I put aside the jumbled mess of emotions bubbling up from Yamajun’s death and hardened my heart. I thought only about what I needed to do now. Calmly, coldly.
“So, what now?”
They’d been sitting listlessly ever since we finished the burial. I was the first to speak.
“What do you mean what?”
“What can we...”
Very dull reactions from Ueda and Nakai. They were not thinking about anything. That was, of course, normal. A good friend had just died in front of them.
If we were back in j.a.pan, we could’ve slowly gotten over the shock and come to terms with that reality. But we weren’t, and we didn’t have the luxury to waste time on stuff like that.
“We, still have to get out of this dungeon. Yamajun died, it’s sad, it’s sudden, and it’s hard to accept I know… But we can’t keep mourning forever ”
“You ain’t wrong dude, but now’s, kinda, yeah? ”
Yeah, you can’t control your emotions just like that after all.
Which kind of made this good timing. They were not fully thinking straight right now, and will be easier to manipulate.
“I’m not saying we go now. We can rest a while. But I think it’s better to talk about what we should do”
“Shut it. It’s all f.u.c.king useless”
Yamada griped irritably. It was understandable. Someone’d just died and I started yapping on and on.
“Aren’t you guys worried? About Ayase-san I mean”
“!?”
Even Yamada couldn’t talk back after that one. Since his heart should’ve been a complete mess right about now.
“R-Reinchan huh...”
“Hmm, I mean...”
“That fake Souma’s the dude that killed Yamajun”
“Y-you’re right, he’s the culprit! We’ll make him pay!”
Their responses were honestly disappointing. These guys, they still couldn’t blame Reina for what happened.
Even if they were not exactly on her side, they just couldn’t go against her delicate and ultra cutesy half-j.a.panese charm. Ridiculous, they weren’t seeing reality.
“That’s right. Ayase-san is, she’s still under that smoke b.a.s.t.a.r.ds hypnotic control”
“s.h.i.+t, just like I thought!”
Of course not, dumba.s.s.
But please go ahead and believe that. They should listen better if they think we had a good cause. Humans can commit any and every evil by just believing themselves to be right. Believing in yourself, such a great motto.
“So, we need to save her right?”
“Y-yeah”
“Oo! You bet we will”
“Momokawa, dude, aren’t you just saying that cause we need her in the dungeon?”
“Ahaha, yeah, can’t deny that’s part of it”
Looks like s.h.i.+mokawa’s sharper than the other two. Though if you looked at our interactions up until now, they’d obviously notice that I didn’t exactly treat her like a princess.
s.h.i.+mokawa had realized that I only thought of her as a pain and a burden, only, reluctantly, keeping her with us because of her strength as a Spirit Master. I think he also realized that I’m the type of person that valued merit over feelings.
He’d be half right. I was in fact trying to work with Reina for the strength she provided, but I didn’t necessarily think we should expel her from the party even if she didn’t help. Though the fact was that her beasts did play a major role in capturing the goma fortress.
But I too had limits to the amount of bulls.h.i.+t I could wave off.
“Yes we need Ayase-san’s power to progress in the dungeon, but aside from that, you guys don’t want to abandon her here right?”
“d.a.m.n straight! I’ll save Reinchan! And I’ll take revenge for Yamajun!”
Yamada got jumpy instantly, as if the depression and heartbreak from just now was all an illusion.
I gave him a convenient interpretation of the situation, and he took it hook, line and sinker.
His anguish from Yamajun’s death was replaced by the desire for revenge. Maybe, it’s because that was easier on the heart, to hate instead of hurt. If there’s an enemy, someone to despise, you can target them as the root of your grief.
Plus, if he also got the bonus of rescuing his proverbial princess, that is, Reina, then of course Yamada’s energy would shoot through the roof.
“But to do that, it’s gonna be our toughest battle yet”
“What do you mean? We just gotta beat that fake Souma right?”
“We just got surprised back there, if it’s just him against the 5 of us, we can do it”
“That dude’s an aeromancer. Easy stuff compared to the real Souma with his stupid sword”
True, I didn’t think guardian beast SOUMA YUUTO was that strong either. If we went all out, we could probably beat him. But mostly because he wasn’t the real Souma Yuuto, the Hero. There wouldn’t be any last-minute save the day for him.
