Chapter 25: Unforeseen Encounter in the Mindscape

[Miko's POV]

"Ah~ Today is a good day"

Ever since I delivered the elegant robe to the Twilight Manor this early morning, I am pretty much a good today.

Even though I spent all night tailoring the whole robe myself and I didn't get any sleep that night. But it's okay, I finished the final product and it was worth the time I spent.

I am hoping that damn wolf will learn his lesson by now or else I will do another one for good measure.

Anyway, today is day off schedule again. This means everyone has gone out of the house to do their own thing.

All of the familia members went to the tower of Babel's weapon shop to buy new equipment and weapons. They even tried to invite me to come with them, but I declined and said that I have my own agenda in the courtyard. Takemikazuchi-sama also went out, saying he will be going to meet new goddess friend in the Orario. I didn't pry on for information on who is he meeting and he left me in the base on my own.

Right now, I am preparing a mindscape dive seal under a huge Sakura tree.

You may be wondering why there is a Sakura tree in the courtyard and where it come from?

Well, one of the scrolls I had, happens to be a Sakura tree planting scroll, which is quite convenient. It might be random and conspicuous to have a foreign tree in your backyard, but who are they to judge my gardening skills.

The reason I put this tree here is because I want to cover my mindscape dive seal from the person on the tower. I don't know if the tree will do much concealment to my activities, but I think this will do for now.

Just in case, I put a barrier seal to keep anyone, except the Takemikazuchi familia, out of the base. It also come with an alarm system to warn me that the barrier has been breach.

Now that I felt secured right now, I begin to do the mindscape diving procedure.

I draw the seal on the flat area of the courtyard with special ink that is mixed with a bit of my blood. After I finished drawing, I placed four magic stone on the four outer circles of the seal and promptly sat on the middle of the main circle.

I snapped my fingers on both hand and took out the Kagura Suzu and Gohei from the dimensional storage.

I grip on the two sacred tools, closed my eyes and focused my mind to initiate the dive.

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When I opened my eyes, I appeared at void place I used to see when I mindscape dive.

I look at my Gohei on my right hand. This object was the vessel of the partial soul of Shirou Suzuki. This person was the other half that makes up my soul and the other half was the original Yae Miko.

I focused my mind and raise the Gohei on a certain direction, then command the sacred object to project the memory of Shirou where he still has the novel collection in his house.

Then a distorted portal appeared in the air and on the other side of the portal was Shirou's room.

I walk towards the distorted portal and entered Shirou's memory.

Appearing on to the other side of the portal, I confirm my surroundings and started inspecting the things within the room.

I then found the shelves of novel and start searching for the Danmachi series. Once I found it, Ican only see five volumes in total and I took all of them.

Then I begin to scan the text of each of the five volumes of the novels.

After of hours of reading all of volumes of the novel. Most of them doesn't seems to involve anything about Haruhime at all. However, Takemikazuchi-sama and the other familia members within the story as I expected.

So far, there is not a single mention of Haruhime within the text of each volume of novel.

"I guess I went here for nothing, huh. Oh well, I guess I did gain some other information instead"

Yes, I finally found out the identity of the person who is stalking me from the top of the tower.

Freya, the Goddess of Beauty

From the books I read so far, she was very seductive, loves to torment her victims and has ceaseless hunger for talented adventurers. She can be obsessive and possessive when she takes her eyes on what she is interested in and do everything to play with her victims.

That being said, this woman seems to be targeting me because she thinks of me as a special entity and will not stop harassing me if she founds me. I don't myself become a goddess's plaything.

I also should be careful with that woman now that I also know her skill kits as well.

From the books, it is said that she can see the color of people's soul with her eyes and able to charm unsuspecting victims, making them servile and obey her commands.

I also found something interesting, it is someone that goddess always obsessing with and seems to most occurring character in the story.

Bell Cranel, the protagonist of the Danmachi novel.

He was described in the book as kind-hearted, brave and heroic person, willing to help people in needed. He also said to be gullible and shy towards people. He met a goddess name Hestia and he became her follower.

"This boy is quite interesting. I must meet him to help me find Haruhime-san"

As for other information in the novels, I don't think there is nothing else would be in good use. I mean there is part where Ais save Bell from a minotaur and became a sort of idol to him. However, that one has nothing to do with helping on finding Haruhime.

After finishing assessing the books I read, I stored them in the dimensional storage.

"Okey then, now what do I do?" I questioned myself as I am currently idling on the room.

"Well, I might as well browse something else interesting in here"

I browsed the bookshelf for something good to read.

I then found a quite thick book on the top shelf and I took it out to look at it.

"Projection Magecraft grimoire, huh? Let's see what is about" I then opened the book and read its contents.

While reading the grimoire, I saw a text that seems to be glowing for some reason.

"Trace on?"

I suddenly felt hazy and my vision becomes blurry. My legs then give in and slowly fainted to the floor.

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*gasp*

I then quickly opened my eyes and get up to know what happened.

When look at the surrounding, I am no longer in Shirou's room and seems to be back to the void area,

However, I felt something different from the space. I turned around and I was shocked on what I see.

A huge forest of withered Sakura trees can be seen planted on the white flat ground of the space. There is also a clearing surrounded by the forest and within the clearing were weapons stuck on the ground, mostly were katanas, axes, dangers and other bladed weapons.

And on the middle of the clearing is a woman. The woman has white hair, long renard ears and nine fox tails. She wears a red scarf on her neck and white samurai robe with red highlights. Two sheathed swords hanged on her hips that has familiarity on it. The woman's hair seems to worn out and she is full of scars on her face, mostly on the eyes and checks.

Currently, the woman is meditating on the floor with her eyes closed.

I approached the woman and she seems to noticed my presence. She slowly opens her purple pupiled eyes and looks me in the eyes.

When she looks at me, I felt a sense of familiarity within her. As if I felt like I am looking at myself in a mirror.

"W-who are you? What is this place?" I asked the woman questions. However, she didn't answer for a while.

"Hey, I am asking you who are-"

"Was it very obvious, don't you think?" The woman said with slight irritation on her tone.

"Huh?"

"Do you ever look at yourself in mirror for once, don't you?"

"Wait, do you mean you are-"

"Yes, I am you" The woman suddenly revealed who she was and I was surprised at her revelation.

"What?!"

"To be more precise, I am you from several years from the future"

"!!" The surprise went even further when she said she was from the future.

Wait? Does she mean I will become like that on the future? Worn-out and full of scars?

"As for the location, this is my mindscape and I call it..."

"...Plane of Dysthymia, the land of sadness and tragedy"