Time passed, and before I knew it, the day of the school trip had arrived. We boarded a plane and touched down at our destination: Arubi Island.
“I-is this the sea?!”
Tohka, seeing the ocean for the first time, had a rather comical reaction.
Watching her, both Shido and Rinne wore warm smiles on their faces.
“My lord! The sea! It’s the sea!”
The Fire Keeper seemed to be seeing the ocean for the first time as well, reacting with an excitement very similar to Tohka's.
I smiled at her enthusiasm.
“Yes. It’s the sea.”
“I’ve never seen the sea before in my entire life!”
Watching the Fire Keeper speak so animatedly, I couldn't help but think that she had become significantly brighter than she had been back in the world of Dark Souls.
Perhaps it was because Dark Souls was the kind of place where optimism was an impossibility, or perhaps some system-related factor was at play, but either way, she was far more pleasant to be around now.
“Tohka, this is your first time seeing the sea, right?”
“Mm! The pool I went to before with Yoshino, Kotori, and Hieta was amazing too, but the sea is even more amazing!”
“Well, yeah.”
After finishing her conversation with Shido, Tohka turned back to the horizon, then suddenly looked over her shoulder.
“What is it?”
“No, it just feels like someone’s watching us...”
Seeing Tohka's serious expression, Shido pointed in one direction. “Isn’t that just a camera over there?”
“I see...” Tohka replied, before returning her gaze to the waves.
“Everyone, it’s time to gather up.”
Thanks to Rinne’s prompt, we managed to reach the gathering point for Class 2-4 without being late.
“Class 4, please pay attention~! Got it? From here on, we’re all heading to the Arubi Island museum~!”
Tamae-sensei looked incredibly excited, waving a flag as she spoke.
The other students seemed to be grumbling about why they had to visit some boring museum, but they followed Tamae-sensei obediently enough.
Everyone’s so well-behaved, I thought.
Just then, Tohka suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“Tohka?”
“See? I knew someone was watching us!”
“Hey, Tohka!”
Without warning, she bolted off. Shido sprinted after her, and Rinne followed close behind Shido.
“My lord, shouldn’t we go too?”
“Ah, yes. I’m worried about the safety of those three, so let’s follow them.”
And so, we began running after the trio.
“Shido! Tohka! Rinne! Are you all all right?!”
Fortunately, we hadn't fallen too far behind. When Tohka finally stopped, the other two stopped as well.
“What... the wind...”
The problem was that the wind had suddenly intensified.
“My... lord...”
“Sorry, but I’m taking your hand!”
Perhaps because the Fire Keeper had spent her existence confined to the Firelink Shrine, even a short burst of running had left her winded. With the gale picking up, she looked as though she were struggling to keep her balance.
Without waiting for permission, I informed her of my intent, grabbed her hand tightly, and pulled her close.
“Hah!”
“Please bear with it for a moment!”
I quickly moved us down to a grassy area beside the road, which was lower than where we had been standing.
I saw that Shido had also grabbed Tohka and Rinne’s hands to bring them down to the grass, and I walked over to join them.
“Shido, are you all right?!”
“Yeah! I’m fine, and Rinne and Tohka are fine too!”
Just as Shido said, none of them had a single scratch.
Relieved, I was about to suggest we head back when—
“Shit!”
An iron trash can came flying straight toward Shido’s head.
Clang!
Luckily, I raised my shield in time to block it, but it had been far too close. Shido’s skull had almost been split open.
“Phew... All right, now let’s go ba—”
Clang!
“Ghk!”
Why was there another trash can...?!
Clang!
“Gehk!”
“My lord!”
A third trash can slammed directly into my head.
Blood began to trickle down my scalp, and the Fire Keeper looked on in horror.
“Hieta! Are you okay?!”
“Uuuugh... I-I’m... fi... fine...”
“What do you mean, fine? You’re bleeding from your head!”
“Uwaaa... It’ll all regenerate anyway...”
Having taken a direct hit to the head, my vision was swimming. Even my speech was beginning to slur.
“Ughhh... Es...tus...”
I tried to recover quickly by popping open an Estus flask, but I was so dizzy that the liquid kept spilling out.
“My lord! Stay still!”
Unable to watch any longer, the Fire Keeper took the flask from my hand and fed it to me herself. Only then did my condition finally stabilize.
“Ah, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Glad you’re back to normal.”
Thanks to the Fire Keeper, I regained my composure. I was about to head back with Shido when Rinne looked up and exclaimed, “Hey, guys! There’s something up there!”
Looking up, I saw several shapes colliding with one another in the sky.
“A spirit...? But the spacequake alarm isn’t going off. Then is it the AST?”
They were too far away to identify. All I could deduce was that they were either spirits or AST members, given that they were engaged in an aerial battle.
“For now, everyone, let’s go ba—!”
Shido couldn't finish his sentence.
Suddenly, the wind surged. The aftershocks of the clash between the two beings in the sky whipped up a violent gust that knocked us all off our feet.
“Kyah!”
“Waaah!”
“Ow... huh?”
As Shido pushed himself up from the ground, his gaze fixed on a single spot.
Following his line of sight, I saw two identical spirits glaring at each other.
“...Shido. Those are spirits, right?”
“...I think so. And there are two of them.”
As the two spirits descended from the sky, the violent winds ceased, and the cloudy sky cleared.
“Not bad, Yuzuru. As expected of my other half. But this ends today.”
“Objection. The one winning this hundredth battle will be Yuzuru, not Kaguya.”
“Hmph. Don’t be ridiculous. Why not admit that I am the spirit truly worthy of the Yamai name?”
“Denial. The one who survives is Yuzuru. Kaguya does not suit the name Yamai.”
The two spirits arguing in the middle of the road were dressed in a way that made me seriously question where I was supposed to look.
Their outfits seemed to barely cover the essential parts with belts, and chains hung from their necks and wrists.
“It’s a futile struggle. It was shown to me by my future-seeing evil eye. Your next attack will leave you pierced by my Sturm Lance!”
“Correction. Kaguya’s evil eye has never hit its target.”
Whether they had noticed us or not, the two spirits continued their bickering. Meanwhile, I heard Murasame-san’s voice through the intercom I was carrying.
“Shin, Hiki. Can you hear me?”
“Yes. I can hear you.”
“I can hear you too.”
“Finally got through. Where are you right now?”
That was... a little hard to explain.
It was our first time on Arubi Island, and there was nothing around us except grass, trees, the sea, and an asphalt road. There wasn't much to describe.
“Feel the price of making me angry with your very body!”
“Everyone, be careful!”
“Sink into the abyss!”
“Charge. Eiya!”
While I was trying to figure out how to explain our location to Murasame-san, the two spirits finished their argument and charged at each other, stirring up a whirlwind as they clashed.
“Damn it, Shido! Please take care of Sachi!”
If we left those two alone, it was obvious everyone else would get caught in the crossfire, so I asked Shido to look after the Fire Keeper and threw myself between the two spirits.
Boom!
With a sound that should never come from a mere fistfight, the two spirits’ punches landed squarely on my head.
“...Huh?”
“Worried. We killed a normal person.”
“Uh, what do we do...”
The two spirits seemed to think I was dead, but I wasn't.
It was lucky I had used [Separation] before stepping between them; if I hadn't, I really would have died.
We’d come on a school trip, and I’d already had my head smashed by trash cans twice, and now I was being attacked by spirits.
Yeah. This was fucking
“summer.”
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