A loud crash echoed through my room, snapping me awake in an instant.

I sat up and after a moment I wanted to let out a scream. I didn't of course, but it's still frustrating.

I was kinda annoyed. No, scratch that, I was really annoyed. Not only did I end up dying again, but I did so to something that I couldn't react to if I tried.

In my moment of silent grumbling, Lyra popped her head in.

"What's all the racket? It's too early!" Lyra said.

"Get out!" I yelled. I threw my pillow at her. It bopped her right in the face. I couldn't help but chuckle.

Lyra stared daggers at me as she forcefully came in.

"Okay, You asked for it." Lyra said, approaching me.

"Wait, I'm sorry- urk!"

She didn't even let me finish as I was tackled to the ground.

After being beaten to a pulp, Lyra left me be. I got up and dusted myself off, at least she didn’t pull out her hammer this time...

"You done flirting, Kid?" Emit asked, finally showing his face, Er… his corporal spirit form? These phrases really don't work with him.

"Is getting hurt really seem like flirting to you?" I said.

"If it isn't I really need to reexamine my past relationships!" Emit said with a laugh.

I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, more importantly. What the heck killed me?"

"A turret. It shoots out bullets." Emit said. I took a moment to throw on my normal clothes.

"Bullets? Is that what those long metal pellets were?" I asked.

"Yep!" Emit said, his normal flying about paused for a moment, I could tell he was thinking of something.

"Hold on, how did you know what they looked like?" Emit asked.

"I saw them? One was coming straight for my face!" I said. I grabbed my journal too. There's all my things! I was ready to go.

"Do you know how fast bullets travel in the air, Kid? You can't perceive that with your eyes." Emit said.

"Well I did. Oh yeah, the weird slow down thing happened during it." I said.

"The slow down thing?"

I nodded. "I tried telling you about it before but you were throwing a hissy fit."

Emit grumbled at that. Ha! I continued on.

"When that three-headed rat came barreling at me, the weirdest thing happened. I couldn't breathe, I could barely move. Everything almost stopped. It felt like the world, including me, slowed into a crawl, yet my mind was still going as it usually did."

“What in the world… Are you using time magic?” Emit asked.

“I don’t know, am I?” I replied.

“That was a rhetorical question, Kid. By the description of it, it sure sounds like it. That shouldn’t be possible though. Even with us being connected, that should only be possible by the current time deity. That’s me, not you!” Emit said.

I shrugged. “What can I say? Maybe I’m just that great?”

Emit didn’t seem to take my joke well, if the way he flew towards my face was any indication.

“Mememto Mori. You’re only mortal, Kid. Don’t forget it! M. O. R. T. A. L.!” Emit said.

“Okay okay. More importantly, what are we gonna do about that turret problem? I don’t think we could make any progress anywhere else but past that door it was defending.” I said

Emit was silent. He flew a bit away from me, his movement now minimal. Not only that but his glow dimmed too. He must be in deep thought.

“Got any ideas?” I asked.

“What do you think I’m trying to figure out?” Emit said sharply. Geez, no need to get snippy with me.

You know, you should really talk to me instead of just thinking to yourself. You may be able to read my mind but I sure can’t read yours. Pretty unfair honestly. So open up! Lets brainstorm together.

A moment passed.

“Okay.” Emit said.

See? Now lay it on me. What do you think we should do?

Emit took a moment, probably gathering his thoughts, but then finally spoke.

“First off, I was thinking if we could avoid it all together that would be great! But like what you said, that was the only real way forward. Especially since every other door was closed off. Plus, I’m not sure if you noticed, but that had a sensor for an I.D card on the side of the door. Don’t thank me, I know I’m great at noticing these sorts of things. The benefit of not being stuck in my own little world like you tend to be, Kid. You really need to stop getting so distracted, I’m not always gonna be around to help you out!”

