Chapter 1: Kotori's Turn
"A Wife!? A Daughter!? No way!" Shido quickly shook his head upon hearing Kotori's shocking statement, then added: "I may not be a virgin, but I never touched other girls!"
"Yeah, no way you have a…." Kotori quickly smiled with a flush, then she realized something and asked sternly: "Wait a minute, you aren't a virgin?"
Suddenly, she forgot her original purpose, now all her focus was on finding out the reason behind her big brother's loss of virginity! She swore silently that she would make whoever lusted after her beloved brother/boyfriend pay!
"Wait, that's not the issue right now! Weren't you asking me about a wife and a daughter out of nowhere?"
Shido quickly deflected the question of his little sister(not related by blood).
"Fine…So do you know them?"
Kotori sighed helplessly. She might have given up for the time being, but she would definitely ask more about it later.
"No…"
Shido said anxiously. He had this weird feeling that he was like an unfaithful playboy whose illegitimate child was discovered by his girlfriend…Fine, he admitted that he had watched too much soap opera with Yoshino last night, and he was poisoned by these trash shows.
"I see… I doubt Nia's findings as well."
Kotori shook her head and said.
"Then why did you mention this so suddenly?"
Shido asked in confusion.
"I don't know."
Kotori shook her head again.
"So...what do you know?"
Shido couldn't help but ask. If he didn't know Kotori well, he would have thought that the other party was messing with him.
"Nia asked me to ask you about the names of 'Rinne and Rio', but she didn't tell me the details."
Kotori said with a frown.
"So what did Nia find out?"
Shido really didn't understand.
"Forget it, let's start from the beginning. You know about Mayuri, right?"
Kotori asked softly.
"Certainly."
Shido nodded affirmatively.
"After receiving your consent, I collected the reiryoku of the Spirits, and they did not object... except for Kurumi... " Kotori let out an annoyed sigh. "She suddenly came out and said that she was worried about me holding all the power."
"It's no wonder, after all, the two of you aren't getting along too well…"
Shido sighed.
"After some heated debates, we decided to entrust the reiryoku to Nia."
Kotori nodded and said.
"Why Nia?"
Shido asked curiously.
"Uh... how do you say it? Some Spirits might use this power to satisfy their selfish desires, and some others are too stupid to complete the next steps of fusion." Kotori explained with a smile. "In the end, I chose Nia because she is the most neutral and trusted among us."
"Fair enough."
Shido nodded. Spirits who wanted to satisfy their own selfish desires? Probably referring to Origami and Miku. Spirits who were too stupid? Well, let's not call names here…
As for the best candidates for the job, Nia, Kurumi, Kotori, and Natsumi could all fit the requirements. But among them, Kurumi and Kotori were a no-go, and Natsumi wasn't confident enough in herself. In the end, only Nia was smart and confident enough, not to mention the easiest Spirit to communicate with.
"And get this: Nia's Angel became more powerful after gaining extra power..."
Kotori paused, then continued:
"Because the matter of resurrecting Mayuri is complicated, I asked Nia to use her Angel to ensure that there was no problem with the method of resurrection. At this moment, Nia found that her Angel had evolved."
"Seriously? What has it evolved into?"
Shido asked seriously.
"It's still called 'Rasiel', but she can search for things that she couldn't find before." Kotori responded, then added. "Her Angel is useless in this world, and even in our world, she can't search for anything related to this place."
"But now, things have changed, and we might uncover some secrets here!" Shido said a little abruptly, standing up excitedly, but soon sat down. "But still, the evolution of her Angel has nothing to do with the amount of reiryoku."
"Why do you say that?"
Kotori looked at him in confusion.
"If the Angels evolve so easily, they can evolve at any time. As long as I give you more reiryoku, why can't yours evolve?"
Shido said his thoughts in a deep voice.
"It's not unreasonable, but if it wasn't for the sudden extra power, what made Nia's Angel evolve?"
Kotori asked in confusion.
"It's because of that reiryoku. Not the amount of it, but the power itself."
Shido pondered for a while, trying to understand what was going on.
"What do you mean...?"
Kotori lowered her head thoughtfully….
"Well, because that's the reiryoku from this world…Yes, that's probably how it is!"
Shido guessed.
"Maybe so..."
Kotori nodded, but the evolution was actually not important at all. The important thing was what Nia found out after her Angel evolved.
"So, what did Nia find out about the 'wife and daughter' of mine?"
Shido asked anxiously.
"She originally wanted to investigate Mayuri's affairs, but she accidentally discovered the origin of the Spirits!"
Kotori said seriously.
"Isn't the origin of the Spirits created by Mio?"
Shido looked at her in confusion. It was a fact that he had known for a long time.
"But how did Mio appear as a Spirit?"
Kotori asked back.
"Mr. Woodman, Issac Westcott, and Ellen Mathers created it by converging the reiryoku power of the world into one point through secret techniques."
Shido replied softly.
"What about the source of these powers? Where does the reiryoku power in the world come from?"
Kotori asked again.
"Didn't it already exist?"
Shido looked at her in astonishment, as if things were not that simple.
"Actually, these reiryoku powers all come from the Tree of Life, which distributes them all over the world, and then Mr. Woodman and the others created the Spirit of Origin through secret techniques. But in fact, Mio was the Tree of Life itself!"
Kotori dropped shocking claims.
"Mio is the Tree of Life itself…?"
Shido was in disbelief, but he also knew that Kotori would not make such a joke, so he could only believe that this was true information.
But think about it carefully, it shouldn't be weird that the Tree of Life had consciousness; after all, the Tree of Life in this world could transform into a girl named Maki. If Mio already existed, it was very possible that she was summoned instead of created.
Thinking of Maki, Shido suddenly remembered what happened at that time. In the garden of the sacred tree, he met two lovely little girls…
Wait a minute!
Two girls, one of them was Maki, the incarnation of the Tree of Life, and the other seemed to be called Rio! Why would he subconsciously ignore her existence?
Rio was a plum-haired little girl who might be a god with a higher status than Maki, the Tree of Life in this world. In theory, Shido should remember her better. So why?
Moreover, after the Spirits got extra reiryoku, they all said that they met a little girl with plum hair…
In other words, as a high-level god, she took the initiative to distribute the reiryoku of the Tree of Life to them?
A/N:
Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been very busy with school and training. I will try to manage my time better so that I can write more.
