With little else to do after the battle, Sindri had essentially spent most of the time having a wander around the Academy facility, which unfortunately due to its relative blandness was less interesting than it actually sounded. Afterwards he had caught some grub in the lunch hall, but hadn’t really spotted anyone he knew or wanted to talk to whilst there. So now he was sitting in one of the facilities numerous gardens feeding pigeons with some bread he had gathered during lunch for this purpose.

The garden seemed to be based on Japanese gardening, with tightly trimmed foliage and trees, of which there were three positioned around the garden, with two in the corner and one thin tree standing in the middle, serving as a perch for some of the local avian population. small shrubs, round river stones and the occasional flower took up the rest, expressing highly minimalistic inclinations.

Normally he would have been likely irritating some members of the staff, or student population, but he had worked out most of his energy dealing with Mana, so he was more interested in doing something relaxing.

Occasionally a passing murmur of a group of students or conversing staff members caught his ears, but nobody entered the garden, instead using the corridors around it instead, where he watched them with a measure of disinterest through the glass barrier.

He hadn’t had much reason to shift back into his natural form, so as of such he was stretched across an old bench, hands behind his head except when he cast some more bread at the pigeons. Asides from their happy ‘burring’ and cooing, it seemed he was alone with his thoughts.

Alice ambled through the garden without much of a destination in mind, she was simply walking for the sake of something to do. She paid no real attention to her surroundings, eyes on the sky as she replayed the fight from earlier for the thousandth time in her mind, still analyzing it for strategies to fight Kitsunes. It’d probably be best to-

“Fuck!” she went sprawling over somebody, falling off and onto the ground. “Ow.”

With the sudden flight of some inattentive random crashing onto him and then onto the ground, Sindri let out an “Oof” as the air was blasted out of him by her weight. Pigeons flew everywhere, startled by the commotion as the figure fell heavily on the ground, Whilst Sindri nestled his guts in a pair of elongated taloned hands. Eyeing up the person who was currently sprawled over the ground he realised he recognised her from somewhere before.

“Hello to you too Alice, nice for you to drop by” he greeted her sarcastically.

Alice eyed him, raising an eyebrow at his appearance, Oh what fun it is to fall on emaciated corps-es!, she propped herself up on her elbows, grumbling, “Do I know you?”

Raising one disturbing looking hand, he waved it across his face, returning his features momentarily to his natural appearance with a small illusion, “Sindri remember? We met when I was dealing with our own dear Foxington Fox, otherwise known as Lily.”

She gave a small nod of understanding, pushing herself to her feet, “Oh, right, Sindri- you’re thin normally but not a corpse, forgive the confusion.” She stretched her arms, stuffing them back in the pockets of her coat and leaning against the tree near the bench, “Indeed, Lily.”

Sindri shrugged in acceptance, “We can’t all look like beautiful little pixies I guess, some of us are pretty ugly, personally I don’t mind looking like this, freaks people out.” He noted a finality to the last statement Alice raised and his brow furrowed in interest, “Sounds like something went down with the little miss, I heard you two were paired together, how’d that go?”

Whilst he said this the pigeons had returned, gathering around him again in an expectant circle, he threw some more bread at them offhandedly and they flocked to the food happily.

Alice watched for a moment as Sindri fed the pigeons, an eyebrow raised in amusement, “Well, it went fine at first, light hits don’t do much against a bunch of runic steel. Things started to go downhill when she killed all the plants to the horizon and beyond and tried to kill me.”

Sindri’s face lit up in a bright grin, which in his current form came across less friendly and more like he was going to eat someones face. “Sounds like you hit a nerve, usually I’m the only one who manages to do that, so kudos to you. Still, killing you would have been a downer I guess, so I guess I’m ‘glad’ you made it out alright.” Pausing momentarily to place one finger on his chin, he began to ponder, “Mine went alright, my opponent surrendered after I led her on a merry dance with my illusions, generally not a good idea to shoot blindly with us illusionists, just wastes time and energy.”

Whilst he continued the conversation, one lazy arm extended out towards the pigeons again as they were pecking away at the bread. With a click of his fingers they all suddenly stood to attention, as if listening intently to someone inaudible, and began lining up in a small square.

She eyed the pigeons with interest, stepping away from the tree and looking at them with curiosity, “Honestly if it weren’t for the fact that she’s so damned fast, it probably would’ve gone a lot differently,” Alice crouched down near the bench, “but indeed. Good deal harder to fight someone when you don’t even know if the ground is real… interesting thing with the birds, by the way.”

“You’d have probably been alright with the ground, thats more my forte than Lily’s, but her illusions can be rather irritating regardless. The best way you can really get through them is by denying their actual physical nature…” whilst he had been talking another click of the fingers had caused the pigeons to erupt into motion, doing something which was probably the pigeon form of ‘Thriller’ without music, “... as for the birds, my illusions are based on mental domination, so essentially so long as I can dig into your mind or trick it with my tricks, I can convince you to do anything. The pigeons are particularly easy because they aren’t human, Shifters are a bit more difficult than humans, mostly due to their understanding of the powers we as a group wield.”

He gave her a nonchalant smile, glowing green eyes drifting towards her sleepily, “With enough work I could probably convince you that you were in fact a pigeon, but thanks to the Academy, I am restricted in the usage of my powers with students, the public and staff. Thank our own ‘peaceful’ -” With this he did air quotes sarcastically with his talons “-Slyphide for that.”

Alice raised an eyebrow, “And, how would you convince someone they were a pigeon? I’m certainly not doubting the whether or not, more curious about how that works. Nobody ever bothers explaining magic to me.”

He shrugged, “With enough mental torture anyone will fold, I haven’t put this into practice but I figure with enough work I’d manage it. Anyway, once I have hypothetically broken them under the assault, I can feed them a series of lies and delusions which might slowly overwrite their own memories, my work is in essence, mindrape in its worst form, and psychological manipulation at its best. My assaults also tend to dull higher level thinking considerably in order to make them more pliable, so there is that to take into consideration also.”

Alice nodded as she digested the information, “Mind certainly is an interesting thing, give it a set of ‘facts’, some data to process and you’ve convinced it it’s a pigeon. Wonder if they could look at their own thought processes and ‘reality’ and realize a pigeon couldn’t do that?” She stood up silently, leaning against the tree once more, “So is that why we’re all illusions? Your own abilities make you doubt reality because you can so easily warp it for others?”

“Well its not impossible to break my control, but once you in there is a good chance you aren’t going to get out, too deep down the rabbit hole.” He stretched and yawned, sitting up from his prostrate position into more comfortably seated position, “As for the second, well its part of the reason, that and by Descartes theories we can’t be sure about anything not being an illusion asides from our own existence. I could for instance, not be talking to you right now, in which case I am having a conversation with a figment of nothingness. Seems rather pointless doesn’t it?” He flexed his fingers whilst the pigeons continued to dance happily away, now doing figures of eight’s before them, “I do leave open for people actually existing however, for instance I am growing more assured of your existence, and Slyphide clearly exists from how I interpret it… you do have to take into consideration one thing however…”

Suddenly Sindri’s easy going face settled into a serious expression, frowning in dislike at the very words he was speaking, “Imagine if you were me, and the governments of the world were training you to weaponize your skills in a grotesquely large conflict, to effectively ruin the mental faculties of other sapient beings, how could you live with yourself if you knew what you were doing? To destroy people so completely as to leave them suicidal wrecks afterwards… Perhaps… perhaps such an action would be necessary to cope with such a situation…”

Sindri went silent for a moment, introspective and with a depressed expression carved into his face, before suddenly erupting into good cheer again.

