You would have thought that a genius such as Reol would have been more cautious when charging at Xue who had already proven to have some sort of telekinetic ability. But I guess the thought of acquiring a power crystal was worth the small indent she left in the ceiling of the room after Xue who seemed to take all advances as attacks, launched Reol’s body upwards like a sack of potatoes.

Reol who I may add was extremely lucky I moved instinctively and caught her as she fell back down, preventing her from seriously hurting herself. She was a lot heavier than you’d expect for such a slim girl, but I was smart enough to hold in my comment in. There were jokes my father had taught me we as men should never make, and a woman's weight and age was about at taboo as it got.

“Let go!” She struggled in my arms her gaze never leaving her object of desire which was being held up between Xue’s slender fingers.

“Sure thing.” My sardonic tone causing Reol to pause her thrashing as she realized she should have been more specific with her choice of words.

It’s not like I just saved her from multiple fractures or even possibly a broken bone or two. Who am I to deny her and gravity the chance to become properly acquainted. They often say lifetime friendships start with a sudden encounter.

A heavy thud, and yelp later, Reol was rubbing her tush, the tiniest of mist in the corner of her fiery eyes.

“You're an asshole.” Not even looking at me, she this time smartly walked towards Xue who Reol gave the stinkiest stink eye I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Her enthusiasm over the crystal holding back the scathing words I’m sure she wanted to give Xue.

“I simply did what I was asked. Man, it's true, even when you give a woman what she wants she still isn’t satisfied.” Hands raised up in a defeated motion I chuckled.

It was just a crack at Reol specifically, but I had forgotten there was another woman in the room.

Xue who had been warily eyeing Reol suddenly snapped her gaze towards me.

“Is respect for women something you're lacking my disciple?” The pressure she had retracted from me after I accepted her tutelage returning, leaving me to whether it, my body a small lighthouse in the middle of an incensed tempest.

“This translator thing must be on the fritz.” I tensely apologized. Xue was terrifyingly similar to Eva’s mom when she got angry, who also didn’t see the humor in my 'well-crafted' jokes.

-(Foolish Boy, your excuse is about as reliable as value brand toilet paper.)-

“I did not ask for your opinion, Winstone!” I hissed at the small grey box that appeared to my side. Annoying bastard only making his presence known to insult me.

Xue who saw through me still retracted her pressure.

“I think your lessons will require additional ‘care’ to properly prepare you for cultivation.”

I think our definitions of ‘care’ might not be the same if her tone of voice was anything to go by.

Reol who might have laughed at me earlier was still too entranced with the power crystal that Xue had just given her control over. The deep frosted white of her iris’ gaining unmatched focus as they peered into the gem, studying it with those special peepers of hers.

“It's a power crystal, but it’s its muddle with impurity? It's full of all sorts of other energies I can't make out.” Still deep in her examination, she spoke to herself in confirmation, her everything wholly engaged in the crystal.

“Whats she prattling on about?” I ask Xue who as still looking at me with miffed expression.

“Hmmph, well the stone she is holding is of the lowest classification, so its bound to be full of impurities. You yourself could be seen as comparable to that stone, unpolished and lacking in respect.”

Ok, so she was actually really annoyed at me. I get her first metaphor, but I’m pretty sure stones are incapable of respect in the first place. I, on the other hand, can if I try my hardest!

The next hour was an interesting experience during which Xue returned to the greenhouse she was using as her room, but not before letting me know that I needed to be up and ready before dawn. If I wasn’t, she promised more additional ‘care’. At this rate, that word was going to lose its meaning if she kept using it like that.

As for Reol she had finished her examination and had politely demanded if you could even call it that, for Xue to give her as many of her power crystals before her departure. With ten similar crystals in size, Reol jumped into a frenzy pulling stuff back out of the corner where we’d put her earlier mess.

Her claws popped back out of her gloves, but this time they didn't retain the same shape and instead transformed into various tools.

A whirlwind of motion Reol dismantled and reassembled the junk, but kept spitting out curses every time something didn’t work out.

