Chapter 1: To Japan!

“DIE!” (???)

A figure sprang up from his bed.

His deep black hair messy and his face, pale from excessive sweating.

He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth before slamming it hard on his bed.

“Bastard!” (???)

His eyes reddened with rage.

A deep passion for revenge glowed in his eyes as he glares at his imaginary enemy.

“No matter what, I sear, I will kill you Antonio. As well as you, [White Haired Adventurer Lucas]! I WILL SEE TO IT THAT BOTH OF YOU ARE DEAD! EVEN IF IT KILLS ME!!!!” (Jason)

Jason’s scream seemed to shook the building and even the heavens.

With a *thud*, an object fell from the side of his bed.

Looking closely, it resembled the head of a crow.

+ + +

“Ughh…” (Lucas)

Damn, what a nightmare. Can’t believe I actually remembered that.

In most stories, whenever sudden flashbacks like that appear, it would often mean that I’m going to meet her soon…let’s hope I’m wrong.

Besides, that…girl…is in Japan anyways, what reason do I need to go there? Other than anime stuff I mean?

Whatever, let’s not mind this anymore. Forget it!

But still…as expected, I can’t move huh?

Turning my head downwards, the first thing I saw were Eu’s horns, then Aeran’s wings, Freya’s silver hair, Aleris, Lily, Steph, and Alice…all of which have at least one body part on top of me.

Right, we all slept together again right? Can’t believe I was actually able to sleep…or is this the reason why I had that dream?

“You’re awake?” (Eu)

After Eu said that, the other girls also turned to look at me except for Alice.

…So it would seem that everyone is already awake and just didn’t let go…

“Yeah…have you seriously been waiting in this position?” (Lucas)

“Why not?” (Aeran)

Aeran only laughed and continued to rest her small head on my shoulder.

“Lucas…you kept muttering when you were asleep.” (Freya)

“Like you had a nightmare. But you were pleading…” (Lily)

“Can you tell us? I am able to sleep so peacefully when I’m with you…but you were having a nightmare…” (Steph)

“…What did I say?” (Lucas)

I know I shouldn’t ask this but I’m going to be mentally tortured if I don’t know what things I said in my sleep.

Especially with that dream…

“Mii, don’t go, don’t leave me…you’re not a traitor…” (Eu)

“I…see…” (Lucas)

Why? Why those words?

Could it be…that in my heart, I still long for her?

But after something like that…how can I possibly forgive her?

“Haah, It’s nothing, we should prepare for breakfast…” (Lucas)

I sighed and simply stand while pushing the girls gently.

Each and every one of them are simply too beautiful.

Do I even deserve this?

Won’t the same thing as last time happen again?

…I don’t want to find out…

If I do…this time…I may no longer be able to pull myself out of that darkness again…

The girls looked at each other and sighed but I ignore this and walked out of the room.

After a few minutes, the girls followed and we all ate at the dining hall for breakfast, afterwards, we went our separate ways.

From what Alfan told me, the [Style] Convention in [Drachedge] should be today until 9 days, which is a month in [Harus] so I think I’ll go today.

Just when I was about to head home, police sirens were heard on the road beside me.

I turned my head to look and found two police cars on a car chase white a brown van.

Giving the van a glance with the X-ray vision of [Dragon Eyes], I found a person two person on the front, one driving, one with a gun, three guys at the back, two with a gun, one seemed to be tied up.

A kidnapping!? Seriously!? And you just have to do it in front of me!?

Feeling annoyed, I made sure no one is looking at me before switching and looked through my [Inventory].

After I found a [Scout Skill Tree Book] I unlocked the skill [Blink] which costs me 30 [Skill Points] and now left me with 3. With this, I should be able to catch up!

“[Blink]!” (Lucas)

I teleported on the road with ease, well, rather than calling it teleport, it’s more like instant movement as I can only ‘jump’ two meters on my vision. If there is a wall, I won’t pass through it.

Like that, I also gave chase with a continuous use of [Blink]!

Appearing and reappearing in all sorts of places like a ghost!

At the corner of my eyes, I saw the onlookers look at me in surprise and calling out my name but I ignore them and focused on the car chase.

After a minute, I already caught up and reappeared on the van’s front, all the while making an earthen wall appear beneath it which made it stop and tumble.

I made sure that the angle is just right so that the victim inside won’t get hurt though.

The police giving chase immediately recognized me and started to thank me.

“It’s fine, I was passing by when it happened anyway.” (Lucas)

And I wanted to vent some anger.

Like that, the culprits were easily apprehended and the victim was saved.

The victim also thanked me and followed the police.

Haah, now I can go choose a [Style].

Or so I thought but my cellphone rang.

Glancing on the caller, it turns out to be Trask.

[[Lucas, there’s trouble in Japan. A [World Key Holder] is rampaging. Go and deal with it.]] (Trask)

“Why me? Isn’t Lin closer?” (Lucas)

[[What closer, there are already [Teleportation Circles] installed in every country. Come to my office and you can immediately go to Japan!]]

