Katsumi looked at Elizabeth in disbelief. She'd stolen... the Henkan III. Not only that but the little traitor had coded something into it. Apparently, its intended purpose was now fulfilled. The pink haired little irritation was absolutely beaming. She was actually proud of herself. Katsumi turned her gaze toward the Henkan in her hand. Perhaps she'd show her friend just why that wasn't a good idea. The Black Swords Woman had been the most proficient in the System Call or Sage Arts magic of LAO. Her fingers tightened around the handle of the Henkan. There was an ugly smile on her face.
Elizabeth finally lost that smug expression. "Wait, Kat, its not what you think! The Henkan III just needed a little boost. This seemed like the perfect addition." Katsumi could imagine the fire in her eyes as she looked up. The click of the lacrima turning was quite satisfying. Elizabeth paled, holding her hands out. "Come on, Kat. We're friends right? There's no need to be angry. I helped you. You helped me. We're all happy." The Henkan flashed into its wand configuration. Katsumi held it in front of her face. Elizabeth finally had the sense to run.
"System Call." The wand lit up. The gem set into the handle sparkled blue. Magical energy swirled around Katsumi. The magic was up and listening. "Generate aerial element. Form element, whip shape. Burst." As a whip made of air formed from the wand's tip, Katsumi snapped her arm up then forward. The whip snapped through the air to land on Elizabeth's rear. Unfortunately, there was an unintended explosion of air that launched the inventor into the air. "I'm blasting off agaaaaaaiiiinnnn!" She cried out before disappearing in a twinkle.
Katsumi scowled, not happy that the inventor had gotten off light. Elizabeth had probably hidden some sort of fail safe to make sure she was out of harms way. Or worse, her coding job was once again subpar. That was why Katsumi had had to code the spells into the Henkan one herself. Plus with the Sage Arts have a wide variety of commands, one wrong line of code could wreck havoc on others. The swords woman groaned at the amount of work she'd have to put into this. She wanted the new magic as it made her a little more comfortable than her sword arts. There would be no way she'd admit that to Elizabeth however. Hell itself would swallow her first.
First things first was to open up the coding encased within the Henkan III. Then she'd have to train with it. The sage arts wouldn't be the same here as they had been back in LAO. Two tests would have to be required. The first would be preformed here in Elizabeth's workshop. It was a controlled environment where any bugs could be quickly figured out and fixed. Then there was a field test. Katsumi was sure there was a job or two around here she could take on to test the magic. Bandits or wrongdoers would hop to her little tune as she worked the finer points of the magic.
Failing that, she could always ask Ri to run around for her as target practice. Her cheeks blushed a bit as her thoughts lingered on her boyfriend. It might be a little fast given they'd only been dating for two weeks but she wanted to feel his skin on hers. Lacrima Arts Online had robbed her of too many experiences. This was one she wasn't willing to wait for. In light of the mission given to her by the magic council, with the possibility of getting stuck within her uncle's games again, she might never have a chance like this again. He might not be the right one, might not be the only one but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she got to experience this one moment before risking her sanity for the sake of the council. And the world of course.
Katsumi pulled her thoughts away from that line. She had work to do. If she could find the right tool in this mess. Elizabeth had basically dumped all her failed creations and tools into a single pile. How she ever found anything in here was a mystery. Katsumi set her Henkan III down on a clean area far from the pile. Time to find what she needed. This. Not that. What is that? Not that. Need this. Oooo that looks interesting. Focus. Not that. Not that. That and this. Done. Katsumi emerged with grease smearing her face and arms. She had no idea how much time had passed while she submerged into the pile. It could have been a year later without surprising Katsumi.
