Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen: The Reborn 

A little after the fighting had ended, S’yne, Itsuki, Rishia, and Ethnobalt came rushing up. Those who had participated in the battle were watching the cleanup of the damaged castle courtyard. S’yne’s sister seemed to have been planning to keep the battle short from the start, but S’yne looked distressed at not having made it in time. Her sister’s decision to leave before S’yne arrived spoke again to the precision of her skills in situational assessment. Sadeena seemed to think there was some other intent behind her actions . . . but I couldn’t see anything yet. 
The vanguards of the waves themselves hadn’t been that strong, and the main threat had been the artificial monster housing the power of the holy weapons. 
Maybe they really had just come to taunt us a little and feel us out. I wasn’t sure how things might have turned out if they had brought the Harpoon Hero with them. 
“About the two vanguards of the waves we captured alive . . .” I said. Sadeena and Shildina were looking over at the two who we presumed were also vanguards of the waves. 
“Dammit! Let us go!” one shouted. 
“What are you claiming we even did?” said the other. 
“You attacked us, pretty plainly,” I replied. These guys didn’t seem to come fitted with standard functions like a sense of guilt or common sense. They never listened to anything you said to them either. Once defeated, they always claimed they had never done anything wrong, lashing out at the ones who had defeated them. They didn’t give a moment’s thought to what might happen to themselves, or the countries that were supporting them, if they came and attacked the holder of a holy weapon and the vassal weapon holders. That was exactly why this world was having so many problems right now. 
We had at least made it so that those considered “geniuses” were having a harder time of things. That was a direct result of the things the allies of these two had pulled off. The issue was, apart from the crazy things they did and the horde of female followers, there was no way to spot these guys just by looking at them. If they played possum, it would be hard to punish them. Sadeena and Shildina, however, could apparently spot them at a glance. 
“Is there really something different about them?” I asked. 
“Yes, something . . . tingly,” Sadeena said. Shildina just made a noise of agreement or perhaps deep thought. 
“Raph!” said Raph-chan, looking pleased with herself as she rode on Sadeena’s shoulder. It looked like she could spot the difference too. That was impressive, but with Raph-chan it seemed to take her a bit of time to make the identification, so the killer whale sisters were more reliable in this instance. 
“I’m sorry I—” S’yne started. 
“Lady S’yne regrets not having reached you in time,” her familiar explained. She made a little noise, showing signs of that attitude she had of clinging to me. She had displayed it when we were campaigning in Q’ten Lo. She often stood guard while I slept too. I kind of wanted her to stop that, as it made it harder for me to get to sleep. 
“She knows you too well. So we can’t expect that you can outsmart her. Relax. Just be happy we didn’t take any serious damage,” I told her. She didn’t seem to want to accept that though. I was going to be stuck with her again for a while. I looked over at Raphtalia to see sympathy on her face. 
We really hadn’t lost much though. That much was true. S’yne’s sister had been the only one we probably couldn’t have taken, and we had learned about a dangerous new threat that the enemy was developing to use against us. If we sat around without acting for too much longer, we could find ourselves facing a whole army of those monsters. That placed us in a dangerous situation, but at least now we could prepare for it. We needed to take the next step forward, without wasting that intelligence. 
It would only be a little longer before we reached the origin of Glass’s style. 
“It sounds like you’ve had quite a day,” Itsuki said, light and casual. 
“Indeed. No need for you to feel bad about not making it in time either,” I told him. To be quite honest, I wouldn’t have been able to protect any more bodies using Stardust Mirror. I was really hoping that one would change into the equivalent of the higher-level skill soon, like Shooting Star Wall. “Keeping everyone in one place just in case the enemy attacks would be just as foolish. They just picked a good time to attack us.” 
“Does this confirm we have a spy?” Raphtalia asked. 
“That is a good question. There’s also the possibility they are using a movement skill like S’yne that lets them see their destination. To be honest about it, S’yne, I need your help. Rather than protect me, I would like it if you helped me make something to stop them from being able to run away,” I told her. S’yne nodded at my request right away. 
