Kevin Curry
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Summon Perfect Warlady 2.14
🕑 Added 2024-11-04 15:00:12 +0000 UTCTime for the Japan arc! It's not going to be very long, honestly. There's not exactly anything that can seriously challenge Tanya, so this is pretty much some slice of life and a little bit of emotional drama before setting up the final conflict.
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Tanya wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from traveling dimensions. She’s done it before, of course, but something told her that the Titanic magic of the Arkenshoes would be different than the technically-mortal magic of the Summon Perfect Warlord spell.
So when she found herself on a set of train tracks between eye blinks, she yelped and threw herself back up onto the platform, heart pounding in fear.
Right on time, too, as the 5:15 to Juuban, the exact train that ensured her previous death after her last day of work, trundled on without even noticing her presence. For an instant, she could see the streaks of blood that would have assuredly splattered the area, but that was clearly a form of self-foolamancy. Findamancy at worst.
With the immediate danger passed, she took stock: she still had all of her magic items, surprisingly. Her armor was still here, her wand was still in her hand, the gold bar she had created as a fallback plan in the other, the faint sensations of her Inventory pressing on her skin was still present, and… hm. She still had the Arkenshoes. Interesting.
Idly stuffing the gold bar down her dress now that the measure was unneeded, Tanya took in the numerous stares she was now receiving. Oddly, everyone was wearing face masks, as if they were sick. It wasn’t so unusual to see that kind of thing on a large fraction of the population, but everyone? Strange. Also… was it just her, or were the crowds thinner?
A police officer approached, and apologized, offering Tanya a face mask. Immediately understanding, Tanya took it, bowed in thanks, and put on the mask, as her memories of Japanese body language screamed at her of the importance of doing so. “I’m sorry, but…” Tanya began, looking around. “What is today’s date?” She died in February 2013, she was seven years old when she got the letter, it’s been… some amount of time since then…
The police officer looked confused, but replied politely. “It is July 10th, 2021, Mahou-chan.” That sounded… about right.
“Thank you.” Tanya said, bowing again before walking out of the train station.
Where to go first?
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Okay, she was definitely not imagining things. The crowds were definitely thinner, and why were there advertisements for the Olympics? Wasn’t that supposed to be last year?
She ignored the numerous stares, making her current outfit dignified by long practice and sheer force of will. Within ten minutes, she was back at her old office, and noticed a half-second period where no one was looking at her as she went through the door. Taking advantage of the opportunity, she used foolamancy to change her appearance to match her old one, walking up to the (still present, of course) receptionist.
“Pardon me.” She said, her words magically replaced with a deep voice that still spoke softly with a quiet dignity. “But would it be possible for me to speak with Daikoku Mizuki-san? Or perhaps Takumi-san?”
The receptionist seemed distracted, as if she realized that she should recognize Tanya’s old face but failed to do so. Nevertheless, she accessed her computer and… opened up a text messaging program? Business sure has changed…
After a moment, with Tanya watching her every move through her eyes, the receptionist truthfully conveyed the information she was given. “I apologize, but Takumi-san is busy, and Daikoku-san is working remotely.”
Tanya looked up. Hm, how many- okay, can’t look through enough walls to see him. “I would like to schedule an appointment with Takumi-san, please.” After a beat, she added: “Also, do you happen to know how long Daikoku-san has lived in his current residence? I may be out of date on that knowledge.” She did recall that things like timestamps on address changes were in the HR file, but did the receptionist have access to that? Probably not…
“What is the purpose of the appointment?” The receptionist asked, idly checking Daikoku’s file. The address was the same as before, excellent.
“It is to discuss a former employee.” Tanya summarized, “Specifically, Deguchiya Tenko. It is a matter of some importance.” That… should be enough to pique Takumi-san’s curiosity.
Idly, the receptionist searched for that name, and Tanya knew the exact second that she realized the implications of the request, seeing the illusory face staring back through her suddenly widened eyes, and a marking in the file noting that the employee in question was ‘deceased’. She then used her software to communicate with Takumi-san’s secretary, using much plainer language than previous. “A ghost wants a meeting with Takumi-san.”
