Chapter 267 – Re: Member

Day 4 (Cont)

"Jo- Goburou, can we talk?" Aqua asked him. They were out walking through the nearby woods with Kichi, E, and a handful of other goblins, trying to flush out some game. Most had rocks or sticks as weapons, though their main job was to let him know if they found anything. They were going slowly, since this was a new and scary world to all of them, and continued to drift closer to him and Aqua. He had to remind them to spread out more now and again.

"Sure, but just use Rou or TK. That gobu stuff is just nonsense." He replied. They had talked about the true name stuff yesterday, and as much as it annoyed him, for safety, they decided to go by the names the old goblin had given them for now.

"TK? Not JW?"

"Was my alias's nickname that I had in another world, but that is a story for another time. What's up, Sui?"

"Are you sure this is a good idea? They are goblins. Why are you not just... wiping out this nest and moving on?"

"Well, right now, we are goblins too. In all honesty, it was the second thought that crossed my mind the moment I saw the skills that come standard with the goblin race. But now, I'm curious about something."

"What in the world could you be curious about?"

"They were smiling when they danced."

"What would that have to do with anything?"

"Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but they seemed eager to learn, and have yet to be tainted with the bad habits goblins are known for. What happens if we teach them a better, less rape-y way to live? Will they still be monsters that need to be wiped out, or will we be able to lead them down a better path? I don't know, but I'm willing to not go ballistic. Yet."

Before they left, he added all the younger goblins to his party, telling them the menu was due to his 'Mystic Eye' and would help them grow stronger. It also gave him an easy read on their 'love' and 'loyalty' toward him, revealing how easily impressionable they were. 

"They are monsters. The strongest one of them makes the rules. How do you not know this?"

"Most of the monsters I've killed are people. Well, there were the space bugs, but I don't really count them since those fights were in my cockpit. So, as long as I'm the strongest, I can make the rules?"

"That is usually how it works, though this is a new world... I could be wrong."

"Well, I'm missing some gear and half an arm, but I'm pretty sure I can take any goblin we will find here one-on-one. I didn't train with Rumi for months to rely on just my hands."

"Is that another one of your women?"

"Yes, she is one of my fiancées and my martial arts instructor." 

"And what does she think of all your girlfriends?"

"Well, she was the one whose idea it was for me to have multiple wives in that world. I was happy enough just to be with her, but due to certain circumstances, there are now three of them. Why do you ask?" 

"Goburou!!!" Kichi shouted, interrupting Aqua before she could reply. He was pointing towards a rabbit that was darting in their direction.

John lifted his stub, led the animal a little bit, and fired. "Bind!" He shouted, and a rope fired out of his arm and slammed into the rabbit, cocooning it. The rabbit barely had time to register that it had been bound before John was on top of it, ending its life with a heel drop. 

The rabbit, rather the horned rabbit, did indeed live up to its name. Right on its forehead was a foot-long horn that looked like it could easily give an unlucky goblin a bad day. It was much larger than a normal rabbit, about the size of a medium-sized dog, and weighing at least fifty pounds.

"Ha ha! Did... did you just use your stub as a gun? Are you Megumin now?"

"Just having a little fun." He replied, pressing his hand to the animal's head, and saying a little prayer of thanks before picking its corpse up and slinging it over his shoulder. He wanted to bleed and gut it, but he didn't have a knife. He could probably use his fingernails; they were more like claws anyway. He turned his head towards Kichi and gave him a smile. "Great work, Kichi! Keep it up!"

"Goburou... Can I eat?" Kichi said, rushing up to them, the rest of the goblins following.

John was about to tell them later, but looking out over most of their group, he realized they looked starved, the bugs hardly enough to tide them over. He dropped the carcass back to the ground. It should be more than large enough to feed the eight of them.

"Of course. All of you, go find some wood. We will start a fire and have lunch before we continue to hunt." John replied, then turned back to the rabbit, wishing he had some sort of knife for this job other than Wind Blade. 

The tip of that horn is a little sharp... if I break it off, I can probably use it as a make-shift knife. Won't be easy to skin this thing with it, but I'll make do. Maybe we have some flint around, I could make a blade with it until I figure out something better.

"Fire? Why not just eat?" Kichi asked, scratching his head.

