308 [308] In Preparation

"What a surprising man."

Watching the place where Kazuya was originally standing, Gilgamesh walked slowly over, picked up the papers on the ground, and said, "Has the information completely disappeared? From this world... I see, so this is his method of traversing parallel worlds. Hmph, maybe it could bring some amusement to me, mongrel."

...

"Well, it seems three hours have passed." Kazuya checked the time and nodded in satisfaction.

Time axes in different worlds were not the same, and even the flow of time varied.

It gave a rather confusing feeling.

The time flow here was three times faster than the previous one, and the world where his sister was disappeared quite a bit slower. Three years had passed here, but only two years had passed there.

D4C's ability was indeed amazing.

Not only did it have formidable power, but its attributes were also not lacking.

However...

The power of his other Stand was weakened.

The Stand ability that could discern truth from falsehood and draw out others' souls—Atum—was weakened!

A person could only possess one Stand.

This limitation remained even in this world.

Currently, his situation was somewhat like DIO at the beginning.

At first, DIO had two Stands, The World and Stand like a Hermit Purple.

However, with further control over his body, The other stand gradually disappeared, and in contrast, the power of The World's ability became stronger.

He was similar now.

Stand D4C had two forms.

He felt that if he gave up Atum, he could completely master D4C's second ability.

However...

Although D4C's second ability was not bad—allowing him to place himself in the "light" or, in other words, between dimensions, redirecting attacks onto others and avoiding harm himself, appearing like a weakened version of Avalon—relative to him, he still needed Atum. The ability to see into hearts could be quite effective in many situations. Compared to his now almost surplus defensive power, it was more valuable.

So...

"Try to maintain the current situation as much as possible... Try to maintain a balance between the two Stands." Thinking this, he made several punches in the air with Atum.

He felt the balance shift slightly.

Whichever ability he used, that ability would become stronger.

Until one day, absorbing the other Stand ability completely would bring it to an end.

This kind of thing should be avoided as much as possible.

However...

Having two Stand sometimes made him feel like he was being torn apart. But currently, it didn't feel too severe. If he obtained a third Stand...

"This is good. Having abilities also means having limitations, giving a sense of reality. It's not right to just gain without any effort, or to give without any returns. The price will have to be paid sooner or later... Better to pay it in advance than postpone it. Otherwise, who knows what kind of interest and consequences will accumulate later on? There's no clear contract for that."

Rubbing his head, which felt a bit sore from consecutive use of both abilities, Kazuya sighed deeply. The ripple effect continued to alleviate the pain.

In a few minutes, he should fully recover.

"Shiki is about to finish school. I should pick her up..."

But... he hadn't checked on his company today at all. Shouldn't be a problem; he often didn't go anyway.

However, suddenly, he felt a bit drowsy.

"This feeling... Merlin?" Recalling this familiar sensation, Kazuya furrowed his brow slightly. After a moment of thought, he sighed and lay down to sleep.

There was still an hour before Shiki finished school.

He hoped to settle things during this time.

This magus was not honest. What was he doing in Avalon?

Well...

As soon as he lay down, the world suddenly turned into a vast sea of stars.

In that place, the magician Merlin appeared.

"Good morning, Kurokawa Kazuya."

"It's already afternoon. If there's something, say it quickly. I have to pick up Shiki."

"Sure, sure." Merlin smiled gently. "It's nothing major. I just wanted to ask, what are you planning to do?"

"What do you mean?"

Merlin looked at Kazuya and said, "As you know, Artoria of this world is now in my hands. However, her mental state is extremely unstable. If she wakes up now, it would be troublesome. So, I plan to arrange a suitable dream for her. You're good at this kind of thing, especially now... it seems you've gained the ability to traverse parallel worlds. In other parallel worlds, Artoria must have had a moment of redemption. Tell me how?"

"That can be arranged... Well, I happen to be working on something similar recently. Once it's done, I'll give you a copy."

"Good, that's great."

"But, how do I do this? Are you in Avalon? Not the Noble Phantasm Avalon, but the actual Avalon that exists?"

"Through dreams, of course." Merlin smiled and said, "After all, I'm half-human. It's something that can be done. So, I'll leave it to you."

"Alright, hurry up and wake me up. I have things to do."

"Sure, I understand."

After that, Kazuya felt a bit dizzy, and when he regained consciousness, he was back in his original room. Everything felt like a dream.

No, those were originally dreams.

Checking the time, it was just past three in the afternoon, almost time for Shiki to finish school.

"Today has been quite eventful." Since he didn't have much time, he decided to drive over.

...

As usual, a dull and boring day. A day of monotony.

After packing up her textbooks, Shiki walked slowly toward the school gate.

There were no friends walking with her, but she didn't mind.

With her temperament, others might encounter some unpleasant situations, but she was Shiki Ryougi, not to mention the powerful Ryougi family behind her. She could easily make those who didn't know their place regret their actions.

As for parents coming over...

At that time, it would be handled by her family... But even so, it couldn't change one thing—she had no friends.

Well, it was enough.

Looking at the person waving to her at the school gate, Shiki felt a slight relief in her heart.

Ah, yes, this is enough.

"How was today?"

The usual question, and the usual answer: "Nothing special, just the same as always."

"Is that so." Kazuya nodded. "By the way, I mentioned the parallel worlds to you today."

"What's the matter?"

"Just now, I awakened to the ability to traverse parallel worlds. It's related to what I talked about earlier."

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