Elysium:

Three days had passed since the episode that was now being known in 3F as the “Asuka incident”, much to the annoyance of both Asuka herself as well as Sura. Everyone had gone back to their usual routines, though those routines were slightly changed from before. Most notably, Asuka herself now spent much more time with the sole boy in 3F, and once out of Sura’s two training sessions in a day, Asuka accompanied him. The reason for this was simple: while her new powers were formidable, she had yet to get used to them, and needed to learn how to utilize them effectively in a fight. To this end, Sura had decided to help her out, though he said that it would be ideal if she learnt from Ms. Muramasa, his own Martial Arts teacher.

As for Alice and Fiona, needless to say, neither of the two were happy about these training sessions, or about the amount of time the couple was spending together in general. If one was to ask them about it, however, it is quite likely that neither of them would have been able to explain why exactly they were annoyed by these facts.

Fiona’s feelings on the matter were complicated, to the point where she didn’t know if she even wanted to make sense of them. Perhaps it would be better to just leave them as they were, and move on, forgetting about it. Yet, she lived with Asuka and Sura, and would be doing so for the rest of the year. It wasn’t easy to forget something when you saw it every day. And that was where things got really complicated. The fact was, they were both her friends. And even after her time in Elysium ended, she didn’t want to lose touch with them, drift away and become strangers. She didn’t want to forget about either of them.

It was a strange feeling. Growing up in the 53rd District as a Flawed, she had very quickly learned to temper her expectations. Keeping one’s head down and avoiding attention was a good way to survive. As an only-child, she had been fascinated by old machinery lying around the house, like broken TVs, engines or computers. Three very different kinds of machines, but she’d started taking them all apart one by one, and trying to put them back together again. Needless to say, she hadn’t gotten very far at first. But she had wondered how they worked. That question had led to her father buying her an elementary standard book about how various common machines functioned. And so began her trip down the rabbit hole of science. She fell in love with it right away, and it was the perfect choice for someone who’d learned early that she would always be treated as “different” by other kids. Hours and hours she’d spend in her room, reading books or scouring the Internet, or in the workshop, tinkering with any and every machine and tool she could get her hands on.

There were times when she wished she could show her work to someone. But being unusually level-headed, she knew that it wouldn’t end how she wanted it to. And so, as she grew into her teens, she gradually gave up on the idea of making friends, without even really knowing it. Despite this, it wasn’t as though she was a complete outcast. Her combination of easygoing cynicism and sardonic humour made her easily likeable, and in fact, opened quite a few doors for her, helping her land her first few gigs as a mechanic.

But, in the end, that’s all she ever was. The girl who built quick machines.

Elysium was the last place she’d expected that would change. Even knowing she would meet other Flawed here, she hadn’t had any expectations. If anything, the others would be just like her: cautious and wary of strangers. And she hadn’t been wrong.

The very first people she’d run into were Asuka (even more introverted than she was), and Alice (who used an arrogant demeanour to hide her insecurities). And yet, somehow, the three of them had ended up coming together. It might simply have been survival instinct at first. But Fiona wanted to believe there was more to it, at least now.

And then, there was Sura.

Right away, she’d known that he was by far the most guarded out of all of them. Similar to Alice, he hid this behind a stern exterior. While Alice protected herself by projecting the superiority that came from her family, Sura dared anyone and everyone to fight him. It was an annoyingly childish way of looking at the world: “you only get to look down on me if you beat me”. But, he somehow made it work. He was the one-in-a-trillion boy who dreams of being the strongest in the world, and actually has a shot at it.

Strangely, that idealist’s way of looking at things wasn’t accompanied by some kind of deluded optimism. The thing was, Sura wasn’t a fool. Those who lived by the fist died by it. While he never actually said that out loud, Fiona had read enough between the lines to know that he realized this.

The result? The absolute weirdest mixture of brash confrontationalism and fatalist charm. He dreamed as though he was immortal, and lived as though he’d die tomorrow. Had a sense of humour too, and it certainly didn’t hurt that he was built like an actual god.

Fiona wasn’t a cynic. She’d often been called that, but she thought of herself as a firm realist. If something was impossible, she wouldn’t attempt it. She hadn’t thought anything would ever come of whatever it was she felt for Sura. It wasn’t anything fleeting enough to be called a crush. And it certainly didn’t have any chance of ever being anything more than that. If she managed to graduate, she would end up scoring an internship or job at a lab. Sura would either graduate, or drop out. On their last day of school, he would likely fire off one of his cheesy one-liners, thinking he sounded cool or something. And of course, he somehow would. She’d laugh, but she’d never tell him. He’d walk away and never be seen again.

That was all.

She certainly never expected anything more to come of it.

Even so, every time she saw him with Asuka, she couldn’t help but feel a stab of pain. She knew she shouldn’t: Asuka was a good person, and so was Sura. Fiona didn’t have a patent on suffering: both her friends had been through plenty of it. They were together now, and she knew she should feel happy for them. And yet, every time she looked at them, she couldn’t help but look away.

