“You’re right here, Merry,” he murmured. “Next to me. You don’t need to think you don’t know where you are, and I won’t let you. Because I can sense you’re right here, Merry.”

He was scared, worrying he’d blurt out something strange. He couldn’t remember the words a moment after they’d left his mouth in this state, so he couldn’t even decide if they were weird or not.

Merry let out a sigh. Her body was hardly tense at all anymore. “I’ve always wanted you to do this.”

Before asking, Huh? What does that mean? Haruhiro brought his lips up to a spot a little above Merry’s left ear. Merry shuddered, and she let out a sigh.

His face was buried in Merry’s hair. He could smell her scent.

Oh, crap. Am I acting like a deviant? Or maybe not? Having no experience to draw from, Haruhiro didn’t know where this act fell on that scale. I feel like I’m doing something pretty bold. I think any more would be too much.

Would it be? Was this the limit? Having come this far, and trying this hard, was Haruhiro going to end up regretting this later?

I mean, we might never get into a situation like this again. Probably, we won’t, right? Merry didn’t seem to be put off by it. Probably. In that case, shouldn’t I try to push on to the next thing? ...Next? What comes next?

Uhhh.

I dunno. Not about that. Could I take this back with me to think on? No? I can’t? It has to be now? Only now? Well, yeah. Of course.

“Do you wanna...” he began.

What had Haruhiro been about to ask her? Was he going to ask her that? Really ask her? Merry? He wasn’t so sure about that. There was no two ways about it. He couldn’t ask. No. Absolutely not. Even Haruhiro knew that much.

“...head back?”

There was a momentary pause.

“Sure.” Merry nodded, then suddenly smiled.

Somehow, it felt wrong to say, I’m sorry, but right now, Haruhiro desperately wanted to apologize. He wanted to pull off a kowtow that would put the legendary kowtow master to shame.

He wouldn’t though, okay? There was no way he would. He couldn’t do that, right?

Haruhiro backed away, releasing Merry from his arms. He wanted to bow apologetically, at least. No, he wasn’t going to do it, though. But his body was honest. His face had turned downwards on its own.

“I’m sure everyone is waiting,” she said.

If Merry hadn’t said that for him, Haruhiro would never have been able to walk away from there.

Haruhiro and Merry returned to the ridge where their comrades were. Shihoru and Yume were sitting with their backs against a tree, leaning against each other and snoring softly. Kuzaku was half-asleep, too, but when he noticed Haruhiro and Merry he just said, “Oh...” and waved slightly.

What was that attitude for? What was up?

Kiichi may have been out looking around, because he was nowhere to be seen.

Setora was the only one standing.

“Oh, it’s you two,” she said briskly. “You were fast.”

“...Oh?” Haruhiro asked nervously. “Really?”

Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? Fast at what? Why?

He couldn’t ask.

Haruhiro had an awfully sleepless night that night.

Was she messing around?

It didn’t feel like it, though.

The girl puffed up her chest, crossed her arms, and looked at Haruhiro and the party. Her gaze was sharp. Overwhelming even. Though she was petite, she had an intensity that didn’t let them sense that.

“I am K&K’s K! M! W! Momohina! Name yourselves!”

“...K&K?” Merry furrowed her brow.

Momohina’s opened her eyes wide. “Name yourselves!” she repeated.

“Hey!” the men began shouting. “She said name yourself, dumbass!”

“We’ll kill the men and screw the women if you don’t!”

“I wanna screw them anyway!”

“Now you’re just letting your desires show, asshole!”

This was awful. The girls in the group were intimidated. Kuzaku snapped and tried to move forward.

“Tie uuuup!” Momohina shouted, and the men closed their mouths.

Haruhiro was befuddled. Tie up...?

Momohina cleared her throat. “...Oops. The correct answer was ‘shut up’! These things haaaappen. That’s all from the scene. Indeed!”

Her face was red. She seemed embarrassed.

“Mm-hm...” Yume nodded in agreement.

Oh, you’re going to sympathize with her there? Yeah, you would, I guess.

Yume and Momohina. These two had some strange similarities. But Yume wouldn’t wear a fake mustache. She wouldn’t fire off a gun, either. And she wouldn’t issue a challenge out of nowhere.

“Um, when you say to face you, what do you mean?” Haruhiro asked, just to be sure.

Momohina, with her cheeks still flushed, grinned and gave a thumbs up. “We’re gonna throw down, mano-a-mano, obviously! You bet we are. Full speed ahead!”

“Full speed ahead!” The men echoed back with hoarse voices.

Mano-a-mano. That meant one-on-one. Bare-handed, then?

“You’re on!” When Kuzaku spun his arm in a circle, moving forward, Momohina’s mustache twisted and almost fell off.

“Duwhuh?!”

Momohina immediately pressed her fake mustache back on her face, but Kuzaku had lost his enthusiasm. Knowing Kuzaku, he’d remembered his opponent was a woman, and was wondering whether mano-a-manoing—no, that wasn’t a word that existed—whether going mano-a-mano with a woman was okay.

Haruhiro wasn’t keen on having a fistfight with a woman himself, but he wasn’t sure about leaving it to the women in the group, either.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” he said.

“Heh heh,” Momohina cackled. “Bring it on! This’ll be a cakewalk. Yes, indeed!”

Momohina cast aside her coat. The men let out a cheer, and Haruhiro hurriedly turned to the side. Momohina had been wearing a knee-length coat, but, naturally, he had expected her to be wearing a shirt underneath. She wasn’t. It was bare skin. She wasn’t naked, but she only had a band tied around her breasts in place of underwear, so it was hard to look at her directly.

“What’s wroooong? Heyyyy! Come at meeee!”

“Can you put the coat back on?” he asked.

“No way!”

“Why...?”

“It’s too heavy to move iiiin! Do you understaaaand?! This feeeeling?!”

“I don’t, really, but can you try to understand how I feel, too?”

“I don’t care about that, so let’s do this! Hoorah! If you won’t come to me, maybe I should go on the attaaaack? Here I coooome!”

Momohina closed in. In an instant, Haruhiro went into work mode like switch had been flipped, jumping back diagonally with all his strength.

Oh, crap. She’s fast. What?

“Hee. Let me guess, you’re no amateur, riiiight?”

That stance. Her left foot and hand were forward, her hips lowered, and her hand open slightly. There was no unused strength anywhere in her body. From a state that looked almost relaxed, she rapidly accelerated. She was the one who was no amateur.

“Entertain me!” she shouted. “Yes, indeed!”

Unlike with a punch or a slap, her arms, her wrists, and even her fingers flexed and assaulted him. Though this couldn’t be the case, it felt like they’d cut him if they hit him. Haruhiro relied on his reflexes to avoid Momohina’s attacks. If he tried to plan out what to do in his head in response to each more, he stood no chance of keeping up.

“Schwing, schwing, schwing, schwing, schwing, schwing, schwing, schwing, schwiiiiing!” she shouted.

What a fierce assault. Fast and flowing. It never let up.

Haruhiro quickly lost the ability to avoid it, and when he blocked with his arm, his arm wasn’t so much knocked away as pushed aside, and he lost his balance. He was cornered in no time. He had no other moves left. Reluctantly, Haruhiro went on the counterattack.

Punching and kicking wasn’t his specialty. He decided to take a combo attack from Momohina, withstand it, and try to grab her arm. A thief’s fighting techniques included a skill called Arrest.

Now.

The moment he thought that, he was flipped over. His arm was grabbed instead, and he was thrown.

“So cloooose!”

Momohina was going for a shot at Haruhiro’s face. Not with a fist, though. What did she plan to do with that unclenched hand? He didn’t know, but he was sure that one attack would work.

He didn’t do it intentionally. The limiter in his brain must have come undone by itself.

Assault.

Haruhiro jumped away from Momohina, then immediately sprang at her. He didn’t think how to use his hands or feet, didn’t think about feinting to get his real attacks in, none of that. He didn’t look at his opponent’s movements, or attempt to sense them. He cut off all of his responses to just attack.

