After breakfast, Isabelle scooted away, leaving Gaius and Nexus behind. The little artificial intelligence was sitting on the table and stuffing his face with a small square of toast, having removed the helmet-like accessory on its head earlier.

“You know,” said Gaius, “I never really got around to asking why Nakama made you that helmet in the first place. Granted, I was shocked when I saw it lying around for the first time, having thought that you were decapitated, but she didn’t make it just to scare me, right?”

Nexus stopped eating and looked at Gaius. “You assume that she makes things for a purpose. Let me tell you one thing — she doesn’t. Not at all. Do you know what else she made?”

“Other than this helmet? No, not really.”

“Hmm.” Nexus jumped off the table. “Follow me.”

Curious, Gaius got up and followed the artefact into the spare room where Nakama kept all her sculptures and artefacts. At the centre of the room was a life-sized action figure, which had been built to accommodate Nexus…but it didn’t seem to be in use yet. Nexus, who had stopped for a few seconds at the door, squared his shoulders and walked over to a small pile of…very small artefacts. Those that definitely weren’t for Gaius’ use.

“Yes,” said Nexus. “She built a whole bunch of artefacts for me. The one I want to show you, however, is this.”

Gaius squatted down to squint at the tiny item in Nexus’ hand. It was a flattened diamond, the kind that one might see in a standard deck of playing cards. Made out of some white metal he couldn’t quite recognise, an urge to slap it on his chest welled up as Gaius continued to stare at it.

“What’s this?”

“Proof that Nakama should just spend her time artificing and nothing else,” Nexus replied. “As for what it does...”

Without warning, the sculpture slapped the diamond onto its chest. “Transform!”

Red light spilled out, and a moment later, Nexus was now in a…suit of sorts. Gaius wasn’t quite sure how to describe it, but the sight seemed very, very nostalgic. White armour protected the upper body and the knees, while red energy seemed to have been woven into a latex bodysuit to cover any exposed skin…or in Nexus’ case, wood.

Nexus, who had removed the helmet he was wearing earlier, now had a new one too. A black visor adorned the eyes, while filigrees surrounded it.

“Strange,” said Gaius. “This looks very, very familiar to me.”

“It’d be a surprise if it wasn’t,” Nexus replied. “Nakama’s school has an annual culture festival, and she came across this bunch of people promoting Earth’s culture. The inspiration behind this came from something called Power—”

“Right.” Gaius sighed. “I don’t really want to know anything more about the Pinnacle or the Oracle’s little games, so let’s just leave it as it is. Still, where does the qi come from?”

“Nakama took a gem from Heritage and dismantled it into its basic constituents.”

“For some reason, that sounds really, really familiar!”

“She’s gotten into a habit of doing that recently,” said Nexus. “All kinds of artefacts have been dismantled by her…and then rebuilt in the same night. She sneaks out of her bedroom on the regular to do some artificing, while filching some artefacts to dismantle.”

“On the regular?” Gaius asked. “What happened to her sleep? Didn’t you try to convince her?”

“Have you tried flying into the ceiling over and over?” Nexus asked. “When you’re subjected to that for over a hundred times in an hour, anything the other party asks of you doesn’t seem all that unreasonable anymore.”

“Nakama did that?”

“Children can be oddly cruel at times,” Nexus replied. “You should hear the stories Nakama brings back at times. Like sprinkling salt on a slug, only to use pepper…”

“Pepper? How did she mix the two up to begin with?”

“That’s what you’re concerned about?!” Nexus paused for a moment. “Ahem. Sorry. I keep seeing the need to play the straight man in this household; you guys really make comments I cannot stop retorting against. Anyway, Nakama’s development is quite healthy for a child with a past like hers.”

“I don’t recall broaching that topic, but it’s still a relief to hear you say that,” Gaius replied. “Besides, look at her today! Going out with friends for a whole day…that’s definitely an improvement over her dependence on her big brother.”

Nexus pressed his chest, and the red armour vanished. “And yet, you seem a bit down when you said that.”

“Let’s not talk about that bit, shall we?” Gaius shook his head and got up.

Nexus floated to chest-height, shrugging on the way. “If you say so, Master Gaius. Right, it’ll be better if you don’t mention that to Isabelle, or else I might be kissing the ceiling again.”

“Don’t mention what?” A voice floated in from outside.

Gaius and Nexus froze up and turned to the hallway outside Nakama’s artificing room.

“So?” Isabelle asked, an eyebrow raised. Her expression was gentle, but Gaius could see some subtle undercurrents beneath Isabelle’s exterior. “What do you not want to mention to me?”

“The preparations that Gaius made for this evening for his confession!” Nexus yelled out.

“What?!”

“What?!”

Before Gaius could do anything other than glaring at the damn sculpture, Nexus had made a break for it, escaping into the living room. Gaius stole a glance at Isabelle, who was looking flustered, and then frowned at Nexus, who was beckoning frantically for him to follow along.

The little fellow left the house immediately afterwards, and Gaius took a deep breath, before turning back to Isabelle. “Erm. Six p.m. at the shopping district, at the fountain. Be there or be square.”

Isabelle nodded mutely. There was something about her that made Gaius not dare to meet her eyes directly, and after stewing in the awkward silence for a few more seconds, Gaius ran off, a promise to make Nexus throw up whatever breakfast he’d eaten in his heart.

Opening the door and squinting at the bright sun, Gaius cast another glance over his shoulder. Isabelle had regained her composure, and was looking at him. In that instant that they looked at each other, Gaius could feel a smile appear on his face.

