"I've been meaning to talk to you for a while," Rex said as he walked towards her, tilting his stupid hat up over his face. "Well, since you came back to Onyxfell, that is."

Volcatia sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Okay."

She couldn't believe this was happening.

Definitely a bug.

Even the Char hero was obsessed with her?

After such a long fucking time?

"You, ah," Rex hesitated, his eyes sizing her up like she was an opponent to fight. "Did you come back for any particular reason?"

Was he asking if she was going to fight again?

"Nah, just hanging out," she replied.

She was going to have to complain to Aquila about this later.

She was being confined, and she fucking hated it.

She caught another flicker and decided to watch it again.

"Good, then you won't mind if I, ah, take steps to ensure that," Rex said.

A current raced towards her from behind and leapt up into the air.

She waited until she felt the metal teeth of the canis sink into her neck, disrupting her own current slightly.

Pathetic.

Her circuit completed through the metal canis, and it melted from the extreme heat discharge.

She really was pathetic.

Letting the thing bite her just to find out if it would hurt.

Obviously it wouldn't.

Pain was something humans felt.

How was she still this pathetic?

She hadn't been human in years.

She wasn't human.

She'd known that.

But still she tried to pretend.

Her morning was ruined now.

It would take her a while to recover enough humanity to compensate.

Maybe she'd do that now before she stopped watching.

Yeah, that seemed like a great plan.

No reason to actually have her morning ruined.

What should she do first?

Rex was cringing back, his face set in an expression of fear.

She wasn't sure if killing him for annoying her would be human or not-human, so she decided not to just in case.

She started tapping her foot.

She was too agitated, and the shock ran through the metal of her heel, the sudden discharge setting the dock on fire.

Not that it mattered.

She decided to start with coffee.

Coffee was something that made her human.

She moved back to D-five and stood in front of Ientaculum.

Moving wasn't something humans did.

The black road bubbled and melted beneath her.

The air thrummed.

A nearby car began to slide backwards towards her.

"Coffee," she said to Titus Septimius Bibulus, just as she'd done so many times previously.

Remembering her past as a human made her a tiny bit human.

The retired gladiator stared.

"Please," she added.

Being polite was human, wasn't it?

A car passed too closely behind her and tipped over while its driver screamed, its metal screeching as it sped towards her along the ground.

She had to relax.

Bibulus moved with jerking motions as he poured coffee out of his kettle into a nearby mug.

When he finished, he finally lost his grip on the kettle, and it joined the rest of the metal in his shop as well as the cars that were already sticking to her.

Electromagnetism.

Annoying.

"Here," he said as he passed her the clay cup.

He must have been a great gladiator.

Not even a single drop spilled.

No fear.

"Thank you very much," she said as she accepted the cup with one hand. Her other hand set a ten-mark that she'd pulled from her pocket on top of the counter.

She was already starting to feel a little more human.

Then she brought her hand back and the coin stuck to it.

Fine.

She drank a sip of the coffee.

It was too hot for a human to drink, so she sipped it instead.

She could feel people staring, but they didn't matter.

She took a breath for the first time since she'd left the dock.

Very human.

She blew on the coffee a little.

Even more human.

She took another sip.

She was starting to feel it.

"How's your shop doing?" she asked.

Talking unnecessarily was human too.

Bibulus blinked at her.

She stretched her free arm over her head.

Stretching was human.

What more…

She deconstructed parts of the metals surrounding her, and they blew away as ash.

Deconstruction was something she didn't understand.

Not understanding things was human.

Volcatia set the cup back on the countertop without finishing it.

Not finishing something she'd paid for felt human.

She started walking aimlessly.

Walking was more human than exchanging her current position in the quantum state of her being with that of one of her superpositions.

She was always everywhere she'd ever been.

More things she'd never understand.

Not having a direction in mind when going somewhere also seemed human.

She was still only feeling a little human though.

Not enough.

Volcatia Scipio was human.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She had a human name, so she must be human.

Almost there.

She was still missing something though.

Yeah, there was one more thing that would make her seem really fucking human.

That was it.

She was so fucking great at being human.

Yeah, this was close enough.

She'd gotten back into it really fast this time.

It almost made her feel like the morning was even better than it had been with how fucking fast she'd started being human again.

Volcatia grinned and stopped watching.

Rex stood in front of her on the dock once more as Carl continued to fish off the end of it.

She kept grinning.

If she was this fucking great at being human now, maybe she'd be even better in the future!

Maybe not.

