"The first fated container vanquished its lust, united with its partner, they cared for no other"

|Attempting First Person Narrative|

|Access Denied permanently|

|.......|

There's a different bedroom in a different place.

Here lies a young lady,18 years of age, and drifting herself off to close dreams.

Are her dreams good or bad? Whatever they are, she seems quite happy.

The sound of birds chirping awakes her slumbering body, blinding light pierces through her window, and a gust of wind flings it open exposing the strong stench of the sea to her bedroom.

She yawns and glances around the sky-blue walls of the room. Such calm and serene color eases her stress and provides a sense of childhood nostalgia.

You can say that it is like a coping mechanism that she desperately needs especially for someone who had a dreadful past.

The walls are also lined to the brim with many of her famous artwork and drawings of herself and her friends.

She sits with her legs crossed and stares at a particular portrait above her comfy pink bed.

The girl prays to heaven.

It is a picture of a man, a French artist to be exact, "Claude Monet".

?? "Sorry, great grandfather."

Despite inheriting the same gift for art all her life, she doesn't follow the path of impression-based painting like her great grandfather did. Instead, she opted to draw anime/cartoon characters or fantasy-like environments and objects.

Hoping off her bed, she goes to her desk near the open window and opens up her DeviantArt, Patreon, and Pinterest page.

Her reputation is astonishing, to say the least, with millions of fans on each platform, which isn't surprising since she did come up with designs for characters across ten different famous cartoons and anime that rose to global stardom. Although, the girl rarely reveals herself and likes to stay behind closed doors.

Enough of that. Today, she isn't going to draw or do any work because a special someone is coming to visit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Japan, a young man falls off a tree.

?? "Ouch!"

?? "Ah, Kanji you're awake."

Kanji "Yep, I guess. Man, that was a good slumber. I think it's a good time to get going. Right, AN?"

Kanji stands up and reaches into his backpack, pulling out a pitch-black orb small enough to fit in his palm.

AN "What is that, Kanji?"

Kanji "It is a device that displays a holographic world map of Earth and illustrates details such as air currents, tides, rain probability, temperature, and more through geological data."

AN "That is quite useful. But before we move on... something strange happened."

Kanji "What?"

AN "You see the panel that I'm observing you with. It now has a cursor which I can move by using the relic like a mouse."

Kanji "Strange. When did this happen?"

AN "Right after you got awakened, but we got so side-tracked with our conversation that I didn't notice it."

Kanji "Ummm, perhaps every time an aspect user is awakened new features are added to the viewing device. Like updating programs or games for new features."

AN "Your hypothesis seems valid, Kanji."

Kanji "Is there anything else on the screen?"

AN "Actually yeah! There is an "I" icon in the bottom left corner. I should probably click."

AN clicks the mysterious icon.

AN "Woah!"

A barrage of blue boxes covers the whole screen.

AN "Holy shit! What's all this?! Wait... is that all of your information?"

Kanji "Hey, what?! Excuse me but that seems like a breach of privacy."

He said nervously, hoping for a good response.

AN "Nevermind, it only shows what I know about you. So your secrets are safe."

Kanji "Whew."

AN goes over the other tabs.

One of them shows some of Kanji's history, one shows his clothing and equipment, and lastly, AN tumbles upon a special tab called "Perks".

AN "One of the tabs is called "Perks", and it seems your group has 2 more other given abilities other than "Rejuvenation"."

Kanji "Wait... really? Please tell."

AN "Yep, They are called "Special immunity" and "Enhanced Stats". Special immunity makes you resist any kind of poison, toxins, gas, or venom. As for the other, you are just faster and stronger."

Kanji "All these perks seem very overpowered, a tad bit overboard to be precise."

AN "To my guess, you are granted this many perks because of your enemies. In the past, wielders were given perks depending on how strong their adversaries were. Some got Flight and some can even breathe in space!"

Kanji "This means our enemy is very fucking strong... Aren't they?"

AN "I can definitely vouch for that statement."

Kanji "Alright, I guess it is time for me to depart from Kyushu."

AN "Do you know who you are going to get first?"

Kanji "Last night, I privately sent each of them a specific number, the lowest number goes first. And yes, I do know who."

A warm feeling stirs within his heart, he points his right hand in a certain direction.

Kanji "Over there is the country of love where a girl whom my heart longs for lives. For 8 long years, we were far apart, today we will no longer be."

AN "Oh, If she is your lover. Then I think I know what aspect she might be."

Kanji "Wait... wait! Wait, What? What do you mean by that?! Are you suggesting that my relationship only exists because of what aspect I am?!"

