Multiversal Crisis! - Addendum: Gideon

"Will you please quit pouting?" With his arms folded across his chest and a huff on his lips, Alexander made no attempt to listen to him. In all honesty, it should be the opposite; in order to keep this sugar-fueled toddler from getting lost, Jason had to literally chase him all around the central streets.

He also learned that rugby tackling a child is the easiest way to take them out for the count.

Gideon made an effort to help, but he was understandably distracted due to his rapidly dwindling patience and the mountain pressure of the Magic Knights entrance exam, which was approaching in the not-too-distant future.

Which in turn allowed the kid to waste them almost two hours of sunlight. It was nearly dawn now.

At the very least, they were able to visit a few tourist attractions, including a sizable fountain covered in the names of the line of Wizard Kings and a large cathedral centered on the dominant faith of the Kingdom.

Its similarities to Christianity and other monotheistic religions was definitely something that caught Jason off guard. He lived in quite small and far away places, the villages didn't follow any particular set of religions, so he assumed there was no dominant faith in this world.

The books in the library covered quite a bit of the topic of religion, especially the myths and fictional stories surrounding each ideology. The most interesting stories, however, were those that deviated from the commonly mentioned legends and went into new branches of their tales

Hell, there was one book where King Arthur was a girl! Granted, that was a weird dimension where the whole timeline was convoluted as fuck and he had no idea where to even begin with all the monsters that exist in that reality.

…who might very well have existing counterparts on this one.

Get it together Jason! After getting back on track, they had been moving quickly in the direction of the tavern that the gentleman had indicated. He had plenty of possibilities to avoid thinking about it thanks to his friends' conversation and their continual movement. But still, the prospect of existing parallels between realities is quite harrowing.

Oh well, deal with one shit at a time.

Jason shook his head, catching the trailing end of Gideon talking about something.

"...and before anyone realised, he was singing drunkenly in front of the whole tavern with his pants down."

This fucking asshole.

"Woah, he acts mature but he's actually very dorky isn't he?" Alexander giggled into his hands, giving Jason a half sympathetic half condescending smile.

Like the mature guy he is, Jason gritted his teeth "That was a long time ago." He managed to rasp out. Quite the accomplishment since his teeth never separated from each other.

"That was two months ago." Gideon bit back.

"I was not in the best place." brows twitching in anger, Jason replied.

"You had a breakthrough in Cosmology and wanted to celebrate." Not missing a beat.

"I hate you, with every fiber of my body." From the side, Alexander was observing this as if it were a fantastic Spanish telenovela.

"Bitch you know you love me." Jason was able to make out the smugness oozing from Gideon's expressionless visage despite the fact that not a single muscle twitched.

As has already been stated and will likely be stated once again, Gideon and Jason had been friends for three years and were the closest of pals. Yet precisely because they have been so close, both are aware of the proper triggers to push in order to irritate one another.

Jason ultimately made the decision to show maturity and put the recent quarrel behind them.

Definitely not because he was losing. Losing what? There had been nothing lost, losing was for losers and he wasn't one, and anybody that spoke against it had absolutely no proof of what happened.

Fortunately, he was saved from further humiliation when they took another turn on one of the less well-maintained roads in the capital's outer districts and came up against the tavern.

Jason wouldn't deny that the sight of the building resembling a hat, with a massive sign hanging from chains cascading from the roof almost made his pulse skip a beat. Not a good sight, he had been dreading seeing this image for the past few hours.

[Boar Hat]

Shit, everything appeared to be precisely how the literature had described it. The colors were also exactly as he had imagined them to be. There didn't seem to be anything out of place.

The moment his companions entered the tavern, Alexander pulled him along with them. His mind was racing with ideas and backup plans for the potential threats that could easily end the universe.

Turns out he didn't have to, cause when they entered, Jason couldn't feel any devastating mana sources around. He glanced around the place, seeing a beautiful silver-haired young woman, and a feminine boy with short pink hair, both having some strange kind of waiter's clothing, handing out food to patrons of the tavern.

Huh, hello Elizabeth and Gowther.