She didn't need to go too far.

Rex took a step back.

He could probably feel how human she was being now.

"That's good then," he said. "I was…" He swallowed. "Well, I was a little worried maybe you were back for other reasons, but I'm happy we can avoid conflict."

Fine, he was probably uneasy from the way the air around her was still ionized to extreme levels.

She wasn't about to change that though.

Aquila would definitely be fucking furious if anything happened to him.

A blinding light suddenly erupted from the end of the dock.

"Ah shoot, it's another one of these stupid bright fish," Carl said.

Fucking Carl.

Volcatia chuckled even as she squinted.

He really was the best friend she could have hoped for.

He didn't even know he was being as great as he was.

The illumination increased.

"What the hell…" Rex began.

"I'm thinking this one's the biggest," Carl called. "Thing's freaking huge! Really glad I wore my sunglasses."

Something thudded as it hit the dock, and there was the sound of it flopping around.

"It's a sea monster, all right," Carl said in the tone of a man who was extremely proud of himself.

"I can't see it," Rex said. "Can't be that big."

"What? It's right here. C'mon, you just gotta squint really hard."

"Can't see anything with how fucking bright it is. You even catch anything?"

Volcatia's chuckles turned into laughs.

How could a fish even be this fucking bright?

Only Carl could go fishing and catch a fish nobody else could see.

She was laughing too hard to bother paying attention to whatever they were arguing about now.

"So you're gonna make me one?" Carl was asking when she finally stopped. Something splashed, and the brightness disappeared.

"Well…" Rex adjusted his hat and tapped his fishing rod against his shoulder. "I know. How about this: I'm competing in the race tomorrow. If you bet on another driver and they beat me, I'll give you my fishing rod."

Carl was clearly fighting back a grimace, having already put his hasta back into his Inventory. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't know, I kinda just want a fishing rod with a halfway decent reel and guides. Doesn't need to be—"

"I'll throw in this lure I made," Rex said quickly, pointing to something on his fishing rod. "Works on any type of fish!"

"I can just use worms though," Carl said.

"Not on most fish!" Rex protested. "Come on, Carl, you should know by now that a regular worm isn't going to catch something that big!"

"Er, well, yeah, of course I know that," Carl said.

Did he though?

It didn't sound like he did.

"So we'll bet on it tomorrow," Rex said as he started back towards the shore. "I'll put my rod up as a personal bet before the race, and we'll meet back here the day after to fish again so you can try it out if you win."

Carl sighed. "Alright, I guess I'll see you then if I don't see you at the race."

"Sure thing, Carl," Rex called over his shoulder as he walked past her, holding a hand up in the air to wave.

Volcatia watched him leave.

Just in case.

"That guy is such a sore loser," Carl grumbled a short while later when he closed the distance between them. "Tried to run away a little while ago when he was afraid I was gonna win, and now he's just moving the freaking goalpost."

"If he wagers his fishing rod as a personal bet like he said, he won't be able to escape his defeat," Volcatia said. "The Empire takes its bets really fucking seriously."

"That's good, I guess. Still feels like I'm kinda getting scammed though."

"Scammed?"

"Er, cheated?"

"Ah, yeah, scammed."

Maybe another great word.

Carl had lots of great words.

He was interesting like that.

Carl rubbed his beard.

She couldn't wait any longer.

She had to ask.

"Carl, can I check out your hasta?" Volcatia asked, trying to seem normal about it.

It was obviously not a normal weapon though.

If she had a weapon like that…

Eh.

She'd had the chance in the past, and she'd barely bothered to use the fucking thing.

Where did she even leave it anyway?

Not that it mattered.

"Sure," Carl said. He reached his hand into the air next to him and pulled out the huge, glowing weapon before offering it to her.

She grasped its haft.

Was it metal?

It felt like metal.

Cool to the touch, good, solid feel to it.

She stood in place on the dock while she stepped forward and imagined her shadow coming to life in front of herself.

She struck out with an overhand grip towards its sparking head.

Good balance.

She dropped to the ground and swept low at her shadow's feet.

Light weight too.

She slapped the end of it down at her shadow's shoulder, then followed through with a sideways swipe.

It was a good weapon.

She wondered though.

She lunged forward, thrusting once more at her shadow, which evaded her attack just as it had the ones prior.

She spun quickly while switching to an underhand grip, bashing towards its side, then darted forward again, lashing out with her rear hand.

Her shadow ducked the swing and deflected her strike with the haft of the hasta, making a taunting gesture with one hand.

