novelraw Chapter 411: I Want to Go Home (6k)
Chapter 411: I Want to Go Home (6k)
The Sun Ring in the Fifth Heaven below continuously rotated. Like this, countless streams of solar winds carrying thick, torrential energy in the distance were being yanked constantly by that high-speed rotating angelic Holy Artifact to approach the Sanctuary, until they completely filled the entire sky, transforming it into a purely golden color...
All the angels in the Sanctuary had departed from the Fifth Heaven. However, Fisher's group hiding in the Seventh Heaven wasn't having an easy time either. Most of the time, the ambient temperature outside was extremely high, and they entirely couldn't keep their eyes open. Even Fisher couldn't stay outside for long, let alone Asuka Karasawa, who was merely a mortal.
"Buzz buzz buzz!"
Looking at the terrifying scene that blotted out the sky, Fisher found it somewhat unimaginable to conceive how the living beings residing on the surface right now summarized this spectacular scene born in the sky, and how they managed to survive in an unimaginably harsh world like this.
It wasn't that his imagination was too barren; rather, even an excess of adjectives couldn't fully express its complex concepts. Thus, humans employed the simplest word with the most left up to the imagination to describe the beings that single-handedly orchestrated all of this:
"Mythical Species."
During the time Fisher and the others were locked up, although the Sun Ring below was extremely berserk—practically exuding a rhythm ready to devour the entire world—Helaire still came up a few times, bringing them a bit of food. Fisher and Gou Wen didn't act polite, each asking Helaire for some items.
Gou Wen asked for pen and paper, stating he was preparing to write a letter to his wife to report his safety. Naturally, Asuka Karasawa had nothing to ask for; she only spent her days gobbling down meals and sleeping. Fisher requested an engraving knife. Originally, he had wanted to ask for some Magic Materials to prepare magic, but Helaire said she didn't know what Magic Materials were, leaving Fisher with no choice but to drop it in the end.
Inside the Cage of Sealing Curses right now, it was still relatively quiet. Everyone was basically doing their own thing, occasionally exchanging a few words. Fisher held up the engraving knife, constantly carving something in the void. If one looked closely, they would discover he was continuously repeating the two Circle Heads, 【Destruction】 and 【Lightning】. He was simulating the carving process of the dual-circle-head 10th-Circle magic, the 【Killing Dragonspear】.
Although he had successfully carved it during a critical moment in the dreamscape earlier, ever since descending the Wutong Tree, being pursued by death left him entirely without the leisure to carve magic. He still didn't know if he could replicate that kind of operation in reality once more, so he had been constantly practicing it during this period."Gou Wen, have you seriously never heard of the term 'magic' before?"
"No, what a weird term. Most humans now reside on the Continent of Dragons, right? The Dragon God basically rarely goes back, freely running all over the world. It's really hard to say whether that's a bad thing or not... Since the Dragon God has no familiars and lacks a set of social theories like the elves, the environment on the Continent of Dragons is basically very unfriendly towards fragile humans."
Gou Wen smiled gently, his eyes fixed unflinchingly on the pen in his hand as he focused entirely on penning the letter to his wife. It seemed his mood at this very moment was especially good; even his tone was considerably more relaxed.
"Humans migrate frequently to avoid other creatures whose life tier is higher than theirs. I heard that every human settlement erects a 'World Alert Stele' in the most conspicuous location, recording the wisdom their ancestors etched in blood to remind their clansmen of the dangers posed by other creatures. Although situations exist in the Continent of Dragons where humans live mixed with other races, they are basically extremely rare."
"Is that so..."
It seemed the Mother Goddess hadn't bestowed grace upon humanity yet. Present-day humans were still enduring a state at the very bottom rung of the Tiers.
Then, when exactly did the divine being Mother Goddess—who directly intervened in the world three or four thousand years ago during Fisher's era—arrive in this world?
The Magic Circuits on Fisher's body lit up bit by bit, still simulating the carving process in the air, focused on pondering the questions in his mind.