“Watch this!”

With another click of his fingers the pigeons flew into the air and began to dive and circle in organised patterns, practically dancing through the air as they did so.

Alice watched the pigeon aerobatics mutely, thoughts focused more on their puppetmaster then the birds themselves. So, this is a coping mechanism, not contempt of other people. That… definitely changes my opinion of him. Wonder what he was like before all of this?

She didn’t comment on the birds, instead rasping, “Can’t really imagine if I were you, when you’ve been trained to kill since the age of ten, your outlook on things like morality changes significantly.”

Sindri gave her a sympathetic look, but not one of pity, it didn’t seem Alice would want or deserve that. “I guess in that sort of situation moral quandaries would be pushed aside, and it would become more about the completion of whatever objective the mission involved, regardless of the brutality.” He whistled through his teeth, a surprising feat given his lack of noticeable lips “The Academy sure does drum up characters of all types and histories…”

He paused momentarily before continuing, hesitantly “... Your parents sort of sound like assholes.”

“Don’t actually know what mom was like, she OD’d on painkillers about three days after I was born, dad though, he’s definitely an ass.” She shrugged, “I think the Academy doesn’t care so long as you don’t kill anybody here. They’d probably accept just about anybody willing to kill Endolans, government employee or private.”

He gave a dark chuckle in response, “To be fair, you have to be a little crazy to sign your life away to a global conflict and get turned into a mythical being as apart of the war effort. Most likely they would accept anyone, not that I’m complaining, I guess we have a unique level of diversity here.” He grew a little more serious, “Sorry about your mum by the way… I… lost both my parents recently… they were good people.” His face turned morose and introspective, staring at the pigeons who were still doing loop-de-loops above them.

Alice pursed her lips, she leaned to the side, extending her arm and laying it on Sindri’s shoulder, patting it a couple times before she withdrew. She leaned back against the tree, not thinking any words needed to be said.

After a while the lull of silence was broken as Sindri stood up, his armour clanking as he did so. Turning back to Alice he began to shift back into his normal form and bright yellow suit, giving her a sad sort of smile as he turned to leave, “I better get back to my place, gotta do some reading. I’ll see you later Alice. Thanks for the conversation.”

With a backwards wave he slunk off into the facility, disappearing amidst the labyrinthine structures thousands of corridors and beyond sight.

Above the garden, the pigeons suddenly erupted into startled cooing as the illusion disappeared, and they collectively fled in different directions, leaving the garden barren of life once again, asides from a solitary figure standing near a tree.

A slow, gentle tune wafted through the air, bringing with it a sense of calm and contentment. Light shined down through the transparent roof above, lighting up the lone figure clad in a simple, light-blue gown sitting by the piano in a room otherwise filled with various instruments; everything from cellos to lyres covered the walls and various stands in the spacious room, but only one piano sat in the centre of it all.

The tune was interrupted by a misplaced key, creating discord and instantly disrupting the entire melody, forcing her to stop. A quiet, yet obviously annoyed sigh escaped Lily’s lips, her fingers hovering over the keys.

She wasn’t exactly good yet, but she was starting to learn how to play this one piece without mistakes. Almost.

Playing the piano was a habit she had taken to during the past year, having decided that she wanted to learn to play it as well, after she first stumbled upon the music room and heard another student play the piano. She had waited for him to leave before she took the spot for herself, and failed miserably when she tried to replicate anything resembling a melody.

Luckily—and also somewhat to her chagrin—he had returned shortly after and, rather than mock her, had offered to teach her. She had reluctantly accepted, for once in her life acknowledging that help might not be a bad thing.

That was a year past, however, and now she was at least getting somewhere in terms of playing cleanly. Mastery was still a long way off, but she worked her way there. She shook her head, dispelling what motes of doubt had gathered. Her otherwise braided hair hang loose, scant inches from the floor from where she sat and bereft of anything resembling bows, clips, and whatever else that might’ve kept it in check.

The tune began a new, her slender fingers carefully pressing down each note.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a figure walking into the room and leaning against the wall. Perhaps they were hoping to use the piano? Doubtful. It did not take long for it to be clear that she was the focus of this sudden audience. Still, they did not interrupt. At first. When it became apparent that she was perfectly fine ignoring whoever else had walked into the room, they spoke.

“You’re Lily Strider, right?” asked the female voice, walking closer.

Lily stopped, fingers hovering over the keys. She had managed to avoid any mistakes so far, so of course fate had to make sure she was interrupted in other ways. Looking up, she turned her head just enough that she could see the approaching woman clearly out the corner of her eye.

“I am,” she replied, taking her hands in her lap. “And you are?”

“Celica.” She had a hand on her hip, and her eyes searched the room with the expression one wore when they couldn’t decide whether to go to the point or start with small-talk. She chose the latter. “You’re good at this. I never had the patience to learn an instrument.”

She couldn’t quite help but grimace at that comment, scrunching up her nose briefly in what could almost be described as distaste. “Not as good as I’d like to be,” she admitted, glancing back at the piano. “Started last year. Some guy from that time’s first year taught me the basics. Mostly I’ve just been practicing on my own.”

“Well, you know what they say about practice,” she gave her a small smile before sighing. “In a way, that’s why I’m here. I heard you were a Kitsune, and I wanted to ask a few questions. Maybe a favor.”

Her brows rose at the mentioned of a favor, and she turned fully towards Celica, head tilted ever so slightly to the side. “What questions?” She asked. It has something to do with me being a Kitsune, but what? She tried searching for any hint in Celica’s eyes, but didn’t immediately find anything. “And what favor, exactly? I’m not in the best of moods today, so whether I grant it or not depends very much on what it is.”

“I can imagine,” Celica said with a sly smile. “Some of my questions might be about what has you feeling that way.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, a hostility that was previously absent now very much present. “Tread. Carefully.”

The woman gave her a half-lidded stare. “So cold. That’s supposed to be my shtick.” She shook her head. “Fine. I guess I can forget about that for a moment. Mostly, I wanted to ask you about that life-drain magic of yours.”

The hostility disappeared and her eyes were no longer narrowed, but she was still on guard. Mainly her curiosity was peaked, however. “What about it? It’s something every Kitsune can do.”

“You happen to be one, so two birds with one stone, you know?” With a shrug and a half smile, Celica picked up one of the nearby stools and took a seat. “Could you explain it for me? What it does, what happens when you use it, that kind of thing.”

Lily sighed and resigned herself to having to wait before she could get back to playing the piano. Didn’t look like this Celica would be satisfied with only a quick rundown. “Magic,” she began, “is a force that we all carry in our bodies. It doesn’t matter if you’re a plant or a human; we all have it. For plants and animals the amount of magic in them is proportionate to their size. A small oak wouldn’t have anywhere near the same amount of energy as a large mahogany. Same way a mouse would have very little compared to a tiger. Sapient beings like humans, shifters, or mythics, however, are different. No one really knows why some are stronger than others.”