She decided to distract herself from it by focusing on her work. Mizuki wasn’t back yet: she wouldn’t be for another four days. But school was continuing as usual. A substitute homeroom teacher had not in fact been appointed for them. So homeroom classes were essentially free for now. However, coursework in other classes continued as usual. The Engineering class in particular was important: Fiona was not only learning things she would have otherwise taken longer to, or not found out about at all, but she was also getting access to the school Workshop and facilities, both during class and afterwards, until curfew. She took every second she could get, using the opportunity to work on several designs she had had in mind for a while now. With the help of the school’s Magic Augmented tech, those designs were finally starting to come to fruition.

She was, at the moment, on her way to the Workshop. Specialization Classes had ended a while back, and she’d taken a break to grab a bite in the Lunch Hall before heading back and getting some more work done. Opening the Workshop door, she entered, only to find that her bench had been ransacked. Her class-assigned personal tools had been scattered across the floor, many of the more delicate machinery and instruments broken or bent out of shape. As for her project itself… it had been meticulously destroyed.

Meticulously, because it was too sturdy to be easily damaged. Most of its parts were heavy, and in any case, she had built a chassis to protect both them and the smaller components. Yet, that chassis had been clearly sliced open to expose the parts inside. Crouching, she picked up one of the pieces of the chassis, inspecting it. The cut section looked burned through.

It’s solid metal. They used concentrated Fire Magic to do this. Or maybe just a weld-cutter? No, too risky. They can’t leave evidence by using the school’s equipment. Besides, this cut is irregular. It’s a rank average Fire Skill user who did this.

She gathered up the inner components lying nearby and checked them. The larger, thicker parts were salvageable, though most of the smaller ones were ruined. They had likely used telekinesis to hurl them around.

Clumsy. They’d have done more damage if they tore them apart directly. But I suppose I can’t expect any better from these apes.

Going back to the bench, she checked for her blueprint. Unsurprisingly, they’d been torn up. That wasn’t the worst outcome: they could have been stolen and used to replicate her designs. But she supposed that would have been risky. The Engineering teacher had a superiority complex, like most Mages, but he wouldn’t stand any breach of ethics when it came to science. She supposed taking out their frustrations on her wasn’t worth getting expelled for her classmates.

Well, I did have the designs backed up.

She patted her pocket. She’d used the lab’s computers to digitize and make a copy of the blueprints, which she’d kept. She could build the device again, but the best way to do so would be to start from scratch again. She spotted a piece of paper pinned under a hammer on her bench, and picked it up, unfolding it. On it, a note was scribbled.

“The lab is for Club use only. Stay away”, she read aloud. “Are they stupid? Why leave incriminating evidence?”

The answer was obvious, of course. “Club” could refer to any school club at all. Even if one used mention of the lab usage to conclude that it referred to the Engineering Club, this note would not count as incriminating evidence in the eyes of the school, since there was no way for her to prove that it was indeed the Club that wrote it, or destroyed her machine. Elysium was biased against Flawed. The Engineering teacher would give her new equipment to replace what was damaged, just because he wouldn’t compromise on his principles. But that didn’t mean he would take action against the ones who did this. Certainly, management wasn’t going to help her in any way. If she built it again, the Club would simply destroy her handiwork once more.

So I’m supposed to fold to this bullshit? Fuck that.

They wanted a war? They would damn well get one.

She pocketed the note and left the lab, heading back to the Muramasa house. As she walked with quick strides, she planned out her moves. Furious she might be, but Fiona wasn’t about to let her anger stop her from thinking clearly. The Engineering Club had come for her, knowing that Sura would be waiting for the smallest excuse to put them on an express trip to the hospital. They’d still done it, which meant they must have made preparations to face him.

She bit her lip: could they actually take him? It was hard to say. Sura was immensely strong. Fiona had done sight-calculations of his combat feats and compared them to the known highest records for Mages of various Levels. At the very least, there was not a Level Three Mage on the planet who could take him when it came to strength and speed. Factoring in his fighting skill, Fiona estimated that he could defeat any Level Three in a direct fight. But fights against Mages were almost never direct. Most Mages did not depend on direct use of Enhancement Magic to physically brawl, instead using their powers from a distance, often in ways that bypassed standard durability. Without knowing exactly how their powers worked, it was difficult to predict how a fight against them would go. In addition, the Club would face Sura as a group, and most likely after having devised some kind of strategy to beat him.

If that was true, then in order to win, she would have to throw off their calculations. If she had a lab and workshop at her disposal, doing something like that would be easy. Given one night, she could improve chances of victory. Given two, she could make it extremely likely. Given three nights, she could make it all but certain. But she didn’t have a lab to work at right now. The school Workshop was the Engineering Club’s turf. She couldn’t get away with working on it during class either: if they saw what she was working on, they would be able to adjust their plans accordingly.

