Chapter 5

The Flame Ignited.

It had been about four years since Kouji’s first appearance on Earth. In the time since the conflict had gradually been escalating and it was taking an obvious toll on Takaru. He found the fighting pointless as far as the cost that came of it. The separatists had been attacking North City with mutant monsters made from a compound known as Zoracite, a chemical relative of Valicite and Terracite that feeds on negative emotions and converts them into energy and turns the one whom it's feeding off of into a monster.

As time went on Anya noticed a change in Takaru’s personality, mostly for the worse he’d become more withdrawn and distant. In spite of having recently graduated high school he seemed to be pretty shell shocked by the conflict. No small part of it coming from the fact of Hikari having briefly been captured by Kouji’s forces

Late one night after a party Takaru and Dojiro were on their way home and while it seemed relatively normal in spite of Takaru being a slightly drunk Dojiro was in the process of driving them home when suddenly a blinding flash came in front of them, and a loud crash silenced the music that was coming from the radio.

Within a few minutes police and medical crews were on the scene. Dojiro had managed to make it out fairly safely. But there seemed to be something wrong with Takaru. As the crews pulled him out of the car they could tell he’d broken a rib or two from the force and as he laid there on the bed the crew could see while his injuries weren’t life threatening his life signs were fading.

----

Meanwhile

As Anya was flying over North City observing the view of the city she felt a strange flash and a sharp pain in her stomach. She saw the sight of the crash flash before her eyes and felt the sensation of her blood running completely cold as she saw Takaru being pulled from the car.

“Something's wrong, from what I can tell he’s not too beat up, maybe a broken rib at the worst but his life force is draining way too quickly.” she said to herself as she flew to the hospital knowing from the vision which hospital he was being taken to from the ambulances she saw.

When she arrived she walked in and explained who she was and made her way back to Takaru’s room. As she made her way in she saw the doctors working to keep him alive. While she held out hope they’d be able to save him she could tell it was something beyond the realm of medical science.

“He’s lost the will to live. He doesn’t think his life holds enough value in the world to keep living and I can see part of it coming from the tireless fighting that's been going on. But also he seems like his heart has gone cold. He needs a spark of motivation to live. I know this may be risky but I wanna do this not only for myself and the others but for him.” she thought to herself as she began to focus her magic on a spell her father had taught her.

It was one of the secret arts of the Fate-Keepers. A spell which allows the caster to willfully draw on their own life force to infuse it into another person in the hopes of saving their life. Among the Magia this spell is considered a highly forbidden skill outside the Fate-keeper lineage since it can allow the recipient to effectively cheat death at the cost of the owner’s life force or in extreme cases their life.

The best case scenario is that the caster loses a small portion of their life force and shortens their lifespan by a duration that scales with the amount of life force donated. It also binds a portion of the caster’s consciousness to the recipient; it's meant to allow the caster to act as a guiding influence on the recipient.

The caster isn’t allowed to force the recipient into actions against their will but they are required to encourage them to fulfill their intended fate.

As she channeled the spell her body faded from the room becoming an almost ethereal light which then flew into Takaru’s body.

----

Anya stood there in an empty void of white, she could tell Takaru was close to passing on so she would need to find his consciousness in a hurry so she could try to convince him not to let his life slip away.

She sifted through the depths of Takaru’s mind desperately searching for what was left of him. As visions of all the memories they had together flew by she couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic. Her eyes began to mist a bit as she saw the memories of their high school dance.

Eventually she found a visage of Takaru. He looked frail and weak, nothing like the one outside. She guessed it was a projection of his psyche representing how broken his will was. Walking up to him she smiled and said “What’s wrong?” trying to put on a bright face to counter the dreary and empty area around them.

“I don’t know, it's like I don’t have a place in the world. I just wanna let go, let everything go. This war, the fighting, the drama. I just wanna go. Maybe there’s something better for me on the other side.” he said looking up, his eyes sagging with a looming sense of dread as he spoke.

Her smile faded as she felt the weight of Takaru’s words sink heavy on her chest. She leaned in and threw her arms around him as her eyes began to well up with tears.

“No, this can’t be the real you. No it can’t be, the T.K I know wouldn’t be this down trodden. He’d never be this pathetic. Sure he’s a little weather beaten from the war and a little worn out but I know with my heart that he wouldn’t give up so easily. Not after all the time he’s spent working to get to where he is.” she said with her voice cracking and breaking with each word. She grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.

