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Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 6




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Chapter Six: Mikey

We were heading into the new underground facility discovered below Rat’s lab. I did a quick head count, just to make sure I knew what was going on. I had Raphtalia, Ruft, Rat, Mamoru, Cian, Natalia, the Water Dragon, and the two Raph-chans with me. Everyone else was either climbing the towers outside or running recon for any possible escape routes Holn might have set up. There was no way she was going to try to pull this on us and then get away. We had the lumo here in the village, experts at underground excavation. Even if she had made an escape tunnel, it would be easy for us to fill it in. S’yne and R’yne weren’t here yet, but they had to be watching and so would surely arrive soon.

We hurried through the underground facility and came quickly to a strange invisible barrier blocking the bleak-looking passage.

“Some kind of defense mechanism?” I wondered, tapping on the barrier.

“It looks like your own Shooting Star Shield, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia commented. I agreed. I signaled Raphtalia with my eyes to try and break it—she was the one with the highest attack power here. Just trying to smash our way through seemed like the best idea. Raphtalia gave a small sigh and raised her Katana to attack.

“Instant Blade! Mist!” she shouted. Sparks radiated out across the mysterious barrier as her blade slashed across it. It looked good for a moment, and I thought maybe it was going to work, but then the wall immediately recovered and returned to its original state.

“No matter how hard we attack, it’s pointless if it’s just going to recover,” I said. “It was to be expected, but this is still a pain.” It didn’t look like we could just slip through as we were cutting into it. I placed a hand on the wall and tried to make a float shield appear inside it, but it was immediately bounced away.

“It seems to have a repulsion effect too,” Raphtalia said. So these defenses were tight. I wondered how Holn had created something quite so hard. Our invasion had run right into a wall.

There were sounds coming from above. I imagined it was Ren, Fohl, and the others attempting to clear the bioplant towers.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t go this way . . . I don’t think we can muscle through,” I said.

“Doesn’t the Shield Hero have some idea about how to get through a barrier like this?” Ren muttered irritably. The barrier looked like an application of Shooting Star Shield, that was true. I just had to think of it as a Shooting Star Shield that was being controlled remotely. Maybe “Shooting Star Wall” was the correct term. So what was the weak point of Shooting Star Shield?

In my case, even if a life-force-infused attack was used to destroy it, only the Shooting Star Shield would be destroyed; I wouldn’t take any damage.

“Anyone it recognizes as an ally should be able to slip right through,” Mamoru said in the same moment I explained the same thing to myself.

“If you are in the same party, you should be able to just pass through. If we can get it to recognize us like that, those towers won’t be needed,” I said.

“Okay, and how do we do that?” Raphtalia asked.

“Good question. Knowing what we need to do and pulling it off are two different things,” I said. I turned to look at the Water Dragon. “You created a mystery barrier in Q’ten Lo. Don’t you know about this stuff? Also, think about where we are. There are sakura lumina growing here to protect the village,” I reminded him.

“Yes, that could work,” said Rat, seeming to also get an idea. “We could crash a barrier into a barrier and carve out an access passage for us.” She climbed the stairs and started to operate machinery again. The camping plant proceeded to extend tendrils toward the barrier, and the tips of them started to glow.

“A barrier against a barrier,” I said. Mamoru and I synced up and deployed our own Shooting Star Shields, then pushed toward the impediment. But we simply bumped into it again and couldn’t go any further. This was going to be even harder than I’d expected.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan.

“This is all such a pain . . . but we do need to resolve this quickly,” the Water Dragon said, moving forward and touching the barrier. “We need to apply the structure of the Q’ten Lo barrier with the pulse of the sakura lumina . . . Hey, are you going to help?” the dragon said to Natalia.

“Very well,” she eventually replied. Then she took a deep breath and drew out some kind of protective charm from inside her clothing.

“Five Practices Destiny Field Expansion,” she said. I’d seen this before too, when Raphtalia had used it to create a field and activate the power of the sakura stone of destiny.

“I can help with that too,” Ruft said, stepping into the field and starting to incant as well. I quickly looked at Raphtalia. If she didn’t take part now, she’d have been branded a muscle brain forever!

“Mr. Naofumi, no need to look at me like that. I know what I must do,” she replied, adding her voice to those of the others.

“Although this isn’t normally allowed, having three of us really increases the output,” Natalia said.

