Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: Filolia

Mamoru cried for a brief while and then composed himself and looked at me. His face looked more confident than before.

“Mamoru, your choice could be considered arrogant and selfish. Even if the person you love is restored, you may find you can’t accept them as the same person,” I warned him.

“I know,” he said with a nod, looking at the girl floating in the tank in the back. From my perspective, she felt like an artificial lifeform that had just been created to mimic the original. Maybe it was because of the Suzaku mixed in with her, but she had wings on her back. At a glance, she looked like nothing more than a sleeping filolial in human form. “Even so . . . from the Suzaku fragment we obtained . . . there’s a part that is Filolia’s soul inside that being that is returning to the world . . .” Mamoru explained. There was the slightest hope, then.

I was happy for him. It also made me think, however, that I might have been wrong to listen to Atla’s last wish—that it might have been better to take Mamoru’s route and try to bring her back, even if it meant creating artificial life.

“One of my allies, an uhnte jimna, is helping us to salvage Filolia’s soul. You might not be able to accept it, but I want to bring her back, no matter what,” Mamoru said.

“What did you just say? ‘Aunty’ what now? Do they have some kind of special power?” I asked.

“You don’t know about the uhnte jimna, Naofumi? They look like . . . a weasel demi-human, I guess you’d say,” Mamoru replied.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan. I recalled them now. When we first came to Siltran castle, Raphtalia had seen a demi-human with weasel-like ears.

“They’re a little old race with powerful souls. With enough training they can do therianthrope transformation and ancestral recall. They have a special power to observe souls and keep them in this world for a while even after the host body dies. They are a race said to have been allied with the Shield Hero since ancient times,” Holn explained.

“So with one of them helping out, you can salvage her soul?” I asked.

“The soul is likely heavily merged already, due to the Suzaku, but there’s still a chance if we can cut it out before the merging is complete. That’s about all I can say on the matter, however,” Holn said. It sounded like there was still a chance then, but I was still pretty sure he wasn’t going to be thrilled with the results. “Okay, maybe I can say some more,” Holn continued. “The uhnte jimna are said to really be able to bring their power to bear after they have died, when they are still lingering in this world. If we can separate Filolia’s soul from the Suzaku, you never know . . . but it’s just a chance, not a sure thing.” It sounded like Mamoru was going to have to call his aunty friend in order to salvage Filolia’s soul from the Suzaku—and even then, it might not work.

“Filolia wouldn’t want to come back at the cost of someone else’s life,” Mamoru said. “That’s why . . .” If he didn’t sacrifice the life of his ally, he couldn’t even conduct the experiment to see if his dead girlfriend could come back. But if he did that, and it worked, his returned girlfriend would never forgive him. He was already doing some pretty shady stuff to his allies, but this would cross the line, even for him.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan, giving an exasperated sigh. She toddled over to the cultivation tank in the back, placed her tail on the terminal . . . and suddenly her tail fluffed up. That looked like magic, but I wasn’t sure why she would be using it here.

An LCD screen turned on from the terminal, displaying . . . what looked like paint spreading slowly through water.

“Let me take a look at that,” Holn said. Her face transformed from being completely unbothered to serious and intent. She stared at the screen that Raph-chan was operating. “Mamoru, future Shield Hero, come take a look,” Holn said, beckoning us over. I stood behind Raph-chan and looked into the screen for myself.

“Raph, raph, raph!” said Raph-chan. She continued to delicately use her tail, causing more and more geometric polka dot images to be created. At a glance, it looked like Raph-chan was just messing around, but Holn’s eyes were wide in surprise.

“Do you know what this is?” she asked.

“Based on what you were just talking about, Filolia’s soul blended into the energy of the Suzaku,” I guessed.

“I think that’s probably right,” Holn replied. The extraction of the soul hadn’t started yet, but from what Raph-chan was showing us, it would be incredibly difficult to achieve. The shape of the soul was constantly changing in real time. Raph-chan was working overtime to keep it displayed. “Future Shield Hero, just what is this creature? All this time I’ve been thinking of it as nothing more than a familiar created from the elements of the future Heavenly Emperor,” Holn said.

“Yeah, good question. She started out as a shikigami that was created in order to search for Raphtalia in a world different to this one. I guess she can see souls . . . I bet Glass could do this too,” I replied.

