I'm fighting the evil mega-corps and secret villains of this world, but hooking up the MC with his harem is the real challenge! 7 (Overpowered Isekai CYOA / Gakuen Toshi Asterisk)
"If it's that dangerous then you're going to need more than that suit and your fancy gadgets. You're going to need my help."
Lucas let out a sigh, his expression seemingly resigned.
"You're not going to let me go alone, are you?"
"Nope."
"My assistant just found out that Galaxy hired their preferred killers by the inane name of "the Anglicism the Night Emits"... fucking chuunis, aka the Yabuki clan. This is your last chance to back out if you want to get back home unscathed." He sounded genuinely concerned for her in a way that no one else in recent memory had.
"Thanks for worrying about me, but I am the runner-up of the Lindvolus, you know?"
Despite being aware of the danger that particular IEF asset posed she still wanted to help him.
There was also the matter of his unnamed assistant providing him support from the shadows. Sylvia didn't know who his assistant was but whoever could pull up information on her mentor, Ursula, whereabouts and this kind of information in seconds is someone she really would like to meet and show her gratitude in-person.
With how much headway she had just made into finding Ursula, she couldn't help but feel in-debted to both Lucas and his assistant, and wanted to make sure he came out of this alive.
"I suppose you are." Lucas replied with a wry smile, then spoke his words into the wind.
"Orianne, update us."
"Will do boss."
"Heh!?"
Sylvia whirled around and found herself looking at a blonde young woman whose back was facing her, the woman turned around to reveal a stunningly beautiful face.
"Who are… you're Lucas's assistant. When did you get here?" Sylvia, who had long mastered the art of stealth (self-proclaimed), was shocked by the woman's presence that had eluded her senses.
"I've always been here." 'Orianne' smirked back at her.
"That doesn't explain anything." Sylvia muttered.
"Of course it doesn't." Lucas answered her then continued on, "That was her intention, I would have done the same in her position if I wasn't so pressed for time." He gave the newcomer a pointed look, receiving a raised eyebrow from the woman in return.
"They were specifically ordered to leave behind a body and so long as a finger's left then it'll be fine. Besides, you already have enough DNA for your Plan B."
There was a lack of urgency in Orianne's words which seemed to inflame Lucas's anger.
"That's… no, I'm the one that actually knows Claudia, not you. I suppose that would be your normal reaction." The words he was about to speak in anger seemingly died in his mouth, and in its place, came words in a measured tone.
Orianne looked apologetic and regretful as she grasped his words, Sylvia instantly knew that their relationship was such that this was an issue between the two of them, even if she didn't know what it was.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off that way. I'm just saying that you should have more faith in Claudia, she wouldn't get herself killed that quickly."
The pair smiled at that.
"Yeah, you're right. Claudia's too stubborn to die so easily. You're forgiven."
Sylvia thought that their interaction seemed like an anti-climatic resolution to a conflict in a particular drama series but figured that she couldn't really judge them since she didn't know them that well.
Lucas had Orianne bring up a map and a recent image of Claudia's room that looked completely ransacked, with marks and blood on the ground that showed a fight certainly took place there.
Orianne looked towards Lucas for a bit, then to Sylvia's direction and back again.
Lucas nodded, as if giving her permission.
"Okay then. Our robots sensors were disrupted when the Yabuki clan used a magic barrier that seemed to block out sound and electromagnetic waves around the girl's dormitory-"
Wait what? Robots? Well, she supposed she shouldn't be surprised by how much resources he had access to given his variety of technologies.
"-The mana sensors didn't detect anything amiss because those techniques hardly used any mana or prana at all. As such, unlike the abilities of those speshul Genestella's, they were all but impossible to sense. It would be interesting to replicate such effects later if we get the chance, but I digress. When a few of the other sensors were disrupted by the ninja wizards our robots rushed in to help, I managed to take over the fight for Claudia long enough for her to get away before the reinforcements arrived, where our robots were destroyed and our nanomachines activated and ate all the remains as planned, so our tracks our covered."
Nanomachines?! Are they home-made too? The sales revenue for his video game business has got to be insane! Sylvia really started to question what kind of research budget he was on and if he wasn't actually, at the very least, a researcher on retainer for Arlequint Academy.
"Glad that my idea of placing guards paid off."
