Micchi Versus the New World - Chapter 137 (Patreon)

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Chapter 137

Yui and I came back to Lady Katrine's palace the next day to check up on how Ririko was doing. Taking all those hits and punching the primordial lifecrystal into Sacchan took a toll on her. Katrine said she had the best healers looking after her, but I couldn't help but be worried. The bitch proved me wrong. I wasn't going to turn a blind eye to that.

"So, exactly how much stronger did Sacchan get?" Yui asked while we were led through the palace by a guard.

"Dunno. Haven't tested anything yet. Feels weird though. It feels like I traded a stick for a gun. Like I just know Sacchan is a helluva lot stronger now," I explained as best I could.

The guard stopped in front of a room like any other along the extravagant corridor. This one, however, was guarded by two others in royal, plate armor digs. From Katrine's personal guard, it looked like.

"Lady Katrine and Lady Ririko do not wish to be disturbed right now," one of them awkwardly said.

"The hell not? She snoozing?" Yui asked.

"Well…" The other shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

I pushed them out of the way and opened the doors myself.

The bed was empty. Katrine and Ririko were each lying on lounging chairs on the balcony, dressed in bathing suits and soaking in the sun. A posse of demon imps painted their fingernails and toenails while they relaxed. Two other demons, humanoid, massaged their shoulders.

"What happened to recovering?" I threw my hands in the air.

"Oh, hey!" Ririko lifted her sunglasses and smiled. "I am recovering. What's it look like? Kat here knows exactly what a girl in pain needs. Sunshine, pampering, freshly-painted nails, and…" She picked up a tall glass containing slushy liquid and sipped heartily. "What's this called again?"

"Patallan nut and grimango smoothie. It promotes skin, hair, and bone health. Chamberlain, please bring another for my esteemed guest and two extra for our new guests," Katrine ordered a finely-dressed imp.

"Right away, my lady." The imp took a bow and returned into the room's bar to make more beverages.

"We came to check if you were okay. Guess we didn't need to come at all," I groaned.

When Ririko turned our way, Yui made a face.

"Holy shit, you look—"

I clocked Yui over the head with my fist.

Ririko had scars all over. Some were like trenches across her cheeks. Most were small cuts, a shade lighter than her tanned complexion.

"Healing magic stopped the bleeding but not the scarring. No amount of makeup is going to hide them either. Just make me look even more like a clown, right?" Ririko grinned playfully, but her lips quivered from making that self-own joke.

The imp came back to replace Ririko's empty glass with another mango nut smoothie. He handed one to me and Yui, too.

"Let's go, Yui. Looks like Ririko's fine." I turned to leave.

"We're going already? We just got here and my legs are sore!" Yui complained.

I got as far as the door and paused.

"I haven't forgotten about that promise. I'll send you back once we've settled the score with Chika," I said.

"Sounds good." Ririko chuckled. "See? You really can be a lot cuter when you're honest~"

Ignoring the jab, we left the palace with Yui on my back. Rugal was downstairs in a heated discussion with some demon military officers. The spat ended with them storming off.

"Not used to seeing you with demons unless it's to bash your hard head into 'em," I said.

"Neither Roila nor its leadership wants to fight alongside us against the demon lord. It makes no sense. They appear to have no love for her, but they wouldn't resist her either." Rugal folded his arms and sighed.

"Ahhh, I know how it is!" Yui chimed in after draining her smoothie empty. "When Anego and I became bosses of our schools, the chumps under us didn't like us either. If someone came in to challenge us, they wouldn't lift a finger to help."

"That doesn't sound like very good leadership," he said.

"It ain't anything to get complicated about. You fight long enough, then they start respecting you and fight with you. Hell, some would even fight in your place. Those were the ones you kept around. For Chika—" I choked down the rest of my words.

For Chika, the demons that she united were beginning to turn on her. Lady Katrine and the city of Roila folded pretty damn easily. The Chika from before would have everyone under her thumb, talking her up to other people…

I scratched my head trying to make sense of things.

