Chapter 16

"The girl is in love with your brother," I say as I watch Mitsuha Miyamizu practice her shrine maiden duties with her grandma. "She also hates to be in this town, and yet she loves being a shrine maiden, how curious."

"Really? I don't think she likes anything about this town. Except for the fact that she loves her grandma and her sister." Takae mutters beside me.

"Are you sympathizing with her because you both have daddy issues?" I smirk.

Takae sputters indignantly before she glares at me. "I do not have daddy issues!" crossing her arms and pouting, she looks at Mitsuha. "But-"-sigh-"you may have a point, I guess."

"Ah, don't worry about it Takae, worst case I'll just grow a dick and a stache and have you call me daddy," I smirk at her horrified look.

"Now, now, focus." We were sitting on a branch in a tree that faced the courtyard of the Miyamizu household, observing the family while Takae and I trained with our energy. "Different energy have different attributes and offer different powers. Yours is the speed force, it comes from the blessing of Fujin, but it's not his energy, it's yours. Your body, your life force, your blessing. To control your energy, you need to understand that it is yours, and even he can't take it away." I say as I gently massage her neck from behind.

"Speed force... It sounds like something out of a comic, however knowing Momoyo's Copy Chi it doesn't seem that weird." She closes her eyes as soft lightning starts circling her.

"Hmm. That Copy Chi, how does that work? Do you know anything about it?" I ask my hands, going lower, to her shoulder blades and the center of her back, in circles.

"No idea. One day she decided to follow what a popular manga said and she managed to do it. Then she started copying the techniques of every fictional character, even the super regeneration of Piccolo, then she started copying the techniques of other people, but that's less impressive I guess. And while she has all the techniques she'd ever want, all she does is just brawl like a thug. Unless her opponent is skilled, I guess. I have never seen her go all out. Mn" She explains as my hands start groping her boobs and pressing my chest on her back, one of my hands slowly trailing down her stomach.

"I see. She's not a bad girl, she tried to rescue me when she saw me fall, so I guess there's that. There is darkness within her though, and... I felt like she had come in contact with Ishmallah's essence."

"Ahn." She starts squirming around, as the lightning around her start flickering.

"Focus," I whisper in her ear as I lightly bite it, one of my hands under her top, massaging her breast as the other hand caressed her labia. "Focus, the lightning is almost gone."

"Mn, it's hard when you tease me like this." Takae breathes out as she starts gyrating her hips slowly.

"I think you deserve this," I emphasize the word this as I pinch her nipple. "I should punish you," I say as my bites get harder on her neck.

Her moans get louder, and my hand on her privates faster, my fingers going in and out. "When I said I could grow a dick, I wasn't joking," I whisper as her ass, suddenly feels my rising boner.

"Bwhuh?" Now her lightning completely fades out, as she turns around, sitting in front of me, looking at the bulge in my pants.

Very slowly she reaches with a hand and slowly opens my pants, my blue dick, because blue dicks are best dicks, bouncing off its confinement.

Her blush was quite beautiful, and the lust in her eyes couldn't be hidden. With one hand she slowly strokes it, up and down. Her hand was warm and soft, she doesn't punch after all.

I bend over towards her face as I slowly kiss her, even deeper, sucking her tongue on my mouth, as our tongues danced and we masturbated each other, we heard a gulp from the house.

"Ah," I say as I lock eyes with Mitsuha, who is observing us from the window, a bottle of water in her hand. It seems we surprised each other.

"Ah!" With a flash of lightning Takae suddenly vanishes.

"Fuck, Takae! Come back you need protection!" I shout.

"Ah, sorry, sorry." Takae appears again, fully clothed, hidden behind me, while I put on my pants again as the dick fades. Damn it, I was close too.

"Well... Erm. Hello there." I smile and wave at the girl.

"H-Hello..." She mutters waving back before suddenly coming back to her senses and screaming at the top of her lungs.