“But it’s not just SOUMA. Right now, Ayase-san is still under his control, so she’ll likely see us as enemies too –– Meaning that we’re up against her Engard and Ramdane too”
Maybe also the water type Seyram that had the shape of a lady. There was a chance that Seyram couldn’t be used or was weak if there was no water around, but we can’t bet on a chance.
If Reina got serious, she could sic all three, fire, water and thunder type guardians on us. We’d be facing them plus the wind type SOUMA YUUTO.
It was us 5 vs 4 of them. But practically speaking, the numbers advantage was meaningless. In terms of power, we were at a ma.s.sive disadvantage.
“W-wait, we aren’t sure if Reinchan’ll think like that! No way she’ll be controlled by that level of –– ”
“She is, and she will. I’m absolutely certain that Ayase-san will see us as enemies, and try to kill us”
I said firmly to cut down any budding misunderstandings Yamada might make in that sugar-coated head of his.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but Ayase-san just isn’t fit for the stress of living in the dungeon. I mean, that’s just how she is you know?”
What she is, is a spoiled b.i.t.c.h, that’s what. But I left that part out.
“She’s like that, so when that cloud creature hypnotized her, she got to live a dream-like life with her beloved Soumkun. Of course she’ll turn like that”
If it was just that, I could leave her be. But that wasn’t all that happened. And I can’t leave her be any more.
“Right now, if we try and wake her from her dream-world, she’ll fight to protect it. Heck, if she hears that she’ll have to go back to the harsh survival life, she’ll think we’re demons”
Presumably, the reason why her guardian beasts didn’t do anything about the cloud creature was because its illusions were showing Reina what she wanted to see. And as a result, that ‘such a mob it doesn’t even get a name’ cloud creature also evolved into guardian beast SOUMA YUUTO, became loyal to Reina, and entered the guardians team as a colleague.
SOUMA was acting as a healer for Reina’s heart that had been crumbling from the harshnesses of reality.
“But if we all try our best and call out to her, I’m sure Reinchan will open her eyes!”
“Yamadkun, that’s what we all want to believe, but it just won’t work”
“Why the h.e.l.l not!?”
“Why? Because Yamajun died, that’s why”
This, this was the crux of it.
Reina, that girl didn’t actually think anything of us. She knew that her guardians used violence to carry out her own desires (selfish whims) but wouldn’t do a thing to stop them.
Reina, you, you were the only one who could have saved Yamajun back there. With just a word, you could have stopped SOUMA’s attack. h.e.l.l, you could’ve just had a stray thought about not wanting it, and that might’ve just worked.
It would’ve been so easy, and yet, that b.i.t.c.h, she refused to see the reality in front of her eyes. And that naivety of hers had cost a life. Yamajun’s life.
“Our voices just won’t reach her”
“That… well… ”
Do you get it now, Yamadkun? One of us had already died to this. There was no more ‘maybe’.
Which meant that we couldn’t harbor any more stupid hopes or think up convenient realities.
We’ll call out to her and she’ll come back to her senses?
Give me a break with these stupid plans. s.h.i.+t, even if I had a time-leap ability and could do that over and over, I f.u.c.king guarantee it won’t work even after a million tries.
“That’s why we need to prepare and plan as if we’re fighting all 4 of her guardian beasts”
“No way, all 4 of those powerhouses… ”
“Yeah, not possible”
“But dude, then we gotta leave her behind yeah?”
“No f.u.c.k you, and f.u.c.k no we’re not! We already lost Yamajun, and I’m not gonna stand losing Reinchan too!”
Yamada’s lines may sound the most bada.s.s, but reasonably speaking, s.h.i.+mokawa was right. Leaving behind Reina was the safest choice for us if anything.
And if Yamajun hadn’t died, I would’ve been the first one to suggest it. And you better believe I would’ve convinced everyone that it was the best option too. That she was too strong for us, and that we were in over our heads if we thought we could beat her.
But I couldn’t do that now. That’s just how much I hated her. I couldn’t ever forgive that b.i.t.c.h. Whatever may happen, I’ll kill her.
If Yamajun was here, he’d surely tell me not to go. He’d convince me about how meaningless something like revenge was. He wouldn’t want me to go down that path. I knew that.
