23 Deal

"I wonder what was that about…"

Taking a few steps out of the parlor car and standing back onto the docking station of the Express, Yuuto raised his arms in the air to stretch his body.

Feeling a few joints pop into place, a wave of comfort spread throughout his body.

"She wanted me to visit her at Herta's office for something… she probably started the beta test for the Simulated Universe since I heard her with Herta over the phone."

Yuuto thought about the sudden phone call he received and wondered just how many runs Stelle did to sound so worn out.

Thinking about the Simulated Universe, a hint of interest arose inside of him since this machine was something that was almost unthinkable back home.

What he knew was that it was a virtual universe used to simulate interactions with Aeons in order to discover more about their history or any other type of mysteries regarding their paths or themselves.

Simulating the universe's history and past from mere code just to discover the unknown was something unimaginable in his eyes. 

"Well I did get transported into a game I played before so I guess something like that is not too shocking..."

Comparing that to his current situation, it didn't seem that astonishing.

"Wuuu..wuuu…" 

Thinking about this and taking in the scenery as he walked past the head of the Express, the faint cries of a creature passed though his ears.

"What was that?"

"Wuuu…"

Feeling a bit curious to what he was hearing, Yuuto looked at the time and noticed that he could spare a few minutes, so he walked towards the source of the cries.

With each step, the cries got a bit louder until he reached an area where metal crates and boxes were being stored on the platform.

Hiding behind the boxes was a small ghost-like creature which had large beady eyes that seemed to be filled with tears.

"Wuuu…"

"This is a Wubbaboo isn't it?"

Yuuto kneeled down to get a closer look and noticed how the Wubbaboo suddenly stopped crying and looked at the unknown person kneeling in front of it.

It flinched when it met Yuuto's hard gaze and moved a few steps away from him.

'Why do I feel like bullying it?'

Some dark thoughts appeared in his mind when he thought about this marshmallow looking ghost.

"....."

"Wuu.. wuu…"

The Wubbaboo looked at the sudden figure after it stepped away and its tear filled eyes widened in surprise.

"Wuu.. warm.. Wuu…"

The Wubbaboo approached Yuuto's leg before it began to seemingly rub its intangible body against his pants..

Yuuto stood quietly before the Wubbaboo floated upwards before it rested itself onto his head which felt oddly familiar.

"Warm? Am I a heater or something?"

"Wuu.. warm… energy…"

"First a book and now a ghost… At least be a hot lady next time."

Thinking about how his head seemed to be a resting point for certain objects, he wished the third time at least would be something he would welcome with open arms.

Yuuto looked above and saw how the Wubbaboo found its spot and looked like it was about to melt. 

"I guess the Stelleron's energy is already giving off some sort of effects."

Waving his hand through the Wubbaboo's body, he began to wonder what other effects circulating a Stelleron's energy within him would have other than an increase in vitality.

Yuuto focused on the Stelleron and turned off the engine.

The Wubbaboo froze as if the warmth it was feeling suddenly disappeared and looked at Yuuto's face with sadness.

"I have to go somewhere alright."

"Wuu.."

"You are free to come with me but just to let you know that I'm going to Herta's office." 

The Wubbaboo flinched when it heard Yuuto speak of Herta's name and moved away from him.

The reaction made him give a wry smile but waved goodbye to the Wubbaboo before he left towards the elevator.

The Wubbaboo floated in place watching Yuuto go up the stairs to an upper compartment.

Before it vanished completely a flash of deep purple and orange glowed in its eyes before leaving the area empty with not a single thing or person in sight.

***

"Just in one run you attracted the appearance of both Qlipoth and Fuli… I knew having you take on the image of Akivili was the right choice!!"

A strange laughter erupted from a petite woman as she looked at the images being displayed on her screen.

Standing by a large machine that seemed to suck in anyone that dares to step inside its light, the woman's eyes continued to wander through each of the records she gathered and nodded her head in satisfaction.

"So another run is a no go?" 

The woman looked at her test subj– or Stelle to be exact who appeared drained after following through with the women's whims. 

