This teaching continued long into the night. I could tell that Lisa was having difficulty grasping the concepts as her power also attempted to learn, causing ruinous headaches as it tried.
"Lisa, get some sleep, or you're going to get an aneurysm."
Flapping an arm at my head, she scribbled on one of the pieces of paper I had grabbed, "No! I think I understand it. Formalcraft is just a simple ritualistic connection."
Coughing as a tiny bit of blood dribbled past her nose, I peered into her bloodshot eyes and sighed. Lifting her chin, I pushed a bit of mana into her brain and knocked her out.
As she collapsed, I grabbed her before hefting her over my shoulder. Carrying Lisa, I dropped her into the couch before tossing a blanket over her.
Walking back over, I saw Komainu struggling to keep her eyes open while she studied. Chuckling as I rubbed her hair, I lifted her into a princess carry.
Carrying her, I gently set her down on the bed and tucked her in. While sleeping would be nice, I had work to do.
I wanted to attack the PRT headquarters soon, but I needed backup. I didn't know if I could make a simulacrum of other people, so I decided to test now.
Holding my hands in front of me, I focused on Lisa. I pulled up what I knew of her, her bottle green eyes, a smattering of freckles, and a vulpine grin.
As my mana collapsed in front of me, I saw Lisa. I then started talking to her to gauge her mental capacities.
"Hello, Lisa 2.0; how are you today?"
Blinking at me, I noticed that her eyes were practically glowing, there were freckles across her face, and her mouth was curved into a smug grin even as she sputtered and attempted to speak.
Rolling my eyes, I raised my hand and conjured a blade, launching it through her eye. As she collapsed, I vanished her to Castle Brunestud. The spirit should apprentice the gift at the least.
It seemed that mere thought was not enough to conjure a pure simulacrum. My next test would involve biological samples of which I had a good source next to me.
Padding to the sleeping Lisa's form, I whispered Hypnosis into her ear. It was awful how inefficient and weak it was when used without eye contact, but for the effect of suppressing pain for a minute, it was sufficient.
Reaching into her thick blonde hair, I tugged firmly and pulled out a few strands, follicles and all. Twitching slightly, Lisa rolled over as I walked back to my chair.
Holding out one of the strands, I focused again, calling up my thoughts and memories of Lisa. A few minutes later, a form was buck naked in the middle of the room.
"Hello, Lisa 3.0; how are you today?"
Blinking, Lisa reached out, curling her fingers before patting herself down. Her eyes darted back up to me before her lips curled up in a grin as she replied.
"Wonderful, does this mean I'm immortal now?"
Tapping my fingers on the table, I pondered the question. This was a ship of Theseus situation, and I always leaned towards it being the same thing.
"So long as I have a piece of you, you are immortal. Speaking of, I can't have Lisa Prime know about you."
Pouting slightly, she shook her head as another sword speared her through the eye. Dropping her body into Castle Brunestud, I frowned at the blood on the floor.
Scavenging around, I found a mop as well as a bucket. Thankfully, Mother Knows Best taught me how to clean up many things efficiently, including bloodstains.
Soon enough, I had the blood cleaned up and flushed down the toilet. Putting away the supplies, I sat back down to review the results.
I could make a simulacrum of pretty much anything, but how I made it affected things like looks. Biological materials seemed to act as an anchor of sorts, allowing the simulacrum to be 'real.'
It appeared I would be taking a page from Liam's book and collecting the hair of everybody I came across. Tucking the strands of Lisa's hair away, I decided that I could use some sleep.
Shucking my upper layer off, I crawled into bed next to Komainu and closed my eyes. It took quite a few minutes, but I was soon asleep.
My sleep was calm and free of dreams. I was soon awoken by Komainu squirming next to me as she woke up.
Stretching, I put my hands over my head as Komainu tossed the covers off. Swinging my legs out of bed, I grabbed my clothes before looking up and coming face to face with Lisa.
"Why are you not clothed?" She asked with barely concealed annoyance.
"I prefer not to sleep with a shirt on. I assure you I will be clothed soon; besides is not like you can see anything."
Rubbing her forehead, she went to poke my sternum before stumbling and slamming face first into my chest bones. Chuckling, I helped her up and removed the amulet. "
I'm not quite human, as you can see."
"What, how I don't understand." She sputtered as she blinked while rapidly looking around my body.
I'm about nighty eight percent magic and the other percent lower case dust."
She looked even more confused at that statement and resorted to rubbing her nose and tossing my shirt at me. As I put on my clothes, my Grimore's power swelled again.
As the power grew, I felt it blossom into a small strand in my mind. It felt like there was a path I knew how to travel down that I could change at a whim.
Twisting that strand, I walked into the bathroom. As I stepped into the bathroom, I saw that the back wall was gone and extended into a grass path.
As I walked on the path, bare feet brushing through soft grass and a wonderful spring day blooming around me, I saw a house in the distance.
It was winter approaching spring back in the Bay. Most days were wet and miserable as sludge threatened to overtake the city. Despite that, on this path was a nice day.
As I approached the house, I saw it was a lovely little house in Japanese style. Surrounding it were a few bamboo shoots as well as a pond.
Gently opening the door, I saw that the house was fully furnished and decorated. Sitting on one of the counters was a small folded piece of paper.
Opening the paper, I saw that it was a note and started to read it.
