“Oh? She’s awake?” Melty asked.
“Yes. She should be able to come out soon,” Mamoru said happily. Things seemed to be proceeding even more smoothly than I’d imagined. “She’s awake and talking. I’ve explained everything about you and the others, Naofumi. I’d like to introduce you, if you have some time now?”
“Sure, okay. If she melts away the moment she comes out of that thing, don’t blame us,” I said.
“Why do you have to say such horrible things?” Melty chided me.
“If that did happen, I’d also be at fault. We’ve taken every step we can to make sure this will work,” Mamoru said confidently. “No need to worry on that score.” The meeting kind of fizzled out at that point, and we headed to Mamoru’s previously secret underground facility.
We headed down the stairs beneath Siltran castle. Along the way we encountered one of Mamoru’s familiars standing guard in front of the lab. It was the one called Fitoria. She raised a hand and gave us a casual greeting. At a glance she looked younger than the Fitoria we knew and seemed far less emotional. She wasn’t exactly a doll, but it did feel like she only moved according to orders.
“Hey, Naofumi,” Melty asked, tugging on my sleeve. “She looks a little younger, but is that . . . Fitoria?”
“Maybe, but I don’t yet think she’s the Fitoria that we know,” I replied.
“I understood everything you told me back there, but after seeing Fitoria, I actually believe it,” Melty mused.
“I guess we can consider her a prototype Fitoria,” I said.
“Are you trying to sound cool?” Melty asked snidely.
“Not really. She’s very different from the Fitoria we know. There’s a chance she’s a different person with the same name. Holn said she was still being worked on,” I replied. It might be this one is just the shell for now, with the contents to be added later. She did have certain aspects that were the same as the Fitoria we knew . . . but there were clearly things that were different too. This prototype Fitoria was lacking something . . . something soul-related. That much was clear to me.
“Okay then. But she really does look like her. I can feel the reality of everything you told me,” Melty stated. We headed into Mamoru’s lab as we talked. Only about half of the tanks were occupied, as the kids Mamoru took care of had already finished their treatments and were now resting around the castle. The remaining tanks contained experimental clones of Filolia . . . those that would presumably become the filolials. Further in the back there was another girl floating in a final tank, her chest more prominent than last time. She had a face that was like a mixture of Fitoria and R’yne, a girl with long hair. She had red wings on her back, which had apparently come from the application of a Suzaku gene.
“Ah, you finally decided to show up,” Holn, the Whip Hero from this time, said. She was there in the lab to greet us. She called herself an evil alchemist and was apparently Ratotille’s ancestor, the alchemist who took care of the monsters in my village. Holn was a researcher who used the power of the Whip seven star weapon to conduct all sorts of experiments. She was also Mamoru’s collaborator and was closely tied to the current incident. The one who ultimately created the filolials was more likely Holn than it was Mamoru. The filolials’ hatred of dragons was connected to Holn too.
It seemed Holn had a whole thing against dragons being the most powerful monsters. That idea seemed to have been passed down to her descendant, Rat.
“Does this mean you are finally letting little old Filolia out? Everything is ready,” Holn said.
“Thanks, Holn,” Mamoru replied.
“Where’s R’yne? Won’t she want to see this?” I asked. I was pretty sure she was training with S’yne again today.
“She was here talking with Filolia until a moment ago. But she upset her and got chased out,” Holn explained.
“Stuck her nose in the wrong place again, did she?” I said. R’yne was the Sewing Kit Hero from another world and seemed to be S’yne’s ancestor and Filolia’s sister. She never took anything especially seriously, no matter the situation. She’d met up with Mamoru and his allies when she came here looking for her own sister, who had been summoned to another world as the Claw Hero. She was also the one who had suggested to me that my inability to attack would mean sex with me wouldn’t hurt either. I hadn’t forgiven her for that, and I never would. I could use a knife when cooking and chopping things up just fine! There was no basis for her hypothesis . . . or so I liked to believe.
I started down that path for a moment—during cooking, I was actually cutting with the attack power of the knife, while sex would be considered something I did with my own bare hands—but then shook it off. She was always running her mouth. That was the point I was trying to make, and so she must have said something to piss her sister off.
“They seemed to be getting along well,” Holn said. “But then Filolia chased her off for some reason.”
“Okay, whatever,” I said. What a failure as a sister to get chased off just when her sibling was about to come out of this tank. I didn’t really care and looked idly over at the doorway to see it open and Cian peering inside.
“Ah, are you about to let Filolia out?” Cian asked us after looking around.
“Seems like it,” I replied.
“Where’s Fohl?” Cian asked.
“He’s back in the village,” I replied.
“Really? Why?” Cian inquired.
“We just ended up here after the meeting, and he’s not involved in meetings,” I explained.
“Okay,” Cian said. She was one of the orphans, a cat demi-human, and seemingly the ancestor of the hakuko, which was Fohl’s race. We’d discovered a whole bunch of ancestors, basically. Cian was very open with Fohl as a result, interacting with him with all her barriers down. She acted differently from how she did with Mamoru or me . . . like a big sister ordering her brother around. Fohl didn’t seem especially comfortable around Cian, and personally I thought we should keep them apart unless it was really required. This feeling probably stemmed from the fact Cian felt a bit like Atla.
“Filolia,” Mamoru said. There was no reply. The girl floated in the culture tank, eyes closed, saying nothing. She looked exactly as she did when I saw her before—no changes at all. We were faced with the fact that the situation might be very different from what Mamoru had been expecting. The atmosphere around us was taking a nasty turn—I had to wonder if things really were okay. “Filolia? Hey, are you okay?” Mamoru continued, checking the vital signs displayed on the terminal. Nothing seemed to be out of place. Filolia’s eyes seemed to have fluttered a little.
Mamoru seemed to be struggling a little too, sounding concerned and sighing with a furrowed brow over the text on the terminal. He continued to try to operate it, but to no noticeable avail. Concern grew on his face with each attempt, and he scratched his head and tried again. Eventually it looked like he had given up completely, and he looked despondent.
“That’s enough! Everything is ready! Return to life! The most ultimate and powerful life-form that I have ever created!” Mamoru said. I was a bit surprised by this outburst, and then he hit a button on the terminal. The liquid inside the tank started to bubble and drain away. With a hissing sound, smoke whipped up around the tank and then the sealing popped open.