An's latest ventures had been pretty fruitless. She had taken a lot of sick days from school after her plant experiment went awry, and the errant creature had left her badly drained. Even now, several weeks later, and after a particularly bad streak of failing to capture enough energy, she had spent a lot of time in the room with the Makaiju, either resting or trying to pace herself with energy drinks.
Today, she is resting in one of its lower branches, drifting in and out of sleep. School had been brutal today, and she'd done particularly badly in a recent midterm. Not that she cared really, as she was more concerned with finding more energy than in passing some dumb test.
The classmate in her detention class had made a small snack but she still felt pretty winded. Only the little mint colored feather clip with a bright crystal jewel fastenned in her hair had brightenned her day, and lately, she wore it everywhere.
Seijuro had been reasonably more successful than An, but only in the sense that he'd kept enough energy coming in to offset what he was spending. It wasn't getting them any stronger, and it wasn't stopping the slow degredation of the Makaiju.
He walks in the door that separated the tree's little pocket dimension from the earth apartment, hopping over to the lower branches of the tree. He looks up at it, making a face of dislike. It was still quite worrysome.
And then to An, tilting his head. "How are you doing, An?" he asks, coming to sit next to her.
"Mmmm, Asclepius-kun.." she murmurs, eyes glazing over as she has some sort of dream. For a moment, An's cheeks redden slightly..Then suddenly Ail's there, and she blinks, flying awake.
"Uh, Ail? When did you come in? How long have I been asleep?" but at least she feels a bit more refreshed as she straightens the feather in her hair. "Hmm, I feel a bit better than before, nothing a good rest and bathing in the Makaiju's powers wont heal!"
Although a quick glance at the tree shows some new shrivelled leaves. It's still alive, but it's not looking too good. There are way too many leaves falling off, which is uncharacteristic for this type of tree.
"Oh, Ail! What's happening? Why cant we help the tree? I...." she sighs, hanging her head, "That last excursion of mine must have taken so much out of the Makaiju, thinking I could control that space plant, thinking it was somehow related to the Makaiju..Oh I've been so foolish!"
Ail tilts his head - he's about to question An on exactly who she's dreaming about, but luckily for her the state of the tree takes his attention away from that for the moment. "We have to be careful now, An. It's not getting better, it's getting worse. We're going to have to be loud again. This stealthy draining isn't giving us enough energy."
"And..." it's hard to tell her this, but her plan DID fail and it DID cost them valuable time. "...it's accelerating. We need to be aggressive and we need to go back to what works." he says, revealing a hand full of cards. "We can't afford another failed plan. We need to bring in more energy than we spend."
Phew, that was a close one! Fortunately, Ail's more focused on the tree, and for the moment An is as well, sitting upright and regarding his words with a more serious note. "Yes. We need to change our tactics. Oh, I truly thought I could use the massive amounts of energy that the space plant gathered but..."
She frowns, "I guess we couldn't get away with that same tactic twice, but this time using a cardian, hmm?" But no, the space botany club had essentially disbanded, leaving only a small number of original members. But after the science room had been destroyed, the potential danger of future experiments was called into question.
An looks at the tree, reaching out a hand to touch its bark hesitantly, "It's..Accelerating? But why? Have we become so inefficent at protecting it?" she frowns, concern quickly growing to anger. "It's those magical girls! They keep foiling our plans! Then, perhaps we need a more powerful, more clever cardian. One that can think on its own. Perhaps..One that can move about more freely? I dunno.."
Still, the pink haired alien looks intently at his cards as she ponders this.
Ail nods. "If we were free to harvest as we needed, we'd spend less energy doing the work, and the tree would be better off. The magical girls, the self-styled defenders of Earth - they're the ones causing all this grief to us and to the people of this planet. Making it harder on us is going to make it harder on them."
"More complicated Cardians are going to take more energy, though." Ail warns. "It's a bigger investment and it's going to hurt if we don't get the right payoff." He frowns, looking at the tree.
