A cold night breeze passed through and ruffled some of my hair that wasn't covered by my hat as I was standing on top of a tall building, and I gotta say, the view of the city here is simply marvelous.
A city built inside a large crater made by a Spirit, some would call it a stupid idea, but I? I can see the defiance of humanity before my eyes, as in the whole city stands here to mock the Spirits and show that humanity will always adapt and overcome whatever is in front of them.
Kinda inspiring honestly.
I didn't have time to appreciate this place at all the past two or so weeks, as first I had to make sure Kurumi doesn't go off the rails too much and Kotori gets sealed too. Now however I have a small break from all the madness till season two kicks in or my presence create unpredictable consequences.
So, with my to little birds flying around the city trying to find a red-dressed maniac and me getting used to my rather superhuman strength while looking out for said maniac.
And I totally didn't jump straight into the walls of a building while trying to get to the roof...I did it thrice and left a comically sized dent in them? No idea how all the heroes and villains are making this seem so easy...
Anyway!
Gotta find the girl and sell her some lie about her being 'demoted to a low priority target' or some crap like that, and hopefully, she buys into it after accepting a small peace offering.
Because I really don't need to deal with time paradoxes now.
Sighing, I step away from the edge of the roof and prepare for a running jump towards the next building that is just a bit smaller than the one I'm currently on. I take in a deep breath and put as much force in my legs as I can and then I leap off the edge as if shot from a sling.
The feeling of flying through the air is just amazing once I got over the fear of heights, and devised a landing strategy that made it so that I didn't end up with my butt hitting the floor each. Makes me wonder if I can somehow make myself fly, that would be so damn cool and also legitimatize my claim of being a Spirit a bit more.
The moment I landed though I felt something off as if there was something around that shouldn't exist. Looking around I became sure it wasn't coming from the roof I'm currently on, so I went to the edge and looked around.
I wish I hadn't.
There, around 50-70 meters in front of me I noticed a...moving optical glitch? It looked as if something was attempting to become invisible with a result that looked like a bunch of somewhat human shaped pixels.
"Phantom..." I whispered under my breath as I realized who it was in the distance.
W-What is Reine doing here?! Shouldn't she be hanging around Shido and Kotori now? Its been after all only a few hours since the adopted sibling's date, so what is she...
Then I saw her looking around and after a tense moment, she jumped onto the rooftop of the next building.
Ah, now I know.
You're looking for me, aren't you? I bet you can easily find Kurumi, but I who has his Presence Concealment on the whole time once he leaves his hotel room is a different thing entirely then the girl that has a hundred clones around the whole city.
"Tsk, you are a pain in the arse, you know that Reine?" I muttered to myself as I kept my sight on the flying spacial distortion that was jumping from roof to roof.
Now, if it came to blows I think there is a high chance of me being able to tear her to shreds, but I sincerely doubt that Mio would let me get away with that.
Still, I can't talk with Kurumi if Reine keeps snooping around looking for me to either interrogate me or stall long enough for Mio to nope me out of existence with her stupidly overpowered Angels.
Maybe...if I play it the right way I can make her believe that I am a Spirit, just one from a different timeline, dropping hints like 'I remember Shido having bigger breast and long hair'.
...
This is plan is so stupid it should have no right to work. An alternate timeline where everyone is genderbent...thats quite terrifying.
Though Shido would probably be a rather cute girl.
"Focus damn it." I slapped myself on the cheeks to regain composure.
Besides, the idea of trying to use my Mystic Eyes on Reine seems to be a reasonable plan compared to trying to lie to her like that. Wonder how much she could resist it though? So far both humans and Spirit seemed rather susceptible to that, so maybe a clone of Mio will fall to it too?
Questions for later.
Alright, time to make a decision that I might regret the moment it goes wrong, or maybe she will be so sleepy she won't bother?
My target is currently on the top of the third next building so the jumps take me only a few seconds to get to the rooftop where Phantom is currently standing.
I landed a safe distance behind her and observed her for a second, she seemed to...look around the city from the edge of the roof I guess? It's really hard to tell with those pixels covering her whole frame so I can't even see where she's currently looking at. I take a deep breath and...
"Sup." I said popping the 'p'.
To her credit, she didn't yelp in sudden surprise and only turned to face me so fast I thought her neck will break, so I at least knew I spooked her a bit. If I die now, I can confidently claim that I scared a goddess in whatever afterlife I get to.
"You..." She said with a calm and young voice trying not to show her surprise.
"Me," I answer with the most shit-eating grin on my face I can muster. "so, how are you doing sis?"
"...sis?" Questioned Phantom with what I assumed to be a tilt of the head, hard to say with all those pixels.
"Hmm? Well, were Spirits, right?" I said and began walking closer to her. "So, I think that kinda makes us family, of sorts."
I'm a nature spirit, you're a goddess born of the world's mana so id say were close enough. Not as close as you are with Shido and Tohka but its something.
"I...I see?" Phantom seemed a bit uncertain about how to respond to that.
"Now, dear sister, pray answer my little question," I do a cheerful spin on one leg and then point my finger at her. "what were you doing here five years ago with Kotori and Shido?"
"Oh? And why do you think I had something to do with it?" Phantom responded with smugness in her voice.
