Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 17 - Chapter 1

1. That Feeling, One More Time

“...This place is a ruin,” said the curly-haired dread knight wearing a mask and cloak as he kicked a scrap of wood that must have, at one point, belonged to a building. “This isn’t the Lonesome Field Outpost anymore. It’s the Lonesome Field Outpost Ruins. What a ruin. It’s a complete and total ruin. Seriously. Seriously...”

The sun was about to go down.

As the muttering dread knight had suggested, this outpost was no longer fit to be called one. There was nothing but rubble remaining, and only Haruhiro, his party, and ten members of Orion led by Shinohara had arrived so far.

“Heh...”

One member of Orion with short hair and round glasses let out a laugh that was a little creepy. He was apparently a priest.

“Indeed. Indeed. We operated out of the Lonesome Field Outpost too, so I can’t deny it’s emotional for me, seeing it in such a state. Eheh heh, bwa hah, heh heh...”

A little creepy... Yeah, no. It was really creepy.

Uh, but seriously, the guy was scary. Not that Haruhiro could say anything. No, he had no plans to call him out on it whatsoever. He was too scared to.

“You know, that laugh...”

Unlike Yume, he could never.

“Yume thinks it’s real unpleasant.”

“Do you now? Guhuh, nwuh huh, bwa hah...!”

“Sorry about him.” Shinohara was smiling like always, but seemed a little apologetic. “No matter how much I warn him, Kimura can’t seem to stop.”

“Well, that’s gruff luck then, huh?”

“You mean tough luck.” Ranta immediately pointed out Yume’s error. “That’s probably what you were going for. Not gruff.”

“Nah, I mean, she said gruff, right?” Kuzaku disagreed. “Maybe that laugh makes him sound gruff?”

“Lay off, would you, Beanpole? You’re an idiot. I don’t need this shit.”

“Beanpole, huh? Yeah, I am pretty tall. Way taller than you.”

“And now you’re boasting about it? That’s some personality you’ve got there. You’re a real piece of work. The absolute worst.”

“...You’re the last person I want to hear that from.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Huh? Pretty much exactly what it sounds like.”

“Jeez!” Yume puffed her cheeks up angrily. “Ranta and Kuzaku-kun. You two’re always fightin’, huh? Goin’ at it like cats and hogs.”

“Wasn’t it your fault this time?! Also, hogs? What kind of cat fights a hog?! It’s supposed to be cats and dogs!”

“Close enough! Dogs, hogs, it’s nothin’ to blow a basket over.”

“I’m not blowing a basket! Why would I blow a basket?! It’s gasket, okay?!”

“Gasket? You sure it’s not casket?”

“No, it’s gasket! You blow a gasket... Wait, what is a gasket anyway?”

“Well, what does the word mean?”

“Don’t ask me!”

“You’re the one who was sayin’ it!”

“It’s a figure of speech! You stupid, stupid, stuuuupid!”

“People who go around callin’ other people stupid are stupid, y’know?”

“Nuh-uh, the person who gets called stupid is stupid. Stuuupid!”

“It’s nice how lively things are with you guys around.”

Was Shinohara perhaps being sarcastic when he said that? He was smiling, so it was hard to tell how he really felt.

“But seriously, Ranta-kun and Yume-san sure do get along well,” Kuzaku said, sounding half exasperated, and suddenly Ranta panicked.

“Whuh, wh-wh-wh-wha...!”

“Our relationship, huh?” Yume crossed her arms and frowned. “It’s not bad. If you were wantin’ to say it’s good, well, maybe it is?”

“Whah? Wh-Wh-Wh-Whaaa! Wh-Whah? Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Whaaaa?!”

Ranta was transforming into a creature that could only say “wha.” It grated on the ears.

“You’re stuttering way too hard...”

“Shove off, Paruparara!”

“If you change it that much, no one will even know who you’re talking about.”

“If you’re responding, you know damn well who I mean, Pourporaran! You Pirupiru! Papapa or Pipipi or Pepepe or Popopo oughta be good enough for you!”

Ranta wasn’t so much lively as he was loud and annoying. And he tended to drag others into it too, so he was a real nuisance. It was bad. But the guy had some serious vitality. Maybe Haruhiro needed to show a bit more energy too? Or maybe not? Yeah. No. Haruhiro didn’t particularly want to be that energetic.

Setora and Merry hadn’t said anything in a long while. They were both watching quietly from a distance.

