“Geez, is a little appreciation too much to ask?!” Psycho shouted.
The other four girls stared at Psycho, the corners of their mouths twitching. She was assuming they were enjoying this little group outing. But the reason no one was showing appreciation was that no one was feeling any.
“Maybe it’s because we all know what you’re usually like,” said Homura. “But yeah, thanks so much. I could never have dragged us out here like this. After all, I actually care what people think.”
“Come on, we should be able to walk around with our chins held high every now and again. The Goddess is asking us to defeat the Dark Lord for her. So why do we have to skulk around in the shadows with our tails tucked between our legs?”
“I can see where you’re coming from, but this is taking things too far. Besides, you should be more worried about your own freedom. I bet it won’t be long before they lock you up.”
“Like you’re one to talk!”
The two were arguing loudly—despite the fact that they were supposed to be keeping their heads down! Not that anyone was going to mind a bit of commotion in a place like this.
“Considering our table, it kind of feels like we’re skulking in the shadows anyway… But I get it, we’re here to blow off steam, right?” Proto muttered, glancing around.
There weren’t as many lights up in the loft as there were down on the first floor, and the seats toward the back remained dimly lit and dismal. There weren’t many people sitting up here, either, which made it that much easier for Proto and Tsutsumi to relax. They still had to keep the hoods of their robes pulled low, however.
“What’s with all this food, though…?”
The plate sitting before Homura was piled high with steak and potatoes. It was already a little bit too much for a single person, but it was Tsutsumi’s plate that was truly shocking. Her steak-and-potato mountain was clearly too much for a single person. Just the sight of it was giving Homura indigestion.
The steam rising from the plates made their surroundings look hazy and white.
“Tsutsumi the…food…fighter…!”
Tsutsumi held her fork in the air, a twinkle in her eyes.
“Well, at least someone’s happy.”
Most of the tavern’s customers were soldiers. If there was one thing the place prided itself on, it was volume. No one batted an eye at the extra-large portions.
“I guess it’s good to have a nice hearty meal like this every once in a while.”
The meat and potatoes were plainly seasoned, with just salt.
“What more do you need? Simplicity is best…! Well, maybe not best. But it’s been so long that right now I feel like stuffing myself until I can’t even move.”
When it came down to it, the act of eating helped to reduce stress. Homura cut off a piece of meat and placed it into her mouth.
The meat was well seared, and the potatoes had been steamed until they were fluffy and hot. The fact that the food had been seasoned so simply was what made it so difficult for them to put their forks down.
“Tsutsumi, is it good?”
“Mm-hmm…!”
Homura stared as Tsutsumi attacked her plate, evidently enjoying the food. There was one thing bothering Homura, however. This extra-large portion hadn’t been requested by Tsutsumi herself. Rather, it had been ordered by Psycho.
“You’re not up to something, are you…?”
“Up to something? Me? It’s okay, I just want to test something out.”
Test something out? Homura’s mind quickly went to a filthy place.
“Your plan is to pump Tsutsumi full of food until she gets plump and chubby, isn’t it?” she said, rambling on quickly. “That’s a great idea! I, too, would like to explore the outer frontiers of what Tsutsumi is truly capable of. It’s true that she’s adorable, all slim and petite right now, but cuteness is an inalienable part of what Tsutsumi is. The possibilities are endless! Different hair, different speech, different gestures… But of all the infinite possibilities, the idea of a plump and juicy Tsutsumi…! Psycho, you’re brilliant!”
“I’m pretty sure you’re joking right now, but you’re actually not that far off.”
“Gyah! I was just goofing around, I didn’t expect to be right. Yikes!”
Homura grimaced. Stumbling onto the right answer was embarrassing, like when someone explains a joke.
“It doesn’t make sense how Tsutsumi can eat so much.”
Tsutsumi was always chowing down on something. The moment they got back from their missions to hunt monsters or bandits or whatever, Tsutsumi was ready to eat. Her stomach had even responded earlier to the sight of those shark teeth she had scooped straight out of her own body.
Tsutsumi was insatiable, that was true. But Homura had never given that fact much thought.
