Returner? Villainess? SSS-Class? Saving the world? I want to take a nap. (Patreon)

Returner? Villainess? SSS-Class? Saving The World? I want to take a nap.

…

1.1

…

Commissioned by Arksoul

Wordcount: 2500

…

“Hey, Kanata. You’re drooling.”

Hm?

I checked.

“Yep. I am.”

Briefly, I weighed the pros and cons of raising my head up from the puddle of drool on my desk that I was lying on.

One on hand, I was comfy enough to drool.

On the other hand, drool wasn’t comfy, especially when it dried.

I sighed and got up, and took a wet-wipe from my pocket.

I wiped the drool from my face then my desk.

Mhmm.

Yep.

Table’s a lot cooler and comfier now.

“And, you’re back on square one.”

“No. I’ve tilted my head. See?” I showed Jinyue my innovation. I took my note book and rested the front of my face on it. The slight shift made sure no drool would leave my mouth. Perfect. I raised her a thumbs up. “All good.”

“No. Not all good. The examiner is almost here.” Jinyue sighed, got up, and moved me up and leaned me back to rest my back against my seat. The rest of the class was just chatting along and living life. Why couldn’t I enjoy myself before the next class started? How did Jinyue have so much energy to go through class and do all of this? “This is our chance to get recognized, Kanata. You need to be proper.”

Her hands smoothed over wrinkled and even checked my tie.

“No need, it’s a clip on.”

“Of course, it is.” Jinyue sighed and shook her head, before retaking her seat. She had a hand mirror out in a second. She combed her brown hair back with her fingers, checked her nails, and then her tail. Everything was perfect as usual. Just looking at her made me exhausted. She glanced at me with her long ears twitching against the sides of her face. It would be a pain for her to chastise me again, so I just kept my back straight against the chair. Slouching, how I already miss thee. “They say they’ve found over a hundred Knight-classes all over the city this round, you know? Even a couple people with enough Aether Absorption to be apprenticed to real powerhouses. This is our chance to be people. Not just orphans.”

“I’m fine, but I hope you’re a knight. Maybe, you’ll get a nice, safe posting.” Jinyue looked at me from the corner of her eye.  Her ears drooped a little. That made her sad. Not good. “Hm. I mean, I hope you’ll be a great knight who’ll save lots of people and beat lots of monsters. Hooray.”

I raised her a thumbs up and tried to smile, but gave up, and just offered the thumbs up.

The droop left.

It worked.

Great.

That’s enough excitement for today. I’ll just stay quiet.

There was a knock on the door and everyone went quiet, too.

Oh no.

It’s so nice and quiet that I might just fall asleep.

Thankfully, there were a lot of people in the group that walked in and stayed at the front of the class. Three of them were wearing armor that clanked a bit, and I could smell the maintenance oil on them even in the back of the classroom.  There goes my sleepiness.

“Please, be ready to come forward and touch the Aether Orb and the meter when called. The Aether Orb will activate your latent protentional, while the meter will record how much you have absorbed.”

Oh no.

We need to get up?

“Kanata.” Jinyue whispered to me, and glanced at me from the side. “I’ll get you a coffee a lunch. Just go.”

Conserving my strength, I gave her a nod.

I gave thanks to my late parents as I was called first thanks to my last name.

“Aoi, Tanaka.”

“Yes.” I got up, every step more than I expected to take before lunch, and my legs soon felt like lead. The promise of coffee at lunch urged me forward. I can drink it, nap in the empty classroom, and wake up before lunch ended with more energy. Coffee naps are great. The eighteenth best of my top twenty nap styles. Ten steps. Practically a marathon, but I endured and reached the table. “Now?”

“Yes.”

I put one hand on the orb of Aether and the other one on the meter.

Something like a cloud went up my arm and filled my body, while the meter gave several beeps.

The examiner and guards all suddenly moved quickly, and before I knew it, I was being moved out of the classroom.

It would’ve been a pain to resist, so I just went along with it.

Especially when they picked me up by my arms and just brought me out.

Hm.

Can I just get carried like this all the time?

“Kanata!?”

Drat.

I hoped everything would be fine for Jinyue, but for now I just went along with whatever was happening.

It wasn’t like resisting would do me any good.

