These Reincarnators Are Sus! Sleuthing in Another World

Ailn stopped in his tracks.

There was a translucent girl there. Blonde, but without any wings. She had a light airy glow to her, but 'radiant' would definitely be a stretch.

She was more like a nightlight.

Except, evidently, she wasn't all that calming. A knight, a water mage, and a former Saintess were each all thrown somewhere into the spectrum of fight-or-flight, grouped together about ten feet away.

"Cora. You're walking on land," Ailn remarked casually.

"She is!" Safi clapped.

"...Don't really like water, honestly…"

Even Ailn had to pause at that one. There was a lot to respond to, there. And not a single thing good to say.

She must have sensed pity in his demeanor, because she smiled sadly back at him, and glanced down the corridor he'd come from.

"...It seems… you've figured out—"

"Then let's get going," Safi said warmly. She grabbed Cora's arm—Ailn wasn't even sure if she'd be able to—and started dragging the drowned spirit along.

"...Safi… Noué's vault was where—"

"I know you're not used to walking, Cora, so you can walk with me like this." Safi made a point of looping their arms together, and the way she marched forward made the spirit seem shaky on her feet.

"...Safi, I can't…"

Cora trailed off. Their eyes met, and Safi's smile was so bright, so happy… The spirit, it seemed, couldn't bring herself to tell Safi the truth.

And so she gave a small nod, and let herself get pulled along.

"Do your feet hurt, Cora? You know, there's this fairy tale about a mermaid and in the original when she gets feet it's like walking on glass… but it doesn't look like you're hurting that bad. Just let me know, I can carry you, okay? I always thought it was badly written, anyway. Why didn't she just write a note?!" Safi rambled to an overwhelmed Cora. "I think you've got really cute feet. Is that weird to say? Where I come from, pictures of feet… really high demand…"

As they climbed the upward-spiraling path along the wall, their voices got further and further away.

Cora wasn't the only one swept along into Safi's pace. The group's collective disquiet made a poor ambiance for the girl's chirpy conversation with her newly tangible friend—so they hung back, even as they made to follow.

"...Time to go home, I guess," Ailn shrugged. He felt Renea's trembling grip on his sleeve again, and noticed she looked as pale as a ghost. So, he tried to offer some reassurance. "The way here was surprisingly straightforward, so…"

Naomi strode next to him and hissed into his ear. "...Duke eum-Creid! Is that truly your only remark?!"

"What do you want me to say?" Ailn asked blithely.

Kylian, a pace behind, had a dubious look on his face. He turned it on Naomi, giving her a questioning squint.

"Do they portrait feet in Sussuro, Naomi?" Kylian asked.

"...What? Of course not!" Naomi fumed. She let her gaze climb the ramp to find Safi, quite a bit ahead. Then she bit her lip in doubt. "Unless… the nobles do?"

The group essentially split into two for the trek back. At the front, Safi dragged Cora along breathlessly and excitedly, making no attempt to control her volume.

"We should try a bunch of stuff when we get back, Cora. Like, I already tried this, but maybe it'll work for you? Shout 'status!' And see if a screen pops up. Then if it does, we can see if you've got a cheat skill!" Safi beamed at Cora so brightly that the spirit had to turn her face away. "But don't do it here, because you're really not supposed to show anybody, or else you'll get betrayed and kicked from the party. I wouldn't do that to you, though…"

"...Safi… I know you wouldn't…" Cora looked completely frazzled. "Listen, to me… for a long time, I've been…"

"Really hungry, I bet," Safi nodded. "Cora, do you like eating fish? My dad bakes fish really well. Or do you specifically not like fish?"

"...Safi, I have to tell you…"

Behind the two, the others followed, their voices subdued.

"She's like… any other girl," Naomi marveled.

It wasn't just Cora's appearance. It was her demeanor.

More than the fact that she looked human—blonde, pretty, and walking on two feet—Cora was acting like any other shy young girl, drawn into the pace of a friend that was a little much.

Kylian and Naomi seemed completely disarmed by it. At least compared to before, where their instincts for danger had them nearly poised for combat.

Renea hadn't managed to calm down nearly as much—at this point her constitution was quite clammy, and she seemed to be having a hard time swallowing again.

Still, she tugged Ailn along by the sleeve, her pace brisk and determined. Perhaps it gave her a sense of control, a way to shake off passivity. Her onward march, paired with a fumbling smile, momentarily won over her trepidation.

