"Now that I think about it, I don't know where a good inn to eat at is. Toa, what's better: eating at an inn or eating at a tavern?"
Toa was surprised by the sudden question directed at her, but was happy that David had asked something from her.
"Hmm... It depends on what you want. Inns usually have meals cooked with warmth and care while taverns usually have greasy quick food made to supplement adventurers' strong appetites. If you want something that feels like a warm homecooked meal, go for the inn. If you want greasy food in a loud atmosphere, choose the tavern."
"Mm, I see. Thanks, Toa. What are you guys in the mood for? Homecooked meals or greasy tavern food?"
"I'll eat anything you decide, husband~," Mio said with a seductive smile.
"I don't mind either way, I can eat greasy food or the warm and cozy stuff. Up to you, young master," Tomoe replied with a shrug.
⟪ ...Isn't it the guy who's supposed to be indecisive? ⟫
David shook his head and looked toward Toa with a questioning gaze.
"I.. prefer less greasy foods. In the Cradle, Rinon and I usually eat simple meals with the meat and vegetables from Sayo-chan's store."
"Great! In that case, let's find a reputable inn and grab a meal there."
Everyone happily agreed as they started wandering around Tsige, looking for a good place to eat at.
As they were walking, David noticed Toa had slowed down and was spacing out somewhere.
"Toa, you alright?"
Toa snapped out of it and shook her head. "Sorry, I was distracted by something and got lost in my thoughts. I'm good!"
"What got you distracted?"
She jerked her thumb toward an equipment shop and said, "I saw a big sword there and thought about the rumors surrounding Sofia Bulga, the Dragon Slayer."
Tomoe turned her head back and sneered. "Dragon Slayer? Pfft, I'd like to see how she fares against me. She's probably only slayed the weakest of us dragons, nothing to be too proud about."
"You can only say that because you're as strong you are, Tomoe. Even after training with you, I'm still pitifully weak compared to someone like her. I can only hope to be as strong as her one day."
"Keep talking like that and I'll gladly help you train again, but I'll increase the intensity next time, heheh~."
Toa shuddered, but didn't reject the sarcastic offer.
David didn't interrupt Toa and Tomoe's conversation and just continued walking, enjoying how close Toa and Tomoe seemed.
⟪ Toa should know she'll be much stronger in the future, right? Though, I must say, it's a nice goal to want to be as strong as Sofia Bulga. Well, at least from the people of this world's perspective. Speaking of Sofia, I wonder how she's doing right now... Even though she was a villain in the franchise at first, I never disliked her. She was treated shitty growing up, was used like a tool by Root, despised by the goddess because of her appearance and being a half-dragon, and her childhood friend called her a monster. ⟫
⟪ Honestly, if I meet Sofia while I'm here, I'll probably try and take her with me. She reminds me too much of myself in my past life as far as her childhood goes. She's another character that I definitely wanted to save... Wait, another? ⟫
As David was casually thinking to himself like usual, he started feeling as if an ice pick was being stabbed into his brain.
[Dammit, you left an exploit in the seal, Kurumi!]
David could hear Chaos-chan's voice, but he wasn't able to comprehend what she was complaining about whatsoever.
His body started heating up to a high temperature and his vision started to darken. After staggering a few steps, he let out a pained exclamation and lost consciousness, falling forward in the middle of the street.
"Young master/Husband/David/David-sama!"
Tomoe, Mio, and Toa had noticed something weird was happening to David, but it wasn't until he fell unconscious that they shouted and reached out to him, catching him before his face could hit the ground.
Unsure of what was going on, Tomoe quickly went into an empty side alley and created a Mist Gate before pulling David through, followed by Mio and Toa.
The two blonde girls that were following behind David and his group, Sif and Yuno, had also called out to David when he fell, but they were too far away to do anything. Seeing the current situation, Yuno quickly pulled Sif with her as they jumped through the Mist Gate right before it closed, hoping to see David on the other side.
...
[Seal Unlocked - Releasing 'Memory Fragment - 1']
David found himself standing in a space both beyond and between realities.
Light and shadow blended together around him, universes dotted the area like simple stars in the sky, and every breath he took seemed to hold the power to erase entire galaxies.
In front of him floated a massive rectangular window, a rift in existence that displayed something unknown for all to see.
To his right sat a shadowy figure, obscured beyond recognition.
Not sensing any hostility from the figure, or rather, the figure didn't even seem to notice him, David took a seat next to them.
{ Huh... They smell like sweet red wine, rose petals, and gunpowder smoke... Smells like a romantic date if you ask me... }
After shamelessly analyzing the scent of the figure next to him, David leaned back on his hands and stared at the rift in front of them.
