“So…was I being stalled?”

There was no answer.

“Am I being detained?”

“No.”

“I’m I getting taken to get a permit?”

“No.”

“Did I do anything that could get me in trouble?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me what I did?”

The four had led him to a set of double doors, which was knocked on five times. The leading man moved to the side as the doors were open. Revealing a bevy of agents positioned all over an office with multiple cubicles.

“Ey?”

The white-haired man from before approached with a group of agents behind him. “Welcome, sorry we were unable to greet you when you first arrived on earth and had been illegally imprisoned. Despite coming here willingly. Question, did you go to the surface or was that a distraction?”

“I’m actually not sure of what happened? I have a friend on the inside but they seem to just do whatever.”

“You mean to tell me that the virus in our system is sentient?”

“Somewhat. It can’t talk yet, but I do feel like it’s learning. Mr…Huh is Calhoun a common surname?”

“How did you? Nevermid, the Ai is linked to you in some way, so names are simple.”

“Didn’t answer my question.”

“Why are you asking?”

“I hate this game. Why are you being so defensive?”

“That’s a private matter.”

“Are you a higher up in the Janitor organization?”

“Not the highest but I am up there.”

“I see, are you related to any doctors? Like having a sister, that’s one?”

“I have no siblings.”

“Huh. Well you’re clearly too young to be his dad, so maybe there’s another Calhoun that’s a janitor.”

“That is a possibility.”

“Maybe he’s the one married to a doctor.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Oh? A friend of mine came to this world and he knew one of my big sisters. I’m trying to find her.”

“Your skin is darker…”

“Yea. I got some of my dad’s skin tone. The eyes and hair are mostly universal however.”

“You don’t have the glint in your eye when you’re plotting something.”

“That eye is a prosthetic. Lost it before I met the earth trio.”

“This person. Would his name be Cecil.”

“Oh! You must be his older brother!”

“I just said I don’t have siblings.”

“Cousin? I mean, you do have similar eyes, but your hair is so different.” Kyrion scratched his chin.

“He’s my son damn it!”

“Oh? Well that’s perfect. Which means you can take me to where the gate was opened. Also you’re like way too young to have a son that’s eighteen.” Kyrion rubbed his hands.

“My son was thirteen when he died.”

“Oh. well that sucks. I really have no time for this vacation.”

“Vacation?”

“I need to go back to my own world in a few months.”

“Why are you here then?”

“Not by choice, if I’m being honest. I was busy training when some powerful entity kinda forced me to take it here. Apparently this world will be in danger soon. I intend to form a semi-permanent doorway for your organization to help civilians escape.”

“You can do something like that? Why would you do something like that just to help strangers.”

Kyrion creased his hands and took on a severe expression. “There is something I need to eat.”

“No games.”

“I’m taking my sister home if I can find her. Unless she wants to stay. Either way, I need to get back before my time is up and I’m not in a big hurry.”

“What do you get out of doing that?”

“It’s going to take a lot of power to open. More than I can use on my own. There is no guarantee that the power I gain from this world would be used in your best interest.” Kyrion said honestly.

“How is Cecil doing?

“He’s doing relatively well. Three square meals a day, daily exercise, all the materials he could use.”

“Does he only care about the materials?”

“Well he does also have a harem. Huh…” Kyrion speed-read some information that appeared in his vision.

“What?”

“So… a harem is a group of lovers…”

“Did you just figure that out?”

“The word didn’t translate properly.” Kyrion lied; he just hadn’t quite understood what that meant. It wasn’t a common practice in his kingdom or Etravonia. Despite the king’s many wives, most had died either by age or through other causes, and he tended to move on years later. The practice was more common in the Testan merchant empire, although even then, one must have tons of money just to buy the certification.

“That isn’t quite true.”

“It isn’t common enough back home. Thing is, back home, people in a harem don’t have to be the same gender. With the information running through me I can without a doubt say that I accidentally caused some misunderstandings. I, however, don’t regret a thing. I will agree to a name change if it’s brought up.”

