“Alright, that’s all for today.” Rey deactivated his Ingenium immediately and lied down on the ground, slowly gasping for air. Brendon stood akimbo a few steps away from his pupil staring at him.

“You’re having great progress, Rey. Did you have someone training you before you came to the Academy?” He instantly raised up his palm and did a ‘halt’ gesture, “You know what, you don’t need to answer that. I won’t take no for an answer anyway.” Rey continued to stay silent, eyes closed, Hinoko stopped beside his face after she strolled from the other side of the cubicle. It’s much larger than the one he was in when Brendon asked what his Ingenium is, but it’s still smaller than most people would imagine.

“I live in the Outer Regions, if that’s what you’re wondering.” He did it again, Brendon thought. Throughout the nearly two-month’s time training session with Rey, the boy has been ‘reading’ his mind again and again. Although Rey explained the aura thing and his ability to deduct a person’s characteristic by observing them, he’s still kinda skeptical. But, it has mostly been beneficial, like in this situation. He was interested to know where Rey lived to have such mastery over his Ingenium (usually, human children would just play around with their Ingenium instead of actually learning them). Now that he know his pupil resides in the harsh environment of the Outer Regions, it’s a relief to accept the fact that the boy did soooo much better than him when he was in that age.

“I have something to announce.” Rey sat up after hearing that sentence and turned around to look at his teacher.

“Stage 1 of your lesson has officially ended. Now that you have grasped the techniques to improve the basic skills of your ability like the extension of your strip’s width and length, the speed which they move through surfaces and air, the amount of strips you can make at the same time, the Mana cost of your Ingenium, and the chances of getting addicted to your Ingenium, it’s time to move on to stage two--exploring the hidden skills of your Ingenium.”

“I’m not going to lie, although the rate of which you improve the basic skills of your Ingenium isn’t mind boggling, the time you took to pass Stage 1 is faster than most people. Kudos to you.” He raised a thumbs up.

“Soooo, do you already have some ideas about your new skills?” What was he asking, of course Rey already have a few ideas. Heck, he might already have a hundred ideas!

“Yes. I plan to incorporate my Ingenium into my martial art skills while using it together with spells.” He replied as he stood up.

“Oh? That’s interesting. You never told me about you training to be a battle mage. But damn, magic plus martial arts plus Ingenium? That’s one heck of a combination. Mind doing some demonstration?” He didn’t wait for an answer and promptly used his Circulum to access the cubicle’s system to summon an automated combat dummy. Seconds later, thousands of small cubes of silica nanofiber appeared from thin air and landed in the middle of the cubicle. The cubes swiftly arranged itself into a humanoid of Rey’s size and height.

“Make it stop after I attack it once. I’m already worn out.” He still have things to do after this and he definitely don’t want to be sleepy for the rest of the day. “You got it! Ready when you are.” He quickly brought up a Source+energy scanner so he wouldn’t miss anything.

“Ready.” He swirled his finger in the air for a couple rounds before pressing ‘Engage Battle Mode’ and said, “Action!”

The robot rushed towards Rey and prepared to smash it’s right arm onto Rey’s head with all of its might. The boy activated his Ingenium, forced a group of strips to crawl to his left arm, forced another group of strips to his right knuckle, and connected those two groups of strips. When the robot’s fist came in contact with that part of his left arm with strips, Rey, in a split second, punched the robot with his right arm and transformed all the kinetic energy delivered by the robots attack into a wind spell. Although the spell pushed the robot flying towards Brendon’s direction, he dodged it like a pro without missing a beat on observing Rey’s Ingenium in action. Eventually, the robot hit the wall and was smashed back into their small cubes. The cubes, now scattered across the ground, vanished one by one until none of them was left. Hinoko curiously touched one with her paws as the cubes disappear.

“That. Was. Amazing!! I mean, not only you conserve all the energy you produce when punching, you efficiently, one hundred percent, converted the dummy’s energy of its attack into Mana you used to cast that spell! Astounding!” His eyes were sparkling with admiration.

“I also used my Ingenium to divert the sensation of pain produced by my block to my punch.” Rey added. [The sensation of pain are signals carried from the nerves to the brain. These signals are a form of energy, which is why Rey can do that.]

Brendon was about to say something before he took the words dangling by his mouth back and spewed out something unexpected.

“Wait a minute. If that’s the case, your Ingenium can literally grant you invincibility! I mean, if you had completely master every aspect of your Ingenium, which meant that you can cover your entire body with your strips. And if you can do that, this meant that every attack, physically or mentally, magic or not, as long as it has energy, can be either used as a source to power your every single attack or be totally ignored! No matter if you’re falling from space, thrown into a lava or had a hydrogen bomb throw at your face, you would not suffer any form of damage!” Bredon felt excited beyond limits by just thinking the possibilities of this power.