It was a good idea. Even if we did get the upper hand, it would be pointless if they could just run from us so easily. Something completely unexpected might happen. If we couldn’t block their movements, they would get away and we would be back to square one. We needed a solution to address the root of this problem. 
Also . . . we needed some way to handle any vassal weapon holders we might bump into from S’yne’s sworn enemies. If they were proceeding as we were, they would be implementing all of the holy weapon and vassal weapon power-up methods. The buff magic that we had hoped would fill that gap could also be used by the enemy, and they had tech that could just cancel it out. The main problem we definitely faced right now was how to cover the fundamental handicap of the weapons that had been captured by our foes. We needed to do something about that as quickly as possible. 
“Going back to this problem of having a spy in our ranks . . . what can we do about that?” I asked. 
“I’m good at spotting people like that!” Sadeena volunteered. 
“Me too!” Shildina chimed in, the two sisters both putting up their hands. 
“They didn’t call me the priestess of carnage for nothing!” Sadeena said brightly. 
“I’ll bring carnage to them all.” Shildina nodded. I had no reply. They remained so light and bubbly, no matter the situation. They probably had performed torture and stuff like that in the past. They had been like internal auditors, something like that—just with a bit more carnage. 
“I’m not sure I really want to give that job to you. Seeing as you don’t fully understand the language, I’m not sure it will be easy for you either,” I told them. They could talk if a Jewel like Therese or when a holy or vassal weapon holder was present, but not the rest of the time. 
“In which case, let’s work with little Therese and little L’Arc and interview them all one at a time. I’ll pull my weight. You can count on me!” Sadeena said. 
“I mean, if you think that’s going to work . . .” I said, still unsure. 
“Oh, little Naofumi. Your kindness brings warmth to my heart,” she replied. 
“I’m not being kind. I’m thinking of all the hassle this is going to cause,” I said. Having vanguards of the waves mixed in among the volunteer soldiers was bad enough. Wasting time looking for a spy we didn’t even know was there felt like a bit too much. Rather than that, I’d prefer they went out and raised their level, even by just one more. 
“Ah, that reminds me. Rishia and Ethnobalt have finally deciphered that key part of the ancient texts,” Itsuki informed me. 
“They have?” I asked. 
“Rishia did say that there may still be some mistakes in the translation,” Itsuki muttered. This was Rishia and Ethnobalt we were talking about. They weren’t pushy people and probably didn’t want to make a big declaration and then eventually have it proven false. 
“Rishia,” Itsuki called, beckoning Rishia and Ethnobalt over. “Come on, both of you. Share with everyone what you just found out.” 
“Honestly, these are just fragments that Itsuki pieced together,” Rishia said. 
“Indeed, we haven’t translated the entire thing yet, so there might be mistakes. We hurried over here because of the enemy attack too,” Ethnobalt said. Neither of them appeared especially confident. It sounded like Itsuki had led them to this, whatever it was. 
“Just think of it as a progress report. Come on,” Itsuki said. 
“You can’t hold out on me now,” I added. 
“Hey! What’s going on here, Naofumi?” Kizuna announced, who had also come over to listen. 
“You should hear this too, Kizuna,” Itsuki said. “Go ahead, Rishia. Tell them.” 
“Okay then . . . first, we’ll tell you what we’ve discovered about the waves themselves. If worlds are clashing together with considerable frequency, then it means something is probably causing them to do so. Sometimes the floating worlds do impact with each other, but it is very rare—very bad luck—for that to happen,” she said. 
“The Shield Spirit and Atla told me that,” I replied. The key thing here was the existence of someone behind all this, and we didn’t have any details on them. 
The idea of it being rare for the worlds to collide was easy to understand if you thought of the worlds like the stars in the sky. It was pretty rare for large stars to hit each other. I’d never heard of planets with living creatures on them hitting, ever. I mean, in my world we didn’t even know about any other planets with life on them. 
Maybe that meant that someone like Kyo was lurking somewhere, causing the waves. 
“Up to that part, we can translate with confidence. It’s what comes next that is the problem,” Rishia continued. 