"Yes, but if you didn't pull back so many and had more combat-able ones on standby all because the girl you liked said "pretty please respect muh privacy" then we could have put a stop to all this already."
"Doh!" Lucas went from self-satisfied to slapping his palm on his forehead.
"Where exactly is she now?" Sylvia asked, trying to get them back on track.
She would have suggested her own abilities to attempt to locate Claudia, but it didn't guarantee that she would find her. Not only that, but the extent to which she had to narrow down the range given the current information would still cost large amounts of mana, it didn't help that Claudia was likely constantly on the move, so any information she could get would be of minimal use.
"That's a bit of a toughie." Orianne grimaced, "Claudia has avoided all the cameras and because we don't have other robots on campus," Orianne gave Lucas a look, "I am unable to have access to their sensors to track her down. That said, there's no way they'll let her escape into the city. Even Galaxy would have a hard time hushing it up if anything happened out in public- wait, just a sec."
A map of Seidoukan Academy was brought up with various areas highlighted in different colors. "-The school's harbor block just turned into another electromagnetic deadzone so it's highly likely they'll be forcing her to that area given they have a barrier set up there. But..."
"We don't know for sure if she will be forced into the trap."
"Yeah, for all I know, she might find her way into the ballast area. If we wait for a bit then I can confirm whether she flees there or not."
Lucas nodded seriously, "Makes sense. We can get around town quickly enough after all. Thanks Orianne... Oh right, we'll need alibis."
"I will use the units available to me. Miss Lyyneheym, may I have the right to use your appearance for an hour or two?"
"Huh? Why?"
Lucas answered her question in Orianne's stead, "We have nanomachine models that can take on the appearances of others. In other words, there'll be a Lucas Meyer running around somewhere in town in a visible manner while we're out there."
Sylvia grinned as she understood what he was getting at, though she was rather perturbed by their suspiciously placed assets, "And you want there to be a 'Sylvia' out there too. Ah, but my fans-"
Orianne cut her off, seemingly knowing her concerns before she voiced them out.
"I can use your public appearances as reference to make sure the movements are consistent, as for actions, I'll keep 'you' running about in search of 'privacy' and won't talk to anyone."
This day has been extraordinary enough and she felt she could trust them so Sylvia simply accepted their word for it.
"Go right ahead then."
"Also, We should put these on." Lucas took out two folded black pieces of clothing hidden underneath his jacket, as if he was prepared for such occasions, and unfurled them to reveal identical black robes. "These will adjust to our sizes and make us invisible to surveillance devices, don't ask how."
Sylvia made a note to check if he took custom orders after this crisis was dealt with. She would certainly like some of her clothes to have such properties, it would make her outings much more convenient.
"You wouldn't happen to have a spare Lux with you too? I left mine in my dressing room."
He spared a few seconds to think before shrugging and tossing her an oddly-shaped Lux from yet another pocket in his jacket. She caught it with one hand and began to get a feel for it.
"Eh, guess I won't be using my lightsabers in public then."
Keeping it facing away from her, she pressed what seemed to be the trigger and ignited a bright purple blade of energy!
Something about this Lux was just different, her gut feeling told her as such.
She focused her senses and found that there wasn't any mana in the blade at all! Normally, a Lux could be overcharged with the user's own mana to perform 'Meteor Arts', which were more common for ranged weapons, but that would only work if the ammunition or blade of the weapon had a strong mana composition to begin with.
This blade was simply powered by a Manadyte core, yet it wasn't composed of mana like other weapons-
"Head's up."
Sylvia swung the blade absent-mindedly at the thick piece of debris from the unfinished building they were on, intending to simply knock it away only for the blade to burn right through it like a hot knife to butter.
She didn't even feel the slightest bit of resistance through the massless blade when it made contact with the material.
"Pure plasma in a containment field."
"It's strong."
"And deadly. Cut someone's arm off with that and it will immediately cauterize that part. Stab someone through the torso and you'll be cooking their internal organs, blood vessels and giving them massive internal trauma among other problems."
Terrifyingly strong. She was used to receiving blunt force attacks, cutting blows and various other abilities. Her concentrated prana defense would allow her to block such attacks at a high cost too, but even she doubted she could withstand an attack from this weapon if she didn't move again quickly or dodged it outright.
