Gianna has had worse days.
"A-A-Achoo!"
She's also had better days. Much better days.
Getting dragged into a lake and wrestling a siren (not exactly a monstrous fish like she initially thought, but the sentiment was somewhere in this circumstance) was not on her list of what to expect on her impromptu trip around the area with Cirno, but now it seems like anything was on the table. What's next, werewolves mistaking her for a chew toy? Zombies? God forbid any vampires show up to haggle them after the sun sets. Funny enough, though, Gianna didn't feel much anxiety from these thoughts, just annoyance from potential inconvenience. She had more important things to simmer over.
I'm wet, I'm cold, my arms hurt, and I'm starting to wonder when lunchtime will come, she groaned in her head, and after fairies, whatever "youkai" are, and lake sirens, it's more impressive that a fairy tale land like this even exists in the first place. Wait a minute . . . A thought pinged in her head. Is this literally Alice's Wonderland?
Alice's Wonderland, from what Gianna remembered about the story, was a dream of hysteria for Alice from beginning to end, which she eventually woke up from. This being a dream meant that sooner or later, she would have to wake up and face whatever consequences she'll see when she'd open her eyes.
Once again, Gianna pinched her arm, with more oomph this time. The pain was sharp and distracted her momentarily from the cold, but that pain relieved her. No. Somehow, I'm still not dreaming. I never was.
Even if she was, she was too afraid to wake up.
"Gianna!" Ah, Cirno was saying something to her. Eager to step away from those thoughts in her head, Gianna gave her attention once again to the little ice fairy.
During this trek to who knows where (hopefully a clothes store), Cirno was congratulating Gianna on her little scramble with the siren, which she soon learned was "ningyo" in Cirno's language. It sounded somewhat French, especially with how the "gyo" stumbled out of Gianna's mouth with the confidence of a worn out tongue twister, but there would be time to practice saying it correctly later at the tree house. Besides the new words Gianna learned today, Cirno's energetic charades painted a vivid enough picture of how much she enjoyed the showdown at the lake.
Cirno would exclaim things with childish admiration. "Sugoi! Anta wa kaibutsu no youdesu!!" Whatever that meant.
Gianna would try to be modest. "Arigatou, Cirno! But, ah, it's not the best thing I've done." Truly, in painful retrospect, wrangling and kicking a siren is probably bad luck somewhere in the world, and the shocked look on the fish lady's face after getting pushed into the water was enough for Gianna to regret the decision. One day, I should go back to the lake and apologize to her. Once I learn how to say "I'm sorry," of course.
Daiyousei would shyly tap Gianna on the shoulder over and over, asking "Dou yatta no?" Over and over again. Gianna did not know what that meant, but she just gave the classic thumbs up and "daijoubu" as a means to talk things over when her feet weren't on fire from walking several kilometers.
Rumia was Rumia. She floated above the group and giggled as she let the air lazily carry her forward. Gianna knew now that all these girls could fly. She didn't want to think about it, but the word of the day today was starting to look like "whatever." All in all, she let Rumia be. You have fun there, kid.
Wriggle . . . didn't say anything for the whole walk. Not a peep out of her aside from the occasional grumble. Gianna noticed that Mystia, the one who Wriggle talked to the most, hadn't caught up with the group yet, probably because of her feathers getting wet.
Gianna slowed her pace a bit and peered down at Wriggle, and was well aware of the way the kid flinched when she saw Gianna get a little closer. "Hey, Wriggle . . ." Gianna started slowly, "uhhh, are you daijoubu? Where's Mystia?"
"Hm." Wriggle merely shoved her hands into her pockets rather aggressively. If Wriggle's looks could kill, Gianna would've been that siren in the lake.
Gianna nodded and looked back up to the rest of the group, understanding the message of I'm angy, no talky very clearly. "Good to know. Good to kno- AH!" Gianna found herself, once again, on the ground after tripping over something. This time, however, it was with a twig snaring her foot and her knee landing on some wonderfully angled pebble. "Arrgh, fuck! Ow..."
Daiyousei fluttered above Gianna and pulled her up from the ground. Gianna gave a smile and was about to give thanks for the 17th time in the past hour, but her smile turned into pale shock when Daiyousei spoke.
"Fuck?" Was the first word to come out of her mouth, Cirno soon repeating.
"Haha! Iu no wa tanoshii! Fuck, fuck!"