“Go on,” I prompted. 
“The ancient text says that it is one who assumes the name of a god who is causing the waves,” she revealed. 
“Wow. That sounds like bullshit,” I replied. I could see why the translators didn’t have much confidence. So now, after everything else we’d been through, it turned out we were fighting a god. Talk about a riveting plot twist. That said, if we were talking about a being with the power to cause something as supernatural as the waves . . . maybe “god” wasn’t so far off the mark. 
“The ancient text also says that the holy weapons and vassal weapons can only suppress the damage caused by the waves, and the only solution is to get the one causing them to stop or wait for help to come from elsewhere,” Rishia continued. 
“The Shield Spirit and Atla told me all that too. They called this god the ‘World Eater,’ I think,” I said. It caused the waves in order to wipe out worlds and eat them. 

“I’d heard that much too,” Itsuki said. “But that was still just a hypothesis, and we have no details on exactly what this being is. That answer, it seems, is in the next part.” He looked like he was pretty sure of this information, at least. “Naofumi, you seem to also have a lot of experience with Internet games and the like, so I think maybe you can work this out for yourself. Do you have any ideas?” 
“Huh? About what?” I asked. 
“Think of those we have called vanguards of the waves, starting with Kyo, and then Takt, Miyaji, Seya. Think of their shared characteristics, and then try to consider things from their point of view,” Itsuki said. 
“Think like them? No way,” I said. To me, they seemed like a totally different, totally evil form of life that just happened to speak the same language. 
“Sorry, I didn’t explain that very well. We heroes were summoned here from other worlds by the weapons. That is the correct process. So this World Eater . . . this one who assumes the name of a god is interfering with the heroes and giving strength to the vanguards of the waves. Does that sound familiar to you? Think about their histories and their abilities,” Itsuki continued, seemingly keen to continue the guessing game. 
“Hold on.” It was like that one tricky puzzle piece finally slotting into place, and I didn’t like the picture it made in my brain. I turned to look again at the two we had caught who appeared to be vanguards of the waves. One was a kid no older than seventeen. He still had a youthful look to his face. We had investigated his background and found, as expected, a master of a singular art form who was now an adventurer. 
“Raph-chan, lend me a paw,” I said. 
“Raph?” Raph-chan queried. Then I looked at Raphtalia, who had Raph-chan on her shoulder. I should have paid more attention when Shildina had talked about souls having different shapes. 
“Do you have any weapons or attacks that can draw out someone’s soul?” I asked her. 
“Let me think . . . yes, I do. The weapon from the Soul Eater materials can do that,” she replied. 
“Do it. Even if this counts as torture, I need to check this,” I said. 
“Check what, exactly? What are you about to do?” Glass asked, coming over with a frown on her face. 
“This is how we find out the truth about the vanguards of the waves. Just stay quiet and watch,” I told her. She looked puzzled but did as I asked. 
“What’s with you people? What are you going to do to me?” the kid shouted. Without replying, Raphtalia changed her weapon to the katana that had been made using the Soul Eater materials, thrust it at the vanguard of the waves, and drew out his soul. A scream filled the air, but it wasn’t coming from the mouth of the kid. 
There had been signs of this with Kyo. It wasn’t that I’d stopped myself from thinking about it when the idea first came to me; it was just that I wasn’t confident in the idea. It made sense though. If they could summon heroes, then why not this too? 
The soul that Raphtalia had pulled from the vanguard of the waves was not much like the body it had come from. Instead, it was a gloomy, Japanese-looking guy who was probably in his thirties. 
“Raphtalia, that’s enough. Take them away and finish them off,” I told her. 
“Okay,” she replied. She withdrew her weapon and the soul of the vanguard of the waves started to return to the body. Then the Demon Dragon grabbed the soul and started to chew on it. 
“Why let it go to waste? It’s still a delicacy,” she said. 
