The Red Hand

Chapter 212 – Let the Exploration Begin!

"And now, we adventure!" Akagi cheered as she and Hishya walked down one of the roads outside of Omara. "It's been too long since I've gotten to do something like this!"The two of them used to just wonder around in open world games together all the time before FWO, and each missed it.

"While I understand and share your enthusiasm, don't you have important work to do back home?" Hishya asked. "Your country was just formed and I'm sure that means you've got plenty of things to do." She figured the Demon was just shirking off her duties.

"Don't worry about it." Akagi laughed. "While we're out, I placed some competent people in charge of things. So I think it will be fine."

{So basically you just told Yumi, Silfana, and the others to run things...} (Hishya)

"What a great leader you are, ditching your duties to play adventurer." Hishya sighed.

"Isn't that how all the best leaders do things?" Akagi grinned. "Besides, there isn't that much to do, and I handled lots of things before today. The perks of time dilation." She winked. That had become a very useful tool to ensure things got done in a reasonable time.

"That's so unfair..." Hishya rolled her eyes. "Do you know how much I'd sleep if I could pause time like that?"

{Getting out of the pillow hoard is so hard...} (Hishya)

"Awww. Does the widdle dwagon want some sweepees?" Akagi mocked her. "You can snuggle with me if you want. I don't mind one bit, and with that elevated body temperature, you'd make a great warming rock!" She laughed.

"I already got embarrassed when the girls caught me playing with you the other day. I don't need more of Kana's comments..." Hishya sighed. "Also, fuck you for not saying anything about the girls coming home. You just wanted me to get flustered..."

{I know you sensed them coming and deliberately didn't mention anything.} (Hishya)

"Yep!" Akagi smiled. “I figured it would be nice to show that you're not immune to the kitty charm!”

"Anyway..." Hishya wanted to move the conversation along. "Where are we headed, anyway? Do you have any specific direction or location in mind?" The only thing she was told was that they were going to go out exploring, and she had no clue what was out past the barrier.

"Not really, no." Akagi shrugged. "There hasn't been much mapping done outside the barrier, so I don't even have any idea about what's out there. The explorer team I talked to said that they'd seen some pretty strong monsters in this direction and a few neat locations."

"I guess that is what makes this interesting." Hishya nodded. "If things were already explored, that would be kinda boring." The Dragon always enjoyed this kind of exploration in games, and being the first person to find something was always a joyous occasion. "But why did you tell me to come in my gear? With you around I doubt we'll have any issues, and it's unlikely anything could be that strong."

"It's just good practice." Akagi glanced back at her. "Besides, you're assuming that nothing is that dangerous. We don't know if that's actually true." She pointed out that they were walking into unknown territory, and anything could happen. "There won't be something out there that can kill me, and honestly I doubt anything can harm you either, but it's still best to take this seriously. If nothing else, it gets us closer to our adventures back in the day where we just walked around ready for combat." She pointed to her hip where her sword sat in its sheathe.

{Is that really World Breaker? Am I going crazy? It looks right, but something seems off about it. It's probably nothing.} (Hishya)

"Fair." Hishya shrugged. "Just do me a favor and give me a chance to destroy some monsters. It's been a while since I've gotten a chance to cut loose on a few beasties!" She hadn't fought anything like that since her last grinding session in FWO, as she hadn't gone to the dungeon yet.

“I'll let the Dragon stretch its wings, don't worry.” Akagi laughed as the two continued to walk down the road. Once they reached the barrier, they exited its protective field and began their mini adventure into the landscape surrounding Omara. The moment they crossed, they noticed the air get denser with mana, and the temperature and humidity shot up noticeably. Akagi figured this was a result of the barrier working to regulate things within it, and the outside world was actually a bit more inhospitable.

"You know, this place reminds me a bit of Forealen on the East side of the Continent. You remember that place, right?" Hishya commented as they pushed through bushes and other greenery. "It has that same overgrown feeling, and the heavy amount of magic in the air reminds me of those monster spawn areas." The players used to call them Spawning pits and they were basically surface level dungeons with how many creatures appeared.

"I can the similarities." Akagi agreed. "But it also reminds me of-" Before she could finish both she and Hishya stopped dead in their tracks, and quieted up. In the distance, they could hear the sound of combat, and decided to check it out. As the two crept towards the battle in the distance, they could hear grunts, roars, and the sound of trees snapping. After a short walk, they came to a clearing in the forest where a familiar trio of explorers were fighting a four-armed gorilla the size of a small house.

