Chapter 5: Connecting the Threads

My initial hopes that things would work themselves out this time had long since been dashed. Bahamut had betrayed me, and all my stories had run into dead ends. I was back to square one with each of them.

I mean... I guess it could have been a lot worse.

But if I had to start over, the first thing I needed to do was come up with some solutions.

“Lea, does Bahamut have any weaknesses?”

“I’m afraid not.” Lea shook her head. “He’s ‘The Perfect Beast.’ Just like the name implies, there’s nothing about him that you could consider a weakness.”

“Hmm... I see.”

Well, so much for that then. I started to wish God hadn’t handed out the title “perfect” so easily.

“Why don’t we find a way back home first? If Bahamut traps us here, we’re doomed.”

“Oh!” I gasped when I heard what Satsuki said.

“No, there’s no need to worry about that,” Lea interjected.

“What do you mean?”

“When he locked me in here all those millennia ago, our powers were equal. That’s why he didn’t want to fight me. But now, it’s obvious that he’s the stronger. He can be sneaky, but he’s the type to eliminate any potential threats.”

“...Man, he’s got a nasty personality, huh?”

“We need to find a way to beat him quickly, no matter what.”

As we began to discuss potential plans...

“Um...”

“Hm?”

Tetra reluctantly raised her hand.

“I do know one thing—one weakness Bahamut has.”

“Huh? Seriously?!” I grabbed Tetra without even thinking.

“Yes. I discovered it when I was reading about the old traditions in the village, so I’m pretty sure it’s true, anyway... I think it was left by God.”

“?”

Why was Tetra being so hesitant? If she was onto something, it would make a big difference for us.

...No, wait. Something wasn’t adding up.

She’d told me at Nozomiya that the method to reseal the Monster had been lost. Why would she lie to me after coming to me for help? And that wasn’t the only thing that didn’t make sense.

After we first talked to Tetra, I’d asked Satsuki to use the Magic of Omniscience to look into the traditions she was talking about. But Satsuki had also said that it required a special tool that no longer existed.

And if that special tool really wasn’t an option, why would Tetra bring it up now? That would mean it was still possible to restore the seal.

So why would Satsuki lie, too? I had a lot of questions, but I waited for Tetra to explain.

And when she did...

“Bahamut’s weakness is... the blood of my clan.”

She gave us the worst answer I could’ve imagined.

“Wh-What...?”

“...”

I was shocked, but Satsuki just stared silently at the ground.

“The blood of the guardians will cause his body to burn and rot. If it gets inside him, it will act like a fatal poison. God made us explicitly to kill Bahamut,” Tetra continued. “There’s no sustenance here in this artificial world, so if Bahamut ever managed to destroy the seal, he would be hungry. And the guardians who live right next to the Hall of Sealing would be the first food he saw... Really, we were a trap that God set for the monster who defied him.”

“Are you saying... God made your village just so that Bahamut could eat it?!”

“Yes. Do you remember the coffin and the statue of the goddess with the sword in the temple?”

“Y-Yeah...”

“That sword is a reminder that if there isn’t enough blood, we’re to use it to run ourselves through and multiply the blood in the coffin.”

“What?!”

I instantly hit my limit. I felt the rage boil up inside me with nowhere to go. Unconsciously, I clenched both fists.

He made life just so that it could die? That’s messed up! And on top of that, he wanted them to kill themselves?! Hell no!

Lea had said that God wasn’t perfect. She was right. There’s no way an asshole like that was omnipotent.

I understood why Satsuki had lied to me. She couldn’t tell me... just like Tetra couldn’t. Tetra wanted to save her village. She wouldn’t do something that meant sacrificing it.

But that meant the reason she was telling me now...

“So if I let Bahamut eat me...”

Yup. That was why.

“You dummy. Nobody’s letting you do that.”

“But there’s no other way.”

“I’ll come up with something. I’m thinking now.”

“But as long as the Monster is guarding the temple, we can’t leave this place. So...”

“Shut up.”

I’d rather die than do something so cruel. And besides...

“You’re trying your best to be brave, but your knees are shaking. I can’t let you do that.”

“!”

