One Hundred And Ninety-Six

One Hundred And Ninety-Six

On returning to the Boundary through the Ring Gate, after ensuring the mansion was secure and the Fae Stones had been replaced, I felt a sense of relief. This place... it really feels like home now. As I exited the gate, Shaeula hand-in-hand with me as always, Ulfuric and our forces following, I cast my gaze towards the ruby flows of elemental energy that played around it.

“Pretty.” Shaeula observed, grinning as she peered into my right eye. “When you concentrate, I can-can see the sparks of amber increasing within.”

“I’ll have to be careful then not to give my ability away.” I paused, having a thought. “Maybe I need an eyepatch. And it looks like I have power sealed in my right arm, so I could properly fit the mould of a Chunni protagonist, one who never grew up.” Even as I joked, I could track the play of energies within the red mist. In addition to providing appraisal like my old skills did, it also functioned like Shaeula’s Mystic Eyes, seeing flows of aether, elemental energies and the unseen, though I had not developed the ability to be as effective as she had. Yet. I’m only Rank 1. But it still gives me way more information than Rank 5 and 6 skills ever did before.

Shaeula didn’t normally watch the sort of anime that had that sort of protagonist, favouring magical girl stories usually, but she had seen a couple of the major ones, including one where a boy gets betrayed and falls down below the bottom floor of a dungeon, loses an arm and an eye, and ends up as an eye-patched, gun-toting show-off, so she got the general idea. Her face twisted sourly. “No-no, I believe you are fine as you are. There is no need for such nonsense. Besides, it would be a great shame to cover-cover your eye. I find it rather striking.”

“Oh, you.” I laughed, ruffling her hair. While I was here I decided to have a glance at our Build Queues, to give an indication of how much time had actually passed while we were spending around four days in the Fae Lands. Sadly my ether stocks were low, probably because I drained everything to empower and facilitate the growth of my Eye, so further additions to the Queues would have to wait.

Looks like roughly two and a half astral days have passed here as opposed to four in the Fae Lands. Interesting. That means that if we could take the training to the mansion, we could get extra time working in our favour... No buildings had finished, though one Rank 2 Silo would be done in half a day, and a Rank 2 Ether Spire in a day and a bit.

“All right, time to see Master Bjarki.” I put on my bravest expression and strolled over to his forge. Ixitt and the ratkin were also there as usual, working away. On seeing us, Ixitt turned, eyes sparkling with anticipation. “So, how was it then? Did you.. keh... get a chance to test the guns?” he immediately questioned me without even a greeting.

Ignoring the long sigh from Shaeula I produced the pistols, handing them over. “I sure did. Blew through all the ammunition too. The explosive powder inside the shells is a nice touch. The Barghest certainly went out with a bang.”

“A Barghest, hmm? Keh, there must be a story to tell there.” Ixitt smirked, examining the pistol for signs of use, and inspecting some of the spent casings I had recovered.

“Wasn’t there just. You want to tell him?” I asked Shaeula, who was clearly bursting with pride, her chest puffed out. She then regaled him with the tale of us facing the Wild Hunt, paying particular emphasis to how I threatened the Red Cap that had hurt her, and the way I had stared down the Barghest, before coolly unloading the bullets into its eye and burning out its brain.

“I see, very... impressive.” Ixitt grinned. “I would, keh, have liked to see that myself. To think you would come across a Hunt and defeat it. Well, it was only a probing, keh, raid... even you would have struggled to see off a true Hunt, princess.” He then looked at me, hopeful. “These lanterns, they interest me greatly. Did you...”

“No, I’m afraid not.” I cut him off a touch sourly. “Way-Captain Caeladaera took it with her, she wanted to talk to her higher-ups about the lanterns and how to beat it. Apparently these new Red Caps have cost them some fine Way-Wardens.”

“I see. That is quite a shame.” he shook his head.

“Well, it isn’t all bad.” I pointed behind me, to see weaselkin carrying an assortment of shattered white rocks. “We did get a ruined Fae Stone to experiment on. That has to be worth something, right?”

