Chapter 12: Float Away From Everything Not

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

Just now, I was unable to act and unable to decide to do anything. I don't know what drove me to commit such a simple mistake. The mistake I committed was so simple that it doesn't make sense. How can a divine being such as myself commit a mistake? Wait no… wait a second!

… Now that I think about it more, it is indeed impossible for me to commit such an embarrassing mistake! There can't be something influencing my thoughts, can there? As a divine being, the most perfect of beings, being influenced by something external is unthinkable! But… That possibility is more plausible than me committing such an embarrassing mistake. It's definitely not my fault, so there must be someone who caused me to act strangely previously! That's obviously right! Why hadn't I thought of such an obvious answer to my weird, unexplainable, and embarrassing action just now? Why did I even feel embarrassed just now, even if it's just a little? The most satisfied being, such as myself, can't make such a mistake or be embarrassed about anything! After all, I am satisfied! That's right! Being embarrassed means regretting something I did, and someone such as myself never regrets anything! To say that I'm embarrassed is a lie; it is not my character! So someone must have done something to me! How dare they invade my innermost sanctuary? How dare they cause me to be unable to reach a satisfying conclusion and unable to act satisfyingly?! To influence my thoughts to such an extent, who dared do that to me!? The one who just caused me to commit such an embarrassing act should be the one embarrassed! They should be conscious of what they did to me!

As I was screaming that in my mind, I got through to the other side. With me falling through, I thought that I got through to the other side of the world. But regardless, I am confident that I can simply go back to those rights violators, why can't I? I am perfect, therefore I am capable of doing anything, even suggesting that I can't do something is an absurdity that I can't stand.

After I get through the earth and reach the place beneath the ground, I shift my position a bit to look at where I'm at. After doing such, I can see many Kararagi-style buildings laid about and a big palace in the distance. Even though I find it weird that there are structures underground, I don't have the mind to care about it. After all, I still have some business with the pieces of shit above. I cannot let them live after what they have done.

I also suspect that one of them is influencing my mind previously, so I got even more business with them. For that, I planned to stop myself mid-air to get back to those who put me in this situation. But… before I could put that plan into action, I got hit by something from the side. But even though I got hit, it didn't do anything to me except make me annoyed.

This again! Who is hitting me?! … Now, I feel as though I have experienced that before. Regardless of that, wasn't it rude to attack someone? It is like attacking a pedestrian out of the blue when they did nothing, that is obviously wrong! For that, how dare whoever it was to attack me!?

After I threw a string of curses in my mind, I began to stop myself mid-air and levitated down to the ground. Afterward, I began to look for the culprit who just assaulted me. As I looked around, I found the assaulter. Upon seeing who had done such an attack against me, my eyes turned into dots out of pure anger, "Why you you you! Why are you still alive? How are you still alive!? You should have died! You should have, I had made sure of that! So why are you still alive? How did you survive? This is a violation of my rights!"

"Yeah yeah, 'right' this, 'right' that, isn't all of that just a roundabout way of saying 'you hurt my feelings'?"

"Hurt my feelings?" I parroted, then afterward, I shouted, "To insinuate that a perfect existence such as myself has my feelings hurt because of you, are you out of your mind? My heart is unbreakable! To even suggest that my heart got broken by the likes of you, you are lowering me as a person. I am not as weak as you suggested myself to be, and therefore, you are violating my rights as a person!" My voice trembles as I direct my rage at the girl in front of me. But it seemed that those words hadn't reached the girl at all.

"... Anyway, can't we just get this over with? I'm losing my patience."

"How impatient! And you just stole my line! It's supposed to be me who is losing patience! … Still, it is quite unsettling that I agreed with you on something for once. I, too, don't want to talk to you anymore! So let's get this over with! I will kill you so I won't need to talk to you ever again?!"

"Errr, I think that is my line, I should be the one who gets tired talking to you, not you! Anyway, I will seal you now!"

After saying such things that clearly violate my rights further, she starts to throw papers again.

"Seal? Like that pathetic witch of whatever? Don't make me laugh, something like that obviously is not going to affect me. Did you feel like you couldn't defeat me with that meager strength of yours that you finally decided to seal me instead?"

"So sealing doesn't work? I will have to try something diff—."

*Crash*

Before she can even finish saying whatever she wants to say, a resounding clash resonates throughout the surrounding area. What comes along that is the sound of a woman I don't know. Looking in that direction, I can see a face that I wasn't familiar with. Though she doesn't seem to look at me… How dare she! To not look at me means she thinks that I am insignificant and not worth looking at.

As I was grumbling to myself, the woman spoke to Reimu, "What was your idea that caused you to run here? Our fight still ain't over!"

