章 34: Shirasaki Kaori

Long white sleeveless dress and skirt with thigh high socks. Metallic silverish armor was wrapped around her torso covering her beautiful breast. Her arms were covered with gauntlets and her legs were equipped with a pair of greaves. Her appearance was just like a valkyrie.

She had long silver hair with her bangs reaching her waist. A pair of angelic silver wings on her back and her eyes were blue blinking at the man in front of her. She hold a pair of swords on both of her hands. One was a black demon sword and the other was a white holy sword in contrast with each other.

She was truly a divine beauty, with her current attire and looks she didn't lose in terms of grace even against Eisha, a goddess herself.

"...Shirasaki Kaori." Haruto murmured the name of the girl in front of him.

The girl in question, Shirasaki Kaori in her apostle form reacted from his murmured and smiled brightly.

"Yes, my name is Shirasaki Kaori, it's nice to meet you, Master."

Haruto's eyes widened and he replied to her after pausing for a bit.

"It's nice to meet you too Kaori but please don't call me Master, just call me as Haruto" He smiled wryly

"Is that so? Then Haruto-kun it is."

"Hehe, that's the same as me!" Eisha chuckled from behind.

"Ah nice to meet you too, Okaa-san!" Kaori bowed to Eisha and greeted her 'Mother'.

"It's okay, you can call me goddess or Eisha you know?"

"No way, you're my Okaa-san, I can't call you like that!"

"Why is it alright with Haruto-kun but not for me!?" Eisha protested.

"What kind of daughter called her parent by her name?" Kaori retorted.

"But I'm not really your mother you know!? In your story, you have your own mother!"

"But not here right? So it's fine, I can be considered as different person than the me in the story anyway. Okaa-san is too stubborn."

"Guh, you damn stalker...."

"Hey Okaa-san, what did you just call me I wonder? I wonder?"

(AN: Kaori often used "Ka na? Ka na?" in her speech when she's angry.)

Eisha ignored her and turned her body back towards Haruto. 'Somehow they really looked like mother and daughter like that?' he thought seeing their interaction. He almost laughed out loud when Eisha called her stalker since in the original story she was indeed acting like a stalker towards Hajime.

"So here you go, Haruto-kun, are you satisfied with her? Hehe~"

"Okaa-san, don't ignore me!"

"Well it's kinda beyond my expectation..."

Haruto said gazing at Kaori with amazement. Her current appearance was her apostle form. That means this Kaori was from the later part of the series of Arifureta. If that's the case then obviously she would be extremely strong, not only as a healer but as a fighter too. She possessed the body of the almighty god's apostle along with the Age of God Magic, the so called world breaking cheat.

If it's her then restoring lost limbs, organs and wounds were a simple matter. With her light magic she was extremely proficient with healing magic. And along with the [Regeneration Magic] she could reversed time similar to what Inoue Orihime could do, but much more efficient than her.

What's more amazing was she possessed the [Soul Magic]. With it she was capable of reviving a person from death as long as they did not die for too long and their soul already disappeared from their body. Just by this already made her a very powerful healer by that's not the extent of her capabilities.

It's already been said that she was not only a powerful healer but also a very powerful fighter. Her body was extremely strong and tough despite being slim and slender. Her swordsmanship level was pretty high too by using both of her swords. With her [Godspeed] from the variation of [Regeneration Magic] she could move at extraordinary speed resembling teleportation by manipulating time. Still, her most terrifying magic was without a doubt the [Disintegration] magic.

By channeling her silver aura to her swords or feather wings she could melt anything and everything. The power differed depending on the defense of the opponent but regardless it's only affected the time they would melt. If the opponent did not avoid her [Disintegration] they would bound to melt eventually no mater how strong they were. Even Hajime, Yue, or Shia did not dare to confront this magic directly no matter how tough they were.

She also known many support light magics too like barriers or binding spells for the enemies. So she's definitely a very capable support and fighter.

Haruto was very delighted to have such a powerful companion. With this even if in the worst case one of his companion was to die, she would be able to revive them immediately. Just like the series said, Age of God Magic was definitely a cheat even learning one of them could make someone's extremely powerful. As long as their affinity with the magic was high, that is.

"Thank you Eisha, this really help me much." Haruto thanked Eisha and smiled.

"Fufu don't worry about it. And I'm sorry to say but with her capabilities she couldn't have a [Growth] and she had to train in old fashioned way if she wanted to get stronger, unless I restricted her just like you.

She also couldn't return to a spirit form after she materialized in the real world. Don't worry though since just like Elsie she still connected to your soul so she wouldn't die unless you died and you still could use a telepathy with her it's just she lost the ability to dematerialize. So which one will you choose? Keep her abilities like this or restricted her and let her grew stronger again slowly just like you?"

"...."

Now that's a tough choice. Should he let her be with her current strength but lost some benefits or restricted her and let her regained her strength slowly retaining all the benefits of the summon?

