Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 8 - Chapter 4

4. Hard Work

The path ahead of them dipped lower, and the fog swirled around them. 

The sounds of fighting are coming from over there,  thought Haruhiro. 

Moyugi was leading the group, pressing through the fog with his demon Moira in tow. 

“Huwuh?!” Yume let out a strange cry. “Where’d Kuroron go?!” 

Haruhiro was taken aback. Kuro was gone. He’d vanished. He’d been right in front of them just a moment ago. 

Haruhiro was surprised by that, but if they didn’t hurry and catch up to Moyugi and Moira, they were going to be left behind. If he was stuck alone with Yume in the middle of who-knew-where, that would be the worst. 

He and Yume picked up the pace. For now, they were somehow managing to keep Moyugi in sight. But it also felt like they were getting themselves in deeper and deeper, maybe? Shihoru and the others must be getting worried. 

And Ranta... he just hoped Ranta wouldn’t do anything stupid. 

Damn it. 

He’d just firmed up his resolve to be leader, and was doing his best to be careful, and then he’d made an awful mistake like this. Nothing ever went his way. It made him really, really resent how mediocre he was. 

All that aside—they’re here. Going at it. It’s a battle. They’re fighting. 

Haruhiro could hear the sound of a man’s husky voice cutting through the fog. It was human. There were a number of other voices, too. 

Moyugi came to a stop. Moira went alone into the fog, vanishing out of sight. Haruhiro and Yume caught up to Moyugi, then stopped. 

If he squinted, just vaguely, Haruhiro could make out a humanoid figure. 

The figure was swinging around a fairly large sword. He was likely the owner of the husky voice. Was the group that kept attacking him made up of orcs? Or were they some other race? Haruhiro couldn’t tell that much, but it was one against many. 

Despite his obvious numerical disadvantage, the man with the husky voice didn’t take so much as a single step back. That said, it was clear he was fighting alone. 

“Um, Moyugi-san?” Haruhiro asked hesitantly. “That guy’s human, right? 

Don’t we have to help him...?” 

“If it were necessary, I would, of course. That goes without saying. What are you, some kind of idiot?” 

“I was just asking. No need to bite my head off...” 

“It’s fine to ask questions, but think for yourself first,” Moyugi snapped. 

“To put it simply, you look up to me as some sort of superior, and you were looking for me to give you orders, right? In other words, you’re an idiot. 

They say an idiot is what you make of him, and, it goes without saying, I could make good use of you. What do you say to that, Haruhiro-kun the idiot?” 

“...I’ll think before asking from now on.” 

“Please do. I hate having my thinking process disrupted by questions from idiots, you see.” 

“Moyugin’s a real bully.” Yume puffed up her cheeks in anger, but Moyugi just smiled faintly as if it didn’t matter to him. Well, Moyugi had made a fair argument, and he’d been right on the mark. Moyugi had been in this line of business longer than them. Without a doubt, he was more skilled, too. It would be hard to find anything they were better than him at. That was why Moyugi was way above Haruhiro, and that was why Haruhiro had decided to do as he said. He’d naturally accepted that relationship. 

Moyugi, with his sharp tongue, had questioned that. Are you okay with that?  he was asking. 

Moyugi had clearly stated that if Haruhiro and Yume acted like loyal little dogs who would just wag their tails and follow him, he’d be happy to use them as decoys or disposable pawns, but he wouldn’t treat them any better than that. They were all members of the Day Breakers, but so what? If they thought that made them his comrades, they were massively wrong, and a massive nuisance to boot. They needed to do something to make him acknowledge them—that was what he was saying. 

It’d been harshly worded, but he was being pretty considerate. Or at least, that was what Haruhiro decided to think. Haruhiro wasn’t earnest enough that he could get all worked up and think, Fine, I’ll make you acknowledge me, but he couldn’t let himself be used as a decoy or pawn. 

For now, even if they couldn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with Moyugi and Kuro, they could still reflect on things that needed reflecting on. They could learn what needed learning. They could work on the things they needed to improve. They could, little by little, narrow the distance, the gap, between them. 

Is that too much for us?  he wondered. Well, even if it’s difficult to accomplish, we can make the attempt. 

Think. Think hard. No, just thinking isn’t enough. Or rather, I need material to work with before I can think. I need information. Look for it with my eyes, hear it with my ears. Sense it with my skin. 

