Chapter 3: The City in the Sky and the Land of Illusions
Chapter 3: The City in the Sky and the Land of Illusions
After successfully ditching our pursuers, we all looked down through the clouds and took in the sights of our fantastical journey through the sky.
“So to get to Laputa, we just have to head towards the red point on this map, right?” asked Shirley.
“Hom nom... That’s right,” Nyanyan answered as she munched on a complimentary airship cracker.
There was what appeared to be a map of the skies at the helm that displayed the current clouds and atmospheric conditions in addition to a red dot that marked our destination—Laputa.
“Radar in this era... That’s incredible. Actually, if this red dot is Laputa, then it appears to be moving... Will this airship have enough fuel or energy or what-have-you to get there?” Hibiki asked Nyanyan as she pointed to the moving red marker on the map.
“That won’t be a problem. Laputa and Atlantis are twin islands, after all.”
“Twin islands?”
“Yup. They always maintain the same distance between each other no matter what. If Laputa moves, then Atlantis moves with it. That’s what my father told me, anyway.”
“If Laputa moves... Atlantis moves too? Hold on. Does that mean Atlantis is drifting across the ocean?”
“That’s right. Didn’t you notice?” Nyanyan said, responding to Hibiki’s shock with casual indifference.
“...I see. Well, that’s one mystery solved.”
“Which mystery?” I asked, curious as to what she’d figured out.
“Remember how we discovered Atlantis sunk in the Pacific Ocean? The legend is originally from Europe, however, and says it sunk in the Atlantic. Just think about the name.”
“Huh, yeah... That is strange.”
“But if the city is moving... I guess if the island is moving? Whatever. The important part is that if it’s drifting across the open sea, that explains how it got from one ocean to another. No wonder it was always so mysterious. If you saw it from land, it would look like any island... But then it wouldn’t be there the next day.”
Yeah, a moving island... I guess that really is the stuff of myths. There’s a kind of romance to the story.
Meanwhile, Shirley—who had been listening to us talk all this time—began tapping her index finger against her chin.
“But twin islands, huh? I wonder if there’s some kind of magnetic field that ties them together? Or is it more like a planetary orbit kind of relationship?”
She was completely immersed in her thoughts instead of flying the ship. Good thing it was smooth sailing. That said, not everyone found the moment to be peaceful.
“...”
“Hm?”
Chirika had been awfully quiet for a while now.
“...”
She was stock-still, clutching her katana to her chest and staring dead ahead.
“...Chirika?”
“Mgwuh?!”
When I called out to her, she jumped a little in her seat.
“Oh, it’s you... What is it?”
“Nothing. You just don’t look so good. Are you motion sick?”
“Sick? Certainly not. I haven’t been ailed with anything.”
“It’s not that kind of sickness, erm... Do you feel like you want to throw up or anything?”
“No, but...” In a rare moment of nervousness for her, she looked out the window and said, shoulders shuddering, “It’s hard to believe a boat is flying through the sky. I keep waiting for the moment it falls.”
Come to think of it, they didn’t even have planes in the time period she was from. This had to be a completely new experience for her. It was perfectly naturally to be scared.
“Don’t worry. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Remember the television at my house? This is just another incredible, everyday part of life in the future. It won’t fall that easily.
“...When you say ‘that easily,’ you mean to imply that it can fall?”
“No, no, no! It’s not gonna fall at all! It’s totally fine! This is perfectly normal for humans in the future, so no biggie! Just pretend like you’re aboard a large boat!”
Really, there were airplane accidents too. And I didn’t know how safe these Laputian crafts really were. But I decided to leave all that out and tell a few white lies to reassure her.
“Hmph...”
I don’t know how much of what I said she really believed, but she saw how desperate I was and flashed a less high-strung smile.
“To think I’d be comforted by the likes of you... A samurai should never be cowardly. I need to reflect on my actions.”
With that, she closed her eyes and started to meditate. It looked like some of the tension in her shoulders was gone, so it seemed that even if I hadn’t made her feel any safer, I’d at least cheered her up a little.
“Wah!”
“Eep!”
Suddenly, Harissa and Tsumiki both exclaimed in surprise.
“Whoa!” I echoed them unthinkingly.
The wide open sky, which had only carried sunbeams and clouds so far, was suddenly filled with a gigantic floating island.
“I wonder if it’s active camouflage... The whole island is covered,” Shirley said, impressed by the view of it from the helm.
It really was an enormous island. I had wondered how big an island floating in the sky could be, but it was at least the size of a small mountain. It was pretty small to call a kingdom, honestly, but the impact of it floating in the sky made it seem so much bigger.
We brought the airships down at the edge of Laputa. Surprisingly, or perhaps mysteriously, the island itself was made of dirt and rock, and it had grasses and trees growing everywhere.
“The ground is solid and the trees seem real too.”
Other than the fact it was floating through the sky, everything seemed normal about Laputa.
“I pictured something more like a battleship or flying fortress, but this is pretty much literally an island in the sky...” Shirley muttered to herself as she looked around.
She’d been postulating about the scientific advancements of Laputa the entire time she was flying us up here in the airship. I can only imagine the questions she had. While we didn’t know what was powering the airships, they were otherwise comparable to a modern-day aircraft. Their helms were even equipped with a device that worked like radar. It could monitor weather conditions in real time like a weather station, but without all the equipment and setup. From the standpoint of this era, Laputa was using some seriously futuristic technology. And, actually, thinking of it that way, Shirley was right. A battleship or a floating fortress would have made a lot more sense than a flying mountain... but whatever.
“So, Nyanyan, where is this Great Library of the Heavens?”
“It’s at the center of the island. It won’t take any time at all to get there.”
“It won’t?”
If it was at the center of the island, that meant it’d be at the summit of the mountain before us. It was a two- or three-hour climb on foot, easy. I didn’t see any convenient vehicles lying around for us to use, either. Actually, it didn’t look like there was anything manmade at all. We’d even landed in a clearing, nothing like the paved stone surfaces of Atlantis.
“If the Great Library of the Heavens is at the top of the mountain, wouldn’t it be quicker just to go the rest of the way by airship?” I asked.
“Of course not. Flying over the king of Laputa’s head would be most disrespectful. Silly Rekka.”
Nyanyan looked at me like she was disappointed... But there was no way I could have known that, right?
“Okay, well, walking up there is going to take a while. What’s this supposed ‘no time at all’ transport method of yours?”
“This way.”
Rather than answering my question, Nyanyan pointed to the start of a mountain path. It was maintained enough that it could fit three or four people abreast, but there wasn’t anything else particularly remarkable about it.
“Stand here. There’s a lot of you, so try to stay as close together as possible.”
“Huh?”
Nyanyan gathered us at the base of the path with those vague instructions.
“Just what—?”
I was about to ask what she was doing, when....
“Here we go. Don’t slip and fall.”
Nyanyan raised her right hand and drew something in the air with her finger. Whether it was a character or just some kind of gesture, I wasn’t sure, but...
“Uwah!”
“What? The ground is...?!”
It triggered something, and the ground began moving under us. We were now sliding up the mountain path.
“Wh-What is this?!”
It reminded me of how I used to use cardboard as a kid to slide down hills, only in reverse.
“Is it like an escalator? Except we’re the only thing moving...? The ground, trees, and everything else are all staying in place. I’m very curious as to how this works,” observed Shirley.
I said the ground was moving earlier, but Shirley was actually right. This was nothing like a moving sidewalk or conveyor belt. We were the ones moving along the path, and not the other way around. Not even the pebbles on the ground were disturbed as we slid by. Apparently, this mountain was only ostensibly all natural.
“I... I guess this will take us there in no time at all...”
Even if we were in constant fear of slipping and falling. Harissa had been clinging to my sleeve for a while now and showed no sign of letting go.
