[ . . . ]
...
...
...
"Psst.... Hey.... Wake up..."
...
...
...
"Come on... Wake up...!"
...
...
Ugh....
I groggily opened my eyes slowly just to see (Y/N) breathing a sigh of relief
"Geez Aether... Don't scare me like that... I was about to go pour water on you by asking Mona..."
I held my head in pain as i sit up from the ground, noticing the mostly destructed surroundings.... Burnt ground everywhere... "What.... Happened...?"
"Well... You kind of caused a.... Chemical reaction with slimes, and... You know.... Hilichurls arrived and... The whole place exploded... If i hadn't casted a barrier on us, you would had suffered heavy damage..." She sighed and shook her head... I wonder if Venti is fine with it... We are near his... Shrine after all...
"Sorry... I'll reflect on it" I apologized and scratched the back of my head "There's no need... It was kind of my fault for not stopping you ... If only i was better then maybe i could have helped you with your test and prevent this .."
I shake my head, here she goes again... "Not everything is your fault (Y/N)..."
Ugh... I suppose a small recap could do...
Me and (Y/N) met at the beach... Well... It was eventful.... She really just fell like an angel and complained and apologized to me for... Splashing water at me?
Well... That's one thing to apologize for but she's one clumsy ... Uh.... Flag.... Raiser? She mostly trips and apologizes with things she hit....
Including hilichurls....
Which... Somehow accepts her apology and let her go???
There's LOTS of weird events when i walked with her, Apparently even at one point she manage to just.... Send the invading hilichurls off to a different direction with the reasoning : "Please come some other time, we're busy with dealing with something else!"
There's also the time when she was at the lake with a bunch of hilichurls worshipping her...
And then the time where she used an Anemo slime as a mount...
Even back at Liyue.....
...
It's like having her is both a blessing and a cursed...
It's not only hilichurls and slimes she affected, even People as well!
She became Klee's mother, it's like she stole Jean's position!
Lisa seems to be demanding her more into the library ( she told me that she goes there when she has free time )
Noelle seemed to be there for her when she needs something -
"Uguuuh.... Stay atill okay Aether? I'll just grab some water to drink-"
"Here you go!"
"Wah!"
Like that! She just comes in the speed of light! It's scary....
Who else....
Diluc seems to ask her to go to the bar around midnight ( She told me that she had to wear something ) which is worrying
Both Venti and Albedo sometimes go with us although they seem to have small bickering with one another just to get her to stop them
I could probably fill this train of thoughts if i list of every changes she did...
"...fua.... Where... Did you come from?" (Y/N) rubbed her lips and gave out a satisfied smile "Oh... I was... I just happen to walk by!" Sounds kinda suspicious to me...
"Really...? If i were different then i could had probably spotted you ..."
~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ In a different universe ]
"AND THAT IS ESSENTIALLY MY PLAN TO BEAT THE EVER LIVING SHIT OUT OF MY OTHER ME!"
"(Y/N)! Watch your tongue!" Lumine immediately scolded him, which caused him to zip his mouth shut and gave her a thumbs up
"Sorry about him... He's been at it ever since he woke up"
"Lumine! It's a flag raiser tradition to beat the other flag raiser when you encounter them!" Lumine glared at him, which he mumbled something else before walking at a different direction angrily holding his flag
"...But... Why come to me for this...?" Jean tilted her head in confusion as she watched (Y/N) sit down on a couch before pulling out a notebook and aggressively writing on it
"Well... Lisa said you found a way to sleep peacefully sleep, so i was wondering if we could ask on how you do that -"
"But Lumine! Think about it! What would happen if the other me is somehow better and cooler than me?!?"
~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ ... ]
"Guiding stars, Astral Ascension!" She spun her flag and stabbed it on the ground, causing cracks to form and convert the green grass into a black ocean of blinking lights. "...Haa... I think you are good to go!" She wipes off a sweat on her forehead before adjusting her gloves
"Something wrong?" Aether looked back at (Y/N) who quickly shook her head "Nothing, it's just... i've been having a bad feeling lately... Like... someone's out to kill me..." The girl started to shiver as she nervously looked around "It's... high killing intent!"
