by Aneko Yusagi
“Ha!” Kizuna shouted, dashing forward to cut through the vines.
I couldn’t afford to stand back and watch.
I grabbed the spear and tried to throw it as high above our heads as I could. I knew that it was right about to explode.
We weren’t going to make it. I felt like a soldier trying to throw back a grenade.
What should I do? What COULD I do?
Time seemed to slow down.
Everyone was going to die.
From what I could tell, the monster that took the form of the spear seemed to have died before it could explode. The same thing had happened with Yomogi back at the house. I felt—and I’m not sure why—like maybe I could absorb it into my shield.
Back at the house I had prioritized throwing the sword away, but I knew that there wasn’t time for that now.
There was only one thing left to try. I let my shield absorb it. There was a little resistance at first, but then, as if the shield understood what was happening, it slid in easily the rest of the way.
“Mr. Naofumi ?! ”
“What ?! ”
“There’s no time. I have no idea if it will work, but I’ve got to try!”
“It’s crazy!”
“What other choice do I have? This shield sucked up the light from the last explosion, so maybe . . .”
Right—this spear thing had probably been made from the Spirit Tortoise’s energy. The energy released in the blast was probably returning to the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.
A spear icon blinked in my vision. Was it trying to say that there was a foreign object in the shield? The icon was red and flashing.
What if it broke the shield itself? What would happen to me in that case?
I had no idea, but if it would lessen the damage to my surroundings, I had to do it.
“Shield Prison!”
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“Rafu!”
“Master!”
Raphtalia and the others were running over, so I enclosed myself in the shield prison to keep them away. If the shield exploded, it would help with the shockwave too.
“Kiddo . . .”
“Naofumi, you . . .”
“Naofumi . . .”
I heard them shouting through the wall of shields. Then I covered myself with my own shield to protect them from the blast.
I was still using the Shield of Wrath. It was the strongest shield I had, so hopefully it would be enough to stop the explosion!
The red spear icon blinked forebodingly.
The Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield icon appeared and began to glow with a faint light, as if it were sucking the energy away from the spear.
It happened a second later. There was a heavy thud deep within my body, and I felt something tear. The spear must have exploded.
“Ugh . . .”
A terrible, creeping feeling coursed through me, like poison was making its way through my veins. Damn. I thought I might die.
It wasn’t like me at all, but I really might end up giving my life to save these people. I’d rather not die if I could!
Shield Prison normally didn’t last very long, but it wasn’t showing any signs of disappearing yet. What did it mean? Either the skill was lasting longer, or my sense of time was slowing down.
If the latter was the case, then it felt like a second had become a minute or more.
Goddammit! It hurt so much. How long did I have to bear it? I felt like I might lose my mind.
The pain was unlike anything I knew, unlike the burning flames of the Shield of Wrath. I grit my teeth against it and eventually, the spear began to glow and melt away.
Was it over?
“Ugh . . .”
I was so dizzy I thought I might fall over.
I felt like I’d been poisoned.
I was lightheaded and I was afraid I’d pass out any second.
There were still problems to deal with. There were still enemies outside of the prison. I couldn’t afford to pass out here. Not yet.
Then I saw . . . a phantom? A hallucination?
Shimmering like a mirage, I thought I saw Ost come running over to help me stay on my feet.
She didn’t say anything, but her eyes told me what she was thinking.
She was supporting me, keeping me awake, and giving me energy.
My feet found their place, and I rose to stand tall.
When I looked for her again, she was gone . . . or maybe she hadn’t been there to begin with. Normally, I would have laughed at the very suggestion that someone had come back from the other side to help me. But this was no ordinary time.
I had to carry out the task she’d entrusted to me.
Which meant that I couldn’t afford to lose here, now, to these people.
The Shield Prison finally vanished, and everyone came running over to me, their eyes wet with tears.
“Mr. Naofumi! Are you alright ? What happened?”
“I’m fine. It was a little rough there, for a minute.”
I’d thought I was going to die. I was still a bit exhausted, but at least I could stay on my feet.
“We still have work to do!” I shouted, and everyone immediately resumed their battle positions.
“Gaahhhhh!”
Tsugumi was back on her feet, freaking out and acting wild. She still looked like she might die at any moment.
“Stop it! Don’t you see we’ve been tricked? Let’s surrender, this is not our battle to fight!” one of the other beast women called. Tsugumi paid her no mind. She went on raging. She looked like she would kill anything that crossed her path.
“Please, we have no right to ask this of you, but please help us!”
I wanted to balk at the suggestion, but before I could Kizuna rushed forward and nodded.
“Fine. We know what it’s like to be used and abandoned by Kyo. And we killed your friend. We have a responsibility here.”
“He got what was coming to him, if you ask me.”
Kizuna held a finger over her lips, as if to tell me to shut up.
Hey now, shouldn’t THEY shut up?
“I realized this during the battle, but you know as the Hunting Hero I can’t damage human opponents, right? Well I also can’t damage demi-humans like Raphtalia. And yet, I can fight against them without any trouble at all.”