The tools were set beside the Henkan III. Katsumi took a moment to find her breath before getting to work. The working condition of the Henkan III was the first thing checked. The tiny working parts and delicate magic threads making the whole thing work could easily be maligned. That in turn jammed the mechanism. If that happened in battle... Katsumi quickly moved on to checking the next thing. Better to not dwell on the maybes. A blue screen hovered above the guts of the Henkan III, showing the magical script coded into the device. Elizabeth had done a good job keeping things separated here. Katsumi quickly opened up the sage arts section. There was no need to mess with the programming of the forms.
Katsumi was dismayed to see that Elizabeth hadn't coded hardly anything. She done the absolute basics of the magic and expected Katsumi to use it? Did Elizabeth want her to die? Generate Element was the only thing really coded in. Katsumi looked further to find the inventor had only coded three of the elements. The black swords woman sighed as she got to work. There were several new spells to code in before she fixed the abominable job that Elizabeth had done. She was really gonna give it to the inventor next time. The pink haired twit couldn't think straight half the time. One of these days she'd give Katsumi something without having finished it whatsoever. Then it would blow off Katsumi's hand. Elizabeth wouldn't even feel bad about it, just offering to replace it instead. By the gods, why were they friends?
The coding part of the job took a while. She had to put in several more code phrases such as Discharge, Secret Art, and several more Form element commands. The rest of the elements were coded in rather quickly but Katsumi found it irritating that she had to do it at all. Elizabeth should have taken the time to put in the Thermal, Cryogenic, Metallic, etc. elements. It wouldn't have taken her all that more time. Instead the inventor had been unbearably lazy. Katsumi worked for a few hours on perfecting the code and adding more to it. Only when she was satisfied did she put the wand form back together.
Katsumi whipped around, the magic beginning to swirl as she spoke the words "System Call. Generate metallic element. Discharge." She whipped the wand forward. Several metal needles formed. They flew forward rapidly. Most slammed into the target but a few missed. This caused Katsumi to curse. The aiming of the spells might be slightly off. Either that or she needed a lot of practice with the wand. She began using the same spell repeatedly only changing the element generated. Fire, ice, wind, solid light and solid darkness quickly littered the workshop. It was an area of destruction. Katsumi quickly realized it was a little of both issues she'd originally thought of. Her wand pointing was too elaborate and the spells weren't generating quite where they were supposed to. Both ended up with the spells not hitting exactly where they needed to. She turned back toward the workbench. It would be a long day and probably night.
It took Katsumi the better part of three hours to get her wand waving down. She stuck to the simplest spells she knew in Sage Arts. The more powerful ones would end with the destruction of the workshop and could cause destruction in the town itself if she was off by even a little. As much as she despised Elizabeth's laziness, they were friends. She wouldn't get the inventor slapped with a destruction fine plus having to rebuild her lab. That would be taking revenge a little too far. Katsumi wasn't above leaving the workshop a mess though. There was no intention to clean up the stuff that was littered across it as a result of her practice. Elizabeth would have to deal with it when she came back.
The Henkan III was ready for its field test. Katsumi wouldn't be able to cast many of the more powerful spells but she figured testing one or two wouldn't hurt. Provided she had coded them correctly and didn't place herself in a lot of danger. Perhaps she'd try to reserve a bit of mana in order to fend off anyone she might be facing. Then if something went wrong, she could defend herself and get away. Running wasn't something Katsumi liked but it was better to do that and survive another day. Anything was preferable to death.
A little wandering in town gave Katsumi the perfect target for tests. A group of bandit mages had taken over a nearby fortress. There were quite a few of them. Apparently it would take an army merely to storm the fortress then another army to take on the bandits. Katsumi threw her name into that hat. A few other mages were coming along to provide backup for her. She appreciated it. That meant she could test to her heart's desire. Nothing needed to be held back.
Approaching the fort, the mages with Katsumi got rather nervous. She paused just before the fort came into view. Better to let them know the plan of attack. She didn't want them freaking out and screwing up her test run. "Don't worry boys... and girl. I'll do all the work. All you have to do is back me up and get me out if I collapse." They all gave each other skeptical looks. Katsumi smiled confidently. She about faced to crest the hill before the fortress. That was when she got a good idea of why two armies were needed.