{ So... Is a movie going to start soon or what? }
He was trying to see if the shadowy figure would respond to him after his arrival, but they just sat there, staring intensely at the rift.
Suddenly, the shadowy figure shot up, appeared instantly in front of the rift, screamed their lungs out, and punched the rift repeatedly.
Surprisingly, David didn't feel worried whatsoever. He was just watching and waiting.
It didn't take long for the shadowy figure to slump to the ground and bang their hands helplessly against the ground as they cried.
For some reason, not only was the appearance of the shadowy figure obscured, but the voice was as well, coming through in such a neutral tone that one couldn't tell if it were male or female.
After an unknown amount of time, the shadowy figure stopped crying and dragged their body back to their original position next to David.
David tried to reach out and pat their shoulder, but his hand passed right through them, causing David to feel like he just put his hand in warm jelly that grew mouths and wanted to nibble on his hand.
After pulling his hand back, the rift changed from black to white, then gradually started showing a video--or rather, a memory.
The first thing that was visible was a small and dark room. Clothes were strewn all over the floor and stacks of cup noodles had formed walls around a computer desk.
The desk had four computer monitors in a 2x2 setup with a large computer off to the side, providing faint colorful lights to the rest of the dark room.
In a fancy gaming chair sat a chubby 25-year-old man with a bald head and a severe burn scar on his right arm.
The computer monitors had various windows pulled up.
On the top left, there was a website to watch anime.
On the top right, there was a website to read manga.
On the bottom left, there was a browser with multiple tabs of various wikis for different anime and game franchises.
And on the bottom right, there was a note-taking application.
In the note-taking application, it read, "Saving Kurumi - Plot Ideas".
The man was spinning slowly in his chair, looking down and muttering to himself.
"What should I do from here... I brought Kurumi to a new world and made it so that she wouldn't have to kill her best friend, that should be a fine starting point... I can tweak it a bit to where she and Sawa both have their Spirit powers, but they'll have full control over them already and there won't be any Spacequakes... She's already going to have a bunch of friends from other franchises, but should I give her a boyfriend? No, no... I just want her to have a peaceful life without drama."
The man stood up from his chair and turned around, heading for the bedroom door.
David, remembering the room perfectly, was hoping the man wasn't who he thought he was, but he was left disappointed when he saw the slightly disfigured face that resembled himself.
{ No way... I don't remember any of that... Is 'Saving Kurumi' the novel Chaos-chan said I wrote? }
The view in the rift zoomed out, showing Past David leaving the room and heading to the kitchen.
"Why do authors like to write tragic stories and/or backstories for characters? Some of us really like the characters and don't want to see them suffer, okay...?"
Past David went to the corner of his apartment's dining room and picked up a unopened cup of noodles from the massive pallet he had ordered.
"Kurumi Tokisaki from Date a Live, Sofia Bulga from Tsukimichi, Es#%!@h from A%!#$ ga %i!@!, Sh!%o from D#!d&@# W@#%@r!a#d and so many more!"
David was confused as he only heard static from his past self's mouth when he was mentioning other characters, but the shadowy figure next to him clenched their fists tighter with each name spoken, even leaning forward like a kid enthralled in a new movie.
Past David opened the cup noodle, poured water in it, tossed some cubed cheese in, and set it in the microwave for three minutes.
He grabbed a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his counter and walked out to his balcony, leaning over the railing and lighting a cigarette.
"Fuck it, I'll figure it out as it happens. Kurumi at least needs to become overpowered fast so that she can save others and let them live a happy life as well. I'll make her super strong, super rich, and she'll have a ton of friends. They'll enjoy casual banter and explore dungeons together. I'll give her a system, too... Hmm... The Chaotic Goddess' Happiness System. She'll get rewarded every time she's even remotely happy."
David was not happy to hear what his past self had said.
{ That system name... Sounds so stupid...}
Past David's upstairs neighbor dumped a tub of foot water over the balcony, causing David to be drenched and effectively wasting his cigarette.
"...Yeah, figures."
David's lip twitched when he saw that.
{ That cranky old bitch definitely did that on purpose, she did it all the damn time... Should've set the apartment on fire, too. Let her burn just like the others, tsk... }
David subconsciously scratched his right arm, a habit he hadn't done since he got reincarnated.
Past David went back inside his apartment, washed the foot water off, dried himself with a dirty towel, and then went to get his cup noodle from the microwave.
