A Nascent Kaleidoscope. Chapter 673:

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 so more potions, just in case.

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

…probably.

If sothing catastrophic happened, well, I couldn't bear to see Venelana sad or upset, so I would probably help sowhere.

But I digress.

Lastly, I sent Fawkes back ho.

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 imdiate 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 ans 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 ti 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 montum 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 so ti doing so 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 sothing I wanted to look into back in the world Jeanne was staying at for the mont. 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 ti.

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 soone running towards .

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

"Save ~" Yasaka tackled . "Take away from here, sowhere far away. Sowhere 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 , 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 co along?"

"Mou." She pouted. "I want to go sowhere new, even if for a little bit."

"Sowhere new?" I furrowed my brow.

She kissed my nose. "Sowhere new! Spontaneous!"

She was being very willful, but I couldn't bring myself to deny her. "Sowhere…spontaneous?" I asked.

"New, spontaneous, sowhere 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 ti I got to do it was when we were sending Kunou away, and I couldn't enjoy it, or doing work!. 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 tight as if telling 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 sothing random?" She asked curiously.

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

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

Basically, when traveling sowhere for the first ti, 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 sothing.

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 ti I rolled the proverbial wheel. It wasn't hard to alter my normal calculations to basically start looking at a hospital world so 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 sothing 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 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 paraters 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 beco nuclear wastelands, just as sothing 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 so that also simply scread danger, like being cramd 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 . "Looks like we got so hits."

"Found sothing?" 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 paraters 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 and all but ran through without hesitation.

[Line Break]

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

The warm sunlight greeted us too, with only our voices being in the area. Though, so birds chirping ca across the winds in the first few monts.

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 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 so wide-open fields. So 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 sll 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 ho.

Though, my eyes abruptly opened in surprise.

Soone noticed .

Soone or sothing that had a connection with the wind here seed surprised to see and poked at 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 knows where I am; I pulled back quick enough.

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

She looked at 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 cos 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 sothing when she has more ti.

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 sothing 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 ho.

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

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

As I got closer though, I did notice sothing familiar, and I imdiately 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 soone drug the apples?

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

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

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 extrely 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 so 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 sa concept?

Perhaps there's sothing 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 ho.

My dreams of being the apple king have been revitalized.

However, that all imdiately disappeared when I heard Yasaka scream. Before I even realized what happened, the ground beneath 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 sothing 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 sli??" I asked her.

"I don't know, but it hit while I had my eyes closed!" Yasaka huffed. "How rude!" She paused for a mont. "But it's also kinda cute…."

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

It bounced off kind of harmlessly.

I an, if I were a normal person, it might have knocked 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 so more. "No, you're right. It's a blob of Mana, I think? It's more coherent, though, like soone 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 soone 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 soone 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 so counterargunt, but honestly…. "Sure." I shrugged, because I don't think it belonged to anyone.

Was it just so natural oddity that ford 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 sli 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 imdiately changed. "Oh, that's good. We're definitely going to grow these back ho."

"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 sothing?" I offered, rolling on my side to look at her.

"I'm fine just lying here for now. I think I'm more ntally drained than I realized. The idea of not eting 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 a silent gesture to go ahead.

I let my wings co 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 seed to be in the middle of a lake.

To the east, it seed 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 sothing was wrong.

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

[The Sky is Fake.] My Zanpakutō 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 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.

Soone put a false sky up around the world.

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

A firmant.

It wasn't rely 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 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 t a single person here.

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

One of her eyes peeked open. "Co again?"

"It's a Firmant. Soone, sothing, or a bunch of either, created their own layer around the world." Though it was more…tangible than the layering I was familiar with back ho. "It's kind of unsettling."

"...Are we in danger?"

I shrugged. "I don't think so. If soone was going to do sothing, 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 a bad feeling, but who knows.

This isn't my ho; 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 sli pet thing.

"Considering the buildings were made of stone…I'd say unlikely." Though, you can't rule out the possibility of sli people.

She snuggled up to . "Let's just stay here for a bit longer, then I need to go back ho."

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.

[Line Break]

Naps are good.

It's hard to beat a really good nap.

Though, a lot of the ti, 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 ho 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 so point and investigate a bit; if nothing else, I'm rather curious about what's going on with that whole thing.

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

I wanted to be polite and pop in over where the Bullheads co 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 .

But that's beside the point, Robots!

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

But their movents 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 , which was very polite despite the fact that I was technically in a restricted area.

Though…I an, am I allowed to be here?

The robot got its 'face' towards , 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 so of these things without getting into trouble?

"Identification confird!" 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 confird. Wanted Criminal – Waterlon Torchwick." All the robots raised their guns at 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.

[Line Break]

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, then back to DxD for a few, then onwards to new world.

If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support , visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m. / astoryforone

I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the sa na