Chapter 10: People Who Don’t Build Walls Tend to Get Along with Others Easily

Chapter 10:
People Who Don’t Build Walls Tend to Get Along with Others Easily

 

AS ASHLEY UNLEASHED her ability, the temperature skyrocketed. The heat rising from her small frame distorted the air around her.

“What the heck?! It’s getting hotter!” shouted Loli Loli. She looked around in a circle, bewildered, her black skirt fluttering in the wind. “Is this that global warming thingy?!”

“I don’t think you can afford to look the other way,” said Ashley, and she unleashed water magic. The spell was wide, thin, and dome-shaped. It was probably intended to cover her target.

But Loli Loli held her hand aloft and froze that water magic. It was like she’d shot cold air from her hands.

“Not! Over! Yet!” Ashley roared. Flames erupted from the frozen water and flew right at Loli Loli. That was her Infinite Flame for you. Whew, that ability sure was strong. It was like a two-hit combo that didn’t even take any setup.

“Go away! Go away! Shoo!” Loli Loli shouted, waving her hands around. Her shield of ice manifested at once, blocking the flames.

Meanwhile, Ashley carefully studied her opponent. I could feel the heat from her power even where I stood.

“Nothing will work against me!” shouted Loli Loli. “Do you know why? Because I’m the strongest!” She summoned a block of ice from thin air and flung it at Ashley.

Ashley answered by raising her right arm. “Eat this!”

Ashley’s flames rapidly grew in size and erupted high into the sky. Then she swung her arm down—it was a flaming sword now. With a single swing, she easily melted the ice block. And now her flaming sword arm was headed right for Loli Loli.

“Wha—hot, hot, hot!” Loli Loli lit up. Ashley’s flames spread across her body.

“Once more!” Ashley howled. She slashed at Loli Loli with her flaming sword, going at her with a horizontal swing. The way she attacked without hesitation, that really moved me. The worst thing you can do is leave the job half-finished when trying to finish off your foe. That just makes your opponent want to die.

Beside me, Filia let out a relieved sigh. The intensity of the fight was getting to her; she seemed exhausted. But now it looked like Ashley had won. When Filia noticed I was looking at her, she smiled weakly.

“I was so anxious,” she said. “I felt like I was on the edge of my seat…”

“It’s not over yet,” I replied.

“Wh—oh!”

Even though Filia could analyze things via Clairvoyance, she’d still lost her composure. Whenever I’m fighting, I remain calm, but Filia always seems to have a hard time watching people fight. As for me, I can follow the flow of battle via intuition.

Ashley’s onslaught had continued, but Loli Loli’s vital signs were still there. And then, suddenly, the flaming sword with which Ashley had been slashing away froze solid. Along with Ashley’s right arm.

“Wh-what?!” Panicked, Ashley used her flames to melt the ice and pulled her arm free.

Loli Loli stepped out of the steam, an audacious smile on her face. “You’re strong! This is starting to get fun! All right! Time to get serious!”

“What? You weren’t serious before?” Ashley was flustered. Loli Loli’s eyes took on an icy sheen, and cold air started to radiate from her. The temperature plummeted.

Man, the poor temperature. Had to be exhausting, going up and down like that so rapidly.

“Here I go!” shouted Loli Loli.

Loli Loli launched a palm-sized block of ice at Ashley. Ashley raised her flame shield, but the ice block grew plantlike stalks that stretched out, crashing against the shield and dousing the flames. Ashley’s Infinite Flame summoned more fire, but every new flame disappeared after colliding with the ever-growing ice stalks. The block of ice itself continued to close in on Ashley until she was unarmed.

“It’s not over! I…I can’t lose!” Ashley rolled, dodging the ice block, but she wasn’t used to dodging. She was so strong that she rarely had to practice getting out of the way, so she put too much force into the roll and spun about three times on the ground. Her opponent saw the opening and rushed in.

Loli Loli loomed over Ashley. She’d moved so fast that it probably wouldn’t have mattered if Ashley had dodged well. “That was fun! Let’s do it again!”

“Ugh!”

The mass of ice and a spear of flame collided—and the flame froze and shattered. The ice continued on and collided with Ashley, knocking her out cold.

Loli Loli turned to Filia and me. “Soooo, are you guys next?”

“First, let’s talk,” I said.

“Talk? What?” Loli Loli cocked her head to the side.

“Why did you come here?”

