nobody asked, but I listen to artcore while writing. it may or may not influence my mood.
i imagine Jun looking like Nine-Alpha (Darling in the FranXX). that might have something to do with his behaviour, to be honest.
the correspondent's name in the news segment is written as 役員嘘白痴
final note: if you've ever suffered from depression, a lot of things can fail to feel real, or your emotional response is dulled or numbed. I don't believe I've actually managed to convey that, because that's extremely difficult to portray without simply coming across as bad writing (which is what I've done so far). i really hate this chapter, and I don't like how it's written, but I honestly can't think of a different segue between the last part and the next that wouldn't feel rushed.
chapter four: respite
"How many are there now?"
"Three. One of them showed up in eastern China two days ago, but good luck trying to get information about an Omega-Sigma Paradigm Realignment Event out of the Chinese government."
"Any information on the new one?"
"Nothing. is still working on the tech that'll let us track them down. That overgrown lizard gave us a good baseline signature to work with, though."
"What's its shift?"
"Forty-four beta. Same as Iwatani-san."
The man with the clipboard sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "There's no covering this one up, you know."
His colleague shook her head, tight bun remaining firmly in place at the back of her head. "I'm aware."
"I was talking to Minaduki-san about it. He's apparently submitted a suggestion for it to be passed off as genetic engineering. It's still going to bring public attention, but at least people aren't going to freak out to the degree that they would if they learned we were undergoing an 'Omega-Sigma Paradigm Realignment Event' in the modern era."
For a few minutes, they walked in silence, their steps echoing off the tile floors and metal walls of the empty hallway.
"Iwatani-san's testimony is all we have on this other world, correct?" the woman asked.
"Yeah."
She chewed her lip, evidently thinking hard about something. At length, she managed to give voice to those thoughts, studying the soulless glare of each fluorescent light they passed as she spoke.
"I'm concerned about what would happen if the 'systems' he described were to transfer to our own. Growing powerful by killing...our world wasn't built around that sort of thing. People might start to see it as a game."
"Everyone went into this knowing the potential repercussions, you and I included," the man reminded her. "If anything, what you just said makes our job easier."
Uncomfortable, she glanced away. "Still. What about the good ones who get caught up in this?"
"Collateral damage," the other shrugged. "Sometimes you have to make sacrifices."
"That doesn't mean I have to like it," she protested, but the man shook his head, grimacing.
"Keep talking like that and someone higher up might see fit to remove you from the project," he warned. "I get where you're coming from, I do, but I also feel this world's too far gone."
Before she could formulate a response, they reached a bend in the hall, and the man excused himself to step into his office, leaving the woman alone with her thoughts in the flickering halflight of a broken fluorescent bulb.
Naofumi took in a deep breath, letting the steam that rose from the bath ease a little of the tension he'd been feeling ever since that morning.
"Alright, it's ready," he called, and Raphtalia, clad in just a towel, stepped delicately into the bathroom.
This was very, very different from the last time he could remember them bathing - well, not together, but nearby. Back then, Naofumi hadn't been able to feel much of anything, and he'd spent most of the time trying to get Filo to please stop trying to peek at the other bathers. Now she was far too close, far too real, far too exposed; he'd had to remove her clothes before, to treat injuries, but between the Wrath Shield's curse and the fact that it was always a medical situation, he'd never paid much heed to it…
Calm down, you're not bathing together. You're both just gonna take a quick bath on your own.
"Um...is there anything I should know?" Raphtalia asked him. Naofumi blinked, staring blankly at her.
"Huh?"
"This bath doesn't really look much like the ones back home...it reminds me a little of Faubrey, I guess, but it's a lot shinier. And it's got all these little knobs on it…"
Before he could stop her, she'd leaned down to pull on the diverter, and the last of the cold water still lingering in the shower pipes sprayed out of the shower head, splashing her in the side of the face. With a yelp, she leapt sideways into Naofumi, who'd completely expected this chain of events and who caught her without budging an inch.
"Raphtalia, please don't go poking at things you know nothing about," he sighed.
"Right...I'm sorry."
Feeling vaguely uncomfortable, Naofumi proceeded to explain a watered-down version of the Japanese bath; it was very different from Melromarc's baths, which - from what he'd read - were very similar to the way baths were used in Western countries: a single washtub where the objective was to wash oneself and get out. The hot springs had been closer to the baths he was familiar with, and thankfully, Raphtalia picked up on the similarities in no time.
"These bottles are shaped very strangely," she observed, studying the shampoo; giving it a squeeze, she added: "How do you get your glass to be soft like this?"
"It's plastic, not glass," he corrected her.
"Plas...tic?" she repeated, tasting the foreign word. "What is it, exactly?"
"You'd never believe me if I told you."
"After everything I saw on the way here?" she countered, ears twitching. "It's like Faubrey all over again."
"I'll try you, then," Naofumi snorted, unable to keep the corners of his lips from turning up. "Do you remember the Tyrant Dragon Rex?"
"How could I forget?" she sighed, moving the stool to sit next to the washtub and reaching up to untie her towel -
"Raphtalia!?" he spluttered, immediately turning to face the wall. "I should probably leave. I'll explain the rest later."
