Act 2, Chapter 11 - Debriefing and New Discoveries
The doors into Capsule Corp slide open as Articho and co enter the front lobby. And let me tell you, it's quite spacious. The former school idols that were known as Aqours, even though Leah isn't technically a member, were once again marveled by their surroundings. Articho then notices the receptionist across the lobby and walks up to her at the front desk.
'Never seen her around here before.' Articho thought before shrugging it off. 'Must be one of them new interns I keep hearing about here at Capsule Corp. Oh well.'
"Good morning." The receptionists bows in her chair. "How may I help you?"
"Is Doctor Kuriba here?" He asks.
"Do you have an appointment?" She questions, fixing her glasses back in place.
"No, this is a personal matter." He admits.
"I'm afraid that's impossible, sir." She shakes her head.
"It's okay." He assures the intern. "She's expecting us."
The intern examined Articho and his company, still unconvinced.
"One moment."
By the time she looks away and faces him and co, they had already disappeared.
"Huh?" The young woman exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Articho and co were hiding behind a corner of a wall as they watched her looking confused.
"Never gets old." The Pathfinder grins, snickering. "With any of these receptionists."
"I almost feel sorry for her." Maaya snickers along. "Almost."
"Good grief." Kinuho sighs, shaking her head. "Why are you so cruel, Articho?"
"It's part of my charm." He shrugs.
"I sure hope she doesn't call security." Chika pointed out, concerned.
"She might." He nods before smugly grinning again at the confused young woman. "But there's no one here that'll believe an intern like her, is there?"
His old friends all looked at each other in bewilderment. Although he and Leah haven't met back in the day, the Pathfinder still considers her as a friend of his.
"Shall we move on then?" He suggests before walking down the hall.
"Is it me, or does that woman in glasses look awfully familiar?" Ruby questions with a suspicious look on her face.
"You're just seeing things, Ruby." Yoshiko deadpans.
"Hmm." Ruby suspiciously eyes the intern one more time before following her friends close behind down the hallway.
As they left, the intern sighs in despair.
"I need a new job." She laments.
Her smartphone buzzes inside of her handbag and she pulls it out and discovers that she just received a text. And it's from none other than Honoka, who has been keeping in touch with her ever since the two went their separate ways when her senpai graduated from high school along with Kotori and Umi. In fact, she's received a ridiculously huge number of unread texts that were sent to her over the past few days.
"What the?" She questions with a dumbfounded expression before beginning to read them.
Articho and co finally reached a sealed door into Ryouko's lab, which can only be accessed through a specific type of security measure that she and her husband came up with.
"Okay, here we are." Articho says, as he uses his Omni-tool to scan an access panel.
"Whatever happened to using only biometric security?" Maaya asks.
"After the last break-in attempt, Ryouko and I believed that a simple hand or voiceprint can easily be exploited in a number of different ways." He explains. "This new security measure we developed, however, can't. An assigned access code alone won't get you anywhere here without an Omni-tool."
"Are there any panels like this one implemented all over the building?" Kinuho asks.
"Yes." He nods. "However, Omni-tools are tiny nano devices inside your body, so anyone can't use someone else's to pull off a burglary. And hacking these panels isn't a smart move either because it's wired to fifty thousand volts of electricity."
"What if some super-powered being is shock-resistant?" The light chestnut haired heiress questions.
"Tranquilizer darts." He simply answers. "They're hidden behind these very walls. Ceiling, too."
"And if some spy tries to take advantage of this?" The shinobi princess questions suspiciously.
"Doppelganger, Ryouko, and myself created a backdoor in the building's security system that only either one of us can use to hit the kill-switch." He rolls his eyes. "Satisfied?"
"Not really." The girl duo deadpanned at their husband.
The door opens, and the Pathfinder puts his Omni-tool away. He's aware that his old friends from Uchiura have been quiet since they arrived here, but he's sure that all of their questions will be answered soon. Everyone then walks inside and their friends all awed at their surroundings, as the lab closely resembles a futuristic archive with a few large bookshelves they're seeing.
"Well, that's new." Articho points out at the bookshelves. "And oddly suspicious."
He walks down a small flight of stairs, approaching his black and white short-haired wife that's currently busy with something.
