Mind's Eye

Shiro POV

"So this is the central continent, Empyrea." I spoke as I wasn't intrigued by any of the sights. Instead I was fascinated by the difference in magical energy in the air. The difference was actually noticeable as I breathed in the air and allowed the energy to circulate through my body.

To my surprise the whole flight took a few months to get here. Spent most of the time chilling with Miya and also found out something I didn't think I would find in this world.

The internet exists here. Hell there's even satellite T.V. This world has more modern stuff than I thought. Apparently it was due to heroes being summoned from other worlds, they ended up influencing the culture as well.

"Come on, let's go get some food." Miya called out as she walked off to a random resturant away from the docks.

The resturant consisted of 4 floors which were all packed at the time of day since everyone had just exited from the ships. Business seemed to be doing well, but I felt something odd when I passed through the entrance. If I had to describe it, then it felt like someone took a metal detector and scanned my body.

Miya glanced my way and I guess she noticed my confusion before dragging me to a table for two.

"Hey Miya, did you feel anything when you passed through the door?" I asked as it was bothering me a bit.

"It's just a magic array to detect malicious intent." She explained as she didn't move her eyes from the menu. I'm guessing some resturants would install these formations so they would know if anyone was entering their business with unsavory intentions.

"Oh, how does it work?" I was interested in learning magic at some point. I can throw ice and stuff, but having the chance to learn magic was a bit of a fantasy for me. Who wouldn't want to learn how to use magic if it was optional?

"I dunno, I was never interested in that kind of stuff." she responded as I became disappointed. I guess it makes sense, she doesn't seem to be a mage.

"But if you're into that kind of technical stuff, then you could probably find an academy for magic to learn. Although the circumstances for enrollment differ from place to place." She informed when she noticed my disappointment as she placed an order using the menu. Apparently the menus were magically automated as well.

"Enough about that, so what do you plan on doing now?" She asked as we waited for their food.

"I guess I'll just look around a bit before heading to the north." I responded as I really wasn't in a rush to head up north.

"That's a good plan, I don't suggest staying on this continent for long. Conflict tends to break out often a bit more than others." Miya seemed to speak from experience.

"What about you? I remember you said you had business or something."

"Me? While it's true that I have some business, it can wait. I'm just traveling around and doing some soul searching is all." she relaxed her arms behind her head as she leaned back on the chair.

"You don't seem like the type of person who needs soul searching." I commented as I cocked my head to the side "By the way, I've been meaning to ask but... can you tell me what the hell those eye things were?" Seriously those things made me feel weak as hell the moment they came out.

"You know, I never commented on it before but your ignorance is really astounding to me if you don't even know that." She said as she finally called me out on the fact that I've been asking a lot of basic shit.

There's actually a reason why I haven't been asking the System about this stuff. Supposedly, the system's Info on this world is outdated by about ten to twenty thousand years. So it's been trying to update itself to catch up. It told me that it would take about another week or two until it finished reading the necessary materials. I can still talk to it though, but for now I'll have to get info from other people until then.

"Yeah, I sort of grew up in a reclusive place." I scratched the back of my head pretending to be embarrassed.

"I guess that makes sense, well it'd be a nice topic for conversation while we ate I guess." She decided to explain as a demonic looking man brought our food over with a smile. Well, I think it was a smile, is it racist of me to think his smile was terrifying?

∞

"First, what do you know about awakenings?" Miya asked the white haired shinigami who she declared to be his big sister.

"When you get to 100, you need to create a magic core to awaken." He responded as that was what the system originally told him. But the info might be outdated.

"That's mostly correct for humans, other races might require different things but there's also one more thing you have to do." she nodded her head as she held out an open palm. Above it, a golden eye manifested into existence. Shiro didn't feel any pressure from it this time as he inspected it closely.

"When creating your magic core, you must be capable of using your mind's eye. What you see right here is the physical manifestation of my mind's eye. The simplest term for it is a Pathfinder, as it's main purpose is to help you find your own path." The eye disappeared as she took another bite from her meal.

"The core is created within your body, it's placement is different for each person. But the usual spots people choose are the brain, the heart, above the abdomen or very rarely in a limb." It's a very delicate procedure, which is why many people will spend their whole lives stuck at level 99.

"To do that a Pathfinder is necessary, you must be capable of creating a physical manifestation of your mind's eye through pure willpower." A person will open it eventually as they go through trials and hardships on their path towards the first awakening. Of course this is also why rich kids who leveled by absorbing the magic cores of wild beasts to 99 will find it difficult to achieve it.

"The eye is said to be the combined force of your mind, spirit and will." The eye will target those three traits and release an aura of supression towards others. The level of supression of course differs from each individual.

"While the eye can use the power from your soul, it mainly siphons the natural energy of the world for you to use." In the process of creating a core, it's best to find a place abundant in magical energy for the mind's eye to use and increase the rate of success.

"There's a saying. The soul empowers the eye and nurtures the blood, the eye strengthens the blood and watches over the soul, the blood strengthens the body to protect the soul." Shiro wasn't sure what to think of that, but he would try to remember the saying in the future.

"Wait, I remember there was more than one eye though." Shiro commented as he remembered Fullmont with three eyes.

"After the main eye manifests, more eyes can be opened through 'enlightenment'." she used finger quotes to emphasize. "I can't really go into details since I'm crap in explaining this kind of stuff, but it's different for each person."

"So basically more eyes equals more power?"

"Not necessarily... but you could say that in general terms I guess. The most eyes a person's opened was 9 but there is a legend that says that Lightbringer Apostle was capable of 10. But that was so long ago that no one really knows anymore." she shrugged.

