Chapter 4 - First Days at Fenrir

Fenrir Far East Branch - God Eater World - The next day after the end of the previous chapter

(Scathach's P.O.V)

You know, considering the welcome I got from both Doctor Sakaki and Director Johannes, you'd think that I'd get a similar welcome from the rest of the staff at Fenrir. Well instead, many of the god eaters and general staff here either look at me like I'm a hot piece of ass to fuck, with carefully guarded skepticism over the fact I can kill Aragami, or somewhere in between those two sets of extremes..

While the fact I constantly walk around in this body suit doesn't help with the former, I do at least know how to handle the skepticism. Unfortunately, the Contractor bonus hasn't come in yet so I'm not exactly able to purchase some new clothes to bolster my wardrobe selection.

This means that I'll have to handle being leered at like a piece of meat for a while longer, although that doesn't stop me from having an instinctual sultry smirk on my face whenever they think I don't notice the stares..

Regardless I can't help myself from sighing softly as I walk around the halls of the Far East Branch, before coming here I could have staved off the boredom by either killing Aragami or heading into the Pocket Dimension Manor to play some PS4 games.

However, with so many eyes, be they lustful, skeptical, or curious, focused on me I can't exactly disappear so easily anymore. That being said I did see Aki Tamashiro and Kota Fujiki earlier doing their first mission together, so it did give me the idea of potentially using long-term missions to make quick trips to the Pocket Dimension Manor as I wouldn't be so scrutinized that way.

Soon enough though, as I am wandering about I find myself crossing paths with Dr. Sakaki himself. "Ah Scathach, what a coincidence as I was just about go ask one of the staff to go fetch you.." Dr. Sakaki says with his usual energetic tone.

I can't help but raise an eyebrow at that and ask.. "Is there something you need from me Doctor…?" My question made Dr. Sakaki nod and he motions me to follow him. As I walk beside him, he begins to talk to me and says..

"You see, the Director and Myself have been questioned by our staff regarding your presence in the Den considering you are not a god eater.." He says, only briefly pausing to gauge my reaction, once he sees no outward response from me except for the fact I am carefully paying attention to his words, he continues talking by saying..

"As such, the Director decided to nip this little potential problem in the bud by assigning you a mission that shouldn't be hard, considering Captain Amamiya did report that you had single-handedly slain at Vajra Aragami on your own.." Dr. Sakaki's words make me think for a moment before I find myself nodding in agreement, soon responding by saying..

"That would be the quickest way to prove my skills I suppose, got a target in mind..?" I ask, to which Dr. Sakaki just chuckles before he soon responds by saying.. "Why another Vajra, however this time I intend to make this particular mission available for public viewing as the previous one had to be classified for reasons pertaining to the Aegis Project.."

While that does make me raise my eyebrows in curiosity, I find myself unwilling to pry into that right now as I've only just joined. For now, I simply respond to the choice of the target with.. "Then you can expect a repeat performance, with a dead Vajra before the day is done.." I say with a confident smirk.

"Wonderful, that should deal with most of the skeptics here in the Far East Branch although regrettably there is nothing I can do about the looks you get from the staff here.." Dr. Sakaki says, making me just give a rather unconcerned shrug.

"It's fine Doctor, if people want to stare then they're more than welcome to, so long as it never goes further.." I say, a brief tension filling the hallway as any of the staff who heard look particularly spooked at how cold the last few words from me were..

However, I soon find myself speaking up once again and say.. "However, what if the one mission isn't enough to convince the others here at the staff..?" Dr. Sakaki merely grins and simply responds with..

"Oh don't you worry about that, if the one mission alone isn't enough then the Director is willing to send you on another with perhaps a more challenging pray to finally quell the skepticism although I do hope it doesn't come to that…" I think for a moment before finally nodding, seeing no issue with the good doctor's words.

Seeing I have no further questions, Dr. Sakaki leads us to the Elevator that will take us to the operations room. However, once we're in the Elevator he does speak up one last time, soon saying..

"Now I hope you don't see this as an insult Ms. Scathach, but we've taken the liberty to assign you some support in the form of Soma Schicksal and Lindow Amamiya who will merely keep an eye on you to ensure no issues arise as well as be there to harvest materials from the Vajra…"

This I have absolutely no problems with, so I just give a nod in affirmation to Doctor Sakaki who grins. "Wonderful, both I and the Director will see you off since we are admittedly putting our own reputations on the line to vouch for you.."

At first, Doctor Sakaki's words confuse me, but then I remember the fact that the Far East Branch is not the Heart of Fenrir itself despite how much of two different God Eater games take place here.