“Indeed, keh-keh...” he coughed again, more from excitement than his prior injuries.

“And anyway, I have to ask you something. How do you fancy being part of a combat mission? You want to test that shotgun of yours, right? Besides, I’ll need an artificer on site.”

“A combat mission?” Ixitt looked at me quizzically.

“Yeah. I think you, me, Shaeula, Grulgor and Hyacinth should be able to handle it, some old-school TRPG party play.” At the unfamiliar term both Shaeula and Ixitt looked puzzled. “Grulgor to tank, me as hybrid tank-dealer, Shaeula as ranged DPS, You as ranged DPS and essential support, and Hyacinth as buffer/debuffer. We’ll need a few other bits and pieces, but... I think we can do it.” I grinned.

“I recognise DPS.” Shaeula snorted. “I can indeed output much-much damage quickly. And buffs and debuffs I understand.”

“I must admit I don’t quite... keh... get it.” Ixitt said, shrugging. “But I am sure you can explain?”

“I can. Lets just say we are striking a blow for the Seelie Court and Shaeula’s reputation. But first, I need you to work on some gear for us all. I may require minor changes, as I don’t remember everything perfectly and need to refresh my memory when I return to the Material, but...”

As I explained what I wanted, Ixitt at first looked puzzled, then surprised, then thoughtful, and finally elated. “Yes, keh... keh. I think, no, I know I can make that work! Such a pinnacle of Mortal Engineering! I shall gather... all my idle kin and begin work, as well as... keh... speak to the kobolds. Marvellous. Yes, staying here was the... keh, keh... wisest decision I have made.”

“Having that cough is still an issue through, considering.” I mused. “Let me do another round of healing. I think I can do even better now.” My Eye glittered, and I could see areas of damage to his subtle body, and now that Ether Healing was Rank 5, it was simplicity to fix the remaining damage to his throat, lungs and also the damage to his throat and heart chakras, which I had not been able to do prior to this.

“There, all done.” I said, and Ixitt took a deep breath, marvelling at the lack of pain and irritation.

“It... it is wonderful.” He grinned. “Even your aid before made it much more bearable... but now, I am healed.” He did a little caper of joy, his tail lashing. “And now I can run even riskier experiments, knowing that I can be cured of any unfortunate injuries!”

“Don’t push your luck.” I laughed at his enthusiasm. “Anyway, uh, I need to speak to Master Bjarki. I kind of... wrecked one of the Twin Fangs.”

“Ye did what’n now?” Bjarki popped his head out of the forge. “T’swords were damn fine work, so they were.”

“Well, they came up against a spatial distortion, so no matter how good the craftsmanship, the end result was inevitable. Still, even being warped and broken, it still struck the telling blow. Its partner avenged it.” I declared, trying to head off his anger.

Bjarki looked at me flatly. “Show me then, I nae have’n all day.”

Pulling out the mangled blade I passed it over. Bjarki pursed his lips at the sight of it, but then his expression changed, and I could almost feel his concentration.

“Aye, this’n be why.” He muttered eventually. “Still, can ye not see it?”

Shaeula looked at the sword then, eyes glowing, and I did the same. What I saw shocked me.

Single Fang of the Twin Fangs (Broken) – Item Class: [Destroyed], Item Type: [Foundation]

A sword of mixed dwarven-steel and bluesteel, made by the renowned Dvergr craftsman Bjarki, one of a matched pair. It was destroyed by a spatial barrier, but even as it was warped and shattered the bluesteel within greedy absorbed some of this element and has merged with the dwarven steel and mutated.

“I do. It’s changed, even in destruction.”

“Aye. Any weapon made by m’craft, they’n never be simple. Even so, this’n be quite the shocker.” He put out one hand, and I looked at it, puzzled.

“T’other blade.” He said, sighing in annoyance. “They’n be a pair, so t’remake one, I needs must remake t’other too.”

“Oh, I got you.” I retrieved the second fang and passed it to Bjarki, once more lamenting I was barely able to keep weapons intact for long. “And one last thing. Ixitt might need your help on an important project too.”

