"Missy! Missy! Missy! Missy! Missy!" I hammered on her door like a lunatic. "You have got to see this!"

"Oh my god, what?!" she bellowed.

I heard her stomping up to the door before flinging it open, glaring at me. Pfft, what was she mad for?

"I have made a most marvellous discovery! Behold!" I flung my hands out to my sides and cast Mana Smoke, only this time instead of dark blue it was scaldingly bright pink. Thank you based Panacea!

She stared for a moment, "so you're going to be Pink Smoke Puncher from now on?"

"You need to be more impressed," I cast the spell again, this time in a double rainbow of colours. "Not only am I a better version of Dauntless, poised to overtake Eidolon, now I'm also a better Legend!"

Missy flapped her hands through the rainbow cloud, dissipating it. "They can all fly."

"Ah," I said, smile turning brittle. "You chose the words that would hurt me most, didn't you?"

"You'll figure it out, you're," Missy sighed painedly. "Very smart."

"Damn skippy!" I preened. She had seen the truth of my HUGE INT after I did all her homework in about three seconds one time, all of it correct. She'd gotten detention for cheating. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to create new abilities."

"Just stop banging on my door about it," Missy called after my retreating back, but I ignored her. She was just being tsun about it, she'd go dere soon enough when I whipped out whatever awesome skill I made next.

I sat back down on the couch and stared at my hands. I had no fucking idea on what to do next, Mana Smoke had been a fluke; one I had no idea how to replicate. I could always feel my mana though, if I concentrated, like a pool deep within the metaphysical realms of my mind but doing anything but pulling it out (which turned into Mana Smoke) was maddeningly difficult. Sure, if I could focus on that I'd have something to show for it but most of my time was eaten up by school (which I obviously couldn't practice there in case someone saw) and now levelling up my non-magic skills.

But now I had Mana Control.

Playing around with my smoke had made me realise that Mana didn't actually have colour, and the smoke was only blue because the bar on my HUD was stylised as such and my brain had run with that. I wasn't sure what that breakthrough promised but I hoped it was good.

I knew I needed to go back to basics, but I had no idea what the basics for this even were beyond Mana Smoke being just literally coloured mana. Gods of anime and minecraft give me strength!

I knew what must be done. I extended one hand, fingers clawed, and gripped my wrist with the other. If Mana Smoke was raw and unfocused, the next step ought to be raw and focused.

"HNNNNNG!"

"HNNNNNNNNNG!"

Out of Mana and I couldn't see shit because it was just smoke. Ok, next time make it condensed.

"HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!"

Thicker!

"HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!"

More stable!

"HNNNNNNN-oh!"

You have created the skill Mana Object!

I nearly dropped the misshapen lump of solid mana I was holding.

Observe.

Low quality lump of Mana
Durability 2/2
"Even low quality materials have their uses"

I threw it at the floor and it shattered into a million blue shards before evaporating. YES! Like a solid hour and a half that took! I made another, more spherical lump of mana and immediately smashed it. This required something with proper gravitas…

"Missyyyyy!" I stood outside her door, once again finally at full mana capacity. "Come watch me do this real cool shit!"

No answer, had she left? Actually what time was it? I mentally wound back time based on my mana consumption and regeneration… and yeah, she should still be here.

"Missy!" I shouted again, withstanding the urge to knock on her door again lest she be mad. A few seconds later I heard light footsteps and the door cracked open.

"I was asleep," Missy whined, managed to sound both sleepy and cross. It was very cute. "What is it now?"

I grabbed her arm and dragged her out into the common area. "Yeah yeah yeah, you have watch this shit because no one else is here, its so god damn rad I swear it's worth it."

She made a whingy sound but stood there anyway, blinking blearily, and crossed her arms with a yawn.

I trotted over to the pre-cleared area I made and knelt down on one knee, right fist planted firmly. A thin circle of smoke began to drift up around me.

"Iamtheboneofmysword," I intoned in a voice of deep silk and nutsack hair. "Steelismybodyandfireismyblood. Ihavecreatedoverathousandblades," the smoke thickened, cloying into vaguely sword shaped clouds. "Ihavenoregretsthisistheonlypath …"

I clapped, looking up to meet Missy's eyes and spread my arms, "Unlimited Blade Works!"

