In a forest out in the middle of nowhere, there was an empty clearing devoid of trees.
Standing in the middle of it all was a handsome man with white hair and blue eyes.
I am referring to myself of course.
And yes, I was abusing the flora in the forests again.
No more am I striking my terrors on the ocean. The forests will be my abode for testing out funky abilities again.
The main reason, of course, was that I wasn't playing with flames anymore so I didn't need to worry about causing a forest fire.
On my finger, a red and blue orb constantly circled. I moved them randomly around, summoning more and more of them as I did so.
It reached a point where I even had 8 blue and red orbs respectively circling around each other.
Then, I combined them.
They all turned purple.
With a smile of satisfaction, I watched as eight tiny purple orbs of imaginary mass float around my finger.
This was a result of my training of Honkai energy back then.
After learning red, purple was merely a matter of time due to how adaptation worked.
It took inspiration from how I think, therefore, the Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue that I obtained was capable of being repurposed into Red and be used for Purple as well.
But in truth, I don't really need to chant in order to use Purple.
There was a tiny boost, due to the chants being a type of mental trigger for me to focus, but it was overall pointless.
I mostly do it so that people who see it will think that I need to chant for the attack. While I do trust Kiana and Bronya, there was that situation with the disorderly space a while ago at ME Corp.
Therefore, I need every advantage I can get in case Kiana actually was similar to Mei- a Herrscher.
The other Mei was already a really hard battle even when we were both playing around. Who knew how strong Kiana would be if she was a Herrscher and she had all the info on me too?
Yeah…
It definitely wasn't because I wanted to aura farm and look cool…
Nope.
I let out a snort of amusement as I let the orbs of purple dissipate.
"I wonder if I can summon purples without having to combine blue and red combine…" I muttered to myself. "That'd be op…"
Imagine just popping purples around someone just like how I could summon Blue…
That'd be pretty OP ngl.
Now onto the next topic.
My fingers curled into position.
"Domain Expansion"
A black canvas came from behind me and formed the inner world of Limitless.
Unlimited Void.
With that, I felt my Honkai energy reserves drop dramatically at once.
I had great control over Honkai energy, but my efficiency in regards to many techniques were not exceptional yet.
This was especially true for my domain. Just using it takes up 30-40% of my reserves instantly here.
And then, to keep up its effects and sure hit ability that I adapted, it burnt through energy at a massive rate.
This would improve with a bit more practice, but for now, I needed to be careful with it.
*Clunk*
Oh, there comes some improvement in efficiency.
Unfortunately, adapting needs energy too so it will take some time to train this.
The barrier of my domain shattered as I let out a deep breath.
"Around 20% left huh?" I sighed to myself. "I guess training today is over then."
Yes. You already know I talk to myself.
Don't call me schizo.
It's just a habit man…
—----------------------------------
Back at home, I stretched my limbs above my head as I let out a yawn.
I need to get some sleep…
Having low energy reserves is not very fun for me.
I could adapt to this issue, but I want to keep at least a decent portion of energy for emergency use cases at any time.
It was slightly paranoid-ish. In this world where I had enemies after me though, I had to keep some cards still available at all times.
As I headed off to my room however, I suddenly heard a soft voice call out to me.
"Gojo has returned from training?"
I recognised it as Bronya in an instant.
"Yup." I said as I turned to face her.
The girl nodded in response. "The Bronya knows that Gojo is tired, but can Gojo come in for a moment?" She opened the door to her room wider.
"What? Do you want to play games?" I deadpanned. "Even if I'm half asleep I'll still beat you, y'know?"
That made her face darken.
"Gojo seems to retain the ability to insult others even when operating under low mental capacity…"
Hmm?
Was she just calling me stupid in a creative way?
Ehh
Whatever.
I entered Bronya's room to see it was already decorated full of Homu products. My face showed signs of exasperation as I sighed. "You sure work quick huh? We arrived like yesterday and you've already done all of this."
"The Bronya likes Homu."
"If we're going to go to that school that Himeko talked about, then wouldn't you have to take all of these down?"
"... The Bronya likes Homu."
The girl had no outward change to her expression as she repeated her words.
I snorted seeing this. "You can be as goofy as Kiana sometimes, Bronya." Before she could respond however, I moved on. "What's up? What do you need me for?"
Bronya shot a glare at me before she went to the computer on the table. She began tapping on the keyboard as she started talking.
"The Bronya wants to talk about what happened to sister Mei that day…"
Hearing that, I frowned slightly.
"About those students right?"
"Correct." A few tabs opened on her monitor. "When Gojo forgot about Idiotka and the Bronya that time-"
"I told you it was an accident!"
"-the Bronya made copies of all the files of the phones of sister Mei's classmates." The tabs loaded as messages popped up. "The Bronya found that they had received substantial funds in order to cause distress."
I squinted, trying to read the messages on the screen. "It's Cocolia again?"
I somewhat expected Bronya to agree with me, but I was a bit surprised when Bronya shook her head.
"The Bronya traced the funds. However, it does not match any of Matushka's known shell accounts."
"She could always make more y'know?" I remarked.
"True. However, according to the information that has been gained from Matushka's abandoned bases…" Bronya's voice became more somber. "Schicksal appears to have been paying attention to Nagazora for a while."
I put a hand on my chin. "So you think that Schicksal wanted Mei to awaken too?"
Bronya spun around with her chair and faced me. Then, she nodded.
My frown became deeper.
There were a few possible theories that this could lead to. But I didn't want to make any conclusions yet.
"The Bronya does not mean to say that it was not Matushka." The gray haired girl suddenly added. "The Bronya merely wishes to inform Gojo of the possibilities…"
Hearing that, I gave a nod of my own.
"Thank you, Bronya. I'll think about it."
I knew getting Schicksal involved would make the waters murky.
How troublesome… seriously…
As I was ready to leave for a good night's sleep however, I felt a soft pull on my sleeve. At this time, Bronya was looking at me with her eyes open brightly.
"Will Gojo give something in return for this information?" She asked, the pitch of her voice going up slightly.
I blinked.
"Something in return? You want me to buy you a new GPU or something? But don't you have your own money for that?"
She shook her head. "The Bronya wishes for Gojo to show some… sincerity."
"... What do you want?"
A smile sneaked on her face.
"Bring the Bronya to watch the new Arahato movie tomorrow. The Bronya deserves some rest after so much hard work."
I raised an eyebrow.
Arahato?
It's a mecha anime.
I've watched some episodes of it before, and I've gotta say, it's pretty good.
"Does Gojo agree?" She asked again. "The Bronya has not been paid for secretary services anyways…"
"Ehh." I shrugged. "Sure. You want to invite Kiana and Mei too?"
"It would not be a reward if others get it too." Bronya argued back.
Well, I can't fight with that logic.
I just ruffled her hair, causing her to protest slightly before I said, "We can go watch tomorrow afternoon then? I'll be magnanimous and say that it'll be my treat!"
Bronya deadpanned.
"Was Gojo thinking about making the Bronya pay?"
"No?"
Seeing the look on my face, Bronya laughed.
"Tomorrow afternoon. Gojo promised,"
"Yeah yeah," I laughed. "I'll go to sleep first. See you tomorrow!"
Leaving the room, I could not help but look back to see Bronya looking at me from the door.
I suppose that I haven't spent much time with her alone much other than to play games.
Tomorrow…
Will be a hangout day with her then.