13

Standing in my lab surrounded by the fruits of my labors, I looked at Dust, this time much more deeply. My new power let me use Dust to create objects, but I still needed to know generally how the object was made.

For example, I could create a diamond because I knew that a diamond was carbon compressed for billions of years. This knowledge meant that as I focused on a clump of Dust in my hand, it grew into a perfect hand-sized diamond identically to the one in my other hand.

However, trying to do the same to make something complex like a pocket watch was fruitless as I had no clue how a clock was made and only knew its general makeup. It struck me when I was peering down at the tiny nanomachines that could build empires or create life.

These were machines, simple machines but machines nonetheless. Picking up a pinch of Dust from the coils climbing up my leg, I focused on an individual Dust speck. It took time and a grinding feeling as if something was fighting against my intrusion efforts.

This speck of Dust was attempting to prevent me from accessing itself despite how impossible that should have been. The Endless thrived on the impossible, and so the Dust fought. While it might have been an issue if the speck was larger, it was still a speck, and a few moments later, I had access to Dust.

The massive amount of potential and power of a single unit of Dust was overwhelming, and I pushed myself out, dropping the Dust to the floor and placing a hand on my forehead as throbbing pulsed out despite the lack of brain.

Rushing over, Komainu helped me to the ground while babbling.

"Oh! Are you ok? Do you need something to drink?"

As she rushed about gingerly, setting me down, I waved her away, the headache fading.

"It's fine; I just have a small headache."

Despite my reassurances, she kept panicking; her hands were on her hand, and she was darting about looking for a remedy to heal my fading headache. I raised my voice so that I would be heard and stated.

"Stop! I am fine, thank you for trying to help me, but the headache is gone."

Standing back up as she rushed back over, I rested my hand upon her head and mussed her hair, elected a startled yelp as she pushed away my hand and started fixing her brown hair with a pout on her face. Twirling around a bit, I demonstrated my lack of wounds.

"I'm fine, see; I was simply looking at something I shouldn't have."

Nodding, she walked away much calmy now that I wasn't in pain. I turned back to the small pile of Dust with a fond smile on my face.

Tucking the Dust away, I resolved not to pock at the inner working of Dust until I had a better handle on magical technology; Cyberkinesis at its current level didn't allow me to decipher what Dust was perceiving. Now that most of the villains in the bay were either powering me or in jail, I needed a new plan.

There were a few options; the slowest and safest was simply to do as I had been doing and slowly infiltrate the independent heroes and rogues rather than the professional heroes. The downside was that this could take months or even years, while I had two years until Gold Morning kicked off.

The second option was to conquer the bay and then expand from there. While this plan had a ton of appeal, it was not the best, as proven by the Warlord period of the bay. People would rather live on their feet than die on their knees.

I was also incapable of dealing with the Triumvirate; I couldn't face off against Cauldron either. Contessa, on her own, could kill me via Path bullshit. That was excluding the massive amount of pull they had over the world.

It seemed that option one of slow infiltration was the best. I tentatively had Taylor under my command, and while she would be good with time, that would take time. The other parahumans I could assume would be in the Bay were the Undersiders, Parian and Uber, and Leet.

Like Leet and Parian, Tattletale would be a fantastic person to get on my side.

The issue was that I didn't have a lever to get them to join me. I could siphon cash from ATMs. However, people would notice at some point in the future, putting a gun to their heads was stupid, especially Leet, and would likely get me killed a la Coil from Canon.

Standing their hand on my chin, I felt a burning sensation across my bones. Twenty lines grew, starting from my SOUL in my ribcage and spreading out to encircle all but the top and bottom two. As I slumped to the ground, a memory was called up as the strings (circuits) grew hotter.

Building pressure from behind mortal flesh.

A sudden relief

Then, blessed silence

My vision returned to me slumped over faint moon-white glowing lines visible under my shirt. As I pushed myself to a sitting position, the strings faded away. I knew what these were, despite my lack of them for an entire eight-year course.

Magic circuits, twenty of them and top quality. By themselves, they wouldn't allow me to reach somebody of Rin's level. What they would do, however, is draw in more energy, which was my current issue.

My SOUL held a massive pool of magical energy; I, however, would burn through that pool very fast with all of my spells and abilities. I could replenish it relatively slowly via natural recovery and, more recently, the ruby that connected me and my batteries.

The circuits would allow me to pull more mana from the Earth around me or from the ruby, which held power from several different Earths. The next thing I felt was my head shaken repeatedly as a high-pitched voice shouted at me, ugly with snot and tears.

