Chapter 12

Light returned to his eyes as he glared across the table at Azazel, "If you can't help me then I'll help myself. I'll make a new goddamn arm from scratch!"

Contrary to what he'd just said, Junichiro pointedly glared at Azazel, "You're going to help me make a new arm. If I'd lost my left I could do it myself, but losing my right makes things more difficult."

Azazel plastered a frown on his face, though inside he was doing a little happy dance. Looking over recordings and trying to piece together what the kid was doing was one thing. Sitting with him and seeing it done in person? That was completely different and would give him an even deeper insight into what the kid could do. Besides, he did feel slightly guilty over the incident. While he did want Junichiro to fight the stray, he wanted it to happen under more controlled circumstances where either himself or Mittelt could be right there watching closely.

If either of them had been there, nothing too bad would have happened to Junichiro. Mittelt may have only been a two winged fallen angel, but the Lillian had been exceedingly weak before turning stray. Even as a stray she hadn't eaten very many people to gain any strength so Mittelt could have handled her easily. His own ability to protect Junichiro didn't even come into question. A stray like that one was less than an ant to him.

"Fine kid, but I can only spare a day, maybe two, to help you out."

Junichiro gave Azazel a cocky smirk, trying to hide his fear and trepidation behind a façade, "That's fine. I shouldn't need longer than that to make a crude replacement that will give me the dexterity and strength to make a more refined one on my own."

With that said, he hopped off of his chair and made his way to the workshop. If his mind wasn't so distracted he might have questioned everything that happened more thoroughly. Sadly, his young mind was thinking about rocket arms and distracting himself from the painful memories and extreme fear he was fearing. His reaction to the events was to push them aside and focus on making something he could protect himself with. The next time he meets something that wants to eat him, he's going to be prepared to kill it with more than fire.

Despite doing his best to distract himself, Junichiro still blamed Azazel for what happened to him. He'd lived for months without any issues with the supernatural world. Yet as soon as he moves where Azazel wants him to, to Kuoh of all fucking places, he is immediately attacked by a stray devil. He might not have thought about it consciously, but subconsciously he knew this entire incident was Azazel's fault and eventually the fallen angel would pay for it.

Once inside of the workshop, Junichiro immediately went to the supplies cabinets and began checking out the various woods that had been supplied. There were larger pieces of wood than most of the other plant materials as more wood was needed to make something useful. Using his own mana to check out the properties of the wood took a fair bit longer than it would have previously. The method was simply channeling magic through the material in a little loop and reading the changes the magic experienced and interpreting the results. Doing it with two hands was how beginners learned, doing it with a single hand was more difficult but could be done with practice. Doing it with his off hand took a fair bit of effort and was significantly slower than he'd become used to.

Even with the.. well handicap, he managed to suss out an excellent piece of wood that looked large enough for his purposes. Why wood? His goal was to make a simplistic prosthetic that he could manipulate and use to make a more refined version. Jumping right into a highly complex and difficult to craft prosthetic would just be a waste of time and effort. His knowledge might have let him put together a functional plan to make something simple, but after that he would need to experiment and gain experience in the field. So, simple wood was his best starting place. It also didn't hurt that wood was, technically, organic material.

After checking out every last piece of wood contained within his shop, he chose a piece that was similar to Ironwood but infused with a fair amount of mana that made it even more durable. It would be excellent as a first draft due to the durability it would gain from the rune scheme he was planning.

With the wood selected, he pointed at it while looking at Azazel, "Take that piece to the wood working area."

Azazel picked up the piece of wood with ease and examined it for a moment before smiling, "Ah, Underworld Ironwood. Pretty common but it's decently hard and looks nice when treated properly." He carried it as he followed Junichiro into the wood working section, "So, you're making a replacement with wood then?"

Junichiro glanced at Azazel then looked away and continued to walk the short distance to the vast collection of machines and tools for working with wood, "I plan to essentially make a puppet arm and control it through runes that will give it the ability to read my intentions."

