[63] We Summoned a… WHAT?!
[63] We Summoned a… WHAT?!
Chapter 63: We Summoned a… WHAT?!
—
LoveMy had two more episodes left after the Mount Fuji trip, but due to the incident of our disappearance, the production crew delayed it for a few days. These few days passed without any issues for me, and tomorrow was finally the filming day.
Currently, I am in school and it was lunch break. For once I was sitting in the canteen with the others for the lunch break, instead of wandering like usual.
"Uhm, my Rating Game is in a few days. It's a good time for you since it's right after your filming ends. I'll come pick you up from the filming range. You can treat this like a vacation to my 'hometown'!" Rias rushed to our table and blabbered out the words before she quickly scattered off. She seemed to be a little shy after the kissing incident, despite her tough act back then.
The others at the table stared at the fleeing Rias with a stupefied look on their faces. Slowly, they all turned towards me. Tsubasa and Shoko turned first, and then the other two at the table, Ruby and Minami, turned towards me after. Kana wasn't here today; she was busy with something.
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "It was odd that she waited for you at the bench the first few days at school, but now you're going to visit her hometown? Does mom know?"
"I'll tell her," I ate my food as I replied.
"I am curious how you got so close with Rias Senpai. She doesn't usually spend time with any guy other than Kiba Senpai, who's in her club." Tsubasa tilted her head.
Shoko just silently ate her food and Ruby's friend and classmate, Minami, just cleared her throat. She must feel awkward since she felt left out. All of a sudden, she blinked and looked up behind me.
"Uh, isn't that Mai Sakurajima? It's the first time I saw her come to the canteen."
Ruby looked up. "Oh, oh! Shiranui Frill is there too! I didn't know they were friends!" Ruby looked at me. "Hey, introduce me to Mai Senpai! You two are close right?"
I looked behind me. Indeed, my bunny girl Senpai was there, and she was accompanied by that pretty little kitten. Since both of them were Yokais, maybe they knew each other from before?
"Next time, Ruby," I finished my food and got up. "I'll catch up with her first. She doesn't usually show herself in school, even after her recent jump in fame. I'll catch her today."
Ruby whined in protest, Minami let out a disappointed grunt, and Tsubasa pouted. I also noticed Shoko, who lowered her head and sighed. Uh oh. What's up with her?
Deciding to look into it later, I left to meet the two Yokais.
* * *
"Can you pretend to not know me during school hours?"
"That's harsh, I just saved you from getting jumped by the students." I walked out with Mai and Frill by my right side and retorted back.
"...." The cat girl stayed silent, sipping on a milkshake.
"Right."
"You must have been particularly hungry if you came out of hiding just to eat," I didn't take her tsundere activities to heart and continued. "How do you two know each other, by the way?"
Mai ate a sandwich. She swallowed a bite and then spoke, "We met on a set. I noticed that she's a Yokai, and since then we have known one another." She squinted at me. "I am saying this just in case, but don't you dare have any weird thoughts about her."
"Uhm, Senpai, there is no need to be rude to him…" Frill tried to defend me as if remembering what happened last time a third-year tried to teach me manners.
Mai raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "What’s with that tone? Have you two met before? He didn't try anything weird with you, did he? Like, grabbing you by the face and…" she quickly stopped. "Never mind."
"Haha…" Frill looked between the two of us.
"Anyways, do you know anything about the next filming?" I cleared my throat and inquired. I didn't get to read the entire announcement this morning since I was looking at it on the dining table and Ai took my phone away.
"Isn't it another long trip?" She asked back, tilting her head. "We are going abroad. The next shooting is in Hawaii, and the shooting for the last episode will be in the US too."
So the next episode is a beach episode.
I let out a groan. The beach episode was fine, but if it's going abroad, that means I'll be out for another three days.
I nodded at Mai. "Alright. I guess I need to take care of everything by tonight. I'll see you tomorrow at the airport, Senpai. Bye for now. Ah, you too, Frill."
I left the girls as gears spun in my head and I planned the rest of today.