Aether looked at her before looking around "I'll finish this quickly, just don't let anything near you" He looked back at the group of hoarders and drew his sword "Alright, Let's test this out!" He swung his sword sideways-
PHOOSH
"Gah?!?!"
Three of the hoarders were sent flying before landing far away from them "...Holy shit..." Aether looked at his sword with worry, its sharp blade disappeared and the rest of the sword was just covered in sparkling black goo...
"W... we're sorry!!!!"
"I don't wanna die yet!!!!"
The remaining two immediately fled from him as the mysterious inky goo flopped down to the ground "Ah... I'm really sorry... My mana gauges were below 50% so i had to start saving up..."
Aether looked at her with a sigh"it's fine. I'm sure we're strong enough to fight and win without you wasting mana" (Y/N) immediately nodded before sitting do-
"Here you go."
"KYAAA! W-W-WHAA?!?!"
The loud panicked scream made Aether sigh again, he knows what caused it even if he doesn't look "How come your so fast.... I just don't understand, shouldn't you just apply for the Favonius Recon team?"
"Hm? I don't know if they would accept a maid..." Noelle stood up in confusion as (Y/N) struggled to process what spooked her
Somehow, in just a blink of an eye, Noelle appeared out of thin air and have laid down a blanket just behind (Y/N) for her to sit down on...
"Jeez! I didn't give you permanent boost for you to do this!"
"Ahaha.... Please consider this a me repaying you for helping me every time"
The flag raiser looked at Noelle with a pout on her face "I would appreciate it if it didn't come with a heart attack!"
Aether shook his head, This interaction already happened a bunch of times that he already memorized what they would say next....
"Now that i think about it... Whats that about a permanent boost?" He asked, causing (Y/N) to quickly look at him ( Did he just see Noelle frown in a quick second? ) "It's like what i did to you but permanent! It's small, but it helps with lots of stuff as long as im within 50 meters of my tar.....get....." She slowly stopped speaking before looking at Noelle
"You didn't seriously take 'Stay by me and it will permanently be there' literally... Right?"
....
...
"...W....why are you staring at me like that.... (Y/N)-san...?"
The girl sighed before standing up "Im gonna splash myself in the face and remove the boost" and walked away, leaving Noelle dumbfounded "Did i do something wrong?"
Aether just shrugged "Dunno, but hey. How did it feel when she boosted you?" Noelle looked at her hand for a second "it felt... Amazing, I could run faster than before.... I felt lighter and the sword felt like i was carrying a feather.... It made me feel like an archon!"
He sweatdropped "I guess she's really out of this world huh..." The two of them looked at where (Y/N) went and waited...
....
And waited....
...
"Something feels wrong..." Without hesitation, Aether summoned his sword and went towards (Y/N)'s location alongside Noelle
Claaaaang
"Tch...! Must we really fight?!?"
"Technically No, I just want to see how you fight"
Instantly, both Aether and Noelle jumped in and attempted to break off the tension-
"Imitation: Gladiator's Duel"
Almost instantly, The two of them felt their body back off from her and the mysterious person who was holding (Y/N) in an intense holdoff with a knife
"....A....Aether....?"
His eyes widened when he immediately stared at the opposite side of the battle....
"Lumine...?"
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1,410
Oh wow, we're doing specials now!
That's right, i think i announced this decision around my Arknights 6th checkpoint that there'll be special chapters instead of breaks
This isn't official, as you know
I wanted to do this kind of stuff to:
A.) Get more ideas off my brain
B.) Get more ideas INTO my brain for the next chapter
C.) Out of boredom
D.) Hopefully for you to put the gun down- hey hey, Dont you dare raise that sniper rifle! I can see you!
Anyways, i just wanted to say thanks for reading. I wonder how long has it been since i started this book? There's been self improvement here and there, but i feel like this nook is bad considering theres probably lots of broken plot holes....
Ehhh oh well, that's a problem another me can fix.
I've had thoughts on giving this book the same treatment as my AL x GFL x Reader did.
Dropping the book and attempting a second try.
Did I make any mistake other than existing and writing badly made books? feel free to tell me!