“Hm?”
Just then, I thought I caught a glimpse of someone in the mountains. We passed by so quickly, however, that I couldn’t even turn to get a second look in time. I just had to shrug my shoulders.
“I wonder what kind of guy this Laputian king has to be to make something like this...”
I’d probably find out once I reached the end of this completely automated mountain path. OR so I was hoping as I prayed that there were no curves on this sloped path.
▽
Fortunately, it was a straight path and we all survived it, coming to a stop at the Great Library of the Heavens.
“Amazing. It’s become one with the mountain.”
I looked up at the entrance to the library in admiring wonder. If you’d told me the Great Library of the Heavens was a building, I could kind of see it. There were remnants of architecture here and there, but otherwise, it just looked like the tip of a mountain.
“The library has trees growing on its outer wall.”
“Is it cover to thwart enemy attacks? No, there’s no one alive who could attack a floating island in this era, which means... Personal taste?” mused Hibiki.
“I heard the Great Library of the Heavens doubled as the king of Laputa’s residence, but this certainly doesn’t look like a castle...” added Satsuki.
Everyone else shared their opinion too, and it seemed we were all on the same page—this didn’t look like any library.
“So is it okay to just walk straight in?” I asked.
“Of course it’s okay. I’m here with you,” replied Nyanyan.
Somehow, that only made me worry more...
Nevertheless, we timidly followed after the fully confident Nyanyan as she walked straight through a door that I had completely missed.
“Whoa...”
I was surprised all over again once we got inside. The interior was decorated beautifully compared to the rugged exterior, and it was positively overflowing with books. There were mountains of them. No, a whole sea. One of my upperclassmen at school really loved books, but not even her vast collection could compare to this. All of these books wouldn’t even fit in a normal person’s house. Looking up at the atrium-styled floors, it was all bookshelves as far as the eye could see. With books almost literally stacked to the sky, I now understood why they called this place the Great Library of the Heavens.
“Umm... What’s that?”
But there was one other surprising sight in the library. They appeared to be employees bustling about busily, but no matter how I looked at them... They were just puppets moving on their own.
“Robots?!” several people, including me, exclaimed.
Unlike Shirley’s assistant, Garnet, these weren’t so delicately made that they could be mistaken for humans, which really only enhanced their robotic-ness.
“Are they some kind of marionette?”
Chirika, however, had no idea what robots were. Accordingly, she was a little less shocked than the rest of us. More so just... confused.
“They don’t seem to be bothered by us,” said Rain as she approached one of the puppets and patted it on the head.
“...”
It simply, silently, continued to work as if it hadn’t noticed.
“They don’t seem capable of autonomous thought like Garnet. They can only perform specific functions they’ve been preassigned,” Shirley analyzed.
Perhaps Laputa had these puppets working all over the place. Maybe one of them was what I saw on the mountain? It made me wonder...
“There are puppets, but no people?”
I strained my ears and listened, but I couldn’t hear footsteps, talking... anything. Was there really nothing but puppets here?
“Hmm? What are you lot standing around for? Let’s go and see the king already!”
Perhaps she was simply used to the sight, for Nyanyan showed no hint of surprise over the puppets as she bounded further into the library.
“Hey, don’t run ahead!”
We quickly followed after her, but...
“There’s no need... to hurry,” called a seemingly young but sage voice from above.
We all froze in our tracks. Then, a strange flying sphere fell down in front of us from overhead, coming to a stop right before it made contact with the floor. On top of it sat a little girl who looked younger than Harissa and Rain.
“King Laputa!” Nyanyan, all smiles, ran straight over to the girl when she saw her.
“You’ve brought along some interesting company, Nyanyan,” said the king in a rather emotionless voice as she stared our way. “Yes, what rare guests. Welcome... to the Great Library of the Heavens. We would gladly... have you.”
“Thank you...”
She was a child no matter how you looked at her, but I reflexively bowed my head in her inexplicably majestic presence.
“Um, are you really... Er, would you perhaps be the king of Laputa?”
“Indeed, we are. Does our appearance unsettle you?”
“Honestly, a little...”
“Every time our physical body reaches its limits, we create a new one and transfer our memories into it. That is how we have lived... for 300 years. Thus appearances... mean nothing to us.”
“Th-Three hundred years...?”
“Cloning and memory transfer now? Honestly, what’s with Laputa’s technology?” Hibiki muttered with a groan.
This place was honestly just one surprise after another...
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask, but is the reason this island floats the result of your technology too?” Shirley asked the king out of curiosity.
“No... it’s not. The reason this island floats... is natural providence. The propulsive force to direct its path, however... was installed by us.”
After the Laputian king responded flatly, she guided us further into the library with a staff in hand.
“You are the first guests... we’ve had in a while. Please make yourselves... at home. And if possible... bestow upon us knowledge we have yet to learn.”
▽
After we met, the king of Laputa led us to her private quarters.
“We don’t get many visitors, you see... The reception hall has long since been demolished... and remodeled into a reference room. There is an audience chamber, but there are... no chairs there. Apologies... but you will have to settle for our room.”
“Certainly not. We should be thanking you just for inviting us in,” I replied graciously as I looked around her room, which was lined with stacks of books just like I’d expected.
“No one’s asked yet, but I have to... Paper hasn’t been invented in this era, yet? And it looks like these books were printed, not hand-copied. Talk about out of place...”
“Ahaha, silly Chelsea,” teased Sherlyn. “If you want to talk about out of place, how about the robots with optical camouflage? Not to mention the king is riding on a flying sphere...”
“Come to think of it... Why is that foreigner wearing the royal crown of Atlantis and not Nyanyan?” asked the king as she studied the laughing Sherlyn carefully.
“Well, you see...”
There, I explained the whole situation to the king of Laputa.
“Hmm... Unexpected visitors from the future, huh?”
“These guys are a little strange in the head. All this talk about Atlantis sinking and stuff... Just ignore them.”
The king of Laputa appeared relatively unfazed by our story, but Nyanyan clearly still didn’t believe us.
“It’s true... The threat of Atlantis sinking cannot be taken lightly. We shall conduct... our own investigation.”
“Thank you.”
“Not at all... If Atlantis were to sink, it would involve Laputa too, after all.”
“...?”
It would? Like, she’d be sad to lose her only neighbors? Come to think of it... This raises a question. Atlantis was gone in the time period we’d come from, but what about Laputa? I’d never seen or read anything about a flying island, which had to mean...
“Gosh, that’s enough of Rekka’s weird chitchat for now! What’s really important here is dealing with Uncle Boboza’s coup d’état!” Nyanyan, who had been impatiently waiting through our whole conversation, yelled as she waved her arms. She then reached out and grabbed the king’s arm. “King Laputa, I’m begging you. Please save me. There’s nothing I can do by myself...”
“Hmm...” The king fell pensively silent for a spell. “That... would be a little difficult.”
“What?!” Nyanyan whined in shock.
The king’s expression remained unchanged, but she muttered, “Bothersome...”
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
“It was... a joke.”
Huh? Was the king actually a joker? Her still-emotionless expression was starting to unnerve me a little...
“However... it’s true that forcibly interfering with the politics of Atlantis is... undesirable.”
“Politics? Boboza is only doing this out of his lust for power, you know?”
“Violence... can be a part of politics, too. While Boboza’s methods may not be pleasant... the real problem is you, Nyanyan.”
“M-Me?!” she nearly shrieked at the sudden accusation.
“Nyanyan... Firstly, you are too young. You are still a little unreliable to serve... as a ruler.”
“Th-That’s... But if you would help me and—!”
“Why should I?”
“Wh-What...?”
Being questioned so seriously, Nyanyan was at a loss for words.