“Why, Why are you so willing to let go when you’ve got all of this to fight for..” as memories began to fill the area. “Your friends, your family, your peers in the Valion force. All that you’ve built since you arrived on Earth all those years ago. But most importantly you have me to fight for. I love you Takaru.” she continued as she drew up close to him and kissed him passionately.

As she did the memory panes began to fly around them and Takaru’s pale complexion and frail body returned to how it typically looked outside.

“Why are you here?” he asked, his voice seeming to have completely shed the tone it had before.

She shook her head as she held close to him

“I’m here to save you, you and Toushi were in an accident and you were fading fast. You’d lost the will to live. I used a spell to transfer a portion of my life force into your body along with my consciousness so you can continue living. If you’re willing to accept it and the responsibility it bears.” she said solemnly as she stepped back.

“It's a spell that’s forbidden by Magia code to be cast by anyone who isn’t in the fate keeper family line. It allows the caster to sacrifice themselves to save someone else. Although I kinda cheated and modified the spell to allow it to still live, it will shorten my lifespan a great deal. Normally Magia are typically capable of living several thousand years at once but because of this my lifespan should wind up evening out with your’s. I’m having Angela take my body somewhere safe with a Seed of Magic to create a regeneration pod. Even with my little cheat in the process for the spell I would normally still age insanely fast, in fact if I managed to survive the accelerated aging I'd probably be a prune. And I doubt you’d like the sight of that after how much you’ve seen of me.” as she snorted, holding back a laugh and leaned back showing off a bit.

Takaru looked on with a bit of confusion, he understood most of it up to the part about the seed of magic since he’d never heard of them. “Well I guess that is true although you don’t have much to show now, what with the whole ethereal light thing.” he said smirking a bit as he pointed out the light that made her figure almost entirely moot.

She rubbed where her stomach would be and smiled saying “Don’t worry you’ll get quite a sight when I get back into my body after the process is finished. I think it’ll take about 6-8 months roughly, I’ll guide you to where my body winds up when it's ready. All you should have to do to transfer me back into my body is give me a kiss when I get out of the pod. So think you’d be willing to give things another try now that I’ve given you this second chance?” she said smiling as she waited for his response.

“Yes.” He said a new sense of resolute resolve filling his voice. He nodded and held her close, returning the kiss from earlier.

“Until my body recuperates I’ll have to stick around here in your subconscious, hopefully there’s no objections. “she said after breaking the kiss. Takaru shook his head, giving a smirk as he said.

“Nah not a problem, just be kind enough to not read anything more than surface level thoughts if you decide to start probing. After all, I'd like some privacy.” He reached up and brushed the back of his hair awkwardly as he grinned.

She nodded and smiled as they faded out and Takaru began to recover outside.

As he sat there in the hospital bed he felt a twinge of pain rip through his stomach. He glanced around the room and saw his family and friends gathered around looking as though they were holding their breaths in anticipation.

After his eyes had a chance to come completely back into focus he noticed that Anya’s father was in the background. Norton looked at Takaru with a piercing gaze and just as he did during their encounter all those years ago at the demonstration when he scanned Takaru he could tell that something was off about him compared to what he’d seen in T.K up to that point.

He asked the others to step out and addressed Takaru personally.

“So I’m safe to assume you have at least a reasonable idea of why am I here?” he said as Takaru took a moment to ponder the question and make Anya aware of her father’s presence through his telepathic link with her consciousness.

“I’m guessing it has to do with Anya?” he said, his voice giving off a slightly shaken tone at the impressive presence of her father standing over him.

“Yes. I can tell she used a very powerful spell in this area. I’m coming here to check and see if she’s alright.” he said, his large hand trembling in fear knowing the gravity of the spell she’d cast.

Takaru’s eyes abruptly glassed over and his voice changed to Anya’s

“I’m fine dad. A little tired but fine all the same. I’m just happy I was able to save Takaru. He nearly gave up and let himself pass on. For now my mind is chilling in with his and I had Angela take off with my body and a seed of magic to make a rejuvenation chamber so my body wouldn’t age as badly due to the transfer.” they said as Takaru’s eyes returned to normal along with his voice.

Norton looked on in surprise that his daughter was able to do that in spite of her weakened state. Then again if the past four years had proved anything to him it was that he shouldn’t underestimate any of them.

