chap12+++++

“Ah!” she cried.
“Ianna!” one runaruka warned them.
“Sorry,” Setora apologized meekly, moving away from Haruhiro.
In probably about half an hour, they came to a place where there were the lights of many bonfires, likely a village. How many of these elevated houses, built in the treetops, were there? It was kind of hard to tell. Even during the day, they’d be hidden by the trees, so it would be hard to work out. Still, this didn’t look like it was a small village, by any means.
Many runarukas were waiting for Haruhiro and the party. Not just tens. Hundreds. There were two, three hundred of them. Looking at the size of them, it wasn’t just adults. There were children mixed in, too. The clothes they wore likely came from Roronea. From the look of things, they had adjusted them to suit their bodies.
Every runaruka had a bow and arrows suited to its size slung over its shoulder. In addition, many of them carried hatchets, knives, or curved swords.
They all had fox faces, and it was pretty hard to determine their age just from size, but it seemed like many the amount of hair they had increased with age. The small runarukas had little hair, while the ones that looked older were awfully furry.
Haruhiro and the party were made to sit in front of a large bonfire lit in the middle of the plaza.
Tsiha and the solidly built runaruka that was apparently Tsiha’s brother were talking about something. The other runarukas were scrutinizing the group from a distance.
Very few runarukas went to Roronea, meaning the rest had little contact with the outside world, so maybe humans were an unusual sight to them.
“Do you think Tsiha was trickin’ Yume and everyone all along?” Yume hung her head, clearly depressed.
“I don’t think they were out to deceive us in particular.” Even with her hands bound tight behind her, Setora was calm, sitting in a kneeling position, with her back straight. Kiichi, who was beside her, was imitating Setora’s posture, which was kind of funny. “They may have infiltrated the K&K Pirate Company for some purpose, and pretending not to understand the human language must have been more convenient for them.”
“Yume, she spent so much time talkin’ with Tsiha, and she never even noticed...”
“Nah,” Kuzaku said with a bitter laugh. “That’s not just on you, Yume-san. None of us noticed, okay? I mean, even listening to you interpret, I never thought, ‘Huh, that’s suspicious,’ or anything like that.”
“Nuuuugh,” Yume moaned. “Yume’s a real dummy...”
Suddenly, making their way through the wall of runarukas, an especially fluffy runaruka appeared, accompanied by a big one.
When the two stopped in front of Haruhiro, the whole area went quiet.
The fluffy runaruka spoke. The big runaruka interpreted.
“Humans enter forest. Runarukas not allow. You are bad humans.”
The big runaruka was slightly more fluent than Tsiha, which was a surprise.
Still, this runaruka was huge. He was taller than Kuzaku. He only wore a sleeveless vest on his upper half, but his chest had such girth that it looked like it was ready to burst. His neck, shoulders, and arms were thick, and his body was on another level from the other runarukas. He had the same fox face, but was he really a member of the same race?
“We’re not bad humans,” Haruhiro began, looking from the fluffy runaruka to the big runaruka. “Do you mind if I explain?” Big translated the question, and Fluffy nodded.
“Speak,” Big urged him.
Haruhiro took a breath. “I’m sure you runarukas are aware the dragons are attacking Roronea. We suspect that’s because someone did something to anger them. We’re looking for whoever it was. We want to figure out what it was they did. My thinking is that that person must have entered the dragon’s nest and stolen something.”
Big whispered in Fluffy’s ear, telling him Haruhiro’s words.
Tsiha had been told them that if you say something frightening, the gewguw will come and make you sick. The runarukas likely believed that speaking about anything involving the dragons would bring in the gewguw. That was why Big was keeping his voice down so the other runarukas couldn’t hear.
Fluffy was whispering something back to Big. Big nodded, then glared at Haruhiro.
“You are bad humans. Your words call cold wind.”
One of the things about the gewguw was that, when it came, you could tell immediately because a cold wind would blow.