“Is he cute?” Replied Mizuru-chan, the bubbly office lady that was Takumi-san’s secretary for the last twenty years.
“So big, so handsome.” Replied the receptionist. Tanyas felt her cheeks warm at the assessment. “Dead for 8 years.”
“Is it Tenko-chan!?” Mizuru-chan replied, adding numerous emojis.
“Yes!!!!!”
A moment passed with no communication. “Send him up.” Mizuru-chan replied. “To the dojo. He should know where it is.”
The receptionist gestured to the elevator. “Takumi-san will see you now in the dojo.”
“Thank you.” Tanya said, walking to the designated area, she had to make pretty wide strides to match a polite pace with her original long legs, but she could always fly if she needed to go faster or got tired. Would she even get tired? Or did the Arkenshoes cover that? All of her magical equipment appeared to work…
‘The dojo’ was a particular meeting room that was built to resemble a traditional martial arts dojo, as several of the higher echelons of the company were massive fans of traditional things like kendo. Her old status as a barely notable kendo practitioner in high school, becoming the losing finalist of the tournament for the greater Tokyo area, had helped her land the job, and there was one time where Takumi had requested her presence to show off some techniques with a real katana in this very room for the entertainment of a client.
In hindsight, those few days practicing with live steel in preparation for that demonstration probably saved her life in those first few battles. The iai alone…
Tanya’s old image walked into the room politely, the gazes of the occupants examining the illusion for flaws. Once Tanya was sure that the inspection was complete, she bowed deeply. “It is good to see you again, Takumi-san.”
Takumi-san was seated in seiza, along with some of his direct subordinates and the CFO. “I was skeptical when I was told of a dead man’s desire to speak with me… but here you are, Deguchiya-san.” Oddly, even here everyone wore face masks.
Before, Tanya always thought that Takumi-san saw her as a reliable subordinate, or maybe a useful asset, bringing a level of physical intimidation to the occasionally thorny processes that occur in Human Resources. But… with his heartstring apparent, practically in her fingers… she knew that their relationship was a bit more… personal. He had genuinely missed her, that is, Tenko. Words failed her.
With the awkward silence, the CFO, Sakazuki-san, spoke up: “So how is this possible? A dead man before us?” His voice was polite, but it was laced with an impatience typical of those used to deference.
“It is a long story, Sakazuki-san.” Tanya said, double-checking the vocal filter in her foolamancy spell. “I wished to speak with you to inquire as to the possibility of being rehired, if I determined that to be the best path forward.” After all, she still wasn’t entirely sure whether or not gold created by moneymancy was sufficiently real to work. Glancing once more at their mutual heartstring, she added: “I would also like to say that I am glad to see you in good health.” While before, layering an emotional inflection onto a statement like that was something that she was not particularly talented at, now it was easy to say something with just enough awkwardness to properly convey the emotions that stirred within her.
She could see that the statement was taken as it was intended. Truly, date-a-mancy was an interpersonal cheat code. “You have changed quite a bit.” Takumi-san said, immediately identifying the effects of her supernatural social skills.
“More than you know, Takumi-san.” Tanya said calmly. “It is nice to be back home, with civilized people.” Was saying that leaning into Japan’s natural xenophobia? Yes. But she didn’t want to jump straight to ‘I’m using an illusion to look like my old self and I’m now a 17-year old gaijin girl’.
Takumi-san hummed. “Well, to answer your inquiry, while the circumstances of your departure were unfortunate, I see no reason to not resume your employment in my department, if you were to apply through normal channels.” Tanya smiled, glad of the assurance.
Sakazuki-san grunted. “Regale us with the tale of how you came to live again.” He demanded, albeit still hidden in a veneer of politeness.
Well… “The same way anyone else lives again: through reincarnation.” Tanya dropped the illusion, layering a different illusion underneath that made her outfit less… flashy. She was instead dressed as an office lady, with a conservative hairstyle. She retained her gaijin coloration and figure, however. “Through powerful magic, I was able to cross over back to this world. I used an illusion to show you my old face.”
