Hub World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.
After the trip to MgRonald's with Chiho and Yakumo, Tatsuo walked Yakumo ho. Then, with a few extra apple pies in hand, he read the [Dinsional Chat] while on his way back to his apartnt. And what he saw surprised him.
While Tatsuo was spending ti with Yakumo at the MgRonald's Sumire and Jas had decided that they were ready to go on the [Mission] as soon as possible.
'Why are they so impatient?' Tatsuo wondered while walking through the streets of Sasazuka. 'I an, I waited almost until the deadline was up before I went to Sumire-San's world.'
Continuing to read, Tatsuo found the answer to his question. Sumire had suggested that they go quickly and co back quickly so that Alfonzo and Elicia wouldn't have to worry since Amar'e's birthday was tomorrow.
'I see.' Tatsuo said to himself. 'If we wait until the deadline, the kid's birthday will have passed. But they might be worried about the upcoming quest, and they won't be able to give the birthday party all their attention. Not bad, Sumire-San. Quite considerate.'
A mont later, the slight smile on Tatsuo's face disappeared and his shoulders slumped.
'*Sigh* But I still have school tomorrow.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'And after a [Mission] to the Arifureta world, I know I'm gonna be tired as hell. On top of that, if we leave so early the ti to make plans on how to handle everything is going to be shortened by quite a bit.'
Shaking that thought out of his head, Tatsuo then raised his head and looked forward.
'Either way, I know I'm not gonna let Nagumo turn all emo in this run.' Tatsuo continued to think. 'But the specifics of that plan will have to wait until I get a status plate.'
Around the ti Tatsuo reached his apartnt, he had finished reading the [Dinsional Chat] logs. And although he did not want to, he let Sumire and Jas know that he was fine with starting the [Mission] tonight.
{[Dinsional Chat]
Tatsuo (Admin): Just give a few minutes.
Tatsuo (Admin): I need to pack a few things.
Tatsuo (Admin): I wanna buy a skill, too
Lici: Ooh! What skill?
Tatsuo (Admin): Transmutation
Tatsuo (Admin): From Fulltal
Alfonzo: Oh, that's not a bad idea
Alfonzo: You'll be able to make your own weapons over there without making anyone suspicious
Tatsuo (Admin): That's the plan
Tatsuo (Admin): And I plan to stop Nagumo from falling into the true Orcus labyrinth
Tatsuo (Admin): So, I'll definitely need it down there
Jas: What are you talking about?
Sumire: Tatsuo-Kun, what are you planning?
Tatsuo (Admin): I'll tell you about it when we start the mission
Sumire: Okay
Jas: I really don't like being kept in the dark like this
Jas: but since we're leaving in only a few hours, I'll wait
Tatsuo (Admin): It won't even be a few hours
Tatsuo (Admin): It'll be half an hour at most}
With that said, Tatsuo stepped out of the elevator and greeted his mother, Mai, and Kasumi before heading to his room to pack a few things. Then, once his [Inventory] was filled with the things he needed, he sat on his bed and started looking through the [System] [Shop] for the [Skill] he wanted to purchase.
{[Shop]
[Transmutation - C ]
-The ability to understand, deconstruct, and reconstruct matter to fit the user's needs with the aid of a [Transmutation Circle].
-With the proper knowledge of chemistry, the user can alter the shape and make-up of most materials.
Note: The better the user's understanding of chemistry, the better the effects of this skill will be.
Cost: 11,750 Coins}
"Damn, that's the most expensive skill I've ever bought." Tatsuo thought to himself as he let the information from the skill sink into his head. "But at least I have a pretty good grasp of chemistry because of DOATECH. So, I don't have to buy that knowledge, too."
A few minutes later, Tatsuo had assimilated all the [Alchemy] Knowledge from his purchase.
{[Dinsional Chat]
Tatsuo (Admin): Okay, I'm ready to go
Jas: Good
Jas: Let's go
Sumire: I'm ready, too
Alfonzo: Be careful, guys
Lici: Tell us all about it when you get back
Lici: Oh, and don't forget to bring back souvenirs
Tatsuo (Admin): Right…
Jas: Well, at least she's got her priorities straight
Jas: Now, hit the button, Tatsuo
Sumire: Wait
Sumire: Are we getting backgrounds?