AN "Woah calm down! It's not like that at all! In fact, it's the opposite."

Ka: "Care to elaborate."

AN "The relic chooses people because they are compatible or already in a relationship. Every aspect has another aspect as a partner."

Kanji "So in this case, The Aspect of Energy lines up another aspect huh."

AN "No, your case is quite complex. You see The Aspect of Energy enters a harmonious three-way relationship which can either consist of three boys, three girls, two boys and one girl, or even two girls and one boy."

Kanji "Ok, but that would make one person in the group, "Single". No...wait, it actually makes sense as the Aspect of Fate would be the lone one out."

AN "Yes, exactly! But we should leave the subject of romance later. For now, we should focus on how to get to France. I presume... that is the country you described."

Kanji "Correct! And I got an idea to get there! Basically, I will become one with energy itself."

AN "What do you mean?"

Kanji "I mean I can turn myself into electricity and use the electrical lines to travel to France."

AN "I don't think using the electrical lines can get you that far and it would be impossible to travel using temperature."

Kanji smirks.

Kanji "Watch and learn."

He changes the map to show the world's air currents. Kanji relaxes his body and feels it slowly seep into the cold open air, drifting his loose form westward over Europe.

Kanji now knows

|2. Energy Travel|

Hours have passed, and The Aspect of Energy lies unconscious on the shores of Corsica, France.

He gets up.

Kanji "Woah! Where are we?!"

He stands up and dusts off the sand on his pants.

AN "We are apparently in Corsica. One of the many great coastal regions of France."

Kanji stares at his map for confirmation, but he then notices something else.

Kanji "It's fucking late noon! Was I really unconscious for that long?"

AN "Yep. I guess that ability couldn't keep up with a distance between here and Japan."

Suddenly an alarm goes off in Kanji's backpack.

He panics and scrambles through it. He yanks out a small red blinking button. This is...

Kanji "My anti-spyware device. Shit! Someone is watching us!"

He looks around and in the corner of his eyes, he spots a girl staring at them on one of the coastal house balconies.

AN too sees the person.

The girl retreats into her room.

Kanji "Let's check it out."

He cautiously approaches a tall coastal home, the building is standard in design and structure, nothing out of the ordinary.

Kanji exhales and knocks on the door.

?? "Coming!"

A voice giggles cheerfully.

Kanji "Wait, This voice is--"

The door dramatically opens and a beautiful young lady steps out. Her luscious long hair as pink as cotton candy stretches toward her waist, it flows brilliantly with the wind. Her eyes are as blue as the open sky above.

Standing in a playful manner, the girl rocks an outfit consisting of a special orange sweater over a blank yellow t-shirt, a short blue skirt, long white socks, and red sneakers.

Her "More specific features" are regular size.

She gives Kanji a smile, it is like seeing a childhood friend who moved away a long time ago.

?? "I'm so happy to see you in person, Kanji..."

She tips her head to the right.

?? "... Kimura."

Kanji "Wait...How did you know my...You know what never mind."

He stares at her sweater, Kanji made it for her 4 years before a certain Event.

This sweater switches between many of her artwork each day. Today, It is a crudely drawn sunflower with rainbow petals.

He looks at her face, and their eyes meet.

Kanji "It's been a long time since we... talked, Claire."

They awkwardly blush. Claire then broke the tension, grabbing Kanji tightly by his right hand.

Claire "Come on, I'll show you my room!"

Kanji follows Claire to the upper floor. They both enter her bedroom and it is exactly what he expected an artist's room to look like.

He notices the portrait of Claude Monet above her bed.

Kanji "Wait, you're actually his great-granddaughter! I thought you were just joking around when you told everyone."

Claire "Of course I am. Dummy."

She pouts like a little kid, showing a cute impression of anger.

Kanji then spots a stack of novels sticking out from under her bed and tries to take a look, but Claire dashes in and spin-kicks the novels back underneath the bed.

Claire "Nope! There's nothing there! Y-You didn't see anything."

She spoke nervously hoping for him to just ignore it.

Kanji just assumes they are her diaries and ignores them.

In reality, he is ignorant to the fact these are Claire's Fanfics of herself and Kanji. Claire secretly puts them into an orange backpack.

Kanji "Umm, Claire. The reason for me to pick everyone up is becau-

Claire put her finger over his lips.

Claire "Kanji, you are always so serious and all like getting to the bottom of this and that. Why don't we just chill? Besides, aren't you forgetting something?"

She expects Kanji to answer. He sweats and responds with

Kanji "Ummm, today is your Deviantart milestone."

