Chapter 3: Valley of the Undead (July 20th-21st)

Once we were out of the labyrinth, we went in search of civilization to try and find a doctor. We looked for a while, but the sun set earlier than we expected, so we were forced to make camp. Harissa used her magic to start a fire, and we all sat around it.

“How’s Corona looking?” I asked as I nibbled on some food.

“She’s still unconscious...”

“I see.”

Corona’s condition hadn’t improved even after we’d escaped the labyrinth. We needed to find a village or a town and get her help as soon as possible.

“Okay, let’s get some rest for now. I’ll take first watch.”

“Good night, Sir Rekka.”

“Good night.”

“Wake me up in two hours.”

Harissa, Tsumiki, and Lea all turned in for the night. They were using the extra clothes they’d brought for blankets and pillows. We were lucky that Lea’s water magic made it easy to do laundry... It was pretty dispiriting to have to wear dirty clothes. I mean, I was fine, but it must’ve been hard for the girls.

“Mio, you get some sleep, too.”

“Okay...”

Mio, who looked as young as Harissa or maybe even younger, came over and laid down next to me.

“...”

Once I could tell everyone was asleep, I started to stare into the crackling fire to think. We’d spent the whole day riding around on Lea’s back (in Leviathan form, of course), and we hadn’t come across anything that looked like civilization. Considering the state she was in, we couldn’t ask Corona for help. And considering how long she’d been sealed up, there was a chance she wouldn’t know anyway. But in the few hours we’d spend up in the sky, we’d learned a few things about this world.

First, the environment here was incredible. There were untouched mountains, rivers, and forests stretching as far as the eye could see. It made it easy enough to gather water and plants for food, but since we hadn’t seen any signs of people yet, I was on the fence about whether or not it was a good thing.

Next, despite all the greenery around us, we hadn’t laid eyes on a single wild animal. We’d gone into the forests and down the rivers several times to get food, but there wasn’t a single bird or fish to be had. It seemed safe enough to assume there just weren’t animals in these parts. It was nice that we didn’t have to worry about getting attacked by wildlife at night, but Lea was a little upset that there was no meat to eat. It was hard to say if that was good or bad, either... But I guess it played out in our favor. The real question at hand was when we’d be able to head back to Earth.

“I wonder if Hibiki and the others are doing okay...” I whispered to myself as I stared up at a night sky. It was more amazing than anything I’d ever seen on Earth.

“Mmmph...”

Mio began tossing in her sleep as she lay next to me. She seemed uncomfortable, but she was curled up in a ball like a tiny animal as she slept.

“...”

Maybe this whole thing was harder on her than anyone else. I still didn’t know what her story was, but she seemed normal enough. And now here we were, lost in another world somehow. I guess that part was my fault, really, but she had to have been scared. She’d barely said a word since we’d gotten here, too...

If nothing else, the idol known as MIO who I sometimes saw on TV was cheerful. She was always giggling and loved to talk. She looked young, but when she sang, she seemed like a grown-up. Yet the Mio sleeping next to me was nothing more than a petite girl. And an introverted one at that. Maybe it was because of everything she’d been through, including losing her memories. Maybe that was why she refused to leave my side. Maybe it was bad enough that she couldn’t sleep unless she was next to me...

“...Mmph.”

Suddenly, she sat up.

“Can’t sleep?”

“No...”

She shook her head a little, then inched over and leaned up right against me.

Just like you’d expect from an idol, she was incredibly cute even without her usual outfit and persona. But perhaps because of her size and the way she was acting, she looked more like a child than someone my age. It didn’t really bother me, but Tsumiki and Harissa hated it.

“Hmm... I honestly thought you were a lolicon, Rekka. Perhaps this is just some sort of paternal instinct?”

I want absolute silence from you, R. Absolute silence.

I flashed an infuriated smile at R as I put the jacket I’d been using over Mio’s shoulders. For a while, both of us sat there in silence as we watched the flames of the campfire together.

“Um, Rekka...”

“Hmm?” I turned around.

“I was an idol, wasn’t I?” Mio said, sounding a little upset.

“Yeah. I mean, not ‘was.’ You still are.”

“Am I? It doesn’t feel real...”

“Yeah, I could see that.” I’d already told her that she was an idol. “You can’t remember anything about your career?”

“Um, I... think I remember singing,” she said with a hesitant nod.

Similar to how hearing my name had caused her to remember that she was pushed off a roof, I’d learned that certain stimuli could trigger memories for Mio. While we’d been flying on Lea’s back, Tsumiki had started talking to her about her job as an idol, and it seemed she’d started to remember it.

“Is being an idol as hard as it looks?”

We were mostly just making small talk before bed, but I was also hoping I could jog her memory a little.

“It was hard, I think. Practice, singing, recording, the interviews... Every day was busy, I think. I still can’t remember most of it, though.”

“I see.”

“But there’s one thing in particular I do remember...”

“Oh, yeah?”

Mio’s voice suddenly got softer. It was like the voice you use when you’re talking about something unpleasant, but something that has nothing to do with you.

“I... I wanted to stop being an idol.”

“What?”

That certainly wasn’t what I’d expected her to say. Mio was an idol at the peak of her popularity. Music programs, in stores, commercials, even people’s ringtones when I was out in town... I heard her songs at least twice a day. That was how popular she was. But apparently she wanted to quit?

“Do you remember why you wanted to quit?”

“No...” Mio shook her head. “All I remember is that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I don’t remember why, or what happened then...”

Hmm... Something about this felt odd. It was like my gut was telling me that this was the core of Mio’s story. But a popular idol wanting to quit her job? It was a big deal, but not exactly anything world-shattering. So why...

