Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 8 - Chapter 10

10. For What Reason? 

It was dizzying. The countless lights flashing in the darkness swayed about like crazy, and it felt awful. Whenever Shihoru tripped over something, or stepped in a hole and almost fell over, Kuzaku caught her. She’d stopped apologizing every time. She didn’t have it together enough to form the words. 

I can’t do this anymore. I can’t run any further.  She’d been thinking that for a long time now. I wish they’d just leave me here. 

Even if she said it, Kuzaku wouldn’t abandon Shihoru, and Katsuharu probably wouldn’t, either. Because she knew that, she couldn’t say it. 

“Katsuharu-san!” Kuzaku called out to the man ahead of them. “How do you think it looks?! Can we get away?!” 

“Who can say?” Katsuharu was winded. “It’s still some way to the village, so that may depend on the two of you.” 

“Damn it! Because I was so noisy, the nyaa found us, and...!” 

“It does little good to dwell on it. I was the one to invite you along, after all. It was careless to get so close to them. The fault lies with me.” 

“Wait, why are you sounding so relaxed about this?!” 

“Were I to panic, no good would come of it,” Katsuharu said. 

Nyaas. There were nyaas behind them, of course, but also to the right and left. Even with the shining bugs that were called rurakas flying around, it was dark. That was why, though they couldn’t see the nyaas, they could hear their voices. Nyaa... Nyaa... Nyaa... Nyaa... Nyaa... Nyaa... Nyaa... Nyaa.... 

Meowing from all directions. 

Were the nyaas close? Were they far? How many were there? Shihoru had no clue. From what Katsuharu had told them, tamed nyaas would sometimes take their time, slowly pushing their targets into a corner like this. It was true, they were starting to feel cornered. At least, Shihoru and Kuzaku were. 

“Well,” Katsuharu said in a voice that was far too relaxed for a man who was running. “for now, it would seem we only have the nyaas pursuing us. 

The way things look now, we may yet make it to the village somehow. Give it your all.” 

Give it your all,  he’d said. That was what Shihoru thought she was doing. 

She was trying as hard as she could. But, try as she might, there were limits to what she could do. Once she was exhausted and couldn’t go another step, she was going to be a burden on Kuzaku and Katsuharu. 

Hold on. 

Suddenly, she lost all the strength in her knees, and she could no longer keep her feet moving forward. Shihoru quickly supported herself with her staff. That managed to keep her from falling over, but she couldn’t run anymore. She didn’t think she could walk, either. This was it. Her limit. 

“Shihoru-san?!” Kuzaku stopped. “What’s up? Why’d you stop?” 

“Good grief.” Katsuharu turned back, crouching down in front of Shihoru with his back turned to her. “Here. I’ll carry you on my back. Grab on.” 

“N-No, I can’t ask you to...” 

“Shihoru-san, let him carry you!” Kuzaku cried. “If it comes to it, I’ll tank for you two!” 

“Hurry it up, would you?” Katsuharu asked. “This position is painful on my lower back, you see.” 

“S-Sorry. Then, e-excuse me...!” 

Katsuharu’s back was broader than Shihoru expected, and it gave her a sense of relief. To be able to carry Shihoru, who was pretty heavy, and not have it do much to throw off his running form, this man must have been more reliable than he looked. 

“Sorry, but could I ask you to cling just a little tighter?” Katsuharu asked. 

“...R-Right!” 

“Yes, I am a lucky man indeed.” 

“...Huh?” 

“No, just talking to myself. Think nothing of it. However, I should have done this from the beginning. Heh... I jest, of course. Trying to lighten the mood, you see?” 

He might have been reliable, but he also seemed just a little dangerous. 

Speaking of danger, what about the nyaas? Shihoru had done a great job of slowing everyone down, so it was hard to imagine the situation had improved. Thinking about it normally, it should have gotten worse. 

A wolf howled in the distance. 

“Just now, was that...?!” Kuzaku looked back without stopping. 

“Not good.” Katsuharu said in a low voice, quickly looking left and then right. The left side was flat, but the right side sloped upwards. The path ahead of them and behind them was narrow. “This is a bad place. Guess I’ll do it once we reach somewhere a little better. I am going to carve a bloody path for you, so you two run away.” 

“No, Katsuharu-san, there’s no reason you should have to do that for us!” Kuzaku cried. 

“Were you two older than me, I would sacrifice you to save myself, but watching those younger than me die always turns my stomach. Oh, don’t you worry, I won’t go down easily. I have experience on my side, if nothing else.” 

“I wouldn’t be able to run far, anyway...” Shihoru clenched her teeth. 

Even though he’d helped by carrying her, she was still winded. “I’ll fight with you. I have to. I’ll support you with magic.” 

