Chapter 84

Being underground, I had only my internal clock to go by. But, with all the pain from my internal organs growing in overdrive, along with everything else, I had no idea how long it took to become coherent enough to do more than whimper on the floor.

Kizuna did her best to comfort me, helping me eat, drink, clean the sweat off of me, and just... be there. Yes, many headpats and ear scroofles were given as well, and at some point she asked if I had a brush.

Finally though, like waking up from a bad dream, the pain eased to something I could resist.

"i feel..." I started, prompting Kizuna to perk up and get off her couch and quick-march over to me with a jug of water and a mostly dry towel. "i feel bad for my companions." I finished, letting her help me sit up, then taking a sip of water. "If the rules are the same, then they'll be fast growing too." I took the cup of water from her, noting that my hands weren't quite the right size yet.

She held her hands near mine until she was sure I could hold everything without dropping it. "There were others? Rules? What do you mean?"

Her voice, while pleasant, made my head hurt a little. To be fair, everything made everything else hurt right now. "First." I set the cup down, offering my hand to her, "Kodori Haruhime. Shield Hero."

"I suppose we didn't really introduce ourselves properly." She smiled, taking my hand, "Kizuna Kazayama. Hunting Hero."

We shook, though, she wasn't used to the gesture. "I had three others with me. A Tanuki girl, Raphtalia. A dragon girl, Tetsu. And a filolial girl, Kuro." I touched my throat, "Oh, and a captured Spirit Tortoise named Ost." I looked at my hand, then my arm, then down, "Hmm, suppose I should actually wear something other than a blanket."

"Oh, you had that when you arrived... kinda." She said as I pulled my 'one size fits me' house robe out of the Shield, "It was really strange. You arrived alone, inside a pile of stuff. I only knew you were there when I found it, and tried picking it up." She tapped her forearm, still armoured with my armour, "I hope you don't mind?"

I shook my head, "I'll want it back when I can fit into it properly." I started to dress, uncaring if she looked or not. After however long it had been with her making sure I didn't swallow my tongue or something while I fast-grew she'd seen everything anyhow... "On the way here, I was forcibly changed into my fox form, though, in the other world, I didn't have a fox form. Though..."

"Other world... wait, you're not from this world?"

I wiggled a little as the robe fit itself to me properly, "No. Technically, the world you were summoned to, and the one I was summoned to, are at war. I was pulled in by a book written by a survivor of a previous set of waves. Just like that game you were playing was probably made by a survivor as well."

She turned that information over in her head a couple of times, the look on her face easy to read, "Wait... survivors? Then..."

"Yes, a way back is possible. The other heroes from my side all spoke of games they played that were all but identical to the world we ended up in. Though, unlike you, and me, they were pulled in at the moment of death. The book I read, spoke of a king a few generations younger than the one I met." I explained, slowly stretching, attempting to ease the pain of muscle and bone I could feel growing. "How's this? You go fishing, and I'll tell you a story. I'll even cook for you, since you did for me."

We made our way out to the beach again, this time working together to kill monsters on the way. With her already knowing everything there was to know about the place, I wasn't needed. Again though, I had to admire her. She, unlike the three from 'my side' of this war, had actual skill.

If I hadn't been there, Glass would have already won this war. They clearly had a different philosophy when it came to raising heroes.

When we got to the beach, she changed her weapon to a fishing rod, and cast out into the ocean. I then went about giving her the 'basic idea' of what had gone on before I ended up here.

"Wow... So you actually beat Glass? I... I dunno if I should be angry or not..." She admitted, watching me cook on some of my 'custom' cookware that I had stored in the Shield.

"After our first meeting, and some mysterious reason for backing off, my party and I expected her to show up again, and planned. You play games, you know how it goes. Extra planning, saving up special items, setting traps..." I sniffed at the fish, and pulled out an unripe foxberry, "Cut that in half please?"

Yes, something I'd found out about her. She was a gamer. A serious one. At least, back where ever her home was. Another thing, was she had heard of 'Dimension Wave'. A similar game to the one that brought her here. I filed THAT away for later too, since it sounded like the game that Itsuki had played... or was it Ren?

"Then you put her in a little gem... Oh boy that must have upset her!" She laughed, handing back the split pear shaped fruit.

"Don't lick your fingers, it's super so-"

"SOUR!" She made a bunch of funny faces at the taste left on her fingers.

