Tale of Discovery

Chapter 215: Recounting ; Shopping ; Encounter

Ugh. As much as I would like to go ahead and hug every single person in the mansion, I am aware that it is still early, so most of them are not awake yet.

"Come on," I say to the returnees, "let us head inside."

As such, we all begin to move toward the door leading inside. I telekinetically unlock the door and open it before we step inside the quiet mansion.

Using Clairvoyance, I can sense that the only ones who are awake are Nao, Misa, and Sora.

The three of them are currently in the dining room. Nao and Sora seem to be teaching Misa how to cook breakfast.

Taking a look at the ingredients, I can see that breakfast is going to be a traditional one.

"Is this where the Creator lives now?" Saturnus curiously questions as we make our way to the living room.

"Yes," I respond, "Though, it's not just limited to this place."

Soon, we all arrive in the living room, where the girls take a seat on the sofas.

"I missed this," Siesta says.

"Living here is much better than that world," Krul remarks.

After a few seconds of complete silence, I turn my head to face Gaia and ask, "Are you going to 'merge' with this planet?"

As a response to my inquiry, she nods her head once and replies, "Yes. However, it will take some time."

"What's this about merging?" Krul questions.

I take in a deep breath before explaining, "I forgot to introduce her to you properly. This lady here is Gaia. She just so happens to be a Code.

"Her Code is a 'one digit'. Basically, she possesses immense prowess. Anyway, one of her abilities is merging with a planet and, I assume, manage its nature."

"Hold on," Krul interjects while pressing her fingers against her temples, "you're telling me that she will be controlling this planet?"

"That's what you can do, right?" I ask Gaia, to which she nods her head.

"Amazing," Tiffania says with stars in her eyes.

The rest of those present have looks of awe and admiration in their eyes, particularly Gabriel and Aruru.

"Will you be helping Father like this?" Aruru suddenly asks Gaia.

To my pleasant surprise, Gaia nods her head while smiling.

"How nice," Aruru says in an envious tone.

As a response to her words, I chuckle a little, but the next moment, I sense a sharp gaze to my right.

Turning my head, I am with the sight of Misa standing a few meters away from me with arms crossed. She has a deadpan expression on her face as she stares at me.

"Hello," I casually say, ignoring the strange atmosphere.

"When did you return?" she asks in a neutral tone.

"A few minutes ago," I respond.

"Were you not supposed to have left?" another voice questions as Nao enters the living room.

"I did leave," I casually respond, "You just haven't noticed because of the time difference."

"Time difference?" Nao inquires with raised brows.

"What, Sora didn't tell you?" I say exasperatedly, "Time was frozen here the same way it has for the world you're from."

"Huh? What the heck? You can just freeze time in worlds as you please?"

"Well, yes," I wryly respond, "However, there is a limit."

"This is madness," Misa remarks, "What are you anyway? God?"

"Well, God is something akin to my son, so no."

A dumbfounded expression appears on Misa's face. As for Nao, she has an amused expression on her face as she says, "Your behavior is unsuitable for such a figure."

"Haru!" a melodic voice resounds within the room as Sora rushes in and looks around.

The moment our eyes meet, a wide smile forms on her lips as she ignores everyone else's presence and runs toward me.

I embrace her slender body tightly and whisper, "I'm home."

"Welcome back," she says while nuzzling her chin against my shoulder.

How strange. For Sora, I was gone for a few minutes, yet I can sense extreme loneliness from her right now.

After a while, she finally breaks the hug and sits right beside me.

As if just noticing the rest, Sora glances at the returnees, mostly focusing on the new faces she hadn't seen before.

"Who are they?" she asks in a rather cold tone.

I let out a sigh before recounting everything that occurred over the period I was in the Sorcerers' Lair while omitting whatever isn't needed to be said.

"So, now you can go to that world whenever you want to?" Sora asks once I'm done recounting.

"Pretty much," I say.

"Will the time here stop when you do that?"

"No, unless I will it."

Seeing her nod her head, I take this moment to think about something before asking, "Why aren't the rest awake yet?"

They have to go to school, after all. So, it's strange that they haven't woken up yet.

"Everyone has taken the day-off," Nao answers my inquiry.

"Why?"

As a response to this, Nao and Misa both gawk at me, while Sora smiles a little.

Oh...

--- (Tokyo, Japan - Near Akihabara)

"Hurry up!" Sora says while pulling my left arm.

"Okay, okay," I say, "Why hurry? We can shop for as long as we want."

"No!" she sharply responds, "We will go visit other places too."

Ignoring the surrounding crowd, I let out a sigh before swiftly moving closer and kissing her cheek.

Startled by my action, a wide smile forms on Sora's lips as she turns to face me and asks, "Did you miss me?"

"Of course," I reply without any delay, "How could I not?"

The smile on her face grows as she says, "Good."

Then, Sora continues to pull me along as she heads inside a phone store.

Why are we here? Well, because I had discarded my old phone in Sorcerers' Lair, I need a new one.

Even so, I could've just created a new phone for myself, but Sora insisted that she wants to head out with me and buy a new phone while at it.

