Chapter 13 / Listen to Your Heart
A few days ago, before the wave of destruction occurred, Motoyasu was waiting somewhat anxiously alone in his room. They arrived back to the capital safely, concluding the reports required to finish up the request, but anything regarding that was left for Lesty and Elena to finish up.
Although he was planning on simply talking with whoever he needed to inform about the revelation, Myne suggested for him to stay still for a bit. She mentioned that he looked unwell.
That's why Myne offered to help out on this end, going ahead to talk with the Church in his stead. He had hoped that she had some luck in convincing them. Motoyasu himself didn't know if he could do it, and he was a Cardinal Hero.
Suddenly, a knock came at the door. Motoyasu was pleased to see Myne and judging from the contented look on her face, things would have appeared to have gone well. She quickly came into the room, exuberating excitement.
"How did it go?"
"I'm still not sure, but I think there's progress. Not only does the head nun wish to speak with you at some point, the pope of the Church wishes to meet with you to discuss this further detail. We should consider ourselves lucky that they're willing to listen."
"Are we heading off soon? Should we call Lesty and Elena for them to—"
"That won't be needed." Myne shook her head. "They're requesting the meeting to be in about two or three days and they only want you to come along. Since I was the messenger, I'll be coming along as well."
"I guess this is something that the Church might want to keep quiet for now. I trust Elena and Lesty, but the Church isn't me, and I can see why they would want to limit the number."
"You have such a kind heart." Myne took up his hand, holding it close to her chest. "The Shield Hero must be so lucky to have a loyal friend like you."
Myne carefully released her grip, as Motoyasu followed in kind. "In that case, I'll be alerting Lesty and Elena about the changes in our schedule. I'm sure they'll enjoy a break before we face the wave of destruction and besides, our levels are high enough to which we'll be comfortably ready."
"Yeah, thanks. I guess we'll settle down for the night, especially if we have an important meeting with important people in a few days. Some fulfilling rest would help out, even by a little."
"You do seem a bit tense ever since your discovery." Myne leaned forward slightly. He could feel her soft breaths. "After I talk with Elena and Lesty, should I come over for the night?"
As alluring as the obvious invitation might have been, Motoyasu shook his head. "I'm probably tense because there's a lot of things in my head right now. I'm sorry, Myne. Could you let me be by myself for tonight? I need to get these thoughts of mine settled down."
She didn't look hurt by the denial which Motoyasu was glad about. She merely kept her smile, nodding to Motoyasu's request. "Of course. I suppose that was rather unthoughtful of me, so I apologize for that."
As Myne parted from him, leaving the room, he sighed heavily as he collapsed on his bed.
He held up the hand that she was just holding and held it over his head. Motoyasu lied to Myne about trying to think about the situation, but how else would he be alone right now? Even though the companionship of another person might be what he needed, he didn't want to force these burdens onto other people to suffer with.
This was supposed to be an adventure of fantasy for him and his friends, filled with great adventures to seek and amazing stories to tell. Fighting monsters, helping people, saving the land from destruction, and being heeded as the Cardinal Heroes.
Nothing was supposed to end up like this and he hoped that somehow, they would be able to resolve this, so that they could get back to the track that they were supposed to be in the first place. However, the image of the trial, the look on Naofumi's expression, kept playing back in his mind like an unhealed scar on his soul.
-/IV/-
When Motoyasu and Myne arrived at the Church, they were brought to a staircase leading downwards. Their meeting space was rather similar to the nave of a main building. Pews stacked along each other as the lights themselves were somewhat dimmed while it was empty, all except for the two people waiting by the altar.
One of them had been someone he knew, being Sister Altera, but the presence of the white-garbed man caused Motoyasu to be uneasy.
"It is a great pleasure to finally meet you at last, Lord Spear Hero."
That man introduced himself as the pope of the Three Heroes Church.
"I'll assume that Myne told you what you needed to know?" Motoyasu asked.
The pope nodded. "Although our teachings do not favor the Shield Hero, we will not stand if an innocent person is being involved. We had reason to believe that the Shield Hero was evil, but never once did we consider that it might have been the shield itself to house the evil spirit."
The head nun continued. "We looked into some old documentation to see if there was anything that could have been done about those circumstances. That was when we discovered, buried underneath everything else, a certain ritual that spoke of the purification of an evil spirit." She glanced back, raising her hand to show a spear settled onto the altar. "We simply thought it was a fragment left behind by former heroes, but our research answered otherwise."
The head nun walked over to bring the spear over to Motoyasu.
"This spear, unbeknownst to us a day before," the pope announced, "was seemingly meant for those purification purposes."
"Wait, then if that's the case…"
Motoyasu took the spear into his hands. The weapon itself looked like it was cared for, but age was difficult on some of the edges.
"If the Spear Hero manages to spare some of his energy to this spear, it will become a weapon that can purify the Shield Hero. Afterwards, we'll have you activate a [Weapon Copy] or however that trick is used. You'll be able to redirect your channeled energy back into that spear for purification purposes."
Motoyasu followed the instructions. He wasn't sure if he was doing it correctly, but he did feel like he was getting weaker by the moment. After a few seconds, he felt tired and noticed that both his MP and SP were both heavily taken from him. Myne helped him from his slight wobbling, but Motoyasu gave her a thumbs-up to make sure she wasn't too worried.
The pope walked up to the other side of the altar and inspected the silver spear for himself, but then left to the backroom with it without any explanation.
"Please do not worry," the head nun said. "Since this is the first time something like this is done, the pope merely wishes to have everything in order."
Without a place to complain, Myne helped Motoyasu over to a seat, since his body was feeling weak. Despite that, seeing that they were getting closer to helping Naofumi out, he started to get butterflies in his stomach from his excitement.
Even so, something… felt wrong. His heart felt like it was hurting a bit, thinking about saving Naofumi through this roundabout method.
A few minutes later, the pope returned out to the room with the spear. Motoyasu let himself get some strength into his legs again before standing up, walking up to the pope as he handed over the spear.
"Apologies for the wait, Lord Spear Hero."
"Oh, it's fine. Don't worry about it."
"Please take this spear into your arsenal for you to use against the evil spirit."
