・ ・ The Next Day ―― It had been snowing. The scenery outside was a stark white, and the mountains in the distance looked like giant scoops of ice cream.
At the time, I somehow still had the strangest urge to lick the snow off of telephone poles, but at 10 years old, I was mature enough to refrain from it.
“Aaand done!” said the girl as she stuck in the last arm, a thin branch, on the snowman.
My little sister, then 7 years old, was there too. The girl had practically forced her to come out and play, and they had made that snowman together.
“It looks fantastic! … Now my fellow supporters, hurraaay!!” the girl yelled.
She totally learned that from TV…
The girl seemed to always copy her speech and mannerisms from TV. That cheers was something I remember seeing a recently elected official doing.
The man always did his over-the-top bit, and most of his audience never played along. Naturally, me and my sister hadn"t either. The girl tilted her head to the side, and then went for my sister"s hands.
“Like this x.x.xX-chan,” the girl said to my sister, raising up her arms, “hurraaay~! Say it with me.” “… Hurraaaay~?” my little sister repeated.
“Good, again, hurray~!” “Hurray~!”
“Hip hip hurray~!” “Hip hip hurraay~!”
The two of them laughed with all their heart. I turned my attention back to my own snowman, not even half done.
The girl and my little sister had teamed up and challenged me to a snowman building contest. It was their complete victory. It was a small fragment of memory.
A happy memory that had all but disappeared within the nightmare"s to come.
◆ ◆◆― ――― ――― ◆◆ ◆―― ――― ―― ◆◆ ◆ I heard the chirping of birds from outside.
“… So bright… ” I rubbed my eyes.
It was morning… I felt like I just saw a very nostalgic dream…
“N… n…” breathed Filly, her face right in front of me.
She slowly lifted her eyelids. Her large eyes simply looked at me for a while, she was not fully up it seemed.
“… Jacky…?” She said, coming out of it. “Good morning.”
“Good morn… ah.” Her face went beet red as she was speaking.
She hastily lifted up the sheets covering her, hiding away her mouth―― her lips.
Which is when I remembered what we"d done last night right before falling asleep. My face went hot.
“… Ehehe.” Filly quietly giggled, much less nervous now that she realized that I shared the same feeling as her.
I looked away out of embarra.s.sment.
“Good morning, you two.”
My shoulders jerked from the sudden voice. Rakel was sitting on a chair by the window, combing her hair.
She"d woken up before us and had changed out of her sleepwear. Filly and I sat up on the bed.
“G-good… morning to you as well, Master.” I stammered. “Hm? Why are you talking like that?” Rakel asked.
“Uh, no reason, just felt like it…” “Huh,” Rakel said suspiciously, then, running her eyes over the two of us, “you two sure seem friendly today.”
“Eh!?” x 2 “You were sleeping holding hands,” she explained, “found you two like that when I woke up.”
“Eh, uh, I can…” as I hesitated to get out an answer, Filly tugged on my shirt from under the covers. “(Secret!)” She whisper-shouted.
… I mean, I really wasn"t about to outright tell her how we"d engaged in that eternally sweet kissing session while she was fast asleep beside us. But Rakel didn"t seem interested in hearing my response, as she finished her grooming and stood up.
“I"m going out,” She said, “You two can get some more sleep if you want.” “Uh, yeah. Sure.” I offered.
“See you.” Rakel bid us adieu and walked out of the room.
Now, just us 2, Filly and I, once again looked at each other.
“… Uh.” I went. “Yeah.” She went.
“Hah… hahaha.” “He hehe”
Both of us uttered words without meaning, and both of us laughed for no particular reason. Honestly, I was so into it last night that I didn"t remember much of what happened.
All day yesterday, Filly seemed so much younger and I"d been acting the same as I always had with her. But last night, under the sheets, she was so lovely, she was so unimaginably lovely. … I kind of still felt that way, even now.
Like a scent remaining on a shirt. Like an aftertaste.
“… Filly,” I called. “Auh… Jacky?” She hesitated.
I realized that I"d subconsciously reached for her soft cheek. My fingers felt through her silky hair.
… That something from last night, wasn"t there. I needed it, I needed it badly.
