Chapter 83
While I stalked through the shrubbery between the grass and sand of the beach, and the (kind of spooky, considering my current size) forest to my right/left, I resolved to do this more when I got home. I didn't do this enough with my children, and if it weren't for that last box taking a little nip out of my tail (needed brushing anyhow...) this would have almost been fun.
But I was in danger here. The apparently basic 'White Box' monsters were much tougher than the Orange Balloon monsters from back in Raphtalia's world, and I lacked hands to build the traps that made them easy to deal with.
And while I had killed six more, (the last two being a 'two on one' that was the cause of a bit of missing fur from my tails) and my level was now three (almost four... one more...) there were stronger monsters here too.
One, was a kind of Kappa. Short, green skinned, turtle shell on their back, smooth bald head... But since I only came up to their knee, and there were two of them, I went the long way around to avoid them. Both of their names had shown up as dark purple on the Status screen, a clear indicator of them being much stronger than my current level.
An hour later of following that scent though, and I came across something new and more my size... My stomach agreed with me as well. Some kind of usapil creature, almost exactly the same in their weird 'ball-like' build, but different a colour and oddly, a name spelled in a slightly different style. Kind of like 'Ball rabbit' for Raphtalia's world, and 'Rabbit ball' for this one.
I noted this, just before I pounced it, latched on to the back of its neck (what little it had of one) and shook it around like a toy until the EXP came out.
I had to kill three more before I finally left enough of one behind for the Shield to salvage. Now level seven, my SP was getting high enough again to use other abilities. The White Small Shield had been mastered, and I was now working on the 'Rabbit Ball' Shield.
The nearest stream cleaned the taste and smell of blood away, helped get a bit of fur out from between a couple of my teeth, and I continued to follow the scent of 'woman' along the trail.
A few more (easier to kill now) boxes, another pair of (tastes like chicken) rabbit critters, and a couple of new Shield forms from local medicinal plants (oddly, the 'tree leaf' Shield came from a bitter smelling herb that had nothing to do with a tree), and this time, I put some branches into the Shield to unlock another one (no 'gathering bonus' from this one, but I'd learned my lesson on not being picky I suppose).
Now level 10, the scent of the woman I was following was getting closer. But then...
Two or more Legendary weapons in close proximity will halt EXP gain!
Wait... what? One of the others?
A little change in the wind brought the scent of the ocean and burning wood, but also of the woman I was following. A female hero? One from this world?
I stalked closer, my ears picking up the sound of the ocean waves, a bit of wind, the occasional 'pop' of a campfire, then a curious swishing noise that ended with a distant 'plunk'. Fishing rod? Well, suppose that tasty fish had to come from someplace...
The last thing I could hide under, a sad little shrub that might have been the source of some of the wood on the little fire nearby, gave me a reasonably good look at the person's back as they stood there, bare foot, in the sand. Black hair done in neat pigtails, a 'well loved' but well maintained frilly black and green dress that was stylish, as well as a dark threadbare 'haori' (kind of like a kimono 'coat' or maybe a 'happi').
And a nice sensible belt of pouches, bracers, and shin armour. Aha. She was the one who had found me, clearly. Her stealing my equipment kind of stung, but, if I had arrived here as a small fox, my armour would have been 'random junk' that arrived with me. Her shape, at least from the back, meant that almost nothing else would have fit her.
I was considering what to do next, when she made a cheerful "Aha!" and hauled backwards with the fishing rod in her hands. As it came up over her shoulder, I could clearly see the gem on it, with the distinct 'iris' pattern set into the rod's handle just behind the simple reel mechanism. Yes, this woman was a Hero.
It was the work of less than a minute to hook, reel and finally yank a forearm length fish out of the water. She was stronger than she looked, and she held the rod in one hand while she inspected the still wriggling fish dangling from the line.
