Tomei Shizuru's recent "Awakening", or potentially more-accurately, "Dampening" of her Quirk had made the weekly news. Thankfully for her private life, only as a local bit piece that everyone forgot about almost-immediately with the latest "Villain of the Day" battle and/or "Hero Debut".
I gave the guy a month before he folded. Anyhow!
It was a simple matter for me to alter my schedule to accommodate my new escort duties, though the hardest part in general was keeping Shizuru on-task whenever we had to wade through crowds of people on their own daily commute.
While hardly counting as a Support Item, the plight caused by her Quirk was just-enough in the legal safe-zone that it enabled her family to receive a stipend necessary to pay for some decent-quality full-body wetsuits with adequate thermal regulation from Detnerat. Her [Transparency]'s new threshold gave very little allowance in terms of what she could wear without being made to look like she were wearing "nothing at all", so the fact that she looked like her wetsuit had been painted on and that some would call her "mature for her age", was certainly something that was eye-catching to passerby.
For her sake, to help mitigate cumulative mental damage from repeated exposure to The Gaze from ladies, gentlemen, and that technicolor spectrum in-between, I leveraged Gible as a distraction, showcasing a special leash that hooked onto both torpedo-like horns given his current lack of a neck. And while this definitely took some of the eyes off my friend, it also had a side-effect of spreading my own likeness across the internet.
While Elma had been kind-enough to make (what I assumed was) a magi-tech computer virus that made unsanctioned photographs of my face come out blurry, a feat in of itself that was quite terrifying in its implications, word-of-mouth still spread, and I started getting unwanted attention whenever I went out. A fact that wasn't helped by Chitose being good on her word for making me a "celebrity". If it wasn't the fact that I was a "true proponent of gender equality and emotionally healthy young man facing trying circumstances due to the failings of an inept Hero industry", it was that I had a real-life Pokémon at my beck and call and how he was "the cutest thing ever".
She'd meant nothing malicious by it, and in fact she'd been able to sway public opinion making it easier for me to take Gible out in public spaces without some kind of muzzle. However, it was only a matter of time before this caught the attention of some Pro Hero somewhere and my life got more complicated than it already was.
On the more-domestic side of things, right before the weekend there was another… altercation, at my school.
*Past*
"Geez, where'd that girl wander off to?" I sighed as I looked down at my phone, thumb hovering over the app before I triggered it with a sigh.
Shizuru's parents, having a child who was functionally invisible until just-recently, had obviously had her phone chipped. And given the fact that I was her unofficial chaperone to and from school, I'd been given access to her phone's tracker as well in the event she "relapsed" and went 100% Transparent again.
Which is why I grew slightly alarmed to see that instead of meeting me by the shoe lockers, her signal was retreating toward the storage shed at the edge of the school.
I tempered my sense of decency in expectation.
"What do you want?" a third-year with an abalone for a head, an entire abalone, huffed brusquely as I closed the gap.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
The stupid bastard actually falling for my "Marty McFly", I whipped out my Stun Baton and caught him between the legs before ripping open the doors. Inside, a pair of third-years with the head of a wolf and an octopus respectively were holding Shizuru face-down into a pile of gym mats, an additional third-year with the head of an elephant having already worked her zipper halfway down her back.
"Um... This isn't what it-"
Shizuru's tear-stained face was all I needed to go into a blood rage and not feel too bad about it.
*AHA*
I won't bore you with the details of what happened next, but suffice it to say, I was able to limit the amount of collateral I caused to the school's gym equipment to just a few drops of blood here and there.
Minutes later the new Student Council arrived, and I got my first good look at the first-years Mitsumi had managed to hold onto. The two transfers from the other day, Nedzu Chuta and Kiryuin Kaen, I was already familiar with, at least from sight. If it weren't for the boy's uniform I'd almost mistake Nedzu for a girl, but then again, between Hanyuu and the boy/girl from 1-B who could turn into a girl/boy at the drop of a hat, Nedzu could've been a girl and I wouldn't know. Kiryuin's uniform was still as-conservative as when I'd first seen it, but now, it seemed more like she was wearing it than the other way around.
Then there was Masshiro Nayuki, one of Mitsumi's peers from 1-B. She was a petite little thing with her hair pulled up into two spiky buns decorated with snowflake hairpins. What set her apart almost-immediately was that her body was completely white-washed, almost to the point of albinism, and I was unsure if whatever her Quirk was extended to her uniform, or if there was just a medical reason she was wearing all-white attire.
Then there was Toura Taiga, a huge tiger-like Heteromorph who filled the entire doorway, and it was almost impossible to believe he was a first-year middleschooler with how he filled his uniform. And unlike the dipshits I'd steamrolled in a blood rage, this guy was full-body man-tiger instead of just from the neck-up. Rumors said he was fit to be the "top delinquent" at Damoto, at least until Mitsumi with her "Top-chan" persona beat the stuffing out of him and earned his respect/loyalty. Rumors also said he was a masochist, but then again, couldn't the same be said of anyone that enjoyed getting into fights.
"Aw man, I missed all the fun," the tiger-like council member huffed as he stared down at the bodies.
"What part of this looks 'fun'?!" I growled, hair standing on end as I helped Shizuru to her feet, tears still running down her face.
"Stupid maso-cat," the white-washed girl chastised.
"Honestly, how vulgar," the Student Councils' 'ojou-sama' huffed angrily as she leered contemptuously at the three degenerates scattered across the shed.