On the side, Asuka Karasawa also remained curled up in a corner without uttering a word, hugging her knees. She secretly observed Fisher's actions and words, but solely pursed her lips, making no indication whatsoever. She maintained the same posture for several hours on end, only adjusting her sitting posture slightly when her body grew completely stiff.
During this recent period, she had always been very quiet. A lot of the time, once one grew busy with their own affairs, it became easy to overlook her. Only when Helaire delivered food up would one suddenly realize: Oh right, there was a third person here.
Of course, it wasn't that Fisher paid no attention to her. Conversely, it was precisely because he had misgivings regarding her future identity as the Magic Lord of the Creator's Society that he harbored some apprehension. After all, Fisher's impression of the Creator's Society members was largely not very good, leading him to hold some guardedness toward its founder as well. Thus, his conversations with Asuka Karasawa only merely touched upon the surface before stopping.
"Buzz buzz buzz..."
The solar winds outside were still passionate, unpresentably noisy. This made Fisher look forward to the night ever since he arrived at the Seventh Heaven.
Fisher grew somewhat exhausted from practicing. Placing the engraving knife beside him and rubbing his brow, he turned his head to look at Asuka Karasawa. She practically lowered her head instantly. After the subconscious action passed, she only then barely raised her head again, giving Fisher a tiny smile that counted as a greeting, before pretending nothing happened and turning to look at the sights outside the cage.
"..."
Yes, once night fell, this place could finally quiet down.
The reason lay in the Fifth Heaven being entirely embedded within that giant ring encircling the entire planet. As the Sun Ring had to face the sun unceasingly when activated, the massive Sun Ring would maintain a frequency almost identical to the planet's rotation to constantly face the sun for charging. Only, the commotion caused by its charging was truly too massive; they could only catch a period of rest when the other Heavens were comparatively further away from the Fifth Heaven.
The trio inside the Cage of Sealing Curses were scattered, lying down to sleep. Except for Gou Wen, both Fisher and Asuka slept very uncomfortably. The cage floor was hard; however, Gou Wen, being a Whale-kin, possessed a massive tail he could use as a pillow. Sleeping in an odd posture with his soles completely pressed together, once he fell asleep, he couldn't be woken up at all. He slept incredibly soundly every time.
Even with his muscles, Fisher also frequently felt a chilling coldness. Amidst the serene dead of night at this moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and woke up—not because of the cold, but because he suddenly heard a tiny, exceedingly faint, sharp scraping sound. At first, he thought the Sun Ring had rotated back again, but given how freezing it was right now, he quickly realized this sound was coming from inside the cage.
In the darkness, Fisher narrowed his eyes and turned to look at Gou Wen. Gripping the completed letter with both hands and a smile on his lips, he maintained his odd posture, sleeping like a log. Looking further toward Asuka Karasawa's direction, Fisher saw her curled up, facing the wall. Her shoulders continuously heaved, and her hands seemed to be moving slightly in front of the wall.
"Screech... Screech..."
Hearing that sharp sound, Fisher subconsciously touched beside him for the engraving knife he had placed down, but unsurprisingly grabbed nothing but air.
He turned his head to look at Asuka Karasawa again. After silently observing for a few seconds, he suddenly realized that Asuka Karasawa seemed to be slowly, bit by bit using his engraving knife to carve a line of text on the wall. It was text Fisher couldn't read at all but found exceedingly familiar.
"家に帰りたい" (I want to go home.)
He seemed to have seen... text exactly uniform to the one before his eyes inside the Cage of Sealing Curses at the Moon Rabbit-kin's ancestral shrine of the Turan family in the Northern Border.
In other words, the Cage of Sealing Curses back then was precisely the one they were staying in right now, and the one who carved that line of text was indeed the newly-transmigrated Asuka Karasawa?
Looking at the curled up, constantly heaving-shouldered Asuka Karasawa before his eyes—who seemed to be weeping silently—Fisher pondered for a moment before suddenly speaking up to ask,
"What does this sentence mean?"