“Yeah? Well, they’re sort of just hobbled together, aren’t they?”
“That’s not what I mean. It’s like . . . When you just did what you did to protect everyone, I got the chills from it. I kept thinking that I wanted to protect people the way that you do, that I want to save people. I wondered if there was anything I could do, you know? And then it was like I heard a voice. Like the answer was inside of me.”
Kizuna looked like she was moved by her own speech. But man, she sure did take her time, didn’t she? Get to it already? What happened? I didn’t have time to listen to a whole oration here.
I wanted to say hurry up and get to the point, will you?
Kizuna drew her tuna knife and turned to face the raging Tsugumi.
“My name is Kizuna Kazayama. I am the Hunting Hero, one of the four holy heroes, and I cannot kill a human. On my honor as a hero, I will save you all!”
She quickly shot across the battlefield.
As soon as I understood what was happening, I cleared my head and cast a support spell on her.
“Zweite Aura!”
Soon she was up against the raging Tsugumi. She shouted.
“Break Down! Scale Removal!”
There was a flash, and a crushing sound, and innumerable blades arced through the air, slicing Tsugumi apart.
So many of Kizuna’s skills emphasized her speed.
“Gah!”
Tsugumi went stiff as a board.
“To think I’d . . . If I move I’ll . . . just like master . . .” she muttered.
A second later and all the fur fell from her beast side. The cuts must have gone deeper than that too, because the fur was followed by spu
rts of blood.
“Ahhhh!” everyone shouted. I ran over to check the corpse.
But . . .
“You don’t need to worry about her. She’s tougher than she looks.”
I was sure she was dead, but she wasn’t. I hoisted her up and showed her to everyone.
Half of her face was covered in lacerations, but she was breathing deeply and steadily.
“Zweite Heal,” I cast the spell over her face.
As the spell took effect, her face looked more and more human. Like the beast side had been killed and vanquished.
The other women came running over, sighing with relief when they realized she was safe.
“It’ll be a while before she’s back on her feet.”
There were still places where she had white tiger parts, but she wasn’t acting strangely anymore.
It would take time to heal her completely, but it looked like she was going to be okay.
. . . And it’s all thanks to our resident Hunting Hero, I guess.
She couldn’t hunt humans, so her attack had only hurt the beast side of Tsugumi. It was like a surgical operation.
But “Scale Removal?” What was that, like cleaning a fish? Maybe she should be the cleaning hero, or the break down hero.
“So do you still feel like fighting?”
I looked over and locked eyes with each of the other women. They slowly sat down and announced: “We surrender. We’ve been used.”
“You probably don’t want to hear it, but you need to think about who you can trust.”
After all I’d been through with Bitch, I knew what I was talking about.
“Anyway, at least you’ll get out of this alive now.”
“. . .”
“Honestly I’d prefer to get rid of you here and now, but . . .”
The women looked shocked and terrified.
“But I guess the commander in these parts wants you all alive. I’m just an outsider here, so I don’t have a say in it.”
Besides, my arms were full with Tsugumi. I couldn’t fight them off now if I wanted to.
Oh well, things could be worse.
“Naofumi . . .”
“Mr. Naofumi . . .”
Raphtalia gazed at me, her eyes filled with emotion.
What, did they really think I was going to kill everyone?
“Rafu . . .”
“I’m tiiiiired,” Filo whined.
“Anyway, let’s talk it through. This is no time to get in an argument,” L’Arc said.
I guess they didn’t want to fight anymore. They just sort of surrendered.
“Kizuna, take care of the others like you did with her.”
“Sure thing!” she said, approaching the women.
Sigh. We would be going to war soon. We didn’t need this crap to deal with now.
“Wait! What about Glass ?! ”
The women snapped to attention when Kizuna asked about Glass.
“That’s right! Kyo’s strategy had . . .”
Oh give me a break already. There’s more?
“He was going to send troops to the dragon hourglass while we attacked the castle!”
I knew it. It was easy to predict his shallow strategy. He did whatever would bother us the most.
“It’s just like you said, Naofumi.”
“He’s driving me nuts. You,” I said, turning to the women. “Can you convince these people to stop the attack?”
They nodded.
“If you betray us, Glass and I will kill you!”
“Let’s get going!”
“Yeah!” L’Arc shouted. “Troops! See to the injured, the repairs and reports! I’m leaving!”
“Yeah well, I guess this is your country after all. It’s no fun to sit around and be attacked, is it? Let’s go finish this thing!”
“Yes. Let us expose the truth to those who are deceived,” Raphtalia said.
“Yes! Return Transcript!”
Kizuna used her skill and led us back to the dragon hourglass.
My surroundings instantly changed to the room that housed the hourglass, and from the room, I could hear the sounds of battle raging outside.
“Circle Dance Zero Formation: Reverse Snow Moon Flower!”
Through a doorway, I heard Glass shouting, and saw an explosion of snow-like flower petals. I saw the shapes of people falling.
