I walked out of the alley as Blossom finished up her call with Nianshi, covering my eyes as they adjusted to the mid-day sunlight. Blossom followed, smiling as the light hit her. Right, photosynthetic. She took out a few clips that looked like flowers and tied her hair up into a side ponytail.

  "Alright, she said they should be ready for a tour in a couple hours, so we have some time to kill. You wanna go look around, grab a coffee or something? Maybe look at some new clothes?" She said, putting her phone away.

  "I mean, I already have this outfit"

  "That's, sort of my point. It's really nasty, look at it." I looked down confused and realized she was right. The shrine outfit was half ripped apart, covered in blood.

  "Oh. That's why people have been staring at me, isn't it?" I said, slightly blushing. I thought it was just because I was a Guardian.

  "Well no shit. I mean it's kinda normal for Guardians to look like that, but it's still more than a little weird to walk around with blood on your clothes."

  "What do I do with this outfit then?"

  "Oh, you can just have your contractor warp it into your inventory. Actually, you can instantly change into any clothes in your inventory if you ask them to do it, watch." She said, clapping her hands. As she did, light flashed out from her, and when I looked back, she was wearing an entirely different jacket.

  "For fucks sake, mind warning me before you do that?! It's like a god damn flashbang!"

  "My bad, forgot about that. Now come on, let's go find you something to wear!" She said, walking off in a random direction. She turned back to see if I was following, and I just stared at her baffled.

  "Do you think stores are going to be open right now?" I asked her. I saw her ponder that for a moment, her brain clearly working overtime.

  "Well... huh. Didn't think about that honestly. Alright fine, just buy something off of a catalogue. You have to show me what it is first though." She said, walking back over to me and taking a peek at my catalogue as I scrolled through it. The battle clothing catalogue had both a personal designing option as well as premade pieces, so I decided to just grab a hoodie and jeans. As I went to purchase it, Blossom reached over and held my arm in place. I struggled for a moment, but there was a reason she was a higher tier then me.

  "You cannot be serious."

  "What? It's comfortable and looks normal." I said, getting rather annoyed. She simply rolled her eyes at me and pointed at the button to clear my choices.

  "I know you haven't been honorarily inducted into the halls of womanhood for very long, but one thing you've got to learn quick is finding your own style. If casual comfy clothes end up being what you like most, great, but for now you should try and experiment a bit. Especially since you aren't planning on changing how you look anytime soon, right?" I glared at her for a moment, but all I could do was be upset, because I had to admit she had a point.

  "Well then, what do you think I should buy?"

  "You ever worn a skirt before?"

  "We are about to investigate a military base to find evidence for a possible murder, and you want me to wear a skirt?" Blossom just smiled at me and shrugged her shoulders.

  "Sure, why not? Looking more casual will probably help us anyways. Plus, you know you'd look good as hell in it." I blushed a bit at her obvious flirting and sighed.

  "If I die in a skirt, I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your life."

  "And you'll look very pretty while you do it. Now, what colors look good on you?" She said, trying to scroll through the menu. As she did, her hand simply went through it, as it wasn't her menu.

  "Maybe black? I also like blue."

  "And yet your Guardian outfit is white and red."

  "I didn't design that, Celeste did. Oh hey, I actually kind of like that one." I said, adding it in to my cart. We looked around a bit and eventually found a sweater that I thought looked nice along with some boots. I decided that this should be good for now and went to buy it, but as I did blossom looked at me funny.

  "What now?"

  "Are you just, not buying anything to go under all that?"

  "Oh, right. Never shopped for anything like that, believe it or not. Or well, I guess this outfit did come with a set, but you know what I mean. What size am I Celeste?" I asked Celeste, her avatar sitting on my shoulder looking at the screen.

  "Hm? You are a 36 E cup." Celeste mentioned casually, swiping over to the proper section. Blossom made some sort of surprised choking noise and whipped around to look at me.

  "Holy shit- I mean, uh, interesting! That's, bigger than average.” Blossom said, looking away while trying to recover from her outburst. I simply glared at her with disgust, half mocking half real. After selecting a plain black pair, I finally purchased everything.

  Basic Clothing x5 Purchased for 5 Points, New Total: 12482

  "Cool. Now just ask your Contractor to shift outfits, and you should be good!"

  "Hang on, I want to do something." I said, whispering something to Celeste. While she called my idea pointless, she agreed to do it. I lifted my hand above my head and snapped, and as I did the same light that Blossom had when she changed clothes emanated out, and once it faded, I was in my new outfit. Blossom gave me a deadpan look, but after a moment she started chuckling.

