Previously:

"?" Hope said as she joined them a little behind her sister with a slightly smaller bundle, taking her time because of her injury. "Did something happen?"

"Yes," Sinbad replied. "Alibaba says he's ready to learn how to use his djinn."

"That's good," Hope said with a smile. "We can learn together, then. When do we start?"

"How about tomorrow?" Faith suggested.

"I'd like to start as soon as possible!" Alibaba said, determined not to waste any time now that he had made up his mind.

"But if you start now, Hope won't be available to fry the fish..." Faith pointed out with a frown.

'So filling her stomach is more important than the future of this country?' Sinbad wondered, sweat-dropping.

"Is that all you care about?" Alibaba asked, also sweat-dropping.

"Of course not, but people gotta eat," Faith said reasonably. "You can't run a revolution on an empty stomach, right?"

"If you want, you guys can get a head start while Morg and I take care of supper," Hope suggested. "And I can join you after."

"No, that's all right," Sinbad told her with a smile. "We will start tomorrow. You guys should use this time to rest."

"Yay~!! Fish fry~!!" Faith cheered with a little jump, pumping her good arm in the air.

"Well, more like fish bake..." Hope corrected her, smiling a little wryly and sweat-dropping at the super disappointed look on her sister's face.

"What!? Why?" she asked, gasping dramatically.

"Because they also need the oil for their lamps, so we have to ration it. They were low on flour too last time I checked," Hope reminded her calmly. "So it's better if we bake it instead... Unless you'd rather have it in a fisherman's stew?"

Faith sighed. She was tired of eating soup. "Baked is fine..."

While the girls finished planning the evening meal, Sinbad decided to have another word with Alibaba.

"Come with me," he told the young prince, leading him into a room for privacy. Ja'far closed the door behind them. "You want me to teach you how to use your djinn? What's with the sudden change of mind?" the king asked. Sinbad was glad he had turned around, but he couldn't help but wonder why.

"That is because..." Alibaba said, glancing at the floor before looking up at him again. "I have thought seriously about what you said... Even though I'm still not sure whether or not I'm befit to be a king... But if there are things that I can do right now... I wish to do them!"

Sinbad had a feeling Alibaba wasn't telling him everything, but at least he seemed to have found the resolve to take some responsibility for his country. "Alright, I will help you out."

"Thank you very much!" Alibaba said gratefully.

Chapter 52: The Djinn's Metal Vessel

The next morning, Sinbad brought Alibaba and Hope out to an open area to practice. Ja'far and Faith watched them from a safe distance. He started by having them attempt to focus on infusing their Metal Vessels with magoi to see how much they needed to learn or improve, so he could assess how best to teach them.

"Spirit of Politeness and Austerity, in the name of my magoi, and my will to grant me a greater power, I order you and your members..." Alibaba said, focusing all of his attention on his blade, holding it in front of him as it began to shine. "Come forth, Amon!" he commanded. His magoi materialized around him and his weapon in a column of flames.

"Wrong. You need to envelop your own body more with Amon's flames!" Sinbad instructed him. Alibaba gritted his teeth and tried to figure out how he was supposed to do that. "The proper way to use your djinn is different from what you usually do," Sinbad explained. "It's the same way as that of the Kou Empire's princess and Hope..." he trailed off when he realized said twin didn't appear to be actually doing anything to generate or manipulate her magoi at all. "Uh... What are you doing, Hope?"

"Ah, uh... I'm not sure..." she admitted a bit sheepishly, sweat-dropping, and feeling a little embarrassed and disappointed as she stood there. "I'm trying to concentrate on the ring, but... It doesn't feel like anything's happening..."

"Perhaps it would be better if you tried addressing your Djinn directly," Sinbad suggested.

"..." Hope looked at him, then Alibaba, who was still struggling, and then at her own Metal Vessel. She tilted her head slightly to the side, feeling a little ridiculous, as she said, "Come out, Ipos... Pretty please?"

"Pfft!" Faith snorted and clutched her sides with her good hand and shook with laughter, while Ja'far sweat-dropped, and Sinbad and Alibaba stared at her, dumbfounded. Alibaba was so distracted by the absurd scene that Amon's flames fizzled out around him.

"Uh, that's not quite what I meant..." Sinbad corrected her, sweat-dropping. "You heard Alibaba's chant just now, right? The words you're looking for should follow a pattern similar to that."

"?" Hope furrowed her brow slightly.

"You activated it yesterday, didn't you?" Alibaba pointed out. "What did you say then?"

"Nothing," Hope replied with a small frown. "I didn't say anything... it just sort of happened."

'It's true... Now that I think about it, I didn't hear her say a word. I just felt a shift in the power of her magoi, and then she was wearing her partial djinn equip,' Sinbad realized. "What were you thinking at that moment? What was your goal or motivation?" he asked her.

"My goal or motivation...?" Hope mused, furrowing her brow a little deeper, looking at the ring again. "I... just wanted to protect everyone," she answered honestly.