…

They brought me to the principal’s office, but the principal wasn’t present. Instead, there was a someone standing behind the desk looking out of the window.

The principal’s chair looks really comfy, if you have the office, you should sit there, you know?

The armored knights knelt after dropping me in one of two chairs in front of the table, while the examiner went forward and bowed to report.

Hm.

The girl was our age.

It must be awful to work so hard.

“Oh, great prophetess. It is as you said! An unspoken one has been found amongst the masses! One beyond the future that you have seen!” A lot of words were said really fast, but I did my best to pay attention. The girl was a prophet who saw a certain future. Now she was working with the New Spiritualists with information from that future. That involved finding more people to fight. “This student, Tanaka Aoi, has the highest percentile of Aether Absorption we’ve ever seen! Ninety-Five Percent efficiency!”

“That is… beyond expectations.” She turned my way. Her eyes were tired and sullen, and her shoulders were slumped, even while tried to look important. Yep. She needed a nap. Maybe a dozen. “Hello, Tanaka, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Seo Yeon.”

“Hi.” The examiner stared at me, like she wanted me to stand. I didn’t want to, so I didn’t. “Are you going to take me away from here?”

“Yes, you will receive training and we will discover what talents you were given. Your current school is insufficient in facilities and the orphanage can’t protect you.” She took a seat at the principal’s chair and didn’t seem to like it. Like it was uncomfortable for her, or just a bad fit. Did she see the future or experience it? And, if it was experience, did that mean comfy things were rare in the future? That wasn’t good. “You will receive a weekly stipend, free meals, personal lodging, uniforms, and more at St. Loretta’s Collegium.”

If the future wasn’t going to be very good, it was no wonder they were working hard to find more people capable of fighting, then.

While I didn’t want to fight, if not fighting meant losing regular comforts, then I’d fight.

It’ll be tiring, but better than losing everything.

“Okay, but what about Jinyue?”

I just wanted to ask about my friend, but the prophetess suddenly froze while her eyes widened and the black spots expanded.

She looked afraid, even though she kept her small smile and kept speaking normally.

 I didn’t point it out, but I was sure she did it because she heard Jinyue’s name.

She was afraid of my friend before meeting her?

No.

She was afraid of Jinyue because of something Jinyue did in the future.

That can’t be good.

…

Interlude: Seo Yeon, The Returner

…

Jinyue Shen, the Desolate Spear of Heaven, met my gaze with innocent, hazel eyes instead of twin piercing scarlet orbs. Her features were youthful and innocent, untouched by wounds that revealed a mouth filled with fangs and unhealing cuts that revealed her skull. Not a single broken blade pierced her skin, nor was her hair and tail composed of hungry, black flame instead of follicles.

One of the greatest disasters to visit humanity, one of the architects of its destruction in the future with hundreds of thousands of deaths directly linked to her hands, stood before me as an innocent girl. None of the millions of deaths linked to the hundreds of thousands she caused had yet to occur. No heroes, masters, or champions have yet to fall by her hand, and there were no prodigies and geniuses with potential that she has yet slain.

The demon that sealed humanity’s fate, even after we defeated her and all the others, was before me.

It took all that I had to not scream for all to hear that she was evil incarnate, especially as the Aether orb and meter revealed the truth.

“The Aether blesses us today. Two individuals with the highest absorption rates ever seen!” The examiner announced and I barely managed a smile as the mood in the room lifted. The New Spiritualists I led were ecstatic. “This is cause for great celebration, especially as they are unlinked and unbound!

They did not know what I knew.

Of the two found, one was potentially the greatest evil amongst mortalkind has ever seen.  

None of the others who wished to bring low civilization wanted it destroyed. They wanted to control it, corrupt it, and even simply conquer it for their own gain. Jinyue Shen, meanwhile, wanted it destroyed. She broke dams, struck power plants, despoiled fields from horizon to horizon, and shattered mountains to reign it down upon cities. Even our foes allied with us against her, and it was only through a fragile alliance was she eventually slain.

Slain at such high a cost that we had no means to defend against what was to come.

She was why I was here, because we were left no choice but to be absorbed into the Aether otherwise.

It crossed my mind to kill her.

But I couldn’t.

