Chương 76: Book 1, Chapter 76: Sentinel

John mused that Rin's little impromptu lesson went better than it probably should have. He kinda came up with most of it on the fly after spending far too long agonizing about what he could teach the hot-blooded Unbound. It just kinda clicked when she laid her insecurities bare. While he wished he could tell her that he was working off an entirely different ability set and that he had not even the slightest clue how to channel magic through himself… Well, he hoped this helped her, at least.

The way she lit up when she shot some mostly straight lightning was charming. To be honest, he didn't really think too much about how throwing straight beams of electricity might be unusual, but it made sense in retrospect. While he was still kinda surprised how quickly Rin figured out how to mimic it, at least in part, there was some consolation that the new toy would keep her busy for a while. If he strained his ears, he could just barely hear the constant cracks of muted thunder through the thick workshop door.

Well, he should probably finish off this project. Shaking his head, John soldered the connection the hard way, with a very careful heat ray carefully connecting the air-aligned capacitor to the gimbal mount's base while mourning the loss of his beloved entropy welder. This device was probably one of the stupidest things that he had ever designed, but there really wasn't an easier way to do this. Core issue: They needed a way to detect individual Nameless in the woods.

Every single one they left alive posed an existential threat to rehabilitating the region, and the bounties on their own were not likely to be enough. Even if only a handful went undiscovered and they found some source of wealth for themselves, the Nameless could have a new hive growing in the shadows before they knew it. How long did it take to generate a Greater Nameless? Yuki couldn't tell him much, other than 'it depends on environmental factors', much to his frustration. There were several possible solutions.

The most obvious was airborne reconnaissance. However, even Yuki couldn't easily detect every Nameless from above. The canopy was too thick; the damn things were eerily quiet, and tracking by scent from the sky amidst the unobstructed winds was a hopelessly lost cause. The obvious solution was to mount a magic detector with one of the impromptu Nameless detecting lenses to the bottom of the hover disc, but that came with a few engineering challenges. How wide an area to scan?

How could one quickly and easily narrow down said area to where the creature actually was? Ideally, John would want it to show things on some sort of display, but building that would be a nightmare. Screwing wood to wood, reiterating the steps of his project in his head, trying to think up any holes in his own logic even as he flew through the various steps of fabrication at a breakneck pace. He didn't have a screen, nor did he have the means to make one. So, something more basic would have to do.

Once triggered, a magic detector released a small electric pulse, which he normally fed into a magical radio transmitter or into a motor. Of course, it didn't have to connect to one of those directly. With utmost focus, John grabbed a piece of copper wire and sealed it in the magically resistant sap that had proven ever so reliable these last few years. The idea was simple.

He would give the detector a lens with a very wide vertical field of view, but a very narrow horizontal field of view, then mount it to a motor which would rotate continuously. Sticking out from the detector's base would be the output line, and around it in a circle would be several different thin copper plates, each hooked up to a different transmitter.

From there, he would have the ability to tell what direction a reading was from, letting him close the distance rapidly and narrow down the location of any potential targets from an impressive range of several hundred meters. He linked each to his "Mage's Compass," the same device he had used to track down the ofuda not so long ago, adding an extra set of lights for them specifically while shrinking the whole contraption.

Embarrassingly, he had made the damn thing maybe five times the size it needed to be, and now that he trimmed it down, it could be somewhat comfortably mounted on his wrist with a simple leather band. Once done, he figured that it should probably let him scan the forest from the air safely and easily. While it was tempting to try and make a system that could automatically fly over and drop a payload…

well, even if it wasn't orders of magnitude more complex, he was terrified of the idea of a magical bomber 'getting sidetracked' and going off on an adventure, or the Nameless figuring out they could divert them to civilian targets by dripping some blood near them. It was easy to make a weapon that could destroy indiscriminately. It was much harder to create a weapon that destroyed the correct thing and nothing else. Hmm. Actually, that gave him an idea.

The scanner was incredibly low-power and lightweight, only a little larger than a marble. The electric motor wasn't much larger, and the only thing with a bit of bulk was the base, thanks to the need for several different transmitters. In time, he could doubtlessly cut it down to one, maybe two at most. Even with all that extra bulk, the footprint was barely larger than a playing card. Why couldn't he just strap it down and use it on a personal scale? Setting a new course, a feral grin split John's face.

He didn't have the senses of an Unbound… but if he could constantly scan the area around him, it would sure help close the gap. Maybe it wouldn't have the same range it would have in the sky if he used it on foot, but he could selectively scan for anything he could get a large enough sample of. Work blurred past as the newest tool in his arsenal quickly took shape, with only a little more trouble than he had originally thought.

John giggled as he cast a bronze fitting the old-fashioned way, or at least as old-fashioned as you could get while directly manipulating entropy and heat, running his finger over the smooth surface. A drill punched slim holes into the top bracket, and John mounted a small premade motor in place, attaching part of the salvaged quick-connect system from his old gauntlet to hold the detector in place.