"Nooo, don't say that!" Gianna swatted the fairies in vain desperation as they continued to cuss like it was a game. "That's not a good word for you to repeat!"
As usual with telling kids not to do something, along with not being able to properly tell them off, her attempts were useless. All three of themㅡ Cirno, Daiyousei, and Rumiaㅡ continued to chorus together and sing "fuck" over and over again.
"Ne, Gianna." Gianna turned around to Wriggle, who was practically oozing smug energy from just the haughty sneer she gave. "Fucking ningen."
Somehow, Wriggle figured out what it meant.
"Guys, no! That's not daijoubu, please- a-aaACHOO!"
So, yeah. Gianna's definitely had better days.
. . .
In what felt like an eternity as the sun started to slowly rise to its peak, they were still walking through the forest. The autumn scenery seemed to blend together into something tiring to look at, even with how pretty all the colors were at first.
At some point Mystia came flapping about behind them, finally catching up. She gave Gianna a light smack on the back with her wings and said something, which confused Gianna for a second until she remembered that birds typically don't do so well with wet feathers.
Mystia's arrival seemed to brighten Wriggle's mood a smidge, which was something. Light chatter settled itself within the group once again. Gianna just nodded along to the rhythm of their banter and hoped they reached their destination soon.
At some point, Cirno stopped in regular Cirno fashion and announced their arrival to a new area. Gianna was mildly surprised at the sight. A plethora of ponds facing a mountain's steep cliffside and steam rising from themㅡ hot springs. And all natural looking, from the lack of housing around the area.
Gianna smiled and involuntarily nodded to the sight of the wild hot springs. "Wow." She's been to a sauna once as a teenager, but it was a cheap one at a city waterpark. These look like the kind that people paid big money to experience at five star hotels . . . in Finland. "These look beautiful-" A light breeze whipped through Gianna, making her shiver and remember her current predicament: cold, somewhat bruised, and wet.
Well, since she was already wet, what was the harm in another dive? Particularly in something nice and warm this time.
"Ah, whatever!" Gianna shrugged and broke into a sprint for the hot springs.
Cirno had a surprised look for a split second, but quickly rebounded with icy hot energy to her flight as she followed Gianna's lead. "Hai, ikuzo!!"
The gang quickly made it to the rocky shore of the closest hot spring, the kids not hesitating to jump in, clothes and all. Guess today was a "who cares if our clothes got wet" kind of day. Mystia was more hesitant and simply decided to sit by the shore, taking off her shoes and dipping her toes into the hot spring water. Gianna carefully left her journal far from any kind of splash zone before joining the others in the water.
Compared to the icy water in Misty Lake, the spring water here felt absolutely divine to melt into. Gianna let out a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding in as her muscles loosened from contact with the warm water, momentarily letting the tension she didn't know was there melt away.
And judging from the excess steam rising from Cirno, she was literally melting away. She didn't seem to be bothered by that, though.
"Waaah~ kimochiii!" Cirno sighed and sunk deeper into the water with a content look on her face.
Gianna raised an eyebrow. "Kimochii?"
Cirno nodded and gave a lazy thumbs up from the water. "Hai, 'daijoubu' you ni."
Gianna nodded along and tilted her head back against a rocky border. "Hmm . . ." Guess kimochii was similar to daijoubu in terms of meaning I'm good or I'm okay. She'll have to write that down in her notebook. Later, though. "Yeah, I'm feeling pretty kimochii too, Cirno."
She would've drifted off into a sweet little nap if she wasn't alerted back to reality by some light tapping on her shoulder. Gianna opened up her eyes to see Daiyousei fidgeting in the water with a timid look on her face.
"Shitsumon shite s-sumimasen, Gianna-san, " Dai muttered, "Demo, dou yatte ningyo o taoshita?"
"Haa, sou- kya!!" Cirno slipped on the underwater rocks and fell back into the water with a light splash, surprising both Gianna and Daiyousei. She resurfaced just as quickly as she fell with a spirited look in her eyes. "Sou desu ne! Anta wa ningyo no o shiri o ketta! Dou yatte?"
They both talked a bit too fast for Gianna in her relaxed state to completely understand, but she caught the word "ningyo" and the "dou yatte" that Daiyousei had been asking her for the past hour or so. "Is this about the siren?" The two fairies sat quietly with no reaction. "Uh, the ningyo?" They reacted almost immediately, fervently nodding their heads in unison.