"A-Ani, what did you find in the chamber?" Renea asked, in a voice wavering between excitement and unease. "Were there a hundred lost Areygni pieces in the vault?"

"...More like thirty to forty?" Ailn guessed aloud. Then he glanced at Naomi. "It's something Varant and Sussuro will need to thoroughly discuss."

"If you think Sussuro will step in and lay their claim, you need not worry," Naomi assured him with an arched eyebrow. "Count Fleuve is not such a man."

"That's not exactly the issue," Ailn said, lifting his lantern to cast its light toward the chatterbox and her ghostly companion. "You'll understand when you and the mages get a chance to look."

The lantern's glow seemed to catch on Cora's translucent body, which took on a golden shimmer. It would've been a gorgeous sight, if not for the fact that the light revealed…

Renea gasped, but instinctively stifled it into a hiccup, while both Naomi and Kylian paled.

The hiccup echoed through the cave, and the lagging group fell into silence. Safi continued prattling on, while Cora hugged onto her arm tightly—quietly, letting the echoes of the cave answer for her.

The quiet drip of the cave seemed like it was her aching heartbeat. Her lip quivered. Her gaze locked on her own feet as she struggled to keep pace with Safi.

"Bless you!" Safi called back, happily, realizing no one had answered Renea's hiccup.

"T-thank you, Safi!" Renea smiled. And though the anguish on her face was obvious to anyone who looked, she scrunched her eyes in a desperate show of cheerfulness.

Cora's body had subtle signs of rot.

Her hair, rather than swaying freely, looked clumped and lifeless—brittle, even, as if it might break upon stone. Its honey blonde tone faded to a sickly gray, with patches of mildewy green. Through her white dress, her torso—still clinging to Safi's arm—had started to mottle and swell.

Naomi's expression tightened to a grimace, restrained, yet flickering, the hints of anger and sorrow battling to show themselves.

"That is quite terrible," she said quietly, coldly. "Then, Lady Fleuve is entirely…"

She trailed off, and her eyes wrinkled with guilt, as Safi walked on ahead—unaware that her friend Cora was becoming more transparent by the second.

They'd finally reached the cave's exit, where the fading sunlight ahead told them they were on the cusp of the outside world.

The feeling was surreal. They'd spent so long in the darkness, that the modest ambience of the afternoon just before sunset felt like an abundance of light in comparison. Even so, it was startling to realize just how much time had passed since they'd entered the cave.

Before they'd even reached the light's stretching, yawning grasp, though, Cora and Safi decided to play some tug-of-war.

"...Safi… no!... Don't take me into the sunlight…!" Cora desperately pulled Safi back, actually pulling her behind the others who could only awkwardly stand by and watch.

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"Cora! Come on!" Safi sounded even more desperate than Cora. "We're nearly out of the cave!"

Likely because Safi was exactly the kind of girl whose sheer hyperactivity burned all her extra weight away, even the spiritually diminished Cora managed to hold her back.

They seemed less like a human and spirit, separated by life and death, and more like two girls at a sleepover squabbling over the top bunk. And though both women looked waifish, in the end it was a struggle which Safi decisively lost.

And when Cora's pull had finally caused Safi to fall onto her backside with a thud, she just stared mournfully up at her friend.

"Cora… why?" Safi's voice broke into a small whimper. "Did I do something wrong…?"

"N-no, Safi…" Cora stammered. "Never…"

In a twist of divine irony, Cora's voice was clearer than ever, unstilted in rhythm. It was a pure alto, unmarred by the gurgling of water, or the patter of dry leaves on rain.

It was just the normal voice of a friend, who had to say something she desperately didn't want to: goodbye.

"...I've been fading, Safi…" Cora whispered. "You must have felt it."

Safi went silent. She couldn't even bring herself to look at her friend. Tears quietly dripped down her cheeks while her lips trembled, as if she wanted to shout something out.

From ahead, the rest of the group looked back with regret. Trying their best, like before, to keep their presences as small as possible, and allow these two girls the space they needed to say a proper farewell.

"...You took away my anger, Safi…" Cora said quietly. "...And I think it was my anger… that was keeping me here…"

She gently lifted her friend up, before leaning forward on her back, where she couldn't be seen.

