"... and that's how I got here." I say to myself. I mean, she says to me.
"No no no, you skipped the most important part!" I rebut myself. I mean, I rebut her.
"Two Onee-sama... haaah... haaah..."
"You're not helping, Hestia!" I turn around and say in annoyance.
"Who's that? She's really cute! A dark angel?" My other self says while looking past me.
"Not now!"
I think my brain is going to overheat. The girl in front of me is a perfect copy of me in appearance, and her personality is exactly the same as mine, too. It's not just superficial, but tiny quirks I notice about myself sometimes, which I find quite annoying, are ingrained into her gestures and manners. There's no way someone could just learn it from watching me and do it so naturally.
Her memories from before awakening in the desert give me a good enough idea of what happened. The problem is that admitting to that fact is denying everything that's making me a unique human (?) being. This girl in front of me is undoubtedly me, but I obviously don't have any awareness of her body. In other words...
Not only my body, but also my entire existence, was split during the first teleportation, when maou-mama sent me through the circle without any proper preparations. Or, maybe rather than split, it was made into two perfectly complete versions of the original, indistinguishable from each other.
"Next time I see maou-mama, I'll smack her..." I mutter.
"Count me in..." The other me says with an annoyed expression. Ugh, please don't talk in my voice, with the exact same face and gestures as I would. It's messing with my head.
From the corners of my eyes I'm keeping watch over the great masters and Abd al-Malik, who are staring as us in confused and wary silence. The fact that they're not trying something funny means that the old man really thought it best to show me this and then hope that I'm sensible enough to leave the city alone. Well, I won't do something so barbaric as slaughter the entire city for not getting what I want. But if they want to try locking me into this cell with this other me, I won't show any mercy.
"In either case, how did you get in here?" Incidentally, we've been speaking in Japanese all this time. It's one more piece of evidence that she really is me. I mean, another me. Argh...
"Well... I might have been a little too flashy on the marketplace. You see, there was a harpy girl on sale-" She begins to explain.
"There are harpy girls?" That instantly piques my interest.
"I know right? Not only does maou-mama have a ton of cute maids, but there are moe-type fantasy races!" The other me says with glittering eyes. "She was really cute, so I wanted to buy her and then set her free. You see, I have quite some money." Judging by her story, she did loot some slave traders, and I can speak from experience that they seem to carry quite a lot of money around. "But they wouldn't allow me to, since they said I'm a foreigner."
"... don't tell me you attacked them and tried to take her by force?" I wouldn't ever do something so stupid.
"No, who do you think I am?" I knew she would say that line with this timing... Somehow I'm taking this whole doppelganger business really well. I mean, she is. But since she's me, I should be taking it well, too? No, that means she's actually also quite perturbed on the inside. "I went into an alleyway, changed my appearance slightly to match that of the native people, and tried again. They somehow saw through me..."
"You didn't change your clothes, I assume?" I rub the bridge of my nose, because that's how the pattern goes.
"... I didn't change my clothes..." She admits sheepishly.
"Are you an idiot?"
"Look who's talking!"
"Alright... this is unproductive." I sigh and try to stop this useless argument, gesturing for her to continue her story. Yeah, I have to admit that I could have made the same mistake in the heat of the moment. I am her, after all. I mean, she is me... we are...
"Yeah, it is... In either case, they called me a demon and attacked me. Obviously, I had to fight back. It got out of hand and some of these old farts over there got involved. They used magic and trapped me in a barrier I couldn't break out of." Yeah, nowhere in her story did I hear about her learning magic. If it had been me, I would most likely have fared better, though, since at that time I knew the spirit spear already.
"So you've been in here since then?" I don't remember clearly how many days I've been in this world.
"Yes, since twenty eight days ago..." My other self shows the first crack in her facade. "While this body is convenient and doesn't require to do what girls don't need to do either way..."
"Let me stop you right there." I interrupt her. That's not something I wish to talk about right now, and she obviously understands my sentiment.