"I mean...it's okay if Naofumi-sama sees, right?" he heard her say, voice weaker than it had been a moment before. "Besides, I might need help with something…"
"Like what?" he shot back, still nervous. "Are you going to mistake the shampoo for honey because it's the same shade of gold?"
"Naofumi-sama, I'm not Filo."
He couldn't argue with that.
Defeated, he let out a long-suffering sigh, ignoring the flush creeping its way up his cheeks as he grabbed the other stool and positioned it a safe distance from the now-rinsing Raphtalia (who, to his relief, had her back to him).
If they hadn't been apart for so long, if he hadn't spent the past four months in a funk, he might have found it a little more comfortable to share this kind of intimacy. He might have even been able to engage in the kind of reunion he knew she'd been hoping for, but as it stood, he couldn't bring himself to give in and simply enjoy the feelings he knew they shared for one another. He'd sometimes dreamed of bringing her back to his own world and showing her everything he loved, yes - but they'd always been just that, dreams. There had never been a foreseeable situation in which he'd share his own bathroom with Raphtalia.
Plus, there was no telling how long they had together. For all we know, the next wave could just take her back...I don't want to go getting either of our hopes up.
"So, the Tyrant Dragon?" she prodded, moving the rinsing bowl to her thighs. Naofumi turned to face the wall.
"Ah, right. Well, millions of years back, the world was really different. Pretty much every animal was something like the Tyrant Dragon," Naofumi explained, trying to keep it short and simple. "At some point, they all died out and ended up buried deep underground, where...uh, they turned into a lot of black stuff?"
"What does this have to do with plastic?"
"It's pretty much made of dead Tyrant Dragons."
Raphtalia recoiled, ears flattening as she glared at the shampoo bottle. "And you just let it stay in your house!?"
"It's not like it's going to rear up and attack us!" Naofumi cried, squeezing his eyes shut as he leaned into the wall.
"I was more concerned about the fact that you live with all this decaying material around you!" she retorted, swinging her head from side to side in search of more plastic. "It's unhealthy, Naofumi-sama!"
"It's not decaying, either," he groaned. "Actually, that shampoo bottle - or whatever's left of it - will still be around by the time we're dead. It's still pretty unhealthy, though - think of it like when Ren killed that dragon and left its remains to rot on the mountaintop. This stuff's poisonous to the environment."
"Does everyone have things like this?" she asked.
"Yeah. Plastic is everywhere."
Raphtalia didn't respond immediately, and the silence that fell was uncomfortable, punctuated only by the splashing of water on the bathroom floor as she washed.
"I'm not so sure I like your world very much," she said, after a few minutes. Naofumi, who'd just gotten up to leave, dared to glance at her over his shoulder; she was looking back at him over her own, expression somewhere between frustrated, concerned and simply sad. "Even in the time I've been here, it's been like some sort of fever dream. Everything feels very...artificial. It's too disconnected," she elaborated, biting her lip. "I'm sorry…"
"Don't be sorry." Naofumi shook his head. "To be honest, by the time I got back here, I'd forgotten why I ever wanted to come back in the first place. It'd be better if I could just take the few people I care about back to Melromarc." He couldn't quite put a finger on what it was, but the word disconnected captured his own world very well, and not in the sense of "disconnected from nature". It was more like being disconnected from life itself, and he briefly wondered if that had something to do with his world's detachment from whatever magic powered Raphtalia's.
"I'm too used to home, so I can't really say," Raphtalia admitted. "But if even Naofumi-sama wanted to stay…"
Naofumi's phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket to see a message from Jun.
you've got about 15 minutes before they get suspicious, it read.
Suspicious of what!? he wanted to yell. What do they think we're doing up here!?
He could probably answer that, but the thought of it alone was enough to make his hands shake. With the time limit, he decided it was most likely best if they skipped the soaking, so within ten minutes they'd both bathed and toweled off; Raphtalia had a difficult time managing the round hairbrush, and he had to undo the knots in her hair for her, but within Jun's time limit they'd both managed to change into something dry. Raphtalia wore one of his old t-shirts and a pair of cloth shorts, both clean and much too large for her slender frame; Naofumi himself wore a similar shirt but had traded the shorts for jeans.
"Raphtalia, before we go downstairs, there's something I have to tell you," he declared, looking her straight in the face.
"N-Naofumi-sama…?"
For whatever reason, her face had turned a spectacular shade of red that would put a strawberry to shame.
"When we're around my family...please do not call me Naofumi-sama."
Raphtalia deflated, her ears drooping. "Oh...I...um, why?"
"Well, people don't routinely call each other that around here," he pointed out, deciding to ignore her blushing fit. "It's mostly reserved for highly-respected individuals."
"But you are a highly-respected individual," Raphtalia responded, tilting her head. "I respect you. Everyone in Melromarc respects you. It's even in your formal title...tate no yuusha-sama."
It was, he noted, very strange to hear Raphtalia of all people call him that. "Just call me Naofumi-kun, alright?"
"Kun?" she echoed, scrunching up her nose. "What…?"
