Chapter Nine: Siblings’ Squabble
It was two days later.
Fohl returned to the village, having finished receiving his instruction from the old lady. She had apparently been very pleased with the rapid progress being made by those under the heroes.
There was the Shield Hero power-up method. But maybe this was partly thanks to me.
“Brother! I want to fight too!” Atla pleaded.
“No!” Fohl replied. This had been going on since he returned. For now, at least, it didn’t look like Atla was just going to try and silence him through violence. Of course, if she tried anything so silly, she definitely wouldn’t get to take part.
There was no trusting someone who’d do that.
Still, Atla was unwavering when it came to anything that might pose a threat to my life. She was absolutely devoted to me. Maybe once I’d had a bit of a fetish for having a girl follow me so blindly, but after actually meeting one, all I really felt for her was worry.
Still, I was an evildoer, one who laughed at the misfortune of others, so maybe I didn’t have the right to such a reaction.
Could one as evil as me, raising slaves in order to happily send them off to risk their lives, hope to have anything like a family? Of course not.
So I just quietly watched Fohl and Atla’s exchange.
“I’m asking you so nicely and you still won’t let me go?” Atla continued.
“That’s right, Atla. There’s no way I can take you into somewhere so dangerous,” Fohl firmly replied.
“Brother, everywhere is dangerous. We don’t know what could happen, or when, and then we could just be dead,” Atla went on.
“That’s not quite right. So long as you are here, you will be safe,” Fohl countered.
“Do you really think so? While Master Naofumi is away, someone may pour poison into the river. A sudden plague may kill me. People jealous of Master Naofumi’s deeds may come to the village, and I’d get caught up in the commotion.” Atla went straight to some pretty extreme examples.
Those things weren’t going to happen . . . right? Poisoning the river? That would really be crossing the line.
Still, maybe I’d talk with Rat about planting some bioplants to keep the river clean.
“Can you at least be a little realistic?” Fohl chided.
“I’m just telling you that ‘safety’ is an illusion. I want to protect Master Naofumi from that sadness! Everything I just said, those things that could happen, they apply to Master Naofumi too. If I’m not there, a stray arrow may hit him,” Atla continued. Huh? So now I was involved too?
She really was twisting things to her own convenience.
This was another world. It would take more than a stray arrow to kill the Shield Hero.
“I don’t want to sit around just being protected! Please, let me fight too!” Atla still wasn’t done.
“And I’m telling you that isn’t going to happen!” Fohl remained steadfast.
“I’m not weak anymore!” Atla countered.
“That arrogance is what puts you in danger!” Fohl shot back. Seriously. Were they ever going to stop?
That said though, if I got involved, the result wouldn’t lead to anything better. There was nothing I could do. Even if I tried to use her age as a reason, there were other young girls just like Atla who would be fighting.
I guess it was a little late to point out how terribly twisted I was.
“We can’t reach an agreement, can we, Atla?” Fohl finally conceded.
“No, we can’t.” At least Atla was in agreement about this.
“Then, as those of the bloodline of the hakuko, you know what we have to do,” Fohl said. He raised his fist at Atla and unleashed a wave of murderous intent.
What the hell was about to kick off?
“I do,” Atla replied. “For the sake of showing my resolve, I’ll now display my strength to you, brother.”
“If you lose to me, you’ll keep my promise. This is the very reason I went and trained,” Fohl revealed.
“I will be true to my word. If I can’t even defeat you, brother, I’ve no place to claim I can defend Master Naofumi,” Atla replied. Another bit of a jump from her.
Anyway, I’d heard a lot of chatter about fights between Fohl and Atla. Fohl would generally win if he had Raphtalia’s help, apparently. I looked over at her now.
“Without your help, can Fohl beat Atla?” I asked.
“Maybe once every three times, although since Q’ten Lo, I think that’s bumped up to two in three,” she informed me. Not a sterling record, but not bad.
Ren and Itsuki had said Atla was developing faster, but when pure guts were thrown into the equation, Fohl’s chances likely increased. He’d been a fighter since before he met us too, so it could come down to the one with the most experience.
“Come then, brother. We fight,” Atla declared.
“Indeed,” Fohl replied. The siblings pointed their fists at each other and prepared for battle.
The two of them had quite different fighting styles.
Fohl normally used his fists to punch his foes, while Atla mainly used thrusts with her fingers extended. Rather than punching, it was more like she was stabbing at weak spots.
This fight would decide whether Atla was going to take part in the battle with the Phoenix. The wind blew through, and a single bioplant leaf danced past.