"Doctor Kuriba?" Articho calls out.
Ryouko's thoughts were interrupted and she turns around to see that her husband has arrived. However, she then noticed that he has brought random people - all girls, mind you - as they just caught up with him down the steps.
She approaches the girls and uses her Omni-tool to scan them before looking at her analysis on it.
"Hmm. Don't recognize any of you from the city records." The young woman explains, scrolling through the Omi-tool. "All of you seem oddly too pretty to not be following him."
That comment caused the former school idols to blush.
"They're old friends of his." Kinuho points out.
"Old friends? Interesting. Maybe. Looking for someone? Yes, yes! But who? Someone important. Someone with secrets. Someone like... me." Ryouko questions, getting up too close with a suspicious look on her face. "Me? Looking for me! Why? Who are you? What do you want?"
Chika and her friends all flinch when the scientist's face is in their personal space. Not to mention how ridiculously fast she was talking.
"Do you ever pause for breath?" Riko raises an eyebrow as she sweatdrops.
"Sorry, I'll... try... to... slow... down." Ryouko sarcastically apologizes before shaking her head in honest denial. "No, no, no! No time for that. Who are you?"
"Relax, Doc." Articho assures her. "You can trust them."
"Seriously?" She frowns, unconvinced. "Trust goes both ways, husband."
"Husband?" His friends blinked in confusion before they looked at each other in shock and back at him in disbelief. "HUSBAND?!"
"Dude." Articho deadpans. "Febrie and Juliet were a dead giveaway. I'm pretty sure you would've put two and two together already, but I didn't think you're THIS slow at information processing."
"None of us have a photographic memory like you do! How the hell are we supposed to know that you're married?!" Dia angrily questions. "And to four wives, for crying out loud!"
"Ten, actually." He bluntly corrects her.
"TEN?!" They screamed.
"Plus... two fiancés." He adds.
Of course, that was a big fat lie. Not even his wives know the truth about it.
"That's not important." Ryouko interrupts before glaring at the boy. "Wanna know how we never heard of these 'friends' of yours up until now. Why keep that from us?"
"None of that was my fault." He frowns. "At least, not completely."
"Explain." She calmly demands.
"Later." He says. "Right now, you need to know what the three of us have found beneath Mount Fuji. And these girls got themselves involved by accident. The data we gathered is vital to the Initiative."
"Oh, yeah? What'd you find, another untapped Energon reserve?" Simmons asks as he enters the lab, surprising the Pathfinder and his light chestnut haired wife.
"Wasn't expecting to see you here with everything that's happened back in Albany." The Pathfinder says.
"The doc said I could be of assistance." He admits, walking down the steps before showing him his own Omni-tool. "She even gave me this as a welcome gift soon after you, Kinuho, and the other girl left last night."
"It's Maaya. Maaya Awatsuki." Maaya deadpans.
"My bad." The former S7 agent apologizes. "I meant no disrespect."
"Articho, you know this man?" Mari questions.
"Guys, this is Seymour Simmons." Articho introduces the older man. "He's an old friend of Kinuho's."
"Call me Simmons." Simmons says. "Everyone just refers to my father as 'mister'. They friends of yours, kid?"
"Another long story." He says. "Anyways, you're not going to believe what the three of us found beneath Fuji because it's not an actual volcano."
"What do you mean?" Simmons questions.
"An ancient city." The Pathfinder explains to him and Ryouko. "From the time of the High Republic, somehow built by its representatives that made their way into our reality."
Both Ryouko and Simmons perked up when he revealed his findings to them.
"Did you just say the High Republic?" The former S7 agent questions again, only this time with a shocked expression on his face.
"I did." Articho bluntly answers.
The Pathfinder pulls out the ancient compass he recovered from the High Republic colony before dropping it on a nearby table.
"Is that…" The black and white haired scientist gasped.
"I found this inside a vault of sorts." He explains. "Tellus. It exists, Ryouko. It's hidden somewhere in the Kvi Cluster."
"The Kvi Cluster?" Simmons scoffs in disbelief. "That's impossible. That nebula surrounding it eats any ship that gets too close! Even the Cybertronians from their Golden Age couldn't reach the other side with their superior technology!"
