Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! LET THE INNOCENCE FLOW THROUGH YOU!

ANYWAY, sorry for the delay, again. This week my classes started once again, but things are a bit more complicated than that, so I actually got really tired during the week. Besides, I can’t really focus on writing IO when I’m on the cellphone. Once I get used to going to classes once again, the speed should pick up a bit more, for all of my works.

ALSO, on a story related matter, I just want to say that you all have very dirty minds. This will make sense once you read the final part of the chapter.

ALSO(2), next chapter, a certain man will arrive! Chaos ensues.

Have a good read!

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I grimaced while slowly stepping back, my back touching with Yuu’s with Lieutenant holding his dagger at ready on my shoulders. Looking around I saw as the flying pirates all aimed at us with their bows from the back of their gryphons.

To make path so that they could take aim, the remaining pirates slowly took steps away from us, all of them having a victorious smile on their faces. I grimaced and started to think of a way to get out of this. We simply had no way to reach the far away pirates from where we stood, and even if we had, the ones on the deck would probably stop us from whatever we were going to do.

“Goddamit kids.” One of the pirates said after some time while approaching us. It was a white haired dark-elf. From the way he dressed compared to the others I’d say that he is the captain of the ship. “You two surely gave us some trouble. The girl there took out a few of my men, and you and your cat took out one of my vice captains… Even though he was a level thirty seven, which should be pretty good…” The elf said with an annoyed tone.

“Well, as long as you don’t try to shoot Skarr’s ship, they won’t fall from the shield and might still be recovered, right?” I said with a friendly smile, but the guy simply sighed loudly.

“Finding a level thirty replacement is easy, in the end.” He said with a shrug, and following his words, the mages finished their artillery spell and launched it upwards, bringing the shield down for a fraction of a second before they brought it back up. I still managed to hear as the bandits shouted in despair before falling.

“Let me guess, now it’s the time where you either challenge us to a duel so you can show us how weak we are, or you tell all of your henchmen to attack us at the same time, or you simply signal for them to loose their arrows.” I said in a taunting tone, when in truth all I wanted was to buy me some more time.

“To be honest, those do sound tempting…” The elf said with a grimace. “But I can’t really go and kill you because I did promise to leave the green eyed golem to the rookie.” He sighed before turning to one of his crewmembers and shouting. “Bring the rookie here. This is what he wanted, right?” At his order, two of the henchmen nodded and darted towards the inner part of the ship. For a moment I thought about trying to attack him there and then, but he quickly turned to me and said with a proud smile. “Don’t go trying anything silly now, okay? I am level fifty, so taking care of you is an easy task.”

I felt as if a bucket of cold water was dropped on my head, so I grimaced and once again assessed my situation. I gave a quick glance backwards and saw as Yuu looked seemingly carefree, with her tails wagging cheerfully while she looked nowhere in specific.

Even if the guy was level fifty, I’m almost sure Yuu could take him on with ease. But there were simply too many of the other pirates around us for me to feel at ease with Yuu taking them all. That, and the obvious fact that the archers would fill us with holes the moment we tried to do anything.

If only there was a way to bring down those annoying gryphons, maybe we could do something about it.

Goddammit, these gryphons are monsters! Shouldn’t I be a monster expert or something?

…

Isn’t there a way to bring down flying monsters with ease? And don’t I have this with me right now?

While thinking so, I grimaced slightly, feeling a bit silly for not having thought of this before and felt as my hand slowly made its way to the small ball shaped flash bombs that hung around my waist. If my Monster hunter knowledge didn’t fail me now, if I manage to blind the gryphons, the shock might make them fall down to the ground below.

However, they were a bit too far, with all of them flying far away from the ship on both sides. As I thought that, an idea popped up in my head, so I turned to Lieutenant to my side and made a brief sign with my head then to my waist.

From the looks of it, he got it, because he nodded and gave me a thumbs up while picking one flash bomb for himself.

“I’ll bring down the right, you take the left. Aim for the gryphons on my signal.” I told him, and he nodded while readying himself.

The pirate boss, however, noticed our reactions, and turned to us with a raised eyebrow. Luckily, Lieutenant managed to hide the bomb on his side just as the man turned to us, and my own reaction could be interpreted as a worry reaction, so he simply gave me an annoyed look leaving it clear that he was keeping an eye out for me.

Ignoring it, I turned slightly to Yuu and whispered to her.