Motoyasu grabbed onto the spear, trying to be very careful with it, but he noticed that it looked slightly newer than what was there before. More importantly, although it had the same base design, the edges appeared sharper. Nevertheless, Motoyasu disregarded it as being tired and copied the new weapon into his list of spears.
[Divine Spear + 0] 0/45 - C
(Equip Bonus Skill) : Divine Thrust
Being of a higher quality than most of his other spears, the power of its rating was still unexpected. As Myne helped in handing the actual spear back, he slid his finger along the shaft, inspecting the spear's design for himself. Something drew his concern as he reread the menu.
"How, uh, would I use this?"
"You must strike the afflicted person with it."
"Oh, I just have to stab Naofumi with the skill, huh?"
A moment of silence gave Motoyasu time to actually realize what he had to do.
"Wait, hold on a moment! I have to attack him!?"
"That isn't all there is to it. There's a ritual that goes along with that divine spear after dealing a finishing strike against the target."
"A ritual?" Motoyasu was still stuck at the part where he would have to attack Naofumi himself; none of the things that the pope was saying was able to stick in his mind correctly.
The head nun nodded. "The ritual is present in order for the hero to be brought back from the brink of death. I'm sorry to say that there are no other means to dispel the evil spirit, as far as we can find, other than a direct attack like that. However, the ritual is to ensure that the Shield Hero can return while the evil spirit dies."
"Even if an evil spirit is controlling him, I'm being told to stab my friend here!" Motoyasu shouted. "How am I supposed to—!?"
"We did look into other options," the head nun interrupted, "but this was the only method that provided any sort of result. I'm sorry, Lord Spear Hero, if this makes you uncomfortable."
"I…" Motoyasu lowered his spear. "Do I only have to hit him once?"
"It's a spear of purification. The more you hit the victim of the evil spirit, the more effective the skill shall be. That is why we're planning on capturing the Shield Hero as soon as we can and provide you with an opportunity to fight him. That would be the best possible way to ensure that it is a success."
It… made sense. At least, that was what Motoyasu was convincing himself of. If it didn't make sense, what else would allow Naofumi to appear innocent?
"You're not only asking me to hit Naofumi, but you're telling me that I have to fight him?"
"That would be preferable. The pope will be speaking to the king to see if we could organize something for when we capture the Shield Hero."
"Capture the Shield Hero…? Seriously, what's up with this…?"
Motoyasu felt the need to push back his hair up. His shoulders slumped over and his body felt incredibly heavy. During the trial, he wasn't able to speak up to protect his friend, but was this his punishment that he had to fight his friend now? He didn't want to point his spear towards anyone he considered as his close friend and Naofumi, even if he was possessed by an evil spirit, was no exception.
"You… You two have to check once more!" Motoyasu shouted, gulping in between his sentences. "There has to be another way for this to be done that doesn't hurt Naofumi!"
"They've already checked, Mister Motoyasu…" Myne said, trying to come over to comfort him.
However, Motoyasu's weak mentality made him accidentally push her away.
"Then have them check again!" The pope and the head nun silently glanced at each other, knowing that they did as much as they could on their end. "There has to be another way to do this! There's no way that I could let this—!"
"We were already lucky to find that the Shield Hero might not have been the one to do this!" Myne said, raising her voice. When she reached out again, she was much more aggressive in grabbing Motoyasu's arm, which stopped him for the moment. "Please think for a moment, Mister Motoyasu. You're not acting like yourself."
She was right. He was losing his cool and making his companion worried; a hero shouldn't have been doing that. He tried taking a few breaths and while that didn't ease the yearning desperation in his heart, he could pretend that he was okay for now.
"When you brought up your theory, I saw that your hope was rekindled and I was happy to see that I could come to believe in the Shield Hero as well. A lucky stroke like that isn't going to happen twice in a row. We have a solution to our problems, but you're pushing it away because of convenience?"
"No, that's not what I'm trying to do!"
"Isn't Mister Naofumi your friend!?"
"He is! He's one of my closest friends! That's why I can't just attack him!"
"But as a friend, you have a right to save him!" Motoyasu flinched when tears came from Myne, as if she was crying on his behalf. Seeing him suffer like this must have made her hurt as well. "This is something that you alone can do, because it's your duty as a friend to help him, isn't it?"
"I-I… I'm…"
"The sooner this ritual is done, the better," the pope announced, causing Motoyasu to widen his eyes and snap at him. "The evil spirit will grow stronger in passing time and develop a stronger grip. It's almost been a month since the summoning of the heroes and although there are no records of when this ritual will be susceptible to redundancy, I would suggest not to waste time making up one's mind."
"We'll need an answer from Lord Spear Hero in order to continue these discussions with the king himself," the head nun continued. "Either we do this ritual as soon as possible, having you fight the Shield Hero by yourself with that spear, or we leave the evil spirit alone and allow it to grow stronger."
Motoyasu's hand clenched into a fist.
"Damn it, that's not a choice…!"
"Mister Motoyasu? I know it's not really a choice," Myne said, "but maybe you need some time to think about it. I understand that being told about what you have to do is shocking at first impression, but I think the best thing for you to do is to sit down for a bit and see what's at stake here."
Motoyasu bit his lips, glancing over to Myne and the two representatives from the church. With the ultimatum given to him, it was like everyone was expecting him to easily go along with the plan that they provided, but taking that first step was so much harder than any of them could have realized.
He didn't want to be the one to hurt those dear to him.
Not again.
"I… need some time." His eyes glanced away from everyone. "This isn't something I can come to terms with immediately…"
"Very well," the pope nodded. He had the head nun put the spear into the back room for now. "When you're ready, please inform us, so we can get things settled as soon as possible."
"I… I understand."
-/IV/-
Motoyasu couldn't sleep much that night. His eyes lazily looked over to the timer on his Status Magic interface. It was the reminder of when the wave of destruction would arrive, boiled down to even the seconds ticking down. If only time wasn't so cruel in reminding him of his mistakes…
His stomach growled a bit. He had skipped out a bit on his dinner and that was coming back to bite him. Motoyasu decided to head out of his room to see if he could get some food at a tavern down the street, knowing he'd be awake for at least a few more hours before falling unconscious to a wit's end.
