Chapter 2: Awakening

April 13th, 2017

The first thing I notice when I wake up is an all-encompassing soreness permeating my body. The next thing I notice is a hand insistently shaking my shoulder and an increasingly panicked voice inches from my face, "-Dude. Hey, seriously, you okay man? Come on, please wake up. Do I need to get an ambulance or-"

My eyes slowly inch their way open, and as I make eye contact with the person squatting down next to me I can see relief wash over their entire expression. It takes me several seconds to realize through the dim light that I actually recognize the person, if only vaguely.

Spiky brown hair of a shade similar to my own, tied back in a loose ponytail. Amber eyes just a few shades lighter than my own Hazel, and a narrow, expressive face that is utterly incapable of concealing emotion.

It's that pervert who sits a few desks in front of me, Issei Hyoudou. What the fuck is he doing shaking me awake? For that matter, why the fuck was I unconscious somewhere he might come across me?

"Oh man, I am so glad you're alright. What happened? I just found you lying on the street with your clothes all torn up and covered in blood. I came over to see if you needed help, and you were unconscious or something! I was just about to call an ambulance if you didn't wake up." At this he rocks back on his heels and stares expectantly at me waiting for some kind of answer.

I'm trying to figure out what to say when the memory of what just happened fully catches up, and my face pales several shades as I think back on the distorted visage of horror that was the "Devil's" face, and the feel of his breath on my skin.

I shakily manage to push out something resembling a response in my slightly accented Japanese, "Uh, yeah. Um, I was exploring the city to try and get more familiar with the area. I got a bit lost and was trying to find my way home when I was jumped by someone. Yakuza or something, maybe. A-Anyway, I guess they must have knocked me out and left me here. I suppose I'm lucky to still have all my organs, hahaha…" I trail off into slightly nervous laughter as I get done with telling my spur of the moment cover story.

No way in hell am I trying to fully explain whatever just happened until I have some time to fully analyze the situation myself.

Actually, speaking of analysis, I guess whatever that visor/helmet thing was must have disappeared while I was unconscious. Just another thing to try and figure out later.

I slowly try and stand up while forcing myself to continue talking, "So, what are you doing around here? Do you make a habit of taking walks around the abandoned part of town at night?" I attempt to conceal the grimace of pain caused by the sensations emanating from what I imagine are some pretty gnarly bruises by smiling as I say it. It doesn't seem too effective based on the now worried expression on his face.

"Heh, not really. I was at a friend's house watching some stuff from our "collection-" he puts on a mildly perverted grin as he thinks back on it before becoming more serious again, "-and I lost track of time. Cutting through here is the fastest way back to my house, even if it's kinda creepy. But man, Yakuza? You serious? I didn't even know we had Yakuza around here. You going to be okay getting home dude? You look like you can barely stand."

Now fully on my feet again, I consider the question for a moment, before attempting to put on a brave face, "I think so. I don't think the damage is too bad to-" when I take a step over to him to prove my words, I nearly collapse again and am only saved from a face full of concrete by his quick action in rushing over and wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

Which, I have to say, was actually somewhat impressive given I was almost half a foot taller than him, and probably weighed a fair bit more too. He must be stronger than he looks.

"Yeah, no way. There is no way I am letting you walk home alone like this. Where do you live? I can bring you over there first."

"Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to be an inconvenience-" his firm and earnest gaze, along with my demonstrated inability, convinces me to halt what I was about to say, and just give in. "Alright. As long as its not too much of a bother, I would appreciate the help."

I give him the address of my family's current home, and we began the walk over, him thankfully being familiar enough with the area to navigate. The bright smile on his face as he keeps one arm firmly looped around my shoulders makes me think that, maybe I had judged him a bit too harshly. He actually seemed like an unusually forthright and kind person at this moment; especially when compared to some of the other people I have met over the years.

The nonstop idle chatter about his most recent excursions in the realms of perversity on the way over to my house are almost enough to make me take back that revision in my assessment of his character. Not entirely so, but I now see that both takes seem to be equally valid. Well, I guess everyone needs flaws. Even if some of ours are a little more obvious than others.