“No….not enough…... stupid underpowered…seriously they still use these!….Fuck it I can’t work with just this junk!!!” With a roar, she turned to me. I felt like a player that had somehow attracted the bosses aggro.

“I’m about to break one of my few tools to make you this thing! You better appreciate this pervy ape!” I only nodded at her ferocity understanding she was taking a risk. I could tell she had really thought about it, and despite not wanting she couldn’t find any other way.

“Ok, ok, You can do it! The Deriuim will be salvageable! If not you’ll make that bastard suffer!” Hyping herself up to the point where looking at her hair felt like staring into the sun Reol ripped off one of her gloves and carefully used the other to pull a lustrous purple metal the size of a needle out of the fabric.

“I can’t make a proper disrupter with this trash, so we have to go with brute forcing it, here hold this.” Handing me the power crystal, which was surrounded with wires ripped out of all those poor devices. I felt the immense power within the fist-size gem when I got a firm hold on it.

You ever had the pleasure of holding what was essentially a live grenade? No? Well lucky you because this thing felt like it was going to splatter me against the walls at any moment.

“Are you sure this thing's stable?.....” I asked the gremlin that hadn’t stopped moving since she got the crystal.

“Of course not dumbass! But we work with what we got! Just don’t shake it too much, if I have to find my Deriuim amongst all your guts, I swear I’ll somehow bring you back to life just so I can kill you again.” Though rude I understood she was just stressed out after destroying her glove, plus I wanted to move as little as possible to avoid having the thing in my hand go kaboom.

“Hand it over!” Glad to get rid of the dam thing Reol snatched it out of my hand scaring the shit out of me as I felt a wave of energy come out of the crystal.

“Dam I thought you said to be careful!”

“I said for YOU to be careful, I can tell the stability of the crystal just by looking at it.” She's doing this on purpose I swear.

She carefully pulled aside the wires and inserted the metal she called Deriuim into the crystal where it slid into without any issues. The energy seeped into the metal, its purple shine turning into a pink glow just like Reol's ponytail.

“Now I very carefully wrapped this around to produce the small mana field!” Connecting all the wires to the needle, I felt a thick film like force push out on me before enveloping me.

“Good! It didn't blow!” I ignored her words for my sanity.

“So this thing will stop the trackers?” The feeling of having a worry checked off my list very satisfying.

“As long as none of those bastards are within a mile, their tracker should be too far from their controller to pierce the mana field. It acts like pseudo disrupter by increasing the mana density around you by an extensive amount. If the tracker finds you, it’ll become like a fly stuck in molasses, ripped to shreds by the thick mana.”

“Good…... And thanks, I’m sure we’ll be able to get you proper gear soon enough.” There are plenty of ways for me to make the amount of money I needed, the only issue was that just about all of them were illegal.

“You better, even in my world Deriuim is rare enough to make golds value look like that of a stray piece of asphalt. Now get me the charger for your laptop, I got a lot more studying to do.”

“Just don’t do anything illegal, the technomancers are all over the web these days.” I hoped she didn’t try her hand at hacking, not that I knew anything about it, but it was better safe than sorry.

“Technomancers?” The word pulling her out of the continuous rummaging.

“Yeah, imagine people who could control devices with their mind, or even enter them in the same manner.” It was better for me to warn her before she did something stupid.

“Damit you guys got NAT Divers as well… Welp there goes my plan of not having to include countermeasures for their kind in my tech. Sigh* Why does this keep getting harder.”

It's ok, I feel you on a spiritual level right now.

“Anyways run and get me the charger, I can't do much with this junk until I can translate this shitty coding into something similar to my own.” She pushed me out the door and slammed it shut, the amount of strength she displayed in pushing my over 6ft body out despite her small frame leaving me speechless.

I wonder how long until I truly come to terms that I’m living with five super babes, all with powers that would set the world a frenzy if the media learned of them.

The trip to my room was monotonous, and I loved every second of it, as it gave me time to shift around all the information in my mind.

