I kept making a scene and waiting, but Tonomachi still didn’t show up.
“Itsuka-kun. Has Tonomachi-kun called or anything?”
“No. Not at all. Maybe something happened to him.”
Maybe something really had happened, just as Itsuka-kun suggested. If so, sitting here and waiting would be a disaster.
“Could he be lost or something~?”
Yoshinon offered another opinion, but that was ridiculous.
“Mm, no, I don’t think that’s it...”
“R-right... Since Tonomachi-kun was the one who picked this meeting place.”
Itsuka-kun and Rinne were right. The guy who chose the spot getting lost? That would just make him an idiot.
“Maybe he’s gone missing. The calamity of Tengushi.”
Meanwhile, Tobiichi was spouting some made-up story Tonomachi-kun had apparently come up with. I had no idea why she was bringing up that nonsense now. Was she trying to scare us?
“Huh?! Why are you casually telling a scary story right now!”
“The person who should be here isn’t here. This can only be described as a missing-person situation.”
At that, the commander’s body started trembling. I think she even teared up a little...
“U-uu...”
“K-Kotori? If you’re scared, should we go back?”
“I’m not scared!”
“No, but your body is shaking like a leaf...”
She really was shaking like a leaf—so much so that anyone could tell she was terrified. But the commander refused to admit it, stubbornly pretending to be strong.
“I’m trembling because I’m excited!”
“That’s just nonsense—ah, okay! I believe you! I believe you, so put that fist down!”
When I tried to argue, the commander glared at me with her fist clenched tight.
I could feel the killing intent. It was genuinely chilling. What had I even done wrong?
“Hmm. Then Hieta and I will go look for Tonomachi. Wait here for a bit. If we still can’t find him, we’ll just offer the tribute and leave.”
After a few minutes of deliberation, we decided to follow Itsuka-kun’s suggestion. The only thing we could do now was search for Tonomachi-kun.
“R-really?! Onii-chan!”
“Yeah. We can’t wait for Tonomachi forever. We’ll go check it out, so you guys stay here.”
And so, Itsuka-kun and I started searching the mountain.
First, we decided to check around the meeting place.
“Tonomachi~!”
“Tonomachi-kun~!”
We kept calling for Tonomachi-kun, but the only answer we received was our own echo.
We pushed deeper into the woods. Perhaps because it was a mountain, the grass had grown ridiculously thick, slowing us down and obscuring the path ahead.
“Tonomachi!!!”
“Tonomachi-kun!!!”
Again, only the echo answered our cries.
With no other choice, we gave up on finding Tonomachi-kun and prepared to head back.
“Itsuka-kun. Let’s go ba—huh?”
The Itsuka-kun who had been beside me a second ago was gone. To make matters worse, I was dealing with the unholy trinity of night, mountains, and tall bushes; I couldn't see a thing.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine finding Itsuka-kun in these deep woods.
“Heh. I’m screwed.”
We had come in to look for Tonomachi-kun, and now I had become the lost one. Being on a mountain, there was no signal, and no matter how much I shouted for Itsuka-kun, there was no answer.
“Is anybody there~!!!!”
-Flap flap flap
I kept shouting and wandering around, but all I could hear was the sound of birds taking flight.
“I’m really done for.”
How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?
I figured if I just kept going in one direction, I’d eventually find a way out, so that’s what I did. But if I messed up, I might not make it out by tomorrow morning. I had already realized I was terrible with directions when I first arrived in this world.
Still, I couldn’t give up, so I kept walking aimlessly.
“This is insane.”
No matter where I looked, the scenery was identical, and it was driving me crazy. Trees and grass here, trees and grass there. Aside from the occasional bird or insect, it was basically a copy-paste landscape.
“...Huh?”
Then I spotted a figure. Judging by the size and shape, it was definitely a person, so I immediately ran toward it.
“Hey! Could you maybe tell me the way—”
I stopped mid-sentence. As I got closer, I saw what the figure really was. It was an angel.
Not one from Dark Souls.
It looked nothing like the creatures from Dark Souls. This was the kind of figure people imagined when they heard the word “angel.”
Well, Dark Souls was weird in the first place.
