Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 17 - Chapter 7

7. Experience Points

Kimura most likely hadn’t known about the master of the Forbidden Tower until Haruhiro told him.

Of course, Haruhiro had never personally met the master either. It was just something Shinohara had said once. Hiyomu had a master she served, and that person, or whatever it was, had apparently stolen Haruhiro and the others’ memories. Based on Hiyomu’s actions, it was reasonable to infer that her master was in the Forbidden Tower. In other words, the master of the Forbidden Tower and Hiyomu’s master might be one and the same.

If Renji were here, Haruhiro could have gone to him to talk about it, but they were in separate groups right now. Haruhiro made the executive decision to explain this much to Kimura.

“...I see. If there is indeed some conspiracy at work, as much as it pains me to admit it, I cannot deny the possibility that Shinohara-kun is involved. To be honest, I had my doubts about the decision for Orion to join the Frontier Army. Shinohara-kun made the call without consulting anyone else... It wasn’t the first time something like that had happened, but this was bigger than any of those other times.”

According to Kimura, he wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Shinohara was in contact with Commander Jin Mogis of the Frontier Army.

When the need arose, Shinohara could shake an enemy’s hand with a smile. It wasn’t that he was everybody’s friend, it was just that he didn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of doing what he needed to. He smiled because it was generally better than scowling. Really, how would anyone benefit by going around with a sour face? Shinohara was an incredibly pragmatic person, which, as far as Kimura was concerned, was what made him trustworthy.

“Not everyone is able to hold on to an unwavering love the way I can. The human heart is an inconstant thing. Shinohara-kun is a man who moves according to logic, and a sense of duty is part of that logic.”

Even Kimura, his close friend and confidant, didn’t just see Shinohara as a good guy. He could be a good guy when the need arose. Shinohara was the sort of man who could act as benevolently and kindly as he needed to.

“Regardless, I am concerned for Shinohara-kun. If there are things he hides even from me, then I am sure he must have a good reason. It’s possible that to deceive his enemies, he first has to trick his friends. But it’s not good that he’s made you suspicious of him, Mr. Haruhiro. I cannot simply ignore that.”

Kimura was in agreement that they needed to probe Shinohara’s true intentions. But he would always be Shinohara’s friend and comrade. If he was faced with the choice of siding with Shinohara or Haruhiro and Renji, he would no doubt choose Shinohara.

It was best not to assume Kimura was their ally. But if Shinohara was part of some conspiracy and Kimura felt he needed to be set back on the right path, he might still side with them. That meant they could work together. There was room to cooperate.

The exit was in the back of the chapel. Haruhiro pressed his hand into the depression in the door and it immediately began folding in, indicating that the synchronized unlocking had worked. The Tokkis must have made it through the kitchen and reached their door before Haruhiro and his party.

“Next up is the inner courtyard, huh?” the masked dread knight said with a snort, and Kimura’s glasses flashed.

“Yes, indeed it is.”

“All right, let’s do this thing!” Kuzaku said cheerfully.

Haruhiro paused and took a breath. “Let’s move along.”

Unlike the chapel, the corridor was unlit, though there was light coming from up ahead. In fact, they soon saw that the inner courtyard was so bright it made them question if they were not outside instead of underground. The ceiling was surprisingly high, and there was a second floor too. That second floor was U-shaped, however, and it did not cover the majority of the area.

What was up with that ceiling? It had a faint white glow. While it wasn’t as bright as a clear blue sky, it probably gave off as much light as the middle of a cloudy day.

“Oh?! Yoo-hoo! It’s Haruhiro and the gang! Here I am! I’ve arrived! And not just little old me! All the Tokkis are here! Yay!”

Maybe ten meters from where the party entered the inner courtyard, Kikkawa was waving to them with Mimori next to him. What was she trying to convey by standing there with both arms held aloft? Haruhiro wasn’t entirely sure, but she was clearly looking at him.

“I wasn’t worried, but I see you guys made it here safe!” Tokimune gave them the thumbs up. Anna-san puffed up her chest, acting even more full of herself than usual.

“It look like you worm poop manage to do good job, yeah!”

“Thanks!”

“Come on, Kuzaku! Don’t say thanks when she calls us worm poop, you turd!”

“...It pisses me off less being called worm poop by her than it does being called a turd by you, Ranta-kun. It’s not malicious when she does it.”