It is a Branch at the end of the day..

"Like I said earlier Doctor, you won't have to worry about that.." I say, fully confident that the mission will go smoothly. He smiles and nods enthusiastically as the Elevator brings us to the Operations room at last.

As the two of us walk forward, I see Director Johannes talking to both Lindow Amamiya and Soma Schicksal. Upon coming closer, the Director notices me and Doctor Sakaki approaching and turns around with a smile on his face, soon saying..

"Ah you're here, that's wonderful.." Only briefly pausing to glance at Dr. Sakaki before focusing attention on me once more and saying.. "I take it Dr. Sakaki has informed you of the mission that we'd like you to perform..?"

I simply nod in affirmation and he smiles as he gestures to both God Eaters behind him and says.. "Then I look forward to your successful mission ahead.." He smiles and walks down the stairs with Dr. Sakaki following him.

Lindow smirks and says.. "Figures we'd get given the task of keeping an eye on you, although to be fair you are quite the pleasant sight for the eyes if I may say~" This makes both me and Soma eye-roll at his words.

"Hmph, if you're done trying to flirt with what may be currently the second most dangerous woman in the den right now, we should get going.." Soma says, making Lindow turn to Soma and ask..

"And who would be the most dangerous right now..?" Lindow can't help but ask, however, suddenly his ear is pulled out of nowhere as he's staring into the annoyed eyes of his sister Tsubaki Amamiya.

"That would be me my dear brother.." She says sternly as Lindow can't help but look at his sister with a slightly sheepish grin. "Relax, you know how I am out on mission.." Lindow says before Tsubaki sighs and lets go of Lindow before saying..

"That I do, however, I will be letting Sakuya know of your words when she returns from her mission.." Her words made Lindow flinch before nodding before he tries to gently push me and Soma out so we can start the mission already, much to me and Soma's shared annoyance at being touched so brazenly.

Meanwhile - Director's Office

(General P.O.V)

"I must say I am looking forward to the results of Ms. Scathach's mission, just think of all the data we could get from the one mission alone, why with her assistance we could have a way to potentially fight Aragami without having to rely solely on the power of the God Arcs and their wielders.." Dr. Sakaki says, positively excited to find out how the mission goes…

Director Johannes nods while responding with.. "It will also allow us to get more of a general idea of Scathach's capabilities and perhaps even see more of those spears she is said to wield.." The Director not even hiding the fact he is immensely curious as to the twin spears that seemingly to be named after the famed Gae Bolg.

"Not to mention the clearly supernatural elements that those spears seem to possess if the reports are to be believed.." Says Doctor Sakaki, while he is a man of science, he can't deny a child-like wonder at the prospect of magic potentially existing..

"Indeed, although if that is true, it would serve us well to ensure that Ms. Scathach isn't alienated in any way by the members of Fenrir as she could be the key to potentially figuring out the origin of the Aragami.." Director Johannes says, although internally he isn't yet fully believing that Scathach's spears are Supernatural without further evidence..

"Still, the fact remains that it is imperative that we learn more about the mystery that is the woman known as Scathach.." Director Johannes says with Doctor Sakaki nodding in agreement, now all the two can really do right now is wait for the results of the mission..

Somewhere in the Far East Sector - an hour later

(Scathach's P.O.V)

"Well would you look at that, that didn't take us too long.." Lindow says while the three of us look down at a resting Vajra, having sighted the Aragami in the middle of a large ring section of ruins. The locale looks ominously familiar but my memories of areas from the first two games are still particularly spotty despite having lived in such environments for several days before heading to Fenrir..

"Indeed, I'll see you boys shortly~" I say before suddenly leaping off of the cliff face we were watching the Vajra on, catching the Aragami's attention as I unveil my twin spears once more. I land in front of it with a confident smirk as it roars before trying to leap at me, making me jump away before using a small piece of rubble to rebound back toward the Vajra and throw one of my spears right into its forehead.

As it roars in pain, I briefly land before the Aragami before jumping up and landing onto the shaft of the spear I lodged in its forehead. I then twirl the remaining spear in my grasp and thrust downwards, right where the brain would be if this were not an Aragami.

However much to my own surprise, that's enough to finally kill the Vajra. "Wow, I think that was just as quick as how you did it with the fancy trick last time!" Lindow says, shouting over to me as I pull free my spears from the Aragami corpse.

"Lindow, this kill felt a bit too easy.." I say as I jump off the dead Vajra and go to inspect the corpse closely. As I hear both Soma and Lindow talking, I gently move some of the furs of the Vajra, and my eyes widen when I see that this particular Vajra has been heavily wounded already..