“Stop it! That hurts! What have I done to you? Just because you are heroes, you think you can—” the soul spouted but then just descended into screams and cries for help. I took Raph-chan down and hid her from the scene using my body. It wasn’t an especially nice thing to watch, but he was a vanguard of the waves. We could not hesitate when it came to our enemies. People would be people. I’d seen plenty of death so far. It wasn’t anything to get worked up about. 
I gave them a calm analysis. 
“I know who the vanguards of the waves are,” I said. 
“What? You do?” Kizuna asked. 
“I guess from how you came here, your gender, and your age, you might not be as clued in as us,” I said to her. Kizuna was a girl, after all. Even girls who liked games might not have knowledge on this kind of subject. “The vanguards of the waves arrive in this world with the protection of this one who assumes the name of God,” I said. 
“What? You mean like Miyaji?” Kizuna asked. 
“Kyo, and those guys we just fought too. All of them. It seems certain to me,” I said. Just assuming it was true, I assumed the ones the name of God brought over would likely all have similar personalities. This supposed god would be choosing people who would be easy to control. Maybe even just churning them out, mass-production style. 
Everyone other than Itsuki was looking at me with a puzzled expression, including Kizuna. We were pretty similar, after all. The difference was, though, that we were heroes who had been drawn here because the world wanted us around. The vanguards of the waves were the enemies of the world. That was why we were never going to see eye to eye. 
Prior to actually coming to another world, I’d had a bit of a thing for stories about adventures in another world, so this made me feel a bit strange. 
“You asked me something before, didn’t you, Naofumi? About where I met a god and obtained my cheat abilities?” Itsuki reminded me. That made sense too, then. No wonder this being would assume the name of a God, if they could do things like that. 
It was like a being that appeared in stories about being reborn or transferred to another world. 
“The vanguards of the waves are people who have been reborn or transferred over here after being selected by the one who assumes the name of God. They are given all sorts of abilities, such as the power to steal holy weapons or seven star weapons. They come into these worlds and start causing chaos,” I explained. 
“Reborn? You mean like having spare bodies, like Kyo?” Raphtalia asked. 
“No, something else. Just their souls were led to this world from Japan, and then they were reborn here as someone from this world. With their memories of the past,” I said. For example, they are people who died in unfortunate accidents—people like Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu. This “god” would whisper to them that they had died an untimely death and offer to reincarnate them in any world they liked. They were already dead and so had no reason to reject such an offer. If they did, the “god” probably claimed to be taken with their resolve and promised to give them additional cheat powers, basically forcing them to accept. In some cases, maybe they were just forced to be reborn, no matter what they felt. I’d read books like that, loads of them. Now that they knew being summoned to another world was actually a thing, why not getting reborn or transferred over? Then, what if these ones selected by this “god” turned out to be like Takt. Their creator could then move these reborn souls around like pawns, whittling down conditions that were disadvantageous to the waves. The queen and old Hengen Muso lady had both said it: genius was a symbol of both prosperity and decline. 
Take the Hengen Muso Style, for example. If that style spread across the entire world, it would clearly present a threat to the waves. So the reborn had been sent to put an end to the style. No one could state for sure that there wasn’t something out there, repeating that kind of attack. Further proof was that records about the waves in each world were systematically being erased. Information had been lost in this world, in exactly the same way. Or even worse, it was replaced with lies. This “god” was clearly at work in multiple worlds. That was just a fact. 
“If we consider the barrier in Q’ten Lo that wouldn’t allow souls to pass through it as a means to prevent these reborn, the vanguards of the waves, from getting out, that also makes sense,” I said. 
“I see! Yes, that’s another piece of the puzzle!” Raphtalia agreed with a nod. That said, she didn’t seem to quite understand the “reborn” concept yet. 
“You might well be right.” The Demon Dragon alone seemed to be getting it. “There are monsters like that too. Monsters with bodies and souls that don’t match and that need to be culled. A dragon would never allow such abominations to last, of course. I didn’t know why they existed, because it seems that fragment was lost, but this explanation does seem to make sense.” The lifecycle of the dragons was, when you thought about it, quite similar to this idea of being reborn. We’d basically done the same thing, without really thinking about it, when we revived the Demon Dragon. 