“Another friend of yours, future Shield Hero?” Holn asked.

“Yeah, she’s the companion to one of the four holy heroes in a different world from this one, and the user of the Fan vassal weapon. She’s a spectral, also known as a spirit, a race created from a soul,” I explained.

“Wow! That sounds like something I’d like to see,” Holn exclaimed.

“Have you ever met one of her kind, R’yne?” I asked. As the holder of the Sewing Kit vassal weapon, I guessed she had probably traveled through a number of other worlds before finally reuniting with her sister.

“Sorry, I can’t say I’ve ever had the pleasure,” R’yne replied.

“It sounds like S’yne did stop by . . . but very well,” I said. She was moving around by crossing the waves, after all. It wasn’t like she had much control.

As for Glass, just because we knew her didn’t mean we could ask her to do this for us. It would be a massive responsibility, and a hero from a completely different world like her had no obligation to cooperate. But considering the personalities of Mamoru and the others here, I thought they could probably become friends.

“So Raph-chan is something created from technology coming from a completely different world. In which case, this might all make sense.” Holn looked over at Mamoru. “If this creature can accurately divine the location of the soul, this might be worth a try.” We had Holn for backup too. Things were sounding more hopeful. “There’s still an issue though. We’ll only have one chance. If we fail and the soul gets more merged, the salvage will be even harder.”

“I bet it will. Also—and I hate to suggest this is what Raph-chan is doing—but there’s a chance she’s just doodling away there,” I said.

“Raph,” said Raph-chan, a little defensively, looking at me with a frown.

“I know, Raph-chan,” I assured her. “You’re doing your very best, but you have to consider what Mamoru might think this looks like.” After all, we didn’t even know why Dafu-chan had turned out like a Raph species. After the invasion of Q’ten Lo, I did see Raph-chan playing with what looked like a ball of fluff, and that vanished around the time Dafu-chan appeared. Maybe that ball had been the residual memories of the past Heavenly Emperor. If so, that meant Raph-chan had been able to bring them back to life. That really increased the mysteries surrounding her.

“Mamoru, what do you think?” Holn asked.

“No pressure at all,” I told him. “We’re not going to ask this much from your trust.”

“No, I trust you, Naofumi, and your friends too. After all, what does the Shield Hero need?”

“Trust in others,” I said, even though each word had to be dragged out of me. I wondered why the shield had to be the corniest hero. If you didn’t believe, if your allies didn’t trust you, then you couldn’t fight at all. “Raph-chan, this is a big responsibility,” I told her, putting my hand on her head and stroking her as she continued to operate the terminal.

“Raph!” Raph-chan replied, seemingly ready for anything.

“Dafu!” said Dafu-chan.

“I’m sorry to be . . . the voice of reason right now,” Raphtalia said, “but I’m having trouble following why Raph-chan is suddenly our trump card.”

“Sister, just breathe,” Fohl told her.

“I’m breathing, okay? I’m breathing . . . and I see that Raph-chan can bring Mamoru closer to something he’s wanted for a long time, but . . .” Raphtalia was starting to have a harder and harder time with all this stuff, and I was starting to feel responsible. I needed to back her up. “But if Raph-chan keeps on being able to do more stuff, and become more important, where does that leave me? You’ll all be fine as long as you have Raph-chan . . . I won’t be needed. My nightmares might be coming closer to reality . . .” Raphtalia continued, muttering mainly to herself. I hoped she was okay—she was starting to freak me out a bit, and I didn’t like the talk about nightmares either.

“Looks like little old me is going into surgery. This is going to be a long night,” Holn said.

“Oh wow! Looks like Naofumi and the gang are going to really help us out!” R’yne exclaimed, with her hands to her face.

“Your surprise is so fake I don’t know where to start,” I told her. I still couldn’t really get a handle on R’yne. She had this jokey personality, different from Sadeena’s, but I still didn’t much care for it.

“Is Filolia coming back?” Cian asked, concern and expectation mixing on her face.

“It’s going to be a bit of a gamble, but yes, if everything works out,” Mamoru told her. It was like we were praying for the success of someone important who was undergoing surgery—and our doctors were Raph-chan and Holn. Hopefully they were good at their jobs.

I looked at the body for Filolia that had been created in the cultivation tank.

