Chapter 821 Mars Branch
"Tiamat will take the Queen, Athena the 2 Knights, and Nyx the 2 Bishops. Do you have someone else in mind? This is a strong roster, no doubt about that, but you're too few, and winning the games against stronger contenders without a full team would be tough." Cleria asked after filling out the information needed for them to register.
"I have someone in mind that could take a few pawns, but that would only be possible if she could release her seal in time."
Claire rested her chin on her palm and sighed, "Aika-chan, is it? I really don't understand why you'd do something like that."
"She's a Human with many Human connections. Considering a normal human's lifespan, it may look like she's rushing things to us Devils who can live at least a thousand times longer," commented Diehauser.
Even then, Cleria still doesn't understand. If lifespan was the problem, that could be solved in many ways, 'Then again, I didn't have enough Human connections to know for sure. Even Masaomi was just an orphan adopted and trained by the church.'
"I'll add her as a reserve member for now. She's a Sacred Gear user, so she can take 2 Pawns. But once she participates and there's more accurate data on her, the ruling body might decide she's worth up to 4 Pawns if her performance is great."
"Kisuke, are you sure about this?" Athena asked in worry, "I still have reservations about if we should really reveal our existence this early. Aside from that, Nyx isn't really in any state to fight... For obvious reasons."
"It's possible to hide their identity by avoiding the use of their unique techniques and attributes. But don't ever think you'll win many matches while holding back greatly.", added Tiamat.
"I'll make it up with strategies. And even if the goal is to take out the King, that'll be the hardest thing our opponents could do." Since he already knew about the various game types from researching the Rating Games long ago, Kisuke was confident enough that they could win with just their current members and equipment in his possession, "How do we advance to the finals?", he asked as he turned to Tiamat.
"Each team will start with 1500 points and every match, you can gain or lose points. The 16 teams that have the highest points will advance to the main stage. For matching, you just have to inform the committee that you're ready for one and the system would automatically find another team."
Kisuke stood up from his seat and asked his Queen, "Tiamat-san, you wouldn't happen to be an acting spy for anyone, right?"
"I may be working for Ajuka, but I don't have any obligation nor intention to share any information outside of his Rating Game and Evil Pieces System."
"That's great. I do hope you could keep my secrets, at least while we're on the same team."
"You're just going to take my word for it? Aren't you too trusting?"
"Please don't misunderstand it. I've only given my trust to a few people and sadly, you're obviously not part of that list."
Tiamat nodded in understanding, "I see. So you're only going to show me things that you wouldn't mind if it gets leaked."
Kisuke didn't explain any further and turned to Athena and Nyx, "Please follow me. Before our matches, we have to do something to hide your identities and restore Nyx-san's limbs."
Nyx's eyes went wide open, "Y-you have a way to heal me?"
"Not to brag, but even if you were just left with your head, as long as you're alive, I can heal you."
But instead of being impressed, she only became suspicious of his grand claim.
"Stop underestimating what he can do, will you?" Cleria suddenly interrupted, "He saved two lives who were reduced to a pool of acid by Samael's blood by reconstructing new bodies."
Athena, Nyx, and even Tiamat were dumbfounded and speechless, 'I-it doesn't look like she's lying.' thought the Chaos Karma Dragon after seeing Deihauser and Sakura nodding in agreement.
Without further explaining himself, Kisuke laid out a teleportation circle, but unlike a normal one, it just kept flashing its light instead of activating.
"It's not working?" asked Sakura while curiously trying to study and figure out what was wrong with his Magic.
"It's fine. It's just doing some authentication."
"...Authentication?", she repeated before giving him a dirty look, "You dug out another hideout? Unbelievable..."
In response, Kisuke just smiled widely and replied, "I'll show you around it later~"
He, along with his teammates, disappeared with a final flash of light.
As soon as they reappeared on the other side, the group was greeted by a dusty atmosphere of seemingly unending wasteland, a sunset dyed purple and blue, and two moons peeking from the opposite horizon. The group marveled at the unusual view from a towering skyscraper where they appeared on top.
"Welcome to the Urahara Hideout, Mars branch~!"
"This is ridiculous...", Nyx muttered.
"That's true... It should be logistically impossible.", added in Tiamat.
Athena was of the same opinion, 'Although setting up a base on Mars is theoretically possible, no one in their right mind would do something like this because of the lack of Mana in this place. If they could get an unlimited amount of energy from the Dimensional Gap, why would anyone go through the trouble of setting up a liveable place in this location?... Unless he had a way to funnel the energy from the Dimensional Gap to this place without getting caught?'
But the thing that concerned the three the most is if someone hostile were to discover this place, it would be easy to bombard it without any consequences.
Guessing what they are thinking, Kisuke lightly explained, "Of course, I realized that weakness too. Although you can see the outside from here, it's not the same from outside. And even if you tried to leave, you'll never be able to step into Martian lands because while this place exists on Mars, it also doesn't."
Kisuke used a similar technique when Soul Society transferred the whole of Karakura Town and replaced it with a fake one during Aizen's invasion. Through clever manipulation and modification, his hideout on Mars wasn't visible from the outside and even if one had knowledge of it and attacked, they'd only be hitting a 'mirage' that existed in an entirely different dimension that was only physically anchored to Mars.
The only way one could reach this place is through a constructed teleportation magic that requires a correct authentication to tunnel to a correct sequence that changes every hour. If one were to force their way in, they're just going to arrive in the Dimensional Gap and they wouldn't even be able to figure out how.
To make it short, Kisuke created an imaginary world in the form of a hideout.
'I'm getting used to this space-time thingy.' It was the truth, but if any other people were to hear his thoughts, they would be pulling out their hair and shouting at top of their lungs, 'This isn't just about you getting used to Space-Time Magic!!!'
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