Mind whirling with plans, she reached the Muramasa house and laid a hand on the door, about to knock, when she stopped. In her mind, an image had flashed vividly, of her two friends, perfectly happy in each other’s presence.

Do I even want to ask Sura for help?

She knocked, and the door opened, letting her in.

Unsure of what she wanted, Fiona entered the house. The living room lights were on, and she could hear voices coming from it. Not really in the mood to deal with the others until she sorted out her own confused thoughts, she decided to avoid the place. Skirting around, she continued down the hallway. There were quite a few rooms in the house that were unexplored. Technically speaking, the only one they had been expressly told not to enter was the one at the end of the ground floor hallway, which Fiona assumed must be Mizuki’s. Again, she wasn’t sure of this, because she had never actually seen the woman do any of the things that ordinary living beings did, like eat or sleep. In fact, she barely saw her around the house at all, despite the place actually being her residence.

Perhaps some exploration would help take her mind off things. So thinking, Fiona reached out and opened one of the doors at random. What she saw behind it made her jaw drop.

----------------------------------------

“Are you all right?”

Asuka winced slightly as she looked up at Sura. Reaching up, she grabbed his hand and let him help her up. “What happened?” she asked.

“I tripped you,” he answered. “You overextended yourself. Don’t lean too much when attacking: it leaves you off-balance.”

He demonstrated a punch, widening his stance, his weight evenly distributed between both feet as he twisted his hips and turned his upper body, driving his fist forward.

“Stay grounded. No matter how strong you are, delivering the power effectively requires a firm base. Essentially, the power for the hit comes from the legs. Turn at the ball of the rear leg and twist at the hips. That generates the power. The arm’s just the delivery system for it.”

He demonstrated the movements again, slowly. Watching carefully, Asuka took it in and did her best to mimic it. While it was deliberate rather than natural, she executed it decently enough, and Sura nodded.

“You know that I could simply take over her body during fights, right? It would save her all this effort,” said Nya from her shadow.

Sura briefly glanced at it. “Maybe. And practically speaking, that’s probably what will happen most often in your real fights. But knowing and being able to do the movements herself is crucial. It’ll allow her to make better decisions, and improve how you two work together. Also… if for whatever reason you aren’t able to take over, it’s essential.”

He got into stance again, and she followed, once more coating herself in shadow as they prepared to go at it, when the door of the dojo opened.

“Hey… you got a minute?” asked Fiona.

She seemed oddly serious. Sura relaxed and straightened up as he turned to her.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“It’s just… you guys need to see this,” she said.

Sura and Asuka exchanged glances, and he nodded.

“All right,” he said.

The two of them followed her as she led them to the room she had discovered. When they entered, their reaction was much the same as hers had been.

“Is this… for real?” Sura asked.

“A workshop,” Asuka breathed in wonder.

All around them was every manner of Augmented Engineering equipment imaginable: from basic tools, to machines that only the best facilities had. While it was a small, compact space, it had everything essential for a builder, and several things to make the job faster and easier. A private artisan couldn’t ask for a better place to work.

For a brief moment, Sura wondered why there would be a lab in the Muramasa residence, but the answer hit him right away. While the dojo was most likely for Mizuki’s own use too, she had modified and labelled the equipment specifically for Sura’s benefit. She had already encouraged them to explore the house, saying that only the one room (hers) was off-limits. In other words, she had probably set up this lab for Fiona.

“Sensei…”

He looked around, taking in the sight in awed silence for a moment before looking at Fiona again.

“Looks like you have everything you could want.”

“It’s a hell of a lab,” she said, nodding. “And I found it right in time too, ‘cuz I need it.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ve got work to do,” she replied. “And…” She hesitated slightly. “... I could use some help.”

She glanced up, unsure what Sura’s reaction would be.

“Of course,” he said, right away. “What do you need?”

She couldn’t stop her heart from leaping at his response, as well as the slight grin on his face. It made her immensely guilty, especially considering that Asuka was right there, also smiling supportively.

“There’s something I need to build,” she said. “I need to keep it simple, but effective. And I’ll need someone to test it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Sura.

“Right, I’ll leave you two to it,” said Asuka. “I’ll go make dinner.”

Remarkably, it seemed that on top of everything else, the one responsible for the outstanding food everyday was Mizuki as well. However, with her gone, someone had had to take over cooking duties until she returned, and Asuka had taken the role. Interestingly, she was just as good at it as the homeroom teacher herself.

“Okay,” said Sura. “I’ll see you in a bit then.”

“Mhm.”

Getting up on her toes, she kissed him before heading for the kitchen, leaving his face slightly red as he watched her go. He still couldn’t entirely believe that they were together.

“She’s really got ya good, huh?” said Fiona. To her credit, she managed to mask the bitterness almost entirely from her tone.