“Anyway, So I was thinking if the power was still clearly functioning, since you got riddled with bullets and all, then we could probably try to shut it down. That might backfire though since I’m not sure if you’d be able to pry open the door if we cut off the whole system. Not to mention trying to find a fuse box or something would take forever and I’m real sick of the wandering around, let me tell you.”

“It would have been neat though it was just right next door or something. You ever see that one movie, Kid? Where they’re trying to rob the bank? Oh who am I kidding I know you haven’t. You catbirds don’t know what you’re missing out on. An entire age of cinema! So many great films and-”

“Oh my god will you be quiet!” I yelled. My head was starting to hurt. Midway through the rant, I tried to block my ears to no avail. The lack of a need to take a breath is a horrible thing for you, Emit.

“Can you just break it down simply, please? Does it have any weaknesses? Can I block the projectiles?” I asked.

“What do you mean ‘weaknesses?’ It’s a machine, not a monster that can fit in your pocket. No super effective moves here. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. You could short circuit it by giving it a jolt. But good luck producing that much power in this world without even batteries!” Emit said.

“Okay, I’ll just make a shield and block them then.” I said.

“Good luck with that. They’ll pierce right through unless you plan on making it out of a foot of solid steel.” Emit said.

“Fine, what can I do then?” I asked.

“Smash it into pieces!” Emit said.

“...I don’t think I’ll be able to get close enough though.” I said.

“Not with that attitude you won’t. I got the perfect idea. You just first need to make the strongest weapon known to humankind!” Emit said, the excitement dripping in his voice.

The strongest weapon? I’m interested now. Show me how to make it!

Emit flew about, his light glowing and dimming in the air to makes various lines and shapes. What a neat trick. I wish I could do that.

I was pretty confused and still interested at what he was drawing at first. As the drawing continued, I realized what he was making finished.

Then my interest greatly diminished.

"What do you think? The ultimate weapon!" Emit said.

…

"It's just a sword. It's curved but I'm not seeing the appeal." I said.

Emit scoffed. "Excuse me? Just a sword? No! This is the ancient weapon known as a Katana! Steel folded over a thousand times over the roaring flame of a volcano to create an indestructible weapon! You can pierce and cut through solid steel with this thing! In fact, legend has it that a master of the blade used his katana to cut down the god of thunder himself!" Emit said.

"I didn't realize there was a god of thunder out there." I said.

"You didn't even realize there was a god of time living in your backyard, Kid." Emit said.

I was going to point out nobody as far as I'm aware knows about him. But decided to leave it alone.

Instead, I looked closer at the design of the sword in front of me.

"Well... the center of gravity would support a decent cutting edge, same for the slight curve but that's it. Folding your metal wouldn't really make it 'indestructible just more pure. Then with how thin the blade is you're not really going to be able to pierce anything, you'll probably just break the blade, and this is setting aside the fact the curve offsides the piercing power. Furthermore-"

"Kid. Just stop." Emit said with a sigh. "You've killed my dream already. Here slap this one and see what happens."

Emit moves in the air again, besides his other drawing. This time it was a complex symbol, clearly a rune. I wasn't familiar with it though.

Which wasn't saying much, seeing how I really only experimented with runes a handful of times. What was this supposed to do?

"Increase the durability tenfold!"

...Tenfold? Now I like the sound of that.

Still, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. Isn't the problem I can't get close enough? I'm gonna get hit by a ton of those metal things, bullets, far before I can swipe at it.

"That's why we're going to cut the lightning. With your slow-motion thing and a sword that'll slice through them like butter, you won't even need to dodge." Emit said.

Oooh. I do like the sound of that.

There's one problem though. I needed crystals. I knew if I helped out Lyra with her sword she'd give me a few, but that'll take too long, I got my own sword to make now. Not to mention I've lost an entire day now. I have only one day left! I can't waste it on making her stuff.

"Actually, we're still pretty good on time. The day doesn't finish out, time just goes back when either of us die. We spent like what? Eight hours? Thirty-six left now!" Emit said.

