Ooh, Pretty Lights!!

She wandered into the base, and her eyes widened at the sight of all the pretty flashing lights, and technological stuff.

"Ooh... I probably shouldn't touch any of this stuff..."

But... The little girl in her got the best of Mana, and she reached forward, about to poke a shiny-looking blue button...

???: No, No don't touch that!

A female voice called out loudly, running towards the girl and the shiny blue button. She didn't actually know what it did herself, but she was specifically told to make sure that no one touched anything if Koudo hadn't told them too. The female android turned to face the girl, blocking the button, she was tall but looked young and had very nice looking bluish hair. It was clear that she wasn't human by all her shiny armor and lights, but her skin was so soft and tan that it looked like she could be a real human. She bowed.



Sai: Welcome to the Triple F, renamed by Koudo, Priere and Perura, it's still a work in progress. I am Sai, and I shall be your guide. Are you here to see someone? Priere and Perura aren't in right now, but I'll gladly take a message.

Sai rose slowly, before turning on her heels and walking in deeper into the factory, hoping the girl she was leading would follow.

Mana jumped as she was shouted at, instantly recalling her hand as if it had been bitten. Mana didn't think the pretty girl that appeared was strange at all, and soon warm up as she spoke.

"I-I'm looking for Koudo-kuuuun! Yup, that I am~! Is he here~?"

A grin was one her face; this bubbly girl seemed so easily able to light up a room.

Sai: My, my, how nice for Koudo, having a nice friend coming to see him. He never really leaves here, unless it's to train or get parts.

Sai placed a hand to her very own delicate cheek and smiling as she looked to the ceiling of the factory. All the machines clanged and banged along as her and Mana walked through the factory to the back room. She stopped at a door and knocked.

" Who...*yawn*... is it? "

A groggy voice said from behind the door, a groggy male voice. Sai shook her head before turning to Mana and bowing.

Sai: One moment please.

Sai entered the room and closed the door behind her. In seconds there was a ruckus being made inside the room. Things being broken and tossed everywhere and raised voices, then a male came to the door and opened it, he smiled seeing that it was none other than the girl from the library Mana.

" Hey there, Mana-chan. Fancy seeing you here, is there something that you need? "

Sai stepped out of the room and completely out of the way of Koudo and Mana, disappearing towards the front of the Factory.

Mana's eyes were all wide, as she waited at the door. What in the world were that nice lady and Koudo doing in there...? On second thought, it was better for her not to know. Mana simply toyed with the pinkish crystal at her neck and pulled a little at the hem of her black dress. She hoped she looked okay!

As Koudo came to the door, he hardly got out his greeting before he was practically attacked by Mana and her tackling hug.

"Koudo-kuuuuun~!!!"

She exclaimed, grinning as she hugged him, regardless of whether she'd knocked him over, was caught, or simply hanging off him.

"I wanted to come see you!!"

Koudo was faster than he used to be, so he saw her coming and easily caught her before she wrapped herself around him. he held her in the air, at a distance, she was light, he smirked his trademark smirk.

" Oh? Just a friendly visit? That's rare, no one really every comes here because their so scared of the dangerous defensive mechanism that are set. Sai must have not seen you as a threat, I told her about you actually. "

Koudo told her before letting her down, placing her on the ground and opening the door fully to allow her into his lab. It wasn't anything magical or anything like that, it was a pretty basic lab with a huge as computer tower in the middle. There were robot parts and weaponry tossed all around the room, but it was clear that someone lived here thanks to the bed and the sofa and the chairs and all the other things needed for living.

" Please, come in. "

"GASP! You were talking about me~?! Only good things, I hope."

Giggling, she feebly made a 'grabby-hands' gesture as if to make him allow her closer for the bone-crunching hug that would ensue... Maybe he was smart in keeping her at arms length. Giving up, she simply cuddled one of the arms that held her, and didn't let it go as she was set down.

"Ooh, this place is a lot more interesting than Daddy's!"

Gliding into the room, she peered curiously at one of the monitors. She couldn't read that well, but her knowledge was magically increasing day by day. Goooo Mommy!

"Whatcha workin' on, Koudo-kuuuun~?"

Koudo looked around, unsure on how to answer that since there were SO many things that he was working on. Not being able to come up with an answer, he rubbed his forehead with his free hand and looked at her with a shrug.

" Stuff, so what's been up? "

he asked, leading her to one of the sofas that he had available, dusting it free of all the parts and weaponry before offering her the seat.

With a quick sprint and a jump, Mana (not so) gracefully flopped onto the couch, landing sprawled before she had a chance to scramble to a sitting position. The entire time, she was giggling softly,

"Stuff is cool~~! The sky's been up! Mommy's place's been up! Hmm, let's see... Oh, Mommy came back!"

Her eyes lit up with excitement (as if she needed any more of that).

"She's staying with Daddy again, now!"

Koudo stopped walking and watched her basically spring from where he was to the couch. He placed his hands to his hips and shook his head, before placing himself in an adjacent chair to the couch that she was seated in. Hearing about her mother, he smiled while resting his elbows on his legs and propping his head up with his hands.

" That's good to hear. So you all are one big happy family again huh?... must be nice. "

His voice trailed off slight and his eyes and head moved up to the ceiling for a tiny second before he returned his gaze to his guest.

" Still haven't seen your sister around, she must be training somewhere. "

"Yeah, I think Aura-chan is off training somewhere."

She commented, before suddenly she lightbulbed.

"I know! I think you should come by and join us sometime! Then you can meet Aura and Auntie Una and Auntie Yoko and Mommy and Uncle Mamoru and Daddy~!"