There were people writhing on the ground. The square had become a battlefield.
Glass was drinking the bottle of soul-healing water I’d left her, and firing off skill after skill.
Kizuna was pretty damn powerful, but Glass could hold her own.
Her abilities had grown even sharper after discussing vassal weapon power-up methods with Raphtalia.
I was glad that Glass stayed behind. That was the right choice.
None of the enemy troops had gotten past her yet.
Kyo hadn’t sent too many of them. He must not have been expecting us to guard it.
Actually, the main attack force at the caste, Trash #2’s women, had been pretty sparse too.
The enemy seemed to have lost its will to fight upon my arrival. Either that or they knew they were already fighting a losing battle by the time we got there.
“All of you, calm down! The Hunting Hero is here to save those of you that have lost yourselves to madness! Stop the fighting now!”
“Kyo is just using us!” the women that had been fighting with us at the castle shouted. The other women fighters who were still engaged in battle turned and replied, “But! But what about—?”
I almost heard Trash #2’s name, but there was a crash nearby that drowned it out. Was I ever going to get his name?
“You know what I’m talking about! Someone here is going to lose it! It happened to Tsugumi back at the castle! She had a weapon that nearly exploded and killed us all! We’re just pawns in Kyo’s game!”
“But . . . But . . .”
"If you want to keep fighting, then keep on fighting. Raphtalia, Kizuna, L’Arc, Glass—everyone. That’s just how they are. We don’t have time to entertain them. Take them alive, or don’t. Try to keep the damages to a minimum.”
“Roger that! We’ll save the chat until we’ve taken care of these guys!” Kizuna shot off like a bullet, slicing through the wild beast half of the women. It was only one attack, but the seemingly immortal women fell to the ground. Those that remained conscious writhed in pain.
A few of them remained on their feet, desperate to continue the fight. Raphtalia took care of them in a flash.
Strength really does come with numbers, doesn’t it? I wanted to get more people on my side.
“What are you after? What were you going to do to the dragon hourglass?”
The captured women turned to their leader, who held out a pendant. It looked like the sort of gemstone that adventurers in this world used to check for drop items.
“He said . . . He said that if we registered the dragon hourglass with this, then we would . . . win . . .”
“I figured it was something like that. He wanted to recreate Return Dragon Vein. Then he could have sent as many troops as he wanted into the center of the castle.”
Speaking of strength in numbers, he could have sent his whole army over. Victory would be all but assured.
L’Arc, Glass, and Raphtalia might be some of the strongest fighters around, but there was a limit to what we could take on by ourselves.
“It was just an idea. I can’t believe he really . . .”
“It’s just like him. He even sent three separate attacks.”
He sent Yomogi to attack us at Kizuna’s house. Then he sent half of Trash #2’s women to the castle, and the other half to the dragon hourglass to try and make sure that he could send even more troops over.
“Anyway, you’re all lucky that Kizuna stopped you. You could have gone crazy at any minute. You can hate us for this if you want, but you should at least realize why your commander died.”
I turned my back on them and con
tinued, “We can probably get you healed with medicine, but I don’t know if the people at the castle will want to help you. Maybe I can figure something out.”
“Aren’t you a charmer, Naofumi?” Kizuna said.
“That’s what so great about Mr. Naofumi!”
“Rafu!”
“It’s one of your best qualities, Kiddo.”
“Shut up already!”
Finally, the night was over. A lot had happened—too much, for my tastes.
Chapter Seven: Barbaroi Armor
I was stuck the next morning trying to figure out how to cure the women of whatever Kyo had done to them.
“. . .”
Tsugumi wasn’t looking good.
That spear had taken so much out of her, it was a miracle she could even stand up. Kizuna had sliced off her beast side. And we kept a consistent application of medicine to the wounds. The scars of her reformed body were slowly starting to heal.
It reminded me of the parasite-like way that the Spirit Tortoise familiars had infected people back in Melromarc.
Tsugumi was silent the whole time, apparently ashamed that we had saved her.
“I don’t have to hear you say it. You know the truth, and you’re never going to escape it.”
“Mr. Naofumi . . .”
I didn’t mind if she hated me.
“But think about this. I know he was your beloved commander, or whatever, but do you really think that he was right about everything he said? Don’t you think that sounds like brainwashing?”
After all, these people chased Raphtalia. They tried to kill her. It was hard for me to believe that their relentless pursuit of Raphtalia was the only bad thing they’d ever done.
We’d only exchanged a few words. But, I was sure they had other plans.
“Shut up!”
“Guess I hit a nerve, huh?”
If I had died without managing to save Raphtalia, would she have ended up like these women?
“Raphtalia, it’s not like you just accept everything I say, right? If I ever lose my mind, and I’m clearly in the wrong, and I start running wild . . . I expect that you’ll be the one to stop me.”
“. . . I’ll do my best.”
I’d like to think that if one, if just one, of his women had told him he was wrong—had stopped him before it all got out of control—then he wouldn’t have died the way he did.