Hello, I hope you enjoy the house. I can't wait to see you sometime soon.
The note was unsigned and was a little unsettling. I had hoped that Komainu was an isolated incident, but it seemed that everything from the Griomre had a previous home and was twisted to serve me.
I didn't know why I had gotten the Grimore, and I doubted I would get the answer anytime soon. Walking around the house, I started poking around.
The house was fully furnished, and the closets were packed with clothing. A vast majority ranged from simple Japanese shirts and pants fancy kimonos and hakama that would not look out of place at weddings.
Thankfully there were a few simple T-shirts and shorts; there were even a pair of brown slippers like the ones I had gotten for Christmaschristmas one year.
Sliding into them, I padded out of the house and into the apartment bathroom. As I walked in, the door opened, and Lisa looked at me, confused.
"Hello Lisa, just visiting my house. It's lovely this time of the year."
Blinking, she rubbed her eyes with one of her hands before pushing past me, too tired to deal with me. I smiled as I turned around to face the wall that no longer stretched into a long path.
Walking out, I closed the door behind me. The next step was to grab Oni Lee. To do that, I needed to talk to my simulacrum.
Closing my eyes, I chained teleported to the ship. It was much easier now that I knew the best method of getting there.
As I strolled inside the ship cabin, I saw 3.0 snoozing; feet kicked up on a rotten chair. Walking over, I flicked him on the nose before settling to wait for him to wake up.
"What? You couldn't have let me sleep for longer!" As he stretched, he feigned disapproval.
Frowning at him, I replied. "Your me; you were probably awake and were just faking."
Rocking to his feet, he dramatically shook a finger at me, proclaiming. "Just because your right doesn't mean your correct."
Rolling my eyes, I decided to get down to business. "What have you gotten done over the night."
Walking toward the boat's edge, he started to show me around. "I mainly got around half a dozen filters up and running. They should equal around 3 to 4 times your daily gain."
Grinning, I rubbed my hands together. It would take a bit of time to get it full scale, but once I reinvested, I would be swimming in Dust.
"Well then, let's see our profits, shall we." Flicking my wrist, I gestured for 3.0 to head down and collect the Dust, and groaning; he did so.
A few minutes later, he had returned with a mostly full handheld sack. He clambered back onto the ship and dropped the bag at my feet.
"You really need to get me some of that tele-underwear. It's a pain to do all this by hand."
Opening the sack, I retorted. "You have the same skills I do; just make yourself a pair."
Walking past me, he grumbled while grabbing a pinch of Dust to transform into suitable undergarments.
Running my fingers through the Dust, I could feel the possibilities even in this small sack that would fit in my hand.
With this amount of Dust, I could make things such as tables and other large objects. Grinning, I sifted through the Dust a bit more before standing up.
I would need backup, and what better backup than myself? It took over twenty minutes, but I soon had two more of me.
It would take them around a day to make the tele-underwear. We could still make plans until then.
Pointing towards the first simulacrum, then the second, I spoke. "You shall be 4.0, and you shall be 5.0."
Both of them nodded, and so I counted. "Step one is both of you grab some of this Dust-"
As I was speaking 4.0 and 5.0, they both stood up and, brushing past me, cut me off. As I blinked at them, 4.0 spoke up. "We know the plan; we were you until you made us."
Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I sighed. That was another reason not to make a ton simulacrum; they had the personality of the person you duplicated.
That would be an exciting project in the future, trying to see if I could get a simulacrum under proper mind control and not a kind that would break at the slightest sign of damage.
Clapping my hands, I leaned over the table and got to work thinking. I would attack the PRT headquarters and where the villains were held before being shipped off.
Those with lesser crimes, such as Alabaster, Vicktor, and Othala, were likely already in prison or in another city. The big-time offenders, however, would still be stuck on trial.
As I pondered this, the Grimoire's power crept up my spine. It simply faded back into my bones without forming into a power.
Shaking myself slightly, I got back to work. My basic plan at the moment was to attack head-on with my simulacrum and, while they were distracted, slip inside and nab Oni Lee, as well as any other villains I could grab.
My main issue was with the death of my batteries; I couldn't spam time stop as I could earlier. Tapping my fingers on the table, I tried to think of a solution to this problem.
I could pull mana from inanimate objects; did that mean I could pull it from Dust? Just based on the bay, the more complex what I was pulling from, the more mana I would get.
Dust was tiny nanomachines that could change themself on the molecular level and grow more intelligent the more Dust there was in a network.
Picking up a handful, I peered at them, looking past the surface and for how much a man I could pull from them.
As I looked, I saw that while lesser than the water was almost in scale to it. This solution would help a ton with gaining mana back in a pinch.
I would still have the issue of needing a second or two to pull mana, but it was still better than nothing; Unlimted Bladeworks was a mana hog.
I had figured out the plan; I would arrive with my simulacrum in tow. They would blow down the door with Caldbolg lll. I would sneak in and grab all the villains I could.
We would then flee with the simulacrum holding the line as need be. I just needed to wait for them to build the tele-underwear then we would be good to go.
Powers Gained
Secret Home
You have a pocket dimension of sorts with a small home inside, with a small traditional Japanese house and enough room for all kinds of pets. It can only be entered by following a specific secret path that you may change on a whim. A side benefit is that inside this pocket dimension the weather is generally mild all year long – even a hurricane outside will cause nothing more than a particularly strong downpour inside.19