Chapter 79 –

It's no different from tens of other homes in the acrology. Pristine white, squeaky clean, and standing tall like any other building in the Middle Layer.

I wait a moment as Letty, with her arms still wrapped around my waist, dismounts the bike, and I do the same a moment later. We exchange a smile when we lock our hands. I take a moment to step away from the vehicle and look down into the massive drop under the lane suspended in the air, but go back a moment later and lean on the bike, looking at the house.

Almost twenty years. I've lived almost twenty years of my life there.

And I don't even know what I should feel now, seeing this place.

Feeling a touch to my cheek, I glance at my girlfriend staring at my face with a concerned expression.

"I'm alright..." I mutter, feeling the corners of my lips rise, and sigh. It wavers by the end, and I lean at Letty's shoulder. "Just... I don't know. What I expected."

It's so normal. There's nothing here. No reason to be here.

Why did I want to come here?

It's the past long gone, that I would not be able to return to even if I wanted. I have lived through it, experienced it, and that is enough for me to understand I wish to be somewhere else.

What do I want from this place? An explanation? Peace of mind? A finality?

A new beginning?

I've already begun anew with Letty. Left Gaia, met her parents, confirmed our relationship time and time again.

...Or have I?

What about father, who I haven't made things clear with, about Catherine, who still has no idea what is happening to the world, what about Derrie, who I've only given the most basic information that did not make anything clear?

What about me, who still has no idea who she would become in the future?

What about Letty, who... I don't know. And that... that is the issue. Something's lacking there.

It feels as if... we were together just for the sake of it. What reason do we have to stay together?

Because in the end, what does a sudden infatuation mean, even if it is followed by action? What does it matter, when... it is all it is, shallow, momentary, resemblant of a true feeling, and yet it lacks... purpose? That's not it either.

But what is a feeling, when I'm the only one who knows of it? Not said, not expressed, merely a fleeting rush that might or might not pass once I look away.

There is that longing for something... more. Greater. Stronger. Longer, eternal perhaps.

And I know... It is the fifth axis that my mom talked about.

"I think I'd like to redo everything, Letty." I say, turning to her, and her eyes widen when she sees my smile. I shake my head with a giggle, the blonde strands of hair dancing to the rhytm, and whip up a letter from my imagination, then write on it quickly.

The world will be changing, father. If you can, play VOW with a randomized character. I'll contact you later.

Lengthened up into a proper letter, and done. A gust of wind from my hand sends the small sheet of paper over the street and into the house straight through the closed door, then carries it to his room and leaves it askew on the edge of a table.

The security, of course, detects nothing.

I turn around, to Letty, with a smile. "Would you mind checking what's on the news recently?"

...

"Two colonies have gone missing." Is my girlfriend's verdict once she reads through a file that Vela apparently filtered for her. "People are starting to seriously question VOW's randomized characters as well. More and more are getting dysphoria, and quite a lot of it is gender-related, but still a large minority. Hard to say if that's good or bad. The general opinion is that it's because of the realism, but there's a surprising amount of people who believe there's something more to it."

"Mhm." I nod, tilting the bike to a lane leading to lower levels. This is mostly the same as before, and what I expected. "The missing colonies are probably because of the Voidlings, huh?"

"Probably. Or something similar. There's no information about it though. People are curious and want to know, but there's either no footage or it's being completely suppressed."

"I'd bet on both." I shrug when Letty quirks an eyebrow at me. "I mean that they've no footage, and they're trying to cover up they have no idea what's going on."

"Oh, yeah, that's an option as well." She nods with a smile. "Are we going to do anything about it?"

I stay silent for a long while, because... hm. "Could we finish the news?" I tilt my head, glancing back at her, and offhandedly push away a strand of hair that whipped her face. The bike is obviously safe, what with how I can sense every single lane, vehicle, and danger in the vicinity. "There's something I'm curious about."

"Mmm, sure. So, um, next... mmm." She frowns, glancing up at me.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I think that's it from the important things. From this side."

