The walk to the cave was uneventful but Zooble couldn't help but keep double checking if they were being followed or not after their little altercation in the village with one of the thugs they stole the cave from, but eventually they did arrive and found to their surprise that the rest of the cast with the exception of Jax were all waiting for them, probably worried as hell, well they smiled as at least they could set that worry at ease... for now
"Hey I'm back, got the supplies" Zooble called out as they took the medical supplies out of their inventory, handing them over to Ragatha as she eyed all of them, checking to see if they were what was needed
"Thanks, I'm going to go apply them immediately" Ragatha said as she gave a nod and walked inside the cave with the supplies to apply them to their grumpy purple resident
"And I also made a big discovery on why we are here as well" Zooble added, catching the attention of Pomni and Gangle, Kinger was kind of just hyper focusing on the background because he swore he saw a butterfly
"Apparently there's a big doomsday thing going on with monsters raining from the skies, to fight that some people made an ancient ritual to summon wielders to use some legendary weapons... The weapons we currently have" Zooble said while lifting their axe up into view, turning it back to its original white and gold design rather than the plain looking one they had on for disguise
"Wait what?" Pomni said confused and worried, especially at the doomsday of monsters raining from the sky but the mention of them being some sort of heroes was also a warrant reason for surprise
"Some king of this kingdom we are in, did a ritual to summon heroes wielding shape shifting magical weapons that grant special abilities, and we have this weapons, doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Apparently that's what the timer is related to, counting down to the next monster shower" Zooble explained what they had mostly figured out, sure it was under a lot of assumptions but so far they hadn't really found a fault in their logic yet, plus it explained the timer function if part of their job was to literally keep track of when disaster would strike. With that foundation laid out, gears began shifting inside Gangle's head as suddenly connections were being made to media she consumed
"Oh my god this is a Isekai" Gangle mumbled out loud, she was so distracted by recent events and generally so used to just being casually thrown into different worlds made by Caine for his adventures that she forgot to realize this was very similar to a entire genre of her favorite media form ever, anime
"A what?" Kinger asked as he looked at the bundle of ribbons, eyes drafting away from the tree he was observing since it had a cicada there
"A genre of japanese media, particularly anime about people getting sent to a different world than their own, I only know of a few since I preferred more magical girls or shonen animes and stuff but I watched my fair share" Gangle commented as at least her knowledge of japanese media was finally given a chance to be useful for anything other than writing and drawing, she thought maybe there would be some general pointers she could use from those stories here or at the very least have some ground to build some expectations for the future
"I think... From the ones I watched... Well, it has a video game-esque magic system, wackily designed monsters... Does this place have a demon lord?" Gangle asked as they turned to look at Zooble, depending on if this place at a ultimate bad guy like the stereotypical demon lord most Isekai tended to use they at least had a objective in killing him since that was usually the goal of a Isekai, kill the big bad to go home, though that would feel a bit too similar to something Caine would do which might be a bad thing but she couldn't determine without additional information
"No? At least nobody was talking about one" Zooble commented as they didn't really hear any mention of a devil like being by the general public, unless somehow a demonic ruler that was probably super evil was such mundane stuff nobody talked about it
"Alright, scratching that idea so... In reincarnated as a slime and I'm a spider so what, monster usually have unique powers and characteristics, even interacting with the game mechanics different. We do that already but I suppose we are in our rookie stages and as we level up we might get a few more abilities and stuff..." Gangle mumbled as she thought about a few points in common with a few of the anime she watched, those two were probably the best to compare since they feature the characters in it be humans reincarnated into monster bodies like them, but they didn't seem inherited overpowered like Rimuru(slime) since he could already pull off some crazy feats, maybe they were more like Kumoko(spider) which meant that they would possibly evolve through leveling up but what was the threshold for said evolution was unknown to her... Gosh now she couldn't help but think of herself and the others as pokemon/digimon which was a bit funny
"Those two also had some sort of power to steal/absorb others skills but they did it through eating enemies, we can do that but through our weapons which would possibly the cheat skill most Isekai protagonist start their journeys with..." Gangle said while observing her throwing projectiles, these things were apparently very important since according to Zooble they were summoned because these weapons were needed to save the world and needed wielders, perhaps they were the revolting gimmick that made this Isekai adventure different from the others, their inner machinations still a mystery to them but that would probably be revealed in time, and most of the information on how they worked was already available on the help guide