"Then you should focus on that," Sinbad told her. "Something in you resonated with your Djinn. Try to remember how that felt. The words will come naturally... Then speak the words you feel forming within your heart."

'A magical chant she's supposed to 'just know,' huh...?' Faith mused. It sounded like some 'magical girl' gimmick. Now she was half expecting a stylized sailor suit to play some part in the transformation.

"..." Hope looked at her Metal Vessel again and made a fist. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her feelings from that time, the desperate desire for the strength to protect, the willingness to accept help from her Djinn. Sinbad watched her carefully as he sensed a flare in her magoi. "... Spirit of Wisdom and Valor," she began slowly, building more power with each word, "in the name of my magoi, and my will to grant me a greater power, feast and dwell within my body..." She took a deep breath and focused on taking in and circulating the new power she could feel flowing throughout her body. "I order you and your members, come forth, Ipos!"

It was suddenly very quiet. Everyone stared at her with anticipation. Nothing happened. Or, at least, there was no obvious outward change, physical or otherwise.

'Just now...' Sinbad thought, furrowing his brow a little and frowning slightly in confusion, 'I was sure something happened, but...'

"Another dud...?" Alibaba asked.

"No... I definitely felt something this time," Hope said, looking at her very human hands curiously. She didn't really know how to describe it, but... she could feel a sort of buzzing or prickling sensation on the surface of her skin. 'It feels like I'm standing outside just as a major storm's about to hit...' She felt strong. She tried clenching her fist again. 'Okay, one more time!' she thought, her face set with determination.

Sinbad frowned a little while he observed her, confused by the contradiction between what he thought he was sensing from her magoi and what his eyes were telling him.

"Focus and envelop my body... huh?" Hope said, closing her eyes to focus, while Alibaba furrowed his brow and gritted his teeth as he turned his attention back to his own Metal Vessel and his magoi flared into flames again. 'Last time... last time I did this, I think the feeling was more...' Hope thought. She relaxed her body slightly and focused on the image of her animal-like djinn leaping at her and the way the his body seemed to shrink into her ring like he was sliding in through a funnel, and through that funnel, her ring, he glided up her arm and settled in her center, spreading out to the rest of her body. The tingling feeling increased, and it felt like a static electric pop in her chest. She opened her eyes and looked at her hands. Nothing. They still looked like normal human hands. "... Huh?" she thought, sweat-dropping and frowning in confusion. She could have sworn she had it that time... 'Ah! That's right... strength magic is usually invisible to the human eye, so maybe I am doing something, but it's like Alibaba's flames. I'm generating energy, just not in the way we're aiming for yet...' she thought, hoping she was right.

'Wait a minute... Of course!' Sinbad thought. 'Since strength magic can be difficult to perceive, it wouldn't necessarily manifest in such an obvious way. I may have to use another method to verify...' He put on a reassuring smile as he approached her. "Hold on, Hope," he told her. "If you don't mind, I would like to check something. I'll have to touch you for a moment."

"?" Hope looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Uh... okay?" she answered, wondering what he was up to, as he stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Now, try again, just as you have been," he instructed her.

'Well, here goes nothing...' Hope thought, once again hoping she was right about her previous efforts. It would be really embarrassing if she wasn't. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

"!" Sinbad said when he felt the change in her magoi flow and the air immediately around her. 'This girl... it can't be...' he thought, frowning and furrowing his brow slightly. There was something very strange about her magoi. Could it be because she was from another world? Perhaps he ought to check Faith as well to see if she was the same. "Ah, I see..." he said, quickly adopting a brighter expression, understanding what must have happened. "Although you weren't able to transform again, it seems you've at least managed to channel some strength magic through your body this time."

"Really?!" Hope asked, lighting up with excitement. It looked like her struggle was paying off after all! 'Thank goodness... I was starting to feel like an idiot just standing here...' she thought, smiling wryly, as she spared a furtive glance at Alibaba's flashier flames. "Thank you!" she said brightly, feeling relieved.

"My pleasure," he told her, returning her radiant smile.

"Yeah, I bet it was," Faith quipped with a suggestive smirk as Sinbad moved back to give Hope more room to continue her practice, just loud enough for him to hear. Ja'far sweat-dropped as a small vein throbbed on the annoyed king's head.

'This little...!' Sinbad thought, chagrined. He was honestly behaving himself, yet she had to go and make it sound dirty... He didn't need Hope to get that kind of image of him. Hope wasn't even paying attention. She was already focused on her Metal Vessel again. "..." Sinbad brushed his annoyance aside and regarded his two students carefully. They actually weren't doing too shabby for beginners. Hope was on the same level as Alibaba now. He hoped that partial Djinn Equip she managed to pull off the night before wasn't just a fluke. "What you two want to do now, is to compress your Djinn's large powers into your own body and allow yourself to materialize as your own Djinn," he instructed them. "That is the basics of using Djinn Equip!!"

