Morning came earlier than usual for Kenji.
The first rays of dawn filtered through the curtains, brushing against his face and stirring him awake. Beside him, Anastasia still slept, curled under the blanket with a soft smile that hadn't left her since yesterday when she started asking ridiculous questions.
After the shock and emotional exhaustion of the previous night's earth-shattering revelations and the unsettling encounter with Azazel, he was going to allow her a full, uninterrupted rest. Quietly, Kenji got up, stretched, and began his meticulous morning routine.
He spent twenty minutes running through his usual workout designed to push his body to its limit. As he worked, he used his stat shift to adjust his stats low enough to gain improvement but not too low that he wouldn't complete his workout, deliberately creating minor deficiencies in one area while pushing another to gain the maximum possible benefit from the physical stress.
This really was the best ability he could have created. Did he ever mention that. After about an hour or so, he returned home. A cold shower later, he was in the kitchen. The rhythmic clatter of utensils filled the air as he prepared a hearty breakfast, eggs, toast, sausages, and pancakes. Before long, the familiar noise of sleepy, shuffling feet filled the house.
"Morning, Dad," Ayaka yawned, leaning against the doorframe, her hair a mess of dark, sleep-tousled waves.
"Morning, princess," he greeted, sliding her plate in front of her. Aoi followed right after, dragging a protesting Ren by the hand. Kenji chuckled, savoring these precious moments of family life.
Once breakfast ended and the kids were ready to leave for school, Kenji stopped Ayaka at the door.
"Are you alright, Ayaka?" he asked quietly, his eyes focused on her. "You've seemed a bit off since yesterday."
She blinked, momentarily caught off guard. He was worried, seeing the internal struggle she was trying to hide. He knew it wasn't anything physical. Observation confirmed she was fine physically, but something was clearly tormenting her, and he wanted to know what it was. His little girl has been in a daze since yesterday, and he wanted to help.
She looked like she wanted to spill everything, but then the habit of self-reliance took over. She seemed to force a smile. "I'm fine, Dad. Just… school stuff. You know, Midterms and all that."
He looked at her, his expression softening as he sighed. He reached out and ruffled her hair gently, ignoring her immediate protest. She'd tell him if it was really serious, he'd want to believe that at least.
"Dad! Stop that! I'm not a little kid… do you know how long it took to get this to look this great?" she complained, swiping at his hand.
"I'm just a little worried, that's all. But if you say you're fine, then I'll accept that for now," he told her, letting his hand drop. "But just promise me that if it's something serious, something you can't handle alone, you'd tell me or your mother. It's our job to worry about these things, you know."
Her scowl softened into a genuinely warm smile, and she nodded.
"Good. Now off you go."
"See you later, Dad!" she said, rushing out the door.
He stood there for a moment longer, looking around the now-empty, quiet house. He wasn't in the mood to go out and face the world right now, so he decided to help around. He cleaned the kitchen, then moved through the house, leaving every surface spotless.
Afterward, he retreated to his workshop under the house. It really wasn't hard to put there, the game did everything, checking on the golem faction he had built beneath the house.
The factory was working well, making golems and building an army of a sort, though unlike Han Jihan, Kenji didn't have the luxury of infinite resource generation that were the curse things or whatever they were that used to spawn in the world that Jihan use to clean up and use to turn into golems, that didn't mean he completely lacked materials.
Besides, he was steadily getting better raw materials from the ID, and the higher his ID level, the better the loot, and he went and picked up things when he was in other worlds, too.
Afterward, He organized his inventory, leveled up a few of his spirits and combined golems to level them up, and even took a trip to the Pokémon World for a few hours of fun catching new Pokémon.
Hehehe, his collection was growing.
Finally, he settled down in the living room to work on his Enchantment skill.
It was as he was concentrating on a pair of new leather gloves that Anastasia came down, having finally woken up. She seemed to realize Kenji was trying to focus, so she didn't bother him.
Instead, she went to the kitchen, got herself something to eat, and then came back with coffee, and she sat down and watched the mesmerizing process.