“And you think it is when I do?!”

“Huh? Of course it is.”

“Okay, yeah, I’m not gonna deny that.”

“Heh...” At some point Inui had walked up behind Setora again, and now had a spear pointed at his throat.

“...You’re incorrigible.” Setora seemed exasperated. How could she not be?

“If ever there comes a time when I learn my lesson...!” The eye not covered by Inui’s eyepatch opened wide. It was disturbingly bloodshot. “It will be once the seal is broken, I awaken as the demon lord, am slain, and am then reincarnated as the demon lord once more, but even still I shall not reform my ways!”

“...So you’re not gonna reform then, huh?” Yume muttered. Immediately, Kimura’s glasses flashed.

“Bo-hweh! I respect that!”

Merry and Haruhiro sighed in unison. Then, noticing they had, each looked at the other apologetically. It was nothing to feel sorry about, simply that they were both feeling embarrassed, but the moment was interrupted by a loud crash. They looked over to see Tada had slammed his prized warhammer into the floor.

“You people have rested enough. Let’s do this.”

“Tada’s right!” Tokimune smiled brightly and held up his shield, drawing his longsword with his usual flourish. Kikkawa banged on his shield with his sword. Mimorin drew her longsword with both hands.

Meanwhile, Anna-san didn’t do anything in particular, keeping her chest puffed out and her head held high like always. Behind her, giving off a malignant aura, was Inui. When had he moved from behind Setora? Inui had changed jobs from thief, to warrior, to hunter, so there was presumably more to him than just being a nutcase.

“Whew.” Kuzaku exhaled, grasping the hilt of his large katana. He adjusted his grip. “That’s it, huh? The enemy for this stage.”

That much was clear, and didn’t really require comment. They had spotted the enemy the moment they entered the area.

It had two arms, two legs, and a head sticking out from its torso. Despite the humanoid shape, it was considerably bigger than any human. It was hard to say exactly how big, crouched as it was, but it was likely more than five meters tall when standing upright. The inner courtyard had two floors. Even in its current posture, its head reached the second one.

“In Orion, we call that a golem,” Kimura said with a flash of his glasses. “They vary in size, but that’s a large golem. Think of it as a big, humanoid hunk of moving rock. Very hard. We’ve defeated them by destroying their heads.”

“The head, huh? Got it.” Kuzaku nodded. “But, uh, it’s less of a head and more of a roundish knob...”

“Mew! It just flashed!” Yume was right. There was a red light in the center of the golem’s head.

“It’s gonna move.” Ranta lowered his hips.

The golem shuddered as it rose.

“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve...!” Mimorin drew elemental sigils with the tip of her longsword, casting Blast. Not just a single shot. Two in sequence. They left the golem’s head wreathed in smoke, but it kept moving. Its upper body rose and its bent knees straightened. It was almost on its feet.

“That not working, yeah?!” Anna-san shouted. The fact was that, while slightly singed, the golem’s head was not cracked, and showed no sign of shattering. The one eye-like red light hadn’t faded either.

“Come to think of it, Haruhiro, we did something like this before!” Tokimune was smiling and looked like he was having a riot. Weird. If Ranta took that attitude, it would have pissed Haruhiro off, but it didn’t with Tokimune. Was it because he was more likable?

“Well, even if we did, I don’t remember it.”

“Oh, yeah? Okay, front-liners, scatter!” Tokimune said loudly then took off running. Tada, Kikkawa, and Mimorin followed suit. She was technically a mage, but she still counted as a front-liner, huh? Inui was gone. Who knew where he’d disappeared to.

“Haruhiro?!” Ranta urged him to act, and he couldn’t help but think, Oh, shut up. I know. Were they a poor match? Or was it because of Ranta’s rotten personality? Was Ranta just completely unlikable? Maybe all of those things were true.

“We’ll follow Tokimune-san’s orders! Kuzaku, Ranta, and Yume, take the front line!”

“Aw, yeah!”

“Let’s do this!”

“Hee-hee!”

“Merry, stay with Anna-san and be ready for anything! Kimura-san, you too! Setora, I’m counting on you to cover them!”

“Okay!”

“Leave it to me.”

“Understood.”

The golem was fully on its feet now, but Tokimune, Tada, Kikkawa, and Mimorin, as well as Kuzaku, Ranta, and Yume surrounded it in a flash. Anna-san, Kimura, Merry, and Setora kept their distance. They’d be safe as long as the golem didn’t start firing projectiles.

