SING CRIER CH.25 - Tunabout We cut big chunks out of the meat and toss them into our jaws. It's raw, unfortunately, but more than delicious enough to eat. 「 ...Six days. 」 We pause for a second, then carve out more portions. 「 What would you two like to do today? 」

Nine-Tails lays on her stomach, resting her head on her crossed paws. The partially cloudy weather hides the gleam of her fur every now and then. We stare down at the meat. 『『 ...A rematch. 』』 Agehatate's ears twitch. 「 With me? 」 『 Yes. 』 Sing sets her pair of stone chopsticks down, placing them perpendicular to the hole they came from. 「 ...And what of Crier? 」 『 Also yes. 』 Crier does the same with her pair. 「 What brought this on? 」 『 Losing. 』『 Stain on record. 』 Agehatate's tails flop from side to side as she closes her eyes in thought. 「 What is wrong with these things? 」 『『 They're ugly. 』』 Her tails stop moving and her tone changes to a more formal, and royal inflexion. 「 ...The pursuit of perfection and beauty, is it? 」 We sit on our knees, resting our hands in our lap. We want to show her we're serious about this. 「 It is thematically appropriate for the story behind 「 my second tail, my current form; do you remember that story? 」 There's a story behind how Nine-Tails acquired each of her nine tails. In order to have access to her raid in Myriad Worlds, you had to do a nine-part questline, each one unveiling the lore behind her rise to status. We can't remember every single name... But the stories themselves are easy to remember, because each one of her raid boss forms and the mechanics that come with them, are in the spirit of those stories. 『 ...The story is about two beautiful women in a small village. 』 『 They could have charmed anyone they wanted, but they were jealous of each other. 』 『 So they secretly sabotaged one another, every day, from childhood to adulthood. 』 『 Because of this, neither of them could find a partner -- and neither knew why. 』 『 Lonely, and miserable, they blamed their misfortunes on physical ugliness. 』 『 Until one day, when they decided to throw themselves into the river. 』 『 That day, they died, jealous of the other's beauty, thinking themselves ugly- 』 『 never knowing the sabotage of the other. Never knowing their own beauty. 』 「 ...Bravo. 」 Agehatate stands up slowly, and sluggishly. 「 If this is what you two wish to do today -- so be it. 「 ...I have only three conditions. 」 We take a deep breath. 「 First, only my two-tailed form, no further. 」 That's fine, we don't have enough mana to beat her single-tailed form anyway. 「 Second, you may not give up. 「 You two must continue until you win. 」 An unnecessary clause. 「 Third, it will not be a physical battle. 」 『 What. 』『 There's no point then. 』 「 There is; it will still be a battle against my two-tailed form. 「 We are simply removing the outlier element from our previous battles. 」 We stare at her. 「 Inevitably, if you two know what you are doing... 「 no physical limitations will stop you from eventually winning. 「 What removing the physical element does, is assure that you cannot cheat. 「 You may only win with a strategy applicable to the terrain of my temple. 」 So, in other words...

