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"FOR THE CHILDREN"
CHAPTER 6: THE GREAT SPIRIT STONE
"Great spirit stone? That is what you need our help for?" Himekawa asked in disbelief.
"Yes, this spirit stone exists in the human world. It is said that this particular spirit stone was formed near the beginning of the world, so it should have been absorbing a large amount of life energy. If we can find that, we might be able to destroy the phenomenon altogether. If not, it would buy us thousands of years."
Oga paid half attention as both Himekawa and Lamia continued the conversation from last night. Like Furuichi, he just sit on the sidelines and let the two geniuses do all the talk. It was morning now and Be'el had left the place without any word. When asked if it was alright to let him go away, Lamia answered like this:
"He did regain his memories. I'm sure of it. But as I thought, it's impossible for him to just switch sides after regaining his memories. He may not come to like us, but at the very least he wouldn't bother us for some time."
And thus Oga found himself worrying after Be'el. Oga didn't doubt that Be'el could take care of himself, with or without Hilde, but he couldn't be sure if Be'el would turn for the better or worse. His mind was so preoccupied by Be'el that he didn't pay attention until Lamia dropped the bomb.
"…Unfortunately you have no choice because the destruction of Demon World will affect your world too."
"What?" Oga and Himekawa exclaimed at the same time.
Lamia sighed and went to perform another long explanation.
"The human world and the demon world are closely linked. You may not be able to cross to another without a dimensional transfer device or demon, but the transfer itself would be impossible if the worlds weren't linked in the first place. So when the Demon World collapsed, the degeneration phenomenon will continue in the Human World.
"And when that time comes, you humans wouldn't have a chance to stop it. The degeneration phenomenon grew stronger as time goes by and at that point the energy needed to contain or destroy the phenomenon will be so large that even if you find a spirit stone with enough energy, nobody—not even a strong demon like Belze-sama—would be able to handle that spirit stone," Lamia said, then looked at them pleadingly. "Please, believe in me. We have to act before it's too late."
Himekawa shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but I can't just believe you without any proof."
"What kind of proof do you want?" Lamia asked patiently.
"The proof that the degeneration phenomenon going to affect our world."
Lamia's expression immediately became complicated. Himekawa took it as a negative sign and sighed. "So it was nothing but all talk."
"No! It's just... I can't show you without Alaindelon or a dimensional transfer device."
"And where's Alaindelon?" Furuichi, who had been silent the entire time, asked. As the one who received the warning about the demon invasion from the dimensional transfer demon, he naturally became the person who was most curious of Alaindelon's fate, even if he didn't look forward to meet him again.
"He's currently watching the links of the two worlds for me, and that means he can be anywhere in both worlds now," Lamia answered with a frustrated tone.
"Why does he need to watch over the links?" Oga asked.
"I want to make sure that the degeneration phenomenon doesn't carry over to the human world through the links. I don't think it will happen before there's nothing left in the demon world, but you can't be too sure about this. We can still stop it when it's still traveling in the link, but if it manages to cross… let's say it's game over for both humans and demons."
"Don't you have any means of communication from him?" Furuichi asked.
"No. One way communication from him only. It's to avoid endangering the other if one of us was captured."
Furuichi sighed. "Back to square one then."
"But how did you get here in the first place then? Be'el too, I didn't see him using any devices or demon to get here," Himekawa asked, rubbing his chin.
"That's—well, for me I accidentally found Alaindelon in the demon world. As for Belze-sama, he acquired the power to move between dimensions after the ritual," Lamia said.
"So either we got lucky with Alaindelon, find a dimensional transfer device, or find our dear demon lord and ask him. Not bad choice," Himekawa said sarcastically.
"Then we should leave that idea altogether. We don't have much time and resource here. And it's not like the demons have stopped their invasion either," Furuichi said, looking away from his phone which contained the current information about demon attacks.
"If you want another type of proof, it's not much, but I can at least show the proof for the great spirit stone," Lamia said.
"You can? Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Himekawa asked, understandably annoyed.
"The timing simply didn't come. In any case, this is the proof I'm talking about," Lamia said as she took out a shard of familiar looking crystal. It was a shard of a spirit stone.
"This is a shard of the great spirit stone," Lamia started to explain. "At a glance, it looked like a normal spirit stone, but there are two main differences. One is the amount of spirit energy that can be stored is ten times more than normal spirit stones and the other one is its ability to generate spirit."
"Generate spirit? What's so special about that?" Oga asked.
"Normal spirit stones can only store spirits and convert them into energy. The great spirit stone however, can generate its own spirit to convert into energy, just like a living being," Lamia answered.
