JULY 27th, 2014.

“So? So? How was it? I bet you liked it,” Asuga asks, a string of questions flowing so easily that Seth couldn’t keep up with each answer for them.

Sitting on the floor with his legs crossed as he watches the credits of the first episode roll, his eyes gaze over all the names involved in the production. A great amount of effort went into this, and even though the special effects were sorely lacking, it wasn’t a bad experience by any means.

“It was… okay? I haven’t watched a lot of shows, so I don’t really know how good it is yet.”

Immediately upon waking up, Asuga had excitingly busted into Seth’s room, exclaiming, ‘Today’s the day!’, and dragging him into her ‘workshop’ to watch the show that he agreed to sit down for. The aforementioned ‘workshop’ was simply just a large office, similar in size to Liam’s, that had been renovated and turned into what Seth could only imagine to be Asuga’s dream cave. Racks with tools installed, hanging on every wall, a collection of soldering, electronic equipment created for different types of prosthetics, and military-esque technology scattered throughout. There was a sense of messiness to it, for sure, but it felt like a controlled type of chaos. In the middle of the room was a large TV on the thicker side, with a DVD and VHS player underneath it, and two tall shelves of assorted media to its right and left.

Just ‘okay’? I am already enjoying the main character.

I’m not telling her that you like it, she’d freak out.

I could see that happening, yes.

“So…” Asuga trails off, cutting off his internal conversation with Yggdrasil, “By ‘yet’... does that mean… that you want to watch more…?!”

Her puppy dog eyes gaze into Seth’s own as she presses her hands together in a pleading stance, awaiting his answer and hoping her hardest that it’ll be a satisfying one.

“Well… sure, I guess. I didn’t think it was bad.”

Pumping her fist through the air in a sign of complete and total victory, she shows off a wide grin.

“Yes!”

It’s a little awkward for him since he doesn’t share her level of enthusiasm, but he can more or less understand why she’s doing it.

She’s probably never had somebody to talk to about this type of thing.

Quickly rushing over to an assortment of prototyped legs that she developed over the years, hanging loosely against a wireframe backdrop, she reaches up above them to access something metallic, long, and bendy. It has a lot of lined detail throughout its panels, ending at a larger cylinder that almost looks like some sort of electrical plug. It has the same coloration as her legs: red, silver, and black, with the latter two taking up a majority of the object. She’s excitedly grabbing at it, taking it in both hands and presenting it to Seth with a proud look on her face.

Confused, Seth tilts his head in confusion.

“Am I supposed to know what that is?”

The proud look on her face drops to one of disappointment as her eyelids droop down, and her lips stiffen.

“...Seriously?” she asks while waving it around, “You can’t tell?”

Shaking his head in denial, she sighs before twisting her torso around to face her back toward him. Taking the metal object in her right hand, she unzips a round opening just above her tailbone, revealing even more of her metallic prosthetic. Not even bothering to notice, she was given a new, custom suit and pants similar to his parka. These pants cut off near the top rim of her hips, ensuring that her legs won’t burn another pair off. In contrast, the sleeves around her arms are much baggier and expand greatly toward the cuffs, with a large zipper running down each sleeve that allows for more mobility if she needs it.

But the biggest change is the one she just finished unzipping, showing a large circular metal port that she proceeds to attach the metal object’s plug into, and then shift the entire thing to the right as it locks into place. As soon as it does, she lets it go and it slumps down with the end level to her knees, and she raises her right hand to her headset, pressing a button installed on the band’s inner left side. Less than a second later, the cat-styled ears on her headphones and the metal object spring to life, with the ears moving in a way that mimics that of an actual cat before resting in a forward position. The metal object, now obvious to Seth as a tail, swishes back and forth behind her, raised parallel with her back. Crossing her arms, Asuga smugly stares at him, nodding her head to her own approval.

“Wow. You gave yourself a tail,” he responds, clearly unimpressed by her choice.

“Nope, not a tail. It’s my Trained Automated Intelligence Longitudinal Weighted Support Item! There was a crazy imbalance with my legs, and this balances that.”

‘T.A.I.L. Weighted Support Item’... so it’s a tail.