His hands glowed, tracing the fabric as what she could only assume were letters in another language appeared on the gloves.
The gloves flared, purple light moving across them and then glowing brighter, before slowly dying down, leaving them perfectly mundane to the casual eye.
He sighed, picking up the gloves to examine the final result. "+5 Agility, +8 Strength," he muttered, satisfied.
She approached, handing him a cup of coffee. "So this is what you do when we leave the house," she said, her voice soft with awe.
He chuckled, taking a sip. "Not always. I normally spend the day training, but sometimes, yes. Enchantment is a really useful skill to have, and I want to get better at it."
"Enchantment?" she asked.
"It's the ability to imbue or alter effects onto objects or even people," he explained. "Like giving a weapon the trait of indestructibility or increased sharpness, or increasing agility and strength. Some can even embed debuffs."
She nodded. "Like in the Nobles of the Bands, with the Band of One."
He grimaced internally. The fact that this entire world was obsessed with a perverted, poorly written knock-off of Lord of the Rings was a constant source of annoyance. This world truly is an ecchi anime down to its core. "Yes, something like that," he confirmed flatly.
"So what did you do with the gloves?" she asked, looking at the innocent leather lying there.
"They enhance agility and strength," he said, giving them to her. "Try them on."
She quickly set down her coffee cup and grabbed the gloves like an excited kid, pulling them on. She opened and closed her fists. "I don't feel any different."
He chuckled, then summoned a large, dense block of black metal from his inventory. This wasn't ordinary iron, it was called Gothic Steel, or at least what he called it. It didn't really have a name for some reason when he found it. A metal effective against creatures of the night, often used to make holy weapons, that's what observation told him, he got it in his vampire ID.
He set the intimidating block in front of her.
" This is three times stronger than iron, Punch it," he said, nodding for reassurance. "Trust me."
She took a deep breath, drew back her fist, and swung.
CRACK!
The heavy block of Gothic Steel folded in on itself and then snapped cleanly in two. She stumbled back, staring at her hands where the gloves rested.
"I—I didn't even feel a thing!" she gasped, marveling at the sheer, impossible force she had just generated. The realization that she, a regular human, could break a metal three times stronger than iron with a casual punch was dizzying.
Kenji held up the two jagged pieces. "Three times stronger than iron, and it shattered like a biscuit. That's the power of Enchantment."
"It's good, right? Though it's not yet up to the level I want, so I'll have to scrap it and start again," he said, stretching out his hands to collect them.
She pulled back instantly, clutching the gloves protectively, her eyes widening with a pleading look that was about to transition into tears. "Can I keep them?" she pleaded.
He blinked. "What?"
"Well, you said it was not up to standard and you want to scrap it, right? So let me keep it," she reasoned, holding them like a priceless treasure.
He looked at her before sighing and smiling. He knew she wouldn't part with them. And why would she if he just discovered magic and someone gave him this, they sure as hell aren't getting it back. "Fine, fine. You can keep them."
"So, any plans today?" she asked, her excitement renewed.
He looked at her, tilting his head. "Don't you have to get to work?"
She snorted. "Really? I just found out my husband is a superwizard who deals with things like angels, fallen angels, and devils, and you think I'm going to spend my day in a meeting?" She raised an eyebrow, a challenge in her eyes.
He smiled. "Well, I was thinking of heading to Kyoto to get some things for my work and some new materials. Wanna come?"
Her eyes lit up. "Yes!"
"Alright, go get ready."
Fifteen minutes later, Anastasia came down dressed neatly, the excitement bubbling off her like champagne.
"Ready?"
"Yeah," she said, and then watched in utter fascination as Kenji pulled out a small, folded slip of paper with an honest to goodness magic circle on it.
"What's that?"
"A teleportation circle," he replied casually, placing his hand over it. The paper flared with a brilliant, golden light, and a circle appeared below them filled with symbols.
He had gotten this a while back after his third time in kyoto, he asked for a book to help learn to teleport but surprisonly teleportation was actually not a common skill to have that and flying, and not ever one could actually do it so they didnt have a book he could learn from but they had a few one time flyers he could but for use, he bought quiet a bit.