She’d known my name even though we’d never met. She’d said she’d been pushed off a roof, but she was unharmed. Why were there so many mysteries in her story that not even Satsuki could figure out? Did her amnesia and the reason she wanted to quit being an idol have something to do with it? Right now, there was no way to know.

“I don’t think it’s that I wanted to stop singing...”

“No?”

“No. I still love singing, I think.”

Mio then started to sing softly. It was a lullaby, and the gentle melody was relaxing. It seemed like she was right. She must have worked hard to have that kind of talent. She really must have loved singing.

“...”

Corona’s eyes opened a little. She must have heard the lullaby, too. She still seemed to be sleepy, however. She was staring into space, but I could hear her humming softly. She seemed to know the song well enough that she could sing it even while half asleep. I guess... songs can cross the boundaries between worlds then, huh?

I started to hum along with Mio and Corona. Before I knew it, the tension had drained from me and everyone else around. They all seemed to be sleeping peacefully now, including Corona. I guess that was the power of a real idol.

“It’s nothing that special,” Mio said.

“You have a really pretty voice. It was a little different from the songs I hear on TV, but it was a wonderful song.”

“Th-Thank you.” Mio seemed a little embarrassed.

The idol MIO only sang happy pop songs that fit her girly image, but I guess she was talented enough to sing any kind of song she wanted. It felt rude to say that, though, so I didn’t.

“I think singing that lullaby made me sleepy,” she said, her eyes already half closed.

“We’re going to be on the move all day tomorrow, so get all the sleep you can. I’ll keep watch, so don’t worry.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Mio laid her head back down on a balled-up jacket serving as a pillow, and she curled up like she had been before. I threw another branch on the fire as I listened to her fall asleep.

▽

Dawn came on the morning of what would’ve been July 21st on Earth, and Corona finally woke up.

“Mmmph...”

“Corona, how are you feeling?”

“Still a little out of it, but I do feel better.”

At the very least, she had her wits about her now. She seemed a lot better off compared to yesterday.

“Come on, you can pester her all you want later. If she’s up and about now, we’re going to take her to go get a bath.”

“I-I know.”

Tsumiki and Harissa shooed me away and helped Corona head down towards the river. Lea was currently overhead, flying around and trying to figure out where we should head next. It seemed like the girls had everything covered, so I decided to take a stroll.

“Rekka...”

Just as I was about to head off, Mio came up and grabbed my waist again.

“Want to go for a walk?”

She nodded silently, so the two of us headed out of camp together. We tried getting closer to the forest, but there was still no sign of any wildlife. No animals, and not even an insect... This was a pretty weird world.

“Wait a second...”

Something I’d learned about the natural world in elementary school suddenly crossed my mind. If there were no insects, how did the flowers pollinate? I mean, there were other ways it could happen, I guess, but didn’t flowers mostly depend on insects for that kind of thing? But there wasn’t a single bug to be found here.

And without them, how were these trees growing fruit? I suppose maybe they’d developed in some special way, but one question quickly led to another. For example, how did the food chain work here? Plants were pretty low on that ladder, but they weren’t on the bottom. That distinction belonged to corpses and the like. The bodies of dead bugs and animals turned into nourishment for plants. At least, that was how things worked on Earth.

Maybe dead branches could fill the same role, I guess. Either way, I couldn’t be sure. If I’d paid more attention in school, I probably would have had a better idea of how things worked... Maybe once we got back home, I’d get straight to doing my summer homework.

The real question was how these plants got their energy, but I had no way of knowing. This wasn’t the world I was from, and I barely knew how things worked there. In short, there wasn’t much point in wasting too much brainpower on it.

“I’ll just keep it in the back of my mind for now...”

Mio seemed confused by what I’d said aloud. I thought about explaining, but then saw Lea overhead flying back towards the camp, her long, red hair trailing behind her.

“Lea!” I yelled and waved to get her attention.

Was Corona about done with her bath?

“I guess we should head back,” I said.

“Okay.”

Mio and I turned around and headed out of the forest back toward the others.

▽

“A town at the bottom of the valley?”

“Well, it’s hard to even call it that, but it certainly looks like someone lives there.”

“I guess that’s where we’ll head, then.”

Even if she was awake now, Corona still wasn’t at full strength. I thought about asking her more about Aburaamu, but I didn’t want to push her until we’d gotten her to a doctor. Even if there wasn’t a doctor in the village, they should at least know where to find one, so nobody objected to us heading there next.

“...!”

When Corona saw Lea transform into a dragon to carry us, her eyes suddenly went wide. Come to think of it, though, she was unconscious before. Go figure she’d be surprised seeing Lea transform for the first time.

“She’s not dangerous, so you don’t need to be so worried,” I said.

“I’m not scared or anything, but...”

It seemed like there was something she wanted to say, so I motioned for her to continue.

“Anyone else would be terrified of a beast like that. If you’re heading into the village, it’s probably smarter not to go straight there.”

“I see.”

She had a point, so we decided to have Lea carry us to the edge of the valley, out of sight of the village, and walk our way into town from there.

▽

The valley itself wasn’t that deep. It took just a little over half an hour to reach the bottom of it by foot, and we found ourselves entering a tiny village of just a few houses standing in a row. But...

“So, this is it, huh?”

“We’re here, yeah.”

“Nobody’s here, are they?”

Tsumiki, Harissa, and I all drooped our shoulders in disappointment at the same time. I didn’t expect the village to be abandoned...

“I’m sorry. I got your hopes up for nothing.”