“Like I said, why me then?” (Lucas)

I really don’t want to go there…because of that dream, I think I’ll meet ‘her’ if I do…

[[Not just you, the others are already called. Right now, the higher ups wanted to see the [Gatekeepers] in action so just go with it.]] (Trask)

“Tsk- fine…I’ll be there…” (Lucas)

I cut off the call and sighed.

It would seem that I’m really fated to go to Japan…no, just because I dreamt about her doesn’t mean that I will meet her there!

Oh well, I still have 9 days until the [Style] Convention ends anyways.

Not wasting any time, I quickly make my way to the IDEA building which is the temporary [Gatekeeper Philippine Branch].

“You’re here. Good. Now, you should take these.” (Trask)

Upon coming, Trask also wasted no time and presented to me a few items.

There was no one else in the floor aside from Trask and Lily. On the floor were over a hundred stone tablets and a huge stack of scrolls.

“The stone tablets are portable [Teleportation Circle] which you can use every time. While the scrolls are the consumable [Teleportation scrolls]. The flag of each country is used as a ribbon to tie the scroll so

]it’s easy to know which is which.” (Trask)

It seems that if the [Teleportation Circle] is written on paper, it would burn it after use so engraved stone tablets were made to last while paper ones are fast and easy to use in difficult situations.

I accepted all of them and used a stone tablet teleportation to go to Japan.

“Be careful.” (Lily)

Just as I was about to disappear, I gave Lily a reassuring smile.

After the bright light faded, I saw a similar office to Trask’s. This should be the [Japan Branch] then huh? If I remember right, this is located in [Tokyo].

Then, a Japanese man came forward and greeted me.

“Greetings, Gatekeeper Lucas. I am Japan’s IDEA CEO, Yoshihatsu Saraga. Come, the others are already in the briefing room.” (Saraga)

I only nodded and followed him to the briefing room where I saw Bram, Lin, Ban, and the other [Gatekeepers].

“Good, you’re here. Now, please explain to us why all of us are needed here, Mr. Yoshihatsu.” (Bram)

He immediately gets right to the point huh? Well, not that I’m complaining.

We all looked at Saraga for an explanation. I am calling him Saraga in my head since Yoshihatsu is such a long name…

Anyway, Saraga nodded and began his explanation.

What happened was, exactly ten minutes ago, an incident happened in [Akihabara] where a person started shooting high powered water on people.

Some were severely injured, fractured bones, and some are just wet. In any case, a lot of complaints were made and they had no way to deal with it.

The culprit also used a mask to hide his face and his robe covered his entire body so there was no way to identify the culprit with today’s current technology.

That’s where we come in.

The mission is simple, a search and destroy mission.

Find the culprit, and then kill him.

No need to detain him as after killing him, he will be sent to that [Special Prison] anyways.

“I see…but then, how are we supposed to find this guy? I mean, it’s not like my job is capable of this.” (Bram)

“As do I, my job is mainly on attacking and supporting. Not for covert and tracking.” (Lin)

Some of the other [Gatekeepers] also nodded, only a few didn’t as they had started to think of a way.

This includes me, and Shaw.

“As I see it, there is no need for all of us here. Those of us who has the ability to track the culprit will stay, the others should remain on standby in their countries in case something else happens.” (Lucas)

“Nn, I have no objections. Best of luck to you all.” (Bram)

Bram nodded and went off, followed to everyone else who is unfit for this mission.

The remainder of us all looked at each other and nodded.

Each of us had already added each other as [Friends] so that it will be easy to communicate through the [Call] system in our [Harus] bodies.

While leaving the group call open, we all went to [Akihabara] in different directions to see if there are any clues the culprit left behind.

Currently, there are five of us left, two had gone to the nearest train stations to try and find something amiss.

All of us of course had our own disguises, none wore equipments that stood out.

Me? I simply used the [Mimic Mask] to make myself look like my earth self while wearing a hoodie.

I wore the hoodie since Vil is resting on top of my head so I had to hide her.

Since two are already busy with the train stations, the three of us left are checking the inside of [Akihabara] itself.

I head quickly to the site of the incident to check it.

It seems that it started here…

I looked at in front of me and saw policemen and plastic tapes that covered the site, clearly doing investigations.

Though they know they are very unlikely to find anything, they still try to do so for appearances.

I looked at the site with [Magic Eyes], sure enough, it activated.

The wet marks on the floor are glowing with a faint blue color which means mana is present.

There are also some bits of mana trail in the air which would suggest that the culprit was rather showy in his violence.

He must think that it is impossible to catch him because he used magic…let’s see if he can really hide from me!

I looked at the traces of mana to try and think of a pattern of where he moved.

Judging that I had found a likely pattern, I started to follow the trail…

I turned, turned, turned…damn, this isn’t working! I’m back to where I started!

Again!

With determination, I tried to look at the surroundings with all my [Appraisal Skills] to try and see if there’s anything amiss.

Not! Not! Not this! No!....

Tch- this is getting annoying. I didn’t think this would be so hard…

I sighed and turned around.

