Spirit-Possessed Road Trip

[Congratulations on defeating the boss. "Second Character" has been unlocked. You can select an additional character from the system menu.]

It seemed a new system feature had been unlocked.

All that effort we put into defeating the boss was worth it…!

"A system message yo! It says second character unlocked yo!"

"Alto heard it too?"

"… Second character?"

Ah, right. That's player talk.

"For now, let's just collect the Baby Turtle corpses and head back to town."

"Yeah yo. We'll deal with the second character after that yo!"

Alto swapped to auto-mode too and had her collect the Baby Turtles that died from getting caught in the Great Turtle's crossfire… Alright, time to head back.

Hm? What about the surviving Baby Turtles? We should let them go since hunting them all might stop them from respawning!

 

＊　＊　＊

 

With the decision to return to town made, both Spirit-samas went quiet.

In their place, a guiding arrow appeared showing which direction to go.

"Spirit-sama's guidance has appeared. Let's go, Tria."

"Mm, okay… Good night, Spirit-sama."

Alto and Tria just had to follow that guidance. When they came to this mountain, they'd left town at night, but thanks to the guiding arrow they were able to proceed without getting lost. It was as simple as trusting it and moving forward.

Alto fired her gun backward while Tria ran with her own legs.

All they had to do was head in the indicated direction. No need to think about anything. Which meant they had room for casual conversation.

"… We actually defeated the Great Turtle."

"With my Spirit-sama's help, obviously. You should be thankful."

"Mm. Thank you, Alto's Spirit-sama."

She had thought it was impossible, reckless, foolhardy. When it transformed into that red-black form, she felt death even more keenly.

Yet her Spirit-sama challenged it. So she trusted in them and rose to the challenge too. And they won. They achieved victory. They succeeded. She was even able to offer the Great Turtle's eye. Though it vanished.

Looking back, it was a comfortable victory. A mere ten-something minutes of combat.

But if she had hesitated for even a moment anywhere along the way, she would have been the one to die. Spirit-sama really is amazing. Following Spirit-sama's instructions is never wrong. Her love and respect grew even stronger.

"… I'm so jealous of you, Tria. I wanted to be useful to my Spirit-sama too."

"Alto did amazing too, you know?"

"I just left my body to my Spirit-sama. I wanted to move on my own for my Spirit-sama's sake, like Tria did… But I can't handle this thing properly."

Alto stroked her gun as she said this. That large black mass was the ancient civilization gun.

If Alto had been the one firing, the damage dealt to the Great Turtle would have been less than half. And it was doubtful she could have even grazed the Great Turtle's head in that heavy rain.

"That's because Alto's Spirit-sama is too amazing."

"Ugh! My Spirit-sama is so great, they're precious…!!"

"But Tria's Spirit-sama is amazing too. They saw through everything and trusted Tria with it. That's love."

"I can only say I'm purely jealous of that…"

"Hehe."

Incidentally, these two's first meeting could be called the worst possible.

After all, their very first encounter was an all-out brawl. Are they enemies? Both had thought so.

But apparently that was just an extreme form of greeting because their two Spirit-samas were especially close, and afterward the two Spirit-samas had been chatting amicably.

If that's the case, there was no reason for the two of them to be hostile either. Their Spirit-samas wouldn't want that.

"Alto should just do the work that her Spirit-sama asks for."

"True. For example… It seems like Spirit-sama can't touch us while using our own bodies, so maybe that?"

Saying this, Alto reached for her own chest. Without any invisible wall blocking her, she touched the soft feminine body with a squish. It was her own body, so of course she could.

"I've devoted everything of mine to my Spirit-sama… What's going on here?"

"They said if we raise our level, they might be able to touch us."

"… Level. That's what the Spirit-samas call our strength, right? So we need to train…"

"Mm, training. Train and strengthen our connection with our Spirit-samas even more."

"We know what we need to do then…!!"

"Mm."

The two clenched their fists.

"… Still, I'm jealous that Penpen gets to be touched all over by her Spirit-sama."

"Right? … Maybe I should research the pleasure district more. Or should I acquire women to offer to my Spirit-sama? Based on their behavior, women seem more preferred than men."

"Hmm. That depends on whether your Spirit-sama wants that, right?"

"! True. If I gathered them on my own initiative and they didn't want any woman besides me, it would just be a nuisance."

Alto nodded repeatedly.

But here she remembered something. She couldn't help but remember.

"… They said 'second character', didn't they?"

"… They did."

The two recalled the Spirit-samas' earlier conversation.

Yes. Second character. They said second character. The first ones were probably themselves.

In other words… didn't that mean their Spirit-samas would inhabit someone else, like them, or like Penpen?

"My Spirit-sama, going somewhere other than to me…?"

"Even though Tria only has her Spirit-sama…?"

"… Grrrrr!"

"But if that's what Spirit-sama decided…"

"We just have to obey… We devoted everything… Our emotions, our hearts! Our loneliness and love too!"

Interfering with their Spirit-sama's decision… that alone was something they couldn't do. Shouldn't do. Mustn't let happen. Even if it was themselves.

"But just thinking about it makes me so lonely!! I'm about to cry!"

"…! Alto, I just realized something incredible."

"What is it, Tria?"

"If our Spirit-samas enter a girl other than us… couldn't we hold hands with our Spirit-samas?"

"!!!"

Alto's eyes flew wide open.

"Hands" was putting it cutely. Couldn't they go even further than that? Could they really do it? Wouldn't it make serving them even easier!?

"You're a genius, Tria. That's… actually great!"

"Right!"

A second character. The two became able to accept it somewhat more positively.

Then Tria suddenly felt like the place she was currently running through looked familiar.

"… Hm?"

"Oh, what's wrong, Tria?"

"Hmm. I thought it looked like where I used to live… Am I imagining things?"

"You lived in a place with nothing like this?"

Yes. It was just an open space. Bare earth leveled into flat ground.

The place she used to live should have been a village, so it was probably different.

"Must be imagining it."

"Right. Besides, the past is the past. Who cares? We just need our Spirit-samas."

"That's true."

As she said that, Tria let out a smile. She had wanted to say, "That's true." She wanted to try saying it. Because it was something her Spirit-sama often said.

Tria felt happy, and forgot about the nostalgic something she had sensed.