" We're removing the terrain so that if you win here, you've practically won at the temple as well. " That's the meaning of this condition, we think... 『 Well, this is fine but... 』 『 How will we be fighting if not physically? 』 「 A moment. 」 Nine-Tails turns and dashes away from us, crossing to the far side of the island, towards the waterfall. There, at the edge, she bends her legs, then leaps into the falls's mist. ... We glance at each other. ... Suddenly, we spot a white blur fly up out of the mist. It lands on a rock jutting out of the falls, and promptly bounces to a higher one. One by one, it leaps between them, ascending the falls in a zigzag. In mere moments, Agehatate is standing at the top. She spends a moment there, before continuing on her way, disappearing over the cliff's edge. 『 ...Why is everyone so fast? 』 Sing tilts her head and shrugs, reaching for our unfinished meal. Except it's not there. Instead, slightly further away, is Setsuna, holding it to her chest. 『『 H- 』』

We almost shout. 『『 H-Hey... Setsuna... 』』 The orange kraken's gaze locks onto us, but she doesn't move otherwise. She stays completely still, holding the raw meat to her chest. 「 ... 」 We glance down at the meat. She wraps more of her tendrils around it. 『『 ... 』』 「 ... 」 We hear a squishing sound as the meat is squeezed in her grip. But after a few moments, she tears away what appears to be half of it. 「 ... 」 She slowly raises the separated half over her hea̖d߮-͌ Thwack! 『 Mmph?! 』 『 Sing?! 』 The meat slab lands square on Sing's nose, and with its weight and speed, she's easily knocked over. Crier has already extended her palms out to cushion Sing's head, narrowly preventing instant-death with the ground. Sing's Eldritch Serendipity level rapidly drops. After a second, Sing turns her head and brushes off the meat, then sits up carefully with Crier's help. 『 Sing? Are... are you okay? 』 Reaching up to her nose, Sing wipes away the wetness with her arm. There's a stinging feeling. 『 ...Sing! Your nose is-! 』 Red, with blood; the red streaks on Sing's arm make that clear. Although, it's hard to tell if this is Sing's, or just the splatter from the meat. She looks up at Setsuna whose eyes have widened. ... Sing opens her mouth, but doesn't say anything. Instead, she turns it into a smile. 「 ... 」 Setsuna looks down at her own half of meat, then slowly sets it on the ground. There are... strange bite marks on one side. 『 ...You don't have t- 』 Plunk. Far away, just atop the river, a splash of whitewater and a spray of mist coats the air. Setsuna is nowhere to be seen. 『 ... 』 『 H-Hayai... 』 「 You two should bring that to her- 」 『 Why is everyone so freaking fast?! 』 Crier throws her arms up into the air. Agehatate has suddenly returned. We didn't hear her approach at all. 「 Forgive her; everyone she has ever known has tried to kill her. 「 She is only experimenting and trying to understand you. 」 『『 ... 』』 We look down at the meat Setsuna left behind. 『 How... do you know that? 』 「 She would wish for my silence here. 」 ...Sing wipes more blood onto her forearms. 「 If you two are hungry, you may keep these morsels for yourselves. 」 『 No... I... want to bring her one. 』 Crier helps Sing up, and we make our way to the partially eaten piece. 『 I wanted her to keep this one. 』 As soon as Sing picks up the chunk, a tugging force pulls up on her side-tail, lifting her off the ground. It's Agehatate, biting down on Sing's hair. With a poker-faced Sing in tow, she steadily accelerates to the water's edge leaving Sing to dangle like a weight on an elastic string. And as she brakes, Sing's momentum carries into a 180-degree swing. At the swing's peak, she lets go of the meat, letting it fly into the river's centre. Plunk. 「 ...I am sure she will be happy with this. 」 『 ... 』 Agehatate stands there for a moment with Sing precariously suspended over the river by her locks. Here, the ferocity of the whitewater river becomes especially apparent. Thankfully, she turns around before we develop a fear of water and sets Sing down next to Crier, uniting us once more. Crier leans her head on Sing's shoulder, and Sing wraps her arm around Crier. 『『 So... the rematch? 