“We have the sakura lumina too. That should make it easier,” the Water Dragon said. “The issue is the timing. If those outside can capture at least one of those towers, that would make this easier.” I wasn’t sure if that was a possibility, this quickly, but we’d see how it went. “The Shield Heroes aren’t very compatible with this though. Back up.”

“Okay, okay,” I said. The field Raphtalia and the others created extended forward and hit the barrier, causing more sparks to fly. Rat directed the vines to head in again, causing even more sparks, and then something magical started to flow into the barrier. This was a pretty impressive sight, but I didn’t like the fact that Mamoru and I were just sitting on the sidelines.

With the three barriers clashing together, I could tell it was hard on Rat too. Everyone continued to work together, and before long we had carved out a hole large enough for one person to pass through.

“Okay, looks good!” I said.

“I’m not so sure,” the Water Dragon said. I could hear the strain in his voice.

“I’m managing to nullify the repulsion effect while fudging the party recognition. I can maintain it thanks to the dragon and the Heavenly Emperors, who are supplying the power for our barrier, but if they stop, then this all goes back to normal,” Rat explained, coming back down the stairs. I was impressed at how well she had followed the situation from above ground.

“Which means . . . Raphtalia and the others can’t move?” I said.

“Not quite,” Natalia replied. “The Water Dragon and I should be able to maintain what you need. In fact, it’s becoming difficult to manage so much power flowing from other people. Please, carry on inside and take care of that alchemist.”

“That should work,” the Water Dragon said. “But both of you Shield Heroes need to keep a barrier up at all times. Do not underestimate the strength of the repulsion inside here.”

“And is it asking too much to bring a load of reinforcements through this hole?” I asked. Both the Water Dragon and Natalia made painful faces at the suggestion.

“Okay. We’ll either capture Holn or at least bring this rampage to an end as quickly as possible. Just hold on here,” Mamoru said to Natalia and then headed through the hole with Cian, throwing up another Shooting Star Shield as he went. It looked like we didn’t have much of a choice. I started sending up Shooting Star Shield too and stood in place to hold it over the hole, making it easier for everyone else to go through.

“Raphtalia, Ruft, and the Raph-chans,” I said.

“Okay . . . Natalia, can you handle this?” Raphtalia confirmed with her ancestor.

“Underestimate me at your peril,” Natalia replied. Raphtalia still had a look of concern on her face as she passed through the hole.

“I’m breaking off too,” Ruft said, ending his contribution and starting forward.

“We need to prioritize accessing the device that is creating this barrier over capturing that woman. Keep that in mind,” Rat said as she followed Ruft. That was a good point. If we could take the barrier down, it would be easy to capture Holn after that. Being underground had to be making it hard for S’yne and R’yne to get here, but we also didn’t have the time to wait for them to show up.

Raph-chan and Dafu-chan were the next ones through the hole, leaving only me on the wrong side of it. There was sweat on Natalia’s brow now. The departure of Raphtalia and Ruft clearly increased the burden placed on her.

“Please, hurry up. I can’t hold this much longer,” Natalia said.

“We’ll be quick,” I told her. A quest with a time limit. If we failed . . . Holn would end up experimenting on Keel. With that thought burning in my mind, we left Natalia doing her thing and started onward.

The passage appeared to lead into a sequence of small rooms. Holn wouldn’t have been able to create a sprawling facility beneath our village, what with the lumos and other monsters that lived underground being so active here. If she bumped into one of them, then the whole thing would have been exposed, and it hadn’t even been that long since Holn first came to the village. Maybe the camping plant could have been used to achieve all of this, of course . . .

I stopped thinking and opened the door.

“Check it out,” I said. We entered a room with a large water tank. There was a large Raph species creature floating inside the tank—about four meters long—and it looked to be in the middle of some kind of treatment. Both Ruft and I immediately gave loud and unfiltered gasps at seeing this behemoth of a Raph presented before us. It was even bigger than Raph-chan in big-and-fluffy mode. I was already imagining what it would be like to take a ride on that mountain of fluff. Raph-chan would do that if I asked, but Raphtalia was always watching.

“Mr. Naofumi, that isn’t Keel, is it?” Raphtalia asked with some trepidation.

“If it was, she’d definitely be getting more attention from me,” Ruft said. I could only nod at that, but the signal from Keel was coming from further inside.

“Do you think she’s making that massive monstrosity in order to placate Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia mused to Rat.

