Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.
Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.
The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.
"Speech"
Time*
Chapter 82: Damn It! Why?!
"DO SOMETHING, CHIKAO!" Momoyo screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking with panic as she clung on for dear life.
I quickly use the Error's Uniqueness to Steal the distance between us and the ground below, instantly placing us on solid footing as we land on our feet. That one move alone drains all the Spirituality I had left from the Error Pathway.
However, what I didn't expect was that we hadn't landed on actual ground at all.
It was water.
We were only a good couple of feet away from the beach, but that small mistake was enough. Not even a second later, all of us dropped straight into the water with a loud splash.
"AH! HELP! I CAN'T SWIM! MASTER, HELP ME!" Alucard screamed, thrashing wildly as she struggled to keep her head above the surface. Her arms slapped against the water in a panic, but she couldn't steady herself. Within seconds, she slipped under, her voice cutting off as the water swallowed her.
"How the hell do you not know how to swim?!" I shouted in outrage, though I was already diving after her before the words fully left my mouth.
I swam down through the water, grabbed hold of Alucard, and kicked hard to bring us both back to the surface. The moment she started panicking and nearly dragged me down with her, I smacked the side of her head to snap her out of it.
"Stop flailing, or we're both going under!" I yelled at Alucard the moment we resurfaced, scowling at her as I kept us both above the water.
That finally got through to her. She stopped struggling and clung to me for dear life, still trembling from panic.
"Did you forget you can just appear at the shoreline instead of staying in the water?!" I snapped. "You know, being anywhere and wherever?!"
I quickly looked around for Momoyo, only to see that she was already standing on the shoreline, watching us from a distance with an amused smirk on her face.
I let out a sigh, then quickly swam toward the shore with Alucard clinging to my back, her arms locked around me like she was afraid the water itself would drag her away.
The entire time, she kept whining about how it would be the water that finally took her out, not the hands of a human.
"Seriously?" I stared at Alucard, who had only moments ago been panicking like an actual little girl who couldn't swim and was about to drown. Now, she had already returned to standing there like a smug, noble lady, the kind who could kill without blinking an eye.
"Hey, blame God for cursing me with an overwhelming fear of large bodies of water when more than half of my body is deep into the water." Alucard explained, looking anywhere but in my general direction. "Not to mention, I can't exactly think straight when I'm panicking for my life. And no, I won't actually die from it, and yes, I do know that, but I'll still be completely unable to do anything except panic and sink to the bottom."
"Huh." I stared blankly at Alucard, then looked over at Momoyo, who was also staring blankly at her. After a moment of shared silence, I looked back at Alucard. "Anything else I should know about that's similar to you being cursed to panic and sink in large bodies of water?"
"I can't eat garlic or anything with garlic in it whatsoever. If I do, I end up with a bad case of a cold and can't do much when I'm sneezing that much." Alucard put on a serious face as she said this.
"Okay, moving on. Alucard, go ahead and scout this world, then report back on what kind of place we've ended up in. I want to know whether this is a world with creatures like vampires and werewolves, or one of those fantasy worlds with dwarves, elves, and similar races." I ordered the No-Life Queen, gesturing toward the unfamiliar land beyond the beach.
"Master, you're lucky I've been studying other subjects recently while handling a few things for you. Otherwise, I wouldn't even know what dwarves or elves are. In any case, give me a second." Alucard closed her eyes and focused, her expression becoming unusually still as she began extending her awareness beyond the shoreline.
"By the way, Chikao, do you know how to build a shelter, or are we going to have to find an abandoned place somewhere in this world and take it over?" Momoyo asked, looking over at me as she brushed a strand of hair behind her left ear. "I don't know whether the changes you made to my debit card will work here. If they do, we could just stay at a hotel for the night."
"I think I might be able to build one. Well, not through the normal methods, at least, if you know what I mean." I wiggled my eyebrows at Momoyo while keeping a completely blank expression on my face, causing her to snort and lightly bump her shoulder against mine. "But I'm fairly sure this world should be similar enough to ours. They probably have credit cards and online purchases here, at the very least."
"If this world isn't that technologically advanced, then what?" Momoyo rested her head on my right shoulder and leaned against me. "Does that mean we'll have to take over someone's home? I'm fine with that if the place is abandoned, but if there are people living there. Assuming they aren't some stupid thugs in over their heads, then I'm guessing you'll have to build us a shelter, huh, Chikao?"
"Either that, or, as you said before, we could take over an abandoned place. Maybe even one owned by some stupid thugs." I smile at Momoyo before looking over at Alucard, who was still standing there blankly with her eyes closed. "Man, this world must be larger than ours if Alucard is taking this long to gather information about it."
