Micchi Versus the New World - Chapter 98

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Chapter 98

Yui and I talked up a big game, but now we're being chased as huge fucking icicles crashed all around us. Ririko didn't let up, flinging everything she had. I knew that Mildred and Loraine, both who were some sort of magic-casting class, would get tired after throwing enough shit. However, that wasn't the case for the Blizzard of Hokkaido. She was the blizzard incarnate.

We were put on the run without any real way to fight back. Especially since…

"No one told me she could fly! You got a new power, right? Anego, do something!" Yui cried.

"It's because I only just got this stupid power that I ain't sure how to fucking use it!" I yelled back.

"I got an idea!" She twirled around just as a spike impaled the ground at our feet, jumped onto it, and proceeded to zip up every icicle until she reached Ririko.

"Get her, Yui!"

As Yui balled up an electrifying fist, Ririko caught her by the head and started pinching her cheeks.

"Ahhhh~ I still can't get over how cute you are! When I'm done with that twerp down there, I'm going to doll you up and put you in a dress!" Ririko squealed.

"Quit playing around!" I growled.

"Uwehh… A-Anego, save me!" Yui flailed her arms and legs.

If only I had a weapon. Without Sacchan, it was like I'd become much weaker. We were getting stronger together and had repaired it, too, then Chika came out of nowhere to destroy it.

The second I wished for a weapon and pictured Sacchan in my mind, a club made of ice formed in my grasp.

"That's what I'm talking about." I was able to shatter the icicles Ririko tossed at me, then formed a ball of fire the size of a baseball and batted it toward her.

Ririko dropped Yui first to raise a barrier of ice to block the attack, and that was when I realized she needed to use her hands to cast spells. It was the same with the icicles and making a throwing motion. The next question would be how the hell could I use that against her?

"My turn," Ririko said, this time creating something that wasn't just an icicle, but a huge mountain that blotted out the sun.

"Ah, shit. Alright, bring it!" I clenched my ice-made weapon for a swing.

Like a giant meteor, the gargantuan ice mass came colliding towards me—

"In the name of our UKD alliance, cease this battle at once!"

Ririko's spell shattered on its own into a million pieces of harmless specks, raining down on me like shaved ice. It was Kain, riding in with Mildred, Breila, and a large number of beastlings from Kazaar.

"Don't stop me, Kain. I'm making this bitch eat her own makeup if it's the last thing I do!" I shouted.

However, as I turned back to face Ririko, I hadn't noticed she had come down to the surface and was right in front of me. I swung the ice club at her, but she blocked it with her bare hand.

"Buzz off," Ririko said, then brushed a powerful gale to send me flying away.

"Queen Ririko, it's been quite some time since we last met," Kain said, dismounting from his horse and fearlessly approaching her. "I've come to—"

"Kyaaaahhh! Prince Kain! You're here to see me, aren't you?" The Blizzard of Hokkaido shrieked like a lovestruck high school girl and orbited around Kain like a bee to a flower.

"Hahh?" Mildred and I uttered at the same time but for very different reasons.

"P-Please, I'm here with diplomatic intentions…" He tried vainly to push off her advances.

The S-ranked enchantress levitated into the air and sparked with energy in what I recalled was the charging of her most powerful, destructive spell.

"Get your mangy paws off my Kain, you skank. Or I will level this entire mountain and whatever else you hold dear!" Mildred snarled.

"I'd back off if I was you," I warned Ririko. "That ain't a threat. It's a promise."

"Are we about to see some fireworks?" Yui asked, coming to help me up.

"Hmph. Why would I care about what a threat from some no-named cunt with dry skin and unkempt eyebrows?" Ririko sneered.

The ice queen's army of beastlings recovered and got to their feet. All of them ready to fight again and fearless in the face of Mildred's overwhelming magic power.

"Stand down!" Breila finally stepped in. "With myself, Queen Ririko, Prince Kain, and Empress Kaoru, we've met the minimum threshold under the UKD alliance to formally hold a vote to declare a summit."

A different kind of magic rippled through everyone. All of a sudden, my magic was sapped away. Mildred also lost her power and dropped to the ground, clenching her fists in displeasure. Anyone who could use magic abruptly had it taken away from them. Breila, Ririko, Kain, and Kaoru's right wrists began to glow with an intricate circular sigil.

"What's going on?" I asked as the ice club in my hand melted beyond my control.

Mildred cursed under her breath. "This is the concession for being a member of the United Kingdoms of Dysentia. It is how they ensure each other's safety when meeting with one another. When four or more representatives of the alliance declare a meeting or vote of any kind, everyone temporarily loses their strengths as a safety measure to the rest. A binding enchantment of the highest kind."

Behind us, Kaoru clicked her tongue when she awakened and saw the sigil on her wrist.

"Will you do the honors, Prince Kain?" Breila asked, walking up to him

Kain nodded and extended a hand with the sigil face up, causing it to glow more intensely. "It seems now, more than ever, our alliance has become as brittle as a worn sword. The demons and their master have proven themselves a greater threat than maybe we can even contain. There is not a more pressing time than now for us to reaffirm this alliance, lest we should have Dysentia over to their reign of terror. Which is why I propose a compulsory summit for all members at Cynderace. Those in favor?"

