"W… We'll see the forest in a couple of hours.. Though, the sun will set. We should take a rest, then set out for the forest tomorrow." Sato said while panting.
"Why not just walk all the way?" I paused, turning to him.
"I'll die!" Sato spat while breathing heavily. "We've been walking for too long!"
'...' I tilted my head as Sato leaned against a boulder on the road.
"I could just carry—" I started.
Then fell silent. The image of Sato in a princess dress as he was carried by me crossed my mind.
["Will you carry me when I'm unable to walk…? My everything…"]
"...Let's take a break, then." I muttered.
"You definitely imagined something weird, didn't you, Makoto!?"
"No." I replied flatly. "And call me Van. Not Makoto. I don't want anyone knowing I survived."
"..." Sato narrowed his eyes. "Oh. Right. Good thinking. I should also use my alias."
"Which is…?"
"Sir Maglodune. Oh! We should have a cover story. I'm a scholar mage and you're my bodyguard as we travel the world." Sato called enthusiastically.
'Maybe I really should kill him once he's served his purpose.' I cringed.
"Well. Alright, Mini Megalodon."
"SIR Maglodune!"
—Later—
Sato fell asleep like a log against the ground.
And as for me… I sat next to the campfire.
'.. Careless.' I thought.
In addition to that… I was feeling a feeling I hadn't felt for over a year.
'I…'
Needed to take a dump.
'It just occurred to me.' I thought.
'I never took one even once inside the dungeon. My body was always reset by dying.'
I looked to the sides. Wondering where to go.
'Right, I could go to the bushes and do it there. How will it feel once it's out… Wait. There's something I hadn't considered.'
'Just,'
My eye twitched.
'How the fuck am I supposed to wipe?'
'With leaves?' I blinked, looking over to the same bushes.
'Tsk. Once I open a portal to Earth, first thing I'll do is get some toilet paper…'
I looked down, breathing slower as I looked at my hand.
I looked up at my inventory.
Warm nightly wind brushed against my helmet, rattling the leaves of the forest around the two of us; mingling with the cracks of the campfire.
[Hikari Tanaka (dead) x1]
'I'll save you.'
I straightened up.
'I'm strong now.' I clenched my fist as I closed my inventory screen, stood up and started walking away from the campsite.
I shook my head.
'...Haah. Damn it. I'll have to remove and put this armor back on every time I have to relieve myself.' I growled as I started unbuckling the leather.
"M-... Mako… erh, Van?" Sato called, awakened by the noise.
"..." I paused.
"What are you doing…?" Sato asked.
"... Going to take a shit. Gotta remove my armor, so it'll take a while." I said simply.
"..."
Sato raised a tired brow before yawning.
"...Say or think the words: 'Equipment Loadout' and you'll be able to remove your armor with a tap of your finger. It's so cool… Otherworlders…" yawn "like us can do stuff like that…" Sato said as he laid back down, turning to the side, murmuring himself to sleep.
"Pretty neat… It even gives you a dedicated inventory… slot for your… armor and weapon… Royal Capital… didn't… tell us… that… to control us…"
He murmured back into snoring.
I looked at Sato, at the side of his back that kept rising and falling in cadence with his breaths, for a few seconds before muttering the words:
"Equipment Loadout."
A digitalized window similar to my Bottomless Inventory appeared before my eyes.
Under Armor: School Clothes [Click to Expand]
Over Armor:
Head: Steel Helmet
Chest: Steel Chestplate
Abdomen: …
Legs: …
'Huh.' I tilted my head. 'I can just put on and off my armor like that any time I want? And they get saved in a dedicated slot like my Bottomless Inventory…'
I looked back at Sato.
'That's pretty damn useful.'
—------------
"You seem glowing… (even though I can't see your face due to your armor)," Sato said as he looked up at me while we walked the next day.
"Yeah."
'Been a while since I felt such relief. And using my Overgear, I could just rip pieces of cloth, use them to wipe, and then just wait one second while my outfit regenerates itself.'
'I basically have infinite wipes. Shame it won't create a second sword the same way. Looks like it's somewhat sophisticated and loophole-proof.'
"I know we're heading to the elves," Sato interrupted my line of thought as he stretched his back.
"But what do you actually want to do there? If I know, I could try to be diplomatic with them. Since I'll be doing the talking. S-since I know more about them."
