And so, we condemned ourselves to begrudgingly continue walking along the Los Angeles streets until we could find another way to Materialize megavolt batteries. This is the one thing we can't neglect, because it's quite literally the fuel we need to make it to all our next destinations in this world. Buying, stealing, none of those will be good enough. We need on-command megavolt batteries.
"Ah." I looked across the street, "So McDonald's isn't just in Japan. It's also here as well."
"No duh, I already told you it's an international brand." Issei cocked his head back and retorted, "Hey, screw that. Focus on the task, Lune. We got megavolts to Materialize."
"Well we've got time, don't we?" I shrugged, "Obviously the goal is to find out how they're made and move on to the next location, but just worrying about it when we can't do anything isn't exactly gonna help us."
"Ah, stoicism." Freddy nodded, "That way of thinking is quite popular, Lune. In essence, it's a philosophy that..."
"We have stoicism at home, dude."
"Eh? How come? Are the ancient Greeks a common factor between us, then?" He asked.
Greeks? How the hell should I know? I just know it's called stoicism, and it's named after the guy who first practiced it. I think his name was Bob or something. Bob Stoike, yeah that's it. But that dude lived and died even before the Everdivision, so apart from that you really can't know much more about him. Still, what a coincidence, I guess.
"Well, we share tons of similarities between our worlds, after all." I shrugged, "I mean like, languages, our diets aligning, the fact we're both humans and not weird monsters..."
"I mean, you guys got beasts, meanwhile the closest thing we have to those are in Australia." Issei explained, "By the way uncle, beasts are just giant ferocious versions of animals."
"Oh. But like, you said it's a fantasy world, right?" He asked another question, "So are there any goblins or slimes or the like?"
"Not to my knowledge." Issei and I answered in unison.
"Right. So let me get this straight nephew. Basically what you're telling me is - You're saying you got isekai'd to Australia?"
"That's not-!" He stopped mid-sentence to think about it a bit more, "Well yeah, actually. Looking at it like that, the entire Vast World is just Australia."
"So in theory, if we visit this mysterious land of Australia, I'll actually feel at home?" I posed the question differently.
"Guess we'll never know, since there aren't any World Wonders in Australia." They shrugged.
Aww, what? That's a shame, but maybe it's like a smaller country, so there was no reason to put any World Wonders there. But no, there are some World Wonders in really tiny places of the world, so I doubt that makes sense. Looking at the map again, Australia, Australia... Hm?! What the hell, Australia is a continent! It's practically a world of its own, goddammit!
"We're not visiting it?" I begged and pleaded for them to hear me out, "Come on, I wanna see all this world has to offer! I'll never get to go back here in my life, so please do this one thing for me!"
"Hell no, I miss 3P, and you should be missing your family." Issei actually gave a valid response, albeit in his own sleazy way.
"I'll pay for the travel costs!" I added.
"If we figure out how to Materialize the batteries, then the travel costs don't matter, do they!?" He shouted, "God, smite this asshole with a thunderclap!"
And just as he said that, he bumped shoulders with a very nicely dressed lady. Probably from something that happened unrelated to us before, she appeared to be too pissed to just shrug it off and keep moving, so she instead spun around and slapped the first face she saw. Unfortunately, that face belonged to me, not Issei.
"Ow!" I yelped, rubbing the sore cheek with one hand as I stopped her from walking away with the other, "Oi, the hell's your problem, lady!?"
"Unhand me this instant, puny mortal." Her long, Purple hair danced with the wind as she ominously spoke, "I am in no mood to deal with your buffoonery. Rejoice in the fact that I didn't drown you this instant."
"You speak like a chuunibyou." Issei remarked, "Your bod looks mature as hell, and yet the gap between the two only makes you look hotter."
"Dude, you're not supposed to hit on the woman that hit me." I frowned, "Seriously, I... Hm?"
Not a second later, I felt my Eyes start to tear up. My nose too, it's running. What the hell, is it allergies? Am I even allergic to anything from this world? What an inopportune timing... Huh, now I'm sweating? O-Oi, wait, this is way too much water coming out of me, I feel like I'm gonna dry out soon if this doesn't stop! Shit, screw this woman, I need to tell these guys I'm not feeling well and Materialize some water stat!
"Hm, Lune?" The guys both tilted their heads at me as I let the woman go, "What's wrong?"
"Guys, I need wat-!" I then felt my body's moisture return to normal again, "What the...?"
"Hmph, it would be smart of you to drop the matter, mister... Huh?" The woman fwipped around with an astonished face, immediately making Issei and I jump in surprise, "Your name! I can't...!"
"A-Aru...?" We glanced at each other to make sure neither of us were seeing things, "Aru's as an... adult!?"
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"What did you just refer to me as, mortals...?!" She fussed.
Hold on, hold on, this can't be right! This is her, right? Purple hair, Blue Eyes, bratty prideful personality, the "Rejoice!" talk, and most importantly - The power to command water freely... Yeah, there's no other way around it, this is the Water Goddess Allucius, or at least this world's version of her... Right, Ouroboras mentioned that the Gods can choose their form freely, so the child version I know her as from my world is probably just that. Still, this body...