Sumire: If so…
[Tatsuo sent 5,000 Coins to Sumire]
[Tatsuo Sent 5,000 Coins to Jas]
Sumire: Never mind
Tatsuo (Admin): Alright, I'm hitting the start button
Tatsuo (Admin): So, get ready}
Just as he said he would, Tatsuo pressed the [Begin Mission] button on the [mission] prompt. When he did, a reminder that he was seeing for the second ti popped up in his head.
{Note: The ti in the participant(s) world will stop during the quests. Ti will resu imdiately upon the participant(s) return.
Note: For a fee of 5,000 Coins each, the participant(s) can have a background prepared for them so they can seamlessly fit in to the world.
Would you like to purchase a background for the world you are about to visit? Y/N}
After selecting "Yes," the world around Tatsuo lost its color, gradually turning monochromatic. Then, after only a few monts, he was covered in a bright white light before disappearing from his bedroom.
Arifureta Universe, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.
Not even what felt like a second after disappearing from his bedroom in his world, Tatsuo found himself sitting at a desk in a different bedroom. And unlike his trip to the ICDS Universe, it was obvious at a glance that this bedroom was totally different from the one he lived in in his apartnt. And the reason for that was simple, this was a completely different residence than his apartnt in Sasazuka.
On top of that, Tatsuo appeared in this world alone. Jas and Sumire were nowhere to be seen. Yet, he did not panic. Since they all bought backgrounds in this world, they should probably be in their own hos.
"*Sigh* I only need to give it a minute." Tatsuo thought aloud to himself. "The background's mories will hit any minute. Then, I'll know the situation I'm in."
After speaking up to that point, Tatsuo's face showed a rather interesting expression.
"Oh… shit…." Tatsuo muttered to himself. "I completely forgot to tell Jas and Sumire-San how much getting the mories forced into their heads is going to hurt."
After realizing his little blunder, Tatsuo shrugged his shoulders. Then he climbed onto the bed in the room and made himself comfortable.
"Well, since I already know this shit is gonna hurt, I might as well get as comfortable as I can." Tatsuo mutter to himself.
And just as Tatsuo thought, in less than a minute, his head started to pound because of the influx of information inundating his brain. At the sa ti, a piercing scream of pain cut through the atmosphere, as well.
'Hmm… That scream sounded like Sumire-San.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'Does that an she's close by?'
Unfortunately, because of the pain from receiving the mories of his created life in this world, Tatsuo did not have the ntal capacity to think about that question for much longer.
Luckily, thanks to Tatsuo's increase in [Intelligence], the pain was much more bearable than the last ti this happened. So, he did not pass out from the pain. His whole body was soaked in sweat by the ti it was finished, though.
A few minutes later, the mories were integrated and the pain Tatsuo felt slowly dissipated. AS it did, he sat up in bed and looked around. Now, the bedroom he saw felt as if he had been living in it for years.
"Well, I wasn't expecting this." Tatsuo muttered as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stared at the desk in the room. "I'm actually employed by Nagumo's father as a programr in his company. It's only part ti, but still..."
The company in question was a video ga company. So, Tatsuo's [Programming] skill probably played a role in that part of his background.
Standing up from his bed, Tatsuo walked over to the desk and stroked the casing of his monitor while looking at the lines of code on his screen.
"Because of that, I've been friends with Nagumo since we were first years." Tatsuo muttered. "And since we have a lot of the sa hobbies, we get along quite well, too."
After reaching that point, Tatsuo sat down at his desk and started spinning in his chair.
"So, it won't be weird when I stand up for him or save his ass when that fuck boy, Hiyama, does that shit in the labyrinth."
*Bang!*
Just at that mont, Tatsuo's bedroom door was flung open and slamd into the connecting wall. When he heard the bang, Tatsuo turned around to face the door. Though, he already knew who would be standing in the doorway when he did.
And just as he expected, Tatsuo saw Sumire standing in the doorway huffing and puffing with slightly reddened cheeks.
"Hey, Sumire-San, long ti no see." Tatsuo said with a casual smile on his face.
Without a word, Sumire dashed forward. Then, she flung herself into Tatsuo's arms and hugged him tightly while straddling him.
"Tatsuo-Kun, I missed you." Sumire said while burying her face on Tatsuo's shoulder.
"I missed you, too." Tatsuo replied with a smile while patting Sumire's back.