“S-sorry. Got a little distracted there,” he answered.

“It’s all right. Let’s get to work.”

“Okay. What exactly do you need me to do?”

“Well, it’s actually the other way around,” she said. Walking over to a desk, she lay a sheet of construction paper on it and grabbed a pencil before looking at him. “Sura, when you fight Mages, are there any things you wish you could do?”

“Sure. I wish I could erase them from existence by just thinking it.”

Fiona rolled her eyes.

“How about something possible within the laws of science? Come on, I know you’re strong, but there’s gotta be something you wish you could do, but aren’t able to. Like, don’t you wish you didn’t need to dodge Magic Skills? Or maybe you want to hit even harder than you do? There’s gotta be something.”

He blinked. It seemed she was serious about it. If that was the case, then he already knew what he needed that he lacked. His teacher had pointed it out.

“I wish I had a way to get around quickly,” he said. “I’m pretty quick on my feet, but I won’t lie: there are times when it’s hard to keep up with Mages.”

“Right,” said Fiona, nodding as she took notes. “Because they have all kinds of ways to move fast besides physical Enhancement. Steam power, sliding on ice, gravity and force manipulation. Heck, Miss Muramasa can even teleport. Now that I think about it, Mages can fly too, like Alice’s jerk brother.”

“Uh-huh,” said Sura. “Thanks for reminding me of that guy. My day was going a little too well.”

“Focus. Their speed and their mobility are often connected, aren’t they?”

“Sometimes,” answered Sura. “For example, Sensei can teleport, like you said, but she also has a levitation ability that probably comes from an entirely different Skill.”

Fiona swore, but immediately rallied.

“Fair enough, but she’s an outlier. You said it herself, didn’t you: there aren’t any others like her. So for now, we’ll take the approach that speed and mobility are connected. What if you had something that boosted both?”

“That would be pretty great,” Sura admitted. He still hadn’t managed to come up with a technique for either of those two needs yet.

“Behold: the solution to your needs.”

Sura looked at the sketch she was holding up. The longer he looked at it, the further his eyes widened.

“Hey… this is…”

Fiona grinned.

“Pretty damn sweet, right?”

He took the sketch from her and looked it over. While it was quick and rough (and Sura was sure the actual production would involve making changes to the design), it looked promising. While the base tool itself was ages old, Fiona had found a way to improve it with modern technology: the grappling hook.

Specifically, the sketch showed a glove, with the grappling hook itself (which was surprisingly compact) connected to a device on its back. Sura had studied up on the use of such tools. With the growth of Magic in the population, they had gradually been discarded. However, Flawed Warriors had frequently made use of analog technology in battle, including crossbows and grappling hooks. Traditionally, a crossbow would be the tool used to fire the hook, but it would take time to cock and load, making it useless as a quick traversal option in pitched battle.

However, Fiona’s newer version of it took it into account. The mechanism used to launch the tool would be magnetism. Specifically, a magnetic field generated and controlled by Lightning Crystals which would be configured to respond to Sura’s movements thanks to sensors in the gloves. The magnetic repulsion wouldn’t be able to launch an object with as much force as a crossbow, but it more than made up for it with its speed. According to the specs Fiona had scribbled down, it should be able to fire near instantly. In addition, the device also had a mechanism to retract the chain, which also functioned via magnetism.

“But a standard hook won’t find any purchase on Elysium’s walls,” he said, slowly looking up at her.

Her grin became a bit larger.

“That’s why it won’t be a standard hook. Basically, using contact electrification, it’ll be able to stick to most surfaces in Elysium.”

If Fiona said she could make it happen, he… trusted her? To his surprise, that was what he found himself thinking.

Somewhere along the line, I really changed, huh?

“You really are something else, huh? You were able to come up with something like this in a few minutes”, he said.

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“Well, it is my job,” she said, winking.

He looked at the sketch again.

“You know, I’ve never used Crystal tech in fights,” he said. “Or Artifacts. You can get ‘em pretty cheap on the black market back in the 54th. I guess I thought it would be ‘cheating’.”

He laughed.

“Just the kid in me, I guess. Or maybe it’s my ego. Since I was born, they were using Magic to keep me down. I suppose I didn’t want to use the same powers as them.”

Fiona stared, more than a little surprised. Sura never talked about himself or his past. This was the first look she had gotten at either of those. For a moment, she feared he would refuse after all: say that he would only fight with his own strength. Before she could even think about how that would make her feel, however, he continued.

“But I guess it’s okay if you’re the one building it. It’s science, isn’t it? A power that Flawed like us can use.”

Fiona’s heart leapt and her eyes lit up.

“Ya get it…” she said softly. “Sure, we weren’t born with what it takes to be a Mage. But we don’ need it!”

Sura smiled slightly. “No, we don’t.”

He placed the construction sheet back on the desk, grabbed a second pencil, and etched out some more forms.

“Think we can make these changes?”