Attack.

His heart pounded, his blood vessels expanded to many times their normal size, and the blood coursed through his body at an unbelievable speed. It didn’t matter that his opponent was female, or that she was human at all, to Haruhiro in his current state. Meat collided with and crushed meat. They could both be reduced to bloody pulp for all he cared. In fact, he wanted that. When attacking with Assault, Haruhiro was himself, but at the same time not himself.

Even so, it wasn’t enough.

Momohina slipped past his right hand, his left hand, his right foot, and his left foot, turning them aside. She was toying with him. Like he was a child.

This is no good.

Momohina was a weird woman, but not an idiot. She must have known from the beginning that she would never lose a hand-to-hand fight. She had lured Haruhiro into a battle she was sure to win. The contest was already decided.

“Is that! The best! You! Can do?!” she shouted.

Having parried the attack Haruhiro had poured every last bit of strength into, she confidently went on the attack. Assault cast aside all reason, completely abandoning defense in order to focus on the attack. If she got him now, he had nothing to give back.

“Delm!” Momohina slammed her palm into Haruhiro’s left flank. Though a direct hit was to his flank, it echoed all the way to the top of his head.

Even as he reeled, Haruhiro fiercely tried to grab her. Momohiro shouted “Hel!” and “En!” striking his left and right shoulders, then his solar plexus with “Balk!” The punishing blows were like stakes being driven into him. At this point, Haruhiro was already losing consciousness. The only thing keeping him on his feet was stubbornness, or guts, or coincidence.

“Zel!” Momohina stepped in, kicking Haruhiro’s left knee.

He fell backwards. He couldn’t keep his footing any longer.

“Arve!”

If Momohina had landed a clean hit on his chin with the palm she brought down, who knows what might have happened to Haruhiro. He might well have died.

Momohina deliberately chose not to hit him.

That wasn’t all. Momohina used the right arm she’d made miss to hug the falling Haruhiro, and to spin him around. At the same time, boom, there was an explosion somewhere else.

Screams and cheers went up and Momohina sat Haruhiro on the ground.

It must have come off at some point during the fight. Her fake mustache was gone.

Momohina’s face was very much that of a young girl. Her real age was unknown, but she looked even younger than Haruhiro and his party. Wait, what had that explosion been just now? Could it have been Blast?

Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve... Come to think of it, she’d chanted a spell, hadn’t she? Huh? Then what? Was she a mage?

“I am Momohina! The K&K Pirate Company’s KMW! I’m a kung-fu master, a mage, and a woman! Woo!” she shouted.

The men threw their hands up and cheered with gruff voices. “Oooooooooooh!”

K = Kung-fu Master. M = Mage. W = Woman.

Oh, so that was it. Well, it wasn’t like there was any other KMW, so it was pretty much a straight description of her.

“How’s that?!” Momohina looked down at Haruhiro arrogantly. She looked so... smug. “Flawless! Victory! Oh, yeah! You admit defeat?”

“I admit defeat.”

“Goooood! Now then, from here on, you people are my underlings! Under, under, underlings! Okay!”

“Huh? W-We are...?”

“You bet you are! By fighting mano-a-mano, we formed a bond of bloooood!”

“You say that like fighting makes friends. No, I guess that’s not quite it...”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Don’t sweat the small stuff! Youth! Power! Guts! It’s YPG! This is pirate law, okay?! Yes, indeed!”

“Pirates...”

Come to think of it, she’d been saying something about the K&K Pirate Company. The men were sailors, and Momohina was apparently their captain. Their ship was run aground over there.

Okay, then. This was a group of pirates. That was their pirate ship, and Momohina was the captain. Thus the mustache? No, she didn’t really need one, did she?

“...Wait, we’re underlings? To a pirate? Huh? Seriously?”

“Well, I’ve never heard of anyone dying of nausea,” Jimmy the bandaged man told them. He would occasionally come to check on Haruhiro and the party. Of all the pirates, he might have been the most decent and normal. “This is something everyone, even those far weaker than you, has been through. You’ll get through it somehow. Though, that said, I’ve never been seasick myself, so I don’t really know what it’s like.”

“So some people don’t get seasick,” Haruhiro managed. “Is it a matter of constitution?”

“Well, I couldn’t say. I’m an undead, so I don’t really understand how you people who are properly alive feel.”

“...Oh. I suppose you wouldn’t, no.”

Outside of his eyes and mouth, hardly any part of Jimmy was exposed. Not just his face; his neck, hands, and even his fingers were wrapped in cloth. Most undead had dirty brown skin. Was it to hide that? But this pirate gang had orcs and goblins, so it wouldn’t be that strange for an undead to be in it. Besides, Jimmy had told them he was undead on his own. It made no sense. There was something wrong with Jimmy, after all.

Yume adapted in about half a day, and set out on a tour of the ship with Kiichi in tow. She apparently went for kung-fu lessons with Momohina, too.

Haruhiro, Kuzaku, Shihoru, Merry, and Setora never quite managed to get away from the side of the ship. Of course, it wasn’t like they were constantly puking; they could talk, at least. It felt like conversation made it easier, but when one of them got sick, the others were dragged along. They were never going to get much talking done in this state.

“You’ll never be proper pirates like that, you knoooow? Nope!” Momohina laughed at them.

Haruhiro agreed entirely, and wished she’d just let them off the ship already. That it wasn’t possible to do so was the scariest thing about a ship. On the high seas, there was no place to run.

Maybe it was because, in spite of the fair weather, the waves were high, and the boat rocked heavily. In the end, three days after they set sail, when an island appeared on the horizon, no one other than Yume and Kiichi had been completely set free from the nauseating grip of seasickness.

Once a sense of relief set in, though, their symptoms lessened a little, so there may have been more of a psychological aspect to it than they had thought.

However, when they got close to the island, it became apparent something strange was going on.

Ginzy’s Mantis-go was headed for a port built in the island’s bay. There were a whole bunch of ships outside the bay. It was a port, after all, and it wasn’t evening yet. If there were a lot of ships going in and out, that would be understandable. However, there were more ships that had stopped than were moving. The crew of the Mantis-go were clearly on edge.

The figurehead of this ship, as the name would suggest, was a statue of a praying mantis. Momohina had been standing atop the figurehead for a while now, not moving a muscle. Her eyes were on the port. It would be scary if she fell off, but knowing Momohina, she probably wasn’t even scared.

Haruhiro and the party were, as before, at the side of the ship. Jimmy happened to have come by at that moment, so they tried asking him what was happening, but he answered, “It’d be faster for you to see it, I think,” and pointed towards the port.

“A bird?” Haruhiro cocked his head to the side. There were bird-like creatures circling over the port. A flock of two, maybe three birds. It looked like three. Was “flock” the right word? They were flying, so they weren’t a herd, at least.

“But—”

“Kind of big, aren’t they?” Yume said.

That was it. They were awfully big for birds.

“Wyverns?” Setora whispered. That made sense.

True enough, they did resemble the wyverns that lived in the Kuaron Mountains and descended on Thousand Valley when the fog cleared.

“There have been dragons living in the Emerald Archipelago since long, long ago,” someone said.

If Jimmy had said that, it would have ended with an Oh, okay. But it wasn’t Jimmy who said it.

Everyone there, not just Haruhiro, turned to look at Merry.

Why did Merry know that?

Merry covered her mouth and looked down, but Haruhiro was the one who was even more flustered.

“Ohh, that,” said Haruhiro. “Um, like, I’ve heard that, too. It’s just something we heard somewhere, so it’s like, oh, yeah, that’s a thing...”

“Ahhh!” Shihoru said in an awfully loud voice. Was she covering for them? No, not necessarily. The pirates were making a ruckus, too.

One of the dragons said to have lived in the Emerald Archipelago since long, long ago had begun descending. If they were dragons, it seemed more fitting to call them a flight than a flock, and one of the three members of said flight had its head facing almost straight down as it descended, or rather fell.

