Chapter 340: Combat Training, and a Wish.
Chapter 340: Combat Training, and a Wish.
“Once again! I am Touya’s uncle, Mochizuki Takeru! Best regards henceforth!”
The Martial God… Or rather, Takeru ojii gave a hearty greeting, to which the others from Brunhild stared in silence.
Going by his age, he could pass off as my elder brother too; however, Karen nee-san and Moroha nee-san stubbornly refused, saying that they would rather die than have a brother as annoying as him, so he became my uncle. The younger brother of the Agriculture God, Kousuke ojii, basically.
“Hey, Touya… You’re calling him ‘uncle’, which mean he’s like that, right?”
Elze who’s next to me asked in a low voice.
“Ah, well, yeah… He’s the Martial God. He governs over things like martial arts, basically unarmed combat…”
And when I spoke until that point, I saw Elze’s sparking eyes, and went “oh crap” internally and stopped talking.
But it was too late. Elze swiftly went towards Takeru ojii and greeted him.
“Fumu. Those well-used gauntlets. You’re a fighter as well, huh.”
“Yes. I’m Elze, one of Touya’s fiancées. Can I ask you for some guidance?”
“Fuhahahaha! Interesting! The bride of my nephew is my niece! I’m about to train my disciple after this, so you can come as well!”
“Yes!”
Uoh. Right, while Yae and Hilda got taught quite a lot of things from Moroha nee-san, since Elze technically belongs in a different category, she had only learnt basic body movements and things like that from her so far…
If a god of martial arts showed up here, well, I guess it’s obvious she would want to train with him.
… Good for you, Ende. You got a comrade.
“I don’t mind if you train, but be careful, okay?”
“I know. Thanks.”
Elze flashed a smile while forming her hands into fists. She should be alright. Since Elze is becoming a dependant as well, she shouldn’t get hurt easily.
“Alright! You two, first up is training for a fist technique that rises up to the sky with the force of a dragon! We’re heading to a waterfall after this!” (Note: I’m convinced that this guy is just a Street Fighter reference.)
“Yes!”
“Ah, yes…”
In contrast with Elze who answered energetically, Ende answered with a dark face. Is he ok, that guy?
When Takeru ojii put his hands on the shoulders of the two, they disappeared from that spot in an instant. They probably transferred to a waterfall somewhere. Even though he’s become a human, he sure can do anything.
“What can I say… I thought I had mostly gotten used to it, but Your Majesty’s relatives sure are something else…”
The reason why the prime minister, Kousaka-san, is saying something like that is due to the duel between Takeru ojii and Moroha nee-san that happened earlier with the knight order as gallery.
It’s hard to find adequate words to describe that fight. Fearsome repetitions of clashing techniques. I think me and the rest of the gods there were the only ones who could catch the two’s movements with our eyes.
The match was ended by the judgment of the Hunting God, Karina nee-san, on the grounds that going any further would cause damage to the surroundings.
Still, how was he fending off the sword strikes of that Moroha nee-san with only the gauntlets on his two hands… Even if those are training-use swords that has no edge. As expected of the Martial God, I must say.
“I wonder if onee-chan would be ok…”
Linze voiced out some worry for her elder sister who had just disappeared. Karen nee-san hit her shoulder lightly with a *pon* while smiling.
“It’ll be fine-nano yo. That guy’s a training idiot, but he properly considers these kinds of things-no yo. He shouldn’t force Elze-chan to do anything unreasonable.”
“He’s sweet to girls, you know. Well, he’s extra harsh to boys on the flip side, so if you ask me, I’m more worried about the young man who went with them.”
Continuing Karen nee-san’s words, Moroha nee-san said such things. Ende… Come back alive… (Note: #prayforEnde)
“Ah, I wanna eat some sushi…”
“Sushi?”
Yumina raised her face from the book she had been reading and asked. Ah, did I accidentally speak out loud?
While I was surfing the net with my smartphone, I came across the website of a famous sushi chain store at random, and unconsciously spoke my thoughts. I must’ve been a bit lax since it’s been a while for me to be relaxing back in the castle.