"E-E-E-Eh..."
Hearing Fisher's abrupt voice from behind her, Asuka Karasawa's hand—which originally couldn't securely grip the knife due to the cold—jerked violently, causing the engraving knife to fall to the floor. Frightened, she immediately sat up straight. Her hair was somewhat disheveled right now, a few messy strands draped before her eyes through countless gaps, somewhat concealing her reddened, tear-stained eye sockets.
Shivering all over from the cold, she retreated quite a distance toward the corner of the cage. Subsequently, with her head lowered, she hastily opened her mouth to apologize repeatedly,
"Sorry... Sorry, sorry Mr. Fisher, I didn't mean to take your things on purpose... I am truly sorry..."
Her tone carried a bit of a sob, and tracking it, she hugged her legs encased in black over-the-knee socks exactly like she did in the morning, shrinking into a pitiful ball.
Fisher opened his mouth, looking at the little girl burying her head before him, then glancing at her constantly twisting fingers pinched entirely blue. That smudge of messy hair color and pinkish weeping undoubtedly represented the fragility most capable of inadvertently inciting the flames of a male's reproductive instincts, making one uncontrollably wish to bully her further...
But the moment this thought popped up, Fisher had already unfazed turned his head to look at Gou Wen. That guy was completely dead to the world, motionless, painting a visage of serenity. Fisher spoke,
"It's fine. Anyway, it actually isn't my item, but rather that fellow's... I am just a bit curious, what is the meaning of the line of text you wrote?"
Asuka Karasawa raised her watery eyes slightly, seemingly wanting to size up whether Fisher before her still bore any look of blame. Regrettably, with her mortal eyes, she couldn't see the items within the darkness clearly the way Fisher could.
"It just... means 'I want to go home'."
"...I see."
"Mm... Sorry for waking you up, Mr. Fisher."
Leaning against the nearby wall, Fisher exhaled a breath of hot air into the darkness. He didn't know how the Breathing Holy Artifact in his lungs allowed him to breathe within the Aether Ocean, nor did he have any intention of probing into it right now. He simply said,
"I'm suddenly a bit curious, what exactly is the meaning of that phrase you frequently chant?"
"Which phrase?"
Asuka Karasawa turned her head to look at Fisher, but saw essentially nothing.
"That phrase... 'Namo Amitabha', what does it mean?"
"Eh, Mr. Fisher's Japanese is... really standard."
"Because my memory is pretty decent. So, its meaning is?"
"This is actually a Buddhist term. The preceding 'Namo' translates from Sanskrit, meaning 'homage' or 'reverence', while the succeeding 'Amitabha' refers to the master of the Western Pure Land. Within Buddhist concepts, he is an entity of great wisdom, an enlightened one..."
Fisher rarely had an eyelid twitch. He seemed to know every single word, but linked together, he had basically no idea what it meant.
Even in the darkness, Asuka Karasawa could vaguely sense his silent posture. The corners of her mouth—originally turned down due to weeping earlier—curled up slightly. She continued to explain,
"Anyway, it's just a kind of faith from our world. I'm actually not a Buddhist. I only know this much because my dad is the head priest of a temple in Kyoto..."
"He really likes having me read Buddhist scriptures, like those religious texts and whatever, causing me major headaches. He talks about 'Invoking the Buddha's Name, Other-Power Original Vow', wanting Lord Buddha to bless me... I essentially didn't read them, solely verbally pretending to be very diligent, which is why I have this verbal tic. Ugh, if Lord Buddha found out, he would definitely be very angry..."
In Fisher's mind, the things Asuka Karasawa described had automatically converted into the Mother Goddess Church, and roughly, the entity of wisdom her dad believed in was akin to the existence they worshipped here...
"So that's how it is. Just unknown if chanting this name over here would make the deity originally existing yonder bestow their blessing upon you."