The dragon reached the port, or probably the town beyond it, in no time flat, but what happened after that? It was far away, so it was impossible to tell from here.

“So, basically...” Haruhiro followed the two circling dragons with his eyes as he forced out a sigh.

It was happening again. One of the other two began a rapid descent. Then, the final one joined them.

Dust was rising from the town.

He had already been at a loss for what to do when they’d gotten shanghaied into joining a pirate crew. The boat trip had been the worst ever. Now, finally they were about to make landfall. Or so he had been thinking, but then this.

“...the port is under attack by dragons?”

“I know, right?” Haruhiro said. “It’s weird saying this when I’m the one who used those words, but I kind of get where you’re coming from.”

“But it really is summer vacation-y, right? This is nice.”

“It sure is.”

“But man, girls sure are energetic, huh?”

“You’re not tired, Kuzaku?”

“I was resting here, so I’m fine, sort of.”

“Was I snoring?” Haruhiro ventured.

“Just a little.”

“Whoa, seriously?”

“I think you were more beat than I was,” Kuzaku said. “You use your head, after all.”

“I hope I’m using it well.”

“I’m not thinking at all. You’re letting me take it easy there...” Kuzaku yawned, languidly moving his head from left to right.

There were what looked like logs scattered around on this sandy beach. Occasionally, they would move slowly. They weren’t driftwood or anything like that. They were living creatures. They were like seals, but rounder. If you got close to them, they’d get really startled, but from a distance they were pretty darn cute.

Seeing those sort of sea beast-like animals relaxing, and with so many of them lying around, might be one reason why their hearts were so at ease.

“Is it okay to get soaked with saltwater like that?” Haruhiro mused. “I feel like, unlike freshwater, it doesn’t just dry...”

“Yeah.” Kuzaku laughed. “They were only going to get their feet wet at first. Then Yume went in deep. At some point, all of them just stopped caring about that, I guess.”

“They are awfully energetic, aren’t they?” There was a sudden voice behind him, which surprised Haruhiro.

When he turned around, an undead wrapped in bandages, with clothes on over top of them, was crouching there.

“Oh...” Haruhiro said. “Section head. That’s where you were. I didn’t know.”

“I’d been awake for awhile, too, so I was resting.”

“You weren’t moving at all,” Kuzaku said, then let out another light yawn.

Now Yume was attacking Merry. Maybe she had let her guard down, because Shihoru was tickling Setora’s ribs.

“Come to think of it, do undead sleep, too?” Kuzaku’s question felt maybe a little rude, but on second thought, maybe it wasn’t.

“We sleep,” Jimmy answered plainly. “Though I suspect our sleep is a little different from yours. You humans have dreams, right?”

“Sometimes we don’t, though. Wait, undead don’t dream?”

“Yeah. They say we have a long dream just before we’re destroyed, but no one can really know that. Our sleep is... How should I express this? It’s like everything’s turned to sludge. As if we’re drowning in a swamp.”

“Sounds like that’d actually make you more tired,” Haruhiro commented.

Jimmy checked the state of his bandages. “It’s not a pleasant feeling, I’ll give you that,” he acknowledged. “But if we stay awake, that swamp presses in on us. We get sleepy, you could say. I think between pleasure and displeasure, we feel considerably more of the latter. In words you might use, we’re not having a very fun time.”

“Whoa,” Kuzaku put in. “Guess I’m glad to be human then.”

Jimmy looked displeased. “Kuzaku, you...”

“Ah, sorry. It’s not like Jimmy-san decided to be an undead.”

“I didn’t, no,” Jimmy said without raising his voice and smiled. “I hate the undead. That includes myself, you know. What is a living being? I’d say it’s one that grows, reproduces, and has life. In which case, we undead are not living creatures. Life is too abstract a concept for me to understand, but we don’t grow, and we don’t reproduce. What exactly are we, I wonder? It would be easier if we could just not think, like the hollow zombies and skeletons moving around under No-Life King’s curse.”

“You’re a lot like a human, Jimmy-san,” Kuzaku said. “No, not that I know what other undead are like.”

“I’m pretending to be human, Kuzaku-kun. Even though, no matter what I do, I can’t be human.”

“Hmmm. I don’t understand complicated things. But whether it’s an act or not, if you look like the part, isn’t that fine? Jimmy-san, you’re doing it because you hate undead, and you’d prefer to be like a human, right? Setting aside the question of whether there’s anything wrong with being undead, that’s what you’re doing.”

“Yes... I wanted to become anything other than an undead, if I could. But it’s impossible.”

Kuzaku shook his head. “That, I dunno what to call it, that will? That’s important. More than what race you are, I think that’s the more important thing. What you want to do, and what you actually do. Honestly, I don’t think it matters what race you are. I don’t mind guys like you, Jimmy-san. Not that I know you all that well. But I get that sense.”

“I see.” Jimmy’s tone was level. Even so, his emotions showed through subtly in intonation and gaps between words. Like now, for instance. “You’re the second human to have said something like that to me. You must be a curious fellow, I’m sure.”

Jimmy was probably happy. But at the same time, he might have felt embarrassed.

Kuzaku was a curious fellow. He was also a good guy.

Thinking about it, his first party had been wiped out, and Kuzaku had survived all by his lonesome. Despite that incredibly harsh experience, he’d crawled back up from the very bottom. On top of that, he hadn’t waited for anyone to help him; he’d moved on his own. He had a positivity that Haruhiro lacked.

Kuzaku didn’t have a tragic air about him, and wasn’t cynical. Even when he’d had feelings for Merry and gotten rejected, he hadn’t gotten depressed by it.

Wait, hold on. Why had Merry rejected Kuzaku? He was a pretty good guy, right? He was a real catch, wasn’t he? Not like a fish, though. But, no, seriously.

If Haruhiro were a woman, and a guy like Kuzaku liked him, well, he wouldn’t feel bad about that. The way the guy acted like a youngest child made him feel a bit unreliable at times, but he still put his life on the line without hesitation. He tickled the maternal instincts, but at the same time, he was manly. He was such a good guy that, for a time, Haruhiro had been jealous of him. It made him sad to think how small-hearted he’d been.

“Mrrow?! Haru-kun’s woken up!” Yume shouted.

He looked over.

“Nweeee!” Yume waved her arms wide.

Haruhiro waved back. “I just woke up.”

“Well then, Haru-kun and Kuzakkun, why don’t you come on over?! Jimmy-chan, too! Everyone can play together!”

“I’ll pass,” Jimmy said simply. “I can’t swim.”

“Huh? But you’re a pirate...”

“Undead sink.”

“They do?”

“That may only be me, though.”

“Okay.” Kuzaku shook his left leg and waited for Kiichi to move away on his own before standing up. “Let’s go, Haruhiro. Every once in a while we need some... recreation? To deepen our bonds as comrades, you could say. That stuff’s important.”

“I guess...”

Haruhiro was still kind of exhausted and, truth be told, he was reluctant to do it, but he had to go with the flow here. Besides, it would probably be fun in its own way. With an “Oof,” Haruhiro got up.

“Come on, run.” Kuzaku pulled him by the arm.

“Whoa...” Haruhiro nearly tripped, and Kuzaku laughed.

It was too much hassle to complain about everything. Haruhiro picked up the pace and didn’t resist.

“Oh, right, be careful.” Jimmy was saying something.

“Huh, what?” Haruhiro tried to turn back, but Kuzaku lifted him up with a grunt and threw him into the sea. “Hey, wait, where’d this idiot strength come fro—”

The water was only up to their ankles here, but it was sand, so it was soft, and he managed to fall gracefully. Still, his whole body got wet.

Haruhiro jumped up. “What was that for?! Damn it, Kuzaku!”

“Wahahaha! Catch me if you caaaan!”

Kuzaku raised his leg awfully high, make large splashes as he took off running.

“Hold up!” Haruhiro chased after him.

Partly because of the strange way he was running, Kuzaku wasn’t all that fast. Haruhiro would catch him in no time.

