The Food Chain

Tsu re-read the message for the twelve thousandth time as he stood at the outskirts of the Warehouse District. He had given himself sufficient time to be there at 10PM and in his hoodie was his partner in crime but he had little else on him, except his method of transportation. His LacTube videos were mostly for fun and a way for him to express himself, as he had grown up relatively sheltered in the temple and had never really had a normal childhood, which one could argue explained a lot of his social awkwardness. Nevertheless he had never dreamed that it would actually lead to something, much less something to do with his baking prowess rather than his fighting abilities, the primary attraction to his LacTube channel and the videos that pulled in more than quadruple the baking videos.

He had intended to arrive early at first, but then figured that the timing was so exact that he best arrive exactly on time in order to not mess with preproduction or whatever technical things were happening behind the scenes. He could now use terms like "preproduction" and "behind the scenes" un-ironically and this secretly made him giddy as a schoolchild. Thus he walked slowly along the pathways between the warehouses, looking for any hint that may give away their intended purposes. "What do you think they use these for?" He asked absentmindedly.

"Who knows? It's probably a filming lot for lots of other stuff," Ahab said. This had piqued his interest as well, but he was playing it much cooler than his more eager ally. He was laying on his stomach in the recesses of Tsubasa's hoodie but had pulled down the fabric enough that he could peek through and look at the surroundings as well. He, like Tsubasa, was looking for some hidden sign or clue that these places may have hid special sets for some popular film franchise or otherwise interesting program. Honestly to the both of them any kind of brush with fame would have been amazing, although it would have been icing on the cake for their general experience.

At 9:59PM, Tsubasa arrived at the assigned Warehouse, 311A, and stared at it. There was nothing especially remarkable about it, not even a sign signaling that he had found the right place or that there was filming happening within. He figured that it was because of the prior mentioned privacy that things were so top secret. Taking a deep breath, he turned the knob and stepped in. Immediately he was hit with the overwhelming brightness of the lights in the room.

The place was definitely built as a stage for a televised cooking production. It had several ovens, stoves and preparation areas fully stocked, cameras on dollys and tracks were stationed on one side of the room with rows upon rows of seats for an audience of at least a hundred. Along the other side was a long single table in front of three lavish chairs which were made up to look like royalty. There were oversized buttons before each chair which seemed to be part of some setup for judging or something else overly dramatic in true televised fashion. Beyond that there were staging areas and the rest of the warehouse was probably dedicated to the backstage part which was, likely, even more important than what was seen. It was truly made up to look like a televised set.

Except there was no one there. Not a soul in the building.

"Hello?" Tsubasa called out. He pulled up the message again to check that he had the time and everything correct. Everything checked out. Absently as he called out again and again, he walked towards the very center of the cooking area, the excitement within him beginning to shift into dread.

As often happens in stressful situations, everything happened all at once but also extremely slowly. It seemed as though the moment Tsubasa realized that there wasn't actually a program that wanted him as a judge, or if there was this wasn't from them. The entire thing had been conceived as some sort of set-up and someone was going to play a trick on him. At first he thought that it was Ahab, and so the moment that it dawned on him, the dread melted into a kind of jovial relaxation. "Good one, I guess," He said, "Definitely mean, but good,"

Ahab looked at him with some confusion. "Yeah this wasn't me," He said. Before he could add any more the floor opened up underneath them. The two of them plummeted like stones with Tsubasa reaching for Ahab with one hand while trying to find purchase with the other. The walls were smooth as though they were freshly polished and the size difference between him and Ahab kept the two of them just out of reach. Just as Tsubasa gained enough sense to attempt to use actual magic to charge forward and grab his companion, the gravitational lights hit him and forced him to stop in place. With everything that he had he continued to reach towards the little flying squirrel as though his tiny little partner's life depended on it. For all he knew, it did. Tsubasa had always prided himself on being fast. This time, however, he wasn't fast enough.

Before he could reach, however, the wall opened up and sucked in Ahab like a superpower straw. Tsubasa and Ahab simultaneously shouted each other's names as the wall closed back and Tsubasa was left to fall the last few feet. He had the presence to set a wave of energy with a swipe of his hand which kept him from accidentally breaking a bone on landing. "HEY," He shouted, going from a zero to a nine pretty much immediately, "YOU GIMME BACK MY RAT." He walked to the closest wall and punched it as hard as he could, his own stubbornness keeping him from feeling the pain at the moment. Nothing happened for a moment so he punched it again. And again and then kicked it and tried that again. Finally, a reaction.

The floor opened up and tried to burn him alive. Leaping backwards with the speed that he wished he'd had just a moment prior, he narrowly escaped being a Tsu-flambe. "Hey!" He said, "Not cool! I mean— You know what I mean!" He had at least gathered that there was something behind this, but hadn't had the wherewithal or really the time to try to consider who it may have been. Whoever it was, however, he was going to say vaguely mean things about them. As he began to look for a way out of the room, he shouted, "Why don't you come down here and—" He was cut off by another jet of flame that burst out of the wall. "DANGIT!"

Meanwhile in the secret control room, Ahab was deposited gently onto the cushion finishing whatever he had started saying with the term, "—Kick the shit outta your fuck!" He was not well versed in cursing, but his anger was apparent. He grabbed at the pillow and pulled it out from under himself as though to use as a weapon. As soon as he saw who had abducted him, however, his ears immediately went back signaling clear confusion. "Hey…" He set the pillow down with some hesitation.

Next came the promise of food which, combined with someone he trusted, disarmed him completely. He scampered towards her and said, "I'll be writing a strongly worded letter to you after this. I'm guessing you have a plan with this." He took the ramen and sat on the control panel where he started to dig in. Looking out at the screens, seeing Tsubasa dodge the fires while screaming at the walls, he said, "Oh he big mad," Whether by accident or not, he leaned against a lever and flipped it downwards to use it as a reclining chair. "Whoops. I'm guessing that does something."

As Tsubasa dodged through the fire jets making his way towards the round knotless door, a hatch in the top right corner opened and sprayed an almost aerosolized-like mist of flammable oil, which fucktupled the intensity of everything in the room. The gouts bursting from the flamethrowers seemed to expand rapidly, like pigs gorging on their favorite meal. Soon there was much more flame than anything else in the room.

Tsubasa immediately felt the difference in heat, the intensity of which threatened to take him out immediately.  Rather, keeping his wits about him even if only at their end, he murmured to himself in a sing-song voice,

"So you got a cooking fire,
and you're starting to perspire.
Water won't solve it,
Oil fire can't drown.
Take away its oxygen
and it'll die down."

