a few years after her birth, Liliya already started training hard and has been educating herself from the books I provided her, with the help from Yuna, she's progressively learning from fighting and being normal... at least in her standards... and she's been teaching her something I couldn't hear nor care about,
「Listen well my little apprentice! if you're going with a tackle then-」
"Oi! haven't I told you to stop teaching her weird things?"
"Weird things my ass! this is what a girl should be! and should you be back talking to your mother?"
"you're more of a nuisance than a mother, now Liliya, I need you for something, same thing with Naoya, I need the two of you to meet me at the lab at 2 hours right now"
"Roger! I'm sorry miss Yuna but I must get going"
comparing her to Naoya, Liliya's potential is higher than him, the weakest of the three is Naoya but...
"Liliya, who's more powerful? you or Naoya?"
"Naoya... I believe..."
Liliya's ability to fight and understand her surroundings is exceptional, fighting prowess is higher than Tai and even with that, Tai still exceeded her... which brings me to a problem...
"I... I think I'm not powerful enough... the readings before I was born was probably a miscalculation.."
"so you're saying that I was the one who made the mistake?"
"N-No! absolutely not!... it's just... compared to the others, I'm not that strong... Naoya's ability to fight exceeds mine... Tai's fighting style is much better than mine, even miss Mei has knowledge and the capacity to learn close to you... I'm just..."
"the reason I called you out here today is that you're going to spar with Shifts, the two of you"
"H-Him!? we can't even come close to defeating him!"
"that said, you all have been fighting him one on one, what about as a duo?"
truth be told, her ability is partnering up with others. she can understand her partner's feelings and fight style, knowing that, she can properly fight and come up with plans while using his strongest skill set
"I-... if it's your orders..."
"N-... yes, it's an order, now Naoya might come any minute now so just wait for now"
Naoya, Mei and Liliya have been partnering up together, Mei has been using Naoya and Liliya as a mean to train her pets that she recently created, both training Naoya and Liliya.
"Alright then... Liliya, Naoya, show me what your capable of"
"Yes..."
the two of them assumes a fighting stance and prepared for the worst, They know fully well what kinds of skill Shifts has but even with that, they still have a lot of trouble defending it. versatility, capabilities, mastering the skills you learned and using it skillfully... those are the things Shifts has and both Liliya and Naoya still need to strive for. Naoya's blood cloth and bloodletting... or in other words, blood manipulation alongside bone structuralizing, is almost as powerful as Shifts has, both of them have the same skillet and moves style but different ways to portray them. Liliya's Petal Dance is both hard to master and hard to detect by both parties, even with a skillful hand, her ways to display them are limited, but she has been experimenting with her own skill from her time, mixing it with spores, paralyzing the enemy, letting out a sweet scent, even mixing her own blood to power up Naoya, her abilities as a support are higher than even what her opponents would've expected, but of course, if used in the wrong time or the wrong way, it could also lead to mistakes pilling up. if she has used a paralytic spore alongside the waltz of the dancing petals, then it could've affected even Naoya. the way she uses her skills gracefully and flawlessly is what makes her easily as one of the strongest in the whole world.
"I-... It's my loss..."
Naoya wins by a hair, both of them panting from the fight, they both collapse from the exhaustion.
"It's good that both of you are in top condition. Liliya, why didn't you use your skills at full power?"
she was showing restraint even in a mock battle which was something new for me, considering that they're nearly perfect and has no reason to deviate from a simple rule
"I-... It's... I'm afraid I might severely injure Naoya"
"Naoya, are you okay with this outcome? she didn't fight with full intent to kill"
"Liliya... It was our creator's orders, why did you deviate?"
"I know! and... I... I just don't want to hit you! you didn't do anything bad to me!"
"But he was clearly fighting you with full force, if you went all out, you could've won"
true enough, Liliya is stronger than Naoya in all aspects, the only difference is how they use their skills
Liliya has the advantage of both terrain and skill, the question previously was that why is Liliya isn't improving as well as Naoya, I understand that even a perfect creation can still have imperfections but...
"P-Please don't blame Miss Yuna! she has nothing to do with this"
"hehe.... hahahahahaha"
I can only burst out in laughter of the outcome that showed itself, true enough, it might've been Yuna's teaching or my imperfect results but the results are currently constant
"Liliya, it's both Yuna's and my fault, it seems that your personality given by your teacher is what made you like this, and is what made you create this mistake"
"Listen, Liliya, you only have two choices right in front of you right now, number one is you keep your personalities and memories and live the way as you are right now, the future will be tough but you'll have a tougher time improving and number two: we erase every bit of memory you have and start from scratch"
These are the only options available right now, but... there's also the latter of unlikeliness, she quits overall but presenting these choices is what's important. her memory, her personality is what's making her deviate frequently, unlike Naoya who has been semi-emotionless, Liliya has been, a true Human.
"I... I'll keep it, thank you for the offer Kirin but... I'm afraid that who I am is what I am right now, I chose this life and I'll see it through"
...
"you poor soul... I'm afraid that you will need some adjustments... Yin, set up the mana water for me"
"W-WAIT! Was there really no point to the decision!?"
"I'm afraid not... sorry but Naoya, can you hold Liliya for me?"
"roger... I'm sorry Liliya but it's my orders"
"NO!!!"
Liliya struggled even in Naoya's arms, It's a pain to watch but it must be done. we set up the capsule and began to drain her ether. banging on the reinforced manasteel glass, Liliya was crying and screaming, pleading for help all the while looking at Naoya
"BUT NAOYA!! DO SOMETHING!!!"
"I... I'm sorry..."
With a face full of regret, Naoya looked away from the crying girl
"But... I thought... I... Loved you..."
. . .
. .
.
「Mana water?」
「Drained」
「Good... Alright then, you can come out now」
A girl, Liliya, finally came out from the capsule.
"experiment was a success I assume?"
"no... not yet..."
Liliya, staring at the ground, walked up to me and slapped me.
"YOU!- YOU JERK!"
thankfully the pain immediately subsided... that hurt... Naoya looked at me with a confused look and Yin began to explain
"You see, recently, we found a new way to enhance druids in a certain way and managed to create a new type of druid species called Flora, the Flora race seems to be extremely compatible with Liliya's Ether and so with a few samples, we finally found a proper mixture to enhance Liliya's Ether output on her prominent skill, the waltz of the dancing petals."
"Y-yeah... and the choices I gave you earlier was a test to see if I truly do need to use it for you as it's entirely optional, whether you want to erase your memory or not, you're still going inside the capsule to enhance you, and did I make a great scene"
finally revealing themselves, Theia, Yuna, and Rin finally showed themselves
"The final scene was so heartbreaking..."
"I know right! hey Liliya! you could totally be an actor if you tried! why don't you join-"
"I think it's time for our leave. I'll leave the rest for you brother."
"Yeah... thanks for watching... I guess"
they left as soon as they could, the room was as awkward as what you'd expect.
"we'll be leaving now, Yin, you could finish up on that... Solstice thing or something again"
"Thank you Kirin"
leaving the two behind Naoya began to sit down in a couch nearby and Liliya began to burn red from embarrassment
Liliya's deviancy... is what the result I aim for, and if she's always with him then... I think she can change him just the same as Yuna changed her their ability to choose a decision independently without my order... that, is what living is about,
"Love huh... I guess I finally know the reason as to why she was hesitant from hurting him"
I do hope that it won't affect her, I'm afraid Naoya won't be able to reciprocate the feelings for today