novelraw Chapter 402: Asuka Karasawa
Chapter 402: Asuka Karasawa
"Mr. Fisher, you seem a bit anxious. Also, it seems you haven't told me your purpose for coming to the Sanctuary yet... Ah, if you don't want to say, it's fine. I will understand."
Fisher, leaning by the window, heard the words of the Whale-kin named "Gou Wen" beside him and still inevitably sighed.
They had already been staying here for three days now. Fisher judged this based on the level of brightness of the planet outside. Over these three days, not a single Angel had come to tend to them. No one brought them food, and no one came over at all, as if they had been completely forgotten.
Fisher had been constantly pondering his future plans. Right now, he possessed basically no knowledge of the past time and space here. He simply didn't know how long ago he had time-traveled to.
Sanctuary, World Tree, Eastern Continent... these nouns, completely unfamiliar to him, were now presented before him as if spanning across time and space, forcing him to digest them for a long time within this confined space.
But apart from this, what genuinely had Fisher somewhat worried was Eimhart, along with the Holy Grail kept by Pandora which he needed to find later.
Fisher turned his head to look at the handsome Whale-kin man before him, who was still smiling. He had no idea how this person could be locked up here for three whole days and still remain so relaxed. After these three days, Fisher had roughly figured out Gou Wen's personality. This guy didn't talk much and remained quiet most of the time just like him. It was just that he occasionally stared at him, making Fisher feel somewhat unnatural.
But overall, the Whale-kin before his eyes was a relatively friendly person. Hearing his words, Fisher didn't answer his question, but instead asked him,
"Mm, sorry... By the way, we haven't eaten, drunk, or excreted for these three days. This shouldn't be a Rule that exists within the Sanctuary, right? Unless the Chain of Heaven the Angels worship is truly that bored."
"Ah, about that..."Gou Wen smiled and supported his cheek with one hand, saying,
"This isn't a Rule of the Sanctuary. It's because I tampered a little bit with both of us."
"Tampered?"
Hearing this, Fisher raised a brow in confusion. He looked at the Harmless To People And Animals Gou Wen before him, completely unclear about the specific meaning of what this guy, who had sat before him for three entire days, said.
He smiled and raised his hand, drawing a vertical line mid-air, which seemed to represent a certain concept.
"Mm, this is a little trick I comprehended from the medical theories of the Elf-kin. Although there are many types of living creatures in this world, aside from a minor portion of organs serving special functions, the Elves generally designated the common organs as the [Five Viscera] and [Six Bowels], possessing different functions."
"And the Six Bowels, which have the function of [transmitting transformed matter], actually have flaws. They are mostly fragile, and their efficiency in utilizing energy is too slow. If they could be improved, wouldn't it be much better... And my Blessing happens to be able to manipulate the flow of life force to a certain extent. So, I tried using my Blessing to improve the operational efficiency of our Six Bowels."
"By doing this, eating once can sustain operation for a very long time without any metabolic waste. If they can continue operating like this for a long time, it can greatly reduce the wear and tear on organs and life force. This way, even if one doesn't reach a higher level of life, one can live for a very long time. For a Whale-kin like me, the lifespan would become even scarier..."
Fisher didn't understand much about medicine to begin with. Add to that the bizarre medical theories of the Elf-kin he had never heard of, understanding it was even more difficult.
Looking at Gou Wen, who became slightly more excited upon mentioning medical theory, Fisher didn't interrupt him. He merely pondered: if Gou Wen could silently alter the operational methods of his own organs and make them operate in a good direction, conversely, making them operate in a bad direction should be a breeze as well, right?
Watching Fisher ponder, Gou Wen immediately waved a hand with a bitter smile and explained,
"Don't be so gloomy, Mr. Fisher. Actually, you don't have to worry about me harming you. Just as I said before, I am a doctor. And the Blessing and Curse of us Whale-kin are closely related to the personality traits of the individual Whale. And perhaps because I am devoted to saving people, my Blessing and Curse are very harmless. They only provide benefits and cannot ruin your internal organs out of thin air."