"The Republic found a way through centuries ago." The Pathfinder further explains. "It's how they used this compass to safely cross the nebula from the cluster they've settled within in the first place. I know this because a Jedi led an expedition and helped establish that very same colony the three of us discovered when we were investigating a broken Gate that the Nazis were secretly studying. Guy's name was Ainu. I even recovered his lightsaber from whatever's left of his remains."
Articho pulls out the late Jedi Master's lightsaber hilt and ignites its yellow blade in front of Ryouko and Simmons. Of course, Kinuho, Maaya, and the former idol girls saw it several hours before they made their way back to Academy City with him. However, Chika and her friends are still confused. Even Mari, who's a Star Wars fan, has never heard of the High Republic. More importantly, how's something from a fictional franchise turned out to be real? And what's this about Cybertronians? No use listening in their conversation if they still don't know what they're talking about.
"Let me take a closer look." Ryouko says.
"Go ahead." Her husband allowed.
He then shuts off the blade and hands the hilt over to her.
"This is fine craftsmanship." Ryouko admits as she holds the lightsaber in her hand. "High Republic, right?"
"The etched markings on the hilt is proof enough." He answers. "According to my Omni-tool scans, the hilt's power cells and wiring are degrading. Without the suitable parts to build a new one, the saber's rendered useless in battle."
"Hmm, that's very... problematic." She thinks for a moment. "Well, it's a good thing that I came prepared."
"Hmm?" He raises an eyebrow.
The young scientist pulls out a small, flat squared container and opens it to reveal a bunch of Capsules inside. Taking the right one out and putting the kit away, she gives the idol girls a look.
"You might wanna step back a little." She warns them.
Chika and her friends all looked at each other, confused again, but listened and backed up a few steps from an open space within the lab itself. Ryouko primes the top of the Capsule with her finger and then tosses it onto the floor, where the small pill-shaped object detonates into a cloud and reveals - in place - to be a large rectangular crate that's about the size of a treasure chest.
"What the-?" Yō's eyes widened.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Articho slyly smirks. "We simply call them Capsules, which allow inanimate objects to be shrunk down to portable size and can be carried on the go."
The girls were left speechless, unable to think of anything else to say.
"It's a lot to take in, I know." Maaya admits. "But these Capsules are basically the namesake of this company. Articho owns about a majority of its shareholders. Anonymously, of course."
Ryouko opens the crate up, revealing to her husband the contents inside.
"Lightsaber parts?" Articho asks his black and white short-haired wife, completely dumbfounded before noticing a few books inside and picks one of them up in his hand as it and its pages are written in a familiar alien dialect.
He even notices a few cube-shaped Jedi holocrons and a larger one that resembles a pentagonal dodecahedron, which is referred to as a 'Great Holocron'. As well as a bunch of holobooks to go with the collection.
"These look a lot like holocrons." Simmons points out as he picks up one of the cube-shaped devices.
"Yeah." Articho agrees. "Kinuho, Maaya, and I found a bunch of empty ones at the Fuji colony last night. Maaya?"
The indigo haired shinobi princess nodded and pulled out a Capsule before tossing it on the floor, detonating into another crate and then opening it up to reveal the pile of empty holocrons inside.
"Hey Mari, what's a holocron?" Chika asks her former senpai. Are they talking about these cube things?"
"Think of them as storage devices that house information inside." Mari specifies. "However, only Force users can open them since the knowledge inside can be sacred. Depending on either religious faction that studies the mysteries of the Force, of course."
"The Force?" Chika, Riko, and Yō questioned.
"An external form of life energy that surrounds us and binds the known universe together." The blond girl defines.
Unfortunately, neither of the three 17 year olds understood what she just explained to them. Mari was completely disappointed and annoyed about this since Star Wars is supposed to be internationally common knowledge.
"I get it, zura!" Hanamaru raises her hand, causing Mari to smile.
"Wait, seriously?" Yoshiko questions her childhood friend in disbelief. "You understood all of that, Hanamaru?"
"Well, when it comes to helping out my family's shrine and reading a ton of books, you have to start from somewhere." The golden brown haired girl admits.
"I guess that makes sense." Riko nods. "Hanamaru is somewhat an expert on religion."