"Oh, you can adjust the power setting with that dial over there."
She turned it around and saw that there was a tiny label in English around the minimal power setting that read "probably not lethal, around Mustafar level of burns".
"I might just stick to CQC."
She watched as he ignited his own, double-bladed red-colored version of the Lux, as if testing it for a reaction.
"Keep it with you anyways. But if you feel anything… odd, then let me know immediately."
"It's not defective is it?"
"It works just fine. But it's a prototype and… well, let's just say the core is made out of a new type of Urm-Manadyte."
"Excuse me?"
"While the plasma technology isn't anywhere close to that of the tech used for Orga Lux esoteric abilities, as low risk as it already is, those kinds of cores have been known to dislike Strega's."
"I'll keep that in mind."
They put on their robes as Orianne went into detail on the most optimal route to the harbor block from their current location.
"And what if we flew our way there?"
"You'll cut down a lot of time. I'll be able to alter any footage so it should be fine."
Sylvia watched as she quickly calculated and presented a new route for them.
"Orianne?"
"Hmm?"
"Before I forget, I wanted to thank you for everything. Whenever I can make time, I go out looking for Ursula and the redevelopment area has always been the most likely place to look but I haven't had any luck until now. So thank you, for giving me hope."
The blonde woman seemed to blush, as if not expecting an honest compliment.
"... It was nothing much."
Lucas stared at Orianne and muttered something under his breath, "-that how I look like from the outside?"
"Did you say something?" Sylvia's question to him received a mere shake of his head.
"No. It was nothing. Oh yeah, why did you say this was the most likely place to look again?
"Ursula had taken part in the Eclipse."
"Ah, the illegal death tournament that always takes place in seedy areas. Gotcha."
Orianne cut in at that point, "I'll look into that for you two. Now, Claudia had just been caught on camera, I can confirm that she's heading towards the harbor block now."
"Okay. I'll be turning off the isolation field before heading off. Sylvia, you want to get there on foot or the fun way?"
"The fun way is the faster way right?"
"Yep."
She gave him an amused smile, "I'll take you up on that then."
Just as she said those words her mobile began to ring.
Taking it out of her pocket, she froze at the caller's name.
It was Petra Kivilehto the Chairman of Queenvail Girls' Academy, her manager and an executive of W&W, the IEF backing them.
Sylvia's shoulders slumped as she realized the implications.
This wasn't the first time that she had wanted to help someone and was immediately told to back down. She could still remember Petra looking at her with a blank expression as she reminded her of the consequences of interfering.
"Ah… I already told you not to interfere with this, Sylvia. You might be the world's most popular songstress, but you understand that even that won't help you if you go up against the wishes of W&W, don't you? Not even I would be able to protect you then."
"I-I know…"
"Then take my advice."
"But still, the wishes of the foundation…?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"Nothing. I'm just a little disappointed."
"They're as self-serving as you could get, every one of them…"
She cursed them all under her breath.
"You're still young, Sylvia. It isn't just the integrated enterprise foundations. As soon as people find a way to better benefit themselves, they all become self-serving. It's only natural. And in this world, that isn't considered wrong."
"I don't know… Not me, at least,"
She would murmur such words under her breath as if trying to convince herself.
The life of Seidoukan's student council president was now in danger because of the will of an IEF. Not only that, it was obvious that the other foundations could easily step in, but would prefer to stand aside and watch them kill her in silence. She didn't even need any hints to guess their expected reaction, in her line of work, she has only ever seen the bad sides of people.
She couldn't help but wish ill upon the whole lot.
In the end, every student at Asterisk was no more than a pawn for the integrated enterprise foundations to profit off of. Even students like herself, who were afforded more liberties than most others, were simply granted a slightly larger cage from which they couldn't escape.
The ringing noise came to a stop as she felt a warmth descend upon her open palm and the sound of something being crushed into pieces.
"You can still go back to your room and complain out loud about how an unknown assailant cornered and destroyed your mobile as you tried to call for help. There's no shame in that. On the other hand, you can still say all that later on after this all plays out while following your heart."
She knew that Lucas had just given her yet another way to get out of this situation.
Yet… for once in her life, she wanted to stand up, fight and stick it to those bastards that think they can get away with whatever they wanted.
