Go Big To Go Home: A Kaiju-Fighting Isekai LitRPG (Book 1 Complete!)

"The what performance?" Mikayla blinked.

"That can wait. We have a corpse to harvest," Nya interjected, gesturing at the chunks of Raiju that had been scattered in every direction. "A corpse that is already breaking down into clouds! We need this for your Neidan, Mikayla!"

Mikayla peered at a nearby chunk of cloudy pelt. Sure enough, she could see it slowly evaporating, breaking down into the atmosphere. "Oh, crap. You're right. Sorry, Banki, talk about this later!"

"No starring way!" Banki chased after them. "I'll help if you promise to hear me out?"

"Really? Sure!"

"I'll help too," Keldryn joined. "Which parts are we looking for?"

"Its Pearl and its tail. Or, well, as much of its tail as we can find,"

Lydia was already soaring upwards, calling, "I'll help too!"

"The backbone of civilisation is formed through hands grasping one another in solidarity," Kaizen pithily contributed as he followed along.

<=====}—o

"So, wait. What's this about a two-hundredth anniversary?" Mikayla broached as they left the Hunting Grounds with a bag full of cloudy tail-fluff.

Nya started. "No one told you?!"

". . no?"

"Two hundred years ago, the Monster King was turned back by the Four Heroes. It was the biggest victory for sapienity over the monsters in generations. In three months, it will have been two hundred years to the day since then, and Cloudscraper is going to host a festival," Nya clarified.

"And my family's been contracted to put on the greatest performance of the decade as part of the festivities!" Banki beamed, doing a spontaneous cartwheel.

Mikayla quirked an eyebrow. "So you actually are a circus kid? I thought it was just a gimmick,"

"Of course I am!" Banki assured her. "It runs in the family! My mum and dad are the best in the business, we do plays, acrobatics, light shows, games - everything! That's the whole reason I'm at Cloudscraper, actually - they convinced Dean Wujing to let me join this year's class as part of their compensation package," She chuckled. "I wonder how all the guys are doing back home? They were already prepping for the big day when I left. Ooh, I can't wait!"

"Sounds like it's going to be a blast," Mikayla agreed. "But go back to you wanting me to be part of a show you're putting on? Because it sounds like you're not involved,"

"Oh, right right right. I was thinking, it's no fun to just watch, right? So what if a bunch of us trainees get together and put on a show of our own!"

Mikayla hesitated.

On the one hand, it sounded like Banki was proposing essentially a school play. She'd done those before, back on Earth - never as a major actor, though. She'd always found the whole thing exasperating. But then again. This also sounded like an excellent opportunity to further develop her friendships with her classmates. It would be another step closer to her dream of being a social butterfly, of being someone who mattered to people.

Of course, there were plenty of ways it could go horribly wrong. It didn't sound like Banki planned to get any of the faculty involved, which meant there would be no oversight and little guidance. And as charismatic as she was, Mikayla didn't quite believe that Banki would be able to corral the whole class and keep them all on-topic. Overall, this could easily become a pointless, or worse counterproductive, waste of time.

Would taking the chance that something meaningful might come of this make it worth the hassle and the risk?

For the person that Mikayla had been back on Earth, the answer was no. But she'd resolved herself to do better, to be better. So she swallowed her misgivings and forced herself to smile as she said, "Alright. I'm in,"

Banki scrutinised her, the tiger ears in her multicoloured hair twitching suspiciously. "Are you sure? Don't feel like you have to or anything, it's just for fun,"

"That's exactly why I want to give it a try," Mikayla assured her. "How about you, Nya?"

Nya pursed her lips. "It would be beneath me, as the Reborn Rose, to engaged in such frivolities,"

Her roommate raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"I am entirely serious! I have an image to maintain," she primly insisted.

"C'moooooooon, it'll be fuuuuuuuuuun!" Banki wheedled.

"No,"

"Nya," Mikayla gripped her wrist. "Please. Stop worrying about what people think of you. Just do this because it'll be fun,"

"But," Nya hesitated. "But I am the Reborn Rose, I must live up to -"

Mikayla placed a finger on her friend's lips. "Yep. You are the Reborn Rose. You. No one else. No one can take that away from you, no matter what they think of you. So it's up to you what you make of that,"

Mikayla didn't doubt at all that Nya's parents would tell her to avoid this sort of production like the plague. They would consider it to be too embarrassing, would restrict Nya from having fun. And Mikayla refused to just let that fly.

"It isn't, though. I have a duty to be the symbol of the City of Roses -"

"All the more reason for you to take part! People love celebrity guest stars!" Banki interjected, and Mikayla cast her a grateful smile while Nya wasn't looking at her.

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Nya frowned and mulled that over.

"C'mon, Nya, please?"

". . I reserve the right to back out if it becomes something ridiculous," she finally asserted, holding her head up imperiously for emphasis.

