by Aneko Yusagi
“But Lady Makina’s orders are absolute! I must kill Sadeena and then take the life of the false Heavenly Emperor! Guwah! Stop it—get away from me!” Shildina raged, striking herself as she went. More of the patterns flaked away.
“Rafu?”
“Hmmm.”
“Oh my!”
“What now?”
“Well—the flow of evil-looking power that I saw with Raph-chan’s help has scattered, and a large light went into Shildina,” Raphtalia explained.
“You saw beautiful power flowing in from the surrounding Dragon Veins, right?” Sadeena inquired. Shildina stood, watching us, her arms hanging down.
“Hmmm. Not bad for emergency measures, eh? Pretty good, eh?” Shildina started again. This sounded like the personality Sadeena had previously contained. She looked over at me and nodded a few times.
“Holder of a spirit implement, justice is with you, eh! I have a job to do myself.”
“Huh?”
“Stop fighting at once, eh! Our forces are surrendering to the revolutionary army! Consider those who will not comply to be our enemies! Join the revolutionary forces in capturing them! Those are my orders, eh!”
“What the hell?” I think everyone around me may have said it at the same time. The confused defenders proceeded to attack those fighting us from behind and capture them. The command structure seemed pretty solid.
“Right, I’m off to finish this quick, eh,” she said, and with that Shildina wreathed herself in wind and vanished.
“Huh? What was that?” Raphtalia and Raph-chan were looking into the sky. What now?
“She vanished using magic and then used wind magic to fly through the air to the castle in the city.”
“Wind magic can do all that?” I asked.
“She can fly? I want to try!” Filo was shouting.
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen magic like that.” We were talking about someone capable of incanting cooperative magic alone, so it probably wasn’t something anyone could copy easily.
“What happened to my fight? Can I go and let off a bit of steam?” Sadeena appealed. I guess her fun had been interrupted. Looking around, I noticed that a serious fight was starting. Everything was moving a bit quickly, even for me. The defenders of the city had started fighting among themselves too.
Just what was going on?
“Rafu?”
“Hmmm?” Filo and Raph-chan were both looking at me for some reason.
“What’s up?”
“Well, Raph-chan says that your pocket has started glowing, Master.”
“My pocket?” I looked down at the pocket Rafu-chan was pointing at and then took out the card that Shildina had given me.
What exactly were they? Shildina had definitely used them to trigger some kind of ability. They weren’t the same as the talismans from Kizuna’s world. They looked more like playing cards.
“Rafu.”
“What? Well, apparently, she can hear a voice from there asking for help—that part of her soul is there inside.”
“I see.” I wasn’t sure why she gave it to me after we only just met, but it seemed pretty important. When I thought back, she’d really had a great time drinking and playing cards. The expression on her face had been totally different from when she was in battle.
“I’d like to help. Should we go after her?” Raphtalia inquired.
“Yeah, okay.” We turned toward the eastern capital. It was small when compared to, say, Edo but still large enough to be a town, with a castle and everything. “If we get in there and capture the Heavenly Emperor, their commander, then we’ve won. She’s the one who ran off in the face of the enemy. She can’t complain if we go after her.” Smoke had started to rise from the castle in multiple places. What was Shildina doing? I was starting to think we could just leave her to it and everything would get wrapped up, but we really did have to go ourselves.
Ren and Itsuki came over.
“We can’t let this chance slip away. We’re going in.”
“Okay!”
“Off we go!”
“Rafu!” With that, as energetic as ever, we mobilized our forces and struck out into the eastern capital.
Chapter Thirteen: The Past Heavenly Emperor
“What now?”
We’d invaded the town to find smoke filling the air as we approached the castle. Leaving the chaos in the town to our forces, we headed on toward the castle. The gates were open. It looked like we were free to come and go. There was more smoke too. Was the place on fire?
“Those who can use water magic, put out the fires. No need to hold back if anyone is looking for a fight!” After giving these orders, I deployed Shooting Star Shield and advanced in the lead. I’d taken a look at the layout beforehand.
