Chapter 55 - Check Up

The three of them took an hour to celebrate, Misao suggested that they get another bottle of tonta berry wine and as such, she was down for the count, drunk. The day was still fairly young so they headed over to Reiki's house.

The walk was rather awkward, mostly due to Ichika who took glances at Takumi only to turn red for a while before turning away. This went of for most of the journey until he finally had enough.

"Something you want to tell me?" He asked, sighing in a slightly annoyed manner.

Ichika widened her eyes in shock as she flailed her hands while desperately nodding her head in denial.

Shrugging, he left her to her thoughts. In her tsundere mind, she was thinking back to when she met Takumi at the start of the breakthrough session; she fumed at the fact that she didn't accept his hug, it was just something in her persona that prompted her to shut him down.

Mizuko took a peek into her disoriented thoughts and giggled.

"She definitely has a thing for you," she teased Takumi.

"I don't blame her." he replied, narcissistic as usual.

"I can help you to move your relationship forward faster if you want," Mizuko offered, hiding her own desires beneath her words.

Takumi chuckled wryly before resisting, saying he enjoyed the slow pace things were going; after all, he too grew a strong liking to Ichika.

Pretty soon they came upon Reiki's house.

*knock~* *knock~*

"I hope she isn't sleeping," Takumi uttered jokingly.

A few seconds later, Reiki answered the door. Although she still looked exhausted, she seemed more lively that usual as she invited them inside. They noticed that there were some odd-looking red crystals sitting on her desk.

"We need your help with something," Takumi began, putting the crystals in the back of his mind, "We recently broke through to a new growth recently and we want you to look at our energy channels, tell us what you see.

Reiki was stunned momentarily before nodding, she then led them to an area in the centre of her room.

She immediately activated her clairvoyance, she manipulated the dust to act as a sort of radar, scanning both their bodies. Her expression kept changing slightly as she did her check up, from shocked to intrigued over and over again.

Almost ten minutes later, she finished gathering information. Her eyes went back to normal and the dust dissipated as she walked over to a chair, the cheerful glow in her eyes diminishing slowly.

"Okay, I'll ask some questions while I explain, is that okay?" Reiki asked she she fidgeted to get comfortable.

They both nodded before she continued to explain.

"So firstly, there is an area of energy in your chest that seems to have strengthend your human energy signature, changing it to a blazing gold colour," Reiki said with a look as if she wanted them to elaborate.

Takumi and Ichika took a glance at each other as they deduced this to be ki, they relayed this knowledge in simple terms to Reiki, who continued.

"Alright, so this breath chamber is sending the ki through the channels and out the breath points, correct?" She asked, receiving a nod, "well your dragon force, you in particular, Takumi, with three different elements has formed something similar in your stomach. Three polygonal spheres formed in your stomach, with colours matching Moon, Water and Earth elements.

But what's more, these spheres seem to be connected to your breath chamber and your channels, forming a symbiotic relationship with the ki, inherently making you stronger, and I presume this will become more so as you break through to the remaining growths. Was that simple enough to understand?"

It took a while to process this information for the both of them but it eventually sank in, they further analyzed the information and came to a conclusion: without ki, a dragon host would find it almost impossible to break through to the next growth. And when they asked Reiki about their hunch and received confirmation, their thoughts were settled.

"That basically means you, along with Misao and Ichika are the first ever to break through to the second growth, congratulations." Mizuko said, relaying the information to both Ichika and Takumi at the same time.

The new power hadn't been tested just yet but something told them that the results would be quite satisfying. After getting over that, he brought up the topic he had put to the back of his mind as he asked about the crystals on her desk.

"Ah yes, that reminds me." Reiki said with rounded lips, "These are just a few of those dragon force channeling crystals Misao came up with, the other kingdoms agreed and Lancelot sent these to me to see if the energy inside is stable and it is, go test it out. Oh, and, could you tell him my findings the next time you see him?"

Takumi was a bit surprised but shrugged it off as he walked over to the desk. Picking up one crystal, he asked how he would absorb the energy; he was informed to place the crystal on his forehead and the energy would seep in, destroying the crystal in the process, after which he would need to refine the energy by sending it to the cores in his stomach.

Nodding with determination, he did just that. Ichika watched anxiously as the crystal gave off a faint red glow and in a matter of seconds, the crystal had turned to dust.

Takumi directed the energy to his cores where it split apart before attributing itself to the respective elements, his body felt rejuvenated as he felt himself step closer to a breakthrough. He gave an extravagant thumbs up before leaving, headed home after departing with Ichika as the day came to an end.

***

By now, Daichi had already explained to Lancelot every bit of information he heard through Aegis in the dungeon, inciting a feeling of hope in his heart. He could barely sleep through the good news, so he wrote letters to his trusted team to meet him bright and early the next day to hatch a plan of action.