Maseki Gurume - 028b

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『I found you……I found you……I found you……I FOUND YOU! 』

"NYA!? What is that!? "

A soundless voice that said it found something.

"Ain! Put it back, nya! Back in the box, nya!! "

"O-Okay! "

Deciding that keep going would be dangerous, Katima tells him to put the magic stone back in the sealing box.

At that point, something unexpected happened with Ain's body.

"Ehh...... W-why? Why did the Phantom Hand-?"

From Ain's back, one appeared, then 2, 3......rapidly increasing, the number reached four Phantom Hands.

Those arms were stretching towards the magic stone.

"What are you doing, nya!? Ain! "

"It wasn’t me! They came out on their own……! What the heck is this!? "

Ain was confused at the sudden and unexpected events. Even if he tried to put the magic stone back in the box, he wasn’t able to let go of it.

"Nya……Let go of it, nyaaaaaaa! "

In such a strange situation, Katima made a move. Tackling Ain by the back, he pushed him and forced him to put the stone back in the box.

And then, with Ain barely able to pull his hands out of the box, she closed it.

Afterward, the many Phantom Hands that appeared slowly returned to Ain's body.

"Haa……Haa……What the hell was that, nya?"

"Katima-san. My body feels super tired……"

"With all those Phantom Hands suddenly appearing, that's only normal, nya. Seriously, what was that……Ehh, Ain!? "

"What is it? Is there something else?"

"Your body! Look at you, nya! "

Katima spoke to Ain in an urgent tone. Never having seen Katima in such a hurry, Ain quickly moved in front of a mirror. And as Ain moved there, Katima rushed to a bookshelf.

"What is, this……?"

Ain had entered the lab in his everyday clothes. And he should've been wearing that.

However, right now, he was clad in black armor. An armor that was of a size suitable for Ain's body.

Furthermore, it leaked a black aura. And here and there, you could see it mixed with a red and a blue aura.

This was almost like, the Dullahan's armor itself.

"Found it, nya! Ain, come see this, nya! "

What Katima was holding was an old book. She opened in a part with a picture and some text, and in the picture, one could see the exact same armor as the one Ain was wearing right now. And the text described a certain monster.

"Dullahan……"

The book she brought was a valuable compendium of old monsters, and the page she had it opened at was one regarding the Dullahan.

There was an illustration of the Phantom Hand by its side and in the center the Dullahan wearing a black armor. Everything about it was the same as the one Ain wore, like two peas in a pod.

"Ain. Be honest, nya. ……Did you absorb a little of it, nya? "

"I didn’t! You think that's why the Phantom Hands suddenly came out like that!? "

Then, Katima immersed herself in her thoughts.

Inside her mind, various hypotheses and calculations ran wildly about what just happened.

"Well, for now just suck on this, nya. It's a Healbird's magic stone, nya. The Healbird's is a special magic stone that is not toxic to humans, and it's used in medical treatments, nya. It should have the same effect even if you absorb it."

Katima then handed three Healbird magic stones to Ain.

Ain, being extraordinarily tired, quickly absorbed them all.

He didn’t take the time to taste them properly, but the mint-like scent filled Ain's body.

It was a refreshing sensation that healed his tiredness, and by the time he finished absorbing them, Ain had calmed down a bit.

"Thank you, Katima-san. I feel a little calmer."

"That's good, nya. ……Also, it looks like the armor disappeared, nya."

Apparently, at the same time he calmed down, the Dullahan's armor disappeared.

"I'll ask just to make sure, nya. Have you been practicing Dark Knight skills other than the Phantom Hand?"

"I haven’t. I mean, I didn’t even know what sort of skills I had."

"To be honest, I don’t know how much that armor related to magic and how much of it related to the Dullahan itself, nya. That's why I was scared of you practicing, Ain, nya."

"So, that's why you asked......"

The strength of the Dullahan was famous, but the details of the Dark Knight skill were still unknown.

In fact, the armor just now could even be called a historical discovery.

"There are a lot of things that I don’t know, nya."

"But, about the voice that I heard, you heard it too, right Katima-san? "

"Indeed, nya. That alone is a discovery, but……Hmm."

"Why do you think the Dark Knight's Phantom Hand sought that magic stone? "

"I have a hypothesis, nya."

The Phantom Hands activated on their own, and they reached for the magic stone. The magic stone was filled with the unknown; she didn’t know why the Dullahan's armor appeared, nor the reason why it tried to reach for the magic stone.

"But it's something that doesn’t feel realistic at all, nya. First is, that the Dark Knight sought this magic stone because it felt it had something to do with its growth. The second one……is even more unrealistic, nya. The Dark Knight, the Dullahan might have some sort of connection with this magic stone, nya."

"You mean the Dullahan of the magic stone that I absorbed? Does it have something to do with the magic stone? Or is something related to the monster the magic stone belonged to? "

"Something like that, nya. Considering that the magic stone was already cursed, it's not surprising that something like this happened, nya."

To be honest, there was a reason why Katima could only come up with an unrealistic hypothesis.

Even though she had lived her life researching, everything involving this magic stone was a complete mystery.

Despite them continuing their talks and sharing assumptions, they couldn’t come up with anything else.

So, after a while, they decided to end today's session, and both Ain and Katima left the lab.

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