At least I managed to wrangle him around to talking about lewd anime and video games instead of IRL stuff. That realm, at least, was something I could partially relate to; and I must say, he really does know his stuff there. I might actually have to look into some of the anime and games he recommended, assuming I can remember it and get the chance to do so later.

I tune back in to what he is saying just in time to catch something actually interesting, "- you know? I mean, I'm not really a massive fan of old-school RPGs, but the writing and sex scenes are so good dude. You should really give it a try. Its even free on Steam!"

"Huh, I really wouldn't have taken you for a PC gamer before today. What did you say it's called again? I actually quite like old RPGs, so that might be interesting. Ah, by the way, we are almost to my house now, its just around that corner." I wriggle my right arm out from where it was pinned against his side, and point in the general direction of the little suburban neighborhood my family lived in.

It was, once again, surprisingly similar to something you might see back where I grew up. I had always heard that space was at a premium in Japan, and thus classic American suburban housing was quite uncommon. Either that was wrong, or Kuoh was a massive outlier.

Closer to the center of Kuoh it starts to look more like something I would have expected, based on the images I have seen of Tokyo and other Japanese cities. However, it severely thinned out the farther you got from there. From a distance you could almost compare it to a mountain, with tall skyscrapers and dense construction near the center, gradually getting shorter and more spaced out until it terminated in almost rural-looking traditional Japanese buildings interspersed with the occasional shrine or park.

Now, things weren't quite as expansive as back home, and the mountains in the distance tended to be a fair bit shorter and greener, but it was quite comfortingly familiar for someone from Colorado.

"Ah, it's The Last Sovereign. Really cool game." At this he shook his head slightly in an effort to refocus, "Anyway, you need me to walk you the rest of the way? Your leg seems to be doing a bit better now."

At this I pause slightly before answering. I had just been complaining about my lack of male friends, and getting to see this side of him showed that he might not actually be all that bad. It might tank my rep if others see me hanging out with him regularly, but would a casual acquaintance be that bad? Did I care?

Eh, not that much. He did me a solid tonight, and I don't like leaving stuff like that unrewarded. If other people think less of me for associating with him, fuck 'em. It's not like I had any other serious friends anyway.

"Well, I think I could make it the rest of the way on my own. But, if you wanted to come inside we could talk a bit more or something? I have been needing to make some friends anyways, and you did me a real favor helping me out back there." I try to put as much earnestness into my voice as I can, despite me being significantly out of practice when it came to stuff like this.

He seems almost inordinately happy that I offered, but ultimately has to turn me down, "Sorry dude, but I really need to get back home myself. We can hang out some other time though. You may not be as well-versed as I in the appreciation of Oppai, but you seem pretty cool. I'm sure I can get you up to my level eventually." It was mildly surreal that he could look so contrite scratching the back of his neck, while simultaneously cheekily grinning and saying something so ridiculous.

"Heh, I guess I'll look forward to your attempts. If nothing else we can at least talk about anime and video games," I wryly smile back at him before straightening out my face, "But seriously, thanks. You really helped me out when I wasn't expecting anyone to do that. If you ever need something, just let me know. I can at least lend an ear and a brain, even if I can't do anything practical about it."

"Of course man! And if you ever need something again, you too! Bros gotta help each other out, you know? Plus, how am I ever going to become a Harem King if I'm not even strong enough to help out my friends? Anyway, see you at school tomorrow dude." At this, he gently helped me to stand against a streetlight to ensure I kept my footing when he let go, and then took off running in what I assumed to be the direction of his own house after seeing that I seemed stable enough to walk the rest of the way on my own.

I suddenly called after him when I remembered something important that I had been forgetting this whole time, "Oh right, and my name's Alex, in case you don't remember from the beginning of year. Just call me that from on, alright? I don't really care about the whole call-by-last-name thing, and just playing the pronoun game might get confusing at some point."

He briefly pauses and turns back for a moment, "Alright Alex, you can me Issei then." At this he smiles once more, and then resumes his own journey home.

