Chapter 8: Gorillalas Are a Lot like Gorillas

Chapter 8:
Gorillalas Are a Lot like Gorillas

 

AFTER RUNNING for three days and for a total of two thousand miles, I returned to the city, my body slightly covered in dust. People mistook me for some new kind of monster, but…eh. Someone blasted me with magic as we passed one another without even bothering to say a word, so I stopped, thinking that they’d wanted to fight.

“Huh?” they said, surprising me. “Wait, are you…human?”

Wasn’t it obvious? How could I be anything else? When I talked to him, he revealed a shocking truth: the guild had mistaken me for some kind of new monster, and now they were trying to organize a team to take me out. Oof. Made me realize I needed to stay instead of head out for more training. I’d wanted to run for another two thousand miles, but I didn’t want to cause more trouble, and I was worried about Filia.

“I’m back!” When I got back to the inn, Filia and Ashley were there. Ashley had come to visit again. She was dressed in red clothes, as usual. Jeez, she was all about that tomato aesthetic, huh?

“Yuri, welcome back!”

“Thanks. Am I interrupting anything?” I didn’t really know how this stuff worked, being a guy and all, but I didn’t want to break up girl talk. Maybe my timing was a little bad.

“Not really,” said Ashley. “But ideally, I’d rather be the only one here. Yes,” she added, pouting in disappointment, “that would be the best.”

“Be the only one? For me? Aw, come on, knock it off! You’re embarrassin’ me…”

“No, not for you!” Ashley snapped. “What are you acting all embarrassed for?!”

“Oh, you knew I was acting? You’ve really got talent.”

“Talent for what?”

“You’ve gotta figure that one out for yourself.”

“Huh?! I don’t understand a word of what you’re saying!”

If you just give people all the answers, they won’t develop the ability to think for themselves. So you see, I was helping Ashley become a more perfect adult in the future. Such is the burden of an intellectual muscle man!

“Hmph! Yuri, you big idiot! I don’t even care!” she pouted, turning around and sitting down away from me in protest.

I couldn’t help but smile at the huffy look on her face, which she didn’t even try to hide. “Come on, don’t pout. You’re charming.”

“Ch-charming?! Hey, wait a minute Yuri! You’re treating me like a child, aren’t you?”

“Naw! Sorry, sorry. There, there.” I patted Ashley on the head.

“There, there?! You are treating me like a child!” Ashley puffed her cheeks out angrily.

I patted her head again. “Sorry. Really.”

“Well, okay…as long as you’re sorry.” Ashley let out a snort and crossed her arms. I couldn’t help but find it adorable that she was trying so hard to act grown-up, but I wasn’t about to tell her that and get her mad at me all over again.

“You two always get along so well,” said Filia nonchalantly, watching our banter. Filia really did look at Ashley like a little sister.

“So, what were you talkin’ about?” I asked.

“Ashley told me about a festival in her home village. She invited me to come.”

A festival, huh? “That sounds good! You should go.”

There are times when you just want to cut loose, ya know? She needed to have fun in her life. I didn’t intend to try to stop her from getting it. Even if we were partners, I didn’t want us to be joined at the hip or anything.

“Why don’t you come too, Yuri?” asked Filia.

Huh. I hadn’t expected that. A festival… Had I ever even been to a festival? I couldn’t remember anything like one. “Uh, sure, I suppose doin’ something like this once in a while could be fun.”

Maybe I’d find something at the festival that could make me stronger. You can’t get strong without going everywhere and doing everything. You gotta be voracious!

“Are you coming too, Yuri?” asked Ashley.

“Guessing you don’t want me to?”

“No, I don’t mind at all,” she said. “The more people come to a festival, the more fun it is.”

I was a little surprised by that. I mean, I’d thought that would’ve been against the idea, but…

Ashley suddenly frowned, as if she understood my feelings. She turned her face away from me. “I don’t dislike you or anything, Yuri. I think of you as my friend.”

“I see. Thank you, Ashley.” Ashley was a little bit headstrong, but she was just a thirteen-year-old girl. I couldn’t bring myself to poke fun at something she’d mustered up the courage to say. “You know, somethin’ tells me you and I are gonna get along just fine.”

“Hmph, w-well!” Ashley stammered. “I don’t think so.”