“So, Cecil got his harem?”

“Yes and no. Technically I’m in it along with quite a few other dudes and dudettes… That’s a fun word in this language.”

“So you treated it as an organization.”

“A group of people passionate about magitech and only magitech.”

“I imagine it wasn’t anything like he expected.”

“I think he got over it years ago. Or well grew out of it.”

“That’s what’s odd. You say years while he’s only been gone eight months at most.”

“That time scale seems odd…Wait, does that mean my big sister is now my little sister?”

“Lets see, six years older, vanished at twelve.”

“Wait! How could she have trained Cecil in anything?”

“I believe she turns nineteen soon.”

“That math doesn’t add up.”

“I doubt time is less stable than you believe. It must have slowed greatly when Cecil was taken to your world.”

“That or someone had been playing with time for a while only to slow down recently.”

“People can play with time in your world?”

“It’s possible. I’m actually not sure who it is as they are far above my tier of power.”

“So a god of time?”

“Possibly. I don’t know how that tier works.”

“I see. You seem like an idiot. Not to be rude, but you come to a strange world, and want us to believe you can ferry people between worlds. Teleportation magic doesn’t exist outside of stories here.”

“Oh there is a lot I don’t know, and If I only seem that way then you’re looking too deep. I want to try all the food in this world. Then learn a bit about architecture, building cities, and region management. After I get most of that I want all your worlds medical knowledge. My final task will be gathering all the items I can duplicate for future trade in the next world. I also need to empty out a few junkyards for materials.”

“Why do you need to visit a junkyard?”

“Cecil wants to build mechs. I want to watch a mech fight a dragon. Our goals align and Cecil once told me that scrap yards are treasure troves for materials. So long as you don’t mind the rust. Rust is easy for me to fix and I have quite a few spells for purifying materials. Well separating.”

“How do you plan to transport all those materials?”

“Trade secret. Now then, the test.”

“Not actually needed, for someone like you.”

“What?”

“It’s not necessary, as you are a human. A civil one at that. So long as you agree not to use magic in public without authorization, or use your power to bring harm to civilians. We should be fine.”

“Huh. This is going well. Why are you suddenly being hospitable?”

“The west received one headache while the far east received the other. Their headache is a bit more aggressive.”

“Did he start a fight or finish one that no one knew they started.”

“I think his method of learning the language was worse than yours as he had to learn one with a lot of honorifics and little background information.”

“...Did someone call him short or refer to him in any way that would sound like they were calling him a kid?”

“If the report was to be believed. Someone called him Ander-chan and then the lights went out for a mile wide radius.”

“Oh that’s easy. Chan means really short little kid. I believe it translates to little Ander. Only I can get away with making short jokes. And that’s because I can run away pretty quickly. It could also mean somebody tried to manipulate him and he noticed.”

“No? I mean that is nowhere near a proper translation. It’s an honorific that is used on younger kids and… Did you say that this Ander was older than you?”

“He’s at least seventeen, a bonafide adult back home. Almost practically an old man.”

“Is he also human? Reports say that he was 4”6.”

“He shrunk? Oh that’s hilarious. No, I will not stop him. He’ll figure it out. He’s part cat so you may want to add in something like your majesty. Or an equivalent.”

“Just out of curiosity, how strong is he exactly?”

Kyrion withdrew a gun and pointed it at his shoulder.

“Where in the hell did you get that!”

Kyrion, knowing how they worked, pulled the trigger and watched as it ricocheted off his skin and pierced the ground.

“That wasn’t a spell.” Kyrion scowled as various other janitors had begun to move.

Kyrion placed the gun on the table and scowled. “Can you pull that four times? I wanna see something.”

“I’m starting to suspect that you could have slaughtered the window washers if you wanted to.”

