Songs in the Void: A Multiversal Score

Scattered Cherry Blossoms Universe, Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

"Hey, what are you doing, Tatsuo-Kun?" The silver-haired succubus, Maria, asked when she saw Tatsuo sit at the table in the living room before pulling books out of his [Inventory].

In response, Tatsuo glanced at Maria out of the corner of his eyes, surprised that she was calling him by his given name despite barely knowing him. However, it did not take long to realize that just because she had a Japanese surname, did not mean that she was completely Japanese on the inside. Instead, it was more likely that she grew up in the Underworld and was only living in the Human World.

"Winter homework." Tatsuo replied, deciding that it did not really bother him regardless of what anyone called him. "*Sigh* I have to do all my homework and stay in the top ten in my year. Otherwise, I can't skip classes whenever I want."

"But why would you need to skip school?" Kunou, who was also sitting around Tatsuo, asked in a curious tone.

Kokoa, though she was not sitting as close as the other two, also glanced at Tatsuo, interested in the answer to Kunou's question.

"On paper it's for my career." Tatsuo replied while opening the first page to where an assignment could be found.

"On paper?" Kunou asked while titling her head curiously.

"Career?" Maria asked simultaneously.

"Yeah, on paper." Tatsuo replied with a nod as he started to write. "In my world, my mom owns a record company. And I just got signed as a singer and musician. So, I'll need time off to handle some music related things."

Hearing that, the three, nor the others who could hear the conversation, found it hard to believe that Tatsuo would be a musician. Though, they were curious to hear hm sing now. But they would have to put that on hold, because Tatsuo continued his explanation.

"But that's' really just a cover-up... For the most part." Tatsuo said, quickly answering questions while still talking. "I'm sure there will be real days that I need to take off because of music. But in actuality, it's in case I need to go to other worlds for [Missions] or to help my friends."

"That's so cool." Kunou said with stars in her eyes.

"How many worlds have you been to?" Maria asked curiously.

"Hmm... If I count my own, this is the fourth." Tatsuo replied while continuing to answer homework questions. "But it kinda feels like five instead of four. I mean, we spent time in two different worlds when we went to Aletia's, Tio's, and Yaegashi's world."

"Oh yea, Shizu-Chan told us about that." Maria replied. "She said that she originally lived in a world like this one. Just without the supernatural. But she and the rest of her class ended up in a world of swords, magic, and RPG elements."

"We didn't believe her back then, though." Kunou added, her ears dropping. "I kinda feel bad for not believing her."

"You have to blame that on James." Sona said as she approached the table. "He just makes too many jokes. So, it's hard to tell what's real and what's a prank, sometimes."

"Hey! I resent that remark!" James said without looking away from the game he was playing against Genkai.

Rolling her eyes, Sona ignored James' protest. She then turned her attention to Tatsuo.

"You said you were working on your Winter homework, right, Tatsuo?" Sona asked.

"Yeah." Tatsuo replied without looking up. "Homework is one of the things I don't appreciate after getting away from DOATEC. But... I gotta do it. Otherwise, Mom will pout at me."

"Well, if you don't mind, I can help you with your homework." Sona offered.

For the first time, Tatsuo stopped writing and looked up from his books since the conversation started. However, when he saw the look in Sona's eyes, he could tell that she was trying to smooth over the thing with James' suggestion.

"I appreciate the offer." Tatsuo said with a smile. "But this won't take me very long."

As he spoke, Tatsuo turned the workbook he was filling out towards Sona. Seeing that, Sona looked down to check the work Tatsuo had done. Not only her, though. Both Maria and Kunou also looked out of curiosity. And for the first time, Kokoa felt silly for purposefully sitting so far away, as she did not have a good angle to read the contents of the workbook.

"You did this much in only a few minutes?" Maria asked in an astonished tone.

"Wow! Tatsuo-Oniichan is really smart." Kunou said while clapping her hands in an impressed manner.

"It would seem I made an unnecessary offer." Sona said after seeing Tatsuo's academic ability.

'Great... Now what am I supposed to do?' Sona asked herself as she turned the book back towards Tatsuo. Her thoughts continued as she watched Tatsuo start working again. 'I wanted to smooth things over because of what James said. If he decides to not help my father after that, I don't know what we'll do.'

"You know, I said I would help your dad, Sona." Tatsuo said, as if he was reading Sona's thoughts, which surprised her greatly. "So, you don't have to do anything. Even though James said something stupid, I know he didn't mean any harm. I'm just a little sensitive about things like that."

"I... see..." Sona replied, a little shaken by Tatsuo's accuracy. "How did you...?"

"It's written all over your face, you know." Maria said, answering before Tatsuo could. "I mean, anyone with any experience with people would have been able to tell. And Tatsuo-Kun said he was trained to be an assassin. So, I bet he knows a whole lot of stuff to read a target and make the kill easier."

"Well, she's not wrong." Tatsuo replied while continuing to fill in his workbook. "I mean, I speak ten languages all without the use of magic or skills, I have an undergraduate level education, I learned psychology, biology, chemistry, and physics, among other things a a pretty high level, and I was made proficient in more than a few weapons. Plus, I was trained to the world-class level as a pianist. Damn... Now that I think about it, I can't understand how they stuffed all that into me in only eight years."