“Tetra, you need to stop trying to handle everything on your own, too. The problems of the world don’t fall on your shoulders alone. Trust in me and everyone else. If you want to make Jizu Village a better place, then talk to the villagers. Don’t give up on going to them for help. And for now, let’s figure out a way to beat Bahamut.”

After telling Lea what I really thought, it was easier the second time. Things were looking pretty bad, but I was feeling pretty good.

That’s right. There was no reason to give up.

We could all put our heads together and come up with a way to beat that “Perfect Beast” asshole.

“...You’re right.” Satsuki suddenly raised her head. “Lea, you said that before Bahamut was sealed away, God impaled him with a spear, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know exactly where he was stabbed?”

“I... I think it was in the back.”

“All right. Just give me a second...”

As Satsuki closed her eyes and began to concentrate, I finally realized what she was getting at.

Until now, we’d only been thinking about how God had sealed away the Monster. But Satsuki was onto something. He hadn’t just been imprisoned; he’d been defeated.

If he did have a weak point, this had to be the hint that would lead us to it.

“...I found it. There’s a spot on Bahamut’s back where God’s spear pierced his hide, and it’s still bleeding.”

I then remembered the oversized bandage that was on Bahamut’s back when he was in his fairy form. It had totally slipped my mind, but that must have been how he was hiding the wound.

“But how can we use that to defeat Mr. Elephant?”

Really, Harissa? “Mr. Elephant”? Wasn’t that a little too cutesy of a nickname for him?

But she had a point. A wound was just a wound. Without some way to target it, it didn’t do us any good.

Lea was the only one with the strength to fight Bahamut, but she had been trapped here, starving... No, wait a second.

“Come to think of it, Lea, how’d you get the power to break the seal recently?”

From what I’d heard, it had been weakening over the past few years, but Lea should have been too without any food. That meant that she shouldn’t be any stronger than the seal, and yet somehow, it was almost broken now.

There had to be a reason.

“How I got my power back? It would be faster to show you,” Lea said and started to lead us somewhere.

To be safe, we kept Harissa’s invisibility spell up. We weren’t taking any chances.

And Lea lead us... to a hole in the ground.

“Th-This is...”

“When I still had my strength, I used all my power to try and get out. I eventually ended up making this hole. I’d hoped to be able to leave this way, but as you can see, it’s too small for me to get through.”

Lea sighed. Her huge chest heaved up and down with each breath.

“......”

The other girls self-consciously looked down at themselves, but I said nothing. No way in hell was I going to get involved in that.

Harissa looked like she was crying, though. It’s okay. You’re only thirteen. You’ve still got room to grow.

Anyway, no one was getting through a hole that small, regardless of how tiny their breasts were... Well, I guess breasts weren’t really the issue.

“The only thing I can say is that there’s still demand for flat-chested girls in the future.”

I said that had nothing to do with it! And why did R have to get involved whenever there was talk about boobs? Did she like them or something?

No, no. That wasn’t what mattered here. Focus, Rekka. Focus.

What was important now wasn’t the size of anyone’s breasts—it was that this was definitely the hole that had opened up in Tsumiki’s backyard. It had the same black aura. There was no mistaking it.

But how did this help Lea get her power back?

“Things from the surface come out here once in a while. I think someone on the other side is dropping them in, or maybe they just fall in on their own. It’s mostly dirt, but lately, a dense energy source that I enjoy has been coming through.”

Wait... “Dense energy source”? Not a moment later, the black balls I had been wondering about popped out of the hole.

Everyone stared, but Satsuki and I both groaned.

This terrible, demonic presence... It was unmistakably Tsumiki’s failed attempt at creative cooking. The very same “food” I’d taken to calling dark matter.

“Yes, this is it. The dense energy source I was talking about.”

“Wh-What...?”

I mean, I kind of figured that was the case when I realized this was the same hole as the one at Nozomiya. But even then, I couldn’t hide my shock that she was actually eating that stuff.

“Oh, my. So these were made by this Tsumiki girl you were telling me about?” Lea was astonished to learn where the dark matter had really come from.

“Y-Yeah. It’s a little surprising... I mean, it’s actually a big surprise, but knowing Nozomuno’s cooking, it’s possible.”

“Huh? But Satsuki... This is just bad cooking, right?”