However, he noticed that there was a light coming from a passing room. He looked inside to see that it was an open kitchen, available for any guest to properly use at their leisure. Without much prompting, Motoyasu changed his mind. He was going to cook himself a meal instead.
Although, he wasn't sure what he was going to make. Anything simple would be nice, being lackluster on the potential mess and clean-up when he was finished. He was already trying to get used to a new world of ingredients, so it would be good practice.
Motoyasu took about thirty minutes to finish up, but when he was done, he didn't feel so hungry anymore. Even though this was another world, the soup he cooked for himself ended up looking like what he would usually make back home. While his appetite disappeared, it was merely replaced with distress.
He staggered backwards, immediately feeling a bit nauseous.
"What the hell… am I even doing anymore…?"
If Itsuki or Ren was in his position, would they have been hesitating like he would?
Or would they be able to do what it takes to get their friend back?
Motoyasu's hand brushed up against the knife he used to cut the vegetables. He left it out to clean up afterwards, but he silently held onto it like he would normally use it. However, his fingers slowly turned the knife over. It was improper to hold it like a dagger in the kitchen, but it was in this grip that—
—he suddenly dropped it to the ground.
A shock immediately ran through his hand when his memories started returning to him. His chest felt like there was a constant weight against it. No matter how much he tried to overcome those memories, he thought it would be easier to simply bury them deep in his heart.
He shouldn't have pretended to be a spectator though.
It was his fault that it happened. It was his fault for letting things get to a point where he couldn't return to a life filled with happiness for others. It was his fault that tensions rose, that people didn't trust his words, that they didn't think he had their best intentions in mind.
"Mister Motoyasu?"
Motoyasu flinched, hearing Myne's voice come from the kitchen's entrance, but he was to quickly recompose himself. "M-Myne? What are you doing up this late?"
"I could ask you the very same thing, Mister Motoyasu."
"You know." Motoyasu shrugged, gesturing to the soup. "Late night snack."
"Are you feeling alright?"
Myne cutted straight to the point, causing his eyes to look away as he tried dodging the answer. "W-why would you ask that? Of course I'm feeling great! I got to be in shape if I'm going to be able to tackle the waves of destruction, after all."
"You're keeping things to yourself again, aren't you? The sooner you get these things off your chest, the better it is for—"
"I know that already!" Motoyasu snapped. He didn't know why he suddenly shouted, causing him to instinctively cover his mouth apologetically. "I… I know that."
As he looked away, Myne glanced at the soup on the table. A spoon was right next to it, allowing her to take a quick taste, trying to shift the atmosphere away.
"Myne? What are you—?"
"Sorry. It looked so good, I couldn't help myself in trying it."
His eyes lazily glanced at the soup. "Yeah, it's… good, huh?"
"It tastes better than what it looks like."
"Naofumi… taught me that recipe. It was the first recipe he gave to me when I first moved in with him. He was the one that showed me that I still had a lot to learn when it came to cooking."
Myne looked a bit surprised when Motoyasu suddenly blurted that out.
"No one ever said anything bad about my cooking before, so I was really overconfident, but Naofumi was the first one that was real with me. I ended up finding out that the others were praising me, not because of the food, but because of who I was. I never strived for anything better until I had some of his food for the first time."
His hands tightened against the counter he leaned up against. In reliving that memory, Motoyasu didn't realize that tears were starting to come from his eyes.
"He was always honest with me, told me all of my problems, and helped me out whenever he could." Motoyasu wasn't even sure if he was simply talking about his cooking or his life in general. "Honestly, I don't deserve a friend like him, especially when things end up like this."
His voice was choking on itself. It hiccuped in remembrance as he looked up to Myne.
"I… I don't know how I could do this, Myne."
"Mister Motoyasu. You may say that, but do you really understand what it means?"
Myne took up his hands, warmly wrapping them between her own.
"What… do you mean by that…?"
"Do you not believe that he would trust you, even after the ritual? Do you think he would hate you after what you've done to him?"
"He has every reason to!" he spat. "I failed to give him a reason to trust me! This entire month had been one entire reason as to why he wouldn't trust me!"
"Are you saying that you don't trust your friend to do so?"
Motoyasu was speechless. He didn't know what else to say, but Myne held onto him tightly.
"You're a good person at heart, Mister Motoyasu. That's why you're making excuses. Do you really believe that the Shield Hero will not forgive you for saving him, even if it has to hurt? Do you not trust in his trust? I'd say that you would have to believe in him, Mister Motoyasu."
Motoyasu gulped as Myne leaned in, resting her head on his chest.
"And in doing so, do what you can do for him. I know it's painful to imagine, but set aside those emotions and do what needs to be done to save him. You need to be strong and you need to be firm. You're the one who can save the Shield Hero from his suffering. If you believe in him and he believes in you, that means you have to do whatever it takes to get him back."
"Whatever… it takes…" Motoyasu sniffled, holding back his emotions a bit.
Holding a weapon to someone dear to him was not something he wanted to do again in a lifetime, but that was the punishment. He would have to swallow that pill in order to move forwards.
He needed to overcome those troubles if he was going to restore things back to the way they were supposed to be. And if he had the power to do that in his hand, he can't falter here.
"Don't worry. I'll be there to help you when you falter, Mister Motoyasu."
With a deep breath, Motoyasu gazed at Myne's lovely eyes.
"... Myne? I have a favor."
"Anything for you."
"Could you tell the pope to prepare the ritual for the day after the wave of destruction?"
Myne widened her eyes, a bit shocked. "T-that soon? I know that you might want to do this as soon as possible, but I'm not sure if they can get everything prepared in that amount of time."
"Please. I… I have a feeling that Naofumi will show up to the wave of destruction, so if we're going to have a moment to meet him, it's going to be there."
It was the promise that the heroes made to each other when they departed from the castle on the first day, going their separate ways for the first time. He knew that all of the friends would cherish that promise and do their best to upkeep it. If he was lucky, then perhaps…
Myne was a bit silent for a moment, as if she had her mind in other affairs, only to nod for his request. "Of course I can do that, Mister Motoyasu." She smiled, almost unnaturally. "I'll send the message early in the morning."
"Thank you, Myne."
