"Of course you can Zuri, bon appétit." He said as he sat down Next to Raiya, using a pair of chopsticks to eat the food.

"Self taught, like most of the things I do." He replied. "My memory helps me with matching the tastes through trial and error, literature and watching the dishes being made help me with the recipes and technique. I traveled quite a bit in my time, so I've had some exposure to Japanese cuisine before. I didn't earn the title "Devourer" for just my mana consumption." He replied.

Nemo turned to Felix next. "The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long, Felix. You've exerted yourself too much in your time. I used to feel like that sometimes, but... well, I can absorb people's life essence so that usually takes care of that."

After he and Felix to finally agreed to step back for a much needed R&R, Travis made his way back up stairs to his Quarters. With every step he took, he felt as if he as having to apply a little bit more mental effort to keep his balance. Having stayed up for several days without sleep and only caffeine to keep him going, he felt that the psychoactive stimulants that coursed through him were expiring far sooner than what he was used to perceive. Half up the stairs, he elected to use the railing to guide him up the next floor.

Upon reaching the next floor did Travis stumble upon an all to familiar sight and an annoying one at that; Nemo and Raiya arguing again. Travis rolled his eyes continued towards his room, disregarding the aggressive stance Raiya was assuming by lifting Nemo up by his shirt's collar. If he was more awake and in a caring mood, Travis would have been more startled about the scene. However, all he could really do was manifest his annoyance of the two's bickering. At least that what he thought they were doing anyway. The words that exited their mouths were inaudible and came off as drowned grumblings; another sign that fatigue's weakling grip gripping tighter.

Having reached the doorway to his room, he bothered to face both Raiya and Nemo one more time, finding that their feud was over as each returned to their own rooms. Travis sighed and shook his head before entering his quarters. Given the circumstances of hise declining mood and awareness, he disregarded the typical ritual of disrobing himself and instead lazily shifted any extra layers off before finally collapsing into his bead. It only took a minute after closing his eyes before passing out.

---

Travis eventfully came to after less than a day had passed. He gave a wide yawn and allowed his eyes linger around the room for a moment as while became more aware of his arousing. He concluded to an amusing notion that he eventually did undress and pulled the sheets over him, at some point in time he couldn't recall, only remembering just nonchalantly collapsing into the berth. A moment later, he could hear muffled sounds from downstairs and the faint smell of an unique. Having slept for such a long time, Travis could already feeling his stomaching aching for sustenance. Giving in the to feeling, he arose and made his way into his quarter's bathroom to bathe and clean up.

Before starting the shower, he prompted to look into the mirror there and gauge his appearance. After several days of not tiding himself, he could see tiny hairs forming around his chin and jawline; his body's persistent attempt to craft him a beard. Ironically, while he was against this, he couldn't say the same for the portion of his scalp having been saved off and still unnaturally failing to grow even one single long thread there. He frowned but proceeded into the shower to wash up and shave.

Minutes later, Travis exited his room with fresh attire proceeded downstairs. While still feeling like he could sleep for five more hours, he still felt fairly rejuvenated to move around on his own accord without any material assistance to keep him balanced. He arrived at the main floor found that everyone one had congregated for what appeared to be an Eastern cuisine compiled at the dinning table. Travis passed by and took his seat and proceeding to pour himself some coffee.

"Good afternoon, I take it? Gosh, I slept like a rock," Travis stated while working on his caffeinated beverage.

"Interesting." Raiya thought aloud, "I learned cooking from a chef the Yakuza had. Of course, he was a member of the gang too, we all were, but he mostly kept to himself and the kitchen. I found myself hanging around him often when I wasn't earning my reputation." Raiya had continued her spiel as Travis sat down. After she finished her statement, she looked over at Travis, "You and Felix are looking much better than you were yesterday. Though, Felix still looks like he was run over by a semi-truck," She turned to look at Felix, "Maybe you are getting old." She smirked evilly.