“There’s not that much of a difference between cooking and alchemy. They both involve complex recipes, preparing and mixing ingredients... There’s no doubt that stuff Nozomuno made was a wretched poison.”

That’s right. Satsuki had said the dark matter felt like it had the ominous power of hundreds of sacrifices behind it.

I see. I didn’t know anything about magic, but it was starting to come together.

The reason we came here in the first place was because Lea was about to break the seal even when it still should’ve held. When we left, Tsumiki had said she was going to keep practicing. She’d probably failed and made more dark matter, then threw it down the hole for Lea to find.

Talk about a weird coincidence, though.

Who would’ve thought that Tsumiki’s dark matter was at the root of all these stories?

If we had enough of it, could Lea regain her strength and defeat Bahamut? But how...

“I dunno what made you think it was okay to eat that, honestly,” I said, half impressed and half shocked.

“I love bizarre foods. And when I found something with such concentrated nutrition—here, in this barren world—I immediately...!”

She suddenly fell silent and turned toward the temple.

I followed her gaze only to see a half-man, half-beast silhouette...

“Are you over here?”

“Get down!” Lea shouted over Bahamut.

The elephant’s trunk waved in our direction, causing a column of fire to rain down from the sky—just in time for Lea to scarf down the dark matter and send out a pillar of water.

They collided in an explosion of steam.

“Gwaaah!”

“Haha! Is that the source of your power? Looks yummy! Give me some, too!”

I could hear Bahamut’s jaunty voice through the curtain of steam.

Was he drawn to the dark matter, too? But if he was using a wide-area spell like that, maybe he hadn’t seen us yet. At least that’s what I thought, until...

“I-I’m sorry, Sir Rekka! The way their magic collided was so powerful that it dispelled my invisibility!”

“Seriously?! Then can you recast it...?”

“Not until the magical energy calms down! This spell is delicate!” Harissa was on the verge of tears.

This wasn’t good. Even if Lea could repel Bahamut’s magic, it would be harder to escape now.

And Lea was...

“Hyah! Take this!”

Her opponent appeared unfazed, but she was already gritting her teeth. She’d just gotten a new source of energy, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop Bahamut.

Would more dark matter restore her to her former glory as “The Strongest Beast”?

“All right, time to turn up the power.”

Just as I heard Bahamut’s voice, an even larger blast of flame roared through the steam and swallowed Lea’s magic.

“Uwaaah!” Lea screamed and tried to resist.

For an instant, her summoned water pushed Bahamut’s flame backwards. He quickly warded off the rest of her attack, but that instant was all she needed.

“Aaaaah!”

Just before the crimson pillar hit us, Lea managed to use her water spell to deflect it.

Thanks to her, we weren’t burned to a crisp, but...

“Gweheh. You’re leaving yourself wide open.”

“?!” Lea had used so much of her energy that she was helpless as Bahamut ran up and kicked her with a leg the size of a log.

“Gwah!”

Lea’s body bounced along the ground like a soccer ball and slammed into a boulder.

“Gwheh.”

Bahamut’s next target... was me.

A perfectly visible me, no less. Crap.

“Rekka!”

“Sir Rekka!”

Satsuki and Harissa readied themselves at the same time, but...

“You’re in the way.”

Bahamut’s words alone were enough to knock them back like they’d run into a huge wall.

“Bahamut!”

“Oh, I thought I told you to call me Bah.”

“Screw you!”

How long was he going to keep messing with us?

Bahamut snapped his claw-like fingers and raised the corners of his mouth into a grin.

“Oh, dear, Rekka Namidare. I wonder how those girls will react to your death.”

He sounded like he was enjoying this.

“...I have a question.”

“Hmm?”

“Was everything you told us a lie?”

“Of course.”

“Did you destroy the surface once?”

“Yeah, that was a great deal of fun.”

“...And what about that magical girl outfit?”

“I just wanted to screw with you, obviously,” Bahamut laughed.

Honestly, that pissed me off... but it wasn’t the thing that enraged me the most.

“It wasn’t a coincidence that your light went out and a rock almost fell on Satsuki’s head on the way down here, was it?”

