Chisson worked at a tavern.

Not as a bartender who knew all the news in town and was happy to share it as long as you bought a drink.

Not as a bouncer who stood by the door and looked intimidating so people would think twice before trying not to pay for their overpriced alcohol.

Not even as a waiter, delivering drinks to customers, chatting with them in the hope of making extra tips and flirting with anyone who showed interest in the male form.

No, Chisson was better than that. He had self respect. He had lines he would not cross. He had his dignity.

Chisson was a janitor.

Said janitor was cleaning up his fifth pool of vomit for the night, more than ready for his shift to officially end in 5 minutes

When the bar owner walked up to him.

Mr. Resh was a large round Moshmal man, his paper white skin and his odd ivory 'hair', a singular puffy mass that sat on top of his head, like some sort of solid cloud, accented by the black shirt required as a uniform to all his employees.

Despite his race making him as 'cute' as a fat old man could get, he always wore a severe glower.

"Hey, Bug!" Chisson looked up, responding to the nickname he had been 'gifted' as the only remotely insectoid person in town " the sinks been full for almost an hour now. Why aren't you on those dishes?"

'Because that's not my job'

" a customer made a mess here I was just mopping it up before I got to 'em"

"Well hurry it up if your not done before then evening rush your gonna have to stay to cover all the back up it'll cause"

Without overtime pay of course. That wasn't an option today.

"Yes sir." Chisson moved to the sinks immediately, throwing the mop into a closet on the way there. He found what he had been expecting a pile of dishes that no one had wanted to do, and thus have been thrust on the bug. By the time he finished scrubbing he had stayed for five minutes longer than his five hour shift and was running late to meet Tay he grabbed his stuff and darted for the front door trying to get out of there before boss's name I could ask him to do anything else maybe it was because of that Rush that man he ran into seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Chisson bounced off the man's chest falling to the ground while the man himself looked unruffled.

The stranger looked down at Chisson and smiled reaching down a hand to help him up

"Excuse me my young entonid friend, I did not mean to get in your way"

"Who- Oh, yeah me" it has been so long since Chisson had heard the actual name for his race that he hadn't recognized it immediately. He took the man's hand with an embarrassed grunt of thanks, and really looked at the guy he'd just accidentally (albeit, ineffectively) tackled.

He was tall and lean and Chisson didn't recognize his race. He had russet-brown skin, with umber eyes and round squishy looking ears on the side of his head, he had no claws and his smile showed mainly the dull teeth of a herbivore with four slightly sharper teeth near the edges. He was, in a way that Chisson couldn't describe, abnormality normal looking.

"Sorry about that" Chisson sighed running his fingers through his hair, " I was in a rush and I wasn't paying attention"

" it happens to the best of us. If I may ask where are you in such a hurry to get to?"

Chisson shrugged "just heading to the gym with my girlfriend. Running late is all"

"Ah, the push for evolution, yes. Then do not let me stop you"

Chisson tensed slightly at the phrase but he could see an out when he was given one. With a wave one last apology towards the man he finished his dash of egress. He probably imagined it but he could have sworn out of the corner of his eye that he saw the man smirk.

"And so apparently the servant snuck out, got his exact likeness carved in stone, snuck back in with a life-sized statue, all in the time during when he was supposed to be making dinner, which he managed to hide somewhere for four hours. He manages to then move it in the middle of the night without waking anybody up put it under his covers and murders the lord. And if that wasn't stupid enough he has no motivation whatsoever" Tay ranted about the book she had completed during her off day. It was a mystery novel as per usual and she hadn't liked the twist ending to this one as the big reveal 'had come out of nowhere' " the butler did it is so overplayed but even then I didn't expect it because it makes absolutely no sense, right Chis?"

Chisson jumped "Huh? Yeah. Uh… he could have had a stone-soul do the carving for him. That would have cut off a lot of the time creating the statue, right…?" when it came to Tay's mystery novels he tried to really really hard to simultaneously balance tuning her out while remaining attentive enough to be an active part of the conversation. it was just one of those things that she could go on and on about, and as much as he enjoyed hearing her voice the subject matter was...bleh.

