The Mech Touch

"Hey Jannzi. Did I come at a bad time?"

The Jannzi that Joshua and most of the Larkinsons were accustomed to seeing in the past looked a lot different this time.

She looked a lot gentler and less intense this time as she assumed her role as a mother to a young but growing son.

Mercer Larkinson gurgled in joy as Jannzi served him a meal fortified with all of the nutrients a growing boy needed to optimize his growth.

After she leaned down to kiss her baby on the cheek, she turned to Joshua and gestured to her visitor to sit down next to the dining table.

"Why have you come?" Jannzi asked as her slumbering force of will began to surge in activity again.

It was as if she took offense at the intrusion of another expert pilot into her abode.

To her credit, she kept her posture relaxed as she stepped away from her son and moved closer to her ex-boyfriend.

"I tried to call you over the comm, but you weren't accepting them. I tried to send text messages to you instead, but I feel like they have fallen into a bottomless cliff."

Venerable Jannzi smirked and lifted her arms, making sure to show off her wrists. "That is because I have stopped wearing my comm and closed any other form of remote messaging."

"Huh?!" Joshua looked astonished. He couldn't wrap his head around why someone who lived in this age would cut themselves off like this. "Why would you do that, Jannzi? What if someone needs to convey an important message to you? What about your duties?"

"I have no duties. Not for the time being at least. I… well, after my recent talk with the Gemini Saints, I realized that I wasn't doing much aside from moping around. I can't mourn for my Shield of Samar forever. This is why I decided to accept the advice given to me and proceed to reset my life. I informed the Hall of Heroes that I wanted to go on a year-long sick leave and suspend all of my mech piloting duties."

Joshua grew concerned. "You went on sick leave? What about your training sessions? Your piloting skills will backslide if you don't exercise them enough. There are also the Shieldbearers. What will all of those hopeful knight mech specialists do now that you are no longer around to guide and tutor them in the hopes that they can become the next generation of expert pilots?"

The female pilot sighed as a part of her melancholy came back again. "I was doing no good to anyone in my previous state. I am disabled, Joshua. You don't know what it means for me to lose my expert mech. The Shield of Samar was more than a good friend or a cherished family member. It was akin to my other half or my close twin sibling. I don't know how to live without having its constant presence by my side anymore. I needed a break before I got any worse."

"If it's like that, then maybe you have made the right choice." Joshua admitted. "Sometimes, it takes courage to step away."

"Exactly. I truly feel bad for putting down all of my existing responsibilities. It will be okay, though. I made sure to arrange alternative learning channels for the Shieldbearers. They not only have subscriptions to a personalized virtual tutoring service, but I also made sure they could train with Venerable Linda Cross at least a couple of times every month. As for the rest… well, nothing I was working on was time sensitive. It shouldn't matter too much if I delay my work for a year."

It was difficult for expert pilots who valued duty so much to set aside their responsibilities to the public in favor of attending to their own personal needs.

She needed this, though. She would do no good to the Larkinson Clan and the many people who she cared about if she emotionally broke down.

Being an expert pilot did not make her immune to these kinds of issues. They were in fact more serious than ever because of their amplified strength and willpower.

"So what have you been doing during this time?" Joshua asked.

"I tried to be a better mother for my son. I walk around and chat with ordinary clansmen. I tried out a few hobbies. I started a small garden. I tried… to reconnect with my humanity."

"Well, whatever you are doing, I think it is working." Joshua said in an encouraging tone. "You were a lot more… abrasive in the past. Don't get me wrong. I respect you for standing up to your principles and beliefs. It was just that you were so absorbed with your crusade that it was hard for anyone who disagreed with you to like you. I'm glad to hear that you are working to explore your humanity again. I always thought that was important."

Jannzi sent an evaluating glance at him. "That is your greatest strength and your greatest fault. You have too much humanity, Joshua. You don't seem to have any problems with getting along with people, but I have always noticed that you can't seem to settle on a solid goal or purpose."

Joshua nodded. "Heh, I guess our relationship was never meant to be. We are too far apart from each other. Even though we are both working to rein in our excesses, I don't think we would ever be compatible with each other."

Both of them had moved on and hooked up with other people. Enough time had passed for them to get past their breakups. They could even look back at their past relationship with nostalgia.

Jannzi eventually grew serious again. "I don't think you came here because you wanted to check up on me and talk about old times. What is the reason for your visit?"

"Ah, despite your attempt to pull yourself away from your duties, I still think it is important for me to fill you in on what I have accomplished after taking over some of your duties."

Venerable Joshua told his fellow expert pilot the recent progress he had made concerning the treatment of living mechs.

The woman looked surprised when she heard that Joshua actually managed to convince Ves to make actual concessions.

