Anime Makes One Smarter

A couple of hours after the duel had been set, Max was back in his room fiddling with his system, for the first time, having some down time to actually do something other then scheme and plot. It was then that a rather familiar voice resonated throughout his head.

"So, things seem to be going pretty well for you. Your actually better at this then I thought you'd be.....you actually seem like your right at home here." This was Tilith naturally, someone he had actually forgotten existed.

"Oh, Tilith, hey," Max greeted her with a hint of surprise evident in his tone. "Where have you been? It's been quite a while since I heard your condescending tone." He tapped a sign labeled CHARACTER AFFECTIONS and a popup screen appeared. It showed every single person that he had come into physical contact with and their affection. While this did intrigue him, he decided to come back to it later.

"Max, how do you know what to do.....Ive ran through countless simulation programs via the system and there always seems to be only one correct way to do something without it backfiring." Tiliths voice sounded rather amazed, but there was a hint of disbelief somewhere in them. "How are you doing it?"

Max laughed and tapped his temple though he wasn't entirely sure that she could see him. "Anime Tilith, thats all there is to it...manga, anime, and pure japanese culture. There isn't any kind of trick to it, you just have to have the right mindset." He grinned. "If you know how someone thinks then you use that to manipulate them, if you know how someone feels then use that. If you know how a situation will turn out then twist it to your advantage. This is the 'Basics To Survival In An Anime World 101'."

Max stood up and began pacing back and forth aross his room, another habit he had picked up when he was young, always doing it when he was excited about something. "That Kirsch guy was especially easy to manipulate. He had a vain personality that was paired an ego that could even rival Byakuya Kuchiki....matter of fact, he's basically the less cooler version of Byakuya."

"Guys like Kirsch, the ones with huge egos and those who are too arrogant generally can't stand when their abilities are put into question. They either do one of two things, try to prove you wrong or want to fight, they actually have too much pride to back down once you get under their skin." Max laughed a little as he walked to his bed at sat on the edge of it. "Once I got on his nerves and put his abilities into question, there was no way he was going to back down, even if it meant he might lose. This was my plan from the moment he started talking about me being disgusting and impolite."

"Let me get this straight," Tilith started, her voice filled with incredulity. "You came up with this plan in mere seconds, but only because you were being childish about someone calling you a simple name?" She becane quiet after that as if waiting for Max to answer.

Max simply nodded, assuming that she could understand without him having to say anything. He didnt feel like explaining any more then he already had because he was feeling rather proud of himself and didnt want her to bring down his mood.

"Okay then," Tilith said after understanding Max's head movement. "Then what about the battle, you said you'd win with just 3 months of training right? Then what was your plan for that."

"Out of all the people in this world, I'm probably the only person who has two types of magic, minus those who had to go through surgery or experimentation in order to get another." Max layed down completely, staring up at the ceiling. "I'm also the one with the most knowledge in theoretical magic. In my head, I have hundreds of manga and anime facts stored by memory. A couple dozen have to do with magic while others are irrelevant."

"Okay," Tilith said, apparently not keeping up with his train of thought, seemingly a step behind him. "What's the point that your trying to get at Max? How is any of this gonna help you figure out how to beat that Kermit guy."

Max laughed softly at how she pronounced Kirsch's name, but answered her anyways. "Think about it Tilith, what if I could combine my magics together into a spell thats not even listed in the grimoire? Theoretically it is possible.....but as to how I'm gonna beat the guy, I already have a solution thats very simple. Just be faster!!"

Tilith went silent after that, completely stunned at how fast Max shifted gears from smart to dumbass. She had actually thought that he was pretty cool until he talked about beating his opponent with speed.

Max was just about to get out of bed when there was knock on his bedroom door, followed by a harder knock that actually sounded like a kick. Rising from his bed, Max walked over and opened the door, and befire him appeared none other then Mimosa herself with a blushing red face. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail which brought more attention to her bright red cheeks and her almost glowing green eyes. She wore a long purple dress with gold highlights that hid her busty frame, and the colors seemed oddly familiar. The most notable thing however was the fact that she had removed her shoes and was walking around her house barefoot.

"Hey Max, do you like my dress," Mimosa asked shyly, her face a deep shade of red. Max was almost certain that if he put his hand against her face, he would burn his palm.