"... they didn't let me take a bath. Even though I can just purge all dirt from my skin, it's causing me a lot of stress... And the meals they provide me with are really lacking. I can feel my body eating itself up from the inside..." Her expression shows a hint of despair. "You... you're here to free me, right?" She grabs my shoulders and I instinctively brace myself. But she doesn't try to absorb me or anything. Maybe it's because I know of maou-mama's cannibalism, which is why I'm a little scared of touching another Crawling Chaos whose affiliation is still unclear. Even if it's another me...
Then again, our thoughts have been pretty well aligned, even if they've been out of sync since our split. The current me has absolutely no intention of eating her, since she's another living being. Well, she's an alternate me, one that went down a different path in life. I don't feel incomplete without her, so there's no urge to try and return her to my body. The same obviously goes for her, else she would have tried just now.
"What do you think?" Abd al-Malik asks and I turn to look at him. Our conversation in an unknown language must have sounded really strange to them, but its almost comedic nature was most evidently not transmitted through our gestures, as everyone else still remain tense. Except for Hestia, whose eyes are swimming between the two of us, as if trying to burn the details of the sight of two Onee-sama at the same time into her retinas.
"If you're asking whether I'm satisfied with her instead of space magic... I have to say that I'm not really." I feel the other me flinch at these words, but I continue. "But if you want to know if she's enough for me to not eradicate your city... Yes, as long as you promise not to try anything on our way out. Then I will leave this nation peacefully and never return."
"... I promise." The old man says, but I can't really read his expression. However, unlike Thorvadis, this one isn't overestimating himself and trying to fight us, huh? Well, I have no idea how strong he and the great masters are, but in this confined space, fighting me would be foolish. Although I don't know whether they even realize that I'm a Crawling Chaos or only think that I'm a shape-shifter.
"As you heard, we can leave now." I turn back to the other me. "By the way... what should I call you?"
"What do you mean? I'm Kuroe Makoto." Yep, I expected this response, too. Please consider the situation of there being two of us...
"I think, since you're... most likely my lower half, I'll call you..."
"Please no!" She seems to see it coming.
"Asoko." It even sounds like a proper name.
"Hm, alright. That could have been worse." Asoko says. I stare at her and she looks away at exactly the same moment. Is it because she's my lower half that she's more perverted than I am? That one never came to mind...
"Then let me introduce you to each other. This is Hestia, she's my-"
"-slave in body and heart!" The black angel says with an ecstatic smile as her eyes show the conviction of somebody believing in a god above. Good for you...
"... and this is Asoko. She's... something like a twin." I don't want those who can understand me to know that she's basically another me, since that would most likely give away the fact that I'm more than I seem to be.
"... twincest... ufufu..." Asoko mutters and has a perverted grin on her face. I have to admit, I'd be equally excited at the prospect, if I wasn't pressed for time. But now, I slap her over the back of her head. I think there are quite a few differences between us two, after all. She doesn't seem as smart as I am, but maybe that just comes from the fact that I experienced quite a bit more than she did in the month she's been interred in here.
We're led to an underground tunnel that runs in a different direction from the one we came into the palace from, and which apparently connects to a hidden location in the outskirts of the city. They don't want us to exit through either the palace or the Hall of Spirit, most likely because both could be considered to be located in the city center. After all, with two dangerous beings freed, we could just destroy the city after all. Even then, I have to question the choice of revealing one of the secret routes in and out of this nation's royal palace to strangers, but maybe they'll seal it up afterwards. Whatever, I don't really intend to return here anyways.
"Oh, this reminds me." I turn to Abd al-Makir and notice the presence of our guide. Wait, he was still here? He's been keeping a really low profile all this time, but he must have been strung along by the situation. I produce a purse from inside my body and hand it to him for his troubles. I don't know how much is in there, but I don't really care either way. Back to what I wanted to say in the first place. "Could you give me a map? The ones that are activated with magic, that is."
"... we do not have such magic in the Khurut Sultanate." The old man responds. I don't think there's any reason for him to lie about this, since I could just try to find a store in the city and check for myself, if I wanted to. The guide did say that magic is a forbidden practice in this nation, except for those of the Shaman Caste, so maybe nobody actually knows how to replicate what seems to be the norm everywhere else.
I don't think I'd be able to find my way across continents using a normal map. Navigation systems built into mobile phones are so convenient that I never even learned reading traditional, non-interactive maps. And I was a track and field runner competing in national marathons... But for that I only had to follow a predetermined route, always marked properly and with no way to get lost. Uhhh, I'm not making excuses!