There was a murmur of surprise and shock. Takumi-san looked gobsmacked at the difference in appearance. “Another world…” One of the subordinates muttered. Tanya’s magical senses picked up a depth of meaning in that word that seemed odd to her.
“Ano… why did you come back?” Asked another of the subordinates.
Tanya frowned. How rude, butting into the conversation. Almost on automagic, her mouth opened and moved in accordance with her intent: “I was happy here. My condolences that you are not.” The subordinate flinched at the metaphorical knife in her words. Hm, that was a little bit like a reflexive judo throw, she really shouldn’t have done that.
Takumi-san hummed, having recovered and giving her a very considering look. His heartstring was still affectionate, but her display of cutthroat etiquette has given him pause. “This changes nothing.” He declared, “If you still wish to work in your previous position, an opening could be made for you. Return when you are ready to begin that process.” He stood up, and presented a business card to her.
“I apologize for not having a card of my own.” She said while accepting it, placing it into the illusory purse while really slipping it down her dress and into her Inventory. “This was the first place I went after my return.”
The CFO’s eyebrows shot upward. “...You came back from death itself and your first act was to get your job back?” He asked incredulously.
Tanya huffed in laughter. “Do not misunderstand. The office was merely the closest of my many destinations. I arrived exactly where I died.”
Another of the subordinates held up his phone. “Ah, would this be you, then?” He asked, playing a video of her arrival, magical girl dress and all. The video was titled ‘Mahou-chan nearly gets hit by train. Other world invasion?’. It had twenty thousand views.
Tanya sighed, dismissing the illusion and revealing her magical girl outfit. “It’s a magical outfit.” She clarifies, “Very protective.” Very cute, very comfortable. But a bunch of salarymen wouldn’t be able to appreciate that. “Comes with a lightsaber.” She took out her wand and pointed it to the side, activating the energy blade.
The collected men were naturally very impressed with the lightsaber, and she hopped backward to show off a few moves, albeit different ones than before. She used foolamancy to pretend to unleash the flying slash spell, to enthusiastic applause. “Thank you, thank you. Yes, I can do that for real if I need to, but I decided to spare the wall.”
“Yes, best not.” Said Sakazuki-san, much more relaxed.
Tanya took out her cleaning wand and waved it at the cut-up post she had destroyed on request. “No trouble.” She said in English, the command for that particular wand. The debris vanished, as was proper. This magic trick also provoked some impressed noises from the collected men.
“...Where does it go?” Asked one of the subordinates.
Tanya shrugged. “I’m not that kind of caster. I wave the wand and it cleans things.” To demonstrate, she waved it at him. “No trouble.”
As it was relatively late in the day, the salaryman had clearly been dirty enough with sweat, if nothing else, that he startled and patted his body in wonder as he felt cleaner than he likely felt even after a bath. He was even testing his teeth with his tongue, much like Tanya did after her first experience with cleansing. “That’s… amazing.” He said, breathing onto his hand and sniffing.
Tanya stuffed both wands back down her dress, leaving another stupid man to ask: “How much do you have in there?”
“A lot.” Tanya replied, infusing the words with enough annoyed hostility that no one questioned her further. The dress in question normally had pockets, but when transformed with the crown, she had to use the sleeves, skirt, and her cleavage in order to access the Inventory. “Weapons, tools, money, a few emergency items, the usual.”
Still, the conversation wound down after a few more questions, and she excused herself to leave.
Now, she has a friend to track down.
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Mizuki lived in Shibuya, Jingumae specifically. It was one of the nicer areas of Tokyo, and he lived there since college, which was entirely because his parents own his complex and he gets to live there rent-free.
One couldn’t really use Date-a-mancy in order to track people down. The links between people didn’t correspond to physical space, so she had to rely on the usual method of navigating to a friend’s apartment: by already knowing where it is.
She could still fly, quite quickly even, but there was a certain level of… weight to her motions that wasn’t there before, which made her hesitant to accelerate too quickly. Which physical laws were different in a way she didn’t notice before? Inertia? Fortunately, no one seemed to notice her through her foolamancy veil, disguising herself as a bird that flew over the skyscrapers.