The front of her, though if you didn't have a nose like mine you might mistake her for a him, revealed a few oddities. One of them was a distinctly Japanese ornament on her otherwise Victorian goth dress. Hanging from her neck by a thin white rope, was a purple crystal sphere with a white tassel under it, almost identical to a Shinto Priestess, though, in modern day these were usually red 'poms' with the dangling tassel or feather.
And the other, was my ring, resting on top of that purple orb, secured by the two thin ropes holding it around her neck.
I perked up and took a single step forward, then realized my mistake as the sad mostly dried out shrub I was hiding under made all kinds of noise at my careless movement.
"Oh!" With a deft motion she unhooked the fish and tossed it towards the campfire. "You're awake!" And between one step and the next, the fishing rod turned into a long, thin bladed tuna knife. "How did you get out here! It's very dangerous!" And her second step had that knife sheathed securely behind her back.
I was just considering 'fight or flee', when she knelt smoothly between her second and third step, and extended a hand towards me. "Come here, I don't want to hurt you."
I realized two things here. First, I felt kind of bad for Loaner, Spot, Chime and all the other 'mini Xenos', who got this sort of treatment all the time. The second, was she was speaking Japanese. Even with the Shield and her weapon translating in that near telepathic way, I'd grown used to really listening to what was being said, so I could learn Raphtalia's language.
So, I stepped forward, shook a few twigs off myself, stepped a bit closer, and sat down like a good fox just out of reach.
Or so I thought. No sooner had I sat myself down, my tails swishing around my legs in that well practised attempt at pointless modesty, then she had her hands under my forelegs and around my chest.
Then, I was up off the ground, and had to suffer through being hugged, sparkled at, some girlish 'squee' noises, and having her cheek rubbed against me in various places. "You are SO CUTE!" Was about the only coherent sentence I could make out between all the other noises while I was being handled.
After at least a minute of this kind of stuffed animal treatment, I finally had enough and managed to put one of my paws against her cheek before she could once again rub her face against me. She tried (not very hard, but she did try) to press her face a little closer, but relented and held me at arms length again.
"Would you like something to eat? It's been so long since I've met something friendly! And now that you're here, I'll have to take care of you properly!" She moved her face away, my paw print a little pink pattern on her clear white skin.
I felt kind of bad, but also a weird little... something... when I replied with a little ball of Foxfire between us. With my once again reduced status, it was a sad little thing that might have been able to start a fire if I REALLY tried...
But it snapped her out of her cheer like a bucket of water over fire.
"I'm sorry." She said, setting me down, "I..."
I did a full body shake, just to try and settle my fur a little, and walked towards the campfire, once again sitting like a good fox. And this is where I started my 'chat' with her, using my paw in the soft sand and writing 'Ko' 'Do' 'Ri' as neatly as I could (thankfully, I never bothered to spell my name with any fancy katakana), and then a little arrow that pointed towards me.
She came over and knelt in front of me, her eyes wide at my (huh, better than usual) Kanji. While she sat there with that surprised expression, I added, 'cook' and 'fish'.
"Very well, Kodori-sama. I will cook this fish for you." She smiled, then mumbled, "An actual Kitsune? I'm so lucky!" Followed by a tiny 'eeee' noise of happiness at the end.
While she got the fish ready, and no, she was going to cook it properly it seemed (no 'stab with stick and leave by the fire' for this girl it seemed), I got myself set up for some simple 'I can't speak' conversation. While I could have been vocal, make a 'yip' noise for yes, growl for no, etc etc. I was a civilized fox, and she knew what a Kitsune was.
So, I wrote with my paw on the sand, 'yes' 'no' 'maybe' and after a moment of considering, 'why' and 'how'. I still didn't have enough power to change shape, but now that I'd been 'caught' and she was a fellow hero, I couldn't go and gain levels without leaving her presence. I could feel my body growing though, as disturbing as that was, so at least that 'rule' was the same.