/-/

"So? Why did you scare my granddaughter? Hmm?" The old woman was looking at us with judgment in her eyes.

"Hehehe, that's... Well, a mistake. We didn't want to scare anyone or anything. We were, uh, in the tree, and she probably didn't expect us to be there. Yeah, that's what happened." I am trying here, but Takae won't like me being honest here.

"Y-Yes, in the tree. Nothing happened! A misunderstanding!" Takae bows twice, almost hitting her head on the table.

"Sorry 'bout her, she's kinda shy." I smile.

"Hmm... Did you get so scared because they were on a tree, Mitsuha?" It seems we weren't convincing enough, as she asks the girl with a pointed look.

"Ah... Yes, grandmother. I was just merely scared because of the sudden situation. I apologize for shouting like that." While her cheeks are still a little bit red, she is educated and polite to the extreme, even sitting in seiza.

Turning towards us, she looks at us appraisingly "Are you perhaps Takae Tachibana? I was told that you would come by for the dress." She said with a silent urging.

"Ah, yes, yes. Tachibana, that's me. Takae, Takae. Sure it's my name!" Her high-pitched tone is getting ridiculous.

Tapping her side with my finger, she jumps two meters. Luckily we're able now to be separated for about 10 minutes.

"Kya!"

"Pfft! Hahahahahahaha! Oh my lord! Calm down, hahaha! You're way too flustered!" I fall to the ground laughing.

At least this interaction seems to have calmed the grandma, as she lightly smiles. "Go on, bring your friends to your room. I'll make tea."

Smiling I grab Takae's hand, as she's still mortified, and follow Mitsuha to her room. Her room is quite spacious, with old tatami, sliding doors. Hehe, quite a nice house.

An awkward silence rises once she closes the door, she isn't even looking at us directly, her head tilted to the side and her blush growing. Takae on the other hand is muttering behind me, as she hides her face in my hair.

"Alright, you two need to stop acting like schoolgirls," I say loudly. Then I snort. "Well, Takae, you need to stop acting like a schoolgirl, the real schoolgirl is acting more mature than you."

With a deep inhalation, Mitsuha looks at me in the eye. "Taki left me a message, apparently you two know what's going on, and he said also something about magic. Normally I wouldn't believe that, but you had a... Blue transparent p-penis that evaporated when you wanted. So I think I will believe you." She only stuttered on penis, what a commendable girl!

"Ah, magic. Yes, behold!" I grandstand as I wave my hand, and a ball of light floats about it, illuminating further the room. "Magical flashlight, ta-da!" I bow, revealing Takae's red face towards Mitsuha.

"And I made a maiden appear," I smirk. "She's the sister of Taki, you know?"

"Ah, he wasn't so sure about that though, but he had his doubts, we'll see tomorrow, he's bound to appear on my body for a few hours in the morning." She explains as she looks briefly at the ball of light before turning around and taking a whiteboard filled with scribbles.

"Tomorrow is probably the last day we exchange bodies, lately we've been less and less time in the body of the other." she sighs with a forlorn expression.

Raising an eyebrow "You clearly want to keep changing bodies, why is that?" I ask

Flushing a little, she looks to the window. "My dream was to be a teenage boy in Tokyo, and it was granted. And now my dream is gonna be taken away from me." She mutters.

"Eh? A teenage boy in Tokyo? Why? You hate this place so much you disassociate from it that bad?" Takae asked back.

"It is so obvious?"-sigh-"It's not that I hate this place, it's that I hate how jailed I feel. My classmates laugh at me for being the shrine maiden, my father demands more and more perfection, he doesn't even let me breathe, I have to be reliable to my little sister, I feel like a prisoner in my own home. The other day I arranged a date for Taki with my best friend and it broke my heart. I love him, and he disregards my feelings, and I even went to the date because I wanted to stop it from happening, and you know how Taki reacted to me?" She's getting incensed and started ranting. "He said 'who are you?' He asked who I was! What the hell!? So in a rage, I came back and told my grandma to cut my hair." After that, she started crying.