But where had Inui gone? Did it matter? Haruhiro decided to forget him for now.

“Somersault Bomb...!” Tada launched a preemptive attack. He ran up and did a forward flip. Then he slammed the golem. His warhammer struck it in the right knee. It didn’t so much as flinch. Instead it swung its massive arms to swat Tada away.

“Focus your attacks while keeping it in check!” Tokimune sprang at the golem, smacking its left leg with his longsword and shield. The golem took a swing at him, forcing him to rapidly back away.

“Hahhhhh...!” Next was Kuzaku, making it look like he would slash the golem with his large katana, then kicking it in the shin instead. The golem tried to turn and face him.

“And mew!” Yume immediately jumped up, stabbing the golem in the butt with a big knife.

“Whew...!” Mimorin gave the golem’s thigh a taste of her twin longswords.

“Heh, heh, heh! Golem-chan! I’m over heeere!” Kikkawa was banging on his shield with his sword. What was that about?

“Hunnngh!” While Kikkawa was clowning around, Ranta raced up the golem. He reached its head in no time. “Personal skill, High-Tide Waterfall Climbing! Ga ha ha!”

What did he think he was doing?

Well, riding on its head got the golem’s attention, and it tried to catch Ranta with both hands. The golem’s movements were sluggish, though. It lacked flexibility.

“It’s futile, futile, futile!” Ranta hopped from the golem’s head to its shoulders, then to its back, avoiding its less than dexterous hands. He slipped right through them.

“Zwahhhhhh...!”

Tada moved in. You might think he was a one-trick pony, but no, clearly not. Tada took careful aim, and with an ever longer run-up than his first attack, he made an incredible leap.

“Nghhhhahhhh...!”

He did a forward flip, but not just one. It was a double flip.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!”

If you’d asked Haruhiro to do the same, he couldn’t have. It was difficult physically and scary to boot. If Tada messed up, he’d be slamming his head or back into the golem, a massive hunk of rock. That wouldn’t just lead to serious injury, it could also mean instant death. Was Tada fearless? Could he do something like that if he wasn’t?

“Somersault Bomb!” Tada’s warhammer struck the golem’s right knee. In roughly the same spot as his first attack. Maybe it was exactly the same.

The golem lost its balance. Tada’s unbelievably brassy Somersault Bomb attack had demolished a good third of the golem’s knee.

“Yay! That’s our Tadacchi! Whee!” Kikkawa was cheering. This wasn’t a party, though.

“Good job, yeah!” Anna-san was excited too. She was breathing heavily through her nose.

“Yaaaay.” Mimorin raised both her hands. She didn’t seem to be acting that excited, but maybe she was, in her own way.

“Whuh...?!” With the golem forced to one knee, Ranta had to jump down, but that was a small matter.

“It’s pile-on time, people! Raheeeeee...!”

What kind of battle cry was “rahee”? Haruhiro had no idea. Still, while Tada and Mimorin were impressive, it really was Tokimune who made the Tokkis what they were.

He didn’t have Ranta’s speed or moves. He wasn’t especially small and wasn’t wearing light equipment. But despite that, Tokimune kicked off the ground, and boosted off the golem’s knee, bounding up and up.

The Tokimune theater was now in session.

Tokimune shield-bashed the golem on the side of its face.

His longsword twirled around, stabbing the shining red eye.

Then he used his shield to whale on its head.

His longsword twirled and sliced.

Tokimune used the golem’s body for footing and went wild. Absolutely wild. He danced like a leopard and stung like an elephant.

He looked like he was moving at random, without thought to what he was doing, but that probably wasn’t true. Well, no, maybe he wasn’t thinking all that much, but Tokimune’s actions followed some kind of logic, ridiculous as they were. It didn’t feel like he was walking a tightrope. In fact, he didn’t seem to be in danger at all. He made it look easy.

“Tch!” Tada shouldered his warhammer. “There he goes, dancing like wild. What am I, the opening act?”

“Ha ha! Don’t sulk!” Tokimune kicked off of the golem’s head, flying high, high into the air.

“Wow...” Haruhiro said despite himself.

“He’s a star!” Yume babbled some nonsense. Well, maybe it wasn’t total nonsense. Haruhiro kind of got it.