"Tomei-chan, did they hurt you in any way?" Mitsumi asked walking up to console her.
"N-N... *sniff* No. Takei-kun got here just in time," the (formerly) Transparent Girl sniffled as she gathered up her uniform, which turned transparent the moment she hugged it to her body.
"Well... thankfully Picar-sensei has the room bugged," Mitsumi hummed angling her head up at an innocuous smoke alarm, which I assumed her words meant was actually a hidden camera.
*Present*
With that piece of information in hand, later confirmed by Picar-sense himself, I was confident that the three of them (four if you count the accomplice who in all likelihood drew the short straw and would've had to wait until the other three had their "fun" to get his own turn) would get what they had coming to them. Thankfully, their parents weren't the sort who were so far up their own asses that they thought their kids could "do no wrong" just because they literally had any Quirk, or just had a Quirk that wasn't inherently "villainous".
Then again, the security footage of those three ripping Shizuru's uniform off and then proceeding to unzip her wetsuit, was damning-enough to get them labeled as Instant Villains all on its own while painting what I did to them next in a more-heroic light. I later found out that the abalone-headed member of their little group would send the other three up the river when Picar-sensei threatened to have him blacklisted from every Hero Academy in the country if he didn't testify against them. How the guy thought being an abalone from the neck-up would let him become any sort of Hero, let alone law enforcement agent, would've been lost on me if I had the bandwidth to give a flying fuck.
Suffice it to say, none of their families would attempt something stupid like suing me.
Also, given I had the principal and the chief of police in my pocket, and an insider at the HPSC, it was a given that with all this mounting evidence and my testimony alone, Shizuru would receive no blame for quote/unquote "provoking" the four of them "with her budding wetsuit-clad body" like they tried to sell Gran Torino on when he swung by to ask what was taking me so long.
With plenty of assurances from Picar-sensei, Kuroyama-san, and Shizuru's parents that no further involvement would be needed on my part, I was free to focus on my weekend "getaway trip" into the mountains with Elma; though I did promise to call Shizuru every day. That the girl's friends all agreed to spend the weekend with her while I was out, was just an added load off my mind since, even in the 23rd Century, the Japanese education system was still full of degenerate perverts; they just needed to be more-selective of their targets since some random girl off the street they knew nothing about could have a Quirk that raised her epidermal temperature to that of molten manga, or to shoot lightning out of her nipples, or any other ignoble way of getting hurt for sexually harassing a quote/unquote "defenseless" girl.
And this getaway trip was definitely something I needed because, that utter shitshow in the storage shed notwithstanding, there was all the drama from the dance-off, Gible's attention grabbing, and my pending starring in Run for the Money and people thinking I was the one with final say on who got to represent Damoto against our rival school, Murakami.
Before Reincarnating, I'd only been camping a few times, but Laid Back Camp and other such anime had renewed my interest in the outdoors, and I figured since I had a "Dragon Mama with OP Magic" willing to take me to the mountains to "get away from it all", I'd take her up on her offer.
And while part of it was meant to be a relaxing outing to put a little distance between me and the drama pervading my life, it was also a chance to do some real training, both where Gible was concerned as well as my own magic. At present, I was still largely limited by the Spells stored inside my "Magic App", and since there was no telling what this life would throw at me, it was imperative I get some grasp on this power as I continued imbibing my "Lao Mang Lone Soup", instead of becoming overly-dependent on a Support Item.
Doubly-frightening was the fact that if she used legit Dragon meat instead of just steeping her tail membranes, Xiaolin Showdown's portrayal of supernatural cookery was remarkably accurate.
I shuddered to imagine what one could make if they threw a whole Dragon "into the pot"...
*AHA*
A short flight later after I had a chance to cool my head in the comfort of my own home...
"Here, this seems like a good spot!" Elma chirped cutely as we came to rest upon a small hill overlooking the river, its waters crystal blue with a bed of rocks worn smooth, the whole area remarkably pristine.
Using what I assumed to be some form of storage magic, she withdrew a modest-looking tent and erected it in a flash, tossing in a futon and some blankets before drawing out a pair of fishing rods.
"Come on! Let's go catch lunch!" she beamed.
"That sounds lovely," I hum, letting Gible out of his Dive Ball, the Land Shark's eyes lighting up as he saw the river.
*AHA*
Half an hour or so into our fishing sojourn later…
"Um, Elma…? Who is this?" I asked when faced with the random woman who'd popped out of nowhere.
She was fairly average-looking with green eyes and matching shoulder-length hair, styled up in a small ponytail high up on her head with a cute white scrunchie. Clad in a black suit and skirt combo not too dissimilar to Mera's own, she was the sort of person you could see once and then forget about almost immediately since "anime hair" had become "just hair".
Not to say that she wasn't cute, which she totally was, but her look also screamed "boring". More boring than someone like Kobayashi, even…
"Oh, this is Tatsuzawa-chan, my kouhai from the Harmony Faction," Elma smiled prettily. "She's here to help you train your Spirit Energy."
"Elma, I don't have that."
"Of course you do. Don't you remember?" she asked with a cute tilt of her head.
*Past*
It was the middle of the night on a new moon, practically pitch black.
Elma was in the kitchen having her midnight meal when suddenly, a pale blue glow shone from the hallway.
