Drinking that tea in one go was the biggest mistake I’d ever made.

In the heat of the moment, I’d forgotten just how potent this poison was. As soon as I threw the cup away, my head was spinning like a windmill, while every color in the rainbow spectrum started to appear all at once at everything I looked at. My steps were staggering. The ground didn’t even feel solid enough to stand up.

Focus, Yakushi! Don’t let the sensation get to you! Think! Your eyes and brain should be better than ever!

I tried to turn my head left and right as fast as my neck could allow me to, absorbing every kind of information that I could muster. The target was in front of me, but it didn’t look like it would ram at me any time soon. From the way that its body trembled, the surprise attack it did just now was just as much of a gamble as the cup of poison I’d drunk, and now it was paying the price. Its joints were likely busted, if not at least nearly at that state. Meaning that if I could hit there, I’d win.

Akari had left my head and was now in her battle stance at my side—my right side, to be exact. Aside from the busted tree behind me, nothing could be used as a platform anymore. Even the rock just now had been smashed to pieces; those small bits of debris were now lying about throughout the battlefield, but none of them would be useful for extra aerial advantage…

Wait, no, I had it all wrong!

They couldn’t be used to gain aerial advantage, but they could be used for something else! Accounting for the differences in sizes, the way that the beetle was staggering just like me…

“It could work,” I steeled myself, giving my cheeks a big slap of awakening. At the same time, the opposing force had recovered most of its function, and was stomping its front legs on the ground as an intimidating tactic.

“Akari, 60 degrees north-east!” I gestured an order while mustering all my strength to run towards the perpendicular direction of it.

As I expected, even with our little time together, she could see the same world I did. From the corner of my eye, I could spot a rather short, but flexible, tree. I might not have known what kind of species it was, but looking at the way its branches bent… no, curved, from the rocky shards stuck in them, I knew it was the perfect stepping stone.

Not for a skyward jump, but a slingshot of frontal assault.

The first jump I ordered was for Akari to get to the tree. Once the target was in her sight, the red critter turned around and readied her hind legs for another jump, pushing the rubber-like tree back with her lower body strength alone.

In a split instance, she rocketed out of the tree like a crimson arrow. If her slash made it to the beetle’s hind legs, this battle would be as good as won. However, my opponent was much tougher and smarter than I expected.

In order to avoid Akari’s slash, it had two choices. One was to defend with its large outer wings, the jet-black armor that it had not yet unsheathed. And that would be a foolish option—if it ever opened its wings, its inner body would be exposed, which would be a death penalty had Akari avoided its counter and delivered another attack. The other choice was to push forward with its near-broken legs and go on the offensive, which would put it into a 50-50 duel against an opponent that could have gone either way.

But that was if it would attack Akari. Instead, it had found a much better prey.

My running forward had made a straight line among us three. By charging forward, not only would the Herakabuto succeed in avoiding Akari’s death blow, but it would also succeed in its original attempt of killing me off. And by attacking me, the “master”, Akari would surely suffer from it, lowering the effectiveness of her current attack as well as her will to fight afterwards. It was a foolproof plan.

As the beast rushed forward like a freight train, ready to ram its trident horns into my feeble body, there was no way that I could defend myself. It was game over. This bet…

”… is my win, sucker!”

“You thought that I was careless enough to run forward like that, accidentally making a perfect line between me, you, and Akari? Think again!”

I had long noticed that I would be the perfect target for the beetle. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that Akari’s attack, as well as my running forward, both were mere baits. The perfect baits for the stars to align for the hulking monster, to kill both master and critter in one fell swoop.

However, because victory was so close to its grasp, it had forgotten one important thing.

The debris that broke off when it shattered the rocks, they were no mere pebbles on the road.

Since the rock’s size was too massive even for the Herakabuto, when it broke through to attack me, the chunks were still large enough, sharp enough, to matter. With its legs already weak after the rush, its head not thinking straight after ramming through, and the perfect situation where I gave it the “optimal” move to kill me, the result was clear.

The beast took the bait, rushed forward, only to be incapacitated by its own splinters.

“Stealth Rock—the best way to squash bugs, won’t you say?” Wiping off the sweat from my forehead, I let out a dry laugh.

At the same time, Akari jumped from her landing spot to my shoulder, crying out victory. “Kuri!”

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“Yeah, you did a great job,” petting her head, I answered. It was a tough battle, and we were nearly dead, but we were still the ones emerging victorious. And now…

The fog in my brain was clearing. A sense of dread filled my system as I tried to chase it away with a deep breath, to no avail.

All I needed to do was to finish the job. It was so simple.

I took a step closer. But the rest of my body didn’t move.

And now…

“What… am I doing?”

This monster had attacked the village… did it?

Only now did I realize that I never knew the actual case. There was an alarm, yes, but aside from Midorikawa being blown back here, I hadn’t seen anything else. The beetle was aggressive, yes, but what if it wasn’t attacking people without a purpose?