Fiona looked over his suggestions.

“Those are some odd choices. Can’t see them being too practical,” she said.

“Probably not. But can you make them work somehow?”

She frowned and went through them once more, calculating it in her head.

“It’s doable,” she said at last. “Fine, I’ll add them. But we should move on. There’s more stuff we need to build.”

She brought out a second sheet of paper, laying it over the first, and began sketching fresh forms on it.

“There have to be other things you need too. Have you ever thought about armour? Something to protect against Magic? Maybe ranged weapons of your own?”

She was speaking feverishly, drawing quickly. There was some desperation to her movements, and her Ki felt disturbed too.

“Hey,” said Sura. “Is everything okay?”

She looked up from the paper, meeting his gaze, and immediately averting her eyes as she answered.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Why wouldn’ it be?”

Sura wasn’t fooled by it.

“Look, if there’s something you don’t want to tell me, I can’t force you. You can just come out and say it though, I don’t mind.”

She started slightly. If she were being entirely honest, this was how she had wanted the scenario to play out: for Sura to ask her what was bothering her, for him to take the first step. And it felt good: it made her happy that he did care, that he wanted to help. And that was why she was racked with guilt. He was already with someone, and that someone happened to be one of her few friends. Even simply being alone in the workshop with him while she made dinner for everyone felt wrong.

“I…” She paused, scared to reveal any more, unwilling to feel more guilty than she already did. She took a deep breath. “I just have a few things to deal with,” she settled on, ultimately. “It’s nothing to worry about.”

Sura blinked. It was clear from his expression that he didn’t buy it. However, he didn’t push the matter.

“I understand,” he said.

She breathed a sigh of relief, though the discomfort didn’t really go away. She should have told him about the Engineering Club situation. After all, wasn’t she building gear for him so that he could take them on? Was she really going to give him the equipment without telling him what to expect? Trying to ignore such thoughts, she fine-tuned the specifications and design of the grappling hook glove, drawing up a detailed blueprint and diagrams for it. Once that was done, she began the process of actually building it. The workshop had a stock of raw materials, and using the Augmented equipment, cutting, molding and shaping it was quicker than it would otherwise be. Even so, it took several hours.

Sura stayed behind, helping out where he could. Fiona noted that though he did not know the why’s and how’s of the production process, he had incredible precision. Whatever she told him to do, he was able to do with such accuracy, it was almost as if he was a machine. In addition to strength, speed, combat required fine motor control and coordination; his training must have included exercises for those as well. Fiona realized it made perfect sense: all his movements, both when he fought and otherwise, were fluid, graceful, natural, and perfectly controlled. While he was too quick for her eyes to follow properly during battle, she had noted that he never seemed to miss, always hitting his opponents exactly where he wanted, and rarely getting hit himself.

She herself worked with the trained precision of someone who had practically lived in the workshop since she was a child. Sura marvelled at just how much she knew: she took care of each part of the process without stumbling, completely familiar with it all. She worked diligently, completely focused. While there was no smile on her face, her eyes twinkled: Sura could see the joy she felt in doing it. She had genuine love for science, for imagining and building things, for her art. Unable to stop himself, he said it out loud.

“You really are amazing. You’re making weapons, but you could make anything you wanted, couldn’t you?”

She continued to work, welding a link as she answered.

“It’s what I do, what I always wanted to do. It’s why I came to Elysium in the first place. To learn, and to use the lab here. There’re things here that you can’t learn or find anywhere else. That, and to get the degree.”

“The degree?”

“Flawed like me is never going to be hired by the best companies. Augmented Engineering: how the hell’s someone without Magic supposed to do it? And all that jazz. It’s why so few of us work in this field. But graduatin’ from here, with that Elysium stamp of approval… it might just open the door for me. It’s why I bet everything on coming here. Go big or go home, right?”

“Bet everything? What do you mean?”

“... My folks aren’t the ones payin’ for my tuition. It’s all comin’ from my savings. I won’t lie… it took most of it just to pay for the one year at this place.”

“But that’s…”

Sura felt the anger boiling in him.

“That’s ridiculous! Why…”

Why won’t they help you? They’re your parents!

Fiona smiled wryly, shaking her head.

“They ain’t bad people,” she said. “They want the best for me. Just didn’t want me gettin’ mixed up with Elysium. With elites. It’s bad news for people like us. And they’re not wrong ‘bout that. But I couldn’t just give up. So we fought. And then I ran away.”

She looked up into his eyes.

“Elysium’s my last chance. My only chance at makin’ my dream come true. It’s a risk, but… I think of all the things I can build, and the choice is obvious.”

With that, silence fell between them. Sura continued to watch her work, lost in thought.