"Ah, you know, you just happened to be there when a little crybaby became a human torch, all the while a fight between Spirits was happening too." I was now leaning towards her head, maybe a few centimeters of the distance between our faces. "So I find it odd that my sister who is almost as good at hiding as me decided to show herself without a reason. Oh, and also sealed the memories of Shido and Kotori of that day."
Phantom tensed a little, or I presume that she did as she is really hard to read when shes like that... if I'll live through this I'm so going to be messing with Reine though.
"So... you don't know..." She quietly whispered under her breath.
"Hmm? Don't know what? What did you do dear sister?" I asked with fake concern and interest.
"This is nothing that should concern you, after all, you're not important." Phantoms' answer was a clear mockery, clearly trying to rile me up.
"Awwww, sis you're being so mean!" I held my hands to my chest, pretending to be hurt. "And all I'm trying to do is to be a good big brother."
"Ha...hahaha!" Phantom laughed at my rather childish act.
"Heh, so you can laugh." I said with a small smile on my face. "Who would have thought that this stalker has a sense of humor."
"Look who's talking." Phantom jabbed back with some playfulness in her voice.
"Yup, let's find Origami and we can be the Three Amigos stalking Shido, what do you think?"I joked though I was more than a bit surprised at the fact that Reine was playing along.
She chuckled again at that and leaned a little on the edge of the roof.
"You're a fine jester, I'll have to admit that." She managed to complete the sentence between her chuckles.
"Well thank you sis, I am trying my bes-"
And suddenly, I feel a weight on my right shoulder and freeze. D-Did I screw up? I-Is this Mio who's right behind me?
I look back to Phantom expecting a mocking laugh but instead, she's... slowly and nervously backing away?
What?
"W-What a-are you?!" She yells in my direction and I can sense the fear in her shaking voice.
She then turns and bolts away faster then I could realize what going on, leaving me behind on the rooftop with the weight still pressing on my shoulder.
I swallowed down the saliva that was in my mouth and slowly turned my head towards my shoulder, only to see a puff of white fur and purple eyes staring right into my soul.
"Fou." The little Beast IV that's been sitting on my shoulders proclaims its presence to me and the world.
"Ah...Ahhhhhh."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?"
And I yelled like a total bitch.
-----------------------------
"Fou?" Asked the small squirrel-like creature.
"Yes, we're still looking for Kurumi, I need for her to stay in the city, you know?" I replied with annoyance.
"Fou." Whined the critter.
"You're gonna get all the food you want after, I promise." For a 'Beast of Calamity' Fou is quite pampered.
Yeah, so after I was done screaming loud enough to wake up everyone in the neighboring buildings(and causing some car alarms to activate) I learned from Fou why and how he got here.
At least I'm not the only one away from his home here...
As it turns out, it was both Merlin and Zelretch who are responsible for dropping Fou into this world. Oh, and I can somewhat understand what Fou is saying even if all that I'm hearing is 'Fou', weird Nature Spirit crap I guess.
Yeah, the old troll and the 'dick wizard' are apparently good friends so when Merlin learned that he can give a displaced True Ancestor a heart attack he yeeted Fou across dimensions without a second thought.
I barely recognized Fou when I saw him at first but then all the details were correct as Fou was some weird squirrel-like creature, with white soft fur and an incredible fluffy tail, ears that could rival a rabbit and a small blue-white cape around this neck that was tied together with a red knot. Also, the feeling of power emanating from him once I tried to sense it.
Fou hesitantly admitted that he was quite lost when he got here, so he went after the closet source that reminded him of his homeworld.
Me.
After our talk, he agreed to first help me find Kurumi so I can have a talk with her tonight and after that, we're getting to my hotel room so I can explain our situation to the little guy. He also agreed to try and not scare my birds away, so its something.
"Fou!"
"Hmm? That direction? Are you sure?" I asked Fou for confirmation of the whereabouts of Kurumi.
"Fou." The little one nodded.
I'm going to need to ask him how he does that, to be able to sense Spirits better than me and he just learned what those girls are.
"Fine, fine. Try not to fall off, alright?" I relented and decided to trust Fou's instincts as I dashed across the rooftops.
I wonder how will the rest of the Spirits react at Fou's presence? Will they feel that he's much more than just a cute animal and run away screaming or try and cuddle him to death?
Just as I jumped on the top of the next building I finally saw Kurumi standing at the edge of the roof and surrounded by at least a dozen of her clones.
"Fou?"
"Yup, that's her. Wanna go and say hello?" I asked with a cheeky smile to which Fou responded with a tilt of his adorable little head. "Hello, it is then."
I walked closer to where the original Kurumi was standing and weaved myself between the clones trying to not touch them by accident, a good thing that my Presence Concealment can be extended towards Fou because otherwise, people would see a flying squirrel.
Anyway, now that Kurumi is roughly in arms reach I drop my Concealment revealing myself to the girl and her clones.
"Good evening, Kurumi-chan~" I almost sang these words with a smile on my face, and I saw how quickly Kurumi whipped her head around with an expression of pure terror on it.
At least something is going my way tonight.
XXXXXXXXX
I'm sorry that it took a bit longer to realize this chapter, but for some reason, I couldn't really get myself to write down the ideas I had.
So anyway, Al decides to be stupid and talk with Phantom which thankfully goes better than he hoped and gets trolled by Merlin and Zel.
The next chapter will be about trolling Kurumi and trying to establish some kind of a civil relationship with her, after that It will turn for Tohka.
