While the Loki Familia members were scrambling around the embarrassed Riveria, Kisuke separated from them and approached Yoruichi, Aika, Sona, Tiona and Ais who were left alone, "Trying to learn how to swim?"
Ais's expression became slightly awkward as she recalled their last conversation. Nevertheless, she still nodded, "Y-yes."
Tiona then smiled wryly and said, "It's not going well, though."
Kisuke looked at Ais for a short while and noted her slight trembling on the water and figured out what's going on, "Well, if you can't overcome your fear of deep waters, you'll never be able to properly learn how to swim. Why are you so afraid anyway?"
To that question, Ais's face became slightly pale and her trembling worsened as she hugged Tiona closely. "Aha...haha. She hasn't recovered from the trauma of Riveria's training years ago," Tiona answered while laughing wryly.
"Hmm...," Kisuke started rubbing his chin. Wondering what he's thinking about, Kisuke suddenly grinned and said, "Want to learn a nifty trick?"
Ais tilted her head and asked, "Trick?"
While his girls, Tiona and Ais were watching, Kisuke suddenly walked over to the water. However, instead of sinking, Kisuke took another step on the water, and now he was standing on the water on his own two feet.
Tiona and Ais's eyes widened at this scene and the former asked with a trembling voice, "H-how!?"
Due to Tiona's exclamation, the people who were scrambling around Riveria, looked in their direction. At first, they couldn't understand what was going on or why Tiona suddenly exclaimed and was making such a shocked expression. But the moment Kisuke took a few more steps towards the deeper parts of the water, they finally realized what was going on, yet they still couldn't understand what's happening, so they could only remain speechless while making shocked faces, trying to comprehend the scene in front of them.
Ais, on the other hand, let go of Tiona and approached Kisuke, before starting to look around his feet, trying to figure out how he's doing this, "This is the nifty trick I'm talking about~." Kisuke said while looking down at her.
Ais then suddenly looked up to him with shining eyes and said, "Please teach me how!"
Not long after Ais's plea, Line also raised her hand and said, "Please teach me too!"
Recovering from her shock, Tiona also joined in, "Me too!"
Recovering from her shyness after witnessing a very interesting technique, Riveria also raised her voice with shining eyes, "I would like to learn it too, if possible."
"If Tiona is learning it, please let me in too!" Tione added, not wanting to be left behind.
As for the rest, since they were not really close to the Hestia Familia, especially Kisuke, nor were they as outgoing and honest as the Hiryute sisters, despite their interest and curiosity, they couldn't tell Kisuke that they wanted to learn it too.
Seeing this, Loki was about to ask Kisuke to include the others too, but before she could speak up, she saw Kisuke winked at her. Understanding what he meant, Loki backed down.
Kisuke then clapped his hands and said, "Alright~! Since so many people want to learn it, those who don't want to play around anymore are free to join~!"
Hesitantly, Lefiya asked, "I-is that fine with you? It seems like a very important exploration skill. And can we really learn it without it being reflected on our Status?"
Kisuke nodded and answered, "You sure can. And if possible, I'd like you to stop thinking about your Skills, Magic and Developmental Abilities, no matter how rare they are, while learning this trick."
Lefiya and the rest looked at each other in confusion, however, it was easy enough of a condition so they just nodded.
"Great~! Then before I teach you how to actually do this, I'd like to talk to Loki-sama in private."
Riveria sighed after hearing this and thought, 'Of course it wouldn't be for free. Most likely, he'll 'issue the bill' to Loki for all this trouble.' However, she understood where Kisuke was coming from and also didn't like the idea of getting indebted to him, and not knowing how to pay it back. It's just too risky when it comes to Kisuke.
Kisuke walked towards Loki and passed by her. Loki thought for a bit before following him towards a certain distance that the others wouldn't overhear their conversation, "What do you want as an exchange and why are you being so secretive about it?"
"Well, you'll probably question my motives so I'm doing this as a precaution," answered Kisuke.
Loki looked straight into his eyes and said with a serious expression, "Out with it."
"My condition is, whatever they learn from me as a group, I would like them to spread it to everyone."
"Everyone?"
"Yes, everyone. Every Adventurer out there, including the Ganesha Familia, Hephaestus Familia and... the Freya Familia."