"Table for three, Princess." The boy's face didn't change as he shouted, giving the impression that he was related to Gideon. Well, that was a generous term; he didn't actually shout, only appeared to speak loudly and monotonously.

So either Meliodas and the gang had almost impossible amounts of mana control, or they simply weren't like their counterparts. Banking on the second one.

Still, a little jarring to see fictional characters in the flesh, and a small fanboy part of him was pushing to get their signatures.

Hey, don't judge, quite literally comic book heroes coming to life over here!

Being half-elf greatly helped Jason in sensing mana, and when combined with the training he did with Gideon, it wasn't difficult to detect five distinct mana sources among all of the patrons at the tavern. When compared to the commoners laughing inebriatedly around the tables, Elizabeth and Gowther, stood out like campfires between matches.

Although they were strong, they were not nearly as strong as he had anticipated. Hell, they were even losing to his mana in size. It wasn't a very fair comparison, since being a half-elf gave him quite a large mana pool, but they had even less magic than Gideon and Alexander.

The manas had been felt when they were nearing the tavern, but he honestly thought that it would be novice Magic Knights. This was a surprising turn of events, who would have thought people so powerful in their original universe would be significantly downplayed here?

Does the term "original Universe" even have any meaning in this context? If they were born and raised here, having an exact copy or significantly different life stories, are they really "Strangers" to this reality?

No, he needed to change this way of thinking. They undoubtedly have some similarities with the reality he read about, but it's more likely that their parallels are merely the result of the universe flowing towards an already set of pre-programmed events or acting in accordance with some sort of "Fate."

Or maybe a being beyond his existence was fucking with him?

Either way, it didn't matter. They were here now and Jason would live with it. No matter the implications behind that.

"Yes, Sir Gowther, thank you." The girl approached them with a little smile on her face, taking a few sets of plates, and setting them on the bar for later.

She had long silver hair that fell down her back, with fringes that covered her right eye. Elizabeth was every bit as stunning as the story had suggested. That beauty on top of the scandalizing tight-fitting clothes she was wearing? Boom, you got yourself a premium advertisement that will get the attention of anyone interested.

Her physical features were nicely emphasized by the clothing as well.

He was not a pervert, it was an honest to god description!

"Hello, and welcome to-" She cut herself off, her face rapidly changing to confusion.

There was an awkward pause before Elizabeth rubbed her eyes and blinked at our group again.

"S-sir Meliodas?" Wha-? Following her gaze, Jason set his eyes on his midget friend, who seemed as confused as him.

Oh shit, oh fuck he forgot about this. This is not a fucking drill!

Oblivious to him, the dark wizard cleared up the mistake as Jason started to internally panic. "Sorry, you probably have the wrong person miss, the name is Gideon." He didn't take offense at her query and simply cocked an eyebrow at the tall waiter with the silver hair.

Indeed, the issue is that you resemble said Meliodas, to the point of looking like his twin brother! A similar problem happened years before when Jason first met Gideon. The fire magician was shocked to meet someone who resembled the fictional character to an uncanny degree.

It looked as though someone had created an OC who was Meliodas and Liz's child. In addition, the protagonist's tragic history was poorly written and served to haunt him throughout the story. It was only at the end of the novel that he was forced to face his true self and through some bullshit power of friendship overcome it with the help of the allies he made along the way.

…did he just accidentally set a flag? God say it isn't so! This was gonna make so many problems he could already feel it.

Wait, did that make him a supporting character?!

"Does he look like this Meliodas, Miss?" cutting his line of thought, Jason glanced behind him where Alexander was poking his head from, tilting it to the side in confusion.

"A-ah, I'm sorry, it's just that," trailing off and turning her attention to the bar where a very familiar blondie was preparing some delicious looking food, she snapped back and stared at them again, "Y-you look s-similar to t-the owner."

Of course, breaking through Jason's universal panic Gideon simply shrugged indifferently "The owner must be quite the handsome man. Not everyone can claim to look like me."

This midget, even without changing his expression, the amount of smugness oozing out of him is unprecedent.

While obviously still a bit put out, the sheer delivery of the response left Elizabeth speechless for a few seconds.

Awkwardly getting herself back together, she finally spoke "R-right, what can I help you with?"