Takae and I look at each other in panic, you go, said her eyes. No, no, I suck at this, you go. Said mine. With a soundless sigh, we both enveloped Mitsuha in a hug.

"There, there, let me bring a little bit of light to your situation. Have you switched bodies when you are emotional about the other person?" I ask, only to receive a shake of her head. "Alright, you think Taki wouldn't recognize you normally?"

"I think he would recognize me instantly... He even asked for my name and didn't know who I was." She mutters sadly.

"This... I hesitate to call it magic, relies heavily on time. It's probably that the take you talk to is not the actual Taki. But another Taki from another time branch. This town feels like it's dancing on two timelines." I say as I stroke her back.

"Thanks, I am okay now." She said pushing us both. "I don't know what anything of what you said means, I just don't understand the concept, but essentially that Taki was not my Taki?" Oh, her eyes are so hopeful.

"Well, I can't say anything for certain until we actually met Taki, can you give us his direction? I promise I'll tell you what I can find, here, this is my phone." I show her the Kuki Phone, "add your number on it."

"What? A brand new Kuki Phone? Amazing!" She gushes over the phone. Sweatdropping at her, I turn to look at Takae looking serious. Sending her a questioning look, she mouths 'later'.

Shrugging I take my phone back after Mitsuha puts her number, two minutes later I have the direction of Taki's house.

"Let's wait a last day for the Festival and then we look for your brother. After that, it's a straight line towards Kawakami." I tell Takae, but she seems distracted.

"Hm, Takae? What's on your mind?" I shake her shoulder a bit.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I don't know how to put it into words, my brother is cursed too? Or what's going on? And what about her? Why is she so in love with my brother? Is it beca-"

"Ah, chill." I prick her sides with my finger. "Relax, love. She probably truly loves him. That's what's disturbing you, right? Don't think too much about it. Instead, let's continue what we were doing on that tree~" I say as Takae is suddenly in my arms, and activating my recall we teleport to our room in the hotel.

Next day

"Ah I can't, no more please." Takae moans in her sleep. Naughty girl, she's thinkin' of me ain't she? Oh, she must be!! I rub my hands lecherously as I look at her disheveled appearance. Her long sweaty hair spread above her like a painting, her flushed healthy skin, ah, such a perfect sight. I prepare to jump on her as she keeps talking in her sleep. "No, I can't eat more pudding."

"Ah! Blasphemous bitch!" I yell! "YOU CAN ALWAYS HAVE MORE PUDD-ugh!" I held my midsection as an angry Takae kicks me in the stomach because of my sudden shout. "So-sorry!" I scratch the back of my neck. "Te-he!"

"Ugh, I swear Nat you're so loud in the mornings." She yawns. "Good morning." She smiles and gives me a peck.

"Good morning! Let's have pudding as breakfast and then we will train with pudding, and after that, we'll go to the festival to eat pudding." I cheer with a fist in the air.

Takae merely tilts her head at me. "Wouldn't that be too much pudding? Besides, pudding is not for breakfast, is a dessert." she smiles as she goes to the bathroom.

"Ah, no, no, pudding is for every situation. From births to the end of civilizations, everything is better with pudding!" I say as Takae starts washing her teeth.

"Are you sure you don't want me to magic that away? I clean myself with a snap, you know. A snap!" I twirl in place.

"No need, I like washing my teeth. Say, you're strangely cheery today. Why's that?" She looks at me from the reflection of the mirror with an eyebrow raised.

"It's been too long since I've attended a festival! Also, I managed to control my energy enough last night with the magical dick that I can understand what's going on in this town." I smirk.

As Takae washes her teeth, she waves a hand at me to keep going.

