Business Relationships

* Alan Walker - 135 *

***

"EDA?" Raven asked while biting her lower lip. Last time she had an official visit from the EDA she almost got into a serious fight with an S ranker.

Luckily for her, the S ranker at the time, Mr. Holland, was only testing her and had no intentions of fighting against a B ranker.

"Yes, according to Joey they have asked for you specifically." Maria said as the limo parked into the mansion's parking lot.

"Yo, what's up kid?" Jaime greeted Raven before crouching down to get closer to her.

"Are you the 'EDA' visit? From the way Joey talked I thought it was a big shot..." Maria asked while tilting her head to the side in question.

However, Jaime only spared her a quick glance before putting both hands on Raven's shoulders.

Noticing the serious glint in his eyes didn't make Raven any less angry about him touching her without permission.

"Hands off." Raven said with a glare, "I didn't give you permission to touch me..." Since he was basically a friend, she didn't want to start a fight.

That, and she also wanted to avoid fighting an S ranker.

"Listen, it's serious." Jaime said while taking his hands off of the little girl's shoulders, "the vice president of the Canadian EDA Division is here, especially to see you!

"Unlike Mr. Holland, he won't let you off easily if you get aggressive, just keep that in mind." Raven hated where things were going already.

"Oh, and there is another guest with him," Jaime said, "he's a little... weird, don't provoke any of them and you should be good."

Raven refrained from letting her anger get the best of her since she knew Jaime was only warning her. But at the same time, she wasn't happy that someone was visiting Maria's house and acting like a boss.

"Everyone, please go take a rest, have some food or take a shower-"

"I'm coming with you." Maria cut Raven off, "It's my house and no guests will be a discomfort for my kids." Maria wasn't blind and she could see the tense expression on Raven's face.

"I'm coming too," Maya said and the rest of the group nodded.

Jamie was already having headaches since he knew it wasn't the best course of action. But then again he didn't want to cause a commotion.

Entering one of the mansion's living rooms, Raven could see Joey sitting opposite to two other people.

One had his eyes closed while curving his mouth into a smile. His long silver hair and shiny pale skin would have made him look like a girl, but his features were definitely masculine.

His weird black coat made him look rather wise yet young, giving him a special aura around him.

Next to him was another young man who looked angry, if anything. His short light black hair and deep red eyes made him look rather tired. That, or he was just careless.

He too was wearing a weird outfit yet it only added to how handsome he looked.

Next to him resting on the couch was a massive covered object that looked like a sword, or rather a huge claymore.

"Oh our guest is finally here!" said the silver haired man with his eyes still closed. "Nice to meet you, Ms. O'Bannon, and the rest of course." His voice was rather tender and kind that it came as a surprise to Raven.

"Ah, hello," Raven greeted with slight confusion in her voice as she sat down near Joey. "So what bring you here today, er, Mr. ?"

"Ah, where are my manners," the man apologized, "my name is Scott Harris, also known as the Canadian EDA Division's Deputy General. Feel free to call me Scott."

Raven's surprise at his friendly attitude didn't last long as she her thoughts were interrupted by the black haired lad next to him.

"Deputy General." he corrected with an angry sigh. "Refer to him as Deputy General and not Scott."

"Uhm, sure." Raven could only nod since things were taking an awkward turn. Stealing a glance towards Scott, he only had a smile in his face while his eyes were still closed.

"And you can call me Sir. Anyway," continued the young man. "we're here to discuss... you, for the lack of a better term."

"Discuss me?" Raven asked with a weird look yet she didn't make any attempts at correcting him. "Ask away, what do you need to know?"

"For a starter, according to our resources you were the only groups of people to return from one of the portals, correct?" without waiting for a confirmation, he continued, "explain how, please." Even though he was speaking politely, his expression indicated that he just wanted to leave and had no interest whatsoever in what she had to say.

'Damn, the dude really hates his job alright...' Kayla laughed at that. 'Anyway, what's the plan here Kay?'