The fortress had a defensive system made up of golems. They littered the field in front of the fortress. It made a direct approach impossible without a fight and an underground approach was probably suicide. Katsumi calmly twisted the lacrima on the Henkan III. It flashed into its wand form. "Watch and learn, my young apprentices." She called out behind her. There was a sage art that was perfect for this situation. Katsumi held the wand vertically in front of her face. Magic began to swirl about her, ruffling the long black coat she had on. "System Call. Generate Elements: Luminous. Aerial. Thermal. Unlock Secret Art. Noble Phantasm: Blasted Tree." Katsumi could feel the magic heavy above her shoulders. It was hard to hold back her excitement. It was working! She slowly extended the wand toward the sky. "Discharge."
Lightning shot from the tip of the wand into the sky. The mages with Katsumi cried out in dismay. There was a brief feeling of irritation. Did they really think she was that incompetent? Dark storm clouds were rapidly forming overhead. Satisfied that the spell had worked as intended, Katsumi pointed at the field before her. Lightning struck repeatedly. It tore through the golems with little issue. Not a particularly strong defense force then. Pity. Katsumi enjoyed pitting herself against a stronger opponent. Especially if there wasn't the threat of death hanging over her head. Time to wrap this up though.
Katsumi faced the fortress, letting her first spell do its work. She'd unleash the most powerful spell she'd learned in LAO. A fortress breaking sage art that had been very helpful if draining. "System Call. Generate Elements: Luminous. Thermal. Unlock Secret Art. Noble Phantasm:-" She raised the wand above her head. "EXCALIBUR!" A column of light erupted above Katsumi's head originating at the wand. She swung her arm down, the light column following the motion. It cut through the walls of the fortress like butter. The entire structure was cleaved in two and a long scorch mark appeared upon the grounds pointing back towards Katsumi.
The swords woman swayed on her feet but there was a happy smile on her face. "There ya go. Have the local police arrest whoever's left...Before they get away." This had been a successful test of her new magic. She couldn't wait to try it on a real job. As the blackness expanded over her vision, Katsumi had one last thought. I'm coming for you, uncle. I'll use your own ideas to defeat you...
WC: 2244
Elizabeth finally lost that smug expression. "Wait, Kat, its not what you think! The Henkan III just needed a little boost. This seemed like the perfect addition." Katsumi could imagine the fire in her eyes as she looked up. The click of the lacrima turning was quite satisfying. Elizabeth paled, holding her hands out. "Come on, Kat. We're friends right? There's no need to be angry. I helped you. You helped me. We're all happy." The Henkan flashed into its wand configuration. Katsumi held it in front of her face. Elizabeth finally had the sense to run.
"System Call." The wand lit up. The gem set into the handle sparkled blue. Magical energy swirled around Katsumi. The magic was up and listening. "Generate aerial element. Form element, whip shape. Burst." As a whip made of air formed from the wand's tip, Katsumi snapped her arm up then forward. The whip snapped through the air to land on Elizabeth's rear. Unfortunately, there was an unintended explosion of air that launched the inventor into the air. "I'm blasting off agaaaaaaiiiinnnn!" She cried out before disappearing in a twinkle.
Katsumi scowled, not happy that the inventor had gotten off light. Elizabeth had probably hidden some sort of fail safe to make sure she was out of harms way. Or worse, her coding job was once again subpar. That was why Katsumi had had to code the spells into the Henkan one herself. Plus with the Sage Arts have a wide variety of commands, one wrong line of code could wreck havoc on others. The swords woman groaned at the amount of work she'd have to put into this. She wanted the new magic as it made her a little more comfortable than her sword arts. There would be no way she'd admit that to Elizabeth however. Hell itself would swallow her first.
