Chapter 6 - Is This Supposed To Be My Golden Finger?

Shortly after sunrise, Ivan yawned and stretched. Warm sunlight sneaked through the cracks between the wooden blinds covering the only window in the room and directly shined on his face. Unable to sleep any later now that the sun was out, his eyes, still red and puffy due to just waking up, slowly opened. 

Seeing an unfamiliar ceiling, Ivan blinked a few times. After a few seconds, he remembered where he was.

"Right… Teyvat. Still hard to believe, but I'll just roll with it," He mumbled to himself in a deep and raspy tone common to early morning speech.

He sat up and tousled the mess of dark blond hair on his head. A few flakes of dandruff fell onto the futon when he did so.

"Hm. My head doesn't seem as dry as normal?" He observed in a contemplative manner. "Still need to wash up either way. Hope they don't mind me using that washing area again."

Despite still being a bit groggy, he rolled out from under the blankets, revealing himself in just boxer briefs. He slowly stood up, put on his pants and shirt, and left the room.

The moment he stepped into the main hall of the shrine building, he raised a brow upon seeing an unfamiliar shrine maiden standing at attention just to the side of the door like a guard. She was fairly tall for a woman and had shoulder length brown hair. Her shrine maiden attire gave her a gentle but professional demeanor, especially due to how much more modest it was compared to Yae Miko's uniform.

"Good morning," The shrine maiden greeted with a light smile.

"...Good morning. Who are you, if you don't mind me asking?" Ivan asked, though he had an idea based on her appearance. 

"My name is Kano Nana," The shrine maiden replied, bowing slightly. Then, she pulled a note folded in the shape of a pinwheel from her sleeve and handed it to him before continuing, "Lady Yae had to attend to some urgent business and asked me to give this to you when you woke up."

Taking the letter, Ivan nodded and replied, "Thank you. I'm Ivan, by the way. Nice to meet you, Miss Kano."

Smiling politely, the shrine maiden nodded in return.

"What kind of urgent business was it, if you don't mind me asking?" Ivan probed, hoping to gather information about the world's current timeframe.

"Sorry, but I don't actually know. It seems she was called away by the Great Narukami, but none of us know why. If you are concerned about your treatment, I'm sure Lady Yae will return later today to help you again."

"Hm. I see."

'Didn't get any answers from that. Oh well. Was worth a shot.'

Kano Nana interrupted his musings by apologetically saying, "If you'll excuse me, I need to go look for somebody."

"Sure. Don't mind me."

Kano Nana bowed politely before leaving. 

Left alone, Ivan rubbed his chin and looked at the folded paper in his hands. He carefully unfolded the note, though he collected a few papercuts along the way somehow. Inside was a simple letter signed by Yae Miko. 

"So she won't be back until evening but still wants me to gather Sea Ganodermas? At least she suggested asking the Yashiro Commission people for assistance. Would definitely make me feel safer to have one of them escort me."

'Now that I've read it, is there a garbage can somewhere I can toss out this note?'

The moment he thought that, a small and almost unnoticeable flash appeared in his palm. The next moment, the letter vanished. His eyelids blinked a few times before widening slightly.

"What was that?"

He flipped his hand back and forth a few times. Once a few seconds passed, his shock disappeared. His brows scrunched together upon thinking of something. Rather, he recalled a certain small flying emergency food.

'I don't have a Paimon, though.'

Eyes narrowed to slits, he tentatively held his hand in front of him with palm facing upward. He quietly pondered whether or not he was getting ahead of himself. In the end, he sighed and focused on the note that had just disappeared. Instantly, he felt something like a current of static electricity shooting outward from his heart, through his arm, and into his hand. Goosebumps spread along his skin. Then, a small light flashed above his palm.

Sucking in a deep breath at the unfamiliar sensation, Ivan backstepped. The light vanished immediately. The static feeling sucked back into his heart and settled back to normal.

Stunned by the strange phenomenon, Ivan twisted his arm around a few times and observed it as though it was a foreign object. He also patted his chest and checked his pulse. Everything seemed normal, though, aside from a slightly increased heart rate.

Then, he froze. He whipped his head around. Seeing nobody, a sigh of relief slipped from his lips. Then, he darted back inside the small guest room and closed the door. 

Now out of sight, he raised his hand again and tried reenacting the unusual phenomenon. Once again, something like static electricity shot through his arm. 