“Ehem.” Rey managed to catch Brendon’s attention and raised one of his eyebrows. “Sorry, I got a little too excited,” He used his forefinger to gently scratch his cheek, “Anyhow, if we spend our following sessions training you to use your Ingenium in the way you just did, I might need to call your martial arts instructor to join us as well or maybe I’ll….”He kept on mumbling to himself while Rey used a spell to remove all his sweat from his entire body. The process was quite fast; one moment all the sweat was still on his body, the next Hinoko saw a ball of stinky water floated in front of the boy. He gestured his familiar to come closer and use her fire breath to evaporate the water. The sudden flame disrupted Brendon’s train of thought and watched as the water ball grew smaller and smaller until there was nothing left.

“Hey, Rey. I have an idea for your Ingenium, wanna hear it?” He asked as the boy summoned his dry shirt from his PDS and wore them. The boy nodded after he’s done changing and Brendon continued, “Maybe you could make your strips function ‘wirelessly’. For example, you make your strips crawl towards Point A, then you cut off the rest of your strips, leaving only a small part of it on Point A. Then, when an item you want to analyse drop onto Point A, you can remotely use the small strip to crawl all over the item and examined it.” He could see Rey’s expression gradually turned from impassive to slightly surprise. What happened next was more surprising to him, because Rey’s next move after hearing his explanation was tipping his head slightly and stroked his chin in deep thoughts.

“Hmm. I never thought of that,” he raised his head and looked into his teacher’s eyes, “Could this really work?”

Brendon smiled confidently and enthusiastically, “Well, that’s the point of this subject! To learn something new about your powers other than improving it! I’ll use my Ingenium in our next session to see if it is possible.”

“Really?” Rey’s eyes glinted with elation. He has been wondering about what his teacher’s Ingenium was. Every time he asked him, Brendon would tell him ‘It’s a secret’ followed by a wink.

“Yep, as long as you can promise you would not disclose this to anyone under any circumstances unless I say okay~ After all, you’re not the only that wants to keep this information to yourself.”

“Can you tell me how it would help me to know whether or not the ‘wireless’ strip idea will work?” “That’s a spoiler buddy. I can’t tell you that! But, I will tell you it has a 100% success rate to figure out how every single element of your Ingenium work. Sounds pretty powerful right? This is why I have to keep the nature of my Ingenium a secret.”

“All right, it’s time for you to go. My ‘nother pupil is coming soon. See you in the next session.” “Goodbye, Brendon.” Hinoko leaped onto her master’s shoulder before Rey sauntered out of the room.

As he was walking by a row of individual food stalls ran by students in one section of the Academy’s cafeteria thinking what he should eat for lunch, he received a call from….Alan? He was getting hungry, and he really don’t want to bother himself by answering the video call. However, considering that it was the first time he himself contacted Rey after Rey had ‘saved’ him, he’ll just have to suppress his annoyance and see what Alan has to say.

“Hello Alan.” “Hello Rey.” His face looked like Rey just owed him one million Crowns. He opened his mouth to continue, but no words came out. Soonafter, he threw his arms into the air, turned his body away from the screen and shouted ‘I can’t do this!’. The screen on the other side remained in the same position, Alan probably ‘pinned’ the screen in the air. Rey went to the nearest table and sat down on the chair beside it. Then, as Aster’s head appeared on screen, Hinoko leaped onto the table.

“Howdy Rey! It seems...my plan failed. *Sigh He still got a long way to go.” Rey tapped a few icons on the table and a menu screen appeared, occupying the entire surface of the table. He decided to just let his familiar do the choosing.

“You two seem to be getting along.” Rey was quite amazed. He was supposed to be the one to correct Alan’s ways. Instead, the Demi did his job for him. That’s probably for the best.

Hinoko had to amble around the table to see the food pictures covered by her body.

“Well, yeah, I guess so. Turns out the both of us have quite a lot in common. It’s not like we hang out everyday though, maybe two or three days per week. You should’ve seen the way he acted when Ada was around; it was as if she drew out a totally different personality from within him. All in all, he’s doing great, except the part where ...” He directed the tips of his fingers at Rey horizontally and sighed.

“Well, I’ll try to work on that. To be honest, I rather spend my free time relieving the stress built up throughout the entire week than talking to an angry man.”

The fox swiped the screen on the table to go through yet another menu full of food.

“Which is why you should be glad that I, I mean Alan, called you,” He swirled to his back and shouted at the person in question, “Alan! Get back here! Get back this instance or Ada will be giving you another--” Like a person on fire, Alan rushed back into Rey’s vision. He sat back down, composed himself, shot the boy with a glance of irritation, and began to speak.

The Kitsune was focusing hard to not let her drool dropped to the table when staring at those delicious food.

