Somewhere in Greenland, Kalmar Federation: 25/08/2070

Deep under ground, a young man could be seen standing in an intricate and brilliantly glowing magic circle, shining in several shades of blue. In front of him, was a giant blast chamber, made to take a nuke to the face. And currently within it, a mysterious object that they found in the middle of Bergen. Given how it looked, it seemed like some kind of magic battery, but that thing was no ordinary battery. Apparently it has a rather absurd amount of energy inside it, and it stumped the researchers when they had their first look at it.

Enough energy for 32 upper construct spell executions, huh? Now that is rather absurd. Even I can only do 5 of those before I run dry... But with that amount of energy, I can definitely see why they needed to put this thing down here.

"[Spatial Domination.]"

Magic flew out in every direction, enveloping the chamber in a blue shine. As the vast amount of magicules began doing their work, the guy went ahead and began shifting the connection of the spell execution away from himself.

"[Flow Link.]"

The blue shine, a chaotic symphony of blue shades a moment before, became stable as it connected to the base's power distribution systems. The guy turned and looked at one of the lab coated individuals standing behind him. They were all eager to get started experimenting with the object, but using remote controlled robots due to safety concerns.

"Any word on whatever the hell that thing is?" The guy stared at one of the researchers as he asked the question.

The researcher, a little startled by the sudden focus on himself, took a moment to compose himself. "W-Well, sir, despite the impossibility of something like that existing, it seems to be a mono-molecular magicule storage device. How it even formed in the first place is still unknown. Investigations are still ongoing in the area we found it in, and we need to do our own tests down here to get to the bottom of this. Though we do appreciate your assistance in transporting and sealing the anomaly, 01."

The guy sighed and shrugged. "You're welcome on that. It's my job anyway. But still, that thing gave me some serious heebie jeebies. Better be careful with the object, lest our little facility here becomes a crater."

The scientist stared at him for a moment. "S-Sir, it can penetrate your seal..?" The researcher showed an obvious expression of concern as he asked the question.

"Probably not, with all the power it is being force-fed from the facility. You should probably be fine, but still better to be cautious with this thing, right?"

"R-Right, sir." The scientist left, leaving the guy to his own thoughts next to the blast chamber.

Still, they found this thing in a school, right? Might be some crazy student hiding their immense magic power, planning something nefarious or something like that... Not like I've actually seen anything like that in my hundred years on this world, though. And all the other times I've tried sticking my nose in this kinda business, it always had a tendency to end... Rather unfortunately. Still, this situation makes me a little curious...

The not-so young man disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving nothing in the room but the low hum of the barrier protecting the outside world from the mysterious object.

△▼△▼△

The skies above Bergen, Kalmar Federation: 26/08/2070

Lots of clouds today... The ground dwellers must be getting real wet right now. Still, those clouds are gonna be a pain in the ass when I land...

A fighter pilot was flying high in the sky above Bergen. They had been sent there in case there were aerial threats after the event down in the school district, as bad actors sometimes had air support of some kind, usually drones. He was currently escorting an electronic warfare aircraft that was scanning every centimeter of the sky with it's extensive suite of sensors. With nothing to do, he stared at the clouds from the cockpit of his Gripen.

The ScandiAvi Tri-S-MRF 60 Gripen is a multi role fighter aircraft designed and produced in the Swedish state. They are the main fighter aircraft of the Kalmar Air Forces, and have a proven track record along with excellent flight performance and handling in the sky. Though, nowadays missiles were the things that did most of the work in an air to air battle. Stealth was also a big factor, as being detected by the enemy before you detect them is not exactly a pleasant situation to be in. Because of these factors, a dogfight was usually a rare sight on a modern battlefield. But in the rare cases where they did get in a dogfight, the high turn rate and low energy loss made the Gripen a monster in a dogfight. With a 25mm auto-cannon and an ammo belt with guided HEF and AP(1) rounds, it could shred apart any other aircraft that dared get too close, and turn tanks into Swiss cheese. And even if it were to get hit, a magic barrier would activate, protecting the aircraft from being damaged. To an extent.

Other than the incident down in the city, it's been real quiet today... Nothing but clouds and my all seing eye buddy over there. I've been up here for hours! Then again, you shouldn't be expecting a bunch of action happening during peacetime... The pilot sighed as he continued admiring the cloudy scenery.