"Pause!" x 2

With those two shouts, Tatsuo's pencil came to a stop for the second time. He then lifted his head and looked in the two directions from which those voices came.

The first person he saw was James, who he somewhat expected. Especially after spending a week with him and Alfonzo in the ICDS Universe.

"Hey, don't look at me like that." James said while still focusing on the television. "You already know that if you set 'em up, I'll knock 'em down."

And that was pretty much what Tatsuo expected to hear, as well. However, what really confused him was that when he looked in the other voice's direction, he made eye contact with Leona, James' mother.

"You have to learn to not pay attention to her, Dear." Venelana said from beside Leona. "At times, Leona can be even worse than James."

"Lana~~!" Leona whined in mock protest.

"There's no point denying it." Yasaka said with a smile.

"*Sigh* I'll keep that in mind." Tatsuo said in an exasperated tone. "So juvenile."

Nearly everyone in the room nodded in agreement with Tatsuo's statement. At the same time, James and his mother looked as if they had taken physical damage, causing everyone to laugh at their expense.

"Hey, does anyone know where Master Scáthach is?" Shion asked as she stepped into the living room with her odachi slung over her shoulder. "I wanna spar with her."

"Actually, now that you mention it, wasn't she supposed to be preparing items for you to test your [Purification Magic] on, Tatsuo?" Sona asked, much more interested in the topic than most of those present.

"Oh, we already did that." Tatsuo replied absent-mindedly while filling out the workbook.

That casual statement caused everyone to turn in Tatsuo's direction. Even those playing video games hit the pause button to stare at him.

"Then where is she?" James asked curiously. "I thought she would tell us the results of the testing."

"Well, you could have just asked me." Tatsuo replied.

"We didn't even know you had performed the tests." James countered.

"Hmm... I guess that's true." Tatsuo replied with a nod. "But you didn't ask, either."

James had no retorts for that. So, he decided to just change the subject.

"Anyway, where is Master?" James asked.

"Oh, she's in the training room with Aletia and Tio." Tastuo replied causally. "They asked her for ideas on how they could use their spells in more diverse ways."

"And how did the tests go?" Sona asked with hopeful anticipation in her eyes.

"Well, I dispelled all the malicious energy in the three items she chose to use for the test." Tatsuo replied. "One of them was weird, though. I mean, why the hell was a steak knife so cursed...? Or filled with malicious energy...? Or whatever it was."

Immediately, everyone in the living room had a pretty good idea of the answer to Tatsuo's question. Then, they all turned to look at Shion, who was completely unaware of why they were staring at her like that.

"What's wrong, everyone?" Shion asked in a confused tone while tilting her head, looking much cuter than she had any right to. "Is there something on my face?"

"Say, Tatsuo-Kun." Yasaka asked from across the room. "By any chance, did that steak knife have a wooden handle and very pronounced grooves on the handle?"

Taking a moment to think about it, Tatsuo raised his head in contemplation. Then, he nodded his head and turned to face Yasaka.

"Yeah, that's right." Tatsuo said. "But why do you know that?"

"Because that was most likely the knife James used when Shion cooked for him for the first time." Shuna replied. "And all I can say is that things did not go well. In fact, he lost consciousness after the first bite. He was out for eight hours after that."

"Yeah, and those grooves are from him squeezing the knife's handle too hard just before he passed out." Moka added.

Tatsuo could only tilt his head in confusion at first. A moment later, however, he remembered how Shion's cooking was at the beginning of her source material. After that, he looked at James with sympathy.

"Well, I'm sure she's gotten better over the years, right?" Tatsuo asked, remembering how Shion received a cooking skill later down the line in her source material.

"Um... Not really." Shuna replied in an awkward tone. "After some chocolates she made for Valentine's Day left James clinically dead for a few minutes, Shion has been forbidden from cooking ever again."

Once again, Tatsuo wore a dumbfounded expression on his face. He then looked at James again. However, when he noticed that James was shivering minutely, most likely from PTSD, he did not know what to say.

"So... Um... Anyway, around midnight, Master Scáthach and I will be heading out to test the [Purification Magic] at the hospital." Tatsuo said, though, it was still clear to everyone that he was uncomfortable with using human test subjects. "So, we should know if I can deal with diseases by the end of the night. I'm gonna be really tired during the beginning of training, though."

Though no one said anything when they heard Tatsuo mention being tired during training, they knew as someone with High-Rank power, he would be able to go days without sleep or negative consequences from the lack of sleep. However, when you paired a lack of sleep with Scáthach's training, that sounded like a recipe for disaster to everyone who has experienced it. Everyone except for Kunou, that is. Because, for some reason, Scáthach treated Kunou a lot more gently than everyone else. But somehow, Kunou's results were no worse than anyone else's.

After that, time passed quickly. And before dinner, Tatsuo finished all his workbooks for Winter Break. He also spent some time writing music and talking to everyone. Aletia and Tio also came up from the training room just before dinner, as well. Though, Scáthach seemed to still be busy with something. So, she did not join them for dinner.