  "You are such a fucking nerd." She said playfully.

  "Correct. Do you have a mirror?"

  "Yeah, but you can just look in a window." Blossom pointed over at a nearby building with display windows intact. I walked over and took a look at my reflection. I had to squint a bit because, you know, it was a window, not a mirror.

  "O-oh. Uh, that's... interesting." I said, heat rising to my face, that same prideful feeling from before bubbling up. Blossom stood next to me, very obviously taking in my appearance.

  "How do you feel?"

  "Good, I think. I mean, I did like how I looked in men's clothes, but this isn't bad at all. Do I look okay to you?" I asked her, and she smiled at me in a way that immediately made my blush five times worse.

  "I'll be fully honest with you, you could wear Fortresses bulky ass mech suit and still look hot as hell. So yes, you look very good."

  "How are you just so confident saying stuff like that? We met yesterday, I don't even know your name!" Blossom casually shrugged, putting her hands behind her head.

  "I don't see a reason not to be really. I think you're cute, and I also enjoy being around you, at least so far. I feel like making it known, so I do. And you do know my real name."

  "Wait, I do? How?"

  "Well... hang on, is this store open?" Blossom pointed at the window we had been standing next to, and I looked over, realizing it was a small clothing store. Sure enough, there were people inside shopping, presumably Guardians from their appearances. There were actually quite a few different clothing options I had never seen before in the windows, both from different fashion trends then Earth, and accommodating for different species.

  "Huh. I guess it is."

  "I knew there would be a store open right now!"

  "No you didn't! You just didn't think about it, you said so!" I said, but she clearly wasn't listening.

  "Show me a recording or it didn't happen. Now come on, let's go find a coffee shop or something so we can talk." She began walking down the street, basking in the sunlight pouring in from the green sky. I followed along, rolling my eyes.

  "Just because there was one store open doesn't mean a cafe will-"

  "There's one!" Blossom pointed over to a building where a few people were sitting outside, chatting and drinking coffee.

  "Oh come on! Who the fuck opens up their coffee shop twelve hours after the city was almost destroyed?!"

  "Let's go find out!" We walked over and headed inside the coffee shop, seeing five or so Guardians and a few regular people inside, discussing different tasks that would need to be completed. The interior was almost like a log cabin, the wooden walls and dim lighting making a very comfortable atmosphere.

  The cafe was also much larger than a normal one, and I quickly realized why this place was open, as well as why it was so large when the person working the counter turned around. The woman working the counter was even taller than me, mostly due to the giant spider's abdomen that made up the lower half of the body, of what variety I had no clue.

  The spider section was black, with small purple markings along the legs, which led up to her torso. On her more human section, she had incredibly pale skin and bone white hair covering her rather soft and feminine face. She had four arms as well, which stuck out of what looked like a custom made top, fully covering her chest while allowing her arms to be free, similar to what Blossom was wearing. As she turned and looked down at me with her ruby red eyes, she smiled and gave a small wave.

  "Hi, welcome to the Weavers Web! What can I get for you two?" She said, her voice incredibly sweet and melodic. All of a sudden, I felt very glad to not be afraid of spiders. The woman giggled, placing one of her hands over her mouth.

  "Oh yes, I understand my form can be a bit odd at first!"

  "Holy shit I just said that out loud. I'm so sorry, that was absurdly rude!" I apologized profusely, but she simply waved me off.

  "It's perfectly fine dear, I assume you’re a newer Guardian?" She asked me, and I nodded, still feeling bad about what I said.

  "Is it that easy to tell?"

  "Yes." Her and Blossom both said at the same time, Blossoms sounding smug while the other woman's tone was much more lighthearted. I just sighed as they both laughed.

  "Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon. My name is Weaver, as you may have been able to tell!"

  "I'm Inari, that's Blossom. Surprised anything is open around here to be honest."

  "Well, I was also surprised to have an invasion in the city I live! Although, to be honest I have been considering moving to Nexus recently. I designed this place with Guardians in mind, but there just aren’t a lot of us here." She said, wiping down the counter with a couple arms while she leaned on another set.

  "I'd love to have a nice coffee shop in walking distance. Oh yeah, Inari, Nexus is like the most advanced city in the universe. It's got a ten percent Guardian population, higher than anywhere else. That's where me and the other two live obviously. Oh right, coffee! Can I get a-" Blossom proceeded to speak in the same language as earlier, which severely startled me. Weaver simply smiled and nodded before turning to me.