Right now, Chika wasn't doing anything spectacular or worth talking about. At any point, Scoth, Amarinth, Kazaar, Mou'nan, Jinwa… the entire world could have fallen under her control if she just lifted her finger. Instead, she was just sitting on that throne in the middle of this floating island. Waiting for us.

Could it be that—

"What's the matter, Anego?" Yui asked worriedly.

"I… I don't think Chika ever cared about conquering anything in this world as the demon lord," I said.

"How does that make sense? She has been laying siege to our cities using transportation obelisks. The former Sultan, Yusef, and Queen of Mou'nan, Ririko, colluded with demons to attack us," Rugal reminded me.

"I know. It won't make sense to you, Rugal, but… Yui, what if she was doing all of this to poke at you and me?" I asked.

"Stirring up trouble in someone's turf, sending muscle as a message, making a mess of things, and talking smack… sounds like it's all something we'd do to start a gang war back home," Yui said.

Nothing the demons did made any fucking sense to begin with. They weren't a big threat. We beat them at every strategic battle. The war was a joke. We rolled through that. The only thing that makes sense was us being lured up here, like a couple of punks taking the bait to fight in a park.

"Rugal, I got a favor to ask: when we hit the demon lord's castle, I don't want none of you coming in with us. It's going to be between me, Yui, Kaoru, Ririko, Anya… and Chika," I said.

"Prince Kain will want to send all the help to you that he can." Rugal grunted.

"That's just the guy Princey-boy is. But for everyone's sake, you gotta tell him no. Got it?"

I didn't wait for an answer. Instead, I walked off with Yui and headed back to the tavern we were staying at. On the way there, however, Yui started pulling on my hair and pointing to something in the distance. A group of demon kids were bullying someone. One of them was dragging him by the horn and another by the tail into an alley.

Yui wriggled off and chased after them yelling, "Hey, pick on someone your own size!"

"Yuck, it's the surface-dwellers. Run before they give you surface-cooties!" the leader shouted.

They ran off, leaving the kid behind. He curled up against the wall, face buried behind his knees. When I caught up to them, Yui was trying to cheer him up.

"Leave me alone! I don't want your surface-cooties!" he cried.

I rolled my eyes. "That shit ain't real. Get over yourself."

"How come you didn't fight back? A one-two pow to the kisser will send 'em running!" Yui said, throwing punches in front of her.

"I don't want to fight… There's so many of them. If I do, they're just going to hurt me more. Thanks for scaring them off, but… I-I gotta go." He jumped to his feet and ran away.

Yui zipped down and brought the demon kid back at lightning speed.

"Huh…? What just happened?" he asked.

"Yui." I gave her a scolding look.

"Look at him! He's all bruised up and has a bloody nose. Don't you feel bad?" Yui asked.

"Whaddya want me to do about… it…?" I trailed off as Sacchan glowed with a gentle, green light.

This never happened before, but for some reason, I knew to lift Sacchan up to the kid's face. He flinched and squeezed his eyes shut. The bruises vanished. Blood stopped trickling down his nose. He was just as surprised as I was.

"O-Oh! Nice, Anego!" Yui whooped.

"Th-Thanks… I really have to go now, so bye!" The kid hightailed it out of here.

I slapped a hand on Yui's shoulder to make sure she didn't fetch him back a second time.

"Leave him," I said.

Evening came, and a couple of us turned in early to catch some dinner at the tavern. Yui was down in the dumps for the rest of the night. She barely touched her food. She didn't tease Frey even once. Hell, Kawa was snuggled up at Yui's feet and whining, sad because she usually played with her when they were together. I had a feeling why.

"Seriously still thinking about that little brat from earlier?" I asked.

"Brat?" Loraine and Frey looked at me.

"Some kid who was getting beat up. Yui made a fuss about wanting to help him. We did, then he booked it."

"You know what? I'm not hungry." Yui put her plate on the floor for Kawa to scarf down.

I snatched her wrist as she tried to leave. "Where you going?"

"To get some air!" She broke free from my grasp and kicked the shin of a demon unlucky enough to cross her path on the way out.

Frey stood up thinking to follow her, but I volunteered instead.