Maybe just talking about a taboo was enough to make Haruhiro a bad human in the eyes of the runarukas. Maybe, just maybe, was he going to get killed...?
No, the situation wasn’t that dire. This wasn’t a crisis he couldn’t get out of.
Or so he thought. It was just instinct, really.
“We’re not the bad humans,” he told them. “They’re elsewhere. Still hiding in Roronea. They did the bad thing. Is it okay to let them go?”
“That is your problem. Nothing to do with runarukas.”
“We just want you to help a little.”
“Runarukas will not get involved.”
“At this rate, the pirates will abandon Roronea. If Roronea disappears, that’ll be a problem for you people, too.”
“Long ago, there was no Roronea,” Big said. “Not a problem for runarukas.”
Big was no longer bothering to interpret everything for Fluffy. If Fluffy was something like the tribal chief, Big might be his successor. That, or Big was the chief, in other words Tsiha’s papa, and Fluffy was the elder, or the former chief who’d moved into an advisor-like position.
Whatever the case, it was hard to tell how hard to press. If Haruhiro angered Big, it was possible he would be executed on the spot. It might be better not to be too aggressive, and to beg for his life instead.
“Papa.” Tsiha stepped forward, saying something to Fluffy in the language of the runarukas.
It looked like Fluffy was Tsiha’s father, after all.
“Tsiha!” Big scolded Tsiha.
Tsiha argued back with something, then kept talking to Fluffy.
It seemed Tsiha was arguing on their behalf. Haruhiro wondered what Tsiha was trying to do, after leading them into this trap and all, but if Tsiha was going to take their side, that helped.
Go for it, Tsiha.
If talks broke down, Haruhiro and his group might, at worst, have to resort to the use of force. If that happened, neither side would get off unharmed. There were children here, so he would prefer to avoid that.
Tsiha was still arguing passionately.
Haruhiro surveyed the surrounding area. If it came to it, what would he do?
The truth was, Haruhiro had a small, razor-like blade hidden, and he could cut his ropes at any time. Before reaching this village, Setora had deliberately bumped into him and passed it to him. She likely had one of her own, too. If Haruhiro and Setora felt like it, they could free themselves from their bonds immediately.
The runarukas had bound the party’s hands, but they hadn’t bothered to disarm them. It was hard to call them cautious.
The poison arrows warranted caution, but if the party quickly jumped into the crowd, the runarukas wouldn’t be able to shoot them for fear of hitting the wrong target. There was the option of taking Chief Fluffy hostage, too. That might be the more practical solution.
If he was going to do it, it had to be by surprise, so he had to act before there was no other choice.
If Haruhiro moved, his comrades would surely react. He had no worry about that.
Tsiha was pointing at them and saying something in a violent tone.
Is it time?
Not yet?
If he screwed up, things would get really bad. That was true, but if he was overly conscious of failure, his body would tense up, and it would be difficult to exert his best efforts. He had to stop caring, to some degree. No matter what happened, he’d deal with it when it came up.
“Tuwanra, shitte!” Tsiha shouted, and the crown of runaruka onlookers roared, which worried Haruhiro a little.
“Tuwanra! Tuwanra! Tuwanra! Tuwanra!” The crowd stomped their feet and chanted that word.
They were really excited. Not good. In this situation, it was going to be hard to move.
Suddenly, the big runaruka thumped his thick chest. “Tuwanra! Clear the cold wind! I am Mwadan, first son of Papa Dutt, chief of
the Kamushika! You humans, duel me, one-on-one!” Haruhiro blinked twice. “...Huh? Duel? What?” “Well, it’s gotta be me, I guess.” Kuzaku stood up.
The runarukas roared even louder.
“Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”
“No, no, no.” Haruhiro was half-dazed. “Why?” he mumbled.
“Huh?” Kuzaku turned back, looking down at Haruhiro. He had a mystified look on his face. “Can’t I? The enemy’s big, so I figured it’d be me.”
“That’s not really the problem here.”
The runarukas were all fired up, and Mwadan the big runaruka was casting off his vest, clearly ready to go, and Kuzaku had a slight air of, I’ll take you! Bring it on! around him, too. It looked they were going to be having a one-on-one duel. Seriously, why?