“What could that be?”
“Here, I’ll show you.”
I showed Yumina the photos on the smartphone. Many shots of various nigiri-sushi dishes are lined up. (Note: nigiri is the type of sushi where the chef grips the sushi to form it. It’s the one with a slice of fish/whatever else on top of rice.)
“It’s pretty. Is that some kind of meat?”
“Most of them are fish meat. It’s put on top of vinegar-ed rice and eaten like that. It’s a dish that represents the country I came from. It’s eaten for things like celebrations too.”
Now that I think about it, I wonder if Eashen has something like sushi? I’ve never seen it there before though. I’ve not even seen anything resembling wasabi. Nigiri-sushi should’ve been present since the Edo period, I think… It’s also called Edomae sushi after all. (Note: quite literally, “before Edo”.) Umu, there should’ve been differences between early and late Edo… Wait, this is another world in the first place.
When I searched it up, apparently nigiri-sushi was conceived during the Bunsei years. What years was that again… 1818-1830 huh. That’s late Edo.
It’s probably natural for Eashen which was still in the Warring States period until a while ago to not have nigiri-sushi. They might have narezushi though… (Note: something something fermented fish pickled with rice. I dunno, that’s what it said.)
While I was thinking about that as I was staring at the smartphone, the display suddenly changed to that of an incoming call.
On the screen were the words “Incoming: Moonlight Parlor Silhouette”.
From Silhouette-san over in the Reverse World? Don’t tell me…!
“Yes, hello. This is Touya.”
“Ah, it connected. We’ve got a reaction. Variants will appear soon.”
“! What’s the time, their numbers and types?”
“Roughly 6 hours later, numbers are around a hundred. Most of them were small reactions, but there were three somewhat bigger reactions.”
So they’ve come again. Three intermediate-class and around a hundred lower-class… For Frame Gears, that’s not a lot of opponents. However, without them, we would probably need around five times their numbers to stand a chance. Especially the intermediate-classes, those would be tough without strong golems.
Good timing. Let’s have them become practice partners for our rookie pilots over on the other side.
I asked Silhouette-san to send me the location via mail, before calling [Red Cats]’s Nia… On second thought, I’m worried whether we can set up a proper conversation, so I called the vice- chief Est-san instead and asked for her help. The [Red Cats] should probably have several people who can operate Frame Gears decently already since we’ve lent them Frame Units a while ago.
“Around how many would you need?”
“This time there’s only three intermediate-classes and the rest are all lower-classes, and there’s not much of them either so ten should be enough. While the main goal is their extermination, this time I also want them to have a feel of operating an actual Frame Gear in combat.”
I received Est-san’s confirmation, and cut the call. When I raised my face, my eyes met with that of Yumina’s.
“Are the variants appearing?”
“In the Reverse World. There’s not going to be a lot of them, so I was thinking of using this as a chance for Nia and the others to do some training.”
“I’ll go as well then. We don’t know what may happen, after all.”
“Thanks, that would help.”
After I replied, Yumina went away to call someone else. Since there’s no need for everyone to go, she’s probably going to call Luu over; while I was thinking that, she came back with Rin instead. Of course, Pola the teddy bear was with them.
“Since our role this time is to support them, it’d be better for us to have long-range options, is what I thought. Luu-san seemed to be busy in the kitchen, as well.”
“I was just feeling bored, so I’m fine with this.”
Pola hit its chest with its paw as if saying “Leave it to me!”. No, I’m glad for your feelings, but I don’t need you.
“Kougyoku, come with us too. We might need to borrow your dependants’ eyes on the other side after all.”
“As you wish.”
Kougyoku who was perched on the handrail of the balcony flied onto my shoulder. I’ve let familiars who are Kougyoku’s dependants fly all over the Reverse World. Using their eyes, it would be easy for me to use [Gate] to transfer anywhere I want.
Our preparations are complete after I moved some Frame Gears into my [Storage] from Babylon’s [Hangar].
“Alright, let’s go then.”
I pulled Yumina and Rin, who’s hugging Pola, close and used [Dimensional Transfer] to cross over into the other world.