Sylvia and Petra, or technically, the integrated enterprise foundation W&W, had a contractual relationship. Sylvia's goal was, it went without saying, to locate Ursula, and while W&W would monitor any actions that she undertook to that end, they would neither interfere nor cooperate. In exchange, she worked for Queenvale as a songstress, both promoting the school and producing considerable income for it.
In the end, they weren't much help to her anyways compared to Lucas and Orianne. This seemed like a good opportunity to collect on what she was owed, whether they like it or not.
"... Thank you."
"Hmm?"
"For giving me a chance to do what I really want."
"... Always the hard way with you girls…"
She found his exasperation amusing, and in a way, cute.
"Ah, I want a replacement on my mobile. I have important stuff on it you know."
He froze on the spot and stared at her for two seconds before reaching into his jacket.
"Ta-da."
"Eh!?"
Her mobile was intact!
"It was a sleight of hand. I actually crushed my own mobile just then and turned yours off. You know, theatrics to make your whole "at the crossroads" moment more impactful."
Sylvia smiled. He was kinda goofy, but really considerately so.
"Hehe, thanks."
She pocketed her mobile and tucked it into the robe's hidden pocket.
"Alright, see you Orianne. Sylvia, get on."
Following his instructions she latched onto him and immediately found herself holding on for her own safety.
"Wah, we're flying!"
"I know right?!"
Rocket boots were really, really fun. She wanted a pair for herself now.
The ride, however, was a lot shorter than expected due to the speed of travel.
They landed in the harbor block, quickly triggering the barrier set-up by the assassins, a glance from the top showed that they consisted of what looked like the Yabuki clan (in their very ninja-like garb), Seidoukan's intelligence agency Shadowstar (in black robes, which were a lot lamer than their own) and what looked like a couple of other professional hitmen.
"Claudia's still avoiding the camera's?"
"She really doesn't like making it easy for me. That girl…"
After that short exchange they quickly started taking down anyone that came their way as they tried to find Claudia.
The vast majority of those they fought could be taken out easily. Outside of their stealth capabilities, their actual combat level wasn't anything to write home about.
The few "Kinoes", those supposed elite ninjas, were a few steps above the rest but even they took only about 15 seconds each to take down.
Then they started getting back up.
"Goddamn it. They brought healers. Always got to shoot the healers first." Lucas growled out.
"Hmm, can you find them?" Sylvia asked.
"Yeah, they're the idiots not covering their head."
"They kept us stalled long enough. You take care of them and I'll handle the rest okay? You should get to Claudia."
"Got it."
As if he had been anticipating that plan of action, he quickly dashed right past the enemies that surrounded them and disabled their healers quickly. Some of the group began to panic and immediately started to sound orders of a tactical retreat, it seemed as though the healers were valued a lot more highly than the continuity of their mission.
… Or perhaps their mission was already over?
With the way Sylvia was fighting the only person that could take her down would be the Yabuki clan head, thankfully, Orianne had just caught sight of him and Claudia… and Sylvia finally gave me an opportunity to get out of her watchful eye.
I would normally consider breaking cover a lot earlier, damn the consequences, if it weren't for the fact that I could still sense that Claudia still lived.
This was because I had been keeping a tightly bound, duplicated bundle of Claudia's hair with me and had been spamming my Resurrect power on it the whole time I've been talking with Sylvia. So long as I would receive a response that indicated that I couldn't revive her then I could be rest assured that Claudia was alive.
"Aaaaagh!"
The moment I heard her scream of agony I rushed forth I reinforced my body and rushed right through the metal containers in my way instead of going around them.
"I think I understand why my masters ordered me to take care of you. Your knowledge runs too deep, as if you're peering into our-." I didn't let the old man standing over her finish what he was saying before bringing down my lightsaber on him.
"Au-oh…!"
Deactivating my lightsaber, I jabbed him with a syringe of nanomachines then kicked him all the way out of the harbor and into the sea. The last rational part of me demanded that I made him pay… but by serving me in life, leading me back to his home where I can take all his secrets instead of killing him now.
"FATHER!"
Two voices, one male and one female, called out at the same time.
I merely glared at the two ninjas and said, "Leave us. Mayhaps your father will still be alive."