"Huh." I guess I expected something to happen, now that we're here. It's not a cliche manga though. "What about VOW?"

"There's a few things. Eli made a... flashy appearance." I smile at the way her face scrunches up. Not in distaste though, more like exasperation. "She, uh, she apparently killed a High Inquisitor."

I blink, and I fully turn back to Letty, relying only on my supernatural senses to navigate the bike. "A High Inquisitor?" She nods, and I rub my face. "I told her to watch out for humans... Was it Xavier?"

"No, it's... actually, I'm not sure. There's no official statement yet, and the few testimonies are inconsistent. But she was attacked in Riverside, apparently without provocation."

"Mmm, well, okay. She's alive, I take it?" My girlfriend nods, and chuckle in response. It's not like I was worried, cause she's kinda above the level of that island, but... yeah.

"She transformed into a fire giant." Letty states flatly after staring at me for a long while.

...Um. Ah, yeah, there was that. "Yeah. One of her abilites. Don't you think it's cool when a little girl gets so large?"

"...Is that what she's to you?" She asks in a peculiar tone and I think for a moment.

"I guess?" I smirk. "She's like a kid to me."

Letty doesn't answer for a long while and I glance at her. She's blushing hard, and covering her face with her hand. Eheh.

"Do I want to know?" I grin.

"Not yet." She shakes her head, visibly fighting a massive smile worming its way onto her face. "Um, speaking about appearances, you're apparently the Demon Queen. And I'm... various people." She cringes. "Most aren't exactly flattering, but, um. Yeah."

I grin at that with a giggle. "Yeah. I was waiting for that. What do you think?"

"You mean about... our image?" I nod my head. "Well, it's kinda nice? We could probably use it to our advantage. But, well." She shrugs. "It is?"

"It is." I nod again. "Say, then, what would that queen do with the Voidlings invading her realm?"

Letty looks at me at that in silence, and I tilt my head with a smirk as she brightens up in that same way she does when she gets an amazing idea. Then a massive smile splits her face, and she nods her head vigorously.

With that confirmation, I push my mind. Just a little bit. And I see them, sneaking and flowing through the void, seeking to devour.

I shake my head, pulling back to the present, and slow down the bike. "Later then. They won't cause any more damage than they already have, not within days."

"Okay... what's here?" Letty nods her head and asks as I turn left to a car park - a hell of an outdated name, honestly - and pull to a stop next to an absolutely massive block of a building that's got about fifty thousand meters of surface area despite having over a hundred floors.

Or, well, that's what I see, but not what I see, as what's in front of us is a poorly lit, tiny shack built out of metal sheets of at least five different colors and textures, decorated by a number of strikingly blue potted plants and a large sign with a name.

"It's Dave's. After the visit on Tau Ceti f, I thought and figured I'd like to take you here. Cathie actually recommended us all to this place." I tell my girlfriend, pulling her off the bike with me, which causes a suppressed squeak, followed by a distrustful look to the shack plastered to the large wall and covered from up top by a number of lanes.

And from the sides by rows and rows of similar buidlings, sometimes larger or smaller, sometimes better or worse maintained. It's hard to say if we fit there with the modern bike I drive now, but then everything fits when you have no rules - the one I've my sights on is actually one of the few without neon or holographic signs and decorations. This is all a mess of advanced technology, poor materials, practical solutions, and disregard of appearance, because here what matters is the truth, not the pretense - and people make sure it stays that way.

"This, with all due respect, looks like a shitty place." My girlfriend says decisively.

I snort in response and grin, taking her hand and leading her to the door. "You're right there, it is shitty." I slide the door open with a cry of the rusted wheels. "But it has really good food."

...

Our dinner is basically ramen. I don't know where that food comes from, but I know its origin is somewhere back on Earth and it's supposedly just as popular as it was back there. That's what I learned some time ago when I got curious, that is.

