Chapter 253 – Minced Meat
“Really helpful, Iroha… How am I supposed to learn anything when you cut it into so many pieces?” Reia lashed out as we crouched near the pile of minced meat formerly known as an ogre.
“Sorry…”
Yep… Hitting it with my finishing move right off the bat was overkill… When Bea told us he was too far beneath our level, I should have just believed her.
In my defense, he was swinging at Narumi. No, I wasn’t worried she’d get hurt. At least not physically. What would have been more likely was she accidentally killing it on reflex while trying to defend herself. Then she’d feel bad… And she would have stolen my kill. The only reason we came here was for me to shake off some rust. We couldn’t have that happen.
“I- It’s okay, though! All I really did was chop into smaller, more convenient pieces.”
“And really gross too…” Hecate said. “Who’d wanna touch that pile?”
Reia did. Like the concept of grossness didn’t apply to her, she reached for the remains of the ogre to look for something interesting. “As long as I get more samples, I guess it’s fine. They never gave me enough when I worked with Matching Weapons.” A couple of ziplock bags quickly filled up with the most precious materials.
“Do you need so many fangs and claws?” Narumi asked. “That’s what they always use for Matching Weapons. I’m sure you’ve seen them many times before, so shouldn’t you grab new stuff?”
“Oh… That’s smart…” The contents of one of the bags now flew the other way. “Since it’s just for research, I don’t need to prioritize Matching Weapon materials.”
“Exactly! It’s your opportunity to study all the stuff deemed useless that gets discarded straight away.” Narumi and Reia actually work quite well together…
…
The ogre’s stuff was done, so we went back to town. Some very dear people had yet to receive the news, so we stopped by a certain hotel room.
Sitting at the room’s table with a leaf hanging from my mouth and under a very dramatic light, I started. “It seems like the time has come… Time for war… War is coming, girls…”
Replicating my pose. “It’s an inevitable thing. No one can escape it.” Sarasa continued.
Wow! She picked on the vibe right away! High five! *Clap!*
“Wait… What?” Ririna watched us together with the others a few steps away from the table. Sarasa was with them until she suddenly blinked to my side. “Do you even know what she’s talking about, Sarasa? And where did that leaf come from?”
“Heh… Haven’t you learned not to underestimate me yet?” If she had a cowboy hat, now would be the time where she’d lift the tip with a grin hiding just under. Unfortunately, that doesn’t go well with the fantasy Egypt vibe she has.
“*Sigh…* You’re the best, Sarasa! This is why I love you!” I grabbed her shoulder. She’s so good at picking up on things. “But Ririna has a point. You don’t know what’s going on, so you shouldn’t put on an act.”
“What do you mean? I do know.”
“No way… You know what the war I’m talking about is?”
“Yep! It’s a hyperbole for the fight you’re picking with the people who captured you.”
“Wait?! What? How did you know? Did Bea tell you?”
“The princess?” She scoffed under the same dramatic light as before. “I’m the one who told her in the first place.”
“No, you didn’t…” Ririna said. “That’s a straight-up lie… We haven’t talked with the princess recently.”
“But she’s right.” I looked back to Sarasa. “How? If it wasn’t her, who told you?”
“Nyahahahaha! Just a lucky guess!” She scratched her head.
“That’s an incredible guess…”
“It’s actually a bit predictable…” Narumi said. “She knows the story of what happened between us and the PSF. She knows they occupied our home. Now that we’ve recovered and powered up by defeating Thivadi, it’s easy to guess what the next step is.”
“And it’s not like this is our first time establishing our intention to take back the House.” Hecate said.
“Fufufu… Impressive… I shouldn’t have expected any less from my lovely girlfriends.” I dramatically turned my back to them. “I guess my days of running up to you girls and telling you we’re starting a war are over.”
“The joke has already been run into the ground…” Narumi awkwardly laughed.
“No way!” They hate me! It’s actually over! Serious mode, go! “So yeah, that’s the gist of it. We’re currently preparing to confront them three days from now on. I really hope we can count on you.”
Both of them immediately agreed, but we sat with them for a while to go over the details. It’s also the first time I’ve seen these two lovely ladies since they fought Thivadi, so I wanted to hear their side of the story. It’s impressive what we can do when we work together. Each one of them is individually stronger than when I first met them, but when they work together, they become a serious force to be reckoned with. With them helping me, we might be truly unstoppable.