But while the fighter pilot was thinking to himself, a message suddenly came through. <>

"...Copy that."

That fucking call sign... It might sound cool at first, but that shit is embarassing as hell! All it takes is one... Incident of explosive diarrhea after eating some apparently expired food, and I'm suddenly being called "Rocket". Great. Amazing. Fucking hell... I mean, everyone in the air force has some kind of embarassing call sign, but damn, that was quite a culture shock...

The fighter pilot, attempting to distract himself from the embarrassment, looked out of the side of his canopy as he turned the nose of his Gripen back towards base. The clouds were beginning to disperse, and he could see the skyline of Bergen.

They didn't tell me exactly what was going on, but when I got here, my radiation sensors were going bonkers. Curiously, they were telling me that the radiation was coming from one of the smaller schools... A gymnasium. Makes me wonder what the heck happened down there... The pilot leaned back in his seat a bit. Ohh man, I'm gonna take a long ass nap when I'm back on the ground.

His Gripen began cruising just below the speed of sound back towards base.

△▼△▼△

Bergen, Kalmar Federation: 29/08/2070

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Alright, that's all for class today. Have a good weekend!"

People began putting their laptops back in their bags. Some were chatting, others were beginning to leave. Norah began walking towards the door as well, when suddenly...

"Norah!"

Yup. There she is.

"Sup."

"Hello! What are you doing in the weekend? :D"

"I'm-"

Sarah came walking up to Norah the instant she was about to leave. But when Norah was about to answer her question, one of the boys was approached Sarah, and...

"Hey, you wanna come with us to... !!!"

Oi, what are you doing interrupting me like that? That's rude!

One glare was all it took to make the poor guy go away. All color left his face as he immediately spun 180 degrees around and speed walked off into the distance.

"Hehehe, Norah is so overprotective!" Sarah immediately went in for a hug.

"..." A blush could be seen on Norah's face, until Sarah detached herself from Norah.

...Those things might as well be considered deadly weapons...

Norah took a second to compose herself again. "...To answer the previous question, I'm gonna go meet the president."

"Ooh!"

"..."

"..."

They stared at each other for a second.

"...I'm gonna meet the president."

"Cool!"

"..."

"..?"

"I mean, literally. I'm going to Oslo. I'm gonna go visit the guy. He wanted me to come to his office and everything."

"Yes, that's what visiting the president is, isn't it?" She tilted her head in confusion, not understanding why Norah repeated the same thing several times.

Come on, are you really that gullible!? What if I was lying to you!? I mean, it's nice that you trust me that much, but isn't it a little outlandish that someone suddenly says they're going to meet the president!? Wait. Oh. She has probably already met a bunch of world leaders, so she thinks it's normal... I think. Something like that. No, that's not something that normal people do, and even she should know that!

Norah sighed, and shrugged. "Haah... Yep... What about you?"

"I'm going to the space station! Gonna be all floaty and stuff!" Sarah begins twirling around as she talks about floating through space.

"!!..." Norah looks at Sarah in concern.

"...Are you sure that it's safe?"

Sarah stops twirling around and looks Norah straight in the face. "A lot of other people have already gone to space! It is fine, I think! I've always wanted to!"

Alright, calm down a bit. These guys are significantly more advanced than the world of my previous life, so their rockets should definitely be safe... I think...

Rockets regularly take tourists to space, and there are even cities on the Moon and Mars. Thousands of people go to space every day. You could even say that taking a modern rocket to space was just as safe as flying in a winged aircraft. Yet some bad memories of her... Rapid unscheduled disassembly still gnawed at the back of Norah's mind.

"...Well, you have a nice trip, then." Norah decided to put those worries away, as she wasn't going to be able to dissuade Sarah anyway.

"You too! Whee!" Sarah took off in a magically boosted run, and sped out through the 4th story window, landing gracefully after a fall that would usually break bones. Then she zoomed off to who knows where.

Sarah had always been abnormally... Durable. Once a couple years ago she was squished by a car crash, as it shoved her full force into a wall. She pushed the car off of herself, and went home not because of her somehow non-existent injuries, but because her clothes were torn by the car.

Who am I kidding, of course she will be fine. Jeez...