Contrary to popular belief, wild animals wouldn’t attack humans for no reason. They’d only do so if their territory was threatened, or if they felt like they were in danger. Even in the case of extreme hunger, there was little evidence that predators would attack humans, let alone the fact that this thing, giant as it was, was still a beetle—an insect that fed off nectar and honey.

And yet… I was this close to killing it. No, I would have killed it had it not been for the toxic honey finally wearing off. Once I stopped seeing the world in squiggly lines and the adrenaline from the battle was cleared away, only questions remained.

The creature lightly sounded, almost like a purr from a proud lion nearing its deathbed. It must have also known that its time was near. But…

“Akari,” I turned to my partner. “I don’t think I can do it. So I’ll listen to you.”

Taking a deep breath, I asked the one question that I had wanted to avoid all my life.

“Do you want to kill it?”

“Kuri…”

“… Yeah, I should have known, huh?” I let out a sigh. Of course she couldn’t decide for me. The fact that they were distant relatives in the animal kingdom was one thing, but now, I could tell that we’d bonded enough to not want to hurt each other. If I—a mere human, couldn’t bring myself to kill it, then how could a fellow insect like Akari could?

“Now the question is, what to do with this thing…” I turned over to the lying beetle. But little did I realize, only a single moment was enough for the wildest events to happen.

From behind me, a green silhouette rushed forward. In front of me, hiding behind the beetle’s giant body, I could hear something break, then a large puncturing sound of a needle. From the sides, a red and a blue blur clamped the beetle, resulting in a quick, but resounding crack of exoskeleton and splash of gut.

The poor thing didn’t even have time to cry out its last cry. It was dead on the spot.

All I could hear was a calm, unflinching voice.

“Good job, team. Both threats have been neutralized.”

I didn’t want to speak up. But if I didn’t speak up now, I couldn’t live with myself.

“Why did you kill it?”

“Why? Kid, what do you mean ‘why’?” The green figure was the first to respond. “You’ve tasted its assault yourself. Do you think threats like that should just roam around?”

“It could just be defending its territory. We don’t know…”

“It’s not.” From behind, the black armor sounded. “Must be nice coming from a land without struggle.”

“We have our own problems, Black,” the azure armor scoffed. “The kid might be naive, but don’t disrespect us. We’re struggling for survival like any other here in the village.”

“Enough, you two,” finally, Akabane spoke, cutting off the figurative conversation with a literal chop of his arm between the two.

Turning to me, the crimson armor asked:

“Yakushi-kun, why do you think killing is unnecessary?”

“Because… They just want to live their lives. We have no right to kill them.”

“Well, in this case, the Herakabuto did attack us first, but let’s just assume that we were wrong about that. Let’s say they really did nothing wrong, and somehow we were trespassing onto their territory. Do you think we shouldn’t kill them?”

“Of course…”

“Then let me ask you this, Yakushi-kun,” Akabane’s voice firmed up, as if his body had turned to steel himself. “How would we eat? Or rather, what would we eat?”

“I… fruits… and vegetables…”

“Fruits and vegetables won’t feed a whole village, Yakushi-kun. As an Unborn yourself, you should know this better than anyone else. We can only gather so much.”

“But…”

“And it’s not like we’re torturing the Omushi for fun, either,” not letting me finish, Akabane continued. “Even as they attacked us, we tried to give them the quickest death possible. They wouldn’t even feel pain as they died. And when we eventually leave this world, we serve as nutrients for them, it’s their way of getting back at us. We feed on the Omushi, and the Omushi feeds on us. It’s the circle of life, and you have to accept it, whether you like it or not.”

I couldn’t refute his words. I knew they were right. Even if the honey had lost its effects on me, I could still see that their teamwork was flawless. They had truly struck the beast in all of its weak points as fast as possible, killed off its nerves to deliver their brand of “painless death” to it. The corpse would then not be put to waste—the creature’s meat would be consumed by the villagers, while the exoskeleton I imagined would make fine armors and weapons like the ones they were wearing.

And yet, I still couldn’t accept them. But what could I do? In a world where I barely had the knowledge of, with my abilities being next to nothing aside from my eyes and brain on a certain drug… I couldn’t even guarantee my own safety, let alone fight against them for my ideals.

I’m sure Akabane knew of this as well. But he still chose to ignore it altogether. “By the way, I think from this little scuffle, you’ve proven yourself to be more than enough to stay with us, wouldn’t you say?”

“... No objections.” The black-armored man answered with a solemn voice, still not looking at me.

“Well that settles that!” Clapping his hands, Akabane concluded. “Yakushi-kun, you’re welcome to stay here, and we’ll have a feast to take you in…”

“I… don’t eat meat.”

“… Oh, right, I should have realized. No matter, we’ll get you the best fruits and berries we could find!”

The man let out a hearty laugh, before leaning up close to me and whispered into my ears:

“And should you have any other opinions on how we operate, you’re welcome to say so once you’re strong enough, okay?”

There was no threat in those words. If anything, that was the encouragement that Akabane was giving me.

If I wanted them to listen to me, I had to become stronger. If I wanted to show off my ideals, I had to be stronger. Such was the way of survival, and it would be a lesson I’d never forget again.