44 minutes.

That was all the time I had left.

Roasted chestnuts were apparently one of the flaming weasel's favorite foods. So for the past two hours, I had been laying down a trail of roasted chestnuts happily supplied by Ms. Nuts. By the time I was done, the trail extended for almost a kilometer with most of its path winding the forest. I know the plan sounded risky, and it was. But what I found out online was that flaming weasel are often calm when eating, and only set things ablaze when it felt threatened. The forest, being a place where it was less likely to encounter people, and being almost impossible to drive a car in would reduce its annoyance. With all those facts considered, the risk decreased drastically, but the stakes were also raised to a whole new level.

"K. All good to go."

"Kard." Rin said.

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

"How can you be hungry? You are just a hologram!"

"I don't care! I am hungry!" Rin exclaimed, eyeing the trail of roasted chestnuts.

"Just shut up! You're going to scare it away." I snapped retreating into a nearby bush.

"Kard!"

"WHAT!?" I snapped.

"I am seriously hungry! If I don't eat soon..."

"Soon what?"

"I will run out of power, and won't be able to function at all." She said with carefree voice, paused then continued:

"However there is a way to charge without using solar power."

"What is it?"

"Eating of course." She replied innocently, "You see, when you consume nutrients into your body, the arm extracts a portion of those nutrients and converts them into energy the way humans how human digestive system works."

"Like eat anything?"

"Practically anything edible. But plants are the best. They have the most vitamins and are gluten free. Look there!"

She said, pointing to a bunch of ferns.

"With just a handful of dogwood furs, I can go on for days without charging!"

"Really?" I asked, only half convinced.

"Go on, try it!"

Half doubting and persuaded, I reached for the branch of ferns, ripped some ferns off. Paused, then threw them into my mouth and chewed for about one or two seconds, before immediately regretting it and spitting it out.

"I can't believe you actually fell for that Kard!" Rin laughed off to one side, her blue Kaomoji flashing.

o(*≧▽≦)ツ┏━┓

"Curses! I swear once I get cross dimensional powers, I will gun you down in the streets like the..."

"Be quiet Kard." Rin snapped from dying of laughter to deathly calm in a millisecond, which made me panic, even for the briefest moment.

"Who you calling to be quiet? Wait what's going on?"

"Don't move. It's here."

I didn't need to be told twice, I froze. Several meters behind me where the trail ended emanated the sound of tiny footsteps and crackling sounds. I began to back up, and turned around when it finally felt like a safe distance to look.

"Yep. That's our target." I said, as I watch the tiny creature devour one chestnut after another like it was air.
The flaming weasel was no bigger than the average house weasel. It was however bright red with equally bright orange stripes across its body. But its most distinguishable feature was a flame on the tip of its tail.

"Alright, let's stay close to him."

​For the next half hour, I followed the flaming weasel step by step. No people crossed by, no cars drove by. Everything was still well, and by then we were only a few hundred meters from Ms. Nuts' house.

​We got this, so close...I said to myself, but apparently the gods hadn't had their fun with me yet. Part of the trail crossed a two lane road, and crossing that road was a necessary to get to Ms. Nuts' house.

​Please no car...

​The sound of running motor came from the distance.

Curses! Now please don't stop in the middle of the road.

I instantly ate my words, as the flaming weasel emerged onto the road and stopped in the center of the road for the chestnut.

Curses!

It did not seem that it was going to finish the chestnut and run in time, and the driver who was approaching didn't seem to notice the weasel in the center of the road either.

Personally I was not ok with the idea of running over animals in a car, unless the emergency stop would endanger the driver's or passenger's life. But at the time, neither did I want to risk myself by standing in between the car and the weasel nor did I want to see the weasel become roadkill. To be honest, just the thought would give me nightmares. Feeling completely helpless, all I could do was just watch from behind the bushes. As the car got closer, the weasel was still buried in its prize.

100ft.

No.

60ft.

No, no, no...

30ft.

Curses!

I covered my eyes to spare myself from the scene. There was a screech of tires, scent of burning rubber and several rusty coughs coming from the engine. Curious of what the result was, I began to slowly open my eyes and found myself looking at a flaming weasel, fully intact with a parked car just half an inch from it. All of this would have been a happy ending if it weren't for the fact that the weasel didn't look pleased in the slightest and was jumpy at very least.

"Curses." I muttered, as I found myself climbing out of my hiding spot and rushed towards the scene.

The weasel stood its ground with its tail standing up in a defensive stance, with fire wrapping around every inch of its body as it let out one of those hissing noise.

"Rin! Is there any way to counter that fire?"

"The CES should be..."

"Good enough." I said, as I got between both the car and weasel.

The driver must have been confused, but as soon as he saw the fire, fear took control of him as he tried to make a break through the door. Sensing the sudden movement seemed only further agitated.

WOOOSH!!!

A bright cone of fire surged towards the vehicle, causing me to stumble back as I held my hand up to block my eyes from the light. For the briefest, I felt the heat pass through me, like a human barbecue. Next thing I knew, the heat was gone and was I blinded for moment. Slowly a golden light in the shape of a shield came into focus extending out of my left arm.
"I almost thought I would die." I muttered, still marveling at the shield.

"Kard." Rin snapped.

"Yes?"

"It's getting away!"

"Curses! Where, where did it go?" I asked snapping out of my daze.