Peering around the corner with a "jelly-filled donut" hanging from her mouth, she saw a sleepy-eyed Takei listing tiredly down the hall, his finger raised and a mote of blue Spirit Energy alight upon his raised fingertip.
"Gotta pee…" he muttered as he walked past, completely oblivious to her presence.
Elma for her part took a moment to observe his departure, and then returned to her eating.
*Present*
"Holy crap I really did pull a YuYu Hakusho…" I gawped, thinking of what this meant for my arsenal.
Not that it was implausible for Spirit Energy to be a part of this world and a component of how meta-abilities even worked. The sheer amount of chemical energy someone like Endeavor would need to create the flames he used in combat, let alone maintain for his dick-waving, was well beyond the caloric storage capacity of even a Peak Human. For someone in the world of Toriko where even the wildlife could reach Planet-Buster levels of power, most definitely; but definitely not for ordinary people on this Earth.
And sure, Quirks were actually physical abilities with tangible built-in limits, but if the cost of those abilities was put purely on an unaided human body without some esoteric energy source footing some of the bill, there's no way half of what modern Quirks would do would be possible without outright killing their users.
Then again, I only came to this conclusion because my Beta back before I reincarnated, Spaceman, had once theorized that performing a Calorie Test on a Senzu Bean from Dragonball, a legume purported to be able to keep a person full "for ten days", would've been like setting off a military-grade firebomb in your face.
"Your trip to the Spirit World might've been what established your 'undiluted' access to this energy source," Tatsuzawa hummed aloud. "What most humans call 'Awakening' isn't purely a physical advancement of their meta-ability, but a spiritual one as well, most-often triggered by a near-death experience that takes away all other distractions."
My mind thought back to [Second Origin] from Fairy Tail…
"While Elma-sama helps train your Tsukaima, I will be training you," Tatsuzawa continued as a magic circle appeared in front of her.
Her essence transforming into pure magic, in a whirling tide of power, the cute but boring-looking OL actually became smaller, transforming into a fluffy dragon similar to Pina from Sword Art Online, only green with a tiny horn on the forehead and four fairy-like wings.
" . . . Eh?" I goggled.
*AHA*
Elsewhile, his human's caretaker hummed to herself as she walked away from the campsite at a casual pace, Gible tucked under her arm like a medicine ball. The little guy had been putting up a valiant struggle against her, even going as far as to use his [Slash] to free himself, but when the woman looked down at him and used [Glare], the little guy's body went rigid, a shudder running up his body.
"Don't worry, Takei-kun's just training," the dark-haired woman replied. "Of course, you can't be idle either. You need to be strong-enough to look after him, ne~?"
Gible reluctantly nodded his head/body when the woman's expression softened. The thing that tried to eat him at the unfamiliar shores, the thing whose attention had shifted to Takei once it crested the waves, was something he could never beat as he was now. And while the human that could change from Normal to Steel-Type was formidable, he remembered the giant human who towered literally above all others, and realized that the unfamiliar land he was in now, while scarce with other Pokémon, was rife with beings of modest to tremendous power. Some of which might have ill designs for his own partner.
"Excellent!" the woman nodded, setting him down a while after Takei and the plain-looking Normal-Type with him had left their sights.
The dark-haired woman's body suddenly glowing with the light of Evolution, out of nowhere her type shifted from Normal to Dragon-Type, a shudder going through the Land Shark's body as he felt mere dregs of her restrained power creeping to the surface.
"Alright, Gible!" the woman said twirling a long three-pronged weapon made of the same material as her spiraling horn. "Show me what you're made of!"
*GIBA!*
With that proclamation, the Land Shark Pokémon leapt into battle, Dragon clashing against Dragon.
*AHA*
Power-wise, Tatsuzawa was barely as-powerful as a local adult wizard. In fact, the witches at Café Strega were probably more powerful in terms of pure magic alone.
Then again, what she lacked in raw power, she probably more than made up for in mastery. The one thing that functional immortals had over everyone else, if not a ridiculous healing factor and/or a broken number of skills, was the fact that they could reach beyond-mastery of their chosen craft if they dedicated enough time to it.
Juuzou Shishimi from UQ Holder! for example, lacked talent in swordsmanship despite being born into an era where it was a must-have for survival. Despite being primarily self-taught, after eight centuries of swinging a sword over and over, three of which he needed to become good-enough to slice through steel with an ordinary blade, he'd achieved such an unbelievable level of proficiency that he was lauded as being able to cut down "even the gods".
One of his most-broken (read: most-amusing) abilities was [Concept Slicing], an extension of his [Absolute Cutting] and the absolute pinnacle of his ability. By slicing the concept of an "apple" as part of a demonstration to two fellow Immortals who were curious about his [Concept Slicing], he was able to make them both forget what the fruit actually was until they could look it up in a dictionary. The fact that one of them was a High Daywalker Vampire from the highest levels of Vampire nobility of over 12,000 years made the feat doubly-impressive when considering how Juuzu was only 1/15th(-ish) Nikitis' age; 3/8ths of which had been largely "wasted" on his steel-cutting feat.
But I digress.
"So… How will I be training my Spirit Energy?" I inquired, finding my softcore otaku side just a little bit aroused by the idea.
Even if Shiori and Kuromi would harangue me incessantly once they found out.
"A little old-fashioned, but you humans meditate under waterfalls, don't you?"
"I mean… I've only ever seen it in anime, but I guess people do it in real life."