She helped him clean up the kitchen and after sharing the soup, Myne went up to her room. Motoyasu, on the other hand, couldn't exactly sleep soundly after a conclusion like that, so he headed out underneath the silver moon to fight some monsters and get that energy out of his head.
He tried to imagine that it was Naofumi he was fighting when he was facing the monsters, to help the image of when he would have to do the real thing. Controlling his breaths, making his movements more defined, leaving no space for hesitation. He kept chanting what Myne told him back in the kitchen, mumbling under his breath that he needed to do whatever it takes to get his friend back.
Even if he had to face his past once more.
"Whatever… it takes… Whatever it takes…"
A balloon monster jumped up into the middle of his line of sight and he swapped out his spear to the one he would use against Naofumi, the [Divine Spear]. If this was the best thing he could do for Naofumi, then he shouldn't have been stopping himself. Swallow down his fears, set aside his emotions, and brave through his memories. To do whatever it takes, he ran forwards.
All without knowing about the reality he was running away from.
"Aaaahhh…! AaaaaaaaaaHHHHH—!"
-/IV/-
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Motoyasu screamed as he closed the distance between them.
His spear dragged behind him as Naofumi was given no option to run away. He instinctively raised his shield and planted his feet firmly into the ground, but that thrust was incredibly strong. Naofumi could feel his arm faltering already. Motoyasu then pulled away and fired off another thrust, rapidly repeating as Naofumi had to block each of them. They were individually lighter than the initial strike, but that power was building up on top of each other.
Naofumi couldn't keep up with his friend for much longer, so he bounced one of his thrusts away from its line of destruction and tried to watch Motoyasu's spear carefully. Once he predicted its next attack, Naofumi activated [Air Strike Shield] to block it and gave him a chance to jump away.
However, he was lucky to be moving away as he casted it; it took very little time for Motoyasu to crush it into pieces. Motoyasu's spear went through so quickly that he planted his weapon into the ground where Naofumi once stood, causing it to crack and spread out around the impact.
It was clear that Motoyasu wasn't slacking off on his training or his strengthening methods and while that itself was something Naofumi could be proud to see, he couldn't say the same when Motoyasu looked like he was losing himself with every attack. In fact, they hadn't even made eye contact a single time during their exchanges.
Something was terribly wrong.
Naofumi knew Motoyasu for years. This wasn't something Motoyasu would do, but he was clearly doing this of his own volition. Rather, Motoyasu was forcing himself.
As the crowd cheered on the Spear Hero and jeered the Shield Hero, all of it sounded like empty noise to him. Only Naofumi could see the pain written on his face, so only he could try to reach out.
"Motoyasu! What's going on!? Talk to me here!"
"I have nothing… to say…" Motoyasu sluggishly heaved the spear out from the ground. "Not yet… but afterwards…"
"Can't you hear what I'm trying to ask of you!?"
His friend dashed forwards once again, ignoring Naofumi. Motoyasu thrusted once more which caused Naofumi to dodge. The attack scraped against his arm, but the pain didn't settle in until after he was able to block the next set of attacks and push his friend back from the onslaught.
Even though he lost less HP than his fight with the two-headed dog, it was hurting much more from the sheer fact that it came from his friend. Motoyasu stood still, seeing that Naofumi was wincing while holding the wound with his hand. His face was becoming pale, but his stance wasn't faltering.
"That's… not enough… That's not enough to save him…"
Motoyasu wasn't listening. If Naofumi had any chances to slow things down, he needed to look for a way to lock his friend's movements down. It wasn't to say that he was holding back, but Naofumi certainly wasn't going on any sort of offensive beforehand.
"I don't want to do this, Motoyasu, but—"
Although Motoyasu's attacks were powerful, they were straightforward. He repeated his pattern once again, closing the distance and launching a sequence of attacks. Naofumi swapped over to his [Light Metal Shield] in the middle of the assault, activating his skill.
"[Light Counter]!"
"Grah!"
His friend backed off immediately, being dazed by the shining light. The open opportunity allowed Naofumi to switch over to his [Pipe Shield].
"[Shield Prison]!"
Trapping him in the cage, the crowd became a bit silent. It was quiet enough for Naofumi to hear what Motoyasu might be saying inside of it, so he slowly approached the [Shield Prison] and placed his hand on the surface. Given how much upgrading he placed into the [Pipe Shield], this skill would last for a considerable amount of time and it was more stronger than [Air Strike Shield].
"I don't want to fight you, but you're not giving me any room to breathe if you keep acting like this. I'm willing to listen if you would just put the spear down."
Motoyasu wasn't responding.
"Ever since…" Naofumi's hand curled up into a ball. "Ever since the trial, I always wanted to see how you were doing. You didn't look too well after what happened and it worried me."
Of course, it was mainly because of Myne's presence, but considering the circumstances, it was likely better to not throw shade at her right now. Naofumi kept his goal of reaching out to Motoyasu once more in mind.
"We have a lot to say to each other, but we can't talk things out if you keep trying to attack me like this! Let's call off this entire act of insanity and sit down to talk. Can't we do something as simple as that, Motoyasu? Isn't that what we would do back in our world?"
"Whatever… Whatever it takes…"
Motoyasu's muttering was like a chant to himself, completely disregarding Naofumi's pleas. Myne might have done something to mess up his friend's thoughts, as he caught a glimpse of her watching the fight from the sidelines, providing a smug smile of amusement.
He wondered as to why Myne lied on that day. It stroked his thoughts more than a few times, never settling with even a guess. Not that he could care about that at the moment, however.
"Just stop for a minute and think for a moment. Consider this entire duel and the ridiculousness surrounding it! Are you really fine with fighting your friend like this!?"
"My… friend…?"
A spear suddenly broke through the [Shield Prison].
It narrowly struck Naofumi's head, leaving a scratch on his cheek. Though in a dazed delaye, Naofumi jumped backwards as the spear continued to rip through the skill as if it was just another obstacle with a sweeping skill that split the sphere in two halves.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Naofumi murmured to himself. It was not a stretch to say that [Shield Prison] was literally his only plan. "Motoyasu is that strong?"