Meanwhile, I lean back against the streetlight and bask in its soft glow with my eyes closed for a few moments, preparing myself for the final walk home. My leg feels mostly alright by now, but I'm probably going to be limping for a day or two unless something changes.

Getting past my parents without giving an in-depth explanation of what had happened was interesting, but ultimately not too difficult. I had no hope of simply pretending nothing had happened for a few different reasons.

For one, while the worst of my injuries were already mostly gone, I still had a hell of a lot of bruising from getting tossed around and manhandled. Another issue is that while the wounds themselves may be gone, the two rents in my clothing and the blood were not. Lastly, it was almost 8:30 by the time I got home from my post-school wanderings, which was nearly an hour later than the latest I had ever been before.

Thankfully, I was able to mostly appease them by simply stating that it was a long story involving an encounter with the local nightlife, I was not in any immediate danger, I was extremely tired as a result of what happened, I was still piecing together exactly what had happened myself, and I would really rather talk about it later after I had a chance to fully process things.

Now, for some this may not be enough, but my parents were pretty damn cool about trusting me to make decent decisions and come to them if I need help. They probably figured that if it was really an issue, I would tell them what they needed to know when they needed to know it. If I still hadn't clued them in on the basics after a few days had passed, they might start to worry, but by then I should at least have my story straight, assuming I don't tell them the truth outright.

So instead of incessantly questioning me, they just let me know that dinner was in the fridge and let me get on with acquiring a shower and a change of clothes.

Sometimes it was rather convenient to have never had the rebellious teenage phase. It made it much easier to deal with situations like this. Not that I had much experience in coming home covered in blood and bruises, but I feel like one case is enough to prove the rule in this situation.

So it was that I was back in my room freshly fed and showered by 9:00. A quick glance around assured me that things were still as I left them this morning.

Bed made and pushed into one corner.

Clothes neatly folded and put away in my dresser.

Desk placed next to the bed's head, and clear of any letters or notes my mother may have placed there.

Bookshelves still full of novels and assorted brick-a-brack.

The familiar orderly space was calming to me in a way that little else was, and I finally felt like I could relax slightly from the hypertension I had been subconsciously keeping up ever since I first saw that alley. The sudden release of pressure magnified the exhaustion I had been feeling, and I wanted nothing more than to crawl into my covers and cease having to give a fuck about anything for the next seven or eight hours.

Unfortunately, I still had some work to do.

First, I walked over to my desk and idly hit my PC's power button while I laid out my phone and bag on the desk. I had made sure to pick them up before I left with Issei, but had not actually examined them for damage yet. I wouldn't care too much if either of them was irrecoverable, as I didn't really make use of one, and the other was just a generic cheap black bookbag, but it would still be inconvenient.

Thankfully, my Galaxy J2 was still intact due to the valiant sacrifice of the thick case around it, and the bag was only a bit scuffed. The contents of the second were a mess because of how they got tossed around during the "fight", but nothing too bad.

By the time this quick check-up was over my PC had finally finished booting, so I pulled out my chair and sat down to check any messages I might have.

There wasn't much of interest in either of my E-mails other than generic messages about upcoming school events or spam. A few potentially interesting Quora posts, but nothing worth bothering with right now.

Discord was slightly more interesting, albeit not in a particularly good way.

Unbound Firebird: Hey Thalex, I'm not going to be on for a while fyi. I had some family stuff come up that's going to keep me busy. Y'know my brother? The perverted one? Well, he's picking a fight with some other guy and his friends again. So, I'm going to be helping out with that for a while. Make sure things don't get burned down in the process or something. Sorry to make you have to wait before I can keep kicking your ass in EUIV, but needs must and all that.

This was something that happened occasionally. For some inane reason, her brothers had a tendency for getting into big fights on a regular basis, and she usually got dragged into helping out in one way or another. So, its not really unexpected, but still kind of disappointing given she has pretty much been my only friend for a few years now. At least, that I interact with more than once in a blue moon anyways.

