"I'm sorry, I know I said I wouldn't interfere, but we're in a hurry, you can talk later"
In the middle of the conversation between Yuuji and Yami, Zastin approached them and pressed a device in his hand, transporting the three of them immediately.
The courtyard fell silent at their sudden departure. Of course, this only lasted a moment before most people went back to their business, not really caring about what had happened. They simply saw it as an interesting bit of drama to watch until it ended.
But before they could return to their games, an annoyed voice rang out.
"Alright, enough playing around, time for real class. If you keep that up, I'll make you clean the pools later" said the teacher who had just arrived, clapping her hands to get everyone's attention.
"Booo! Teacher, you're the one who showed up late and now you want to punish us" Risa complained loudly, with the rest of the class echoing her opinion.
"Is that my fault? There was a blonde girl who isn't a student on the rooftop, we thought she wanted to kill herself" the teacher complained, offended. She had spent half an hour trying to convince an unknown girl not to jump off the roof, but the girl only answered with monosyllables and ramblings like "it will be fine" or "my hair will protect me".
It wasn't until she actually jumped that the teacher saw the girl land in the courtyard completely fine, and realized she wasn't a normal child.
In her mind, she couldn't help but complain.
'And to think I wasted half an hour like that, if I had known from the start I would have called Mikado sensei right away, she's the one who understands these strange things' she sighed helplessly.
...
Meanwhile, Yuuji and Yami had appeared on a spaceship in orbit.
However, it was the least spaceship looking spaceship Yuuji had ever seen in his life. Of course, he hadn't actually seen any before, but if he had, he was sure they wouldn't look like this.
After all, more than a ship, this looked like a castle, at least a strangely elegant and futuristic one.
Yuuji looked around. They were in what looked like a castle ballroom, with a smooth violet floor without any design that continued into the walls, which were decorated with huge "windows" that gave a direct view of space around them.
In front of them, right at the center, was planet Earth.
Yuuji stared at it for a moment, once again amazed by both the magnificence of the universe and the level of alien technology.
"It seems you've never left the planet before" a voice sounded behind him.
"Ah! Is it that obvious?" Yuuji asked, a little embarrassed.
'Did I look like an impressed tourist?' he wondered in his mind.
"Yes, you looked like an impressed tourist on their first visit" Yami replied as direct and blunt as ever, making sure not only to confirm Yuuji's fear but to make it worse.
"W-well, let's not talk about that" Yuuji said, trying to change the subject.
"Yuuji! We're back!" But he couldn't finish before being interrupted.
Already used to it, he simply turned toward the large doors of the hall, where Lala had just pushed them open forcefully, making them slam against the walls.
However, unlike usual, even though it was Lala who shouted his name, the one he saw running excitedly was an unfamiliar red haired man.
He passed by Yuuji as if he didn't see him and headed straight for Yami, starting to circle her while observing her as if she were the greatest treasure he had ever seen.
"Incredible! To think I would meet the one and only Golden Darkness in person" he said excitedly before reaching out his hand to touch a strand of her hair, a strand that immediately turned into a blade, pointing at him while she looked at him with a killing gaze.
Far from backing away in fear or getting angry, the man only grew more excited.
"Incredible! To think she can turn something as light and thin as hair into solid and lethal weapons. Not only that, her small and light body is perfect for stealth, and of course it makes enemies lower their guard because of her appearance. The golden inventor is truly a genius, to think they would create such a perfect killing weapon"
Yami simply stepped back, ignoring the man and his words, but her frown showed that they did reach her.
"Lala, who is that?" Yuuji asked, having already walked over to her.
"That's Kata from planet Baroz. The ambassadors who were supposed to meet them had an emergency, so I had to replace them" Lala explained.
"And on his planet is it normal to harass girls by calling them killing weapons?" Yuuji asked, somewhat disgusted. Even as Yami kept moving away from Kata, he continued following her excitedly, talking about how her body was a perfect weapon.