Loki became quiet for a few minutes and Kisuke just waited for her response. It wasn't long until Loki responded but instead of asking about his motives, she went straight to the thing she's most curious about, "What's going to happen? And what do you know?"
Kisuke was already prepared for her to ask a few questions, but he didn't expect her to go straight to that part. And despite the casual way Loki asked her question, Kisuke could feel some pressure from her as Deity, signifying her seriousness.
But before Kisuke could answer her, Loki continued speaking, "If I'm not wrong, the main component behind that trick is life energy, or what you call Ki, right?"
Kisuke nodded, "Correct."
"Even though us Gods are aware of its existence, we know for sure that only a few people in history were able to manifest it. Even then, they were not able to use it for anything useful aside from lengthening their lifespans by a decade or two."
"So when I heard from Riveria that some of you are utilizing this energy, I was shocked. However, I didn't delve deeper into it with respect to your privacy and Hestia. But now, you're asking my children to spread the method of manipulating life energy which in turn may put them in danger from the attention they would be getting from other Deities."
"On those grounds, I would have immediately refused this despite the apparent benefit. Just so you know, even though us Gods came down here for entertainment, that doesn't mean we don't care about order or the lives in the Lower World if it's for our own amusement."
"However, I still regard you highly. So I'm asking you, what's going to happen and what do you know? Give me an answer that will allow me to agree with your plans."
Kisuke sighed, "I'm not a prophet nor do I have the skill of one, so I don't really know what's going to happen. As for what I do know, I don't really know that much either, so I can't really answer any of those questions in a way that would satisfy you. If it's my motives, it's easier to answer as I only wanted a potential option for the future."
Loki's jaw slackened when she heard Kisuke's answer, "Y-y-you were planning for an indefinite future and placing indefinite measures!? You're planning to drag my children into danger for nonsensical shit like that!?"
"Uh, it's not nonsensical. I at least think that this is a good measure for the things that I think might happen in the future," Kisuke immediately corrected her.
Editors:
28th00: I need Phis-chama’s perspective on Kisuke copying Jesus. “Ah, cross-man did that too!” Serafall and Sona would work too, since it’d be pretty funny.
Staz Irvine
"Bullshit! How is all of that sensical!?" hollered Loki.
Kisuke became quiet for a moment, closed his eyes, and thought of ways to convince her, 'Should I just take a gamble?' He opened his eyes and looked straight into Loki's eyes, 'If I'm going to do that, I should be able to gauge her affiliation... and it would be interesting to see her reaction.'
Loki was mad, but when she saw a grin on Kisuke's face, she became a bit concerned, "W-what? Ya plannin' something else?"
But instead of answering her, Kisuke turned back and suddenly yelled, "Ophis-chan~! Come here for a minute."
Ophis looked towards him for a few seconds before standing up and leaving behind the sandcastle she had been working on. Loki didn't say anything hereafter and just waited for the child that has been giving her a strange feeling to slowly walk over.
Ophis reached Kisuke's side and looked up to him, "...What is it?"
"Could you perhaps hide us?" asked Kisuke.
Loki became confused at his question but Ophis immediately understood what he meant, "...Only for a few seconds, or else, he'll notice."
Kisuke nodded, "That's more than enough."
While Loki was looking confused, Ophis suddenly lifted her right arm over to her head and the surrounding scenery suddenly became distorted until it was instantly dyed in black. While Loki's eyes opened widely in shock, she was more surprised with the aura that the little girl was emitting instead of the sudden change in scenery, "W-What are you!?"
But instead of addressing her concerns, Kisuke explained, "I'm doing this because of the existence known as 'Chaos'."
Loki became frozen at his words, and two seconds later, the darkness engulfing them receded, returning the scenery to normal, as if nothing had happened.
Immediately after, Loki tried her best to return her expression to normal and hide her agitation. But just from this, Kisuke was able to gauge where she was standing and thought that revealing a few things to her was worth it.
As Loki became quiet, Kisuke could see minute changes in her expression and could tell that she was under a lot of stress.
