Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: The Raph Species Upgrade Plan

The next room looked like some kind of control chamber, with a gaggle of pipes coming from the previous room and leading into the next one. The place looked like it was still under construction. For the moment, I had to keep my promise to Holn, so I didn’t order any destruction. Not yet.

Raphtalia still had a slightly troubled look on her face. If we were still here to just smash our way through, I probably would have given that order. Mamoru seemed to have recovered a little from his shock in the previous room and was following quietly behind as he held Cian’s hand.

“I really am sorry about all this,” he eventually said.

“Don’t worry about it. We treated her too much like Rat, who was mostly harmless, and left her without supervision. That’s on us too,” I replied. There were issues with how Holn was doing things, but at the root of it all, she was trying to meet the request I’d made of her. She could create all of this in such a short space of time, after all; that was exactly the kind of person we wanted researching how to get us back to the future.

“She’s giving us this chance to talk Keel down, so that’s something. The issue now is what kind of decisions the other villagers might make after we tell them about this.” It was scary to think that they might all choose the same path. I’d made all sorts of modifications to the village already, it was true, but it felt like this was definitely crossing a line. I kept coming back to the same thought: had I made the villagers too transfixed on becoming stronger? But we still had a long fight ahead of us, and they wanted to become stronger too. When playing a game, even ace players could end up losing a battle through sheer numbers, even if their allies weren’t close to the same level. Just like Takt had and S’yne’s had sworn enemies too. The more people I needed to protect, the easier it would be if those people were stronger. That just made sense.

It depended on how the current situation shook out, and also the actual content of Holn’s research, but I definitely wanted to discuss the possibilities.

“Is everyone going to want to be a Raph species?” I mused, mainly to myself, but Raphtalia twitched as she overheard me.

“Mr. Naofumi! That made my spine tingle like never before!” she said.

“I phrased it as a question!” I replied defensively. We could achieve that by having the Raph-chans perform a fresh class-up on everyone though, so we didn’t need to ask Holn for that. I considered just limiting this new development to Ruft.

In any case, this was only going to increase Raphtalia’s concerns. It felt like I was the one increasing them too. Like it was my fault for all the monsters who became Raph species. I wondered if she felt like she was getting more and more relatives. It might be time for me to confront my Raph-chan addiction head-on.

I opened the door to the next room and went inside to find Keel in a capsule with a pissed-off look on her face and Holn waiting in a chair. She was still on her guard, however, as there was a transparent wall dividing the room, keeping us from getting to her easily.

“Here we are then. Nice of you to come. Chat away,” Holn said, pointing in Keel’s general direction.

“Bubba! Raphtalia! What are you getting in the way for?!” Keel said.

“You need to rethink this. Holn is clearly bad news. You shouldn’t be doing anything with her,” I said.

“Mr. Naofumi is right!” Raphtalia said. “You’re already more than strong enough. Your heart is what’s important! If people could heal such trauma this easily, no one would ever have to suffer.”

“You’re lying! You overcame your trauma so easily because Bubba did something for you, that’s all! He won’t do it for me, so I asked Holn to!” Keel yipped.

“That’s not the case at all,” Raphtalia replied. “I didn’t overcome it easily at all, I assure you. You’ve been making good progress too! You’re almost there!”

“Your treatments have been helping me, I admit, but then when I wake up and realize it was all a dream, the pain just comes flooding back!” Keel whined, showing no signs of calming down yet. That sounded like a problem we should have been prepared for. Showing them a dream of being powerful, of resolving the crisis that cracked them, was all very well, but ultimately that was still just a dream. Having the feeling of achievement at defeating a feared enemy from the past did not change what actually happened. Under such circumstances, they might be able to do more than before, but it was hard to say they had overcome their trauma completely. This was a world in which stats existed and strength could be turned into numbers; facing something like this trauma required the last bastion of unknowable strength. I could understand why someone might be lured by an easier choice.

“Keel . . . the past is . . .” Raphtalia started but seemed to lose her way and looked over at me. I realized where she was coming from—we were in the past right now. If we could turn things to our advantage a little, we might even be able to prevent the terrible things that had happened to Raphtalia and the others. We were in a place where anything could happen. Raphtalia was looking confused now herself, having realized this possibility.

“Trauma is an issue you have to face for yourself. No one would struggle with it if a little physical upgrading could change that. If you’re letting her mess around inside your head, that’s just brainwashing,” I stated. We didn’t know what the rules for this time travel stuff were. When we went to find Natalia, for example, we’d seen a fox monster defeated. If that was the fox who had been part of Takt’s crew, then the future had just been changed. Yet here we were, with our memories of that same fox creature. Even if we could return right to the point that the first wave happened . . . we might not be able to change anything.

I looked over at Holn, and she didn’t even seem to be listening to us. Instead, she was looking at Mamoru. He didn’t seem to like that much. He had a frown on his face.

“Bubba, you’re the one who told me to decide my future for myself! That’s why I asked Holn to make me so strong. I’d never be afraid of a monster like a cerberus ever again!” Keel replied. I had expected this argument and didn’t really have a counter for it.

“Holn,” I said after a pause.