"We're simply looking for a place to stay the night." Jason chimed, swallowing any leftover panic once it became clear that nobody was gonna touch that topic again.

Though Jason and Elizabeth were the only ones probably forcefully pushing it away, Gideon simply didn't care enough to pursue it, and Alexander was already lost to the conversation, gazing at the plates served on the tables with drool slipping through his lips.

Sighing a bit, the fire mage wiped the drool with the hem of his robes, earning a startled embarrassed look from Alexander.

The kid finally noticed he was drolling and dropped his gaze to the floor, cheeks flushed red, "I'm not a kid." he murmured.

Sure bro, cool story.

Gideon apparently thought the same, "Says the Twelve-year-old."

The gravity user simply grinned, flush rapidly disappearing from his face "Says the five-foot midget."

He was barely fast enough to catch Gideon before he barreled towards the younger boy.

"C-calm down Gideon let's think things through!"

"Let me take a shot at this Punk Jason! I'll mark on his body the meaning of respect!"

"Oh my, now you're after my body?"

"Shut the fuck up!"

It took a good few minutes to calm them down.

When he turned back to look at Elizabeth, she was simply giving their group a small smile, probably amused by their interplay. Though there was nothing sadistic about it, she simply gave them a warm smile.

…holy shit, no wonder Meliodas fought for three thousand years for her. She was beautiful.

"Uh-hmph, please excuse us Miss, my friends are very," he trailed off, searching for the right words "excited for tomorrow, and are not on their best behavior." of course he ignored the glares said friends shot at him.

Giggling to herself, the waitress shook her head, "It's okay, I can see that they mean no harm, you must know each other for a long time," she once more gave them a beautiful smile "You act like family."

That gave the three of them a pause and made Jason think. He didn't really notice, mostly because Alexander fell so easy together with their antics, but they had essentially gone from strangers to acting like they knew each other for years in a few days.

Such banter was understandable for Gideon and Jason, but not for a boy who was younger by almost four years, and was essentially a non-entity in their lives until just a few days ago.

How weird.

Glazing to the side, he could see Gideon having the same thoughts as him, while Alexander, on the other hand, had a dejected expression.

Perhaps from how their faces changed as they thought about it, Elizabeth suddenly seemed surprised "I-i'm sorry for assuming, i-if thats not the case-"

"Nah it's fine," Jason was the one giving her a smile this time, placing a hand on top of Alexanders' head, ruffling his hair, and pulling Gideon for a side hug, "After all, we are basically family."

He couldn't quite see their faces, but from the way Elizabeth relaxed, Jason was quite certain they were also smiling.

It didn't really matter if Alexander essentially came out of nowhere and was now a significant part of their lives. They fought together, slept under the same sky together, and shared their meals together, as far as Jason was concerned, that more than gave him the right to call them family.

And judging by the brilliant smile on the kid's face, he thought the same thing.

Ha! Look at the emo boy acting all tough and shit while trying to not smile.

Elizabeth gave a sigh of relief, before turning and pulling one of the ropes by the side of the wall, with it a small board came sliding down.

Huh so these stylish ropes around the place actually had some uses, he thought it was all for display since it was never mentioned in the books. Something to definitely keep in mind. Just because he read the source material, doesn't mean it won't be changed when exposed to a different universe.

The board had the shape of a pig, with a calendar on it, filled with names each having a different number afterward. Jason was pretty sure it was simply a type of record that they use to track the customers that are sleeping in the tavern.

"We are quite busy lately, but there is one spot open, unfortunately, it only has one room left." She seemed quite apologetic.

Huh, probably a lot of tourists and other people coming to the capital in hopes of passing the Magic Knights Entrance Exam.

"It's better to take this one room than sleeping out in the cold," Jason said, shrugging. So what if it was one room? They literally had to share a small tent amongst themselves because Alex had none and a certain aloof boy let a Great Eagle take a potshot at his, destroying it beyond repair.

Well, the waitress bowed to us, putting her hand forward with a small smile on her face. Good, at least they managed to get a good impression from someone who might potentially be important later on.