"Yesterday I said something about timelines, that's the gist of it. This town is in the past, and at the same time the future, also, one of the timelines is about to end, and the other is going to continue. It's weird, the link is your brother. No matter, after the festival we'll check on your brother and the true nature of this place will be revealed. By the way, I can now easily shield you from the energy even if we're not touching. Just be close, like... Ten meters close and the shield will be indefinite, more distance than that and it will dissipate in 30 minutes. Now, I don't know what sort of effect will it cause you if you get affected by the energy."

"I see. Hm. Alright, it's not like I am going to stop holding your hand, I like doing that." She smiles at me.

"Oh, that reminds me..." I pull out my phone and make a call.

"Well little baby, it seems you didn't disappear after all." Hume's voice comes from the speakers. Takae suddenly jumps after hearing his voice.

"I completed the job, she's healthy and no longer unlucky." I grin at Takae's surprised expression.

"Hmm. We'd love to take your word for it, but we wouldn't be the Kuki Corporation if we just accepted that as your word without verification first." Come's the voice of the top dog butler of the Kuki Corporation.

"Alright, Takae here you go, I am gonna get breakfast," I smirk at Takae as her panicky expression got worse.

"Ah! Ah! N-nyoo!" Her face red from embarrassment and mortification forces her to do weird noises.

"Well, well, little Tachibana Takae, are you saying you don't want to talk with me, hmm?" His voice gains another kind of edge than the one he was using on me, yet I can hear the hidden love beneath it.

"Ah, uncle..." She wails.

And with that, I am out of the room, now I said I was gonna make breakfast, more than that I must make her see the true beauty of pudding.

Saying hi to the patron of the hotel I go to the kitchen.

"Ah, you can't go there." He says.

"Yes, I can, there." I throw him a wad of cash.

"Ah, you can indeed go there." He corrects himself.

"Vanilla, sugar, eggs..." I mutter every ingredient as I find them around the kitchen.

As I stir the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan filled with milk I start humming.

"Oh, you're a good cook, lass! I thought I was going to save you but you're better than me!"

"Haha, of course, I am, old man! I practiced all my life for this recipe!" I puff my chest in pride.

"Well, well, you'd be a good wife for my son." He says as he takes a picture from his pocket.

"No thanks old man, I have the person I love in my room, waiting for pudding!" I grin.

"Ah, so it's true that you are both together together? You, city people, are way too radical! Well, when you stop to play around you can come back and I'll present to you my son." Said Mr. Unpleasant with a confident smile.

"Ah, what's that?!" I shout and point behind him, as soon as he turns around to see what's going on I put a spell on him to ignore me.

There, fuck you.

And thus, I resume my humming.

"Egg yolks, vanilla... Stir, stir. Yesss, it's taking form!!! IT'S GROWING LEGS! Fuck!"

I focus my will on the abomination, I knew I shouldn't have used my special vanilla, forcing the abomination to die.

"Hm..." I wonder, I take a little bit of the abomination on my finger and lick it.

"Oh, unexpectedly delicious," I said surprised. "Alright, you'll do in death."

Now, I don't have one hour to wait for the pudding to refrigerate, so I'll just clap my hands and wish for it to be done.

I smile as I clap my hands. "Go, go, make my pudding!" And voila, pudding. That's my recipe, magical shit.

Taking the big enormous pudding back to my room I hear Takae's voice from within.

"No! I am happy with her, you can't test her or whatever. No, she hasn't washed my mind. Urgh, fine. We can do that when we return to Kawakami. Hmm, two, three days? Yeah, yeah. See you soon." She meets my eyes as I enter the room.

"Nat, what the fuck? How did you make a pudding so big in five minutes? Also, please, don't pass me the phone again without a warning. I really have to mentally prepare to talk with Hume, talking to him is like playing three-dimensional chess." She mutters as she looks at the pudding.

"As for the pudding, well, magic. And as for Hume... Alriiight, fine. I am sorry about that, didn't know it would shock you that much." I smile as I kiss her, mmm, minty.

"I love you, you know that?" I say as I hug her close.

"I know, and I love you too. Even if it's weird." She blushes. "Le-lets eat!"