The golem craned its neck, looking up at Tokimune.

“Yah-hahhhh!” Tokimune spun around—no, he flipped over in the air above the golem.

What did that mean?

Obviously, Tokimune’s feet were facing upward and his head downward.

And he wasn’t so much above its head as its face.

Tokimune thrust out his longsword and fell.

“Finiiiiish...!”

It went in.

It went in!

Tokimune’s longsword sank into the golem’s shining red eye.

Deep.

To the root.

“Whew!” Tokimune immediately withdrew his longsword, hopping down from the golem and landing on the stone floor.

He put his feet together, stood up straight, and held his shield close. His longsword was pointing at his toes as he used it to draw a semi-circle, then he raised it to point straight up.

“Whoa...” Kuzaku stood there, dumbstruck. He must have been in awe.

Ranta ground his teeth. “Damn it, that was awesome...”

The golem did not move. Its eye no longer glowed, not even faintly.

“Aw, yeah!” Kikkawa struck the same pose as Tokimune. He didn’t look nearly as cool.

“No matter what anyone say, we won thanks to me, okay?!”

Where does Anna-san’s bottomless spring of self-confidence and self-affirmation come from? Haruhiro wondered.

“Sure did,” Tokimune winked at her. “We owe it all to you. You’re the best, and we’re blessed to be able to accompany you!”

I’ll bet it comes from you.

Maybe Anna-san had become the kind of person she was because Tokimune so openly reinforced her behavior. Or had she been able to become the mascot of the Tokkis because she was like that? Which was it?

Whatever the case, Haruhiro couldn’t be like Tokimune or Anna-san. He felt a little jealous but didn’t think he needed to be. Maybe he shouldn’t.

“Suh, suh, suh...!” Kimura started laughing. What kind of laugh was that? Was he forcing the laughter out between his teeth? He pressed on the frames of his glasses, and the lenses flashed.

“You are truly, truly gifted, unique, and reliable volunteer soldiers. I am deeply impressed. Suh, suh, suh. I never thought you would be this good...”

“That sounds like a line the final boss would say...” Kuzaku said. Haruhiro kind of got what he meant.

“Be-heh!”

Your laughs sound insane, Kimura.

“If that’s what I sound like, then perhaps that is what I am.”

“At least deny it...” Haruhiro said despite himself. Kimura slapped his forehead and doubled over backwards.

“Aheeejoahhhh!”

Seriously, your laughter is terrifying.

At this point, it wasn’t even clear if that was a laugh or some other expression of emotion. But it felt like poking fun at him over it would be admitting defeat, so Haruhiro wasn’t going to do it.

“Heh...”

Looking up, he saw Inui was on the second floor. He’d gotten up there without Haruhiro noticing. How? The second floor had a railing—or a parapet rather—around it, and Inui was resting both hands on it with his shoulders slumped.

“There goes my shot at the spotlight...”

“Like we care!”

Much to his displeasure, Haruhiro agreed with Ranta.

“Oh?” Tokimune looked deeper into the inner courtyard. “I don’t know about that.”

“Whuh?!” Inui leaped up onto the parapet. But that wasn’t all.

“Hohhhh!” Inui threw himself to the first floor. What was that for? Had he climbed to the second floor looking for his chance to jump in and steal the spotlight, but having failed to do so, decided to show off with a dive? Was he an idiot?

That wasn’t it.

The parapet that Inui had just dived from exploded. It had been destroyed by some kind of projectile.

Inui stuck the landing, but it didn’t matter. Something had blasted the second floor’s parapet, right? Was it a haunt?

“Everyone, take evasive action with style!” Tokimune ordered confidently, though the “with style” part seemed unnecessary.

They’re coming. Coming right at us. Bullets.

“Wahhhh!”

“Yahoo!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Damn it all!”

“Fuuuuck!”

“Bweh ha heh hahhhh!”

“You’re all so noisy...”

It was pandemonium. Everyone, Haruhiro included, ran around in confusion, but so far none of them had ended up eating a bullet yet. Tokimune stood almost unmoving, acting only occasionally to deflect an attack with his shield. Tada casually swatted down everything that flew his way. They were likely trying to discern the direction and number of enemies. As he ran, Haruhiro tried to do the same, but was it working?

“Is this enemy mobile?!”