“Ehem. Reynard. Today--”

“Damn, Alan. You’re as stiff as a rock. Are you telling me you can’t do any better?” It was on purpose. He had a feeling it might make the older boy to convey his message faster.

As expected, it didn’t take a whole second before the rage inside Alan came bursting out.

“I was going to ask you nicely if you would come with me to the first screening of a recently completed short series animation project,” He raised up his fist and voice, “BUT SINCE YOU’RE ACTING LIKE AN ASSHOLE, I--”

“Alan. That’s so nice of you.” He had to stifle the cringe and the laughter that came together with the sentence.

Alan, now standing there like an idiot with a petrified expression, muttered the three words in shock, “What, the hell?”

Hinoko can’t seem to decided they should eat a lasagna or a katsudon.

“You heard what I said. I really do think, from the bottom my heart, that it is nice of you to invite me. I’ve always interested in animated shows. Would you please indulge me with the details of this event?” There’s elements of truth and false wrapped inside that sentence. It was to enforce the positivity inside Alan, yes, but he was also really interested to go to the screening. He hadn’t had the time to actually sit down and watch an animated show, so him going to the screening was essentially hitting two birds with one stone.

The familiar decided she wants the Katsudon, but hesitated again when she compared the price.

“...uh...okay...” That suspicious look on Alan’s face was priceless, “The animation team, Krai4TheWoRLd, has undertook a request by the Academy’s entertainment channel to create a short animation series that will be broadcast a month later. No details about the series has been revealed, but now they had finished the project, they planned to invite a small group of people to watch it and give them a review. It’s on Sunday, and the screening begins at nine in the morning.”

Finally, the fox made up her mind. She tapped Rey’s hand on the table and used her paws to point at the lasagna picture.

“Wow. That’s cool, but how did you get to invite me? Are you friends with the members of the animation team?” Rey slowly drop his act in a way that it would not rouse any more suspicion from Alan. He quickly gave Hinoko a thumbs up. This meant he approved her choice. The Kitsune gleefully tapped a few other icons and the order for two lasagnas was placed. Since his Circulum was already in contact with the table, it had straightforwardly deducted his Credits.

“HA! As IF! Krai4TheWorld is incredibly famous in the Academy for their tear-jerking masterpiece ‘Lost in Existence’. If I was their friend in any way, I wouldn’t be spending six months with the Skulls. No, it was Ada that told me I could invite you.”

“Must be quite a surprise to find that out, eh?” Alan astonished slightly. He really should already view Rey’s ‘mind-reading ability’ as normal now.

“What about Eli? Can you invite him too?” He kinda wanted to see his roommate’s crying face. If this Krai4TheWorld animation team’s latest project was anything like their best, Eli is definitely going to ride the feel train all the way to feel-topia.

When the food arrived, she jumped to the other chair across the table and turned into her humanoid form. Seeing that her master was still talking, she used one of her unique spells to maintain the heat of the lasagnas.

“Yeah, sure, how about I invite your entire goddamn family too?” Rey raised his eyebrow with his signature grin. Alan rolled his eyes once more.

“Yes, he can come. I think. I need to ask Ada. I’ll let you know later,”

“Oh, thank you Alan, you’re so kind. Please, do accept my heartfelt gratitude.” The words came from from his mouth with the most sarcastic tone.

“Ew, that’s just creepy. Just drop the act already.”

“Of course, my dear friend.”

“Stop it.”

“Fine. Where do we meet then?

”Ring 1, Section 1, Room 11-11. As a side note, remember to bring some snacks, because I’m not planning to share mine with anyone.”

“Oh? I can’t wait to try.” Alan gave him the finger and closed the call. When he looked at Hinoko, he saw her staring intensely at the lasagna; controlling herself not to take a bite before her master did. Rey tapped the table to get his familiar’s attention. He did a ‘Begin Eating’ hand gesture, and immediately Hinoko cancelled the spell before she hungrily consumed her meal.

“Hellooo, Reeeeeeey!!! It’s great to see you again!” Ada forcefully hugged the boy in joy and let him go, “I haven’t had the chance to properly thank you for getting Alan to leave the Skulls, so consider this as a present for doing me a huuge favor!” She paints a ray of sunshine all over her face.

“Ada, you’re making a scene!” Alan whispered to her as he glanced at the other people who also came for the screening.

“Yeah, yeah,” She swirled her body towards the keypad and punched the numbers. The door opened, “Come one, let’s go in.” She beckoned them to follow with her hand.

Alan was directly behind her while the trio was further back. As they also step into the bright room, Aster whispered to Rey, “I bet Alan is so jealous with you right now.” “I wouldn’t doubt that.” The boy replied in a small voice.

