Chapter Text
This is getting ridiculous.
Yuuka is regretting her choice of helping him sourcing the raw materials.
She expected something more procedural, more rigorous, more... scientific.
The Trio don't seem to mind, however. They're in for the fun, and they lose nothing even if the experiment fails.
It's not that Yuuka is against attempting occult ritual and stuff like that, but getting his paychecks involved?
Her treasurer mind cannot stand the idea of spending money on intangible matters such as this.
Sensei pokes a hole on the tip of his left index finger, letting a drop of blood to well up.
The blood drops into the carved slate, and immediately, it captures everyone's attention.
The red drop spreads into the channel within an instant despite its little-to-no volume, coating the sigil in a dark red hue.
"!..." The first reaction of the audience is from Hibiki, in a form of a gasp.
Her canine instinct is screaming; she's desperate to hold back the urge to yell at the adult to stop what he's doing.
"Hibiki?" "Are you alright?" Her clubmate notices her strange behavior.
The dog girl bites out in nervousness. "Something is happening! Watch!" Gray-blue eyes are glaring into the testing field.
The Web of Wyrd on the slate is glowing in a sapphire-blue light.
The thaumatologist shuts his eyes and reaches out his right hand; pointing at the silver ingot.
The glow of the sigil is now shifting between what can be assumed to be letters.
"The fuck!?" "......" "Wha-!?" The Trio utters in astonishment.
And Yuuka feels like she need some bleach to wash her eyes to make sure she's seeing this for real.
She knows those are runes; her roommate and colleague mentioned it offhand once.
She didn't pay much attention to it though. To her, it's nothing more than just fairytales and mythologies.
"What... is this!?" She now knows she's dead wrong.
The adult's right palm slowly raises up, as if a gesture for someone to get up from their seat.
Or something.
A dozen hair-thin threads of silver pokes out from the top of the ingot, varying in length.
The blue glow of the sigil is now shifting between runes in an otherworldly rapid pace.
The audience is dead silent; no words and verbal noises will suffice to depict their sheer shock.
Yuuka gulps; something in her brain is crumbling away, a message comes to her mind.
You may not perceive me the same as who I was.
The ritual continues; the silver threads are dancing elegantly above his palm, the sigil now stops at the rune "ᛟ".
He punches out his right hand with an open palm, like he's shoving something with great force.
The silver threads dart towards their target as he does so; first the tomahawk, then the gun parts, as if they have wills of their own.
They find their spots respectively, then reshape and reside, into a flat mark of "ᛟ".
He remained the same posture for another full minute before lowering his hand. The slate is not glowing anymore.
After ten seconds of dead silence, the thaumatologist finally speaks up.
"You may have to check the structural integrity of this testing field after this. And also,"
"Congratulation, you just witnessed a thaumatology practice."
Sensei looks back into the jaw-dropped girls in an accomplished smile.
With his crisp silver eyes glowing almost white.
THUMP!
The thaumatology was a success; Sensei managed to apply certain properties onto the tomahawk and the gun components.
And what soon follows, of course, is the testing phase.
THUMP!
The audience have entered the testing field to take a closer look, now that the scary part is over.
The silver-eyed host is now chopping the bars of material his treasurer gathered for him.
THUMP!
Wood, aluminum, and now a brass bar. Nothing stands a change against the magical steel.
"Seems good so far." The adult addresses the paranormal phenomenon right before him like it's a game.
The head engineer prods curiously. "So, what did you do to it exactly?" She doesn't seem bothered by what's happening, either.
Or maybe the engineer spirit in her is taking over and ignoring all the madness in sight, who knows.
"In short, it unifies the physical properties of any object the blade touches to a certain standard. So cutting anything is just as easy as cutting clay."
The axe-wielder goes on, "But in other words, anything that is easier to cut than clay is now as hard as one."
Hibiki lets out. "That's-"
"-Lunatic! Surreal! Sensei, explain further-!" Kotori demands, jumping up and down.
"Well, there's not much else I can explain. It's thaumatology, it's meant to be surreal and do the impossibles."
Sensei replies as he split the 12mm iron bar with another THUMP!
"Okay, you know what. Imma jump straight to the last one. Galvanized square steel can live for another day."
He busts out the front armor of Rai-chan and lay it on the desk. The purple girl perks up.
Utaha follows mischievously. "Placing bets?" She has absolute confident for her masterpiece.
"No hard feelings, big girl. But my thaumatology versus your science," He raises his tomahawk like a guillotine.
And THUMP!
"Thaumatology wins." He looks at the halved composite armor plate victoriously.
"Looks like I still got room for improvement." The Maestro sighs with a defeated smile.
"Sensei! Can you do this to our cutting machines, too?" Hibiki asks the million-dollar question, literally.
"Is there a way to mass-produce this, Sensei!?" Kotori is firing up her business mode.
Sensei raises up his hands in defense. "Wowowow, slow down, genius. Both answers are no."
He adds. "Our- My core principle is to not abuse thaumatology. And practicing it large-scale has severe consequences."
""Aw."" Hibiki's wagging tail drapes down. Kotori goes ˊO ^Qˋ.
Something dawns on the sidelining Yuuka. "What about the gun parts? You only... magic-fied a part, not the whole gun?"
"Once together, always together, Yuuka. The rule one of magic: the part affects the whole." Sensei winks back.
Yuuka has no idea what that means, all she knows is the wink is doing something magical to her.
