Songs in the Void

Hub World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.

After the trip to MgRonald's with Chiho and Yakumo, Tatsuo walked Yakumo home. Then, with a few extra apple pies in hand, he read the [Dimensional Chat] while on his way back to his apartment. And what he saw surprised him.

While Tatsuo was spending time with Yakumo at the MgRonald's Sumire and James had decided that they were ready to go on the [Mission] as soon as possible.

'Why are they so impatient?' Tatsuo wondered while walking through the streets of Sasazuka. 'I mean, I waited almost until the deadline was up before I went to Sumire-San's world.'

Continuing to read, Tatsuo found the answer to his question. Sumire had suggested that they go quickly and come back quickly so that Alfonzo and Elicia wouldn't have to worry since Amar'e's birthday was tomorrow.

'I see.' Tatsuo said to himself. 'If we wait until the deadline, the kid's birthday will have passed. But they might be worried about the upcoming quest, and they won't be able to give the birthday party all their attention. Not bad, Sumire-San. Quite considerate.'

A moment later, the slight smile on Tatsuo's face disappeared and his shoulders slumped.

'*Sigh* But I still have school tomorrow.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'And after a [Mission] to the Arifureta world, I know I'm gonna be tired as hell. On top of that, if we leave so early the time to make plans on how to handle everything is going to be shortened by quite a bit.'

Shaking that thought out of his head, Tatsuo then raised his head and looked forward.

'Either way, I know I'm not gonna let Nagumo turn all emo in this run.' Tatsuo continued to think. 'But the specifics of that plan will have to wait until I get a status plate.'

Around the time Tatsuo reached his apartment, he had finished reading the [Dimensional Chat] logs. And although he did not want to, he let Sumire and James know that he was fine with starting the [Mission] tonight.

{[Dimensional Chat]

Tatsuo (Admin): Just give me a few minutes.

Tatsuo (Admin): I need to pack a few things.

Tatsuo (Admin): I wanna buy a skill, too

Lici: Ooh! What skill?

Tatsuo (Admin): Transmutation

Tatsuo (Admin): From Fullmetal

Alfonzo: Oh, that's not a bad idea

Alfonzo: You'll be able to make your own weapons over there without making anyone suspicious

Tatsuo (Admin): That's the plan

Tatsuo (Admin): And I plan to stop Nagumo from falling into the true Orcus labyrinth

Tatsuo (Admin): So, I'll definitely need it down there

James: What are you talking about?

Sumire: Tatsuo-Kun, what are you planning?

Tatsuo (Admin): I'll tell you about it when we start the mission

Sumire: Okay

James: I really don't like being kept in the dark like this

James: but since we're leaving in only a few hours, I'll wait

Tatsuo (Admin): It won't even be a few hours

Tatsuo (Admin): It'll be half an hour at most}

With that said, Tatsuo stepped out of the elevator and greeted his mother, Mai, and Kasumi before heading to his room to pack a few things. Then, once his [Inventory] was filled with the things he needed, he sat on his bed and started looking through the [System] [Shop] for the [Skill] he wanted to purchase.

{[Shop]

[Transmutation - C+]

-The ability to understand, deconstruct, and reconstruct matter to fit the user's needs with the aid of a [Transmutation Circle].

-With the proper knowledge of chemistry, the user can alter the shape and make-up of most materials.

Note: The better the user's understanding of chemistry, the better the effects of this skill will be.

Cost: 11,750 Coins}

"Damn, that's the most expensive skill I've ever bought." Tatsuo thought to himself as he let the information from the skill sink into his head. "But at least I have a pretty good grasp of chemistry because of DOATECH. So, I don't have to buy that knowledge, too."

A few minutes later, Tatsuo had assimilated all the [Alchemy] Knowledge from his purchase.

{[Dimensional Chat]

Tatsuo (Admin): Okay, I'm ready to go

James: Good

James: Let's go

Sumire: I'm ready, too

Alfonzo: Be careful, guys

Lici: Tell us all about it when you get back

Lici: Oh, and don't forget to bring back souvenirs

Tatsuo (Admin): Right…

James: Well, at least she's got her priorities straight

James: Now, hit the button, Tatsuo

Sumire: Wait

Sumire: Are we getting backgrounds?