“Magic isn’t just a power source, but something intimately connected to the rest of you. And I don’t mean that it’s something personal, but that it’s a part of your very life. In fact, it’s not really called ‘Magic’ unless there’s talk of people capable of using it. For animals and trees and so on we call it Life Energy.” She paused for a moment, watching for any reaction before she continued. “Essentially what we do is drain the very life out of whatever is near us in order to empower ourselves. It’s different with sapient beings as well.” She extended her hand, palm up. “Give me your hand and I’ll show you. And no, I’m not going to do anything that’ll harm you.”

“Someone’s being paying attention to her lessons.” Celica chuckled, placing her hand atop Lily’s without hesitation. “That’s good. I was going to ask for a demonstration.”

“It was either pay attention or risk destroying my own body if I tried to do it incorrectly,” she mumbled. “Now, you’ll feel something akin to a probe; a presence. Ignore it and don’t resist.” Celica nodded, closing her eyes. A few moments passed during which she did nothing, waiting for the pale woman to prepare herself. Even un-shifted what she was doing could be dangerous. When she was certain that she had prepared herself, Lily took a deep breath and dove in. She found Celica’s magic pool almost immediately, visualising it as a large pool of silvery liquid in what she could best describe as an underground cavern.

“That feels strange.” She could feel the magic reacting to her presence, a feeling akin to being watched. The liquid shivered indecisively, as if struggling with the urge to push against her incursion. Or, considering the curious expression in Celica’s face, perhaps she was resisting the urge to bring it closer for inspection.

“This will feel a bit uncomfortable, but bear with it,” she murmured. With that, she reached out for the pool and took a fraction of it and pulled it to herself. She had only taken enough that Celica would feel the slightest effects of it; the feeling of being winded after ascending a few steps of a staircase. The power Lily drew, she simply stored away for later use. Not much she could do with it now. “And that’s it,” she said, putting her own hand back in her lap.

Celica sighed and opened her eyes. She held her hand in front of her and gave it a long look, turning it around as if expecting it to have changed in some way. “It felt… almost like casting a spell.” She grimaced, unsatisfied. “No, more as if you cast a spell using my magic.” Celica hummed thoughtfully, giving Lily a sidelong glance.

“I could have locked you out, couldn’t I? That’s why you told me to ignore you.”

“Yes and no. You couldn’t have locked me out, but you could have fought against me. In all honesty, what I just did breaks about a dozen rules. We are not, under any circumstances, allowed to drain the life of another sapient being. There are exceptions, but this wasn’t one of them. But to answer you question; locking me out entirely is impossible, but when there’s a way in there’s a way out. You could combat me and create a backlash so powerful that it might just kill me, depending on how much I attempt to drain. If I attempt to make you an empty shell I wouldn’t stand a chance if your will ends up being more powerful than mine, and you’re capable of striking back. It’s a… dangerous process, which is why we’re only allowed to do it to plants, trees, bushes, as well as animals and such that are near death. The “near death” part is a question of morals more than anything else, however.”

Celica nodded thoughtfully. “Do you need to stay in contact with whatever you are draining?”

She shook her head briefly. “No, but it makes it easier for the larger… vessels. There’s a max range, so to speak. But generally the closer I am the easier it is.”

“I see. That’s usually how this kind of thing works.” Celica nodded to herself before smiling. It was then that she produced a small glass bead from her pockets, the kind of thing cheap necklaces were made of. “How about a little experiment?”

The bead received a raised eyebrow in response, Lily’s curious gaze resting on it for a few moments before it was directed at Celica herself. “I’m not much for playing with beads, but I don’t think that’s what you want.”

The woman shrugged. “You might as well call it that. There is a tiny sliver of magic stored in this thing. I want to see if you can pull it out.”

“That… shouldn’t be a problem, but why?”

“I’m curious. If a Kitsune can pull magic out of an object like this, I’m surprised I haven’t heard of anything along the lines of ‘magic batteries’.”

Lily stared at it for a few moments, silent. She tried to grasp it with her mind multiple times, but nothing happened. In the end she just sighed. “Probably because it doesn’t work that way. I can’t take anything from it. It’s… dead, is the best way to describe it. Makes sense when you think about it; According to the legends we Kitsune—or Gumiho, if you will—drain the life force of whoever we charm with your beauty—yes it sounds arrogant, blame whatever created the Kitsune, because it’s fact. Anyway, according to those we only took the life from living people, and while it’s not entirely accurate it does make sense: If it’s not alive we can’t drain from it.”

Celica clicked her tongue. “Damn. And here I thought something would come out of that.” She glared at the little ball of glass, turning it around in her hand. “I wonder what it would mean for it to be alive,” she muttered in a low voice, seemingly to herself. “A Kitsune can take the energy of a living being, I understand that, but I don’t see the distinction. The energy is there, and it came from me, the energy of a living being, if not in a living vessel. Why would it matter if the thing to be drained is the same? Is it perhaps that I changed it when I placed it inside the object?”

Lily couldn’t help but smile. It was a slightly condescending one, but only slightly. “Someone didn’t listen to the legends. There’s a grain of truth in every legend. What is the exact wording of this specific one? We drain the life, not the energy. What’s in there, I just realised, is only magic. It’s bland and, to be frank, useless. What I can use to power myself is life in its most basic form.” She paused for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts and figure out how to explain it properly. “Wait… I got it wrong. It’s like this: The way I drain is by tethering my mind—or life, you could say—to something else’s. That link allows me to take from them, like a pipe, but it has to be alive for me to be able to establish such a link. If it isn’t… I can’t, plain and simple.” She pointed at the marble. “That’s why the magic in that thing is useless: Because it’s only magic that is not bound to ‘life’.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call it useless. I put it in there, and there is a way to bring it out. Now, if I could only find a way to pull it back intact…” Celica sighed, a disappointed expression on her face, but it was quickly replaced by a smirk. “Well, I learned some things. It’s interesting to think that, even if everything alive has this energy, not everything with magic is alive. Even if things die once their magic is taken from them, magic cannot be the same as life, and maybe not even the same as a soul.”

“It isn’t, but it’s tied so closely to it that if you use too much, you die. It sticks to it, for lack of better words. That’s why you get tired when you use too much of it.”

“Sounds about right,” she said, holding out a hand. “Thanks for the help.”

“You’re… welcome,” she said, hesitating a bit before she tentatively took Celica’s hand in her own.

Celica smiled. “You know, you strike me as a nice girl. I find it hard to picture you trying to kill Alice.”

Rather than scowl, narrow her eyes, or pull her hand to herself, Lily just smiled. “Figured there was something off about you. You did hint at knowing why I was in a bad mood earlier, after all.” She pulled her hand to herself again, her expression never once coming even close to anger. “So you’re a friend of hers?” She asked.

“Nosy roommate,” she clarified. “I admit I’m kind of disappointed. After that warning, I was expecting you to go up in arms. Not quite as fun if you just take it in stride.” She pulled her hand back, resting her chin on it. “So, what did she say, anyway? She didn’t threaten you or someone else, did she? That’s not quite her.”

“What she said is none of your business, but suffice to say there are ghosts in my past I would not want to deal with.” Her tone wasn’t unfriendly per se, but it was definitely not a friendly one either. One would almost say that it was monotone, to some extent. “There’s one thing, however,” she added after a little while. “Why did you expect me to get violent simply by the mention of our conflict?”

