Chapter Text
What a pleasant day….
The air was crisp and fresh, the scent of tropical plants filled the air, giving me a feeling of relaxation and content. The idyllic scene of a lush meadow before me added to my good mood.
Ahh, delusions can be nice sometimes, I just made an air polluted city look like a peaceful countryside with the power of imagination.
Is that pathetic?
Probably not.
All things said, I was still in a good mood, I had just left my apartment in the bustling city of Tokyo. I was fully prepared to work today. I left home and merged with the flowing crowd of pedestrians, I didn't possess a car after all. This was not a problem however, it was just a choice of mine, I consider myself fairly successful after all.
Clad in a regular black suit, and a head of black hair, I didn't stand out in the crowd of Japanese people. All of us of different backgrounds and motivations, moved forward through the congested metropolis, the background noise was the constant beeping of vehicles and the roar of their engines, it was the daytime activity of the city that never sleeps.
After a ten minute walk, I arrived at the pedestrian crossing. I and a few others waited patiently for the light to change, just another mundane routine in the life of an average Japanese person.
My current peaceful life was something I treasured, after the whole fiasco with Rimuru and the cardinal world, Wild stuff, really. Now, I live as an average person. I went to work, I did my job well, I earned myself a promotion.
Things were going well for me.
Hahh, delusions are really nice after all…
Things were not peaceful at all!
Since I was healed by rimuru, I had become sensitive to various things I didn't think could exist outside of the cardinal world.
It seems this world had its fair share of magic users as well, it was something that seemed heavily guarded though.
This first became apparent to me three months ago. I had taken a detour on my way home from work,.I was slightly tipsy after sharing a few drinks with my co-workers. In my slightly drunken state, I had ended up going off course and stumbled upon a bizarre sight.
Bizarre as in splitting a shipping container in two with a kitchen knife.
It shook me, I wasn't scared though, it was probably the least impressive supernatural thing I've witnessed in my life.
What shook me was the place this was happening at, like dude. This is earth you know? Earth!
We don't do that here….I think.
I'm not so sure anymore.
Anyway, after watching for about five minutes, I retreated. These were supernatural people, I risked being noticed and captured, or worse.
Killed.
I was not the average Japanese person per se, I had witnessed dark parts of the world through my memories.
I know the lengths people, supernatural or not, would go to further their own interests, murder was par for the course.
I carefully slunk away from the scene, moving in small precise steps to avoid alerting the fighters.
This went on for about thirty seconds, and when I got away from the scene's immediate vicinity, I ran.
I arrived at my house in no time, this was something that I never saw coming. It could end up dragging me into its mess one day.
With these thoughts in mind, I made a decision. I would pretend as if I witnessed nothing, ignorance (even delusional ignorance) is bliss after all.
It's not like I'm gonna run into any of them, heh.
.
Now, the light has changed. The waiting pedestrians poured over the road, the obvious goal was to get to the other side.
I was about to join them when I was pulled back by the collar of my suit.
Hmm?
What is this…?
A friend?
I craned my neck backwards, intending to take a look at the person responsible for my delay.
I had expected a hooligan, or the familiar face of a friend.
Either of those things would have been nice, you know?
"Please remove your sharp ice crystal from my face."
"I refuse."
"Okay."
What was that conversation!?
I was met with the face of a beautiful Japanese woman, complete with black hair and a slightly small stature. She was wearing a long black coat with a black turtleneck shirt and….black pants.
I would have taken my time to appreciate the beauty of her face, but I was hindered by a small matter.
A very sharp, dangerous looking ice dagger currently pointing at my neck.
I ignored you guys right??
Why couldn't you just leave me alone!?
"My suspicions are confirmed. I thought I was being paranoid, but it seems my hunch is right, as always."
Uh..what is the woman talking about? I was really confused here, also, should you be doing this in broad daylight?
"Uh…you know it's rush hour right…?" "I'm well aware, only people who possess od energy can see the products of the heavenly arts. Your reaction to what is in my hand confirmed my suspicions that you actually saw us that day, Mikami Satoru."