“What now?” she replied.

“If you were to go ahead with modifying Keel, can you assure me that it isn’t going to fail?” I asked her.

“All experiments can fail, one way or another. But if this particular one fails, I’d probably have to commit suicide from shame,” she replied. So she sounded pretty confident. “To be quite honest about it, this one isn’t half as much fun as my first attempt.”

“Why not?” I asked, not sure I really wanted to know.

“I find nothing so boring as having to investigate how future demi-humans and therianthropes have changed and then track back those changes,” she said. I didn’t really understand that statement either.

“Holn!” Mamoru chided her sternly, a glare in his eye. But she just gave him a devil-may-care look back. I needed to rethink this.

“Next question: if you modify Keel, will that actually allow her to overcome her trauma? What kind of modifications do you even intend to make?” I asked.

“Ah. That’s the little old question I’ve been waiting for,” Holn replied. She started operating the terminal again, and it displayed something for us. It looked like her plans to modify Keel. “First I activate the weapon technique ‘bioethics,’ then work in parallel with bio-customization to expand the subject’s body with the desired strength and enhancements. Of course, this will all require a considerable volume in materials, magic, and SP.”

“Bioethics? What materials does that come from?” I asked.

“Oh, even I don’t know much about that. It was already there on a weapon when I obtained it,” Holn replied coyly. She sure knew how to hold her cards close to her chest. But then there were also unique shields like the Shield of Rage that appeared after you used emotions as materials. Holn was an alchemist, meaning something supplementary to that might have automatically popped up for her. If I kept on playing around the bioplants and evolving them, and obtained new shields too, eventually it might have popped up for me as well. I already had similar techniques in my arsenal.

“And what will happen to Keel once you’re done?” I asked.

“It depends on exactly what we modify. There are certain options there, like giving up the demi-human form completely and just going with the therianthrope one,” she replied. I pondered that too. It sounded like she could make Keel into a real monster if she wanted to. “If we take it too far, she could lose control completely, so I’m recommending we keep things in check a little.”

“And this will allow her to overcome her trauma?” I asked.

“If she’s satisfied with the changes, it will lead to further confidence for her. There are risks, of course, but yes, I think it will allow her to leave the past behind,” Holn asserted.

“What about drugs? You use any powerful chemicals to do this?” I asked.

“Please. I’m not some street-level hawker of quick fixes,” Holn scoffed. I pondered on this too. Just from Holn’s description, I really couldn’t make a determination as to whether Keel would be able to overcome her trauma or not. Holn seemed pretty confident about it, that was true though.

“What method are you using then?” I asked.

“There’s an experimental element to this, but it should be possible to revert her to a more ancestral state, like a shifted therianthrope,” Holn postulated.

“What? Keel can already turn into a therianthrope,” I said. She’s been in her dog form most of the time recently.

“And I’m talking about ancestral power. Don’t you have those in the future? Shifted therianthropes? Shifters? They turn into something that looks almost like a monster at a glance. They need a lot of training to reach that point, of course,” Holn explained.

“Are you talking about beast transformation?” I asked. That was a powerful form that only a few I knew could use, such as Fohl and Sadeena. They could only achieve it when I used beast transformation support on them, the conditions for which were still a mystery. I honestly hadn’t even thought about all this for a while. It sounded like Holn could let me perform that transformation at will. That Aotatsu with Takt had pulled a trick like that, now that I thought about it. Takt had been master of the Whip vassal weapon, so maybe he had activated some kind of technique of his own to make that happen. In any case, if Keel could pull off that complex and difficult-to-maintain maneuver on her own, that would be quite something.

“It’s the realization of a powerful latent ability that only a very small number of demi-humans and therianthropes have access to,” Holn said.

“When you say ‘very few,’ how few do you mean?” I asked.

“Just based on my own little old research, I think only a handful of types from all the demi-humans in the world,” she said. So there were only a handful of demi-humans who could use beast transformation like Fohl and Sadeena. It was a pretty crazy thing—more like simply turning into a full-on monster. “I compared Fohl with sample data here in the lab from subjects called Sadeena and Shildina and discovered one striking difference between them,” Holn continued.

“Something different between Fohl and Sadeena?” I asked. They had both used beast transformation in the past. Holn really could learn a lot from a small volume of material.

“This Sadeena, at least, is able to achieve true ancestral recall. I would very much like to get my hands on her,” Holn said. I didn’t want to break it to her, but taking Sadeena and Shildina alive would be impossible for her. The two of them would be more likely to manipulate Holn into doing whatever it was they wanted.

“Fohl’s mother was human,” I told her. His demi-human side showed through strongly, but his mother was Trash’s younger sister. That might be the reason Holn had spotted some kind of difference.

“Nope, that doesn’t matter,” Holn said flatly. “I’m talking about ancestral power here. To put it another way, this Sadeena shows no signs at all of having been modified or magically enhanced—she has a completely pristine body.” I wasn’t really following this, but it sounded like Holn thought I was making some kind of mistake.

“Stop beating around the bush. If you’ve got something to say, spill it,” I said.