The room was quite large. The middle section of the room has been occupied by 5 large rows of sofas, with each of the 10 seats separated by an individual armrest. There was a huge screen at the front and an isolated section at the back which seems to be a staff room. The entire interior of the room was in the colour of a paler human skin and the walls have delicate black patterns drawn on it. The atmosphere in there was very relaxing; Rey could already tell he was going to have a pleasant experience.

“Our seats are all in row 4, from 1 to 6. The 4th seat was taken by someone else, so the three of you have to decide who wants to be separated.” She said that while coiling her arm around Alan’s. Although he looked sort of embarrassed, Rey could tell his heart was beating excitedly.

“The two of us will take the separated seats.” He wrapped his arm round Eli’s shoulder.

“Okay, if that’s the case….” She released her arm from Alan’s, activated her Circulum and sent the correct seat numbers on a verified ticket to the correct person.

“In a few more minutes, two or three members of the Krai4TheWoRLd would come out from that small room and begin checking everyone’s ticket. They prefer to personally check if there are unwanted people here. It would be best if you guys would stick around me when that happen. They’ll ask you how do you know of this screening and how do you get the ticket. So, if you stay by my side, they won’t ask too much questions and we can start watching sooner. That said, there are still some time, so roam around the room if you want, maybe you’ll see a familiar face. I’ll be standing in this exact spot. This way, you guys won’t have to waste your time finding me. Got it?” The trio nodded their heads in unison comically. When Alan tried to leave, Ada grabbed him and stared viciously at him, “You’re not going anywhere. Some of our mutual friends are also present, so you’re coming with me.” He frowned at first, but when he realised the reason why, he became annoyed, “Is this because what happened yesterday? I told you, I didn’t realise I ate your portion!”

“You can save your effort, Alan. I’m not changing my mind.” She then lock his arm with her’s and made a few gestures at a guy with butterfly wings to draw his attention. The trio took this as their cue to leave and went separate ways.

Rey and Eli sauntered over to their seats to see who would be sitting beside them, if they were already on their seats. As they walked a little bit closer, pass the crowd congregate near the entrance, Rey saw someone he did not expect to be here sitting on the seat next to his. He quickened his steps and greeted the person from the end of the row.

“Emery.” The dwarf instinctively reacted to the origin of the voice by turning his head at a slow pace. This time, the toppings of the pizza picture on his shirt wasn’t pepperoni, it’s pineapple and mushroom.

“hello...Rey...” He waved his hand at the speed of a sloth, get up with the speed of a sloth, and ambled towards the grey-haired boy at the speed of a sloth.

“This is my roommate, Elliot. You can call him Eli.” He aimed the tips of all his five fingers at Eli as he said that, “Eli, this is Emery, the tall dwarf I mentioned to you.” He used his other hand to do the same, except the direction this times was aimed at Emery.

“hello...Eli...it’s nice….to meet you….” The dwarf greeted unenergetically.

“Nice to meet you too...Emery.” The shy boy was a bit weirded out by the stranger’s odd speech pattern, but he kinda admire the stranger’s looks.

At his peripheral vision, Rey noticed a few people walking out from the room at the back. He signalled Eli and they both went towards Ada after he told Emery he would ‘see you a moment’.

The group went through the checks in record time. Ada thought Rey’s familiar was going to be a problem, so she tried to persuade the staff to let him keep her in the room. The staff was cool with it, so long she doesn’t make any unnecessary noise. Rey promised she won’t, the staff said they’re good, and then the group made way to row four.

Emery was already there, and so does the person with the seat that separates the group. Seems like it was a female elf, judging by the pointy ear. She tied her hair into a ponytail, had a pair of one-way glasses, and a casual t-shirt along with a pair of short pants. Her aura was familiar to Rey, but he couldn’t quite recognize it.

After everyone has been seated, the head of Krai4TheWoRLd animation team walked to the front and gave a small speech.

“Psst, Eli.” He looked at the girl beside him with a curious expression, wondering why she called him, or even know his name. Rey noticed Eli’s action and also stared at her. She quickly lowered one side of her glasses while smiling, revealing her tightly-shut eyes and winked, then puts up her glasses again.

“Elizabeth--” She puts her finger in front of her mouth before Eli said her name out loud. Eli wanted to ask some more questions, but the head had finished speaking and the lights progressively gets dimmer and dimmer, until the room was in complete darkness.

The first scene that was abruptly shown on a screen was a running tap. Suddenly, a pair of delicate hand appeared. It quickly splashed some water up onto the person’s face once before it close the tap. As the person walked away from the camera and towards the exit, a young woman’s back was shown.

With the camera still aiming at her back, the audience could see her, in her casual clothing, wore a pair of sandals and sauntered out to the road in front of her house. The scene transitioned when she closed the sliding door.

