Back from my little break, still wrote stuff, but also played a heap of Atelier Sophie 2. :) These games are like soul food for me. Adorable characters, a crafting system, familiar monsters, and a great story. Then again, I've been playing the series since Mana Khemia.

Chapter 24

"Hey Shino." Maki greeted as we, (minus Aisha and Hagane) piled out of our little dorm. "I'd actually forgotten."

"Heard you had a pretty busy day." Shino grinned, "Coming to spectate, or participate?" She asked the Ryuu and I.

"Why not both?" Ryuu asked, "I was also curious about Tuka and Yao's skill with archery, and was hoping to try my hand at it."

"She's only so-so with a bow." I leaned down to stage whisper in Shino's ear.

"My sword is enough, thank you." Ryuu said with a tiny little pout.

"It really is." Maki and I said at the same time.

Shino laughed, "Actually, there's something I wanna ask you too. But it can wait until we get there."

She walked with us to a part of the Base we'd never been to so far. I knew what it was the instant I saw the giant expanse of 'nothing' though. It was an airfield. Runway, landing pads, a half dozen hangers, wait no... a half dozen minus one.

"Monster get that one?" I asked, pointing to the conspicuous empty spot between otherwise evenly spaced hangars.

"Yeah." Shino nodded, "It ran through the wall like it wasn't there, then killed itself when the building fell in on it. Everything inside of the hangar was scrapped too."

"Monsters generally aren't too smart." Maki said, "Eat, hungry, sleep are about all they think about usually."

There was only a single helicopter on the runway at the moment, a big double rotor thing that looked like a flying bus. If memory served, it was a 'Chinook'. "Is that one of the flying machines?" Ryuu asked.

"That? Yeah! It's not the most impressive thing we have here, but it can carry a lot of cargo. We keep one ready at all times, just in case." Shino explained. "The training field is just over this way. We use the runway here for running, but the corner behind the hangars for the range and arena."

As if to punctuate this, a full dozen (plus one) JSDF stepped out of the hangar and started to jog. The 'plus one' led the group, chanting "Left! Left! Left-right-left!" as they went by.

"Keeping your feet in time stops you from tripping over the guy ahead of you." Shino said before Ryuu could open her mouth to ask.

As we got closer to the back corner, my ears started to pick up the distinct 'snap' of bowstrings. I wondered if they were locally made bows and arrows, or store bought stuff from Japan.

"And here we are." Shino said as we rounded the corner of the last hangar.

Closest was 'the arena'. Much like back home, it was a packed clay field. The clay had good grip for your boots, and gave a little when you fell on it. It wasn't very water resistant though, so after a good rain you either stayed off it for a day, or got really dirty while training. Past them, with all archers/targets aimed away from the Arena, were a dozen JSDF with bows and heaps of arrows next to them. To the side of the arena, they also had simple wooden posts. A couple of people were actually practising on them too. One had a simple long sword, the other a bayonet/carbine, and they were 'shadowboxing' against the posts.

The Arena though, had a full two dozen people in it, with a single person at the front directing the 'class'. This was more Dojo styled than I thought it would be, but then again the only military I'd ever been familiar with was North American.

"So, before we line up." Shino said, getting our attention again and walking towards the posts, "Can you explain this?"

The post on the end of the row where the two were practising, had a knife sticking out of it. It had been buried all the way to the crosspiece at about 'heart' level to the average person with only a slight angle to hint at it coming from below.

I leaned in close, examining all these details, then turned to Shino. "It's a knife."

"I KNOW THAT!" Shino growled while Maki laughed and Ryuu did a quiet 'fu-fu' behind her hand. "I just wanna know what you did to it, to make it so sharp!"

I squinted a little more at the knife, noting that the edge I'd put on it (visible on the back side of the post) was still nice and sharp. "I sharpened it really well?"

The two who'd been hacking at their posts couldn't help but stop and come over, "You made that?" One asked, "We were wondering about that. I mean, Shino-san is usually pretty serious about her training, but this time she was... I dunno..." He turned to his buddy, "Sparkling?"

"Sparkling." The other nodded, ignoring the angry growling.