It wasn't long before she put down a reasonably made clay plate that held a slab of fish steak that she had seasoned with a bit of the local herbs. She even left the skin on for a little extra texture! As soon as I found my voice, I would let her hug me again or something. That is, if she wasn't my enemy. She didn't seem to realize I was a hero, or that the Shield was another legendary weapon. Did she think it was a 'Kitsune accessory' or something?
I nibbled at the fish until I felt my hunger stop clawing at me for attention, then tapped my paw down next to 'How'.
"How? How did I get here?" I tapped 'yes'. "Well... Do you know about hero summoning?" 'yes', "A few years ago, I was playing a game with my sisters, back home." She said that word how I did, "A special one where you..." She trailed off, "I suppose you wouldn't know about VRMMO or anything like-"
I tapped 'yes' again.
"You know what that is?" She was surprised, but nodded when I pawed at 'yes' again. "Well, it was called 'Second Life online', do you know of it?" 'no'. "Well, something weird happened, and while the three of us entered the game together that day, once I never actually met up with them... It wasn't long before I noticed that it wasn't a game."
Huh, while the other three had apparently played a game, but were pulled here just before, or just after, getting killed, she had been pulled in like I had, for 'touching something related to the world'.
Kinda, sorta?
"It was supposed to be a 'Sleep Pod' game, where a few years of game time is really just enough time to get a good sleep. Perfect for really busy people who still want to play games." She sighed, taking a nibble out of her fish, "Instead, I end up stuck here." She paused, "Well no... Not here but in this world."
Years... That didn't make sense. So, I tapped 'why', and also nibbled at my food.
"Why?" I tapped why, how, pleased that at least 4 worlds and one alternate history of Earth had a '5 degree head tilt'. "Ah, well, I was apparently summoned because the Dragon Emperor was causing havoc. My party and I went on an adventure, we gained levels, went on a boat, even found a ghost ship!"
I could see her start to lose herself in the memories of it all, and decided to give her a moment (not just because I still had more to eat).
"Glass and her friends helped me solve a bunch of riddles about that-" She looked at me, her eyes widening, "You know her?"
I couldn't help but be surprised, and my body language reflected that clearly, but I wouldn't lie to her, not to someone who was missing home. But I went a step further, and instead of just tapping 'yes' (which I did) I stuck my tails in the air, one behind the other, then fanned them out suddenly.
"You DO know her!" And I was once again picked up, and given the teddy bear treatment. Thankfully, for both of us, it was only for a moment, and she didn't shake me. She put me down, "Sorry, she, Glass, was one of my few real friends here and-"
There was a 'snap' of a branch, and from the nearby stream, three of those Kappa lumbered out. Mean looking, holding crude clubs, they had eyes on the fish, and probably me.
"Hold that thought, Kodori-sama." She said with a sigh, "I didn't think they would come this far today..."
She reached behind her, to the sheathed tuna knife, and it turned into a somewhat exaggerated cleaver. Similar in length to a Dao, but without the rings along the spine of the blade, she stepped forward with confidence.
The three Kappa increased their pace, and with a lunge the fastest one tried to smash its club into her legs. She executed a nice clean hop, minimal but easily clearing the swing, and slammed the edge of her blade into the top of the thing's head. It clove down to the middle of its ribs before she pulled the blade back.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, she kicked the body towards the second one, spun on her heel, and hacked off the arm of the third before it could bring down its club. But the second had avoided getting tangled with the first, and I could see she was about to take a solid hit from the side.
Until I put my Air Strike Shield between the monster and her exposed flank. She didn't question the sudden help, instead finishing off the third one, then ducking around my Shield and neatly decapitating the second one before it could recover from the sudden shock of bouncing off my spectral shield.
"Phew." She flicked her blade out, a bit of monster blood slipping off of it, before she checked it and put it away in its sheath again. "Huh... I didn't get any experience?" She looked back at me, "Was that you?" She motioned to the now empty air where my Shield had been.