A dream…

Fiona had come to Elysium to study. She had plans for her future, things she wanted to do. Despite being Flawed, she hadn’t given up on her hopes and dreams. As he looked on, she placed the programmed Crystal components, less than a centimeter thick, within the glove’s compartment before screwing it shut. Putting it on, she flexed her wrist. Sure enough, the substitute projectile, a light rubber disc around the same size as the hook, shot outwards as though fired from a crossbow. She took off her protective goggles.

“Yeah, this is good. Still needs fine-tuning and testing, though.”

“You should take a break and have something to eat,” said Sura. “Personally, I’m starving.”

“Yeah, good call,” Fiona agreed. As he walked out of the workshop, she followed, but trailed behind. She’d have to see Asuka again now, and the guilt was back in full measure. Still, there was no avoiding it. In the dining hall, her friend had already served dinner, and Alice was right there as well.

“Just in time,” said Asuka. “It’s hot and fresh off the stove.”

“Sweet,” said Sura, grabbing a plate and loading it up with fried rice. As he took a mouthful of it, the same delicious taste he’d come to expect hit him. “Is there a reason you’re so good at this?” he asked.

“My parents run a restaurant in the 53rd,” she replied. “I sometimes help out with that.”

“Well, what do you know,” said Alice. “It paid off. Cooking’s quite the useful skill.”

Fiona remained silent. The food was amazing, as it always was. Ironically, it made her want to throw up. While Asuka had been cooking for all of them, she had found an excuse to make her partner spend time with her, all while trying to rope him into fighting the Engineering Club for her. She felt sick at what she had done. Shoveling down whatever she could force herself to swallow, she got up from the table.

“I’ve still got some work to do. I’ll see all of you later.”

Without waiting for a reply, she walked away quickly.

----------------------------------------

The next morning found Fiona even more tired than usual. The shadows under her eyes were more pronounced than ever, and she felt vaguely disconnected from reality. Voices and events around her seemed to be registering less than usual. She hadn’t slept, having worked on the grappling hook glove throughout the night. Despite what she had told Sura, there had been a lot of work left. She might even have been lying to herself about it. Fine-tuning, correcting certain errors that had popped up, and testing: it had taken hours. Normally, it would take days, if not weeks. But she didn’t have that kind of time. As things stood, the glove was functional, but she had no idea how it would perform in the heat of battle. There was nothing for it though: she’d just have to trust that what she’d managed to build would be enough.

Her state didn’t go unnoticed.

“You were awake all night, weren’t you?” Sura asked when she walked into the dining hall.

She grunted an affirmative, not feeling like speaking at all. She had showered and changed, but for all that, she wanted nothing more than to collapse on her bed and pass out. Instead, she decided to make do with another fix, something she would not have been able to do with Mizuki around. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a pack and flipped out a cigarette, using a small bit of Fire Crystal to light it up.

“It’ll kill you,” said Sura.

“Yeah, and so will fighting. But you do that, don’t ya?”

“Fair enough.”

He continued to look at her, concerned. While the smell of smoke had been in the workshop last night, he hadn’t commented on it. But given her current state, he couldn’t help but worry. She wasn’t acting like her usual self. He wanted to help, but unless she told him what was wrong, there was nothing he could do.

“Hey, Sura. After classes today… you think you could meet me at the Engineering Lab?”

“The one in the Primary Tower? Yeah, I can do that.”

He had a feeling this was related to whatever her problem was, in which case, this was a chance to solve it. Feeling relieved that he would be able to sort it all out, he focused on breakfast. A few moments later, Alice and Asuka joined them.

“Packed schedule today,” said the former, straight to business as usual. “Homework was tough too. I barely managed to get through it. What about you lot?”

“I finished mine,” said Asuka, unsurprisingly.

“I copied hers,” said Sura, without missing a beat.

“You’ll get us both in trouble,” she complained.

Fiona swore under her breath.

She had forgotten entirely about the daily assignments, focused entirely on completing the glove. Of course, her reaction was noticed, and it didn’t take anyone long to figure out the reason for it.

“You can copy mine,” Asuka offered. She knew Fiona was a solid student, more than capable of handling her studies. If she had missed out on an assignment because of her own work, she didn’t mind giving her an assist.

Unknown to her, the innocent offer left Fiona feeling even guiltier than before.

“I- it’s okay,” she managed to stammer out. “I’ll get on it right now. Homeroom should be enough time for me to finish it.”

“It’s a fair bit of work,” Asuka said, worried. “Will you be all right?”

“I don’t need to answer everything. Just enough to get a passing grade.” Having said that, she picked up her bag and ran out the door. With a shared glance, the others followed. Throughout homeroom, Fiona worked feverishly, struggling to stay awake even as she used whatever brainpower she could muster to solve the assigned problems. She put down her pen just as the bell rang.

“It’ll have to do,” she said. She’d managed to answer just over half the questions on every assignment. From here, whether she passed or not came down to whether she had gotten every attempted answer right or not. She didn’t even want to think about what might happen if she hadn’t. Her position in the school was tenuous enough as it was.