“Way to be a tsundere.”

“H-hey! Shut up!”

“Yes, I have been simply certain that you two would get along swimmingly,” said Filia, just as happy-go-lucky as ever. “Yuri, Ashley…I suppose my intuition was correct.”

Well, if I could get along with Ashley, that was good enough for me. “When do we set out for your village, Ashley?”

Ashley began to count on her fingers. “If we take the Earth Dragon Bus, we could get there in a day, even accounting for breaks. I’d like to get there before the day of the festival, so…three days would be good. Is that okay, Sis?”

“Yes, that works quite well,” said Filia.

“Cool,” I said. “Wanna go and handle a request before we go, Filia?”

Filia nodded. “Sounds fine to me. We’ll go out early in the morning tomorrow and see if there’s anything suitable.”

With our plans decided, I got up to go clean myself off in the shower—but I’d hardly taken a step before the high-pitched cry of a child rang in my ear.

“I-I’d like to come along to help with the request too. Is that okay?”

It was Ashley, of course. Ashley had been clinging to Filia all the time lately, so it wasn’t exactly odd that she wanted to come with us.

“Sure, you can tag along.”

Finding out just what the youngest S-Rank ever was truly capable of couldn’t hurt, you know? After all, fighting a duel is totally different from fighting monsters.

Ashley’s eyes lit up. “I’ll go get ready!” she cried, and ran out of the room.

“She’s awfully restless, huh,” I said, smiling wryly.

Filia beamed. “Tee hee! Yes, she is.” I wondered if she was happy that Ashley and I were finally growing closer. Which reminded me—Ashley was going to be tackling a request with us, so it seemed to me it’d be an opportunity to test out my brand spanking new skill while we were at it.

Fresh out of the oven, it was time for a glorious debut! It was the first time I’d be using it in actual combat, so my heart was pounding!

My indoor training got even more intense that day. In the blink of an eye, day stretched into the late night.

 

***

 

There was a quiet knock at the door in the morning. When I opened it, a young girl clad entirely in red clothes was standing there.

“Oh, hey, Ashley. You’re awfully early.”

“I-I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep. I suppose it’s better than being late, right?” Ashley said bashfully.

Oh, we’d totally forgotten to specify the time, hadn’t we? Anyway, seeing Ashley, who was normally so fiercely determined, bashfully squirming around like that, it was so…so…!

“Adorable!”

“Knock it off!”

“All right, let’s go wake up Filia.” I welcomed Ashley inside, pointed her in the direction of Filia’s bed, and Ashley’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Huh? Big Sis is still sleeping?”

“Yeah. She’s not really a morning person.” It was happening less and less now, but for a time, she’d slept in almost every day. I wondered how Ashley, who idolized Filia so much, would take it. But just as I thought that, I realized Ashley was…gone?

As soon as she’d heard me, Ashly darted over to the bed at high speed like some kind of lightning-fast beast of the plains.

“Eh he he! Aww, the face of Big Sis when she’s sleeping!”

If she were anywhere near normal, Ashley would have been quite a cute kid. What a pity. “Don’t do anything weird, okay?”

“I won’t! It just makes me happy to look at her, is all. Besides, it’s not weird feelings or anything. It’s just that when I look at Big Sis, I…get this feeling? Like, wow! You know what I mean, right?”

“Not even a little bit.”

Our voices must’ve been like a wake-up call, because Filia started to squirm around. As usual, Filia was in a daze in the mornings. It was a little funny to see her like that, because she was normally so precise.

“Good morning…huh? Ashley, you’re here?”

“Oooooh! Sis, you’re just way too cute!” Ashley exclaimed, hugging Filia. Dazed, Filia accepted the hug.

“We’ll go when you’re ready,” I told her.

“Ah, okay,” replied Filia sleepily.

 

We headed over to the guild and checked the bulletin board. At the sight of us, people in the guild started talking.

“Whoa, check it out! Did that guy seriously tame Ashley the Flame Princess?!”

“Come on… What’s the difference between me and him, anyway?!”

“What’s so great about that musclebound jerk, huh?!”

