Strategy for Dealing with Problematic Girls

Inverse Life Force. That was what Jhin called the power that had slain Letishi. It was something he'd been secretly researching before he ever set foot in the Red Dragon Volcano, one of the methods he'd devised to deal with Letishi's fleshly mutation.

What do you do when both physical and magical resistance are sky-high?

Then you turn to true damage.

His original intention had been to study life force and find some way to produce its complete opposite, a Death Force. But he'd never once considered this: could two opposing things really allow you to derive one from the other in isolation?

Just as fire cannot be turned into water, what he'd worked out through reverse study wasn't any Death Force at all, but a power that reversed the process of life itself.

The Demon-Flame Four-Armed Gorilla had been his first test subject. Because it was his first attempt, Jhin couldn't yet control the range of effect well, which was why that strike had landed on its waist, and the flesh at its waist had gradually shrunk as if time itself were running backward, until at last it dissolved into pure nothingness and vanished.

The birth of most creatures requires the process of fertilization, and Inverse Life Force reverses a creature's growth all the way back through its life to the present. It's much like turning back time, except Inverse Life Force can only act upon living things, so it isn't as all-powerful as truly rewinding time.

Struck by this power, a life would return to its most primordial form, perhaps the life force drifting through the air, perhaps mere elements and magic.

That was why Letishi, whose mutation had gone in the direction of the flesh, said it was only right and proper that she die by Jhin's blade. No matter how overpowering the body, it was utterly useless against such a reversal.

Even bolstered by the Mermaid Empress's power, the strike condensed from Inverse Life Force hadn't fully taken shape. Not even Jhin knew whether, once fully formed, it could truly reach the point of reversing time.

With the last of her strength, Letishi sent him and Kyaru back to just outside the capsule house at the edge of Maple Syrup Valley. He held the unconscious Kyaru in his arms, and cradled against her were two vials of dragon's blood in different colors, one a golden blood that burned like flame, the other blood-red.

He shoved open the villa's front door and shouted into the interior, "Sumeru! Your emperor has returned!"

Megumin and Pecorine came rushing out of the living room like the wind, and when they saw him safe and sound with everyone brought home, the worry that had hung over their hearts finally settled.

Jhin handed Kyaru over to Pecorine. "I'm going to wake Kokkoro. Wait for me in the living room!"

"Mm."

Megumin raised a hand toward him, then quickly lowered it again, the longing in her eyes nearly spilling over. Pecorine soothed her gently, "Once Kokkoro wakes up, you'll have plenty of time to be with him."

"That's for certain. If he dares ignore me… I'll drink every last bottle of his cola!"

In Kokkoro's bedroom, Jhin opened the vial holding the pure dragon's blood with trembling hands and let a single drop of golden blood fall onto the flower ornament in her hair.

In an instant the ornament became like a real flower drinking in nourishment, giving off a rich floral fragrance that filled the room, and threads of black vapor, fine as hair, wormed their way out of her body and dissolved into the air.

"Ngh…" Kokkoro slowly opened her eyes, pressed a hand to her head, and sat up in bed. She gave Jhin an apologetic smile. "Master… I'm truly sorry, for making you—"

Before she could finish, Jhin pulled her tightly into his arms, holding her with such force it was as though he wanted to press her into his very body.

"Master… if you squeeze this hard, it's a little difficult for me to breathe."

Jhin silently eased the strength in his arms. He'd always treated Kokkoro's ambush as his own fault, that his precious little guide, someone he cherished so deeply, and yet he'd failed to protect her.

"I'm sorry… I couldn't protect you at the most dangerous moment."

"Master… please don't say that!"

Warm droplets fell onto the sensitive tip of the elf's ear. Kokkoro's eyes went wide at first, then shimmered with welling tears. "Master is a boy, and in his whole life he may shed tears at most three times… and one of those… was shed for me, which is such a terrible waste. But I… but I truly feel honored, and so very happy…"

She wrapped her arms around Jhin in turn and held him tight, and the ache in her nose finally sent the tears trembling in her eyes spilling down. "Master… let me hold you like this for a little while. I want to feel your warmth, your heartbeat, your scent with my own body."

It wasn't that the elven race lacked the emotion of "love"; they were simply far too slow to recognize it.

In truth, during her coma, Kokkoro's consciousness had been clear. Roughly on the day the Gourmet Edifice left Landosol, she had recovered her awareness under the healing of the Blade of Resurrection.

But no matter how hard she tried, in her mind there were black pillars, transformed into a cage, that sealed her consciousness away from her body, so she couldn't wake, and could only passively listen to everything happening around her.

Every word Jhin spoke to her, and every exchange between him and Kyaru, she had heard with perfect clarity.

When she learned from Megumin's muttering that he was going off on some unknown adventure, she was frantic with worry, longing to open her eyes and tell Jhin that she'd already woken, so that he wouldn't go risking himself. But she simply couldn't.

The waking of her mind and the slumber of her body tormented her endlessly, and the words Jhin spoke to her became the only medicine able to ease that pain. She turned over every sentence, every single word, again and again, and after who knows how many repetitions, those words crystallized into the two words "I like you," and at last they knocked open the door to her heart.

So… Master likes me… and I, I like Master too.

The two of them embraced in the room for about half an hour before emerging from the bedroom. Megumin couldn't wait to run over and circle around Kokkoro, and once she'd confirmed that Kokkoro was truly awake and her body felt no discomfort, she at once threw herself into Jhin's arms, stamping her feet while repeating his name in a muffled voice.

"Kokkoro, you're finally awake."

"Thank you for looking after me all this time, Pecorine."

"We're all companions. It's the least I could do."

"Oh, right, where's Kyaru? Where is she?"

The cheerful mood suddenly stalled. Pecorine pointed a little awkwardly at the sofa. "She's lying on the sofa right now and hasn't woken up yet."

"Master, Kyaru isn't also…"

Jhin sent her a reassuring look. "She's only temporarily unconscious. She'll wake by tomorrow at the earliest."

Back when the Mermaid Empress had buffed her, he'd checked Kyaru's body and found nothing wrong. She'd simply fainted and not yet come to.

"I see, that's good then."

"That's hardly the right thing to say. Don't you know—"

Kokkoro cut Megumin off with a smile before she could say something that would sour the mood. "I've forgiven her."

"Huh?" Jhin was certain he hadn't yet told her that whether to forgive Kyaru was hers to decide.

"Master… actually… when I was unconscious… I was… I was aware."

Kokkoro fluttered her lashes, her gaze darting away evasively, and Jhin caught on at once, when he'd been helping her bathe, she'd been able to sense that too!

____

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