"That's incredible," Himekawa said, marveling at something Oga couldn't understand.
"It is the great spirit stone, duh," Lamia said matter-of-factly. "In any case, I'll show you how it works. Watch."
Lamia tightened the grip on the shard and the shard started glowing, just like when Himekawa tried to use the spirit stone they found. But instead of absorbing spirits, it let out a ball of light and shot it towards the wall beside them.
A flash, and the wall was no more.
"Now as you can see, the stone is now completely colorless because I've used up all the energy inside this stone. However, after a few minutes, it'll create its own spirit and regain its sky blue color," Lamia continued, but nobody was paying heed to her words.
Everybody was in a state of shock. Oga was too busy picking up his jaw from the floor, Himekawa's eyes went as wide as a platter with his green glasses fell crookedly on his nose, and Furuichi was massaging his temple in order to stop the growing headache.
"I hope you are planning to fix that," the prime minister said, motioning to the now gone wall.
"I don't. You shouldn't mind about trivial things when the world is on the brink of destruction, creepy-ichi."
Furuichi's temple twitched, and Oga knew he had to intervene before the prime minister had the chance call his elite squad to take care of Lamia. Sensing the quickly approaching storm, Oga quickly intervened.
"Suppose that you're right, why do you need our help to look for it? Why not ask other demons like Alaindelon?" Oga asked. His attempt to distract the two worked as Lamia answered and Furuichi listened.
"Because theoretically, the spirit produced by the great spirit stone is similar to humans'. This is a problem for us demons because to us, all human spirits feel the same. We won't be able to tell the if the spirit we sensed is the great spirit stone's or a human spirit."
"Wait. Hold it right there. Didn't you say this great spirit stone was at least several times more powerful than a demon lord? Similar to human spirit or not, how could you not sense something like that?" Himekawa asked.
"That's because we can't tell or predict how much energy will be produced by a spirit. And great spirit stone or not, at the end of the day, it's still a stone. It can't convert its spirit to energy by itself[ HINT: All the parents will convert their spirit to energy
Angelia Lie, 6/29/15, 23:35], so there's no way we can—ah. It's done. Look."
Lamia held up the spirit stone shard for all to see. Like she said, it had regained its sky blue color.
"It's not a trick, isn't it?" Furuichi asked, ever skeptical.
"You want me to empty it once again?" Lamia offered.
"No thanks," Furuichi answered quickly.
"So… you guys believe in me now?" Lamia asked.
Oga was going to answer yes, but Furuichi beat him to it.
"Not completely. You only convinced us it's worth a try."
"As long as I got help from you in the end, it's good enough for me," Lamia said, satisfied.
Himekawa and Furuichi looked at each other's face before nodding together.
"Then we have an agreement. Let's try to sense the difference between the great spirit stone and the normal spirit stone first."
To everyone's chagrin, it didn't work. They all tried to sense the spirits, but nobody could feel anything beside its cold surface.
"This is not working. Lamia, can you tell us how this great spirit stone feels different?" Himekawa asked. To their surprise, Lamia shook her head.
"I don't know. I have no idea."
"Huh?" Himekawa exclaimed. He was so surprised that he managed to revert back to his Touhoushinki persona without the power of his cylindrical hairstyle.
Lamia immediately went defensive "I can't help it! I am a demon! I can't tell you something I can't experience! It's the same as asking me how it feels to be able to breath underwater!"
"But you found out about this great spirit stone! You should have at least some reference!"
"It's precisely because I don't have it I ask for your help! The information about the great spirit stone is very difficult to find to begin with!"
While the two continued bickering for the second time that day, Oga noticed Furuichi's unnatural silence. He had his eyes closed, appearing to be deep in his thought—so deep that he didn't even notice Lamia started badmouthing him.
When he finally opened his eyes, he had that patented 'Prime Minister Furuichi is planning something' look and clapped his hands to gain everyone's attention.
"Alright. Leave it to me."
"Leave what to you?" Lamia asked, already forgot why she and Himekawa were bickering in the first place. Furuichi ignored her in favor of making a call with his cellphone.
Two dial tones later, his call went through.
"Hello, this is Furuichi. Kunieda, can you come here immediately?"
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"I've heard the situation from Jinno. Can you show that great spirit stone to me?" Kunieda asked, extending her hand towards Lamia as she did.
Lamia handed the stone to the Touhoushinki's only female member, who immediately grasped it with both hands and closed her eyes. All of them wait impatiently as Kunieda did whatever she needed to do. When she finally opened her eyes, she was immediately bombarded with questions.
"How is it?"
"Can you feel anything?"
"How does it feel like?"