Alexander stepped forward without problem, already seemingly forgetting about the prior event. Pulling out a small pouch from within his clothes, he counted the correct amount and gave it to her with a happy smile.

"I'll be going see if they got good stuff to eat!" and he was off.

He really acts like a no-fucks given child. Well, coupled with his small facial features and soft-looking hair, it created the image of a small bunny, the adorableness overtaking his rudeness. Hell, it even added to his weird charm.

It did have the problem of making the boy look childish, which irritated him to no end.

"Right, thanks for this Miss." shaking his head, Jason rummaged through the pockets of his robe, looking for the small pouch with all his savings.

Frowing a bit, he began to softly pat the pockets of his pants next.

… that's weird, where is it?

Gideon and Elizabeth were clearly startled when he started rapidly patting his body down, his bag falling to the ground.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

This is not happening, not happening!

His money, his precious, hard-earned money. He had grit his teeth, sweated, and bled for those gold coins, where the fuck are they?

Denial is a strong thing, a general method of coping that humans ruthlessly take advantage of to ward away any possible bad occurrences in their lives, most of the time it comes back to bite them in the ass. But denial begins to swindle and disappear the clearer the facts are, and so was the case for Jason.

He had to face the facts.

There was no money.

Gideon who until now was approaching something of a concerned expression in his face was further startled by his friend falling to his knees.

"What's wrong? Talk to me, what happened?" wholly ignoring the slow panic rising on the waitress's face, who had no idea what to do.

"I…" Jason mumbled, giving a faraway stare, but it was mostly unheard by his friend.

The commotion also seemed to gather the interest of all the customers of the tavern, most simply giving a glance of curiosity before apathetically going back to what they were doing. The only difference was Alexander, who look tense from the bar stool he was sitting on.

"You what?" Gideon now grabbed his friend's shoulder, trying to ground him back to reality.

"I lost…"

"What did you lose?!"

"I lost my money!"

It was loud, so loud that the whole tavern jumped in shock as if a firework had gone off in the middle of the place. Jason wouldn't be surprised if patrolling Magic Knights came over to see the commotion happening, and he didn't give a single flying shit.

He had a mission and a purpose, and feeling sorry for the people around him was currently very low on his list of priorities.

Fuck, fuck, think Jason, where was it? When did he last use it?

It was when-

…wait a second.

A memory came to his mind, of just a few hours ago, when they first reached the capital and saved a nice gentleman from getting mugged.

["I'd like to recommend the bar "Boars Hat" if you're seeking a place to stay," the man says with an oddly wobbly smile of relief as he pats Jason on the shoulder.]

[Pats Jason on the shoulder]

The shoulder, the place which was suspiciously close to the opening of the robe he was using, connected to the inner pocket Jason would often leave his money at.

…

…

Well, some bitches are dying tonight.

Just as quickly as he fell down, Jason bounced to his feet. Face set in stone he began taking off his robe and stuffing it in his bag, face as calm as the sea.

Gideon, who looked like he was about to fist fight a bear, approached cautiously "Hey man, whatcha doing?"

No response was given, Jason simply pushed the bag into his arms and walked towards the exit of the tavern without so much as a pause.

"What the…"

"Gideon. Take care of things while I'm gone, don't fuck up." His cold voice made the entire place quiet down, and customers felt like they were staring at the gaping mouth of a terrible predator. Their lives were at the narrow point of the blade, a single step forward would mean death.

The only ones not affected were Meliodas, who simply gave a curious glance over his shoulder as he cooked, Elizabeth who seemed concerned, and Gideon who was just annoyed.

Alexander was oblivious to this world, seemingly finding fun to play with a large pig on the ground.

"Yeah yeah, I got your stuff, go do whatever you need to do." He shook his head, it wasn't the first time he had seen Jason like this

Being his best friend, Gideon had quite the idea of how much he valued money.

"I'll be back in a bit,"

And with that, he left the tavern, stalking down the road with a glare.

It was quite the sight, an almost seven-foot goliath with an angered face stomping away. It certainly made people give way to him

Not that he cared.

All he wanted was to meet that nice distinguished gentleman from before and have some words with him.

Words that will spell out his death by the end of the fucking day.

No one fucks with his money.