“I wouldn’t say violent. Angrily uncooperative, maybe. And that ‘tread carefully’ warning.” She tilted her head. “Come on, there are always ghosts. Think you can trust me with this one? I can tell it bothered Alice.”

Lily chuckled. She couldn’t do anything else. Celica’s request was simply too absurd “Pretending to be a knight in shining armour riding in one your white charger to save me from my past?” She shook her head, almost somberly. “No. You can’t save me, and telling you won’t help. Not to mention that it’s not something I’m going to talk about.”

“Hm. I might not be so tight lipped about the few dozen rules you broke with your demonstration.” Celica clicked her tongue, glancing away. “But then again, that would just be spiteful, wouldn’t it? Fine. I don’t really need to know. I only came to ask if you remember why we are being trained.”

“Why we’re being trained?” Her eyebrows rose almost of their own accord, momentary surprise taking the place of indignation at the threat of blackmail. “I’d say it is to protect ourselves and ultimately push back Endolas to the point where they accept that they cannot achieve their goal of a joint government—or whatever it is they want.”

“We’re going to war, Lily. We’re not students, we are recruits. The Mythics may not see the distinction, but they don’t have to, as long as we have the skills we need. The mindset is not their problem.” For once, the traces of amusement were gone from the pale woman’s face, leaving behind a sober gaze. “When we signed that waiver and took the procedure, our responsibility ceased to extend only as far as ourselves. Once we are out there, and we’re placed on the spot, we will be forced to trust whoever is standing next to us with our lives. There won’t be a choice in the matter. You can hate everyone’s guts, bear as much pain as you want, as long as you can shoulder that responsibility. Whether you actually do it or not is up to you. It’s for us to blindly trust.”

Celica stood up, and began walking away from the piano. “I’ll see you around, Lily. Hope I see you in practice.”

Lily’s curious gaze was fixed upon Celica as she spoke, and then for a time after she said her goodbyes. But before she could leave the room, she called after her. “I may not want to tell you of my past, but I can tell you one thing.”

Celica lagged at the doorway, then looked over her shoulder, eyebrow cocked.

“What I have had,” she waved a hand at the area around them, though indicating the entire compound and every other student—or recruit—in it. “This is more than I’ve ever had.”

Celica snorted. “Then protect it.” And with that, she left.

Lily sighed, shaking her head once again before she turned back to the piano, her fingers quickly finding the notes she had been playing before, her lips parting for one final sentence as Celica left. “And I will.”

The past several hours had been spent practising on the piano. She had managed a few playthroughs of the song she was practising when Celica had visited her, as well as a couple of half-attempted playthroughs of other pieces. Not one of the other ones she had attempted got played without at least a dozen faults. She cursed herself for every mistake she made, going so far as to playing the intro to some-guy-whose-name-she-couldn't-remember's 5th symphony. It had been a wonderful stress relief to be able to smash the keys with wild abandon... if only for a few seconds.

The piano had been left behind, however, in favour of looking for something to eat. It was rapidly approaching dinner time and she wanted to get there before the canteen was filled with students. A couple hundred other students would have the same idea, of course, but a couple hundred was better than a couple thousand. With hope she'd also meet Tsukiko there.

The thought of Tsukiko, however, was followed by a sour taste in her mouth. It wasn't that Tsuki had ever displeased her, quite the contrary in fact. No, it was the memory of what Celica had said, as well as her and Alice's confrontation. It happened several hours ago and the taunts still made her hackles rise. She knew she shouldn't let it get to her like that, but how could she not? She—

Further musings were interrupted by a weight settling on her shoulder, no more than a few hundred grams at most. Glancing to her side she came face to face with a very small woman; a waterfall of golden hair falling past her shoulders and down her waist, interrupted only by two pairs of slim and transparent wings jutting out from her back.

Sylphide looked up at Lily, a gentle smile on her lips. "I heard about what happened earlier," she said, her voice devoid of judgement or anger of any kind. She wasn't scolding Lily—much to her relief—nor was she about to lecture her; she simply said it. "How do you feel?" She continued, sitting down on Lily's shoulder rather than stand up.

Lily pressed her lips into a thin line at the question, her eyes hardening. "I'm fine," she replied, looking forward again. "You don't need to worry."

"And yet I do," the Mythic shot back. "You worry me, Lily. You are a very kind woman if only you let yourself; I see it in you, in every word you say to other people."

Gritting her teeth, Lily stopped walking, one hand place on the wall and her eyes fixed on the floor. "Don't talk like you know me. You know nothing of me.

"On the contrary," Sylphide continued, ever patient and gentle, "I know a lot about you; where you came from, why you're here, the reason for why you acted as you did when you and Al—" She was interrupted by a loud bang echoing through the hallway. Turning her head she saw Lily letting her clenched hand fall down her side.

"Fine, you know of me, but don't for a second think you know what it's like. You, a pretty little Immortal, how could you possibly know what loss is? Your are surrounded by beings of equal power and age expectancy. You're so kind and perfect that they can't help but like you. You don't have to fear losing them, don't have to worry about them going away. Of course, the question is, why would they? They stay because you're kind, pretty, and perfect. They don't have a reason to leave. You—" her head jerked to the side before she could react, a stinging pain blossoming in her cheek. Looking forward she was faced with an almost angry looking Sylphide, a sight which would have terrified most, her right hand raised.

Sylphide lowered her hand, her gaze becoming noticeable softer as she did so. "I advice that you be careful with your words, Lily," she said. After a short while she sighed and shook her head. "Lily, trust me when I say this: You have issues, and there is no way around it. The way you reacted to Alice taunt's can't just be ignored."

Lily was quick to protest. "But we already fixed it! Ikari told us to talk it out and apologise, and we did!"

Again, Sylphide shook her head. "You apologised and you gave half an explanation for why you reacted so violently, that is true, but it's not something that'll keep you from reacting like that again. Remember that you are not school students who got into a fight, but soldiers whose purpose is to defend your Disc. As it is, nothing is keeping you from acting against such taunts again." She was silent for a while, lips pursed as she examined Lily's face, looking for any signs of anger of which there were—surprisingly—none.

With a small smile, Sylphide continued. "Ikari was, and is still, a loner. She and her fellow Kitsune have never been much for living together with others save when having made a promise to aid someone. She doesn't know a lot about handling conflicts, and saw an apology as being sufficient. In that regard you may call her childish. We Fairies, however, live—or lived—in large colonies, and we had a lot of conflicts which needed resolving."

"And how's that going to help?" Lily asked, her voice almost subdued, but with a definitive edge to it. "You can't fix my problems, can't jump back in time to make it so I was never abandoned."

"You're right, I can't. No one can. What I can do, however, is tell you this: Unless you start moving forward, and past your old hardships, you risk pushing away those you love. I don't know for certain, but I fear that even Tsukiko will only stay with you for so long, if you continue clinging onto your past. I'm not telling you to forget everything that happened, but let go and accept that that isn't your life anymore. You may not have had much of a family at all, but if you work towards it... you could get a family of your own. The past cannot be changed, but you can accept it as it was, and focus on making a brighter future for yourself." She stopped, then smiled at Lily. "I know you can." She reverted to her Fairy form, barely twenty centimetres tall, and fluttered off.