He addressed Takaru and explained that it appeared the Separatists Scout fleet that was commanded by Kouji appeared to be setting up for an attack coordinated with some of the larger auspices of the Separatists fleet elsewhere in the galaxy.

“While the larger part of the attack should be able to be dealt with by the Federation Fleet, the concern is Kouji’s unit may make a direct attack on Earth. The issue being that most of the Federation’s primary flagships have gear that could cause pretty substantial collateral damage to Earth if it's caught in the crossfire. So They’ll be diverting a chunk of their fighter task force here instead and we’ll be responsible for holding off the primary assault as it appears he’s directing the center of the attacks on North City. We have a few months of lead time to prepare before they’re due to make their offensive thanks to some info gathering Hikari was able to do while she was aboard their ship; it turns out their main fleet is organizing attacks on other larger Federation holdouts.” he said with a cold grimace on his face.

“Any ETA on when Kouji’s unit will be making their move?” TK replied, his voice giving off an air of confidence Norton hadn’t heard in a few years at that point.

“No exact date but I can only guess they’re stalling until after the main fleet disperses from around the local system since they’re stationed here trying to find the exact location of the Amaterasu MK4 they’re aboard. We’re guessing that they have some sort of cloaking systems that the Federation hasn’t run across before. And while Hikari did manage to get some general ship schematics for the vessel she wasn’t able to uncover anything about their more specialized gear.” Norton said as he started to make his way out.

“You’ve been granted a great gift, use it well. It's normally against magia law for magic like that to be used. And I have a feeling Anya didn’t use it lightly. So do the best with it you can. I always had a feeling you two had something deeper than just a high school romance. I think the Trinity meant for you two to be together for more than one reason.” he said as he shut the door leaving Takaru to recover.

-----

It had been about six months since the accident and Takaru appeared to be fully recovered but as he went through some training drills his instructor noticed something unusual, his aura seemed to be emanating a different glow. Not only did he have the presence of the spirit energy he’d been trained to use but it seemed like he’d also gained a passive acuity to being able to use mana although he couldn’t be sure from looks alone.

He approached Takaru and brought up the topic. Takaru explained that he imagined part of it was coming from Anya’s soul and life force being in his body. But his master mentioned that it could be a sign that the melding of their spirits has awakened in him the ability to use magic as well.

“Let me give you a bit of a test.” he said as he drew a deck of playing cards out of his travel pouch.

“These cards aren’t ordinary playing cards; they act as a powerful medium for magical energy. But they only respond to mana. So if you’re able to charge the cards with mana drawn from the environment then and use their respective effects then it will confirm that the mixture of your and Anya’s spirit has awakened the ability to process mana in you. Pick up a card and focus on it, concentrate on drawing the ambient energy around you into it.” he said as he lifted a card from the deck and began to concentrate on it.

Within moments the card began to glow and change between different colors.

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“Each color represents a different effect. Gold shocks the target with electricity and stuns them. Blue cards siphon mana and spirit energy off the target. And last but not least red cards intensify the effects of gravity around the target effectively slowing them by a substantial amount. Initially as you train with this deck you’ll only be able to get your card at random but eventually you’ll be able to pick your exact card at will. It's a technique I developed as a way to defend myself when I didn’t wanna use my Sentient arm weapon.” he said as he handed a deck to Takaru beckoning him to try it himself.

Takaru took the card and began to focus on the card. Over the next few seconds the card began to glow slightly, not as prominently as the one his teacher was holding but still a faint continuous glow.

“Focus on the ambient energy from other living things around you rather than your spirit energy. That is what’s commonly referred to as mana. Because of your rather interesting circumstances with Anya you should have a natural albeit untapped ability to gather and focus mana. Learning this technique will be a nice getaway for you to learn how to manipulate basic mana types.” he said as he observed Takaru’s attempts to channel mana from the area around them.

As the mana began to pool in the card it started to glow in a faint white light. Over a few moments the light intensified before fading as a small burst of energy discharged from the card. Takaru’s mentor brushed his hand under his chin as he pondered the implications.

“Hmm based on that reaction he has great potential, but he’ll need training to make better use of it, and between the light show and what I’ve seen in his spirit energy training he seems like one of the few rare true neutral types.” he directed Takaru to try again as he resumed his observations.

----

Among Magia it's very rare to see individuals whose mana or spirit energy are elementally neutral; normally every individual has a specific elemental affinity that ties to their personality. Toushi for example has a prominent fire type affinity which fits his assertive and spontaneous personality. While Hikari has a water typed alignment that goes with her calm collected personality. Kouji has an electric type which reflects his quick reflexes and quick thinking.