"Well, Ost took Glass's place, and I let her go back to their world to chase down Kyo. I planned on following but..." I motioned with my spatula, my other hand carefully squeezing the sour fruit over the fish. "I'm guessing that Kyo used the time between him escaping the tortoise, and my party leaving to follow him, to set a trap or something. I don't remember anything except the pain of being turned back into a child again..."

"Weird... you were full grown back in your world right? Then grew up again, then..." She motioned to my mostly grown body, "That reminds me! You mentioned 'rules'. What did you mean?"

"Ah, finally, I get to have a conversation about this, with someone who is able to listen!" I said towards the sky, but then quickly flipped over the fish steaks. "Right, mustn't overcook... So, you thought it was a game when you arrived, but once you saw past the status screen and all that, you realized it was real."

"Yeah. I honestly forget what really clued me in... But yes!"

"Think of it like this. You have physics. Gravity, electricity, thermal transfer. The usual stuff that happens when objects interact."

"Yeah."

"Consider that 'core mechanics'." I said, turning the Shield on my arm a little, then summoning a plate, "Grab that." She did, "Okay, now, you have the 'extras'." I cut one of the fish steaks in half, putting both halves on her plate, then with a quick motion, wound my arm back as if to hit her with it.

And with a little shock to my hand, the improvised weapon jumped out of my hand with the usual error message. "Aha! You can't use anything but the Shield as a weapon. An 'extra' rule!" She recovered the spatula but walked over to the nearby stream to wash it before handing it back.

"Exactly. So, due to some weirdness, my body's age is eight years old. I was a fully grown adult, married, with children, before coming here. But, the 'rule' enforced itself on me, and I turned into a child. I levelled up, and the 'rule' says that a demi-human grows with age, or levels."

"Oh! So when you changed worlds, you became a child again!"

"Exactly. But, you knew what I was." And didn't kill me, I thought to myself.

"Yeah... Kitsune are supposed to be good luck in Glass's world." She smiled, "Oh, this is amazing..." She nibbled at the fish.

"Well, if Kitsune are 'monsters' but not 'demi-human' in Glass's world..."

She swallowed her mouthful, "Then the 'rules' turned you into a monster... But now you're a demi-human?"

"That's something from my home world working for me." I said, "I didn't have enough power until all that levelling, but yes, I can change shape." I tended to my own fish, poking it flipping it, then squeezing juice on it, "Now, as limiting as the Shield is, I can still use 'core rules' to get around my lack of attack power. For example, I can hold a monster underwater until it drowns. Or smash it against a rock. Or throw it onto a sharpened stick. But..."

"But if you just hit it with the Shield, or your fist, or whatever, it becomes 'number against number' of your status." She nodded, "Oh... that's sneaky!" She gave me a little squint eye, "You're not going to eat all of that, are you?"

"If you start fishing now, I can make more. But I'm going to be taller than you in about a day, and I don't want to feel like my stomach is trying to claw its way out of me while it happens." I smiled.

She looked at her empty plate, sighed, but took out her Weapon again, "So you came to this world to find Kyo... But..."

"But I'm stuck here." I nodded, sitting down and trying not to drool while my fish cooled a little on my own plate. "But, every cage can be broken. And I've already moved heaven, hell and earth to get home in another world. Food first though."

She didn't look convinced, but hid her doubts with a silly smile and a question, "Say, if you've grown, does that mean you can change into a bigger fox now too? Can I ride you?"

"Well, you've made me dinner twice now. Maybe I'll let you."

To distract me from the pain of my organs and bones expanding at a rate that you could normally only see through a time-lapse camera, we went exploring. Honestly, it was more of Kizuna being a tour guide. She'd long surpassed everything on this weird island labyrinth, and while we did have to stop and fight occasionally, we never encountered real danger.

She let me try to fight solo a few times. Mostly so I could figure out my own way of hunting 'the local animals', but I think she also understood that I didn't want to 'do nothing' for what I was getting. For example, a heap of materials for Shield forms. 'Drop materials' that were both from the Shield soaking in entire bodies, as well as various pelts and skins I would no doubt make use of later.

But aside from the monsters constantly spawning in that weird 'game world' way they did, this place had everything. It was a tiny world in of itself. Sure, some of the architecture and paths looked like insane knot-work, but whomever made this place, and I had no doubt this place was a great work of magic, could have used it to house and feed and support thousands of people...

