So I’m a Fish, So What?

“”” Cheers to an end and a new beginning!”””

Clinking glasses, we each savor our choice of fruit beverages.

Our current location is in a VIP lounge I booked at a KTV a week ago.

The present people are my friends whom I invited and their close friends.

Specifically, all the future cast members I had an intersection with up until now.

“Thank you for inviting us to this little party, Ito-san.”

“Yeah yeah, Aiko-chan always speaks about how fun your outings are!”

This is Shunsuke and Mirei’s first time hanging out in such a crowd.

Our meetings are usually limited to each clique with no outsiders. I believe this gathering is a good thing for all of us.

Although they don’t know about it yet, we’re all gonna be classmates soon.

How can you be sure? You ask?

Well, I asked dad to make a small donation under the excuse of improving his daughter's future school facilities.

I might've requested him to ensure we are all drafted into the same class.

“It’s fine, you guys. Glad to have you and thanks for taking care of my buddies these years.”

An angelic smile makes its way to my lips, I’m glad they could hang out with MY friends until I can take them back.

Arere? Why are you shuddering, Mirei-chan? My real emotions couldn't have possibly slipped through the mask, could they?

It’s a perfectly friendly smile, you can ignore the literal flames of jealousy burning in my eyes, they’re nothing but a figment of your imagination!

“It’s always Kanata who’s taking care of me though. I really envy him for having such a capable person like you as a childhood friend, Ito-san”

Oi. Did you actually believe my perfunctory reply? How fucking dense can a person be?

Well, I guess Yamada always had a typical dense protagonist personality that is stupidly naïve...

He’s your average goody-two-shoes Japanese boy!

Mirei did sense the dark aura around me though, but she countered by running away and hiding behind Aiko.

That’s unfair! Don’t use my Aiko against me!

Sigh, I’m going to let it go only for today. You are allowed to feel grateful!

As for why I’m reining myself in, it’s because this gathering was only prepared for me to implement important measures for the future.

Everyone's souls would be marked by the end, in fact, I’ve already marked Mirei and Shunsuke's souls.

The reason why marking Aiko, Segawa and Ooshima is delayed is due to the difference between the marks I’m leaving on them.

If you want an analogy, the marks on Shun and Mirei are similar to the pheromones ants secrete to mark their food with while the marks on Aiko and the others are more or less letting the ant leave an entire limb as a marker.

For Shun and Mirei, I used a negligible amount of soul power to form a visible rune on their soul.

For Aiko and the gang though, it’s going to be several grades higher, I’ll be taking chunks of my soul and interweaving them into theirs so not only will they be visible through {Spiritual Cognition}, but there will also be an attraction between those marks in a certain radius.

This should cut off any chances of missing them, {Spiritual Cognition} isn’t a passive ability, and it’s noticeable like the other world’s <Appraisal>.

As soon as someone gets any heretic-related skills, using {Spiritual Cognition} would make them feel as if their soul is being peeked at through their eyes, literally.

Heretic skills aren’t normally a taboo nor actual Heresy, I don’t know why they are called that in the otherworld, but I betcha’ someone’s done some world-harming shit with soul magic before so they were banned.

I’m placing my bets on that elf chief Potimas, maybe he transferred souls into robots and cut them off from the cycle of reincarnation ...? Alkreya did say an unaccounted-for soul could cause a world’s system to malfunction.

Our little party continued up until midnight, everyone stayed except for Shunsuke and Mirei who left by 10 o’clock.

Even though the atmosphere was joyful, I couldn’t appreciate any of it.

What the hell... I really can’t believe the thought of literally cutting chunks of my soul didn’t sound as if it would be a stupidly painful thing to do.

It felt as if I was cutting chunks from my body, but with pain amplified at least 10 times.

I couldn’t even ignore it like I normally do, there are no pain receptors to turn off in your soul.

Gritting my teeth, I order Manager-san to temporarily paralyze my neck area, that way I can prevent myself from screaming out.

Despite that, my entire body was still soaked in sweat and fleeting spasms ran through it.

Fortunately, I started by the last two hours, the remaining people were tired, and they were also distracted by Aiko’s improved singing after she took classes.