Acting on a hunch, I activate my clairvoyance and what I see shocks me right out of the clairvoyance, quickly scanning the area before shouting at the two God Eaters with.. "There is an Ouroboros nearby!"

Soma and Lindow look shocked at my declaration but an immediate call from Operator Takeda back at base notifies them of the Ouroboros heading our way. Lindow curses his luck while Soma is shaking slightly as he grips his God Arc especially tight, all while I rush away from the corpse and briefly activate clairvoyance again to figure out where it will be coming from.

Seeing it's coming from the left side, I decide to forgo subtlety with my skills and use one of my twin spears to line the entire passage with Ainz Rune Mines before turning to the shocked God Eaters.

"Look, there is no time to explain, but I need you to trust me to handle this.." I say, my words serving to snap Lindow out of his shock and he looks at me angrily before saying.. "Are you out of your mind, the Vajra is one thing but this is an Ouroboros and there is no way I'm -" Lindow say but is interrupted by Soma holding a hand to stop Lindow's tirade before he looks right at me..

"Do you honestly believe you can beat it..?" Soma asks, staring me down for any sense of doubt. I just simply nod and Soma sighs before he looks at Lindow and says.. "Look, let's head back up the cliff face while we have time, that way we can keep an eye out for any other Aragami.."

Lindow looks at Soma and then at me before finally sighing and simply saying to me.. "You have one order then, survive..". I nod and watch as the two make their way up the cliff face before finally hearing the lumbering steps of an Ouroboros Aragami, the incredibly large Aragami slowly moving forward into sight as I stare into its many red eyes.

Those same red eyes spot me and I get into a battle stance as it slowly lumbers toward me, unaware of the runes lining the pass between me and it. It's only when the bulk of the Ouroboros finally is over the mines do I remotely detonate the Ainz rune mines, its body quickly being coated in flames as it roars in pain.

It suddenly burrows its tendrils into the ground and it's only through pure battle instinct that I manage to jump away in time to avoid being skewered by a sudden attack from below, leaping from spot to spot to avoid rapid underground strikes.

Eventually, it does retract its tendrils, thus allowing me a chance at a counterattack which I take full advantage of as I decide to rush at the Ouroboros with my twin spears ready. It roars as it tries to slam my body with its arms, however, I go from sprinting to moving into a sliding motion and narrowly duck under the Arms as they fly past me.

While still in the combat slide, I activate the power of the first of my twin spears and throw it, getting a direct hit and sending the Ouroboros flying. I then activate the second spear, getting ready to throw it as I unleash the power of my Noble Phantasm before shouting.. "Here is the proof of my survival, GAE BOLG ALTERNATIVE!" right before throwing the other spear with as much power I can pour into the attack.

There is a bright flash of red as the second spear collides with Ouroboros, the Aragami going deathly still as it falls from the sky. It crashes down loudly as both Soma and Lindow watch on in amazement, with Lindow being the quickest to recover from his shock and soon says.. "Whelp, if the guys back at the Den are still skeptics after this, then I dunno what will change their minds…"

Lindow jumps down to go and walks toward me with a grin while Soma is just stunned at the display he's witnessed. "Damn well aren't you a perfect combination of sexy, beautiful, and dangerous all in a nice tight package.." Lindow says while shaking his head, grinning in excitement at seeing the corpses of both a Vajra and an Ouroboros..

I can't help but chuckle and simply respond with.. "While I do enjoy the flattery, I believe you have the task of harvesting all this..?" while gesturing at the corpses, which he nods at but not before saying..

"Indeed, it's a shame you aren't an official part of Fenrir or I'd be asking to have you on my team all the time.." Lindow says before turning back to Soma and frowning, the white-haired God eater still stunned..

"Soma, you there buddy..?" Lindow asks as Soma finally snaps out of his daze before returning to his more aloof expression and replying.. "I'm fine, you go ahead and make the salvage while I call it in considering what just happened.."

Lindow nods and gets to work on using his God Arc to devour the corpses for materials while Soma gets into contact with the Den to give them the news. As for me, I decided to slink off while the two are quite busy dealing with the result of my work.

While I refrain from wandering overly far, there is a fair bit of distance between the two and me which is perfect for what I intend to do. Recalling that while I don't have Deep Weave yet for my Shroud of Power, I can still use the power of the element of shadow to empower me.

Something I am keen to test as I let my Shroud of Power fully manifest, a thick aura of shadows and darkness flowing outwards from my body as I imbued myself with that same power to drastically increase my speed, strength, and durability.