Well, that's a lot better than I thought.

I finally exited my room. I looked down the hallway. No Lyra, no Master. I knew they were both downstairs, busy with their projects around this time. Still, I wanted to make sure the way was clear.

I walked up to Lyra's room and opened the door. If she wouldn't be nice to me and lend a crystal to me, I'll just take one. I'm sure she won't notice.

Probably.

Her room was as messy as usual. All this human junk, I don't even know what half this stuff is.

"Let's see… Walkie-talkies, copper wires, safety goggles, BB pellets, rubber mallets… Is that a waffle iron? It's like that song about the hardware shop." Emit said, flying around the room examining objects.

As usual, I had no idea what he was talking about, and then he started singing again.

Ugh. I started to search around. If I were Lyra, where would I place valuable objects of concentrated power?

Under the bed?

Nope. Nothing.

In the shelf filled with nit-nacks?

Go fish.

In the box near the foot of her bed? Nope. Just stacks of books. 'Human Lifestyle' 'Human Diet' 'Lost Technology of Humanity'

She needs a better hobby. Maybe I'll try to show her how to draw again... Nah, last time I tried Lyra could only draw stick figures then got mad at me when I laughed at her.

Surprisingly, or really unsurprisingly. The crystals ended up being buried in a pile of junk in the corner of her room. Oh, Lyra…

With my prize in hand, I pocketed the crystal and made my escape.

With one problem down. I just need to make the sword. Still, I had my reservations about the whole thing. I mean for one I'm not quite sure how to do the slow down thing.

"What? You've done it before!" Emit cried.

Well, that doesn't mean I'm an expert! I almost died twice when it happened!

"Then obviously we just need to put you at death's door again." Emit said.

That's not happening. I'd rather not almost kill myself, thank you.

"Hmmm. We'll figure something out. In the meantime let's get this finished." Emit said.

I didn't like the sound of that. I did think of a backup idea though, inspired by Emit's talk about cutting lightning. Since Lyra had such a big crystal there would be some leftover for a side project.

Going downstairs, I greeted the Master and made my way to my workstation. Time to make another weapon. I was a little sad though. Both of my sweet bows, gone. I wished I didn't lose my stuff when I died.

"Could always turn it into a soul jar." Emit said.

Excuse me? Why would I put my soul in a jar? It's fine right where it is! I poked at my kidney, at least where I thought it was.

"No. I don't literally mean put your soul in a jar. It's the act of splitting your soul into a fragment and placing said fragment inside of an object."

Why would I ever do that? Sounds painful.

"It only hurts a little bit. I've done it like twice, trust me, I'm actually pretty sensitive when it comes to Plus if you do you can take something back with you."

Yeah? Why didn't you tell me sooner then?

"You didn't ask!" Emit said.

I groaned. Okay. Just tell me how do you do it?

"It's actually really simple. Just cut yourself, a drop of blood on an object, and sort of will yourself into it. Should be simple with us being connected."

Hmmm. I took out my journal. I flipped to a random page. I didn't want to cut myself… oh well. No pain no gain. I gave myself a paper cut on my talon.

A drip of my blood stained the blank page.

I don't know how you will yourself into something though. I thought of the book as me, inviting myself in.

And then I felt wrong. My body shook and a sharp pain from my side overcame and my vision faded to black… but I didn't die.

No, instead I felt like I was staring at myself from my journal. Except I didn't have any eyes. And my body was still sitting in the chair. I was still there. But also here.

This weirded me out.

"The hell did you do!" Emit shouted.

I woke back in my own body. Geez. You didn't tell me that I'd have an out-of-body experience!

"Well, I didn't expect you to test it out right after I told you! And then on top of that half of your soul is in there now!" Emit said.

…Is that a bad thing?

"Oh you know, only side effects are just a dramatically shorter lifespan, late-life dementia, and schizophrenia…"

Um. Can I fix it? Undo undo!