Left unsaid was how awkward such a setup would be. He would lack all feeling in his arm, it would be weaker than his original arm, and that didn't even take into account another thousand little things that would likely annoy the hell out of him. He didn't want to dwell though. Only thinking about making the arm was keeping him from slipping into depression and he knew it. He had to keep focused and keep himself distracted or the memories would come back to him. He was only thirteen, he wasn't supposed to be dealing with these kinds of issues!

Junichiro looked over the various tools Azazel had provided him and saw everything he would need in order to make the simplistic arm. But first, something he had never tried before had to happen. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and close his eyes so he could focus. He kept his breathing even as he reached for his magical power and his ability to form tools out of nothing. He had made use of this ability almost constantly as the tools provided by it had a quality directly proportional to his mana supplies. The more he could spend on the tool, the higher its quality. Now he was trying to make the highest quality tool ever created.

A human hand.

He'd remembered a simple spell that had a lot of uses in many different kinds off roleplaying games and decided he needed to emulate it, the Mage Hand. In theory the spell was supposed to be super simple, and for all he knew it was. However, he had knowledge of zero spells. He had no experience or knowledge on how to cast any spells so he was relying on the one magical talent that was fairly overt, his tool conjuration.

He felt his mana drain and quickly opened his eyes, sitting in front of him was a softly glowing blue hand. With an excited grin, Junichiro tried willing the hand to move and pick up one of the smaller chisels siting nearby. He focused and waited... but nothing happened. With a grunt of annoyance, he dismissed the hand. Sure, he could conjure a hand, but it was just as solid and unmoving as the other tools he'd conjured. He had no telekinetic control over them and no ability to change their shape after he summoned them. That was a complete waste of almost half of his mana.

Azazel remained silent watching Junichiro conjure a magical hand and then dismiss it. He knew about Junichiro's ability to conjure tools, it was apparently the only magic he knew, so it was only a small surprise to see the hand. Though it obviously hadn't worked out.

Junichiro quickly got over the failure and looked at Azazel, "Alright, lets get to work. The first step will be turning that log into the pieces of an arm and hand. We'll start with the larger pieces, like the upper arm and forearm, then move to the more delicate pieces like the articulating fingers."

It only took a couple of hours for the two of them to make the eighteen pieces that Junichiro wanted for the artificial limb. Three pieces for each finger, two for the thumb, two for the palm, one for the forearm, and one for the upper arm. Each joint was designed to be articulated and had spots drilled so they could be slotted together and pinned in place. It was far from a beautiful piece of work. The wood was still rough from the quick sanding to shape it, and he had zero plans to do anything to beautify it. No, there was no point in taking hours to make sure every piece was buttery smooth to the touch.

The assembly process was also extremely easy, just arrange the parts properly then fix them in place with pins. The pins were secured using simple glue. Once the pieces were in place, they checked every movement to make sure nothing could bind or have any instant issues. Issues cropping up later didn't matter, at the moment. When it was done, they had a fully articulating wooden arm in just over two hours of work.

With the assembly of the arm complete and it now counting as 'one item' for the purposes of his enchantments, it was time to do the actual hard part. Though Azazel had been very helpful with the work involving the machines and such during the process of shaping the arm, this was the part Junichiro really wanted him for.

Junichiro picked up a thin calligraphy brush and dipped it into some regular ink, "Pay close attention Azazel. Once I finish drawing out each rune, I will need you to use the chisels to carefully carve them out. You must carve them in the exact same way I draw them out matching me stroke for stroke."

Azazel nodded seriously and even felt a little excited to see the kid at work. Junichiro stared hard at Azazel, "Once they're carved out, they need to be filled with gold." He lifted up a spool of golden wire he'd made back at his old haunt, "The gold needs to be placed the same way and gently hammered into place, I'll do that. So, pay very close attention so you don't make a mistake. I'll keep watch as well and interrupt if you're about to do something wrong."

Azazel chuckled, "Don't worry kid, my memory is pretty good. I wont make a mistake."

