[Hope in Ruination] Chapter 10 - Illaoi

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The entrance to the pub was through the gaping maw of an enormous skull of a sea serpent. Next to it, painted on a wooden plaque, was the name “Captain’s Pub”.

Naruto groaned. “You just can’t help yourself, can you? Always looking for trouble.”

Ahri shot him a playful grin.

“You know how it goes. Me looking for trouble is like you chasing after my tails. We just can’t help it~”

She snickered, very pleased with herself, as she strolled inside the bar, leaving a sputtering Naruto behind.

⁂

Although Ahri was wearing a long, hooded white cloak that covered her entire body, her arrival in the pub still turned quite a few heads. Sometimes, one could just tell someone was a beautiful woman just by the shape of their silhouette and by her gait, and Ahri was the type of woman who oozed sex appeal.

That being said, the presence of the rough-looking, masked man with a huge broadsword on his back walking by her side prevented most of the pirates and drunkards in the pub from trying to strike up a conversation with the girl.

Having exchanged their money earlier that day into Bilgewater’s currency, a scene where the person behind the counter refused their coins did not happen again.

“Two mugs of ale,” said Naruto as he put two silver serpents on the counter.

Rather than taking their mugs and then going to enjoy their drink privately at a table, he pulled a barstool for Ahri, helping her sit.

“My, what a gentleman,” the fox girl said, giving him a coy look.

“What can I do for you two, lovebirds?” the barkeeper said with a grin, revealing a few gold teeth.

“We’re looking for some information,” said Naruto as he put a gold coin on the counter. “What can you tell us about the Grey Harbour? And the Jagged Hooks.”

“I can tell you all you need to know about the Grey Harbour; it ain’t much of a secret. But I’m afraid that coin ain’t enough for me to spill the beans about the Jagged Hooks.”

Naruto didn’t argue and placed another golden kraken on the counter. It was not his first or second time that he had bought information from barkeepers. He knew how things worked.

⁂

Done with asking for information, Naruto and Ahri took their drinks and ordered a meal too before heading to an empty table.

A few minutes later, a skimpily dressed waitress brought their food and two more mugs of ale.

“Is there anything else you need? Anything I can do for you, handsome?” the woman asked with a sly smirk, putting her hands on the table and bending over so that her deep cleavage was on the same level as Naruto’s eyes.

“All is good,” said Naruto, not giving her more than a cursory glance.

“Are you sure?” she asked, slightly pushing her chest forward with her arms.

“Mitts off the table, hussy!” Ahri burst in annoyance. “He’s not interested!”

The vitriol in her voice was such that the waitress recoiled, backing off in a panic.

“The nerve of her to make a move on you when I am right here, next to you!” Ahri spat once the woman was gone.

“It’s a pirate city; what else did you expect?” said Naruto, seemingly unbothered as he started eating.

“Of course you’re all composed. You didn’t seem to mind having her tits hanging out in front of your face!” Ahri said, stabbing her fork angrily into her sausage.

“Aww, is someone being jealous right now?” Naruto cooed teasingly.

“Of course I am!” she burst at him, her hands clenched into fists. “How would you feel if some other guy came here now and tried to make a move on me?”

He chuckled softly as he put his rough, calloused hand over hers.

“How could I have eyes for other women when you’re right in front of me?”

“You sure have a silver tongue. You player,” the fox girl muttered as she averted her eyes from his, a red colour appearing in her cheeks.

“Besides, even if I were alone, I wouldn’t take her up on her offer. Look around at the other tables,” he said.

Glancing at the rest of the customers in the pub, Ahri realised that the waitress from before didn’t single out their table. Other waitresses were doing the same and even pulling men by their hands, leading them with saucy looks into an adjacent room.

In a lawless city like Bilgewater, prostitution happened in broad daylight, literally everywhere.

“I’ve been into some rough cities and countries before, but never in a place like this,” said Naruto, seemingly impressed by how debauched it was.

Understanding the state of affairs didn’t mean she also had to like it. The fox girl rested her chin on one hand, a pout on her face as she started eating her sausage and mashed potatoes.

“I’d like to make some preparations before we head into the Grey Harbour,” Naruto said after a while. “If the information we bought is to be believed, even the two of us won’t have an easy time.”

According to the barkeeper, a few years ago, a terrible Harrowing washed over Bilgewater.