“I thought I was being pretty clear. Having one human parent isn’t going to make a difference to this,” Holn replied. It sounded like she was saying that the hakuko and orcinus species were fundamentally different in some way. Traces of modification or magical enhancement . . . it almost sounded like the Whip power-up method was having a genetic effect. There was an item called “descendants prosperity” under the Whip power-up method. It could also be used to enhance your basic nature at the cost of levels, increasing your stats in the long-term. All of these benefits weren’t restricted to just heroes either; they could be applied to any trusted companions. These enhancements were quite intensive on resources and could only be used a limited number of times, so one common use was to apply them to children in order to give the next generation a boost. Here it looked like they were being applied to monsters, who had a much harsher lifecycle than humans, to enhance them across the generations. The Japan back in my world had done similar things. It was like domesticating wild dogs.

This seemed to be a way to do that more easily . . . but it would be pointless for humans or demi-humans. Managing species with such long lifespans over the period of time it would take would be almost impossible. Which meant these were enhancements that didn’t mean much, even if we had access to them.

I presumed that some of the races in this world were the offspring of ones who had received such enhancements. That meant Sadeena was from a pure bloodline that hadn’t undergone any such modifications. That just made her incredible strength even more . . . incredible.

“We are getting off track,” Holn said.

“You’re right. So this will allow Keel to use a more powerful beast transformation?” I confirmed with her.

“That’s right. I can give her that power, like I’m giving her ancestral recall,” Holn replied.

“What? Naofumi! If that’s a possibility, then I want to do it too!” For some reason, eyes sparkling, Ruft chose that moment to throw his hat into the ring. In his case—and based on his current appearance—that was likely to push him even harder into becoming one of the Raph species. In light of what Sadeena and Fohl had turned into, he might be able to become a massive Raph. But Raphtalia wasn’t able to do that, and so maybe they were a race that simply didn’t have the aptitude.

“Ruft, we can come back to this later. Raphtalia is right there,” I said.

“Sure, okay,” Ruft said, not wanting to get killed. Raphtalia was looking over intently already—there wasn’t a glare in her eyes, not really, but the intent to destroy us was nevertheless hanging heavy in the air. It was even scarier than it had been earlier. If we didn’t cut it out, Raphtalia might bring out her Curse Series Katana vassal weapon.

“If you make it so Keel can use beast transformation, what will she look like?” I inquired. “Will she turn out like a Raph species?”

“Bubba! You’re still planning on turning me into a Raph?!” Keel growled threateningly.

“If we get to choose, that might be a fitting punishment,” I replied.

“Are you serious?! Holn! Please, don’t do that!” Keel pleaded with Holn desperately. If I pressed this line of thinking, we might be able to get Keel to give up.

“I’m not sure . . . No, it’s nothing,” Raphtalia said, giving up. She was unlikely to be pleased with the outcome, no matter what happened next.

“This is a suggestion from the future Shield Hero, so I can’t easily discount it. Little old me thinks it sounds more fun,” Holn said. Her “little old” bit was getting a little old.

“No! Bubba! Seriously, don’t do it!” Keel squawked.

“Are you ready to give up then?” I asked her.

“No! I’m going to become strong enough to keep everyone safe!” she replied defiantly. Bah. She was stubborn, that was for sure.

“How about I use a simple method, with no aftereffects, to let you experience beast transformation and we can take it from there?” Holn suggested. She pressed a button and the liquid inside Keel’s tank started to bubble like crazy.

“Keel?!” Raphtalia shouted.

“Don’t worry. I’m using factors extracted from the Raph species to provide a magic effect for a limited period. It’s a one-time-only deal. A little old ‘try before you buy’ kind of thing,” Holn quipped.

“Is it a bit like Raphtalia using illusion magic to let Keel see herself transformed for a while?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” Holn affirmed. “She’ll see what she would be like if I complete all her requests.” I heard the sound of the liquid draining away and looked over to see, well, a three-headed . . . cerberus where Keel had been. However, it wasn’t the slobbering hellhound that Raph-chan had turned into, but a cute, heavily stylized, mascot-like cerberus. It was like if there was a basketball team called the Hell Dogs.

“Huh? Wow! See, Bubba? I’ve overcome my trauma!” Keel said excitedly.

“I’m sorry to say I’m just doing this to give the future Shield Hero a taste of what you might look like. You can’t actually turn into that yet,” Holn revealed.

“What? So what is this?!” Keel asked.

“Like a costume, nothing more,” Holn said.

“You’re joking! And why can’t I look down on Bubba and the others? I thought I was going to get big!” she asked. I promptly turned my shield into the Otherworld Kingdom Mirror Shield and let Keel take a look at herself. “What’s going on? I can’t get any bigger than this?!”

“I’m not sure that’s the point you should be getting hung up on,” I told her. She looked like a baby cerberus that had gone through a cute machine. If this was the finished thing, then it seemed pointless to go ahead.

“That’s how Keel is going to overcome her trauma?” Raphtalia asked. I didn’t know. Raphtalia knew more about Keel than I did—she should be telling me what was going on. Still, turning into the thing she was afraid of could possibly have beneficial effects. It was like that primitive, shaman-like thinking: defeating a powerful enemy and eating them could bring you that strength. A bit of a crude analogy, but it was something like that. Keel believed that she could overcome her trauma by becoming the object of that trauma.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan.