“There’s one thing I’ve been wondering about. What’s with the wings?” I asked. I pointed at her “body” as she floated in the tank. R’yne didn’t have wings like that—at least not all the time—and even then, they weren’t feathery ones.

“We needed to mix in a little Suzaku or the soul wouldn’t take,” Holn explained.

“I see,” I replied. So they were a part required in order to make the resurrection work. “I’m just going to say it, okay . . . She looks exactly like a filolial in human form.” Like a red filolial as a human. I could hardly tell the difference.

“Brother . . . there’s a reason none of us said that,” Fohl chided—which only meant they had been thinking it too. When we first met, I recalled Mamoru looking at the filolials with a sadness in his eyes.

“Future Shield Hero, allow me to explain. I think the name filolial is a contraction of the name Filolia Type L that I came up with,” Holn explained.

“Mamoru made that though, right? You were only supervising, right?” I asked.

“That’s true for Filolia’s body, but I’ve been working for many years on creating other forms of artificial life. This was another deal of mine with Mamoru,” Holn replied.

“That has also led to me getting my cells harvested without my consent. She’s also been messing around with Mamoru’s familiars, in the name of powering them up,” R’yne added with a sigh. It sounded like Holn had nabbed Mamoru’s idea and was running with it. That reminded me: Holn had been complaining about the hierarchy in which dragons were the strongest creatures in this world, while filolials had a clear rivalry with dragons. They also hated griffons too. So we had filolials, unable to get along with other monsters . . . Did that mean . . .

Filolia Type L . . . Filolia-L . . . filolial?

“But why is your sister called Filolia, R’yne? Taking S’yne into account too, I was expecting a name with an -yne on the end,” I said. Maybe S’yne’s sister had a name like that too. Lyno had really looked like she hated that name and said we didn’t need to know it. Then another name came to mind: Myn—but no, her name was Whore now. I didn’t want to remember her either.

“She didn’t like her birth name very much,” R’yne replied. “So she changed it herself and used her new name once she was summoned here.” So it was Filolia by choice, then. That kind of individual personality trait certainly sounded like a filolial to me—but there was no knowing the extent to which the original person would influence such things.

“What was her real name?” I asked.

“L’yne. She didn’t like it because so many other people have similar names, making it hard to remember them all,” R’yne explained. My head started to throb. If this Filolia did come back, it sounded like we might just be adding one more filolial to the fold.

“It sounds like . . . the filolials were created by Mamoru and Holn. Is that right?” Raphtalia asked, trying to change the subject. Holn’s eyes lit up and she nodded.

“It certainly seems that way. That’s why I was upset at seeing the finished thing. A creature I’m yet to make came to meet me from the future!” Holn cackled.

“Why do they develop differently when raised by a hero?” I asked.

“In consideration of the future, I made it so that hidden elements would not be activated unless a hero is the one raising them,” Holn explained. “If I made monsters too powerful, it would simply replace the dragons and nothing else would change. I’m trying to do more than that.” There was incredible confidence in her answer. “You know something of little old me by now. I’ve put the same kind of thing into all sorts of monsters, so I’m sure you’ve seen it before. Take the balloons, for example.” That was right. When I raised a balloon, it had evolved into an adballoon. It had almost been ready to evolve again, and then it had turned into a Raph species.

“Why are you so obsessed with balloons?” I asked her. I didn’t like them because they reminded me of when I first became a hero.

“I’m going to make a king balloon one day, you’ll see,” Holn replied.

“Hey, don’t we have the option to shut her down and stop her making the filolial completely?” I asked.

“Mr. Naofumi, that would be going too far . . . Filo would vanish too,” Raphtalia said.

“So how about we take back some of Raph-chan’s genes with us and turn Filo . . . turn all the filolials into Raph species,” I suggested.

“That might be fun,” Holn said. “We can call them the ‘Raphield’ species due to their connection with the Shield Hero.”

“Raph species have to be better than filolials,” I stated.

“No!” Raphtalia said firmly, shutting us down.

“I have to say . . .” Mamoru chimed in timidly, “and I might not be in a position to say this, you helping you with Filolia, but . . . that would probably be going too far.”

“How about setting things up so that we can return to the future and press a single button and all the filolial genes will change to Raph genes?” I suggested.

