Research on Blood Characters

"Erza, how do you feel?"

"It hurts a little, but I can endure it. You can use more force."

"Alright, then I won't hold back."

"Ugh, aaaah!"

Hearing such an awful exchange coming from Aibo's room, Mira, who had just returned from completing a job, couldn't hold herself back any longer and shoved the door open.

"What are you two doing!?" Huh?"

Aibo was floating in midair, wearing a white lab coat longer than he was tall. He held a notebook in his hand, while several pens beside him automatically recorded something.

Meanwhile, Erza lay on a cleverly designed recliner, wearing only shorts and a tank top. Her body was covered in Eastern characters, and she was letting out pained screams.

Mira recognized it at a glance. Erza was undergoing the same experiment Aibo had performed on her two days ago!

"Mira, you're back. We're conducting the 'Fully Autonomous Body-Tempering Style Enchant Word Formula Research: Twenty-Second Human Trial.' Interested in joining us?"

Mira: ???

"No, I was only gone for two days, and you've already done over twenty trials!?"

Damn it! How did this happen!? I was here first! I was the first one to accompany Aibo in his experiments! Erza, you cheating cat!

"..."

Every time he heard Mira's inner voice, Aibo had a hard time keeping a straight face. He turned around and smiled mischievously.

"Want to join? Running comparative tests on two people separately should speed up my research."

"I... I..."

Mira instinctively shrank back. The nightmare-like experience from two days ago resurfaced, and her face turned several shades paler.

Erza, on the other hand, answered with a resolute expression.

"This is an extremely important experiment. If it succeeds, its significance will be extraordinary. We'll be able to seize every minute and second to grow stronger. I'll do everything I can to help Aibo complete these tests."

Hearing Erza say that, Mira immediately flushed. Why was this latecomer acting so high and mighty?

No matter what, she couldn't lose to Erza!

"Then I'm in too!"

"Oh? Mira, you're not scared anymore?"

"Scared? Scared of what!? When have I ever been afraid!? Bring out whatever methods you have! I want twice as many runes as Erza!"

Mira craned her neck, squeezed her eyes shut, and shouted, looking like she was ready to face death.

"Hehe, I'll remember Mira's great sacrifice. This is all for the advancement of magic~

Well, this place is too cramped. Let's go to another laboratory."

With his hands in his pockets, Aibo controlled Erza and the "operating chair" to float up. Then, wrapping the two of them in magic power, he used "area spatial teleportation."

The next second, the three of them appeared in another pure white room, where another operating chair stood.

"Aibo, you can teleport people now without even touching them?"

"It just costs a little more magic power. It's nothing major..."

Mira looked around the pure white room and asked doubtfully.

"Where are we?"

"Deep in the eastern forest, somewhere Grandma Porlyusica can't find us. She caught us absorbing the trees' life force in the forest the day before yesterday and gave us a beating.

So we set up a laboratory far away from her. Our experiments require a large amount of life force, so it's more convenient to be in the forest."

"Porlyusica? Who's that?"

Erza said, "A very skilled pharmacist! She even made my artificial eye."

Aibo said, "The guild master's old flame."

Mira said, "Oh~ I see."

"..."

Erza's expression turned strange as she scolded him. "Aibo, that was very rude!"

"She has no respect for her age. I'm so adorable—how could she bear to hit me?"

"Ms. Porlyusica is your pharmacology teacher. You need to show her respect."

"I've abandoned medicine for letters. What use are potions compared to Word Magic? Let bygones be bygones. Don't bring them up again."

"You! Have you been led astray by Mira?"

Mira had been listening to their bickering with envy. She wanted to be part of Aibo's past too, but when she suddenly heard Erza say that, her already flushed face practically began to steam.

"Hah!? What do you mean, Erza? Want to fight!?"

"I'm merely stating the facts. Before you joined the guild, Aibo was always a good child. Now he's even learned to badmouth his teacher behind her back! I have every reason to suspect that you corrupted him."

"You! You..."

Mira had originally wanted to loudly curse Erza as a complete idiot. Aibo had more bad intentions than she did, so who exactly had corrupted whom?