Not when she all that terrifying strength can be used for mortal-kind instead, especially when no one knew why she decided to destroy us.

I had a feeling, though, that it had to do with the young man who didn’t exist in my future who she stood beside.

“Kanata, did you just accept leaving and going to St. Louis!?” She was a head taller than the baseline man named Kanata Aoi. Aether conferred physical changes to most of humanity. He and I were rarities in a world where animal features from our world and those consumed by the Aether were commonplace. Her autopsy showed her additional features to be of an unknown species from the deeper depths of the Aether from a civilization we never faced. All that we knew was that she was physically gifted beyond belief, which was amplified by her ability to absorb and manipulate so much Aether. “What would you have done if I couldn’t come!?”

“Don’t know. You’re coming, so it’s fine.” The boy was practically melting onto the office chair he’d been waiting in. Completely slumped into with drooping eyes, even his voice was a low, unenergized drawl. I caught him more than five times nodding off since his arrival at the office, and I had the guard fetch coffee from the vending machines for us all, but mostly for him. “You’re going to be a knight just like you wanted, yay.”

I almost scoffed at that notion, though Jinyue Shen suddenly flushing in embarrassment caught my attention.

The Desolate Spear of Heaven wished to become a protector?

How did such a goal change so drastically to complete annihilation of civilization?

“Quiet, Kanata. I’m sorry, Ms. Seo Yeon. We should really be more respectful.” Jinyue Shen faced me and spoke. I felt my heart still. I saw her future self-imposed upon the present. The demonic tyrant whose voice echoed across cities to the wailing and despair of the innocent was present in the hesitant, shy tones that reached me. I even saw four more phantom limbs each holding a weapon at her back. But when I blinked, it was all gone. Replaced by a young woman. “May I ask when are we leaving. Ms. Seo Yeon,?”

“Today. Your potential and abilities can’t be left here. Like all who have potential, you will be moved to where you can shine.” Practiced words left my lips and so a practiced smile also formed. Jinyue Shen, no, just Jinyue gave a smile at my words. The days spent in dorms with dozens of others, living with only uniforms given by the state, and with an unknown future looming overhead… all of it was gone. Replaced by a bright future. Of course, she would smile in relief. However, that couldn’t be it. Those woes were not enough to cultivate the hatred that I knew she was capable of. The hatred she used to end our struggle couldn’t have been born from that alone. “In fact, I think I’ll escort the two of you to your new abode myself. I’d very much like to help you both discern your talents.”

The examiner and guards all stood straighter at my proclamation. I knew those words would echo through the organization. These two will be seen as the beginning towards a new, better future… when in truth I felt taking them in was the best way to avert the future that I had survived.

“Kanata, did you hear that? The prophet will be helping us discover our talents! This is amazing!”

“Hm.”

I already knew her talent.

It was the manipulation of mass.

A terrifying talent which affected non-living things in her vicinity. Her spears were as light as feathers one moment and then as heavy as buildings the next. Unbound weapons and armor became prisons and unusable weights for her foes. She also used it to created barriers and foothold in the air, granting her mobility and defense beyond belief. Against cities, she tore apart mountains, made the rubble as light as snowflakes, then with a wave of her spear she sent them flying into cities and when they crashed, they did so like meteors and left nothing standing.

When she finally broke through the limitation of only affecting unliving things, all that lived had to strike at her before she affected more than just herself. Even so, in that final battle she was almost untouchable with most strikes making her flutter away, and when she was struck almost nothing could scratch her skin.

The thought of facing that power again in battle sent chills down my spine—

“I think I figure mine out. Look.”

I blinked as I looked at the boy.

“This is comfy. Here you try it.”

“Kanata!”

Like she was at that final battle, he was floating on air… and with a gesture he made her float as well. Then, with just a wave of his hand, he made air denser and formed it into a cloud-like structure that he laid upon with a satisfied smile.

That should be impossible.

I saw her use that power hundreds of times throughout so many decades, whilst limited to only unliving things.

Yet the boy was using it right now, before my very eyes, on himself, her, and air itself.

Therefore, it wasn’t impossible.

But how did she get his power, while he was nowhere to be found?

My throat went dry as I watched the two bicker and play like children.

Just what happened to these two children in the future past?