I was working on this during my free time while seeing Israel and Egypt. I did not realize just how long this got till today.
Fair warning, this chapter gets dark. If you're not into torture, I recommend skipping over the latter end of the chapter. Trust me, you'll know where to skip.
Chapter Fifty-Nine: Rescuing Filo
"Urgh…"
Naofumi slowly opened his eyes as his consciousness returned. It didn't look like he'd been knocked out for long. While the sun had already set, the stars of the night sky had as of yet to appear. And the town still sounded very much active in the distance.
The Shield Hero was currently outside the town's walls, resting against a tree. There was no pain or anything to signify what or where he'd been struck. Or anything to tell him what exactly had happened to knock him out. All he could remember was seeing Filo, and…
Naofumi tried to raise his clenched fists, but to his surprise, his wrists were bound with chains. "What the-, what the hell is this? What's going on?!" The Shield Hero shouted angrily.
"Rafu!"
Raph-Chan sat on the ground nearby, but unlike Naofumi, she wasn't bound. She was also looking pretty angry for some reason.
Awwww, she looked adorable with the way her nose scrunched up just like Raphtalia's when she was angry and-
No! Focus on something besides Raph-Chan's cuteness!
"I-I'm sorry." A girl's voice quietly called out.
Naofumi turned his head, and found Rishia standing nearby holding her arm. "Sorry?"
"Y-You didn't really leave us with any other choice back there." The girl admitted.
"What… what do you mean?" Naofumi asked in bewilderment while trying to get his bearings.
Rishia continued to rub her arm, and looked to the side. "Rafu! Rafu Rafu Rafu!" Raph-Chan kept yelling at him, or her, or perhaps both of them.
…
It took a moment of going over his memory. But he remembered the voice that shouted before everything went black. It had definitely been hers.
"You… you were the one who knocked me out! Why?! HOW?!" Naofumi's anger reached a boiling point. And he would have further snapped at Rishia if it wasn't for Raph-Chan suddenly leaping onto his chest rapidly slapping at his face with her paws repeatedly.
It didn't really hurt, so much as it shocked him. How could the adorable Raph-Chan betray Naofumi like this?!
"Rafu! Raf Raf Rafu!"
Rishia continued to tremble, but as she spoke, the trembling lessened. "I… knocked you out with a defense rating attack. And I did it because… because I could tell. You were about to take out your Cursed Shield on those men. You were about to lose control and kill everyone there!"
"THEY WERE HURTING MY DAUGHTER!" Naofumi roared.
"And what do you think they would have done if some madman ran in there and started killing everyone?!" Rishia raised her voice as well instead of cowering in fear. "No, better yet, what would YOU have done after equipping the Cursed Series, Naofumi!? With how angry you were then, would you have been able to stay in control and not harm us!?
"We were trying to pull you out of the damn line and you didn't even NOTICE! How would you have been able to save Filo when you were falling into the same dark place that Itsuki fell into not long ago?! I'll tell you what would have happened!
"You wouldn't have saved Filo! You would have just killed your daughter along with us and everyone else there in your rage! And who knows how many other innocents after that!"
"Rafu!" Raph-Chan nodded her head, agreeing with the green-haired girl.
Naofumi breathed in sharply.
…
…
…
…
…
…
Rishia didn't tremble anymore. She continued to glare at Naofumi as if daring him to challenge what she'd just said.
Naofumi kept on breathing in sharp gasps. The reality of what he'd almost done finally settled on his mind.
Rishia was absolutely right. He'd…
"Where… where are Kizuna and Itsuki?" Naofumi swallowed hard before asking. This time, his voice sounded pained. He was still angry about what he'd seen, but… at the thought that he'd almost gone on a killing spree, after… after Ost when he…
"Kizuna is gathering information at the nearby guild hall about the show." Seeing his change in tone, Rishia responded, sounding a bit softer. "And Itsuki is scouting the place with Maya's help. With any luck, they'll have Filo out in the next hour or so. I can message them both to see how things are going for them." The girl's voice was noticeably tinged with guilt near the end from having yelled at Naofumi.
The Shield Hero had only wanted to save his daughter.
Even if his efforts to do so would have killed her and everyone else he cared about.
Naofumi grit his teeth, and would have broken down crying right then with how helpless he felt. But then, Raph-Chan's face softened, and she curled up in his lap before resting her head against his stomach. "Rafu."
"... C-Could you please untie me? I-I promise I won't do anything stupid." Naofumi managed to say as his voice choked with emotion.
Rishia nodded, quickly removing the chains from behind his back. The Shield Hero's hands immediately moved to hug Raph-Chan as he bent over and clung to her tightly. Tears slowly leaked from tightly closed eyelids as his shoulders shook from silent sobs.
"Rafu. Rafu rafu." It sounded like the shikigami was comforting him. Her tail moved to rub against his neck.
He could hardly think straight. His world was a mess of anger and other emotions. Whether because of those people watching Filo get whipped. At the memory of seeing Filo's blood splatter the stage floor. Or even the thought that he'd almost let all his effort to piece himself together since the first fight against the Spirit Tortoise and his arrival in this world come apart in the span of a few seconds.
It was agony, but Raph-Chan was there to comfort him in Raphtalia's stead. And after a moment, Rishia also hugged the Shield Hero and rested her chin on his head.
"I… I'm really sorry. I saw you falling, and I knew bad things would happen if I didn't act. Itsuki and the others didn't know how to calm you down. And I… I'm really sorry for doing the first thing that came to mind."
It took a moment, but eventually, Naofumi did respond in a quiet voice. "It's fine. Your quick thinking saved the lives of everyone there…" It was no exaggeration. He knew it. They knew it.
Had he equipped that Cursed Shield, no one in the area would have been spared.
Not Itsuki. Not Kizuna. Not their other friends. Not even Filo… as much as it pained him to admit it.
In fact, he could still recall being so angry that he'd been on the verge of gaining yet another rank on his Cursed Shield.
The Shield Hero had badly hurt Raphtalia at Tier Two. And Ren would have killed Wyndia at Tier Three if Fitoria hadn't intervened.
Who knew just how bad Tier IV would have been.
Probably bad enough that Glass and Raphtalia would have had to put him down. Unless they had a Fitoria of their own on hand.
"I-Itsuki told me the same thing." The girl admitted.
…
Naofumi was quiet for a moment. Rishia pulled out two ofuda and sent messages to Kizuna and Itsuki. Letting them know that Naofumi was awake and that he was out of danger. She also asked if they'd been able to rescue Filo.
As she waited for their responses, Naofumi spoke again.
"How… how did the guards react to you knocking me out?"
"Oh, um… they looked pretty surprised. They were actually really scared after seeing the look on your face, and they thanked me profusely for dealing with you. They even gave me a couple tamagin for agreeing to take you out of town." Rishia showed the money to Naofumi as she said this.
The Shield Hero nearly choked. Had they just found a way to get free money from others?! And had those guys actually thought he was intimidating?!
Damn! That was kind of flattering in a way!
"I can't believe it. My defense must really suck if even someone like you can manage to knock me out in one hit, no offense." The Shield Hero grumbled.
"Actually, it was because your defense is so high that my defense rating attack worked so well. Even with how low my stats are, the higher the defense of the target I hit, the more damage my attack does. I used your high defense against you. Had it not been for that, I wouldn't have been able to knock you out with a punch to the head." Rishia rubbed her arm as she spoke.
"Don't worry though, Itsuki helped you drink one of his health potions as soon as we were out of town. So you shouldn't be feeling too much pain from that now."
"That explains the mysterious lack of headache…" Naofumi's hands continued petting Raph-Chan, and he looked down at her.
"Rafu!" She raised a paw up to boop him on the nose.
It made a small smile appear on Naofumi's face. And he hugged the familiar close again as if she was his own personal teddy bear.
…
Rishia breathed in deeply.
"Sir Naofumi, I've said this countless times before, and you've blown me off again and again. And while I'm glad that it allowed me to be helpful today… you'd really, really benefit from life force training.
"If not to unleash defense piercing or defense rating attacks, you could at least learn how to mitigate them with ki so they aren't effective against you in the future. Hengen Musou can be used defensively too. And I'm sure we'll encounter more enemies capable of using these attacks, whether by magic or by force." Rishia said calmly.
"You said it yourself. Even someone like me can knock you out of a battle if they hit you with a defense rating attack to the head. That is a major weakness we can't allow any enemies to exploit in the future."
…
"You were trying to point out where Filo was earlier, weren't you?" Naofumi said to Raph-Chan.
"Rafu!" Raph-Chan nodded happily.
"Heh… I'm sorry I let my emotions get the better of me there." The Shield Hero replied, still ignoring Rishia who was staring at him.
"Rafu! Raf Rafu!" Raph-Chan looked up at him with a very angry expression. On second thought, perhaps she'd been just as angry as him, but had the willpower to restrain herself, unlike him.
She'd inherited his temper, but Raphtalia's willpower alongside that.
"How did you know Filo was in there, actually." Naofumi wondered curiously.
"Rafu! Rafu Rafu Rafu!" Raph-Chan pointed to her chest and then made gestures indicating Filo.
Was… was she indicating Filo's dress- no, wait, her monster crest! But what did it-
Raph-Chan quickly climbed off from Naofumi before picking up a small stick off the ground and suddenly jabbing it into the center of her other paw.
"Whoa, Raph-Chan! What are you-" Naofumi reached out towards the familiar.
"Rafu! Rafu Rafu!" The shikigami pointed at the small bleeding cut before pantomiming the monster crest on her chest again.
Blood… and crest? Wait, Filo's crest! The Shield Hero finally realized! It had both his and Raphtalia's blood mixed into it!
So she couldn't just locate Raphtalia, but also Filo because of that!
