Preparing and being slightly annoyed

Waking up as she has done many times before, Kumi yawned quietly as she rubbed her eyes and put on her clothes.

{Deep Sleep Becomes Level 3}

Ignoring the info bubble in front of her eyes, Kumi hopped off her bed while dismissing the bubble with a single thought and putting on her clothes.

'Time of day... sometime in the morning. What to do?... Food and preparations.'

Kumi stretched her arms and legs as she dropped to the ground and did a single push-up.

'Good enough for today.'

Opening the door and looking around the corridor, she stepped out of her room and closed the door behind her while walking down the hallway toward the dining area.

Passing some guards that greeted her, she waved back at them as she walked past and turned the corner.

'Do those guys even get any sleep while patrolling all the time?

That isn't a very efficient or safe way to secure an area. Does this place have some cloning area where they just make more of these guards? I mean, that would explain it.'

Walking into the dining area and to the kitchen door, she slowly opened it and peeked inside only to find it empty.

'A sudden wave of depression is hitting me right in the gut. As well as a pinch of surprise as if someone stole my nose.'

Kumi thought to herself.

'No breakfast for now I guess. And I was really in the mood for some porridge or something similar.'

Leaving the dining area with a neutral face and a disappointed feeling in her heart, she walked outside and started making her way to the place she had hidden all her supplies.

'I should have a small amount of plant rope, a bad quality rock knife, and a few tens of sticks.'

She used the branches of the trees to parkour around while thinking. Landing on a strong branch that was rather low to the ground, she flipped forward and landed on the grassy ground.

Hopping a little and noticing how her shoes and clothes weren't the most clean even after just putting the new pair on, she thought that it was strange how no one had ever commented about something like that.

'Shouldn't they also be teaching me how not to destroy the clothes I wear? I mean, I know how not to tear them to shreds but an outfit for specialized movement would be great.'

She tapped her foot on the hard ground and got rid of some of the loose dirt and other natural garbage that stuck to her shoe.

Hopping in place for a moment, she jogged through the remainder of the forest that was between her and her crafting hill while sometimes using the surrounding branches to do tricks and keep herself occupied by activities that are fun and aren't training.

Reaching the hill, she searched around the area for the items she had hidden. After finding them all, she gathered them all at the top of the hill along with some new materials she had gotten from the mansion one way or the other.

The new materials included parts of a chair, a curtain, and some loose metal pieces. She had tied the curtain around her shoulders to make something like a bag that she used to bring all the stuff here. It wasn't easy walking past the guards like nothing strange was happening.

Setting down everything the way she likes it, she started by using her stone knife on the pieces of wood she had borrowed from the local chair population.

Scraping away and aiming to make whatever she had planned, it took a while to make anything that seemed usable. About an hour or two had passed.

'Chair wood is sturdy. That's both good and bad. Maybe I should just take a kitchen knife from the kitchen at some point. Raymond would probably let me have one... well...'

As she was deeply thinking about if Raymond the chef would actually give a chef's knife to a kid so she can use it on tree branches and chairs, her thoughts were brought back to the surface as she heard rustling from near one of the bushes.

Leaving her creation time there for now, she wrapped everything up in the curtain and threw it inside the hole that was up high in the tree on the very hill she was sitting on.

Turning to the rustling and expecting either Ayaka, a maid, or Hilde with her anger issues to arrive, and sigh loudly for some reason or the other.

Though something extremely unexpected happened instead. What flew out of the bush was a ball. White and black in color, it triggered a specific memory to be previewed in Kumi's mind.

'Ah. It's that thing.'

The unexpected arrivals did not stop, as what she didn't expect to follow that ball also jumped out of the bush. It was the sudden re-emergence of a specific trio.

Kamunomi, Arito, and Lushiki. The loud, the smart, and the quiet joined the frey as they appeared out of the forest and chased the ball.

"Finally! Damn bush!"

Kamunomi yelled out as he went for the ball only to miss and fall on his back as Arito from the side stole it and started running away while dribbling.

"Hahaha! Idiot! I'm the best here!"

Arito yelled while laughing and looking back toward the fallen Kamunomi.

Yet before he could realize it, the small and quiet Lushiki had dashed in from where Arito wasn't looking, his blind spot, and stole the ball, causing Arito to fall face first on the hard ground, only the grass cushioning his fall.

"Sorry, but I want to win too."

"Hah! You got done in by Lushiki again!"

Kamunomi yelled as he had gotten up and was running to try and get the ball again.

"Like he hasn't ever stolen from you before!"

Kamunomi managed to dash past Arito before he could completely get on his feet again.

"At least I keep an eye on my surroundings, unlike a certain someone!"

Arito regained his balance after standing up and matched the speed of Kamunomi.

"Shut it! Stay down and just watch! I'm almost at victory!"

"Nah you ain't!"

They butted shoulders as they tried to run around the hill as quickly as possible, looking for Lushiki.

"Lushiki! Get out here!"

'They still haven't even noticed me here.'

Kumi thought as she watched the two run in circles.

'It's like a goose chace.'

She thought as she sat and watched.

'I haven't seen anything that familiar yet strange to me in a long while. What was the sport called again? I remember that I used to watch it from time to time before. But I've never tried it.

Unlike this kid. He seems to enjoy the game and seems pretty good too.'

Her eyes fell on the boy who was sitting next to her in silence, Lushiki had run up the hill and bumped into her. He had been watching the two idiots run around while sitting next to her after apologizing. The ball sat on his lap.

'Well, I can't make my preparations like this, with all these kids around. I wonder if the kitchen is open?'

She thought as she looked at the sky while trying not to focus on her empty stomach.

As she glanced back at the tired duo of idiots and the silent lamb next to her, she realized that the two had finally noticed them.

"Oi! It's you! Who are ya?!"

The loud and annoying one yelled.

'Suddenly a walk alone in the forest seems nice.'

She thought but before she could make any move, the boy screamed again.

"Wanna play football?"

Kumi stopped whatever she was about to do.

'Ah. Right. That's what it was called.'