19 Phantom, and Suzuka Gozen (1)

"I think we've lost her..." Brynhildr reminded as Otto kept running for 3 hole hours, as he didn't seem to get tired from it.

Otto had arrived at the forest near Tsu city, as he inspected the Sephira crystal for himself.

"You're not thinking of absorbing it, right?" Brynhildr asked.

"Yes, I'm going to." He believed that there was no chance that he was going to get his mind corrupted.

"Don't you think it's too risky to do it here?" She sounded worried.

"If it was, then would've already possessed me." He scoffed since he knew that Brynhildr was considered a demonic sword that could corrupt the user's mind. But she can't seem to possess him when she had a lot of chances.

"..."

"Do you know what crystal this is?" He asked while inspecting the grey crystal.

"No?"

"Alright, but after I absorbed this... We'll know soon." He smirked as he knew what the crystal contained.

A grey light enveloped Otto as it was turning him into a "Spirit?".

"Otto! What is going on!?" Brynhildr panicked as the energy that was surrounding him was getting demented as it went on.

"Uh... I don't know?" He was also confused as this wasn't, what was going to happen.

'Is it because I can use Cursed Energy?' He thought that Cursed Energy also affected the person's aura.

The once grey light had now completely turned dark red, like the first time when he wielded cursed energy.

A few hours had gone by, as the energy that wrapped around Otto became calmer and had turned gold.

"???" He became confused as to why it kept changing color.

"!!!" Brynhildr seemed to feel a powerful energy forming in him.

"Huh-?" Otto sounded confused as he was bleeding from his eyes and nostrils while trying to manifest the Angel that he had absorbed.

"Spit it out!" Brynhildr screamed sensing the danger her master was going in.

'Where is the book!?' He wondered as he continued to bleed profusely.

In the distance... A figure surrounded by mosaic, making it hard to identify. Observed Otto who was bleeding on the ground.

"I don't wanna." He tried manifesting the angel once again, but only caused a painful headache instead.

"grrrrrrr." Otto growled at the pain as he pushed himself to take the book out.

"Just spit it out-"

"I said I won't damn it!"

After suffering for 4 hours, he finally managed to manifest a book...

"Ugh—?" Otto sounded confused as to why the book didn't look angelic-ish enough.

Originally the book he expected was Rasiel, the angel contained in the grey crystal.

What are angels in the "Date a Live"? They are the weapons that can be manifested by the spirits, depending on what crystal they've absorbed...

"I see... Did it change its form?" He wondered if Angels could change according to the desire of the host, after all.

"Im₱&€$$ive..." A distorted voice sounded towards Otto, and it immediately raised his guard.

'That's... Mio Takamiya or Reine Murasame's Phantom, the first spirit...' Otto thought he was screwed now that she's appeared in front of him.

"Who are you..." His sweat trickled down his forehead.

"Hmmm... Interesting— a man can completely change how that angel works..." Her voice was undiscernible, making it hard to identify her true identity.

"I'll let you hold on to that for now—..." She stated, before disappearing completely.

"..."

"You acted like you know her..." Brynhildr asked after Phantom went away.

"It was a spirit. A strong one..."

"Oh? Really?" She sound oblivious as she haven't encountered the first spirit, and only heard it from rumors.

...

After a day later, Otto now arrived in the mountains of Suzuka.

"The view is great..." He stood on the peak of the mountain, as a breeze swept past him.

Otto had figured out what had happened to the Angel he had absorbed, instead of manifesting a book. The Rasiel had taken on a completely different form.

It was now his eyes, that granted him an extrasensory perception to an extreme detail. It made him wonder if it turned his already "good eyes" into the discount version of "Six Eyes". And now he could precisely control the flow of his Mana and Cursed Energy.

While admiring the peaceful view, Otto found a person whom he found familiar in the Suzuka Shrine.

She had blonde hair similar to his but with fox ears, and appeared to be wearing a shrine maiden's outfit but with a short skirt. What made him interested was that she had a sword on her hip.

'Is she Suzuka Gozen?' He thought that there might be some characters in this world might have the same appearance as the Fate Grand Order. Like Houzouin Inshun for example.

'Oh no... Here we go again.' Brynhildr thought as she could guess, what her master was going to do...

"Hello." Otto had approached her, hoping to have a spar against a swordsman.

"Oh? A visitor?" The shrine maiden kept her phone in her bag behind her, as she stood up to greet a shrine visitor.

"Yes, sort of."

"Well, it's rare to find visitors nowadays, and by the way, you look like a samurai." She looked at the Blade of Tathagata that was on Otto's hip.

"I'm not a samurai. But a swordsman, aspiring to become the strongest." He stated that he didn't follow the bushido.

"And you, miss Shrine Maiden. You look like a swordswoman." Otto didn't plan on talking in circles with her.

"Oh? So you want to have a spar with me?" She looked smug before she picked up her katana.