Once together, always together. Does that mean-
The Treasurer shakes away those thoughts physically, she's not some lovestruck fool. Probably.
"And I didn't bring all the guns here, so we're only gonna test the AR." His voice brings her back to present.
"Oh!... Uhm, okay then." Yuuka instinctively reacted.
The purple girl perks up again. "What did you do to the parts then? Surely not the same as the tomahawk?"
Sensei explains. "I make them enhance the structural strength and integrity of the bullet they chamber in, thus increase their penetrative power."
"The drawback is that the sigil wears over use; about the same as the according barrel life of the gun."
Utaha raises her eyebrow again. "Practical."
"And effective, as I used it before I got to Kivotos. That's why I'm familiar with it enough to do it on multiple parts at a time."
The adult opens a weapon case, revealing his signature custom build AR which lacks a charging handle.
"Quite a beauty." "Oooh~" Hibiki and Kotori appreciates the weapon of war in awe for the first time.
He picks up his worn, dark-gray rifle, pulls a takedown pin and put the enchanted charging handle back where it was.
"The moment of truth." He loads the gun, and takes aim with trained dexterity on one of the three decommissioned automata down the 25-yard line.
BANG!
The white, unarmored robot's torso is punched straight through by the 5.56 steel-core round, which then pokes a hole on the concrete wall behind.
He moves on to the next robot. This one has an armor plate from AMAS strapped on its chest.
BANG!
Similar scenario happens; the robot is smoked right passed, the exit hole of the torso, however, is significantly larger.
It indicates that although the bullet made it through, it was tumbling and falling apart on the way out.
"Regular 5.56 steel-core rounds would only dent the armor." Yuuka utters under her breath.
The adult-shaped shooter replied. "So it's working." And goes for the last robot.
Which has a piece of Rai-chan's armor on its center mass.
"C'mon now." Its owner prays in whisper.
BANG!
The last target robot jerks violently; there's a shallow 22-caliber-sized smudge at the center. It survived the round with ease.
"""YEEES!""" The Trio celebrates together, science is evening out the scores.
"One for Rai-chan, baby!" "In the end, science prevails...!" "Hmm-hmm~ Allow me to explain the property of the composite armor-"
The Maestros are having a blast, taking a win from the otherworldly force of magic right out of its hands.
"Since when this is a competition...?" Sensei unloads the rifle by the side, letting them have their fun.
Nonetheless, to think that Rai-chan can even survive a 20mm anti-tank rifle round, this isn't much of a surprise.
He rests his AR back into its case and concludes. "I guess that's enough of jaw-dropping for you today."
"Let's clean the field and call it a day. Alright?"
Yuuka has been a person of science.
Science is, and has always been the center drive of her head noodles, the pillar of what makes her who she is.
Today, that has been challenged, and it shakes her down to her very core.
By the person who she looks up the admires the most, no less.
Sure, she has seen, or even been in some insane situations; such as the Eridu her supervisor built, the Utnapishtim and the Ark of Atrahasis.
They were insane, yes, but at the very least they made sense, and they at the end of the day, can be explained by science.
But this time? THIS?
Yuuka sighs again on the way back to the Seminar office.
Sensei comforts her while massaging her left shoulder. "You've seen a lot today. Take your time to digest."
"What am I supposed to do with you..." She glances at the thaumatologist. "You're not gonna put a curse on me or something, right...?"
"No." He grins cheekily. "I can summon a ghost to haunt you though."
If they can hear me in Kivotos, that is. He muses. It's too risky to try, however.
"Wha- NO!" The blue-haired girl flusters. "That's just a joke... Right?"
She doesn't want to check under her bed every night or having additional weights on her shoulders, no thanks.
The man-child presses on with a grin. "No? Ooooh~ The bankruptcies~ ooooooooh~"
"Oh you...!" Yuuka retaliates with side shin kicks. Of course, he's too nice do that to his students even if he can, but still.
"Agh!? A-ha-ha! I'm sorry-" Sensei begins his little tango to dodge incoming strikes.
The Treasurer gives up halfway through his shenanigan; she's way too emotionally burnt out to be remotely mad.
"You know," He calls to the gloomy girl. "The key of thaumatology, is willpower, creativity, and most importantly, perspective."
"It took me months to readjust my view towards the world around me when I first learned that I'm capable of such thing."
"I gained some; and in the meantime, lost some as well." His silver eyes flicker, Yuuka is convinced she sees that.
"But, I made peace with the new me, knowing that with this power I can help others, while taking on the scumbags who exploits it."
"It is a power of meddling with the fabric of our reality, after all. And in case you don't know, there're consequences to do so."
"So I promise you, Yuuka. I have never, and will never abuse thaumatology."
Sensei gently pats her cyan-haired head. "Is that okay with you?"
Yuuka is in the midst of processing all the information; the pat is striking her mind into a blue screen of death.
The sudden confession (of his ability), and the key question (about magic) is overheating her CPU.
The gears are battling themselves to turn. "Y-Yes." This is best she can do.
"Awesome." He finishes off with a caress to her cheek, which is barely too hot to touch.
A promise is a promise. Her searing hot brain thinks to herself.
She originally has another question to ask, but it got caught in the internal fire and burned away.
Yuuka casts the ember aside to the dark corner of her mind with a smile. Doesn't matter anymore.
After all, it doesn't take magic for her life with him to be magical anyway.