"If you would allow me to retreat to the Qaeat Alrruh, then... I can feel my age and it is already late." Abd al-Makir states when the guards open the door to the tunnel. "There are no branches in the path, just follow the tunnel in a straight line and you will reach its end." This will serve as the last test for his will. If he wishes to ambush me, sending me down this tunnel alone is the best opportunity. I can't glean anything from his expression, but since to him my powers are unknown, if his attempt fails and I survive, he risks the safety of the city he has gained through negotiations. I don't think he'll be so stupid as to throw it all away at this point.
"Thank you for reuniting me with my family." I say with a smile in a gesture of goodwill. While I don't have to indulge him in showing that I will leave peacefully now, I hope this will dispel all the doubts that may lead to rash actions. After all, I don't want to risk getting into a battle and waste even more time, either. "Goodbye, old man."
"I wish you good fortune on your travels..." He says, but I can't tell whether that's meant to be sarcasm or from the bottom of his heart. Bringing his palms together in a gesture reminiscent of Buddhist monks, he bows slightly, and all the great masters follow his example. I return it respectfully, even after all the disrespect I've shown him along the way.
With this, we enter the tunnel. Only after the entrance has grown so distant that the people standing on the other side become indistinguishable from each other is it closed off. If they had done so the moment we walked through it, it would have been suspicious and I would have turned around and broken it down.
Once out of the city he might send an army after me, since leaving a demon unchecked feels like a no-go to me for any human in this world - other than the Royal Academy, apparently. But by that time we'll just take to the skies and fly away. Even without a map, I know that the Mineva Republic lies upstream of the river, so we can just fly that way. Judging by what I've seen so far, they very certainly don't have an air force to pursue us with.
Which reminds me... Asoko doesn't have Hestia's template.
"Can you fly?" I ask her directly and she looks over to the fallen angel, who's been in seventh heaven since she realized that there are two of me. That gaze means that she never absorbed any template of an animal capable of flight, I guess. Then Hestia will have to give her some of her genetic material. Which would mean...
"Huh, Onee-sama?" Taken out of her daydreaming when I grab her arm, she asks in confusion, but in the next moment I seal her lips with mine. This is the second time within two days that I'm sharing a deep kiss with her. I know that there's DNA in saliva, which is partially the way I got hers in the first place, so this is a way for me to make it so Asoko doesn't have to engage with Hestia directly. She's mine, and mine alone.
"Wow! She does something I never could, without even blinking! What a girl!" She comments in excitement next to me. What are you saying? You're me. Given the same circumstances, you would do the same without hesitation.
I separate from Hestia, leaving her gasping for air and weak in the knees, and lick my lips, as to not waste a single drop of her saliva. Then I approach the other me. If I hadn't died and reincarnated into this world, I would've never had the opportunity to do this. I will explore it to my heart's content after rescuing Kamii.
I lock lips with Asoko and steal her first kiss. Why do I know that it's her first? Because before that night with Kamii, I never kissed anyone before. And there was no indication in her story that this version of me gained any experience in that regard. From the way she struggles at first, I can tell that it's the truth. Wow, what is this excitement building inside me? In a sense I'm stealing my own first kiss. There's a hint of taboo in this, too. Twincest, she called it earlier, but it's something different and at a much higher level.
This is selfcest!
When I separate from her, her expression is one of arousal. But as expected of me, she didn't lose her breath or melt away like Hestia does, and is keeping her composure to a certain extent. Licking her lips with a heated smile, her eyes are fixed on mine like those of a predator. Did something within her awaken? But before she can pursue me for more, I shut her down.
"I just gave you Hestia's genetic material. You should be able to transform into her now."
"Oh, that's what you were doing. I thought you were going into heat." She says with a surprised expression. Yeah, if I were in her position, I'd think so, too. Well, she is kind of me in her position and... Argh, I should stop trying to figure this out.
"Let's get going. I'll tell you everything that happened on the way." I'm entering serious mode again. Asoko has a lot of catching up to do, and I will be teaching her magic, too. By the time we get back I want us to be on the same page.
