Chapter 12: Dog days

Naofumi's party was now prepared to enter the mine. According to Sakura's information, the ore here is worth a lot of coins, something that quickly caught the eye of Naofumi. As they proceed into the mine, the party was slaying the monsters that came at them pretty easily since Sakura and reached level 22 yesterday during her food run. The further they go into the cave, a question begins to lurk at the back of Naofumi's mind.

"Sakura, somethings been bothering me; how are you keeping your hair so clean?" Naofumi asked.

"Umm, Sakura isn't sure."

"You're not sure."

"That's what Sakura said, maybe it's natural," Sakura replied.

Naofumi grabs a monster with his rope and casually holds it in place for Raphtalia to kill before continuing his conversation, "So, after everything you just killed, no bloodstains, no hairs out of place, nothing about that is natural; hell, it's even shaped like a blooming lotus."

"To you, it doesn't, but Sakura thinks you already confirmed that this world works differently from yours, and things that normally make sense to you don't apply here; or did you forget?" Sakura reminded him teasingly.

"Okay then all-knowing Filolial, Raphtalia, does your hair magically stay perfect?" Naofumi asked

"No, it doesn't. Speaking of which, I need a haircut," bemoaned the raccoon girl.

"See Sakura, it is unnatural, and I'll get to that later Raphtalia."

"Hmm, Maybe Sakura is just special," she chirped.

"Add annoying to the end of that and we'll agree." Naofumi swings his pickax into the wall, dropping some copper.

"Okay, Naofumi I'll have you-"

Naofumi stops what he was doing when he noticed his filolial freeze up, "Um Sakura, you good?"

"Something large is here!" Sakura shouted. She points her sword at the darkness as a large two-headed dog appears, both of its heads growling at the party.

"This must be the boss creature the locals were talking about," Naofumi assumes, "You think we can take it?"

"We can, but Sakura thinks Raphtalia is out of commission at the moment." Sakura stated in concern.

Naofumi turns around to see a cowering Raphtalia slowly backing away as the two-headed dog approaches; Naofumi is initially confused at first, but quickly recalls the story of her village. "Shit! Okay, new plan we're retreating, Sakura, grab Raphtalia and leave."

"You can't kill that thing!" Sakura shouts, "You can barely stop a jaywalker, much less a dollar-store discount of Cerberus!"

"Okay, I regret telling you about these terminologies but I can hold it back for now," Naofumi drops his pickax and runs forward grabbing one of the dog's heads and tackling it into the wall. No damage was done, of course, but it revealed the location of the ore they were looking for.

"Fine, just don't get hurt. Sakura will be back soon!" Sakura shouted as she picks up Raphtalia and runs towards the exit, leaving Naofumi to fight the beast alone.

"Okay, you watered down Twinbellows, bring it on!"

Sakura carries Raphtalia out of the cave and away from the dog and puts her down just as fast as she can, "Raphtalia, are you okay, do you need some juice, answer me?"

"It's returned, now we're all going to-." Sakura brings her hand down on Raphtalia's face, effectively silencing her and snapping her out of her panic with a light slap.

"Sorry if that hurts, but you needed it, now calm down."

"But-"

"This is not the monster that killed your family, but this will be the one that kills our master, Naofumi, if we don't go back and help him," remarked sternly.

"I want to but... my mind won't let me, it's just so large and scary," the fear was still heavy in the young demi-human's voice.

"Never let fear dictate your life. With an attitude like that you'll never get anything done."

"So what should I do?" Raphtalia asked.

Sakura grabs a monster from nearby bushes who was about to attack them and pins it to the ground with her foot, "Simple, pick up that knife and go stab the dog. Sakura knows Naofumi may have asked you this before, but are you ready to grow up and fight to protect the world; or will you stay a child and cower in the corner forever?" She picks up her sword and stabs it into the neck of the creature, killing it and gaining 23 exp.

"I'll try."

"Also, one more thing," Sakura grabs Raphtalia and brings her into a hug, "Sakura knows it's hard for you, that's why Sakura's here to help you get through it. Fight the trauma, fight the nightmare, and fight whatever is pulling you down!"

Raphtalia's tears begin to fall as she hugs Sakura, her embrace feeling like the love of a caring mother.