The day’s classes passed by with her fighting not to nod off as she forced herself to stay up, taking notes where she could. When core subjects were done, she ran to the lunch hall, managing to grab a coffee. It wasn’t much, but it might help a little. Dreading what she would find, she made her way to the Engineering Lab, on high alert as she entered. As she walked in, she quickly scanned the faces of the other students. A few of them had satisfied smirks on their faces as they stared back at her, a silent confession that she was right about the culprits. However, it wasn’t enough proof to lodge a complaint.

Hands shaking from a mixture of the caffeine, the exhaustion, the fear and the anger, she got to work at her new bench. The equipment had already been replaced, not even a trace of the destruction from the day before left. As she worked, something floated over to her desk. Cautiously, she unfurled the paper.

“I hope our message was clear. But if it wasn’t, we’ll be waiting here today after class.”

Crumpling it up, she tossed it in the bin, making sure everyone saw her do it.

Well, looks like that’s one fight I decided to pick.

Her nerves had woken her wide up, and she went through the rest of the class on autopilot before storming out quickly as soon as the bell rang. In order for this to work, she needed Sura’s help. With much more time on her hand, she might be able to build something that would allow her to take on Mages herself, but it wasn’t the sort of thing she could make overnight. Using a deterrent like the Faust Cell wouldn’t work either: she wanted to use the lab, so threatening to blow it up was a transparent bluff. In any case, she was sure they would have prepared for that. They wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice easily.

As she turned the corner, she reached into her backpack for the glove. In the cold light of day, with the entire Engineering Club against them, it suddenly didn’t seem enough. Would a grappling hook really allow a lone Flawed boy to take on twenty or so trained Mages armed with advanced technology? It wasn’t a question she was sure she wanted to answer. Perhaps it would be best to back down here. After all, there was a lab in the Muramasa house where she could work in peace. There wasn’t any need to fight the Engineering Club anymore. She had known this. Even so… why did she ask Sura to help, indirectly as it was? Why did she rush to build the glove overnight? This wasn’t an unavoidable battle.

But she didn’t want to back down. Not from a group of bullies.

She had as much right to use the lab as any other student. She was paying the same fees as everyone else, and with her own hard-earned money no less.

Even so… she hesitated. Was it really worth putting her friend at risk for her own pride?

“Yo.”

She nearly jumped when she heard the voice from right behind her. Turning around, she saw the large form of Sura looming over her. She uttered a quick stream of profanities, stopping only when she’d run out of breath.

“You done?” he asked.

“Yes,” she muttered. He had showed up. Of course he had. He was the sort to turn up whenever someone needed him.

“Sura... I’m thinking maybe-”

“Don’t think too much,” he said. “Not a good thing before a fight.”

She started.

He knows?!

“You’re all jumpy and nervous, hiding out here, while there are a bunch of Mages in the lab. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on.”

He sighed.

“You could’ve just told me from the beginning, you know?”

She struggled to meet his eyes.

“I… I didn’t want to…”

Trouble you? Get you involved in my battle?

Rely on you?

“You’re overthinking it,” he said again. “Haven’t I told you three already? I came here to beat the absolute hell out of Mages. I’m going to do it anyway.”

He began to walk towards the lab, but paused for a second.

“Doing it for a friend is a nice bonus though.”

Fiona stared for a moment in shock, before running to catch up with him.

“Wait!” she yelled. “I still haven’t given you the-”

The words stopped in her mouth as he opened the door wide, and entered. Heart pounding furiously, she ran over to him, and saw what was waiting inside.

“Well well. You showed up with your friend after all. Has anyone ever told you? There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity.”

Fiona stared in horror.

What the hell…

The work benches had been moved aside, creating space on the floor, a sort of impromptu ring. Standing in the middle of it was a gigantic figure, over fifteen feet tall. Its body was made of metal, though there were glowing panels on it which revealed the Crystals powering its mechanisms. The head was transparent, and inside it, the face of one of the Club members was visible.

“A mech suit”, breathed Fiona.

So that’s their plan.

Her calculations had been spot on. There wasn’t a Level Three Mage anywhere who could stand toe-to-toe with Sura. There wasn’t anyone above Level Three on the Engineering Club. They had the disadvantage in terms of power. So they’d created something to shift the odds in their favour. A mech suit. Given the number of high quality Crystals she could see, its power output likely surpassed even Level Four Mages.

“Sura, we have to go-”

“Huh. You’re a little too old to be playing with action figures in my book, but hey, I won’t judge,” said Sura, walking towards the mech.

“Hmm…” A microphone augmented voice rang out from the mech. “You’re quite full of yourself, aren’t you? But even a gorilla like you has to realize: the power of flesh simply can’t match the power of science.”

“Heh. But there’s a science behind flesh too, ya know?” said Sura. “More advanced than what you used to build this junk, that’s for sure.”

“Silence!”

The mech swung its arm at Sura, who leapt backwards out of the way.