"... and that's how I got here." I say to myself. I mean, she says to me.
"No no no, you skipped the most important part!" I rebut myself. I mean, I rebut her.
"Two Onee-sama... haaah... haaah..."
"You're not helping, Hestia!" I turn around and say in annoyance.
"Who's that? She's really cute! A dark angel?" My other self says while looking past me.
"Not now!"
I think my brain is going to overheat. The girl in front of me is a perfect copy of me in appearance, and her personality is exactly the same as mine, too. It's not just superficial, but tiny quirks I notice about myself sometimes, which I find quite annoying, are ingrained into her gestures and manners. There's no way someone could just learn it from watching me and do it so naturally.
Her memories from before awakening in the desert give me a good enough idea of what happened. The problem is that admitting to that fact is denying everything that's making me a unique human (?) being. This girl in front of me is undoubtedly me, but I obviously don't have any awareness of her body. In other words...
Not only my body, but also my entire existence, was split during the first teleportation, when maou-mama sent me through the circle without any proper preparations. Or, maybe rather than split, it was made into two perfectly complete versions of the original, indistinguishable from each other.
"Next time I see maou-mama, I'll smack her..." I mutter.
"Count me in..." The other me says with an annoyed expression. Ugh, please don't talk in my voice, with the exact same face and gestures as I would. It's messing with my head.
From the corners of my eyes I'm keeping watch over the great masters and Abd al-Malik, who are staring as us in confused and wary silence. The fact that they're not trying something funny means that the old man really thought it best to show me this and then hope that I'm sensible enough to leave the city alone. Well, I won't do something so barbaric as slaughter the entire city for not getting what I want. But if they want to try locking me into this cell with this other me, I won't show any mercy.
"In either case, how did you get in here?" Incidentally, we've been speaking in Japanese all this time. It's one more piece of evidence that she really is me. I mean, another me. Argh...
"Well... I might have been a little too flashy on the marketplace. You see, there was a harpy girl on sale-" She begins to explain.
"There are harpy girls?" That instantly piques my interest.
"I know right? Not only does maou-mama have a ton of cute maids, but there are moe-type fantasy races!" The other me says with glittering eyes. "She was really cute, so I wanted to buy her and then set her free. You see, I have quite some money." Judging by her story, she did loot some slave traders, and I can speak from experience that they seem to carry quite a lot of money around. "But they wouldn't allow me to, since they said I'm a foreigner."
"... don't tell me you attacked them and tried to take her by force?" I wouldn't ever do something so stupid.
"No, who do you think I am?" I knew she would say that line with this timing... Somehow I'm taking this whole doppelganger business really well. I mean, she is. But since she's me, I should be taking it well, too? No, that means she's actually also quite perturbed on the inside. "I went into an alleyway, changed my appearance slightly to match that of the native people, and tried again. They somehow saw through me..."
"You didn't change your clothes, I assume?" I rub the bridge of my nose, because that's how the pattern goes.
"... I didn't change my clothes..." She admits sheepishly.
"Are you an idiot?"
"Look who's talking!"
"Alright... this is unproductive." I sigh and try to stop this useless argument, gesturing for her to continue her story. Yeah, I have to admit that I could have made the same mistake in the heat of the moment. I am her, after all. I mean, she is me... we are...
"Yeah, it is... In either case, they called me a demon and attacked me. Obviously, I had to fight back. It got out of hand and some of these old farts over there got involved. They used magic and trapped me in a barrier I couldn't break out of." Yeah, nowhere in her story did I hear about her learning magic. If it had been me, I would most likely have fared better, though, since at that time I knew the spirit spear already.
"So you've been in here since then?" I don't remember clearly how many days I've been in this world.
"Yes, since twenty eight days ago..." My other self shows the first crack in her facade. "While this body is convenient and doesn't require to do what girls don't need to do either way..."
"Let me stop you right there." I interrupt her. That's not something I wish to talk about right now, and she obviously understands my sentiment.