He made a ball with his fist and took a deep breath, before exhaling until his lungs were empty, using the last of it to repeat, "it'll die down." Then he opened his palm, revealing a small black hole in his palm. A miniature gateway to the void was more accurate, but it completed the same objective. Within this room of limited air and no ventilation, he sucked the blazing fire as well as the air out into the nether, killing the flames off quite quickly and taking away his own ability to breathe in the process. Now he had a very different problem, one with an arguably faster timer going. He snapped his hand shut to kill the black hole before turning around to face the other other problem. The door had no visible way of opening it, but it did seem to be a door. He merely needed to convince it to fulfill its purpose.

With force.

With the fires out at least temporarily (he couldn't guarantee something wouldn't reintroduce them into the room), he took the moment of freedom to run to the other side of the room then apparently straight up charge the door.

Thankfully he was at least a little more clever than he seemed at face value, as he began to glide along the metal floor with his speed increasing, and actual energy covering his fist as he'd done when he fought that demon guy Samael, sending a force punch straight at the door with hopefully enough intensity to slam it open. Assuming it did, the first thing he would do was take a deep breath.

With the force of his initial punch carrying him forward, Tsu found the edge of the water much quicker than he probably would have liked, his absurd dexterity being the only thing keeping him from immediately falling in. His right foot hit the ledge and instinctually he reversed his momentum. He kicked his left leg out, tossing off his own balance and allowing himself to throw his upper body back, then hop-wiggle-hop backwards until he was relatively safe. By that time, of course, the door behind him had shut and the room was nearly black as pitch.

With a simple snap of his fingers, however, he brought at least another pocket of light to him, allowing him to look around and get a sense of the room. No obvious traps, which made sense because if they were obvious they wouldn't be very good traps. He found the door on the other side and felt that it would probably withstand more than a few of his force punches. Even summoning one of his weapons would probably be useless here. Heck, he briefly considered pulling out the Thousand Pulse Cannon but the blast would probably do much more damage than he wanted to in general. He didn't know where Ahab was, so blowing this place up was off the list. Sliding slowly around the room he examined the smooth walls for anything that betrayed their fine, clearly elaborate design. He was either looking for an alternate exit or a hint towards who had designed this place. The big gouts of fire had given him one idea and this giant evil swimming pool was reinforcing it strongly.

When he noticed the light at the depths of the water, it spelled out exactly what he had to do to get out. Unfortunately he didn't look within for more than a moment, devising the obvious plan rather than waiting to get a closer look, he dismissed the churns within the water as some natural waves. With a deep breath, he jumped in.

——————

Ahab spoke up as Tsubasa examined the room. He'd been quietly watching how he solved the fire debacle and once Tsu was full on into search mode, Ahab, mouth full of noodles, explained, "It was cooking fire to him. That's a song his mom taught him for how to put out cooking fires. What a little dork." There was a very familiar tone to his voice, however, similar to how one would talk about their own sibling.

"But hey I get what you mean. It was a good idea to keep me away from him for this, you know. I'm like… 93% of the brains at least. And also at least 70% of the brawn. He's mostly there for show, really." As he watched Tsu jump in, he said, "You know if we're bein' real here, I'm kinda interested in what's gonna happen if he actually… loses his cool. I've only seen it happen like twice and the most recent time, he vaporized a guy who tried to kill his sister." Seemingly interrupting himself like a distracted child, he said, "Oh hey twisty." And turned a knob. The water started to thrash harder.

"Oh very twisty."

—————

Tsu had never been the best swimmer. He could move through the water and dive and things, sure, but he wasn't going to win any Olympic medals any time soon. As he started to sink into the pool, he headed straight for the single light in the darkness.

And that's when the water started to toss and turn around him. From his perspective it happened slowly at first, just enough to stop his descent before he felt things start to smack into him. Little nudges at first, as though something were testing him. Then they started hitting with force. Faster than he could move and definitely faster than he could dodge. He couldn't see anything around him with one particularly hard hit to his back, the breath was quite literally knocked from him.

With urgency, he started to head back to the surface, only to find that these things were grabbing on to him and trying to hold him down. Flailing and floundering under the water, he turned his head downward and opened his mouth. Rather than trying to breath or some other stupid thing, he fired out a burst of sound. The sonic waves were enough to get him to the surface, even if just barely. He looked up quickly, a veritable tsunami surrounding him as he took a breath. "You should probably know," He shouted as he struggled to bring his hands together, "Water was the first thing I learned. And the second…" He brought his hands together for just an instant, which was enough. The water parted around him, trapping him and whatever had been grabbing onto him in an air pocket surrounded by the now still waves. As he began to drop towards the ground, Tsubasa let out a battle cry and with it a charge of electricity which fried everything in the water except himself.

Except, now he was falling with increasing speed, quite deep into the murder pool. With a look of very careful precision on his face, he pulled small chunks of water out of the trapped space and used them as either stepping points or to just slow his fall to the bottom. He still hit with decent force, but his farrago plan had succeeded well enough. He did his best to reintroduce the water into the vacant space quite slowly, forcing it to carry him back to the surface. Roughly three-fourths through, however, he lost control and the water started to surround him with more force than he could take. His hoodie seemed to activate on its own and popped him back to the surface in a flash. He stumbled backwards on the small platform he had been given, looking around confused as though he had no idea how he had gotten back up to the surface. The key still in his hand, he placed it in the keyhole but didn't turn it yet. Instead, he reached in his pocket and seemed to dig around for a moment.

Finally, he pulled out an energy drink, his signature brand, and chugged it all in one go. Crushing it down, he tossed it into the murder pool, unlocked the door, and turned to leave.

Then went back and grabbed it out, because littering is bad even in an evil torture palace.

"Oh yeah, big whole thing," Ahab continued, perhaps not reading the air as well as he should have been. "So he's been going around doing things, you know. Adventures. It turns out like… every little thing he's been doing has been messing with some dark guild he had no knowledge of. Weather Control, they call themselves." As Tsu moved between rooms, he adjusted a few knobs, most of which just adjusted the lighting and air, because atmosphere was equally important in things like this.