“I’m not sure,” Rat admitted. “She did seem very interested in the Raph species, and I can’t deny the possibility that she’d try to make something to win favor with the Duke.” I had to admit, Holn was winning me over—ahem, I mean she was proving herself an excellent judge of character. If she could make these kinds of wonderful additions to the Raph species, I might even be able to forgive her for this misconduct.

When I looked more closely, however, the massive Raph didn’t seem especially structurally stable. Its lower body looked all malleable, like clay. I wondered if it was just not finished yet. I might have to order her to continue this research.

“Holn . . . what the hell are you playing at . . .” Someone had a very different take on the situation to me—and that someone was Mamoru. Ruft and I just had a thing for the Raph species, that was all. But I couldn’t deny that it looked like Holn had gone completely off the rails on a crazy train. If one of my party pulled something like this, I’d have something to say about it myself.

“Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia said, her hand on her sword.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan.

“Dafu!” added Dafu-chan. I knew what was coming.

“No destroying this beauty, thank you,” I cautioned Raphtalia carefully. “You’ll flood the whole place, for one thing. We don’t need to be wading through water down here.”

“What makes you really say that?” Raphtalia asked, putting me on the spot.

“I want to see the finished thing. Very badly,” I admitted.

“I’m destroying it now!” Raphtalia shouted.

“Wait, wait!” I replied.

“Her research has struck exactly at the Duke’s weak spot. Impressive stuff,” Rat breathed.

“Do you think she was chosen by the Whip seven star weapon because the Whip Spirit desired the creation of something like this?” Ruft mused. That only rocked me harder, right to my core. What fantastic research! I had to see this finished!

“Enough wasting time here. Come on! That massive Raph species isn’t going anywhere,” Raphtalia said. She was right, but I still had to tear myself away from the tank.

We opened the door to the next room. In this chamber, we found something that looked decidedly core-like, glittering and hovering in the center of the room. My first thought was that it was some kind of power source. It also reminded me of my battle with Kyo inside the Spirit Tortoise, which made me pretty uncomfortable.

“This might be the chamber from which that barrier is controlled,” Rat suggested. She hurried over to what looked like a control terminal and started doing her thing again—which immediately triggered an alarm. Something that looked like a holographic projection of Holn appeared in the middle of the room.

“Interesting. You have reached this point faster than I expected. The future Shield Hero gets things done!” she cackled.

“This isn’t our first time at this,” I replied, “and we have Natalia and her dragon helping out. If you don’t stop all of these games, you aren’t going to like it once I actually get my hands on you.”

“Oh my, so scary, I’m shaking in my little old boots. I’m not doing this out of malice. Your allies are suffering from severe trauma in their hearts, future Shield Hero. I’m only trying to resolve that issue for you. I expected gratitude, to be honest,” she said.

“What are you doing to Keel? Stop it at once!” Raphtalia shouted.

“Your little puppy—” Holn started, but then the sound system crackled and Holn looked over to the side, rolling her eyes. “Your brave dog wanted this. I’m just trying to put her brain right. If everything goes well, this could be the solution for everyone suffering from the same malady.” Seeing how she was calling her “dog” now instead of “puppy,” it sounded like Keel was there and still in one piece, at least.

“Do you have Keel there? Let her go!” Raphtalia said, but Holn was not interested in Raphtalia. Instead she looked over at Rat. Rat ignored the attention, continuing to fiddle with the controls of the terminal.

“You shouldn’t expect to break my little old security like that,” Holn commented.

“Enough out of you!” Rat seethed. “If you’ve laid a finger on Mikey, you will pay dearly!”

“Still, I don’t think I can afford to let you play with that any longer. It seems the situation calls for a little of the rough stuff with your little poochie!” I thought it was funny that she would call it a poochie. Then there was a bubbling and I heard a glugging sound from the room we had just come through. I turned around to see the fluid draining from the tank with the massive Raph specimen inside and the sides of the tank opening up. The massive Raph specimen stood up with a resounding thud . . . and then slowly opened its eyes and started walking.

It was already finished! I felt like giving a whoop of joy, even if it looked far too big to fit inside this room. I wondered if it had the Raph-chan ability to shrink down. I raised my shield in readiness, just like Mamoru, and watched the scene unfold.

The massive Raph specimen reached the doorway. I expected it to just smash its way inside, but its method of entry was very different. It extended an arm and placed it inside the room. Then the rest of its body turned into a kind of liquid-flesh state and changed shape to fit through the doorway. The specimen then reformed inside the room. I almost threw up. So it looked like a Raph species on the outside but was something completely different inside!