"—Geez, give me a break!" That is what Reimu said with an obvious frown, "I don't have time to fight you."

"What are you even saying? There is always time for a good fight!" Saying such, she finally noticed me.

"So you finally noticed me, huh? How dare you not notice me for that long? Are you blind? Or did you simply not care about me?! I'll assume that you're not blind as you see me just fine, evident by how you noticed me just now. That means that you hadn't cared about me up until now to not notice me, which I'll say to be a violation of my rights. Wouldn't you agree that if someone is standing right there, you should acknowledge their existence?"

"What the hell were you even yapping about, just say it straight to me and shorten it to three sentences or less!"

"What a particular choice of words, 'yapping? Did you just insinuate that I am annoying and stupid-sounding? And for you to try to put limits on how much I can speak, isn't that basically you violating my right to speak?!—"

*gulp* *gulp*

"—Just now, you drank as I was talking, didn't you? Don't you think this is a bad time to drink? Drinking as I'm speaking, you really tick me off! Wasn't that basically just showing that you're disinterested in what I'm saying?"

"There is never a bad time to drink." It was then that the woman began to evaluate my physique up and down, and said, "You didn't look much." After she said that, she looked at Reimu and continued, "Why did you come to fight this wimp?"

"Wimp?! Wimp, you said!? If I heard you correctly, which my ears have never deceived me before, you just called me a "wimp" didn't you?! Why did you call me a wimp? What part of my character suggests that I'm a "wimp"? Are you sure that you hadn't projected yourself on my image? If you ask me, you are the "wimp" not me! Are you so inferior that you try to lower me as a person to feel important? And hadn't we just met? So to judge my character without even getting a chance to know me is—."

As I was talking, the unknown girl with a horn cut me off mid-sentence, "Reimu, who is this insanely annoying guy?"

"His name is Regulus Corn-ear or something. I'm not sure though since he talked so much that even his introduction got over my head. And, it's not like I want to fight this guy, he just keeps making a reason for me to fight him."

At this point, my anger that had been building up until now had erupted to a new peak, "Did you just call me 'annoying'? Why does every single one of the accursed… things I meet in this place keep insinuating that I'm 'annoying'? It's not me that is 'annoying'. How dare you even say that? It's you, a socially unacceptable freak who doesn't care about the rights of others! Shutting me off again and again, calling me names I didn't recall introducing myself as, and constantly degrading me as a person! I think I've said this many times before, but I will say it again: how dare you?! Don't you know that a name defines a person? For you to forget a part of my name, doesn't that mean you are belittling my very person, suggesting that my person isn't worth remembering? To say that I'm low like that, how high you are! You think that you are significant, you think that you are worth more than me, saying that my person is worth less than you? I can't, I can't, can't tolerate yoouuu! And to say that I keep finding a reason to fight you, isn't that actually the opposite? Wasn't it all you that kept making a reason for me to fight you? Take some responsibility; don't just say that it's all my fault! If you hadn't interacted with me from the start, all of this wouldn't have happened! ..." As I keep talking, the two girls in front of me seem to have a conversation over my speech.

"He's still going." Astonished, the horned girl spoke.

"Yeah… With a personality like this, combined with his troublesome ability, it makes a recipe for utter disaster."

"So you say that he is strong?" The horned girl scrutinized me as I talked. After some time, she continued, "He didn't look much to me… Is he those types that focus too much on spiritual power and completely abandon their physical aspect?"

At this point, I began to notice that the girls were not even listening to me.

"... You can say that, but it is his ability that makes him annoying. He is capable of making things, even himself, incapable of change. Like, if you throw a rock at him, the rock wouldn't do anything to him since he can't deviate from his normal, healthy state. And if he throws a rock at you, that rock would go straight through you since the rock is impervious to anything that is not itself. In short, he is very troublesome, sigh." Reimu sighs while messaging her brows.

I had long stopped speaking, and now my eyes couldn't help but twitch as I listened to what they were saying. I want to see just what is so important that they have to ignore my words.

The red-horned woman nodded to Reimu's words, "Indestructible, I see." After she muttered that, she turned her head toward me and said, "Hey you! Fight me!"

Now that they had finished whatever they were talking about, they began to pay attention to me because they wanted something from me.

Having witnessed such behavior, my face twitched again. Afterward, I look at the horned girl with scorn, "Don't you find it unacceptable to treat someone as some sort of convenience? I find it degrading that you ignore me and my words until you want something from me. Why should I comply with your one-sided request to 'fight me'? You see, I hate fighting. I don't appreciate meaningless conflict, so for you to force my hand into something I dislike, don't you think you're overstepping your bounds? Forcing yourself onto me is something I dislike!"

