Tale of Discovery

"So... Everyone, allow me to introduce her to you," I say as we regroup with the others.

"This girl, Juno, is a friend of mine that I had met online and has been helping me out with a number of things. She has just recently arrived in Japan, so I hope you can take care of her."

Once I'm done speaking, everyone begins to introduce themselves and welcome her to Japan. The only one that didn't bother with anything was the orange-haired girl. Who is she anyway?

Nao is still glaring at me though.

I need to clear things up... I hold her hand and pull her along as I head outside of the hospital. She just follows along.

As we walk on the street, I look at the sky and see that it's dusk.

"This might appear weird, but whatever I said back in the hospital is true. The part about me meeting her 'online', her arrival in Japan, and her helping me out. She's like me, from outside of this world."

Nao doesn't say anything for several minutes. We just continue to walk, until she suddenly says in a neutral tone,

"I already know about your Plunder; You don't need to make up a story of being from another world."

What? What does she mean by Plunder?

"Let's wait until Ayumi is healed. Once she is, I want to take you two to meet someone.", she says.

I've already told her the truth, so it's up to her to believe me or not. And who is the person that she wants us to meet?

"Sure.", I reply to her.

We continue to stroll around, speaking of various topics, most of which were about Zhiend. She really is a die-hard fan. Now that I think about it, everyone around me is...

------

It's early morning. I wake up from my sleep and look at Ayumi who's still sleeping. She must be bored in the hospital... Oh right, I should go get her phone for her. She would at least have something to waste time with until she's recovered or I can heal her after increasing the tier of my Healing Factor.

Speaking of which, how do I exactly increase tiers? The explanation that was given to me was too vague. I decide to ask Irene that question, to which she replies,

{Practice using the Effect you desire to tier up and feel how it works through constant use.}

Now that's a problem... How do I practice Healing? Healing requires injuries to be practised. Not very convenient in this case.

I will have to think of something later, but for now, I should go out for a jog and get Ayumi's phone for her while I'm at it.

On the way out to the hospital, I hear people all speaking of a building that collapsed recently and two girls being sent to the hospital.

"It was awful! One of them had a broken leg and a blinded eye.", I heard one say.

"What about the other? Do you know that she had lost her arm? She's currently in this hospital recuperating.", another one says.

Oh, she's here huh? The one who hurt my Ayumi... Should I finish her off? It's going to be problematic to deal with the aftermath though... What am I thinking, she's just a kid. A crazy, little psycho kid.

I need to have a talk with that Oikawa guy as well...

"Do you think that this is related to all the mysterious disappearances that have been happening worldwide?", some guy suddenly asks.

What?

"Could be. You've seen the USA's current state. Children are disappearing every day. Sometimes, there is a lot of wreckage where the child was last seen."

What's going on? Mysterious disappearances? Is it like how the telekinesis user got abducted? What do they even do with them?

In any case, it seems like it's happening on a global scale. That can't be good. I would do something about it if I had an idea of where to start. I can't let guys like these be on the loose. For all I know, their next target could be Ayumi.

Can't let that happen. Absolutely. She's already been through enough. It would be a miracle if she didn't develop any trauma from what happened.

------

"Brother Yu!", a cheerful voice welcomes my presence as I return to the hospital ward Ayumi's in. Everyone else is no longer here.

Apparently, Nao and the co had visited Ayumi. The problem was that Ayumi lost some blood during the process due to a certain someone.

"How have you been doing, Ayumi? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?", I ask her as I approach her and sit beside her on the bed.

"Ayu is fine! It doesn't hurt anymore, but Ayu is bored..."

Smiling in response to her statement, I grab her phone and present it to her while saying,

"I knew you would be bored, so I went home to go get your phone for you."

A bright smile covers her face as she gleefully exclaims,

"Brother Yu is the best!"

Isn't she the cutest thing ever?

As I gaze at her fiddling around with her phone and messaging her friends, I'm relieved to see that she isn't afraid of socially interacting with others, at least, through her phone.

Speaking of a little sister who can't socialize with others due to some trauma... Sora. I miss her. The time "I" spent with her was short, but ever since I've come to this Platform, there has been this empty feeling inside of me.