"Haaa, that settles it. I'll give these characters the best damn life they'd ever have, whether it makes logical sense or not. I don't give a flying fuck, I just want them to be happy..."
{ ... }
Seeing the memory up to this point, David started to clearly remember everything that happened from his divorce to the start of writing his web novel.
{ 'Saving Kurumi'... Date a Live... I don't know what the Date a Live franchise is or who Kurumi Tokisaki is, but I'll have to find out. Based on memory alone, I seemed to really like that character. Ugh, people beat me down so much that I ended up falling in love with fictional characters... I don't know whether to laugh or cry... }
David wanted to continue watching the memory, but he suddenly started to feel his consciousness fade again.
As he cast one last glance around the boundary between realities, he saw the shadowy figure's face had cleared up slightly, revealing a tear-stained left eye that was golden in color with what looked like a clock face inside it.
{ Whoa... That's a pretty eye... }
...
David slowly opened his eyes and felt a splitting a headache. He immediately noticed that the mana inside his body seemed to have grown more potent and his body itself seemed to have gotten stronger as well.
When he vision cleared, he saw an adorable face staring straight at him with unblinking and teary eyes.
"Papa~!" Komoe shouted, wanting to launch herself forward and hug David, but afraid of hurting him.
David subconsciously reached up to pat Komoe on the head. "Not so loud, Komoe-chan..."
She smacked both hands over her mouth in an exaggerated attempt to shut her mouth.
David just chuckled and ruffled her hair before sitting up.
'Seriously, she's just like a little kid now. It's so weird...'
Looking around, he saw that he was in an unfamiliar building that looked like a small village clinic.
A purple-haired woman with yellow eyes and two bows tied to the hair at the sides of her face walked up to David, holding a bowl of ice water and some towels.
"Good morning, young master. How are you feeling?"
"Got a killer headache, but seeing Komoe so energetic right when I wake up is quite healing," David said as he pulled Komoe into his lap and hugged her.
"I don't mean to be rude, but who are you and where am I?"
"My name is Haruna. I'm one of the Alkes serving Mio-sama," Haruna said with a polite bow.
"Whoa, you've really nailed your human transformation. You look gorgeous! And your speech is flawless!"
Haruna blushed and bowed her head again, "Your praises are wasted on me, young master, but thank you. As for where you are, this is the clinic that I run. When you were brought in, I had to constantly apply cold towels to your forehead as your body heated up quite a bit."
⟪ Wow, I didn't know we had a clinic... Makes sense though. Also, why is Komoe the only one here? Where the hell did everyone else go? We were about to eat some warm and cozy inn food, dammit! ⟫
Before David could ask aloud where Tomoe, Mio, and Toa were, loud rumbling could be heard coming from outside, sounding like a stampede of bulls.
The door to the clinic slammed open before Tomoe, Mio, Toa, Yuno, and Sif appeared.
⟪ ...Why the hell are Tomoe and Mio so beat up? ⟫
Tomoe and Mio glared at each other out of the corner of their eyes before approaching the bed David was lying on.
"Husband, are you okay?" Mio asked, reaching out and holding David's hand that wasn't hugging Komoe.
David nodded, "Mm, I had a headache when I woke up, but it's going away. My body feels a little sore and I can feel that my mana is more potent, but other than that, I think I'm fine."
The girls breathed a sigh of relief, but before they could feel too relieved, David rested his chin on top of Komoe's head and narrowed his eyes and Tomoe and Mio.
"Now, tell me what happened to you two and why Sif and Yuno are in the Cradle."
The two women looked down guiltily, likely unsure of what to say.
Or at least, that's what David thought.
『 Tomoe (Feudal Fangirl): Should we say we were worried about him or tell him the truth? 』
『 Mio (Hungry Masochist): I don't care what Chaos had to say, I was always worried about my husband. 』
『 Tomoe (Feudal Fangirl): I was worried about him, too! I just stopped being as worried once Chaos-dono explained what was going on. 』
『 Mio (Hungry Masochist): Hmph, sure you were... Let's just tell him the truth, but leave out the parts with Chaos. 』
『 Tomoe (Feudal Fangirl): Fine. 』
Tomoe and Mio looked up at the same time before Tomoe took the lead to explain what happened, minus a few details.
As for what really happened, well...
"Young master/Husband/David/David-sama!"
After David lost consciousness in the middle of the street, Tomoe pulled him into an alley and through a Mist Gate, followed by Mio, Toa, and finally, the Rembrandt sisters, Sif and Yuno.
Once they were back in the Cradle, Tomoe gently laid David down on the ground and tried to shake him awake.
"Young master! Wake up!"