"If you don't mind me asking, where'd you get all this stuff?" Articho asks his black and white short-haired wife. "The Star Wars universe is impossible to traverse in, given that conflict is always happening there. Unless..."
"Kai was quite insistent about it." Ryouko says. "You know what he's been through since the Jedi Purge."
"That's no excuse in placing all that responsibility in preserving his Order's legacy onto me." He frowns. "He's NOT the center of my universe. I've been dealing with a lot shit in the last two years, so forgive me if I don't have any interest in getting involved with whatever the hell's going on in Earth-0."
"Regardless, what's done is done." Kinuho intervenes before an argument could start, snatching the lightsaber away from the scientist and handing it back to their husband. "We should put all this stuff to good use, starting with building a new lightsaber hilt as a replacement."
"Then I'd rather build my own that's indestructible." The Pathfinder sighs, knowing that the light chestnut haired heiress made a valid point. "I'm not using these exterior parts that can easily be sliced off with ease."
"I'm not one to question you, kid, but what about them?" Simmons questions, pointing his finger at Chika and her friends. "They still have no idea what's going on here."
"I found my friends trapped in some kind of stasis field inside the vault's storage room." He explains. "Unfortunately, they've been there for almost a decade."
"That doesn't make any sense." He shakes his head. "But if that were true, then you would've been physically older than them by now."
"It's hard to explain it to them."
"Try me." The former S7 agent dares.
Articho looks at his Uchiura friends before sighing in defeat.
"Okay." He admits before sitting down in a nearby chair. "Okay, I think the nine of you, including Leah, deserve the truth about me being an alien. Best settle in, then. I've got a story to tell and it's gonna take awhile to get it all out."
"Let's give the kid some time alone with them." Simmons whispers to Kinuho.
"Right." Kinuho sighs as well. "Maaya and I do need to tell you and Ryouko everything about the High Republic colony."
"Perhaps the Jedi Archives that Kai gave us to preserve can confirm whether this Ainu character's story is true or not." Ryouko suggests, walking to the other side of the lab. "Odd. Sounds a lot like the name of the first known Japanese natives that lived up north."
"Because it is." Maaya says as she, Kinuho, and Kinuho follow the scientist while bringing the two crates with them. "Named themselves after him when the colony ended up destroyed."
"Well, Simmons and I could use two more research assistants." She says.
"Gladly." Kinuho nods, accepting to help them out.
It took a whole hour for the Pathfinder to explain everything to Chika and her friends. The Saiyans, the multiverse theory, time travel, even magic of all things. Still, they've managed to listen to him very carefully, not bothering to interrupt his story. When he finished, they took the time to process most of the information into account.
"I know you still have many questions, so ask away." Articho understands their wants to learn more.
"Alright then." Yō raised her hand. "If you're an alien, why do you look a lot like a human?"
"Yō!" Chika chastises her childhood friend angrily for the somewhat racist comment.
"It's okay, Chika." Articho assures before looking at the uniform-fetish girl. "To answer your question, most Saiyans are usually born with tails."
"Tails?"
"Monkey-like tails." He nods. "And on a technicality, yes, Saiyans are a race of humans. Except we're a race of humans with powers by utilizing an external source of life energy referred to as 'ki'. You may know it as the Chinese term 'chi', used by the Shaolin monks for centuries."
"OHHH." The girls realized, especially Hanamaru.
"The difference is that Saiyans and other alien species where I'm from use ki in a totally different way." He further explains. "Like this."
To demonstrate what he means, Articho outstretched his right hand open and casually fires a yellow ki blast at a randomly small inanimate object, resulting in a tiny explosion.
Oh, the look on their faces when he did that.
"Holy-" Leah exclaimed in disbelief.
"Surprising, isn't it?" The 18 year old young man asked. "Now then, any other questions?"
"Oh, me!" Chika excitedly raises her hand.
"What is it, Chika?" Articho questions.
"Just out of curiosity…" She began, blushing a bit. "If you have ten wives and two fiancés, how many kids do you have?"
"More than enough." He answers. "Why? Trying to seduce me?"
This made the coral orange haired girl blush even harder.
"Chika?" Riko looks at her friend in confusion.
