.
I stood in this spot again, looking at the Six Geometries Seven Elements tapestry. My original plan had been to move Ryuu elsewhere for what I had in mind, but Curator felt that we could accomplish it here, once she made a few minor configuration changes.
Dilorè, standing beside me in this unfamiliar environment into which I had brought her, sounded nervous as she asked, “Your Highness, can we leave this place?”
Yes, I had said that she would go with Kanon, but they were both here with me now, preparing to head into the same place. Kanon had chosen this scenario to run a different challenge for Dilorè. My cousin had strengthened her mind somewhat, so Kanon felt she should turn her attention to her offensive power.
I was only about sixty percent certain that Kanon wasn’t choosing the same scenario because she was curious and wanted to keep an eye on what I would be doing with Ryuu. Or, maybe I was seventy percent certain.
“Does it bother you?” I asked her.
My cousin frowned. “It makes me feel… somewhat like I’m not alive?”
“Mhm. Well, that’s because you can’t feel your body functioning right now. The system simulates a simplified form for you here in the background. Your current form has no pulse, lacks blood flow or mana flow, and only breathes so that you can speak. It will just be a minute, My Lady.”
The look on her face went from distressed to perplexed, which I scored as an improvement.
I held up my open palm to the tapestry and concentrated beyond, and of course saw Ryuu in the same position as he had been, since time for him had only progressed about a tenth of a second since I last saw him. Kanon’s figure in the simulation was still seated on her flying d12… I mean, dodecahedron. I had selected a moment just after she finished a sentence to start the time dilation, so her mouth was nearly closed.
I turned my attention to the scenario settings, and saw that Curator had performed the change I wanted. The space had been temporarily expanded to allow a greater capture of energy from the Spiritual Realm. Effectively, the total space was now the size of a large continent rather than a small country. That energy was now, however, concentrated in the thousand square miles or so that we would actually use, increasing the density using the same method as the Garden Pavilion used, just not quite bringing it to the same level. The spiritual energy was about equal to Sky Ocean, which was good enough.
“Alright, everything is set. Everyone ready?”
Kanon and Dilorè both said so, and I got similar responses from a couple spirit beasts that would be on standby, so I gave the commands, and we were inside.
Naturally, Kanon reinhabited her simulated form already in the scenario rather than appearing with Dilorè and me. As for us, we were in midair, a mile or so away. We both immediately went into flight mode, naturally.
My cousin gave my current appearance a bemused smile.
“Your Highness, that’s you, right?”
I straightened up and declared, “Pixie is Pixie!”
She burst out laughing. “Your Highness…”
I think I anger Mr. Kowa less in this form, I explained.
“You’re impersonating Kiki, right?”
That’s right, you know her too, I nodded. Kiki’s quite famous in the royal court of Faerie, after all, as the pixie that the Fairy King calls ‘Auntie’. I’m not impersonating her, I’m just acting like her. It feels more natural.
She grinned ear to ear. “You’re playing. My goodness, Miss Stiff and Formal is actually playing.”
I let out a sigh. My sigh sounded ridiculous when spoken in chipmunk.
Kanon appeared, flying toward us on her dodecahedron. As she approached, I said, I’ve been meaning to ask. Are you not able to use your wings to fly?
She shrugged. “I’ve grown more accustomed to using clouds. Here in this scenario, using a geometry is even easier.”
“Just like a senior fairy,” Dilorè observed. “My grandmother does something similar, except she uses a carpet.”
Mother doesn’t do anything like that, I noted, puzzled. She always uses her wings.
“Aunt Deharè would never do anything that presented herself as ‘senior’, Your Highness”
Kanon looked confused. “Mother?”
I’m referring to the mother of this body, I stated. So, what explanation did you end up giving Mr. Kowa?
“I told him that the Commander had ordered a change to his training, because she is dissatisfied with his progress.”
Internally, I cringed. I could not think of a better way to piss Ryuu off than that wording. Although, I might be able to use his anger constructively.
Alright, I replied, I will see you two later, then.
As they gave suitable replies, I flew in Ryuu’s direction. When I got closer, I landed on a floating cube and observed him.
The ground where he sat was the same flat white plain as everywhere else, but I almost felt I could see Ryuu’s sweat pooled up around him. Kanon had clearly worked him very hard before he took lunch break. The chiseled muscles of his arms and the skin exposed by his wide collar still had a layer of moisture on them. The leaves used in Dorian regions to wrap rice balls littered the ground in front of him as he munched on the second to last one from the tray in front of him.
As I watched him eat, I wondered how similar the Dorian rice balls were to the onigiri he knew from his home. I had eaten the Dorian ones, but Robert never had a chance to taste the Japanese version.
As he reached for the last one, he froze, then jumped to his feet, his broadsword in his hand, facing me.
“Big brother scary!” I protested as I rose back into the air. “Pixie not enemy!”
He scowled as he lowered his sword. “Which one are you, Tiana or Kanon?”
“Pixie is Pixie!”
He blew air out through his lips. “Sure. What purpose does this act serve, at this point?”
You are quite annoyed whenever you see me as Tiana, I explained. I suspect you find me easier to tolerate in this form.