Junichiro just eyed him for a bit before huffing and getting to work. This was the part that he truly needed Azazel's help for. Junichiro was a fair bit stronger than he had been just six months ago, but it was nowhere near strong enough for what he needed. In order to make a prosthetic like he was picturing, he needed to use mid or high tier runes. He'd never be able to do the initial power up on such runes by himself. They required an initialization cost but, with the right sequence, could then draw mana from the atmosphere and keep working for as long as possible.

It was only once he had the ability to do these types of permanent mid-tier enchantments on his own that he could consider himself a Journeyman Artificer. That was still a fair bit into the future, but by havinng Azazel carve, place, and power the runes, he would be able to make a much more functional replacement limb that wouldn't constantly require him to power it with his own mana reserves. Additionally, it would take significantly fewer runes to achieve the same results. Higher tiers were simply took more power to initialize, then became more efficient and powerful in their effect. The punishment for making a mistake with them was equally powerful.

Working one rune at a time, Junichiro would use the calligraphy brush to write out the rune in the proper fashion on the proper spot on the arm. Once it was finished, Azazel would carefully carve the channel for the gold in the exact same way. With the channel finished, Junichiro would place the golden wire within it, then used a summoned hammer to gently set the gold in place. Gently hammering the gold caused it to spread out and locked it into place within the wood. It also allowed Junichiro to channel his mana through the gold and mark it with his personal signature. While not strictly necessary, it would help with the operation of the arm later.

With Azazel's help, the project advanced rapidly. While Junichiro was skilled and knowledgeable, Azazel was in an entirely different skill level. Work that would have taken Junichiro many hours as he carefully took his time to prevent mistakes, took Azazel minutes. Azazel didn't even need to use the hammer with the chisel, he just used his own strength and easily carved through the wood with laser-like precision. Junichiro was honestly a bit jealous of the skill Azazel displayed. He'd reach that realm of skill eventually!

Within seven hours, construction of the arm was finished. They'd even attached a harness to strap the prosthetic over his shoulder and across his chest to keep it firmly in place. Junichiro almost wished he'd decided to make a more complex arm thanks to all the time and effort having Azazel help out saved. Their creation was crude at best, but was going to be functional and that's all Junichiro had been aiming for. With a functional replacement he could work on something better as an upgrade, then something better, and so on. After all, Mana Steel was the bare minimum of magical metals so it wouldn't be used for his final creation.

After triple checking all of the runes on the wooden arm, Junichiro turned to Azazel, "It looks fine. For the final step I need you to touch this rune..." He pointed out the very first rune that had been carved, "And channel magical energy into it until all of the runes on the arm completely light up. Once that's done, I can test it out."

The first rune in the scheme was for the absorption of mana. It was technically already glowing, but the glow was so weak that they would need to be in a pitch black room to see it. It had been absorbing mana since it was created several hours ago and, if left alone, it would eventually absorb enough mana to power the arm. However, that would likely take years. Having Azazel 'jump start' the process would speed things up drastically. Once everything was initialized, the energy consumption of the arm would drop drastically and only really change as he was using it. A change that he could easily compensate for with his own mana if necessary. Otherwise the natural regeneration from the rune should be enough to keep it running. A self charging battery essentially.

Azazel did as asked and placed the tip of his finger on the rune before channeling his power into it. He cocked an eyebrow as the arm greedily drank in power, "Huh. I didn't expect it to cost this much energy."

By the time he was done, several minutes later, both of his eyebrows had risen, "That took, roughly, the same amount of energy I would expect a four-winged angel to possess. Quite the greedy set of runes you chose."

The way Azazel was looking at him left no doubt that he was asking Junichiro about the runes. In response, Junichiro just shrugged his shoulders, "I used the best set I could with the medium I had available. I wouldn't be able to power it myself anytime soon and wouldn't have used it without you here. If I was alone, I would have had to use a lower tier scheme which would require dozens more runes and time. This saves effort and time, both priceless things."

He picked up the arm and examined it one last time for any flaws or failures. After looking it over completely, he set it back down and pulled off the shirt he'd been wearing along with the bandages covering his stump. For a thirteen year old, Junichiro was in excellent shape. He was even beginning to show signs of emerging muscles. It was probably the best time in his life to get into shape given the absolute flood of hormones and testosterone running rampant through his body thanks to puberty.

