The lightning stone wouldn't leave his head.
Yuki sat in the basement that evening, the white mana stone on the workbench in front of him, crackling faintly. Compressed electrical energy, captured from a Platinum mage's strongest attack, stored in a conductor the size of his thumb.
He'd been turning it over in his mind since the arena. Element-specific mana stones. Not just batteries — ammunition. If he could capture and store different types of elemental mana, he could build weapons that fired them on demand.
And he knew exactly who needed a weapon upgrade.
Lira was deadly with a bow. But a bow had limitations — range, rate of fire, ammunition. She carried a quiver of maybe thirty arrows. When those ran out, she was done.
What if she never ran out?
He pulled materials from storage. Blue mana-conductive metal for the frames. Ironwood for the stocks. Refined iron for the mechanical components. Mana thread for the internal channelling.
He'd never seen a gun in this world. But he'd seen plenty in his old one — movies, games, reference material burned into his visual memory. And his magic didn't care where the blueprints came from.
He started with the rifle.
It took most of the night.
The frame was mana-conductive metal, shaped into a long-barrelled weapon with an ironwood stock and a comfortable grip. The barrel was reinforced — layered enchantments that could handle the discharge of concentrated elemental energy without degrading. The trigger mechanism was mechanical but mana-assisted — pull the trigger, the weapon draws from the loaded mana stone and fires a projectile of whatever element the stone contained.
The key innovation was the slot system. A chamber behind the barrel, designed to accept different mana stones. Slide one in, lock it, and the weapon reconfigured its output to match. Swap stones, swap ammunition. No reloading. No running out — the stones recharged passively from atmospheric mana.
He made the mana stones next. Four types.
Earth — compressed stone projectiles. Dense, fast, precise. The equivalent of a bullet. Good for single targets at range.
Ice — frozen mana shaped into penetrating rounds. Slightly slower than earth but with a secondary effect — the impact point froze, spreading ice across the target's surface. Good for incapacitation.
Fire — concentrated thermal energy, launched as a burning projectile. On impact, detonation. Not a bullet — a grenade. Area damage, explosive force, devastating against groups. And if the trigger was held down —
He tested that mentally. Rapid fire. The mana stone had enough charge for sustained output. Hold the trigger, and the weapon became an automatic launcher. Fire rounds at machine-gun speed, each one detonating on impact.
That's a grenade launcher with infinite ammo.
Lightning — electrical discharge, fired as a concentrated bolt. Fast, accurate, and non-lethal at lower settings. The bolt would stun and incapacitate rather than kill — the electrical charge disrupting the target's nervous system. Perfect for subduing without fatalities.
He built the handgun next. Same principles, smaller frame. Modelled after a revolver — compact, one-handed, with a rotating chamber that could hold three different mana stones simultaneously. Flip a selector, choose your element, fire.
By dawn, both weapons sat on the workbench. The rifle was sleek — dark metal, ironwood stock, a scope enchanted with magnification and mana-sight. The revolver was elegant — compact, balanced, with a grip shaped to Lira's hand.
He also built holsters. Belt-mounted for the revolver. A shoulder sling for the rifle. Both mana-woven leather, enchanted for quick-draw.
She's going to love these. Or she's going to call me insane. Probably both.
"We're testing these at the homestead," Yuki announced at breakfast. "Too dangerous to fire in the city."
Lira looked at the weapons laid out on the kitchen table. Then at Yuki. "What are these?"
"Mana-powered elemental firearms. Technically."
He looked at the household. Lira. Kana. Hana. Elena, standing in the kitchen doorway. Miri, peeking from behind her mother's apron.
"Everyone's coming. Pack for a few days."
The teleportation deposited all six of them onto the bridge overlooking the Japanese garden.
Elena and Miri had never seen the homestead.
Elena went very still. Her eyes moved across the garden — the pond, the cherry blossom tree, the cobblestone, the bamboo — and then lifted to the landscape beyond. The canals. The groves. The perimeter wall in the far distance. Kilometres of green, cultivated land stretching in every direction.
"Lord Yuki," she said carefully. "This is yours?"
"Yes, ma'am. All of it."
"All... of it."
"To the walls and beyond."
Miri was already at the pond, crouching beside Kana and Hana, all three of them watching the fish.