“Yuu, on my mark, you take care of their leader, okay?” I told her briefly. “All you need to do is throw him overboard, no need to fight him…”

“Do I get a reward?” Yuu interrupted me. I blinked confused and saw as she put on an expecting gaze.

“Huh… Why that so sudden?” I asked confused.

“Well, Shishou owes me a reward since earlier, so…” She said excitedly.

“Can… We talk about this later?” I asked worried, feeling worried about what she might ask, but she shook her head.

“No! Shishou is going to run away again!” GAH! She saw through me! “Reward or nothing!” She said while turning towards me and puffing her cheeks in a cute display of annoyance. But this wasn’t exactly the time for that.

“Okay, I’ll give you a reward then.” I said briefly, and saw her eyes widening slightly before she nodded happily.

“Then, I want to continue what we were doing on Shishou’s bedroom!”

Huh?

As I became shocked and started to fear what I just had done, the pirates riled up again, moving away as a new person came in from the innards of the ship, which made me focus on the matter at hand instead of what was left for me on the future.

“You…” The newcomer said with an angry tone while taking a huge axe from his back. “To meet you again so soon. I’m really lucky…” He said with an evil smirk, his single eye burning with extreme anger.

“YOU…!” I said surprised to the person looking at me.

“YES! ME!” He shouted angrily.

“YOU…!”

“YOU BASTARD GOLEM! I’M GOING TO…”

“What’s your name again?” I asked confused.

The cyclops fell face first into the ground, and the nearby pirates all held back a snicker while seeing his situation. Yuu simply stared at the guy indifferently while Lieutenant and Rio looked at him confused.

Seriously, I have no idea what this guy’s name is…

And he seems fairly familiar…

While I thought as much, the Cyclops quickly recovered himself and stood up once again, his eyes burning with furious rage. He seemed ready to explode in anger, but before he could do so, the Elf turned to him with a confused face.

“Oi, Rookie? Is this truly the golem you were after?”

The Cyclops blinked surprised before turning to him and grimacing slightly.

“Yes, Boss…” I didn’t miss his emphasis on that specific word. “I’m sure this is the bastard I wanted. You let me kill him to my hearts content, and I’ll join your crew for good.” He said with an annoyed tone.

“Really?” The elf said with a raised eyebrow, as if doubtful. “He… Doesn’t look all that much for me.” OI! I HEARD THAT! “Although he does have one good looking sword.” Aw, shucks, you’ll leave me embarrassed like that… I am quite proud of this sword! “And his eyes are kind of creepy…”

There’s… Quite some time since I last heard that one. Doesn’t make me any less annoyed, though.

“Shishou’s eyes are not creepy!” Yuu complained besides me. Thank you, Yuu! At least someone is on my si… “They are the eyes of a master of martial arts who reached the peak of his trade and no longer see the human life as something worthy!”

HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO REPLY TO THAT?

I want to sulk into a corner now.

While holding back my urge to smack the laughing cat on my side, I saw as Rio landed on my head and put her small head in front of mine, upside down while taking a peek at me. After some time she tilted her head not understanding what was happening.

“Stone mister eyes are normal?” She said confused.

I felt a tear running down my cheeks while I grabbed the small wyvern and hugged her, while petting her head gently. With even Yuu against me, the only one I could count on was the little wyvern besides me! For the first time truly feeling that bringing her was worth it, I decided that as soon as we got out of here I would make something for her!

Of course, this didn’t escape the jealous Yuu, who looked in shock at the scene, probably because I was hugging the wyvern instead of her.

“Oi, did you finish your little comedy already?” I heard the elf saying angrily.

“To be fair, no, I didn’t. But I guess you don’t want me to go through all of it…” I said while releasing Rio, who flew away a bit confused for a moment.

“Good.” He said with a sigh before signaling to the Cyclops besides him. “Now, you get to fight the Rookie. He’s been itching to have a fight with you ever since he joined the crew.”

“Wait, you knew I was on that ship?” I asked confused while pointing upwards to where Skarr’s ship should be.

“Nope. That was just good ol’ Dumb luck.” He said with a smirk. “All we knew was that there was a rich merchant in there. A gnome or something, and it seemed a good prey for me.” A grimace appeared on his face. “Though it seems that things didn’t go as the captain expected…”

So, he wasn’t the boss of the fleet, huh? While thinking so, I saw as the Cyclops took a step forward. Seeing that I didn’t have much of a choice, I also took a stance with my sword. Even if I tried to go for the flash-bomb strategy this time, they would probably notice something was going before I could even throw it.

