Chapter 209: The Bear Rescues Misa

Chapter 209:
The Bear Rescues Misa

 

KUMAYURU AND KUMAKYU brought me to a mansion about the same size as Gran’s. I blasted the front of the yard gate open with wind magic. Then, I climbed off of Kumayuru and slowly walked into the grounds, my bears following close behind.

“Halt! Who goes there!” A gatekeeper rushed over to me, drawing his sword.

“Where is Misa?” The calm, quiet tone of my voice took even me by surprise.

“What are you talking about?” So, he didn’t know.

But he was in the way. I silenced him with a bear punch. The man crumpled and fell. I stepped over him to get to the front door. Then I gave the door a nice, friendly knock—by blowing it wide open with another bear punch. The door made a satisfying crash as it went flying. Getting rid of that door really opened the place up…even my bears could slip through the opening with room to spare. Plus, this household was in for some dismantling. It wasn’t like they needed a door anymore.

“Kumayuru, Kumakyu,” I said, prompting my bears to start walking.

They were guiding me to Misa. The moment I started walking, a guy who looked like the owner of the estate appeared. The guy had a face like a toad. That boy was with him too…the one who’d picked a fight with Misa.

Of course it was them.

Did they just jaunt off back home with Misa after nabbing her? Were they idiots?

“What is the meaning of this? Who are you? And are those bears?!”

I wasn’t in the mood to answer questions. “Where is Misa?” My voice was a low growl.

“You’re that weird-looking bear from before…”

“So. You remember me. Now, I’ll ask again…where is Misa?”

“Who are you talking about?” the toad answered in the boy’s place.

Playing dumb? Fine.

I fired a small airshot at the toad man. The toad clutched his stomach and fell to his knee. C’mon…I hadn’t packed any punch into that one. Had it really hurt that much? You should save all that energy. The real living hell’s coming after this!

“I’ll find her whether you tell me or not where she is. The real question you’ve got to ask is what am I going to do to you afterward…?” If Misa was hurt, I wouldn’t be letting them off easy.

“Wh-what are you saying?” The toad man winced in pain as he tried to turn and look at me.

I ignored him and started walking. Kumayuru and Kumakyu were tagging along when a shadow jumped down from above the stairs and blasted a fireball at my bears. My bears dodged it easily.

“Your bears dodged that?” A mantle-clad man in black appeared. “What is that ridiculous costume? And those bears? Just who are you, and how did you realize I was spying on you?” Just a moment after meeting the guy, he was already blustering some weird nonsense.

And he kept on going… “I can’t believe you could have spotted me when I was watching you from so far away!” What the heck was this guy talking about?

“I hadn’t been able to find an opportunity to do it because of them, you see. Then, finally, when only the kids were together, I got her. But you…how did you get here so quickly?! You were out! You shouldn’t have found out yet!” cried the man in black.

“Brad! Keep your mouth shut!”

“There’s no point in hiding it. The girl in the bear getup already figured it out.”

So…the guy in the black mantle was Misa’s kidnapper. That also made him the guy who hit Fina and Noa. In the end, it hadn’t been too much of a hassle to track him down. And wouldn’t you know it, he didn’t even seem to feel all that guilty.

Which meant it was time to clobber the guy. He’d just popped up in front of me…what luck! I was smiling before I realized it.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh? I’m just glad it was so easy to find the guy who hit Fina.”

“Brad!” the toad’s son roared. “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d covered your tracks! Now clean up your mess…and dispose of that strange girl and her even stranger bears!”

“Well…one does what they must,” said the man in black. “Normally, I would charge extra for this, but a professional owns his mistakes. This one’s on the house!”

The man ran straight at me, throwing fireballs without hesitation. I fended them off with my white bear puppet and returned the favor with a fireball of my own. Brad leapt back to dodge out of the way.

“You blocked my magic and counterattacked with your own,” said Brad. “You’re an interesting young woman. I thought you were just a kid, but I guess I can’t underestimate you.”

The man licked his lips like he was a predator, and I was his prey.

(Nasty, dude! I almost gagged.)

“Brad, why are you using magic?! Are you trying to destroy my house?!”

“The bear girl is using magic too!”

“Never mind that! Just do something about her! Quickly!” the toad man yelled. “You lot, you better not let her get away either!”

Looking behind me, there were a bunch of guards blocking the front door. Well…I say they were guarding the door, but Kumayuru and Kumakyu were obviously making them a bit antsy. They’d probably clear out if my bears went anywhere near them.

“I would have preferred more space for a fight,” said the man in black, “but this will have to do.”