Sarah Fortune, the leader of Bilgewater, and Illaoi, the Truth-Bearer, the Champion of the Buhru people, had joined hands to fight against the Black Mist. By invoking the power of the Bearded Lady, the sea deity that the Buhru people worshipped, they managed to drive off the mist and cleanse most of the city. However, the Grey Harbour, the easternmost district of Bilegwater, had remained tainted until this day. It was a cursed place where ghouls, ghosts, and other creatures of the Black Mist frequently spawned, attacking any living being in sight.

But Ahri appeared not to be too worried.

“We did pretty well when the Black Mist attacked us while we were at sea.”

“I still think it wouldn’t hurt to be more prepared,” said Naruto.

“But what if we can’t find that pirate who took the sunstones anymore?”

Naruto frowned before saying seriously.

“Ahri, I don’t know about Vastaya, but I only have one life. I can deal with ghouls, demons, and giant monsters just fine. But ghosts and evil spirits? That’s another thing altogether.”

Sensing a fluctuation in his emotions, a foxy grin came on Ahri’s face, revealing her cute fangs.

“That’s an awful lot of words just to say that you’re afraid of ghosts.”

Naruto gave her a look. “I’m not afraid of ghosts. I just don’t like fighting things you can’t punch properly.”

Ahri grinned, resting her chin on the back of her hand. “Mmm, that sounds like fear with extra steps.”

“It’s called being cautious. A good shinobi always prepares. We were ambushed by the Black Mist when we were at sea; we had no choice but to fight it out somehow. But now that we know what we’re up against, it would be dumb not to prepare so that we have an edge.”

The girl laughed in delight, her white fox tail swaying under her cloak.

“I can’t believe it! The mighty and fearsome demon hunter Ifrit is scared of ghosts!”

“I said I’m not! Oy, did you listen to a word from what I said?!” he shouted at her.

“Don’t worry, dear Ifrit. The beautiful, brave, and dependable Ahri will hold your hand if the spooky ghosts pop up once we arrive at the Grey Harbour.”

“Goddamnit, Ahri!”

The fox girl giggled, having the time of her life poking fun at him. And she continued to tease him mercilessly until the doors of the pub were opened widely and a peculiar person stepped inside.

“Damn, that is one big woman,” said Naruto in genuine amazement at the sight of her.

It was a nearly 2-metre-tall woman with dark skin, a mane of wild, long brown hair, and a thick, muscled body covered in tribal tattoos. She looked like a grizzly bear given human form.



“Paylangi stink? Hmpf. Why must my people be so stubborn?” Ahri, with her sensitive hearing, picked up the large woman's muttering despite the loud atmosphere in the bar.

Seemingly not caring about the looks she was attracting from everyone, the tall, black woman walked to one of the men drinking by the counter and said:

“Little man. Tell me, where can I find the Blood Harbour Ripper?”

“Who’s asking?” the man said in annoyance as he turned to face her.

The woman replied proudly:

“I am Illaoi, Truth Bearer of Nagakabouros, champion of the Buhru people.”

The man scoffed.

“Heh, sure, lady. And I’m the River King, Tahm Kench. Buzz off, I’m trying to relax.”

It was a reasonable reaction. Nobody wanted to be disturbed by random strangers while they were trying to relax and unwind after a hard day of work. That’s why Naruto had gone to ask the barkeeper for information and why he paid for it.

But the woman did not look like the type to take ‘no’ for an answer.

“Perhaps a display of strength will change your mind?” she insisted.

“Sorry, I try not to get into fights with strange women in bars,” the man said.

“So, you’re unworthy. Or just afraid?” Illaoi goaded him.

The man’s companions let out a collective “Oooh” sound and laughed, instigating him from the sidelines.

Faced with their peer pressure, in an attempt to save face, he puffed his chest and said:

“You see this sword? I’ve run it through hundreds of men, most bigger than you. So how about you go on home?”

That was all that Illaoi needed, and she made the first move. Her massive punch smashed into the man’s gut, making him fall down to the floor, gasping for air.

But that may not have been the wisest thing to do at that moment because no less than a dozen people stood up from their tables at once, surrounding Illaoi.

“Now that looks more like it. This should be fun! Haha!” the woman laughed.

At the sight of them, Naruto let out a sigh.

“Damn it, they’re going to start a bar fight.”

Unlike him, who seemed fed up, Ahri’s amber eyes were glittering with excitement.

“You were hoping for this to happen when you dragged me here.”

Ahri grinned. “Guilty as charged.”

“Yare yare,” he said in his native language, shaking his head.

