Chapter 11 — After All He’s Been Through, He’s Probably Still Alive Somehow
“I think it’s getting bigger.”
Yogiri was holding the mysterious lump of flesh that had taken the place of their Philosopher’s Stones. Mokomoko had suggested the stones had transformed into this thing, but Yogiri wasn’t convinced. There were no signs that pointed to this thing having once been a collection of round, transparent stones.
“Hm. It appears it is growing arms and legs,” Mokomoko observed. “It does indeed seem to be some sort of fetus.”
“Are we sure I can’t just put it back in the backpack?”
“Of course you can’t,” Tomochika replied like it was obvious despite still refusing to hold it herself.
“How long do I have to hold on to this thing?”
The robot that had attacked them earlier had said the fragment of the goddess wouldn’t be damaged by most attacks. But while it didn’t feel all that delicate, it seemed wrong to leave something so warm to the touch and with such soft skin lying on the ground. He wanted to put it on a soft blanket or something.
“Let’s find somewhere we can relax for a bit,” Tomochika suggested.
“But the elven village was destroyed,” said Mokomoko.
“In that case, I guess we have to head for those ruins after all,” Yogiri replied.
They were surrounded by forest, so there weren’t any other options. Mokomoko left the Enju robot behind briefly and headed up into the sky to scout out the terrain, returning quickly to give her report.
“The ruins lie along this burned out stretch of land. They have been partially destroyed, but some of the buildings survived.”
“Then let’s go. Would you mind swapping for a bit, Dannoura?”
“Uhh...I really don’t want it to bite me...”
“What do you mean? Oh, it has a mouth now.” They had guessed the place where the eyes were was its head, and now there were ears, a nose, and a mouth there as well. “It doesn’t look like it has teeth yet.”
But Tomochika’s concern wasn’t entirely unfounded. The lump of flesh was slowly taking on the form of an actual living thing. While it wasn’t responding to them yet, some sort of consciousness could awaken sooner or later. There was no guarantee it wouldn’t attack them when that happened, so the safest option was to leave it with Yogiri, who could kill it instantly if the worst were to happen.
“Okay, let’s head for the ruins for now,” he agreed.
Yogiri and Tomochika followed the guardian spirit as she led the way in the android’s body. Thanks to the burned out stretch of land, there were no obstacles in their path. It was an incredibly easy walk, and the ruins came into view in no time.
“Looks like there’s a lot of damage here too,” Yogiri observed, “though it doesn’t seem like anyone was living here before.”
Buildings built from piled up stones stood in lines. They were so old, it seemed like calling them ruins had been correct. They were laid out in a grid through which the beam of light had carved a diagonal line. The path the light had traveled was empty, just like the road they had walked to get there.
“There was a huge pyramid here before, right?” Tomochika asked.
“There was, but I guess the beam destroyed it.”
“That might be a problem if it was part of some important event...”
If there was something here, Yogiri expected it would have been at the enormous structure in the center of the ruins. But they hadn’t come to explore the ruins themselves, so it didn’t matter that it was gone.
“Let’s just go into one of the houses.”
“If no one lives here, they might not have been made for people to rest in.”
Despite Tomochika’s doubts, their only option was to go and see for themselves. As they approached the closest building, the ground beneath them began to shake.
“An earthquake?” Tomochika asked, confused.
The building in front of them started shaking as well. It expanded upward, growing hands and legs, taking on the form of a giant person.
“Die.”
At Yogiri’s command, the building froze. And not just the building in front of them. The other structures in the ruins had frozen in various states of transformation.
“Mokomoko,” Tomochika said.
“Yes?”
“You said something about ancient martial arts being unbeatable in another world, right?”
“I did.”
“But martial arts would be useless against things like those!”
“Hmm. Whether it’s giant centipedes or dragons, I believe there would be some way we could manage as long as they are alive.”
“Really?”
“Either way, the Dannoura Way continuously evolves! Depending on the situation, it must find a way to grow!”
“Please don’t throw your successors into the deep end alone like that!”
Yogiri had killed the transforming buildings after sensing the killing intent coming from them. Some of them were still mostly building-shaped. They didn’t know how long a “dead” building would hold, but it was probably enough for a short stay.