The two maintained that position for a few minutes. Sumire was the one who eventually broke it. When she pulled herself from Tatsuo's shoulder, she glared at Tatsuo with the remnants of tears on her face.
"I can't believe you didn't co to see when you had so many Coins." Sumire said while pouting. "And why didn't you tell us how much fusing with the mories of our backgrounds would hurt?"
"Well, I wanted to spend so ti with my family." Tatsuo replied. "After spending so much ti in your world, I missed them a lot. Sothing I never thought I would experience before I left. I an, DOATECH did quite a number on my emotions when they kidnapped . But for so reason, they started coming back while I was in your world."
"*Sigh* I guess I understand." Sumire said as she leaned her forehead on Tatsuo's shoulder again. "But why didn't you tell us about the mories?"
"Uh... I forgot..." Tatsuo replied sheepishly. "Actually, when I ca to your world, I didn't even experience the pain for too long. I passed out almost imdiately after it started back then."
Hearing that, Sumire once again pulled away from Tatsuo's shoulder as she stared at him with shock on her face.
"Well, I was just a normal person back then." Tatsuo said while smiling sheepishly. "I didn't have any resistance to stuff like that. You're just lucky that you've been raising your stats in the Dungeon, you know. Speaking of the Dungeon, where are you now?"
"Oh, I'm on the 30th Floor now." Sumire replied. "When I get back, I'll challenge the Floor Master. Oh, and I got a God's True Na. It's Athena, Goddess of Strategic Warfare."
'I thought so.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'She had it during the Fla Drake Event Raid in the novel. And with her increase in skill and offensive capability, she should have gotten it even earlier.'
When his thoughts reached that point, Tatsuo looked at Sumire, who was clearly waiting for his response, with a grin.
'She probably just wanted to surprise .' Tatsuo continued to think. 'Otherwise, she could have told in the chat. That's really kinda cute, actually.'
With that thought, Tatsuo leaned forward and planted a kiss on Sumire's pretty lips.
This naturally caused Sumire to open her eyes wide in surprise. Especially because she was not expecting Tatsuo to take the initiative to kiss her. However, she sank into the kiss soon enough. And when she did, she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Tatsuo's neck.
*Ring!* *Ring!* *Ring!*
Unfortunately, the kiss was not destined to last for long. After only a few seconds, Tatsuo's smartphone rang, destroying the mont.
Imdiately after being startled out of the mont, Sumire buried her face on Tatsuo's shoulder for a third ti. At the sa ti, Tatsuo smiled at Sumire's embarrassed actions as he raised his hand and started patting her head.
"Good job." Tatsuo said after he broke the kiss. "Getting a God's True Na is pretty rare."
As he spoke, Tatsuo reached for his smartphone, which was on his desk, to see who was calling. When he picked it up, he saw that the caller ID said Jas Alaverus. And when he saw the na, Tatsuo raised an eyebrow.
"Didn't he say his na was Jas Sataniel?" Tatsuo asked rhetorically.
When she heard Tatsuo's mutter, Sumire once again raised her head. However, her face was so red that a tomato would feel comfortable calling her Onee-Chan. So, she did not look in Tatsuo's direction, instead pointing her face at the screen of his smartphone.
"Didn't he say Sataniel was the na he got when he beca one of those Great Satans?" Sumire asked in a mosquito-like volu. "So, maybe Alaverus is his real family na."
"Oh, that makes sense." Tatsuo replied while nodding his head. Then, he quickly pressed the accept call button and placed the smartphone against his ear. "Yo, Jas, what's up?"
{"Don't 'what's up?' , you little bastard!"} Jas shouted angrily through the phone. {"Would it have killed you to ntion the pain that ca along with the background integration?"}
Even though she already spoke with Tatsuo about the sa thing, Sumire could not help nodding her head vigorously when she heard Jas shouting angrily.
"Uh... Would it make you feel any better if I told you I forgot?" Tatsuo asked while scratching the side of his head with his free hand.
{"You damn well know it won't."] Jas said in an annoyed tone. A mont later, after spitting out all his annoyance, Jas tone turned solemn as he continued. {"Anyway, we need to talk about the moves we're gonna make in this world.}
"To do that, we need to go over our backgrounds in detail." Tatsuo said. "I know the basics of each of your backgrounds. But I don't know enough to make any real plans."