"I guess but it's still not really enough to fit within the time window and even then it doesn't account for how he got it back and all the moving it around" Tay huffed

They walked along the road that led to the gym. Filling silence with idle chatter. This conversation had begun with Chisson asking Tay how her day off had been, and after a short spattering of words about a jog, what she had for lunch, and the nap she took afterward, she had begun giving him this detailed summary of her reading material.

" yeah so after that reveal you think it would be over, right? But it turns out-"

"Hey, y'know what? I'm hungry. Are you?"

"Nah, I had a big lunch. Plus I've already eaten"

"Wha-"

Tay posted up at the sky towards the Sun "photosynthesis it's the perfect dieting plan"

" well those of us who lack chloroplasts still have to eat so do you mind if we stop.

"Do whatever you want I'm going to stay out here and keep my five-star meal going, or should I say one star" Tay said with a wink

Chisson rolled his eyes, " that was awful. Bad jokes, are my thing anyway."

"Gotta retaliate every now and then can't having you get too complacent"

They stopped at the nearest restaurant. A pastry shop where Chisson picked up a chocolate cream puff

Tay gagged " seriously all that sugar all at once have to be doing something to your body"

" we're going to exercise. it'll all even out" Chisson lied, mainly to himself.

" When you die of heart failure I'm not healing you."

"Well yo-" a sentence cut off as something on his eye. "Was that there before?"

A piece of paper hung attached to the window that Chisson would have sworn was bare just a second ago.

"Maybe…?" Tay shrugged " I really wasn't paying attention to if there were fliers or not. I mean it probably didn't just appear out of thin air."

To be fair he was a five foot tall bug talking to a walking berry bush that could casually make broken bones disappear.

It probably didn't just appear out of thin air but if a creature had wings it could probably fly and he was proof that didn't always hold up.

Chisson looked down at the paper and read

'Having trouble with your maou? Pushing for evolution but can't quite reach it? Struggling to manifest a technique?

Do you find yourself worried that you will never grow futher than where you are now. Well, don't be. I can help.

Kamel's personal training center, located down the street from the colosseum.

Come become your best self.'

"Hey Tay, look at this."

The allevine blinked as she looked over the ad, "Oh wow. This sounds great" she stared directly at the page in a way that seemed less like like she was giving it any extra attention and more like she was avoiding looking at him.

" a little too great. You think it's too good to be true?"

" well, I've never seen a personal trainer put an ad out like this but it's not out of the question." She shugged " we should check it out sometime it can't hurt"

I it wasn't as if he expected much from it either, what could this Kamel teach him that he hadn't already tried himself? "If you don't think it will work you can-"

"No no, even if this you can't help you it might give me a bit of an edge. Compressing my maou these last few times has been a lot harder, if I can get a push to get me through this bottleneck it wouldn't hurt. I just can't do it anytime soon with work and prep for the tournament. And I'd prefer if you didn't go alone just in case this guy…"

'has any amount of strength whatsoever'

"It's fine I get it. The tournament is in two months so we probably want to get you there before then. If you're still at this bottleneck in a week or so why don't we go that weekend"

Tay hesitated "...that'll work for me." Before clearly perking herself up " but for today wasn't I supposed to kick your butt. Let's try and get to the gym before next Century okay."

" warm up by jogging the rest of the way?"

" you know it, shorty. Last one there has to pay for dinner tomorrow" and with that she was off.

The gym a large building, a result of its government funding, that was made up of two major facilities. The physical gym, which included weights, various pulley based contraptions, a small track area and a pool in the back, and the Maou gym, which was mostly a couple sets of reinforced training rooms and sparring areas, as well as a small store that sold low quality elixirs and other maou restoratives at an exorbitant price.

One of which Tay, who had no real concept of money, bought.

The bottle had a picture I've some sort of Soul-beast inscribed in the glass, probably a flora-lion based on the grassy look to its mane and the flowers in its fur.

As she took a draw from the drink she said "Wow, I forget how fast you are sometimes."

" at least it's one thing I have going for me" Chisson smirked

"Now if only you knew how to use it for anything but running towards danger, you'd be golden"

"And here I thought if I got hit a few more times it would improve my looks" he ran his hands up his sides into his neck, cradling his head seductively and receiving a slap to the back for his trouble.

