Trying to break the stay-still, “Well, that went swimmingly”, says Will, moving closer to San, who is now very upset. Baring the same smile Alrick had, “Eh~… How could you say something like that in times like these? I did not think I would shoot him a minute ago but… I did. I shot him and he is now dead. I knew him yet I pulled the trigger…”, says San, dropping the gun as she starts to sob. Suddenly, the corpse of Alrick starts to materialize a shell around itself. Appraising a familiar material replacing his heart, Yuki quickly drops the carcass onto the ground, shouting, “Salt!”. Realizing the situation, Johann quickly transports San to the backroom and tries to move and isolate the cadaver.
Looming a fabric of boron-nitride and carbon fibers, Yuki adds the first layer of a countermeasure. “Yuki, make an Au-Bs mesh!”, says Will as he searches his briefcase for something. Pulling out a dish like disk and a fine-tuned battery, similar to the one used as a pacemaker in the cellar, Will connects the two and puts it dish first onto the mesh Yuki weaved, adding another layer of countermeasure. “Birdcage”, says Johann, trapping the cadaver inside a border, adding the last layer of countermeasure. Without the slightest idea of what they were doing, the three just sit there, observing the supposed explosive. “Say, the Salt is made of nitrogen and some organic matter, yes? Then, if the air supplied the nitrogen, how much of his body would actually be made of Salt?”, asks Will. “C3H6N6O6, air is about 78% nitrogen, 60*60*180cm area is about 0.65m3… eh~ about 1.67kg – more than enough to destroy this bakery”, says Yuki. “Is our countermeasure enough?”, asks a concerned Will. Heading to the backroom, “Probably. My blanket is sufficient enough to absorb up to 453 MJ of energy, about 64 times the energy such explosive could output. Besides, if the explosive overcomes my blanket, it will be caught inside Johann’s cage and your dish will absorb any seeping”, says Yuki. “You… seem too confident for a cat, Yuki. It is a body of a serial killer and an assistant of a war criminal we are talking about. Who knows what he made his last resort be”, says Johann, still wary of the body. Picking the gun up from the floor and placing it beside the one the deceased had, “Yeah, you should be this concerned. It is your bakery after all. But I have faith in Yuki’s appraisal; unlike your appraisal, she is acquainted to something similar to a Vector-Null hyper-use scan. So, she should have quite an accurate assessment. All that being said, I should check on San”, says Will, also going to the kitchen.
In the backroom, Li is shooting every spare mana into the battery. With all attention on the watch, he had not the awareness to hear the gunshot in the store front. As San gets gently pushed through the backroom door, Li finally raised his head to the commotion. “Oh! I did not notice your arrival, Miss Anna. Have you got everything in order? Where is Mr. Hennesy? I thought you two were coming from the same home”, he says as San starts to sob uncontrollably. Having not been in such situation, Li panics and starts to search for a towel. In her normal tone, “Why did I do that? I did not know the child but I… just that… who the hell am I? Why can I do such a thing in a heartbeat…Tell me, Li, who am I to you?”, she says, averting her eyes. Handing a paper towel to her, “You… are Anastasia; the one who is too hospitable that people have no choice other than to like you… You are a Saint to me, along with Johann and Will”, getting the pie out of the oven, “You welcomed me, even after that grandpa took over, you understood me and welcomed me with open arms. I do not know any of you but you are this close to me; there is not any way I would isolate myself from you. I like you, Anna”, says Li with a smile as pure as one can be.
Opening the door to the backroom, Yuki sees Li cutting the pie into 8ths. Having never eaten a pie, “Care to give a slice?”, asks Yuki. “Of course! Care to call in the others?”, says Li, making the plates and cutlery. With one smile that is o so familiar, “Hey, Li, do not push yourself too hard this time, okay?”, says San. Grinning a sinister smile, “They do not have to know about this, do they?”, says Yuki coming into the room in her cat form. With such task as to funnel as much mana as possible into a container, Li could make a corridor that the current cannot spill out of and push as much as he willed to. But, in case of some lesser constructs, he has to limit his mana in order to not spill mana that is enough to power a small building for a day at a time. Seeing the difference in Li’s mana as he makes the plates, “How the hell do you have so much mana?”, asks Yuki.