“No, it’s not your fault, Lea. This feels like the cabins at a campground, actually.”

Basically, there were buildings, but no open gathering spaces, fields, or anything like that. The houses themselves were surrounded by trees, so you could only see their roofs from above. There was still a gentle breeze blowing through the area, rustling the leaves and brushing the roofs of the cottages.

“I noticed this when I was coming down, but the wind just keeps blowing here, doesn’t it?”

The wind swept down into the valley where it formed an updraft. I could see the leaves on the trees being blown upwards.

“A valley where the wind never stops, huh?”

Since the cottages seemed to be uninhabited, we decided to stop in one so Corona could rest. The inside was a bit dusty, but it wasn’t that bad once we opened the windows to let it air out.

“I’m glad this is cleaner than I expected.”

“Yeah, they seem a little too clean, really,” Harissa said. She was the one who always did the cleaning at our house.

“It’s dusty, but not that bad. This village... If nothing else, it hasn’t been uninhabited all that long.”

So, there were people here up until recently? Why did they leave, anyway? Was it just temporary, or permanent?

“And that strange feeling has only gotten stronger since we arrived...”

“Are you talking about how the air feels different again?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod.

If that feeling was getting stronger, did it have something to do with the valley being empty?

“No rest for the weary, huh?” Lea sighed a little and stood up. “I’m going to take a look around. I’ll see if I can figure out where everyone went.”

“Okay, I’ll go with you. I want to get our washing done.”

“There should be a lake nearby. We can head there.”

Lea and Tsumiki left the cottage, carrying the laundry with them. The rest of us stayed behind to look after Corona.

“Corona, did anything hurt while you were walking?”

“No... I still feel sluggish, though.”

Harissa brought a chair next to where Corona was lying and started to ask her about how she was feeling. Mio and I sat on the other bed and watched.

“I’m not sure, but I think you’re sick. Do you have any idea what it might be?”

“I couldn’t say. I was never sick before I was sealed away.”

“So, you’ve got no idea?”

“I feel like I’ve seen other people with similar symptoms, but unfortunately, I can’t remember where. It was several hundred years ago, after all.”

“I-I see.”

Harissa’s glanced awkwardly around the room like she didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t exactly a doctor. If she was out of questions already, that would make it hard to help her. Of course, I didn’t know what to do, either. It would be different if we could give her some kind of physical exam...

“Corona.”

“What?”

“You were suffering pretty badly yesterday, but you feel better today, right? Do you have any idea why?”

“Why I feel better, you mean?” Corona looked down and thought about it for a moment. “Come to think of it, I heard a song.”

“A song?”

“That’s right. While I was slipping in and out of consciousness, I remember hearing it. It was like it soothed my pain and my heart.”

Was that...

I looked at Mio. She was looking back at me.

“Was that my lullaby?”

I was certain it was, but Mio didn’t seem sure. Sure, it would be a miracle if songs could heal sickness, but...

“Mio, can you sing that song again?”

“Huh? Um, but...”

“Please.”

“I don’t think there’s any way my songs can heal sickness...”

“I’d agree with you ordinarily, but....” I let my words hang for a moment. “We’re in another world right now. It’s possible things don’t work here the way we would expect them to. Maybe it is possible for songs to have healing effects.”

“Huh?” Mio said, clearly confused.

“Corona thinks that’s what made her feel better, so I think it’s worth a try.”

“U-Um...” Mio just looked down and mumbled.

I kept asking her, and she eventually relented and agreed.

“A-All right...”

She took a few deep breaths and then glanced over at Harissa and Corona. Her cheeks were a little red.

Was she reluctant because she was embarrassed? Was there some reason she was okay singing in front of me last night, but not the other girls?

“I know things are a little out of the ordinary with Mio, but when she leans on you like that, you’re still the same as ever, aren’t you?”

R was lounging on top of Corona on the bed, scratching her head and talking her usual nonsense.

“Here I go...”

And so we had our own little mini concert with just us—including an awfully laid-back girl from the future—as the audience. Mio’s beautiful voice filled the cottage. I could feel tension I didn’t even know I had leaving my shoulders. Her singing really was relaxing. I looked over and could see that Harissa and Corona felt the same way.

“Um, that was the lullaby...”

“Let me hear more.”

“O-Okay... Here I go, um...”

Cheered on by Corona, Mio began her next song. The next thing we knew, we were all humming along with the rhythm or singing the lyrics softly to ourselves. All her songs were calm and warm. Even if she couldn’t remember anything else... No, maybe the words just came to her naturally as she sang. There was no hesitation in her singing voice.

“Oh...!”

Suddenly her song stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um, as I was singing...”

“Did you remember something?”

“I think so...”

Apparently singing had stimulated something for her.

“What did you remember?”

“That I couldn’t sing freely.”

“Freely?”

I didn’t quite get what she was saying, so I had to ask what she meant.

“I wanted to sing all kinds of songs once I became an idol. But because of the way I look, they only let me sing certain types of songs...”

Mio looked down a little as she explained. But it made sense. She was saying that she couldn’t sing what she wanted to. It was true that she looked young enough to be paying the kid’s fare on the bus, and her image as an idol played off of that. All her songs I’d heard sure sounded like they came from someone with a bright, young personality. Really, she seemed to live up to her reputation as the top lolita idol. But from what we’d heard just now, she had an incredible voice and could probably sing anything well. That’s what she wanted to do, but she wasn’t allowed to... That must have been stressful.

“Is that why you wanted to quit being an idol, maybe?”

“I don’t know, but...”