Grinning, she floated upward a little, as if in zero-gs. Soon, Koudo-kun would begin to feel a bit lighter, too. Mana was pretty excited, and her magic was spilling from her without her noticing. Gravity didn't really apply in space, and Mana's magic was space oriented, for the most part...

"It'd be fun!! And then I could show you everyone else living in the Labyrinth, too!"

Suddenly, she wondered if she'd ever told Koudo-kun who her Mommy and Daddy were. Well, he'd be able to figure it out from the simple fact that she lived in the Labyrinth.

Hmm.. coming over would be pretty nice, but it wasn't like they were together or anything. Besides, he wasn't sure if he would be able to find the time to do such a thing with the tournament coming up soon and him needing to train, and upgrading Sai, while creating the amplifier that would keep Priere and Perura's ice abode attached to the factory. Koudo was swamped for time really, but... he didn't wanna disappoint so...

" Sure... why not? I never have anything better... to... do... "

What the hell was this? He was floating... without using his wings to do so? It was strange, but kinda cool at the same time. Was this Mana's power? She was definitely full of surprises.

" You are... something else. But then again your parents are Maze and Sadako Rituke, the sannin of the Dusk. "

Koudo commented.

Mana giggled, now absolutely determined to show off. Okay, this was likely to end badly... Good one, Koudo.

Around him, tiny miniature stars blazed in a pocket of specialized air to keep their heat from being overbearing. They ranged in colour, and were pretty cool to look at, actually. Mana floated over, flipped upside down by this point.

"Yepyep! Mommy and Daddy are the bestest; they'll be super glad you're coming over to play~!!"

Giggling, she nudged one of the stars with a fingertip, kept at a safe distance by the pocket of specialized air to show that the floating star miniatures were completely harmless. She'd discovered the hard way of what happened when the airpocket wasn't there awhile ago... This kid had far too much spare time.

"Catch!"

She exclaimed suddenly, pushing the brightly glowing sphere toward Koudo-kun. She hoped he'd be interested.

Koudo was indeed interested, he caught the sphere and moved it between his hands. It wasn't hot, and yet it was still a star, this defied all the logic that Koudo had in his brain, and yet Mana was able to create them. She was more special than he had realized, it had to be her magic.

" Astounding. How are you able to create these? I have to study you. "

"Uuuuuhhh..."

Mana thought about it for a moment. How DID she make her stars and such?

"Iunno!"

Innocently, she grinned before spinning her finger around and around, creating a couple miniature comets to circle her finger in an almost blinding but for their size display of light.

"But you say study... Study as in how~?"

" your powers.. they're intriguing. I want to know more about them, about you. "

Koudo told her, before letting the star float from his hands and rejoin it's counter parts. This type of anti-gravity seemed like it would be good for training. He needed to see how she did it so that he could create a machine that generated the same field of antigrav. that she did. great, another machine that he planned to spend his time on, Sai wouldn't like that.

" Astounding. "

She laughed a little, nervously, as she dispelled the comets and the miniature stars, scratching the back of her head.

"I actually don't know much about it myself... Jack-sama made me focus on making my body really strong and stuff. The magic is stuff I discovered when I was uber bored~"

" Oh... I see. "

Koudo said, he sounded disappointed, but he wasn't. If she had just figured it out herself, then how would he be able to study it? It was fine with him actually, since he could always just invent a machine that mimic antigrav, instead of using her as a base for the entire project. It made it more challenging, it'd make him smart when he was finished with it entirely. He shrugged it off and reclined in the air.

" Don't worry about it then. "

When was Mana ever worried? Floating on by, Mana cupped her hands as they started to glow, a star-dust-like cloud surrounding her as she floated to the far corner of the room. Suddenly lifting her hands, she cast the glow outward, casting an aurora-like light to dance upon the walls. Content, the young girl floated back over toward Koudo-kun, still encased in what looked like stardust.

"Pretty...~"

Koudo shrugged once more, moving his hand behind his head and nodding.

" Sure, I guess. "

He hadn't glanced at what she was talking about. Not because he wasn't interested, but because he was thinking about the construction of the antigrav machine and how he was going to modify Sai to be the amplifier for Perura's wavelength. There was so much for him to think about.

She frowned lightly, saddened by the fact she now longer held his attention. Gradually, the zero-gs would return to normal gravity and the girl and boy would be gently placed back to their original seats. Her gaze was lowered as she idly twiddled her thumbs, almost blushing a little. Was she that bad of a companion...?

The lowering from the air surprised him, seeing as he had linked her powers to her happiness levels and she had been super happy earlier. She was upset now, but for what reason? he leaned up and looked at her, but she was looking at her fingers.

" What's up? "

"Y-you seem a little distant... I wanted to leave you to your thoughts."

She said quietly, still not looking up. Gee, Mana was quiet again... This couldn't be good! But, around Koudo, she seemed to be having more of these awkward silences. She couldn't fathom why... maybe it was because he was so strange to her? She wanted to be that friend for him, but stuff that came naturally to her just didn't seem to work on him. Pretty lights, stunning effects... Nothing phased him for long.

" Oh? Distant? I can think and talk at the same time you know. "

Koudo said to her, moving to the couch now, sitting a good distance away from her. He leaned back and propped his legs up on the table that was in front of it. Koudo wasn't nervous or anything like that, he wasn't really thinking about anything since he already registered Mana as a friend after they had met the second time in the library. Maybe he should tell her that, but he figured that she already knew since she had come to see him. he shrugged it off.

" So... when should I come over for a visit? "

"Anytime's good. Mommy'll be able to tell when you decide you want to visit, if Daddy's not paying attention..."

Still twiddling her thumbs, Mana couldn't bring herself to look at him again, though the room's walls still danced with the lights of the aurora. She was thinking of what she could do to draw him out of his thoughts for good... Something spectacular, brilliant, amazing, fantabulous...!