  "And for you?"

  "Uh, what did she just order? I don't think I heard it properly."

  "Oh, her drink? It's a dark roast with milk and-" She proceeded to speak in the same language as Blossom, saying what I assumed to be a different word. I stared forward at her blankly for a moment before I mentally spoke to Celeste.

  "I am so fucking lost right now, please help."

  "You probably wouldn't be able to pronounce the word, the closest equivalent on Earth would be tea or a fruit juice, which are two very different things. It's quite specific." She said. Well, that explained whatever the hell was going on there. I realized I should probably just get my order and ask Blossom about it later.

  "Okay, uh, let me just get an iced coffee with two sugars and no cream, feel free to surprise me on the blend.” Weaver nodded as I gave my order and immediately got to work with two of her arms.

  ”You two can go ahead and sit down, I’ll call your name when it’s ready! Oh, and that’ll be six credits!” She said as she began preparing both our orders. It was at this moment I remembered something that was rather important. I turned to Blossom and sheepishly rose my hand up to get her attention.

  ”Hey, so uh, I don’t exactly have any money. Would you mind-“ before I could even finish, Blossom cut me off by tapping a little icon on the tablet for paying in front of her. Out of nowhere a little cartoon flower appeared on her shoulder, looking down at the tablet while smiling. It made a little beeping noise and turned to Blossom.

  “Payment processed!” It chirped as Blossom gave it a little pat on the head.

  ”Thanks Sprout!” She said, as what I could only assume was her contractor beeped again and vanished. Blossom walked over to a nearby table for two inside, a decent bit away from the large group discussing reconstruction efforts, and I followed her over and took a seat across from her.

  ”Sorry about that. I’ll pay you back when I can.” I said, and she simply raised an eyebrow in return.

  ”It’s six credits, I’m not gonna hound you over it.” I groaned at her joke.

  ”Please do not do fox puns with me.” She tilted her head, looking at me confused.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “You know, you said hound me, foxes are canines, so… never mind. This translator thing makes no god damn sense sometimes.” Blossom giggled as she realized what had happened.

  ”Yeah, it can be a bit odd sometimes. It usually just searches for the best replacement in whatever language you have it set to, so sometimes you get weird coincidences like phrases that have the same meaning.”

  “Oh yeah, what the hell is in your order? I wasn’t able to get a translation on any of that. Celeste said the closest thing we have on Earth is like, fruit juice or tea?” I asked her. Blossom perked up, clearly interested.

  “Really, you guys don’t have anything like that where you come from? It’s like juice pressed from the bark of a certain kind of tree. It’s slightly sweet and bitter at the same time, the flavor’s super unique.”

  ”Pretty sure we don’t have anhthing like that. Sounds like the closest thing we would have would be tree sap.”

  “Interesting! I’ve heard about that stuff but I’ve never tried anything made with it. Apparently it’s really bitter and kinda gross.” She said, and I smiled as I realized I finally had something to introduce her to instead of the opposite.

  ”Once we get done with this, I’ll take you out to try some pancakes on Earth. You cover them in this syrup made from maple sap, it’s amazing.” She grinned and leaned forward.

  ”Sounds like a good time to me! In exchange, I’ll answer any leftover questions you have about all this Guardian buisness. That work for you?”

  ”Sounds fine to me.” I said, and she held out her hand.

  “Then a deal’s a deal!” I looked down at her hand incredulously.

  ”Do we really need to shake on it? It’s barely a deal, I basically just asked you out on a date.” I said, and she slowly looked down at her hand before looking back up.

  ”You make a fair point, but it’s too late for me to pull my arm back, I’m in it for the long haul at this point.” She said, holding her hand there. I stared her down for a solid ten seconds as we both sat there unmoving, before eventually I broke and started laughing.

  ”Alright fine, you win. It’s a deal.” I reached out and shook her hand. Her grip was actually rather strong, which I suppose is to be expected of a Guardian.

  “Oh, I just remembered, you said earlier I knew your real name. What’s that about?”

  “Well think about it. What could my name possibly be that I would have already told you?” I thought for a moment. Her Guardian name is Blossom, but otherwise she hasn’t said anything about a name. Unless…

  ”Oh god dammit, did you just use your real name as your Guardian name?” Blossom started laughing as I groaned.

  “In my defense, I didn’t name myself. I just told the first Guardian I met my real name and they went “Your name’s Blossom and you have plant magic? Well there you go!”

  ”And you didn’t argue with them for a different one?”