“Of course not. She has the Magic of Omniscience. At first I was able to trick her about who I really was, but I would have been in trouble if she’d double-checked, right?”

“Then why didn’t you talk to me when she wasn’t around?”

“Hmph. I wanted to do that. But you know, Rekka Namidare... You found Tetra before me, and you had already heard her version of the story. For my plan to work, I had to show up when I did.”

It was true. He’d shown up at just the right time, and I’d been more than eager to accept his help.

Come to think of it, it really was too good to be to true. I should have known. I was just in such a tight spot that I’d relied on him without thinking.

Satsuki had almost gotten killed because I was so stupid...!

“You’ll pay for this!”

“Sure, sure. Whatever. Anyway, it’s time for you to die.”

“Huh?!”

All the blood had rushed to my head, and I was slow to react. The next thing I knew, Bahamut was right on top of me, slashing at me with his huge claws.

There was no dodging them. I guess in the end, fighting a monster was a job for a hero or a god, and not a normal person, huh?

That’s right.

I wasn’t special at all.

In the face of sudden death, my limbs wouldn’t move and my vision blurred. I was utterly useless.

And because of that...

“Rekka!”

All I could do was watch as Tetra pushed me aside and flung herself before the onslaught.

The Monster’s claws bored into her shoulder.

“Aaah...!”

“Tetra!”

Her scream brought me back to my senses.

“Too bad. She got too close for me to hit hard enough. I was planning on ripping you open with that one,” Bahamut said, yanking his claws out of Tetra.

Blood spewed forth as she fell backwards to the ground.

“Tetra?! Hey, hang in there!” I grabbed her, yelling her name.

“...”

There was no answer.

Her eyes were closed and her pale cheeks turned a ghostly white.

Don’t tell me... No...! It wasn’t possible!

As I held her in my arms, the elephant monster laughed. He was covered in her blood.

“What’s wrong? Go on, run. If you don’t hurry, her noble sacrifice will be in vain... Wh-Wh-Wh-What the HELL?!”

Bahamut’s laughter was cut short by tormented screaming.

“Gyah! Gwaaah! What is this?! My body’s so hot! I’m... I’m melting!”

Sure enough, his flesh was starting to smoke and dissolve as if someone had poured hydrochloric acid on him. But it was Tetra’s blood.

“That’s right!”

It was Bahamut’s weakness. Tetra had said that the blood of a guardian would burn and rot his body if he came into contact with it.

Had she done this deliberately?!

“Tetra! You... You idiot! Why did you do that?”

“Huh...? Rekka?”

Tetra’s eyes slowly opened as I screamed at her. She was alive... but her body was still getting colder! The wound hadn’t reached her heart, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop.

In a barely audible voice, she whispered, “I’m glad... you’re safe...”

She sounded so happy when she said it. It was as if nothing else mattered to her.

“You idiot! I’m not that important!”

“Don’t... Don’t say that. When you told me... that we’d help the village together... that we could all try and think of a way to save it... it made me really happy.”

Her breathing was shallow. I’d been putting pressure on her wound with my hands, but the blood just spurted out between my fingers. It wasn’t helping.

I carried Tetra over to Satsuki, ignoring Bahamut as he thrashed around in pain.

“Satsuki! Satsuki, wake up!”

“Mm... Rekka? Tetra! What happened?!”

“We’ll talk later! Just heal her! Harissa! Harissa, can you get up?!”

“Huh? Uh... Y-Yeah! I feel dizzy, but I’m okay...”

“Sorry for pushing you so hard, but Tetra’s in bad shape! Use healing magic on her with Satsuki!”

“R-Right!”

“Thanks!”

I didn’t even know basic first aid. There was nothing I could do. I just had to leave it to them...

“Right! Where’s Lea?”

I looked towards Lea, who’d been knocked some distance away. She was... She was okay! I could just make her out as she staggered to her feet. But even if I ran over to her, I couldn’t do anything for her either.

I was just going to have to rely on what I knew I could do...

“Bahamut!”

I clenched my hand into a fist and I started to run.

I ran toward the elephant monster, who was still clutching his burning face in pain.

“Gwfaaah...!”

Bahamut turned toward me, and I slammed my fist into his face.

“Gabh!”

“Damn, that hurt!”