The fox girl clapped her palms like an excited child who had gone to the circus for the first time when Illaoi and the dozen men started fighting each other.

But that simple bar fight turned into something more after Illaoi beat the crap out of them all.

“Is that all you have? I was just starting to enjoy myself!” Illaoi said, laughing.

Realising they stood no chance against her in a fistfight, the men tossed aside their pride and took out their pistols and unsheathed their daggers and swords.

“I only need some information. But if you want to feel more pain before you tell me, so be it,” Illaoi said and grabbed the large, spherical golden skull from her back.

As was often the case for bar fights in this pirate city, a mere brawl had escalated into a deadly fight, one that spread to the entire bar. In no time, it was not only Illaoi and the dozen men who were fighting; many other drunkards were pulled into it. Once their food was disturbed or a stray bullet found its way to them, the other customers would jump into the fight too.

Deafening sounds of gunshots and screams of people being cut down and stabbed rang in the bar.

All of a sudden, Naruto jumped up from his seat and moved so fast in front of Ahri that it looked as though he had teleported.

The fox girl’s eyes widened in the next moment as the blond caught two stray bullets in his right hand. Ahri’s surprise only increased when Naruto grabbed those bullets one by one and finger-flicked them back at those who had fired them.

“By the spirits!”

She had always known that Naruto’s physical strength was monstrous, but what she had just witnessed was simply absurd. Leaving aside the matter of catching bullets barehanded, finger-flicking them back faster than most pistols could shoot them was ridiculous.

The two men who had fired in their direction collapsed with bloody bullet wounds in their legs when Naruto sent the bullets back to them.

“We better get out of here,” he said as he unsheathed his large broadsword.

In the end, he was a sellsword, and he had the mentality of one, too. There was no merit in fighting against others when he was not being paid for it.

Seeing as they hadn’t finished their food, he took out a sealing scroll from his backpack and handed it to Ahri.

“Unfurl the scroll and put the plates on top of it. Then, channel your magic into it, and the food will get sealed,” he told her while he kept his position to protect her.

Another drunkard was sent flying in their direction, but Naruto easily stopped his momentum and pushed him away.

A few moments later, Ahri finished sealing their food. Naruto grabbed his mug of ale from the table and downed it all in one go, feeling like it was a pity to leave it behind.

Ahri laughed and followed his example. She grabbed the large wooden mug with both hands and gulped it down in one go, just like he did. He didn’t know if it was because he was starting to fall for her, but she was so cute that everything she did made him smile. When she finished, he burst into laughter at the foam moustache left around her mouth.

Still grinning, he leaned his sword against the table and reached out, cupping her cheek with one hand and gently wiping the foam from her lips with his thumb. But as his finger brushed past her mouth, her lips suddenly parted, and to his surprise, she took his thumb into her mouth. A sultry, smouldering look appeared in her yellow eyes as her cheeks hollowed in and she sucked on his finger for a few very long seconds before letting it go with a soft pop.

Momentarily, he even forgot about the mayhem in the bar, staring at her, gobsmacked, mute with surprise.

Her amber eyes never leaving his, Ahri stuck out her small tongue and ran the tip along the length of his thumb once, inwardly giddy with laughter as her sensitive hearing picked up the sound of his racing heart.

A stray dagger whirred above their heads, and Naruto was brought back to reality, jerking his hand away from her mouth as though he had been burnt. His face now boiling with embarrassment, all he could do was thank the stars and every god above that he was wearing his long grey cloak at that moment, keeping his dignity intact.

“I’ll get back at you for this. I swear,” Naruto muttered darkly as he grabbed his broadsword and walked ahead, leaving the pub with Ahri following behind, her twinkling giggles barely audible over the noise of the fight.

⁂

Not long after Naruto and Ahri slipped out of the bar, sensing that the situation was getting out of hand, Illaoi decided to stop playing around.

The large, golden skull in her hand started glowing with a blue light, and several tentacles of water came out of it, instantly wrapping around everyone who tried to attack her, immobilising them in their tracks. She was the Truth Bearer, and the large golden object in her hand was Nagakabouros’ idol, a unique, priceless artefact.

The pirates may have been a lawless bunch, but power was ultimately what struck order even into the most unruly of them. Furthermore, everyone in Bilgewater had heard about the Truth Bearer before, even if not all had seen her face. The tentacles of water and the magical artefact in her hand were proof enough of her identity.

“Now tell me what I want. Where can I find the Blood Harbour Ripper?” Illaoi asked.

