26 Chapter 24 The Future (1/2)

Takemi blinked before taking off his First High jacket and started undoing his tie. He had a grin set on his face and a raised eyebrow,

”I didn't know you where so bold Miyuki-chan. And when Tatsuya was standing right there? How scandalous”.

The girl went red in the face before regaining her elegant persona and turning her head to the side around while saying in a distant tone, ”You're mistaken Mikazuchi-san. Onii-sama told me to tell you that when you got here, so that he could take a sample of blood. If you'd look over there you would see why”.

She gestured to the table where Tatsuya was standing with a box of clear liquid. He had a computer directly beside him and a microscope, with a large clear crystal to his left. His eyebrows had grown closer together and had a slight darker shade of skin tone underneath his eyes, indicating his lack of sleep.

”Ah, Takemi-san, you're here. I trust that Stage 1 went as smoothly as you planned?”.

”It did. Within the next couple days, requests for the crystallized mana will be flooding in and the information will no longer be able to be contained. Donations should start coming in and we will be provided with assets to purchase equipment without using your or my own connections”.

Tatsuya nodded and then pointed to the liquid in the box.

”That's good. I've made some progress on the catalyst and believe that it is blood. This liquid was made with a sample I had in the lab, and then tried using my own when I ran out. I believe that due to the quality and quantity of the od within your body, it could be what changes it from just energy to a solid. My own barely has enough to liquefy the substance and I have yet to find a way to keep it stable”.

Takemi looked at the liquid in the box and noted the several lines on the side and a time written beside it. Obviously what Tatsuya said about it being unstable was correct, and the liquefied mana couldn't stay as a liquid without a strong enough catalyst.

”How much blood did you use?”. Asked Takemi turning the pressurized lid off and placing his hand above the mana.

”About a liter”.

Takemi nodded before stopping and turning his head to look at Tatsuya.

”A liter! Are you crazy!? Even I would wait before doing it all in one go!”.

Tatsuya walked away from Takemi and sat down in the leather chair in the room. He closed his eyes and said, ”I just kept giving it enough until it stabilized for an hour before it started to turn back into pure mana. I thought it would be permanent”.

Miyuki handed her elder brother an energy drink with a smile and patted his head.

”Anyway, Takemi-san. How about you try? Onii-sama believes that it will take less than a thousandth of what he did. Try a single drop first”.

He nodded and made pricked his thumb with his incisor letting a single red drop gather on the tip of his finger and watched as it fell into the pool of liquefied mana.

The results were something that any of the three could expect.

”That's....!”.

”Onii-sama!”.

”....Hmm....”.

Although all of the the liquefied mana turned into crystallized mana, he amount was-

”It must be at least six feet tall? All from just a single drop of blood?”. Said Miyuki in awe of the sudden appearance of the giant clear crystal.

Tatsuya narrowed his eyes and tried to read the Eidos of the crystal and found out that it was exactly the same as the the first crystal, only that it's capacity to contain a completed Magic Sequence was greater than the basketball sized one.

”Well. That was rather anticlimactic”, Said Tatsuya leaning further into his chair. He needed a new direction for their research to, now that the reason behind crystallization of mana had been revealed, for now he just wanted to have a nice nap and....

The older Shiba feel asleep and the younger one put a blanket on top of him out of goodwill.

”I have a question Miyuki-san”.

”Go right ahead Takemi-san. Although I might not answer depending on the question”.