Chapter 12: Why Are You Crying?

Chapter 12:
Why Are You Crying?

 

“FIRST, LET’S FIGURE OUT what we need to do before midnight.”

We needed to take stock of our situation. The festival started tomorrow at sundown. Before that happened, though, there was a possibility that Moichi’s donut shop would be attacked in the middle of the night. On top of that, Javagiir had come here the day before. So, the plan was to…look for Javagiir and get his help with protecting the village, I supposed?

“I think that would be a good idea,” said Filia, having read my thoughts.

Man, it was kind of difficult to keep track of everything when the story was so all over the place. “Oof, this is all gettin’ a little complicated. Filia, can you outline the situation in terms of muscles?”

“That isn’t one of my many talents,” she replied.

“Seriously? Come on, Filia, it’s an essential skill for any adult!”

“In what society would you need that kind of skill?” she countered.

In human society, right? Well, whatever. The sun was gonna set soon, and we didn’t have time to waste sitting around gabbing. The villagers were alerted to be on the lookout for Javagiir, and we had to start searching too, and as soon as possible.

“We’ll split into two groups,” I said. “Me and Loli Loli will be the eyes in the sky, and Filia, you and Ashley will cover the ground. Sound good?”

There were no objections, so we split up and started sniffing out Javagiir. I released my muscles and grabbed at the air with the soles of my feet. As I kicked, I soared up into the sky. Loli Loli, flapping her icy wings, followed right after me.

“Hey, Loli Loli? If you see a man with white hair who’s wearing a black coat, tell me.”

“Okay! I’ll do my best to find him!”

The villagers had the town covered, so we opted to search the surrounding area, where fewer things obstructed our view. With my eyes, I could clearly see a pebble three hundred feet away. I’d trained, after all. Now all that was left was to figure out which direction we should focus our search on, since the land stretched out in all directions.

“Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Loli Loli, you flew in from over that way. Did you see anyone?”

“Hm? Hmm…” Loli Loli put her hand to her chin, thinking it over. Then she put her thumb and forefinger together, making a zero. “Sorry, Yuri. I can’t remember anything. I was too busy taking in the scenery!”

“I see. Well, it’s all right.” Yeah—when you’re flying, you don’t really pay much attention to people walking down on the ground or anything. On top of that, a kid like Loli Loli would get especially distracted. “Okay, in that case, let’s just cross out the direction I came from on that Earth Dragon Bus. We’ll focus our search on the other three directions, in order.”

“Okey dokey!” shouted Loli Loli.

We didn’t have enough time to look everywhere. But we hadn’t passed Javagiir on the way here, so we’d avoid scouting the road from here to Jeepupp and would instead prioritize searching in the other three cardinal directions. With that in mind, we took off. We flew over the plains and scattered trees, but we saw no signs of anyone who looked like Javagiir.

Hmm. But wouldn’t it be more efficient to let him know we were looking for him? How could we do that?

“Javagiir! Come on ouuuut! Loli Loli wants to meet yoooou!” shouted Loli Loli as loud as she could with her tiny lungs, flapping her icy wings.

“Oh, calling out to him? You’re so smart, Loli Loli!”

That would make it easier for him to notice us. It was so efficient that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it!

“Loli Loli is smart?! Am I a genius?!”

“Yep. I’m gonna start copying you right now! But, uh, before I do that, there’s something I gotta tell you. This is going to get really loud, so cover your ears.”

“Huh? Okay.” Loli Loli looked puzzled, but she put her hands up and covered her ears tight, blinking at me innocently.

I sucked in as much air as I possibly could…and converted it all to pure dynamic sound. “JAVAGIIIIR! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, SHOOT SOME MAGIC INTO THE SKYYYYYYY!”

My voice boomed in all directions, the shout reaching everywhere equally. It vibrated the very air. Trees lost their leaves. Birds passed out mid-flight.

Phew! I let out a sigh of satisfaction.

Now if magic got blasted up into the sky from somewhere, we’d know there was an extremely high chance that Javagiir would be waiting for us at the source. That way, he could lead us to where he was, thereby dramatically increasing our chances of finding him.

I tapped Loli Loli on the shoulder, gesturing to her that she could uncover her ears now. When Loli Loli moved her hands away from her head, she shook them excitedly in front of her chest. “That was such a loud voice! If I hadn’t put my hands to my ears, it would’ve shattered my eardrums!”

“That’s ’cause I’ve trained my lungs and throat.”

“Ohhh? You say some really interesting things! How did you train those?”

“For my lungs, I held my breath for twenty-four hours straight. For my throat, I held a shout for twenty-four hours straight.”

“Ah ha ha! You’re an idiot. I like you!”

“I’m not an idiot, but thanks,” I replied gratefully. It was nice to have somebody who really understood me for a change, you know?

Anyway, for the time being, we decided to stick around to see if any magic signal was cast. While we waited, we made small talk.

“So how did you end up here anyway, Loli Loli?” I asked.

“I live in a place called the Demon Kingdom, actually. My father dotes on me so much!”