“Yeah, they’re mobile,” Tokimune confirmed with a relaxed shrug of his shoulders.

“I thought haunts don’t move?!” When Haruhiro watched Tokimune, his sense of crisis always weakened, for better or for worse.

“Zo-foh! They don’t move, no.” Kimura’s glasses flashed. “Not if they’re haunts. But could it be?! A new type of enemy?!”

“Uh, but...” Haruhiro came to a stop. He was hearing something other than ricocheting bullets, and he was certain it was coming from the second floor. Was something big on the move? The second floor creaked under its weight. Were those footsteps, then? It was hard to see up there from the first floor. But wait, he spotted something.

“A golem?!”

It looked almost the same as the golem Tokimune had just defeated. There was a red light in the center of its head. But this one wasn’t as large as the golem on the first floor. It was a size smaller. It didn’t feel like a small golem, though. Yeah, it was more of a medium-sized golem. There were medium-sized golems on the second floor. Not just one. The U-shaped second floor had one on the left side and one on the right. Two in total.

And?

Where are these bullets coming from?

Where are the haunts?

“Woo-hoo!” Kikkawa cheered. What was he woo-hooing about? “They’re growing out of it, right?! That golem’s got haunts growing out of it?!”

“A new tyyyype?!” Kimura shook his head. “No! We cannot really call it a new type! That is simply a haunt stuck to a golem! We should call it a hybrid instead!”

It didn’t matter what he called them, there were three haunts growing out of each of the medium-sized golem’s shoulders.

“Like a golem weapons platform?!” Ranta said. That name seemed a bit long.

“Golplat for short, yeah!” Anna-san provided a working short form.

Golplat A on the right side and Golplat B on the left were firing constantly as they approached.

“Whoa...!” Kuzaku jumped to the side to dodge a bullet, but another was in front of him, so he almost took a direct hit. He twisted his body diagonally, narrowly evading it.

Setora was escorting Anna-san, Merry, and Kimura to an area underneath the second floor. They’d be safe there. Wait, no, they were in Golplat A’s blind spot, but Golplat B started firing on Setora from the left side of the second floor.

“Boom! Bash! Smash!” Kimura was deflecting the bullets with his mace and buckler, but he wasn’t like Tokimune or Tada. He couldn’t keep that up forever. Kimura was a weirdo, but he was still a priest. Then again, so was Tada. And Anna-san. Wait, were all priests weirdos? Was Merry the only sane priest here?

That aside, Golplat A and B needed to go down in a hurry.

Incidentally, Haruhiro had sneakily gone into Stealth, so he wasn’t being targeted at the moment. It looked like Stealth was effective against the golplats.

“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve...!” Mimorin suddenly cast Blast. No, it wasn’t sudden. Golplat B had approached the parapet near the spot Inui had dived from, where the structure had a hole blown through it. Mimorin sent her spell at that opening.

“Nice one, Mimori-san!” Kikkawa cheered while deflecting a bullet. Despite being in trouble himself, he actively clapped and shouted encouragement to his comrades. The guy had guts.

The already broken parapet took further damage from the Blast, demolishing the floor there and causing it to collapse. Golplat B fell to the first floor in a cloud of smoke and rubble.

“Kuzaaaaku! It’s our turn!”

“’Kay!”

Ranta raced toward it, zigzagging like lightning. Kuzaku couldn’t run that skillfully or bizarrely. He charged straight at Golplat B.

“What now?” Tokimune was eyeing Golplat A, still up on the second floor.

Tada swung his warhammer. “Want me to throw you up to the second floor?” he offered.

“Uhh. That trick, huh? Maybe not so much...”

They seemed to be taking it awfully easy, but was that okay? Well, feeling tense, getting focused, and acting desperate wasn’t really the Tokkis’ style. They stayed chill and had fun. That might have been their method. Not that most people could do that, even if they tried, you know? The Tokkis were clearly not normal. That was why such an abnormal style suited them.

What was Inui—who was intensely idiosyncratic even by their standards—planning? How had he originally gotten up to the second floor?

Mystery solved, Haruhiro thought as he spotted him. Inui was clambering up the stone wall to get to the second floor now. Oh, so that he does normally, huh?

Haruhiro suppressed his desire to quip about it and tried imitating Inui. He was a pretty good climber himself. Maybe he’d done rock climbing as a hobby before losing his memory? Or had he just lived such a dangerous life that he’d been forced to climb sheer cliffs on a regular basis?