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Addendum: Gideon

===========

Watching his friend leave, Gideon mentally mused, 'Well that took long enough, I was wondering when he was gonna lose it.'

What just occurred wasn't really a rare event, in all honestly it could be said to be quite normal.

Gideon had lost count of the number of times his friend had gone on missions or done part-time jobs, gaining himself a decent amount of money, before by some happenstance losing it all.

Be it through some fox stealing thieve, losing it to a deep chasm, or even losing a battle against himself and donating it all to charity.

There were many universal rules, water is wet, fire is dry, and Jason couldn't keep his money.

Honestly, it happened so often that Gideon wouldn't be surprised if it was God's intervention.

Oh well, he managed to secure quite the funds, so when Jason predictably walked through these doors again after hours of no luck in finding the man, Gideon would simply share it with him.

Not that he cared about Jason's well-being or anything! He could go sleep on the cold streets for all Gideon cared!

It just… wouldn't be fair in the Magic Knights Entrance Exam. Yeah, that was it!

Getting rid of such thoughts, he gave his goodbyes to the waitress who still seemed unsure of what just happened, before walking towards his other friend.

Alexander was sitting on the stool of the bar, in a seat that was basically his height.

Gideon felt slightly jealous at being reminded of his height.

Fucking Elven blood, making people tall, it wasn't fair!

And he couldn't even talk to anyone about it, since he was indeed a midget by normal people's standards.

Not that he would ever admit it.

Jumping a bit and falling on the seat, he glanced at Alexander, who was humming to himself waiting for the food to be ready. Noting his presence, he grinned "Here he is Boss! Told you he looked pretty similar."

Turning back to inquire about what they were talking about, he was taken by surprise when his eyes met with the ones of the cook, and apparently the owner of the place.

Blonde and with green eyes, like his friend which immediately brought him a few points of his potential friend scale, but the following thing that popped into his mind was his size.

They were the same size.

Both of them were five feet.

The owner now was rapidly climbing the ranks of his friend scale, shooting off like a rocket.

"My, my, how nice to meet one of my kind!" The blond said with a smile on his face. Just from reading his body language and the tones in which he spoke, Gideon could confirm that he was quite the pleasant and optimistic fellow.

"Here here, have a drink, Boars Hat is known for having the right thing to hit the spot! Devil's blood in particular is on the rise." He passed them two cups, each filled with what was presumed to be a strong alcoholic beverage if the smell was anything to go by.

Well shit, this guy just met them and was already giving out drinks, even if he seemed like a child, he could actually understand that Gideon was indeed of age to drink?

And he could fight, those callouses on his hand were not something a chef could have, they were made when training with swords.

This guy…

Was really climbing up the ranks of potential friends!

"Agreed, us smaller ones need to stick together!" He raised his hand, in a rare show of emotion letting his voice carry out.

"Yay! Drinks!" Of course, before the kid could get his hands on the alcohol, Gideon rapidly grasped it, pulling it out of his reach.

"Nope, Jason will kill me if I let you have a single sip of this."

Alexander pouted, "Hmph, hey Boss, give me a sweet juice please!"

"Sweetest juice in the kingdom, coming right up!"

Bottling up the two cups of alcohol, Gideon felt the pleasant burn on the back of his throat.

God, he loved having a drink, especially with others. Even though he acted the way he did, Gideon was quite receptive to any form of company, it was one of the reasons why he adapted so quickly to Alex being part of their lives

As the owner began looking through the shelves of beverages from behind the counter. Gideon suddenly noticed how a fat dirty man began to make his way toward them.

No, not towards them, towards Alexander, who didn't even notice the man.

His face was flushed, probably drunk, and he was stumbling as he made his way.

Gideon frowned.

Finally, when he was close enough his face twisted to a disgusting smile, raising a hand towards the oblivious kid. "Hey little boy, why don't you come with this uncle to-"

His hand stopped, however, and his dirty grin quickly left as he contorted into pain. A shout left his mouth.

Grasping his hand in a vice so strong his bones began to crack, Gideon looked with absolute disgust towards the excuse of a human being.

No matter where you go, there are always people like this huh? He shouldn't be surprised at this point.

