Chapter 110 - An Explosive Clash Of Heroes

Things were moving too fast for Chunhua.

"How many girls is that now?" she asked herself. Then pausing, to count it out on her fingers: "Me. Bridget. Lorica. Cindy. And now…"

She glared at the little blonde [Pocket Maid]. "Newbie...what's your name?"

"My name…?" the girl repeated while hooking a finger into her lower lip, bearing a thoughtful stare, as Bridget set her gently back onto the ground. "S-sorry"—she gave a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of her head—"it's been so long since I had one, so I can't even remember."

"What did you just say?" Chunhua exclaimed, then exchanged glances with Bridget—who merely shrugged—before returning with a scowl.

"Whatever you're keeping from us, just give it up already. We're comrades now."

"No, no. It's not like that at all…!"

Bridget, eyes rolling, then intervened: "quit being difficult, and just give us your damn name!" She gave a devilish grin. "Or else I'll put you on like a shoe, and just call you 'dumb bitch.'"

"It's just a lot to explain," the mystery [Maid] replied, then glancing around at her surroundings with a curious expression. "This is...a beach, isn't it?" Her eyes lit up in excitement. "Which means there's really a sea nearby, that I can maybe swim in, somewhere around here?"

"Well, yeah," Bridget answered with a mocking grin. "Maybe it's different on your planet: but where I'm from, one DOES usually come across the sea at a beach."

"Don't you know how you ended up here?" Chunhua pressed.

However, before the new [Pocket Maid] could answer, she suddenly became bathed in the familiar glow of summoning: of her being whisked back into the real world, as Chunhua had seen happen with Lorica and Cindy before—leaving Bridget and Chunhua to just stare in the empty silence.

"It's going to get real crowded in here, real fast, isn't it?" Bridget remarked. "Gonna be a real pain keeping track of everyone."

To which Chunhua gave an uneasy look—having never been overly fond of surprises. "Though, I suppose that if we were to arrange it so that someone was to remain at that strange scrying device that's back at the house, at all times, we'd be better prepared for many more unexpected arrivals such as this."

Bridget reared an eyebrow. "What 'strange scrying device?' What house…?"

Chunhua sighed. "Ah, I forgot. You weren't here, so as your senior it is my duty to show you where our current base is—as chosen by her greatness, Lorica."

"Again with the disgusting self-flagellation."

Meanwhile, Akira, Vash, and Zhao were receiving more of an eyeful than they'd bargained for, upon crossing the slippery bridge over the chasm and summoning their newest acquired [Battle Maid]: With Akira's neck extended, his tongue drooping out of his mouth. Vash, blushing and gawking. As well as even the mild-mannered Zhao, looking mildly flustered at the new sight before them.

"She's…" Zhao started to say.

"Completely…" Vash continued, as they trailed off.

"Naked!" Akira excitedly exclaimed. As, although her modesty was thinly veiled by a dual pair floating white cloud covers, just this vision of the lean curvature of her back, and cute thing legs was enough to set him off.

"I can't believe your plan actually worked," muttered Vash, shaking his head slowly as Akira came up behind the girl, lewdly grimacing, and began caressing her face.

"How does it feel to have skin again, my dear?"

"Skin…" the [Pocket Maid] murmured, showing no reaction to Akira'a touch. "I remember, I used to not have skin. Something else...controlling me. And I remember there was a—"

She gazed back, toward the natural bridge by the waterfall, a faint glimmer showing in her eyes.

"My bridge! That's it right there!"

Before she could run toward it, Akira quickly wrapped an arm around the girl's waist. Whereupon, the force of her lurching back so abruptly caused the clouds around her to disperse: revealing an adorable pair of mosquito bite-sized breasts, in contrast to a perfectly plump set of thighs and ass, to Akira's probing eyes.

Rendered a mere beast at this glimpse of so much fine woman flesh, he was practically salivating. "My, my, you really have grown some meat on you!"

"I have to return to my post, or else!"

"Or else what?" Zhao interjected. "Are you fearful that your former master will return to punish you?'

The [Pocket Maid] was still. "Former...?"

"I'm your new master," Akira clarified, whilst pulling her slender, sweat-moistened body close. "Now, for the first of my many orders to come, I'd like to know where your clothes are. Unless"—he whispered in her ear—"you're really just this excited to meet me."

