Oswald and Aria were driving down the freeway heading towards Montero to meet Ayano Hashimoto.

“I can’t believe Ayano Hashimoto is your grandmother, Aria.” Oswald said. “I mean she is the greatest Magic Engineer and you are a great Adventurer.”

“It was a surprise when Joseph told me to take you to see my Grandma.” Aria said. “Why do you want to meet my Grandma?”

“I wish to learn from her.” Oswald responded. “Are you Half-Lunarian?”

“Yeah, my mom was a Lunarian. I only have my Grandma left. You might not have known I was related to her since Estrada was my dad’s family name.” Aria responded. “As my Grandma’s child I’ll tell you she is a sweet woman, but as your bodyguard I must tell you, she can be strange. So don’t let her do strange experiments on you.”

“Why does she live out here in the woods?” Oswald asked.

“I think she prefers to be away from people.” Aria responded. “I hope you don’t stop sparing with me and just focus on studying.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I need to become a better fighter if I want to perform well in the Deus Family Tournament in 2 months.” Oswald answered.

“Part of me wishes you do well and the other part wants you to not do well because if you perform well your dad will relieve me of my bodyguard duties.” Aria said.

“If you get relieved from being a bodyguard, then we’ll just be regular friends.” Oswald said. “Besides you’re only 24 years old and I am 17, so you can be like a big sister.”

“You’re right, Ozzy.” Aria said. “But being a bodyguard is more fun than being your dad’s secretary. He gives me difficult missions inside the dungeons. Joseph is a devil when giving work.”

“I mean my Dad is always strict. Yeah, I am not joining the Deus Guild.” Oswald said. “Besides, even with my Dad as the head of the family, most of the Deus family dislikes me.”

“That’s mainly because of your grandfather.” Aria said. “I have never liked Victor Deus. He is the one always talking about how you are unworthy of being a Deus because you are magicless. Joseph is oblivious to this or might not want to accept Victor is saying this because he respects his father.”

“I had a suspicion about this.” Oswald said. “I mean grandfather stopped talking to me after my Grandma died. I believe he only tolerated me because my Grandma loved me. Well, at least I have my maternal grandparents.”

“I like your attitude.” Aria said. “Look, that is my Grandma’s house!”

Aria pointed to a mansion in the middle of the woods. She put her signal and exited the highway into the road leading to Ayano’s house. After a few moments they arrived at the front and exited the car. Aria took out her phone and called Ayano to let her know they were outside.

“I see you two are here. I've been waiting.” Ayano said after opening the front door. She was a short elderly woman with a couple of wrinkles wearing a white floral dress and a straw hat.

“Grandma, it's been awhile.” Aria said as she ran towards Ayano and hugged her. “I’ve been so busy with work and haven’t had the chance to visit.”

“No worries, my dear.” Ayano said, hugging Aria back. “You are always welcome here. Now let me go greet the Young Deus.”

Ayano let go of Aria and walked towards Oswald. She extended her hand. Oswald shook her hand.

“Hello, Mrs. Hashimoto!” Oswald said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“The pleasure it’s mine, Oswald.” Ayano said. “Let’s head inside. We have much to talk about.”

Oswald and Aria followed Ayano into the living room. The living room was decorated with many paintings.

“Where are these paintings from?” Oswald asked.

“They are from Japan from the time before the Magic Revolution.” Ayano said. “I had always had a fascination with Japanese culture from the Old World.”

“I like them, they are beautiful.” Oswald said.

“Aria, my dear child. Since you are here, can you run some errands for me?” Ayano said as she handed a piece of paper to Aria. “Everything I need is in that paper. Don’t worry, I can take care of this young man.”

“Alright, Grandma.” Aria said. “I’ll get it done. Don’t do strange experiments on Ozzy.”

“I am just cautious about his lack of magic and nothing else.” Ayano said. “I won’t harm him.”

Aria just looked at Ayano with a defeated expression and headed outside.

“Let’s go to my lab, Oswald.” Ayano said. “Follow me.”

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Oswald followed Ayano through the hallway into a door going to a stairway down into the basement. Inside the basement they walked through another hallway until reaching a door. Once inside the lab Oswald could see many devices and parts. The lab was somewhat messy, but organized.

“Not even Aria could see us here. So don’t be shy about using Magic.” Ayano said. “I am surprised you didn’t expose me as a Lunarian Ranker.”

“I have nothing against you, Seven.” Oswald said. “And you haven’t revealed the fact that I can use Magic.”

“Good, that means we both have each other in check.” Ayano said. “I’ll be training your Magic, so it would be for the best to tell me the whole truth of how you can use Magic. I am curious how someone with no Magical power can use Magic.”

“First, I want to know. Does Aria know you are a Lunarian Ranker?” Oswald asked.

“She doesn’t know.” Ayano answered. “But one day she will. And I hope she is disappointed in me. By being a Lunarian Ranker I have caused irreparable damage to innocent people, but my revenge is that important to me. I became a monster to make the ones who killed my family pay. I only have Aria and I hope she doesn't want revenge when she learns what happened to her parents.”