Then, the engineer dipped copper wires into sap, forming a well insulating coating, before sealing them away in the device after attaching them to the corresponding copper plates. His hands were shaking as he gave it a quick test, completing the circuit and letting the electric motor start spinning. It… got stuck immediately on a slightly warped piece of copper. John cursed and started smoothing it down, then made sure to grease everything carefully.

Then, he started the motor up again, the detector spinning freely on its axis with a small buzz. With an almost frenetic energy, John raced over to one of the magically insulated parts bins at the far side of his shop, pulling free a chunk of Nameless eye that he had kept for testing. It was weak, faded, yet… Tick. As the detector panned the item in his hand, his modified Mage's Compass went off, signalling a reading directly in front of it before fading out as the detector left that eighth.

Giggling, he circled his… Sentinel System, holding the chunk of Nameless at various heights. Tick-tick-tick-tick. It worked flawlessly! Pausing the motor, he removed the filter, and— Tick-tick-tick— Huh. It was pointed at him; it shouldn't be reading enough to go off. Was it picking up interference? John shut his warding entirely off rather than letting it sit in its constant low ready state. Tick. Tick-tick. No good. It was intermittent still, even if it wasn't triggering as often.

Narrowing his eyes, John pulled the detector off the base with a quick twist, palming the diminutive orb and connecting it back up to its original housing. Silence. Then, he pointed it at the Nameless eye piece, pointedly still ignoring how human it looked. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Click. Hmm. It still worked, so why… John narrowed his eyes as he looked at the base before starting up the motor again, pointing the detector at it. Click.

Alright, shit. It was picking up noise from the motor's power supply and likely his warding. Until he figured out how to implement a blacklist, he wouldn't be able to use it as a general magic scanner. It would have to be filtered, at least for now. That was honestly fine with him. John turned the spinning motor off and slotted the detector back in its new housing, putting the modified Nameless lens back into its slot. Last was, honestly, the easier part.

He slapped a metal shield over the unit after double-checking his grease job, holding it down with a hinge and a simple latch. Grabbing some spare strapping, he doffed his jacket before wrapping his new toy around his shoulder, pulling everything tight, but not too tight. Rolling his shoulder and twisting his shoulder as he swung his arm around, John tested his range of movement, finding it more than satisfactory. Before, he was just reacting, relying on his own sense of danger and his allies for safety. Now?

He was cooking with gas. If one of those damned spiders breathed near him, he'd know it. While this wouldn't be as precise as his usual methods, it would tell him when to start looking to begin with.

"Well, someone looks pleased with himself." John spun his head to the side, seeing the giant figure of his kitsune friend filling the doorframe, blocking the light. He belatedly realized that he looked like a crazed shirtless lunatic, cackling in the middle of his workshop with a chunk of bronze tied to his shoulder.

"Yuki!" he cried out, sprinting back over to his shirt before burrowing into it like a startled gopher seeing an eagle.

"Well, I was just—I mean—I made something new!" Hurriedly, he tossed the chunk of eyeball to the kitsune, who leisurely caught it without breaking eye contact.

"Oh? Is this more of a destroy your enemies type of day, or an infrastructure kind of day?" she cooly quipped, mirth dancing in her gaze as she rolled the piece over in her hands.

"Yesn't?" John cautiously ventured before reaching up to his shoulder and switching the device on with the small toggle at the base. Tick. Yuki's tall ears perked up, locking onto his newly compacted Mage's Compass with almost unsettling focus. Tick. Wordlessly, John held it up in front of him, as if he was checking his time on his impulse-purchased watch he had left back on Earth. It pointed forward, directly at Yuki. Then, he turned left. Tick. Still, it pointed toward Yuki, even as he continued to spin. Tick.

John walked back over to his materials bin, pulled a piece of carapace he had used for durability testing in the past, and placed it on the table. Tick-tick. Both Yuki and the device read without complaint.

"It has a range of… I'd say perhaps three chō if I'm flying? It depends on how many things are in the way, and how strong the magic is, but I wouldn't bet on it punching through more than three or four trees at ground level," John excitedly rattled off, smiling broadly.

"Indeed?" she mused, stalking closer like a shark through the shallows. She paced around him like a wolf circling a hurt lamb, disappearing out of the side of his vision, but John stood still. He probably would be a lot more scared if he hadn't spent so much time around Yuki recently, although some primal part of his brain still sent a shiver down his spine. Danger, it screamed. You're showing a predator your back. She's a monster who could strike at any time. John resolutely ignored it. Tick. Tick.

He had offered the kitsune far more trust than this again and again, and she had yet to abuse it. The kitsune placed a clawed hand on his shoulder from his side, and John's breath caught in his throat as he felt her slick grip creep up to his neck, soft, silky fur rubbing against his exposed skin. Then, her hand slipped down his collar. He froze on the spot like a deer in headlights as her grip trailed over the straps, slipping inches deeper, probing grasp running over his toned body. Click.

The kitsune switched off the Sentinel System.

"Well, isn't that interesting?" she whispered.

"Aren't you a smart little inventor?" John was a very, very red statue as her fingers slowly withdrew.