All I needed was a brief distraction…

“Finally I get a chance to have a go with you, you goddamned golem!” The cyclops said with an angry look.

“Geez, what’s with that hate! Love and peace, brother!” I said jokingly.

“GO TO HELL!” He said while raising the axe and bringing it down on me. Widening my eyes, surprised, I took a step to the side and dodged the blade that split the ground.

“Geez man. I don’t even know your name and you already want to kill me? What did I do to you?” Okay, it’s not like I don’t remember, it’s just that my teasing side tends to come at the worst times possible.

“You say you don’t know me?” Oh dang, he is mad. Really mad. “HOW COULD YOU FORGET ME, YOU DAMNED PAPERWEIGHT!” As he said that out loud, I felt as something lightly tugged my hair. “AFTER ALL YOU DID TO ME! YOU DESTROYED THE GROUP I TOOK OVER! YOU SENT ME TO JAIL! YOU TIED ME TO AN ICEBERG AND SENT ME DOWNRIVER!” Whaa! He’s angry! Really angry!

Every time he made an exclamation, he would swing his axe with a scary speed, and I was even having a bit of a hard time dodging it. The fact that Lieutenant kept tugging my hair didn’t exactly help.

“TODAY I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE, YOU DAMNED PEBBLE!” He shouted while raising his axe up high. “AND YOU DAMNED BETTER REMEMBER THE NAME OF…”

“NYAAA!” Lieutenant shouted while tugging my hair hard.

“I’M A BIT BUSY HER…” I started shouting, but once I turned to the side my face grew pale. “Oh… Yeah… That’s… Really bad.”

The others all followed my gaze, and what they saw made all the other pirates pale, even the ones riding the gryphons. Coming from our side, we could see the massive ship falling down slowly while burning strongly. This enough was enough to make all the pirates pale in shock.

But we also saw a slightly battered merchant ship making its way towards us while a massive charged ball of energy made an arc around the sky, aimed straight at the ship we were in at the time. From the looks of it, with me Lt., Rio and Yuu causing a ruckus in here, they ended up forgetting to look out for Skarr’s ship.

Seeing this as a chance, I quickly turned to Lt. and gave him a nod. The cat blinked surprised but quickly took out the flash-bomb he kept hiding and turned to the opposite side, throwing it as hard as he could.

I also took the chance and threw mine towards the direction where the huge energy ball was coming. This also worked nicely, because everyone else on the ship was looking to that direction.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

After throwing the bomb, I quickly turned to Yuu and covered her eyes, with Lieutenant doing the same for Rio. Not understanding what was happening, Rio squirmed a bit and Yuu flinched surprised.

“Ah dammit…” I heard the cyclops saying with the tone of someone who had already given up.

“GAAAH!” “WHAT THE HELL!” “MY EYES! MY EYES!”  “WHAT WAS THAT?” “AAAAAAAAAH!”

Varied voices came from the many pirates as the flash-bomb blinded all of them. Even the captain who had been close-by couldn’t escape this single attack that completely destroyed one’s sense of sight.

Opening my eyes, I saw the scene of the people around us crouching down in pain while covering their eyes. The Gryphons towards the side I threw the bomb were still flying around, but they all seemed confused due to the sudden flash that entered the corner of their visions. The ones behind us were struck directly by the flash bomb, so they all swerved violently, which messed up their rhythm and made them drop from the skies.

I couldn’t be sure whether they would fall all the way to the ground, but for now, just the fact that there were no available archers aiming at us was good enough.

Taking advantage of the confusion, I let go of Yuu’s eyes and she blinked surprised for a moment before understanding what happened. She quickly turned towards the captain and grabbed him by the collar with the spear before raising him over her head and slamming him on the guardrail.

I also didn’t lose this chance to quickly grab the Cyclop’s axe and pull it with all my strength, throwing him off balance. However, he managed to stop himself with his axe by stabbing it on the ground in front of him before making a blind swing at me with his arm. I almost got caught on the attack, but managed to stop it with my arm and using Nature’s bastion skill just in time.

But this also gave away my position, so he quickly raised the axe from the ground and spun it towards me. However, I easily rolled beneath the attack and ended up behind him just as the siege ball hit the barrier of our blimp.

The whole ship shook with the impact, and I could see as some of the mages fell down exhausted due to blocking the attack with their spells. However, even then the impact was enough to make the ship swing from one side to the other wildly for a moment.