His face was surprisingly hard. Hitting it busted open my knuckles.

But I didn’t care. I gave him another punch with my right arm.

Then I hit him with an uppercut to his huge jaw.

My fist smashed into the base of his trunk.

I was bleeding, and I didn’t like the sounds my bones were making at all, but none of it mattered.

I’d keep pounding on him until he went down.

“Take this!”

My fist was now completely red, but I couldn’t feel it anymore. Instead, I felt the shock in my biceps and shoulder.

I was panting for breath. My throat was burning.

I didn’t have any stamina. I didn’t have any power. I didn’t have any skill.

I didn’t have a damn thing.

But I wouldn’t stop punching.

My anger for this bestial asshole who had laughed at their lives— laughed at their stories—wasn’t fading at all.

So I raised my bloody fist once more.

As empty-handed as I was, the least I could do was throw all of my energy into this punch—

“Don’t... get... cocky!”

“?!”

BOOM! A sudden explosive wind formed around Bahamut, knocking me into the air.

“—!”

I felt my stomach jump up into my throat, and then my body started to fall straight down. I was looking upward, so I couldn’t tell how high in the air I’d gone, but I knew I’d be dead meat if I hit the ground.

“Rekka. You know, now’s the perfect time to yell ‘I can fly!’”

“You’ve always been able to float, so shut up!” I yelled at R as I desperately tried to think of a plan.

But nothing came to me.

Just as I was sure I was about to hit the ground, I felt a heavy impact and someone grabbed me.

“Are you okay, Rekka?”

“L-Lea... You saved me.”

“...I don’t know about that,” she whispered ominously as she set me down on the ground.

I quickly saw what she was talking about.

“What is that...?”

It looked like a lump of meat that was expanding. But upon closer inspection, I could see that it had legs, fangs, a trunk, a tail, and ears.

“Bahamut is trying to take his true form—the form of the Perfect Beast, the king who once devoured the world.” Lea explained what was happening in a voice that was filled with tension.

It made sense when I thought about it. Bahamut was, according to Satsuki, big enough that he could cover all the land of the earth. His humanoid form was only a temporary one.

Until now, he’d just been playing with us.

But this unexpected counterattack had pissed him off... My little punches probably didn’t do much, but the burns from Tetra’s blood must have caused some serious damage.

Then a pair of eyes popped up from the lump of meat and turned to face us.

“Hahh... hahh... haaahh... gwahfah... Man, my head hurts.”

I heard Bahamut’s voice. There was a strange mix of suffering and excitement in it.

“Aah... When I take this form, it makes me want to destroy everything. You, this fake Earth, the guardians, the surface—everything! Gwahahahaha!”

“You bastard! I won’t let that happen!”

“Gwabahkyah! Waah... aaah... But it’s a shame I won’t be able to go play at casinos, live a life of luxury, or trick people into the pits of despair anymore. You humans are almost as entertaining as destroying things.”

So that’s why Bahamut hadn’t destroyed the surface after regaining his freedom. He hadn’t changed his ways or repented. He’d just found a new source of amusement.

“And now you’re going to destroy all that, too?”

“Bgyahahahahaha! You fool! It’s just soooo much fun to destroy stuff! I was planning on waiting for you humans to grow even more arrogant and for your society to ripen even more. Then when you reached your peak, I was gonna destroy it all! It’s all the more enjoyable to knock down a tower of blocks when it’s big and tall, isn’t it?”

So you’re going to destroy the world again?! I stopped myself from screaming.

There was no point in asking. I could tell that Bahamut had gone off the deep end a long time ago.

There was no stopping him now. It didn’t matter what I said. He wasn’t going to stop until everything was destroyed.

Bahamut was already larger than my high school. And he was still getting bigger. He kept growing and growing, like some kind of bad joke.

As I watched helplessly, Satsuki, Harissa, and Tetra joined us. Satsuki and Harissa were helping Tetra walk.

“Are you okay, Tetra?”

“Yes... Sorry for worrying you.”

Her voice was weak, but at least she answered me. I knew things weren’t looking good, but I still felt relieved for a moment. I took Tetra from the two of them and carried her on my back.

“What are we going to do, Rekka...?”

“...”

