Chapter 425: Situation of Those Left Behind

[Earth, Japan]

Meanwhile as the separate group consisting of Aileen, Belial, Fengris, Argos, accompanied by Calamity went on their way through worlds using a mean of hijacked transportation which could very well be deemed impossible if not for Calamity herself, Ingrid and Melfina and Rebecca went back on their guarding duty towards the people that Kaido was close with.

Ingrid returned to work as a assistant for Kaido's mother namely Riruko, Kiriha, Rebecca returned as a secretary for Kaido's father namely Riruko, Taiki, and Melfina returned as an undercover classmate friend for Kaido's past lover Ayame.

With this three specific people who were part of Kaido's past and held a meaningful place inside Kaido, it was only natural that the three of them would keep a close eye on such individuals and guard them in case the G.E.N.O.S organization itself managed to bypass their spell of eliminating Kaido's connection towards the said individual and use them against him.

Even thought the three of them had their memory's wiped out of any information regarding Kaido as a safety measure to protect them from harm since Kaido would be a world wide fugitive, it still would affect Kaido himself mentally if the three people themselves were captured.

Plus the powers of this world posses must not be underestimated, Even thought Magic power which is derived from fantasy and Esper power which is derived from science which have different concept and rules, both of them are equally powerful once they have been unraveled and learned properly.

Science and magic are like two side of the same coin. Anything that  magic can do, science can also do it. Anything that science can do, magic can also do it. Vice versa.

With that all three of them had to be vigilant in case trouble arise. However at that point all three of them begun to doubt whether erasing their memories about Kaido was the right decision after all their support towards him.

Kiriha, Taiki, and Ayame, had held Kaido in high degree when he returned, much more even their misunderstanding before his first death has been resolved, they even sworn to be by his side from that moment on. Such showcase of loyalty and affection was something that should be well recognized, but such showcase was disregarded by Kaido just like that.

Well Kaido did have a point when he requested for Aileen to erase their memory, but one cant deny that such a thing was equivalent to betrayal of trust.

With those thoughts in mind Ingrid together with Rebecca and Melfina begun to ponder whether to undo the memory erasure spell or not. After all Kaido was currently missing and the most important people that should know his circumstances was supposed to be his parents and seconded by Ayame who were once his lover.

Even thought they know that it will ruin Kaido's work by undoing the memory wipe, they just cant hold back their worry whenever they realize that Kaido seemed to be worried about the three of them. They just could feel his longingness, worry, and anxiety through his calls. And with them being assigned as guards for such people only proven a point.

Even thought Kaido declares that he will cut his connection with such people in order to protect them, he just couldn't let them go willingly deep within his hearts. Most of the time Kaido's action and words often contradict each other, and they cant help but worry.

So in order to ease Kaido's worry, they soon decided to undo their memory wipe and slowly return their memory of Kaido through the process of small glimpse of scenery akin to foretelling. even though such process will take time before they could remember them, it was the most safest way to ensure the three people Kaido cared about wont have information overload and confusion due to this seemingly memories that p[op out of nowhere.

After all erasing a memory was easy, but returning them was not.

*********

[South Korea, Seoul]

Back at Seoul, in a building which is one of the top entertainment industry in the country and secretly owned by the mercenary organization A.L.P.H.A, a grand meeting was currently being held at the lowest most floor of the building in which only important people connected to the mercenary organization gathers for a talk.

The talk isn't really that grand of a grand in which multiple parties are involved, but rather a private grand talk between two parties in regards to their own collective business. The two sides is the mercenary organization A.L.P.H.A while the other is the esper organization G.E.N.O.S. Based on the lineup, it was quite obvious on what topic are they going to discuss.

The primarily concern being held in this discussion is the mysterious disappearance of Kaido from their operation. His sudden disappearance was something their group had not expected, in fact they even take on conclusion that a third party might have been involved. However that was quickly shot down when a fact was stated that no outer force can interfere towards something that is happening inside an isolated space.

The team they assigned for Kaido's subjugation was the top of the cream in the mercenary organization. the team they picked was unrivaled in terms of teamwork and power synergy, thus the mission would have no flaws whatsoever and should be smooth sailing. Thus such variable, was truly unexpected.

In that moment two familiar people spoke up among the G.E.N.O.S organization.

*********

Head General Kojou

??? yrs old

Male

Head general of G.E.N.O.S organization

(I'll become a villain in my next life)

*********

*********

Axel

??? yrs old

Male

Rank 1 Esper, Reality manipulator (Ragnarok Class)

(I'll become a villain in my next life)

*********

"I think we got the gist of what happened"

Hearing Kojou's words, all eyes turned to him as he clearly explained while hinting at the person beside him.