"You said this a few times already. I don't think they'll appear again for the time being."

"Meh, taking a break might be the best course of action for now. I guess I was too excited after seeing the results from the beta test of the Simulated Universe…"

Mumbling to herself, she thought about the results Stelle showed and figured that long term cooperation would be beneficial.

Stelle stood off to the side and rested her body since despite only having an avatar of herself being projected into the Simulated Universe, it still felt mentally draining for her.

"When is Yuuto coming…"

Stelle thought about the person who she talked with a few minutes ago and wondered when he would arrive.

Having another person take the role as a test subj– helper would be something that she would welcome any time.

'There's also that offer from Himeko about joining..'

Being at the end of the fight against the Doomsday Beast, she began to wonder what she would do after. and hearing the offer from Himeko was something she held highly in her eyes.

Not only would she learn more about herself and the Stelleron but the thought of separating with the people she got to know right when she opened her eyes made her chest feel heavy.

"The boy you're mumbling about is going to come in about 10 seconds."

Stelle turned her head towards the woman who was busy typing some stuff and wondered how she knew.

"How did you know Herta?"

"Let's just say I have some eyes all around the place so I knew a few things."

Herta dismissively waved her hand around and just as Herta said, a guy walked through the metal doors of the room they were in.

"It looks like you had lots of fun~"

"If you call running through a simulation just so I can meet some Gods a fun time then I guess I had a blast."

"Ehh you look fine."

Yuuto chuckled when he saw the face Stelle was making and patted her shoulder to show his understanding.

'I also did the simulation a bunch of times just so I can get a completed index back then so I understand the feeling.'

Thinking about his time when he played, he understood continuously grinding just so he could have a chance to encounter one specific occurrence to fill in the missing data.

"Boy, you finally came."

"Boy?"

Yuuto raised his brow when he heard a person call out to him and looked downwards to see the top of a black beret that was decorated by a purple flower.

He stood quietly as he watched her purple eyes look at him with an analyzing gaze as if she was looking at or for something.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue."

"No, I was just surprised to see the famous Herta suddenly call me a boy out of nowhere."

"What else would I have called you then. Names are too troublesome for me to remember. Anyways, come follow me for a second."

Herta turned around without saying anything else and walked towards a part of the room to grab something.

Herta

A member of the Genius Society who's intelligence left countless achievements that caused her to receive the gaze of Nous.

However her work displaying her high intelligence is highly driven by her interest which has caused various projects to be discarded despite having the potential to advance civilization by quite a mile.

'A willful person indeed.' 

Following Herta who dived deep into a compartment in the corner of the room, Yuuto admired the massive machine that glowed with bright white colors.

"Do you enjoy what you see?"

"It certainly looks stunning."

"You can join the brat over here in the future if you want to help me collect data."

Herta who came back holding a box pointed her chin towards Stelle who looked like she hadn't heard anything.

"Anyways, enough of that, the reason I had this one call you over is because of this."

Herta opened up the small box she had and Yuuto saw a familiar looking white crystal sitting in the middle.

"Why are you keeping that?"

"Hoh so it looks like even the owner doesn't even know why."

Herta snickered when she saw Yuuto's reaction to her words and took the white crystal out of the box.

"I don't know how it happened but this thing certainly has some interesting properties. Here, take a good look at what's inside it."

Yuuto took the crystal and held it in his fingers. Other than being a bit smaller, it looked like the same old crystal his mist would make.

He continued to scrunch his eyes to see what the fuss Herta was making but nothing looked different.

'Should I try [Clarity] to help?'

Focusing [Clarity] on his eyes, Yuuto saw a flash of deep yellow moving inside as if it was encased by a container.

Unable to leave the space it was trapped in.

"So did you notice?"

"Maybe."

"That's surprising! I actually thought you wouldn't notice so I was prepared to explain. Saves me some time."

Herta nodded her head in satisfaction and took back the crystal from Yuuto's fingers.

"This was taken from the area where you had your fight with that monster and I saw something flowing inside it."

