Chapter 16- A facility for Travelers

As they began to walk led by Arisa, Riyoko told her his perspective on how he traveled to another world along with his thoughts on that time.

"I see… you're not normal, aren't you…" Arisa said blatantly as they continued to walk on the quiet streets.

"Eh!? Why!?" he replied with shock and concern, "I thought the most reasonable thing to do at that time was to play along until you understand what's happening,"

"That WAS the most reasonable thing, I just wasn't talking about that…"

"Then what were you talking about?"

She let out a sigh, "You and Reine are definitely cousins…"

He raised an eyebrow in confusion.

Arisa walked slower and placed herself beside Riyoko at the same pace.

"Look here," she said, slightly pulling out her necklace from inside her shirt, showing the small bright red crystal attached at the bottom, right above her chest inside her shirt.

Seeing the red crystal, Riyoko felt a weird and unknown sensation inside of him. He suddenly pulled his head closer as if he was attracted by the feeling.

"W... What the hell do you think you're doing!?" She blushed and pushed his head away with brute force.

"Aw!" he groaned, barely snapping his neck, "s… sorry, it was as just as if I was attracted or something…?"

"Hah!?" she said with an embarrassed expression, sounding a little mad as she held her chest tightly.

Riyoko took a good look at the situation and connected all the dots. Realizing the situation, he was suddenly flustered as he tried to clear up the situation.

"W… wait! I was talking about the crystal, I swear!"

"Is that so…" she said with eyes and tone filled with doubt.

"I'm telling the truth I promise! Plus, why couldn't you have just pulled it out completely!?"

She let out a sigh, "I guess I'm partly at fault… however what I did was reasonable since this is a very valuable item, not just for the people who know about it, but it's also an eye-catcher for those who don't know what it does, simply because of its looks,"

She then stared at Riyoko with irritated eyes, "Also! It would have been fine if you didn't just suddenly pull your head closer without warning!"

"When you say it like that… I guess I'm sorry. But it was seriously because of the crystal I swear!"

She continued to look at him with doubt.

"A… anyway, you said it's something very important and that it does something… can you tell me about that?" he said with a troubled tone, trying to move on from the situation.

"Jeez…" she let out a sigh, "the crystal I showed you was something called parallel quartz. It's a quartz that first appears as a clear white one and changes its color depending on the compatible Traveler that made contact with it,"

"I see…" he said, feeling intrigued, "What does it do…?"

"It serves as a catalyst in order for people to travel through worlds… In other words, you can't travel through other worlds without one. That's why I said you weren't normal earlier," she smiled and looked forward, "not that any of us travelers are normal though, you're just beyond that. Being able to travel worlds without one of these is completely news to me…" she walked forward as she began to lead the way once again.

"I honestly don't know how to react to that… But I see…"

"Wait a minute," he thought, "was Reine wearing one of those things back then? I don't… think so…? I'm not so sure…"

"Hey, does Reine need one as well?"

"Hm? I don't know. I've never seen her go to this world before," she replied as she glanced back at him.

"Huh...? I see," he nodded.

"could that have been a rare chance?" he thought, "when I think about it, it seems like Reine is quite some sort of very special and important person…"

"Now that I think about it," Arisa said, "let me tell you something. First of all, I said this stone serves as a catalyst to get to another world, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"That's because this strange crystal somehow connects the other worlds to ours, and as long as we have it nearby or attached to our bodies, we travelers can use magic since we can take magical energy from it, which doesn't exist normally in our world,"

"I see… so if I get one of those, I'll be able to use magic here as well?"

"You have to know whether you're compatible with magic first, not all people have a great affinity with magic, it's the same in the people of the other world as to us travelers,"

"I see…" he said as he felt slightly nervous.

Noticing his worried look, Arisa moved closer to him, "don't worry, you won't believe how there are extremely amazing travelers out there who don't have a great affinity with magic. Despite having low-level magic and mana available to them, they are somehow still a lot more capable than anyone else, even me who has a decent amount of magic affinity could feel so inferior!"