"That blasted cousin of mine had been stonewalling me for several years." Jannzi said through gritted teeth. Her force of will started to get enflamed. "I don't know what you have done to change his stubborn mind, but it was about time for him to get a spine and take a step in the right direction. It's a shame he didn't go far enough."

Joshua nodded in agreement. "I've already conveyed the results to the Everchanger and company. They're disappointed, but they will make do with the concessions that they have received. They are already in the process of setting up a secret order that will remain completely unnoticed. It is meant to operate silently alongside the other institutions of the Larkinson Clan. The living mechs even picked a name for it. They decided to call it the Anima Order."

The other expert pilot furrowed her brows.

"If this 'Anima Order' is supposed to remain a secret, why are you exposing its existence to me and in front of my son no less?"

Joshua made a dismissive gesture. "It's okay. Once you have recovered from whatever it is you are suffering from, I'm sure you will go back and resume your old duties. While I have chosen to take over your job for now, I don't think I can do this forever. As for your son, I'm sure he can keep a secret, isn't that right, Mercer?"

The young boy who had almost finished his breakfast porridge giggled in response. "I will, uncle Josh!"

"What a clever boy you are. Your mother has raised you so well."

Jannzi shook her head in disapproval. The only reason why she didn't make a bigger deal out of it was because her own son was involved.

"Besides setting up this Anima Order, you also mentioned that the living mechs have also gained the right to walk among our clansmen in the form of mechanical avatars, right?"

"That's right, Jannzi. The goal was to give living mechs an opportunity to experience human life first-hand. It was important for them to be able to connect themselves to human-sized robotic avatars. They don't really care whether the avatars are made to look like plain metal robots or highly realistic androids that are indistinguishable from actual humans."

"Instead of that, they got cat robots."

Joshua chuckled a bit. "Yeah. That was an odd proposal from me. I just saw Lucky doing his thing and came up with the idea somehow. Ves originally didn't agree with this absurd idea, but Goldie showed up and beat him up until he relented."

That caused Venerable Jannzi to become more attentive. "The Golden Cat intervened in person?"

"Yes."

"Tell me exactly what happened back then. Give me as many details as possible and give me your interpretation of Goldie's messages."

"Oh, okay."

Venerable Joshua went into exhausting details as he described how the meeting unfolded. Jannzi continued to maintain a critical expression as she parsed the information that she received.

"Don't you think this situation looks suspicious?"

"Hm? In what way, Jannzi?"

"I'm not surprised that you can't see it. You aren't as detached to the event as myself." The female expert pilot said. "Let me explain my theory to you. First, do you think it is a coincidence that Lucky just happened to stay close enough to you for you to put cats at the forefront of your mind?"

"Uhhh…"

"Do you think that it is a coincidence that you just happened to tie our living mechs to mechanical cat avatars of all things?"

"Ehmm…"

"Do you think that it is a coincidence that the Golden Cat broke her long-standing policy of non-interference and spontaneously appeared to coerce our very own clan leader into making a decision that he originally did not want to make?"

"That…"

"I've argued against Ves so many times and almost never managed to extract any concessions from him. Why did he uncharacteristically drop all of his concerns and objections and fold so easily after being subjected to light harassment from a glowing cat?"

"Now that you mention it, this does sound unlikely." Joshua muttered with a frown. "What are you getting at, Jannzi? Are you suggesting that Goldie deliberately pulled all of our strings so that we would turn mech cats into a reality?"

Jannzi crossed her arms. "It could be a coincidence, but I find that hard to believe. Don't you think that it is concerning that the Golden Cat is no longer content with staying in the background? It looks to me that she has become more political, and that concerns me. It is all well and good if she happens to support the same initiatives as us, but what if she opposes other items in our agenda?"

"I think your fears regarding her are overblown. Goldie is the invisible heart of the Larkinson Clan. She is connected to all of us. She pretty much embodies the collective will of all of our clansmen."

"That is what Ves originally designed her to become, but who knows how much she has grown since then? What if she has matured to the point where she is starting to have her own ideas on how the clan should be run?"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

Jannzi shook her head. "Not necessarily. There is something called accountability, you know. It is already bad enough that we can't really question Ves' decisions as a patriarch. What will we do if the Golden Cat becomes just as bad? Casting doubt on her is impossible. Do you know why?"

"Because she is so cute and beloved among all of our clansmen?"

"The Golden Cat is a god to our fellow Larkinsons." Jannzi answered. "Questioning her is no different from questioning a god. Doing so in the middle of the clan will only get us crucified."

"..."

Joshua was shocked. He found it difficult to look at Goldie in a negative light.

"Jannzi."

"Yes, Joshua?"

"Aren't you exaggerating a bit too much?"

"...I see that she has got to you as well."