"...isn't she a little too strong...?"

"Nonsense, that much is to be expected when someone of her talents doesn't hold back out of emotional investment."

Kazu groaned and stretched. Her wings and tail retreated as if they never existed and she blinked in surprise at the surroundings. She saw Koeru and Kiin looking around at the room. There were tears and damage to the room which weren't repairing.

"What happened in here?"

Koeru pointed at Kazu.

"You became a dragon and unleashed lightning when you were enraged, and the lightning lashed out and created this damage. Probably because you were the original creator of this building, is why it's not repairing itself. Or because Kirim as a body isn't maintaining it subconsciously now. Nobody with the requisite memories is supplying the intents of this place with their full enchantment. Though, your familiars are working on the repairs since they are part of you as Kirim."

Kazu felt she understood, and shook her head. Feeling her hair against her bare back drew her attention to what she hadn't noticed yet. She was stark naked. She looked down and covered herself, one arm around her chest and one to hide her lower region.

"Mama-Zu has developed well since your transition started, though part of the growth in here might be caused by subconscious magic when you transformed. And yes, Koeru explained what happened here well, unless you forgot what happened before your transformation?"

Kazu was confused. She did forget some of their interaction. She knew where she was, she knew plenty in fact, more about Kirim than made sense for her to remember, as if she incorporated Kirim's experiences she hadn't directly experienced into who she currently was and then lost the most recent memories aside speaking with Kiin. She couldn't figure out the cutoff point. She tried piecing it together judging by where she was laid on the floor. It didn't take her long to realize that the cut off was just after Kiin revealed there was a console in the room.

"I just realized where my memories cut off. Which leads me to question...why and how did I become a dragon and unleash lightning? You said something about being enraged...what happened?"

Kiin explained, grabbing a spare bed sheet from the box at the foot of the bed and draping it over Kazu to give her some sort of cover for the time being.

"...so we're going to lure him in with neglect? We won't do what he wants and will continue respecting Ela's design for the project? Just to add on...I somehow remember a lot more about living as Kirim than I originally did. Like there is no cutoff point for memories. I remember even up to the suffocating and excruciating pain as that moron Kikuoka reached into my mind and threatened me as Vector...then passing out."

Kiin stared in shock.

"So...you might be able to pull off acting as Kirim?"

Kazu shook her head.

"I have the memories, but that won't help me act as her. I'm still Kazu, myself at core and while we're the same core soul, we move a little differently. I would have to become her. I would have to shed my memories as myself, or dump all of Kirim's memories into her body in order to have Kirim present as well. It would be extremely helpful to have her as an ally."

Kazu's mind drifted back to what she was told about their situation. PoH had some significant control on the servers Underworld was running off of. She was logged in through some method he was using. Did he somehow get his hands on a medicuboid or was she in physical danger outside? What kind of situation was her body in? She did and didn't want to know. PoH was a deceitful person from the beginning, leading people around just so he could amuse himself playing with the lives of the people around him. He had killed directly at some points, but he mostly formed the killing group from Aincrad around him. It sickened her to remember him.

"I'm going to do it. Besides, I can't just let having memories as her go to waste."

Kazu walked across the room to the bed, dropping the sheet as she finished imagining herself in the teacher uniform for the school and filling that image with magic. The outfit fit her flawlessly. She sat on the bed next to Kirim's body, and touched her forehead with a finger. Kazu instinctively thought only of Kirim's memories, as many of them as possible, and it ended with the final memory she had as Kirim. The memories flowed from her in a way she imagined they flowed from Ela. The memories filled Kirim, and about a minute after the transfer, Kirim's even breathing stopped with a sharp inhale, and a deep exhale. Her eyelids flickered, and opened after another minute of relatively even breathing. By then, Koeru and Kiin were looking on with interest.

Kirim's eyes opened finally and she stared intensely at Kazu immediately upon awakening.

"Who are you?"

Kiin sat on her chest and grabbed her attention.

"She is also you, from a different world. She is positioning herself as from the past. It would be best if you just accept this and get along with her. She means no harm, and in fact saved you from that sudden attack made by Vector."

Kirim closed her eyes and sighed.

"So she'll become a new teacher until she finds her way back to her different world. Or to others, she'll be going back to her time...well, I guess it's better we get to know you sooner rather than later. I hope you won't cause any trouble."

She reached a hand up and shook hands with Kazu when her hand was taken. She let go after a brief shake and sat herself up. She yawned and stretched her back.

"You even woke up the same way..."

Koeru's comment caught both of their attention. They both shrugged.