He glanced at Kaori and noticed her just smiling softly at him. 'So she will leave the decision to me huh?'

After mulling for a few tens of minutes Haruto made his decision.

"I wish to keep her ability just like this."

"Oh?"

Eisha raised her eyebrow while Kaori gave an approving nod. It seemed she also agreed with his decision.

"In the first place the reason I asked for a healer was in case of emergency, especially when I was still weak like this. There's no point if she couldn't help because she got restricted on her abilities. Regarding her inability to dematerialize well it was kinda unfortunate but knowing her she wouldn't be easily killed, as a healer herself. And it's not like she would permanently died too if she did right? Then it's all fine, not like I'll let her die too."

"Fufufu indeed, I guess you're right." Eisha nodded her head.

"And if that's the case, Eisha?"

"Yes?"

"Why was she given a choice but not me? I could not choose to retain Son Goku's full potential and forced to be restricted. Kaori was not the case so why?"

"...."

Haruto asked Eisha subtly since this was an important matter he had to ask her. For a second Eisha was silent and couldn't say anything, she tried to shrug it off like always but realize Haruto's eyes this time did not let her to. In the end she sighed and decided to speak.

"Actually, my power at that time was very weak... Even if I wanted to give you a choice I couldn't do it, just by restructuring your body took most of my energy..."

"Your power was weak..? What do you mean?"

"Hehe, even now I'm still weak you know? The reason I asked you to gather the crystals was because they contained my powers, or you could say it was a reserved energy like batteries that I stored in the past in case something like this happened."

"Just what happened?"

"....Sorry, as much as I wanted to tell you I don't want you to get involved for as long as possible, not until the time comes. I wanted you to enjoy your second life as much as possible without being pressured. So please..." Her face turned sad and she hung her head.

"...."

Haruto wanted to protest saying her concerned was unnecessary but realized even if she did tell him would he be able to do something? Right now he's still weak how can he help her like that? Eisha must secretly thought the same too that's why she let him grew stronger with as much assistance as she could give. But it's not a lie that she didn't actually want to involve him if possible, but that's not the case and he was very crucial.

Not to mention that if he knew what happened, what prevented him from being reckless? Knowing him he would definitely doing all his best to solve the situation, and that would lead him to recklessness. That's what Eisha thought.

Again? I was powerless once again? Despite all this?

He gnashed his teeth in frustration, this was already the second time he cursed himself for his powerlessness. Kaori looked at him with concern and pat his back gently trying to cheer him up.

"Don't worry Haruto-kun, you only have to be much much stronger and Okaa-san will definitely tell you at that time. I'm also here to help you with that, to assure you in your way so you won't have anything to worry about." She said softly.

"Kaori..."

That's right, there's no point by dwelling himself in frustration. Just like when their parents died and he gained his resolve, he just needed to do the same. He must gotten even stronger.

He regained his resolution and looked solemnly at Eisha. She smiled happily seeing that. The boy she chose was definitely not a mistake. Closing her eyes she extended her arms.

"Haruto-kun, take this with you."

"Huh?"

Eisha opened her hand and showed Haruto the object in her hands. A pure white small ball about the size of a marble.

"What's this? A white marble?"

"This is a pill."

"A pill? For what?"

"With this you can remove your limitations for a specific amount of time."

"!?"

Removed his limitations!? So he would gained all of Goku's power in an instant!? He was feeling glee from the news but Eisha poured a cold water on him next.

"It's not permanent and for emergency only. You also have to remember, forcefully removing your restrictions comes with a great price. You will suffered an extreme backlash after using it. Even Kaori would not be able to help much like that since it was the matter of your soul, even [Soul Magic] have it's own limitation and Kaori's affinity of the magic was not as great as Yue. At most she could only help you recover a little faster and saved your life but that's it. That's why make sure to use this only when you extremely needed it, understand?"

Unlike her usual bright expression, Eisha glance at Haruto sternly, this must be just how dangerous using the pill was. He nodded his head seriously too and took her advice at heart.

"This pill will be planted inside your soul similar to Elsie and Kaori so you don't need to worry of losing it. Just will it to appear in your hand when you need it." She said and the pill in her hand disappeared.

"Alright. Thank you Eisha, for everything. I'll make sure to get much stronger and help you with whatever problem you have, definitely." He squinted his eyes and said full of conviction.

"Fufu, I'll be waiting for that, but make sure to enjoy your life too okay?" She giggled and her expression turned bright again.

"...Yeah." He nodded while smiling wryly.

After that both of them exited the place and turned into particles of light, leaving Eisha alone in there.

"With that, at least if something unexpected happened and he encountered 'Him' all of a sudden then he should be able to survive..."

She murmured quietly, imagining the figure of a person that brought her nightmare for eons. Her face distorted and extreme rage filled her heart. No matter what 'His' ambition would definitely come to an end, this time for sure.