I tapped 'yes', but then used my tails to hold up the Shield. With a little flash, it changed shape, then changed again, and one more time, before changing back. I hoped I wouldn't have to suddenly run away, but I wrote 'yuu-sha' into the sand.
"You're the... Shield hero? Huh..."
Not hostile, but also not informed. Was she summoned alone? Oh... this poor girl...
"So... The Waves are real? Other heroes were summoned?" 'yes', "I've been here so long... I have no idea what's going on out there." She sighed, "Well, if you're a hero, you want something from these? They aren't good for eating, at least, I don't think so, and I've gotten the items from everything on this little island already."
I nodded, stepping forward and watching as she expertly cut the Kappa apart, "Well, if you're the Shield hero, I'm the Hunting hero." She continued, setting aside things for me.
I did get a Shield unlock, but my level was still too low. That was going to be a problem for sure.
"Funny thing... I never actually got to the Dragon Emperor. A little while after the ghost ship, we washed up in another country, and I was thrown into this labyrinth. It's been years since I've had someone to talk to... Or... talk at?" She giggled, "I didn't think I'd ever get to..." She sniffled.
This time, I submitted to the stuffed animal treatment, carefully leaning my forehead against her knee as she knelt down.
I nearly fell into a food coma while she took comfort in another living thing's presence (that didn't want to kill her). But with a final sniffle, a bit of attention to my ears (she must have had a cat before coming here) and a completely sacrilegious boop of my nose (that I accepted in thanks for the fish), she set me down, smoothed out the fur on my back, and motioned back to my plate.
"Glass..." She said after scratching her eyebrow in thought, "Yes. She was one of my party, while we chased down the Dragon Emperor. I also met two others, a total meathead named L'arc and this really pretty lady named Therese."
She looked to me, and I tapped 'yes', then found a clear spot of sand to draw a scythe and... well I tried to make it a gem, but it was really just a ball with little 'sparkle lines' drawn around it.
"You know them too! Oh... I'm so glad they're still alive." She put a hand over her heart, sighing, "But yes, I had been separated from them, captured, and thrown in here."
This time, I used a claw tip to draw 'where'. She was being a good sport about this.
"Well... It's a weird place. Some kind of labyrinth. You saw the portal to get out of the dungeons. There are other portals all over this little place, monsters too. I've been here long enough only a couple of them are really threatening and only in large numbers." She put her hand on the hilt of her Weapon, "The hunting hero is the best at slaying monsters. But that's all I can do."
I wondered who had put her here, and if that act would make them a monster. I considered for a moment, slowly nibbling the last of my fish, looking at my status screen, zipping through my inventory, and just... thinking.
"Was it tasty, Kodori-sama?" Her question snapped me back to 'now', and I went over to 'yes' and did my best to draw a heart around it. It wasn't very good, but she laughed and smiled, "Thank you, did you want more?"
I had to tap 'no', but carefully (mindful of my horns) pressed my forehead against her knee, yes, like a cat.
"Later then, for sure." She rubbed the top of my head and neck. "Did you have more questions?"
I did. Lots of them! But writing in the sand was cumbersome. Still, I pawed at 'yes', but then wandered to a bigger patch of sand.
Thinking on it, I'd only once been to the beach as a fox, and it was only long enough to change into a fox, and pull the cart home from Melen. Saltwater didn't agree with my poor toe beans. But, I endured, doing my best to write. For the sake of speed, I only wrote important words, skipping things like 'the' 'and' 'is' etc etc.
Kizuna, again, was patient, finding something else to do (she went back to fishing), while I wrote.
"Yip." I called her over, the first 'noise' I'd made at her past a couple of grumbles for being used as a stuffed animal.
She came over, stood beside me, then knelt and scooped me up. "Let's see." She started, mumbling for a moment as she added all the little words I'd skipped, then spoke again, "You need to level, we can't be close when we kill monsters. No experience that way. Too weak to do things. Thank you for the fish."