"Aye." Breila, representing Kazaar and the Semaris Clan, extended her hand.

Kaoru begrudgingly hopped off Thane's, threw me an unreadable look my way, then joined the other two. With her eyes shut, she extended a clenched fist without a word.

The only one left was Ririko, and everyone watched with bated breath on whether or not she was going to play along.

"Well, I guess things are starting to get a lot more fun around here. Chika was right after all. When you get here, whether any of us liked it or not, shit was going down." Ririko grinned at me in particular, then extended a hand to join the three of them.

Their wrists glowed brightly together, sending a beam of light into the sky.

"So what happens now?" Yui asked, gazing up at the brief fireworks show.

"Now, Mini-Micchi and Micchi," Mildred began, "all members of the UKD must answer the call and attend the summit, otherwise they will be branded an enemy of the alliance. Which in the case of your lover, as I recall…"

I wouldn't have remembered if Mildred hadn't reminded me. In the back of my head, I probably knew this was going to come eventually. Loraine would have to meet her uncle, the Sultan of Amarinth. The same bastard who killed her old man, tried to have her kidnapped via Owyn, and who conspired with the Ramaleiks and former Jinwan eunuchs to frame Kaoru for my poisoning.

That fucker.

I still had a score to settle with him as badly as I do with Chika.

That being said, Kain, that son of a bitch. No wonder he wanted to tag along. It might not have gone down the way I wanted it to, but he just made this a whole lot more interesting with the summit.

His and the other's arrival may have ended the fight without anyone getting seriously hurt, but all that did was leave my knuckles itching for more. Ririko and her cronies returned to Grishant, the fakeout with the flower having seemingly been forgiven. The Blizzard of Hokkaido would have been the third Queen of Japan I beat, but we got interrupted when things were ramping up hot.

I was just going to have to take my frustration out on something else later.

Kaoru started walking away on her own.

"The hell do you think you're going?" I asked as she passed by me.

"Back to Taiq'ae. Since your friend the prince has called for a summit, I have my own things to resolve before attending. Tell my husbands, Yonnu and Theo, that I will be returning a little later," Kaoru said.

"Y'ain't pissed that I beat your ass down there?"

She scoffed. "If lightning can strike down a god, then perhaps I did think too highly of myself. It is precisely because you defeated me that I have to look after certain matters. Chika is strong. Even with your newfound powers, she can possibly still bury us without lifting a finger."

I cracked a smile.

At the end of the day, Kaoru, the Bishamonten of Kyushu was still a punk who respected strength. Now I was sure she was on our side.

"By the way," Kaoru lowered her voice so only I could hear. "After seeing the Blizzard of Hokkaido, I'm beginning to doubt her connection to Chika. I wonder if the one who has truly been trying to undermine us is the Sultan of Amarinth."

"You think so?"

"Call it a yakuza's intuition. Having led my own family and clan, I've developed a nose to sniff out rats. Someone who hides as much as he does is either a coward or playing carefully," she said.

"Makes sense. Not trying to doubt you, but I don't wanna rule out Queen Cake just yet. Not until the only makeup on her face is the dirt I smear on her."

Kaoru expelled a breath out her nose. It sounded like a laugh she was trying to suppress.

"See you at the summit, Micchi."

As Kaoru left, Anya, finally conscious and giving Yui a piggyback ride, walked up to me with an expression full of disappointment.

"Aw, man. Kaokao's leaving already? I wanted a rematch!" Anya shouted to Kaoru's back, but she continued forward without turning back.

"Let's go after her and nail her in the back with a cheapshot like she did us!" Yui suggested, fistfighting the air and causing Anya to struggle keeping her still.

Instead of humoring them, I fell flat to the ground on my back. I was beat. Fighting two top dogs like Chika and Ririko in a single day was more than I could handle. Yet as I glanced up at the passing clouds, the faces of Anya and Yui coming into my vision to check if I was okay, an odd kind of peace washed over me.

I clutched Loraine's pendant, which had undoubtedly provided me just enough of an edge to beat Kaoru back in the trial. It wasn't about being on my own. I didn't have to face things alone anymore.

We were packing our things to leave and return to Cynderace when Naka, the treasure-hunting beastling, came running out of the gates of Grishant.

"Micchi, wait!" Naka shouted, arms and back bogged down by backpacks larger than herself.

"Yo, Naka. Where you headed with all that shit on you?" I asked.

"I-I was hoping to go back with you. This is my chance to finally branch out to the rest of the world and uncover secrets my father couldn't. And… I don't think I'm safe anywhere in Mou'nan or Grishant anymore. I can be helpful! As a former A-ranked of the Grishant Branch, I can lend my services to the Cynderace Branch!" the beastling exclaimed.

Having someone obsessed with searching for relics and artifacts around would be huge. Maybe with her, I could find a new weapon to use.

"You heard her, Guild Master. What do you say?" I passed the baton to Yui, who was sitting on top of Naka's backpack.

"G-Guild Master…?" Naka looked left and right until she finally followed my gaze up.

"Then ya better be ready." Yui grinned "I'm gonna put you to work harder than a pack mule!"