76 A power-up.

"What's your power anyway?" I asked Yuuno as we sat next to a tree near the Clintarou's shrine.

It was winter but Yuuno melted all the snow away and dried the ground. It was warm where we were sitting.

"I dunno. I'm a mana user I guess. I didn't really go through the awakening thing so I don't have a particular power... I just have them all." Was that a flex? That was totally a flex.

"I know that you didn't go through with the awakening, what I meant to ask was about the attribute you got from the devil transformation."

"Ooooh that? You've already seen it though."

"I have?"

"I mean not specifically but right before you passed out, you saw it."

"All I saw was lightning."

"Yeah, that. Basically besides the base fire, water, air, earth and its derivatives I got the ability to make another element. I don't exactly know what it is, I studied it and it was inexplicable by current science. It's just a derivative of mana interactions and that's about all I know."

Eh? Isn't that ability kind of broken?

"What does it even do?"

"Anything I want it to. Though my favourite application has been turning into the element, and then manipulating the element to form red lightning and then zipping around at unreal speeds."

"Wait wait wait wait. Can you control it to its extreme?"

"Not yet."

"What about blood? Can you control your blood?"

"Oh yeah, on the first day I turned into the devil my- look." She pulled the top of her shirt down to reveal her collarbone and there was a little pink tattoo there. "I got this."

So it was that. Vampires who turned into devils formed their own domain of mana. They called it Regel Nobilus. Being direct descendants of Deathos... They quite liked that ability. So she got that too. Interesting.

"I see..." I sighed. "Also I was kinda expecting a sports bra."

"You little!" She let her shirt go and it went back to not being revealing anymore. But her face was revealing. A terribly red glow. Pouting blushing cheeks like a baboon's butt. "Pervert."

"Proud demons don't shag." I straightened my vision back to the statue.

She's so cute- STOP MAO! Don't get swept up by vain emotions. I needed to distract myself. Unlike Yuuno who went back to making herself a pack of cup ramen, I had nothing to occupy myself with aside those idle thoughts!

"Oi, Yuuno! Now that I understood your ability, there's one more thing I can teach you."

"Eh?"

"It'll make you a lot stronger!"

"What is it?! Tell me!" She immediately put the kettle down and closed the lid. So easy.

'Let's see.'

I looked around for items to try it on but there was only one viable option. After taking the empty kettle in my hand and roughly weighing it, I threw the moderately light object into the snow a bit far away.

'This should do.'

"Hold out your hand." She put the cup ramen to the side and held her hand out. Adamantly obeying my command. I grabbed her wrist and pointed it at the kettle.

"Okayyyy."

"Observe it thoroughly. Burn the image of the kettle in your mind. The way the light bounces off it, the way it might feel in your hand, how it is positioned, it's dimensions. Gauge the distance as well. See how the snow is holding onto the kettle. The rate at which the kettle's heat is slowly melting the snow around it.

Take in the details so minuscule that even Laplace's Demon would miss them."

If she could achieve true equilibrium, this shouldn't be the hardest thing to pull off.

"Hmm…" She mumbled as if to give her confirmation.

"Now close your eyes." Obediently, she closed her eyes. "Imagine that kettle. Every information you took in right before this. The shape and try to feel it in space. Render it in your mind. Perfectly. Focus only on that. Can you see it?"

"I can see it." Her focus was insane. I could feel the stillness from her concentration.

"Good. Now try to pinpoint every molecule on the kettle. Every molecule would have a mana particle attached to it. You should be able to feel the mana too at your stage."

"Unnhnn." She replied a couple of seconds later.

No wonder, that God chose her. She was a genius when it came to abilities.

"Great, what you have is what I call a mana map. Try to think that the mana is that one element you control."

Yuuno didn't reply. She was too engrossed. But she definitely heard me.

"Now try moving just the kettle in the mana map. Every particle of the kettle simultaneously. If you move some faster than the others you would either change the shape or bend the metal. So it has to be consistent. But it's fine if you can't do it in the first try. It is pretty hard."

She didn't stop or waver. But this step took her some time. I mean obviously it took her that time. Even if she was a genius she was no Mao. Yuuno was feeling around the area around her exploring the nooks and crannies of the mana map.

Even though it took a while, eventually there was a melted pool of water where the kettle was and a couple of metres above- floating in the sky, there was the actual thing!

Very slightly crooked, to a degree that it was impossible to notice with a naked human eye. It wasn't all at the same rate.

But this was still a great result to achieve in your first attempt at telekenenisis.

"Open your eyes." I tapped her shoulder.

Slowly while maintaining her focus Yuuno opened her eyes. And the next second her jaw dropped to the ground in astonishment.

"Welcome to devilhood, I congratulate you on not being a vampire anymore." I said as she struggled to keep the kettle up. "Practice just like I taught you and you'd gain mastery really soon. Then handling a kettle would be easy..."

"This is actually... Just woahhhh..." She was almost mesmerised by her new power. "Mao, you really helpe-"

"Also, thanks for the ramen." Right next to her as she continues to play floaty floaty with the kettle, I took a big slurp of the broth from her cup. And then went right in with the chopsticks. Itadakimasu indeed.

Oh how savoury the dish was in this cursed winter. Like a warm kiss to my alimentary canal. Add to that the special seasoning of Yuuno's miserable face as my lips were about to touch the chopsticks.

"If you don't stop now it would be an indirect kiss!" Her words stopped me as the kettle fell to the ground. Her attention was directed at me. Her eyes were wide open.

"So what? I'm not immature enough to care about just some used chopsticks." I throated a big long bunch of noodles.

To be honest I wasn't mature enough for an indirect kiss. After all, I was an all-knowing being who had no experience with women.

I was just used to eating her leftovers. To add to that, she ate from my stuff all the time. But that was all when we were kids. Having her do that now just seemed off. My heart was beating rather fast.

But! But if I were to stop now it would mean that I was the one who felt uncomfortable doing this. Which I just couldn't let be.

So the next second, the pair of chopsticks graced my lips again.

And then the one with a red face was Yuuno.

"D-Don't you blush too easily? You uhhh... whatever the opposite of a thot is."

"Says you? Have you seen your reflection?" Well, I did feel my ears heat up a bit. But there was another reason for my redness.

"It's the cold."

"I heated this place up with magic."

"Scheisse!"

"What a mega virgin demon lord." Her smug twisted face.

"Demons don't need-"

"But you're not a demon anymore… You're half-human. That means that you have needs, and that you... you relieve them o-on m-meee when you lewd m-UUUUU!" She couldn't keep a straight face as she probably imagined me 'relieving'.

"I DON'T RELIEVE ANYTHING! And stop saying stuff that will make you blush, you idiot! If you want to tease me at least keep a straight face yourself!"

"I do have a straight face."

I put my hand on her shoulder and transferred her image to her through mana transmission.

"I LOOK LIKE THAT?! nooooo" She buried her face in her knees. We completely forgot the whole thing was about me stealing her ramen at this point. "ALSO WHAT'S UP WITH THE SPARKLES?"

Sparkles? Oh those sparkles. WAIT! WHY AM I IMAGINING SPARKLES AROUND HER?!

"Uhh… Ah! Your hair is shiny."

"You know what it's getting too hot in here, let's just head inside."

And then our banter continued for a while. The tension between us did power-up. Growing up was tough.