Agnisotra: Origin Tails

Day 4: I woke up and noticed I had a lot of energy. It wasn't the normal time I woke up but we returned late yesterday.

Hmm, already 12, eh? I looked around. It seems Raishin was already gone, probably hunting but Gregory and Ted were still passed out. I got up but got hit by a dizzy spell and sat down. Did I overdo it yesterday? The dizziness wasn't as bad as yesterday and was quite brief. Hmm weird, I guess I need to take my rest a bit more seriously onward. I say that but I will forget to do so anyway. I get up again and went into the archive I make mentally to check what the planning would be for today. It seems that we won't be completing our adventure of yesterday until tomorrow when we are supposed to beat the guardian of the root and destroy it. Hopefully, this won't put us back in the time loop again like last time. In the original time loop, we did a couple things, which were supposed to do again today. We went to receive gifts from Johnny, I remember fixing and practicing with the magic sword I got from him and we did a sparring match. I wonder if I would get a magic sword this time loop. A magic sword is quite unique, there are no two of the same ones unless its maker deliberately made multiple. This was another time loop so that shouldn't apply but there were a lot of things different this time around. Maybe we wouldn't get any presents after all. Johnny doesn't always manage to find cool and useful stuff for us. Actually, getting duplicates of stuff we already have might be inconvenient. Maybe we should find a way to meet with him but not receive presents.

I step outside and it is a bit windy as if a storm was approaching. So, this is also different, it was sunny the last time. I started to become a bit concerned about the effects this different time loop would have. A small drop can make ripples in a pond so nothing we can do could bring this time loop toward where it was originally supposed to end up. I started to wonder whose fault it would be if this would cause problems later on. Would it be our fault or the creator of this barrier? Was it that bad that we wanted to escape? Would everything fix itself if we would die? Is there a possibility that our messing around sets the world on a course to destruction or maybe to a better world? I leave Raishin’s hut while deep in thought. I wasn't going anywhere in particular but I thought I might as well take a walk. I activated my Elgards eyes and looked at whatever spatiotemporal data I could figure out with various filters. There was a lot that I didn't understand. Having overpowered eyes is a bit useless if there's a mountain of information I don't understand or can't use. I do know that every timeline has a number and the current number is different from the original timeline. Shifting timelines should make the next timeline number random unless a specific one is targeted but this timeline was just the number of the original timeline +1 which is very odd but also very specific.

This is as much as I know about this timeline information instinctively as a nine-tail. If this tree’s objective is to wipe our memories by sending us back to a different timeline 5 days earlier it shouldn't make any difference what timeline number it has, in theory. So why is this number 1 higher than the last one. Is it a coincidence? Probably not, this timeline number has 18 digits there is almost a 0% chance that this wasn't done intentionally. The reason why really bugs me. I don't know what special effect this creates. A timeline with a 5 as a number for example might be more similar to a timeline that has 16723 as a number, not because 6 is closer to 5 means that its timeline is more similar to timeline number 5 than timeline number 16723 so I'm really confused here. Then again, I don't have any nine tails around me to teach me about all this spatiotemporal stuff I will have to discover this all by myself which leaves a large room for me to be wrong. All these other things that I don't understand might play a role in it but I just can't figure it out. I sigh and close the filters. I headed towards the town square to meet up with Johnny. I was about to bump into someone but I evaded him. He seemed to have spotted me but somehow managed to trip.

“Ouch! Hey, it's you again! Dad this is the guy I told you about!” I'm sorry, have we met before?

“Look, dad! He's pretending again to not recognize my handsome features!” No seriously who are you? After saying that I got struck with a Deja vu. Have I experienced this before?

“I see Dunkey, you must be Agnis, right? I’m Munkey, Dunkey’s father. Me and the other parents were just about to head over to your home to talk to Hera and Philip about how you bullied our sons.” I look behind Donkey and Monkey and see 4 sets of parents with boys of about 14 years old that I couldn't recognize. Hmm, I see, so you guys believe that 1 12-year-old, bullies 5 14-year-olds to the point that their parents have to talk to Philip and Hera?

“Hmm if you say it like that, it sounds suspicious. Are you sure Dunkey?”