Emit sighed. "It'll be fine. Whenever you take me back to my body I'll fix you up. Pinky promise. Next time though don't be so hasty!"

Okay. I felt relieved at that. I really need to be more careful with doing things like that. One of these days I'm gonna get myself in deep trouble.

Anyway. On the bright side at least my journal won't be erased anymore!

"You know, if you were so keen on getting out of this soon, you wouldn't even need to make a soul jar. Especially since now we have only two days." Emit pointed out.

Listen, I'm not the brightest sometimes, okay? Give me a break.

Alright. Enough chit-chat. Let's try to make this. Curved sword here we go.

First of all, the material I would use for this is solid steel. Since the whole point of this is keeping a sharp edge, I couldn't use iron which just couldn't get the same kind of cutting quality.

I grabbed a solid steel bar, one that was long and thin enough that it wouldn’t be too much trouble to work with. We usually kept different sizes of metals on hand to make the forging process a bit easier. With the right one selected, I began superheating it. When I brought it back to the anvil, Emit appeared.

"That's the wrong kind of steel, Kid. Actually, this is all wrong!" Emit said, while I started to flatten and hammer at the steel.

What are you even going on about?

"The steel is wrong, that's the most average kind of steel I've ever seen! It's not Tamahagane! It's not even a good substitute like Damascus or the likes! What's with this furnace too? You gotta use the traditional Tatara like the ancient swordsmiths would!"

You know, I don't really quite understand most of that, but it sounds very time-consuming, something that if you remember we don't really have.

So I'm just gonna skip a few steps here and there, one of those being sticking with the materials and tools I have on hand.

"Oh come on! Normally the traditional method takes months of careful planning and execution, if you want perfection you gotta do it right!" Emit said.

Months? Do you hear yourself? We have less than two days!

“Still! If you ever do this again make sure you remember what I’m telling you! I don’t want to you showing a shameful display!” Emit said, getting so excited he was getting too bright.

Okay okay. I’ll keep that in mind, I’ll even write it down in my journal, see?

I pulled it out and wrote a couple of his comments down. When I did so it felt weird. The fact I felt anything is weird to begin with, each sketch I could ‘feel’ the thoughts being imprinted on there.

Here’s hoping that’s the only thing turning my journal into a soul jar does. I don’t think I’ll like it if it continues being like that.

Anyway, back to my work, I still had a bar of steel that needed to be shaped. Emit continued to babble nonsense on how Katanas were properly made to me as I worked. I swear he knows the weirdest things. What does a god need to know so much about making a single type of sword anyway?

I followed the design as closely as I could. I couldn’t quite fold it ‘one million times’ as Emit wanted me to, but decided to try it at least once or twice, if not just to get him to shut up about it.

It was tough, getting a sturdy material like steel to bend onto itself. I had to reheat it several times, and many sparks flew from my anvil as I painstakingly bent it on top of itself. That was such a pain.

I can see the benefit though, As Emit described to me as I folded it, the steel used by the ‘Japanese’ —whoever they are— was extremely poor in nature, much unlike the steel we have in our workshop. I imagine that it was much easier to mold with, not only that but the folding process creates layers in the blade. Since the said blade is one that is deliberately thin and delicate, if one layer has structural defects, the others can support it.

That being said, as I’m already using a pre-temptered piece of metal, the benefits are marginal at best. So I left it at a single fold and continued to shape it out.

End result was a thin strip of steel with a slight curve to it. It was as duller than a butter knife at the moment though, not to mention literally rough around the edges. I took it to the grindstone for sharpening. When I put on my safety goggles though, Emit snorted a laugh.

What’s so funny?

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be rude Kid, but seeing your birdface in goggles is just silly to me.” Emit said.

What do you mean it’s silly! That’s it’s very rude, jerk. Do gods not care about eye protection?

“Well no, they don’t.” Emit simply said. “Where’d you even get those anyway? I don’t think humans had safety goggles when they were around your tech level.”