"So, what is my sister's Djinn Equip supposed to look like anyway?" Faith asked Ja'far, swinging her feet off the edge of the crates she was sitting on. "She doesn't seem to be doing too well..." It was harder to tell how she was progressing compared to Alibaba.

"No," he replied calmly, a little disappointed that Hope appeared to be having so much trouble replicating her success of the previous evening. "When she equipped before, while you were unconscious, she had claws and armor form on her hands and arms."

"Oh," Faith said, blinking slowly. "... That is so cool! Ah, her Djinn was like a winged platylion, so does that mean she turns into a cat-like thing!?" she exclaimed abruptly after a moment, getting excited.

'What a delayed reaction...' Ja'far thought, sweat-dropping. Was it just him, or did the twins seem a little slow today? And what the hell was a 'platylion'? "Well, from what I've seen..."

"Hey! Hey, Hope!" Faith called abruptly instead of listening, getting her sister's attention. Hope looked in her direction and saw her sister grin as she stood up on the crates to strike a pose with her good arm raised in the air. "ThunderCats, Ho!!!"

"Pffttt!!" Hope sputtered, nearly choking on her laughter, as she flashed back to an early childhood of watching reruns of the 80's cartoon with their mother on the weekends. For a brief moment, until her heart clenched at the memory of the tragic events that came later, all of the accumulated tension in Hope's body evaporated.

"Hey, Faith, can you not distract her while she's trying to..." Sinbad started to say, when Hope suddenly raised both arms as if she was holding a sword aloft and focused on the combined image of a powerful transformation of a humanoid cat-person combined with the image of Ipos's true form from when she first met him in the dungeon, and the way the cartoon character would channel a concentrated source of outside energy for power; only instead of a sword, she focused on spreading that power from the ring on her finger to the rest of her body.

"... Spirit of Wisdom and Valor," she began slowly, building more power with each word, "in the name of my magoi, and my will to grant me a greater power, feast and dwell within my body..." She took a deep breath and focused on taking in and circulating the new energy she could feel flowing throughout her body. "I order you and your members, come forth, Ipos!"

"!" Sinbad's eyes widened as he watched the black light of intense strength magic momentarily flare around her before flying into her hands. To others, it may have appeared to dissipate, but he was certain she had compressed and absorbed it, just as he had instructed her to do. He could have sworn for a second that the Rukh around her had fluttered a little strangely, but it came and went so quickly, that it seemed he must have imagined it.

Hope opened her eyes and lowered her hands to look at them. She had managed to transform her pink human nails into white lion claws, but the armor on her arms was still missing. "... Still not enough, huh?" Faith's joke had helped her realize that her habit of always remaining on her guard because of her illness, as a means to protect herself from the stigma and emotional pain, had formed a sort of mental block that acted as an invisible wall between herself and Ipos. It seemed obvious now when she took into account how her desperation for his help had left her so much more open to accepting his presence the first time she transformed. But letting go suddenly without that extreme sense of urgency wasn't as easy as she had hoped. She was afraid that if she relaxed her guard too much, all of those dangerous negative emotions would come flooding back too, if she wasn't careful. That her illness might gain the upper hand again, even though she knew it didn't work that way, because it wasn't really something she could control without help from her medication. Her heart hesitated and flinched away from the fear of being ripped open again. Old habits died hard, especially when pain was involved.

"No, you're doing well," Sinbad told her. "Your Djinn Weapon is your hands, remember?" he reminded her with an encouraging smile. "So, even the slightest physical change in their form is proof that you're on the right track."

Alibaba observed her progress out the corner of his eye. 'Me, too...' he thought. 'I also need to...!' He tightened his grip on his sword and repeated his own chant. "Spirit of Politeness and Austerity, in the name of my Magoi, and my will to grant me a greater power, I order you and your members... Come Forth, Amon!!" He felt his magoi strengthen and tried to focus on compressing it like Hope.

"I can't believe how quickly she's improved," Ja'far commented as he and Faith moved closer to Sinbad to watch their progress. Hope turned the tide in the blink of an eye.

"Of course!" Faith said proudly with a bright grin. "My sister's a genius, you know. She just has trouble relaxing. She's a serious person, so she can get a little uptight sometimes."

Sinbad and Ja'far thought this twin could benefit from a little more seriousness herself, but since it seemed her odd outburst from before had actually helped Hope, they decided to keep that idea to themselves for the moment.

"But still, I do wonder, just what happened to Alibaba?" Ja'far said, observing the fierce determination on the boy's face. Why would he change his mind so suddenly?

"I don't know either," Sinbad admitted.

"It's like, 'How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop?' The world may never know," Faith said sagely with a nod of her head, earning herself another odd look from the two men, who had no idea what she was talking about.

'I'm sorry, Sinbad...' Alibaba thought, gritting his teeth. 'I can't tell you about Cassim...' He couldn't tell him about how his friend was planning to plunge the country into a civil war, not yet. 'Even though the situation has become like this, Cassim is still my friend. If it's Sinbad, you could probably stop Cassim with ease, however, I don't want you to do it. I want to stop him myself...!!'