In the third scene, the camera was aiming perpendicularly at a countryside road. The background of the scene was a large green field with relatively short grasses and has absolutely no trees at all.It was the same road shown in the last scene because the young woman just now entered the scene, with one side of her face facing the audience. She was strolling along the road under the sun. However, her eyes focused on the tree at the closer-to-the-screen side of the road for a few seconds before she eventually aimed her head in front of her. When she almost reach ¼ of the road’s length, a leaf dropped from the giant tree and covered the entire screen. When the leaf passed, the background changed drastically.

The sky turned dark; multiple large machines could be seen fighting with each other in the grass field; androids and humanoids fought against each other on the road; and the tree was on fire. When the group of people on the left side of the battle was pushed to the middle of the road, a flaming leaf from the burning tree flew violently to the screen and covered it once more.

This time, the sky was yellow, and the entire countryside were littered with destroyed dead people and destroyed things. Broken massive war machines tumbled onto the ground in the field; some were still mostly intact with smoke coming out while others were shattered into pieces. On the road, an android with only one leg was slowly advancing forward from the middle of the road with the help of a spear. It had to carefully traverse the path as there were many obstacles, and most of them were corpses. The giant tree survive, barely, but still living nonetheless as there were still a few leaves on its branch. One of them came down when the android almost reached the end of the road. The scene changed again.

This time, the sun has yet to rise, and the land was radiating with blue. The field beyond the road was blanketed with green again, a bit too much green even as the grassed had became as tall as a humanoid child. The war machines on the field were also covered in green; there were even avian animals building nests on it. On the road, organic soldiers had long returned to the ground; only the mechanical ones remained, though some of their bodies seemed to be had salvaged by someone else. Near the end of the road was a woman staring at a young boy reluctantly stepping forward. Despite his efforts to annoy the woman by stopping and touching the weapons of the fallen soldiers, the woman still waited patiently. Eventually, he began walking without pause. At this moment, a gust of wind blew over the land, causing the now even gigantic tree’s leaves to leave its branches. When one of the leaves quickly went pass the entire screen, the title finally appeared.

“You and Me”

The O and the E were designed differently than the rest of the letters. The O was a gear with a organic heart(shape) in its core; the E was metallic, but it was covered in green vines. When the title eventually faded away, the two characters on screen had left the road and the scene changed. Rey’s gut told him that this was going to be an emotional ride.

The story was incredibly well-crafted. Even though there weren’t many explanation about what exactly had happened in the past, there were a lot of clues hidden within the opening scene, the environment which the story took place, the interactions between background characters, and ultimately, the conversation between the main characters. The style of the animation was old school: they were hand drawn. Rey had to admit, the style really suits the dynamic of the story. Not only that, the music composed for this project was downright incredible; it could even compete with professionally orchestrated soundtracks.

Although the audience had only finished the first episode, all of them would only use one word to describe this piece of work--’Perfect’.

As they entered into the second episode, the audience could more or less grasped what the story was about.

The story was about a female android protecting an elf boy that has a unique power to heal both mechanical and biological life alike, and that’s about what they know so far. Other than that, the audience could tell the android was very kind to the boy but the boy doesn’t seem to like her, or more accurately, he doesn’t like a chaperone. The first episode chiefly acted as an introduction of the story, so it doesn’t have much to show, yet it was still compelling.

As the episodes goes on, more and more core characters were introduced, whether they were benevolent or malevolent. The central conflict arises, but not each obstacle the protagonists face were related to it, nor was it dangerous. Whenever the boy felt threatened, he would prompt the female android to attack them, even though he had healed many people throughout the previous episodes. Despite the boy’s order, the woman would always try to persuade their enemies or use some other methods to resolve their problems peacefully without using her deadly weapons. In each episode, there will always be someone questioning philosophical question; sometimes the protagonist would use the answer to repel their enemies while others was left for the audience to guess.

One of the best part of this series was that after each episode, when the end credits came, there would be random pictures in the background showing what had happened in the past; not only that, there would always be a song accompanying the credits. The songs were short, tranquilizing, and most importantly, absolutely beautiful. The lyrics would often based on what had happened in the episode through metaphors and foreshadows what might come next. The pictures were a great help in explaining the story’s lore and a few character’s past.

When the Sun was at directly above the sky, they took a break and went for lunch. Before they left, however, the staff place a spell on everyone there. This spell would prevent anyone from talking about anything related to the series until the series have been broadcasted. Whoever have the spell on them would be able to talk about it with each other, but, if the spell detected someone was eavesdropping on their conversation about the series, their voices won’t come out until they spoke of something else. Of course, even if they use other methods to talk about it, they won’t succeed. Also, the staff told them they would start the next episode within half an hour.

Alan wanted to escape and have lunch by himself, but was inevitably dragged away by Ada to try some ‘exotic food’. Eli wanted the three of them, plus Elizabeth, to savor their lunch together. Sadly, Rey had other plans.

“I need to talk about something with Emery and Aster. You should go ahead with Elizabeth; I’m sure she’ll appreciate your company.” Rey used a telepathy spell while they were exiting the room.