Fluffing up his tail to lean back on, creating his own recliner, he continued, "So he got caught up in all this stuff and then the leader, some guy with like an S name, sends Tsu a picture of our family temple as like an I'm-gonna-kill-yer-family invitation type thing. We never flew so fast. That's when he broke the first boomerang thingy you and him made. He kaboomed it straight into some demon's chest. And then he sword fought with this guy and the guy was like," He did a deep voice, "You ruined all my plans and you suck," His voice went normal, "And he said uh… he said Tsu stole me? He said they made me." He grew silent for a second as there was a wave of seriousness that he fervently tried to push past, "Anyway they were sword fighting and this guy was better at swords than Tsu and so he was cutting him like… a lot. And then Dehlia threw her heel at him. The S guy, hit him right in the thinker."

He mimicked throwing a shoe, "You met Dehlia? You'd love her, she's like your exact flavor of bitch. But anyway then he, the S guy, turned like he was gonna attack Dehl and—" Ahab finished, not with words but with hand gestures like fireworks exploding, "Night sky lit up like it was day. Guy was gone. Tsu was sittin' there with the Thousand Pulse Cannon over his shoulder and everyone was still as a meditation pond." He pointed at one of the several screens on which Tsu was featured, "Oh look, he's doin' stuff."

Tsu was, indeed, doin' stuff. He had walked towards the edge of the hole and loudly asked, "Did you just not have an interior decorator for this one? Should I come back later? What's the theme here? Is it art? Because I'm not good at that. Fire, water, esoteric?"

He walked back to the entrance and said, "I mean I guess you expect me to just—" And he took a running start, picking up some of his trademark speed and leaping to the first platform. He held his hands up like an Olympic athlete's flourish, showing off to whomever was watching. Of course, pride goeth, as he dropped his hands so too did gravity, sending him tumbling like a wayward apple across the first platform. "Ah pumpkins!" He shouted, as he started running again. From a complete stop he couldn't do much more than keep his current position for a few seconds, but it seemed to be enough for him to think of something else.

"Oh the P word," Ahab interjected, "You must'a really caught him off gourd there."

Tsu activated his battle suit without any incantation, a flash of transformation as his hoodie engulfed his full form and wrapped him in the awesome guise of a space pirate. Sending out a burst of sound from the suit, it was enough to throw him to the next platform just as gravity shifted again, causing what was once the side to become the bottom and flattening him against the platform he'd been flying towards.

"Okay!" He said, "Not art, just science! Too bad for you my teacher is super good at science!"

He righted himself and started running towards the next platform, keeping sight of the goal in front of him. Which was now sideways but still before him. All he needed, he figured was to make sure that he knew where it was. Everything else was just in the way.

Feeling the gravity begin to change again, he crouched down to get a sense of which way it would go. He was now sliding forward and at an angle, which would throw him straight down into what was originally the upward hole. He had a plan for that one. He eyed the next platform, approximately fifteen meters away and far enough that he couldn't jump it himself. He could, however, give himself a little boost.

Turning his hands outward as he leaped into the air, he fired two continuous jets of flame behind him, powering flight for just a few moments against the combative gravity. It was enough to get him to the next position where he moved slowly but surely while waiting for gravity to change again. It did, of course, and much harder this time, slamming him against the ground and seeming to increase forcefully.

Ahab whistled innocently.

Undeterred, Tsubasa continued crawling forward, eventually gripping the edge of this platform as gravity shifted again, this time turning so that his grip was now all that was keeping him from falling into the abyss that was… he was pretty sure it was once the one on the bottom. The door was right side up now, which told him he was correct. Now was the best time to make a break as fast as he could. Shoving the platform away from him, he lit his palms again, flying towards the next platform and kicking off of it to get to the next one.

He'd nearly made it there before gravity shifted once more. Unfortunately his flames had extinguished with the expectation of landing, and he was sent falling. This happened a few more times, as many times as he seemed to catch himself, the gravity shifted and threw him into another platform. He was completely off whatever rhythm he'd had at the start, and he was definitely taking punishment for it. After one particularly hard hit, near the middle of the room, he couldn't catch himself in time and went sailing towards the abyss.

The top abyss this time. He looked back down and for a moment he seemed to just... fall. His abilities had gotten him this far but he was getting tired. What if it kept on like this? How much further could he go? Ahab's stupid little face popped into his head. Weather Control had said they'd created him, hadn't they? What if they were experimenting on him now? What would become of him if Tsu gave up? So many people counted on him, what would they think of him if they'd known he doubted himself for even a moment?

He mumbled to himself, closing his eyes underneath the masked helmet, "Ah heck this... Come on do it on purpose this time do it on purpose this time — NOW!" He shouted the final word and the hoodie, now presented as the suit around him, teleported him upwards to the platform he had barely missed, causing him to land in a roll.

He was in the home stretch now, but with a quick look at his hands, the jets of flame were a poor idea. He'd yet to master their energy output, therefore as long as he held them, he took considerable damage to his own hands. The suit-provided gloves had long since burned away and the flesh beneath indeed looked severely charred, but he persevered undeterred. Someone had stolen his rat.

He made a break for the door, there were only two platforms left between him and the one on which the door stood. He was currently horizontal in relation to it, but feeling the shift in gravity once again, he threw himself to the next platform just in time to keep running alongside it, the first time he had done so. It seemed as though something had shifted in him when he had successfully performed the teleportation with his hoodie. His speed increased exponentially, as it had a tendency to do when he was in a combat situation, and as he leapt towards the final platform and gravity shifted again, he summoned the Bottle Rocket, the smaller of his projectile weapons and fired three consecutive shots away from the platform, hurtling him hard onto it. He threw the gun away and it dissipated back into the ether.

Standing up, he took a deep breath and placed his hands together seemingly in prayer. A cascade of water covered his hands and soothed the immediate damage. However, they still looked incredibly raw. "I feel like I've been super patient up until now but I'm only gonna ask this like, one or two more times tops," In one fell swoop he summoned the Thousand Pulse Cannon from the ether and fired the rocket launcher sized railgun it into the door. The blast had been exactly as Ahab had described it just minutes ago. The cameras went stark white at the sheer brightness of the attack lit the room up like the sun, causing at least one or two to fitz out. When the rest returned to normal, they would show the aftermath of the attack, a hole in the metal roughly twice the size of the original hole.

"Where's my rat?"

When Ahab saw what Merc had created, he sat back and laughed like someone finally getting a naughty joke, "Ohhhh man this ain't gonna be good. You got like an emergency button to pull him out if he's gonna kill himself right??"

