Multiversal Missions

Before Kazuki fell to the ground, Nero took him in his arms and said, "Good job, kid, that was a really fun fight," knowing full well that he was no longer able to hear her.

Enea, who had been watching the entire fight in silence, approached Kazuki. Meanwhile, from a portal similar to the one Nero had arrived with, he pulled out a flask full of his blood. When he was next to Nero, he handed it to her, and she immediately made Kazuki drink it. All the wounds and burns on the boy's body disappeared.

"How did Kazuki seem to you?" asked Enea with a slight smile on his face.

"A little taciturn but interesting. He makes good expressions -- in a nutshell, I like him."

"Yes, during practice he only talks when it's really necessary. It's like he goes into a total concentration mode when it comes to things like that."

"Instead, what do you think, Lord I?"

"You're not really going to stop calling me that, are you?"

"I'm sorry, but 'Lord I' is 'Lord I.'"

"Whatever, I give up. I don't think I'll be able to change your mind. In any case, I obviously like him, but you should already know that. I can't help but admire people who try as hard as he does."

Nero simply smiled at Enea's response.

"Anyway, Nero, if you want to return to our dimension, you can. I'll take Kazuki to his room."

"No, as a thank him for letting me have such a fun fight, I'll take him."

"All right, if it's not a problem for you, go ahead and do it."

Having gotten Enea's approval, Nero put Kazuki on her back and together they began to walk toward the house.

As they were walking, with Kazuki still unconscious, Nero asked Enea a question, "From the beginning you had no intention of killing Kazuki, even if he failed, did you?"

"Of course. It was just an excuse to make sure that he would give his best and to let him experience a fight with the risk of death. If Kazuki failed the test and if I really killed him for some reason, that bastard mentally warned me that I would have to say goodbye to my universe. But he also told me that if he died in battle with you. In his own words, 'it would still be an interesting death'. In any case, even without that order, I would not have killed him. I don't know what kind of mission that asshole will give us tomorrow, so I wouldn't have taken away his basic chance of survival."

Again, Nero just smiled and the two walked towards the house.

Kazuki woke up and found himself in the bed of his room in the wooden house. Sitting up, he immediately looked at his right arm and noticed that there were no burns at all and immediately realised that Enea had made him drink his blood as usual. Looking around, he saw that Enea was sitting on a chair next to his bed, intent on looking at his mobile phone. Noticing that Kazuki had woken up, Enea put the mobile phone in his pocket and said, "Good morning, or should I say good afternoon, Kazuki. It's been six hours since you passed out after the test. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thanks to thanks to your blood. Was it you who brought me here?"

"No, it was Nero, who is technically a part of me. So you could say it was me, but that's not important."

"Where is she now? If it was really her, I would like to thank her."

"I am sorry, but she returned to my dimension after taking you to bed. However, she did leave me a message for you. I quote: 'Boy, that was a very fun fight. If you come back alive from your first mission, let's do another one. I won't hold back next time, so get ready. '" Kazuki, briefly remembering the fight, replied, "T-tell her I'll think about it."

"I'll tell her," Enea replied.

"Anyway, what are you doing in my room?" asked Kazuki. "Is this the way to thank a person who waited six hours for you to wake up so he could explain what happened in case you were confused? But there seems to be no need. So I'm going. I don't know if you noticed, but thinking you might be hungry, I left some rice salad with cutlery on your nightstand. It's probably a little different from the rice you're used to eating in Japan, but I hope you like it anyway."

With that, Enea got up from his chair and headed for the bedroom door, but just before he left he stopped and said, "Ah, one last thing. I suggest you wake up early tomorrow morning if you don't want to be called to that bastard's room while you sleep." Then he left the room.

Alone in his room, Kazuki felt his stomach growling. Immediately, he took the plate of rice and a spoon that Enea had left for him from the bedside table and started to eat. This "rice salad", as Enea had called it, was not bad at all, even though it was cold; there were various other mixed things in it, like eggs, tuna, olives and other things that gave it a good taste, although nothing could beat the simple rice and grilled fish that his sister made. As he finished eating, he felt that he had not fully recovered from the fight with Nero. He took his alarm clock and set it a little earlier than usual, just to be on the safe side. Then, though with some anxiety about the next day that threatened to keep him awake, he fell asleep.

The alarm clock read six in the morning. As expected, he had slept until it sounded and was fortunately still in his room in this wooden house, a sign that he had not woken up too late. Kazuki felt that he had regained all the energy he had expended in yesterday's fight. He quickly got dressed and left the room. All the lights were still off, which probably meant that Enea had not woken up yet. So Kazuki went downstairs and sat down on the sofa to wait.

After more or less half an hour, Enea went downstairs and entered the living room on his way to the kitchen. When he saw Kazuki on the couch, he asked him, "Do you want to eat something for breakfast or are you too restless?" As far as Kazuki understood, the Italian breakfast usually consisted of something not abundant and sweet, so even if he answered yes, Enea would not prepare anything for him, but simply give him some kind of dessert he kept in the various drawers, or what he ate every morning: yogurt. In any case, Enea was right, the agitation over the impending mission had completely taken away his hunger. But unwilling to admit it, he replied, "Yes, would you pass me a white yogurt?"

Enea took a berry yogurt and a white yogurt out of the fridge. He gave the white one to Kazuki, who reluctantly started eating it on the couch, while Enea sat down at the table to eat his berry one.

When Kazuki finished his yogurt, he asked Enea, "So when does the mission start?"