“What! Why? I want the four of us to eat together…. We probably won’t have the chance like this anytime soon!”

“I’m sorry Eli, but this is important. I can’t let you know what this is about yet, but I’ll tell you when the time comes.” He then immediately cut off the telepathic bridge with Eli and connected his mind to the two non-humans.

Eli’s disappointment was clearly written on his face. He wanted this so much. Obviously, he respected Rey’s wishes and make his heart promised himself not to complain about it; after all, this is the first time Rey ever requested him to stay away and it must be pretty important if he said it was important. At least he still have Elizabeth.

When Eli was about to exit the room, he felt a large and smooth hand holding on to his from his right side. It was Elizabeth, of course. She saw his disappointment and the lack of Rey’s presence beside him. She gestured him to stay silent. As soon as she pulled him out of the room, she transported them to a presetted location.

It was a lightly decorated cafe on highest level in the mall section. It was incredibly small when compared to what normal people would expect. There were only two tables for four inside the shop itself and a bar, but there were many more across the lane where people walk on. She let goes of his hand and cheerfully greeted the shopkeeper.

“Afternoon, Jen.” She casually sat on the seat at the end of the bar, beside the entryway connecting the front and the back of the bar. She prompted Eli to sit beside her.

“Oh. Hey, Liz. What brings here you today?” Huh, Eli thought, so this is why Elizabeth came here. The shopkeeper knows her. He looked at the shopkeeper behind a bar. The shopkeeper, Jen, really gripped the boy’s attention. She was a mermaid, and she wasn’t using a seal ring. Her scaly lower body was submerged in water levitating in midair; not only that, the water was perfectly holding her up with the exact shape of her tail; the water was, at best, only a few centimeter thick. She was beautiful, and the way she tied the end of her t-shirt into a knot in front of her navel made her even more so. Eli was a little embarrassed as he could easily see the entirety of her tail if he move a bit more over the bar.

“I would tell you, but it’s a secret.” She swiftly chose her meal by tapping the holographic icons on the wooden surface. The door beside the rather large shelf of...stuff Eli don’t exactly know directly behind Jen began to have noises coming out from it. In the meantime, the shopkeeper turned towards the table with full of brewing equipment below the shelf (which the two was connected) and started making coffee.

Eli wasn’t sure what he wanted to eat, so he just randomly picked something he wouldn’t mind shoving into his mouth.

“C’mon, are you telling me your entire life is full of secrets?” She mocked. Eli was still embarrassed to see her tail naked even though it’s completely normal.

“No, no. It’s not related to work. I was invited to a screening, and I’m not suppose to say anything related to it until it’s broadcasted in the Entertainment Channel.” The shopkeeper was fast; she had already finished brewing a cup of coffee and served it to Elizabeth.

“I see. Was it good? Maybe I’ll consider watching it when it comes out.” Elizabeth took a sip from the cup.

“Well, I guess it wasn’t bad. My opinions shouldn’t influence your decisions, you know?” Then, another sip.

“Whatever you say, Ms. Vice President,” Elizabeth chuckled. Her ordered food was completed and levitated from the kitchen and landed right in front of her.

“What’s your name, boy?” She startled him a little. He turned his head a little and glanced at Elizabeth, hoping she would say something. Even with the acting classes, he’s still terrible at talking with strangers.

“There’s no need to look at Liz, boy.” This made him even nervous.

“Go softer on him, Jen. He’s really shy.” She then looked at him, “It’s okay, Eli. She won’t bite. At least she hasn’t for a long time.” She chuckled and continued eating.

“Ha ha, funny,” The words were uttered in a cold tone. She shifted it back to her normal tone as she talked to Eli again, “So, your name’s Eli, huh? That’s a good name; it suits you perfectly.” Eli, as the easily flattered boy that he is, blushed slightly at the compliment.

“You’re one of the boys that got chosen by Liz to go to the Wunderkind Banquet, right?” He nodded, “I think I can understand why...” She said it with a mocking tone as she stared…sexually at Eli with a charming smile while laying her arms on the bar.

Elizabeth instantly gulped down the food in her mouth and retorted, “Jen, don’t. I didn’t chose him for whatever dirty reason you seem to be implying.”

“Relax, Liz. I’m just joking.” She removed herself from the bar, straighten up her back, and smiled playfully at her friend. At the same time, Eli’s food has arrived. He quickly began eating so he wouldn’t have to face any more of the mermaid’s teases.

Jen kept on talking with Elizabeth even though she couldn’t say a word because she was eating. The shopkeeper told her about what recent events had happened in her life and a few peculiar stories she picked up while working.

When Elizabeth finished her meal but Eli hasn’t, Jen asked her about Rey. Eli perked up his ears and focused on every one of her words.