The two looked at each other with conflicted expressions, the female one attempted to draw her blade only for the male ninja to betray her and knock her out.
"... I can't stop you, I don't know who you are but… you're not here to kill Prez, are you?"
It was at this point that Claudia managed to muster enough strength to say something.
"Ah…! I've been waiting for you…"
Claudia's jubilant smile was covered in mud and blood.
My heart was feeling the exact opposite.
The male ninja was momentarily stunned by her reaction, but then seemed to understand what was happening, took her sister and left us in search of his father.
I activated my isolation barrier and knelt down to her.
Taking off my hood, I gently caressed her broken body. I wanted to remove the blades that had pierced her hands, feet and her torso but that would only accelerate her death.
"Claudia… why…?"
I was being irrational. I was being an idiot. I knew I was. I could bring her back. I shouldn't need to feel this broken up about it. But I felt like my heart was breaking just seeing her like this.
"Lucas… ah, I'm glad…" Claudia stretched out her hand weakly in order to brush the tears staining my cheek away.
"You idiot! What possessed you to go this far?! Are you suicidal? Why! Damn it, why did you choose to die like this and leave me?!"
Even if I put her into stasis now it would take her months to recover in the Regeneration Matrix I had, especially when I had yet to tailor it for Genestella's. As selfish and as stupid as it was I would rather just bring her back at full health instead of spending a long time without her by my side.
"Ah… sorry, Lucas… please don't scold me… I guess it's no good, I wanted to help… I managed to get away with lots of their plans… it's in the hidden pocket, underneath my skirt...haha…" Despite her situation she wore an expression of contentment I've only ever seen when we cuddled together for long periods of time, "I'm… it was selfish of me… But finally… I was able to reach this point in time."
"Claudia! I didn't… I don't want any of that if it meant you getting hurt for my sake. You know me! I could have done it all myself, if… if I just stopped-"
Stopped caring about things like my conscience and the wellbeing of others.
"I never wanted… you to stop caring. It was this you… that I fell in love with. Right… You probably don't know…just how long I've been waiting for this… For this moment…that I saw in my dreams…" She was growing weaker by the moment, her voice hoarse.
"Ah… I'm so happy, Lucas… To me, this… This wonderful moment… No matter how much time passes… This feeling… Forever…"
Her hand fell silently to the ground.
It wasn't like the time when I held a crying stranger, a little girl in my arms, and gave her one of my lives so that she could live again. Back then, it was just pity and a bit of anticipation to test my powers over life for the first time.
But this felt cold, a numbing cold that only gave way when I remembered the unnatural power I had over who lived and who died.
"You stupid girl… why did I fall in love with someone as silly as you?"
I felt Sylvia intruding into the isolation barrier.
"Hey Lucas, everyone retreated and… ah- I-I'm so sorry."
I looked back at Sylvia and smiled slightly.
"It's alright. I'll bring her back."
"W-what, what are you talking about?"
"Let's meet up again Sylvia. Next week maybe? I'll bring Claudia along so we can discuss our next steps."
"Lucas…"
"It's alright. She'll be just fine. Even if I didn't have this power I would… I will have found a way to tear open the gates of tartarus and take back her soul myself."
"I don't understand."
"I know. But you will."
I collected Claudia's weapons and carried her body with my other arm, then willed a portal into existence.
"Keep the equipment. Consider it a gift."
"Wh-"
Not letting her finish I stepped right through the portal into my home in another world.
Stripping the dirty clothes and various items over Claudia's body, I used my gadget to clean her body up then duplicated some nice pajamas onto her body. Laying her down onto the bed, I allowed my power to activate and brought her back to live.
Claudia opened her eyes in mere minutes.
"Where…am I?" she asked, her eyelids opening slowly.
"Definitely not heaven. Suicide doesn't count."
A smile rose to Claudia's lips as she tilted her neck toward me.
"I know that much. With everything I've done, I'm destined for hell, not heaven."
"I guess your head must be working right if you can still say stupid things like that." I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't know I held up till now, while I knew the process wouldn't go wrong I was still irrationally worried over her…
Gods, I have it bad.
Holding her hands tightly, I said, "Don't you know how I feel about you denigrating yourself like that?"
I felt her stiffening slightly and caught the guilty look on her face.
