Night, in a certain pub that sits on a brick-lined street, the top adventurers of the Loki Familia including their patron God, Loki, is celebrating their successful return from a dungeon expedition. It is a two-story building made of stone that has the depth of a neat inn. As it is located along the Western Main Street, it is filled with a lot of customers.
The front entrance has a set of double doors with wood carvings decorating the frame. Carvings can be seen in various places on the front of the pub. The Hostess of Fertility sign can be seen on the left side of the entrance, as well as on an overhanging sign with a crossed fork and knife.
Among their group is the three women who Kisuke came across this afternoon.
"Fuahh~! What's wrong with Tione? We should be celebrating, so why the long face and aggressive drinking?" Loki asked after drinking a big gulp from her fruit liquor which is this pub's specialty.
Tione Hiryute, the black long-haired Amazoness with a mature body and only wears clothes that cover the bare minimum of her skin, didn't answer Loki's question and sulk.
Tiona Hiryute, Tione's twin sister, and has medium length black hair and petite body but similar outfit, could only laugh wryly and scratch her head, "Well, this afternoon. Someone touched her butt."
"Huh!? Who the hell has guts to touch my girls!?" Loki exclaimed and asked, "And why are you sulking? Did he got away?"
Everyone automatically ignored Loki's first sentence and looked towards Tiona as this might be a potentially amusing story because there is only a handful of men who could get away from the three.
"No. It's just a random drunk man and he didn't get away."
"Then what's the problem?"
Tiona first looked at her sister who's still sulking and continued, "It's when Tione tried to kick away the drunk man but a bystander is about to get caught."
Loki caught the way Tiona worded it, "About to get caught?"
"Yes. The man in the brown cloak was about to get hit at the back of his head and it's already too late for Tione to stop. We thought that we would have to pour some of our elixir on him and apologize but the man suddenly caught Tione's foot instead without even looking back and tossed her across the street, seemingly without much effort, and ended up landing in one of the food stalls. We had to pay for the damages."
Everyone in their group stopped what they are doing and looked towards the sulking Amazoness. Despite this silence, however, the pub is still being drowned by noisy and merry adventurers.
The first one to react after hearing Tiona's narration is a gray-colored hair Werewolf, along with amber eyes, as well as a sleek tail. He has a blue tattoo on the left side of his face and a muscular physique. His features are described to be handsome, and he appears cool to others. But right now, he's too drunk to even act cool.
He pointed towards Tione and laughed at her face, "Fuhahaha! A hulking woman like you was tossed around!? Find that guy and let me see it happen again!"
Tione's temple throbbed and she snapped. She stood up and approached the intoxicated wolf. Tione then grabbed his leg and threw him towards the open double door of the pub, "SHUT UP!"
The poor wolf couldn't even react as he flew across the street and landing on the nearby dumpster.
The captain of Loki Familia, Finn Deimne, a Pallum with medium length scruffy blonde hair and blue eyes with a fair skin tone, and the vice-captain, Riveria Ljos Alf, an Elf with jade-colored hair tied in a tail that reaches to her waist, same color eyes, and Elf ears could only sigh at this sight, while a top executive, Gareth Landrock, a Dwarf with brown eyes and long brown hair along with facial hair of the same color that is long enough to form a beard, laughed out loud thinking that this is a merry scene.
"And? What happened next?" Riveria asked with a poker face.
Tione gritted her teeth and answered her, "He ran away. So fast that I didn't even get a glimpse of his face."
Riveria and Loki looked towards Tiona, "I also didn't see his face nor his build, but it seems Ais did."
Ais is quietly drinking her fruit drink when she suddenly heard her name and looked up. Before she noticed, everyone is already looking at her.
"Ais. Who is the guy who countered Tione's kick? Someone who can overpower her should be pretty famous." Finn asked with interest.
Ais thought for a bit and tried to recall the man's face that she only saw slightly, "...I don't know. All I know is that he has pale blonde hair."
"Pale blonde? That isn't very rare and I don't recall any top adventurer with that feature. Maybe he came from other powers outside of Orario?" Finn muttered.
"But there is something that you're wrong about." Ais suddenly said gaining other's confusion except for Tione and Tiona.
"What is it, Ais-tan? Something that caught your attention?" Loki opened her slightly closed eyes and looked at Ais carefully.