I couldn't help but smile. I mean, I was telling the truth. There really wasn't anything 'special' about the blade. I'd taken what she had, reforged it, and put it back together. I didn't even add my fur or anything! Just a tiny bit of scrap iron the smith had laying about to make up for the little bit lost during the process.

"Honest. All I did was make you a proper knife that you could really go nuts with. No magic, no secrets. Just good iron made better with proper work." I said.

The other two JSDF looked at each other, then their own weapons, "Wow. What did it cost her? I want one of those."

"I had a bit of free time." I said, "So, any other problems?" I asked.

"Actually. It's stuck there." Shino said, giving the other two a glare.

"Here, lemme." Maki said, stepping up and taking hold of the hilt and putting her other hand on the post. "And..." It came free, the hole in the wood leaving a funny looking shadow on the ground with the setting sun. "So, did you want to spar with or without weapons, Shino-san?"

"I'll go to the range." Ryuu said, giving Maki a pat on the shoulder as she went by.

Maki looked at Ryuu and nodded as she went by. Shino however replied with, "We'll try bare handed first. We can do blades after."

"Sure." Maki nodded, unhooking her sword from her belt and handing it to me.

Of all the people in the Manor, Maki ranked close to last for bare hand fighting. It wasn't to say she couldn't, but her competition were people who'd been fighting with all kinds of weapons, or none at all, for years. I'd done what I could back in Kuoh, and she'd improved a lot since then as well. But still, aside from Delly, Momiji, and maybe Shinkage, she was the least skilled.

But that was the whole point of stuff like this. Bruise more now, bleed less later.

As we got closer to the Arena, the instructor (someone who looked to be in his late thirties and wearing a Rising Sun headband) spotted us, commanded those in front of him, "At Ease!" Pause, "Square! Form up!"

With machine efficiency, they all filed out to the outer edge of their once neat square of soldiers. This left a reasonably wide area in the middle for one on one sparring. "Nervous?" Shino asked Maki.

"Nah, this is normal back home. Less yelling, but normal."

"At least, it is when you get out of bed in time for morning practise." I gave Maki a none too subtle nudge with my elbow.

The two of them got into the middle, bowed to each other (Japanese style), and settled into a fighting stance. Shino's was a 'closed fist' compact Karate stance. One foot forward, other back to form an 'L' with her feet, while keeping one fist up and out, level with her chin, the other close and guarding her throat.

Maki on the other hand, mimicked my style... sorta. Same 'L' stance, but a little more spread out for better springing, with both hands half open to allow for easy transition between punch and grab. Hopefully, she didn't forget all that stuff when the hands started flying.

"Rules?" Maki asked.

"No biting, gouging or magic." Shino said, "And I take hair pulling personally."

Maki nodded, "Deal."

The instructor looked at the two, then shouted a nice dramatic, "Hagime!"

Shino wasted no time at all in getting closer. With a quick series of short pushes from her back foot, she zigzagged forward towards Maki and finished her charge with a short right hand uppercut towards Maki's lower ribs. Just how I'd taught her, Maki dropped her left elbow to intercept, then shot out a short jab with the same arm.

It was off target, but the back of Maki's fist still clipped Shino's shoulder with enough force to hear. Undaunted, Shino did a neat half step sideways, and used her right hand again while using her left hand to swat Maki's attempt to cover her side away. The hit was clean, making Maki grunt quietly, but aside from backing up a step to acknowledge the strike she hardly seemed to notice.

Then my little sister did something 'fancy'. With a short hop forward to initiate, she got almost belly to belly with Shino, her leading leg going between Shino's legs with Maki's right foot planted behind Shino's left. Shino almost managed to dance away, but Maki completed the move with a 'high block/low blow' combo, putting her forearm in front of Shino's face while driving her fist into the other woman's gut.

Shino grunted with the impact, then tripped and fell over Maki's foot. But even with the solid strike and fall, she did a near perfect tuck/roll/kip up and was on her feet again in less than a second. The crowd (very unprofessionally) 'oooooo'ed at the spectacle, but instead of drawing any strength from the crowd Maki just looked surprised it worked at all.

