"To sum it up, first you had to go through the side entrance due to the front door not working. Then you found yourself in an illusion where a crazed swordmaster was out to get you?"
"Y-Yeah! And then suddenly there were two of them and…."
"Don't forget there were some sketchy fish!!"
"Yeah! Although I didn't personally see it… b-but there must have been, right!?"
"Alright, no need to tell me more."
Fu Xuan, with more than enough on her plate, had to immediately stop March and Stelle, who joined in, from repeating the utter nonsense she had just heard.
With a deep sigh, she narrowed her eyes towards the visitors that she had a brief encounter with and felt like this group was more trouble than they appeared.
"And to sum it up, you sliced the illusion apart and happened to arrive here?"
Fu Xuan looked at Yuuto who was dusting himself off and saw him suddenly let out an innocent expression. One that showed that he did nothing wrong.
"Of course!"
[I'm impressed. I'm honestly curious about the principles you managed to use to slice apart that illusion. Aren't you the same Diviner Fu?]
"General, I wish you could put your curiosity on hold and personally investigate this situation."
[....Ahem, it looks like more work is piling up quite quickly.]
Jingyuan rubbed the bottom of his chin in thought trying to hide his curiosity after being told off.
While Fu Xuan anticipated that this time was not one where she should idly stand around.
"With the appearance of yet another issue, I may need to do another major divination after the interrogation of the Stellaron Hunter."
[Well, I wish you luck, Diviner Fu. And to the rest of you, I apologize on behalf of the Luofu for failing to prevent such a mishap from happening to our honored guests.]
Sensing the implications of this situation, Jingyuan didn't stay long but left a lingering gaze at a few individuals in the group.
The holographic image of Jingyuan offered a swift farewell before leaving his gaze on Fu Xuan and turning around. His image faded and all that was left was Fu Xuan who looked like she needed a long break.
"Should we say something…?"
Stelle noticing the atmosphere, shifted her body to Yuuto who looked like he was searching for something and thought of a few things to say.
"Maybe we should just sit still and wait for the interrogation to start," March added overhearing Stelle.
"I think that's a good idea. With the stories Qingque told us earlier, I'm not too keen on annoying her for the time being…"
"For the time being? So you're planning to do it in the future?"
"Haha, not exactly..."
March awkwardly rubbed the back of her head seeing that Stelle managed to point out a part of her sentence that revealed her true thoughts and signaled her to keep quiet.
"I'm not sure what type of future you envision but I advise that you keep me out of your shenanigans."
March jumped hearing Fu Xuan who was suddenly beside her and looked away when she saw the deadpan stare she was getting.
Fu Xuan continued for a while before sighing and changing her sight to the large machine behind her.
The Matrix of Prescience Ultima.
A massive structure using the countless jade abaci that are linked together to form a large-scale calculation terminal. It is a vital machine used by diviners to foresee and retrodict events of the past, present, and future with the utmost accuracy.
And this very machine had stopped operating just a few minutes ago.
Usually, a simple problem such as this is quite easy to solve but considering the situation.
'We're understaffed at the moment…'
Fu Xuan didn't show it but she felt rather embarrassed seeing the people behind her patiently waiting for her to start.
But how can she tell them that they needed to wait even after going through the trouble of calling them here?
All because she didn't have enough staff.
'I even mistakenly told Qingque to take a break during my confusion…'
Fu Xuan felt like covering her face with her hands but she composed herself and ran her mind to figure out the quickest solution.
"Do you need help?"
"...It's a bit improper for you to sneak up on me."
"You can always ask us for help, you know."
"....."
Fu Xuan looked displeased at Yuuto who suddenly appeared beside her.
Already anticipating the problem, Yuuto briefly told the others of the situation, and feeling like it was enviable for them to be errand runners, they waited for Fu Xuan to say the word.
Feeling like this was the most ideal solution, Fu Xuan had to put on her thick skin and ask but she felt her mouth twitch when she heard what Yuuto said next.
"Just say pretty please and we'll do it in a jiffy."
"...Wh-What?"
"Prettty Ple-ase! It's simple or do you want another magic word to help?"
Fu Xuan saw the smirk he was giving and even without divining the future, she knew that the other word he was thinking of was much less manageable than the one right now.
She genuinely thought of refusing his offer but seeing as her staff would take hours to fix the matrix compared to the people in front of her.
Fu Xuan clenched her fist and glared at Yuuto.
".....please."
"Ehh it's not the one I wanted to hear but it's good enough."
Yuuto stopped his teasing, sensing that if he took it a step further, Fu Xuan would rip his mouth off.
'I'm still not satisfied but this is good enough I guess.'
He looked at his shoulder was used as a foothold by Fu Xuan when they first met and thought that this was a good replacement for the apology he didn't get.