His scowl deepened as he laid the sword on the ground and picked up the last rice ball. “I’m not annoyed. I’m just…”
I flew down to him, hands folded behind my butt in the manner that had somehow turned into a habit for me, and asked, “Big Brother?”
“Will you stop calling me that?” he demanded, causing me to break out in chipmunk titters.
He bit into the unwrapped rice ball and munched for a while, looking like he was deep in thought. Finally, he swallowed and stated, “I’m not annoyed, I just don’t know how to deal with you.”
The feeling is often mutual, Mr. Kowa. I apologize that I’m not quite sure how to resolve that issue.
He munched down the rest, stuffing his face, chewed furiously, then picked up the bottle gourd of water that had been provided with the lunch and took a drink to help swallow it all down. After finishing the water, he began picking up all the wrappers and placing them on the tray.
“I guess I apologize as well,” he said. Then he put his hands together and bowed his head a bit, stating, “Gochisousama”
The tray vanished. It seemed the operating spirit had already learned that this ritual signified the end of Ryuu’s meal.
He picked up his sword and stood, flipping it overhand to hang it on the hanger hooks of his shoulder harness, then turned to me and asked, “Well? What’s the new plan?”
“Mmm,” I said, then realized I was doing Kiki’s cutesy ‘thinking hard’ pose. Seriously, acting like her through all those iterations had caused me to pick up some seriously weird habits.
I looked at him and declared with a big grin, “Destroy ball!”
“How is that different?!” he immediately retorted, and I broke into chipmunk titters again.
Sorry, Mr. Kowa, I couldn’t help it, I answered, trying to look genuinely apologetic while giggles were still trying to come out of me. I am serious, though. The objective remains the same. The difference is that you will go about it differently. Kanon was insisting on waiting for you to figure out how to do it for yourself. I realized that was a huge mistake.
He immediately narrowed his eyes, staring at me.
“Your saying I’m not smart enough to figure it out, aren’t you?” he accused.
I found myself in the ‘thinking hard’ pose and stopped it. Instead, I put my hands on my hips.
To be frank, I am indeed saying that reasoning your way through problems is not your strong suit, Mr. Kowa.
His glower deepened.
Please don’t misunderstand, Mr. Kowa. You are actually quite an intelligent man. You remember everything well, not only fighting tactics but history, geography and other scholarly details. You understand explanations in most subjects the first time, without any need to simplify the explanation. And during combat, your conscious reactions are nearly as fast as your trained reactions. That’s an incredible feat of intellect. All of these things are indicators of a nearly genius-level mind.
Frankly, it was obvious to me, with my knowledge of video games on Earth, that Ryuu’s keen mind for learning combat tactics and memorizing complicated details, which had made him a high-ranking player on the Internet, had been the thing that attracted Mother’s summoning spell to him.
“Even though I’m too much of an idiot to figure out this stage,” he appended, his eyes still dark.
I sighed and folded my arms. I am saying you are not any sort of idiot. You are a combat genius. But this stage was not designed for combat geniuses. It was designed for people with an entirely different set of intellectual tools than yours. We trained Servants, not heroes.
For some reason, Ryuu suddenly looked away. He was even blushing.
I tipped my head. Is there a problem, Mr. Kowa?
“Could you… not do that? Or put something on?”
Puzzled, I looked down, to discover I had forgotten to form the water raiment when I switched to Sea Pixie form.
Although I was blushing, I defended myself as I grew my raiment. There aren’t actually any details to see, Mr. Kowa.
“I was fine until you folded your arms. You pushed them up when you folded your arms. When they moved, it was a little bit too real…”
I double-checked to make sure I was decent, now. It was slightly translucent, but my raiment had improved to become reasonably modest with practice. I felt I could even wear it unashamed in my Elder body now.
Still a bit embarrassed, I stated, I’ve made my raiment, Mr. Kowa. You can look now.
He glanced at me, then gave a sharp nod. “Better. That some kind of fairy trick?”
It’s what we call a raiment, yes. In all likelihood, every time you have met my mother, or Lady Dilorè, they’ve been wearing their raiment rather than clothes. Mother is skilled enough to make hers look like the latest Atius fashions.
His eyebrows went up, “Rather than clothes? It’s still clothes, right?’
I dimpled. That’s a matter of opinion, since our raiment is a living part of our body. Technically, Mother and Dilorè are quite naked whenever you see them.
He snorted and looked away. “Fine. So, since I don’t have the required intellectual tools to figure out Kanon’s puzzle, what am I going to do?”
Rather obviously, you will do what you always did when we were adventuring together. You will collect the observations and suggestions of others and put them together to form your choice. One of the intellectual tools that you do have is decisiveness. You just need to learn to listen more attentively when people tell you that you’re wrong.
The frown returned. “You’re saying I don’t listen to objections?”
The entire party except Graham, who remained silent, spoke against your plan to tackle that dragon in Tavital. My great-granddaughter, the original Tiana Pendor, would still be alive if you had listened.
His brow bunched up and he looked down. Deciding to move on, I said, You thrive best with a team behind you, so we shall give you a team to lead, Hero.
I gave the signal and a hazy hole in reality formed before Ryuu.