The moment it fell to the ground, the fight started.
With a shout, Fohl moved—and fast—right up in front of Atla, then struck down with his fist and a grunt. Atla used her own hands to redirect the blow, avoiding it by a hair’s breadth.
Fohl’s fist stuck into the ground.
A thud rang out, and cracks spiderwebbed out from the impact.
“Now!” Atla shouted. From behind Fohl, her own attack came down.
“No way!” Fohl was practically standing on his hands, his fist still stuck in the ground, and he twisted his body to deliver a kick to Atla.
With an annoyed sound, she blocked the kick with one hand, then twisted her body around his leg to absorb the impact before landing again. She attempted another strike, but Fohl leapt up from his inverted position, recovered himself, and then launched a flying kick at Atla.
All of this took only five seconds. These hakuko really didn’t mess about when it came to martial arts.
The two of them dropped back and calmed their breathing.
“Just as I thought. You’re clearly becoming stronger and stronger, Atla. As your brother, that makes me very proud,” Fohl stated.
“That condescending tone is exactly why you will lose, brother,” Atla fired back, not taking the compliment.
“Three months. In just three months, I can’t believe the progress we have both made. Truly remarkable,” Fohl commented.
“I agree. Three months seems short, but it’s long enough for a person to change,” Atla replied.
“You’ve changed, Atla. I can’t believe how you used to worry about being a burden, just by being alive,” Fohl recalled.
“I haven’t changed at all,” Atla countered. “Just my being alive continues to cause trouble for so many people. That’s why I want to lighten the burden I create. I’m including you in that, brother. I want to protect you too,” Atla confessed.
Having both caught their breath, they continued the conversation while continuing the fight.
“I don’t want to wait somewhere safe for the danger to pass. If I can use my strength to protect Master Naofumi, you, and the others in this village, I’ll happily step up. If that’s what Master Naofumi is trying to do, then I can at least keep him safe while he does it,” Atla said.
“Why do you always have to bring him into it?!” Fohl raged.
“Don’t you see it, brother? Don’t you understand what lies there in the deepest part of Master Naofumi?” Atla asked. To that, Fohl had no reply.
The fight continued, neither able to land a decisive blow. Both of them moved so fast that everyone watching could barely keep up.
“Oh my, look at them go!” Sadeena offered.
“Amazing. This is how people from other worlds can fight?” Shildina commented too, each sister voicing her opinion almost at the same time. Hah! The pair of them were a little better. Just the night before, Sadeena had done something to piss Shildina off, and the two of them had basically re-created their scrap in Q’ten Lo.
“Shildina!” came a child’s voice.
“Ruft . . . whatever is the matter?” Shildina asked the boy, who was standing at her side. Ruft had been gradually increasing his level, as an aside here. He was getting a little taller too, perhaps. The change wasn’t as pronounced as with Raphtalia.
“That’s quite an impressive battle. Shildina. Do you think I could ever become that strong?” Ruft asked.
“I don’t think you’d be suited to fighting exactly like that,” Shildina replied.
“Me either,” Sadeena chimed in. “I wouldn’t recommend anything but close-quarters fighting for you, little Ruft.”
“Tell me, Shield Hero, why are those two fighting?” Now Ruft turned his attention to me.
“We’re going to be fighting a monster called the ‘Phoenix’ before too much longer, and they’re trying to decide if Atla gets to come along,” I explained.
“T-that sounds dangerous! Will I have to fight it too?” he asked timidly.
“In your case, Ruft, I’d stop you myself even if you wanted to. You’re still too low a level, and, well . . . other stuff,” I covered. I wanted to keep Ruft as insurance, in case Raphtalia decided she didn’t want to take over as Heavenly Emperor of Q’ten Lo. After he’d grown up a bit, no one would think he was the same kid, even if we took him back. He’d pass him off as a distant relation who just looked like him—something like that.
“I see . . . but I can kind of understand how they feel. It’s plain on both of their faces that they want to fight for someone,” Ruft observed.
“Hmmm.” I agreed with the kid. They had good intentions, surely.
Ren and Itsuki were following the battle with their eyes, each gripping their own weapons hard. Perhaps they were considering what action would be best to take. I might have done the same, if I was more objective about the whole thing.
Motoyasu had gone to set up the portal location, so he wasn’t around. He probably wouldn’t be that bothered about this anyway.
“Atla, you’ve made your resolve firm to me. But I still can’t accept you going into danger. It’s time for me to end this!” Fohl declared. Then he thrust his arms in front of himself and started to focus his awareness.