"Because, unless it is necessary, you should always cook your food first. You never know what sorts of bad things are in it that could make you sick." John said to the larger kid. He had no idea how strong the digestive system of a goblin was, but having the runs without having plumbing would be horrible. The smell in the cave was bad enough without compounding the issue.

"Okay... I go get wood." The big boy said, thumping his chest once, then rushing off into the woods. Several of the other goblins did as well, though another stood by him. She was an anomaly among the goblins like Aqua, as she had a full head of short black hair. He had wondered if she was also a reincarnator, but after reading her mind, he realized she was a goblin and just curious about what he was doing. 

"What's your name?" He asked her.

"Gobumi." 

"Mi? Okay, I want you to hold this thing down while I skin and gut it." He said, stepping on its head, grasping its horn, and, with a bit of mana and ki, snapping it off close to the base. 

"You're not just going to eat it?"

"No. We can use the pelts for other things." Like loincloths. The rag he was wearing barely covered his junk, apparently that was the one thing that remained the same size as his human body when he 'grew up' in this world. 

They chatted while he went to work, showing her and Aqua how to pull the hide off a rabbit, the horn's tip not the greatest tool in the world for the job, but good enough. 

"Where did you learn how to do this?" Aqua asked him once he had the pelt off and had Mi drape it on a 'Dig' brick. 

"I hunted pretty much every year since I was eight until I was seventy-two. Rabbits, Ducks, Boars, Deer. My father was friends with some Wichita natives, and they taught me how to respect the animals we hunted and to waste as little as possible. Most of that stuck with me for my whole life, though I didn't always use everything when I got older. Being stuck in a situation like this... I am glad I can remember a few things they taught me. You seem to be taking this rather well. I expected you to be more squeamish." 

"I was a goddess of healing, you know... I've seen a lot of death and destruction and the aftermath of wars. It's not pleasant, but I won't pass out from a little blood."

"In that case, after lunch, do you think you can take the next one? We should try to get a few of them before we head back, and if you can lead another group of these goblins tomorrow, we can increase our chances of success." He still had no idea what they were supposed to be doing in this world, the story apparently not even starting yet. He assumed there must be something on the horizon, since Fate said they needed to be here for two months. He wouldn't offer to give him a system just to watch while he and Aqua did fieldcraft and hunting, would he?

"Of course! Let me show you how it's done! Those rabbits won't know what hit them!" Aqua said, some of her happy cockiness returning.

That Evening

"Owwie... gentle, please. I'm fragile." Aqua squawked in pain.

"You know you could just heal yourself... or I could heal you," John replied. She was lying across his lap while he rubbed the large bruise on her ass cheek, his Healing Hands magic enveloping his hand.  

"No... no perverted magic, please. Just rub it gently." 

"You have your own magic, it doesn't need to be mine."

"Nope... not going to try it. They might have changed the magic to be like yours. I don't want to give myself a... thing. It's dirty." 

"I doubt... well, actually, they might have... still, you might need to use it at some point, and it's not that dirty." John could indeed see DEN making her magic like his, and giving involuntary orgasms when all it needed to do was heal. 

Note 1 for this world. Ask about changing that magic... at least give me the choice if it does that or not.

"I know that! If it's something serious, I'll use it. Otherwise, I'll suffer from the bruises." 

"You did a good job flushing that rabbit out. Though it was odd to see it charge at you instead of running away." John said, remembering her rushing past him, screaming as the rabbit kept poking her butt. He missed his first binding shot, but lit it up with a Bolt afterwards, pretty much killing it instantly.

"It was protecting its babies."

"Yes, it was... and now we have a bunch of baby horned rabbits we need to keep fed." 

"They are so cute when they are little. Are... are we going to eat them too?"

"That's the plan. We need to let them mature and fatten up first, maybe get them some other rabbits to breed with, but they will be dinner someday. So don't go naming them."

Right now, they were in a hastily made enclosure he had dug out of the wall, but he was thinking it might be good to set up an actual structure outside to contain them and raise them as a food source. Not to mention, they could use their poop as fertilizer in the garden he was thinking about starting. Between the two of them, they could start hundreds of seedlings from the scattered berry bushes in the local forest and grow their own crops. 