Belatedly, he realized that a number of honorifics really didn't have easily-translated equivalents in Melromarc's language, not to mention being appended to the end of words rather than the beginning. Sama could be equated to Melromarc's lord, shounen or shoujo could be matched with young (though, unlike in Japanese, the appellative was gender-neutral), and obviously san was the Japanese form of Melromarc's mister or miss (and here the inverse was true, with Japanese bearing the gender-neutral suffix) - but how did things like kun and senpai come across? Did the weapon simply translate them as-is, or did it find the closest literal meaning?
He tried sounding it out in Raphtalia's language.
"Hello, Shigaraki-male-equal. Hello, Himawari-senior-classmate-in-a-position-of-authority-over-me." Yeah, no, that sounds stupid. Not that there was an easy way to tell, if the weapons kept translating back and forth, but he could imagine it being a pain to keep saying those lengthy, awkward phrases in Melromarc's language (what was it even called? he'd never bothered to find out) every time she referred to someone by anything other than mister or missus.
"Well, alright...Naofumi-s - kun," she hastily corrected herself. "It's very strange speaking as if we're equals…"
"We are, though," he pointed out mildly. "It's not as if I've ascended to godhood or something. Legendary weapons are extremely powerful, but we're both heroes, and in terms of combat ability, I'm sure you could stand up to Ren even with that sword of his."
"I'm still your subordinate, though...weren't the vassal weapons created to assist the legendary weapon bearers?"
He couldn't argue with that, so he changed tack.
"Alright," Naofumi conceded. "You're right. How's this, then - we're equals in this world."
"That doesn't change our relationship, though," Raphtalia retorted. "We still have our weapons…"
"Do I have to say it?" he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, and Raphtalia frowned, peering closely at him.
"Say what, Naofumi-sama?" his partner prodded, ears perked and tail wagging. Feeling his face grow hot, Naofumi explained in as vague of terms as he could manage what kind of relationship people would think they were in if she continued to refer to him as -sama. If he hadn't been so embarrassed himself, he would have found it endearing how Raphtalia's ears stood as tall as they could and her tail lashed, even as she blushed furiously and buried her face in her hands. When he'd finished, she slowly withdrew, looking as though she'd caught a nasty cold. "I...I'll call you...Naofumi-kun from now on," she agreed, then blanched, horrified. "I called you Naofumi-sama in front of your parents, didn't I…?"
"...Yeah," he said, deciding to be honest with her. "You did, although even if they noticed, I doubt they'd say anything about it. Jun might tease us about it later, though."
"About your brother…" she murmured. "You told him everything?"
"Well, I tried to tell everyone that I'd been transported to another world." Opening his bedroom door, Naofumi led the way down the hall as slowly as he could, still talking as Raphtalia matched his pace a step behind. "Naturally, nobody believed me, and I spent three months in a mental hospital."
"A mental hospital?" Raphtalia echoed, padding after him. "What's that like?"
"Shit," he replied, bluntly. "They kept me in an empty room, made me take pills that didn't do anything except give me headaches, and spent the whole time trying to convince me that the last two and a half years had just been some kind of - I dunno, acid trip." They paused at the top of the stairs, and Naofumi lowered his voice. "Also, if anyone asks about the ears and tail, tell them it's a costume."
"Costume. Right." With great effort, Raphtalia stilled her tail and let her ears relax on top of her head. "That sounds awful, Naofumi-sama…"
"Raphtalia."
"Naofumi-kun!" she yelped, then clapped a hand to her mouth. "Oops…"
Shaking his head, he made sure to switch his shield to the Book Shield (which, thankfully, had no level requirement) and descended the staircase, Raphtalia in tow. The delicious smell of some meat or other wafted up to meet him; at his back, he heard Raphtalia sniff hopefully and had to suppress a laugh.
Dinner was at first uneventful; his parents made small talk with Raphtalia, and she kept a prim-and-proper smile at all times, her table manners flawless, her Japanese impeccable. Knowing his parents as well as he did, Naofumi could tell they approved, ears and tail notwithstanding. At one point, Jun winked at him, but before Naofumi could respond, there was a knock at the door, and as his seat was closest to the entry hall, he got up to answer it.
Standing before him were two men dressed identically to the one who'd been watching him on the bus just a few days prior.
Who the hell…? This is like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. Don't tell me they're going to wipe my memory or something.
"Iwatani Naofumi-san?" the one on the left asked, and Naofumi raised one eyebrow, the other descending in its signature glare.
"What?" he barked, though he had the distinct impression he wouldn't be so brash if he hadn't combed over his status window in the bath and found his defense rating to be hundreds of times higher than it should have been at level one. Having a high enough defense rating, he found, would render him completely immune to weak attacks - weapons would simply break on his skin.
A little taken aback by his brusqueness, the men took a moment to regain their composure, then continued as if he'd responded normally, both of them bowing deeply. The other man, the one on the right, clasped his hands together, holding Naofumi's gaze as he spoke; Naofumi noted the mole by his ear and immediately knew how to refer to him. "There isn't much time, so I'll be up front. We require some information from you regarding your...experiences."
Naofumi blinked. "What?" he repeated. "My experiences?"
"You went missing approximately seventeen months ago, correct?"
Counting the four months he'd been back in Japan, he had. "What about it?" he growled. "If this is about some psychiatric bullshit, you can piss right the hell off back to wherever you came from."