  ”Well uh, no. I was kind of so confused at the time from the transformation and everything that I just went along with it. In hindsight, could have been a bit more creative. Now I mostly keep it cause the Guardian who gave it to me passed away.” She said, her face falling slightly. Suddenly I felt like a major jackass.

  ”Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it meant that much to you.” I apologized. Blossom just put her hand up casually.

  “No, it’s fine. It is pretty dumb. I just really miss that guy. Blindside was one hell of a Guardian.” She looked out a nearby window as she talked, gazing at nothing in particular with a nostalgic look in her eye. Before I could say anything else, I heard Weaver start yelling.

  ”Order for Inari and Blossom!” She turned to us and waved, cups in two of her hands. Blossom started to stand up to go grab them, but I simply waved my hand and used my gravity manipulation to pull the coffee towards us. Weaver made a rather adorable gasp as the coffee cups flew out of her hands, and I concentrated as I slowly manuvered them over to the table. Blossom looked down at me impressed, and quickly got back in her seat.

  ”Damn, not bad. You’ve got pretty fine control of that.” She said, and I took a moment to feel proud of myself.

  ”Thanks! It’s a lot harder to do the little things with that ability as opposed to like, just chucking a car at someone.”

  ”Have you thrown a car at someone before?”

  “Well, no, but I did pull down this big ass statue. Huh, now that I think about it I wonder how much I could bench. I probably could actually lift a car, even without that insane mode.” I said, taking a sip of my coffee. Whatever type of roast Weaver had used was actually pretty great, a little earthy and not very bitter.

  ”Yeah, you’ll probably need really specialzed training gear if you hit the gym a lot. Fortress can tell you more about that.”

  ”Is he a big weightlifter or something?”

  ”Well his suit weighs like, three tons, so strength training is rather important to him. It has hydraulics or whatever to help, but he’s still really strong- ah, dammit!” Blossom took a sip of her coffee without thinking and yelped, burning her tongue. I rolled my eyes as she fanned it dramatically and put a hand on her cheek, casting a small healing spell. After a second her eyes went wide, and she looked at me.

  “Oh wow, that’s way better, thanks!”

  ”I saw you kill a thirty foot tall worm monster last night, but a hot coffee has you acting like you got shot. You are somethin else Blossom.” For the first time since I met her, Blossom actually looked flustered and started stammering.

  “Excuse you! I didn’t exactly have any mana going to my tongue! For your information, a regular bullet would pretty much just bounce off of me, even if it drained my mana a bit.”

  “Okay, that is actually cool. I’m still trying to get the hang on all this magic stuff. Is there some easier way to train using it, or is it really just a learn as you go type of thing?”

  ”Little bit of both I guess? You can make your own spells if you know what you’re doing, and you can train your mana, but it really is easier to learn by doing it.” She said, casually reaching out her hand and gesturing to a nearby plant sitting on a windowsill. As she finished her gesture, the plant began to grow, flowers sprouting from it’s base. I stared at it in awe for a moment before turning back to her.

  ”Magic really is amazing. And you said you could train your mana? What does that mean?”

  ”You know how you normally move mana through your body to attack and all that? Basically, you just continually move your mana through your entire body, and then return it to your starting point and do it again. That’ll gradually expand your bodies ability to store mana, but remember, it’s still a work out. It’s gonna hurt a bit, and it’ll make you tired. You got any other questions on magic?” She asked, sipping her coffee, which she thankfully didn’t burn herself with this time. I thought for a moment, compiling a few questions I had in my head.

  ”Okay, so, earlier I was fighting this entity. I went in to punch it, and as I moved the mana, I felt like I somehow did it in a way that was more efficient, if that makes any sense. When the punch landed, there was this big purple light, and afterwards a bunch of flower petals fell from the sky. Any idea what the hell that was?” I asked her, and after a couple of seconds she looked at me and grinned almost mischeviously.

  “Well well well, that might be a new record, least as far as I know. Never seen someone use Divergent Impact that quickly, most people don’t end up figuring out it exists until they hit Aquamarine.”

  ”…that, doesn’t really answer my question. What is it?”

  “Like I said, it’s called Divergent Impact. Basically, when you move mana through your body you lose some amount in the transfer, just how it works. But if you can move the mana precisely enough, while also moving it absurdly fast, all that mana that would have been lost gets shoved out into the point of contact, making whatever attack you were doing way stronger. It also tends to leave behind some sort of sign based on what you percieve your mana as looking like, which is probably what those flower petals were.”

