59. A Bounty

Izumi already felt Yuriko's presence which had prevented him from confessing. He sighed.

"Well, never mind. I can try later." Izumi thought.

"Ara? Did I disturb the two of you? Sorry, I should have come a little bit late." Yuriko chuckled when she felt the atmosphere between those two.

Izumi just smiled and said that Yuriko came when Izumi wanted to go back home. At the same time, he started to say goodbye to Kyouko and her mother because it was getting late.

— — — —

When Kyouko went back inside, her mother asked her.

"So, which step are you two at?"

"Mamaaa!!! We're not!!!" Kyouko blushed.

"Eh, he is not your boyfriend yet?" Yuriko was surprised.

"He isn't."

"Then what are you waiting for? He is handsome and caring, and his cake shop is popular too. I bet he could make a delicious cake by himself." Kyouko just silently listened to her mother. Yuriko continued, "Furthermore, do you want to let him go with another girl? He's handsome, so there must be someone who likes him."

Kyouko suddenly imagined Izumi walking around, dating, or even marrying another girl.

"I don't want that to happen!" Kyouko exclaimed. Then she looked at his mother who smiled at her. Of course, she wanted to bury her head deep to the ground after saying such an embarrassing thing.

— — — —

Izumi had arrived home. When he was in the room, he took his phone out of his pocket and opened the group chat app. He opened Tabane's profile, then started a video call.

"Hello, hello, everyone's idol, the genius Tabane-chan is here!!" Tabane immediately picked up the video call cheerfully.

"Well, are you busy tomorrow, Tabane-chan?"

"Nope, what is it, what is it? Do you want to ask me for a date? You playboy~~" Tabane said teasingly.

"Hmmm, dating a villainess should be nice." Izumi nodded in reply.

"What do you mean by villainess? Well, never mind. What's up?"

"I need your help! You are the most genius person I know. So, I need—"

Then Izumi explained what he wanted, in which case Tabane's help was needed. Of course, he wanted to learn a lot about technology from Tabane. And he also did not forget to ask to be taught how to make an IS.

Tabane said she was happy to help and asked Izumi to come to her world whenever he wanted. Since tomorrow is Saturday, Izumi said that he would come tomorrow morning.

— — — —

The next day.

Izumi bought an item in the Dimensional Shop to go to Tabane's world. Once teleported to another world, Izumi looked around.

Several tall buildings came into his view. The technology in this world was more advanced than he expected. He needed to learn a lot from this place.

Not wanting to stay too long, Izumi called Tabane to pick him up.

It didn't take long for Tabane to arrive at Izumi's location. Then she took him to her laboratory.

"Your laboratory is quite hidden. And I didn't expect it to be underground either."

Tabane's laboratory was located outside the city borders, in a shabby abandoned building to be exact. However, no one dared to approach it because the area was privately owned. As soon as someone approached, the weapon sensors surrounding the area would automatically fire at the intruder.

That's why the area is known as a forbidden area as if it was military property.

When Izumi entered the laboratory, he saw a place filled with scientific machines, several robots that were none other than IS, as well as various kinds of scientific equipment such as weapons, etc.

He glanced at Tabane.

"Tabane-chan, do you live alone?"

Tabane turned to him and nodded.

"Yup, is something wrong?"

"No. It's just that, in this vast laboratory, you live alone. Don't you feel lonely?" Izumi knew that being alone was painful. Maybe that's why Tabane often acts like a villainess in her world to get rid of her loneliness.

"Um, if you stay here with me, maybe I won't be lonely. Hehehe." Tabane chuckled.

"You know that's impossible, right? Well, let's get back to business. You said you would help me on one condition right?" Izumi asked to confirm something.

Then, Tabane nodded.

"That's right. If you don't want to, I won't teach you." Tabane gave a smile after saying that.

"Fine, fine! But what do you want?"

Tabane didn't answer and just giggled. Izumi frowned, thinking about what Tabane was thinking. Then he realized something quite possible and started asking Tabane about it.

