A Wife's Viewpoint

Michiaki: “Sorry, the kids fell asleep, huh? The rice is still warm. You can have another bowl if you’d like. Sorry for all the visitors. I did not expect so many all at once to come to me. Maybe I should seal us off completely even at the bottom.”

He was talking to his wife who came down to talk about what had happened. She sat down with him, but reminded him that she was the one who didn’t want the seal in the first place. She wanted Michiaki to still have someone to look to beside them in case the world went awry. She understood Michiaki’s viewpoint and mindset completely, allowing him to make the decisions about what was best. She too wanted to protect what they had, but hearing these people beg for help was different.

Michiaki: “What’s wrong, Julia?”

Julia: “Michiaki…I get why you don’t want to fight. I do, but I don’t know how to say this without begging you.”

Michiaki: “Begging me for what?”

Julia: “To fight.”

Michiaki: “You were listening up there? Were the kids listening too?”

Julia: “No, they fell asleep fast, just me.”

Michiaki: “I see. Why are you asking me this? We’ve had countless talks about this. If you heard me even at this moment, then you would know why.”

Julia: “Do you remember when you met me? You told me you would do anything in your power to fight for me…To fight for us.”

Michiaki: “That was a different time. I no longer crave useless violence. I’m here to protect what is mine. If I am forced to fight, then I will, but this is a choice.”

Julia: “I agree that we should run, and I still believe so. I do not know the reason why the lady and her friends are fighting against God, but we have never believed in the power of the realms anyways. Some people do not even believe that they exist. Had I not met Ezra with you, then I wouldn’t have believed it either. However, the man’s argument seemed sound. His friend is in trouble. Someone he loves is in trouble. What would happen if your best friend was in trouble? Would you just ignore them?”

Michiaki: “I don’t need to protect anyone but you and the kids.”

Julia: “Come on, honey. You are lying to yourself. Alright fine, let’s look at it this way. He also said that this man had the power to destroy this world. What would happen if he did? We wouldn’t exist and there would be nothing to protect. We would be gone.”

Michiaki sat there without a response.

He shed tears down his eyes while still maintaining a serious look. His wife started to cry as well. A world where his wife and kids didn’t exist fragmented in his mind. He held her hand, wavering with what to do. He was so headstrong on not fighting, since he had given it up many years ago.

Julia: “We will be fine here. You can seal it off while you’re gone and maybe even Arata can look over us before you get back. It shouldn’t take more than an hour with your skills. Defeat this man, and we won’t have anything to worry about.”

Michiaki: “You give me too much credit.”

They sat there for a little while longer before Michiaki stood up, let out a sigh, and walked upstairs to his kids' rooms. He looked at their faces, fast asleep…not a care in the world. “I’ll be right back my little angels,” he said as he kissed them on the cheek, went back downstairs, and around back to the side of his house where the cellar doors were.

His wife waited outside in the night sky while he trekked down stairs.

It was normal looking at first, but at the back wall, behind the stacks of preserved corn, a small green button appeared. Pressing it opened a door apart from the drywall that nobody would have ever guessed existed there. Inside, a room completely white and shelves lined with magic pouches, chaplets, various swords, and shinobi headbands that spelled out in a symbol, “Life.”

He grabbed a headband, wrapping it around his head before heading to the wall where he pressed into it, opening a section for clothing. It was simple clothing, but better than what he had on filled with dirt. Red baggy pants and a tight black tank top that showed his ripped body. The pants were lined with the same symbols that spelled out “Life.” A white scarf that covered his face almost like a mask was also a feature amongst his simple outfit.

The blade alongside the outfit was light blue fading into a light purple, although it glowed like it was meant to shine in the dark. The handle was wrapped with red tape, but nothing special about it, however it was a mythical sword. He grabbed a magic pouch and threw in a ton of chaplets, including legendary ones that he specifically held and nobody else.

Outside the cellar doors, he hugged and kissed his wife before reaching his sword into the sky and vanishing.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Although Astro didn’t have Yellow Egress Chaplets, he had abilities that mimicked them. He used his shadow transport to get back to Kanji. He wanted to ask who else he knew that he went to for help, but then remembered Claudia.

When he checked though, she still had it off for him. He wondered why she was mad at him, but passed the thought along quickly again, thinking that it was because he didn’t like her like that.

As soon as he stepped in the door, an insane power came out of nowhere. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. Worse than anything in his life up until this point. There had been many things that scared him, but this power could engulf him without him even moving the tip of his pinky.

Kanji came running outside along with Octavious.

Smoke filled the air from the dirt that rose off the ground. A person stood behind it, but the air was wavy. It was like a haze of heat that clouded the air, but Astro recognized the man once the smoke cleared.

Astro: “Wh-What are you doing here, Michiaki Sen?”

Michiaki: “Long time no see, Astro.”

Kanji: “Michiaki?”

Octavious: “Michiaki?! The Greatest Swordsman! I’m flipping out! Bring me water! Why is nobody bringing me water?!”

His mana expanded so far that Astro could not even see all of it, let alone his mana was clear. There was no color or tint to it, but the air rippled around him from the effects of it. ‘So this is the Greatest Swordsman in the world right now? I can see why,’ Astro thought.

Michiaki: “Astro, I thought about what you said and I still disagree with helping you, although my wife tends to have a major influence on me. I want to get back to her as soon as possible. Take me to your friend. I’ll get this done quickly.”

Astro nodded his head in approval, but told Michiaki that they would have to travel a long way to get to the Ruins of the Mystical Chambers. He also told him that he didn’t understand how they would fight because it’s underwater.

Michiaki assured him that there was probably a teleporter made from chaplets or something that would take them to a different place. When Astro showed him the location via the tracker, Michiaki picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder like he was a baby, and vanished yet again.

Kanji: “Hahaha! Too funny. My knowledge probably can’t extend to the depths of his strength. I wonder what he’s gone through in his lifetime to get to that point or was it inherited through swords? No, I doubt it. Next time I have an opportunity, the Great Sovereign needs to fill me in on people’s backstories…”