"Do you think you can find it?"
To their disappointment, Kunieda shook her head.
"It does feel a little bit different. But it's not very evident. It would be difficult for me alone to search for it. I might miss it."
"But it's still possible for you to look for it, right? You can help Lamia looking for the stone," Oga said. Surprisingly, he earned three headshakes from Furuichi, Himekawa, and Kunieda.
"Even if she could, I won't allow her to leave her post for an extended period," Furuichi said.
"She's MISAKI's spearhead. Removing her from the frontline is the same as halving our power. People will die two times faster when she's spending her time to look for the stone," Himekawa added.
Oga couldn't believe what he was hearing. Since when did his friends became so callous and short sighted?
"But this great spirit stone might be the key to solving all this! Shouldn't we prioritize on looking for this stone?" Oga asked, only to get another head shake from Furuichi.
"Might is the keyword. We're not sure if the war will really stop after the demon world is saved."
Is he serious? Oga thought as he argued once again.
"But the human world will be destroyed too once the demon world is destroyed!"
This time it was Kunieda who replied,
"We understand, Oga. However, there would be no meaning for us to save both worlds if we lost everything we hold dear," Kunieda said, looking straight to Oga's eyes. Her sharp gaze told Oga that she took his words seriously, but wouldn't be moved by words alone.
"Why?" Oga asked frustratedly. "Why is it so hard for you guys to act?"
"Because we can't trust Lamia completely. It's possible that she's still hiding something from us, or completely lying to us. There's also the possibility of her still being loyal to Be'el and have him work with her to put a show to gain our sympathy, so we shouldn't act so carelessly," Furuichi answered.
"Furuichi, are you seriously suggesting that all of that was a lie?" Oga asked incredulously.
Furuichi shook his head. "We're discussing about the possibility here, Oga. And don't forget that they're demons."
"Even if she's not lying," Himekawa continued, "Then it's all the more reason to not trust her completely. If she could do that to her beloved Belze-sama, can you really say that she wouldn't hesitate to do the same to us?"
Oga finally ran out of arguments. While it was true that Oga still considered Lamia as a friend, there was still a ten years gap between their last meeting and reunion. Even he wasn't so foolish to believe that Lamia hadn't changed.
Furuichi turned to Lamia. "That's our standing in this matter. Sorry to disappoint, but this is the best we can do for you with our current situation."
Lamia nodded. "I understand. I didn't expect much in the first place anyway," was what she said, but she clearly looked disappointed.
Furuichi nodded to acknowledge her words. "Then we will excuse ourselves. Let's go. We have much work to do," Furuichi said to both Himekawa and Kunieda. But before they could take a step, Oga stopped them.
"Wait."
Furuichi turned and asked,
"What is it, Oga?"
"I will look for the stone together with Lamia."
Oga might as well as dropped a bomb there. Furuichi's expression was priceless.
"Come again?"
"I said I would look for the stone with Lamia," Oga repeated. "There will be no problem if I go, right?" he asked.
"Don't be foolish, Oga. You can't even sense the stone. How are you going to help her?" Furuichi asked impatiently.
"Honestly, I don't know. But I can't just stay still and do nothing."
Furuichi shook his head. "You can do something, like helping us fight. But," Furuichi glowered, his tone rising. "You always refused helping for reasons unknown, and now you're saying that you're going to help this demon girl, who just came out of nowhere proposing questionable plan? What are you thinking, Oga?"
"I'm thinking for the best solution for us, of course," Oga answered, voice also rising in volume. "Like you, I want the war to stop. I don't want more people to die. Lamia's proposal might not work, but you can't deny that the chance is higher than us winning the war."
"Do you realize how much of a hypocrite you're now?" Furuichi asked, clearly livid. "Many people die because we lack of power! There's always too many attack spots for us to cover, even now! If only you, one of the best fighters in Ishiyama, would just help us, the body count will be less!"
Against the blame, Oga retaliated. The lack of sleep made it hard for him to stay clear headed, so he carelessly shouted, "Will you shut up about me helping, Ahouichi? Even if I fight, I won't contribute much—in fact, I'll make it worse!"
"How so?" Himekawa asked, voice dripping with curiosity. Oga wanted to bang his head on the wall for the slip.
"It's…nothing," Oga said, hoping in vain that everyone would accept the unclear answer as usual and drop the issue. Of course it wouldn't work this time, when Furuichi's patience for him was no more.
"It's not nothing, Oga. If you want to convince me to let you go, you have to make it clear why you can't help us," Furuichi said with a threatening tone. As expected of Japan's best strategist, he immediately seized the chance to gain information and hinder Oga at the same time. For once Oga felt how unlucky he was to stand on the other side of the table. He considered running away with Lamia, but his friendship with Furuichi prevented him from doing so.
