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

As they left, Mikayla noticed Ten again, who'd shown them to the door. "Hey, Ten. Good to see you!"

"It is always a pleasure, miss Aiadon," Ten nodded, bowing. His eyes locked onto hers as he raised his head, and he lowered his voice. "It might be out of place for me to say, but I think you comported yourself quite well tonight,"

Mikayla was able to read between the lines. "It's my pleasure,"

"Are you coming?" Nya called, taking no notice of the butler. Mikayla glanced back, but Ten was already withdrawing.

"On my way!"

<=====}—o

Mikayla was all smiles as she and Nya made their way through the dark streets of the City of Roses, headed back towards the train station. "Well! I think that worked out alright,"

Nya cast furtive glances around and muttered, "Scan. Scan. Scan,"

"What's wrong?"

The yaoguai breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't think we're being followed. Good,"

"Was . . that a concern?"

Nya didn't respond, just staring at Mikayla for a long moment.

Mikayla hesitated, running back over the entire meeting. "Uh, just so we're clear, I don't

really

believe in that whole enlightened self-interest thing. I was just trying to make your mum happy. Everyone should do the right thing, as often as they can, because . . well, because it's the right thing to do,"

"Huh?" Nya digested that, her expression turning contemplative, . "I . . see,"

"But, overall, yeah that, um . ." Mikayla trailed off. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"

"How do you mean?"

"Like, if there's anything you wanna say, or get off your chest, or . . anything," she promised. Surely Nya realised how awful her parents were on some level? If Mikayla could just get her to admit that, it would be such massive progress.

Nya looked at her feet. Several seconds of silence passed as they walked, and Mikayla's hopes faded.

"No one . . no one has ever . ." Nya started, struggling to find the words. Mikayla nodded encouragingly. "I . . I've always been Yevgenia. That name . . it's a burden, and I . . I never . ."

Okay. This wasn't the realisation Mikayla had been trying for. But that was her fault, she'd set her hopes too high. And this was just as important - no, this was better. For Nya to realise that she was a person, not an idol, that she could have a life outside of being the Reborn Rose. That was huge.

"You gave me something else," Nya sounded more confident now. "You gave me

Nya

. That's how I've been thinking of myself, since I met you, and I never realised before that I was feeling so . . um . . That is to say, I don't know why, but it feels . . er,"

Mikayla had clearly underestimated how badly brainwashed Nya was, that she couldn't even find the words to describe how it felt to

not

be under pressure to perform.

"You don't have to justify anything. Just say it feels right. That's all you need,"

Nya slowly nodded. "It does. And. I'm grateful,"

"Hey, that's what friends are for,"

Mikayla was looking at her, so she caught the sudden flush of colour on Nya's cheeks as the yaoguai suddenly decided the skyline on the other side of her looked very interesting. The human girl smiled to herself. So this was what it was like to be a real, good friend to someone who needed it.

Nya suddenly drew to a halt. "Um. Mikayla?"

"Yeah?" Maybe she hadn't been too hasty after all. Maybe Nya was going to admit that her parents were flawed. Wait, there's no way that was a blush of

romantic

affection, right? They'd only known each other for a couple of weeks. And it wasn't like anyone would actually want Mikayla that way, right? Oh, if Nya was about to confess or something what was she going to say?!

"That's smoke,"

". . What?"

Nya pointed, but she didn't have to. Because now that she was looking st something other than her roommate, Mikayla could see an orange glow staining the night sky at the base of a huge pillar of smoke over the roofs of the nearby buildings.

The blood drained from her face. "The serial arsonist,"

"They've struck again," Nya murmured, her fists clenching.

In the distance, a pillar of strobing light shone into the night sky. Mikayla pointed at it hesitantly. "What's that?"

"That is a signal beacon, it indicates a place of safety to retreat to. If we intend to lend our support, then we should go there, because whoever is coordinating the evacuation will be located there," Nya explained.

"Oh. Awesome," Mikayla watched as Nya lurched in the general direction of the fire, but it was like her own feet were telling her no.

"We. Um," she hesitantly murmured, warring emotions written all over her face.

"What do you want to do?" Mikayla pressed.

". . My parents would tell me not to interfere. That I would be risking myself unnecessarily. That this is a job for the firefighters and the police,"

Mikayla blinked. "They would? But what about all that 'City of Roses' Champion' stuff?"

"I'm still in training. I'm not ready. The serial arsonist is sure to be some kind of massively strong monster. If we fight him, there's a chance that we could die,"

"Then we don't go to pick a fight. We go and save people from the fires," Mikayla suggested, raising her Core Gauntlet. "We've got Armour Cores. As long as we're not stupid about it, we'll be safe from the fire. We can do search and rescue,"

Nya blinked. "Search and . . you mean, saving people? From the fires?"

"That's right,"

"That . . that

is

something that the Rosebush Huntress would, should do," Nya sounded like she'd only just figured that out, which made Mikayla wonder

what the hell had they been teaching her?