  ”Well, that’s certainly interesting. So all you have to do is move your mana in the right way and you get absurdly stronger hits?” Blossom scoffed slightly, crossing her legs as she leaned back in her chair.

  “Yeah, no. It’s not as simple as you think it is. There isn’t one correct way to move that energy efficiently, it changes based on literally thousands of different factors. Whether or not you ate breakfast that morning could change how you need to make the energy flow. Think of it less like an ability and more like an occasional bonus, like in a game when you randomly get extra damage on a hit.” I considered that for a moment. It seemed like something I should look into on my own time, but it probably wouldn’t be that important in the near future.

  ”Alright then. There was another thing that was confusing me though. I tried using my ability to lift some entities into the air, but when I did, it almost felt like something was fighting against me. Can entities use magic or something?”

  ”Ah, that one is a little trickier to explain. I think it’s best if I first give you an example. Let’s use your gravity ability for this. Now, that ability seems pretty insane right? You can just lift people into the air, make them go wherever you want right?” She asked, and I nodded, unsure of where she was going with this.

  “I mean, yeah? I made some guy fall to the ground pretty easily. What’s your point?”

  ”I’m getting there, hold on. Now, I have a question for you. When you used that ability, did you directly make that guy fall down? Or did you increase the gravity of the area around him?”

  ”Well, the second one I guess. The first one seems a lot more complicated.” As I said this, Blossom stood up from her seat.

  ”Okay then, I want you to try and do that to me. Use that ability to make my body heavier and force me to the ground.” I simply stared at her, unsure if she was joking or not.

  ”Are you sure about this? It doesn’t seem like it’s very pleasant to deal with.”

  ”Go for it, just trust me on this.” Oh well, it was her choice. I shrugged and reached out a hand to use gravity manipulation on her, when all of a sudden it felt like my ability just, stopped. Not that she resisted it somehow, but that my ability just could not function in this context, no matter how much effort I put into it.

  ”What the hell is this?” I asked as I kept trying, and she simply grinned.

  ”This, my friend, is what we Guardians like to call, the “No Bullshit Effect!”

  “…you’re fucking with me right?”

  ”Nope! It does have an actual scientific name, but Guardians just call it that so it’s easier to say. It’s one of the fundamental rules of magic, and of the universe really. In simple wording, the law states that mana is unable to negatively affect itself. What this means in terms of magic is, you cannot directly target another living being with harmful magic. Now, what is considered harmful and what isn’t is pretty much a case by case basis, but healing magic is generally always okay.” I thought about this new informatjon for a moment as Blossom messed around with her hair.

  “Okay, that kind of makes sense? But then why the hell do you call it the No Bullshit effect?”

  ”Because, it means if you ever fight someone with magic, they can’t use some bullshit on you. You can’t snap your fingers and make someone fall asleep, you can’t summon an object inside someones body and make them explode, and you can’t directly change anything about someones body, like its gravity. The whole point of magic is essentially turning mana into a form that can tangibly affect the world. You can’t just light someone on fire, so you make a big pillar of flame instead.”

  ”But when I was trying to move those entities, I wasn’t changing their gravity, I was changing gravity around them. Why didn’t that work?”

  ”That’s the more complicated part. One of the best way’s of stopping another Guardians abilities is just, sending out a big pulse of mana around you. It basically disrupts whatever they were doing. Entities don’t have mana, but they kind of follow the rules of magic, so they are constantly doing that. I’ll admit I’m not very knowledgeable on that specific subject, a more scientific Guardian could probably give you a better explanation.”

  ”Huh. Well, thanks for explaining anyways. I did have some questions about like, being a woman, but some of those seem more like questions for a doctor.” I said as Blossom sat down, stretching her arms as sunlight poured through the window onto her.

  ”Yeah, I could recommend you a good general doctor who works with fem Guardians. You will have to go to a different planet, but that’s kind of the norm for Guardians.”

  ”Thanks. You know, it sucks I can’t have kids, but at least I won’t get periods either. That always seemed awful.”

  ”Oh, uh, you probably still will. No bleeding, but stomach cramps and stuff are still very possible for you.”

  ”Aw what?! That’s bullshit!” I yelled, slamming my hand on the table. Everyone else in the cafe proceeded to turn to our table, making me immediately regret my actions. For her part, Blossom just laughed and put a hand on the table, steadying it.

  ”It kind of is. You’ll come to learn a lot of being a woman is dealing with different bullshit. But hey, I enjoy it, and I’m sure you will too!” I looked down at myself, taking in my new outfit some more. I, did look rather good.

  ”Yeah, I think you might be right.”