"I wanted to know you'd be alright… that you'd have friends… and you could share your stories with the rest of the world," Cora said. Her voice was peaceful, and her smile tranquil. But it faltered. "...I'm sorry, Safi…"

Then the sun sank deeper in the sky. Just low enough for its light to angle through the cave's entrance. It streamed past everyone, wrapping around Safi, and trying its best to embrace Cora who cowered behind Safi's back. A panicked whimper left her lips.

"Don't turn around, Safi! Please…!"

And when just a little sunlight had hit Cora's arm, even Ailn had to stifle his reaction.

She… looked like a corpse. One that had spent a long time in the water, and was deep into its rot.

Kylian and Naomi, who'd likely seen their share of death and violence, couldn't stop themselves from turning their eyes away.

Ailn didn't want to look straight at it, either. And he let the glare of sunlight and his half-lidded eyes soften the blow.

It was only Renea. Renea observed silently. She trembled. But she didn't look away.

For a long time, Safi remained silent. She stood there, quiet and gloomy, her face fully illuminated by the pale, cold light of the afternoon sun.

Then, finally she asked the cowering girl behind her, "...Why, Cora?"

"...I'm so sorry, Safi…" Cora still cowered from the sun. "Please… don't look at me like this…"

But… Safi didn't listen.

Slowly, with a pace that let Cora know what she was doing, Safi started to turn around.

"...Safi… no…!"

"Lady Fleuve!" Naomi called out in a fluster. She was shocked. She couldn't seem to understand why Safi would so blatantly disregard her friend's wishes. "Why—"

But Safi just held up a hand and gently smiled, never faltering as she came to fully face Cora—even though Cora herself was hiding behind her own arms.

Seeing her like this, Ailn recalled how graceful she'd seemed when he first came to Sussuro—when she'd still had her ruby shard, which altered the way everyone saw her.

Perhaps, Ailn realized, even the jewel shards couldn't draw out something that wasn't there to begin with.

"Why would you spend your last moments in a cave, when you're afraid of the dark, Cora?" Safi asked.

She pulled down Cora's arms, sweetly and tenderly, like a mother scolding her child. Then she pulled her into an embrace, softly stroking her head.

It was just like yesterday, when Safi had cried into her father's arms.

At first Cora flinched, freezing in Safi's warmth like she'd done something wrong. Unable to handle such a pure display of love, after all these centuries… she slowly broke down.

She took deep breaths. Her sighs weren't soft, but heavy, and pained, broken up by small whimpers like she couldn't let all the pain out at once.

Cora gave into Safi's refusal to let her be anything but cherished.

"Let's go… watch the sunset. Okay, Cora?" Safi asked, softly.

You wouldn't think that Cora was the spirit, older by literal centuries, the way she meekly nodded and let her friend pull her along.

And somehow, it was only now that Ailn noticed—Safi was taller than Cora.

Before they fully crossed the threshold of the cave, however, Renea stopped them. And for once, it seemed, she was able to look at Cora without shivering.

"Cora…" Renea walked up to the two girls, with Cora instinctively shrinking behind Safi.

When Cora was nothing more than a clump of shadow on the water, all gasps and gurgles, it was Renea who'd diminished herself.

Even now, though… it couldn't have been easy to approach Cora. Yet Renea drew near her all the same. And slowly, she pulled apart Cora's bangs, which the spirit had let hang over her face in a last-ditch attempt to hide away.

"You won't be able to see the sunset properly with them in the way," Renea smiled sweetly.

The two had found a way to the top of the outer bank. Safi hummed cheerfully, seemingly blissfully unaware, while Cora rested her head against her friend's shoulder.

In the sunlight, she looked like a shadow cast into the open—one that had simply grown tired of hanging around on the wall and decided to wander outside.

"I'm scared, Safi…" Cora whispered.

Safi's cheerful hum stopped. But she recovered quickly.

"There's nothing to be scared of, Cora…" Safi told her. "I came from somewhere else too, you know?"

Cora stayed silent, even as she rested against Safi's arm.

"It's just like all those stories I like Cora… the ones you like hearing about," Safi grasped one of Cora's hands. "You never know what you're gonna get next."

"...I want to hear them…" Cora murmured. "...Your stories."

"What do you wanna hear about?" Safi asked. "A story where you wake up as a character from a novel? Or one where no one thinks blacksmithing is useful but actually blacksmithing is the only thing that's useful?"