Seeing that simply shaking and shouting wasn't helping, Mio quickly crouched down and began using healing magic on David.
Unfortunately, that was met with failure as well.
David's skin started getting red and he began sweating profusely with a pained expression on his face.
Everyone was panicking, unsure of what to do.
[Girls, calm down and take a breather. David is fine, he's just in the process of viewing a memory and unlocking a power.]
Mio's expression turned ugly and she clenched her fists.
"He's fine? What part of him looks fine?!"
[His body is heating up because his mana is circulating at an incredibly fast speed as it grows stronger. The elemental makeup of his body is different from anybody else's and he's just unlocking a power that's innate to his species.]
This time, Tomoe spoke up, confusion written all over her face.
"Eh? What do you mean 'his species'? Isn't the young master a hyuman?"
[No. First of all, what you call 'hyuman' is just this world's version of David's world's humans. But that's not important. Whether it's a 'hyuman' or a human, David isn't either of them. Well, not technically. If his species had to have a name, it would be a 'Chaos Human'.]
Tomoe and Mio looked at each other with question marks above their heads.
[Haaa...]
Chaos-chan spent a few paragraphs explaining about the true building blocks of the universe before they finally understood.
"So, the young master is created from Chaos?"
[Yes. He was created to be the most perfect man in all of existence, therefore, we can consider him to be a new race, a Chaos Human. He doesn't really need to know about any of this right now so I'll be censoring you five in regards to mentioning Chaos or Chaos Humans.]
"Eh? Us five?"
Tomoe and Mio looked around and only now noticed Toa, Yuno, and Sif standing there, looking at them strangely.
Toa, seeing the attention on her and not realizing Yuno and Sif were behind her, said, "Um... Who are you two talking to?"
The two exchanged glances once more before turning to Toa and simultaneously saying, "Nobody!"
Mio came back to her senses and while she was still worried about David, she was now more concerned about the two thieving cats that entered upon David's holy land uninvited.
Before Yuno and Sif could even react, Mio had created her black spider silk and shot it out, wrapping around the two sisters and making them immobile.
"Mio, what do you think you're doing?" Tomoe asked in a serious tone.
"What am I doing? Why not ask them what they're doing? They snuck in here while we were worried about our husband! What if they wanted to do something bad to him?"
"...You saw the way they looked at the young master. They would obviously never try to harm him. Besides, it was my fault they snuck in anyway; I left the Mist Gate open for too long which allowed them entry."
"Hmph, open up a new Gate so I can throw these thieving--I mean, these dangerous girls out!"
Tomoe tilted her head and put her hands in her sleeves. "Hoh? Is our Mio jealous?"
"No, I just want to protect our husband!"
"Huhuhu~, that sounds like a fib to me. Come on~, admit you're jealous and then I'll think about opening up a Mist Gate for them."
Mio gnashed her teeth and took out her fan.
"Open the Gate, dragon. They shouldn't be here and that's a fact."
Tomoe placed her hand on the hilt of her katana and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm certain the young master wouldn't mind. To tell the truth, I noticed them following us and all I saw was pure admiration and gratitude in them. They held no ill intent whatsoever and while I admit that I didn't expect them to enter the Cradle, I'm not against their presence here."
Mio opened up her fan and held it out to her side.
"Weren't you also jealous of how close they were just a little while ago?"
Tomoe unsheathed her katana and held it out at the ready.
"I was, but that was then and this is now."
"Tch..."
Mio clicked her tongue and after a few seconds of them staring each other down, they dashed forward, swinging their weapons at each other.
There were no spells or special moves, just pure physical combat.
Sparks were flying as the near-indestructible katana met with the near-indestructible fan.
Both women were getting too into the battle, forgetting where they were and what they were doing.
Unfortunately, Tomoe wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and after a few more exchanges, she wanted to do something cool and kicked her leg out, but she ended up hitting David in the head as if it were a soccer ball.
Hearing the heavy impact, everyone was stunned before Toa rushed over to David to check his head.
The good news was that he has an incredibly sturdy body so there were no injuries.
The bad news was that he would have a splitting headache when he woke up...
Toa looked up and raised her voice, switching to her leader mode.
"Both of you, what the hell?! Jealous or not, you can't just fight like that around people, especially not around your unconscious husband! If you want to spar, go out into the damn mountains!"
Frustrated with the attitudes of these two women who are so old they can't even remember their ages, Toa picked up David and stomped off to Haruna's clinic.
Mio reluctantly released the bindings on the sisters and turned to leave, followed by Tomoe, Sif, and Yuno, all with their heads down.
