a flash of intuition is a gift

"Oh, poindexter..." Ashera has to laugh. "I don't think I ever met someone so good at being so full of himself."

"Thus deserving of the accolades, am I not?"

The jokes do seem to make themselves.

"I really do think you're stupid," she says, careless. "But you're funny anyway."

Funny? Of course he's funny. So long as she's laughing with him, and not at him.

(By this point, H.B. has to admit that it really isn't a very fair chance.)

In any other situation, he would have turned on bootheel and found someone else to impress with his obvious gifts to humanity. That Ashera has a share of overblown confidence herself - the like of Trash Talk - makes the whole thing a farce!

...and thus, he is compelled to win her over. There is no gift greater than his presence, of course, and any other BLADE would recognize it, but as the scenario in and of itself seems to prove, Ashera isn't like any other BLADE.

"I could plant a new data probe with your name emblazoned on it, you know. How's that for what you're leaving behind, hm? The entire planet of Mira, for time immemorial, would know that you were gifted such a prestigious marker by none other than the one and only H.B.!"

H.B. tries not to deflate, physically and mentally, when Ashera pokes his puffing chest and declares, "You do realize we all know what it stands for?"

It must be her Champion Ring.