"I'm sorry."
I kept hold of her hands together and lifted them, pressing our hands over my forehead, covering my face as I tried not to let my emotions show.
I wanted to shout at her. I wanted to hug her. I wanted to slap her. I wanted to kiss her and tell her that everything was alright.
"You should be."
"I-I know. I truly am. I'm sorry for being a selfish girl."
"... Took you long enough to admit it."
"A bit too long. Perhaps. Lucas… where are we?"
"In my penthouse, in another world."
"Another world… ah, I had a feeling it was something like that. So I didn't die?"
"You did. I just brought you back."
She searched my face as if to find a lie, and found none.
"Ha...hahahaha! You… I don't know whether to laugh or cry. This is either a blessing or the most cruel joke played on me."
"Claudia. Tell me what's wrong. I think we've reached the point where we shouldn't dodge each others questions."
"You're right. You have been nothing but honest with me, and now, you're telling me everything. It sounds so ridiculous but I know it's true, even if it's the first time I heard it before, when I search my feelings I just know it to be true."
She stuck out her tongue at my raised eyebrow, in the end, we both chuckled at her choice of lines.
"Have you ever experienced death?" She asked abruptly.
"Twice. I was ambushed once by an alien god, then resurrected somewhere close by. The other time was more deliberate since I needed to commit suicide to take advantage of a Curse Escape Clause."
"It hurt… right?"
"Yeah. It did."
"You… you understand. In my case, I've already died over twelve hundred times."
"Excuse me what the fuck?"
Amused by my reaction, Claudia pointed at the Pan-Dora laid across the room. "The cost that my cruel little darling demands of the wielder is to experience one's own death. Every time I fall asleep, I dream of my inevitable demise."
She said it casually enough, but I knew the pain that laid behind that look.
"Now, it never shows you the same death twice. My little one's mischievous that way. I'm amazed at all the different ways a person can die. Illness, accident, starvation, cold, suicide, and of course, death by the hands of another. My enemies, my friends, my family... All of these I could face one day."
"How the fuck are you even functioning properly? Wait, right, heroine levels of willpower. I knew you were special Claudia, I just hoped it wasn't this kind of special if it meant you would have to go through all this shit!"
"Hee hee, but if I didn't go through all that, I wouldn't have met you."
"Claudia Enfield…"
"Don't do that. You sound like my parents."
"You'll be doing the same thing if you were angry at me so we'll both get used to it."
"... haha, I suppose so..." She sighed in defeat when I continued to stare at her, awaiting an answer. "Very well. I can't say that you don't deserve an explanation. But you must have already realized it? That dying today, there, that was my one true wish." Claudia's voice rang with disappointment.
"Congratulations. You fucking got it. Don't expect me to let you go through that again."
As she had guessed, I had already realized it. Before that I already had an inkling that she was suicidally obsessed with her wish, however, I just didn't think that dying was the wish itself.
"Let me guess. From the records I've gotten from when you received Pan-Dora… you were a child then, you had nightmares every night, it hurt like hell and life started to feel like utter shit. After all, what's the point of living if you know you're just going to die painfully in the end, right? What's the point of being either good or evil if you're going to meet the same end? Why try to fight your inevitable death that will surely be hastened by the IEF's and various factions in the world? Even if you lived a long happy ever after while protecting yourself and all that you cared about… even that feels like ash because of what that THING has done to you, what it has made you feel... doesn't it?!"
My hate for that piece of shit weapon rose to a new level.
Oh, I was going to enjoy breaking it.
Claudia looked at me with a stunned expression, "You… you were always so smart. So brave, driven and smart… yes, you understand my feelings correctly. No matter how much you fight it, everyone dies one day. No matter how happy a life you might live, in the end, it doesn't add up to anything. There's no changing that. I came to realize, not through words or logic, but with my body, that it isn't how you live that's most important. It's how you die."
I was going to insert my rebuttal to that but I waited as she looked like she wanted to continue.
"And then, one night, I met you, Lucas...The Pan-Dora introduced us, in my dreams."
"That's why you knew me before I even met you. That's why you brought me to you."
