The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

(Strictly speaking, it's more like a coilgun, but it fires toast, so let's not get hung up on the technical terms here.)

Sienna couldn't decide which way to look more. Should she focus on her newly adopted younger sister standing beside her, her lips trembling, her eyes brimming with tears, and her little hands shaking? Or should she look at the large, dangerous object on the table directly in front of her?

A soft sob spurred her on, and she rushed over to hug Maple Leaf. "Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay," she said. "Don't cry, you're fine. You're alright, right? Are you hurt anywhere?"

Maple buried her head in Sienna's shoulder and shook it.

"Hey boss, what's going on?" Teddy asked loudly as he strode into the room.

“Wait a minute, Teddy,” Sienna said. For most of her sisters, having more sisters around might be a comfort, but she felt that wasn’t the case for Maple Leaf.

“Oh, okay, boss,” Teddy said.

Sienna waited a moment, then hugged Trinity tightly, pulled her close, and asked, "Are you alright?"

Maple wiped her nose with the sleeve of her lab coat. "I'm fine," she said, sniffling, "but... but will you be angry with me?" It sounded more like a question.

"No, I wouldn't, most likely not. Have you done anything to hurt the sisters? Have you hurt yourself? Have you hurt anyone else? No, right? Then I'll officially declare that I'm not angry."

Maple Leaf tried to force a smile, but her lips still trembled violently.

Sienna reached into her jeans back pocket and pulled out a few tissues. She'd recently realized that she should always carry extra tissues with her.

She wiped the maple leaf's face with a tissue. Somehow, it had some oil stains on it, and not the edible kind.

"Alright, tell me what happened?"

Maple swallowed hard. "Sister Trinity said the toaster here was broken, and it really was. They were playing games, and I wanted to be alone for a while, so I decided to fix the toaster. Then I wanted to improve it, and then... I don't know, I started adding things to it."

"And then it turned out like this?" Sienna asked.

Maple Leaf nodded. "Are you really not angry?" she seemed to want to confirm again.

“I promise I won’t be angry,” Sienna said.

Maple Leaf moved closer to the table and then took the… “toaster” off it. The toaster’s stock was made of bent tin, as if it had been taken from a tin can. The actual toaster part was at the back, with a small handle on the side.

The clothes hanger had been made into a simple handle at the bottom, and the whole thing also had a long cannon barrel made from a roughly oval-shaped tin can wrapped with copper wire. On the left side of the toaster was a crank containing some gears, the purpose of which Sienna could only guess.

She tried to figure out how it worked. It shouldn't be too complicated, but somehow, she felt her gaze drift away from the mechanical parts, or perhaps she just couldn't concentrate.

This sent a chill down her spine. "Maple Leaf, can you do me a favor and show me your skills?"

“I only have one skill,” Maple Leaf said. But she did as she was told, and a familiar box appeared in front of her.

【Cursed Builder】

Sticks and stones

[Level 1: Clubs and stones can break many bones. No cooldown]

"Yes, this is my main attributes page," Maple Leaf said. Another box appeared next to the first one.

Name: Maple Leaf Isabella

[Faction: Villain, Little Sister]

[Level: Level 1]

[Ability: Curse Builder]

[Sticks and Stones: Level 1]

[Ability Slots: 0]

Skill Upgrade: 0

Skill Slots: 0

“This skill looks…quite useful, Maple. I’m sure you can be a huge help to us. Provided you’re willing to help,” Sienna said. When she saw Maple’s eyes light up and a big, proud smile spread across her face, she knew she’d been right.

However, Sienna was actually a little scared. This was a skill that allowed for a lot of open-ended creations, and she needed to hear some advice.

“Hey boss, what’s going on… Oh, this thing is pretty interesting.” Sam said as he walked into the room.

“Sam, I was just thinking of looking for you.” Sienna straightened up. “What do you know about skilled mechanics?”