The second half of that was actually a 'sword and shield' attack, where you blind the opponent with a raised shield, then strike from below it. I'd have to give Maki a headpat for that one.

Shino's next charge was a little slower, or so it seemed. Still looking winded from the strike to the gut, her motion seemed just a little sluggish...

Until Maki went for a left feint, focusing too much attention on it and missing the right sweep of Shino's booted foot, neatly kicking out Maki's front leg. Maki's recovery was a little more acrobatic, reminding me of Bell as she fell sideways put a hand down to stop herself, and did a one handed somersault to land back on her feet. Again, the crowd 'oooooo'ed, and the two women grinned at each other.

The next charge had Shino switching tactics again, and instead of going for a punch, she instead reached up and grabbed either side of Maki's battle cloth shirt. She tried to pull her down and do a classic hip throw, but Maki managed to just barely user her slight height advantage to put on the breaks. Willing to play that game, Maki looped her own hands around Shino's, and gripped the JSDF's tactical vest, and for a moment they were locked in a standstill.

On a skill level, Shino was better. More experience, more variety, more training. But Maki had a slightly better reaction time, and in that instant between push and pull, She leaned forward, then sideways, throwing Shino down to the clay front first. As I'd taught her, she didn't stop there, but when Maki went for a hammerlock hold, Shino slipped it, rolled over, and just missed Maki's nose with an elbow as she got to her back, curled up her legs, put her boots to Maki's gut, and pushed back with all her might.

This left my little sister flat on HER back, with a pair of full boot prints on her middle. Shino also got to her feet in record time, but relaxed when Maki waved at her and got back to her feet in a more relaxed way.

"You're better than I am." Maki admitted, "I am so glad you missed that elbow. I don't want to look like big sister there."

"Hey!" I shot back, "I've only broken my nose like... um... you know, I've never counted. More than three, less than ten?"

Shino grinned, holding up a V and getting a cheer from her fans. But then she gave Maki a head tilt, "I thought you'd be stronger though?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong." Maki grinned, "I have my soft spots, but I hardly felt those strikes."

"You were holding back then?" Shino sounded a bit miffed.

Maki shook her head, then looked around for a second, "Hey Roku! C'mere!"

"Ma'am!" Roku broke ranks and trotted over to Maki.

Maki then grabbed Roku by the belt buckle, and lifted him over her head while using her other hand to make sure he kept balanced. "I wanted to spar, not fight." Maki said, doing some easy one armed up/downs with Roku (who was grinning like an idiot and keeping his body stiff to make sure he didn't upset Maki's balance). "And you're better than me for sure. But we both have work in the morning." She then set Roku down, and the two saluted each other before Roku trotted back into line to the chuckles of his peers.

While Shino recovered from seeing a 50 or so kg woman lift a 80kg man over her head with one arm, I stepped forward, "Skill before strength. That's how we do things back home." I gave Maki that headpat, "Not bad. Might have to get you a shield to work with."

"I'll settle for a gauntlet like Kaede's." Maki grinned.

"What about weapons?" Shino asked, "I wouldn't mind a bit of practice against a sword." She looked at me.

"I don't use weapons." I shook my head, "And I'm pretty sure Maki's blade would eat the weapons around here for breakfast." I handed it back to Maki.

Then from behind us, of course, our newest stalker showed up to ruin our fun, "No weapons, doesn't want to spar, I'm starting to wonder if you can fight anything more dangerous than those mosquitoes?" Rory giggled.

Looking depressed, Itami was standing next to Rory, who as usual, had that 'better than you' look on her face while she criticized me. Itami wasn't the only one with a negative reaction to her presence. The other soldiers around the Square were suddenly a little on edge, glancing between Rory and I.

"That's because I haven't needed to." I replied easily, "I'm not in the habit of showing off. Makes people nervous." Yes, I was being diplomatic. I mean, I knew Rory would live if I punched her head off. But I didn't 'officially' know that, so... "I mean, I'd offer to spar with you, but something tells me you don't know the difference between 'spar' and 'attempt to murder'."

There was a very subtle, very disciplined effort to get out of Rory and I's line of sight from the assembled JSDF.

Before any sparks could actually start flying, Itami 'ahem'ed' "Kodori? I've got some news about your quest."