He said as he glanced over her shoulder at her computer.

Claire "Oh come on! You promised that we have a date if we meet up in real life."

Kanji "Sorry."

Claire "I forgive you!"

She then grabs his arm once more and they make their way to a town square down the road from the shore.

Claire "Over there!"

She points to a small Cafe called "Détendez-Vous".

They sit at an outdoor table. It seems the staffs there are quite friendly and familiar with Claire. Kanji concludes she comes here often.

Kanji "How are you feeling?"

Claire "I'm good, but I'm now great! Especially with you finally being here with me! It was so depressing being alone. Like you know... in real life."

Kanji "True."

They simultaneously sip a cup of coffee and laugh. They continue talking to each other about certain topics like movies, games, and animes for two hours.

Kanji ".....Demon Vanquisher is awesome anime, you should watch it."

Claire "Maybe Kanji, you and I can watch it to-ge-ther."

He lays his left hand over hers.

Kanji "Sure, why-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A large Impact crashes into the middle of the town square. From the crater, four knight-looking individuals crawl out of a metal pod.

Claire looks at them and swiftly pulls Kanji into a nearby alley.

Kanji "Claire, what is going on?!"

Claire "Don't worry Kanji, The police can take care of it! My dreams were right! But there is no way some alien invasion can stop this date!"

She raises her fist.

Kanji, confused as he might be, leads Claire out of the other end of the alleyway. There, the two stand against the side of a small bridge over a long and crystal clear waterway.

Claire looks at Kanji.

Claire "I guess you want answers... huh."

Kanji "Yes!"

Claire "..... fine. AN! I know you're there!"

AN "Oh umm. Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt your time of adorable moments."

Claire "It's fine."

Kanji waits for an explanation.

Claire "Ok, so I have dreams... dreams that for some reason show me the future."

Kanji "Are they perhaps images or something else?"

Claire "No, there are scenarios like videos playing over and over. All of them show what is going to happen today."

AN interrupts.

AN "Well, fuck. I forgot to tell you about the wielder's dream."

Kanji/Claire: "The wielder's dream?"

AN "As you know, there are 12 aspects. Six are active and Six are passive. The active aspects have images as their dreams that show something of great importance that will happen in the far future. While passive aspects have scenarios that will happen soon but lack relevancy."

Kanji "Welp. There go years of theory crafting gone in an instant, just like that."

Kanji kicks the ground, upset from what he heard.

Claire puts her arm over his shoulders.

Claire "Cheer up. Kaney."

Kanji "Hah, You combined Kanji and honey. That's clever."

He cheers up and looks at her. She doesn't seem surprised.

Ka: "You knew what's going to happen. Didn't you? And that's how you know my last name?"

Claire "Yep! Sorry for hiding it, Kaney. I guess we can't delay this any longer. AN activate my powers."

AN nods and spins the relic.

A symbol of a flower, a line travels an infinity-shaped path around its diagonal axis, it shines a cheerful orange.

AN presses the relic in.

The panel left of Kanji's panel lights up, revealing a view of Claire.

She levitates and lands back on the bridge.

AN "Congratulation! You're now the aspect of |o| Creation |o|"

Claire "Cool!"

Kanji looks closely around her body.

Kanji "None of her body parts changed!"

Claire "Are you suuure?"

She grins, tears a piece of her hair, and stuffs it into his mouth.

Kanji "What the.....Wait, this tastes sweet."

Claire "My hair is made of cotton candy!"

She takes a huge bite out of her hair and it grows back instantly.

Kanji touches and inspects it, it feels and smells like hair, but tastes exactly like cotton candy.

Claire "Do you want to know how your powers work, Miss Claire?"

Claire "Nope. I already know from my dreams but explain it anyway..."

She then hugs Kanji.

Claire "... for Kaney."

Kanji "Doesn't her powers work the same way?"

AN "No, some aspects don't work well with the whole one skill per day system. So some have a uniquely different scaling system."

AN adds on.

AN "Let's start with the crystals. Each crystal gives her new skills. It starts with Create, Absorb, Change, Fusion, and then Conjure."

"Each day, she is allowed 5 slots to create any objects as long as she has seen and touched said object once before. She is allowed to create one item per slot unless it is something that allows other objects to function like ammo or batteries. In this case, the amount she can create is equal to the max amount of slots she has."

"Furthermore, Each crystal also increases the maximum slots by 5."

Kanji "That is... pretty crazy. So what are you going to crea-

He turns and sees her holding a crossbow, some bolts, a black cloak, an ammo pouch, and a donut. She puts on the cloak and pouch as she consumes the donut.

