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

"How do you even have fire powers like that? You're, what, eight? Is it a Technique?"

"Nuh-uh. I don't have any of those. The box that only I can see says it's a 'Nee-Dan'," Shao shook her head.

"A Neidan?"

"Neidans can be passed down to their user's children," Nya cupped her head in her hands. "I understand now. Some crass Guardsman must have had a fling with a woman in the Commons and sired a bastard daughter - ow!"

Shao had kicked her. "That's a bad word! I thought you were nice!"

"Aw, hey, hey, it's okay," Mikayla crouched. "Bad words are only bad if you use them the wrong way, and Nya was using that one the right way, so it's okay,"

The child squinted at her. "Is that how it works?"

"Yep! You can trust me, I'm very smart,"

"That makes me not want to trust you," Shao glared. "Smart people are usually mean too,"

"Have I been mean to you, though?"

". . I guess not,"

"Besides, you can't expect me to just admit that I'm very stupid, can you?" Shao giggled at that and Mikayla nodded, thankful for the digression that had cleared her mind. "Okay. Okay. We still need to get away from the fire,"

"But now we also need to avoid the policemen," Nya added.

"Huh? Why?"

"Because they're bad people. Duh," Shao said as though it were painfully obvious.

"Because if they interrogate Shao, she won't be able to convince them that she has nothing to do with the fire," Nya corrected the child. "You heard what that so-called Detective King said. They're holding and interrogating everyone in the area for possibly being the arsonist," Nya looked at the young yaoguai. "Shao, if anyone asks you about the fire, what will you say?"

"That it's better this way and anyone who says otherwise is a poopyhead," Shao declared without hesitation or remorse. "The fire's so pretty, how can anyone not like it?"

"Look at her. She'll confess without an ounce of shame. Then they'll arrest her. She'll resist. Probably burn some good men to death while struggling and then be put down like a rabid dog," Nya didn't quite manage to sound as matter-of-fact as she no doubt wanted to. "We need to sneak her somewhere safe. All the way back to Cloudscraper would be best,"

Mikayla couldn't fault Nya's logic. "This'll be interesting," she murmured.

They kept running, and she was unceasingly amazed by Shao's ability to keep up with them.

"Hey, so I'm kinda surprised you're on board with protecting Shao," Mikayla quietly commented.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Oh, uh, nothing, just. You're usually more about authority and responsibility, and such and such,"

"Yes, well . ." Nya faltered. She tried again. "I suppose it's . . . it occurs to me that . ."

Mikayla patted her shoulder. "It's okay to do something just because it feels right. You don't need to justify it,"

"I . . I see. Thank you," Nya hesitated. "We . . ah . . we

are

doing the right thing, here, are we not? It is not as though Shao is, well, innocent,"

"It's a matter of rehabilitative versus retributive justice,"

Nya quirked an eyebrow. "Of what?"

"Think about it this way," Mikayla gestured evocatively. "Basically, if Merk has his way, Shao will get punished. No one will listen to her side of the story, they'll just call her a monster. And when she gets the chance, she'll start setting fires out of

spite

, rather than self-defence. So we need to avoid him and everyone like him long enough to get Shao to someone who we can trust to do what's best for her, rather than someone who'll just make her suffer as much as she's made other people suffer," Mikayla paused. "Do we know anyone like that?"

"Of course. But we ought to worry about getting her out of the city and away from the Detective King first,"

"Yeah that's fair,"

They kept running, but faltered as they rounded a corner. About two hundred metres away was a cluster of guards blocking the street and tending to a small gaggle of huddling civilians.

"Okay, let's find a different way," Mikayla decided, grabbing Shao's hand and pulling her back around the corner.

This turned out to be a mistake, because one of the policemen had noticed them.

"There's someone suspicious running away! After them!"

Mikayla gulped. "Whoops,"

"Too late. This way," Nya took the lead, pulling them down an alleyway, back towards the fire.

Mikayla followed, but then she saw Shao conjure a globule of burning liquid in her cupped palms and made to throw it. "No! Stop setting things on fire!"

"But it'll slow them down," she protested.

"You're with us, so that means you're a good guy now, and good guys don't set things on fire just because it's convenient!"

Shao opened her mouth, then paused. Mikayla picked her up and rushed to keep ahead of the policemen while she was distracted thinking.

"Do we

have

to be good guys?" she finally whined.

Nya's kusarigama carved a hole in a curtain of fire and Mikayla charged through, keeping Shao tucked tight against her chest to protect her from the flames.

She realised a moment too late that this was wasted effort, as Shao had already demonstrated that she was fireproof, but it was still the prudent thing to do.

"I knew this was a bad idea, we should not be running from the police!" Nya whined, wringing her hands.

"Yes we should," Shao rebutted.

"What do you mean, 'yes we should'?!"

"They're meanies and never do anything good, so of course we should run away,"

Nya blinked. "What? But they are policemen! It is their moral imperative to bring criminals to justice and protect people!"

"And do they actually do that?" Mikayla asked as they rounded another corner. Despite her qualms, Nya was doing a good job of leading them in a zigzagging and hard to follow route. The footsteps behind them were growing fainter.

Nya hesitated. "Well . . why wouldn't they?"

