Upon hearing me curse, Aki suddenly sprung up and started running around the shop, ushering people out.

“I’m so sorry! I need to close for today! Please come back tomorrow!”

She ignored any protests, doing her best to clear the shop until she shut the door on the last disgruntled customer and left it dead silent.

I turned to her, taking off my new mask and looking at her own.

She took off hers in kind, placing it to the side of her head to reveal Asian features.

I pointed.

“That mask. That's a kitsune mask, isn’t it?”

“Mm. Not my most popular product. Kids like the dragons more.”

“So you’re Japanese?”

“I am. I lived in Osaka before all this.”

“...Fucking hell.”

I almost laughed in disbelief. Umara tugged my sleeve.

“What’s happening?”

“...This lady is from where I am. Kind of. I knew it had to be possible ever since I bought this, but I didn’t think I’d meet one of you now of all times.”

I suddenly took out the katana I had bought back at the auction. I had kept it in my personal spatial ring the entire time, the only evidence that I wasn’t alone in this new world.

I stuck it out to Aki.

“Recognize this?”

“I do. I’m the one that sold it.”

“Was it yours?”

“No. It was the weapon of another man who I came here with. He died while we were making our way over, but I can’t say I was particularly fond of him. I sold his weapon since I was short on money. It was the only thing of value I could give up.”

“Hm. So it wasn’t you who put the anime figurine on there.”

“No.”

“Tsk. Can’t whack a dead man over the head with a stick. Whatever.”

I threw the katana back into my spatial band. It was basically worthless now that I had found Aki.

Initially, I thought the katana had only been found way out there in the place they call the Outlands. But it turns out that was just a story Aki told them, something that increased the value of the sword.

I didn’t care, but perhaps I should’ve thought about finding the buyer earlier.

Aki and I looked at each other for a bit before I sighed.

“Well, this is a hell of a meet. And forewarning, this is my girlfriend Umara, a native, and she doesn’t know about my secret.”

“Ah, I see. Greetings, Umara.”

“Greetings. John, why don’t you just tell me already?”

“I don’t know how I feel about doing that right now.”

I looked away from the wispy eyes of Umara's mask, dodging the issue.

Aki smiled.

“Don’t worry, Umara. Our secret isn’t a bad one. But it means a lot more than you can imagine. Uttering such a thing can only invite bad luck.”

“So it’s not bad but can only invite bad luck?”

“For us, yes. For you, it wouldn’t really change anything other than the fact that it makes you an incredibly lucky lady.”

“I always told her she was the lucky one in this relationship.”

I grinned, earning a laugh from Aki and a quick eye-roll from Umara.

“Fine, I won’t pry.”

“Thank you, dear. Now tell me Aki, how long have you been here?”

“I arrived here about seven years ago, and I’ve only been in the Kingdom for about eight months.”

“Seven years…”

I let out an amazed breath.

“How old were you when you arrived?”

“I was only 19, having just started university in the year of 2019.”

“Shit. So you’re 26?”

“I am, about to turn 27.”

“...I’m sorry.”

My head dropped a bit. 7 years in this world wasn’t a length of time I was looking forward to.

She just smiled, existential pain evident in her visage.

“It’s okay. I’ve made my peace with it a long time ago.”

“I’ve only been here for a grand total of 14, maybe 15 months, and I still haven’t really made my peace with it. And honestly, I can only imagine it getting more painful as each year goes by. I mean… this wasn’t how our lives were supposed to go.”

“... I was supposed to become an animator.”

Aki clasped her hands.

“I was going to study art, maybe work on some of my favorite media. My father wrote manga, two of which had been animated. I figured I could follow in his footsteps, and maybe I’d have an easier time breaking into the industry. But I had only just started… and… didn’t even realize what was happening before I…”

Her breathing hitched, probably remembering her death. Mine had been pretty odd, so it wasn’t all that traumatic. But that didn’t mean hers had been the same.

We had both died. That seemed to be the prerequisite for getting sent to another world.

I heard her sniffle as she continued.

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye. M-My mother, my sister, none of them know what happened. I just vanished and was thrown into this hellish place with nothing to rely on. And I didn’t even get to collect myself before we were thrown at the forefront of an all-out war with demons! I just… I just want to go home…”

“I know.”

I stepped forward and brought her into a hug, feeling her tears wet my shirt.

There was a lot of meaning packed into her words. I was already thinking about how she had come from 2019. Additionally, wherever she landed had already fought a war with the Scourge… and it didn’t seem to have gone well, since she was here.

Regardless, after seven years, there was definitely a lot of pent up stress and regret. Hence why she was now bawling her eyes out.

I had to admit that I also missed my family. Dearly. I sincerely wished I could go back.

But what made it bearable was the fact that I was carving out a pretty good life for myself here. I had a girlfriend who I didn’t mind sticking around for, and being honest, there was a lot on my plate to distract me from homesickness.

