Caldwell Laboratories, Mongolia. Combat Data for potential Apprentice

Yuel felt absolutely uneasy, but the prospect of this magic necklace given by the now named "James Caldwell" was certainly appreciated, not so much for the solace of safety as a result of wearing it, but by the process in which it was created. Through means not entirely known to the girl--though she could probably guess at the process--a rock was compressed into a gem and subsequently infused with some energy that enabled her safety. At least, as far as she understood.

Actually possessing the item wasn't much of her concern; rather, the application of it and how far this method of creation could be taken--the curiosity within her burned. Being offered the necklace, with some ill-mannered disregard towards the gesture of putting in on her himself and any other words provided after, Yuel unreservedly reached out and grasped it. Without actually putting it on, her fingers glossed over the smooth surface and hastily manufactured chain. The speed of creation was frightening, even provided a supernatural means. Imagine all the time that could be saved operating at such a fast pace! And all the projects being simultaneously worked on! The gears within her mind wove, and the surroundings or anything else irrelevant to her current ideas surfacing found themselves blocked out.

Exiting the elevator at a rapid walk, Yuel approached spots of soft earth nearby water, dipping the gem into the water to see any effects. All the while, her ambidextrous hands went to work, one managing the necklace by the chain, the other drawing undecipherable symbols across the floor, though the indiscernible characters seemed to form some sort of pattern. Taking into account the buoyancy, density and weight of the gem--which presumably could hang onto a powerless young girl's neck without hindrance, despite being the product of an entire rock compressed--Yuel jotted down some mental notes, occasionally spitting out words of multiple languages, at some point even reciting some demonic linguistics with the intention of seeing any reactions of the energy to the activation words of several ranks of demon magic spells.

At this point, Yuel entirely forgot about the existence of James and the fact that she was not in her own living space. Albeit extremely rude, she simply paid no heed as a few runic patterns near her profusely glowed and increased in reishi density. Nothing in particular actually happened around her aside from the sudden concentration of spiritual particles--that is, as long as the necklace failed to possess any reactions when near or in outright contact with these runic patterns, or the reishi they drew in.

Assuming no interruptions, Yuel got up from her squatting pose. Her knees trembled a bit and a static feeling ran down her legs, but neither was all too inhibiting. Taking into account all the results, Yuel rotated her waist and neck, only to just now realise the other person present. With cheeks turned red, the girl quickly walked back to James and bowed.

"E-Excuse me for being rude!"

In an ironic follow-up to her apology, Yuel proceeded to approach James and even attempt to put the necklace on him. One of the few things she acknowledged before going into a state of full focus was the purpose of the necklace: a calming effect. Why she needed to be calmed down, that bit was already long forgotten. Instead, Yuel monitored her own thoughts and emotions while interacting with the gem. As a matter of course, there was noted all her excitement and activity, let alone a release in anxiety.

That being said, to some degree she believed it worked. Her mind raced with thoughts concerning how it worked, and how mystical and spiritual energies could actually interfere with the neurons firing off in her brain, forcefully inducing or at the very least affecting the potency of some emotions. Most of all, she wondered if this was exclusive to her, someone with her spiritual ineptitude, or just a general populous. Maybe it was effective on those with lower mental aptitude? Though, that last hypothesis was a tad depressive. If anything, Yuel would liked to have assumed she was unique in mental fortitude. At least, for one in her circumstances.

Thus, her means to confirm any of these suspicions was to put the necklace on another person, and observe the results from a different perspective. From an entirely neutral point of view outside of Yuel's own considerations, any success in affecting James's mental state would automatically lead on the belief that the necklace had extreme potency, but at the same time if it had no effect on him, the result was confirmation that the gem was, in fact, useless and the correlation between Yuel's lost anxiety and the purpose of the necklace was in actuality, coincidence.

Unsure of what to make of James's avoidance of the gem, Yuel simply jotted down the mental note of the two possibilities having equal probability of occurrence. In a way, she turned the curiosity of a situation into something comparable to the principles of quantum theory she so thoroughly understood. Having thrust her perspective on the matter into a familiar subject and therefore putting herself in her own element, Yuel finally became comfortable. The surroundings now felt more so easing considering she just recently used it as a medium of experimentation.

