Chapter 46: A Meeting That Ruined Everything

Ayane arrived to pick me up twenty minutes later, and after another twenty minutes of being rattled around on a train, we arrived at our destination. It was in the suburbs, a fair distance from the city center... The building stood tucked away, deep past the schools and residential areas.

"...It’s massive."

That was my first impression. It looked like one of those giant research facilities you’d see in a movie.

Gears churned within its walls, and the structure pulsed with a significant amount of mana. It stood completely isolated from the surrounding buildings—a "lab" in the truest sense of the word.

"She’s in here, right... Ayane?"

"I’m starting to regret bringing you along," Ayane murmured. "I mean, she did say she wouldn't run any experiments today, but..."

"Could you stop with the ominous warnings? You’ve had me on edge this entire time."

"But from her perspective, the current you is an 'unknown existence.' That’s just a very scary thought when it comes to her."

The facility was wide open. We had already confirmed over the phone that we could enter as we pleased, so we stepped inside—an act I would soon contemplate with varying degrees of regret.

It was a sprawling facility where everything seemed to have been dropped wherever the owner felt like it. Documents were scattered across the floor, and magic tools were lined up with a carelessness that suggested they weren't particularly valued.

"This is incredible. How does someone even make all this?"

"Well, it’s her, after all... More importantly, I wonder where she went?"

The moment Ayane said that, I felt a presence.

I turned toward it and saw a girl. Her beauty was so far removed from humanity that she could have been mistaken for one of my Summoned Beasts. She possessed a mystical aura that wouldn't have felt out of place in another world. Her gaze, flat and inorganic, fixed on me—and the moment she recognized who I was, her face lit up with overwhelming joy.

She closed the distance between us with a burst of speed that made me wonder if she’d used [Shukuchi].

Her pink hair was streaked with blue, and her eyes seemed to contain shifting rainbows. She gave me a beaming smile. I was speechless. I didn't even have the energy to comment on her insane choice of attire—a lab coat worn over absolutely nothing.

"—Question. Is this ridiculously mana-loaded moron Another World's Reima? Welcome to my fantastic lab!"

Let me just say one thing: the atmosphere was officially ruined.

"Hey, Ena-san... why aren't you wearing clothes?"

"I got way too hyped up, so I took a bath to cool my head... Hence, the nudity."

"Aren't you skipping a lot of steps in that logic? ...Anyway, Reima is looking very bewildered right now."

"That’s the same reaction as the other one! I guess being from another world doesn't change that!"

This woman, whose emotions seemed to oscillate wildly, was apparently a twenty-year-old Japanese woman named Ena Himuro. Although her appearance was far from human, it seemed that was due to the influence of her mana from birth.

"But it’s amazing... Reima, your mana alone could power the entire country for a year."

"You... you're Ena, right? Can you see mana?"

"That’s right, yep. Since I've got a [Magic Eye], I can see exactly how much mana people have—oh, and one more question. Which do you prefer: my phone voice or this one?"

"The calmer one, please."

"Then the current one it is. I'll turn into the other one if my tension rises, so good luck with that."

She gave me a thumbs up. So far, she seemed to be... well, someone lacking in common sense, but she was still someone I could actually talk to. I couldn't quite reconcile her current state with the ominous, ghost-story-like warnings Ayane had given me earlier.

However, her curiosity was clearly immense. She was observing every nook and cranny of my person. It was... ticklish, for lack of a better word. I felt as if my very soul were being stripped naked. It was deeply uncomfortable.

"Heh. I'd heard you were a Summoner, but your [Soul World] is truly vast enough to be called a single world... How did you manage to expand it that far?"

"...I just kept using mana."

"Fuhehehe... I’ll let you get away with that answer for now. Hey, hey, can I investigate you a bit? I want to know the specifics, and I'll make it worth your while."

"Define 'worth my while.'"

"Fufu. I don't know the exact details yet because I haven't heard them, but my guess is that your soul itself is the same as Reima's. The only differences are a stupidly vast [Soul World] and an idiotically large amount of mana. I can’t see the fine details since this is our first meeting, but... you are definitely the same Reima I was interested in."

Acting with an air of self-importance, she pulled a blackboard out of nowhere and slapped it with a loud bang.

"Mana awakening phenomena exist, but they never cause an increase this large. I heard the gist from Kagura—that you're the Reima from another world. If your personalities are mostly the same, then you’re probably trying to return this body to its original owner, right?"

"Were you two close?"

"Our relationship was one of 'experimental subject' and 'researcher.' He was a fascinatingly good person."

"...I see. So... what’s the benefit for me?"

"I’ll help you with the soul separation! I’d say that’s the greatest experimental reward I can offer."

"That would be a huge help. What do I need to do?"

"Ah, you really are Reima. Answering a proposal like that without a second thought... you really are something else."

As she spoke, she looked a little sad.

Knowing that the Reima of this world was cared for that much only strengthened my resolve. However, at that moment, I didn't truly understand her personality at all. In fact, I hadn't fully believed Ayane's warnings.

What am I trying to say? Simple. This woman is out of her mind.