She still wasn’t sure, huh? Even if she did want to quit being an idol because she couldn’t sing the kind of music she wanted to, what did that have to do with her being pushed off a roof? I guess it was possible those two things were unrelated.

“Mio, did you get too tired to sing?” Corona asked when we reached a pause in our conversation.

The eager look in her eyes made it pretty clear she still wanted to hear more.

“Oh, no... I’m fine. I’ll sing another one.”

But just as she began to sing...

Bang!

The door to the cottage was violently thrown open. We all turned around to see Tsumiki and Lea at the entrance. Tsumiki was panting, and Lea looked tense.

“Rekka, we’ve got trouble.”

As luck would have it, we were about to face a whole new set of problems.

▽

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well...”

Before she answered, Lea came in and promptly closed the door like she was trying to keep out some kind of uninvited guest. Next, she went over to shut and lock the windows we’d opened to let some air in. She then took a peek outside, grimaced, and beckoned me over.

“What’s going—”

I didn’t finish my sentence. Looking out the window, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I blinked several times... and when what I was seeing didn’t change, I closed my eyes to calm myself. I’d seen lots of unsettling things before, but this probably took the cake. I slowly opened my eyes again to face the reality in front of me. There was only one way I knew how to describe what I was seeing.

“...A zombie movie?”

“In a fantasy setting, no less,” Tsumiki added.

A fantasy zombie movie? I wasn’t sure if that made it more or less scary than a normal zombie movie, but that was what we were up against.

“Rrrgh...”

“Hrrrgh...”

“Gaaah... Gaaah...”

Crazed zombies—what looked like people and small animals with wings, or what you might call fairies in a video game—were surrounding the cottage. One of the cat fairies was even scratching at the walls. It was a pretty surreal scene. As I watched the scary (cute?) cat in utter shock, there came a pounding at the door.

Crap. Whether it was really cute or not, this wasn’t the time to get distracted.

“What the heck happened?” I turned to Tsumiki and Lea and asked.

“I don’t know. We were doing the washing, and they just attacked us.”

“We weren’t that far from the cottage when it happened. They started to show up soon after we heard that song.”

Were they—I’m just going to start calling them zombie fairies—somewhere in this valley from the start? Had Mio’s singing drawn them here?

“Ah!”

Mio caught a glimpse of the zombie fairies outside the cottage and crouched to the ground, clutching her head.

“Are you okay?”

“My head... hurts.”

The sight of it all was pretty unpleasant. Maybe she was feeling sick.

Krrrsh!

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud crashing sound, followed by what sounded like shattering glass. One of the zombie fairies had apparently smashed in the window.

“Rrrgh...”

“Rekka!”

Mio grabbed on to my leg in a panic. Corona, however, just raised an eyebrow and snorted.

“Sylphs, huh?”

“You know them, Corona?”

“I know what they used to be, yeah. They’re wind fairies. Not very rare in this world.”

“So, are they the ones who lived here?”

I guess we found our first villagers...

“Were they always like this?”

“Nope. They’re usually the cheerful sort. Not monsters... like this.”

In other words, something had recently happened here in this valley. And the first village I chanced upon in another world happened to be infested with zombie fairies. Just my luck.

“Well, either way, we’ve gotta get out of here,” Corona said as she stood up from the bed.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Hmph. I was just a little out of it ’cause I spent centuries sleeping in the same pose. But trust me. I’m fully awake now.”

Despite what she was saying, it didn’t sound like she 100 percent believed it herself. Yet even so, her steps were steady, and she moved with confidence. I figured she was probably okay, and more importantly, she was probably right. It was high time to think about getting out of here.

We could probably fight our way out, but I wanted to avoid fighting enemies I didn’t really understand. We’d need another way out of the cottage, but the zombie fairies had us totally surrounded. Whether we went through the door or busted down a wall, we’d be instantly attacked. Which meant...

“We’ll have to head out the roof.”

“Yeah.” Lea nodded, as if she’d had the exact same thought.

It seemed like the sylphs could only fly a few meters above the ground, so hypothetically, if we left by the roof, they wouldn’t be able to get to us. That said... I really didn’t want to have to cling to Lea again if I could help it. Fortunately, however, Corona was awake this time. We decided we’d have Lea transform so we could all ride on her back.

“Stand back a little,” she said as she walked to the middle of the room.

The cottage wasn’t that big, but there was room enough for her to transform and us all to clamber aboard.

“Mio, hang on tight.”

Mio looked nervous as she clung to Lea’s white, snakelike body even tighter than she clung to my waist.

“Okay... We’re ready, Lea!”

Lea lifted her head up and looked towards the roof on my signal. When she did, several bowling ball sized orbs of water appeared. She then used her magic to make them explode, blowing off the roof to the cottage. Lea flew upward, moving in a steady spiral so that no one would fall off from the acceleration.

“Rrrgh...”

“Hrrrgh...”

The zombie fairies reached up like they thought they could grab us, but we were far out of their reach. Their bodies seemed to get smaller and smaller as we flew away.

“Rrragh...”

Before long, we couldn’t even hear their moaning anymore. Everyone seemed relieved we’d escaped the immediate danger.

“Whew... What the heck was that about?”

“Who knows?” Corona said disinterestedly.

She was a resident of this world, so I was a little surprised she didn’t seem to care. I started to wonder about it, but I quickly had something else on my mind when a bigger problem came along.

“Gyaaagh!”

I could hear Lea scream as her white, snakelike body wound through the air. I don’t know why I did it, but I turned around... just in time to see something biting down on Leviathan’s tail. Was it a zombie fairy? No, it was too big for that.