Satsuki looked uneasy. I couldn’t answer her.

“...You guys run away,” Lea said suddenly, turning her back to the rest of us.

“Hey, you idiot, no! I just told you not to do it yourself!”

“I remember. But my hands are tied. At this point, I’m the only one who has a chance to stop him.”

“But we’re all going to do it together...”

“The wheel of time turns slower here than in the real world. If I can stop him for a day, that will buy you several hundred on the surface. You can use that time to find a way to redo the seal, or destroy the seal and this world along with it. Satsuki’s Magic of Omniscience can do that, right?”

“Well...” Satsuki fell silent.

It was possible that with all the information in the universe, maybe we could do something like that. But...

“But then we can’t save you!”

“Then come up with a plan to defeat him. Now. We’re out of time.”

“Tch...!” Lea’s cold words left me with nothing to say.

Damn it. Come on, brain, think of something! I screamed at my useless self, but my mind was still blank.

And even as we stood there, Bahamut just kept growing monstrously large. He was already taller than a mountain. Was the only reason he hadn’t crushed us already because he wanted to save our destruction for later? It had to be.

I’d hoped that as his body grew, so too would the wound on his back. But either he’d regenerated, or his body had swelled enough to cover it up. I couldn’t see any suggestion of it now.

The full manifestation of Bahamut, “The Perfect Beast,” was almost upon us.

But I couldn’t come up with a plan. Not even a bad one. Damn it all!

“...If everyone up there is like you, the surface must be a wonderful place right now,” Lea said as she turned toward me.

There was a gentle smile on her face that seemed totally out of place.

“Tsumiki... Was that her name? Tell her I said thank you. Without her cooking, I wouldn’t even have the chance to fight... Come to think of it, she needed some of my meat, didn’t she? If I survive, I’d love to give her some.”

I could tell from the way she spoke that she didn’t think there was any way she was going to make it.

“Don’t worry about me, Rekka. This is what I want to do. Thanks to you, I can fight for hope, not hatred. I’ll buy you every minute, every second that I can. So please, go... Live. That is my last wish.”

“Wai—?!” I reached out my hand, and grabbed nothing but empty air.

She leaped toward Bahamut, transforming in mid-air.

“Gyaaaoooh!”

Lea morphed into a huge, dragon-like sea snake. Her massive body shook as she howled and lunged for Bahamut. It was like watching a torrent bursting through a breached dam, but...

“Gugyahh!”

In the face of a “beast” bigger than a mountain, it was futile.

They say that just tiny drops of water can eventually wear down stone. But even if water can make a hole in the ground, it isn’t enough to shake the earth itself. In other words, that’s basically how this fight was going to go down.

This suicide charge! This useless death! This self-sacrifice crap! It was all just a waste of time! No matter how Lea felt, it was the worst decision she could’ve made, and it didn’t make me happy at all!

Bahamut brought down his trunk, slamming Lea to the ground.

One of the wings on her back snapped. Her white body was now stained with blood and dirt. Yet she rushed Bahamut again. And was knocked down once more. Still, she got up again.

The battle between the Perfect Beast and the Strongest Beast shook the entire fake planet. A crack appeared in the white sky.

“Lea!”

“Rekka! Wait!”

I tried to put Tetra down and run toward Lea, but Satsuki grabbed me.

“Move, Satsuki!”

“No! What could you even do out there?”

“That’s not the problem! I can’t leave Lea!”

“That is the problem! If you want to save Lea, then think!”

Satsuki and I glared at each other. And then Harissa screamed.

“Sir Rekka! Satsuki!”

The earth began to shake violently. The ground underneath us vanished.

“?!”

Had we been swallowed up by an earthquake? I tried to scream Satsuki’s name, but for some reason I couldn’t. Actually, my whole body felt weird... like I wasn’t really there. There was an indescribable sense of uneasiness in my mind.

After a few moments of wanting to throw up, it all subsided.

“...?”

I opened my eyes. And then...

“...Rekka?”

I saw Tsumiki and Iris looking at me in astonishment.

“...Huh?” I said in a voice like an idiot.

I looked around and saw that I was in the backyard of Nozomiya. Satsuki, Harissa, and Tetra were all looking around, unsure of what had transpired.