Bjarki gave me a flat look, which I interpreted as ‘why the hell is this fool giving me more work?’, but he nodded slowly and headed back inside, taking the twin fangs with him, Ixitt’s laughter chasing him.

“Right, in that case, Ixitt, I’ll leave the work to you. I’ll send someone to bring back Grulgor from wherever he is rampaging, and I’ll get the information we need. But now we should head back to the Material. Coming, Shaeula?”

“It isn’t just girls, Tanaka-san.” Hashimoto-san chided him. “Sorry about that.” He said to me. “I hope you weren’t offended.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I waved it off with a light laugh. “I can’t argue, there are a lot of girls in the training school. Sometimes I feel like a schoolteacher on a class trip. Though last night others had to supervise. Anyway, is Karen-chan in her office?”

Tanaka-san nodded. “Yeah, she’s in the back.”

Finishing with my greetings I knocked on her door. “Come in.” she called, and when I opened it and she saw me she smiled. “Akio-kun, what brings you here?” On seeing the grin on my face she stiffened. “Oh, another strange task, I see.”

“You got it.” seeing her pout like a younger girl amused me. “Don’t worry though, it’s just data gathering, should be easy enough. Firstly I need you to gather information on Valkyries and the God Tyr.”

“Uh, what?” she asked, non-plussed.

“Valkyries. And Tyr. The Norse God and Valkyries from Norse mythology. I need information on them, the best that can be gathered. Rumours, old stories, wiki articles, anything, though it’d be great if they could be drilled down by plausibility.”

“Plausibility. Right. Right.” Karen-chan rubbed at her eyes tiredly. “If it wasn’t for the fact you pay me damn well I’d think this was all a prank, but nobody wastes this sort of money on a joke. Fine, I’ll pass it to one of the guys. So, what’s the second thing?”

“Oh, this one’s easy. Can you find me a nearby arts and crafts shop that sells person-sized canvasses and art supplies? I need it pretty quickly, as I have to do a bit of painting this morning.”

“Painting huh? No, I won’t ask.” She sighed again. “Fine, no problem, leave it with me and I’ll text you the address. Though actually, I do just have one question...” she arched an eyebrow at me sardonically.

“Sure, fire away.”

“You’re not painting a nude of Shaeula are you?”

What. The. Hell? At my dumbfounded expression, she burst out laughing. “Oh god, you are still so fun to tease, Akio-kun. A guy who is cheating with two beauties shouldn’t be so easy to fluster. Now go on, shoo, shoo! Thanks to you we have more work to do!”

Scuttling out, my face red, I ruminated on her words. She’s right! Why am I so embarrassed? If I wanted to make art of my beautiful fiancée, there’s nothing wrong with that. Though I’d never do a nude, no way I want other men to see Shaeula or Eri naked. Still, why does Karen-chan think the same damn way Shaeula does? Is it a woman thing?

Still, that didn’t matter. What did was getting everything prepared for this evening. It was time to put the power of my Eye to the test!

********

So it turns out it wasn’t Shaeula who was getting the nude painting done, but me! Damn, if only Karen-chan knew! I guess Shaeula got her way in the end, after all.

“Do not-not move.” Shaeula demanded, her eyes glowing brilliantly, her face showing intense concentration. Her yukata was covered with blotches of paint, and while I had tried to convince her to use the various marker-style pens we had bought, she declined, deciding she was more comfortable doing it how she learned when she was younger.

“Fine.” I sighed, not even able to cover my crotch. My only saving grace was that the painting was going to be covered with various lines, blotches and other coloured marks, largely obscuring everything. Shaeula hummed to herself as she worked, the theme from a popular idol group she heard about while in Nishimorioka, and watching her gave me a new appreciation of her charms. Seriously, I know we have to fight and grow stronger, but when this is all over, won’t it be wonderful, Eri, Shaeula and me, our family, our friends, all just lazing about, spending our time doing things we enjoy, just taking it easy... renewing my resolve to save the Earth and protect everyone I cared about, so that happy future could come to pass, I watched Shaeula paint, until she declared she was done.