---

"Ah, Travis, good of you to join us. Take a seat and have some food." Felix offered a place at the table next to him with a motion of his hand. Felix then turned his attention towards the others. "I don't actually think that's it," Felix was addressing both Nemo and Raiya, "I've known many in the greater context of academia that have spent their entire lives dedicated to books with very little sleep in between. I think the illness that has befallen me through the severing of a portion of my manawell is actually having physical consequences. This never happened to me before I used that unfinished spell to sever my covenant with the Holy Grail. But soon afterwards, I started noticing an increase in fatigue and loss of stamina. I can't be for sure, there is not enough conclusive evidence, but that is my hunch."

Nemo sectioned off a piece of the fish with his chopsticks and then brought it to his mouth. He chewed and swallowed. "I see... for me cooking is often an relaxing experience. It's a medium that I get to use my talents for creation in a less destructive manner." He took a sip of the green tea. It was Gyokuro. "Judging by some of the knives I've seen you carry, yanagiba, deba, usuba, that would make your area of expertise sushi, wouldn't it?" Nemo asked. "I certainly have no aversion to raw foods, if you ever want to display your own talents I'd always be willing to tango. Plus I have many connections to get the freshest ingredients and fish you can find."

"And what if we were able to get our hands on the Grail? It might be a low blow, but couldn't we potentially use it against all the arcanocracy magi that are still tied to it as you were?" Nemo asked as he ate, pondering the thought.

"They are sushi and sashimi knives. Actually, they were a gift from the chef I spent so much time with back at the Yakuza. He gave them to me after I was assigned to New York, before I left Japan. They are enchanted, and never lose their edge. I don't get many opportunities to actually use them for culinary purposes, though." Raiya finished her fish and moved the bowl of rice in front of her to begin devouring that, "I just use them for murdering people mostly. Sushi and sashimi knives have to be extremely sharp, you see. So they unironically make decent weapons."

---

Felix shook his head. "If, and that's a big if, we did capture the Grail, it would take me some time to figure it out. I'm not certain if the Grail will interface with any of us. I have a hunch that the covenant's curse is only able to be activated by the papal magi. Though, if we did have it in our possession, we would have time to figure it out, perhaps even modify the conditions and rules of the covenant. This is all just pure speculation." Felix said as he poured himself some coffee, the plate in front of him already empty.

Felix summoned a newspaper from his manadial. Sipping some coffee as he read the head line and turned the page. Some moments of silence were had as he sipped on his coffee reading through the article. About five seconds later as Felix took another sip of my coffee he immediately spewed the mouthed coffee violently out onto his manaconstructed newspaper, coffee dripping off of the sleek surface and into his lap and his shirt staining his clothes. He folded the paper backwards to give a look of awe at Nemo. "W-what in the hell were you up to last night?" Felix stammered in a mixture of awe and mild irritation.

Nemo raised a pointer finger up until he finished chewing his food. "Ah yes, that." He said after swallowing. "It seems that when I swayed Raiya to our cause it had caused a couple of problems for her back in New York. Naturally, I had to fix them." He said, pointing to the mana generated newspaper. "Free of change too, usually a stunt like that would cost an arm and a leg. But having you around, Raiya, is more than enough payment for me." He said, turning to her with a goofy looking grin.

"I hope you don't mind all that Felix, I have to keep myself busy somehow in these long dreary nights in between missions. You can't just keep such an expressive person like myself caged up in this cabin with nothing to do, can you?" He said.