She paused to take her hand off my chest, and carefully scroofled my ears, "You are very welcome, ah!" I poked her with my nose (cold wet nose) to get her back on track. "You're level 10." She paused, "Okay, I know where you can hunt... but if I'm too far I can't help if you get in trouble?" She rested her hand between my ears and horns, and went back to reading. "After you level a little, you want to see more of the island."
She then lifted her hand to the ornament dangling around her neck, and my wedding ring that rested on top of it, "And don't lose your ring..."
I hopped out of her arms, and stood next to the last line.
"You need to level so you can change."
I nodded.
I could tell she was eager to have an actual conversation with me, and could practically watch her connect dots and try and figure out where I could go to hunt monsters. She nodded, smiled, then said, "I think I know just the place. But you might have a hard time at first..."
There are places in the world, where people say 'there were rats as big as cats in the subway' or the like. And after picking me up again, Kizuna took me back to the dungeon (the glowing portal making my full stomach a bit queasy for a moment) down a side tunnel I'd avoided (because her scent hadn't gone down it in a while) and through another portal.
This put us someplace with thick stone block walls, dim lighting that was provided mostly by glowing moss on the walls, and a metre wide trench in the floor that had a thin trickle of water running along it. Old sewer? If she was the only one here, it would make sense it was so clean, but it made me super curious about what this place was before it was a prison for discarded heroes.
"Okay." She knelt down and spoke quietly, "I don't like coming here, because I really hate rats. But they're a little smaller than you, and around your level. But, you have to be careful, okay?"
I nodded, and she looked towards the portal, "No monster will go through a portal, so if you have to, you can run away. Please be safe?"
I nodded again, and got up on my hind legs to poke her chin with my nose.
And with one last look over her shoulder, she went through the portal, the warning message about two heroes being too close vanishing with her.
The first thing I did, now that she was gone and I could gain EXP again, was to use my tails to set the Shield down, and have it spit out a few items. It wasn't much, and my lack of hands limited me to things I could either break (like smoke bombs) chew the cork off of (potion vials) or eat (my last few nourishing beverages).
If I had hands, I could have poisoned the beverages and just left them on the floor. But I didn't risk that. Being so low level meant I couldn't trust myself to resist any of the toxins I'd made.
Supply cache laid out, I went hunting prey worthy of a fox.
In ones and twos, I stalked the 'large rat' monsters. On silent feet, I got close enough to pounce, and like a snow fox, I came down mouth first on my prey. Unlike a snow fox, I flailed what I caught around like a pillow, using the walls, floor, my horns, the Shield, other rats, and pure momentum, to kill them.
Using what I understood of the system, I did what I had done to the Balloon monsters, and anyone I'd fought bare handed, like Motoyasu, and 'skipped' the weird 'attack power vs defence power' system. Holding it in my hands (or mouth in this case) when the monster expired from whatever trauma I had inflicted, gave me the EXP for the kill.
But it wasn't long before others, many many others, got curious about the intruder that was killing them.
Then it was about agility. Jumping over groups, scrabbling up slopes of stone, using my longer legs to flee for a bit of space.
I only had to run long enough for the fastest of them to single itself out... Then others who were more interested in me, than the free meal of my most recent kill that I had no interest in keeping.
Like the dungeon (not MY dungeon, the one I'd woken up in) this place was a twisting maze, but I had (ahem) left my mark on the walls near the portal. I'd have no trouble finding my way back, and would remind myself to drink more water later.
I might have overdone it. Just a little.
I limped back through the dungeon, following Kizuna's scent through the twisting halls of brown stone and magic torches. I had hunted long enough to return to the portal to drink a potion, go hunting again, then return. My body was sore, I'd been bitten quite a few times, and my little fox body had very little room for potions. Without being able to speak, I couldn't cast healing magic, so it was potion sickness that called off my hunt.
