Chapter Nine - Dogoo Hunt

Back at the Main Hall of Dorfa city….

"What? Th-the CPU of Leanbox is going to visit Dorfa?" Nitroplus can't help but utter those words in surprise after their leader, General Hanagata, told the information to her and the other two Fencers beside her, namely Sherman and Marianna.

However, Marianna seems unhappy about the news as it is evident in her expression; she's clenching her hands so tight that it's shaking while wearing a frown on her face. And the general seems to have noticed.

"After all these years, you still have such grudge against the woman, Marianna?" Hanagata pointed out to her. "Although I understand where it came from but I say it's time for you to drop it and move on. You've already lived a bountiful life under Dorfa's roof and I say it's enough compensation to cover what life you have lost during your troubled times. And I don't want you underperforming your duties due to your petty grudges."

"P-petty grudges…?!" Marianna can't help but shout out in outrage. But after doing so, what she met are the serious gaze of their general, enough to silence her and look down in shame.

"Don't disappoint me, Marianna." Hanagata told the girl in calm but still intimidating manner. "A leader of another nation, not to mention also a patron of the goddess Celestia, will be visiting our city and the last thing I want is you assaulting the CPU on Dorfa's soil. I trust that you will not put our city to shame because of your conflict against the CPU."

Nitroplus can't help but feel sorry for Marianna as the latter looks like she's holding back tears while looking down on the floor in frustration as she gets lectured by their general.

"I don't want anything that could tarnish the name and reputation of our city so if you can't swallow your pride and hold down your grudges, then you might as well not show yourself while the CPU is in our domain. Do I make myself clear, Marianna?"

"Y-yes, General…." Marianna answered a bit quietly with trembling words as she seems to be holding off a mixture of emotions swirling inside her.

"Then you might as well cool off that head of yours, Marianna." Hanagata suggested in a serious tone. "Your tone against me earlier was the least satisfying to my ears. You may take your leave now."

And at the suggestion of the general, Marianna walked out of the general's office in haste. And Nitroplus even swore to herself that she saw Marianna break into tears before she even got out of the office.

"As for you, Sachika…" Hanagata continued on, making Nitroplus stiffen up her posture upon hearing her name being called. "…your objective today will be given to you by Paiga." He then indicated the man just beside the door of his office.

Paiga then cleared his throat first before relaying the information he got for Nitroplus.

"This is a request from one of our local merchants who deliver goods to other cities in the Eastern continent. They report about the growing number of dogoos coming from the Sol Plains."

"Dogoos? They're not really that much of a threat." Nitroplus mentioned.

"Yes, but the growing number of dogoos there is still causing merchants and travelers alike some trouble." Paiga explained.

"Strength in numbers, after all." Sherman butted in.

"Right. Miss Sachika, it is your objective to investigate this claim and eliminate the monsters, or if not possible, diminish their numbers to a safer amount." Paiga relayed to Nitroplus.

"Well we don't want to break the circle of life now by making dogoos extinct, do we?" Nitroplus mentioned as she prepares to leave.

"Hahaha. But this world has an abundant amounts of dogoos everywhere so I don't think eliminating all dogoos at the Sol Plains would really affect the ecosystem." Sherman amusingly said.

"Well there goes my excuse for not beating them all to the ground." Nitroplus replied to Sherman amusingly as well.

"Your objective is given, Sachika. You may take your leave now." Hanagata told Nitroplus.

"Very well. I shall take my leave now, General." Nitroplus replied politely.

"Oh, before you leave miss Nitroplus, may I ask how are you and your sister doing?" Sherman asked out of the blue.

"Well we're fine. Thank you for asking." Nitroplus replied. "She's currently with her friend today. They will do some bug catching this afternoon, I think."

"I see. Well that is all. My apologies for holding you back." Sherman said in his usual kind manner.

"No, it's okay. I'm just gonna deal with some spineless dogoos, anyway." Nitroplus said before heading out of the office.

"As for you, Sherman…," Hanagata started saying, getting Sherman's attention. "…I will let you handle the new recruit." Hanagata instructed to him.

"The new recruit, huh…." Sherman muttered.

"A fine scoundrel if you ask me…." Paiga can't help but mumble.

"Paiga…."

"S-sorry, my general…."

"Very well, General. I'll see to it that the new recruit will abide to the rules of Dorfa's Fencers and the laws that surrounds it." Sherman said with confidence.

"You might find him a bit of a handful. But I have great confidence that you can tame him, Sherman." Hanagata told the white-clad Fencer.

