Tale of Discovery

Chapter 245: Worries ; Properties ; Spar

---3rd POV---

"Leader, what happened back there?" a young brown-haired girl hurriedly asks a downtrodden black-haired woman.

After a few seconds of staring at the ground, the black-haired woman lets out a sigh and asks, "You saw it didn't you? Something was protecting Hermit."

As a response to her words, the brown-haired girl, as well as the rest of the girls, present nod their heads with serious looks on their faces.

"Do you think that was a spirit?" the black-haired woman dubiously asks.

"No way," the brown-haired girl responds, "There was no space quake and there was no information from the headquarters regarding another spirit appearing."

"I agree with Mikie," a golden-haired girl adds, "If that was a spirit, our equipment would've detected it."

Hearing their responses, the black-haired woman lets out another sigh and says, "Hermit's protector seemed to be a high schooler. He wasn't equipped with realizers, yet he was capable of flight. How do you explain that?"

Silence ensues as each of the girls present, apart from Origami, cast a glance at one another with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Anyway," the black-haired woman continues, "I'm going to relay this matter to headquarters. Perhaps, they would know what's going on."

---1st POV---

"Thank you for arriving here at the time I specified," I say while gazing at Tohka who is smiling while standing in front of me with her face covered by a red hue.

"Come here," I say while patting a part of the bed right now to where I am sitting.

Doing as I instructed her to, Tohka sits down beside me before gazing at me with a curious look on her face.

"Tohka, do you know what has happened to your powers?" I ask while squinting my eyes.

"My powers?" she mutters before shaking her head and saying, "I don't know. Ever since that"

Her words trail off as she lowers her head and the red hue on her face reddens even further.

"It's my fault," I directly state, startling Tohka as she looks up at me with a befuddled expression.

"After we had our first kiss, your powers got sealed by none other than me."

"Why are you telling me this?" Tohka asks while slightly tilting her head.

"Because I would like to try something out," I respond, "I recall you using a giant sword to battle against the AST."

"I don't know what Ay-Es-Teeu is, but I did use a sword. Its name is Sandalphon."

"Can you use that sword now?" I inquire.

"No," she says before extending her arm forward, "Nothing happens, even when-"

Tohka's words get cut off as bright shines from her palm, startling her by no small margin.

The next moment the light fades as Tohka jumps to her feet and examines her palm with a shocked look on her face.

"How?" she says, "I tried to use it before, and it didn't work."

Unfazed, I say, "Try to use it again."

Nodding her head, Tohka reaches her arm out once again with an expectant look in her eyes.

However, this time no light shined, resulting in a look of both confusion and disappointment to appear on Tohka's face.

"As I thought," I say, "The seal on your powers is directly related to my will."

"What do you mean?" she inquires.

"It means that as long as I think it's fine, you can use your powers however you like."

Hearing my words, Tohka nods her head understandingly.

Well, it's great that things turned out the way I was expecting them to be. The main reason I had expected something like this was because of Kotori's explanation regarding how Tohka's mental state regressing could result in the return of her powers.

No matter what, that's a rather vague 'property' of the sealing ability I now seem to possess.

So, I thought of exploring its other properties while hoping they would give me a fair grasp of the ability and not befuddle me any further.

"Tohka," I say as a grin forms on my lips, "Would you like to fight me?"

"What?"

---

"Wow!" Tohka exclaims as she excitedly looks around at the buildings and skyscrapers, "Where are we?"

"In another world," I randomly respond, "How is it?"

"It's amazing," she directly responds.

"Alright," I say with a small smile on my lips, "Let's get started now, shall we?"

Hearing my words, a slight frown forms on Tohka's face as she asks, "Are we really going to fight?"

"Yes, we are. Now, activate your powers."

Following my order, Tohka's current into fiery purple flames before a majestic dress as well as purple plated armor covers her body.

Soon after a bright golden light shines beside her before it fades and reveals an ancient-looking golden throne.

Tohka approaches the throne and grabs a hilt extending from its back before pulling out a giant broadsword.

Beaming a smile, I raise my hands and yell, "Come on, Tohka. Attack me with everything you've got!"

