Tale of Discovery

Chapter 36: Rendezvous ; Past ; How I ruined it all with my appearance

"Let's go. They're waiting for us.", I say as I motion to Juno to follow me.

We're not driving. We are going to run to where the rest are at. Wouldn't that cause us trouble? I'm pretty sure several explosions and gunshots that happened a while ago is a good distraction.

Juno is able to barely keep up with my speed while I am not using Godspeed. It makes me wonder... what is she? What am I?

Like, I have to be SOMETHING for me to create the System and all the other inexplicable stuff. Whenever I feel like I've discovered all my powers, something new just pops up through a coincidence.

Speaking of powers, how is my Essence Energy at the moment? I assume all that warfare from before had drained it. A while has passed though, so I can't be sure. Oh, right! Juno did say something about copulation with someone of equal power will restore my Essence. Could she be one such person?

Once I check it, I am a little surprised by the fact that it's at max. However, there is also a different feeling to it. Something has changed. It feels like it has expanded...

My stats are the same except for my humanity. It has decreased to 61%. Not that I ever bothered with it. As long as it doesn't affect my mentality somehow, I don't care even if it reaches zero.

"Hey, Juno. What exactly happens when my humanity percentage reaches zero?", I ask after some careful deliberation.

In response to my question, she just smiles back at me and doesn't utter a single word.

"All right, then. Keep your secrets."

it doesn't take us long to reach my apartment The building is still pretty damn impressive.

After sensing the whole place and looking at every corner through Clairvoyance, I head inside my apartment with Juno.

The moment I open the door, I hear someone shout, "Wait, don't!"

Seconds later a powerful purple ball slams into me. I hear small sobbing noises as Ayumi holds me tightly.

I feel a throbbing inside me. Whatever Ayumi is going through is related to me one way or another. I wish I could just put an end to whatever the hell is happening right now and terminate whoever it is that is inciting it.

I gently stroke Ayumi's back as I hug her. Behind Ayumi, the rest appear with some additional people...

Shun, Nao, and the brown-haired high schooler are there. Aside from them, there is the orange-haired girl, a blonde guy who resembles the one in the "recollection" I had recently, and finally, a blue-haired guy who seems to have a lot of experience as a big brother based on his expression.

I send a glare at Shun's direction. He better have prepared his explanation.

We all head inside and take a seat. Irene comes out of Ayumi's room and takes a seat on my lap like it's the most natural thing to do.

"Father is displeased with your actions. You better take actions to make up for your foolish actions, lest something unfortunate ensues."

Before I or anyone for that matter could say anything, Irene says in a threatening tone as she glares at Shun.

Oh wow. I think she really might be my daughter.

Juno and I don't feel anything wrong, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the rest.

They're all visibly nervous as beads of sweat appear on their foreheads. I don't know what it is, but it must be Irene's doing, so I pat her head. Everyone seems to be instantly relieved as she leans back and snuggles in my arms.

Shun takes a deep breath before beginning his explanation over what happened in the past.

------

A long time ago, a comet was spotted near the Earth. It had a long trail and looked absolutely stunning. Once the comet had gone past Earth, supernatural events began to occur. Not the usual ghost, UFO or yeti spotted but shaky or unclear camera kind of supernatural events.

It was more about children with superpowers. These children, being the teens they were, began pretending to be superheroes or doing other retarded actions that led to attracting the attention of scientists.

Scientists being who they were, began to gather them and experimenting on their bodies.

In order to change things, Shun decided to make use of his ability, Time-Leap, to travel back in time and work with the rest. Albeit, this ability came at the cost of his eyesight.

It took him a lot to convince the rest as they didn't remember him after the leap through time, but in the end, they managed to create safe-houses which happened to be schools for ability wielders.

The thing that surprised me most was that the brown-haired high schooler that drove us to the hidden base was the same creep that always came to our clubroom and told us the location of ability users.

The story doesn't end there. Shun continues to speak of how peaceful everyone's life was and how happy they all were, until one day, the Legion attacked.

The Legion was an organization that was established by an unknown individual of immense power. This organization helped scientists out... A LOT. Most of the research they had trouble with was solved with the appearance of Legion, which made the war between the ability users and benefit-seeking adults unstable.

It became easy for them to kidnap ability users all over the globe and freely research on them. What everyone found weird about Legion, was that they didn't seem to have a goal, unlike the scientists who simply wished to utilize the abilities they experimented on in various places.

Well, I do know their purpose now. I wonder how they will react if they know that the reason they are in this mess right now is because of me.

His explanation ends with us being kept away from himself. Why didn't we remember him? Because one day, the orange-haired girl, whose name is Medoki, and the blue-haired guy-Maedomari, came over to our house. Medoki used her ability to make Ayumi lose consciousness before doing the same to me.

Then, Maedomari used his ability to erase our memories of Shun.

These abilities sure are handy... but, they all have their own issues. Medoki is unable to use her ability consecutively, while Maedomari takes time to erase memories and has to be in physical contact with them to do it.

I wonder if I can take their powers if I possess everyone here right now... Heck, I could go around taking everyone's superpowers... wouldn't that be fun? I wonder how the Legion and the scientists would respond to my actions.

Now that I think about it, that's the most efficient course of action to take in order to deal with all of the current issues I am facing.

Wait. My ability is sort of weird. Everyone I've met up until now that had an ability, had some kind of limitation. Not sure about the Telekinesis and Thoughtography though.

Surely, my cheat ability has a setback of some sort.

"Father can always integrate with the power Father wants to get rid of the side effects of."

Goddamnit, Irene! Don't just pop out of nowhere and interrupt my thoughts within my mind! Forget that. How do I integrate with a power?

"That's simple. But, be advised that Father may integrate with five powers at most. Upon getting rid of the bond formed, all progress with the power will be reset other than your own comprehension of it."

Well, I don't think that taking other people's abilities is a weak power. I'll do it.

"Invoke - " (Literally means "integration".)

The moment I chant the word that she told me, I focus on the ability and a bright red floating rectangle appears in front of me. Written on it- Plunder.