Chapter 6 — I Already Messed Up, So I Figured It’s Okay to Just Rip It Out
“No! Please wait a moment! I would like to ask you to explain! Are we not friends, Luu?!” Desperate to at least buy himself some time, Hanakawa tried to appeal to her emotions.
“Friends?” she echoed.
“Ah, you truly are acting as if you have no idea what I mean! You wound me! But no! If you intend to gouge the Philosopher’s Stone out of me by force, you must know that my dear friend Sir Takatou would be saddened to hear of it!”
“‘Dear friend’?” This time, Ryouko was the one to voice her disbelief.
“Looks like Hanakawa has some problem facing reality,” Carol added. “I bet he thinks the two of us are part of his harem or something too.”
“Huh? I did believe I was at least following your route properly. Are you saying I was incorrect?”
“Gross...”
“Wait! If you say things like that, Luu will misunderstand the depth of the friendship between me and Sir Takatou! I am telling the truth! In this world full of nothing but danger, the only reason I have been able to survive is thanks to Sir Takatou! That means he has gone out of his way to protect me! So I can say that we are on friendly terms!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. As long as you don’t die, I don’t think daddy will care.”
Though he wasn’t sure if his appeal to emotion had been a success, at the very least Luu hadn’t attacked while they were talking. He had managed to successfully buy some time, but finding a way to use that time effectively was a different matter.
“Guh! I can certainly imagine Sir Takatou saying, ‘As long as he’s not dead, it’s fine.’”
“I’m trying to be kind here. That’s why I’m not just ripping the stone out of you. But I’m not interested in waiting, so if you don’t do it yourself, I will.”
As Hanakawa thought about running, he realized his legs weren’t moving. He was still able to speak just fine. He didn’t think he was frozen in fear, so something else must have happened to paralyze his legs. She was telling him to do it himself, so his hands could still move freely, but there was no way he could reach into his chest and rip out a stone that had fused with his heart.
As he hesitated, Luu stepped closer and stuck her fingers into his chest. It didn’t hurt at all. There was no blood, even as her hand sank into him. She was passing through him like she was a ghost, leaving even his clothes undamaged.
“Nooo! It doesn’t hurt at all! It actually feels a little good, which is terrifying! Carol, Ryouko, please do something! My life is in danger; you cannot just stand there and twiddle your thumbs!”
“Too bad; I can’t actually move right now,” Carol responded casually.
“Me neither,” Ryouko chimed in, just as indifferent. While they may have been unable to move, it was clear they weren’t making any effort to fight back or escape either.
“Don’t move. I don’t want to mess up,” Luu chided him.
“Luu, you are a goddess, correct? Is there not a more stylish way you could accomplish this?”
“I don’t have all of my powers back yet, so I can’t fully manipulate souls that are still inside physical bodies. It would be easy if I just wanted to destroy the stone, but removing it from you while you’re still alive is delicate work even for me.”
“You asked me to do something myself that a goddess finds incredibly difficult?!”
“I thought you would know your body well enough to... Uh-oh.”
“What do you mean, ‘uh-oh’?! I saw that look! Do not try and pass this off as a silly, harmless error!”
“Looks like even I can make mistakes sometimes...”
“It is somewhat disconcerting for you to admit to making mistakes while my life is in your hands! So, what? What is going to happen to me?!”
“I already messed up, so I figured it’s okay to just rip it out.”
“No, no, no! I have no idea what went wrong, and frankly, I am not sure I want to! I believe in you, Luu! You can definitely fix it!”
“I’ll try...”
“Yes! Please try your best!”
To some degree, she must have been making considerations for Hanakawa’s body. The best Hanakawa could do was trust her.
“Ugh...the sensation of something moving inside my body is terrifyingly pleasant... I feel like something new is awakening within me...” Eyes squeezed shut, Hanakawa could do nothing but agonize over the feeling in his chest, but Luu suddenly stopped. Thinking she had made another mistake, Hanakawa opened his eyes.
Blood was gushing out. Not from Hanakawa’s chest, but from Luu’s smashed arm.
“Excuse me?” Hanakawa said dumbly. Another person was now standing at Luu’s side. A woman wearing glasses had crushed her arm in her hand, ripping it off.
“You!” Luu leaped backwards. Her dismembered arm was still stuck in Hanakawa’s chest, hanging out like it had grown there.
“Huh? What? What am I supposed to do now?!”
“Long time no see. I suppose you go by Luu now,” the woman greeted her. “And that other girl calls herself the UEG. So allow me to set aside my old name as well. Please call me Alexia.”
“You... You!” Luu was clearly furious. Even Hanakawa could tell it was about something far more than having her arm crushed. He could easily imagine that there was a deep history between them.
“Ah, there is no need for that. I am sure you are well aware that you stand no chance against me as you are. If I intended to kill you, I would have done so long ago, so please hear me out for now. Or do you plan to commit suicide by attacking me?”
Though it seemed like she might leap forward and attack at any moment, Luu was managing to keep herself under control. Hanakawa couldn’t tell which of the two was stronger, but he had the impression that Alexia was telling the truth when she said Luu had no chance against her.