"Oh Mimosa, did you come to profess you love to me already?" Max asked teasingly as he took a step back to let her in. "I wasnt expecting you until later tonight when you tried to sneak into my bed to sleep beside me." Once again, right when he was about to continue, a fist connected with his gut. This one felt different though, not as forceful, but maybe it was just his imagination.

"Nice to see you too Mimosa," He said, running his hands over his abdomen and smiled at her. "What can I help you with today? There anything special that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Mimosa's face blushed even more, if that was even possible. She stepped forward and leaned her head against Max's chest, muttering something unintelligible, as if she were casting a spell.

"I'm sorry?" Max asked in confusion, "I didnt quite catch that gorgeous, can you run that by me again?" He was actually confused by her behavior, he wasn't so narcissistic to think that she was here to actually profess her love or feelings to him.

"I said that I want to train with you," She said loudly, her breathing coming up short. "I know I don't have the right, I dont have the talent, and I don't have enough knowledge in order to stand by you." She looked up at him, tears beginning to swell up in her eyes. "I just want to become stronger so I won't be a burden. I want to follow you, to go where you go, so please.....let me train with you."

Max was rendered speechless for more then a couple of minutes as Mimosa pressed her face against his chest, her tears streaming down her face and soaking into his black shirt. He now understood why she was red in the face when she got here. She had to face her pride and embarrassment in order to confront him about this, but the question was....why? Why did she want to train with him, why was she even crying in the first place? Was her embarrassment that high that she even broke down and cried?

Max doubted it, after all she was strong, both heart and mind, she had proven that earlier and she had proven that when they had first met. He was unwilling to believe that she was like this because she simply wanted to train. Even if it was mildly embarrassing, she would only have a light blush on her face not a full on cry fest that made his shirt all wet.

"Mimosa, what happened to you," Max asked pulling her head away from his shirt so he could look at her. "You cant tell me you got this way just from wanting to train with me, so what the hell happened to get you this upset."

Mimosa simply shook her head and co tinued crying into his shirt. Max sighed and walked them back towards his own bed, sittong down and pulling her into his lap. She contimued to cry for about ten minutes before she eventually fell asleep in his arms.

Max cursed under his breath. Despite only meeting Mimosa yesterday, he still cared deeply for her, after all she and all the othr characters from Black Clover had given him nothing but happiness for the last couple years. He was pissed that anyone could make her cry, make her feel so much pain and anguish that she would come crying to him, a person whom she just met. He had no doubt that the reason she came to him in the first place was because she viewed him as someone strong, someone whose shoulder she could cry into. While that shouldve made him happy, it only made him feel a deep rooted hatred for the bastard that thought it would be fun to pick on a young girl.

"Tilith," Max said, undisguised anger clear in his tone. He wanted to find out who did it and make him pay, through cheap tricks or a straight up fight, he didnt care. This was his story now and no one got away with hurting those close to him.

"Yeah? Whats up?" Tilith asked cautiously, unclear on how to react to him. She had never seen him completely lose his cool before. He mostly seemed like an easy going push over that was occasionally smart at times.

"You said you were able to run simulations through the system right?" Max asked, his gaze never leaving the sleeping face of Mimosa, her eyelids a puffy red. "Well I want you to run every simulation possible, keep going until you find a common denominator between all of them, until you find the person who made Mimosa behave like this."

"Okay, you'll need to tell me where to start and where to end and once you tell me that I'll be able to isolate the potential suspect and identify the cause." Tilith began speaking in a much more professional way, and the sounds of beeping sounded out throughout his head.

"From the time I exited the dining room to the time where Mimosa knocked on my bedroom door. One last question for you, how accurate is the system when it comes to calculatinf these scenarios?" Max had a suspicion that he would likely leap to the wrong conclusions if fed incomplete information.

"The odds of the system running the correct scenario or something similar based on the characters involved and their personalities is 87.34%. Now running multiple simulations via the system." There were various noises happening inside of Max's head as he waited patiently for the task to finish.

The sounds of whirring and dinging resounded through his mind, as if there were a machine inside of his head. This kept on until a final sound echoed out and Tilith's voice once again filled his head.

"I have pinpointed the potential culprit and have deduced what his goal was." Tilith reported back in her professional manner, her voice sounding oddly robotic.

"Okay Tilith, I want you to tell me exactly what happened." Max said pulling Mimosa closer to his chest.

"Okay, here's what happened......"