The commentary brigade was as annoying as ever. If they had the time to spout stupid nonsense, it’d be better spent training their muscles. I was standing on my tiptoes at that very moment, developing my sense of balance while simultaneously strengthening my calves. Really, didn’t they know the old proverb, Every little bit of muscle means more muscle?

“Um, it’s not like they don’t know it,” said Filia, clearly peeking into my mind. “It’s more like there is no such proverb.”

I pretended that I didn’t hear her and studied the bulletin board. Requests of varying scope and danger were posted to the board, and adventurers could choose to accept any that they liked.

“Hey, how ’bout this one? ‘Defeat the Water Dragon,’” said Ashley, standing up tall and pointing to a request posted at the edge of the bulletin board.

I quickly rejected it. “No good.”

“Why? Big Sis would want to do this one too, wouldn’t she?”

“Filia and I are A-Rank. We can’t take on that request in the first place. The location is rank-restricted.”

The ‘Defeat the Water Dragon’ request itself was A-Rank, but the location was only accessible to S-Rank adventurers. The guild rules stated that adventurers couldn’t take on requests if they didn’t meet rank requirements. It helped the guild prevent any unnecessary deaths.

Still… I desperately tried to bury my true feelings. The Water Dragon… I wanna fight it…

Things like dragons were probably strong, right? Yeah, of course they were! Ugh, why was I still A-Rank?!

“Oh, that’s right,” said Ashley. “You two are so strong that I forgot you weren’t S-Rank. I guess the guild just doesn’t have a discerning eye for talent.”

“Exactly!” I nodded.

We were getting along unusually well, huh?

“Hey, you two…” muttered Filia, exasperated as she put a hand to her head. “You do know we’re inside the guild, right?”

Course we knew. It didn’t matter where we were, I was going to say what I wanted to say.

“Oh, how about this one?” Filia tore a piece of paper off the bulletin board to show us.

“Vermin Extermination: Gorillalas,” I read.

“That one should be okay, right?” asked Filia. “I’m pretty sure gorillalas are higher B-Rank monsters.”

Yeah, it could be a great way for me to break in my new technique…

“Ha! With me there, we’ll handle them easy. It’ll be no contest,” said Ashley, flashing a perfect white-toothed grin.

“Shall we get on with it, then?” said Filia.

We went over to submit the request to the receptionist, then headed over to the request location.

“Huh? You’re going to run there?” asked Ashley. “You’re joking, right?”

“Uh, what? Of course I’m gonna run!”

What was she even talking about? I had no idea what Ashley was trying to say. Frankly, she was getting a little hysterical. I looked over toward Filia.

“For a second, Yuri’s words sounded perfectly natural to my ears,” said Filia with a shudder. She hugged herself. “Ugh, I’m slowly turning into you!”

“Don’t talk like that!” C’mon, she was gonna give people the wrong idea!

 

***

 

“This seems like the place.”

After nearly four hours of running, with some breaks, we arrived at the village in question.

Huffing, Ashley hung her head and braced her hands on her knees. Her shoulders rose up and down with her heaving breaths. Filia, slightly out of breath herself, gave Ashley a worried look.

“Are you all right, Ashley?”

“Y-yeah, I’m okay.”

“That’s why I offered to carry ya,” I said.

“I don’t…need…your help!”

“Gotta say, I admire your willpower.” If you want to get stronger, after all, it’s better to be competitive. Feeling that “Aw, damn it, come on!” moment is surprisingly important. It’s good motivation!

“It’s not like I want your approval or anything. I just wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for giving up halfway through and relying on someone else…” Ashley looked up at me. “But we’re late because of me. I really am sorry for that.”

It was certainly true that Ashley had slowed us down a little. Even so, it must have been really hard for her, since she didn’t usually rush. For the whole trip, she never once complained. Deep down, I was also seeing her in a better light.

“Ashley, you really gave it your all, didn’t you?” said Filia.

“Yep!” Ashley replied as Filia cast recovery magic on her. A light white enveloped Ashley’s form. “Oh! I feel so much better now! Thank you, Big Sis!”

“You’re welcome.” Filia bent down and smiled, making eye contact with Ashley.

After we took a short break for Ashley’s sake, we headed into the village. It really was the quintessential village, being so rural. The fields covered a wide expanse of the local territory; I could definitely see how vermin would be a serious problem if left unchecked. We explained to some nearby villagers that we’d come to answer their request, and they led us to the village chief’s house.