Despite that though - because it's pretty infamous for being bad quality food, at least on Gaia - it tastes really good, to the point Letty is surprised. The composition tests she promptly runs return with good organic food that's got some inevitable contaminants, but that's way better than she expected.

To quote Catherine, they probably can't afford the shit that larger corporations add to their food. Who knows what the truth really is.

"I like this place. It's so much different from Tau Ceti f..." My girlfriend trails off, takes a sip, then glances at me. "It kinda reflects us, I think."

I quirk an eyebrow at that, and her eyes open wide. "Um!" She gulps down, and I giggle. "I meant food, not the place."

"Guessed so." I nod my head as she rubs her cheeks in embarrassment. "And yeah, I see the similarities. Where we started out, at least. Now it's a lot different."

"Well, your mom's... let's say intervention, not quite invalidated, but at least changed massively who we were before. But so will this place when mana comes here, right? It's not like it's an artificial change." She pauses for a moment, then raises her chopsticks with some noodles. "Like taking these to a food processing plant. They'll get minced, things will get added, some maybe removed, and the product will be unlike the base, but it'll still remain there, yeah?"

"...That's an interesting comparison." I mutter. "Not that I disagree."

"Hm." She lowers her head, not quite hiding her sheepish smile, and focuses on her bowl again.

"So, what are our plans now?" Letty asks after a while as she slurps up the last of the noodles. "I haven't forgotten you said something about queens."

"Mhm. But we don't need to hurry. I wanted to take you to one more place, then we could go to Derrie's."

She frowns at that and tilts her head cutely. "Do you know something I don't about those voidlings?"

That gives me a pause. "...Ah, it's just, I realized a couple of things about my power." I say slowly. "And a lot of it was kinda... not conscious. So basically..." I hesitate for a moment... but yeah. I've got to explain that properly.

So I do, I tell her about the way I'm pushing my mind to higher levels; and granted I did it before, but I know a couple more things now. Coupled with the change of my body, which I remember took Letty by surprise, it's not wrong to say I'm a completely different person.

...Or, actually, it's not that it's not wrong. It's completely correct, and it's even an understatement.

I prove it to Letty by changing my personality and getting cheerful and childish all of a sudden.

"Yeah, so you see, I can do something like that! It's like I'm switching up my basic state, but always remember the... Um. More basic state? Well, you know what I mean. I think it's kinda like it's still there, just under the surface?" I pause for a moment. Wait. If it's still there...

Wait, wait. What if I kinda push it away... then, uh, it lacks a body... so let's just... ah, that's good.

I turn to the door, but I'm pulled by Letty just then and I turn to her concerned face. "What's wrong?"

"...That's what I want to ask. You just went silent for half a minute without warning."

I open my mouth, then close it. "Um, sorry about that, got distracted." I smile sheepishly. "Everything's good. I actually just found out a new amazing thing about my abilities!"

Well, not exactly found out. More like thought about, because I can do virtually everything. It's not like I need to find out how to do it.

Eh, no matter. Words tend to get funky and confusing once you start speaking big.

I turn to the door again instead, and a moment later it opens to reveal my copy. Well, copy's not the right word here, because it's still me. Just. Another me. Although, wait. I botched something.

I look down at my body, then make it about twelve years younger. The surrounding people of course notcie nothing, but Letty opens her eyes wide and looks between me and other me.

"Uh, Helia?" She asks uncertainly.

"Yeah?" The other me asks with a cheeky grin as she walks up to us and plops down on a chair next to me, ruffling my hair.

"Hey!" I push her hand away. "I'm not a child!"

"To me, you'll always be." She answers.

"Yeah, yeah." I pout, then lean in, closing my eyes.

The other me wraps her arm around me and pulls me a little closer, and starts speaking to Letty, but I'm already comfortable and don't pay much attention to it. Ah, I love it.

I think I almost purr when I'm scratched on the belly.

It's always good to have distractions, to be able to put off future for the future without worries. And what is childishness if not just that?