“You tricked us!” Ruft and I shouted in perfect unison. What kind of bullshit was this?! It looked slimy to the touch, not soft and fluffy, and was completely ruining the best parts of Raph-chan!

“Raph!” said Raph-chan as the massive fake Raph specimen swung its tail to take us out.

“I’ve got this!” Raphtalia shouted, swinging her Katana toward the massive fake Raph specimen. With a satisfying sound, the head of the massive Raph specimen was sent flying to the side . . . Still, I didn’t like the image of her hacking into a Raph-chan.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan. The chopped-off part returned to a liquid state and then reconnected with the body. That ability seemed like a possibility from the way it had entered the room, but now I was sure. This was some kind of slime monster, which meant just chopping off its “head” wasn’t going to be enough to stop it!

The massive fake Raph species pointed at Raphtalia.

“Fake!” it said. I took a moment to process that.

“Who are you calling fake?!” Raphtalia shouted.

“Ah, my apologies,” Holn interjected. “As I know the pacifier, I am acquainted with who would be coming here soon, so I installed a function to identify the current pacifier and I forgot to remove it.”

The fake Raph species pointed at Ruft.

“Raph!” it said, making a normal Raph species noise. It proceeded to do the same thing with Dafu-chan and Ruft.

“Why did it make that normal noise for Ruft with his Heavenly Emperor connections, but it called me a fake?!” Raphtalia raged.

“It might be fun to investigate that phenomenon,” Holn said.

“Not fun for me!” Raphtalia retorted. The scene was almost becoming comical, but we still had to fight the thing.

“Mamoru!” I shouted.

“Okay! Shield Boomerang!” At my shout, he immediately unleashed his shield, throwing it into the body of the monster. It made a noise that sounded like something hitting a wet surface but failed to pass all the way through and then vanished before returning to Mamoru’s hand. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen it, but I was still conflicted about Mamoru having such natural, easy access to attack skills. Even I couldn’t reach the level of Ren, Motoyasu, or Itsuki. I would have loved to have a bit more versatility—by which I meant any attack at all—when it came to fighting.

“How about this?” Rat said, dodging capably through the incoming attacks. She did know a lot about monsters. She threw some syringes at it. This was the attack that had knocked even Filo out in the past. Her syringes splashed into her target and unloaded their chemical contents. If that slowed the thing down enough, Raphtalia and the others could just pile on and finish it off. Mamoru and I could keep our shields out and make it easier to fight, at least.

The massive fake Raph species proceeded to rip the syringes out and continued toward us as though nothing had happened. So much for that idea then.

“I’m not finished with you yet!” Raphtalia shouted.

“Fake!” the creature replied. As Raphtalia was jumping toward it, it popped out three tendrils from its back that rapidly attacked her. They slipped through my Shooting Star Shield and thumped into Raphtalia’s side. She grunted and flew backward.

“Raphtalia!” I shouted, moving to intercept her.

“I can’t predict where attacks like that are coming from!” she said.

“It’s like a super-powerful slime-type monster,” I said. “It might look like a Raph species, but fighting it like one is only going to get us hurt.”

“Naofumi . . .” Ruft said, concern in his voice as he touched my hand. I couldn’t believe that massive fake Raph species had attacked Raphtalia by passing through my Shooting Star Shield.

“Pathetic. You won’t defeat the body I have created like that!” Holn crowed.

“My drugs aren’t working either,” Rat said.

“Raph!” our assailant shouted, swinging one arm in a thundering smash attack.

“I’ve got this!” Mamoru said, taking the impact on his shield. But more tendrils proceeded to snake out and add additional whacks. This thing was hard enough to defend against already, and its attacks could also pass through my Shooting Star Shield! I needed a moment to work this out. Rat, standing behind Mamoru, was getting her fair share of whacks too, and they sounded painful.

“Do you understand where we are?” Holn asked. “Passing through any barrier that you might create is no problem for me here.” It pushed Rat violently back, and then the massive fake Raph specimen closed in to finish her off.

“Raph!” The massive fake Raph-chan locked eyes with Rat.

“Hold on. Mikey?” Rat asked.

“Raph?!” the creature replied. A moment later the massive fake Raph specimen grabbed its head and started moaning and wailing.

“What’s the meaning of this?!” Rat shouted.

“You did well to work it out! That’s right, this is what your precious monster wanted for himself,” Holn explained.

