Chapter 89

People around me were starting to scream as the Ringmaster's body fell to the floor, his head bouncing off the sand with a distinctly rubbery motion. Kuro, just as terrified looking, clung to the post holding up the platform.

Behind me, Kizuna and Chris were making distressed noises, but I had eyes only for Kuro and her problem. That being what was clearly some kind of sealing charm on her back between her wings.

"Tetsu... She's in the back!" She gasped, "I can't... This paper... I've been given an order!"

"It's like the slave mark." Kizuna said, "Hey what-"

I stepped over the corpse of the ringmaster, then started to pick up speed towards Kuro. "Hold still."

It was causing her physical pain to obey, since her last command was to cross the rope. "You can't just pull that off! You ha..." Kizuna sighed as I essentially did exactly that.

Except, as I touched the slave ofuda, I ate the power inside it. My anger at seeing yet another slaver abusing children meant I hardly felt the curse as my own power consumed it. At the tent's entrance, I heard someone shouting, not screaming, and I turned to look, then look back to Kuro, "Are you hurt?"

She nodded and accepted one of my healing potions, "Tetsu is in the cages... They..."

"You've kicked the hornet's nest now." Kizuna said, "I can't fight people remember!"

"Stop them!" Someone with a hint of authority in their voice yelled.

"Stop thinking with your weapon. Come on." I turned and gave my shoulder a pat, prompting Kuro to grip on to me.

"Gr?"

"What..." Kuro sounded confused, but her arms held tight. "Of course I smell bad... no need to tease!"

"gr..."

Kizuna, Chris and I jogged in the direction of the strongest smell. Before we ducked into the even deeper darkness of the 'back room' of the circus tent, Kizuna and I turned, and I dropped two Air Strike Shields down behind the half dozen guards and one angry looking ticket master. "Chris! Help me push!"

And with the two of them making the same motions (comical to see a pair of flippers attempt what looked like air-bending), the two of them blew the pit of coals at the oncoming guards.

We hurried into the back, the noise of people screaming (wimps, it was just coal fire...) outside exciting the animals. Weird creatures, half familiar looking or completely alien, roared and chirped, howled and bellowed.

"Tetsu!" I called out.

"What's this then?" Someone, a heavily muscled man that could have been a muscle clown back in Melromarc, lumbered towards us. Dim torchlight revealed a cruel smile and a barbed whip, "Employee's only." He laughed, "Guess the animals get a little extra tonight."

"boss..." I ignored the man as he got closer, looking past him to where the voice had come from. "is that you? please say it's you?"

The man grinned as he saw where I was looking, "Oh that one? Naw, too dangerous to put that one on show, illegal to have around too! But the things we can take off it-"

They had tortured her. Through the eyes of my mask, I saw the missing scales, missing claws, pulled teeth, and barbed chains holding her in place inside the cage they'd put her in.

(Kizuna)

In the gloom Kizuna could only smell the animals here. Fear, poor hygiene, blood... But it was clear her new friend saw something, and hero or not, supreme hunter of monsters or not, something deep in her mind told her this was the very last place she wanted to be. Chris jumped away from Kodori, hissing, then taking a half step forward to try and pull her away with his little flipper claws.

"Shield Prison." Kodori said, the man in front of them cut off as interlocking plates of metal closed around him. "Acid Shield."

From the far end of the cages, almost drown out by the muffled screams of animal agony inside the ball of Shields, there was a pained voice, "hey boss... you came... can you get me out of here?"

Kuro, the little girl with black wings, stammered as she spoke, "T-t-the cages... magic locks. Burns when you touch them. A-a-alarms too."

"Kodori! I don't want to rush you, but more are coming!" Kizuna turned towards the main tent, where the guards had put themselves out by now, and more were coming in from the street.

Then there was that chill again, a deep bone numbing, hair pricking feeling.

"Relinquish your pain, unto me."

All of the cage doors didn't open, so much as explode off their hinges, followed by all of the animal controlling ofuda burning up instantly in black fire, including the ones made of stone or thin metal. Even the extra chains holding some of the beasts in place became brittle as glass, falling to the cage floors with a jangling cacophony.