"I last saw it went into that bush." Rin pointed out.

"Hey kid! I don't know you. But can you please tell me what's going on..." came the confused driver's voice.

Ignoring his protest, I fled the scene in pursuit of the weasel.

***

"Curses, we almost had him..." I said with clenched fist at my side, as we weeded through the tall grass.

"If it wasn't for the CES, you would have become an all you can eat barbecue!"

Still kind of shocked from the attack, I took in a deep breath, let it out. And decided to change the topic.

"What does CES stand for anyways?"

"Condensed Energy Shield. Standard 5th generation MS defense system."

"Never knew that...wait did you just say MS?" My eyes widened, though I kept on walking.

"Yes? Is there something wrong?"

"Wait, wait, wait...so that means my arm is an MS?"

"Part of one technically. You see, that arm of yours is just a prototype, its power and usage has never been tested in actual battle."

Dang.

"I am no military geek, but all the MS have names right? So what's the name of mine?"

"Guess?"

"Eeeeee...let me think...Left judgement?"

"Nope. And what kind of MS is that? Are you still in elementary?"

"Just shut up! I got this!...uhh...Hand of Atlas?"

"Negative. System corrupted. Initiating self destruct sequence..." Rin said with the deep robotic female voice.

"Don't drag me along!" I said, as I scratched my head. "Wait is it Iron's will?"

"Close, but no."

"Alright, I give up."

"As I thought so."

"Just tell me what it is already!"

"Sure. Just answer one question for me first."

"Fine." My lips formed into a thin line.

"Question 1: Is your AI cute? Or is Rin cute? Or am I cute?"

​I almost died from exploding laughter. The randomness of this question hit me as hard as a gun in a boxing fight. It was only minutes later I finally calmed down and was able to breathe properly.

"How about this, do you want the comforting or honest answer?"

"I will go with honest answer then."

"Rin." I said with all my sincerity.

"YES!" Rin voice jumped.

"I swear the moment I get cross dimensional powers I am going to..."

Rin looked like she was about to say something, but I pushed through.

"Marry you. Then I am going to grab that cheek, and kiss it as much as many times you been the little pest you are."

(*////▽////*)

Rin's holographic figure transformed into a bright blue Kaomoji with steam venting out from it. While she was still going around with her hype I continued:

"But before all that, I am going to strangle you, so I make sure none of that stuff afterwards actually happens."

Rin froze like a photo. Her eyes did not blink, her arms did not swing, her body went completely rigid to the point I was afraid she got the medusa's curse.

"...Kard." a bone chiding voice called out to me.

​I decided best to remain silent.

"I hate you! You Baka!" Rin burst out in a rage as she threw her holographic fists at me frantically.

"Now that I answered your question, you need to answer mine." I said, trying to change the topic.

"You tricked me! That doesn't count!" Rin cried out.

"You already got the better end of the deal, since won't get an answer like that out of me the 2nd time." I pointed out. "Now your end of the bargain."

Rin thought for a moment, then pursed her lips as she replied:

"Fine. The name of your MS is..."

My heart began to drum roll and my mind was at several places at the time, and I had to admit I was actually a little bit looking forward to what kind of cool name it would be.

"Guess?"

I was just about to stab her with my murderous glare but stopped when she spoke again:

"Iron Angel version 1.0."

She said it just like that. No special effects going off in the background or anything, just plain and simple. The name did sound a bit childish and fancy, yet I couldn't help but feel like being some sort of action figure hero, or the protagonist of a sci-fi movie.

"Kard? You're getting too full of yourself again!" She said this in her loudspeaker voice.

With a sigh, I turned back to her and said:

"I have ears you know." I grunted.

"They're no good if you can't hear."

"I rather be deaf than listen to you."

"Wait Kard."

Judging from her hushed voice, it must have been serious so I stopped and obeyed her.

"The weasel?" I said as I crouched down in the bushes.

"65 meters ahead of us."

"That means..."

"It's already at Ms. Nuts house!"

Without further hesitation I dashed through the bushes, giving myself a dozen scrapes or two, before making it to the open.

"The door is open!" I cried.

"Target stopped moving! We've got to go in!" Rin hushed.

"I don't need you to tell me that!" I said as rushed through the doorway and nimbly navigated myself around the corridors and into the living room. Half expecting to see the flaming weasel about to unleash its full fury and drown the house in fire, I was surprised by a small creature cuddled in the fireplace.

"Oh, let it sleep. Sparky is tired." Came a soft voice from behind us, I turned and saw it was just Ms. Nuts.

"Do you think you can keep him like this forever?" I looked to Ms. Nuts.

"Oh, I have enough chestnuts to feed my good soldier's whole army for a year." She waved her hand in dismissal. "But it's you who I am worried about solider boy, how are you going to explain yourself out of this one?"

"Easy. I'll tell her the truth. I am sure she will understand."

"She's a toughie isn't she?"

"Yep. But she will understand." I said with half certainty, so I quickly added, "I hope."

"Best luck to you solider boy. Come by anytime you want. If you give me a heads up, I will make sure I have an extra-large batch of roasted chestnuts ready for you." She chuckled as she guided me back to the front door.

"For sure. Alright, see you Ms. Nuts!" I said as stepped outside and waved her goodbye. After she closed the door, I turned my head back to the road again and began to walk. Slowly, so my judgment would be delayed.

Q: What would you name your Mech suit?