』』 Agehatate procures one of her special leaf bundles from her back, however, this time, when it opens, instead of meat, a pile of rocks is revealed. Every colour of the rainbow is present, and they range from mere pebbles to two-hands worth in size. We stare at them. Agehatate then taps one of her tails onto the pile, and swipes, sending four pebbles to land directly in front of us. One pink pebble, one red, one with a smooth disk shape, and the last one angular and jagged. In the context of battling Agehatate... These pebbles represent Crier, Sing, the curve-marked C-Fox, and the sharp-marked H-Fox. These are sort of like... game pieces? 「 These pebbles will demonstrate our relative positions. 「 However, do not become too fond of them, for they are mere visualizations. 「 Our battle will be vocal, spoken with detail, and the pebbles will follow after. 」 ... 「 If you have questions, you may interrupt to ask at any time. 「 If you wish to perform a simultaneous action, you may interrupt to make it. 「 If none of us are speaking, time advances second for second. 「 This effectively means, death can only occur if there is silence. 」 This is... the real deal... 「 If you wish to use magic, you must demonstrate to me that you can. 「 No pre-combat preparations. No external items nor weaponry. 「 The only starting weapon you are permitted is Jing'ra's dirk- 」 Jing'ra? 「 -which you two may equip in any fashion. 」 『『 Jing'ra's dirk? 』』 「 ...Yes, your weapon. 」 『『 ... 』』 We give each other a sideglance. 「 Finally, if at any point I acquire Autonomy, 「 that will be considered instant death for the both of you. 」 『 Wait. 』『 "Autonomy?" 』 Agehatate pauses to take a breath. We hold down the pebbles so they don't fly away. 「 This is a lesson for another time... 「 Instead, I shall provide you two, guidelines: 「 Do not exist in multiple positions at once. 「 Do not cause a fox to exit the combat area. 「 Do not allow your soul to acquire marks from a fox's physical attack. 「 Do not cause yourself to become classified as a minion while being targeted. 「 Do not allow more than twenty-four non-minion individuals to be in combat. 「 And do not successfully hold onto a fox if it tries to shake you off. 」 We blink. 「 You may recognize the last guideline, as something Crier once did. 「 At that time, I acquired Autonomy. These other occurrences will do the same.」 ...Ah, Crier did do something like that before, huh? That time when Crier grabbed onto one of Agehatate's foxes... and we were surprised because she actually managed to hang on... Then, instead of the attack that was supposed to come next,

Agehatate plucked Crier off of that fox's tail and set her down. Was that... "Autonomy?" Autonomy then... must be... freedom from her attack rotation...? Enemies, not just in Myriad Worlds, but in games in general... for the most part, have a set of moves they always perform. They perform these moves in a semi-predictable loop. Cleave, punch, smash, cleave, punch, smash, cleave, punch, etc. Enemies usually do this against players until they or the player die... But Autonomy... seems to be a state of breaking out of that. Doing those forbidden things... gives Agehatate total control. She would no longer behave like she did in Myriad Worlds. In other words, she would be unpredictable, which is why she's treating Autonomy as death... That sounds about right... 「 Do you two have any concerns? 」 『 This is... 』『 ...a lot to remember. 』 We press our hands against our foreheads. 「 It is much simpler in practice than it seems. 「 Once you are used to the format, 「 it will be as if actual combat. 」 『 ...Yes. 』『 ...Understood. 』 「 Shall we begin? 」 We nod, lightly. 「 Place yourselves in starting positions. 」 One of Agehatate's tails pulls her pebbles back, while her other tail places a cross-shaped pebble between us. 「 This cross represents the centre of the combat area. 「 Once again, do not stray too far from it.」 『 Mmhmm... 』 As we place our pieces down, we notice how Agehatate has set the C-Fox and H-Fox pebbles relative to the centre of the arena. They're exactly where they would be at the temple. 『 ... 』 We place both of our pieces next to the cross in the centre, where we both started our previous battles. 「 ...Good. 」 We look up at Agehatate. Her eyes are closed. ... But we feel eyes on us. We look to our left. Sure enough, an orange blob is peeking out of the water. ...Setsuna is watching us. 『 ... 』 「 Blue pillars of flame burst forth from the ground. 」 Our attention snaps to Agehatate. 「 From them, emerge two greater foxes in my likeness... 「 One with curved markings, and one, sharp, angular. 