It'd actually turned out to be a very good thing that he made Raph-Chan after all! The little shikigami could locate both of the important members of his family!
"Sir Naofumi. You still haven't answered my question." Rishia spoke out again, refusing to be ignored this time, while Naofumi cast a quick healing spell on his familiar.
…
…
…
The silence was broken when the Ofuda that the girl was holding shook in her hands. She looked down at it and found out that she'd just received a message from Kizuna. "Kizuna and Itsuki have met up with each other again. They're coming to meet us here…" Rishia looked towards the town.
Naofumi didn't say anything for a few seconds, then shook his head. "Alright, let's wait."
Rishia nodded. "Fine… but just so you know, I'm done with you avoiding this subject when its clearly important. As soon as we rescue Raphtalia and the others, I'll be telling her about this. She'd agree with me about wanting to keep you safe in future battles." Rishia said.
…
Naofumi slowly nodded, and the pair sat together in silence.
…
As worried as Naofumi should have been about Raphtalia hearing about his odd behavior, he was still very pissed off about Filo. And Raph-Chan was too.
With the silence, the pair wondered about all the ways they could possibly save Filo.
They could try appealing to the higher authorities which would be the local nobility and have them intervene. Though if the nobility was involved with the show, that plan was a bust. And seeing how many people were attending that 'spectacle', it was impossible to not assume that was the case.
They could alert the guards that he'd seen at the gates, but granted that it looked like Filo's pain was a popular show for some sick, sadistic reason, he doubted that the law enforcement officers in this place would help.
He wondered about using a brute force approach to take Filo back. He and Kizuna didn't have the power to do so, and Naofumi couldn't risk pulling out his Cursed Shield in his current state but Itsuki… He definitely had the attack power.
He could probably kill everyone in the building with a few well placed skills, and…
Urgh. That could risk them harming Filo if they found out she was their target. And Naofumi would basically be asking Itsuki to become a murderer again for his sake.
The Bow Hero would most likely do it too, if Naofumi asked him to, but killing everyone could very well bite them in the butt and cause the international incident that Ethnobalt wanted to avoid. Unless, of course, if it was just him and Itsuki doing the deed. Then nobody would be able to connect them to Sickle. They could even claim to be from the Mirror Country, or…
Wait… why was he thinking about killing everyone… that'd take way too long. And it wasn't like everyone from that town had supported it. Two damn people who'd spent all that time waiting in line decided to leave just from hearing Filo's screams!
If anything, it'd been that guy on the stage who'd been whipping Filo! And who knew what else he'd done to her!
No, death would be too easy. Far, far too easy for a sick bastard like him.
"Fueh… Sir Naofumi, what's with the look on your face?" Rishia asked worriedly.
"..." Naofumi didn't answer at first. He only cruelly smiled as he chuckled. "Don't worry, I've decided I'm not going to use the Cursed Shield after all."
"T-Truly?" Rishia asked.
"Yes, if I did that, that guy would die way too easily, and Filo could very well get hurt." Naofumi looked up at the sky. "So, I'm not going to do that. But I'm not going to allow that bastard get away with what he did either." Naofumi's cruel smile grew a little bigger.
"Rafufufu." Raph-Chan's face reflected his, as she was thinking the same thing as him.
It… honestly looked very frightening. And it only served as a testament to how much more courageous Rishia had become compared to before that she only "FUEHED" at the sight instead of "FUEHING" and running away in terror.
What a way to mark character growth. The way of the fueh was truly remarkable.
Moments later, Kizuna finally appeared. Itsuki, Maya, and Aksel were trailing behind her.
"I won't ask if you're feeling better now, since that's obviously not the case." Itsuki cautiously began. "But did you get a hold of yourself at least?"
"More or less." Naofumi was still smiling, and it made Itsuki pause as it didn't suit the Shield Hero. "What did you find?" The Shield Hero asked.
"Well, there isn't really much that we can do that wouldn't be considered illegal." Kizuna sighed. "Since this show has the backing of the area's nobility behind it, apparently."
"Yeah, after seeing how they dressed, I figured that might be the case." Itsuki grimaced. "I saw them drinking through the windows and celebrating another successful night. But besides that, all the doors are locked, and Maya warned me that there was some sort of magic on them that she couldn't identify."
"Oof. That likely means they're enchanted with alarm spells." Kizuna replied with a grimace of her own. "Try to break in, and they'll go off and alert everyone about what's happening. That's a common thing here in my world."
Aksel paled and looked to the side at Maya. "I'm really grateful you held me back from trying to break open one of the doors."
"You're welcome." The raccoon girl replied while holding her hands behind her back sweetly. She looked a little taller than she'd been earlier that day.
"There were a lot of people inside too. At least a few dozen." Itsuki continued. "It looks like the governor's son running the place is having him and his friends live off the spoils."
"I just don't understand, why are they allowed to do something so horrible?" Rishia's hands balled up and began to tremble in anger. "And how can the town's populace and nobility support this? They- how could they take enjoyment out of hurting another person?!"
Naofumi's eyes and his weapon's gem briefly flashed red at the memory, but he managed to hold himself back by holding on to his shikigami, who gave him a concerned look and a paw touch to the back of his hand.
"It's… complicated." Kizuna looked to the side.
"What do you mean? Do you know something about this?" Itsuki quirked an eyebrow at the Hunting Tools Hero.
"Remember what I told you earlier today before we set off? About how the Katana country was on the forefront of the war against the Demon Dragon?" Kizuna began.
Everyone grimly nodded.
"So yea, just as a short refresher, his army wasn't just some horde of mindless beasts." The brown haired girl thought back on those times and chewed her lower lip thinking over those memories.. "There was strict order and discipline to it. Rank and file. Chain of command. The whole thing. The dragon even had four great generals ruling over his entire army that we had to defeat. That's why it was so impossibly dangerous and required the efforts of the entire world to fight back."
"What does this have to do with Filo?" Naofumi asked darkly.
"I'm getting to it." Kizuna grimaced again. "The Demon Dragon's army was organized. But isn't it strange how they were able to do it? Most monsters aren't exactly smart enough to follow even basic orders and tactics."
…
Everyone looked thoughtful at her statement.
"Mind control?" Itsuki guessed.
"Well, that was a thing too, but only for the really brutish ones." Kizuna shook her head. "No, it was because of the four great generals and all the other officers underneath the Demon Dragon. They were members of more powerful and intelligent races like the tengu, the oni, the sarugami, the undead liches, etc. They were able to direct the lesser monsters because of their strong magical affinities, and some of them like the Wind General were even capable of taking on a human form."
"Ah…" It looked like Itsuki was starting to piece together what Kizuna was trying to say. And Naofumi did too.
"A good portion of the Demon Dragon's officers would assume these forms for practicality and as a way to mock the humans when they led their forces to ravage human lands, which left a pretty strong impression." Kizuna continued her story. "Katana suffered some of the worst damages and casualties in the war, since they were so close to the Demon Dragon's lands, and the aftermath of it left some pretty strong stigmas behind. One directed at those types of ascended, intelligent monsters, even though many of them sided with the humans, like the librarian rabbit clans."
"So the reason why they looked so excited at Filo's suffering…" Rishia muttered.
"Gratification at seeing their old enemies suffer." Naofumi said with a frown.
…
Kizuna breathed in deeply. "Pretty much. Even if Filo didn't participate in any of it, her being a monster with a human form itself is a symbol of oppression, pain, and the horrors of war in the local people's eyes. Inflicting pain on her is seen simply as retaliation and repayment for old grudges. At least, that's my guess. None of us had the stomach to try and watch the show after you almost went ballistic."
"That's madness." Aksel couldn't help but speak out.
"No, that's simply the reality of the world we're in." Itsuki muttered darkly before glancing at Maya. "Or I guess, in this case, 'worlds', since the very same thing's happening in ours too."
The raccoon girl's ears fell flat on her head. Aksel looked down at her as he made the connection himself and held one of her hands in his. Maya gave her knight a small smile at the action. Though neither made a move past that as the conversation continued.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Kizuna looked between the various otherworlders around her.
"Your turn to be out of the loop." Itsuki chuckled bitterly. "To keep it short, there was a large-scale conflict that involved many countries in our world before the waves. It was a long, bitter battle, and the way some of the leaders in the country we were summoned to coped with the aftermath of it was by legally enslaving members of Maya's race and working them to death or hurting them for fun or pleasure."
"That's… that's horrible." Kizuna swallowed hard as she looked at the raccoon girl.
"Things are getting a bit better recently." Itsuki admitted. "But it really shows how people are the same no matter where you go. Even when crossing the boundaries between worlds."
…
"Well… Did you find out where they might be holding Naofumi's daughter?" Kizuna asked, feeling they should escape from this topic.
"I couldn't even get inside." Itsuki shook his head. "And I didn't see any cages or anything in the outer rooms that did have windows to see through. That probably means she's being held deeper within the building."
"Honestly, unless we could disable the locks, the best I can think of is sneaking through the windows or the rooftop after everyone's passed out." The Bow Hero admitted. "I have skills that'd mask us from others, so it could work. Unless the windows and roof also have spells on them that'll alert everyone."
"I mean, if you were a craftsman, you might be able to dismantle the enchantments on the locks without setting off the alarm." Kizuna shrugged. "But I like your idea. I also have skills that'd hide us. And if worse came to worst, we could make our own entrance."
"I could use my illusion magic to help too!" Maya said excitedly.
The three of them looked excited after managing to come up with a decent plan and looked ready to discuss the details.
"No."
…
The group looked at Naofumi, who was still holding Raph-Chan in his arms.
"I'm not sneaking around. I'm walking in there right through the front door and taking my daughter back." Naofumi said as he stood up.
"... A-Are you &^$#ing kidding me?!" Itsuki yelled incredulously as he stood up.