"We encountered such phenomenon before, due to that we concluded that such person might be dead already... however the moment we thought of that, that guy then returned ever powerful and caused our demise on the Japanese branch" foretold by head general Kojou

"Indeed! Plus he didn't disappear, but rather got suck in like the last time" added by Axel

hearing their words, some of the people inside the room got confused as they pose a question.

"Got suck in? please elaborate"

With that Axel told them of his experience when he fought Kaido and his group in an unknown foreign land.

"There was a moment when i was assigned to hunt him down, during that time i used my Esper ability to track his whereabouts and my avatar self has led me to a foreign world quite different from ours"

At that someone then interrupted him.

"World? not space or dimension?"

"No! a world... a complete one... same like our world but also different" answered by Axel

In that moment, everyone who listened to his words were speechless, after all they are talking about a different world wholly made up of fantasy. If such place was true then such discovery would be another step in the realm of knowledge for their world.

Amidst their thoughts, Axel then continued on.

"The last time he disappeared, he actually returned even stronger... so i assume that the moment he returns, he will be much more stronger than before"

At that, most of the people in the room rose a commotion as one asked a question.

"Are you telling me that those otherworld have a means of enhancing someone? If that is the case, then how do we prevent his stronger return?"

With that Axel then answered such question which caused everyone to ponder on such answer.

"Its simple! let me hunt him once more, and i will lead your troops with me to that other world and eliminate the target before he could be even stronger"

The reason for their ponder is because of two facts. one is that they will owe a debt towards the G.E.N.O.S organization, and two is that this is a talk regarding transversion through worlds, such opportunity to monopolize such experience brings a lot of benefits and threats towards them from the other organization.

With such a high classified information, they had no choice but to move discreetly so that such information wouldn't leak out to other competing parties.

*********

Going back to the place where the battle had taken place, multitudes of people going about in random places in either going to work, play, or just explore the area littered the road. Such population really astounded the foreigners who wasn't used to such convoluted area. But due to this convoluted crowd, it wasn't hard for Axel and Head general Kojou to blend in and act normally while being escorted by the mercenary who took on the operation.

After silently bypassing the crowd of civilians, they then soon entered the fast food restaurant from where Kaido had once met with his now deceased past school friend. Once they have taken their seat in a random table in the corner of the room, Cahill the executive of the mercenary force then signaled towards Janus the leader of the team to set up an isolated space.

Upon receiving the order Janus silently nodded in accordance to the order as he created an isolated space using his Esper ability related to imaginary.

Seeing such wondrous process of isolating the space to the point one cant even notice it, Axel couldn't help but simply admire the process of the ability despite being the current number 1 Esper of the organization. Aside from his shock towards Kaido's destructive power, this type of Esper ability also shock him as a being.

After getting isolated with the whole mercenary group, Axel then soon stood up as he applauded towards the leader of the mercenary group.

"Your ability! its really quite something, no wonder that brat was isolated in such space without him noticing in advance... you perfectly honed your ability to the point of secrecy"

"... I'll take that as a compliment" replied by Janus

After giving out his compliment, Axel then moved at the very designated area on where Kaido had disappeared from everyone's sight. As he got down and touched the ground, Axel spreads out his senses in the area as he tried to find some crack within space which was naturally the cause of Kaido's disappearance. Since he had already done this before, it was only natural that he could also do it again.

After for what seems like 10 minutes of feeling the space, Axel then finally found the crack in space which made Kaido disappear and moved towards that specific area.

"Looks like this is the area where he disappeared..."

"Where?" asked by Head general Kojou

"here" said by Axel as he stood at the corner of the wall between the kitchen of the restaurant and the dining area

"There is a crack here quite hidden from anyone's sight, as long as you don't have some acute senses like mine, you would never be able to notice such crack in space"

After stating that, Axel then begun pouring out his Esper ability as he let his senses dive further deep within the crack like a thread going inside a rabbit hole. He doesn't know just ho0w deep the crack is, but he was sure for one thing that Kaido is somewhere at the very end of such crack in space.

As Axel fully poured his concentration on such crack in space which was only visible to him, Head general Kojou then stood up as he went inside the kitchen and begun to serve himself with warm coffee. Upon seeing his own calm demeanor, Cahill then wore a puzzled expression as he proceeded to ask him of his conduct.

"What are you doing? drinking coffee while your subordinate is working?"

Glancing his way, Head general Kojou then replied

"First of all his not by subordinate, we stand at an equal footing akin to partners in a business... the whole American main base of the G.E.N.O.S organization had fallen, something or someone had apparently attacked it a few months ago, due to that it took both of us to actually be able to reestablish the whole organization in America and make a somewhat recovery from the damage that the attacker had made"

"Yes... I've heard of that... all the executives including the powerful Espers assigned in the main headquarters as guards had been killed by something unidentifiable... Looks like after the Japan's branch had fallen, you've set your sights on reforming what's left in America" said by Cahill

"Indeed!"