“I came to see that burning thingy. I thought it looked neat, so I came over! I saw him when I was flying through the air!”

“So you’re not planning to hurt the people in this village?”

“Loli Loli doesn’t want to attack anyone! But I was attacked, so I hit back! That’s like ‘legitimate self-defense’ or something, right?”

“You’re not thinking of attacking a store in this village or anything, then?”

“Attacking? What store? I don’t get it. Explain, please!”

So that’s really how it was, huh? I looked to Ashley. Filia rushed over to her and healed her with recovery magic, but Ashley didn’t really have any major wounds. Her opponent had never intended to take her life at all—Loli Loli really had come here purely out of curiosity, with no intention to fight or attack the store.

I didn’t want to battle her either. I couldn’t sense any fighting spirit at all from Loli Loli, and I wasn’t about to have a match with someone who didn’t actually want to fight. On top of that, she was still a kid. I definitely wouldn’t want to take her life. It’d just be a waste—she still had so much time to get even stronger in the future.

“Ashley’s going to be okay,” said Filia. “Her wounds have been completely healed. She should regain consciousness in a couple hours.”

“All right.”

My guess was that Filia had peeked into Loli Loli’s mind using her Clairvoyance, because as Filia carried the unconscious Ashley on her back, I didn’t see any fear in her eyes when she looked at the majin.

I looked over at Loli Loli in front of us, dressed in her black Gothic Lolita clothes. She was even smaller than Ashley, wasn’t she? To win against our S-Ranked buddy, she really did have to be tough.

“Heyyyyy, are you listening?” asked Loli Loli. “You better not ignore me!”

“All right, I get it. Loli Loli. Let’s have a match, you and me.”

“Okay!”

An immediate answer, huh? Making snap decisions was quite the advantage on the battlefield.

“Yuri?!” Filia looked shocked. I’d definitely given her the wrong idea.

“Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not talking about a death match or anything—just a friendly competition.”

I wasn’t going to risk my life—or ask Loli Loli to risk hers—but seeing her in action as a bystander, I had felt that her power was considerable. I couldn’t help wanting to fight someone like that, if she was willing to go for it.

“Now, for the matter at hand…you got any ideas on how we should do this?”

The only thing I could think of was a duel, but I wasn’t sure I could go toe to toe with someone as strong as Loli Loli and keep a good rein on myself—I might get overenthusiastic and go for the throat.

Loli Loli thought for a moment, nodded, and clapped her hands together. “Okay, how about a race? I’m super fast! I’m so fast, you can’t even follow me with your eyes!”

“Sounds good. Oh, and Filia? Can you use your recovery magic on her?”

“Healing magic? Wow, you’re nice!”

Filia blinked. “Normally, I’d be a little skeptical, but…”

Smiling, Loli Loli extended her hand. Filia stepped back a bit, surprised. Loli Loli didn’t seem cautious at all. Maybe it was because of her strength?

“There aren’t any straight paths here,” I said, “so we’ll do it in the air.”

“Okay! I’ll fly through the sky!”

With that, I launched up through the air while Loli Loli created sparkling wings made of ice. I kicked the air again and again, gradually ascending. Loli Loli flapped her icy wings and followed. After we’d gained a certain amount of altitude, we hovered.

“How about to that tree over there?” I pointed to an isolated tree that was growing out on the plain. It was about a quarter mile away.

“Okay!”

And as for the start signal… “You start first. When I see you take off, I’ll start running.”

“Does that mean you’re giving me a handicap? Heyyyyy, wait a minute, don’t make fun of me! You’ll be sorry!” Loli Loli pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue.

For a moment, I felt her power swell. Then she flapped her ice wings wide. With a massive gust of wind, Loli Loli rocketed forward at incredible speed. I watched her go—then used the air as a foothold to follow after her.

“Phew!” Loli Loli was even faster than I’d expected. Instead of instantly closing the gap between us, she kept pulling farther and farther ahead. With those wings, it seemed like aerial combat was actually Loli Loli’s specialty.

“Dang,” I muttered, “she’s pretty good.”

I had no choice but to use my Super Yuri Mode. The gap between us had grown even greater now, since I’d focused on thinking for a few seconds. Halfway there. The gap was about two hundred feet now…

“All right!” I shouted, kicking through the air. Then I kicked, and kicked, and kicked some more! The air cracked and boomed from my kicks. Loli Loli soared on ahead without so much as glancing my way. There were only a hundred fifty to go, and I was now only a handful of feet behind.