Lily stood where Sylphide her left her for several minutes, eyes downcast but mind racing. Could it be true? Would it be possible for Tsukiko to leave her if she didn't... let go of her past? How could she let go of her past? It was there; ever present and unchanging. She couldn't let it go, but...

She crouched down, leaning against the wall with both her hands gripping at her head. No... No. She wouldn't let Tsukiko leave her. She couldn't. She was everything she'd ever had, and losing her would... would.

"I can't let that happen," she whispered, almost choking on her own words. Try as she might she couldn't keep the tears from trickling down her cheeks. "I won't. I..." She looked up, a fire of determination fighting to gain a foothold in her teary eyes. "I... I need to talk to her."

“You know, this isn’t what I meant when I asked for a date.”

“I said maybe.”

“You stabbed my hand.”

“You tried to ambush me.”

“You shot me in the eye.”

“You cracked my rib.”

“You stabbed my mouth.”

“You bled over my clothes, so I guess we’re even.”

Charles Lafreniere gave a surly frown, and Celica flashed an innocent smile at the monitor. He did not see it, of course. After a moment, the man sighed, once again turning to the device she had roped him into setting up. The object was much like a vice, sitting atop a table for height, and it held in place a black pistol similar in size to Celica’s own weapons. A small bar was held horizontally by the device near the trigger, such that it could pull on it. It was connected by a cable to an outlet in the wall, leading to the room she was in.

Such arrangements were rare at that point in time. The room itself was often used by Shifters to experiment with their powers, with various implements and sensors available in an adjacent room connected to it. It did not play host to firearms that often.

It wasn’t particularly odd for Celica to use it this way. At that point, she considered the machine Charles was setting up to be pretty much her own.

That he was there was more of a coincidence. The man had shown up during lunch that day claiming that she had agreed to a date with him. She had not recognized him. Then again, the only time they had spoken, he had been a gigantic winged snake bent on eating her. The Charles that approached her had been a man about her height, toned, with light brown hair, dark eyes and a dazzling smile.

He was rather pleasant to look at, she reflected.

The heavy metal door slammed shut with a boom as someone else entered the room. Alice had expensive looking noise canceling ear muffs slung around her neck, and had a large rucksack full of what looked like metal plates. Sitting in a black shoulder holster/bandolier apparently made of small metal plates with the grip prominently displayed was the gun she’d been trying to obtain for the past several months. The same bandolier also played host to a double row along its entire length to pouches holding cylinders of the full power ammunition she’d loaded last night inside each one,

She gave a small wave towards Celica, “Hey, already setting some things up a—who the ад are you?”

The man looked up from his work, surprised for a moment, before giving Alice a slow look from top to bottom. Then he quirked a grin at her. From the viewing room, Celica wondered if his teeth actually sparkled or if it was a trick from light from the camera.

“Well, this might make it worthwhile.” The man stood up, rubbing his fingers for a second before extending a hand in greeting. “Charles Lafreniere. A pleasure, mademoiselle.” His voice had a vibrant, noticeable accent to them, the pleasant kind that sounds distinctive without distorting the words themselves.

Alice glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “Hi.”

Celica’s voice blared into the room. “Hey Alice. This is Charles. I asked him to help me set up.”

“More like suckered me into it.”

She ignored him. “Did you bring everything?”

Alice nodded, “Mm-hmm, bullets, ammunition, targets, firearm, et-cetera, if you need it I’ve probably got it in this thing.” She grabbed the rucksack and shrugged it off her shoulders, holding it out to Charles. “Could you hold this for a second?”

He took it with a sour expression. It turned into a surprised yelp as the bag almost dropped him to his knees. “What is in this thing?!”

Alice looked over at him in mild surprise, slipping off the shoulder holster, “Just some two centimeter steel plates, ammunition, some cleaning supplies, some other testing media, nothing much.” She pulled off her omnipresent coat, throwing it on one of the benches at the back of the room as she slipped the shoulder holster back over herself. “I’ll take that back, thanks for eh, slowing its fall I suppose?”

“Sure, no problem,” he wheezed, gladly letting her take the burden from him. He took a breath, recomposing himself. “Hey Celica, I’m done with that thing.”

“Alright. Just about ready on my end. You can leave if you want.” As an afterthought, she added, “sorry, by the way.”

Charles opened and closed one of his hands. It still had some gauze around it. He looked at the rig he had set up. “It’s fine. I think I’m going to stay and watch. Didn’t expect this, so I kept my schedule open afterwards.”

“Of course you did.” Celica’s wry smile seeped into her voice. “You managed to make the bullets, Alice? For both weapons?”

Alice nodded, “They’re the same diameter, so I just made a bunch with some in different sizes and weights. The multi purpose rounds are also modified to break up at the lower velocities for you. I’m going to assume you can tell the difference between the two cartridges.” She fished around in the rucksack, dragging out plates of steel and several cans which rattled considerably.

“Nice. Alright, I’m done here.” She stepped back, taking a look at some of the monitors. The technology used for setting up holograms was useful in more than one way. The way they were set up, she would be able to record each test, measure the velocity of the projectiles and compare their trajectories. She could just shoot and it would feed her the numbers from the points of reference she had given it. She could even impose virtual recreations over each other to compare them more easily.

Celica sighed wistfully. They did not have this kind of equipment in high school physics lab. She doubted they’d need as much of it, though. What mattered most they would be able to see.

Her hand pressed on the intercom. “Need help setting up, Alice?”

Alice shrugged, speaking into the corresponding intercom on her side “I’m fine. I’ll let you go first, I’m just testing out an old theory and brushing up mainly.”

Celica nodded to herself for a moment and gave the monitors another looks, giving it a quick once-over to see if everything was in place. Bullet magazines were arrayed on top of the desk, colored dots marking the bottoms of each. From those she scooped up a magazine, marked with a white dot, and opened the thick doors to the testing room.

She was in her Shifter form, and she’d somehow gotten her hands on a white lab coat. The sleeves were pulled back, leaving the crystallized portion of her arms bare, and her long hair had been gathered into a ponytail. Some things just had to be done the proper way.

She loaded the testing weapon before turning to address her audience of two. “I just loaded the gun with my usual ammunition. The one I used in our spar, Charles. I have everything set up so that we can fire and watch from the next room.” She glanced at Alice. “I’d rather the room be empty before I start testing. Just in case something doesn’t go as planned. Do you need to do something here first?”

Alice shook her head, grabbing her coat and slinging it over her shoulder she walked towards the door, letting it slam shut as she walked towards the other room.

Entering the room, she looked over at the computers and other equipment, “Sorry, which rounds were these again?”

The door opened again, letting Celica and a whistling Charles in. Celica moved to one of the terminals, plopping down on the chair and clicking through a few menus. “The ones I keep offering to you. The bullets I loaded into the pistol are standard issue, save for an enchantment I worked into them.” With another click, a light materialized in the other room and resolved into a see-through disc, visible from a few angles in the monitors.

“Charles, do you see the red button? No, that one. Right. Push it.”

In the screens, the gun roared. When the projectile slammed against the target, ice burst from the impact like a blooming flower.