Yuno and Sif had their heads down because they were afraid of making David mad by intruding in his territory while Tomoe was afraid of having hurt David during the little scuffle.
When everyone arrived at Haruna's clinic, Toa had already laid David down in a bed and told Haruna to grab cold water and a towel, offering to wipe down David's body and keep his body cool.
Tomoe and Mio immediately refused and started yet another argument.
While Tomoe, Mio, and Toa were arguing, Haruna came back and ignored them, opting to do her best in treating David.
As the argument got more heated, all five of the women left the clinic and went outside to an area away from the clinic to have another fight.
Tomoe and Mio fought while Toa stood next to Sif and Yuno in awkward silence.
Then, they heard David's inner voice and rushed over, but Mio ended up telling David that because she loves him so much, it was easy for her to find out when he woke up and so she rushed over.
...
"I see... So basically, while I was passed out, you decided to fight near me, kick me in the head, drop me off at the clinic, and then go back to fighting. That sound about right?" David asked as he rubbed Komoe's head.
Tomoe and Mio looked up, they looked down, they looked pretty much anywhere except directly at David.
"Mhm, thought so... Toa, thanks for at least bringing me here," he said with a gentle smile, causing Toa's heart to flutter.
David then looked over at Sif and Yuno who were pretending to be invisible in the corner of the room.
"Sif, Yuno, I'm not upset to see you two, but why are you here? I healed you and that was that, you're probably going to give Patrick a heart attack the longer you stay out."
Yuno stepped forward and tried to use a decisive attitude.
"We're adults now, we can do whatever we want! We decided we wanted to follow you, so that's what we did!"
David looked at her with a raised eyebrow and barely concealed smirk.
⟪ ...Ya hear that? "We're adults now, we can do whatever we want!" is proof that either these girls have yet to experience being adults or they've just grown up in a greenhouse. ⟫
Yuno frowned and wanted to say something, but Sif stepped forward and said, "My sister and I owe you a debt that isn't easy to repay. Please let us follow you. We can learn to cook or clean if you need maids, but I insist you let us follow you."
⟪ Aish... I don't like saying no to beautiful girls, but I did my best to heal them and leave as fast as possible. Granted, I may have been a little charming when I healed them, but that was just to calm Sif down. Yuno was just being a gremlin so it was fun to tease her, but still...! ⟫
"You two seem like very sweet girls and that's wonderful, but I'm not someone you'd want to follow. I won't be staying around here for much longer and I have things I need to do soon."
Yuno didn't give up and said, "I won't even be your maid, I'll just be a servant!"
⟪ Okay, that's not the problem here... ⟫
David sighed and shook his head, "Look, you girls have to think about it from your parents' perspective. Your father thought he would lose the two of you and as soon as you get cured, you run away from home and follow a strange man that, might I add, straight up threatened to kill him and wipe out the town if he didn't let me cure you all."
[Sif & Yuno] 'He did that for us?!'
The sisters' expressions became more fanatic, essentially the opposite of what David wanted to see.
⟪ ...Am I the asshole for looking out for Patrick and Lisa? I'm not, right? ⟫
Tomoe, seeing that this conversation wasn't going anywhere, just said, "Young master, why not take them along and create a Dimensional Gate to their mansion? I was looking around the tower and saw that you can use one door for multiple locations in a single world, you just have to adjust the handle and grant access. This way, they can come with us and they'll be able to return home whenever they want."
David slowly turned his head and looked at Tomoe flatly.
⟪ Tomoe, baby, my honey... You do realize that the way they're looking at me is as if they've found their first love, right...? Ugh, it was already fast enough getting with Marin, Tomoe, and Mio, but I refuse to do the same with Sif and Yuno. That would just make me look like a guy that falls in love way too easily, right? Right, and I'm not that easy of a man... ⟫
He looked over at Sif and Yuno.
Seeing their unchanging, borderline-obsessed expressions, David could only sigh and hope they snapped out of it sooner rather than later.
"Fine, but tell your parents before leaving. We'll stay in Tsige until you're done, then you girls can come back into the Cradle and become maids in my mansion."
The sisters jumped for joy, excitement written all over their faces as Sif said, "Thank you, David-sama! As soon as we leave, we'll go straight home and tell our parents!"
David just nodded and waved them off, feeling his headache coming back, but before he could even catch a breather, his system went off.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the first seal! Your body has adapted to the four basic elements!]
[Congratulations! You now have an Elementary understanding and control of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air!]
'...'
⟪ I seriously can't catch a break today... What am I, the fucking Avatar? ⟫