"No... I am not doubting you. I was just slightly curious after hearing about your Blessing's ability. I once met a Whale-kin, and among her abilities, there was also a Blessing that endowed life force."
"Mm, this shows that whale-kin girl also possesses a kind and passionate heart. The abilities of Whale-kin are not passed down through bloodlines to the Next Life. Even two closely related individuals by blood will have entirely different Blessings and Curses."
"I see..."
Fisher seemed to have forgotten to mention that the Whale-kin girl's Curse was extracting life force out of thin air...
While the two were conversing in the cage, Fisher suddenly heard the faint sound of conversation outside. It had been quiet outside this entire time, so this sudden conversation seemed rather abrupt.
"It's right over here. There are two other prisoners locked up here from before."
First, an androgynous voice Fisher didn't recognize sounded out. The person speaking seemed to be conversing with someone next to them. The voice responding was a rather lazy and pleasant-sounding female voice,
"Eh, there are two more? And both fell from the sky?"
"Unclear. The level of those two is much higher than this guy's. Going all out, they could probably make it up here. This guy is merely an ordinary human. If it weren't for Lord Raphael, she would be long dead."
The expressions of the two inside the cage altered slightly. Fisher turned his head to look at the entrance of the cage. A few seconds later, the heavy door of the Cage of Sealing Curses before their eyes opened, revealing the two Angels hovering in mid-air outside.
The one leading the way was an Angel, yet entirely different from the image of a "birdman with wings" Eliog had previously mentioned. His build was tall and robust, with highly dimensional yet androgynous facial features. He wore a loose white robe that concealed his strong physique, adorned with many beautiful patterns shimmering with golden light. A circular halo floated above his head, and four illusory golden wings floated symmetrically behind his shoulders.
"Eh, you guys probably haven't fed them for the past few days, right?"
"I don't know either. But there shouldn't be anything for them to eat in the Third Heaven, anyway."
At this moment, from behind the leading male Angel, the female voice Fisher heard earlier sounded once more. As the androgynous Angel slightly moved aside, a breathtakingly gorgeous Angel, slightly shorter in stature, lazily revealed her beauty.
A smile played on her brows and eyes, and a hint of scrutiny leaked through her lazy aura. Her pale blue, dispersed pupils were filled with an otherworldly Divinity, too profound to see through. A head of short, curly, soft golden hair lifted her slightly, mitigating the feeling of her practically dragging herself to the ground. She conveyed to Fisher a bizarre charm and aesthetic beauty.
She was likewise dressed in a loose white robe that covered most of her body, yet revealed her pale left shoulder. A pair of bare feet hovered in the pitch-black universe. The halo above her head was crooked, positioned extremely close to the top of her head. It was unclear if it was a Crown or a halo of an Angel. Behind her floated two pairs of illusory wings, except the colors were an even more resplendent gradient of blue and gold.
This Angel first assessed Gou Wen, then looked toward Fisher on the other side. Only when she saw Fisher did her gaze linger for an extra second or two. Subsequently, her smile deepened slightly. She said to the Angel beside her,
"Lock them all together. This matter is very strange; let me report it to the several Archangels and let them decide... Bring some food over later, otherwise they won't last long here."
Hearing this, the androgynous Angel beside her shot her a glance and said,
"[Helaire], there's no food for them to eat here. I'm too lazy to go down to the First Heaven to look for some."
The female Angel called "Helaire" merely hooked her finger. Under Fisher's scrutinizing gaze, a fully unconscious human girl enveloped entirely in a pale golden glow and wearing an odd set of clothing slowly drifted into their cell.
"Never mind. I happen to be heading over to the First Heaven to inform Remiel anyway; I'll bring some up when the time comes."
"Suit yourself."
The androgynous Angel turned his head indifferently and flew away. Helaire, on the other hand, cast an extra glance deeply into the cell at Fisher after tossing that human female inside. Before Fisher could react to see her scrutinizing gaze, with a light hook of her finger, the door to the cage rapidly slammed shut and locked.