Then in a different voice, that same one she used when making the Hourglass, Kodori said, "Revenge, or freedom, is yours."

"Stop right there!" The guards had caught up to them, "You're under-" Before being interrupted by a very angry White Box as it latched on to his face.

This was then followed by dozens of other monsters, big and small, as they ran past Kizuna, towards the light behind the incoming guards.

Only when her, Kodori, Kuro and Chris were the only ones left in the room, did the man in the Shield Prison stop screaming. And as Kizuna turned to face Kodori, she had to hop backwards as the Shield Prison vanished, the sandy floor soaking up most of the acid, while a still living lump of flesh remained gasping on the floor.

"Tetsu..." Kodori said, "Hold still... this will hurt..."

"everything hurts. what's a little more?" Kizuna watched Kodori take out a potion vial, this one glass and filled with something that was glowing blue in the gloom of the tent, and pour it into the side of the dragon's mouth through a gap of missing teeth.

(Kodori)

I ignored everything but the numbers, and what I was seeing, as I poured the 'miracle medicine' into Tetsu's mouth. I was so angry, furious, that I had only two options. Cold detachment, or ending the war between Kizuna's kingdom and this one, likely with fire.

The change between worlds, oddly, hadn't changed Tetsu. Only her level. Once she joined my party again, I saw it had been reset to level 1, but otherwise, she was just as big, and as the potion (thankfully) did its work, just as mean looking as when we left. Though, she was clearly suffering from neglect on top of her other hurts.

Claws that had been pulled out regrew. Teeth torn out at the root sprouted again. Strips of scales that had been cut away started to form again. The bony crest around her forehead, her 'crown' so to speak, ossified from seemingly nothing, and became just as magnificent as before.

All while I held her head and did my best to comfort her through the pain of regrowing what had been taken.

Kizuna, even though she was just on the edge of panic (and rightly so), was keeping it together, even as she looked towards the entrance we'd come in from. She saw me looking, "Well, now that the entire town knows we're here..."

"That's fine." I said with a tight smile, "Tetsu? Can you change?"

"maybe... they took my clothes though..."

"I'll make you more, you can hide under my cape." I said.

"More guards coming." Kizuna said.

There was a burst of 'personal smoke' from Tetsu, and the small child form she had flopped into my arms. "bleh... crunchy armour is no fun for hugs." I hugged her close anyhow, and Kuro helpfully undid my cape and flopped it over her.

"Kizuna, Chris, this way." I said, "Portal Shield."

We walked through the portal, appearing at the edge of the forest we had made our last camp at. Before closing the portal though, I tossed another Marlboro bomb through, hearing the jar break next to the aspirating lump on the floor as I turned the skill off.

"Wow, so that's how your skill works." Kizuna commented, "Oh right... I'm Kizuna, this is Chris."

"Pen!"

"And I'm the Hunting Hero, kind of like her, except with this." She gave the hilt of her Weapon a pat, moving her belt around to show the gem set into the crosspiece.

"My name is Kuro."

"hungry... so hungry..." Tetsu pouted under the fur cape, "But!" She flailed around weakly for a moment to uncover her head, "I'm Tetsu."

We looked in the direction of the town we'd just left, several small plumes of smoke now trailing into the air, including a dirt brown one that I could have sworn had sinister laughing faces forming in it at odd intervals.

"Hey." Kizuna started, and I could feel the edge in her voice almost as if she were holding a blade. "You okay?"

"No. I am not." I said, "There are a few things I truly hate. And before you comment on it, no, I didn't put that man out of his misery." I looked at my status screen, at the little collection of angry grey (red) icons next to my name. Most of them though, were things like 'agility down' or 'movement down' things related to being held in place or chained. "We can't risk fire, but lets get some food into you two."

Kizuna took over 'Tetsu hug duty' while I pulled out survival food from the Shield. Once the two former prisoners had gotten started on that, I went back to holding Tetsu, while Kizuna dug into her own supply of dried fish and other 'finger foods'.

"So what happened?" I asked.

