08
In the days following, Wiz went from her normal cheery self to downright bubbly. The lich was very physically affectionate, even more so than Yunyun, and would frequently touch, kiss, or hug one or both of us whenever the mood struck her—which was frequently. Not that either of us minded. Yunyun loved attention and any excuse to deepen her friendship with Wiz was welcome. As for me, I started filling Wiz up every afternoon right after lunch, leaving her with a smile to fill out the rest of her work day.
Which was exactly what I intended to do, as I approached the shop, a few days later. I was going to close up, make everyone leave, eat lunch with Wiz, then bend her over her counter, flip her robe up, and fuck her fat ass right there. Actually her ass, because Wiz was very enthusiastic about doing every sex act she could think of, and she had apparently had time to think of a lot and a lot of missed time to catch up on.
She had a list.
Yunyun had watched Wiz's much more adventurous bedroom play, but had yet to join in or emulate any of the different positions or sex acts. She hadn't even worked herself up to sucking me off yet. Not that I minded too much. I was willing to let Yunyun go mostly at the pace she was comfortable with and only push her boundaries a little, for now. If I wanted a blowjob, Wiz was happy to give me one. If Wiz wasn't around… that's what Darkness was for, as of yesterday, when I had grabbed her by her ponytail and forced my cock into her mouth, fucking her throat mercilessly before nearly drowning the blonde in my spunk. And the little masochist loved every second of it.
I was pulled from my thoughts as I opened the door to yelling. "—who is he?! How could you do this to me?! You're taking food from my family's mouths, Wiz! We had a deal!"
Frowning, I took in the scene. The shop was empty save for Wiz and one other. A particularly angry man wearing raggedy looking clothes was berating Wiz, holding up one of our display model boots and shaking it in her face. Wiz cowered away, cringing. I knew for a fact that she was one of the strongest people in Axel, but Wiz didn't didn't like confrontation with people at all. She was perfectly fine blasting a monster into oblivion, but put an angry customer in front of her and she just sort of… folded in on herself.
Moving around the counter, I laid my hands on Wiz's shoulders, gently squeezing them. Looking the guy over, I noted the black hair gone gray and the red eyes, along with the cloak and hat—the distinctive styling pretty much unmistakable for anyone but a member of the Crimson Demon clan. However, his boots looked worn down and old, his pants were patched in places and worn almost to the point of falling apart in others, his long sleeved white shirt was stained in places and wrinkled, and even the cloak looked worn down and had a patch in it. His face was covered in stubble and it looked like he needed a shave and, from the smell, a bath as well. He and everything he wore was covered in road dust. But looking closer, it wasn't just his clothes and general appearance that were shabby and worn, the man himself looked like he hadn't had a good night's sleep or a full meal in a long time.
"Who the hell are you?" he growled.
"Michael Stark. I'm Wiz's business partner. And you are?"
The man drew himself up, crossing his arms over his chest as he snorted. "Hyoizaburo of the Crimson Demon clan. Now get lost. I need to find out who's been cutting into my business."
"What business is that, Hyo? Your name is kind of a mouthful, so I'm going to call you Hyo."
"It's Hyoizaburo—"
"It's six syllables. More than three is a mouthful. Now, what's got you so upset with my friend here?" He opened his mouth, taking a deep breath, and I continued, "And if you don't keep a civil tone, I'm going to teleport you halfway across the country."
The newly nicknamed Hyo's mouth clicked shut as his fists clenched, his entire body tensing. After a moment, he tersely explained. "My business is making magic items. Wiz is supposed to sell 'em. But someone has been squeezing in on my market and my magic items aren't selling with all this fancy shit on the shelves," he waved the boot at me. With a thought, I jerked the boot from his hand with telekinesis and put it back on display. He flinched, before his eyes narrowed as he registered that I hadn't chanted for the spell, nor was there any visual indication I'd cast.
"So, you're complaining about having competition."
"That's right," he nodded.