"... they didn't let me take a bath. Even though I can just purge all dirt from my skin, it's causing me a lot of stress... And the meals they provide me with are really lacking. I can feel my body eating itself up from the inside..." Her expression shows a hint of despair. "You... you're here to free me, right?" She grabs my shoulders and I instinctively brace myself. But she doesn't try to absorb me or anything. Maybe it's because I know of maou-mama's cannibalism, which is why I'm a little scared of touching another Crawling Chaos whose affiliation is still unclear. Even if it's another me...
Then again, our thoughts have been pretty well aligned, even if they've been out of sync since our split. The current me has absolutely no intention of eating her, since she's another living being. Well, she's an alternate me, one that went down a different path in life. I don't feel incomplete without her, so there's no urge to try and return her to my body. The same obviously goes for her, else she would have tried just now.
"What do you think?" Abd al-Malik asks and I turn to look at him. Our conversation in an unknown language must have sounded really strange to them, but its almost comedic nature was most evidently not transmitted through our gestures, as everyone else still remain tense. Except for Hestia, whose eyes are swimming between the two of us, as if trying to burn the details of the sight of two Onee-sama at the same time into her retinas.
"If you're asking whether I'm satisfied with her instead of space magic... I have to say that I'm not really." I feel the other me flinch at these words, but I continue. "But if you want to know if she's enough for me to not eradicate your city... Yes, as long as you promise not to try anything on our way out. Then I will leave this nation peacefully and never return."
"... I promise." The old man says, but I can't really read his expression. However, unlike Thorvadis, this one isn't overestimating himself and trying to fight us, huh? Well, I have no idea how strong he and the great masters are, but in this confined space, fighting me would be foolish. Although I don't know whether they even realize that I'm a Crawling Chaos or only think that I'm a shape-shifter.
"As you heard, we can leave now." I turn back to the other me. "By the way... what should I call you?"
"What do you mean? I'm Kuroe Makoto." Yep, I expected this response, too. Please consider the situation of there being two of us...
"I think, since you're... most likely my lower half, I'll call you..."
"Please no!" She seems to see it coming.
"Asoko." It even sounds like a proper name.
"Hm, alright. That could have been worse." Asoko says. I stare at her and she looks away at exactly the same moment. Is it because she's my lower half that she's more perverted than I am? That one never came to mind...
"Then let me introduce you to each other. This is Hestia, she's my-"
"-slave in body and heart!" The black angel says with an ecstatic smile as her eyes show the conviction of somebody believing in a god above. Good for you...
"... and this is Asoko. She's... something like a twin." I don't want those who can understand me to know that she's basically another me, since that would most likely give away the fact that I'm more than I seem to be.
"... twincest... ufufu..." Asoko mutters and has a perverted grin on her face. I have to admit, I'd be equally excited at the prospect, if I wasn't pressed for time. But now, I slap her over the back of her head. I think there are quite a few differences between us two, after all. She doesn't seem as smart as I am, but maybe that just comes from the fact that I experienced quite a bit more than she did in the month she's been interred in here.
We're led to an underground tunnel that runs in a different direction from the one we came into the palace from, and which apparently connects to a hidden location in the outskirts of the city. They don't want us to exit through either the palace or the Hall of Spirit, most likely because both could be considered to be located in the city center. After all, with two dangerous beings freed, we could just destroy the city after all. Even then, I have to question the choice of revealing one of the secret routes in and out of this nation's royal palace to strangers, but maybe they'll seal it up afterwards. Whatever, I don't really intend to return here anyways.
"Oh, this reminds me." I turn to Abd al-Makir and notice the presence of our guide. Wait, he was still here? He's been keeping a really low profile all this time, but he must have been strung along by the situation. I produce a purse from inside my body and hand it to him for his troubles. I don't know how much is in there, but I don't really care either way. Back to what I wanted to say in the first place. "Could you give me a map? The ones that are activated with magic, that is."
"... we do not have such magic in the Khurut Sultanate." The old man responds. I don't think there's any reason for him to lie about this, since I could just try to find a store in the city and check for myself, if I wanted to. The guide did say that magic is a forbidden practice in this nation, except for those of the Shaman Caste, so maybe nobody actually knows how to replicate what seems to be the norm everywhere else.
I don't think I'd be able to find my way across continents using a normal map. Navigation systems built into mobile phones are so convenient that I never even learned reading traditional, non-interactive maps. And I was a track and field runner competing in national marathons... But for that I only had to follow a predetermined route, always marked properly and with no way to get lost. Uhhh, I'm not making excuses!