“One thing though, Keel,” I said.

“What is it, Bubba? Why are you looking at me with those eyes? Not angry, almost pitying me?!” Keel asked.

“Your position as a therianthrope is already something more like an animal . . . You’re the cute village dog, a mascot character like Raph-chan here,” I said. Keel’s doggy form was loved by all, and she had such a friendly personality, which made her really popular around the village. “The reason your trading always goes so well is because of that cute appearance and how friendly you are. That’s different from being cool,” I explained to her.

“Whatever are you talking about?!” she exclaimed. That seemed like a bit of an overreaction. She had to have had some idea about this herself. Some of this was definitely coming from a desire to avoid reality.

“Keel is very cute, that’s true,” Ruft said. “If I hadn’t met the Raph-chans, then I would have been totally hung up on her.”

“You think the same thing too, Ruft?!” Keel exclaimed. “Holn, can’t you make me cooler?” she pleaded.

“I’m sorry, but that’s the only possible outcome. It’s the core part that comprises you. It’s something I can never change or take away,” she replied.

“Dammit!” said Keel, about as blue as I’d ever seen her.

“In terms of combat capabilities, this is what we’re looking at.” Holn brought up the predicted stats for Keel. The cutie cerberus would give her basically a fifty-percent boost across the board. Not bad. “The cost of this is that she’ll lose control for confectionary and will gain a weakness to sleep attacks.” So it was a power-up with some built-in disadvantages. All sounded pretty standard so far.

“Okay. What if you push Keel closer to the Raph species?” I asked.

“She’ll retain the cute features but give us some leeway on the stats front,” Holn said.

“Hey! No! I said not to do that! I don’t want to become another Raph-chan! Raphtalia, help me!” Keel yipped loudly as I chuckled with Holn. No wonder she was asking for Raphtalia’s help. Then, with a puff of smoke, Keel’s temporary transformation came to an end.

“Raph . . .” said Raph-chan.

“Dafu, dafu. Dafu, dafu!” said Dafu-chan. Raphtalia was shaking her head in sheer amazement.

“Keel, give up this insanity. You can overcome this on your own. If you want to look like that, get S’yne to make you a costume,” Raphtalia suggested.

“No way! I want to become stronger, even stronger! I want to be able to do a super power-up like Fohl and Sadeena can!” she replied. She was starting to sound like L’Arc when he had been insisting on apprenticing with the accessory dealer. I had to give them this though—both of them were taking action based on serious considerations on their part.

“She should be able to get stronger if we remove some of the unnecessary optional stuff,” Holn said.

“Let’s try that then,” I replied.

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia said, incredulous.

“Straight to the point. I like it,” Holn said. “If we just expand the basics as much as possible, this is the kind of ancestral recall she’ll be able to pull off.” She pressed a different button, and Keel was submerged in liquid again . . . to become a different-colored Keel. The pattern on her coat seemed to have changed a little, and she looked bulkier as well. But otherwise, she looked exactly the same. Still a cute dog, just a little bigger. Not much difference.

“What’s going on here? I’ve not changed at all!” she exclaimed.

“This one is based on affinity variation,” Holn explained. “Using beast transformation like a combination skill will allow her to take on all sorts of different abilities depending on the affinity of the other skill.”

“Okay, that sounds useful,” I said.

“This is a magical form that a lot of therianthropes in our time use to enhance themselves,” Holn said. Indeed, this seemed to match with the magic that Keel could unconsciously use to protect herself.

“In our time it’s said to be hard to separate affinities out. Looks like this is beast affinity,” I said. She had access to howling magic, stuff like that. She was able to give herself a boost by howling. It sounded suited to Keel.

“Do you not have moon affinity in the future?” Holn asked.

“Moon?” I asked in return.

“It’s also called ‘night,’ or ‘twilight,’ depending on the region. An affinity expressed by the darkness of the night, and beasts, things like that,” Holn explained.

“All sounds pretty similar,” I said.

“The pattern I just showed you is based on Dragon Emperor transformations,” Holn said.

“Wow, okay. Our Dragon Emperor keeps a pretty fixed form most of the time . . . but the Demon Dragon transformed herself, that’s true,” I recalled. That had to be a similar thing. If it would allow her to casually change her transformation patterns, that could be useful too. “Keel moves around a lot, so it would be great to boost her speed.”

“In which case I can add some wind or lighting affinity magic,” Hold suggested.

“Hey! Stop trying to decide what I turn into, Bubba!” Keel interjected. “I thought I was going to get to choose for myself!”

“This is surely going to be better than a cutie cerberus, okay! I want to see what you turn into,” I said.

“Me too. I think I might be able to shoot for something big here,” Holn mused.

“Might be able to!? Did you hear that? And what do you mean ‘cutie’ cerberus? That’s not the kind of cerberus I’m aiming for!” Keel continued, as energetic as ever.

“Mr. Naofumi, can you please stop proceeding along the line of thinking that we’re actually going to modify Keel?” Raphtalia asked.