"Good, then we'll start there."
What I was not jazzed by was her clinging to my back and lifting me from the ground like a crane machine, probably making me look very foolish given she was the size of a house cat.
*AHA*
On my (ignoble) flight farther up-river, we passed over where Elma and Gible had made their way off to. At the moment, Gible was repeatedly trying to breach Elma's defenses with his [Slash], [Bite], and [Dragon Breath], even throwing up gouts of [Sand Attack] and what looked like [Sand Tomb] to keep things fresh. Elma for her part was perfectly parrying his attacks with twirls of her trident, looking like one of those Boss enemies you had to lose against for story purposes.
My shadow passing over her, Elma had too pure a look on her face as she looked up and waved at me.
Gible, perceiving a moment of weakness, lunged at her face with his jaws wide, ready to sink his teeth into his fellow Dragon-Type.
What the little guy wasn't prepared for was Elma reaching up and catching his jaws with her index fingers and thumb. The little guy ineffectually flailing his limbs at her, Elma continued to smile giddily my way until we were out of sight.
"Is Gible gonna be okay?"
"Don't worry, she won't rough him up too bad. What you should really be worried about is yourself," Tatsuzawa hummed as she picked up the pace, the wind rushing through my hair as we shot far upstream until we came upon an idyllic waterfall at the bottom of a high cliff, miles and miles away from where we started.
"I'm gonna freeze my nuts off, aren't I?" I asked staring into the mist being churned up by the deluge of spring water.
"Well, that's what your Spirit Energy is for," Tatsuzawa hummed as she detached from my back and fluttered over to land on a nearby rock. "The other night, you used it subconsciously for a light source when you were half asleep and not thinking about much of anything. Now that you objectively know it's there, you have to learn how to draw it out when you're fully aware of yourself with lots of distracting thoughts in your head."
Distracting like how I'm basically Videl in this scenario?
. . . Okay yeah, I see what she means by "distracting".
A sentiment only doubly-reinforced when Tatsuzawa fired a golden beam of light from her horn at me and I only caught on after-the-fact that the magic beam had changed my clothes into a white karate-gi.
"Di-Did you just fire a Clothes Beam at me…?!" I goggled as I pulled on the smooth cotton.
"Is that what humans call it?" Tatsuzawa blinked. "We just call it [Magic Materialization]."
Well, at least she can't sic dinosaurs on me.
I hope…
And thus, I was formally introduced to the art of Takigyo.
*AHA*
"C-C-C-C-Can't f-f-f-f-f-f-f-feel my-my-my-my to-to-to-tooooooes!"
"Yeah, okay, I guess you've been in there long-enough," Tatsuzawa hummed as she fluttered over, biting the front of my gi before dragging me out of the water.
"H-H-H-How long… w-w-was I i-i-i-in theeeeeere?" I shuddered as she used her Magic Materialization to cover me in a thick blanket.
"In human time or dragon time?"
" . . . Speaking of which, what kind of dragon are you?" I blinked, deciding to just come out and ask.
"Oh, I'm half-Dragon/half-Fairy," the fluffy cat-sized dragon replied casually.
"Huh? How does-"
. . . . . .
. . .
EUUUUUGH!
OH GAWD!
WHY DID I THINK ABOUT IT?!
BRAIN BLEACH! I NEED BRAIN BLEACH RIGHT FUCKING NOWWWW!
That or for Elma to use [Memory Alteration] but PREFERRABLY BRAIN BLEACH!
*AHA*
Thankfully, my revulsion at that mind-shredding image didn't damper my appetite.
Of course, since I still couldn't get "that image" out of my head, I opted out of having her carry me and instead threw myself into the river.
It makes more sense in the short-term.
Letting myself lazily drift down the river, Tatsuzawa flying lazily off to the side, when I got within hearing distance of the Simple Dragon and Land Shark fighting I called out-
"Gible! Gible, it's lunchtime!"
Gible, looking positively exhausted and covered in scuff marks from his sparring, instantly perked up when I called out his name and leapt into the river, letting me ride him the rest of the way to camp like a water scooter.
*AHA*
Returning to our campsite, a question came to mind.
"Elma… What the hell is that…?" I asked pointing at the thing waiting for us at the campsite.
Aforementioned "thing" was another Elma, her/its colors slightly desaturated as it prepared the fish we'd caught onto skewers around a fire at the foot of the hill, as well as some rice, her/its movements more like a mechanical doll's.
"Hm? Oh, just a little [Decoy Magic]. Nothing too outrageous," Elma waved off as though her "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" weren't a big deal.
Of course, for a Dragon like her, it probably was not…
The Decoy looking up from what it was doing, Gible goggling incredulously between it and the Dragon that'd left him in such a battered state, the Decoy then walked up to me, an unreadable look on its face.
"Um… Hi?"
The next moment, the Decoy reached out and embraced me, mashing my face into its flame sacks and stroking my hair.
"Awwwwww~ It likes you~" Elma cooed.
"Air! Need air!" I cried around the plush body holding me.
*AHA*
As it turned out, Elma's [Decoy Magic] was based on an incident where Tohru's molted skin literally took on a life of its own and did chores around the house (in quadruplicate) for three days. From a technical standpoint, this was like a combination of [Ideal Conversion] and the [Magical Manifestation] of transforming scales into clothing, creating something like a Homonculus with fewer steps.