Tsubasa stopped and took in the room. The gun wouldn't help here, whoever was doing this was stronger than him and knew what he was capable of. With a tug of the small cord at the nape of his suit it reverted to its jacket form. His hair had been mussed up ever so slightly by the suit and presented now in such a way that it seemed to cast a shadow over his eyes.

He took a step forward. He could see himself running in and tearing through this place, using up every bit of his magic to ensure that Ahab was torn from the cage as quickly as possible, but something didn't sit right about that… Voices, memories of his elders tugged at him from all sides. They all echoed the same thing.





But they had all said the same thing:




He took a moment. He wanted to run. He wanted to dash through literally everything, no matter how quickly it would kill him, to get Ahab. Instead, he grit his teeth, sat down and focused. It came back to him.

Before he had left his house for the first time on his initial adventures, his family had showered him with small presents. Food for the road, charms and items that would bring him luck and prosperity, and things that could be sold for a small sum if he needed the jewels (he'd never sold anything, of course). And finally, the gift from his father had been a family heirloom. A small necklace which seemed to be a glowing stone surrounded in what could have easily been misidentified as octopus tentacles.
"When you finally slow down, you'll see how much energy you've been wasting." He said, as he put the necklace around his son's neck.

And even now, under his hoodie, beneath the sight of anyone, was the same necklace that had been given to him by his father before he'd left. It seemingly did nothing other than look strange, so he had never really thought about it. But now, as he let himself breathe and concentrated, he could feel it growing warm and had his eyes been open, see that it was emanating light as well. Thankfully, all of this happened in merely a few seconds, though in his now calm state he could hear the chain rattling as it drew closer, clank by clank, towards its gnashing nadir.

The necklace around his neck filled him with the latent energy that he had been wasting in his efforts. Had it all been channeled into here? This was nothing like the energy that he'd kept charged up with the energy drinks. This felt pure, like the difference between sunlight on your skin and that strange orangeish lamplight seen in the poorer hotels. Of course the body doesn't know what it's missing until it feels it. His heart rate slowed and his breathing grew under control. These meditation techniques were things he had been taught by both Dayu of the Stone and the ancient Wizard Melandrach, but had up until now only been used for the quickest of instants rather than something to be focused on.

His eyes snapped open as the calmness washed over him. His mood had not changed, he was still extremely angry at this entire situation, though rather than a churning ocean eager to rage into a storm, he had changed to a still lake within which lay an endless abyss, that which would peacefully drag the unsuspecting down to their watery grave without so much as a gurgle.

He stood up and pulled the hood onto him. He seemed to have formed a plan. Taking a step back towards the entrance, he took off into a run. He would have no place to stop for a breather throughout this, but that would work towards his advantage as there was no place for him to lose momentum.

He started out in a run. There were traps he could see, and he was certain there were more that he wouldn't be able to. That's why they were called traps. But in this blank slate state, he took everything as it came without the surprised gasp or stalling that one would expect from someone his age or general maturity level. Instead, he moved like the young monk he had been trained to be. The lessons behind the training that hadn't fully clicked until now. Not that it had become time for him to understand, but that he had finally been willing to.

First came an uneven dart trap. It would be difficult to dodge each and every one of them, judging by the various holes coming from both sides of the walls. As such, he tossed his hands forward and two stone slabs formed, blocking them in their tracks. The darts were powerful, to be sure, cracking into the stone, but not breaking it. Had that been by chance or by choice? Had Tsubasa been able to foresee the power of the darts and create just enough of a barrier for them?

He'd passed through it already, rounded the corner and was on to the next thing. Ahab (as he understood him to be) was calling out to him. Shouting something. Tsubasa had to ignore it. He had to cut him out to get to him faster. Any reassurances were time and effort that would better be spent actually getting to him.

A pitfall opened up just beneath him. Without slowing, he stepped onto the side of the wall and continued running along side it, the momentum he'd gathered up until this moment enough to carry him onward. A short stretch of running forward followed another turn. He could hear the clanking of the chain as it dropped just a little bit further down. As he whipped around the corner he saw a series of lasers before him, just a short moment away. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the empty can from before, throwing it at the lasers. Sure enough they turned it into recycled aluminum in a flash. What's more, they rose and fell just out of sync with each other like the world's worst spa jets, roughly two meters forward, a bit too long for him to safely outright jump.

Tsubasa reached to the side of his neck and pulled on the two strings of his hoodie, tightening it and getting rid of any slack of the back of the hood. Additionally, rather than move straight forward he lurched towards the wall and kicked off of it, going straight downwards onto the steel floor instead of forward. He dropped hard, but lost little momentum and continued rolling forward, narrowly missing each laser past its raising point. It seemed that the reason he had thrown himself off in that second was to recalibrate his timing and continue onward without missing a beat.

He cleared the lasers, but continued rolling along for a moment before kicking outward and throwing his legs around like an experienced breakdancer, pulling himself to his feet and continuing onward. Seemingly hitting a certain point, the swinging blades started their mechanical oscillation, and his eyes moved with them as he timed their movement. Too wild to run through, too close to pause between, no gears to gunk up—

No gears to gunk up.

He threw his left hand out and extended a whip of raw electricity, which he then threw at the first swinging blade. In a move straight out of Arachnae-Boy, he threw himself into the air, right with the perpendicular swinging of the blades, letting the first blade take him up even higher at which point he released the whip and threw another one. In a move that would have absolutely killed him if he hadn't done it just right, he latched onto the third blade and swung right past the second, the sharpened edge coming within centimeters of his face. He hit the ground in a roll and continued onward. On any other day he would have stopped to remark about how cool that was.

He reached the same chamber as Ahab and could see that the bottom of the metal cage was extremely close to getting caught, which would no doubt turn Ahab to gristle in a few precious seconds. Tsubasa jerked his hoodie off of his body, unzipping it smoothly like he was throwing it off after a day of exercising.

Instead of tossing it aside he balled it up and hurled it straight at the cage, covering it like one would do to the cage of a sleeping bird. He had to break the chain then move as quickly as possible to the extraction point.

As he rounded the shredder, he started snapping, causing sparks to fly from his fingers, little fireworks that seemed to dissipate as quickly as they were made. It would take a second for all but the most trained eyes to see what he was doing.

The chain was starting to heat up. Snapping rapidly like an offbeat poet society, Tsubasa heated up one particular link, a weak point that connected the cage and the rest of the chain. It would take the least effort to burn through. Not that he would be able to tear through it, considerable effort was put into every snap, but all he needed was it to weaken just enough and the weight of the cage would do the rest.