“K-King Laputa, you’ve always doted on me since I was little, haven’t you? So why would you betray me now?!”
“This is no... betrayal. It is true that we are friends, but that will still be true... even if you do not become the ruler of Atlantis.”
“But why shouldn’t I be?!”
“Boboza has ambition... He is a capable politician. He also excels at the art... of seizing people’s hearts. As the younger brother of the previous king, he also has the ability to use the space-time stitching technology... should he be so taught. So, Nyanyan... are you or are you not more fit to rule than he is?”
“Grr...”
“Do not growl at us. If Boboza were to aim for your life, then we would save you. However, we do not feel it necessary to interfere in Atlantis’s domestic affairs... in order to see you crowned.”
“B-But...!”
“Let us ask you this.” Her expression never even wavering, the king leaned in and peered into Nyanyan’s eyes. “Nyanyan... Once you become king, what will you do? Or are you simply under... the mistaken impression that you get to be king... just because you’re the princess?”
“...”
“Were we... a little too harsh?”
Looking down at the dumbstruck Nyanyan, the Laputian king apologized without looking particularly affected.
“W-Wait a minute, please,” I said, speaking up after the two of them had fallen silent.
“What is it?” the king asked, turning to look at me in a rather mechanical fashion.
“Didn’t you just say yourself that Nyanyan is young? We have no way of knowing what she’ll be like as a ruler, right?”
“Young or not, a ruler is a ruler. A kingdom will fall apart... without a competent king.”
“But until she becomes an adult, the people around her can help her rule.”
“You...” Nyanyan murmured, rubbing her teary eyes as she looked up at me.
“Hmm...” the king mumbled, looking up into the air. “There is truth in your words... Yet there is still no reason for us to interfere directly.”
Dang. That was probably my best shot at persuading her, but it was still a no-go, huh? I was just about ready to give up all hope, when...
“Let us see... If you people can afford our assistance... we might consider helping out... a little.”
“Really?!” I leaned forward in excitement and asked.
The king nodded.
“Well? What’s the price?”
“We wish for a surprise,” the king replied plainly.
“You want to be surprised?”
“Indeed. We would like to be shown something that will surprise us... but it need not be a physical item,” she said before spreading her arms wide. “This is the Great Library of the Heavens. Laputa’s raison d’être is to go around the world and collect knowledge.”
“You collect knowledge?”
I’d believe it after seeing all the books in this place...
“But a surprise is the price for your assistance?”
“After living for 300 years, it has become more difficult to find new and fresh knowledge. As a result... we have gradually lost our emotions and passion. We can barely remember how to make expressions anymore. That is why... we’d like you to show us something... that might move our heart?”
“Why was that last part in question form?”
Whatever. At least her request was simple enough. Now we just had to come up with something to surprise her.
“Okay, let’s start with the basics,” I said as I dug through my pocket and pulled out my phone.
“What’s that?”
“A cellphone.”
Surely the guaranteed answer was whipping out technology from the future. I’d seen how Chirika reacted to the television.
“A tool? What does it do?”
“It has various functions, but its main purpose is to talk people who are far away.”
“Communication at a distance?”
The king cocked her head to the side for a moment before pulling a cord from the sphere she was sitting on and holding it up to her mouth.
“YS-8, suspend operations and come to our location,” she ordered in a quiet voice.
A few moments later, a single librarian puppet entered the room. It walked by everyone, right up the king, and then halted.
“We are familiar with communication at a distance... It is nothing new to us.”
“Ugh...”
“Why are you groaning?”
I guess I had to concede that the king already had technology that outclassed anything I personally had access to. A mere cellphone wasn’t gonna cut it.
“Iris, Shirley... You too, Rain. Do you guys have anything that might surprise the king?” I asked, turning to the three aliens in our group.
“I don’t... What about you two?” Rain said with a shake of her head, looking to the other two girls.
“I may or I may not. Who’s to say what might surprise her?” mused Shirley.
“Ooh, ooh! Rekka, I have a laser gun!” volunteered Iris.
“Laser?” the king inquired.
“Maybe you’d call it optical weaponry. See, it works like this...”
“Wait, Iris! No! Don’t fire it in here!”
And so we went around, pulling out one thing after another that we thought might surprise the king. But...
“We’ve seen... this before.”
“We know... this one.”
“We could... make that.”
Her responses were all pretty much the same. This was turning out to be tougher than expected... Even when we showed her items from the future, she’d either made something similar herself already or grasped the concept and mechanics so quickly that it hardly passed as a surprise. And that went doubly so for magic. She apparently could see the flow of mana better than most people, allowing her to see through Satsuki and Harissa’s magic while they were chanting their spells. There was no way we were gonna surprise her like that.
“All right... Then how about this?”
I gestured with my arm, directing the king’s gaze to Corona.
“Hm?”
She placed her fingers against her chin as she looked at Corona, transformed into full-on Demon King mode with horns, tail, and all.
“A demon, huh? How rare... The demon and human worlds should have separated a fairly long time ago... actually.”
“Wait, you know about demons too?!”
“I have read of them, yes...”
Seriously? That must mean they used to exist in this world too. I mean, I guess that wasn’t all that unbelievable considering we had vampires and whatnot. But I was sure meeting a Demon King in person would be enough to surprise her...
“Sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations.”
“No, it wasn’t your fault, Corona.” I consoled a disappointed Corona, then made my next move. “Next is a double whammy! Here we have... an angel and a mermaid together! How’s that?!”
“We’re familiar with these also.”
“Bwaaah!”
Shot down instantly...
“If she didn’t know about angels, wouldn’t she have been surprised the moment I got here anyway? It’s not like I hide my halo and wings!” commented the ever-carefree Rachelle.
“It was a little embarrassing bringing out my tail on land...” said Rain, slightly blushing for some reason.
“Wait... a minute.”
There, the king approached the two of them atop the flying sphere she rode. Just as I was wondering what she was up to, she suddenly started to pet Rachelle’s wings and Rain’s tail together.
“Oooh!”
“Eek!”
I just had to look the other way...
“What are you doing all of a sudden? Three seconds of contact, max!”
“Um, my tail is a lot more sensitive on land, so please don’t touch it...”
“Forgive us... Although we know of you, we have never touched the real thing before, so...” After apologizing, the king returned to her original position. “Well? What will... you show us next?”
“Hmm...”
I crossed my arms and sat down, thinking about what to do next. Sherlyn then walked over without warning and mussed my hair.
“Hey!”
“Rekka, you’ve been frowning for a while now,” she said, curling her lips into a grin.
“I just don’t know how we can surprise the king... She knows everything.”
“Oh? You’re mistaken there.”
“Huh?”
Sherlyn’s unexpected rebuttal made me reflexively look up at her.
“She said it didn’t have to be a physical object or some kind of knowledge, right? She just said she wanted a surprise.”
Yeah, that’s right... At some point, I’d gotten fixated on the knowledge part and narrowed my field of vision without realizing it.
“You know, the secret to surprising people with magic tricks is to show them something that makes them wonder how you did it.”
“...”
The trick is in making them wonder how it’s done... Thinking about it carefully, the reason why we couldn’t surprise the king of Laputa was because she already understood everything we were trying to show her. But Sherlyn was right. Magic tricks were all about the delivery. The result could be simple enough; surprise was in how it happened. And once my mind was on surprises, I couldn’t help recalling my biggest surprise of the day. Something that had nearly made my heart leap out of my chest...
“That’s right. With her...”
I excitedly leaped to my feet, fueled by a new idea about how to surprise the king.
▽
“Hm? What is this?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just stand right there.”
I got the king to come down from her sphere and stand in front of her desk.
“Okay, so... First, look at this.”
“An iron box?”
“Put something you don’t mind being cut into it.”
“Something that can be cut?”