“That sounds fun too!” Holn said.

“No!” Raphtalia repeated.

“Sister is really suffering over here,” Fohl reported.

“Mr. Naofumi, do you even understand what you’re suggesting?” Raphtalia asked. “You’re the one who said that it would be dangerous to change the future!”

“True, but let’s be honest here . . . We’ve no idea what’s going to change the future,” I replied. The reason we didn’t seem to have had much effect so far might be because we were so far in the past. There was a certain degree of latitude for history to autocorrect in the intervening years.

“You certainly do things at your own pace, future Shield Hero,” Holn said. “Not a bad thing.”

“Hold on though. It sounds like a monster created from Filolia and me is going to take over this world! I’d recommend making something that originated here, to be honest,” R’yne said.

“R’yne! That I will not allow! I’m sure Natalia would have something to say about that too!” Raphtalia said, looking ready to fight R’yne tooth and nail.

“Come on then. Let’s fight for it!” R’yne said.

“I’ll stop you by whatever means possible!” Raphtalia replied. She was having a tough time—still, I’d started all this.

“What about Mamoru’s familiars?” I asked.

“I’ve made all sorts of adjustments and enhancements to them to show me the kinds of things I can offer. Fimonoa is adept at flight, while Fijia has powerful magic,” Holn explained. I looked over at the three of them—and especially at the one called Fitoria. “Fitoria has a fundamentally different composition from the other two, with a focus placed on carrying loads. She can carry the heaviest stuff around, no problem.” So number one had flight strength, number two had magic, and number three had grit. I’d heard Melty and Fitoria talking about filolials that could fly and how they had been wiped out in a war with the griffons. It was starting to sound like there might have originally been three breeds of filolial. “We had a serious transportation problem here. These were modified to help resolve that and get things moving around.”

“I know a Fitoria in the future,” I eventually said. “But the one I know might be a different person with the same name.” The familiar called Fitoria turned into her human form and looked over at me. She looked a lot younger than the Fitoria and Filo that I knew—maybe around seven years old.

“Wow, she’s still alive that far into the future?” Holn said with excitement.

“We don’t know for sure why she’s lived for so long, but I can guess based on certain evidence that she took some kind of potion of eternal youth,” I replied.

“Eternal youth? Life that doesn’t age and break down is no fun. Something major must have happened for her to achieve that state while I was involved,” Holn said. So she wasn’t interested in eternal life. Strange, because that totally sounded like where her research was leading.

“Think how many things you could invent if you never died,” I said, trying to tempt her.

“Don’t you think our work shines because we have to make them within the limited time we have? You need a deadline or you’ll never finish anything,” Holn replied. She sounded like a manga artist, talking about “deadlines.” It reminded me of something I’d heard back in Japan: it was the deadline that made the work complete. If you worked without a deadline, you would never finish. An issue millions of students faced each year with their homework for the summer holidays.

“Of course, there are lots more things I want to research, but I’m pretty sure they would lead me to somewhere truly terrible. That would make me no different from the arrogant ones who claim to be gods,” Holn said. I didn’t really understand what she meant, but it seemed clear she wasn’t interested in eternal life. “Anyway. It’s time to start the operation. Please keep out of our way.”

“No problem. Mamoru, let’s watch Raph-chan and Holn without getting in the way, okay?” I suggested.

“Sure, Naofumi. Thanks for all this,” Mamoru replied. After offering his gratitude to me, he stood watching Holn work, holding Cian’s hand the entire time.

The operation Raph-chan and Holn performed took the entire night. We returned to the village while they were working and let the others know that the incident hadn’t been anything major. S’yne had realized she couldn’t observe us anymore and started to track us manually, but she had been caught and detained by castle security. She didn’t look all that happy about it, but I managed to summarize exactly what was going on. If I’d told her everything, she’d probably be first in line to get modified herself. If she was given the chance to become one of the primary races of Siltvelt, like Fohl, she’d surely jump at the chance. It might not be a bad thing, but if everyone ended up wanting to do it . . . Raphtalia was giving me a look, telling me not to let that happen.

We hadn’t explained things to Natalia yet, either. She was starting to look suspicious about everything, so we’d have to tell her sooner rather than later—whether it came from me or from Mamoru. Melty also seemed to have an idea that something had gone down. She had a look on her face asking me to explain everything as soon as possible.

