"So this is the home of our target huh?"

Yuri spoke lightly to Hikaru while they looked over a building not unlike the rest, also displaying the crystal-decorated wires on its top.

"If what he said was true. Then it would be in everyone's best interests if the spread of such dangerous things was limited."

Wearing a more knight like expression than usual, he seemed more proper after having received a brand new sword.

Hanging at his side, the ribbon on the sword wiggled slightly, seemingly excited over being of help.

"What was it the old man said..we were going to retrieve the stolen designs and destroy whatever prototype was built?"

"Indeed, Yuri. He seemed troubled over the potential widespread of his creation. We should make sure no one has the need to feel threatened by such a creation, I will make sure of it with this sword."

Saying this, Hikaru drew his new blade and swung it sharply, making the air snap as his blade broke the sound barrier.

The ribbon flapped in the wind, its clutches on the blade's handle tightening when the blade moved so suddenly.

“Yes yes, I swear all guys are the same when it comes to new toys..wait I'm a guy too..originally at least..”

She shook her head slightly.

“I'm overthinking this..anyway! Let's go inside and find these designs.”

Yuri walked up to the door and began to brazenly draw a rune circle on the front door without even attempting to hide what she was doing.

With a sudden burst of red, the door was no more and they had easy access inside. Apparently security in this city was fairly relaxed, which was surprising considering the potential of magical security mechanisms.

The city had such strict laws that no citizens dared to break them, not only because of how easily it was to be caught after you successfully break the law. It was because it was a very socially looked down upon notion, so much so that most people when asked why they never break the law, simply answered “Because it would take away from my research time”. They were a very single minded people.

“Hikaru...do you remember what we were even looking for..?”

“He even wrote it down for you.”

He handed her a paper with a detailed scientific and an in depth description of what they were supposed to find.

“A...magical theoretical..mass collide.r.which uses Niktorinian laws in order to..accelerate and promote..changes in energy of the original magical...”

The paper was ripped in half in irritation.

“Who the hell would understand this crap!?”

“Really..? I thought it was fairly simple. I don't understand the details but I understand the basic concept?”

He looked at her as if it was something obvious.

“....Enlighten me, smarty pants.”

“In essence..it's a device that is supposedly capable of shaping mana into mass, so anyone would be able to create things purely out of mana. In theory at least.”

Yuri looked at him in disbelief when he finished that.

“..I thought you were just muscle and honour without any brains..guess I was wrong about you huh..”

She continued to look at him with newfound respect.

“Niktorinian theory problems is something most children learn in school so of course I know?”

He smiled at her awkwardly.

“Oh. Right. I'm from a different world so my common knowledge is different from yours.”

She scratched her head.

“What are some common theories in your world then, Yuri?”

“Hmm? Well..I wasn't much of a good student..but I remember that Energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. That one shows how that if you take any amount of mass and multiply it by the speed of light squared, you can get its energy equivalence.”

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She explained one of the few theories she still remembered from her early days in school.

“Yuri..I'm not even an expert in magical studies..but I'm sure that formula actually makes several impossible theories possible..that could revolutionise the science of magical studies..”

His eyes were glued at her in disbelief.

“It is..?”

“Yuri. You must not tell that to anyone. It's potential is far too large. This world isn't ready for such advancements yet.”

Yuri received a stern serious gaze from Hikaru.

“Okay okay..I won't tell anyone..geez it was just something random from my school days...”

She said this to reassure him, but her mind was already figuring out who to sell the information to.

(Whoever can make the most interesting things of course!)

With such a light hearted decision, she saved this potential adventure for another day, as right now they were having a colourful discussion in the middle of someone's home with their door broken down.

“Anyway Hikaru, let's find the thing and get out of here before people notice.”

They began searching through every nook and cranny of the house, turning everything upside down.

Yet despite their best efforts, they failed to find much past boring everyday items.

“Hm...this is weird..there should at least be something..”

Rubbing her head, she came to the conclusion that a house being this free of any clues was incredibly suspicious.

“There's always at least something small..but to be this clean..”

Forming a rough idea in her head, she sat down and began drawing runes on the ground.

She drew several runes in a circle.

Activating the circle of runes. All of them began to glow except one.

“What does that mean, Yuri?”

Hikaru asked curiously while looking at the glowing runes.

“You know how these houses all have wires pulling mana into all their devices? I don't see any cables, so if it's the same as in my world. They should be hidden away in the walls. Which means all of the walls should give off very strong magical energy right? The runes I drew are just some very weak runes that easily react to strong magic. And that one of them didn't light up means..?”

She looked at Hikaru while waiting for an answer she already knew.

“Means one of the walls isn't magical and thus has no wiring in it..Yuri you're a genius.”

He rubbed her head and patted her, much to her reluctant delight.

“Yeah..not like I did it for some silly pats though, so you don't have to..mm..”

Midway through protesting, Yuri quieted down and enjoyed being patted by Hikaru.

“A-anyway. It means that wall has a very high chance of being..”

Shaking her head and standing up, she walked in the direction of the only non reactive rune and knocked on the wall.

“A hidden door.”

“Stand aside Yuri.”

Hikaru drew his sword and slashed a perfect square in the wall, which slid out and fell in front of them, shattering into pieces, as it was obviously not made of metal like the rest of the house.

A staircase led down below the house.

“Let's go!”

Quickly climbing down the staircase, they found exactly what they were looking for.

Shelves upon shelves of designs and research. Most of it was, according to the old man, stolen or bought from various people. Seems like this guy never invented things for himself.

Along the far ends on the walls stood various unfinished contraptions.

As Yuri was unfamiliar with the designs they were looking for. She asked Hikaru to find them, since he seemed to be familiar with their concept.

Meanwhile Yuri chose to have fun poking around the unfinished prototypes and contraptions.

They were mostly generic box shaped mechanisms that didn't seem to work without a proper energy source.

One of them however looked like it was almost moving. A small almost round bumpy metal...thing. It had wires coming out of it, and was covered in various writing and inscribed with runes.

The longer Yuri looked at it, the more she suspected the metal thing was in fact activated. It almost seemed to have a rhythm, like a heartbeat.

Yuri slowly reached out and touched it out of curiosity.

The metal contraption slowly started to move with more prominent actions.

“I found the designs, I'm taking them along, Yuri what are you doing..?”

Hikaru walked over to where she stood while pocketing a stash of papers and documents inside his clothes.

“I found this thing, it seems to move every time I touch it...look.”

She poked it a few times, and the metal contraption began to beat with much more prominent power. The wires sticking out of it began to pump out something that looked like electricity but also not at every beat.

It looked just like a mechanical heart.

Slowly, the mass that looked like a mix between electricity and golden liquid began to collect around the contraption.

Yuri and Hikaru stepped back slightly. Yuri observing curiously while Hikaru had his hand on his sword.

The mechanical heart continued to grow with the strange mass around it, until it reached a size comparable to Yuri.

Four parts began to grow out of it.

Two of them looked like legs while the other two looked like arms. But only vaguely. It looked like a children's toy made of clay. No features, just a basic body shape.

It looked like a cylinder made of slightly golden water with arms and legs.

It moved. Taking a step towards Yuri, it extended one arm, like it wanted to shake hands.

“Aww it wants to say hi..”

Yuri extended her hand, before Hikaru instantly pulled her back.

The moment he did, the golden creature leaped at where Yuri was a moment ago, punching the ground hard enough it sent cracks through it.

“What are you trying to do you wax looking bastard!?”

Yuri exclaimed at the creature that was still continuing to slowly grow in size.