Felix let out a big sigh of frustration. "You know, we sort of are fugitives. Wanted criminals hunted by the arcanocracy. As of now, the arcanocracy does not know where we are. You probably took every precaution leaving here and returning, but that will not work forever. There are spells that can track manawave through teleportation. It requires some sensitive equipment. Special sensory arrays in conjunction with the actual spell. The reason why I chose this location, the redwoods was two fold. One was because of the natural geological ley-lines located here, and two was because the arcanocracy does not have permission by Academia to place the sensory arrays for their teleportation tracking technology here." Felix gulped down some more coffee, "The thing is, there are only a few locations that are dark to the arcanocracy. These areas include such places as the are controlled by the witch hunters Salem, Massachusetts. Israel, Mecca, parts of India and of China. Because there are so few places that are dark to the detection of the arcanocracy, it would not be that hard to track us down from there. Fortunately enough the spell requires immediate action on the part of the user, they only have about a fifteen minute window from when we port out to track us. In every instance we have come into contact with them, we have been victorious, either killing them, or sending them back first with their tails between their legs. But if we grow sloppy, that could be the end of us." Felix placed his elbows on the table and folded his hands together resting his chin on his hands, "I'm telling you this because we need to lay low. Every moment we are outside the protection of the wards of this place we increase the risk of being discovered. So, please be more careful in the future. I am not going to stop you from leaving this place as you will, but know you risk the lives of everyone here each time you do."

With that said, Felix dispersed the paper back into his manadial and got up from the table. He placed the dishes he used in the sink, retrieved the rest of the pot of coffee they were drinking from and began to walk towards the lab. "Come find me in the lab when you are done eating, Travis. We need to finish our work today."

---

Raiya visibly shifted her body nervously at Nemo's comments. Raiya was particularly dense when it came to social situations, but even she was beginning to realize that Nemo's cordiality towards her was indeed abnormal, and that perhaps his infatuation with her could be dangerous. Raiya decided to tread very lightly and watch her step. Clearing her throat she said, "Well, uh- I certainly do appreciate the help. Saving the world is important and all, but there is only so much that I can sacrifice without it coming back to bite me. I have an ultimate goal that requires me to remain affiliated with the Yakuza. So, even if it really was your fault, you did me a solid." She said. Then quickly returned her gaze to her food and began to eat the rest of the rice, violently, in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

Nemo leaned back in his chair, sipping on the miso soup from the small oriental bowl it was in. "You're right Felix, I am taking every precaution I can to make sure I'm not tracked. And I can assure you, if someone is going to wind up getting tailed the last person that's going to happen to is me."

By this point Nemo was mostly done with his food. He began to systematically devour whatever remained on the plates until they were practically clean. "Oh, Raiya, I was thinking... if we shouldn't stray too far from the cabin, we could go camping or fishing sometime? We have this whole park at our fingertips, and there's not a fresher fish out there than one that's been freshly caught. I already have all the supplies too. Do you have any outdoors experience?" He asked.

Raiya finished her food and placed her chopsticks on top of her bowl. "I've had experience having to survive out in wilderness type situations. One of my Yakuza initiations involved me surviving on a deserted island for two weeks without using any magic," Raiya replied. "Although, I much prefer to use magic when in a survival or outdoors situation. Ever tried fishing with electricity destruction magic? It's pretty fun and easy." Raiya said matter-of-factly. "But... I don't much care for spending much time in the wilderness. Especially near water. Other than the fact that I don't know how to swim. water and my aura do not mix and it ends up shorting out my manawell unless I focus on suppressing my aura. Also, I love booze and it's not exactly easy to find much of that out in the wild."

Nemo stacked his dishes and began to bring them into the kitchen. "So then what you're telling me is you don't have much experience with the outdoors I know." He said as he began to wash the plates and bowls in sequence. "For me it isn't about survival, or by mastering the elements through magic, it's about relaxation, and... forgetting." Nemo began to explain as he finished up cleaning. He looked over to the table and leaned up on the side of the kitchen counter. "Forgetting we are assassins, gangsters, fighters, convicts, and even magi. We don't have to be any of those things out there, out there we can just be... normal. We're all the same when we're under a tent, listening to the rain fall, watching the trees blow in the wind, or feeling the heat radiating off of a campfire. At least that's the way i see it. I think you'd like it if you tried it, Raiya."