Takaru spent the rest of the day practicing and attempting to manifest at least one of the effects on a card, but it was clear by the end of the day that his talent with manipulating spirit energy hadn’t translated into mana manipulation and it would be a much slower process.

But regardless of the time it would take his master could tell he was determined to master the technique with a passion that seemed to be driving him to progress.

It had been nearly a year of diligent training since he’d come back from the brink but T’K had managed to learn the magic card technique. While he’d yet to perfect it to the point of being able to draw every card at will he was still able to have a reasonable amount of control over the random cycles of the deck.

Late one night in the back of his mind Anya felt something, a familiar voice calling to her.

“Anya, It's ready.” the voice said in a motherly tone. As Anya took a few minutes to listen and get a better feel for the voice Takaru commented.

“Isn’t that Angela?” he said remembering how she sounded from the various times he’d heard them chatting while they were dating prior to their current situation.

“So I’m guessing that's another side effect of this, my telepathic link to Angela is bleeding into your subconscious and letting you hear her as well.” she replied as Takaru agreed.

Suddenly a faint ringing noise began to filter into the back of his mind.

“That’s her maker systems activation indicator.” Anya said as it faded from a piercing ring to a faint but steady beeping noise.

Takaru got up from his bed and began to slowly sneak his way out to his car suspecting from Anya’s directions that the rejuvenation pod would be pretty far out of town.

As he made his way out to where it was located, he thought to himself..

“Well here’s hoping this wound up working out and that your body’s back in one piece.” he listened for her directions and as they got closer he could feel the anticipation in her voice.

“I can’t wait. I mean not that it was a bother hanging out here in the past year or so but I have a feeling you’re eager for me to get my body back as well.” she replied, thinking about the past few nights worth of dreams he’d been having.

Takaru’s face blushed slightly remembering what she was referring to as he replied “What can I say, every guy is entitled to his fantasies now and then.” she let out a sigh and giggled a bit.

“It’s ok. I just wish you were a bit more open about it before this whole mess. It's kinda insulting seeing those perverted little fantasies of yours without prior notice. But at least I got to have a little fun last night.” she said snickering as she thought back to having intruded on his lucid dream.

When they finally arrived at the location of the rejuvenation pod or at least where the marker system indicated it was. Takaru looked around for anything that looked like it resembled the description Anya had given him. After a while he noticed something seemed off about the area in front of them, like there was a distortion in the light.

He started to feel around in what appeared to be open air, but then he fell through something. As he gathered himself he looked around and realized he must have fallen through a spatial warp field.

Before him stood a large organic vessel that radiated a potent field of magical energy. As Takaru made his way up to it, a chamber at the top of it was giving off a bright glow. Beyond the glow he saw the faint outline of a body, he could only guess it was Anya’s.

“All you need to do is approach that glowing section and it should respond to my aura and release my body from the pod. According to Angela’s feedback she had to overcompensate to counteract the accelerated aging so my body may come out physically looking a few years younger than when it would have gone in.” Anya said as Takaru reached out toward the glowing chamber.

The pod began to peel away and Anya’s body began to fall forward from it. Takaru caught her and held her slung across his arms for a few moments, the dim light enshrouding her body forming into clothes as he let out a sigh of relief.

Based on her looks he could guess the body was de-aged to roughly the age she was when Takaru had met her back in the lunar colony. The body’s eyes opened up and a cold computerized voice spoke up.

“Initializing resuscitation sequence.” as it leaned up, giving a gentle tug on Takaru’s shirt. He felt his body seeming to follow on instinct as his head leaned down and kissed her.

(“Resuscitation complete. Initializing Transfer and re-energizing.”) the voice spoke, this time in the back of Takaru’s mind as he felt a rush of energy pulse through his body into hers.

Within a few moments the body broke the kiss and began to levitate in front of him, reorienting itself into a standing position and landed on the ground in front of him.

“Thank you.” it said now speaking with something closer to Anya’s normal voice.

As the body stood there it leaned up and kissed him again this time it began to grow, slowly at first before eventually reaching the height and rough body type she had when he’d last seen her. But eventually it developed into a slightly more well endowed version of what he’d remembered.

He broke the kiss as she smiled and said, “Well this is an interesting development.” as she stood there for a moment leaving it open for Takaru to look her over. He blushed slightly at the sight of the minor growth spurt compared to her normal appearance.