“With this,” she continues, “I can do…”

Jumping up in the air and rotating forward, her ‘Weighted Support Item’ flings itself between the back of both of her legs, creating enough momentum to where her feet are level with the ground before she even lands, and she does so without an issue.

“...All kinds of cool moves.”

“Hoooh…” Seth exclaims in awe, lightly clapping his hands together in front of him as Asuga responds with an exaggerated bow.

“Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all…”

The both of them are caught off guard by the sound of the office doors opening without warning.

“Hey, are you guys—”

Stopping dead in her tracks, Kat blinks at the two of them as her eyes center on Asuga’s tail, standing straight up behind her in shock.

“...In here… What the…? Is that a tail…?”

Staring up at her with wide eyes, Seth glances at her, then at Asuga, as Kat glances at him, then at her. The feeling in his chest from the previous night didn’t start up again. Instead, it was substituted by a heavy washover of shame, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. But Asuga, quickly going back to her normal self, takes the embarrassment head-on as she strikes a pose, her tail wrapping around her leg as she tries her hardest to look intimidating.

“Hah, no… this is my Trained Automated Intelligence Longitudinal Weighted Support Item.”

Staring at Asuga with a completely unserious look in her eyes, she puts her hand on her hip and tilts into it.

“Say that again.”

Nodding her head in a show of confidence, Asuga does just that.

“It’s my Trained Automated Intelligence Longitudinal Weighted Support Item.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Placing her hand underneath her chin, Kat’s eyes float up to the ceiling as she contemplates the name.

“‘T-A-I-L Weighted Support Item’. So… it’s a tail.”

Yep, it’s a tail.

It has a likeness similar to the tail of a cat.

As her face scrunches up in annoyance, Asuga throws out an index finger and stomps her foot down which leaves a mark on the wooden flooring, sharing her final statement on the matter. The ears on top of her headphones move on an internal rail further down the sides of her head, rotating clockwise and tilted downward.

“It is not a tail! Can a tail work as an external radar, capable of sensing pneuma traces in a radius of thirty meters? I don’t think so! And a tail definitely couldn’t keep my legs balanced when I’m running!”

He raises his hand sarcastically while speaking in a monotone voice.

“Uh, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look like a tail.”

Looking over her shoulders at him with a deadly glare, the thrusters on the back of her left leg lightly burn in response.

Eh? What? That’s a threat, isn’t it?!

She continuously stares deep into his eyes as he scurries backward, and the thrusters burn even brighter.

That’s totally a threat!

Quickly getting up and heading toward the doors as Asuga’s eyes follow him and the thrusters disengage, Kat stops Seth right before he can leave by placing her hand on his shoulder, which sends an intense shock through his spine.

“Before you go,” she says, tilting her head at him and pointing behind her shoulder with her free thumb, “Keith wants to talk with you.”

Glancing up at her without making much eye contact, he nods in response.

“I was heading that way.”

Before she can get another word in, he slips past her, exiting into the hallway as she turns back to Asuga, tilting her head in confusion.

“Is something… up with him?”

The tail swishes from side to side as the ears raise up in a questioning way.

“No? He was fine earlier.”

Sighing, Kat crosses her arms and slumps her shoulders.

“Weird. Well,” she says, walking forward and looking at the tail, “Since I’m here, show me what this thing can do.”

“Huh? Oh, first…”

And so began Asuga’s long explanation of the capabilities of her new equipment.

. . . . .

The door to the training room was already slightly cracked open, as Seth pushed it forward all the way, revealing Keith and a woman he’d never seen before beside him.

“Wow, Ivy. Speak of the horned devil,” he says, turning his torso to face Seth and raising an eyebrow at him.

Turning to look at Seth as well, the woman standing next to Keith is a medium-height, scarlet-eyed woman in her late twenties with long, forest-green hair kept under a white cap, a red circle with a white symmetrical medical cross symbol cut from the middle. She wears a dark red dress shirt, a vertically white and red tie, along with a white lab coat that ends near her shins over olive pants. He can immediately tell that she’s related to the medical wing in some way.

“Be quiet,” she spits out, scoffing at Keith. “The name’s Ivy Burns. A pleasure to meet you, Seth.”

Nodding his head, he walks over to the two of them.

“Likewise…”

“Man, screw all this formality crap,” Keith exclaims as he shrugs his shoulders, turning his head toward Seth, “How’d it feel getting stabbed in the back?”