“Tch! There are sylpheeds here, too?!” Corona spat.

Sylpheeds? Were those different than sylphs? I didn’t have time to ask.

“Gyah!”

Whatever they were, there were lots of them. Three of them were already biting into Lea’s torso.

“Gyaaagh!”

“Lea!”

Several of the girls called out to her at the same time I did. We were all concerned. Lea was refusing to try and shake off the sylpheeds, probably for fear that we’d fall off, too. And we were too busy clinging to her to help.

“Grrr!”

Lea used her water magic to shoot them down one after another, but they kept coming back. Since they were wind spirits, they were fast and didn’t have any trouble catching back up to her. And what was worse...

“It’s no good! They’re acting like they haven’t been damaged at all! They’re just like zombies!”

What made zombie movies scary was that zombie hordes always came back, no matter what you did to them. And that was exactly the situation we had on our hands.

“Lea, let’s land. We won’t make it out of the valley like this!”

“...!”

Lea must have been too occupied to even respond, but she began to drop altitude rapidly. Of course, the sylpheeds followed, but Lea used a massive water shield that blocked their path and allowed us to land safely. Once we hit the ground, Lea was spit out of the white snake’s mouth.

“Gwah! Gah!”

“Huh...?”

If she was spit out instead of transforming back, did that mean that she’d separated the core of her body from the energy she’d stored up? But why would she do that?

“When they bit me... I felt something... enter my body,” she said between coughs. “To be safe... I isolated that part of me, but I lost a lot of energy in the process.”

“It’s fine. I think you did the right thing.”

There was one other thing that made zombie movies scary. The infections. Once somebody was bitten by a zombie, they became one, too, going berserk and attacking on sight. I didn’t know if movie logic applied here, but I figured it was best to be cautious.

For some reason, the sylpheeds didn’t come down to attack us in the forest. At the speeds they flew, maybe it was just too difficult for them to travel through the dense tree cover. But even though we’d just escaped one problem, we immediately had another to deal with.

“Sir Rekka!” I heard Harissa call to me in a panic.

We were free of the sylpheeds, but the zombie fairies had followed us.

“Run! Lea, can you stand?!”

“I’m all right...”

Lea got to her feet and nodded. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, some of the zombie fairies seemed more interested in her dragon body than us. They swarmed to it and bit into the unmoving flesh.

“Sir Rekka, should I use my magic to make us all invisible?”

“Yeah, do it!”

“Ealim Nekram!”

Harissa quickly chanted her spell, and we all became invisible. However...

“What?! They can still see us?!”

The rest of the zombie fairies came straight for us anyway. Since we were in the forest, maybe they were following our footprints in the dirt. Or maybe the sounds of snapping twigs under our feet as we ran along. Either way, there was no point in staying invisible with them chasing us. I had Harissa end the spell.

We ran as fast as we could through the forest. There was no point trying to fly—the sylpheeds would just get us that way. But staying on the ground came with its own problems. We were at the bottom of the valley, so it looked like all we needed to do was climb upward to escape. That was what I thought, but the zombie fairies appeared at every turn no matter where we went. We scaled the hill but then were chased back down, and it wasn’t long before we ended up totally lost. Maybe “stranded” was more accurate.

“Hahh... Hahh...”

Trying to get out of the valley was like climbing up a mountain. There was no way anyone—not even someone with proper training—could keep it up forever. We were all starting to reach our limits, but the zombie fairies kept coming and showed no mercy.

“There’s more!” Lea yelled.

We all took the cue and started running again. Mio had long since run out of steam, so Lea was carrying her, but the rest of us were on our own. Corona had so much energy that it was hard to believe she’d been sick, but even she was starting to run out of breath. And then...

“Kyah!”

“Tsumiki!”

Tsumiki tripped on a branch and rolled down the slope two or three meters.

“Aah!”

I quickly ran over to help her up.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah. I don’t feel anything sprained or broken.”

Fortunately it seemed she wasn’t hurt, but...

“Rrrgh...”

It cost us just enough time for the zombie fairies to catch up.

“Rekka!”

Lea turned back, but there wasn’t time. She had her hands full with Mio. I put my hand on the hilt of the Hero’s Sword, which I’d wrapped in cloth to carry. The zombie fairies were slow and small, but I still wasn’t sure my amateur swordsmanship would be any match for them. There were easily seven or eight of them, and only one of me. Should I just try and buy time for Lea to put down Mio? I only had a split second to decide. But then... they walked right past us?

For some reason, the zombie fairies that had been chasing us so doggedly now completely ignored me and Tsumiki. I had no idea why, but I was glad all the same. We quickly got moving and caught up with the others. We ran past the slow-moving zombies as we did, but they didn’t even try and attack us. Were they only interested in certain kinds of people? Whatever it was, we knew they’d attack Lea, so we still needed to make an escape. But at this rate, we’d all be completely exhausted before I could come up with a plan. Visions of a horrible fate flashed through my mind, and as I tried to drive them away...

“This way!”

I suddenly heard someone call out to us. I looked around and saw a disembodied head sitting on the ground.

“Hurry! Before the sylphs see us! Get in here!”

Turns out it was a girl sticking her head out of a hole in the ground. But after calling out to us, she quickly ducked back down like she was telling us to hurry and follow her.

“Guys!”

I turned to the others, but they’d already gotten the hint. We all jumped as fast as we could into the hole.

▽

The hole in the ground was surprisingly big. It was about the size of my living room. It was deeper than I thought, too. I was worried about hitting my head, but it was enough of a drop that I tumbled and landed square on my butt when I jumped in. Once everyone else was inside, the girl who’d beckoned us in covered up the entrance and camouflaged it.