I had met her, what, 4-ish years ago now? Yeah, it was a bit after Irina moved away I'm pretty sure.

I think that's right.

Actually, now that I think about it, it's kind of sad that I can confidently call her my closest friend currently, despite us never having even seen a picture of each other. Ugh.

I forcefully drag myself out of my reminiscence before I can retreat too deeply into bemoaning the state of my social life. Plus I have Issei now, right? I think that's an improvement. Maybe.

Sigh.

Well, I should probably at least respond instead of ghosting her, even if she probably won't see it till tomorrow anyway.

Thalex: Ahh, and I was looking forward to crushing your Golden Hordes to powder with my cannons and pikes too. I guess we'll have to postpone that til later. I just had some IRL stuff come up too, so it's not the worst timing ever. Talk to you later, and good luck with your brother. Try to keep him out of too much trouble, eh?

That will have to do for now.

At that I lean back in my chair, and close my eyes for a moment in preparation for the most important part of my plans for tonight.

"Hey, Sacred Gear, or whatever you are. Can you come back out now? Turn on? Materialize? Activate?" almost simultaneous with the last word spoken, I experience a soft flash of light, followed by a light weight forming around my head as the visor and helmet are suddenly back.

Activation Request Acknowledged
Welcome New User
What Is Your Will?

Alright then. I guess that, at least, was not just a stress-induced hallucination or something.

Although it does beg the question. What is my will? After a moment of thought I have an answer.

"I would like some information. The past few hours have left me with many questions and too few answers. This is not something I enjoy. I would like you to rectify that. To start, what are you?"

Query Acknowledged
I Am the Personal Assistant Unit Bundled with Your Sacred Gear.
My Primary Purpose Is to Facilitate Interactions Between the User and the System Backend.

"Alright. A few more things then. What is a Sacred Gear? Does my Sacred Gear have a name? Also, could you start formatting your messages more like plaintext? It's been bugging me."

Acknowledged.

According to what information is available within system storage, Sacred Gears are holy artifacts created by the Abrahamic God in antediluvian times. They are embedded within the souls of select humans prior to birth, with the goal of granting Humanity the ability to defend itself from hostile supernatural powers.

Roughly 90% of all Sacred Gears were created via the defeat and imprisonment of lesser supernatural entities, with the remainder directly imbued with His own power or created by unknown methods.

Your Sacred Gear is known as Arcane Ascendance. No data is available regarding its origin.

Okay then. That was quite the little speech. Assuming that information is accurate, I guess that's confirmation that God is real, if nothing else. I'm sure Irina would be happy to hear that.

Oh. Well, I guess I better make sure I actually keep that promise too. Better start looking into churches and track fields. I take a moment to grab a sip of water before continuing.

"Alright. Can you please give me an overlay of the core functions of Arcane Ascendance and any relevant related information in terms that I am currently capable of comprehending?" That should work, I think.

Acknowledged

Arcane Ascendance is a highly modular Sacred Gear capable of directing its own growth, with several key components.

The primary components can be categorized as follows:
Power Generation
Data Storage
Spellcasting Matrix
Spellform Central Processing Units
Mana Transmission Cables
Environment Scanner
Personal Assistant Unit
Soul-Link Transmitter

Of these various systems, Power Generation, Data Storage, and the Spellcasting Matrix are black boxed, and cannot currently be self-examined or reproduced.

Spellform Central Processing Units serve the purpose of creating new spellforms, and conducting the pre-requisite magical research necessary to create new spellforms.

Mana Transmission Cables transport energy from Power Generation to the User.

The Environment Scanner collects data on all entities and objects within 10 meters of User, primarily for the purpose of furthering magical research.

The Personal Assistant Unit facilitates communication and translation between User and system backend.

The Soul-Link Transmitter functions as the primary interface between Arcane Ascendance and the User. By default, it physically manifests in a form appealing to the User, but can be manually configured.

Limited information can be queried from Data Storage regarding Black-boxed systems.