“Yeah, he totally bullied us! The other bullies said”. I'm sorry who are you guys? I only vaguely recognize Donkey here.

“My name is Dunkey! D-U-N-K-E-I!” I think you dropped a “Y”

“Dunkey my son your name is spelled D-U-N-K-E-Y.”

“I knew that I was just testing this asshole!” Right, I don't have time for this nonsense, I have to meet up with some friends.

“Hold on there!” A random parent grabbed me by my shoulder. “I will have you explain why my son tells us that you are bullying them.” I want to know that too and I just want to point something out. At this point all the bullies and parents surrounded me. Isn't this categorized as bullying?

“We just want to know why my son keeps telling me why you are bullying them and judging from your attitude it looks like you are quite the troublesome child, hasn’t your mother taught you anything?” My mother has taught me to not let bullies get what they want and that is what I’m doing now. Even though I’m innocent.

“Haha, you hear that Munkey it sounds like his mother doesn't know anything about raising kids.” I tried to control myself but something snapped when that random parent said that. Go talk to Philip and Hera, I am going to pretend to have not heard that and go meet my friends, but my advice is to never bring up anything like that ever again. I still managed to keep my cool although barely. I really loved and missed my mother; she was a wonderful parent. Whenever she could she would spend time with me and tell various stories about her adventures, go on random tangents, and explain things I don't understand or will later understand but she also kicked my ass when I did something wrong. These people have no right to talk as if they know her. It might be wrong but I really felt like kicking their asses when they said that. I tried to walk away but the parents blocked my path. I shot them an intimidating look.

“This kid is clearly misbehaved! I knew he has been taught poorly!” 10… Donkey joined in with one of the parents said and started talking shit about my buddies. 9…8… His dad Monkey made a joke about how I've probably been better off being raised by animals 7…6… a random parent commented that maybe I was a wild animal 5…4… Now the parents of my buddies got made fun of by one of the bullies. I swear whoever said that count down from 10 and your anger will disappear has no idea what he was talking about, it only seems to be increasing. 3…2…

“Haha, he has been counting down does he think he's a rocket?!” Donkey’s friend said.

“I'm surprised his mother even taught him how to count Donkey added.” 1…0… The moment the word 0 left my mouth the area suddenly became quiet. I directed pure killing intent at the 14 individuals laughing at me. Their laughing turned into surprise. The temperature started to drop and condensation started to form whenever anyone talked. I have warned you guys, It is time to teach some bullies a lesson. I said in a cold deep tone. I was really pissed. I did set up some illusion layers I had running to isolate us from the rest of the town. It looked the same as the town but it was just a well-made copy. Everything was functional but there were no other people only me and these 14 bullies.

“Haha, so what? you have some killing intent what do you want to do fight us 14 by yourself? Don't make me laugh!” I threw all my manners out of the window; I wasn't planning to kill them but I wasn't going to let them off easily. These seemed like the people that would do whatever they wanted until they got taught a lesson. I don't expect a monkey to understand but I will give you one last chance, apologize for insulting my mother and my buddies and their parents.

“I can beat him up, right dad?” Donkey said while pointing at me.

“Some kids don't learn until they get a beating. Show him how brilliant you are son!” Donkey and his friends rushed at me while their parents looked on smugly. I dropped the temperature to freezing point and made the ground slippery. Snow started to fall. They all slipped and didn't manage to reach me. I was controlling myself so much by not flash-freezing everything here. I created ice pillars and smacked the bullies around with them.

“Owowow! Wait huh? This doesn't hurt?” The bullies said. Don't worry you are just numb from the cold, it just feels good to smack you around, I can't have you squealing like piggies. The temperature was steadily dropping and the whole place was turning white.

“Hey, stop this right now! Or we will have to intervene!” Go on, Intervene, I'm waiting. The parents looked at each other and some started rushing towards me and others started slinging magic at me. Let's see that magic is weak, hmm this guy's posture is bad, that is supposed to be a fireball? This man? He is using water magic when it's -15 °C, if you’re going to bully someone at least be able to back it up. The water magic-using parent used a quite wide attack but it instantly froze so I used it to block all the other magic and slipped up those that ran at me and froze their pants to the floor.

