"Since you need more Carnal Energy, Natalie," Ana said, "both for upgrading skills and empowering them, does that mean we should be attending to you more frequently?"

The interjection came out of nowhere. Prior to cutting in, Natalie and the team had simply been discussing which of her abilities should receive the next boost in progression. The obvious candidates were [Carnal Harvest] and [Empower], since it seemed Natalie would be making greater use of the latter, and the former went without saying. But in typical Ana fashion, the stone-faced girl had dropped in that question—which was loaded with all kinds of lewd implications—without an ounce of hesitation.

To Ana's side, Liz stared at her with widening green eyes. "Attend to her?" she asked, as if the meaning wasn't clear.

To be fair to her, however suddenly the question had been thrown in, Ana did have a good reason to ask. But Natalie already had strong opinions on the topic. It was something she'd discussed with Jordan.

"It's fine," Natalie said. "That's not necessary. There's some kind of soft cap, anyway, which I'm reaching most days."

"There's diminishing returns, you mean?" Ana asked.

"Basically." Natalie frowned, hesitating for a second before deciding that she wanted to elaborate. "Even if it didn't work like that, though," she said, "I don't want to treat sex as … I don't know. A grind. Something we're trying to 'maximize'. It's weird to me."

"Does kill the mood, a bit," Jordan snorted. "Making sex a chore." She tilted her head. "And the mood literally matters, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I get more points when, um, you know," Natalie said.

"When she's turned on," Jordan finished for her. "The more excited she is, the better the yield. So that's a double-no on the whole 'grinding points' thing."

"Besides," Sofia said. "Surely there's a limit to how much sex one woman can have in any given day. Even for Natalie."

Natalie turned an amused look her way. She made a point of raking her eyes up and down Sofia's body. "If there is, I haven't reached it. I just meant for 'efficiency' purposes, I don't wanna treat it like a game." She grinned at Sofia. "I've got plenty of space in my schedule, though. Don't worry about that."

Sofia flushed. "Pervert," she muttered.

"I see," Ana said. "Another question, then. Two, actually."

"Okay?" Natalie said warily, bracing herself. Because Ana's questions rarely were of the 'how is your day going?' sort.

"Did you work something out with Malice?"

"Oh. Right." That was more normal than she'd been expecting. Natalie realized she hadn't caught her team up on the whole Malice situation. "Apparently, she doesn't care about being released. In fact, she said she'd rather not, unless something interesting is going on."

"Interesting?"

"Combat," Natalie said. "Or, you know," she coughed, "whatever."

"Whatever," Sofia repeated dryly, clearly knowing what Natalie meant by that.

"But she said she didn't want to explore our society," Natalie said, ignoring Sofia. "And when she's in the [Capture Core], she's essentially sleeping, like we guessed. So we don't have to worry too much about the in-between periods, for now."

"For now?" Jordan asked.

Natalie chewed her lip. "I still don't think we should leave her in there all the time. Even if that's what she says she wants. Ah, I don't know," Natalie said, rubbing the back of her head. "It's her decision to make, not mine. But shouldn't we introduce her to …?" She searched out for the right way to phrase it.

"Normalcy?" Sofia suggested. "Something other than nonstop killing?"

"And fucking?" Jordan added.

"Yeah. That," Natalie said. She sighed. "But it's a problem for later. She's happy to relax inside the core until we need her."

Ana nodded. "Okay. And my second question. When you fought her, you had an illusion with you. Of you."

"Right," Jordan said, instantly perking up. "I meant to ask you about that too." Green eyes bored into Natalie with a sudden, intense interest. "You never told me you could make clones of yourself. Physical ones."

"I wonder why you care so much," Sofia said sarcastically. "Surely it's for the combat applications."

Jordan ignored the snarky comment, her attention staying fully on Natalie, green eyes locked to her own.

Natalie coughed, heat rising on her face at the unstated implications of Jordan's obvious interest.

"Well. It was only a theory. And it needs [Empower]. I didn't know that it would work, either." Though she'd assumed it would, since she could make clones of other people. Why not herself?

"Would they function in combat?" Sofia asked. "Having two of you would be something."

"Really something," Jordan said dreamily.

The four of them looked at her. The rogue paused, then blushed, that bit of directness not intentional, for once.

"It wouldn't," Natalie said, amused, squeezing Jordan's knee as she met eyes with Sofia. "My illusions work better when they're being used for—uh, you know."

"Disgusting, perverted things," Jordan said, laughing at Natalie. "Really, stop dancing around it. It's cute, but we know your class, by now."

"It's just jarring to throw into the middle of a conversation," Natalie protested. "Anyway, yeah. The only reason the clone was physical was that it wasn't being used for combat. I guess I haven't tested it, but I'm certain it would fall apart the moment I made her pick up a weapon—or at least use that weapon."

"Interesting," Ana said.

For the first time ever, the stoic mage hesitated.

"I have another question," she said. "But perhaps it's best saved for a private discussion."

The four girls gaped at her.

"What?" Ana asked.

"What's so lewd that even you won't ask it in front of us?" Liz said.

Natalie was likewise intimidated.

Ana paused. "It's not that bad," she said. "Just perhaps sensitive."

"Sensitive?"

Her brown eyes locked on Natalie, tilting her head in silent questioning.

"I think we'll all die of curiosity, now," Natalie said. "So go ahead. What is it?"

"Hm," Ana said. "I'm just wondering about other applications of [Illusion]. Specifically lower-powered ones, that hopefully wouldn't take [Empower]. Since I know it's a valuable resource."

"Okay?"

Again, Ana hesitated. "I haven't been able to get a certain experience out of my mind," she continued nonchalantly. "Our encounter together. With the body swap."

Natalie's brain briefly short-circuited, like it always did remembering that whole mess. She was suddenly much more wary. But what could [Illusion] have to do with it?

"Okay…?" Natalie continued prodding.

Ana's eyes flicked between the rest of the girls in the train car, before she shrugged. "I enjoyed using your cock," Ana said bluntly. "I was wondering, since your illusions are flexible when it comes to lewder applications—perhaps you could give us one. Magically."

Natalie stared at her.

"What?"

"If you put an illusion between our legs," Ana said. "Could we feel through it, do you think?"