Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 223: Arc 4, Act II, - 68: Trek Through the Rainforest
The thundering blitzes blooming year-round around the palace were cleared by noon, barely leaving the pungent sweet scent not a moment to linger; removed under the notion that they were an omen of death.
And yet to the one who twirled the petals in her fingers, it meant something else. She picked the ones off the wheelbarrows passing by, tucking a few into her blonde strands.
The yellow flowers that had turned black, faded into white. The gardens behind the palace met the rainforest’s edge.
Light rain clouds that showed no sign of a shower anytime soon, formed shadows over her. A memory flashed, to when the trees bordered their backyard.
"Kria Park," she spoke under her breath. This was much vaster and far greater than that park or the back of their house. ’And yet it’s one of the smaller rainforests of Cravolta they say...’
Jotou heard footsteps approach and turned. Asobi tried sneaking up to the blonde invisibly.
"Aww, you saw me?"
"No, heard." Jotou glanced down and squinted; the grass was bent to where the magician’s footsteps were. "The one thing that invisibility spell can’t do, that you always did," she pointed with a smirk. "Getting lazy?"
Asobi shook back to visibility with a face of shock and horror, "I beg your pardon Ms Howllett!? The Amazing Asobi would never grow lazy in her phantasmagorical tricks!"
"Will you ever forgive me?" the blonde pouted with a tilt of her head.
Asobi tittered, "Okay!" Jotou giggled.
"You should still be careful. Unlike that one," Jotou directed her finger to one of the columns around the garden.
Fumeko planted one foot on it, "Spider Walk," she lifted her other foot and tried to run up the pillar only for her to plummet, squeak and quickly blink higher into the air and blink back onto the ground with a scowl to the column.
Arabella opened the back doors and led those who needed to prepare out; she herself opting to wear her brown leather jacket and dark jeans and as per usual adorned her two feathers by her left ear—hair securely tied up.
Hotaru wore her adventuring attire and her hair a thick bun, while the princess... breathed freely for once; stealing Arabella’s fashion she strode, her chin in the air, tiara on her head and greatsword on her shoulder.
A black jacket, plain undershirt and dark jeans. The blonde smiled. ’It’s like looking at Daiyu again.’ Besides the much taller figure, tanner skin or the purple hair she knotted up in a bun. ’Well, as old Daiyu-looking as it can get.’
Behind them came a half-elf in green camos, the emblem of Cravolta over his left breast pocket and a red plus symbol; the same plus on a helmet tied under his chin.
Fumeko snickered at the sight of it. "What is the matter?" Feyan queried, carrying a medical case of the same colouring; one in his hand and a larger one on his back.
"Nothing. Did your mother give you that helmet?" Fumeko grinned wider.
"This is standard issue I will have you know, do not make fun of it!" he glared.
"I think it’s the straps," Daiyu continued.
"You are not supposed to shoot a medic in war, that is common practice. If I lose one indicator it puts my life at jeopardy," he pointed to it.
"Cause a bunch of extremists won’t ever shoot a medic once they acknowledge him," Fumeko crossed her arms.
"Right?" Daiyu leaned her elbow onto Fumeko’s shoulder, her leg leaning the complete opposite to meet her height.
"I..."
"I think it looks neat! You never know when a branch will come for a sneak attack from above!"
"I suppose Ms Asobi... I suppose..." he sighed.
Fumeko glanced at the elbow resting on her shoulder and blinked forward a few steps, nearly causing Daiyu to fall over. The greatsword fell first and Daiyu put both her hands out, catching herself.
She huffed and pushed her arms down, popping herself back up in one move. Daiyu chuckled as she slid the tip of her boot under the hilt and kicked the sword up to her grasp; keeping it under her arm, she dusted off her hands.
"Woo! I’ve missed that little kick. Nice try," she cocked her head to Fumeko... Her right eye glared, "Try that again and you might end up under my foot Fumesy."
The brunette’s eyes fluttered, "I’ll either cut your foot by the bone or blink away."
"Dealer’s choice," Daiyu smirked, lifting the greatsword onto her shoulder.
