"miss Mei! how's the portal?"
"still stable, there's no troubles or discrepancies... how're you holding up Eri?"
"It's all going smoothly..."
we're currently in an island that is floating surprisingly, the portal is maintained and the ocean current isn't troubling which is great for us, Von Maison AKA Eri is managing the stabilization of the island, if a tsunami or a storm ever comes out, we'll be safe. our problem currently is how to return back our world, while the estimated time is approximately 10 years or translated in this time is 30 years but I think we're still in gonna need a hundred or so... creating stable portals that will live for a year is hard enough as it is, there's also the need to connect each world and somehow theorize if timeline between worlds is stable enough... if ten years advance in this time, how many years does it take in our own...
"Me-... Mei-... this s-... Mei!, Mei! oh! it's fixed, Mei, we hit a snag here, can you analyze this for a sec?"
"fine, what is it Liliya? I mean, where did it come from?"
Liliya and Naoya are currently my field researchers in gathering information and materials for the portal back home. they were supposed to do this in the first place anyway...
"hmm... an underwater species? it looks normal... what's it called? does it have a name?"
"I don't know... we're currently in the underwater depths and there are multiple huge monsters everywhere, there's also some of the same looking species here!"
oh? even with different concepts of worlds... interesting...
"bring it back here, try to at least preserve it too... hmm... species... ahh... I think that one is called a blobfish? weird... it doesn't look anything like the picture suggest..."
the picture I'm currently looking right now is something like in liquid form... probably because it's been sunk in heavy gravitation and... no... that might not be it... pressure?...
"I'll be preserving this, Naoya has also been on the northern pole for other kinds but it seems like nothing much of a difference in ours which was surprising... it's like the underwater seas of this world is like a different portal or something..."
"heh... probably just mutation. alright then, please continue our fieldwork. I've also heard that some people are now targeting you but it shouldn't pose of a problem but it's still best to be careful you two"
"aye aye, captain! Hey Nao-"
the Comm goes static and I close the system... for now
"with the lieutenant gone for fieldwork and babysitting... the whole military has also started to do some fieldwork for me, they're all competent and I believe that they could even fight back a whole world if they don't intend to underestimate them... that was our fault from the second year or so..."
"miss Mei? who're you talking to?"
"ahh... Eri, nothing, I was just talking out loud... you can rest up for today, do you have anything to do? why don't we visit some of the countries here? although boring enough, the only race here that has average knowledge are human types so we won't be seeing much of a variance"
---------------
we finally reach shore with the night up in the sky... such a beautiful sky too... although the only problem is that there are not as many stars in the sky... that's such a bummer...
"Liliya, are you hurt or having any difficulties?"
"nope! I'm as healthy as an energetic woman! you need to stop worrying about me as much, you know that?"
"I'm not worried, I'm just... thinking about our mission. that aside, let's start camping for today, it's proper to sleep in the night but at the same time, we need to manage our body clock or else we'll have some troubles when we return"
Naoya's always a worrywart when it comes to this... I mean... I love it that he's worried about me but... it's just too much right now
"s-... sorry... Liliya... I know I'm being pushy but... I... don't know what to do in this kind of situations..."
"pfft... hahaha... we've been a couple for god knows how long and you still don't know? well, I'm no different but at least give a girl some space, being pushy is nothing and you do know that we're the strongest of our kind right?"
he gives a wry, nonexistent smile like he always does and walks to the forest... there was a forest here?
"I'll be taking some fruits here and let Mei analyze it for me for poison, what'l you do?"
"I'll be preparing the fire and the camp, the breeze is nice today so we don't need that much of a cover"
the breeze. Rin said that normal humans couldn't imagine sleeping in this air but... it's calming... and comfortable for my skin...
. . .
. .
.
... hmm... he's taking quite a long time... well, maybe I should take a nap in the meantime...
"a small nap is proper for a lady as always... thankfully this swimsuit that we had since the second time we had fun in a beach is still at the right size for me!"
with that, I close my eyes and lose my consciousness...
