Ruiqi yelled as she dropped the prototype she'd been working on. It was intended to be a modified, modernized version of Kether's sword for Emi, because Rina was nothing if not single-minded in her pursuit of outdoing the original.
The problem was that there was nothing for Ruiqi to work from. No one had seen Kether's sword in action since the last war. Kether wasn't being forthcoming, and Jin Katsuya wasn't even answering the phone. She'd gone through the archives and pieced together what she could. She'd even interviewed a few veterans who'd served around Kether, though most of them seemed to be skeptical of anybody asking too many questions about their former commander.
Consensus was that whatever it was, it was dangerous to everyone around the General. There were stories that one of his own men had gotten impaled on it once and he'd never been the same.
Not that anyone seemed to know who he was either. That might have been useful information. But most of Jin's work during the war had been contract work, and he'd been temperamental at best, and so none of his records were to be found.
Realistically, reasonably, there was nothing left for Ruiqi to do but make it up as she went along. That probably had something to do with why Monifa had told her not to bother. But it was also a challenge, and Ruiqi loved a challenge.
Except when the damn thing kept shocking her as she worked on it. She swore at it again and then decided to inflict it on someone else.
Which was why she was on the testing range long after Monifa and the rest of the sensible employees had gone home. Koshou was there to help take notes, and Robin was there for... well...
"Somebody's got to make it work," Ruiqi had told him. "Nobody reported anything like a power source, so I figure it has to respond to someone who's blooded."
Robin only agreed when Ruiqi promised lunch all week. She handed him the sword she'd spent the last two weeks building in her spare time and handed Koshou her notebook. "I've got a list of tests. It should produce a field around itself that magnifies the force you use. So, let's get started!"
The first few tests went smoothly. Ruiqi cheered as the sword went through one fruit prop after another.
"What's next?" Robin asked after it went clean through a watermelon.
"Reflex test!" Ruiqi shouted. When Robin looked confused, she flung a kiwi at him. He utterly failed to react in time, only bringing his arm up in time to flailingly fail to stop the kiwi - and the sword kept going up, embedding itself in the ceiling.
"I'm going to get more coffee. I have not had nearly enough caffeine to have food thrown at me," Robin sighed.
Ruiqi stared up at the sword. "That wasn't what I had in mind..." She reached up for the sword, but it was still beyond her fingertips, even when she jumped. She was about to go looking for a chair when she felt arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground.
She kicked reflexively and Koshou dropped her on the floor.
"Oops. Sorry," she said, "Reflex."
Koshou coughed. "It's fine. I should have warned you."
"How about you give me a boost by letting me stand on your hands instead?" He nodded and knelt, offering a hand to steady her as she stood on his leg and wrapped her hand around the hilt of the sword.
For the second time, it felt like the energy of the sword itself was pushing her away. It was almost angry and it shot up her arm like an electrical current, burning painfully at the junction between biological nerves and artificial. Ruiqi fell back onto Koshou and the two of them hit the floor just in time for the sword to come down on top of them.
"Ow," Koshou said, inspecting the cut on his shoulder. Ruiqi followed his eyes down to the cut just as blood started to seep through. It went clean through his workcoat, his shirt, and into the skin. Inspection told him her wasn't too deep, but Koshou looked uncomfortable.
"I suppose that's enough testing for now. I'll have to get Emi to try it directly," Ruiqi sighed and stood. "Come back into the lab, we've got a first aid kit with a healing stone. I'll patch you up."
Koshou took her hand and she helped him up. Ruiqi grabbed a pair of insulated gloves before she picked up the sword, just to be on the safe side. He held his other hand over the cut, applying pressure to stop the blood flow.
"I think it's earned a name," Ruiqi snickered as she tried to shake free the chunk of insulation still stick to the end of the blade.
"What did you have in mind?"
She held the blade up, showing off the attached insulation. "How does 'Piece of Heaven' sound to you?"
"Like you'll laugh every time it comes up in a department meeting."
"I don't consider that a downside..."
+++ +++ +++
"Of course, I was the one who had to explain that she couldn't use Ratatosk to turn herself into a squirrel hybrid."
By this point in the story, Ruiqi was laughing so hard she was crying. She and Koshou were supposed to be cleaning up the remains of the last department meeting. It had gone badly, as they usually did, and ended with Rina threatening to combine Monifa's DNA with fruit and Monica responding with a well-designed prototype for a banana pastry gun that she'd improvised out of rubber bands and paper clips. She'd missed - on purpose, she insisted - but the dean declared that cleaning the conference room was their shared responsibility.
A responsibility they promptly delegated.
Neither Ruiqi nor Koshou minded much, though. Koshou was watching Ruiqi as he talked, trying to read enough of her body language to decide if he should tell her.
"Squirrel girls," Ruiqi managed to gasp out as her laughter subsided. "It's a wonder anything gets done in your department at all."
"Says the woman whose boss built a pastry gun," Koushou said, using a stenography brush to peel one of the squished piles of banana and dough from the wall. It slipped down and then fell into the trash can.
Ruiqi shrugged. "At least fireworks are part of our job description."
"Are they now?" he snickered as he dropped into the chair next to her. "You do seem to be good at them."
"Very good," she answered, unusually quiet. Before he could remark on that, she leaned in and pecked him on the cheek.
Koshou stared at her.
Finally Ruiqi had to say something. "Not your type?"
"No no, I-" He shook his head as if to clear it. "You caught me offguard."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Now it was his turn to lean in and peck. "I sort of hoped you felt... but I figured it'd end up all butterfly lovers if our bosses found out anyway."
Ruiqi considered this. "Would you let your boss stop you?"
"Rina's pretty terrifying..." he said, twisting his mouth up in thought. "But I think you'd be worth it."
This time when she leaned in, she made sure to catch him on the lips. Koshou tensed, but she dug her fingers into his hair and he relaxed into her hands.
"Glad you think so," she said when they finally parted. "I'm going to hold you to that, now that we're courting."
"Now that- what?"
"Aren't we?" She smiled at him.
Koshou opened his mouth to disagree with her before realizing that there was no reason to. Instead, he leaned back onto the conference table and pulled her on top of him.
"Do I need to ask your parents for the honor?" he asked her between kisses.
Ruiqi laughed. "Only Monifa."
"I have to ask your boss for your hand?"
"No, she's just the closest I have to a parent. You don't have to ask anyone but me, and I say yes. Yes yes yes." Each yes was punctuated by a kiss, and then by her hands on the buttons of his lab smock.
Koshou nodded his head in the direction of the conference room door. Ruiqi reached over and slid the lock into place before hiking her knee up between his legs, pushing them apart. She looked down at the buckle on his trousers and then back up at his face.
"Not here," Koshou said, his voice shaking. "Not yet. Let me take you out somewhere nice. I know you, but I don't... I don't know you."
Ruiqi sat up, disappointed but smiling. "Formal, aren't you? Might be nice to try it your way." She stood up and offered him her hand. When he took it, she pulled him to a sitting position.
"I'm glad you're willing to play along." He scratched the back of his neck and worried he was doing the wrong thing.
"Whatever makes you happy," Ruiqi pecked him on the cheek once more. "How do you feel about skipping school, then? I don't think they can begrudge us a couple of hours after this mess."
"That, we agree on. Shall we get an early start on our formal courtship?" Koshou offered her his arm. Ruiqi took it and they strolled out of the conference room together and into the elevator.