Frankly―― My lips were lonely.
“Erm, can I…” still, I should take her permission before doing that, right…?
She"d started it yesterday, so how should I…
“Ehehe,” Filly laughed bashfully, seeing as I kept hesitating. “It"s okay.” She gave me the go ahead.
My pulse instantly skyrocketed. Filly"s long eyelashes――
Her large, clear eyes―― Her cheeks that carried a faint blush――
Her glossy, inviting lips―― ―― Beautiful, she was simply.
Oh, no. This might be the first time I"ve felt like this, even counting my past life.
I―― love this girl. I gulped once, then started bringing my face closer.
Filly had closed her eyes, and seeing that I quickly closed mine too. I was close enough that her warmth transmitted to me.
I felt the dampness of a breath as her slightly open lips touched mine. And――
“Right, I almost forgot,” ―― suddenly, the door to the room was swung open, and I leapt away from Filly at G.o.dspeed.
I"d retreated so fast that I fell off the bed and landed hard on my back.
“Agh!” I let out in pain. “… Jack, what are you even doing.” Rakel said to me from the door, disappointingly.
“O-oh, uh, still half asleep I guess…” I stuttered an excuse. “Your senses are dull.” Rakel said matter-of-factly. “If I were an a.s.sa.s.sin, you"d be dead by now.”
“Uh, s-sorry…”
I wasn"t just dull, I"d shut pretty much everything else out just now.
“Master~! You said you forgot something~?” Filly said, practically saving me from any more awkwardness, to which Rakel went, “Ah yes,” and went on to state her business.
“Since I"ll be out getting a certain thing today, there"s no training for the morning.” “What thing?” I lifted myself up and asked.
“It"s your present,” Rakel nodded, “the one I mentioned yesterday. I"ve been informed that it"s ready so I"ll go collect it. Also, I"ll be back in the afternoon, so you two have free time until then.” “See you then,” Rakel said again, and left for good this time.
My present, huh…. Wonder what it is?
“Jacky.” Filly called as I was pondering, still sitting on the bed.
“Um… r-retry?” I said, my memory of the events right before Rakel reappeared quickly returning.
My face once again went boiling.
I mean, if you asked me if I wanted to still do it, then I sure did… but then doing that from the start all over again is…. Ahh, uhh, agagagagagaga!
“… … M-maybe later…” I squeezed out, my face completely veered away.
“Okay… you better?” Filly demanded rather bashfully.
Just goes to show, in a single day, in a single night at that… relationships can change drastically.
Anything and everything Filly said made my heart leap.
“― ― Ah, that"s right!” She suddenly said, jumping off the bed. “Master said she"ll be out all day, right~? So now"s our chance!”
“Chance? What chance?” “You don"t remember? We promised to go buy a present for her together~!” She claimed cheerfully.
Ah… right, we did make a promise like that. The stuff that happened right after was so intense, I"d completely forgotten.
“Alright…” I said after thinking on it, “let"s do it. Rakel said she should have her present ready by the afternoon, so we can give it to her then, exchanging presents sounds nice, right?” “It does! I can"t wait~!!” Filly said excitedly, returning back to the happy-go-lucky Filly I knew.
◆ ◆◆― ――― ――― ◆◆ ◆―― ――― ―― ◆◆ ◆
― ― Roughly 6 hours later.
I woke up on a cold, stone floor.
“Ugh… my head…!” I had a severe headache.
Must"ve hit it somewhere, my thoughts were a mess. Wait…? Why, was I, on the floor like this…
“Nh…” I heard from beside me.
Filly was there, collapsed.
“Filly!?” I yelled in panic, taking her in my arms. “Hey, answer me, Filly!” “Ow… hua? Jacky…?” Filly said in a daze.
… She, wasn"t hurt, thank G.o.d…
“Jacky… where, are we…?” Filly asked slowly, looking around her surroundings.
Seeing that, I did the same. We"d woken up in a dark, dreary, stone jail cell.
Jail. As in, there were iron bars that caged us. I could make out a dim hallway beyond it.
On the opposite wall, there was a small window, providing minimum light and ventilation. It was positioned high up near the ceiling, at more than double my height.