「 They both look at Crier, and begin to move. 」 We watch, as gently, both of Agehatate's tails come down and steadily accelerate her pebbles towards Crier's. 『 I-! 』 She suddenly stops moving them. 『 ... 』 And just as suddenly, she resumes moving them, maintaining velocity, skipping acceleration. The pebbles make physical contact, and Crier's pebble is sent hurdling. She pauses then. 「 At this time, Crier has been struck by the curve marked fox, 「 and similar curved markings have appeared on her body. 」 A blue pebble is placed where Crier's used to be. 「 This represents Crier's soul. It is hers to move- 」 『 Stop! This... this is weird! 』 Sing ruffles her hair. 『 Peculiar... 』 「 Would you two like to start over? 」 『『 Yes. 』』 Agehatate swipes back the blue pebble,

and resets her own to their starting positions. Each second of silence... Is a second that passes in real-time. We take actions by saying them, and visualize them with rocks. Okay... We just have to imagine ourselves there... We know how to beat her, we just have to get used to this... We place our pebbles back in the centre. 「 Blue pillars of flame burst forth from the ground. 「 The twin foxes look at Sing, and begin to move. 」 『 I begin walking. 』 『 I have Jing'ra dirk, I begin carving a magic circle into the handle. 』 We place our hands on our own pebbles and start to move apart as the C-Fox and H-Fox close in on Sing. Closer... Closer... Now! 『 I dodge to the left! 』 Sing moves her piece visibly to the left. 「 You are hit, and inflicted with sharp markings. 」 Agehatate flings Sing's pebble away and replaces it with a blue one. 『 Why?! 』 「 The sharp-marked fox begun its swing from that direction, 「 thus, you dodged into it, and were struck. 」 『 How was I supposed to know that?! 』 「 You ask. 」 Sing glares. 「 I am unable to tell you what you are looking at. 「 They are your own eyes. You must be vigilant in looking through them. 「 It is, for this reason, that time moves only when there is silence. 」 『 Tch... start over! 』 ... 「 Blue pillars of flame burst forth from the ground. 「 The twin foxes look at Sing, and begin to move... 」 『 Hah... ha... 』 「 You die. 」 『 Noo...! 』 『 What was the distance between the flame lance's centre and Crier's heart? 』 Agehatate visualizes a hand-length's distance with her tails. 『 No, Crier's alive. She had enough stamina left to pass that. 』 「 She did not. If you would like to dispute this, we may recreate this scenario. 」 『 Agehatate's right... I'm sorry... 『 It's just hard to keep track... 『 of my SP without « Identify »... 』 『 Heck! 』 Sing slings a palm-sized stone at the ground. The throw is feeble, and the stone remains intact. 「 You two are looking at this as though it were a game of pebbles, 「 that is why you are having trouble with the nuanced details. 「 You should not rely on this « Identify » ability to win. 」 『 Rely on it? We can't even use it! 』 『 Uwa... I'm tired... 』 「 That is enough for today. 」 『 One more! 』 「 No. It is time to rest. 」 Sing stomps. 「 You mistook the curve-marked fox for Crier. 「 It is too dark to continue. Rest, now. 」 『 Hmph. 』 「 ... 」 A sudden fluffy sensation presses up against our backs. It then softly wraps us in a blanket of warmth, making it hard to move. 『 Ageh...a... n...o... 』 「 A handful, you two are. 」 Constricted in her grip, she pulls us against her. The damage is devastating, and we can barely keep our eyes open. 「 ...Have a nice rest, so that tomorrow... 「 you may come out victorious. 」 Crier slips her arm free. 『 Freedom! Bwaah...! 』 Agehatate promptly covers us with her other tail. ...It's muffled, but we think we hear a stifled giggle. 「 Like little drunkards when the moon is out...! 」 Yes, they are doing well. They fought me for the entire day. No, they have yet to discover it. They are safe, and I am well. They have even made a friend. South of the bay, I have heard you. No, you have my apologies, it has always been my responsibility. Yes, The Demon King rumours are real. There is no way to know. I have no qualms with loyalty. I could be, my legends are riddled with tragedy. But it is possible. You, just as likely. A conspirator. I will keep this in mind, but a few substitutes will make no difference. Either none die, or they all die, the number is irrelevant. These two are anomalies. You have the names of all of my followers in your head. Knowing that, you should know you are welcome. Farewell. [END]