Sumire: If so…

[Tatsuo sent 5,000 Coins to Sumire]

[Tatsuo Sent 5,000 Coins to James]

Sumire: Never mind

Tatsuo (Admin): Alright, I'm hitting the start button

Tatsuo (Admin): So, get ready}

Just as he said he would, Tatsuo pressed the [Begin Mission] button on the [mission] prompt. When he did, a reminder that he was seeing for the second time popped up in his head.

{Note: The time in the participant(s) world will stop during the quests. Time will resume immediately upon the participant(s) return.

Note: For a fee of 5,000 Coins each, the participant(s) can have a background prepared for them so they can seamlessly fit in to the world.

Would you like to purchase a background for the world you are about to visit? Y/N}

After selecting "Yes," the world around Tatsuo lost its color, gradually turning monochromatic. Then, after only a few moments, he was covered in a bright white light before disappearing from his bedroom.

Arifureta Universe, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.

Not even what felt like a second after disappearing from his bedroom in his world, Tatsuo found himself sitting at a desk in a different bedroom. And unlike his trip to the ICDS Universe, it was obvious at a glance that this bedroom was totally different from the one he lived in in his apartment. And the reason for that was simple, this was a completely different residence than his apartment in Sasazuka.

On top of that, Tatsuo appeared in this world alone. James and Sumire were nowhere to be seen. Yet, he did not panic. Since they all bought backgrounds in this world, they should probably be in their own homes.

"*Sigh* I only need to give it a minute." Tatsuo thought aloud to himself. "The background's memories will hit me any minute. Then, I'll know the situation I'm in."

After speaking up to that point, Tatsuo's face showed a rather interesting expression.

"Oh… shit…." Tatsuo muttered to himself. "I completely forgot to tell James and Sumire-San how much getting the memories forced into their heads is going to hurt."

After realizing his little blunder, Tatsuo shrugged his shoulders. Then he climbed onto the bed in the room and made himself comfortable.

"Well, since I already know this shit is gonna hurt, I might as well get as comfortable as I can." Tatsuo mutter to himself.

And just as Tatsuo thought, in less than a minute, his head started to pound because of the influx of information inundating his brain. At the same time, a piercing scream of pain cut through the atmosphere, as well.

'Hmm… That scream sounded like Sumire-San.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'Does that mean she's close by?'

Unfortunately, because of the pain from receiving the memories of his created life in this world, Tatsuo did not have the mental capacity to think about that question for much longer.

Luckily, thanks to Tatsuo's increase in [Intelligence], the pain was much more bearable than the last time this happened. So, he did not pass out from the pain. His whole body was soaked in sweat by the time it was finished, though.

A few minutes later, the memories were integrated and the pain Tatsuo felt slowly dissipated. AS it did, he sat up in bed and looked around. Now, the bedroom he saw felt as if he had been living in it for years.

"Well, I wasn't expecting this." Tatsuo muttered as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stared at the desk in the room. "I'm actually employed by Nagumo's father as a programmer in his company. It's only part time, but still..."

The company in question was a video game company. So, Tatsuo's [Programming] skill probably played a role in that part of his background.

Standing up from his bed, Tatsuo walked over to the desk and stroked the casing of his monitor while looking at the lines of code on his screen.

"Because of that, I've been friends with Nagumo since we were first years." Tatsuo muttered. "And since we have a lot of the same hobbies, we get along quite well, too."

After reaching that point, Tatsuo sat down at his desk and started spinning in his chair.

"So, it won't be weird when I stand up for him or save his ass when that fuck boy, Hiyama, does that shit in the labyrinth."

*Bang!*

Just at that moment, Tatsuo's bedroom door was flung open and slammed into the connecting wall. When he heard the bang, Tatsuo turned around to face the door. Though, he already knew who would be standing in the doorway when he did.

And just as he expected, Tatsuo saw Sumire standing in the doorway huffing and puffing with slightly reddened cheeks.

"Hey, Sumire-San, long time no see." Tatsuo said with a casual smile on his face.

Without a word, Sumire dashed forward. Then, she flung herself into Tatsuo's arms and hugged him tightly while straddling him.

"Tatsuo-Kun, I missed you." Sumire said while burying her face on Tatsuo's shoulder.

"I missed you, too." Tatsuo replied with a smile while patting Sumire's back.