“Yeah. Put whatever it is in the iron box, and Chirika will cut it from over there.”
I gestured over towards Chirika, who was being awfully standoffish... I wished she’d be a little more sociable.
“We can see what looks like some type of sword at her waist... Judging from her outfit, she’s Oriental. And you say she’ll cut the iron box?” the king asked, observing Chirika.
“No, she’s only going to cut what’s inside the box. And from a distance, at that.”
“...Oh?”
She sounded the slightest bit interested this time.
“YS-8, bring us the item on the third shelf of that case over there.”
She then ordered the puppet that came in earlier to retrieve what looked like a bottle from one of the many bookcases in the room.
“Is that a ship in a bottle?” I asked.
“We made it out of... boredom,” said the king as she placed it inside the iron box.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Doesn’t it take a while to make one of those?”
“It’s fine. There will... be more boredom.”
Well, if she insisted... I closed the lid of the box and placed it on the desk behind the king.
“Okay, Chirika. We’re all ready to go.”
“I don’t appreciate you treating my swordcraft like some kind of street performance...”
Chirika let out a heavy sigh as she readied her blade. Then a serious look flashed in her eyes, and...
Clink!
The next thing I knew, her katana was back in its sheath.
“...Huh? What? Is it over?”
“Yeah.”
The stance she’d taken was different from what she’d used at my house, but I guess the move had variations.
“She cut it already?” the king asked, blasé as could be.
Wow, what a reaction... or lack thereof.
“Let’s open it up and see!” I excitedly cracked open the box and took out the bottle, but... “Huh? It’s not cut?”
At first glance, the ship inside the bottle was exactly as it was before.
“Chirika, did you, uh... fail?”
“Fool. Look closer. At the flag pole.”
“The flag pole... Wait, you mean the mast?”
I looked down again, and sure enough...
“Only the flag at the top is cut!”
“It is a beautifully made piece, after all. I thought the flag should be easy enough to fix.”
“Wait, you actually aimed for it?”
“Listen here. The Silkworm Slash is a technique that can cut a silkworm in its cocoon. Just how big do you think a silkworm is?” Chirika replied in exasperation.
Now that she mentioned it, a silkworm was only about as big as my thumb. But this was even more incredible than that. She’d cut a tiny piece of a delicate model that was in an iron box behind a person. The Silkworm Slash was really as amazing and precise as Rosalind had said... Wait, I wasn’t supposed to be the one who was surprised here! The real question was what the king thought of it.
“Just now, that wasn’t magic... How did you do it?”
She was peering intently into the bottle, her cheeks faintly flushed and her eyes sparkling. She then patiently scoured the iron box to make sure there wasn’t some kind of trick to it. Naturally, she didn’t find any evidence of the sort.
“Girl... Just now, what did you do?”
“I’m no mere ‘girl.’ I’m a samurai. That was a secret technique of my sword school—a human skill. Don’t lump me together with sorcerers and demons.”
“A human skill? We see...”
The king carefully turned over the bottle in her hands again before calling over YS-8.
“Take this to the safe... Carefully.”
YS-8 didn’t nod or anything, but it carefully carried the ship in a bottle away as instructed.
“Well, what do you think, Your Majesty?”
“Indeed... You have shown us something good,” she said, climbing back on her sphere to be eye level with me. “Going around the world, constantly gathering knowledge... Sometimes it makes us worry that perhaps... there’s nothing left that could surprise us.”
I guess that was an understandable worry considering she’d amassed all kinds of knowledge that shouldn’t even be available for 1,500 years to come. The invention of the telephone and airplane were historical turning points for mankind, but she was completely disinterested by them. And she was up here all alone, literally flying over the heads of people baffled by the very idea of flight. Yeah, I could understand her worries.
“But as it turns out... We sometimes forget how much of a surprise people can be. Perhaps we have underestimated people... in a way. You have indeed shown us something good.”
“Then...”
I looked at her hopefully. She nodded...
“As you requested, I shall...”
“Wait a minute.”
But the samurai suddenly interjected.
“Chirika?” I asked, turning to look at her.
“King of these lands, you say you travel the world gathering knowledge, correct?”
“Indeed.”
“Then do you know anything about a yokai called the Gold Yaksha?” Chirika inquired, eying the king with a sharp gaze.
“Hmm...” The king pulled out the cord she’d used to summon the librarian puppet earlier. “Search command: Gold Yaksha.”
YS-8 was on standby after delivering the ship in a bottle to the safe, but swiftly left the room when it received new orders. The librarian puppets of the Great Library of the Heavens were probably all searching for information on the Gold Yaksha right now.
“Chirika... What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” I asked timidly, feeling strangely uneasy.
She turned to me with a furious glare and replied, “I am no longer relying on you.”
What? Don’t tell me...
Just as I was about to ask, several librarian puppets waddled into the king’s quarters with enough books to cause an avalanche. They walked in front of her one by one, showing her the various tomes they’d collected. They opened to specific pages, and the king passed her eyes over each of them in rapid succession. The whole process took less than a minute.
“You wish to know about the man called... the Gold Yaksha, correct?”
Wait, man? The fact that she’d called him a man instead of a yokai caught my attention for a second, but Chirika didn’t seem to pay it any mind.
“I want to know his location. Can you find it?”
“We cannot determine his precise location... in real time. But we do know where... he used to live.”
“Tell me immediately!”
“Wait a second, Chirika!” I forced my way between the two of them. “Don’t tell me you’re planning on going after the Gold Yaksha right now? I still...”
“Silence. I will wait no longer.”
“But you said you’d trust me.”
“That was when I had no other leads and no choice but to trust you. But now that I’m learning about the Gold Yaksha, I will prioritize this clue. Move.” Chirika thrust me out of the way and drew closer to the Laputian king. “Now, tell me. Where is his hometown? I may find out about him if I go there.”
“If you wish to go... we will lend you one of our airships. Laputa just so happens... to be near Japan right now.”
“I would be most grateful.”
“YS-1 will take care of the navigation and piloting for you.”
The king gave orders to another of her robots, YS-1, which waddled off towards the door. Chirika followed after it.
“Wait, Chirika! Your Majesty, why did you tell her that?!”
“The samurai was the one who surprised us... Should she not be the one to receive the reward?”
“Ugh...”
I couldn’t say anything to that, so instead of trying to argue, I went after Chirika. Everyone else followed suit... Including Nyanyan, who was desperately trying to keep up with our running pace.
“Hey, what are we suddenly running for? Where are you going?” she somehow managed to ask while panting for breath.
“Iris, could you carry Nyanyan?” I asked.
“Eeeh... All right.”
With a somewhat annoyed look, Iris scooped up Nyanyan and kept running without missing a beat.
“This is much easier, I admit, but could you not carry my like baggage?”
“If you complain, I’ll drop you.”
“Eep! Th-This is fine...” When Iris glared at her, Nyanyan shrank back in her arms. “M-More importantly, where are we going? We still haven’t gotten King Laputa’s word that she’ll do something about my uncle.”
“Sorry... At this rate, Chirika’s going to go off on her own. We have to follow her,” I explained.
“Whaaat?! Then what about me?!” Nyanyan wailed.
“Not that I wanna take her side or anything, but why do you wanna go after the samurai chick so badly? She was always complaining and being mean to you, so I say let her go,” Iris said with a furrowed brow.
“No, I can’t. This is my fault for only focusing on what was right in front of me and continuing to put her off. I don’t blame her for ditching me.”
Considering Chirika’s personality, she’d done well to hang in there this long. It was my bad for not following through and helping her out after I said I would. Somewhere along the way, I may have naively thought she’d have to wait for me because there wasn’t anything she could do without me... If her story had come my way, that meant she’d need me to help solve it.
