, his voice peeked through the half-opened door of Kanum's car into her ears.
Hearing Hytile's voice, Kanum was about to ignore him and continue on his way, but his conscience got the better of him, and yet, by this point, he had already started up his car.
Suddenly a spark of inspiration hit him. While he was driving with his left hand, his other hand swiped the air in a plucking motion, manifesting a singular transparent black petal in between his index finger and thumb.
Within a second of it appearing, the black petal instantly vanished in the blink of an eye, and suddenly 4 transparent black petal barriers appeared around Shry.
However, because Shry was running when the 4 petal barriers appeared, he effortlessly slammed through one of the barriers, breaking it like a thin sheet of glass.
"HEY!!!" Shry shouted in retaliation, but his shout was heard by no one except for one unintended recipient.
Kanum had already left the parameters, leaving the petal barriers without bothering to remove them because he presumed that Shry would probably break them out of pettiness.
However, contrary to Kanum's expectations, Shry ignored it; he just continued on his merry way to meet up with his mentor and client, in a sense.
Leaving the petal barriers behind him, Shry's expression suddenly became harder to read, his demeanor changing only mildly. But to the people who know him well, they would've never expected that kind of demeanor from Shry.
"Mr. Luftra, what are we going to do today?" Shry greeted and asked in a composed but excited manner, displaying his eagerness to learn.
Shry didn't act like his usual eccentric self, but his brightness is still plenty palpable, as his demeanor changes to a mature vibe.
"We'll be trying to catch different frequencies of natural nodes today and studying their differences." Hytile turned around and announced, as a small smile slowly appeared on his face, slowly walking back inside the Resonance Hall.
Naturally, Shry followed behind, without waiting for an invite, familiar with his mentor's personality. However, in the middle of his walk, he suddenly froze.
Because of how natural it felt, it took a good minute for Shry to realize what Hytile was talking about. Shock and confusion hit immediately.
"Isn't it impossible to capture Natural Node?" Shry scratched his upper lip as he expressed his confusion.
Even after hearing Shry's words, Hytile didn't stop walking. It was only when he noticed Shry wasn't moving that he stopped as a sudden thought popped into his mind.
(Oh yeah, I hadn't told him what we actually do as the overseers of the Resonance Halls actually do.) Hytile's eyes widened briefly as he recalled internally
"Yeah, it usually is. But recently, I and some of the other overseers recently came up with a theory on how we can potentially store it," Hytile answered.
Hytile intentionally left out the explanation as he tried to lead their conversation toward the overseers of the Resonance Halls.
And just as he expected, Shry followed along and asked the question Hytile was waiting for.
"Other overseers? Do they do what we do as well?" Shry asked
"All the Resonance Hall overseers, including me, have a side job other than maintaining the Resonance Hall, and that is researching Natural Nodes."
Hytile explained as he put a hand on Shry's shoulder, pushing him forward so he could continue setting up their experiment.
"I'll elaborate more about the theory we came up with later, so let's get started on setting this up first" Hytile said as he gestured toward a mix of different items in the middle of the Resonance Hall.
...
"I didn't know the Resonance Hall can actually light up like this, and I also noticed our voices sound normal here now," Shry muttered in astonishment, looking around the hall with sparkly eyes as he gently laid his marine blue bag on the floor.
Unlike the ordinary scenery everyone gets when they enter the Resonance Hall, every last detail of its interior is now fully lit up, with no shadows or shade; everything was visible, which gave it an uncanny look.
With everything lit up like that, the Resonance Hall looked almost otherworldly, and with the addition of its gorgeous interior, even a royal palace couldn't come close to its grandeur.
"Yeah, we need it lit up like this once in a while for maintenance, but I sometimes turn it on for my research since it provides very good lighting," Hytile said without looking at Shry as he continued to work on a fairly large, cube-like object.
The cube-like object. followed a dark color scheme, even though the layers were all different colors, mainly shades of brown, silver, black, and even yellow.
Each of these layers was a different material, some hard and some soft, and in the center of it, facing Hytile, was a hole big enough to stick both of his arms into it, with dozens of delicate machines lining it.
(I can't believe this experiment is actually possible now!) Hytile thought, giddy at the prospect and the potential if this experiment actually succeeds.
...
A couple of months ago...
When Hytile first invited Shry back to the Resonance Hall, they experimented with everything they could, but nothing ever changed, not something that wasn't within their expectations, that is until... At one point, something astonishing happened.
It was the first round of the day. Shry will go through the Resonance like normal without any variables, and if it fails, then they'll start by using numerous techniques and/or devices that might help Shry amplify the Node within Shry to trigger a reaction from the Resonance Hall.
However, it was particularly cold on that day, so from when Shry arrived till standing in front of the entrance of the Resonance Hall for x time, he had been constantly rubbing his hands around to gain some warmth, and even when he was about to enter the Resonance Hall, he never stopped rubbing.
It was only when he started walking to the Resonance Hall that he stopped. However, because he was still cold, he cupped his hands together right before he entered.
Just like every other time, Shry began counting to 2 minutes without uncupping his hands. But right as he counted to the last second, with familiarity, he finally unclamped his hands and was about to start walking.
But then...
The resonance hall suddenly came alive for a split moment; the light that shone and surged through the hall for so many people actually shone for him this time... but the reaction was short-lived; it didn't even make it halfway through the hall.
And yet, even though it was barely anything, Shry felt his heart swell at that moment, his eyes and smile widened beyond what people thought was possible, to the point that it even looked a bit creepy, but if anyone would've seen it, the only word they could use to describe it would've been excitement.
After that, though, nothing else happened, to the disappointment of Shry, not even when he clapped his hands at the altar, but yet, for the whole day after that spark of hope, it continued to blaze. They didn't even try any variables after that; they just kept on running the test over and over again until they got tired.
"Hahhhh, let's try this again tomorrow." Shry exhaled a hot breath into his hands as he expressed his frustration.
It was then, after watching Shry exhale into his hands, that Hytile's eyes suddenly widened as an absurd theory came to mind.
Shocked but also hopeful, Hytile instructs Shry to cup his hands, but before he starts again, this time Hytile decides that he has to commit one of the taboos of the Resonance Hall, setting up a camera inside, truly showing how valuable Hytile thinks the results of this next test are.
Once again, paralleling his first run, Shry stepped into the resonance hall with his hands cupped, clueless as to how big of a deal this is.
...
From that day on, Shry and Hytile had practically stopped trying to get the Resonance Hall to respond to Shry. They still do it occasionally, but after stumbling across Shry's odd ability, it lined up perfectly with Hytile's job as the overseer of a Resonance Hall.
This is also when Hytile became Shry's mentor, teaching him about Node and all sorts of related subjects. It was also then when Hytile began giving Shry an allowance every time he participated in an experiment.