"Hai, hai!" Cirno flopped back into the water and tried to strangle and punch away an imaginary foe, imitating what Gianna had done to the lake siren. After the quick show, Cirno got up again and threw her hands out to emphasize what she had just done. "Dou yatta no?"
From what Cirno had done, befuzzling Gianna and even Daiyousei on the sideline of this charade, Gianna tried to piece together what they wanted to ask. Cirno's really enthusiastic about my mishap with the siren. I guess as kids, they want to know how I fought her? Gianna glanced down at her noodle arms and inwardly made a face. Ah. I can see why they'd be curiousㅡ I don't exactly look like a fighting person, do I? Well, time to play the charades game again. She adjusted her sitting spot into a more comfortable position and gestured to the two fairies to sit down with her.
"So, uh." Gianna put a hand to her chin, not really knowing how to start. She made a swaying gesture in the water with her hand and pointed at it with the other. "Ningyo, okay?" Her audience of two nodded along. Gianna continued. "Okay, um . . . so, a long time ago, I did a lot of fishing. Uh, Cirno?" Cirno perked up. This is gonna look embarrassing, Gianna thought, but oh well, and proceeded anyway. "How do you say this?" She pointed at herself and made a fishy face. "Glub, glub, glub."
Cirno snorted and giggled. "Sakana desu!"
"Arigatou." Gianna nodded. She then made a fishing rod gesture by whipping her hand into a fist before casting her imaginary rod. She pointed at herself. "Sakana ningen?" She said, a little unsure if it would get through.
Cirno seemed as enlightened as a rock, but Dai had a focused look to her. She whispered something to Cirno, and the ice fairy's face lit up with realization. "Haahh!! Ryoushi desu ka?" She repeated the fishing rod gesture with Gianna.
Gianna shrugged and gave a thumbs up. "Uhhh hai, ryoushi desu." They say 'desu' a lot , she noted, guess it's like a catch-all phrase for 'I am' or 'you are.' "So, a long time ago, when I was little," Gianna made a short motion with her hand, lowering it flat near Cirno's height, "Ryoushi desu. With my father." The fairies were fairly quiet. "Uh, my dad. Papa."
"Papa?" Daiyousei piped up, "Papa ga imasu ka?"
"Subete no ningen ni papa ga iru, Dai!" Cirno said, "Papa to mama, ne."
Gianna didn't get this little conversation they were having, but she just nodded along. "Yeah, just me and my dad . . ." Her smile faltered at the thought.
How . . . how is he doing right now?
The last time she saw her father flashed through her mind, with her hand on the door handle, one foot planted outside, and the disappointed look on his face. No, not disappointed.
"Gianna, please . . . this isn't worth it. Please don't do this."
It was some mix of worry and fear from a choked up voice.
"Papa, either I do this now or we suffer in debt for the rest of our lives."
"But this is suicide! You can't risk yourself just for- *cough* *cough*"
A harsh coughing fit, one of the things that became commonplace for her father as of late.
"Papa, it's for your health. Napoli is killing both of us, whether it's today or a year from now. We need to get out of here, and this is the only way!"
Two feet past the door, and the door starts to close.
"I promise I'll come back. I'll come back safe and sound, Papa, just you wait."
"Gianna Amato, don't you close that door-! *cough* *cough*"
As she slammed the door and ran off to "work" without looking back, that was the last she saw her father. Desperate, sickly, and fearful.
The passage of time suddenly felt like a great weight, weighing down her shoulders and tightening her throat. It's been over a day since he last saw me, since I stormed off like that . . . God, what am I doing here?
". . . Gianna-san? Gia- eto, Gianna-san?"
Gianna snapped her eyes open, not even realizing that she had closed them in the first place. "Ah?" She looked up to see Cirno and Daiyousei looking at her with concern written all over their faces.
"Gianna-san," Dai murmured, "Daijoubu desuka?"
Gianna stood still in the water, very aware of how these kids were looking at her right nowㅡ like a cornered animal. She gulped back her quivering and gave a tense thumbs up, wrenching her hand from her legs which she'd been hugging. "Da . . . Daijoubu desu." I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.
That came out more shaky than she had liked.
Quickly, Gianna changed the subject and whipped her head to look anywhere else. "Where are your parents?"
Cirno tilted her head. "Parentsu?"
