Chapter 600

I had a list.

And I was making check marks.

Retrieved my stuff from the Faerie Lands, check.

There wasn’t anything else I was needed for over there. Yasaka was handling what remained of the cleanup, and besides sitting there and looking pretty, I had nothing to help with.

I sent the items I promised to Venelana to hand over to Rias. The arm and leg guards, and some more potions, just in case.

Hopefully those would help them, but I wasn’t really going to do much else there.

…probably.

If something catastrophic happened, well, I couldn’t bear to see Venelana sad or upset, so I would probably help somewhere.

But I digress.

Lastly, I sent Fawkes back home.

He was a good sport about everything. And if I were to guess, I think he had fun playing around for a bit.

Those were the immediate things.

Otherwise, Odin was still handling things on his end, so there wasn’t really much we could do about the seals for now. Realistically, what were we supposed to do? I suppose we could go around doing better to reinforce and hide the seals, but the fact that they’re still there means they haven't been found yet.

So if they can in fact find them, would us reinforcing them do anything? They got strong enough, guys, that no matter what we did, they could break through it, and their ultimate goal was to destroy them, putting us in an awkward position.

I’m happy I have the help of people like Odin and Hades because I would be having a hell of a time trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing.

I had other things written on my list.

Continue Bankai training.

That was simple. After completing the last ‘test,’ I was feeling good and knew that I should keep the momentum up.

Start specialized sword training with Artoria.

There was a high probability that my next ‘test’ in my Bankai training involved the use of one of my swords, or all of them. If not next, then eventually, if things continued as they were.

Spend some time doing some research on spells. There were still plenty of spells I wanted to learn from various places that I hadn’t even started yet. 

I crossed a line through the Destroyer.

That wasn’t ready yet either; Odin hadn’t really started. It was understandable, if disappointing, but he has been busy with other things as of late.

Now, next on my agenda, I had something I wanted to look into back in the world Jeanne was staying at for the moment. Rather, that universe, I should say, considering that Asgard existed in another part of the universe there and not specifically on Earth or connected to it.

I made a note to look into the Magic there too, in more detail this time.

Also, I was going to stop over by Remnant and check in on Salem. Also, I hadn’t seen everyone in a while. Pyrrha, Roman and the gang, and Neo too.

I also needed to refill my stock of Dust; I’ve ended up using a lot since the war.

I crossed out another line; take a look at the Youkai’s gardens.

They had started producing their own materials for potion making, and everything looked to be on the up and up.

I would have continued going over my notes to make sure I didn’t miss anything before heading out, but I saw someone running towards me.

I wasn’t exactly hiding, so I wasn’t really surprised except…

“Save me~” Yasaka tackled me. “Take me away from here, somewhere far away. Somewhere you haven't been before.”

“Bwah!?”

“I ran away.” She smiled happily.

I blinked. “For how long?”

“A few hours~”

I nodded; she wanted a break. And now that I think about it, she hasn’t really traveled with me, has she? She’s always had to stay behind and handle affairs here in Kyoto. “Sure, I was going to Remnant; do you want to come along?”

“Mou.” She pouted. “I want to go somewhere new, even if for a little bit.”

“Somewhere new?” I furrowed my brow.

She kissed my nose. “Somewhere new! Spontaneous!”

She was being very willful, but I couldn’t bring myself to deny her. “Somewhere…spontaneous?” I asked.

“New, spontaneous, somewhere you’ve never been.” She nodded excitedly.

“You’ve been holding this in for a while, haven’t you?” I asked.

She pouted again. “It’s not fair; everyone else gets to run around and have fun. The only time I got to do it was when we were sending Kunou away, and I couldn’t enjoy it. Now, the war is over, the gods are leaving, and I want to run away for a few hours.”

I got up, but she refused to let go, her tail wrapped around me tight as if telling me I wasn’t allowed to escape.

“I have a list of places—” I took out the paper, and she grabbed it and tossed it to the side. “ -- or not.”

“Can you just do something random?” She asked curiously.

I blinked again, thinking it through. “Sure, I suppose. My calculations already include things like making sure my portals open somewhere habitable.”

Part of that meant measuring things like oxygen, gravity, temperature, radiation, or other energies or chemicals in the air.

Basically, when traveling somewhere for the first time, I would get a ping if the place I was trying to go to wasn’t exactly inclined to be hospitable. The common sense things were included, like not opening an open portal in a large body of water or inside a mountain or something.

I took out Mirage and stabbed it into the ground. “Well, let’s send it off then.”

I was trying to think of the last time I rolled the proverbial wheel. It wasn’t hard to alter my normal calculations to basically start looking at a hospital world some infinite distance to the right.