“Anyway, I can’t let Chirika go off alone. We got the king to agree, so we can come back and ask her for help properly later.”
But for right now, I had to prioritize chasing Chirika. I figured she’d be headed for the airships we all came in on, but it didn’t seem like it. Was YS-1 leading her somewhere? Oh, they just went through a door! What was on the other side?
“...W-Wait, an elevator?!”
When we got to the door, I realized what it was and couldn’t help stammering a little. Just how many centuries ahead of its time was this island?! Judging from the display, Chirika was headed down.
“Argh! We’re getting on the next one! Satsuki, she’s probably headed for an airship hangar! Please look up what floor that’s on for me!”
I asked her to take care of that part while I repeatedly jabbed the button to summon the other elevator to this floor. I’d gotten so impatient that I made a terrible oversight...
“So cramped!”
“I can’t breathe! Jeez!”
“I... I’m gonna suffocate...”
“I’m... being... crushed!”
“Someone’s feathers are in my face!”
“It’s slipping! My skirt is slipping, so stop shoving me!”
Pandemonium... Packing so many people into a single elevator was hell. I’d honestly forgotten how big our group was. Fortunately (?), there was no weight limit alarm. Normally the king was the only one using the elevators, so there probably wasn’t a need for that... But at least we were moving. I tried not to imagine the possibility of the cables snapping at any moment.
“Wow, Rekka. Enjoying the perks?”
The only one who was perfectly comfortable in the packed elevator was R, who was grinning as she whispered to me squished between everyone.
“What?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Right now, all these heroines are pressed up against you head to toe... I can think of men who’d die to be in your position right now—literally.”
Ugh, she just had to go and remind me! I was trying not to think about it, too! Things were awkward enough as it was. I didn’t need a rush of blood to the head making it worse... Please. Please just let us get there soon.
All told, it probably took less than two minutes to reach the bottom, but each second felt like an hour.
“Bwah!”
When the doors finally opened, we all spilled out of the car desperate for fresh air. It seemed we’d made it to the hangar.
“Wait, where’s Chirika?!”
I raised my head and looked around in a panic. The hangar was a large room filled with airships lined up in rows. One of them—one at the front—was clanking about like it was ready for takeoff. We’d never make it in time to stop it, and it would be impossible to stop it once it was in the air.
“I guess we don’t have a choice. We gotta follow that airship. Satsuki, can you find out where she’s going?”
I knew I was asking a lot for her to use her Omniscient Magic repeatedly like this, but we just couldn’t afford to lose Chirika now. While Satsuki was looking it up, we split up into two groups again to pile into the airships.
“Huh...?”
As we prepared for takeoff, I heard a surprised peep from Satsuki.
“What’s wrong? Did you figure out where Chirika’s headed?”
“Um, well, yes.”
“Where?”
Satsuki hesitated for a moment, then replied with a bewildered expression...
“Chirika’s destination... is Shangri-La.”
▽
Shangri-La—the ultimate paradise. An ideal utopia sequestered away from the rest of the world.
“First Atlantis, then Laputa, and now Shangri-La? What’s happening?”
“It’s like a gallery of the legendary lands of the earth, sea, and sky. To think we’d be going on a one-day trip through places that any archaeologist or historian would die just to see... Guess that’s Rekka for you.”
Hibiki and Satsuki looked at me as they sighed in exasperation, but I wasn’t sure why. As far as I was concerned, I was already in over my head with Chirika’s timeslip... It wasn’t like I wanted all of these stories to overlap like this. I really didn’t get it.
“Man, the heroines that follow you around really have it tough...”
And as usual, R was there to hit me right where it hurt. It wasn’t like she was wrong, though... I’d been causing a lot of trouble for everyone lately. It’s almost time for the school festival, so I’ll just have to make it up to them then.
But for now, I had to pull myself up by my bootstraps. We’d just reached Shangri-La.
“I can’t see anything...”
I mean, I said we’d reached it, but there was only dense undergrowth as far as the eye could see. There was no sign of any kind of paradise.
“If you go through those bushes, there’ll be an invisible entrance. Since it’s a magical land, it’s not like a normal door or anything,” Satsuki explained.
“I see. Then let’s get going.”
I took the lead and pushed through the undergrowth, stomping down the grass and snapping shrub branches to make it easier for the girls following me to get through. After proceeding like that for a while, the undergrowth ended abruptly and opened up into a flat dirt road.
“Did we enter Shangri-La?”
I looked around curiously as I waited for everyone to catch up. Shangri-La was often described as a dreamlike paradise, but it certainly didn’t look fantastical. Really, it just looked like an old-fashioned countryside village. The roads weren’t paved with gold or anything extravagant like that. The houses didn’t even look that fancy, either. There were sprawling farms and fields, giving it the feel of a hard-working community. It was grand in its own way, but relaxed and peaceful... I guess that’s how Shangri-La rolls, but what was with this sense of unease?
“Uh...”
There were no signs of life here. The only person in Laputa had been the king, but there wasn’t a soul around here. It was like a ghost town. I could see a dozen or so houses, but they were shut up tight. And on top of that, it was kind of... It was just sort of an odd impression, but it seemed like there was a dark cloud hanging over this peaceful village.
“Hmm...”
“Isn’t it kind of... somber?”
It seemed the girls had the same impression. Several of them started rubbing their chins and looking around too. But while we were hesitating to proceed, the door to one of the houses opened up and Chirika stepped out.
“Chirika!” I yelled her name as I ran to her.
Despite her indignant expression, Chirika waited for me without running off this time.
“So you came too, did you? I thought you were going to ignore me in favor of saving that girl.”
“As if I could do that. Moreover...” I paused a moment to catch my breath, then lowered my head.
“Wh-What are you doing?!”
“I’m sorry. I made light of your situation and took advantage of your patience. But please... Please don’t run off by yourself anymore. You can be pissed off at me all you want, just give me one more chance to help you.”
With my head bowed low, I apologized to Chirika as sincerely as I could. I’d intended to the moment I ran into her, and here we were. My eyes stayed glued to the ground as I waited for her response, praying she would forgive me. Eventually, I heard a scoffing snort.
“Come now, a man shouldn’t bow his head so readily.”
I tentatively looked up to see Chirika’s disgusted expression.
“I truly didn’t expect you to come after me... Why do you care so much? There are others that require your assistance as well,” Chirika asked, glancing over at Nyanyan and Sherlyn.
“This may sound arrogant, but I’m the only one that can save your story, Chirika. Like I told you before, that’s how my bloodline works, so I’d never abandon a heroine who came to me. I made that promise to myself.”
“...I’d call that greed rather than arrogance. You’re attempting to save everything yourself. It seems like you’re an even greater fool than I had thought,” Chirika said before laughing for the first time today.
Did... Did that mean she forgave me? Maybe?
“She might have just been sulking because her story was placed on the back burner, you know?” R said as she somersaulted in the air, but I took it as her usual nonsense. If that were true, not only would it make me feel guilty, it’d actually be pretty cute.
Now, back to the main subject...
“Anyway, we’ll get back to Laputa later. Since we’re here now, we might as well try and find out something about the Gold Yaksha. So... time to gather information, I guess?”
I was ready to get right into it, but...
“Give up. It’s pointless.”
Chirika stopped me for some reason.
“Why?”
When I asked that, her expression turned rather sour.
“There’s a plague.”
▽
Chirika had arrived in Shangri-La before us, and she had used that time to go around asking the residents here about the Gold Yaksha. Or at least that was her plan, but when she barged into the first house... she found its owner lying in bed looking more dead than alive.
“I counted 15 houses in the vicinity, and of the 14 I’ve visited, they’re all in the same condition. At this rate, it won’t be long before their entire village is wiped out. I heard that Shangri-La was a land unfettered by death, but it seems the rumors are just rumors.”