Their story was more detailed than mine. I only remembered the original feeling I had when arriving in Raphtalia's world, then passing out, only to wake up as a (yes Kizuna, I was adorable) fox. These two however, ended up in town, and were quickly captured and tossed into cages. Tetsu was more scary in her dragon form, but Kuro had changed into something else...

It looked like an adorable little ball with wings and a beak. Small, but still super fluffy. Since that form was so tiny, she changed into her humanoid form, and was made to perform in the circus tent. Tetsu had far more value as 'parts', and well...

"We don't know where Raphtalia is, but I remember her grabbing the sparkly turtle lady when that mean guy with the book did... what ever it was." Tetsu finished speaking, then went back to stuffing her mouth with preserved fish.

"If she was level one, like the rest of us..." I sighed, "I hope you're right Kizuna."

"Yeah, me too. I don't really care for the politics or whatever, and I really don't like how they treated me, but..." She looked at my horns, and stopped speaking.

"So, now we have to find Glass." I said, "And we have to hope those wanted posters spread slower than we do."

"Well, if you didn't mind lots of forests..." Kizuna scratched her cheek.

"Well... I... don't want to pull a carriage." Kuro said, "But for some reason I want to sing or something..."

"Well, I dunno what kind of bird you were before, but now you're a 'humming fairy'. They're usually kept as pets and can be trained to follow along with music." Kizuna explained.

Kuro frowned, but made an attempt to hum something. And honestly, it was at least recognizable as something I remembered hearing on Cal Mira. "Oh oh!" Tetsu pointed at Chris, "You look like those things! Um... tasted weird and squishy!"

Chris hid behind Kizuna's leg, "Pen!" And pointed an accusing flipper at Tetsu.

"Now now, she won't hurt you." Kizuna calmed the penguin, "Well, I know that your form now is a 'humming fairy'. They're kind of like parrots? Though I suppose you wouldn't know what that is..."

"Well, they can fly." Kuro said, her little angel wings flapping, "But I'm still too weak to do anything but sound pretty..."

"We can fix that on the way." I said, "I also had something happen to me when we crossed. Here Tetsu."

I handed Tetsu a quickly modified shirt and pants from Raphtalia's 'smaller' days. Yes, I was that much of a pack-rat, but in my defence I had an apparently infinite storage! With a grunt and a wiggle, she put it on, then grabbed the collar and sniffed at it, "I miss big sister..."

"Me too." I said, not telling them what might have happened, "Now, don't be alarmed, but I think I can carry the three of you..."

After the initial shock of me changing into a giant fox, Kuro and Tetsu were suitably amazed. To save my poor back, Kuro changed into the brightly coloured feather-ball she had become, and perched on my head, little claws gripping the top edge of my transformed mask. Kizuna had Chris change back into the little ofuda he had emerged from, and then she and Tetsu got on my back.

While I ran, missing my former strength and toughness more and more as my paws ate the distance and their bony butts dug into my spine, bits of conversation happened on my back.

"You're kind of..." Tetsu started, "You smell like Kuro, but feel like me."

"That's Kotetsu, it means 'little iron'." Kizuna explained.

"Pii!" Kuro lacked the ability to speak in this form.

"Gr." Kotetsu replied.

"No fair, you never let ME hug you..."

A bit later...

"Hey there's a little lake over there." Kizuna said.

"Fish?"

"Gr? Pii?"

I couldn't really contradict anyone while in this form, so I headed closer to the lake shore.

Later still.

"Wow... These little boxes don't taste very good..." Tetsu pouted, "And you're pretty strong for a really little sister!"

"Gr!" Kotetsu said proudly, the area around us littered with a variety of 'turbo nibbled' box monsters.

"I feel a little stronger." Kuro said, "But..." She sighed, "And I like flying! But..."

"I got more fish!" Kizuna called out from nearby, "And Chris says we're much closer now!"

"Pen!"

That night.

"I think I know where we're headed. Remember that guy? It's where he lives." Kizuna said as we huddled around a small fire, lots of 'local wildlife' roasting, baking or otherwise being cooked around it. "But if that's the case, we have a few days, even at this speed."