“The enchantment is meant to trigger when the bullet strikes a solid object,” she continued, eagerly. She was particularly proud of how her enchantment managed to distinguish between the moment of firing and the moment of impact. Part of her reveled in her chance to explain and play with her powers this way. “The temperature around the impact will drop dramatically. It will pull any water that is close towards the bullet and flash freeze it.” She held up one hand, drawing the attention of the two other Shifters, then snapped her fingers. With a sound like grinding glass, a jagged crystal similar to the one in the screen snapped into existence, floating above her hand. “Just like that.”

Alice nodded in acknowledgement, though she still saw little use in freezing something as opposed to incinerating it, “And, what if you go up against a giant or other Titan? I doubt that’d do much more than irritate them.”

Celica grimaced. “They’re not really meant for use on Titans.”

“They helped you with me,” Charles observed. “I was half convinced you knew you’d have to counter my camouflage.”

Celica waved her hand, letting the ice dissolve into white mist. “A lucky coincidence.”

She looked at the guns and ammunition, “What’re you shooting next?”

“The rest of the magazine.”

Alice shrugged, ignoring Charles, “Fair enough. Do you know what it’d do against another Demon like us? Titans aren’t exactly hard to hit, and Fae are kind of squishy by comparison.”

“It depends. It would hurt, might make it hard to move. And,” she said with a small, impish smile, “you have to remember that my power is not limited to making ice. I can move it too.” With another click on the terminal, the hologram disappeared, letting the ice fall to the floor. Another press of a button had it reappear. “Fire it again, Charles.”

Alice took a seat, glancing idly at the firing range, her runic bullets weren’t up yet, her excitement was minimal. “Makes me wonder if you could crystallize the moisture inside someone if you touched someone, imagine ice crystals spearing through a giant’s brain and out his eyes. That’d be one way to deal with ‘em.”

Celica smiled noncommittally as the gun blared again. They repeated the process until the pistol clicked empty. Celica logged the results, already set in the spreadsheet she had prepared before the three had gathered, and went outside, another magazine in her hand, this one marked in light blue.

In the silence that followed the closing door, Charles rapped his fingers against the desk. “So,” he said, turning to look at Alice, “are you doing anything later?”

She shrugged, fiddling with a cylinder of ammunition she held in her hands, examining the bullet for any defects. Sliding it back into the pouch where it had come from she dug around in another pocket, pulling out a couple walnuts, cupping them in her palm and smashing the fist of her other hand into them, before popping one of the now cracked nuts in her mouth.

“Wasn’t going to do much, refine the ammunition, fine tune the gun since it’s been sitting around for two years, work out a bit and see if I can break the 160 kilo mark on the bench press, all I’ve been able to do so far is 158.” She dumped the shells of the nuts in a nearby trashcan, throwing the remaining nuts in her mouth and pulling out another cylinder of ammunition to inspect.

In the screen, Celica waved a hand before the fallen pieces of ice, making them dissipate. She stopped for a moment, tilting her head.

“Impressive! Do you need a spotter?”

She glanced at him suspiciously, “Already have one.”

At that moment, the intercom crackled to life. “Guys, the comm’s still open.” After a moment. “You actually do say that to every girl.”

“I didn’t squish her either,” Charles replied, shameless.

The door opened to the monitor room opened once again, letting Celica walk in, shaking her head. She took her seat and motioned towards Charles. “Fire.”

Once again, the weapon discharged on the target, ice sprouting from the impact.

Visually, it was the same as the previous test. Charles began frowning at the third shot, something which only deepened as they continued.

“Did you confuse the ammo?”

“She had them marked, so I’d imagine not, that or that’s a different velocity loading or something.” Alice looked over at Celica, “Guessing that’s more or less what it is?”

Celica shook her head, frowning. “No. It’s the exact same projectile. Only the enchantment itself changed.” She glanced at the monitor, in particular at the ice stuck to the floating target. “Though I was expecting more ice. I’ll have to compare the volume and weight later. It’s what the first test was for.”

Charles scratched as his chin. “Speaking of that. In our fight, you made a lot more than that, very quickly. What is stopping you from having a bullet make enough ice to fill the room?”

“I’m glad you asked.” Celica smiled, slipping back into professor mode. “Enchantments of the sort I do need a certain amount of energy to carry the task I give them. The problem is that there is a limit to how much energy a single object can hold. This is usually determined by size. Some materials can hold more magic than others, but eventually they all saturate.”

“And bullets are small.”

“Exactly.” She nodded, then glanced at Alice. “Can you hand me one of those runic bullets?”

Alice nodded, fishing out a magazine loaded with five rounds of the runic steel. “125 grain flat point with a copper coating on the sides to stop it from demolishing the barrel, it should fall off the moment the thing leaves the barrel. Clocking 450 meters a second or so.” She tossed it over to Celica as she walked to the viewing screens. “I’ve got a bit of a hunch on something, but we’ll see what happens.”

Celica took the magazine, then fished one of the bullets from the top. She held it between her index finger and her thumb, giving it an intent stare. Almost immediately, frost began gathering on its surface, before giving way to tiny crystals.

Celica snorted. “It’s already saturated.” She passed a finger over the ice, dusting it off the metal in little puffs of vapor. “This bullet is so chock-full of Alice’s magic that it saved me the effort. It won’t hold my magic.”

She returned it to its magazine. “Okay, enough delaying. Let’s finish this trial.”

The next magazine to go into the pistol was one of Alice’s. This time, instead of the circular disk, Celica conjured up a bluish, transparent block. She explained it was supposed to mimic the muscle tissue of the average Demon.

Once everything had been set up, she leaned back on her chair and nodded for Charles to fire. She had already seen Alice’s sword and armor in action, and suspected that the projectile would clear the holographic slime entirely. Maybe, if she wanted to stretch things, bore itself into the wall behind it to the point where they’d need either magic or to dig a bit to get it out. Mystical steel and all it entailed.

What she did not expect, was for the gel to remain untouched, while a very loud crack resounded over the speakers.

Swiftly realizing what had happened, Celica groaned. “Not again.”

Alice folded her arms. “It appears my hunch was correct.”

Celica shot her a sour look. Of course. Why wouldn’t she have a hunch that her bullets would make the gun explode?

“You could have said something.”

“I did.” She pushed herself away from the viewing screens, wings and armor appearing as she shifted, she walked towards the door and pushed her earmuffs over her ears. “You have some spare guns, right?”

Celica produced a second gun from a drawer, same model as the one that had lost its back end in the last trial, and set it down on the desk. She already had an inkling on what Alice wanted to do.

Alice took the gun, keeping the muzzle pointed down. “I’ll be back in just a bit.”

She opened the door, heading out to the ruined pistol, raising an eyebrow at the damage, “Must have overpressured it some. Forgot she was using the cheap versions.” She carefully pulled the gun from its rest, ejecting the somehow unharmed magazine and sliding it into the intact pistol.

She settled into a shooting stance and took aim at the hologram, “Firing in three… two… one!”

She fired the remaining four shots in roughly one second intervals, the rounds all hitting home squarely in the center of the block. Smirking as she ejected the now empty magazine, she left the gun on the rest and walked back to the observation room.

“So, how did that go?”