“Just…don’t be disappointed if it’s boring or a big nothing burger.” I told her. “I’m literally pinging thousands of world-lines just to find something that we can reasonably step onto that’s similar to our world.”

“As long as we’re together, I think I’ll enjoy it.” She put her head on my shoulder, giving me a big warm smile.

Yup, I love this woman.

I glanced at my sword, and it rejected tens of thousands of world-lines based on the basic parameters so far. But this is what happens when you just start looking randomly out into infinity.

There are equally infinite worlds where it’s not a reasonable place to go. 

I’m fairly sure I picked up more than a few worlds that had become nuclear wastelands, just as something I noticed.

Worlds that never progressed past the molten inferno in antiquity.

Other worlds that had nearly frozen over for any random reason.

I noted a world that had an absurd abundance of undead energies, like the whole world was either undead or had turned to undead.

There were some that also simply screamed danger, like being crammed full of Divine Power. I would have to be stupid to just randomly step over into an unknown godly realm.

Honestly, it might have been easier to pick a star in the sky above us and guess if there was a life-sustaining planet orbiting it or not.

“Huh.” I noted that my sword just pinged me. “Looks like we got some hits.”

“Found something?” She perked up.

“In that quick scan, there were 1478 hospitable worlds.” I told her. “Of those 1478, it narrowed it down based on secondary parameters to 102. Shall we pick one?”

“Just pick one at random; I don’t care.” She nodded.

I shrugged, picked one off the list, and began the proper calculations to open a portal. It didn’t take long, and I offered my hand as the portal sprang to life.

To my surprise, she grabbed me and all but ran through without hesitation.

@***@

Yasaka giggled as she pulled me to the ground with her, crashing into some long grass.

The warm sunlight greeted us too, with only our voices being in the area. Though, some birds chirping came across the winds in the first few moments.

There was no one nearby, thankfully.

Though, I probably would have just thrown up an illusion to cover for us. You never know what’s wrong or happening in another world until you get your footing.

However, it’s all fine as long as Yasaka is having fun.

She rolled off me and onto her back as she looked up at the sky. “Freedom!” She pumped her fist into the air. “Free at last! No more responsibilities!”

Cute

She deserves a vacation; she’s worked really hard.

First thing, take in the surroundings.

There were some wide open fields. Some rock formations are covered in grass as well. I think I heard water running nearby.

I looked behind us and saw a rather large tree with a small creek circling it with a stone bridge, indicating civilization nearby.

“The air here is really fresh.” Yasaka breathed in deeply. “I can’t taste or smell any pollutants in the air, or at least, it’s low enough that I can’t notice.”

She was right.

I closed my eyes and used my Authority of Hanuman to feel the winds.

They were gentle and had a different ‘flavor’ than back home. 

Though, my eyes abruptly opened in surprise.

Someone noticed me.

Someone or something that had a connection with the wind here seemed surprised to see me and poked at me unconsciously.

Strange.

Oh well, I just pulled my authority back for now, not wanting to get into any trouble. I don’t think whatever poked back at me knows where I am; I pulled back quick enough.

“So, anywhere you want to go?” I asked Yasaka.

She looked at me and just smiled, getting comfortable as she lay on the ground. “I’m fine right here, to be honest; this is nice and relaxing. It’s like I can pretend that nothing else exists for a little while.”

I rubbed one of her tails as she closed her eyes, and I think she dozed off.

She really does need a proper vacation.

I could imagine that she still has a lot on her plate, dealing with all the cleanup that comes after the war, so she can’t just throw her hands up just yet.

I’ll ask her about it later so we can plan something when she has more time.

I stretched my arms and got up from the ground and looked around properly again.

I squinted my eyes and saw a dirt path heading across the grass.

A town, village, city, or something along those lines should be nearby.

I ran a hand through the tall grass as I walked through it and towards the dirt path. There wasn’t anything in particular out of place here. If I weren’t sure this place wasn’t Earth, I’d have said that it wouldn't be out of place back home.

But I had this weird feeling in the back of my head.

It was like something was out of place, but I couldn’t pick out exactly what it was.

As I got closer though, I did notice something familiar, and I immediately ran over to it.

It was a big, beautiful apple tree!

How neat, they have apples here too. I absolutely love the apples from Skyrim; let’s see if these are any better.

“Hyup.” I jumped and grabbed one of the bigger branches, pulling myself up until I sat on it and plucked one of the apples off the tree.

I rubbed it with my sleeve and inspected it, inside and out.

The last thing I’d want to do is eat an alien apple and have it actually be a giant eyeball inside.

Without further ado, I bit into it, trusting my robust physiology that anything weird would be fine after taking a look.

And oh my god.

“This is fucking delicious.” I looked at the apple in hand; it looked so…normal, but why the fuck did it taste so good?

They were better than Skyrim apples!