"More time to recover levels, but I will run faster." I said, looking over to Tetsu and Kuro as they leaned on each other in their humanoid forms, with Kotetsu curled around their necks like a scarf. "If... If Raphtalia is still alive, she would have ended up like me, a child, and level one. But, out of all of us, she would have the greatest chance of survival alone."

"Even with being a child? You said she was... ten?" Kizuna asked.

"Yes. But when I pulled her and the others out of the cages, I taught them how to survive. She also carried a few actual weapons with her. She could live basically forever just about anywhere so long as there was a rock or two, and a couple of trees."

"She sounds amazing." Kizuna nodded, "Get a little sleep, I'll take first watch."

I nodded, laying out my fur cape so I could lay on it. As usual, I wiggled around a moment to find that exact space where the roots and rocks weren't so sharp, and closed my eyes.

"What's wrong?" Kizuna asked as I sat bolt upright about three seconds later.

"I'm not going to sleep." I said rubbing my wrists, stopping, then fishing through the Shield's inventory for my secret stash of instant coffee pills. "It's..."

She put a hand over mine before I could toss the pill in my mouth, then pulled me back down so my head was in her lap. "Try again." She said.

I woke up, the barest threads of sunlight peeking over the horizon, and lifted my head from Kizuna's lap. "Kizuna?" I mumbled.

"I should have let you eat what ever that was..." She said, "And now my leg is so numb..."

Breakfast, some stretching, a little personal care, a checkup for Tetsu (still ticklish!) and Kuro (she still had that weird 'do not touch' feather)... And we were on our way.

We kept off the roads, and let the two recovered party members gain levels again with what ever monsters we found. They were doing really well too, and by the next stop, some little out of the way village that didn't even have a proper administrative building, they were both just past level 30.

Kuro, like Tetsu had when she was growing, ate constantly. And was now a 'Humming Falcon'. Of course, Kizuna gave us a little trivia on them, saying they could get even bigger, and be used like flying mounts. As it was, Kuro's animal form was still too small for that, but it was easy to imagine her that big at the rate she was growing. If Motoyasu were here, I'd have bet he could have made her grow even faster. Thinking on it, I probably could have taken 'control' of her still active slave mark, but (weird to think it) I trusted Motoyasu's judgment on whatever he had set for her.

Since the town we stopped in was so small and out of the way, no one seemed to know who we were. So, we just walked through, picked up a few supplies, bought as many of those crystals as we could, and once out of sight of the little hamlet, Kizuna gave them to Kuro and Tetsu.

Now both just past level 35, I changed into my fox form again, and we started running.

This...

This was a big city.

Our next stop was, if Chris's happy (quiet, but happy), "Pen!" noises were any indication, where Glass was. It was much like the other cities we'd come across. With clear 'districts' and nice stone and wood buildings. Near one side, there was a 'peasant' quarter, filled with neat rows of little huts. And as you slid progressively further from that, the districts got 'richer'. Until finally, there was a trio of very important looking buildings.

"Ow." I grumbled, stepping out from behind a tree, joining the others while trying to rub my back through my armour.

"You're not calling me fat, are you?" Kizuna teased, knowing exactly what I was complaining about.

"No, you just have a square butt, and Tetsu has a bony tail." One of my tails flicked at her flat rear while the others curled over Tetsu's shoulders.

While Kizuna did a little hop in place to avoid the tail, Tetsu leaned over to get more tail coverage, "So the scary fan lady is there?"

"Pen!" Chris pointed again with his flipper, nodding.

"The next trick, is getting in." I said, "It's easy enough to hide some of our... extra bits. But..."

Kizuna took a step away to look at us, "Horns, scaly tail, adorable little wings..." She sighed, "Considering its been a couple days, this place would certainly know me, and your mask. Though we've outpaced everything that can't fly, so our little adventure to rescue these two shouldn't have them exposed yet..."

"Hey..." Tetsu tugged at one of my tails, "Can you still do that really sneaky thing?"

I looked down at her, considered, "Which one?" Since I'd done a LOT of sneaky things so far.

"That one that super duper surprised big sister!" She replied.

That narrowed things down, sure, but... oh wait...

"Sure."

