“Politics are and will always be bullshit,” Rakna declared as he and Kara came out of their laughing fit. Kaelith scowled at him and he cackled. “It makes society for sure, but you know what politics are based on? Manipulation. Democracy and freedom are maneuvered to sound credible to the masses. Only an idiot would willingly try to participate in it.”
Kara smiled. “So, you are an anarchist?”
“Why not. I like the word. Sounds cool.”
“Slow the fuck down!” Kaelith finally snapped. “So, you two are… okay? You’re not threatening one another? What happened in the last five minutes then?!”
“Kaelith…” Her mother shook her head with a sigh. “That’s why I always tell you to study more. He knows more about political warfare than you despite his youth.”
“That’s because it’s exactly as he said; bullshit!” The vixen griped with her arms crossed.
Kara shook her head lightly. “Joking aside, I apologize again,” she said sincerely.
“It’s alright. It’s a ‘game’ you’ve probably gotten used to at this point, right?” Rakna shrugged. “You tried to fish me into your clan because it is simply advantageous for your side as a whole.”
“Fufufu, you’re right. I might have become a bit too crooked after all these years. But… is it really out of the question for you to join us?”
“Join you? No. Ally with you? Maybe. To be honest, as long as foxy asks me, I would probably help in any way I can in your troubles; provided that I can do anything about it of course.”
“I see… as a show of good faith, I will order the council to stop pursuing ‘Obsidian’ and accept him as an independent actor that is not involved in their egocentric thirst for dominance.”
Rakna whistled and grinned. “Savage. I like it.”
She giggled. “Thank you. But now, it seems you and my daughter need to speak, right?”
“Yeah, I was going to say that as well,” Kaelith followed up.
“Geh… forgot about that.”
“There’s no escaping from this one. Tell me what’s going on with your behavior. Your eyes; they’re not cosmetics, are they?”
Rakna mused. He looked up at the ceiling and wondered how to explain it when an idea struck his mind. “Oh wait… there was something in that stupid journal… Foxy, and you as well Kara, I don’t want to do it twice, give out your hands.”
The two fox women looked at each other and extended their hands. Rakna put them both in his and drove his soul to traverse his body and circuits. He then added a strand of his own psyche into it with a grunt and immediately, a flow of soul power was transmitted to the two women.
They nearly retracted their hand due to the tingling sensation but stopped themselves in time as images elapsed in their consciousness. After a short while, they looked at Rakna with an entirely new understanding of who he was.
“Personality disorder?” Kara asked curiously as they separated their hands.
“If you ask, it means the memory transfer went well. Pretty nice,” he said. “To answer you, you are both right and wrong. I do not act the same but I am still the same person no matter what. When this full shift goes away, I will return to normal but that doesn’t mean what I said to you today will become something only ‘volcanic’ me would say. No matter how I behave, I will always say that politics are bullshit. Granted, with less theatrics and laughs.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Fascinating. What do you mean by volcanic though?”
“Ah… that slipped out of my mouth. Forget it.”
“Still hiding things?” Kaelith frowned.
“Please, you should realize by now. Half of the fun in my current life constitutes annoying you. Of course, I will hide stuff from you.”
“That should be making me mad but why do I find it weirdly flattering…”
“Perfect! I flatter and make fun of you at the same time. Two birds with one stone.”
Her eye twitched. “…I prefer the other you. How do you stop this full shift thing?”
“Either you put me so much at ease that I turn into some sort of Buddha, or you borderline kill me with a deadly drug meant to mess up with my brain’s synapses and reset my personality.”
Kaelith’s expression twitched. “Please don’t tell me you…”
“That I used it last time it happened? Yes. Which brings me to another thing I wanted to ask. How do you request to have stuff transported from your homeworld?”
“You’re seriously going to risk your life? If it’s that bad, you might as well stay like th-”
“I risk my life by staying like this,” Rakna retorted and she closed her mouth. “Normally, my brain goes through something akin to an electric shock whenever I switch states. It is NOT meant to be handled like that in case you didn’t realize. No brain should.”
“During a full shift, while there is no direct danger, if I try to go to sleep or even meditate, my brain will be lost about what it should do. Remain in a state of ‘hyperactivity’ like right now or should it go back ‘to normal’? It will ultimately switch back and forth indefinitely.”
“I learned it the hard way a few years ago. Had my uncle not woken me up back then, I would have died. I got a headache that lasted a month after that,” Rakna uttered and pulled out a cigarette which he lit with a snap of his fingers.
