Walking down the road, I had the chance to take stock for the first time without distractions.

I knew any plans I made right now would be useless if I didn’t have the ability to actually pull them off. So as I walked I decided to start playing with my abilities.

Focusing, I tried projecting a simple knife into my hand. I ‘felt’ an energy move towards my hand and begin creating the projection. Instinctively I called up the materials, structure, manufacturing method, and aging process in a second and felt the knife solidify in my hand. My heart leapt at the sight, only to plummet when a few seconds later when the knife shattered into fractals of light.

Interestingly, I knew where I had messed up. I failed to properly anchor the image of the knife to the mana structure I created, causing the knife to shatter when the projection became solid. In fact I even had some ideas on how to do it better the next time I tried, but the main thing to take away from this experiment was upsetting. I didn’t have anywhere close to the same amount of skill using the skills that I had inherited.

Not that I wasn’t expecting that. I didn’t think I would be throwing Noble Phantasms around right out of the gate. But I thought basic normal weapons would be fairly easy! Maybe trying something simpler and more direct would be easier?

Gathering the energy I felt earlier, I tried to form a ‘bullet’ in the palm of my hand.

Soft golden light collected in a floating orb a few inches above my hand, before scattering as my focus wavered. Again I had the feeling of knowing what went wrong. The compression of mana was not enough to overcome the natural scattering effect of the environment. So the spell collapsed when I failed to adjust.

I stopped walking and started thinking about what this meant going forward. If my magical skills were at this level. What were my knowledge base? When my head was splitting open on the riverbank I had a ton of info flash through it, but for all that I didn’t really feel like I knew anything I didn’t know before. Should I though? I’m not exactly an expert on how soul-fusion knowledge transfers are supposed to work after all.

Well the easiest way to test this is to think of something I have no right of knowing before this, and something that I would need in the future.

So come on Alex! How do you build a device?

My fading headache spiked back into existence as info poured into my head. Annoyingly this came with another frustrating realization. I knew exactly how to build a number of different devices. The problem being, I ‘knew’ how to do this in the same way a random person off the street knew particle physics cause they were handed a textbook on the subject.

I had all of the knowledge but none of the context or understanding to make use of it!

It wasn’t all bad news though, now that I had tried accessing that knowledge I could tell that there was a slight feeling at the back of my mind like the info from earlier was slowly being assimilated. I had a feeling it would take decades to naturally absorb the info there, but specifically searching out info seemed to make it come quicker. At the cost of a massive headache.

So great! I had the abilities and the knowledge to take on so many different threats, but none of the skill or understanding to put them to use. That… could be really bad. But bright side Alex, you have a year before anything serious happens and if I could dodge the main cast I might just be able to set up shop somewhere else. Maybe hop on a plane and tour the world as an invisible stow-away? Thoughts for later.

First, I need to get better at using my abilities. Everything else can come after.

Sighing I resume my walk towards town, projecting various small objects as I go.

-o-

After twenty minutes of walking, my skill in projecting object has risen to new levels of mastery! The hard work and effort I have poured into my craft has allowed me to reach a level of proficiency anyone else would see as a monstrous level of genius and a true prodigy in the making! Yes I, Alexandria Cross, can now create a sword that lasts-

-all of two minutes.

Honestly all joking aside, the rate of improvement is rather surprising. I might not be creating magical weapons from myth and legend, but I am quickly mastering a skill that took years of practice to get to even this level in minutes.

Truly having skills directly implanted into your soul gives the best results.

Now to just keep on practicing. This is likely going to be the combat skill I rely on the most in the coming days. I need to be able to do it subconsciously even in the middle of a fight.

Another sigh escapes my lips as the swords collapses into light again, before choosing another style and projecting a new sword.

-o-

A little while later, I made it to the outskirts of town. I don’t really have a destination in mind, since for all the events that occurred in Karakura, none of them really showed somewhere available for setting up an unnoticed base of operations. So I just wandered through the area practicing weapon projection and taking in the sights.

As I passed by the third park of the night, I saw a public restroom and decided to take a break from my self guided tour of the area. This would also be a good place to run another couple of tests without standing in the open for a wandering Hollow to get the drop on me, not that I had seen any of them so far. So I guess the Soul Reaper on station was doing a good job of keeping the numbers down.

Entering the building, I confirmed that I was the only one in here at a glance and turned to the main reason I wanted to stop here.

A wall length mirror.

So I wanted to know what I looked like, okay? Windows were only so good at catching a reflection and looking down didn’t give me the full picture.

I ran my eyes over the reflected image taking in the details. A tall girl with European features, very athletic figure and a moderate bust. Loose blonde hair that ended just below my shoulders and deep blue eyes.

Overall, I thought I looked rather pretty. Always nice being able to take pride in your appearance.

