Mugen Blade Chapter 2 Part 2

Continued from Part 1:

"Hehehe. So cute... Must feel very safe if he's friends with the girl who faced Slyde head on in a one on one battle."

"Faced? He barely broke a sweat and.... Well, you probably already know what I am..." Nergui replied to Grimele as she glanced a bit at the void shaped tattoos. In her mind she was expecting him to tell her that he couldn't allow her to continue training or even say that he had to turn her in to authorities.

"Oh, you mean that pretty arm art you have? Why I think it's pretty. I hope you can get it fixed." Grimele replied to Nergui in a kind, gentlemanly manner, surprising the girl even more before he continued to pet Chocomo as he mooed again.

"No problemos. I know how to draw, sorta. I can retouch them up." Maka added as she gave Nergui a reassuring gentle pat on the back, being mindful of her friend's injuries.

"Fixed?.... But, I was told it's effects are permanent." Nergui replied as she saw that they were being serious.

"Also, not that I'm complaining, but why are you doing this for me?"

".... All who enter my school are my students. Be they technomancers, trainees, tribesman. While everyone must keep an eye on everyone. I will not judge who comes to my school under the banner of learning and bettering." Grimele replied to Nergui as he looked her in the eyes, placing Chocomo back onto Nergui as he let her know that as long as she was here, she was under his protection.

".... What are ya talkin' about?" Maka asked as the conversation sparked her curiosity, guessing that this was a matter between the two of them.

"It’s nothing you need to worry about Maka. Just help out our friend here ok?" Grimele replied softly as he set down Chocomo on Nergui's lap, where he curls up cutely. He then headed out the door and closed it slowly and quietly.

Nergui stared quietly for a few moments before smiling slightly at Grimele's way of looking at things. It was, admirable. Nothing like he'd ever expect.

".... So, what did you have in mind for the tattoos?"

Maka's eyes sparkled brightly as she pulled out a paint kit seemingly out of nowhere.

"I'd thought you'd never ask!"

The next few minutes, Maka started painting on Nergui's arms, being ever careful not to touch her scars but rather, make them look like part of the tattoo while adding her own little touches.

Nergui watched for a few minutes until Maka put down her gear, finishing the new look for her tattoo. A fiery chibi buffalo, leaping for glory. The injured girl rolled her eyes a bit with a small hint of a smile as she saw that Maka couldn't resist adding Chocomo to the tattoos.

"Not bad. You're a person of many unexpected talents."

"Oh I'm not that good. Just a hobby while dad was taking care of the herd. Though ya gotta admit, Chocomo looks good on anything." Maka replied humbly while Chocomo mooed, looking up at the two girls for more pettings.

Nergui just smiled and patted Chocomo, keeping quiet while her wounds continued to heal. The familiar voice of Atlas then appeared on the school speakers.

"Would Mr Slyde and Miss Tatsumi please come to the principal's office?"

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Slyde yawned as he opened up the door to Grimele's office, stretching his arms before sitting down on one of the chairs.

"Yo, what is it? You're killing my lunch hour."

"And why did I have to leave? I was enjoying a pleasant crab soup." A irritated snake kin asked as she walked into the room with a black dress that looked like a mix between a kimono and an evening dress and a slight hiss in her voice, her orange snake eyes hidden underneath a pair of orange glasses. She chose to stand grumpily in the room, brushing her long raspberry sherbet colored hair with light red tips to the side of her head, to see the unexpected surprise of a little girl poking her head above the desk to see the two new faces.

The girl couldn't have been more than four years old, her short silver hair complimenting her bright blue eyes. Her clothing was just a simple white polyester jumper with black trousers and shoes with a large overstuffed panda styled backpack by her feet.

"Look...I really don't care what kind of brats Grimele brings into his school and tell. But if it cuts into my time, then we have a problem."Slyde replied as he looked at the girl appearing genuinely upset.

"Now now Slyde, you know we don't make these sort of meeting unless it's serious. And this is serious." Atlas called out to Slyde as he walked in from the balcony.