"I don't think you understand me as well as you think," Raiya replied, "I indulge in the luxury of the manmade. Weapons, penthouses, the finest liquor, the controlled violence of a 750 cc as I ride down the street. The way I see nature, it's just untapped potential, a bountiful harvest of resources awaiting manufacture. Nature is nothing but a hindrance. An acceptable nuisance that I tolerate for what it will give me in the future." Raiya collected all of the dishes and brought them in the kitchen. "If nature isn't bent to the will and creative power of man, then what good is it to me?" Raiya walked over to the sofa and relaxed upon it.

"Huh," Travis took a quick witty glance at Felix and back to Raiya regarding her descriptive retort, "ain't that so?"

He eventually filled his mug and after adding creamer to the contents and took a big gulp. While he indulged in the fine items of his plate, he listened to the brief exchange between Felix and Raiya though found one part of the dialogue regarding the Academia amusing upon Felix stating those of the organization could study with little sleep needed through the process, "tell me about it..." he openly commented.

The conversation evolved and now involved the Holy Grail, a subject Travis wouldn’t normally care so much for however it has recently become an interest in their mission. As he recalled Felix explaining earlier, they were hardly ready to try and seize such an important relic, not with the other Paragons unclaimed. It was Nemo whom started the topic and queried if it could be used against the same society that revered it so. Felix replied though as Travis could have surmised, he only held speculation.

A minute later and a new discussion went underway but not exactly how the Untalent expected it. Just a moment after he noticed Felix bringing up a newspaper article via his manadial and taking a swig from his coffe-filled mug did he suddenly eject its contents from he mouth, "Jesus-!" Travis yelped as he reeled away in surprise.

Once again, it was Nemo had started the new conversation, although indirectly. Apparently, their white-haired talent, as Travis learned further by pulling the same article from his own manadial, had been on a late night killingspree that involved eliminating a rival gang in violent competition with Raiya’s. The feat was undeniably impressive Travis had to admit but rather extreme and bloody at the same time. He closed the article down, not wishing to no more of the exact details. Meanwhile, Felix reaffirmed the importance of making sure they keep their presence here a secret, using whatever discrete methods they had at their disposal.

Having said that, he watched as Felix rise up from his seat and departed to the kitchen and momentarily returned to inform Travis to come to the lab when his was finished, “y-yeah will do, I’m almost done here.”

Quite frankly he wasn’t too sure is the discussion became awkward or not but it unsurprisingly seemed that Nemo and Raiya were on to another conversation, thankfully one that didn’t involve arguing. Just as he has said with Felix, Travis finished his meal before they got up and dropped off is dishes in the sink as well and made his way to the lab.

Shortly after arriving, he poured himself another cup of coffee from the pot Felix had brought with him, “Sorry if I kept ya; so, what should we get started on first?”

Nemo walked over and sat on the other side of the couch. After sinking down into the seat he crossed one leg over the other and thought. "Believe me Raiya, I don't think there's another person on this planet that enjoys the material luxuries in life more than me. Indulgence, excess, extravagance, and opulence are words I know all too well." Nemo said. "But no matter how many fancy meals I eat, how much jewelry I own, artifacts I collect, or battles I win, I'm never feeling truly happy from it. While I may certainly enjoy these things, the satisfaction I get from them is shallow and temporary. In the end they are only distractions, things to simply numb the pain and loneliness."

Nemo opened his eyes and glanced over to her. "While I hate to be one to presume, I imagine you feel similar. Or maybe you're just in denial? I know I was once until I thought it all over, and I've had far too much time to ponder in my life." Nemo let out a chuckle. "Or maybe it's all just gone to my head instead? Maybe I've just gone kooky for good."

Nemo let out a sigh. "As for nature however, I don't think there's really anything I can say to truly convey what I mean to you, you'll just have to experience it yourself."