“Ha! You’re wide open!” Yume cried as she jumped him from behind.

“You’re too obvious!” Haruhiro sidestepped, dodging Yume’s charge.

When Kuzaku did an about-face and went on the attack, too, Haruhiro predicted it.

“Here it comes! Body Slam...!”

“Who’d let that hit them?!” Haruhiro shouted.

He didn’t go sideways, or backwards. Forwards. Haruhiro lowered his stance, passing underneath Kuzaku as he came at him with a tackle, both arms spread wide.

“Gwah!” Kuzaku ended up using his Body Slam, or whatever it was, on the seawater. Haruhiro paused to watch.

Maybe that was a mistake.

“You’re mine!” From behind him, it was Setora’s voice.

Haruhiro didn’t turn, attempting to escape with a sideways jump. Was he too slow?

“The techniques of the onmitsu spies are also known as ninjutsu! Flying Windmill...!”

Haruhiro let out a gasp. What was this? He’d probably been grabbed by the back and thighs. Then what? He didn’t know.

Whatever it was, Haruhiro’s body spun around sideways with incredible momentum. Setora could use these sorts of physical techniques, too? And, hold on, it wasn’t fair pulling out a technique like that here!

Haruhiro was pounded into the bottom of the shallow water. When he tried to get up, he was already surrounded by his comrades.

“Hey! Ah! Five-on-one isn’t fair!” he shouted.

Kuzaku had a firm grip on Haruhiro’s arms, Yume and Setora on his right leg, Shihoru and Merry his left leg.

“Ready, set...!”

On Kuzaku’s orders, Haruhiro’s body was first swung right, towards the shore. Picking up momentum like a pendulum, he then swung left towards the sea.

“Whoa, I’m not an object, so—”

“Go...!”

On Kuzaku’s second signal, they all released him at once.

Uwah...

He was flying. Was he pulling some impressive air time here, maybe?

He was a bit scared, but it was pretty fun.

No, but when he started falling, the fear suddenly kicked in.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The reason he started flailing in mid-air was because he thought it would be more fun that way. Well, he had that much composure, at least.

Haruhiro landed in the water back first. But wasn’t it deeper than he’d expected here? Not to the point his feet wouldn’t touch the bottom, though. Instead of immediately floating back up, he took his time.

When he stuck his face out from the water, bellowing, “What was that foooooooor?!” in a loud voice, his comrades broke out laughing. Kuzaku was clutching his sides, tears in his eyes.

Haruhiro had been trying to get a laugh out of them, but was it really that funny? Normally Haruhiro wouldn’t do things like this, so maybe the unexpectedness of it was making them happier about it. This wasn’t so bad, once in a while. Only once in a while, though.

“Dammiiiiiiit!” Haruhiro cut through the watter, charging towards Kuzaku. The water was up to his shoulders, and got deeper when the waves came, so even giving it his all, he didn’t have much speed. He must have looked funny doing it, because everyone was laughing.

“Heyyyy!” Jimmy was shouting from the shore.

After watching, had he decided he wanted to join in? It didn’t look like that was it, though.

With the coming waves, something passed by Haruhiro. Not just one thing. They came one after another, and some brushed Haruhiro as they went by. They were living creatures. Those sea beast-like creatures that had been lying around on the beach, maybe?

“Ahhhh! Haruhiro!” Kuzaku’s eyes were wide and he was pointing at something.

“Haru! Behind you!” Merry’s voice was raised.

Yume, Shihoru, and Setora were all shouting, too.

“Huh, behind—” Haruhiro turned around. “Wait, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”

Something had opened its maw wide. Not one of those sea beast-like creatures. It was a different creature. What could it be? Wait, now wasn’t the time for wondering.

It was close. Super close. Was he going to get eaten?

Maybe—no, there was no maybe about it—he was in big trouble.

“Tahhh...!” Haruhiro let out a mysterious cry, and tried to jump to the left like his life depended on it, but he was caught in a powerful current and he had no idea what happened.

But that meant he was still alive. He had apparently not been eaten.

The massive creature pressed through the water. More than the waves, the current created by that creature was throwing Haruhiro around. Was it shark? A killer whale? Probably something along those lines.

Haruhiro shuddered. Normally, he’d have died there, wouldn’t he? It still felt like he might die, too.

This was bad. He was going to drown.

Even when he managed to get his face up above the surface to take a breath, he swallowed a lot of water.

“Blech, salty!” he shouted.

Kuzaku and the others were screaming and running around wildly. Was that creature not a shark or a whale? It had gone up on land, and was attacking the sea beast-like creatures one after another.

The tricks it was demonstrating, like using its well developed forearms to easily toss its prey, and jumping into the air on land to bite into them, were probably beyond a shark or whale could do. The sea beast-like creatures that had been lounging idly on the sandy beach now fled en masse back into the sea.

“It’s no good,” Haruhiro gasped. “When we get carried away, this stuff always happens!”

Haruhiro was heading for land, but the fleeing sea beast-like creatures collided with him one after another, and he couldn’t go where he wanted.

The shouting, roaring of animals, and screams all echoed.

The sun was setting.

“Kuzakkun!” Yume called out to him.

Kuzaku turned their way and grinned.

“He’s awfully composed,” Setora said, sitting upright, calm and self-composed herself.

Kiichi who was beside her had his ears perked up, and seemed to have a bit more of a sense of urgency, but it might have just been that all the noise was keeping him from settling down.

“Kuzaku-kun, do your best!” Shihoru’s voice was trembling. Her whole body was tense, and she was stiff.

This was Shihoru. The situation had to be harder on her than being in trouble herself.

Merry’s face was tense, too. “If you get hurt, I’ll heal you.”

Kuzaku waved with both hands and flashed them a toothy grin. “’Kay! If that happens, I’m counting on you. Well, it’ll be fine. I’ve got this.”

Should Haruhiro say, Those are some big words, and tease him? Or he should simply encourage him?

Haruhiro was still deciding when Kuzaku gave him a silent thumbs-up.

There’s no need for words between us, is that it?

Well, yeah.

Kuzaku’s opponent seemed pretty confident in his abilities. This was hardly going to be a case where his size made him look tougher than he actually was. Kuzaku specialized in defending himself with his armor, helmet and shield, fearlessly taking hits from the enemy, then aiming to strike back. If they were wrestling bare-handed, those tactics would be completely useless. That was why Haruhiro was worried, but Kuzaku was several meters away. He couldn’t give him detailed advice. Still, he had the feeling that wasn’t necessary, anyway.

When Haruhiro nodded, Kuzaku’s face wrinkled up with a grin.

Why are you so happy? Haruhiro wondered. Well, it’s fine, I guess.

“Ooozureee. Aaadiiistaaa. Deeeooobooo.” Papa Dutt spread his arms wide, letting his sonorous voice echo.

“Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

The runarukas chanted, and Papa Dutt continued.

“Raaagareee. Soookiiiiiiyaaa. Rureeegaaaaaareee.”

“Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

“Araaasute! Nanaaadiiiyaaa. Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

“Oooseeeyooo, Kamushiakaooo, Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Waooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...!” Mwadan howled, punching his fist towards the sky repeatedly as he moved forward.

“Oooseeeyooo, nuhaaagura, Kuzaaaku!”

When Papa Dutt called Kuzaku’s name, all the runarukas bared their fangs, hissing as if booing him. Unwilling to let the crowd show them up, Haruhiro and the others repeated shouted Kuzaku’s name.

“Kuzakuuuuuuu!” Haruhiro shouted.

“Nyaaa! Kuzakkun! Kuzakkun!” cried Yume.

“Kuzaku-kun, hang in there!” called Shihoru.

“You show him, Kuzaku!” yelled Merry.

“Nyaaaooo!” That was Kiichi.

“Oh, yeahhhhhhhhhhh! Bring it onnnnnnnnnnnnn!” Kuzaku made gestures to provoke the runarukas as he approached Mwadan.