“First of all, please stop collecting the Philosopher’s Stones for now,” Alexia said. “We do not wish for you to obstruct the progress of Cavern Quest any further. There is nothing that can be done about the stones you have already collected, but please refrain from taking any more. That is why I stopped you just now.”
“Uh, excuse me, I have no issues with you stopping her from taking the stone from me, but the image of a dismembered arm sprouting from my chest is a bit too avant-garde for my tastes, so...”
“I don’t need it anymore. It’s all yours,” Luu said, already back to normal. She had regenerated her lost arm instantly.
“No, no, no! I am saying I don’t want it!”
“I am sure just being told to stop is not satisfying to you. But if you still attempt to attack me even knowing you do not stand a chance, I will need to erase you entirely. I only ask you to refrain from collecting the stones until their role in the game has come to an end. Of course, even if you recover all of them, I am not sure you’d be able to stand against me.”
“What do you mean, ‘their role’?” Luu asked.
“Please look into the game yourself to discover that. I believe it is acceptable for you to participate in the game yourself, though if you choose to do so, you will have to obey the rules.”
“Why didn’t you just kill me?” Luu asked again, echoing the question in Hanakawa’s mind. Alexia certainly seemed the stronger of the two, and if all she cared about was the game continuing unobstructed, it would have been fastest to get rid of Luu altogether.
“I believed it was also acceptable to kill you. You and the UEG both lost, so erasing you completely seemed appropriate. But Lord Mitsuki is kinder than I am.”
“Kind? If he’s so kind, why did he seal me away?!”
“He was kind in that he did not take your life. Then again, if he had, you would have just revived somewhere else, so if he wished to never see you again, sealing you away was perhaps the best option. If you interfere with the current game, however, I will not mind killing you, so if you wish to die, please do exactly that.”
With those words, Alexia vanished. A few moments later, so did Luu. It seemed she had given up on taking Hanakawa’s Philosopher’s Stone.
“Things seem to have taken an odd turn...” Hanakawa looked around to make sure that no one else was going to pop up. Everyone appearing around them had been so sudden that no amount of caution would have seen them coming. It wasn’t easy for him to let his guard down now. After a short time of nothing happening, Hanakawa felt a small amount of relief.
“Wow, I heard you were really tenacious, Hanakawa, but I didn’t know your luck was that bad.”
Carol seemed impressed, but Hanakawa was in no mood to celebrate. His survival so far had been no more than chance. There was no telling when one of these absurd events would lead to his death.
“So, should we try and pull that arm out of you?” she continued. “Or do you just want to cut it off?”
“If the hand had been the part sticking out I could have at least tried out a new triple-wielding style,” he grumbled. “Simply pulling it out seems foolish, though.”
“I’m not sure leaving it in there is a good idea either.”
“Is it safe to touch it?” He knew he couldn’t just leave the arm sticking out of him, so Hanakawa reached up to try and touch it. “Oh?” He had felt something was wrong, but now that he looked, it seemed like the arm was shrinking.
“Uhh...looks like it’s sinking deeper into you?” Carol pointed out. She was exactly right. The arm was slowly sinking deeper into Hanakawa’s chest.
“Huh? What is happening?!”
“So, uhh...if you die, we can just throw you behind one of those walls, right?”
“Hey! Would you not at least make a grave for me?!”
“Digging a hole deep enough to bury someone is actually quite a bit of work. I don’t think we owe you that much.”
“Leaving him in the middle of the road would get in the way of others,” Ryouko interjected, “but I think dragging him to the side of the road is sufficient.”
“You really are intent on treating me like garbage, aren’t you?!”
As they argued, Luu’s arm fully vanished into his chest.
“That’s good, right? At least it looks better,” Carol commented.
“Am I really going to be okay?! I suppose there is no pain at the moment, but...”
“The Philosopher’s Stones are originally parts of Luu, so it’s possible once her arm was disconnected from her body, it fused into the stone inside you...”
“So...am I okay, then?”
“You keep asking that, but how are we supposed to know?”
“I suppose you are right. Very well; shall we continue our quest?” he suggested.
“Yeah, about that. Don’t you think we should start heading to that final area?” Carol asked.
“Oh? What makes you say that?”
“Luu is made up of Philosopher’s Stones fused together, right? She seemed pretty grown up, so it looks like she’s gotten quite a few of them back. At this point, there might not be many Philosopher’s Stones left besides the one inside you. If that happened, I can’t imagine Takatou would spend much longer here.”
“I see. So you intend to clear the game and escape?”
Once the last boss of Cavern Quest was defeated, the game would reset and begin a new season. However, the players who had defeated the boss would be granted a wish by the Sage running the game, making it possible to leave if they won. At least, that’s what they had heard, but there was no way to tell whether the players who had left the game had escaped or just been killed.
“Why don’t we cancel this quest and head straight for Lasbo?” Carol suggested.
“Already?! Should we not take some time to make preparations?”
“Sure, but we don’t have time to play around with quests like this one.”
“The Great Sage said the first ten to get there would receive the bonus, so it would be best for us to hurry,” Ryouko agreed.
It was hard to believe that everyone would head to the final area, but they could expect a large number of people to show up. Hanakawa didn’t know how big Lasbo’s field was, but if they intended to meet up with Yogiri, it would be better to get there before it got too crowded.
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