As the group of espers fled, Ed frowned. "Something isn't right. They should be chasing after us."

"Right." Rubi agreed while glancing down through the fog. "It's not like we're moving slow like when we snuck in, and they should have at least a few espers capable of sensing us by now."

"Hmm." Tai looked down, carefully examining any prominent espers in high-ranking uniform on the ground. "There." He pointed towards a tall man in a green uniform. "I recognize that man. He serves a party opposing the current ruling party. That actually explains why help didn't come sooner for them. I'm guessing he's more than happy we eliminated their biggest political opponent, and by letting us escape, the entire incident can be pinned on the failure of Prime Minister Souma and his leading general. Not to mention the scandals that'll come out if word spreads of what Camazotz's powers were being used for."

"Tsk." Ed clicked his tongue. "Seems politics is dirty in every country."

"Mm." The others agreed as they continued flying forward, easily leaving Mount Fuji behind. Soon, they returned to the ship and set sail to sea.

...

The next morning. After a night of rest, Tai, Ed, and Rubi met privately for breakfast.

"So." Tai said after biting into some rice. "How long will it take you to prepare Camazotz's body?"

Ed finished eating his omelet and wiped his mouth. "Hard to say..." He hesitated. "I've never converted the flesh of a purple mutant before. So far, it's been naturally rejecting my powers. I'm guessing it could take a month or two to flush out the original mana so that I can properly mold it."

Tai frowned. "Will waiting that long degrade the quality?"

"It shouldn't." He shook his head. "Normally it's better to use fresher flesh. It's even better if the body is still alive. But in this case, it's a bit different. The mana will naturally preserve the body in its best state until I flush it all out. We'll do the transformations immediately after."

"Alright." Tai nodded while rubbing his chin. "Since we need to wait anyways, I think I'll have you start working part-time each day on my crew's transformations. We'll delay our return to china and head to some islands south of Japan. There are some colonies of sea python mutants that have taken them over, and they're the ideal type of chimeras I want."

"Why pythons...?" Ed questioned curiously.

"Naturally because they're similar to the Chinese dragons of ancient myths and legends." Tai smiled. "Maybe we'll catch some bird or bat mutants as well so they can all be given wings."

"Whatever floats your boat." Ed shrugged as he returned to his meal, digging into a side of hash browns.

"Ahem." Rubi coughed into her hand to grab their attention. "I think we need to discuss Haru and Hina."

"Discuss what?" Tai frowned. "You said you'd take responsibility for them."

"That..." She hesitated as an awkward expression covered her face. "I want to, but they won't wake up. They're both in comas and none of the medically experienced espers on board know what's wrong. I've even had a few espers with healing related powers take a crack at them with no success."

"And? What do you want me to do about it?" Tai questioned, slightly annoyed at having even brought the children with them.

"Not you." Rubi frowned and turned to Ed. "I know your powers are capable of a lot, and I've heard about some of the experiments you've done in the past. I want you to look at them."

"And why should I do that?" Ed questioned while raising an eyebrow. "They have no relation to me at all. I guess you could pay me a few purple mana-cores..."

"I don't have any!" She frowned. "I traded them all to keep my members alive in the cage. I had no reason to save them up at the time. Besides, don't think I forgot about how you screwed my sister!"

"Screwed your sister?!" Ed repeated in confused shock. "What are you talking about? I'll have you know I'm still a virgin."

"Pfft." Tai spit out his drink as he listened in on the conversation. "Please excuse me." He said as he stood up from the table while wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin. "I'll leave you two to your... private discussion." Not giving the two a chance to protest, he quickly left the room.

"DAMN IT!" Rubi shouted as she slammed her fist against the table. "That's not what I meant, and you know it! Now you've given Tai a bad impression of me!"

"Given Tai a bad impression?" Ed rose an eyebrow while glancing towards the direction Tai had left. Slowly, the realization set in, and he smiled. "You've got a thing for Tai!" He laughed. "No wonder you're following him across an entire ocean!"

"SHUT UP!" Her wooden chair screeched as she hurriedly stood up. Her hand moving so fast it blurred, she grabbed ahold of Ed's collar. "You disabled the mech tank right in the middle of the battle at the fort. You could've gotten my sister inside killed!" Flames appeared around her eyes as she grew increasingly angry.

"Hey, you're the one that stole it in the first place." He scoffed, no fear in his eyes. "Besides, that thing was practically impenetrable, and it could still move. I'm guessing she escaped just fine?"

"That's beside the point!" She yelled. "You're going to help Haru and Hina to make up for what you've done! Understand?!"

"What if I don't want to?" Ed grinned while mocking her. "And do you even have a sister? I've never seen her before."

"You're really testing my patience!" Rubi's body began to shake, seemingly vibrating. The ships started to sway as her power passed through the floor.

"You're going to destroy the ship at this rate." He replied as he gripped her wrist, scales covering his body. "Do you think I'm afraid of you or something? You don't seem to realize that I'm the most powerful esper on this ship by far." Though he was keeping his calm, Ed was raging inside. 'Who the fuck does she think she is?' He wondered. If there was anything he hated, it was others trying to control him. A trade or deal was fine. A polite request was also reasonable. But to directly order him to do something against his will? It was the same as slapping him in the face!

As the two glared at each other, the ship shook more and more. Suddenly, Tai returned with an angry face. "What the hell are you doing?! Do you want to destroy my ship?!"

"Tai!" She replied in shock as she hurriedly released her powers.

"Humph." Ed snorted as he retracted his scales and walked away. "Keep your girlfriend under control in the future, Tai." He brushed past them, leaving them both behind.