"Yes." He nodded as he put his hand over his katana's hilt.

"Are you sure? You looked like an inexperienced swordsman to me." She didn't mean to be rude to him, but her words were right that it even made Brynhildr secretly agree.

"Just to let you know, I'm strong. Just don't underestimate this JK, just because she's a girl." She added.

"My name is Otto Apocalypse." He introduced.

"I'm Suzuka Gozen, The Heavenly Demon Princess." She said confidently.

Otto took a 'nuki tsuke' stance and waited patiently for the Suzuka to move first.

"Hmmm, alright. This'll be over quick." She muttered, before summoning 4 golden-colored katanas around her that flew towards Otto.

He easily neutralized the golden katanas, since his vision had been heightened by several times.

Suzuka's eyes glowed as she stared deeply into Otto's eyes, and tried to charm him so that this could be dealt with more easily.

'Another charm ability... She also had that in the game.' Otto thought that she might be similar to the Fate Grand Order version if that is so... Then could she use her noble phantasm like in the game?

What worried Otto was that they could use Noble Phantasms, which are abilities that are the ultimate ability, based on their existence through a historical fact about them.

"Hmmm? By chance, are you not straight?" Suzuka looked confused as to why her charm wasn't working.

"I'm certainly straight..."

"Then why aren't you affected by it?" She tilted her head.

"Probably because I'm still 10?" He shrugged as he didn't know the reason either.

"Huh—? You're 10!?" She shouted in surprise.

"What surprised that a kid is challenging you?" He said.

"No. It's just that... You don't look like one, and also you do look cute. If you were older then I would certainly hit on you." She winked, making him just shake his head.

Otto's katana produced flames before making an arching strike in her direction, which she simply dodged by stepping to the side.

After dodging his flames, she looked over and found he had already disappeared from her vision. Before he appeared above her.

"Jikoku." Otto slashed and shattered all of the golden sword that was on his way, with the sheer amount of strength he possessed.

But unexpectedly some of her golden swords suddenly turned water and some turned a strong wind, that pushed him away.

"I think we should stop this now..." Suzuka sounded worried and felt like she was bullying a kid trying to get a single hit on her.

"Why?" Otto stood back up while patting away the dust on his clothes.

"Look here kid, your way of fighting is unethical... You're way too reckless. When you were trying to be cautious for a moment, you immediately forgot that you were doing that in the first place." She sighed as Otto still had a lot more to learn in his, path as a swordsman.

"Tsk..." Otto listened to her words because he remembered the words of the old man he had met near the Houzouin Temple. "Enemies become one until you've forced them to be one."

So Otto didn't force her to fight against him and tried to make use of the old man's intention, even if he didn't fully understand it.

"Great!" She said cheerfully going towards Otto who had sheathed his katana back.

"..." He was silent as Suzuka placed her arm on his neck like they were some kind of long-time friends.

This action made him confused as to why she was doing this... As they aren't even familiar with each other.

"Why are you doing this? Aren't you afraid I'd cut you down?" He asked as he could easily do an Iaijutsu, with her in close range.

"Hmmm? It's because I trust that, you won't suddenly draw your sword when my guard is down." Suzuka just gave a friendly smile at Otto.

"You're weird..." He shook off her arm, as he looked at the sun that was about to set.

"Maybe, anyone can be weird, so that can be viewed as unique." She shrugged and took it as a compliment instead.

"Huh-?"

"Why don't you spend the night here for the time being? It's hard to travel at night after all." Suzuka offered.

"Uh no...?" He rejected her offer.

"Well, why not stay? This will be your punishment for losing on our duel." She pointed at him.

"Haaah—!? There wasn't any wager in the spar." Otto refused as he didn't agree anything with her.

"I won so at least accept your punishment... And besides don't you think that things might get spicy in the shrine?" She gave a sly grin to him, like trying to trick a kid with candy.

"Not interested..." He just rolled his eyes as he turned around to leave the shrine.

"Don't tell me... The Aufseher Der Schickal, is running away from the punishment." She shouted, making Otto stop at his steps...

'This, Woman...' Otto felt irked and wondered why he had given up the fight in the first place, and now it had led him to receive this predatory punishment of hers.

"Oh no, it seems like the future strongest swordsman, had run away from a punishment before." Suzuka teased Otto, whether he'd stay or not, doesn't matter as she just wanted to play around with him.

"I think that her offer isn't that bad..." Brynhildr talked to his mind, as she views it as a free reward rather than a punishment.

Meanwhile, Otto watched the sunset, thinking whether or not he'd accept her offer, and at the same time he thought that accepting the punishment was the same thing as admitting that he had lost against her...

"Come on, my offer isn't that bad. Big sis isn't going to treat the guest that badly." She yelled.

Otto finally turned around in her direction as he saw that her eyes were glowing, making him shake his head as he did a facepalm.

He eventually accepted her offer and hoped nothing weird happened in the night.

...

-Chapter End-