"We'll have to sort this out later." The girl's' crush decided, waving his hand. "There are more important issues to deal with at the moment."
"O-Okay." Chika slowly nods, shyly looking away.
"If anyone else has questions, now would be a good time to ask." He suggests. "I need to help you get well-acquainted with the technology here at Capsule Corp. You'll need it if you're gonna last long in this city."
Leah raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"How powerful are you?" Leah curiously asks.
"A fraction of my true power can shake the Earth itself, as well as the entire universe." He answers. "One of the reasons why I need to hold back. A lot. I'm also scaled to be multiversal level at best."
"If that's true, then why use a gun?" She further questions. "Or a lightsaber? Or any other weapon?"
"Necessary handicap." He shrugs. "Nowadays, I mostly rely on my brain. Even stealth. Strength and speed isn't everything, considering that Kinuho has a history of overconfidence."
"I heard that!" Kinuho's voice calls out in the background.
"Ruby?" He directs his attention toward red head with twin tails.
Hearing her name causes the shy girl to jump in surprise.
"Y-Yes?"
"It's okay." He assured her, walking up to the redhead. "You can ask me anything. So what's on your mind?"
"Oh, okay." She nods, rubbing her legs together. "Can you pat my head? Like how you used to?"
"Hmm." He chuckles, patting her head. "Hope you and Dia have been taking care of each other while I was away."
"Uh huh." Ruby nods at her brother figure with a smile. "I've been doing my Rubesty so far."
"That's good to hear." He smiles back.
"I have a question." Kanan says before asking. "The multiverse. What's it like from your perspective?"
"In my perspective?" The Pathfinder raised his eyebrow at the question. "Actually, that's a hard question for me to answer."
"Seriously?" The midnight blue haired girl was shocked.
"Too much." He shrugs. "Ask me later when I find the time to relax."
"Fine." She sighed in disappointment.
"Don't sell yourself short, Kanan." He says. "My misadventures aren't going anywhere."
Hearing that placed a smile on his former senpai face, and a little blush.
"I have a question unrelated with helping us fit in." Mari raised her hand.
"Alright." He allows. "Fire away then."
"You and Arisa." She began, sashaying herself over to the Saiyan, making sure to put and extra sway into her hips and a bounce to her breasts to entice the man. "How did you first meet?"
"Pass." He nonchalantly says, unfazed by her seduction. "My wives are better at seducing me than you."
"Huh?!" Her jaw dropped.
"Ask me a different question."
"Okay, so answer this instead." She replied, straightening herself up. "What were you going on about our DNA back at the penthouse?"
"That's the right question." He smirks. "But it's not like I wanna spoil the surprise, now would I? And that... would be telling."
He then started to mischievously chuckle, earning an unamused and annoyed look from Mari.
"You… stupida." She scoffs, crossing her arms in frustration. "The man that I had a crush really have changed. In more ways than one."
"Or maybe this is the real me." He remarked.
"Speaking of which, the hell's wrong with your voice?" Yoshiko questions suspiciously and curiously.
"Hmm?" He looks at the girl oddly. "I'm not sure what you're implying, Yohane."
"Hey! I told you, my name is-" She began before suddenly stopping herself. "Wait. It is Yohane. I wonder why I was getting upset."
"At least we got something in common for once." He shrugs.
"Like 'Articho' not being your real name, as 'Yohane' isn't my real name as well?" The navy blue haired girl deadpans. "Yeah, no shit."
"Ahem!" Hanamaru interrupted as they were getting sidetracked.
"Oops. My bad." The Pathfinder realized. "If that's everything, let's move on."
He then gets off his ass from his chair and gestures the girls over to a workbench.
"He still didn't answer my own question." Yoshiko grumbles.
"Alright, who's first?" Articho questions, picking up a small, modern syringe-like handgun before eying his first volunteer. "Hanamaru, let's start with you."
"Me, zura?" She points to herself. "For what?"
Because the golden brown haired girl is wearing a yellow open-collared jacket, her arms' skin is exposed for Articho to install nano tech that makes up for the user's Omni-tool. Deciding to trust the boy she had depicted in a storybook and falling in love with him, Hanamaru walks over to him.
