Thankfully, Grover had forged an extra pair of rings for the two guards, in case they became needed. I doubted he'd foreseen them deliberately exposing themselves to our environment to avoid any chance of being sent home, but there was much to be said for playing safe helping to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Since getting the researchers stabilised, he'd gone on to produce similar rings for everyone in the institute, muttering about ingredient costs all the while, but doing it nonetheless. His only nod towards austerity was that they were 'only' produced from orichalcum, rather than hihi'irokane.

Even with the rings preprepared, Dominic was suffering more than the four researchers, who were showing definite signs of improvement.

"(I should have done it the same time as you,)" muttered Russell, who was trying to psych himself up to remove his own protective gear.

I'd sent another message to Mum, asking her to bring Darren over. It was a pain, but I couldn't leave the institute to fetch him myself. Likewise, I still had no idea how to arrange a meeting between Harry and my former parents.

Grover had confirmed that far-speaking enchantments were a thing that existed, but the twins couldn't speak. The enchantments lacked video, and relaying their conversation through Tirrani or Dennacta wouldn't work if Harry started talking about the Law. I could call on Serlv through my finger, and could even use wanting to talk to other reincarnates as an excuse for why Harry wanted to see them, but I couldn't explain his urgency.

Cara—the one Harry had been watching while talking about the attempted kidnapping—hadn't expressed any discontent about her circumstances. She hadn't given me the impression of being traumatised by anything, but I was pretty certain she was the target of the attempted kidnapping everyone had been hinting at. The others were less happy, and Harry wouldn't budge on his refusal to start researching ways of blocking portals until he'd spoken to the twins.

In the end, the best I could come up with was to put up my own money to bring the twins and their parents through the portals. The older harpies could carry the toddlers while flying. It would take a few days to arrange, but they could make a vacation of it. I could show the twins my new family, too.

"Oi, you lot," came the voice of Vargalas from outside the door. "Lucy and Darren just turned up outside. Apparently you're expecting them?"

"Yup, thanks for telling us. Time to see the sort of distances Darren can open a portal from."

The answer turned out to be not very. Less than ten metres. That was plenty to keep a wall between us and him, though, and soon enough we were stood around a portal with Mr Gregory Charles staring back at us from the other side.

Or, at least, his image. They'd set up a large display in front of the portal, hazmat-suited individuals needing to hastily shove the thing across the floor when Darren turned out to not have perfect accuracy.

Frankly, it was impressive he could hit the planet at all; it was zooming around the sun at silly speeds, after all, which was in turn orbiting along with the galaxy, and no doubt the galaxy was heading somewhere, too. My old universe was never one for sitting still. We must be anchored to Earth somehow, leading to Darren using relative positions to it, rather than any other frame of reference.

... Actually, that worked both ways. Despite having no control over the end point, all of Earth's portals had come out here. Yes, some of them were a hundred metres up, but none of them were in space. I filed that little thought under 'things that, on careful consideration, are actually kinda disturbing' before returning to the matter at hand.

"(So, the entire planet is under the control of this 'Law', and now you six are falling under its control too, as is every baby born on Earth since our last visit?)" said Gregory.

I had wanted them to keep that fact secret, but short of blocking the portal or applying physical force, I had no way to stop them. They considered sharing the information absolutely vital, and I couldn't really say I blamed them.

"(Yes,)" confirmed Harry. "(Also, we fell fatally ill within hours of removing our protective gear. Without... magical aid, which couldn't be given without reattaching us to the System, we wouldn't have survived. I don't need to comment on what a disaster it would be for this world's pathogens to reach Earth.)"

I had to smile at Harry's reluctance to call anything 'magic', and I had to agree that they really wouldn't want whatever they were sick with on Earth. Really, the only hope they would have was that it was so virulent that it would kill everyone it infected before being able to spread. Although, for all I knew, our pathogens required mana to survive; surely even someone with no immune system at all wouldn't succumb within hours, so that couldn't have been completely natural?

The thought that this world had magical superbugs in the air was something else to file under 'disturbing', no careful consideration required.

... As was one alternative; that the System had engineered their illness to force me to reattach them. Surely not; it wasn't that intelligent. Yes, it had learnt to open portals, and then plagiarised Darren's head to make better ones... But... Okay, I wasn't doing a good job of convincing myself there.

"(Within hours? What the hell kinda of crazy stuff do they have over there?)"

"(I had a bit of a cough once, back when I was... umm... three?)" I answered.

"(Well, thanks for agreeing to shelter them, and for going out of your way to treat them,)" he said to me. "(I'm sure you've heard about our circumstances by now, but things are... not good over here. Since System contamination is now a non-issue, we'll continue to use this location. It's more defensible than the island.)"

"(Yes, that shouldn't be a problem. We'll open the next one in a week to carry out the next trade.)"

He nodded at me before remembering how the conversation started. "(So, what are you doing about our kids?)"

"(For the moment, there's nothing I can do. I suggest you start making plans for your next generation to be brainwashed superheroes.)"

That comment got me treated to a blank stare of the non-memory-editing variety.

"(Don't worry. We'll devote as much time as needed to finding a solution,)" said Harry, causing me to do a quick check of the six of them to ensure none were attuned to soul affinity. That was not something I wanted them researching.

"(Please do...)" he replied, with a shake of his head. "(If anyone wants to leave messages for anyone, talk at the camera for a bit and I'll make sure they get passed on. I'll give you responses the next time we talk.)"