Naofumi blocks a bite with his shield while his balloons are biting down the other head. It's been hard for Naofumi to fully stop the monster since every time he grabs one of the dog heads he's had to defend against the second trying to bite him. After a struggle, all the balloons get popped and Naofumi is tackled to the ground by the dog. Luckily, he's able to use his air strike shield to separate himself from the monster and gets back up in a defensive position.

"First tornado!" Sakura shouted.

Putting her palms together, Sakura creates a tornado blasting the two-headed dog into a wall. Then she, along with Raphtalia, charge at the monster. Raphtalia stabs one of the dog heads in the eye, blinding it, allowing Sakura to dash in and chop off its neck leaving only one head remaining. Quickly, the pair then regroup with Naofumi to see if he's okay.

"You seemed to be doing well, besides the part you were losing and all, but that's not the point," snarks the bird.

"Can you not do this here Sakura? I had to wrestle this thing down for three minutes! I slammed it into a wall, and it returned the favor by almost throwing me off a freaking waterfall!"

"Sakura is just glad you're safe."

"Thanks for being worried, but why not say that instead of all that other bullshit."

"Come on Naofumi, where's the fun in that."

Both continue to bicker with each other until hearing Raphtalia's voice "Guys, it's coming back around!" Raphtalia shouted.

The dog mustered up the last of its strength and starts charging at the group, blood gushing from its' missing head. Raphtalia grips her dagger and starts charging as well, but is quickly picked up by Sakura, stopping her from advancing.

"Sakura understands you are ready to fight and all, but running at the target alone is the easiest way for you to get hurt."

"I'll hold it down, just take it out already," Naofumi orders.

"I don't know, you were losing a minute ago, you think you can hold it down again?"

"Just go!" Naofumi shouts.

Using his rope shield to grab the dog's neck, Naofumi drags its body across the ground. Sakura puts Raphtalia down and throws her sword, boosting the speed of the blade with some wind magic allowing it to swiftly pierce straight through the dog's leg. Being crippled by Sakura and pinned on the ground by Naofumi, Raphtalia walks up to the dog and firmly plants the knife into its neck. Seconds later, a screen pops up confirming the kill, and that all of them leveled up after the fight.

"This was a very stupid boss."

"Look on the bright side Naofumi, Raphtalia was able to face her fears and kill the thing," Sakura comments as she looks over to Raphtalia who is still struggling to remove her dagger from the dog's neck. "I'd say Sakura did a good job."

"I guess so, whatever you did to Raphtalia seemed to inspire her a lot. I'm impressed."

"Sakura knows, Sakura is just great like that," preened the filolial.

"Let's just complete the job and go back to the inn," he groaned in reply to the arrogant bird.

Naofumi can't help but let out a sigh; he cares for Sakura but at times she becomes annoying to deal with. He grabs the pickax he left on the ground and starts mining all the ore he sees.

Several hours later the team finally made it out of the mine to sell the ore they've acquired. Naofumi even dragged the now one-headed dog out of the cave to sell its remains as well, getting a small reward from the village chief for clearing out the monster. At the Inn, everyone gets out of adventuring mode and returns to normal, Sakura goes to sleep, Naofumi works on his potions, while Raphtalia seeks out Naofumi to talk.

"Hey, Naofumi," Raphtalia called out bit weakly.

"Yeah, what is it," he replied in the same distracted way he usually does when making potions.

"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for getting scared earlier, "her comment caused the Shield Hero to stop working and face the girl as he spoke.

"Oh that, yeah don't get sad over that, you did well today,"

"Did I?" Raphtalia asked earnestly.

"I'll say, you did perfect. You distracted and blinded the target so Sakura could get a clear attack in, and then you finished off the beast quickly. Give yourself some time and you'll be fine. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, take this," Naofumi grabs the ball from under the bed and tosses it over to Raphtalia, "Sakura saw you looking at it earlier and decided it would be a good present, consider this a reward for, job well done."

"Thank you," Raphtalia replied earnestly as she looks down at the ball and hugs it, deciding that she will cherish this gift until the day it deflates.

-Meanwhile in an unknown forest-

A little girl hangs in the forest peacefully, She converses with her many attendants until another group comes with urgent news. "My queen."

"You may speak."

"While we were returning from our mission, we spotted another Filolial that looked like you."

"Really What did she look like, what color were her feathers?"

"I think it was red."

"No, it was pink."

"I saw orange."

"Enough!, If this information is true that means the heroes have returned, gather the scouts and tell them that we're searching for the next queen."

(Author) Special thanks to Luciendar for the editing.