Our goal was to capture the opposing Heavenly Emperor. Once we took out their leader, everything else would surely fall into place. That said, with all of this going on, it seemed unlikely our target would be sitting like a moron in the main keep.
I knew I wouldn’t be. I’d have been right out of there. You can’t do anything if you’re dead. Escape, live, and make more plans. It seemed highly likely to me that he just wasn’t here.
Considering these things while searching the castle, we came across the bodies of soldiers, along with some other well-dressed corpses. There was another noble nearby too, still alive and very frightened.
“S-save me!” He bowed his head while begging for his life. So pathetic I could barely shake my head in disgust. However, this was also the kind of guy who’d spill his guts at the drop of a hat.
“What happened here?” I asked him.
“I don’t want to die! N-no, please! I can’t face the terror again!”
“Stop whining and share what you know. Or do you want me to kill you?”
“—suddenly appeared in the c-castle, using terrible power! Defeating everyone, one after the other! If we don’t get out of here right away, we’re all dead! So please—haaaaaaah!” With a look of sheer terror on his face, the noble looked up at Raphtalia and then collapsed on the spot.
“W-what does that mean? He fainted after looking at my face?” she said. He’d been trying to surrender to us and then fainted upon seeing Raphtalia?
“Were you making a scary face again? Like when I said I wanted S’yne to make some Raph-chan merchandise?” I chided.
“Mr. Naofumi, just what do you think about me?”
“You’re like a daughter—”
“That’s enough. I don’t want to hear it.” Huh? Raphtalia’s mood seemed to have only got worse. So she really didn’t like me playing parent to her? She was at a difficult age, I guess.
I decided to check out the corpses.
“Some of them have had their necks slashed by something sharp. These others—man, what is this?” I questioned. The soldiers had been cut down by something sharp, like a sword, with clean cuts. The well-dressed ones were gorier, as though their upper bodies had been smashed into mush by something big and heavy. It was likely Shildina’s work, but how had she done this?
“A blunt weapon?” Raphtalia wondered.
“Hmmm?” Filo took her morning star out from under her wings and started swinging it around. Stop that! That wasn’t it. Something bigger than that.
“It’s definitely bigger than the morning star Filo is holding. Look at the way they’ve been crushed. I’d say maybe it was a hammer?” Ren muttered as he carefully checked the bodies.
“Sounds right.”
“In either case, we need to proceed with caution.”
“Understood.” And so, we proceeded with caution.
Following the trail of dead bodies, we came out in the garden at the rear of the castle.
This looked like a training area, lined with scarecrows equipped with all sorts of weapons, including shields, sword, and bows.
There were even scarecrows dressed up to look like Raphtalia. These were definitely training dummies. It looked like there was a well here too.
“This the end, eeeeeeeeeh!” we heard someone shout, and then the ground shook. A hole radiating with cracks appeared in the center of the training area, and then blood exploded out in a circle.
“Seriously, how foolish, eh. As one standing above others—she was the vanguard. She was no good, even as a person, eh,” announced a girl standing there, dressed in a miko outfit and carrying a massive hammer.
She looked a lot like Raphtalia—a shining, full tail, long hair, and beautiful features. If someone told me she was Raphtalia’s sister, I would have believed them.
“I was surprised at Sadeena having a sister, but now Raphtalia too? Does she have a sibling as well?” I wondered.
“I don’t think so. Maybe she’s the Heavenly Emperor that we’re here to kill?” That was Sadeena’s take on things, but Motoyasu II had called him a bratty kid, and Raluva and the others had talked about the opposing Heavenly Emperor as though he were a young boy. So this didn’t match the information we’d received so far.
“Don’t tell me he’s a cross-dresser! One of those otoko no ko, ‘male daughters?’”
“Just that coming out of your mouth, Naofumi . . . you really are an otaku,” Raphtalia reprimanded.
“You, shut it,” I said as I glared at Ren. Of course, I was an otaku. A big one.