A shout from up ahead drew their attention. "There they are! Let's rip those little rats to pieces!" More policemen had found them and moved to cut them off. Mikayla hoped they couldn't make out their faces.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nya drew to a halt, eyes going wide behind Moonlight Rose's mask. Shao squeaked, throwing out her hands, and a wall of fire erupted between the students and the policemen.

"That statement had distressingly violent implications," Nya sounded like she'd lost her filter between thought and speech.

"You are really starring sheltered, you know that?" Mikayla grabbed Nya and Shao's arms and pulled them towards the burning buildings to their left. "We'll cut through this alley and circle around,"

"I don't understand. They should be demanding that we give ourselves up. Not threatening us!" Mikayla thrust Shao into Nya's arms, and the older yaoguai accepted on autopilot.

"They don't want us to give up. They want to beat us up," Shao shook her head. "If you can't run fast enough, the policemen will hit you and kick you until you can't move anymore,"

They emerged into another street, only to find a collapsed building blocking their path. "Up here," Mikayla started climbing, hoisting herself onto a solid chunk of wall, then twisting and reaching down. Taking the cue, Nya lifted Shao into Mikayla's arms and then climbed up after her.

"I see them!" A cop rounded the corner, brandishing a baton in their direction. "You'd better run, you starring filth!"

"Throw fire at him, block his line of sight," Mikayla didn't even have time to finish the sentence before Shao was gleefully launching globs of flaming napalm from her hands in the direction of the policeman.

"But why? They are policemen! They've never acted like this before!" Nya wrung her hands disbelievingly as they jumped down and started running again. "It's just because they believe we are the arsonist, yes? Surely?"

"Nah, they act like this all the time," Shao corrected her.

"Nya, you're rich and famous. It's literally written on your face. If a cop mouths off to you, you can ruin their life. Most people don't have that protection," Mikayla pointed out. "We have a saying where I'm from. All cops are bastards,"

Shao giggled. "Policemen deserve the bad words!"

They kept running, and Mikayla stopped talking for a moment to catch her breath.

"Over there! Big buildings, lots of places to hide!" Shao took the lead, guiding them towards what Mikayla recognised as a row of warehouses.

"Think about it this way. You said yourself that the people who live around here are cowards, right? What makes the policemen any different?"

"I . . I always thought policemen were just like Guardsmen. Just, sent here to keep the rabble in line,"

". . okay, we're going to unpack 'rabble' later," Mikayla followed Shao on autopilot as she led them down the street. She seemed to know where she was going. "But no. If they were really brave, they'd go out and fight monsters too, right? So we're left with people who are cowards but are too proud to admit that, who want to

tell

themselves that they are brave and powerful. And they do that by throwing around their weight and bullying people like Shao who can't defend themselves. It was the same in my world. If anything, I assume it's worse here because all the really brave and heroic people get lured away by fighting monsters, and only the worst of the lot end up here,"

"I . . I see," Nya balled her fists, a dark look crossing her face.

"In here!" Shao shoved a sliding door ajar and darted inside, and her two protectors followed her. Mikayla slammed the door closed too to cover their tracks.

Inside the warehouse, though, they skidded to a halt.

The rear half of the building was engulfed in a burning maelstrom. The fire had spread further than they'd realised. They were trapped. "That is bad," Nya whispered.

"Huh? Why is the fire bad? It's pretty," Shao cooed.

"Because we can't get through it, so we're trapped between it and the mean men," Mikayla summarised.

"Ohhhh. Gotcha," Shao slumped. "That is bad,"

"Attention, arsonists!" And that was Merk's voice. "The City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad, Northern Division -"

"Judicious, meticulous and perspicacious!"

"- has you surrounded! Surrender at once!"

The three fugitives exchanged nervous glances. "There's no way out. We've got to fight," Mikayla concluded.

"We can't! They'll recognise us! Trace us back to Cloudscraper! Oh, I knew this was a mistake! Our lives are over!" Nya wailed.

"Recognised . ." Mikayla turned that over in her mind. "Wait. I've got an idea,"

"You do?" Nya blinked at her.

"Remember our first trip together? When I had to show you my Blessing of Teamwork?"

"Er, yes? What about it?"

"You saw that combined form of our Armours. It has inherited traits from both Black Knight and Moonlight Rose, but didn't look quite like either,"

"Ugh, do not remind me. Defacing the sacred form of Moonlight Rose with the adornments of the Black Traitor, it's practically blasphemous," Nya shuddered.

"Yeah, well, is it the kind of blasphemy an arsonist who hates the City of Roses would use as their personal Armour Core?" Mikayla suggested with a sly grin. "The kind that couldn't be traced back to two upstanding students at Cloudscraper who happen to have similar but distinct Armours?"

Nya blinked owlishly. "That's the most ridiculous plan I've ever heard of. It, it's so stupid and outlandish, that . . that no one would ever even think of it as something that could actually happen. Taking refuge in audacity. Which means it might just work!" She paused. "But are you certain? Your Faith Points are a finite resource,"

"I'd rather burn a few more of them than get arrested," Mikayla argued.

"We're gonna burn things?" Shao piped up, her hands spontaneously catching fire.

"No!" both students admonished her, and the child fell right back into a sulk.

"How are we going to bring her with us, though?" Nya asked.

"Oh, you thought the rest of this plan was stupid?

This

is the stupid part," Mikayla grinned. "Access Demigod System. Apply the Perfect Rainbow Blessing of Teamwork to myself, Nya

and Shao!"