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Chapter 17 — She Probably Would Have Been Fine If We’d Just Left Her Alone

Her transformation complete, Kris charged. Realizing that her beams weren’t having any effect, Rena took a defensive stance. Kris swung her claws down, but Rena was already gone. She had teleported behind her, using her ability to appear behind the person she was fighting.

A swift kick delivered to the back of the head decapitated Kris, but that didn’t stop her from spinning and slashing again. Rena jumped backwards, clicking her tongue. Kris’s head had already regenerated.

“Is that because she still possesses remaining lives? It seems possible Miss Rena might still be able to win.” Hanakawa tried to stay optimistic.

“No, she’s in a completely different league now. She has the backup of a real Foundation Eater. If you want to talk about lives, she has four or five Celestial Foundations’ worth. Or maybe it would be easier to understand if I said she had four or five universes? Trying to chew through all of them would take an astronomical amount of time.” Takumi’s explanation was very difficult to believe.

“That is totally off the scale! It defies the imagination!”

“That’s Foundation Eaters for you. They eat entire universes in a single bite. It’s not like they can use everything they eat, and it takes them some time to digest it all, but they’ll generally have about four universes or so sitting in their gut at once.”

“How did it come to this?!”

“Kris made a big mistake, stealing powers from a Foundation Eater’s Terminal. Trying to take powers from a Terminal is like inviting in the Trojan Horse.” Though Hanakawa had no memory of explaining the situation, Takumi seemed fully aware of Kris’s abilities.

“‘Trojan Horse,’ huh? I suppose that is just a result of the translation...” Hanakawa mumbled under his breath. This world must have had a similar incident in its history, so the metaphor was translated to a familiar one for him.

“I’ve been speaking Japanese this whole time, you know. You’re Japanese, right? I used to be Japanese too.”

“I thought you looked somewhat Japanese. Is that why you also possess a Japanese sounding name?”

“Yeah. Though I forgot my last name.”

“Speaking of which, what business brings you here, Sir Takumi?”

The mysterious boy had suddenly shown up out of nowhere, sat down beside Hanakawa, and started to explain the fight. It wouldn’t have been strange for Hanakawa to be on guard against him, but for some reason he didn’t feel that concerned.

“I’m looking for something. I thought it was around here, so I’ve been wandering around, and I ended up getting lost, but I finally found it.”

“What exactly is it?”

“That guy over there is holding it. But man, he’s got some style, doesn’t he? Where did he find clothes like that? Were they custom-made?” Takumi was pointing at Yoshifumi.

“I see. However, if it is a possession of Sir Yoshifumi, I imagine it may be quite a challenge to get it from him.”

If you asked the Sage to hand something over, he’d probably kill you on the spot. If you wanted something from him, you’d need a clever way of negotiating.

“Well, it’s not like I need it right away. For now, let’s just watch the girls fight.”

Rena still seemed to have the advantage. She could continuously teleport behind Kris and attack. Since she could only teleport directly behind her, Kris knew the attacks could only come from either the front or back, leaving her to guess which direction the next blow would come from. If her response was even slightly late, Rena would take the chance to strike.

But it soon became evident that this wouldn’t last for long. Kris grew another face on the back of her head.

“I thought she wasn’t totally outside the realm of possibility before, but now she is definitely a complete monster!”

“You’re pretty tolerant, aren’t you?”

“I do not mind an alien monster woman that much.”

“It’s still a fight for now, but it’s just a matter of time.”

“If what you said earlier is true, I can imagine no other conclusion. If she can resurrect herself indefinitely, Miss Rena has no chance.”

“A Terminal isn’t especially powerful, but I guess it’s a lot more than a human can handle.”

Kris continued to transform. When she needed more arms, she grew them. When she needed mobility, she grew legs. Each time she took damage, her skin hardened. It soon became clear that Rena could no longer fight her.

Kris finally landed a solid blow. Rena was just able to block it, but the impact sent her flying, tumbling at Yoshifumi’s feet.

“I guess that’s it for you, huh?” Yoshifumi said, looking down at her.

“Yeah, sorry. Looks like that’s the best I can do,” Rena answered bitterly, knowing full well she no longer had a chance.

“HaNaKaWa...SoOn...” Kris looked at Hanakawa with the multitude of faces on her chest and stomach.

“After all that, why are you still thinking about me?!”

“Oh, does she like you or something?” Takumi asked.

“I suppose that is not entirely false, but her intention appears to be to eat me! Of course, I have no intention of indulging her!”

“Oh. Want some help, then?”

“Huh? Is there something you can do?”

“Yeah, I think I can handle her.”

“That makes me curious, who exactly are you? Appearing out of nowhere, explaining everything, and then offering to help me? It sounds too good to be true.” In spite of the fact that he felt relaxed around him, Hanakawa still had no idea who Takumi was.

“Just call it a favor for a fellow Japanese guy. No need to be so suspicious.”

“Well, it is not like there is anything I am capable of accomplishing at this point, so if you have the ability to provide assistance I am more than happy to receive it. But this won’t lead to me getting wrapped up in something terrible later, will it?” Considering his experiences so far, Hanakawa was skeptical.

“Nope. This is just a whim. You don’t look like you’d be fun to fight anyway.”

Takumi stood up. He stepped past Yoshifumi and the two girls to stand in front of Kris, then casually reached forward and grabbed her by the neck. His movements were so smooth and natural, Kris had no chance to respond.

“The hell are you?! Where’d you come from?!” the emperor shouted in surprise as he suddenly noticed Takumi.

“I’m Takumi. You’re Yoshifumi, I guess?”