"Don't tell me you want me to take care of that boy called Ichika because he won your beautiful sister's heart?"

"Hehehe, you know me so well, Izumi-chan." Tabane giggled in reply.

"Damn siscon."

"Hee, are you jealous?"

"No."

Izumi looked around and approached one of the IS inside the lab. Izumi had been wondering for a long time whether he could activate the IS or not, which was created just for women.

He pointed to the inactive form IS.

"Can I try it?"

"Feel free." Tabane replied shortly.

The first time he touched, there was no reaction at all. As he expected, Tabane was deliberately restricting men from using IS. Meanwhile, women could freely use IS because it had been designed by Tabane to suit them.

Even when he failed to activate it, he didn't stop. He circulated the energy within his body and flowed it slowly into the IS. Not long after, the IS reacted.

"Huh? How?" Tabane was slightly surprised that the IS reacted to Izumi. Previously, the only boy who could make IS react was Ichika, her friend's younger brother. At that time she was not sure the reason why Ichika could do it. And now there's another one.

"Using spiritual power should do the trick. Hehe." Izumi said while raising his index finger.

Tabane didn't think Izumi could exploit that loophole. All the humans in her world couldn't use spiritual power, so she missed that possibility.

Tabane approached Izumi with sparkling eyes. Izumi had a bad feeling when he saw her gaze.

"Izumi-chan, be my experiment for a while! I'll teach you everything later."

"Hey, this is beyond our agreement."

"Hehe. Fret not! Agreements can be rewritten. If you don't want to, I'll force you, you know."

Tabane took such a swift move. Izumi was even quite surprised by Tabane's physical strength and speed.

However, when Tabane tried to grab Izumi's hand to hold it, her hand passed through Izumi's hand.

"It's useless. Without Haki, you can't do anything to me."

Izumi made his body untouchable like the wind. So any physical attack will have no effect on him.

"Tch, not fun. Having a Logia power is cheating." Tabane clicked her tongue.

"Can you look in the mirror? Having a modified body is also considered cheating." Izumi pointed at Tabane in disapproval.

"Never mind. Read these books first! If you don't understand, you can ask! After you understand everything, then I can teach you how to create an IS."

At first, Tabane didn't plan to teach him, but since she saw firsthand how Izumi activated the IS, she couldn't help but have to teach him due to their agreement.

It took Izumi 6 hours to read the book Tabane provided. He noted down points he didn't understand so he could ask Tabane later. And the next two hours he spent asking questions about points he didn't understand.

"Right, last question. You're the only one who can make an IS core, right? And from what I've read, the main raw material is Time Crystal. What's that?" Izumi asked the last question.

"In essence, a time crystal is a quantum system of particles in which one of the lowest energy states is reached when the particles undergo repetitive motion. And that physic matters are condensed in a crystal due to the unbalanced laws of space. Well, something like that." Tabane briefly explained. But Izumi was quite confused.

He sighed.

"Looks like I have to study a lot of physics."

*Buzz* *buzz*

Izumi and Tabane felt their phones vibrate. Tabane opened the group chat app.

The notification turned out to be only Luffy who had sent two photos in the chat.

"Eh, Izumi-chan. It's your wanted poster. Another one is a newspaper. It's all about you." Tabane immediately turned to Izumi and told him. Izumi himself was quite curious about his bounty.

"Izumi, the ninja. Oh, 105 million Berries. Not bad." Izumi nodded in agreement. Beside him, Tabane opened the newspaper in the form of a photo that Luffy sent.

"The appearance of a dangerous individual from the East Blue who flattened the marines with one hit. He released a giant water ball that trapped all the marines and made the Logia Devil Fruit user who is the strongest type of Devil Fruit bow down before him. This individual is undoubtedly Devil Fruit users' nemesis. Hehehe, you rocked the world with just one action. The nemesis, huh? Quite interesting." Tabane commented after reading what was written in the newspaper.