13 - Coral Crusaders

"What is it?"

Cassie asked Shirou with a worried tone.

"The sea is disappearing!"

Cassie seemed confused, as she couldn't see the sea going away.

After a few minutes, the previously endless ocean was completely gone. It seemed to be leaving in a specific direction, but he didn't know where it led to.

As Shirou looked down from what was revealed to be a large hill instead of an island, he saw what seemed to be an upscaled coral reef.

Shirou stood up, which caused Cassie to stand up as well due to the sheath that she was holding onto.

"Oh, I have a rope memory, so maybe we should use that instead."

"Well that's convenient."

Cassie let go of the sheath and held her hand out to Shirou. He took hold of her hand and saw new runes appear.

[You have received a Memory: Evertwine.]

Without reading the runes, he summoned the the rope and placed one end onto Cassie's hands.

"Alright, we should probably try to explore the place for a while."

"Is the sea completely gone?"

"Yeah, it left behind this huge coral reef."

Cassie nodded as Shirou carefully led her down the hill. It wasn't too steep, but they couldn't be too careful.

Once they had gotten to the sea floor, Shirou looked around for any Nightmare Creatures. Seeing that there weren't any, they proceeded to walk away from the hill. Cassie decided to ask Shirou:

"Do you think that Sunny is here too?"

"It's not impossible. That guy is pretty sneaky, so for all we know, he could be watching us right now."

…He could probably do just that, now that I think about it.

Shirou heard footsteps from something large. He quickly grabbed Cassie and hid her behind some coral.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay?"

[Ingvild, watch her for me.]

[Of course.]

Shirou walked out of the coral's shadow, and saw a large crab-like creature. It seemed to have noticed him, as it started to scurry in Shirou's direction.

Shirou summoned the [Washing Pole] and waited to see what it will do. When it got close, it tried to jab its pincer at Shirou. He dodged its attack and slashed at it's lower torso.

The sword seemed to cut through it quite easily, as the [Washing Pole] was an awakened memory of the second tier. It didn't seem to be able to fatally wounded it however, so Shirou moved back a few steps.

Guess I have to go for a weak point.

Shirou rushed forward and aimed the [Washing Pole] at it's eyes. The blade easily stabbed through and pierced it's brain.

[You have defeated an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your blade grows sharper.]

…That was probably the easiest fight I've had so far. Excluding the Nightmare Creatures I fought in the academy.

Shirou looked around before dismissing his sword. He walked over to where Cassie was hiding and saw the puddle peeking out.

[…You were watching, weren't you?]

[…I had to make sure you could handle it.]

Shirou sighed.

[Nothing happened, right?]

[Of course not! Do you think I'm incompetent?!]

[I don't need to answer that.]

Shirou turned the corner and saw Cassie sitting on the floor with the [Evertwine] in her hands. He picked up the other end and gave it a light tug. Cassie turned her face in his direction.

"I'm back. Had to deal with a big crab. It was only dormant, so it was pretty easy to kill."

Cassie smiled awkwardly before tilting her head slightly.

"You do know that weak Nightmare Creatures stick together, right?"

"…Stay here for a second."

Shirou quickly ran around the area for a while, before noticing that there was a large amount of Carapace Scavengers eating a large shark-like creature. Shirou saw a large headless statue, and saw something moving at the top of it.

Shirou narrowed his eyes before realizing that it was a person waving at him. He couldn't see who the person was, but he decided that he'll try to approach them anyways. Unfortunately the Carapace Scavengers were in the way.

Shirou decided that he had to remove the threat. He summoned the [War Medallion] and the [Washing Pole], and walked towards the group of Carapace Scavengers.

————————————————————

10 minutes later, Shirou was climbing up the statue while covered in blue blood. He didn't know if he would get any diseases from it, but he decided to ignore it and keep climbing. Once he got to the top, he saw a familiar face.

"Are you crazy?!"

And a familiar line.

Shirou waved at Sunny, who seemed to be wearing an Memory.

"Hey Sunny!"

"You could have just walked around the perimeter, before finding an empty spot to climb from."

"I couldn't risk them attacking someone else."

"Their might not be anyone else!"

"Oh, I have Cassie with me by the way."

"…Seriously?"

"Yep! She's hiding right now."

"You just left her?!"

"She's well-protected."

Shirou looked around the area from the top of the headless statue. He then pointed in the direction he came from.

"Let's go. She's behind some coral over there."

Sunny sighed when he realized he wasn't going to get an explanation.

"Fine."

————————————————————

"Hey Cassie! I found Sunny!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah, he's right here. And he wasn't naked when I found him!"

Sunny looked at Shirou in confusion, wondering why that was important. He then turned to Cassie who was strangely red in the face. His eyebrow twitched.

"Did you guys see the water draining away earlier?"

"Yeah. Well I did at least. Turns out that the water is a Nightmare Creature."

Sunny and Cassie looked towards Shirou in shock.

"How did you figure that out?!"

"I have my ways."

Shirou looked at an out-of-place puddle of black water smugly.

"Anyways, we should probably explore for a bit. Now that we have Sunny, he can be our scout by using his shadow to look around for us."

Cassie looked towards Sunny in surprise.

"Is that you're Aspect?"

"Yes. My shadow is more independent than others."

Sunny stared at his shadow, who seemed to be looking right back at him.

"We're going to be limited on time, since I'm pretty sure that the sea comes back during the night."

Shirou thought about Sunny's words for a few seconds.

"We should probably stay close to the hill. That way, we can run back here once night gets close."

For the rest of the day, they explored the area within the hill's range. They saw some Carapace Scavengers, and another creature that seemed similar, yet more deadly. They were walking in the direction of the large Nightmare Creature's corpse.

Once night came, the ground started to shake as they ran back towards the hill. By the time they got to the top, they can see the black sea completely flooding the land below.

Sunny and Shirou had collected some meat from the Carapace Scavengers, so they lit a fire and started to roast the meat. Shirou turned to Sunny before saying:

"I'll take watch."

"Be my guest."

Shirou took some of the roasted meat with him, and left Sunny and Cassie at the campfire.

[You can come out now.]

A girl appeared out of a puddle of water. She sat next to Shirou and took some of the meat that he offered her.

[Can you sleep when you're in that form.]

[No, I would have to be in my human form for that.]

Shirou thought for a second before patting his lap.

[You can sleep here than.]

[…W-what?]

It was pretty dark, but Shirou thought that her face went a little red, as she was chewing her food.

Am I schizophrenic?

[I doubt you want to sleep in the sand.]

[B-but that would be improper!]

Why is she stuttering in her mind?

[I don't really see the issue though. You have to sleep somehow. Otherwise you won't be any use tomorrow.]

[I don't mind sleeping on the sand!]

[Sleep on my lap.]

Immediately, her head was laying on Shirou's lap. Shirou felt his face heat up, but he didn't know why.

[…Mother's going to kill me.]

[What do you mean?]

[A woman cannot just lay her head on anyone's lap, you know?! I'm not a whore who lays with any man!]

[…I think you're confusing two different things with each other.]

[I can't get married anymore!]

[…Right.]

Somewhere, in the deepest reaches of Shirou's being, there was an attribute that couldn't be detected. Not even the Nightmare Spell could find it. If it did, it would probably name it something like this:

[Eroge Protaganist EX].