Hold over Myriad of Worlds

I walked with Texas on the empty streets of Siracusa. She told me some more about her past and what happened here in the past days. She also explained some unsaid rules this country follows.

-"While indeed giving autonomy to few Famiglia can help to stabilize the situation and kick start growth, this system is prone to corruption and rot."

-"That's why it's so problematic. The older generation still languishes in their achievements, while the young fight between themselves for what there is. No one tries to move forward so as to not risk losing what they have now."

-"You want to change this, take back autonomy from the Famiglias, and give it to the state."

-"That's the plan."

-"This will result in civil war."

-"So be it. If the foundation is rotten, you have to rebuild it from the ground."

-"You truly accepted your past, huh?"

-"Yes. One and for all, I'll lay down the name of Texas and leave no regrets."

-"Go for it. I'll have your back."

-"I stopped being mafioso because of the wolf, been a delivery person because of a penguin, and now I'll become a guard of a fox. My life is crazy."

-"Look for the bright side. Guards are more respected than delivery people and mafioso."

-"If you look from this side, being part of a wolf pack is cool, following a penguin is cute, but being charmed by a fox..."

-"You two! Stop flirting with us here!"

-"Sorry, Exusiai."

-"Right, next time I'll include you too."

-"Hmph."

-"What are we to do now, Texas?"

-"Signora Sicilia will come to the city in the evening, and we were invited by her to talk. Before that, there is nothing to do. Let's go to my old home."

-"OK, we can buy something on the way, and I'll prepare a meal for you all."

-"Good idea."

We walked to Texas's old home, which hadn't been touched even after years of being left untouched. This showed how much respected she was, even after the demise of the Texas family.

We spend the remaining part of the afternoon eating and talking. When the time to meet The Godmother arrived, Texas went to her room and returned in an entirely new outfit.

-"Wow, Texas! Where did you find those clothes?"

-"Those are clothes that a representative of a Texas family would wear. Though I was not designated to be the family head, I still received a set that I would wear to represent my father if needed."

-"It suits you well. I can see why you are treated as a legend in Siracusa."

-"Thanks."

-"Lead the way."

Texas nodded and went outside.

Under the lead of some mafioso, we entered a mansion where one more person was waiting.

-"So you were also called Vigil."

-"Heh, now we are the same, lone wolves."

-"We are not. I found a new place I belong."

-"Congratulations then."

-"Is she inside?"

-"Yes, we are to enter."

-"Will you guys wait here?"

-"I'll come with you."-I turned into a fox and jumped on her shoulder.

-"Never knew you could do this."

~"It's useful if I don't want to be bothered."

-"I can imagine. Let's go then."

Texas, Vigil, Penance, Lappland, and I entered inside. In the room, there were four empty chairs in front of a table waiting. On the opposite side of that table, a woman was sitting in the armchair with two men standing next to her.

-"Please sit."

Everybody took their place, with me remaining on Texas's shoulder.

-"I'm happy you chose to accept my invitation. Now, can you explain what had happened?"

-"Conflict between Famiglias fueled by Beast Lord."

-"Is that so? Agenir told me some details already, so let me change my question. What do you want to do?"

-"Reform this rotten system."

-"Hmm, you are the son of Bellone head, Leontuzzo, right?"

-"Yes, but most call me Vigil."

-"Vigil, huh... Tell me then, how can you eliminate this rot?"

-"Remove Famiglias from the city. They only fight with each other and care only for their own, and because of that, the city stopped growing. No matter what happens inside, it must benefit some Famiglia. Even if it does, some other Famiglia will sabotage it."

-"You can't have many wolf packs in one forest, after all."

-"Lappland summed it well. The current system promotes unity by tradition, but with no real enemy, Famiglias turned on each other."

-"That may be, but how can you prevent that from happening or from losing control over the city?"

-"With law."

-"You are that judge that entered everyone's crosshairs?"

-"My name is Lavinia Falcone, Miss Sicily."

-"What is your idea of law?"

-"The law is absolute and shall be above all things."

-"Won't tyranny of law restrict people living under it?"

-"Good law doesn't suppress but leads in a better direction. I want all people to have equal rights and not to be under Famiglias' thumb."

-"I see, then what about you two?"

-"Heh, I just want to follow my way."

-"I heard about you, Lappland. Wolf who is too wild for even her family to handle."

-"They are simply too afraid."

-"Then you must be last of Texas' blood."

-"Yes."

-"What do you seek?"