I bought them? Did it take humans a long time to care about basic safety or something?

“Yes actually, it did.” Emit said. I would say that’s surprising, but considering how they’re all dead it’s really not.

I finished sharpening the edges. I now had a long piece of metal with a nice cutting edge. Even so, if it was going to cut metal it needed to be sharper. Not to mention it was quite ugly at the moment, a rusted tint it was. Good thing I could fix both issues at once, with a nice polishing!

I went back to my work area and placed the sword down on it. Then I grabbed several sets of whetstones.

With that, I swiped the blade, back and forth over the first whetstone, dumping some water on top to get rid of the run off. Then I switched to the set whetstone.

"Why are you switching stones? Can't you just stick with one?" Emit asked.

What, aren't you the expert?

"Don't sass me!"

I chuckled.

The whetstones have different grits, otherwise known as coarseness. I'm switching as I get closer to the cutting edge.

Normally this would make it extremely dull though. I'm hoping that Emit's add-on would help with that.

The end result of the polishing was a shiny blade. So shiny I could see myself in it! I also noticed the folding had produced a unique texture alonge the center of the blade. A wave-like pattern to be exact.

“Hamon.” Emit added.

Well this ‘Hamon’ is about to get ruined though. At least part of it. I took a chisel towards the center of the blade. I etched the rune that Emit had shown me all the way down to the center.

Next, I just needed to attach it to a handle. That was the easy part. The shop had several handles lying about. I picked one that seemed like it would fit well with it, a thin handle with blue wrapping.

“At least you’re getting that part right…” Emit muttered.

I attached the blade to the handle. It fit perfectly. Now for the power source…

I had a flashback to my sword exploding on me. You know what, maybe I should ask for some help.

I turned to the Master, who was still fiddling with his own project.

When I walked over to him, he spoke before I could.

“Let me guess, you want to know how to use mana crystals effectively?” The Master asked.

I was surprised. “How’d you know?”

“You think I don’t keep an eye on my apprentices? I also know that you didn’t have any crystals or shards the last time I checked…” The Master said, whispering the last part.

My eyes turned to Lyra, who was still making her own sword in her corner.

“Don’t tell her?” I asked.

The Master laughed. “Only if you promise to pay her back. I know you’re friends and all but it isn’t very nice to take without asking lad!”

“I will,” I nodded. “So about the crystals, I tried to turn it into a powder before and that didn’t turn out so well.”

“Leakage?”

I nodded once more.

“Have you tried turning it into a polymer?” The Master asked.

“A Poly-what?” I asked.

The Master only smiled. “Let me show you.”

The Master got up and grabbed a jar from a shelf before heading over to my work area. He took some of my tools and crushed the crystal into a fine powder. Afterward, he grabbed the jar and opened it up.

The Master used a simple wooden spoon to scoop out what looked like honey.

“That’s not honey.” Emit said.

“This is resin from a tree.” The Master said, as if he could hear Emit. “If you mix this just right with some crystal dust and then heat it up…”

The Master combined the two, creating a sparkling slime. He placed the slime into a metal bowl with a small lip before putting the entire thing into the roaring flames of the furnace

After a few moments, he pulled it out. What was left was a sky blue liquid. It was still thick, but the heat had made it less viscous.

“...You get a mana infused polymer! Or as folks usually call it ‘Mana Ooze’. There’s several things you can use to make it, I always found resin or sap to be the most pliable.” The Master said.

He then went over to my weapon, using a pair of tongs to hold the still hot bowl, he carefully poured it into the area I had originally planned on packing full of dust.

The ooze flowed smoothly, encroaching each nook and cranny of the blade that I chiseled in. It dried almost as soon as the Master finished pouring.

The end result was a stunningly shiny curved blade, the sky blue ooze hardening over the hamon line to produce a wave-like outline. It, along with the similarly colored blue handle, reminded me of a river flowing into the sea.

“Aren’t Katanas just the coolest?” Emit gushed.