Seven years would get to anyone though, especially after what Aki seemed to have gone through. I pitied her situation.

After a little while, Aki calmed down, backing away and wiping her face.

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“I-I’m so sorry. I can clean your shirt off…”

“Please, it’s fine. Let’s find a place to sit though. I have a feeling we’ll have quite a lot to talk about.”

“Of course. Over here. I will welcome you into my home. You as well, Umara.”

“Mm.”

We followed Aki into the back room before ascending a set of stairs into her loft.

It wasn’t big, but it was cozy. After scrambling about to clean some of the immediate surroundings, she went to the kitchen and started brewing something.

“I apologize for the mess. I certainly wasn’t expecting the American to enter my shop today.”

“Call me John. And don’t worry about it. This place looks great.”

“Thank you. The black market isn’t the most attractive place to have a home, but for me, it turned out to be the best paying. I’ve just done what I can to make it presentable. This place was a dump when I bought it.”

Aki brought over a steaming kettle not long later, pouring us some cups. It smelled like a kind of tea, though none I’d ever smelled before. I didn’t even drink tea.

I took a few sips, not liking the taste, and once Aki sat down, we started talking.

There was too much to talk about. Both of us seemed eager to dump as much information as possible. Aki was definitely more curious though.

I had come here from a different time. 2019 was six years before I had been killed in 2025. Now, it was supposed to be 2026. Aki’s age seemed to go with the year, making it easy to establish a timeline.

It was only a difference of six years, but a lot had changed in that time. Technology was one thing, and the global state of affairs was another. I couldn’t possibly remember everything that happened over a six year timespan, let alone things regarding Japan, her home country.

But my summoner memory was getting to be pretty damn good, so I could remember most things and once we started talking, I had a fun time dumping all kinds of past news and developments. Even though we came from two very different places and walked two vastly different paths in life, there was some common ground we could relish in.

That discussion took two hours by itself. I felt sorry for Umara, but it seemed she was just fine listening to us and attempting to infer things from it. Most of the things we talked about were completely foreign, but she wasn’t an idiot. Her inquisitive nature was positively glowing. She had always been a curious girl.

But at some point, I had to move on to business. I felt bad for her so I didn’t mind feeding her a slice of her old life, but her history over the past seven years was of great interest to me.

After those couple hours of talking, I shifted the topic, getting into the nitty gritty.

“Aki, where exactly did you come from? And I mean where you were prior to the Kingdom.”

“...Well, at the time, it was thought to be the last bastion of humanity. They were the Pillars of Creation, a collection of kingdoms, and they were located on an adjacent continent across a sea. There are thousands of miles from here to the Bloody Sea, and then it’s a 2 week sail with a magic boat to reach the other continent.”

“And what happened there? Why are you here?”

“...They fell.”

She muttered two simple words. They implied volumes worth of devastation.

“The Pillars of Creation are no more. All of the kingdoms were razed to the ground over the course of two years. They and the Scourge had been accumulating power long before I arrived, and my 6 years there were spent watching the gradual downfall of that empire. The Scourge was simply too powerful, even though the Pillars were much more powerful than the Kingdom is right now. The last two years that the Pillars stood were a constant horrific genocide. Entire legions of soldiers would go to fight before getting decimated and then resurrected as demons and monsters, just to march right back into their homeland and do the Scourge’s bidding. In my 5th year, they finally introduced their Kings and went all out. It was hopeless from then on. Morale was shattered in just the first year, and after that, everyone could only wait for those monsters to storm through the walls.”

“... Did they try to run? I remember my mentor speaking about the Pillars of Creation and the religion of those people. Some must have escaped, especially if you’re here.”

“Mm. Everyone tried to run. It only made things worse, but nobody cared. There was only one reason some managed to make it here though. It was thanks to the Church that we could get transportation.”

“The Church?”

My brows raised. I didn’t expect to hear about them.

Aki nodded.

“The Church had already been establishing a forward base on the continent. Due to the chaos, we knew nothing about them until the Pillars were already collapsing. And those of us who were able to run were found by them, taken here. Most of the upper echelon of the Pillars, those who survived anyway, are still probably within the Church right now.”

“Wow. Did the Church manage to maintain that base?”

“I have no idea. I can’t imagine they did since they would've had to fend off all the Scourge’s forces by themselves. But that’s inconsequential. What I do know is that any remaining legacy of the Pillars are now in the hands of the Church. Not many know this, but if my logic is correct, Crowns are being perfected because of those legacies. Let me show you something.”

Aki suddenly stood, turning around before undoing the clothes she was wearing.

My brows raised as she exposed her bare back to us. On it, I could see hundreds of inscriptions from the base of her neck to the small of her back, all of them radiating pure Magika, flowing with power like it was blood. And accompanying those inscriptions were a few devastating scars that told their own stories as well.

