A Father's Duty

After rubbing his head in annoyance, he raised his hands in surrender and continued patting Pitou's sleeping head.

"Fiiiiiish~... you can't run... you don't have feet..." While Noctis is patting Pitou's head, he heard her sleeping in her talk which made him smile.

He then got close and whispered.

"Quick, that fish has soft tasty flesh." He saw Pitou's mouth watering and she closed her mouth and gulped.

Seeing Pitou's reaction, he laughed a little and stopped messing with Pitou. It would be better if he has something like a phone or a video-camera to record this kinds of things that he could show to his kids when they grow up.

Noctis wanted to treasure everything he have, and with a camera, he could save them and frame them, unfortunately, the cameras in this world has yet to touch the colored scheme, meaning it is still in the black and white phase. Sometimes he wondered about how weird the technology progress in this world.

They have created guns like pistol like the one he had just seen earlier, but in the cooking industry, their technology is far behind the times.

Sooner or later they will enter a huge technological progression. Noctis has also shared his part in this technological progression. He is sure that someone with an eccentric mind would use the taiyaki stove and dismantle it and turn it into something else, maybe a normal stove?

The world is an unpredictable place, you never know when something is born, maybe out of failure, maybe years of research finally paying off, or maybe because of some lucky touch.

Noctis didn't know how this world's technological progression go but he didn't want to bother about it. With his plan on bringing his little brother to a modern world, and with Somnus' quirky mind, he is sure that Lucis would progress thousands of times faster that the other countries wouldn't be able to keep up.

Noctis couldn't hide Lucis' technological advances forever. There would be a time where someone will leak the things they saw at Caelum. He had already told Somnus, before his family left Lucis, of a way to temporarily keep the technology in Lucis.

Lucis' defense inside its territory could be rated at the top by Noctis. No spy would be able to enter Lucis without Ghosts capturing or noticing them.

The only way to know of Lucis' technological advances is through Caelum. Merchants would always travel to Caelum for the seafood trade which they would sell to landlocked areas for a bumped price. They are also there to see if Caelum had received a new technology from Lucis. Lucis' scraps always fall down to Caelum and everything considered new technology in Caelum is an outdated technology of Lucis.

That's why Noctis could be rest ȧssured that they are always spearheading the technological progress. Noctis is also confident in taking the world as his enemy. Now, he didn't take Acnologia as a worthy foe. It would be different if Noctis didn't have the Zanpakuto, but now that he has a blade he could use as his main weapon, he didn't have to worry about any threats coming their way.

Zeref is a different story though, he is a cursed being, cursed by Ankhseram, the God who rules over life and death. He is immortalized by the curse and Noctis' weapon doesn't have anything that could sever immortality as far as he knows.

Other than Zeref, the only thing that could cause trouble for him and make his head ache are the Gods who act like brats. Although there are reasonable Gods, majority of them are spoiled brats.

Since he had nothing to do, he visited his inner world. He summoned his sword and held it on his off hand while his main hand continued patting Pitou.

He then concentrated and entered his inner world. What he saw made him surprised. He saw Hollow Noctis playing chess with Old man Zangetsu.

"Finally sharpening your brains since overpowering me doesn't work?" Noctis immediately fired the starting insult and Hollow Noctis' scared the sh*t out of him.

Hollow Noctis raised his index finger and performed a 'shh' expression and moved a pawn forward.

'Am I in the right inner world? Am I sick? Or Hollow Noctis is the one who's sick? Is this the right Zanpakuto? But I don't have any other Zanpakuto than this one... What seems to be the problem?' Noctis thought as he watched the two battle.

Noctis could be said to be a little knowledgeable in chess because he had tried learning it because of Lelouch. He knows how the piece would move, simple strategies, and the likes but advanced strategies is out of his reach.

Although Old Man Zangetsu's queen piece, one of his rook and horse is gone early, he didn't feel that Old Man Zangetsu is cornered, instead he could feel that Zangetsu is leading Hollow Noctis by the nose.

And Noctis was right, in another 20 moves, Old Man Zangetsu defeated Hollow Noctis. Hollow Noctis looked at the board in frustration but he breathed out and calmed down.

"One more round." Hollow Noctis said

Noctis is scared sh*tless. He then started putting his hand in Hollow Noctis' neck and forehead making him annoyed.

"What are you doing?" Hollow Noctis said.

"Checking if you have a fever." Hollow Noctis immediately backhanded Noctis which he caught the attack easily.

"Out of the way, Old Man Zangetsu, one more round." Hollow Noctis said.

"You should rest, you know? Its already 499 straight loses, another would be 500. Besides, we have a guest." Zangetsu said as he looked at me.

Zangetsu then stood up and lead Noctis far away from where Hollow Noctis is.

"So you're ready to start your training?" Zangetsu said.

Noctis only nodded and Zangetsu took the floor. Zangetsu then created a simple bow and threw it to Noctis. He then used his movement technique and made some dummies in incredibly difficult positions and angles.

"Hit them." Zangetsu said and Noctis nodded and aimed at the nearest that are a few buildings away from him. With him having the knowledge of how to use every weapon, Noctis' first shot almost hit the target but still a miss.

Noctis sighed as he used the bow with total concentration breathing this time. He inhaled huge amounts of air and aimed at the dummy. Even Zangetsu praised Noctis' posture and demeanor. The next arrow flew and almost hit the target bȧrėly.

"Damn, this is tough." Noctis said as he positioned himself one more time and on the third try, he finally hit the target at the edges but he still hit it.

Noctis then continued training under Zangetsu's tutelage.