Provided they could survive the monsters. But there were lots of safe places too, 'between portal' places like the 'dungeon' Kizuna lived in that spawned no monsters.

It had a few problems though. And the first was that it was disconnected. In Raphtalia's world, I had that all present Wave timer. Here? Nothing. Or rather, the timer showed all -:- like an alarm clock after a power outage.

We did try the sound stones, and they only had the occasional connection problem, a sign of great distance, or screwy magic. But they did work. This gave me a bit of hope, but that was quickly dashed when the Occulus for various people in Raphtalia's world, as well as the sound stones for the rest of my party, were getting nothing but dead air.

"Well." Kizuna said, cleaning her tuna knife off and changing it into a skinning knife. "Oh hey... you ARE taller now!"

I looked down at her, smiled, then started a 'is any dirt on me' injury check of myself, "Just a little more to go." I said, still feeling the edges of growing pains all over the place, as well as that near constant hunger. "Lemme help."

We set about carving up some kind of weird bear/shark/beaver thing, "Oh, save that tail! Even better than beaver tail back on Earth."

"Sure." I nodded, "You were about to say?"

"Oh right. There's only one more place to visit really. The exit." She raised a hand to stop me from commenting, "It's the exit, but I can't go through! You'll see why when we get there."

I swallowed what I was about to say, my near reflexive response to idiot heroes nearly getting ahead of me. "Well, suppose I'll need to see the lock before I make a key." I nodded, "Hmm." I stripped off a sheet of skin from the monster, "This might make a good weapon handle... or weatherproofing..."

"Shame you don't have an anvil in there..." She motioned to the Shield, "After wearing this, even if it isn't quite the right size, and hearing about all the other stuff you've made..."

"Most of my base metals have been used up too." I sighed, "Though, I have a few things that are... hmm..." I almost slipped into a 'what to make' trance, when my stomach growled at me.

"Food first. Maybe a nap. I haven't done so much in a day for a while now!" She laughed.

We had another cookout at her favourite fishing spot (chosen because it had a near zero spawn rate, and had the best fish), I thought about what I'd need, and where I would get it.

This place... This labyrinth... shared a few weird properties similar to Melromarc's geography. It was apparently an 'island', with beaches, fjords and inlets typical of any coast. But otherwise, everything 'inland' was so clearly divided. There was a narrow band of 'grassy sand' between the forest and beach. A thin strip of scrubby bushes between the mountains and forests, and a near razor straight line of barren land I could jump across, between the plains and mountains.

It was like Melromarc and the surrounding territories, in VERY miniature scale. We'd explored the entire place save the 'exit' in a day.

This raised a few more BIG questions, but I put them on pause to eat.

After food (where I could almost have made a drop item from all of the happy sparkles Kizuna was shedding at the taste), I went back to thinking, then before bed, we collaborated on 'where to get what'.

"So, you need clay, water, stone and ideally coal." She listed the items I needed back at me.

"Yes. Coal can be substituted, but burns hotter than wood. Clay is simple, stone is all over the place. I don't have enough base iron to make what I need to maybe talk to people outside this prison... but I might have something else. I do have a couple of tools I could melt down for it, but they were gifts." I was sure Clive wouldn't mind making me another shovel, but he'd worked hard to make and enchant it.

"Okay. You want to do that before, or after we visit the exit?"

"After." I said, "Sleep well. And sleep on your side, you snore."

"I do no... Well I haven't had to care about that for years now." She stuck her tongue out at me.

The next morning, Kizuna yawned herself around the corner of my cell/shrine and spotted me doing my morning stretching. "Wow..."

I lowered my leg from the 'standing split' I'd been doing, then bent double to wrap my hands around my ankles, "Now that I don't feel like I've been used as a punching bag, I can do my usual morning stretching."

"I kinda feel like I've been a lazy slob all this time..." Kizuna laughed, "And you're so tall! Why?!" She pouted, "And not thin at all..."

She had told me she was eighteen years old. But she had a nearly boyish figure, kind of like a slightly taller version of Chigusa back in Orario. "Well, you've spent a couple years here, eating mostly fish, and fighting daily. An active, nearly zero fat diet during your last couple of growing years..."