And then there were swords.

Full colour, yet lacking the shine of real steel, when they clattered to the ground it wasn't with a metallic sound. I didn't really know what to compare it to. But still.

"How fucking sick was that?"

She was silent for a moment. "How did you do that with your voice?"

"Voice acting skill. Are you sure you don't want to ask about the swords?"

"Honestly," she yawned. "The voice was more impressive, you normally sound so dumb and nerdy."

That actually really hurt.

"But the swords though," I managed not to cry.

"Yeah, I guess they're cool enough for me to not hit you for waking me up," she turned and started walking back to her room.

"But the swords, Missy, the swords!"

"Show me again tomorrow when I'm actually awake."

"But the swords…" I whined. "The swords."

Her door shut and I was alone again, alone with my swords. I picked up a katana, cradling it, observing it for the low quality mana replica it was; it wasn't even sharp. In that moment I hated it. Whatever, it wasn't like I wanted Missy to think my sword magic was baller as fuck or some gay shit like I needed approval. I knew it was turbo cool and I was the only person whose opinion I needed to listen to.

"What's up with the voice?" Chris asked.

"I'm just practicing my VA skill," I said quickly. "Now shut up and sit down."

He made an expression somewhere between annoyed and incredulous, but did as I asked. Now the whole team was assembled.

"You have been called here today to bear witness," I quoth, and they were all here for a training exercise but that wasn't important right now. "To my greatness. What you are about to see here today is but the first step, what will be a mere sliver, of my power."

"And Greg said," I spread my arms. "'Let there be swords!'"

And then there were.

I caught the centrepiece, the Kubikiribocho, as it fell and swung it around gracefully stepping forward into a stance amid fallen blades; dripping with smoke.

I didn't have to say 'please clap', because they already were during a deluge of 'yeah!', 'Nice!' and 'Cool!'.

"It is cool," I said, hefting the Seversword onto my shoulder like it weighed much more than the few kilos it did.

Rory reached forward and picked an arming sword up, giving it a few swings. "They're super light, what're they made of? Plastic?"

"Literally magic," I preened as the rest of the group availed themselves of my swords.

"Yeah, ok Myrddin," Dennis scoffed. "Not even sharp."

"Hey!" I levelled all two meters of my sword at him. "Fuck you, buddy! Fuck you! This is an anti-bully zone, Myrddin and I can't help that we're magic any more than you can help being a soulless ginger."

Dennis looked taken aback and Dean leant forward, "don't worry Greg, he thinks it's cool. Will they get sharper when you level up the skill?"

"Yes," I huffed. "Obviously. I only learned how to do this literally seventeen hours ago."

"Can you only make swords?" he asked.

"I can make anything," I said proudly. I think I had just enough mana left… a small humanoid figurine appeared in front of me and fell to the floor. "Swords are just cooler though."

Note to self, learn to make anime figmas to brag on the buyfag forum of PHO and make that shitbird SupaGokuFiyah69 jealous. Hotglue my seasonal waifus will he?

"I can't imagine you'll get to use the swords much on duty," Rory remarked. "But if they were blunt you might actually have a better chance of it."

I would never sacrifice my artistic vision.

"So this is the stuff Armsmaster was going spare over trying to analyse?" Chris asked, giving his rapier a few swishes. "Looking at it gives me an idea for a new type of scanner, I can think of a few things to do with solid… not light, but whatever energy this is."

"Magic."

"I get that your interface thing calls it mana, but I dunno. It just sounds so unscientific."

"Whatever," I scoffed. "You nerds stay over there with your science and academic rigour, I'll be over here chillin' with my unfathomable cosmic power."

After a little more back and forth a guy buzzed into the common room and told us it was time for whatever training exercise I was sure to ace to start. Probably some dumb teambuilding shit, good luck with that when Missy had still to give a proper positive opinion about my Radical Fucking Sword Magic.

I hate her.

I hate her!

"You comin', Pink Smoke Puncher?" Vista asked, standing just inside the vault door.

"I'm so sorry I woke you up yesterday!" I yelled at her. "I didn't realise you were asleep! Please forgive me!"

+1 CHA