Sighing in defeat, Oga finally answered the question that haunted his friends this past ten years.
"I can't help you because my presence makes demons stronger."
"What?" Furuichi asked, clearly not believing his ears. Oga ignored him and continued speaking.
"I don't know why, or how it became like this, but I know for sure it's this emblem's fault," Oga said, putting his now un-bandaged hand up to show the emblem. It was slightly tingling and glowing as there was a demon, namely Lamia, nearby.
"Really? Can I see it?" Lamia asked, approaching Oga. Oga let her took his hand and stood still as Lamia let out a series of 'hmm's and 'I see's before letting go.
"It's true. I feel the aura of demon world coming from this emblem. This emblem is probably directly connected to the demon world."
"And that made demons stronger?" Furuichi asked skeptically.
"Yup. For one, I do feel more energized after I enter this room. The reason would be because human world's aura is incompatible with our body, so we demons can't exercise our full power in the human world. But if we can access demon world's aura in human world, it'll be a different story," Lamia said.
"Now you understand right? I'll only make it worse if I'm around. It's best for all of us if I travel with Lamia," Oga said after Lamia finished her explanation.
Furuichi was frowning deeper than ever. It was clear that he didn't want Oga to go and help Lamia, but at the same time, he had nothing else to say. Oga had to hold back from smiling when Furuichi finally relented.
"Fine you can—"
"Hold on," Himekawa interrupted. "If you make demons stronger, then shouldn't that be the very reason you should stay with us? The demons would want to capture and use you if they know about this," Himekawa said, his eyes on Lamia while he was speaking. The light of understanding dawned on Furuichi's eyes and Oga felt like punching Himekawa for opening his mouth.
"Himekawa, you…" Oga growled, advancing towards the silver haired man, who backed down quickly.
"Whoa whoa. Don't hurt me, please. I still had to work on the new weapons after this," Himekawa said. Knowing the importance of Himekawa's contribution in the war, Oga obediently held back, but he didn't plan to give up.
Apparently, it showed on his face. Jinno and MISAKI's elite squad immediately covered all the exits before he had any chance to bolt out of the room. They were confident that they were able to stop him, and Oga didn't doubt they can because even if he was renowned as Ishiyama's strongest—only second to Toujou since baby Be'el left him—they still had more experience in fighting with opponents stronger than them. It would be over for Oga if he even dare to underestimate Furuichi's elite squad.
So Oga chose to avoid confrontation. His punch landed on the ground, making a huge hole on the floor in front of him. It surprised everyone and gave Oga his chance to run.
"Come on, Lamia!" Oga called before jumping through the hole. He smoothly landed on the ceramic floor and hold his hands out just in time to catch Lamia in his arms. He let her down and then dashed out of the room with Lamia his friends' shouts following behind.
"Come here! The exit is this way!"
"You want us to exit from the front door?" Lamia asked incredulously.
"The hospital perimeter is surrounded by high brick wall and has only one gate anyway! We have to get there before they block our exit!"
They were halfway to the gate when Furuichi and the others finally caught up. But they were still too far from Oga and Lamia, so they couldn't prevent them from leaving.
"Oh, hey Oga. Whats with the hurry?"
Oga's heart took a leap. Standing right on the gate was Toujou, who was supporting two wounded fighters with his arms. Apparently, he had just came back from a battle and was taking his men to the hospital to treat them like he always did. With all three of them combined blocking the way, Oga's first reflex was to shout:
"Out of the way, Toujou!"
And at the same time, Furuichi too, shouted:
"Toujou, stop Oga!"
Toujou, who had been so used to being Furuichi's war machine, obeyed the prime minister without question. Within a second he had his men laid on the ground and covered the distance between him and Oga on the next. All Oga registered was Toujou's battle-loving grin before the redhead's fist rammed unto his stomach. The pain, the sensation of his insides being pushed up towards his throat, and the feeling of air forced out of his lungs all mixed into one, overwhelming his rapidly declining consciouness.
"You have grown soft, Oga," Touga's words was the last thing he heard before he fell, eyes closed before his body hit the ground.
Author's note: Poor Toujou, he had so little screen time. And don't worry about Be'el, he'd come back. Soon. I think.
Thank you to those who reviewed. Your words remind me that there are real people behind the screen who read and enjoy my story, not just numbers on databases. In a way, your words is one of the reasons why I continue this story, which I had been writing in my spare time when I can just play games or write my own original story. Once again, thank you very much.