“Oh yeah he’s never seen me like this. If I had to guess this is a reflection of that form from those visions.” she thought to herself in that brief moment. But unfortunately this new form didn’t last, within a few minutes she began to regress to her younger self.

“I’m thinking my body can’t maintain that form for too long right now.” she continued as she peered around her mind looking for Angela’s AI to get a bit more of an explanation.

“Don’t worry, nothing went wrong with the process. I just kinda over-compensated for the accelerated aging and wound up reverting you to the age you were when you and Takaru first met. I don’t know exactly how long it will be before you regain your natural chronological age but it shouldn’t be too long.” Angela finally said as she manifested a visage of herself in Anya’s subconscious.

“From my analysis it seems as though his body seems to be retaining the majority of your reserves of power due to the transfer. You can tap into it for brief intervals when you kiss him thus setting off that transformation but until your body re-gains the ability to draw on it properly you won’t be able to cast spells. But as a slight consolation it appears your soul did a bit of melding with his which had the residual effect of adapting it to the mana native to Earth due to his long term exposure to it. So you should be able to cast spells on Earth without having it negatively affect your life force so long as you don’t exceed your pool capacity.” she explained as she tried to mask her happiness at the situation behind her computerized voice.

Takaru stood there, his eyes faintly misting with tears as he smiled. After several minutes of awkward silence put his arms around her and held her close.

“Thank you.” he said, his voice cracking a bit as a tear trickled down his cheek. “What do I owe you for this second chance you gave me. To put my heart into this fight and set things in this situation right? What do I owe you for standing by my side through these troubled years of my life?” She smiled at him as she leaned up and kissed him holding it as she grew back to her adult height and build.

A few tears crawled down her cheek as she remembered the old song from her childhood. Without thinking about it for more than a few moments she replied almost singing as the song played in the back of her head.

“I won’t take less than your love. No I won’t take less than your love. The riches of the world could never be enough. I won’t take less than your love.” as she held him close and smiled feeling a warmth from him that she’d never felt in him before.

The rejuvenation device began to fade into light around them and the illusion that disguised it began to fade out. The energy that maintained the illusion began to flow into Anya’s body and energized it.

“I’m redirecting the residual energies that are still in the seed of magic into you. This should allow you to maintain your adult form for a while, at least for the rest of the night.” Angela said to Anya telepathically.

Takaru cracked a grin and said “Thanks Angela.” as his face blushed a bit while his eyes looked over Anya. “Let’s head back to my place for the night you can head home in the morning.” Anya nodded, smirking a bit as they walked back to his car.

“Hopefully it should only take a few months to a year for me to get back to full physical maturity again although thankfully the only major negative impact to the deaging is that I don’t have full access to my spell casting ability.” she said as Takaru looked back at her inquisitively.

“I figured that only had an impact on your appearance.” he said as he opened the car door for her as he hopped over the console to the drivers side.

“Nope, this temporary deaging also took away my muscle memory of all the various command actions to use my spells because to my body I’m only at the level I was at that age. Even though my consciousness retains all of my current knowledge my physical ability to use them is very limited. I could technically cast at my mental level but it would be a lot more taxing on my mana reserves and on Angela. So until I get back to normal I’ll limit my spell casting to simple stuff.” she replied as she stretched out a bit in his car, her muscles feeling more than a bit stiff from the suspended animation in the rejuvenation chamber.

As they drove back to Takaru’s house Anya could feel a new warmth from Takaru. It was as though he had gotten back to the state of mind they were in the back during high school. His heart and mind were finally starting to come back to that enthusiastic mindset he had during those days. She could also tell he was rather intrigued by her new appearance, every once in a while she’d catch his eyes playfully darting up and down her frame.

“I’ve sent a signal to your father regarding your current status and I informed him you’ll be returning home in the morning.” Angela said to Anya telepathically. Anya smiled and thanked her for it telepathically. “It seems as though Takaru may be retaining his telepathic link to your consciousness that developed while you were sharing his body as he even seems able to communicate with me via telepathy on a limited degree I can open up the channels to allow a more direct link if you want to allow it.” Anya pondered the thought for a while before replying.