What’s going on here? What are Moyugi and the others doing? Fighting enemies. What kind of enemies? There were orcs. But it’s probably more than just orcs. What about those enemies the guy with the husky voice is fighting? 

Are they just orcs? Or are there other races, too? I want to know. I need to learn more. 

“Mind if I move up a little more?” Haruhiro began. “No, actually, I’m moving up.” 

Without waiting for a response, Haruhiro walked ahead of Moyugi. Yume came with him. 

He could see it now. The man had an incredibly large sword with an unusual shape, and he was swinging it around left and right. 

What a sword,  thought Haruhiro. I’ve never seen anything like it. 

Each sword had a center of gravity. That was the point where, if the sword was held and it was allowed to balance itself like a scale, the weight on both sides would be equal. Generally, if it wasn’t somewhere from ten to twenty five or so centimeters from the point where the blade met the hilt, the sword became incredibly unwieldy. Unusable, even. And yet. 

And yet, the man’s sword had to be more than a meter and a half long, which on its own was already enough to make it oversized. And the tip was broad, too. It had a shape that might be described as looking like a thin slice of a giant mushroom. With a shape like that, the center of gravity had to be incredibly close to the tip. As a result, his swings were slower. 

Because he was forced to use big, slow swings, he left a lot of openings. 

The man resolved that issue by using something other than his sword. 

His feet. 

When an enemy got close to him, the man would let loose a kick. Those kicks had an incredible amount of force behind them. After all, the man was built as strong as an orc, maybe stronger. 

If Haruhiro took a kick from one of those log-like legs, he’d probably never get back up. And it went without saying that, even if he tried to defend himself with a shield or armor, he wouldn’t be able to stand up against the man’s massive mushroom sword. If he tried to get in close, he’d be kicked, if he didn’t, he’d be bisected by that massive mushroom sword. If he found himself facing that man as an enemy, what would he do? 

Haruhiro had only one answer. 

Run. What else? 

The guy was terrifying even just to look at. He wore no helmet, showing off his bald head, and while the mustache might have been okay, why was he wearing sunglasses? He was nothing if not intimidating. No matter how you looked at it, this guy was crazy. 

He shouted and swung his massive mushroom sword, turning an enemy into a corpse. He shouted three more times, and with each swing, there was another corpse. One enemy tried to charge him as he finished a swing, but he kicked them back, and then, with another shout, immediately bisected them. 

The corpses were piling up as Haruhiro watched. Okay, that might have been overstating it, but the man’s massive mushroom sword, the dynamic sword techniques, and the kicks that were quite agile for a man of his build all made Haruhiro want to describe it that way. 

To add one more thing, this man used the fog to his advantage, too. For him, anyone who tried to get close to him was an enemy, but his enemies couldn’t say the same thing. With visibility as bad as it was, it would be hard for the enemy to surround him with ten to twenty men on each side, pressing inwards. 

Haruhiro could see now why Moyugi didn’t try to join the fray. If he carelessly approached and tried to lend a hand, he might only succeed in disturbing the man. That being the case, couldn’t they just support him from a distance? 

By no means was that something Haruhiro was actually thinking of doing. 

But then he carelessly got himself noticed by the enemy. That was it. 

“Yume!” Haruhiro readied his stiletto and the knife with the hand guard. 

The enemies were closer than he had thought. 

Incoming. Green skins. Orcs. Two of them. One with blue hair, the other red. Wearing metal armor. Their swords are probably single-edged. They’re curved. Katanas, maybe? 

If they came at him together, he and Yume probably wouldn’t be able to hold out, not even for a little while. First, they had to split up the orcs, Haruhiro and Yume each taking one. 

Haruhiro charged at the blue-haired orc, showering it with a series of blows from his two blades. Both his slashes and thrusts were focused on speed. Even if they hit, they wouldn’t be able to do much damage. Even so, he managed to take some of the wind out of the orc’s sails. 

He could hear Yume shouting as she used her machete to trade blows with the red-haired orc, too. While Haruhiro had the blue-haired orc on the defensive, he adjusted his position so that his back was facing Yume’s. This way, even if new enemies came, they could at least avoid being attacked from behind. 

Moyugi, Moira, Kuro, anyone, could you come save us, please?  he thought desperately. 

Don’t get your hopes up,  he warned himself. If he couldn’t handle this by himself, how could he do anything? 

In fact, it was because he had tried to rely on others that, the moment the blue-haired orc went on the offensive, he tried to pull back. 

“Ah...!” Haruhiro shouted. 

Whoa! Damn! He’s fast! 

