Chapter 13 — Why Don’t We Let It Swallow Hanakawa So He Can Attack It from the Inside?
One day, his sister Mireiyu didn’t come home. Ever since, Daniel and his family had lived in poverty. Their father had abandoned them, and their mother was too sick to leave her bed. With their older sister gone, the rest of the kids were hopeless. Mireiyu had died, but there was no way for them to learn of that fact. All they knew was that no matter how much time passed, she never returned.
Daniel lived with his two younger sisters, his younger brother, and his mother. Being the oldest of the siblings, it fell on Daniel to find food somehow for the five of them. So he turned to stealing. As a young child he was in no position to take a proper job, and he couldn’t think of anything else. Using his agility as a cat beastkin, he stole only the bare minimum he needed from stores that sold food. He could just barely manage to procure enough to keep the five of them alive.
However, after a time, his mother passed away. Her illness needed regular doses of expensive medicine. Daniel couldn’t scrounge up the money needed to pay for it, nor would he know how to find it if he could.
Their family became four. The burden on Daniel had become lighter, and life had become easier. However, the stress he was experiencing only grew, until one day he reached his limit. He finally slipped up, got caught stealing, and was beaten to death. He never knew what happened to his younger siblings after that.
The next thing he knew, he had returned to life with his mother. All of their suffering had been a dream. Their mother was well, and while their father was nowhere to be found, he and his three younger siblings were able to live in reasonable comfort. It felt like something was a little off, but Daniel convinced himself that things were fine.
A worldwide disaster then drew Daniel and his family into Cavern Quest. Though the situation was confusing and chaotic, it turned out Daniel had some aptitude for adventuring, and he quickly adapted to their new situation.
After a short time, a message came from the Great Sage telling him of the older sister he had once had and reminding him of his mother’s death. Everything all came back to a boy named Yogiri Takatou.
◇ ◇ ◇
“You seem to be raring to go, but please, wait!” Hanakawa pleaded with the small cat children. “Even if we are to do combat, surely there is no need for it to be a fight to the death! Look, you even have small children with you!”
“What? Who cares? Moron,” the oldest of the children spat.
Daniel vs. Ryouko Ninomiya: FIGHT!!!
It seemed his response counted as a failure to negotiate the rules, forcing them into the default death match.
“I suppose the oldest of them is Daniel, but why are we named after Ryouko?!”
“It’s probably just the party leader’s name that shows up,” Carol answered.
“Am I not the party leader?!”
“Is that a serious question?” Carol replied.
He had only been half serious, but seeing Carol take it as an actual question, Hanakawa couldn’t keep up the facade and shut his mouth.
“Don’t let your guard down just because they’re children,” Ryouko warned them. This was a fight to the death. They couldn’t afford to underestimate their opponents because of their age or any apparent weaknesses.
“But what is there for us to do?” Hanakawa asked. “Against some crusty old man I have no qualms, but to fight children?”
As Hanakawa hesitated, Carol hurled a kunai, striking the youngest of the children.
“Carol?!”
“We’re not supposed to underestimate them based on their appearance. If they were to transform or something, there’d be nothing we could do.”
“Possibly, but even so, your ruthlessness shocks me!”
Carol continued throwing kunai, but this time Daniel was able to deflect them. He suddenly grew larger, stepping forward to cover the others.
Aside from the ears, he first appeared to be effectively human, but the transformation caused fur to grow all over his body. That must have been what made him look larger. He had drawn closer to the bestial side of his nature. Growing further, he hunched over. It seemed he wasn’t done transforming quite yet.
“A transformation?! Then let us attack while we have the chance!” Hanakawa fired a ball of energy, a feint with little to no charging time. The ball raced towards Daniel’s face—he had almost entirely finished transforming into a cat, and before the ball could strike, Daniel bit the attack out of the air. “Wha?! How did he do that?!”
In time with Hanakawa’s attack, Ryouko dashed forward. Drawing her sword, she delivered a slash to the side of Daniel’s neck. Distracted by Hanakawa’s energy blast, he was unable to respond to Ryouko’s slash. That had been the intention, but a cat’s jaws still caught her blade in the air. Ryouko jumped backwards, the upper half of her sword now missing. A second cat head had grown from Daniel’s neck, intercepting her attack.
“Hmm...a Catberus, perhaps?” Hanakawa pondered aloud. Apparently the four beastkin had fused together, transforming into an enormous cat with four heads. Two new heads were positioned on either side of its first one, while a fourth protruded from its chest.
“If that’s supposed to be a play on Cerberus, shouldn’t it only have three heads?”
“Ha ha, it seems you are unaware, Carol,” Hanakawa chided her. “There are even some legends where Cerberus has as many as fifty heads!”
“This isn’t the time for joking around,” Ryouko scolded the two of them. “We’re in a pretty bad spot.” She showed them her broken sword. “It looks like he ate it. That wouldn’t be possible without some special ability.”
“Are beastkin able to transform like this?” Carol asked.
“While I take great pride in my plentiful experience in this world, I cannot say I have ever heard of beastkin transforming.”
Beastkin in this world, while possessing some animal traits, were more or less the same as humans. They might have animal ears or tails, and slightly stronger physiques, but there wasn’t much else different. They didn’t have huge amounts of fur, nor could they turn into animals or grow to enormous sizes like this.
“My Discernment skill tells me nothing, so it appears his power does not derive from the Gift,” Hanakawa observed. “Perhaps it was one granted to them by the Great Sage?”