"This little girl is Kinzoku Yuzuki. We're keeping her here for her own safety."

"Safety? Why?" Tatsumi asked curiously as she had already walked over to the child and picked her up in a big hug, unable to resist such cuteness from the small girl.

"Simple. She seems to have developed the ability to breath fire, without tech."

".... What?" Slyde asked curiously as he looked at the girl, his face moving as if he's trying to figure out if Atlas was serious.

"Is this true?" Tatsumi asked the little girl as she held her in her arms, soon ducking underneath a few small flames as the girl tried to say yes, but only able to breathe out flames instead. Tatsumi then hugged the girl close as she saw how sorry she was for almost burning her.

".... This is definitely something worth looking up, even if it is just to help her control it."

Slyde took out a pocketlite from his trouser pocket and started looking in the girl's mouth, using a Yinyorb as a makeshift shield as he looked into her throat for any clues to her odd condition.

"Hmm... No sign of tech in the throat. This is..... Interesting."

"How about a DNA test? It may not be much but it could narrow down the list." Tatsumi suggested to Slyde as she tried to think of some way to explain this odd ability. The girl was definitely human, but she couldn't remember any point in her life when she saw something like this.

"..... Could also consult the internet."

"Hmmm.... Girl, are you able to talk normal at all?"

Yuzuki shook her head slightly as Slyde spoke, looking a bit uncomfortable being around so many strange people.

“Blending in is gonna be a problem then. Probably forge her record to say she's mute until otherwise. Say where is that fat guy anyway?

He's in the library. Apparently looking up old books and caser files to see if there's any other records of things like this." Atlas replied before walking towards the door, waving to the two teachers as he exited the room.

"Just remember, until we're sure she'll be safe, you both are in charge of looking after her. Enjoy Slyde!"

"I DID NOT AGREE TO THIS!!! Ugh..." Slyde yelled angrily at Atlas before he looked over to the see the kid looking at him with worried and fearful eyes.

".... You're probably wondering what's going to happen next. Short answer, you're staying here until we figure out how you're doing this. Until then, I don't give a crap make up any old identity snake eyes. I'm going back to lunch."

"... Don't worry about him. He's alway a grumpy fish." Tatsumi whispered to Yuzuki as she lightly brushed her hair before typing up the necessary details for the fake identity on a holographic screen on the desk, sending a letter to Yuzuki's school claiming that she has a bad cold and won't be available for a few days.

Slyde continued walking in the long empty halls of the thinking to himself. While walking he pulled out a small object that fitted the palm of his hand and began to work on it with three of his Yinyorbs.

How is a kid like that able to use fire like that? Genetic manipulation maybe? No.. We're not that advanced. Random mutation? Seems like it, but this is way too precise to be just that. Something stinks here. But what? Slyde pondered as he came to a complete stop in the middle of the hall. His hands making the orbs work on the object as if in autopilot his mind flashing to the memory of the girl's eyes, helpless, confused and fearful.

He then began to walk back to the principal's office to see Tatsumi finishing up the girls fake identity. He groaned a bit under his breath and threw something on the desk. It's a face mask that looked like a heavily modified tengu mask.

"Flame resistant mask. So the kid can at least talk. Rest is your problem." Slyde called out to Tatsuki as he closed the door and sighs before walking back to the dining room. He had reports to examine and a mystery to solve.

"Sir!" Akumi called out from behind Slyde, jogging a bit to catch up to him, looking almost a bit out of breath. Apparently she was looking for him for quite a while.

"Oh what fresh hell is this?" Slyde grumbled in annoyance before he slowly turned around to see Akumi, sighing loudly.

"This better be important."

"Well, thing is.... I'd like to request for me to get extra classes. Have a few crash courses in how to get the most out of my magic form." Akumi replied to Slyde, slightly nervous from the glare but still standing firm in her request. She looked absolutely fired up, keeping eye contact with the grumpy teacher in each second of the conversation.