"No! A million times no! I know you want to save your daughter, but I'm not going to go about it in an idiotic way and-"
"Fueh, um… what do you plan to do, Sir Naofumi?" Rishia interrupted worriedly, cutting Itsuki off.
Itsuki looked at her as if she was crazy.
"I'm not going to use my Cursed Shield." Naofumi promised. "And considering what Kizuna just told us about the opinion of the locals on monsters like Filo, appeals to emotion or morality won't work. So, I'm going to appeal to their greed instead."
"I, I don't understand." Itsuki said confusedly.
"I'm just going to go in, buy Filo from the owner of that place, and portal out." Naofumi said simply.
"... You honestly expect that it'll work?!" Itsuki asked, looking at Naofumi as if he was crazy.
Naofumi just gave him a blank look. Itsuki quickly began to grown unnerved at the emptiness in the Shield Hero's eyes. "Oh no, not another crazy plan." The Bow Hero moaned to himself.
"What is it with Sir Naofumi and being unable to go about things normally?" Rishia weakly protested.
"I kind of like it, actually, it's rather bold!" Kizuna said happily. "But at least allow us to follow you invisibly. You never know when backup could come in handy."
"Sure, be my guest." Naofumi slowly grinned, with Raph-Chan mimicking his morbid expression.
Itsuki looked at Naofumi cautiously. "If your plan goes south and you go Cursed on us-"
"Don't worry, I won't." Naofumi said seriously. Itsuki continued to look at him skeptically, but Naofumi glared back at him. "I am not pulling out that shield. What I do next, I'm going to do because I love my daughter. Not because some stupid shield is influencing my decisions."
"If it was Rishia or Maya or another one of your friends in there, would you not do the same for them?"
…
Itsuki still looked skeptical, but Kizuna nodded her head at Naofumi. "As long as Naofumi doesn't wake up the whole town, we should be fine… hopefully."
"It won't… probably." Naofumi shrugged. "It'll depend on how cooperative the guy is. in the worst case scenario, we can just teleport away with Filo."
"But if they have anti-teleport magic set up-" Itsuki began to say.
"Then we test before we start. Simple, right?" Naofumi answered before Itsuki could finish.
"Come on, I want to see my new favorite big brother go at it with one of his crazy plans." Kizuna elbowed Itsuki's side with a grin on her face.
"Pen!" Chris looked to agree with his mom.
Somewhere far away, L'Arc felt as if he'd just been punched in the gut.
He had no idea why since Therese hadn't said anything to bully him all day. And Glass had been too busy training Raphtalia and Dou-Lon to pick on him alongside the Gem Girl.
It was strange. Was… was Shield Kiddo stealing yet another part of his life away without him knowing it?
"Master Craftsman." Therese corrected.
"Damn it! Stop reading my mind to correct me!" L'Arc yelled at her.
Meanwhile, back with the main group, Itsuki still didn't look like he liked this approach. Not only because it was beyond stupid. There was something… off about Naofumi.
It was so much worse than when the Shield Hero had blown up at him and everyone else before. At least it'd been easy to tell he was pissed off all the time. Yet now, the Shield Hero was a blank mask. Itsuki couldn't read his expression at all. He was obviously angry, but he was withholding his feelings for them, and he didn't know if he was saving it for the circus master that'd been torturing Filo, or if he was boxing it up to break himself later on, or-
DAMN IT! IT'D BEEN SO LONG SINCE ITSUKI FELT LIKE HE HAD TO BE CAREFUL AROUND THE SHIELD HERO! URGH! WHY DID NAOFUMI HAVE TO HAVE SUCH AN ANNOYING CURSED SERIES?! WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN SOMETHING LIKE SLOTH, OR LUST, OR EVEN GREED?!
"Fine, let's get this over with so we can get back to reuniting with Glass and the others." Itsuki gave in.
The path of least resistance. But hopefully it was the right one.
And so, the group was sidetracked from their task of meeting up with Glass and Raphtalia as they went back into town to begin their preparations to rescue Filo.
After he'd pulled up what he thought would be enough money from Ethnobalt's funds, Naofumi powered up Raph-Chan's stats, getting rid of the majority of the useless items that he'd accumulated from monsters on their journey in the Mirror's country.
There wasn't much of a stat increase overall, but it'd allowed him to see what the adorable creature was proficient in. She had surprisingly high magic stats and above average defense stats. She was proficient in illusion magic, just like her mother, as well as Support Magic, just like her father.
Definitely useful all around, though he refused to ever allow her to take a hit.
Ethnobalt had warned him before they left. Shikigami were just like people. If they died, that was it. No bringing them back after that.
There was no way that he'd ever allow Raph-Chan to take a hit in battle.
After all, it could mess up her perfect fur! And Naofumi refused to consider the thought of that sheet of perfection to be blemished by a monster's claws or some lesser human out there.
Which was probably why he also brushed her hair while increasing her stats until it shined with how lustrous it looked.
He needed to see if there was a stat that'd make her hair even more lustrous and soft. That'd be a gold mine the Shield Hero would be more than willing to exploit.
"Rafu!" Raph-Chan agreed to. She truly was the smartest creature out there.
Pet.
While he'd been doing that, Itsuki verified that they could teleport out of the town. Maya practiced the magic she'd use, and Kizuna tested the use of her skills in conjunction with Maya's magic, and later with Itsuki's skills when he returned so they'd be completely invisible to the naked eye.
Naofumi didn't keep track of Rishia or Aksel. As he'd been busy grooming Raph-Chan's tail at the time. That piece of work was given extra attention and care by the Shield Hero.
When Naofumi had finished grooming Raph-Chan, Kizuna, Itsuki, and Maya demonstrated the fruits of their labors in front of him, Rishia, and Aksel.
"Can he see us?!" Kizuna said loudly.
Naofumi tilted his head, hearing nothing but a faint buzzing sound. Aksel, who was still a member of the Bow's party, turned to Naofumi and asked what Kizuna had said.
"No, I can't even hear you." Naofumi replied.
"Fueh?" Rishia looked similarly lost.
"Sweet! That's thanks to my skill Invisible Hunter!" Kizuna said happily.
"Wait, Invisible?! So your skill already turns us invisible!? What the heck is my magic needed for then?!" Maya pouted at the Hunting Tools Hero angrily.
It just sounded like more buzzing to the Shield Hero and Rishia. "Fueh?" The girl tilted her head again.
"Well, my skill is detectable with magic, and my invisibility still makes party members visible to each other, so in combination with yours, it'll probably make it harder for people to spot us, hopefully." Kizuna replied.
"Hopefully?! And why wouldn't we want to see each other-" Maya began to yell, but then stopped as a host of ideas with her knight came to mind and she began to grin widely. "Actually, I like your way of thinking!"
The two girls giggled. And Aksel paled.
"What's happening now? I'm getting an odd feeling here." Naofumi asked the large knight.
"Hey, I can only hear them. Maya's illusion magic is keeping me from seeing them!" The tank responded a little too quickly.
"... Then what the heck are they saying?" Naofumi blandly asked.
"You don't want to know man, trust me." Aksel shook his head.
…
Well, whatever they were talking about, it really was something. Naofumi could hardly hear more than a faint buzzing, and besides dust being kicked up wherever they walked, there was no trace of the group when they moved around. Not even the sound of footsteps.
Kizuna's skill alongside Itsuki's stealth abilities topped off with Maya's illusion magic. It was truly a terrifying combo of hero skills and advanced illusion magic if he'd ever seen one.
"Well, what do you think?" Itsuki asked after he'd reinvited Naofumi and Rishia back to the party.
The change was instantaneous. He was able to hear them after the party invitation was accepted, though Maya's magic still hid them all from view. Itsuki's skill probably played a part too.
Naofumi had never learned what exactly Itsuki's skills did. Besides the fact that it raised his stealth capabilities considerably and improved his own personal field of view, amongst other things.
"Maya could focus on covering the dust and dirt you displace while walking and creating distractions instead of adding an extra layer of invisibility. It was the only thing I noticed earlier." Naofumi said.
"Wha- but if I add my magic to making us invisible, it could make us harder to detect!" Maya argued. Her ideas for her knight were being thrown out the window and she didn't like that one bit!
Aksel continued to stare at the raccoon girl, uncertain as to what his girlfriend was doing.
"It might make you easier to detect with magic, but would it even matter? No one will even think of trying to use detection magic in the first place if they aren't suspicious that someone is there." Naofumi said blandly.
…
Maya's face slightly fell, which nobody saw since she was invisible. "... I'll get to work on the illusion magic I'll need for covering our tracks then."
Aksel felt relief for some reason, though it was accompanied by guilt. His girlfriend had sounded so disappointed. But she was only down for the space of a few seconds, and then an idea came to mind.
Maya began to grin widely. Aksel again felt nervous without knowing why. "Maya, what's going on?"
"Again, are you sure you don't want to just sneak in and-" Naofumi glared at where Itsuki's voice was coming from, and the Bow Hero shut up for a moment as he thought over his next words. "I just want to make sure you don't do something stupid."
"... My goal here isn't to jeopardize Raphtalia or anyone for the sake of revenge." Naofumi said. "I've done that before. I won't do so again. You can at least trust me on that."
…
Itsuki took a deep breath. At least it looked like Naofumi was still in control of himself for now. Though, he still didn't know if that was even more worrying or not just yet.
It was bad enough when a gentle man broke. But when a gentle man was angry, but rational with his anger…
"Hey, what's that sound Maya? You doing ok?" Aksel asked.
"Huh? Yeah, I just want to take my kimono off. It'll be too stuffy for tonight. Here." Maya's magic dropped, revealing the group again as she handed the clothes to the knight.
"Huh- why did you take off your kim-" Aksel started to freak out, only to see her and for his eyes to bulge from their sockets.