"Mm... I wouldn't necessarily call it perplexity from your magic? I'm more interested in the results of your creation than the process, though thinking back maybe focus on the latter would have been more effective? That's interesting; maybe the gem really does effect my mentality? But isn't this oversight an inducement of negative output?"

As her nerd-brain went to work, Yuel proceeded to comment on James's observations, though she seemed to have come to some conclusions of her own in the process. Whether or not they were accurate was besides the point. One thing was for certain, though; the man was looking down on her, evident from the attempt to explain the processes of magic... More or less? "Because magic"? To say this explanation was disappointing... is an understatement. In Yuel's few years of study, for the most part she came to the undeniable understanding that causality was not definite, but always present.

As one who sought information, understanding that information equated entropy was fundamentally necessary, and as with quantum theory, knowledge converted the unknown, into the definite. From extensive research, though the reasoning behind all supernatural phenomena wasn't nearly as straightforward as instances of untouched physics naturally reacting with the world, it could be said that even magic had origins and measurable results that led to definitive confirmation of the cause and subsequent effect of magic itself. After observation, nothing happens without justification.

His lecture from what Yuel perceived to be more or less a high horse, a tinge of annoyance filled her. If she was respectable enough to be invited with reason being her intellectual prowess and the fact that she could apply it so effectively, what sense could be made out of disrespecting that very notion through insufficient explanations, and even worse, a worrisome lack of proficient understanding of one's own abilities? With a furrowed brow, Yuel promptly retorted his ever so poor attempt.

"Science quite literally has instances of unavailability of 100% confirmation of results; that's the entire concept behind probability, a methodical observation so deeply embedded into maths and sciences. You can't possibly expect me to believe that such a statement is "debatable", do you? 'Cause, you know, it's not? It's outright factual?"

In that small bit of dialogue, Yuel already conveyed quite a bit of her feelings, and present disposition towards the James's own intellect--that being, not so respectable. Without disregard to any belligerence in tone and the idea of "keeping calm", the girl continued on to refute all his claims.

"Fundamentally, magic's no different; I don't know how your magic works, but its not as if there's a lack of rational explanations behind it. It's ignorant of you to claim "because magic", you know? I've done my fair share of research into magic as well, you know? I'm not just some run-of-the-mill scholar, you know? I'm an intellectual in my own right, you know?!"

The more she spoke, the further she self-propagated her anger. Simply speaking her opinions out gave further emphasis to the level of insult she felt in her own mind, and in a spiral her emotions simply escalated endlessly. Of course, this only happened internally in a manner of nanoseconds on a personal scale, as Yuel proceeded only to spew rationalised information, as she always did in a heated situation.

"I can understand if the effects of your own creation made so suddenly wouldn't subject you to any changes; I suppose it's like eating your own waste in an attempt to gain nutrients. If your own experience brought you to the conclusion of magic having no definitives, either you're failing to look into your own abilities and make sense of the results simply out of ignorance or intellectual inability, or you've simply gained insufficient experience!"

With a huff, Yuel lightly frowned and crossed her arms, waiting for any responses to come out of her counterargument. She didn't even bother to make any note of his comment on her "maybe being able to take apart his creation", or "understanding the makeup of mankind". The first was, frankly, taken as an outright insult towards her abilities as an engineer. The latter was just stupid altogether. With the physical makeup of the human body being known entirely by the mid 21st century without exception, even down to a sub-atomic scale--and the history of the human "makeup", the only thing left to delve into was the mystical or spiritual makeup.

Considering the realms were already intertwined at that point, it was equally ridiculous to suggest that the human body, mind, and soul, had any bit unknown. There have already been artificial souls created, and entire being and consciences made, both by man and their kin races, as well as by the gods themselves. What daft individual would imply the notion of a thorough scientist being unknowledgeable towards a subject with such heavy prevalence of research? Genetics were already a major focused in the first half of the 21st century; one could easily find scores of research papers and depth'd explanations even on the free internet.