As for flying well, Kenji could actually fly already by manipulating gravity, the reason why he didn't use it was simple.....it didn't matter...yes, yes, that was the reason, it had nothing to do with being afraid of heights.
...
....
...
Okay, fine, he didn't like flying because he was afraid, but that was a normal fear. Sure, sure, he was now powerful, but even powerful people still felt fear, and that wasn't just going to change with the snap of a finger.
He sighed and focused back on the circle.
And in an instant, the world shifted violently.
The familiar sight of their home was replaced by an alleyway. They stood in a narrow, stone-paved alleyway within Kyoto's district.
"We… we teleported," Anastasia whispered, staring wide-eyed at the sudden transition. The feeling was a little disorienting yet thrilling.
Kenji chuckled at her awe and took her hand. "Come on."
They stepped onto the main street, which looked like a normal Japanese market, but with a subtle difference from the last time Anastasia was in Kyoto, a four-armed vendor selling shimmering scales, a giant cyclops casually browsing potted plants, and other yokai all going about their business.
They headed toward a familiar shop for Kenji. The chime of the doorbell announced their entrance, and the shopkeeper's eyes immediately lit up.
"Sir Kenji!" Haruna, the four-tailed kitsune, former three tailed, beamed and hurried from behind the counter. "It's wonderful to see you again!" to her, Kenji was a merchant of unmatched quality.
"Hello, Haruna," Kenji greeted warmly. "This is my wife, Anastasia."
Anastasia offered a polite nod, though her gaze couldn't help but flick toward the kitsune's four magnificent, shimmering tails, swaying gracefully. "Four tails," Kenji noted, smiling. "Congratulations. You only had three last time I was here."
"Thank you! It's all thanks to you, Sir Kenji. Those mana stones of yours are truly invaluable." Her eyes sparkled with blatant hope and a touch of professional greed. "You wouldn't happen to have more already for trade, would you?"
Kenji chuckled. He waved his hand, and two large, plain wooden boxes materialized in mid-air, dropping gently onto the counter with a muffled thump. Haruna nearly squealed before catching herself and coughing politely, her tails swinging excitedly. "May I?"
He gestured for her to go ahead. Even Anastasia couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the fox woman's barely restrained excitement.
When Haruna opened the boxes, her face glowed, matching the intense, ethereal light of the contents. The boxes were filled with golf ball-sized, blue glowing stones, pure, concentrated mana. "Incredible," she breathed. She quickly closed them reverently and turned to Kenji. "Same price as before, Sir Kenji? I'll gladly pay it."
He nodded. "Deal."
The rest of the transaction was smooth. They chatted a bit, settling the final price for the additional materials Kenji wanted. Anastasia wandered off, drawn to the displays around the shop, eventually returning with a few small items that Kenji purchased for her without question, a few books about the supernatural, a few magic books, and so, it seemed she wanted to try her hand at magic. Well, she deserved some souvenirs from her first trip to the magic world.
Just as they finished and turned to leave, the door chimed again.
Both Kenji and Anastasia turned and froze.
A woman entered, and the entire shop seemed to fall silent. Golden hair cascaded down her back like liquid sunlight. Her eyes, gleaming molten gold, held a gaze that was serene. Nine magnificent, impossibly large tails, like rivers of shimmering golden fire, swayed behind her with a breathtaking, hypnotic grace.
The air in the small shop shifted. She was strong.
Kenji didn't need to check to know who this was.
"Damn," he and Anastasia muttered under their breath as they both stared at the woman, or rather, the weapons she was carrying.
Anastasia, beside him, whispered, her voice laced with awe and disbelief, "Those can't be real…"
He would have wholeheartedly agreed if he didn't know they were indeed real.
Yasaka, the revered ruler of Kyoto's Yokai, smiled faintly as her gaze found them, instantly cutting through the noise and the busy atmosphere of the shop.
"Ah," she said warmly, her voice smooth like velvet, "so you're the human who's been causing quite the stir in my city."
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