'Wait,' I suddenly had a thought. 'Rias said she would pick me up from the shooting range. She said it so confidently as if she knew where I'd be…'
Ah, shit. Right. She's a stalker. She'll find the location if she doesn't know already.
….
"Hey, mom,"
After school hours ended, I reached home and waved at Ai.
"Fire the guards, please."
* * *
The guards at the gate were easily dealt with by Freed Sellzen, who's a nobody. For the last couple of years, they had done great work, but now that the Hoshino Family was meddling with magic, these human guards won't do shit. The same went for the drivers and bodyguards.
Ai didn't need much convincing from me to do as asked. She understood that it was for their own good. If Freed had felt like killing them instead of putting them in a daze, they would have lost their lives. Ai didn't want to ruin normal people's life like this.
So she called the guards and fired them. The guards were confused, but they were provided with an extra payment that made them just nod and accept. They had signed a legal contract to never disclose anything about Ai and her kids, so it should be fine even if they leave. Just in case, I had put them through magical contracts too in the past, which kept them shut without them ever realizing. So it was fine to let them go.
"But now what?" My family sat around the living room, as Ai asked. Tsubasa and Asia were also there, and everyone was looking at me.
"Summoning Magic. We summon magical entities that will replace these guards." I told her. "Since the job isn't simple killing, we can't just summon beasts, we need some intelligent entities who can shapeshift to look human."
"Huh…" Ruby didn't look convinced. "But will intelligent beings do as asked? Wait," she gasped, looking at me in shock. "You're not planning to enslave them, are you?!"
"Shut up. I am not going to enslave them, but even if I did, how could a puny little girl like yourself dare judge me?" I shot her an annoyed glare and turned to Ai. "Anyways. There are many magical beings who take being summoned as their job and do as the summoners ask. They're not free, as they are intelligent beings, but I'll manage the payment."
"Why? You're broke, I'll pay." Ai looked at me in surprise.
I smiled. To think there will come a time when I’ll be broke, but she’s right. "Mother dearest, I'm talking about interdimensional entities, money isn't what they want. They usually take Mana Stones for payment."
"And you have those?"
I raised my palm, and slowly a coin formed on it. It was my Qi condensed into a coin; it was basically a Mana Stone but made out of Qi. It was something that no one from this world could do, creating magic stones like this would be revolutionary.
Ai stared at it. "Fair. Are they trustworthy? The way you said 'interdimensional', they're basically aliens, aren't they? What if they try to take over the world?"
"They won't. They'll have to agree to a Contract, the work and pay will be listed there, as well as limitations." I explained. "So if you have no other questions, we can do it right away."
Ai looked at the other girls. A minute later, she shrugged and nodded. "Sure."
….
"...Do you have to bleed for every little thing?" Ai sounded extremely annoyed and listed as she saw me draw a magic circle on the floor with my blood
We moved the couch and table to one side, making space in the middle of the living room. I was crouched down, drawing a magic circle. I couldn't use normal magic, and the same went for rituals. But I could at least draw the circle. I would have to make Ruby activate it.
"Don't be mad, it's just how it is," I said, showing a light smile that she returned with her scowl. She's cute.
I finished the circle and stood up. The stench of fresh blood filled the air as I let my hand heal finally. I patted Ruby's back.
"Pour mana into it, it'll activate," I said. "I made sure no aggressive entity would come. Everyone who's in the room would affect the type of monster that will be summoned."
Even if something went wrong, I had done as Bishamon advised and had already made Ruby cast an Instant Dungeon spell. If some city-destroying monster came, I'd take care of it without any supernatural noticing.
"Be careful, Ruby," AI warned and walked to me. She grabbed my hand, making sure I was indeed healed.
"Yeah," Ruby cleared her throat. She raised both of her hands in the air and then let mana flow out of her. All the mana entered the circle, making it flow before it began to spin. The entire building shook, the sky outside went dark, and a red light blinded everything for a brief moment.
"Hm?"
A new, feminine voice sounded out in the room when the light vanished.
All of our eyes were glued to the woman, and I felt myself pause. She’s… odd.