{That looks suspiciously similar to a Barlgura.} Hishya had fought similar types of monsters in FWO, and while they weren't exceedingly powerful, they were dangerous nonetheless. They were known to be fast attackers, and their extra arms made it so you had to pay attention, lest you get grabbed.

"Should we help?" Hishya asked, her hand resting on Sun Strike.

"I think they got this." Akagi replied.

"Don't you mean predict?" Hishya decided to be a smartass.

"Do you want a ceiling fan dropped on you?" Akagi side-eyed her. “Because I have plenty.”

"It would be worth it." Hishya stuck out her tongue.

The two girls stood and watched as the group of adventurers slowly and methodically defeated the gorilla monster. They each took a few hits, but eventually, the ape had enough and fell down, dead.

"Hoooo!" Ferrix let out a noise as she pulled his blade out from the monster. "I didn't expect to find another Gerila out here. But damn was that a good fight."

"I think this one was tougher than the last one." Shisa said wiping blood off her cheek. "The other one didn't have fists that erupted into flame." She didn't like having a flaming fist thrown at her.

"This forest is basically endless, who knows what kind of crazy monsters exist out here." Mami sighed as she cleaned her sword off, flicking the blood onto the ground.

"Well, I don't know what kind of monsters lurk out here, but I do know that we're under the boot of one." Ferrix scoffed.

"Did someone call for me?" Akagi laughed as she and Hishya walked up, surprising the three of them. "And also, I wear sandals, not boots."

"Are you cursed or something?" Mami glared at Ferrix.

{Thanks for drawing her here!} (Mami)

"Uhhhhh." Ferrix looked ready to run for the hills.

"Calm the hell down." Akagi rolled her eyes. "I'm not here to kill you, and I don't give a damn if you talk smack about me in private."

{If I wanted you dead, you'd already be so.} (Akagi)

"S-So ummm. Lady Akagi, for what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" Mami was similarly nervous after everything that happened.

{We attacked her people and Lady Mizumi. Even though we were controlled by the Council, we remember all of it...} (Mami)

"Please don't start calling me that. You can just act normal." Akagi sighed.

"Oh? Don't like being referred to as Lady?" Hishya giggled. "I've never heard you tell the clan not to call you it." She was enjoying herself, as it was rare she got to hit Akagi with this many comments back to back.

"That's because it's hopeless." Akagi shrugged. "They won't change their minds no matter how much I ask, so I gave up."

"Damn, there are people out there who can out stubborn you?" Hishya smirked. "I guess you aren't as all-powerful as you claim." As she said these words, a ceiling fan dropped on her head, cracking in two as it fell to her sides. "HA! I didn't even feel that!"

{Note to self, get a heavier fan to drop on the lizard. Preferably one that explodes on impact.} (Akagi)

{What the hell am I watching?} (Mami)

"Anyway, as for why we're out here. The lizard and I wanted to check out the surrounding geography." Akagi explained what they'd set out to do.

"Ah, that makes sense." Shisa nodded. "We've been mapping out the area for a while, and I can make a copy if you want." Any help would be appreciated as they tried to find natural resources and areas with dangerous beasts. The exploration team was basically the only group who could survey this land, and they figured Akagi would be great at this job.

"No, that's fine." Akagi shook her head. "The fun part of this whole thing is finding stuff ourselves, but I'll make sure to give your leader a copy of our findings when we get back for comparison."

"Yeah, we used to do this stuff back in the day, and that's the part we both enjoyed." Hishya smiled.

{Back in the day? Aren't you both younger than us?} (Shisa)

"Sounds good, just be careful out there. We've got no idea what kinds of crazy things lurk deeper in the forest." Shisa didn't think they'd be harmed but warned them just in case.

"We're always careful." Akagi motioned for Hishya to follow her, which she did. "I'll see you later, and be careful yourselves!" She yelled out as they walked off.

Once they'd disappeared into the treeline, Mami let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, at least you didn't do anything stupid, Ferrix." Mami glared at him.

"Yeah, yeah." Ferrix rolled his eyes.

{I'm not that stupid...} (Ferrix)

"Should we clean that thing up?" Shisa pointed to the broken ceiling fan on the ground. "I don't even know what it is-" As she spoke, it vanished in a burst of black fire. "Nevermind."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Later that day.

"Yah!" Hishya cried out as she split a giant lizard monster in two.

"Oh no!" Akagi cried out in fake horror. "You killed your cousin! How could you kill little Liddy?!? He loved you so much!"

"What can I say, he was always a brat." Hishya laughed as she flicked the blood off her blade. "But damn, that guy went down easy. It was like cutting through butter with a hot knife."