With the lack of stable footing, I quickly held on to the guardrail and stabbed my sword on the ground, trying to hold myself in place. The cyclops didn’t have as much luck as his balance was broken due to the heavy axe, so he rolled forward and hit the guardrail, but his large body was too much to the wood, as it gave in and creaked with the weight.

However, it still wasn’t enough to completely break the guard rail, and as the Cyclops tried to recover himself, I knew that all that we needed was one more attack.

But with the ship still shaking violently, I didn’t exactly have the chance to try and attack and had to use both my hands just to stay put.

“NYAA NANA!” I heard Lieutenant shout triumphantly. Turning around, I saw as he nimbly put himself on Rio’s back, sitting right on the end of her neck where he could hold himself just fine.

“Okay!” Rio said loudly as if she understood him before raising herself and dive towards the cyclops.

Blinking surprised at the scene, I saw as the cat nimbly took out two small daggers that I recognized as the explosive stun-daggers, and just as Rio reached the Cyclops, she put her claws ahead, grabbing at his stomach with strength and dealing damage, while Lieutenant stabbed the knifes on the broken wood beside him.

“Nya!” With a shout, Lieutenant had Rio take flight once again just as the guy tried to bear-hug the wyvern. Escaping the attack with plenty of breathing room, Lieutenant and Rio made a large turn around while the daggers exploded, breaking the remaining of the guard-rail down.

However, the ship had started to stabilize by now, so the cyclops managed to not fall down the gap. But this also applied to me. Letting go of the two handed sword still stabbed on the deck, I ran down the deck towards the cyclops.

“See ya, sucker!” I said while jumping and landing a drop-kick on his stomach.

The damage, although not exactly negligible, wasn’t all that high, but the impact served to push him back enough so that he fell down the deck and onto the ground below.

“FIGHT ME FAIR FOR ONCE YOU BASTAR…” His voice died down as he fell down the ship. Quickly putting myself back up, I ran back to my sword just in time to see some of the pirates recovering their sight.

With a look to beyond, I could also see as some of the gryphon riders started to take formation once again after having dodged the enormous siege-magic. But it’s not like they came out unscathed, as at least two thirds of them had fallen due to the impact.

They all looked at me angrily while gripping their bows tightly. But just as they were about to do something…

“Hey cousin! Want a little help?” I heard the gargoyle’s voice coming from the blimp right behind the gryphon riders.

“I could use some air support!” I shouted back to him while seeing the three tailed fox riding on his guardrail, many ice spikes forming around her as she prepared her magic.

“I think she got it covered, then!” he said cheerfully.

Just as his words left his mouth, Aura released the thirty or so ice spikes she had. The rider’s didn’t have much time to maneuver as the attack came from their blind spots, hitting the riders with precision while making them tumble away from the beasts, falling down with no way of getting back up.

Only a few managed to survive the whole ordeal, but they quickly gave up, dropping their bows and raising their arms.

Meanwhile, on the ship, I could hear a certain kitsune happily singing while dragging a beaten-up dark-elf.

“Reward from Shishou! Reward from Shishou!”

That scene finally made the few pirates that had recovered their sights throw down their weapons too.

…

“Wait… You mean that I didn’t need to worry about the gryphon riders at all?” I said in shock to the small floating crystal construct.

“Yes. Their shield prevented anything from coming in or out, so even their arrows would have bounced off!” She said with a serious tone, but I could almost see a wry smile on her face.

I really felt like slamming my face against a wall or something at that moment. Then all that scene with them taking out their bows worked only to threaten us with no real use? Why the hell didn’t I notice that before?

While cursing my luck, I saw as the crew-members from Skarr’s ship boarded the pirate ship and started tying up the remaining pirates.

According to what I heard from Crys, it seemed that after we boarded that ship, with the chaos we caused they took the chance to drag the opposite ship away and finish it there. With the captain’s commands, only a few attacks managed to land on our ship while mostly of ours got a clean hit.

It also helped a bit that Lucas and his friends boarded the opponent’s ship and wreaked havoc there on their own, since they didn’t need to hold back when it came to the opponent’s vehicle.

Aura also managed to keep most if not all of the gryphon riders that approached the ship at bay with her spells. On the down side, due to her need to concentrate, she was left quite open, so other crewmembers had to cover up for her.

