A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

Chapter 86: Chapter 82

I set my phone down to stop recording.

I glanced over at Yasaka, and she seemed quite surprised by what had just occurred. I can\'t really blame her, I did not expect the fight to end so abruptly. There were several things that I wanted to seek out answers on.

They seemed content to just match each other for many exchanges. Then Will decided to bring out a large scale magical attack out of nowhere.

Brat, telling me abruptly to put a shield up around us.

It was a good tactic, and he seemed unharmed from his own spell, so I can\'t really say anything against what he did.

But that final attack, I don\'t know what he did. It was like.....fate rewound and then fast-forwarded according to his whims.

That is most certainly not something a mortal should be capable of.

At one point, there appeared to be two of him attacking simultaneously. Okita defended against the one attack him from the front, but it didn\'t matter as he was pierced by the Wilhelm from behind.

I could tell that both of them were \'real\' as opposed to some kind of illusion or a creation of sheer speed.

You have quite a few secrets, Wilhelm.

I looked down and Kunou\'s eyes practically sparkled as she watched her \'daddy\' fight.

It was still amusing to think about, yet I could completely see him acting as a father.

It seems like it\'s my turn now.

I stepped forward towards Yasaka. "I shall take him."

She was broken from whatever stupor she was in. "Lady Izanami, are you –"

"I do not intend to harm him. I will make sure he does not die and deliver him back to his master." I stated plainly.

My annoyance with him aside....that look on Will\'s face when the man appeared still made me upset. That stupid boy, telling me that him and his father are merely estranged. It is clearly much more than that.

"Is that so." Yasaka steeled her expression. "A message is it?" She raised her eyebrow.

"I do not like others touching things I care about."

While the strongest of the Devils is someone I begrudgingly admit is stronger than me, it does not mean his people can do whatever they want. I may not win against him in a fight, but I more than capable of making him lose. Those ridiculous \'world\'s strongest\' ratings are mostly nonsense. Yes I would not be able to win against someone like Indra in battle, but it is not like he would be able to destroy me with ease just because he is ranked above me.

I watched Yasaka\'s lips curled up, giving me a \'knowing smile\'. "He looked quite good, didn\'t he? Fighting against someone whose name is world-renown." She fanned her face exaggeratedly, giving me another sly look.

"He performed adequately." I responded.

She pursed her lips. "I may need to stake my claim sooner than I thought, if he goes around and does this more often, imagine how many women would want a piece of him?"

This fox, trying to even tease me is she?

"Are you that intent of us becoming \'sisters\'?" I turned towards her, take a step closer. "Perhaps you wish to get more \'familiar\' with one another?"

Yasaka\'s eyes widened briefly, before a large grin emerged on her face and she started to giggle. "Fine." She waived me off. "Point taken, I won\'t meddle anymore."

"Hmph" I crossed my arms, a small smile on my face.

"But I wouldn\'t be against it either." She smirked at me, almost making me react.

"You are one horny fox."

"Girl, the last time I was with a man can be measured in years." She deadpanned.

I guess it would be difficult to bring any kind of lover around Kunou if they weren\'t going to become a permanent figure in her life.

I tilted my head, mentally calculating the time for me. "Centuries." I muttered. "Do women count?"

"Well, if we do then, it\'s a lot shorter than that." She laughed.

Well, I do appreciate how she is relaxed in my presence....I don\'t exactly hate her being friendly with me. It\'s nice to not have someone reeling back because of my existence.

"I should probably grab him.....before he bleeds out." I sighed.

"That would be bad." She nodded. "I don\'t think I could wash my hands of this if he bled out on my front yard."

I walked over to him, letting my shadows grab him and bring him somewhere else for now. Keeping him in tact wasn\'t hard. He wouldn\'t die on my watch, and I needed him alive to send my message. "I enjoyed my time with you, thank you for your hospitality."

She smiled. "You are welcome back anytime. I\'m sure my little Kunou wouldn\'t mind seeing her \'Auntie Izzy\' in the future."

"Moom!" Kunou gave another little squeak and I had to resist the urge to scoop her up from where she was sitting and hug her. "Thank you, Miss Izanami." She stood up and bowed, her ears twitching slightly on her head.

Cute.

I headed off in the direction where Will went.

***

Wilhelm POV

Wow.

I was going to be riding his high for a long, long time.

"Wilhelm." Izzy\'s voice sounded off behind me.

I straightened myself up, the bench I was sitting on not very large as I made room. She walked over, sitting right next to me.

"How are you doing?"

"Good." I said almost absentmindedly. "I mean, relatively speaking. I think I\'m doing better than I have been for awhile now."

"Would you like a hug?" She asked.

"What?" I was a bit surprised by her request.

"You seemed a bit distressed earlier before the fight, and I did not know if you were still upset.....I apologize if I was too forward, I know we haven\'t known each other for that long and –"

"Izzy." I cut her off. "I would love a hug." She made a small little noise as I wrapped my arms around her. She was a bit hesitant but she reciprocated all the same. "I guess I held some stuff back." I spoke as we separated.

"Only some very important details." She rolled her eyes.

I could tell she was annoyed at me, but not angry.