Raphtalia seemed to have picked up on the same thing, because she pointed at the Demon Dragon and looked at me. 
“Yes, it feels similar to her. Being reborn in a new body, in a different world,” I agreed. In our world the Demon Dragon had taken over baby Gaelion, so perhaps that felt closer to being transferred. “That reminds me. L’Arc, Glass, you were talking about a nation that used to worship a strange god long ago, weren’t you?” 
“Yes, that’s right. I’m sure this is the same in your world, Naofumi. But because the four holy heroes have saved the world so many times, they have become the subject of worship. This country had a religion that was based on a different god,” Glass said. This world definitely had cultural similarities with ours. There might be some new religions like that here too, just unable to expand too far because of the four holies and vassal weapons. 
The next question, though, was exactly what kind of world needed the intercession of these reborn to be destroyed. It couldn’t be easy to destroy a world in which the hero system was operating smoothly. But it was also hard to believe these reborn would ever fight for the sake of the world. Indeed, it seemed likely that the very kind who wouldn’t do that were being selected on purpose. It would depend on the abilities of this “god,” but in every age, place, and world, there was always going to be at least one or two people who were just crazy in the head. I wasn’t about to call myself a paragon of positive intellect, but I’d already seen plenty of whacked-out crazies in my time. If this “god” was only collecting people like that, it would definitely cause some chaos. There was also the potential that they had been subjected to some kind of brainwashing, making them think the waves were not a threat to the world, for example. That the waves were a minor inconvenience, nothing more. Now I definitely had experience with people like that. 
I recalled that time that Ren and the others had said we were fighting an event battle and that we wouldn’t die even if we lost. Maybe these reborn had that kind of mentality. The reborn we had encountered were all very aggressive toward others and couldn’t accept not being the leader. Kyo and Takt had banged on about being the ultimate one all the time. 
“Kyo, Takt, Miyaji, Seya, all of these guys had very similar personalities. But maybe that’s because this one assuming the name of a god is selecting and sending in people who are similar. Wouldn’t that also explain how religions about strange gods got started?” I suggested. 
“If that is the case,” Glass pondered, “then we don’t want this to get out into the world. It will create an age in which everyone is terrified of each baby that is born.” 
“I can see it. Some of them have definitely been messing with you,” I said. If the battle with the waves extended decades into the future, that would bring with it the terror of fresh vanguards of the waves being mixed in among all the children being born. A Spirit might be able to spot them, but attacking the soul would not be easy. That kind of thing led to infanticide. Not to mention, all information about this rebirth process would have been eradicated as well. It also didn’t help that the technological developments that these vanguards of the waves realized were particularly delicious for the nation on the receiving end. No one would want to admit that they were actually a corrupting poison. L’Arc was already struggling in his negotiations with other nations based on just the information we already had. 
I looked over at S’yne, wondering if she had known any of this, but she shook her head. I guess this was beyond even her knowledge. 
“It all seems to line up,” I said. 
“But wouldn’t this mean that the preparations for causing the waves started years, even decades ago?” Glass said. She was right. Eradicating records on the Spirit Tortoise and Phoenix, wiping out the successors to the Hengen Muso Style, sending in more vanguards of the waves, all took place over decades—if not hundreds of years—slowly corrupting and consuming the worlds. If this being we were facing was capable of all of that, I could see why the ancient text would choose the word “god” to describe them. 
“In any case, I think this interpretation is highly likely to be correct. Please continue your research, giving consideration to there still being other possibilities. You may even find a solution to the waves,” I said. 
“Understood,” Rishia replied, a little hesitantly. We were still facing a battle without any solution in sight. I was prepared for that. But if a solution could be discovered, it was worth having them continue to decipher the materials. 
“This is all getting a bit convoluted,” Kizuna said. 
“It always has been. For now, we need to proceed with wiping out the vanguards of the waves, those who have been reborn here,” I said. 
That seemed to bring the trouble with the volunteers to a conclusion. L’Arc and his party returned a little later; he looked disappointed at having missed the battle and surprised at learning the truth about the enemy we were facing.