Now.

The chain snapped and the bottom of the cage got caught in the gnasher. At that instant, it disappeared and reappeared in the air roughly four meters in front of Tsubasa. He ran to catch it, having done all of this without stopping. His hoodie had done its job in the teleportation, pulling only the cage and not the entire chain with it, which would have been beyond its movement weight as it likely would have attempted to dislodge the entire ceiling.

Unfortunately this was only half of the way through, which meant that Tsubasa had to continue onwards, now carrying a metal cage. He gripped one of the bars and his hand lit up again. This… hurt. A lot. But as he bent through the heated metal and Ahab ventured outwards, it was definitely better than lugging around a cage through the rest of the maze. This time he didn't look back as he threw the cage into the shredder before swinging his hoodie back on and continuing through.

Now he was starting to look winded. Was he tired? Absolutely. But the weight against his heart had been more than lifted now that he had Ahab in his hood. The flying squirrel made some remark. He shot a glance to the side.

A series of metal spikes revealed themselves and threatened to impale him and his flying squirrel companion. He turned his upper body towards them just in time and threw both hands out in front of him. A blast of force magic jammed the spikes from erupting towards them for just long enough that the two passed by. Ahab made some joke about being too close for comfort but Tsubasa didn't respond. They weren't clear yet.

He continued on. The flamethrower was drowned by a wave of water, the pit spikes were flown over with the help of a burst of sound. The poisonous blades would have been trouble but for the miniature void that swallowed them up and the final series of darts, ending parallel to the beginning, ended with another wall of stone. This one was bigger than the last, possibly foreseeing a stronger ending than beginning.

As he slowed to a stop, he pulled Ahab out of his hoodie, took a look at him. Ahab said something to him but it didn't register to Tsubasa. Instead, something else hit him like a ton of bricks. Like the optometrist finally setting your new pair of glasses and letting you realize that individual leaves exist.

Instead, he cradled the little flying squirrel and looked into the air, "This isn't my rat. Who are you and why are you testing me?" He took a deep breath and said, "You put me in a fire place to test my fire magic. You put me in a water place to test my water magic. You put me in antigravity to test my black holes. You seem to know exactly what I can do but you don't want me dead because you could have killed me at least fifteen times here. Heck, you could have just left me in the fire box. What do you want from me? You want me to join your gang? How about you show yourself and we can settle this like grown ups?"

There was no immediate answer. Tsubasa stood, ready and waiting for the next challenge to appear. Sweat was pouring from his brow and although he stood tall and seemingly prepared, his mana reserves were at their limit, even with everything else he had pulled out. It wasn't pure luck that had driven him to discover that this Ahab was a fake one. It was an exact replica down to nearly the exact scent. It was simply that he didn't belong there. Not that Tsubasa and Ahab had some impressive way of distinguishing each other, but having him there simply didn't make sense as far as everything he had seen.

As he'd stated before, if they wanted him dead he would be dead. If they'd wanted him dangerous, they made him dangerous. But by giving him Ahab they had made him calm. Taken away a considerable amount of the pressure that had been put on him and made him less dangerous, contrasting the feelings that had been welling up within him up to this point. This was emotional manipulation and very well done. Done so well, in fact, that it was only due to his training that he was able to notice that he was feeling emotions capable of being manipulated.

Still, despite knowing that this Ahab wasn't a real one, he tucked it into his hoodie like a stray cat being shielded from the rain, determined to protect whatever it was until the end. It wasn't his flying rat, but it sure was a flying rat. If what Samael had said before about creating Ahab was true, there was no reason why Weather Control wouldn't have been able to create another just to make him work towards it. It seemed to have pretty much the exact personality, which caused a part of the back of his mind to feel like it had become an endless void, that which he dare not enter. The idea that his best friend's entire personality was manufactured and could thus be replicated was sickening to say the least.

In the barest moments of respite he had been given, water swam over his hands in what could have easily been mistaken for customized aquatic boxing gloves. The healing magic did what it could about the burns all over his hands because, honestly, once this spell expired he would have to rely on his raw strength and innate speed until he could regain his mana back enough to cast properly.

The door would open and something else would pop up or a giant minotaur would attempt to kill him or a giant pop up minotaur would make him play a board game. Exhaustion was setting in properly, as he simultaneously recognized the absurdity of the board game idea and hoped for it. He took a step back from the door in preparation. He worked best when he started from a short distance, after all. Instead, when the door opened, the voice that came from it shocked every absolute inch of him both physically and spiritually.

Mis— Mercury.

Everything clicked in the moment before she spoke, but it was as though each independent thought becoming a revelation was also a debilitating punch straight to the gut. He had surmised correctly that this had been a test, but to what end had been completely different. Put simply, it had never crossed his mind that his friend and teacher would have been the one to put him through this. To say that it wasn't dangerous or that it wasn't life threatening was a complete lie. His hands were proof of that, as were the minor injuries that he had sustained elsewhere.

He had known that her way of teaching was often done by throwing him into the sea and telling him to swim by simply shouting 'stop drowning', but that had always been an interesting challenge for him. This time she had brought him to a raging whirlpool filled with sharks and lured him there by telling him there was going to be a day at an amusement park. Needless to say the calmness that had consumed him had fallen prey to the 'bigger fish' that was the intense rush of emotion that came with this revelation. It was had to say, hard for him to parse out, which part of it angered him the most. Hurt him the most. They had gone through training sessions before, they had risked their lives together too. But she had never masterminded a situation for him to be hurt.

Had he been a little older, he may have seen the reason for this through her eyes, but the naïveté had blinded him to any possible positive to this. She explained Ahab, the real Ahab's innocence in this, as the flying squirrel sat innocently on her shoulder, giving a tentative wave when mentioned. She praised him on his deeds and there would later be a small part of him that reveled in those words. She was, after all, the teacher he had chosen and he overall took great pride in pleasing her. But not right now.

Right now it fell on deaf ears and the look of calmness on his face, no fear or anger, nor happiness or relief, was the only reaction he gave her. Walking slowly towards her, he reached his hand out towards Ahab, who jumped from one shoulder to the other, and looked down at the other Ahab. There were probably questions about that, but he wasn't going to ask them now.