“Hey, why would you use water when it is so cold!”

“You interfered with my magic!”

“Why is it so cold anyways!” I made more ice pillars and knocked the parents around that got their buts frozen to the floor. This of course ripped their pants and they got knocked around with their butts out in the cold. The parents that were left started to gather around those that could use fire magic. And started throwing huge fireballs at me. It seems that these fire users were quite competent. Too bad I have high heat resistance. The fire hit me but it did nothing besides a bit of blunt damage from its impact.

“What are you!” At this moment your worst nightmare. Everyone stuck in the domain started to bleed out of their noses. The dry cold air dried and ruptured the tiny blood vessels in their noses.

“Aah, my nose!” This didn't take long because shortly after their blood froze. The parents were trying to fire off fire magic next to those that got knocked around by ice pillars. They were trying to not hit them but still heat them up.

“This won't stop until we defeat him!” Monkey said to Donkey after skilfully saving his son from getting knocked around. I was planning to make a frozen Donkey pinball game but I guess Monkey ruined that plan. “Let's show him the power of the Hurado family!”

“D..D...Daad! Can you help warm me up it's so c..c..coold!”

“Speed up the mana in your system and let it circulate and run either some fire or lightning magic but don't activate it yet it will warm you up. Not enough to be warm in this cold but that is why we should defeat this guy as soon as possible! I never expected to see a water user this strong though.”

“H..h..h..ow do I do that!”

“I got to keep an eye on this guy, I can’t assist you now! You're a smart guy I believe in you, son!” I saw how Donkey was having difficulties putting his magic in motion, something that should be the basics of mana usage. He and everyone would freeze to death before he would get even close to moving it around.

Don't worry, I have all the time in the world, I don't mind if you help your son, it is you guys who are on a time limit, I don't mind waiting. Monkey looked at me to try and ascertain the validity of my words and ran over to his son and coached him on how to make his mana move and activate to keep himself warm. Monkey seemed to have the basics down quite well but it wouldn't make a difference. I've done all this with just water magic, the moment I feel like throwing in some frost magic it would be game over for them. The reason I also let him is that I was trying to cool down. It's quite ironic that all this ice didn't help me cool off at all. I was either hoping I would cool off before these idiots took permanent damage or Gregory would notice something, breakthrough, and stop me. For cases like this, I made it possible for Gregory to break this illusion and calm me down else nobody would be able to interfere. I'm sure though if Gregory was here like he was last time he would be on board with teaching them a lesson. I wasn't cooled off enough, no interference from Gregory, and Donkey and Monkey seemed ready for battle. I took one step forward and an icy blast shot out from me. The bullies that got knocked around the longest froze solid. They were still alive but they would need to be carefully thawed if they didn't want to take a stupid amount of damage.

“My son!” A parent dashed at me with a spear made out of fire. I grabbed the spear with my bare hands and drowned out the fire with water which instantly froze. The parent instantly let go of the cold spear and I knocked the parent toward the other parents that were getting knocked around by ice pillars. I spun the now ice spear around and took a stance. I wasn't as good with spears as Raishin but I was decent enough at it to deal with Donkey and Monkey.

“Ugh, it's so cold, dad how are we going to own this kid?” Monkey looked over to the parents that were getting knocked around and how those that got knocked around the longest turned into frozen balls and got knocked into a pinball machine I made out of ice. He looked at me in horror. What? You like bullying 12-year old kids, I like pinball.

“You are crazy!” Sure, let's go with that scenario. I let 12 ice shards float around my spear and dashed at Donkey and Monkey.

“I don't need to tell you this son but getting hit by those shards is going to be bad news!” Monkey shot a [Flame wave] at me but I didn't care, Heat resistance is so overpowered. I emerged from the flame wave unscathed and moved into Monkey’s blind spot. “Shit! I forgot that this kid is fast! Charlize wasn't kidding.” He tried to turn around to face me but I kept moving into his blind spot. Donkey wasn't really helpful because he was telling his dad where I was but by that time I already moved inside his blind spot after he turned around. I guess I'm calling this [Blindside] I actually enjoyed annoying Monkey like this and thought about how I could bring this further. My anger was slowly subsiding and the key was annoying these two to the max! Only this could quell my anger. Well, it would be converted into an opportunity to troll them. Anyways I got an idea after observing how my ice pillars were still knocking the bullies and their parents around.