Nothing of note happened after dinner, either. So, the time before midnight passed quickly, as well.

"Are you ready to go?" Scáthach asked as she stepped out of the elevator.

It did not take a genius to understand who Scáthach was talking to. So, Tatsuo stood up while closing the notebook he was writing lyrics in.

"*Sigh* Yeah, let's get this over with." Tatsuo muttered as he approached Scáthach.

"I want to come, too." Aletia said as she jogged over to Tatsuo's side.

"No." Scáthach replied concisely.

Aletia naturally glared at Scáthach for her refusal. Even so, Scáthach did not budge. Nor did she explain the reason for her refusal.

"It's okay, Aletia." Tatsuo said as he raised his hand and started patting Aletia's head. "It will be easier this way. The fewer people there are, the less likely we are to be spotted by any regular people. And I'd rather not mess with anyone's head if I can help it."

At first, when Tatsuo started patting her head, Aletia narrowed her eyes like a cat. However, when she heard Tatsuo agree with Scáthach's refusal, she pouted at him. But just like Scáthach, he did not give in, either.

"Fine." Aletia said while crossing her arms and looking away. "But I want a drink when you get back."

Tatsuo only smiled and nodded while patting Aletia's head for a little while longer.

"I wish you success, Master." Tio said as she approached from behind Aletia before bowing respectfully.

The fact that her cheeks were red from Tatsuo glaring at her because of her term of address was not brought up.

"Well then, shall we be on our way?" Scáthach asked.

Tatsuo nodded in response while removing his hand from Aletia's head. A moment later, Scáthach created a [Teleportation Magic Circle] under herself and Tatsuo. Then, they both vanished in a flash of light.

A moment later, Tatsuo and Scáthach reappeared on the roof of a five-story building, Kuoh General Hospital.

"So, I take it you have a few patients in mind for me to try this on, right?" Tatsuo asked.

"That's right." Scáthach replied with a nod. "We'll start with more mundane illnesses than work our way up to the incurable."

"Alright." Tatsuo replied, a mask of emotionlessness on his face. "Then, lead the way."

With that, Scáthach led Tatsuo into the hospital via the rooftop access door. Then, she led him to a room on the top floor. In this room, a young man was sleeping in a hospital bed.

"He has influenza." Scáthach said when she and Tatsuo stopped next to the young man's bed. "He'll be the first one."

Nodding in response, Tatsuo stepped forward. Then, like he did when he [Purified] the three items, he assessed the young man. However, this time, instead of just measuring the amount of malicious energy with is senses, he had to use his own [Energy] to examine the patient's body and check for every little detail. Then, he would cast the spell to remove everything that was not native to the man's body.

And when he reached this point, he realized that this was much more dangerous than he expected. For example, what if the patient he was treating with his [Purification Magic] had something like a pacemaker? Wouldn't casting [Purification] on them kill them?

'No, what am I thinking?' Tatsuo muttered to himself. 'If my control is good enough, I should be able to leave stuff like that out of the range of my magic. Besides, if I [Purified] them, there's a chance they wouldn't even need something like a pacemaker when I'm done, right?'

When his thoughts reached that point, Tatsuo was finally able to throw that thought out of his head to focus on the here and now. Then, he finished making his assessment and figured out how much [Energy] he would have to pump into the spell to [Purify] the human sleeping in front of him. After that, he took a deep breath to settle his emotions. Then, he made the necessary hand signs, gathered the symbols the hand signs created into one, then slapped the combined symbol down onto the patient.

*Hum~~~~~~~~~~~! *

Then, just like when he cast the spell to [Purify] the items in the training room, instead of a slapping sound, a strange hum reverberated through the room. Then, a grey cloud was expelled from the young man's pores. 

On top of that, despite Tatsuo slapping his hand down on the young man, he did not react to it in anyway.

After the fog finished coming out of the young man's pores, Scáthach cast a [Runic] spell to diagnose the patient's condition. She then nodded at Tatsuo.

"He is as healthy as can be." Scáthach said. "All the effects of smoking, as well as the influenza in his system are gone."

"He was a smoker, too?" Tatsuo asked curiously. He then took a look at the young man's face. "He doesn't look any older than me, though."

"That is not our concern." Scáthach replied as she turned around and started walking to the room's door. "We are only here to see exactly how effective your [Purification Magic] is. Now, come along. There is more work to be done."

After that, Scáthach led Tatsuo to patients with more and more difficult to cure/treat diseases and disorders they even tried on a couple of people with incurable diseases, lung cancer and dementia, by the time they left the hospital.

As for the results, Tatsuo's [Purification Magic] was able to cure every disease they came across, even cancer and dementia. However, it could do nothing to help with congenital abnormalities.

Now, with the results in hand, Tatsuo and Scáthach returned to the mansion. And to no one' surprise, everyone was still awake, curious to know how everything went.

'Well, at least I won't be alone in the suffering tomorrow.' Tatsuo thought to himself as he and Scáthach explained their findings. 'Oh well, after this, I'll head up to my room, let Aletia get a bite to drink, then go to bed. This was tiring. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I got to help quite a few people tonight.'