The next instant, we’re standing in the abandoned fortress being used as a base by the [Red Cats]. On a side note, the barrier around the fortress which makes people avoid this place has been strengthened from before. There was a perfect artifact for the job within the [Warehouse], so I had used it here.
“Oyo, isn’t this Touya-san? Chief-, Touya-san’s here-ssu yo-!”
The ponytail girl Yuni who spotted us arriving in the inner courtyard ran off to call her boss.
While Yumina had come here once before, since it was Rin’s first time, she was looking around the moss-covered walls of the fortress with interest. As for Pola, it was just walking around near Rin’s feet; still, that made it stand out a lot.
The [Red Cats] members around us were looking at Pola like it was some kind of rare beast (eh, well, it is a rare beast I guess… It’s a teddy bear, after all).
Even though it could’ve left them alone, Pola was doing things like waving at them, so they could only wave back while wearing somewhat forced smiles.
“Oh, you’re here! Oya, a face I havn’t seen before?”
Nia who came out from the tent farther in tilted her head while looking at Rin. The red [Crown], Rouge, also appeared from behind Nia.
“I’m Rin, one of this person’s fiancées. Nice to meet you.”
“Ah, one of Touya’s brides. Hee…”
After looking at Rin for a while, Nia turned to look at Yumina who’s besides her. After that, she silently looked at me with an indescribable expression.
“Uh, Touya… You’re into that?”
“Wait a second, what do you mean by that.”
Nia dropped some words I can’t ignore easily. Oi, what kind of misunderstandings are you having over there…
“Eh, well wasn’t that Luu girl the other day also a lot younger than—”
“I’ll have you know, Rin’s older than me despite how she looks, ok!? Please don’t think—ouch ouch ouch!”
“Could you not leak personal information like that so easily, darling?”
I reflexively let out my voice when my wrist is grabbed by Rin. It hurts! Why do you only act like you care about your age in times like this, oi!
It’s true that judging from appearances Rin isn’t a lot different in age compared to Yumina and Luu. It’s understandable for Nia to think that way. Still, it’s a misunderstanding, and one that I’d like to solve as soon as possible.
“I’m of a race called the Fairy race. We have long lifespans, so.”
“Oh, is that so. I had completely thought you’re someone like that [Black] girl.”
“Mm? By [Black] you mean Norn? Dr. Elka’s little sister?”
I asked Nia to explain her words. Right, Yuri said before that the two of them are rivals or something…
“What, you know about her?”
“Not only do I know her, she came to our world too, you know. Chasing after Dr. Elka. She’s staying in the castle town in my country right now.”
“What! That girl went over to the other world as well!? Not fair! Bring me along too!”
“Ehh…”
This girl is saying something troublesome again. Help me, Est-san!
“You’re saying something stupid again… How many times! Have I told you! To think! Before you speak!”
“Ouch! Ow! Owie! Owww!”
While there’s no way she would’ve heard my heart’s voice (I think), Est-san appeared with great timing behind Nia and began chopping her head rhythmically.
“Hello, Est-san. How’s the preparations?”
“I’ve gathered 10 people like you asked for. This time, me, Nia and Yuni would be accompanying them. Yuri and Rouge would be standing by here.”
Ignoring Nia who’s squatting down while holding her head, me and Est-san discussed our current plans.
Pola approached Nia then, and showed concern for her by tilting its head.
“… Oi, what’s up with this plushie? Is it a golem?”
“That’s Pola. Well, it’s something like a golem made with magic.”
As if saying “Ossu!”, Pola raised its hand at Nia. Nia, on the other hand, carried Pola and stood up before checking it out in ways like holding it sideways or holding it upside down. Pola then started to struggle around as if saying “Stop it!”.
“It’s really well-made. Almost feels like an actual living being.”
“Well, it did take 200 years for it to become like this.”
“200 years!?”
Taking the opportunity while Nia was shocked by that reply, Pola escaped from her hands. It then ran to Rin’s feet before clinging to them. Don’t scare Pola so much…
I then started talking again with Est-san.