“Hmm I guess it couldn’t hurt besides it may allow a little bit of interaction between you and his Hybrid arm AI. I’ve been thinking about how you’d be able to interact with them since your coding is a bit out of date compared to the Hybrid AI’s and a bit of direct interaction may allow for you to graft some code data and open up for you to evolve a bit.” her telepathic voice projecting a bit of a sly inclination.

“Me spend time with Hayato? Why would I have any need to do that?” Angela responded with her robotic voice fading to a more natural sounding one that gave off a slightly embarrassed intonation. “Well it would be interesting to see what could happen, maybe it may add a bit more of a personality to me. After all while my basic AI functions are pretty developed I do admit that Hayato and the other Hybrids do seem to be a bit more organic than me.” she continued the shyness starting to be a bit more dominant than before.

Anya smirked a bit as she noticed the AI core begin to blink under Takaru’s shirt sleeve. Takaru pulled the car into the driveway as he heard Hayato beginning to speak in the back of his head.

“What are the girls going on about? I heard something about me and Angela?” Takaru shrugged as the car’s engine began to wind down in his driveway.

“No clue.” Takaru replied as he thought to himself, “Hmm I guess there’s a bit of overlap in the telepathy that Anya and I have and the ones we have with Angela and Hayato.” Takaru pulled the smaller module off the brace and let it expand to its full sword form as Anya followed suit allowing her sentient arm to extend to its full sized state from the hairpin form she kept it in while it was idle.

Anya smiled and said “I’ll set the two of them up in interface mode so their AI’s can interact with each other once we get upstairs.” as they made their way to the back door and Takaru let them in.

-----

The next morning Takaru lay in his bed still feeling the residual warmth and sweat from the previous night. He glanced around a bit looking for some sight of Anya before Hayato’s AI core lit up and a hologram began to project out of it.

[“She’s long gone, She left about an hour ago TK.” Hayato said through their telepathic link as Takaru sat up and let out a sigh. [“I’d guess she used a spell to open a portal back to her place so she could go home to be with her father and catch him up on the current circumstances. Besides I don’t doubt it would have been awkward waking up next to her after the effects of the residual magic wore off and she’d regressed to her childlike form.”] He continued as Takaru looked around for any signs of how far they’d gone.]

“So you have a nice time with Angela?” Takaru asked after a few moments of silence spent coming to the realization that he didn’t seem to get as far as he expected from how he felt at the time.

[“Yeah to say the least it was interesting. I have a feeling she may have grafted a bit more data than I was anticipating. But it was a fun experience all the same.”] Takaru rolled his eyes and started to get up as a faint knocking sound came from the other side of the door.

Takaru walked up and opened the door to see Hikari standing there, her arms crossed and her eyes slightly bloodshot as though she’d missed a bit of sleep.

“You do realize what time it is, don't you?” she said as her eyes began to tighten into a glare. Takaru brushed his hands through his hair as he glanced back at the clock which showed it was about 12:15 in the afternoon.

“Y-y-yeah. It's a little bit after noon.” he said, his voice cracking and stuttering as he stared into Hikari’s eyes like a deer in the headlights of a car.

“NO SHIT!” Hikari shouted as she slammed her fist into the back of his head, her voice seething in anger. “You two came in at around midnight last night and that’s literally all I heard was the two of you going at it, I can’t tell how far things got from looking at things around the room. But if the noise was any indication you two must have had some bit of fun. You’d better be glad mom and dad are out of town doing work with the defense contracts for Commander Garrison. I’m sure they’d loooove to hear all that noise next door.” she continued as Takaru held the back of his head feeling the pain of his sister’s hit.

“Sorry. It's not my fault we got a little frisky. After all, it's been nearly a year since we had any time together, in the flesh at least.” he said trying to crack a grin in spite of the pain.

“That's all you can say. Really? Gah!!! I’d expect that out of Toushi but really I thought you have a bit more than a cashew up there. Guess that proves me wrong.” she said as she stormed off fuming in anger.

Takaru looked over at his sword and Hayato’s projection. “Were we really that loud?” Hayato shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

“I couldn’t really tell myself, Angela and I were busy discussing your and Anya’s interactions as we traded snippets of code data so she could expand her AI parameters.” Hayato replied

While his hologram couldn’t replicate the visual of a human blushing Takaru could tell that Hayato would probably have a blush to match the Cheshire cat grin he had.

Takaru shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh, “That's the last time I’ll have any fun with Anya for a while at least until she ages back up to something closer to her original age.” He shook his head for a few seconds as his mind began to wander back to the haze that was the previous night.

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