"Y'know, your . . . papas and mamas? Do you-" Gianna pointed at Cirno and Dai, "Do you have a papa or a mama?"
Dai turned to Cirno with a question of "Warera?" among other whispered things. Cirno nodded and turned back to Gianna with a smile.
"No parentsu!"
Gianna blinked. "What?"
"Yousei ni wa ryoushin ga imasen," Dai said with a neutral tone, as if it was a stone-carved fact.
"Ataitachi wa ningen janai." Cirno made an X with her hands. "Cirno to Dai-chan, eto, no parentsu, Gianna-san!"
No parents? Gianna thought, grimacing. She was wondering when she would be eventually taken to a fairy house with Cirno and Dai's fairy mom and dad to explain why they were dragging an adult human around with them. That was never the case, apparently. Now it makes sense why they brought me to a treehouse instead of a normal home, she thought, Poor girls. "I'm sorry," Gianna said, not really knowing how else to respond to that information.
Cirno had a confused smile on her face. "So- sorrrry?" It rolled weirdly off the little fairy's tongue, as if she was using those syllables for the first time.
Gianna nodded, looking down. "Sorry, like uh . . ." She bowed. That's the Asian thing to do for apologies, right? "Sorry. About your parents."
"Oh? Oh! Ooooh." Cirno got it, and shook her head. "'Gomen' to itte! Gomen." She turned to Daiyousei and whispered, "Naze kanojo wa gomen to itte iru nodesu ka?" This earned a quick shrug from Daiyousei.
Gianna sank lower in the water, chin just below the surface. She exhaled harshly through her nose, slightly frustrated. They supposedly came here to relax, and she was making it harder for all of them by stressing out, in a sauna. She was an adult, for goodness sake! If only she could control all the worries in her head from growing rampant, that would be great. I need to get a grip of myself, she thought.
Yeah, but you're sitting here, doing nothing, A nagging thought scolded, You should be finding a town with working wifi or something to contact Papa and tell him you're fine! Gianna sank lower into the water. Even more, you need to get him out of Napoli! Nose above the water. What are you doing here?! Stop wasting time!!
Shut up, please! Gianna bit back at those thoughts, her eyebrows knit in mounting frustration. The water around her rippled as she writhed against her head's nonsense. I need to focus. Just . . . relax.
Relax . . .
"Eto, youkai doko?" Daiyousei said aloud.
Just then, with the fates against them, a yell ripped through the ambience of the hot springs.
"CHIKUSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU! "
Daiyousei and Cirno whipped their heads towards each other and yelped "Wriggle!!" simultaneously, and launched themselves out of the water with a quick flap. Cirno, however, stumbled a bit, and promptly dropped back towards the hot spring.
Gianna caught Cirno in her arms as the little fairy hit the water. "Cirno, what's-?!" Then Gianna saw Cirno's wings; they were somewhat melted from the heat of the hot spring, so she couldn't fly. "Oh, man. Daijoubu desuka?" Then a thought struck her. Wait, then why did she come into the sauna in the first place?!
"Bleh . . ." Cirno shook her head and waded her way to the hot spring shore. "Dai, chotto matteee!" She cried, running frantically to the source of Wriggle's yelling.
"Hey- Cirno, your wings!" Gianna jumped straight up and waded out of the water. Guess relaxing will have to wait. Shaking herself from the water, Gianna quickly snatched her journal and pen from the ground and broke into a sprint after the dripping trail Cirno left behind her.
What could've made Wriggle scream like that? Potential threats broke into her head as she ran, the earthy ground under her feet gradually transitioning to stone. Strangers in the forest possibly kidnapping her? Or was it another monster, like the siren? A werewolf, or maybe even a dragon? Actually, that might be thinking too big; if there was a dragon, the forest would be cinders by now. But Wriggle's a tough kid from what Gianna's saw from her, she doesn't get scared easily. Maybe since she's sort of bug-like, it was a monster that eats bugs? Maybe a bird- no, Mystia's a bird-like youkai thing, and Wriggle's not scared of her. A frog? A fish? Or maybe aaAIIGH!
Once again, Gianna tripped over something and fell forward towards the ground, only her book shielding her face from a rocky impact. Shifting herself upward, Gianna grit her teeth and squinched her eyes closed. "This is getting ridiculous!!" She shouted, shaking a fist at the sky. "Bless you and everything, but is this your idea of a running joke?!" She shouted at the Lady in the Sky, who she hoped would hear her complaint.