“Some were just doing their job, and I don’t like killing people if I can help it. Monsters and people shaped monsters are exempt. So long as I see someone as a person and not a monster, I am less likely to kill. But I certainly will threaten a person as a warning. So far I’ve only seen people. The cult leader was quite close to being a monster but he was also in touch with people who can get me organs. So he must be a healer of some kind.”

“Just a backwater con artist with visions of money and little talent for magic. I think that’s what threw off your aim.”

“Good to know. You look like nothing like Cecil by the way. Well you do if I move the hair to the side. Actually, looking at your facial structure I can see where Cecil gets it. But you don’t have glasses. How can you see without those?”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“I wear contacts.”

“I have no context for that word.”

“Does everyone see perfectly in your world?”

“No, but most people are fine with getting their eyes healed by eye healers. I am not an eye healer. Despite my condition, I had little interest in that specialization. Which is probably why my current prosthetic is bugging me, but I just have to live with it. It does give me access to more information than my previous one.”

“Why would you have lost an eye to begin with?”

“Oh, that’s a long story.” Kyrion recalled the day and shivered.

----------------------------------------

After a short ride and a trip through a garage that went far underground, Ander eventually arrived at a compound with his new companion. The ride was tense, and there were sparks in the air.

One of the guards had pulled out a phone, only for a bolt of lightning to pass through and disintegrate it, leaving the holder unharmed, oddly enough.

Ander was then wracked with a significant headache as various waves bombarded his system. Information he couldn’t comprehend, followed by voices from hundreds of thousands. Blood had begun to flow in mass from his eyes and nose. Black lines started to form on his body, and rage filled his soul.

Moments later, the driver activated something, which caused Ander’s pain to fade. His eyes, however, had changed permanently. The electric blue irises had near vertical slits that resembled lightning bolts.

“Adverse reaction to phone waves.”

Ander coughed up a bit of blood and scowled. “That was not a pleasant adaptation.”

“Adaptation?”

“Raw magic obtained when jumping the gap between worlds. It gets harder each time, or so I’ve been told.”

“So you just gained magic?”

“Something like that.”

Ander scowled. “About that wig? Is pink hair not natural here?”

“It is not. Neither is your shade of green. Today was supposed to be my break from this lunacy you know. Your eyes are also a weird shade of blue.”

“My eyes are brown.” Ander scowled.

“My apologies then.” There was little sincerity in that statement,

The fact that there was none took Ander by surprise, however. So, instead of continuing the conversation, he looked out the window and looked for someone to fight.

Neither had continued the conversation as they were led to a compound where everyone sat at a large table. At that moment, Ander realized his combat gi had grown quite a bit.

“That’s odd.”

“What’s odd?”

“This was too small before I came here.” Ander lied; it fits just right.

“At least you have clothes. According to our allies, your friend wasn’t so lucky.”

“They probably got destroyed when he arrived, or his death didn’t leave him with any.”

“Death?”

“Oh, we didn’t actually die. He technically exploited a few laws of our reality and dragged me into it. While not dead I was quite injured.”

“Your friend sounds dangerous.”

“Just don’t start killing kids in front of him and you probably won’t even register as a threat.”

“I wouldn’t do that regardless.”

“Then don’t worry. He’s more vindictive than heroic if that makes sense.” Ander looked at two cameras and watched as the red light turned off on both, the act taking little exertion of his willpower.

“I see, why vindictive?”

“If he was heroic he’d try to stop you from doing it in the first place. He won’t do that. Well he will but you wouldn’t know he did so, if you chose wrong.”

“Doesn’t make much sense.”

“He can make fake bodies in seconds with a sample of hair, skin, or blood,said body is made from plants but looks nearly identical to a human. He’d have already removed the kids and replaced them with plant clones. The vindictive comes if you choose wrong. That’s mostly hypothetical. But based on his capabilities, and prior actions.”

“How does that make him vindictive?”

“He eliminated the reason to fight in the first place. He could leave without being seen. Using energy on something like that is a waste.”

“Yeah it is bizarre to kill someone when the crime was fake.”

“If only he’d kill them. I heard from his pupil that he would just knock them out and let the wronged party do what they wanted.”

