Chapter 2 — I Feel like You’ve Betrayed Me, Hanakawa
After entering the building, they split into two groups by gender, each taking a different room. They had gotten rather dirty in the ruins and had decided to change. Being covered in dust was pretty unpleasant. Hanakawa was getting changed beside Yogiri, pulling clothes out of his item box. Yogiri settled for retrieving clothes from his magic backpack.
“Hanakawa, are you giving up on being a clown?”
“What a bizarre question to ask!” Hanakawa had changed into clothes more appropriate for this world. It was the kind of outfit that didn’t stand out much, worn by ordinary people living in the cities.
“I thought you were wearing that jester outfit because you liked it.”
“Who would enjoy such gaudy clothing?! I was forced to wear it by Sir Yoshifumi!”
After getting changed, they headed back to what seemed to be the living room. It had nothing but a stone table and a few chairs and wasn’t all that comfortable, but it was much better than sitting on the ground. Taking a seat, the two of them waited until the girls appeared.
Tomochika had changed out of her jungle clothes. Apparently, she hadn’t considered the fact that they might be walking through the forest again soon. They had also changed the Enju android’s clothes, but Yogiri couldn’t imagine Mokomoko taking much of an interest in such things, so that might have been at Tomochika’s insistence.
“I feel surprisingly refreshed,” Tomochika commented as she stepped into the room.
“Hah! My Shower Shield is capable of producing as much hot water as you need!” Vivian declared proudly.
“Your shields can really do anything, can’t they?”
Sitting down around the table, they began discussing the situation.
“So,” Yogiri started, “our plan was to get out of the forest, find Yoshifumi, and get his Philosopher’s Stone, but we already did that.”
“That doesn’t change that we’re still stuck in the forest,” Tomochika added. They had originally gone to the ruins in hopes of finding a clue for how to get out of the forest. Their inability to escape hadn’t yet been solved.
“I was only here because Sir Yoshifumi forced me to accompany him. I was unaware that escaping the forest was particularly challenging,” Hanakawa offered.
“Oh, that’s right,” Tomochika said. “We thought you might know how to get out of here or be able to get out and summon the rest of us.”
“Yes, well, about that. A woman named Kris, who I encountered in the forest, stole my summoning ability. Though she is now deceased, my power has not returned.”
“So what can you do now?”
“As before, I am nothing but a Healer.”
“So you’re useless...”
“Tomochika! Please don’t say it like that! Despite how I may appear, I am quite sensitive! My glass heart will shatter to pieces!”
“I feel like you’ve betrayed me, Hanakawa.”
“Ugh...you had high hopes for me and saw those hopes dashed without me even knowing?”
“But you can use healing magic? Isn’t that rather impressive?” Vivian asked.
“I am level ninety-nine! I can heal any injury that does not result in instant death!”
“Does this world have a leveling system?” Yogiri asked. “I’ve never heard of it. Is level ninety-nine the limit?”
“It differs according to race, but for humans like us, that is the case. There are, however, skills that allow one to exceed it.”
Yogiri and Tomochika didn’t have the game-like Battlesong client installed. That left them unable to experience levels or skills like Hanakawa and their other classmates did. As a fan of video games, Yogiri was a little disappointed.
“Ah! Back in the village, you said you were planning on getting through the Elven Forest, right, Vivian? So does that mean you know how to get out of here?”
“Umm...we had an item called the Bell of Guidance, which allowed us to make it through the Lost Woods, but it is probably gone now. Maanu was holding it when that strange light...”
When they had first arrived, Vivian’s group had been attacked by the stone giants who appeared from the transforming buildings. They had managed to somehow break through the defenses in their attempt to reach the largest building in the ruins, but a beam of light had incinerated them shortly before they made it there. Vivian’s shield powers had barely saved her, but the others had been annihilated. Naturally, their possessions had met the same fate.
“So in short, no one knows how to get out of here.”
There was the young girl with them too, but she had been born from the transforming Philosopher’s Stones. It was hard to imagine she would know anything about the forest.
“Should we go back to searching the underground ruins again?”
They had originally thought that the ruins might hold a clue about how to escape, since they were situated right at the center of the forest. But the majority of the structures on the surface had been destroyed, so if there was anything left to be found, it would likely be underground.
“No, we should be able to get out now,” Mokomoko finally said. “The girl can float us out, right? Those spaceships got here by flying, so it seems like the Lost Woods effect doesn’t cover the sky.”
“That’s right. We did say ‘If only we could fly’ earlier, didn’t we? Do you think you could make us fly?” Yogiri asked the girl.
“Yeah.”
“Then I guess we’ve found our way out.”