"An, I'm worried. We can't afford to leave Earth and travel the stars again. I don't want to lose you."
An bites her lip, her own eyes widenned in fear. It's as if his words really hit her for the first time. No more messing around, no more frivolous thoughts. For a second, An feels foolish for having a crush on Asclepius. Has she spent so much time around humans that she's starting to think like one?
Overriden by guilt and fear, she suddenly steps towards Ail, reaching for his hands, a desperate look in her eyes. "What will we do? We cant take them all on! And, it's too risky to search the galaxy again for a better planet. I dont want to lose you either! But there's no other way."
She sighs, shaking her head. "We just need a stronger Cardian! So far, they've just been too easy for the magical girls to defeat! Perhaps if we were to distract the magical girls with two Cardians..One weaker one in one end of the city, a stronger one on the other side. What do you think?
Ail shakes his head. "We'll admit what's going on and fight from the position we're in. Desperation. No more avoiding attacking the weak. No more hiding in the shadows. We have to make progress, and fast."
"We're going to find places where there are a lot of humans and hit them hard and take all we can. I like the plan of distraction, but we're going to do whatever it takes. Distraction, aggression. And we can't pull punches with these humans. If they get in our way they get struck down."
"There's no human who's life is worth endangering yours, An." Ail says as he reaches up to stroke her pink hair.
An nods. "Yes, you're right. We need to focus on this full time. All this silly school stuff is such an energy drainer anyways. We could hit a mall, or a daycare, or a public school during an assembly."
She smiles and nods. "Yes, maybe that will work. We'll hit 'em hard. And we can use a distraction cardian to draw at least some of the magical people away from our real target! I'll have to choose carefully this time then."
She grasps his hands, squeezing them tightly, "I know we can do this! We just need to think more strategically!" An cant help but blush a bit at his flattery and giggles a bit.
"Oh, you flatter me too much, Ail. Not that I'm complaining." still, her ears redden a bit, feeling a little self conscious about the mint jeweled feather hair accessory that she had recently bought from Haruna's cafe. Who was she trying to impress anyway, Ail, or Asclepius? "Ugh, I feel like the more time I spend around these humans, the more I start to think about them. I guess we just have to leave such silly distractions behind, right?"
Ail considers, thinking for a moment, drumming his fingers on his knee. Looking at An, deciding what to say, what to do. Eventually he settles on getting back to business, at least for the moment.
"An, why don't I do the distracting, and you can hit... I think a daycare is the most likely to be undefended. I'll make a big show, and get their attention, and you can harvest that fresh energy. Maybe the energy of new lives will help the Makaiju rejuvinate itself?" he asks.
But then he reaches up and taps the little hair accessory. It's more out of place in her alien form than it would be human. "Remember, you don't need to get jewelry or makeup like the human girls - just by yourself you're the brightest star in my whole universe."
An considers his words thoughtfully, nodding after the plan is thought out. "Yes! Young, fresh humans! All those crying babies are so full of energy! We'll target them! This plan couldn't possibly fail..."
She reddens as he focuses on her hair clip. "Oh..You really think so? You think I'm pretty, even without these things..?" Her hand brushes the feathered accessory thoughtfully. But humans wore these to attract people. what a strange custom.
Still she leaves it in for the time being. "Hehe, maybe you're right, but...Still, it'll help me blend in better, right?"
She yawns, still tired, but she dares not take anymore energy, "Then, we should get some rest and conserve energy for the big day! In the meantime I'll hunt out a couple good spots to spring our attack!"
Ail smiles and suddenly wraps his arms around An. "Just don't get distracted. I know the humans are interesting in thier own way but... if the tree dies, we die. Don't get caught up in it all. We have to protect ourselves first. These humans are our enemies, or our thralls. It can't be any other way."
Then, Ail lets go of her and looks at the tree. "The Makaiju, the mother of our species. We will bring it back to its former glory, for her sake and ours."