Erika and Selena had been talking for quite a while, and by the time they finally finished, a surprising amount of time had passed.
Selena said, "Oh, look at the time! I didn't even realise how much time had passed. It's almost time for the mission to start. I wonder if my brother finished that experiment of his."
"I wonder what he is making?" Erika said, thinking about how he brought food and even some dangerous chemicals. She has no idea how he is going to make something edible with those.
"Whatever he's making," Selena continued with a smirk, "I'm fairly certain it's going to taste horrible. Shall we check on him?"
Erika nodded, and both Selena and Erika teleported back to the lab, only to see that the room looked like an utter disaster. Smoke and burn marks were everywhere, materials were spread out all over the place, and the clean lab they left him in had turned into a war zone for some reason.
"What the hell happened here?" Erika exclaimed.
Selena sighed. "Yeah… I forgot his bad habit of doing this when he is under a time limit."
"But I've never seen him do this, well… not this bad," Erika said, thinking about all the times he made something and it was never this bad.
Selena sighed and said, "That's because in this life, he was never under a time limit before, so yeah…"
Erika asked, "Wait, where is he?"
She and Selena looked around and saw Akira standing in front of an enormous machine that looked like some sort of industrial baking contraption. He turned toward them, casually wiping soot off his hands.
"Oh, is it already time for the mission? Good, I'm almost done," he said cheerfully.
Erika shook her head with a sigh, "We just left you alone for a while… just for a while."
Selena looked at the disaster of the room and asked, "So how are you going to clean up this room now that you destroyed it?"
Akira shrugged, "I don't know. I will think about it later. But first, look at my new creation."
Just as he said that, the machine opened, and blue, glowing, jelly-like bricks appeared on the conveyor belt.
Erika's eyes widened. "What… is that?"
Picking one up, Akira grinned. "My latest invention: Energy Nutrient Core—Type Alpha. But you can just call them Energy Bars Alpha. From now on, this will be my food."
Erika stared at the luminescent bricks. "That's… food?"
"Each one packs roughly 150,000 kcal," Akira said proudly. "Perfect for me."
But Erika looked at them and said, "Yeah, no, it's glowing and smells like gasoline. There is no way it's edible."
Akira sighed, "Yeah, it tastes worse, too. Maybe because I condensed all those nutrients and calories into this. But I don't have time to perfect its taste and stuff. But we are not really short on time, and I only managed to make enough to last a year."
Selena frowned, "Are you sure it won't explode?"
Akira said, "Oh, it will." He threw the one he was holding into the distance, and it exploded into blue flames.
Erika said, "Yeah, I don't think they are edible. What if your stomach explodes?"
Akira said, "Don't worry, it's similar to plastic explosives. I made it so it won't explode without my mana, so don't worry."
Selena said with worry, "Are you really sure your stomach can handle it?"
Akira said, "Well, it didn't at first, but I used my Rewrite ability to make it adapt to handle it, so don't worry."
Selena sighed. "Brother, you are already overusing it. It's not good for you if your body evolves into something weird. And remember, it didn't end well in the Rewrite anime either."
Akira said, "Don't worry, I'm not an idiot… ok, I won't use it too much."
Erika tilted her head and asked, "Why is it bad? What happened?"
Selena said, "Well, the MC who uses that ability overused it and turned into a tree at the end."
"Why a tree?" Erika asked, now more confused.
Selena said, "Think of it like this: evolution is a process that makes life easier for that organism, but it only makes it enough to survive. So even if that organism can no longer move or talk, as long as it is alive, the evolution is a success. For example, if Akira used this to survive a massive explosion and used Rewrite, it might turn his skin into steel or even denser than steel, but he could no longer move. It's something like that."
Erika said, "Ok, no. Akira, don't use it too much."
Akira said, "Don't worry, I won't use it. Like that. I promise."
Erika sighed, knowing Akira always keeps his promises. He always says he will never go back on his word; that's his ninja way. And he does keep it.
"So," Akira looked at Selena with a serious expression. "Is it time for the mission?"
"Yes", Selena replied.
Akira said, "Ok, then let me collect them."
He collected the Energy Bars Alpha, and they all teleported back to the throne room. Selena gave him some clothes in a similar style to the ones she gave Erika and said, "Here, brother. This is your Star Chasers uniform. I made it myself. What do you think?"
Akira looked at his uniform, a white futuristic winter school uniform with purple lines, different from Erika's crimson lines. He asked an important question, "Does it come in black?"
Selena said, "Nope. White is our family colour, not black."
Akira sighed. "Ok." With a snap, a dark sphere enveloped him, and when it faded, he was completely dressed in his new clothes, and he also looked fresh, cleared of the dirt he had picked up while experimenting.
Erika looked at the magic's full effects and said, "Alright, you need to teach me that magic."
"Sure," Akira replied, preparing to send it via the Archives system.
Selena added, "By the way, brother, you can easily send it with Star Chats."
"Star Chats?" Akira asked.
"It's a messaging app I made for the Star Soul system," Selena explained. "It works just like that."
Akira opened it, confirming it functioned exactly as she described. When he sent the spell, Erika received it instantly and downloaded it, learning it without any issue.
Selena continued, "By the way, you can do many more things with that. You can even have telepathic long-distance calls, and even items can be sent through it."
"Wait, what? How?" Akira asked, in shock.
"Well, it works like this: the item in your inventory will be selected and teleported directly to another person's inventory," Selena explained.
Akira asked, "Not a bad idea, but what if someone just sends an active bomb to the other person's inventory and blows up everything?"
Selena shrugged. "I'm still working on safeguards. For now… I don't think you'd send a bomb to her, right?"
Akira chuckled. "Yeah, fair point."
"Good," Selena said. "Now, let's talk about the mission briefing. Time's running out."