Chapter 7

Traveling with a new companion

-Kakuto-

*Yawn*

Mornin~

Looks like I was tired without even noticing, since I slept like a log.

.

.

.

Ok, I'll show myself out now.

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I invoked [Soul Seeker] and spoke to Victoria-san.

"Yo, morning."

"I see that you awake. It must be nice to be able to sleep..."

"What do you mean?"

"We souls are unable to sleep unless we pass on to the afterlife."

Ah, that makes sense.

"Although, if a soul becomes agitated due to being unable to sleep, it becomes a ghost. I saw many monsters whom people have killed and did not send an offering for them to pass on. Some stay as a soul, as they are patient enough. Usually they were once monsters with long-lived."

Well, to be honest, no one prays for monsters.

"Is it the same for you?"

"Don't put me with those puny creatures! We dragons are high-ranked species! Although the necessary procedures for me to pass on has been completed, I chose to stay here for certain reasons."

"Hey, your attitude has changed."

"Of course. After I thought about yesterday, I decided to talk to you normally."

"Wait, you mean that tsundere mode was an act?"

"Tsundere?"

"Aah, forget what I said."

Eeehhh... I did not know her acting skills were this good.

"Hohoh, so that way of speaking is tsundere huh... I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, I am now ready to travel with you, so you have my permission to bring me along"

"Alright. Although this is my first time doing this, don't blame me if something goes wrong."

"Of course, Kakuto-sama."

Eek!

"I told you to don't call me that!"

"Ehehe, payback for yesterday~"

Damn, I don't think I can tease this woman anymore.

I somehow understand how to bring her along with me, according to instructions from blue box-kun.

First, I gather mana into my leaves. Then, I direct the mana in the leaves towards Victoria-san.

"Ooh! I'm slowly getting out of the lake!"

She glowed brilliantly, slowly but steadily coming towards me. She landed on one of my leaves and infused into it. The process was done after the glowing had dimmed down.

There was an imprint of a blue dragon on the golden leaf. I now should be in possession of Victoria-san.

"With this, you can talk to me whenever you want. You don't have to use your skill to talk to me, since I'm a part of you."

Now that's convenient, since I have to use mana to invoke [Soul Seeker].

"I heard from the green-haired Goddess that it took her quite a lot of Mana to be able to talk to me. You must have an absurd amount of Mana."

Really? Let's check that out for a while.

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Kagumina Kakuto

HP: 79/79     MP 78/79

I don't think so though.

I only used 1 MP so far, so I don't think this skill uses that much mana...

"I only used 1 MP."

"......You are such a cheat."

To be honest, I quite like this cheat, or else I can't talk to Victoria-san like this.

"You have the same opinion as me huh. Anyway, what should we do now?"

"Right now, we are in the demon continent. I suggest we go to a settlement. Where do you want to go? Since I am a part of you now, I'll go wherever you wish. Actually, can you even go anywhere? You are a tree right?"

Hmm... It's got to be the human continent, right?

Since I was a human once, I can sympathize with them. Also, with my humanoid form, I can communicate with them better, compared other types of fantasy-like races.

"Hello? Kakuto-san?"

But first I would need to find my way there. I suppose Victoria-san would know how to go there, since she has lived for quite long.

"K-a-k-u-t-o-s-a-m-a?"

Eek! Not that again!

"Stop calling me that!"

"I tried calling you, but you didn't hear. I thought you were dead or something."

Hey, don't tell a tree to die okay... you will be the sole cause of global warming. Although I don't think this world will encounter that problem.

"O-Okay, I decided to go to the human continent. Do you know the way there?"

"Yes. It's that way, towards your left. Walk straight and should find a bridge connecting to the human continent. So, how are you going to move?"

"It's simple."

I turned into my humanoid form.

"Eh? What did you do!?"

"I just turned into a humanoid form, is there something strange?"

"You are just full of surprises..."

Yes! Finally! I surprised her!

While celebrating in my heart, I walked towards the direction indicated by Victoria-san.

"I'm surprised that you are female."

That's what you are surprised at!?

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"What...happened...here..."

Nebula had just came to the lake to pray for her long-cherished Victoria. However, what she found there was a horrific scene.