".... Oh. Talk to Atlus then, he does that." Slyde replied in a calmer manner, turning back around and continuing his route to the dining hall.

".... Umm... I.... I'll try." Akumi replied after she tried to hide her surprise at his response. Truth be told, Atlas was the one who suggested her to go to Slyde.

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The noise of students cheerfully talking to each other about their first day over warm meals the cosy environment of the dining room felt great to Pigu as she set down her tray on the table. A nice steak with some dill pickle chips on the side.

"MMMMM YAY! My favorite!" She cheered to herself before a familiar and bummed out face sat down next to her, once again holding a tray packed with food but not as much as before.

"Hey Pigu." Akumi grumbled as she sat down, poking the BBQ chicken legs on her plate with a fork to take off the meat and add it to her three slices of pizza, using her other hand to lean her head on.

"I don't know how to use my magic form properly and it seems as though none of the teachers I know are willing to teach me what it can do." Akumi explained to Pigu after a small sigh, taking a big but grumpy bight of the pizza, smiling slightly as she got to enjoy its savoury flavor.

"*Oink* Hmm, well how bout after class I see what I can do? I got some free time. Whatcha say?" Pigu volunteered with a happy squee as she took a bite of the steak.

"Really? You'd do that for me?... Thanks Pigu! I really owe you one!" Akumi thanked with her ears perking up, now eating her food at her usual faster pace with a cheery smile, waging her fox tail side to side.

Hell yeah you owe me one. Just wait until Anime Japan! I am so gonna collect on your debt then! Pigu thought to herself, smiling and oinking while she laughed slightly over her tasty steak and chips.

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Did you figure out what your real name was?" Akami asked Pigu curiously as she munched on the chicken legs, leaving no meat on the bones. As a fox kin, she did have a strong taste for chicken.

"Hmm? Oh...Oh yea! Um.. It's Allison. Allison.... Wait, what is my last name. Oh but, you can keep calling me Pigu if you like. Truth be told i'm actually liking the nickname squee." Pigu replied squealing happily while drinking her cup filled with a lemonade/citrus soda combo.

"Sure. Kinda got used to it anyway." Akumi replied to Pigu with a small smile, one that was quickly cut short as her eyes darted over to the window. She only could see crows resting in the trees for the evening. She kept telling herself that they were staring at the food, but something about them just felt off, like they were staring at her.

"So, when can we begin?"

"Well, we still have twenty minutes of lunch hour left. How about after we eat?"

"Yeah......" Akumi replied as she glanced back at the tree, now seeing only one crow sitting on the branches.

"..... Let's use the indoors training hall."

"Alrighty, I'll go get changed into my fighting wear quick though. I'll meet ya there!" Pigu replied as she finished her meal and hurried over to the dorms.

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Pigu sat on one of the bleachers in the inner training room, wearing a very bulky training outfit while she waited for Akumi to come. The room was about half the size of a large football pitch, a elegant dojo with the academy's emblem engraved in the stone pillars. Almost every object in the room had been reinforced with steel. While waiting, she was holding a DSVisa. One of the first dual screen gaming systems from way back.

"Uggh… Common, common, COMMON...YES!! Caught me a shiny!!!"

Akumi then entered to room shortly afterwards, wiping the food from her lips with her thumb before tapping the jewel of the amulet to enter her magic form.

"Alright. I'm all set. How are we gonna do this?" She asked eagerly, wanting to learn all the tricks to her powers.

"Well it's simple. We spar." Pigu replied as she set down the DSVisa before walking to the other side of the arena, smiling confidently as she took her position.

"Plus, this gives you a chance to see what I can do! *oink*" She continued as parts of body glowed a bright green as her tech form emerged. Two tubes attached to a helmet formed right beside her nose as a large canister formed on her back while two vent like pieces of armor appeared on her lower arms and legs, being connected to the tank by some glowing green tubes. A full body suit with a microchip pattern covered her body from the neck down. The whole thing looked 8-bit in design, but Akumi could tell just from the appearance of the suit that it was some top-of-the-line magic tech.