“You really need to tell me about the other boy that you chose to bring to the Banquet. Damn Arthur came here some time ago and can’t stop talking about his new found ‘gem’. I asked him to tell me the boy’s name but he won’t say anything because ‘it’s classified’” Her attempt to mimic Arthur’s way of speech made Elizabeth giggled.

“I’ll tell you why Art has been obsessed with Reynard--he was pretty much exactly like a younger version of ‘The Great President of The Analytical Mind’.” This time, Elizabeth’s imitation of Arthur made Jen burst out laughing; it even made Eli almost choke on his food. The imitation was purposely made terrible.

“That’s a good one, Liz. Now that I know his name, I can force Art to tell me about this ‘Reynard’ kid. But, before he tell me what he thinks of the kid,” The mermaid lean her body at the bar, “I want to hear what you think of him.” Eli slowed down his chewing speed and place his entire attention on Elizabeth.

“Well…I think he has a lot of potential. He might one day even surpass Arthur.” The mermaid frowned.

“No, no. That’s not I want to know. I want to know what you think of him. What impression did he gave you; what kind of person do you think he is. Don’t answer from your head; answer from your heart.”

“Why do you want to know about him so much?” She gave Jen a confused smile. This wasn’t like her.

“Because Arthur hasn’t been that excited when talking about someone since he met his Vice. And also, I have a gut feeling that tells me you find the boy to be more than just interesting. I might not have your eyes, but I’m sure this kid is special.”

“......I don’t think I can give you a clear answer, Jen. True, I do find him more than just interesting. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to spend with him,” Her slow but sudden twist of her neck towards Eli caused him to astonish and quickly resumed eating. She gently touched his head for a few seconds, “And his friend. I am the Vice President of the Student Council after all.” She looked back at Jen and waited for her reply.

“I would try to convince you again to take more time off, but I don’t think you’re willing to lose to Damien,” She sighed and straighten her back again, “Well, if you have the chance to spend more time with the kid, you better take it. I’ll await your answer.”

Eli finally finished his meal and the two went back to the screening room after saying goodbye to the mermaid shopkeeper.

“Why wasn’t Rey with you?” They stepped through the door as she asked.

“He said he needed to talk to our senior guide and one of his...friends. He mentioned it was important.” There were back early, seeing that there were only 3 to 4 people already back in the room.

“I see. I understand your sadness. But, at least you can talk to me. Not many people have the chance to do that; they have to line up to even meet me.” Eli chuckled a bit.

They spent the rest of the time waiting for the others to come back talking to each other. Eli did the most talking whilst Elizabeth just listened. Sometimes she would voice her opinion, but she remained silent other than that.

Eventually, all of them came back and the screening continued without any delays. Rey didn’t say anything when he returned to his seat, though Eli could see there was a subtle satisfaction on his face.

The screening continued. As the story progresses, more and more of the two protagonists background surfaced. The female android might have acted kindly and loving towards the boy, but she had a hard time actually feeling emotions. As for the boy, some of his loved ones threw him away while others were taken, this explained why he refused to open up his delicate heart to the android; he was afraid he might have to go through the pain again.

However, just when things were getting good between the two protagonists, one of their close friends were killed rather brutally. Their enemy has found their base and they were forced to leave. A feeling of desperation and sadness loomed over the survivors of the attack. Rey felt a strange aura emitting inside the room from this point onward. The aura was changing accordingly to the tone of the scenes. Maybe Rey was thinking too much, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone else, someone uninvited to this screening, was also with them.

Due to the orders given to the android, she wanted to take the boy far away from their goal to guarantee his safety, but he refused. Despite his fear of death, he wanted to stay and help. A small fire of anger ignited within the android’s metal heart. She thought it’s because she couldn’t complete her mission, but it was more than that. It was more than that.

Then, as the story advanced slowly towards the end, more emotional interaction between the boy and the android appeared. Some were violent, but most enhances their relationship. The voice actors delivered the lines as if they were their characters, adding a whole ‘nother level of realism to the story itself.

Nearing the end of the story, they finally found a weakness in the enemy’s base that would end the meaningless war they have been fighting for centuries. That was the moment where the leader of the organization fighting against the enemy revealed that she took in the boy and assigned him to the android was because he has the ability to achieve their goals.

The side characters refused to believe that it was the only way, including the android, but the boy has set his heart a long time ago; if his death could spared anyone else from suffering, then it would be enough. Of course, the boy doesn’t really want to die; he wanted to live a life without war, a life with the android peacefully. This was where the twist started.

Usually, in this scenario, the boy would either blindly go sacrifice himself or someone else would sneak out and finish the job without the protagonist’s agreement. But none of that happened. The boy knew this is a war, and both sides would always claim that they are right, so he decided to formulate a plan that would minimize the casualties, even if they were enemies.