Enea replied, "He didn't tell me a specific time, but soon a portal should appear in this living room that will take us to his room and there he will explain the contents of the mission."

"So you don't know what or where I'm doing this mission either?"

"No, that bastard almost always gives you all the information at the last moment, sometimes he sends you directly to the mission location without giving you any information. Then, days, weeks, or even months later, he finally tells you what to do. But I can assure you of one thing: He will send me with you."

The moment Enea finished speaking, a large, completely black portal that looked both liquid and gaseous appeared in the middle of the living room. "Looks like it's time to go. Are you ready, Kazuki?" Enea said as he got up from his chair.

Kazuki got up from the couch, took a deep breath and answered with a simple "Yes". Then both boys entered the portal.

On the other side of the portal, there was the same mystical looking room that Kazuki had seen seven days ago. There, waiting for them, was the imposing figure of the strange being who had decided to disrupt his life, with the exact same smile on his face as when he had first met him.

"Welcome back, Kazuki Kenmoto. From what I've seen, Enea has already explained most of the important things to you. So, will you agree to work for me?" the being asked.

"As far as I know, if I don't accept, you would eliminate my universe and my little sister. I can't let that happen, so I accept, old man!" Kazuki replied with conviction.

"Perfect. Then I can start explaining to you what your first mission will be, Kazuki."

The two boys nodded and the entity being began to speak, "Soon I will send you to the planet Earth of a universe where dinosaurs never became extinct, but where humans similar to those you know still exist. Because of the dangers of travel due to the presence of such dangerous and mammoth animals, these humans tend to live in huge cities that are extremely distant and completely isolated from each other. In practice, what would be extremely large cities for you are entire countries for them. But this dangerous environment in which they have lived since ancient times, along with other causes, has also led to special mutations in many individuals of this humanity, and to a much higher level of technology in some areas than you are accustomed to. I will have you appear near one of these cities, and your mission will be to stop a rebellion that is being secretly prepared there. This is all the information I have decided to give you. If you have any questions, you can ask them, but I will decide whether to answer them or not".

Kazuki thought for a moment and then asked, "How will I communicate with the people who live there? I assume they don't speak Japanese."

This question was not answered by the nameless being, but it was Enea: "Sorry, I forgot to tell you when I explained the characteristics we have in common. Words we hear in languages we do not understand are automatically translated for us into the language we know best, and vice versa, words we say in a language the people listening to us do not understand are automatically translated into the language they know best. The same is true for the things we write and read. But be careful: this translation is automatic; we can't decide when it happens and when it doesn't, so it can get a little confusing from time to time."

Kazuki didn't quite understand what he was supposed to pay attention to since it seemed to be a skill with only positive points, but he nodded anyway.

"I won't answer anything else, but just in case I ask: do you have any more questions?" the entity asked.

Kazuki and Enea remained silent.

"Perfect. I will consider the mission to have begun the moment you arrived in this universe. There is no time limit to complete the mission except the life of the current queen. Enea, as usual, in this kind of mission you are forbidden to use your research skills to find the rebels. Well, boys, I'm sending you now. Do your best and show me something interesting."

With that, a portal, the same as the one that had brought the two to the place where Kazuki's training had taken place, appeared again below them and began to suck them in. This time, however, Kazuki did not struggle or scream; his gaze was fixed on the entity that had caused this, as he promised himself that he would complete the mission and see his sister again in the blink of an eye.

Stepping out of the portal, they found themselves in a tropical forest with huge trees. Out of them came animal sounds that Kazuki had never felt before and that probably no longer existed in his world.

"So, which direction do we go? That old man said he would send us near the city where this rebellion is supposed to be, but if we don't go in the right direction, we will definitely get lost," Kazuki asked Enea.

"If the city is as huge as he said, I should be able to see it from above," Enea said and disappeared from Kazuki's sight. This did not surprise him, as he had become accustomed to Enea's sudden bursts of speed. He just looked around to find him almost immediately, standing above him, higher than the trees, as if there was an invisible ground beneath him. After a few seconds, Enea reappeared beside him and said, "I'm pretty sure the city is straight ahead, a few kilometers away. I didn't see any buildings, but I saw the top of what looked like a dome made of energy, I think? I'm honestly not sure what it was made of, but I guess it's to protect the city from flying reptiles and dinosaurs."

"Do you really think we will see dinosaurs? I didn't pay attention to it when the old man said it earlier, but now that I think about it, it seems totally ridiculous," Kazuki asked, doing his best to hide his excitement at the idea of seeing something that probably every boy had dreamed of when he was a child.

"Yes, definitely. Maybe they won't be the same dinosaurs you see in the movies or read about in books, considering the millions of extra years they've had to evolve and diversify.But he doesn't lie about the information he gives you about the mission, but he almost always leaves things out. So don't expect what he says to be the whole story. Anyway, I think we'd better get going. I don't like camping, so I'd rather get to the city before it gets dark," Enea replied.

Kazuki nodded in agreement and the two boys began to make their way into the forest.

It had already been a few minutes since they had started walking. They had not seen any animals yet and Kazuki was beginning to feel the effects of the tropical temperature of this forest.

"Enea, how can you stay in your sweatshirt in this heat?", Kazuki asked.

"Try to bring your hand closer to my body," Enea replied.

Although a bit confused, Kazuki listened to Enea and brought his hand closer, stopping just before touching the sweatshirt. "It's cold!" he said shocked. Around Enea, there seemed to be some kind of barrier that created a cold zone around his body.

Enea, with a smile on his face, seemed ready to explain, but their attention was drawn to the sound of people fighting not far away.