It was indeed starting to seem like Shangri-La was far from the paradise we’d heard it was.
“Okay, well, let’s go to the remaining house for now. We can plan our next move once we’ve exhausted that possibility.”
And so we made our way to the one house Chirika hadn’t already visited yet.
“Hold on a minute...”
“Nyanyan?”
Just as I was about to open the door, Nyanyan tugged on my sleeve and stopped me.
“There’s a sick person inside, right? Everyone should drink some of this.”
She took one of the bottles hanging at her waist and opened it before lifting it to my mouth. A medicinal scent wafted up from the inside.
“Is this some kind of medicine?”
“Atlantis has been developing its medicinal technology for a long time now. Don’t you remember me telling you about that? If you drink this, it’ll prevent you from breathing in viruses. So drink up.”
“So it has a virucidal effect on the air itself? Without the need for a mask?” Hibiki readily accepted the bottle from Nyanyan with an approving, impressed nod.
“Thank you, Nyanyan.”
“I-It’s no big deal...”
When I thanked her, Nyanyan hurriedly turned away. Was she feeling shy? Anyway, after we all took a sip of the medicine, I opened the door.
“Hahh... Hahh...”
I found a young woman lying in bed who seemed to be in a lot of pain, which, according to Chirika, was par for the course here. Just when had Shangri-La fallen into such a terrible state...? To stay on the safe side, only me, Chirika, and the medically knowledgeable Nyanyan actually entered the house.
“Hahh... Hahh...”
Even when we walked over to her, the woman’s hoarse panting continued.
“The people I found in the other houses were in the same condition. Even when I called to them and shook them, they didn’t react,” explained Chirika, frowning bitterly.
“...Are you all right?”
Despite what Chirika had said, I couldn’t help kneeling beside the pained woman to see if there was anything I could do. And slowly, she faintly opened her eyes. All three of us were surprised to see it. To be honest, I’d already half given up hope after hearing about the sad state of things here.
“Wh... Who...?” the woman asked in a husky voice.
“Nyanyan, could you take a look at her?”
“P-Probably.”
Nyanyan nodded without much confidence, but she swapped positions to kneel down next to the woman. Then, after whispering something quietly in the woman’s ear, she held her ear up to the woman’s mouth as she murmured her reply. They went through several questions this way, and Nyanyan reached for another one of the bottles at her waist.
“Rekka, please lift up her head.”
“Got it.”
I kneeled beside the woman’s pillow and gently held up her head, tilting it back as Nyanyan directed. She carefully brought the bottle she’d opened to the woman’s lips and helped her drink it little by little.
“It’s only a temporary measure, but this should help alleviate her pain... I think.”
“Can you heal her?”
“I’d have to return to the kingdom and ask the medical team for more details, but it should be possible... I think.”
“That’s good news.”
I let out a little sigh of relief for now. We then waited patiently, and the woman’s breathing and expression both eventually relaxed.
“I’m not sure who you are, but thank you...”
She eventually recovered enough to sit up and thank Nyanyan properly, albeit with a hoarse voice.
“No, I didn’t do anything special...”
“We’re lucky to have a princess from a kingdom that specializes in medicine like you around, Nyanyan,” I added.
“I’m telling you, it’s no big deal... These are just some of the basics I learned while my father was still alive.”
Nyanyan seemed to be embarrassed by all the praise, but she also looked quite content with herself. We then went around to each house and got all the residents of Shangri-La to drink some of Nyanyan’s medicine before returning to the woman’s house to hear her story.
“And so... what brings you children here to Shangri-La?”
I looked over at Chirika, who gave me a small nod and took over from here.
“We are after only one thing. Do you know of a yokai called the Gold Yaksha?”
“The Gold Yaksha?”
The woman cocked her head to the side, then pensively looked up. It seemed nothing came to mind, however, as she furrowed her brow and shook her head.
“I’m sorry. It may be something that has slipped my mind in my old age, but that name does not ring any bells.”
“Old age...? Miss, you don’t look any older than 20.”
“We of Shangri-La do not age or die. We will simply bear this illness, ailing for all eternity...”
“What...?”
I gasped reflexively. Just the thought of a fate like that sent chills down my spine... Chirika, meanwhile, wasn’t ready to give it up. Unhappy with the answer she’d gotten, she pressed the woman for more information.
“Miss, my sources say the Gold Yaksha hails from the land of Shangri-La. Do you really know nothing of him?”
“What? He hails from here...? That can’t be. No one would ever try to leave here...” the woman declared, paling suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” asked Chirika.
“To my knowledge, there has only been one person to leave Shangri-La. Perhaps he is this Gold Yaksha you are seeking.”
“Who is he?”
Chirika leaned forward, drawing nearer to the woman. Then, reluctantly, she said..
“My husband.”
“Your husband...?”
“Yes,” the woman replied in a quiet voice. “The plague first swept through Shangri-La nearly a hundred years ago. The residents of the village fell one after another, and by the time I collapsed, my husband was the only one who hadn’t yet taken ill. In desperation, he left for the outside world in search of a cure for everyone.”
Chirika’s expression wavered for a moment when she heard the woman’s story.
“...Is that all? That’s the reason you think your husband may be the Gold Yaksha?”
The woman hung her head for a while, unable to answer... Or perhaps just hesitant to. I think the only reason she spoke up anyway was probably because she felt indebted to us for saving her.
“My husband returned to Shangri-La just the once, saying that he was unable to obtain medicine in the outside world without this thing called ‘money.’ So in order to get money and buy the medicine... my husband took the Mask of Greed with him.”
“What’s the Mask of Greed?”
“A demon mask that was sealed in the village storehouse. It’s a cursed artifact that amplifies someone’s greed and grants them power proportionate to that greed.”
“A cursed artifact, huh...?” Sherlyn, who just so happened to be cursed herself, muttered quietly as she tapped a finger against the crown on her head.
“It is said that the Mask of Greed will eventually consume the wearer, transforming them into a demon themselves. I can only assume that my husband thought money was unobtainable without the power of the mask. He was always timid at heart...”
When she was done sharing her story with us, the woman closed her weary eyes once more.
“What do you think, Hibiki?” I asked.
“The residents in an isolated place like this are probably the epitome of socially inept, yeah. But considering the time period... Maybe the medicine was just that expensive or he was fooled into overpaying for it. Maybe a bit of both. At any rate, I doubt the sum was so astronomically high that it couldn’t have been obtained through ordinary means.”
If he thought he needed a dangerous power to make money, what was he doing? The first thing that came to mind was robbery. According to Chirika’s story, the Gold Yaksha kidnapped the princess and demanded a ransom, which very well may have been how this woman’s husband decided to make his money. However...
“Chirika, right now we’re 1,500 years in the past, but you...”
“You said I was from 500 years in the past from your world, meaning we’re a thousand years hence from that now.”
A thousand years, huh? No matter how expensive the medicine was, there was no way it would take that long to save up for it. Which had to mean...
“If he still hadn’t obtained it after a thousand years, then it may simply be that the right medicine or treatment wasn’t available in this era,” offered Hibiki.
“That’s probably it,” I agreed.
Most likely, he was swallowed by the power of the Mask of Greed while he was waiting, which eventually transformed him into the Gold Yaksha as he came to be known.
“Tch...”
I could hear Chirika click her tongue quietly next to me. When I turned to look at her, she looked pained and was gritting her teeth. This unexpected origin story of the Gold Yaksha seemed to have stirred something within her. The same was true for me; I would have regretted attacking him thinking he was just a regular demon. But there was still hope.
“With Atlantis’s highly advanced medical technology, surely we can cure the plague of Shangri-La! As long as that happens, then the Gold Yaksha won’t need to go on a quest for money.”