Since the boy had been using his powers to heal both enemies and allies, he had gained many followers that wanted the same thing as he did. Without the leader of both factions noticing, the boy executed his plan.

Before they move out, the boy wanted the android to make a promise with him. He wanted her to also swear the both of them would come back alive and live a life they deserve. It was a powerful scene; not merely because the two protagonists has overcome their obstacle to love each other, but because the audience know for sure one of them would not return. Rey’s heart trembled a bit when the boy and the android made their promise.

The infiltration sequence of the the base was amazing. There weren’t any ridiculous moments like people successfully dodge an entire firefight; in fact, a lot of them died, some were even significant side characters, in a sort of anticlimactic way. The sequence felt incredibly realistic and heart-gripping.

However, when what’s remained of his group reached their destination, he found out the truth. The war was setup. There were never a real reason for all the factions including the two main ones to fight, or rather, the reason for them to fight was no longer relevant; it hasn’t been relevant for centuries. They simply fought because it was become the way of life on this part of the planet. They didn’t know what else they could do if they don’t fight.

The boy was furious. So many innocent lives lost; so many tragedies took place just because no one knew how to stop.

When the boy eventually broken down and had no idea what to do next, the android took his place. Even though ending the war means she might not be able to stay with him any longer, she wanted him to be happy. She searched through the database and found the ‘Core’; by destroying this ‘Core’, no one would have the ability to extend this war any longer.

At the height of the finale, the two of them teleported to the ‘Core’ at the planet’s moon. The structure of the ‘Core’ was small, hence they were able to find the main control panel and attempted to shut the machine down. Unfortunately, the boy couldn’t do anything to terminate the ‘Core’; his powers were to heal, and his knowledge for machines was useless before the technologically superior ‘Core’.

Then, it was revealed that the prototype for the leaders of both main faction were kept in the ‘Core’ to serve as security. They awoke and began attacking the protagonists. They had no time nor resources to defeat the ‘Core’. This is when the tear-jerking part comes.

The android managed to stun the prototypes and took the boy to the escape pod. Before the boy could even protest, the android threw him into the pod and slumped down against the pod’s exterior door as she activated her self-destruct switch. It would be enough to destroy the ‘Core’ once and for all.

During the short time period before the boy’s pod return to his planet, he had his last conversation with his guardian. Unlike what the audience had expected, which was the boy shouting and crying, begging her not to do this, the both of them talked about their time together in a calming but extraordinary melancholic way.

Both of them had their tears flowing like a river.

Both of them told each other about their embarrassing times.

Both of them mentioned their promise to each other.

Both of them spoke of what would await them if they had the chance to escape this place together.

Both of them, at the last second, bid their final farewell to each other.

They closed their eyes, and welcomed what would come next.

The next sequence had no other sound but a sorrowful and touching music.

The android exploded, taking down the ‘Core’ with her.

The boy’s pod safely returned to the surface and declared the war is finally over.

The leaders of the factions that wish to continue the war has lost their source of power to carry on the will of a long gone past.

The era of peace had finally arrived.

The final sequence, accompanied with an innocent music box soundtrack, showed the state of the world after the war had ended.

The cities had began rebuilding; people from different sides of the war were finally able to coexist with each other; characters which bear some amount of significance moved on with their lives and fulfilling their dreams.

Eventually, the back of a grown up version of the boy were shown standing in front of the statue of the android he loved under the familiar big tree.

Then, out of nowhere, a few kids of different races ran towards him and complained to him childishly that he stared at the statue for too long again. He patiently calm the children down and walked back to the house with them. He stopped after a few steps, turned his head back at the statue one last time before heading back while revealing his matured face.

The protagonist slowly brought out his camera and snapped a picture of the backs of his children. The scene then transitioned into other bunch of pictures scattered on what seem to be a table. The end credits rolled and a song sang by all the major characters were played.

The series ended by showing a picture frame with the young boy and the female android on the table accompanied by the last verse sang by the both of them.

Needless to say, the final episode almost had all of the audience crying. Almost.

Rey’s tears almost fell when the boy on the screen said “But I couldn’t keep our promise.” That line felt so close to his heart. It reminded so much about the past he wished he could change. This was exactly why he hold back his tears; he feared that if he gave into the sadness, he would go back to the time where he was weak.

That said, the aura in the room had increase in intensity so much so that even Emery had began noticing something was amiss. It wasn’t unpleasant; as a matter of fact, it enhances the feeling of the audience after watching the ending, but they could feel it coming from somewhere, or someone else.

As the staff walked out to the front, that aura suddenly vanished. Rey noticed Elizabeth was also trying to find the source of that aura, but since it has disappeared and the leader of Krai4TheWoRLd began speaking, she temporarily ignored what had happened.

Halfway through the leader’s speech, a blinding white light enveloped the room.