And another good point. The researchers—fleeing from a very real threat to their lives—were one thing, but had the pair of guards abandoned family to stay here?

There were surprisingly few messages, after which Darren once again failed to neatly close the portal. Anticipating the possibility, we'd opened it away from anything sensitive, letting him blast it apart with spatial affinity while I kept the damage contained. Having carefully watched it, I was fairly sure it was stabilising over time. If we left it for hours, would it become as natural a path from here to Earth as this corridor was from one part of the institute to another?

Yet another thing to worry about...

All this stress was giving me a serious urge to blow stuff up, and I had two available avenues to explore. The [Advanced Alchemy] level I'd gained from brewing potions of cure disease had taken me to level five when combined with my bracelet of crafting skill, and a few new formulas had seeped into my head along with the increased level. One of them was how to produce decay crystals. The most expensive type of household crystal, and the only one that wasn't a simple producer of affinity. One powered every toilet in Dawnhold and beyond, where they rapidly broke down our waste products into... goodness knows. Toilets didn't need cleaning, so despite being time affinity based, they must do more than simply cause things to decompose at an accelerated rate, or surely there should be solids left over.

Regardless of how they worked, it was the effect I was more interested in. A fire crystal heated up its surroundings. A decay crystal erased them. A fire crystal packed into a mana-reflective shell along with a mana-battery and charging and triggering mechanisms blew its surroundings to bits.

What would a decay crystal do in grenade form?

I felt that was a question best answered when I wasn't confined indoors, which left me with my second idea.

ding
Skill [Advanced Tailoring] advanced to level 2

The first stage of detach had done nothing to interrupt my soul's adaptation to my body's new tail, and the two were finally in sync. I'd spent a couple of hours of my quarantined time adapting some of the outfits I kept in my [Item Box], and Raymond was here right down the corridor with little to do now that everyone was stable. I couldn't think of any reason to put it off.

"Hey, Abigail."

The researcher looked up from her notebook, where she'd been scribbling something. "Hmm?"

"(You were asking why I was cutting holes in my clothes, and I said you'd find out later. Well, it's later.)"

Cluma—who was getting [English] lessons from Harry in exchange for the [Common] lessons she'd been giving everyone—snapped around to stare.

"Really? Now?"

"Nothing else of interest is happening," I pointed out with a shrug.

"True. Fine, this'll be fun to watch."

"Watch? (Watch? Is he putting on a display.)" asked Harry, successfully translating the most important word.

"(Not deliberately, but I expect one will happen anyway.)"

"I'll fetch Raymond!" exclaimed Cluma, vanishing as she teleported past me before I could stop her. I was going to go to him, dammit, not show everyone! I mean, I needed to expose the skin my new tail was going to grow from, not to mention the itch. Ah well, it wasn't as if I'd had any dignity for a while.

"(Must you be so... random?)" sighed Harry. "(You're supposed to have the mentality of an adult.)"

"(No, I have the memories of an adult. I have the body, brain and hormones of a teenager. Wanna swap?)"

Harry stared at me for a few seconds longer than was comfortable.

"(... No.)"

"(Didn't think so,)" I said with a smirk. "(Anyway, back to my clothes. You assumed Cluma's and my cat bits were costumes, but after I pointed out Cluma's were real, none of you asked what was up with mine.)"

"(Well, yes. I was worried you'd answer,)" complained Harry.

"(Oh, you're getting a tail! How cute,)" exclaimed Abigail, having successfully deduced what was going on from the locations of the holes I'd been cutting.

"(Close, but not quite. I've already got a tail,)"

Harry stared at me once more in a sort of resigned fascination. "(No, you don't,)" he pointed out.

"(I do, I just left it at home. You know I can detach body-parts. It's a skill from my previous class. Anyway, the one I currently have is an enchanted fake, but I've had it for long enough for my soul to believe it's supposed to be there. Which means, if someone hits me with healing magic right now...)"

"Apparently Peter is in need of healing?" asked Raymond, poking his head into the room with impeccable timing.

"Yup. Gimme a sec to activate [Detach], then hit me with [Major Heal]."

Raymond blinked. "Wait a second. This is going to be a repeat of your ears all over again, isn't it? I'm fairly sure this is Carys's territory, not mine."

"Sorry, but rank two healing won't cut it."

"If it wasn't for the way I got a class level last time..." he muttered.

He continued a stream of grumbles and sighs as I activated stage two of [Detach]. And then stage three.

With a great effort of willpower, I ignored the way my backside suddenly felt like it had a nest of ants not only crawling over it but also digging out their nest into it. It didn't help that they'd brought their friends, who were nesting over my lower back and upper legs.

Raymond cast [Major Heal].

With another great effort of willpower, I avoided pulling my short-sword from my [Item Box] and carving out my bum.

"(What the hell? What's going on?)" exclaimed Harry.

"(He's growing a tail,)" answered Cluma. "(Apparently there's some amount of itching involved.)"

Eyes wide and watering, I grabbed a random chunk of wood from [Item Box] and shoved it into my mouth to bite on. Spotting the green patches of [Endurance] glowing on my arm as I did so. I must have cast it unconsciously. Shame it hadn't achieved anything.

The itch remained for almost a full minute before the spell worked out what it was supposed to be doing and my biology started rearranging itself, new vertebra sprouting at the base of my spine and bursting out of my skin. There was some amount of mess.

"That was viscerally disturbing," commented Cara.

Harry just swore.