The outfit was still looked weird to me. But now that I saw it from an outside perspective I can't say it looks bad. Although blending in with the locals is out, since I basically look like a gender-swapped EMIYA cosplayer. There are some differences from what I remember EMIYA looking like, for one the black undershirt doesn’t have any markings on them. And thankfully the close fitting pants aren’t covered in belts or straps. Finally my boots aren't capped. Just plain black combat boots. Still have the random red sleeves and silly cape though. Not that I mind, I actually think the look is really cool. It just doesn’t blend with the souls of dead Japanese people in the modern world.

Taking a breath, I prepare for experiment number one. Creating clothing. Not the most exciting use of my new abilities but if I’m going to lay low a change of clothes would go a long way. Especially cause I have no idea where I would get new clothes for a spirit.

This will need to be a long lasting construct so unlike my weapon practice, I take my time and think the whole thing through. Creating an image of myself wearing a simple sweatshirt I try forcing the projection into being, only for the red parts of my outfit to shimmer and a small tug at the back of my mind to distract me before I lose the image.

Well that was different. Focusing on my hand, I try projecting a sweatshirt like it was a sword. It forms with no issue. I try directly projecting the shirt onto me, and get more flickering and that feeling again.

I think I just found out how my barrier jacket works. Now, lets see how I can mess with it. Forming another mental model of me, instead of projecting a new image onto the model, I try changing the current image into something different.

Slowly over the course of a few minutes, my outfit changes into a simple black t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. Excellent, it takes concentration and time but I can walk around without drawing more attention to myself than a normal soul would! Concentrating again, I try changing back into my old outfit, only for it to snap into place in a few seconds.

Okay, um…

I try changing back into casual clothes. The process isn’t any faster than the first time. I feel my eye twitch in annoyance. I have a combat outfit?! Why?! A quick test with a projected knife shows the combat outfit isn't that much more durable than normal clothes, so why does it form so much faster? I have a feeling I won’t know the answer unless I start digging through my Archive, and it isn’t that much of a priority. Just accept the stupid combat outfit works on its own rules and move on Alex, you have one more test you wanted to try.

Switching back to my casual outfit, I take deep cleansing breaths to distract from the clothes mystery and get ready to test out the ability that will determine everything about any plans going forward.

Astralization

Depending on how this works, I see two paths I could pursue. If I can physically materialize and interact with normal living people, I could search out allies, get resources, and leave the whole mess about to hit this town behind with no worries. But if I become even more of a ghost, then it will give me a good escape option and ways of moving around unseen even to the main cast.

Not really sure how I’d get resources in a timely manner if it's the second but no use worrying about it till I know which one it is.

By now I was able to sort of feel out how to use my different skills pretty easily, even if using them was another thing entirely. Now, I reached out towards Astralization and felt that it was somewhat like a sliding scale. I mentally grabbed hold of it and threw the slider to the other side of the spectrum. Concentrating hard as I felt my skill trying to activate.

I easily spent a few hours trying to get the skill to activate, but always seemed to have it slip my grasp right at the end. I felt like I was getting the hang of it though.

Centering myself for another try, I let all thoughts drift out of my mind and reached for the skill again. This time I felt the world around me fade into a mosaic of watercolored shapes as the skill took hold.

Satisfaction rushed through me as I finally got the skill to work, it wasn’t the option I preferred but I still got a handle on another of my abilities. That being said, this wouldn’t be a quick escape skill. It took far more concentration to pull this off than would be realistic in the middle of a fight, and moving around felt like moving through an incredible viscous liquid.

Not super great for spying either, as everything was blurry and indistinct. As I watched someone else enter the restroom, I could barely make out her features and the sounds she was making sounded like she was underwater. Though going by what I could hear, she was singing some kind of song.

Reaching back out for my ‘slider’ I threw it back the other way. Shockingly I felt it go a bit further on the scale than it originally had been. Or was I just imagining it?

I leaned on the sink counter and started thinking about my next moves.

One of the stalls opened up, as the person from earlier stepped out. She looked in my direction and gave a startled yelp that distracted me from my thoughts.

“Oh I’m sorry, you just scared me a bit. I didn’t hear anyone else come in.” She said a little breathlessly.

Shocked, I stared at her. She could see me?

As I tried to drag my suddenly chaotic thoughts into order, halfheartedly reassured her it was fine. While she finished cleaning up and left, I ironed out the beginnings of a plan. If normal people could see me, and I refused to believe that the first random person to walk into me was spiritually aware, then I could just leave! Maybe actually do the whole invisible tourist thing and set up as an information broker for the police somewhere as I gathered resources to build a way off this dimension.

A smile broke out on my face as I left the restroom. The sun was just fully coming up over the horizon, and I had a plan.

I had a feeling today was going to be a good day.