Chapter 1 — Treating Me like a Criminal Just Because I Look Gross Isn’t Fair!
Yogiri’s group was still within the underground ruins at the center of the Elven Forest. It wasn’t normally a place where people would be found wandering, but for some reason a large number of travelers had gathered there.
With Yogiri were Tomochika Dannoura, her guardian spirit Mokomoko, and the baby who had just grown into a young girl. They had met Daimon Hanakawa, who they had been separated from earlier, Vivian, the girl with all the shields, and another woman who seemed to be one of Yoshifumi’s followers. Ignoring the now dead Yoshifumi, there were seven of them in total.
“Okay! So what do we do now?!”
Tomochika seemed a bit flustered. They had entered the ruins at the insistence of the baby, who had been born from the transformed Philosopher’s Stones. Her objective must have been the Philosopher’s Stone in Yoshifumi’s body. She had acquired what she desired, but the rest of them wanted to get out of the forest. Originally, they had planned to meet up with Yoshifumi and take his Philosopher’s Stone, but the baby had already absorbed it. As a result, she had now grown to the size of a three-year-old. Yogiri could fully understand Tomochika’s confusion.
“If she can talk, then I guess we should just ask her. Do we keep collecting Philosopher’s Stones? I’m not sure there’s a point anymore,” he said.
They needed a tremendous amount of energy to return to their own world. They had been seeking Philosopher’s Stones to use as a source of energy, but now the stones had transformed into a humanoid child, and it wasn’t clear whether they could still extract the required energy.
“You should be big enough to walk on your own now,” he told the child. “Can I put you down?”
“Yeah,” came a clear response. However, she seemed to be only about as intelligent as her appearance suggested, so it was doubtful that she would be able to answer complicated questions.
“Hold on a second! Uh...we should have something...” Tomochika started hurriedly digging through the backpack. “Hanakawa, look away for a second. We can’t let you see a girl in this condition.”
The kid in Yogiri’s arms was still only wrapped up in a cloth. Her change in size had left her almost naked, so Tomochika was searching for something for her to wear.
“That is quite rude! No matter my feelings towards lolis in general, a child that young is naturally outside of my scope! Speaking of which, why does it not bother you if Sir Takatou sees? Did it not occur to you that he might have impure motives of his own?!”
“Takatou isn’t like that.”
“How do you know?!”
“Uhh...because of how he looks?”
“Dammit!”
Once her preparations were complete, Yogiri handed the child over to Tomochika. Although it was hardly a concern given the child’s age, he turned his back anyway.
“Treating me like a criminal just because I look gross isn’t fair! That will no doubt result in false accusations against me. Such a decision hardly protects children at all. The ones you should actually be on guard against are the seemingly kind older men lurking around the neighborhood, not the gross otaku types.”
Yogiri stepped over beside Hanakawa, who continued mumbling nonsense, apparently upset about the situation.
“We’re done!”
At Tomochika’s declaration, they turned around. The young girl was now wearing a large t-shirt. Made for an adult, on a girl of her size it ended up looking like a long dress. She probably had some sort of underwear on as well.
“Hold on a moment! Things seem to be moving on without me. Can you stop pretending I don’t exist?!” The stunned Vivian finally seemed to have collected her wits.
“I mean, you just happened to be here when we showed up,” Yogiri replied. “What do you want us to do? You were going to kill Yoshifumi and rebuild your country, right? He’s dead now, so good luck with the rest of it.”
There was nothing they could do to help her with her mission, nor did they feel the need to try. It wouldn’t help them get home, after all.
“That’s true, but...but...you think I can just accept this?!”
“I have fully accepted things!” Hanakawa interjected.
“No one asked you!” Vivian snapped back at him.
“Miss Vivian, in a situation like this, it is best to be carried by the current and not complicate things with unnecessary complaints! Look, even Miss Rena is being quiet.”
The unhealthy looking woman who appeared to be one of Yoshifumi’s subordinates was called Rena. She was staring down at the collapsed Sage. There was no impression of joy at having been set free from her oppression. She seemed stunned, unable to accept the reality of his death.
“What...the hell! Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to make it this far?!” Rena suddenly exploded. “How could you die?! Aren’t you invincible? Aren’t you supposed to be stronger than anyone else?! Dammit! I put up with your stupid shit for so long because you were supposed to be able to kill him!”
“Die.”
Rena collapsed. Yogiri had used his power in response to the killing intent coming from her.
“Huh? Uh, is she dead?” Hanakawa asked.
“She lost it and was going to do something dangerous.”