We approached the gate, our party altered somewhat. Kuro, her bird body now the size of a large cat, was perched on my shoulder and quietly humming the catchiest thing I could teach her in ten minutes. Tetsu was walking between Kizuna and I, wrapped up tight in a warm cloak and hood that hid most of her body shape and face. Kizuna had (with my help) applied a tiny bit of make-up and had changed her hair colour from brown to black.

And I, was a very pretty man with horns. Yes, the same form that had made one of the Queen's shadows blush. I had to once again take off most of my armour, and put the mask under my own travelling cape where the Shield was, but yes. I had become 'the travelling scholar' with my (blushing) wife, and our sick child. I even had the ofuda pouches at my hips.

"I can see why she would be upset." Kizuna mumbled to me while we followed the thin line of civilians towards the main gate, "If I didn't know better..."

"Yes." I replied quietly, making sure I had the voice just perfect, "I know. I look fabulous." This, and the look I gave her, just made her blush more.

"Reason for visiting?" The guard asked as we got close, looking at me, then Kizuna, then down to Tetsu.

"We are bringing our child here, to seek treatment." I said smoothly.

And just like we practised, Tetsu did a pretty convincing, "cough cough."

The guard, probably not realizing he was tapping his foot in time with the simple catchy tune Kuro was humming, looked at Tetsu, probably spotting the hand holding her cloak closed and the little patches of scales on the back of it.

"Treatment hmm?" He looked to me.

Kizuna then gave me the most impressive, "Darling... Will we still have enough?"

I looked back at her, nodded, "I hope so my dear." Then turned back to the man, my hand reaching forward with what I hoped was the appropriate amount of coin, "Our pass, good sir."

There was a quiet clink of silver between our hands, and he did a little shake of his closed fist to weigh the coin. "Carry on." He smiled, motioning us to pass, his head doing a little bob to the beat of Kuro's humming.

So we did.

And as we got out of sight of the gate, heading in the direction of the nearest 'notice board', Kotetsu peeked out of Tetsu's robe, holding a little coin pouch in its front claws. Because every dragon loved treasure.

"Heehee." Tetsu handed me the pouch, "My little sister is clever too."

"That was pretty good." I said to them, carefully patting Kuro's feathery chest, "All of you."

"Pii." She replied proudly, settling down on my shoulder.

"And I'll keep this for you until we're someplace safer." I told Kotetsu, "So..." We stopped in front of the board.

Yup. Kizuna and I were there, more or less dead centre on the notice board. Since I'd been wearing my mask, that was the only real 'distinguishing feature' it had, and the markings were done pretty well too! Kizuna's picture was pretty good as well, though, just as planned, a simple hair colour change and a little highlighting with makeup had her mostly unrecognizable to the portrait. As well, Chris was there too! Even had the new Santa hat!

Then, someone came dashing towards us with a stack of what looked like newspapers in his arms, and in a big satchel, "Come! Read all about it! This just in!"

We got a perfunctory nod from him before he stopped a couple of paced from us and started repeating himself. So I took one from him, gave him a couple doumon, and promptly handed the rolled up paper to Kizuna as we cleared away from the gathering crowd.

"I'm still not very good at this... Let's see..." She gave the paper a squint, "Oh!" She quickly moved off towards the side of the road, out of the way of foot traffic, "The holder of the Vassal Katana has escaped and the whole country is searching for them."

We all gathered around her, with Kuro hopping off my shoulder onto hers, "Wait... why would they chase them? Oh..." I shook my head, "Politics."

"Yeah. The Katana is like a national treasure. All the Vassal weapons are. It was why Glass had such a hard time. They didn't want to give it to her, but in the end the Fan chose her." Kizuna explained, "But if the Katana picked someone who they didn't want..."

"They could just kill them and take the weapon back and hope the weapon chose someone else..." I sighed. "Any idea who took it? Descriptions?"

Her eyes roamed the page, but she shook her head, "No. That's normal though when the people in the fancy hats get embarrassed. They'll just say 'they are dealing with it' but give no credit to who or what."

"Typical self important useless politicians." I sighed, "Let's see where Chris points us again."