Alibaba and Hope continued their efforts to produce a proper Djinn Equip, but so far Hope was only able to transform her nails to claws; and Alibaba was able to produce more flames, but there was no other outward change on his part. They kept trying until they were so exhausted that they were on their knees, panting for breath.

"Your magoi has finally run out..." Sinbad observed, while the two teens drank some water to hydrate themselves. He noted that Hope had actually lasted a little longer than Alibaba, but she had become pale and began to hold herself in a way that suggested she was still in pain from her wound. 'The rukh sometimes flutter around her in an odd pattern, too... I wonder what that's about?' he thought. It almost seemed like they were attracted to Hope, the way they kept drawing closer to her. "You should have probably realized this..." he continued aloud. "When the magoi that you have been storing up in your Djinn's Metal Vessel runs out, you can't unleash any more of its power. So you must take note of your magoi capacity."

"Yes..." Alibaba answered while Hope caught her breath. Sinbad frowned a little with concern, worried the injury to her ribs was being aggravated by the unfamiliar strain on her body. "What must I do to restore my magoi again?" Alibaba asked, drawing the king's attention again. Hope also looked up at him with a curious expression, implying she would like to know as well.

"Once you have recovered your own physical strength, place your Metal Vessel on you for a few hours, and then it will be fully restored again," Sinbad replied.

"What happens... if your magoi runs out during a battle...?" Hope asked.

"Then you will be in a dangerous situation," Sinbad told her. "However, it's not like there aren't any other methods to restore your magoi. Another method is... to use the existing elements in nature as power."

"Ah, because the elements of nature are made up of rukh?" Hope said.

"Exactly," Sinbad confirmed with a nod. "The element needed must be of the same nature as the ability of your Djinn. In your case, it's 'strength'. In Alibaba's case, it's fire."

"Eh?" Hope said, sweat-dropping. "Um... how exactly does one absorb something like 'strength'. Could you please define it in clearer terms?" she asked rubbing the back of her neck, hoping it wasn't a stupid question. It seemed to manifest as pure force when she and Faith used it, so... Was he taking about kinetic energy? How was she supposed to collect that? Let herself get punched? That seemed counterproductive.

"Uh, well..." Sinbad said, also rubbing the back of his neck. Actually, he would like to know that as well. "Ah! In your case, you can probably use strength magic produced by your sister, if she can learn how to use it."

"Hear that, Faith?" Hope called to her sister.

"Le sigh~ As usual, it's all up to me," Faith said playfully.

"Uh, I think that's usually my line," Hope quipped dryly.

"However," Sinbad continued, getting them back on topic, "it is different from magoi and can only be used once."

"Oh. Bummer," Faith said. "Guess you're on your own after all."

"Yes, thank you for that," Hope retorted coolly, sweat-dropping.

"Also... I don't get what you mean by compressing the Djinn's power within my own body," Alibaba added, wiping some sweat from his brow.

"Ah," Sinbad said. That's right, he had already given a brief explanation of this to Hope, but not to Alibaba. "You have seen Aladdin's Djinn, right? He's very strong. By supplying a large amount of magoi into the Metal Vessel, it will allow the Djinn to materialize its body. However, this is something only magi like Aladdin can do... For people like us who have smaller magoi capacities, we are unable to materialize Djinns. However, by possessing yourself with your Djinn's powers and assimilating with those powers, you will be able to obtain the same power as the materialized Djinn. And that is what you call enveloping yourself with the Djinn's powers... or simply put, 'Djinn Equip'!"

"Huh... So, basically, it is like a 'magical girl' transformation?" Faith asked, raising an eyebrow as she pictured the transformation scenes from Sailor Moon and Tokyo Mew Mew or Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! or Shugo Chara! or Prétear.

"Hmm... sounds like it..." Hope agreed, picturing pretty much exactly the same thing.

"Pfft! Haha! Does this mean Hope and Alibaba are going to be naked and surrounded by sparkles and stuff as they change?" Faith asked with a deeply amused expression on her face.

"!!!" Hope gasped at that startling possibility, turning a bright shade of red as she instinctively crossed her arms over chest and shied away from them, already feeling super embarrassed just from imagining it.

"?!?" Alibaba's stunned and bewildered expression was equally priceless. His face went so pale, it turned blue. Faith couldn't hold in her laughter after that.

"Mwahahaha!!!" she cackled, rocking back and forth while gripping her side.

"Can you not laugh like a cliched villain right now?!" Hope asked her with flushed cheeks, getting a little annoyed by how entertained she was at their expense, sweat-dropping.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but... No, that isn't how it usually works. Your Djinn's attire simply automatically replaces your own," Sinbad replied, finding Hope's shy reaction cute. He couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that Faith's image wasn't a little more on the mark in her case. Hope and Alibaba let out huge sighs of relief. "Anyway... After succeeding in 'Djinn Equip', you will possess the same outward appearance as your Djinn. That princess's Djinn is probably something close to that of a fish. And Hope's is probably some kind of feline, am I right?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking... He is part lion," Hope said, sweat-dropping again as she pictured Ipos's chimera-like winged platylion appearance, wondering how extreme this full transformation would be. Walking around with webbed goose feet seemed like it would be awkward... like trying to run with a pair of diving flippers on. The last time she and Faith tried that, they ended up face planting and only narrowly avoided busting their chins open on the edge of a boat.