I almost opened my mouth and told him to fuck off, that the world of sales was 'adapt or die,' and if he couldn't adapt then the next course of action was obvious. Instead, I squeezed Wiz's shoulders. "Wiz, how do you want to handle this?"
"Me?!" she squeaked, and I squeezed her shoulders again. "I, I don't… I don't know! His items weren't selling! They all had huge drawbacks, defects, or side-effects!"
"Of course they do! Magic shouldn't come without some kind of cost! Especially not something as easy to use as an item!" the man roared back. "Take that piece of junk!" He pointed to one of my teleport necklaces. "You shouldn't just be able to use a piece of equipment to teleport wherever you want! If you use it, it should teleport you to a random location! There should be penalties!"
Oh. He's an idiot.
I sighed. "Alright. Sure. So, you make a necklace that teleports someone to a random destination when they use it. I make a necklace that teleports the user exactly where they want to go when they use it. We put them side by side in a store and sell them for the exact same price. Which do you think someone is going to buy?"
The man's jaw flexed. "It's obvious which one someone would buy. I'd know because they haven't been buying mine and I've been losing money! I can't make more magic items without money! But even if they can, that doesn't mean they should. It's not right. And magic items with a severe drawback are just plain better! Think about it. You're in a dungeon and your party have all been killed, except for you and your mage. The monsters are advancing, and they're going to make a meal out of you. You're encircled, with nowhere to go. So you grab your mage and you tell her, 'I can get us out of here, but it's risky. I didn't want to use this. The cost is too great. But for you… I'll do it.' And then you use your magic item to teleport the two of you away and you could wind up anywhere. Now, you're lost together, you have no idea where you are, but you're together and she's so grateful that you risked everything on a dangerous random teleport to save her that she'll show some gratitude, if you know what I mean. Or… You pull it out, tell her, 'Oh yeah, I've had this the whole time. Let's get out of here,' and you just come right back to town. Which of those would you rather have, huh?!"
"You're an idiot."
"What did you say?!"
I sighed. "Okay. I get it. Typical Crimson Demon chuuni bullshit. Now, let me ask you a question: would you rather make money or starve?"
"I'd rather starve if it meant having to compromise on my ideals!"
I stared for a moment as I processed that. Finally, I asked, "Hyo, do you have a family?"
"Aye. A wife and two daughters. Though the oldest one's out of the house. That's good, cause it means I can put the money that would've gone towards feeding her towards making magic items."
"Would you rather make money or have your family starve?"
Hyoizaburo looked me straight in the eye and, with no hesitation whatsoever, answered, "They understand that we have to make sacrifices to chase our dreams."
And with that, I knew there was no reasoning with him. At all. This man was… he was like a drunkard, or a gambling addict. Someone who put all of their money into their vice with no regard for the suffering of those around them.
"Get out."
"What?"
"Leave. Come back at midday tomorrow and we'll discuss this more. Until then, if I catch you pestering Wiz again, I'm going to give you that random teleport you want. Who knows where you could end up?"
Hyo snorted, before turning and storming for the door, his cape flaring behind him in a dramatic—and obviously very practiced—manner. Exactly as I had seen Megumin do, from time to time. "Tomorrow, then. You'd best have an answer by then."
The door closed behind him and I locked it, before leading Wiz back to the back room. "Thank you for that, Michael," she sighed as we sat down. "I'm sorry, I just froze up—"
"I know. It's okay. Tell me more about Hyoizaburo and his stuff," I said, getting our food out of my cube and setting the small table.
"Well…"
Sitting on one of the couches in our living room, Wiz leaning against my side as she sipped her tea, I looked up as soon as Yunyun, Megumin, and Darkness entered. Meeting Yunyun's eyes, I said, "We need to talk."
Yunyun's eyes went wide as a brief look of fear crossed her face, followed by anxiety. "Um, I'm, that is—"
"If you must take out your anger on someone, please, use me!" Darkness put herself between me and Yunyun, throwing her arms wide as she began to blush and pant.
