“What is it?” Yuuno was honestly confused at what suddenly crawled up Material-D’s butt (and it is quite the lovely rear but this is definitely not the appropriate time for perverted observations) to get her all flustered.
“It’s like everything I know about mana replenishment has been turned upside down!!” To say that she’s frustrated is putting it rather mildly.
“Eeehhh? Is it fun being upside down?” asked Material-L in that childish tone of hers.
“Just be quiet right now!!” snapped the Hayate replica.
“Wait a second,” interrupted Yuuno. “What’s the big deal about mana replenishment for you? Mana is automatically generated from your Linker Core! She just needs a good rest, that‘s all!” Even clones had them with the most obvious examples being Fate and Erio.
“It doesn’t work that way for us.”
Material-D’s sudden explanation quickly shattered the Librarian’s theory on these women being renegade clones. “W-what do you mean?”
“Well, I eat those funny orbs but even though they make my upset tummy feel better, they don’t taste so nice. It’s a little better when I eat them with chicken!”
The Fate clone‘s sudden explanation started making things a bit more clear. “So… you don’t have true Linker Cores of your own… and you have to absorb Linker Cores for mana?”
“Our Linker Cores work differently from what Yersinia Kreuz has said. We don’t have true mana generators. Instead, we have mana boosters which strengthens our magic and our Cores have self monitors to make efficient use of whatever mana we have in our bodies. Come to think of it, maybe that was the reason why we were attacked by those brutes.”
‘Unreal,’ thought Yuuno as he tried to absorb Material-D’s words.
“We can absorb mana from other sources but we often find ourselves having to hunt for other Linker Cores to survive. If we don’t… we start falling apart bit by bit,” said the Hayate replica as she pointed out the feverish Material-S and how bits and pieces of her barrier jacket were slipping away at a slow rate. “When our mana levels are low, we start fading away piece by piece. It’s basically a self-preservation reaction from our Linker Cores. It tries to stay alive as long as possible by absorbing us piece by piece.”
“It was why we were at that boring planet earlier. We found a whole bunch of weirdos and were gonna use them for dinner when those meanies got there before us and had all the fun!” grumbled Material-L. “Aaaahhh… I wanted to be the one soaked in blood, not them!!”
He very nearly lost control of himself when he heard on what they had originally planned. In a way, the arrival of those Huckebein had been a blessing. After taking a breath to calm down, he addressed the Hayate replica to confirm what he heard. “So in order for her to make it through this, then she needs Linker Cores?”
“Yes… or so I thought. It seems we have another source of replenishment.” Material-D jabbed a finger right into the Librarian’s chest. “And that would be you.”
“Yuu-nii’s gonna feed us? Oooh!! Can you make chicken out of thin air?!” asked Material-L in an excited tone.
“He’ll have to help Material-S for sure. She needs to get a new injection of mana,” noted Material-D, not even noticing the shocked look on Yuuno’s face.
“Whawhawha?!?” He could not believe what he was hearing now.
“I don’t think I understand it myself but Yersinia Kreuz mentioned something about how new sources of Linker Cores come from the seeds of new life. I didn't even make the connection until Material-L made her mist comment.” Material-D sighed in frustration. “I swear, this is becoming something so stupid like…”
“…… some eroge?” Rai added “helpfully”, grinning the whole time.
Material-D’s only response to that was to slap her palm against her face.
Yuuno looked at the panting form of Seikou and grimaced, okay, so what they did wasn’t good, and he would never want anyone to suffer like that if he could help it. In fact, from what Yami had explained to him, it felt like they were familiars without a master to feed them continuous energy. Of course, making them into a familiar would be a bad idea, since he doubted anyone other than Hayate had the mana reserves needed to sustain high-powered familiars.
Yami looked at Yuuno and grimaced. “So, we have two choices, we can either take your Linker Core and use it to sustain ourselves…”
“I don’t wanna kill Yuu-nii!” Rai glomped Yuuno, causing him to stagger as tears fell out of her eyes. “I like him.”
Yuuno chuckled nervously as she did that. ‘Great, either I go with the other choice, or it’s death, huh?’ He really didn’t like either prospect, well, mostly the death part, he just wasn’t sure about the other prospect.
Rubbing her forehead, Yami sighed. “OR!” When she had Rai’s attention, she shook her head. “Or we can have him do what he did to Material-S, but more, since she seems to need a larger dose or a more direct contact with it.”
“Ah, um well, that is…”
Material-D growled, grabbed Yuuno and slammed him against the wall. “Listen you! If you don’t do what you did before to help her, I swear that I *will* take your Linker Core to make sure that she stays alive!”
“It doesn’t hurt, does it, Yuu-nii?” Rai looked at him, tilting her head. “Seikou needs it and if you don’t do it, she’ll die, and I don’t want her to die!” Her eyes lit up with tears as she clasped her hands in front of herself. “So, please… Help her.”
”This man, I know that I can trust him with my life.” Those words came to both Yuuno and Yami unbidden, making Yuuno look at Seikou while Yami wondered if the Material-S had made the right decision in trusting him.
“Can… Can we be alone then?”
Yami let go of him as she walked to the door. “I don’t care what you have to do, but she better be better soon or I will take more drastic steps.”
“You care for her, huh?” Yuuno blinked as she growled and stormed off in a huff.
“Don’t mind Yami, she just doesn’t like showing it.” Rai beamed at him. “Bai bai.”
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See other episodes by Philip Weigel
(Posted Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:19)
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