MaruMA:Gaiden01:Chapter 2

Day Two

I needed GPS to get around my own bizarre castle.

Even if that can't exist because there aren’t any satellites orbiting this planet, I’d at least be able to figure out where I was and how to escape if I had a decent map.

“I’d even be able to find the back road shortcuts during rush hour.”

I want a Tadataka Inou for The Great Demon Kingdom.

“You know where we are.  We dropped down while trying to get away from Mickey so this is obviously the bottom floor of the guest housing.”

“And a monster’s den.”

Wolfram and I were squatted down in a corner of the room hugging our knees.  We made it through a tense night and the morning light is shining through the hole above our heads.  A pile of human bones is glowing a bluish white in the shade right next to us.

Although we reached the creature’s lair like we wanted, the courage to catch even a ball thrown by Terahara disappeared somewhere because the monsters were so scary.  After getting leaned on by the larvae, the two of us let out shrieks that can’t be put into writing and completely gave up.

Either because the weird sounds we made scared them or they were planning to dry us out for food storage, they didn’t try to eat us right away and simply left us alone after cutting off our escape route.

“You’re a wimp to the very core if you end up pathetically stranded in your own castle.”

“… Yeah, yeah… but you know I got sniffed up and down and my clothes got licked…”

“I did too.” Wolf scowls in displeasure as well.

“I wonder if they were checking if we’d be tasty.”

“Who knows.”

“I wonder if they’re planning on eating us as their coming-of-age party food once they turn into adults.”

“Who knows.”

“I wonder if I should change my name to Yuuri Hors D’oeuvre.”

“Stop.”

The reason Wolfram is so calm on the surface is that the larva spit out threads and wrapped themselves in cocoons halfway through the night.  The weird capsules with white, yellow and brown stripes were almost the size of station wagons.  Around twelve of them are scattered about vertically and horizontally in the cramped space.  As we absentmindedly sit on the floor like in gym class, we can’t even tell where the walls of the room are. On top of that, there are bright red eyes shining out of the cocoons.  They were all looking at us with their sparkling eyes as if saying ‘we’re watching you.’

“Only a rock climber would be able to get up these walls but if we just wait here we’ll end up like those guys.”

The skull on top of the mountain of bones like a star on a christmas tree was sending us a pitying gaze from deep within its empty eye sockets.  The last time a skull felt pity for me was during a dare in preschool.

That time I got so scared a wet my pants a little, but now I’m 16 so situations like these are nothing!

“Is that bravado?”

“Don’t even.  It’s because you told them not to report to Conrad that no one came looking for us last night.”

“If you hadn’t said you wanted to defeat the monster in the guest housing I wouldn’t be here.”

“No, even before that… let’s stop.  It'll never end.  It was my mistake to not gather any data on our enemy beforehand.”

That’s right.  Collecting data is important in any situation.  It was stupid to set off on a monster hunting adventure without gathering any intelligence.  And now there was a sparkling Antares constellation in front of us drawn out with shiny red eyes in cocoons.

“Maybe we should try shouting again.”

“We ran out of things to yell.”

I had sung all the baseball team songs.  I even sang the enemy team songs of Daiei, Osaka Kintetsu and even Rokkou Oroshi.  My throat was so scratchy I was close to begging ‘water, please water…’

“I’m thirsty.”

“Ah crap!  I was trying to forget!”

The choices we had were to become dried food, get eaten by the insects after they hatched or our original objective, defeating them while they were immobilized.

“… Just maybe… while they’re cocooned...”

I unsteadily stand up, twist Windpipe No. 1 and draw the blade.  I step towards the capsule within reach and try swinging at it, careful not to meet its gaze.

The blade chipped on the third swing.

“… It’s tough.”

“Something always goes wrong with whatever you do.”

That’s none of your business.

Thinking that maybe I could reach the hole in the ceiling if I climbed up on a vertical cocoon, I try climbing the tallest striped capsule.

I fell twenty times.

“… It’s slippery.”

“You can tell just by looking at it.”

“Come on, Wolf!  Stop sitting there daydreaming and think up a genius plan!  Don’t you want to get out of here?  Are you okay with dying here!?”

“Sign this before we die.”

He takes out a piece of folded, light green paper from his jacket pocket and holds out his favorite pen.  It’s a document that I can’t understand with my limited language ability.  However, I can understand the short phrase at the top.

“Marr..iage…Regis- hey!  This is a life or death situation!”

“That’s exactly why this is important.”