The two of them faced each other, with a gap of forty, fifty centimeters left between them.

Kuzaku was around one hundred and eighty centimeters tall, so that put Mwadan at about two meters. They were about equally wide, but Mwadan’s body was far thicker. Especially his chest and waist, which seemed to jut out, and his arms and legs which were wonderfully thick. Did his hair just make them look bigger? No, even factoring for that, Myadan really did have way more muscle.

“Tuwanra, zei!” Papa Dutt gave the signal to start and backed away.

Neither Mwadan nor Kuzaku moved yet.

The runarukas called out “Mwadan, Mwadan,” egging their hero on.

The two stared each other down, neither blinking.

First Mwadan moved his left leg back, and brought his hands up to the same level as his face. It looked like he was inviting Kuzaku to wrestle and compare their strengths.

In a simple test of muscular strength, the larger one had the advantage. But Kuzaku was calm. He didn’t take Mwadan’s invitation, swinging wide with his right fist instead.

The runarukas hissed in anger. They were probably criticizing Kuzaku as a coward for not accepting the test of strength.

Kuzaku, meanwhile, was going, I’m gonna hit you! I’m gonna hit you real hard! in an easy-to-understand manner, forcing a decision upon Mwadan.

“Ein!” Mwadan shouted in a way that felt like a, Come at me! digging in his heels and leaning forward. He prepared to stop Kuzaku’s hand.

“Nnnnnnnnnnnguh!” Kuzaku swung at him. His hand was clenched tight, but it wasn’t a punch. He didn’t thrust his hand out; he more or less pushed it out while bringing it down sharply. The area from the base of his pinky finger to his wrist, that side of his hand, slammed into Mwadan’s snout.

Mwadan reeled for a moment. Blood spurted from his nose. However, he didn’t just hold his ground, he brought his hands together and raised them up.

“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Mwadan’s hands landed a direct blow on the back of Kuzaku’s head.

For a moment, the sound made it seem like his head was torn off, but it hadn’t been. Kuzaku ended up in a position unbelievably close to being on all-fours. Yet somehow he managed to stop himself and not fall over.

Mwadan snorted twice, clearing his left and right nostril of blood, then grappled Kuzaku. He leaned over top of Kuzaku’s back, grabbing him by the back of his thighs.

Did he mean to pick him up like that?

Yes, that was it exactly.

“Nwoahhh!” Mwadan lifted Kuzaku up, spinning him sideways. Kuzaku was lifted over Mwadan’s head.

“Stop!” Shihoru practically screamed.

The runarukas chanted, “Mwadan! Mwadan! Mwadan! Mwadan!” urging their hero on.

Haruhiro ground his teeth. He didn’t shut his eyes.

Mwadan slammed Kuzaku into the ground. No, that would have been better than what he actually did. It was different. He didn’t do that.

Mwadan knelt. He brought Kuzaku down not on the ground, but on his right knee.

You’ll break it. If you do that. You’ll break his back.

Kuzaku rolled from Mwadan’s right knee onto the ground.

Mwadan stood up, raising his right fist.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” the crowd cried.

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

The runarukas roared.

Kuzaku was face down, immobile. He was pressing his left arm against his back.

Can’t he move? No way, did his back actually break?

“Kuzaku...!” Haruhiro started to stand despite himself, but someone pressed down on his shoulders from behind and stopped him. It was Tsiha.

“No stand.”

Mwadan slowly circled the ring as he walked over to Kuzaku. Surrender would not be accepted. Would Mwadan try to force Kuzaku out of the ring? Or would he finish him?

The runarukas probably wanted a final conclusion. It was hard to see Mwadan betraying that expectation. He’d probably meant to end this by killing Kuzaku in the ring from the beginning.

Yume and Shihoru were cheering hard, but Merry and Setora were very quiet.

Haruhiro forced himself to breathe.

As party leader, Haruhiro had watched Kuzaku all this time. As a comrade, too. And also, probably, as a friend. That’s why he understood. Kuzaku hadn’t lost the will to fight yet.

Isn’t that right, Kuzaku?

Mwadan tried to kick Kuzaku.

He stopped.

“Hadda! Hadda!” The runarukas urged him to hurry. Do it! Kill him! they were no doubt saying.

Mwadan went to kick him, then stopped. There was a little booing from the crowd.

It might look otherwise, but Mwadan was apparently quite cautious. He’d probably been testing Kuzaku’s response. However, even after he’d tried to attack him twice, Kuzaku hadn’t budged. That last attack must have hit him pretty hard.

What a pushover. I’ll at least end this with a big move to satisfy the crowd. That may have been what Mwadan thought.

In order to pick Kuzaku up again, he crouched down and reached out with both arms. That was when it happened.

Kuzaku sprang up, head-butting Mwadan in the chin.

Mwadan’s head flew back, and Kuzaku went on a fierce offensive.

His fists. With his left and right fist, he pummeled Mwadan’s face.

After taking a number of good punches, Mwadan covered his face with his arms. Kuzaku didn’t care, and showered him with punches from above his guard. He meant to forcefully break down his guard.

“Suh!” Maybe sensing the danger, Mwadan tried to hit Kuzaku in the left flank with a roundhouse kick using his right foot.

Kuzaku must have seen it coming. He didn’t avoid it, instead grabbing Mwadan’s right leg with his left arm. “Hahhhhhh!”

He pushed Mwadan down, mounted him, and hammered away at him. Mwadan’s face was getting pummeled.

The runarukas screamed.

Mwadan was trying to do something to defend himself from Kuzaku’s assault, but it wasn’t working. Mwadan was already bloodied. He was less and less able to defend himself.

Finally, Mwadan ended up spread-eagled. Had he gone down, maybe?

Kuzaku could win. The odds were overwhelmingly good that this was a win. Now he just had to finish it. The question was how.

Kuzaku jumped away from Mwadan.

A ring out. If he could force him out of the ring without taking his life, nothing could be better.

That thought crossed Haruhiro’s mind, and probably Kuzaku’s, too. It wasn’t naive thinking.

Kuzaku tried to grab Mwadan’s right ankle. Mwadan probably wasn’t imitating Kuzaku from earlier, but in that instant, he seemed to wake up and went on a counterattack. Still lying on the ground, he kicked. He kicked Kuzaku with both his feet.

When Kuzaku backed away, Mwadan immediately got up.

Springing at him, Mwadan swung out with his hands and feet. He wasn’t using well polished techniques, by any means, but he had intensity. If he were against Haruhiro, even one of those hits would have knocked his soul from his body.

Kuzaku wasn’t forced entirely on the defensive; he attacked, too. Or rather, he got hit, and he hit back. Hit back and was hit again. When he hit, he was hit, and when hit, he hit.

Neither was blocking.

Mwadan had been bloody to begin with, but at some point Kuzaku also ended up bruised all over his face, chest, and sides. He was bleeding all over.

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

The runarukas called the name of their hero.

“Kuzaku!”

“Kuzakkun!”

“Kuzaku-kun!”

“Kuzaku!”

“Kuzakuuuu!”

“Nyaaaooooon!”

All Haruhiro and the party could do was believe in Kuzaku’s victory, and cheer until their voices were hoarse.

Mwadan made a big swing with his right arm and clobbered Kuzaku. Intentionally or not, Kuzaku ducked his head a bit. Thanks to that, Mwadan’s right fist caught him square in the side of the head. That seemed to hurt Mwadan’t right hand, but he still used it to slap Kuzaku.

Kuzaku either didn’t or couldn’t dodge, because he kept getting slapped by Mwadan.

Suddenly, Mwadan stopped moving. He was apparently out of breath. In that instant, Kuzaku closed the gap between them. He wrapped his arms around Mwadan’s neck, pulled him towards him, and slammed his knee into Mwadan’s flank.

Again and again.

“Ahhh! Ahhhh! Nwahhhhh!” Kuzaku shouted.

Mwadan didn’t try to throw Kuzaku off, instead choosing to accept the blows.

“Nngh! Nnnnngh! Gunnnnnnngh!”