If we could stop the Gold Yaksha in this era, then Princess Izuko wouldn’t be kidnapped a thousand years from now—which would resolve Chirika’s story! I could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, though there was still the matter of the coup in Atlantis. I couldn’t afford to make the same mistake twice, so we’d have to progress both stories at once moving forward now.
“Hibiki, please take Nyanyan and the others back to Laputa first. There, could you work together with the Laputian king to come up with a way to stop Boboza’s coup d’état?”
It was a massive favor, and one I could only ask Hibiki—heir to the Banjo bloodline who’d resolved probably even more stories than me. With her in charge, I knew everything would come together seamlessly.
“Leave it to me,” she said with a determined nod.
“I’m counting on you.”
With a fistbump as a farewell, we then split up and went about our respective plans.
▽
Hibiki and the others ferried the people of Shangri-La to Laputa so they could be transported to Atlantis for treatment later. The medical journals of Atlantis had been donated to the Great Library of the Heavens, however, so Nyanyan said she’d do her best in the meantime. She was rather spoiled and selfish when we first met her here in the past, but she was a lot more cooperative and motivated now. When I asked her why, she answered...
“Because hearing someone thank me was a lot nicer than I expected.”
As a princess, Nyanyan had probably always had someone to do every little thing for her. She’d never really had the chance to do things for anyone else. Maybe that was why she wanted to be on the giving rather than receiving end for a change. I decided to leave the people of Shangri-La and Atlantis to her and Hibiki for now—I had things I had to do myself.
I asked Satsuki to search for the Gold Yaksha’s current location and then headed there by the airship. Six of the girls came along with me: Satsuki, Iris, Shirley, Corona, Chirika, and Sherlyn. Satsuki was the navigator, Shirley was the pilot, and the other five of us prepared to face off against the Gold Yaksha. I’d brought the most competent fighters with me in case things took a turn for the worse, but I was really hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
“There it is. Inside that forest,” announced Satsuki.
“Got it. I’ll land as close as I can,” replied Shirley.
She brought the airship down on a road next to the forest that Satsuki pointed out. The Gold Yaksha was apparently hiding out in a cave here, stealing money and goods from passersby.
“Satsuki and Shirley, you two wait here,” I instructed.
“All right. Be careful...” Satsuki hesitantly agreed.
“You’re not that strong either, Rekka, so don’t get in over your head, okay? Don’t be afraid to use what I gave you,” implored Shirley.
She’d given me several items for self-defense, mostly traps. But after I agreed to use them and we said our goodbyes for now, Iris, Corona, Chirika, Sherlyn and I made our way into the forest.
“Hey, Rekka, why did you bring Sherlyn along?” Iris whispered in my ear as we walked through the trees.
Sherlyn was a mage and a phantom thief who had fought all kinds of battles on her own, but it was true that her Mark and Steal skills weren’t particularly useful in combat.
“If possible, I want to save the Gold Yaksha... that woman’s husband. I think we might need Sherlyn’s power for that. Not to mention she wanted to come along.”
“Hmm...”
Iris glanced over at Sherlyn, who waved when she realized it.
“Well, as long as you have a plan, Rekka, it should be fine.”
“I sure hope so.”
“Yeah. I always rely on you, so you can lean on me anytime too, okay?” Iris offered with a smile.
I honestly felt like I was always the one relying on her, so it was really sweet of her to say. I was genuinely grateful to have her around, as an ally and as a friend.
“Rekka, have you no propriety? Flirting at a time like this...” Chirika muttered with a disgusted look.
“I-I wasn’t flirting...”
That seriously hadn’t been my intention, but if it looked that way to her... then I was really embarrassed.
“Young man, I see it.”
Just then, Corona ducked behind a tree and let us know she had a visual. We all took the hint and jumped into the underbrush before poking our heads out. And there, just as Satsuki had described it, was the cave. We continued to lie in wait, and a figure eventually emerged from the mouth of the cave.
“That’s...” I stammered.
“His face is a little different, but there’s no mistaking it. That’s the Gold Yaksha,” Chirika said with a nod.
The horned Gold Yaksha was easily two heads taller than me. He was definitely large and muscular, carrying a heavy hatchet with one hand.
“I don’t recall him having a hatchet on the mountain...” Chirika muttered under her breath as she placed a hand on her katana.
“Hold it.”
“What is it, Rekka? Don’t tell me you would like to take the lead in battle.”
“No, no. It’s just that if he’s using a tool, then I’d guess he still has some semblance of humanity. We might be able to reason with him, so let’s try talking before fighting.”
“...Fine. But the instant talking fails, I will have no mercy on him.”
I gave a modest nod of agreement before stepping out from the trees.
“Crap!”
The bushes around me rustled noisily as I moved. Naturally, the Gold Yaksha heard it right away and turned to me with his hatchet at the ready.
“Please wait! I came here at the request of your wife!” I shouted, holding both my hands up to show I meant no harm.
“My... wife...?”
“That’s right! If you’re looking for medicine to save the plague in your hometown, then...”
I was ecstatic to see his reaction, and I took another step forward to try and negotiate, but...
“...GRAAH!”
That was apparently reckless. The Gold Yaksha suddenly swung his hatchet, aiming to bring it down right on top of me.
“Fool!”
“Urk!”
Just as I was about to get my block knocked off, Chirika thrust me out of the way and met the hatchet with the sturdy blade of her unsheathed katana. The hatchet was deflected with a metallic clang, and Chirika took a few steps back to put some distance between herself and the Gold Yaksha.
“Rekka!”
“Young man!”
“Rekka, are you okay?!”
Iris, Corona, and Sherlyn all jumped out from cover to help me get back on my feet.
“Medicine... Need money... for... med...” the Gold Yaksha mumbled, clutching at his head in pain as he faced off against Chirika.
“Young man, shall I?” Corona asked, her dark magic already swirling at her hands.
“Do it, Corona! I won’t forgive him for hurting Rekka!” shouted Iris.
“Not you too, Iris! And no, Corona! Just wait!” I shouted too, trying to keep them both from jumping into the fray.
“Why?! That guy tried to hurt you! Besides, hasn’t he completely turned into a monster already?”
“No... Not yet.”
He had attacked me, but I saw the way he reacted before that. It was still too early to give up!
“Money... Gold... I need gold!” The Gold Yaksha roared and launched another attack, this time swinging his hatchet at Chirika.
“!”
Chirika evaded the swing and flanked the Gold Yaksha, cutting the back of his hand.
“Gwargh!”
Blood spilled from his split skin, and he shouted out in pain.
“He must be using the hatchet because his skin isn’t hardened like steel yet... The thousand-year gap means he’s not as strong right now. Or as fast. His movements are slow.”
Chirika analyzed her opponent calmly as she readjusted her grip on her katana. They glared at each other from where they stood before us, one to our left and the other to the right.
“Grrrugh...”
The Gold Yaksha glared at Chirika as he growled, while her eyes were calm but full of vigor. In my eyes, that alone was reflective of their difference in power. From what I had heard before, Chirika and the Gold Yaksha were evenly matched during their fated battle on the mountain. So if he was weaker than her now, surely victory was at hand... And that was exactly why I had to stop her.
“Tch!”
I took off running about the same time the two of them made their moves.
“Graaargh!”
The Gold Yaksha swung his hatchet, relying on power alone to try and take out Chirika. It was an obvious play, and one that was easily counterable by a master swordsman like her.
“...”
But she hesitated.
“Chirika!”
I jump tackled her from the side and knocked her to the ground. Immediately behind us, I heard a hatchet slashing through thin air. The sound alone sent cold sweat dripping down my back.
“Wh-What are you doing?!”
“If you don’t want to do it, then stop!”
“...!”