"What does your Djinn look like?" Sinbad asked Alibaba.

Alibaba sweat-dropped too as he recalled Amon's appearance as an old man with an oddly shaped head and large belly. Was he going to look like that too?

"Then... What was that technique when you dispelled my flames with a slight touch the other day?" he asked.

"I've been wondering about that, too," Hope said. "It seemed like you used some kind of attack involving your magoi on that big guy called Hassan when they attacked us at the hotel?"

"Ah, that. You're right. In both cases, I simply controlled the magoi in my body to counteract my opponent's," Sinbad explained, impressed by how observant Hope was and how quickly she was catching on. "However, this 'magoi control' technique that I mastered is from training with a special tribe in the mountains for about a year. You can't learn that in a day or two."

"Is that so..." Alibaba said, a little disappointed.

"..." Hope held her chin, looking thoughtful.

"Ah! I can see the wheel spinning!" Faith said, lighting up when she recognized the expression on her sister's face that indicated the little hamster in her brain was chasing a particularly interesting idea. "What is it, Hope?"

"Nothing... I was just thinking it sounds kind of similar to how ninjas use chakra in Naruto..." she replied.

Faith stared at her sister for a moment with wide eyes.

"What are..." Alibaba started to asked, when Faith suddenly cut him off with a loud gasp.

"Ah! OMG, you're so right!!" she squealed with sparkling eyes, laughing in amazement. "That's freaking awesome!!!"

"What are you talking about?" Sinbad asked, sweat-dropping, feeling a little out of the loop.

"Naruto is a story about ninjas, legendary warriors/assassins who have trained to be able to use special fighting techniques," Hope explained. "Some of them were even powerful enough to be considered superhuman. These techniques involved the use of a kind of life energy that flows through the body called 'chakra'. The explanation given for how this energy works was pretty similar to how you described magoi the other day... It was a work of fiction, though."

"Yeah, unfortunately, not even the real ninjas in our world could do stuff like that," Faith added with a sigh.

"Well, the substitution jutsu was based on a real technique," Hope said.

"Eh? Really!?" Faith said, perking up. "How the heck did they pull that off?"

"They probably had a dummy prepared ahead of time..."

"Wait, so basically, you two already know how to manipulate magoi!?" Alibaba asked, surprised.

"Only in theory," Hope replied.

"Yeah, putting it into practice is another thing entirely. Trust me, we've tried," Faith said with a frown, crossing her arms.

"You did manage to cause a poltergeist a few times, though," Hope pointed out. That made Faith smile.

"I did, didn't I?" she said with a smirk. Maybe it wasn't completely useless after all. "Speaking of which, I found a stick. Now what do I do with it?" she asked Sinbad, holding it up to show him.

"Well, unfortunately, I'm not a magician..." Sinbad said apologetically with a wry smile. "So I'm not entirely sure how I should instruct you..."

"Boo," Faith pouted. She looked at the stick in her hand and then she looked at Sinbad and the pile of rubble behind him. She took a deep breath and whipped her wand out in front of her. "... Bombarda!!"

"!?" Sinbad, Ja'far, and Alibaba all tensed and flinched in anticipation of the perceived attack by a completely unknown spell. But nothing happened.

"Tch," Faith clicked her tongue in disappointment. "I was sure that would work..."

"Well, they did only use that spell in a movie..." Hope pointed out, sweat-dropping. "And could you maybe not aim explosive spells at people? Use your gun safety rules! Never point the business end at another person when it's loaded."

"Explosive!?" Sinbad and Ja'far exclaimed, shocked. Alibaba stared at her with wide eyes, stunned. Why the hell would she even think that was okay!? What was wrong with this girl!?

"I was actually aiming over his shoulder for that rubble over there, but whatever," Faith responded with a shrug. "Are you sure it wasn't in the book, too?"

"Yeah, the one in the book was Bombarda Maxima," Hope replied.

"What book?" Alibaba asked.

"I thought you said you didn't have magic in your world?" Sinbad added.

"The Harry Potter series: books about a boy who thinks he's normal but finds out he's actually a wizard, and the adventures he has after he starts attending a special school for witches and wizards, and he ends up facing off and defeating a super evil wizard who's been trying to kill him since he was a baby," Faith answered in one breath with a perfectly straight face. Her tone was almost reverent.

"It's another work of fiction, though," Hope added. "At least, we thought it was..." If Faith really could perform magic, then she was going to have to start questioning that aspect of their previous reality. Maybe their medieval ancestors weren't so nuts to think witches lived among them after all.