Eventually, the two stumbled apart.

Next was Mwadan’s turn. Everyone knew that.

Of course, Mwadan ran forward, then jumped. It was a jumping kick with both his feet together. No matter how beaten up Kuzaku was, he should have been able to dodge that.

But Kuzaku didn’t dodge. He tried to deflect Mwadan’s feet with his chest. That was crazy. Kuzaku was flipped over, but Mwadan fell to the ground.

Neither got up immediately.

The runarukas chanted Mwadan’s name, while the party chanted Kuzaku’s.

Mwadan got up, and so did Kuzaku.

There was a storm of applause.

“Udaaa! Come!” Mwadan beckoned. Kuzaku backed away a number of steps, giving himself a run up.

“Dwahrahhhhhhhhhh!”

It was no ordinary jump kick. Kuzaku let loose with a jumping roundhouse kick into the side of Mwadan’s face.

Mwadan was mowed down, and while Kuzaku was thrown off balance, he somehow managed to catch himself just short of falling.

This was a first. Kuzaku received roaring applause from the runarukas.

“Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuzaku thrust his fist into the air in response, then turned towards the fallen Mwadan. “Get up! Come on, up! I know you can still fight! This isn’t all you’ve got! No way!”

Mwadan first rolled to the side, lying face down, then used all his arms and legs to push himself up.

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

“Mwadan!”

Kuzaku and Mwadan were both amazing. Truly incredible. Haruhiro needed Kuzaku to win, obviously. But still, he didn’t want to see Mwadan suffer a miserable defeat, either.

The fever in the air was probably dulling his decision-making capabilities. Haruhiro felt like such a downer for thinking this way. Yes, they were incredible and all. Sure. But where was the need for them to both keep taking hits like that? They ought to defend or dodge more. Were they stupid?

More than happy to be idiots, Kuzaku and Mwadan both puffed up their chests, not belittling their opponent, and trying to show off their own strength.

How’s that? I’m tough, right?

I’m tougher.

Then I’m even tougher than you.

I’ll do you one better.

Kuzaku and Mwadan stumbled towards one another.

When Mwadan thrust out his left fist, Kuzaku caught it lightly with his left hand. Mwadan’s right hand was hurt, and he couldn’t make a fist with it anymore.

The two of them both took a step back.

Kuzaku stepped forward first, punching Mwadan.

Mwadan hit Kuzaku back.

Next it was Kuzaku.

Then Mwadan.

They clobbered each other.

They had both been beaten black and blue, and were thoroughly exhausted, but they put their entire soul into each hit. They had to hurt.

Would it be Mwadan? Or Kuzaku? Which would kneel first?

With both the feeling of I don’t care who wins, just end it quickly, and Don’t lose, Kuzaku, both caught in his throat, Haruhiro could hardly breathe. It was mind-numbing.

It’ll probably end with the next blow.

But then it didn’t.

Well, maybe this time.

Not yet?

This next one has to be it.

Still not yet?

The punches kept flying back and forth for a long time, and he started to wonder if it ever would end.

Mwadan’s right fist slammed into Kuzaku’s cheek. The right fist he shouldn’t have been able to make anymore. The runarukas cheered, and Haruhiro very nearly called his name, too.

Kuzaku stumbled. There was a smile on his messed-up face.

“Hwahahh.”

What had he been trying to say? Kuzaku could no longer speak properly. Even so, he didn’t fall.

It was Mwadan who collapsed.

Mwadan fell to both knees as if his waist had given out. Then, as Mwadan was about to fall forward, Kuzaku caught him.

Mwadan was clearly unconscious. It was plain to see that his whole body had gone limp. Even so, Kuzaku took Myadan’s right arm and raised it up high.

Setora shook her head slightly.

Shihoru and Yume were staring at Kuzaku.

Merry nodded.

The runarukas’ cry pierced the heavens.

Haruhiro finally let out a sigh.

Either way, Honey Den was now successfully captured. They would have loved to make him talk and be done with him here, but a bunch of curious lookie-loos had gathered around, so there was no time for that.

The sun was setting, and the dragons had flown off, so Haruhiro and the party escorted Honey Den into Roronea. That still attracted a lot of onlookers who, despite knowing nothing, loudly shouted that they wanted to hit him, tear him apart, and kill him.

What to do?

Jimmy offered a suggestion.

“How about using our ship? It should be coming into port about now.”

When they headed to the port, the Mantis-go was coming alongside the pier. For some reason, the K&K’s KMW Momohina was on the gunwale, not the deck, doing what looked like kung-fu practice. Maybe that was part of her charm... or not? It was hard to tell.,

Nothing could be said on that point, but the gunwale was no wider than a simple handrail, and just standing on it at all was terrifying. Despite that, she was doing flips, and screaming high kicks.

Seriously? It was inhuman.

“Mew, that’s so cool...” Yume let out a sigh of admiration, and it wasn’t hard to understand why, but Haruhiro would really rather she not start aspiring to be like that.

Once they helped with the mooring and boarded the Mantis-go, that noisy sahuagin Ginzy met with Haruhiro and the party, acting like he was the captain.

He was too noisy to bear. Best to ignore him.

“Hey, hey, hey! I’m the captain of this ship, I’ll have you know!! What are you ignoring me for?! Hey, what for?! Damn it, I’ll sue! No, I’d love to sue, but where can I?! Who will hear my pleas?! Hey, hey, hey, hey?! Hey! I said, hey!”

“Whewwww. Shut your mouth, dummy!” Momohina attacked Ginzy as she came down from the gunwale, easily lifting him up and giving him a hearty toss.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!” His arms and legs flailing pathetically, Ginzy fell straight into the sea.

Sploosh! There was a great splash, and then he just sunk.

He floated back up a little later, making a fuss again. “What was that for, out of nowhere?! I know I’m a sahuagin, but this is too much! I’m not a sea sahuagin, I’m a land sahuagin, so the sea water’s too salty. I’m halfway to being a freshwater fish, even though I’m not a fish, okay?! I’m stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill the captain, though!”

They ignored him, and got on with the interrogation in the ship’s hold. She must not have had anything to do, because Momohina tagged along.

Once the crew cleared out, the party and Momohina bound Honey Den to a pillar in the hold, and started the interrogation by asking if he’d gone into the forest with Red-Eyed Ben and Step.

“I have no idea what you’re on about,” the man whined. “Oww, it hurts. My teeth hurt.”

Kuzaku cracked his knuckles, taking a threatening attitude. “This guy doesn’t seem to get the situation he’s in, does he?”

Honey Den just sneered a little.

Shihoru threw a What now? glance in Haruhiro’s direction. It was hard to decide.

The pirates were ruffians, so they might use physical pain to extract a confession, but Haruhiro would honestly prefer not to be so uncivilized. Kuzaku was only making the threat. Basically, they were just posturing.

Merry said calmly, “If you need to make him hurt a bit, so long as he’s still breathing, I can back you up.”

At those unsettling words, Honey Den’s expression changed just a little. “Heh. No matter what you do to me, I don’t know what I don’t know. I can’t tell you anything I have no clue about. Oww, my teeth hurt.”

“Hey, hey, Haru-kun,” Yume started to say. “This person, he says his teeth hurt, so why not try takin’ them out for him?”

“You say some scary things, Yume...”

“Isn’t that a bit weak?” Setora sniffed.

She was blatantly looking down on Honey Den. He might have been the type she hated. Well, Haruhiro kind of hated him, too. Really hated him, maybe.

“He can only act tough for now,” she said contemptuously. “Cut off a finger or two. If you do that, he’ll tell you anything, I guarantee it.”

“Don’t underestimate me, you bitch!” Honey Den screamed.

“If you want to live to see the dawn tomorrow, keep your slobber in your mouth, pirate.”

“I... I ain’t scared of nothing! I mean it!”

“Do you want to see if you can still say that once I pluck out your eyeball and shove your severed ear into the socket?”