Kana and Hana hadn't been here before either. Their reaction was less restrained than Elena's.
Kana took one look at the open grassy fields, the fruit trees, the endless green space, and ran. Full sprint, silver hair streaming, tail straight out behind her. She made it about two hundred metres before circling back, vibrating with energy.
"IT'S SO BIG."
Hana stood at the bridge railing, black ears rotating, dark eyes cataloguing everything. The quiet assessment — then a slow, spreading look of wonder that she didn't try to hide.
Yuki gave them the tour. The house — which Elena immediately began mentally cataloguing for cleaning. The groves — north, east, west, south. The canals. The courtyard. The garden. The perimeter wall.
Kana asked if all the fruit was free to eat. Yuki, of course, said yes. She disappeared into the citrus grove and didn't come back for twenty minutes.
The testing range was a flat field on the homestead's western edge — future farmland that currently served as open space. Yuki set up targets at various distances — wooden posts, stone blocks, a few boulders he'd pulled from underground.
He handed Lira the rifle.
"Earth stone first. It'll fire like a conventional round — fast, precise, single shots."
She shouldered the weapon. Sighted through the enchanted scope. Fired.
The compressed stone round crossed two hundred metres and punched through the wooden target post. Clean hole. The post stayed standing — the round had passed through it like it wasn't there.
Lira lowered the rifle. "That's faster than an arrow."
"Much faster. No arc, no wind compensation. Point and shoot."
She fired again. And again. Each shot landing within centimetres of the last. Her marksmanship with the bow translated directly — the fundamentals were the same, and the rifle removed the variables that made long-range archery difficult.
"Ice stone."
She swapped. The ice round hit the boulder at a hundred metres and detonated in a burst of crystalline frost. The boulder's surface cracked and glazed over. Three more shots turned it into an ice sculpture.
"Fire stone."
The first fire round hit a target post and exploded. Not a small explosion — a detonation that sent fragments in every direction and left a smoking crater. Kana cheered from a safe distance.
"Hold the trigger down," Yuki said.
Lira held the trigger. The rifle spat fire rounds in rapid succession — thump thump thump thump — each one arcing toward the target line and detonating on impact. In three seconds, every target in a fifty-metre spread was burning wreckage.
Lira released the trigger. Stared at the devastation. Looked at Yuki.
"This is a siege weapon."
"It's a versatile multi-purpose firearm."
"This could level a fortress."
"Only on the fire setting."
She swapped to lightning. The bolt hit a stone block and discharged — crackling across its surface, arcing to nearby objects. Non-lethal at this power level, but the target block was scorched and smoking.
She set the rifle down. Picked up the revolver. Tested each element at close range — the weapon was responsive, accurate, and fit her hand like it was made for her. Which it was.
"The stones recharge on their own?"
"From atmospheric mana. You'll never run out."
She holstered the revolver on her belt. Slung the rifle across her back. Stood there — bow over one shoulder, rifle over the other, revolver on her hip, the blue necklace pulsing at her throat.
"I'm going to be honest," she said. "I feel ridiculous. And incredibly dangerous."
"Both are correct."
Kana and Hana appeared at his elbows within seconds.
"We want guns too."
"Absolutely not."
"But—"
"Guns are for adults."
Ears drooped. Tails sagged. Two sets of devastating eyes aimed at his defences.
He held firm. For once. "You can practice with spares here at the homestead. Under supervision. Only here."
The ears lifted slightly.
"But—" He reached into storage. Two small rods, about the length of a forearm. Lightning mana stones embedded in the tips. "—you can carry these. For self-defence."
The rods delivered a shock on contact — enough to stun an attacker, not enough to do permanent damage. He'd made them while experimenting with lightning stones and they were perfect for small hands.
Kana grabbed hers and immediately tried to shock Hana with it. Yuki confiscated it for thirty seconds before returning it with a lecture.
He made two more rods — one for Elena, one for Miri. "For the market. For anywhere you're out without me."
Elena took hers with a bow. "Thank you, Lord Yuki."
He also distributed small magic bags — belt-sized, spatial storage, temporal stasis. One for each of them. Kana, Hana, and Miri immediately began filling theirs with fruit from the nearest grove, treating the enchanted spatial containers like Halloween candy bags.
Elena, long past surprise at this point, simply clipped hers to her apron and said "very practical, sir."