Maya was not wearing her kimono anymore, obviously. But curiously enough she was not naked either.
No, it was much worse.
She'd been wearing a black bodysuit underneath her outfit. One that gripped to her nearly adult body quite well, in fact, a little too well.
She'd obviously gotten it somehow without anyone noticing when she was a bit smaller, so it hugged her far too tightly, much to the knight's consternation and horror.
Its only saving grace was that it didn't restrain her tail, which stuck out behind her and hid her booty from view.
If only it could also hide the rest of her body…
"I know we can make ourselves completely invisible and inaudible, but I feel like this really gives me that ninja look with these kunai! Shashasha!" The Raccoon girl made a mock imitation of some sort of martial arts strike with her hands before grinning widely. "What do you think?"
"Hmmm, it might help you out a bit." Naofumi admitted. Maya had always been more focused on stealth than Raphtalia had ever been. Dressing the part sure didn't hurt.
"Melromarc's shadows dress like that under their robes too." Itsuki nodded in approval. "That really suits your specialties Maya."
"H-How do you know about that?" Rishia asked Itsuki in an embarrassed voice.
"I worked together with them before, don't you remember?" Itsuki cocked his head in confusion. "Those special missions that the queen asked me to help her with? It was just before we went to Cal Mira."
"Well, umm, yea, but how did that involve you needing t-to see them u-undress?" The green haired girl squeaked.
"I mean, it's not like we'd go around scouting various towns dressed like we usually do. That'd be stupidly inconspicious. We had to take on disguises and that involved changing attire." Itsuki explained matter-of-factly. It really wasn't a big deal.
"Ohh! oh! Okay, that makes sense!" Rishia began to flush red in embarrassment.
Just when it seemed like the matter was settled, however, Rishia timidly spoke out again.
"Um, Itsuki? W-would you like me to wear something like that too on any future stealth missions?"
…
"Huh?" Itsuki turned his head at her in confusion. "Why would I want that? Stealth isn't really your strong suit Rishia, I doubt that clothes would make any difference."
"Fueh, ye-yea you're probably right." The girl blushed harder.
'Gods, what an idiot.' Naofumi, who'd been listening in on the conversation taking place, facepalmed internally. Itsuki really didn't know how to take a hint from the opposite sex, did he?
"Gods, what an idiot." Kizuna quietly muttered under her breath while facepalming out of sight of everyone besides Naofumi.
…
Damn… the way the two of them seemed to be in sync with each other lately was starting to get a bit scary. The Shield Hero almost forgot where they were going for a moment before assuming his usual frown.
Throughout this whole exchange, Aksel continued opening and closing his mouth, unintelligible noises came out of his throat as the others complimented Maya's attire.
DID SHE REALLY NEED TO DO THIS BEFORE THE START OF THE MISSION!? HE WAS CERTAIN SHE WAS DOING IT TO SHOW OFF TO HIM! HOW DID SHE KNOW BODYSUITS WERE ONE OF HIS SECRET KINKS?! WAS SHE TRYING TO THROW HIM OFF HIS GAME WITH HER ANTICS RIGHT NOW BY MAKING HIM WANT TO GRAB HER AND-
An elbow nudged his side, and Aksel looked down to see Kizuna grinning at him. "Don't worry, unlike some people, you got this man." She whispered to him while giving him a thumbs up and winking in Maya's direction.
Aksel's face paled, and then flared up with red.
"W-Well anyway, y-you look really cool in that Maya!" Rishia said excitedly.
"Cool, more like hot." Kizuna complimented while elbowing the knight beside her again.
"Nah, Rishia's right, it's actually pretty breezy." Maya stretched out. "The material is really nice and breathable, and it stretches with my body too.
"It almost feels like I'm wearing nothing at all!" Maya finished with glee before she winked at her knight with obvious mischief in her eyes.
'REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!'
Aksel nearly died that terrible night because of the raccoon girl's antics.
Finally, all of their preparations were complete.
Naofumi left with the gleaming Raph-Chan resting comfortably on his shoulder. She had her eyes closed and her paws hugging her tail.
It was too adorable. Naofumi had to pet her on the head at least once while walking through the town. He carried a lit lantern in his other free hand.
In this country, according to Kizuna, it was required to hold a lit lamp at night when you were outside. It ruined any attempts at sneaking around, but the Shield Hero was doing no such thing. He boldly walked under the lampposts even as watchmen did their patrols on the streets. He nodded to them, and they nodded to him in return, before turning forward again to continue with their duties.
The Shield Hero's goal was clear. He approached the front of the building that he'd been at earlier today. Where he'd seen Filo getting whipped on a stage for people's entertainment.
A new pair of guards stood watch at the doors. They had a bored look about them until they noticed Naofumi, who approached the two with a grin. When Naofumi spoke, it was not in his normal voice.
"Evening, good sirs. Is the master of this fine establishment available, hmmm?"
…
The duo of thugs exchanged a glance. Naofumi had his Mask Shield attached over the top half of his face. And, thanks to discovering Raph-Chan could use illusion magic earlier, he now looked like he was wearing a pimp outfit very similar to the one that a certain short and stout slave merchant was known for wearing.
Ridiculous feathers around the neck and all.
"What do you want? We're closed until tomorrow." One of the men asked suspiciously.
"Hmmmm, what is with the suspicion, good sir? I am but a simple merchant. Looking to strike a deal of a lifetime with the owner of this fine establishment." Naofumi laid the accent on thick at the end.
The two men looked at each other again. Naofumi pressed on at their silence.
"You see. I heard the circus in this town was well known for its peculiar monsters, and I have quite the peculiar monster to sell to whoever's in charge, hmmm?" Naofumi said in his best imitation of Beloukas' voice.
…
The two men looked at Naofumi. He merely continued to grin his best Beloukas grin.
The two thugs shuddered.
Nearby, where Itsuki and the others were observing, the Bow Hero felt a similar shiver travel down his spine. Naofumi had learned well from Beloukas. Kizuna, who'd never met the guy, also shivered.
"I… I'm not sure if the boss is ready to see you at this time-" One of the men tried to say.
"Hmmm, not ready you say? I am rather in a hurry, you see. I can only leave my merchandise alone for so long before… well, neither mind that. Perhaps this-" Naofumi displayed several kinhans in his hand. "- would be enough to make him ready?"
The eyes of the men boggled at the money. Naofumi continued to grin as they glared at him in suspicion. "It is as real as you and me. You can feel for yourself, good sirs." Naofumi handed a kinhan over to one of them.
The man looked it over, his eyes widening at the fact that it was real. The other guy quickly checked as well. Naofumi pictured them using their HUD's to look for magic on the coin or something like that.
But there was no magic. No tricks. It was a genuine kinhan straight from Ethnobalt.
Though if they checked the other 'kinhans' in his hand, they'd learn they were tamagins disguised as kinhans. Yet Naofumi kept on grinning, and the surface of his mask reflected the sheen of kinhans to make the guards feel more uncomfortable with each passing second.
"It is quite the deal I have to make, good sirs! It could make this place even more money if I land it, making us both really happy, hmmm?" Naofumi said.
If there was anything he could count on, even from a noble, it was greed. If he could lure them with not only the bribe, but the possibility of them making even more money than they already were…
…
"... Alright, you'll find him inside." The man on the right spoke out hesitantly while pocketing the kinhan that Naofumi had offered. "Second floor, first door on the left. There are more guards inside and they're all high level, so don't try anything funny, 'merchant'."
"Mmmm, that sounds so tempting, good sirs. I might just have to take you up on your offer, hmmm?" Naofumi hugged himself and shuddered in ecstasy. Raph-Chan made it so sparkles came off of his body.
The two men paled in horror. And they weren't the only ones. Kizuna looked extremely uncomfortable, and Itsuki was on the verge of fleeing if only to avoid the PTSD his mind was experiencing.
"Urgh." The first guard grunted in disgust. "Whatever, it'll be your funeral. If anyone asks, say that you're here to see the boss, and that Biggs from the front door sent ya. Now hand over the rest!"
"Isn't it pretty late already though?" Wouldn't the d-" The second guard opened his mouth to say something.
"Shut it, Wedge! We don't want to hold this 'good sir' up any further now, do we?" The first guard, Biggs, told his colleague harshly.
Naofumi's grin grew just a little bigger as he handed the rest of the coins over. The poor idiots, not even checking to see if what he'd given them was fake or not, shared the money evenly among themselves before pocketing it and stepping out of the way.
"Fufufu. Thank you for your business, good sirs. I'll be sure to put in a good word for you to your employer." Naofumi made an 'ok' sign with his hand before stepping inside the building.
The second guard shivered at Naofumi's disturbing smile and hand sign. "Just get moving already!"
After Naofumi had strode in, the pair closed the door behind him. Once he was out of sight of the guards, and after seeing that no one else was present in the room, his grin dropped and he changed out of his Mask Shield. Raph-Chan dropped her illusion magic on him too.
"Good job." He rubbed the shikigami on her head between her ears.
"Rafu!" Raph-Chan looked happy at being praised.
Naofumi received a party invitation from Kizuna. He accepted it and watched as she and the others appeared around him again.
Huh, their magic skill combo had really worked. He'd forgotten they were even following him in the first place.
"What… what the hell was that out there?" The girl Hero asked, pointing to the door.
Naofumi smirked. "That was how the creepiest guy in my world would act around customers. Very unpleasant sort."
"Sounded like it." Kizuna looked to Itsuki, who refused to elaborate. The poor boy was still pale, and he'd had to interact with the Slave Trader far less than Naofumi or even Ren.
With that, they continued on through the main theatre. It was empty, but there was plenty of trash lying around on the floor that had as of yet to be cleaned up.