Iris was the first one to move.

“Rekka!”

“Gyeh!”

She gave me a hug that was more like a body slam and knocked me to the ground.

“I was so worried! I looked and looked, but I couldn’t find you anywhere! I had to ask someone! They said you went to this girl’s house and that you hadn’t been to school for three days! I was worried that Satsuki was right and some weird disease or curse had made you crazy!”

“No, no! Wait! Oww!” Iris was too strong, and I couldn’t pull her off. She must’ve been feeling really agitated, because her usually hidden tail was flopping about openly. “I’m okay! I’m just fine, see? So don’t worry about me, Iris! And hide your tail! Tsumiki’s staring!”

“Huh? Oh, you’re right. Okay!”

Iris’s tail quickly popped back under her skirt, but I saw a confused Tsumiki mouthing to herself, “Huh? Did I just see a tail...?”

“Wait, Rekka, are you sure you’re okay?” Iris asked again, looking worried.

“I’m fine, really... But more importantly, what am I doing here?”

Just moments ago, I was in the sealed, artificial world. And now I was back behind Nozomiya? What happened to Lea? Where was Bahamut? What was going on?

“It’s because you and I are tied together by fate, duh!”

“No, that’s not it!”

I was frustrated that my question wasn’t getting through, but things only got worse when Tsumiki came up and kicked me in the face.

“What are you doing flirting behind my house?”

“I am not flirting! Wait, that doesn’t matter! When did I get here, and how?! I’m so confused!”

“Huh? I’m the one who’s confused. I heard this big noise behind the store and came out to investigate just in time to see all you guys flying out of that hole.” Tsumiki raised a single, skeptical eyebrow. “Really, what’s going on here?”

“Hole...?”

The hole she pointed to—the one behind Nozomiya—was bigger than the last time I’d seen it. It was big enough for a person to pass through easily now.

“...I see.”

The fight between Lea and Bahamut had probably caused the seal to shake, expanding the hole that was already there. And then we’d fallen through it. That’s how we’d gotten back to the real world.

If that was the case, then we had to hurry. We needed to get back! I stood up and tried to go back through the hole... but Tsumiki stopped me.

“Wait! Where are you going this time?”

“Please, let me go! I have to get back there! Now!”

“—!”

Smack!

Tsumiki slapped me across the face.

“Huh...?”

I grabbed my cheek in sudden pain, shocked. My head had felt hot for a while now, but it was starting to calm down.

Tsumiki glared at me.

“I don’t care anyway! I don’t care where you’ve been the past three days, or what you’ve been doing! It means nothing to me!”

She stamped her foot like she still hadn’t made it clear how angry she was.

“I’ve been cooking this whole time... And I got a lot better! I don’t need you anymore! You’re fired as my taste tester! Fired! I can do this on my own. And you... You can just get lost!” She yelled with tears in her eyes.

“...”

Seeing her like this, I finally started to regain my composure.

Nothing I thought would work out had actually gone okay. I could barely put a scratch on Bahamut. Tetra had gotten hurt putting herself in harm’s way to protect me. I couldn’t even stop Lea as she went off to die.

I had been so infuriated at myself for being so weak, but now I was finally coming to my senses.

Time passed slower on the fake Earth than the real one. And because of that, I’d left Tsumiki alone for three days. I looked into her tearful eyes and said, “...I’m sorry. I said I’d be right back, but I kept you waiting.”

“Shut up! Nobody... Nobody said I was lonely!”

Tsumiki kept trying to hide how she felt, so I pretended I hadn’t heard her saying how lonely she was. But I figured she wouldn’t want me to see her crying, so I silently let her rest her head against my chest. She could use my shirt like a tissue.

If I’d gone to join Lea and died, Tsumiki’s story would’ve come to a bad ending, and she might’ve cried even more. The mere thought of it made me shudder. And it wasn’t just Tsumiki. Without me, Tetra’s story might not end happily either.

If I had acted rashly out of panic and anger, that wouldn’t matter. But I couldn’t get them involved in this.

“Rekka. You calmed down?”

“Satsuki... Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” My childhood friend smiled back at my apology. “Remember what you said, Rekka? We need to all come up with a way to solve this together.”