Finally understanding who they were up against, the pirates no longer tried to withhold their information.

“No one I know has actually seen him. Rumour is he stalks the alleys around the warrens… They say he ain’t alive. Not really.”

“Not alive…” Illaoi said in a questioning voice.

The pirate explained:

“He has skin like a corpse. Cold. And his eyes are empty. Like a body pulled up from the sea… or so I heard.”

Illaoi made a humming sound.

“A creature trapped between life and death. An affront to the Goddess.”

“He has a thing for Captains,” the pirate continued. “Find a Captain, and the Ripper won’t be far behind, they say.”

“Thank you, little man,” Illaoi said, as though she hadn’t just beaten up half the bar before obtaining that piece of information.

After pulling the tentacles of water back into the idol in her hand and she turned around to leave, the pirate that she had just conversed with called out for her.

“Hey. You, uh, want to stay a while? I never drank with a Priestess before.”

Illaoi laughed good-naturedly.

“You break too easily,” was all she said before hoisting the golden idol on her shoulder and leaving the bar behind.

⁂

While the Priestess and her followers started scouring the Warrens district of Bilgewater in search of the Blood Harbour Ripper, Naruto and Ahri returned to their inn and started preparing for their trip into the Grey Harbour.

As much as she liked to poke fun at Naruto for his alleged fear of ghosts, the fox girl had been alive for a long time; she did not underestimate the importance of being thoroughly prepared.

Now, she and Naruto were in the middle of cutting the pages of several notebooks into smaller paper slips about the size of her palm.

“Sorry for making you do this,” he said. “I’d normally take my time, but we’re in a rush.”

“I don’t mind it. You’re making these for my sake after all.”

After cutting several hundred paper slips, Ahri watched curiously as Naruto pulled out a bottle of ink and two fountain pens from a sealing scroll before starting to draw a formation of interesting symbols on a paper slip.

“This is a sealing formula from my homeland,” Naruto explained as he drew kanji on the paper tag. “Back on my continent, shinobi used Fuinjutsu for a lot of things, from something as simple as storing goods in a scroll to turning children into human sacrifices to be used as weapons of mass destruction in the wars between villages.”

“But one of the most common uses of fuinjutsu was to make exploding tags. Regular exploding tags are about as strong as a stick of dynamite. This is one such tag. You can tie it to a knife and throw it, or stick it on a surface and trigger it to explode with your magic after that.”

Ahri nodded and listened with rapt attention. Naruto didn’t often speak about his homeland. She was always curious to hear more.

“I don’t often use these Exploding Tags because my strength is more than enough to deal with most things. But the black mist and those ghosts are troublesome. Physical attacks don’t do much against them. Exploding tags should have a much better effect.”

Ahri grabbed Naruto’s spare fountain pen and started drawing on a paper tag, copying the same symbols that Naruto had drawn on his. She took much longer than him to finish hers, but Naruto appreciated her help nonetheless. In the situation where he didn’t have shadow clones, every extra pair of hands mattered.

“Be very careful to copy the letters perfectly, or else it might not work, or it could end up blowing up in our faces. Double-check and triple-check.”

“Okay~”

Half an hour later, the girl had got the hang of it and was relaxed enough to even hold a conversation while drawing the seals. She didn’t understand the meaning of those kanji and the principle behind drawing them, but she didn’t need to as long as she just copied them perfectly.

“Thank you for coming along with me on this journey, Naruto,” she said after a while. “You’ve been a great help to me so far.”

He smiled.

“What are you saying? Is there a need for thanks between us now?”

Ahri grinned mischievously. “Does that mean you’ll give me a discount?”

“Hell no.”

“Aww, come on! I thought you meant I don’t have to say thanks because we are a couple now.”

“I meant that you don’t need to say thanks because you’re paying me,” Naruto replied, snickering.

His answer made Ahri bare her fangs at him, which only made Naruto laugh harder.

“You’re so cute,” he said, pulling down his mask to plant a kiss on her cheek.

Outwardly, she acted annoyed and let out a “hmpf” sound, but with the swaying of her fluffy fox tail, she wasn’t fooling anyone.

⁂

While the two lovebirds were in the middle of drawing a large number of exploding tags, Illaoi and her two companions were still roaming the labyrinth-like district of the pirate city, searching for their target.

As a Priestess of Nagakabouros, Illaoi strived to uphold the will of her goddess. And Nagakabouros was a goddess of motion. The Bearded Lady liked seeing the mortals go about their way and chase their desires, be they good or evil. But the Blood Harbour Ripper had been terrorising Bilgewater for weeks now.