"Well you better stop that nonsense or I'll be fighting off competitors with a stick." Tay mocked, though he did notice a slight greenish tint to her face as her floral blood rushed to it, "and some of us like that face" she muttered, before quickly moving on "anyway, I'm a woman of my word since you won I'll not only pay for dinner but you can choose how we start our workout today. Physical or maou?"

" let's start with physical I'm in the mood to work up a sweat" 'rather than tears.'

"Okay then, spot me on the free weights?"

"Sure, ditto?"

"You know it, shortstuff"

Tay worked on her arms and upper body while for Chisson today was leg day. Tay kept trying to convince him to add more reps to his glute exercises for some reason that Chisson was going to pretend to be ignorant of.

It was easy actually. Chisson had always been better at physical things than most around, it had then what had gotten him into fighting in the first place before people started learning to use their maou it was a real advantage. It wasn't much nothing within the realm of what a body-soul could muster but for a guy a little under five and a half feet (1 1/2 meters) being able to deadsquat 280 was pretty impressive.

Once they were both finished that with their routines and soaked from sweat glands that biology would say neither of them should have Chisson grinned

" time for the fun part or do you need a break first"

"Oolala Chis, if you're going to be such a tease then I'm going to need to show you what I can really do" she rolled her shoulders stretching her neck into a small crack could be heard from her spine " we should get a private room… unless you want to just give everyone here a show"

Chisson punched her lightly in the shoulder "Bonk! I was talking about sparring, goatweed"

"So was I," Tay said sultrily. Chisson responded with a deadpan stare and she stuck out her tongue petulantly "You are no fun, you know that?"

After they had secured a sparring room, the couple stood across from each other.

"I think we should start with a mundane fight, no maou." Tay said as she worked through her warm-ups.

"Oh? So confident that you'd give up your one advantage"

"Oh I've got plenty of advantages, love-bug. I'm just kind enough to give you a fighting chance"

"Yep, So benevolent are you that your only gonna kick my ass half as hard"

"Well I never said that." And with that she was coming at him. Tay crossed the room at a run. Spinning on her heel as she closed and letting a roundhouse fly at Chisson's head.

Ducking, the entonid jabbed at her grounded leg, forcing her to drop the extended limb suddenly or risk a fall.

"Win conditions?" Chisson asked as he pressed the advantage, using the momentum from standing to drive his knee into Tay's stomach.

She used her forearm to block it. "Surrender or less then half life-Line" she answered as she pushed off causing Chisson to stumble backwards a few steps in an attempt to recover his balance, during which Tay landed a front kick to his side, the first real blow of the fight.

Chisson's Lifeline shrunk by a bit. Not much as the blow hadn't had any maou infused and his carapace had absorbed most of it but still enough to let him know the fight had really started.

Rather than back off, like Tay probably expected he once again closed, fainting with his right fist and letting her move to dodge before sweeping her legs.

"Wha-!" Tay cried as she fell, kicking up at towards Chisson to ward him off during the moment of vulnerability. He couldn’t get close enough to do anything before she popped back up.

"Cheap"

Chisson smirked, "Hey, I'm not the one who flinched."

"Now you're gonna get it!" Tay growled with faux anger, she came at him with a flurry of kicks and knees, a jab thrown in here or there. Chisson did his best to block it all but he often had to choose between a punch or a kick, each taking a tick of his lifeline with it. Rather than blocking the next round he dodged back, sliding to Tay's side and aimedto aim a punch at her ribs. She turned but not in time Chisson getting a good hit out of the exchange.

“You came to play,” Tay laughedas she jumped back “Fuck it, lets play.”

She brought her right arm up to her left shoulder swinging it in a cutting motion across her body as she did a vine appeared out of thin air, floating inches from her fingers.

The whip-like vine flicked towards Chisson's head.

He just barely dodged it, forced to duck and slide to keep from being struck. "I thought you said no maou this round?"

"Changed my mind!" Tay responded, cracking the whip a second time.

"Now who's cheap!"

Tay grinned, raising the technique one more time "I'm not cheap. I'm petty, there's a difference."

She brought it down diagonally and Chisson had to throw himself to the side as to not get hit.