Asuka Karasawa gave a slight smile. Subsequently, she hugged her legs a bit tighter, mumbling softly,
"It doesn't matter. Compared to the world Mr. Fisher is from, the existence we believe in probably doesn't exist? Even if he did, an insincere believer like me wouldn't receive salvation just by verbally chanting the Buddha's name. It's also possible that it was precisely because of my insincerity that Lord Buddha laid down punishment upon me, causing me to arrive in this world?"
Sensing her low spirits, Fisher seamlessly changed the subject,
"Then what about before you came? You were attending school, yes?"
"Mm."
"How was school life?"
"...It was terrible. Because I transferred over fairly recently. For the three years of middle school, I studied at home. When things finally improved a bit and I walked out of the house to attend school, because I was an outsider, I was ostracized by the girls in my class."
"You mean, bullied?"
"Not really. They knew my dad was a temple head priest and were probably afraid Lord Buddha would punish them, so they didn't dare bully me, they only bullied the others... To me, they simply ignored me, only occasionally tearing me down behind my back. Naturally, I didn't have any friends either. Sorry... Speaking about these things must seem very childish to an adult like Mr. Fisher."
"It's alright. If one must speak of childishness, that Helaire ought to be the most childish and boring person... no, angel."
Asuka Karasawa smiled. Covering her mouth, she laughed and said,
"Be careful Helaire Angel doesn't quietly appear behind you again, Mr. Fisher."
"...Although I didn't understand what you meant by middle school and high school, what you essentially mean is that you didn't attend school for a very long period of time. Why?"
"Ah, about that..."
Not knowing what crossed her mind, Asuka Karasawa's eyes appeared somewhat forlorn.
"Actually, when I was little, I was raised following my mom. She was a Tokyoite, and met my dad—who went to Tokyo for university—while she was in university, and got married. But just like me, mom quickly grew to hate my dad who returned to Kyoto to inherit the temple. She yearned more for life in the big city, desiring to earn lots and lots of money..."
"Japan at the time, y'know, was doing great. I heard that many people could earn big bucks, there were heaps and heaps of rich people living in unbelievable luxury. Mom was like that too. I recall when I was young, it seems we lived in a tower near Tokyo Tower. Being unwilling to handle the walk, Mom would spend tens of thousands of yen taking taxis when heading out for work."
"And back then, the better mom's life got, the more she liked slandering dad in front of me..."
Fisher didn't fully comprehend it, but he didn't interrupt either. Due to his immense understanding of ladies, he keenly perceived that although Asuka Karasawa's tone was calm right at this moment, her emotions were extremely stirred up.
"Mom seemed to have gone mad within such a life... No, one should say all of Tokyo had gone mad. Many people borrowed copious amounts of money to invest in real estate and stocks, hoping to obtain increasingly more money, then lead a more extravagant, more luxurious life. But, I don't know if it was because I resemble dad a lot; I felt she didn't treat me nicely, and constantly brought other uncles into the house..."
She gave a mocking smile. When the smile peaked, the shadows beneath that smile were dragged extremely, extremely far away. She didn't continue. However, Fisher cast her a glance. Pausing briefly for a moment, he still opened his mouth to ask,
"And then?"
"And then... Then it was 1990, right? Only suddenly one day, one night... Mom suddenly told me the family had no money, the stocks plummeted, and we had no money to repay the loans... And then, she... jumped off the building and killed herself. I also transferred schools from Tokyo back to Kyoto, staying inside my dad's temple..."
In the darkness, Asuka Karasawa seemed to be suffering from a massive headache, especially when recalling these events. Fisher leaned against the wall, listening to the sounds of weeping that once again transmitted through the darkness, his fingers continuously tapping against the wall surface.
"Sorry, Mr. Fisher... I just, missed home a bit. I miss it every single day these past few days... Especially my dad. The moment I think about whether he would be sad if I was gone, I would... I'm so scared... Everything here is so terrifying, I don't know what to do... Sorry."