“...”

She held her ear against the sealed entrance for a moment before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

“It’s okay. They’re gone now.”

The rest of us breathed a sigh of relief, too. It seemed the danger had passed.

“Thanks. You really saved us.”

“It’s fine. You helped me, too, I think.”

“We did?”

She smiled when she saw the confusion on my face.

“I was out looking for food when they found me, but it seems like you drew their attention away long enough for me to escape.”

“I see. So we both helped each other out, huh?”

It made more sense once she explained it.

“I’m Lyun. Who are you?”

“Rekka Namidare.”

“Nami... dare? That’s a very long name. It’s too long to remember, so I’ll just call you Nammy.”

“Wh—”

Why did it have to be such a girly nickname? Tsumiki immediately burst out laughing, and Lea looked like she was seriously considering adopting it, too. Please don’t... I tried my best to subtly object to my new name, but it sounded like names as long as four syllables weren’t really a thing in this world.

“So, you came from a place called ‘Earth,’ Nammy?”

And so despite my best efforts, I got stuck being called “Nammy” anyway. At least she was able to learn Tsumiki, Lea, Mio, and Corona’s names just fine. But when Harissa introduced herself...

“Um, I’m Harissa Hope. I’m a sorcerer from Aburaamu...”

“Aburaamu?”

The name seemed to mean something to her.

“Do you know where that is, Lyun?”

She didn’t answer, but rather just stared at Harissa for a while before turning away.

“...”

Wh-What was that about? The mood suddenly seemed to turn awkward... I tried to think of something else to talk about, but as I looked at Lyun, I realized there was a strange floating circle just above her head.

“Hey, Lyun, what’s that thing on your head?”

“Huh? What?”

Lyun didn’t seem to know what I was talking about.

“That’s what sylpheeds use to feel the wind, young man,” Corona said from beside me.

Wait. If Lyun was a sylpheed...

“Are you a survivor from the valley?” Corona asked before I could.

“Don’t make it sound like everyone’s dead...” Lyun said with a frown. “This is the valley of Windsong. Sylpheeds and sylphs alike live here. But two days ago, people started coming down with the Ghostdemon sickness.”

“Ghostdemon sickness?”

“That’s right.”

Ghostdemon? That didn’t sound like a good name. Just as I was about to ask for more details, Lyun’s tummy started to growl.

“Oh...!”

She put her hands over it, embarrassed. Her cheeks were a little red. Come to think of it, she said she’d gone out to get food or something. Was she hungry?

“Hang on a second.”

I took a light meal out of my pack and offered it to her.

“What’s this?”

“Food. Take it if you’re hungry.”

“Hmm...?”

She unwrapped the package, took a nibble... then grimaced and spit it out.

“What is this?! There’s no mana in it at all!”

“Mana?”

That wasn’t a word I was familiar with.

“Mana is similar to magical energy in the world you come from.”

So, they were basically the same thing, huh? Apparently in the spirit world, mana was constantly generated from a place called the mana spring. The mana spring filled all the land with mana. That mana was what made the trees and flowers grow. And when the spirits and fairies ate the mana-laden fruit those plants grew, they took the mana into their bodies, too.

“Spirits have two bodies, a material one and an astral one. The material body is what you humans would call the physical body, whereas the astral body is the mind, or the soul. The astral body requires a lot of mana to sustain, so a lack of it is fatal to them.”

“Hmm...”

Human sorcerers like Harissa used magical power for spells, but they didn’t need it to live. Mana was like an external battery for powering magic. Running out of it wouldn’t hurt her other than meaning she couldn’t cast spells for a while. But since spirits needed it to maintain their astral bodies, their souls would perish without it.

“When the material body is infected with the Ghostdemon sickness, the astral body is also affected via contaminated mana. As the disease progresses, you lose the ability to think for yourself and start to attack everyone around you.”

So, the disease more or less hijacked their astral bodies—their souls—and forced them to attack the people around them... Yeah, this was definitely zombie movie material.

“So, how have you managed to stay safe, Lyun?”

Lyun lived here, too. How was she the only one left standing when everybody else had turned into zombies?

“I’m one of the more powerful spirits in the valley, so my body naturally holds more mana.”

The treatment for Ghostdemon sickness was usually very straightforward: purge the infected mana from your astral body. It was the same way a surgeon would excise a tumor or amputate a badly infected limb. Of course, purging mana from the astral body was a lot simpler than all that. Anyone could do it. Come to think of it, Lea had actually done something similar earlier. After she’d been bitten by a sickened sylpheed, she’d expelled her core from her body of magical energy. Turns out she’d made the right call.

“In other words, since I have more mana, that means I have more to spare.”

But that didn’t mean her supply was infinite. When she was down to the mana she needed to live, she wouldn’t be able to purge any more of it. Otherwise she’d die. And so even though she had the perfect hiding spot with this underground cave, she still had to go out and find mana-filled fruit to eat and sustain herself.

“...But so how did this Ghostdemon sickness end up overrunning the valley? I thought anybody was able to purge infected mana from their body?”

Based on what she’d said, they could always get more mana by eating fruit, and there was no lack of mana in this world thanks to the mana spring. So how could the disease have possibly wiped out the entire valley?

“The mana spring in the valley dried up,” Lyun finally said with a pained expression.

The mana in the atmosphere and in the fruit of the trees all came from the mana spring. So if that had dried up, then...

