Keeping 4.1 Light
Aufel. A demon whose bust dwarfed her head, and whose ram horns dwarfed her bust. Between the chiseled abs and the finely carved arms, you'd peg her for a close-combat fighter — yet against all odds, she prefers guns and crossbows.
Lauel. A solemn celestial, unforgettable for the four sacred wings at her back. Yet against all odds, she has a taste for blasphemous fashion: a hood draped over her head, its trailing hem and scraps of cloth strung together with thin chains, barely managing to cover the essentials.
Of course — whether it was the sacred air about her, or vulgarity so extreme it circled back around, the ensemble never actually stirred anything lustful.
So what did these two have in common?
"Scandalous?"
"Vulgar?"
"They're the action captains. That's what."
The two of them served as the action captains of their respective races. When trouble found the celestials, Lauel mobilized; when it found the demons, Aufel came running. And that was exactly why the pair had collided before anyone else this time.
"They say it's an insult, that's what."
"The chest?"
"The hips?"
"The heart!"
Vigilance Captain Ellie could not stand those two. Celestials and demons alike tended to put more faith in the pair than in her own Vigilance Corps — and as the captain responsible for the city's public order, that apparently grated on her.
"I don't even have a clue how I'm supposed to rehabilitate you two."
Rehabilitation in Limadimensio was, by principle, the Vigilance Corps' duty. Oversight by the clergy and a jury of observers was mandatory, of course — the Corps had heavy hands, and left to its own devices it tended to take correction further than strictly necessary.
"And that's when the Guardians did us a tremendous favor. Thanks to them, you two will now receive the most horrific punishment... my apologies — the most horrific rehabilitation."
"Do your worst. What, you gonna pull our fingernails out?"
"Ahh, if anything, I find myself looking forward to it..."
Aufel and Lauel didn't so much as blink at the Vigilance Captain's threats.
That is — not until they heard what came next.
"For the next week, the two of you will go everywhere holding hands."
"What? Hey! Vigilance Captain! Are you insane!? Me? With her?"
"Th-then pronounce a death sentence instead! How could I... with such a filthy creature...!"
"What did I tell you? The most horrific rehabilitation."
The Vigilance Captain smiled wickedly.
Ah. So that's why she'd said she needed a wide-open space. Well, nothing to be done if this is the rehabilitation in question.
"The moment your hands come apart, the week starts over from scratch. I'll make allowances for showers, but no spending all day in one. Shower time is thirty minutes. Go a second over, and it's back to day one."
"Th-that's..."
"What about the toilet?"
"Ten minutes per trip. But if you blatantly pace back and forth to stall, it's back to day one."
"Good heavens... what on earth did I ever do to deserve this?"
"Ooooh... O venerable ancestors... look upon me and take pity..."
"So when do we start?"
"Right! We simply don't start! We ignore the whole thing and—"
"The moment you do, every celestial and demon in this city will be treated to the sight of walking hand in hand 'in your names.'"
"...There's no way out of this, is there."
The two of them were the action captains of celestials and demons alike. Should the pair abandon their rehabilitation, every last one of their kind would take the punishment in their stead, under their names.
Anyone who'd watched them snipe at each other could tell the relationship between celestials and demons was hardly warm. If word got out that they'd tried to weasel out of their correction, the two would never be able to show their faces again.
"Fine. We do it, all right? We do it. Urgh... count to three and grab?"
"Wait. Allow me a deep breath first."
"Hup."
"Yah."
"A-aaah...! Let go! I said let go of me!"
"I-I wasn't mentally prepared...!"
The two Guardians seized Aufel's and Lauel's hands and forced them together. In that instant, the pair erupted into a furious struggle.
Wow. Seeing something flicker between 8-bit, rough sketch, and pixel art in real life was a first for me.
The violent repulsion bursting from between the two went tearing through the warehouse.
"Good thing we're watching from a distance."
"Pudding's flying—!"
I, at least, was tucked into the corner of the warehouse like some cutpurse haunting the back of a tavern, so I was fine — but Pudding had been swept up by the storm and was spinning through the air in circles. Not that she was in any real danger. If anything, she looked like she was enjoying herself.
White sparks crackled off the pair's clasped hands. As the repulsion swelled ever stronger, flashes of light began leaking from their eyes, their ears, their mouths.
And then, a short while later...
"Ugh! Hkk, hheuk...!"
"H-horrible... no more... I can do no more..."
"...I didn't know it would be this bad."
"So they really do hate it this much..."
Unable to withstand the shockwave that had burst out of them like a detonation, Aufel and Lauel had been slammed into opposite walls. Aufel, cold sweat pouring off her like rain, had started to bawl; Lauel clutched her throat and dry-heaved.
Honestly, I hadn't expected them to hate it quite this much either.
"Please... please, just shorten the sentence... a whole week of this is too cruel..."