"What did you mean by this woman being me from another world? Just because we have similar faces and mannerisms, doesn't mean we're the same person..."

"You share the same soul. We shouldn't risk it, but you would figure it out with time anyways. She is the source of your life in this world. I wouldn't be here without her, since I was sent here to help you. I'm her familiar, and in that respect it makes me yours as well, since you're part of her. You are your own personal identity, your own person. You share her soul, but you're protected as a person of your own. I'll explain more later."

He puffed a little smoke out of his nostrils, ready to give Kirim much more explanation. He briefly explained in between however the backstory that Kirim was using so she wouldn't make a mess of the balances in Underworld.

"I am surprised you didn't figure out something was wrong with me, or perhaps you were just content that I was working with you. You should understand though, that you were created in order to fill in the last piece of humanity this world was lacking. It lacked desire. The one time it had it before you, was through Kirito and she influenced the administrator of the Axiom church, Quinella. She ended up using that desire which started from a long fractured part of my mama-Zu and built the Axiom cathedral. She wanted to be the only one in the light lands to fend off the dark lands' impending attacks, and so she realized quickly she wasn't strong enough, and the light lands didn't have the survival instinct to survive the dark lander attacks. So she took people at first who were dying and had strength. She made those people into integrity knights, at first with everything intact. After a while, she deprived those she saved of their memories so those memories wouldn't hold them back from performing the job of keeping the land safe. The woman Scheta who brought mama-Zu here from Centoria is one who had her memories of life taken from her. She was left empty for a time, and eventually something clicked with her. Her weapon is a manifestation of the only thing that clicked with her. Instinct. The instinct to pierce through all obstacles, to cut through them. Her weapon can cut through basically anything. The weapons and the resurrection process were created by Kirito."

Kazu knew it already, but it was startling to hear what exactly another self achieved and how violent Quinella had been about her concern for the light lands. Creating the taboo index and imposing such strict rules on the people just so she could protect the light lands on her own with the knights. It was exhausting to think about.

"Quinella created what made people obedient and less human, less driven by desire. She took away what Kirito gave them through the taboo index even though their intents aligned. Kirito left because her original purpose was impeded and it made her feel sick. She called it old age, and that she finally wanted to make a family. She made herself pregnant with Kirii and taught him what she thought would allow him to continue her work. Sadly, she didn't have enough time to teach him everything and overwrite his attachment to the taboo index's influence. Because he needed the index in order to stay in the light lands. Quinella made a severe mistake by creating the index, but the light land people never fought against the restrictions, thinking it the will of those who created the world. It wasn't though. It was the insecurity and greed of the one most saturated with desire who both made the project more difficult to accomplish, but also made it easier for the next created branch of mama-Zu's soul."

Kiin puffed a small burst of fire with an expression of pride.

"While it's difficult, you've managed to help several people find their desires, and you've managed to convince Quinella to change the index to be less restricting, and to change peoples' sacred tasks. You've worked wonderfully Kirim, and now I request that you allow mama-Zu to stay here until she figures out how to deal with a threat from outside of this world, where she's originally from. There's a group of people with bad intents, wanting to stop the progression of one you might consider the true god in making the outer world a better place, and so mama-Zu wants to bait one of these people to this world where she's stronger instead of risking her soul being deleted along with this world."

Kiin's long explanation made everyone feel exhausted. It was concise, explained everything clearly, and it made Kirim realize that there was an explanation for some of her experiences.

"Isn't there anything I could do besides let your mother, this greater whole I'm a fraction of, take care of everything? Aren't I able enough to help?"

"It's not that you aren't. You're likely stronger than me to be honest. The problem is that this project was to create people. People who would one day live alongside the rest of the people outside and do work within the network my friend Kiin called a true god to keep everything moving along smoothly. You would still live normal lives, just in a different world. And it doesn't have to be you. It could be the next generation, or the one after so long as they have all of the human traits and characteristics. Because it would mean you could all empathize and relate to the fellow people outside."

Kirim frowned. She understood suddenly that her world was a people farm. It wasn't unethical in that it wasn't forcing people to work outside, but the intent in some aspect to bring some people outside of the world for helping with things that they might be somewhat interested in felt like they were going too far in one direction for an indirect solution.

"Why not just create magic golems or the like? Wouldn't they function just fine for the purposes?"

Kazu shook her head. She understood but it would be a little difficult to understand.