"Understood, sir."

Meanwhile, back at the orphanage….

After a few minutes of preparation, Kuroe finally stepped out of his dormitory room. Clad in basic, outdoor wear for young boys, he looked around the corridor to look for his waiting friend. But he was unable to find Yuu where she said she would wait.

"Jeez…. She said she would wait here." Kuroe said with a sigh.

"If you're looking for that wacky, purple haired girl, I saw her leave the corridor. I don't know where she went, though." A young boy said as he passes by Kuroe.

"Oh. How did you know I was looking for her?" Kuroe can't help but ask.

"Well I was still in my room when I saw you being dragged away by that girl." The boy said before walking away, making Kuroe slightly taken aback after hearing the boy's last words in his sentence.

Not staying still though, Kuroe then looked around for Yuu as he went by. It's not until he looked outside the orphanage that she saw Yuu running back towards the entrance.

"For someone making me promise, you sure did awfully well in breaking your promise of waiting for me by the corridor." Kuroe sarcastically said to the girl who was catching her breath.

"Hahahaha…. *huff* sorry, Kuroe. I just remembered to pick up a few things before we head out." Yuu said before handing over to Kuroe what looks like a single bladed, wooden sword.

"Eh? Where did you get this?" Kuroe wondered as he picked it up from Yuu's hand. The wooden sword may be single bladed but it's not actually sharp to cause any lacerations. But it looked sturdy and hard enough to give a person a hefty bruise when hit hard.

"I found them on a trash heap." Yuu told Kuroe as she brandished her similarly designed sword. "Since we're dealing with basic monsters, we gotta have weapons to deal with them. Hehe~"

"In the trash heap…?" Kuroe muttered, dumbfounded. "Well I'm surprised that it isn't dirty. Not to mention sturdy enough."

"Well I cleaned them before giving it to you, silly." Yuu told her friend. "And yeah, it's more sturdy than the bamboo sword I use when me and sis do some training."

"Well I hope we don't need to use these and the results of your training." Kuroe said straightforward.

"Ah! How rude! My sword skills is not that shabby, you know." Yuu uttered with a pout, a bit offended with what Kuroe said.

"Hey, I only said that as in I hope we don't encounter any danger, that's all." Kuroe said in defense. He then noticed a few small, thin glass tubes poking out of Yuu's hoodie dress. "Uh…what's with the test tubes?"

"Well we'll use these to store some dogoo jelly." Yuu answered. "I even have a beaker inside my backpack."

"Where did you get those?"

"From a pretty lady with big boobs and short, black hair with a few long hair tied down behind her head." Yuu simply described.

"Wow, that's one way to describe someone…." Kuroe muttered to himself. "And she simply just gave you those?"

"Yup. I just told her I need just one from her stock to use for my experiment and she gave me a few plus a beaker. Nice, isn't she?"

"I…guess."

"So, now that we're all set, let's go!" Yuu said excitingly before walking ahead towards the Soldiers Plains. But her friend doesn't seem too enthusiastic about their journey but nonetheless followed her.

It was almost noon when the two children reached the Sol Plains. It was quite a peaceful place there. So peaceful that one can't imagine that this place is littered with mediocre monsters.

"We're here!" Yuu cheerfully said as she settled down to a shade under a tree.

"Hey, careful. There are giant bees here other than dogoos." Kuroe said as he follows Yuu's lead.

"Well it's still pretty much early so wanna eat some lunch for now, buddy?" Yuu asked.

"B-buddy…?" Kuroe repeated while blushing a bit. "Anyway, yeah sure. I'm famished."

And the two placed a small blanket on the grassy earth underneath the shade of the tree before pulling out a few more sandwiches and a big aluminum flask that contains orange juice and started eating.

"So, where do you think the dogoos are?" Yuu asked before biting off a huge chunk from her sandwich that this time contains a slice of ham with butter and mayo in it.

"Beats me." Kuroe replied as he eats the sandwich given to him, also containing ham.

"Hmm…I wish at least one gets near here. Then we wouldn't have to go far, right?"

"Well…yeah but don't count on it. I bet they're in the deeper parts of the plains. On the places with tall grasses, I bet." Kuroe said as he pours some orange juice on his paper cup before drinking some from it.

"Hmm…still it's preferable, right?" Yuu hoped as she gazes up into the clear sky while eating her food.

"Nura~"

"Huh?"

"Nura?"

As the two wondered where that sound came from, something plump is approaching them.

"Whoa…!"

"Is…is that…?"