[Tell them the truth. You can help a lot of people with the Spacial Transfer Bracelets. Plus, I doubt you can hide the truth. From the way he's talking, you can tell he knows you're the reason why the group could escape that death trap, he's not even taking notice of someone else.]

'Makes sense I guess. They're being polite about it too...' Raven's Though Acceleration III allowed her to talk with Kayla in her mind without much delay in the real world.

'Kay I need your help though, I've never done it before myself and you seemed proficient with the skill.' Raven remembered back when Kayla had made Kuru his translation device.

[Hehe, what would you do without me? Of course, I'll give you a hand]

'Cheeky much, eh?' she subconsciously smiled which looked a little weird to the rest.

"Well," Raven said out loud as she looked at the two men. "It's better if I show you."

Activating her Ultimate Skill "Ex Machina: Nanotech Creation" silver goo surged from her open palm and floated midair. Raven didn't miss how Scott kept his eyes closed even though his expression made it look like he was seeing it all.

Raven watched as the silver goo, with Kayla's guidance, took the shape of a bracelet. And next to it, a small seed of sorts formed.

"Let's go outside for a better demonstration." Raven said and everyone followed.

Once they were outside in the mansion's colourful garden, Raven let go of the silver seed and everyone watched as it hit the green grass.

Not a second after, sparkling silver thin roots sprouted out of the seed and penetrated deep into the ground. About a minute after, a single silver flower started to grow in front of everyone's eyes.

Giving the bracelet to Scott, Raven said: "Sco- ahem, I mean Deputy General, feel free to put the bracelet on. It's safe and-"

However, Scott was excited and didn't even wait for her to finish before putting the bracelet on.

Reading the small hologram forming above the bracelet made him smile as he started to walk away from the group.

After reaching about a hundred metres away, he pressed the holographic botton on the silver bracelet. Just as he did that, silver light enveloped him and the flower as they switched places.

The flower then started to disperse into thin silver particles and into thin air like it never was there before, and so did the bracelet.

"Impressive!" Scott said with a genuine smile. Even the 'Sir' looked impressed, albeit not as much as the Deputy General.

'Nice, nice, nice!!!!' Jaime was so happy with how everything was going so far. Not only did Raven gain the Deputy General's favour and trust, but even his personal assistant's that's known for being so strict and always causing trouble.

"There are many restrictions so far though," Raven said in response to the EDA officials' smiles. "It takes a lot of time to make so making a lot of them is going to be a problem. Plus, they're only a one time use so it's not as efficient as one might think."

"How much time do you need to fix that problem? And is there a time or distance limit?" Scott asked.

"No, time and distance are irrelevant, as long as the flower is unscathed that is. Once the flower is gone, so does the bracelet. As for the limited production issue... I need more experiments since it's pretty hard but I'll try my best."

"Perfect! This could change everything!" Scott was so happy and his childish smile only helped in abolishing his assistant's own smile.

"With how revolutionary this could be, I'd like to offer you the EDA's help in any form or shape you desire. If you need money, we'll give you that. If you need a lab or even a team to help you, we'll also help with that." Scott said as he extended his hand towards Raven for a handshake.

Not knowing what else to do, and mostly not wanting to anger him, she shook his hand and thanked him with a smile.

"Wonderful! It's decided then!" Scott said and Raven's heart sank for a second.

"What's decided?" she asked.

"That you'll work with us to finish this Spacial Transfer project. Anyhow, we have some other questions for you." The Deputy General dismissed her concerns while looking at his assistant. "Adam, feel free to jump in."

"Right..." the black haired man face-palmed and looked at Raven. "So, we'd also like to know how were you able to kill an S ranked monster. As such, we've already scheduled a Rank Test for you."

"A what? And... wait what?" Raven didn't like how they were leading the dance without her permission.

"Hm, not much time for useles explanations, your test starts in about twenty minutes, let's go."