"Can you please tell me what I—"
Aaron was cut off by a displeased grunt from Akari, both challengers having returned to the cafe.
It had been only five minutes since she had stormed out, and deciding that the boy's punishment had been served, she had returned to see him face down on the table.
"Nope. Get on with it."
Her voice was cold and laced with boredom, her fingers twiddling away at the glass she held between them.
Around the cafe, small groups of people kept shooting the two odd gazes as if they were interested in their conversation.
The blond-haired boy normally would've suspected that they had seen either his or Akari's face in the newspaper; however, here, where he had been embarrassed twice, it was more likely to be a fan club for his failures.
Groaning aloud, he placed his hands in front of him, palms out, speaking with haste.
"You saw the brackets that released, right?"
She nodded at his comment, her eyes narrowing slightly as she paid closer attention to the conversation.
Aaron took a short breath, then continued with his point.
"Since I was in first place, I received a bye in round one, keeping the other two beginning matches relatively simple. Raphael versus Ezra and you versus Alaric."
Taking a sip of the cold drink beside him, he watched as the girl's cheek twitched in annoyance, her voice coming out after.
"If Raphael is that much of an ass as the second son, then the true heir must be insufferable."
Chuckling quietly at her reply, the turquoise-eyed boy spoke again.
"Yep…"
Wiping his lips, he followed up on his previous statement.
"Anyway. Whoever wins the Ezra and Raphael match will be whom I'm against in the semi-finals. Therefore, if I win against one of them, then as long as you beat out Alaric, we'll battle in the final."
There was a flash of greed within Akari's eyes as the prospect of the final; however, only a moment later, her expression transformed again.
Digging through the bag she had been carrying with her, she groaned and spoke up, directing her words towards the ground instead of the boy.
"Dammit. I completely forgot to give you what Ms. Buckley ordered me to hand out."
Grabbing whatever rested in her bag, Aaron watched as she pulled it out, throwing it at him before he could react.
For an instant, it floated above the table, and all he could do was reach out, attempting to pluck it straight from the air.
"Got it!"
Beaming at his improved catching ability, he looked down, his grin fading as he realized what he was holding.
"Oh sh–"
He did not finish that sentence, nor would he, as in the few seconds that followed his last words, he realized with absolute certainty that what he held was the core of a mid-level terror.
Before he could collapse, he activated every ability he had at his disposal, forcing all previously stored mana out of his body at once.
If he had not purged the old mana, the mystical properties of the Ghostship would've taken it upon themselves to do the honors.
When this had happened previously with mid-level terrors, he passed out for an unknown period of time.
Yet when it was a public space, he could not afford to be so careless.
Therefore, as his vision exploded into colorful streams, his appearance shifted ever-so-slightly, and the weather forecast became apparent; he barely remained conscious.
Across the table from him, however, the pink-haired girl could tell that something was visibly occurring deep within his body.
Due to the activation of the dozens of barriers he had in place to ward against the Sea Kings' presence, she noted his aura dim, his appearance hazy, and his eyes clouded.
In a flash so quick that no normal human could see, a turquoise mist consumed him, and his form vanished from sight, only to appear again right away.
Now, all that remained in the cafe chair was one Aaron Grimstall, without a core in his hand, and extremely sweaty.
"W-what was that…?"
Akari's concern oozed into her tone as she watched the boy clasp the table, breathing heavily while his veins shifted grotesquely under his skin.
He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out, only the mixture of creaking bones and ripping flesh.
Widening her eyes in confusion, the girl watched as his mainly blond hair turned slightly more turquoise, another bluish strand gleaming behind his ear, reflecting the sunlight coming in from outside.
Inside his own head, flashes of reality blended with that of mana, his previously activated abilities backfiring all at once.
D-deactivate already!
Slamming his fist into the side of his skull, he felt the rampaging mana settle down, the visions vanishing, and his core returning to normal as his internal structure stabilized.