“So you’re mad that he wasted the energy to spare them?”

“Not mad, it’s where we split. In a similar situation, I’d have killed all the aggressors before they knew I was there.

“I assume your fighting styles affect this. Yours seems focused on ending a fight quickly while your friend sounds like he uses distractions and tricks before going in with power.”

“Yeah, his ability to plan five steps ahead of most is what makes him dangerous. Only people like the Co-captain can keep up with him.”

“What about you?”

“Well I–.”

Ander was interrupted by a cough. The man in a white suit from earlier spoke up. “Excuse me. It is time to meet with the family head.”

“Grandfather?” The woman asked.

“Yes, he appeared in your territory, he’s your family’s responsibility. I was just the errand boy this time around.”

“Wait. I thought things had escalated to the point where a state of the art, high security place like your family’s would be more suited for new arrivals.”

“He has used powerful lighting-based attacks. I’m ninety percent sure he has some control over technology like his friend does, which could mean all our defenses are his defenses. Your place doesn’t have a dependence on electricity.

“Talk about me while I’m right here, why don’t you. What about my fight?”

“You can fight Ms.Chiyo, I’m sure that they can satisfy you. They are known as the Asura of the Aikawa.”

“Where is this Chiyosin?” Ander had begun looking about for this person of whom he was to test his mettle.

The pink-haired woman had a hand on her face for some reason. As though she were embarrassed.

A few people arrived, and among them was an older man with a scar over his face. His hair appeared to be graying a bit, and one strip of stubborn black hair refused to change. His smile was welcoming, but his eyes meant death.

“Are you this Chiyoshin?”

“Who is Chiyoshin?”

“Some Asura of Aikawa. I was promised a fight if I came along. I want my fight.”

“You’re one demanding kid. Shouldn’t you be in bed? Kids your age don’t grow without sleep.” The older man eyed Ander for a long moment.

Ander’s left eye twitched as a spark of electricity accidentally hit one of the inactive security turrets on the older man’s side. The accident was because Ander missed his target and hadn’t expected the new one to come to life.

“Huh. A magical brat it seems. Lightning based?”

Ander raised his pointer finger and pointed two inches to the older man’s left. “Curious. Did you redirect my bolt or did it just go to the nearest metal source?”

There was a brief silence as no one answered the other’s question.

“Grandfather please don’t antagonize Ander.”

“Well then little Ander should know not to go around and wave his power around carelessly.”

A vein had begun to protrude from Ander’s head as his agitation grew. Like an aura of violence, Ander’s bloodlust grew past his body as a field of black wind surrounded him. The tiger stripes on his body spread.

“Hmmm…Still within acceptable containment parameters,” the man in glasses said from a safe distance away.

“Chiyo? What’s with this kid? I rarely see anyone get so angry over minor jabbing. It’s as though he is a small minded individual.”

The power seemingly multiplied by ten before condensing and vanishing from the senses.

“Oh. I can see where I messed up. That’s Raijin’s dark lightning.”

Ander’s mind surfaced somewhat, and he adjusted his aim two inches further to the left and downward before firing a beam of concentrated electricity that flew straight toward the old man.

The old man responded by withdrawing a sword from within his sleeves and slashing upward.

As though predicting the action, the lightning bent downwards before shooting straight upward, easily piercing through the blade. The lighting continued upward only to arc again and return to Ander’s pointed fingers.

“I’ve seen a similar trick before. Only the person cut my lightning in half instead of redirecting it. Like my captain, I don’t like falling for the same trick twice. Now then you old bastard, why did you push me to use ten percent of my true power?”

“That was too much power being gathered. Just to be ten percent.”

“It wasn’t really that either. I gathered about ten percent realized it would have been lethal and absorbed most of it before firing the arcing bolt. Also saying it now, next person to call me Ander chan is getting a bolt of lighting through them. That is literally the only thing I’ve asked for, aside from a fight. Which I suspect you want me to lose interest in.”