He brandished a knife and launched his attack. I could clearly see the man’s movements, from where he was going to the trajectory of the knife—I saw through it all. I dodged the man’s knife as he approached and fired an uppercut bear punch at the man’s face; but then he dodged. The man smirked as we passed each other, which just fanned my rage. He was getting pretty cocky for dodging only one blow.

The man brandished the knife, but he was slow. I grabbed hold of his knife with my white bear puppet. In that instant, he looked surprised for the first time. He pushed forward on the knife, but I didn’t let him have any give. I wound up my black bear puppet, sent my right hand flying at him, and—

He dodged again?!

The man dropped the knife, jumped back, and hurled another fireball in my direction. I canceled it out with water magic, engulfing the fire. The spell crashed toward him and…

Another dodge.

“Just who are you?! You caught my knife,” said the man. “You even overpowered me!”

“I’m just warming up!”

“Hm. But it’s cramped in here. We can’t use powerful magic without risking the house collapsing. Still…how irritating that your magic overpowered mine.”

“Big talk, but I bet you’ve just been picking fights with weaklings this whole time. Or are you’re holding back because of how I look?”

“Not at all!” said the man in black. “Since I first met you, I knew you weren’t just some girl in a strange costume.”

Did he mean back then?

“I knew after seeing you defend that young girl,” he continued. “That’s why I didn’t attack until I knew you weren’t around.”

Oh, now I was furious. “Before I take you down, is it okay if I ask you one more thing? Why did you attack the two girls who were with Misa? You’re skilled. You wouldn’t have needed to fend them off.”

“Ah, yes, the two girls who were with her. What brave little girls! When I acquired my target and went to make my escape, the poor things grabbed at my clothes. I had to get a bit rough with them then. They just wouldn’t let go of me, you see. They were clinging as if their little lives depended on it.”

“That’s enough. I don’t need to hear anything else.” I was a fool for asking. Asking just pissed me off more.

But then I pictured Fina and Noa trying to save their friend; I pictured them being so brave. I didn’t want them to walk into danger—not ever again. I just needed to hurry up and finish off everyone here so I could take Misa back.

That was all.

I wound up my black bear puppet hand.

It’d be easy enough defeating them with magic, but that wouldn’t be satisfying. I’d clobber his face for Fina and Noa’s sake—I’d return the favor a hundredfold.

I threw the knife I’d snatched at him and leapt off the ground at the same time.

The man promptly went to avoid the knife, but I was right where he moved in order to dodge it. He tried to react, but I was faster. I clobbered the man’s face with a firm black bear puppet. I got some good follow-through.

The man slammed violently into the ground. He bounced twice—no, three times for sure—and crumpled over. I’d crushed his face. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth. I was pretty sure I’d broken his nose, and probably his teeth too. He twitched, but it didn’t look like he was getting up anytime soon.

“Brad!!!” the son of the toad cried out.

The toad looked between me and the man in disbelief. I glared back when the toad shouted, “What are you all doing? Do something about those weird bears!”

The guards drew their swords at once and started to cast spells, but I used wind magic and blew all of them away.

“What…what are you?”

“I’m Misa’s friend. I don’t usually butt into disputes between nobles, but if someone lays a hand on a little kid like Misa…? Well, that changes things.”

“I didn’t know anything about that. The boy did it on his own,” the toad man said. He looked over to where his son had been, but the kid was gone.

I guess he’d made a break for it the moment the guards had attacked. I used my bear detection skill and searched for any runaways…but then he came back on his own.

And he had Misa. “Hey, bear! Another move, and she’ll get—”

Before the idiot kid could get out another syllable, I fired an airshot right into his dumb mug. He let go of Misa, and I closed the distance between us in an instant, recovered Misa, and threw a bear punch into the kid’s face. Bleeding from his mouth and nostrils, he collapsed.

I looked at Misa. Her hands had been bound, and she’d been blindfolded and gagged with cloth. I lifted up the cloth. She’d been crying.

“It’s all okay now.” I gave her a gentle smile.

“Y-Yuna…” As she started to cry, I gave her a tender hug and cut the cord around her hands with a knife. Then I glared coldly at the father of the foolish idiot boy.

“I had no idea this was happening!” the father moaned. “The boy acted on his own, I promise you!”

“So, this has nothing to do with you?” I asked.

“Th-that’s right…! Besides, do you think you could get away with doing this to a noble like me?”

Hmph. The apple didn’t fall far from the idiot apple tree. He didn’t offer even a single apology. Honestly, I wished he’d just shut up already. My patience had reached its limit, so I went to silence him with a punch—

“Yuna, wait a minute!” Somewhere behind me, Ellelaura cried out to me…