Not to mention the solid, iron grates affixed there to deny any sort of escape. Somehow of other, we"d been caught and imprisoned in this sort of place.
“… You"re finally awake.” Distressed enough about our situation, the sudden new voice caused us to turn towards it immediately.
Which was when we were surprised once more.
In a dark corner of the cell, there were a surprisingly large number of children, around the same age as us, sitting stiff and holding their knees as if they were mold growing on bathroom walls. The one who spoke to us was a boy sitting in front of them.
“Who are you…?” I said to the boy, indicating him and the rest, “and where is this place?” “Wait, you don"t remember…?” He said. “You two were kidnapped too…”
Kidnapped? When…? I tried to search through my memories from today.
A sharp pain ran through my head, and my foggy memories started piecing themselves together. I… remembered what happened…
Filly and I went out to town. We"d looked through a bunch of shops… and I think, at the 4th accessory shop we tried, we bought a hair ornament. We"d bought it using both our allowances…
… It happened after that. We were using a shortcut to return to the manor.
We pa.s.sed through the empty alleyway and―― That was when I noticed their presence.
Thanks to Rakel"s daily training, I was able to instantly change gears, but I was one instant too late. Something hard hit my head and… I woke up here.
“… Oh, so that"s what…” I sighed, holding my aching head. “We got, kidnapped huh…” “Who took a nap?” Filly said, tilting her head.
Way to be cliché.
“Our dads warned us about this yesterday remember?” I explained, “The Crimson Cats. I bet they"re the ones who did this.”
“――Ah! … O-of course, I remember!” Filly stammered. “You"re gonna need to learn to lie better than that.” I chided.
“Mnggg~” She grumbled, “… it"s not my fault. It"s your fault, yours.” “Wait why!?”
“After what happened last night, my head was filled with just you and nothing else!” “… ah, oh.”
I"ll admit, that was a good excuse.
“…… No helping that, I guess.” I admitted.
“Yeah, no helping!”
I can"t say I didn"t have a constant supply of b.u.t.terflies in my stomach since then either.
If we weren"t in that fluttery state of mind, we surely wouldn"t have been captured that easily. Anyway…
I guess both of us were a lot less nervous now, but the circ.u.mstances were still pretty dire. But that wasn"t to say we"d lost all hope.
I needed information first and foremost.
I turned to talk to the boy again, “So, I"m guessing all of you were kidnapped too?”
“… Yes.” The boy nodded after a pause. “They came so fast, I had no idea what was happening and ended up here before I knew it,” he said, “the others all have similar stories. “I"ve been here 3 days now… but for some of them, it"s been more than a week now”
A whole week in here…
Excluding me and Filly, there were a total of 10 kids in this cell. They all looked dirty and ragged, but not starving. Guess they"re at least getting food.
However… a few of them had bandages wrapped around their arms, legs, around their chest and even their eyes. It was hard to make out in the dark… but those arms and legs looked a lot shorter than they were supposed to be.
The bandages were soaked red. I remember watching a show about people being born without certain limbs, but this was clearly not that… This had been done to them―― fairly recently.
“And… those wounds,” I asked hesitantly, “how…” “… Uh, that…” The boy tried to say bitterly, but before he could, we suddenly heard footsteps coming from the hallway outside.
“The-… they"re back, to take stock…!!” The boy cried in sheer terror.
The other children were also shaking in fear.
What… is this taking stock? The sound of footsteps became louder, and soon, the person making them was standing outside the bars of the cell.
“Hmm,” said the woman, “now there"s a good catch.”
She looked to be in her late twenties, early thirties.
Her s.h.a.ggy, unkempt red hair gave her the image of a wild tiger. Because of her minimal clothing, I could see that she had a well trained body.
No one would underestimate her strength because she was a woman once they saw that body. She was so buff, she looked like she could wrestle a bear.
Didn"t Rakel mention her? The leader of the Crimson Cats was a woman, and a powerful spirit master at that.
It was definitely her…
“Oh, I see I see.” The woman"s eyes licked over me and Filly.
I now understood what the boy was saying. She was veritably―― taking stock of us.