"Considering you're the fucking Dragon Empress, if something doesn't just die to you in one hit that's more of a surprise." Akagi shrugged. "When you get to this kind of power, there's little that can actually challenge you anymore. So I hope your ready to just insta kill most things out here."

"That's actually kinda depressing." Hishya sighed as she sheathed her blade. She always enjoyed a good challenge, and learning that might be impossible filled her with sorrow.

"Eh." Akagi shrugged. "It just means you have to find other ways to have fun in a fight. Besides, I'd rather be so powerful that nothing can challenge me. That way, no one can ever take things from me. If losing out on good fights is the cost, then so be it." She didn't need to fight to stave off boredom anyway. She had video games and pets to handle that problem.

"I suppose that's one way to look at things." Hishya shrugged. "Where to now? We're almost out of daylight, do you want to camp?" She asked. They'd only seen a few monsters throughout the day, and both girls were pretty disappointed so far.

"Yeah, let's look around for a cave or something." Akagi started looking around for a place to sleep, and after a bit of searching, the two girls came across a shallow cave, which they decided to use as camp for the night.

"Alright, what's for dinner?" Hishya asked as her stomach growled.

"Dinner?" Akagi tilted her head. "I thought you brought it?"

"WHAT?!?" Hishya exclaimed. "You didn't bring anything to eat?!?"

{YOU BROUGHT NO FOOD?!?} (Hishya)

"I don't need to eat, so I figured you had that covered for yourself." Akagi laughed.

"Nooooo." Hishya despaired, as she had no food either.

"Just kidding." Akagi winked. "I figured you'd forget. So I packed a bunch of stuff in my inventory."

"You bastard! I thought you were serious!" Hishya growled again, loudly. "Don't torment me about food!"

{DRAGONS NEED LOTS OF MEAT! DON'T TEASE ME ABOUT DINNER!} (Hishya)

"Ok, Mika." Akagi rolled her eyes as she compared her to the other bottomless pit that pretended to be a teenage girl. "You're cooking though."

"Fine, just give me stuff for ramen, and I'll make us something really good!" Hishya's eyes burned with a desire for food.

"Sure, here you go." Akagi took out a pot, pans, and a bunch of ingredients for her to cook with.

{What? No kitchen sink?} (Hishya)

"Now to make a fire." Hishya gathered some sticks together in a pile before surrounding them with rocks. "WOOOOOOOO." She let out a small breath of fire which created a nice warm fire. "Time to cook!" Hishya enjoyed cooking and had gotten much better at it over the last year, and she dove right into creating her meal.

“I like how rather than use an item from your inventory, or even fire from the palm of your hand, you decided to create our campfire with your breath.” Akagi laughed.

“After we learned that the flavor text from FWO was a bit more than just descriptive, I'm a bit cautious about using certain things.” Hishya sighed. It turned out that the flavor text from FWO was affecting more than just her Dragon power, and was giving weapons and other items strange effects as well.

“Yeah that's true. The Assault Team had some crazy powerful weapons, and some of them had lore that they were cursed or took part of your soul. Didn't Superbia's sister have something like that?” Akagi asked.

“I have no idea.” Hishya shrugged as she cooked. “You'd have to ask her, though I think the weapon in question no longer exists.” She didn't really want to ask the Oni about her sister, knowing her feelings on the matter.

After around an hour, she created a very nice vegetable and beef ramen with some fluffy noodles, and Akagi provided a bit of bread to go along with it. The Demon might not need to eat, but she enjoyed good food.

"Not bad, Hishya." Akagi said as she ate some of the soup. "Your a hell of a lot better than Kana.” Her younger sister was not great at cooking, and was probably only marginally better than Chloe.

Hishya shivered. "Yeah... she's not the best at cooking..." She remembered the cookies Kana baked for her birthday, they were completely burned, yet the Dragon ate every single one.

"Not as good as Yumi, though." Akagi laughed. To which Hishya just rolled her eyes.

"Do you want to have us do watch?" Hishya wasn't sure how they should handle sleeping.

"I'm still aware of what's happening while dormant, so you can just sleep through the night." Akagi replied. "No reason to completely LARP."

"Is this really LARPing, though?" Hishya didn't like the comparison. "I mean, I'm actually a Dragon, and you're literally a Demon."

"You're right. We're more like a bunch of chunnis who got too much power." Akagi laughed.

"I hate how you're right..." Hishya sighed.

{This is basically like some wish fulfillment story...} (Hishya)

The two talked late into the evening and long into the night until her weariness compelled Hishya to go to sleep. She pulled out a futon and one of her favorite pillows before sliding in and quickly falling asleep. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was the sight of Catkagi snuggled closely to the fire for warmth.

{Fluffy...} (Hishya)