"Delightful." I lean against him a little extra-heavily, under the guise of leaning out of the tree and looking down. There's some kind of creature down there, a fair sight more organic-looking than most Metaroids.

"No," I answer him after a moment of thought. My Morphin Blaster was... not confiscated, technically, but it had generally been agreed upon by the higher-ups at EMC that I should probably not use it in my normal body, at least until I'd grown up a little more. At least as old as Youko-chan had been.

"No, I don't. Do you think we'll need to fight?