By the way their only response was a slight shift of the face (Naofumi couldn't see through their sunglasses, but he had a feeling they'd exchanged sidelong glances), he had a feeling that they must have really required his cooperation.
"I assure you, it's nothing to do with psychiatric evaluations or anything of the sort." Mole attempted to placate him, but if this was going where Naofumi thought it was… "We want you to elaborate on this 'other world' you described when you first turned up four months ago. There is no point in pretending that the catastrophe today was not connected to your experiences, and there is no point in acting as if you were not at the scene, so let us be honest with one another." He didn't display any overt hostility, but his words carried an unspoken threat: we know everything, you must comply.
Yeah, that went exactly where I thought. "Lemme guess," Naofumi spat, voice deadly quiet. "You fuckers didn't believe a word I said until it came back to bite you in the ass...or" - and here his voice rose - "you had a feeling something was up from the start, but you still tried to keep me quiet and make everyone think I was a fuckin' schizo maniac!?" He knew he sounded paranoid, but god damn, after what I was put through?
"Iwatani-san - "
"No!" he snarled, glare now in full force, and the gem on the book's cover began to glow, illuminating his left forearm. "What the hell makes you think I'd cooperate with you after all that? Even the footage of me disappearing - what did you do to cover that one up? That was a cold case if I've ever seen one, and yet nobody's asking questions."
"Naofumi-kun?"
Oh, no.
Raphtalia had gotten up to see what the commotion was about; glancing over his shoulder, he could see her studying the two men, and her tail started to move -
Fuck.
Stepping forward, he hastily closed the door behind him to block her from their view, staring the men - the agents? - down, and he had to give them some credit for keeping their cool. "Give me one solid reason to work together with you," he hissed, and in the late evening silence, in the wake of a catastrophe that had the entire country hiding indoors, every word came out crystal-clear.
"The destruction of this entire world and all that you hold dear," the one on the left, the one who'd spoken first, tried, but Naofumi wasn't having any of it. Anger he hadn't even known he'd been carrying welled up in his chest, and although he didn't notice, the light on the book at his waist had turned an eerie red.
"You really think I care about this world?" he mocked. "This trash heap of a planet? If you assholes really believe me that I'd spent all that time in another world, then you should know that I can bring the few people I care about back to that world through these waves - and don't tell me you haven't already rounded up everything that dropped out of this one and covered up what really happened."
Part of this was a bluff. He actually had no clue if he could return back to Melromarc through the waves, but he knew Raphtalia's katana, as a vassal weapon, could at least save his family if she were to take them back with her.
For a few long seconds, Naofumi stood there, breathing hard; the shield had become strangely hot beneath his elbow, and when he glanced down at it, a pang of fear and confusion struck him.
No way. The Shield of Compassion replaced it. There's no way it can still be lurking in there somewhere. There's no fucking way.
"Are we to take this to mean that you won't comply?" Mole asked.
"Take it however you want. I'm going to go finish my dinner," he snapped. "Piss off."
As he turned back to his house, however, he realized that his open defiance wouldn't just put him in danger. On impulse, he grabbed the shield, slinging it onto his arm and shifting it into its original Small Shield form, then held up that arm so that the glaring gemstone cast its hateful glow into their faces.
"Oh, and don't even think about getting anywhere near my family."
He slammed the door shut.
On the other side, he came face-to-face with Raphtalia, her expression concerned, and the red light from his shield shifted into a warm white as the rage ebbed.
"Naofumi-sama?" she murmured, low enough so that only he could hear. "What was that?"
"Don't worry about it," he sighed, reaching up to pat her on the head. "I'm sorry for interrupting dinner like that."
"Tell your family that, not me!" Raphtalia pouted, accepting the pat anyway. "You only yell when something's wrong. Don't tell me not to worry!"
Naofumi sighed, knowing he'd have to tell her sooner or later - it wasn't as if whoever had sent those men would simply give up. "We'll talk about it later," he conceded under his breath. "Let's just pretend it was a door-to-door salesman."
"A what?"
"What kind of door-to-door salesman are you yelling so loudly at?" came a third voice from ahead. Naofumi glanced up to see Jun leaning against the doorframe, eyebrow raised. "Also, Raphtalia-san, it's bad manners to get up without excusing yourself."
"Ah...I'm sorry." She bowed.
"Don't worry about it," Jun yawned, mirroring his brother's words. "All anyone's gonna remember about tonight's dinner is Naofumi's screaming, anyway."
Naofumi scowled.
The rest of dinner was a solemn affair. He couldn't get the visit out of his head, and over and over again, he heard their words.
The destruction of this entire world and all that you hold dear…
His rage had been on-the-spot, a reactive lashing-out directed at those who'd made him suffer for circumstances beyond his control. They'd no doubt return, either to attempt to subdue him or to request his cooperation again, but that bothered him less than the belated realization that, as the Shield Hero, he'd just declined to do something that might help him protect everyone from the waves…
Raphtalia's sudden rise from her chair startled him back into the present.
"I'll wash the dishes," she offered. "It's the least I can do to repay you for your hospitality."
"No, no, it's okay." Iwatani Kokita waved her off good-naturedly, devoted to her housekeeping, but Naofumi interjected.