“Blech you’re smart for your age.”

“How old do you think I am?”

“Ten. To be precise somewhere between ten and fifteen, at most.”

“You people must be giants then. I’m seventeen you old bastard.”

“Meh, not much of a difference.”

“I am an adult back home… Technically. That is an important distinction.”

“Do you know how old I am?”

“Four Hundred, and sixty two, you have a birthday coming up in a month. You also have a bad back that’s been with you for at least thirty of said years. Which is probably why you’re so grumpy. You’re just bad at paying attention to people.”

“Gramps, is he right? Are you really that old?”

“To be honest, I kind of stopped counting after the first century. Time just starts blurring around that time.”

Ander stared at the old man with irritation. “You got so old that age doesn’t mean much to you. Your aura is different than most, why is that?”

“About five hundred years ago, there was a war fought in the shadows as a foreign species invaded our populace, turning many people and animals into monsters and demons. It was then discovered that one can gain mystical abilities by consuming parts of said monsters. There was a drawback that caused one to lose a piece of themselves the more they consumed, or the stronger the creature they ate. Years later it was discovered that qi, the life energy within ourselves. This method was slower, and decreased one’s human lifespan as it was used.”

“So you ate a monster that gave you a long lifespan to better fight monsters.”

“No, my dad brought home mermaid sashimi. We ate well that night, it was pretty good. Monster meat wasn’t well documented at the time and no one had known the effects of eating such a thing, so he had gotten it for cheap. Mermaids are exceptionally rare and turn into large fish when taken out of water for too long.”

“So your long lifespan helped you harness Qi with little drawbacks.”

“When the method was discovered, yes. Before then I was just an immortal Samurai with no idea why I wasn’t dying.”

“So do people use Qi nowadays?” Ander asked.

“Yes, a recent development, during the united war on monsters two hundred or so years ago. It was discovered that Qi could be harvested from plants, animals, and monster corpses. That was also when we discovered that Qi was a universal term with different spelling or names depending on where the user was from. However, the term monster was designated during the united war. Yokai, demon, spirit, god, angel, all of that was united under the term monster. A hundred or so years ago, travelers also began the process of coming to our world through rips in space. The reason was unknown but that was when a second organization was created to fill in the gap. Those who hunt the monsters of the world, with assistance from various governments are known as Slayers. Then we have the Janitors, we clean up the messes caused by travelers, occasionally we take them out if they prove too dangerous.”

“This Qi, is it different than mana?”

“Mana as far as I know pulls from a place that isn’t your life. It also returns on its own.”

“Show me.”

“How am I supposed to show you?”

“Attack me. It’s quite a simple method of testing combat ability. Don’t hold back.”

“Do you consent to the risk of death such a thing may bring?”

“Right…I guess I can’t just have my captain heal me… Don’t aim somewhere lethal then.”

“I’ll be aiming for your right leg.”

The old man reached into his robes and drew out a long, single-edged blade, holding it in both hands as he gathered energy from some plants and some energy near his heart. The blade gained an aura that significantly enchanted its sharpness.

The power gathered was sloppy and inefficient, reminiscent of a weapon art, only the power wasn’t pulled from the soul; it was harnessing the user’s body. Such a power existed back home, just not on Imala. He recalled something similar coming from that hooded warrior from the Republic.

Still, it wasn’t worth dodging. The man put all of the strength, momentum, and finesse he could into the strike and watched as his katana split where it impacted Ander’s skin. Had it done what it was supposed to, Ander would have lost his leg in a way that was easy to heal.

“What is your skin made out of? Sheesh!”

“My body is enhanced by mana. It seems you can empower your weapon, but have you tried empowering your body?”

“It’s inefficient. People tried it when I was younger, but it usually ended with people dying early. While I may not die from old age, I can still die if I blow myself up from the inside.”

“Is that so?” Ander forced on his right finger for a moment and smiled as energy gathered on his finger, having easily pulled it from his own life force. He moved the finger about until he had gotten used to the feeling. He then moved the ball towards a place in his hand and felt something connect.