Hiding Yuuto away from her, the others listened carefully to what they should do to the three major terminals connected to the matrix. Especially towards the warning regarding the guardian protecting some of them.
In the end, they decided to split up to save some time and speed up the process since each of them felt capable of protecting themselves. Seeing no need when another person can go right ahead to the other two.
"I guess she's being petty for giving me the terminal that's the furthest away."
Swiping the foot of a mara soldier and creating a spike that pierced the body of the soldier, Yuuto mumbled seeing the terminal still a ways off from where he was.
Luckily for him, the sky was just about to reach dawn and silver streaks began to move downwards towards his feet.
In an instant, his speed increased and his body faded as he sprinted towards the karma terminal that he was assigned.
[You move fast!]
"Well, I don't consider this too fast but it's pretty good."
[Faster!]
"I didn't realize you liked this Boo."
"...Wu…that wasn't me…Wu…"
"Huh."
Seeing Boo pop out of his coat, Yuuto looked confused seeing as the voice he was hearing was not from him.
[Why did you stop!]
With his full attention now on the mysterious voice, Yuuto knew that it was not someone following him but rather an entity already with him.
Putting Boo out of the equation, he tapped his chest to see if the voice was the Starfire hidden within his pocket but to his surprise, he felt nothing inside.
Panicked, he tapped everywhere on his coat including his pants but nothing.
[What's wrong?]
"...Is that you uh…Starfire Poison..?"
[That name sounds weird! Call something better!]
'A sulking voice..?'
Yuuto felt even more confused at the moment but seeing as his guess was correct he decided to let go and instead see the reason why this scary poison suddenly had the ability to speak.
Especially seeing the amount of emotion it had in its tone.
"So.. Star?"
[Hmm…I'll accept it for now! But you suck at naming!]
"This little…"
Yuuto suddenly felt like this cheeky poison would have been better if it remained making cute sounds but sadly that was in the past.
"So where are you? You're not in my pocket anymore."
Instead of running, Yuuto switched to walking and tried to figure out where this poison was now.
[In a warm place! I went towards the pretty fire and now I like it here!]
"Pretty ..fire…"
Yuuto stopped in place when he heard Star's innocent statement but a shiver went down his spine and he immediately released his golden flames.
"Oi!? Get out of there!!"
[Noo!! I like it here!]
"You little… I'll let you have some of the flames so get out. I'll add in a nice treat if you're fast."
[Deal!]
From the golden fire rising from his palm, a small fox made of blue flames jumped out and went towards his pocket where it waited for the deal Yuuto proposed.
Yuuto let out a sigh of relief seeing Star out of his body but he felt wary at the harmful effects it might have had on his body during that brief moment.
'I don't feel like my soul is getting damaged or ripped apart so I guess I'm alright for now?'
The tip of his finger gave Star a small portion of his golden fire and it happily snuggled against the warm heat source.
Seeing it so comfortable, Yuuto looked at Star and didn't notice anything too different from its previous appearance except for being a bit bigger and having a few streaks of white in its fur.
"So, any reason why you're able to speak now?"
[I don't know. I just remembered how to do it after sleeping in that warm place and touching something cold.]
"Not the answer I wanted to hear but you say something cold…"
Yuuto used his sword to cut apart a fragmentum monster hiding behind a wall and thought about a few things that Star might have encountered.
"It could have been the mist I have or [Clarity]. There's also energy from the [Memory of the World] so there's also that."
He felt like there were quite a few things that he had that could be considered 'cold' and while it was tempting to experiment which was which.
There was still a task he needed to do.
Riding the rays of moonlight starting to gather from the sky, he finally made his way to the karma terminal.
A wide open area with a large circle and tethered purple line attached to points on the circle, Yuuto went to work on the mechanism.
"It feels easier to move these things."
Maybe because he already knew the solution or the moonlight increasing his speed, he finished the puzzle pretty fast and a solid purple hue rose from the circle.
The light increased with intensity before it gathered towards the banner holding the symbol for karma.
–FWOOOSH
The light shot towards the center of the Divination Commission and the indicial pattern by the matrix matched the hue the karma terminal was giving off.
"It looks like I was just a bit faster than the others."
After the karma sigil turned purple, the space and time sigils turned to their respective colors and the matrix began to move.
The large mechanism went from its dull state to one that lived up to its name of being able to gather the events of the past to predict the future.
"I want you to be quiet when I go back."
[Can I have more of the fire?]
"You start to bargain once you have a voice, huh."
[I promise I won't exploit you!]
"Interesting choice of words…"
Yuuto pinched the nose of Star who wanted something in exchange. Giving it some more fire that it eagerly wanted, he closed his coat and looked at Boo.