Ah, Aiko-chan, my angel, your voice can even soothe my soul...

I’ll gladly bear this pain hundreds of times if I can ensure your well-being though, I hope you can survive all the upcoming hardships and we can reunite safely as soon as possible.

Instructing Manager-san to record Aiko’s singing, I give my full attention to making sure the marks are perfectly inscribed.

It didn't occur to me at that time that mixing my empowered soul with a normal human soul would have unexpected effects on them.
In hindsight, it was really reckless to do this without thinking it through.

Thankfully, they weren't harmful ones but incredibly beneficial for them.

 

A few days have passed since then, I’m currently at the airport saying my goodbyes to my parents.

Theo has planned an extra long trip at my request, it’ll take us at least two months to return, and high school starts at a delay for me.

During this trip, I decided to focus more on activities than food.

Diving, surfing, mountain climbing, and many more are on my list.

They are all recreational activities I won’t be able to enjoy as a normal human in the future.

Besides, life after rebirth is gonna be filled with life and death struggles, with no time for fun and games.

We’ll be going through the US, England, France, some places in the middle east, Russia, and then back to Japan.

You can imagine our route as a straight line passing straight through the northern continents.

Luckily, my physical weakness was taken care of at an early age and Theo's body has always been healthy due to his long trips, we can walk around at our stops much more as a bonus.

“Pay attention to safety, sweetie. And do take care of your uncle, he always gets way too invested when it comes to food.”

“Always carry a self-defense weapon on you, the public security is a lot worse than Japan in some other countries.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m gonna get myself some tasered batons ASAP. You can check the tracking app I left on your phone if you get worried, it’s connected to a tracker hidden in my hairclip, it updates itself by midnight daily following the Japanese time zone.”

My language mastery wasn’t kept a secret and I’m considered more mature, so I was entrusted to take care of Theo and not the other way around.

Imagine getting pulled around by a girl who looks like she’s at most ten, even more having her be the one worrying about you getting lost.

I’ll make sure everyone will make fun of you, Theo, wahaha!

Arranging this trip is good for me to show off my abilities, I have to seize all chances to reassure my family of my strength and experience.

 

 

Two and a half months, 75 days.

That’s how much time this world tour took.

I made sure to experience all the wonders I could, I mixed with all different kinds of people, and I pretty much went on all the adventures one could possibly go on.

I visited all sorts of ancient landmarks, camped and survived in the most dangerous of forests, and went diving in some mind-blowing parts of our oceans.

Most importantly, I tasted hundreds of different delicacies associated with a variety of cuisines from all around the world while recording all the recipes.

On this trip, I revisited all this life’s memories during my meditative rests.

Now that I look back, I’m so goddamn lucky, huh?

It all started with my meeting with Alkreya, reborn into such a heartwarming family, meeting such great friends, training for years with such a great grandfather like Shishou, and shaping up to be a gifted lady even with all the unexpected misfortunes.

I believe no normal person could ever dream of feeling such joy and fulfilment.

But my journey here is considered over, it’s time for me to leave this little pond and find my place in the larger oceans.

This trip was my farewell trip to this world.

My isolated vibe was so obvious that even the normally dense Theo noticed it.

However, he chose not to comment seeing how blissful I look.

Retrospectively, my family doubtlessly foresaw me leaving a long time ago.

I mean, you'll obviously realize something’s wrong when a child under the age of 10 starts desperately piling up all the knowledge and skills they could get their hands on.

No normal child would do such a thing, if a 5-year child was subjected to the kidnapping incident I went through, they’d probably go autistic-like or develop an intense case of stranger danger phobia.

Ahhh... This makes it all much easier, my body feels as light as a feather.

They can feel the time's coming, I just need to spend what's left with them.

“Please sit down and wear your seatbelts. We will be landing in our destination airport in a few minutes.”

The pilot’s voice coming through the speakers interrupts my reminiscence.

Taking one last look at the clouds from the round plane window, I buckle up and close my eyes.

{Turning off all abilities and temporarily shutting down Soul Archives Manager. Condition for startup: Death}

Let’s take it easy for my last year, I’m looking forward to the future.

I'm having my first taste of sleep tonight!