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

"Excuse me, Dean Wujing?" Mikayla hesitantly peered through the open door of the wooden cabin.

"Ah, Miss Aiadon," Wujing smiled, having been waiting in the foyer for her with Andrea and a man she didn't recognise. Mikayla gulped a bit, but no one seemed bothered by her having interrupted whatever conversation they'd been having. "Right on time. Are Lady Han and Shao with you?"

"Yeah, er, about that," She went back outside, and gestured up at Nya's Moonlight Rose, which was at full size and cupping a petulant ball of fire in both hands.

"Put me down! Meanie!" Shao shouted, not for the first time.

"Only when you extinguish yourself!" Nya commanded.

"You first!" was the nonsensical rebuttal.

"Miss Han?" Andrea shouted up at her, and Mikayla wondered why their Magitech teacher was there. "Please let the child down. Don't be alarmed, I'll contain the fire,"

"If you're sure," Nya crouched and let Shao slide out onto the grass, and before she hit the ground Andrea waved her arms and water flowed from the cracks in the earth, wrapping around Shao and quenching her blaze.

Which for a brief second left her nude, before Wujing stepped in and parted the water with a wave of sand that wrapped around Shao and wove itself into a simple frock.

". . That was my fire," she whined, already raising her arms to summon more, but balls of water appearing between Andrea's fingers made her hesitate.

"Shao. There's something I'd like to show you, that I'm sure you'll like, but only if you're a good girl who doesn't set herself on fire," Andrea coaxed her.

"You got me all wet. Why should I do what you say?"

"Because if you're good, then I'll teach you how to do this," Andrea raised her hand, and it erupted with fire.

"Big deal, I can already . ." Shao trailed off as the fire in the teacher's hand condensed, shrinking yet burning even brighter and turning a brilliant, dazzling white. She forgot what she was going to say, instead mumbling, "I've never seen fire like that before,"

"It's pretty cool, isn't it?"

"It's white. Why is it white?"

"Because this is

better

fire. And then there's this," Andrea pressed her hands together, floating the fire into the air, and it grew even more intense, turning a brilliant blue. "I can't let it touch me when I make blue fire, because even I'll get burned by a fire that hot,"

She noticed Mikayla's equally awed expression and offered a playful smile. "Surprised? Being a teacher at Cloudscraper does have prerequisites, you know,"

"I wanna learn how to do that! Please?" Shao pleaded.

"And I will teach you, so long as you behave," Andrea winked at her.

"Okay!"

"Now, this is Chief Inspector Haran. He's going to ask you some questions, and you probably won't like some of them. But I promise you, no matter what he says or does, you're going to be okay, and if he tries to hurt you we will protect you," Andrea soothed. "Come inside and we'll get you comfortable, okay?"

Shao hesitated, glancing at Mikayla and Nya. "Are they coming?"

"Definitely," Mikayla assured her, keeping Haran in her peripheral vision. He was a tall and brooding yaoguai, with a thin tail like a whip, dressed in what looked like a more senior version of Merk and his men's robes, with extra green trim. So this was Merk's boss.

"Good afternoon, young ladies. I am the man in charge of CRECIS," Haran greeted them, not quite courteous enough to disguise the growl in his voice.

". . what's that?"

"The City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad. Only fools spout off the whole name at the drop of a hat.

Sensible people

abbreviate it to CRECIS,"

Mikayla blinked. "Huh, but Merk kept . . oh, I see," Haran made a grunt of displeased confirmation.

As Andrea led Shao inside and the rest of the group followed, Mikayla drew close to Dean Wujing. "Sir, if you don't mind my asking, what's really going on? Are we in trouble?"

"Yes," Haran growled.

"No," Wujing immediately countered him.

"Wujing, they -"

"Acted to protect an endangered child and minimise collateral damage. I say they have nothing to repent for, and you do not have the authority to overrule me. Not in my school,"

". . Fine," Haran groaned.

"And what about Shao?" Mikayla pressed, eyeing him warily.

