Chapter 18 — She Was Unable to Keep Everything Inside, So Her Flesh Just Spilled Out
Tomochika was lying on a lounge chair beside the pool, enjoying the resort-like atmosphere to the fullest. Naturally her swimsuit-clad figure attracted all sorts of attention, but she was used to it, so it didn’t bother her.
“Heh heh. These fools see nothing more than an erotic body. They know nothing of the brutal muscle hidden beneath that supple layer of fat!” Mokomoko said proudly from where she lay beside her descendant. She was still using Enju’s body, wearing a swimsuit herself.
“Don’t call it fat!” Tomochika complained. Her body looked soft, but that softness was coupled with strength. Although Tomochika hadn’t been aware of it until recently, that was one result of many generations of effort by the Dannoura family to perfect their bodies, according to Mokomoko.
“And because your flesh is so much more dense, you are also a lot heavier than you look!”
“Don’t call me heavy either!”
“But weight is an important factor when it comes to combat.”
“Then isn’t my sister more suited to being the head of the family?” she replied. Mokomoko averted her eyes. “Why are you looking away like that?”
“Your sister is a rare failure. Her body failed to accommodate the Dannoura traits. She was unable to keep everything inside, so her flesh just spilled out...”
“Have I accidentally unearthed some dark secret about our family?! Wait, then what about you? Are you a failure too?”
“I was born before we began managing the bloodline, so I don’t count!”
“I thought she just took a lot of her looks from you...”
But thinking back, no one else in her family had such a rotund shape. Her sister must have been something special.
“Well, putting that aside...” Tomochika changed the subject. “It feels kind of wrong to be playing in a freshwater pool on a boat that’s sailing across the ocean.”
“It is certainly a luxurious way of using water,” Mokomoko mused. “But it is possible there is magic in this world to produce such water from thin air.”
Tomochika was relaxing, drinking her tropical juice under a parasol. Yogiri, of course, was sleeping, so she just let him be. If he woke up and she wasn’t there, he’d probably just pull out his game to kill time.
“Why didn’t you bring the boy with you?” Mokomoko complained. “This would have been a great chance to seduce him.”
“No, that sounds terrible. He’d definitely stare at me the whole time.” She didn’t care much about strangers looking at her, but she hesitated at the thought of Yogiri doing it.
“I suppose. He would definitely ogle you nonstop,” the ghost admitted.
Yogiri himself would be the first to confess that he was one to fully enjoy a situation if it happened by sheer chance. Tomochika could easily imagine him arguing that if she was going to wear a swimsuit, it meant that she was okay with him staring at her.
“Hey, doesn’t it seem like we’re actually going to make it without incident this time?” Tomochika asked. Everything was perfectly peaceful, with no signs that something might go wrong.
“You realize you’re setting a flag, right?”
“No, there’s no way. All we’re doing is traveling by boat.”
“When we ‘just’ rode a train, there was plenty of trouble.”
“Come on, we’re in the middle of the ocean. What could possibly happen?”
“Something may come up with the passengers.”
Tomochika got up and stepped over to look out at the sea from the side of the ship. The weather was perfect. There was nothing to block her view as far as she could see, and even the waves were gentle.
“At the very least, I doubt anything will come from outside—”
Tomochika was cut off by the ship suddenly beginning to shake. As she stood there, confused, something leaped out of the water—a massive tentacle, white, long, and covered in suction cups. The enormous appendage quickly descended from the sky to strike the ship, sending tremors through it to match the screams coming from within.
“As expected, something came from outside,” Mokomoko commented.
“I knew something like this was going to happen!” Tomochika cried.
“Hm. It may be a type of kraken. A rather standard sea monster.”
“What is that?! A giant squid or octopus or something?”
She looked around the ship. A number of enormous tentacles had emerged from the water and wrapped themselves around the body of the vessel, each large enough to completely restrain it. If it was in fact a cephalopod of some sort, its body would be much larger.