I finished what I wanted to say without any interruption. However, earlier when I'm speaking, I swear that I heard someone faintly say, "bullshit." But since the sound was so fleeting, I figured that it was just my imagination. After all, the content of my words is not nonsense as it's both valuable and insightful, so surely I misheard.

And upon noticing that I had finished talking, the horned girl said, "Who would listen to that, really? If you are going to speak, go straight to the point and not just ramble on about something for a dozen seconds. Sooo, what did you say again? Are you in for the fight or not?"

"Did you not listen to me? Didn't my words clearly allude to my unwillingness earlier? "

"I see… Why not just tell me straight from the beginning then?" Saying that, she takes another sip of her sake. "I don't like that kind of roundabout way of speaking. On that note, I also don't like your cowardness."

"What?! Cowardice? Just what part of my character suggested that? What action of mine reflects such a thing? Clearly, my perfect self doesn't have such a flaw. In fact, there is no way I'm a coward. To be a coward means that I'm fearful of something, especially danger. Since no one can ever touch me, why should I fear anything? Being as satisfied as I am, to be scared of anything would mean that I'm unsatisfied with my strength, which is not true. No one stands a chance against me! Even as humble as I am, I have to confess that I am invincible!"

"Humble? Invincible? Huh? Huh?!" Reimu mumbled with clear confusion in her eyes as she progressively got angrier. That confusion probably stems from her not being able to understand the profoundness of my words, and that anger was probably directed at herself for not being able to understand, a perfect reaction I was hoping for.

Her reaction aside, that horned girl reaction made me want to kill her as she looked at me like I was full of myself. What highlighted that even more was the words that came out of her mouth next, "Invincible? Why do you say that? I don't know what ability you have to be so confident, but that is a big word for someone with that thin of an arm."

Her reaction is one of ignorance. Perhaps, so far, she has only heard things about me from someone else's mouth. She probably is a straightforward type who wouldn't form an opinion of others based on other people's thoughts about them, only judging others through direct confrontation, and thus her thoughts on me are entirely dependent on my thin and sickly white figure.

I find that incredibly insulting and so I shouted, "Thin arm? Did you just shame me for how I look? You also judge how strong I am based on my appearance, don't you? Have you no shame? How stupid are you? You clearly don't understand! Don't understand at all! I have gone beyond the superficial and have grasped true strength that transcends mere muscle power. You are so shallow that it's not even funny! For you to look at my surface-level strength only and immediately assume that I'm weak because of it is unacceptable! It's unacceptable, you hear?! Is this assumption based on your ignorance? If so then I have no choice but to demonstrate my power! How cruel are you to force me to kill you!"

Immediately after I said that, I swung my arm horizontally. Of course, since the red-white is also there, I didn't spare her and included her in my attack radius.

With me having swung my arm horizontally, the surrounding building in this district got cut in half.

But even though the building got sliced, the things that I wanted to slice up the most didn't get sliced along with it. At the very second my attack was launched, that red-white bitch does what she does best, annoy me by grabbing the horned girl, pulling her aside, and dodging it.

As I'm thinking about what I just witnessed, the red-white sigh, "My duty is to exterminate youkai, why did I protect you again?"

A bead of sweat rolled down the horned girl's forehead as she said, "Who would have thought that him swinging his arm meant an attack… Anyway, thanks for that save."

"Yeah. For his attack, his attack might be unexpected at first time, but once you get the gist of it, it becomes predictable."

"If that is all he is then it's easier than the Danmaku game or whatever! I like this straightforwardness!"

The horned girl laughed after that statement, which I found insulting, and so I commented, "What is so laughable about me? From your conversation just now, which is very rude by the way since you ignored me, you say that my attack is simple? I found that very belittling since you're basically undermining my ability!"

With me saying that, the horned girl responded with, "You're seriously annoying! Is everything an insult to you?! Be a man and don't pick at every little thing like a child!"

"Child? You are degrading me again ain't you? Are you saying that I'm immature and imperfect? Don't dismiss me like that! Don't think of me as a child either! If I were to be honest, I am probably much older than you could ever imagine! I have lived satisfyingly for over a century, so don't belittle m—."

I soon got interrupted by the red-white as she shouted, "Shut up! You talked too much. It's started to become intolerable!"

— — — — — — — — — — —

Reimu Hakurei P.O.V

I had kept silent for a while now, but I just can't handle this guy anymore. He keeps talking and talking and talking; he is even worse than Aya, for God's sake, which says something about how annoying this guy is.