If he addressed them directly, they’d respond. But only to say the absolute minimum. For instance, if he were to ask, “How are you?” the response would be something like, “Okay” or “Fine.” They would never answer more than he asked.

There was the matter of Shihoru, after all.

And Setora had lost Kiichi.

What was he going to do about that? Honestly, he couldn’t come up with anything that would help. Whatever he tried to do would be in vain. Waiting for time to heal all wounds. That might be the only option.

He wished he could just accept that, but he couldn’t help but think: If there was nothing he could do, maybe it was best to do nothing at all? Or was it better to try and do something? Well, yeah. He was their leader, after all. But what? What? Just do anything at all. Well, no, doing just anything wasn’t good. Was it doing something that was important? No, not really. Just giving off the sense that, “Hey, I tried,” was meaningless. Like, he’d only be doing it to show that, as leader, he’d made an effort, despite the futility of it. He didn’t want to make excuses for himself like that.

Suddenly, his eyes met Yume’s. She smiled as if to say, “What’s up?”

Honestly, Yume must have been feeling down too. In fact, Haruhiro had occasionally spotted her sighing or getting a forlorn look on her face. Seeing the kindness she showed him, despite her own pain, touched him deeply, and the corners of his eyes started to feel a little hot. He thought he was going to cry. He wouldn’t, though. Haruhiro looked around.

The Lonesome Field Outpost was in the bottom of a depression, so the area around it was slightly higher. Hills in every direction. But when every direction was a hill, they didn’t feel like hills at all. Setting aside what it means to “feel like a hill,” there were humanoid figures on the hill to the west.

“...Oh.”

“Ahh.” Shinohara was looking to the west. “Looks like they’re here.”

“Uh, hold on...”

That one figure was running.

“Haruhiro...!”

It was a woman, going by the voice.

Hey, wait.

“...Huh?”

Was Haruhiro imagining it?

Did she just call his name?

“Haruhirooo...!”

No, he was not. She had called his name.

Twice at that.

“Haruhirooo...!”

Make that three times now.

The woman was racing down the hill at an incredible speed.

“Huh? Huhhh...?!”

“Damn, she’s fast...!” Ranta, who was pretty quick himself, was flabbergasted. That was just how fast she was going.

The woman wore a big, wide-brimmed hat. It made her look awfully tall. No, hat or not, she would still be tall.

Though the Lonesome Field Outpost was a ruin, it was still surrounded by a moat. There was a spring in a depression in the Quickwind Plains. People had set up camp around it and dug a moat to defend themselves. That was apparently how this place got started.

Even with all of the buildings wrecked, the spring and moat were still intact. There had originally been a bridge across the moat. It was mostly destroyed now. However, it wasn’t impossible to use what was left of the supports and girders to cross without getting wet. That was what Haruhiro and his group had done.

But that woman, she just up and dove into the moat as if to say, “I don’t have time for that shit.”

“Haru! Ha! Haru! Hirooo...!”

The woman swam. She powered through the water using both arms, doing the breaststroke. That moat was pretty deep. She was trying to swim across it.

Her hat fell off along the way. She ignored it and kept swimming. In no time, she had swum across and finally stepped into the Lonesome Field Outpost.

“Haruhirooo...!”

“Huh...? Uh...? Wh-Who is that...?”

When it came to people from their pasts, most of what he knew came from Merry. For whatever reason, there was nothing he could draw from his head to explain this.

“Whoa...” Ranta was dumbfounded. Was he impressed? He seemed almost overcome with emotion.

“Ooooh...!” Yume seemed surprised too. She looked over to Haruhiro, her eyes wide. “Right?”

“Uh, no, I don’t know what I’m supposed to agree with—”

“Haruhiroooooooo...!”

The woman continued her mad dash. Sopping wet, splashing water all over the place, she kept barreling toward them.

Man, though, she was huge.

Probably not as big as Kuzaku. But her head was small, and her body was lengthy. Yeah. Big and lengthy, that was the impression she gave off.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t run away. He could. But the intensity with which she was coming at him was incredible. While he was still overwhelmed by it, the woman tackled Haruhiro.

“Oh...?!”

No, this wasn’t a tackle—was it?

Apparently not.

“Haruhiro! It’s Haruhiro! Haruhiro...!”

“Gwah...!”

It hurt—or rather, it was hard to breathe.

The woman hadn’t tackled Haruhiro and sent him flying. She had hugged him. Hard.

Haruhiro’s feet were off the ground. Floating in midair. The woman had picked him up.

She was bigger than he was. Despite looking slim, she was really tall, so she had a lot of strength.