First things first was to open up the coding encased within the Henkan III. Then she'd have to train with it. The sage arts wouldn't be the same here as they had been back in LAO. Two tests would have to be required. The first would be preformed here in Elizabeth's workshop. It was a controlled environment where any bugs could be quickly figured out and fixed. Then there was a field test. Katsumi was sure there was a job or two around here she could take on to test the magic. Bandits or wrongdoers would hop to her little tune as she worked the finer points of the magic.
Failing that, she could always ask Ri to run around for her as target practice. Her cheeks blushed a bit as her thoughts lingered on her boyfriend. It might be a little fast given they'd only been dating for two weeks but she wanted to feel his skin on hers. Lacrima Arts Online had robbed her of too many experiences. This was one she wasn't willing to wait for. In light of the mission given to her by the magic council, with the possibility of getting stuck within her uncle's games again, she might never have a chance like this again. He might not be the right one, might not be the only one but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she got to experience this one moment before risking her sanity for the sake of the council. And the world of course.
Katsumi pulled her thoughts away from that line. She had work to do. If she could find the right tool in this mess. Elizabeth had basically dumped all her failed creations and tools into a single pile. How she ever found anything in here was a mystery. Katsumi set her Henkan III down on a clean area far from the pile. Time to find what she needed. This. Not that. What is that? Not that. Need this. Oooo that looks interesting. Focus. Not that. Not that. That and this. Done. Katsumi emerged with grease smearing her face and arms. She had no idea how much time had passed while she submerged into the pile. It could have been a year later without surprising Katsumi.
The tools were set beside the Henkan III. Katsumi took a moment to find her breath before getting to work. The working condition of the Henkan III was the first thing checked. The tiny working parts and delicate magic threads making the whole thing work could easily be maligned. That in turn jammed the mechanism. If that happened in battle... Katsumi quickly moved on to checking the next thing. Better to not dwell on the maybes. A blue screen hovered above the guts of the Henkan III, showing the magical script coded into the device. Elizabeth had done a good job keeping things separated here. Katsumi quickly opened up the sage arts section. There was no need to mess with the programming of the forms.
Katsumi was dismayed to see that Elizabeth hadn't coded hardly anything. She done the absolute basics of the magic and expected Katsumi to use it? Did Elizabeth want her to die? Generate Element was the only thing really coded in. Katsumi looked further to find the inventor had only coded three of the elements. The black swords woman sighed as she got to work. There were several new spells to code in before she fixed the abominable job that Elizabeth had done. She was really gonna give it to the inventor next time. The pink haired twit couldn't think straight half the time. One of these days she'd give Katsumi something without having finished it whatsoever. Then it would blow off Katsumi's hand. Elizabeth wouldn't even feel bad about it, just offering to replace it instead. By the gods, why were they friends?
The coding part of the job took a while. She had to put in several more code phrases such as Discharge, Secret Art, and several more Form element commands. The rest of the elements were coded in rather quickly but Katsumi found it irritating that she had to do it at all. Elizabeth should have taken the time to put in the Thermal, Cryogenic, Metallic, etc. elements. It wouldn't have taken her all that more time. Instead the inventor had been unbearably lazy. Katsumi worked for a few hours on perfecting the code and adding more to it. Only when she was satisfied did she put the wand form back together.
Katsumi whipped around, the magic beginning to swirl as she spoke the words "System Call. Generate metallic element. Discharge." She whipped the wand forward. Several metal needles formed. They flew forward rapidly. Most slammed into the target but a few missed. This caused Katsumi to curse. The aiming of the spells might be slightly off. Either that or she needed a lot of practice with the wand. She began using the same spell repeatedly only changing the element generated. Fire, ice, wind, solid light and solid darkness quickly littered the workshop. It was an area of destruction. Katsumi quickly realized it was a little of both issues she'd originally thought of. Her wand pointing was too elaborate and the spells weren't generating quite where they were supposed to. Both ended up with the spells not hitting exactly where they needed to. She turned back toward the workbench. It would be a long day and probably night.