With a suitable roar, Fohl transformed into his therianthrope form.
That alone was enough to give his abilities a real boost. This hadn’t been a real battle until this point.
“We’ll see about that. You are going to have to accept it! I’ll fight you at full strength too!” Then both of them triggered Hengen Muso Style Muso Activation.
It was like the very air was vibrating.
Everyone there also experienced the difference in the deadly intent emitted by these two fighters. Fohl was like a feral beast. Hot life force, almost like anger, rolled off him in waves.
Opposing him, the life force from Atla was cold, ruthless almost, like something other than human.
So we had burning heat, seeking to bend his opponent to her knees—and chilling cold, looking for any chance for the kill.
The spectators held their collective breath as the two combatants powerfully clashed again.
“Hengen Muso Style Fist Technique! Tiger Break!” Fohl’s life force swelled upward. Then he fired off a punch at Atla.
“Gah!” Each time one of Fohl’s fists struck her, life force passed through Atla’s body. That energy was emitted in the shape of a tiger.
It was a combination skill, an application of Point of Focus that placed its emphasis on ignoring defense. With its incredible increase in power, it would be far harder for Atla to nullify than Point of Focus.
I mean, I could probably handle it.
Point of Focus was a fundamental technique and yet also a key one, specialized for defense-ignoring and defense-rating attacks. However, all the power for that attack had been poured into ignoring defense, meaning it had no defense-rating properties.
Furthermore, it presupposed letting the life force that flowed inside flow outward. A whittling attack, basically. Like an attack that drains a spirit gauge in a fighting game.
“I’m not done yet! Tiger . . .” Fohl pressed his attack, the life force leaving Atla coming back to Fohl’s hands and then increasing his power. Wow, so that was another application of this technique.
“. . . Rush!” He finished his shout and launched a succession of blows at Atla. As each and every one of them landed, the very air trembled slightly with each thudding impact. Dust was thrown up from the ground, and after finishing his rain of blows, Fohl stepped away from Atla.
“How’s that?!” he shouted, probably going too far. The others might have wanted to reply, but I had seen what else had happened.
“Very impressive, brother,” Atla replied. She was pretty beaten up, but she was still on her feet. The same could hardly be said for Fohl, who suddenly grunted in pain. “At each point of impact, I deployed a technique that S’yne has been teaching to Master Naofumi and me,” she went on to explain.
Then Atla made a Wall appear in front of her hand.
“You might want to liken it to having rammed your fists repeatedly into a very hard wall. And in each opening that you created, I took the chance to attack your arms with thrusts of my own,” Atla revealed. Interesting. So she hadn’t just been taking a beating.
It was a technique we had learned for defensive purposes, but against someone fighting barehanded like Fohl, it also had this application. Fohl had been wearing gloves more often recently, but he still preferred to go without. He also wasn’t the type to fight his sister with power-enhancing gloves on.
Even so, Atla was weaving between those high-speed attacks to strike back at her brother’s arms. Just how crazy was she?
“Impressive, Atla. You’ve really given me a beating,” Fohl admitted.
“Not as bad as the one you’ve given me,” Atla spluttered, coughing up a little blood. So she hadn’t been able to stop all of those attacks.
“Now it’s my turn. You can see this, can’t you, brother?” There was a bead composed of life force above Atla’s palm. It swelled up to reveal a tiger trapped inside.
“That’s my life force?” Fohl asked.
“Correct. The life force that you unleashed at me. I couldn’t get all of it, but I managed to trap some of it, like this. Now, you know what happens next, I presume?” she taunted. In an instant, Atla rushed up to Fohl and rammed the bead into his abdomen. From the look of the technique, she was doing more than just reflecting back the life force she had collected. It was very similar to the Point of Focus that Eclair and Rishia often used. It was like adding an attack to the counterattack move Bead. Why, if one was going to give it a name . . .
“It’s only temporary for now, but maybe we could call it Bead of Focus,” Atla suggested.
However, in that same instant, Fohl launched a fist imbued with concentrated life force right at Atla.
“Hengen Muso Style Fist Technique! Tiger Blow!” The ground erupted upward as they clashed, throwing dust and dirt into the air. Two shadows burst out from amid the cloud, spinning through the air as they went flying away.
Then, moaning, the two of them lay on the ground.
That was how powerful the attacks had been. One, or even both of them, might well be unable to continue the fight.
I checked their status.