"Raphtalia-chan and I can wash them together," he said. "I owe you as well for allowing her to stay here."
"Is this some sort of favour bartering?" his father joked, raising an eyebrow, and for a moment, the atmosphere was lighter than Naofumi could remember it being in quite some time.
"Ka-san, to-san, you two should come see the news," Jun cut in, expression unusually serious. "I was reading a bit online earlier and it's something you two might want to see."
"Naofumi, Raphtalia-san, if you want to hear, you can do the dishes later," his mother proposed, but Naofumi shook his head.
"We saw some of it earlier," he admitted, which was only half a lie; they'd been a large part of the event itself, which meant that his statement was technically correct despite the significant omission. "We can catch up online later - if you don't mind," he added, to Raphtalia.
"Oh - um, I'll just handle the dishes now. Naofumi-sa - kun?"
Jun flashed Naofumi another mischievous grin, then slipped into the family room.
Rolling his eyes, Naofumi set about setting up the dish rack and grabbed the bottle of detergent, handing Raphtalia a towel. Unbidden, a most terrible joke came to mind, and he blurted it out without thinking.
"Here you are, Raph-towel-ia."
"You should be imprisoned for that." - but she smiled anyway, and he felt his heart warm.
Washing dishes was a skill that transferred easily to the modern world considering that it hadn't particularly changed much over the years, dishwashers notwithstanding. As he scrubbed and Raphtalia dried, she asked him what exactly had transpired at the front door, and as he explained, her expression hardened. By the time he finished, her smile had shifted into a full scowl, and she finished drying a plate with a vicious flourish of the dish towel.
"So they want your help after everything they did to you?" she hissed, tail lashing furiously. In the background, he could hear the opening notes of the nightly news.
"All they asked for was for me to talk about what happened to me," Naofumi shrugged, handing over a freshly washed cup. "Though, considering I'd already done that and been thrown into an asylum for it, I was pretty pissed."
"The nerve!" Raphtalia fumed, furiously rubbing the towel over the outside of the cup. "I did just remember something, though…do you remember what that mage told us through the Leystone?"
"The what?"
She tapped the gold chain at her neck, and Naofumi remembered the unusual pendant that had projected video from Melromarc into the air. Can I even call it video? he mused. It was definitely a live feed, but it was through magic…
"She said the source of whatever is pulling our worlds together is here, in your world," Raphtalia reminded him. "What would they stand to gain by doing that if everything they know is destroyed…?"
Her words echoed those he'd been thinking on not fifteen minutes prior, and he shook his head.
"It's not like my testimony isn't public knowledge by now," Naofumi grumbled. "I explained a few things about Melromarc, and to be frank, I think most people would simply see everything as a game if they were suddenly able to gain experience and level up. The strongest would amass power and rule the weak. Society as we - well, my family and I - know it would collapse."
"Maybe that's their goal, then," she murmured, carefully running the towel along the inner rim of a saucer. "It's not as if people seeking wanton destruction for the sake of whatever gain they can manage is a foreign concept."
"Have you been taking language classes?" Naofumi teased. "That was pretty well-spoken."
"Now you're just messing with me," Raphtalia countered, pouting. "I'm serious, Naofumi-kun. Look, I even remembered to say your name the right way!"
"Bravo," he acknowledged dryly, pretending to clap his hands and splashing soapy water everywhere. "Ah, shit. But," he added as her cheeks puffed out with indignation, "you're right. So who in this world would have the ability to pull it towards Melromarc?"
"You would know that better than me," Raphtalia sighed.
Naofumi watched her dry the utensils for a moment. "Do you think it's unreasonable that some other world would have discovered magic that does the opposite of the summoning ritual?"
"Huh?"
"Like - if the summoning ritual is able to pull humans into worlds that aren't connected to - whatever it is."
"Naofumi-kun, were you even listening when Rino explained this?"
"Hey, I had other things to think about, too," came the weak retort. Raphtalia snorted.
"They're called ley lines."
"Yeah, those. If the summoning ritual can use even dead ley lines like Earth's to pull people into other worlds, who's to say some other world hasn't discovered the opposite? Maybe they're able to send people into other worlds. Maybe they're like those assholes who destroyed S'yne's."
"That can't be good," Raphtalia said, biting her lip. "If that's true...what exactly are we up against?"
"It's more worrying that we're essentially powerless with no way to level up again except during waves, and those aren't exactly within our control."
"That's also true. But if we can't level up...how did that monster get to level two?"
"What monster?" Naofumi was genuinely confused for a moment until he remembered the wasp from the shrine. "Oh - the wasp? Yeah, you're right. It was. How the hell…?"
Think, Naofumi. How do you level up? By killing things and taking their life force as experience. That is the only way that wasp could have leveled up, and wasps are predators, so it's not a stretch to imagine that it killed another insect.
"Raphtalia."
"Naofumi-kun?"
"If the status magic from Melromarc is now fully accessible here, do you think that maybe Earth's ley line is able to tap into Melromarc's?"
"That's the only explanation I can think of," she reasoned. "Are you suggesting something?"
"I am. But I don't know how to test it."