Taking note of James walking off while creating two more objects, Yuel's interest rose a bit; unfortunately, the stubborn girl kept to an angry disposition. She did a bit of thinking, however; mainly on whether or not the compisition of the rock he compressed was entirely carbon or graphite, considering the results were what seemed to be diamond swords. That's strange; a sword with the compressive strength of diamond should have no flexibility; if one knew the fundamentals in making practical swords, flexibility was necessary so that the sword wouldn't suffer any issues self-induced. Well, if energies outside of physical enabled matter to exceed lightspeed, without further inspection Yuel could only ironically leave it as "the result of magic". If she had a chance, some time would certainly be taken towards looking into the subject.

As James passed one of the diamond swords to Yuel, she nearly groaned in how unexpectedly heavy it was considering the gem's weight. In truth, it was mostly just the girl's own poorly developed muscles, far below the average human. At the very least, she had enough arm strength to hold it out straight with both hands, parallel to the ground. In response to James's taunt, Yuel scoffed in annoyance. While there was the scary thought of combat, her newfound dislike towards James bordering the desire to get hostile washed away the tension.

"Fine! If I beat you, there'll be a lot more than just that wristpad in it for me, deal?"

Unaware of how skilled the man was in combat, Yuel proceeded to fly into the situation essentially blind. And, alongside the intention of flying blind, without reserve she entered the "bubble" James provided without questioning it. Of course, some observations were to be done before actually entering, but in moments the girl confidently deemed it safe. A part of these observations included stomping on the ground now that the bubble covered her like a thin film. The sensation initially felt uncomfortable, but soon became unnoticeable.

Provided the surroundings were included as one of James's object--considering this whole room was his--the ground beneath her feet would be registered as an object "coming towards her with lethal force" given the induced velocity of her stomp. If the film was to keep her safe, surely it could do so even with herself as the primary detriment to her own safety, right? At this point in time, Yuel already looked down on James's intellect to some extent, but at least had enough faith in it to assume this attempt wouldn't be overlooked. Otherwise, the girl would outright collapse and writhe in pain from a broken leg.

Under the assumption that what happened was not, in fact, Yuel breaking her leg, she took stance while scoffing at the man's words. Certainly, Yuel had no experience in combat. But at the very least, she was capable of rational thought. Even if you did generalise, the blade and mind were certainly not the only methods of combat. That being said, the teen felt oddly comfortable with the sword in her hands. She experienced holding weapons prior to this event out of the desire to learn self-defense, but few felt so natural in her hands as the sword--any sword, for that matter.

"Hmm? Are you still looking down on me, James? I don't know exactly how much experience you have in combat, but there's no way that stance is legitimate."

Completely disregarding any respectful attempt towards honourifics and going straight to a first name basis, Yuel once more felt annoyance glossing the back of her head. While she had no profound level of experience in fighting herself, observing the surroundings through her senses was something more or less natural to Yuel; taking into account the stance James took being fundamentally disadvantageous when taking into account physiological instinct, centre of mass, and the effects of outside and inside forces simultaneously coalescing to reach a desired form... to be honest, his just looked messy. Inefficient and composed without thought, as far as the Yuel's observations went.

In response, Yuel took borderline perfect form, taking into account the physical differences between herself and the opponent, the outside forces, atmospheric pressure and levels of gravity considering the two were underground. Not a single detail was missed, and to any moderately experienced fighter, Yuel's stance created the aura of a veteran around her. With a profuse lack of openings, even with James's overwhelming speed, the girl proceeded to easily respond to his strike. With dexterous hands as the product of countless creations, even taking into account the weight of the sword she had already adjusted to, Yuel guided the blade to meet James's, the two velocities were forced to meet as best she could. With a slight shift in direction and magnitude of her counter, Yuel motioned to redirect the power behind James's attack entirely.

At the same time, her knees bent with a back kept straight, and her entire body fell forward onto the ground. Upon impact, Yuel curled into a ball while dropping her sword. The weight of her weapon was used to increase the speed of her fall, but now on the ground it only served to inhibit her intentions. Dropped her forearms to guard her face and bringing her knees up to her chest, Yuel's shins and arms were intended to meet James's legs. Taking into account the diverted swing, unless James reacted quickly enough the logical conclusion was for him to trip.