"If you would allow me to retreat to the Qaeat Alrruh, then... I can feel my age and it is already late." Abd al-Makir states when the guards open the door to the tunnel. "There are no branches in the path, just follow the tunnel in a straight line and you will reach its end." This will serve as the last test for his will. If he wishes to ambush me, sending me down this tunnel alone is the best opportunity. I can't glean anything from his expression, but since to him my powers are unknown, if his attempt fails and I survive, he risks the safety of the city he has gained through negotiations. I don't think he'll be so stupid as to throw it all away at this point.
"Thank you for reuniting me with my family." I say with a smile in a gesture of goodwill. While I don't have to indulge him in showing that I will leave peacefully now, I hope this will dispel all the doubts that may lead to rash actions. After all, I don't want to risk getting into a battle and waste even more time, either. "Goodbye, old man."
"I wish you good fortune on your travels..." He says, but I can't tell whether that's meant to be sarcasm or from the bottom of his heart. Bringing his palms together in a gesture reminiscent of Buddhist monks, he bows slightly, and all the great masters follow his example. I return it respectfully, even after all the disrespect I've shown him along the way.
With this, we enter the tunnel. Only after the entrance has grown so distant that the people standing on the other side become indistinguishable from each other is it closed off. If they had done so the moment we walked through it, it would have been suspicious and I would have turned around and broken it down.
Once out of the city he might send an army after me, since leaving a demon unchecked feels like a no-go to me for any human in this world - other than the Royal Academy, apparently. But by that time we'll just take to the skies and fly away. Even without a map, I know that the Mineva Republic lies upstream of the river, so we can just fly that way. Judging by what I've seen so far, they very certainly don't have an air force to pursue us with.
Which reminds me... Asoko doesn't have Hestia's template.
"Can you fly?" I ask her directly and she looks over to the fallen angel, who's been in seventh heaven since she realized that there are two of me. That gaze means that she never absorbed any template of an animal capable of flight, I guess. Then Hestia will have to give her some of her genetic material. Which would mean...
"Huh, Onee-sama?" Taken out of her daydreaming when I grab her arm, she asks in confusion, but in the next moment I seal her lips with mine. This is the second time within two days that I'm sharing a deep kiss with her. I know that there's DNA in saliva, which is partially the way I got hers in the first place, so this is a way for me to make it so Asoko doesn't have to engage with Hestia directly. She's mine, and mine alone.
"Wow! She does something I never could, without even blinking! What a girl!" She comments in excitement next to me. What are you saying? You're me. Given the same circumstances, you would do the same without hesitation.
I separate from Hestia, leaving her gasping for air and weak in the knees, and lick my lips, as to not waste a single drop of her saliva. Then I approach the other me. If I hadn't died and reincarnated into this world, I would've never had the opportunity to do this. I will explore it to my heart's content after rescuing Kamii.
I lock lips with Asoko and steal her first kiss. Why do I know that it's her first? Because before that night with Kamii, I never kissed anyone before. And there was no indication in her story that this version of me gained any experience in that regard. From the way she struggles at first, I can tell that it's the truth. Wow, what is this excitement building inside me? In a sense I'm stealing my own first kiss. There's a hint of taboo in this, too. Twincest, she called it earlier, but it's something different and at a much higher level.
This is selfcest!
When I separate from her, her expression is one of arousal. But as expected of me, she didn't lose her breath or melt away like Hestia does, and is keeping her composure to a certain extent. Licking her lips with a heated smile, her eyes are fixed on mine like those of a predator. Did something within her awaken? But before she can pursue me for more, I shut her down.
"I just gave you Hestia's genetic material. You should be able to transform into her now."
"Oh, that's what you were doing. I thought you were going into heat." She says with a surprised expression. Yeah, if I were in her position, I'd think so, too. Well, she is kind of me in her position and... Argh, I should stop trying to figure this out.
"Let's get going. I'll tell you everything that happened on the way." I'm entering serious mode again. Asoko has a lot of catching up to do, and I will be teaching her magic, too. By the time we get back I want us to be on the same page.