"Oh, please," Haran sounded exasperated by the prospect, rounding on her. "Young lady, you've caused me a lot of trouble, especially because I wholeheartedly believe that you are a fool who is wasting my time. My people and I have been working on the serial arsonist case for two years, and I refuse to believe that we are so incompetent that we have been outsmarted at every turn

by an eight-year-old

," He made a noise like a cat choking up a hairball. "I have not come here to arrest that little girl, I'm here to assure us all of her innocence so that I can get back to looking for the real culprit. I don't care one bit about what happens to her after that,"

Mikayla blinked. ". . oh,"

Once again, they took seats on the couches in Wujing's living room. Shao immediately squeezed herself between Mikayla and Nya, and Nya shifted in her seat so that she could protectively curl her tail around Shao. Wujing and Andrea sat together to the side, and Haran remained standing, looming over them.

There were already several folders stacked on the table at the centre of the room, and Haran snatched a notepad from the top of the stack. "So, young lady. My notes say your powers are the result of a Neidan,"

"Uh-huh,"

"The Ataraxian System should have a name and description for it. Can you tell me what it says?"

"Okay," Shao's eyes unfocused as she opened her Status, and her fingers twitched. "Constitution of Incendiary Gel, Rank 1. You are able to convert your Mana into flaming liquid when it passes through your paws,"

"That probably actually says

pores,"

Nya contributed.

Haran's brow furrowed. "Rank 1?

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Next question. What is your current Level?"

"Twenty-two,"

Everyone was shocked by that. "What? How?" Mikayla blinked.

"Arson," Nya hissed. "The System rewarded her for everyone who died in the fires,"

"Oh," Well, that certainly made Shao look guilty.

"That's . . I see," Haran hummed. "How much do you remember about your parents?"

Shao paused, looking down.

". . nothing," she said in a small voice.

"I've been told you were at the orphanage for only a couple of months before it burned down. Where were you before then?"

"The streets,"

"Were you alone?"

Shao pulled her knees up to her chest, burying her face in them. "There was one person. But he died. Some others. They always ran away when I showed them my fire,"

"Who was this person?" Haran pressed.

"Why do you wanna know?!" Shap suddenly snapped, her hands and horns suddenly catching fire. "Meanies like you kicked him to death!" Mikayla and Nya flinched away, and a wave of water courtesy of Andrea washed over all three of them.

Shao started crying.

Mikayla immediately pulled her into a hug, hoisting the little girl into her lap and pressing Shao to her chest. Her wet hair clung to Mikayla's hands, and rivulets of water mixed with Shao's tears. "Hey, hey, it's okay, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to,"

"Yes, she does," Haran interrupted, and Mikayla shot him a look that promised violence.

"Just relax, it's okay, I'll protect you,"

Shao's sobs intensified, and she dug her claws into Mikayla's tunic, hugging her all the tighter.

Nya watched, hesitating. ". . There, there?" she tried, awkwardly patting Shao's back.

"Let it all out. I'll take all of it. You'll be okay," Mikayla promised.

"Um. Here. Rub the base of her horns, like this," Nya leaned over them, gently pressing her own claws behind Shao's stubby horns. "It's soothing,"

Shao let out a choked shiver, pressing herself close to Mikayla. "Th . . thanks . ." she mumbled. "No one's hugged me in a long time,"

"If we're quite done with -" Haran sounded exasperated, but Mikayla pointed at him.

"One more insensitive word out of you, and I go Goliath and punch you all the way to the other side of the mountain,"

The investigator puffed up. "Now look here -"

"And

I

will help her," Wujing threatened. Based on the way Haran flinched at this, he was much more intimidated by the old monster than Mikayla. "Don't you have enough information?"

"No, I do not. Neidan development is hereditary. It is highly unlikely that her parent would have left their Neidan at Rank 1, which makes it much more likely that someone deliberately cursed her with that power,"

"You really don't believe anyone could be lazy or stupid enough to just not improve their Neidan?" Andrea interjected. "You know better than that, and you're grasping at straws,"

". . Fine. In that case, I have another thing I want to inquire about," He picked up one of the folders, and Mikayla saw that it was a massive stack of photographs. Or something similar, anyway, she hadn't at any point seen a camera in Raibalie, but clearly there was some kind of image capturing technology. Worth asking Andrea or Asika about.

The topmost picture was tugged free, and Haran held it in front of Shao's face. "Did you burn this building down? Do you recognise it?"

Mikayla winced. What was the point of this? Hadn't they already confirmed Shao's guilt?

