Chapter 11 — They Are Made to Fight So Quickly That You Cannot Tell What Is Happening, Which Makes You Think the Animators Are Trying to Cut Corners!
The split pieces of Luu fell from the tree. Tomochika watched in shock. She hadn’t even been able to react.
“Oh...”
As Luu’s body hit the ground, Tomochika finally pulled herself together.
“Even though she was cut in half, there’s no blood, huh?” Yogiri remarked, looking at her body on the ground.
Though the suddenness had taken her by surprise, Tomochika realized something was wrong. Luu had been cut in half. Normally, blood and organs would spill out, but nothing like that happened. Instead, the fallen pieces of her body began to squirm. Then they lifted up and began to seal the wound, trying to hold her together.
“You seem awfully calm for having just seen your beloved daughter cut in two before your eyes!” Hanakawa commented.
“She’s not my daughter. She’s just some weird person we picked up along the way.”
“As expected of Sir Takatou! Despite her adorable appearance, you are able to write her off as ‘some weird person’ without issue! Though I am not sure whether to be afraid or impressed!”
“So now what?” Carol asked. “It looks like that thing was only after her.” It was hardly likely that it was just attacking randomly. It had clearly been after Luu in particular.
“Do you know anything about it, Carol?”
“Nope. I have no clue what that thing was. But Luu was a goddess, right? That’s probably why it was targeting her, don’t you think?”
“I have seen this creature before! While I was traveling with Miss Aoi, it attacked us!”
“Oh? I’m impressed you’re still alive. Did you fight it off?”
“No. I simply begged on my hands and knees and it fled! It killed a golden dragon at the time. If it also killed a goddess at the tower as you said, it seems likely it is targeting the divine.”
“A dragon? You mean like a golden thunder dragon?!” Tomochika exclaimed.
“Ahh, yes, that is the impression it gave. Have you seen it before?”
Tomochika recalled the massive golden dragon wrapped in lightning that they had encountered in the canyon. It had invited them to take part in the Swordmaster’s trial in the tower and had promised to guide them out of the canyon if they met the Swordmaster. However, Tomochika and Yogiri had ended up getting a map from someone else on their way out and had never met the dragon again. Considering all that had happened at the tower, including the Swordmaster’s death, they hadn’t exactly been excited about meeting the dragon again, but they’d had no idea it had been killed.
“I guess we met it once...but it had taken the form of a young girl at the time, so it’s kind of a complex feeling...”
“What?! Even in such a situation, you were collecting members for your harem?! Just what sort of fate have you been cursed with, Sir Takatou?!”
“I guess we did come across a lot of girls...” Thinking back, a large number of the people they had ended up interacting with had been women.
“But still, it appears somehow different from when I last saw it...” Hanakawa murmured, studying the creature. “Ah! It appears to be missing its right arm!”
The monster was a humanoid made of black metal, with blades all over its body. Tomochika only had a vague impression of it, but now that Hanakawa had mentioned it, it did seem to be missing an arm, as if it had been ripped off around the shoulder.
“So it killed a dragon, a goddess, and Luu, who was a collection of transformed Philosopher’s Stones. I guess it’s not interested in ordinary humans like us?” Putting aside whether Yogiri was actually just an ordinary human or not, that was at least how he looked.
“But if it’s after the Philosopher’s Stones, it’s going to keep chasing us, isn’t it?” Tomochika started to worry. If they were collecting Philosopher’s Stones, this thing would likely keep harassing them. If that were the case, it might have been best to deal with it right away.
“But Takatou only uses his power in self-defense, right?” Carol asked. “And he doesn’t seem like the type to take revenge, so he probably won’t kill something just because it’ll be an issue in the future.”
“In truth, I do not want to ask him to use his power except in cases of self-defense. If Takatou begins using vague criteria to decide when to use his power, all our plans will have been for nothing.” Ryouko seemed extremely against the idea of attacking it.
“Umm. Without Luu’s telekinesis, we probably have no choice but to find Euphemia, right?” Risley piped up, surprisingly selfishly.
“Why are you all being so cruel?!” Hanakawa complained. “Will you not help Luu?! She is clearly still alive! If you do not intervene, that creature will finish her off!” Despite being cut in half, Luu was still moving. The pieces of her body were struggling to reunite themselves.
“Okay, then go ahead, Hanakawa.”
“Ugh...that is not a line appropriate for a hero! But more importantly, will it not be an issue for your plans if Luu, your method of getting home, is killed?!”