Claire "How do I look?"

She said, her mouth full of bready goodness.

Kanji "Hot and cool. What should we do now?"

Claire leans unconformably close to Kanji and whispers to his ears.

Claire "I know what to do."

Kanji stunned by her words remains still. She moves back.

Claire "I have a gift for Kan. Ji."

She dashes forward aiming herself toward his lips.

Claire "Un bisou mon amour."

He dodges to the left and Claire trips.

However, he catches her by the waist and leans in for a counter-attack, a french kiss specifically.

12 seconds have passed and both of them are lying on the ground, sweating and out of breath. They sit and look at one another.

Claire "THAT wasn't fair!"

She said being as red as a tomato.

Kanji "Says the girl who knows the future. I say we are even."

She laughs and Kanji follows after. They lift each other.

AN "You guys know I saw all of that, right?"

Kanji "Shit! We forgot AN is watching."

AN "Don't worry I won't tell anymore. Hehehe."

From the same alley the two left, a group of three girls slowly pops through. Claire recognizes them immediately.

Claire "Oh no. Not those douches."

Kanji stares over where she's looking. He sees three cheerleaders, one with orange pigtails, one with short black hair, and one with curly brown hair.

The orange one looks at Kanji.

"Holy shit! Your imaginary boyfriend is real!"

Kanji whispers to Claire.

Kanji "Who are these three?"

Claire whispers back.

Claire "Rich assholes who think they can get away with anything. They have a track record for making lots of kids commit death because of their bullying. I'm currently their favorite target which is why I rarely go outside these days."

Her expression grows dreary, the positive and joyful girl he saw a moment ago is gone and all he sees is a sad and gloomy Claire.

She continues.

Claire "I was once a carefree, naive, and happy young girl who was always optimistic and loved many things in life. When they showed up and started picking on me, I lost my spark and fell into depression for years, and nearly became another victim of their doing. I couldn't even make friends."

She shakily holds his hand and looks at him with happiness in her eyes and cries.

Claire "You gave me the power to rediscover my past and gave me hope from in that ocean of despair."

The orange hair girl sees their whispering and becomes annoyed. The three approaches Kanji.

"Hey, handsome. How about you and I ditch this bitch loser."

Kanji filled with anger pulls out his silver chain and swings it at her throat. The impact lacerates the neck, her head falls to the ground and her body tumbles like a broken doll. It gusts out blood and paints the waterway a deep red.

The two others stare in horror, slowly backing away.

A nearby officer sees the act of murder.

"Hey! Put your hands up!"

Kanji reaches into his pocket and raises a strange red card engraved with the word "France".

The Officer sees it with fear. But at the same time, he is also relieved. He quickly arrested the two girls instead and looks back at Kanji.

Kanji shouts

Kanji "Tell your president. He is safe from my wrath!"

The Officer nods and guides the two frightened girls out.

Kanji looks at Claire. She isn't scared at all by his actions.

Kanji "You aren't afraid of what I did. Is it because you saw it many times already or because she deserves it?"

Claire "Both. But no matter what you do I will always believe in you."

Kanji "I guess I have to explain this huh."

Claire "Yep! Mysterious backstory time!"

Kanji "Okay, in short, I was in World War III."

He looks at Claire expecting her to respond but she didn't.

Kanji "Let's start from the beginning..."

When Kanji was 14 years old, he wanted to apply to the Japanese military in the hope to fulfill himself. Normally, you have to be 18 or older to be enlisted, but he was an exception. The government offered him special treatment in the military, but he declined and was insistent on going through everything a normal soldier goes through which gave him a lot of respect from others.

There he learned hand-to-hand combat and developed his own fighting style using a metal chain. He has gotten so good at it that he can position the chain to wrap to any part of his body in one second, which can help block bullets. He also learned to swing the chain in a way that it cuts instead of hits. This combined with his tungsten-infused silver chain helped him survive the upcoming war.

It was August 25, 2041, when it happened. The Americans and Russians can no longer handle the tension between them and so they declared war under the rules of no nuclear weapons. No other country wanted to get involved so it was just between the two major countries. However, a tragic incident happened just 30 days after. Both countries secretly launched a stealth missile, but an error caused both bombs to collide in Tokyo. Millions of people died.

This caused a global uproar, everyone became very upset with the two major countries that every single country declared war on them. Thus, creating World War III.