Shao squinted at it, then shook her head. "Nope, wasn't me,"

"It wasn't?" The adults in the room exchanged glances.

Haran showed her another picture. "What about this one?"

"Nah,"

"Or this one?"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Nope," Shao started rummaging through the other pictures, scattering them carelessly as she went. "Oh! That one was me!" she grinned, holding an image of a burnt-out row of market stalls. "It was very pretty. But not for very long,"

Haran shuffled through a distressingly large stack of papers, and Shao impatiently confirmed or denied having been responsible for them. His brow grew more and more furrowed as a pattern emerged.

Shao was responsible for fewer than one in five of the arson cases over the past two years.

"I had my suspicions, but this proves it," Haran finally assessed. "This little girl is not the serial arsonist,"

"But - what about her Level?" Mikayla asked. "How did she get that high?"

"You misunderstand. If you add up the approximate death points that all of the victims of the fires would have granted, it would be enough to propel someone from Level 1 to Level 50 at least. There are a thousand cases throughout history of unscrupulous warriors slaughtering civilians for Levels, and I've long suspected that to be the motivation for the fires, so I was keeping track of the death toll. However, Shao's Level, while much higher than anyone her age should be, is far too

low

for her to be the culprit. While she's clearly not

innocent

, as I originally believed, the truth could not be more clear. The real arsonist is still out there somewhere,"

"I don't believe it . . so this was all just a big coincidence?" Mikayla groaned. "We went to all that trouble for nothing?"

"Certainly not. If anything, you did both Shao and the investigators a favour; if they had apprehended Shao and determined that she was the arsonist, they would have believed the case to be solved and let down their guard, and Shao would have suffered for the true culprit's crimes," Wujing pointed out.

"I certainly would not have believed it. But that fool Merk might have, and that could have left him vulnerable. He's a fool, but he's a high-Level fool, if someone were to assassinate him it might well earn them a free Level," Haran frowned. "It's also possible that the real arsonist was simply using Shao as a distraction. I have not yet seen sufficient evidence to disprove my theory that someone deliberately turned her into a weapon. I propose that we examine her for evidence of mind alteration -"

"By the Frank Axe's beard, Haran, drop it!" Wujing's tail lashed violently as he stood up. "You want to do

that

to a

child

because you have a

hunch?

I invited you here as a courtesy, and you have done nothing but break my trust and abuse someone who

according to your own hypothesis

is just as much a victim as anyone else. Well, no more. Get out,"

"Wujing, please, be reasonable -"

A giant fist made entirely of sand wrapped around Haran's entire body and physically threw him into the corridor and out through the front door.

Wujing took a long, steadying breath. "I'm sorry you had to see that,"

Shao giggled. "Do it again!"

The adults in the room watched the door, but it seemed Haran had gotten the message. A moment later, they could see him making his way down the mountain through the sitting room window.

Wujing sighed. "I'm probably going to regret that at some point,"

Shao blinked owlishly at him. "Then why'd you do it?"

"Because I would rather deal with whatever petty slight he'll retaliate against me with than let him keep harassing you like that," Wujing assured her with a gentle smile. The air of the kindly grandfather was back as though it had never left, and Shao looked too taken aback to work out how to respond to that.

"So. Now that all that has been sorted. Where do we go from here?" Nya asked.

"If I'm not naughty, does that mean it's time for me to go?" Shao added, casting a glance back towards Mikayla.

"Oh, you are definitely naughty, even -" Nya promptly shut up at a sharp glare from Dean Wujing.

"Well, I suppose you could, but why would you want to?"

Shao clearly hadn't been expecting that. "Huh?"

"I know some of the people who are best in the world at using things on fire. People that make Andrea look like an amateur. They would never go to the City of Roses, but sometimes they come here. So you'd never get to meet them if you left so quickly,"

". . There are other people that like fire?" She sounded amazed by the thought. For a moment, Mikayla's heart broke for the little girl who couldn't share her special interest with anyone . . and then she remembered that Shao's special interest was

arson.

"There are. And I'm sure they'd like to help you make your fire better. Besides that, if you stay here you can have a warm bed that's all yours and as much food as you can eat,"

Shao's eyes narrowed, mistrust settling into her face. "And what do you get out of it?"