I have to admit, it was pretty cool. But the real question was it tough? I took a look around and saw there was a small wooden plank near my desk. I took it and placed it on the anvil. I then took my sword.

I grabbed it with two hands and raised the blade high.

“Hey you shouldn’t-” The Master said.

Slice. I swung down as hard as I could. To my utter surprise, it cut the block of wood into two. Even more surprising it actually got lodged into the anvil! I tried to pull it out to no avail.

“What kind of rune did you even put on there?” The Master said surprised, walking over and helping me unlodge the sword.

“A really tough one,” I said, my face brightening up over the fact I did something even the Master didn’t expect.

With my new weapon made. There was only one thing left to do. I was gonna need some help though...

Lyra tossed a tomato high into the air, catching it gracefully. She then pretended to throw it at me, causing me to flinch. That made her laugh, but it wasn’t funny to me.

We were currently standing in the courtyard. I was dripping head to toe in red sticky juices. Why you may ask?

Lyra suddenly tossed the vegetable at me. I attempted to draw my new katana out in time, but it was too late. With a wet smack, the tomato was crushed all over my face. Stupid vegetable.

“It’s not a vegetable. It’s a fruit.” Emit said.

“What? Does it matter? Fruit, vegetable, same difference. They both grow from the ground.” I said.

“There’s a big difference! You gotta widen your world view, or else you'll become another moron who thinks something that’s as simple as botanic classifications aren’t important in the world!” Emit said.

“But they’re really not? Besides- Ow!” I was interrupted by another tomato in the face. “I wasn’t ready!”

“You told me to surprise you. Besides, I apparently need to knock some sense into you since you keep talking to yourself.” Lyra said. Her face couldn’t be brighter as she picked up another tomato from the basket we had gone and bought.

Lyra was clearly enjoying this. I guess from getting revenge at me for when I nailed her in the face this morning with my pillow. Really, it was probably the only reason why she agreed to this and helped me buy a ton of tomatoes. Not to mention the reason as to why she kept on aiming for my face!

With a grumble, I wiped the vegetable ―excuse me fruit― guts off of me. This whole exercise was an attempt to get the slow-down thing to happen again. But over the past hour of this I hadn’t had any luck.

“We need a better name than ‘slow down’ thing, Kid. It’s just not cool.” Emit said.

Do we really need to name it? Then again ‘slow down thing’ is a mouthful.

“Bullet Time!” Emit suggested. “No that’s copyrighted.”

Slow-motion?

“Too generic.” Emit said.

How about-

Another fruit smacked me.

“Stay focused! I see you spacing out!” Lyra said.

I swear… I needed a break from this.

“Break… Oh! Let’s call it ‘Respite’.” Emit said, bouncing in the air.

Sure, whatever. Respite it is.

Now any ideas to make it work? Because I’m getting real sick of being covered in vegetable juices.

“Fruit.” Emit said. I rolled my eyes and he continued. “Well, try focusing."

What do you think I've been doing?

I saw Lyra winding up her throw, I drew my sword right as the fruit left her hand. Still, it wasn't the state of Respite. Just my normal reaction speed. I swiped but failed to catch it, smacking me right in the chest.

"Almost!" Lyra said with a laugh.

Grrr…

I tried to calm down, but it wasn't really happening. I was stressed, in pain from being hit in the head so many times and to top it all off, frustrated.

It was frustrating that I couldn't get this slow-down thing to work. It was frustrating that my 'all-knowing spirit guide' can barely give any advice other than to focus. And let me tell you, even though she's my friend, if Lyra laughed at me one more time…

All these bad feelings and thoughts raced in my head. Lyra tossed the tomato again in the air, and as it reached its apex, it hung still.

I couldn't breathe. The movements of the world grew dull. Within my moment of frustration, I reached my Respite.

What caused it though? The common link?

…It was helplessness.