Power Generation provides functionally limitless energy up to the maximum capacity of currently constructed Mana Transmission Cables, as well as reabsorbing excess waste energy.

Data Storage contains logs of all system messages and communications, core system files, generic mana signatures of certain common supernatural creatures, and a library of fundamental magical principles that can be used to facilitate spellform creation. This library can be expanded by conducting magical research or scanning examples of useful phenomena. Additionally, 1 encrypted data packet has been detected.

The Spellcasting Matrix is utilized to manage and process the active use of defined spellforms, as well as to maintain long-term spellcasting without active input from User.

Currently, New User possesses 1 SCPU and 1 MTC. Further may be constructed by allocating mana and SCPU memory to that task.

This information takes a bit longer to fully sink in. "Wait. So. Basically, I have a magical supercomputer strapped to an infinite power source, all run by an AI, wedged into my soul? Is that accurate?" My voice is tinged with equal parts excitement and disbelief.

On the one hand, this is exactly the kind of thing that seemed tailor made for my interests and mindset. On the other hand, this seemed way too close to something tailor made for my interests and mindset.

That is a substantially accurate summation of the situation. Although at this stage I am closer to an extremely advanced Virtual Intelligence rather than a truly self-aware entity. This may change if you allocate additional resources to my development and pursue the pre-requisite research.

I take several deep breaths before continuing, "I guess I will take your word for it then. At least until I can confirm it. Or find out I finally had a mental break induced by all my brooding, and am currently in a padded room somewhere. I mean, better to assume its real than not real, right? Yeah. Okay. Moving on. I guess I should do some system configuration then."

"First, I am giving you a name designation to make conversation less tedious. I think I'll call you Alice. I've always been fond of that name. Also, change my designation from New User to Thalex. Next, I'm guessing you have some degree of direct mental link, based on some of the things you've said, and the implication of you being in my soul and all that. Is that accurate? Can you directly read my thoughts and such?"

Acknowledged

Personal Assistant Designation Set to "Alice"

User Designation Changed from "New User" to "Thalex"

Yes, there is a direct mental link. This is how I have been tailoring my dialogue to better facilitate interaction with User Thalex, as well as a key component of interpreting imprecise commands.

I hum thoughtfully at that. It's kind of uncomfortable to think that another entity is able to see all my thoughts, but I suppose if it's so thoroughly integrated into my soul anyways, there's no helping it. Might as well just consider it an extension of myself for now.

"Good. In that case, I would like for you to sort all system messages based on how important I would personally consider them, and only display messages of critical importance to me. I can always review the logs later to get the full picture if I need to. Also, if possible I would appreciate it if you could switch to directly overlaying system messages onto my vision. The visor is a bit conspicuous outside of combat. Lastly, it would be nice if you could route direct communications from yourself through some kind of voice synthesizer and play it directly in my head, assuming such a thing is currently possible."

Acknowledged
Processing…

I stare at the message for several seconds longer, before deciding it was probably going to take a while. It also occurred to me that I had never actually examined what my new headwear looked like, so I decided to get that done while Alice did her thing.

I walked over to the mirror hanging over my dresser, and began examining the "Soul-Link Transmitter". Or at least I assumed that is what it was based on the infodump Alice gave me a bit earlier.

The main body of the object seemed to be a silvery metallic helmet with dark purple runes of some kind carved into the sides. The helmet was one smooth piece that began at the edge of my neck, and fully encased the back, top, and sides of my head. The front of the helmet was composed of the same silver metal up until it reached the space just below my nose.

The top half of the front portion was composed of some kind of one-way glass or crystal. From the inside of the helmet, it was perfectly clear and had a textbox in the bottom left corner where all the messages I had seen thus-far appeared. However, the reflection in the mirror showed nothing but a blank pane the same color as the text Alice used.

I was interrupted when the helmet suddenly disappeared in another soft flash of light, and a feminine, mellifluous voice began to echo in the back of my skull, "Requests now complete User Thalex. All further communications shall be routed through this medium until further notice. A log of all communications shall be kept in text format for future review. Do you have further orders?"