Once Ahab was on his shoulder, Tsubasa let out a brief exhalation through his nose. This was the only warning he gave before his fist flew through the air and he attempted to full force deck Mercury across the jaw. There was no hesitation nor restraint because she was 'a lady', but nor were their any magical empowerments in his fist. It was just his strength against hers, literally the only reaction he could possibly fathom to give her after all of this.

There came no apology afterwards, whether it connected or not. The Ahabs performed a simultaneous gasp in surprise but said nothing otherwise. Ahab definitely hadn't been expecting that from Tsubasa. The other Ahab hadn't either.

"I understand. I have things to work on," He said with dangerous calmness. "Where is the exit please."

Although the shrine was well kept, it seemed to have more than a few visitors on most days, evidenced by a well worn prayer wall, which held several wooden tablets upon which different prayers and wishes had been written by shrine-goers. Things varying from "I hope she says yes." to "C'mon promotion…" and all the way to "Would a bigger allowance kill my parents???" written in all languages.

However, on this day, it seemed pretty empty, whether on purpose or by happenstance, which probably raised the alarms that something was going to happen here. And yet it seemed almost that such violence would be… unnatural here. As though this was a place where that kind of attitude, that kind of mindset was forbidden. The wind whistled softly through the trees and it almost seemed as though the weather here was different than the rest of the surrounding area. As though it was blessed by something greater, whether one believed in it or not.

At the top of what one could suppose was the main house, there was a wooden carving of a large bird, most likely a phoenix or some very similar mythological bird. Ironically, it did seem like this one had survived a very real fire, as it was charred black and bits of it had fallen off. It was likely that this was a victim of the wreckage that Ahab had told Mercury about during Tsubasa's trial, and that everything else had been rebuilt, with it being one of the only things to fully survive. Evidence of either a higher power or really, really sturdy wood.

Following this theme of silence and tranquility, as Mercury reached the steps of the main house, a woman seemed to appear out of nowhere, almost as though she had been standing right behind one of the giant wooden pillars that held up the roof of the veranda. Betraying that sudden arrival, however, was an air of absolute peace surrounding the woman. A gentle smile seemed to naturally fall on her face and she wore garb fitting to the location, indicating that she was probably one of the people who lived or worked her. Completely grayed hair pulled back into a tight bun, she was much shorter than Mercury and walked with a hunch suggesting a bad back or simply old age. With each step she showed that there was no magical power to how she moved, she simply had on very quiet, comfortable slippers which, combined with the environment, left no noise.

"Hello! You must be 'Basa's little friend," She said, approaching Mercury to shake her hand."It's lovely to meet you. I'm his mother, Tomeko Kageyama. You are... Mercury, correct? Come, come. Lunch is ready." She gestured towards the door as she turned and headed inside, trusting that Mercury would follow her. As she reached the indoors, she switched from the quiet outdoor slippers to fuzzier indoor ones. There were a row of guest slippers sitting in a neat row at the entrance, and the old woman gestured towards a pair and said, "If you please."

As soon as Mercury switched out, she lead the way down the hall and said, "I do hope the sudden invitation didn't bother you, dear. Basa's been so busy but he asked me to send you a summons. I told him I thought it was a little formal but, oh well he's always been a bit… dramatic, I suppose. Have you seen his little show? You were in some of them, you know. Your magic tricks are very impressive." There was literally nothing betraying the pleasantry of her voice. It was literally the praise of an elderly woman who, while not quite understanding the depth of something, wanted to show support for it. It was, to put simply, praise from a loving mother.

Or… Grandmother? Taking a moment to analyze her approximate age, and Tsubasa's age, it seemed quite literally impossible that she was his birth mother. He had never mentioned anything about him being adopted but, surely he would know if that were the case? Nevertheless, she was lead to a large dining room which looked almost like a cafeteria area for visitors, although there seemed to be a special table in the center for the Kageyama family. "Please, have a seat. I'll go and fetch the boys. Sadly, my daughter won't be joining us today. She works for a bank in the city, you know. Rarely has time for lunch visits." Again, there was nothing biting in what she was saying. She did quite seem to be apologetic that her daughter couldn't also join the lunch. Indeed there were seats prepared for six, although two of the plates and settings seemed to be roughly child sized. Or… squirrel sized. In just the time that it would take Mercury to look over the table, Tomeko was gone.

"Oh yes, yes, science," She nodded along politely. "You know he's very particular when he explains those kinds of things. You'd think an old mind would be able to remember them but, oh, here I go," A good natured, if someone raspy chuckle as she gave her polite apology for the misinterpretation.

—— —— —— ——

She wouldn't be alone for long before she was joined by the first resident of the Kageyama house, the newest resident. He looked exactly like the Ahab that she knew, but wore a squirrel-sized neckerchief that was currently tied up around his ears, pushing them back like a makeshift hairnet. He fluttered into the room, landing on the table and landed in front of one of the appropriate plates, adjusting it a little.

With the back of his hand, he rubbed his cheek and eye, much like a squirrel would, and looked up at her, "Tsu says it would creep you out if I call you Mom. Ahab said it would be hilarious." Taking off again, he aimed to land on her shoulder, although he wouldn't force himself if she seemed against it. Either way, he adjusted his neckerchief back to its resting spot around his neck, a slightly cavalier look off to the side. "I read all of the books here to find a name and it turns out my name is Ishmael." His pronunciation of the name rolled off in the classical sense, Ish-my-el, instead of the more casual pronunciation of Ish-mel. "We're calling me Ish. It's also a joke. Because I'm Ahab… ish."

"I came ahead of the others because I wanted to, you know, see if I could stay here without any troubles. Tsu thinks that if he just says that I'm fine then I'm fine. He offers no hard data to back up the claim but there is not hope in his voice, rather certainty. Ahab doesn't talk about it much. That seems both impractical and entirely understandable. But I would like to know for certain, before the others get here. I like it here." Already there were subtle but noticeable differences between Ish and Ahab, the former's syntax more analytical and precise. Even his voice seemed to have a little more of a tine to it, compared to the rounded and lax way that Ahab spoke. Someone with a degree in something could likely spend time dissecting the minor differences that had already evolved out of them within the short period of time between his creation and the present.

"No one has been secretive about my creation, but nor are they particularly knowledgable about the details. I think you know the most about how I was made, Mom."

"When we finally explained the context to him, he listened to the book on recording — since reading still isn't very easy for him — and at first he likened himself to the ship itself." He explained, "Although this was in a time when his mood was quite dour as the fate of the ship is quite sorrowful. I believe it was a method of self-expression, because a few days later as he rallied the conversation came up again and he likened himself to Starbuck, simply because, as he put it, How cool of a name is that?. I think you will agree that this is a little more in character for him."