“I thought she had to eat a lot in order to create her poison and heal her wounds?”
Tsutsumi’s powers of regeneration were astounding, but her healing still required raw materials. The same was true for her poison.
“To be exact, I’m talking about her figure in relation to the amount she eats… Why doesn’t the volume of her body ever change?”
Now that Psycho mentioned it, Tsutsumi was rather scrawny considering how much she put away. That Tsutsumi wasn’t the type to put on weight didn’t seem like much of an explanation. Regardless, Homura was jealous. Just as with Carlila’s youth, Homura would love to know Tsutsumi’s secret.
“I’ve wished I had Tsutsumi’s ability to eat so much and still stay slim, but surely she’ll have to put on weight after eating this much, won’t she? Besides, why bring this up all of a sudden?”
It made sense for Psycho to have questions, but why test them now?
“Changes in the soul correspond to changes in the body and the ability to warp reality, almost like software bugs in the natural order,” Psycho said, repeating what they had learned at the Academy of the Black Arts. “My parents’ lab back on Earth carried out experiments in genetic manipulation. Occasionally, a test subject would even exhibit supernatural qualities. We called these test subjects paranormal entities. But the lab was never able to reproduce these subjects, not even through cloning. They just collected their data for debugging purposes. Reproducible results are an integral part of science.”
While Psycho explained, Tsutsumi continued to silently shovel meat and potatoes into her mouth.
“I was thinking, if genetic manipulation is also a kind of change to the soul, then it would make sense for such bugs to show up sometimes.”
“And you think that’s why Tsutsumi doesn’t get fat?”
What goes up must not get fat.
“Yes, but I think it’s more complicated than that. I think Tsutsumi might serve as some sort of interdimensional resource storage tank.”
“I’m not quite following.”
Why were they talking about alternate dimensions all of a sudden?
“My hypothesis is that the extra amount that she eats is stored in some separate space. Or perhaps there is another state of matter that we’re not familiar with. Hence, even if Tsutsumi’s volume decreases, the difference in mass can immediately be compensated for from seemingly out of nowhere.”
“And now you’ve completely lost me.”
Homura had absolutely no idea what Psycho was talking about.
“I actually do something similar,” Proto said.
“Oh, that’s right. You’re the amalgamation of advanced technologies from beyond the stars.”
This was getting more sci-fi by the minute.
“The ropelike arms that extend from my core unit are actually stored in quantum layers within the same space. That’s why I’m able to extend a greater volume from my core than can be contained within my unit’s actual volume.”
“I really have absolutely no idea what any of you people are saying.”
“What matters isn’t what we’re saying. It’s that what seems extraordinary to us may, in fact, fall within the category of ordinary when you take into account the full range of possibilities in the universe.”
“That makes us seem so tiny and insignificant. It’s kind of scary…”
“But we are tiny and insignificant.”
“I guess so.”
Homura had never spent much time thinking about outer space and had never even imagined there might be other worlds. As momentous as everyday life might seem, when considered from the scope of the world or universe, human existence was actually quite small and insignificant.
Homura was intimidated by the thought.
Psycho continued.
“The nature of Tsutsumi’s regeneration is also unusual. It doesn’t matter how powerful it is, she shouldn’t be able to recover her original form after her legs are torn to shreds or something. The structure of the body is too complicated for that. But since she already had this ability before even coming to this world, there must be more involved than just the matter of necessary resources.”
“Well, while you’re talking about resources, Tsutsumi is already starting her third helping.”
Homura listened to Psycho with one ear as she watched Tsutsumi eat. At some point, a second plate had arrived for Tsutsumi and had already been licked clean.
“You created a monster once before with Tsutsumi inside, didn’t you?”
“That’s right, using those bandits…”
Homura remembered the bandit gang they had encountered near Guadhari Village.
“But I had already demonstrated for myself that Tsutsumi’s soul displays similar regenerative powers—”
“That still doesn’t make it normal…”
“In this world, apparently the soul—or whatever it is—is more important than, but also closely connected to, the body. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the soul defines the body.”
“Tsutsumi, about how full would you say your stomach feels now…?” Homura asked. Tsutsumi had just polished off her third plate.