Raven couldn't care less either way. The one doing all the actual work was Grey Serpent anyway; the bad reputation belonged to Ryoma Raiden, whom Grey Serpent had shaped into a doting father figure.
Yuna still looked stiff and uncertain. Just then, Mei fished a wooden sword out of the corner and tossed it casually her way.
Clatter. The wooden sword landed by Yuna's feet and bounced once.
"Let me repeat myself. Our club is called the Hokushin Ittō-ryū Youth Training Camp. If you can't handle the hardship, you'd best quit early."
Mei had her principles. Maybe it was for her friends. Maybe for her family. Maybe for the little chuunibyou in her heart. Or maybe just pure refusal to lose.
After all, Natasha-senpai and Shiraha both seemed to have their own special skills, the kind that would stick in people's minds even in a game. But she was just the young lady of the Raiden family.
That label was too light. So light she felt it was nowhere near enough.
Yuna hesitated. Am I going to get beaten up?
She stole a furtive glance at Shiraha. He'd already put his helmet on and was sprawled motionless across the desk.
"Shiraha won't do!"
Mei immediately cut off any possibility of that, her voice a little tense.
Sure, Mei was confident in her own talent but Shiraha's fierce ghost friend was also formidable.
If Shiraha trained and his fierce ghost friend trained right along with him... when would she ever surpass the two of them?!
Yuna half-understood, her eyes full of envy. "You two really have such a good relationship. As an older sister, you're not even willing to let your little brother suffer a single hardship."
She envied that kind of family bond so much.
Mei: ....
She opened her mouth but couldn't quite find the words. That was part of the reason, she supposed. Just... not a very big part.
"Forget about Shiraha. First, follow me and practice swinging. For a beginner, sparring is obviously not appropriate."
Besides, in case Yuna turned out to be a hidden master herself, she needed to feel out her foundations first.
Yuna hurriedly grasped the wooden sword.
Elysia watched all this lazily. Raven clearly had no intention of joining in either, after years of grinding, it was time for her to slack off a little.
Shiraha... waited for the cognitive synchronization to finish.
Once the scene before him had fully stabilized, he pushed off with his small hands and hopped directly off that somewhat cold operating table.
Beside him, the petite Dr. Mobius was visibly surprised.
"It seems there are still issues with the data projection." Her little face looked troubled. "I worked so hard to construct your data body, and the moment you arrive, you automatically become the anchor point for your own descent."
After all, Shiraha wasn't physically entering the Realm. Trying to examine all kinds of data was incredibly, incredibly troublesome. Mobius could only slowly build, reconstruct, and debug.
She stopped the work in her hands. "It seems your vacation is over. How's your mood?"
Shiraha smiled until his eyes curved into crescents, his voice so sincere it hardly seemed feigned. "Just thinking that I get to see the Doctor again, my mood is inexplicably quite good."
Mobius let out a crisp laugh, her small frame quivering. "I think you just miss your Eden-nee."
She was very tolerant of children. Besides, this kid bore the title of Disciple of Origin, he could practically be treated as a friend's child.
Such a shame he was already too old. And too well-behaved. That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all!
Shiraha shook his head seriously. "Eden-nee is very kind, but that doesn't mean I don't miss Mobius... little... sister. Sister."
Besides, he'd already finished all of Eden-nee's stories. Her value had dropped significantly. Right now, Dr. Mobius, who had proposed the original Stigmata plan, was far more important.
Truthfully, the real driving force behind the Stigmata Project later on was Mei. But a plan of that scale, in its later stages, was never the work of a single day—and Mobius naturally understood it too. Who could blame her, though? The Elysian Realm had no Mei-nee. Sigh.
"So, what story do you want to hear this time?"
Mobius settled back onto her hovering flier, legs crossed, small hands propping up her chin. She seemed to be in a rather good mood.
"Sis, I want to get stronger."
Mobius froze. Her young, delicate face was full of bewilderment.
What's that supposed to mean? With Eden, you're a good little boy who listens to stories. And with me, it's "Sis, I want to get stronger"?
If he wanted to get stronger, he should go to Sakura. Or Kalpas. Or Kevin. Do you really hate being in Mobius's lab that much?
"Teacher Elysia helped awaken the power of the Stigmata inside me, but in the end, it hasn't formed a proper system. For the follow-up methods, Teacher could only let me slowly study and explore on my own."
He paused, lifted his face, eyes sparkling. "But Teacher told me, Mobius-nee knows everything."
It wasn't like Elysia-nee could show up here right now and confront him face-to-face anyway. So wasn't Shiraha just a fictional historian at this point?
He could say whatever he wanted!
"How old are you again?"
Mobius didn't meet the child's big, hopeful eyes. The great Mobius was soft-hearted. She couldn't look at this sort of thing.
"Seven."
Hearing his age, Mobius instantly cooled off, her voice helpless. "...What's a seven-year-old in such a rush to get strong for?"
At seven, he should be going "nee-san this," "nee-san that," "nee-san, hug", spending his days in the Realm listening to stories and keeping his big sisters company.
Shiraha pressed his lips together and answered seriously. "Because lately at school, I've been seeing so many cases of isolation and bullying. And not long ago, I heard that some big organization in the west has been conducting human experiments."
Mobius: That sounds like it's directed at me.
The one who'd been isolated was her. The one who'd conducted human experiments was also her.
Shiraha paid no mind to the subtle shift in Mobius's eyes. He kept going. "Teacher's face looked terrible when she heard that news. But right now, there's nothing she can do."
"I also think the world shouldn't be like this."
"But wanting to change the world always seems to depend on force. Theory without fists isn't very convincing. Even in the most popular manga lately, the protagonist can only use 'talk no jutsu' after he's already beaten the opponent to the ground."
"I think... maybe I can do a little more. After all, with Mobius-nee, Eden-nee, and Teacher supporting me, the odds of me succeeding at something like this should be higher than most."
Shiraha lifted his head. His eyes were clear and bright. It made Mobius slightly uncomfortable, her life experience could no longer bear the weight of such innocent, childlike emotion.
She was quiet for a while. Then she reached out and ruffled Shiraha's hair, the motion very gentle.
"Elysia really has changed."
At the very least, in the Previous Era, as someone caught deep in the currents, Elysia had never, not even at the very end, considered solving humanity's internal problems through force.
Come to think of it... has Elysia still not given up on searching for her paradise?
Shiraha stayed silent, only gazing at Mobius-nee with hopeful expectation, the light in his eyes not dimming in the slightest.
He felt his own rate of progress was already visibly fast. But if he could skip straight from acquired talent back to innate talent, why wouldn't he?
Mobius wanted to offer a couple more words of discouragement, but... back when Elysia had finished traveling the world, hadn't lots of people tried to talk her out of things too?
She fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke. "If I were to refuse, what would you plan to do?"
"I'd go find someone else."
Shiraha answered decisively, without a trace of hesitation.
'How ruthlessly pragmatic.' The corner of Mobius's mouth twitched.
Shiraha continued, "I know Mobius-nee is a really good person. Even though you and Teacher had some conflicts in the past, you're still gentle and kind. But I'm a big kid now!"
He subtly rose onto his tiptoes, trying to make himself look just a little taller.
"Please call me Shiraha, Mobius-nee! Not 'little brother' or 'little Shiraha'!"
Mobius bit her lower lip, straining to keep her little face composed. But her expression management skills seemed not quite practiced enough.
"Fine, fine. My little grown-up Shiraha... pfft, ahem. Your sister will help. Your sister will help, alright?"
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Vote Powerstones please