Naofumi briefly paused on the stage, seeing small blood splatters from where Filo had been chained. A look flashed across his eyes, but besides that, he continued on to the back of the room.
There was a plain wooden door. He was about to open it when Kizuna gripped his arm, stopping him.
"Wait, there's an alarm spell on this door." She warned him.
Damn… So those guys from before hadn't been as idiotic as he thought. They'd probably taken his money, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see their boss till morning came anyway.
Or maybe he'd just creeped them out so much that they let him in so they wouldn't have to deal with him any longer. And they forgot that the inside door was locked.
It briefly frustrated Naofumi, even if he did bamboozle the guards with the fake money as well, but he and Kizuna had planned for this since he'd revealed earlier that he had skills in crafting accessories. Apparently, imbuing these alarm spells onto doors was similar to how one enchanted an accessory. So he was prepared to examine it himself to see what he could do to disable it and-
"Here." Maya suddenly produced a keyring and gave it to the Shield Hero.
…
He looked blankly from it to the raccoon girl. Everyone else stared at her too.
"What? I know the plan was to use Sir Naofumi's skills to break the locks without triggering the alarms. But those two meatheads outside were so distracted by the money that getting this off that one guy without him noticing was far too easy." Maya grinned. "I was almost tempted to steal his money too, but figured that might jeopardize the mission."
…
Naofumi looked at the door, which had a symbol on the handle. He looked, and found one of the keys had the same symbol.
He inserted the key, and the lock opened with a small click. No alarms went off.
So much for using his skills here. Not that he minded as this was significantly easier and a lot less risky.
No, really. It was better this way.
…
'Damn thieving raccoons stealing my thunder.' Damn it, pride was supposed to be Itsuki's thing, not his!
"Well done, Maya. Good thinking there." Itsuki praised the raccoon girl with a smile.
"Hehe." She simply grinned as she took the compliment in stride.
"Um, Maya, that was pretty cool and all, but… where were you keeping that keyring before? I didn't see you holding it earlier." Rishia asked worriedly. "Does that thing have pockets on it somewhere?" The girl gestured at Maya's bodysuit.
"Nope!" The raccoon girl put her hands on her hips with a smile.
…
"But, but then, how-" Rishia struggled to form a response while Maya just continued to smile at her.
"Fueh!" The green-haired girl flushed red again.
'AAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!' Aksel helpfully added with his internal screaming.
"It was in my tail, silly!" Maya winked playfully while shaking her fluffy tail around. An oddly metallic jangle accompanied it. She then pulled out a pair of kunai from it and made a flashy flair with them before she grinned even wider. "Where did you think I was keeping them silly?"
Rishia just whimpered in response.
'AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!' Aksel showed his support of her statement with another bout of internal screaming.
"Heh." Kizuna smirked.
"I don't get it." Itsuki narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"Alright, enough fooling around, follow me." Naofumi said, trying to hide his frustration over being one-upped as he went inside, following the arrow on his HUD to where Filo was.
The group followed, and Aksel barricaded the door with a nearby chair after Naofumi locked it again behind them to keep it from opening. Though, hopefully no one would notice anything amiss since they managed to avoid causing a mess.
"Don't feel bad." Kizuna walked closer to Naofumi to whisper in his ear. "You'll get a chance to show off your amazing craftsmanship skills some other time, I'm sure of it."
Naofumi rolled his eyes. Now that he thought about it, that was something he should consider after they found everyone and before they faced Kyo. Besides needing to gain more levels and use the power-up methods, he needed a new accessory since his last one had broken. And if he could make anything that'd give them an edge over the Male Bitch, well… he'd be all for it.
Anyway, the interior looked like an old row house. There was a place to remove your shoes and a staircase leading up to the second floor. There were a number of empty cages that must have been used for different things for their show. A few cages held smaller monsters, all of which were normal and didn't transform into humans.
But there was no Filo.
The group kept their shoes on, since they obviously had no respect for this establishment, and walked up the stairs to the second floor. There, they found a hallway with rooms on either side. There were a few merchants or maybe noblemen laying around, it was honestly hard to tell as they had drunk themselves to sleep and their attire was fancy, but dirty.
It was also pretty dark. It was a good thing Naofumi had gotten enhancements to see in the dark a while ago from some of his shields.
"I-Itsuki, please don't let go of my hand." Rishia said nervously. She and Aksel were following blindly, and the raccoon woman was leading her boyfriend along as well since as a demihuman she could see well in the dark.
Though, the knight didn't look nearly as scared as Rishia, as he was more embarrassed by the fact that Maya was still dressed in the body suit. And the raccoon girl kept on pausing as she walked so he walked right into her.
Aksel's face grew redder with each time. Yet he somehow kept himself from having a meltdown even when Maya not only stopped but also rubbed back against him on purpose.
How was Itsuki not noticing this?! Was he too busy enjoying the feel of Rishia's hand in his to care about the knight's predicament?!
Kizuna moved forward alongside Naofumi with no hesitation. She must have unlocked the same abilities that Naofumi and Itsuki had. "First room on the left?" She verified.
Naofumi pointed at the door that his HUD's arrow was indicating. It was on the right, at the end of the hall.
Those guys from earlier had lied to him about this too, it seemed.
Kizuna followed to the end of the hall and checked the door, but found no magic on the lock or anything. And when she twisted the knob, the door easily opened. "At least this part is easy."
And thus, they walked inside and closed the door behind them.
Inside was quite the room. The only guy in there, who Naofumi recognized to be the same person who'd been whipping Filo earlier, was asleep on a laid out futon. Behind him was a cloth sack bursting at the seams with money in an almost cartoonish fashion.
"Yeesh. These guys are loaded." Maya whispered. "Maybe we could pocket some of it while we're here?"
"No Maya! Stealing is wrong!" Rishia chided her in a stage whisper. "A-And you don't have pockets on that outfit anyway!"
"Puh." The raccoon girl pouted and crossed her arms on her chest. "Aksel could hold it for me, right Axie-Poo?"
Aksel was too red in the face to respond, looking anywhere but her. She cocked her head curiously.
She hadn't taken the teasing too far, had she?
Naofumi deeply scowled, not caring about the cash in the slightest, as his attention was directed to the sleeping man. His eyes flashed with rage. And his fists clenched at his sides.
A hand gripped his shoulder, briefly grabbing his attention. "Remember, you promised." Itsuki reminded him.
Everyone looked at Naofumi worriedly after the Bow Hero's statement. The seriousness of what was about to happen settled upon them at last.
…
Naofumi's scowl disappeared, being replaced with an odd look of calm. It also reflected on Raph-Chan's face. "Don't worry. I remember."
"Besides, as I told Rishia earlier, he'd die way too easily. I won't have that."
…
Itsuki remained silent, but let go of Naofumi's shoulder and took a step back.
Naofumi looked around the room to where the arrow was indicating. Only…
"Pii?!" It was pointing at a little white and blue chick in a cage. Upon Naofumi noticing it, the bird, who'd been looking down before, perked up and began flapping around in its cage like crazy.
"Crap, if that monster makes a lot of noise, she's going to wake this guy up!" Kizuna hissed out as she brandished her tuna knife.
Naofumi found it weird though that the bird had seen them despite the fact that they were supposed to be hidden. And Kizuna was about to race forward to silence the monster once and for all when Naofumi realized what was going on and immediately stopped her with a tight grip on her shoulder.
"Wait, no! That's Filo!"
"Huh, that's your daughter?!" Kizuna looked very much surprised, as did the others.
"Pii! Pii! Pii Pii!" Filo continued crying out for attention. The guy on the futon grumbled as he shifted in his sleep.
"Weird, why is your daughter a humming fairy? I thought you said she was a different monster from your world." Kizuna said curiously as she put her weapon away.
"She's supposed to be a filolial. And she's a chick too now. What the heck is this?" Itsuki asked in confusion.
However, Naofumi didn't answer as he approached Filo's cage and gripped its bars worriedly. "Pii! Pii!" Filo cried out happily. Something like an ofuda seemed to be stuck to her back.
She looked like a small chick. Her shape was different… but those blue eyes of hers. He could recognize them anywhere. He didn't need the arrow hovering directly over her head to tell him who it was.
This was definitely his daughter, 100%.
"Filo, shhhh. Daddy is here to save you but you need to be quiet." Naofumi said calmly, but clearly putting forward the necessity of his request.
…
Seeing the look of seriousness on her daddy's face, Filo settled down. But the look in her clear blue eyes didn't change, and the way her wings extended towards the bars of the cage towards him clearly expressed how sad she was and how she wanted to get out of here and to hug him and cry into his shoulder and…
Naofumi's face hardened.
To think this sack of &^%$ had tortured Filo to this point.
The Shield Hero was almost tempted to punish the whole town for this. Then, he breathed in deeply.
No. Punish the man that hurt Filo. Only him. Then get out.
He could always punish everyone later when he helped Kizuna invade the Mirror and Katana countries.
…
Huh? Kyo was still important. But his daughter being hurt and his girlfriend being imprisoned illegally alongside Glass and possibly the others in this country had made this crap hole rise in importance in his mind. And not in a good way.
Maybe if they had some time after kicking Kyo's butt... nah, he couldn't let Ost's sacrifice go to waste. Sigh.
"That looks like a servant ofuda." Kizuna's face was similarly dark. "Those are fused to monsters and used to control or imprison them. Though it doesn't look like this one has fused to her skin yet for whatever reason."
Naofumi scowled again. He wondered if that was why there'd been interference with the monster tracking spell up to this point. Filo's stats were greyed out, but she was still on the Shield Hero's monster menu, explaining why she could see them. She was still, technically, a member of his party.
He'd have to check for that when they found Raphtalia.
"Should I break open the birdcage, or should I have Chris kill this guy on the floor before he-" Kizuna began to ask.