Well, I appreciate the gesture, as it feels quite nice to spend some time with my sister after everything that has transpired.

The store we entered is quite a popular one that has multitudes of various electronics on display. Its name is Yodobashi Camera.

We both make our way to the section designated for smartphones.

Sora then begins to look around the store like a curious cat for what she deemed to be the most suitable phone for me.

A store clerk wished to approach us around, but I easily got rid of him by using Eye of Judgment.

"Hey, this one seems nice," Sora finally after looking around in the store for about twenty minutes.

Glancing at the phone that has caught her fancy, I notice that it's a Samsung phone. Curious about her reason for picking it, I take a look at its specs and features.

After careful inspection, I notice that it has quite decent features as well as a pen to write with for the price of 67,800 (Roughly $644).

For this occasion, I have burrowed Nao's phone. I have already entered my credentials and whatnot, so I can shop with whatever credit I have left in my account.

"I will get one too," Sora says.

"Matching phones?" I say while grinning, to which she responds by beaming a smile.

--

"Where do we go now?" I ask once we've left the store after buying the two phones.

Sora who is currently trying out her new phone lifts her head and says, "Let's go shop for clothes."

"Right," I say before inspecting the clothes I have on at the moment.

Once again, this is unnecessary, but it's still fun to hang out together, so whatever.

"Hold on," I say before using Clairvoyance to look around for a suitable clothing store.

After a few seconds, I state, "There is a suitable store nearby. Let's go."

Sora puts her phone away before squinting her eyes and asking, "How do you know?"

"Well, I happen to have a power that allows me to see everything around me," I explain. At least, Clairvoyance is something like that.

"See everything?" Sora repeats, "Normally?"

Understanding what she's getting at, I nod my head and say, "That's right. Think of it as me being able to move my sight around."

"Hm" Sora hums with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Come on," I say before grabbing her hand and beginning to walk toward our destination.

--

The store that had caught my attention was Uniqlo. It was nearby and seemed to have nice clothing.

I never thought that something like this would happen

"Why are you here, Rias?" I question while observing the demon princess's face for any reaction.

Sora is currently holding onto my arm tightly while glaring at her.

Beads of sweat roll down Rias' forehead as she hides a bag behind her and says, "I had some business here, that's all."

Shaking my head at her suspicious behavior, I say, "You don't need to be so afraid of me. It's not like I will rip your body to shred for no apparent reason."

Rias issues an awkward laugh before bowing and saying, "May I leave?"

Before I can respond to her, a familiar voice reaches my ears.

Looking over at the source of the voice, I am a little startled by the sight before my eyes.

A certain girl is currently being harassed by three guys. One of them has grabbed the girl's arm and is pulling on it, while another is 'smooth-talking' her.

Noticing that something is wrong, Rias straightens her back and looks at where my sight is set.

Sora does the same, but her reaction is vastly different from us. Instead of anger or shock, Sora just displays an expression of hate and disgust.

Well aware of the reason she is acting like this, I decide to not intervene. However, the same can't be said for Rias, who is already making her way to the bunch.

"What do you think you're doing?" she yells in a firm tone, attracting the attention of everyone who wasn't paying attention already.

"Let her go," Rias continues.

One of the three guys looks around a little before replying, "What, are you this chick's big sis?"

The three guys scrutinize Rias' body with hungry looks before the one holding the girl's arm says, "Say, how about you join us for dinner too?"

As a response to this, Rias frowns a little before stepping forth and slamming her palm into the nearest man's chest.

Naturally, a human is unable to withstand the attack of a devil, even if she held back her power.

The man that was struck immediately falls to the ground and clutches where he was struck.

"You b*tch!" the 'smooth-talker' exclaims before rushing at her with a furious expression.

As expected, before he can realize what's going on, the man finds himself on the ground with a broken leg.

At this point, the crowd that has formed is cheering for Rias as she takes out the trash.

The last one left has a cold look in his eyes as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out an army knife.

Rias isn't disturbed by the knife, as she begins to approach him, however, the man suddenly moves behind the girl from earlier and presses the knife against her neck.

"Stay away!" he says in a loud and cold voice.

Knowing that this would be problematic if I let it go on for any longer, I create a thin needle in the air and launch toward the man's forehead.

His expression doesn't change and no blood flows out of the man as he suddenly collapses onto the ground.

As a response to this, a confused look appears on Rias' face before she seems to realize something and turns around to look at me.

I nod my head once before saying, "Sora, let's leave this place."

"Yeah," she responds while still glaring at the girl.

Unfortunately, before we can take a step, Rias runs over to us and says, "Thank you for the assistance, Your Holiness."

"Don't mention it," I hurriedly say, hoping to leave this place as soon as possible.

"Excuse me," a voice resounds behind Rias, causing her to turn around.

There, standing before her is a black-haired girl with round-glasses.

"Thank you very much," the girl says while bowing.

"It's fine," Rias responds to her gratitude, "Are you hurt?"

The girl shakes her head and is about to respond to the inquiry, but her eyes widen as she notices me and Sora.

Silence ensues for a few seconds before the girl disbelievingly mutters, "Haruka?"