“Their looks aren"t half bad.” She muttered. “And here I went and thought all brats looked the same. “Heh… that"s n.o.bility for ya. They"ll sell high.”
So she knew that I was n.o.bility…?
Or was it from my looks? The lady chief turned around to a man standing further back.
“You.” She ordered, “Go tell the boys, we"re gonna do more refining today.” “Oh ho!” the man in question cheered, “How many, boss ma"am?”
“The 2 new ones,” she paused in thought, eyeing the other kids in the cell, “… and let"s see, I want 1 more.”
I could feel their fear rising from that.
… What was this refining they seemed to be afraid of?
The lady chief pointed to the one sitting in front of the rest, “That one. We"ll do those 3.”
“…… Eh……?” said the boy, the one who"d just been talking to us, having been picked.
His jaw dropped――
He sat there petrified, like his soul had drifted out of his mouth. Like he"d lost all hope, like he was an empty husk――
Complete and utter despair.
“No… No no… no… No no no no nooooooooooo!!!!”
The boy began shrieking, wailing, he ran for the iron bars. He reached his hands out to the lady chief, snot and tears drenching his face, desperately, he begged.
“No… please, not that…!! I-I"ll do anything… I doo anyzinnngg…!! Not that… please don"t refine meeeee….!!!” “Quiet.” went the lady chief.
I gazed flabbergasted. Suddenly, the boy was violently thrown back.
What―― the h.e.l.l just happened? The lady chief had only swished her hand as if driving off a fly.
Her hand hadn"t even touched the boy. That woman had blown him away without so much as touching him.
… Was it her spirit art? What spirit art could do that?
The lady chief then ignored the boy as he was sobbing in pain and turned her eyes to me.
“… Well aren"t you calm, brat.” She mocked. “Didn"t that scare ya? Or do you still not understand your situation?”
I"d been planning to stay quiet―― change of plans.
“Nah, I was just holding my breath you see.” I said to her challengingly. “You should really do something about that old lady stench of yours.”
The lady chief"s brow twitched.
“… Who should do what now?” She said in a low tone.
“Have your ears gone bad too? I"m talking to you, you old trout. Oh, that"s short for you smell like a dead, rotting trout, just letting you know.”
The man, her lackey, looked like he was about to p.i.s.s himself.
And boy was that funny. I ended up grinning hard. Then, the lady chief swung her hand.
Hand―― no, her fist? Before I could get a good look, I was mysteriously knocked away too, landing on the stone floor.
I held my stomach and groaned. Seeing that the lady chief spat a few parting words:
“Next time you do that, remember who you"re messing with, f.u.c.king brat. I am the chief of this here Crimson Cats, b.l.o.o.d.y Tigress Vicky. Anyone crosses me, and I make sure they see just how red their blood is. And I take no mercy to brats.”
The so-called b.l.o.o.d.y Tigress Vicky then took her lackey and left. Once the footsteps were completely gone, Filly quickly came to me as I was still in the fetal position.
“Jacky!” She yelled. “Are you hurt!?” “I"m fine.”
I said, and stood up without issue.
Filly went, “Feh?” in confusion, “You"re… not hurt?”
“Of course I"m not. I canceled the force of the blow by erasing my weight…” I paused, “what, you didn"t realize?” “I… I did too!”
“Seriously, we need to work on your lying.”
I"ve had to endure Rakel attacking me anytime and anywhere for months now.
Since I saw that she was about to attack―― instigated her into doing it in the first place, of course my countermeasures would be perfect. I touched the spot on my stomach where she hit.
It did in fact… feel like a punch. But the lady―― Vicky"s fist wasn"t even close to me.
“Anyway.” I left the matter aside for now, as I had no means of finding out. “Filly, I"m surprised you were so quiet the whole time.” I said. “I was honestly scared you"d do something stupid in front of the scary lady.”
“Hey… I get scared too, you know…” Filly mumbled. “… You? Scared? I find that pretty hard to believe.”
“Well, believe it!” She cried, puffing out her cheeks to show her displeasure.
For me, the most surprising turnout for today might just be finding out that this girl was actually scared of something.
“So anyway, listen.” I tried again. “Hm~” Filly looked away.