The PSF has no idea what’s coming to them. There’s no way we’ll lose…
…
And now there are two days left. Everybody’s busy preparing for our fight, but here I am back sitting on the couch. What else is there to do? I’m ready as is, aren’t I?
This makes me look like a complete bum…
I gotta come up with something if for no other reason than to keep up appearances. Otherwise, I’m no better than Miyuki! That’s right. Even while everyone was busy, she alone was just lounging around. She left because she felt like going shopping, but now I’ve just taken her place.
I got it. I’m just gonna find someone and give them a hand.
“Iroha?”
Narumi called out just as I jumped up.
“Narumi? What’s up?”
“Uhh… I think I need your help.”
“Oh… Good timing.” Narumi settled down next to me. “I was just about to go looking for someone to help. Do you need help preparing something?”
“Ah! That’s not it. My problem is not related to PSF stuff. Well… Technically, it kinda is, just… not in that way… Does that make sense?” Nope. Not at all.
“Ok… You can tell me. What is it?”
“It’s just… We’re supposed to raid the main building while you distract the soldiers, right? I’m not sure if I can handle that.”
“You’re more than capable of handling whatever they throw at you, but I’m guessing you don’t mean it in that way.”
She gave a quick nod.
“Is the raid harder to stomach than normal?”
“It’s all or nothing for us.” She said.
“But didn’t Miyuki say that our plan was supposed to minimize casualties? If the raid gets too violent, even with the Kurokawa removed from power, we’d become enemies of Three Records.”
“It might still happen.” Her eyes turned away. “We don’t have a choice. Once we’re there, we need to get the evidence no matter what. If someone stands in our way and refuses to budge, we’ll have to do it. And we’re not facing monsters this time. We’re facing people like us. Soldiers who fight for the same goal as us but are forced to act as meat shields.”
“Yeah… I get it…” I patted her head. Those soldiers are the reason why we’re taking the non-lethal approach. Our only enemies are the corrupt people at the top who want to use Katja for their own gain.
“And you’re right.” I said. “Even if we don’t want to, there might be one or two casualties. If you really don’t think you can handle it, you should just stay here. No one will judge you for it.”
“No!”
“Narumi…?”
She took a deep breath as her head slumped forward. “I don’t want to stay here and do nothing while the people I care about are out there risking their lives. That won’t make me sleep any better at night.”
Who would…?
“I still want to help, but… I’m tired of killing. I haven’t been able to settle down since we’ve had to move. I can’t handle anymore right now.”
“…” It’s pretty bad… “Then you should stay here with Miyuki and the others. Since you’re actually pretty smart, you can probably help them.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head. “If I my head is on while you’re out there fighting, all I’ll be able to think about is how I could be doing more.”
“Just because you have the abilities, don’t mean you can do it.” I said. She’s strong, but if she doesn’t have the will to fight, then she can’t do it. And that’s okay, obviously. She could be really helpful just by supporting us.
“I know… I just can’t bring myself to really believe that.”
Fighting means killing, but not fighting means being a burden. She needs to put her talents to work without going too far to feel good.
“Hey, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re actually the strongest out of everyone in the House, aren’t you? Just in terms of raw power.”
She glanced back up, intrigued. “I used to be, but… I don’t think that’s true anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…” A faint smile proudly spread on her face. “Now that Carol, Katja, and Hecate have all gotten some kind of crazy magical ability, they’ve all gotten stronger than me. Especially Katja. Now that her mentality is not holding her back anymore, she’ll grow like crazy.”
“But in the end, that still puts you far above a normal fighter, doesn’t it?” If that’s the case… “Wanna come with me?”
“Huh?”
“Yeah… If you feel like you need to fight but you don’t wanna kill anyone, you could come to the House with me. It’s just a distraction, so we don’t have to do anything more than knocking them around a little bit.”
“But you were supposed to go alone as part of the plan.”
“We can adjust the plan. The one who came up with it is my girlfriend, you know? If I ask her nicely, she’ll come up with something that works even with two of us there.”
“You’re just dumping more work on Miyuki…”
“Pfft… Don’t worry about it. For one, she clearly has nothing better to do. And two, she probably already saw this coming.” I extended my hand. “It’s all up to you. Do you wanna fight together?”
“…” Narumi immediately grabbed it. “Yes!”