It was utterly mind-boggling how she could be so-casual about something so-amazing, but then again, the 'Molting Episode' happened close to two centuries ago, so I guess that's plenty of time for her to get used to the idea. Though Dragons from their side of the river could go centuries without sleeping, living in the Human World of the early 21st Century had given them an appreciation of a Humans' linear perception of time; which in of itself made the departure of Kobayashi, Takiya, and the others all the more painful, but I digress.
The lunch in of itself was rice and ordinary gutted river fish, covered in salt and grilled on a skewer, but it was utterly delicious and helped take my mind off of Tatsuzawa's heritage and the images that knowledge inspired.
Of course, partway through the meal, I began to question the assertion that Elma's [Decoy Magic] doppelganger wasn't actually "alive", because the one Elma had made to do the prep work on the fish had drool running out of its mouth as it stared longingly at the food.
The sight was so pitiful I wound up smuggling some fish to the Decoy on principle alone…
*AHA*
"So, what do you want to work on next?" Elma hummed as her Decoy shoveled dirt over the discarded fish bones from our meal, a salt-grilled fish wriggling down its gullet, skewer and all.
"You'll excuse me if I don't want to freeze my nips off again…" I shivered, wearing a new karate-gi while the other one dried on a rack. "Can't you just help me work on my Magic?"
"Sure, I guess we can mix it up," Elma hummed. "Tatsuzawa, do you mind training the little one?" she asked pointing over at Gible who'd dug a little hole for himself to rest in, discarded fish skewers scattered around.
"Hai, Elma-sama," the Fairy/Dragon chirruped, fluttering over and grabbing Gible by his fin, plucking him from the ground like a vegetable before flying away.
The little guy was so-tired he barely noticed.
"So! For now we'll work on your understanding of Runes, and then we'll go into the practical application," Elma said holding up the manual she'd made for me.
*AHA*
After a few hours of lecturing and non-stop practice, infinitely more-bearable than squatting under a freezing-cold waterfall under the watchful eye of an unholy abomination whose presence made me feel like I should scrub my internet browser history, there were only two words that came to mind once I got my first tangible result outside the use of my phone's Magic App.
Mind. Blown.
Why, you may ask?
An "Item Box". An honest to Time God "Item Box".
Sure, it was technically called [Storage Magic], but this was basically the be-all-end-all for Isekai Protagonists everywhere.
Oh god I really am an Isekai Protagonist…
You know what? Fuck it. I'm fine with this. Between the people that are discriminated against for not having special powers when they "come of age", or having "evil powers" when they come of age, or just not looking like "people" and being discriminated against for that, this world might as well be Urban Fantasy instead of Superhero Genre.
"I'm so proud of you!" Elma beamed as she hugged me from the side, her flame sacks squishing against the side of my head with her Decoy joining in from my free side as I stared down at the desk drawer-sized horizontal opening in space, its transfinite interior colored blue.
A magic desk drawer of "Hammerspace" I could open and close with a bit of magic now that I'd "etched" the Formula into my psyche was a game changer in of itself. That I could hide the opening inside a shoulder bag made it even moreso as long as I didn't pull anything too ridiculous out of it. Of course, what set one Isekai Protagonist apart from another, assuming their "Item Box" wasn't bottomless from the get-go, was what they chose to put in limited real estate first.
Sure, I could put guns in there, but that seemed like such a waste of valuable real estate since I could "carry" all on my own; within limits.
No, if I was going to use this much of an "Item Box" for anything right off the bat, I was going to indulge in one of my nerdy fantasies and fill it with the most-powerful wonder material of the 20th Century.
*AHA*
"Duct Tape?" Elma blinked as the two of us shredded cabbage, her Decoy going on a boar hunt for some Ginger-Fried Pork.
"Magic School Bus, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel; all of those helped shape my childhood, but what truly helped me fall in love with science was Mythbusters," I returned from my own work. "My favorite episodes were the ones where Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman made 'stuff' out of Duct Tape, my absolute favorite being the 'Duct Tape Island' episode. By the time the original series ended, the Mythbusters used up eighty-three miles of the stuff."
"Is it really that-powerful?" she blinked.
As someone with [Repair Magic], I guessed it made sense she'd never had to make use of the stuff.
"Wallets, tuxedos, sailboats, shoes, hats, water bottles, hammocks, shelter, chess boards, rope, bridges, even a god damned cannon and trebuchet. If it exists, you can make it with Duct Tape," I belted off from the top of my head. "Its strength varies on brand, but wrap someone in enough layers, take away their leverage, and you've got an Iron Maiden on a budget."
"Hmmmm… Well, I suppose it's fine to use it for that until your capacity grows larger and you can be more casual with its usage," Elma shrugged, her Decoy stepping out of the woods a moment later with a knocked-out boar thrown over its shoulder. "Oh look! The pork is here!" she beamed as the Decoy laid the wild animal at her feet for butchering before turning its expressionless gaze on me.
" . . . There, there. Good job," I said stroking the Decoy's head, its eyes closing as it leaned into my touch. "Are you sure this thing isn't alive?"
"I mean, what does it even mean to be 'alive' in the first place?" Elma hummed as she stripped the boar for parts.
Most would've been confused by that statement as a question, but given an Immortal viewed linear time differently than a short-lived race that barely pushed past a century, Dragons probably didn't consider a human "alive" until they reached at least a century of age.