That’s why, this was all for me. I wasn’t going to justify my revenge by saying it’s for Yamajun’s sake. Me, I couldn’t forgive her, and with that rage, I’d kill her.
And on another important note, Reina also thought of me as her enemy. I’d almost forgotten from the shock of Yamajun’s death, but I did attempt to leave her there, in that fight. I didn’t want to fight her.
But she, she just couldn’t forgive the fact that I tried to run away. Reina wanted me dead. We were mutual enemies at this point.
I couldn’t let someone as dangerous as her live free. Even if not for revenge, Reina was now an enemy that I needed to kill.
“We can’t beat guardians in a straight fight”
“Dude, you can say that again”
Everyone nodded to that. Even Yamada wasn’t thinking we could somehow manage beating them with guts and willpower.
“It’s pretty risky, but I have a plan”
“Oo, right on”
“C’mon Momokawa, don’t leave us hanging”
“His plans were great in the goma fortress too, dude’s great at those”
“Anything, I’ll do anything if it’ll save Reinchan!”
Nice, everyone’s on board. Guess it helped that there’s the precedent with the fortress. That feeling of everyone trusting you. It’s great.
“It’s nothing complicated. Since, I think, Ayase-san is still holed up in that fairy square”
Her, along with SOUMA, still being in the other fairy square was the most important condition for this plan to work.
If, for whatever whim, Reina was long gone from there, we didn’t have any means of tracking her. If that happened, even I would have to give up on exacting my revenge for the moment.
But I know she won’t. Reina, see, her personality was like a hardcore recluse (hikikomori). Now that she had her, although fake, Soumkun, she wasn’t going to let go of her happy and fulfilling environment for no reason.
So I’m sure that even now, Reina was still over there, idling away and flirting with the fake Soumkun.
“First, we randomly provoke them so the guardian beast SOUMA chases us”
If that one came at us alone, it was the best case scenario. All we had to do was gang up and beat him.
“We try to separate SOUMA as far from her as we can. And we kill him”
“But dude, you don’t really think he’s gonna come out alone right?”
“Yeah, my guess is Engard and Ramdane will come along too”
It sounded like a last boss multi boss round from the get go, but I really did think it’d turn out like that. Reina wasn’t the type that went easy on her enemies, if she felt like we were being a pain, she’ll come at us with everything. Actually, if Reina so much as thinks that she doesn’t like us, her guardian beasts will come attacking on their own.
Reina thought of me as a liar and a bully. It was a truly childish sense of pure hatred. So if she saw me, she was sure to get riled up and seriously try to get rid of me.
Man, quite a bit hated aren’t I. Yeah, I hate you very much too.
“And if all those guardians do come out, we run”
“We wot?”
“What do mean run?”
“We just want them to come out and chase us. It’s to buy some time”
“The h.e.l.l do you mean buy some time! If we can’t beat ‘em, we can’t get to Reinchan, can we?”
“That’s it, Yamadkun”
Hey, he’s on point for once.
“Basically, if we can get to Reina, we win… We only need to release her from the hypnotism”
With all her bodyguards out chasing us, she’ll be alone. And once alone, Reina, the Spirit Master, was all but powerless. As she was still the weak, delicate girl she started out as.
“We have to separate Reina from her guardian beasts. The decoy team will hold them back to buy time, and the rescue team will go release Ayase-san. This is the basic outline of the plan”
“But you know, those guardian dudes ain’t gonna be stupid enough to ignore that rescue team”
They weren’t mindless beasts after all. They were smart enough to consider it.
If one of us hid while the rest played decoy, it might work but wasn’t guaranteed to. If they notice that one of us was missing, they might leave one of them, say Ramdane, behind.
“Right, so for the decoy team, it’ll have to be all of us”
“Dude, then who’s gonna get Reinchan?”
“Me”
“You?”
“How?”
“You’re a Shaman remember? You can’t run that fast and can’t stay well hidden either”
Geez guys, you don’t gotta rub it in. They’re right though.
“Don’t worry, I happen to have a curse that’ll trick the guardians –– ”
This one, I got when Ruinhilde-sama tore my whole body in two. The new curse magic I’d obtained with the cruelest hand-over ceremony yet.
This curse was the reason I could imagine a way to actually kill Reina.
“ –– It’s my new curse 2Shade. I can clone myself”
