Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 453: Arc 6, - 69: At God’s End

Perched on the top of the ship, next to the antennas was what could be mistaken for the largest seagull anyone had ever seen. Though most seagulls steered clear of the navy vessels lest no one was around.

Fumeko carried a small pack slung around her shoulder and glanced up as she boarded the ship. The torn strap of her pinafore was held together by tape, for no safety pin could reliable pierce the enchantments on it.

Kira stared down with her eyes that mimicked someone wearing mascara.

"What’re you looking at," the brunette snarked.

Kira clucked and whistled gently in response.

Fumeko did not know why, but she felt offended by Kira’s reply.

"Watch out!"

"Get down!"

The brunette heard shouts coming from the navy at base. A small snake with iridescent feathery wings zipped around in the air, spurting venom around as the navy soldiers attempted to restrain it.

Hotaru boarded the ship with her own pack of supplies behind Fumeko and surveyed the same scene. "Apparently there was a cultist who was conjuring those up around here."

"Are they dead?"

"I think so?" the wolf-girl raised a brow.

Tiffany boarded behind the redhead and narrowed her eye at the small winged snake wreaking havoc against trained agents. "Where does one stow one’s provisions?"

"Right this way young madams," a navy agent on board caught their attention and directed them towards their quarters.

Meanwhile, still not on board quite yet, Ben was busy convincing Jotou to, "Dude, it’ll be useful to have two."

"I mostly just trained with one sword Crispy, in fact every fight I’ve done I always keep one hand free; it’s way better for me," the blonde replied.

Ben leaned forward, with his split-able sword still in his grasp and whispered, "Honestly man, I don’t even know how to use swords. This thing’s kinda more like my focus if anything."

Jotou knitted her brows and whispered back, "Then why’d you get a sword? Why not a staff or something?"

"Cause a swooord’s cooler, duh. But if it’s life or death, I’d rather someone who can use it use it."

"First of all, that’s way too big for me, second, isn’t it cliché to use fantasy swords at this point? Why not, I don’t know, a hammer?"

"Well, what does Daiyu use?"

...

"Touché. Anyway, that thing also doesn’t have the enchantments of my sword which I’m way more used to."

"Alright, alright, if you’re attuned and attached to it, I’ll leave it to the expert."

Jotou hoisted up a backpack of supplies and gave a tilt of her head, "See you tomorrow buddy."

"You got this," giving finger guns, Ben walked away.

The blonde took a deep breath and marched towards the ship and one final face greeted her before she was about to board.

She stood straight as an arrow and gripped in both hands, she presented her wand forward. Her stern expression was only broken by her squeaky voice, "I don’t really wanna give this away, but... it’s better if you have it."

"How did I get back into the same conversation..." Jotou’s eyes glazed over and she pushed Asobi’s hands gently. "It’s a miracle we even found that wand and that it’s been a ton of help since the beginning.

Putting all our eggs in one basket is generally not my style, neither is it the cult’s."

"It’s usually Daiyu’s," Asobi nodded.

"Right," she chuckled. "I’d hate to take it away from you," the blonde ran her fingers over Asobi’s tightened knuckles and further pushed her hands back to the elf’s chest.

Asobi hummed to herself, looking at the blonde from under her lashes.

Jotou glanced over at the top of the boat, hearing a few voices. She sighed and looked back to the raven-haired woman, "Promise me something?"

Asobi fluttered her eyes and tilted her head to the side, "Hm?"

"If everything goes wrong, I trust Meko’ll be able to teleport everyone out of there. But I’m most likely not gonna be on the boat if I’m fighting Beauregard. If I don’t come back... take care of Aru and Meko will you?

They’ll butt heads I’m sure, but I think they’ll listen to you. I’d rather not let me being gone be the end of everything we’ve been through together. Could you do that for me?"

The magician’s eyes waned more and more with each word. She solemnly replied, "I promise. But please come back..."

"I do plan on that, don’t worry," Jotou smiled and leaned forward. With her hand still on both of the elf’s, she placed her other hand on Asobi’s shoulder and kissed the magician on the cheek. "Don’t let things get boring around here."

The tip of Asobi’s ears went pink, as well as her cheeks—certainly an odd reaction considering her past actions. However, she beamed brightly not a second later, masking any emotion beyond joy, "The show will always go on!" she proclaimed.

Jotou giggled and patted her on the cheek where she had kissed, "Sorry," she looked down with a smile. "I really shouldn’t’ve done that. See you later Sobi," she took steps onto the ramp that leaned on the ship’s edge.

"Bye-bye," she said instead of exclaiming.

With the final passenger confirmed on board, the SS Narwhal took no pause to disembark from port. The naval dockworkers opened the gates and unanchored the ship from land.

The rumble of the engine became more audible as it picked up speed and a trail of smoke was left in its wake. In the next few minutes, it was already away from Burntish land and on its voyage towards the new god that was barely in sight.

Kazuo watched the smoke trails and took a deep breath. "There she goes... The last thing I wanted was for my girl to go to war," he lamented to the detective in blue next to him.

"That choice ain’t yours to make; it wasn’t back then and it certainly ain’t it now," she bluntly replied and folded her arms.