I start slightly at the spontaneity of the message, and the strange sensation of hearing someone else's voice in my head, but quickly respond. "Thank you, Alice. Yes, I have a few more things I would like to take care of right now. First, you mentioned that I could allocate system resources. Could you quantify that, so I have some kind of numbers to work with?"

"Acknowledged"

Several moments more pass, and I notice that even without the helmet I still have the textbox sitting in the corner of my vision. Having a built-in HUD is pretty awesome. Even if it didn't do too much at the moment.

"Output of SCPU and MTC now quantified. Each SCPU produces 1 Processor Unit per Hour. Each MTC Produces 10 Mana Units per Second. These values were arbitrarily created for User convenience, based on the total work output of each unit over the given interval. Production of a new SCPU or MTC requires the full attention of 1 SCPU and 1 MTC for 24 hours. Current maximum capacity is 12 of each. This number may be raised naturally by continual usage of mana as your soul adapts to the greater strain, or artificially by several potential research avenues. Cost of spellform creation and usage available on request."

"Alright then. Only two big things left now. First, you mentioned something about an encrypted message being left in Data Storage. Can you elaborate on that?"

"Yes. Based on an attached instructional packet it would seem to be a multilayer puzzle box, with scraps of memory data protected within each layer. The origin and nature of the memories is not specified. It is possible to allocate system resources to break the encryption. However, penetrating even the first layer is likely to require a considerable quantity of PUs. There is a voice message included with the instructional packet. Shall I play it for you?"

"Please do."

At this Alice's voice is replaced with another.

"If you wish to know the truth, then open Pandora's Box. But beware the Basilisk within."

Well fuck that.

On top of all this other bullshit, now I have to deal with creepy as hell cryptic messages too? Also, very not encouraging that something about it reminded me of the strange almost but not really audible feeling that pushed me into investigating that fucking alley.

Then again, I guess if I hadn't listened to said feeling, then I wouldn't have learned about all this other stuff in the first place. And it's not like things turned out too poorly, right?

Bah.

Whatever.

It sounds like I don't have the ability to really work on opening it yet anyways, and I have other priorities right now. Such as not dying horrifically if I have another close encounter of the sixth kind.

So, what do I need to achieve that goal? What are my priorities?

I guess... first of all I need an actual library of basic utility and combat magic.

In the longer term, I can guess that I will also need to drastically increase my available PU and MU counts. I don't have any idea how my current abilities might stack up against anything I might encounter, but its probably better to err on the side of paranoia.

"First things first, I want you to allocate all initial system resources to the construction of another SCPU as soon as possible. When that is done, work on another MTC, and then repeat that until I reach capacity. Allocate every other SCPU to working on my queue of requested spellforms, while adding the rest to construction duty."

"Next, I want estimates on how many PUs it would take to create spellforms capable of the following list of tasks, utilizing currently available information, and information that can be collected by scanning my own body and immediate surroundings:

A comprehensive non-combat healing suite capable of keeping me alive, and healing me of any mundane injuries short of death within 24 hours.

A comprehensive combat healing suite capable of repairing minor injuries during battle while not impacting combat performance.

Some kind of focused combat ability able to hurt an enemy from a range.

Some kind of shield capable of preventing damage from injuring me.

A visual overlay capable of tagging entities within scanner range with any information available regarding their name, mana signature, and estimated magical strength."

"Acknowledged. First production run shall commence as soon as SCPU 1 is fully repaired. Scanning and analysis of User biology and immediate surroundings shall take place during User sleep cycle. The list of estimates shall be ready in the morning. Goodnight User Thalex."

"Goodnight. Thank you for your diligent work."

I think that should be everything, at least for the moment.

Even if its not, I am practically falling asleep in my chair at this point, even with all the excitement of real fucking technowizardry being at my fingertips. Honestly, I'm probably gonna have to review the logs in the morning to make sure I don't forget anything important.

With that, I turn on the sleep playlist on my computer, switch off the lights, and groggily stumble into my bed to be greeted with sweet oblivion.