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

"Pirates? Really?" Lord Sang sounded more confused than anything. "Why would a bunch of pirates care about killing Jinsil?"

"Was she helping coordinate the materials coming in for the bridge construction, maybe?" Nya asked. "With her gone, the chain of command might be disrupted enough for them to step up their operations,"

Lord Sang frowned. "Possibly. She was

involved

in arranging that, but hardly a key figure. There are other, easier and better targets if that was their goal,"

"Why waste time speculating? Let's go and

demand

answers," Sekki interrupted.

"You're quite correct," Lord Sang stood. "We will mobilise the guards and rout their operation. Thank you all for your assistance in this matter, I owe you a debt of gratitude," He hadn't said anything about not having authorised their little excursion. Mikayla wondered if he'd

expected

Nya to get involved when given the chance.

"We are honoured by your words, Lord Leishun," Nya bowed, and drew breath to speak more, but Sekki interrupted.

"That's it? We cannot simply attack them. They'll all die, and they'll have time to destroy evidence. And if they're strong enough to be operating in Leicheng, they're strong enough to kill more of our people,"

"They will lay down their lives for their home and their lord, that is the duty those men are charged with," Lord Sang overruled him.

"And you would deny me the same? Without even giving me the chance to extract answers from them?" Sekki demanded, his spotted tail lashing furiously.

"Out with it. What are you proposing?"

"Reconnaissance. Infiltrating and investigating their operation. Searching for evidence, interrogating their people. If we can find something sufficiently incriminating, we can request assistance from the Imperial Justiciary. With Train Cores, they can be here in two hours. Once we have them at our backs, we can preserve the lives of our men," Sekki laid out his plan.

". . You're going to go even if I forbid it, aren't you?"

The tendons in Sekki's neck went taut. "My mother is dead," he growled, and the leopard side of his bloodline had never been more apparent than in that moment.

Lord Sang mulled it over. "And you three?" his gaze swivelled to the Han party. "Do you intend to help Sekki on this fool's errand?"

"Of course we shall," Nya determined. "Ahem, that is to say. I would like to volunteer the services of the House of Han to aid in this investigation,"

Lord Sang raised his eyebrows. "I will not allow my guests to endanger themselves unnecessarily,"

"Your Lordship, we are students of Cloudscraper Academy," Nya tried again. "We are skilled combatants with years of experience. We might make the difference in whether or not Sekki comes back from this mission,"

Lord Sang considered that, and Mikayla did her best not to wilt under his glare. There was no plausible way for him to know that she'd only been doing this for five months. Right?

Sensing his hesitance, Nya forged onwards. "I am the Reborn Rose, having it be known that I simply stood by and watched while a comrade of mine hunted down these brigands would be even worse for my reputation than letting rumours about my having murdered a maid circulate,"

"I'm glad that you are so motivated by the pursuit of justice," Lord Sang dryly commented.

Nya choked. "Ah - well, of course, that is not to say that - I was simply -

"Save your excuses, I do not care for them," Lord Sang exhaled. "You are aware of the predicament you would place me in, correct? If you were to die because I permitted you to go and engage career criminals, it would be a stain on my honour and that of my family,"

"Then the solution is simple. You merely need to trust that I, Yevgenia, will not die," Nya placed a hand on her breast, drawing herself up to emphasise her insistence.

Sang's features tightened and his voice turned tense. "There is a matter that I suddenly feel the need to clarify,"

"Of course, Honoured Lord Leishun,"

"I do not believe in the City of Roses'

cult

. I think you're all fools for continuing to worship a woman who died one hundred and seventy years ago. I do not care who you are pretending to be because no amount of bluster will change the fact that you are a young woman with her entire life ahead of her who should not run blindly to her death simply for the sake of pride!" He was shouting by the end of his statement, his flinty black eyes boring into Nya's emerald irises.

Nya flinched.

Lord Sang twitched a bite drawing himself back up. "Ahem. That is to say. It would be unseemly,"

"Then don't put your trust in Yevgenia. Put your trust in

us

, as Sekki's friends," Mikayla interrupted, stepping forwards to take Nya's place at the head of the group. "Justice is not an empty word, not to me. Sekki is our friend, so helping him is the right thing to do,"

Sekki cast her an incredulous look. "Ex-squeeze me?"

"The right thing to do, is it? Yes, do elaborate," Lord Sang raised an expectant eyebrow.

"Because Sekki is hurting, and as his friend I'm not going to sit idly by and allow that," Mikayla interjected. "He needs this. He needs to help bring his mother's killers to justice. And I want to help him, because he deserves that. Because I don't want to see him run off on a mad quest for vengeance and get himself killed, not when we could be there to help him. To save him, if he needs it,"

Lord Sang mulled that over.

". . Very well. You have my approval to do as you see fit. Sekki has spoken well of you all, so I will trust that you can make yourselves useful," He scribbled a quick note. "Here, give this to the captain of the guards. They'll tell you where to find the Wave Carvers' main base,"

Mikayla blinked. "If you know where they are, why haven't you stamped them out already?"

"Because we were already investigating them for an unrelated affair. The Wave Carvers aren't an unknown group, we've been monitoring them for a while. Everyone wants cheap goods or illegal substances, it's impossible to curtail that entirely. So we allow a certain degree of smuggling. It's good for the market," Lord Sang's gaze darkened. "But recently, we've been seeing evidence that they're engaging in

monster

smuggling. We were planning to curtail their activities, but not stamp them out entirely . . but if they really are responsible for Jinsil's death, then it's time for our jaws to swing shut around them,"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

<=====}—o

And that was how the encroach of twilight found Mikayla, Keldryn, Nya and Sekki creeping through the docks in search of the Wave Carvers' base of operations.