“Then, I chose to trust you, Mrs. Hashimoto.” Oswald said. “When my Grandma was killed by Four, I felt powerless that I couldn’t do anything. I got angry at him and then I started seeing something around me and within people whenever I started to focus. I saw a flow. A person’s flow would change when they used Magic, so I eventually started calling it Mana Flow as Magic Flow did not make sense because I also have that flow. For years I tried to see if I could stimulate my Mana Flow to mimic the Mana Flow of someone using Magic, but I was unsuccessful. That is until a month ago when I managed to mimic some self-buffs. Then after Two beat me up I managed to mimic Fire and Wind Magic. A week ago, I saw that mimicking a Mana Flow is inefficient for me, so I started using Mana directly to copy the results and that is how I used Pure Magical Energy or should I say Pure Mana Magic.”

“Hold on, what is this Mana you’re talking about?” Ayano said.

“In a sense I would say Mana is just the building blocks of Magical Energy and for some reason I can use Mana, but I have no access to Magical Energy.” Oswald answered.

“Hahahaha. Who knew there was more about all of this?” Ayano said. “I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about Magical Energy, but then you come and tell me there is more. I wish I was younger, so I could study more about Mana. But one month using Magic, that explains your poor handling of Magic.”

“What do you expect from someone who was never taught how to use Magic?” Oswald said. “I am just doing what feels right?”

“I have my work cut out for me.” Ayano said. “But this should be fun, my disciple. Now try making a flame in your palm.”

Ayano grabbed some glasses from her desk and put them on. Oswald extended his palm and started using Mana after a few moments a red flame appeared out of his palm. Ayano was carefully observing everything.

“Strange, these glasses allow me to see Magical Energy, yet I am unable to see anything.” Ayano said “It seems Mana works differently than Magical Energy, but produces similar results.”

Ayano extended her palm and after a few moments a blue flame appeared. The flame produced more heat than Oswald’s red flame. Ayano then closed her palm and the flame disappeared. Oswald also made his flame disappear.

“My flame was more powerful than yours..” Ayano said. “It’s the same concept for both flames, but I added more Magical Energy and concentrated on trying to make it more powerful. What I observed when you fought the California Bear, is that you add more Mana just to increase the quantity of the Magic instead of the quality. Sometimes what you want is quantity, but you needed quality in that fight because your Magic barely hurt the California Bear.”

“I understand, then how do I increase quality?” Oswald asked.

“You have to envision making the Magic happen as well as trying to increase the power.” Ayano answered. “So you have to think of multiple results at the same time. Not many can do it, but if you want to succeed in your revenge you have to do it.”

“Let me try it.” Oswald said.

Oswald extended his palm and started to think of making a flame as well as trying to make it stronger. He started to concentrate his Mana on his palm. He closed his eyes and started to concentrate. After a few seconds, Oswald felt he produced a flame. When he opened his eyes he saw a yellow flame. He felt that this flame was hotter than the one he made earlier.

“How could you succeed so fast?” Ayano was surprised. “Just how fast do you grow? You skipped the orange flame and went straight to yellow. Even then, usually a regular person would take a couple of weeks to put it to practice and cast an orange flame.”

“It takes longer to cast, but if I practice more I should be able to hasten the casting time.” Oswald said as he dispelled his Magic.

“I guess I am going to be doing a lot more research now that I am aware of the existence of Mana.” Ayano said. “So that man was using Mana and that is why we couldn’t feel Magic Power from him. Oswald if that man ever comes to Earth, please make sure to kill him. He and his sister were brutal. All the Lunarians would be dead if we hadn’t built the Interworld Ship.”

“I won’t let him destroy my world.” Oswald said. “But first, I have to stop the Lunarian Rankers. We need to stop fighting each other.”

“I have hope because the power his sister had was similar to the Deus State. So believe Earth has a better chance to stand up to him.” Ayano said. “What I taught you applies to all Magic. Keep practicing and continue growing. I’ll have two training sessions with you per month. I have something to give you.”

Ayano went to her bookshelf and started looking for a book. After finding it she took it out and gave it to Oswald. Oswald read the title and it read “Armor Ascension.”

“What is Armor Ascension?” Oswald asked.

“We use Magic to create those armors you see us, Lunarian Rankers, wearing. It gives us physical and magical defense and it’s light, so no movement is sacrificed” Ayano said. “Only Lunarians are able to use that Magic. It’s similar to your family’s Deus State. Aria should be able to do it, but she is unaware of it. But I wonder if you can do it since you don’t adhere to regular rules.”

“I’ll give it a try.” Oswald weakly said. “But I don’t know if I can do it.”

“If you can do it, you should be able to hide your identity and use Magic to fight without letting the world know your secret.” Ayano said. “Just like us.”

Oswald’s phone rang indicating a message. Oswald looked at his phone and noticed a message from Hannah. Oswald read the text and he became confused.

“It looks like me and Hannah are facing off against Jack and his girlfriend tomorrow after our date. Hahaha” Oswald said laughing nervously. “How did this happen? Me and my girlfriend against my friend and his girlfriend.”

“I miss being young and reckless.” Ayano said. “Try to use this chance to try and fight using self-buffs without anyone noticing.”

“I’ll do that.” Oswald said. “This should be fun!”