“Hooooaaaaahhh!” I stopped kicking through the air and careened forward with my Pistol Kick. Loli Loli flapped her wings more intensely and soared through the skies.

Two figures passed over the tree—

“Dang it!” shouted Loli Loli.

That had been close! I’d managed to pass her at the very last minute. Loli Loli flew up higher in the sky as if to hide her frustration. As I looked up at her, I noticed something—something I hadn’t noticed before, because I’d been so focused, but…she was flying around with such a fluffy skirt, so you could totally see her frilly panties from underneath.

Yeah, it was probably a good idea to head down to the ground ASAP.

“Hey, time to land. Hurry up.”

“Huh? Ah, okay!”

I landed on the ground, Loli Loli right behind me. But it seemed her attention was still partly on the sky.

“Is there anything else? If we’re finished, I’m going home,” said Loli Loli. “I have work to do.”

“Please wait,” said Filia, stopping Loli Loli in her tracks. Filia turned to me. “I’m going to talk to the villagers to see if they’ll let her participate in the festival.”

“Hm. But from the looks of it, the villagers were really terrified of her being a majin. I can’t imagine it’d work. Won’t talkin’ to them be pointless? If we’re not careful, they might kick us out.”

I was satisfied that I’d been able to challenge a majin, but that didn’t seem to be enough for Filia. On a personal level, she was so psyched to participate in the festival with Ashley that she’d stayed up late and had to sleep in. That had made sense to me. But when it came to this Loli Loli, they’d only just met—what did Filia want?

“But, Yuri…do you know what Loli Loli was thinking earlier? ‘Again? Okay…’ People have always been afraid of her, I’m certain of it. She’s never once been allowed to participate in something like a festival. Don’t you feel sorry for her?”

Filia’s eyes glistened, reflecting the sunlight. It was the same look she’d given me after spending time with Ashley. Jeez, she really had a soft spot for kids.

Or maybe it was more that she could really put herself in Loli Loli’s shoes, remembering how she’d been ignored by everyone in her village. I couldn’t really fault Filia for that, you know?

When Loli Loli noticed the forlorn look on Filia’s face, she trotted up to her and started patting her gently on the cheek. “What’s the matter? Don’t look so sad! Why are you sad? I think you should smile!”

“Ha. Yes…I see. I agree, that’s a good idea.” Filia smiled broadly, just as Loli Loli told her to do.

Loli Loli probably wasn’t a bad person. I mean, I creeped people out all the time with my muscles, so I got where she was coming from. There was the threat of an attack on Moichi’s store to deal with, and a lot of other trouble kept coming our way, but it still wouldn’t have been right to abandon a kid.

“Let’s wait till Ashley wakes up, then we can negotiate,” I said. “We’re outsiders, so we can’t just do whatever we want.”

“Yuri!”

“This is your responsibility, Filia, and I do respect your opinion. But remember, Ashley just got wounded, and we have no idea how she’ll feel about all of this.”

Ashley was the one who’d attacked Loli Loli first, but it was clear from everyone’s reaction—not just that of the villagers, but those of Filia and Ashley—that all majin were seen as highly dangerous. We understood why people had reacted that way, even if it seemed ridiculous to Loli Loli. To be fair, she’d been attacked just for showing up.

“What? What’s going on?” asked Loli Loli.

“We were talking about giving you a chance to experience a fun event, something you’ve never gotten a chance to participate in before.”

“Huh?” Loli Loli’s cheeks twitched for a moment, then she had a puzzled look on her face, and then, finally, she looked a little miffed. “Okay, this has been bothering me for a while now. Don’t call me ‘you’! It’s ‘Loli Loli’ or nothin’!”

“Gotcha. So we’ll hide Loli Loli in Ashley’s house for the time being. Get in there.”

With that, I took the bag of holding from my waist and pulled out a traveling knapsack. Since you couldn’t carry living things in a bag of holding, a knapsack like this was incredibly handy when you needed to catch a living thing for a request. This particular knapsack was some real top-of-the-line equipment, which meant it could hold loads up to about a hundred kilos.

“Hey! That’s Loli Loli the Great to you! I’m great and powerful, okay?!” she whined, rubbing her blonde-haired head against me. Wait a minute, was she trying to poke me with her horns? The horns were way too tiny, so I couldn’t really tell.