I stood up straight, then continued to arch backwards to flip over and do a hand stand. "Almost nothing around here tastes as good as fish though..." She pouted, "Glass never ate, or grew... And Therese was always so..." She sighed.

I walked on my hands for a moment or two, then did another backwards arch to get to my feet again. "Well." I stood properly, "It wouldn't be the first time I've given suggestions for that kind of growth. Now... You have something of mine?"

She realized what I meant without needing a reminder, and took off that pendant of hers, slipped my wedding ring off the thin rope, and handed it to me, "Your ring, Kodori-sama." She smiled at the mock formality, but I accepted my wedding ring back with a bow.

"I accept your service, Kizuna. Thank you for not losing the second most precious thing I own while I couldn't keep it safe myself." I put my ring back on with a little shiver, little flashes of the memories within appearing behind every eye blink. "Let me get the rest of my gear on, and we'll go see what we're working with."

We had what I needed to work metal. A simple furnace made of reused stone blocks from various little ruins around the 'island', clay made into mortar, trees aplenty for fire, and a simple bellows made of animal skin, wood and Balloon glue.

Sadly, as much as I wanted to hit things just to relieve a bit of stress, I was still on a time limit. So, I followed Kizuna through some of the places we toured around yesterday, and we went down another tunnel that she had said nothing about at the time.

"Here we are." She said finally, stopping at a big double door. Thinking about it, it was the only door I'd seen that hadn't been broken or pulled off its hinges. All the same, she pushed the door open with ease.

"Huh, has the proper gravitas for an important place." I mumbled.

A large circular room, almost like an small observatory, you know, on a mountain with a telescope sticking out of the side. One of those. Sadly, there was no telescope, but the person who made the place had carved all kinds of neat things into the dome. Constellations, a few pictograms, bits of what might have been a story about how this place came to be...

"This reminds me... Have to check the stars when we get out of here." I said, "I suppose that's the door?"

It wasn't much of a door. More like an archway that had been carved into the nice mosaic of the curved wall across from the double door we came in from. It didn't open to anywhere, but considering that this entire island had all kinds of portals on it, well, I suppose this one was just 'off'.

"Yeah, that's it. I can turn it on, but..."

"Go ahead then." I said, walking towards it.

To the sides of the room, there were a pair of big metal levers that seemed to engage big gears at their base. They were just out of reach of each other, but one after the other, she pulled one, then the other, and with a smooth clunk something under the floor started to hum.

My tails all started to fluff out with a sudden rise in magic pressure, and with a little sparkling crackle, that empty archway came alive with the same rainbow glow of the other portals around the island.

With a nod that had an echo of hopelessness to it, Kizuna motioned me to continue forward. Two steps later, the Shield perked up with a big (red) grey error message.

Error

The four holy heroes are not allowed to cross between the worlds.

I stepped forward again, wondering if something Ost had done let me bypass that. But no. My hand stopped at the 'surface' of the glowing doorway, as if it were covered in glass. Of course, I gave it a few other tests. Poke, prod, kick, punch, tossing a random item through (this bounced off the stone behind the wall and rebounded back at me harmlessly), giving it a rude hand gesture or two, attempting a bit of Senjitsu (my sad little 'killer icicle' vaporized where the 'glass' had stopped me), and finally, I touched it with my horns.

Aside from an unpleasant static tingle, and the error message opening up a new little window every time I tried something... Nothing.

"Huh." I said after a moment of stillness, looking at the pretty colours swirling around in the doorway.

"Glass once told me this place was built by some old wizard. Some kind of fortress. But there was a problem with the magic. There are books and skeletons all over the place in some of the rooms we didn't go to, but..." She blinked at me, turning the levers back to the 'off' position. "Wait, you want to read them?"

"I like books." I said, "It gives me something to do before sleeping. Though, I won't be able to read them unless I learn the language. Okay... So, fortress, a wizard did it, and it's apparently not part of the system. Or rather, it is apart from the system enough, that it counts as another world..."

"Why do you look excited? We're still stuck here!"

"Let's go back to our chat about rules. I was given a free pass to leave, so I could go to Glass's world, but got put here, this means my 'free pass' has expired. You were exiled because of politics, and were part of Glass's world." I started sorting out things in the Shield's inventory, getting some ideas together and grinning, "What does this tell you?"

She paused, playing with the little tassel thing on the crystal neck ornament she wore, "Wait... So this is a third world?"

