Though what had wound up happening wasn't the way Alex had envisioned things going, thanks to the first chat he had with Akame the two pretty much had plenty of conversations in the days and weeks that followed.

Having someone to actually talk with during his brief time in the lobby was rather refreshing for Alex as he wouldn't be as bored doing his daily excursions through the floors as always.

Despite the two getting pretty chummy with one another, Akame almost always had her hood on as obviously she was still very distant with the others.

The only times she had it down was when it was just her and Alex yet even then it was only when she was absolutely sure no one else was around as the moment she heard someone enter the lobby, she immediately placed it back on.

Currently for today, Alex decided to take a break from excursions and decided to just chill and relax at the lobby today to see who'd show up and who he could chat with.

As expected though, it wasn't much.

He saw Mei rather early on and had a brief chat with her explaining how he felt like longing around today after non stop battles with Mei curious on his progress and being rather impressed with how much he had done in such a short amount of time.

The conversation only lasted a few minutes as Mei walked off to attend to whatever her business was at the moment.

Thankfully a few minutes after she left, Akame would show up from the hallway, greeting the boy as the two quickly struck up a conversation once again as they were almost usually about any interesting stories she had.

"Hey you know what? I have a better idea. Come with me." Said Akame as she took Alex across the lobby and to the area with all the screens and walls of text and what not.

"This spot is what I like to refer to as the data bank. It should have the most relevant information for anything you're curious about." She said, tapping the table which brought up a ton of holographic screens.

Alex was pretty amazed by this as he began to move his arms about, interacting with the screens to see what exactly he could learn about.

[Bro pretty much looked like this.] 💀

[What a fool.] 😭

Honestly there was actually so much information to choose from in fact that Alex began to feel a little overwhelmed and undecided on what he wanted to focus on.

Akame would notice this as she left out a small laugh.

"Brain overwhelmed huh?" She asked with a smile as Alex awkwardly chuckled.

"Y-Yeah. I did not expect THIS much info to just be readily accessible." He said.

"That's fair. Most of the information provided here are from three main people."

"And who would they be?"

"If I remember what Elysia told me, they were from Su, Mobius, and Dr. Mei I believe."

Those first two names Alex had obviously never heard of before but that last one definitely caught his attention.

'Dr. Mei? The hell? No way that person could be Mei's old era counterpart right? That'd be WAY too obvious.' He thought.

As he continued to fiddled around with the screens with Akame watching, the two heard footsteps approaching the hallway as the girl immediately lifted her hood back on.

Alex turned his attention to the hallway as out emerged the resident elf, Elysia.

"Relax Akame. It's just Elysia." He said as the girl nodded and put her hood back down and waved at her.

Elysia was very pleased at the sight of the two hanging out as she approached them.

"You have two have spending a lot of time together in the past few weeks." She said before placing an arm around Alex and bringing his close as she ruffled his hair. "I knew you were the right guy for the job."

"Okay okay thanks but seriously stop that. I'm not 4!" Shouted Alex, trying to get her off.

The elf girl then reached over and brought Akame in as well, now effectively having a group hug with the two.

"And I'm proud of you for finally opening up to someone!" She said as Akame just sighed and nodded, knowing it was better to just go along with what she says.

"You know, maybe if we stay like this long enough people will start to see us like a family. That sounds pretty nice! What do you two think?" Asked Elysia?

"Uh, I don't know? Pretty random thing to ask." Said Akame, trying to avoid a direct answer.

"That'd certainly be one weird family dynamic. We don't fit together in the slightest." Said Alex, being as blunt as possible as the elf pouted, letting the two of them go.

"Well at least you were honest." She said. "Anyways, I'll let you two continue on whatever you were discussing. I've got other matters to attend to at the moment."

With that, Elysia walked off as Alex resumed looking through the screens.

This continued for a few minutes before Akame would get onto a topic.

"Hey. I've been wondering about something."

"What is it?"

"That sword of yours is pretty unique. From all the times I've gone through the data bank, I've come across anything similar to it in the records." She said.

"That's because this sword was only recently discovered a few years ago by my caretaker. Any info on it is very scarce. Thankfully I do know the most important thing which is its mainfunctionality."

"Which is?"

"It effectively absorbs and stores Honkai Energy, allowing me to weapnize in the form of flames."

"Huh. That's quite the weapon. Something like that would've have been possible in my time. That explains why I sensed lots of energy coming from it. I do wonder something though."

"What else is on your mind?"

"Hypothetically speaking, if that sword absorbed energy from Herrschers who had other abilities that weren't fire, do you think you could use them as well?"

When she asked that, Alex's mind basically had shut down for a moment as he had honestly never even considered that idea for a single moment as he began to really think it over.

"Holy crap. I legitimately have never considered this once. Honestly I wouldn't even know where to begin on testing it. I'd like like a fool attempting to try something else only for fire to come out." He said.

Akame then began to think on what they could possibly do to get her idea confirmed and tested, until she had something in mind.

"Follow me." Said Akame as she walked to the rift.

"Hm? You got something in mind?" Asked Alex.

"Yes. There's someone I know that can likely help with this. Just be forewarned that they're quite the 'unique' character." Responded Akame as she held a hand out towards the rift, seemingly changing where it'd take them as it changed color ever so slightly.

"Alright come on."

The girl would place her hood back on as she walked through the rift with Alex following suit right behind her.

It took a moment for Alex's vision to return to him and when it did, he looked around and saw that he was in some kind of decently sized workshop.

"Where the heck are we?" He asked.

"You'll find out in a few seconds." Said Akame as she walked up to a desk and rang a bell.

In a few seconds, a voice was heard.

"Coming!"

Alex turned his attention to where the voice had come from as after a few minutes, a person had emerged from around the corner.

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Chapter 9: Complete