“I wanted to show off, but I suppose this is how it has to be.” 

Not long after that, when they entered a flat area with a lot of trees, Katsuharu let Shihoru down and drew his katana. Kuzaku readied his black blade and his shield, moving up in front of Shihoru. 

There weren’t many rurakas here. Nyaa... nyaa... nyaa... nyaa...  Based on the meowing, the nyaas must have been pretty close. The wolves were howling. 

“Dark...” When Shihoru focused her mind and called his name, the elemental Dark appeared as if coming out of a door that had opened up from an unseen world. Dark strings twisted into a spiral and took on a human-like form. Dark floated through the air to sit on Shihoru’s shoulder. 

Katsuharu took one look at Dark, then said “Oh,” in admiration. “Now there’s an unfamiliar spell.” 

“It’s an original, Shihoru-san’s own.” While paying attention to the area around them, Kuzaku took a deep breath. “Will the nyaas attack us directly, you think?” 

“They don’t often fight, no. When one of their kind gets roughed up, they have a tendency to all become uncooperative as a group. That is why nyaa handlers don’t like to make them fight.” 

“So, the ones that’ll be coming—” Kuzaku started to say, but then shut his mouth. 

There was a noise. Footsteps? It’s charging in. From the left. A wolf. A black wolf, huh? 

Shihoru was going to send Dark to intercept it, but thought better of it. He wouldn’t make it in time. 

Katsuharu headed to the left using a unique method of walking where neither his head nor his waist moved up or down. Before the black wolf could jump up at him, Katsuharu was already swinging down at it with his katana. 

He smashed the black wolf’s head open, and it collapsed. Katsuharu then used the same walking technique to return to his original position. “The next one is coming.” 

“Uragh...!” Kuzaku knocked something back with his shield. Had another black wolf tackled him? 

“If you try to follow them with your eyes, you’ll act too late.” Katsuharu swung his katana. It looked like he’d hit it. “Don’t look. Feel.” 

There was no way Shihoru could do that. She was a mage. No, saying she couldn’t do it because she was a mage was just acting weak. 

From behind, one was coming. As she turned towards, she gave the order. 

“Go!” 

Unlike the magic Shihoru had learned in her time at the guild, Dark didn’t just fly in a straight line. He was guided, to a degree. 

There was a black wolf. It wasn’t that she had actually been able to see the black wolf lunging at her from the darkness. What Katsuharu had told her had immediately come in handy. Don’t look, feel. 

Something came rushing at Shihoru, and she willed Dark to collide with it. That was all. Dark protected Shihoru. 

The black wolf yelped, then turned and ran. 

Shihoru immediately summoned Dark again. “Come, Dark!” 

“Sorry, Shihoru-san!” Kuzaku was using his sword and shield to knock back the black wolves, and somehow managing to cover Shihoru. “Aren’t there an awful lot of them?!” 

“At times like this, you should assume there are more than you can actually see.” Katsuharu moved with that particular walking style, the same as always, swinging his katana to land a precise blow on a black wolf’s head. 

It wasn’t flashy, but even a mage like Shihoru could tell he was skilled. 

“There’ll be a short break.” 

It went just like Katsuharu said. The black wolves suddenly stopped charging in, growling at them from a little way away instead. Shihoru nearly breathed a sigh of relief despite herself. 

“Now!” Katsuharu took off running. “Follow me!” 

“Shihoru-san!” Kuzaku called. 

“R-Right!” she called back. 

She’d been lost in thought. Was this the right thing to do, or wasn’t it? 

She didn’t even have time to think. Shihoru chased after Katsuharu. 

Katsuharu cut down one of the black wolves to break a hole in their encirclement, then kept on running. The black wolves tried to swarm Katsuharu, as if they were being sucked in by him. He made sharp swings to the left and to the right with his katana, opening a path. 

Kuzaku and Shihoru ran down that path. Kuzaku helped, too, driving off two or three of the black wolves with his sword and shield. Shihoru wasn’t so much trying to conserve Dark’s power, as she had larger concerns. She was quickly winded. Her heart was pounding and ready to burst. It might already be too much for her. 

Then Katsuharu came to a stop. 

Kuzaku and Shihoru shot past Katsuharu on inertia. Having performed an about-face that almost caused him to trip, Katsuharu was holding his blade a little below the middle level and staring down the black wolves. The wolves spread out to the left and right, while remaining cautious of him. Were they trying to encircle the group again? 

“Are we just going to keep repeating this?” Kuzaku said with a groan. “It feels so overwhelming. But I guess we’ve gotta do it.” 

Shihoru wanted to say something, but her voice failed her. 

