"Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean by that?" Ash cried out in panicked disbelief.

"I mean exactly what I said. No more orphanage, no more acceptance among the people for our status. No more of our life as we knew it. And I have no clue as to why.

*Cough* *Cough*

Out of nowhere, Asty started to cough. Although, I suppose it’s not exactly, ’out of nowhere’ seeing as it’s likely stemming from all of the steam in the room.

"Let’s get out of this room first." I suggested, gesturing to the door.

The three of us quickly made our exit from the now empty chamber and into the hallway outside, where the woman from before was inspecting the contents of the barrels whilst waiting.

When she saw that I came out with two people she seemed shocked, her eyes widening in disbelief as she slinked back slightly. "Y-You... You actually did it..."

"Did what? Thawed them out? Yeah of course. They’re my friends. I’d even go as far as to say they’re my family. Plus, it wasn’t that hard, just time consuming." I said somewhat dismissively. "Also, care to tell us what exactly is happening and where the orphanage went."

"The what?" The woman asked perplexed, apparently not understanding what I was asking.

And I was about to repeat myself when she suddenly screamed out in pain and keeled over clutching her head.

"AUGH!"

This sudden change shocked all of us as we had no idea that this would happen, nor why. All we could really do was watch as she fell to the floor and curled her tail around her all whilst clutching her head in agony.

For a minute, the three of us just kind of watched, unsure of what to do, making us feel a little bit of guilt for going so hard on her. But we had every reason to. She wasn’t exactly being the most cooperative type and she seemed very resistant towards us, so we, or I was forceful with her, and that led to this for some reason.

After that minute ended though, her headache seemed to have vanished and she slowly picked herself up off the floor whilst massaging her head.

"Ugh... I hate it when that happens..." She mumbled to herself quietly as she opened her eyes to look at us. "Sorry about that. Just my memory acting up due to some personal issues. What did you ask again?"

Whatever happened to her has suddenly made her act a lot more relaxed and calmer compared to her uptight and slightly unhinged behaviour from before.

"Uhh... I asked what happened to the orphanage." I repeated my question a little hesitantly, not exactly sure if this was a good idea or not.

Still, it’s not like anything bad could come of this. I was too powerful for anyone in this city to hurt me at this point, and its not like this girl is even that strong anyways.

"The what? Oh right... That... Ugh... I hated that place. It was actually a ploy to supress me you know?" She answered nonchalantly.

All of us blinked. Was she serious?

"Ugh, I guess I should explain. You should probably sit down, this’ll take a while. It’s a long story." She sighed tiredly as her shoulders slumped.

Ash and Asty sat down on the ground but I remained upright. This earned a raised brow from the woman but she didn’t question it as she also sat down and slumped against a wall.

"First of all, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Shirayaa, and I have a... Certain spiritual constitution which some find to be... Obstructive to their plans. And it has been many times."

"So, what is this constitution of yours that’s so, as you put it, ’obstructive’?" Ash asked, seeking a better answer than some vague bullshit.

"Ugh..." She seemed hesitant to answer, but I simply glared at her intensely and she buckled, "I suppose there’s no harm in telling you now. I have a temporal soul, allowing me to use some [Time] magic as well as remember things from other timelines."

"Wait, so you can manipulate time?" Asty asked with a slight sparkle in her eyes.

"Not as such. My power in that regard is limited because I don’t know how to use it properly. I’ve never had anyone to teach me how to use it so I can’t really do much with it." She explained with some regret layer in her voice.

This time, it was my turn to ask her something, "Then what about the memory thing? How does that work exactly?"

"That... I don’t quite understand myself to be honest. Sometimes it happens whenever time is rewound, sometimes it requires some kind of trigger, like what you just witness, and sometimes it just happens for no discernible reason. As for the memories I actually gain, they’re always incomplete or fuzzy, I can’t see them all properly."

"And the orphanage?" I pressed further.

"Right, I said that was a trap for me, didn’t I? Well, it is. It was meant to supress my [Time] attributed soul by getting me in there before I could ’awaken’ my memories and putting a curse on me. What exactly the curse did, I don’t know. All I know is that it worked. But for some reason, it’s just been undone, along with the orphanage."

As then spoke up again and asked, "Do you know who wanted this, and why?"

Shirayaa lowered her head and responded dimly, her face darkening "No, I have no clue who did this or why."

"Really? You have nothing? All these supposed memories and not one of them has any information on who did this?" I berated with a sneer.

"I told you! My memories are fuzzy! I don’t remember everything clearly!" She snapped at me, whipping her head up to glare at me.

"That’s no excuse! If you’ve gone through this so many times, then you should’ve learned from it by now!" I snapped back, my voice filled with indignation.

Shirayaa shuddered when I said that, not because she realised that what I said was true, but because I had accidentally let out a little bit of my [Bloodline Aura], which also affected Ash and Asty, so I hastily cancelled it and apologised to the two of them.

"Wh-What happened to you while we frozen?" Ash asked with a slight shiver as she huddled next to Asty who seemed extremely spooked.

Both of them could sense the changes I’d gone through, and both of them could instinctually feel the deep wells of power that I could unleash if I so wanted. And that frightened them.

I could tell that it wasn’t me that they were afraid of, as their gazes were filled not with fear but with worry, but their bodies still reacted as if they were going to be attacked by a violent monster.

I couldn’t blame them for their reaction, I had yet to come up with a solution to limit my strength to a more tolerable level for situations like this.

Still, that wasn’t what was important right now, I mean, it was an important issue to be addressed, but not as important as finding out more about this Shirayaa person who can tap into time itself.

And before I could investigate this matter further, the woman in question spoke up, "I-I’d als-so like to know. I d-don’t remember you being so strong in any of the timelines I can remember."

I raised my hand and opened my mouth, wanting to ask what she meant by that, but stopped and sat down, deciding to just get this out of the way now and explain what happened in my absence.

_

_

_

When I was finished, Asty came to hug me, which I graciously accepted. I think I needed it after all that.

I tried to skirt around my heritage among other things with Shirayaa here, but I couldn’t exactly do that without skipping bits of the story, so I eventually just gave up and told them everything. And Ash put a hand on my shoulder in sympathy.

As for Shirayaa, she looked at me with scrutiny and sympathy. Obviously, she didn’t believe anything I said, which is fair. I probably wouldn’t believe myself either if I was told a similar tale before I went through one.

There was a momentary silence as everyone digested my words.

Eventually though, that silence ended when Shirayaa spoke once again.

"So... You’re essentially the second coming of our Goddess..."

I was immediately ticked off. So I gently got out of the hug with Asty and rose back up over Shirayaa as I started to berate her.

"Don’t you DARE ever call me such a thing! I am NOT some second coming! I am ME! And nobody will ever be able to change that! The fact that I have our Goddesses blood running through my veins means NOTHING in that regard. I am my own person and I will not be treated differently!"

Unlike my rage from earlier, which was more about getting answers, which I still don’t have by the way. This was more about me and how I want to live my life.

I know that I can’t exactly get the Sect to treat me like a normal everyday person, I don’t expect that given who I am. But in either case, I don’t want to be put on some pedestal to be idolised as someone who I am not.

And it seems like my message got across as well.