“No, I don’t think she’s the Heavenly Emperor,” Raphtalia replied, hand on the hilt of her sword and ready to draw at any moment.
“You’re right, eh. The me you see before you, I am no longer the Heavenly Emperor.” The girl in front of us, the girl who looked like Raphtalia, lightly lifted her hammer and placed it on her shoulder. The way she was speaking, I’d heard that before.
“You’re Shildina, surely. Why do you look like this?” I asked her. Yeah, she sounded exactly like Shildina had before she flew away.
“I have defeated the pus festering at the heart of this land—defeated Makina. Of course, the owner of this body put up a bit of a fight. The holder of a spirit implement and the descendant should understand that, eh.”
“Understand?”
“You don’t? Don’t understand even that?” she said. As we tilted our heads in puzzlement, the speaker nodded as though looking right through us.
“R-rafu!” Raph-chan chose that moment to make a surprised noise. What now? What was she surprised about? As I wondered, Raph-chan smoothly jumped onto me, climbed onto my head, and pointed at the girl. With Raph-chan’s support, I saw that it was definitely Shildina. She was possessed, the power of the oracle over her, like a ghost covering her body. So the girl we had been seeing, who looked like Raphtalia, was an illusion covering the actual body of Shildina.
“Rafu! Rafu, rafu, rafu!” Raph-chan was going crazy, as though to say I was looking in the wrong place. I narrowed my eyes further and behind Shildina—a blurry image rising from a smashed carcass on the ground—I saw another ghost-like figure appearing, something twisted and dark, like a Soul Eater or like Kyo.
It looked like—a woman? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but her face unsettled me somehow. What was she? Her presence was so dark it almost put Kyo to shame. My cursed parts were jabbing me with pain.
This evil-looking creature leapt and struck at Shildina.
“W-watch—!” Faster than I could warn her, the patterns on Shildina’s body started to glow.
“Gah! You’re stubborn, eh! I already defeated the caster!” Shildina struggled as she spoke, thrashing at the ghost clinging to her back. The creature was relentlessly reaching toward her chest.
“Guh! There are still some—patterns left, eh,” she groaned.
The evil-looking woman said, “I never thought you would resist the patterns and try to kill me. But if you think that’s enough to stop me, you’re making a big mistake. I prepared you, my spare body, for this exact eventuality.” Spare body? Hold on a moment!
“You are twisted indeed, hag! One moment you disparage Shildina. The next you try to take over her body!” the hammer girl said.
“Look at you! Like you’re one to talk,” Sadeena commented. Considering the situation we’d walked into, it seemed the poisonous Makina was the one Shildina—or should I say this hammer girl—had just smashed to a bloody pulp. Now it seemed she had turned into a ghost and was trying to possess Shildina.
The ghost explained, “You talk about being an oracle, giving it all a mystic spin, but really you’ve just got a super-convenient body that can easily accept souls or remnant thoughts. I’m finally getting too old, unable to maintain my youthful beauty, and you’re also good friends with that piss-stinking little brat, all of which makes you an excellent body to take over. That’s why I performed the ritual on you, ahead of time, just in case. The right decision, clearly.”
“Gah! I won’t let you take Shildina’s body, eh!” the hammer girl said.
“If you got a little feisty, I did think that I’d just kill you. But very well, that body belongs to me! Give it back!” Just how vile was this woman? She’d clearly had her eye on Shildina’s body from the start. All this talk of being easy to transfer to and taking over other people, the very ideas made me think of Kyo and his homunculi. It really pissed me off. Seriously, none of these bad guys had a single original idea among them.
Taking over the body of someone else just because you were old and your beauty had faded? You had to be kidding.
“Give it back? Eat shit! That body was never yours to begin with!” The vindictive ghost almost made it sound like Shildina had been born solely to give up her body. Maybe she hadn’t been created specifically for that purpose, but I could still easily imagine the life that Shildina had been forced to lead.
Born to replace Sadeena, forced to do a job she had no interest in. She had looked so happy, had so much fun when she was playing with me. For just a few brief hours, that was all.