"Kizuna, don't do anything yet…" Naofumi said to her before turning to look at Filo again with a warm smile. "Don't worry, Filo. Daddy will get you out of here very soon. But Daddy needs to do something to the bad man that hurt you first."
"Pii?" The bird tilted her head, looking at him in worry.
"Don't worry, I won't kill him or lose control. But I'll make sure he never wants to hurt you or another monster ever again." Naofumi said, the love in his voice edged with steel.
Itsuki gulped, but didn't do anything as Naofumi left the party. He did turn to Maya and Aksel though. "Keep watch in the halls, in case he makes any noise that attracts anyone." The Bow Hero suggested.
"Got it. Come on Axie-poo." Maya winked at the knight happily before skipping out the door.
"C-Can't you have Rishia go with her instead?" Aksel meekly asked.
"Why? Don't you normally work with Maya? You two seem like you'd be the best suited for this." Itsuki cocked his eyebrow in confusion.
The two of them, alone in the darkness, with Maya in just a bodysuit… the poor knight's brain damn nearly fried at the thought. And he spoke his next words with more firmness than before. "Please, put Rishia out there instead. If I go out there, the mission is 100% guaranteed to fail. We will not be able to focus whatsoever."
Itsuki cocked his eyebrow at the knight again, but Aksel leveled a firm gaze at the Bow Hero. Not elaborating on it further, but only muttering a small, but firm: "Please."
…
The Bow Hero sighed. "Fine, Rishia, go out and assist Maya."
"Fueh…" Rishia left the room, while the others stayed to watch what was about to unfold.
Truthfully, Itsuki wanted to keep Rishia around, just in case they needed her skills to knock Naofumi out again. The bow hero was not confident in his abilities to do so himself, even with his own limited Hengen Musou knowledge.
But perhaps it'd be better to trust Naofumi.
…
He really wanted to trust that Naofumi would keep his anger under control. He didn't want to worry about his older brother figure in the future if others pissed him off to this degree. Naofumi had to learn how to channel his anger properly.
The Bow Hero kept a hand on his communication ofuda with Rishia though. Just in case he needed to call for her help.
As for Naofumi, he'd reappeared out of thin air as he was no longer under the effects of Invisible Hunter. The sound of his breath. The sound of his footsteps. It was all audible again.
He lit a couple of the candles in the room, making himself further visible instead of hiding in the darkness. And by the time Rishia left to stand watch with Maya, he approached the futon.
"Oi. Wake up."
Naofumi's foot kicked the edge of the futon. The guy on it snored lazily before smacking his lips as he continued to sleep.
"Oi." Naofumi grabbed the guy's blanket and ripped it off his body this time. The man slowly stirred in his sleep.
"Oi!" Naofumi said a little louder.
"H… Huh?" The guy was slow to wake. Naofumi was very patient though as he crossed his arms on his chest and observed as the nobleman got his bearings.
"Urgh, my head. I told you idiots not to disturb me till morning. What the hell do you want?" The guy groaned.
"I'm here to do some business with you." Naofumi said dryly. "Also, I'm not one of your employees. Now get on your feet, I ain't got all night."
"Huh…" The guy blinked a few times, staring at Naofumi in a stupor. But then, life seemed to spark in them, and his eyes widened in panic. He opened his mouth to scream.
Naofumi's hand slapped over the man's mouth first though. The Shield Hero continued to calmly look down at the nobleman. "Don't go around pissing your pants yet. I'm only here because I want to get my property back from you. Nothing more, and nothing less. Unless, you'd rather I do more?" Naofumi said, his voice still surprisingly calm and dry of emotion.
Itsuki, Kizuna, and Aksel stared at the display, almost transfixed. What… what the hell had happened to the angry side of Naofumi they'd noticed before? He was acting oddly restrained right now.
And why did Raph-Chan look so calm next to him too?
The man's eyes widened further. However, when Naofumi took his hand off, he didn't scream for help or anything like that.
"P-Property? What property, I haven't dealt in- I mean I have never dealt with stolen goods before in my life!" The man protested.
"Rafu." Raph-Chan spoke.
"I agree. Let's get this over with." Naofumi said to Raph-Chan. Then he looked down at the man again. "Long story short, that bird in the bird cage over there? She's mine. Thank you for taking such good care of Filo while I was away, but now I want her back. And to show my gratitude I'll even pay you for your services."
The guy sputtered but quickly got a hold of himself and began to grin instead. "Really, she's yours? Do you have any proof-"
"Haven't you wondered why your servant ofuda hasn't fused to her skin properly?" Naofumi asked curiously. "Surely, someone like you would realize that meant she was already somebody else's servant. Did you really think her master wouldn't show up eventually?"
"But there's no other servant ofuda on her! How can you claim that-" The guy began to yell, but Naofumi slapped a hand over his mouth again.
"Stop shouting. It's the middle of the night." Naofumi sneered before letting go.
The man backpedaled away from Naofumi, who continued to look at him with a bored expression. "If you want proof, then there's this for starters." Naofumi activated the monster crest at its lowest pain setting.
Filo looked down at her chest curiously as the crest sparked to life, revealing itself with its eerie purple glow. At the same time it activated, the ofuda on her back loosened, and she turned her beak around to peck at it.
"Hey, stop doing that-" The man reached towards the cage, but Naofumi gripped his arm, stopping him.
"I already said it before. Filo is mine." Naofumi said evenly. "That sigil there is proof of it. And the fact that it's counteracting your servant ofuda should be telling you that very same thing too."
"Filo, who the hell is Filo? That's our angel girl there." The guy responded heatedly, but not loudly like before.
"Yes, she is an angel girl, but she has a name too. Filo." Naofumi said coldly, though his voice was still calm. "That crest you see is proof that I own her."
"Rafu." Raph-Chan agreed.
Naofumi looked at the cage. "Filo, stand still."
Filo stilled and looked up at her Daddy curiously at the same time. "See, she answers to Filo." Naofumi then took out a sheet of paper that Beloukas had handed him long ago. "Lastly, this is proof that I bought her. A receipt given to me by the monster trader that sold me her egg." Naofumi said flatly.
"What the hell- I can't read this writing-!" The nobleman growled.
"Of course you can't. I bought her in a different country that has a different language. Did you really think you could buy someone like her on just any market?" Naofumi rolled his eyes.
The man trembled, but Naofumi had finished proving who Filo really belonged to. Though the nobleman didn't look like he was changing his mind yet on owning her, as he had as of yet to remove the servant ofuda.
"If you truly didn't know and still insist on laying claim on Filo, I will be more than willing to buy her back from you at a fair price." Naofumi graciously suggested.
"Buy her, from me…? Hah! Do you see this sack of money here?" The guy gestured back to the overflowing bag. "What can you possibly offer me that'd be worth more than that?"
"One Doumon." Naofumi curtly replied.
…
…
The cruel circus master began to laugh.
"One… doumon…?" He asked, pausing in between each word as he thought he'd been told a very funny joke.
Kizuna and Itsuki continued to watch with uncertain faces. The crest was still active, and Filo had gone back to trying to tear her servant ofuda off. Though if she were to tear it off completely, it was possible that it might set off an alarm on the cage.
The group wondered if this was Naofumi's plan, and Kizuna began to move closer to slice apart the cage if need be.
But then, Naofumi deactivated the crest. Filo looked disappointed that she'd stay trapped for a moment longer.
"Yes. One doumon. And that is the only offer that I'll give you." Naofumi continued ominously. "Don't rush now. Think long and hard about it. You might regret it if you pass this deal up." This time, there was an edge of darkness in the Shield Hero's voice that made the others pause. Even Filo.
The guy continued to laugh, having not caught it. "In your dreams! This has been a nice show that you put up, and I still have no idea what a Filo is! But if you think I'll give up this angel girl and the sacks of money that she's making for me for one stupid doumon, then you're probably the biggest idiot that I've ever met! Aha! Ahahahahahaha!"
…
…
"Very well." Naofumi smiled, and it was the same cruel smile as before. "In that case, I'll pay for my daughter's freedom with your life." He'd established beyond a doubt that Filo didn't belong to this guy, and he'd revealed his true nature as the worst of scum because of it.
The Shield Hero's following actions would be completely justified.
"Wait, what are you-" Naofumi pulled the man close and restrained him, putting his arm over his mouth to gag him. The grapple effect appeared on the shielder's HUD, and while the nobleman immediately tried to struggle, he couldn't break free.
He was pretty high leveled, but Naofumi's strength and defense far outmatched his. The man's eyes widened in fear, as he thought he'd been far more powerful due to his high level.
However, when Naofumi tried twisting the guy's arm further to cause him pain, a Clang sounded at the action.
…
Oh well, he'd already expected this would happen. "I could hold you here forever. But I don't exactly have that long, so I hope you don't mind me evening the playing field a little bit." Naofumi drawled in a bored tone.
He switched the shield on his arm, and it flashed as it changed weapon forms. Itsuki almost immediately screamed out, thinking Naofumi had just switched to his cursed Shield.
But it wasn't.
With the blue light coming off him now, the Bow Hero realized Naofumi had just switched to the Shield of Hope II.
It was definitely not his Cursed Shield. But… why?
"Air Strike Shield. Lasso." The green shield skill appeared in front of the circus master, and then a rope bound him to the skill. The man's eyes widened in terror, from the weapon form changing to the appearance of hero skills.
The setup was truly annoying, but with the addition of Naofumi restraining the guy, the next part came surprisingly easy.
"Foolish mortal. You stand condemned for your unrighteous judgments here today. I dispense my justice on you, and strip you of that which protects you most. I cast my words to the heavens."
Naofumi had never spoken this skill so calmly before. Nor had he ever used it outside of an important fight. And yet, it seemed to hit all the harder because of it. "Now suffer. Hope Asunder."