Why was it so good?

Did someone drug the apples?

Did I stumble into a one-tree drug plantation!?

I quickly ate a second…just to make sure it was the same. 

I hereby dub thee, best apple in the world.

A vaunted honor.

But in all seriousness, these were probably the best apples I’ve ever had in my life. They were extremely sweet, but not in a sugary way. And they had just enough tartness to balance it out while being the perfect consistency of soft and crunchy.

It might have to do with the mana in the air? I know I’ve heard from some of the others about how things were back in the Age of Gods with regard to how the Mana intertwined with nature.

The Mana here was thick, not overly thick, but perhaps it was the same concept?

Perhaps there’s something about the land that I’m just unfamiliar with?

Either way, jackpot.

I will save the seeds and see if I can’t plant them back home.

My dreams of being the apple king have been revitalized.

However, that all immediately disappeared when I heard Yasaka scream. Before I even realized what happened, the ground beneath me was already scorched with lightning as I slid next to where she had been napping a few minutes prior.

She was sitting up, and there was something there staring at her.

I blinked in confusion because it’s not like I wasn’t paying attention. I wasn’t simply leaving her there unprotected while she slept in the middle of the field in this strange place.

There was just…nothing around when I swept my senses everywhere, and even now, this thing wasn’t being picked up normally.

It looked like…a ball of water with eyes.

No….. ”Is that a slime??” I asked her.

“I don’t know, but it hit me while I had my eyes closed!” Yasaka huffed. “How rude!” She paused for a moment. “But it’s also kinda cute….”

The ball of water turned to me, and then it hopped at me, as if trying to use its entire body as a bludgeoning weapon.

It bounced off me kind of harmlessly.

I mean, if I were a normal person, it might have knocked me on my ass. 

It was a ball of water; it was weighty.

“...I don’t think it’s alive.”

Yasaka poked it, and it barely even reacted. “It’s not; I can feel it with Senjutsu. This thing is basically a ball of nature energy and magic, I think.”

I put my foot on the strange thing to stop it from bouncing around as I pulled and poked at it some more. “No, you’re right. It’s a blob of Mana, I think? It’s more coherent, though, like someone shaped the mana into a spell, and this is the result, but it’s…weird.”

Yasaka wrapped her arms around it and laid her head on its body. “It’s nice and cool. It doesn’t even feel wet despite being made of water.”

“Is it someone familiar?” I asked out loud. “No… I don’t feel any additional spells cast on it….” If it were a familiar, I think there would be more spells considering it’s not an actual living thing. Like, if someone wanted to look through its eye, since it’s non-living, there would be more work needed.

“I want it.” Yasaka blurted out.

“Pardon?” I blinked.

“I want it.” She hugged it in her arms. “I’m keeping it.”

I felt like maybe I should voice some counterargument, but honestly…. ”Sure.” I shrugged, because I don’t think it belonged to anyone.

Was it just some natural oddity that formed from the abundance of mana in the air?

It’s not like it was dangerous, so who am I to tell her no?

She fell back onto her back, holding the weird slime in her arms. It looked like it was struggling to jump free, but eventually, it may have stopped trying and just sat there in her arms.

I lay on the ground next to her. “Try one of these.” I handed her one of my precious treasures.

She barely even looked at it before taking a bite, and her expression immediately changed. “Oh, that’s good. We’re definitely going to grow these back home.”

“Definitely.” I bit into another one myself. These were really good; I couldn’t help myself. “Feeling better?” I asked her.

She let out a long sigh, one mixed with content. “Yes, this is nice. Even for a little bit, I can pretend to have no worries.”

“Want to go try and find people or something?” I offered, rolling on my side to look at her.

“I’m fine just lying here for now. I think I’m more mentally drained than I realized. The idea of not meeting anyone right now is a pleasant one.” 

I sat up again, humming to myself. “Well, I’m going to get a quick look at the surroundings.”

She gave me a silent gesture to go ahead.

I let my wings come out. It always felt like a really good stretch when I took them out after not using them for a while. 

Without another word, I gently ascended to the sky before going a bit quicker when I knew it wouldn’t disturb Yasaka.

About a hundred feet up into the air, I got a good bird’s-eye view of everything.

The scenery was beautiful.

A land barely touched by industrialization.

I could very vaguely see a city? I think it was a city; I could make out the silhouette of large stone buildings in the distance. If I wasn’t mistaken, the city seemed to be in the middle of a lake.

To the east, it seemed to be the ocean; to the north was a rather large forest, and to the west was the city I barely could make out even with my enhanced vision.

The rolling hills and mountains blocked everything going south that I could see.

Hmm

I looked up, and again, I had that feeling that something was wrong.

Nothing was out of place, but as I continued to look up at the sky, something was prickling the back of my mind that something was wrong.