It was a white-tiger girl, with white hair and cat ears and tail. Odd of all, she wore a maid dress. And I could feel nothing from her as if she didn't exist. But she did, so it meant she was just strong enough that even I could sense nothing. For that to be true, this entity was at least… universal level.
Shit.
"Where is this?" She spoke clear Japanese as she looked around. Her blue eyes scanned the area. "Ah, a separate space. Japan, too. But what’s… wait, did you guys summon me?"
She tilted her head while the other girls looked at her confused. She appeared like a normal woman to them, although extremely beautiful in her revealing maid outfit.
[Image Here]
"Hm, ah, I think I volunteered myself to be a Summonable Entity back in my younger days since I was lonely and bored. It's been so long. I didn't expect to be summoned after so long, moreover when I am just on a vacation in this foreign Omniverse." The maid rubbed her chin as she examined the people in the room. She raised an eyebrow when she looked at Tsubasa. She could probably see that she was a white tiger too. The entity raised another eyebrow at Ruby but this time I didn't know why.
Soon, her blue eyes locked with mine. She looked surprised. "Oh… Would you look at this? This is interesting. No wonder some mere mortals managed to summon me." Then she muttered in a barely audible voice, that only I could hear. "A White Tiger, a Time Mage, messing with Time Loops, the Servant of a Rich Family, and then some other similarities… It seems so many things matched that it brought me here."
What was she talking about? No way, she could see my reincarnations with a glance? Shit, even Multiversal Entities would have a hard time doing that given my Soul. Wait…
She said "Omniverse" just earlier…
I raised my guard but knew it was futile if things went south. Luckily, her words were too low for the girls to hear, and even if they heard, they were too vague for the girls to catch on to anything.
Suddenly, the woman blinked and her head jerked as if a voice rang in her head. She quickly regained her composure and cleared her throat.
"I'm sorry, but I can't serve another house," the woman averted her gaze from me and shook her head. "Young master will get mad if I do, he's calling for me already. Sorry, I wasted your ritual. I'll be going now, and I'll stop my status as a Summonable Entity so something like this doesn't happen again."
She thought for a moment and added, "For what it counts, I'll summon something that you… would like. Count this as a little compensation for your time. No need to waste making another ritual. See you guys never."
She said, and with a simple snap of her fingers, she vanished. However, the magic circle didn't disappear, it spun again and other figures materialized.
As the strange woman promised, she had helped with the ritual. This time, five white tiger cubs rolled on the floor and scratched their bodies.
"Hm? Huh?" One of the cubs realized that their surroundings changed, and looked around. "W-we were summoned!"
"What?" The others raised their heads. "No way, it's true! We were finally summoned!"
"We are finally getting a job!" The five Tigers looked around cheerfully.
The four girls beside me were hesitant as they looked at the beasts, while I stayed paused.
The weird woman was gone. And I wish it was the only big thing that happened. But no, my shock from learning that the concept of an Omniverse is real, and there might even be more than one, all vanished. Looking at the little tigers, I felt goosebumps run down my skin while I looked at the Tai Chi symbol lockets on their necks. That thing…
"You lots," my voice boomed as I called for the cubs. The tigers shook as they turned their heads to me. "Are you a part of the… White Tiger Cult?"
"Huh?" One of them, with a streak of red fur on his head, blinked. "Wow! Has the name of our cult spread to this universe too?! Yes, indeed, we are part of it."
"...."
"Aqua?"
"Leave the room, everyone. I'll deal with them." I ignored Ai's call and waved my hand. The wind aura carried all the girls out of the rooms, closing the door and leaving me alone with the little tiger cubs.
My Descendants.
During my 6th life, the White Tiger Cult was the faction that worshiped me. Led by me and my wifey, we ruled multiple worlds for thousands of years.
And I could tell from just glancing at these little cubs, that my blood, no matter how thin, flowed within these children.
It's not a coincidence. The woman did this intentionally, this was her "compensation".
Goodness. Have I finally found a lead to my other universes?
**
**
**
Master4thWall Note: Who was that weird woman…