"I'm ready." She says.
"Give me your left arm." He requested, in which she did.
The Pathfinder then holds the girl's left arm and pulls the trigger, instantly injecting nano machines inside. Hanamaru winced in pain. It hurt, but it was instant.
"There." Articho smiles, patting her shoulder.
He then sets the syringe gun back down and picks up a datapad, confusing her.
"What's that for?" She questions.
"I need to run a few tests to see if your Omni-tool is functioning properly." He explains. "In other words, calibrating."
"Cool." She gasps in excitement.
"Settle down, Hana." He chuckles. "I know you're excited, but you're gonna have to follow my instructions if you want to use it. Okay?"
"Oh. All right." The golden brown haired girl calms down.
Wait. What did he just call her?
"Did you just called her Hana?" Kanan questions with a raised eyebrow.
"It's short and easy to say." He admits, not taking his eyes off the datapad as he begins working on the calibration tests for Hanamaru's Omni-tool. "Hmm. Everything seems to be working so far."
"If you don't mind me asking, how does it work?" Hanamaru asks, looking at where she was injected with.
"The nano machines I injected you with are designed to bond with your nervous system and are then linked to your cerebral cortex, the important part of the human brain." He explains. "Now try bringing out your Omni-tool with your own."
And just like that, she successfully thought of it, bringing online her own Omni-tool for the first time as a rectangular orange holographic plate appears on her left forearm.
"Sweet, zura!" She exclaimed with a fist pump.
"As you can see on your forearm, the Omni-tool functions like a laptop with a few major differences." He explains further. "For starters, it's resistant to EMPs in case there's a potential blackout."
"Got it." She nods seriously. "I already know what an EMP is, so don't worry about it."
"Just making sure." He shrugs. "You also have access to not only the internet, but to a scanner as well. Trust me, Omni-tools are more versatile and reliable. They even act as communicators. More importantly, they can be used as weapons in the form of an Omni-blade. Like mine."
The Pathfinder then forms a nearly diamond-hard orange blade, searing-hot, for his friends to see. The former idols clapped their hands in applauses.
"That's amazing." Riko and Chika said.
"Right then." He picks up the syringe gun from the workbench again. "Who's next?"
"How come yours has a blade and ours doesn't?" Yoshiko complains, now having an Omni-tool of her own alongside her friends.
"Mine's custom." He bluntly explains. "I'm even an engineer and a hacker as well. Guess I failed to mention that, huh?"
"You left that part out on purpose." The navy blue haired girl frowns.
"Perhaps." He says with a ghostly smile. "Perhaps not."
"I hate it when you're cryptic." She rolled her eyes, checking out her Omni-tool.
"Articho, I think we've got something." Maaya calls out from the top floor inside of the lab. "Can you come up here?"
"I'll be right there." He responds before looking at the former Aqours (and Saint Snow). "You guys okay if I leave you with your shiny new toys?"
"You said shiny." Mari giggles.
"Very funny, Mari." He deadpans.
"It's fine." Kanan nods. "We'll need a bit of time to learn about what happened while we were 'sleeping' since 2017."
"Thanks." He smiles before walking up to her. "And Kanan..."
He then whispers something in the midnight blue haired girl's ear, causing her to blush furiously. Without saying another word, Articho walks up the stairs to the top floor, leaving the girls by themselves.
"What did he say?" Dia asked.
"H-He thinks I'm wife material." Kanan stutters. "Am I really, Dia?"
The black haired woman's jaw dropped immediately.
"Buu buu!" Dia exclaims. "Tell me that isn't so!"
"I-It's not like that at all!" Kanan waved her hands defensively. "It's... oh, forget it."
"Hold on, there's a Super Mario Bros movie?!" Yoshiko exclaims in disbelief as she is on the internet via her Omni-tool's holographic screen. "For real?!"
"All right, I'm here." Articho informed his wife, giving her a quick peck on the lips. "What's up?"
"You're never gonna believe it." She explains, holding hands with her husband. "Come on."
And followed her he did. Where Kinuho looks up from the holotable, noticing the two approaching.
"Good, you're here." Kinuho says to the boy before gesturing her head towards the former S7 agent. "Simmons?"