So, I stopped looking at Rory and focused on Itami as if she wasn't even there, "Do tell?" I looked to Maki, "Up to you if you want to try knives."

"I'll try and learn something." Maki said, "Lemme borrow one Shino?"

I trotted over to Itami, keeping Rory just inside my field of view, but never actually looking at her, "Good news I hope?"

"Because of the help you've given us in cleaning up the bugs, along with the various things you and your party have done around the place, the Commander has agreed to give what amounts to 'privileged status' to our connections." He said with a slight smile, "Basically he's willing to help with the legwork as much as it reasonable, up to and including involving our diplomatic corp."

My eyes went a little wide, "That will be most appreciated." If that was the case... "Hm, okay, I'm going to have to put on my fancy hat and think up some... digestible requests to put to the nobles around here."

"Off the top of your head, what were you thinking?" Itami asked, "I'm pals with our head diplomat and he might have some ideas to speed you along."

"The biggest problem will be the gold needed. If what Lelei has planned is anything like I'm thinking, it will need to be reasonably pure, and need to go around the entire Gate. That could mean anything from her weight, to your weight in gold."

"No small amount." He hmm'ed.

"And that lump of diamond you mentioned?"

"Ah, sorry, that's a no-go. It was sent back before the Gate closed." Itami shook his head.

"Hmm. Suppose we'll have to go anyhow." I gave the first tail to volunteer a thoughtful pat.

"Go? Go where?"

"When I mentioned the possibility of needing to mine the stuff ourselves, she suggested hiring a Geomancer. Not just that, but my own enchanting methods might give us a little access to some of the research funding there." I replied, glancing at Rory who looked... unimpressed at where I was going with this, "So a trip to this Rondel place was what I was thinking."

"I'll see if I can clear that-"

"Don't misunderstand." I interrupted him, "This is my mission. Unless you can bring what I need here, I'm quite willing to go 'out there' to get it."

Itami sighed, "Help or get out of the way?"

"Basically, but as politely worded as possible." Yes, Emotive Politics for people who hated politics, "You have my word that we'll keep to ourselves and not cause trouble. But we don't have time for paperwork to clear."

"Understood." He nodded, "But... how will you get there?"

"We could run." I shrugged, "Your maps are really well done, so finding the place won't be a problem. Who knows, maybe I'll try flying there."

"You'll still need a translator." Itami shook his head.

"True. If Lelei doesn't want to come with us, I suppose we will need your help." I already knew she would want to come with us. I was really just testing to see if Itami would let her.

"Suppose I'll talk to her then." He nodded, "And our diplomatic contact?" He asked.

"I'll ask one of my party to stay behind." I replied, my tails tingling, "Oh... I think someone just learned something new..."

And then something past the sparring soldiers, in what I assumed was the gun range, exploded.

As with any sudden loud noise, the explosion drew attention. There were soldiers running towards it, one of them was on a radio messaging whomever was on the other end that they were investigating, and in general a lot of very controlled commotion.

When I managed to get there, I was quite impressed by what I saw. It was indeed a firing range, though the area we all ran to had been converted to a professional archery butte, complete with hay bales, markers to denote distance, various targets from posts to bullseye styled ones.

However, there was one target missing, and in its place was... a cone of nothing. Standing in front of it were two elves one JSDF and Ryuu. And yes, they were pointing at my party member as she stood there looking just as surprised as everyone else.

The guy with the radio dutifully reported the scenario, "There are no fires, stand down fire team."

"Understood." Came the reply.

"She did it." Tuka, Yao and the JSDF said.

"I did." Ryuu admitted, "Though, I'm not sure exactly what it was I did."

Itami, probably used to dealing with this by now, stepped forward and said, "Just... put the bow down and start from the beginning."

The story was a typical 'trying something new' one from Orario. Tuka, who was adept with a similar style of magic to Ryuu showed the Orario Elf how she went about making elemental arrows. (This was not to be confused with how Yao did it. The Dark Elf used actual elemental magic, not spirit magic, to imbue her arrows.)

So, Ryuu tried it Tuka's way. Except it was a few orders of magnitude stronger than Tuka's demonstration.