That sounded bad. And I'm kind of pissed. So she probably thinks I'm mad at her. …It must be pretty bad if it set off Darkness.
Sighing, I eased up from my seat and eased Darkness aside, before taking Yunyun by the hand, pulling her into a hug before sitting back down and dragging the curvy young woman into my lap as Megumin sat down on the couch opposite us. Darkness… moaned quietly. "Ahn~. So this is what neglect feels like. I like it!"
"I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you and that came out harsher than I intended," I assured her, giving Yunyun a squeeze, before looking up to Darkness and nodding towards the other couch. She smiled and sat down beside Megumin.
"Okay," Yunyun murmured, resting her head on my chest, her arms snaking around my back as she kicked off her shoes and rested her feet in Wiz's lap. Wiz giggled and used the hand not holding her tea cup to rub Yunyun's calves. "What did you want to talk about?"
"A man came into Wiz's shop today, claiming we were screwing him over. Come to find out, all of the crap items Wiz was selling—not the high-level stuff—were all made by this bozo. He was complaining that we were running him out of business."
Megumin snorted quietly, taking off her floppy hat and setting it aside, along with her eye-patch. She knew my rules—no patch in the house or in the field where she needed both eyes to see. If she wanted to look cool around town, that was fine, but at home and out where it was dangerous, she wasn't to wear it. And wearing a hat indoors was just rude, most of the time. "How is that our problem? What kind of weirdo makes crap magic items, then complains when someone makes some better?"
"That was my thought," I nodded. "I want to tell him to fuck off and be done with it, but I figured I'd ask you two for some insight."
"Us?" Yunyun asked, curious and a bit confused. "Why?"
"He was a member of your clan."
"I don't know… That doesn't sound like one of us. Did he give the greeting?" Megumin asked suspiciously.
Now that I thought about it, he hadn't done the little dance and posing Megumin did when she introduced herself. But then, neither had Yunyun. At least, in Yunyun's case, that was because she was embarrassed about it. She had actually been teaching me about her clan lately, with Megumin's help, and I'd gotten her to do it for me… with Megumin, it was kind of silly and cute. But on Yunyun? With her looking both sexy and super embarrassed at the same time? It had been adorable.
"No, but he did say he was a Crimson Demon. Hyoizaburo."
"GEH!" Megumin jerked in her seat, even as Yunyun sat up in my lap. The reason for the reaction became rather obvious a moment later. "DAD?!"
"He's your father?"
"Now that I think about it, it sounds like Megumin's father," Yunyun nodded. "Can you show us?"
"Sure." I conjured an illusion of the guy taken from a recording done by my computation orb.
"IT IS HIM!" Megumin yelled, pointing.
Yunyun nodded. "I see. So this is where he was selling his products…"
"I've been doing business with Hyoizaburo for years," Wiz confirmed. "I always have to sell his items at a steep discount, because no one will buy them otherwise."
Dismissing the hologram, I hummed. "Alright. How do we deal with him?" Looking up at Megumin, I asked, "How much would his business shutting down hurt your family?"
Megumin winced, before a thoughtful look crossed her face. "Actually, not that much. I've been sending most of my pay back to my family, and you actually pay me a lot, so they should be fine!"
Blinking at that, I thought back to the man I had met. The unwashed, ragged man with his unwashed, ragged clothes. The man I compared to a druggie, or a compulsive gambler. And a sneaking suspicion began to form… However, I didn't want to just come right out and voice those thoughts to Megumin. I wanted to confirm it for myself.
What happens if you send someone with an addiction money?
The answer was obvious to anyone who knew. But no one wanted to admit that one of their family members may have a problem. Especially if it was hurting the rest of their family.
Yunyun, studying my face intently, sensed that I was concerned even if I wasn't saying it. So, she offered, "Why don't we work with him?"
"We can't," I denied immediately. "No offense to Megumin, but her father is an idiot."
"Hey! He's not! My dad is brilliant!"
"I never said he wasn't smart," I countered. "He lacks common sense. Let me ask you this. If we all went down into a cave and were ambushed by monsters, what should you do, Megumin?"