Sato's eyes seemed to glow.
'He really wants to talk to them… That's fine. I've no idea how to talk to people in this world, after all. I'll probably just mess it up. Though I could just force it out of them, right?' I thought.
"...I've heard they might have a potion or something that lets me revive a person who died 20 or so seconds ago." I said flatly.
"I need that."
A beat.
"That's… Oddly specific," Sato commented as he narrowed his gaze.
"..." I remained silent.
"Hmm…" Sato looked up, considering as he closed his eyes.
"If you told me you wanted, like, a revival spell that works on a corpse, that can only be necromancy, and wouldn't be true revival. It's just animating the corpse with dark magic…"
Sato murmured, more to himself though.
"Hmm. 20 seconds narrows it down, so someone who died recently… OH!" He called out, pointing his finger upward.
"I heard of stuff in legends that might do it! Has a super-generic name, but that'll probably do it. Hopefully they have it in some reserve."
"What's it called?" I asked.
"Super Life Elixir!" He called out. "That is the most potent potion that—"
"Motherfucker." I immediately cut him off.
Sato looked at me as we both stopped walking.
"Eh?"
"Nothing. No. It doesn't work. I need something stronger." I said.
"M! Th… This is the strongest potion in the world that I know. I've read about it in books about MYTHS; people getting revived after several MINUTES of dying, and—"
"WELL IT DOESN'T FUCKING WORK! What don't you get!?" I snapped at Sato.
He looked startled, stepping once backward.
'...'
"Here," I shoved my hand into my inventory, took out a Super Life Elixir, and tossed it to Sato.
Sato caught it, winching slightly as it hurt his fragile arms. Looked at it, confused.
"I-I don't… I don't understand. What is this, Van?"
"...Your 'almighty' Super Life Elixir™."
Sato gulped as he looked at the flask again.
"It's black…" Sato noted.
Sato narrowed his eyes at the flask. The sloshing liquid inside.
Looked at me.
Then back at the bottle, inspecting it.
"N-no, it's red. Is it just that concentrated..!?"
Then at me again.
"V-... M… Van, this is—"
Looked at it again.
His face paled.
He gulped.
And gulped again.
And again.
His heart was pounding in his ears so loudly even I could hear it.
"C-..." Sato stuttered. "C-... Can I drink… Uhm… V-Van.. Like, I need to verify it, so I need to—"
"Just fucking drink it." I sighed.
He popped the flask open with his wrinkled, weak purple arms.
He drank the bottle.
Sato looked down and watched his hands trembling, the wrinkled purple skin pulling taut, color rushing back in like a tide.
The gnarled fingers straightened.
He flexed his fingers. Once. Twice.
His breath hitched.
"I…" Sato whispered, staring at his hands. His normal, human hands. "I feel…"
He looked up at me with an expression caught between awe and absolute horror.
"Makoto."
"What."
"Makoto, that was real."
"Sure, but I told you, it doesn't work on dead—"
"MAKOTO!" Sato grabbed me by the shoulders. "THAT. WAS. A REAL. SUPER LIFE ELIXIR."
"I know. I just said—"
"YOU HAD ONE. YOU JUST… YOU JUST HAD ONE. IN YOUR INVENTORY. LIKE IT WAS NOTHING." Sato's voice cracked.
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT IS!? KINGDOMS WOULD GO TO WAR OVER A SINGLE DROP OF THAT! LEGENDS, ACTUAL LEGENDS, ARE WRITTEN ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DRANK A SIP OF THAT, AND YOU JUST…"
He looked at the half-empty flask in his hand.
"You just told me to chug it." Sato said, his voice barely a whisper now. "Like it was water."
I stared at him.
"...Are you done?"
"NO I'M NOT DONE!" Sato's voice shot back up. "HOW MANY OF THOSE DO YOU HAVE!?"
"...A few."
"'A FEW'... HE SAYS 'A FEW'..." Sato turned away, hands on his head, pacing in a small circle.
"Oh my god. Oh my god oh my god oh my god."
He whipped back around.
Sato bit his lips, stopping himself from crying.
"And it DIDN'T WORK!? On whoever you used it on!?"
I went quiet.
"...It didn't work." I said, softer now.
Sato stood there. Chest heaving. His newly restored arms hanging at his sides.