"The spirits here are more responsive than Orario. I think my offering of mana was... a little more than it should have been." Ryuu said, "When I let the arrow go, it was similar to my Luminous Wind."

"It was like a whirlwind going sideways!" Tuka said, "It was really impressive! But you need to be quieter with your call!"

"Sorry." Ryuu replied.

"I think the mistake was mine." Yao said, raising her hand and offering Itami an arrow. At first glance, it was just an arrow. Metal point, wood shaft, feather fletching. But a closer look showed that the point wasn't metal, but stone, and it had a little rune carved into it. "I use these to help me attune my magic to the arrow. I had given her one to assist Ryuu since it was her first attempt at this kind of magic."

"I've told you two to be more careful at the range." Itami sighed, "I'm sorry Ryuu-san."

"Don't be, Itami. It was very educational." Ryuu replied, "But I think I might stick with my sword." She looked in my direction, then turned, drew her blade, then returned it to her belt.

Puzzled, I looked behind me to spot Rory, who had opened her mouth to speak. But then I heard the dull thud of a log hitting the ground. On the range, about twenty metres out, one of the log targets had fallen over, sheered off at the base.

The guy on the radio then said, "We'll need two replacement targets and a half dozen hay bales."

"Elves at it again? I'll put in the requisition forms." Came the reply.

Since we'd made the mess, we helped clean it up. It didn't take long, and for the last hour of sunlight we had left we'd gotten a little more sparring in with the JSDF. Maki and Shino worked with sheathed knives (the standard sheath for a bayonet is metal). I did some hand to hand with whomever wanted to try (and yes, I kicked may kinds of ass, but still had a few surprise points against me). And Ryuu actually did use the bow a little more, but didn't use her magic again.

And all the while, Rory was off to the side, sitting and looking bored. I was starting to wonder if she was trying to pick a fight on purpose, or maybe just liked to be annoying. But so far, she hadn't actually done anything that crossed any lines. But was starting to wish she'd just come out and say what I knew she was thinking.

After we'd all worked up a good sweat, we dispersed and called it a night. On the way back to our room, I had a quiet conversation with Maki, while Itami talked with Ryuu, since she'd be the one getting in contact with Itami's diplomat buddy.

"Hey kiddo. Not bad." I said in Kione, "Getting better I think."

"Shino is really good. I thought I trained hard, but she's a beast." Maki laughed. "What's up?"

"Was thinking of a little digging." I said, "Was wondering if you wanted to come along tonight." I went into my pouch and took out one of the Land Dragon scale fragments. "Can't use this one, it's dried out and rotted. But it's the same stuff we thought would make good armour material when we heard about it."

"Digging? Seriously?" Maki rubbed her thumb over the sparkly bit of the scale with a 'hmm', "So long as we aren't at it too long. I am not eating one of your instant coffee pills." She twisted her face into a 'bleh bitter' face and pocketed the scale fragment, "So we have a plan? For tomorrow I mean."

"Itami will talk to Lelei, but I think we're going to go to Rondel. We'll need at least one extra for translation, but it's our best bet to get the materials, or money, we need for the gold, and gems."

"That diamond went back then?" She asked, and I nodded. "Ah well."

"All we have to do is get off base..." I said, "Might be able to make you that gauntlet before we even get home."

Getting off base was rather easy. Itami, or the Commander, maybe even Mari, had put in a word for us, and the guy at the front gate just waved Maki, Hagane and myself through. With a smile no less! On our way down the ramp leading into town, I filled Hagane in on the 'plan', and his reply was a very unimpressed...

"So you are going to dig around in the dirt for materials, instead of going out and punching them off the monsters in the proper way? I am... oddly disappointed."

"Since we don't have access to them right this second, yes, that's what we're doing." I said.

"And they're dragon scales. I thought you'd be happy we aren't hunting them down." Maki added.

"They've never invited me to a reunion, so I don't care about them." Hagane replied, "That aside, why am I coming along?"

"Mostly to watch our clothing." I said with a chuckle, "You'll still get to nap, except on all of our priceless gear."

"Hurmmm... worth it then."