"Hehe, I love my 8-bit skin! Anyway, let's get this event going *OINK*!" Pigu called out as she started taking a deep breath while a glowing blue sphere appeared around the two.

"Ok, here goes nothing!" Akumi replied as she took aim with her rifle, firing one single crow shot at Pigu to see what would happen.

Pigu snorted twice very quickly, sniffing the air before she leaped over the shot, making a small retro sound effect as she jumped. Before she landed on the ground, one of the vents spewed out a strong gust of air, pushing her back on her feet a few meters away hovering for a second.

"Not bad *oink.* Now it's my turn." Pigu called out as she started inhaling massive amounts of air. The tubes by her nose moving the air to the canister instead of her lungs. She then aimed her nose straight at Akumi with a small grin.

"FIRE... I mean AIR!" Pigu snorted as a horizontal tornado of air blasted out of her nose.

Akumi was almost blown off her feet from the torrent of air, being forced to use her jets just to avoid being blown away. She had to get out of the way of the gust. She added more thrust to her boosters and tried to roll out of the way, but instead of moving a short distance, she completely disappeared from view and appeared out of the wind attack. The fox kin took a few seconds to process what just happened. Her dodges actually was her teleporting out of danger. Smiling at her new ability, she began to teleport straight towards Pigu, firing her rifle four more times between jumps.

Pigu snorted again as she dodged all four of the shots with fast side steps to her right before firing another air blast toward her friend.

"Sulfur and gunpowder, though not from the barrel surprisingly."

"Well, this is apparently old tech. Wouldn't be surprised if it uses old forms of fuel." Akumi replied to Pigu as she began to dodge the air blast with a few more short range teleportation dodges. It felt to her like each time she used it the techs abilities were becoming more and more natural to her, not noticing the two small bumps growing on her forehead.

Akumi took aim once again, this time holding down the trigger and making the rifle glow a bit before firing five crows at once, all heading straight towards Pigu.

Seemingly more focused on defence than offence, Pigu snorted again as she dodged all five shots with a few gusts from her armor to blow her out of harm's way.

"Hah! You're getting better! I knew you'd get the hang of your ability!"

Akumi's mind was becoming more and more used to aiming with the rifle, smiling as she began to aim in the direction of where Pigu was going, aiming her next seven shots to lure Pigu into a trap, not knowing that the bumps on her head were slowly turning into the beginning of gazelle like horns.

Her smell is changing?...Weiiird... Pigu thought to herself as she snorted before dodging, but one of the shots just barely missed her by a hair, catching Pigu off guard.

What the? My defensmell almost failed? What's going on here?

Akumi smiled as she saw that Pigu was unwittingly dodging straight towards the corner of the dojo. She aimed her rifle one last time and pulled the metal back with a deep breath, aiming straight for Pigu's ankle.

Time seemed to slow as Pigu was unable to smell the trajectory of the shot. As it slowly reached her ankle, she gritted her teeth and yelled with all her might.

"EXPULSION!"

Suddenly, a HUGE blast of air exploded from the canister on Pigu's back, creating near hurricane like winds as Pigu was flinged from the corner of the ring into the wall, a loud crash echoing all around as she slowly fell from the wall, twitching on the ground with pain stinging all over her body, followed by a classic life loss retro noise.

"..... Ow, ow pain.... Oooooooh ow ow ow"

"Oh god!" Akumi yelled as she tapped the jewel on her amulet and rushed to Pigu's side, panicking as she began to inspect the pig kin for injuries while her suit started to vanish, unaware that her horns were still there on her head.

"Please tell me that it's not as bad as it looks!"

"It... Hurts... Ow..." Pigu whimpered as she was helped up, feeling the suit's self repair system slowly working it's magic on the cuts and bruises on her body. Even the stains were starting to vanish.