Yuel's tolerance towards incompetence was never so potent, and in her perspective, James had already passed that point. In fact, more so than thinking him unintelligent, after his response to her very own aggro'd reaction, Yuel simply gave up on retorting. Too many things were said that seemed like, if argued, the sound-waves would just bounce in walls of his skull before inevitably seeping back out his ears.

Setting aside his comments on the actual fruits of his research into his magic, the condescending notion of "having not earned the right to know them" couldn't be more unnecessary. Of course, keeping these findings private was obvious as a scientist; explaining that could have been said with boundlessly more tact. If anything, the way James said it felt as if he was somehow conveying superiority; clearly, his attempt at reassurance wasn't so well received.

What irritated the girl most of all was his very thorough implications towards her being uninformed on magic. Did she not just explain her research into the subject? Rather, he made note of her inability to utilise magic? Surely, she couldn't actually use "magic" in and of itself, but similar functioning systems were possible. No, was that a taunt? As a member of the vanguard, especially one who seems so well-informed given his direct contact with Azure and having learned of her in the first place, Renkinjutsu was easily one of the largest concerns relative to herself. Especially considering she had essentially surpassed the boundary separating abilities native to the spiritually aware; granted, the methods in use were essentially copied off the quincies, but the fact remains that even they had spiritual awareness.

Setting aside the mental tangent, the poorly executed taunt might as well be taken. Either way, Yuel already began formulating a method of incorporation. All she really needed was time. Had she been aware of his position and divisional influence, without a doubt Yuel would have questioned his title as "Lord of Whispers", given the currently observed and overwhelmingly lack of charisma and competent intelligence gathering.

A close second in terms of things to complain about from her side was, the notion of separating philosophy and science. Yuel understood the distinction between the two, but the way she saw it, James was implying that philosophy didn't have a science to it--or maybe she was reading into it too much? Nevertheless, she naturally had to go on another mental tangent. To her understanding, philosophy was a science in itself, and there were actual levels of probability for certian reactions based on core details and dispositions of the individual towards any number of subjects; thus, predictions are enabled, at times even with astonishing accuracy. Oh... she was thinking of psychology. Thankfully, she didn't vocally rant about this subject.

Oop, she should've waited to decide what irked her the most. If quotes on a wall implied ridicule as opposed to belief and inspiration, "not enough conclusive evidence to decide what exactly magic even is, let alone how to tamper with it to produce a desired effect" would be plastered in the largest font possible. In fact, this time around Yuel made no effort to get into a mental rant on the subject--self-refutation just seemed so much of a waste this time around. If anything, it offered mental fatigue and not much more.

Before leaving off to enter stance and prepare herself for combat, Yuel left off only a single sentence.

"Did I ever say you made claims believed to be irrefutable? That's... ironic of you to say..."


Making note of his snark concerning the attempt to gain insight into her own hypothesis on how protected she really was--well, let's set aside the fact that he was right. Actually, on that note, would the "shield" that protected her reactive to spiritual-energy induced effects? Rather, was his mana susceptible in any way? The gem didn't seem to be reactive to much of anything, even in the event that the spiritual energy was only indirectly involved with the gem, such as being the activation energy to an eventual natural phenomena, such as heat or vacuums. That being said, would any magical attacks damage her, and not just the swords that effectively couldn't? That could be... troublesome, to say the least. Either way, on the subject of her hypothesis, she simply left her whispered reply to his "explanation" at:

"Ah, mhm, your magic must certainly be uniquer alright. It takes a special kind of stupid to... nevermind."

Maybe he didn't hear her?


Taking note of James's change in approach--that being the jump, Yuel's motion to parry wasn't retracted. With her physique? It wasn't quite possible to change plans so quickly. Instead, the parry simply goaded her into performing a sipn, adding to the momentum of her fall. But, taking note of his divergence from the predicted action, Yuel continued on to roll on the floor forward, as opposed to the initial intention of tripping him. Getting to an eventual stand, the initial-speed boost offered a jump start ass he ran towards the water. Not only would it provide distance, but the use of his gravity boots might be hindered.