"I see… so it depends on how people use what they have, huh?" he nodded with a small smile.

As he lowered his head his face became pale as his thoughts went dark, "then that also means that despite being a traveler I could end up with some very useless looking and horrible stats! Not just that… I could end up completely useless just because I have now absolute potential as well…" he mumbled, comparing what was happening to one of his video games, "please! I hope that won't happen!"

Noticing his troubled expression, Arisa let out a sigh, "Jeez… I don't know what's going on in your head but whatever it is it's probably better to not think about it…"

Riyoko nodded with a nervous look.

"Anyway, we're almost there. Look,"

Arisa pointed at the massive building that seemed like a facility at the end of a long single road enveloped by massive fields.

Riyoko stopped in shivers, "umm… are you perhaps talking about one of the buildings near the fields?"

"No, I'm talking about the massive building inside those massive fields," she said blatantly,

"E… ehh… I see," he said, feeling pressured.

Later.

Directly outside the massive building, they encountered an unmanned gate filled with warning signs of no trespassing.

"Stay close to me," Arisa said, grabbing his wrist.

She casually walked over to the small open door at the side of the gate and pulled out her crystal. She looked directly at the camera by the doorway and pointed at each other, signaling that they were together.

The camera's red light then turned green, Arisa let go of his wrist when they went through the gate and then once again led the way as they walked toward the massive building with an entrance similar to a huge mall.

Inside the building was an extremely wide and massive area with multiple rooms on every corner as far as the eye can see.

As they walked on the clean white floors, Riyoko look around as he observed the advanced-looking area.

"This is some sort of laboratory, isn't it?" Riyoko thought with a sentimental tone and look.

Arisa nodded, "as I thought, you could tell…"

"You say that as if you know something…?"

"Doesn't everyone know? Your dad was a famous scientist, wasn't he?"

"Yeah…" he said in a melancholic tone as he pulled down his head.

"I heard he was a great man and a genius scientist…" she said, slightly glancing back and forth at Riyoko, "sorry if the topic discomforts you, I'll stop…"

Riyoko shook his head, "you don't have to be sorry, it still makes me feel happy whenever someone says something good about my dad…" he raised his head and let out a small smile, "it's just that… this kind of place gives me some sort of nostalgia, it's hard to distinguish what I'm feeling right now,"

"I see…"

"But above all that… I guess I'm excited,"

Arisa smiled, "I'm glad to hear that, at least,"

Arisa looked forward with a serious look, "anyway, we're almost where we need to be now. It's good that you're excited and all, but as you may have already realized, this isn't something that's all fun and games,"

Riyoko remembers the monster as he nodded with conviction.

"Good, you didn't seem to forget," she took a deep breath as they stopped by an elevator.

Ding*

As the elevator opened a female scientist walked out of it and slightly bowed her head toward the two of them in greetings.

Arisa slightly bowed her head in response as Riyoko imitates her. The woman then walked away as they entered the elevator.

"Now that I think about it. for such a massive place, there aren't many people," He said as the elevator door closed.

"Well, the organization handling this is huge and wide and all, but there are limitations on how many people can know about this, we also operate somewhere within the underground of the government, by the way."

"I see… that should explain the funding I guess,"

"You'd be surprised, the very few companies that support this organization is one of the richest and most massive companies in the world,"

Ding*

The elevator opened.

Riyoko once again looks around the advanced area in amazement as they walked out of the elevator, "now that really explains it…"

Walking not too far, they both stopped in front of a room with a dark glass window.

"Must be one of those one-sided windows…" he thought.

"ok, what I'm about to show you now is a bit more serious than everything else. This regards our job and what we do as well as what we're doing it for, so please keep your focus and pay close attention from now on,"

Riyoko nodded in all seriousness, feeling a sense of increasing excitement flow through him slowly.