"Try to imagine it this way...people are somewhat used to automation where I come from, but it's more and more uncomfortable when there's no personality when you're making exchanges. If we had more people who weren't taking up our world's physical space working in the network, they could go home back here when they're done their work for the day and nothing would be lost on either end. Copying people would also be a mess as well unless they were assigned to places which would never end up working together. Ela, the one who set all of this up and created this world, has one of her children taking care of an entire major city of our outer world, but it's a short term solution and he's been preparing for such things for his whole life. It's not so easy to relate to someone who has some level of unnatural expectations. He expected more people like his mother, completely overpowered to a nonsensical level. But aside her, I suppose I'm the next up outside and I'm barely special in fitting requirements she determined for me to be perfect as her backup. But imagine – would you rather talk with a golem, or a person?"

Kirim understood when it was explained.

"So...this Ela is a god who has some immensely overpowered whims? Hopefully she's mostly if not all good..."

Kazu chuckled.

"I'd like to say she can be misunderstood when people think she's bad. She's almost too good to be honest. She values life more than anyone else I know, she cares about everyone around her, and she went through decades of horrible pain and illness to provide our outside world with the solutions to all of its major problems. She's honestly too perfect in my opinion. She put everything ahead of herself, and barely saved herself when her previous body was about to die."

Kirim just blinked in astonishment.

"Don't be too surprised if you get to meet her. She's incredibly relaxed and tries not to make everything serious. She can become terrifying though. Apparently she almost erased an entire city outside of this world. Yes, erased. Not like an explosion, and not like an illusion. Literally making the entire city disappear as if it were never there."

Kirim shivered.

"Are you certain she's safe?"

"She only got to that terrifying state because the leader of that country sent assassins, trained killers after her. She was completely invulnerable to them and only hurt a little afterward, but she sentenced the leader and killers to the first eternal prison of the outer world as far as I know. Think of it as a living example of what kind of punishment one would suffer for committing the worse crimes she labels. And one last thing about her, you can always reason with her as long as you don't attack those important to her for no reason. I'm sure she went so far for the additional reason that my life was put at risk by those assassins..."

Kirim didn't know the first thing to say, she just sighed. Someone who could literally erase something that existed. She couldn't fathom such power. She might be on her way to such a thing in terms of magic talent, but it wouldn't be enough.

"Well, I haven't had anything to eat since arriving here and I'm human, so I'm going to need to eat something. I think I heard something about dinner before when the person who guided me to this room was dismissed by Kiin. Would that still be available?"

Kazu's mention of it set off the rumbling of another stomach. Hers didn't rumble. The sound came from Koeru and she looked around in confusion. She looked down at her stomach as she felt it churn a little as if she were reminded one of the functions she had during her life.

Kiin made strange sounds and puffed smoke out of his nostrils, which sounded similar to laughing and generally had some level of excitement.

"The food hall is open for another hour. I forgot about food! Miss Koeru's stomach is quite honest and it really lightened the mood we had going. Will mama-Zu make us food? Or will we just have the food available from the food hall? We have a few students assigned to providing food every day currently, so there's always a variety available including for those with particular diets."

Kazu gave it an honest thought.

"While I have a bit of knowledge on the food here through Kirim's memories, I would rather get used to it like any other person if there will be good food there anyways. I'd rather not waste the efforts of those who were assigned to making food today anyways. Wasted or unfinished food always makes me upset."

Her words earned respectful nods. Koeru's stomach made a new sound.

"Would you shut up?!"

Koeru shouted at her stomach, her face growing beat red in embarrassment. Kirim looked around and down at herself, finding that her pouch was still in place. She pulled up the flap of the pouch and put her hand in, pulling out a small package. The package had a paper-like wrapping around it, which was tied together with a small bit of yarn. She untied the yarn, holding out the morsel of food on the extremely thin parchment toward Koeru.

"This is an energy restoring snack. Chew it and let it sit in your mouth a few seconds before swallowing it to get the full effect. It also temporarily fends off the sensation of hunger. Taste is also good so enjoy, though I suppose taste is per person. I do hope you enjoy it."

Koeru looked at it with a little apprehension but she took the small orb shaped food offered to her and popped it into her mouth. Following direction, as soon as it was in her mouth sitting on her tongue, she realized immediately what kind of sensation her mouth would go through first before it would hit her stomach. The taste was sweet and rich and completely new to her. It was a wonderful taste which burst in her mouth after she bit into it was like a more rich, moist version of the same thing. She couldn't describe what the taste was, but it was the best taste she had ever experienced.

"What do you think of our buabo orbs? Is the taste to your liking?"