But then another thought struck her. This airhead Erza didn't even know Aibo's true nature? Hahaha, then I'd won by far too much! What could she possibly use to compete with me?!

"Hmph! So what if I did? Isn't it only natural that Aibo and I are close? Who would want to play with a stiff, freakishly strong gorilla like you? I'm Aibo's closest big sister!"

Erza's brows shot up in anger, and she looked deeply dissatisfied.

"Mira, your personality is too awful! Aibo is still a child. I hope you won't teach him any bad habits in the future! Otherwise, as Aibo's most responsible big sister, I can only make you stay farther away from him."

"Hehe, if you can do it, then come try! Do you think I'm afraid of you?"

"You'll regret this, Mirajane!"

"I'm the big sister, Erza!"

"..."

Watching the two argue over him, Aibo wasn't flustered at all. Instead, he watched with great interest. As long as the fire didn't reach him, he actually enjoyed watching women fight.

But they still had work to do, so he should calm them down a little.

"Alright, alright, both big sisters, stop fighting. We still have experiments to conduct. If you really want to compete...

...why not compete in willpower? Let's see who can endure the experiment longer. How about it~?"

Aibo narrowed his eyes and made an utterly vile suggestion, but Erza and Mira could only see each other now.

"Bring it on!"

"Who's afraid of who!?"

It seemed they cared more about each other than about Aibo. Aibo was quite satisfied too. Where else could he find such lively, energetic little... volunteers?

Although Aibo's experiments weren't dangerous, the pain was truly painful. And Aibo was genuinely grateful for their contributions. Otherwise, he would have had to bear that suffering himself.

So their achievements would not be forgotten!

"Then let's begin right away~"

Three months later, White House in the Forest.

"Word Magic: [Injury], [Heal], Word Enchantment."

Aibo wrote two characters, one blood-red and the other blue-green, which landed on Erza's chest and back respectively.

These two characters would form a unique cyclical magic circuit inside Erza's body. One slowly damaged the muscle tissue throughout her body, while the other consumed stored life force to heal the injuries. At fixed intervals, they would alternately damage designated parts of her body, achieving a scientific body-tempering effect.

Fully automatic operation, one-click management, the ultimate AFK tool, a blessing for lazy people.

This was the ultimate magic Aibo had named [Word Enchantment: Fully Autonomous Body-Tempering System]!

"How does it feel?"

Erza stood from the recliner and carefully sensed the changes within her body. She opened her eyes in satisfaction.

"Mhm, very good. It feels tingly and numb, not very painful, and the magic power consumption is low. It doesn't interfere with daily activity. Aibo, you really succeeded."

"It only counts as half a success. This magic isn't universally applicable. To use it, you need a detailed understanding of a person's physical data. It can't be used casually like other Enchant Magic. For now, I can only design this system for the two of you."

Aibo put away the documents and lay down himself.

"Come on, help me test my physical data. My body is much weaker than yours, so I'll probably need an entirely new system."

"Two have already succeeded. It'll only get smoother from here."

Smack~

While Erza helped test Aibo's physical data, a magic circle nearby lit up. Mira suddenly appeared in it, holding a card in her hand.

"I'm back~ I brought lunch for you! Huh? Did Erza succeed too?"

[Card Magic: One-Way Teleport Card]. To make it easier for the two of them to travel to and from this laboratory deep in the forest, Aibo had combined Enchant Magic, Card Magic, and spatial magic to create a "return scroll." Activating the card would teleport the user to the designated location. It was extremely convenient.

"Yes, it succeeded. Next, it'll be Aibo's turn."

"Oh? Can't he just use our magic templates directly?"

"No. Our constitutions differ too greatly, and your version of the magic was designed with the additional requirement that you mustn't develop muscles. It has no reference value at all."

"What normal girl would build a body full of muscles just for strength? Erza the she-gorilla doesn't count."

Mira shook her head dismissively, then remembered something amusing and smiled.

"Oh, right. Let me tell you something funny. Today, Natsu found a huge egg in the forest. He said it was a dragon egg. Hahaha, Lisanna even said she wanted to hatch it."

"An egg?"