The Demon Kingdom…that was the country the majin were from, right? I guessed that made sense. There were probably some pretty strong people over there. Man, I just had to go there someday.

Loli Loli smiled even more than usual as she talked. She seemed really proud of her family. “All the doting makes me so happy! But…if I stay with Father forever, Loli Loli will never grow as a majin! So I have to leave home periodically!”

“You’re kind of a troublemaker, huh? I can empathize with what you’re sayin’, though.”

I, on the other hand, had always lived alone. I understood the importance of protection, though. I’d heard it said that children are the apple of your eye, so of course parents wanna keep them safe. Still, children always grew up when their parents weren’t looking. That’s what I’d come to believe, anyway.

Hey, wait a second…if children are the apple of your eye, did that mean that people really used to put apples in their eyes—or kids?! Was that where the expression came from? Wouldn’t that hurt? Could people do that? If so, that meant I was losing to Loli Loli’s dad. No matter how much I trained my eyeballs, it’d still hurt if I put a child in my eye. Damn it, was I really okay with just losing? No, no way!

“Loli Loli! Fly right at my eyeball!”

“What are you saying, Yuri?!”

“I’m just tryin’ to be my best self! You get me?!”

“No! Loli Loli doesn’t want to kill people!”

Unfortunately, Loli Loli didn’t have the slightest intention of shoving herself into my eyeballs. I endured my overflowing feelings of regret by biting my lower lip. I’d finally gotten a chance to train my eyeballs, but I couldn’t just force a child to help me.

“Hmph! You ruined my backstory, Yuri!” Loli Loli furrowed her well-maintained eyebrows and her smile turned into a frown. I’d put her in a bad mood by interrupting her.

“Sorry, it was an accident.” I just couldn’t stop thinking about training, no matter what. I knew it was a bad habit, but it wasn’t something I could just up and quit.

“If you think this is a problem that can be solved by saying it was an ‘accident,’ then you’re soft in the head!”

Ow! She was so sweet and innocent on the outside, but her tongue was so wicked! She really knew how to get you.

“Anyway!” shouted Loli Loli, getting us back on track. “I’d left home again, just like I’d done a bunch of times before! Then when I did, I saw that huge fire guy! Then I met everyone!” She had an especially big smile on her face now. “I’m happy that Yuri and Filia and Ashley accepted me! Loli Loli’s heart was saveded because of that! Or, um…savededed? Savedededed? I dunno?”

“You keep adding ‘-eds,’” I told her flatly.

“Ah ha ha ha ha! I don’t get it!”

“You think you can gloss over it by laughing?!”

Not that I picked up the faintest hint of manipulation behind her carefree smile. No, it seemed to me that she really was the kind of person who didn’t stress out over the little things. Her innocence was so incredible that it was kind of staggering. I got the sense that she was gonna be an amazing person in the future. As I was thinking that, I continued to watch the skies to see if any magic was being cast upward into the air.

A few hours later, Loli Loli and I descended back down onto the ground. We hadn’t found a thing. No matter how long we waited, we didn’t see any magic cast into the air at all. Even after searching the area with a fine-toothed comb, there was no sign of Javagiir.

As we landed in the center of the village, Filia and Ashley came running up to us. Several people from the village were with them. They had probably been sharing their reports with each other.

“How’d things go for you guys?” I asked.

Filia shook her head, her silver hair bouncing. “We didn’t find him. What about you, Yuri?”

“Same.”

The villagers’ faces fell at this, which made sense. If Moichi’s shop was to be attacked, then there was a possibility that the village would be attacked as well. Naturally, they wanted as many adventurers as possible to help them out.

“Everyone, listen!” Ashley’s voice rang out over the crowd. “We couldn’t find the adventurer Javagiir, but please don’t worry. Because I—no, my friends and I—we’ll definitely protect this village.”

As she spoke, she radiated dignity and inspired her neighbors. Her declaration made everyone stand up just a bit straighter. The anxiety plaguing the villagers’ faces faded away at Ashley’s words. It really did seem like she was the emotional pillar of the community.

“If you make that kind of grand pronouncement, you’ll be in a heap of trouble if you don’t deliver,” I teased.

“Aww.” Ashley smirked, jabbing me with her elbow. “If you’re scared, you can take the day off, you know?”

I didn’t know how to respond to that! “Ha, don’t be ridiculous. If anythin’, it’s the opposite. I’m excited!” I flashed a toothy smile.

What could I say? I really got fired up in these kinds of situations! I didn’t know what kind of enemy we were gonna face, but it’d be a bummer if they were weak. Hopefully they’d at least be good enough to get me revved up, right? Whew, hot damn—I couldn’t wait!

“Is it almost time? Is it almost midnight?” I asked.

“Not yet, Yuri. We still have several hours until midnight,” replied Filia. Where I was fidgety, she seemed calm and composed.

“Hey, Filia, can ya use any magic that can move time forward or anythin’?” I asked.

“Believe it or not, even I—the transcendentally beautiful elf Filia—cannot do such a thing.”