A few hours later

"Yep, the spell hasn't activated yet, which means that Taki hasn't switched bodies today. Well, no matter, let's prepare for the festival. Everyone here seems pumped up for it." I say as we look around and everyone is getting ready.

"That girl was going to do kuchikamikaze didn't she?" Takae ponders outloud.

"Yep, I don't like it," I say back. At her questioning look. "No, it's not because she chews the rice and then spits it in a box for fermentation, it's because of the quantity. "She's making sake! And yet, it's so fucking small!" I explain myself, getting a laugh from Takae.

"Ha, dork. But you're right, I don't know on what they use the fermented sake though." She wonders.

"Heh, I bet Taki would drink it with delish if he saw how she made it, the little pervert." And this time I dodge Takae's pinch. "You missed! haha!" And before I could rub it in her face a flash of thunder and I suddenly feel pinched everywhere at once.

"Ouch. That's cheating. You know what, fine." I grumble as I lit one of my cigars.

I grab Takae's hands and look at her in the eye with a smirk. Suddenly, from the smoke, a few sparkly green hands appear and they start pinching Takae's body.

"Ah! Stop it!" She complains trying to get free from me, sadly I am much too strong for her.

"Wanna know what's the best thing about these green hands of mine? I can feel what they do!" I laugh evilly.

Takae suddenly bites one that was about to pinch her cheek.

"Ah!" And thus my hands disappear. "Fine, fine, let's stop." I shouldn't have told her that.

"We're here." We are on the top of the mountain.

Taking out a mat we kneel in front of each other. "This time, don't meditate on your inside. Meditate on the world you affect. How you affect the world, how you shape the air you breathe, your mark in each step, the lightning on your body. Feel the world." I coax as we close our eyes holding hands.

"Inhale. One, two, three, four, exhale, one, two. Again. Think of how the raindrops touch the ground, the clouds move, the world spins."

As her breath follows my words and stabilizes I immerse myself in the world.

This time, my energy is bigger than ever before, calling the earth with it, it answers back.

Save the world.

"Ghk!" I cough, gulping for air. Takae is still meditating without problems. What was that? The voice of the earth? Save it from what?

Hm. Is getting late. Gently touching Takae's shoulder I wake her up.

"Mmm." She smiles brightly, "Look at this!" She puts his hand in front of me, and suddenly it lights up with thunder.

"Huh, amazing! What does it do?" I ask.

"Fufufu! I know! And about what it does... I don't know!" She still smiles brightly, "let's find out!".

Jumping, she walks to a tree, lights her hand, and punches.

Instead of breaking the tree as a normal punch would, her hand melts and drills where she punched, leaving a perfect hole.

"Huh, if you can make it larger you could use it as a sword, and with your speed... Well, this would make you a fearsome opponent, amazing." I appraise from the side.

"Ah! it's getting late, come here, stay in this circle." I say as I spread chalk around us. Clapping my hands, the chalk extends until it becomes a veil that surrounds us. "I know you don't like to do it this way, but we don't have time if we want to go to the festival earlier," I smirk, as suddenly the chalk rushes towards us and passes by each nook and cranny in our bodies, of course, we can't feel it, but the imagination is a powerful thing.

And Takae believes it touches her when it does not. So she screams "Kyaa!"

Laughing I hold her and kiss her deeply. "You need to relax, love. The only one touching you is me." I smirk.

"Hmpf." She crosses her arms with a pout. "Fine."

"And you wanted this yukata, didn't you?" I smile as I take out the one she picked, and my own.

Her yukata was a matsuri style, a simple light blue yukata with red stars that adorned it, the red obi was tied in a simple way, and I even got geta for her.

I wore something similar, just white with a yellow obi. Smiling at each other, she suddenly lost the smile and asked me. "Erm. How are we gonna get down the mountain with geta?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, I knew I forgot something. Well, no matter." In response I grab her and we teleport to our room.

"We could have dressed here..." She mutters slowly.