Coming across heavy with the mentor-like attitude of knowing his pupil completely messed up, subdued shame washes over Seth like a tsunami.

“It hurt.”

“Yeah, I bet it did!” He slams his hand against Seth’s shoulder, grinning at him, “Now, what do you think you gotta do to keep that from happening again?”

If I knew the answer to that, would I even be here?

“I should’ve checked the body…?”

Placing his forearms across each other in an ‘X’ pattern, Keith mimics the sound of a buzzer.

“Nope! Wrong answer! I need you to rack your brain a bit. Or maybe whack it. Either way, you remember how I said pneuma is like gasoline, yeah?”

“Kinda.”

“Not ‘kinda’. Burn that into your mind. But well, gasoline’s got one hell of a kick-ass, heavy scent. The same goes for pneuma.”

Not sure where he’s going with this, Seth takes a few sniffs of the air as his eyes glance back over to Keith, who looks as if he’s staring at an idiot.

“I didn’t mean that literally… whatever, here’s the plan.”

Drawing his sword from the sheathe with his right hand as it slides over his shoulder without a shred of hesitation, he extends the tips of the dual blades toward Seth.

“I’m going to cut your arm off with—”

“You’re going to what?” Seth interrupts him, raising an eyebrow.

“Like I was saying,” Keith continues, “I’m going to cut your arm off with this. I mean, only if you don’t dodge it. But as with all things, there’s a catch. Your back’s gonna be facing me.”

Holding his hands out in front of him, Seth shakes his head in confusion.

“Woah, woah, woah. You can’t seriously expect me to agree—”

His disagreement isn’t paid attention to for long as a heavy groan from Keith slices through it.

“Fine, I hear you. Just watch.”

Lacking a semblance of further thought to his actions, Keith extends his left arm horizontally and level with his shoulder, before bringing the sword over with his other arm and cutting overhead directly through his forearm, as the latter half and a small disk from it splat against the floor. Blood rushes out from the wound, spraying against the ground.

Did he just…?! Is this guy out of his mind?!

“Ivy,” he calls out to her, as she scoffs behind him.

“Nah.”

“...Huh?” he turns around, appearing shocked as he holds what is now the stump of his forearm.

“Yeah… I don’t feel like it,” she responds, twirling one of her long fringes with her index finger.

“Hey. I’m bleeding. A little help?”

It didn’t seem like he paid attention to what she said.

“You pain in the ass…” she spits out, glaring at him from the corner of her eyes.

“...Sirona: Slanan.”

As she holds her left arm forward, the green hair that coiled around her finger soon expands in volume, growing beady black eyes and a slit for a mouth as it slithers away from her body and launches itself toward the pieces of Keith’s arm laying on the floor. Coiling around them, it carries each piece with its body back to the stump, where it arranges them in the place they had originally started before two sharp fangs bite into the collected, constrained arm. A golden hue presents itself in the gaps that slowly fill themselves, as the snake retreats from Keith’s arm and deforms back into Ivy’s hair before he stretches his arm out and moves his fingers individually. Then, with a smug smile on his face, he looks at Seth with eyes that are so full of themselves it’s almost impossible for him not to glance away in annoyance.

But huh… I guess that power is what ended up saving me after Miyuki and the whole… meat cubes… thing happened.

Snapping his fingers toward Seth, Keith transitions it into a pointing index finger.

“You get it now?” he asks, but quickly shifts his tone as he places his hand underneath his chin, “Actually, no. Just asking is boring as hell. Let’s put it into practice.”

I feel like this is a fair time to say, ‘Why is it always me…?’.

But he knew he couldn’t stop Keith once he put his mind to something, so the chances were that he would experience less pain if he just went along with it. So, he turns his back to Keith, holding out his left arm.

If this permanently messes something up, at least it won’t be my dominant arm.

“Hey! You ready?” Keith bluntly asks, holding his sword up again.

No? No, I’m not ready to have my arm cut off. Seriously, what kind of question is that?

“Sure.”

He felt as if it’d be meaningless to air his grievances.

But as he heard Keith rush at him and felt the blades begin to pass through his arm, unable to sense anything at all…

…He realizes he probably should’ve spoken up more before this.