Placing the crystal on a stand, she proceeded to turn on a torch that blasted intense heat onto the crystal.

"As expected, no change in temperature!"

An excited shout erupted from Herta who noticed a few numbers from a screen near her and turned off the torch.

She grabbed the crystal and threw it to Yuuto who caught it with cold mist in his palms expecting the crystal to be hot.

"It's still cold…"

"Right! I actually used a torch that can emit heat comparable to the point blank of a rocket's main combustion engine."

Herta nodded her head in satisfaction seeing her point being sent across and spoke as she took one other object.

"That ice that you make despite having an opposing element is a very strong thermal conductor. That's not all, it is able to store the heat it had absorbed within it causing no change in temperature!"

"So the thing inside it was.."

"Probably the heat from the beam you tried to protect yourself against."

Yuuto took in what Herta said and looked deeply into the crystal that was in his palm.

'So you were able to do something like this.'

He played with the crystal and tried to feel if any source of heat really was not able to escape.

"So learning about this I want to make a deal with you. Give me a large supply of this crystal, maybe 10 boxes filled and I'll give you any compensation for it."

"You're pretty up front about what you want."

"I don't like mind games so much since they're bothersome so being straightforward is much better for me."

Yuuto watched at how Herta crossed her arms and looked expectantly at him to give an answer.

"Can I ask a question first?"

"Go ahead but only what I can answer."

"Why do you need it in so much quantity in the first place?"

"Hmm…"

Herta closed her eyes and hummed to herself for a bit before she opened her mouth.

"To improve my project."

"Are you talking about that?" Yuuto pointed to the bright machine and Herta agreed,

"Sharp and yes that's what I mean. You may only see this one part but it's actually way bigger than what it seems."

She walked towards the Simulated Universe and gestured her thumb towards it.

"It's a collaborative work so problems are fairly quick to solve but certain items still need tune ups." Herta pressed a button and the sounds of air escaping appeared near the machine.

A compartment was exposed and rows of thick glass rectangles showed itself to the people in the room.

"With the amount of information it processes, overheating is bound to be an issue so we changed up some parts to help minimize this." Herta tapped her knuckles on the glass. 

"Using a substance similar to glass helped with some of the heating and memory issues but I feel like I could do better. And thus comes to where we are now."

"My crystal is a better substance to help with the internal parts in heat management so you want to use it."

"Ding ding ding! There may also be some other attributes but this is the main reason. So how about it?"

Yuuto crossed his arms and thought about Herta's deal and her aim in using his crystal.

"Can I add one other thing to the deal?"

"Sure what do you want?"

"Let me join you in learning more about what my crystal can do."

Herta looked at Yuuto confused and thought she may have heard wrong.

"You want to learn more about it?"

"Yeah, it made me pretty disappointed in myself to see another person learn more about my powers despite using it quite often."

Yuuto conjured the mist in his palm and wondered if he was thinking too lightly about the inherent power he had.

He had gained many memories and skills that helped him get stronger that it seemed like he had neglected what he already had.

"Hmm… sure I guess that could work but I think you might have no benefit in helping.in the first place."

Herta heard his request and bluntly said what was on her mind.

"Firstly, do you even have the necessary knowledge to back up your help?"

"If I'm missing some things I can always read a book about it."

"Pssh, do you know how long it would take for you to read before you can actually use that information. By the time you read even one chapter I would have already learned the secrets of the Aeons."

Herta scoffed when she heard Yuuto's words.

"Then.. how about a bet to see if i could actually do it?"

"Ehhh, you're actually serious about that? Nonsense."

"I will give you an extra 10 boxes if you win."

"I'll give you double your compensation if you do win. 5 books on Crystallographic Ice Morphology." Herta gave him a smug look as she crossed her arms in this seemingly impossible bet.

"Give me one chance to have you do anything I ask you to do and we have a deal."

Yuuto let out an innocent smile aftering shaking hands with Herta who gave a smirk in return.

"Give me the books that I should read. I would prefer a physical copy."