World Keeper

Chapter 412: Thawing the Frozen Heart

As Tsubaki approached the source of the singing, she soon came across a rather astonishing sight. The child, a girl, stood before her in a wide, grassy meadow. Such scenes weren’t hard to find in this region of the Underworld, given that the spirits of monsters often used pure instinct to recreate familiar areas.

What was unusual, however, was its size. Tsubaki herself stood no taller than a single blade of grass within this landscape, the singing girl towering in the distance. If not for the ever-present spiritual mists obscuring her vision, Tsubaki was sure that she would be able to see this woman clearly from tens of miles away.

“Little Dana Jafer

Her Daddy couldn’t save her

Scatter, Scatter

She’ll take away the pain.”

The child continued to sing to herself, rocking back and forth slightly atop the grass. As Tsubaki got closer, she began to make out certain distinctive features on the girl. The pointed ears that symbolized an elf, a long, silken dress. And in her hands, a dolly made of clay. The child looked down to it with a small, sad smile. A smile that tugged at the heartstrings, and contained a tremendous solitude.

Closing her eyes, Tsubaki focused purely on increasing her own size, spreading her energy more thin as opposed to her compact fighting form. She had no intention of getting into a brawl with the titanic elven child. And as she grew, soon making herself visible by rising higher than the grass, she stopped herself when she was no taller than the girl’s knees.

“Oh!” The girl jumped in fright, the meadow trembling with her shock. “You don’t look like a monster… are you one of the death-seekers?” She spoke in an innocent voice, her eyes glancing over Tsubaki.

“Death-seekers?” Tsubaki had never heard that term before, but such was to be expected. It seemed to be something that the girl had created herself.

“Yeah, the ones that go around, looking for dead people. They’re usually really nice, but I haven’t seen any for a while.” She had a small smile as she reminisced, before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get so big again.”

Furrowing her brow, the girl began to shrink down, the landscape around them shrinking with her. In order to return them to a more fitting size, Tsubaki herself began to shrink as well, more slowly than the larger girl. That way, when they both stopped, Tsubaki was at her normal height, while the child barely came up to her stomach.

Once down with the change, the girl let out a sigh of relief. “There, that should be better.” She beamed a happy smile towards Tsubaki. “I’m Dana!”

“I’m Tsubaki.” The kitsune returned the greeting with a polite bow. “To answer your question, however… no, I am not a ‘death-seeker’. I am a living being, who was able to come here through my own power. Just to be clear… your family name is Jafer, correct? That was your song?”

Dana nodded her head happily. “Yup! I sent a little me back home a long time ago, and heard kids singing it. They seemed… really happy when they sang it, running around in circles and playing games. I don’t really like the song itself, but it helps me remember things!”

Tsubaki had a rare look of sympathy on her face as she bent down. “You’ve been alone here for a long time, haven’t you?”

Dana’s smile faltered, an almost lost look appearing in her eyes. “Y-yeah… I want to find my daddy, but… I haven’t seen him yet. I went to the other side where all the people spirits stay, but they said that they never received him…”

Tsubaki’s eyes widened when she heard that. A lost soul, not received by the afterlife community… it wasn’t wrong to think that it could be wandering around Hell. But, if that was the case, if that spirit had been wandering for this long… Tsubaki knew the story of Dana Jafer, she was alive when it happened. She knew just how long ago it was.

“I know what you’re thinking…” Dana shook her head sadly. “You think Daddy’s re-dead. That he was eaten by one of the bad spirits. I think… I think that’s right. I haven’t been able to feel Daddy’s presence for a long time… But I don’t know what else to do. All I have left is to keep looking for him…”

“Why don’t you try going to live with the people on the other side?” Tsubaki asked curiously, referring to the larger community of spirits.

“I can’t.” Dana denied it immediately. “They won’t let me stay there. I’m not a ‘real spirit’ like them… I’m an aeon. Daddy made me like this, and I wanted to do the same for him. But now he’s gone…”

Dana’s shoulders began to tremble as she held back the tears. Leaning forward, Tsubaki wrapped the smaller girl in her arms. She couldn’t help it, she felt a connection to Dana.

Servants were raised in the Trial of Blood, forced to survive one year alone in the most hostile environments. They were trained, honed into weapons and tools for their lords. But what value did that Trial of Blood have compared to what Dana had endured? One year in a forest of monsters? How many decades… centuries even, had Dana spent alone in Hell? All for the sake of finding her father.

“It’s okay, you can cry…” Tsubaki whispered softly to Dana, who leaned into her shoulder and began to loudly sob. An instinct awakened within Tsubaki that had been dormant for far too long, one that she didn’t even know she had anymore. She wanted to protect this child, to protect her smile.