One that was mirrored by her own.

Breaking the moment in which their eyes locked, Gaius left the house and looked around outside for Nexus, who was chilling away on a lamppost not too far away. The sculpture was about to wave when Gaius reached out with his hand, the gesture sending out currents of qi that wrapped around the sculpture.

With a yank, Nexus flew over to his face.

“Who said anything about a confession? I didn’t say anything like that! You know my intentions!”

“Wait—”

“What kind of preparations am I supposed to make?” Gaius tossed the sculpture into the air, only to jerk it back with a gesture.

“It’s for your own go—”

Gaius repeated the gesture, and Nexus took to the skies again. “You just didn’t want to get punished by Nakama, right? Right?”

“True, but there’s another reason — waaah!”

The sculpture flew again, but this time, Gaius didn’t jerk it back. Screams filled the skies, and the few people passing by quietly cast scandalous glances at Gaius, who didn’t care about them at all. He was long past caring about such superfluous things; what mattered was his relationships with the people he cared about.

Catching the sculpture right before he fell onto the ground with a net of qi, Gaius grabbed it by the leg and dangled the little punk front of his face. “Feel like admitting your mistake yet?”

“Spare me, blergh.”

He looked at the sculpture, who had just let out a dry-heave that was clearly over-exaggerated for effect, and then sighed. “Fine. Let me believe you this one time, that you had something else in mind.”

Nexus looked at him through pitiful eyes — the little sculpture had forgotten to wear his helmet in his haste — and then nodded frantically.

“So,” said Gaius, “what reason do you have?”

Nexus frantically shook its head.

“Hmm?” Gaius narrowed his eyes, surprised at his unexpected response. “You don’t want to tell me?”

Nexus shook its head again, and Gaius set it upright. Leaning in close, he examined the sculpture’s features, which were like that of a sculpture, and then rubbed his nose. “Or rather…you can’t tell me?”

This time, Nexus nodded frantically.

“I am, in part, the Crying Abyss,” Gaius muttered. “And you still cannot tell me? There are no gods in existence that can supersede such an entity, right? What is the meaning of this? Nexus, is it your programming?”

The sculpture nodded its head slowly, and Gaius tried to interpret the answer based on that response, but he couldn’t think of anything. “Hmm. Is it the influence of a great god?”

Nexus shook its head sideways, and Gaius blanked out at that sight. “Why are you tilting your head like that? What, am I half-right and half-wrong? Is it the influence of someone like the Pinnacle instead? Or a Demigod?”

“It’ll be better not to press me, Master Gaius.” Nexus shot a frightened look at the sky, and Gaius sighed. The sunny sky was now somewhat overcast, reminding him of the time that Weiwu had awakened. He had a feeling that pressing the issue might actually be a problem…even if he was the representative of the Crying Abyss.

“You finally speak,” Gaius muttered. “Alright, so you can’t tell me. Fine. But do you, at least have my interests in mind?”

“Yes.”

“You’re a troublesome brother…” Gaius shook his head. “La-Ti and Nakama were a lot less troublesome than you, do you know that?”

“My apologies.”

“Whatever. Anyway, the more pressing issue here is that your words have created a certain expectation within Isabelle,” said Gaius. “I really want to send you in and have you clear the air, but I don’t think you’re able to do that, are you?”

He looked at Nexus, who was busy shaking his head faster than a toddler playing with a rattler.

“I guess not.” Gaius closed his eyes. “Like I said, I’m just going to tell her everything that happened to me, and will happen. Whatever comes next...”

“You should get a ring. Or two.”

Gaius turned a wintry smile towards Nexus. “And how did you exactly arrive at that conclusion? Didn’t I say that I’m just there to explain things to her? Tell her that we’ll just experience loss and pain if we get together? Pray tell, how have you arrived at such a conclusion?”

“Algorithms?” Nexus replied. “And…instinct, I guess.”

“I’m not talking to you anymore,” Gaius replied. “Anyway, I guess I do need to make some preparations, right? But what kind of preparations do I need for this? It’s not like I’m proposing to her.”

Nexus made a little sound. “You could, for instance, prepare a whole bunch of sigils to create fireworks in the night sky. Wait, wait! Don’t hit me! It’s to help you! Under such circumstances, you’ll be able to spill the beans a lot easier! It’ll soften the blow!”

“R-really?” Gaius asked. “On what authority are you saying this?”

“As the Library of Ancients! There are many texts on modern romances and dramas, and most of them feature fireworks or equally beautiful sights when saying words of such magnitude!”

“You aren’t lying to me, are you?” Gaius asked.

“I can’t lie to the Master of the Library,” Nexus replied.

“But you can lie to anyone else,” Gaius added. “Smooth, really. Alright, if you really mean it…I guess I’ll try. But sigils last for thirty minutes. How am I supposed to prepare all that?”

“You can try drawing them sneakily while talking to Isabelle.”

“Rejected. And besides, now that I think about it, setting Explosion sigils off in the North’s capital city will definitely provoke a visit from Kolya,” said Gaius.

“How about using your Custodian?” Nexus asked. “It’ll create a nice light show—"

"That’ll definitely kill anyone caught in it. Which, now that I think about it, probably applies to stacking Explosion sigils too.”

“…maybe we can look around the shopping district and see if there are any pyrotechnics we can use,” said Nexus. “Nakama was tasked to get some last year, and she got me and Isabelle to come along.”

“What kind of occasion requires fireworks?” Gaius asked.

“The cultural festival?”

“Oh.” Gaius rubbed his nose. “Very well. Lead the way.”