The cage pieces dissipated as Motoyasu slowly walked it off, approaching Naofumi. The color from his eyes seemed to have disappeared from the familiar warmth and joy that he knew Motoyasu for.
"I'm fighting my friend, so that I can save him…"
"To save… To save me?" Naofumi frowned. "What… What's that supposed to mean?"
His spear sparked a light white again, summoning a transparent red spear over his shoulder. He merely answered Naofumi's confusion with the name of his next skill.
"[Air Strike Spear]!"
It launched itself forwards as Naofumi blocked it with his shield, but the power was too much for him to handle head-on. It pushed him backwards, dragging his feet through the ground. He gritted his teeth, pushing the projectile away into another direction, but in its wake, Motoyasu threw himself forwards with a lunge. His spear ignited in a fiery might. He twirled it in his hand before lining it up to follow-up on his previous skill.
"[Flame Thrust]!"
It collided with the shield, but it was enough to send Naofumi flying backwards. The crowd started cheering for Motoyasu's reversal on the situation as the Shield Hero bounced across the arena before ending with a roll.
He quickly got onto his feet, being a bit light-headed, but there was no time to consider that. His friend slammed his spear against the ground and started dragging it through, leaving a flaming trail behind him as he ran to Naofumi.
A swipe over his head, a thrust dodged by a hair. A slash missing the chest, and a sweep that was avoided. Naofumi kept on his toes, trying to make everything miss. It was clear that any serious strikes weren't going to leave him with minimal damage like other smaller monsters would.
Even though he was the Shield Hero, Motoyasu was able to trivialize his defense stat.
He really didn't want to use it, but when a skill unleashed itself into an unavoidable path, there was nothing else he could have done. He acted against his mentality and swapped his shield.
"[Sweeping Spear]!"
"[Dog Bite Counter]!"
The collision was made, but Motoyasu noticed the shift in shields, specifically to the [Two-Headed Dog Shield]. Its surface turned into the heads of the dog monster and once he hit it, their eyes glowed in a red color and extended out to chomp on Motoyasu's body. His face twisted in pain; while the attribute of the Shield Hero made his attacks have low power, it wouldn't mean that it didn't hurt.
However, Naofumi hesitated and winced, just seeing his friend suffering through its effect by his own hand. Even if he could buy valuable time, he instinctively released it without using a third of it, prompting himself to push forwards to knock his friend away.
If the spear was what allowed him to easily break out of constraints, Naofumi figured he needed to somehow hold his arms down. As Motoyasu stood back up, he swapped over to the [Rope Shield] and threw out his hand for its upgraded form with another plan being cooked up.
"[Rope]!"
Although its primary use was utility, the special effect could act as bindings and that was exactly what it did to Motoyasu. It wrapped itself around his friend as if he was the ledge to grab on, pulling his arms closer together and making it impossible for Motoyasu to use his spear easily. Naofumi grabbed onto his end of the rope tightly and yanked it towards him, causing his friend to fall over into the ground.
"Are you willing to talk now!?"
"..."
Motoyasu was struggling to break out of it. As Motoyasu tried to stand back up, Naofumi would tug the rope to tip his balance over. This might have been the moment to get Motoyasu to spill everything that was happening, but he was surprised when his friend used the tugging against him. The third time Naofumi did it, Motoyasu used the forward momentum to close the distance between them.
Naofumi flinched as Motoyasu crashed his entire body into him. There were a few seconds where Naofumi's attention left the rope, but that was all Motoyasu needed.
He was able to break himself out before driving the spear into Naofumi's shoulder. The material protecting his shoulder was crushed, leaving a bloody hole to his body as it penetrated through his skin. A slash swung back around and wounded Naofumi's chestplate; it would have been more than that if he hadn't had the adrenaline to step out of the way.
Motoyasu tried to follow him, but Naofumi sidestepped the next attacks and found himself right up next to his friend. As his friend tried to back off to get the spear back into a favorable position, Naofumi wasn't letting that happen. His good shoulder threw effort into pulling itself back and with a clenched fist, Naofumi heavily struck Motoyasu in the chest to get distance between themselves.
This entire time, he was doing everything he could to not do that.
Naofumi could say this for certain as he desperately gasped for air. He saw that his fist was released in a trembling set of stray fingers. He could feel the color of his own skin being washed away from his own sweat, taking more energy than expected to come to terms with the idea.
"Motoyasu… Please stop doing this…"
Why was he being forced to fight his friend?
"I'm… begging you…"
As Motoyasu recovered, Naofumi felt a burning sensation towards a certain spectator. His eyes snapped over with a growl to his voice, pivoting from the pain of his sorrow.
"What did you do to him, Myne!? What lies did you feed him!?"
"Don't waste your breath, Shield Demon," she scoffed, crossing her arms defiantly. "I would not tell a lie to the Spear Hero. He came to those conclusions by himself and out of the goodness of my heart, I helped him get to this point."
"You honestly don't think I would believe that answer of yours."
"A person will only believe what they want to believe. I don't need to explain myself, especially to someone like you. Mister Motoyasu is believing what he wants to believe…"
"What are you talking about?"
"Who knows? I'm not the problem you're facing right now."
He had enough of that smirk. He tried to target Myne this time, but Motoyasu dashed over to knock Naofumi backwards to himself between them. He managed to land on his feet, but he could hear the crowd starting to murmur in a louder volume.
They were mocking him, putting it into circumstances that would paint him as a villain. Motoyasu's ears were oblivious to them as he merely focused on advancing the fight as Naofumi's wounds were starting to take a toll on him.
"Motoyasu! Answer me already!"
"[Flame Thrust]!"
"Damn it, Motoyasu!"
The skill was unleashed again, but Naofumi ducked underneath it through pure instinct. He pushed his legs out and dashed along the shaft of the spear to grab his friend by the wrist. He ignores the screaming of his body and the cries of his mind, trudging forwards through his own pain.
Naofumi pushed off the ground once again while Motoyasu was trapped in his arms, trying to slam his friend onto the ground to stop him. However, it served to be more difficult to pin him down.
Motoyasu successfully threw him off, but Naofumi merely tried again.