"... All right, your magoi should be restored by now," Sinbad said, deciding to get back on topic. The people in the twins' world appeared to have very vivid imaginations. "Then, remembering what I just said, try activating your 'Djinn Equip'."

"Okay," Alibaba and Hope said, getting serious again.

"However, a full body Djinn Equip is probably impossible," Sinbad added as a caution. "That isn't something that you can master in a short amount of time... You can probably manage part of your Djinn Equip... in other words, only a 'Djinn Weapon Equip'."

"Djinn Weapon Equip?" Hope and Faith asked.

"Yes. You have seen the princess's transformation, right? From her Metal Vessel to her arms, they transformed into a huge sword. Also, the princess's huge sword has the appearance of the weapon that her Djinn has... And Hope's hands became clawed, and her arms were covered in metal braces. That is because the place which is nearest to the Djinn is the easiest to Equip," Sinbad explained. "Now, try bringing out Amon's and Ipos's weapons too!"

"Okay!" Alibaba and Hope said with determination, focusing their magoi, trying to compress it around their Metal Vessels to transform.

'I must bring it out...' Alibaba thought, gritting his teeth. 'I require... strength...!' He furrowed his brow, glaring at the sword. "Ooa... Oooooah!!" he roared, putting all his energy into it.

'I think I have a general understanding of how to compress my magoi... but the problem is opening up myself up, and then staying that way...' Hope thought, biting her lip. 'I need to let Ipos in again... I have to let his power flow through my body along with my magoi...' She closed her eyes and silently apologized to the Djinn for rejecting him until now out of fear of what could happen if she lost control of herself. She imagined Ipos as she first saw him in the dungeon, and then again when Aladdin made him appear before them on the plains. This time, she reached her hand out to him. She could see her body overlapping with his, feel her skin tingling and nails changing again as he placed his webbed forepaws over hers.

Sinbad smiled. They were both doing well for beginners. His smile grew as he watched Hope's Weapon Equip spread from her hands to her forearms. She was really doing it.

Boing~!

"Hmm?" Hope said, opening her eyes in surprise at the odd sensation she suddenly felt on her backside.

"What is it?" Sinbad asked, seeing the confused expression on her face.

"Am I the only one who just heard a 'boing' sound?" Faith asked dubiously, glancing around to find the source.

"No, I heard it too..." Ja'far said, also wondering what it could have been.

"Huh? What are you guys... Woah!!" Alibaba exclaimed when he saw how far Hope had progressed. 'Already!? That's amazing...' He was further surprised when Hope looked over her shoulder and instantly froze.

"..." Hope stared down at her own body in shock, stunned by what she had found there. "That... That isn't the only thing that's transformed..." she said quietly.

"What?" Faith asked, furrowing her brow slightly.

"I... Is this normal...?" Hope asked Sinbad, turning a little to show them what had happened. All of their eyes immediately zoomed in on her perky behind, where a fluffy little rabbit tail had just sprouted from her previously unused human tailbone. Hope blushed under their intense scrutiny, starting to feel embarrassed. 'Someone, please say something...!' she thought anxiously.

"That... is so frickin' cute !!!" Faith exclaimed, immediately rushing forward to get a better look. "OMG, it's like a big cotton ball~!!" she gushed excitedly while she started petting and playing with it, unable to resist the urge to touch it. "It's so soft!"

"Cut it out!" Hope scolded her, blushing more, as she quickly pulled away from her sister and placed her own hands over the new appendage protectively. "I can feel all of that, you know!"

"Don't care! Damn, you're like a real life Playboy Bunny. All you need is the ears and the suit!" Faith said with sparkling eyes.

"No..." Hope said, taking a step back as she began to experience a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Don't even..."

"LET ME TOUCH THE FLUFF!!!" Faith yelled with a mischievous grin, launching herself at her wary sister without hesitation.

"NO WAY!!!" Hope shouted back as she dodged the attempted glomp, running as if her life depended on it, while Faith chased her around to avoid further harassment. Faith lunged at Hope with her hand outstretched, but before the tips of her fingers could touch the tail, Hope did a little hop that landed her all the way on the other side of the clearing in one go.

"!" Hope's eyes widened, as she was just as surprised as the others by her obvious increased in strength and how light her body suddenly felt, but her stunned expression quickly melted into a smirk as she shot her sister a challenging look, and the chase was back on, barely missing a beat.

"Holy crap, you're fast!" Faith remarked in surprise. Despite her previous issues with running with a broken rib, Hope was having no trouble staying more than a few steps ahead of her now.

"..." Sinbad stared at the twins, feeling somewhat bemused. He really wished Faith would stop hijacking their training session. But, watching them, he did have to agree with the unruly twin. The way Hope kept hopping around with blushing cheeks while trying to shield her sensitive tail from her incorrigible sister was pretty damn adorable. He smiled when he noticed the light in her eyes and the hint of a playful smile that tugged on the corners of her lips while she ran and dodged. Despite her protests, she seemed to be enjoying their game of tag.