Kaelith was silent for a moment before she turned toward the counter. “Sylvie! Bring me the tablet on the main shelf in the back shop,” she ordered and a cute squeal responded positively.
“A tablet? Really?”
“Well, it’s not a complicated process to request objects from your world. Each shop has a way to make the demand in the form of a device… like this one,” she finished her sentence as her fox pet arrived with a tablet held in her tails. She handed it to Rakna who inspected it from all angles.
“How do I use this?”
“Press the power button, duh.”
“…give me back my fantasy,” Rakna quietly complained and turned the tablet on. He promptly saw a document to fill in order to identify him. Thankfully, Alexa did it for him, inputting his name, ID, and everything else.
‘Thanks.’
[You are welcome.]
“|| Host successfully recognized… Booting up sequence initiated… Connection to the main server established… ||” A voice came from the tablet, represented by an audio spectrum. “|| Rakna Xiorra Blade, please state your reality of origin. ||”
“Blade?” Kaelith asked confusingly while Kara had a much graver reaction. Her eyes widened and she clenched her cup of coffee tighter.
‘No way… there is no way… it must be a coincidence,’ she convinced herself.
“It’s nothing,” Rakna waved it off. “Now, my reality of origin… I don’t know what you mean but my planet was called Earth.”
“|| Acknowledged. Filtering… Search resulted in 906 868 519 264 possible selections. ||”
“…the fuck?”
“It’s parallel worlds and realities,” Kaelith explained. “Earth exists in many instances.”
“Why the fuck can it not just search up the last location that new Hosts were picked from?”
“|| Yearly procedural recruitment is not saved in the servers. Information cannot be attained. ||”
Rakna glared at the tablet. “Recruitment my ass. Abduction is more accurate.”
“|| … ||”
“Ah, whatever. How do I reduce that obscene number of results?”
“|| Questions will be asked to filter them. Are you ready? ||”
“Shoot.”
“|| What year was it when you were recruited? ||”
“2172.”
“|| Calculation… 150 356 121 possible results filtered out due to unmatching longevity. When did the first successful spatial voyage take place? ||
Rakna raised an eyebrow. “I guess you mean the landing on the moon so… July 20th, 1969.”
“|| Calculation… 9 594 981 699 possible results filtered out due to unmatching dates. How many world wars occurred? ||”
“3.”
“|| Calculation… 100 592 132 798 possible results filtered out due to unmatching data. ||”
“For fuck’s sake, this is going to take forever, isn’t it?”
Kaelith snorted. “Yes, that’s what usually happens. Though I never had to do it myself. Thankfully.”
“|| What was the most renowned scientific discovery of the last few centuries? ||”
“Hm… it was Eion. Without an ounce of a doubt.”
“|| Calculating… 580 985 136 798 results have been filtered out. ||”
“Huh? What kind of discovery is that unique across billions of parallel worlds?” Kaelith uttered in shock.
“|| What was the most powerful instated government at the time of the recruitment? ||
“There was none.”
“|| Clarification is demanded. ||”
“Aurora ruled the planet.”
“|| Calculating… Calculating… Calculating… Calculating… ||”
“Okay, now that’s very weird…” The vixen was confused. “The system’s servers shouldn’t need to spend that much time filtering something out,” she said and failed to notice her mother’s gradually paling complexion.
“|| Calculating… 215 545 911 803 possible results have been filtered out. 45 remain. ||”
“How…?” Kaelith couldn’t believe her ears. This had never happened before. It was statistically impossible for one piece of information to be so unique across so many worlds.
It was important to note that the System wouldn’t count identical realms. The numbers given are worlds that are different in some way. This meant that these 45 results were unbelievably unique amongst the trillions and trillions of worlds.
Rakna’s smirk began to grow. He already knew why it was so unique. He was quite curious to see if this ‘database’ was aware of it. Eva was, after all.
“|| Who is the leader of Aurora? ||
He grinned wider. He would let it drag on a bit. “The current leader is Jin Walker.”
“|| Calculating… 25 possible results filtered out. 20 remain. When was Aurora founded? ||”
“2055.”
“|| Calculating… 17 possible results filtered out. 3 remain. Final Inquiry: Who founded Aurora? ||”
Rakna snickered. “Arimane Blade.”
Kara dropped her cup and it shattered on the floor.
“Mom! Are you okay?” Kaelith stood up worryingly. Her mother’s face was aghast and her knuckles were white due to the strain. She looked terrified beyond words
“|| Result Confirmed. Earth Labeled [ᛤᛡ.63.5B], The Kind Demon’s Homeland. ||”