11. Give it Everything You’ve Got



The large fire was moved aside, and twelve smaller fires were built in a circle around the plaza.
No one but the chief of the Kamushika tribe, Papa Dutt, his eldest son Mwadan, and his opponent Kuzaku were allowed to enter the ring.
Haruhiro and the rest of the party were, of course, made to sit outside the ring.
Like Mwadan, Kuzaku was made to take off his armor, and was naked from the waist up.
Papa Dutt performed a body search on both parties, checking that neither had anything that could be used as a weapon. The duel would be carried out bare-handed.
Tsiha explained what was going on in clumsy human language. Tuwanra wasn’t the duel itself, but a ritual held to drive away the gewguw. There was meaning in two fearless men risking their lives in a competition of strength, and the gewguw would run away in fear of their savage valor.
There were proper rules, too:
The use of weapons was prohibited.
If you left the ring, you lost.
If you died, you lost.
There was no surrender.
That was all.
It was refreshing how clear and simple that was. It seemed any attack was allowed so long as it didn’t make use of a weapon, but according to Tsiha, fighting dirty wouldn’t be looked upon kindly.
Fight fair, and kill each other with your bare hands, is that it?
Isn’t that pretty dangerous...?
In the middle of the ring, Papa Dutt wore a solemn expression.
That is, he had a fox’s face, so Haruhiro didn’t really understand his expressions, but he got the feeling that was the kind of expression it was. Anyway, he was standing there with this solemn air about him.
Mwadan was at the edge of the ring, stretching, swinging his arms in circles, and diligently doing his warm-up exercises. The runarukas got worked up by every little thing that Mwadan did.
Looking around, there was no other runaruka built as impressively as him, so Mwadan might be something like a hero of the Kamushika people.
Incidentally, the Kamushika were only one tribe of runaruka, and they happened to be the largest on the main island.
Kuzaku was twisting his upper body, stretching his Achilles tendon, and focused on a variety of stretching exercises. Because he was moving his body in a slow, relaxed way, it seemed like he wasn’t nervous at all, but who knew how he really felt.




“Kuzakkun!” Yume called out to him.
Kuzaku turned their way and grinned.
“He’s awfully composed,” Setora said, sitting upright, calm and self-composed herself.
Kiichi who was beside her had his ears perked up, and seemed to have a bit more of a sense of urgency, but it might have just been that all the noise was keeping him from settling down.
“Kuzaku-kun, do your best!” Shihoru’s voice was trembling.
Her whole body was tense, and she was stiff.
This was Shihoru. The situation had to be harder on her than being in trouble herself.
Merry’s face was tense, too. “If you get hurt, I’ll heal you.” Kuzaku waved with both hands and flashed them a toothy grin. “’Kay! If that happens, I’m counting on you. Well, it’ll be fine. I’ve got this.”
Should Haruhiro say, Those are some big words, and tease him?
Or he should simply encourage him?
Haruhiro was still deciding when Kuzaku gave him a silent thumbs-up.
There’s no need for words between us, is that it?
Well, yeah.
Kuzaku’s opponent seemed pretty confident in his abilities. This was hardly going to be a case where his size made him look tougher than he actually was. Kuzaku specialized in defending himself with his armor, helmet and shield, fearlessly taking hits from the enemy, then aiming to strike back. If they were wrestling bare-handed, those tactics would be completely useless. That was why Haruhiro was worried, but Kuzaku was several meters away. He couldn’t give him detailed advice. Still, he had the feeling that wasn’t necessary, anyway.
When Haruhiro nodded, Kuzaku’s face wrinkled up with a grin.
Why are you so happy? Haruhiro wondered. Well, it’s fine, I guess.
“Ooozureee. Aaadiiistaaa. Deeeooobooo.” Papa Dutt spread his arms wide, letting his sonorous voice echo.
“Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”


The runarukas chanted, and Papa Dutt continued.
“Raaagareee. Soookiiiiiiyaaa. Rureeegaaaaaareee.”
“Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”
“Araaasute! Nanaaadiiiyaaa. Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”
“Tuwanra!”
“Oooseeeyooo, Kamushiakaooo, Mwadan!”
“Mwadan!”
“Mwadan!”
“Mwadan!”
“Waooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...!” Mwadan howled, punching his fist towards the sky repeatedly as he moved forward.
“Oooseeeyooo, nuhaaagura, Kuzaaaku!”
When Papa Dutt called Kuzaku’s name, all the runarukas bared their fangs, hissing as if booing him. Unwilling to let the crowd show them up, Haruhiro and the others repeated shouted Kuzaku’s name.
“Kuzakuuuuuuu!” Haruhiro shouted.
“Nyaaa! Kuzakkun! Kuzakkun!” cried Yume.
“Kuzaku-kun, hang in there!” called Shihoru.


“You show him, Kuzaku!” yelled Merry.
“Nyaaaooo!” That was Kiichi.
“Oh, yeahhhhhhhhhhh! Bring it onnnnnnnnnnnnn!” Kuzaku made gestures to provoke the runarukas as he approached Mwadan.
The two of them faced each other, with a gap of forty, fifty centimeters left between

Chapter end