"Exile me or execute me, either will do... no — better yet, let me be erased from society entirely..."
"...I didn't know they'd hate it this much either."
Even the Vigilance Captain stood there gaping, unable to hide her astonishment.
"But rehabilitation is rehabilitation. It has to be at least this bad, or nobody would be scared into never doing it again. Wouldn't you say?"
"Th-that's...!"
Aufel and Lauel wailed at the captain's merciless verdict. Something told me the days ahead were not going to be smooth sailing.
"So how does it all turn out after this?"
I'd joined in person to see the opening story with my own eyes, but I doubted I could keep up with whatever came next. Maybe it was that everyone here had stamina to spare, but by the time I managed a step or two, they'd already be off in the distance. Times like these, my bad legs really did rankle.
Still, according to the secondhand intelligence gathered by the fairies, all sorts of uproarious, fascinating things had happened. I couldn't get the precise story — the fairies had been too excited to make any sense — but well, if they got that worked up over it, it must have been a genuinely entertaining tale.
"By the way, here's something else I never saw coming."
My level had gone up. The number that had sat at zero my entire life had finally changed.
"So that's the protagonist treatment, huh."
Those who stood at a protagonist's side gained experience. For a collection-type mobile game, wasn't that just standard operating procedure? Most players would simply pump EXP items into their units and max them out, of course — but there was no guarantee this game worked that way.
[You can gain EXP by using a Training Report.]
Ah, there it was. Not that I could make use of that particular shortcut.
I was a non-playable character, after all.
Still, the fact remained that experience accrued just from staying at the protagonist's side. Which meant, perhaps, this could solve the problem of my frail body?
"Never mind that I have no idea how this system window is even supposed to work."
My status window had no hard numbers. Just three categories — Body, Brain, and Spirit — and a handful of vague assessments.
"Ah. Just as I thought."
Figures. I'd leveled up, and there was no reward. No — wait. There was one.
"A battle pass. It's a battle pass."
Level up all you liked, and the prize was a status window cosmetic. I'd gone digging around half-hoping there was something more, and come away with nothing but disappointment. And yet... watching the cherry blossoms flutter behind my name on the status window did give me a small, unexpected glow of pride.
"There's a real pleasure in piecing this world together, bit by bit."
"Hm?"
"...Huh?"
Messages had suddenly flooded my field of view. Had something gone wrong somewhere?
"Big trouble!"
"What is it..?"
"It's supposed to go BOOM... BAM, but it keeps coming out BOOMBAM-tick!"
"...BOOM... BAM? BOOMBAM-tick?"
Ah. Don't tell me it's that.
The combat phases that cropped up now and then in the middle of story mode. And if it was a timing issue, a gimmick battle at that.
"Well, I can hardly just sit here doing nothing..."
I considered asking the fairies to relay an explanation, but this felt like something I'd have to go explain in person.
[Make the judgment window a bit more lenient... That last one was far too lenient.]
...Well, this was an unexpectedly fun thing to watch. No — no, it wasn't. Laughing at other people's suffering is bad manners. Right. First things first, let's hurry over to the problem area.
Shff, shuuush... fwip, fwip, fwip, BWOOOM-bam.
"Why won't it land...!"
"We can't block when we're holding hands!"
Arriving at the scene of the crisis, I found Aufel and Lauel hunting a wild Ice Tusk with their hands firmly clasped together.
"I can't find the timing!"
"Guardian! Signal us on the beat..."
"I-is it this one?"
"Wrong again?"
"I tried every single beat, one by one, I swear!"
[Landing a skill at the exact timing grants a bonus effect.]
[Landing skills simultaneously at the exact timing grants an even greater bonus effect.]
Ah — so this was the Just-timing and combo-skill tutorial. In games with action elements, certain timings are sometimes everything, and certain characters' skills synergize with each other. Apparently, now was the time to teach those elements.
"The humiliation... it doesn't hurt, but... no, my chest aches..."
"Truly, to be bested by a mere boar...! This is all that demon's doing!"
"Where on earth is it? I'm certain I tried here, and here, and here..."
"The timing seems to change every time!"
As if. The timing was fixed.
"Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, now, tat."
"...Huh?"
"Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, now, tat. That's the beat."
"Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, now, tat?"
"Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, NOW! Ah — got it!"
At long last, the two of them had pressed their skills on the beat. Aufel and Lauel's clasped hands lit up. The Ice Tusk came charging at them headlong — and the instant a dull tik sounded, its molars burst apart in a shower of shards.
Counter landed with a skill at the perfect timing!
3× bonus damage — and the enemy's attack power is cut in half!
A fist wreathed in a whirl of darkness and holy light. That fist drove a perfect counter home into the Ice Tusk.
It truly was flawless timing... hold on. That was dead on the beat. So why had every single attempt before it failed?