Let’s cool ourselves for now. I need to calm down…

Seeing a crepe stand on the side of the road, I made my way towards it as I feel the need to eat something sweet to calm myself.

On the way, I bumped into someone’s shoulder and the person fell to her bottom…geez, this day just keeps getting more and more annoying…

I turned to help the girl I bumped but froze midway.

“Ite te te~” (???)

“You, where did you get this notebook?” (Lucas)

The girl who fell seemed fairly cute, black hair with pink highlights, large eyes, fair skin, and a nice curve. Only, her chest is lacking somewhat.

She had a shoulder bag when she bumped into me and seemed to be in a hurry when she packed since the bag was still clearly open which made the contents spill out when she crashed into me.

This in turn revealed a notebook which lay now on the ground. But this isn’t a normal notebook, because there is mana surrounding it!

I picked it up and made sure it wasn’t wet. Otherwise, it could’ve just been splashed by the culprit’s water which would explain why it had mana. But the notebook was dry. Very dry!

Which means, this notebook should’ve only gotten mana when it had transferred to [Harus]!

“Eh? English? U-umm…M-my mother gave it to me.” (???)

“…Did you bump into someone other than me earlier?” (Lucas)

“…Now that you mentioned it, there was a guy. He was weird. Wearing a thick robe under this heat…rather, aren’t you gonna help me up?” (???)

I ignored the girl and flipped through the notebook.

“Hey! Don’t you know it’s rude to look into a girl’s stuff!?” (???)

Damn, this girl is really noisy…

She kept trying to take back the notebook but can she even keep up with my speed? Laughable.

While under the attack(?) of the girl, I casually flipped through the contents of the notebook.

I need to answer a question in my mind…if this notebook really belonged to the culprit, then why would that guy bring this notebook to [Harus]?

The answer was…this!

I looked at one page on the notebook.

--Akihabara, then your school, make sure the whole world knows your power. That is…if you want to join the [Death Eaters]--

[Death Eaters]…so it finally happened…a group of [Villains], just like how Trask said.

I closed the notebook with a snap and turned to the teary eyed girl who was unable to get her notebook back.

“Momo Shirazaki right? My Japanese is a little edgy but I think I read it right. Anyway, thanks for your cooperation. I’ll be going now.” (Lucas)

“Huh? How did you know my name?” (Momo)

“The rest of your things have your name written on it, this one doesn’t, which means this isn’t yours but the property of the person I was looking for so, like I said, thanks for your cooperation.” (Lucas)

“Eh? Huh? Y-you’re right…that’s weird…” (Momo)

“Hey, can you tell me what this means?” (Lucas)

I pointed at the mark on the notebook.

The notebook had a special mark to it, an emblem. If my guess it right, it may be a school emblem!

For that Momo to think that this notebook is hers must mean that she goes to the same school! Now, all I need to know is what school this is!

“Huh? Was that emblem there before? Aaah, no wonder, it really isn’t mine huh?” (Momo)

OI!!!

Are you kidding me!?

A huge logo like this, and you didn’t notice it!!!???

…This girl is more of a loss cause than I thought.

I need to hurry up! The note said that there is still another target! Which is the culprit’s school!

[[Tch- guys! Quickly help me find a school with an emblem that has a shield, eagle, and a quill! We need to find it before it’s too late!]] (Lucas)

[[Huh? Alright! I’ll ask around!]] (Shaw)

The others also agreed and started asking around.

I was also about to ask around but Momo suddenly spoke again.

“But I recognize this school. It should be Igur High School.” (Momo)

WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SO EARLIER!!!???

“Do you know where it is?” (Lucas)

Momo nodded and gave the directions which included riding the train so I gave up on it and just asked for the general direction.

Momo pointed southwest from where we were at and I immediately thanked her.

“Thanks! You’ve really helped me there!” (Lucas)

“A-ahh, you’re welcome?” (Momo)

Momo cutely tilted her head but I ignored it and quickly told the others about the information.

[[Guys! Head to Igur High School! Southwest from here! Quickly! If we’re too late, that school might be reduced to rubles!]] (Lucas)

As if sensing my mood, even Vil who was passively resting on my head let out an excited sound.

*Vii!*

Momo’s eyes were round as she saw my hood fall off and reveal an excited horned rabbit.

“Sorry about this, I’ll see if I can get your notebook back while I’m at it! Bye!” (Lucas)

No longer waiting for her response, I transformed into a lot of miniature bats and quickly sped off!

Ignoring the shocked expression of those who saw it, I sped through the skies in the direction of Igur High School while carrying Vil.

I would also use [Blink] a couple of times while like this which made my speed even faster!

On the ground, Momo’s eyes displayed an excited expression. One that she only show when she plays a game called [World Gate Online]. One that she only show as one of the top players of Japan, as [Sakura].

Author's Notes

Anyone remember Sakura? If not, look back to [V2] Chapter 9: Conclusion and just skip to the Japanese part.

Well...nothing really to say...actually getting tired of doing AN....owell, just gonna do an AN whenever I feel like it.

Japtem Version