All over the world, news began leaking about the strange events of the man and his yacht. The best efforts to keep a lid on it failed spectacularly when viral footage of the man escaped the media blockade of China. His likeness was immediately cited and identified but no one made any moves after seeing the display. The United States felt no use in trying to neutralize a combatant that obviously was beyond them, even ordering federal and military figures out of the way until further investigation into the indivisible was done.
And as the agents dug, they found the answer through his friends coming forward to connect the yacht and now grown young man atop it.
Turk Takanagi was the sole child of business moguls and sea researchers Michael and Karma Takanagi; his father was an American businessman who fell in love with the medical advisor of his then-employer, funding her dreams and winning her heart on their adventures. Both of the pair had difficulty with natural childbirth but had been able to bear Turk while abroad, leaving him as one of the rarer examples of an individual without born citizenship. This persisted until his early childhood due to prolonged trips with his mother, never even setting foot on land until he was five.
Takana became a nickname when the young boy's mother sent him to America for schooling; all of his friends chose it since they couldn't say his last name and his first name was too similar to another friend's name, Kirk. His records beyond an average schoolboy are so vacant that most agencies suspect someone or something covered it up, particularly the summer vacation period that led up to him going off on a ship ride his father arranged.
In June, the young boy left shore for a simple trip: a small dock in the fringes of Los Angeles bound along the coast heading north. He and the crew would go north until the state line, performing a crossing to one of his father's many offshore facilities to spend the next few months at the closest to a home the boy knew. Details about the crew are completely absent but the ship he rode on, the Mystique, was intended to sail with a minimum of five crew. The ship missed its charter window and a well after its departure there was a significant effort made to locate it.
it all inevitably failed, leading the world to writing off the lives of the crew and the heir of the Takanagi Research & Exploratory Entente or TREE as the United Nations now know the group. TREE had built its wealth overwhelmingly since then in a maddened fervor by Takana's father. His mother has slowed his work and inevitably shifted its focus to something akin to adventurers and bodyguard duties for those who'd work in her stead. For the next ten years, the organization became one of the most prominent in researching medical and scientific phenomenon whilst fielding a small personal army. Although it never registered as a true threat to stability of any nation around it, TREE inevitably grew powerful enough for the parents to field political power and earn their coastal assets as a small nation.
But all of that pales in comparison to just how dangerous their son is, especially after the Chinese incident went viral. Stock value in the company went up only further after the connection between the newly-arrived Takana and the organization's CEOs were discovered.
A mere two days after his reappearing, Takana's parents were en route to where he had landed in central Texas.
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"This should do it."
Takana ignores the spectators and clenches his hand tight, magic pulsing around him and his eyes brightening as the earth he'd manipulated all morning finally hardening and smoothing. Just like he did back in the other world, he had "secured" his base of operations. Although the Mystique had seen better days and had reached an impressive age for a seafaring vessel, much of its lifespan had been extended with countless materials added to the vessel: dragon scaled faewood had replaced and reinforced much of its hull, its keel laid engulfed in giant's lead, and the structural steel is blessed and blasted with dwarven smithing flame. Comparing it to this world's ships, it was a self-rejuvenating battleship. Defensive wards all over the vessel kept it mostly safe, but boarders could still approach it without much issue.
The only thing the ship lacked was a means to attack, after all, which meant those boarding enemies were kept away by him.
Now that its hull is encased in obsidian-shifted earth there isn't much more to worry about. His ability in this world isn't incomparable to the destructive ability of a nuclear bombardment consisting of nearly five warheads. His knowledge of the world had been lacking but the government agents brought someone earlier in the day to help him figure out their new tool, the smartphone, so he could do a bit of learning.
And so far, all he knows is that Earth's powers are either scared stiff or openly cautious of him. Unlike China's forces that attacked him as an invader, the United States kept their distance and has so far been the reason why all the fanatics haven't got closer than a couple hundred yards from him.
"It's probably best if I try to forget about going anywhere," he grumbles, turning his attention toward the crowd for a few seconds before their screams force him to ascend his handmade stairs. "It's just like the time I saved Galmer and their knights kept swearing their admiration to me..."
He steps up and through the door leading into the lower decks of the ship, taking a deep breath of the rushing other-world air that greets him before closing himself inside.
After all, inside the nose of his ship lies the creation that helped him finally cross back: the World Engine. A machine constructed by the dwarves that require him as the power source, it operates in a low power mode that allows "world seepage" whenever dormant. The inside of his ship was mostly conforming to Earth's designs; functional and minimalistic, but providing comfort in the crew quarters and meeting room. It was inspired and designed with a profile quite similar to the Raketa hydrofoil ships the Soviet Union produced, making it more than capable of carrying a fine crew and maintaining high speeds. It was never a great deep-sea ship but conversions his parents had made for the ship made it practically a new vessel.
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The passenger deck had been walled and divided before, but his years aboard the ship saw it undergo more changes. The largest came when he understood how to reshape metal with magic, allowing him to structurally reinforce the ship into whatever shape without any true side-effects.
Inner Deck of the Mystique [https://i.imgur.com/LAziDIA.png]Upper Deck of the Mystique [https://i.imgur.com/PkvsY7x.png]
He did go through a few phases in his teenage years where he made the Observation rooms of the ship for various tasks, of course, but they had largely been restored to simple viewing rooms at this point.