Just then, Naofumi noticed it: a gnat, hovering in the air above the fruit bowl. Frowning, he leaned forward to inspect it, and sure enough - Lv1 was displayed next to the bug. Reaching up, he squashed it between his thumb and forefinger, and there in the bottom-left corner of his vision, text appeared.
"Gnat: 0.01xp"
"Raphtalia."
"You too?" she asked, and neither of them needed to elaborate.
This is bad.
When they'd finished the dishes, the two of them moved into the family room, where Jun had taken up the entirety of an armchair and his parents one end of the sofa. Not quite sure where to sit, Naofumi stood in the doorway for a moment until Raphtalia took his hand and pulled him over to squeeze onto the other end of the couch, with Raphtalia sitting closest to the armrest. "Is this like the screens in Faubrey?" she whispered, staring at the television.
"More or less," he said, very glad that he hadn't had to explain every single amenity of modern life. Faubrey hadn't been a fantastic place, but there were many magic-driven parallels to the technology he was familiar with, so Raphtalia hadn't come to Japan completely unprepared.
"And when we return, correspondent Yakuinuso Hakuchi will deliver his special report on the catastrophe in…"
"They're only just now getting to it?" Naofumi blurted out, interrupting the newscaster.
"Well, they've been talking about the new curfew for the past ten minutes," his father said. "Had some official on there explaining how it would affect the city's operation."
"What's the curfew now, then?"
"They'll be checking anyone who attempts to enter or leave the district, and all non-military personnel must be indoors by ten," Jun recited, reading off his phone screen.
What the hell is that going to solve? Naofumi thought. How is that going to help do anything about the waves? If sending those agents after me has anything to do with the attack earlier, then the government obviously knows there's a correlation between the waves and Melromarc, or at least other worlds. The question is...how do they know?
He glanced sidelong at Raphtalia and found her watching him, expression solemn. Perhaps she could see the worry in his face, for she discreetly moved her hand across her leg to cover his clenched fist; her palm was warm, and he relaxed a little at her touch.
"Thanks," he murmured, low enough so that only her sensitive hearing could pick up on it. She brushed her thumb over the back of his hand.
"At least they're doing something to try and keep people safe," his mother sighed. The sentiment set off an alarm bell in Naofumi's head, but he wasn't sure what exactly bothered him about it.
A few commercials later (Naofumi watched Raphtalia's face shift through several degrees of terror and confusion - he'd heard that Japanese commercials were considered bizarre by the Western world, but poor Raphtalia hadn't even been exposed to "normal" commercials before), the news returned, and the report wasn't quite what Naofumi had been expecting. He'd figured that the wave would be passed off as a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, but what the anchor was saying now…
"The Ministry of Science has announced that the attack in central - "
Jun sneezed.
" - was due to an accident in its regional facility, where a containment breach led to top-secret biological research making its way to the surface. All specimens were eliminated within the hour by police and military personnel, but not after they engaged in a localized rampage that led to thirty-eight fatalities. In light of the highly public nature of this catastrophic event, the Ministry has declared that it will not attempt a cover-up, and that it is actively seeking to compensate the victims' families."
"Thirty-eight," Naofumi murmured, staring down at his hands, at the book fixed at his waist. "In a city this size, that's not a threat to the population, but those people…"
Raphtalia squeezed his hand, and his own words rang in his head.
"You really think I care about this world? This trash heap of a planet?"
He did. He did care, and he knew it, and it hurt. He'd failed those thirty-eight people, and there was no going back.
"The Ministry of Health is currently engaged in a citywide cleanup and sterilization operation. In a statement provided to JNN, a representative from the Ministry estimated that the cleanup and associated district curfew could take up to one week."
"Well, that's a relief," Iwatani Kokita sighed. "They've got it under control. I'm glad nobody else was hurt."
Naofumi's unease of a few minutes prior returned, only this time he knew exactly what it was. Of course the curfew wouldn't protect anyone - that went without saying. If the waves struck again, no curfew would be able to stop them. What they did do was serve to calm the public, to give the impression that the government had everything under control, that this was all a matter of procedure. They'd even gone so far as to blame themselves for the monster attacks under the guise of top-secret research, eliminating suspicion of a cover-up...and from the way Mole and his friend were talking, they know it wasn't anything like that.
After the news ended, Iwatani Katai made for his study to handle some last-minute paperwork, while his wife bid Jun, Naofumi and Raphtalia goodnight and headed to bed. With an exaggerated yawn, Jun also decided he'd turn in early, claiming that all his worrying about Naofumi earlier had worn him out.
Naofumi appreciated the concern, but he knew his brother better than this - it was more than likely that Jun would lock himself in his room to play a dating sim uninterrupted. Rolling his eyes, Naofumi turned to Raphtalia. "Are you tired?" he asked.
"Mhm." She nodded at him, eyelids heavy.
"Alright. Let me take you to the guest room." He turned to lead her down the hall, but was stopped by a tug at his sleeve. Glancing over his shoulder, Naofumi saw Raphtalia standing where he'd left her, feet planted firmly on the rug, arm outstretched to grasp his shirt and a pout on her face. "Raphtalia…?"