Annoying.

She decided to be faster, and then she was.

She stabbed forward at its head, then its chest, then she feinted a low attack and thrust a little more powerfully at its chest again.

The speed of the final strike skewered her shadow in its side while it tried to dodge with matching speed, and the sudden discharge from its explosion crackled in the air.

The force of the strike shattered the dock beneath her.

The lake became steam and blew away.

She dropped into the soft, boiling mud.

A wide trench had been torn into the opposite bank.

She looked over the hasta and was surprised to find it undamaged.

Decent weapon.

Felt watery though.

She couldn't think of a better way to describe it.

Volcatia stopped watching.

"Good weapon," she said as she offered the hasta back to Carl. "Thanks."

She was a little happy.

He'd trusted her with his weapon, after all.

That was something friends did.

"You can tell just by looking, huh," Carl said. He took his hasta and put it back into his Inventory. "Probably not really supposed to have it, but at least when it comes to fishing I'm not a total noob."

Noob.

She still didn't quite know what it meant.

Any time she asked, Carl got depressed.

It seemed like it might be a good word though.

"You caught the biggest fish," Volcatia said.

"I did," Carl said, grinning widely. He started walking back towards the city.

She took up her usual spot walking next to her friend. "Even defeated the Char hero in fishing. Not bad, side character."

"Hero? Who, Rex? Nah, he's just a sore loser. And what do you mean side character? That was a main character fishing battle if I've ever seen one!"

"I'm sure the legends're gonna describe your battle with the fish too bright to even fucking see in all its glory."

"Ugh, I hate those freaking blinding fish. What kinda idiot decided to put something like that in?"

"No idea. Never seen one before. Then again, I've never fished either."

"You haven't? Wanna go sometime?"

"Eh, not really. Seems… Not trying to cause offense, Carl, but it seems really fucking boring."

"Yeah, I kinda figured you'd say that."

"But I'd hang out with you while you were fishing. Maybe."

"Really? Huh."

"Huh?"

"I, uh, I was just thinking you're a really good friend, Vol."

"You're a good friend too, Carl. Where the fuck are we going anyway?"

"Huh? I was following you."

"Carl, how the fuck were you following me when you started walking first?"

"I don't know, you always know where you're going. Figured I'd just start going somewhere, and you'd steer us around like usual."

"Some real side character shit right there."

"Then start acting more like a main character and—Oh, we're back in the workshop."

"I didn't know where… Huh."

The workshop had changed since she'd left.

The unfinished metal frame of a car lay in the middle of the floor, and other car parts were spread out everywhere. Mina was sitting cross-legged on the ground to the side of the car skeleton with a small rock in front of her and papers scattered around.

The automaton fornicatiēns was still in the same spot though, not having moved.

Weird.

"Oh, hello," Mina said as she caught sight of them. "You've returned considerably sooner than I'd anticipated."

"What's going on here, sweetie?" Carl asked. He walked over to her and leaned down a little to ruffle the girl's hair.

"Well," she began, smiling like she'd been smiling the first day Volcatia had seen her, "I'd thought to create a new chariot of steam quickly, as I'm to race tomorrow." She glanced at Volcatia.

Right.

She wanted to win that fucking race.

And there was that boring shit with her sister, whatever it was.

Volcatia had forgotten with all the time she'd spent.

Would…

She thought about it more.

She'd probably need to do something so the girl could even compete since it was at the upper track.

Might even need to talk to Aquila if it was a law and not a rule.

Eh.

She could do that tomorrow.

Plenty of time before the race.

She nodded to show that she recalled their bargain.

"So," Mina continued, "I knew I'd not have the time to properly construct a vehicle for the competition, which meant I'd need to consider alternative methods. When I queried the dungeon cores, I discovered, much to my astonishment, that I'd managed to build some manner of rapport with this one."

"Core," said Saxum.

"And," said the girl, "fortuitous as it was, this core both shares my interest in building machines and has the capability to create them."

"Core."

"Now then," she said, turning back to her papers and the rock, which was Saxum, "if you'd fashion the sections I've just described in this part of the schematic," she said while pointing at something on one of the papers, "I believe we can progress with fastening the wheels next."

The car's skeleton suddenly grew taller, and places where wheels could be attached appeared in the expected places.

"Nicely done!" Mina exclaimed.

"Feels like the race tomorrow is getting scammed," Volcatia tried.

Now this was a Smart idea.

Who would even be able to fucking think of something like this?!

"Kinda does," Carl said.