Tale of Discovery

How could this happen to me?

Was I too careless? Unquestionably. So, how do I deal with this? There are various ways of doing so, but I would preferably not resort to them.

"Ayumi," I say, "Let's just sleep, alright?"

In response to my proposition, Ayumi nods her head with her hands still covering her face, before moving closer to me.

I hug her body and plan to go to sleep, but all of a sudden, I detect two presences in front of the door.

Checking them out, I perceive Sora and Koneko.

The two of them both get inside the room and walk to the bed. Sora climbs on and lies on my other side, while Koneko directly lies on top of me.

All three of the girls seem to be sleepy as they quickly doze off. I take a look at Ayumi and see that there is still some red hue on her cheeks.

[[Are you going to sleep anytime soon?]]

Hah~ Tia needs to be silenced. I hope there is a method to swiftly improve my bond with her.

The moment that I think so, I feel my vision getting hazy. Then, all of a sudden, my perception blips.

--

I am currently standing somewhere desolate with the only "living" entities close to me being the grass on the ground as well as a certain dragon.

"Hi, Tia," I greet the dragon who's currently in her human form.

"That's unexpected," she says in a thinking posture, "I didn't expect you to be able to enter this place."

Shrugging, I say wryly,

"I just found out that I could do so myself."

Hey, Irene, can you hear me?

Not getting any response, I conclude that she's unable to make contact with me here.

Checking the surroundings out, other than grass and the clear sky, I see nothing else, but I can tell that there is something in the distance.

"Tia, how far have you gone?" I inquire.

"Not far, just a few kilometers. I didn't find anything, so I returned."

Nodding my head in acknowledgment, I utilize Godspeed before dashing to where I feel the connection.

After a few minutes of constant running, I finally come upon something unusual, both visually and tactually.

In front of me is something akin to a barrier. It's white, opaque, and releasing an oddly familiar yet ominous aura.

Where am I exactly? I deemed this place somewhere assigned to my familiars, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm getting strangely familiar vibes from all around me.

That's especially the case with the "barrier" in front of me. After careful observation, I can tell that it's possible to pass through it without much issue.

This discovery is too compelling to be left off for later.

Deciding that it's worth it, I walk through the barrier. As expected, I can do so effortlessly.

Once I'm on the other side, I am immediately able to see the changes.

All around me are familiar places. From the looks of it, this is Japan, but if there is a distinction between the two, it's going to be how wrecked this place is.

The whole place looks similar to how Yuno's world looks, except that this place has no amputated dead bodies lying all over the place.

I proceed to fly into the sky and observe the location from a birds-eye viewpoint.

What's that? It's like there is a line dividing the place evenly, with one side being nothing more than ruins and the other being ordinary.

I check the place out for about half an hour before landing on the ground and utilizing Godspeed.

--

After an hour of dashing into the distance, I've yet to come across anything other than divided cities.

On the way to where I am right now, I ran into dozens of cities from all over Earth. All of them were similar to the first one, divided proportionally with one side being wrecked and the other being regular.

It seems like the next barrier isn't as easy to get to as the one earlier, so I will head back for now and return later once my speed has increased.

It's quite unfortunate that I'm unable to use the Boosted Gear here.

And so, I use what's left of my energy to get back to where Tia is, which takes me a little more than an hour.

Letting out a sigh, I declare in an exhausted manner, "I'm back."

Tia, who's lying on the grass lifts her body and scrutinizes me before inquiring,

"Did you find anything?"

In response to her inquiry, I begin to explain what I experienced during the past two hours.

I reckon that this whole place is somehow related to my Code, particularly the divided cities. It feels like they are associated with Mahesvara by one side being Creation and the other being Destruction.

"Hey Tia," I say, attracting the dragon's attention before abruptly kissing her lips.

In response to my sudden action, Tiamat punches my guts with all of her strength.

Unaffected, I move back and say with a smirk on my face,

"Let's play a game."

Tiamat glares at before saying,

"I don't know what you have in mind. What I do know is that I will be punching that pretty face of yours."

Waving my hand in front of me, I say dismissively,

"That's improbable, as your strength and speed aren't even close to what I can muster right now, despite my how weakened I am."

Noticing that I will mock her no matter what she says, Tiamat says solemnly,

"What's the 'game' that you spoke off?"

Appearing in front of her, I peck her lips once again and move away before she's able to react. Then, I state,

"This can be considered as a form of training, my dear Tia."

Seeing her grimace at the way I referred to her, I shrug my shoulders before saying,

"It's simple. All you have to do is prevent me from taking advantage of you using any means necessary to do so."

---

After an hour of 'fighting' with Tiamat, both of us lie down on the grass, fatigued.

Feeling the softness within my arms, I shift myself before burying my face in her Tia's bosoms.

"Pervert," a muffled voice reaches my ears, but I disregard it and continue to relish the sensation I'm currently feeling.

"What are you?", Tiamat asks me after a while, "To remain undamaged despite taking so many of my punches and-"

Moving my head, I seal her lips with my own before getting up and saying,

"That's for you to discover."

Immediately after that, I think of 'returning' to the Rift, which results in me finding myself back in my body that was resting on the bed and surrounded by mellowness on all sides.

Knowing that I've spent up a lot of my energy, I directly doze off to sleep.

--

Something's wrong, I can feel it.

Opening my eyes, what meets my vision is Nao and Misa who have an odd look on their faces while looking at me. Nao is using a smartphone that I had created for her to snap pictures of me.

I instantly realize what's going on, so I activate my Permeation ability to phase through all physical matter and get off the bed.

"Don't worry, we already knew how messed up ya were," Misa remarks.

Nao nods her head as confirmation and states,

"You were never normal, so it would be unusual if you suddenly acted like so."

"How am I not normal?!" I ask, exasperated.

The two girls don't respond to me and just leave the room together. While doing so, Nao waves her phone in the air and says,

"Another scene to add my collection of your random acts of weirdness."

...

Are they trying to make me feel guilty or make me realize how unconventional my way of thinking is? Whichever it is, I don't care.

I find my way of dealing with my problems to be both efficient and effective.

As for guilt, I've lost all feelings remotely similar to that a long time go. It's too late for that now.

Anyway, it's about time that I had a 'proper' talk with Ravel regarding her family...