"What exactly are we going to do even if we find the evidence? Won't stealing their ledgers or whatever tip them off that someone's onto them?" Keldryn asked.

"That's true. I doubt we'll have enough time to write copies. We'll have to chance it," Sekki shook his head.

"No, hang on, I've got a better idea," Mikayla interrupted

"And what's that?" Nya raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Take a look at this," Mikayla pulled her smartphone out of her pocket and tapped its screen.

Nya's eyes widened. "Technology from your world?"

"Yup. It can record images and sounds. No magic involved at all. We can take photos of any evidence we find without even needing to touch it," Mikayla explained with a grin. She snapped a picture of Sekki, then handed it over for him to look at it.

He marvelled at it, inspecting the device from every angle. "Fascinating. Yes, this should be adequate for gathering evidence,"

<=====}—o

There was a nondescript barrel, in an alley at the edge of a large warehouse complex that overlooked the bay, which always seemed to have a drowsy drunkard taking a nap on it.

If someone were to come up to the drunkard in question and whisper a particular password, they would discover that he was wide awake, entirely sober, and sitting on a pulley connected to a crude yet effective system of ropes and bells that would alert the inhabitants of the waterfront complex to intruders on the premises. Depending on what a visitor had to say, he might either pull that rope, or open the door and announce the presence of visitors.

All this was noted down in the records that Lord Sang had authorised Sekki to access, which was why the man's first clue that anything was going wrong was when a green-orange Armour Core jumped off a roof and landed in front of him, wielding a scythe that looked like a monster's skull. He tried to pull the alarm, but found himself paralysed by the baleful glare of the weapon. And then the world span around him for a moment before his vision went dark.

Keldryn released his grip on Skyward Grasscutter and Ghastreaper as the unconscious guard slumped.

"He's knocked out? Why didn't you just kill him?" Sekki demanded as the others joined him.

"It's cleaner," Keldryn retorted as he adjusted the man's hat to hide a growing bruise. "Making it look like the guard fell asleep is less likely to trigger an alarm than killing him,"

Mikayla wanted to protest their disregard for the sanctity of life. She didn't want to kill people. But looking around at her friends, she could tell from their faces that she was the only one. And she didn't feel like she was eloquent enough to convince the grief-stricken Sekki that his mother's killers didn't deserve to die.

"Okay, now that we're here, everyone take these," Nya handed out a quartet of brilliant golden potions.

"What are they?" Keldryn sniffed it suspiciously.

"The best fight prep potions money can buy. They'll temporarily increase your vital energy pools by five hundred points each for six hours," the yaoguai explained, then tipped hers back.

That was all Mikayla needed to hear, and she eagerly drank up. "Attributes?"

[ATTRIBUTES:

HEALTH: 2250/2250+500/500

MANA: 2250/2250+500/500

STAMINA: 2125/2125+500/500

STRENGTH: 21.25 (BASE VALUE: 17)

DEXTERITY: 21.25 (BASE VALUE: 17)

CONSTITUTION: 22.5 (BASE VALUE: 18)

CHARISMA: 20 (BASE VALUE: 16)

INTELLIGENCE: 22.5 (BASE VALUE: 18)

WILLPOWER: 26.25 (BASE VALUE: 21)]

". . doesn't actually increase my stats, huh? Pity,"

"Studies show that Statistic-boosting potions have greater diminishing returns than vital energy increasers," Nya informed her as the boys drank theirs. She carefully opened the door to the hideout, swinging it open and slipping inside once she'd confirmed that there was no one who would notice them entering. "Shall we?"

The four students made their way inside, following the corridor until they came to a ramshackle set of wooden stairs. "Up this way. Important people always prefer to be higher up," Sekki asserted. "But be careful, these look creaky,"

They hogged the wall until they reached the upper level, and

felt

more than heard a low, constant rumbling coming from further into the warehouse. Like dozens of creatures breathing and shifting around. Mikayla thought it reminded her of a background noise of a zoo more than anything. "What is that?" she frowned, creeping forwards.

The upstairs corridor ended in a door, and she made to open it, only for Sekki to catch her hand. "Let me," he hissed, ever-so-gently cracking it open.

There was a guard on the other side, leaning on a balcony railing that overlooked a large open space. Sekki didn't hesitate to pounce, catching the man in a chokehold as Masquerade wrapped around his body. A hardlight glove covered his mouth and squeezed his skull. The man's neck was broken before he could even muster any resistance, and he slumped bonelessly to the ground.

Mikayla winced, swallowing the urge to vomit at how casually Sekki had executed the guard.

"Guys . . come and look at this," Sekki had taken the dead man's place on the balcony, leaning over to inspect what had to be the main staging area within the commandeered warehouse. Mikayla joined him, and was rapidly followed by Keldryn and Nya.

They were looking down at a maze of cages, each one containing creatures of myriad shapes and sizes. Many of them were squashed into cramped boxes and stacked like building blocks, though some of the larger animals were held in pens with enough room to prowl around.

"Are those animals?" Mikayla frowned. "What is this, some kind of exotic pet puppy mill?"

Three people cast her the 'are-you-stupid?' look all at once. "Mikayla. Those are monsters," Nya corrected her. "

Normal

monsters, that aren't Kaijus,"

"Ohhh," Mikayla lowly whistled. She'd never actually seen a non-Kaiju monster before. She'd heard in abstract about how Kaijus only appeared in the Kaiju Coast and had outcompeted all other kinds of monsters, but this was her first time seeing what the rest of the world had to live with. "So, this . ."

"It's a monster smuggling operation," Sekki nodded grimly. "Better known as a Level factory,"