As the blue-haired orc took a savage swing at his throat, Haruhiro used the knife in his left hand to Swat it. With an immediate twist of his wrist, the orc swung downwards at him from above his head. The knife in Haruhiro’s left hand wouldn’t make it in time. He used Swat with the stiletto in his right. 

He couldn’t fully deflect it. 

The blue-haired orc stabbed at him. It looked like he’d be overpowered if he used his left, so Haruhiro used the stiletto in his right to Swat, Swat, Swat. 

He’s strong, this orc. 

It was only to be expected that each blow would be heavy, but the orc’s blows were skillful, too. The orc didn’t rely on power alone; his technique was precise and accurate. If Haruhiro described it as being like fighting a human, was that taking orcs too lightly? Still, that was how Haruhiro felt. 

This guy looked different, but he was human. 

Human...? 

No, he wasn’t. Not only was his body larger than a human’s, he had greater strength. If he was smarter and more dexterous on top of that, that would mean, on the whole, he was greater than a human. 

While cautiously using Swat to deflect the blue-haired orc’s katana, Haruhiro shuddered. He might have been misunderstanding something all this time. 

The No-Life King had appeared around a century and a half ago, giving birth to the undead, and unifying the orcs, kobolds, goblins, and others into a single faction. They had destroyed the human kingdoms of Nananka and Ishmal, and forced the Kingdom of Arabakia to retreat south of the Tenryu Mountain Range. As a result of that, the orcs and undead were now both powerful factions on the frontier of Grimgar. 

That just showed how incredible the No-Life King had been. Somehow, that was what Haruhiro had ended up thinking. 

Orcs were clever, and stronger than humans, and that was why they were in a better position than humans on the frontier. Had Haruhiro even once considered that possibility? 

To be frank, no, he hadn’t. 

Maybe Haruhiro hadn’t known what the orcs were truly like. 

“Yume!” Haruhiro narrowly managed to Swat the blue-haired orc’s next attack, a two-strike combo consisting of a horizontal attack chained to a low one, then glanced over to Yume. He only saw her for a brief moment, but it was clear she was struggling. 

We can’t hold out,  he realized. Not like this. 

The way things were going, Haruhiro and Yume would both go down sooner or later. 

It was a fresh and clear reminder of how much more powerful Moyugi and his group were. Things were clearly hopeless, and they couldn’t win anyway, so should he just give up? No, that wasn’t an option. Clever. He had to get clever. Haruhiro might not have realized what a real orc was like, but their enemies didn’t know a thing about them, either. 

“Two, one...!” he called. 

“Meow!” Yume quickly turned. At the same time, Haruhiro did an about- face. 

They switched. 

The blue-haired orc had been getting used to Haruhiro’s fighting style, and the red-haired orc had probably been getting a handle on how Yume moved. If their opponents suddenly changed, that would confuse anyone. 

Human or orc, it made no difference. 

Haruhiro pressed the attack now. Naturally, he didn’t understand his opponent, so it was risky. Still, the way things had been going, there had been little chance of them winning, so he would have to take the chance and attack. 

Haruhiro committed to it, getting in close to the red-haired orc. He used Slap and Shatter, and made it look like he was trying to use Hitter, but then used Cut, and another Shatter. The blows were all shallow, but the red-haired orc was bewildered by his combo. 

Now, thought Haruhiro. 

He slipped past the orc, getting behind him. He performed a Backstab with his stiletto. 

It wasn’t just one shot. It was two, then three. He pierced the armor, but it wasn’t a fatal strike. 

The red-haired orc turned to face him. 

Circling around to get behind the orc again, Haruhiro performed another triple Backstab combo. 

The red-haired orc staggered, but with a cry of “Orrrsh!” it managed to stay on his feet. 

Having anticipated this, Haruhiro immediately grappled him from behind. 

The red-haired orc was wearing a helmet. However, there were large openings for the eyes and mouth, and the orc’s red hair was sticking out from inside it. 

Haruhiro rammed his knife with the hand guard into the mouth hole, then stabbed his stiletto into the orc’s right eyeball. He pulled both free in an instant, leaping away. 

The red-haired orc groaned, putting one knee on the ground, but it didn’t fall yet. 

Just how tough is this guy?  Haruhiro wondered. Even if he’s dying, there’s no telling what he might do up until he’s completely dead. I have to think that way. Harden my heart. 

Haruhiro kicked the red-haired orc down, and then immediately twisted his stiletto into the orc’s right eye. 