He grabbed his friend as he was getting back up and slammed him back into the ground. Motoyasu pushed him off again, making him roll over and stood up enough to aim his spear once more. A missed strike came about as Naofumi accelerated his roll to throw his friend off, leaving it stuck in the ground again. This time, Naofumi used the chance, instead of standing around, to get on his feet and knock Motoyasu down again, but he wasn't fast enough to follow it up.
His friend recovered quickly and backed up, but Naofumi casted [Air Strike Shield] behind him. Motoyasu bumped into the surface, staggering from it. With his balance thrown off, Naofumi was able to follow up once more by jumping right into Motoyasu. He used his entire weight and deactivated [Air Strike Shield] to crash the both of them into the ground for good this time.
With his knees on Motoyasu's arms and his hands grabbing onto the collar of Motoyasu's shirt under his armor, Naofumi didn't know what to be saying when the dust settled a bit. His breaths were too heavy, his mind kept spinning, but most importantly, he was mentally exhausted from trying to repeatedly take down his friend like this. All Naofumi wanted was his friend to return before they both made a mistake that could never be undone.
"Get off…"
"I refuse!" Naofumi spat. "I'm not getting off until you tell me what's happening here, Motoyasu! If this is about the trial or anything like that, I don't care anymore!"
His grip on Motoyasu's collar tightened.
"I don't want to do this! I don't want to fight you!"
"You're trying… to trick me."
"How could I do that!? I already hate all of this! We're allowed to have our arguments and misunderstandings every so often, but not to this extent! Please, have this fight stopped immediately!"
Naofumi's arm started to tremble.
"Motoyasu! Listen to—!"
As Naofumi shouted his feelings, he finally was able to see Motoyasu's face clearly for the first time during the fight.
Motoyasu was scared.
His eyes were filled with terror. As like himself, Motoyasu didn't want to participate in this fight, but for one reason or another, he had to be the one to stand here against him. His body and mind were forcing themselves to ignore the emotions he would otherwise be feeling now. It caused NAofumi to realize something.
What exactly was he himself doing right now?
As the Shield Hero, he was supposed to protect the people he cared about. He was supposed to protect his peers and his friends from being hurt and yet, here he was, doing the exact opposite of what role he was summoned to be. It didn't matter if Motoyasu was his opponent in the fight, but he was hurting the friend he wanted to protect in the first place.
What kind of hero was he?
What kind of friend was he?
He shouldn't have felt guilty. Motoyasu was the one to bring this upon them, unwilling to talk, but the heavy feeling was bellowing from the depths of his gut. When it came down to it, there was no way Naofumi could blame Motoyasu for everything here, even if it's warranted or not.
In the moment of silence though, he felt a gust of wind rushing into his body, making him fall off from Motoyasu. He looked up from its direction to see Myne's hand, raised with the fading glow of a magic spell. She must have interfered with the duel, especially with that smugness to her smirk. His shift glanced around the arena to see if anyone noticed it, but they all ignored it.
Motoyasu took this as a time of reversal. He quickly got back on his feet and overtook Naofumi with extreme speeds. It was difficult to lift his arms to block against the first one, but the follow-up strike connected and sent him flying onto the ground.
Naofumi no longer had the spirit to move any further, as Motoyasu charged his spear with a bright light and approached him. His gaze weakly turned over to Motoyasu as the weapon lifted itself.
"Moto… yasu…"
After all of this, he still believed in his friend.
"[Divine Thrust]!"
The skill was unleashed, but the crowd's cheers suddenly stopped. Motoyasu had the perfect opportunity to end this little facade of a fight, but his spear landed next to Naofumi's head rather than landing the final attack.
With heavy gasps of air, Motoyasu's arms were shaking.
He kept telling himself that the evil spirit might be using Naofumi as a way to trick him from dealing the needed final blow. It was going to try and make me feel guilty about doing this to his friend; that's why he needed to ignore Naofumi, but Motoyasu realized that there wasn't a way for him to avert his eyes for that final attack.
"Why… are you looking at me like that?" His hand stiffened along his spear. "Don't… Don't trick me… I have to do this to save him, so I… so I…!"
"It's fine, Motoyasu. I'll trust you."
"What?" Motoyasu's mouth hung open a little, unexpecting to hear that. "N-no, you're just… You're just using reverse psychology! You're making me feel bad about doing this to my friend!"
"I see." Naofumi's voice was a bit hoarse, but it was too clear in the recipient's ears. "I still don't understand what you're trying to do here. You're refusing to tell me, but frankly, I don't think I need to know anymore. Whatever it is, it's hurting you, but you're choosing to move on with it."
A sigh released from Naofumi as he relaxed his body. Naofumi was no longer struggling against a fight that he couldn't have won from the beginning, chuckling a bit. "The Motoyasu… The friends that I know would never do something like this without a good reason. That's something I believe in."
"N-Naofumi…?"
"Do what you need to do, but promise me something."
"S-shut up…"
Motoyasu shook his head, trying to block out his words. The more Naofumi spoke with him, the more that it was going to feel like the evil spirit wasn't actually there. And if he started to believe that, then he wouldn't be able to deal the finishing attack on him in order to purify his friend and save him.
"Just promise me that we'll talk after this, alright?"
"Shut… Shut up…"
"Can we do that, Motoyasu?"
"Shut up already! Get out of my head!"
Motoyasu lifted the spear and aimed another [Divine Thrust] to Naofumi's chest, but his hand froze in the air. No matter how hard he tried, the weapon wouldn't fall back down and there was no third party influence that was stopping him from doing so. It merely hung there, as if suspended in space and time, while his heavy heartbeats started consuming his eardrums.
"Aaahhh… Grahhh…!"
His memories started flickering before his eyes, back to that dark day. He tried to push it off of him, but its hands kept latching on, shallowing him down to its depths.
The knife that he held in the kitchen a few nights ago; the things he saw before him that made the weapon restriction rule act up against him to make him drop it, they were returning where blood was spread throughout his vision. It was blood that stained the ground because of him.
Those two hated each other, but he told himself that they could get along. He wanted them to put some trust in him that everything would work out if everything went how he wanted it to be, but he just couldn't understand. He kept lying to himself and that's why it ended up like that.
Even when they both grabbed knives so suddenly one day, he acted surprised when in reality, he shouldn't have been in the first place. Up to the bitter end, he kept lying to himself until blood was on his hands and even so, he still ran away from the truth.