And indeed, Loki was very stressed after what just happened. There were two main points, but Loki couldn't ask for clarification to either of those, 'Because of that black space, we were temporarily separated from 'reality'. Although 'that guy' shouldn't have seen anything, a fluctuation within the laws of the world would surely get his attention and he would investigate it. Although he might not have been looking just now, he should still be eyeing this part of the Lower World right now!'
'Thanks to that, I can't ask what the identity of that little girl is nor how he knew of 'that guy'! Fuck! I want to know, but I can't unless I want to get 'his' attention now!' Hence, the source of her stress.
Meanwhile, Kisuke just waited for her to gather and sort out her thoughts quietly. Ophis, on the other hand, immediately returned to her playtime after fulfilling Kisuke's request.
After a few minutes, Loki sighed heavily and glared at Kisuke, "Teach them and make sure that they'll survive whatever's coming down, then at least I won't be your enemy." She then walked away from Kisuke, not waiting for her reply. She won't take a no for an answer. She'd do anything to keep her beloved children safe from unreasonable forces.
'Everyone thought that the most that could happen in this era would be the subjugation of the Black Dragon. Moreover, I'm sure that no Deity would expect that there are individuals that could potentially unveil the secret of the Dungeon,' Loki then stopped walking for a moment and looked up to the sky, 'If 'it' rises up again, who's side is going to prevail this time? All logic and reasoning goes to 'that guy's' side, but what is this feeling? For the first time ever, instead of just looking forward to the future and the stories of my children, I'm very conflicted.'
Resuming her steps towards her children again, Loki kept asking herself, 'At that time, where should I stand?'
The first one to approach her was Riveria as she asked, "What's wrong?"
Loki shook her head and sighed, "Nothing. He'll teach you that 'trick' now so be sure to study it carefully. It should be useful in the future."
Her uncharacteristic response weirded out Riveria but she could also tell that she didn't want to talk about this further so Riveria instead asked, "What about his 'price'?"
"We've talked it out so you shouldn't worry about it. Though I want it to be between us for now, so I'm sorry, but I can't tell you."
Riveria became even more hesitant after hearing that but Loki reassured her, "Don't think about it. What he wants is on me and he wouldn't ask anything else from you lot. Be at ease."
Only then could Riveria sigh in relief.
'Looks like dealing with Kisuke's 'prices' gave her a bit of trauma,' Loki snickered inwardly.
In the meantime, Yoruichi approached Kisuke, "What happened?"
From her point of view, nothing out of the ordinary happened except for the sudden slight fluctuation of Mana, Ki and Spirit Particles in the surroundings. However, she had been listening to their conversation and felt baffled when their topic shifted into an entirely different direction. Her guess is that Kisuke asked Ophis to do something that she wasn't able to perceive.
But instead of answering her, Kisuke just held her hand. At first, Yoruichi was confused with what he's trying to do, but her expression stiffened slightly when she received a coded message from Kisuke using his Reiatsu. This secret code which meant 'later' was one of the many communication codes that were used within the Onmitsukido or the Stealth Force back in the Seireitei. She was surprised at the extent of Kisuke wanting to keep this a secret.
Figuring out that someone might be watching, it'll look weird if she just stood there saying nothing so she changed the topic, "You're teaching them how to manipulate Ki?"
Kisuke nodded and said, "Yeah. I can't have them as helpless as they are right now in the future. If chaos were to happen in the future, I don't want them retiring to the sidelines. As you know, since we're just a small group, the more chaotic things are, the better."
"I see... And I agree. We can't be the only ones that go to the deeper parts of the Dungeon," Yoruichi knew that Kisuke is referring to something else, but for the sake of saying something back and not drawing suspicion, she replied as such.
Kisuke grinned and said, "Correct~."
Within the void, the eyes that are looking down at the Lower World lost their interest and went back to inactivity, waiting for the 'Tiger' to fulfill his end of the deal and pull 'that being' out from the depths of the Dungeon.
Editors:
28th00: So, who is it? Tiamat? Nuwa? I can’t really think of any other ‘origin of life’ entities off the top of my head. Somebody is (or in) the dungeon that is Phis-chama tier. I can swear I had this discussion multiple times with Goyya, and promptly forgot everything else to do with it every single time afterwards. Sorta like how I forgot Bell exists in this story. Or how Goyya forgot Gasper existed at one point…
Staz Irvine