However, after hearing what happened here, the passengers asked for me to tell them what happened on the other ship while we were there. Almost all of them having a gaze full of expectations and curiosity.

To be honest, I felt a bit awkward when so many people I didn’t know started to gather around me. There was even a blonde human girl who stood a bit too close for my tastes, but I didn’t exactly have the heart to make her take some distance from me when she kept looking at me with such shining eyes.

When we told them about what happened on our side, I couldn’t help but notice as Argento looked at me with a slightly disappointed look.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“I never expected you to fight so dirty… And even to hide yourself behind a girl…” He said while shaking his head.

“Look, they were all my level or higher there, so fighting fairly wasn’t even in consideration.” I said with an annoyed tone. “Besides, Yuu is probably the strongest chosen you met up to today if we take personal skill in account.”

“Is… Is that so?” Lily, who had recovered from her drunken state asked surprised and I nodded. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that you are running away from her, then?”

“Some… Something like that…” I said with a wry smile.

“Why would you run from her?” The blonde girl asked curious.

“Well…” I said while scratching my cheek. I know I promised Yuu that I would give her a reward after the fight was over, but after hearing what she wanted from me I became a bit afraid of what was going to happen. Thus, I decided to try and wait for her to recover from her drunk state. “I have my reasons…” I said in the end. “A-Anyway, I need to go to talk with Skarr, so if you would excuse me…” I said while making my way out of the crowd.

They quickly dispersed away when I left. I couldn’t help but find it a bit odd that they didn’t stop Yuu before me, since I was actually trying to avoid crowds while she was trying to find me.

While such thoughts crossed my mind, I made my way to the stairs and prepared to go down to my room, but as soon as my gaze fell upon the passage, I saw the blonde girl walking down the corridor in front of me.

Blinking surprised, I stopped to think. How the hell could she be there if I just left her behind?

“Weren’t you going to see the captain?” A voice came from behind me, and I turned to see the same blonde girl standing right by my side.

“Huh… How…?” I aske confused while pointing towards the corridor then towards the girl.

The girl pouted lightly before turning her head away.

“Shishou promised me a reward, but then disappeared after talking with the others.” Huh? Shishou? “I noticed that Shishou was avoiding me, so I had to use this skill to approach Shishou.”

“Huh… Yuu?” I asked and the girl nodded after stealing a glance at me.

But… How…? As I thought that, a blue flame that covered her whole consumed the girl’s body, and once it died down, what was left behind was the usual Yuu wearing her kimono-like gear.

She looked at me with an angry look in her eyes as she took a step forward, putting herself only a fraction of a distance from me.

Wait. Didn’t kitsunes have a skill that allows them to transform into other people or something?

“Shishou. Reward. Now.” Yuu said with an angry tone.

“Huh? Here?” I asked entering into a panic as I remembered what happened back at the room.

“Yes. Here.” She said while approaching me even more.

“But… Wait… Isn’t this place…” We were still in the middle of the deck! “Wouldn’t it be better… A quieter…” I said while feeling embarrassed, but she simply blinked and tilted her head.

“No. Here, or else Shishou will run again.” She said while stuffing her cheeks. However, I was already at an state where I couldn’t think straight anymore, so I didn’t even try to react. Seeing this, Yuu blinked and turned to me with a confused face. “Could it be… That Shishou misunderstood?”

…

“Huh?”

“Mou, Shishou have a dirty mind!” She said making me even more confused. Could it be that I really misunderstood what she wanted? But, what she did back at my bedroom… “Shishou, there’s an order to this kind of thing!” She said in a teaching tone. “First, there’s the meeting. Second, we become friends. Third, there’s the petting. Fourth comes holding hands. Fifth comes petting with skill. Sixth is hugging. Only then that we…. We can… iss… ” Her voice died down at the end, but I didn’t exactly miss the meaning. And the most I wanted to comment on a couple of odd things in that order, there was something I had to make sure of.

“Wait… Then, what you wanted was…” I started confused.

“I wanted Shishou to hug me!” She said excitedly with her tails wagging behind. “It’s Shishou who had a dirty mind and misunderstood hugging for kissing!” She said puffing her tail a bit, her alcohol flushed cheeks getting even redder

All I could do at that was to put my hand on her head and start petting her with a dry laugh.

You are right, Yuu. Your Shishou really had a dirty mind. A very, very, VERY dirt mind compared to this pure soul of yours.

While I petted the cute kitsune, she wagged her tails happily despite looking at me confused.