At first, I'm willing to stay silent since it's better not to agitate him and just stay quiet, allowing myself more time to think. But as he goes on minutes upon minutes upon minutes, he really, really, really gets on my nerves. He might have already gotten on my nerves the first time I met him in front of the human village some time ago, which feels like 5 months ago, but this guy really brings me to a new level of annoyance I've never felt before in my life.

To spare me from more annoyance, I just voice out my displeasure. Even though I had yet to come up with a good plan against this annoying guy, I didn't care anymore and decided to go along with the flow—'float' along with the flow, if you will. No matter what, I'll flow along the most favorable path for me anyway, so why bother getting so worked up over this? Even though I have yet to learn what the key to solving his invincibility is, I have faith that I'll win eventually if I go along with the flow.

With that thought, I said, "You really are getting on my nerves! My duty here is to exterminate a troublesome 'youkai' like you so let's get this over with!"

With my statement, Regulus speaks, "Huh? Where did you get that confidence? Didn't I tell you? That I'm invincible!? And why do you keep labeling me as a 'Youkai'?! You're disrespecting me, just refer to me by my name, and not by the word 'youkai,' whatever it is! And why not just listen to me and do what I told you to for once? Just die!" With him finished talking, he swung his arm again with the intent to kill. After he did so, the space broke apart, and an unstoppable force was unleashed.

However, the unstoppable force bent and swayed to the side for me, missing me completely. My 'Fantasy Nature'—The ability I was once told by Marisa to be 'unbeatable'—had activated once again.

"Huh?" Regulus is confused at such a sight.

When Regulus was distracted, Yuugi used that time to dash forward to try to punch him.

At that moment, in my mind, I couldn't help but think, "You muscle idiot."' And seeing Yuugi dash forward, I began to follow her.

Like most oni, Yuugi probably hates non-straightforward and seemingly cowardly—someone who wants to avoid fights—people, so, for a while now, she likely wanted to punch Regulus, who exhibits both characteristics. Did she not listen to me about his ability, or did she just want to find out for herself? Regardless, her boldness could end up getting her killed sooner or later, so I guess I have to prevent that.

Soon enough, Yuugi reaches Regulus's location and throws her punch without Regulus ever reacting to it. As I had foreseen, the arm that Yuugi used suddenly spurted blood as if the force of her punch had reflected back on her. The small tip of her fist also disappeared. The injured arm can probably be salvaged, but it is likely not usable now. Despite her receiving such an injury, her other arm still holds onto her sake without dropping a single drop.

Before she threw her punch, I kind of wanted to stop her from punching him since I knew that it would backfire, but she had already thrown the punch at him when I thought of it, so I can't do anything about it. At least now, Yuugi knows how troublesome Regulus is after throwing that punch. Hopefully that experience will also stop her from being too reckless.

But like to betray that thought, Yuugi laughed, "Ahahahahahahaha, I'm excited! Certainly, I am! You're strong! You don't seem to be strong, but you are! Hahaha, you get my blood pumping!"

… She seems to be excited? Hopefully, that doesn't make her reckless.

When Regulus notices what's going on and is about to rant about it, evident by how he's about to open his mouth again, I interrupt him by shooting out "Divine Spirit "Fantasy Seal"."

With that thought, bullets of pure energy that ignore the law of physics were let loose, but like the previous time before, it didn't do anything except distract Regulus from Yuugi.

With his eyes off Yuugi, Yuugi jumps away. While in the air, she kicked a violent force of wind imbued with magic toward Regulus before she landed a dozen of meters away. Of course, while doing so, she didn't spill a single drop of her sake.

After the attacks, Regulus' heart seems to remain unmoved as it doesn't affect him. His gaze, however, changed to that out of pure anger—the same expression he wore every time he got his right violated.

"Tsk, now you're just trying to annoy me! Be quiet like you had always been and die!" Afterward, he breathed. I can't see that he breathed, but the effect of the wind howling and rushing toward me just told me that he did. I didn't flinch at such an attack. In fact, the attack is not even worth mentioning as with just a single blink from me, I teleported to avoid that completely.

Seeing that his own attack missed, Regulus once again moved his leg to kick the ground, to remove a chunk of dirt toward me. Going with the flow, the dirt seemed to dodge me from my perspective, completely missing me as if on purpose.

Regulus just kept throwing the same attack, hoping that it would hit me. At this rate, soon enough, I won't even need to put my mind to it to dodge his attack.

Then, I noticed something: while Regulus was attacking me, Yuugi was nowhere to be seen. After I realized that, the ground beneath Regulus' feet caved in, causing him to fall with a comical "Wah, huh?!"

