Chapter 19 - Collecting rewards

'It's... It's finally over' were the resounding thoughts throughout the battlefield.

Wilhelm had a lost look in his eyes, staring out dazedly and thinking of the past. Cursch had a triumphant smile on her face, whilst she rode over to the whale's lifeless body. When she reached it so did a couple of others, including the Japanese boy, the blue-haired girl and Ricardo.

They all gathered around the ones who slayed the White Whale. "You did! You killed The White Whale, a powerful MaBeast. Congratulations!" Crusch said in a thankful tone, clearly happy that this battle was over.

"Well done kids, you've done a great job-" Ricardo was saying until he was interrupted by someone.

"Wooohoooo! it's dead, it's dead. I can't believe it." The Japanese boy shouted in joy, ignoring everyone else and just expressing his relief, something that made the blue-haired girl smile in infatuation.

All the soldiers finally gathered around the corpse of the White Whale, excluding Wilhelm who had gone alone to the head of the whale, seemingly in his world.

Crusch told everyone to gather around as she was going to give a speech. "The White Whale has finally fallen. The MaBeast of fog that has kept us in fear and terrorised the world for four centuries, by the hand of Raito and Suki Yagami, was defeated!"

She lifted her sword in the air and as she did that everyone else cheered, chucking armour plates and other such things in the air. The atmosphere was joyful and harmonious. Suki had a smile on her face, glad to finally be free from her imprisonment, but Raito seemed to be contemplating even on such a joyous occasion.

"You should enjoy it a little, and have some fun." Suki nudged Raito's side and whispered to him, wanting the person who freed her to be as happy as she was.

While everyone was celebrating Wilhelm was coming to terms with the fact he couldn't be the one to avenge his wife. "It is finished, but not by me. Is this okay? I have not avenged you, but someone else has.

Maybe it's for the best? the White Whale is dead and your soul can finally rest in peace, what does it matter that I was not the one to carry it out? Now I feel that I can truly say it, this may be a little late but, Terresia I love you! Forever!"

He announced to the sky, a smile finally gracing his face, one filled with relief, regret, melancholy and a lot more emotions, some positive and some negative. But all good nonetheless as he released his pent-up emotions held down for many decades.

Some distance away, a man was slowly waking up. "*Yawn* Huh? Where is everybody? Was I really out for that long? I hope it's not over yet, I haven't had enough fun yet. Going back to my boring life after this will be hell!"

A tall muscular man covered in bruises, cuts and blood said with confusion, still looking around for his new friends and that giant whale. That's right he is JoJo, and he seemed to have missed the whole mission.

He got up and looked around, then saw a bunch of injured soldiers resting near the foot of the massive tree. He decided to go over to them and ask what had happened, and he did this fast, impatient to get back to fighting, he never even got to test out his new ability as the fight was cut surprisingly short.

He managed to get the direction the whale went from the injured soldiers, he was so impatient he didn't even thank them for the information, talk about rude.

"Haha here I come whale, I'll get my revenge just you wait!" JoJo shouted out to himself as he ran in the direction he was given. As he got closer and closer a massive spike coming from the ground came into his sight, and when he took a closer look he saw something skewered on this spike like a kebab.

His eyes widened in disappointment as he saw that it was the White Whale he was so anticipating to fight. Then his attention was quickly taken by the same scene, but this time he paid attention to it instead of just focusing on the fact the whale was dead. "Soooo... Cool! Who did that? Is this magic, I wanna learn." He quickened his pace, full-on bolting at the group of people celebrating next to the dead whale.

He was so fixated on the spectacle of the whale with a massive spike made out of earth going through it that he didn't realise he had already arrived at the group.

"Raito, look JoJos woken up" Suki pulled on Raito's sleeve and pointed in the direction of JoJo, who seemed to be charging directly at the group of soldiers gathered around celebrating the fact they fought the White Whale and lived to see another day.

"Took him long enough, when he gets here we should leave these guys. We've finished the mission and should have to go home soon." Raito said in an impatient tone, clearly wanting to go home or get his reward for completing the mission.