We retreated a little more off the street, then ducked between what was probably a tea-house and book store. With a little 'pon' of smoke, Kizuna summoned Chris, took off his hat, gave him some well deserved headpats, replaced the hat, and asked 'where is Glass?'.

He did a little 'power up pose', then pointed both flippers in one direction. One more headpat and a little preserved fish was given, then Kizuna put Chris back into the little Ofuda icon.

Heading set, we walked back out of the alley, I bought a children's book for Tetsu (though it was for me), and we followed Chris's directions.

And were soon stopped by what looked like a blockade of guards. "Halt! There are wanted criminals past this point! We understand the inconvenience, but please turn back!"

So we did.

One 'calm retreat' and 'swift alleyway duck' later though...

"That's where Chris pointed..." Kizuna said, "Do you think..."

"I could fly?" Kuro (yes, her larger form gave her the ability to talk, but it was more like a parrot, and not 'talking without moving' they did back in the other world) said haltingly.

"Here." I gave her chest a pat again, then pulled out the very first thing Clive ever enchanted, (that I later improved slightly) the little bronze defence amulet. With a quick adjustment of the string it was on, I put it around her neck, "Be careful. Motoyasu will be sad if you get hurt."

"I hope my stupid master is okay too." She replied before jumping off my shoulder, onto my wrist, then letting me give her a little boost upwards before extending her wings and flying.

It took about thirty long seconds for her to spiral back down, "I saw four people being chased. They were all wearing hoods. I saw some really mean looking monsters so I didn't get closer."

"Four people?" I felt... something. Bright and hot. "Do you think..."

Kizuna summoned Chris again, "Let's go! I might be them!" Her weapon changed to the fishing rod, and she flicked a line upwards to the nearest roof. A second later, she, with Chris clinging to her back, were up in the air and dashing away.

"Boss?" Tetsu looked up at me, "Is it time?"

"Soon." I grinned, letting my disguise slip off, my mask slip on, and waving the Shield to make a couple of Air Strike Shields that inclined upwards to the rooftops.

A minute, maybe less of rooftop running later, we had caught up to Kizuna. Ten seconds after that, with Chris pointing the way with a flipper and calling out, "Pen!" every time we had to change directions, we spotted the four cloaked figures. With Chris pointing directly at them, we all jumped off the rooftop to intercept.

We hit street level, ran out onto the main road, and our two groups skidded to a halt in front of each other.

"No way..." I heard the familiar voice of L'arc say from under one of the hoods as he pulled it down.

With Chris pointing directly at one of them, there was no doubt who the hooded black haired woman was. I did note she was holding the black dragon-steel blade I'd made for Raphtalia.

They relaxed a little as we all took off hoods and masks. "Kizuna? Kiddo? Is that you?" L'arc asked.

"Boss! It's big sister!" Tetsu said a moment before a raccoon eared form slammed into me, hugging me super extra tight.

I wasn't the only one getting a hug though. Kizuna and Glass were doing their best to hug the stuffing from each other as well. Glass wasn't silent though, "What are you doing with this woman? And where have you been all this time?"

"She broke me out of the Labyrinth." Kizuna replied from someplace in Glass's embrace.

As much as I wanted to just... relax, I couldn't. I took a good look at the three of them, as I would when meeting up with a party in the Dungeon. L'arc was wearing a tough looking haori and hakama pants, similar to Kizuna's, and aside from a bit of dirt he looked perfectly fine, idiot grin and all. Glass had somehow fixed or replaced the combat kimono she had on before I tossed her into the Emerald. And Therese, for no other person could wear that much shiny stuff and still look amazing, was wearing something like a Victorian dress with Japanese accessories, along with dozens of little happily sparkling gems.

"Raphtalia?" I said, finally admitting the hug really needed to be put aside for the moment.

"Yes." She replied as I held her at arms length.

A miko robe. It wasn't quite right, but it honestly could be no other thing. White on red, it was as if my combat kimono and a proper miko robe had a good looking child or something. And she looked perfect in it.

"I am so glad you're alive." I said to her.

"not to interrupt the happy reunion." Ost said from under the really nice combat miko robes, "but we were running away, yes?"

NOTES!

Suppose Kodori doesn't have to burn the kingdom down now?

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

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