"Yuki…" he whined lowly, refusing to turn and meet her gaze.

"Oh? You tease your student, but I'm not allowed to tease you?" the kitsune questioned, tails wrapping around the man and spinning him on the spot with ethereal grace. Her eyes were alight, and a wide grin split her muzzle.

"Come, John. Am I not allowed to embarrass you?"

"Whoa, hey, that's entirely different!" he sputtered." I just called her the dragon of socks! That's it!"

"And she's easy to embarrass," Yuki quipped back.

"You are not troubled by such social niceties."

"Never mind that, our relationship is different! You and I are hardly student and teacher, we both teach each other!" John quickly shot back.

"Oh?" she cooed. He had made a terrible mistake. The kitsune leaned in, fire in her eyes, drawing his gaze into her endless abyss as she hovered inches away from her.

"Well then. Then turnabout is fair game, no? Go ahead, John. Fight back." He opened his mouth to respond, but the noise that came out was less like that of a rational, thinking human and more like a frog getting strangled. The kitsune laughed, the deep vulpine gekkering laughter echoing through John's mind as the sheer resonance thrummed against his chest. What the hell was with Yuki? Why was she going so hard on teasing him now? While he might have been blind, this was a bit more…

brazen than most of the games she had played to get a reaction out of him in the past. The only other thing that this could be was flirting, and there was no way in hell the kitsune was doing that. He's an absolute mess, and they hadn't known each other for that long. Besides, she probably needed a mental equal, not someone who she could effortlessly lead around on a string. Yuki just wasn't that type. A long-forgotten instinct bubbled up in his chest, and he locked onto the kitsune's nose like a missile.

This was a bad idea. He might get his finger bitten off, but John kinda wanted to do it anyhow. Almost autonomously, his arm lifted from his side, rising to the kitsune's muzzle as she watched with hawk-like intensity." Boop," John muttered in English as he pressed a single finger against the kitsune's nose. Yuki's eyes crossed looking at it, her face scrunching up as the universal reset button did its work.

He wouldn't normally call the kitsune cute, but the way her all-seeing golden eyes crossed, and her magical, fluffy ears twitched was admittedly adorable. They were like tiny little radar dishes.

"Aiki and Haru haven't been gone that long," he grumbled, withdrawing the offending appendage.

"I think you're already getting broody looking for new people to play with."

"Kitsune do not get broody, they plot," Yuki quickly responded, smirking sharply.

"This is all for your own good, I assure you." John narrowed his eyes and went to poke her muzzle again, only for the kitsune to snap forward, and before he knew it, she had her teeth gently grasping the tip of his finger. The shiver that went through him was smaller than expected, although he still tried his best not to let her see it. Instead, he met the kitsune's eyes, marvelling at the sheer amusement in them as she idly chewed on his fingers.

A week or two ago, he had no doubts that he would have violently yanked his finger away, and probably cut himself up in the process. Then again, he had a feeling that the Yuki he knew back then wouldn't have been willing to do this, either. Although her fangs were sharp, they didn't puncture his skin; instead, they merely scraped and ground against the vulnerable flesh. She was looking for some reaction, which he refused to give her on principle.

"You know, you're not beating the broody allegations with this," he flatly responded, looking her dead in the eyes and putting on the most grim, serious expression he could manage.

"John," she said, leaning in.

"If you heard the jest I had planned when you first asked me to roll my clothes up, you'd turn as crimson as maples in fall and curl up." When did… Yuki was messing with him, right? That seemed pretty out of character for him. Wait. Oh fuck, he did, didn't he? When Yuki first showed up, he asked her to—but that was just to get access to her leg to treat her injury! Part of her leg was scooped out! Flushing crimson, he pointedly avoided eye contact.

"T-that's different, and you know it!" He paused for a beat, eyes narrowing as his brain finally caught up with the reality of the situation.

"Wait, how the hell are you talking around my finger so clearly?" With a wet pop, the kitsune unclamped her jaws, leaving only the faint indents of teeth in his skin and a tiny bit of fox slobber.

"A lady must keep a few secrets. Well, I think I'll leave you be for now. I'm sure you have many little kinks to work out," she chimed, turning and strutting toward the door, nine tails fanned out behind her like a massive, furry shield.

"You can't just do that to someone and then leave!" John barked, hurrying along in her shadow, but the kitsune adamantly refused to turn to see him. Somehow, he could feel the absolute radiance of her smug grin through the wall of fur between them.

"Oh? Why not?" she questioned, low mock curiosity colouring her tone. The way her tails twitched told him that damned woman was holding back full-body laughter.

"I just… Ugh!" John borderline growled, shaking his head. Silence hung between them, albeit lightly, less like an oppressive blanket and more like a silken sheet.

"It needs field testing now," he finally admitted, begrudging acceptance settling in his shoulders.

"Want to come along with me and scout out some nearby Nameless?" Finally, the kitsune spun to face him, showing him that radiant, beaming smile he knew she had been wearing all along.

"Well, why didn't you just say so? I'd love to," she cooed warmly.