Claudia opened her eyes, her expression a mixture of sadness and embarrassment. "My hero, leaping into danger to protect me, fighting to save my life… always being there at my side. But in the dream, I still ended up dying." Her moist eyes were staring into my own. "I'd been waiting for you, ever since I had that dream. Yearning for you… I suppose I fell in love with you…"
"Claudia… So you chose today to die then?"
"Yes. In Seidoukan's harbor block, I would have escaped with as many of Galaxy's secrets as I could, and then die in your arms… And the dream ended. I knew then what my wish was, the one dream that I wanted to come true, the vision that I wanted to make reality. I've died more than a thousand times since then, but never in a better way than that. No. The more I died, the more certain I became. I already knew the truth." Claudia paused there, letting out a self-deprecating laugh. "The Pan-Dora was behind everything."
"I was just going to say that. It was sadistically leading you to choose your death rather than living on or committing suicide early, correct?"
"Yes, it has the worst personality. Showing me such a vivid, ideal death…and making me fall in love with you… It was enjoying itself, toying with my life. You know? 've been killed by so many people in my dreams, over and over again. People close to me, at that. There's been my mother and father, of course, Laetitia and Julis, even Eishirou Yabuki… But, Lucas, I've never been killed by you, not once. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
"To be fair, you would have to do something particularly heinous in order to get me to kill you."
"Quite so. If it did make such a dream, then it would be so far-fetched that I wouldn't believe it, however."
"I'm flattered…but if you knew what it was doing, then why play along?"
"Hee-hee. Isn't it obvious?" Claudia asked with a soft laugh. "Even if you can look at it all logically, love isn't something that you can just make yourself stop feeling," she said with a smile, tears welling in her eyes. "My wish was to turn that dream into reality, that was all. I put everything I had into it. That's why I came to Seidoukan, why I became student council president, why I had you transferred here on a special scholarship, why I entered the Phoenix, why I fanned the flames at Galaxy until they decided to send someone to kill me, everything… It was all to make that vision come true."
"Well that's-"
"Wait. Let me finish."
I waited for Claudia to catch her breath, casually duplicating a glass of water for her to drink from.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"... where was I… yes, I dedicated everything to make my wish come true. At least, that was how it was at the start." Claudia looked at me and then averted her gaze with a flushed face, "Then you became my partner, we spent time together. Having dates all around town, in our rooms like naughty teenagers, we learned more about each other and despite keeping secrets from each other I… I started to feel more for you. Not just that yearning love I was familiar with but I wanted to live, I wanted to stay with you, I didn't want to die anymore. B-but it hurts so much, living still hurts and I was being stupid, I did all I could to set myself on a path that I couldn't return from and I ended up falling back on my first wish because I was too cowardly to face the future."
I got out of my seat and crawled into my, her, our bed. Then I just hugged her as she cried her heart out, rubbing circles on her back until she felt okay enough to continue.
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault."
"H-how can you say that? You know… I, thanks to no more than a foolish, selfish dream, used you, deceived you, and… I deserve to be punished." There was a slight tremble to her voice.
"Okay, so it wasn't wholly not your fault. But it was mostly not your fault. I'll make sure to spank you a little okay but the point is that you don't give yourself enough credit and you shouldn't need to feel ashame of what had happened."
"H-huh?"
"So what if you did all that? It was a minor inconvenience to me at best. What I care more about is the fact that the strong, smart, pretty and fun-loving girl I love went through all that suffering, came out a good person, gained the will to live and only chose to die because a certain something decided to be a fucking sadist and torment you beyond what you could handle. Everyone has their limits, there is no shame to admit that. I will freely admit that I probably could not survive as long as you did with all the pain you went through, the fact that you lasted so long is a testament to your will. You should not blame yourself for being given an ordeal you weren't meant to overcome. I'm proud of you and adore you Claudia, so that's why, from now on I want you to live. Not just for me, but for yourself too."
"Lucas… I…"
"Claudia? Your answer?"
"... Yes."
"That settles it then. Time to solve this problem once and for all."
"Eh?"
"Orianne, activate the isolation field, optimize it for keeping my mana within the room."
"Okay boss~"
"Huh?"
I took ahold of the Pan-Dora… then struck it down with all my hatred!
Well, more like, released my hidden power and utterly crushed its pathetic little thing it called a 'will' into the dust.
Over at the bed, Claudia was struck silent as her physiology detected the sheer amount of power I was emitting, until she stared out in confusion as she stopped sensing my power.
