July 25, 2032 - Dining room, 2:30pm.

  “What?!” Crane stood up abruptly on the dining table during lunch, “Bear was able to Gravity Crush that mountain of trash?”

  “Sit down,” Mantis tugged her down as he took a bite off his sandwhich, “You’re ruining my appetite.”

  “…” Crane sat down as she pouted at Mantis next to her.

  Junkie huffed, “Yeah, didn’t believe it myself ‘til I saw it.”

  Bear munched as he incoherently mumbled, “Ish gwadidy max.”

  Viper translated, “He says ‘It’s Gravity Max’. He was having trouble with Gravity Crush due it’s misconception people had about it. It was just directing the pull towards the earth.”

  “Whatever it is, it just looked like ya crushed my trash flat.” Junkie rolled his eyes.

  Tigress hummed, “I’ll recycle it then. I’m lacking some materials.”

  Crane clenched her fists underneath the table as she smiled, “Congrats Bear-oppa.”

  Mantis noticed her tightened grip but didn’t comment.

  ***

  In the training hall, 3pm.

  Crane hurriedly walked to the training hall, as Mantis followed her.

  “Hey.” Mantis called her, “You ok?”

  Crane turned towards him with her raised brows, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “…” Mantis observed her cheerful face.

  Maybe it was just in my head?

  “Nevermind that! Let’s train! We’re wasting time!” Crane pulled Mantis to the hall. They began training at the separate ends of the hall each.

  ***

  Around 5pm.

  Mantis failed at controlling his plant size again. For the 65th time.

  It was too thin this time.

  He tugged his hair aggressively until Crane, who was making an ice tiger, commented, “You’ll become bald soon if you keep tugging your hair like that.”

  “…” Mantis paused as he gently patted his hair, “Can’t you see I’m practising? Of course I’ll get frustrated.”

  He then noticed her ice golems were getting larger, “Hey, should you really be overdoing those?”

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  “Hm? Of course!” Crane huffed, “Viper, Monkey and Bear improved on their training. I don’t want to fall behind.”

  “That makes the both of us then.”

  “You don’t understand. I have to.” Crane gripped on her ice tiger’s head.

  “…” Mantis stood up before going closer to her, “Ok, why do you have to?”

  “I’ll be useless otherwise.” Crane spoke softly.

  After a moment of silence, Mantis sighed, “Look, you’re not useless, even with all this. You should rest. You’re overworking yourself. I’ll get us some water, yeah?”

  Crane reluctantly nodded as she didn’t face him.

  She looked around the hall full of ice as Mantis left.

  When he was gone, she whispered under her breath, “Perhaps, it’ll be ok to do one more.”

  She raised her hands as she formed a large ice golem.

  ***

  When Mantis came back, he heard her shout, “I did it! Mantis, look! An elephant!”

  Mantis gaped at the huge elephant as Crane panted heavily.

  He then saw the large elephant swung it’s trunk down the ground forming a crater and trumpeted, “PRRUUUUUUUUUUUH!”

  “CRANE!” Mantis waved his hands forming vines around Crane and pulled her out of the ice elephant’s trunk swing.

  The elephant stomped on the ground in a rampage, making a large amount of debtis. Mantis used his vines to restrict its movements but it was too thin as the elephant easily broke it off.

  Shit! It’s too thin!

  The elephant became enraged as it looked at Mantis, rubbing its foot down, getting ready to charge at him.

  Mantis took a deep breath in.

  It’s now or never.

  Mantis raised his hands once more as treelike branches grew from the ground and wrapped themselves around the elephant’s legs and body. “CRANE! I can’t hold it for long!”

  However, when he glanced at Crane’s dazed eyes, he swore, “CRANE! BEAT THIS PIECE OF SHIT OR ELSE I’LL BEAT YOU UP WHEN WE’RE DEAD!”

  Crane finally looked up and saw Mantis struggling. She slapped her cheeks to focus as she stood up. She clasped her hands together before separating them, forming a bazooka cannon and aimed it at the elephant. Once she was steady, she fired three consecutive shots.

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  One for the head, one in the middle and one on the butt.

  PRUUUUUUUUH! CRASH! BANG!

  The elephant cracked into many pieces before it fell to the ground.

  Crane knelt on the ground as Mantis ran to her, “ARE YOU DEAF? I TOLD YOU TO REST, YOU IDIOT!”

  Mantis exhaled sharply as he began to heal the bruise on her knees and arms.

  Crane faced down with her eyes closed before biting her lips, “I’m…”

  “Yeah you should be sorry. You made something dangerous without having any energy left to spare.” Mantis huffed as his vines patched her up, “Why did you even do it anyway?”

  “…I wanted to be helpful. I can’t be helpful to the team when I’m behind.” Crane sighed as she hugged her knees, “I have to be… no, must be perfect so I can be helpful.”

  Mantis exhaled sharply, “Let me get this straight. You almost killed yourself just to be ‘perfect’?”

  Crane nodded.

  “Monkey isn’t the idiot. You are.”

  “Excuse me?!” Crane glared at him.

  “Do you honestly think anyone is perfect? Of course not.” Mantis flicked her forehead at how stubborn she was, “We’re all aiming to grow because we aren’t satisfied with where we are. And when you think about it, ‘perfect’ means there is an end stage. I don’t like that. Wouldn’t you rather think there is another stage after ‘perfect’? Like it’s so much better to think about the infinite stages we could achieve as long as we continue to grow.”

  Crane’s eyes widened as she chuckled, “That’s so like you.”

  Mantis stood up with his hands on his hips, “I thought you were the cool-headed one. Not the reckless one. Leave that to Monkey.”

  He paused before continuing, “So… stand up and aim for the stars, not ‘perfect’. It’ll be a long journey ahead so you should rest along the way as well.”

  He rubbed his neck sheepishly, “Do you get it?”

  “…” Crane smiled as she looked him in the eye. She felt something fill her chest with warmth as her tense shoulders relaxed, “Yeah, I do. Though, next time you call me an idiot like Monkey, I’ll slap you.”

  Mantis rolled his eyes but smirked, noticing she was now over it, “Good, because you’re important to the team, no, you’re part of this family. It won’t do if you aren’t here with us.”

  Badum.

  BadumBadum.

  BadumBadumBadum…

  Crane clutched her heart beating quickly as her ears turned pink. Thankfully, Mantis turned away as he went out.

  I wasn’t mistaken.

  Since back in the boat, I felt my heart skip a beat whenever he was near.

  It’s fun teasing him but it’s also fun teasing others with him.

  I want to be by his side…

  Crane snapped out of it as Mantis yelled outside the hall, “Are you coming or what?”

  “Coming!” Crane smiled brightly as she stood beside him.

  She then teased, chuckling, “You would make a great coach. ‘Stand up and aim for the stars’.”

  Mantis’ ears turned red, “… shut up.”

  Crane gazed at his warm figure walking ahead of her as she smiled.

  I don’t have to be perfect, just growing.