"Rafu!" Raph-Chan cheered as the skill glowed blue and then dissipated away into energy. Blue energy also came off the guy, who wasn't sure what'd happened at first, but then his eyes widened drastically when he saw on his HUD that his defense stat had been forcibly set to zero.
"What did Naofumi just do?" Kizuna asked in confusion.
Itsuki only stared, his eyes widening in realization.
Naofumi had no way to physically harm enemies due to the difference in his attack stat and others defense stats. And his only two ways to physically harm them were to bring out his Cursed Shield…
Or lower their defense enough so even he could damage them with his low attack stat.
Naofumi's SP bar was empty, and he had a cooldown timer of twelve hours before his SP would be able to recharge again either naturally or with potions. Still, when he changed his shield out of the Blessed Shield and pulled on the man's arm again, there was no Clang and the guy yelped in pain.
Naofumi cruelly smiled.
"You should know something about me. I personally don't have much attack power of my own you see. And my weapon hardly helps me out in that regard either." Naofumi said into the guy's ear in a strange tone of voice. "You noticed that too, didn't you? When I slapped my hand on your mouth the first time, you probably felt no pain whatsoever. You assumed your level would be high enough that somebody as pathetic as me would be unable to hurt you. You thought you could lull me into a false sense of security and then call your cronies in to deal with me so you didn't have to dirty your pretty little hands yourself."
The guy's eyes widened in fear.
"Let's get started, shall we?" The shield hero bared his teeth in a feral grin.
Naofumi then fell backwards onto the futon, bringing the guy down with him. With one arm still held tightly over his mouth, the Shield Hero's other arm moved around his head.
Naofumi began to slowly twist the guy's neck.
"MMMPH?! MMMMMHH!" The guy tried to scream around Naofumi's arm.
Kizuna stared, still confused, but slowly started to get an idea of what Naofumi had done.
Lucky. Even if she had a skill like that, she still wouldn't be able to harm another person if their defense was 0. Stupid weapon restriction.
"Even though your defense is currently 0. I still don't have a lot of attack power." Naofumi continued to speak calmly. "You're probably only taking a few points of damage a second from me doing this. But… you know what they say. It's always the little things that add up in the end, right?"
The cold, dead way that Naofumi said it did not pair well with the cruel smile on his face. "Count yourself lucky that I didn't start with breaking your fingers. I doubt I'd have the time to break them all before this debuff ended. But if you resist longer than necessary, you wouldn't feel it if your fingers broke anyway. A small mercy, if you will."
"Rafufufufu." Raph-Chan chuckled darkly as she rubbed her paws together. Yes, this was the idea that Naofumi and her had settled on earlier. Hence, why she didn't lend her hands in breaking the man's neck that much more quickly.
"MMMPH! MMMMMMM!" Naofumi kept on slowly twisting the man's neck, pausing at points as he couldn't twist more until a certain amount of damage was reached on the guy's health bar before being able to continue on.
The time passed almost agonizingly slow. And it was only when two minutes had passed that the true terror of this execution method became apparent to those watching from invisible shadows.
Naofumi, even with his opponent having 0 defense, still didn't do much damage when he attacked. While a normal man would have been able to snap this guy's neck like a twig, it wasn't so simple for Naofumi. He still inflicted no more than a few points of damage, possibly less, with each second of force he applied. It required much more time for him to break a neck than others.
But that was the beauty of it, or rather, the horror to those watching. Overtime, even ones would add up to a hundred. And then a thousand. And the victim would be aware of it all as the tendons in the neck began to strain, and as the cartilage of the vertebrae started to slowly grind down as the bones moved ever and ever so slightly towards being taken out of alignment, cracking under the stress, eventually putting an end to the victim's misery when the brain stem was completely severed from the spine.
Normally, it was so quick, that nobody would ever think about what'd happen if it was turned into a slow and gradual process, done over the course of minutes. How painful it'd have to be for the individual suffering through this torture.
Naofumi was normally too nice to ever try this. It was a hard thing to watch, and it was even harder for him to do. And he would have never done so if not for the circus master pushing his anger this far.
"MMMMM! MMMMM!" The man began to struggle harder as the pain began to grow more intense and Naofumi finally raised his arm enough to let the nobleman speak.
"Wh-What do you want from me?!" He screamed in anger and fear.
"Sell me back Filo for one doumon and I'll stop. Refuse, and I'll make money the least of your concerns before I give you another offer." Naofumi repeated what he said earlier.
"I-I can't, she makes too much money! M-My Father would kill me if I gave her up and-" Naofumi gagged the man with his arm again and twisted his neck a little further. The man cried out into the gag in pain as one of his vertebrae let out an audible Crack!
His eyes then widened in terror as his struggling body slacked. He could no longer feel anything below his neck.
"Fine, I would have thought you'd value your own skin more. But very well. This next part's on you."
The process continued for another minute. The man's health bar was well below half, and his body limply laid on the floor while Naofumi kept on with his grim task. Another vertebrae cracked during that time, making the nobleman let out a muffled cry of agony.
"Don't worry, most people don't know this, but not every broken neck instantly kills someone. As long as I don't separate your brain stem, you can still recover from this and maybe not even lose the use of your lower body to paralysis if you get the right treatments in time. I'm sure you have powerful medicines in this world. And you surely have enough money in that bag there to afford them, don't you?" Naofumi said in an oddly detached voice.
At this point, he was no longer bothering with gagging the man as he could hardly resist due to the damage to his body.
"P-Please, stop." The man pleaded for his life as tears fell from his eyes.
"You tortured Filo. You whipped my daughter for other people's entertainment." Naofumi said in a dark voice that expressed every ounce of his anger. The man looked up at him in terror.
"You profited off her pain, and I gave you a fair offer for the way you treated her, and yet you feel that I should pay you a fortune after what you did?! You're lucky I didn't set fire to this entire damn place for your crimes against my daughter! You're lucky I even offered you several chances before now to give her back!"
The man continued to cry and plead for his life. Four minutes had passed since the torture had begun, and his health bar was almost empty.
Good timing too, as Naofumi's debuff still had enough time left for the Shield Hero to finish the job if need be.
The pain the guy felt by then was excruciating. It was like his neck was on the verge of snapping in half, yet he could feel every single part of it. But his tears not only reflected pain, but fear. Deep, primal fear which this cruel green-eyed man was inspiring in him right now due to the loss of feeling in his body and the resulting state of total helplessness.
"One last chance." Naofumi turned the man's face to him as he glared with every ounce of hatred and rage his body held at that moment. "Accept my offer, or die. I won't ask again."
"I… I…" Naofumi began to twist the man's neck the last little bit.
"What will it be?"
Itsuki and Kizuna breathed in sharply. Aksel stared.
The three wondered what to do. Could they do something? Was it too late to try and intervene and-
"I accept! Please, you can have her! Just please, stop! STOP!" The guy bawled loudly after finishing his sentence.
And just like that, Naofumi let him go.
The three's worries had been for nothing.
The man laid on the futon, sobbing uncontrollably to himself as he'd been reduced to the pile of scum that he was.
He could no longer move.
"There there, now was that so hard?" Naofumi started to grin cruelly as he patted the back of the guy's head.
The man, however, continued to sob. His body shifted, trying in vain to move, to crawl away from the devil that'd beset his home. For truly, Naofumi did look rather demonic at that moment even without his Cursed Shield in place.
Naofumi continued to smile as he took a doumon from his pocket, and put it in the guy's mouth. "There, make sure to savor it. And don't move your neck too much. Otherwise, healing magic won't be able to fix all the nerve damage you'll cause yourself.
"I didn't completely break your neck, so once the shock wears off, you should be able to move parts of your body again within a few hours. But I doubt even an idiot like you would want to make the nerve damage permanent, would you?" Naofumi stared down at the man with such a cold detached look that he stopped moving but didn't stop sobbing.
Raph-Chan jumped onto the man's shoulder, and touched his head. He began crying even harder than before, and it looked like he was under some nightmare or something as his face writhed in fear and agony.
"No." Naofumi stopped Raph-Chan before she could do anymore.
"Rafu?" She looked up at him curiously.
"We only agreed to do that if he gave Filo back immediately. But now, he's going to live with what he did for the rest of his life… I'd rather he be sane for every last second of it." Naofumi said in a cruel voice.
"... Rafu." Naofumi walked over to the cage. But Raph-Chan pressed a paw to the man's head one last time.
In the illusion he was shown, there was a little girl, with animal ears on her head and a long thin tail sticking from her back. Her hands were tied to an iron ring up above, as a large fat blurred out figure behind her cracked his whip across her back and laughed. The little girl screamed with each crack of the whip.
And then, midscream, the little girl changed to the circus master. And the blurred figure behind him turned into Raph-Chan. Fury was in her deep tea-red eyes as she cracked the whip she was holding against his back, leaving him with one last haunting threat as to what'd happen if he ever did something like this again.
The man stopped screaming, but continued to whimper. Raph-Chan released her paw and ran back to Naofumi without another word.
The Shield Hero opened the cage, freeing Filo.
"Daddy!" Filo jumped out of the cage, the ofuda ripping off her at last and allowing her to change to her human form as she hugged him around the stomach tightly.
She was bawling, and the Shield Hero wrapped one arm around his daughter to hug her close.
"It's okay, Filo. It's okay. You're free and I'm here." Naofumi held her tightly in relief.
The girl continued to cry though, and couldn't be calmed.
Poor thing.
The man with the doumon resting in his mouth cried as well but for very different reasons. Naofumi merely looked back and sneered in annoyance at the wretched sight. "Thank you for your business. Remember, if you get the right treatments, you may regain full use of your limbs in only a couple of years… maybe. It's not like I'm a doctor or anything. And I bet you could even heal all that damage in one go if you have Yggdrasil's Elixir or its equivalent in this world. Oh well.
