"Rectal exam?" Hearing those words, Sōsuke took off running and fled the room at phenomenal speed.
"Nicolo!" Tachi shouted as he stood up.
"okay, I might've gone a bit too far," Nicolo apologized. Both of them chased after Sōsuke, who was sprinting through the corridors, dodging soldiers.
'What the fuck is this place?!' he thought.
"Come back here!" Sōsuke turned his head and saw the two men chasing him. Nicolo shouted, "You won't escape the exam, shorty!"
"It's strange, I don't feel anything divine coming from him," Tachi muttered, trying to take advantage of the situation to detect Sōsuke's divine nature.
"Leave me alone! I want to quit your organization, please let me go!" Sōsuke begged as he looked back, the two men closing in. He turned his head forward and realized he was running straight into a group of soldiers.
"Catch him!" Tachi shouted.
The soldiers prepared to grab him, but Sōsuke slid and slipped right between their legs.
'He looks like a rat fleeing,' Tachi growled, before starting to float. 'I don't wanna lose my time trying to catch that dwarf.' He picked up speed, closing in on Sōsuke.
"AAAH STOP FLYING YOU MANIAC!" Sōsuke ran even faster.
'How is that even possible?!' Nicolo wondered as he began falling behind both of them.
"I swear I won't say anything about gods or your weird stuff!" Sōsuke reached a large hall. On his right were endless corridors, on his left, a large room. He chose the left.
He burst through the door, it was a dead end. 'Shit!'
Tachi followed behind him. "Stop!" he shouted.
Sōsuke had entered the cafeteria and now stood before a massive glass wall. 'No choice!' he thought. He ran full speed toward the table facing the glass, the one Tachi and the others usually sat during lunch. He jumped onto it and launched himself toward the window.
He raised his arms to protect his face, airborne, ready to crash through the glass.
But nothing happened.
"Huh?" He opened his eyes again. He was floating.
"Come here." Tachi said, clearly annoyed.
'I'm flying? I'm flying?!' Sōsuke flailed wildly in the air but couldn't escape the air bubble surrounding him. "Let me out!" he growled.
Nicolo arrived, out of breath. "Glad I was useful for once," he said, laughing as he watched Sōsuke struggle.
"What do you want?!" Sōsuke snapped.
Tachi explained, "He's messing with you. There's no rectal exam."
Sōsuke blinked. "Oh?"
Tachi and Nicolo brought him into another room. Tachi finally lowered him out of the air bubble.
The room was white, a laboratory. A woman was inside, wearing a white coat, her hair tied back, a mask on her face. Tachi and Nicolo greeted her and gestured toward Sōsuke. "Sit there," she said. Sōsuke obeyed.
He scanned the room. The woman returned and asked, "Afraid of needles?"
"No, no—" He stopped dead when he saw the enormous syringe she pulled from behind her back. 'Please no…'
Nicolo and Tachi held him still as the woman inserted the needle into his arm, taking a small amount of blood. He let out a small panicked scream as the needle was removed. She turned around and placed a drop of blood on a slide, then put it under a microscope.
Sōsuke watched curiously as she examined it. She then turned her head. "Come look."
Tachi stepped closer and looked as well.
She began explaining, "There's a simple way to determine whether someone is a divinity, blood."
Sōsuke listened carefully as she continued, "Unlike humans, the blood of gods is thicker, more efficient, and yours—"
Tachi cut her off. "Is clearly divine."
He straightened up and sighed.
"Why can nothing be simple right now,"
"What does that mean?" Sōsuke asked.
"If you were a god, I would've felt it immediately. But you give off nothing. I don't know what type of divinity you are, but I've seen this before," Tachi explained.
Nicolo raised an eyebrow. "You mean Juho?"
"Yeah. I'll try calling him." Tachi headed for the door. "You're dismissed. It's late. I've got research to do." Then he left.
Nicolo followed after saying goodbye to Sōsuke and the scientist.
Sōsuke returned to his room, where Gellahan was already asleep. He lay down.
'Even the flying guy don't know what I am, maybe the villagers were right,'
He fell asleep with those thoughts.
—-------------------------
Tachi's alarm rang around 9 a.m. He opened his eyes, struggling to wake up. "Already?" he muttered.
He got up and went straight to his office, where numerous books lay open. 'That call with Juho lasted too long, I forgot it was midday in New York…'
He picked up a book and resumed his research. "The Well of Urd," he murmured.
He studied for over an hour, until he finally found an answer and his suspicion was confirmed.
"According to the Eddas, the Well of Urd is supposed to be in Asgard. Did Magnus make a mistake?" he sighed. Time passed, and noon arrived. 'I need to bring food to Ana.'
He headed to the cafeteria, walking through the halls and greeting people along the way. He reached the cafeteria door.
"Fuck!" A man shouted, followed by a fist slamming into a table.
Surprised, Tachi peeked inside without being noticed.
Several groups of soldiers were there. The atmosphere, usually friendly, felt heavy.
"I feel so useless…" the soldier continued. "I'm almost forty years old with a couple decades of training, and I can't do anything."
'What is he talking about?' Tachi wondered, moving closer.
"We're all their elders. I know Akyo and Soren are stronger than us, millions of times stronger. But it drives me crazy that we can't do anything to help them. We're highly trained soldiers, yet we're so weak that those childrens fight for us."
He buried his face in his hands, consumed by guilt he shouldn't have to bear.
"Akyo is dying, and Soren, who we just welcomed, has disappeared. If only I were strong enough to protect the young ones, Imagine the weight on their shoulders. They're born superior and forced to carry that burden from the very beginning."
Tachi clenched his fists. 'It's my fault. If I had been there…' With him, Soren and Akyo would be here. Ana would be okay.
"Don't worry, old guys!" A voice echoed through the room.
Tachi looked up, surprised.
"I'm gonna get strong, and I'm gonna bring back the purple-haired guy!" Sōsuke stood behind the soldiers, talking between bites of chicken legs.
"Who the hell are you?" one soldier asked.
The demon child swallowed his last bite, climbed onto the table, and declared,
"My name's Sōsuke! I'm a god! Or something like that, and I'm totally gonna bring your friends back!" He raised his arms, frowning in determination.
The soldiers burst out laughing. "Get over here!" They pulled him in and ate together.
Tachi felt relieved seeing them laugh despite their sadness. 'Thank you,' he thought. He slipped away unnoticed, took a plate for Ana, and left.
He reached the medical wing and entered Akyo's room. Ana was asleep beside him. 'She won't leave his side…'
Tachi placed the plate on the bedside table and gently touched Akyo's hand, reassured by the warmth. He left the room, hands in his pockets, head lowered.
"Tachi!" Nicolo had just arrived. "I was looking for you. You need to come to the entrance, someone's here for you."
'Hodr?' Tachi thought as he followed him. They reached the hall.
"Well look who it is, Mr. Pillar!" Hodr shouted.
"Already here?" Tachi asked with a smile. "Didn't you have something to do?"
Hodr laughed. "Yeah. I called for backup!" He turned toward the entrance and gestured. Two tall silhouettes emerged from the backlight.
A man and a woman entered.
The man stepped forward, towering over Tachi. He had dark skin and deep blue hair.
The woman was tall and slender, unlike him, her skin was pale with a bluish tint like frost, and her hair was platinum blonde.
'Who are these monsters…' Nicolo wondered from behind.
The man placed his hand on Tachi's shoulder and smiled. "So you're the famous Mexican Sigurd's been talking about. Nice to meet you, Tachi. You can count on Njord and Skadi to stand by your side!"