"One that was made using the rules of the system, but not part of either of them. I have no Wave timer, I can't access the hourglasses from Melromarc, this is essentially a world with a population of two. But, to get us here, there has to be a way to either turn off that limit, or some kind of key to bypass it."

"Well, either that, or whomever built this place just didn't want heroes coming in whenever they pleased." Kizuna sighed, "But still, how does this help?"

"Knowing there is a way in, is half the problem solved." I grinned, "And if it's a 'third' world, with monsters, a small population, and the ability to support more..." I looked down at the Shield, and could have sworn it looked nervous. "You said it was a shame I didn't have an anvil in this thing... Well, it's basically an indestructible object."

"You wouldn't..."

You are damn right I would.

I had to adjust a few things in the simple forge setup we'd put together, so I didn't have to move from a single spot. But now, I was sitting in the near exact centre of the furnace, a stump, and a glass oven. My levelling had given me access to some of the low level Shields I'd unlocked from Raphtalia's world, so I was using the 'light metal' Shield since it was the biggest 100 percent flat surface Shield I had.

But now, I was using it as an anvil.

I was almost out of metals, but I did have something I could use, and with my inner Kitsune fu-fu-ing up a storm in the back of my mind in a most undignified way, I was melting down a nameless metal that could only be harmed by the 'legendary weapons' or the 'vassal weapons'.

"Where did you get this stuff?" Kizuna asked as I looked into the furnace, "It feels... kinda familiar?"

She was holding up a fragment of the broken hourglass we'd found near Cal Mira, the dull brass colour reflecting the mid day sunlight.

"I have this theory. That part of the Waves is to let the Vassal Weapon holders across so they can attack the Hourglasses of the enemy world. But to do that, something about the weapons themselves needs to bypass their toughness."

She dropped the shard of metal as if it shocked her, "Wait, this is from an hourglass? You're going to make one?"

"Figured your world would have them too."

"Yeah. It needs a special item to use."

"For my side, I have a skill that lets me save checkpoints. They're gone, but that might be because of the world shift, or distance." I worked the bellows, "More wood?"

She fed some cut logs into the space under the furnace, and with a steady 'whoosh' of the bellows, I fed more and more air into the fire. Slowly... almost reluctantly, the bit of metal in the furnace was changing colour.

"So... You want to make an hourglass... What will that do?"

"Good question. But if this works, maybe, just maybe, I can change the rules a little. I'm not strong enough right now to make a tree. Not without some kind of extra assistance. Who knows? Maybe I'll just sacrifice the thing and break us out that way?"

"Make a tree?"

"Oh right... Must have skipped that part. Haven't been all here recently." I grinned, "Now don't be alarmed..." And I reached into the furnace.

This weird metal was incredibly difficult to work. Not only was it super tough, even white hot, I kind of had to use the Shield a the 'hammer'. My smith hammer was only applying pressure, not leaving a mark on it. But that driving force was shaping it to the surface of the Shield. Like I was forging something upside down. The Shield could 'hurt' the metal, and shape it.

Of course, knowing that, I got Kizuna in on the action. With her actual bladed weapon, as well as a plethora of different shapes (at one point, I used the end of her fishing rod to shape a bit of fine detail into the metal) I slowly made a simple, miniature version of the Dragon Hourglass.

Oh sure, it didn't have all the fancy spinning bits, or the spiralling dragon motif, or all those other details that were probably magicked into shape, not worked like real metal. But using skill, patience, a LOT of wood, some burn salve, focusing my will with every hammer swing, lots of mana potions to recover from enchanting, and all kinds of other stuff as workarounds...

It was done.

"I still shiver every time you touch something that I know should melt your skin off..." Kizuna said as I carefully used the edge of her hunting knife (holding the tip to guide it, while she herself held the handle) to shape the glass 'bowl'.

Making the bowl had been amusing. She blushed while I blew through a blow-gun made from the Hunting weapon. She held it steady while I blew through it, the (oddly, but not surprisingly) tough glass acting like thin metal instead of glass.

But now, I was shaping the last bit, the bottom orb of glass holding the special sand, while I trimmed the glass of the opposite bowl carefully, and let the top 'weld' itself to the open double sphere.

"I have the smallest bits of my old strength. That one, I kept on the way here. My tails were next." I said, a barely damp cloth polishing the glass as it sealed itself together.