Kanji started his first campaign when Russian troops invaded his hometown of Kyushu around winter. For the first time in his life, he felt pain, and hardship and eventually overcame the fear of death. During the past three months after the invasion, he fought ferociously, saving fellow soldiers left and right, using his intellect on a whim to achieve his goals and protect his home. He lost his left leg, got plenty of bullet wounds, and nearly died multiple times. Fortunately, thanks to advanced modern medical technology, he was healed completely from said injuries with no scars left behind.

The higher-ups feared that they might lose Kanji as he is a valuable individual of Japan and so they wanted to put him in a safer position while still having a major role in the war. A thought came to their minds, "Many great geniuses throughout the ages used their minds to discover and invent new things through science."

"What if they used their minds in the art of warfare?"

The higher-ups gave every war-based record in human history to Kanji, which he managed to memorize in 2 days. And with his talent to construct new ideas, he developed many unorthodox military tactics that nobody has ever heard of, so they put them to the test. The result was absurd almost comical even, Japan won all further conflicts with ease.

Eventually, Russia and America have had enough. They launched two massive hydrogen bombs on Japan. As hope was fading from the Japanese people, the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki clouded their minds. However, the two bombs exploded far in the sky.

Kanji knew that his tactics alone wouldn't be enough to save Japan. So he worked on a project called "Mass Bug". The day before the missile launch he released trillions of nanobots across the world. They infiltrated all military bases, intelligence centers, and nuclear warheads storage. They were basically invisible since nano detection devices didn't exist yet.

As a show of power, the Japanese detonated all the Russian and American nuclear bombs. It destroyed all their military bases which shocked and terrified the whole world.

This is it, Japan actually had the power to rule the world.

However, not if democracy can say anything about it. A movement that gathered billions of people over the world supports the end of wars for good. So many people joined in fact, that the entirety of the Japanese population favored it except the higher-ups and the government.

A historic ratio moment for future generations to learn about.

Ultimately, everyone decided on a peace conference and each government learned of Kanji's existence. They formed a treaty that suggests that Kanji won't be joining any future wars. Kanji of course signed it but under 2 conditions.

-His involvement with the war was to be kept a secret.

-He asked for a special card that allowed him to kill anyone once for each country.

Claire/AN: "Wow!"

The two are in awe.

Kanji "Wait. I thought Claire that you would know about this in your dreams."

Claire "No, my dreams don't show EVERYTHING that happens today."

Kanji "Ah I see. How about you AN? What do you think?"

AN "That was quite an awesome story, Kanji!"

AN claps, despite them not being able to see it.

Kanji look over to the location of the town square.

Kanji "I think we should go back there and see if everything's alright."

Claire "Nah! It's ok Kanji! I saw that they dealt with the soldiers easily."

Kanji "Umm, ok. I'll trust your word on that."

Both Kanji and Claire leave the premises to go back to Claire's house where they played video games and eat candy until they both pass out.

Meanwhile, the town square situation is quite dire.

Twenty officers were dead, charred to the bone, and their corpses smothered all over the place.

The injured chief stares eye to eye with the last remaining imperial soldier.

"What the hell are you? ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD!!!"

"Ha...hahaha. You apes don't deserve an answ-

The chief shoots point-blank into the soldier's visor, and his body collapses to the floor.

"Time to see what kind of terrorist organization you belong to."

He takes off the helmet.

"What in the bloody fuck?!!"

He darts back from the discovery. Suddenly, he hears footsteps behind him.

?? "Aha! A wonderful gift from our Lord and savior ke ke ke."

The chief turns around and sees a man clad in a large red robe wearing a makeshift metallic ant-like antenna. Only his hands, sandals, and the lower half of his face can be seen.

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

He points his gun at the strange man, the officer tries to keep his cool.

?? "Why, I am of course the one who has been blessed by her holiness's divine presence?"

His cool slips and he begins to panic, and the chief shoots. However, another robed individual jumps in to block the bullet. The strange man turns and looks down at his fallen comrade. The chief can see an insignia of a ten-legged ant on the man's robe.

?? "Don't worry my son. Your contribution will be carried and told."

He spreads his arms out and turns back to the chief with animosity.

"You however have broken this peaceful greeting of mine. Retribution must be served!!"

The chief then hears a stampede of footsteps all around him. One by one more similarly dressed people flood the town square.

The strange man raises his both hand and shouts

?? "BEE FORMATION!"

Their hands morph into a stinger-like dragger and charge.

Blinded by fear, the chief shoots aimlessly and screams at the assailants, but his screams soon slowly vanquish under a pile of moving red cloth.

That day no bodies were found, and no witnesses were seen, the people of Corsica will come to know of this mysterious day as "The Void Square Incident".