“What do you want then, Raphtalia?” I turned to her. “Do you want Keel to become a Raph species?”

“There’s no need to default back to that position either!” Raphtalia replied. With that, we put a pin in the whole “modify Keel” thing. The issue was that after she transformed once, she would never be able to come back, and so we put a stop to it. Holn had apparently been proceeding with the entire thing under the presupposition that we would have to approve it anyway.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Holn said brightly. “This is for you, future Shield Hero. It should be perfect for the Raph species.” Holn pressed another button, and something popped out from the wall in front of my eyes. They looked like green leaves.

“What’s this? Leaves?” I asked.

“Raph?” said Raph-chan quizzically. Raph-chan took one of the leaves and showed it to me. It looked like a tree leaf a tanuki used to transform in Japanese folklore. It really suited Raph-chan, that was for sure. It might look good on Raphtalia too.

“It’s an accessory that can draw out the power of the Raph species. It was made using the concentrated power of the sakura lumina,” Holn explained.

“Impressive . . .” I said. She’d clearly made this to try and curry favor with me—and it was working.

“Of course, the Heavenly Emperor can use it too,” Holn added. Raphtalia looked pretty conflicted by that.

“What about this brown leaf on the bottom?” I asked.

“That’s something else. I mixed different factors into that, for you to use, future Shield Hero. Try putting it into your shield,” she suggested.

“Okay,” I replied. From its appearance, it didn’t seem to have any strange magic on it. I didn’t want to end up getting cursed again by putting strange stuff into my shield. As I had that thought, though, the gemstone on the shield gave off a soft glow. It seemed to be saying it was okay to put the leaf inside. I proceeded to do so.

 Conditions for Shield of the Beast King II unlocked!

 Conditions for Shield of the Beast King III unlocked!

 Conditions for Sakura Stone of Destiny + Shield of the Beast King unlocked!

 Conditions for Dragon King Shield 0 unlocked!

  Shield of the Beast King II 0/C

 <abilities locked> equip bonus: boost abilities of beast transformation users (medium), skill “Beast Transformation Support Expansion” “Beast Transformation Additional Access”

  special effect: power of loyalty, power of trust

  mastery level: 0

  Shield of the Beast King III 0/C

 <abilities locked> equip bonus: boost abilities of beast transformation users (large), skill “Beast Transformation Support Expansion” “Beast Transformation Additional Access” “Voluntary Beast Transformation Support” “Cost Reduction (Large)”

  special effect: power of loyalty, power of trust, army roar

  mastery level: 0

  Sakura Stone of Destiny + Shield of the Beast King 0/C

  <abilities locked> equip bonus: skill “Pacifier Support”

 special effect: pacifier beast

  mastery level: 0

  Dragon King Shield 0 0/0 C

  <abilities locked> equip bonus: reincarnation recognition, beginning of 0, skill “Transformation Support”

  special effect: primal dragon

  mastery level: 0

That was a lot to take in. An expansion had popped up from the shield that I copied in the special room for the Shield Hero in Siltvelt. It was mainly focused on expanding use of beast transformation support—making that annoyingly obtuse skill easier to use.

I also had to wonder about this series with 0 on it. This one had developed from Shield 0, but apart from the special effects and abilities, the stats were the same as the Shield 0.

“Has it unlocked something?” Holn asked.

“Yeah, the Shield of the Beast King series. Other stuff too,” I replied absently.

“What about me?” Mamoru asked. He’d kinda been on the sidelines until now, that was true.

“Nothing for you, Mamoru,” Holn replied brightly.

“Why not?!” he retorted.

“Because this is something that I created for use by the future Shield Hero. It isn’t something you need, Mamoru,” she explained. I took a moment to appreciate that. It was all pretty weird-looking, but I might be able to make use of it. “I think you would get completely different weapons—probably ones that support ancestral recall.”

“Impressive that you know all this,” I said.

“I made it to complement those kinds of weapons. Future Shield Hero, this should help you to further aid your allies,” Holn said. She was right on that score. All the new shields had some kind of support features, but the 0 one was the outlier on that score.

“Reincarnation recognition” definitely caught my eye. Maybe it would let me spot the resurrected. If so, that would be super convenient. I’d have to unlock that later.

Moving on . . . The 0 series, the Shield of Wrath, and the Shield of Compassion trees were connected by unlocked shields. I didn’t know how to unlock them . . . but the conditions were gradually being filled in.

“In any case, after all the loyalty I’ve shown you here, I hope you’ll overlook certain other things,” Holn said.

“I get it. Now start by getting rid of those towers placed around the village and turning off your other security measures,” I said.

“Of course,” she agreed. With that, Holn returned the village to normal. In regard to the towers that grew in the village, even in that short time, the others had gotten close to clearing them all. Holn said we had displayed far greater collaboration and strategy than she had expected. Ren and Fohl had been up there, after all. This was proof that they could act quickly when it was required.

“Raphtalia, I’m sorry. We’re going to have to ask the others in the village if they want the same treatment as Keel,” I said to her.

“I understand . . . but I hope they won’t go for it,” she replied.

“We’ll have to discuss this later,” I said.