“Hold on!” Tomochika shouted. “Why can this girl fly in the first place?! Why is everyone acting like it’s normal?! And what happened to the Philosopher’s Stones?! Are we going to just keep looking for more of them?!”
“Ah, yeah, I guess that’s still a problem.”
“That’s the only problem that’s left, isn’t it?! It’s more important than whether or not we can get out of the forest.”
“So, who exactly is this girl?”
“I don’t like you calling me that either. Pick something else. We’ve relaxed now, right?” The name problem returned. The child was finally insisting that they give her a proper name.
“Don’t you have any ideas for what you want to be called?”
“I can’t think of anything. I want you to think of one, daddy.”
“Then why are you complaining about the ideas I’ve had?”
“Because that ‘name’ doesn’t count!” Tomochika offered. She didn’t seem happy with his choices either.
“Well, she did come from Philosopher’s Stones, so maybe Stone?”
“You really have no naming sense at all, do you, Sir Takatou?” Even Hanakawa was starting to criticize him.
“Seeing Yogiri Takatou pushed into such a corner is quite a sight! I can’t help but enjoy the feeling!” For some reason, Vivian seemed to be loving the situation.
“Hmm. A name. And just calling her ‘girl’ is no good...”
“No, it’s not. Go for something completely different,” Tomochika instructed.
“Okay, how about the opposite? Lrig? Or maybe just something from the last letter. How about Luu?”
The girl thought about it for a bit before accepting, then said, “Whatever, that’s fine.” She didn’t seem to particularly like it, but she didn’t hate it enough to complain.
“Okay then, Luu it is! Who exactly are you?”
“I’m a goddess. I don’t remember anything else, though. When I get bigger, I’ll probably remember more.”
“And you get bigger by getting more Philosopher’s Stones, right? What is that about?”
“Those stones are part of me. I need you to get more of them, daddy.”
“Is there a point to you getting any bigger? I heard the Philosopher’s Stones were a power source, so if we give them to you, will you be able to use the energy from them?”
“Why do you need energy?” Luu asked.
“We’re from a different world. We want to go back, but we were told that would take a huge amount of energy.”
Different worlds were arranged in a figurative vertical hierarchy in which power always flowed downward. Going from a higher world to a lower one merely involved falling, but moving from a lower world to a higher one required enough energy to combat that natural flow. This world existed on more or less the bottom of the hierarchy, so getting back to their own world would require a tremendous amount of energy.
“That’s okay! If I get back my original form, moving between worlds is super easy! So go get more of the stones!”
“And there is no threat of you turning against us the moment you have returned to your original strength, is there?” Hanakawa asked.
“That’s a good point,” Yogiri said. “You were sealed away by being split into those stones, right? There must have been a reason for it.”
Luu’s expression soured. There wasn’t much reason to trust her at this point. They couldn’t just accept what she was saying at face value.
“No idea!” she finally declared. “I don’t know why they sealed me away!”
“I guess that’s fine. Either way, we need your help to get out of here.”
“And what do we do once we make it out? We came to this island to get Yoshifumi’s Philosopher’s Stone, but we have already acquired it. So where do we go next?” Mokomoko asked.
“Good question. If we’re going to keep looking for Philosopher’s Stones, I guess we need to find more Sages.”
“That is hardly an issue,” Hanakawa said. “In situations like these, the main body can feel the scattered parts calling out to her! So Luu can probably detect where they are on instinct!”
“I have no clue where they are,” the girl replied instantly.
“But when you were a baby, you directed us to Yoshifumi’s stone, didn’t you?” Yogiri asked. They had only headed to the underground ruins because of her guidance.
“I can tell if they’re close, but that’s it.”
“That’s still enough to give us a little help,” Tomochika replied. It wasn’t like Luu was completely useless. At the very least, they didn’t have to worry about missing a stone that was close by.
“For starters, we need to get off this island. Yoshifumi was probably the only Sage here,” Yogiri said.
“In that case, I suppose we should head to the capital,” Vivian suggested. “There is a port there, so we should be able to find a ship to take us away.”
The island of Ent was long and thin, stretching from east to west. The imperial capital was on the eastern side and had a port. That was where Yogiri and Tomochika had originally intended to travel. But there were no boats on the western side of the island, so escaping from there was all but impossible.
“I guess we’ll leave the forest, head to the capital, and look for more information there,” Yogiri stated.
Staying in the forest and talking wouldn’t get them very far.
“So that’s where we’re going. What about you, Vivian?”
“There isn’t much reason for me to head to the capital, but being abandoned here doesn’t sound very good either!”
“You have those shields, so you can probably figure something out, can’t you? Like a shield that lets you fly?”
“Oh!”
It seemed Vivian had never thought of that.
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