Neither one of them was dead, but the health of both had been seriously depleted. Atla looked to be at a slight disadvantage.
“Managing this with just basic techniques—” S’yne started, who was also watching nearby.
“She is saying that it is quite impressive to have reached this level using just basic techniques,” her familiar explained.
“You said it. That’s basically a whole new move now,” I agreed. She gathered and collected together the life force sent into her body, concentrated it, then returned it to the opponent and made it explode. I wasn’t at that level yet.
With a groan, Atla unsteadily stood back up. Fohl staggered back up to his own feet too. He almost fell back over but managed to stand firm. Atla fared worse and appeared ready to tumble forward.
“Atla, I’ve beaten you,” Fohl said.
“N-not yet you haven’t,” Atla retorted, stamping the ground with a thud.
“Look at yourself. You can barely stand!” Fohl replied.
“Brother . . . when faced with a battle you can’t afford to lose, would you just give up and collapse?” Atla asked.
“No, I guess not,” he admitted.
“Then there’s only one thing to do. The same thing you would do, brother,” Atla stated.
“Very well. Then I’ll end this,” Fohl replied, turning his fist on the tottering Atla again. Fohl was looking pretty unsteady himself, of course.
If this was going to “end it,” did that mean one of them would die? That was what it was starting to feel like. We didn’t need anyone dying before the wave even started.
Huh? Ren started saying something to me.
“Naofumi, watch this. What happens next is the reason we think Atla is stronger than Fohl.”
“What’s going to happen?” I rarely got to see Atla fighting at full strength, after all. So I didn’t know what was going on, but Ren and the others seemed to know.
Atla started breathing heavily. Life force started to gather around her. What was this? It looked like her wounds were healing a little, even.
“She can recover her stamina in the middle of battle. So the longer the break goes on for, the more of a disadvantage her opponents are placed at,” Ren explained. Just what was the extent of her powers? When had she learned this technique?
Well, Fohl was also catching his breath in a similar way, recovering his health.
There was still much to learn from the Hengen Muso Style.
With her own shout, Atla thrust her fist at Fohl and charged forward. Fohl swung his own fist in reply. With a thud, both attacks landed.
With that, both of them stopped moving.
Having fallen quiet, I moved in closer to the pair to see what was happening.
Both of them had passed out standing up! They were completely out of it. Quite the party trick, but I guess I should’ve expected it from these two muscle-heads.
“As the source of your power, I, the Shield Hero, order you! Let the true way be revealed once more, and heal these before me. All Zweite Heal!” I intoned healing magic with an area effect and healed the two of them.
Fohl was the first one to recover consciousness.
“Ah! I was . . .” he started.
“It’s a draw. You both passed out together,” I reported.
“I see . . .” he replied. Fohl lifted Atla into his arms, as she still hadn’t come around yet.
“So? Are you going to make her stay behind?” I inquired. Fohl didn’t answer the question but started off toward their house. It didn’t look like his silence was due to any feelings of dislike toward me, because his face looked like he was smiling.
Whatever could have made him so happy?
Then Fohl did say something.
“You have my gratitude for having made Atla this strong.”
I watched them leave, her still in his arms.
“He thanked you, didn’t he?” Raphtalia said. Then she stood, watching Fohl’s receding back with a distant look in her eyes. “Honestly thanked you, Mr. Naofumi, for having raised up his precious Atla to be this strong.”
I hadn’t done anything I thought I deserved thanks for.
Still, I could understand. In the same way, I was proud of the progress Raphtalia had made. If there was someone who had helped her achieve that, I might feel the same way toward them.
“Hmm.” That said, Atla was becoming too powerful to ignore. She was already plenty strong, but she still had plenty more potential too. I should probably start counting her as second only to the heroes in terms of strength.
“Little Shildina, we can’t let those two make us look too bad,” Sadeena commented.
“Indeed. We have to show sweet Naofumi what we can do too,” Shildina replied. These killer whale sisters always had something to say!
“I already know all too well how strong you pair are, so no need to show me anything,” I told them firmly.
“One thing, sweet Naofumi,” Shildina said, a bit of a troubled look on her face.
“What now?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing much. I just need you to tell the village filolials something,” she replied. Ruft and I both jerked in response to those words. The trauma . . . The trauma rose in me again.
“Tell them what?” I ventured. I really wanted to keep my distance from them.
“I need them to stop pestering me about how to use magic to fly. Can you ask them to stop?” she implored. Ah, right. Shildina could use magic to fly—well, swim—through the air. I could understand why the filolials, flightless birds that would use wind magic, might want to try and copy that particular trick.