Eh..? She even knows my name….? More importantly, od? What's that? Is it what they call magicules over here..? Hmm, I had totally given myself away, huh.
"Is that so..? I have no idea what all that is though, maybe I'm just someone that can see things like that?"
"Why is that said like a question? Are you making fun of me?"
Is she really getting pissed!?
"No, no. I really don't know what od is. Please believe me!"
She scrutinized my face, looking for the smallest sign of deceit. Her stare was so intense that I knew I would lose my life if I failed this test.
She looked for a little while before turning away.
"I don't trust you, but I'll let you live for now. Follow me."
This was getting troublesome.
I guess it's time to use that huh.
When rimuru revived me, he left me with a few extra skills. They were quite impressive for this world, but nothing groundbreaking.
He also told me that I could now acquire skills of my own from this world, since the voice of the world managed the multiverse and I was now linked to it.
I engaged one of the extra skills, Magic Sense, this was a skill I haven't used since my revival.
In fact, I hadn't used any of them at all.
Magic sense was now active, information flowed into my head, it was growing too much to handle, so I engaged the extra skill [Sage]. It was a degraded version of rimuru's initial great sage. It also didn't have a response function, which was perfectly rational, it didn't have a budding ego after all.
My Magic Sense was not as expansive as rimuru's, sage wasn't able to bear the full brunt, so performance was reduced. It was enough, however. I used the skill to observe the woman walking in front of me, aiming to analyze her.
Hmm…it turns out that what she called od is magicules after all. And this lady had a reasonable amount for a human. Her total count would amount to about a quarter of shizu's back then. Really impressive, at least it explains her boundless confidence in herself.
Too bad sage couldn't look into her soul, I would have liked to know if she possessed any skills of her own. Though for now, I could prod her for information.
"Uhm…so this od. How does it work exactly?"
As I asked this question, she looked back at me, not even halting for a second. She seemed to be contemplating whether to tell me anything or not.
In the end, she sighed in resignation. Seems like I'm getting an answer after all.
"Od is the energy of life. It is something that is only possessed by a select few of humans on the planet. It is the fuel for the heavenly arts. The heavenly arts are miracles that can be performed by enforcing your will on the world with the help of od. A supposedly average person like you shouldn't even have any…"
As she spoke, she conjured another ice shard in her hands, she spun it around a few times and kept changing its shape.
I understand this already, hell, her explanation was a bit inaccurate.
And she hasn't mentioned anything about the voice of the world and skills, she could just be withholding information, or they might not have those at all.
What I don't get is why ordinary people can't see it. Back in the cardinal world, people had been able to see magic and the like clearly.
I began to analyze the magic with sage, it took longer than I would have liked, but at least it got the job done.
Hmm…interesting. It seems these people had learnt an art to cloak the visible manifestation of magic to people below a certain threshold of magicule count. I wonder what their reasoning is behind this.
"I see….od is really amazing huh. Why don't you people share it with the world?"
Hearing my next question, the woman stopped. She turned to me, her face literally screamed "what a stupid question".
"Share? This is something gifted to the chosen ones by the heavens, why should we give it to the unworthy?"
Uwaah, it's those type of people huh.
I had realized this earlier, interacting with these people is really gonna be a chore….
"I-is that so..? I'm sorry then." "As long as you understand."
Okay…?
Anyway, we kept moving after that. She kept taking me around unfamiliar turns, she didn't even tell me where we were going.
After about thirty minutes of walking, we arrived at a building.
It was nothing special, it looked like a traditional Japanese house, the architecture wasn't that interesting or anything. The only notable thing about this place was the multiple magicule signatures that I sensed from it.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. Could you tell me your name, you already know mine after all.."
"Hmm, I suppose I should get that out of the way.
My name is Sakurai Hana. Refer to me as Sakurai."
She actually answered, she opened the door and led me inside. The occupants of the room were behind veils, but that wasn't my concern right now. Could I actually get along with Sakurai, I feel like I've found a frien-
"I have brought the prisoner."
Or not. Fuck.
.
.
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