He scampered onto her hand and listened thoughtfully to her explanation, seeming to stare down at her wrist as he took in the information, likely finding a focus point on which to concentrate while he assessed what she was willing to tell him, no doubt unaware that he was not getting all of the information. When she finished speaking of blood and bone, he looked at his own tiny hands instead and flexed his fingers. Clearly this was something that had crossed his mind before, and he was aware of his own construction and had indeed heard it from others, but hearing it from his creator was a confirmation that he had either longed for or dreaded. His attention perked back as she continued about giving him defensive measures.

He considered this as well, then nodded, "Provided that it would not be a huge risk to do so, I would like to be able to contribute when we begin adventuring again. If you could provide me with roughly the same skills and abilities as Ahab himself, I think that would put us on even ground without me becoming some sort of overwhelming destructive force. I feel that would cause some contemplative issues within as I would start to question the malleability and therefore permanence of my, as you said, rods and wires."

There was a pause before he added, "Ahab will ask you to put a machine gun in my arm. Please do not put a machine gun in my arm. This has been discussed."

At the next question he turned around and his ear twitched before he said, "They are almost here and I would not betray Tsu's trust by giving too much information on his current and previous state, but I believe it is safe to tell you that he has taken his magic… back to school, as it were. Top down rearrangements of everything that he has acquired up until this point. From the moment he arrived, he also began training with his Father again, a monk and master martial artist — two things that often go hand in hand, I surmise — in order to retrain his mind and body. He does seem more… chipper than he was previously. I doubt you will notice a difference in him. Except for the missing eye that he sacrificed in exchange for untold demonic power."

There was a beat before Ish added, "I'm kidding."


And indeed, true to his statement, Tsubasa came around from behind the kitchen carrying a large pot of some kind. It seemed he had not heard the conversation as he said, "Hey M-Miss Mercury! I hope Ish isn't bugging you too much. What are you guys talking about?" It seemed that Ish had been right on the money in stating that Tsu had been physically training, as he looked quite a bit more toned and refined since they had last met. His hair was a bit longer, likely something that his Mother had gotten onto him about, although it seemed to be properly styled and set, indicating that it was -- or had become -- something of a choice to keep it that way. And yet, despite how much he had seemed to grow in the short time between their meetings, he was undoubtedly still Tsubasa. The smile on his face was as innocent and dopey as ever, and his eyes (both there) carried the same positive energy of someone seeing a version of the world that he couldn't help but love.

"Hey come on don't lie about stuff like that," Tsu responded, almost sounding serious for a moment, before cracking a grin. "All of my quips are entirely authentic and impromptu. Any notebooks filled with witty banter are entirely unrelated."

As he brought the pot to the table, setting it down in the middle he nodded and said, "Yeah actually if you could grab— there's like a rice bucket—"

"Asking guests to help set the table? Were you raised in a barn?" A raspy voice came from the kitchen. The owner of the voice revealed himself a moment later, an old man hunched over carrying the rice bowl, which did indeed seem to resemble a type of wooden bucket, to the table. He, much like Tsubasa's mother, looked far too old to be the parent of a late teen. In fact, if possible, he looked even older. Mercury's keen senses might even pick up a hint that his aging wasn't entirely natural, but rather came from some sort of outside influence, whether magical or otherwise.

Still, he moved with the same grace that Tsu's mother had, almost gliding along the floor as if he were barely walking at all. Most notably, atop his head was a strange toupee of sorts, that looked more than a little out of place upon his noggin.

"No, I was raised in an ancient temple with two old coots." Tsubasa responded with all the knowitallism of that kid in class who memorized the textbook. "Besides, she's not a guest," He added, "She's Miss Mercury." This was clearly meant to be a compliment. Somehow.

"Right right. The teacher." The elderly man said. He set the bowl down on the table and turned to Mercury, his voice softening towards her, "You'll forgive my gruff nature, I hope. Somewhere after your two hundredth birthday, you just stop giving a shit. Gonnohyoe Kageyama, the Grand Priest of this temple."

"You can't be a grand priest if there are no other priests." Tomeko, Tsubasa's mother chimed in.

He shot his wife a playful glare, "Well then I'm just Grand." Gonnohyoe responded. Turning back to Mercury, he gave a nod of his head. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mercury. Please, sit."

As he gestured towards her seat and made his way to his own, his toupee opened one eye. Seeing that it was food time, Ahab leapt from Gonnohyoe's head and floated down to his own spot.

Meanwhile, Tsubasa had been serving everyone. It seemed that today's meal would be a homemade curry and rice. Steaming plates of fresh white rice and a beautiful golden-brown sauce was plated quite well on each person (and pet's) plate, a feast for the eyes as well. "Let's eat!"

"Prayer first," Tomeko said gently. She turned to Mercury, "Don't feel obligated to join in, dear. It's just our way."

The other four clasped their hands together, but rather than the traditional palms together praying gesture, they held their left hand at almost an upside down V and clasped their right over it, covering the knuckles with their palms.

The Grand Priest lead the prayer. "The spirits of the land that give us sustenance. Our bodies will return to feed the land. The spirits of our ancestors bless our meals. We will bless the meals of our descendants."

And that seemed to be it. They unclasped their hands and Tomeko gestured to Mercury to dig in.

"Now then," Gonnohyoe said as he took a fork to the rice, "What exactly are all of my son's vital weaknesses?"

"Dad!"


"What? She'd know better than anyone!" He turned back to Mercury and said, "What do you think? How could I kill him?" This didn't seem to be any kind of threat or insult towards her. Rather an actual request for an assessment of his pupil, combined with some playful banter.

Her response drew laughter from the Grand Priest and Ahab, a more polite chuckle from Ishmael and a begrudged smirk from Tsubasa. Although his mother seemed to refrain from any kind of smile, it was probably because she was less than enthused about talking on the subject of Tsubasa's theoretical death. Still, she kept any objections to herself, as she knew well enough that no one at the table was speaking seriously.

As Merc let it sink in, Ahab chipped in, "She's right, that would do it." He was less polite than Mercury, speaking as he was chewing. This drew the tiniest bonk on his noggin with a grinning Gonnohyoe's fingertip on the top of his head.

"No, yeah, absolutely," Tsu admitted, "I would quite simply roll over and die."