-"To leave this behind me, once and for all."

-"Then why did you accept my invitation? From what I see, you've completed your oath to Zaaro."

-"To repay my debt and help my friend Rossatti."

-"Hmm... Before I tell you my will, how about the last guest tell me his thoughts."

~"Only history can prove who was right, but the question is if you can last long enough for history to be written."

-"Let the history prove them? Good, then I'll allow you to try. You have my word this city shall be free of any Famiglia. Let's see if the new blood of Siracusa can move past their ancestors."

The talk ended after Signora Sicilia left the room. Texas also rose from her seat and left, followed by Lappland.

It was late at night when we returned to Texas's house. She gave each of us room to rest in. I was meditating when someone knocked and entered mine.

-"Texas? What can I do for you?"

She approached me and sat next to me on the bed.

-"Yue."

-"Yes?"

-"Will you forgive me for not acting calm this time."

-"Just leave no regrets."

-"I won't."

The next morning, I was preparing breakfast for everybody with Cellinia's help. The rest of the girls sat at the table, waiting for us to finish while looking at us with strange eyes.

-"I always knew that Texas was direct, but this is surprising."

-"Exusiai, please call me Cellinia from now on. I severed my last debt that was binding me to Texas's name yesterday."

-"I'll try."

-"Well, we can only bless you now."

-"We will work together on some tasks in the future."

-"Yes, Penguin Logistics won't be disbanded!"

After finishing the meal, I took Cellinia to Xuling, where my Guards were waiting with four dragon girls. Seeing that I not only brought someone with me but also the atmosphere between us was subtle surprised girls here.

-"I thought that some girls from Rhodes Islan would be our rivals, but to think that someone beat us to the punch. We should be more assertive. Ling, your plan failed."

-"I indeed didn't expect an outsider to appear like that. Nian, at least it proved we have a chance."

Dusk and Ch'en nodded, agreeing with Ling's words.

-"Calm down for now. Jingliu, How's the situation?"

-"Stabilizers are running smoothly. I received word from da Vinci that the last tests are performed to check if Terra is stable enough for the deployment of more forces."

-"Good. Call Fu Xuan and Kenshin here. Nobu should be here soon."

A few minutes later, Fu Xuan returned from Londinium and gave me a cold stare. Luckily for me, space anomaly appeared near the Terra, and Zhuming and Loufu appeared from the space gate. Nobu, with Yelan and Jing Yuan, soon appeared before us.

-"How was your trip this time, Yue?"

-"Quite nice, but I hope that there isn't a mountain of paperwork waiting for me in Hold."

-"Not only are there two of those, Astraea even prepared a lecture about behaving around women for you after we learned of your popularity here."

-"Sigh, I'll receive a lecture from you all."

-"Well, it's good that you are all right."

-"I'm also happy to see you again."

-"Leave the matters of Terra to me now. Take those girls to hold. Ningguang and Astraea are waiting for them there."

-"Thanks for everything, Nobu."

-"Who made me love such a fox."

I took my Guards, Fu Xuan, Cellinia, Ch'en, Nian, Ling, and Dusk to Hold. Ningguang and Astraea were indeed waiting for us. When they saw me, they approached and welcomed me warmly.

-"Happy you are all right, Yue."

-"Be more careful next time. I couldn't believe when you got wounded."

-"Yes, I talked with Terminus about my weakness in the soul aspect, and it proved her right."

-"Well, good you are back. Those must be our new companions."

-"We will talk with them. You should take care of the backlog of documents."

-"Good. I'll leave them in your hands."

Leaving girls to have some girl talk, I returned to the Palace, where Rin greeted me by the entrance.

-"Lord."

-"Rin, how was your week?"

-"A little boring. I was able to spend some time within Aponia orphanage, so that was nice."

-"You must take me there someday."

-"I will, but before that, your next two days are packed to the brim."

-"Sigh, I wonder how can you rule over an emperor like that?"

I followed Rin's schedule for the next two days. I even had to use the puppet to catch up with the paperwork. During this time, the girls I brought were officially accepted into Hold. Ling entered Domination but joined my Guard as deputy to Jingliu as the number of Guard members reached the point that required someone to command them.

Rest also became my Guards. Cellinia and Ch'en joined Duty, while Nian and Dusk joined Progress. With the addition of Benares, six of them formed a second team led by Ling.

Girls also accepter Cellinia to the Inner Palace, and after getting to know her, even a little resentment from her appearing so suddenly disappeared. The rest of my Guards also accepted the appearance of the second team.