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"Gawking at my Godly figure, mortal?" She unamusedly posed for me, "Take it all in if you're that desperate, but I'm a taken woman, you know."
"Gods, no!" I cocked my head back as I grimaced in disgust, "I've a wife too, y'know?! I was just surprised at why you're not a kid."
"Huh?" Her Eyebrows shot way up in suspicion at that declaration, "You humans are weird, after all... I guess the moral thing to do in this situation would be to call the local authorities on you?"
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"Aru! Or no, Allucius, right!?" Issei stopped the charades with an abrupt abbreviation of events, "Water Goddess Allucius!"
"...Issei Kaido." She glared back at him intently.
"Whoa, hey, what the hell am I missing here?" Freddy backed away nervously.
So our suspicions turned out to be correct, after all. This grown woman with what I can only describe as the perfect hourglass figure is actually the bratty Goddess from my home world. Now I feel way more relieved about all the times hers and Ouroboras' relationship got mentioned. That being the case, it's almost even more disgusting to think about the fact that the voluptuous woman standing before me is actually a child in my realm of reality. Gods, they call us the weird ones, and yet they pull stunts like this. Seriously...
"I see now, I'm caught up to speed with my Omniscience." She sighed angrily, "Look, I won't go after you guys, so continue on your journey with peace of mind. That being said, I'm pissed as hell right now, so please don't get on my nerves any more than you already did."
She's actually being reasonable from the start for once. That's a new one, maybe this Aru is way more mature both in mind as well as the body? Actually, according to Ouroboras' timestamps, she should have already been to the meet on Mount Everest, right? So why's she so angry if she got to see her lover again? H-Hey, why's she so adamant to leave, dammit!? We could use her all-knowing wisdom to learn how to Materialize megavolts!
"Wait up! We need your help regarding-!"
"Shut." She raised but a single finger at me, and in the next moment I began to choke on some water that had appeared in my lungs, "Don't you know it's not smart to go after heartbroken ladies, foreigner? Say another word more and you'll drown on the spot."
"Mf-! Cough, ack, hugh!" I spat the water out as soon as she let me, "J-Just... this one, hack! Thing...!"
"Heartbroken?" Issei smugly smirked, "Ah, so the bastard Ouri actually dumped you? Is that it?"
"You!" She flipped back around and stomped towards us for the third time now, "Issei Kaido! I know you and this foreigner met up with him in Japan! I know because I saw it with my omniscience!" She pointed to her wide open Eyes, "You said something to him to convince him to do that! My husband would never dump a perfect girl like me unless some outside factors were at play, so tell me honestly, and I might consider only drying out your arms and legs!"
"That's worse than just drying my entire body out, you crazy bitch!" He yelled, "I said nothing! The dude barely talked about you, honest! Look, go through my mind again and you'll see for yourself that we're innocent!"
"You guys are buddy-buddy with Gods?" Freddy whispered a very reasonable question to me as Aru almost drowned Issei just like she did me.
"If this is your definition of buddy-buddy, then yeah." I chuckled.
"H-Hey now, that's enough, lady." Freddy tried breaking the one-sided fight up.
"Water Goddess Allucius!" She hissed.
"Right, Water Goddess Allucius, got it." He gulped before speaking reason in a calm enough manner, "So you're mad cause you got your heart broken by your husband, right? Look, I get what you mean, I really do, but taking those negative emotions out on my nephew and Lune will only fuel the flames of your despair further."
"...The hell is your uncle talking about, mortal?" She briefly stopped slapping the shit out of Issei to ask.
"Who knows, but let's hear him out." The battered Issei kept coughing up the excess water.
"What you're doing is destructive in nature, but you seem like a stand-up gal, so surely you realize this isn't the smart way to do things." Freddy continued his lecture, "Instead, why not try and look at yourself and see what it is that your husband didn't like about you? Seeking self-improvement is good for both scenarios. Either he'll see your improved state and wish to get back together with you, or you'll get to find an even better man that'll treat you right after ironing out any of those... imperfections."
"Imperfections?" She tilted her head innocently, "Like what?"
"I dunno! It's called self-improvement, figure it out yourself!" He threw away the momentum he had just like that after showing his true colors, "Lady, I just want you to stop trying to kill us and help us get back home, okay!? I'm not asking for much here, am I!?"
"That IS quite a lot, to be frankly honest with you." I figured.
"Pheh, so you want me to become even better for Ouroboras?" She chuckled, cackled even, "Want me to help you out on your journey so that he'll realize I'm more than just a horny, annoying and overbearing lover?"
"...Are you?" Freddy's neurons activated once he heard 'horny'.
"...Hell no!" She started bawling her Eyes out in the middle of the street as Issei finally regained his unclogged pipes, "I'm a damned idiot Goddess who only managed to get his hand in marriage because I bugged him for eons! I just want my Ouroboras to look my way~! Is that so wrong?! Bwaaaahh~! Waaaahh~!"
"Don't worry, it'll be alright, there's plenty of fish in the sea." Freddy consoled her until she assured him he doesn't have a chance with her.