“While there’s still plenty of time, let’s move to the location first. The predicted appearance timing isn’t very accurate, so. Although it’ll probably not be off by a large amount or anything like that.”
There’s a reason why I said something like that. Actually, this time’s appearance point is at a place close to a town called Zine, in the northern regions of the country called “Eisengard Magic Kingdom” (in terms of the Surface World location, it’s around the location of the Lestia Knight Kingdom).
If, in the off chance, the variants appear much earlier than our prediction, the town could be attacked.
The Phrase targeted humans in order to search for the core of the [Sovereign]. However, the variants instead attack humans in order to eat their souls, and crystal skeletons are born from that.
Well, the crystal skeletons are a side-product. Their real goal is to feed those souls to the evil god as energy for it to grow.
Like worker bees gathering pollen from flowers…
“Everyone’s gathered-ssu yo!”
When I turned around upon hearing Yuni’s voice, there stood eight people including Yuni herself. Adding Nia and Est-san, it’ll be exactly 10 people huh.
Their age and appearances are all various, and their only similarity is the red bandana that’s wrapped somewhere on their bodies. Most of them are people I’ve seen before either here or in the underground hideout in the Holy Capital Alen.
There’s three people there who I havn’t seen before that stood out, however.
A one-eyed man in his thirties with a moustache who gave off an army officer-like feeling. A woman in her twenties with brown skin and long black hair who looks somewhat Indian. And finally, a man also in his twenties with thin eyes and a quick-footed atmosphere around him.
The one-eyed man raised his hand lightly and stepped forward.
“Sorry but I want to ask something. I heard that you can use something like a search magic which can find people anywhere in this world. Is that true?”
The man, who looked to be rather vicious at first glance, looked at me with serious eyes. When I looked closely, the Indian-like woman and the man with thin eyes were also looking here with similar looks.
I don’t know what is it they want, but since they’re sincere with their question I’ll also reply seriously, I suppose.
“It’s not absolute. First, I’ll need something like a photo or portrait of the person I’m looking for, or memories of that person from acquaintances. If the place that person is at has something like a magic barrier, then the search would be obstructed. Well, things like magic barriers are not common in this world so I think that possibility is low.”
“… I see. I understand now. After this, could I ask you to search for a certain person? We’ll repay you as much as we can. This is a personal request from us.”
When I looked towards Nia and Est-san, they nodded slightly. Seems like it’s ok.
“I don’t mind. As long as it’s not something related to criminal activities.”
“That wouldn’t be a problem. Thank you.”
The three of them looked at each other and nodded slightly before backing down quietly. I wonder who is this person they’re trying to look for?
After that, borrowing the eyes of Kougyoku’s dependants, I opened a [Gate] leading to a plain close to the town of Zine.
Passing through the [Gate], me and Yumina, Rin and Pola, Kougyoku, then the ten people of [Red Cats] moved to the plain.
The wide plains we ended up on was at a location far away from the town proper. It should be fine to fight all we want here. From here, we can see the town (which I assume is Zine) far away in the distance.
From within [Storage], I took out the ten Chevaliers, as well as Yumina’s Brunnhilde and Rin’s Grimgerde; twelve Frame Gears appeared on the plains next to us.
“Uoo! Amazing!”
Nia and a few others who had their tensions raised up by the appearance of the Chevaliers started getting into them.
Oi oi, you’re supposed to externally manipulate the Frame Gear to crouch down before getting in… To think they’re just climbing up like that. And it’ll actually be dangerous for them if I made the gears crouch now, so I can only let them be.
I’ll let them move around for a bit before the variants show up to let them get used to operating the real thing. I think they should be fine, but any extra practice is helpful.
“Can I leave you two with the role of instructors?”
“Yes. Please leave it to us.”
“That much is easy.”
Yumina and Rin too got into their personal machines; the silver and black Frame Gears started up with a low rumbling.
“For Kougyoku, please keep watch in the skies.”
“Understood.”
Well then, I guess I’ll make a tent for resting and things like that. We might have to stand guard here for the next six to ten hours, after all. I’ve gotta make preparations for food as well.
Ah, I want to eat some sushi…
-Pixel