“Just who the hell are you? What’re you gonna do to her?”

Kris was using her numerous arms to punch at Takumi. Her claws slashed at him, and her multiple sets of jaws bit at him, but Takumi ignored it all. The arm he used to hold her didn’t so much as shake. Kris continued to transform, creating more arms, jaws, and blades to rip him apart, but nothing worked.

“We’re on completely different levels,” Takumi said, turning back to Kris. “It’s sad, but no matter how strong you get, you’ll never match me.”

There were no longer any vestiges of Kris’s humanity remaining. She was no more than a monster of countless arms and jaws. She even began to exude a toxic miasma.

“You guys have no way of dealing with her, right? Then let me offer a suggestion. Can you hand over the fragment of the goddess you’re holding? If you do, I’ll deal with her for you.”

“What?! How the hell do you know about that?!” Yoshifumi shouted.

“The seal was broken, so we can tell where they are now. Didn’t you notice?”

“You bastard. You’re an Aggressor?!”

“Who knows? I guess I could be? What do you say?”


“There’s no way I’d hand it over! What are you, stupid?!”

“Huh. Well, I tried. You don’t look fun to fight, so I thought I’d try to negotiate with you...but whatever. I said I’d help Hanakawa. Let’s get rid of her, then.”

The boy began to shine. The light cast out the darkness from the corridor, creating a world of pure white. Hanakawa covered his eyes, writhing about on the ground as the intense light burned his eyes. The brightness lasted for only a moment, so after casting Heal on himself, he opened his eyes again to find that almost nothing had changed. Takumi was still standing there, but Kris was gone. It was immediately obvious that the boy had erased her.

“Okay, you’re next. If you won’t hand it over, I have no choice but to take it from you by force. Do you feel like changing your mind?” he asked the Sage with a relaxed expression.

“Give it up, moron! You think that’s impressive?! Bring it on!” Yoshifumi answered with a small attempt at intimidation himself.

◇ ◇ ◇

The baby continued to babble, stretching its hand out. Yogiri, Tomochika, and Mokomoko continued walking through the ruins, following the direction the infant was indicating.

“She’s definitely trying to take us somewhere,” said Tomochika.

“It seems like she’s pointing down a little. Does she want us to go underground?” Yogiri asked.

“This is getting stranger and stranger...”

They walked through the scar in the earth, the mysterious ships now scattered all around them.

“Things have really gone nuts here, haven’t they?” Tomochika commented.

“Not that I think I did anything wrong.”

“I don’t know. Sure, it’s their fault for attacking you, but...”

After walking for a while, they came across a hole in the melted earth. As they approached it, the baby clearly indicated that it wanted to go down. As Yogiri had guessed, whatever she wanted was underground.

“Looks pretty deep,” he observed. “I can’t see the bottom.”

“How do we get down there?”

“If only we still had Furemaru,” Mokomoko sighed.

Yogiri looked around. It didn’t seem like there was anything useful for descending into the pit. “I guess we’ll give up.”

“That was fast!”

“We can’t jump down into a pit we can’t even see the bottom of, can we?”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

As Yogiri moved to step away, the baby began to wail.

“See? She wants to go down.”

“What am I supposed to do about it?”

They had a rope in their backpack, but there was nothing nearby to fasten it to. He could always kill gravity to get to the bottom safely, but it didn’t seem like a situation that called for such drastic action.

“Come on, try and understand,” Yogiri said to the baby. “We can’t go any farther.”

“Waaaaaaaaaah!”

The baby’s earsplitting cry left him dumbfounded. No amount of rocking or cuddling seemed to soothe her.

“Okay, fine! We’ll go! Please stop crying!”

The moment Yogiri said that, the baby grew silent.

“You know, I really don’t like people who think they’ll get whatever they want if they cry.”

“Takatou...you realize she’s just a baby, right?”

“But still, how do we get down there?” They looked at the hole again, but they could only see darkness. “If she wants to go that badly, why don’t we send her by herself?”

The baby immediately blurted out a sound of disbelief.

“It seems like she understands us just fine,” Yogiri added.

“Well, there’s no way she’s just a baby, right?”

“Hey, if you want to go down there so bad, tell us how,” Yogiri instructed the child.

“Takatou, what are you expecting will...” As Tomochika spoke, they started floating up into the air. All three of them were now hovering a little ways off the ground. “Huh? What’s going on?”

“ESP? Does she possess the power of levitation?” Mokomoko mused.

“If you can do this, why did you wait so long?” Yogiri complained.

“You’re being pretty harsh on a baby!”

“I don’t believe in treating people like children.”

“Can you at least treat babies like children?!”

The three of them slowly hovered over to the hole, passed through it, and began to descend. After a while, they reached the bottom.

“It’s so dark. Can you make some light for us?” Yogiri asked.

The baby babbled some more.

“It feels like she’s saying, ‘How would I?!’” Tomochika guessed.

“Fine. I think we have something.”

Yogiri looked through the backpack. He pulled out a lantern and lit it with a match. Dull light filled the room. The floor was made of stone and lined with large pillars. It looked like classic underground ruins.

“Okay, can you make this float? You can do that much, right?”

The lantern began to hover in the air.

“You’re being awfully demanding of this baby, you know.”

The infant reached forward, indicating the direction she wanted to go. As they walked, the lantern hovered along with them.

“If she can do all this, she probably would have been fine if we’d just left her alone, don’t you think?”

The baby gave an indignant shout.

“I don’t think she agrees, Takatou.”

“Well, whatever. This way, right?”

Although they had no idea what she wanted, they followed the baby’s directions deeper into the ruins.



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