But why is that here?
Spirits exist in this world, so there was no law saying angels couldn’t exist too. But the thing's movements were strange for a real angel.
Suspicious, I watched it closely. It kept circling the same area, moving as if it were following some kind of programming.
Is it patrolling the area?
If it was patrolling, that would make sense.
But then came the problem: Why was it patrolling? Usually, a patrol means there is a place that must not be infiltrated.
“Huh? Hieta?”
“Wah!? Rinne-san?”
Just as I kept my eyes on the angel, Rinne appeared behind me. I tried to calm my racing heart after the sudden shock.
“Phew... You scared me.”
“Ah, haha. Sorry. I didn’t think you’d react that much. But what were you looking at? You were totally focused.”
At her question, I hesitated. The angel had already drifted away, and even if I said I’d seen one, it was obvious she wouldn’t believe me.
“I just thought I saw something.”
“Hmm~ I see. The kids are waiting, so let’s go.”
Luckily, Rinne didn’t seem to doubt my answer.
Relieved, I followed her, and then she asked me something.
“Hey, Hieta. You really don’t remember me?”
It was the same question I’d been getting all morning—a question about my memories of Rinne. It was a little awkward to be asked that out of nowhere, but it wasn’t hard to answer honestly.
“No. Not at all. I don’t remember a single thing.”
“I see... But you were with me when we made cookies last time.”
Rinne looked a little down for a moment, then raised her head and looked at me again.
“Still, if your memories come back, I hope you’ll be friends with me. You might be confused right now, but it’s a little sad that a close friend suddenly started keeping their distance.”
“...Were we really that close?”
“Yeah. We even went to Ocean Park with Shido, remember?”
Ah, so we went to Ocean Park together too.
“Then do you know what this is?”
I pulled Hikinon out of my inventory for the first time in a while and showed it to her.
“It looks kind of like Yoshinon. What’s this doll?”
That answer turned my suspicion into certainty. Hikinon was something she’d almost always had with her at Ocean Park; if she didn’t recognize it, then she had to be lying or suffering from dementia.
“Rinne-san. Let me ask you one thing. You—who the hell are you?”
The words came out cold. I’d been suspicious ever since my memories started getting tampered with. This girl who had suddenly appeared... I had wondered if maybe I was the one losing my memories, and I’d felt a little guilty for being cold to her. But now, all of that was gone.
“...Why doesn’t [Eden] work on you?”
“Who knows... Why do you think? Maybe because I’m an outsider.”
“An outsider...?”
“Yeah, an outsider. I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not originally from this world.”
With that, I swung my longsword at Rinne.
-Whoosh
The longsword didn’t reach her, cutting through empty air instead. She had manifested her weapon and leaped backward into the air.
“...I see. So you were an anomaly.”
“Heh, an anomaly. That’s an interesting way to put it. But going up in the air won’t help you.”
I immediately switched my equipment to a staff and fired [Sorcery: Soul Stream].
-KWA-KWAKWAKWANG!
Rinne responded by firing purple light bullets to block my sorcery, but there was no way something like that would stop me.
“Then I wouldn’t have Intelligence 99.”
“Ghk!”
I didn't give her a moment to breathe. I kept firing [Sorcery: Soul Stream] after [Sorcery: Soul Stream]. The sorcery rained down on Rinne, forcing her into a desperate defense with her light bullets.
“...You’re dangerous.”
A small but clear voice reached me. And with those words, a shadow fell from the sky.
“Oh, crap.”
The shadow belonged to the angel I’d seen earlier. Rinne had been the one creating those angels. With a single gesture, she ordered them to attack me.
“Damn it. Ganging up on me is not fair.”
Especially since I couldn’t even use the Incarnation of Kings here in the mountains.
In the end, I was surrounded by angels.
“Just give up already. All you have to do is forget the truth and accept the role of a friend beside Shido.”
Rinne looked down at me from above as she spoke. I flipped her off and dismissed my equipment.
“In a one-against-many, the one is supposed to win.”
I clenched the shining Dragon Stone in my hand. My body began to shake, and before long, I transformed into a draconic form.
“Alright, round two starts now.”
Come on then. Let’s play.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register