"Magic is tricky, it might just also work on video game rules but it could be a Inuyasha, owl house or Amphibia thing and magic actually is more to the fantasy side rather than also controlled by a mathematical and logical system that follows game logic" Gangle muttered to herself, magic hadn't really been something they encountered here and the thing that most varied in Isekais since it worked in very different ways in sources, like in American Isekai like owl house it did work like mystic magic while in Japanese Isekai it had a tendency of just being another part of the video game system
"Grrh... If I knew I would end up in a situation like this I would have watched more Isekai in preparation rather than just rewatching my favs! I barely watched some of them before getting in the circus!" Gangle cursed herself internationally, why did she get Isekai'ed when that was something her knowledge was lacking, she barely watched the genre, heck she mostly watched Inuyasha and unfortunately that was old school anime and didn't have the sort of tropes the genre had nowadays like the video game systems and shit, she didn't even watch season 2 of reincarnated as a slime or konosuba... Why did she had to rewatch Yu-Gi-Oh GX before getting sent to the circus? Card game knowledge wasn't applicable in this situation she was in
"Alright Gangle just think of the tropes, if we are in a narrative such as this then what sort of trope can you expect... We have to watch out for the harem..." Gangle whispered dreadfully, from what she knew of the genre, harems were common and practically a guarantee, admittedly it seemed to be a recent addition to the genre as stuff like Inuyasha didn't feature it but now it was like bread and butter. Immediately Gangle thought about how it might happen, they could meet a colorful cast of new people that would fall in love with one of them but then Gangle's mind went to another scary possibility, what if the harem was already formed? They were all summoned together and had a familiarity with each other, that made the chances of romantic feelings blossoming very likely, but who would be the "main person" of the relationship? Pomni had the most vibes of being the protagonist and her ability to empathize with people was a essential skill for a harem leader, but Ragatha's weapon being of a higher tier and importance made her a likely candidate for it as well, not to mention she had a lovely personality that would make sense for others to fall in love to, for as much as she liked Zooble they had low potential for the harem leader as did Kinger, and she couldn't really see herself in the position of main leader of the harem, that left only... Shivers went down her cloth-like spine as Gangle thought about Jax, he had equal makings for the protagonist like Pomni even with his personality but he was male! That automatically put him in an advantage compared to the others especially if he had a cock to--
"What? What did you say Gangle and why do you look worried?" Pomni asked concerned since Gangle was rambling only to go blank and have a worried expression on her face as Pomni swore she could almost see the ribbon girl sweating
"Nothing... Sorry guys I don't think I have any useful knowledge on this matter to help, if only we were in a different genre..." Gangle said in a soft sob, most of her points and observations were stuff that was mostly apparent for them thanks to the help guide and some more in-depth observations from the anime she watched didn't really apply to them as she knew that what applied to one Isekai wasn't a guarantee to the other, since they usually operated on slightly different systems. The one time her knowledge of anime could have been useful and yet it hardly applied since she had limited knowledge of the genre! Why couldn't she had just read the novels with more detail on the systems rather than just reading the manga adaptations and watching the animes? Why couldn't them have been sent to a slice of life magical girl anime? She would dominate that place up with her knowledge
"Hey don't beat yourself up on something so trivia, plus not everything in a show or movie is applicable to a situation" Zooble said as they let a comforting hand to the ribbon girl's shoulder, they weren't the best equipped for this situation, it wasn't like Zooble's own knowledge on heavy and death metal music was a useful tool for survival, at least Gangle seemed to have some more general notion of how this types of situation were like and that was enough even if it wouldn't be useful often
"Well at the very least we aren't in a webtoon Isekai, that would be awful..." Gangle commented as that was the other type of Isekai she knew and considering none of them reincarnated in an aristocrat family as a baby then that was thankfully scratched out, she really didn't like those webtoons
"But if we are heroes here to save the world, then maybe we don't have to fear people attacking us if we just explain our situation to them" Pomni said as she tried to see the positive side to this whole debacle, being saviors of humanity might be the way for them to not be feared or discriminated against because of their appearance
"Yeah... About that, from what I understand, they need heroes to wield the weapons but that doesn't mean they need us, they would kill us to summon new wielders for these things" Zooble said, not that happy they had to shot down any hope brewing in Pomni but that was for the best, the surprise on the others face was the same Zooble felt when they first heard that from the shop owner