Wujing chuckled a bit, bouncing his head back and forth on his shoulders. "Mikayla and Nya explained to you what this place is for, didn't they?"

"Uh-huh. So that they can learn to kill Kayjoos,"

"Well, what I want is for you to grow up big and strong, just like them, and then burn lots and lots of 'Kayjoos' with your fire," Wujing offered a mischievous smile.

"So . ." Shao turned that over in her mind. "You're gonna give me a lot of stuff now but I have to do stuff for you later,"

"And you'll get to learn how to make your fire better!" Andrea reminded her with an encouraging smile, and Shao's expression visibly brightened at the thought.

"Well, how about it, young lady? Would you like to grow up and become a mighty Goliath Guardswoman like these two?" Wujing asked, peering down at the little firebrand.

"No thanks. I'd rather be a Kayjoo. They're cooler," Shao retorted.

Mikayla and Nya both sweatdropped.

"Well, we might be able to do that too, when you're older," Wujing chuckled.

Mikayla shot him a questioning look, and he added, "Monster Armour Cores are a rare but useful niche. Some Guardsmen choose to fight by turning into a dragon or what have you. Ask Musashibo for the details,"

Shao's eyes sparkled.

"What about Haran? Will Shao be safe?" Mikayla quietly asked.

Wujing's smile turned mischievous. "Miss Aiadon, I'm going to let you in on a secret. When you're as old, powerful and well-connected as I am, you can do whatever you want and no one can stop you. If I say that Shao is to be sent to the Cloudscraper Nursery for rehabilitation and her slate wiped clean, there are only four people in this country who can countermand that order. And none of them are here right now,"

Mikayla mulled that over, then she grinned. "I think you're the single best teacher I've ever had,"

"Why thank you, my dear. Now be off with you. Take Shao to her new home, get her settled in,"

"Will do. And thank

you

, for all of this,"

Wujing chuckled and shrugged a bit. "Never let it be said that I don't love my job,"

<=====}—o

As the girls left, Wujing made to close the door, only to find Haran waiting behind him. "So, do you think that little bit of theatre worked?"

"I'm optimistic, yes," Wujing smiled slightly. "You know that none of them are likely to trust you or CRECIS all that much ever again,"

"And maybe they shouldn't, with morons like Merk cluttering the ranks. You said yourself that Han needed to learn not to blindly trust authority figures. As for Aiadon and Shao, just keep them out of my city and it won't be a problem," Haran dismissed the concern. "I'm more worried about the possibility that Shao will decide to come back and commit more arson for the hell of it,"

"It's possible. She's very strong for her age, she has a lot of potential," Wujing mused. "I'd see that potential turned to good ends, rather than wasted,"

"A lot of people still suffered and died because of that girl's actions. At the very least, I need some assurance that she won't continue," Haran reminded him with a frown.

"Let's see what she can do with some proper guidance and support. Think of it as atonement, rather than punishment. Rest assured that she won't be able to leave Cloudscraper's grounds unmonitored," Wujing replied. "I won't protect her if she wastes the chance she's been given, but she still deserves that chance,"

"I remember what we agreed to. Doesn't mean I like it,"

"One other thing, before you go," Wujing's face darkened. "What was that about examining her for evidence of mental tampering? We didn't discuss that,"

"It doesn't seem at all suspicious to you? That she doesn't remember anything at all about life before being a street urchin? No mother, no father? Nothing about where her powers came from?"

"What are you even suggesting? That someone abducted her, force-fed her a Neidan brew - and it somehow didn't kill her - and then just dumped her in an alley somewhere? It's much more credible that she simply repressed bad memories," Wujing shook his head. "With love and care, we'll tease it out of her. There is absolutely no need for mental intrusion interrogation,"

"The fate of the city is worth inflicting some pain on a criminal," Haran insisted.

Wujing's gaze turned steely, and Haran faltered, knowing he'd overstepped.

"That sort of thinking is exactly what's wrong with your institution," he finally replied. "I'll keep you posted as to Shao's development. If she comes forward with any relevant information, I'll pass it on to you. It's even possible that once she's matured enough to understand how much harm she caused, she'll want to make amends enough to consent to letting you conduct that interrogation. But that is the only circumstance under which I'll allow it,"

"You're a sentimental fool,"

"Of course I am. I'm a teacher,"