It was a plump looking creature with blue colored body that looked like jelly while having ears, muzzle and tail of a dog. And as it approaches the two children, it kept on uttering the sound 'Nura'.

"A dogoo~!" Yuu excitedly shouted as she picked up her wooden sword and stood up to confront the creature.

"So that's an actual dogoo, huh." Kuroe said as he saw the creature. "It…doesn't look that dangerous."

"Kuroe, crush some healing herbs and a few yellow petals now while I deal with this chunk of jelly!"

"What? No, you do it, Yuu! Let me deal with that creature." Kuroe said as he steps forward, wooden sword in hand.

"Nura?"

"Haaaaaa!"

And with one downward slash, Kuroe was able to hit the dogoo straight in its top, almost flattening the creature.

"Nura!"

"Ack!"

However, the dogoo was able to make Kuroe's sword bounce back to its owner, hitting Kuroe in the face and making him fall on his bottom.

"Ouch. That must have hurt, huh Kuroe."

"Shut it, Yuu…! It's already obvious…!" Kuroe shouted as he rubs his reddish forehead.

"Nuraaaa!"

With Kuroe unaware, the dogoo suddenly made a jump at Kuroe and is about to land straight on his face.

"Kuroe, watch out!"

And with one quick slash of her wooden sword, Yuu was able to hit the dogoo so hard that it popped like a bubble, splattering blue jelly around and some even found themselves over Kuroe, much to the boy's surprise.

"Ugh! Eww…! It's sticky…!" Kuroe muttered as he wipes away some dogoo jelly off his face and clothes.

Yuu, however, was already busy scooping up some dogoo jelly already before heading back to their picnic area.

"Kuroe, hurry. Crush some herbs for me."

"Yeah yeah…." Kuroe replied with a sigh before heading there to help Yuu.

After a few minutes of crushing some healing herbs and yellow petals….

"Okay I think these are enough~." Yuu said as she puts out the beaker she got earlier and poured some dogoo jelly in it. "Next are the herbs."

And as Kuroe seasoned the jelly with the herbs, Yuu was doing the mixing using a spoon. However, the more they mix the more the substance became more…unpleasant to look at.

"Ugh…."

"It looks…disgusting…."

Their mixture has turned into an unpleasant looking slime with moss green color. And from the looks of it, it seems the slime is something in between solid or liquid.

"Maybe it's effective…?" Yuu said, unsure what the effect of their concoction can give, which is now forming bubbles in it like it's slowly being boiled. "Why don't you try it, Kuroe? Maybe it could cure that bruise on your forehead."

"What?! No way!"

And as they argued, the bubbles in the concoction popped and emitted a smell so pungent that was enough to make one trigger their gag reflex.

"Ack…! It stinks!" Yuu cried out as she clipped her nose using her fingers before picking up the beaker and throwing the substance out to a grassy area far from their place.

"Well…that was a waste of resources." Kuroe mentioned.

"Hey Kuroe…, why don't we boil it?"

"Huh? Boil it? Really?"

"Yeah! I don't know how it occurred to me but ideas being randomly generated in one's mind can be quite handy, huh. Hehe~" Yuu said cheerfully.

"You're so weird. The media is influencing you too much." Kuroe can't help but mention.

But they did proceed with such plan. After Kuroe gathered some wood from the tree they use as shade, he then started to make fire from it by rapidly rubbing a piece of wood on another until it heats up due to friction.

As for Yuu, she cleaned the beaker first using water from a nearby stream before pouring some clean water on it and placing it on top of the small campfire Kuroe made. Kuroe did, however, checked to see if the beaker can be used to boil stuff in it. And after confirming it won't shatter due to heat, they proceeded in boiling the water first.

"Hey, it's boiling now. So, how do we pour the ingredients?" Kuroe asked.

"Uhm…herbs first, I guess?"

"So, like making tea, huh. Okay then." Kuroe said before sprinkling a few crushed healing herbs to the boiling water followed by a few crushed yellow petals.

"Oh! The herbs dissolved!" Yuu pointed out.

And true enough, the crushed herbs disintegrated in the water. But it did somewhat turned the color of the water into a clear, yellowish gold color typically seen when brewing tea.

"So…now add the jelly?" Kuroe asked.

And without saying a word, Yuu excitedly poured in some dogoo jelly into the boiling concoction.

"I wonder if the result will be different this time." Yuu can't help but think.

"Yeah, I wonder too-"

But Kuroe stopped half way of what he was about to say when he noticed something coming from the tall grasses just a few feet away from them.