“Sorry about this!” he shouted. 

Die. Die. Die. Die. Please, die. 

Leaving the now-motionless red-haired orc lying where he was, Haruhiro looked over at Yume. She was using Wan-chan to deflect the blue-haired orc’s sword, but he could see that she was clearly tired. He wanted to get in there and help immediately—

But don’t rush,  he cautioned himself. Haruhiro had his own way of doing things. 

First he had to relax his breathing, get it under control, release the excess tension from his body, and erase his presence. He couldn’t make the fog go away, but he could clear his mind. 

His field of vision quickly broadened. He could see. He could hear. He could feel. His mind was set loose from his flesh, and it felt like he was looking down on the area, himself included, at an angle. He felt like this was a little different from the Stealth skill that Barbara-sensei had taught him, but Haruhiro was at his best like this. 

Moyugi hadn’t moved a step from where he had been before, and was standing there, as if he were saying, Show me what you’ve got.  Haruhiro had expected that, so it didn’t piss him off. He wouldn’t be able to make that man let out an admiring groan, but he’d do what he could. 

Moving calmly, like he was one with the fog, Haruhiro circled around behind the blue-haired orc that Yume was trading blows with. Not only had the blue-haired orc not noticed him, Yume hadn’t detected Haruhiro moving, either. 

He couldn’t see that line, but he moved without the slightest bit of indecision. Sheathing his knife, he went for a Backstab with his stiletto. It went in deep, and, for an instant, the blue-haired orc stopped. 

Without missing a beat, Haruhiro used Arrest. He grabbed the blue-haired orc’s left arm. Caught by surprise, and with Haruhiro having such a firm grip on his elbow, the size difference between them meant little. It was easy to throw him off balance and trip him. Haruhiro stabbed his stiletto into the fallen orc’s right eye. 

“Meow!” Yume jumped in, slamming her curved blade into the orc’s right wrist. Though she didn’t manage to cut off his hand, the sword it was holding did go flying. 

It was probably at that moment that the blue-haired orc thought, I’m finished.  His despair was palpable. Even so, the blue-haired orc worked up the will to try and rise once more. 

I won’t let you,  thought Haruhiro. 

He straddled the orc, pulled his stiletto free, and stabbed it back in. Pulled it free and stabbed it back in. He cut up the blue-haired orc’s face. 

The stiletto was a weapon that specialized in stabbing, so its penetrative power and ability to inflict lethal wounds was frightening. It didn’t take long for the blue-haired orc to die. 

How do you like that?  Haruhiro thought. It wasn’t something he was going to say, but he turned to look at Moyugi. He’s not even there. 

With a series of shouts and grunts, the bald man wearing sunglasses was still at it, the same as before, slashing at enemies with his massive mushroom sword, intimidating them into backing away, and knocking them back with kicks. 

The orc that had been kicked to the ground by the sunglasses-wearing bald man tried to get up—and couldn’t. Before he was able to, Moyugi, who had moved over there at some point, thrust his thin sword through the back of the orc’s neck. 

“Now, then.” Pulling his sword free, Moyugi adjusted the position of his glasses by using the middle finger of his left hand. “I’d say it’s about time. 

We’ll finish this by the time I count to eight. One...” 

There was a visible shift in the tide of the battle. The enemies that had, until now, been focusing on the sunglasses-wearing bald man decided to spread out. Maybe half of the enemy had changed their target to Moyugi. 

Soon, one of them went down. 

An arrow, huh? 

That had to be Kuro’s doing. But another enemy sprang at Moyugi. 

He didn’t dodge. Instead, he said, “Two,” still adjusting his glasses and counting. 

What does that guy think he’s doing? Isn’t that dangerous? 

As if she was doing it to show that wasn’t the case at all, Moira emerged from the fog, and with a cry of “Noooooo,” she dragged down the enemy that was about to take a swing at Moyugi. At almost exactly the same time, another enemy collapsed, having been struck by two arrows in quick succession. 

While counting “Three,” Moyugi crossed blades with yet another enemy, this one a white-haired orc. In that moment, Moyugi glanced at Haruhiro. 

What?  he thought, startled. In the end, you’re using us after all, huh? 

Well, not that I mind. 

Haruhiro swam through the fog using Stealth. When he got behind the white-haired orc, Moyugi counted “Four,” then turned to the left as if he had lost interest in his opponent, walking off like he was taking a casual stroll. 