"Woah, and I remember you had six eyes! that's incredible!" Shiro exclaimed excitedly as that was the most he's seen.

"Yeah... six." Miya seemed to wryly smile

"Is that not good?" he raised a brow at her response

"No, it's said to be a great achievement to open 5 eyes and an even greater achievement to open more than that." she replied with a sigh "You can open up to 7 eyes through enlightenment, after that there are special methods needed in order to open more. However the seventh eye is said to be the most difficult to unlock." She explained as it is common for a person to be stuck at the 6th eye for the rest of their life.

"But I've been at a bit of a bottleneck lately and I've been stuck at six for awhile now." she admitted. It was also the reason she was traveling, hoping for a spark of enlightenment. Shiro remained silent as Miya seemed to become a bit downcast.

"You know, I'm called the Sword Empress. Said to be peerless without equal as far as swords go." She rested her cheek on her hand as she seemed to start venting. "But it's all just words to raise my reputation from other people." In the past, those of her family were even more incredible than her as they were capable of greater things. They all at least opened 8 eyes, which made her feel inferior since she was stuck at six.

"People kept singing praises about my greatness and perfection." she complained annoyed. "Some even declared that I could be the next World Apostle. So I tried to live up to that expectation and trained as hard as I could. Everything I did was to perfection, just like they said." her eyes seemed to dim as she crushed her glass

Shiro coughed to get her attention as she noticed she had broken the glass in her hand. "Oh... woops." she rubbed the back of her head in embarressment.

"Guess I just needed to vent a little there, sorry for dumping this on you." Miya apologized as Shiro just shook his head.

"It's fine, but you know. That honestly sounds... boring?" Shiro said sort of as a question as he wasn't sure how to say what he wanted to say.

"Boring?" she raised a brow at that

"Yeah, it's just the thing with perfection. It's boring. No offense, I mean you trained hard and it definitely shows since I've seen how overpowered you are but..." he made a difficult face as he couldn't really put his thoughts into words.

"I won't say that I understand your situation at all." In the months that he spent with Miya on the boat, he felt like he owed her a bit. So he wanted to help.

"However, I once knew a scientist who had some choice words about 'Perfection'." Shiro said the word with air quotes.

"In his words. 'In this world, nothing perfect exists'." Miya seemed to frown a little at the words.

"It may be a cliche, but it's the way things are. That's precisely why ordinary men, pursue the concept of perfection, it's infatuation."

"But ultimately I have to ask myself, what is the true meaning of being perfect? And the answer I came up with was nothing, not one thing."

"The truth of the matter is, I despise perfection. If something is truly perfect.... that's it." Shiro actually agreed with Mayuri's words, which made his words carry more weight to them.

"The bottom line becomes, there is no room for imagination. No space for intelligence, or ability or improvement. To men of science like me, perfection is a dead end. A condition of hopelessness." Shiro changed it from us to me as he wasn't a scientist and neither was Miya.

"Always strive to become better than anything that came before you but not perfect. Scientists agonize over the attempt to achieve perfection. That's the kind of creatures they are, they take joy in trying to exceed their grasps in trying to reach for something that in the end we have to admit may infact be unreachable." Shiro ended the quote as he looked back at Miya who had an unreadable expression on her face.

"Well, I agreed with that quote and just hope it helped with whatever your problem is."

Miya was silent for a moment. Something seemed to click as she didn't respond to his nonsensical words. Shiro watched her close her eyes in silence. He was sort of afraid that she would be offended that he sounded like he wasn't appreciating her efforts and was giving him the silent treatment.

However after a moment, it came. The unending pressure as she opened her eyes while Shiro lost his ability to breathe. The rest of the customers and servers were forced to the ground as he strained up to look above Miya's head. Seven eyes that were passively exuding a raw dominating will. Unlike against the pirates, didn't feel like a sharp blade ready to cut someone through. The feeling of power seemed like it was unrefined and ready to be sharpened anew.

After a moment Shiro found himself able to breathe again as Miya closed her eyes. Quite a few of the customers were terrified and fled, while the workers were too scared to reprimand the girl due to her display of power. Miya opened her eyes again with a bright smile as she appeared next to the white haired protagonist and crushed him in a big hug.

"You have no idea how much this means to me." Shiro wasn't able to respond as her physical strength seemed to be enough to literally crush him through his high endurance.

"GET OUT!" the manager finally appeared on the scene with zero fear to kick the two troublemakers out of his restaurant.

"Welp, atleast we didn't have to pay." Shiro said as he got up from being kicked out, literally.

"Well Shiro, I wish I could stay but right now I have to head home and take care of actual business now. Hold onto this, it may help you in the future." Miya gave him what seemed to be a metal emblem and smiled as she broke the sound barrier and launched towards another direction through pure physical force. "IF ANYONE BULLIES YOU, JUST TELL ME AND BIG SIS WILL TAKE CARE OF IT!" he heard her shout despite it coming from miles away by now.

"Well, time to go back to traveling I guess." Shiro sighed as he lost his overpowered travel buddy.

"Wonder what this is." he muttered inspecting the emblem of 4 swords in front of some kind of rectangle.

∞

Before Shiro left the port town, he stopped his steps and blinked at the sight of the familiar armored figure sitting on the side of the gate. He had a sign that spelled out 'Will work for food'. Moving in front of the full-armored man, he held out a sandwich.

"Well, nice to have you with me travel buddy #2" he smiled at his new companion.