How might that happen? The density of water could inhibit the boots, so long as the way it worked was by sending some sort of gravitational or electromagnetic pulse towards the ground, as opposed to nullifying or countering the gravity of the Earth itself. How did she know about James's boots? She didn't. Yuel wasn't aware of the full details, but given the fluctuation of light--rather, visually the "air" under his boots as he jumped--the use of some sort of energy didn't seem to be the case. In fact, there had to be some sort of actual opposing force, and the most likely origin was an electromagnetic or gravitational force.

This hypothesis was gathered by the fact that James "jumped" as opposed to any other aerial action, or just outright floating. Probably, he couldn't sustain himself in the air, and the light fluctuations only occurred under his boots, thus them being the origin, as opposed to entirely under him. How powerful of a force could be generated from a pair of boots? On top of that, as far as Yuel saw, there was no additional movements in mid-air, leading to the assumption that he was propelled simply upward, and the momentum of his run only carried him forward. With that said, the pulse most have vectors, so between the two forces, electromagnetic was the most likely, and having an electromagnetic pulse emanate from his boots, to the ground to launch him upward--such an action was bound to find some difficulties with water as the surface below him. Of course, all of this was speculation made on the spot, but the probabilities seemed promising.

"Hey, James; why don't you tell me what classifies 'beating you', so I know how far I'll have to go?"

With a pearly smirk Yuel runs off with a plan in motion, motioning a reverse grip with one hand--now that the sword was light--for optimal and quickest counters to an opponent behind her. In sounded best in theory, and most theories hadn't failed her thus far.

Oh. Correction. Most theories hadn't failed her until now.

Since James used what seemed to be a scientific device to enable movement, she entirely disregarded the fact that he could probably use magic to augment his own physical ability. Thus, when she turned her head to notice the man just behind her, out of surprise and instinct Yuel prompted a spin backwards, drawing her sword vertically for defence. With James unexpectedly already caught up, his blade met her own. As quickly as possible, Yuel formulated a defensive strategy, and the best she could come up with was: use James's attack as a speed boost.

With their blades met, Yuel's intention was to use the force in his strike to send her back. The power in his attack was calculated based on the speed of his movement, with the velocity used to estimate his magnitude, and by that his total mass, and from there the whole momentum of his swing. To do this, Yuel's feet actually left the gruond, and with the ground no longer hindering her inertia, the power should have been enough to send the light-weight Yuel off. Of course, the scrapes from falling would likely hurt, but there wasn't much room for avoiding a hard landing since she had no method of aerial coordination.

While she may not admit it, James was a far more difficult opponent than first thought; so far, there had already been three instances where his ability was unaccounted for. First, his jump, then the scary speed displayed in his chase, and third, the unexpected palm. With a slight alteration in plans, Yuel's blade slid downward as the flat side of the blade met James's palmstrike to her abdomen. With minimal movement and maximum defence, Yuel's knee was brought up to her stomach, and the force of James's attack collided with the blade, the blade colliding with her knee, and the effects of his mana-defensive system ultimately protecting an enabling her to fly backwards.

The strike's kinetic force transfered into the sword, and the sword carried that force to her knee. Of course, considering the set safety net, the sword wouldn't actually hurt her, at least to the extent of debilitating damage. The strike on her knee would do just that, considering Yuel's weak constitution. So, instead the blade bent in half as the inertia still continued to transfer her whole body. The result would at least be a sore knee, but at least the goal was achieved. With rollercoaster speed she was sent across the room, actually barely landing into the body of water. Her body just barely missed the ground, with the back of her hand scraped at most. Perhaps the power in his strike could be considered the fourth unaccounted-for action of James.

On the other side, Yuel trudged out of the water as fast as possible to react; thank god the adrenaline from her first time in combat numbed the pain of a scraped hand that would otherwise have the girl groveling in pain on the floor. Her tolerance towards pain was, after all, insanely low. Interestingly enough, the sword in her hand formed an astonishingly similar shape to a boomerang. Perhaps even the speudo-infinite lift property of boomerangs could be replicated.