[The Sky is Fake.] My Zanpakuto stated firmly.

As soon as he said that, the sky in my eyes disappeared, and I saw past the proverbial curtain.

Bound.

A Cage.

The Sky is Fake.

My Authority of the Storm told me as well. That feeling from before had words put to it. Inherited from the Storm God, and even my authority from Hanuman that had him steal the sun from the sky.

It was fake.

Someone put a false sky up around the world.

It reminded me of the Underworld, but in this case, it was hiding something rather nasty.

A firmament.

It wasn’t merely a false sky but a tangible encasing of the world.

I drew Mirage and held it in my hand as I looked upwards.

I had this uncanny urge to slash it open.

“Weird, way too weird.” I shook my head and dismissed those intrusive thoughts, putting my sword away.

My instincts told me that if I did that, I would be inviting significant trouble for myself.

I’ve been here for not even two hours; I don’t need to potentially cause trouble on a worldwide scale without having met a single person here.

I floated back to the ground next to Yasaka. “Sky is fake.”

One of her eyes peeked open. “Come again?”

“It’s a Firmament. Someone created their own layer around the world.” Though it was more…tangible than the layering I was familiar with back home. “It’s kind of unsettling.”

“...Are we in danger?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think so. If someone was going to do something, or if we were causing problems, they would have been on us already if they went through the trouble of sealing off the world.”

Hell, for all I know, it could be beneficial to the world, an act of protection.

Granted, it gave me a bad feeling, but who knows.

This isn’t my home; I lose the right to judge outright without knowing the details.

“By the way, I saw a city a bit away, so the place is inhabited.”

“I wonder if they’re like this.” She shook her slime pet thing.

“Considering the buildings were made of stone…I’d say unlikely.” Though, you can’t rule out the possibility of slime people. 

She snuggled up to me. “Let’s just stay here for a bit longer, then I need to go back home.”

I relaxed again back on the ground. “Sure, whatever you want.”

I’ll keep a note of things here, and maybe I’ll check them out later. For now, Yasaka just wanted to relax while pretending she didn’t have to go back to work soon.

@***@

Naps are good.

It’s hard to beat a really good nap.

Though, a lot of the time, it’s easy to feel even worse after a nap.

The nap giveth, and the nap taketh away.

Well, I dropped Yasaka back off at home and headed over to Remnant. It had been far too long since I’d seen Pyrrha, so that was going to be my first stop.

After bringing Tensen here, well, I sort of had my own personal ‘visitor pass’ to pop over. So, I didn’t even need to give a heads up when I opened a portal right onto Beacon property.

It’s nice to be able to bullshit and say I had a ‘Space Semblance’ and not have to explain anything else and just portal anywhere I want.

It certainly makes life easier.

I put the thoughts of that weird fake sky out of my mind as best as possible. It’s just…. I think by the fact that my Authority touches on the concept, I’m offended by extension?

It’s rather annoying.

Oh well, I hope Yasaka enjoyed her new pet, though.

I’ll probably definitely head back there at some point and investigate a bit; if nothing else, I’m rather curious about what’s going on with that whole thing.

But, at the moment, I sort of paused as I looked around.

I wanted to be polite and pop in over where the Bullheads come and dock, but, uh…I may have made a mistake.

There was a big ship docked, and there were soldiers? No, these were robots!

Lots of robots!

Atlas military?

I hadn’t interacted much with Atlas Military stuff, but…I’m fairly sure they hate me.

But that’s beside the point, Robots!

“Halt.” The closest robot to me commanded, and on command, several more stomped towards me, marching in coordination, actually.

But their movements were slightly awkward.

“This is a restricted area.” The robotic voice spoke again. “Civilian, submit yourself for an identification scan.”

“Sure!” I smiled happily.

So cool!

They had guns too.

Neat robot guns.

The guns were not pointed at me, which was very polite despite the fact that I was technically in a restricted area.

Though…I mean, am I allowed to be here?

The robot got its ‘face’ towards me, the black screen-like interface on the right of its white headpiece.

And it actually did a scan of my face.

Alright, how do I go about stealing some of these things without getting into trouble?

“Identification confirmed!” The robot stated, and I saw my image reflected on its face screen. Then it changed to a big ‘Wanted’ flashing sign over it.

…uh oh.

“Designation confirmed. Wanted Criminal – Watermelon Torchwick.” All the robots raised their guns at me simultaneously. “Please surrender into custody peacefully.”

My eye was twitching.

Roman.

I thought you were fucking joking.

I hate you. I hate you so much.

@***@

A/N

A sneak peek at a future world, if people can guess it based on the small details. But, hopping over to RWBY for a few chapters, then going to the MCU for a little bit too. 

Cyclops should be out later today.