“These are Invocations, the source of power the Pillars used. It pulls on pure Magika, and depending on the inscription, allows the person to wield that power in different ways. It’s extremely rigid in its use though until Aura is introduced. Only then can the power be raised to the level of what you know as Authority 12’s. The most important part of it though is the fact that anybody can get inscriptions and wield the power. It’s only a matter of resources, knowledge of different inscriptions, and Aura.”

“... That’s… game-changing.”

I felt my heart palpitate. If this was true, then the entire ordinary population of the Kingdom would be able to wield magic. It would multiply the combat power of humanity exponentially and overnight.

And existing Magi would be able to use that power to supplement what they already had.

I heard Umara put my thoughts into words.

“We could use Invocations to compensate for the weaknesses of the different classes. Warlocks could attain the intelligence of summoners, summoners would be able to attain the strength of knights, and knights would be able to supplement their combat with the elements of warlocks. It would be a paradigm shift the likes humanity has never seen.”

“Yes. With our legacies, we might just be able to stand against the Scourge. But it’s barely been a year since the Church inherited this knowledge, and the entire continent of the fallen Pillars is one massive nest for the Scourge. They hold power and numbers that you can’t even imagine. Sometimes I wonder if it even matters. But the chance exists…”

Aki’s shoulders dropped, but I could hardly care about her own hopelessness.

Umara was right. Those legacies would upend this world’s entire power system. I didn’t know why they didn’t also have the three Magi classes, but now, we would be able to capitalize on their strengths.

It was like we were missing an entire half of the power system. It was like we were always meant to have more options to make up for such obvious weaknesses. Summoners were seen as useless precisely because they couldn't make use of their own powers. Their weaknesses far outweighed their strengths, especially cold summoners.

If I had been a cold summoner with swords instead of guns, then I would be no different from all the others. There simply wasn’t anything I could do. How could you be a knight without any of the strength or durability?

But if a cold summoner with swords could receive Invocations that boosted their strength and survivability to the level of a knight, then they would be even more combat capable than knights. They would have power and durability with the versatility of a walking arsenal.

If the ability to hand off weapons was also developed, then one summoner would be able to equip a small army single-handedly, and from anywhere…

The possibilities were endless. Warlocks could harness a summoner’s power of mind to create and cast spells dozens of times more complex, knights could use mana to imbue their bodies and weapons with the power of the elements…

It almost seemed like the Scourge never stood a chance… but that was only if we could actually use the Invocations.

Whether they were compatible with those who had Crests or not was a mystery. All that knowledge was in the hands of the Church. I couldn’t make any guesses even if hypotheticals got my hopes up.

What was clear, though, was that no matter what, the Church was in a superior position. Even if Magi couldn't use Invocations, the ordinary population could. The Pillars obviously made it work without Crests. There was no reason we couldn’t spawn an entirely new army of those soldiers, ones with just as much potential as Magi.

Humanity finally seemed to be in a good position. It was all in the Church’s hands though. What they did would determine the future.

My only concern was regarding the Kingdom, and, if they knew of this information, what they would do about it…

The web was suddenly much larger, and I found myself frowning again before long.

Aki buttoned back up her clothes and sat back down. Umara and I were too lost in our thoughts to consciously register it, but I still pulled myself out of my racing thoughts to acknowledge her existence again.

“I suppose I should thank you for the knowledge. It’s been enlightening.

“Of course. By the way, do you have that booklet?”

“Oh, yes.”

I suddenly remembered. Along with the katana, there had been a small booklet. I brought it out.

“That booklet, at least the latter parts, have several Invocations that the man I was with developed. He told me they were theoretical designs for new ones, better ones. He had been learning about them from one of the Kingdoms during the war. I couldn’t tell you what they mean, but it’s something. If you wish, I could translate the descriptions into English.”

“Well, I certainly can’t use it otherwise. I’ll thank you in advance.”

I handed her the booklet. She took it with a smile.

“It’s no problem at all. And, for when I finish, if we could…”

Aki raised her wrist, exposing the Aerial. I smiled and nodded.

She beamed when we exchanged info.

“Not quite like phones, but I’m just happy I can talk with someone about things. Thank you so much, John. I’ll get this translated and hand it back to you soon.”

“Sure. Don’t be afraid to call. I’ll have plenty of free time until I enter the military.”

“Understood.”

With that, we said our goodbyes, and Umara and I left the shop with our masks. Not everything could be discussed in one sitting. There was surely more information we could give each other. We would just need time.

But the inherent trust we had for each other as fellow earthlings was obviously high. She didn’t hesitate to spill just about everything from her history, and I finally had someone I could relate to. I could consider us friends, even after just one brief meeting.

And now, it was late into the night. It was the perfect time for our original order of business.

I looked at Umara, who glanced at me before slipping on her mask.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Let’s go. We’ll scout the place before moving in. We only have two objectives, so let’s complete them smoothly.”

We took each other’s hands and started walking. The warehouse we were looking for wasn’t far from us.

It was time for our first hunt as a couple.