“I have finished. It is quite-quite the masterpiece.” she said proudly, turning around the canvas.

“it’s... well yeah, it’s certainly something.” I agreed. Yeah, it’s a really good painting, for real. But having all the branching capillaries, primary trunk-way, eight primary chakras and numerous smaller secondary sub-chakras drawn in makes me look like I’ve swallowed a galaxy of stars and glitter.

“Right, one last check. Bring over the mirror.” I said, and she wheeled over the full-length mirror I bought Shaeula a while back so she could see herself when she changed clothes. Placing it next to the painting, I channelled aether into my Eye, examining myself in the reflective glass. Will this even work?

“So, can you see it?” she asked, and I nodded, a little surprised.

“Yeah, it works. Though everything is back to front, it doesn’t seem to be an issue, I can understand the layout just fine.

Eight Moons Chakra Network Rank 4 Class: [Noble], Type: [Rule] – This advanced and well-formed chakra network consists of...

The description wasn’t what I wanted, so I let the amber writing fade, concentrating on seeing within my body. So, does the Eye pick up on some sort of reflected light that we normally can’t see... aetherlight, maybe? Damn, that’s a fascinating question. No time for that now though.

Comparing my image to the painting, Shaeula had done a fantastic job. I did make a few small additions with the marker pens, but otherwise it was masterful. Seeing where all the nodes and sub-chakras were and how they linked up properly in one image was certainly instructive. With this we can improve the effect of exercises for everyone. Huh, what?

I paused as I heard the rustle of cloth and heard something fall. Turning my head I could see Shaeula had stepped out of her paint-splattered yukata, which vanished, leaving her naked. “Now you shall paint me!” she grinned. “After all, are not-not males and females built differently? I would hate for you to assume that Hinata, Motoko, Kana and the others should-should be attuned in one manner, only to do them harm.”

No, seriously, I can see it in your eyes. You just want me to paint you too, don’t you? Well damn, Karen-chan was right after all. Resigned, I picked up a brush, determined no-one was going to see this painting!

********

“You have talent as well, it seems.” Shaeula grinned, admiring herself. “Though you should have used more paint and less of these pens.”

“Cut me some slack.” I shrugged, mentally exhausted. “I was always okay at art, but most of this has come from the fact my fine motor-control is utterly superhuman now. So, check yourself in the mirror, but remember the reflections are backwards, so don’t make a mistake or we’ll end up wiring someone up wrongly. I’d hate to injure someone badly, causing them to short-circuit.”

“I understand.” Shaeula said, facing the mirror.

Well, the painting is certainly nice but... As Shaeula took her brush, dipping it in paint to make slight modifications to areas I had been unable to fully see, I considered this carefully.

“Say, Shaeula. That’s a crafted body you are in right now, from the Throne, right? Plus you are a Fae. Will this even be useful as a reference for girls?”

She shrugged, still painting away. It was rather distracting, as she was still unclothed. “I think this-this body is effectively that of a human female. It was perfect, down to even the most intimate details, was it not-not?” she flushed, remembering, and it was a treat for me, seeing her whole body redden. “Still, it might perhaps be best to have one more painting for reference. Perhaps Eri would be pleased?”

I rolled that around my mind. Yeah, I think she’d be happy I wanted a painting of her so long as no-one else but us saw it. “Still, Eri is back in Nishimorioka for now. It isn’t really an option.” Pushing the two large canvasses together, side-by-side, we compared them. “Yeah, they’re almost identical. Though I can see the differences around the root and sacral chakras. They are positioned slightly differently, and the capillaries and sub-chakras around them are also connected in alternate ways. Most of the others seem the same, though there are a few other areas where they don’t align.”

“Well, males and females are different.” She repeated. “Still, with these and our Eyes, I believe we can have greater successes than ever before.”

“Yeah. Well, we’ll leave them to dry for now.” I checked my phone. “We still have quite a while until our students arrive, so, what shall we do?”

“I think I know.” Shaeula licked her lips, still naked, and I grinned. Well, why not? After all, we’ll soon have no time for fun for a while...