Breathing hard, he snapped his fingers, removing the fake forms he had layered one on top of another, making his ability fluctuate and his 'face' twitch horrifyingly.
"A-Aaron?"
Looking up, he noticed a pale-faced Akari reaching out to touch his spasming face with her pink nails.
"Agh. Don't touch me right now! Mana backlash is coming in three…"
There was a pause as he gritted his teeth, an explosion of pain coursing through his body for five seconds, then leaving in a flash.
His eyes drooped, and his mind was foggy; however, after that brief period of suffering, he could feel the new power surging beneath his reconstructed flesh.
I-isn't this too much? I thought she was going to get an artifact, not a core!
Focusing hard and siphoning out the voices around him, he set the activation protocol to when he bit his cheek hard.
Shaking his head, he decided to test out this new ability on the only person he knew wouldn't lie to him.
"Akari. Can you sense this?"
Activating the core, he felt a rush of mana wash over his body, burying him beneath what felt like the sea, and forming a small, tranquil space with him as the center.
He could still see and interact with his environment easily, yet it was as if a murky haze had been placed over everything.
"Huh? I-I can't sense anything coming from you at all…"
Without a second thought, she reached out her hand and placed it on his chest, making him pause for a moment, his mouth falling open.
"Y-Your heartbeat! I can't… I can't feel it at all!"
Hearing her words enter the quiet mindscape he had induced, he bit his cheek once again, ending the test.
Delaying his reply, he reached down, gently placing his own hand on top of hers and moving it away.
Cam had told me she had a spare one of these in her office, but I didn't think it would be this good…
Grinning, he made eye contact with the girl, addressing her quietly, outside the earshot of the normal customers.
"It's called 'Absolute Tranquility.' It stems from the core of an incredibly rare type of sea terror called the Deep-Sea Reaper. When it's used, my entire presence is erased down to the last drop of flowing blood…"
Sighing, he estimated that if he wanted to use the ability nonstop, he could at most sustain it for about thirty minutes.
That's all I'll have… Plus, that'll be even lower if I activate other abilities and imbuements at the same time.
"H-how did you absorb that core?"
Akari's words startled the boy; the realization that she wasn't like Eleanor, nor Cam, and was, in fact, an outsider in terms of information.
Taking a deep breath and pursing his lips, the blond-haired boy did what he did best in situations such as this.
"You'll hear about it at the tournament."
Winking and finishing the drink that had been given to him as a pity present, he scooted backwards, observing the girl's irritated reaction.
"C'mon! You have to tell me! This isn't funny!"
Pouting, she pulled her legs towards her chest, collapsing into a small ball of pink hair with two blue eyes poking through.
Widening his smile, Aaron responded with yet another uncertainty.
"Wouldn't my childhood friend know best?"
Watching her face contort with confusion, then anger once again, he braced for a strike that never came.
"Hehe…"
Her quiet laughter serenated his ears, the boy's eyebrows raising in surprise at the wondrous sound.
I… I remember that laughter…
There was no specific memory behind it, yet deep within his bones, he could feel something being fulfilled.
"So… Ignoring that…"
Testing the waters, he watched as she calmed herself, facing him with a brilliant smile that shone like the sun.
"Do you know how you're going to beat Alaric?"
The jolly mood between them prevailed as the female challenger went quiet for a moment, a look of contemplation on her face.
"He's a mage, correct? In that case, I'll be able to use one of these."
Pulling a small charm out of her pocket, she placed it on the table in front of the two and started explaining.
"That friend of yours, descended from Javier Flock, gave me this. He told me that if placed over the heart, it can deflect one fatal blow of mana. Obviously, he could give me more, but the guild would never approve it."
Stowing the item again, she watched a smile come across Aaron's face as he understood the implications of her message.
Murmuring something quietly under his breath about the young mage who happened to be twins with her opponent, she held back the urge to laugh.
"Raphael doesn't stand a chance against a man immune to mana."