"Just because of our appearance?!" Pomni shouted in an outrage, not understanding how and why would these people summon heroes to save them and then kill them for something they had no control over, in some level she could understand the concern but a part of her could help but wonder if they would had been killed as well if instead of monsters they were disabled? If they had a certain skin tone? She knew humanity could be the worst but... She just felt like crying
"Yeah it's pretty fucked up but the person I talked to with this made a big deal about the heroes being human since they are "the symbol of human might" or what not, which technically we are is just that our bodies aren't anymore" Zooble said as they couldn't help but scoff at the irony that they were human but not in the moment, if they had been summoned before their time in the circus... They couldn't help but wonder how things could have been going right now
"Uhm... It might be for some reasons, maybe this wave business happened before and the past summoned heroes were always people in human bodies unlike us so it created an expectation, not to mention that these waves are about monsters raining from the sky so having monsters be the heroes against it might do stuff for the peoples moral" Gangle brainstormed a few possible reasons as to why the heroes being human might be important, if past summoned heroes were humans then that created a preconceived notion that all heroes will be humans in normal human bodies through a pattern of repetition, additionally it might carry some sort of moral problem as having human heroes might be more relatable and inspiring for the large population than having monsters, best comparison she could come to in her mind would be of being rescued by some super hero like spider man or wonder woman compared to a super hero like Ghost Rider or the Hulk, your being saved in both scenarios but one has a flaming skull head or is a giant grotesquely muscular person that could be confused for a monster, so it would probably be more comforting for the large world view if their saviors were people like them instead of strange creatures
"Shit... Just when I thought our situation couldn't get any worse... What happens when the timer reaches zero though? Do we have to go where it's going to happen or is it going to happen at our current location?" Pomni asked as that was a bit of a problem since if it was the latter then they were screwed and were a potential danger to anyone a mile away from them, meaning that they had to further isolate themselves from society
"Don't know, the guy just said the heroes knew when the waves would happen, maybe they are in a set location and we just know the cronograma" Zooble responded as they regretted not asking more about how the heroes supposedly knew where to fight the waves, they hoped it would be more of the latter, having a set point could help stablish defenses and having backup... That would kill them on sight but that at least gave them a place to avoid
"Ugh, let's just focus on getting Jax fixed up and improving ourselves, can't have another headache in the moment" Pomni said as she messaged her head to stop any type of migraine from forming, gosh she hoped Jax recovered soon... Actually would that be a good thing, it probably was but with Jax you could never be sure
"Yeah about that... When I was there, one of the thugs that owned this place recognized the clothing I had, I shrugged him off but I don't think I can return to town in a long while until the smoke clears" Zooble pointed out ashamed as they looked to the side and scratched their head, they felt a bit bad about that, sure they knew that it was a possibility that could happen but they hoped they could have at least have gotten more stuff before having to forgoe that village, they really needed to get some stuff to spice up their food because it was getting repetitive
"What if he brings a battalion to invade our new fortress?! It lacks the reinforced pillows covering every nook and cranny that make it impenetrable!" Kinger screamed as his attention returned to the conversation at hand after zoning out for a hot minute, it was a crazy idea but one that had merit even if it was just paranoia
"That was the point of stealing their clothes, so that with the accounts of the fight that would sound bonkers already, it would make them not be taken seriously" Zooble responded as that was probably the only thing keeping them from having a rally of people with pitchforks and torches coming their way, destroying those guys public image by making them seem crazy or having just had too much to drink
"But we might still have to expect the worst... We are so unlucky at times... All the time" Gangle said pessimistically, it wasn't like she wanted to rain on the subject but they were never a lucky bunch, their small wins were usually offset by a series of unfortunate events from cartoonish violence to phycological dread and if their stay of a couple of days in this world proved anything was that they still had that awful luck
"... Uuuuugh! Fine, we absorb some of the medicine into our weapons so we can make our own. We start training with Ragatha after she gets a day to relax and we just keep going until we drop dead! Because life's a big joke!" Pomni screamed as she threw her hands in the air, big angry smile on her face as she couldn't believe the amount of problems they had to deal with at the moment
"Pomni eat this sneakers bar, you aren't you when you're hungry" Kinger offered her something to calm her nerves, but instead of a bar of chocolate, it was a wooden stick he found on the ground, which took Pomni out of her angry mood and instead made her look the chess piece confused