The smile that was on Suki's face vanished, remembering that she'll have to go back to her world, the one where she was all alone. No family, friends or anyone that even knows her. "yeah," she said with melancholy, dispirited by this fact.

Just as Suki started to look down, the noise of two people colliding distracted her from her depressing spiral. "Huh, what happened?"

"It was JoJo, he wasn't looking where he was going. I swear he's way too excitable, like a little child." Raito said whilst shaking his head, disappointed that someone with so much potential had such a personality.

"My bad! You'll be fine, you'll be fine." JoJo said in a not-so-apologetic way. Helping the man he knocked down back up before forgetting about him and looking over to his new friends. "Hey guys I'm back, looks like I missed something interesting, fill me in."

"Yes, well why don't we talk somewhere more... Private," Raito said while looking around seeing that most eyes are on their group, curious about the new addition to their group. Even though they had seen him earlier, they never saw him with the duo who took down the White Whale, but now they thought about it it's kind of obvious.

As Raito, Suki and JoJo left the group, Wilhelm joined it, going to speak to Crusch who was talking to a beast man/girl or whatever and the Japanese boy and blue-haired girl. They seemed to be discussing something about the group chat members, or to them the foreign nobles.

"So uh... who did that," JoJo said whilst pointing to the massive spike coming out of the ground.

"That would be me," Suki said with a proud smile on her face as she puffed up her flat chest.

"Really? You! Is she telling the truth Raito, I mean come on, you know what I mean don't you? She's like a little girl." JoJo said but the more he spoke the higher the temperature got. When JoJo finally finished he looked over to Suki to see a massive fireball hovering over her hand, looking ready to be launched.

"Haha you know I was only joking, it's not that serious relax." JoJo broke out into a sweat, and not just from the temperature.

"Stop messing around you two. We should check the group chat, our mission is complete so there's probably something new." Raito stopped them from fighting further, trying to get back on track and be somewhat productive. Even though they've only known each other for a short while, it seemed Raito was already used to their bickering.

"Yeah, good idea. Come on listen to your boyfriend," JoJo said with a teasing smirk on his face, still in the mood to prod at her even with the fireball right in front of him.

"...boyfriend," Suki whispered as she suddenly stopped paying attention to her surroundings, the fireball dissipating, and a subtle blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Guys!" Raito called out and clapped his hands together, breaking Suki from her dazed state, the blush on her face now gone.

"Let's see if we can redeem our rewards," Raito said once again, annoyance creeping into his tone.

This time everyone listened, taking out their phones they went to check if anything was new. A new item in their inventory, and it just so happened to be something that looked like a gift box, just like the original welcoming gift.

"I've got another gift box, what about you guys?" JoJo said first, looking impatient to unlock a new ability.

"Same," both Raito and Suki replied

"Okay well I'm opening mine now," JoJo said then tapped the phone screen where the gift box icon was. After that both Suki and Raito did the same, not seeing a point in delaying any longer.

As the chat feed was disabled at the moment, they couldn't see what everyone else got, so they had to see what they got by looking at the description in the inventory.

"Well, are we saying what we got, or not?" JoJo asked with disappointment written all over his face. Whilst the name of his ability sounded really cool and made his expectations incredibly high, when he read the description those expectations were not met.

"Yes, you go first," Raito said to JoJo, interested in what both the others got.

"Okay, well I got the 'God's tongue'. What it does is well... It grants the wielder an ultra-acute sense of taste." JoJo looked downward, embarrassed to say his lame ability out loud, and Suki's sniffles of laughter didn't help.

"What did you get then!" JoJo asked, clearly annoyed by not just his ability, but for being mocked for it as well.

Suki's face showed the brightest smile, occasionally glancing at Raito as she said, "I got a world travel token, I can go to any of the group chat members' world once for as long as I want."

JoJo sent a pitying gaze towards Raito, clearly understanding the implications of this.

"*cough cough* Well I guess it's my turn then. I got...

-authors note-

Cliffhanger strikes again.

Jk

-Back to novel-

"*cough cough* Well I guess it's my turn then. I got 'Observation Haki'."

-authors note-

I tried to write a longer chapter, about 1,700 words. Tell me if this is a good length, and thank you for your feedback.