“Oh, thank you for coming.” The village chief, a seemingly good-natured man, looked to be in his seventies. We sat down and started off with some small talk. I typically left that stuff to Filia, but since Ashley was also engaging in small talk this time too, I felt a little alienated. If the topic had been muscles, I could definitely have jumped in, but alas.

Unfortunately, topics like “How can I build up even more beautiful muscles?” didn’t often come up in everyday conversation. Why weren’t more people worried about that? What a strange world we lived in.

Finally, the pleasantries ended, and the topic shifted to the actual matter of the request.

“How often do the gorillalas come to this village?” asked Filia.

“They come every night,” the chief replied. “Ten of them. They’ve been devastating the village’s crops…”

Every night? That sounded awful. But we were gonna stop it right away! “Is there someplace in particular where they show up often?” I asked.

“Indeed.”

We asked the village chief to show us the spot, then took up position at the edge of the fields. There, we waited until nightfall…

 

“Ook! Ook!”

Multiple low, deep animal cries overlapped one another in the dark of night. Then, under the light of a full moon, the beast appeared. It looked like a gorilla combined with another gorilla. Basically, it was twice the size of a regular gorilla, hence the name: the gorillala was two gorillas put together. I could get behind that kinda logic.

“They finally showed up.” I was feeling pretty relieved about that. They’d come much later in the night than expected, and I’d even started to fear they weren’t coming.

“I was getting really tired of waiting,” said Ashley.

“I know, I was gonna start yawning any second. Right, Filia?”

“You two sure are energetic…” Filia said sleepily. I knew Filia was the sort who needed a lot of sleep, but I couldn’t help but wonder who was the weird one here. I mean, Ashley was so lively and Filia looked like a limp noodle.

Wasn’t important. We had gorillalas to deal with.

“Six, eight…ten,” I counted. “Just like the chief said.”

“They seem to be quite capable at commanding illusions,” said Filia, a serious look on her face.

“Illusions? What kind of illusions?” I asked.

I hadn’t noticed any such thing at all. If they were able to use illusions that even I couldn’t notice, I’d really have to brace myself.

“They’re turning into you, Yuri,” said Filia seriously. “Their illusions are so incredibly elaborate. I can’t even tell you apart…”

“Uh, what do they look like?” I asked.

“Gorillas.”

“That’s not an illusion. That’s real.” Plus, my muscles were many, many times more beautiful than the ones on these guys. The difference was obvious!

“It’s a preemptive strike!” shouted Ashley, firing off a flaming arrow. “Just because you look like Yuri doesn’t mean that I’m gonna go easy on you!”

The arrow pierced one of the gorillalas and the thing went limp.

A gorillala that, by the way, looked absolutely nothing like me. Okay? Okay?

“Ook!”

The gorillalas got all worked up now that one of their friends had been killed, and they started blasting us with earth magic. Earthen bullets erupted from their mouths.

“Not a chance!” Ashley shouted, summoning a wall of flame in front of herself. The earthen bullets collided with the roaring flames and instantly turned to black carbon, crumbling and falling to the ground in pieces. Good stuff. Just what you’d expect from an S-Rank.

Beside her, Filia had finally snapped out of her sleepiness. She called the Wind God to chop the earthen bullets to crumbs with incredibly deft maneuvers. She was getting even better at handling that ability.

Wait, I couldn’t just watch them fight!

“Hmph!” I repelled the earthen bullets with my fist, knocking them back at the gorillalas. One of them fell to the ground.

“It’s gonna start raining down from the sky any minute now!” shouted Ashley. “I’m using my lightning magic to activate Infinite Flame! Eat this!” Ashley’s lightning magic flew at considerable speed, and no gorillala could dream of dodging her attack—but that wasn’t the end of it.

“Ook?!”

The other gorillalas around her target shouted in surprise. After the gorillala was hit by Ashley’s lightning magic, its body ignited and turned into a huge fireball. I’d seen this when we fought before. Ashley’s ability, Infinite Flame, allowed her to add a fire aspect to all other types of magic as an additional effect. It was a pretty interesting ability, allowing her to automatically deal an additional damage with fire, no matter what kind of magic she used first.