"... Thanks Kinger, I'll... Go for a snack" Pomni said as she shook the wooden stick with a awkward smile, waking away as she hoped maybe next time she got Zooble to bring back some sweets because now she wanted to eat something with chocolate rather than eating monster meat and berries
"Jax, good news! We got some supplies to treat you!" Ragatha happily proclaimed as she entered Jax's area of the cave, the rabbit was still there, barely acknowledging her entrance or what she had to say, just slightly turning his head to look at her
"Where did you find that? You attacked and robbed a carriage or something?" Jax asked with mild curiosity as one of his eyebrows rose, he was pretty sure the supplies in the cave had run out, did she and the others... Robbed someone to help him out? Huh, he didn't expect them to commit a crime without his involvement, now he was a bit sad he wasn't there to steal and pillage with them
"Nothing so brutish, now let me apply to you" Ragatha said as she looked through the supplies, as she started to treat Jax. First she started by gently cleaning the wound with soap and water to remove any infection-causing germs, Jax making small peeps when the cold water touched the sensitive wound. Next, she heated up a bucket of water, briefly hearing Gangle say something about slimes and spiders, after it was hot enough, she came back with the bucket and a cloth, she sank the cloth on the hot water, making sure her body didn't absorb too much in the process since she was still getting used to the fact she can absorb liquids through her skin, she placed the now warm cloth on the cut, applying the cloth for ten minutes. Then she took the jar and opened it to apply it since she it was most likely this world's equivalent of a over-the-counter antibiotic ointment for treating an infected cut. Passing the ointment through the entire wound as Jax once again shivered at the cold feeling of the gel and the sensation of Ragatha's hand movements, after successfully applying the ointment, she took the bandages and wrapped them up around Jax as he lifted himself a bit so she could wrap them more easily
"Well that's done, you're truly lucky Jax, you might just do a full recovery in just a few more days" Ragatha said as she finished wrapping up the bandages, she had a odd feeling that every since getting here Jax had been weirdly lucky since he was always getting the help he needed, though she might just be imagining stuff since getting a serious wound that needs healing wouldn't really fit that classification
"Wahoo, can't wait to do more waiting... At least I get to have you chumps as my personal maids" Jax commented as with how the others have been basically been his servants, so they were only missing the outfits to truly be his maids. Ragatha just rolled her eyes at the comment before her eyes landed on the now patched up wound, clutching her hands at her dress as guilt washed over her, but unfortunately her intense staring at his wound didn't go unnoticed by Jax
"What's with that look? You're acting like a kid who broke a vase while playing football at home" Jax pointed at Ragatha as the doll quickly broke from her gazing to look into another direction, embarrassed
"I'm... It's nothing really, kind of a trivial matter honestly" Ragatha dismissed it with a hand wave as she turned her back to the rabbit so he couldn't see her expression, deciding that it might be better to go back to the others and see what they were doing
"Uh huh, it wouldn't have to do with me wouldn't it? Because you always get that guilty look when you come bring me food or change these darn bandages" Jax pointed out as Ragatha froze in place, slowly turning her head to look at him, Jax having his usual smug look before his smile gave way to a more neutral expression "No point in hiding Dollface, better to just spit it out"
"... I feel guilty for what happened to you okay, because it was my fault" Ragatha admitted, no point in hiding if Jax had noticed, if she didn't speak now he would pester her about it and called attention to it for the others, twisting it to something more malicious to make the others hate her. It was a big risk being vulnerable to Jax as he could definitely find a way to exploit that for his own amusement, but honestly she really needed to open up about this, specially with him
"Huh?" Jax just looked confused, wondering how the heck could this be her fault
"I was the one who allowed us to separate when I should have known better, and then when you got captured by those guys... I panicked and just let them take you when I could have done something! And then when we went to rescue you I was useless, I got split into two and didn't contribute at all, and I was a bad nurse for not noticing your wound was getting infected" Ragatha laid out all the things she did wrong in their current situation, specially about being a coward and not jumping into danger to save Jax before he was taken away, now he was sure to hate her, she could feel the shouting and screaming that was soon to come as the rabbit cursed her over how worthless she was as a protector and how she had no spine, though he probably knew that already considering how the most she fought back at him in the circus was just angrily reprimanding him when he did something wrong
"I know you hate me for some reason but... Now with all of this, I'm sorry for being such a useless friend, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry
The same phrase repeating over and over again in both of their heads, a phrase that brought them nothing but guilt and self doubt, that felt less genuine the more it repeated, a phrase both couldn't stop saying as they laid their backs against the doors to the room of someone dear to them that abstracted, a phrase they wanted someone specific to hear hoping it would magically solve things. A phrase that drives Jax mad, specially when it comes from her
"Oh for fuck sake! Stop apologizing and making it all about yourself! Are you seriously blaming yourself for my stupid shit?! I was the one who jumped three men thinking he would win! Not you!" Jax shouted as he got up from the mattress as he stared at Ragatha, he couldn't do stupid stuff without her somehow turning it around to be about herself? Ragatha taking the blame or consequences for something he did was immensely enjoyable but that was when he did it on purpose but now she was just blaming herself because she was some masochist that enjoyed torturing herself mentally
"And oh, you allowed them to take me? Big deal! I would have done the same only I would have done so out of malice and wouldn't have come to rescue your butt! You could have let me die or something, god knows I'm not worth the risk and yet you risked yourself to save me, got split in half because of it and you still feel like you didn't do enough shit?" Jax added, he would have totally abandoned Ragatha if the situation was reversed because he was a bad individual, but she came back for him, rallied the others to help, made a plan, fought against people way above their level, and she got split in half while distracting the big bad that owned this place just so he could escape with Kinger... And she felt like she didn't do enough? Sure in his opinion she was a weakness and parasite but that didn't mean he couldn't see the impact of her annoying kindness could do and even then she would rather wallow in regret when he would fucking gloat if he did something like that? It was so stressful!
"Christ, you asked me why I hate you? There's a plethora of reasons but this is one of them! You keep blaming yourself for everything when it's not even your fault in the first place! People make mistakes Ragatha, that doesn't mean you are responsible for them!" God how he despised this part of her, she was always making it about herself, always assuming she was at fault when something bad happened. Blaming herself when an adventure goes wrong, blaming herself when the mood was down, blaming herself when someone abstracted... God how could she live with herself like this and not expect him, the only guy who notices this, to hate her guts? This pathological need to hold herself accountable for little mistakes she or others committed under her watch was such a drag, he wondered if it was genetic or if it was conditioning by her parents, either way someone was to blame here
"I don't blame you for any of this, so why do you? Don't hate yourself because of me, hate me because of me..." Jax ended as he broke eye contact with the ragdoll, maybe now she would finally shut up and stop apologizing like the idiot she was. He hoped that he had tore her a new one, at least now if she started crying it would be because of him and not her idiotic reasoning of blaming herself, if she got out of here cursing his name as tears ran down her face he would sleep well tonight
"I... Jax that was... Thank you, that was weirdly kind of you" Ragatha said, Jax might have been aggressive in his tone but what he said to her... It was honest advice and he was basically telling her she wasn't to blame for his current predicament, if anyone else had said that she might not have entirely taken those words to heart but Jax had laid it out loud and clear for her and with no sugar coating for her to question if it was genuine or not, and considering he didn't decided to use her moment of insecurity to hurt her but instead comfort her was... Nice. Jax's face went blank as he slowly turned his head to look at her, getting the opposite reaction he expected
"... I hope you fall in a sink hole full of centipedes and they enter every hole in your body and crawl inside of you with their hundreds of legs, violating every aspect of your being" Jax said in a cold and unnerving tone as he stared at Ragatha, and though the ragdoll certainly got a mental image that would be her nightmare for the next few weeks, it was not enough to break the smile on her face, Jax said something she needed to hear and in a nice manner in his own way, him immediately backpedaling into aggressiveness just showed her that moment and everything he said was genuine, he showed vulnerability just like others did... That was a surprise
"And I hope you improve soon... Mr Long ears" Ragatha said as she gave him a wink, promptly getting hit in the face with Jax's vassal hammer, falling back to the floor. Picking herself up, as much as she was mad he smacked her she couldn't bring herself to stop smiling, she gave Jax a nickname he disliked, she was sure to refer to him like that whenever he called her Dollface
As Ragatha left the room, Jax just went to stare at his newly applied bandages with an urge to rip them off but he also didn't want to have to wait even longer to heal, he cursed himself, why did he say those things? Ragatha was vulnerable and insecure, it would be the perfect opportunity to use those traits against her to make her suffer, make her wallow in regret and doubt but instead he ended up... Comforting her? Did his shouting and aggressiveness go through her head? Didn't she hear that he would have abandoned her to die? That he hated her for multiple reasons? How did she find comfort in what he said when she should despise all that comes out of his mouth? And how did he allow his words to come off as reassuring? What the heck happened? What was wrong with him?