"I was born Takao Shimoda." I leaned back, looking up at the sky. "My mother died when I was young, and I was taken in by my father\'s people. I lived in a house by myself, I grew up all alone and when I finally left that life behind, I changed my name to match my grandfather\'s." It was one of the first times I\'ve ever talked about this. "I was pretty much forced into a certain \'box\' to live my life. Every time I attempted to leave that little neat box I was forced back into it. That\'s probably where my resentment of my father comes in. They didn\'t know I knew magic, so one day I just up and left.....with a bit of fanfare."

Wow, just kind of blurted it all out.

I saw her smile faintly, not so much appreciating my little back story, but more so that I was trusting her with something personal.

"I honestly cannot picture you going about mundane schooling." She mused.

I let out a small snort. "To be truthful, it really grated on me at some points." I shook my head. Not all of my memories of that timewere something to dismiss. "But it wasn\'t all bad, I was also in the theatre club."

"That I can believe." She said almost instantly.

"Oi, what\'s that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I don\'t want to stereotype....."

"Are you implying....?"

"I am implying nothing."

"I\'m petty sure you are."

"It must be your imagination." She smiled lightly. "I was merely saying that you can be rather flamboyant sometimes."

"Sure, that\'s what you were thinking about." I rolled my eyes. "I think someone\'s miffed about the whole \'barrier\' thing earlier."

"Hmm, I suppose you are smarter than you look." She pursed her lips.

"Yeah, yeah." I yawned stretching my arms. "What\'s going to happen with Okita?"

I kinda just left him there, too caught up in my own head.

"I took him."

"Oh." I paused. "And what are your plans with him?"

"I was going to send him back to his master." She said plainly.

"Well, alrighty then."

She looked at me. "Are you not curious?"

"What? Did you think I would assume you were going to torture him or something?" I leaned my head onto her shoulder. "You know I trust you, right?"

"So it appears." She whispered. "I was going to take him back to Yomi, so I could send him to the devil\'s underworld. Easier that way."

"Metaphysically, I guess Yomi is closer than earth to hell?"

"That is correct, though I would have to \'go through\' Hades\' realm." She paused. "It has been a while since I\'ve contacted him, Persephone is generally okay to speak with."

"I haven\'t heard good things about Hades, you sure that\'s a good idea?"

"The relationships between death deities is different than that of the corresponding pantheons." She explained. "Perhaps it is a sort of kinship, but most pantheons don\'t have much contact with their deathly realms, minus those reward-based afterlives like Valhalla." She sighed. "Hel, Hades, Me, Yama, Anubis, Ereshkigal etc. While pantheons for the most part like to pretend other gods do not exist, we keep in touch with a cordial relationship."

"Huh, I did not know that." I was actually surprised, but it made quite a bit of sense.

"Now that I think about it, we general gather every few centuries and we haven\'t in quite a long time." She hummed. "I wonder if there will be another gathering soon?"

"Really? What do you all talk about?"

"We mostly just bitch about whatever happened recently." She let out a small laugh. "Hades talks about his idiot brothers, Yama doesn\'t shut up about how overworked he is, Ereshkigal about how barely any souls come to her realm anymore."

"Hmm, I should probably seek out Persephone instead of hades, that girl gets jealous so easily." Izzy shook her head. "Are you going to be okay?" She asked me again.

I sat up and took a deep breath. "I\'m good, really." I paused for a moment. "And I may disappear for a bit, probably won\'t be reachable by phone. I have some things I need to take care of."

"Is that so? How long do you intend to be \'gone\'?" She asked.

"No more than a couple weeks, probably" I did some mental calculations in my head.

She stood up, waving her hand and summoning a portal down to Yomi. "I will see you at a later time."

"See you later." I waived her off.

I\'m really happy I met her.

[I\'m annoyed you didn\'t use me.]

"Really? Why don\'t I just paint a giant target on my back, I\'m sure that would be the easier option."

[No one knows I\'m even here! What if Albion shows up, he\'ll think he\'s ahead of me.]

"Or, what if we wait until shit really hits the fan, then bam! Boosted Gear comes out and saves the day, would be cooler than just a duel where nobody saw."

Ddraig grumbled but relented [You better not be blue balling me here.]

"There is some shit I have to deal with here in the future." I sighed, thinking about the messes my presence will have likely caused.

[Are we going to a new world soon?]

"Yeah, I wanted to spend some time with Kunou, then I was going to leave."

[You sound like such a dad already.]

"Fuck off." I rolled my eyes. I couldn\'t help it.....I honestly don\'t know what came over me when it comes to that little girl. "Though I want to look for a way to develop my Power of Destruction." I yawned again, standing up from my seat. "I\'ve been thinking about a lot of stuff, and I think it\'s time to stop holding myself back from that."

[Power of Destruction is pretty good, it would do you well to develop it.]

"Yeah." I scratched my cheek. "I probably could have done something by now....but better late than never."

***

The chapter for yesterday, got home from work and just didn\'t feel good, slept it off and here I am. I still don\'t intend to post this weekend, so don\'t expect anything until Monday. Probably will do another PHO Chapter again soon, people really seemed to enjoy it.

So, I set up a discord for anyone interested. If you want to come and chat about the story or whatever, i\'ll be there pretty much all weekend and generally when I\'m online for updates and when I\'m starting chapters and what-not. I\'ll mostly be playing Genshin all weekend, so feel free to come bug me.

https://discord.gg/TRDZTRKfVf

Anyways, if you want to support me or read 5 chapters ahead, visit my /Astoryforone the next arc finally started