Even Filia couldn’t? Well, I guessed it made sense. Even muscle magic couldn’t do that, so I’d figured as much.

“Besides,” Filia added, “if I could manipulate time, I’d just repeat holidays endlessly, so time wouldn’t even advance. He he!”

“Uh, that’s not…that’s not a good thing. You know that, right?”

I mean, this was the first time I’d ever heard anyone actually say “he he” out loud in that kinda voice.

Filia stuck her chest out proudly, wearing an oddly smug look on her face. I didn’t know if she was maintaining her composure or if she really just didn’t feel nervous in the first place.

The way she glanced at me said clearly that she’d read my mind, and she gently patted her slender abdomen. “When I feel really awkward, I get a stomachache. That’s why I try not to let myself get too worked up. We’re here to protect the villagers. How would it make them feel if I looked out of it?”

Huh, she really did have a lot on her mind, eh? Filia was always so considerate, and I really…wasn’t. She was pretty amazing! Though her mental state was a little fragile. If she could fix that, she’d become even stronger.

“Hey Filia, let me teach ya about a kind of muscle training to strengthen your mental fortitude.”

“No, thank you. Wait a minute…muscle training can’t do that, can it?”

“Oho, you interested? Are ya? Are ya?” I pressed Filia over and over, staring at her intensely from a close distance, my pupils dilated.

Filia hid her face from me. “Eek! Scary! Yuri, your eyes are scary!”

Aw, jeez, I’d really freaked her out. I backed off. “When we go back to Jeepupp, I’ll spend a whole day teachin’ ya about it, so I hope you’re lookin’ forward to it.”

“Ugh, I should’ve known better than to look remotely interested…I want to rewind time…” Filia groaned.

For some reason, Filia was drooping over in disappointment. Still, I smiled; at least she was interested!

 

More time passed, and night fell.

“Oh, hey, that reminds me. Loli Loli, I wanted to talk with you,” said Moichi. We’d shared what info we had, and we were about to split up for the night.

“With me? What about?” Loli Loli cocked her head to the side, looking totally baffled.

Then Moichi presented something to her. “You worked really hard for the village to help find this person, Loli Loli. We all felt so pathetic for being scared of such a sweet girl. I don’t know if this is enough to be a good apology or anythin’, but we wanted you to have this. It’s a gift from everyone in the village.”

“Is this…a flower crown?”

It was some kind of circular ornament. The ring was made up of colorful, light flowers, and it could be placed upon her head.

“Yep. There were some old folks who were too frail to go out and join the search, so instead they made this with flowers they’d picked for the festival.”

As Moichi presented the flower crown to Loli Loli, the elderly people of the village approached as well.

“We’re sorry, Loli Loli, for being afraid of you. Please forgive us.”

“Indeed. We didn’t know much about your taste, so this might not be the best gift. But it contains our apologies and our gratitude. Please accept it.”

“Are you sure I can have something this wonderful? Even though I’m a majin?” asked Loli Loli, bewildered. Her brown arms trembled slightly.

“Think of it this way,” Filia said gently. “I’m an elf, and Yuri is a muscle. But we get along well with everyone here. Race has nothing to do with making a connection to others. You can accept it, Loli Loli.”

I coughed. “Hey, uh, Filia? Nice speech and all, but you, uh, you know I’m human, right?” Sure, I absolutely loved my muscles, but I still ought to be categorized as a human being.

“We were all deeply moved by how hard you worked for the sake of my shop and the village,” said Moichi to Loli Loli. “Please, take it.”

“Um. Yeah…okay.”

Moichi placed the flower crown on Loli Loli’s head, laying the ring of flowers gently atop her smooth blonde hair. “Looks good on you!”

“R-really?”

“Yeah.”

Loli Loli stood there, seemingly unsure of what to do. She looked like an angel that had just touched down to earth. The flower crown was her halo.

“Thank you for coming to our village, Loli Loli,” said Moichi, and the rest of the villagers followed suit with words of thanks.

Soon enough, Loli Loli was sniffling. “I feel like I’ve lost my mind…” Her blue eyes filled with tears. “It’s weird. I’m happy, but I’m crying…”

Filia bent down and wiped away the tears streaming down Loli Loli’s face. She smiled lovingly at the girl. “Don’t worry, Loli Loli. You haven’t lost your mind. Those are called tears of joy.”

“Tears of joy…? Tears of joy are so salty!”

“Are you lickin’ ’em?” I asked with a wry chuckle.

“Wahh! I never thought something would make me cry like this!”

“Oh, dear, you’re all snotty now,” Ashley chuckled, a little astonished. “All right, all right, here you go.” She took out a piece of tissue paper and held it up to Loli Loli’s nose. “Okay, blow.”

Loli Loli blew her nose with a loud honk, and then smiled at everyone with moist eyes. “I owe you all a great deal of thanks! I, Loli Loli, have grown to love this village, so I want it to be well taken care of! He he he!”

Loli Loli then lovingly touched the flower tiara on her head. Her innocent grin brought a smile to everyone’s faces.