"Very well then. This way,"

<=====}—o

It only took ten minutes of running before they reached the park with the signal beacon floating above it. Already it was packed with people crowding around, and people clad in the familiar robes of City of Roses police were running around, tending to wounded and setting up shelters. A familiar face was directing people in every direction from a raised stand at the centre of the park.

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"Oh, great. It's him again," Nya sighed as they approached Detective King Merk.

Merk's eyes widened a touch as he saw the two students. "Lady Yevgenia! How might I assist you? And . . hey, I remember you," He flexed his tail and puffed out his chest, focusing on Mikayla. "We met yesterday, in the market,"

"Did we?" The entire vision quest thing had filled Mikayla's mind, but she vaguely remembered this man. "Oh yeah right, you're, um,"

"Detective King Merk, leader of the City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad, Northern Division!"

Several people all over the square shouted, "Judicious, meticulous and perspicacious!"

"Zhang, you were too slow!" Merk shouted to his right. He turned back to the two students. "So, what seems to be the problem?"

"The city's on fire," Nya flatly reminded him. "We're Goliath Guardsmen. We came to help,"

"Did you now?" Merk beamed. "Well, you can rest assured, everything around here is under control because of the tireless efforts of the City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad, Northern Division!"

Once again the cry came, "Judicious, meticulous and perspicacious!"

"What about the rest of the city?" Mikayla glanced in the direction of the smoke, which from this close was covering a significant stretch of the horizon. "That looks like a lot of fire,"

"I suppose a couple of extra hands wouldn't go amiss," Merk frowned. "You two have your Armour Cores, yes?"

"Always," Nya assured him.

Mikayla nodded her agreement, pulling her sleeve up to show off her Core Gauntlet. "I was thinking we could help with evacuation,"

"Not a bad idea," Merk nodded to himself. He raised a hand, and Mikaula guessed that he was doing something with his System interface - a guess that was confirmed when a Local Map with a route marked on it popped into her field of vision. "Here. If the fire keeps spreading, this area is going to be next. Spread the word, wake people up and get them moving,"

"You don't want us rescuing people in the areas that are already burning?" Nya sounded a bit disappointed.

"Absolutely not. You're Cloudscraper students. As commendable as it is that you're willing to help, that doesn't mean I won't get strung up by the horns if anything happens to you. Spread the word and stay safe, you got that?"

"Fair enough. We're on it," Mikayla confirmed. Nya nodded, still looking a bit mulish, but allowed Mikayla to tug her away.

"Don't forget to be decisive, helpful, and awesome, just like the Detective King!" Merk shouted after them. "After all, you're acting as part of the City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad, Northern Division!"

"Judicious, meticulous and perspicacious!"

Mikayla cast an incredulous look over her shoulder. ". . okay, seriously, is that guy a mascot or something? Is it supposed to be some kind of superhero act, for the kids? There's no way he

actually

takes himself that seriously. Right?"

"I haven't the slightest clue," Nya shrugged.

<=====}—o

"Fire!" Mikayla shouted, scanning the buildings. "The fire is coming! Evacuate!"

All around her, people moved, slowly and laboriously. The shouting had roused people, many of whom suspected it was a prank, only for Mikayla and Nya to gesture at the massive column of smoke that had engulfed the city a district over.

Nya had repurposed her bandolier of size-changing knives as impromptu barriers to ensure people moved in the right direction, and any uppity old ladies were cowed by a glare from the Black Knight.

Mikayla breathed a sigh of relief, watching the latest cluster of people make their way towards the park. "I hope they can handle that many bodies,"

"They'll be fine," Nya assured her. "Scan," The yaoguai waved her over, glancing into the distance. "We missed one. Back this way,"

"Coming!" Mikayla made to catch up, adding her own "Scan,"

The buildings around her stayed dim, except for a single small bright spot a few buildings down. Mikayla squinted at it. Unless this person was further away than they looked, that shape was too small to be an adult.

Nya forged onwards, shouting, "This district is on fire! Come this way, you'll be safe!"

There was no response for a long couple of minutes, and they reached the spot where Mikayla had seen the child, only to find no trace thereof.

"Scan," Mikayla took a second to locate the glowing shape and blinked, peering further down the street. "The kid's running away from us. Towards the fires," she realised.

"They must be confused and scared," Nya frowned. "Well, they'll learn the error of their ways when they see the fires,"

"And then they'll die. We're not just letting that happen," Mikayla bit back the edge from her tone. Nya was new at this. "I'll keep going down the main road, how about you circle through the back streets and corner them?"

"Hmm. I suppose it would be better to give them a fright than to leave them to live or die on their own . . I think that is what Yevgenia would do,"

"It's what I would do," Mikayla insisted. ". . Am doing. You know what I mean. Are you with me?"

"Very well then," Nya was already vanishing into the alleyways, shouting over her shoulder.

Mikayla grinned and kept popping off Scans to keep track of Nya and the lost child, watching Nya catch up with the smaller figure. She rushed down the street, wary eyes on the plumes of smoke up ahead.

And then a little girl covered in soot came running out of an alleyway, tripped on a raised cobblestone, and fell in front of her.