Whilst the outside bore drawings both he and the now-departed crew made in the first years of his stay, the inside of the ship remains blemish free. He heads down the hall and into his suite, moving over and sitting down on his still unmade bed with a long look at the most recent invention the agents introduced him to.
"Smart television?" He raises one of his brows, taking the remote and turning it on. "I still don't get how it can be smart. It doesn't even have a single point of intelligence. Wouldn't a better name for this be "wireless entertainment television" or something since it uses that... WiFi thing and signals or whatever?"
Truthfully his only reason to learn how to use all this junk is so that he can see his parents again; unlike him, they had been living their lives on Earth whilst he was off fighting wars and adventuring. All of his excitement came differently than theirs, but he understood that connecting his world and the other would require understanding both sides and how to help them bond.
But the first step had to be trying to figure out technology, the sole thing his mother and her company put ample time into developing.
"Farstahd would have better luck with this shit. I was better at saving the girl than I ever was saving us from all this complex junk. I'd bet Yohan would've known what to do, too..."
The ship buzzes and mana solidifies beside the television, showing the usual agent approaching the ship. Behind him were two older adults that looked familiar... but different. An older half-Japanese woman wearing a simple sweater and jeans carrying a briefcase and a backpack... and a classic "meathead" type black-haired white man with a large back in either hand, his suit thicker in the torso.
"... He's wearing armor like the others," Takana recognizes immediately, even before his magical gaze identifies what they're all wearing. "I guess that's Dad. A bit more wrinkly than I imagined... but Mom looks almost the same if you ignore the bags under her eyes. I guess he must've been older than her."
Takana looks over at the mirror of his cabin, frowning at his own appearance.
Although he looked a lot like his father with his squared jaw and lower face, he had the more slanted visage of his mother now that he'd grown older. His skin was a bit darker than his dad's, too, but it bore almost no blemishes thanks to his magic; most scars had been healed when he reached around level 40, but his birthmarked freckles never went away. His black hair and green eyes, though, had changed; the edges of his hair had grown fiery orange after marrying Syltia a year ago, but his eyes now had cool pools of blue circling his pupils from awakening his magic.
His clothing isn't awful, of course; since he'd arrived, his set of robed armor had been amply replaced with track pants and a simple camouflage shirt like the soldiers wore outside his ship. In exchange for a physical examination, personal outfitters had been brought to make him outfits... and while most of them were overbearing, this one felt the best for moving around.
"... I guess it's only right I meet them. It's not like I haven't faced worse. I still remember that time Syltia found out I wasn't a virgin when we met. My parents can't be any more terrifying than a fire valkyrie."
He turns the television on at last, finally getting it to do as he wants. Takana swaps through its many features with a furrowed brow just as the agent and his parents reach the steps.
The feature clicks on and he brings up a browser for streaming, loading up a series of names and finally reflecting an image of him.
Takana smiles at the various odd names... but finally raises a hand in greeting for the camera.
"Heyo. My name is Turk Takanagi. I'm... about thirty years old physically, but I'm actually twenty-six. All of my friends called me Takana before I left this world, so that's what I go by these days. Today, for the first time in a long time, I plan to meet my parents and step out into this vastly changed world."
More names begin appearing, but the ones that he'd asked the agent to find remained identified. None of them were present yet, but they had received notifications the moment he went live.
"This'll be brief since I have to talk to my parents shortly... but I wanted to say that I'm looking forward to see what all my friends have been up to! Now that I'm back, it's only right that I share what the other world was like, right?"
He gets up and sets the remote down, holding his hand out and letting it broil to life with his magical fire.
"Starting today, I'm announcing to the world my intentions just like that agent woman asked. While I'll be living in the United States for the time being, I'll make my way around the world so I can speak to various people and nations. This world is vast but pretty small compared to the other side... and to account for that, I'll need to find all the best people and places to help me in my dream. I hope to bridge both worlds using a machine on my ship, all so that both worlds can prosper!"
The fire bursts into cinders, each one spiraling out and around him to form a thin-lined ring. It orbits and slowly works its way up and around to his right wrist, forming a simple band of light as it settles tighter and tighter.
"The first person I'll bring across will be coming here... and I'd like you all to meet her. The two of us have adventured as a party on-and-off for about ten years. Sometimes we were friends, other times we were enemies... but eventually, the two of us settled our differences and realized just how much we cared for each other. She was so strong that I had to pledge part of my soul just to manifest her physical form... and it's why my hair is the way it is now."
The hum of the World Engine coming to life at his command fills the ship, the earthen cast he'd wrapped the ship in helping nullify the shaking. Excess mana flowed from him and through the ship, powering the device up out-of-sight of the stream. His eyes take on a finer glow and in an instant the blue overtakes them entirely, a smile dancing across his lips.
"She'll be a little... rowdy... but I'm sure everyone'll love her. Her name is Syltia... the Demi-Goddess of War."
The ring around his wrist blends into his skin, forming a fine band.
And outside of the ship, the clouds overhead draw inward and darken; thunder and lighting begin cracking at the world-linking power aboard the Mystique, yet none of it struck the ground. It all struck the ship's lightning rod, causing the power of the television to thrum and the stream to waver. Lightning shoots from wall-to-wall and draws itself in toward Takana but he remains firm. He clenches his fist tighter and tighter, feeling the air in his lungs building as the magic words leap out at an inaudible whisper.
"ᒪᓰᘉᖽᐸ: Sᑘᘻᘻᓍᘉ."