"Oh... too late..." 

"Aqua..."

"I called him Floppy, cause his ears droop instead of sticking up like the others."

"Fine... we now have a Floppy."

"Yay! Ack! Owwie..."

"You could let me heal you."

"No... just rubs please." 

"Rou... can you rub my butt too?" Mi asked, startling John and reminding him they were hardly alone.

The rest of the goblins were with them in their cramped cave, most asleep with full bellies from the rabbit and bird feast they brought back today. Even the few remaining older goblins had joined them, with Gobujii telling them stories while John cooked the food over a fire. Apparently, since he never evolved into a hobgoblin when he was younger, he took it on himself to learn as much about everything as he could instead, hoping to be useful to the hobgoblins in charge of this den. It seemed to work out for him, as he had been around for a very long time... for a goblin at least. 

"Did you nearly get pierced by a Horned Rabbit today?" John asked her, trying to recover from his surprise at being addressed. For the most part, only Kichi talked to him... and he had difficulty forming full sentences. Mi, on the other hand, seemed to be fairly articulate, considering she was only four days old. 

Maybe she is a smarter goblin? One of the story's protagonists? I mean, she is the only one with a full head of hair...even the elder goblins only have some facial hair at most.

"No, but I picked you some berries." She replied and opened the piece of cloth she was holding to reveal a bunch of different-coloured berries.

"Why, thank you, Mi." He said, picking through them and grabbed one with a seed in it. "Want to see a magic trick?"

"Sure!"

"Nature's Beauty!" He chanted. A fan materialized in his hand, spraying water into the air for a moment, soaking the three of them.

"Ahh! Is that my spell?" Aqua asked, squirming on his lap to get a look. She had a small smile on her face, like she wanted to laugh at him for how silly he looked. 

"You taught it to me, remember?" John said, trying to adjust the fan so it didn't spray anyone else. When it stopped, he reached up and pulled the potted plant from the top of his head, revealing a small berry bush. 

"But it was my party trick. I wanted to be the one to entertain people with it."

"Well, you still can. And we can also feed ourselves with it. Here you go, Mi. A berry bush. Dig a hole in the ground and plant it, and one day it will make more food."

"Ahhh! Thank you, Rou. That is amazing!" Mi said, taking the plant from him, her dark eyes almost lit up as she admired all its pretty pink flowers.

"You know, magic doesn't always need to be practical. You can just use it for whimsy, too." Aqua said, sounding dejected. 

"Oh, I know." He said, fishing another seed out of his loincloth. "Nature's Beauty!" 

"Wha? Again?" 

"Yep. Here, I saw a patch of these earlier, and some had already gone to seed. I thought you might like it." He said, handing her the new pot with what looked like a Lady’s Slipper flower, except it was in shades of aquamarine rather than violet.   

"You got me flowers?" Aqua asked.

"You seemed sad, so I thought I'd cheer my friend up. Considering where we are, other than a full belly of food, I figured this was the easiest way to do that."

"Friend?"

"What else would you be? You saved my unborn child's life, not to mention Mica's, at the cost of your own. Just because you were revived in DEN doesn't diminish that fact. You will forever have my eternal gratitude."

"Heal me, please."

"What? I thought you didn't-"

"Don't say it. Just please... heal me." She said, turning back over again and exposing her butt to the air. 

"Sure. Heal!" He said, casting his magic on her bruise. 

"Ahhhh!! Hah... thank you, J- TK. Thank you." She said, sliding off him and cuddling into his right side. 

"My pleasure, darlin." He said, confused by her change in attitude, but he didn't bother to check her thoughts. He was getting a little too reliant on Scouter, and unless he thought it might be something directly affecting him, he really didn't like invading people's privacy if he could help it. Instead, he just tossed a few ideas around his head for a few minutes before giving up. 

No... it can't be that? Can it?. She is completely against having multiple women in a relationship and knows I have a lot of them in other worlds. Whatever, let's just go to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day.

"Mmm... you are big and warm," Mi said, leaning onto his good arm. 

"That he is... that he is," Aqua added sleepily. 

John closed his eyes and drifted off. Sadly, it was a troubled sleep, filled with nightmares of Zergling killing everyone he cared for.