As Merc delivered her actual answer, the rest of the table seemed enraptured by her response. Both the Grand Priest and his wife nodded along knowingly. Her brief pause gained smiles from three of the five others at the table, but they quickly nodded into seriousness with the next portion of her comment. Meanwhile Tsubasa almost seemed as though Santa had just pulled off his beard and stepped off of his boots and just revealed himself to be a fat goblin.

There was a calm silence in the air after she finished, while the elders (and Ishmael) absorbed the knowledge, and the younger two looked a little squirmy. Not necessarily negative but more in the sense that they had known this to an extent but had never wanted to hear it.

"Humble knowledge of your own experience is the mark of a growing master," Tomeko offered, extending a gentle hand towards Mercury, as though to ensure her that they had positively received her comment. "I think my husband and I share a reassurance that our boy is being taught by someone who's so aware of her own situation."

"Yeah that's what the first kid is for," Gonnohyoe added, "You make all the mistakes with that one and your next student will be better." He looked at Tsu, "That's what happened with your older brother."

"I don't have an older brother." Tsu said.

"That's how I learned kids aren't flammable."

Ahab chuckled. Tsu looked confused.

Turning back to Mercury, the Grand Priest offered, "From our little practice sessions recently, I can tell that you're exactly right. I appreciate your honesty. And if I can take my turn to be honest, I've never exactly been the biggest fan of the… permanence of this lifestyle." He looked fondly over to Tsubasa as he spoke. The boy himself was momentarily distracted from the conversation by serving seconds to Ahab and Ishmael. "I tried to convince myself that the boy would go off on his computer adventures then come back to take my place in the temple… but it seems as though the quiet life was never going to sit right with our Basa. It's best for Tomeko and I to come to terms with this sooner, rather than later. Nevertheless, and quite possibly as a result, it's my estimation the two of you have reached a point where your relationship has to change."

Having come back into the conversation at some point, Tsubasa's cheeks definitely didn't redden.

"Haha gross."

Ignoring that, Gonnohyoe continued, "Therefore, if it's acceptable with you, from one teacher to another, I would like to know if you think Tsubasa is ready to graduate. With your permission, I would like to take the boy under my wing again and bring him along to the next level. It might require some time away for a bit, we'll be returning to our ancestral home in Midi for a time, by which I mean I can't exactly put a time frame on his return. It's one of those 'He'll be ready when he's ready' things. But you're one of his closest friends and his first real teacher. So I wouldn't want to subject him to that without your approval. I hope you understand what I'm saying."

As had been pointed out throughout this meeting and never in an offensive way, in so many ways, Tsubasa remained a growing young man. There were several skills in which he lacked both social and academic. Not to say he was unintelligent by any means, in fact as both of his teachers had both graciously pointed out, he was extremely quick on the uptake. And yet there were matters that confounded him beyond reason. Still, hearing the explanations from others helped him fully understand his own feelings better than he would if he took the time to contemplate them himself. Granted, this was something that he was taught to do, being the son of a priest who frequently meditated, but combined with his general personality and neuro-divergency, this was something with which he was rarely successful, particularly compared to his sister.

So as much as he could, while the "adults" were talking, he mentally configured himself to focus on his own thoughts and decisions regarding the topic. He'd had a lot of fun training with Mercury and it was undeniable that he had increased in skill several times over, but he had found himself at somewhat of a plateau in terms of growth. This, in his mind, was what had set him up for the fall following his… incident with Mercury. And in moving beyond, he knew that he would need to take what he had learned from her and apply it back again at the base level. This was, after all, part of what he had learned throughout his youth: that the process of growth could only be done through creation and destruction cyclically. At her side, he had experienced a level of unparalleled creation.

He now had to enter a phase of destruction.

And as an unfortunate effect of his mind tending to rush at a thousand times the average person, there were times when he would begin a sentence while not knowing the middle and yet arrive precisely where he wanted in the end. Therefore, as she was preparing to leave, he hurried back into his room and then into the kitchen and rounded back just as his parents had bid their final farewells.

He walked with her to the gates, keeping his hands carefully behind his back. He listened to her, in earnest, with the due diligence of someone who was listening to learn rather than listening to speak next. Throughout the conversations today, all of them had given him a better understanding of her perspective, but none more than her final explanation to him.

He was quiet for a little bit, clearly gathering his thoughts, before he said, "I think… that we both might have misjudged what we wanted out of our last meeting as teacher and student. I understand that you wanted to show me my own strength. I wanted you to not… put my squirrel in a blender." The meager smile on his face gave away that there was more levity than not.

"With the benefit of hindsight, I do understand what you were going for. And I appreciate it. But… in all honesty, I don't think that I needed a final test to show me that I had gotten strong enough to protect people I care about. I knew that I had done so just by being at your side. And that's… really not to say that I don't want to be your student anymore or anything. I just gotta… kinda… do this, I think. This new training. But I don't think I would have been ready for it if I hadn't been under you. Trained… under you. I think. And I know you did your best. And I think that was good. And I'm happy to carry it on to the next step. So you did right by me. And I..."

The sentence floated in the air, ellipses hanging thick above the conversation like an oncoming torrent before "And I just—"

He finally removed his arms from behind his back and revealed what he'd at least tried to hide from her. It was a small boxed lunch wrapped in a white cloth, which featured the Kageyama family crest embroidered into it. "There's a… tradition in my parents' homeland that before a battle, a warrior could be presented with a… a meal from a loved one. And this is of course super different from... Because you're not going to-- And by lov-- I… I mean it's kind of like a…"

He found it really difficult to look her in the eyes, but forced himself to. He spoke with a strange halted determination of someone who would continue pressing buttons until this goddamn plane landed one way or another, "I mean look it's absolutely impossible to miss that I'm young and I've got just like… all of the hormones and you're… outrageously attractive." He held his hands in a defensive position immediately and tried to backtrack.  "And I'm not… I don't want any kind of… that. But I just… My brain was saying like 'hey it might be cool to ask for a goodbye kiss now that she's not your teacher' and then to other parts of my brain that felt weird because we've killed zombies together but I didn't want you going away without knowing that I— I care about you. And stuff. And—" He gestured to the cloth, "It's got our family emblem on it. You can only get them here. I actually… sewed this one myself. So that's… that's pretty special."

The statement ended rather lamely before he offered the boxed meal to her and said, "I just don't want you for a second to think that I'm gonna forget you while I'm gone. And it would be super cool if you didn't forget me."