It wasn't that I drew my mana back into myself. It was still rising at this point.
My magical power was simply so immense that it was beyond what she could comprehend.
The colors of Pan-dora dimmed from the green and red, then turned white and black after I had fully overwhelmed the core.
"Now you listen here… you're my bitch now. You want to use your powers, fine, use all that mana I forced into you instead and don't you dare cause Claudia any more pain, you understand me?!"
Getting a sense of terrified affirmation, I grinned and passed the blades back to Claudia, who likely felt the difference in their connection.
"What did you do…?"
"What I should have done ages ago. Now then, sweet dreams."
I took out my sleep ray and shot Claudia with it.
Now then, she should be out for a few hours catching up on some proper sleep.
I opened a portal and synched the two Orianne's together, checking up on Sylvia. It looks like my Sylvia Terminator-copy handed over some fan-mail to her before departing. According to Orianne, she got back home fine and managed to escape suspicion from her IEF, just as planned.
After that, I had Orianne search for the professor Claudia was looking for, using the new information and codes that Claudia managed to get out of her stunt, we managed to find the professor's location.
I quickly raided the place, grabbed the professor and left an android copy in his place after compromising the prison systems. Then dragged him over to my lab, put him through a brain-scan so that I could get a copy of his knowledge, then went back to put him in prison and get my android out of there.
I could have handled it more delicately but I was honestly just fed up with this.
I set Orianne on going through the information in a careful manner, only sifting through his knowledge and memories objectively instead of assimilating them so that her personality wouldn't be affected.
I stayed with Claudia the rest of the night, and when she finally woke up, she looked as if she was in a daze.
"Am… am I in heaven?"
"You just asked the same question a couple of hours ago."
"L-Lucas. This… this isn't a dream or a nightmare right? Waking up didn't hurt and- kyaa!"
I flipped her over and gave her butt a nice big slap.
"Ah!"
"Ever felt that before?"
"Uuuu… you pervert."
"You asked for it."
"That's not how it happens…"
Claudia pouted for a while until the realization finally dawned upon her.
"The nightmares… they're gone."
She sat up on the bed as if contemplating a new truth.
"Uhuh. I also made a quick stop to get that professor you wanted to meet, copied his memories through a sci-fi like brain scan and I'm currently having my AI assistant compile his knowledge for us."
"You… what… how did… Lucas! Hahaha, you're amazing!"
"Ohohoho! I guess I kinda am! Anyways, with this settled... What do you want to do, Claudia?"
"Huh? A-after this?" she repeated, glancing around nervously. The question, it seemed, had taken her completely by surprise.
Having never seen her act that way, or rarely ever so flummoxed, I found myself smiling in amusement. "That's right. Technically, all your wishes have been granted right? Professor Q&A, check! Or it will be soon. Dying once, check! You're alive again so we can face the future together so… check! That's all three as far as I'm concerned."
"… Well, um, I never thought that far. Thank you, truly, from my heart. Um, maybe… well, there's this one last wish."
"Hmm?"
"I've only ever told this to Laetitia, you know, my good friend slash rival once. It was to throw her off my trail when she asked for my wish, while it was a bit of a half-truth then I think I would like to make it my wish now."
"And that is."
Claudia smiled brightly and said, "I wish to dedicate myself fully to my destined partner. That is… um, if you will have me."
"I am 200% on board with that. Let's live our lives together as happily as we can!"
Claudia burst into laughter, as if she couldn't hold herself back any more. "It looks like you can be selfish, too!"
I grinned, "When have I not been selfish? Well, I can think of some times. But it's always been a mixed bag… anyways, I can hardly turn down such a request from the girl I love, right?"
"Is that a confession?"
"How many times must I say it until it finally gets into that pretty head of yours?"
Her gaze was resting on her hand, placed within my own.
"N-no, I mean, there's no need for that…! Ah… S-sorry. I mean… I love you too, with all my heart, mind and soul."
Claudia, having turned red all the way to her ears, glanced up at me bashfully.
I had never seen this side of her before. Before I knew it, my heart was racing. And I couldn't help but want more of it.
Regardless of what the new day held in store for us, I was certain that we could overcome whatever challenges the world threw at us.
Together.