"...Phew. Finally, someone among the Angels has a brain, knowing we need to eat. Eh, those Angels should have walked far away by now, right?"
Gou Wen sighed. Then, he looked at the human girl who was tossed into the center of the cell and suddenly became excited. He hurriedly got up from his spot where he sat for days, ran to the girl's side, and said right with shining eyes,
"Fisher, come look quickly. This is the [Resurrection Magic] cast by Archangel Raphael! My goodness, this is truly a miracle! Do you see how this golden life energy operates? It's too precise! It can accurately target each and every cell to apply treatment. It's simply a miracle..."
No, I think whatever method you used earlier was quite a miracle too.
Unlike Gou Wen, who excitedly researched the golden light top and bottom, Fisher's gaze mostly focused on the black-haired girl enveloped in the golden light. He only saw that the girl's overall height was roughly only 1.6 meters, with long black hair, but her features were much softer than those of a Kadu person, appearing quite delicate and pretty.
The most crucial point was the clothes she was wearing. She wore an outfit woven from a material Fisher had never seen before. It was completely black overall and appeared to be a uniform of some sort. The stitching was frighteningly neat, not at all seeming hand-made. Underneath was a white shirt paired with a red necktie, and below that was a black skirt that ended slightly above the knees, paired with a pair of black over-the-knee socks. She had no shoes on her feet; it was unclear whether they were lost when she was brought here.
Fisher squatted down beside the girl, ignoring Gou Wen who was staring at the golden light conducting research. He merely unexpectedly spotted a metal plate upon the girl's protruding chest with several lines of text he was rather familiar with. He didn't recognize a single word of the content. It read,
"Class B, 2nd Year・Karasawa Asuka"
This text... seemed to be identical to the name on the ring he had back then...
In other words, the girl before him was very likely the founder of the Creation Society, the Transferred Person, Magic Lord Asuka Karasawa?
But from her appearance, right now she seemingly arrived in this world just recently, just like him. She hadn't even changed her clothes, still wearing the clothes from the other world. Yet according to the Lord of Fate's intelligence, Asuka Karasawa should have been the earliest Transferred Person to arrive in this world. Then how long ago was it right now, and what era was he currently in?
"Mr. Fisher, could you do me a favor?"
"...What?"
While Fisher was pondering, the Gou Wen before his eyes suddenly addressed him, pulling Fisher's thoughts back to reality. He raised his head and looked at Gou Wen, only to see a hesitant expression upon his face.
"Like this, could you reach out and help me gently pull the black coat she is wearing... slightly apart? Just a bit is fine. That way I can clearly see how Raphael's healing arts are circulating within her body."
"...Why don't you do it yourself?"
"Well, Mr. Fisher... actually, I'm already married."
"And?"
"Mr. Fisher shouldn't be married yet, right?"
"...Consider me married."
"Eh, then your wife doesn't prohibit you from getting into close contact with other members of the opposite sex?"
"...Probably not?"
"That's good, that's good. It seems your wife is likely an amiable and reasonable person. My wife isn't like this at all; she is extremely short-tempered, and I am rather henpecked... So, could you lend me a hand to slightly lift the black jacket covering her lower abdomen? Just a bit is fine."
"..."
Fisher was rendered speechless for a moment.
However, due to that dazzling golden light enveloping the girl, for a moment they didn't notice the eyelashes of the girl surrounded by them slowly trembling.
Where... where am I?
She thought like so.
She seemed to have been studying at school...
After class ended in the afternoon, she should have returned home, but Ayumi from the band asked her out for dinner. So she didn't rush home immediately but stayed in the classroom to read. However, because she was simply too sleepy, she fell asleep leaning on her desk.
But why...
Was she lying on the floor now, and feeling so uncomfortable.
It seemed like two people beside her were conversing... so noisy. But their conversation was intermittent, and she couldn't clearly hear what they were discussing.