“Wh-What’s with her?! I-Is she nuts?! No sane person comes up with things like that, right?!”

“I have reason to be used to cutting up dead bodies,” Setora said coolly. “If they are still alive, that is of little consequence. Perhaps I should use you to prove that right now.”

“I-I-I-I-If you think you c-can do it, b-bring it on, bitch! I-I-I-I can’t t-tell you what I d-d-d-don’t know!”

“Where should I start?” Setora pulled out a small blade and took a step toward Honey Den. She was perfectly expressionless, without a hint of hesitation in her voice or actions. “Why don’t I skin that hideous face of yours? They often say fresh air tastes good, and without your skin, maybe you’ll be able to taste it with your face. Want to try?”

“Y-Y-Y-Y-You can’t do that! I won’t taste anything! It’ll just hurt! It’ll hurt like hell just getting my face skinned, too!”

“It may hurt so badly that you want to bite your tongue and die, but that does not concern me in the least.”

“D-Don’t you have any human conscience?! There’s something wrong with you!”

“Think what you will; it has no influence on me.” Setora took another step towards Honey Den.

She couldn’t possibly mean to go through with it... or so Haruhiro hoped, but Setora might very well do it without batting an eye. That was how she made them feel.

Was that part of the act? Probably. Hopefully it was just an act.

Now, as for whether he felt sorry for Honey Den... no, not in the slightest, but Haruhiro didn’t want to think he had no choice but to let Setora get her hands dirty. He moved to stop Setora.

“Hold on, Sis!” Momohina cried.

He was beaten to it.

Momohina stepped up, still sweaty from kung-fu practice, so she just had her coat over her shoulders, not done up. She hadn’t been wearing it before, but at some point she’d put the fake mustache back on.

“Who are you calling Sis?” Setora asked, looking disappointed.

“Heh...” Momohina laughed. “You’re a sis, so I called you Sis, Sis.”

“I don’t understand...”

“Have no feeeear. I don’t understand it myself, either!”

“KMW, was it?” Setora asked coolly. “Will you torture this rotten, cavity riddled piece of trash instead of me?”

“Pirates have pirate-yyyyyyyyyy wayssssssss of doing thangs.”

“...Thangs?”

“Thoings? Hm? Did I get it wrong?”

“I don’t think either is correct...”

“Whuddever. Pirates have their own way of doing things. That’s right! Full speed ahead! On that note, Jimmy-chan, the thing, get the thing ready!”

Momohina seemed to be referring to some specific thing, but no matter how you looked at him, Jimmy seemed confused.

“What is the thing?” he asked.

“Fungh?!” Momohina’s eyes went wide, and she beckoned Jimmy over to whisper in his ear.

Jimmy nodded, left the hold, and came back shortly with it in his arms.

“Yes! Thiiiis is what a pirate should use!” Momohina lifted the bundle of large bird feathers she had received from Jimmy up high.

Jimmy had brought a pot, too. Momohina dipped the feather in that pot.

“I-Is that...?” Kuzaku began.

Momohina went, “Ta-daaaah!” and pulled the feather bundle from the pot. The feather bundle was glistening and wet.

“Oil?” Shihoru whispered.

“Bingo! We have a winnerrrrrrr!” Momohina clapped in a way that seemed dodgy as she slowly swayed the feather bundle around.

“Oil?” Merry tilted her head. “You’re going to burn him?”

“Eek!” Honey Den’s whole body went rigid.

Setora looked around the hold. “Will the ship be all right?”

Hold on, you two, your thinking is way too merciless.

Haruhiro cleared his throat. “If we burn him, won’t he kind of die?”

“Fwah!” Yume clapped her hands. “Yume thinks she’s got it! It’s ticklin’ time, isn’t it?!”

“Hahah!” Momohina’s face brimmed with a smile as she pointed the feather bundle towards Yume. “Ding, ding, ding, ding, diiiing! You got it! Fifty thousand points to Yumeyume!”

“Woo! Yume got it!”

Did these two have something in common, after all?

“Urgh?!” Honey Den’s eyes darted about. “T-T-Tickling?! H-H-H-Hold on, hey...”

Momohina went, “Mweeheehee,” a dirty smile on her face as she waved the feather bundle back and forth gently, approaching Honey Den.

“No, listen, I don’t mind pain, but this really isn’t my thing...”

“Gwahahah! Boyyyys! Strip hiiiim!”

If that was the KMW’s orders, so be it. Haruhiro and the party were underlings of the K&K Pirate Company.

Haruhiro had Kuzaku and Jimmy help disrobe a struggling Honey Den. Or rather, since it would be a real pain to untie him and then tie him up again, they cut off all of his clothes except for his underwear with knives.

He wasn’t exactly ripped, and he had thick body hair, so he was hard to look at. The girls, with the exception of Momohina, looked away in distaste, but Honey Den seemed not so much embarrassed as shy and pleased.

He was a deviant. They had themselves a sexual deviant here.

“Are we ready to go full speed aheeeaaad?!” the KMW cried.

Haruhiro, Kuzaku, and Jimmy just answered, “Sure.”

“You have no energyyyy! Full speed aheeeaaad?!”

While wondering what kind of ritual this was, Haruhiro desperately screamed, “Full speed ahead!”

Jimmy said, “Sure,” like before, and Kuzaku shouted, “Full speed ahead!” even louder than Haruhiro.

Now the company’s KMW was satisfied. “’Kay! That’ll do! Let’s get starteeeed. Prepare yourseeeelf!”

“No, stop, stop, stop, stop!” Honey Den howled.

“I will not stop! Meow!”

“Eagh?!”

“How do you like it heeeere?!”

“Hah?! Hahaha?!”

“Moooore!”

“Nwahahhoah?! Gyahahahahahahahahahoh?! S-S-S-Stop it, please?!”

“I. Will. Not. Stop. More, more! Goochie, goochie, goo!”

“Ngahhhhhhhhhhhh?! No, no, not theeeere, ahhhh?!”

“Here’s the spoooot! You like it heeere, huuuuh! Here, here, here, here, here.”

“Nnnghiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaahoahhhhhhhh?!”

This was reeeeaaaally... hard to watch.

But it was wildly effective.

Honey Den finally acknowledged he had been talked into going to the dragons’ nest by Red-Eyed Ben. They had wanted a younger hand along for labor, so they’d brought Step.

Relying on a map made a really long time ago by the famous adventurer Edgmer, they’d tried the route through the forest to the dragons’ nest. However, they’d been found by the runaruka. After a chase in which Step was shot and killed, Ben and Honey Den had barely managed to shake their runaruka pursuers somehow.

Honey Den had learned from that, and suggested they abandon the plan. But Ben had stubbornly refused to accept it, and threatened to kill Honey Den if he backed out.

“He was serious,” Honey Den told them. “He’s a liar, but when he says he’ll do something, he damn well does it, that bastard.”

They had been together in the Skull Pirate Gang, so Honey Den knew Red-Eyed Ben well. According to Honey Den, when Ben snapped, you never knew what he’d do. The reason he’d angered Dead Skull and gotten demoted was that he’d fought with one of his fellow pirates over something petty, then later ambushed and killed the man. He told tall tales, and came across as a petty thug, so people were prone to taking him lightly, but he was a capable man.

So Ben and Honey Den had stared at the map and chosen a route north along the coast for their second attempt.

It had gone well at first, with no encounters with runaruka, to the point that they were laughing, What was that first attempt? Step died for nothing!

However, at that point, they were almost at the dragons’ nest.

Even the famous adventurer Edgmer had never entered the dragon’s nest. Looking at their copy of the map, the dragon’s nest was blank. The real map held nothing but a cutesy dragon and dragon eggs drawn in.

Basically, what it was like and what creatures inhabited the place was a complete unknown.

An unexplored frontier.

One that was to be, to say the least, a far more terrifying place than Honey Den had ever imagined.

Bonus Short Stories

Scene #5: My Peter-kun

Mimori-san was over one hundred and eighty centimeters tall. She didn’t know exactly how tall she was, but it was definitely taller than that.

