Thoroughly ruffled by Adrian, Hiroto finally headed back off to Karma's house, tired looking. Though not nearly as tired looking as Marcy who straight up staggered home. #76 waved him goodbye as they entered Karma's house.

After a few awkward moments Hiroto nervously spoke up.

"Uh.. Do you have any idea why Adrian seems to hate me?"

Karma put his hand to his chin in thought. "I mean Adrian doesn't really like anybody, but he did seem to have an interest in you- but he clearly doesn't like you one bit" He shot a glance at Hiroto. "Is there anything about you that would make him curious?"

Hiroto looked bewildered. "Not that i can think of, honestly.."

"Ughhh thinking makes my head hurt anyways, after all the shit me and Marcy did.." Karma complained, palming his forehead with a forlorn expression. Hiroto looked over, bemused.

"Speaking of which, how did you do all that? The magic"

Karma blushed a little. "I mean... I've been doing it in private.. I really shouldn't, it's not beneficial to society" Hiroto's 'that's not what i asked' deadpan was leveled at him, and Karma broke with a nervous humour about him.

"Uh, see, We're all chemically made right? For the most part,at least. And our chemical makeup is similar to humanoids-just with adjustments and advancements. You follow?"

Hiroto nodded encouragingly.

"So... Magic is created from life force. Which is an energy that exists in life.. Of course. It's just if life was tangible, or something. Human's genetic makeup makes it so that they can handle life force in small amounts- when they unintentionally harness it they get stuff like living for a perennial amount of time, usually up to 100 in the best cases. Since they pass on the genes which has the life force embued in them... The children get the life force"

Hiroto nodded along.

"So.. They live longer too. That's about all they can handle. Longevity. However, with our enhanced forms when we handle the energy we can store and convert it- we can safely store it like this without too much side effect. And if we channel it enough it sorta starts to become physical in a way. Because it merges with your being."

He yawned during the explanation but carried on vigilantly.

"So we can use it. But it's really hard and only unorganic creations can handle it since we are more technically enhanced than organic ones- who don't have the internal physcial enhancements. So uh.. Yeah. Can i sleep now?"

"Uh.. Sure" Hiroto said overwhelmed, and Karma instantly conked out on his shoulder. He giggled awkwardly in the silence of the room.

He couldn't help but admire the qualities of those he had met.

Karma's brevity (yet clear glib and disingenuous manner to all things serious or otherwise), Marcy's equanimity, #76's countenance and sangfroid. It was all impressive.

And he was just a bumbling newbie, one of 80 of his kind, completely un-unique, flat and boring, oblivious.

He buried his head in his hands, but sleep evaded him til early morn.

××××××

Hiroto slowly opened his eyes, noting from his inner clock that it was about 3 hours before the lights turned on. Gently standing up and dragging Karma over to lie on the sofa, Hiroto stretched slightly.

He stepped out into the fresh air, eyes narrowed from need for rest.

A soft sound alerted him, head snapping to the right.

A small creation sat on the curb of the street, a hoodie masking his face and hair, aside from his mouth, which seemed to be clicked into a permanant grimace.

A small musical instrument was in his hands, and consulting his inner database, Hiroto recognised it as a guitar, some kind of popular Earth string instrument.

The boy at strummed it, before picking at the strings in some form of fast paced pattern. Beautiful sounds filled the air, slowly shaping into a song. Hiroto stood onlooking, entranced, not wanting to alert the boy of his prescence and perhaps stop the tune from being played.

Suddenly, the boy's head snapped up, and his eyes swivelled to fix on Hiroto, who froze up instantly.

His fingers stilled on the strings, and he stared at Hiroto for some uncomfortable seconds, mouth parted with a look of abject horror clear, before he darted to his feet and dashed.

Hiroto knew he should leave the poor kid be.

But he really wanted to know where he got the guitar.

So he immediately darted after him.

Sprinting down the lowly lit streets, darting in and out of allyways, Hiroto's breath caught in his throat.

The creation stood in front of him, back facing him. Massive wings were clear from his back, nearly opaque and surrounded in iridescent light,flickering and reflecting the light beautifully.

Coming to, Hiroto dashed forwards and grabbed his ankle before he could fly off. The wings immediately snapped back into nonexistence as the creations tumbled to the ground in a heap.

"What the hell is your problem?" the creation shrieked, checking the guitar rapidly for damage before backing away from a dazed Hiroto, staring right back at the creation,  his hood having fully fell back.

His hair was a gingerish orange-red, reaching just above his shoulders. His skin was very pale but greyed and unhealthy looking. His eyes were the same shade as his hair, if not redder.

Hiroto felt his face grow warm.

"Wh-where did you get the guitar..?" he asked awkwardly, feeling unusually on edge.

The creation blinked a few times before frowning even more intensely.

"Seriously? You did all that crap to know where i got a- UGH" he threw his hands in the air then crossed them over his chest. "Earth, obviously" he said, deadpanning at Hiroto.

"Well i mean... That was guessable, but.." Hiroto rubbed the back of his head apologetically. "I meant to say-how'd you get it? Access to Earth is prohibited"

The boy scowled. "I don't see how that's any of your buisness- Who the hell are you?"

"Ryūsei... But please call me Hiroto"

The boy raised a brow. "I'm Type Sakujo..but call me Kibō... Please"

Kibō kept staring at Hiroto until the other awkwardly averted his eyes.

"Hm... Ryūsei" Kibō murmered, seeming to be suddenly lost in thought. "I feel like i should know what that is"

"I mean.. I'm pretty new" Hiroto offered, unsure. "I'm pretty sure my type is only, like... A few months old.."

"Huh... I'm about 3 years old now i think" Kibō responded. He now seemed to have calmed. "I'm kind of an unstable model though, they stopped production of my type after only a few weeks.."

Images flashed through Hiroto's head.

Kibō's face, thin and pale, a completely white room, blood dripping to the floor, Kibō screaming, begging him.

Then they disappeared in an instant.