Hatsuzumi
"That was fun," she said as she stretched her arms.
"I am surprised a soldier girl like you finds breaking the law fun." Not that he didn't find the act fun—far from it.
She looped her arm around his, pulling him out of the alley. "The military is all rules and regulations. It feels great to let loose like this."
"Why did you even join the army then?" he asked. It certainly couldn't be because she was selfless.
She smiled at him with her eyes closed. "That's personal."
"Alright. What now?" Her private life was hers unless she wanted to share.
"Well, why don't I take you somewhere nice this time?"
"Lead the way."
The destination was a cozy food stand. A delightful aroma of spices and herbs wafted out. An elderly couple was in the middle of cooking. Upon seeing Tomoe, both stopped, welcoming her inside with smiles.
Then came the questions regarding him. The couple thought him to be an old man at first, but Tomoe was quick to claim he was an albino. It was a convenient excuse, and he did not bother correcting it.
The color would take a couple more days before settling in fully.
She ordered for him. The bowl of noodles in beef broth was just as good as the smell radiating from the stand indicated, if not better.
He ate six bowls.
The stand owners had laughed heartily, praising his healthy appetite. Tomoe had already seen him demolish a small feast.
"Do you just enjoy eating, or is it related to your condition?" she asked, waving her empty glass towards him.
"Both, I suppose," he shrugged. "Your mother must have told you my state when I arrived at the temple."
"She did." She knew of his little stunt to convince her mother to translate the scroll.
"Let's just say when it came to a certain line of research, I succeeded more than I aspired to. Not being able to eat anything for months certainly makes you appreciate it."
"Now, I am getting my body back in shape, and I get to eat all I want without worrying about the consequences," he winked.
The nanobots turned the surplus nutrition to muscle, improved his bodily functions, and replicated through the hive. Once he attained a good enough physique, his body would just process the excess to fuel his new consciousness.
He could eat forever and not gain a single gram of fat more than necessary for his fat-to-muscle ratio.
"You lucky bastard," she swore. She always missed the food of her homeland in Tersus Base. Unfortunately, she could not eat everything she wanted. Picking what craving to satisfy was always tough.
And he could just eat all of it without a worry.
He laughed at her expression.
Leaving the food stand with farewells, she took him on a trip until dinner. He saw the less known parts of the city. A small enclosure to feed birds, more carts for food, especially dessert, and finally the Emerald Plaza to rent kites.
It was peaceful and soothing.
When they said farewell at the end of the day, it was with the promise to meet tomorrow.
She had two more days of vacation. The last day would be spent preparing and traveling back to Meltral.
—
Kenzoku
At her behest, the destination was Kenzoku.
The lack of CCTV made it easy to teleport inside. They had quickly blended in with the tourists. The town was silent compared to most places he had been. The stone roads were surrounded by trees, creating a cover against the wind and the sun.
He spotted a cafe around the corner. Under the shade of two lions, they ordered hot chocolate. The purple leaves allowed tiny rays of sunlight, enough to keep it pleasantly warm.
"You know, I could actually make regular trips here to relax."
"Well," she raised her mug at him, "when travelling isn't an issue, you can do a lot of things."
He leaned back, smiling. The town, with its entirely wooden construction, looked out of place among the cities of skyscrapers and metal monstrosities.
Its simplicity made it the perfect location to take a step back from the overwhelming chaos of modern life.
The day was spent exploring Kenzoku before they returned home.
—
Hatsuzumi
"I usually prefer to sleep as much as I can, but hanging with you like this was really relaxing," she said. The light turned red for pedestrians, and she stopped.
"Glad to hear that." He said. They had bought two cakes to go. She knew a park with a serene atmosphere to eat the desserts.
"Keep the bracelet. You never know if you might need it. I can contact you through it too."
"That's great." She turned her wrist over, inspecting the silver bracelet. "I wouldn't agree to a long-distance relationship, but with you, we can meet up in Montreal every weekend."
It wouldn't be fair to have anyone make the trip to Meltral just for a couple of hours during her leave.