I felt helpless. When the 'Cerberus Rat' as Emit called it, came towards me. I felt like there was nothing I could do in that moment. I wished for more time, I felt like in that situation, there was nothing I could do.

The same thing for when I was riddled with bullets. I had no clue what was happening. I didn't know why I was suddenly being hurt. And I really just needed a moment to prepare or get out the way.

And now? Ironically enough, I was feeling helpless in the sense of being too incompetent to have the slow down, Respite, to happen. I hated it. Every one of those moments. I wanted more time, more control.

I felt more calm, coming to that realization. And with my calmness, time continued back to normal.

"You focusing?" Emit asked.

"Very," I said. "Didn't you hear my conclusion?"

"What are you talking about?" Emit said.

Huh. I guess when I'm like that Emit isn't privy to my mind anymore. Finally some privacy!

Emit swam in the air, in clear confusion. Nice to have the tables turned for once.

Just then, I noticed Lyra winding up her throw. I was ready this time though. Control. That's what I wanted. More time, I'm not going to be helpless anymore!

Lyra tossed the fruit at me, right as she let go, it started to move slower. It wasn't the near pause as it was before, nor was my breathing as strained. In fact, I was holding my breath. An unconscious response, and yet I felt like if I let it go, this would end.

I think the stress really has an effect on my Respite, as it was the only reason I could think of as to why it wasn't as slow as before. Still, it was enough for me to brandish my blade.

In a single swift motion, I was able to slice the fruit into two.

I let go of my breath. Time resumed as usual.

"Oh!" Lyra said, she excitedly flapped her wings. "That was awesome! Here! Do it again!"

Lyra grabbed two more tomatoes and launched them at me. I held my breath again, the same effect. It's actually working. I couldn't help but be excited myself as I cut through the tomatoes.

As soon as I let go of my breathing though, Lyra already started another red barrage of death. I wasn't quick enough, when I reentered my Respite the first tomato was already inches away from my face. I dodged that one with a tilt of my head. The next was also close, but still far enough that I was able to swipe at it. Its juices still splashed on me though.

In the meantime, while I was dealing with those Lyra had already thrown another, it was about midway towards me though. I kept holding my breath. Since I had some time, and I was feeling a little naughty, I decided to show off. I aimed my sword perfectly so and stabbed at the tomato. It slid right down the center of my blade.

I let go of my breath. Time resumed.

"That was amaz- Ow!" Lyra was interrupted by me flicking the tomato back at her.

I started to laugh, but then began to cough. I felt woozy, enough so that I fell into the fruit-covered ground. I toss my sword to the side as I held my head. I heard Lyra say something but I was too busy trying not to throw up.

A few moments later, the feeling passed. What was that?

"Mana Exertion, remember?" Emit said.

Oh right. That did happen before when I was playing around with the mana sense. It wasn't that bad though.

"You are using time magic, honestly I'm surprised it didn't explode your head. Or worse!" Emit casually said.

I frowned. What could be worse than my head exploding? You let me do it with that risk?

"Hey! You did it before and were fine." Emit said.

Before I could point out the absurdity of that statement, Lyra came storming over, with a handful of tomatoes.

"The deal wasn't me getting covered!" Lyra said. "Don't you think faking falling over is gonna make me not clobber you!"

"I wasn't faking it! I-" Lyra took a fruit and smashed it in my face, cutting me off.

I took one from her pile and returned the favor, gushing her face in fruit as well.

This turned into a food fight, the both of us now rolling on the ground, trying to cause the other as much fruity damage as possible.

A few moments of shrieking and clawing later, the Master came out.

"I swear, you two are making such a racket! What are you even doing?" The Master said, stepping into the courtyard. His eyes went wide when he saw the both of us covered head to toe in tomato guts.

Lyra dropped the tomato she was about to shove into my mouth. She gave the Master a cheeky smile. I did too, even as I was still pinned under her on the ground.

The Master could only shake his head in response. "I thought we were making soup with that, not a bath!"

Lyra and I looked at each other and laughed.