Katsuharu started pulling back, so Kuzaku and Shihoru backed away, along with him. This really was overwhelming. Just how many times would they have to repeat this before they reached the village? 

Nyaa... nyaa... nyaa...  The nyaas were meowing. We’re here. We’re right here. There are so many of us. We’ll follow you wherever you go,  those meows threatened them. 

If Shihoru had been the way she used to be, her heart might have broken. 

Now, though, even if she was on the brink of that, she could tough it out just a bit longer. Even if, at the very worst, if she had to let Katsuharu and Kuzaku go on ahead and stay here by herself, she wouldn’t just accept death with resignation. She didn’t think she had become strong, but she wanted to be strong. 

“It’s going to be fine.” Shihoru nodded. “I have to see everyone again. 

...Because I want to see them.” 

“Yeah.” Kuzaku smiled just a little. “Can’t let ourselves get killed by a little thing like this, can we?” 

“That’s the spirit.” Katsuharu turned and started running again. 

“Onward!” 

Shihoru and Kuzaku tried to follow the man. But then Katsuharu came to a sudden stop. He had no choice but to. 

There was something big standing in his way. It hadn’t been there originally. If it had, there was no way Katsuharu would have gone that way, after all. 

For a moment, Shihoru thought it was a tiger, lion, or other big cat. But she was wrong. 

Judging from its outline, that thing was—or rather, that thing was also—a wolf. It was much too big to be merely a wolf. What was more, on its back, there was something... riding it?! 

“Ow...” Katsuharu slapped his forehead with his left hand. “The beast master’s here, huh? Sorry to say it, but we can’t get away from this.” 

“It’s not just the beast master,” echoed a man’s voice. It came from behind them. In other words, the area where they were first surrounded by the black wolves. 

When Shihoru turned back, there was a humanoid figure standing behind the wolves with their fangs barred. Not just one. There were several. 

But a human...? 

“I’m here, too, trespassers. I’ll punish you to kill some time.” 

There was no doubt about it. It was a human voice, male. That alone would have been a shock, but there was something even, even, even more shocking. 

The figures were approaching them. The leader was a human, like she’d thought. The human man had five or six orcs in tow. However, one of them was awfully small. 

“No... way...” Kuzaku shuddered. “What’s that supposed to mean...?” 

Shihoru blinked, shaking her head. “...Why?” 

“Hey, Ranta.” The man from earlier gestured to him with his chin. “Go crazy for us right now. I won’t ask you to prove your loyalty, but if you’re our comrade, you can at least join our fights.” 

“That’s a given.” The small man lowered the visor on his helmet, and drew his sword RIPer. “I’m don’t mind fighting myself. Just watch, old man Takasagi. Soon enough, I’ll have you begging me to become your disciple, I guarantee it.” 

“...Ranta-kun,” Shihoru whispered. 

The ground felt like it was violently shaking. This had to be some kind of mistake. That, or a bad dream. 

Oh. Knowing Ranta, this had to be another of his bad jokes. He wanted to surprise them and then make fun of them. 

But if that wasn’t it... 

“You know him?” Katsuharu asked Shihoru and Kuzaku, and at practically the same time, this old man Takasagi, or whoever he was, asked Ranta, “Do you know them?” 

“We don’t just know him...” Kuzaku gritted his teeth. 

Shihoru could only nod. 

“Well, yeah.” Ranta gave a nasal laugh. “Not that it matters. I’m part of Forgan now. No matter who they are, I’ll crush anyone who lays a hand on our guys. We can’t let them mess with us.” 

“I hope that’s not just tough talk.” Takasagi stuffed his hand down his collar. His right arm was... He apparently didn’t have one. 

“You’ll see soon enough.” Ranta twisted his neck back and forth. 

“Prepare yourselves. It’s massacre time, guys.” 

Shihoru still couldn’t believe it. 

He sprang towards them. Leap Out. 

This was Ranta. 

Katsuharu questioned whether he should intercept him or not, but he retreated. Kuzaku was standing there, standing practically stock still, when Ranta came swinging at him violently. 

Kuzaku quickly brought his shield up to defend himself. “Wah...?!” 

“Take that!” Ranta gave him no time to stop and breathe, launching a slashing attack. “You beanpole!” 

“Urgh! Ah! Wha...?!” It was all Kuzaku could do just to block the attacks with his shield. No, he’d already taken a number of hits. Kuzaku was wearing tough armor, and that was the only reason he hadn’t gone down yet. “Ra-Ranta-kun?! Whoa, wait!” 

“What kind of idiot would wait when you ask them to wait?!” Ranta used Leap Out to suddenly get around Kuzaku’s right side, then took a big swing, holding RIPer in both his hands. “Oorahhhh!” 