"I'll bring your mother too if you want…."
"Thank you, I appreciate that."
"What?"
Thairon raised his arm, index finger extended. The fabric of reality was breaking before their eyes.
"Damn it."
The civilians started running away. Cars were abandoned due to the traffic, and the workers on the mall construction across the street were trying to make their way down.
Tomoe dragged him to take cover near the bakery.
She cursed under her breath once the rupture materialized fully. It reached over three stories high and was wide enough to consume parts of the buildings on both sides. A massive reptilian head came through first, followed by a body twice the width of an airliner. It had to tuck its wings and push through to get out.
The dark-scaled monster stood on all fours, surveying the new, foreign environment. It roared out a word over and over again. It reared its head, and the flames darkened the sky with black clouds.
What was more dangerous than a monster was one that could speak.
The situation got worse when it took off. The flames came down on the buildings. Glass exploded due to thermal shock, sending half-molten shrapnel everywhere.
"If that thing isn't stopped, there is no telling what kind of damage it will cause. Please tell me you have weapons."
"Only for anti-personnel shock guns. Nothing that will harm it."
"Really?!" He had teleporters but no highly advanced weapons?
"Calm down, let's think this through."
More often than not, he had to improvise weapons. He could do the same here. Both examined the area for anything that could be used to stop the dragon.
"Can you ride that propane gas truck?" He asked at the same time as she said, "Can you teleport up to that crane?"
A truck carrying propane gas tanks for household usage was abandoned near the cafe, and the construction site had a crane.
He shared a look with her, and both nodded.
"You knock the dragon down, and I drive that truck right into it. I'll need an explosive though." Jury rigging something would take too long, and the dragon did not seem interested in staying in the same area.
With a mental command, Nax teleported a plasma energy cell right above him. He caught it, ordering the nanites to seep in. When the signal was given, they would destabilize the containment field. The leaking plasma would eat through the gas tank.
"Here, secure it on a gas tank."
"Got it." She sprinted out of cover, running for the truck.
"Nax, let's go," he muttered. The teleportation wasn't precise enough to land him right inside the crane cabin.
It took a second for the gravity to take hold of him above the crane cabin. He held his hands out, catching the yellow metal bars, and slipped inside. He kicked the glass, breaking it open.
The key wasn't inside. He quickly searched for an alternative and jabbed a finger into the keyhole. The nanites took the shape of the key. He twisted it, and the machine came to life.
Figuring out the controls was simple.
The dragon was busy burning down the streets, in between screaming out a string of words in challenge. Whatever or whoever it was seeking must have made it furious.
Though it was all assumptions at this point.
He redirected the crane at full speed. The heavy metal arm struck the left wing, crumpling the finger struts like paper. Unable to maintain altitude with a broken wing, the dragon slammed on the ground, flattening cars and causing more damage.
The heavy truck pushed the abandoned vehicles aside, racing at the downed monster.
It rose to all fours, tucking both wings to avoid any more wounds. The arm could not reach it on the ground. He lowered the hook, swinging it like a wrecking ball. It scraped the walls but found the target.
The sharp end broke through the scales, forcing the dragon to back into a two-story building.
Right as the truck crashed into its abdomen.
He slipped out of the window, leaping down to a roof, and Nax teleported him away from the explosion that would follow in seconds.
—
Fortunately, the driver had left the keys inside when abandoning the truck. Using her coat to tie the improvised explosive between two tanks, she sat on the driver's seat. Hitting the gas, the wheels spun for a second before the truck moved.
She held on tightly as the truck jolted with each vehicle pushed aside.
Her date had brought the dragon down just in time.
Pressing the accelerator down for maximum possible speed, she threw herself out of the truck. The teleporter took her away, but the initial momentum stayed. Tucking herself with arms around her head, she rolled, stopping when her back hit a tree.
Even from here, she could feel the shockwave of the explosion. Orange flames rose above the buildings, quickly followed by a second one that sent smoke to the sky with fried guts raining down.