I want to return to the Rift, but I don't wish to leave Ayumi and the rest on this side. Who knows what could happen during the time period that I'm away.

{There is a simple solution for that.}

Irene's voice resounds my head, greatly startling me. She can read my thoughts?!

{But of course. I'm a part of Father.}

Are you kidding me? I need to be considerate of what to think of from now on...

{Don't bother. I can't judge Father in any way.}

Well, this helps me out a lot. I won't appear to be talking to myself if I wish to converse with her.

------

Taking a look at the time on my phone - 11:47 PM.

I am outside of the hospital, on my way to buy a snack for Ayumi so that she could enjoy herself. Not that she asked for it, but it's my own goodwill.

On the way there, I notice a group of thugs drag a woman into an alleyway. By the looks of it, they're planning to do some nefarious deeds with her.

Being the heroic guy I am, I follow after them. Who am I kidding? I finally found a way to practice Healing...

------

Taking a look at my hand which is covered in blood, I wipe off the blood using one of the thug's shirts and grab my phone to check the time - 1:34 AM.

Ah, this took way longer than I thought it would. I did successfully manage to upgrade the tier of my healing factor though.

"Mom... help...", I hear a voice that sounds like it belongs to a corpse.

Looking there, I see one of the thugs on the ground extending his hand out and attempting to grab the air. How dumb. They were planning to **** a woman, and when someone appears to punish them for their misdeeds, this is how they react.

Oh, well. If you're going to do some nefarious acts, at least be prepared for the consequences.

"Codification."

Checking my status screen, I notice that my humanity level has decreased to 64%, while there is a new description for my Healing Factor:

Regeneration. Low energy consumption.

I am excited to try it out.

Glancing at one of the thugs on the ground who is blind in one eye, I use my Healing Factor on him. For the record, I wasn't the one who pulled out his eyeball.

The next moment, a glow covers my palm as I directly press my finger onto his eye. It takes a few seconds, but the flesh around his eye begins to change. Disgusting.

A few more seconds later, his once blind eye looks absolutely normal. I'll let him have that as compensation for helping me out with upgrading the tier of my Healing Factor.

------

"Good morning, Ayumi.", I say to her the moment she opens her eye in the morning. She beams me an innocent smile as she says,

"Good morning, Brother Yu!"

I gently stroke her cheek as I tell her,

"Ayumi, you're going to be leaving the hospital today."

Ayumi is bewildered by my words as she looks at me and asks while slightly tilting her head to the left,

"But didn't the doctor say that I have to stay for two months?"

I put on a smug look as I say,

"You know, I've always hidden it from you, but I'm a great wizard. You saw what I did yesterday right? It's about time I took you to the observatory."

Before she can react to my words, I utilize my Healing Factor on her broken leg. She starts laughing as she exclaims,

"It tickles! Brother Yu, it tickles!"

I'm glad. If it hurt during the healing process I would be more than pissed off at the way the power worked.

"Time to heal up your pretty eye as well.", I say in an amused tone as I move my hand to her eyes and head.

I use Holy Slash and Light Manipulation to cut the bandage and avoid hurting Ayumi respectively.

I immediately begin healing her eye then move on to her head. Once I'm done with that, Irene's voice resounds within my head,

{Massage her whole body while using Healing Factor. It will clear away bruises and cuts while decreasing any discomforts she has.}

I spent the next thirty minutes doing what I was told to, as I observed Ayumi have a relaxed expression on her face, enjoying my massage.

Now that I'm done, the only issue that remains is how to get Ayumi out of the hospital... I can't just say that she's all healed up and can leave now, right? Wait a minute. Why not? Although it might attract the attention of doctors, it wo-

NO. I almost forgot about how they dealt with people who have special abilities. What would they think of a little girl who was expected to stay for another two months in the hospital to be suddenly all fine and dandy? Ugh. This is going to be problematic... I require assistance.

While I'm thinking of that, I hear a knock on the door. Using my perception, I find out it's Nao, Joijiro and Yusa.

Just in time...