Or at least not the Dragons who'd "gone native" like Tohru and I assume Ilulu.
I didn't pry into Kanna and Saikawa's relationship because A) "FBI, OPEN UP!" and B) whenever I tried to imagine the little Lightning Dragon who got banished for pranks, all I could remember was the "Don't Lewd the Loli Dragon" campaigns that started cropping up as soon as Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid started getting popular.
*AHA*
After a very filling dinner where Elma's clothes were probably exploding inside her own head like Shokugeki no Souma, and also where she ate our entire s'more supply for the weekend, it was finally time to settle down for the night atop a fluffy futon that might've been semi-magical with how-soothing it was.
That or my spirit was literally just-as-exhausted as my body and I'd not off on anything.
"Hey, where's Tatsuzawa?" I asked noticing she wasn't in our tent.
"Oh, she went back to the HPSC for the graveyard shift," Elma replied from the other side of the futon. "Being half-Fairy, she has an intense want to help people, and helping an under-staffed organizations like that has kept her going for a long time after our old company folded."
"I see," I nodded thoughtfully, slowly nodding off before I felt a body sidle up next to mine and make me the small spoon. "Elma, is that your Decoy again?"
"No, just me~" she cooed as she held me, smiling into the back of my hair. "A mama's gotta keep her hatchling warm, you know~"
" . . . This is fine," I surrendered. "This is fine," I sighed, too tired to fight it.
*AHA*
*Br-r-r*Br-r-r* *Br-r-r*Br-r-r*
*Breen*
" . . . Hello?" I whispered sleepily into my phone following my Metal Gear-style ringtone.
"O-Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know if I'd wake you or not."
"Shizuru, is that you?" I yawned.
"Y-Yes, it's me," the formerly Transparent Girl answered. "The others say 'hi'."
"Is something wrong...?"
"I'm... I'm having a hard time sleeping, so I wanted to hear your voice."
From the other end of the line, girlish squeals threatened to rouse Elma from her slumber.
"Shizuru."
"H-Hai?"
"If any more scumbags appear, call for me. I'll save you from them, even in your dreams."
This proclamation was followed by more excited squealing.
"Th... Thank you...~" she sobbed, her cries pulling at his heartstrings. "Thank you so much...~!"
"Don't worry, Shizuru. I'm here. I'm right here."
And the next time some scumbag touched one of my precious people, I wouldn't be as lenient.
*AHA*
The following morning it was back to the waterfall for me, the cold water helping quell my murderous urges.
This time around, though, Elma helped me from the get-go, popping a squat next to me with her hand on my back as she circulated her own energy through my body in an attempt to coax mine out. All in all, it was strangely pleasant this time. It wasn't that Tatsuzawa was a bad teacher, it just seemed like she cared more about "helping Elma" than helping me.
Not that I'd ever say as such out loud. They've been acquainted for countless centuries, so I'm sure Elma's aware of her idiosyncrasies easily enough.
Then again… capital-I Immortals can be a little slow on the uptake…
Whatever. Anywho, after a few more hours under the waterfall I was finally able to draw out a mote of Spirit Energy between my cupped hands. Since this energy was always "me", it didn't feel like much of anything; closest comparison I could make is it was like the air I exhaled more than "an additional limb" I didn't know was there.
That my near-brush with death and all my past traumas only strengthened my reservoir of Spirit Energy made me feel more and more like an Isekai Protagonist. Especially since it was a running theme that having an entirely separate lifetime in another world was uniquely-suited to giving people bigger "Mana Pools" than the locals.
When it came to what Gible was doing, at the moment he was playing tag with Tatsuzawa in the woods, occasionally dodging around retaliatory fire. Reason I knew this was because Elma was teaching me how to use [Clairvoyance], though due to its complexity (which goes up logarithmically instead of geometrically the more "feelers" you send out), like with my Spirit Energy circulation in the waterfall, she had to "hold my hand" through this. At present and entirely on my own, my [Clairvoyance] was little better than using binoculars for line-of-sight reconnaissance; as far as I was concerned, the only real benefit to using [Clairvoyance] over mundane means was image fidelity, but even then it guzzled mana like an old diesel engine.
Like a muscle, my Spirit Energy and Magic would get stronger the more I used it, and since the very act of storing stuff in my "Item Box" made that ability stronger, it was all just down to managing my time.
I didn't have the slightest clue what the "serious work" at Café Strega was that Hanako alluded to in her slip-up, but I had my suspicions that it might've been unrestricted access to a "Dungeon". Exactly the sort of place one could train their magic and other special abilities uninhibited on a weekday.
And it wasn't like it'd be weird for the two of us to hang out. Hanako and I were already very good friends, and there was no way Beatrix hadn't picked up on the fact that Elma and by extension I, were connected to the magical world. It was feasible I could negotiate my way into Strega's good graces if they needed extra hands to look after "Yuna Springfield".
This of course was predicated on the "basement" actually being connected to a Dungeon and not something more-mundane like an alchemical workshop for magic potions distributed over the magical internet.
Really, the over/under of it being a Dungeon was pretty much 50/50 until I collapsed the wave function.
*AHA*
The weekend (and all of its Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill-type meals) had gone by in a flash before I'd even known it, the deterioration-of Elma's [Decoy] apparently the signal for her to pull up stakes and takes us home.