The two maintained that position for a few minutes. Sumire was the one who eventually broke it. When she pulled herself from Tatsuo's shoulder, she glared at Tatsuo with the remnants of tears on her face.

"I can't believe you didn't come to see me when you had so many Coins." Sumire said while pouting. "And why didn't you tell us how much fusing with the memories of our backgrounds would hurt?"

"Well, I wanted to spend some time with my family." Tatsuo replied. "After spending so much time in your world, I missed them a lot. Something I never thought I would experience before I left. I mean, DOATECH did quite a number on my emotions when they kidnapped me. But for some reason, they started coming back while I was in your world."

"*Sigh* I guess I understand." Sumire said as she leaned her forehead on Tatsuo's shoulder again. "But why didn't you tell us about the memories?"

"Uh... I forgot..." Tatsuo replied sheepishly. "Actually, when I came to your world, I didn't even experience the pain for too long. I passed out almost immediately after it started back then."

Hearing that, Sumire once again pulled away from Tatsuo's shoulder as she stared at him with shock on her face.

"Well, I was just a normal person back then." Tatsuo said while smiling sheepishly. "I didn't have any resistance to stuff like that. You're just lucky that you've been raising your stats in the Dungeon, you know. Speaking of the Dungeon, where are you now?"

"Oh, I'm on the 30th Floor now." Sumire replied. "When I get back, I'll challenge the Floor Master. Oh, and I got a God's True Name. It's Athena, Goddess of Strategic Warfare."

'I thought so.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'She had it during the Flame Drake Event Raid in the novel. And with her increase in skill and offensive capability, she should have gotten it even earlier.'

When his thoughts reached that point, Tatsuo looked at Sumire, who was clearly waiting for his response, with a grin.

'She probably just wanted to surprise me.' Tatsuo continued to think. 'Otherwise, she could have told me in the chat. That's really kinda cute, actually.'

With that thought, Tatsuo leaned forward and planted a kiss on Sumire's pretty lips.

This naturally caused Sumire to open her eyes wide in surprise. Especially because she was not expecting Tatsuo to take the initiative to kiss her. However, she sank into the kiss soon enough. And when she did, she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Tatsuo's neck.

*Ring!* *Ring!* *Ring!*

Unfortunately, the kiss was not destined to last for long. After only a few seconds, Tatsuo's smartphone rang, destroying the moment.

Immediately after being startled out of the moment, Sumire buried her face on Tatsuo's shoulder for a third time. At the same time, Tatsuo smiled at Sumire's embarrassed actions as he raised his hand and started patting her head.

"Good job." Tatsuo said after he broke the kiss. "Getting a God's True Name is pretty rare."

As he spoke, Tatsuo reached for his smartphone, which was on his desk, to see who was calling. When he picked it up, he saw that the caller ID said James Alaverus. And when he saw the name, Tatsuo raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't he say his name was James Sataniel?" Tatsuo asked rhetorically.

When she heard Tatsuo's mutter, Sumire once again raised her head. However, her face was so red that a tomato would feel comfortable calling her Onee-Chan. So, she did not look in Tatsuo's direction, instead pointing her face at the screen of his smartphone.

"Didn't he say Sataniel was the name he got when he became one of those Great Satans?" Sumire asked in a mosquito-like volume. "So, maybe Alaverus is his real family name."

"Oh, that makes sense." Tatsuo replied while nodding his head. Then, he quickly pressed the accept call button and placed the smartphone against his ear. "Yo, James, what's up?"

{"Don't 'what's up?' me, you little bastard!"} James shouted angrily through the phone. {"Would it have killed you to mention the pain that came along with the background integration?"}

Even though she already spoke with Tatsuo about the same thing, Sumire could not help nodding her head vigorously when she heard James shouting angrily.

"Uh... Would it make you feel any better if I told you I forgot?" Tatsuo asked while scratching the side of his head with his free hand.

{"You damn well know it won't."] James said in an annoyed tone. A moment later, after spitting out all his annoyance, James tone turned solemn as he continued. {"Anyway, we need to talk about the moves we're gonna make in this world.}

"To do that, we need to go over our backgrounds in detail." Tatsuo said. "I know the basics of each of your backgrounds. But I don't know enough to make any real plans."