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Fearing an explosion akin to the ’62, Yuki does not like any kind of person who has more mana than her. “Eh? I think this is the amount that a normal person has. Or, at least what Mr. Johann had. Why asked?”, says Li, making the 2nd plate. “That is the problem. Johann has that much because here is in his border and he will be at his maximum all the time here. Not to mention, this whole building is considered as his border and too much mana is put into this establishment that its capacity is akin to a damned artifact. But you… you are a 13-year-old who had about the same capacity as San’s a moment ago and now, you are surpassing even Johann’s. How is that possible, Li? And you said your mana was similar to Johann’s like you were comparing morganite to emerald – why do you think Johann has a capacity of a normal person? He has royal heritage, let alone of a high, European one. His’ can rival the likes of the devastation of what that Anatoly fellow did to Lahti”, says Yuki. Finishes making the plates, “Look, I do not know how I would explain to you but I, too, am from a royal heritage. I am the supposed heir to the Hue dynasty and a direct descendant of Luyo Sun Hue, Li San Hue”, makes a mask similar to the one he has in his briefcase, “And, I am the terrorist Li, the one who blew up the consulate building on the 16th of September. Now, if you please, I would not like to get into a fight inside Mr. Johann’s kitchen”, says Li, once again suppressing his mana to a level similar to San’s. “Do not toy with me, boy. I am not someone who you can fool. Show me your full capacity. That way, I would get an idea of who you really are”, says Yuki, making a net out of a lustrous blue thread akin to the visible birdcage of Johann’s around Li.
As Will and Johann open the door to the backroom, Li unleashes his shackles and presents his full capacity once again. With Will’s watch still on Li’s wrist, the danger of possession is no longer an issue. Seeing the scattered sparkling blue string on the ground, “What the hell is happening, Yuki? How much is that?”, asks Will. “None of your business, rote. His capacity was an anomaly to me so I wanted to check. It was about the same as of your fiancé’s just a moment ago and it jumped above Johann’s and it is now triple that of Blanc’s. Who is this kid, Will?”, says Yuki, perched atop Will.
One’s passive mana is the aura that the capacity emits as ambience. For example, Johann has an ambient body temperature of 35˚C and radiates 30˚C in a 1 by 1 area around himself, nothing more, nothing less. The ambient effect is determined at birth by either genetics or certain conditions. As they cannot be suppressed entirely, some people can detect these with their Analysis-type manipulation, making their presence noticeable. As people who can do these have reasons to do so, they often are those who are too wary or those who need to be on alert all the time. As so, those without any mana, by turn any ambience, cannot be sensed prior to bodily queue, making them pretty much invisible to those who can sense.
Standing up from the sofa, “Li, you are scaring Yuki. I think it is time to stop. You have shown enough, Li” says San in a more judgemental voice. As children do, the thought of their mother being angry makes them be more docile; the same could also be said about Li and San. Slowly suppressing the aura he had unleashed, Li goes back to his normal state, at about the same level as San’s. “Now, I have shown you who I am. It is up to you to determine whether I am a friend or a foe” he says before putting the pie onto the plates.
A sudden plunk can be heard in store front. With, what looks to be, an uncooked beef wellington on the ground with the Au-Bs mesh serving as the scoring, Li do not see the corpse of Alrick Alphons Carnation. “That must be the salt exploding” says Yuki. “I did not think it would be as anticlimactic as that”, says Johann as he lifts the birdcage off of the bundled corpse. A quiet sigh could be heard from San’s direction as she falls to the sofa. Presumably quite tired, “Well then. With that situation evaded, I am quite famished. I heard some pie has been made and Li asked for us to come. I presume Johann did not hear such a cry; as whom to blame? Anyhow, let’s dig in, yes?”, says Will as he sits down beside San with some pie on a plate.