"Doctor Kuriba and I were able to find some interesting data in the archives your friend left you." Simmons begins explaining before pulling up several 3D holographic images. "Around three centuries before the blockade over Naboo, the Galactic Republic was in the midst of a golden era of expansion and rediscovery. It was then that they planned to traverse the Unknown Regions and establish a colony there."
"Looks like you three are right." Ryouko nods at the trio. "They did send a few expedition ships into uncharted space."
"Yeah, but..." Articho agrees but remains confused. "How did those ships ended up in our universe? More specifically, the Kvi Cluster?"
"Theoretically the same way Kai ended up in Earth-0." Ryouko answers.
"Still doesn't explain how." He frowns. "Kai wasn't the only one who ended up in another universe."
"I haven't forgotten about Cassus and the True Mandalorians, Articho." His wife reminded him, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, that's all we could find about those explorers that colonized the cluster. However, there's something else I found rather out of place."
"What is it, Ryouko?" Maaya asks.
Ryouko pulls up a 3D holographic image of what appears to resemble a large scroll with two handles on opposite ends.
"Holy shit." Simmons jaw drops. "I don't believe what I'm seeing here."
"That's an Elder Scroll." Kinuho's sky blue eyes widened.
"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder." The Pathfinder grumbles in annoyance.
"I don't understand." The indigo haired shinobi princess shakes her head, confused. "The Jedi Order found an Elder Scroll? An artifact of unknown origin and quantity known throughout the history of The Elder Scrolls universe?"
"There's definitely a story behind this." The light chestnut haired girl points out.
"Ryouko, do you think you can find a precise location of where Tellus is inside of the cluster?" He asks his black and white short-haired wife.
"I don't know." Ryouko answers, looking at the compass in her hands. "But I will most certainly try. However, this Elder Scroll the Order found concerns me."
"If Palpatine had learned about its existence, we would already know it." Articho points out with his arms crossed. "Fortunately for us, we have that knowledge and he doesn't. That's a major victory for all of reality in my book, not just for the Jedi and the people of the Star Wars universe. And we can thank Kai and his father for it."
"I suppose you're right." She sighs in relief.
"But according to this report, the Elder Scroll ended up unaccounted for, dating back to the same day that the expedition ships left for the Unknown Regions." Maaya paraphrases the information on holographic display. "This can't be a coincidence."
"How many of these scrolls are there?" Kinuho asks curiously.
"During the Oblivion Crisis, 273 of them were housed in the White-Gold Tower's libraries." Simmons briefly explains. "In 4E 175, all 273 scrolls mysteriously vanished and were scattered across Tamriel by unknown forces. However, this isn't the final number as there could still be more than just the ones that were found, collected, deciphered, and read by Imperial Moth Priests. At least, that's what the lore tells us. But the exact number, Kinuho? Infinite."
"If the Jedi found an Elder Scroll outside of Nirn and the realm of Mundus, then there must be an infinite number of them scattered all over the multiverse just as Simmons is about to imply on." Articho concludes, reading another report in the archives. "Further records indicate that the scroll was found centuries prior to the Galactic Republic's secret expedition, around the time when they were still in their government's early stages."
"And currently, the Jedi in our universe still have that same scroll in their possession." Maaya points out. "But there's one thing that feels suspicious to me: Do you guys think that one of the Jedi mystics could've used the Elder Scroll to gain a vision of the future and create the Chosen One prophecy, which he then recorded on a holocron?"
Articho, Kinuho, Ryouko, and Simmons all perked up when she asked a question that didn't come to mind.
"Seems like that's worth looking into." Ryouko says. "In the meantime, you should go check on your friends downstairs."
"Right." He answers.
"One more thing." She stops him from leaving before transferring schematics to her husband's Omni-tool. "There is one particular alloy that serves as a replacement to your lightsaber's original."
"Thanks, I'll check it out later." He nods before walking downstairs.
Articho reaches the end of the circular stairway and walks toward his friends.
"How's everything going over here?" The Pathfinder asks, getting their attention as their eyes aimed directly at him.
"You." Mari expressed, pointing to her crush.
"Hmm?" The Saiyan tilted his head with curiously.
"You've got some explaining to do." Yoshiko came up to him.