Reaching that point, Tatsuo switched his smartphone to speaker. Then, he sat it on his desk before picking up Sumire and turning her around before sitting her on his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist.

A moment later, while Sumire's face was even redder than before, the three discussed the backgrounds they were given when they came to this world.

First was Tatsuo, as previously mentioned, he was friends with this world's main character, Nagumo Hajime, thanks to meeting him at his place of employment and sharing a lot of the same hobbies and interests. They were also classmates in the same class at school. Meaning that he was two years older than he should have been in his world.

"I didn't know you knew how to program." Sumire said with admiration.

"Well, I bought the [Programming and hacking Skills] because I thought I would need to create an identity for myself when I went to your world." Tatsuo replied. "If I had known I could buy a background, I probably would have never bought the [Skills]."

{"That was a pretty smart move."} James said from the other side of the phone. {"If I didn't know about the backgrounds, I probably would have suggested one of us did the same thing. Anyway, this is the background I was given..."}

James then went on to explain that he was Tatsuo's cousin in this world. The son of Tatsuo's father's brother, to be specific. He had moved here from the USA because his mother was transferred to her company's Japan branch. And because his father was more or less a househusband, they both came along. On top of that, James was thrilled to come along because of his interest in Japanese swordplay. He even joined a famous swordsmanship dojo, the Yaegashi Dojo, shortly after moving to Japan.

{*Sigh* I'm two years younger in this world, too."] James lamented. {"But I guess that's the only reason I would have ended up in the same class as Tatsuo. Otherwise, there's a chance I would have ended up being left on Earth when the teleportation to Tortus happened."}

"It's better than being left out." Sumire said with a smile.

{"Yeah, at least I didn't get older like you, Sumire."} James said with a chuckle.

Sumire's eyebrows twitched violently after hearing James' words. Mentioning a woman's age was a taboo, no matter the world. Yet, James had done so, and done it so blatantly.

"You'd better be prepared to answer a lot of questions tomorrow, Alaverus-Kun." Sumire said in the tone of a teacher with anger also clear in her tone. "Because if you get any of them wrong... Hehehe."

As for Sumire's background, she was twenty-three years old, as well as an intern teacher who was assigned to Tatsuo's and James' class. And she, unlike all the other teachers, did not move from class to class every period. Instead, she stayed in the class the whole time in order to act as an assistant to all the teachers who entered.

As for why she was at Tatsuo's house, her parents were university classmates with Tatsuo's mother. So, when Sumire needed a place to stay during her internship, Tatsuo's mother in this world offered to let her stay at her house.

"Anyway, I gotta finish this coding for Nagumo-San." Tatsuo said after everyone spoke about their backgrounds. "After that, I need to go to bed. Tomorrow's Monday, after all."

{"Ugh... I hate Mondays… I hate school even more... It's so boring."} James grumbled. {"I thought having Sera-Tan at my graduation was the last high school experience I would ever have. But somehow, I ended up in high school again... Damn it..."}

Saying that, James hung up the call. Meanwhile, Tatsuo, who knew about Serafall Leviathan's character, felt sorry for James who had to experience such a thing. Sumire, on the other hand, was trying to remember who Serafall was from the Highschool DxD light novels she had read. But since Serafall was not one of the main characters, she was drawing a blank.

"Anyway, I'll go to bed, too." Sumire said while smiling tiredly. "Fusing with those memories really took a lot out of me."

Saying that, Sumire, with her face reddening once again, kissed Tatsuo on the cheek. Then, she stood up from his lap and walked towards his bedroom door.

"Good night, Tatsuo-Kun." Sumire said with a smile once she reached the door.

"Good night, Sumire-San." Tatsuo replied with a smile of his own.

As soon as Tatsuo's words fell, Sumire turned around and wagged a finger in Tatsuo's direction with a mischievous smile on her face.

"No, no, no." Sumire said. "Tatsuo-Kun, it's Minami-Sensei, remember?"

Then, without giving Tatsuo a chance to reply, she turned around and left the room, closing the door behind her as she left.

Meanwhile, Tatsuo could only shake his head with an amused smile on his face.

"She's gonna milk that for all its worth, isn't she?" Tatsuo replied as he turned his chair back towards his desk. "Whatever. I'll just finish this, send it to Nagumo-San's company, and go to bed. I don't know when the teleportation will happen, so I need to stay prepared.'