Still, Shibuya was still in Tokyo, so as the crow flies, it wasn’t a very long trip at all. She landed on his balcony, needing to begin her deceleration far sooner than normal. Changing out her illusion for her old face, Tanya knocked on his balcony door, making her illusion crouch so the face could be seen.
Mizuki was never the most… respectable of Tanya’s friends, his diligence was charitably described as ‘average’, and he was usually the one encouraging her to make bad decisions in college… but he was also the one to teach her of the importance of networking over measurable KPIs, and Tanya owed the man quite a bit for her relatively meteoric rise in the company as a result of that.
Mizuki had, of course, aged in the eight years since her death: He looked at the image of a dead man with a disbelieving expression, but opened it up. “...Tenko? Didn’t you die?”
Tanya smiled sadly. “I did, I’m afraid. May I come in?”
From the pulses of concern and the set of his brow, Mizuki understood that this was a serious situation. “Oh yeah, sure. Make yourself at home.” He said, “You can use the guest room if you need it.” Because yes, this apartment was upscale enough for him to have one of those. Tanya always assumed that it was because his parents wanted him to marry and have a child to use that room.
“I’ll be taking you up on that offer, I believe.” Tanya said politely, “I returned only a few hours ago, and still have no money.” She did, however, have a magical changemancy tent that opened up into a rather fancy bedroom.
“I getcha. You had your own Other World adventure, and now you’ve killed the Demon King or whatever, and now you’re back.” What the hellabad was he talking about? “You can take the mask off, I’m not worried about Covid.”
“Yes, about that.” Tanya said, “What is covid? Is that why everyone’s wearing masks?” Come to think of it, she probably could have learned of this by looking around at signs at the train station, but now was good enough.
“Yep.” Mizuki said, nodding firmly. “Early last year a big pandemic came out of China. Caused by bat-eating or something like that. Very contagious, pretty bad on lethality. My grandpa died from it.” Mizuki’s grandfather was around eighty, so that wasn’t a huge surprise, but it was a bit of one. “Offical name is Covid-19, but there’s tons of names out there.”
“Hm. Good to know.” Tanya said softly, thinking on the matter. Did she seriously forget to get an anti poison wand? The actual damage from poison, even for incapacitation, would be curable by her healomancy wand, which would help, but… What an oversight. Disease didn’t really exist there, near as she could tell… “Now, knowing you, this won’t be much of an issue, but I should warn you: I only look like this because I’m creating an illusion of my old appearance. I look quite different after my reincarnation.”
“Oh, are you a cute girl now?” Mizuki asked, grinning at the idea. “I think I’ve seen this anime before.”
“No you definitely have not!” Tanya said, immediately understanding the romantic context of the statement. She dismissed the illusion, allowing her friend to see her admittedly quite beautiful appearance.
Mizuki’s eyes roamed over every detail. It was vaguely disgusting. “I should have known that magical girl sighting was you!” He said, even more excited. “It was at the exact spot you died, after all!”
Tanya huffed. “Well, if it’s all very much the same to you, I’ll be taking over your guest room now. I need to see if I lost anything from my Inventory in the transition.” She withdrew her backup melee weapon from her skirt, the +3 katana that she had used in her first few battles. “Still have this at least…” She mused, drawing the blade as she walked to the room.
Mizuki’s loud, fearful swallow was quite satisfying.
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It appeared that everything had survived the transition, although whether or not the change in physical laws affected them… unclear. All thirty non-artifact wands were fully charged from her juice, and her juice was refilled from her artifact wand’s reserves. The few gems she kept, about a million’s worth, still looked more like glass facsimiles of gemstones instead of anything genuine, and the gold she created still looked real enough. Her other dresses and her one non-dress outfit were put into the closet.
Her other magic items still seemed to function, which was good news: There weren’t that many, merely the mile-high club shoes, the flying carpet, her regenerating notepad, the portable tent, and the backup sword. Her wands covered most situations in which an empress would want a magic item.
Well, she didn’t test the tent due to lack of space, but the carpet worked fine, so changemancy items function, and the Dress With Pockets, which was the odd name for her favorite utility dress which also used Hat Magic, worked fine, so she saw no reason for the portable tent to have any issues.