It wasn't until Regulus fell into the sinkhole that Yuugi emerged as if she were the one responsible. Did she dig the ground with her bare hands and punch her way out right beneath Regulus? Before doing so, she seemed to set aside her dish of sake…

Regardless, after Yuugi emerged from the decent-sized hole, she crouched down and extended two of her arms as though ready to punch the ground next to the hole. Moments later, she did just that, pulling a chunk of the earth out, scooping it out with her hands, holding it above her. She then jumped and threw the chunk into the hole she had created earlier, closing the hole. That happened in 3 seconds. But… all that action was all for naught as Regulus jumped out like nothing happened with a very very angry expression a second later.

I had already foreseen him getting berserk, so I flew over to the floating Regulus and attacked him mid-air with my Yin-Yang Orb that fused with my ability.

It might be true that I have no idea where to even start to damage him. I don't even know what prevents me from damaging him. I don't know what is between him and me. But when I think about it when Regulus was ranting earlier, I realized: I just have to 'float' through it all.

The Yin-Yang Orb that I throw out is not a normal Yin-Yang Orb that I had thrown countless times before as I had applied my ability to 'float' to my Yin-Yang Orb. Similar to what I did to myself with 'Fantasy Nature,' I made my Yin-Yang Orb to 'float' away from everything, but instead of it floating away from absolutely everything like 'Fantasy Nature,' I only made it float away from everything except Regulus.

I realized that, if I can't hit Regulus due to his ability preventing any changes, I just have to 'float' past all of that bullshit to strike him where even his ability is unable to stop me from deviating him from his normal state.

Without spell card rules limiting me, I can 'float' through Sakuya frozen time no matter how messed up she makes the time get, so I think I could do the same with Regulus and 'float' through whatever twisted law of physics that prevents me from harming him. My ability to 'float' allows me to float through pretty much everything, including troublesome things.

But, it failed. The Yin-Yang Orb I shot out broke apart and did not 'float' through Regulus' body like I hoped.

Since it failed, now I have to endure the onslaught of Regulus' speech… "If you're going to attack me, at least put more effort into it. Actually, scratch that. Don't put effort in anything and just lie there dead! You pathetic bunch is nothing but annoying. Keep swarming me like a group of flies—why bother? If nothing is going to happen, just stay put and do nothing! Why can't you mind your own business? What's the point of attacking me? Do you even know what 'civil' means? It seems like you don't, considering your lack of basic manners. I can't believe how barbaric you guys are, really. Attacking someone out of the blue, calling them by the wrong name, insulting them, and not letting them talk—you're just terrible. What's worse is that you haven't even learned your lesson despite me spelling out what you've done wrong. I even doubt if you're listening to me. I go out of my way to educate you, and this is the thanks I get? I've probably mentioned this before, so isn't it cruel of you to make me repeat myself? I don't really want this, you know? In fact, I don't want anything. If this is what I'm going to receive, why bother teaching you manners? But since I do it anyway, why not treat me a little better? I'm human too, aren't I? So stop treating me like a punching bag! I don't understand how you could mistake me for such a thing, but it's just the difference between a satisfied being like myself and unsatisfied beings like you. Regardless of class, what you did to me is unforgivable. I've said this countless times, but I'll repeat it because it seems you don't understand: give up and die. Die for my sake. For the world's sake. For someone like you two who doesn't care about other people, you're better off dead. It would probably make the world a better place, don't you think?"

Tsk, just how long will I have to listen to this guy talking until I beat him? This whole entire battle is irritating. This whole battle probably consists of 90% of this guy's speech.

What I did not realize is that as long as I still have irritation in my heart and distraction in my mind, I can never harm Regulus.

The way my ability works is that the more I can detach myself from all distractions, the more potent my ability becomes. In that regard, you can say that Regulus is my worst match-up; his words anger and irritate me, his voice distracts me, and his every action just makes me angry. All of these factors make me distracted. This, in turn, lowers the effectiveness of my ability, which is why the Yin-Yang Orb I shot out earlier has failed to have any effect on Regulus since it didn't float through everything like I had hoped.

— — — — — — — — — — —

A/N: Sorry for the very late update. For some reason, I lost my motivation. I try to get back to writing though, so that is a good thing. Hopefully, I didn't lose my edge in writing. On the note of writing, I am kind of scared of being in the FBI watch-list for writing Regulus fanfic. After all, writing Regulus dialogues might be considered 'hate speech' or something. Joke aside, I want to say sorry again for putting this off for so long. Most of my usual readers probably had stopped reading this all together because of the long hiatus. But if you're still reading this despite everything, thank you. I will try to get the motivation to update the next chapter.