Tale of Discovery

Chapter 239: Agnetem ; Series of Abnormal Occurrences

Getting up from the sofa, I wish Rossweisse and Ravel a good sleep before heading over to my room.

Upon entering, I find Sora seated at the edge of my bed, combing Ayumi's hair.

On the bed, Ophis and Gula seem to be deep asleep, with Eri sleeping on top of Gula's head.

Seeing me, Ayumi is about to jump up in a burst of excitement but stops herself halfway through as she seems to realize something.

Beaming a smile at her, I walk over to the bed and sit beside Sora before kissing her cheek.

A smile also forms on Sora's cheek as she hastens her action of combing Ayumi's hair while making sure to not hurt her.

"I will be leaving tomorrow," I whisper into Sora's ear after a few seconds, causing her to flinch.

She stops combing and turns her head to gaze into my eyes before saying in a low voice, "In the morning?"

"That's right," I respond, "As it would be an instant for you, there isn't a need to take the day off."

"Brother Yu?" Ayumi's voice who is also whispering reaches my ears, seemingly unaware of what Sora and I said.

"It's nothing," I say before reaching my arm out to pat her head.

Sora lets out a small sigh before getting back to combing Ayumi's hair.

As for me, I climb onto the bed while making sure to not disrupt the sleeping trio.

The moment I lie down somewhat properly, I begin to deliberate on my objective in Agnetem. Simply put, I will be trying to meet up with Dominion while also acquiring anything that I deem necessary.

Currently, I don't need to find the Core of Agnetem, so I can leave as soon as I can.

Hopefully, Dominion turns out to be an ally or at the very least, a neutral Code.

With such thoughts circling through my mind, I slowly begin to doze off.

---

Opening my eyes early morning, I feel some weight on my chest, which as expected turned out to be Ophis and Gula who have climbed onto my body.

The thing is, I feel an odd sensation against my lips, which upon inspection turned out to be Eri's head.

Fortunately, none of my arms are blocked, so I slowly reach toward Eri's tiny figure before gently lifting her and placing her on the pillow.

I would've liked to stay like this and directly leave the Rift, but that would not be a wise choice to make. After all, if something did happen to me, there is no guarantee that nothing strange will occur on this side with my body as the source.

As such, I take my team to noiselessly get off the bed and sneak out of the room.

Making my way over to the living room, I take a seat on the sofa before taking in a deep breath and using Clairvoyance to check on everyone.

It seems like I've woken up earlier than usual as from the looks of it, everyone is still asleep.

Letting out a small sigh, I close my eyes and lay back against the sofa before invoking: .

The next moment, I find myself standing in an endless white void with the only other thing being visible apart from myself being the Core Gate leading to Sorcerers' Lair.

"Irene, you know what to do."

{Affirmative. What method would Father like to make use of for this instance?}

"Arrogation," I respond, "After all, it has been rather useful until now, so I don't see any reason to make use of transcription."

{Affirmative.}

The next moment a foreign force pushes me forth before a gap appears in the space as I am suddenly surrounded by darkness.

What the Currently, I feel a hot sensation inside my abdomen as if molten lava was poured into my body.

{WARNING: State of the current Platform is destabilized.}

{Obtained ability: ???}

{Interference with Platform failed. Identity arrogation was half successful.}

{Detecting weak Code Waves nearby.}

Before I can react to AI's series of reports, a jolt of pain strikes my brain as memories begin to seemingly flow into my mind.

As it turns out, this Platform is one that is unlike any other I've been to up until now. Apparently, thirty years ago, a sudden catastrophic event occurred in Eurasia, wiping out a hundred and fifty million of the human population.

The catastrophic event later came to be known as a 'space quake', which was the largest one to ever occur to this date.

Following the occurrence of the first space quake, nothing worth mentioning occurred for the next twenty-five years. However, ever since five years ago, it became something of a common occurrence.

And for some odd reason, they were focused on one country - Japan.

Say, what the heck is up with Japan? Forget it. It doesn't matter anyway.

Now then, how did I end up lying on the ground with a gaping hole in my abdomen I wonder?

For that, I need to recount the actions of the predecessor of this body.

Two days ago, this guy, Shido Itsuka, was at school when an alarm resounded. The aforementioned alarm was an emergency call for the citizens to take shelter in preparation for an upcoming space quake.

At first, he was going to do so, but then he remembered a promise he made with his little sister, Kotori Itsuka, that he would meet up with her at a diner to buy her a meal. He checked her location through his phone, only to find her right at the diner.

So, thinking that she was too afraid to leave, he exited the shelter and ran through the desolated city toward the diner before an explosion occurred on his way.

For some reason, he examined the explosion, only to find a strangely dressed girl right at its center with a gigantic sword nearby.

The girl proceeded to pull the sword out of a giant metallic box before slashing it at him, resulting in a purple shock-wave to be released and obliterate a building behind him.