“He he!” Ashley grinned smugly.

“I’m not gonna lose either!” I turned from Ashley and observed the gorillalas. In almost no time, their numbers had dwindled down to seven. They charged us, half from desperation, but I couldn’t say that was necessarily a bad choice. If their huge bodies collided with Filia or Ashley, they probably wouldn’t be able to withstand it—if the monsters actually hit them.

“Let’s go!” I focused my power in my brain. They say that normally, human beings only use 20 or 30 percent of their brains. So what happened if we used 100 percent? After removing the limiter from my own brain, I focused on my heart. The heart muscle is, by nature, an involuntary muscle. You can’t move it through willpower. Most people can’t, anyway.

I used my willpower to make my heart pump how I wanted. It pounded at an absurd rate, carrying blood through my body at an order of magnitude faster than usual. Generally, for living things, the faster its heart rate, the more agile it is. By making my heart beat faster through force of will, I managed to rapidly increase my agility. It took me three seconds to get into this mode. Against a real tough opponent, that would have been far too much time. I needed to train more.

I looked over at the gorillalas charging at us. Right now, it almost looked like they were standing still.

“Hooah!” I got in close and punched. In ten seconds, the remaining seven gorillalas had lost their lives. I put the limiter back on my brain.

The technique was something of a double-edged sword. I could only keep it up for about a minute before it drained all my stamina. It definitely needed work. I had to improve my cardio even more!

“Wh-what was that just now?” Filia yelped.

“Hm? Oh, that.” Good question. I still hadn’t come up with a name for the technique. Maybe I could pick someone else’s brain about it. “It’s a technique where I remove my brain’s limiter and make myself stronger. It doesn’t have a name yet.”

“What does that even mean…?” Ashley looked confused for some reason. Come on, I’d already explained it!

“The wisest course of action,” said Filia, “is simply not to question anything about Yuri’s physical abilities.”

Filia understood that quite well. Anyway, it was time to report that we’d completed the request.

 

“Thank you so much. I don’t know how we can repay you,” said the village chief.

“We’ve been paid through the guild. That’s enough. Very fair.”

The village chief bowed to us repeatedly, servilely. You’d think the representative of a village would have a little more dignity. Well, I supposed I could understand why he’d want to pay respects to these wonderful muscles of mine.

“If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be going.”

“Really, thank you so much!”

After we reported that we’d completed the request, we immediately left the village. Our time was limited, and we didn’t want to waste it.

On our way back, I asked my two companions a question. “I’d still like to think of a name for that technique I used before. Got any ideas?”

All right, now was the time for them to show off their flair for cool names! I wanted to hear some good ideas.

Ashley opened her mouth to speak first. She seemed surprisingly enthusiastic. “A name for your technique? How about…Zero Burst?”

“Are…are you serious?” I asked. Wow. She didn’t even have the slightest hint of good taste in names. Honestly, I felt embarrassed just hearing it. I turned to Filia. “What about you? Got any ideas?”

“Oh, I don’t know anything about technique names. Maybe something like…hmm. Super Yuri Mode? I think that sounds super cool.”

“Filia, you’re…a genius!”

“Uh. I’m a what?”

“I’m using it!” The moment I heard that name, an electric shock coursed through my body! She had a stupendous knack for totally sweet names!

Filia suddenly started panicking. “No, wait a minute. I was just jok—”

Well, since she’d come up with an even better name than I’d expected, she was probably going to take out the part with my name in it and replace it with her own or something, all so she could lay claim to it! But a totally sweet technique name like this, I just couldn’t let it be compromised by Filia’s shenanigans!

“Nope, I’ve already taken the name Super Yuri Mode. It’s mine now. I’m not givin’ it to anyone!”

“It’s no use,” Filia groaned. “He’s seriously going to use it.”

“Yuri, you’ve got absolutely no sense for naming things,” Ashley sighed.

“I don’t want to hear a word from you, Ms. Zero Burst.”

“What the heck?! Come on, that one was cool!” Filia wailed.

Wait, was Filia serious? Yikes. I felt sorry for her. In the end, my new skill was dubbed Super Yuri Mode. It was a wonderful name, perfectly fitting for the new technique.