"Run away," she answered immediately.
"Not going to cast explosion?"
"Hahaha no! I'm not dumb enough to collapse a cave on top of myself!" she denied immediately. Quietly, under her breath, she added, "Again."
I latched onto that, however. "But you have done it." She winced. "You learned from your mistake though, right?" When she nodded, I continued. "Your dad keeps doing the same thing and getting burned for it, and never changes what he's doing. He cast explosion inside the cave and it collapsed on him. Then he cast it again, trying to dig his way out." Megumin winced. "That didn't work, so he just kept trying… and now he's dug himself a deep hole and he's covered in rocks. He can barely breathe, but he keeps reaching for the same thing that caused the problem in the first place. So yes, he's an idiot. We can't work with him, because he's going to insist that all magic items come with a penalty or drawback, which I'm simply not going to do. I'm sure he's got some ideas for great magic items, but they're worthless if they have drawbacks like, say, death."
Megumin winced. Wiz perked up. "I had to add that one to my cursed object collection and bought it myself. Cursed things are cute, but there's no way I could sell that to anyone!"
Reaching out, I squeezed Wiz into my side, turning my head to plant a kiss on her cheek. Across from us, Darkness panted softly, while Megumin blushed and glared, looking annoyed. "I can think of one cursed thing I know that's cute."
"Ehehe~!"
Yunyun giggled in my lap as well, before asking, "What if we do that, then? Buy his items, then make versions of them that aren't cursed? Keep the good enchantments to put on different equipment and just destroy everything else."
"Could work, but I think it'd just be enabling him."
"Huh?"
I shook my head. "Never mind. In the short term, it isn't a bad idea. I'd want to see more examples of his work, though. Just… buy them all out. Buy them up and stop production."
"Ah, dad has a workshop at home," Megumin piped up. "It's where he keeps the stuff he hasn't finished or sold yet."
"Oh! Michael! We can visit my home and see my father!" Yunyun suggested, bouncing excitedly in my lap. "I can introduce you to everyone!"
Megumin snorted softly. "Show off your boyfriend, you mean."
"Yes," Yunyun admitted, nodding unashamedly.
Eyeing me for a moment, Megumin's lips pulled into a catty grin. "Well, it'll make the others jealous anyway. And I should visit mom and Komekko. Okay! I'll join you!"
I noticed she didn't mention wanting to visit her dad. My suspicions only grew. Shaking it off, I picked Yunyun up and set her in the seat beside me before standing. "Alright then. We're supposed to meet Hyo tomorrow—"
"He let you call him that?!"
"No, I did it anyway. He was kind of pissy about it."
"No kidding!"
Getting back on track, I continued, "We're meeting him at noon tomorrow at the shop. So, you'll come with me then. Darkness, can I ask you a big favor?"
"Of course! Feel free to use my body for any degrading task—"
"Help Wiz with the shop?"
The blonde deflated. "Oh. Yes, I could do that."
"Great. I really appreciate it. Now, I believe it's about time for our sparring session. Since you're helping me out with this, I'll go extra hard on you today."
The blonde's eyes lit up as she popped up from her seat. "Yes!"
In the end, I wound up fucking her throat while stepping on her crotch, much to her delight.
"Megumin?! What are you doing here?"
"Good afternoon, Mr. Hyoizaburo," Yunyun greeted politely.
Megumin sent her father a flat stare. After a moment, she answered. "They're my party."
"Oh. I see," he nodded. "I don't know why you brought them—"
"Because we're going home," Megumin cut him off. "I want to see mom and Komekko."
"And while we're there, I'm going to introduce Michael to my father," Yunyun beamed.
Hyo blinked, looking at me again as though just seeing me for the first time. Or rather, his view of me likely changed from 'that asshole who works for Wiz' to 'that asshole who works for Wiz, who is also the future village chief's boyfriend, and who she's serious enough about to introduce to her father, the current chief.' In other words, someone who could potentially cause him trouble at home. "I see," he murmured.