“Hmm...what is most strange is that the creature has yet to finish her off,” Mokomoko observed with a frown.
It was certainly strange. Luu was writhing on the ground. The monster could have easily sliced her into a thousand pieces where she lay, but while they discussed the situation up in the trees, the monster sat there motionless. It wasn’t looking at Luu; it was facing in some other direction. Something had caught its attention.
Tomochika tried to figure out what it was looking at. A woman with long hair and gaudy clothes was walking towards them.
“I finally caught up to you. You’ve been on the loose for too long!” The woman was clearly furious, but the monster didn’t respond. It just stared at her. “Ma! Are you still alive?! She is, isn’t she?! Just barely! I finally found her, and she’s almost dead!” The woman continued her angry advance.
Maybe Tomochika couldn’t tell exactly what was going on from up in the tree, but her advance seemed careless.
“Take this! This is for cutting my puppy in two!” The woman swung an exaggerated punch. She didn’t seem the least bit concerned that she was about to punch something covered in blades. Her fist struck the creature’s head, blowing it off its shoulders. At the same time, the monster’s remaining hand grazed her cheek. It had aimed for her head, but she had avoided it just by moving her head to the side.
“And this is for cutting Ma in two! Stop cutting everything you see in half! It’s too one-note!” The woman delivered a kick to the monster’s stomach, sending it flying. But in the next moment, it was behind her again. Apparently serious now that it had taken damage, the monster moved with terrifying speed.
The woman spun around and delivered a kick behind her, but that was as much as Tomochika could see. The two below continued to exchange blows at a speed her eyes couldn’t track. Clumps of earth were kicked up into the air, and trees were shredded, crushed, and knocked over. Before they knew it, a fight that surpassed human understanding had begun.
“What is going on here?! Now there’s suddenly a fight?!” Tomochika exclaimed.
“Ah, it is one of those situations,” Hanakawa said. “Like in anime, where they are made to fight so quickly that you cannot tell what is happening, which makes you think the animators are trying to cut corners! All you can see are shock waves!”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Yogiri asked, at a loss.
“For now, let’s just wait and see who wins.”
“I concur! There is nothing we can do in this...situation?” As Hanakawa spoke, the branch on which he was sitting snapped. One of their attacks had struck the tree they were hiding in.
“Gaaaaaah!” With a scream, Hanakawa dropped to the ground.
“Maybe we should get down from here and try running away?” Carol suggested.
“Good idea. Everyone chasing us already left.”
“But how do we get down?” Yogiri asked. “I think we’re a bit too high for me to get down by myself.”
It didn’t seem like Luu would be able to help them. Tomochika could climb down easily enough, but it would be a challenge for Yogiri.
“I would appreciate it if you could show some concern for my well-being instead of discussing things so calmly!” Hanakawa shouted from the forest floor.
“You can heal yourself, can’t you?”
“I can, but that is not the point!”
“I can carry Takatou down,” Tomochika offered.
“All right, let’s do that,” Yogiri agreed.
Putting one arm under Yogiri’s legs and another around his waist, Tomochika stood on her branch. Yogiri then put an arm around Tomochika’s neck so that she was carrying him like a princess.
“Wow, this feels really stable,” he said, impressed.
“Indeed,” Mokomoko answered proudly. “Though it looks simple enough, if one is inexperienced, it can be extremely difficult.”
“Am I really being praised for how well I can carry a person?”
Tomochika had picked him up like that since it had seemed easiest for him that way, but they couldn’t waste any more time. With Yogiri in her arms, she leaped down from the tree, absorbing the shock of the impact with her knees. They managed to get down without any injuries.
Ryouko and Carol jumped down after her. For them, the height wasn’t an obstacle.
“Now, what shall we do? Having descended is all well and good, but if we are not careful, we might get caught up in their combat,” Hanakawa moaned.
“Whoever tries to attack us will just die. Even if they don’t intentionally aim for us, if they’re so distracted they don’t pay attention to their surroundings, it’s their own fault if I have to respond.”
“I see. Sticking to you is definitely the correct choice, Sir Takatou!”
“I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t, but I guess I don’t have much of a choice...” Yogiri only automatically protected himself and Tomochika, and it didn’t look like he was interested in adding anyone else to the mix.