After that, Raphtalia and I returned to Raph-chan in the castle and did what we could to help out. We left Fohl back in the village.

We had fallen asleep, exhausted, in a corner of Mamoru’s lab. I remembered Mamoru heading out to put the kids to bed. Their healing and modifications were finished for the night. Holn had asked him to get something for her, and he wasn’t back yet.

Holn wasn’t here either. I looked over at where Raph-chan was working at the terminal to extract Filolia’s soul and saw what looked like a translucent human being. The figure—a girl’s figure as seen from behind—had a longer tail than Raphtalia, small round animal ears, and brown medium-length hair. I blinked a few times and looked at Raph-chan.

“Raph? Raph,” said Raph-chan, yawning. Then she turned, as though realizing the same thing that I had—but then there was no sign of the transparent girl behind her. I shook my head, wondering if I was seeing things.

Holn, Mamoru, Cian, and R’yne came back into the room.

“We’re close, are we not?” Holn asked.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan, lifting both paws in victory.

“Oh, future Shield Hero, you’re awake,” Holn said. I nodded. Raphtalia, who had been sleeping at my side, was also awoken by the voices and looked around to see what was going on. “Nice timing, you two. You wouldn’t want to sleep through this,” Holn said. We stood up and looked at the screen where Raph-chan was working. It was displaying the percentage of the extract that had been completed, like some loading screen from a game, along with two quivering fires that were slowly being moved apart. It said eighty percent.

“Reaching this point, we can use Suzaku’s power to take this home,” Holn said. “Let’s finish this thing off.”

“Raph!” said Raph-chan. Holn proceeded to use the terminal to transfer the soul that Raph-chan had spent the night separating into the homunculus body created for Filolia.

“Good . . . soul suitability is clear. No chemical or magic abnormalities, and no signs of rejection. All within acceptable numbers . . . Loading the memories from the soul . . . All green,” Holn said. The soul eventually overlapped completely with the body and vanished inside it. In that same moment, a red light passed over the homunculus body, and the wings flashed a little. A moment later a light appeared, from nowhere in particular, and started to swirl around the girl floating in the cultivation tank.

“Hey, that looks like—” I started.

“Yeah, the spirit of the Claw vassal weapon. It looks like it recognized the soul of its owner,” Holn said. That was a clear suggestion that this had worked. “Now we need to keep her stable until the soul settles completely. The Claw Spirit is lending us its strength, so we are close now.”

“Finally . . .” Mamoru breathed.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan, coming back toward us and looking totally exhausted.

“Great work, Raph-chan!” I congratulated her.

“I have to say . . . thank you,” Raphtalia managed.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan in reply. I picked her up and started to stroke her. She really was something else.

“When will we know for sure?” Mamoru asked.

“She should be out and about in maybe three days. That’s my estimation,” Holn said.

“That would be amazing,” Mamoru replied.

“Wow. You really did just show up and solve this one, huh, Naofumi?! You guys are amazing,” R’yne enthused.

“This was all thanks to Raph-chan, really,” I replied.

“Naofumi, Raph-chan, and Raphtalia . . . thank you all so much.” Mamoru bowed his head deeply as he thanked us.

“We don’t know the results yet. Thank us once this is finished,” I told him.

“No, please. I have to say this. I can’t hold it in,” Mamoru said. Even after stepping off the path, he was still a stickler for good manners. I could see where he was coming from though. This had been a bit of a gamble, all things considered, but it looked like they had extracted the soul at a far higher rate than they were expecting.

“Mamoru, if this sounds harsh, it’s only because I’m the Shield Hero too. You aren’t the only one who has suffered. Having allies who support you, and fearing for their lives, that’s just normal. If you can’t overcome that fear . . . you’ll lose more allies in the future. You need to crush that trauma completely,” I told him. Atla’s death still burned brightly in my own mind. I wanted to see her, but I couldn’t—and yet she was with me, inside the shield, at all times. I knew I had her support, and I had to protect everyone.

“Yes! I won’t . . . won’t lose anyone again!” Mamoru said. Maybe he hadn’t overcome that trauma yet, not completely, but I still nodded at his words. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect Siltran. That’s never going to change,” Mamoru swore, with more conviction in his voice than before. He was like a combination of Ren and me. I was starting to get an understanding of him. It sounded like the trauma Cian had asked us to save Mamoru from was on its way toward improvement. I looked over at Cian to see her timidly bowing her head to us too.