“That doesn’t give you the right!” Rat wailed back. I paused for a moment, taking in this new information. So this massive fake Raph species was actually Mikey, Rat’s favorite monster.

“Rat, is that really your Mikey?” I asked her.

“Yes, I’m sure of it. I would know!” she replied. She sounded completely confident, but I really couldn’t tell at all.

“Just like the way you and Ruft can pick out Raph-chan from among a horde of Raph species, Rat must instinctively know Mikey,” Raphtalia said. That sounded reasonable to me, and I grinned. Rat had impressed me again.

“Impressive, Raphtalia!” Ruft said.

“Please, I wish you wouldn’t accept such crazy theories so easily. It makes me sad,” Raphtalia replied.

“It happened when I was here, conducting research in this village,” Holn said, like she was giving some kind of lecture on the results of her research. “Little old me was taking a little old look around your lab, and I happened to knock on the tank he was inside. We talked for a while, and your favorite told me that he wanted to be able to fight and help everyone, but you couldn’t understand that. I made sure to get his full consent for everything. He told me he was ready to face whatever experiments may come.” As though complementing her presentation, images of Holn conducting the enhancements to Mikey were now displayed before us. “That’s why I used all the modification methods I have at my disposal, including the powers contained in the Whip vassal weapon. Bio customization, alchemy, and even . . . genetic modification.” She must have used some kind of crystal to record the images. It was a little much, if you asked me.

“Go ahead,” said the Holn in the footage. “Imagine for me the strength that you want to obtain. I can make it come true.” The fluffy ball still floating in the tank—Mikey—gave a nod and something started to appear on the tablet in front of Holn. “I see, I see. So this is the extent of the power that you crave. You want to withstand all pain and all curses!”

The footage continued, showing Holn making modifications to Mikey. It was a pretty strange process. She turned him into something very different from how he looked now—a round, red ball of crystal. Then, for camouflage, she dressed him in a costume that looked like the original fluffy ball. That was how she had been hiding him, making him look like nothing had changed.

In the next clip, a large Raph specimen was floating in the tank. The footage finished showing the large Raph specimen swimming in the tank.

“That’s why little old me gave him power! What do you think? I do great work, don’t I?” Holn said.

“No, you don’t!” Rat replied flatly. “This was for me to do, not you! My goal was to enhance Mikey safely! I’ll never forgive you for being as reckless as this!”

“Holn! Even if you had the consent of the monster, doing this to one of Naofumi’s allies is just too much!” Mamoru said.

“Hah! Like you understand my pain, Mamoru. The pain in my brain at realizing something I simply have to do! You’ve never complained about the other things I do though, have you?” Holn retorted. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I wasn’t sure about half the things she said. If it was some kind of thing between the two of them, I was going to need them to explain it later.

For now, though, we needed to focus on defeating the Mikey monster that was standing right in front of us. We’d consider destroying it if we had to . . . but accurate analysis was important first. The video had revealed that he had been turned into that red crystal first and then turned into this form by putting something over the top of that. That red crystal . . . like a stone or core . . . Just what was Holn involved with? When she was in Piensa, she had been involved with dragon research, if I recalled correctly. She’d also made comments about enhancing balloons, if she had to, to take the throne of the mightiest monster away from dragons. Now we had Mikey, who looked like a slime based on the Raph species. I called on my own knowledge of RPGs to refer to what kind of a monster slimes were. Apart from all being gelatinous creatures, they tended to be single-celled organisms. Sometimes they had a core to be destroyed. This one had joined back together when cut apart and was wearing camouflage to look like its original form. That meant that fluffy stuff wasn’t actually its fur.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan angrily.

“Dafu!” said Dafu-chan, just as enraged, the pair of them up on my shoulders.

“Raph!” the big one replied, electricity practically crackling in the air between them. They were ready to fight at the drop of a hat.

“Rat, first let me ask you, what do you want to do? If we decide we need to defeat Mikey, could you accept that?” I asked.

“Of course not!” Rat snapped back.

“Sure, I mean, I can see that . . .” I deflected. He looked so much like a Raph species now; it was hard for me to fight him too, but I would if I had to.

“Do you think you can reach the next room if we don’t take Mikey out?” I asked her.

“That won’t be easy. I’d need you and the others to buy me some time,” Rat replied.

“No need to worry!” Holn said with a cackle. “Once I’m finished modifying my second subject, I’ll have him stand down!” Dammit, we were on the clock with Keel too!