"Looks like your suit is healing quite nicely..... Don't scare me like that." Akumi said somewhat scoldingly to Pigu in releath, sighing deeply as she helped the girl get back up onto her feet.

"Sorry.. Sorry... Just.. Didn't expect to get hit... Kinda panicked... Hit reset. I'll be fine... Ow ow... Sorta.. Ow..." Pigu replied to Akumi with deep breaths, slowly heading toward the bleachers to sit down, her tech form disappearing as she walked.

".... So, you're tech let's you smell what your opponent does next?... That's pretty neat." Akumi complimented as she calmed down, taking a seat next to her pig kin friend.

"Must say.... I was getting the hang of this tech pretty quickly."

"Well... Ow ow.... It makes my nose hypersensitive. To where I could smell what you had for breakfast nine days ago and beyond oink. I use it to figure out my opponent's movements based on the smells they release when they do anything. Heck, I could smell your blood rushing through your veins. Just, this air based power isn't... *Snort* very offensive. I can't do much except evasion and dodging..... Plus there's...." Pigu continued to explain before she stopped for a minute, pinching her own cheek with one hand as she thought to herself.

"That's not important. Just, you were getting fast there. Fast enough to misdirect my defensmell."

"Huh.... Cool. Didn't think that I could go that fast." Akumi replied as she pondered about the battle. She was pretty agile, especially during the last few moments of the battle.

"Yea... Weird thing though. I swore I smelt your own odor change. Not like putting on a new shirt change, but like having a new face change. Weird huh? *Oink*"

"Ok.... That's, spooky." Akumi replied to Pigu, looking somewhat unnerved by the comment.

"Might be a side effect of your techpower. Believe me, they can manifest in strange ways oink." Pigu theorized before the two girls could hear the old timey sound the bell ringing from the academy's main building.

"OH *SQUEE* We're late for class!! Talk later!" Pigu yelled before she ran off squealing like a pig being chased by a lion, still looking a bit shaky in her movements as she ran.

"Good thing I got jets." Akumi mused to herself as she taped the amulet, feeling the armor once again covering her body before using her two jets to fly towards Slyde's class, hoping that her new abilities could help her beat the clock.

"..... Looks like his theory on the tech was right." A girl with long dark brown hair tied back into a ponytail mused as she sat on the branches of a tree, keeping to the shade of the leaves as she sharpened her dao blade with a whetstone, smiling in her dark grey modern kimono with plates of armour around her arms, torso and shoulders, all made out of animal skin and carved black dragon scales. Her kimono adorned with black feather like decals near the fringes.
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Slyde sighed a bit as Akumi came into his class, just a few seconds ahead of Pigu, watching as the pig kin continued breathing heavily as she sat down on one of the desks muttering to herself about how she just made it. Luckily Slyde decided to take a longer lunch hour thanks to all the 'annoyances' + 1 non annoyance. (Akumi asking him about extra training.) His eyebrows raised slightly as he saw the two horns on Akumi, slightly poking out of her hair.

".... Well now, that's one bottle of booze I'll need for today. Might as well start on my way to a second liver. I should give some punishment though...." He grumbled before one of the Yinyorbs appeared next to the fox kin as she left her magic form, giving her a small shock to the arm with the equivalent of a static electricity shock.

"There, punished, get in your seat. Also, Miss.... Pigu was it? You're in the wrong class."

Pigu's eyes widened quickly in realization as she bolted out of her seat, squealing in panic as the other student's began to laugh at her mistake.

Akumi, bit her lip in annoyance as she held her arm, taking her seat while doing her best to ignore the students laughing at her best friend. All except Nergui. She was the only one there besides Akumi who didn't laugh, earning her a few of Akumi's respect points.

"Oh, also anyone who laughed..." Slyde continued with a smug grin as Yinyorbs appeared above all the students who laughed. In one swift motion, every student except Akuma and Nergui are hit with a light taser attack, making them all go quiet.

"Punishment. Also random pop quiz. Because I feel like being a jerk right now."