Whatever the case, he made it to the top of the stone wall before Inui, who’d had a head start on him, so now he was in trouble.

Okay, maybe not so much. Golplat A wasn’t aware of Haruhiro. The haunts on its shoulders were unloading on the first floor. Haruhiro couldn’t just sit and watch that. He approached the enemy, neither rushing nor taking his time. He remained alert, of course. But if Golplat A detected him, would he be done for? Not so much. If the bullets were going to come his way, either Golplat A’s body or the haunts’ heads would have to turn toward him first. Basically, it would be telegraphed. He could just move to evade when that happened. Jump down to the first floor and hide underneath the overhang. That position was hard for Golplat A to hit. Even if he botched the landing, it wasn’t high enough for the fall to kill him. They had several priests on standby, so he could get healed immediately. When he thought about it, the situation didn’t demand he be so timid.

Haruhiro circled around behind Golplat A. What was Inui doing? He’d just made it onto the second floor, huh? Golplat A hadn’t noticed Inui either.

Now Haruhiro got a little tense. But taking more time wouldn’t increase his chances of success. If anything, he had to act quickly.

Haruhiro got up close to Golplat A. It was maybe four meters tall. Scaling it would be no problem. With Golplat A being humanoid, it obviously wasn’t a flat surface, which made the climbing even easier. In no time, Haruhiro had gotten up high enough to touch the golplat’s head. That was when it detected him. It twisted around, possibly trying to throw Haruhiro off. But Golplat A’s back was not as flexible as a human’s, nor did it have a moving waist. Its moves were heavy and sluggish. He didn’t even have to cling on for dear life.

Haruhiro drew his dagger and finished off Golplat A’s shoulder haunts one by one. It was simple work, especially compared to what he’d had to do when Tada had launched him up to the ceiling of the dining hall.

“Aww! My chance at the spotlight!” Inui was complaining. Haruhiro didn’t give a damn.

Once he had reduced a total of six haunts to dirt, Haruhiro grabbed onto Golplat A’s head and tried stabbing his dagger into the glowing red eye part. Emphasis on “tried.” His dagger bounced off. It was clear like glass there, and something red shone behind it. He’d scratched the glass-like part, but it was going to take considerably more force to break it. Or maybe he could stubbornly keep attacking the same place?

He had nothing to lose by trying, but he could give someone else the chance to shine. Haruhiro hopped off Golplat A and landed on the parapet. The golem came charging at him, forcing him to jump backward. This being the parapet, there was nothing behind him to land on. He just dropped to the first floor, as did Golplat A, which smashed through the parapet after him.

“Haru-kun...!”

“Haru...!”

“Haruhiro...!”

He heard Yume, Merry, and Mimorin. He appreciated their concern, but, well, he’d be fine.

If he were Tokimune, he might have done an awesome midair flip and then stuck the landing. He was not. He lacked Tokimune’s charisma and star power, so he prioritized landing safely without getting hurt. The experience of being repeatedly launched into the air by Tada helped. You never knew what would come in useful. The moment he landed, he softened the impact, imagining his joints dislocating, and rolled right back up onto his feet. Tokimune and Tada, with Kikkawa as an extra bonus, were already descending on Golplat A.

“All riiiight!”

“Out of the way, Kikkawa!”

“Wow! Sorry! I’m mega sorry!”

“Okay, let’s race to see who can finish it first, Tada!”

“Me, obviously!”

It looked like Tokimune and Tada largely had it taken care of.

“Yahhhh!”

Haruhiro looked over just in time to see a large katana smash through Golplat B’s shining red eye thing. Ranta slapped Kuzaku on the back of the head.

“Dammit, you ass! Let me finish it!”

“Ow! There’s no reason to hit me for it!”

“When was I ever reasonable, you moron?!”

“Yeah... You got a point there. Makes sense to me.”

“Haruhiro!” Mimorin rushed over and grabbed his face with both hands. “Haruhiro!”

“Yesh?”

“You aren’t hurt?”

“I’m fwine.”

“I’m glad.”

He wanted her to stop, but once she’d teared up like that, he’d have felt bad for interrupting her. “Would you shtop that?” But, yeah, he still wanted her to knock it off.

Mimorin nodded, then let go.

Thank goodness.