But, I had been very successful. Sadly, I could now expect a night or two of bone shattering growing pains, ripping and stretching joints and muscles, and a near blinding hunger when I woke up. It wasn't much, and not nearly enough, but I had managed to crack level twenty, unlocking various abilities, but not the Shields from Raphtalia's world. I'd need to find the materials in THIS world to unlock them, or whatever analog they had.
All the same, I was looking forward to growing. Being used as a stuffed animal by a fellow displaced woman was fun and all, but I had work to do.
I must not have been as sneaky as I thought, or Kizuna had actual skill at listening for things (unlike 3/3 other heroes I knew...). A couple of turns away from the cell I had woken up in, she poked her head out around the corner, and dashed towards me like I was some long lost pet returning home.
This time, as much as it was clear she wanted to, she didn't instantly pick me up and do the usual things one did to a fluffy pet. I decided to help her out, using my tails to get the Shield off my back, and stand on its inner curve instead. As the saying went, return with your Shield, or on it. I did both.
"You're hurt..." She said as I did my best to sit in the middle of the Shield, feeling various bite marks and dried blood pull at my skin. I'd had much worse injuries, but it had been a long day, and now that I wasn't moving, I couldn't ignore the pain as well.
She brought me into her 'cell', with the nice bed and reading couch and all that, and set the Shield on her desk. Once there, she took on that 'far off' look myself and the other heroes had when looking through the status screen. Instead of bothering her, I got off the Shield, stood it up on edge with my tails, and with a little 'clink' of clay, a jar of healing ointment rattled to the table.
I could have put this on myself, but it was meant to be rubbed over wounds, not rolled around in. I'd have looked like some kind of weird green slime monster if I'd done that.
"Huh. Oh, a Japanese label?" She commented, taking the lid off and sniffing at the paste inside, "Ew! What IS that smell?" She recoiled from the scent, holding the little jar at arms length, "Healing salve? This is how you treat wounds where you were summoned?"
I nodded, but summoned up another item from the Shield, "Soap?" Much the same in every world that I'd been to, soap was made 'by the brick' and yes, I had soap (since three of four people in my party had some kind of fur, it was even made for that!).
"Well, suppose you wouldn't want blood all over you... Get back on your Shield, and I'll take you just outside to the stream."
A short bath later in VERY cold water (that I did drink a bunch of), I was clean, and she had rubbed a little of the healing paste over my injuries. She then watched with all kinds of sparkles around her, as the paste healed my wounds up in fast forward, and then put me in the water again to clean the smell off me.
I then had to suffer getting towelled off while she hummed a little song to herself, giggling a little when I looked like some kind of fluffy fox shaped Pomeranian . As much as it irritated me, made my skin feel weird, and made my Kitsune nature feel undignified...
She was laughing. I hardly knew her, but I understood her at least a little, and I could endure my discomfort if it brought someone deserving a bit of joy.
Once back in her 'cell', she asked, "I've never seen that kind of medicine before. Do you have other stuff in there?" She rubbed at her eyebrow, thinking, "My status screen usually tells me what stuff is, but it didn't with your medicine."
So, I stood the Shield up again, and had it spit out a few more things. "Huh... Yeah, I don't get anything when I look at these." She said, holding up various glass vials. "Though, you've coloured their corks, to help you know what they are?"
I nodded, suddenly wishing for some sand to write in. But came up with another idea. I used a paw to roll a green topped vial aside, then made a tiny little growl and bit her finger lightly. Of course, I couldn't 'damage' her, but after a few playful nibbles she booped my nose. "Okay, so this one is for healing." I nodded, "But why didn't you drink one? I mean, you could get your teeth on the cork right?"
I nodded again, but let my tongue hang from the side of my mouth. "Oh! Well, you did eat most of a fish that weighed almost as much as you."
I pawed the next one over, one with a blue cork, and summoned my foxfire. I made a show of having it bounce off the table a couple times, 'throwing' it against the wall, then juggling it with my tails. Then I crouched down and yawned, dispelling it. "Oh? So this one... restores magic? How odd... We don't have anything like that here. Or rather, we DO have mana items, but you don't drink them."