Just as things were since Gianna woke up in this strange land, she received no answer to her questions. It was like yelling into a void.
Gianna huffed and rubbed an eye open, only to realize that the sky was covered by stone, the sunlight blocked from her vision. Looking at her surroundings, she saw that this was the entrance to a cave, with water and steam streaming down deeper into darkness. Ah, guess I got lost in thought and didn't notice. Why is there a cave next to a sauna, though? This was where Cirno's trail of ice and water led to, however, so this was somehow the right place. Maybe this is a geyser-fueled spring . . . that's pretty cool, actually. Another thought struck. Wait, what did I even trip on this time?
Looking down at her ankle, Gianna picked up a thread of translucent silk that shone in the sunlight. It had an oily feel as she felt it. Is this . . . a spider web silk?
Then, the fireworks started.
Bright lights and explosive sounds ripped Gianna's attention from the silk, drawing her closer to the cave. What she saw could best be described as a spectacular splash of madness.
She could make out Mystia and Daiyousei producing balls of light from out of nowhere, with Mystia's looking like phantom manta rays with sunny torpedoes and Daiyousei's fireworks looking like spiraled clusters of knives made out of grass. Cirno and Rumia were on the ground with a large drum and fans made of ice, shouting cheers and chants. And to the right was Wriggle tied to a giant spider's web, along with someone new.
This new face covered herself in a thick brown coat adorned with gold ribbons. Long, gangly limbs protruded out of her back, similar to Cirno's wings. Except they moved constantly as the girl used them to crawl on the walls of the cavern.
"Anshin shite o hirugohan o tabe sasete kudasai!!" The spider monster whined childishly, "Seisei doudou to shita kanojo o mitsuketa!"
"Kimi wa Wriggle o taberu koto wa janai, kanojo wa ataitachi no nakama desu!" Cirno shouted from the bottom, banging her ice drum with an ice mallet.
"HAI HAI WATASHI O TABENAI DE KUDASAIIIIII," Wriggle cried out from her silky confinements, "KONO KIMITACHI NO HANASHI WO KIKUUUU!"
"Kumo o tsubusu! Kumo o tsubusu!" Rumia chanted alongside Cirno, waving her fans around
Despite the conversation somewhat flying over Gianna's head, she could piece together what happened. So Wriggle must've wandered off while we were relaxing in the sauna and got caught by a spider youkai girl . . . and now the girls are using fireworks to fight the spider. I suppose in a land of nonsense, it should make sense that monsters have the power to make fireworks out of thin air. She peered down to where their light show was, curved down to where gushes of water and rocks drained into. But wouldn't it be easier for Mystia to just attack the spider like a bird would? Or maybe Cirno could throw snowballs at her and freeze her down. That would probably be more efficient.
Gianna looked down at where Wriggle was being held, and glanced at her pencil. An idea struck.
The spider girl waved a small paper around and tore it in two, raising her spider arms behind her to charge blue and red balls of light in the form of a spider web towards Mystia and Daiyousei. "Wana fuㅡ Capture Web!!"
Mystia nodded to Daiyousei, and they both flew around the lights in evasive manners. "Kimi no danmaku ja ataranai yo, kumo!"
While all of this occurred, Gianna carefully slid down the rocky decline into the cavern and stepped by the rocky walls with stealthy intent. If I can sneak by as they have fun with their firework show, I can free Wriggle myself. She almost slipped on a rock down the crevices, but carefully caught herself and clung to the wall. She sharply inhaled. "Don't pull this shit on me now, please" She muttered under her breath.
A couple of calculated steps later, and Gianna found herself at the floor of the cavern, merely a couple of feet away from Wriggle wriggling in the spider's webs. Gianna looked up, and could confirm that the spider girl was still fighting Mystia and Dai, everyone distracted by the fight.
"Psst! Wriggle!" Wriggle whipped her head up and saw Gianna, and her face immediately turned off all fear, replaced with mild disappointment.
"Ah," Wriggle said, "Fucking ningen." She promptly turned her head from Gianna and continued to struggle out of her binds as if Gianna wasn't here.
"Hey, none of that now," Gianna chided Wriggle, "I'm gonna save you, okay? Daijoubu desu." She pulled out her pencil and dug it into the spider silk.
