Yoshiko's parents were totally not surprised when she told them about the presence of Joy after coming back from the shrine. Nor when Joy introduced themselves in a voice that was not entirely their daughter's. In retrospect, Yoshiko's parents had told her of the prophecy themselves, so the fact that there was no Earthshaking Quest was really the bigger surprise.

"Well, before you leave then, we need to discuss a couple things." Yoshiko's pleasantly fluffy-haired mom Haru, written as "spring", was always calm and collected, the borderline extreme planner of the family who always seemed to know just how to manage the skill sets of her household, without helicoptering her daughter or overwhelming her mild-mannered husband Hasu. Haruna seemed to be what Joy would characterize as a druid, but a sneak look at her stats earlier revealed she had no fewer than three maxed classes: [Lv 100 Master Gardener / Lv 100 Mistress of the Greataxe] and a third that Joy hadn't quite caught. Similarly, bespectacled and tall dad Hasu, written as "lotus flower", showed up, unexpectedly, as a [Lv 100 Spirit Summoner / Lv 100 Palladium Chef].

Retired dungeoneers, Yoshiko psychically explained with a shrug.

"First off," Haru continued with a smile while pouring some rather unusually fragrant coffee ... which the hovering tooltip was gleefully reporting as Master Brew Kopi Luwak, "Before the myriad questions I'm sure you must have, we really need to look at your classes and abilities now that the soul integration has happened. Shall we?" Hasu nodded in the background, content to let his wife handle the conversation.

"Um, sure." Yoshiko brought up her main "identity screen", which Joy realized was some kind of heads-up display, projected so as to be visible to all those present. Joy was very thankful as well that the display no longer appeared to her in that weird variant of Japanese that seemed to veil everything around her before, but was being translated in her mind to the English which she primarily used to think. Convenient!

IZUMI Yoshiko [Soul Symbiont: Maria Alegría "Joy" dela Cruz RODRIGUEZ-THAYER] Level 20 Druid / Level 20 Beast Tamer / Level 20 Scholar inherited Level 40 Expert of Languages / Level 25 Forest Ranger / Level 20 Bard of the Voice Skills: Archery - Crossbow, Archery - Longbow, Beast Handling, Blades - One-Handed/Short, Cooking, Enhanced Athletics, Enhanced Mana Manipulation, Enhanced Research, Green Thumb, Soul Symbiont inherited Skills: Blades - One-Handed/Long, Enhanced Perception, Enhanced System Manipulation, Enhanced Vehicular Driving - Ground, Firearms - Pistols, Firearms - Long Arms, Limited Fast Travel, Martial Arts - Arnis/Kali, Music - Voice, Music - Woodwinds, True Universal Translator SKILL Soul Symbiont rescinds all skill point and level limits. More inherited skills to be unlocked as requirements are reached.

Yoshiko blinked at that last one. And ....

True Universal Translator?

[Skill: True Universal Translator. Allows user to pierce the veil of Yamato speech and perceive the true meaning and etymology of the words around them. Unlocked through full fluency in languages from three separate unrelated language families.]

Joy explained in her not-quite-Yoshiko-voice, "Oh, that would be me. My first language was Tagalog, I think in English, and I speak Spanish and Japanese, so with English and Spanish both being Indo-European, that makes ... three. I did try Vietnamese, but that was too hard ... oh, I guess I can understand that now though, wow."

Haru and Hasu looked at each other for a moment. "Was that ... normal? Everyone just speaks Yamato speech here."

Joy shook her head. "I think people perceive speech as what you call Yamato, or in my time, Japanese, but I'm pretty sure I was actually hearing people speaking English and Spanish in my head, and other languages too!"

Must've taken a bit to kick in though, maybe when I figured out Takasane-machi really meant Elgin!

Yoshiko's parents beamed. Haru, as usual, spoke up for both of them. "That skill is perfect for your dream, sweetpea! You always wanted to travel, and not only do you have a fast travel skill now, but your reborn soul even has language skill to the point you can even traverse the lands outside Yamato influence!"

Wait, does that mean...

"You can go anywhere." Haru paused. "At least theoretically. For now, you are limited to the fast travel nodes your reborn soul has unlocked, which won't be as useful if the nearest one hasn't been."

The big weakness of fast travel nodes was that they relied on the traveler to have already been to the destination, and people in the Ascended World tended to be homebodies, or at least stay in their local areas. While Haru and Hasu had evidently traveled elsewhere, Yoshiko had never rarely even taken the train to Yoshio-shi ... or as Joy realized, Austin, and as the mana cost to travel was rather high for her, she was waiting for the age of majority.

Wait, I thought we were in a post-scarcity world here. Ah, Joy with the psychic quip! Yoshiko could get used to this honestly.

You still need mana to move trains and vehicles, and minors don't have a whole lot, I guess it's a protective measure?

The next big surprise was that Yoshiko's mana font was suddenly showing up as well over ten times its total from the previous day, and it was clearly a sign that they were in for some real travel as soon as possible.

This was going to be awesome!

"Don't forget your recall pendant. No matter where you are, this will take you to your nearest travel node or to any attuned crystal of your choice, like your room." Haru patted Yoshiko's head between her pigtails, which now sprouted sakura blossom hair clips. Joy didn't mind being this femme, but made a quick mental note that they might want to go for a more neutral look later.

"And don't forget, sweetpea, that your inventory does have a limit, but it seems like it's expanded quite a bit, and there's also a system message that you have a parcel to pick up in Austin anyway so you'll want to do that before you head anywhere."

Yoshiko laughed at her mom's fussing. "Mom, to be honest, you seem really chill about this, is everything okay?"

Haru smiled. "Your inventory has tons of food, your mana stores are way beyond your peers - do you realize that you have more levels than 99% of people already? And you're not exactly going dungeoneering, as much as we wanted you to!" Her mom winked, and Yoshiko tried not to wince. "You'll be fine, and I think your reborn soul is going to be way more helpful there."

Haru shifted her eyes a bit. "And please don't be just a passenger, Joy. This is your life too, now, and we've been preparing for this ever since we got the prophecy."

Hasu, too, nodded, having raised his head up from brewing espresso. "If you find any good ingredients, please drop off some during your visits home." He smiled gently. "You're our only daughter after all, and you've always had such an amazing eye for them."

Yoshiko grinned at the compliment. Her parents always knew how to make her feel awesome and safe and warm, and though a tiny bit of her was loath to leave, the far greater part of her was truly really to spread her wings and fly.

As Yoshiko danced out the door to their home, which was also their nature supplies office and a gastro-cafe, she passed by and quickly belly-rubbed their pet sabertooth whose true name now showed as Ose, and waved hi to her old family friend, the black-furred catfolk Umimaru, who must be en route dungeoneering, because he actually had his battle falchion strapped on. Weird.

Umimaru strode in the door like he owned the place, par for the course for catfolk, but especially him in particularly, because he wasn't just a family friend.

"I see your kid's off on her grand adventure. Ready to get back in the saddle and meet with the rest of the old team?"

Haru was already strapping on her long-disused, but now quite polished and oversized two-headed battleaxe, and Hasu was finishing up cleaning the kitchen while grabbing a pair of knives that looked a little too ornate to be regular cookware and strapping those in, as well as a pair of pistols that appeared from a hidden compartment beneath the kitchen counter, and twirled them before popping them into holsters that materialized at his side.

Hasu adjusted his glasses.

"It's showtime."