"Oh, and by the way. Biggs and Wedge say hi."
With that parting shot, the Shield Hero looked around for Itsuki, only to frown as he couldn't see him. "I'm out of SP. Can you use your portal skill and get us out of here already?"
He received a party invite and accepted it. A moment later, everyone was whisked away to safety as the Bow Hero activated Transport Bow.
They landed back at the site where Ethnobalt had dropped them off earlier today. It was still dark out, and it'd be a long time yet before the sun would rise in the sky.
Itsuki appeared with Kizuna and the others. The skills they'd been using to hide themselves were gone.
"There were no disturbances, I trust?" Naofumi asked dryly while continuing to pat his sobbing daughter's head reassuredly.
"N-No… a few people woke up at the screams, but I knocked them out before they did anything." Rishia stuttered. She and Maya looked pale as sheets.
They hadn't seen everything that'd occurred in between dealing with some of the pests. But what they had seen when they went back to check through the door…
That was terrifying.
Aksel, who'd seen it all, was oddly silent.
He was starting to wish he'd gone outside with Maya instead. He… he'd rather not have witnessed what he saw in that room. Even if it meant dealing with the horny teenage raccoon girl alone in the dark.
"Good…" Naofumi looked down at Filo, who was still gripping tightly to him. Now that she wasn't in her monster form, he could see all the whip marks on her body. Her sobbing only seemed to grow louder.
"D-Daddy… Filo wondered if Filo would ever see Daddy or Mommy again… Daddy… Daddy!" The girl hiccuped.
…
Naofumi gently embraced his daughter with both arms. The rest of his anger drained away, and was replaced with love and care as well as worry. "Don't worry, Daddy's here. Daddy's got you.
"Daddy's not letting you go Filo. You're safe now."
"Wahhhhhhhhhh!" Filo sobbed louder, and Naofumi continued to hold her in a loving hug, careful of the wounds on her.
One of his hands pulled out healing potions for his daughter while he switched to the Shield of Hope II for its healing efficacy properties, but he didn't let her go for even a moment.
"Rafu…" Raph-Chan landed on Naofumi's shoulder and began to nuzzle against Filo's head. Offering an additional blanket of comfort to the crying angel girl.
"I… I'm sorry for ruining the moment, but we should seriously get the hell out of here." Kizuna suggested. "You know, in case they send search parties out. That guy was a bigshot, you know? And we're not that far away from them."
Naofumi had left the guy a crying mess. He was bound to wake somebody up eventually. "Right, we can rest later. I know monsters are more dangerous at night, but will you two protect us, Kizuna, Itsuki?" Naofumi asked as he stood up.
"O-Of course." The Hunting Hero answered.
"You don't even need to ask." Itsuki added.
Naofumi said no more as he gently picked Filo up, holding her close to his chest. Raph-Chan pointed towards where Raphtalia was again, and he obediently went in that direction. Though, he made sure they skirted around the town instead of going through it like before.
What had seemed like a nice place lit by beautiful lights in the night now appeared as a center of filth to the Shield Hero. He'd make sure never to visit it again. If only for Filo's sake.
As Kizuna and Itsuki and his companions followed behind, Kizuna whispered to the Bow Hero. "I thought Naofumi couldn't hurt people, just like me. What the heck was that skill?"
"Hope Asunder." Itsuki whispered. "Naofumi has a low attack stat. But he can use that skill to drop a person's or monster's defense, all the way to zero if he wants, so he can hurt them. He doesn't use it often though. And I've never seen him use it outside of important battles."
"Did he do it because he was angry? Have you ever seen Naofumi this angry before?"
"No. Not even when he'd been lashing out at us." Itsuki murmured back quietly. "Back then, he only kept it to words. He never went as far as hurting one of us with that."
Overall, the experience had been terrifying… and yet, Naofumi had done it.
He'd channeled his anger and kept himself from using that Cursed Shield of his. He directed it only at the person deserving of it.
Perhaps, there was hope for him in the future.
…
Itsuki still made a mental note to self.
Never harm Naofumi's family.
Ever.
Author's Notes
You know, I'm not sure if there'll be complaints or not. Whether because Naofumi went too far, or he didn't go far enough. This is enough for me.
Naofumi gave him a chance halfway through for the torture to stop before irreparable damage occurred. But the guy didn't take it.
Though, like I said in the text, it is possible to heal from this, and not just naturally. If Yggdrasil's variant exists in this world, which it could, I don't know if it does, but if it does he is definitely rich enough after what he did to Filo to get it or to hire a powerful healing mage and heal all that damage so he doesn't suffer permanent paralysis for the rest of his life.
Still, he's going to have psychological trauma from all this. Especially of Raph-Chan.
Enjoy the omakes. Thank you BelfortKieran for the inspiration for one of them.
Hero Clips!
Rick Roll
"No, I'm not doing that either." Naofumi shook his head.
"Fine! What do you plan to do then?!" Itsuki asked angrily when Naofumi shot down another sane and credible idea presented by the group.
"Hold my ruculu fruit." Naofumi handed Itsuki a cup full of berries, and while Itsuki was beyond confused about it, Naofumi pulled out a strange device and turned it on. "Oi, Fitoria, I got a situation here."
"What is it, Naofumi?" Fitoria's voice came out from the other end.
It was a good thing Fitoria had given him the hero device before changing worlds. She could pick up his radio signal thanks to one of her weapon forms.
"That isn't a thing! What the-" Itsuki screamed.
"Hush, my child." The Author put his hands over the Bow Hero's mouth. "Not all of these crack omakes have to make sense."
Itsuki was kept from speaking against the meta as crack went on before his eyes.
Naofumi explained the situation to Fitoria.
"What do you need me to do?" Fitoria asked harshly when Naofumi had finished.
"Just play the music for me so I have something to focus on." Naofumi answered.
"Will do."
Briggs and Wedge stood guard at the front.
"Weird, I feel like we're forgetting something." Briggs said.
"What do you mean?" Wedge asked.
"The boss is on the second floor, right?" Briggs asked.
"Yeah, first door on the… left…" Wedge facepalmed. "&^%$! The boss is in the right room at the end of the hall! We totally &^%$ed up!"
"Why didn't you say something before?!" Briggs angrily asked.
"You saw how creepy that merchant was! I didn't want to deal with him anymore than you did!" Wedge replied.
"Damn, I really hope he found the right room. It'd suck if he thought we were actually lying to him or something." Briggs said nervously.
Their conversation would have continued, however, Naofumi reappeared in front of them again, making them jump.
"Oi, what is it now?!" Briggs asked harshly.
Strange, he was dressed in a different outfit before. He was wearing a striped shirt with a white collar under a nice suit. And as he grinned, music somehow began playing.
It sounded catchy. But in the worst way. The two slowly backed up, not liking the look on his face.
"You know the rules, and so do I!" Naofumi sang. "Say goodbye!"
And then, Naofumi switched to the Shield of Wrath III.
"Now die."
"Aieeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Itsuki and the others watched as Naofumi destroyed the area to the tune of Rick Astley's music, the music for which was being provided by Fitoria.
"So… is this normal?" Kizuna asked curiously.
"Yeah. It's about right." Allen shrugged. "I have some weird reviews sometimes. But I like them."
"Sweet! I hope somebody gives a weird review suggestion for me!" Kizuna pumped a fist happily.
"I hate you." Itsuki muttered under his breath.
"Oh, you hate me now, just wait until you see what's planned in your future." Allen grinned.
"Huh?!" Itsuki looked in terror at the Author, who only grinned in response.
And so, harnessing the power of crack and the biggest memed song of all time, Naofumi destroyed the entire town and saved his daughter in the process. Becoming a mass murderer in Kizuna's world.
Of course, it was crack. Music wasn't a viable conduit for controlling one's Cursed Series.
Then again, had it worked, it would have been the deadliest use of the rick roll anyone had ever seen.
Hero Clips!
Nothing at All
"It's like I'm wearing nothing at all!"
Aksel shuffled nervously. "Alright, I got it, let's save Filo now!" The tank demanded. Why did Maya keep on having to repeat that to him?!
The two followed Naofumi invisibly. The group separated so there'd be even less of a chance at getting detected.
Aksel stopped, however, when he saw a line of people partying in the street. It looked like some kind of wedding was going on. They hadn't planned on this.
'Crap, I need to think of another way to go! What's a different route I could take!'
He tried to think of a different route he could go. Thank goodness he'd studied a map of the town alongside Kizuna and Itsuki. He just had to remember the alternative routes he could take, and-
However, as he tried to picture the layout of the town in his mind, someone else filled it.
"It's like I'm wearing nothing at all!"
Maya and her bodysuit clad figure filled his mind. Aksel paled as all the blood rushed to his lower body.
'No, think of the mission! Or think of Yogi Bear in a bikini! Or-'
"It's like I'm wearing nothing at all!"
"Nothing at all!"
"Nothing at all!"
…
Yep, he was totally screwed. Aksel ran forward, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The party scattered in terror as they thought some kind of frog monster had snuck into town and let out a shrill war cry. However, when the watchmen arrived and searched, they found no sign of anything wrong.
Strange. Someone had probably had too much to drink again. Typical thing at weddings, really.
Moments later, Aksel rejoined the group. His scream had actually worked to his benefit, separating the individuals in the party enough in their terror to allow him to run through without a problem.
"What took you so long Aksel?" Itsuki asked curiously. "And was that you that screamed earlier?"
"I-It was nothing!" Aksel averted his gaze, as behind the Bow Hero, Maya winked at him seductively.
"Nothing at all!"
Yep, this was hell. Aksel was never going to forget this day for the rest of his life.
Freaking teenage raccoon girls and their freaking hormones from going through rapid puberty.
Till Next Time
Allen