“Ah, before we move, I would like to attempt something. If Luu is still alive, perhaps my healing magic will be effective on her?” Hanakawa stepped closer to the fallen pieces of Luu. “Heal!” He reached out to touch her body. That was all he needed to do to use his power. The split halves of her body glowed briefly before reconnecting.
“I thought I was gonna die!” Luu immediately sat up.
“You seem surprisingly okay.”
“I’m not okay at all! Ack, Hanakawa saw me naked! Gross!” Of course, her clothes had also been sliced in two.
“Why would I be interested in the form of a three-year-old child? And even after I went through the trouble of healing you...”
“Put this on for now,” Tomochika said, throwing her a shirt from their belongings.
“So, Luu, do you have any idea what’s going on?” Yogiri asked.
“No! I have no clue!”
“Okay then, let’s get out of the forest. We’ll follow the plan we came up with earlier. We’ll go look for Euphemia, while Carol’s group goes to try and get a boat for us. Hanakawa, you can do whatever you like.”
“Hold it! Where are you trying to take Ma?!”
The moment they tried to leave, the woman fighting the monster called out to them. Looking around, they realized the high-speed battle had already come to an end. The gaudily dressed woman and the bladed monster had stopped moving and were glaring at each other.
“You mean this girl?” Yogiri pointed at Luu.
“By ‘Ma’ she means her mother, right? And why is she talking like that?!”
“That must be a result of your translation device attempting to communicate the nuances of her speech,” Mokomoko explained. Since they hadn’t received the Gift, Yogiri and Tomochika couldn’t understand this world’s language. In order to speak with the people there, they were using magical translators given to them by the concierge Celestina, whom they had met in Quenza.
“That’s right! So don’t try to kidnap her!”
“Do you know her?” Yogiri asked Luu.
“Me? No.” Luu shook her head, seeming as confused as the rest of them.
“She says she doesn’t know you.”
“No, no, no! You can’t say that! You’ve been away from home so long... Are you still trying to avoid coming back?!”
Though Luu didn’t know her, the other woman was acting awfully familiar with her. Luu had said that her memories as a goddess were still vague, so it was likely the stranger knew more than Luu did.
“She doesn’t really know much about herself, so if you could explain things for us, that would help a lot. But this place is kind of dangerous, so we’re going to leave.”
“And I’m saying wait! I’ll mop this guy up in a sec!”
“Huh? After all the fighting you’ve already done, you still think you can beat him that quickly?!” Tomochika replied reflexively.
“You know...you’re awfully harsh for having such a cute face! This guy’s stronger than the last time I saw him! Anyway, just wait a sec! I’m already done getting ready to beat him!”
Eyes appeared. On the ground, on the trees, on the rocks, on the fallen leaves, on the puddles of water. Countless eyes appeared around them, all staring at the monster. They seemed to be connected to the woman somehow, a manifestation of her iron will to keep the creature from escaping.
“Now you can’t go anywhere! Maybe you got out last time, but this time there’s no way!” The woman swung her right arm around in a circle. From below, she swung her arm up behind her, then brought it down hard. Repeating the motion twice, she started approaching the monster.
While there might have been a lot of force behind it, she was telegraphing the attack far too much. Anyone with any sort of experience in combat would have been able to avoid it. But the monster’s only reply was to shudder in place.
What kind of attack was that? Tomochika had no idea what was happening, but there must have been some meaning behind the appearance of all those eyes. Maybe they were binding the monster in place.
“Die!” Her spinning arm struck the monster head on. Hit from directly above, the bladed creature’s body exploded into countless pieces, scattering in all directions.
“Ah!” Apparently caught off guard by the result of her actions, the woman yelped.
The monster was gone, and the forest was quiet once more.
“Is it over?”
“Uhh, it definitely looks like I won. You saw how it exploded, right? Like it was admitting defeat?”
“The way you say that makes it hard to believe!”
“I couldn’t finish it off, but it feels like I did quite a bit of damage, and it’s in tons of pieces now, so I think I won!”
“So it ran away...”
“I’m serious, though; it’s over!”
“Well, at least it’s safe now, right? So tell us what’s going on.” Yogiri replied, feeling the conversation wasn’t going anywhere.
“I have no reason to answer questions from a human, but it looks like you’ve been taking care of Ma, so I’ll hear you out.”
“Is Luu your mother?”
“That’s right, I’m her kid.”
“Uh...it really looks like the exact opposite, doesn’t it?”
“I have no idea why she looks like that!” the woman said.
Tomochika was starting to doubt whether they’d get any useful information out of this person.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login