The white-haired orc was caught by surprise, probably enraged, and tried to attack Moyugi. 

His back was wide open. Well, there was only one thing to do about that. 

With a disinterested glance at Haruhiro, who had gone in for a Spider and was trying hard to finish off the white-haired orc, Moyugi was leisurely going about and running through the other enemies. 

“Five, six.” 

Seriously, what was with that guy? 

The number of enemies was quickly dropping. 

Hidden in the fog, Kuro shot them to death. Moira used Moyugi as bait to attack the enemy. Moyugi was casually stabbing them to death. It went without saying that the sunglasses-wearing bald man was still striking down enemies with his massive mushroom sword, too. 

How they were killing enemies, that was something even Haruhiro could tell. But wasn’t it weird for things to be going this smoothly? He felt like he was being shown a magic trick. 

“Seven.” Moyugi backed away, looking like he might trip at any moment. 

That one wasn’t an orc; a four-armed humanoid enemy was charging at Moyugi. 

An arrow stabbed into his right flank, and then Moira tackled him from the opposite side with a “Nooooooo!” 

Moira got on top of the enemy. 

“Noooooo... Noooooooo... Noooooooooooooooooooooo...!” 

With a glance to Moria, who was murdering her enemy in an unspeakable manner, Moyugi returned his thin sword to its sheathe with an elegant gesture. “Eight. Done. Just like I calculated.” 

“Whoo...” Yume looked around the area. 

Haruhiro could only sigh. He shook his head. 

The orcs were gone. There had been so many of them, too. But, at least as far as he could see, not one of them was left standing. 

It really had ended by the time Moyugi had counted to eight. 

Well, since Moyugi had been doing the counting himself, and he’d been able to adjust the length of time as needed, it didn’t seem entirely fair, but still. 

“Hrmm...” The bald man wearing sunglasses let out a low groan, stabbed his massive mushroom sword into the ground, and then twisted his head side to side slowly. “Indeed.” 

“Good work.” Kuro appeared out of nowhere, slapping the sunglasses-wearing bald man on the shoulder. “Kajita.” 

The sunglasses-wearing bald man he called Kajita smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. 

Moira slowly rose up. Her four-armed enemy didn’t so much as twitch. Or rather, it was an unrecognizable mess. Enemy or not, had she really had to mutilate the body that badly? 

Or was that just how demons were? Would Ranta’s Zodiac-kun act like that eventually? 

Haruhiro grimaced at that unpleasant thought. 

“Um...” Haruhiro shook his head. “This—I don’t know what it’s called, the four-armed enemy... what is it?” 

“What? You don’t know?” Kuro said with an exaggerated look of exasperation. “It’s an undead, of course. The ones with four arms are called double arms. Or rather, that’s what they call themselves.” 

“This is an undead...” Haruhiro rubbed his throat. 

The one Moira had killed was destroyed beyond recognition, so he looked through the other bodies to find one, and—there it was. Here, there, everywhere, all of the non-orcs must have been undead. 

The undead weren’t unlike humans. They were more or less humanoid, but the ones called double arms had four arms, and there were others that had two arms that were oddly long, or they had extremely long torsos with short legs, or really big butts, or strangely large heads. Also, they had very little exposed skin. Their bodies were covered in cloth, leather, or metal, and the rare bits of flesh that peaked through were horribly blackened, or brown, or grey, or pale blue. 

Another difference between them and the orcs was that there was no blood flowing from their wounds. Instead, an unsettling green mucus seemed to be leaking out. 

“Huh...” Yume hesitantly walked over and crouched next to the undead’s corpse. “Listen, Yume, she’s got this one thing she’s been wonderin’ about for a while now.” 

“Sure.” Kuro walked over and crouched down next to Yume. “Ask away. 

Though, if I don’t know the answer, all I can do is lie to you.” 

“If you’re gonna lie, tell Yume it’s a lie, okay, so she doesn’t go believin’ you, okay?” 

“Wah ha ha!” Kuro laughed. “Sure, sure. You’ve got it. I’ll do that.” 

“Listen, undead, they’re dead that un, right?” 

“Huh? What, what? Dead that un? What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Like, they’re dead that are un, right? Un is un! Right?” 

“Wah ha ha!” Kuro cackled. “That’s a funny joke, but I have no idea what you mean, okay? You know what, you’re cute. Like some kind of animal.” 

“Murrgh! Yume, she’s an animal, but she’s human, okay! Oh, but humans’re animals, too.” 