"Tails that have been far too friendly." She said, dusting off a bit of my shed fur from her rear.

"You brushed them. They love you now." I said, the glass looking flawless now, "It's done." I said with a sigh, holding the delicate looking glass. I waved it around gently, trying to cool it down a little faster, while my other hand collected my tails to stop them from clinging to Kizuna. "You know better." I said to them.

Now no longer needing to be standing right next to me, she backed away from all the heat sources, "But... How do you know it worked?"

I didn't want to do it, but I needed to know.

So, I put the delicate, double fist sized glass interior of the hourglass on the ground, and brought my foot down on it, as hard as I could.

It then rolled under my heel, redirected the force of my stomping foot, and I ended up flat on my back with an undignified noise and grunt of pain as I landed on my tails. "ow."

Kizuna picked up the glass and dusted it off with her hand, "Wow... okay. But you have no attack power, right?"

"Toss it against the side of the furnace."

Clink, ping, clank, rattle.

"It chipped the stone." She commented, "But it's fine."

"If it didn't have such a specific weakness... I'd make a Shield out of it." I laughed, "Success!"

Kizuna laughed as I grabbed at the hourglass, got her hand instead, and did a little dance with me. "So now, you put them together?" She held up the 'stand' for the hourglass, complete with little pivot in the middle to turn it over, and some other little embellishments to make it look fancy. Not nearly as fancy as the originals, but I couldn't help putting in spiral posts on the four corners and simple fox heads on top to hold the top plate in place. Some etching as well, you know, because it was supposed to be fancy.

"Before I put them together though... Let's go back to the portal room. Something like this needs power, and there was a lot of magic localized in that room."

"Why not use that power for a tree? I mean... Kind of curious about that now..." She laughed, "I'll bet that turtle was super surprised!"

"With how weird this place is, growing a tree like that might just pull it all apart. Now... Maybe later. Or maybe I'll just make a little one... You know, something to hang my coat on or something..."

This did bring up a little idea... If I was going to fix as many things in my favour as possible, then I needed one more thing...

So, back in the portal room, Kizuna set down the little shrine she'd made for me, and with a bit of decoration, a wide chalk circle, some simple binding symbols I'd used many times for many purposes (like growing a tree inside a mountain sized tortoise), I took my mask off the top of the shrine, put it on, and placed the hourglass stand inside the little red 'temple'.

"Here goes." I said, moving to put the half filled glass orbs into the stand.

"Think it will work?" Kizuna asked.

"Yes, no, or no and explodes." I smiled, knelt, and started to speak in that ultra formal 'talking to the Gods' voice that I'd been taught back in Kyoto.

"My name is Kodori Haruhime." I started, slowly, methodically, opening the clasps to pop the top off of the hourglass stand, working in a rhythm in time with my words, "In the name of Hestia, Her beloved Kitsune wishes to claim this place as her own." Slowly, I lowered the glass into place, hooking it into the ring of metal that would allow it to rotate from top to bottom, "To make it a home, a haven, a place of safety, discipline, and justice."

Things clicked into place, and I put the top of the hourglass on the four posts, "I will uphold the sacred promises of hospitality. I name this place, The Hearth. "

Click.

As the last little fox head clicked into place, forever locking the top plate in place, Kizuna pulled the levers to activate the portal. Magic pulsed under the floor, and with a slight sputter, the portal set into the wall lit up. But so did the Shield.

ERROR ERROR ERROR

ERROR ERROR ERROR

ERROR Error... error?

Location... Registered.

I stood up, bowing fist-in-palm to my own shrine, then turned to Kizuna. She had this dumbfounded look on her face, and her weapon was flashing gently as her eyes looked into the middle distance.

"You did it?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"But... How does this help?" She asked.

"What does being a Guest mean?" I asked her, stepping towards the portal, stopping, and offering her my hand.

She came over to me, paused, then took my hand, "I... I dunno? I mean, be nice to your host, accept what you're given, be polite...?"

"It means, you must be allowed to leave." I laughed, the sound vibrating through my mask as I pulled her close to me, hugged her tight, and walked through the portal.

NOTES!

In the books, Naofumi uses one of the seeds from the demon plant incident, to break a portal and have it 'throw them out'.

But Kodori has other plans, and since I can't remember if this mini world/fortress was ever used again in the books, well, as Kodori herself likes to say... Mine now.

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!