Tai stared at Rubi while confused. "What the hell was all of that about?" He questioned.

Rubi hunched over, trying to make herself appear smaller as she tried to explain herself.

...

Back in Ed's room, he examined Camazotz's body. 'How did he do it?' He wondered as he studied the flesh. 'His powers can be explained in part by his seven-colored mana-core, purple mana, and such. It's reasonable to assume he extracted mana from one body and created a mana-core in the other. I've done similar things by compressing mana-powders. But to directly infuse mana into the bodies of ordinary humans without killing them? I don't understand how? It was a pain in the ass when I created chimeras out of ordinary humans since the process was so time consuming.'

As he continued researching the body, he focused on the tail and the fangs. 'The tail seems ideal for extracting mana from others, but that still probably relied on his innate powers for the most part. I wouldn't be surprised if Camazotz could do it without his tail as a much slower pace.' He squeezed some flesh near the fangs, causing an odd purple liquid to drip out. 'Could this be the cause?' He wondered as he tried investigating it. The fluid was made of extremely concentrated mana. Unable to resist his curiosity, he collected the liquid and placed a drop of it on his palm. The liquid quickly vanished as it was absorbed by his skin.

'That should be it.' He nodded to himself while rubbing his chin. 'This liquid is naturally produced by Camazotz's body, and despite the high mana concentration, it's surprisingly gentle on the body. Not only that, but it must reform the body of ordinary humans entirely, remaking them to be suitable to accept the proper types of mana based on the type of extracted mana-core. Otherwise, how would he give humans mana-cores of multiple elements when ordinary humans only have affinity with one element at the most? Not to mention the incompatibility issues would kill the receiver of the power if the body isn't properly adjusted.'

The more he studied the body, the greedier he felt about keeping it. By now, he was determined to keep the fangs no matter the cost. They were the perfect tool to raise Harmony an entire level of strength. It would remove all bottlenecks in the mass production of his future chimeras, while also allowing for the creation of new espers with multi-element mana-cores. He also wanted the wings for their incredible defensive powers. The only thing he wasn't particularly interested in was the tail, as it might cause instability to his powers. He had no desire to upset the balance of his nearly perfect mana-core by introducing foreign elements and powers to it. 'I'm sure Tao would want the tail as well as the wings and fangs... We'll have to see how our negotiations go I suppose.'

...

Nearly a day passed as the ship sailed to a series of small islands south of Japan. Ed returned above deck and was surprised by what he saw. "So, these are sea pythons." He muttered as he kicked a snake-like body lying on the deck.

The dead python was easily several dozen meters long once uncoiled. Its body was as thick as a barrel and covered in thick blue scales. A horn jutted out from its head, and it had large sharp fangs.

Ed knelt down by the snake to examine it more closely. Leaning his head against his fist, he frowned. 'Seems kind of boring for chimera transformations. Maybe my standards are just too high though.' He shook his head while standing up. Before now, he had only ever created the crocodile chimeras using the flesh of a single powerful mutant. While the python was impressive, it was hardly comparable. Regardless, he set to work and began removing the mana still present within the corpse.

"Working hard?" Tai smiled as he walked over. Nearly half the espers were off the ship hunting for pythons, so he had a lot of free time for once.

"Mm." Ed nodded, not paying much attention to the work he was doing, as it was much easier than he was accustomed to. "What about you?" He questioned. "Are you going to do a mix of python and the bat? Or only the bat?"

"Hmm..." Tai rubbed his chin. "I think I'll do both. After all, it'd look a bit odd if I led a bunch of python chimera espers and looked completely different to them. Besides, these sea pythons might not look like much but they're actually really strong with good defense. In comparison, Camazotz is actually lacking except for a few select body parts."

"Well, since you've brought it up, we need to decide how we're splitting Camazotz's body. Which parts do you want?"

"The fangs, tail, and wings naturally." Tai smiled. "I assume you want the same?"

"Right." Ed nodded, hiding the fact he didn't actually care for the tail. "The rest of the body is useless, so how should we negotiate?"

"How about one fang and one wing each for starters?" Tai hesitantly suggested.

"Won't work." Ed shook his head. "I've studied the body. The fangs unique power comes from a fluid secreted by the fangs, but it requires both of them. The liquid within each fang is different and they create a unique compound when mixed together."

"I see." Tai frowned. "And the wings?"

"Those are big enough for us to share." He nodded. "I can easily modify them to create two smaller sets of wings, though we'll be sacrificing the full defensive coverage in the process. But since our bodies are smaller than Camazotz, it'll still be a reasonably good coverage."

"That's good." Tai nodded. "So, one of us gets the tail and the other the fangs then? How about I take the fangs and you take the tail?"

'I didn't think he'd want the fangs as well.' Ed frowned, knowing he had lost the edge in negotiations. Of course, he could always force things his own way. But since he was currently in the middle of the ocean with no help while Tai had a large number of forces, that would be a foolish decision. Not to mention he actually had a fairly good relationship with him despite their occasional disagreements.

Tai smiled as he noticed Ed's grimace. "I can tell you want the fangs, right? How about this. I'll take the tail and give you the fangs, but in exchange you need to attempt healing Haru and Hina. Deal?"

'Ah, so that's his game.' Ed's eyes widened in realization. 'He never wanted the fangs. It was all so he could throw this unrelated trade into the deal.' He almost nodded but hesitated a moment. "What did Rubi give you to put you up to this?" He questioned.

"Secret." Tai grinned. "Deal or not? I know you hate things being forced on you, so this is a fair trade, right?"

"Fine..." He nodded. "Let's get started with the python flesh then. I've already cleared enough mana from this section to create a few chimeras.