A bitter memory, a regrettable memory, a sorrowful memory. He could remember the taste of despair he felt on that dark day and here, he could feel it creeping up onto the tip of his tongue.
It was too late back then.
Was it too late now?
"No… Stop it. Stop it! Get out already! Get out of my head! Aaaaa—AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Motoyasu slammed his spear down again with [Divine Thrust], but all that he succeeded in doing was to waste his own SP, hitting only the empty ground. Even when he kept telling his body to finish the job here, it wouldn't listen. His body kept refusing.
Again and again. Over and over. His SP kept draining itself whenever the cooldown of [Divine Spear] was off, but in between those actual skills, it was just normal attacks where Motoyasu was blindly screaming the skill name with no other effects.
"[Divine Spear]! [Divine Spear]! [Divine Spear]!"
The audience wasn't sure what was going on, casting confused murmurs with each other. Not even the king or the pope was knowledgeable on the matter, letting things play out to see what would happen, but Myne stood back in silence. A defeated sigh came from the girl's mouth as she watched the tragedy unfold before her eyes.
"I suppose there wasn't a good chance that this was going to work, but it was pretty fun to watch regardless." A smile emerged along her lips, chuckling underneath her thoughts. "Though, I do have to wonder who said that broken toys weren't fun to play with? Much more amusing to watch than I could ever imagine…"
"[Divine Spear]! [Divine Spear]! [Divine—]!"
Motoyasu froze, noticing he was all out of SP. It all disappeared from him so quickly, so fleetingly.
His spear was stuck onto the ground as Motoyasu's weight leaned up against it, as he gazed down onto the person he was trying to stab. He could imagine that the evil spirit was laughing as to how dumb he must have been for having missed every single attack.
However, that wasn't what was on Naofumi's expression.
"Stop… looking at me like that…" Something warm was coming out from his eyes and for the time in that barrage, something did manage to hit Naofumi, but it wasn't his spear. His tears were falling down onto his friend's cheeks. "Why do you look so sad…? You're… trying to mock me, aren't you…?"
"Isn't it obvious, Motoyasu?" Naofumi's voice choked. "It hurts… to see you like this…"
Motoyasu kept lying to himself, trying to stop having thoughts attack each other, but everything about him was weak right now. No matter how much he told himself to do this to save Naofumi against the evil spirit, that hesitation would always hold him back.
He had to finish this. He had to end this. He had to. He had—
"By the way, that meal… the one that was given to me for my dinner. You made it, didn't you?" Naofumi smiled softly. "It… was good, but maybe it should… hold off on the spices… I try to keep telling you that, don't… I?"
—and like that, Motoyasu broke down.
He couldn't handle it anymore.
The guilt of running away finally caught up to him and Motoyasu fell onto his knees, crying.
He was no longer able to go through with this, but perhaps—
—he never did.
Even when Motoyasu's sobbing was quiet, Naofumi could still hear his suffering loud and clear. Naofumi grimaced, thinking about what had become of the adventure that they both looked forward to.
"What's going on down there?" the king frowned. The Shield Hero was lying motionlessly, but it was clear that he wasn't dead. However, the Spear Hero was merely a few steps away, keeping his head hanging just above the ground. "Pope Balmus." He turned to the person beside him. "Was this… part of the ritual?"
"Of course not. There seems to be some errors happening here. The Spear Hero doesn't appear to be properly playing the role he enlisted himself on, which is quite concerning," the pope grunted, stroking his chin methodically.
"The Shield Hero isn't going to be purified from that evil spirit if things keep going like this."
"Not a problem."
The pope walked up to the edge of the balcony. "I mentioned that it was the Spear Hero who enlisted himself to do such things. Never did I mention that this had to only involve the Shield Hero and the Spear Hero exclusively. That was something that the Spear Hero himself requested as the person who made this discovery."
"Is there anything else we can do?"
"Of course." His gaze turned over to Myne down below and gestured to her. "Your daughter foresaw a potential outcome where this might not work in favor of the Spear Hero. That's why she requested that the spear of purification was to be brought over and done by one of our knights."
"Clearly, my endearing daughter is capable of such things!"
In the distance, Myne walked up to one of the knights of the Church on duty, whispering something to their ears. They saluted once she broke off from her and alongside a few other knights, they snuck off into one of the preparation rooms.
"Hey, Motoyasu…? Can you hear me…?"
After going through a messy fight like that, Naofumi's body shut down when it wasn't in any real danger. Motoyasu was still shaking, crying the rest of his emotions out. The tears dripped onto the arena ground under him, drenching it in that sorrow and despair.
Even then, Naofumi knew Motoyasu was still listening.
"You don't need to force yourself to do things by yourself. Did you know… how hard my life was during the week after my trial? It felt like I couldn't go anywhere. It felt like my chains were trapping me to the capital, forcing me to drag it everywhere I went. If I was still by myself, I don't know what I would be doing right now."
His head turned upwards to the lights that shined down to the arena.
"I probably wouldn't even be here right now."
His hand clenched, being the only mustering strength he could find.
"However, I was reminded that I wasn't actually alone. Ren and Itsuki were both helping me out as much as they could on their ends. They wanted to make sure that I had the help that I needed, giving me what I didn't have in order to get back on my two feet. I even met someone irreplaceable to me, letting me know that I wasn't alone in my difficulties."
Naofumi croaked, choking a bit on his words.
"You don't have to be like that, Motoyasu. You don't need to keep carrying your burdens by yourself and you don't need to force yourself to go through all those endeavors on only two shoulders. You've known us for years. You can trust Ren and Itsuki. They can trust you."
He glanced once more over to Motoyasu.
"You don't need to be alone, even if you think your burdens will trouble us, because if that was the case, something tells me we would have stopped being friends a long time ago."
A sigh escaped from Naofumi's lips, as if it was out of relief.
"That's why you can trust me and why I'll trust you. That's why I want to protect you, Motoyasu. Because you're my friend, so you don't have to face your problems alone. You can believe in us."