Aside from a rather nasty smelling pile of dung, the wyvern were no longer in the field. Probably for the best, since I didn't want to try and shoo them away. Sure, I'd have a whole pile of scales afterwards, but I'd probably have made Giselle sad. She was far more likeable than Rory.

"Wish I could do that clothing trick." Maki grumbled, undoing the string that held her pants up and wiggling just enough to get her rear out of them. She wasted no time past that, and with a sudden shrinking, she was suddenly a fox. I helped her wiggle out of her vest and shirt, but otherwise she had no problems.

Unable to resist, I gave her head a pat, "I'll try my best to teach you."

The light brown fox 'grumphed' at me, leaned her head into my hand for just a moment longer, then shook herself off. I made sure to fold up her stuff neatly, then my own coat, vest and pants.

"Here you go." I said to Hagane, taking out the scale fragments from my pouch and Maki's pocket.

"Yay."

Then with a shift of my own, I shed the clothing of Kodori, and wore the skin of the Demon Fox. I had to concentrate a little more than usual, just so I wasn't 'car sized' like I usually was in this form. I had a lot of power, and my body wanted to reflect that. But after a moment I was just a tiny bit larger than Maki, and my tails had hid themselves so that only my black/silver/gold tail remained.

Maki and I spent a moment looking at each other, another giving each other an 'arm's length' sniff, then went about the task of finding more of those scales.

Using the broken scale as a 'sample' for how they smelled, we didn't do too badly. Even if we were only slightly larger than a normal fox, we still had our adventurer's strength, and even the hard packed ground gave us no trouble. Sadly, almost everything we did find was broken, but in the end we had more than enough to do some serious work with. I'd need to break off the bits that had gone to 'dry rot' but that would be easy enough.

A couple hour's after we'd left, we returned to the entrance of the base. Covered in dirt, yawning, and now with two large leather sacks of dragon scale fragments, we gave the guy at the checkpoint a cheerful smile and walked back in.

The next morning, Maki was the one to comment, "no, don't wanna, stupid music."

Aisha on the other hand, after being given a good backrub and just rolling with it and sleeping an extra couple of hours, was all bright eyed and ready to go. "Wow, what did you two get up to last night?"

"Playing in the dirt." Hagane rumbled, "But I'll admit, even I'm interested in what she does with these." He nudged one of the leather sacks with a paw.

"Ah, you went collecting." Ryuu said, "How shall we proceed with the task at hand?"

"You're okay with working with 'the diplomat'?" I asked.

"Itami has told me a little about him, and we know who it is, if distantly." She replied, "Koji Sugawara."

"He'll be like the other JSDF, but from what Akeno mentioned, he's basically the entire reason diplomacy didn't break down here." I said.

"I will be careful."

"Why aren't you dealing with the diplomatic crap. As much as you hate it, you're really good at it." Aisha said, grabbing one of my tails and tackling it with a brush, "Hime' will be sad you've let your tails get this disorderly."

Maki, finally sitting up, mumbled, "Why not just... put them away? Then they'd never get tangled." She yawned, then got to work on her own tails.

"Then people wouldn't randomly pet them?" I offered, "Or I'd have to think about bringing them back out again when I wanted to hug them."

"Heh."

"Do you know your arrangements for getting to Rondel?" Ryuu asked.

"No, but I think that's today's breakfast topic." I said, "Hopefully, we can just... not have Rory along."

"She's really trying to get under your skin." Aisha laughed, "Wonder why though? Is she too stupid to realize how outclassed she is?"

"She is supposed to be close to a thousand years old." Ryuu said, putting her sword into her belt and ruffling her cloak to settle it properly, "If you do fight her, keep that in mind."

I nodded, "Well, still hope she isn't coming along."

"Well..." Itami started as he sat down with his tray of breakfast. Beside him, Rory was looking smug, while on his other side, Lelei looked at me apologetically. "I hope you can get along."

I felt my eyebrow twitch exactly once, but managed to keep my smile on, "If this is what it takes then." I replied while trying not to stab my breakfast.

Relieved that I didn't cause a scene, Itami looked at Ryuu, "Will it just be you staying here then?"