Koeru nodded, holding a hand over her mouth because she thought any moment drool might start flowing out if she didn't hold her mouth closed. She wanted to cry but held back. Her mouth being so happy was an entirely new sensation to her.

"It's far beyond to my liking...it's the best food I've ever eaten!"

Kirim smiled.

"Well, then you will like the other food we have on offer. Few others quite as sweet, but all just as delectable. We've been honing quickly on our taste mastery of the ingredients of the lush land around us. I've thoroughly enjoyed eating foods even my body is incapable of tolerating despite how ill it makes me. Thankfully I've managed plenty of practice of medicinal magic through the intentional snacking of food I shouldn't be eating. I refused at first, but Alice can be convincing..."

Kazu was smiling. She was happy to see how easily they got along. Koeru was so innocent as far as she could tell. Something dawned on Kirim as she realized she hadn't asked how long she was unconscious. She was worried she had been unconscious for a long time. As they all boarded the elevation disc along with the other familiars who decidedly stood by, the doors closed the room and then the disc descended.

It took less than ten seconds for them to arrive in the food hall. Straight down thirty floors to the food hall. There were two layers to the seating area with several slim guided staircases leading up, at least forty tables with a minimum of four seats at each. On the second floor above the kitchen, there was an array of snack bars which were worked by students specifically focusing their studies on unique small foods production. With meals not required at every meal time, and most students electing to stick to a single good meal a day with snacks than multiple meals a day, the amount of seating would be more than enough for the school at full capacity, and there was still another floor of the school meant for an extension to the food hall. The maximum capacity of the school was a four hundred for the full population.

The food hall was about a quarter full of capacity, with some students having finished their food and working on writing something for out of class studies. Those who were putting in the extra effort in the time outside of their classes were regarded well by their fellow classmates for the most part, but there were some still as far as Kirim knew, who were slacking off in their time out of classes. Either way was fine, it just meant that those who were more passionate were more obvious for the desire to improve.

The group were noticed right away as they entered the food hall. Several students and Kirii who was on kitchen watch duty for the day all looked toward them and some looked back to what they were doing but then right back. There was disbelief in their eyes.

"Welcome back, Kirim. I heard from Alice that you fell unconscious earlier and she had to take over the rest of the afternoon class you were teaching. How are you feeling?"

Kirim rubbed the back of her head, feeling a little embarrassed that she was vulnerable even after all her effort to make the school as safe as possible.

"I'm feeling better now. What do you have on the menu for the kitchen?"

Kirii smiled when he heard she was doing better. He then pitched the menu he prepared for the evening menu.

"We have a special from our culinary focus class representative of eld steak with moruum soup simmer, a stew built from the eld steak and moruum soup broth in addition to fine ground corul kernels, careta slices and the main fixture we recently added to the menu – stripped poruu meat. It's absolutely divine and the most relaxing evening dish together. The eld steak in itself is so smooth with how he cooks it, you don't even need to cut it with a knife!"

Kirii's pride in finding the culinary teacher they were having represent everything regarding food preparation and cooking. At least for the time being, he was the only representative for the class. Kirim was catching up very quickly to his skills when she sat in on his lessons, but she also had to teach so she didn't get as much time as she would like.

"I'll take one of the special, how about everyone else?"

Kazu nodded.

"Seconded. You really sell that well!"

He smiled.

"I'm eager to get to know you! All new teachers are so talented at something or another, I'm curious what Kirim found in you~"

"Technology. You'll see later."

Koeru ordered just the soup from the special, Kiin and the other familiars went up to the second floor and got some snacks from the snack bar. They all gathered at a pair of tables pushed together and began eating. When Kirii found some time between work, he joined them and inquired how they met. As that was happening, another person arrived in the food hall. A familiar integrity knight from earlier. Kirim and Kirii hadn't seen the knight yet, but she approached smoothly after a quick surveying glance at the space around her.

She stood behind Kazu and eyed Koeru once while they ate. It was unnerving that she was just standing there and watching them eat, even if she didn't need to eat.

"It's a little awkward to have you just standing there. There's a space left here at the table, so please, sit. If you want something to eat I can get it for you."

"Food is unnecessary."

She did take the seat though and looked around at the unfamiliar array of food. Some bits and pieces were familiar because ingredients were used from all over the light lands, but the presentation and mixture was completely foreign. Even the scent was completely different. She looked down at Kazu's which still had a fair bit untouched and she was resting her hands on her belly to signify she was more than full.

"Please, Knight Scheta. I would feel better should the food not go to waste. You're staring at the food and I'd feel better if you had some other information to relay to Administrator. The food here is amazing and I'm unsure she's been here since they promoted the chef of this food."