“Don"t be like that, just listen alright.” I sandwiched her hands between my palms and pressed.
The air leaked out of Filly"s mouth making raspberries.
“Send a message to our dads.” I requested. “Tell them that the bandit hideout is here.” “Oh okay~♪”
“Huh…!” Said a surprised voice, and we turned to look.
The other kids were also looking at us dumbfounded.
I walked over to the boy who"d been knocked away by Vicky and extended a hand to him.
“You alright? Here, stand up.”
“Ugh… I… yeah,” he said slowly, “um… what did you mean, message…” “Oh, that. Well,――” I was about to explain when,
“Come here, little birdy~” Filly called out towards the high window connecting to the outside.
Three small birds flew in through the window and came to her.
“Okay, so can you find out where this is and let the people back home know?” She said to the bird, then looked to me, “… Like that, Jacky?” “Yeah, something like that.”
The birds chirped at her, and then left back through the window. The boy looked at the whole exchange, completely perplexed.
“What, was that…?” He asked. “That, was Filly"s spirit art in action.” I explained. “We just sent a message to our guardians, so… by my estimate, it should take about 4 hours for my dad to get here with his knights.”
“Master will get here even faster though~” Filly claimed, “She can zoom through the sky with your spi~rit art.” “Oh, you"re right.” I agreed. “So we should get rescued in an hour and half tops.”
“O-one hour, whwhat…!?” The boy gawked at us, like he couldn"t believe it. “You,” I said to him, “…what"s your name?”
“Eh!?” the boy blinked once, “Benny… I"m Benny.” “Alright, Benny, listen to me.” I looked to the 10 children in the cell. “The rest of you too.”
“In another 1 and half hours, someone will likely come to rescue us.” I began. “But before that happens, the two of us will get all of you out of here. That"ll make things a lot easier… Why do you think that is, Filly?” “Ummm~…” having the question thrown to her, Filly pondered on it, tilting her head from side to side, “When the rescuers are fighting the bandits, the bandits might… try to take us hostage! Did I get it?”
“Sure did.” “Woohoo~! You can praise me by patting my head, okay?”
I patted her head and she was happy. Looking at us talking like it was an everyday affair, the boy―― Benny, and the rest of the kids, looked completely baffled.
“Who, are you…?” Benny hesitantly asked. “Oh we"re―― huh, what are we?”
I wanted to say that since we"re spirit art users, we were trained to handle a few tough situations. Which was true and all, but kind of lame to say outright.
While I kept thinking, Filly raised one hand high and proclaimed, “We"re heroes!” “… What? Heroes?” I asked, confused.
“Yep! Master told me about this, that you want to become a hero, and that"s why you work so hard to improve your spi~rit arts.”
… That Rakel, making things up again.
Then again…. Heroes… a hero huh.
Doesn"t sound too bad.
“She"s right,” I accepted, “we"re heroes.”
Inside the dark, dreary cell. I gave hope to the children shivering in fear.
“― ― And we"re here to rescue every one of you.”
Crimson Cats?
b.l.o.o.d.y Tigress? Who gives a d.a.m.n. They"re just names, lame ones too.
My little sister is a lot more terrifying than some rag-tag bandits! I"ve got experience being tied up and imprisoned for 5 d.a.m.n years.
This cold, dark cell― ― doesn"t hold a candle to the morbid house I once escaped. a.s.suming readers of this series don"t completely overlap with NNY readers, I"m this late because I was swamped with commisions for other series (KnM and Shaman)
Excuses aside, since last chap, I"ve read all the jp chapter"s available, a little over 200 chapters, and not finished. Author is taking some time before posting what should be the final arc. Anyway, here"s some food for thought: the X"s in x.x.xX-chan little sister indicates the number of english letter"s in her name. In the original it"s XX-chan since in jp it"s 2 characters (minor spoilers for muuuuch later.) It"s for faster chapters. Before paying, be sure indicate a series. If not, the money will go towards chicken nuggers.
The average amount for a series is listed below.
Shaman/Jujutsushi - 30
Kuro no Maou - 30
Nidome no Yuusha - 23
Nii-san - 27