"Sweet! See you on stage!" Banki threw her arms up in celebration and pranced away.

Mikayla patted her arm. "If it turns out to be a bust, we'll just skip. But it sounds like it could be fun. I'm glad you're willing to give it a chance,"

A small smile tugged at Nya's lips, and she nodded, blustering, "Such a pursuit would, of course, be trivial for the Reborn Rose,"

<=====}—o

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Mitsuri," Mikayla greeted the alchemist as she and Nya entered the potion shop. "Is your husband in?"

"If he'd gone somewhere, I'd ask him who he is and what he'd done with my husband," Mrs. Mitsuri cackled. "Lovely to see you both again," She turned towards the door to the alchemy lab, and cupped her hands to her mouth. "Oi, Geng! Lady Han and Roc Eyes girl are back!"

"Roc Eyes girl?" Mikayla parroted.

"Aw, sorry, darling, but my husband has no head for names. Easier to remind him by what ye brought him,"

Geng Mitsuri stomped out, eyes immediately focused only on Mikayla. "Hello again, girlie! Come back for those eyes of yers?"

"Yes and no," Mikayla offered him the bag that they'd stuffed as much of the Raiju's tail as they could gather into. "One Raiju tail, full of lightning. You said you needed more lightning monster parts to make me a good Neidan. How's this?"

Geng snatched the bag from her and peered inside. "Oho. Ohohohoho. Interesting,"

Nya patted Mikayla's arm to get her attention. "You go ahead and sort things out with him, I'll arrange to restock our disposable potions with Mrs. Mitsuri. Come and get me when he starts asking for payment,"

She was gone before Mikayla could voice any (admittedly half-hearted) objections to Nya continuing to pay all of her bills.

Turning back to Geng, she found him in the middle of pulling out one of the chunks of Raiju tail and inspecting it. "So, thoughts?"

"This tail has the same problem as the Roc Eyes. It's from a creature too strong to be a good Neidan base," he frowned. "Where does a youngster like ye keep getting stuff like this?"

"The Huntsman called it practice for a raid battle. It was Tier 11. It took my whole class to kill it," Mikayla summarised.

"Aye, I see. Lucky you," Geng hummed. "Ye did a piss-poor job harvesting this. Chopping it into so many pieces. Well, at least it's fresh. Which is a mercy, because ingredients like this don't keep well,"

"Yeah," Mikayla had guessed as much. "It's, um, a cloud,"

Geng chuckled. "Haaaah. Hm. Y'know, girlie. Yer having botched this might be an opportunity,"

"Oh yeah?"

"Could be that I use only one piece of this tail for the Neidan brew, and the rest of it for enhancement,"

"That's an option?" Mikayla started, then hesitated. "What's the catch?"

"Well, it'll cost more,"

Mikayla cast a glance in Nya's direction. "That's unlikely to be a sticking point,"

"Aye, aye, fair. Lucky ye," Geng groused. "Ye won't be able to just drink them all at once and immediately boost yeself to a high-Rank Neidan. Ye body will need time to adjust after every brew ye drink, or else ye might explode. Or worse,"

Wincing, Mikayla briefly considered asking what was worse than exploding. Then thought better of it.

"The other, most important thing to keep in mind is that ye'd be overdosing on the specific blend of magic the Raiju had. Ye said ye wanted lightning, but there're plenty of options for how 'lightning' works. The Roc Eyes are focused on precision. Maximising damage by focusing on a single point. This beastly fluff is more about 'storms'. Clouds as defence and lightning as offence, wind and moisture and all that. I can pare it down, bring the lightning to the centre, but all that extra stuff will become what we call

impurities

,"

"Like what I had before I cleared the first Schema Lock?" Mikayla guessed.

"Aye. But more complicated. Ye're gonna have to decide what bits ye keep and what bits ye get rid of. Build yeself into the creature ye want to be. And the same with any future monsters ye use to feed ye Neidan. Think very carefully about what ye put in ye body and whether it'll do ye more harm than good. Splitting the tail into multiple brews will substantially increase the number of impurities ye'll have to get rid of,"

Mikayla hesitated. Her fine Mana control was still not good enough, the Engraving lessons had proven that. The fact that she'd skipped through the first Schema Lock was coming back to bite her, just as Asika had predicted. If she let more impurities of that sort enter her body, would she even be capable of purging them?

No. No, that was the wrong way to think about it. This wasn't a risk, but an opportunity. A chance for her to make up for not passing the Lock properly, to build the skills that she needed to keep up in this world.

"Sounds fine by me. Let's do it," she nodded.

Geng grinned. "Then I'll get to work. Off with ye, lass. It'll take about two weeks for the brew to be ready, so come back then. I'll send ye bill to the Hans,"

"Awesome, thanks. I'm looking forward to it!"