“I’ll never allow you to harm Keel!” Raphtalia raged.

“We’re out of choices. Rat, this is going to be rough on you, but just listen to the plan, okay?” I said.

“Hold on! What are you planning?” she asked.

“I’ll cast attack support, doubling the damage we cause to him. Then, Raphtalia, immediately attack, but not with a slice. Use an impact attack, a skill that causes an impact over a wide area, to blow Mikey’s body off,” I explained.

“Huh? Mr. Naofumi, surely that’s the same as defeating him,” Raphtalia said.

“I’m betting he’ll be okay. If I’m correct, his real body is just the red crystal. If we can take the flesh off from around it and expose that crystal, we might be able to capture him alive,” I said. It looked like transforming flesh, probably based on the same principles as the Dragon Emperor core. The Spirit Tortoise had been similar too, now that I thought about it.

There was no guarantee that Holn hadn’t made the Spirit Tortoise.

“Oh my, the future Shield Hero is pretty sharp. That’s the correct answer! But it won’t be as easy to do as you think. Not with how I made it.”

“Raph!” Mikey said and proceeded to split into two, then four, each individual one moving independently around the room.

“What now?!” Rat exclaimed.

“The body can be controlled remotely over short distances,” Holn explained. “Can you guess which is the real one?” We watched the scattered Mikeys running around the room before they gathered together and formed back into one. He reminded me of a boss in an action game I played once. A big impact when joined together would knock it back and expose the core to attack, but when split up, there was no way to do damage. That boss had been a real pain in the ass.

I cursed Holn’s name again. She’d made her modifications with the intent of keeping the monster alive for as long as possible, to buy herself more time. If Mamoru and I busted out our shields, it would just go all soft and stick to them.

“If it’s okay to just take it out, I think Raphtalia and the others could pull it off,” I said. Rat didn’t say anything, but I could feel the pressure emanating from her. Keel’s body or Rat’s trust—it really looked like I was going to have to sacrifice one of these two things.

“Do you have time to think so hard?” Holn quipped. In that moment, I decided I’d had enough of all of this.

“Let’s get real here. However Keel ends up, she asked for it, so she has no grounds to complain. I hope she can overcome her trauma and feel better doing it,” I said.

“Mr. Naofumi?!” Raphtalia yelped.

“Naofumi?!” Mamoru joined her, both surprised by my offhand declaration.

“From everything we’ve heard so far, it seems Holn doesn’t do anything her subjects haven’t asked her to do. I’m not entirely sure about her methods, but however this turns out, I’m sure it means our fighting strength will be enhanced,” I said. I was starting to understand why the Whip seven star weapon had taken such a liking to her. If you considered all of this as being required in order to overcome the waves, it was possible to give a certain degree of latitude to the methods used. In this case, her deeds had been exposed, but Keel still desired the modification. So Holn was trying to buy the time to finish.

“Dafu! Dafu, dafu!” said Dafu-chan, seemingly not pleased with my answer. She was hitting me repeatedly on the shoulder, but I didn’t really care about that.

“Just too much hassle for you, huh, Naofumi?” Ruft said.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan, her paws raised in the air as she shook her head.

“Yeah, to be honest,” I admitted. “I’m not sure I’ve got the energy for this crazy comedy routine over junk that doesn’t really matter.”

“Mr. Naofumi, do you understand what you’re saying? If you give up now, then Keel is surely going to suffer!” Raphtalia countered.

“Suffer? At worst, she’s going to end up like the Raph species . . . and she may even come out like Ruft,” I said.

“No! I will not allow that, never!” Raphtalia said emphatically. I was losing the will to continue this charade, even as Raphtalia got more pumped up. She had grabbed my shoulders and was seething with murderous intent, her eyes practically boring into my head. “Mr. Naofumi, are you looking to really make me mad?”

“Raphtalia, I know what you’re trying to say. But even if we make it through this room, capture Holn, and save Keel, can you promise that Keel just won’t do something like this again?” I asked her.

“I’ll talk her down,” Raphtalia said. “That’s what my treatments have been about!”

“And yet Keel chose Holn over those same treatments, Raphtalia. If we do capture Holn, what are you going to do? Kill her? Mamoru, could you accept that?” I turned to him and asked.

“Well, that wouldn’t exactly be desirable . . .” Mamoru’s eyes shifted around, sweat forming on his brow. He was breathing hard too—almost hyperventilating.