The pencil must've accidentally stabbed Wriggle, because the bug girl flinched. "Kuso- itai!!"
"Oh- shoot, sorry." Gianna retracted the pencil, carefully starting again. "Just stop moving, okay? That's gonna make things harder." Some strings managed to snap, so the pencil idea was working.
With thread by thread of the silk slowly torn by the pencil's charcoal tip, and Wriggle was able to schmove an arm out of the bind. With a quick snap of her finger, some roaches crept out of the cavern nooks and crawled onto Wriggle. Gianna took a wide step back, cringing at the sight.
"Wriggle, what . . . ?!" With another look, Gianna could see that the roaches were nibbling away at the web at a faster rate than her pencil was. "Ohhh. Okay, that's actually pretty smart."
Wriggle shook the webs off her as they harmlessly floated off, and started to walk her way out the cave. Gianna tried to check if Wriggle had any injuries, but was quickly swatted away with a quick hand. "Sawaranaide," She said curtly.
"I just want to see if you're okay!" Gianna hissed, flinching at the sound of the explosions happening overhead. "Plus, we need to be careful getting out of here without the girls noticing us-"
"Ooooi, Gianna-san!" Gianna and Wriggle both turned to the center of the cavern floor, and they saw Cirno waving at them with her ice fan and ice drum mallet. "Wriggle o sukutta! Kakoi ne!"
"Cirno, don't- now's not the time!"
"Yaaaaaay!" Rumia yelled out with a surprisingly loud voice coming from such a small body, "Wriggle o sukue, kumo o tsubuse! Wriggle o sukue, kumo o tsubuse!"
They started banging the ice drum even faster than before, drawing attention from the fighting trio up in the air. The lights flickered away, and Gianna could see the confused look on the spider girl's face.
"N-Nanda-" Spider Girl yelped, "Ningen?!" Her spider limbs began to crawl towards Gianna and Wriggle. "Kimi wa koko ni iru bekide wanai!"
"AaaaaAAAAAHH-" Gianna's legs started to move on their own as she saw Spider Girl rapidly approaching her, breaking into a run towards the path back up to the entrance.
"Nani- omae-!!" Wriggle broke into a run, following Gianna up the path. "MATTE MATTE MATTE!!!" They both tried to climb up the rock wall ledgeway, but both Wriggle and Gianna's pushing against each other caused them to break off one of the ledges needed to climb back up.
"Ja," Wriggle chuckled, spreading her wings underneath her cape, "Jaa ne, Gian-NAIII!" A spatch of sticky webs slapped onto Wriggle's back, binding them into useless spasms. "Chikushouuuu, fuzaken ja nee yo?!" She shouted at Spider Girl, only to jump in a fright as she saw her nearly 3 meters behind them.
At this range, Gianna could see the slit lines on the girl's face- nope, those were eyes. Those were multiple, insectoid eyes on the monster's face, making her appear more spider than human. In her fright, Gianna did the only thing she could in a moment of paralysis: pray. Lady in the Sky, I know I'm not getting any answers from you, but I can really use another miracle right now!!
A wave of heat pulsed out from the cavern's depths, like a volcanic heartbeat.
Cirno, in her melty and now heated state, sniffled, and sneezed.
"Achooie!" As she sneezed, a snotty, frosty breeze shot out of her mouth, slicking the cavern streams between Spider Girl and the with a thin sheet of ice. Two of Spider Girl's spider limbs took hasty steps on the ice patch, and slipped, causing Spider Girl to barrage into the rock wall on her side with a resonating THUD , knocking her dizzy and groaning .
"Aiii . . ."
Wriggle and Gianna stood still in shock, too scared to even breathe. Wriggle broke the silence with a snort and pulled her eyelid down at Spider Girl, blowing a raspberry. "Bleh!"
"Holy shit . . ." Gianna grinned with a breathy chuckle, giving a thumbs up to Cirno. "That was awesome, Cirno!"
"Atai wa saikyou desu!" Cirno called back, sniffling again.
"Saikyou, saikyou!" Rumia echoed.
Rumble Rumble Rumble . . .
The noise from Spider Girl's crash hasn't stopped yet, and Gianna had now noticed that. Everyone else seemed to catch on, as wellㅡ especially when pieces of the cavern's ceiling started to crumble down to the floor.
"N-Nani ga okotte iru?!" Daiyousei cried.
"Shiranai," Mystia said, "Demo warera koko kara denakya!"