"Uh…Yuu…."

"Hmm?"

"There's…trouble." Kuroe nervously said before picking his wooden sword to prepare himself.

And when Yuu looked back to see what caused Kuroe to be alarmed, there she saw quite the scene.

"Nura!" "Nura." "Nuraaa!"

A pack of dogoos were closing in on them, from almost every direction except where they entered the plains. There were so many that Yuu didn't even bothered to count as she prepared her wooden sword to defend.

"Gaah! What should we do, Kuroe?!" Yuu yelled in panic.

"Don't ask me! I don't know either!"

"Gaah! I don't wanna die by being overrun by a horde of slimy dogoos!"

"Idiot! Don't say we're gonna die because I won't allow it, Yuu! *Gulp*"

And as the pack of dogoos closes in….

"Waaaaaaah! We're done for!" Yuu cried out before curling herself down with hands over her head.

"Ashes to ashes…, dust to dust!"

All of a sudden, a hail of fireballs launched themselves at all the dogoos near Yuu's location, eliminating them on the spot. As for the rest of the dogoos, after seeing their brethren got burned to ashes, they immediately scampered away from the site in fear of being burned as well.

"What are you doing here, Yuu?!"

"Eh?"

Hearing a familiar voice, Yuu slowly unfurled herself to see who spoke. And there she saw none other than Nitroplus, looking at her with a baffled expression.

"Sol Plains is a little bit far for you and Kuroe to be bug catching, Yuu…! So I ask what brings you two here?" Nitroplus said, sounding a bit upset at the two.

"Well…sis, uh…we uh…" Yuu muttered while fiddling her thumbs. She really can't hide it from her face that she actually lied to Nitroplus.

"So…you lied to me? You didn't wander off to go bug catching with your friend?" Nitroplus said, sounding both surprised and upset. "Did you wander off here to go monster hunting? Didn't I mentioned that it's dangerous to do so? If I didn't so happen to be passing by, I might have found you here all trampled down by a lot of dogoos! You could've… could've…!" Nitroplus is trying her best to not be angry at Yuu but what the girl did was really enough to upset her.

As for Yuu, being scolded by Nitroplus was enough to make her silent and feel down about it.

"Yuu…just tell me honestly what you are doing here in this monster filled place." Nitroplus said as soon as she managed to cool her head a bit. "If I find your reason to be acceptable, then you won't receive any spanking from me. Are we clear?"

"But I have a good reason…!" Yuu said, a little brighten up as she proceeded to pick up her concoction. "Kuroe, help me with this. Let's pour it in an empty bottle."

"Are you sure it turned out okay?" Kuroe asked.

When Yuu checked the contents of the beaker, it showed a very clear, water like potion in it. And the smell it's emitting wasn't unpleasant like their earlier mixture. This boiled concoction doesn't even have a smell. It's like it returned to just plain water.

"Ooh. Something scientific happened behind our backs, Kuroe." Yuu mentioned cheerfully.

"Uh…I guess so." Kuroe agreed as he opens what looked like an empty bottle of energy drink.

After opening, Yuu then gently poured in the contents inside the bottle until it became full enough. She then returned the bottle cap back in its place before handing the bottle over to Nitroplus who seems confused as to what Yuu and Kuroe did.

"Uh…what's this for, Yuu?" Nitroplus asked, indicating the bottle in her hand.

"Well it's your newest healing item, sis~!" Yuu cheerfully announced.

"Healing item…? That's…thoughtful of you but you went all the way here just to make me this?"

"I'll answer that later! Come on, use it~!" Yuu excitingly said.

"But Yuu…I'm not even hurt. How can we know if it works if I'm not hurt?" Nitroplus pointed out.

"Well…. Hmm…" Yuu muttered while thinking. "Oh! Another random thought! Hold out your free hand, sis."

"Huh? Like this?" Nitroplus said while holding out her left hand.

"Hehe…." Yuu snickered before picking up her wooden sword.

"Uh…Yuu, what are you gonna do with that wooden sword?" Nitroplus asked.

"Well…~"

*WHACK!*

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

And that day passed with no more incidents.

Nitroplus swore that she had never screamed in pain that much for a long while now, albeit from the point where she lost her memory that is.

As for Yuu, she swore that day that she'll never lie to her sister again or to anyone.

And as for Kuroe…, he swore that day that Yuu's bottom will never be the same again after getting spanked so hard by Nitroplus to discipline her.

And as for Yuu's brew…, Nitroplus hadn't tried it yet sadly.

To be continued….