The lake, which was once full of water, has dried up completely. All the lake's inhabitants had been killed.

Although shocked, she calmed down quickly.

"[Waterfall]"

She placed her hand, palm out, towards the now empty lake and invoked a skill. A gush of water appeared from her hand, filling the lake.

After a few minutes, the lake was completely full.

"Looks like we are going to have a little talk, Kakuto-san."

Her eyes sharpened.

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*Achoo!*

*Sniff* Looks like someone is talking bad about me again. I had been walking for three hours in the same direction, and along the way, what I saw was shocking.

The grass was a dead-yellow colour. The trees only had their trunks remaining. There was no sign of any living thing, other than monsters that are able to live in this condition. For some reason, those monsters avoided me. I wonder why?

Other than that, I noticed something even more interesting. When I walked along the path, the surrounding plants slowly began to change back to its original colour. The yellow grass turned green in an instant and the trees grew back their leaves.

So this is what the race Yggdrasil can do. Am I supposed to travel the entire planet of Ayashi then? Sounds fun. It will just be like the journey to the west.

"This is the first time I seen this. The plants are coming back to life."

Soon after, flowers started to bloom.

"Awah...So pretty..."

"Ah, I wish I could just smell them..."

"You can though."

"Huh? How?"

"Here."

I granted Victoria-san an ethereal body.

The leaf containing Victoria-san shined and a blue light appeared out of it. A figure of a lovely girl appeared out of the ball of blue light.

She has blue, long hair, tied in a ponytail. She had the same stature as me. Her face was similar to mine, but beauty-wise, she was trans-dimensional.

"Eh?" This is me?"

She looked at her hands, palms and all. She then looked at me while tilting her head.

"Kakuto-san, is this...?"

"Yup, that's your body in human form."

"I see, then,"

She hugged me.

E-Eeeeeeehhh!!!???

"You are so cute, Kakuto!!!"

Ugh...I don't think saying that with such a boyish name sounds nice.

"Erm, I think you should call me Mina, it sounds better."

Taking the word mina from Kagumina, I randomly said a girlish name.

"Alright, Mina-chan!"

Fueeee!?

What's this fuzzy feeling!?

She tightly embraced me for quite a while.

"Sorry, I just had to do that since I saw your humanoid form."

 "Well, I don't mind it."

It's my first time getting hugged by a girl. Aah, I never felt like this before!

"Why are you blushing, Mina-chan?"

Eh? I am?

"We are both girls you know? By the way, I don't swing like that, okay?"

"U-umu."

Damn it, why do I have to be a girl?

Not that I don't like it though...

"Besides, why can you touch me? I thought you are ethereal?"

"Hmm, it looks like I can only touch you, other than that..."

She crouched and tried to touch a flower growing from the grass, but it passed through her arms.

"Looks like I cannot touch anything else."

"Okay..."

Can she pass through walls if she is like this?

I started to think about what she could do with that power.

"Aah, you're blushing again."

Damn it! Stop thinking dirty thoughts!

After walking for a while with Victoria-san in tow, we reached the bridge.

"Over the bridge is the human continent huh..."

"Yes. We should reach there in an hour when we cross this bridge."

How do I say this...It's so long! A normal bridge shouldn't be more than 3 kilometres. This is obviously more than that!

"This looks more like a highway..."

"Highway? What's that?"

"Oh, it's just a very long bridge for vehicles to cross in my world."

"Vehicles? What's that?"

Heh, she surprisingly does not know much about this, even though she met the hero.

 "I'll tell you more when we find a suitable place to rest."

 *BOOM*

What was that? An explosion?

A cloud of dust was coming in our direction.

"Victoria-san, cover your mouth!"

"I don't have to though, since I'm ethereal."

Oh.

 I covered my mouth to prevent dust from entering my internal organs. Do I have organs in the first place? I'm too scared to know. I do not want to dissect myself.

After the dust cleared, I can clearly see a figure standing in front of the bridge.

"Yo, Kakuto. You and I are going to have a little talk..."

Eeeekkk! Scary! What's with that tone?

"N-Nebula-sama..."

The one who was blocking Kakuto's only way to the human continent, was Victoria's beloved master, Nebula Ditrupina.