After a week, I was able to get everything on the right track. The backlog of documents was cleared, and research projects that required my attention were approved. Elysa also returned from the new world again, bringing a few representatives from there.

Now, four of us sat on thrones in the [Throne Room], only Nobu missing due to her being busy. In front of us stood five people. Each of them was wearing a black kimono, with three of them donning white haori over it. There was also a cat next to them.

I sat with my eyes closed while slightly excluding my aura. I was wearing my veil and the [Crown]. I already got used to wearing those, that I feel that something is missing if I don't have them on me.

-"It's an honor to meet you."

-"I welcome you in Hold. As this is our first meeting, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ningguang, Principle of Avarice."

-"I'm Shunsui Kyōraku, Captain of the 8th Division of Gotei 13."

-"Byakuya Kuchiki, Captain of 6th Division."

-"Tōshirō Hitsugaya, Captain of 10th Division."

-"It's a pleasure. I'm Astraea, Principle of Duty."

-"Yue, Principle of Progress and Emperor of Hold. From what I was told, you want to reach cooperation with Hold. What exactly do you want to negotiate?"

-"We want to expand Soul Society along with your Hold."

-"What do you expect of us from joining into structures of Hold?"-Ningguang took over negotiations.

-"Because of the recent situation, Soul Society is currently in turmoil. We want you to help us solve this situation and strengthen Gotei 13. In addition to that, after becoming part of Hold, we want to retain internal autonomy."-Shunsui spoke on behalf of his group.

-"We don't mind helping you, but total autonomy is impossible. Soul Society will become a vassal state with mostly independent government. Military forces on your scale can't be left alone."

-"What is your proposition then?"

-"Gotei 13 will become the sixth Knight order of Hold. Your structures and traditions will be continued, but you will become part of our armies."

-"This is too much. We have our responsibilities and can't become soldiers."

-"Then you can't be considered military force, mostly peacekeeping one. Rather than Domination, Duty will be your overseer. You will retain your autonomy in your world but will have to be fully transparent in your actions, knowledge, and capabilities."

-"How much will you restrain us?"

-"You will become something akin to a department. Acting on your own, but that could be stopped if the need arises. As you won't be soldiers, we won't draft you to fight, but your resources and technologies will be taken over by us."

-"This is more agreeable, but more details have to be confirmed before everything else."

-"Do you have any more questions?"

-"Yes, we wanted to ask about how connecting our world would look like and the effects we can expect."

-"I think that it, in addition to more details about our cooperation, can be talked about in a more casual setting."

-"We also would like that."

Ningguang and Astraea took the party of shinigami to sit and talk in another room. I and Elysia returned back to Inner Palace while talking.

-"Betrayal and invasion of outsiders? This is a 'recent situation' they were talking about."

-"Yup. Thanks to us stepping in to help, they escaped any serious consequences. This is also why they want our help."

-"It appears that their peace is fragile."

-"But most of them are not bad when it comes to strength. As they specialize in soul, they have many abilities we don't know of. Especially their swords. I want to get one like that."

-"Terminus said something about those. She didn't approve of those techniques, though, calling them narrow."

-"Right! You will be sent by her somewhere. Do you know where and when?"

-"No, but probably in the near future."

~"Preferably now."

-"Oh, speaking of the devil. What is your plan?"

~"I'll take you two with me. Time won't pass to anyone here, while you will learn from a certain person in place I'll send you to."

-"Us two?"

~"Yes. While all Authorities are considered soul powers, the Origin is one that is closest to the soul. Elysia is an anomaly as Herrsher of Origin that appeared naturally, so she also has great talent in this field."

-"I see. Then thank you for also taking her."

-"Yes! Thank you for the chance."

~"Any more questions?"

-"Yes. Aside from learning, will we be required to do something?"

~"You will become part of a sect. Some responsibilities will be given to you, but learning will be your priority."

-"How will our strength compare to others there?"

~"Elysia can be only considered as a minor character, but with her age, she is still far above those in the same generation. You can stand toe to toe with behemoths, but as they have great backing and treasures, be careful not to be cornered somewhere."

-"I see. Anything else to keep in mind?"

~Strengt and status there are purely measured by your cultivation, and as you lack any, you will be looked down upon. Your strength can't be effectively measured on their side."

-"I'll keep that in mind."

~"Good. Let's go then."

Saying so, Terminus took Elysia and me, with no one noticing our disappearance.