They’d been giving it a try but hadn’t been able to get it to work.
Filolials were great at vocal mimicry, but it seemed flying using magic was a bit more difficult for them.
“That’s hard magic that only little Shildina can use. I’m even jealous of that myself,” Sadeena piped up.
“Ah, as if you can’t fly a little yourself,” Shildina shot back, glaring at her sister.
“Not like you can. I just use a magnetic field through an application of my lightning. I can barely hold it for thirty seconds,” Sadeena stated. But in beast transformation support she could become a killer whale and fly all she liked . . . No, best not to say that. Some of the sparks flickering between them might transfer over to me.
“I’d tell them that I can’t fly for extended periods myself, but they still pester me so, climbing onto my back and asking me to fly with them. I don’t have much choice, so I launch them around a bit.” Shildina started to shake a little, and I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, well aware of her suffering. So she could at least launch them. But with those numbers, every day, day after day, that wasn’t going to be easy.
This was like a gathering of a support group for sufferers of filolial attacks. Man, I wanted to get those creatures out of my village.
“We’ll have to put the Raph species to work,” I said.
“Okay . . .” Shildina replied.
“It started with Ruft, and now I’m seeing that you also seem to be getting along mysteriously well with Shildina, Mr. Naofumi . . . and hey, don’t bring the Raph species into this either!” Raphtalia had noticed how I was smoothly inducing Shildina to make use of them.
“So, Raphtalia, you’re going to persuade those filolials, are you? Make them understand that only Shildina can use that technique?” I rounded on her, just a little.
“Well . . . she really is the only one who can use it?” Raphtalia confirmed. Hah, see, she didn’t want to do it either.
“The only way is to incant magic using your voice and your awareness at the same time. If you can’t do that, you’ve got no chance,” Shildina confirmed.
“Okay . . . I’ll give it a try, although I can’t promise anything,” Raphtalia said. The flightless filolials just wanted to fly.
As for Shildina’s flight, I very much suspected that she used it to get a look of the lay of the land, due to her terrible sense of direction while on the ground.
The day passed in that fashion.
The next day, I was researching accessories, apart from Raphtalia.
“Master Naofumi!” Atla appeared, accompanied by Fohl and looking very happy.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I’ve been allowed to take part in the expedition to defeat the Phoenix.
Now I can go with you,” she reported.
“I see,” I replied. The fight had ended in a draw, but Fohl appeared to have given his permission anyway.
“That said, we’ll be facing a powerful foe, so I need to become much stronger. I’m in a good mood today too. I’m going to have Raphtalia give me an even more thorough training session. I’ll see you later!” With that, Atla dashed off. I thought she might try and grab onto me first, but no. She really was taking this seriously.
“You sure about this?” I asked Fohl.
“Yeah. It’s better than trying to leave her in the village and having her come after us anyway and get hurt,” he replied.
“You think it’s that simple?” I asked. He’d certainly changed his tune.
“Yes, it is. I just have to protect Atla. Nothing has changed,” Fohl stated.
“Fair enough,” I concluded. Fohl had a clear soft spot for Atla. Still, the conditions might have been to win the fight, but seeing as it had been a draw, I guess leaving her behind would be difficult to enforce.
There was quite a refreshed, happy look on Fohl’s face, which kind of annoyed me. But I decided to just ignore it. He didn’t say anything, but he was looking at me. There was something about him now that reminded me of how Atla felt around me.
“Stop looking at me like that. It makes me uncomfortable,” I told him. Fohl stopped it right away, but from then on, I caught him looking at me in the same way often during conversation.
It was a few more days later.
Tomorrow would likely be the day that we set off for the region where the Phoenix was sealed away. Our core group would be Motoyasu, Ren, Itsuki, Rishia, Raphtalia, Filo, the filolials, Raph-chan, the Raph species, Fohl, Atla, Sadeena, Shildina, S’yne, Rat, Keel, and any others from the village slaves and monsters who wanted to come along.
Imiya and the others focused mainly on making stuff would be staying behind.
I couldn’t afford to force anyone to do this, and so I cautioned them no less than three times.
“The waves aren’t playtime. Even I’m not confident I can protect you all. If you don’t think you can make it back alive, don’t come with us!” I declared. I just had to hope that they were hearing me.
I really, really wanted to keep the damage down to the minimum—to overcome the wave with as little trouble as possible. All the slaves nodded their agreement, but I had to question if they really understood what they were getting themselves into.
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