"I haven't gotten a lot of sleep since you left," she said, and from her body language, he could tell there was more to what she'd said than just her words, so he waited for her to continue; a few seconds of silence later, color rose to her cheeks, and she looked away. "Naofumi-sama…"
Then it clicked. They'd always shared a room back in Melromarc due to Raphtalia's nightmares, and since he'd been gone, she'd had to suffer them all by her lonesome…
"You...there's only one bed, Raphtalia," he warned, and his voice was absolutely not an octave higher, no sir.
"I can take the floor."
"No, it's okay. I'll do it. You can have the bed," he said, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. For a moment, the two of them stood there, facing one another in the dimly lit living room, then, without a word, Naofumi nodded, swallowing thickly as he led the way upstairs.
When Raphtalia was safely inside, he closed the door to his room, turning the lock as he always did. His heart pounded, his head spun, his mouth was dry - but there's no reason for me to feel this way, it's just Raphtalia, you've always slept in one room like this...so why are you so nervous?
Behind him, he heard clothes rustle, and without thinking, he turned around in time to see her unwrapping the binding she wore around her chest during the day. When she noticed him looking, the dusting of color on her otherwise pale cheeks grew darker, but she didn't say anything, instead glancing back at the bed. "Naofumi-sama...what are these?"
"Hm?" He surveyed his own bed, but the only things he could see were the two plush toys -
Another (cute, he thought, and scolded himself) pout made its way onto her face, and she moved them aside a little too roughly before slipping under the comforter and turning onto her right side, facing away from him.
With a sigh - he had a feeling she'd seen the raccoon plush as Raph-chan and not herself - Naofumi leaned down and pulled the spare bedroll out from under his mattress. It hadn't seen much use since middle school, which was the last time he could remember having friends stay over, and even if it was a little dusty, it was still in good shape. Unrolling it, Naofumi reached over to turn the lamp off before laying down; it wasn't particularly soft or comfortable, and he felt a heavily belated spike of guilt for subjecting his middle-school friends to this torment.
Fifteen minutes of tossing and turning later, he found himself weighing the merits of slipping into his own feathery-soft bed alongside Raphtalia. He could hear her now, making small squeaks in her sleep, and he snorted, wishing he could sleep that -
She screamed.
"Raphtalia!?" he yelped, scrambling to his feet, and she was thrashing, flailing, eyes wide and blind in her sleep, tail lashing wildly - he lunged for her wrists, pinning them to the bed, then slid his hands together so that he could use just one to hold both of hers while he used the other hand to shake her awake. "Raphtalia!" he called again, trying to rouse her, to free her from whatever tortured her mind - but something was wrong, something was terribly wrong; her eyes weren't that shade of red, her skin wasn't streaked with dark lines, her expression had never been that hateful, so why were they - ?
There was a knock at the door, and Jun's voice came through from the other side. "Naofumi? Raphtalia-san?" he called, and Naofumi let her go, dashing back to the door to open it for his brother and turn on the overhead light.
"Good timing - try to hold her still," he ordered, closing the door again. He didn't want his parents to see what was about to happen if they decided to come running.
If this doesn't work, I don't know what will…
"What? How!? What the hell's going on?" Jun shouted, eyes shooting open at the sight of Raphtalia -
"Just - here, hold her where I say." Gritting his teeth, he managed to pin her wrists again, then moved to let his confused, frightened brother take over as Naofumi barked another command, this time to the book now attached to his arm. "Change Shield!"
As far as Naofumi was aware, each Curse Series and its corresponding Blessed Shield were level-independent, which should mean…
Yes!
Jun, stunned, watched as the shield radiated white light, too bright to look at. A moment later, the Shield of Compassion clung firmly to his arm, and Naofumi staggered with the weight of it; evidently, being able to equip it didn't mean he could actually use it properly. Still, its Blessing ability was all he really needed, and the harsh glow dimmed, focusing inside of the blue gem on the shield's front. Stepping forward, Naofumi pressed two fingers to the gem, then leaned in, touching them to Raphtalia's forehead; his fingertips glowed in tandem with the shield, and Raphtalia stilled instantly, jolting awake with a sudden, sharp breath. "Naofumi-sama?" she murmured, her voice weak, and Naofumi let out a long sigh of relief.
"Nii-san…"
Jun stared at the shield on his arm, breathing hard.
"Hm?"
"What the hell was that?"
"I'll...it's a lot to explain right now," Naofumi grimaced, shaking his head. I definitely don't have time to explain the curse series to Jun. "But more importantly...I'm glad you're okay, Raphtalia." He took a seat on the edge of his bed, reaching up to brush her hair out of her face, and Jun let out a huff, making for the door.
"Nii-san, we gotta talk later," he said, pausing in the doorway. "I'll let ka-san and to-san know that Raphtalia-san had a nightmare and that everything's alright. But you better tell me what this was about tomorrow, alright?"
"Yeah, yeah." Naofumi waved his brother off, and Jun closed the door behind him. "Raphtalia…"
"Mm?" She'd woken up fully by then, sitting up with her arms around her knees.
"Do you remember what you were dreaming about?"
Raphtalia chewed her lip, ears drooping. "Not exactly," she admitted. "But...I remember that it actually happened, a long time ago. Why?"