"So that's why I'm asking why are you calm? doesn't this need some kind of preparation?" asked by Cahill

"On what kind? we don't even know what were preparing for.... the only time we can prepare is when Axel here had finished his recon... all we need to do is wait" answered by Head Kojou

"But..."

"We are dealing with an other world with a completely different mechanism and environment than our own... we need an info regarding the place where subject no.99 had landed... i've already underestimate the nature of an other world once and had lost, i refuse to repeat that failure once more... I'll tell you this, no matter how primitive the other world is, they are no less weaker than us"

"....."

Hearing Head general Kojou's words that came from experience, Cahill then went silent as he returned back to his group and begun to make up their own counter plan if Axel were to fail in locating Kaido's current location.

*********

[Proto Earth 1]

Meanwhile back on Lilia's world, 2 days had passed since Kaido together with Lilia and Shelly had entered the dungeon and caused an uproar of fight between the groups that had come inside the dungeon. Of course there were many problems and variables that had occurred in this two days, especially on the entitled internet celebrity that came together with the group.

Not only did some fangirls unsubscribe to him due to his conduct of leaving them behind despite his promise, some even dared to fully support him and allegedly flame Kaido in their social media. Unfortunately Kaido doesn't have an account in social media in that world, due to that they're flaming, boycott, and threats were all miss fired since Kaido has no social media account.

Since that was the case, many speculations erupted on the net that Kaido was a hermit of some such, or he deleted his social media account after offending an internet celebrity. But not so long after Lilia streamed live on her account and deliberately told her supporters regarding the misconduct of the internet celebrity namely Cedric inside the dungeons regarding his bias and such.

Such allegation was further supported by other people who had experienced such misconduct when they went together with the said internet celebrity. Due to this a type of internet war of bashing back and forth between opinions had escalated on the net. The battle between the people who had experience going inside the dungeon with the internet celebrity and the supporters of the said internet celebrity.

Soon after keyboard warriors sprung up on both sides as each sides begun mocking each other while defending their supported idol. Because of this war which happened in two days, Lilia was then up all night defending from some bash, threats, and flames from the rival supporters and counter attacking on her own way. While Lilia was stressed out for two days, Kaido on the other hand simply watched over her from behind as he continued reading some book she shoved to the side inside her room.

With such conduct on how Lilia and Kaido behaved with each other, the speculation of Kaido being Lilia's boyfriend  had been lifted and was changed with a  cool and chill brother like figure.

Nevertheless due to how heated the internet is with such topic, it then soon become a type of topic which was worthy of news broadcast. Since the local news had begun snooping in for article, they soon directed their curiosity towards the player who infuriated the internet celebrity and somehow the reason for the short quake the city had experienced that day.

But since no information regarding Kaido could be found, he then became the mysterious person x for the local news.

Another 3 days have passed, the day soon became Wednesday as Kaido spent most of his time going to his regular routine of following Lilia wherever she goes. May it be going to the university, the park, meeting with Shelly and Alexandro who he was introduced to, going inside the dungeon, or walking around the neighborhood and fetching some groceries, Kaido simply followed suite.

At occasions, when Lilia is going to her next class, Kaido would often leave midway through the lesson and visit the university's college. During his time he slowly begun to understand slightly the existence of dungeon through the theories and articles posted by various experts.

The reason why Kaido is currently focusing on studying dungeons is because the dungeons itself can be categorized as pathway through another realm which touches the psychics of space manipulation. He believes that the only way to get back to his world is by distorting the very space it6self just like how he got sucked in a space distortion inside an isolated space.

However the only catch here is that, such feat is only possible if one could manipulate space itself, which Kaido has no way of doing it aside from Aileen's space magic. Even thought he could recreate a fake space distortion by using his matter manipulation, it would still no0ty be enough to actually crack the space between worlds and caused a transport of one being from one planet to another.

Since he cant manipulate space, he now has only three alternative choices left in order to go back home. First is by making a machine capable enough to travel through space. Second is to wait for a space element user to arrive at his doorstep, which is unlikely. Lastly third is by trying to actually distort space inside a dungeon which is dangerous due to possible involvement of a third party native to this world or the system that all players had.

With that he then firstly tried whether creating a machine that could traverse space be possible.

Aside from all of that, he also somewhat observed Lilia's technique's when fighting and comparing it to how Melfina occasionally moves like a true assassin. And one thing he noticed, was that Lilia's movement is kinda sloppy on some parts which often leads her to numerous openings.

Due to her numerous openings in her movement, Kaido couldn't help but sigh in dejection as he compare her to a person who has much more experience than herself in a assassin class.