“I’m not callin’ you that until you get stronger than me. Now come on, into the knapsack!”

“What the heck is this?! I-Is this, um, that?! Are you stealing me away to a secret hideout?!”

“Yep. Hurry and get in.”

“Whoa! It’s pitch dark! Ah ha ha, it’s dark, it’s so dark!” Just like that, Loli Loli switched gears again, and her excitement was at its absolute peak. Talking to her was so exhausting. It made me feel like I was the crazy one.

 

***

 

A few moments after Yuri and the gang rushed to Ashley’s house, Ashley regained consciousness. The way her red eyes fluttered open, coupled with her small stature, made her look like a tiny animal. “Uhh? I…”

“Good morning, Ashley,” said Filia, rubbing Ashley’s shoulder gently. “I’m sorry about this.”

Filia’s actions were so fluid and natural that Ashley was completely at her mercy. “Huh? H-hey, Big Sis?!”

“Okay, there don’t seem to be any problems, thank goodness!” Filia had such a carefree smile on her face.

When Ashley saw that, she realized that Filia had just been genuinely worried about her. “Ah…o-oh, that’s what you were doing! I was a little shocked.”

“Huh? What did you think I was d—” The moment Filia read Ashley’s mind, her face turned the color of cherry blossoms. The silver-haired, rosy-cheeked elf looked for all the world like a painting. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!” she stammered, waving her hands to hide her pale face.

Ashley realized that Filia had peeked into her mind and flopped face down on the bed in sheer mortification. “Eek! I’m so embarrassed!” she wailed, her twin tails swaying around as she kicked her legs up and down.

This was going to put a damper on their conversations for a bit.

 

***

 

Weird. There were loud voices coming from inside Ashley’s bedroom. After Filia had gone to make sure Ashley was okay, we were going to explain the situation with Loli Loli, but now there were all these weird sounds coming through the door. Like “I’m sorry” or “I’m so embarrassed”…

“Hey, is it all right if I come in now?” I asked.

“Uh, ah! P-please wait just a minute!” Filia shouted in a panicked voice.

Aw, man… Filia was concerned that Ashley might be confused if she found Loli Loli in her house without an explanation, so I’d been waiting in the living room with Loli Loli. Just the two of us. Yeah. It was bumming me out. I wasn’t really good with kids. They had a habit of crying when they saw my face.

Loli Loli held my hand tightly though, swaying back and forth. Man, her hands were tiny. They were the color of burnt amber. As I examined her hand, she looked up at my face with the sudden shock of an animal.

“Whoa, Yuri! Your hands are huge!”

“Ah, yeah. It’s a result of my training.” When I had grown to my current size, I had learned how to change the size of my hands at will. Even though the person I was talking with right now was a child, I guessed I could be happy for the praise? Still, I was taking care not to scare her.

“Oh, training? Soooo…if I train, will my hands get huge too?”

“If you put in effort, sure.”

Loli Loli let go of my hand and began to look down at her own hands. Her shoulders were trembling. Her voice quivered with sadness. “No… I don’t want my hands to get huge…” Tears started welled in her eyes.

Argh—she was always so volatile, it was really stressing me out! “H-hey, Filia. Can I still not come in?!”

“Please wait just a little longer!”

No, Filia, save me! Were they still not done talking? Oh, no, and now there was this little girl who looked like she was about to burst into tears right in front of me. What was I even supposed to do?

Okay. It was time for my last chance attempt!

“Hey, Loli Loli, check this out—hooah!”

I flexed my pectoral muscles and exploded my clothes off, leaving me exquisitely half-naked! The remnants of my outfit fluttered to the ground like falling cherry blossom petals. Ah, what a wondrous spectacle!

 

It took a few more minutes before I was allowed into the bedroom. Filia opened the door and invited us in.

“Huh? Yuri, what happened?”

There I was, just half-naked and chilling. I’d meant it as a sort of desperate gag, hoping that Loli Loli would like it. At the very least, I had hoped it’d stop her from bursting into tears or something. I’d figured that if she did like it, well, then maybe there was some hope for her. If she didn’t, I knew I was probably in trouble. Such was my muscley gamble. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d broken out in a cold sweat outside of battle.

“His clothes, they just exploded like bang!” said Loli Loli. “It was just too much! Like, it was revolutionary!”

“It’s been…a lot,” I said dejectedly.