With this being his second attempt, it did not startle him this time, allowing him to observe it more closely. A small purple light illuminated above his palm in the shape of a semicircular constellation. His eyebrows rose slightly. At the same time, a semi-translucent array of glowing shapes appeared above his hand in the same shape as the constellation. Each shape looked different, namely a travel bag, a side profile of his own head, a map, a journal, a hanging scroll with an exclamation point on it, a shopping bag with a four-pronged star shape on it, and last but not least, a set of three different sized four-pronged stars.

Upon seeing the familiar icons floating in front of him, albeit a different color from what he remembered, he subconsciously mumbled, "No way…"

While staring at the translucent symbols, he suddenly frowned. An eerie silence in the surroundings perturbed him. The sounds of running water, birds, and insects that comprised the ambient music of nature outside no longer entered his ears. Unsettled by the unusual silence, he stepped toward the closed window. The moment he moved, however, the constellation above his hand silently exploded into particles and vanished. The sounds outside immediately resumed like a paused video that started playing again. 

Realizing what might have happened, he summoned the constellation again. Instantly, his surroundings fell silent. He stepped forward. Once again, the constellation disappeared and the sounds resumed. 

'Does time stop while I'm using this? And it only works when I'm standing still? Am I Paimon number two or something?'

"Oh no, I'm emergency food now," Ivan joked to himself with a small chuckle. Then, he shook his head and summoned the constellation above his palm while mumbling to himself, "Is this supposed to be my golden finger or something? I wonder how different it is from the original game menu."

With that in mind, he tried opening the most exciting constellation icon, the wishing star. However, just thinking about it did nothing. Eventually, he tried using his free hand to press on the icon. It gave way under the press of his finger like a button.

'So it only disappears if I start walking, then,' He noted.

When he pulled his finger back, a rectangular frame appeared in front of his eyes. He raised a brow upon seeing it. Unlike the game version, it only showed the oh-so-familiar blue and pinkish-purple Acquaint Fate and Intertwined Fate followed by indicators of zeros next to each of them. Underneath them were two buttons for using a single Fate with each click. Nothing indicated to him what he could obtain from the wish or how to obtain either of the Fates. The most unusual thing was a note at the top that specified that his current location was Inazuma.

Lips pursed, he exited from the frame using an 'x' at the top of it. To sort out his confusion, he pressed the icon for the shop. All that popped up was a square frame with two separate screens. One indicated exchanges of items for Stardust and Starglitter. To his surprise, most of the items were either indicated as specific weapons or crafting materials he recognized from the game. There were also Fates available there without a limit on them in contrast to the game shop. The second screen only indicated an exchange of primogems for Fates.

Slightly excited by everything available, he smiled. 

Since he did not own any primogems at the moment, he closed the shop. Then, he checked the other constellation icons. 

The map was blank aside from showing his current location to the south as well as the grayed out icons for teleport markers and statues of the Seven.

The character screen only showed himself along with weapon and artifact options.

To his surprise, the scroll displayed a quest screen that was similar to the original game. It actually contained details of a 'main quest' to go visit the Yashiro Commission in order to request an escort for gathering Sea Ganodermas. The reward section surprisingly showed a reward of thirty primogems, four basic experience books, and eight thousand mora.

The journal icon only displayed information about things he had experienced or learned in this world, which disappointed him. Although he recognized the usefulness of being able to access information at any time, the lack of achievement rewards pained his gamer heart.

Lastly, he checked his inventory. Within, he found similar tabs to the game, but without the teapot section. In the spot where the teapot should have been, there was a '+' symbol instead. Clicking on it gave him the option to create a new inventory tab and the option to select which items would sort into it automatically.

Although excited to have such a useful tool at his disposal, most of it was already familiar to him. As such, his heart that was pounding with excitement quickly calmed down. 

'It's a bit different from the game, but this'll be super helpful. The only problem is that, knowing the story, I wonder if this connects me to anything I need to be wary of? Knowing my bad luck, I'm probably going to end up facing something dangerous. I'll keep it in mind since I actually want to try having a good life despite my curses.'

Keeping his thoughts to himself, he closed his palm, which dissipated the constellation. Then, he thoughtfully gazed out through the cracks in the window blinds.

"Guess I'll head to the Yashiro Commission now. Even if I face some danger, I'm getting rid of these curses no matter what."