"And that would be?" He asks further.
The navy blue haired young woman came over with her Omni-tool opened up, showing a very interesting news update. It was an article about the recent incident in Tokyo's Ginza district. However, that's not all, as Mari shows him another article - nearly three years old - that's about Godzilla being introduced to the world and the destruction of San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Honolulu in the U.S.
"What. Did. You. DO?!" The two demanded.
"Did you even bother to read these articles?" The Pathfinder calmly counters, causing both of them to flinch. "Do your own research before you start accusing me, idiots."
"We tried to warn you." Kanan says to them with her arms behind the back of her head.
"Damnit!" Dia slapped her own face in the background. "Why did those two assume that he's responsible for these incidents?"
"I wish we knew, zura." Hanamaru deadpans.
"Come on, everyone." Articho says walking up the steps on the other end of the lab to reach the exit. "We've got a bus to catch."
"Kinuho and Maaya aren't coming with us?" Chika asks.
"Unfortunately." He shakes his head. "But right now, I think I've kept you waiting to reunite with your families long enough."
The former Uchiura students all gasped in shock.
"That's right!" Chika realizes. "I completely forgot about that!"
"I can't believe we're finally going to see our families after all these years." Riko smiles excitedly. "Though, I don't think we'll see our own dogs again since... you know."
"Oh." Ruby sadly lowers her head, understanding what the bergundy haired girl's talking about. "I never thought about that. Sorry about Shiitake and her pups, Chika."
"It's alright, Ruby." The coral orange haired girl shakes her head with a sad smile. "You've nothing to apologize for. I expected that would happen."
"Ditto." Riko agrees with her, completely aware that her own pug had already grown up and died of old age peacefully.
"Well, what are we all standing around here for?" Yō questions. "Our families won't be expecting us anyways."
"Yeah!" Everyone except Leah shouted.
Ruby notices her former rival's nervous expression and reassures her with a smile, letting her know that everything's going to be okay. Leah eventually nodded and smiled back.
All eleven teenagers left the lab and made their way back to the lobby, which appears to be empty.
"Looks like the intern must be on break." Dia guesses. "We should keep moving before she comes back."
"Way ahead of you, Dia." Kanan agrees.
"There's a bus stop near the parking lot, just outside of Capsule Corp." Articho informs the girls. "We can use it to call for automatic transportation."
Unbeknownst to the group, it turns out that the intern Hanayo hadn't left on break - hiding behind a support pillar - and quickly took a snapshot of them from her smartphone before they left the building.
Elsewhere in Academy City...
Honoka's phone chimed, receiving a text back from Hanayo.
"She sure knows how to work fast." Honoka bubbly grins.
"Come on, Honoka." Umi says as both of them are walking on a sidewalk. "Did Hanayo get a good picture or not? We need to know if it even is him."
"Let me see, let me see." Her strawberry blond haired friend says, opening the image up on her phone before gasping. "I can't believe it. It is him!"
"Are you sure?"
"Who else sports short, spiky jet black hair like that?" Honoka rolls her eyes before showing the snapshot on her smartphone to Umi.
"I suppose that makes sense." Umi sighs, looking at the image till her hazel colored eyes widened.
"Believe me now?" Honoka smirks before noticing her friend's face. "Umi?"
"Honoka, look at who else is with him." She hesitantly points out with her finger.
"What is it?" Her best friend asks before looking at the photo herself. "Those girls with him seem familiar, somehow."
"Look closer." Umi clarifies.
"This can't be possible." Honoka gasps. "Tell me I'm not just seeing things."
Umi shook her head, confirming that her childhood friend isn't. The strawberry blond haired girl's phone then chimed once more, receiving another text from Hanayo who tells them where exactly Articho and his friends are going.
"Say Honoka," Umi looks at her. "Doesn't Kotori work part-time at that same small café Articho and these girls are headed to?"
This got Honoka's attention and she gasped in an overly dramatic way before grabbing Umi's wrist and pulling her down the sidewalk, running.
"Oh shit!" Honoka panics. "We have to catch up to them before we lose their trail!"
"Honoka!" Umi exclaims, annoyed at the fact that her friend is dragging her along instead of letting her run on her own.