"We talked about it and came to an agreement, but I want to sit down and speak with you about it. However, I want to see more examples of your work. Everything you've got. Including the stuff at home. So, we're going to portal to your home and you can take a few hours to prepare while I talk with Yunyun's dad."
"Hmph. Fine!" Hyo nodded. "You know Teleport. Let's go, then."
"Close, but not quite." I directed one of my cubes into the center of the room and had it split open into four sections, standing eight by eight feet apart. Light flashed between them and, a moment later, the scenery changed to show a road overlooking a pretty village. "Let's go," I said, stepping through. The others followed after. As soon as they were through, the portal closed and the cube teleported back to its place floating over my shoulder. Hyoizaburo eyed it much closer now, and I thought he was beginning to suspect just who it was that he was actually competing with. But since all of us had cubes of our own except for him, he couldn't be sure.
Portals were a new feature I'd added to the cubes last night. One of two new toys I was keeping to my group for now.
The first, of course, was an update to all of the cubes to be able to create free-standing portals to any destination they had coordinates for, could see, I had a marker or beacon for, or between two cubes regardless of location. This was so that we could send larger groups of people and cargo that couldn't be stored between places without the use of multiple, more expensive teleports. A portal was costly to open, yes—the cost depended on distance and the size of the portal. However, once open, the draw was negligible. Mana cost came out to it being cheaper to open a portal than try to teleport a large group of people and equipment a long distance.
The second new toy was an update to the computation orbs, to add a new spell. This spell essentially created a new point of view and fed the view directly into the user's brain—a point of view which could then move as directed very quickly, and take pictures and video, with sound. It was kind of like controlling an invisible drone, with my mind. I had one active right now, getting used to keeping a third person perspective behind and above me, so I could see around us. I had sent one up first thing this morning and begun making actual maps—merging the full color, 3D images with the paper maps we had, using them to label roads, villages, and cities. That was how I knew where to open the portal—because I'd had Yunyun come with me for that first perspective change and direct me to her village.
We came to a fork in the road and split up, Megumin and her father heading right, to their home, while Yunyun pressed herself into my side and we took the left path into the village proper. Wrapping my arm around Yunyun, I squeezed the curvy girl against my side, my fingers slipping under her top to stroke her hip and belly directly, drawing a pleased sounding giggle from her lips. We took our time, with Yunyun pointing out the various people and their homes in the village as I took in the scenery. It was even prettier from the ground than it had been from the air. Somehow, they had something like cherry blossom trees here and they were in full bloom—or maybe they actually were cherry blossoms someone had found and transplanted. I wouldn't put it past them, knowing there had been multiple Japanese isekais to this world before.
Our walk through the village turned into a sightseeing tour, but I didn't mind at all. It's not like we were pressed for time and I enjoyed spending time with Yunyun.
Japanese-style shrine with cat ears, red torii, Japanese moonrunes on the torii, and big fuckoff Sakura trees. Couldn't advertise harder that Japanese people were here if you tried.
Wooden statues of catgirls in high school swimsuits? Jesus fuck, this is someone's fetish and people just worship it.
Guy using a high tech magical railgun as a drying rack? …Yeah, that's about the speed I'd expect for these people. That, I had my cube take a scan of before we continued on.
A big fuckoff stone tablet 'monument' in some old ruins with… a magical girl and a catgirl on it. Yep. Thanks, Japan. This would be like me leaving behind monuments of the Statue of Liberty. No, wait, that would be classy. This would be like me leaving behind monuments to early Baywatch era Pamela Anderson and Xena Warrior Princess. And more moonrunes on the back. Too bad I can't read it. I had my computation orb take a picture for later translation by someone who could read it, since I knew of at least two isekais (assuming Kazuma actually showed up) who could and potentially two goddesses who might be able to. Something for later.
"And this where the Crimson Demons' natural enemy was sealed away!"
"It looks like a factory."
"Eh?"