“Things should be easier for you now that he looks like that, right?” Carol asked.
“Indeed. He appears to be no more than a monster now. It seems his ability is to devour and erase anything...so how about this?”
Hanakawa focused for a short time before unleashing a barrage of energy blasts into the air. If Daniel’s ability allowed him to eat anything to neutralize it, Hanakawa would aim somewhere aside from the head.
“Yaaaah!” With Hanakawa’s shout, the energy balls dove down at the cat beast. Though individually weak, the rain of projectiles was unavoidable. Even if the barrage couldn’t inflict lethal damage, it would at the very least determine where they could effectively strike. However, Hanakawa’s attack didn’t injure Daniel at all. Additional heads sprouted from his back, devouring each and every one of the energy blasts.
“Aha, so it was not limited to four heads at all... Huh? Wait, what are we supposed to do, then?”
Daniel charged at them. Hanakawa’s group dove out of the way, sending Daniel flying off into the trees. A portion of forest vanished, as if it had been cleanly erased.
“I see. He appears to be limited to melee range, but his attack power seems next to unstoppable.”
“Why don’t we let it swallow Hanakawa so he can attack it from the inside?” Carol suggested. “It’s pretty common for seemingly invincible enemies to have hidden weak spots inside them, right?”
“Except I will be erased the moment I am eaten! Although, on another note, if that is a power granted by the Great Sage, should your nullification ability not be able to do something about it?”
“My power only works defensively, I’m afraid!” she replied. “Anything that touches me will be nullified...so I wonder what happens if it bites me? Even if it nullifies his power, it’ll probably still tear me apart with its teeth, right?”
“That sounds entirely useless!” Hanakawa cried. “Ryouko, do you not have some incredible samurai power you can use here?!”
“My powers are all focused on using my sword. If it can just eat my blade, I won’t be able to do much.”
“What about you, Hanakawa?” Carol asked. “You got some kind of new power, didn’t you?”
“Now that you mention it, I have yet to figure out what it is...and this hardly seems like the time to check!”
Daniel charged again. The group dodged backwards once more, taking some distance. Perhaps he wasn’t used to his large new body yet, as his attacks were still quite sloppy, but it would only be a matter of time before he got accustomed to it. The longer the battle progressed, the more difficult things would be for them.
“Perhaps this is actually the best time for me to check. Let us see...”
Ability Name: Friendship Counter
People you have formed strong bonds with will appear to save you when you’re in trouble. It’s a bit like a judgment of your past actions!
“I-I see? In that case... Sir Takatou! Please help me!”
If he had to think of someone he had a strong connection with who might help him, Yogiri was the first one that would come to mind. He couldn’t think of anyone else.
Daniel charged again, this time changing direction at the last second. Hanakawa just barely managed to dodge out of the way. Daniel was clearly starting to get a handle on his new body. It wouldn’t be long before he caught one of them.
“Why isn’t he coming?!”
“Did you really have much of a bond with him?” Carol asked, reading the paper the Great Sage had given Hanakawa over his shoulder.
“The frankness of your question wounds me!”
“Honestly, I can’t think of anyone that would show up to help you when you’re in trouble.”
“I would appreciate it if you spent less time insulting me and more time figuring out how we are going to win!”
Carol threw another kunai, which was once again intercepted by one of Daniel’s many heads. “Then how about this?” She then threw a small ball at the cat beast—an explosive, judging by the fuse attached to it. It was a kind of bomb that had apparently been used by ninja during Japan’s Warring States era. The bomb struck the ground near Daniel’s feet and detonated.
It went without saying that an explosion couldn’t be eaten. Or so Hanakawa would have thought, but his naivety was quickly put to rest as the shrapnel, smoke, and even the shock wave from the blast were all sucked into a single point. A new cat head had emerged from one of Daniel’s legs to absorb the attack.
“It seems ranged attacks aren’t helping much either.”
“It doesn’t seem like even the three of us together—” Hanakawa started, but was cut off by a sharp pain in his left arm. A kunai had stabbed him. “What happened?”
“The cat spat that out,” Carol answered.
“That means...”
Carol and Ryouko leaped to the side, leaving a confused Hanakawa standing alone. A broken sword blade punched through his leg, followed by a rain of energy balls, and finally a cloud of dust and shrapnel. Completely taken off guard, he was sent flying.
“Looks like it can spit back anything it eats,” Carol commented. “That’s kind of annoying!”
“If I can make an excuse: I figured you’d be okay since you have Auto Heal,” Ryouko added.
“That is all well and good, but could you please help me before the huge cat thing attacks again?!”
Seeing that Daniel was targeting Hanakawa, the two girls jumped away again. The cat charged, but Hanakawa was immobilized. Whether he intended to wait for his Auto Heal or relied on his active healing powers, it took time for them to restore Hanakawa to fighting shape. Any attempt to recover would get him eaten instantly. In short, there was nothing he could do.
“That’s it, I’m becoming a ghost! I will haunt you twenty-four seven, Carol! You won’t have a minute of privacy!” Hanakawa accepted his fate. Closing his eyes, he waited for the end to come...but instead, he felt himself lifted up into the air. Someone had grabbed his collar and pulled him away.
Opening his eyes, he saw that Daniel was considerably far away. At the same time, his wounds had virtually all healed.
“What the heck? Having a close bond with you is way too much of a pain,” his rescuer sighed.
Looking up, he saw a familiar face. “Sir Lute!”
His savior had been Lute, spawn of the Dark God Albagarma.
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