The fear that this serial killer had brought into the pirate city made most people afraid of even stepping out of their homes at night. The Blood Harbour Ripper’s actions caused stagnation; people no longer chased their desires, too afraid for their lives. And that was how the serial killer ended up becoming the Priestess’ target.

Hours into their search, Illaoi and the other two Buhru people finally found him. The advice that the pirate at the bar had given her – “Find a Captain and the Ripper won’t be far behind” – turned out to be the key to tracking the Blood Harbour Ripper down.

When they caught him, he was in the middle of killing another person.

“Please! Don’t…” the pirate begged, on his knees.

In front of him stood a bald, grey-skinned man looking exactly as the people at the bar had described him: “skin like a corpse. Cold. And his eyes are empty. Like a body pulled up from the sea”.

If Naruto had been there, he would have recognised him right away: he was the very person who had assassinated the captain of his ship, while they were at sea.

“So afraid… So alone… But soon, Captain, you’ll be crossed off my list,” the killer spoke in a very deep voice as he played with his jagged daggers. “And you won’t feel a thing ever again.”

“What list?! I’ve never seen you before in my life!” the pirate shouted desperately: "I-I’m not even a captain anymore! I haven’t sailed in years! Please!”

It was at that moment that Illaoi and her companions arrived:

“Abomination! Face the Kraken Priestess, if you dare!”

Turning to look at her, the killer made a hmming sound.

“Hmm, killing you… would be fun, but meaningless. No.”

Before anyone could react, he suddenly kicked the kneeling man off the bridge, sending him flying into the bottomless chasm below.

“Forsaken one, do you think I am offering you a choice?” Illaoi shouted before leaping into the air with great strength.

Her golden idol lit up with a blue light, and she smashed it down with a powerful cry.

But the killer disappeared, leaving only a phantom behind.

“Nagakaborous, heed our call and bless us with your divine grace!” the priestess’ two followers cried out, and their hands lit up with an aqua-blue light.

And it was not a second too late. A loud clang rang as the killer thrust his jagged dagger at the neck of the woman, stopped only by a thin barrier of translucent blue light.

Illaoi spun around, and four tentacles of water spurted from the mouth of the golden skull in her hand, forcing the undead killer to back off from her followers.

In an inhuman display of reaction time and agility, the serial killer backflipped and dodged the wildly attacking water tentacles, and he even had the leisure to throw his jagged dagger at Illaoi’s face.

The priestess blocked the dagger throw with her idol, but the undead retrieved his weapon by pulling onto the rope attached to the dagger’s handle.

Nevertheless, the other two Buhru people were not there just for Illaoi to protect them. They were capable warriors in their own right.

Turned with his back to them as he was, the killer didn’t notice the man and the woman dropping their protective barrier. A second later, the man charged at the killer’s back, and the woman chanted a prayer, a whip of water appearing in her hand.

Preoccupied with dodging the violent assault of Illaoi’s kraken-like water tentacles, the undead killer didn’t see the water whip that suddenly wrapped around his ankle. Furthermore, just a split second later, the physically imposing Buhru man slammed his shoulder into his back with all the strength and momentum he was capable of.

He let out a grunt of pain as he was pushed to the ground, but even in that situation, as he was falling, he twisted his body and threw his jagged dagger at the Buhru man.

Unfortunately for the killer, his aim was off, and he missed the man’s throat by an inch.

He had yet to stand up when Illaoi retrieved her water tentacles into her idol before lunging at him. She let out another cry as she smashed the golden skull idol into the undead's bald head, cracking the wooden bridge they were on with the strength of her strike.

Half unconscious, he could do nothing as Illaoi raised her idol and shouted

“Now face the test of the Mother Serpent! You will not survive her judgement!”

A large amount of water came from her idol, and the serial killer was engulfed in a sphere of water. He struggled as though he were drowning, flailing his arms and legs, but it was only for a brief moment.

A few seconds later, the spell ended, and the killer fell to the ground, on his knees.

“What. . . did you do to me?” he asked.

“This cannot be!” the priestess said, shocked. “You are found worthy?? But you are a monster!”

She was still filled with disbelief when a vision, a divine message, came to her mind, and Illaoi collapsed.

Taking advantage of Illaoi’s situation and the fact that her two followers had rushed to her side to make sure she was alright, the killer jumped up to his feet and threw himself off the cliff, into the abyss.