After letting Dana cry for nearly an hour, the tears slowly began to subside. She was reduced to little more than trembling whimpers when Tsubaki pulled back, looking Dana in the eyes. “Would you like to come live with me?” She asked in the most gentle tone that she could manage.

“R-really?” Dana wiped at her face with one hand, her eyes still wet as she choked back a breath. “You… you mean it?”

“I do.” Tsubaki nodded, bringing a hand up to wipe away the tears with her thumb. “I don’t know what aeons eat, but… we have plenty of free rooms where I live. I can give you nice clothes and spend time with you… you don’t have to be alone anymore. And sometimes, where I live, there is this incredible person that comes to stay for a while. I know that he would like to meet you, too.”

“I-incredible..? More incredible than Daddy?”

Tsubaki gave another nod at that. “The most incredible man in the entire world. He said that he won’t be back for a little while, but… that’s not a problem for us, is it? We’re used to waiting by now.”

“But I won’t have to wait alone..?” Dana asked, reaching out to grab a corner of Tsubaki’s dress, as if scared she would disappear.

Instead of directly answering her, Tsubaki bent down, scooping Dana up in her arms to carry her. “I promise, you won’t need to be alone anymore. Maybe, just maybe, I can introduce you to many more friends, if everything works out.”

Dana’s eyes seemed to light up at that, and she nodded her head. Her hands came up to more quickly wipe at her face. “O-okay! I’ll do it, I’ll go live with you… Tsubaki, please let me live with you!”

A genuine, warm smile appeared on Tsubaki’s face as she turned around. With a thought, she cut open a hole through the underworld, taking herself and Dana back to the citadel.

Did Tsubaki just become a foster mother? I asked myself with a soft smile of my own as I watched the scene play out. I had never seen Tsubaki so emotional before, even when she was playing with Aurivy. And a part of their conversation jumped out at me, the promise to introduce her to more friends.

Ashley, can you do me a favor?

Dale? Ashley’s tone seemed more surprised than anything. Your thoughts feel… odd, is everything alright?

I’m fine, I just saw something in the world. I assured her with a shake of my head. Can you see if there is a way to make the headsets for Vision Expanse compatible with spirits? I know that they work for energy bodies, but the only examples I’ve seen are those that have recreated a normal body.

I’ll… check. I can’t promise results right away, but I’ll see what I can do.

That’s alright. Her answer was enough for me, just the attempt was better than nothing. If you want a volunteer… get in touch with Tsubaki.

After leaving that message with her, I once again resumed my fast forwarding process. While I was mostly paying attention to the development of the world, I did also spare some focus to watching Tsubaki and Dana, seeing their happy life together.

“Mana readings… minimal.” One researcher said as he stepped off of the platform for the Fairy’s Gate, holding a small device in his hand. Since enchanted items would not function within Spica, they were forced to resort to technology, which was notoriously less accurate when it came to reading mana.

“Oi, what’d ye expect?” A dwarf walked by with a grin, carrying a heavy axe over his shoulder, one which was nearly as large as he was. “We were told, weren’t we? All the mana’s way up above, so we only get wee trickles of it down here.”

The elf nodded, naturally remembering this detail as well. “Yes, I know. I just have to check anyways. Knowledge is built on evidence, after all.”

“Ye want yer evidence? Find out where that elf lass ye all had last year ran off to.” He walked off towards a nearby forest as he shouted that back at the researcher. With a heavy swing of his axe, a tree was cleanly felled, four kitsune men running over to collect it. “Anyone gonna teach us about this area, it ain’t gonna be that gadget, it’ll be a native.”

Unfortunately, the researcher also knew this fact. It was simply an all but impossible task to find a single individual in a foreign world, especially so when they knew it better than you. While it may be impossible to find the same native, search parties had already been sent out in attempts to locate other settlements.

“Finally…” Jonas let out a breath of relief, more of a habit at this point than anything else as he stepped away from the wall that he had been using to measure his growth. “Eight years… I’m not as large as I used to be, but at the very least, I won’t be stepped on if I go out in public.”

Jonas stretched his arms out, looking back at the most recent mark. His original height was just shy of two meters, while his current one was barely one and a half. If he gave it another three years, he could likely gather the energy to reach his full height without worry.

However, that would mean three more years of solitude. Even now, his old friends only barely realized he was still alive. Some would visit him on occasion, asking about his progress or keeping him up to date with the happenings of the world. When Jonas learned that there was a new world called Spica that had been discovered, he was ecstatic. He wanted nothing more than to rush over and immediately participate in the exploration.

Unfortunately, such a thing was forbidden to him, due to his lack of strength. More importantly, he couldn’t even be sure that his body would be able to sustain itself in a world where the laws of magic were twisted like that. In the end, he could only comfort himself in the knowledge that he would learn, one day.