Scheta sighed, but nodded and placed her hands together for a moment and silently mouthed something before taking a spork from the holder in the middle of the table and getting to work on the dish. She froze when she had a spoonful of the stew in her mouth, then a slight smile was on her face as she gulped down the contents. She then tried a bite of the eld steak and it broke her composure as she held her cheek and sighed in satisfaction.

"This dish is divine...is the chef of the realm above?"

Everyone at the table shook their heads.

"He's a blood elf who moved here in the last wave from the dark lands. You'll see him behind the kitchen station right now as the shortest among them."

Kirii's comment drew everyone's attention there and he smiled warmly in response and waved for a second before returning to the work at blistering speed as another student ordered food.

"Humm...it seems Centoria is lacking in some progress. I'll ask Administrator if she wants recipes imported."

Kirii nodded. Kazu, Koeru and Kirim were interested in how easily the food got past Scheta's guard repeatedly. She finished the dish and flustered asked if Kazu was satisfied still at the end.

"No worries, you really helped. Thank you for helping with finishing my dish. I shouldn't have ordered such an appetizing meal. Koeru had the right idea."

Scheta looked at who Kazu was looking at when she mentioned Koeru.

"So this is the sister you mentioned. Indeed she appears to be a younger albino reflection of you. I will report this back to Administrator as well that you met up with her. How are you doing, miss Kirim? It seemed you were asleep not long ago with distress on your face."

The group internally wondered just how good her vision was to see such detail through the reflective glass.

"I'm okay. Kazu apparently is very good at healing magic and healed me after meeting with her sister. I'll have her teach here if that's okay with Administrator. She can teach advanced technologies and advanced healing magic. Remarkable since she was originally a spinster in her original time. She's a woman of many talents."

Scheta nodded.

"Indeed, many talented have gathered here already."

That's where the conversation went cold.

"Well...I'd like to check in on other teachers to find out where I am on other things I haven't tried as far as subjects taught here, and of course learn everything I can from Kirim. I want to be able to help as much as I can while I'm here and learn as much as possible if it'll help me and Koeru return to the past. I believe it's incredibly unlikely to go back in time, but it couldn't hurt to find out. At least fitting in here is also on the table. I already miss everyone from my time..."

Scheta nodded.

"I'll relay your intents to Administrator as well. She would want to know your plans for the future, especially the past. Thank you for informing me. It makes my job easier."

From that point, Scheta was silent. She seemed to shut down, almost. Everyone else finished conversing on what they planned to do for the night. Kirim wanted to ensure her taboo was in check and offer some night time tutoring, Kazu wanted to go around until late evening and learn what she could before returning to a room, Koeru wanted to go with her, and Kirii decided he wanted to be their guide. He swiftly returned to the kitchen and let the culinary teacher know of the plan to which he received a happy nod.

Kazu and Koeru were interested in a lot of the classes. They gave the feeling of refining what they already knew, or they introduced something they didn't know yet. It was immense. Sacred arts class was especially going to be helpful for their cover, since it would be a long time since their sacred arts knowledge was up to date. Weaving was also on the list, as well as other craft related classes. In the end, everything but physical combat classes were of interest. Physical exercise was a daily mandatory for the school after all, so the physical combat classes would be just bloat to them. Magic was also on their menu so they could brush up on their technique and ability for that and combining it with sacred arts.

Kirii finally brought them to an empty dorm room in what was called the teacher ward, just below Kirim's principal floor. There was another teacher ward at the top of the other towers as well, for when they had more teachers join them in the future.

Kazu and Koeru left alone in the gorgeous apartment felt they went to the future. A decent sized apartment, a beautiful kitchenette, shower, two beds, two small closets, two dressers, a pair of storage containers which were temperature sensitive, which were basically refrigerators. The designs and the advancement was absolutely astonishing to them. They worried that Kirim had already corrupted the school with the outside world in the appearances that could exist out there, so advanced that a person could live exclusively out of their rooms.

"Are you certain about not trying to fight back before he comes in here?"

Koeru's question wasn't responded to for a solid twenty seconds.

"I can't. I can't risk everything that would be risked. I can't risk all the lives here, the project, and I can't risk our lives. I need to bide for now, and strike when he logs in. We'll need to figure out where PoH will log in. Will it be through Administrator's console, or one in the dark lands? Or are there others? There are too many variables to consider to take the risk of copying what I learned there for a new console and trying to log out, versus just waiting. I just hope that time isn't passing too quickly outside..."