“The first thing we noticed was that the mana fruit had stopped growing in the forest. But by then, it was too late. The capital where the Spirit King lives is a long way away, and the sylphs kept collapsing trying to go for help... I did my best to help, too, but two days ago, a child came down with the Ghostdemon sickness and bit a sylpheed. From there, it ran rampant overnight...”

Ghostdemon sickness affected the material body as well as the astral body, causing fevers and fatigue. Those who contracted it became too tired to move, and were helpless as their minds were slowly taken over. It was such a cruel, clever tactic that it was hard to believe there was just a disease behind it.

But Lyun said this started two days ago... That would’ve been the day before we arrived here. While we’d been struggling down in the dungeon, she’d been up here running for her life. Lyun had been all alone in a valley full of zombies. I didn’t even have to ask this time. It was obvious she was a heroine.

Her happy ending was probably just making it out of here alive. It was simple enough, but it was certainly dangerous. We couldn’t hide down here forever. We didn’t have that much food, and none if it had mana for Lyun. We needed a way to get out of the valley, and soon.

“Lea, do you think you can protect us and fly at the same time?”

“Doubtful. I might have been able to earlier, but that ambush set me back pretty badly. It cost me most of the energy I’d had saved up, so I don’t think I could fly fast enough to outrun the sylpheeds anymore.”

If only I had been paying more attention when we left the cottage... But it was too late for regrets.

We couldn’t fly out. And there were too many zombie fairies to leave the valley on foot. It would be extremely difficult to dodge them all. Everyone was silent, and nobody had a plan.

“There is a way, actually...”

But then Corona spoke up.

“You mean a way to get us out of here?”

“I do. That.”

As everyone waited to hear what her plan was, she pointed at the Hero’s Sword.

“You just heard that sylph and sylpheed bodies are made out of mana, right?”

“Don’t tell me...”

“No, I imagine it’s exactly what you’re thinking, young man. The Hero’s Sword has unmatched power against any kind of magical energy. Using it will make getting out of the valley easy.”

I grimaced a little when I realized my bad feeling about this was justified. The Hero’s Sword had the power to cut through magic. And since sylphs’ bodies were essentially made of magical energy, it was extremely likely that the sword would work just as well on them.

“Wait! You’re going to kill them?! You can’t do that!” Lyun screamed when she realized what we were talking about.

“Yeah... I’m not okay with that, either.”

The people afflicted with Ghostdemon sickness could be cured as long as they got their mana back. They were sick. There was no way we could just kill them.

But it wasn’t like Corona meant anything bad by suggesting it. And it was true that if we wanted to escape the valley alive, we needed to do something about the infected. The question was how, though. If only we could just pass through the obstacles like we’d done in the dungeon... Wait. Pass through... obstacles? Come to think of it...

“Lyun, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“What is it that makes the infected attack us?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Lyun’s face made it clear she didn’t understand the question.

“I don’t know how to answer that... They’ll attack anybody, even friends and family.”

“But they didn’t attack me and Tsumiki.”

I recalled what had happened just before we came across Lyun. Tsumiki had tripped, and I’d gone to help her. We were separated from the group, but the zombie fairies ignored us and walked right past. Was it because we were from another world? No, Lea was, too. It was clear they were interested in her. They’d attacked, and even tried to infect her. So the difference between me and Tsumiki, and Lea and Lyun was...

“...It’s mana.”

“Huh?”

“Tsumiki and I are normal humans, so we don’t have any mana. But you and Lea do.”

That was it. The Ghostdemon sickness infected the astral body, which was entirely made of mana. That meant that in order to spread the infection, it had to be passed on through creatures with mana. That’s why the zombie fairies were attacking specific people—they could sense mana and were going after those of us with magic power.

“I see... Since the fairies all have mana, it’s only natural that the disease would prey on that, huh?”

“I suppose so.”

That would also explain why Lyun hadn’t realized it. All of the fairies and spirits inherently had mana, so it was impossible to tell that’s what the disease was targeting. As I was thinking about that, Mio looked up at me (she was still clinging to my waist, by the way) and asked an important question.

“But... how does knowing that help?”

We knew that the zombies came after anybody with mana. And we had Harissa, Lea, Corona, and Lyun in our group. They’d definitely be coming after us. Still, knowing how they behaved gave us an advantage. We could come up with some kind of plan from there.

“...There’s something I’d like you to help me with, Mio.”

Mio gave me a puzzled look.

I kneeled down so I could look her in the eye, and then shared my idea with her and the rest of the group.

▽

After that, I took Mio and Tsumiki to the village at the bottom of the valley again. I hadn’t brought the Hero’s Sword with me. It was partly because I could move faster without it, but also because Lyun still seemed to be afraid that I might try and use it. So, in the end, I’d left it with Corona. All that was left to do now was pray that my plan worked so we wouldn’t actually have to resort to using the sword.

“I guess this’ll do.”

I took the girls into the cottage next to the one we’d blown the roof off of earlier and opened the windows. The funnel shape of the valley made it so that noise here in the heart of it easily echoed throughout the area. I’d confirmed as much by asking Lyun if she’d heard Mio’s song earlier while she was running.

“Mio, will you sing for me again?”

After a pause, Mio nodded reluctantly and took a deep breath.

“Not far away, not behind me, what’s in front of me is...” she began singing.

“That’s ‘The Day Before The Future,’” Tsumiki whispered.

Tsumiki and I were supposed to survey the surrounding area while Mio sang. We watched the tree line from the windows, carefully listening for any noise in the underbrush and keeping tabs on each other’s blind spots. And sure enough, before long, there was a rustling from the woods and our first audience—a tiny zombie fairy—appeared.

