“It’s just as I thought...” Mei-Mei says, gazing out across the wide-open lake at all the floating figures sailing away beneath the afternoon sun. “There are no boats left.”

After Lust and Wrath disappeared somewhere deep below the Spire from being hit with the combined force of both explosive putty and muscle, Me, Mei-Mei, Bran, and Biscuit all stumbled our way out of the exit and onto the Spire’s boating dock, dragging the tree along behind us.

“Here. You can ride this,” I say tossing the tree into the water. It dips below the surface for a moment before floating back up to the top.

Mei-Mei cautiously mounts the log, her little legs dipping down into the water on each side. Seemingly satisfied with the stability of it, she gestures for Biscuit to sit behind her, followed by Bran. They all squeeze up together on the floating log and turn back to face me, still on the dock.

“You guys go on ahead,” I tell them. “I’m sure Lust and Wrath are still looking for a fight and I’m more than happy to give it to them!”

It’s not a lie, but... It’s an excuse. The truth is, I’m still scared. Scared of how they truly feel about me being a demon. I’m using my desire to fight Lust and Wrath as an excuse to let them escape without me. It’s an excuse to tell myself that we’ll still be friends, we’re just going our separate ways for now because they want to escape and I still want to fight. It’s not a lie, but...

“You know...” Mei-Mei suddenly speaks up. “Human, wolfman, gorilla, or demon. It’s all the same to me. You realize I don’t actually care in the slightest, right? An idiot is still an idiot no matter what breed of idiot they might be.”

“... Fweh?”

As if reading my mind, Mei-Mei tackles the worries that are clouding my heart head-on.

“Plus, I still need you to throw up for me,” she adds. “There’s still a lot more I’d like to study about this other world you're linked to, so don’t think you can get out of vomit duty that easily, idiot.”

“Mei-Mei...”

“Mm! Th-that’s right!” Biscuit is the next to speak up. “Big sis Pepper is nice, so I think demons must be nice too! I want to m-meet them! Let’s go see them together!”

“Biscuit...”

“Eh? Demons are scary! I don’t want to travel with a demon!” Bran complains, completely spoiling the mood. As the other two glare at him, he eventually lets out a sigh and pats the empty spot on the log behind him while looking away bashfully. “But... Someone needs to paddle this log back to shore. If you’re not here, I know these other two are going to make me do it instead...”

Ah... I guess burning through so much protein so fast really did get me all sappy for no reason...

What was I even worrying about in the first place?

“Fwahahaha!” I laugh loudly, my voice carrying far across the lake's waters. “Pepper Black is a woman who will make one hundred friends, kiss one thousand girls, and have more fun than anybody else that’s ever lived!”

Right! The dream I have is still the same as it’s always been since the day I left home! It might seem a little hard sometimes, and I might get a little disheartened, but that’s all part of the fun, right? And with these other three—four, if you include the tree—I know that, without a doubt, I’m just a little bit closer to achieving them!

Jumping on the back of the log with the rest of my friends, I kick away from the dock and paddle my legs in the water, pushing us across the lake.

As we paddle a short ways across the water...

“The weight distribution is off. One of you idiots at the back is way too heavy.”

“It’s the gorilla! She’s tipping the whole tree backwards! How much do you even weigh?!”

“B-big sis Pepper, you can swap places with me if you want. I think I’m a lot lighter...”

...

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

...Fweh? What was I even worrying about in the first place? These guys are all jerks!

“I’m not heavy! You guys are just way too light! Put on more muscle! Start lifting! Eat more jerky! From now on, all of you are joining my morning workouts! Then we’ll see how you all feel about being called way too—!”

A sudden familiar shiver runs down my spine, causing my back muscles to flutter in wild excitement. I immediately stop my paddling, turning my full attention to the shoreline in the far, far distance instead—in a different direction to the one we’re paddling towards.

“Hm? What is it?” Mei-Mei asks. “Why did you stop kicking?”

“Ah... I just thought I felt her nearby...”

“Felt who nearby?”

As soon as the question leaves her lips, a sudden flash of black erupts in the distance. Exploding from the shoreline, a shadowy blur tears across the lake like a pitch-black bolt of lightning, screaming across the surface of the water. In the blink of an eye, it collides with the base of the Spire, sending quaking tremors rolling up its entire length. For a short moment, the surrounding lake appears undisturbed by the impact—before both the sound and force of the collision finally catch up with the overwhelming velocity of the speeding shadow. A thunderous boom echoes across the entirety of the Surstrom Lake as it seemingly splits in two, sending towering waves spreading and crashing out from the path that was carved through the water.

Everybody grabs tightly to the tree as it rocks violently against the resulting waves. Dotted across the lake, I notice other escaping boats tipping and flipping from the force of the crashing waters. As everything calms back down, I finally have the chance to answer Mei-Mei’s question.

“Fwah! It’s Mom! Mom’s here!”

A force that powerful tearing across the land and water like a rampaging meteor could only be none other than Demon Queen Gluttony. My beloved Mom!

I immediately start paddling the tree around, steering us in the direction of the Spire again.

“W-what are you doing, idiot!?” Mei-Mei complains. “We’re not going back to the Spire!”

“Fweh? But Mom’s here! She’s probably come to check on me. I want to go see her!” I start calling out towards the Spire as I kick us back the way we came. “Mom! I’m out here! Mom! I’m—!”

“Shh! S-stop that!” Bran hisses, forcing his hand over my mouth. “I-I get that she’s your mom, but I really don’t feel good about calling the Black Death over to us! As far as demons go, I barely trust you not to kill me. I really don’t want to meet the Wandering Calamity itself!”

“Turn us back to shore! We’re not going that way, idiot!”

As the human and dwarf stubbornly fight against me and my decision to turn us back to the Spire to meet my Mom, Biscuit too voices some concerns from her seat near the front.

“I-I think it’s tipping...” she says.

“Of course it’s tipping, idiot! This damn meathead weighs a ton and she’s trying to steer us in the wrong—!”

“N-no, not the tree. The Spire...”

All of us stop our squabbling and look up at the Spire. Biscuit’s right. The massive, looming mega-prison is now ever so slightly tilted to the side. Large chunks of metal and concrete crash and roll off of its side as the entire Spire lets out a low, pained groan.

We watch it in silence for a while before I eventually break it.

“Fweh? Are we sure it’s tipping though? Maybe it always looked like that?”

The groans of the tower become louder as more and more pieces begin falling off of it, crashing down into the lake below.

“Pepper can we... I think we should turn around now...” Bran anxiously nudges at me as we all continue to stare up at the Spire in disbelief.

“I-is it possible it’s just swaying in the wind a little?” I ask. “It is a little windy out...”

With one final groan, the entire base of the Spire collapses in on itself, completely demolishing the first few floors in an instant. Dust and debris billow outward, shaking up more waves and rocking our makeshift boat once again. The rest of the Spire trembles as the unimaginably colossal structure begins to clearly and unmistakably tip to the side.

“To the shore!” Mei-Mei screams. “Now!”

Tearing my eyes away, I start frantically paddling us away from the tipping tower and towards the shore in the distance. The others kick their legs alongside the log as well in an effort to help.

A cacophony of consecutive explosions and screaming metal cries out at our backs as the entire Surstrom Spire plummets into the lake. A towering tidal wave like no other spreads out in every direction, tearing through every single boat and person still making their escape across the lake—us included.

As everything and everybody is engulfed in the resulting tsunami, I manage to let out one final cry in sudden realization—

“Ah! My future harem-house!”

—before being pulled beneath the water and swept away...