"Boo don't turn into a cheeky little fox okay?"
"Wu… I won't…"
"You little… Come here!!"
"Wuu~...."
Rubbing his face on Boo who welcomed Yuuto's affection, he made his way towards the center where everyone gathered. Having only him left where he also saw Tingyun suddenly join them.
"You're here?"
"The commission was giving me some trouble so I had to unfortunately focus on that. But don't worry~ I will make up for my absence from now on."
Yuuto gave her a small smile in exchange but hidden beneath his eyes was a gaze that didn't trust the facade she was letting off.
'Just what did she do…'
Giving her discrete glances, Fu Xuan didn't waste any time and called for a few Cloud Knights and before they knew it, Kafka walked in.
Looking a bit different from how she normally is.
"This is rather embarrassing. There was no need to do all that don't you think? I said I would cooperate~"
"Like I will take the words of a wanted criminal."
Fu Xuan scoffed and ignored Kafka who was letting off a relaxed atmosphere as if she didn't mind having this machine used on her.
"Then Master Diviner, gaze into my destiny."
With Kafka in the center, the matrix rotated and a mixture of blue, green, and hints of purple converged into the orb floating just above Kafka.
From her hands, a pink trigram appeared underneath the matrix and Fu Xuan's arms turned a mystic color that attracted Yuuto's eyes.
The rings turned. Turning. Until it lifted Kafka and her wine-colored pupils turned a shade of blue which matched Fu Xuan at the moment.
Near the back, Yuuto's pupils also turned a hue of white as he used [Clarity] to see the different types of energy being used and he felt his chest turn heavy.
[Yuuto…]
Being the one nearest to his chest, Star noticed that his heart was beating oddly faster than usual and it looked worried.
Watching the display of colors from the matrix, Yuuto's vision suddenly faded and his surroundings changed from the Divination Commission to an unknown dark plain.
As if gazing into the matrix using [Clarity] brought upon an effect that he didn't exactly want to bring out.
'What is this…?'
Blaming his curiosity, he looked around to see a plain devoid of any life with only a stone pedestal in its center, Yuuto noticed himself slowly walking towards it.
Wanting to look around, he found out that his body didn't want to listen and all that he could do was watch this scene.
'Wait that's….!?'
Being just an arm's length away from the pedestal he saw an object that was the last thing he expected to see.
A book. A book with a dark blue background and an intricate white border.
[#&&**)#]
[!*@())&^&]
Still flustered from seeing the [Memory of the World] on the pedestal, two other entities other than himself joined in and stood beside the book.
He couldn't make out their appearance as if something was preventing him to.
But there were a few things he noticed.
One had a light blue finger that released the colors of the rainbow.
While one had a hand that gave out an eerie purple and gray aura that phased in and out of the world.
The two conversed for a while before the person he was currently seeing through, lifted their arm and placed an orb that released a pure white light.
A light that seemed to fill the empty plain with a sort of innocence.
[The Purest Memory]
A calm voice amid the words he was unable to hear, Yuuto looked at the orb in a daze before the hand holding the orb covered his eyes.
[Too much.]
Maybe as a way to tell him off, the voice made his mind turn blank and before he knew it, he was back at the Divination Commission.
"Are you alright? You're breathing pretty hard right now."
"What?"
Yuuto felt his body drenched in sweat as March looked at him worriedly and he told her that he was fine.
After assuring her a bit more, March let him be but Yuuto's mind was still a bit chaotic after experiencing what he did.
That world. The pedestal. The three entities. The book. The orb.
All of those things were hanging heavy on his mind as if he saw something important.
[Floof]
Possibly feeling his state, a cool sensation washed over his head and his chaotic mind turned clear.
"....Do you know what that was?"
[.....floof.]
"So you don't remember…"
Yuuto let out a deep and heavy sigh, sensing the book in his library was not lying to him but this annoyed him a bit.
"I hate the feeling of being part of a scheme I do not know of…."
While he didn't mind not knowing everything since it was almost impossible to do unless you were a higher being.
Feeling used for someone else's plan was something he hated.
Calming the annoyance that was rising within him, he looked around to see what was happening and saw Fu Xuan in a corner looking frustrated.
While Stelle was already in the center talking with Kafka.
"Seems like Fu Xuan learned that the Stellaron Hunters were not the ones responsible for the Stellaron and all they came here for was because of us."
Forging a connection with the Loufu and the Astral Express was one of the goals the Stellaron Hunters wanted for the inevitable confrontation with Nanook.
The Luofu's power and connection to the Hunt were indispensable to the future Elio saw.
"Speaking of Elio…"
Yuuto noticed Stelle leaving Kafka in a troubled state and he felt like this was a good opportunity to get some information.