“That’s right, Rekka,” Tetra joined in. “I’ll help you, too. Even Lea’s doing her best to buy us time.”

“I want to help you, too, Sir Rekka!” Harissa added.

“I don’t really understand, but I’ll do whatever I can for you, Rekka!” Iris raised her hand.

“Wait a second. I really don’t know what’s going on here. What is going on?” Tsumiki looked confused as she blew her nose. She was the only person here who didn’t know what was happening.

Well, Iris didn’t know about their stories either... Suddenly, she looked at my hand and screamed.

“Rekka, you’re hurt! I need to treat you, quick!”

“Oh, um... Sure, thanks.”

“Leave it to me!”

Iris got out her futuristic bag capable of storing anything.

“I brought all kinds of things from planet Finerita to help you get better. I think I had some stuff that could cure normal injuries... Huh? It’s so full that it’s jammed?”

Iris turned the bag upside down and shook it. Out spilled all kinds of medical tools... Or, at least, things that sort of looked like them. Was that hammer with spikes on it really some kind of cure for something?

“Wait, what are those huge syringes?” I asked, eyeballing the syringes that were lying on the ground. They were as big as I was.

“Hm? Those are medical guns for treating space monsters. They can’t help being big. I mean, they are monster-sized,” Iris explained as she treated the wounds on my hand.

The needles on the guns were the size of my arm. Getting poked with one of those would be like getting stabbed.

“These medical guns use the same wormhole technology my bag does for their syringes tanks. You could fill one with as much liquid as one of Earth’s oceans. There are lots of different types, too. One’s for injuries, one’s for organs, one’s for headaches, one’s for circulation...”

“Huh...” I said, shivering.

The needle alone could kill you. If you were injected with all that liquid, your body would swell up and pop like a balloon...

“...Oh.”

Staring at the oversized needle on the medical gun, I suddenly had an idea.

The tiny fragments were connecting, one by one, with thin threads. Slowly, I concocted a way to defeat the so-called “perfect” king of beasts. Each element on its own was far too unreliable. But if I braided them all together, these fragile threads could become a spear that was strong enough to pierce steel.

Maybe I couldn’t do it by myself, but with all of us working together...! I finally had a plan to save Tsumiki, Nozomiya, Tetra, Jizu Village, and Lea, not to mention defeat Bahamut.

“Tsumiki! Do you still have that dark matter, I mean, your failed dishes?”

“Why are you assuming I failed more?! ...Well, I guess I do.”

“Give them to me. I need them.”

“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Wait, are you leaving again?”

“Sorry, I’ll explain later! There’s no time!”

“You said the same thing three days ago. This time, you need to explain...”

...Was she still mad that I’d left her alone? Of course she was, I guess. But right now, I seriously didn’t have a second to spare.

“I’m really sorry! But I swear I won’t abandon you.”

I grabbed her by the hands and looked her in the eye.

“Wah! W-Wait!”

“I promise I’ll be back in time for Food Champion. So please, let me go for now. Please believe in me.”

“I-I still don’t understand how you can say stuff like that with a straight face!”

“?”

Why was she looking away? Was I not making how I felt about her clear enough? Hmm...

As I tried to figure out how best to persuade her, Tetra stepped in from the side and put her hand on top of mine.

“Tsumiki, Rekka isn’t the type of person to desert someone. Even if they aren’t human, even if the enemy is incredibly powerful, he’d do everything he could to help. So I want you to believe in him, too.”

“Um... Does that mean you believe in him?”

“Yes. With all my heart.”

“...Fine! I get it! I mean, sure, you’re not a bad guy. I’ll put my faith in you one more time. But once you get back, you have to tell me what’s going on!”

“Thank you. Both of you.”

I bowed to Tsumiki and Tetra, and then started to get ready. I needed time for my preparations. Lea would have to hang in there just a little longer.

I really did feel like a slime forcing a heroine to buy time. But Lea... I wasn’t about to let things go down like she said. I would never seal her away with Bahamut, or destroy both of them along with that fake Earth. I wasn’t going to let her stay lonely forever. I was going to fight to make sure nobody had to suffer, so we could all share a happy ending together.

I was going to save everyone.