“Urgh... Agh! Ouagh...?!”

At the very least, she had the power to hug Haruhiro, lift him up, and crush the life from him. Fortunately, if you could really call this fortunate, she hadn’t killed him yet, but if she kept squeezing, who knew? It wouldn’t be surprising if she did.

“Haruhiro. I wanted to see you. Haruhiro.”

The woman rubbed her cheek against Haruhiro’s.

His consciousness was fading fast.

“H-H-H... Hel...”

“Hel? Who’s that?”

“N-No, uh...”

“Noah? I don’t know him either.”

“No! I’m in...”

“You’re in... In what?”

“I-I-In pain...”

“Pain...?”

Finally, it seemed to sink in.

“Ohh!”

The woman cried out and loosened her vice-like grip. Thanks to that, Haruhiro could breathe again.

“W-Would you let go of me...?”

“It’s been so long. Can I pet you?”

“U-Uh, no, I don’t know...”

She already was, though, wasn’t she?

The woman had already resumed rubbing her cheek against his.

What the hell?

She was all wet too.

What the actual hell?

I’m scared.

“That’s Mimorin for you,” the dread knight said, shaking his head in dismay. “For some reason, she’s always been head over heels for Parupiro. It’s unbelievable. What an absolute, crazy weirdo.”

“You...”

Another woman rushed in, this one small but full-figured, in contrast to the one rubbing her cheek against Haruhiro’s. Who was it this time? Where had she come from? The woman dropped a fist on the back of Ranta’s head.

“Total moron...!”

“Bwuh...?!”

As Ranta’s mask slipped and his eyes bulged, the petite woman gave him a firm kick in the butt.

“Hi-yah...!”

“Gah...?!”

Ranta jumped up into the air, seizing his wounded buttocks. What a leap. Man, could he jump. Ranta landed with both feet, and the impact rippled through his sore hind.

“Augh...?!”

“You no call her ‘Mimorin’ like you her friend, yeah!” the woman shouted, spittle flying as she did. “You gross idiot! You pervert! You nincompoop cabbage!”

“Y-Y-You bitch!” Ranta stood pigeon-toed, clutching his rear end, tears in his eyes and a whine in his voice. His butt must have been absolutely devastated. “Y-Y-You kicked me full force! In my glorious, firm ass! What if you made it split even more?!”

“Someone should...bisect? Bifurcate? Uh...break your stinky butt in two, yeah!”

“My butt doesn’t stink that bad!”

“You say it not stink that bad, but it still stink!”

“Butts are butts! They all stink a little! It’s what butts do! Even your butt—”

“Hey,” a man wearing glasses swung a warhammer that looked like it could easily shatter rock, stopping it just shy of Ranta’s face.

Whoa, hold on, where had this guy come from? How long had he been here?

Had Haruhiro just not noticed him? Even now, his attention was occupied by the woman who was molesting his cheeks, so there was no way he could have.

“Eeeeek...?!”

Ranta shuddered. No, more than that. He fell to the ground trembling. His hands were still holding his butt as he did.

“A loser like you has no right to talk about Anna-san’s butt,” the man wearing glasses said, pulling back his warhammer and resting it on his shoulder. “I’ll kill you, got it?”

“I-I-I-I nearly died...!”

“But you didn’t.”

“I could’ve! Then you’d be getting more than just complaints!”

“What? You can complain when you’re dead? That’s a neat trick. Wanna show it off?”

The man wearing glasses wound up for a big swing with his warhammer.

“S-Stop?!” Ranta was sweating and panicking. “There’s nothing to show off! I know I’m awesome, but if you kill me, I’ll be just a corpse like any other!”

“Boring.” The man lowered his warhammer.

“Hey! Heyyyy!”

An easygoing guy called out to them from a distance. Based on the way he looked, he might have been a warrior. That guy, another man who looked like a paladin, and some weirdo with a ponytail and an eyepatch over his left eye entered the Lonesome Field Outpost the way everyone ought to, using the broken bridge.

“It’s me! I’m here! Like, on the scene! Heyyyy!”

“Rub, rub, rub...” The tall woman was still rubbing her cheek against Haruhiro. “Oh, I’ve dreamed of feeling Haruhiro like this again. Rub, rub, rub. I can smell Haruhiro. Rub, rub, rub...”

What the hell is this?

This went beyond being hard to deal with.

He wasn’t just uneasy, he was scared. Haruhiro felt nothing but despair for their prospects going forward.