Peering at Komainu, I held up a single finger silencing her as I stood up and, after a long moment, encircled her in a hug. Whispering in her ear

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen. It wasn't your fault."

The sniffling faded away after a minute or two of the hug. Stepping back, I started to explain.

"Do you know how you got here?"

"Yup, I was in Gensokyo napping when you pulled me here."

Freezing, I pushed past that terrifying implication and continued with my point.

"Every so often, I gain energy. That energy then can be spent automatically on new power. The powers can be disorienting or even painful; however, they are always useful."

Gesturing for her to take a seat next to me, I pulled out my Grimoire and started reading. She settled down and soon was curled into my side, eyes struggling to stay awake. I sat there for around thirty minutes reading up on the specifics of my new Magic Circuits.

They were exactly as I knew them to be. Twenty top-tier magic circuits would be beneficial. As I neared the thirty-minute mark, I felt a larger pressure on my right side and, turning over, saw that Komainu had fallen asleep and transformed back into her statue form. I knew that now I needed to face the truth.

I was growing attached. It was hard not to; she looked almost identical to my younger sister, with brown hair and blue eyes. She also looked American which was unheard of in the Touhou series as to my little pool of knowledge; the only non-eastern people were the vampires from the Scarlet Mansion. The fact that she had a life before being pulled here was even worse. I now knew that the Grimoire was either built by beings so far beyond my understanding or it could steal from under those same people's nose.

Peering down at the small innocuous book in my hand, I forced my mind back to when I had received the book. That night came face to face with something that was always behind me and could only be seen on reflective surfaces, He Who Walks Behind.

Later ice had crept up at the behest of a powerful being and pulled my entire house into a fae realm. I had stumbled around for not that long and had traveled hundreds of miles due to my desire to flee.

The only place that was like that to my information and could be accessed by a Walker and some who that opposed them was the NeverNever and mystical place that let Wizards travel much quicker and acted as a feywild of sorts.

Drumming my finger on the tome settled in my lap, I let my eyes settle on the small statue leaning on me.

I needed to solve this issue. While several of my powers screamed at me to not potentially give up the service of a Youkai, I needed to make sure she wanted to serve me and was not twisted by the Grimore into obedience.

Gently shaking her, I was rewarded with a small pop as she changed back before looking up at me, blue eyes gleaming. Taking in a deep breath, I started to speak.

"Komainu, why do you serve me?"

Tilting her head to the side as if I was an idiot, she replied as if speaking to a tiny child.

"Because you are my Master."

"Yes, but why am I your Master"

She looked as if she was struggling to come up with a response and so she settled with a

"Because you just are."

"Didn't you have goals and aspirations before being pulled here? People you cared about?"

With a shrug, she replied, her voice naive and uncaring.

"Well, duh, however, you're my Master, so it's my purpose to serve you."

"When did you know I was your Master."

Beaming as her (familiar) eyes looked at me, she responded again, her voice full of simple childlike trust.

"I knew the second I lay eyes on you."

Deciding not to push forward despite my growing glee and horror, I simply ruffled her hair to another grumble and stood up, pulling the Grimoire with me. It seemed that this book was able to alter memories and personality to enforce compliance.

I froze with that thought; what if the book was changing my thoughts and memories?

Casting my mind back over what had happened since I arrived, I could see several changes—those weren't because of the Grimoire. I made new choices because I had power and needed methods to survive.

As I was turning the heavy thoughts, I felt the Grimoire's power grow anew. This time I felt my mind split into eighteen new chunks as beings of all shapes and sizes appeared around me.

Some were biblically accurate angles, and a few more were Lovecraftian horrors, while another was just a shorter version of Cu Chulainn from Fate. Another few were my current form but shorter, and the eyes were storm blue instead of green.

It seemed that I grew eighteen new pieces of my mind that inhabited forms I knew, whether from fiction or mythology for me. Placing my hand against my forehead, I let out a long sigh as Komainu darted around the new figures.

Powers Gained

Magic Circuits

Magic Circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads through the body and acts as an organ that converts lifeforce into magical energy. Magic Circuits reside within the soul and what is found in the body is a physical expression of them. The number of Magic circuits one possesses is determined at birth and cannot decrease or increase naturally. You gain twenty magical circuits of top quality and a further twenty each time you purchase this option.

Mercenary Retainer

You can form a dozen armed human mercs, or six monsters, for use in your schemes. The troops aren't elite, but they are professional. If any of them die while carrying out your orders, you'll have to wait a week before summoning more firepower. If purchased twice, you have access to a team of up to 36 humans or half of that in monsters.