“Naive.”

Immediately, the mech leapt towards him, thrusters attached to its legs fired, pushing it forward like a missile.

With Fiona right behind him, dodging wasn’t an option.

With no other choice, he stepped forward and met its charge head on, locking hands with it. The mech continued to push, switching from thrusters to grounded steps as it attempted to wrestle him. Sura slid backwards a few inches, but managed to hold it there.

“Not even full power output, and you’re already being outmatched.”

Sura held firm, struggling to maintain his position. The Mage inside the cockpit grinned, encouraged at having managed to push him on to the back foot. He was about to turn the power output even higher, when all of a sudden, the resistance stopped. With nothing holding it back, the Mech lunged forward, stumbling. Before it had the opportunity to regain its footing, Sura slid around to its back, pulling its leg out from under it. Panicking, the Mage fired the thrusters, hoping to use fire as a deterrent to force Sura back, if not burn him alive.

But the Flawed fighter had already moved, relinquishing his hold on the leg. Belatedly, the Mage realized Sura was sitting on the mech’s right shoulder, with his legs around the metal arm, while his own arms maintained a firm grip on it. Bracing himself, he pulled back with his hips, tearing the limb free of its socket.

“Systems at 80 percent. System shock sustained. Initiating corrective measures.”

Ignoring the AI assistant’s warnings, the Mage desperately attempted to throw Sura off, reaching to grab him with the mech’s remaining arm. Again, the Flawed had already moved away.

Swinging the mech’s own detached arm as a weapon, he smashed it in the face, knocking it backward off its feet.

Head ringing, the Club member attempted to blink away the bright spots in his vision. When his sight cleared, he noticed that the protective panel of the cockpit had a crack in it. He realized that the battle suit had not been designed to sustain impacts from its own limbs. But the very idea of anyone actually managing to tear one off was absurd. He could barely believe it.

“Did you know?” said Sura, his voice coming once more from near the legs. “Flawed Warriors in ages past often fought armoured enemies. Long story short: we’re very good at humbling you.”

The mech’s entire frame shuddered as its left leg was gripped and pulled with terrifying strength. A moment later, the lower part of it was torn free, the knee shattering under the stress. Before any resistance could be mustered, Sura was back on his feet. Using the jagged metal at the torn part of the knee, he hacked through the one remaining leg in a single devastating downward thrust.

Utterly desperate, the Mage attempted to use the mech’s only intact limb, its left arm, swinging wildly at him. Sura skipped backwards and circled around with the snakelike agility and speed, grabbing the other detached leg too. To his complete horror, the trapped mech suit pilot realized Sura was standing right next to his head.

“Congratulations. You’re about to be beaten to death with your own legs.”

Swinging both broken limbs like hammers, he struck the cockpit with repeated blows

“Critical system error: power generation pathways damaged. Shutdown imminent.”

“Hey, when your lights are going out, I want to remember this: I beat you with leverage. You lost to the basics of physics.”

With each strike, the cracks in the cockpit grew. It was built to withstand hits even from Level Four Magic, but the weight of the artificial legs, combined with the toughness of the metal they were composed of, was too much to handle when wielded by someone with Sura’s strength, using near-perfect technique.

“E-enough!”

“That’s enough, stop it!”

“Stop it, now!”

Sura, about to bring the hammer down, stopped his arm, and looked up. Around the lab, the rest of Club was staring at him in fear. It went beyond the fear of a tougher boy at school. They were completely terrified, backed up as far away from him as they could go, looking at him as though he were a wild beast.

“You’ve been messing with my friend,” he said. “I don’t like that.”

He raised the hammer a few inches higher, the muscles in his arm visibly tensing in preparation to swing.

“We’ll stop!”

“Y-yeah! We’ll leave her alone!”

“Please, just stop!”

He looked into their eyes for a moment, saying nothing, before finally straightening up, and dropping the broken mech legs.

“Stick to your word,” he said. “Or you’ll meet me again, and it won’t be this pleasant.”

Briefly, he glanced at the boy inside the suit, who was breathing hard, sweating so hard, he looked like he had run ten miles.

“I’ll give you props for not making the limbs part of the main chassis. Saved yourself a lot of hospital bills.”

The mech’s large size had saved its user. The entirety of the Mage’s own body was situated within the suit’s main torso and head, saving him from losing his own arm and legs with the mech’s.

Sura walked over to Fiona, who was staring at him with wide eyes. While she hid it well enough, he still caught the fear in them. He had known it was inevitable. At some point or another, they would see the real him, and they would be afraid. It still hurt. He managed to stop it from showing, however, shooting her a quick grin as he walked past quickly.

“There you go. Problem solved.”

Before she could say a word in reply, the sound of running footsteps filled the hall. Alice came into view, sprinting as fast as she could. Sura didn’t even need to ask.

“It’s Asuka!” she said. “She’s been taken.”