No mana potions? I filed that away for later.
The third one, for SP, had a white cork. For this, I lifted up the Shield, then tapped its bottom edge on the table, summoning an Air Strike Shield. Then, I captured her couch in a Shield Prison. She clapped politely at the show (and moved the couch back into place), but then turned to look at the little glass vial, "We don't have anything that can restore SP... Not in a bottle at least." I gave her my very best head tilt, and she continued, "Well, my weapon has a couple of abilities that let me absorb the energy from dead monsters. Other then a couple of my weapon's passive abilities, time is the only thing that brings it back."
Huh. So they had similar healing potions, no SP potions, and a different mana item. That made me curious, so after I'd picked up the healing potion and SP potion, and fed them back into the Shield, I pawed the Mana potion, then motioned with my nose at her.
"What do we use?" I nodded, and she got that 'look' on her face, "Ah, here." And took out a little red crystal. It looked a little like really red Rose Quartz. "We use these. Just crush it in your hand or whatever, and it restores your magic." She offered it to me (again, making me feel a little sorry for the Manor's mascots) like a treat, palm open and up. "I have no idea if they are edible..."
I touched it with my nose to sniff at it, and it snapped suddenly. Almost like my mishap with Yakasa's 'element test' with her 'fire' crystal. It just... snapped in half and turned to rose coloured vapour.
Dragon Vein unlocked! Received 3000 xp!
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" She didn't seem to mind I'd just broken the little crystal, and was more concerned by me nearly falling backwards in surprise. Gentle hands picked me up and set me on my feet again.
How to tell her?
I nudged her hand away, then pawed at the vial of magic water still on the table. I licked at it a couple of times, the glass tasting a little dusty, then nosed the vial towards her.
"Well, only fair since you used mine?" A pause as she drank it down, "Tastes-wow! I just got a bunch of experience from that! Enough to power up my weapon, and restore my magic!"
I nodded a few times, doing a little spin in place since. Poking that crystal had been worth most of another level. And if they were a common recovery item here... GAH! I wanted to talk, to ask questions, to just...
I yawned suddenly. Yeah, that would solve most problems... maybe.
"Aw, sleepy fox." She smiled, waiting until after I yawned to pat my head. No doubt at all that she owned a cat back where she'd lived. "We've both had a long day. Would you like a blanket?"
I couldn't help myself, and I leaned into her hand. But, I tilted the Shield a little and had it cough out a spare blanket from the inventory. It was really just for emergencies, but if this world was going to give me a dimensional storage, well, I was going to be prepared.
Mission or not, if this place was some kind of inescapable labyrinth, I was going to need at least my own hands to help her get out.
"Well, Kodori-sama. Where would you like to sleep?" She picked up the blanket and waited for me to move.
Sleep wasn't very restful. I think, for a couple hours at least, I did sleep. But then the pain started. A slow, building pain that was exactly like the pain from when I'd 'fast grown' with Raphtalia. It wasn't long before I started to alternate between flailing around, to curling up on myself, and not long after that, I woke up completely and tried to take my mind off the pain.
I didn't know how long it had been, but I'd woken Kizuna up at some point. She found me, laying on the floor in front of my little shrine, the sound of my bones and muscles grinding and pulling themselves apart rumbling in my ears.
But... with a human hand, small, but at least not 'eight years old' small, reached out to her as she found me writhing on the floor. "hi..." I managed, random items spilling out of the Shield as I tried to 'blink click' on the anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxant medications I had in there. "pink for pain." I gasped, then blacked out.
Notes!
Well well, we have another hero who is just as lost as Kodori.
In the books, the actual light novels, there is the occasional picture. Aside from what I've read on Kizuna, there is one picture where she is SUPER DUPER HAPPY looking. So that overall 'picture' is what I've based her personality from.
Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!
aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!
And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.
And! I'm looking into getting some story themed merchandise made. Join the Discord to find out more!