He looked at me. At my helmet.
"...Alright." Sato exhaled slowly. Straightened up.
"Alright. Then we find something stronger. That's the least I could do for what you did for Sir Hicks and me."
He walked past me.
"Let's go talk to some elves."
'...We'll find something stronger, he says.' I noted.
'I hope so.' I thought as I started to follow.
Several minutes later, we left the forest.
We were greeted by mighty wind in an open grassland and wetland plains, mountains on the far distance.
Sato looked all around as I kept walking.
I kept walking as I looked to the sides, feeling the early-noon wind on my face.
"Van, we should soon see the elven forest—"
"Sato," I called.
"Y-yeah?"
"You said the elves are hard-headed. Just how do you plan to be diplomatic or whatever? We're humans, aren't we? And you said they hate humans with a passion."
"I'll… Think of something," Sato said, "It might be a bit optimistic, but since I'll play the role of a human lord, they'll expect me to be all prideful and whatnot."
He shook his head.
"I'll just bow my head and be respectful to a fault. It'll catch them off guard for sure."
"That's just an assumption," I said, "What if it doesn't work?"
".... I… I don't know, honestly."
"..."
A flash.
Kazuya.
"Why not just threaten them, if I'm stronger?"
Sato blinked.
"What?" He let out, tilting his head at me.
"It always worked for a certain someone I'm gonna kill," I pointed at him, "It even worked on you, who's… Immune to social pressure."
His face went slightly pale as he looked at the tip of my finger.
"Right?"
A beat of silence hung between the two of us. Sato was looking in all directions, twitching his mouth.
"I'd… I'd still rather you didn't!" Sato waved his arms.
"B-because, you know, no… Elven babes…" He looked to the side, his voice lowering to a whisper.
"Sato."I replied firmly.
"Yeah, I know, I KNOW." Sato frowned.
"... Our first priority is to get that potion for you." Sato shook his head. "I just… I don't want to be in fights anymore. Is it crazy?"
I blinked before shrugging once.
"Don't know."
"B-besides," Sato continued, "Y-you've never tortured someone, right!? R-.. Right…?"
I looked down momentarily.
"Not to get information out of them, no." I said.
"Y-..."
"T-that's what I'm saying!" Sato forced a chuckle, "Torture without extracting information is just violence! You have to have… Uhm, experience! And you don't wanna experiment on people you need something from, right?"
"Like, it takes special tactics, and diplomacy intertwined with like, stuff.. You know? Even I don't know, really!"
I looked up.
'He has a point.'
'I never forced someone to tell me something.'
'I guess I need to formulate a plan around it… But there's no one to torture as practice.' I thought as I looked around.
My gaze landing on Sato momentarily before moving on.
"You'll do the talking, then." I said as I kept walking.
"A-awesome, haha!" Sato replied.
And then…
Bump. He walked right into my armor. I stood still, looking ahead, unmoving.
"V-Van?"
"Ahead. Battle."
Sato leaned to the side to look ahead on the road we were walking.
Silence.
"Ahead…? I don't see or hear anything though…"
I lowered my chin.
"It's far," I replied. "But there's a battle."
"Y-... You can tell?"
I nodded.
"T-those could be the elves!! They might be in trouble, or someone else might be in trouble. We need to hurry!" Sato started to run past me.
"Van, let's go!" He turned to me.
But I stood still.
'This guy…' I thought.
"Van!? Come on, let's hurry!"
'... If I didn't know who he was, I'd have mistaken him for a main character in a novel.'
"If we keep walking the pace we have, it might be over by the time we get there." I said as I started walking.
"I'll go ahead. The elven forest is a straight shot from here, right?"
"Y-yes…" Sato gulped. "Just a straight shot from here…"
'Hm,' I thought. 'I haven't had the chance to run such a distance with my current strength. I can…'
My muscles tensed. A faint pulling noise could be heard coming from me. Like a spring being drawn back to maximum stress.
'...run with everything I have, right?'
"Alright," I said, and then—
BOOM.
"WHAAAAA!!" Sato shouted as he was blown away by wind pressure, dust and wind filling his eyes and ears as he rolled several meters off the road. A deafening roar in his ears.
Sato shook his head.
He got up and started running, too.
"MY… I-I'M COMING, MY ELVEN BABES!"