Before that however, Gible and I were going to have a spar with Elma to see how much we'd grown over the past few days. Since I wasn't a "battle junkie" like the guy from Black Summoner, these little training camps wouldn't be a weekly occurrence, more like once every two or three weekends at the least. This was so I'd have "a life" outside my training, and I had absolutely no problem with that. Unlike Son Gohan who began his rigorous training at the tender age of fucking FOUR… there weren't any pending alien invasions for me to worry about.
That I knew of.
. . . . . .
. . .
Moving on!
"Gible, you ready for this."
*Giba!*
"Alright! Let's do this!"
"MATTA!" Elma cried out in a very Phoenix Wright-esque fashion. "Before we fight, you need safety gear," she said rummaging around in her own [Storage Magic] before drawing out-
"Is that from the thing that almost ate me?!" I gawped as Elma held out a sleek-looking set of blue and orange-accented Leviathan-skin armor that left nothing exposed.
"Yup!"
"The thing that you ate?!"
"I spat the skin and bones back out after digesting the meat and offal~" Elma beamed with a puff of steam from her nose like when Tohru bragged about her stain-cleaning saliva.
"I guess being a master Armorsmith isn't all that out-of-the-ordinary..." I deadpanned when I stopped to consider how Tohru had 'Auto Mastery' of all the mundane Human stuff she did; like Death Metal and Woodworking. Of course, unlike Tohru who couldn't find fulfilment in those until she found Idolatry, Elma too had clearly put lots of love into this full-body suit of armor because it was going to be used to protect me.
It would really suck to tell her I wouldn't be able to wear this out on the street without raising a ton of red flags... Although I suppose for the purpose of these training retreats, it would stop me from having to answer awkward inquiries about why I was hiding bruises Sorahiko couldn't account for.
"Alright, I'm stoked. Let's get this armor on!"
"Hai!" Elma smiled prettily. "OH!" she blushed. "Before I forget, you need to pick a weapon!"
Withdrawing multiple weapons made with Lagiacrus parts, there was a greatsword, a sword & shield, a hammer, a lance, a pair of dual blades, a bow, a freaking katana, and even crazier stuff like a switch-axe, a bowgun, and a gunlance!
Of course, what was obviously her pride and joy was the trident, and the fact that she positioned it closer to me than the rest of the lineup and that it was extra-polished, made it abundantly obvious what she was hoping I would pick. Doubly-so because her expression would rise when my hand moved toward it and fell when it moved away.
I picked the trident.
*AHA*
Cue SOUND:SIDE Vol.1 OST – Life Begins as Gone
Takei and Gible rushed at Elma in her "Holy Sea Priestess" attire, the Land Shark breaking away with a full-bodied tackle preceded by his footfalls scattering river rocks in all directions; some of which would've left bruises on Takei's body had he not been clad in Leviathan-skin armor.
Elma raising her trident to block, the deafening *BOOM!* of the impact sent birds fleeing their roosts as he struck her with the Ground-Type [Bulldoze], actually pushing her sandals back through river rocks by about a foot.
An opportunity Takei capitalized on by vaulting over Gible's body and swinging his trident, only to feint into a glimmering finger-point.
"SPIRIT GUN!"
Elma bending over backwards with inhuman flexibility and planting her trident in the ground as the beam sailed overhead, her plush calves came up and clamped around his neck before flinging him into the river before she leapt away from Gible's follow-up [Dragon Breath]. Takei arresting his backward momentum with the pommel of his trident, a Kiai drawn out from his diaphragm momentarily pushed the river water away before he rushed at Elma aiming a three-pointed strike. Gible rushing at her at the same time with a powerful [Crunch], Elma leapt up into the air and spun, one hand grabbing the scruff of Takei's neck and the other grabbing one of Gible's horns before she spun the two, Takei sent flying into the woods while Gible went into the water.
A keening hum accompanied by blue light coming from the forest, the next moment a- "SHOTGUN!" -blast of Spirit Energy shot out at her, the Holy Sea Priestess twirling her trident like a propeller, forming a wall the projectiles spattered against like raindrops. Gible exploding from the water and aiming a [Takedown] at her exposed back, Elma used her own [Tail Whip] to send him pinwheeling through the air, the Land Shark powerless to amend his momentum as he was sent into the wild blue yonder until he was nothing but a twinkle in the sky.
A moment later Takei exploded out of the woods from the tree line with a powerful overhead strike, the tines of his trident whistling through the air until Elma caught it with her own before bucking him away, the pre-teen curling into a ball and landing lightly before he was on her once again with a series of trident swings, sweeping kicks, and armored punches. Elma felt herself getting a gooey center of pride as Takei lashed out at her with greater strength, speed, and agility than he possessed before they left home; a consequence of the Spirit Energy now coursing through his veins. With all the anime he'd watched before Reincarnating, he was replete with examples to help visualize "where and how" the power would flow through him, as opposed to starting entirely from scratch.
Of course, just because he was a little fast and a little strong, didn't mean he could hold a candle to Elma herself, who'd been fighting on and off with the Chaos Faction her entire adult life. Despite the myriad of attacks hidden behind feints sent her way, not a one of them connected meaningfully.
However, nothing in all of her centuries of experience could prepare her for Takei whipping out a plate of Extra Meaty Spaghetti with Meat Sauce from his [Item Box], as steaming hot as the moment it was put in.