"Baroz is a planet that highly values hunting and strength, Golden Darkness is, you could say, the peak of what hunting can achieve in human form" Zastin explained.
"And is he important? Can I shoot him?"
With so many planets, not all of them can be so important that you have to be careful not to offend them, right?
A bullet for that annoying guy feels perfectly justified at this point.
"Please don't do that, I'll handle it", Zastin stopped him quickly before addressing Kata in a professional tone. "Mr. Kata, I must remind you that Golden Darkness is a conscious being, therefore the anti slavery law enacted more than five hundred centuries ago considers her a real entity. Referring to her as a weapon constitutes an offense that escalates the more you continue doing so"
"H-hahaha, come on Zastin, there's no need to get so serious, right? I was just admiring the wea... the lady"
Faced with Zastin's serious gaze, which did not change at all, Kata finally stepped back.
"Fine, I'll stop. By the way, who is he?" he asked, looking at Yuuji.
"Yuuji Rito, you can consider him both a member of my team and someone close to the princess" Zastin replied without giving more details.
"Let's begin with our matter, Mr. Kata, otherwise I truly fear for your life"
As he said this, Zastin gestured with his eyes toward Yami, who was watching Kata like a moving target. But Kata simply took it as a joke and laughed lightly.
"Very well then, Your Highness Lala, Yuuji Rito, Golden Darkness, welcome to The Great Hunting Festival of Baroz!"
"Great hunting?" Yami repeated with interest upon hearing this.
"That's right, every year, for an entire day, the most powerful warriors of Baroz are sent into a land filled with flora and fauna in their wildest state. By the end of the day, whoever has the best prey wins and is considered the strongest in the universe" Kata explained proudly.
"And what are we doing here?"
"Recently, planet Baroz submitted to Deviluke. As a gesture of goodwill, this exchange was arranged between both parties, where Deviluke ambassadors would participate in Baroz's traditional festival" Zastin explained.
"That's right! It's a hunting adventure on another planet, do you like it?" Lala asked with shining eyes, looking at Yuuji.
"A hunting event on another planet? Of course I do" Yuuji replied immediately.
"Hehe" Lala puffed out her chest, proud and satisfied.
Even though she found the situation bothersome and would have preferred to spend the day with her friends at school, Lala had accepted only because she remembered that Yuuji had told her he wanted to visit other planets and discover things that don't exist on Earth.
"Well, about that..." Seeing the excitement of the two teenagers in front of him, Zastin felt a bit bad for a moment, but in the end he still decided to get their attention and break their expectations.
"The hunt... is on Earth" he said.
"What?!" Both reacted the same way.
"Well, if it weren't here, I wouldn't have gone to fetch Princess Lala, right? It's only because she is the closest high status Deviluke member and this was a last minute decision that I called her"
"Yeah... well... that makes sense" Yuuji sighed, disappointed.
'That explains why I don't remember any episode about traveling to another planet around this time'
"But why on Earth?" Lala asked.
"That's because Earth has one of the greatest, if not the greatest, well preserved biological diversities in the galaxy" Kata replied.
"Mhm, it has a lot of things" Yami nodded, having visited many planets and recognizing that Earth has the greatest diversity.
It is as if Earth were a real planet with diversity formed naturally over millions of years, while the rest of the planets are simply large scale ecosystems.
"Well then, before we go, how about we inaugurate the festival with a dance?" Kata said, starting the festivities.
...
The dance was quite short and Yuuji didn't really find any meaning in it.
It had no objective, it wasn't to say goodbye to anyone, it wasn't a performance for others to support, nor was it some kind of ritual for luck or a hunting god. Even so, Yuuji wouldn't criticize the tradition of an entire planet out loud, so he just kept it to himself while following the others.
At least, Yuuji had to admit that dancing with Lala was fun. Being a princess, of course she would have a high level in ballroom dancing. That, combined with how beautiful she looked in an elegant dress while focusing on her steps, made Yuuji not really care whether a dance before the hunt made sense or not.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)