"Hmph!" Faith huffed with a cunning gleam in her eye. "Very good, Hope~" she praised her sister. "But... you're too naive! Hyaah!" Faith launched herself into the air, throwing herself at Hope with all of her might, just as her sister took a step forward and unintentionally lined herself up with a certain someone standing not too far behind her.

"Ehhh?!" Hope gasped, startled when she realized that if she dodged, then her sister would crash into the hard ground and hurt her arm again. "Ugh!" she groaned in frustration, squeezing her eyes shut as she braced herself for impact.

'Fufu~ Just as planned!' Faith thought with a devious smirk as she crashed into Hope, knocking her backwards into Sinbad.

"Wha—?!" the surprised king exclaimed in alarm as he went down with the twins in a chain reaction like three dominoes.

"Oof!" Hope grunted, dazed as the wind was knocked out of her again, squeezed between the other two. "Oowww..." she groaned miserably, feeling the sharp pain in her ribs return.

"Ugh... what the...?" Sinbad started to ask, when he suddenly realized how close they were with Hope's soft and supple body pressed flush against his own.

"Ah...! I'm sorry!" Hope gasped when she realized she was on top of him, looking up at him with concern in her big, soft amber eyes that glistened in the sunlight. "Are you alright?"

BA-THUMP!

"!" Sinbad was startled when he felt his heart skip a beat again. "Eh? Ah, yeah... I'm fine! Are you?" he asked, feeling surprisingly nervous. With the increasing frequency of this phenomena, he was beginning to worry he might have a heart condition—not that he was that old. "You are injured, after all..."

"Heh~" Faith said slyly, smirking deviously as she leered down at him from over Hope's shoulder with a knowing look in her eyes. "I'd say he's more than 'fine'."

"This girl is a real devil...!' Sinbad thought, sweat-dropping. He definitely knew who the evil twin was now.

"Get off, Faith," Hope scolded her sister firmly with a small vein throbbing on her temple. "I know you're alright, because we broke your fall!"

"I know, you're such a good sister~" Faith praised her, rolling off the top of the heap to hop back onto her feet. "You're welcome!" she mouthed silently at Sinbad while Hope staggered to stand up again.

'That girl is scary...' Sinbad thought, eyeing Faith warily, while he helped Hope steady herself, sweat-dropping. If that was calculated, then he felt a very conflicted mix of gratitude, irritation, and trepidation.

"Um... what just happened?" Alibaba asked while watching the strange scene, wondering why he couldn't ever meet any normal girls for once. And what hell kind of a creature was a 'play boy bunny'?

"I have no idea..." Ja'far admitted frankly. The only thing he knew for sure was that they were definitely getting off track again.

"Ready for round two~?" Faith asked, getting ready for more mischief.

"Eh?" Hope said, furrowing her brow a little, while she tried to catch her breath. Why the heck was her sister so hyper today? If she didn't know any better, she might think Faith was the one with the issues being manic... 'I'm beginning to wish Aladdin was here to back me up...!' Hope's eyes widened almost imperceptibly as she remembered the way Faith stood over Aladdin's bed that morning to check on him, the expression she had on her face when she thought no one was watching. Hope smiled a little sadly. She missed him too. Seeing him like that was hard. 'I'll talk to her when this is over.'

"Grr!" Alibaba grunted in anger, suddenly snapping at the thought of wasting more valuable time with the fate of his country and Cassim's threat looming over his head like a deadly pendulum. And she was treating it like a game?! "Sword of Amon!!" he shouted with veins on his forehead, slicing the air to send a jet of flames at the infuriatingly insensitive twin.

"?!?!" Faith and Hope gasped in alarm as Faith quickly dodged the completely unwarranted (in her opinion) attack. Faith glared at Alibaba with her face scrunched up in confused annoyance. "What the hell, man!?"

"Wha?" Faith said, surprised when she suddenly found herself caught and bound in place by the ropes attached to Ja'far's darts the instant she moved to counterattack. "Uh... I'm against non-consensual domestic violence... m'kay? S&M isn't really my thing, either." Though, she was willing to experiment.

"Quiet! Stop interrupting!!" Ja'far scolded the wayward twin strictly through clenched teeth with a vein throbbing on his forehead, tightening the ropes a little more when she tried to wiggle free. The idea of their already heavily restricted schedule being thrown off so much made something inside the strict aide snap too.

"Don't you think that's taking it a little far...?" Hope asked, sweat-dropping. It was clear they were all under a lot of stress, and her sister was being disruptive, but their reactions seemed extreme.

"I understand how you feel, but..." Sinbad said cautiously. "Please don't kill any of our comrades, no matter how irritating they may be." Tensions were running high. It might be better for these kids to take a break from each other.

"Excuse you?" Faith retorted crisply, unamused. "My personality may be grating, but at least I'm not homicidal!"

'So she admits it...' they all thought, sweat-dropping.

"Either way, you're being too distracting. If you can't keep your hands to yourself, then you'll have to practice magic elsewhere!" Ja'far scolded her.