"All of it…"

With a flutter of her hands, Safi pulled up what seemed like all the water in the channel.

"Then we'll do 'That Time Cora Reincarnated as an XYZ!' " Safi declared.

"As if there's another time…?"

"Yeah," Safi nodded. "Like one time you'll be a dragon. But the next time you'll be a sock."

The huge orb of water she'd summoned split into two. One was a dragon, fierce, with wings which took on the bright shimmer of water in sunlight.

The other was a huge sock, which started boxing the baffled dragon.

"... I'd hate being a sock."

"The socks are always the strongest ones," Safi frowned. "The weirder of a thing you become the stronger, you know?"

"...I don't want to be a sock, Safi…"

The sock which had nearly cornered the dragon dripped unceremoniously back into the channel, before emerging again from the water as a woman with a rather haughty face and a fan spread delicately in front of her mouth.

"Then we'll make you a villainess, okay, Cora?" Safi asked.

"...Mmhm," Cora said sleepily, as the sky began to turn orange. Her head drooped sideways, like she was about to nod off, and Safi quietly rested it on her lap.

"Do you wanna have OP cheat stats, or the ability to read people's thoughts?" Safi asked.

"...Doesn't matter…"

"We'll do both!" Safi clapped. And the dragon drifted apart slowly, the drops of water spreading out into what looked like a dialogue box, which read: 'Fufufu, how interesting.'

"You'll meet all kinds of people, and get a reverse harem through a bunch of marriage contracts, and they'll all think stuff like this when you sneeze really cute!"

"Do I… need a harem…?"

All sorts of handsome men were conjured by the water. Like a sliding gallery of portraits, they floated in front of the two.

"Most women with reverse harems don't have a choice," Safi informed her. Her voice started to shake. "Everyone's gonna love you, Cora. So much you won't know what to do with all their love."

Then all the water shot up like a firework, cascading down as a small drizzle which seemed to fall upon the air like paint, slowly forming a portrait which shone with the fading rays of the sun.

It was Cora smiling. And even in the unwieldy medium of water, with light as her palette, her dimples were unmistakable.

"I didn't know…" Cora giggled sleepily. "...You were an artist, Safi."

"When you have good stats it's basically a choose your own adventure," Safi gushed. "And if you have bad stats they're always secretly good stats!"

"My… own adventure…"

"Maybe you'll start a craft 'em up and make a log cabin, and then a robot! Or maybe you'll just do a lot of cooking, you know? Then when everyone takes a bite, they'll all start screaming 'this is so delicious—'" Safi cried out, her voice filled with every bit of delight she could manage.

The sun continued its swift descent below the horizon, as Safi's storytelling took on a frantic rush.

And slowly the cheerful facade she'd put up started to break down, even while she breathlessly continued. "A princess… or a prince! Maybe you'll be a misunderstood tyrant who just really likes meat skewers, or—or the empress who runs away to open up a tea shop so they can live the isekai slow life!"

The landscape itself was darkening. Cora's shadowy form was merging with it. And in the little time they had left Safi wanted to give her the world. But all she had for her were words.

"Whatever… you want, Cora," Safi said, her voice cracking. "Anything in the world. Anywhere in the universe. You can be who you want to be, Cora…!"

Soon the sun was nearly gone, its very last ray running past the trees, brighter than the rest as if it wanted to say its own cheerful farewell.

Nearly asleep, Cora uttered such a faint interruption that none should have been able to hear it. Just a soft murmur, that could've been mistaken for the mumblings of someone already in dreamland.

"...Safi…?"

Safi fought back the lump in her throat, letting her gaze drift down to her friend whose head rested on her lap. "Yeah, Cora…?"

"Because of you…" Cora mumbled sleepily. "...I was happy I was born."

Cora's breathing slowed, and her eyes fluttered a moment as she gave Safi a sleepy smile. And when she fell asleep, she wasn't a spirit haunted, a woman left angry and vengeful and scared in the darkness.

She was a girl drifting off to a dream. Deserving of all the love in the world. Prepared for all of its adventure. And as she set off for her next journey, for her own grand narrative which waited just one lifetime away… she held in her arms every scrap of light and wonder her precious friend had given her.

In that moment, the sun completely set. The world looked hardly any different, as the shadows had already overtaken them. But Safi could no longer feel Cora's head in her lap.

And when she started to cry, Cora's smiling portrait slowly dripped back into the water.