I gestured at the building and repeated myself. "Looks like a factory, from Earth. Given all the other Earth-related stuff I've seen here, this was probably built by one of my people." Considering the building for a moment, I grinned. "Let's go take a peek inside."
"Eh?!"
Yunyun pressed herself tighter into my side as I walked up to what looked like a set of sliding doors. They opened at our approach, revealing a stairwell that led down. "Have you ever been here before?"
"Mm. It's creepy!" the girl nodded.
"Well, at least that tells us it's safe, if people have been coming and going for years without anything happening," I reassured her as we hit the bottom of the stairs. Looking around the room, I whistled. "Okay, nice design aesthetic. Love the glowing blue lights."
The floors and ceiling all appeared to be metal, with the walls having inlaid glowing blue lines running through them to a door. Walking up, I hummed as I took it in. "No one's been able to open it before," Yunyun murmured.
There was some sort of pedestal to the right of the door and, looking at it, I resisted the urge to palm my face. There was a cracked and partially broken inscription in Japanese that I couldn't read on the top, above what appeared to be… an original NES controller. "Well, this gives me an idea of when this guy died and was reincarnated here."
"What do you mean?"
I picked up the controller, a wire connecting it to the pedestal. "This is basically a copy of a controller to a game console from my world." Realizing she wouldn't understand what I meant, I used my computation orb to project a hologram from memory of the console in question—a memory from when I was young, playing my second console, behind the Atari.
Yunyun watched for a moment before her mouth formed an 'o' and she nodded. "So you use that to move the person in the box!"
"Yep. Now, this stuff all appears about the same rough age and it stands to reason it was likely all built by the same guy. And from what I've seen, with the catgirls and magical girls, he's a huge fucking nerd. He may as well have put up a flashing neon sign for anyone from our world as to how to open this thing. So… Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start, select and… Open Sesame."
Yunyun gasped as the door lit up and immediately began to open. "Michael, we should go tell father!"
I reached out and took her hand, putting the controller away. "Let's have a look first."
"But… It could be dangerous! We don't know what's down there!"
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my new glasses and set them on my nose. A bit of focus sent my perception forward and down, but it was pitch dark. So, I sent my cube down after it, lighting up the squares on its sides to turn it into a high-intensity light. At the bottom was a blank room, empty save for something that looked like a huge fucking mechanical snake. I studied it for a moment before taking off the glasses and pocketing them. "It's inactive. Come on."
I guided her down, using the light from Yunyun's own cube so we didn't fall. The girl gasped as she took in the big, white and blue snake thing. "It's the Mage Killer! It's real!"
"It's just a machine. Magi-tech, sure, but just a machine," I reassured her. Then, I sent my cube the mental command to scan and deconstruct it. "Well, it's mine now."
"Eh?!"
Grinning, I answered the unspoken question. "Why leave something like this just laying around where it can be used against you? Nah. I'd rather not. Instead, I'll neutralize it. If I need one later, I can just make another." Not that I would. Crafter had already told me its secrets and how to make a better one. Well, 'better' by some definition. There were lots of ways I could change the design, but the weapons onboard and the anti-magic tech were all easily converted into other forms—larger, smaller, more mobile, less, man-portable or not. I didn't know why the creator had gone with a snake-like design, but I supposed he could have done worse.
So, a 'railgun' (it really isn't) that eats magic to power a beam weapon, and an anti-magic weapon armed with lasers both in the same village. Odds of them being unrelated are approaching zero.
Shrugging it off, I led us back up and out of the building, closing it up behind us. "You… destroyed it."
"Yep."
"…What am I supposed to tell my father?"
I shrugged. "Let's not. No need to worry him and the other villagers over it. Not right now. You're going to be head of the village when he retires, right?"
"Mm. And my first child will be head after me."
"Then just pass the secret on to them."
"If… you're sure?"
"Yeah. Probably the best thing. Now, come on, let's go meet your dad."
Yunyun's smile returned. "Mm! He'll be happy to meet you!"
Somehow, I doubted that.