Shocked, he fell to the ground as the girl appeared before him and held the sword to his neck.

"Are you here to kill me too?" she said in a desolate voice.

Somehow, the guy managed to converse with her without getting killed before a team of girls wearing mechanized armor flew over and began battling against the girl.

One of the said girls happened to be his classmate, Origami Tobiichi, known as the 'super genius'.

Soon after, an explosion occurred as a result of Origami clashing with the strange girl before the guy was knocked out cold.

From here, my memories seem to have blanked out for some reason apart from a few occurrences. First, the guy, as per someone's orders confessed to his teacher, claiming that he's hoping to marry her.

Then, he ran away from the said teacher who was lost in a daze before encountering an expressionless white-haired girl, who happened to be Origami Tobiichi.

After that, a strange conversation occurred with the guy somehow managing to get the girl to be his girlfriend. However, once again, this happened due to the orders of someone who was speaking to him through an earbud.

From here, the memories blank out once again, before the next thing I know, he named the girl with the gigantic sword. Apparently, a name he picked based on the date he met her, 'Tohka'.

After that, he invited her out on a date, despite the girl not seeming to know what a date is.

After another blank in my memories, I arrive at today's occurrence, which just happened to be the guy heading over to where he named the girl and finding her there.

Following that, he took her out on a date where he found that she is a glutton that loves to eat.

Speaking of which, his sister made an appearance and quite a few coincidences occurred.

My brain is still quite fuzzy, so I don't remember exactly how, but he ended up on a hill where he viewed the sunset with Tohka.

Soon after that, he heard a gunshot, causing him to instinctively push the girl away before getting shot by an energy beam.

And so, here I am now, lying on the ground as the sound of explosions reaches my ears.

"Shido! Get up!"

"Who?"

"Huh? Has your brain gotten damaged? I'm your 'dear sister', Kotori."

"How annoying," I subconsciously mutter before getting back on my feet as a jacket falls to the bloodied ground.

"Codification," I intone.

---------

Name: Shido Itsuka (Victor Origo)

True Name: ????

Title: -SEALED-

Age: 8,953 Years

Code: Exousia (2%) {Berserk | Mahesvara | Holy | ????}

Race: Human - 22>>26%

Energy Left: 100%

------

Str: 86[43] (12) | Agi: 79[40] (12) | Dex: 71[36] (12)

Int: 74[38] (12) | Def: 70>>72[36] (12) | Vit: 68>>70[35] (12)

------

Other than changes in my parameters and humanity, nothing else has changed, if I were to leave the new row of question marks aside, which should be my new ability.

Forget that. Why did my humanity increase? I don't recall doing anything 'humane'. Could it be related to me taking over this body?

Anyway, it seems like my parameters are halved in this Platform

"Hey, what are you doing, you idiot brother?!"

What's with this brat? She is in serious need of some discipline.

"Shut up," I say before looking over at where I am hearing the explosions from.

There, I find my supposed 'girlfriend' sitting on the ground with a despondent look on her face while she is being attacked by Tohka, who is continuously slashing her sword, causing shock-waves to be release in Origami's direction.

However, Origami is being guarded by some kind of energy shield, so she is relatively safe for now.

Irene, do the Code waves happen to be coming from there?

{Affirmative.}

So, it's Tohka, huh.

{Analysis: The Code waves from this distance are too weak even when compared to that of a 3-digit Code.}

What's that supposed to mean? Is she like a defect or something?

{Unable to determine.}

Whatever. I can't have any of the two girls die here. As Origami's 'boyfriend', I am obliged to save her, or, so I'd like to say, but I am planning to extract information from her after this.

After all, not every high school girl can get dressed in mechanized suits and fight against an odd girl that can slash buildings in half by shock-waves from a gigantic sword.

"Hey, what did you just say?" an irritated voice resounds within my right ear.

"I told you to shut up," I respond before floating into the air.

"You're flying?!"

"Do you not know what it means to shut your mouth?" I say exasperatedly before dashing toward Tohka.

Perhaps sensing my abrupt appearance, Tohka stops swinging her sword and looks over at me before a pleasantly surprised expression forms on her face as she exclaims, "Shido, you're alive!"

"Of course," I respond before floating over to her so that the distance between us is less than a meter.

"Hey," my sister's voice suddenly resounds within my ear once again, "I don't know how you're doing this but you need to kiss her right now!"

And why would I do that?

Gazing at the girl who seems to be moved to tears upon finding out that I am alive, I realize that my sister's words make sense.

As such, I close what gap is left between me and Tohka before wrapping my arm around her back and swiftly sealing her lips.

All of a sudden, I feel some strange sensation within me before Tohka's clothes simply burst into motes of light, leaving her bare.

Separating my lips from Tohka's, I look down at her naked body with an odd look on my face.

"Shido" a moved voice reaches my ears, but I can't bother to respond at the moment.

The fuck just happened?