One thing I do note is that the aura does strongly resemble using the power of darkness from kingdom hearts, wondering if that's mostly my own personal preferences flavoring the aesthetics or a holdover from the Shroud being in Xigbar's possession while I was slumbering before being given to me..

While I could have done this back at the Den, I wasn't sure how many eyes were watching so the shroud is mostly just a trump card in the event something unexpected happens. I let the shroud of power fade from sight before heading back to Soma and Lindow, who are still busy with salvaging the corpses.

"Hey Scathach, where did you head off to..?" Lindow says as he sees me approaching. I shrug and simply respond with.. "Just wanted to take a look around is all, nothing more.." which also makes Lindow shrug before he and Soma finally finish the salvage work.

As we head back to the Far East Branch, I can't help feeling that I've forgotten something..

Fenrir Far East Branch - An Hour Later

(Scathach's P.O.V)

Oh yea, I forgot killing an Ouroboros was a particularly big achievement for a squad, doubly so for doing it solo. For you see, the moment we returned, a fairly large amount of God Eaters that were off-duty were cheering and welcoming us back, or more specifically me as just like Doctor Sakaki said as this was going to be publically known.

Then again no one was expecting me to suddenly have to tackle an Ouroboros, just simply repeat the feat of dealing with a Vajra and that'd be that. As such both Doctor Sakaki and Director Johannes approach the three of us and soon the director himself speaks up and says..

"Welcome back you three, I am quite pleased to see that you have exceeded the expectations set by the mission parameters Scathach, and have returned with a bounty greater than we had hoped…" Smiling while the engineers all work to take the Ouroboros core from both Lindow and Soma carefully.

"Indeed, plus your abilities are quite fascinating if I may so myself Scathach, it's really a shame you aren't officially a part of Fenrir, but so long as you continue killing Aragami like this I'm quite sure you won't have to worry about running out of work!" Doctor Sakaki says while smiling, internally brimming with excitement and curiosity with his belief of what he thinks is me using magic is confirmed.

While Johannes himself is also quite excited, it is tempered by the fact that the magic is solely used by the woman before him alone. While he is hopeful she can potentially teach this power to humanity at large, he is also internally fearful that her abilities are entirely bloodline based..

Should it be the latter, he will need to find a solution for that. He only hopes that he doesn't have to take drastic measures to ensure that in the event that the latter possibility is the case, Scathach will not be the last human who can use magic..

Meanwhile, I am more concerned with trying to head back to my room, the crowd of God Eaters all trying to talk to me as I do make an effort to have at least some polite but brief conversations while I simply just want to relax for now..

By the time I do get there, I notice that the door knob is warm as if someone has opened the door very recently. When I finally open the door my eyes widen as I am treated to an unexpected sight before me…

"Hey there girlie, boy do I have an offer for you…" Says Xigbar as he is sitting on the couch of my room, smirking at me while enjoying my surprised expression.

Something tells me that this will be quite an enlightening conversation indeed..

Author's Note

At last, the first chapter of 2023!

Let's get the main points out of the way

Originally the plan was to have Scathach talk to the various members of the Den. However, after talking with some of my readers, I realized that Scathach being brought into Fenrir was abit too smooth, so I had to rectify that in a way that would allow her to quell any skepticism regarding her place in Fenrir.

And while the original plan to do that was just to have her deal with another Vajra again, it felt too easy. So I decided to throw in an unexpected surprise in the form of the Ouroboros Aragami.

While Scathach does kill it and gain a fair amount of praise for it, it also required her to actually use her Rune magecraft to ambush the Ouroboros which was subsequently reported.

This, however, also means that Johannes is now having to internally consider exactly how to ensure that Scathach doesn't end up the last human to use magic and is seen as particularly conflicted as to how to go about that.

As for the Scathach VS Lindow Fight, I figured I could push that for another chapter as more of a bonding exercise.

The Talk Between Dr. Sakaki and Director Johannes.

This was mostly to show that there was more to the mission than simply trying to get Scathach's reputation up to par but also to see what she's capable of. The display of this chapter, like I said before it has put Director Johannes in a morally conflicted position mentally as he now has to consider the possibility that Scathach's abilities are tied by blood.

Only time will tell if Scathach will try to teach Magecraft to anyone in the den because if she doesn't Johannes may get the incorrect impression that they are bloodline tied..

Xigbar appearing at the end of the chapter

While I won't spoil anything for the next chapter, let's just say his offer, if accepted, will lead to Scathach leaving GE early for a while..

So, Next time on Wrapped in Shadows: Xigbar's Offer, Main Cast Reaction to Scathach's Ouroboros Kill, and Scathach returns to the PD manor.

See you all early Next Week, Take care everyone!