“What are you doing? That’s Qi. but…”

“Shush, I’m copying something I saw someone else do a while back.”

Ander traced a pattern through his hand, connecting his joints to a skeletal representation of his core, which was present in his sight. He traced the structure to his elbow, upper arm, and heart. Once that connection was made, he did the same with his right arm. From there, he traced pathways from his organs to the well of life energy near his heart. Once they had finished connecting, Ander traced a pattern from his lower body to his torso and smiled as the dragon-slaying energy he’d gained fit perfectly on top of the new lines, with an exception being his neck and head, with an emphasis on his brain.

“What did you just do?”

“I think the term is called opening up pathways for my life energy to flow. I had a good look at them recently, so I can understand the flow of my own body. There is also the something known as Divine Essence that works slightly differently than Qi and Mana. It draws on the power of one’s soul, which is separate from one’s life force surprisingly enough. When one kills a dragon back home and absorbs its power, the energy builds up and grows in time. That energy seems similar to Qi.”

“You figured that out with just my explanation.”

“The best part is that the effects can stack with mana enhanced bodies. My captain must never know about this.”

“I thought you were saying that your captain was your friend.”

“Oh he is. But he also kept me in a stasis coffin for two years when I cold have spent the time training.”

“Stasis coffin, that’s a top secret invention. Only higher ups like me even know they exists. Did they come from your world?”

“The way between worlds can go both ways. Back on track. He also made me a few inches shorter recently. I was pretty tall before.” Ander lied.

“How tall?”

“5’8.” Ander lied unabashedly.

“How does your world have the imperial measurement system?”

“Hmmm? Oh that. Some travelers gave it to us out of spite. I think he was called Luis or something. It was three thousand years ago and the numbers stuck.”

“Luis?”

“Louie the headhunter, first King of Louieviell. The kingdom died out a millenia later. Though that was due to a war that eradicated all life on that continent. The famine followed was the straw that broke the dragon’s back. The king at the time organized a mass exodus as his last act on that planet.”

“Head hunter?”

“He had a macabre fascination with decapitating his foes. As well as traitors, spies, and terrorists. He also hated any and all lawmen that bent rules. He’d have been a tyrant, only he didn’t have the civilians pay taxes, a minimal tribute from the farming villages in times of need, otherwise the crown would pay for everything.”

“That’s interesting.”

“No, not really. He did prove a kingdom could work without taxes. A stance that is rarely taken to heart or practiced at a wide scale.”

“That…Why do you even know that?”

“I am technically studying to become a teacher after I graduate. There are a lot of history based lessons for that path of study.”

“You don’t seem like you have the temperament to become a teacher.”

“If you say I’m short tempered, I’m going to turn and walk out that door, fly to my captain, then convince them that humans here eat babies.”

“That’s not true. I doubt he’d fall for that.”

“Do you eat eggs?”

“Well yes but.”

“Chicken babies then.”

“It’s not like they’re fertilized.”

“I just need to watch my phrasing, if I’m going to be convincing.”

“No one is stupid enough to believe that.”

“I mean… I’m thirty percent sure I can get him to go on a mini rampage before he figures something out.”

“Fine. Fine. Good luck on becoming a teacher.”

“‘Thank you.” Ander’s menacing aura faded; he actually knew Kyrion would see through that immediately, but he also knew that Kyrion was unpredictable and dangerous.

A new person entered the building. Someone Ander hadn’t recognized approached him and touched his shoulder.

“Little Ander! Welcome to the family.”

A field of lightning powerful enough to cause a power outage in a mile-wide radius covered the area, pushing the guy who touched Ander away and knocking him out.

Ander then took the chance to hide somewhere in the underground compound. He’d come back later, but only on his own terms. It wasn’t just the insult; that man tried to inject mental mana into him. While Ander wasn’t always resistant to it, he knew the signs of an amateur at work and how best to counter them.