“What are you so mad about?” Ren, who had been silently watching the unfolding events, asked me.
“One of those people who had been killed has turned into a ghost and is trying to take over Shildina’s body,” I replied.
“What! Is that a thing now?” he asked.
“Yeah, and even worse, she reminds me of that one very special bitch. I want to help, but I don’t have any means of attack, do I!” I said. It would be perfect if I could attack with the Soul Eater Shield, but seeing as I could only aim for a counter, it wasn’t very efficient for me. Not to mention, if the enemy figured out that fact, then I really was rendered powerless. My bringing up Witch had definitely made Ren uncomfortable though.
Itsuki as well, from the look of it.
“This is bad! I want to help too, but what can we do?” Sadeena asked.
“Got any attacks that will hit a ghost?”
“I wonder if holy water might work?”
“Mr. Naofumi, I’ve got this! This is the attack to handle ghosts!” Raphtalia said and changed to her Soul Eater katana, which was used for fighting spectral bodies. Ren and Itsuki matched her.
“Save her, Raphtalia! Everyone!” I shouted.
“We’re on it. Somewhere behind her, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right!”
“No problem!” Raphtalia dashed in, Ren behind her, and Itsuki fired an arrow. However, Raphtalia and the others couldn’t see ghosts for themselves. They headed toward the point Raph-chan and I were both pointing at, each swinging their weapons through the empty air with almost comedic conviction.
“Hahaha! You’d be better off staying out of this!” Makina deployed a suspicious-looking defensive web, avoiding the attacks from Raphtalia and the others before extending black tendrils to envelop them all.
“Guwah! Why is my body so heavy? A status effect from a ghost-type enemy? If only I could see her! If I could see her, I could defeat her!” Ren was groaning. She should be a ghost, but being unable to see her suggested maybe she was classified as a spirit. We managed to see Kyo partway through the battle when we fought him though. She was strong too, even though she wasn’t co
rporeal. She was clearly a vengeful ghost now, so why couldn’t we see her?
“Futile, you fools. Futile! You seriously think such pathetic attacks can touch me? Hahaha!” Her laugh sounded so much like Witch it only exacerbated my irritation. Was there no way to finish her off?
“Rafu!”
“Yeah, Raph-chan! Get in there!” I said. Raph-chan ran forward to support Raphtalia and the others. A foe who couldn’t be seen was a tricky thing. It looked like she had control of maybe half of Shildina’s body too, because she was using wind magic to blow Raphtalia and the others away.
“Rafu!” Perhaps realizing that Raph-chan was providing support, she started to focus her attacks on Raph-chan.
“That’s not—enough, is it. Draw out more—more power from the spirit implement. The weapon with the power to hunt souls, eh!” the girl who looked like Raphtalia and was possessing Shildina offered this advice.
Draw out the capabilities of the weapon that hunts souls? I changed to the Soul Eater Shield and narrowed my eyes. It did have a special equip effect called “Soul Eat,” so maybe that was the key here?
I focused my awareness into the shield, allowing me to vaguely see the shape of this vengeful spirit.
“Raphtalia! Ren, Itsuki! Imbue your Soul Eater weapons with power! It’ll let you see her!” It seemed that the Soul Eater weapons had the hidden ability to let you see spirits.
“Draw out . . . the weapon’s power—I see her!” Raphtalia shouted.
“Yes! Right there!” Ren too.
“I can hit her!” Itsuki yelled.
Raphtalia and Ren repelled Makina’s binding, and then both of them unleashed attacks toward the ghost. Raphtalia took the lead, then Ren, while an arrow Itsuki fired struck right in her forehead.
“That’s where she is? Then let me have a go too!” Sadeena took out some holy water and incanted some Way of the Dragon Vein magic, targeting the spot Itsuki’s arrow had struck.
“I, Sadeena, draw out the power of this holy water and state my ardent wish! Dragon Vein, strike down my foes! Saint Aqua Blast!”