"No. I will have Hagane with me. He said he would be uncomfortable being around so many curious mages." Ryuu said, "And when you are dealing with other diplomats, you dress to impress."

"I have to admit, Hagane is impressive." Itami nodded, "I'll inform Sugawara-san about the 'Plus One'. Have you thought of how you're getting there? I could probably convince the motor pool to let Lelei drive."

"Oh, I think we can come up with a much faster way." I smiled.

"Wonder what he was thinking when you asked for a bunch of wood and rope?" Maki chuckled as we found ourselves once again in the field just outside of town, hammering together a sturdy wooden platform.

"I am curious as well." Lelei said, handing nails to whomever held out a hand, "Flying carpets are one thing, but I've yet to see a flying door."

"More of your outlandish magic?" Rory asked.

"Japan went with metal and machines. We went with magic." I said, "Lelei? What happens when you heat up air?"

"It expands, and becomes lighter than cooler air."

"And if we had a way to capture that air?" I continued, giving our platform a couple of light stomps with my boot, "What then?"

I didn't wait for her to answer, but instead closed my eyes and let out a long slow breath. And with that breath, the start of a huge mana-cloth sheet. "You could use it to... ohhhh."

With Aisha and Maki guiding my mana-cloth sheet, and me simply concentrating on making more and more of it until the light of the morning sun was no longer visible through my eyelids, I anchored it to the platform, stretched it out over the area, and finally started the second part of the process, "Rory, you can come along, but you'll have to leave your weapon here."

"This is a holy artifact! I c-"

"Fly, or walk." I smiled, not opening my eyes or even turning my head to 'look' at her. I was far too engrossed in the initial strain this was putting on my mana. "Maki? Help me with the fire."

"Aye sa'!" Maki replied while Rory continued to sputter, "I'll handle the back quarter."

With the magic puffs of foxfire at my command, I got the front of the mana cloth up off the ground. "Aisha." I called out quietly.

"Right." And her strong hands started to tie the ropes we had around our hips. "Well runt? You leaving that silly scrap of metal here, or are you walking?" We did have four ropes after all.

"Grrrrr FINE!" And with a 'clank' I heard her plant that silly weapon of hers into the ground like a flagpole.

"Lelei? Please tell the JSDF not to shoot us down? We're about to hit neutral buoyancy." I could feel the entire 'skin' of my projection, the giant cloth looking kind of like a boomerang with a wide middle, almost like a delta-wing jet with a little basket under it.

"This is Mahou Shoujo. There is a... flying wing taking off from the killing field. It is friendly, do not fire, repeat, do not fire." Lelei said as we started to lift off.

I felt a tingle of magic that was not my own, and I heard the mildly crackly reply getting closer, "Copy that... what... (muffled) Hey guys! Look at that! (normal) Clear skies Mahou Shoujo. (muffled) Why the ears though?"

"All those experiments back home paying off huh?" Aisha said from beside me, putting her hands on my hips and helping me sit down since my eyes were still closed, "Though..."

"How do you plan on moving forward?" Lelei asked just a little off to my left.

"Oh, that's easy." I said, curling my fingers a little to help me visualize me 'curling' the front edge of the wing a little more so that the heat from my foxfire started to act as propulsion as well as lift. Once I felt us moving forward, I finally opened my eyes, all of the 'structure' set in my mind, "Whew... Okay Lelei! We'll try and keep up!" Then I glanced back to the passengers, "It might be a little boring, but try not to shake the platform too much. Maki? Keep that back quarter exactly how you have it, lemme know if anything with teeth gets curious."

"What will you do if something like that fancies a snack?" Rory asked.

"We'll have it for dinner." Aisha laughed.

"How long do you think we'll take?" Maki asked, "Wow... the base is even more impressive from up here!"

"The map showed it as about twice the distance from here to Italica." I said, "Unless the scale of the map was wrong, we'll be there in a few hours!"

"I hope you went to the bathroom before we left!" Aisha laughed.