“There appear to be more than eight,” Mokomoko observed, “so I suppose it isn’t an octopus. Or is there more than one creature?”
“Is this the kind of trouble they expected for the voyage?”
“If it was, they wouldn’t have made it feel like such a resort.”
“Right?!”
The passengers had fallen into panic. Their luxurious sea cruise had instantly been transformed into a horror story by the appearance of this sea monster. Asking them to calm down would have been pointless, but evaluating the situation with a level head, it became apparent that the tentacles weren’t doing anything other than grabbing the ship. They weren’t continuing to strike, nor were they trying to crush them.
“So what do we do now?” Being in the middle of the ocean, there was nowhere for them to run.
“Hey, boy. Are you awake?” Mokomoko asked, using the communication device she had made out of Furemaru, the weapon they’d acquired from the Aggressor.
I just woke up.
“We’ve got some trouble. A kraken is attacking the ship!”
Let me take a look outside. Ah, those tentacles. Is it like a squid?
“Let us regroup. We will head to your location now.” There wasn’t anywhere particularly safe for them to go, so Mokomoko decided their best bet was to reunite with Yogiri.
Where are you now?
“The pool at the front end of the ship.”
And I’m on the top level at the back. I guess we should meet up in the middle.
The boat was enormous. If they both moved at once, they could meet up much faster.
“Takatou, can you do something about this thing?” Tomochika asked.
I don’t feel any killing intent from it. Right now it just seems like a wild animal trying to play with us. I’d feel bad for attacking it over something like that.
“Playing with us? One hit from those tentacles would be enough to kill someone...”
“It seems to be acting rather strangely for a wild animal,” Mokomoko added.
Since the kraken hadn’t done anything after wrapping its tentacles around the boat, Yogiri preferred to wait and see what would happen.
“Everyone, please calm down!” a girl in a swimsuit called out to the nearby passengers. “We are from Crimson Bond and are in charge of defending this ship!”
Apparently, Crimson Bond was a well-known group, as her declaration made the panicking passengers calm down considerably.
“As you all know, we are a mercenary group led by the hero Hornet. A monster like this is nothing to him!”
Despite the enormous size of the creature, it seemed that everyone shared the belief that it was something the hero could defeat.
“Crimson Bond are the friends of that guy we talked to before leaving port, right?” Tomochika remembered hearing that Hornet could vaporize an iceberg in an instant. Apparently, they had been serious about that.
“Indeed. The boy who was with his mother. She mentioned they had been hired to guard the ship during its voyage.”
“Have they actually been protecting us?”
The two girls were wearing swimsuits and dripping wet, so they had obviously been swimming in the pool. The girl who had spoken carried a sword and looked to be about Tomochika’s age. The other held a staff and seemed to be the older of the two. Considering they had their weapons, it didn’t look like they had forgotten about their jobs entirely, but it seemed like they had been enjoying the floating resort’s amenities along the way.
“Let’s leave this to them and get a move on.” There wasn’t much Tomochika could do to help. They would leave the evacuation to Crimson Bond.
The ship began to shake again. Looking around, she saw that one of the tentacles was wriggling. One of its suction cups suddenly split open and something slipped out of it.
Tomochika doubted her eyes. A set of simple metal stairs had extended from the tentacle, landing on the deck. There were only a few creatures who would use such a construction, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to her when humans began descending them.
“Greetings. We are pirates.”
“So there are pirates after all!” Tomochika shouted. “Now we’re really going to run into an iceberg, aren’t we?!”
Ten people came down the stairs. Similar structures were emerging from the other tentacles as well, so she assumed the same thing was happening all over the ship. The group referring to themselves as pirates seemed awfully varied. The man who had first spoken wore armor that made him look like a knight, and he had a soft demeanor. But behind him were all kinds of people, from those who could be recognized as pirates at a glance to men who looked like brutish warrior types to women who looked like artisans.
“Our objective is to take you hostage and ransom you,” the knight continued. “As such, if you kindly cooperate, no harm will come to you. We hope for a wise response.”