Not many bullies were left that weren't frozen into ice balls but the pillars were knocking them around without letting them hit the ground. I [Blindsided] Monkey again and copied the beginning of [Raishin kick]. I didn't see him actually use this skill because I was frozen when he did that but from his stance and how he kept doing sweeps at my legs with his spear, I know that the first attack is to sweep the target off their legs and then probably knock them into the air. I succeeded in what I knew from the [Raishin kick] and started my own technique that I came up with. I kept using my spear to knock Monkey up in the air not allowing him to drop to the ground. I did this while applying [Blindside]. It was quite tricky and I made sure to not do too much damage to Monkey while doing this. “Wha! What is this!” Monkey tried to break out of his prolonged airborne state but he was unable to do anything. To Monkey it looked like he was being kept airborne by a ghost. Wherever he looked he couldn't see where I was because I kept moving into his blind spot and knocking him up again. Hmm, how to call this. [Agnis kick]? Too unoriginal it isn't a kick either… It seems I vanished for this Monkey and I'm having to put in a lot of speed and footwork to make sure he doesn't drop down. [Blinding speed]? Hmm, that sounds more like some other skill I could develop. [Spear juggle]? [Vanishing footsteps]? Screw it I’ll go for [Vanishing footsteps]. For some reason, my footprints in the snow disappeared while using this technique so it really looked to him like he was getting combo-ed by a ghost.

Now Donkey wasn't exactly doing nothing. He was shooting his slow-ass lightning at me but as you’ve guessed he wasn't successful in hitting me. I suppose to him it was hard to even see where I was at all times. I wasn't stupid, I didn't juggle Monkey around in a small area, It would make it easier for me but also easier for Donkey to hit me so I was juggling Monkey over a wide area.

“Dunkey do something! I can't break out of this!” Donkey ran to my approximate location with a fire punch and I used [Vanishing footprints] on him too. It wasn't too hard to juggle both of them. Now that I don't have any interferences, I had to think of how to bring this skill further. Most of my anger cooled off and I was now thinking of how to use this opportunity to practice [Vanishing footprints] and teach these bullies a lesson. It was easy to put more damage in this skill and to be honest if I could catch someone in this, he would be a sitting duck. Not like the metal ducks in that obnoxious puzzle but they would be a free target for my buddies to hit them with all kinds of ranged magic. I've been juggling Monkey for about 10 minutes and Donkey for 5 minutes and I'm starting to tire. They seem to have given up trying to escape. I decided to turn the ice shards I had floating around my spear into frost shards. Any attempt to forcefully escape this skill with the use of magic got nullified. They would need help from outside to break free, wait till I get tired, or break free with a big explosion or something. It can’t be fire based because I'm practically immune to that, so uhh good luck Donkey and Monkey. I got tired of these clowns and I shoot an [Ice beam] out of my spear and freeze them solid. I sculpt them into balls and smack them toward the ice pinball machine with my spear. I had to rest for 10 minutes since it was physically demanding but fun nonetheless. I walk over to the ice pinball machine. 14 ice pinballs were waiting for me.

I played pinball for an hour when suddenly I felt someone trying to break in. I recognized the magic signature as belonging to Gregory and let him in and made the temperature ehhh Gregory-friendly. What is going on here? I'm playing pinball.

I can see that. You don't seem pissed, what happened? Something must have really angered you because normally it isn't this hard to break in, whenever you try to not turn the whole area into a frozen wasteland. These clowns didn't heed my warning about dropping the subject of insulting our mothers.

Same thing as in the original timeline? Even worse. I linked up my vision with Gregory and played the scene for him which angered me. I could see Gregory getting angry.

Hey is there room for 2 to play pinball? Of course! We started to play some pinball.

So, there is something I noticed with your family concerning getting angry. Gregory got his ball in an advantageous position where it kept bouncing around and generating a lot of points. Hmm, what did you notice? I said as I saw Gregory nearing my top score with his lucky shot.