“Mamoru, it’s okay!” Cian said, looking worried as she gripped Mamoru’s hand. I might have put him on the spot a little, but he still seemed far too shaken by my question. In fact, it looked like he was suffering the same kind of trauma as Keel and the others.

For the moment, though, I needed to deal with Raphtalia. Mamoru’s reaction had told me how things would play out.

“Do you see, Raphtalia? Even if we take Holn alive and free Keel, she’s not going to give up until she gets modified. We can’t kill Holn, which means Keel will probably go right back to her.”

“But . . .” Raphtalia said futilely.

“And even if you talk Keel down, can you promise that someone else isn’t going to get the same idea? Ask for the same thing? This is physical enhancement! Can you be sure that others in the village won’t want the same thing to make us happier by growing stronger?” I asked her. Their trauma didn’t matter anymore. Everyone in the village knew how hard our battle was going to become, had seen our struggles so far, and were trying to get stronger as a result. They wanted to cover the losses in the battle with the Phoenix—indeed, wanted to surpass that strength and help keep the village safe. It stood to reason that some of them would do whatever it took to obtain such power. No matter how we tried to stop them, if the means were there . . . some of them would take it. Just like we’d done whatever we could to get stronger ourselves, they would do it too.

Even after all that, Raphtalia was looking at me pleadingly. She still seemed to want to say this was wrong, and I could understand that. But that didn’t mean Keel was going to choose the right way of doing things either.

“Hold on! What about Mikey?” Rat asked.

“It’s too late for him. Just give up—or have Holn conduct some more modifications as soon as possible,” I told her.

“You’re just giving up completely, Duke?” she retorted. I’d had enough of all this, that was for sure. It would be so great if the problems I constantly had to deal with could be resolved with a little muscle. But no, I always had to deal with these complex, twisted, soul-sucking conundrums. I wondered if this was karma. Maybe that was it. I needed to fundamentally change my ways.

“The future Shield Hero has quite an enlightened perspective,” Holn commented.

“I don’t think Raphtalia is going to give up though, Holn. Can you give her a chance to talk Keel into changing her mind?” I asked.

“That sounds reasonable,” she replied. “I’ve been pushing your hospitality a little, I know, and I want to continue my research into areas other than modification too.” Holn seemed to have accepted my proposal. The doors at the back of the room opened, and then the pressure on my Shooting Star Shield faded away as well.

“Glad we could discuss this like rational adults,” I told her.

“The same back at you,” Holn replied. “You’ve got complete access to the entire facility now.” Most of the people we ended up fighting had no intention of listening to anything we said. On that point Holn was quite refreshing. She totally sucked, for sure, but she was doing it for what she thought were good reasons.

“Raph!” Mikey beckoned us over, moving aside to let us pass. It sounded like we’d reached an agreement and might even resolve this one without fighting. The main problem was we needed to explain all of this to Natalia and the rest of the village.

“Mikey?” Rat peered intently at Mikey.

“Raph?!” Mikey didn’t seem to like having her stare at him.

“Just how much trouble were you planning to cause?!” Rat shrilled. At her voice, Mikey’s fur all stood on end. “I really was worried about you! And yet you helped out her crazy scheme and placed more trust in her than in me! Why didn’t you say any of this to me?” she asked.

“Raph,” Mikey said uncertainly, showing his tummy in an act of submission and begging for further forgiveness.

“You seem to understand that I’m angry! I’m not being kind to you today! Look at everything you’ve done!” Rat said. Mikey gave a weak “Raph.” They seemed to have a clear hierarchy in their relationship—almost like trust between them. “Duke, I need to lecture Mikey a little, so you go on ahead. Once I’m done here, I’ll go back and explain to the Heavenly Emperor what has been happening,” Rat said.

“That would be a big help. Come on, Raphtalia,” I said. She didn’t reply. “This is Keel we’re talking about. First listen to what she has to say, and then think about what to do next.”

“Okay,” Raphtalia finally said. She didn’t seem happy with it, but she gave me a nod. It was certainly going to be interesting to see what happened next.

“We’re making pretty good progress,” Ruft commented.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan.

“Dafu!” said Dafu-chan repeatedly. Ruft and Raph-chan seemed to have accepted it pretty easily, but Dafu-chan was still stamping her foot in dissatisfaction. I knew she didn’t like it, but this still seemed to be the better solution. I told Dafu-chan to give it up and then continued with Raphtalia toward the next room.





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