The expression upon the girl's lips at once became flattened, her eyes squinting in obvious discomfort. "Um, my new master is somehow even creepier than the old one."

Vash stepped forward. "Akira-san! Let go of her right this once."

Akira laughed. "Why should I? These totally legal, underdeveloped Gnome breasts"—he winks at you, the depraved reader—"are my property now, aren't they?"

"Technically, no." Vash shook his head. "Lorica threw the [Maidé Ball]—not you."

"You're really going to try and get legal with a criminal CEO, here?" Akira grinned, removing his arms from the revived skeleton loli slowly as she faced Vash. "Okay, I'll bite: Lorica was my [Pocket Maid], who bravely sacrificed herself in order to procure this—lovely—new piece of property, on my behalf."

He paused, clearing his throat.

"Therefore, it's only natural that I, as her master, would inherit the girl on Lorica's death."

"But it was my [Maidé Ball] she used."

Akira gave a mocking scoff. "So?"

"That [Maidé Ball] was my property, which she stole, then used it to capture a [Pocket Maid]." He crossed his arms. "So, I would argue that she actually 'belongs' to me."

Akira gave an amused sigh. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

Vash walked straight up to his face.

"Dead serious: because a recovering skeleton deserves much better treatment than she'll receive under your care." He pointed at the girl in question, raising her voice as he continued: "She's existed as a skeleton, forced to remain here by another's will, for who knows how long!"

He held his clenched fist in front of his intensely glaring face. "And yet, you would still treat her like some mere prop for your amusement—just as you do the others!"

Cindy, watching this all from the sidelines, showed a downcast frown.

Akira, though, was breathing madly.

"Vash. You know, you've been a nonstop nag ever since we crossed over into this world." He stretched his mouth open wide to form an intimidating smile, baring his full set of teeth. "It's beginning to grow quite tiresome."

"No—you're the one that's changed, Akira. You always were a pervert, but still treated your women with some level of decency and respect."

Just then, the walls and ceiling of the cavern shook: prompting Zhao to glance around warily, as he knew it was all liable to collapse at any moment, as a result of the ongoing cataclysm occurring aboveground. 

"Uhh...guys. We'd better hurry, so can this argument wait?"

Neither Akira nor Vash would move.

Both were still locked in stares, over what was to serve as the final boiling point of the tension that had been slowly building between them as of late.

Akira stuck his chin into the air, both hands on his sides in an authoritative pose. "Heh. If I'm so cruel, then maybe I should steal Kanna back from you. Maybe I haven't been asserting myself enough lately, for you to even dare talk back to me like this."

"You wouldn't," Vash said firmly. "Even you wouldn't sink so low."

"More women equals more wombs, equals more potential children," Akira said, clasping his hands behind his back as he turned away. "The truth is, I was starting to grow tired of adventuring: but then, I came to this world, where the wonderful technology inside the [Maidé Ball] exists. And it's given me a new resolve…"

He turned to Vash again, in a declarative speech:

"What I seek...is to build nothing short of a kingdom, like the corporation I ran in my first life. Only, its people will be made up of my many wives and children, all acting as agents of my supreme will."

Vash words were stifling in his throat. But still, he had to know:

Pleading, "Akira-san, but why!? What's your end goal?" Gesturing, and swinging his arms with emotion. "And how many women's lives will you destroy in the process? How can you possibly justify such reckless behavior?"

Akira sighed. "It's far too much for a meager salaryman to grasp."

The walls trembled again.

"Guys!" Zhao urged. "We have to hurry!"

"Wrong again: I see exactly what's going on," Vash went on to say to Akira, his voice lowered, as he slowly backed away from him across the bridge; both of them remaining oblivious to even the bits of stone that were now raining from the ceiling. "You were never a Hero to begin with—you even said so."

Akira smirked. "Then, tell me...what am I? Because I would really like to know."

That sinister glint in his eye said it all.

"All along, you were actually a—"

"Look out!" Cindy suddenly yelled. As, before Vash could finish, she quickly lunged at him; tackling him, toward the other side of the bridge from whence they party had come, only seconds before a giant boulder came crashing down from the ceiling to lane right on top of where he'd been standing.