As the sound of Motoyasu's sobs silenced, he started hearing footsteps from the other side. He tried to look over to see what was happening, but before he knew it, his body was grabbed and forcefully pulled up on his feet. Knights, dressed in the church's uniform, were suddenly holding him up by the arms and while he wanted to struggle, his body had the disconnect from the fatigue he suffered.
"W-what are you—?"
Another knight came out, holding the same spear that Motoyasu was using during their fight. The exception was that it didn't have the red gem embedded in its center. He walked right by Motoyasu, ignoring his silent grievances while the crowd straightened up in their seats.
"The purification ritual will continue as planned!"
The king's announcement caused the crowd to roar in excitement as the knight readied his spear to thrust it right through his chest. Even if this was what Motoyasu was intending to do, Naofumi was feeling much more malice coming from the stance of the knight.
Naofumi tried to speak up, but his voice was parched and dry. It wouldn't have amounted to much, considering that they were already ignoring what type of state he was in right now.
However, Motoyasu slowly looked up, hearing the change of atmosphere rumbling and widened his eyes to see what was going on. He was initially speechless, unable to tear himself away from his emotional whiplash, but his hand still reached out.
"W-wait…"
"There is no more waiting, Mister Motoyasu."
Myne walked up to Motoyasu trying to get him on his feet.
"You lost your opportunity to purify the Shield Hero, so that's why the Church has decided to take it into their own hands. They want to rid the world of this evil spirit more than you could ever imagine and since you're in a state where you can't fight anymore, they're taking your place to finish it."
"N-no, wait… I-I still have to—!"
"That evil spirit must have shaken you up. I don't know what it said to you, but it must have been using some underhanded trick in order to strip your confidence. Don't worry, Mister Motoyasu. We'll take care of it from here. Believe in me."
Something was ringing in Motoyasu's ears. Naofumi's words overlaid themselves with Myne, but there was such a staggering difference in how they said it. While Naofumi felt like he was speaking from the heart, why did it feel like there was a mask behind Myne's words?
Myne… wouldn't lie, right?
What was this… unsettling feeling?
His eyes couldn't distance themselves from the sight in front of him. He watched as the knight was cheered on by the crowd, setting the spear to path with Naofumi's chest.
That was going to kill Naofumi.
That was what the voice inside his head was telling him, but he shook his head. The ritual required Naofumi to be stabbed like that in order to kill the evil spirit, so that they could use the planned ritual to help his friend back up on his feet. This was going to be fine—it had to be fine.
You're lying to yourself again.
The voice tried to grab him and suffocate those thoughts into the ground. He tried to ignore it, reassuring himself that everything was going to end up fine, but that was what he told himself when he was young. That's what he told himself until those two girls died in front of him.
What do you want to do?
His thoughts kept swirling around each other, trying to grab the opposition by the throat and strange the life out of its ideas. Truths or lies? Fact or fiction? He couldn't tell the difference between them anymore, having them all mix together in one giant mess. What was he told to do? What was he telling himself?
He couldn't remember anymore.
He couldn't think.
But then, as if a light through the darkness, a familiar voice echoed in his head.
"Listen to yourself for once , not other people. Is this really what you wanted?"
When he was pushed up against the wall by Itsuki and felt abandoned by his friends for what he did to Naofumi, Ren left crumbs for Motoyasu to follow. He was able to see the trail, slowly following it deeper into his own consciousness.
"If you think too much about it, you'll have already defeated the purpose."
And just like that, nothing was left in his head. No thoughts, no voices. It was him and his primal emotions, letting them finally take the stage for them to clear their voice for what felt like the first time. No tricks to see the situation differently. No truths or lies to push him along a certain path.
As the knight's spear flew forwards, Motoyasu heard what his emotions were trying to tell him.
…
…
And for the first time in what seemed like forever, he listened.
-/IV/-
His blood dripped down. The spear punched a deep hole through him, letting his blood stain the ground he stood over. The crowd silently watched as the knight's attack was unleashed.
Naofumi felt like he couldn't breathe anymore.
Not because he was the one to receive the attack.
Because Motoyasu jumped in front of him and received the attack.
"... Heh… I've… really done it now…"
Even the knights were confused about what just happened as Naofumi glanced over from where his friend came from. Myne was on her rear, as Motoyasu pushed her away to make it on time, but that didn't tear him away from what happened in front of his eyes. His jaw hung open in the sheer horror of seeing his friend be impaled like that. Motoyasu coughed up blood onto the ground as he started to bitterly laugh, aware that he had put himself into a critical position.
"M-Motoyasu…? What… are you doing…?"
Motoyasu immediately spun around and struck his spear at the assailant, sending him flying back and dropping the purification spear. He staggered from his wound as the two knights that were holding Naofumi threw him to the side and attacked the Spear Hero. They were slow to unsheath their weapons as Motoyasu swung his spear back at them. They flew off from the impact, bouncing against the ground a few times before stopping a distance away from them.
The crowd started screaming in terror, not knowing what the hell was happening. The king and the pope flinched, not knowing the meaning of this was. Myne groaned, trying to get back up, not expecting the sudden action of the Spear Hero. She shouted for reinforcements to arrive and within the immediate area, more than a handful of them brought themselves onto the arena grounds with their weapons drawn and the heroes trapped between them. With the king visibly distraught and the pope clenching his fist angrily, they shouted for the heroes to be captured at once to keep the situation calm, abandoning whatever ritual that was originally planned here.
Even with the wound cutting down a considerable amount of his HP, making his body feel weaker in comparison, Motoyasu found the remaining strength to withstand the pain and guilt he was carrying in his heart. His hand firmly tightened around his spear, ignoring his injury and glaring at the incoming knights. They started to surround both of them, but Motoyasu didn't turn back.
What was it that he wanted to do?
Motoyasu finally had his answer.
"I'm going to listen to my heart!" he spat out. "I'm going to stand by my friends until the very end! I won't turn my back to them anymore. I won't lie to myself to have a perfect answer! The voice that cries out from the bottom of my heart wants me to protect them with everything I've got!"
Motoyasu's tears dried up as his shaking soul became resolute once more.
"I'm going to start listening, damn it!"
He readied his spear without hesitation.
"NOW BRING IT ON! COME AND GET IT!"
[NO SKITS AVAILABLE]