With her inventory fully emptied, the last miscellaneous pile of items: her guns and ammo, a few no-longer-relevant notes, and a few knick-knacks that she put into her Inventory and promptly forgot about, were swept into a corner of the room and she relaxed onto the bed, now wearing the sleeping kimono she had Ace make when he was still alive.
“Hey, you’re hungry right?” Mizuki asked, “I ordered us some ramen, your favorite’s still beef, right?”
Ah. Great. Tanya got up, ran her hands through her now completely-undone hair, and gestured for him to lead the way with a smile, because it was more polite than asking him to step aside.
Once they were settled at the table, a traditional one with cushions instead of chairs, the conversation renewed. “So what was it like? Other Worlding?”
Tanya frowned. “Okay, clearly ‘Other World’ has picked up some extra meaning since I was last alive. What do you mean?”
“Oh, right!” Mizuki said, softly slapping his fist onto his palm in recognition. “Yeah, like half of all popular anime nowadays are Other World stories. Y’know, get hit by a truck or get mugged or die of overwork or something and wake up in another world, or get summoned by a ruler, or something like that. Magic, monsters, pretty elves, demon king, stuff like that.”
“...So you’re telling me all I need to do is tell people that I was sent to another world after I died and everyone will make tons of assumptions?” She asked, eyes twitching.
“Yep.” Mizuki said confidently. “So what was it like?” He reiterated.
“...Well, first I got into this argument with this idiotic asshole of a God, then I woke up as a baby in pre-WWI Germany.” Tanya began, “Then when I was 7 I got summoned into a second alternate world to fight a grand army.”
“Ooh, a twofer.” Mizuki commented, completely believing her. “What would the title be? I reincarnated as a little girl but then got summoned to be a hero?” He asked, tasting the light novel title. “No, summoned to be the Demon Queen. That sounds better.”
“More accurate, too.” Tanya said dryly. “Overlord Stanley was definitely the ‘Demon King’ in that battle. At least I got to ride a dragon, even if it looked vaguely ridiculous.”
“Cool!” He exclaimed, 100% believing whatever she said. Should she start making things up? Tempting… “How’d you win?” He asked.
“I didn’t.” Tanya said, still a little disappointed in herself. Her plan was good! It just… didn’t work due to factors beyond her control. How to phrase the resulting… Ah. “I pretended to be a kidnapped princess and was put into an administrative position in the resulting occupational government, eventually becoming the governor.”
Mizuki laughed. “Yeah, that’s a Tenko plan if I ever heard one. Unconventional but completely successful.” Tanya blushed. Well, it wasn’t often that one needed to cover one’s trail quite so thoroughly… That wasn’t even what happened…
After a few more moments of companionable silence as they ate the ramen, Tanya continued her story: “After a few months of that, my side got caught up in another grand coalition to defeat another heavily fortified position… which promptly got everyone involved killed. I gathered as many resources as possible and fled to where I eventually found the ancient magic that allowed me to return.”
“Wow, you ran for eight years? Rough, even if it turned out to be twice as fast.” Mizuki commented.
Tanya slurped up the last of her noodles. “No, I just got some aging magic-” Signamancy was still magic, after all. “-that let me skip nine years of growing up. The whole thing probably took a year. Maybe a bit more, but definitely less than two.” She shrugged. “From a certain point of view, I’m still eight years old.” She started drinking the rest of her ramen’s soup. Once finished, she added: “But I’m also 40 from another point of view, so I don’t care.”
Mizuki did some mental math. “Ah, so it’s a one-to-one time exchange. Neat.” Tanya nodded in agreement.
“So, what’s new in your life?” Tanya asked, “Same apartment, it looks pretty much the same as eight years ago… Please tell me you at least got a promotion in that timespan…” She was cheating, she knew he got one.
Mizuki laughed. “Well, for six of those years I had this girlfriend…” They spent hours catching up before Tanya turned in for the night. She had a big day tomorrow.
After all, tomorrow she goes to visit her parents.
Comments
Christopher Overbeck
Wait a second. I'm getting some vague hints that make me thing this might be GATE
