63 This Hero and The Answers!

I slowly trudged along the moonlit ground. I had walked out of Mulbik and had begun to head into the forest. I am not alone. Another person is accompanying me on my walk, but it seems like they're also walking unwillingly. This person is Gin. The man that I had fought earlier. It seems like he is in the same situation as I am right now.

I can't talk. I can't choose my own movements. If this was an anime or a manga, I would summon my willpower to overpower this control and break free, but I can't do that. Something is physically controlling my body, like a puppet. The only things I can move willingly are my eyes and my eyelids to blink.

I am panicking, and judging by how hard Gin is breathing, he is also panicking.

I need to calm down. I need to think. Panicking and ignoring the information I currently have is essentially admitting defeat. I refuse to lose. Let's do a point by point analysis.

First: What happened?

I must have fallen prey to Rena somehow. I don't know exactly how it happened, nor do I know how Gin fell prey either. Rena should be dead! How would she have placed me under her mind control? Are there spells that work posthumously? It's currently the middle of the night. Judging by the moon in the sky, it's most likely around midnight. Are there spells that can be set to go off at certain times?

When would I even have been hit by the spell? The logical conclusion is when I went up to sing on the stage. It's possible that at that point, the spell had been placed on me with a delayed timer or a trigger. Even if that were the case, however, I still don't know if the spell worked posthumously. This begs the next question.

Second: Is Rena even dead?

Well, yes. We found obvious evidence that she's dead… Wait. I'm an idiot.

What if Rena isn't dead? I didn't ask this question before, but now that I think about it it's entirely possible that she could have intentionally built that scene with the bear for us to find…

How could I have been so blind? I wanted to cut open the bear to confirm that it was in fact Rena that had been consumed, but I wasn't able to because Erana cut me off. That's my own fault for backing off. So then…

Third: What do I do now?

Well… Nothing really. I have no way to contact anyone nor do I know how to break out of this mind control. The best I can do is trace my steps from the inn to where I will stop, if I even will stop. Which leads into the final question.

Fourth: What will happen to me?

There are a few options. The first and most likely one is that Rena is taking me to where the others have been taken to. Perhaps she liked me and gave me an "invitation" too. That would explain why Gin is with me. He was one of the others that Rena liked enough to invite as well. Under this theoretical, we are walking directly to where Rena, and possibly Mully, are.

The third option is the one I think is the least likely, but I shouldn't ever rule out a possibility.

Rena is going to lead me to herself and Mully and then kill me.

It makes sense that this could happen. Maybe she's actually a yandere that is obsessed with being an idol and is willing to kill me because I stole even a moment of her spotlight. This is why I hate yanderes. Like, I get being obsessive and all that. Hell, I want a girlfriend that is a bit obsessive too. I just don't like the MURDER part, you know?

We continued to walk for a long time. Despite walking for this long, I didn't feel any form of exhaustion. Though my physical abilities are much higher than a normal person, I would still expect to feel at least some form of slight fatigue at this point. I don't know how Gin is doing, but considering he hasn't slowed down yet, it stands to reason that he is not exhausted either.

We walked and walked. I could tell that we were deep in the heart of the forest. It must be around 1 A.M. at this point. I was worried about how far I would be taken, but I eventually saw something.

There was a large clearing, and sitting inside of this clearing there was a large plant pod that must have been at least 30 meters in diameter. It was green across and looked like a pod for an opium flower. There were several slits across the pod that came from the top to the ground. As we approached, one of these slits slowly opened to allow us inside. I could see that the interior of the pod was lit with a blue bioluminescent light.

Gin and I walked inside of the pod. The slit closed behind us slowly.

Inside was the interior of a plant. In the center of the pod, there was some type of thick rod like structure that came from the bottom to the top. There were several emaciated people standing stock still in the pod around the rod. Their faces were covered in dark shadows by the blue lights that glowed on the floor. It looked like they were all in a strange trance.

Gin took a place with the others and began to stand still as well. I, however, waited at the entrance.

I stood still for a moment before I saw the rod in the center slowly descend. Standing at the top of the slowly descending rod were two girls. One of the girls had a familiar face while the other I had never seen before.

Making an educated guess, these people are Rena and Mully.

Once the rod finally reached the ground, Rena happily jumped up and down and ran towards me. She held the person that was most likely Mully by the arm and pulled her. I only just noticed that Mully does not have legs, but is instead attached to some strange tentacle-like structure that is anchored to the center of the pod. Though they are anchored, they still have plenty of room to go to me.

"See Mully? I told you there was a boy around my age that showed up in town! See?" Rena was excitedly showing me off to Mully like I was some toy. I can't move. I can only stare at the two of them.

Mully looked me over. She investigated me and checked around my entire body.

"Hmm… I see why you like him." She finally spoke after finishing her investigation. Her voice was as sweet as honey. I found it hard to prevent it from digging itself deep into my mind.

"Yep! Told~ you~!" Rena shouted as she danced in place. She was holding a smug smirk on her face as she did this.

"Okay… You win. This one seems to be confused it seems. What did you say his name was? Corgi?" Mully lazily spoke.

"No! It's Kenji!" Rena stood tall and loudly declared.

"Ah, right… Well then, it seems that Kenji is a bit confused. Would you like to alleviate his confusion or should I?"

"Hmm… Let's take turns!"

"Fine. You want to rock paper scissors to see who goes first?"

"You bet I do!"

The two suddenly began to play rock paper scissors. They tied 4 times in a row before finally Rena got scissors when Mully got rock.

"Yay! I win!" Rena declared childishly. She was holding up a peace sign as well.

"Fine, fine…" Mully waved her hand lazily.

"Okay. First: Kenji you should sit!" Rena declared.

Suddenly, I felt a force come over my body that made me go to the ground and sit down. Rena sat eerily close to me as well. If I wasn't in this situation, I'd probably be blushing.

"Rena, you probably shouldn't get so close… His heart rate is rising… I think he's getting excited…" Mully declared.

I could feel the embarrassment and shock that enveloped my body as Mully declared this. I don't know how she knows that my heart rate rose, nor do I want her to declare that.

"Hehe! That's a good thing though! It means he likes me too!"

"Whatever you say…"

"Hmm…" Rena suddenly put a serious face on as she looked straight into my eyes.

"Well, you're probably freaking out. I'll start by saying that Mully took you here because I wanted her to." Rena stated.

"Yes, that's right. I gave Rena some of my seed pods that she could plant on people. She planted one in your ear when she grabbed your face yesterday. Do you remember?" Mully asked this as she held up an incredibly small seed. This object was about the same size as a sesame seed.

So I was wrong all along...