Zuri begins her meal with a nice forkful of fried egg white as she alternates between the baked beans and hash. She picks up a slice of toast and dips it into the yolk before biting into it. Zuri finishes off with the grilled tomato, leaving nothing but the skin behind as she washes it all down with a nice glass of orange juice. She takes the plate along with the utensils and brings it to the kitchen and washes her own dishes by hand.

Felix swiveled his chair around to face Travis. Flicking his wrist he conjured up the training vest that aprentice magi used for manalysis training. "I did some quick leatherwork on this piece," Felix began, "in order to fit it to my body size. The only thing now is for you to test out the rune with a basic medium and then inscribe the rune upon this vest, if the test is successful." Felix pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows in thought, "I am not quite sure what we would use as a test prototype medium for the runic formula. So let's start by brainstorming that, first."

---

"What I've experienced with nature," Raiya explained, "is a wild untamed harlot. Chaos in its finest. The order that exists within nature is only that of manmade invention. It's a necessary evil we must entertain if we are to have our opulence. Nature is a foreign realm that I stay away from as much as possible, because I know what will happen if I stray to far into it. I will become as unhinged and untame as nature itself if I allow myself to be consumed by it. Civilization is where I belong. I know the rules of civilization, and because I know them, I can bend it and break it, even build it back up. I understand civilization. But no one understands nature." Raiya finished.

"Strange..." Nemo said, his voice assumed a softer tone than before. "People may think that civilization is what separates us from the animals, that dog-eat-dog world, but can you really tell me we aren't already there? Tame and sane are traits that I think most would find people like us unfitting of, Raiya. The only thing civilization has changed is that we found new things to fight over besides food."

"Maybe we should start small then, huh?" Nemo said, now sporting a grin. "How about a houseplant then? A little indoor horticulture to ease you into it."

"Either way, maybe we should go back to some Q and A again to pass the time. You've already humored my ramblings, so how about you go first."

Travis eyed Felix for a moment before giving his reply, "a medium, huh? I believe we have a few candidates that we could use unless you have something specific in mind."

He then transitioned over to their work-table and pointed out a few of the items he had brought down to the lab days before, "we already have a few blank scrolls we can inscribe the run to. I even have a couple of vessels here that the rune could be stored to and casted too, same one I used during the last mission with my initial prototype spell."

Raiya put a finger up to her lips, "indoor gardening? That's interesting... Do you think a bonzai tree would like whiskey?" She asked in a serious tone. She obviously didn't know the first thing about taking care of any living object, so she would fall back onto her default answer to everything, alcohol. The conversation reminded her that she wanted to drink. She summoned up a flask of her own whiskey and began to imbibe it quickly. "Or," Raiya asked after finishing swilling down the contents of her flask, "do you think a bonzai tree would be more fond of sake?"

---

Felix shrugged as he leaned back in his chair, "Well, if you think your rune is efficient enough to not be hindered by as fickle a medium as basic spell scroll paper, then I suppose I won't stop you. We could also use a steel plate as a tablet. It's your call either way."

"I think water might be your best bet for the plant's well being." Nemo whispered back. "Bonsai however, I've always found them to be one of the most interesting things to observe in gardening. The techniques, the tools, the mystery, all things that bonsai have no equal in. But I'm afraid that might be a bit too advanced for a beginner like you Raiya. Don't worry though, I already have a couple things in mind." He assured.

Nemo thought for a few moments, keeping silent. He glanced over to her but seemed hesitant to speak. "Do you mind if I ask a bit of a personal question, Raiya?" He inquired after the brief pause

Raiya scoffed, "Hey! I could garden the shit out of a bonsai! Don't doubt my abilities!" She said mildly irritated. Raiya was already feeling the effects of the whisky she just downed. Her cheeks were becoming mildly flushed and her temper was a bit quicker and almost arbitrary. It only took her a moment to calm down, however. Raiya took another swig of her booze while Nemo inquired if he could ask her a personal question.

"Huh?" Raiya rubbed the back of her head, "I don't got much personal stuff. But ask away I guess."