“Ha ha! What are you, the pet every family wants? Wahahahaha!” Kuro hugged Yume’s head close to him and patted it like crazy. “Hey, Moyugi, Kajita, can I keep her?” 

“When it comes time to feed her, be sure you do it yourself.” Moyugi’s eyes had a creepy glint in them. 

Kajita grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. “Indeed.” 

“Basically...” Since this was going nowhere, Haruhiro did his best to interpret for her. “...with ‘dead’ referring to death, and ‘un-’being a negating prefix, I think she wants to say, aren’t undead not supposed to die?” 

“Haru-kun, that’s it!” Yume brushed Kuro’s hand away. “Geez! Now you’ve gone and fussed Yume’s hair up!” 

“...Yume, I don’t think fussed is the word you’re looking for...” 

“Hoh? Tussed? Hussed? Oh, Yume doesn’t know anymore.” 

“Heh heh heh...” Kuro was doubled over, holding his sides. “Oh, damn. 

My sides. You’re killing me here, seriously. Okay, okay. I get what you meant. I see. Sure. You’re right. If you write it out in kanji, they’re the ‘without death race,’ but these guys, they die pretty easily.” 

Kanji?  Haruhiro thought, startled. Oh, right, kanji. If you write it in kanji —Wait, huh...? 

I know what kanji are. They’re written characters. They’re used here in Grimgar, too. But there’s something... Yeah, that’s right. Kanji? 

I don’t think anyone calls them kanji, do they? 

They’re one type of written character, and I’ve only heard them called ideographs. They might have a name, but I’ve never heard it. Even though they’re definitely kanji. 

“What’s wrong, junior?” Kuro asked him. 

When Haruhiro looked up, he saw Kuro had a stupid grin on his face, but there was a sharp glint in his eye. 

“Is something bothering you? Speak up.” 

“...No.” Haruhiro shook his head. “It’s nothing.” 

“Oh, yeah?” Kuro took a short breath, then gestured towards the dead undead bodies with his chin. “Well, whatever. So, back to the undead. 

They’ve got this thing called a core, and it’s thought that they’ll die if you bust it. The core is usually inside the head, so as long as they’re intact from the neck up, they’ll round up enough dead body parts to revive themselves. 

Weird, huh?” 

“It’s only speculated?” Haruhiro raised his eyebrows. “Has it not been properly confirmed? That this core, or whatever it is, exists?” 

“Exactly. The core hasn’t been discovered,” Moyugi said smoothly. “The undead are said to be a race that was initially created by the No-Life King’s curse. The fact of the matter is, even now, if a person is left lying around after their life functions are terminated, they’ll eventually begin to move because of that curse. It’s not limited to people, though. We know that not only elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, kobolds, centaurs, and gnomes, the major sentient races, turn into what we call zombies three to five days after their deaths, but a number of other intelligent creatures do, too. However, though they can turn into zombies, they can’t become undead. Why is that? 

“There are those who theorize that it has to do with the No-Life King being gone from this world, but whatever the case, his curse is still functioning. Furthermore, when the No-Life King was still around, the undead were born from that curse. Based on that, I theorize that the so-called core is not a thing inside the undead, but that it’s a thing that has come to reside inside them in some form. When that form breaks, they cease to be undead. In other words...” 

“This is long.” Kajita gave a thumbs-up, and then turned it into a thumbs-down. “Too damn long.” 

Moyugi clicked his tongue. “Well, let’s leave it at that, then. We’ve been talking too long. My operation, it goes without saying, is still ongoing. Come on, we’re moving on to the next stage. Come on!” 

“Huh...?” Haruhiro and Yume exchanged glances. 

Yume had been spacing out. To tell the truth, so had Haruhiro. 

“What do you mean, next?” he asked. 

“Guess we should go.” Kuro stood up, stretching and cracking his fingers. 

“Two more left. This is tough on an old man like me.” 

Kajita shouldered his massive mushroom sword as if it was light. 

“Indeed.” 

“No, Kajita, I know you don’t look it, but you’re waaaay younger than me, okay? This is easy for you, I’ll bet. It’s a piece of cake, right?” Kajita gave him a silent thumbs-up. 

Moyugi had already gone far ahead with Moira. 

“Two more...” Haruhiro walked on unsteady legs. “I guess we’ll have to finish them quickly?” 

Was that okay? Or wasn’t it? He didn’t really know anymore. 

The fog was still thick, and deep.