It took Katsumi the better part of three hours to get her wand waving down. She stuck to the simplest spells she knew in Sage Arts. The more powerful ones would end with the destruction of the workshop and could cause destruction in the town itself if she was off by even a little. As much as she despised Elizabeth's laziness, they were friends. She wouldn't get the inventor slapped with a destruction fine plus having to rebuild her lab. That would be taking revenge a little too far. Katsumi wasn't above leaving the workshop a mess though. There was no intention to clean up the stuff that was littered across it as a result of her practice. Elizabeth would have to deal with it when she came back.
The Henkan III was ready for its field test. Katsumi wouldn't be able to cast many of the more powerful spells but she figured testing one or two wouldn't hurt. Provided she had coded them correctly and didn't place herself in a lot of danger. Perhaps she'd try to reserve a bit of mana in order to fend off anyone she might be facing. Then if something went wrong, she could defend herself and get away. Running wasn't something Katsumi liked but it was better to do that and survive another day. Anything was preferable to death.
A little wandering in town gave Katsumi the perfect target for tests. A group of bandit mages had taken over a nearby fortress. There were quite a few of them. Apparently it would take an army merely to storm the fortress then another army to take on the bandits. Katsumi threw her name into that hat. A few other mages were coming along to provide backup for her. She appreciated it. That meant she could test to her heart's desire. Nothing needed to be held back.
Approaching the fort, the mages with Katsumi got rather nervous. She paused just before the fort came into view. Better to let them know the plan of attack. She didn't want them freaking out and screwing up her test run. "Don't worry boys... and girl. I'll do all the work. All you have to do is back me up and get me out if I collapse." They all gave each other skeptical looks. Katsumi smiled confidently. She about faced to crest the hill before the fortress. That was when she got a good idea of why two armies were needed.
The fortress had a defensive system made up of golems. They littered the field in front of the fortress. It made a direct approach impossible without a fight and an underground approach was probably suicide. Katsumi calmly twisted the lacrima on the Henkan III. It flashed into its wand form. "Watch and learn, my young apprentices." She called out behind her. There was a sage art that was perfect for this situation. Katsumi held the wand vertically in front of her face. Magic began to swirl about her, ruffling the long black coat she had on. "System Call. Generate Elements: Luminous. Aerial. Thermal. Unlock Secret Art. Noble Phantasm: Blasted Tree." Katsumi could feel the magic heavy above her shoulders. It was hard to hold back her excitement. It was working! She slowly extended the wand toward the sky. "Discharge."
Lightning shot from the tip of the wand into the sky. The mages with Katsumi cried out in dismay. There was a brief feeling of irritation. Did they really think she was that incompetent? Dark storm clouds were rapidly forming overhead. Satisfied that the spell had worked as intended, Katsumi pointed at the field before her. Lightning struck repeatedly. It tore through the golems with little issue. Not a particularly strong defense force then. Pity. Katsumi enjoyed pitting herself against a stronger opponent. Especially if there wasn't the threat of death hanging over her head. Time to wrap this up though.
Katsumi faced the fortress, letting her first spell do its work. She'd unleash the most powerful spell she'd learned in LAO. A fortress breaking sage art that had been very helpful if draining. "System Call. Generate Elements: Luminous. Thermal. Unlock Secret Art. Noble Phantasm:-" She raised the wand above her head. "EXCALIBUR!" A column of light erupted above Katsumi's head originating at the wand. She swung her arm down, the light column following the motion. It cut through the walls of the fortress like butter. The entire structure was cleaved in two and a long scorch mark appeared upon the grounds pointing back towards Katsumi.
The swords woman swayed on her feet but there was a happy smile on her face. "There ya go. Have the local police arrest whoever's left...Before they get away." This had been a successful test of her new magic. She couldn't wait to try it on a real job. As the blackness expanded over her vision, Katsumi had one last thought. I'm coming for you, uncle. I'll use your own ideas to defeat you...
WC: 2244