"I know."

"She’s grown up to be a brave young woman, doing what she believes is right in this messed up world. You ought to be proud of that."

"I am. I always am."

"Then you should say that to her face more often," she stated with a side-eyed glare.

"Say what to whose face?" a voice flowed in from behind the two.

Morgana unfolded her arms and turned, "Rose," she acknowledged.

"My darling seniors," Rose stood a bit on the tips of her toes and kissed the air on both sides of Morgana’s face to greet.

"I’ve told you before, don’t ever call me that," Morgana replied with a blank expression.

"Come now, it’s been an awful long time~" Rose sighed and did the same greeting for Kazuo, though he had to bend down slightly while she stood as high as she could.

"You’re looking less armed than usual," he told with a knowing look.

"Oh I’m sure Melcer can work overtime," Rose checked what ammunition she had left on her person.

"And Peter might be able to leverage some funding from the House of Commons; dear Rose here fought for the country’s sake," Morgana remarked.

"Think I might get a bump up the ladder~?" Rose grinned.

"I wouldn’t get your hopes up," Kazuo replied.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh dear, did I miss them?" she noticed the ship departing.

"We have two with us still and an investigation, so let’s get to work," Kazuo stated.

"Last question then," Rose gestured over to the flying snake now further up in the air, out of reach of the Burntish Navy.

Kazuo shook his head, unholstered his gun, switched a dial on it which made the purple glow it had in the chamber glow dimmer and- "Blast!"

With a final hiss the winged snake’s head got blown clean off by a purple bullet and thwapped onto the ground. Kazuo switched the dial back, holstered his gun and walked towards the scene with glazed over eyes.

_

Silence. The rumbling engine was such a constant that it became nothing more than ambient noise that droned in the back of the mind, alongside the ebb and flow of the tides.

A radio crackled every five or so minutes, with a member of the crew reporting in on their travel. The setting Sun was behind them—the twilight gone and the night now present.

Slightly over an hour since departing, the dark seas now had one ship on its way into a storm in the distance. "We’re all set Thundering Blade; we’ll signal you once we’re close," the captain relayed.

Jotou gave a nod and watched the navy do their work with all the old technology—old to her at least. ’Not that I’m an expert on ships.’

Yawning to herself, she left the cramped command centre and into the cabin a flight of stairs down. Usually meant for a dozen people, the seats were barren as the lightbulb over the table swayed with the ship’s movement.

The door to the quarters opened up just as she entered. A redhead came out, holding parchment papers and a few pens; she froze for a moment, seeing her partner. But then she approached the table and placed the utensils down.

"Busy with something?" the blonde lazily continued down the stairs, hand drifting down the railing.

Hotaru inhaled and looked to one side—her ears folded down. "Well, this is all an issue of national security. I understand we volunteered for this, but it seems unfair to not request compensation. So, I thought about writing a formal letter."

Jotou continued swaying with the inertia of the ship while walking towards the wolf-woman.

"Then it got me thinking, that even though the Deuctus Cult’s a terrorist group, the regimes might not see it that way. Sooo, I thought I’d use some of my authority to write an explanation." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The blonde halted her steps as she was face to face with the redhead.

"You know, some documentation which’d state that the Burntish government had no part to play in the actions of the cult and something that Lady Pinberry could easily sign and-"

As she continued to talk, Jotou accosted both of Hotaru’s wrists and held them up to the sides of her head.

"-something we could give to the Malecise Regime so that it doesn’t become a mess and we could contain some of the political dam-mmh."

Hotaru’s ears spiked, her tail and held up hands tensed up as Jotou kissed her deeply. Her wrists then went limp and ears fell as she melted with each passing second.

Slowly, Jotou parted from the kiss and stared into the brilliant blue pools of her girlfriend’s eyes, "I love you."

The redhead’s tail wagged while her hands still dangled in Jotou’s grasp, "What’s all this for then?" her fangs glistened.

"Nothing," the blonde smirked.

...

...

"Thanks for being here. And sorry to put you here," Jotou hushed.

Hotaru smiled to one side and shook her head. Her breath tickled the blonde’s nose as she spoke, "I’m here cause I want to, don’t apologize for that. I adore you," she pressed her forehead against hers. "But... if you’re looking for forgiveness, you owe me a quest at the guild after this~"

"Oof. Such a high price firefly."

"I think you owe me a lot more than that at this point housecat."

"Is that so?" the whispered conversation became silent as Jotou planted a soft kiss against her lips and brushed her nose against crimson strands.

Hotaru closed in on whatever space was left between their bodies and nuzzled into the blonde’s figure.

Jotou continued up her head and bit the tip of the redhead’s ear.

Hotaru winced one eye shut and let out a light moan as her hairs stood on end.

The blonde continued to nibble on her ear for a few seconds before pulling her head back and saying, "So, I have to get to sleep; I’ll see you in the morning." With that, she let her wrists go and brushed past her.

Hotaru’s tail instinctively rubbed against Jotou’s form while she passed, as an annoyed smile formed on her lips. Seething yet playful, she side-eyed her, "Tease."

With a wink and a tongue stuck out, "Add it to be my tab," she shut the door to the quarters.