Once she’d gone over a hundred and eighty centimeters, she’d started cheating when it came time to measure her height. She would bend her neck and hips, look down, anything to make herself a little shorter. Even when the school doctor scolded her, Mimori-san didn’t care. She would keep quiet, no matter what was said, and the doctor would have no choice but to give up.

That was why Mimori-san didn’t know her own height precisely. She didn’t want to know.

When Mimori-san got into high school, she was invited to join the girls’ basketball team, volleyball team, softball team, track team, judo team, and kendo team. But she didn’t join any of them. Her peers all said that was a shame.

Mimori-san didn’t say anything back, but she thought it was none of their business.

Soon, there was a chance for her to play basketball in P.E. Mimori-san threw the ball at the hoop from the center line. She only did that because anything else would be too much effort, but it went in for some reason.

Her classmates said it wasn’t too late for her to join the basketball team, and she really should. Mimori-san just kept quiet, resolving never to take a shot again, even in class.

Mimori-san had a dog at home. He was a french poodle, and his name was Peter-kun. Peter-kun was a energetic, cute, friendly dog, but for some reason Mimori-san was the only member of the family he wouldn’t approach.

Whenever Mimori-san called, “Peter-kun!” he’d tuck his tail and run away. And if she tried to pet him, Peter-kun would take off like a ghost was appearing in front of him.

Mimori-san didn’t like scaring Peter-kun, so she usually watched him from a distance.

At school, it was decided that the class would be making a large paper lantern for a float in the school festival.

The parade they would be dragging their paper lantern float around was a regular event that locals looked forward to.

Mimori-san was interested enough to take part in drawing the pictures for it, but she couldn’t voice her opinions, and she stopped halfway through. Working on cutting the wood for the float instead, she repeatedly made mistakes and broke things. Her classmates covered for her, but she felt bad enough about it that she quit.

On a recommendation, she took part in painting the pieces of paper to be pasted on the float. Here she managed to paint not just the paper, but her hands and uniform as well. Well, it would be solved easily enough by washing off, but her classmates made a huge fuss about it and said she should just go home for the day, so she did.

That sort of thing happened a few times, and more and more, Mimori-san was left to just watch.

All the work made a lot of garbage. An idea occurred to Mimori-san, and she decided to carry all the garbage out to the designated spot for trash collection. Checking with her classmates, asking, “Is this trash?” she went around collecting rubbish. Once she had enough, she’d throw it all out at once.

She didn’t want to admit it, but Mimori-san was tall, her body was large, and she was strong, too. She tried to take as much garbage with her as she could, but she misjudged what she could handle, and nearly tripped going down the stairs.

“Oh, Mimori-san. I’ll carry that.” One of the boys in her class was passing by and snatched some of the garbage out of Mimori-san’s arms.

She was spared from falling down the stairs as a result, which made things easier on her, but she was a little upset. Still, she couldn’t explain it, so she kept quiet.

“...What’s wrong?” her sleepy-eyed classmate asked hesitantly.

“Nothing, really,” she replied.

“Oh, okay then,” her classmate replied, before stealing a few more pieces of garbage from her.

“You took more.”

“Oh. Sorry. Should I not have?”

“It’s not that you shouldn’t have. But...”

“But...?”

Without replying, Mimori-san started going down the stairs.

One piece of garbage fell from her arms, and her sleepy-eyed classmate went, “Whoa there,” and caught it.

Mimori-san glared at him.

“Ha ha...” Her classmate let out a forced laugh.

Mimori-san bit her lip a little, hurrying onward. Her sleepy-eyed classmate walked a little ahead of her, peeking back at Mimori-san occasionally. He seemed concerned she might drop something again.

They threw out the garbage where they were supposed to.

“I only know your first name,” Mimori-san said.

“Huh? Oh, come to think of it, we’ve never talked before, huh. My family name’s...”

“Haruhiro.”

“Uh, yeah. That’s my first name...”

“I’m Mimori.”

“...Yeah, I already know?”

“You can call me Mimorin. If you’d like.”

“Sure... Mimorin?”

Her classmate with the lost and sleepy eyes reminded her of Peter-kun somehow.

Scene #6: Your Sin

Moguzo was holding his head and groaning. “Hmmm...”

Ranta in the seat next to him noticed and asked, “Oh? What’s up, Moguzo?”

“Uh, well...” Moguzo fumbled to try to explain.

Ranta went, “Whoa! Hold on!” and looked down to his smartphone before bursting out laughing like an idiot.

“...What are you looking at?”

“Huh? Videos. It’s Pikahyon. Pikahyon. You know what that is, right?”

“Pikaryon?”

“No. Pikahyon, man. What? You don’t know? You’re behind the times, Moguzo. You’ll never be able to run through this dangerous modern society and come out the other side like that. Well, then again, I guess you don’t seem like the running type to begin with.”

“Y-Yeah. I think I’d like to walk nice and slowly...”

“That should be fine, right? I mean, we all go at our own pace. I’m running, though! At top speed! I’m gonna race through at the speed of light!”

“Ranta-kun, sometimes, I dunno, it’s like you’re in a hurry to get through life...”

“Huh? Do I look that way? Me, in a hurry? I’m rushing like crazy?” Ranta seemed bashful. It seemed he’d taken it as a compliment.

“Y-Yeah. Maybe you do...”

“Well, I guess? I’ve always been all about living life in the fast lane. I mean, time stops for no one, right? Like, you’ve gotta do all you can in life. It’s all about living short and well. Oh, come to think of it, Moguzo, man, you were moaning before, right?”

“No, I wasn’t moaning.”

“You weren’t? Of course! It’d be creepy to hear you moaning! Moaning, in broad daylight, in your own seat in class! ...Hey, wait! Everyone’s acting creeped out! They’re all totally creeped by me! They’re giving me the ‘What’re you making pervy jokes for, you Great Perverted Demon Lord!’ look, too! This is your fault, Moguzo!”

“Huh...? M-My fault?”

“Well, whatever, I don’t care.”

“Oh. You don’t...”

“I could keep digging, but I’m not going to strike comedy gold here! So I’m pulling out immediately! Wise decision, right? I make wise decisions. I’m a real wiseman. Get it? I’m Mr. Wise.”

“Y-Yeah. It means you’re smart. Because wise is English for wise...”

“That’s too on the nose! Give it a twist! Come on! Be a tornado!”

You make no sense, Moguzo thought, but for now he just said, “S-Sorry...” and apologized.

Ranta sighed, crossed his arms, and went, “So...?” urging Moguzo to continue. “What were you groaning for? Is it trouble? Is there something troubling you? Is it the usual troubles of a boy in his youth? A woman, maybe? You fall for someone? Huh?”

“No... it’s nothing like that.”

“It’s not? Boring. You’re a devilishly boring man. Yes, you are. Well, what then? Oh, I’ve got it. Let me guess. It’s that, right? You wanna go to karaoke today.”

“...Wh-Why?”

“And you’re going to sing.”

Moguzo was silent.

“You suck at singing. But people will push you to anyway. So you’re worrying what to do. Well?”

“...Y-You’re right.”

“What, I’m right?! I was guessing randomly! How did I get it?! And hold on, who are you going with? Is it a woman? Is it? It is, right? Oh, such youth!”

“Ummm, it’s with my family.”

“Familyyyy...?”

“W-With my two little sisters. Oh, and my cousin. My childhood friend who lives next door is sort of coming, too, though...”

“Ch-Childhood friend? Is that... a woman?”

“...Y-Yes?”

“You are a sinnerrrrrrr!”

Ranta suddenly flipped the desk over.

The classroom went silent.

Ranta’s face was a mess of tears.

“You, buddy, have committed a sin. I count two little sisters, a female cousin, and a childhood friend. You’re going to karaoke with four women! That is your sin, Moguzo... As penance, take me with you.”

“...I don’t mind,” Moguzo said at last.

“What, you don’t?! Aw, yeah!”