Akumi watched most of the class groan in frustration as they heard the words 'pop quiz'. Only Nergui and the three nerds didn't complain. In fact, the nerds seemed pretty cheerful about the quiz. As for the fox kin, years of never being in a school made her unsure as to what she should expect.

"Now then, there can be one of two pop quizzes. A written quiz, or a technomancy challenge. I will let the two students who didn't laugh pick. You only have five seconds though, otherwise I pick." The teacher instructed, his smile widening as he said the last sentence, sending shivers down the spines of his students.

Akumi thought quickly in her mind with her tail going down as all of her classmates began to look and stare at her and Nergui, who looked as cool as a cucumber. Her mind began to race to figure out which one to choose. As three seconds passed the fox kin began to raise her hand.

"Technomancy challenge, I guess..."

"I would like to do both." Nergui called out to Slyde with her arms crossed, making a few of her classmates groan at the thought of doing all of that work.

“Really?.... Huh. Eh, let's combine the two.” Slyde replied after raising an eyebrow at Nergui's suggestion, standing up from his chair as he started drawing a pattern on the board. It looked like the simple design of a rune, but as he finished, it began to glow a bright shade of yellow.”

“This tech rune can only be broken by a specific tecnopower frequency. First one who breaks it, A+, then going down the line, last one who breaks it gets expelled. Yes, that sounds entertaining.”

"Waitwaitwait! What?! You mean that the last person to solve this gets kicked out of the academy?! Are you for real?!?!" The pink haired girl asked in shock with a loud voice as she jumped out of her chair from Slyde's warning, most of the class seemed to share similar thoughts.

"This is one of the top classes in this academy. It would make sense for them to try to select only the best students for it." Nergui called out to the girl as she slowly got up and walked towards the rune, observing its patterns carefully. This was a protective door rune. Something often used as a sturdy lock to protect valuables inside. This was virtually a lesson in lockpicking.

Nergui took out her guns from her sides and pressed them against the rune, making it spark electrical discharges as they came into contact with the rune. She was feeling it out, testing to see if there was any place on it where the discharges weren't so strong. And there, at the upper right corner, she found it and began to open fire quickly, making cracks spread through the rune before it shattered into pieces.

"... No lock is truly unbreakable. Just gotta learn where to hit."

"Hmmm..... Not bad. Bit boring, but not bad." Slyde commented with a small shrug, sitting down on a nearby chair to get more comfortable as one of his Yinyorbs formed in front of the board, pressing a sort of undo button on the screen to make the tech rune lock reform on the board.

"Next."

One of the nerds took out his trident before approaching the lock, pressing his trident into the middle of the rune before charging it up with electricity and slowly turning it, turning the center section of the run while watching the small discharges in an attempt to move the sections of the rune until it stopped making discharges and faded away after several seconds. Now he just had to do the other three sections.

"Not the hardest task.... Not the most simple either..."

"Are you kidding?! This is the baby form of the tech rune. None of you could......... Hehe. New plan!" Slyde replied to the boy before going up to the second holo-board and started drawing something else, leaving the class in worried silence as they were waiting to see what the man had in mind.

"How ‘bout a bet? Trust me, this is a good bet." Slyde continue, breaking the silence after three minutes of drawing something some of the nerds could tell was really, REALLY technical.

"When you come up here, you have two choices. You can do the easy lock, and maaaybe you won't get expelled. Or...." Slyde challenged the students as he soon finished with the drawing, smiling as a new techlock appears. This one, looked INSANElY detailed and ridiculously complicated compared to the last one.

"You can make an attempt on this military grade secure lock. If anyone fails on this lock, they are immediately expelled. However, if even ONE of you can open it, all expelling is dropped and I will vow not to expel anyone..... Who doesn't truly deserve it." Slyde finished as he sat back down on his chair smugly, awaiting the students decisions.

"In technomancy, you must sometimes make tough decisions like this. Consider this my first real lesson."