“Thank you,” she said simply. It was a little awkward, but for Cian, it was the very best she could do.

“Yeah. Good luck with all that,” I said. The worlds were going to fuse—we already knew that—meaning they were ultimately going to be defeated. But word of the Shield Hero Mamoru Shirono would still be passed down by future generations. As a god in Siltvelt, and as a demon king in Melromarc.

It didn’t quite resolve my worries about changing the future, but it seemed best for the world if that was where things finally settled once more.

“Thanks. Please, let us help you work even harder to find a way to get you back to the future. It’s our turn to help you now,” Mamoru said.

“That would be most welcome,” I replied.

“First things first, then—” Mamoru started and then shifted his gaze to the side. It looked like something was up. “Dammit . . . why now?” Mamoru cursed.

“Showing up as we just pulled an all-nighter. Nasty,” Holn said.

“I was just in a good mood too,” R’yne added. They all sounded pissed off about something, sighing and clicking their tongues.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“It almost sounds like . . . you don’t see this?” Mamoru asked.

“What? See what?” I replied. I checked everything over, but I couldn’t see anything out of place.

“The forecast for the next wave was updated. There’s a wave incoming in just one hour,” Mamoru explained.

“What? That’s quick. Was the seal on a guardian beast broken?” I asked. The time before a wave was normally stated far in advance, and yet here Mamoru was saying we were getting one almost with no warning. From my past experience, this felt like when the seal on the Spirit Tortoise was broken.

“No. This isn’t a case of a guardian beast being released,” Holn said.

“What do you want to do, Naofumi? You’re not obliged to take part, if you don’t want to,” Mamoru said.

“You bet we’re helping out. Anything threatening this world, we’re there,” I said. That’s what we’d done even in Kizuna’s world. It might even help us put off some of the problems we were facing. Not to mention, we now had access to the ability to attack the wave cracks with 0 weapons, like Kizuna had done in her world. There were more benefits to taking part than not. “Mamoru, we don’t have long. Let me edit the party too,” I said.

“Sure, okay,” he replied. I received a request to accept authority for party editing from Mamoru, approved it, and was ready to get started.

“Good, thanks. Honestly, I’m still really tired, but we’ll head back to the village and get ready for the wave. You do the same. Get ready, I mean,” I told Mamoru.

“You bet. Please, prepare the best you possibly can. These waves aren’t something that’s easy to resolve,” Mamoru said.

“I know . . . but I haven’t felt all that threatened by a single wave for a while now,” I admitted. Bitch and the forces behind her were proving more of a threat recently. They were the reason we were here in the past, for one thing.

“Big words! Mamoru, we have to show them what we can do!” R’yne said.

“Yeah. We don’t have a way to defeat them yet,” Holn said. “I hate having to sit around and wait for someone, something, to turn up and help out.” We know the one who assumed the name of god was causing the waves, after all. The same pain Holn was feeling also ached inside me.

“Mr. Naofumi, let’s go,” Raphtalia said.

“Okay,” I replied. “We’ll see you at the wave,” I told the others. Cian poked her head out from behind Mamoru, looking worried.

“I’ll do my best too,” she told me.

“Good for you. Support Mamoru however you can. You almost have Filolia back now, so don’t give up!” I told her. Cian looked down in embarrassment at my words. This looked like a great opportunity to shift the target of everyone messing with me over to Mamoru! “We’ll go get ready. Mamoru, don’t count on us too much, okay? You’re the Shield Hero in this time,” I told him. Mamoru seemed to understand my intent and tried to call out to stop me, but we ran from the scene.

We needed to let everyone in the village, including Ren and Fohl, know what was going on.

“You bet I am! Don’t you forget it! I’m your shield granddaddy, you hear me? I’m not going to be outdone by you!” Mamoru shouted after us, seemingly a lot more comfortable with everything now. He had seemed tense and stiff before, but now he seemed looser and more relaxed.

“See you later!” Raphtalia said.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan. They both bowed and started after me. We took a portal back to the village as quickly as possible, and then we started to prepare for our next battle against a wave.