I’m following Katima into the volcanic area, but it’s not as hot as I expected.
It really makes me feel thankful for the body I got from god.
But that makes me think of the girl walking next to me, so I turn to her.
“Don’t you feel hot, Katima?”
“Alfar are loved by the fire, earth, and darkness great spirits.”
The pride she feels is practically written on her face, and I can tell by the fact that there isn’t a bead of sweat on it that she isn’t just trying to look tough.
But apparently lava is off limits even for her, because she sometimes dodges the lava flowing on the ground.
As for me, sometimes I touch it, but it’s not really a problem, so I walk straight ahead.
“…”
Katima looks at me, then at the lava, then at me again.
“What?”
“You really are crazy.”
“…I’m not.”
“Normal people don’t put their feet in lava.”
No, I mean, you know when you’re a kid and get new rain boots, and then you want to step on puddles? It’s the same feeling.
I want to say that, but I don’t.
Someone who didn’t live in modern day Japan isn’t going to understand that example.
“That reminds Katima, great spirits do stuff like race in lava…”
“Eh… That sounds fun.”
“Just saying that already makes you crazy.”
I feel like Katima’s tongue has been pretty sharp lately.
“L-let’s just keep moving. The earth great spirit could be with the fire great spirit or the darkness great spirit, right?”
“Yes… And probably involved in trouble too.”
The great spirits are the strongest race on this island.
Their power is on par with Wil and Suzaku, and they’ve been living here for over a thousand years, so they can probably get through most trouble by themselves.
If they haven’t come back, that has to mean something happened that even they couldn’t expect.
“…I hope it’s something that can be resolved by force.”
“Thinking about solving by force a problem that even the great spirits can’t solve really means you’re crazy.”
“Katima, can you be nicer? I’m starting to get hurt.”
“If you start saying decent things.”
Katima is merciless.
As we talk, we reach the foot of the volcano where the fire great spirit lives, but no one’s home.
“…No one’s here either.”
“So, are they with the darkness great spirit?”
“Probably… Katima knows where it is, but…”
Katima says as she looks further north.
We walked straight north from the alfar village to the sheer precipice where the earth great spirit lives, and now we’re near an active volcano.
And Katima says the darkness great spirit lives further north.
“We’ve come this far, so we have to keep going.”
“Yes…”
But for now, we pitch the tent in a place not really affected by the lava to spend the night, but…
“I slept well in the earth great spirit’s place, but the active volcano was so noisy that I couldn’t really sleep…”
“Katima was more worried about being swallowed by the lava while sleeping…”
Why did we even consider sleeping in a place like this?
After a night of poor sleep, we continue heading north.
It looks like it’s faster to climb the volcano than to go around it, so that’s the route we pick, and we get out of the volcanic zone quicker than we expected.
After that, we see a vast wasteland, and beyond that, another sheer precipice.
The difference is that this time we have to go down.
It’s so deep that it feels like it goes down to Hades. All I see is darkness.
“All right, let’s go.”
I turn around, and Katima shakes her head, looking like she’s about to cry.
“What’s wrong Katima? I can just go down normally with floating magic, right?”
“You can’t use magic in the home of the darkness great spirit.”
“Eh… I see.”
I look down again. I pick up a big rock and drop it, but no matter how long I wait, I can’t hear it hitting the ground.
“I see.”
I do some warm up exercises, look down, and…
“Let’s go.”
“…Katima’s scared of you, looking at you, about to jump down with no hesitation and a smile on your face.”
“Eh? But we won’t know if the great spirits are there unless we go down, right?”
“You should realize that normal people die if they fall from this height!”
Would they?
I guess my sense of fear has been diminished since I got this body, or maybe my senses in general are all off.
“What should we do then?”
“…Uu…”
“The elder asked me to look for them… Well, I guess I can go down alone.”
Katima looks at me, then at the darkness at the bottom of the precipice, then at me again.
…I’m feeling deja vu.
I see her eyes wavering again and again, and then she clears her throat, like she’s made up her mind.
“…Katima is an alfar with a sense of responsibility.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning Katima’s going down! Hurry up Arata! Before Katima loses her resolve!”
She puts out her arms, in a pose that’s like a kid wanting to be held, and I do as she says.
I put my arm under her thighs, so basically, in a princess carry, and…
“Here we go.”
“Ah… Wai… Maybe…”
I jump into the darkness without hesitating.
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