For a long moment, Naofumi looked her over: her bed head, the redness on her face, the way her slender hands clutched at the comforter. He couldn't quite bring himself to tell her that the Raphtalia he'd seen just a minute prior had resembled himself under the influence of the Wrath curse, a curse he'd broken over a year and a half ago…
"It's nothing. I was just thinking about something."
Giving her a wan smile, Naofumi crossed the room to turn the light off, but when he returned to the bedroll, Raphtalia stopped him for the second time that night, her hand latching on to his own.
"Naofumi-sama, what if I have another nightmare?" she asked. Considering her past attempts to get his attention or ensure the two of them were alone together, he wouldn't have been surprised if she was simply taking advantage of the situation to pull him into the same bed, but unbidden, a memory from when they'd first met came to mind, of a younger Raphtalia screaming for her parents, of Naofumi himself hugging her, comforting her, reassuring her that it would be fine. There was no way she'd show that kind of raw terror now that she was older, stronger, but he had an idea that she still felt it, and the thought of leaving her to suffer alone hurt his heart in a way he hadn't felt in a long, long time.
Reluctantly, he climbed into his own bed next to her, and before he could even attempt to set any kind of boundary, there she was, pulling herself closer, her breath soft and warm against his neck. Shivering at the contact, he closed his eyes and tried to get to sleep as quickly as he could, but a few seconds later, she spoke.
"What's wrong?"
"...What?" He had to open his eyes; her face was inches away and wearing a frown, though her eyes were soft.
"I never thought I'd see you again, so when you were the first thing I saw after crossing over through the wave, I was...so happy," she murmured, and her gaze was distant, staring through him rather than at him. "I thought you'd be just as happy...but it's like nothing ever happened. It's like you forgot everything we said to one another…"
"I didn't forget," he heard himself say. "I just...I didn't want us to get close like that again."
"Naofumi-sama…" and he could hear the hurt in her voice now, and he knew it was his fault. "Why…?"
"What happens when the waves are over?" he whispered, and before he knew it, all his worries came spilling out - you're just going to leave, it's best to move on, I don't want you hung up on me forever, we should focus on figuring out what's causing the collision first - but as his rambling grew less and less coherent, she reached up and placed one finger to his lips, stemming the flow of words still pouring unfiltered out of his mouth.
"I'm not going anywhere," she murmured, leaving her finger in place. "I'm not bound to any world the way you were by the ritual and the shield. I can stay here if I so choose - and if that's the only way I can stay with Naofumi-sama, then I will gladly sacrifice my power to do so. I'm not leaving you."
His chest was tight, so tight, and he felt something hot in the corners of his eyes. "Raphtalia...what about everything you built back home?"
"What's a shield without a sword?" she countered. "I made you a promise, didn't I? That I'd follow you through fire and brimstone...that, even if everyone else in the world were to turn against you, I'd still stand by you. I don't intend to break that promise."
"Raphtalia…"
"It's okay to...to...you know," Raphtalia whispered, and her face flushed. "To...be together, if you want. You don't have to hold back with me, Naofumi-sama."
The dam broke.
He'd intended to comfort her, to ease her into sleep by his warmth and presence, but now here she was, stroking his head as he sobbed unashamedly into her shoulder, breathing her familiar scent mixed with that of his own laundry detergent with each choking breath. Even after the tears subsided, and he'd calmed down, she didn't let go, and Naofumi found himself drifting ever-so-slowly into sleep.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, hugging her midriff.
"I'm glad you told me how you were feeling," she responded. "A couple of years ago, you'd have let that kind of emotion tear you apart without a word to anyone else…"
"I still don't handle emotions very well," he sighed. "Even my family...I didn't know what to say to my parents before the wave struck. I keep bottling everything up inside and letting it all out at once." Sleepy, Naofumi found himself being far more candid than his fully-awake self could ever hope to be. "I'm...not letting myself really feel things as they happen."
"Are you afraid of something?" Raphtalia suggested, running her fingers through his hair.
"Like what?"
"You just told me that you were afraid of us being forced apart again. Maybe you're afraid of losing other people, so you don't let yourself get too attached…?"
Naofumi couldn't help a laugh. "When did you become a counselor?"
"Believe it or not, the same thing happened to me after you left," she chuckled, with a rueful smile. "I started really pulling away from everyone...it was Rishia who suggested that to me then. She told me something else, too...that if you were really trying to live as if you could lose someone at any minute, you should make the most of the time you have with them and live with no regrets."
"That's so cliche," he grumbled, letting out a yawn. "It sounds like she pulled that advice straight out of a manga…"
"What's a manga?"
"Uh...it's kind of like a picture book. I'll show you one tomorrow if you remind me."
"You still read picture books, Naofumi-sama? I thought those were for kids…"
"It's not that kind of picture book. You'll understand when you see it."
"If you say so," she teased. Naofumi made a noise somewhere between a groan and a hum, but didn't respond verbally, and Raphtalia waited for him to be silent a few minutes before she shifted her hands down to his shoulders, leaning down to press her lips to the top of his head.
"Goodnight, Naofumi-sama. I'll see you in the morning."
The nightmares didn't come back that night.
god i really just wanted this shitshow over with i'm sorry
yes, raphtalia's nightmare state will be addressed later.
yes, the chapter title is a multiple entendre.