"W-w-what-?" Whatever the man was going to say was cut off as Gideon slammed his feet on the scumbag's knee, dislocating it to the wrong angle and making him fall to his back.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" The man wailed, clutching his broken legs as tears and snot began to fall off his face.

The tavern was now agitated, people began to get up and were circling around them.

Alexander was perhaps the most surprised, simply watching with wide eyes as Gideon stepped further into the man's stomach.

God he hated people like these. Absolutely despised them.

"S-stop, p-p-p-please!"

"Oh? Tell me, what were you planning to do to my friend?" Nothing good that's for sure.

The man seemed to pale at the question, "I-I was giving him a place to stay." he managed to rasp it out from between gasps of pain.

Honestly, Gideon was surprised the man was still conscious, but hey, that just meant he could take even more punishment before it was over.

Gideon had killed before, he had tortured before, and he wasn't above using any of these two tactics to achieve what he wanted. While definitely something he would use as a last resort, messing with his friends in such a way warranted the worst reaction he could give out.

And would give out.

"A place to stay huh?"

The man seemed to jump at the lifeline, lifting himself up to the best of his ability with a broken leg, pointing his arm at a confused Alexander "Y-yes, I only wanted to help-" he shrieked in pain.

Gideon was pressing down on his arm, squishing it under the sole of his boot.

"Hey Alex, you wanna go with him?"

"Ew, no way."

"Yeah, so listen up pig. Next time you want to mess with someone, check with the person themselves because you might find yourself chewing more than you can handle."

He was about to leave, that should have been the end of this small dispute. With everyone else moved by his words, Gideon and Alex had met no opposition as they walked towards the back of the Tavern, only encountering respectful eyes and a sense of approval.

"Now now everyone, nothing to see here, please go back to your own business." The owner of the place, easily dissuaded the crowd, expertly managing the view of the people.

However, before he could do his magic as an extrovert, a voice pierced through the murmurs of the crowd.

"Hold it!" It was a feminine voice, yet it held so much arrogance and coldness that it was heard throughout the entire facility.

The crowd parted like the red seas, and Gideon came face to face with a group of five people. They seemed older than him, and their mana was also a respectful amount higher than his.

Silver hair on the speaker, one with a tan skin tone, one with red hair, a weird skinny one with a wide smile, and finally one with dark purple hair who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

But what really brought his attention, was what they were wearing. Each one carrying a military uniform containing very famous visible sigils on their clothing.

The sigils of the Magic Squads of the Clover Kingdom.

They were Magic Knights.

"You there, the one who has cruelly injured this man," The woman said, an arrogant smile playing across her face, clearly amused by the situation, mockery permeating her tone. The sigil of the Silver Eagles clearly shining in her clothing, combined with her blue silverly hair, it wasn't difficult to distinguish her.

A fucking Silva.

"I hereby decree you to be a criminal." Her smile now almost splitting her face in two, becoming deranged, much like how the scumbag had smiled earlier. Except that this time, the smile was carried by power, by someone dangerous.

By a fucking predator.

"Please resist to the best of your ability."

Sorry Jason, he fucked up.

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Heya everyone!

I'm sorry about the incredible delay, while it was said that I would upload this whenever I wanted, I really fucked up on delaying this for two months.

What can I say? IB Exams were coming around the corner and I was shitting bricks, so much so that any time I was doing anything that wasn't studying I felt like I would physically throw up. So I postponed this until I felt like I could actually write.

… Honestly, I shouldn't be writing this since I have a Higher Maths Exam tomorrow, but what can I say? I felt like I should finish this chapter.

Anyone who read this far, thank you very much for everything!

Fun Fact: The DM just put the Seven Deadly Sins characters there to fuck with us, they have no particular relevance to the plot, but Jason doesn't know that so he was freaking out.

Another fun fact : Originally the fat man was beaten up because Gideons player made a joke and started pummeling cause he lost a rock paper scissors, but because this is a fanfic I wanted to actually get some normal setting in place

Also, mentions of Type-Moon verse hints!

History check to remember the stolen money, and intimidation on the whole tavern. Except for the actual important people of course.