Her words cut through my drunken haze, and I blink, trying to make sense of what she's saying. The device? Synchronize? What—
I pull away from her, shaking my head violently.
"N-No!"
"No more devices! No more... experiments!"
I struggle to get off her.
Haruka giggles. She doesn't resist, letting me pull myself away from her, though I stumble a bit as I try to stand.
"Ara, Horikita, what happened to your 'enthusiastic data collection'?" Haruka teases, pushing herself up from the floor with a graceful ease that I envy.
I glare at her.
"That was… that was your fault!" I accuse, pointing my left finger at her.
"You… you tricked me! You made me… I… I was drunk!"
"And now you're sober, and still utterly adorable," Haruka replies.
"But a deal's a deal, ace. You agreed to help me with my test. And the first step is the device."
Haruka walks back towards the bar counter.
"Muhitso, the device please," Haruka says with a confident smile.
Muhitso stops wiping the counter and places the cloth down.
"Oh, that device box you left here."
Muhitso takes out a small black case from under the counter and places it on the counter.
"Here you go, Haruka." Muhitso says.
Haruka takes the case, opens it, and pulls out the device.
"This is it," Haruka announces, holding the device up.
"The Forma Core Prototype. My newest invention. And you, Horikita, are going to be its first field test subject."
I stare at the device, then back at Haruka's expectant face.
"...What is it?" I ask.
Haruka walks towards me, and extends her left hand.
"Place this on your wrist."
I stare at the device in her hand.
It's a weird white brace.
It looks like something Kotori would wear.
I slowly take the device from her and examine it.
"This is… a weapon?" I ask, my voice tight with suspicion.
"Hardly," Haruka scoffs.
"It's a utility tool. A fabrication device. It creates things, it doesn't destroy them."
"Creates what?"
Haruka's eyes sparkle with excitement.
"Try it! You'll see!"
I hesitate for a moment, then slowly, carefully, I swing the white brace open and snap it shut around the underside of my left wrist.
"It feels… strange," I say, flexing my wrist.
"That's the initial connection. Now, try to… focus,"
"Channel that new energy you've got. The Divine Ki. Direct it into the device."
New energy? How does Haruka know about that?
"What new energy?" I ask, my eyes narrowing.
"How do you know about that?"
"Ah—that."
"Kotori injected her Divine Ki into your system to combat the corruption," Haruka explains, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"It seems to have awakened some latent abilities in you, including a direct connection to a source of pure Divine Ki. A very interesting development."
Kotori injected Divine Ki into me? And that's what created this… this mark? And awakened what?
Wait...
"Combat the corruption?"
Haruka nods.
"Correct. For some unknown reason, Divine Ki seems to possess unique properties that allow it to purge corruption from a living host."
I stare at her, dumbfounded. Divine Ki? Purge corruption? This is… incredible. A cure? For corruption? This changes everything.
"Now, focus, Horikita," Haruka urges, interrupting my thoughts.
"Channel it. The Divine Ki. Feel it flowing through you, into the device. Don't think, just… flow."
...Channel it.
I close my eyes, attempting to shut out the lingering effects of the alcohol and the overwhelming presence of Haruka.
Flow…
I try to remember the feeling from the void. The warmth. The purity. The gentle, insistent pull.
There it is: warm, calm, certain. A light beneath my ribs, far from the rage that burns in me.
It feels… alien, yet benevolent. I take a breath, not of air, but of that inner light. I pull it from my core, guiding it down my arm, through my veins, towards my left wrist where the device rests.
It responds instantly.
*Tschk*
Something shoots from the device on my wrist, passing 'just' by the side of Haruka's head and splaying across the wall behind her.
Haruka blinks once.
"A-Ace!"
"You… you just created a line of pure Divine Ki!"
An azure line of light is stretched from my wrist to the wall.
"I-I did?"
Haruka reaches her left hand out, tracing the glowing line with a look of utter awe.
"Unbelievable," Haruka mutters, more to herself than to me.
"The Forma Core… it's projecting pure Divine Ki! This is… this is beyond my wildest projections!"
I stare at the glowing line, then at Haruka's face, trying to connect the two.
"Pure Divine Ki? What's that?"
Instead of answering, Haruka just looks… genuinely stunned.
"This… this changes everything."
"My initial data models for the Forma Core were based on inert Forma Fluid. I designed it to extrude a solid filament of energized matter. But this… this is direct energy projection! The Forma Fluid isn't just a medium; it's a conduit! It's amplifying the Divine Ki itself!"
There's a feverish precision in Haruka's stare.
"Horikita, you've just unlocked a new era of possibilities!"
"We need more data. Immediately. Try it again! Can you form shapes? Can you control the thickness? The intensity?"
Pure Divine Ki. A cure for corruption. And now… this device. It's too much.
"I… I don't know."
"I just… felt it. It just… came out."
Haruka's enthusiasm is infectious.
"Then feel it again! Focus on the emotion. The intent. What do you *want* to create?" She walks toward me.
"Try to create something," Haruka urges, her eyes burning with an almost mad intensity.
"Anything! Don't overthink it, Horikita. Just… feel. And let the Divine Ki flow."
...
Haruka won't shut up about shapes, intensity, and a million other things I don't understand.
All I did was... feel. And this happened.
"S-Shut up!" I yell, shaking my head to silence the noise of her words.
"You're talking too fast! I don't understand any of it!"
"Ah. Cognitive overload. My apologies, ace. I accelerated the data stream too quickly."
Haruka takes a small step back and lifts her top, exposing more of the soft undercurve of her breasts.
"Is that better?" Haruka asks.
I stare. Blankly. Is it better? Is this supposed to be better? My mouth opens, but no sound comes out. All logical thought has been replaced by a single, overwhelming need to touch.
All the noise in my head—the questions, the embarrassment, the logic—it just stops. Vanishes. There's only one thing left.
Soft.