"Psychopath."
"What?" Daiyu shrugged, "It’s cute to see her challenge me."
"Excuse you?" Fumeko leered and blinked right in front of Daiyu.
"You can’t catch her. And she fights dirty; not like you don’t either," Jotou’s eyes glazed over.
Daiyu stared down the detective, "I like that. You still don’t have a chance," she growled as a ripple emanated across her irises. Fumeko rose slowly on the tips of her toes.
"Can we not fight each other, we have other things to do," Hotaru spiralled her sleeves. Arabella merely watched, mildly amused before she tapped Daiyu on the shoulder to break the princess out of it.
"Ha! I win!" Fumeko blinked back to Jotou.
"Nice win Meko!" Asobi cheered.
"Oh no you don’t!"
"My lady, please."
"Ugh, fine just trying to break the tension. Morale and all that."
"Either way, much of the Royal Guard has been sent north to guard the west of the forest outskirts and some are around Torcha; of course, if they decide to flee east, we may lose them," Feyan told.
"We can probably make that minister squeal a little more for names," Jotou replied.
Fumeko added, "And we can track them down. They’re bound to come back to the city."
"Through Torcha, whatever that is; a place?" Jotou raised a brow.
"It’s a small district of Cravolta City, north of this estate; it has roads and railways to and from Luxinor mainly," Hotaru relayed.
"Royal Guard are, ready to go, into the rainforest. And we are, certain that, we don’t want to simply, let only them go?" Feyan translated.
"Listen, you can try convincing me a thousand times, but this is my problem. And I’d feel a lot better if I dealt with it. These people want me dead and I think I’m nice enough to give them a fair shot," gem-like purple rippled across her eyes again.
"Princess... with happened last time you know why the palace does not want you doing as such."
"There wasn’t a ’last time’ Feyan, that wasn’t me," Daiyu glared. "And besides," she stood tall, "I’ve got you guys by my side. What could go wrong?"
"Famous last words," Jotou’s lips tightened.
"Oh don’t jinx it Joey Toes."
"You’re the one jinxing it," Fumeko retorted.
"Let’s go before the council finds out, can we!?"
"Alright, alright," Hotaru smiled.
"Let’s go!" Asobi took the lead eastwards while the rest followed.
Jotou and Daiyu lagged behind. "Hey, where d’you get your stuff made? I think I should like, have proper armour ya know?"
"From a blacksmith in Kria and enchanted by the Ordinate; who exactly I’m not sure."
"A blacksmith made clothes?"
"It has some thick parts and composite materials, I guess ’armourer’ is a better term. It’s chipped and damaged too, I need to get some fixes done...
I might just have to get a new one made really. A visit to the Ordinate’s on the to-do list. Haven’t even seen the city yet."
"It’s nice. It’s also nice not to be cooped up in that palace and actually being on the move. Hunting down a rebellion," Daiyu exhaled, beaming wide. "I always knew there would be one against me."
"Yeah and I thought I’d be the one spearheading it; shocking."
"I’d like to see you try and take me down."
"Jotou Howllett’s the Thundering Blade now, so watch out Yu-Yu," she smirked and paced quicker.
"I told you never to call me that!!!" Daiyu rushed forward.
_
"Admiral, there seems to be tracks that were attempted to be covered," one of the Royal Guard relayed, wearing camo attire.
"Attempted?" Hotaru’s ears pricked.
"It seems we’re not far off their trail. A little more north-eastwards and we may run into them. Shall we send in scouts?"
Arabella shook her head and gave some commands.
"Understood. We’ll surround the area up ahead to create a flank while her majesty and her companions go forward," the Royal Guard split the dozen or so of them into two parts, left and right.
Leaving the seven of them in the middle to go forward. "Shoddy work, tried to cover the footsteps with leaves and dirt," Fumeko crouched down.
The wet forest grounds were covered in roots and vegetation, spiralling up the trunks as moss plagued the barks. The lush green was only complimented by the humid air seeping into their lungs.