He knew from experience that particular technique didn't do much damage., Fflora maou wasn't really the most combative of soul-types, but it was excellent at ensnaring and with Tay's skill if he was caught it was over. As the vine whip came around again Chisson pulled on his own maou. The clear energy flowed from his core like thread pulled from a spool. He spun it though the second of his techniques, Skipstep which should move him an extra length forward in his dodges.

His core emptied by half as the technique attempted to form.

Instead he received the crawling feeling of a failed technique and an odd sense of vertigo as if he had just fallen sideways.

'Well, it didn't hurt to try.'

He had expected that though, so as he slipped aside the mundane way he waited for Tay's arm to fully extend, to the side giving him an opening to close the distance. Her eyes widened as he stepped into her guard, his range ruining the effectiveness of her maou formed weapon.

In a blink the vine disappeared just in time for Tay to block the left hook. Chisson threw a right jab which caught her right in the jaw. She returned the favor gave it back as hard as she got it, with a punch to his solar plexus, following withed by a side kick to make him back off. He was still gasping as the whip returned, forcing Chisson to make use of his only real advantage.

"Hey! No fair!" Tay cried as Chisson took a step onto the wall. He ran up it in a way she couldn't hope to mimic "Get down here!"

"You're one to talk!" Chisson dodged the vine easily now, the extra space he could maneuver to making Tay have to expand her strikes "I'll come down when you stop that technique. "

In actuality, he couldn't keep this up for long, and they both knew it. Just like the pain management he could do, this was a natural use of maou that even he could accomplish since his body did it instinctually, but it still used the energy, which he had precious little of. He was already about halfway empty from his failed use of skipstep so at most he had 30 seconds, less if he kept running like this, as it was his maou was draining like a wine-skin in the hands of a drunk.

"You know what, I change my mind." Chisson grinned as he stepped over the corner and ran across the ceiling, just a few steps upside down already had his soul aching at the sudden expenditure of most of his core's contents, only a few wisps of maou remained but he didn't need to go far "I am coming down" he jumped falling straight down towards Tay's head.

Tay only had time to groan, "Seriously…" before there was a crash that would have made anyone outside the door look the other way and mind their own damn business, followed by pained mutterings of,

"H-half… I give."

"Yessss…!!! By the way, I'm at a fourth. Ow!"

After they were healed up. A combination of Tay's fruit and her healing touch technique. They spared again this time properly without maou. Tay winning by keeping Chisson at a distance and using her reach advantage to Pelt him with kicks. The next round Chisson managed to scrape by by hugging her guard from start to finish

Then came the fights with full maou use, none of these lasted more than 40 seconds. With full use of her techniques Tay could whip Chisson's ass to the next region in back without breaking a sweat. Even though she odviously went easy on him, missing hits she could have perfectly landed, reacting a moment slower than she had in their other matches it wasn't enough that he was left on his feet by the end.

As he picked himself up from a particularly brutal beat down Chisson choked "I can't tell if I'm a masochist or you're sadistic."

"Those aren't mutually exclusive" Tay reminded him

"Yeah, well either way That's enough for today" Chisson grunted as he stretched out his back, "how much gain did you get from that?"

Tay shrugged "not much. No offense but you aren't exactly a... challenge with my maou available"

"None taken" Chisson knew enough to know that adversity was the best way to condense maou short of doing it manually and that was time consuming, "how close are you?"

"Ridiculously. It's like that feeling when you're about to sneeze but persistent. I think a day or two of condensing and maybe one really good fight will do it" a goofy grin grew onto her face " oh my God I am so excited!!! 3 years in the making and I might leave my birth-stage behind in less than a week"

'Three years' was down playing it. Tay had only started actively condensing then but for as long as Chisson had known her she had been working too get stronger. Training, fighting, sparring anyone who would let her. The allevine's desire to evolve had been a pile of tinder just waiting for a spark to ignite it.

Chisson's chest tightened but he grinned right alongside her " I for one want to know what a Nascent allevine looks like, I've never seen one."

"Oh just say you want to ogle this" Tay said sweeping her hands down the curves of her body "Hell, you can do it now I don't mind" she winked, causing Chisson to roll his eyes and change the subject.

"want to get something to eat before we head home?"

"Sure I guess, w-" Tay began but was interrupted by a loud crash and a roar coming from outside their sparring room.