Sadly, it took a huge amount of concentration to keep this thing stable. All of the 'wires' holding the wing of my mana in place were just projections, and thus when ever I needed to correct for wind or turn, I had to 'imagine' the wires shortening or lengthening. I suspected that it was only my newest addition of skill 'Summoning' that made this possible at all. Since the projection was basically 'static', it was taking almost nothing to maintain. That of course would change if something attacked the projection, or I in turn attacked back with a summoned fox, but for now, my mana reserves were low, but stable.

Of course, when we WERE flying stable, I took in the sights.

"You know... Seeing it from up here, Italica is pretty nice looking. Sensible walls, reasonable layout..." Aisha commented, "Lelei? I think that guy down there with the ballista might be getting ideas."

Lelei, who was riding her staff like a Witch's Broom, looked way down at the oncoming city and reached into her satchel. "Rory? Was it channel four? Or five?"

"It would be Thursday today for them. So Five." Rory replied, "That fire of yours... it's not magic, is it?"

Off to the side, Lelei started to speak into a microphone, "This is Mahou Shoujo to Italica forward base..."

Maki replied to Rory's question, "It's more like Spirit, instead of Magic. It's a reflection of my elements, fire and air."

"Oh? And this..." I glanced back to see her make a wide gesture, "Thing you've made?"

"A mix of both." I said, watching someone appear at the top of the castle wall near the ballista. "The skin is Mana, the body is Spirit. And my elements? Air, Void, and the comfort of my wife."

"Your wife is an element?" Rory asked (with an implied raised eyebrow).

"Only when she's angry." Aisha laughed, "Have you taken her flying like this yet?"

"Like this? No. It was a little more personal. I don't need help when it's just me and someone else." I replied with a smile, remembering the past years as the city fell into the new dynamic I'd basically dragged them into. "Our children too, but that was a much lower flight on a mapping platform."

I looked down at the city as we flew almost directly above it, the shadow of my flying wing sweeping just in front of the wall as we went. It really was a nice place. Orderly, nice farmlands outside of it, a small lake, and the river behind the bluffs. It reminded me of the place I'd planned to put a midway point between the mines north or Orario and the grand city itself.

And then Rory spoiled it with, "Children? Did you seek comfort with another women after your man left you?"

Maki and Aisha were very quiet as I replied, "And I was just starting to think you could actually hold a conversation." I sighed, "No Rory. They are our children. All seven of them. I had to learn the God's language, research for weeks, and petition three Goddesses for their blood so that I could revive the dead knowledge needed for the potion we both took on our honeymoon."

I took a deep breath to calm down, correcting a few little errors in the Wing's balance before they became critical ones. Lelei chose that moment to fly a little closer to our platform, "Kodori, do you see it?"

She pointed ahead to a long line of hills, "How tall is that range?"

"Those are the Romaria Mountains." Lelei replied, "They aren't too high, but they are not tamed."

"Depending on what lives in them, you might get some fresh scales." Aisha chuckled.

"How long would it take to go around?" I called back.

"At this speed, most of a day, we'd be well past nightfall for sure." Lelei said after a moment.

"Over it is then!" I said, reaching into my coat and touching my finger to the tops of my potion vials until I got to the one with my mana pills, "If it gets too rough, we'll land in them and make do!" I tapped a couple pills out into my palm and downed them. If the winds got rough, I'd need to do a lot more 'work' with my projection.

"I'll do my best." Maki said, unhitching her sword.

"I should have asked for a bow." Aisha sighed, "My sword won't be much use."

"You should have asked Welf for an upgrade." Maki replied, "It's not like you don't have a magic stat."

"Bah, you kids and your toys."

It was an hour later before I started to wonder about this plan. The range itself really wasn't too bad. I was almost 100 percent sure I could get enough lift to get over it (magic like this could bend the laws of physics, but not avoid them all together), but the winds were picking up a bit, and my nose could already pick up the scent of wyvern dung.

"Lelei! We're going to have company!" I yelled over the increasing winds, "Aisha, hold on to Maki and stay in the middle of the platform, Rory? You too."

NOTES!

Considering the threat level of Kodori/team vs random encounter? It's not much of a cliffhanger. BUT! They are actually over a mountain, that has lots of cliffs? Does that help?

Anyhow, feeling energized after my little vacation, and its on to Rondel in the next episode! See you in five days!