Fisher fell silent for a moment. Mimicking Gou Wen, he silently expressed his guilt toward Renee in his heart. Then, he abruptly turned his head to look at Asuka Karasawa in the darkness, precipitously speaking out,
"Extend your hand."
"Wu wu..."
Sniffling, a tear-streaked Asuka Karasawa stupidly raised her head. The tenderness of a mere seventeen-year-old right at this moment couldn't be faked. Perhaps a thousand years later, she truly would transform into that terrifyingly powerful Magic Lord. But at least for now, she truly couldn't endure it any longer, terrified to the point of not knowing what to do.
"Extend your hand, Karasawa."
"Eh..."
Even though her face clearly portrayed confusion, her body had already taken a step ahead and foolishly extended a hand toward Fisher. Giving a helpless smile, Fisher's large, scorching hand suddenly grabbed her petite palm in one swoop.
Before Asuka Karasawa's small face could turn pink, an exceedingly freakish scene she had never witnessed before unfurled right before her eyes.
She only saw how, originating from where Fisher gripped her palm, an illusory, complex Magic Circuit seemingly embedded within her body instantaneously lit up, illuminating her somewhat bewildered and perplexed visage within the darkness. Naturally, the moment the light of the soul illuminated Fisher's handsome face, a brush of pure bashfulness abruptly occupied the majority of her facial expression anew.
"M-Mr. Fisher, what is... what is this?"
"The soul."
"Soul?"
"Mm. I have it too, every living being in this world has it... Even an entity from another world like you has it."
Asuka Karasawa blankly stared at the Magic Circuit lighting up on her body for the first time, transiently stunned speechless.
"I'm saying, this means structurally, you bear no other differences from the humans of this world, save for you looking somewhat different, with a brain filled with some different things. Karasawa, fear is natural, but do not ostracize the place you're currently in because of this. At the very least, what you touch and what you see right now is real."
"These words and memories you recite are proof of your connection to another world, and the soul identical to mine is your proof of existing here... Therefore, every time you feel out of place in this world, try looking at your Magic Circuit, so you won't be afraid of being ostracized."
"...And one day, you will find the path home."
It was only up until this moment, looking at Asuka Karasawa staring at him blankly from within the darkness, that Fisher suddenly conjectured: Is there a possibility that the missing Magic Lord had actually successfully returned to her own world?
Right as he was contemplating, Asuka Karasawa before his eyes suddenly pursed her lips, lowered her head, and softly said,
"It hurts..."
"..."
Fisher looked down. He clearly hadn't exerted much force, yet several traces of his fingers appeared exceedingly conspicuously on the back of her tender hand. Apologizing with a 'sorry', he swiftly released her tiny hand.
Still lowering her head, Asuka Karasawa slowly placed her tiny hand before her chest. With dodging eyes, she shook her head. Though overall, she ought to be doing considerably better than before, because at this moment, she had stopped hugging her legs. The tense situation was alleviated as she merely turned slightly sideways and placed her legs to the side.
"It's fine... It's my problem. I'm just a bit... sensitive."
"Mm, go to sleep. The Sun Ring has been spinning continuously for several days straight. It probably won't be long before it stops. Just tell me if you need anything; don't secretly carve words on the wall at night anymore."
"Sorry..."
Fisher extended a hand out toward Asuka Karasawa. She tilted her head blankly, still needing Fisher to personally open his mouth and remind her.
"The knife."
"Ah... Oh, here..."
She immediately picked up the engraving knife again and handed it to Fisher. Watching him retract the knife, lay down squarely, and say to her,
"Rest."
"Okay..."
Asuka Karasawa nodded and immediately lay down properly. Right after she fully extended her body, several seconds had to pass before her voice was tardily transmitted anew,
"Um... Good night."
"Good night."
"..."
No further conversational sounds arose within the room. On the contrary, Gou Wen—who appeared sound asleep—smiled slightly, hugging the envelope in his embrace tightly by another bit.