After Sarah had left, Norah could swear she felt jealous glares directed at her, but when she looked back at the class, everyone else looked away at something else. She turned away from the class again, and began walking off towards the changing rooms to get into her bike suit.

△▽△▽△

After heading home, she took a walk to the Bergen Station. With a backpack on her back and a pair of headphones on, Norah made her way inside to catch her train. The government people had paid for a first class ticket, and she was sure as hell gonna use it to it's fullest. Living with a single mom didn't exactly help her family's financial situation, but they could manage somewhat well with her income and the government support they received. Safe to say, a first class train ticket was something that she had never had her hands on before.

When she made her way into the station, she found her train waiting beside the maglev platform. Yes, she was going with the maglev train. With a top speed nearing 800km/h, it would only take her 45 minutes as opposed to the 3 hours it would take with the normal high speed trains. and while it would be nice to see the surroundings zip by, most of the route was going through tunnels, so she was probably not going to see much scenery for most of the trip.

After acquiring a few snacks from the train station kiosk, she had entered the train and found her seat. It was large compared to the standard seats, and had all sorts of nifty features as well. She had a great view out of a giant window, and could rotate the chair as she wished.

"Ticket, please!" A staff member came walking by. They were checking the passenger's phones to make sure that everyone had a ticket before departure. When Norah held up her phone to the staff member's, it made a [pling!] sound, and the staff member continued on to the next seats, scanning the passenger's tickets.

If I recall correctly, Japan from my previous life already had a maglev prototype, right..? Right. It could only go up to 500km/h, but this one goes all the way up to 800km/h. These ones are all over the world as well, apparently. Though, only the rich, vacationers and people in a hurry actually use maglevs. They are significantly more expensive than normal trains, but are still cheaper, and in some cases faster, than a flight to somewhere. This route in particular goes all the way to St. Petersburg, which is apparently a part of the Kalmar Federation in this world. Interesting...

The train left the platform, the cityscape soon disappearing from view as the train entered a tunnel.

△▽△▽△

Oslo, Kalmar Federation

I'd be lying if I said that this wasn't intimidating as hell.

After arriving at Oslo Central Station, she was picked up by several government agents, and driven towards the president's estate in a sleek black armored SUV. The place was very heavily guarded, and they had to pass through several security checkpoints to get to the building itself. Now, after being led through a non-insignificant amount of hallways, she was standing in front of a giant pair of double doors. The doors opened from the inside, and sitting there she could see a well dressed man with a Kalmar flag pin on his suit.

"Welcome. Do please have a seat."

"Whatever you say, mr. president."

Hmm... Something I've noticed is that most of the security agents haven't reacted to my natural intimidation even a little bit. Not the president either. I've got nothing to explain it other than them being trained killers or something like that. I mean, the president is an old war hero, right..? So he should also have some military experience as well. Ya, but then again, I don't really know where this whole intimidation thing comes from, and how it even works. Might want to see a doctor for that.

Norah took the president's offer, and took a seat in one of the sofas sitting in front of the president's desk. Suddenly, she felt a very odd sensation... As if the president himself is staring straight into her soul. The sensation made Norah physically recoil, but after a few seconds, the feeling subsided, and the president suddenly relaxed his body.

"Don't be too surprised, kid. There are lots of bad actors out there who wish to harm me due to my position, after all. Right, you two can leave now."

As the two security officers left the room, a recent memory suddenly surfaced in Norah's mind. "You might also want to keep that feeling in mind; you will feel that way when someone appraises you, and..."

Oh, that's what is going on. But come on man, you could at least have warned me!!

The president chuckled. "Right then, let's get down to business. You do know what [Appraisal] does, right?"

She nodded, and the president continued. "Well, I've realized something rather interesting. How about we start with you telling me about why your soul's split in two?"

"..."

Fuck. Well, I mean, someone was gonna find out eventually anyway. The guy probably has a way to figure out whether I lie or not, so I can't just bullshit my way out of this one.

The president leaned forward, waiting for her answer.

Whelp, here goes nothing. "...Well, mr. president, I've been had. I'd have rather not spoken about this, but here goes. As far as I know, I'm a reincarnate. I died, and, for the lack of the better word, "reincarnated" as Norah Berg. Not just that, I've been reincarnated in an entirely different world as well."

The president leaned back in his chair, seeming to ponder for a moment. Then a grin formed on his face as his fingers intertwined.