“Raphtalia!” said Keel, tears in her voice. “It was totally not what I was expecting!”

“That’s what we call karma, Keel,” Raphtalia said. “This is why you don’t go off with strange scientists.”

“Raph!” Raph-chan agreed.

“Dafu, dafu!” said Dafu-chan.

“So great! I wish I could become exactly like Raph-chan!” Ruft said enviously. I ignored his casual comment and turned to Mamoru instead.

“It looks like we avoided all-out war,” I said. “But you need to have words with her.”

“I really am sorry about all this!” Mamoru replied. He’d been doing little but apologizing for a while now. Cian was acting like a cat, licking her hands like paws to clean her face, looking unperturbed. That was a true cat reaction, ears, whiskers, and tail. “You need to think hard on this too, Holn!” Mamoru said pointedly.

“This isn’t going to be enough to curb my little old curiosity,” she replied. She was incorrigible.

“If you get too carried away, my Heavenly Emperor might throw caution about future generations to the wind and try to off you,” I warned her.

“That does seem like a possibility,” Holn admitted with a nod, perhaps having sensed the same terrible intent to destroy emanating from Raphtalia. “I’ll pay attention to that.” Hopefully that would keep her in check a little. In any case, that brought the fun and games Holn had triggered to an end. It went without saying that we had Rat and Wyndia constantly watching Holn from that moment onward.

After we resolved things with Holn, we came out of the lab with her to find Natalia and the others looking down.

“You need to stop this nonsense or I really will punish you,” Natalia warned.

“I was just doing what I was asked to do. Or is the little old Whip telling you that I’ve stepped off the path of a hero?” Holn goaded. She showed the Whip seven star weapon to Natalia, with a cheeky but completely unbothered expression on her face. The gemstone on the Whip did glow for a moment, but that only made Natalia bite her lip in frustration.

“Personally, I think you could clock her one. I’m not taking responsibility, of course,” I chimed in.

“Naofumi, I don’t think that’s especially appropriate . . .” Mamoru warned, and Ren arrived just in time to nod his agreement.

“Hey, I don’t discriminate because she’s a woman. Ren, you understand, right?” I asked, but Ren just looked away.

“I wouldn’t stop you if it was Bitch, that’s true,” he said finally. I couldn’t think of anyone who would seek to stop the punishment of Bitch. It was strange how attitudes changed when we were talking about someone different.

“We shouldn’t be getting too emotional about this,” Natalia finally said. “Very well. I will back down.” I hadn’t expected Natalia to give up and I wondered what had brought on this change of heart. She seemed to be looking at me pretty intently. “That said. I think the Whip Spirit should take the punishment this time.” With that, Natalia swung her hammer toward the Whip that Holn was holding.

“Huh? I guess we have to accept that,” Holn replied. She didn’t avoid the attack but took Natalia’s hammer right on the whip. An actually quite pleasing clang rang out, and the Whip gemstone flashed.

“Whip Spirit. Vassal weapon spirit or not, you need to learn your place,” Natalia said. It sounded like responsibility had been shifted from Holn to the weapon.

“I’m not going to be able to use the Whip for any fun stuff for a while, am I?” Holn muttered. Maybe the punishment had been some kind of restriction of functions. It sounded like fair measures, anyway. It was better than just letting them have their way. She was still surely quite capable even without the power of the weapon.

“You can even punish spirits,” I noted. She could render a vassal weapon completely inoperable. I’d kind of done the same thing when I stripped the seven star weapons from Takt. Maybe this wasn’t a form of punishment that was only available to a pacifier. I had to wonder if it had any effect on the temperament of the spirit inside the weapon.

“Even the spirits can sometimes step off the path,” Natalia said. “Under the current circumstances, though, taking it further than this would be too heavy of a punishment. We have the waves to consider too, and there’s no time to search for someone to use it instead. I also don’t want to trigger any rebellious backlash.” I was pleased to see that the pacifier had her eye on the waves too. During such a dangerous time, it would be difficult to kill a holy weapon hero even if they did step off the path. Natalia was just going to have to suffer a bit longer.

“So this is the work of a pacifier. Pretty different from things back in our time,” I commented.

“Oh? What happens in the future?” Natalia asked.

“They hole themselves up in Q’ten Lo and never come out,” I replied.

“Before you came, Naofumi,” Ruft said, “there was a period when the Q’ten Lo dragon hourglass kept on shining really brightly. But Makina said it was nothing.” That had been the call to action, for sure. That twisted hag had completely ignored it.

“The world is in constant flux,” the Water Dragon said, “even with my supervision. That is just a mark of how much things will change.”

“I’d say you guys got left behind, pretty much,” I commented. Not to mention the wistfully laconic Water Dragon was the one who would end up bringing us in to help out. I shook my head, not knowing what to say.

“I don’t really want to hear any more of this,” Natalia said. “You’ll get me thinking about how to change the future.”

“Good luck with that. Make a better future for us all!” I chirped.

“We might have our own problems if things change too much,” Raphtalia said.