However, none of that had drawn his gaze. Rather, he was staring blankly at the stump where his right arm used to be. He'd managed to somewhat ignore it over the last few hours thanks to working on the replacement. Now though, now he was staring at the completely exposed stump. Thanks to the scroll that helped with his healing, the wound didn't look fresh and, in fact, looked like it was months if not years old.

Junichiro stared at the scarred over flesh where his arm abruptly ended. The scroll did heal him wonderfully, but it was natural healing meaning that the stump looked terrible where it had been sliced off. Thankfully the stray had sliced his arm off rather than ripping it off. This left him with an even flat plane to work with. Otherwise, he might have had to cut off a ragged end to make it flat and even so the prosthetic would be easier to wear.

All of this went through his mind in a sort of numb fashion as he slowly reached out with his left hand and gently touched the scarred over end of his missing arm. It was a surreal moment for him that took his attention so completely that he didn't even realize he was crying as he did so. Tears silently rolled down his cheeks as his distressed mind tried to figure out if he could feel himself touching the stump where he would assume there were no nerves, or if it was a figment of his imagination. He continued to examine the sight of his arm until Azazel cleared his throat.

Jumping slightly at the sound, Junichiro realized what he'd been doing and gave Azazel a sheepish look while wiping his cheeks dry. He didn't apologize, as was his first instinct, rather he just moved on. He picked up the new arm and slowly slid the end of his stump into the harness. The straps to hold it in place were designed to loop around his body and reconnect with the harness allowing him to put it on by himself. He was pretty awkward with it, this being the first time he'd ever done it, but he soon had the arm strapped on tight enough that it wouldn't just fall off for no reason.

The pair of them quietly stared at the hanging wooden arm as the runes for the connection slowly initialized. It was impossible for Junichiro to include any sort of feedback into the arm simply because the material just wasn't good enough. To simulate a real arm as much as possible would require a highly magical material, preferably from a living creature, and an absolutely massive number of runes to almost act like a programming language.

It took almost a minute but finally one of the attempts Junichiro was making to move the wooden fingers worked! It was just a twitch, but the index finger of the wooden hand did move! It was another few minutes before the arm completely initialized and he was finally able to move the entire thing. Curious, and slightly impatient, Azazel asked, "How does it feel?"

Junichiro stared at the wooden arm as he flexed it and moved the fingers, opening and closing a fist, "It... doesn't. I feel nothing and it's so strange looking at it move as if it were my arm. Granted it has no flexibility and looks strangely stiff, but it should work until I can make something better."

Due to the nature of the material, the fingers and thumb were stuck in their orientation and could only open and close in a specific manner. He had designed the hand to be excellent at holding things like the handle of a hammer but with no flexibility that was the limit of the motion the fingers could perform. So, he could grab stuff, and that was pretty much it.

"It will do for a first version. Thank you for your help Azazel."

AN

For everyone who feels that Juni losing his arm means he's permanently weakened...

For everyone saying that metal can't grow stronger...

For all the doubts that seem to plague you, my lovely readers...

Trust that I know what I am doing.

The first few models might be like you are imagining, wood, metal, and so on. But I would like to point out that not all Sacred Gears are made of metal. In fact, I'm pretty certain that Boosted Gear is made of Ddraig's own flesh and scales. Just look at pictures of Ddraig and tell me his scales don't look like metal. Hell, the Scale Mail Balance Breaker looks like metal as well and I'm pretty sure the 'scale' in its name is literal and not metaphor.

So, if you think he can't find something along those lines to replace his arm to make something that's not only capable of growth, but also significantly stronger than his base arm? That might be a lack of imagination or just not taking the time to think of all the possibilities available in the DxD universe.

Besides, an Artificer isn't really an Artificer until at least one part of their body is an artifact! (Just my opinion.)

Anyway, pat-reon slash thomasdarkrose is up to chapter 22 if you're interested.

Until next time!