"But" she says with a slightly hesitant look on her face.

"Tohka!" I yell in a firmer tone.

Perhaps reasoning that there is a reason for all this, Tohka disregards all her initial inhibitions as she appears before me and swings her sword down.

Following that, a purple shock-wave forms from the sword's blade and moves toward me at an incredible pace.

Sensing the intensity power contained within the shock-wave, I extend my arm forward without bothering to dodge or dissipate the attack.

The next moment, the shock-wave makes contact with my hand, resulting in an explosion as my hand turns a little numb.

"What?!" Tohka, who witnessed the whole process, exclaims with a bewildered look on her face.

"Come on, Tohka," I say while grinning, "You can't tell me that's all you're capable of - producing such weak shock-waves, that is."

Realizing that I'm mocking her, Tohka pouts and says, "I just didn't attack you with my full power because I was afraid to hurt you."

"Sure, if you say so," I respond while shrugging my shoulders.

Letting out a small sigh, I decide to get a little serious.

Circulating my Holy Essence, I gaze at Tohka with a serious expression, startling her as she subconsciously gets into a defensive stance.

The next moment, I utilize Godspeed to appear behind Tohka while using Light Manipulation to create a sword out of light.

Tohka seems to have sensed me as a purple barrier forms behind her, which I heed no attention as I swing my sword at her back.

Shortly, my light sword contacts her barrier, resulting in a burst of energy to be released before the barrier shatters into bits as the sword continues moving without anything else to obstruct it.

Surprisingly, the moment my sword reaches her back, another burst of energy gets released as Tohka's dress begins glowing in pinkish purple.

Following that, the light sword gets rebound as Tohka turns her body and throws a kick at me using her right leg which is covered in plated armor.

Naturally, such an attack wouldn't be able to reach me as I easily cancel its vectors before slamming my palm into Tohka's abdomen.

My actions result in Tohka to be sent back a few meters before she stabilizes herself and raises her sword with a solemn expression.

"What's wrong, Tohka?" I say before dissipating the light sword, "Surely, you are capable of more than that, right?"

"Shido" she says in a doubtful tone, "What are you? Weren't you a human before?"

"Was I?" I say dubiously, "If I were a human, that shot at the end of our date would've killed me, no?"

Hearing my words, Tohka nods her head once before tightening her grip on Sandalphon and dashing toward me.

Deciding to not use any of my abilities, I dash toward her as well before blocking a swing from Tohka's broadsword using my palm and throwing a kick at Tohka's side.

The kick ultimately lands on the plated armor on her side, resulting in her being thrown off-balance and fall to the ground.

Just as I'm about to make a remark on her abilities, Tohka abruptly gets back on her feet as relatively intense energy begins to swirl around her body and Sandalphon.

"Shido!" she exclaims before dashing toward me at a speed twice as fast as her previous pace.

With a grin on my face, I raise my arms in preparation for the upcoming attack.

---

Setting a naked Tohka down on my bed, I let out a sigh and mutter, "I should've refrained from pressing her too much."

Soon after Tohka's 'power-up', she began to attack me frantically without a care for the energy she had stored.

As expected, that resulted in her collapsing after a few minutes of sparring with me.

What I didn't expect was her clothes to just randomly dissipate along with that.

Well, whatever. I got all the information I sought out of this, so the minor details don't matter much compared to that.

Simply put, despite being much weaker than all the other Codes I've encountered so far, Tohka is still remarkably powerful.

That's not all, as I also noticed her powers seemed to increase along with my will, albeit at the cost of my Essence Energy.

It seems like there is way more to my 'sealing' ability than what Kotori and Reine believe, or more accurately, what they have told me.

"Shido," a voice interrupts my thoughts, causing me to look over at Tohka, whose eyes are closed.

"Let's kiss Shido," she says with her eyes closed as if she is sleep-talking.

Beaming a smile, I use Destruction to get rid of my clothes before lying down beside Tohka and giving her a short peck on the lips.

The next thing I know, a wide smile covers Tohka's lips as she moves closer and presses her forehead against my chest.

Sensing her two soft mounds, I am unable to hold back from giving them a gentle squeeze before starting to slowly doze off.