Everyone in the Hourai family seems to have a different interaction with anger. Whenever your mother gets angry all her focus drops and she will make a lot of silly mistakes so she has to make sure she doesn't get angry in battles. Yes! top score! Meh. Xelia seems to be immune to getting angry, while Yuna is always angry. And you, whenever you get angry, whoever triggers that is kind of fucked. It was my turn on the pinball machine and I needed to reclaim my top score. I loaded the Monkey ball.

Didn't part of the Hourai palace burn down because some assassin stole and ate your favorite dish and accused you when he got caught? I managed a lucky shot too; the monkey ball was pinging between multiple points as if it got caught in my [Vanishing footprints]

Wow lucky shot! I wasn't angry because I got accused of eating all the food, or that someone tried to assassinate me, but because he ate the food I was looking forward to. I just came back from hunting spirit salmon with mom and she prepared it perfectly and that jerk stole and ate it!

Yeah, normally it's hard to make you angry but whenever someone touches your favorite food then he's in for hell. He took my food so I took his life, he was planning to assassinate me anyways so I guess it's fair that he should be prepared to die.

Yeah, you took his life and a quarter of Hourai palace. Spicy food is one of Hourai’s specialties. It was a bit too spicy for most people. Mom was happy though.

Of course, she was… nobody in our families is normal, including us sadly. That makes it more exciting! I beat your top score!

Only by 6 points! One point for every tail I have more than you! Perfect!

Ugh, lucker. So, what are you going to do with them? And why are some of them missing pants? Gregory gestures at the 14 pinballs.

Got claimed by the icy bite of my ire and uhm good question. I will leave them to thaw but I can't trouble Johnny or Uraya, someone I don't like, hmm. Charlize and Cecilia? Great Idea! I got rid of all the ice I created beside the pinballs. I chucked them into my dimensional pocket and cancelled the separate domain I created. We went toward Cecilia’s house where I dumped the pinballs in the yard and rang the doorbell. Random villager #53 opened and looked at us wide-eyed as we grinned.

“Mom! Gregory and Agnis are here!” Cecilia appeared and looked at us, then at the pinballs, and then again at us.

“I'm confused, what is going on here?” We have a present for you! Are you not going to explain anything?

What am I supposed to say? These guys pissed me off so I turned them into pinball and I beat your top score with the Monkey ball? Hey! Come on stop rubbing salt in the wound you only won by 6 points!

Hehe, it is not that I'm good, it's just that your Donkey ball sucked donkey balls. Channeling the Ted inside, eh? Next time I will use the Monkey ball and kick your ass! Ooh, I’d be happy to see you try!

“I'm sorry guys, I'm afraid I still don't follow, why are these people frozen in uhm ice balls.” So, these people managed to make Agnis angry and they paid the price, we are hoping that you would tend to them in the thawing process because if this doesn't go controlled, they will take a lot of damage and besides Agnis, you’re the only good water user we know. Huh, didn't we bring them here because we couldn't be bothered to thaw them ourselves? Gregory smacked me.

Are you channeling your inner Raishin now? Ow! No, I'm just still a bit pissed off that is all.

“I will accept this request. I'm actually curious how they managed to anger Agnis, something Charlize and I haven't managed to do in almost 2 years but looking at these people I think maybe it is better if I don't know.” Cecilia used water magic to move the pinballs to her backyard. “Thank you for trusting me, you won't mind if I question them after they thawed right?” Be my guest, they will probably only have bad things to say about me though.

“That is fine, I know better. If there is one thing, I've learned in the time we’ve been chasing you guys it is that we realized that we should avoid angering you if possible.” I'm glad you understand! have fun with the pinballs!

“Thank you! I guess?” We left the ice balls at Cecilia’s place and went toward the town square. We were later than the last time so Johnny probably already went home to rest and prepare to sell his stuff tomorrow. Or was he supposed to sell them today? I can't remember. We tried looking for Ted but he seemed to be training with Rock again somewhere outside town. Gregory and I decided to leave the event with Gianni because we didn't need any duplicates. We dropped the gullbarf off at Uraya’s shop and headed home. We decided to get more rest because tomorrow would be the day, we deal with whatever guardian is protecting the root.