Stomach growling as she beheld the tantalizing golden strands cradling meaty tomato sauce with parsley and parmesan, the Holy Sea Priestess momentarily forgot about their fight as Takei offered the tasty treat up to her with glimmering emerald eyes. Right as she cradled the wooden bowl in her hands, deeply inhaling the scent, Gible finally came back down, angling himself like an aerial bomb and chomping down onto her tail with all his might.
It was telling how-engrossed she was with her snack that she barely noticed.
At least not until Takei struck her in the face with a Spirit-powered punch and sent her flying out over the water. The Holy Sea Priestess' hands flailing for purchase, before her delectable delight could hit the water she thrust out her trident, the air pressure from the strike making the bowl flutter before she closed the gap and caught it. A relieved sigh leaving her lips, she looked over her shoulder to see the Land Shark still nibbling on her tail with a determined glint in his eyes.
Takei on the other hand built up power inside of himself before the ground burst at his feet and he lunged. Running her free hand through her hair, with an outward swing a single strand of black/purple hair was sent fluttering toward her hatchling, the magically-charged effluvia transforming into a fully-functioning copy of the Holy Sea Priestess which intercepted Takei and tackled him to the ground. As flame sacks pressed against his knightly visor, the Decoy's limbs wrapped themselves around his armored body holding him in place, the end of its tail slapping down atop the Lagiacrus Trident and pinning it in place.
As the Decoy's plush body cradled the armored form of Takei's Leviathan Armor, Elma brought Gible up to her face and prepared to give him a Dragon-powered [Karate Chop], only for the Land Shark to shoot himself away with [Dragon Breath] like Gojira. The Land Shark sailing towards Takei's position, with draconic power gathered to his fingertips Gible slashed at the Decoy's back with a powerful [Dragon Claw], the clone disintegrating.
"Good, good," Elma spoke for the first time since they started fighting. "It isn't enough to fight together. You have to look out for one another as well."
"I can do this all day... is what I'd like to say," Takei panted as he planted the pommel of his trident into the ground for support. "Tanks running a little dry with all that Reiki I put out..."
END OST
"Umu," Elma nodded with a satisfied look on her face. "I think that's enough for today," she nodded as she turned back to her human form. Walking over and pressing her hand to his left wrist, the Leviathan Armor shone orange as it turned into raw magic before swirling up his body and toward his hand. Her hand pulling away revealed what looked like a Dino Morpher from Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, only styled like a Lagiacrus' head. The "Leviathan Morpher" then changed into a silver bangle with a piece of jagged orange bone embedded in it, no other ornamentation present.
"Did... Did you just make me a Dino Ranger?" Takei blinked incredulously as he fingered the bangle, feeling it probing for his magic.
"I thought you'd appreciate the convenience~" Elma smiled as she unashamedly twirled the mass of spaghetti into a single mass on the end of her fork... somehow, and ate the entire thing in one bite. "Mmmmm! So good!" she cooed as she reached out and patted his head. "Who's a good boy~? You are~ Yes you aaaare~!"
"I have a good mom," Takei replied, Elma's eyes filling with tears before she discarded the bowl and lunged at him, mashing his face into her flame sacks as she babbled words of praise like a busted faucet. " . . . I know, Elma. I love you too."
Takei held her like that for ten whole minutes, and he was completely fine with it.
*AHA*
It would've been a simple matter for Elma to fly us back to Asaka-shi, but I decided since I had this kickass "Leviathan Morpher", we could take the scenic route home on my tab, with all the snacks she could eat.
Surprisingly-enough, Elma's stomach didn't rumble once the entire way home. As cheesy as it sounded when it came out of her mouth, her heart was "more than full-enough" for itself and her stomach.
In a way I was a little thankful that the Mon Squad had taken a temporary leave of absence from my life, because if my growing relationship with this Dragon OL had happened while they were still around, there'd have been some awkward questions to answer.
Not that I thought they'd push Elma away for being a legit capital-d Dragon, but if they found out their website admin was her own "Reverse Isekai Protagonist", it might change the comfortable dynamic of the relationship they'd made for one another before I came into the picture. That and it would lead to some awkward questions about how I'd been able to "get through to her" in the way I had.
And just because I had it from a reliable source that I was reincarnated by some kind of "Time God", didn't mean I wasn't completely sure if I was the original, well... me, or if I was only a copy of "the other guy" like in World Customize Creator.
While it was true that learning of Tatsuzawa's heritage had scarred me for life when my non-Autism-addled brain fed me certain... niche, images... all in all I had a great time this weekend.
And sure, my innermost in-group would harangue me incessantly for turning into more of an "Isekai Protag-kun" and a "Battle Shounen Protag-kun" and an "Blue Abaranger", but it was never done out of spite or envy. Just two girls confiding with a third person when it came to cosmic nihilism and their place in an unfeeling infinite multiverse.
Of course, if they ever caught on to the fact that Hanako was a legit magical girl who moonlit as "Yuna Springfield" with a Sailor Mars-esque transformation sequence, because our ingroups had a common bleedover into one another, that could cause its own share of problems.
Ah well. In for a penny, in for a pound. By this point I'd stopped wishing life would stay simple altogether because I knew the universe wasn't nearly that kind to grant, let alone humor me.
And at least this way I'd raise my survivability enough to actually worry about having kids someday.
But that, is a story for another day.
*AHA*
Hope you like the double-update since I hit a hot streak! I'll just reply to this and the previous chapter's Reviews next time. So until that happens...
GOTTA BLAST!