"He never overpowered Tione," Ais answered with a straight face.
Even more confusion covered everyone's face, but Tione explained more about Ais' answer, "He rebounded the force behind my kick back to me. I don't know how he did it, but I'm sure that it isn't magic as we didn't feel any movements in magical power that moment."
"In other words, it's a purely technical skill... So he might even be just a level 4." Tiona supplemented.
The top executives and Loki's expression became serious, "Then he must have come from outside of Orario. Someone like that should be famous if he lives here." Riveria muttered. But then she noticed something wrong with Ais's expression, "What's wrong, Ais?"
Ais stayed silent for a while but she then decided to answer honestly, "I want to learn that..."
It should have been a perfectly normal desire to learn and get stronger especially coming to Ais, however, for some reason, Riveria shivered and a part of her instincts is screaming at her to stop Ais at all cost. But as a type of person that thinks and decides logically, if she couldn't find a good reason to stop her, she wouldn't be able to convince Ais.
All she could do is make a difficult expression as she looks at Ais, 'What's this feeling? It's my first time... Just what is this unease?' Riveria then promised to herself to watch Ais more closely from now on so any accident wouldn't happen.
Enjoy~.
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80 Advance chapters here:
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Late at night of the third day that Kisuke arrived in the city, when everyone else is already going home, Kisuke also decided that he should head back.
Although there are still a lot of activities happening around this time, he still doesn't want to get involved in it just yet.
Quietly exiting the city and looked back to it, 'The only place I didn't get to explore is the vicinity of that tower. That seems to be the place where the strong people are gathering and I'm curious to the strange aura coming from it, but my goal, for now, is to learn their language and acquire some samples for my research.' Kisuke thought.
It only took him ten minutes using Flash Step to arrive back in the forest where everyone else is staying. However, instead of going in, Kisuke stopped at the edge of the barrier that he put up three days ago.
Everyone is already outside the temporary lodging and is waiting for his arrival when he came back, "Welcome home~." Yoruichi first greeted him.
Kisuke smiled brightly and replied, "I'm back~."
"Welcome back~. Where's my souvenir?" Aika asked in anticipation.
"Welcome back, Kisuke-senpai." Koneko has the same feeling as Aika.
"Welcome back, Master~." Medusa only sighed in relief after seeing her master coming back from an unknown place.
"W-welcome back... Kisuke..." Sona also tried to greet him, but the flashbacks from the night they did it prevented her from looking straight to his eyes and could only blush fiercely.
Kuroka has the same expression as Sona, but for a very different reason, "Uhmm... Kisuke... I know this isn't the right time, but could you lend me some of your time now-nya?"
As they greeted him, they're also trying to approach him but Yoruichi stopped them from their tracks, "Did you forget? You can't approach him for now. We don't know what he brought back with him so he'll be doing a self-quarantine for a few days."
"Ah..." All of them stopped walking.
Kisuke smiled at their reactions, "It's already late so rest up. I won't be coming up for the next few days, so Kuroka... Endure it." He then turned around, intending to set another underground space. Kisuke is becoming a fine mole.
"Ah!? Wait, Kisuke! I can't endure anymore-nya!"
Kisuke kept walking away and only waved at her without looking back, "Then ask Yoruichi for some relief." He disappeared among the dense foliage of the forest.
Kuroka could only stare at his departing back with a dumbfounded expression. A few seconds later, she suddenly felt an arm wrapping around her nape, "You heard the guy~. Although I'm not as good at him, I should be able to relieve some of that stress until you can endure for a few more days~." Yoruichi whispered to her.
"Eh?... Eh!?... But we're both girls!" Kuroka shouted.
Yoruichi then started dragging Kuroka with her despite her struggling, "I have the same number hands as Kisuke~. The same number of fingers too~. So no problem~!"
"That's not the problem!" This is Kuroka's last shout before Yoruichi closed the door for her 'treatment'.
Sona, Aika, Koneko, and Medusa could only look at the two of them with speechless expression. They were in for another sleepless night.
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Three days later, Kisuke finally emerged from his makeshift laboratory and workshop and stretched his arms, taking in the fresh morning air, "Finally done~!"
Kisuke took back all of his equipment and closed the entrance to the underground hideout before going back to the girls. When he arrived, he saw that everyone is busy with their own activities.