"She's just... an ordinary person... suffocated to death... Raphael... Resurrection Magic..."
"...And?"
"...The circulation method is very profound... one more layer... can't see clearly... undress a little bit and... this opportunity is Once In A Thousand Years..."
What?
Undress what?
Asuka Karasawa narrowed her eyes with an enormous headache, but could only see a patch of dazzling golden light and two blurry human silhouettes in front of her. She was entirely oblivious as to what they were intending to do.
It wasn't until a sigh escaped the tall figure beside her, seemingly unable to put up with the pestering of the person on the other side, that he nodded and replied,
"I know, I will lift up a little..."
"Thank you, Mr. Fisher."
Fisher?
Who entails this?
Are there foreigners in school?
Wait, why... is the language they are speaking Japanese?
No?
Why can I understand them?
Ah haha, am I dreaming?
Namo Amitabha... Being a dream is all fine...
Asuka Karasawa laughed silently, still under the illusion that she was having a dream. Hence, she shut her eyes peacefully, prepared to continue sleeping, although contemplating with some regret over why this dream was extremely peculiar and possessed seemingly zero substance, and why she couldn't dream up something pleasant within her own dream...
But it's fine as long as it's not a nightmare like before.
Just as Asuka Karasawa was on the verge of plunging into deep slumber, she suddenly felt the man beside her gently pinch her school uniform jacket, lifting it bit by bit, about to place it aside...
That genuine touch and the sound of conversation right beside her ears immediately jolted Asuka Karasawa's groggy mind. Soon, a hue of pink exploded from her lower abdomen, as if it would steam her thoroughly.
She forcefully snapped her eyes open, hurriedly clutching her chest as she sat up. Pointing towards the two weirdoes beside her, she shouted,
"Pervert! Degenerate! Why do I have to encounter such things even in my dreams?! Stay away from me!! Perverts!!"
Fisher and Gou Wen respectively took a step back. Exchanging a glance, it was still Gou Wen who initiated an interaction, waving toward the girl before him and greeting her,
"Calm down, calm down, miss... We are not villains, we harbor no malicious intent toward you. Moreover, this is not a Dream, but Reality. Hmm, although your appearance here seems far more absurd than Fisher appearing here. At the very least, his level is higher than the vast majority of living creatures. As for you, an underage human girl, how exactly did you arrive at the Sanctuary?"
"Eh? Sanctuary? What entails Sanctuary? Is this some novel Heisei term? Have I, born in the Showa era, fallen behind the thought processes of you lot?"
Asuka Karasawa sneered, assuming it to be yet another prank format in school. Her popularity in the class was horrid. Not only had she repeated a grade, but as a transfer student, the females in the class were extremely hostile to her, and she could only rely on a junior named Ayumi as her sole friend...
So, are the boyfriends of that bunch in the class coming to prank me now?
That doesn't make sense. Looking the way they do, how could they have foreign handsome boys as boyfriends?
Asuka Karasawa first appraised the tall, black-haired foreign handsome man sitting beside the wall after taking a step back in silent speechlessness and quietly swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Subsequently, she twisted her head towards the other side. When she caught sight of Gou Wen's handsome and deeply gentle face, she perceived nothing abnormal, until her vision was flooded with large patches of luminescent non-human ears, fins, and a tail. Immediately, her complexion drained to a pallid hue.
"Mon... monster... monster..."
Her legs turned to jelly as she backed into a corner of the room by herself. Even the area around Fisher seemed like forbidden ground, afraid that he was also some man-eating demon clad in the flesh of a handsome man straight out of some supernatural saga. Additionally, he was about to flip her clothes earlier. No matter how you looked at it, they were preparing to dine, right?
"This is all a dream... wake up quickly... wake up quickly..."
"Namo Amitabha... Namo Amitabha..."
Looking at the young black-haired girl trembling all over with clasped hands, cowering in a corner of the cell, Fisher slightly narrowed his eyes, subconsciously caressing his chest.
Right underneath were three Completion Handbooks.