“This one looks usable,” he noted, finding one that had barely transformed.
They poked their heads inside and found a stone table and chairs fixed to the floor. Even though they were buildings made to transform into giants, they were still furnished to serve as shelters.
“Finally, we have a roof!” Tomochika exclaimed.
“Much better than being out in the jungle. Dannoura, could you get the blanket out?”
At Yogiri’s request, Tomochika pulled a blanket from his backpack. They spread it out on the ground and sat down. Yogiri was finally able to lay his charge down.
“Looks like it’s a girl,” he observed.
“You don’t have to stare at it so closely!”
By now, the thing was looking like a newborn baby.
“We should have abandoned it when it was just a lump of meat...” Yogiri began to regret holding on to it. He couldn’t help but feel like things were about to get more complicated.
“We can’t get rid of it now,” Tomochika protested. “It’s clearly a baby...”
“They said it was a fragment of the goddess, right? If it’s just a fragment, does that mean there are more out there?”
“I see it has no navel,” Mokomoko said. The baby’s stomach was perfectly flat, lacking the belly button a human would possess. But that was the only thing that seemed out of place. “Hm. It reminds me of an old theological dispute. Did the first man created by God have a navel? Something like that.”
“Sounds like a pointless argument to me.”
“Is it okay to leave it naked like this?” Yogiri asked.
“Maybe we should put a diaper on it or something.”
“If this is actually like a human baby, there’s nothing we can really do, is there?”
“You mean to take care of it?”
“We would need to feed it and change its diapers, right? Are you good at that, Dannoura?”
“Uhh, I was the youngest child, so I have no experience with stuff like that. But what about Mokomoko? If you’re my ancestor, you must have had children of your own!”
“Indeed! Such a conclusion should be obvious! But I have no experience raising children!”
“Don’t sound so proud of that!”
“We employed a wet nurse. After raising the child for a short time, I went straight back to training!”
“So you’re useless after all! What kind of guardian spirit are you?!”
Yogiri pulled out some cloth from their backpack and wrapped the baby in it. He didn’t know if the improvised swaddle was good enough, but it felt better than doing nothing at all.
“Is it asleep?”
“It seems alive, at least.”
It was breathing, it had a pulse, and its complexion looked healthy. But it hadn’t cried or opened its eyes once. The eyes that had appeared at first had been bare before, but at some point it had developed eyelids over them.
“Well, this is a problem. I never imagined we’d end up in a situation like this,” Yogiri said.
“We can’t just abandon it.”
“And there are no longer others around that might take care of it for us,” Mokomoko added.
From Yogiri’s perspective, it was a baby that had suddenly been dropped into his lap. If it was possible to hand it off to someone else, he’d be more than happy to do so.
“Anyway, we made it here. Now what?”
“Hm. It feels like we are back at the starting line,” Mokomoko said.
“Maybe we should have asked the elves how to get out of the Lost Woods ourselves.”
“I doubt they would have told us. They would not have wanted humans coming and going as they pleased.”
If the elves had been willing to tell them how to get out, Fuwat probably wouldn’t have come to guide them in the first place.
“I guess we know three ways out,” Yogiri mused. “One is to follow the correct path through the Lost Woods, but that seems like it’s going to be impossible.”
“The elven village was destroyed, but that does not necessarily mean all of the elves were slain,” Mokomoko said.
“We can look for survivors, but I’m not too hopeful.” If they found any, they might be able to get them to cooperate, but Yogiri found it hard to imagine an elf would willingly help a group of humans, considering how hostile they had been. “The second option is to fly out, but we can’t fly. So the fastest way is probably the third option: killing the forest itself.”
The Lost Woods warped the space around them, but it seemed to rely on the trees to accomplish that. If they destroyed a sizable portion of the forest, the spell should be rendered powerless.
“I don’t really want to use my power on such a big scale if I can help it, though. Using it on something I don’t understand that well is kind of difficult.”
When his target was on the level of a forest, limiting the area of the effect was challenging. If things went poorly, it could have effects that spanned the entire world.
“Umm, maybe it’s weird to bring this up now,” Tomochika said hesitantly, “but what happened to Hanakawa?”
“Oh, right.”