Wordlessly, Celica pressed a key on the terminal. One of the screens brightened and was replaced by an view from the side of Alice standing in a firing stance in front of the hologram. The slow motion video showed the bullets exiting the barrel, the small copper pieces on the sides of the bullet flying away like they had been designed to. The inside of the gel ballooned out with the force of the round, opening up a very clear temporary cavity inside the gel before the bullet came straight out the other side, it didn’t even appear to be tumbling.

“There’s some hydrostatic shock for ya’.” Alice commented idly, watching the other bullets impact the gel with similar effects, “Makes me wonder what’ll happen when I use my own gun.”

Celica had the edge of her lip turned down in a sour grimace. “I’m tempted to try again, and have you push the button. Make sure it wasn’t a fluke.”

Alice shook her head, “I’m pretty sure I need to be physically connected to it. Pulling a string would probably work, but pushing a button would just blow up another gun.”

“I hate when this happens.”

“When what happens?” Charles asked from his seat.

“When magic gets finicky.” Celica grunted, picking the next magazine and fiddling with it in an irritated fashion. “Sometimes it works like any phenomenon we might encounter in the natural world. Sure, it might look stranger and rather disconnected, but its effects can be measured, quantified and then predicted. Then sometimes it up and seems to do whatever it wants, as if everyone’s magic worked under a different set of rules. Rules that seem to be arbitrarily picked for no other reason other than to be inconvenient. Like bullets that can only be fired by whoever made them.”

Charles gave her a sidelong glance. “It sounds to me like you’re just upset you can’t use them.”

Celica threw him a glare. “Shut up,” she groused, all grace and eloquence, before standing up to set up the next experiment.

The next experiment managed to avoid further explosions. Celica conjured up another smaller but denser target in the shape of a short cylinder, and had Charles repeatedly fire it, same as before.

The bullets themselves penetrated the target easily, but Celica’s frown did not abate. When asked about it, she showed them an image of the testing room. Or rather, several images superimposed over one another. The trajectories of the projectiles were clearly outlined as she rotated and shifted the representation so that they were looking at the front of the disc, the gun behind their point of view.

The bullets seemed to have rapidly deviated from their trajectories, all striking the target at noticeably different angles, even at that distance.

“I tried to make ice cover the bullets while flying,” she explained. The ice sprouting on them must have somehow thrown off the trajectory. It was a new idea, either way, so she was not terribly surprised it had not worked exactly the way she had envisioned it. She made a mental note to fiddle with the enchantment some other time.

“Suddenly increasing the mass and volume of a projectile in flight is going to cause problems no matter what you do with it,” Alice commented idly, as if reading her mind. “I’m not even sure of the purpose of covering a bullet in ice midair.”

“It’s very dense, very hard ice,” she offered in the way of explanation. “And I can’t very well make them the way you did. They’d melt eventually.”

That left four magazines sitting on the table. Two of them were marked in yellow, while the other two had red dots on their bottom.

Once again, Celica conjured up the block of demon-calibrated, holographic gelatin, and took one of the yellow magazines with her. She went and came back in moments, sitting down in her chair with a slow breath. The experiments so far had not been too terribly encouraging, at least when it came to her own options. Part of her wondered if she should feel happier about Alice getting her gun and powers in working order, but she was still upset that those powers would only work for her.

“Okay,” she said with a sigh. “Fire.”

Charles did as she asked, and the gun blared. The bullet hit the slime, sending tremors across its surface. It didn’t penetrate much, barely sinking enough that the bullet managed to submerge itself completely. For a heartbeat, nothing remarkable happened, and Celica felt her stomach sinking in disappointment. Then, ice pushed out in angry spikes, bloating like an angry pufferfish, sharp points tearing into the gel like the hooks of a burr.

Charles winced, one hand coming up to touch his jaw.

Celica noticed and smiled guiltily. Their spar had given her the idea, after all.

Alice grinned at the result, “Now that is brilliant.” Folding her arms as she thought, “The only question is what would be the best way to get that inside an enemy…?” Titans had thick armor and dense muscle tissue, penetrating through that wouldn’t be very feasible for ice and regular metal – but then again they were big, maybe finding a way to shoot one of those up their noses or something... The block was calibrated for average Demon tissue, which meant it’d ideally reproduce the results in the block. Fae and Spirits on the other hand… they were squishy. Her mad grin widened. “I’m liking that bullet.”

“She sees the merits of ice,” Celica pronounced, nodding. Even as her smile faded and she turned to study the screens, she held an excited glimmer in her blue eyes. “I thought of having the enchantment trigger a certain amount of time after the bullet fired, but that was hardly reliable. I couldn’t use the usual method either because the enchantment would have triggered the moment the tip touched the gel. So I mixed the two, and found a way to introduce a delay to the trigger after impact.”

She dismissed the block, letting the ice fall again before resetting it to its intact state.

“Again.”

So it went until the first yellow magazine was spent, the results fairly consistent throughout the trials. Then it was the turn of the second. Before leaving the monitoring room, Celica adjusted some sliders in one of the terminals.

Charles gave the numbers a curious look. He hummed. “That looks rather solid.”

Celica was back moments later, and gave Charles a nod as she passed. This time, the bullets failed to penetrate. They crashed and shattered against the hologram, clattering uselessly to the ground in a shower of metal. The ice burst out in little scattered shards for each, but at that point, it did little more than jostle the debris around.

“That,” Celica said with a slight frown, “is unarmored, Titan muscle.”

Alice smirked, “Glorious runic steel master race.” She walked to the instrument panel, increasing the amount of material there was, just in case. Pulling out a pair of earplugs and sticking them in her ears, then pulling the ear muffs over her ears, she walked towards the door, pulling out her own gun.

Alice walked out until she was facing the block, calling over to the intercom, “Whenever you’re ready!”

“Go for it.”

Alice shook her shoulders, taking aim, she breathed deeply, in and out, in and out…

The report of the gun sounded less like a handgun and more like a thunderclap. The gun bucked in her hand like a mule, though she was able to control it with little trouble, shifter muscle definitely coming in handy.

She really couldn’t tell what effect the bullet had had, though she imagined it wouldn’t be pretty. She slid the gun back into its holster and removed her hearing protection, jogging back to the observation room and bursting through the door. “So? What’d it do?!” she asked, showing more excitement than she had at any other time at the Academy, but she didn’t really care.

Once again, Celica brought up a replay for her.

Alice eagerly rushed over, watching pleased fascination as the bullet tore into the titan tissue simulant.

Charles shuffled uncomfortably in his seat as he watched Alice’s expression. “Never thought I’d have to compete with a gun,” he murmured.

Alice heard him, but paid him no heed for the moment. She watched with a slightly manic grin as the bullet also shed its thin copper coating like intended and continued on, striking the dense tissue and tearing through. The bullet kept true, penetrating through the block in a more or less straight line, leaving a relatively small cavity behind it. Her grin widened as it came out the back end, still flying straight, and fast too.

Alice pushed herself away from the monitors, practically vibrating with excitement, “If a bunch of those doesn’t take out a giant or dragon, I don’t know what will.” She declared, adding, “I’ve also got some different rounds I made for slightly… softer targets, like Demons, as well as something for the Fae and Spirits, gotta spread the love if you know what I mean.”

She flashed a pleased grin towards Celica, “I think this might be one of the best moments of my life. I’ll mark it up there with finding out you’re a decent person and getting separated from dad. Oh the potential of runic bullets! I’m almost tempted to dig one out of the wall and see the effects it had, and test the ductility and malleability.” She paused for a second to catch her breath, having lost it at the rate she was speaking and breathing.