“You were evenly matched before, but now you’re the stronger one, right? But you didn’t go for the kill just now! It’s because you hesitated, isn’t it?!”
There was no way the best Chirika could do was land a tiny scratch on the back of his hand when he’d left himself wide open. Something was strange.
“Rekka!”
“Huh?”
Iris launched a jump kick at the Gold Yaksha, who was taking aim at me and Chirika still on the ground. His huge frame went flying into a tree trunk with a loud crash.
“Sorry! Please buy me some time!”
“I’m generally terrible at holding back... but I’ll try.”
Corona shifted into Demon King mode and went to help Iris with my unreasonable request. Using the time they were buying me, I turned back to Chirika.
“You don’t want to kill the Gold Yaksha, the man who was just trying to save his hometown and family, either, right?!”
“So what?! My feelings shouldn’t matter! As long as I can pay my debt to the princess, staining my hands is no—”
I pulled her back by the shoulder as she tried to stand up and bashed my forehead up against hers. Then, at point-blank range, I looked her dead in the eye and yelled.
“Don’t be ridiculous! Would the princess who saved you want you to do that?!”
“Then... what are you saying I should do?”
“Whatever it takes so that you’re not left miserable! The reason why I do what I do is because I want your story to have a happy ending!”
“...!”
I left Chirika speechless, and quickly turned to Sherlyn.
“Sherlyn! Can you take the Mask of Greed with your magic?”
No matter how cursed it was, a mask was a mask. If we got it off of him, he should come to his senses. We at least had to try it.
“As long as you can hold him still for a moment.”
“Got it!”
From my pocket, I pulled out one of the devices Shirley had given me. It was the electromagnetic binding trap she had once used before. By throwing the table-tennis-sized ball onto the ground, it could paralyze the opponent with electric shocks and stop their movement.
“Iris! Corona! Fall back!”
“Okay!”
“Right!”
I waited for the moment the two of them had backed away before throwing the electromagnetic binding trap at the Gold Yaksha’s feet.
Bzz, bzz, bzzt!
The ball burst open, flooding the ground with sparks and lightning.
“Graaah!”
The powerful current ran through the Gold Yaksha’s entire body, paralyzing him.
“Mark!”
That was when Sherlyn used her magic to mark her target, the Mask of Greed right on the Gold Yaksha’s face.
“All right!” With everything going exactly as planned, I shouted out without thinking.
“Steal!”
Next, Sherlyn used her magic to pull the Mask of Greed towards her. With that, it should pop right off, but...
“Wait, wh-wh-what?!” Sherlyn stammered.
The reason was immediately apparent.
“Why is he getting pulled along with it?”
While the Mark spell had definitely targeted the Mask of Greed, for some reason, the Steal spell didn’t pull it off of him. Instead, it was pulling them both together. Naturally, seeing the hatchet-wielding Gold Yaksha come at her made her panic.
“Urgh!”
There was no time to think. At this rate, Sherlyn was in danger.
“Damn it!”
I threw myself at the Gold Yaksha, stopping him from getting any closer to Sherlyn.
“Urrrrrgh!”
But he was still easily bigger than me and several times my weight. With my strength typical of an average high school boy, there was no way I could support myself. I was slowly being pushed backwards, leaving a trail on the ground. Even though he was still paralyzed for now, he could easily snap my neck the moment he came around. At this close range, there was no telling when that would be.
“...!”
But being so close had an unexpected benefit. I looked up and suddenly realized why the mask wasn’t coming off his face.
“Sherlyn! The mask is attached to his skin!”
“Whaaat?! If it’s part of his face, I can’t steal that!”
“Just think of it like ripping off a bandaid! Pull with all your might in one fell swoop!”
I was holding him in place right now, after all. And as long as I was pushing him one way and Sherlyn was pulling the mask the other, that sucker should come right off... I hope!
“Graaargh!”
“Uh-oh!”
The paralysis must have finally worn off, as the Gold Yaksha shrugged off my grip and swung his hatchet upward. I nearly closed my eyes reflexively, but Corona jumped in and kicked his arm, sending the hatchet flying far away.
“Reckless as always, aren’t you?!”
“So we just have to hold him back, right?!”
Iris joined the two of us in holding on to him.
The mask seemed to be pulled stronger than before, showing the seam between face and mask clearly. But it still wouldn’t come off completely.
“You lot...”
“Chirika!”
At some point, Chirika had stood up in a daze to watch our attempts at tearing the mask off the man’s face.
“Chirika! Use your Silkworm Slash to separate the mask from his face! The seam is easily visible right now because Steal is pulling on it!”
When I saw that she was still holding on to her katana, I yelled on the spur of the moment.
“What?! If I mess up, he’ll...!”
The borderline between skin and mask... Thickness-wise, I was asking her to cut something with surgical precision. I knew it was a lot, but...
“You can do it, Chirika!”
She was a master at her craft, able to achieve god-like feats without breaking a sweat, overcoming layers of obstacles like the iron box and bottle to slash only the flag at the mast of the intricate model ship. If she could resolve herself, I was certain she had this in the bag.
“Stop... it! Without... this, I...!”
“Wha?! He suddenly got stronger!”
The Gold Yaksha grew stronger the harder we pulled. Despite there being three people on our side, we were overwhelmed by his swelling muscles that threatened to shake us off at any moment. We couldn’t hold on for much longer.
“Chirika! Which would you prefer?! Having to end up killing this man because of your fear of failure, or believing in the skill that you refined and using it to save a life... What would a samurai do?!”
“...!”
The hesitation in Chirika’s eyes transmogrified into anger. It looked like using her frankness and pride as a point of provocation was the correct choice... I’d have to apologize later.
“Fine...! I’ll do it! Make sure you hold him in place properly!”
Chirika braced her katana with a unique stance, breathing in once as she locked on to her target. Then...
“Silkworm Cut!”
An invisible blade was launched from her katana. The next moment, the Gold Yaksha we were so desperately trying to hold back froze on the spot... and all the energy drained from his body.
Thunk!
“Ow!”
Something hard bounced off my head and tumbled to the ground. I looked down as I supported the slumped-over man... to see the face of the Gold Yaksha fallen on the ground with holes where the eyes should be. It was the Mask of Greed. We’d managed to get it off.
“Phew...”
All the strength drained from my body too, and I gently let the man down on the ground before sinking down myself next to Iris and Corona.
“I-I’m so tired.”
“Me too... He sure got strong there.”
At Iris’s words, I turned to look at the man who had been possessed by the Mask of Greed just moments ago. He was lying on the ground, breathing steadily. After the mask was removed, his body had shrunk until he wasn’t much taller than me. His wife was right, apparently. He did look kinda timid—certainly nothing like a demon. But I reckoned this face was more fitting for a person who could set out alone for a world he knew nothing about in order to save everyone.
“You really did manage to make it work somehow...” Chirika muttered as she approached my sitting form while sheathing her katana.
“It wasn’t me. Iris and Corona were the ones who held him back, and you and Sherlyn were the ones that really got the mask off.”
Hearing my answer, Chirika gave a quiet huff.
“Assuming your point was correct, then that’d mean the lords and princesses who give their subordinates orders are doing nothing too.” She huffed again before bowing her head. “If I were alone, even if I knew of this man’s circumstances, I wouldn’t have been able to take any action other than ending his life for the sake of the princess. I may have had to bear that scar for the rest of my life. Without your determination, this man wouldn’t have been saved... And so, thank you, Rekka.”
“...No problem. Let’s take him back to Laputa with us. Hibiki and the others are waiting.”
The people of Shangri-La should all be in Laputa by now, his wife included. It would be good to get them together again. And with that in mind, I picked up the Mask of Greed lest it fall into the wrong hands. We then headed back to the airship and set off once more for the flying island.