"...... This is a load of behemoth sized baloney. This guys a madman." The pink haired girl muttered under her breath as she heard Slyde's challenge, believing with no doubt whatsoever that he was crazy.

"Madman huh?..... I suppose some could call me that. Actually, that term fits. Who else wants to call me that? No? Well then, Pink haired brat, why don't you show me how to teach? Hmmm? Go ahead, we're all ears." Slyde replied to the girl as he looked at her sarcastically.

"I... Erm... Volunteer for the hard rune..." Akumi called out as she tried to keep the situation from escalating further, stepping forward as she entered her magical form, holding her rifle and aiming at the military rune to see if she could find any weak points like Nergui did.

A few seconds passed but Akumi fired no shots. Instead, she began to lower her gun and place her left hand on the lock, watching in surprise as her hand began to become coated in dark flames as it got closer to the lock. As she pressed her hand against the rune, her vision began to become an odd shade of purple with the rune glowing red in her eyes. She then began to focus, closing her eyes while her mind began to make the circles and symbols on the rune move and rotate. Slyde could see her horns growing more and more as she continued to try to crack the rune.

".... Of course. Dark element tech is used mostly by stealthy fighters. Their tech is more suited for breaking runes." One of the nerds muttered aloud as he saw what Akumi was doing. It was interesting, but from the way she was biting her lips, she was not used to this experience.

"What do you mean?" The tall boy with blue near the back asked curiously as he watched the scene unsure as to what was going on.

"Some tech like her's can display a highly detailed version of a rune in a person's mind, allowing them to manipulate and try to crack the rune subconsciously. It does however take a lot of willpower and energy..."

Slyde's eyes seemed to be transfixed on Akumi's transformation. The techolock was giving Akumi a hard time though as this one is very hard to crack for student technomancers.

"Now then miss Akumi... Will you fail? Or pass?... This is getting interesting."

Akumi continued to focus, her head now starting to ache while the horns growing on her head began to grow longer. Her mind felt like it was forcing her to make multiple calculations until finally, it was finished. She staggered back a bit and watched as the rune began to fade, guessing all those years picking normal locks helped her out for this one.

Everyone was surprised at the fox kin's accomplishment. Even Slyde looked amazed at the fact that Akumi was able to break the lock. Slyde glared at her for a few seconds, standing up and watching the girl quietly until he started clapping at a slow pace.

"Bravo! I knew you weren't boring! Congratulations Miss Akumi. Thanks to Miss Akumi, I'm not bored. So, everyone gets rewarded. Class dismissed! But be prepared, tomorrow is when I start fully teaching. I see that this class has real potential." Slyde congratulated while the students made a relieved cheer as their teacher seemed really happy at this event, almost as if for the first time in what felt like an eternity, something sparked his interest.

"That was some high level stuff! How did you crack it so quickly?" One of the nerds asked Akumi as he and his two fellow nerds approached her, all looking rather impressed at the fox kin's rune cracking skills.

"I don't really know. I guess it was like one of those puzzles in video games." Akumi replied to the nerd with a few deep breaths, leaning on one of the desks before turning off her magic form with a small tap of her amulet, not wanting to tell them that she had spent years cracking locks beforehand that may have helped her out.

"Huh.... Are those horns, meant to stay on your head after you transform back to normal?" One of the other nerds asked with a raised eyebrow as he stared at the girl's head.

".... What do you mean by horns?"

"Hmmm...... Byproduct of her Technoform. Happens sometimes. Some people get glowing tattoos. Some people get random appendages. It's random really..... But also pretty rare. Anyway, I'm outta here. Do whatever ya want." Slyde explained as he left the room with a bounce in his step to enjoy the extra time he had for evening, apparently not seeing Akumi's horns as a bad thing.

"Technoform.... Byproduct?" Akumi muttered worriedly as one of the nerds took a photo on their glasses, displaying it a holographic screen for Akumi to look at. The girl then slowly took a few steps back with her mouth open in worry, feeling for the first time her three inch long horns.