Foremost was the disrupter in my hand. It had to be put into a pouch or something comparable because I could not keep holding it like this in the open. Then I needed to see if Alice could help me with those Titan Bindings she promised during breakfast, Alsha if she really did heal as fast as she did needed to be talked to before she regained her full strength. Lastly, I had to set up a meeting so the girls could all at least get along with each other. I couldn't deal with another fight wrecking my home further than it currently was.

Feeling like I had some goals, I could deal with before the day ended I entered my bedroom, only to remember I left someone sleeping on my bed.

Lucia sat up on the bed her gaze looking blankly out the window, no trace of thought visible in her eyes. The setting sun, glancing off her face, highlighting just how gorgeous she truly was.

For a second my fearful side worried Lucy was still in control, but the movement of opening the door caught Lucia’s attention as she snapped out of her trance and stared straight at me.

“....Sorry….” A lowest of whispers left her as her face twisted into a bitter grimace. The sight as breathtaking as it was heartbreaking.

“Ah…” Was all I could manage, the dead eyes of Lucy popping back into the front of my thoughts and being portrayed onto Lucia.

Noticing my slight stiffness Lucia’s mood grew worse, as the telltale signs of tears made their presence known in the corner of her eyes.

I wanted to say something but I was rooted where I was, There was just a primal fear I got from Lucy, that I had yet to feel before during my entire life. It was stupid, yes to be afraid of a beautiful girl just because she was good with the knife, but something deeper within screamed at me the danger she held.

“It’s my fault for not telling you about her, just please let me stay in my home. I’ll get my stuff and move to another room. Selfish as it may be for me to ask you of this after the trouble I gave you.” Lucia went rigid as her voice took on a monotone pitch. She was forcing her feelings deep inside, where they wouldn’t be able to do anything but struggle.

Something I was all too familiar with.

“No… You aren't her.” I managed to barely force out, a headache forming at the internal strife between the instinctual side of my mind and the rational.

I walked forward, the intrinsic fear from before squashed down just as Lucia was doing to her own emotions. An extraordinary talent some might call it, yet it wasn't good as a long term solution.

“I’d be an idiot to compare her to you. Sure you might be a little bloodthirsty at times but its just part of your charm. She, on the other hand, goes beyond that…” Lucia stared at me like I’d just grown a second head before she let a weak chuckle to leave her.

“But that's the thing Lucas, she is me despite how much I wish it weren’t true. Her thirst for blood, her will to kill, the maddening desire for vengeance.” They all still exist within me, Lucy just shoulders it all so I can continue being the mockery of a human that I am…..”

I don’t know what it was that caused Lucia to gain this split personality, but it didn’t matter if I found out or not, all I had to do at this current moment was comfort her.

Eva’s face superimposed itself over Lucia's, but I mentally waved the image away, right now Lucia was the one who needed my attention.

Climbing onto my king sized bed, I shuffled forward until I was sitting in front of Lucia.

She had her head down, trying her hardest to ignore me, the wet blanket clenched tightly around her whitened knuckled informing me of her tears.

Grabbing her hands, I felt her smooth fingers entwine with my own. Still, she looked downwards as though hoping I’d just leave her there to cry on my bed.

I placed my forehead on top of her head, the action surprising her as I knew it would since it was what mom would always use to do when I was feeling down in the dumps.

“Look, I’m sure you're just as much of a bitch as I am an asshole and as weird as it sounds we are as close to twins as it can get besides being birthed from the same mother. We might not have had an identical life, but I know myself, and in turn, I know you. If I can’t trust myself who can I trust?” I chuckled, the fear from before completely wiped away as I felt the coolness of her hair on my forehead.

“First times someones ever called me a bitch when trying to make me feel better…” She whispered before also letting out a soft chuckle identical to my own.

“Bitch what can I say, I have a way with words.”

“You sure do asshole, you sure do….”

We just sat there enjoying each others company as the sun dipped beneath the horizon.