"I'll go. Got a hunch where she's headed anyway," I said.

As expected, Yui was gone by the time I got outside. Thankfully, a trail of confused and spooked pedestrians down the road told me all I needed to know. That was her speed at work. She ran through and knocked the poor bastards aside.

It didn't take long to find Yui back at the little alleyway where we met the kid. Obviously, he wasn't here. Only demon citizens shuffling down the road and making a wide berth around us.

I was about to call her until a scuffle broke out across the intersection. The same kids were picking on the same kid. This time in front of a fancy building with a garden out front. He was pinned down by the biggest kid, who wailed on him mercilessly. Men and women kept their distance from the fight, watching as if it was primetime TV for them.

Yui dashed toward them, but I stopped her at the last second.

"What are you doing? He's going to get hurt again! We have to help!" Yui cried.

"Do what? You gonna beat up a bunch of kids?" I asked.

"I can just show my face and scare them! What's the big deal? You were there for me when I was getting beat up! Remember?" she exclaimed.

How could I forget? The thing was—

"But we won't be there for him!" I fired back, causing her to stop struggling. "So, we help him today and ditch him tomorrow? Like how Chika left us? The kid has to learn to stand up for himself. He's only got himself to rely on!"

Yui gazed up at me with hurt in her eyes, and I almost faltered for a second. I thought she was going to complain some more, but she cupped both hands over her mouth and breathed deeply.

"Fight back!" Yui shouted.

The group of kids and other demons stared at us like a bunch of drunk idiots.

"Is this what you want tomorrow, too?" she continued, seemingly growing louder with each pant. "To be ketchup on the asphalt next week, next month, and next year for the rest of your life? Use your stupid hands for something and fight back!"

To say I didn't have hope would have been flat out wrong, but I had been holding my breath on it. The kid balled up a fist and slugged the one pinning him down across the chin. Lights out. He dropped like a rock.

The other four weren't taking their chances. Probably because they saw me and Yui. They picked up their ringleader and scrammed. I let Yui go, and she dashed across the street.

"You did it!" Yui picked him up and cheered. "Sent him into the next life with that punch!"

The kid began to choke up. "You guys came to help me again?"

"Not us. You helped yourself, kid." I grinned.

While he sniffled and wiped the wetness from his eyes, Yui patted him on the back.

"Nowan?" A pretty demon woman, wearing a white dress, lips smeared with red lipstick, and smelling of smokes, came down the walkway of the building in front of us. "What are you doing out here—" Her eyes snapped open fearfully after noticing he was hurt and who we were. "I'm terribly sorry! I hope my son didn't offend you!"

"You got it wrong, lady. Wasn't us that put a hand on him," I said.

She looked at her son, who avoided looking her back in the eyes. Realization struck her like a sucker punch. Then, shame.

"Nowan is often bullied by other children because of… my work. If that's what happened, then I have you to thank for helping him. I don't have much, but can I offer you some of my tips as thanks?" She reached for the purse tucked under her right arm.

"Save it. We didn't do a thing. Your kid stood up for himself. Turns out, he's got a pretty nasty right hook." I winked at the brat.

The worried mother bowed to me and Yui, said her thanks again, and then took his son's hand to head home. Before turning the corner on the block, he ran back to us, hands on his knees and panting.

"I… never got your names," Nowan said.

"I'm Yui, but you can call me Anego!" Yui beamed.

"Micchi. Keep those fists up, kid." I stuck my fist out, and Yui did the same.

It took a second for Nowan to understand. He bumped each of our fists together and smiled, then hurried back to his mom.

We watched them leave until they were out of sight. Somewhere deep inside me, I hoped that kid would be alright. That tomorrow, the ones bullying him would stay away from now on. But we weren't naive. Things got worse before they got better.

Yui's feet were glued to the ground, and she had a hand pressed to her chest. Maybe she was feeling bittersweetness biting at her.

"I wonder… if this was how Chika felt. Do you think Nowan's going to be okay?" Yui asked sincerely.

"Yeah, I think so." I gave Yui a slight nudge. "Come on. I'll carry you home."