Reaching that point, Tatsuo switched his smartphone to speaker. Then, he sat it on his desk before picking up Sumire and turning her around before sitting her on his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist.
A mont later, while Sumire's face was even redder than before, the three discussed the backgrounds they were given when they ca to this world.
First was Tatsuo, as previously ntioned, he was friends with this world's main character, Nagumo Haji, thanks to eting him at his place of employnt and sharing a lot of the sa hobbies and interests. They were also classmates in the sa class at school. aning that he was two years older than he should have been in his world.
"I didn't know you knew how to program." Sumire said with admiration.
"Well, I bought the [Programming and hacking Skills] because I thought I would need to create an identity for myself when I went to your world." Tatsuo replied. "If I had known I could buy a background, I probably would have never bought the [Skills]."
{"That was a pretty smart move."} Jas said from the other side of the phone. {"If I didn't know about the backgrounds, I probably would have suggested one of us did the sa thing. Anyway, this is the background I was given..."}
Jas then went on to explain that he was Tatsuo's cousin in this world. The son of Tatsuo's father's brother, to be specific. He had moved here from the USA because his mother was transferred to her company's Japan branch. And because his father was more or less a househusband, they both ca along. On top of that, Jas was thrilled to co along because of his interest in Japanese swordplay. He even joined a famous swordsmanship dojo, the Yaegashi Dojo, shortly after moving to Japan.
{*Sigh* I'm two years younger in this world, too."] Jas lanted. {"But I guess that's the only reason I would have ended up in the sa class as Tatsuo. Otherwise, there's a chance I would have ended up being left on Earth when the teleportation to Tortus happened."}
"It's better than being left out." Sumire said with a smile.
{"Yeah, at least I didn't get older like you, Sumire."} Jas said with a chuckle.
Sumire's eyebrows twitched violently after hearing Jas' words. ntioning a woman's age was a taboo, no matter the world. Yet, Jas had done so, and done it so blatantly.
"You'd better be prepared to answer a lot of questions tomorrow, Alaverus-Kun." Sumire said in the tone of a teacher with anger also clear in her tone. "Because if you get any of them wrong... Hehehe."
As for Sumire's background, she was twenty-three years old, as well as an intern teacher who was assigned to Tatsuo's and Jas' class. And she, unlike all the other teachers, did not move from class to class every period. Instead, she stayed in the class the whole ti in order to act as an assistant to all the teachers who entered.
As for why she was at Tatsuo's house, her parents were university classmates with Tatsuo's mother. So, when Sumire needed a place to stay during her internship, Tatsuo's mother in this world offered to let her stay at her house.
"Anyway, I gotta finish this coding for Nagumo-San." Tatsuo said after everyone spoke about their backgrounds. "After that, I need to go to bed. Tomorrow's Monday, after all."
{"Ugh... I hate Mondays… I hate school even more... It's so boring."} Jas grumbled. {"I thought having Sera-Tan at my graduation was the last high school experience I would ever have. But sohow, I ended up in high school again... Damn it..."}
Saying that, Jas hung up the call. anwhile, Tatsuo, who knew about Serafall Leviathan's character, felt sorry for Jas who had to experience such a thing. Sumire, on the other hand, was trying to rember who Serafall was from the Highschool DxD light novels she had read. But since Serafall was not one of the main characters, she was drawing a blank.
"Anyway, I'll go to bed, too." Sumire said while smiling tiredly. "Fusing with those mories really took a lot out of ."
Saying that, Sumire, with her face reddening once again, kissed Tatsuo on the cheek. Then, she stood up from his lap and walked towards his bedroom door.
"Good night, Tatsuo-Kun." Sumire said with a smile once she reached the door.
"Good night, Sumire-San." Tatsuo replied with a smile of his own.
As soon as Tatsuo's words fell, Sumire turned around and wagged a finger in Tatsuo's direction with a mischievous smile on her face.
"No, no, no." Sumire said. "Tatsuo-Kun, it's Minami-Sensei, rember?"
Then, without giving Tatsuo a chance to reply, she turned around and left the room, closing the door behind her as she left.
anwhile, Tatsuo could only shake his head with an amused smile on his face.
"She's gonna milk that for all its worth, isn't she?" Tatsuo replied as he turned his chair back towards his desk. "Whatever. I'll just finish this, send it to Nagumo-San's company, and go to bed. I don't know when the teleportation will happen, so I need to stay prepared.'
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