{I wonder if our child is doing okay there... I wish nothing bad ever happens to her... she may not be our child but no matter what others say... she looks just like me when I was a child, albeit more hair... I'm kinda jealous of her when she has problems with her hair... the moment we were born from Kirin's capsules were the time war was happening in our country... for convenience reasons, I cut my hair like it is right now but if it's growing in the middle area of not cutting it, I tie it without a problem... Osira has a long hair but chooses to tie it almost like mine... it's cute to see her having troubles when she ties her hair... it's like seeing myself if I ever had long hair... I don't know about that bulge though... her hair's going to turn into a hang if she keeps doing that...}
「------」
{huh?... noise?...}
I wake up and I see a couple of... naked? men and women carrying me! wait!
"Let go of me!"
「-----」
「---」
"gahh!" they don't understand me... that's understandable... who're these people anyway? they're not like the people I met in that place!? is this... difference in culture?
I squirm a bit and finally manage to untie a bit of it, exposing my hands
"good... now..."
I gather all of my Ether into my body and my hands and convert all the petals that I have summoned into poisonous dust.
more potent... but don't kill them...
"hguh!"
they began to notice what I was doing and immediately punched me... damn... this... isn't great...
. . .
. .
.
I finally regained consciousness and find myself in a cage...
"are they?... a ritual? wait... are they this far apart? from my lessons from Kirin... Rituals were witchcraft and had no proof from Ether... it was all simple theories and misconceptions... and all of that happened when even the first generation wasn't alive or was still a child! so... the only chances of them being this far from the community means that..."
a guy slammed my cage with some white spear-like thing and shouted at me... sheesh... I can actually think that they're like monkeys... their movements are so primal... it's like everything didn't even advance...
the door of the cage opens and they tied me back again... I forgot that I was captured... that could've been a great time to... no... they'll notice it all again immediately... I don't have any of my weapons to protect myself... which means... there's only one thing left...
I breath a large round and-
"KYAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
I screamed at the top of my lungs hoping Naoya would hear that. it looks like the people around me took notice... they hurriedly burned a fire and carried me halfway there...
"K-Kya! stop! what the fuck are you all doing!?"
they tear my clothes with a knife as if they were skinning me alive
damn it... any more and I'll be torched by fire... think... think...!
thankfully I can handle fire... I burn the rope tying me and with a snap, I finally get released, punching the man with a bone-like spear and using that weapon as is... it's... awkward to the touch...
"too close... it's bad enough to rape a girl but burning her alive is even worse... at least tenderize me a bit and kill me"
another man running incognito came and what I assume shouting at the chief here... well... he looks like one...
I take advantage of the situation and kill a few of them while also focusing on the petals and my ether.
petals protruded from the ground one by one and even if barely, paralyzing them in the process then killing them after... swiftly and gracefully, the petals turned red, soaked with the blood of thine enemies. the scenic knight sky turned into the bloody playground that even I once dreamed of when I was a child... the bloodshed... the screams... the pain and agony cross the island's corners. with the last scream uttered by the last person I left alive, turn into silence and a battle-scarred scene
"I knew you didn't need my help in the first place. so? how was it?"
"I never want to experience that again... also... please... ask Mei to fix this and... get some clothes for me..."
half of the battle, I forgot that I was half-naked... mainly my top... thankfully the petals were enough to hide it... but it didn't make the situation better...
"I'll... get the clothes..."
"what? you can look... you know... you already have seen me naked... multiple times..."
"Good point but I don't like seeing you in that... here..."
he gives me my battle clothing while also averting his eyes... well... if he looked I'd be embarrassed as well...
. . .
. .
.
the morning rises and thankfully, the blood was fully soaked by the petals and turned into fertilizers for the plants... I don't know if that would actually fertilize them though...
"morning sir Rosa"
he blushes a bit... teasing him everyday when we wake up never tire me...
"morning Liliya... I already told you to not call me that when we're in a job..."
"what's the matter? don't you like being called like that?"
"I... do... but... only if we're in our world... anyway, I'll be calling Mei about the information we gathered, we'll be traveling back west here... our target is... somewhere here... Indonesia?"
"aww... I wanted to go to the Philippines... where Osiria is... I already miss her..."
"it's only been 1 day... our technically speaking, 24 hours... and... I too am worried about her... why don't we pay a visit to them?"
I smile a bit and went back to the bottom of the ocean with our oxygen packs refilled to the fullest.
I actually don't need to check up on our daughter, I know her older siblings are there to protect them... if not, then I don't know what'll happen.