“Huh? Are we not going to be able to get out of here?” Tomochika asked.
“Indeed. If we try to act recklessly, it may devolve into fighting.”
“Can you, like, rush them and self-destruct or something?”
“Of course not! What do you think I am?!”
The two girls from Crimson Bond moved forward to confront the intruders.
“Did you not know that we, Crimson Bond, were aboard this ship? It’s pretty unlucky for you to have picked us as your target,” said the older girl holding the staff. She seemed somehow rougher than the younger one.
“No, we were fully aware of your presence. So, you are Crimson Bond, then. That would make you Diane of the Blue Flame and Miliana the Sword Princess, correct?” the knight responded, indicating the older and then younger girl in turn.
“You are aware that you can’t defeat us with these numbers, right?”
“We were told to dispatch any combatants who were not ordinary passengers. Naturally, you are no exception.”
“I see. Then I suppose I don’t need to hold back!” Diane raised her staff. Numerous balls of fire surrounded her in an instant. As if the scope of her magic had taken them off guard, the pirates’ faces immediately went pale. “I’ll make you regret targeting this ship! I’ll burn your bones to ash!”
But the balls of fire failed to accomplish what Diane had expected. Without ever firing, they simply vanished. Astonished, she swung her staff a number of times, but her magic failed to activate.
“My lady, you’re going to give us all heart attacks!” the knight called out to someone emerging from within the ship.
“You guys rely on me too much. I figure this sort of thing is good for you once in a while.”
“Our plan is all based on your power. It would be a problem for us if you continued to act so irresponsibly.”
The new arrival was a woman wearing a man’s suit.
“Th-That’s... She’s a pirate?!” Tomochika remembered her. It was Degul, from the casino staff. She had crushed Tomochika in the card game earlier. It seemed she outranked the knight.
“Damn you!” Seeing Diane made powerless, Miliana leaped into action. In one swift motion, a man dressed like an actual pirate swung his cutlass downwards, beheading her so easily it was almost absurd.
“No way... Miliana...” Diane immediately lost the will to fight. She had originally acted like the two of them could handle ten pirates with no problem, but that confidence was nowhere to be seen now.
“I see,” Mokomoko remarked. “She seemed so confident that you would be unable to use any tricks during your card game with her because she possesses the ability to nullify others’ powers.”
“But Miliana was a swordswoman, right?”
“It is likely she relied on the Gift to fight.”
“So wait, are you okay, Mokomoko?!”
“My powers are being suppressed considerably. Luckily I am still able to control Enju, but I won’t be able to modify Furemaru.”
“Speaking of which, where is Furemaru now that I’m in a swimsuit?” Normally, it was concealed as a part of her clothing, but that didn’t seem practical given her current outfit.
“There is a considerable amount of empty space inside Enju, so I’ve placed it there.”
“Are we cut off from Takatou?”
“The piece I gave the boy is just a receiver, so I should still be able to contact him.”
“What’s the difference?!”
“Either way, we’ll need to do something about this without relying on Furemaru.”
Luckily, the two of them were thought to be ordinary passengers, but if they wanted to leave, they’d have to do something about the pirates first.
“Yo, boss! What do we do with the other one?” one of the pirates called out.
“Kill her,” Degul responded instantly.
“Don’t you think we could use a woman like her alive?”
“No. Our job is to kidnap rich people and ransom them. There’s nothing to be gained from taking a woman who won’t make us any money. If you want one that badly, you can pay for a pro once you’re off work.”
“Fine.”
The pirate cut Diane down. She had just been standing there, frozen in place. It didn’t seem like she had any experience in close-quarters combat.
“All right, everyone,” the knight addressed the passengers. “This kidnapping is all business. We’re not going to request an absurd amount of money. Once we’ve acquired a reasonable sum for each of you, you will be set free, so please remain calm.”
“That’s going to be a lot of work for the pigeons...” Tomochika mumbled, remembering that magical carrier pigeons were used to send money here.
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