“No, no, no! That sounded like something really important, didn’t it? You should have heard her out and then eventually decided to help her! Or at least let her escape, so she could swear revenge against you, then come back into the story after powering up! Is that not exactly the kind of development this situation calls for?!”
“What are you mad for?” Yogiri couldn’t understand why Hanakawa had lost his temper. “Anyway, can we get out of here? This isn’t a great place to sit around and talk.”
“True enough. Spending much longer in such a depressing place will only lead to us becoming depressed ourselves! I believe the brilliant sunlight is most fitting for me!”
The only light they had at the moment was coming from Vivian’s glowing shield and the ball of light the child had finally managed to create for them. Although it was enough to illuminate the area around them, being otherwise surrounded by darkness was hard to handle. It wasn’t a particularly fun place to be hanging out.
“Really? You seem like the type to hole up in a dark room somewhere and watch anime for days on end.” Tomochika remarked, legitimately curious about his statement.
“What an awful stereotype! Believe it or not, I am actually the outdoor type! The kind to travel on pilgrimages!”
“If we’re going outside, I guess we should go back the way we came. How did you guys get in here, Hanakawa?”
“I came through a hole in the ceiling.” Hanakawa had been brought there against his will by a woman named Kris. After that, he had encountered Yoshifumi, which had led to the current situation.
“Same with me. It seems like Yoshifumi found a different way in, but I have no idea where,” Vivian added, looking at the fallen Sage.
“We didn’t walk all that far, so we should head back to the hole.”
“It was quite high up, though. Do you have some means of ascending?” Hanakawa asked.
“I’m sure the baby can figure something out. She was able to slow our fall when we came in.”
“Daddy, please don’t call me a baby,” the three-year-old complained with a pout. Yogiri had gotten into the habit of calling her “the baby,” but now that she had grown, she didn’t seem to like it.
“Well, sure, I guess you’re not a baby anymore. Should I call you ‘the girl’ instead?”
“Okay, you can’t be that lazy!” Tomochika interjected. “I think calling her ‘the baby’ was already bad enough!”
“Then someone should come up with a name for her,” Yogiri replied. He had already given up on finding a name Tomochika would accept.
“Allow me.”
“Uh, we’re definitely not accepting suggestions from Hanakawa,” Tomochika said, stopping him.
“Why?!”
“You’d probably just call her Moe or something.”
“What kind of prejudice is that?! I think that deserves an apology for all the Moes of the world!”
“Hmm. But coming up with a name out of nowhere is pretty hard. She’s really cute, so I want a name that fits that.” Tomochika crossed her arms, sinking into thought.
“If it’s going to take that long, let’s get outside first. For now we can just call her ‘the girl.’ If you’re unhappy about that, we can talk about it later.”
“That is exactly the kind of temporary solution that ends up becoming permanent, isn’t it?!”
“Okay then. Do you have a way to get us outside?” Yogiri asked the girl.
“You’re going to call me ‘girl’? Anyway, yeah, I should be able to make everyone float.”
“Then let’s go.”
They headed back the way Yogiri’s group had come from, returning to the large hallway with the hole in the ceiling soon enough. They hadn’t actually made it that far into the ruins.
“All right,” Yogiri prompted their young companion, “please and thank you.”
“Yah!” The girl gave a cute shout, and as she did, the six of them started floating up into the air, ascending gradually.
“Ohhh! What a refreshing experience!”
“Weren’t you flying around before, Hanakawa?” Tomochika recalled her first encounter with him in this world. He had flown towards them along with a couple of their other classmates.
“That was not the same thing. Flying at high speed is one thing, but this feeling of suspension is quite different and quite enjoyable!”
After floating for a bit, they passed through the hole in the ceiling and made it back to solid ground. The fallen spaceships were scattered all around them. It was a strange sight, but nothing much had changed since they’d gone underground.
“Thank goodness. I thought some other weirdos would have showed up the moment we got back,” Tomochika sighed with relief.
“Er...is this situation not bizarre enough? There are gross-looking spaceships scattered around everywhere!”
“What are those things?!”
Hanakawa and Vivian had both shouted out in surprise.
“They attacked us, so I killed them.”
“You ‘killed’ the spaceships? Well, I suppose that is the kind of person you are, Sir Takatou.”
“For now, let’s use one of the buildings. Maybe we can’t exactly relax there, but at least it’s better than being underground.”
Passing through the burned-out scar in the ruins, they returned to the surviving structures, selecting a particularly sturdy one to rest in.
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