With a smirk, I leave the room fast before she realizes I pranked her again.

"Nat!" A voice shouts from the room. Yeah nope!

"Haha!" I run away. Only for thunder to come after me.

My eyes widened, I pump all my energy into my legs, leaving craters from where I run.

Please, I am amazing too, you can't catch me if I don't want to!

I suddenly jump sideways, spinning my body in the air, Takae is a few centimeters behind me, we lock eyes and I wink at her as her hand tries to pinch the air where I was before. With a grin, I grab her hand in the air and lock my legs on her torso.

"Mine!" I shout as I twist my body and land behind her, with her arm locked under her back. My other hand on her neck, twisting her head towards me, I kiss her roughly.

"I won~," I say as I release her.

"Pouting won't work! Let's go play around the festival!" We smile, as we hold hands and go towards the festival.

"Should we try the strength games?" She asks beside me.

"If you want. Just because we are stronger than most people does not mean we have a responsibility towards others or that we would limit ourselves. Don't do that, be yourself and do what you want, always." I said seriously.

"Huh, alright." She smiles as she walks towards a game where you hit a bell with a hammer, and if you reach the top you get a big prize.

Yeah, power doesn't mean responsibility after all. Power means the power to do what you want, and if you want to be responsible for others, then do it. But not because you feel obligated by your power. That's something the spider-man comics always got wrong, that's why Peter always suffered so much, fool.

Ding, ding!

Cheers erupted from the crowd, as we all clapped and whistled at Takae who just hit the highest bell.

"Amazing lass! Here you go, a giant bunny!" the bunny was certainly giant, it was bigger than three meters.

Takae smiles and comes towards me with the bunny and hands it to me. "For you." Her eyes glint.

"Ahahaha, fine, fine. Thank you!" I kiss her. And suddenly the bunny disappears into my ring.

"What? What happened? Where's the bunny?" People began to wonder, with a wink and a wave we leave the group of lost people and go towards a rice stand.

"Oh, rice!" Takae cheers and buys a few bowls. Rising an eyebrow, I look at her as she devours it all.

"You know, I kinda forgot that rice is your favorite food. Even if it's weird." I say next to her with my own bowl.

"Hehe, rice saved me. Many times, really. Everything I cooked would burn or fall to the ground, or something weird would happen to my food. The only thing that always remained was rice. So I love rice." She smiles. "Now I can eat more things, but rice has a good place on my heart."

Music started sounding in the festival, children running around and people dancing and enjoying themselves.

Looking up to the sky, a rain of stars crosses the world. With a flash, my yukata was gone, and instead, I am wearing my battle clothes.

"Huh? Nat?" She asks.

"It's nothing, don't worry." I smile. Crouching, A cloak appears on my back, it slowly starts shining, blue motes of light surround it, as it becomes a pair of wings.

The rain of stars keeps going, but one comet, a purple-ish meteorite turns slightly and heads directly towards the town.

Inhaling deeply, I suddenly push and the ground cracks for tens of meters as I jump and appear in front of the meteorite. My sword raised, shining golden.

"Extreme divide!" I shout the command to activate the sword, becoming bigger, and bigger as I slash downwards.

The sword, now as big as the meteorite cuts like a hot knife through butter, dividing the meteorite in half. But that's not enough to save the town. I slash again, dividing the meteorite into four. And again, and again, and again. Multiple times in a second, now, it's just a lot of rocks, but that can still hurt people.

My wings flapped once, and I find myself on the ground once again, this time a javelin on my hands.

It was long, and at the end of the silver shaft, instead of a blade, there was a little disc.

Throwing it with a grunt of effort, the javelin flies fast, towards the center of the town, when I calculate it reached the center of the town I clap once. The disc starts rotating, stoping the javelin in place, and from there a huge transparent umbrella appears above the town, blocking the rocks from hitting the people.

Looking towards Takae I smile and grab her hand, as my clothes are replaced with my yukata. "Let's keep looking around." I smile as I tug her.