Tomoe cursed her luck. Everything had been going so great too.
—
He reached down, holding the bracelet out. The silver-gray ray scanned Tomoe from head to toe. Except for some bruises, mostly the one on her back, she was not wounded.
He helped her up. Neural connection to satellites showed that the dragon was dead. The initial explosion ignited its gas bladder, causing a secondary explosion. The torso and the wings were gone entirely, leaving behind charred limbs and the head.
And a ton of soft flesh from the internal organs.
—
Temple of the Gates
"That's definitely going to stay for a while," she grumbled. The bruise on her back was burning now. She was lucky to not break anything with how hard she hit the tree.
Thairon held his hand out, palm facing upwards. A white injector with a glass capsule containing a mint green liquid inside dropped down.
"Here, hold out your arm."
"More of your genius at play?"
"It is a regenerative compound. Your bruises will be gone in an hour, unless you want to keep them." He had created it to slow down his cellular degeneration, and it worked excellently for most wounds one would suffer.
She glanced at the injector, mind racing. There were a million logical reasons in her mind to refuse. They knew each other for a week, and taking whatever was in that container could have unforeseen repercussions.
She held her arm out, rolling the sleeve back.
He put the tip of the injector on her shoulder. Clamps locked in place, and he pushed the trigger slowly.
The burning feeling on her back left its place to a cool, pleasant feeling, as if she were swimming in a pool on a particularly hot summer day.
"Quick thinking back there. This was one of the shortest fights I had, and most importantly, no casualties," she said, doing a double take.
"There are no casualties, right?" she asked. With how quickly they abandoned the place to avoid the spotlight, she could not be sure.
"Give me a second," he said. The clamps retracted, and he teleported the empty injector away.
He accessed the satellite again, seeing everything it detected on the ground. There were wounded civilians, but the dragon did not have the time to cause any serious damage. The emergency response teams were already on site, containing the situation.
"No casualties."
She sighed, slow and loud, letting all her frustration bleed out. "Great."
"I only wish every battle was like this."
"Take what victories you can get."
"Sure. Seeing as the city is going to be on alert, why don't we eat inside?" The date had ended with a bang, but she wasn't complaining.
"Works for me." Nax had already scrubbed their images from all public channels, and there were no witnesses in the area of the rupture. They could just enjoy the rest of the day.
—
Yumiko had cupped her daughter's face the second she saw her, checking for wounds.
"Tomoe, are you alright? I heard there was a rupture downtown."
She gently pried her mother's hands off. "I am fine, Mom; we dealt with it."
"You two? How?"
She scratched her head, explaining what had transpired with a strained smile.
Yumiko was not amused with her daughter driving a gas tank truck to the belly of a dragon and jumping out of it.
While the vehicle was at full speed.
"And you are not wounded?"
"Just some bruises." She pulled him closer by the arm. "The genius boy here had medicine to heal it all in the blink of an eye."
"An hour, as I said, but yes."
"I see." She brought her hands together, bowing slightly in gratitude. "It appears I owe you greatly now, not only for my daughter, but also for your assistance in stopping that creature."
He bowed back. "You are welcome."
"And we lost our desserts, wonderful."
The left corner of his lips curled upwards as the abandoned dessert boxes were teleported on the ground.
Yumiko's eyes widened, while her daughter just chuckled.
She was accommodating enough to give them a private room and drinks to accompany the cakes. The rest of the day was spent lazing around the temple. She showed him parts of her childhood, volunteered to help with food distribution—which he joined as well—and finally, cooked a simple dinner for both.
At night, he left with the promise to return tomorrow and take her to the airport.
He could have teleported her to Tersus, but the ticket was already bought. The EIC also required proof that she had travelled by plane to pay for the ticket. Overall, it would not be worth the trouble.
—
"It will be fine. I'll catch up on my sleep."
"Alright. Take care over there, and give me a call when you are free."
She waved at him, going through the gate to board her plane.
He waved back and, once she was out of sight, returned to Glassport.