The elven village had been destroyed, and that was where they had last seen him. If he had stayed there, he would have been erased along with it. Although Hanakawa possessed healing magic, the beam of light had incinerated everything in an instant. If it had struck him, he would have been killed immediately.
“After all he’s been through, he’s probably still alive somehow.” Yogiri felt bad for him for a moment, but he found it hard to believe Hanakawa would actually die.
“So there’s no point in worrying!” Tomochika concluded. She had been the one to bring it up, yet she dropped the topic just as fast.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Suppose I were a character in a manga or an anime. Even if I were suddenly impaled through the chest, and my life were in obvious danger, I feel like no one would be the slightest bit concerned about my well-being! Of course, there is the fact that I am still alive!”
The sword had cut straight through Hanakawa’s back, the tip emerging from his chest. But it wasn’t enough to kill him. If he didn’t die instantly and could stay conscious, as long as he had magical energy to spare, he could heal any injury easily.
After being stabbed, he had dropped to the ground, pretending to be dead. Once his assailant had stepped away, he waited for a considerable amount of time. After a healthy amount of distance was between them, he slowly got to his feet and looked around.
He was alone. The only person nearby was Carla, lying in pieces on the ground somewhere.
“Perhaps it is true that I am most resilient, but I have no means with which to win in combat! Feigning death is truly the best solution!”
He had been impaled, so it wasn’t hard to assume it had been a fatal wound. If he hadn’t used his healing magic right away, he probably would have been dead within minutes.
“Hmm. Given how she cut Lady Carla to pieces, I thought she was simply a mass murderer with bizarre tastes, but...”
The adventurer named Kris had left Hanakawa intact. Perhaps satisfied after stabbing him once, she had left him alone after that.
“No matter. I have no means of discovering her motives, nor do I care! For now, I have been saved, so I must return to the elven village—”
The moment he thought that, a huge roar shook the forest. He didn’t know what had happened, but his instincts told him it was something on the level of a natural disaster.
“That was from the direction of the elven village, if I recall...” He immediately gave up on going back. “What shall I do next? I suspect running into Sir Yoshifumi would end poorly.”
It wasn’t like he had split off from Yoshifumi intentionally, but the Sage didn’t know that. He would probably assume Hanakawa had run away, and he wouldn’t forgive him for it.
“As such, it seems the empire is now off limits to me.”
The area around the empire was all under observation by one of Yoshifumi’s Four Heavenly Kings, Abby. If he got close, she would know his location in an instant.
“In that case, I should leave this island behind, but the port is in the capital. If he is truly determined, there is no way I could sneak through without catching Sir Yoshifumi’s attention.”
Yoshifumi was both the emperor and a Sage. He could do any crazy thing he wished on this island. He could keep the entire area under surveillance twenty-four hours a day if he so chose.
“Hmm...is there some answer using my summoning power?”
He no longer felt the need for something as unbelievable as a beautiful young girl who would love him back. He wondered if he could summon someone who would look even a little favorably on him and help him out of this situation instead.
“Well, I might as well begin looking at the search window. I might come up with a good idea.”
Hanakawa opened the system window and looked at his skill list. He went to select the “Summon Anything” skill, but it wasn’t there.
“Hm? Should it not be at the very bottom?” Looking over the skill list repeatedly, he couldn’t find the summoning skill anywhere. “What is going on? Did it really disappear with Malnarilna’s death?”
“Not at all. My power as an apostle is to randomly steal powers from the people I cut.”
Hanakawa turned to face the source of the voice to find Kris standing behind him.
“Why are you here?! Didn’t you leave?!” Hanakawa recalled she had obtained the power to use his scent to teleport to him.
“Yes, after hitting you once, I acquired a skill, so I thought that was enough.”
“Then why did you return?! You should have no further use for me!”
“That’s true. I kind of figured anything else I got from you would be useless.”
“It is a little irritating to be called useless, but all I have left is healing skills! I don’t possess anything that special! Or what, do you intend to finish me off?!”
“I don’t really care about your healing skills or whether you’re alive or dead, but ever since killing that last person, my tastes have changed a bit.”
“What?!” Hanakawa instinctively began to back away.
“I just thought you looked kind of tasty.”
“Nothing about me has changed in the least! Please, spare me!”
Hanakawa was far from being out of danger.
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