Sam wasn't stupid; she was far from it. She glanced at Sienna, then at Maple Leaf holding the big contraption. "I don't know as much as I should," Sam said. "Hey, Maple Leaf, is that a bomb?"

Maple shook her head, her eyes fixed on the ground. "It's a toaster," she said.

"That toaster looks pretty complicated. How does it work?"

Maple Leaf perked up again. “It’s simple! You put the bread here, in these slots, and then pull this handle.” Trinity pulled the small handle next to the toaster. It took a few pulls to get it moving. “Then turn this crank to charge the toaster.”

The maple leaf began to spin the crank as fast as it could. A display screen—which looked like it had been taken from a clock—popped up, and the numbers climbed steadily until they reached one hundred.

At that moment, the entire toaster hummed, emitting a dangerous, low rumble. The interior lights came on, illuminating Maple's excited face. "Then point the toaster at whoever you want to toast, and just wait for the toast to pop out!"

She pointed the gun at the other end of the room, and everyone held their breath and waited.

Just as Sienna was about to speak, the toaster turned on.

Ding!

Sienna was startled as a blast of warm air filled the room. There was a smell of hot bread in the air. A few items on the table were pushed back slightly by the pressure, but that was all.

“Okay,” Sam said, “that’s interesting. So how does it launch the toast… uh,?”

“It’s powered by coils,” Maple Leaf said, pointing with one finger to the copper wire wrapped around the cannon barrel. “It’s the coils that make the toast fly out.”

“But toast isn’t magnetic,” Sam said.

Maple Leaf blinked. "It's not magnetic?" She looked at her toaster cannon. "Then why does it always land butter-side down?"

Sienna felt she had more important things to worry about and couldn't dwell on the toast issue anymore. "Sam, what should we do?"

"Well, obviously we need to try baking some toast with it."

“Sam,” Sienna called out.

Sam shrugged. "She's a mechanical expert. If you ask me, she can make things out of scrap. That's pretty impressive. Much better than needing specific materials to do the work."

"What are the limitations of this skill?"

Sam frowned. "I don't know. You'll have to ask an expert. But I think skilled mechanics either have material limitations—meaning they can make anything, or almost anything, from that material—or they have limitations on finished products."

For example, they can only make one type of thing, or a certain kind of thing, but they can make it from any material. I once saw a guy who could make a laser gun out of a soda bottle and a few AA batteries.

“Oh, I can do that too,” Maple Leaf said. “But I’ll need some glass, maybe a few coat hangers. Oh, and some chewing gum, glue, and some cardboard. I’ll also make it look nice with crayons.”

Sienna nodded slowly. “Yes, let’s test this toaster first. I need to see if it works before deciding what to do next.” She said to Sam, “Sam, could you find some rope and something to secure it? Just in case, I don’t want Maple holding it while it’s on.”

“Safety is very important,” Maple Leaf agreed.

“Yes, it is indeed important,” Sienna said.

She picked up the toaster—which was still quite hot, making her a little uneasy—and stepped off the train from the back. Somehow, a string of her sisters and an Aleya Ikta followed her the whole way, all curious about what had happened and what that big machine in her hand was.

Maple was sent to find bread, and she went very quickly. Sam placed some chairs on the tracks in front of the train so they could put the toaster on them and position it along the direction of the tunnel.

In such a short time, this was the most suitable testing site they could find.

Maple Leaf was in charge of setting up the experiment. She shyly took two slices of bread from Trinity and placed them in the slot on top of the toaster. Then she pressed the handle and turned the crank on the side.

"It's about to launch!" Trinity said, then quickly ran behind Sienna and hid.

Everyone watched as the machine buzzed and vibrated on the chair that held it in place.

Ding!

Sienna stumbled backward as a gust of air roared through the tunnel, leaving her ears ringing.

Far away, she heard a cracking sound. Then she saw two trails in the air, roughly shaped like toast.

“Yes, it works,” Sam said.

"Thank you," Maple Leaf replied.

“Hey, there’s a problem,” Trinity said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"If the toast flies that far away, how will we eat it?"