“Well, congratulations. I suppose we’ll be calling those ‘Dragonslayer’ bullets from now on.” Celica let out a soft snort and tapped her bottom lip. “I think you’re drooling a little.”

“I can get that for her,” Charles interjected, making to rise out of his chair, only for Celica to curl a cold hand on his collar and pull him back down.

“Now, if only you could find a way to make it usable by others,” she continued, ignoring the outburst, “we could have a proper firearm that’s not considered obsolete in this war.”

Alice nodded, face having shifted to a slight frown. "Don't think there's much I can do to fix that."

“I can dream.”

“Right.” Charles coughed, one hand rubbing where frozen skin had touched the nape of his neck. “What do those red ones do?”

Celica frowned, glancing at the two remaining magazines. “The enchantment is the same, but I had a good idea of what would happen when I tried it on the Titan hologram, so I asked for something other than the old standard issue. They are AP rounds.” She picked one up and made for the door. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

“AP?” Charles parroted as Celica left, turning towards the resident gun lover.

"Armor Piercing," Alice replied, looking off into space and running ideas through her mind, continuing offhandedly. "I'm curious to see what they'll do."

True to her word, Celica walked in a few seconds later, giving Charles the go-ahead to press the button.

The effect of the bullet was remarkably similar to the earlier trial against Demon muscle tissue. Little penetration, perhaps even less than before, but enough of the projectile broke into the hologram itself to tear a vicious hole once the enchantment trigger. Still, Celica would not bring herself to celebrate. Understandably. It was rare for Titans to be unarmored. She silently allowed for the test to continue until the bullets had been expended.

The second magazine she tried on the Demon tissue hologram. Predictably, the bullet penetrated deep into the block. Most of them were stopped by the enchantment releasing its spikes at the last moment, but a few managed to pierce it completely, tumbling out at a much reduced speed before the enchantment was triggered.

“I think I’ll keep the standard issue,” Celica said, once the last bullet had been fired and the hologram dissipated. “Maybe the AP would work if I consistently hit bone, but there won’t be much of a point to these if the enchantment triggers once the bullet is outside of the enemy’s body half the time.”

"You're forgetting things like internal organs, skeleton, armor, distance, et-cetera." Alice interrupted, "The gel is only used to get an idea of how it might work in practice."

“I’m ignoring them for the sake of simplicity. The more variables I add, the less reliable the results will be. The specifics can wait until I think they’re worth testing.” Celica grunted. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t see this working on a Titan with these guns. Even if I suddenly decided to bring an anti-materiel rifle to the field, I have my doubts it would go through some of the defenses they have.” After a moment, she narrowed her eyes and added, “And I can’t very well field test this in a sparring match.”

“Couldn’t you adjust the delay?” Charles offered.

Celica grimaced, but nodded. “I could, but it even if I review the videos to get the timing I’d need so that it triggers while inside a body, it’s difficult for me to stick to a specific timing. It’s not as if I’m just entering numbers on a computer.” Not even close. She was constantly amazed at the difference between time as perceived by her and the actual time elapsed. “I tend to stay away from timers in my enchantments unless I can have a wide margin for error.” She sighed. The cast of her shoulders told everyone she was contemplating putting some practice into it, nonetheless.

Charles nodded slowly, glancing between the two women. “Well…” he started after a moment, “was that all you wanted to do?”

“I think I did all the testing I wanted to for today,” she said. “Alice? Want to keep trying yours?”

Alice nodded, "I've got some hardened steel plates to stand for dragon scales or a bit of giant armor. That and I'd like to test the rounds I developed for Demons, Fae, and Spirits."

She looked over at Celica, "You curious about any of those in particular?"

“A bit,” she said, looking over the console. With a few practiced motions she saved the data and sent it to her terminal. “But after seeing the one, I have a good idea of what will happen with the rest. I need a breath of fresh air. Can you look over this while I’m gone?” she asked, motioning towards the stand, guns, and empty magazines.

Alice had de-shifted and put her coat back on at that point, and was paying attention to the small black rectangle in her hand, rather than Celica. A small grin lit up her face for a half second, before it vanished back into the normal half scowl, “Sorry, what?” She asked, looking up at Celica,

“Adela just messaged me. Apparently she can make it – you’d think someone as rich as her wouldn’t get so hyped up about shooting some guns on occasion. I mean, she could buy her own shooting range if she wanted.” Alice slipped her phone back into her coat, “You remember her right? The one who carries a flute everywhere?”

“Norma? Adela Norma?” It was Charles who had spoken, and odd smile in his face.

Alice glanced at him suspiciously, “Yes.”

“And she’s coming here.”

“No, she’s going to the other practice area set up as a shooting range where I’ve planted clones of myself and Celica.”

“Indeed? You are a woman of many talents, Alice,” he said in a tone so earnest it was hard to consider it sarcasm.

“You know Adela?” Celica asked, eyebrows raised.

“Why?” He smiled. “We’re practically childhood buddies! I couldn’t spare a chance to say hello.”

“She never mentioned you.” Alice shot back at him.

“I suppose it’s to be expected. Long time and all. And she never said much in the best of days.”

Celica gave him a narrow glance, leaning back against her chair. “I think I’ll stay here for a bit too.”

Alice walked to the door, heading out into a hallway of the main building. She idly wondered what was with Charles, mainly whether he was smoking something or not.

A brief note of music caught her ear, and she turned swiftly, small smile breaking through the normal half scowl. “Adela! Nice to see you!”

She always felt dwarfed by Adela, the other girl was almost two meters tall, and towered over her like a big Swedish giant. Nonetheless she was possibly one of the nicest people she knew, unless you got on her bad side, in which case… Alice had seen what happened. How someone could make a group of people punch each other into unconsciousness and fall in a mud puddle with nothing more than a flute and a smirk was a mystery to her.

She didn’t say anything as she and Adela walked back towards the observation room, though Adela was examining one of the runic bullets in silent fascination. Whispering something to her, Alice pulled open the door as they arrived at the observation room and Adela followed inside.

Inside, near the door, Alice and Charles were trading swift words. Charles back was turned to them, but Celica had a suspicious frown set on her features.

As they walked in, Charles turned around, his mouth curling into a smile, eyes widening with pleased surprise. “Adela! Long time no see.” His arms flew open in the beginnings of a hug as he took a step forward.

Adela’s eyes narrowed when she saw Charles, and she brought up the omnipresent flute to her lips, nonchalantly playing a short but melodic tune. She stepped to the side slightly, and Charles walked right past her and out the door, arms still extended. The music stopped abruptly as Adela quickly leaned in and shut the door. She walked towards the back of the room, extending her middle finger towards the door. Alice just smirked.

“Well. That happened.” Celica blinked, then rubbed at her temple with an icy hand. “I think I’m going to take a break. Nice to see you, Adela.” Without much more preamble, she snuck outside, leaving the gun-toting Alice and the flute-laden Adela behind.

Alice just smirked again, “Anyway, let me tell you about what we did today. And then we can exchange some ideas of our own.”

Adela hurriedly scribbled something down and turned the screen towards Alice, who burst out laughing.

“Yeah, I think we can do that.”