After hearing Loli Loli’s explanation, Filia looked over at me with a baffled expression, but I didn’t have the energy to explain. It couldn’t remember the last time I had been this mentally exhausted.

“More importantly,” I said quietly, “have you finished explaining things to Ashley?”

“Yes, generally,” she whispered.

After Filia and I had that brief, hushed exchange, I stood on the sidelines and watched Ashley walk out. If Ashley decided that there was no way in hell she’d allow a majin into her village or something like that, then there’d be no way to show Loli Loli the festival. It wasn’t like I really felt that strongly about Loli Loli or Ashley, but we’d been traveling with Ashley, and Filia loved her like a sister. Loli Loli was practically a stranger.

I crossed my arms and watched Ashley. She approached Loli Loli with fierce intensity and…

Bowed her head. “I’m sorry! About what I did, I mean, I’m…really, really sorry!”

“It’s okay!”

An immediate answer, huh? Ashley looked up in surprise.

Loli Loli just looked back at her with a bright, sunny smile, and flashed a peace sign with her fingers. “There’s no point in worrying about what happened in the past! Besides, uh…Ashbee, was it? Uh, you apologized! That’s good enough for me! Loli Loli’s heart is all cleared up!”

What the heck? Was she a saint or something?

Ashley’s eyes widened, but she responded with a relieved smile. “Thank you…”

“Loli Loli?” said Filia gently. “It’s not Ashbee, okay? It’s Ashley.”

“I see, my mistake! Sorry, Ashley!”

“N-no, I’m the one who…I’m sorry…” Ashley stammered, struggling to get the words out and shrinking away. I never thought I’d see Ashley shrink away from anybody. “Ah! I started crying! I’m so sorry, I made you see something so embarrassing, Big Sis! Yuri! And Loli Loli too, I’m sorry for suddenly crying!”

Ashley put her hand to the back of her head bashfully after she finally got a hold of herself.

At that, Filia, she bent down and made eye contact with Ashley. “Well, you saw me when I was sleeping in the morning, all groggy and such. The way I see it, we’re even. Got it?”

Oh, I’d forgotten about that.

Loli Loli furrowed her brow thoughtfully. Then she patted Filia on the head, messing with her silver hair. “You sleep in? You gotta wake up in the morning, sleepyhead!”

“Um, sure,” said Filia. “I’ll, uh, be better about that…”

“Ah ha ha! Big Sis got scolded!”

“Ugh, how many humiliations must I endure in one day?” But Filia smiled mischievously and stuck out her peach-colored tongue.

The two girls laughed at that for some reason. I didn’t really get it, but at least things had worked out peacefully.

It seemed like Loli Loli was the type of person who didn’t put up any walls around herself. Maybe it was her openness, or maybe all three of them were just on similar wavelengths, because they were soon fast friends.

As for me? The three of them gave me sidelong glances as they chatted away happily, maybe because I was spinning around upside down. You gotta train your vestibular system, after all. As I was training, I listened in on their conversation. They were talking about the festival and inviting Loli Loli.

“A festival? Is that a fun thing?” asked Loli Loli.

“Yes, it is!” said Ashley. “I’m sure you’ll love it, Loli Loli.”

Before I knew it, Ashley was talking to Loli Loli like she was a close friend. They’d been blasting each other back and forth with magic just hours ago too. Man, did kids these days just have like super high-level communication skills or something?

“If this is your first time at a festival,” said Filia, “I think you’ll have tons of fun. Why, even I’ve only even seen my own village’s festival. I suppose I’m looking forward to it too.”

“This is my first festival, ever, of any kind,” I chimed in, as I continued spinning.

“Oh? You’re all festival newbies?” said Ashley. “Tee hee hee! Well then, I guess that means I’ll just have to take the lead!”

“Thanks,” I said, “we’ll be countin’ on ya!”

Ashley, riding high on her expertise, got fired up like she was on some kinda mission. She was such an enthusiastic kid, it was really just totally cute.

“If you’re taking the lead, Ashley,” I said, “then we won’t have to worry about anything.”

“I’m excited!” shouted Loli Loli, spreading her arms out wide. She couldn’t wait, and neither could I.

Except—wait a minute, we still hadn’t explained things to the villagers, had we? They were the key players in this event, after all, so we definitely needed their approval or this would all be for nothing.

I wanted to bring that up, but they all seemed so happy. Nah, we’d…we’d figure something out. Definitely.