As Mio continued to sing, more and more fairies showed up. It was just like the first time we were attacked. I didn’t know if they responded to sound in addition to mana, or if Mio’s song had some kind of effect on them, but what was important right now was that the zombie fairies of the valley were all being drawn to the same place. It seemed the sylpheeds overhead couldn’t hear it, but we’d just have to deal with them later.

“Crap!”

Eventually, one of the zombie fairies tried to come in through the window, so I hurriedly pushed it away.

“Hey! Don’t you think we’ve done enough?”

“Yeah!”

Tsumiki and I moved at the same time to shut the windows.

“Rrrgh...”

“Hrrrgh...”

“Rrragh...”

There was a bona fide zombie fairy horde outside now.

“Mio, that’s enough.”

“Okay...”

Mio stopped singing. She came over to grab on to my waist again, but when she saw what was outside the window...

“Aah!”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine... I just got a little headache.”

“Yeah?”

I wondered why that would give her a headache, but I figured it just must be that much of a shock for such a delicate girl. That aside, however, the mission was going well so far.

The plan was for those of us without mana to get all the zombie fairies in one place while Lea and the other girls with mana made their way out of the valley. It was a simple way to ensure that no one got hurt. As for us, now that we were surrounded by zombie fairies...

“Okay, time to go.”

“If this doesn’t work like you said it would, I’m going to hate you forever. You know that, right?” Tsumiki reminded me.

Mio just silently clung to my waist. And then the three of us... Yeah, we just walked right out the front door.

“Aaagh...”

“Hurrrgh...”

Of course, right on the other side of the door was the horde of zombie fairies.

“Rrrgh...”

But we were able to walk right through them without provoking them. All according to plan, Tsumiki, Mio, and I—the mana-less team—simply walked away.

“That was bad for my heart. It felt like all of those bloodshot eyes were staring right at me...”

“I agree with you there.”

Tsumiki and I laughed dryly as cold sweat dripped down our foreheads. Mio’s singing had the power to draw the zombie fairies, but once she stopped singing, she was just a normal girl. In other words, she had no mana or magic power, meaning there was no reason for them to attack her. And as far as I was concerned, the mission was a success. Honestly, the zombie fairies seemed even more spaced out than I’d expected. Or maybe it just felt that way because their eyes were so red. It was hard to tell where they were looking. But nevertheless, things had worked out.

Tsumiki and I took turns carrying Mio as we left Windsong Valley, though we had to stop a few times to get her to sing and lure the zombie fairies away. Once we finally made it up and out of the valley proper, we trekked another kilometer or so and waited. Eventually Lea’s group, who had left the valley from the other side, circled around to meet up with us.

“Rekka!”

“Good, you guys are all safe?”

“That’s my line,” Lea said, and we both laughed in relief.

“Not bad, young man,” Corona said, playing with the cloth-wrapped sword over her shoulder.

“It was all luck.”

“No. I thought the same thing when you escaped from the Ruler’s... You know. But you have the ability to intuitively weave together the threads you have, and the guts to put a plan into action.”

It felt weird getting that much praise. I could feel my face turn red as I tried to come up with some kind of reply, but then my blood ran cold when I saw something appear over Corona’s shoulder.

“Sylpheeds!” I yelled.

Everyone turned and looked up at the sky. One, two... three of them had followed us from the valley?!

“Everyone, into the forest!”

I called for a retreat, but the speedy sylpheeds would close in on us before we would ever be able to manage an escape. My heart skipped a beat thinking about them going after Harissa or Lyun with that kind of speed, but then...

“Hmph. I guess I have no choice,” Corona said to herself as she raised the Hero’s Sword high.

“No...!” Lyun screamed, thinking that her friends were about to be killed.

“Corona, stop!”

I thought the same thing, too, but...

“Just leave it to me. Let me have my turn in the spotlight.”

She then swung the sword long before the sylpheeds reached us. It seemed like it would be a wild miss, but when she swung the cloth-wrapped blade, I swear something flew out of it. The next thing I knew, the sylpheeds overhead fell to the ground like they’d been struck.

“My friends!”

“Don’t worry. They’re not dead,” Corona said as she shouldered the sword again.

But those words alone weren’t enough to assure Lyun. She ran right over to the sylpheeds now lying on the ground. She leaned in and pressed her ear to one of their chests... then sighed in relief. As promised, Corona had neutralized them without harming them.

“Corona, what was that?”

“You seem to be a very unusual hero, so perhaps you don’t know, but this sword can do more than just dispel magic. It can steal it, reflect it, seal it... all kinds of things.”

All I could do was gasp in awe. Corona was certainly the real deal when it came to this hero business.

“But if you could do that, why didn’t you do it earlier?”

“This technique takes a lot more stamina and mana than just killing something. It would’ve been rather difficult to do it after I’d only just recovered,” Corona said as she idly flipped the sword over and over on her shoulder.

“So what do we do now? Do you have anywhere to go?”

“Hmm... What are you going to do, Lyun?”

We’d made it out of the valley, but we couldn’t just leave Lyun here.

“I’m going to head to the capital. I’ll have to ask the Spirit King for help saving the valley...” Lyun explained as she moved the unconscious sylphs to a bed of grass.

“Hmm... The capital, eh?”

“Something up, Corona?”

“...No, it’s nothing.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

She waved her hand dismissively as if to tell me not to worry about it.

“All right, then I guess we’ll head there.”

Thinking about it, we hadn’t gotten any details about Aburaamu from Corona yet, but I figured it could wait until we’d safely delivered Lyun. Apparently the capital of the spirit world, home to the Spirit King, was what lay ahead of us.