Winry who had watched the spear she made break into pieces gave a pained expression
"It's fine, everything I make is junk anyway, Just like the other smith said," she said walking over to a corner and looking at a pile of weapons that looked like the spear that Kotori had just broke.
Her eyes shined with tears.
Watching her Kotori was given the impression of a small animal that deserved to be protected.
"I think it was promising," Kotori said trying to be helpful.
"You don't have to be nice" Winry interrupted her.
I'm sure you can find a smith who makes something better than me. I'm sorry for dragging you here to show you how much of a failure I am." She finished.
Winry was sitting into a corner and dejectedly poking at the vast amounts of weapons that were piled there.
Trembling in anger, she grabbed a delicately made sword inlaid with mana crystals and with threw it, it bounced against the wall and clattered against the floor with a soft jangle.
Kotori pitied Winry, although Kotori had not known her for long, she could see the care that Winry put into these weapons even if they were technically duds. Kotori took out her flute and started to play a song for her to lighten the mood. She picked a song her father taught her. A song that was very light and cheery.
She felt mana leaving her, signaling that she was activating [Magic Musician]. Kotori didn't mind she let the mana flow. The room seemed to hum.
"What are you doing," Winry asked
Kotori ignored her and continued to play.
A curious thing happened. The magical sword that Winry had thrown began to ripple. Like water, its surface had waves going through it. The sword seemed to hum in response to Kotori's music. It molded itself into the shape of a sun.
Winry's eyes widened.
"What are you doing!" she exclaimed
"Trying to make you feel better of course," Kotori said.
"No, No, No like are you activating a skill there?" Winry asked
"Yes?" Kotori answered.
"tell me please" Winry asked
Kotori hesitated for a moment. She was under the assumption that skills were something anybody could see. The [Status] skill was something everybody had. Evidently, it was not that simple.
"Can't you see my skills with status?" Kotori asked.
Winry looked dumbfounded at Kotori statements giving an expression similar to if Kotori had told Winry to stand on one toe
"Looked at skills with status? All I can see is your mana total." She said
[She can't do it?] It seemed that Kotori had a particularly advanced version of the status skill.
[Odd? didn't Gabriel say I would be average?] Kotori thought. She had always been able to see extremely detailed statuses of others. She thought everybody had the exact same sort of screen that she saw. It seemed that it was not the case here.
"I was using a skill called [Magic Musician]" Kotori said explaining how it worked.
After hearing Kotori's explanation Winry put her finger to her chin, evidently thinking deeply about something.
Finally, she spoke
"I don't remember ever hearing about a skill like that, is it unique?" Winry asked Kotori
"Unique?" Kotori hadn't even heard about the possibility of unique skill. She knew skills were something that people got after training. The idea of a unique skill was a profoundly new concept to her.
"Did you get it by training, or did it suddenly appear?" Winry asked
Kotori explained how it had appeared when she was young. She left out the details about her family.
"I see, well then it's probably unique! That's so cool!" Winry said the fire was returning bak to her eyes and Kotori was glad to see Winry so happy even though Kotori had no clue what she was thinking.
"I can work with this" Winry muttered giving another thoughtful expression.
"Kotori can you direct your skill" She asked Kotori holding up the saber which had since turned into a ball of metal.
"I can" Kotori said
"Then please direct it to this ball and can you try to imagine a shape this time"
Kotori raised her flute to her mouth and activated [Magic Musician] She thought about Winry, her soft features and generally boyish look.
The ball once again rippled and distorted, and eventually forming itself into a perfect bust of Winry.
"Wow!" Winry said.
Her voice went low
"This is going to revolutionize weapons!" She said
Winry turned to Kotori and asked her a question.
"Hey Kotori, If I make you a weapon will you use it"
"Why wouldn't I?" Kotori said smiling.
Winry's face completely lit up
"Okay! I promise to make you the best weapon ever. A weapon like no other! Just for you!" she said
"Oh yeah, Don't worry about payment, just tell people I made it" She said
To be quite honest the look on Winry's face was so intense that Kotori was slightly intimidated but Kotori was so happy that she was going to get a weapon that she ignored it.
Winry's face then dulled for a bit, as if she had realized something
"What's wrong?" Kotori asked, the sudden change in mood made her scared that Winry wasn't going to make her a weapon anymore.
"I don't have the materials," Winry said
"What do you mean?" Kotori said looking at the vast amounts of weapons here. Couldn't Winry just repurpose them by melting them down?
"The materials I want aren't here, I could make you a mana steel sword but I can do even better. If I just had Manatanium I would be able to make something that rivals the weapons of legends"
The thought was enticing to Kotori. She imagined herself with a legendary sword, looking quite gallant
[Eheheh, sounds good]
She was ready to do whatever it took to get this sword from Winry
"What do I need to do?" she asked hardening her resolve.