Aika is currently swinging her two-meter long nodachi to practice her Zanjutsu. She already learned how to only take out her Zanpakuto without going into her Shinigami form.
Koneko is currently working and studying under Kuroka on how to properly control her Ki and the latter is also teaching her little sister some Youkai magic that might prove useful in the future.
Sona and Medusa, on the other hand, are assisting each other. Sona is trying to figure out her current limitations as she hasn't recovered yet and Medusa is beside her to watch over her so that she wouldn't push herself too much that it might cause an accident.
Kisuke then turned his attention to Yoruichi, who got a large boulder from who knows where and sitting on top of it while basking in pleasant sunlight. Sitting cross-legged and eyes closed, she's trying to communicate with her Zanpakuto, Byakko. But with her brows furrowed and some sweat gathering around her forehead, Kisuke figured that it isn't going well.
The moment he stepped into the barrier, everyone stopped what they're doing and excitedly ran towards him. But the first one to arrive is Yoruichi with her Flash Step, "Me first~!"
With another Flash Step, Yoruichi carried Kisuke away. The rest only looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders and chuckling. Aika, Koneko, and Kuroka returned to what they're doing while Sona and Medusa entered the lodging to prepare some breakfast.
When they heard Sona is going to help to prepare breakfast, everyone shuddered. Aika, Koneko, and Kuroka looked towards Medusa with pleading eyes and Medusa didn't betray their expectations, 'I won't let her touch the cooking process itself!' Her eyes seem to say and the three understood it.
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Midway of their on the spot excursion, Kisuke carried Yoruichi in his arms and continued using Flash Steps. About a minute later, they arrived at a small clearing with a small patch of beautiful and colorful flowers in the middle.
Kisuke put her down beside the patch of flowers and took out a blanket to lay it out. After taking out a basket of sandwiches and some various fruits, both of them sat down to enjoy the otherworldly view while enjoying the mellow sun.
"Having a hard time?" Kisuke first asked and Yoruichi nodded quietly as she took a bite out of her sandwich.
"Don't rush it..."
Yoruichi stopped eating and looked at the colorful flowers, "I know... But I can't help but do just that... Even though I know you're not going to leave me alone, it feels that you're running further and further away from me..."
Kisuke tapped her shoulder to get her attention and when Yoruichi looked at him, Kisuke is tapping his lap. Smiling, she took on his offer and laid down her head on his laps.
While gently brushing her hair, Kisuke spoke, "I know that you don't need any verbal confirmation about me not leaving you and I can understand your impatience since I can imagine it if our positions were switched. But I also can't help you with this one since I want you to have a breakthrough on your own."
Yoruichi closed her eyes to enjoy his gentle and warm hands, "Right... I don't know how far you'll travel on this path and I can't have you babysit me on just the first step... If I did that, I feel that I might just trip and fell behind further."
Yoruichi's insecurities were her blurry path as opposed to Kisuke's clear path. If she can't find her path soon enough, she's afraid that she won't be able to stand beside her beloved if there is danger, and she absolutely hates it.
To Kisuke, however, more than just tripping, he hates it more if she were to be in danger if she rushes things, but he also knows no comforting will pull her out from such frantic feeling, so instead, he let his mind run. He wanted to at least give her a clue on where she should look.
After a few minutes of silence between them, Kisuke finally thought of what he should say, "Hear me out. Why don't we explore this world first and set aside the thought of returning immediately? I, however, won't stop looking for the way to come back, but we should also see what this world has to offer us."
Yoruichi looked up to him and asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Remember when I said that Byakko might have come from a different dimension from our original world and already hopped through worlds? Although I don't have proof, with just its abilities to travel through worlds, I have a feeling that this is the case"
Yoruichi only quietly stared at him.
"What I mean to say is that we arrive in this world, and the previous one might not have been random. Byakko probably wanted to show us something by bringing us here."
After hearing Kisuke, Yoruichi's eyes widened and she stood up. That line of thinking didn't come to her at all, after all, "Then..."
"Although it's just a guess, maybe there is a way for you to a breakthrough in this world."
Yoruichi can feel her clouded mind clearing up. Although she can't still far ahead, something inside her lightened up and she couldn't help smiling. She then threw herself to Kisuke, whispering to his ears, "Thank you."
Just one chapter for today.