"Tch!" Faith clicked her tongue in annoyance with an extremely irritated look on her face as the ex-assassin began dragging her away. "You're sucking the fun out of everything! Fun sucker!" she grumbled moodily.

"... They're going to be okay, right?" Hope asked through labored breaths, feeling a little concerned for various reasons. 'I think Faith's self-control ran out of batteries...'

"... Probably..." Sinbad agreed as their remaining group of three continued to stare after them. He glanced back at Hope and saw that, even though she hadn't said a word of complaint, she was still recovering from all the running she had done, combined with her multiple attempts to Djinn Equip, and was holding her side like she was in pain. Alibaba was also looking a little fatigued and apparently feeling very irritable. "Why don't you two take a short break for a moment?" he suggested kindly, deciding it would be better to err on the side of caution rather than risk further injury. He didn't like the idea of forcing a hurt girl to fight to begin with, and they couldn't afford to lose the use of one of the only two Metal Vessels they had at their disposal.

"Ah, it's okay, I can still..." Hope said, about to start again, when Sinbad placed his hands on her shoulders to prevent it.

"I insist," he said with a sparkling smile that left no room for argument. "I'm going to go help Ja'far get Faith started on her own training... hopefully that will distract her for awhile. Don't let her overexert herself while I'm gone, Alibaba."

"Y-Yes, sir," Alibaba said, watching as he turned and walked away from them. He hung his head with a heavy sigh.

"..." The silence was a little awkward as Alibaba and Hope stood where Sinbad left them, not really knowing what to do with themselves. They deciding sitting down for a moment and drinking some more water while they waited might be a good idea.

"... Are you all right?" Hope asked Alibaba, concerned when she saw the troubled expression on his face. "Sorry about my sister, she tends to act out when she's stressed..." It may not seem like it, but Hope knew Faith was worried about everyone too.

'She's stressed?!' Alibaba thought with a vein throbbing on his temple, before quickly reminding himself that this wasn't the twin he had a grudge with, even if they looked identical. He really did need to calm down. "Eh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," he said. "Are you? You are injured, after all..."

"I'll be all right, just a bit winded," Hope answered with a sigh. She was a little sore, but that was to be expected. "Besides, you're injured too."

"Only a few minor cuts and some bruises," he said dismissively. He held his head in his hands as he exhaled another sigh.

"... Would you like to talk about what's bothering you?" she asked, seeing as he obviously had a lot on his mind at the moment. "I might not be able to help, but I can be a good listener. You don't have to do this alone." Alibaba peeked up at her from between his fingers. It felt strange for such a genuinely nice offer with no sarcastic jokes tacked onto it to come from someone with the same face as Faith. But she seemed like a trustworthy person. She reminded him of Aladdin somehow. "Is this about how Sinbad wants you to become king... or did something happen with Cassim?" she asked, causing Alibaba to look up at her, wide-eyed with surprise.

"What? How did you...?"

"You have a new bruise on your jaw," she replied sympathetically. "Someone must have caused it."

"Both..." he answered honestly, impressed by how sharp she was. "I'm not sure I'm the right person to lead this country... but if I don't do something soon..." His explanation fell flat along with his confidence. He frowned and furrowed his brow, looking deeply conflicted. How could he possibly take the throne after everything he had done? It was his fault things had turned out this way in the first place. He never should have run away. He should have tried harder or done more to prevent it from reaching this point! "Agh, I'm such a useless loser!" he groaned in frustration, holding his head in his hands. Hope regarded him carefully for a moment.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, prompting him to look up at her again. "Faith and Aladdin believe in you." She laughed a little at the look of blatant disbelief on his face at the mention of her sister. "It's true. And you've survived 100% of your worst days so far, haven't you?" she reminded him with a small smile. "But remember this, it's something my mother used to say: there's only one you, Alibaba. That's your power. So, even if it's something small, there are things you can do that no one else can. You're just getting started. The only difference between you and Sinbad is a lack of experience."

"Are you telling me to become king, too?" he asked warily, a bead of sweat sliding down his face. "I don't think I... I don't think that's something I should be doing." He couldn't even come up with a concrete solution to stop Cassim's plan. He expected a look of disappointment or a frown, but her expression remained calm.

"Does there have to be one?" Hope asked.

"Eh?" he said. "One what?"

"A king. Does there have to be one?" she asked. Her eyes were clear and seemed to be willing him to remember something important. "If the monarchy is hurting the people, then maybe it's time for something new. I don't think there's only one choice here."

"Huh?" Alibaba said, his eyes widening a little in surprise as he stared at her. "You..."

—BOOM!!

"?!?" the two teens gasped in alarm, startled when the opposite wall suddenly blew out, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

"Whoa!!" Alibaba shouted as they dodged a particularly large chunk of plaster.

"What the...?!" Hope began to ask, coughing as she straightened up to look for the cause. Were they under attack again? Her eyes widened when she saw her sister standing on the other side of what was left of the wall with her wand pointed straight out in front of her. "What?"