“We could do with working out how that is all operating,” I said. One possibility was that our coming to this time was already something that had happened to shape the future that we knew. That said, the waves were a phenomenon that involved the fusing of worlds, as caused by the one who assumed the name of god, and yet now—with the involvement of enemies from another world, admittedly—we had been kicked back into the past, and so that really confused the issue. A single line of the past, present, and future was now being mixed with other lines. If there was a future beyond our own time, figuring out the waves might explain it. If the waves defeated us, the world was wiped out, after all. S’yne had already experienced that. It was a fact that the time we had come from was either the leading edge of this world or at least a key point in its history. It proved that worlds fusing together was the route this timeline should take . . . but the only way to know that was to jump further into the future.

I wondered how I would feel if heroes from further in the future came back to our time, like we had shown up in Mamoru’s time. I decided I wouldn’t like it. I didn’t even know what kind of structure this world had anyway. The little information I had gathered so far was all I knew. Working all of this out would be hard without another chat with Atla and Ost. Maybe I could ask the Demon Dragon personality that appeared when I cast magic. I tested my connection with it, and it seemed to be there.

Of course, it was just a simulated personality, so it might not be able to think about unexpected things. Maybe waves were happening in all times, at the same time, in the past, present, and future, all at once . . . That might be possible too, but I also wasn’t going to get an easy answer.

Natalia began speaking again. “In any case, this was quite a stimulating welcome. I’ve got a lot of notes I’d like to share with you, but I think I understand the situation. As a pacifier I don’t want to get too involved, but very well. I’ll be praying for your return to the future as quickly as possible,” she said, making a clear statement to all of us. She likely thought a little less of us after all of this, but at least she wasn’t choosing to take us out with the trash. “I can’t promise I will stand by this if you start to use the holy weapons or vassal weapons viciously—that is to say, using the spirit implements for evil,” she warned.

“I’ve got you,” I replied. “So what next?” I actually didn’t have any idea what Natalia did.

“I’ve already warned the Bow Hero. The nation he is affiliated with seems to have cooled down . . . for now. That’s all the big stuff I’ve handled. Now I can just clean up any outliers in readiness for the coming battle,” she said. Of course, she also had her eye on things like Piensa and their desire for global warfare. “There have been rumors about the Shield Hero bringing in heroes from other worlds, but now I know the truth. No one would ever guess that you’re actually from the future.”

“About that. When I asked you about ways to get us home, you said you didn’t have any idea. Is that true? You really don’t know?” I asked.

“Why not ask that evil alchemist?” Natalia suggested.

“I’m working on it,” the evil one replied. “I just haven’t found any clues yet.”

“Very well. I’ll send an envoy home and see if the previous Heavenly Emperor has any ideas,” Natalia said. She was going to ask someone smart back in Q’ten Lo. I just had to pray that would provide some answers. “I haven’t seen that talkative winged girl yet today, now that I think about it,” Natalia added.

“You mean me?” R’yne put her hand up, accompanied by S’yne. I wasn’t even sure how long she had been there—it was so hard to keep track of who was around at any given moment, and for once she had been keeping her mouth shut.

“There you are . . . but I don’t need you. How long are you planning on spending here? Why don’t you go off and defend your own world?” Natalia asked.

“Don’t have to,” R’yne replied cheekily. “My friends there know what I’m doing, and they are fine with it.” She was so easygoing! I presumed it was the same principle as Raphtalia’s Katana. Anyway, if things at home got bad, her weapon would take her back. “How are things going here? It looks like we’ve missed all the fun.”

“There was no fun here at all, I promise you. What a joke,” Natalia said. She seemed to get along with R’yne about as well as Raphtalia did. Such was the lot of the pacifier, having to observe the heroes—whomever they might be. At least the Q’ten Lo guys didn’t seem to be coming after Raphtalia’s life this time. In my time, they would have done anything to try and take out someone they considered this dangerous. That thought made me think of Kizuna—and realize why sometimes heroes ended up fighting. In her world, they had already lost their Heavenly Emperor.

In any case, if the Bow Hero from this time or other vassal weapon holders made a play for us, we could shut them down using the power of the sakura stone of destiny. They could fight amongst themselves as much as they liked once we were safely back in our own time.

“And you’re the future Sewing Kit Hero,” Natalia said, looking at S’yne.

“That’s right. She’s called S’yne,” R’yne interjected. “She’s probably, like, related to me or something. She’s super cute, huh?” R’yne stroked S’yne in a very familiar manner.

“You really don’t change, do you? That’s exactly how you treated your own sister,” Natalia said.

“Oh yes! I can’t tell heads or tails of things these days!” R’yne replied. S’yne looked pretty disgruntled by the whole thing. Maybe it was because R’yne treated her in the same way her own sister did.

As the banter continued, I noticed Keel a little distance away, talking to the rest of the villagers.

“Keel, how was it?” Fohl asked.

“How was it? It sucked! Bubba almost turned me into a Raph species!” Keel replied.

“That sounds truly awful,” Fohl sympathized.

“But if we ask Holn, she’ll give us stronger enhancements than the Shield Hero, right?” another villager said.

“Didn’t she just say she couldn’t do anything for a while?” Keel asked.

“That’s a shame . . .” the villager replied.