"There's no way that's true right…? I refuse to believe that…!"
Walking past Stelle, Yuuto overheard her speaking to herself and wondered what Kafka said to make her like that.
"Hi again~~! Pardon my appearance, those little knights have no understanding of just how important a lady's makeup is."
"I still think you look fine."
"Well fine is not perfect, is it?"
Kafka stifled her laugh as Yuuto walked closer and her pupils carried more emotions focused on him.
"Looks like something is on your mind?"
"Quite a lot actually."
"Will you like to have little ol me listen to your worries~?"
Yuuto didn't respond and only looked at Kafka who only smiled sweetly at him. With a lot of questions he wanted to ask, there was something that weighed more.
"...Do I have control over what I do?"
A simple question that carried a lot of thoughts behind it. This was a question that made Kafka's smile turn smaller.
But this one carried a more genuine feeling behind it compared to her usual one.
"How do you feel about chess?"
"Answering my question with another question is not fair."
"Ehh, just give me your opinion! I promise it will be worth it."
Yuuto, still not buying it, decided to follow along and thought about it for a bit.
"I don't have any thoughts about it."
"Well, what do you think about Aeons?"
"They're strong. I also want to punch one in the face."
"A bold statement~~!"
Kafka felt surprised by his serious wish of punching a higher-dimensional being in the face but she didn't comment on it too much.
Looking up and seeing the sky devoid of any clouds but filled with a plethora of stars, Kafka spoke in a soft voice.
"The future holds endless possibilities don't you know? Your lives are your own and the struggles or joys that come along with it will always follow you. But let me tell you, there are futures where we have no control over."
"Even if we try to move forward there is a point where we can't pass. As if we're pieces on a chess board, moved by hands we cannot see."
"Slaves of the destiny that is tied to us."
Kafka turned her eyes back on Yuuto who was listening silently and once again stifled a laugh.
"Aeons carry unfathomable power with them and their actions are part of a bigger picture. A game that we were never meant to understand."
"Some pieces advance, some are sacrificed. Some become knights, bishops, or rooks—powerful, yes, but still confined by the board."
"An unfortunate future isn't it?"
Yuuto could not help but nod as he felt firsthand how overwhelming the power of an Aeon was.
"However, even with a script meant for us to follow, there are instances where the board can be changed. The script Elio foresaw is just one of the glimmers of hope on the horizon."
"But that's not all, you know~. Sometimes in this game of chess of aeonic properties, some individuals are given a choice."
"The choice of being a pawn or stepping away from the board. To become not a piece, but a player. To move not by the hands of Aeons, but by their own will."
Kafka's expression felt cryptic as she stared at Yuuto to imply something and he stared back.
"That's where the true game begins~~."
Her head moved forward trying to lean closer to Yuuto's ear and she whispered something.
"So tell me, which one are you?"
Yuuto didn't answer but Kafka sensed something had changed in the atmosphere and all she could do was look upwards.
'I completed what I needed to do Elio.'
Kafka closed her eyes for a bit before feeling the ground beneath her shake and heard the growing screams happening near her.
"Will you be leaving now?"
"Maybe? Going to miss me~?"
Yuuto let out a sigh seeing as her serious mood from earlier was now gone and all that was left was her usual casual attitude.
The binding holding her arms back suddenly snapped apart and after rubbing her wrist, she jumped back and walked towards a ledge.
"Ah, Bladie you're here."
"..."
"You look like you had some fun while waiting."
Joining her was a familiar man with blood-red eyes and sensing Yuuto who was near them, a dense murderous aura rose from him.
His body was filled with deep cuts that faded away while his clothes gave an insight into the amount of injuries he sustained.
Blade looked like he wanted to kill a certain someone.
"You…"
"Did you enjoy yourself?"
"..."
Yuuto waved his hand with a slight smile sensing his anger being focused on him and felt like if Kafka wasn't here, Blade would have attacked him by now.
"Now now Bladie, behave. We have three places we still need to visit."
Kafka immediately called over to Blade who was still staring daggers at Yuuto and waved at Yuuto one last time.
"I will see you next time~."
Both Kafka and Blade jumped backward off the ledge behind them and Yuuto watched from a distance as a few Cloud Knights tried to reach them.
Now alone, Yuuto thought about the conversation or more so the story Kafka told him before leaving and felt a headache come down on him.
"A pawn or a player, huh…."
Thinking about the two distinct roles, Yuuto looked at the object growing prominence in the distance and thought about the upcoming future.
***
Honeslty hope they put a new 5 star remembrance lightcone in herta's shop soon since there are so much you could put on Aglaea that is not her signature.
But no complaints about her design since she looks breathtaking.