Kuzaku was holding his shield in his left hand. If he was attacked from the right side, he wouldn’t be able to block with the shield. Even if he was going to deflect it with his sword, Kuzaku’s response was too slow. Kuzaku stopped it with his right arm. “Guh...?!” 

His arm was covered by his armor, too, so it didn’t get cut off. However, Kuzaku nearly dropped his sword, and it hurt him pretty bad. 

Katsuharu immediately stepped in, so Ranta used Exhaust to leap back and get some distance. 

Thank goodness,  thought Shihoru. If Katsuharu hadn’t backed him up, Kuzaku might have gone down to the next attack. 

The next attack from Ranta, who was supposed to be their ally. 

“...Dark.” Shihoru went to order Dark, who was sitting on her shoulder, to do something. But what, exactly, should she order him to do? 

“Let’s see.” Takasagi drew the katana that he carried on his back. “Maybe I’ll play a bit, too. Even if it’s just the three of you, I see one of you is capable, at least. At least try to resist, okay?” 

The orcs each readied their weapons, too. 

“You don’t get a turn, old man.” Ranta bent his entire body to lower himself. “I’ll take these guys. Kuzaku. Shihoru. You two are mine. Think of it as the little mercy I can offer. I’ll put you to rest.” 

“If that’s your idea of mercy...!” Kuzaku dug his heels in and lifted his sword overhead. It looked like his right arm still did hurt, but he could manage to move it somehow. “...you can keep it! Ranta-kun, what happened to you, man?!” 

Shihoru had a sudden realization. “...Where’s Merry?” 

There was a shudder that shook through Ranta’s head and shoulders. That was when it happened. Suddenly, the nyaas started meowing like crazy, and the humanoid creature on the giant wolf’s back shouted something. 

Takasagi said, “Huh?” and looked around the area. “Enemy reinforcements, you say?” 

The nyaas scattered in a hurry. Though they were out of sight, you could 

tell it from their meows. The black wolves seemed uneasy, too, but when the giant wolf let out its horrifying howl, they all fell into line. Takasagi was shouting in some unknown language. The orcs seemed to be trying to harden their defenses. 

“Hey,” Katsuharu said without looking to Shihoru. “Now’s our time to get out of here.” 

“But...!” Kuzaku kicked the ground. “Damn it! This makes no sense!” 

He was so right. Ranta becoming their enemy... It was so incomprehensible, she wanted to cry. 

“Ranta-kun!” Shihoru burst out with a sob. Before she cried, she had to find out this much, at least. “What about Merry?! What happened to Merry?!” 

Kuzaku turned back in shock. Ranta said nothing. Could he not answer? 

Could he not afford to do that? 

“Aaaaarnooooold! Where are you?!” 

An awfully loud voice echoed through the area. It wasn’t far from here. It was close. 

The giant wolf jumped and changed direction. Something—someone— had attacked the giant wolf. The black wolves all began to move at the same time. Were they trying to help the giant wolf? 

“Oh...?” Takasagi knocked something out of the air with his katana. An arrow, huh. “We’ve got ourselves a sniper, I see. I’m not interested in getting hurt. The end!” 

Was “the end” the signal to retreat? They pulled back. They retreated, without any regard for Shihoru and the others. The giant wolf, the black wolves, the orcs, Takasagi, and even Ranta. 

“Wait, Ranta-kun!” Shihoru almost chased after him despite herself, but Katsuharu stopped her. 

“Stop it!” he ordered. “I don’t know the situation, but not now!” 

“B-But, Merry...!” 

“Hey! Ranta-kun!” Kuzaku took off running, but quickly came to a stop. 

“Ugh! It’s no good, not against that guy! Damn it, Ranta! He’s more than just fast when he’s running away!” 

Shihoru couldn’t stand any longer. She sat down where she was, and Dark disappeared from her shoulder, looking disappointed. 

This. This is just too much. It’s awful. Too awful. 

“Ah!” Kuzaku shouted. 

When he looked, Ranta was at the tail of the enemy group and something jumped him from the side. There was a struggle, one of them got on top of the other, then they switched, flipping over and over. When he noticed, Takasagi swung his katana, but it looked more like he was trying to split them in two than to split them up. Neither of them wanted to get killed, so they both leapt apart at the same time. 

Ranta immediately took off running. Takasagi left, too. That left only the other one behind. 

“...Haruhiro-kun,” Shihoru whispered. 

Even if it was dark, there was no mistaking him. That was Haruhiro. 

Haruhiro was on one knee, watching the enemy leave. 

What was even going on here? Shihoru couldn’t think straight. Even if she could think, it wasn’t likely she’d understand it. 

I don’t want to think about anything right now.