All the strength drains out of my body from the ridiculousness and I sink to the floor.  Of course the room is taken up by all the cocoons and there isn’t a spot for me to sit properly.  At first, I had wanted to be as far away from the monsters as possible and hugged my legs to my body.  However, human nerves are a strange thing and can adapt to any situation.  After a half a day passed and there was no development with the cocoons, I got used to my surroundings and ended up calmly leaning against the white, yellow and brown capsules.  I mean, they’re heavy and won’t move and their surface is smooth and cold so they are unexpectedly pleasing to the touch.

Besides, I was tired of being curled up and afraid.  Having nothing else to do, I ended up playing a ridiculous word game with my companion.  Even though we’re playing a completely normal game, I end up just saying a bunch of baseball terms and the words that come back at me are weird animal names that I’ve never heard of before.  In the end, we ended up playing this incomprehensible game with the mutual understanding that it was absolutely ridiculous.

“Base running.”

“Gujibokigodral.”

“Lions Express.”

“Sugabaniyacop.”

“P?  What kind of animal is that?  P, huh?  Poten-… hey wait.  This cocoon is shaking.”

I heard the sound of air leaking from the capsule I was leaning on.  When I hurriedly moved around to the front of it, the eyes were clearly blinking.

“This is bad.  Its Color Timer is blinking.  Ah!  There’s a hole here!  That’s weird.  There wasn’t even a scratch on that other one I tried to cut.  Hey, do you have anything to plug this up with?  Like clay or gum or some rice.”

Wolfram let out a hysterical yell and covered his ears with his hands.

“Huh!?  I must be hearing things.  There’s no way you’re trying to save what’s in that cocoon.”

“You heard right.  I said ‘let’s seal up this hole’.”

“For what!?  You came here to the guest housing to get rid of these things didn’t you?  Despite that, your plan failed and we ended up in a dangerous situation.  One less enemy is better.  The chances for our survival will go up.”

“But-”

I don’t want to admit it, but this time the spoiled prince is right.  In order for us to not become hors d’oeuvres for a coming of age ceremony and get out of this room alive, we need to kill each insect(?) the instant it comes out of its hard cocoon.  As long as we don’t know what kind of insect will come out of the cocoon, getting rid of as many as possible beforehand is a good plan. 90 is better than 100.  11 is better than 12…

“Man, even if 12 becomes 11 it doesn’t change the fact that we’re at a disadvantage!  I don’t want to use that stingy plan of getting rid of one of them while we can.  I mean, he managed to get to the cocoon stage.  It’d be unfair if he was the only one who didn’t make it all the way, right?  Well, we don’t know what kind of bug he’s gonna be, but maybe he’s a species that will buzz around in the air and journey to some far off country one day.”

The deep part of my brain with a high IQ knows that’s not what’s going to happen.  I always end up wrong when I let myself get carried away by my emotions.  Even giving up baseball in middle school was due to my emotions rather than my rationality.

Even so.

“It’d be too cruel if he was the only one who couldn’t fly around in the blue sky and see a far off world.  The laws of nature might be cruel like that, but if someone just helps out a little now they might be able to do something.  That’s why I’m going to help!  What’s up with this hole?  I wonder if it'll be like covering up a little bald spot.”

I scoop up some of the yellow mucus spread around and try plastering some over the hole.  A thin film covers the hole for a few seconds, but it quickly oozes off.  The shining eyes are steadily becoming weaker and there were pauses in the cocoon’s shaking.

“Hey, hey now, just hold on a little longer.  You’re going to regret it for the rest of your life if you die before seeing the face of your hors d’oeuvre.”

Staring at my fingertips, Wolfram let out an exasperated sigh that I feel like I’ve heard somewhere before.

“I’ve never met a wimp quite like you.”

“Don’t call me a wimp.”

“But…”

It seems like he decided against continuing that sentence.

He tears the paper he was holding into several pieces and scoops up a huge handful of mucus and smears it over the hole.  After carefully making sure there weren’t any bubbles, he keeps piling up some more.  Eventually the hole is securely plugged up and the air stops leaking out.

“Yes!  Even the Color Timer looks healthier!  Quick thinking pays off, Wolfram… but why so suddenly…?”

“People say that wimps have five minute souls.”

“No one says that.”

The two of us look away from each other to hide our embarrassed grins.

I knock on the cocoon’s shell five times and tell it to come out safely.  I don’t know what species these guys are, but that doesn’t mean they’ll do wrong by us after we did them a favor.

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