“Ah, hold on. She’s grinning! I think maybe she can still do that much!” Keel yapped. I’d thought maybe they were chastising Keel, but it sounded more like they were just interested in what was going on. These guys were a hardy bunch.

“Oh, what should I do?” Imiya pondered.

“What kind of modification would you like?” Keel asked.

“Yes, well, about that . . .” Imiya said. They were already having exactly the conversation I had expected. They needed to think about the methods a little more. Raphtalia was already glaring over at them.

“Are you going to ask to become a little more human? For the Shield Hero?” Keel asked. I wondered why they might think I’d want that. Imiya was already a therianthrope, so what would it mean to make her more human? Close to a demi-human, maybe.

“Why would you want that? Any fun reasons?” Holn asked.

“Well, you see . . .” Imiya replied. Holn was chatting with the slaves like she was one of the gang.

“Huh, that’s no fun at all,” Holn said after Imiya finished explaining. “It would be more fun for me if we sent you back to ancestral recall.” I shook my head at that too. She’d just finished being punished! “There’s something else. My investigations have revealed that each Shield Hero possesses certain characteristics—a common trait: they don’t treat anyone differently based on their race.” I wondered what she was talking about now. At this line from Holn, even others removed from the conversation looked over at Mamoru, Ren, Fohl, and me too.

“Atla did take an instant liking to him,” Fohl said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Naofumi concerned about race. He always interacts with everyone earnestly, honestly, and with such care,” Ren mused. I just wanted them to shut up. This wasn’t helping things! People were only going to start believing this crap! I wasn’t so noble!

“Do you know the story ‘The Hero and the Beast?’ There’s a version in which true love’s kiss from a Shield Hero is the only thing that can turn a maiden back from being a monster. Very famous,” Holn said. “The commonality is that the Shield Hero is someone who falls for what’s inside, not the external appearance.” I didn’t know a thing about that! She was making the Shield Hero sound like the prince who suddenly showed up at the end of a fairy tale! “This is a marked difference from the Bow Hero. There’s no need to be concerned about race when dealing with the Shield Hero,” Holn summarized.

“Holn, I’m not entirely sure that’s what Imiya wanted to know,” Keel said.

“Why not? Still, the future Shield Hero does seem to have a thing for the Raph species. She might be better to modify herself in that direction,” Holn mused.

“That might be . . . a little too much for me,” Imiya admitted apologetically. That was fine. That was what I wanted her to say. Whatever my daily attitude, I liked Imiya a lot.

“You make a good point.” Just when I thought it was over, Natalia stepped in with a follow-up attack. “I’ve seen records concerning the Shield Heroes from the past regarding the closest friend of the very first Shield Hero. The other heroes who were summoned immediately after him called that friend ‘lizard man,’ or so the records say,” Natalia stated. “I’ve also heard that the bloodline of the Shield Hero’s partner shows up strongly in their children.”

“I’ve heard the same kind of thing in Siltvelt,” Fohl mused. I didn’t need to hear any more of this—especially if Fohl seemed to have heard it before too.

“I have to ask, why does all the talk about me recently seem to come back to sex?” I muttered. I had stroked Raphtalia to avoid all this. I wished they could just take the hint. It was starting to look like I’d need to stroke Raphtalia like she was Raph-chan in order to make this topic go away.

“Everyone, please. This isn’t very fair on Mr. Naofumi and Mamoru, so maybe we should leave this topic alone. I think I would appreciate that too,” Raphtalia said, stepping in and calling for an end to this line of discussion. I decided to back her up—I wanted to disperse it completely.

“Okay, enough time-wasting. Clean this mess up. I think this served to show how quickly we can act in an emergency situation. If something like this happens again, I want you all to work even harder to resolve it,” I told them. They all offered various levels of agreement and then went their separate ways. “Natalia, this is pretty much how things work around here. We’re going to be stuck here a while longer, from the look of it, so I hope you’ll help us out.”

“I think I understand the general situation,” Natalia replied. “There’s definitely an energy to the place. If you can offer powerful aid against the wave, I can overlook the smaller stuff.”

“Really?” I replied. “I thought you would want us to keep out of things, considering we might change the future.”

“A risk I’m willing to take. We need all hands on deck right now. If that’s going to change the future, I say go ahead and let it change, if it means we can keep this world safe,” Natalia responded.

“If we can use them to prevent the waves from going the way our enemies expect, we’ve no choice but to do so,” the Water Dragon said, winding around Natalia and placing his head on her shoulder. He seemed to like the position. “We just have to hold on until help arrives.” It sounded like Mamoru and his allies were also waiting for someone to show up who would fight the one who assumed the name of god. I wondered if this mystery helper actually did (from our future perspective) come to this time. Information on that had been pretty vague in the future. Fitoria had seemed to recall fragments of something though. Maybe they were going to show up.

“I will continue to observe you closely,” Natalia finished. She was going to be in the village for a while. I quickly convinced her to teach Raphtalia and Ruft some new tricks. Melty also had an incredulous look on her face when she heard about everything that had happened, since she was completely removed from it all this time. Eclair, for her part, had a look on her face like she would rather have taken part than have been off guarding Melty—but who cared about that?