And just like that, Alucard was back. She turned her head toward me with a noticeable frown on her face.
"Is it possible for us to leave this world and go somewhere else instead, Master?" Alucard asked, even going so far as to pout to show just how strongly she felt about the place. "I would rather not stay in this world at all, if possible."
"Why? Are there a bunch of vampire hunters in this world that could actually threaten your life, Alucard?" I raised an eyebrow at her after sharing a brief glance with Momoyo.
"This entire planet has more water than land!" Alucard screamed at the top of her lungs, her expression twisting with horror. "In fact, this planet is massive! There are thousands of islands! I gathered information as quickly as possible, but I can still sense even more islands beyond the areas I've already scouted!" She clenched her fists at her sides, looking genuinely offended by the very existence of the ocean. "I hate water!"
"So, are we on an island, then?" Momoyo asks Alucard as she glances around at the unfamiliar shoreline and the seemingly endless stretch of water beyond it.
"Yup. This island is completely undeveloped and mostly overgrown with forest." Alucard explained dully, staring up at the sky in visible frustration. "Its most significant landmark is a tall, almost sheer butte with five empty treasure chests sitting on top of it. The animals here are strange, too. Most of them seem to blend the traits of two or more ordinary animals, like pigs with lion manes and rabbits with snake bodies." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Then there's a person or something close enough to one, I suppose. He's a man stuck inside a treasure chest, with only his head, hands, and feet sticking out. He even has enough green hair to make him look like a shrub."
"Looks like you'll have to build us a shelter after all, huh, Chikao?" Momoyo smiled, seemingly unbothered by the strange animals or the fact that a man trapped inside a treasure chest had been the island's only resident before our arrival.
"Looks like it." A bead of sweat rolled down the side of my face. "I have a guess about what kind of world we're in. For now, though, we should prepare something for dinner." I turned toward Alucard. "Could you grab some food from one of those numerous islands? Try to take it from people who have so much food available that they wouldn't even notice a small amount going missing."
"Really, Master? You're turning me into a food delivery worker now?" Alucard stared at me with dull, unimpressed eyes. Then, a second later, her expression lit up with sudden excitement. "Because you certainly can! Finally, you're giving me more orders!" She disappeared before I could respond, no doubt already searching multiple islands for the highest-quality food she could find.
"Wow, she sure forgot all about her curse involving water." Momoyo let out a low whistle at the end. "So, Chikao. How exactly do you plan on making us a shelter, hm?" She wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed herself against me, looking up at me with an amused smile.
I didn't respond for a moment. Instead, I tapped into the Sefirot: Knowledge Moor, drawing upon the Knowledge required to create a proper shelter. The information poured directly into my brain within seconds, far more than I was used to receiving at once. It was enough to leave me with a sharp headache, but I now knew exactly what needed to be done.
"Give me an hour or two." I rolled up my left sleeve, already organizing the newly acquired knowledge in my head. "Also, would you mind dealing with the island's residents while I'm building us a shelter?"
"Will do!" Momoyo said cheerfully. She leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the lips before walking away with a wide smirk on her face, clearly pleased with herself.
3 hours later*
"Fuck. Looks like my first choice of becoming the Above the Sequence: Lord of Mysteries won't cut it here." I stared at the Door's Uniqueness resting in my left hand, currently taking the form of a small blue key. I had obtained it after perform a recent adventuring once I'd finished building a shelter in the form of a log cabin. "Well, I guess I won't have to keep using the Error's Uniqueness to steal the Traveler's Door ability from the Right Glove of Traveling anymore."
I let out a frustrated sigh, rubbing my temple as the lingering headache from the Knowledge Moor continued to throb.
Turning around, I looked out through the open front door of the newly built log cabin, waiting for Momoyo to return. Alucard had already come back long ago after making several trips, bringing enough food to fill the storage area completely.
"Master, I'm back! This time, I brought ice cream!" Alucard announced excitedly, holding up a wooden bucket filled with chocolate ice cream.
"Why ice cream?" I stare at Alucard, baffled by this, before glancing down at the container in her hands. "Also, why is it in a wooden bucket?"
"I like ice cream." Alucard said proudly, lifting the wooden bucket slightly. "I got a little too excited when I found an island where they make it. So, I grabbed a wooden bucket nearby, cleaned it thoroughly, and filled it with a good amount of chocolate ice cream."
"I see..."
A bead of sweat rolled down the side of my face as I stared at Alucard, only now realizing that the No-Life Queen had such an unexpected sweet tooth.