And now three realized they weren’t completely prepared, "For hell’s sake," Jotou patted down her frizzing hair.
"What?" the twin-tails were barely there as two long fuzzy tendrils hung from the brunette’s head. Asobi seemed fine...
"Come here," Hotaru grabbed the blonde by the shoulders and pulled the hair tie off her ponytail. She began to push all of the blonde’s locks upwards tightly.
"Mmph, this is embarrassing," Jotou stood still.
Arabella scouted forward on the footprints, estimating where they would lead and then looked up... Hundreds of branches created a web of sunlight downwards, thousands of leaves shifting to each bird roosting.
"You too Fumeko," Hotaru finished up, leaving Jotou with a topknot.
"Ugh... fine."
"Ow!" Asobi raised her hand to see a little black bug, injecting into her pale skin.
"Kill it," Daiyu glanced.
"Is this a mos-kwi-toe?"
"Mosquito!?" Feyan rushed over, opening up his medical bag, "Careful, they carry a lot of diseases, please smack it."
"But," Asobi looked to it, so confidently feasting on her blood. "Aw, it’s hurting me." She sighed. "SMACK!" "OW!" The bug was a splatter of black and crimson on Daiyu’s hand.
Daiyu rubbed it off her hand and rubbed it onto the sheath of her sword. Feyan pulled out an ointment, "This should help Ms Asobi."
"It’s a mosquito bite, we’ll be fine," Daiyu rolled her eyes.
"Thank you!" Asobi smeared a bit too much across her hand.
"Ngyeh," Fumeko yanked her head free, now two buns siding her head.
"Arabella?" Jotou searched.
Arabella stood up and pointed in the direction before signalling something, "We’ll probably meet, the rebellion within, twenty or so minutes, that way," Feyan conveyed.
"Let’s go," Daiyu strode. Through the flora they went, a path already somewhat cleared in the trail they followed. Arabella pulled out her sabre, hacking away at anything that was too big an obstruction.
Even with haste, twenty minutes passed and they had not met with another person yet. However, the trail was going warmer, the foliage was much more damaged, the footsteps were even more shoddily covered.
Just as they took their next step, Arabella put her hand up while Fumeko continued the trail leading to a man-made clearing. Fumeko snuck forward, keeping low.
Subtle sounds of chatter and footsteps, some other objects—tent stakes? Some bags crumpling the leaves? Her eyes caught glimpse of a few people, taking a seat on the roots to catch their breath, backpacks adorned.
They all had a similarity; armed with powder rifles at the ready. And upon closer inspection, pins similar to the one Fumeko found.
Within a shadow, she blinked back to the rest, "They’re there; guns, pins and other loose weapons. Looks like they’re getting tired."
"Now’s the time to strike then. Ara, the Royal Guard’ll be around yeah?"
Arabella looked to Daiyu and nodded.
"Calm down, they’re still civilians. There’s a reason we beat them here, they’re not too strong," Jotou grabbed Daiyu by the shoulder.
"Fine, I’ll go easy on them."
"Aegis-Aura," Hotaru splashed a blue glow onto everyone present. Arabella held her fingers up to her mouth to signal. Hotaru stayed around a tree alongside Feyan while Asobi pulled out her wand.
Jotou unsheathed her armite sword, Fumeko ready with her dagger gleaming purple. Daiyu threw the sheath aside and light took over above the little clearing.
The rebels talking amongst themselves all peered to something forming and their eyes waxed in terror... As a mosquito the size of six people buzzed into the fray.
"GAH!" "AH!!" They all aimed their rifles. "BLAST!" "BLAST!" "BlAsT!" Wasting their ammunition whilst—"EEEEEEEEE!!!!"—a whistle shrilled across the trees.
All the noise alone sent the birds and fauna around to flee as the bullets went through the illusion; "FWING!" "TING!" Into the trees. The Royal Guard rushed in from around where they had set up tents.
Arabella drew her sabre and hurried into the fray, followed by another three. Six rogue Royal Guard and the rebels spun all around, picking up and aiming their rifles...
