A Day In The Fated Future
Location - Unknown
(Dazai Crowley's POV)
So this is the House of the Crowleys, huh. While it wasn't a life of royalty, this humble abode was by far not the worst place for a commoner to live in.
In fact, its simplicity was actually endearing.
From the looks of things, this place appeared to be about three stories tall.
The upper floor mainly housed the bedrooms and was pretty much the smallest compared to the rest.
There seemed to be only three rooms in total; me, my sister's and the master bedroom which most likely belonged to our parents.
Since we had our fair share of my room, the first me and Blair moved on to was my sister's bedroom, which was the closest.
Too afraid of experiencing death inducing pain again, I made sure to use Appraisal to scan for any similar traps or barriers.
Thankfully, I didn't sense anything nearby and Blair hadn't spoken otherwise, making it somewhat safe for us to enter inside.
When we did, the first thing I noticed was two things.
The first was that Alice's room was relatively the same as mine, just with a more "girly" twist, (if that makes any sense). And the second was the fact the "void" that existed in my room was also here.
In other words, this place did not truly feel like my sister's room, but rather a cheap imitation of one.
I wonder if that void exists elsewhere or throughout the entire house…
What a pain…
Well, since we were already here, we decided to take a look around.
There were wax figurines of her favorite fictional characters, several bookshelves worth of rom-com lightnovels, manga, comics with a few noticeable differences in genres like fantasy or horror.
A strange yet familiar berry-like fragrance also wafted through the air.
While it wasn't too pungent nor overbearing, it wasn't much to my liking. But, for some reason, Blair, on the other hand, seemed to like it.
"Hey, Dazai? What's this?" Blair asked.
Since I was unsure what she was asking about, she pointed to a large and mysterious table.
Cluttered with several metallic and wooden parts, along with certain tools, its semi-industrial look was a complete contrast to the room's common and generic atmosphere, making it especially striking.
Ah, just looking at it brings back memories.
"If I can remember correctly, this should be Alice's personal workbench. She used it to craft a variety of assorted tools, parts and some weapons."
"Oh? So a craftsman of sorts. Must've come in handy when things broke. Wonder if she got it from your parents."
"Doubt it. Mom and Dad aren't really the types to know alot about those trades like Alice did."
"I see." She understood.
To be truthful, she was taught by somebody else entirely.
But the reason as to why she approached that person in particular is a completely different story....
In any case, since I was able to recover some more of my memories, that mysterious light from before reappeared and manifested into more items.
Unlike my pendant from before, however, there wasn't much in here worth mentioning.
Atleast that's what I thought at first until something else in particular appeared before us.
A gun.
"Is this supposed to be some sort of musket?"
"Hey, don't touch that! You don't know if it's loaded or not!" I replied, immediately grabbing her hand midway.
"Sorry…." She whimpered apologetically.
That's odd.
Originally, I wanted to slap her hand away, but for some reason, I didn't want to hurt her.
Well, in any case. This gun was one of the new items that appeared from the light.
However, it wasn't a "rifle" as Blair thought. Instead, it was more so a "pistol" since Alice modeled it after flintlocks.
Its slender design and curvy handle was satisfying to see and touch. The barrel, trigger, and the hammer mechanism seemed to be coated with golden material, giving it an eye popping color.
Despite its small size, its efficient use of gunpowder and mana allowed it to fire a small cloud of deadly pellets like a shotgun.
Although the lethality of every shot gets reduced when fired from far away, its penetrating power can rip through bones, reinforced concrete and even thick blocks of pure steel at point blank range.
To call it deadly would be an understatement.
While it wouldn't be too effective against long ranged targets, its shooting capabilities would definitely have come in handy for times where close quarters combat wouldn't be effective.
As much as I loved to take it for myself, the main problem was trying to use it.
In my current state, I have no experience with using such weapons. Even if I tried using it right now, I would be no different than a foolish amateur.
But its not like I never fired a gun before either.....
"So, what was your sister like?" Blair asked me.
"Well, academic wise, she wasn't the very smartest, but she was one of the brightest tools in the shed to say the least." I explained.
"She was upbeat, cheerful, and outright just a bundle of joy to be honest. Her smile was infectious and her charisma definitely made her one hell of a social butterfly. Honestly, I would say she's the complete opposite of me."
"....You're not saying that because you feel inferior to her, do you?" Blair asked, questioning my self esteem.
"Heh, don't make me laugh. We're twins. While I may be her older brother, neither of us are more superior than the other."
"Oh, okay." She replied, relieved.
"It's just that her social abilities allow her to draw strength from others and bring unification to a team."
"That alone is already different from what I, well,..…specialize in."
As I said that, I began leaving the room.
But before I could, Blair spoke to me using her deeper voice, just so she could ask me a question.
"Then tell me, Dazai? What is it that you capable of?~"
A moment of silence interrupted us.
As I stood here, I thought of the many ways I could answer her question.
But only one response seemed fitting.
"That's for me to know and for you to never find out…."