The girls started shouting all over each other, with Dai swooping down to pick up Cirno from the ground, and Mystia swooping down to carry Wriggle.
"Nigerundayo!" Cirno bellowed out as Dai carried her out to the entrance, "Rumiaaaa!! Gianna-saaaaan!!!"
Rumia ran across the trickling streams on the floor, dodging falling rocks as if it were a game. "Heehee!"
As Gianna failed to find a proper ledge to push herself back up to the entrance, she waved out her hand to Rumia. "Rumia! Rumia, can you help carry me up? I know you can fly!"
"Eh?" Rumia cocked her head at Gianna before leaping up towards the entrance.
"Fly! Fly! With me!" Gianna flapped her arms like a desperate bird.
Thinking this was a game, Rumia giggled and mirrored Gianna's movements. "Haha, Mystia no you ni!"
Knowing how Rumia was, Gianna played along. She jumped up and down. "C'mon, jump!"
"Janpu, janpu!" Rumia jumped up, floating weightlessly up to the top of the cavern. Before she could get out of reach, however, Gianna grabbed onto Rumia's legs and held on for dear life.
Yes! Somehow, despite all logical thought of a small child's weight being able to support an adult woman, PLUS the inconsistencies of said child floating with no apparent weight to her rise, Rumia was able to lift Gianna out of the cavern. "Alright! Arigatou, Rumia!"
"Yay, hahaha!"
While looking up towards the light from outside, Gianna remembered Spider Girl down below. She was standing up and shook off her scratches, only to have a small stalactite bonk the back of her head. "Itai!"
Gianna frowned. "Uh, gomen!" She called out to Spider Girl, watching her string a web and swing back into the depths of wherever the cave led into.
That was the last Gianna saw of Spider Girl before Rumia zoomed out of the cave and into the sun. Just as they passed the cave's mouth, the inside collapsed onto itself with dust exploding out the mouth.
Rumia winced at the sudden brightness and skidded onto the ground. "Waaahh, hare sugi . . ." She whined.
Gianna let go of Rumia and shakily pushed herself off the ground, taking in the sights of the trees and sky. Her mind was somewhat shaken, and she needed a few moments to recollect the past 10 minutes of mayhem. All the other girls stood still as well, looking back at the wreck they made in the cave.
"Demo," Cirno chuckled awkwardly, "Owari yokereba subete yoshi!"
After taking a moment to breathe, Gianna thought back to Spider Girl in the cave. She thought back to whatever else might've been waiting in the depths, and back to the mental crisis she had before all of this. She could've died in that cave, either by Spidey, the collapse, or literally anything else that's happened today.
A chill ran down her spine. This land is more dangerous than she had first thought. With a sigh, only one thing came out of her mouth. It was only one way to verbalize the icy, heavy realization that all the shit that happened today was real:
"I need a beer."
OMPH!
Gianna felt a weak clamp on her arm. Glancing down, she saw Rumia nibbling her arm lightly with a hunger in her eyes. ". . . Suimpa . . ."
Gianna just stared, and gave a tired smile. That's right; I have these guys as guardian angels. So far, they've helped me get out of trouble; I just have to trust them.
She patted Rumia's head with a free hand. "Yeah, I'm feelin' it, too." She started to amble on towards Cirno, lightly tugging her other arm away from Rumia. "Cirno!"
Cirno turned to Gianna. "Un?"
Gianna rubbed her belly in a circle, pointing forward. "Do you know- uh," How should I phrase this to be as easily understandable as possible? "Where is the food? To eat, yeah."
"Where food?" Cirno repeated, just as a grumble ripped from Gianna's belly. "Ohh! Shoku, shoku! Oh, anta ni hitokoto!" She pointed at Gianna's book. "'Where,'" She repeated in slow Italian, "'Where' wa 'doko!' You ni, doko? Doko wa?" She put her hand flat over her eyes and pretended to look around. "Sono you ni!"
"Oh! Okay, okay," Gianna nodded her head. "Uhh, doko? Doko wa restaurant nearby?"
Cirno turned back to Mystia. "Chikaku ni nani ga aru?"
"Geidontei, da to omoimasu." Mystia answered.
Cirno nodded. "Jaa ne, Geidontei ni ikou!"
And so, for the third time that day, the group would begin their walk to somewhere far and winding. At least this time, Gianna thought, it would be somewhere with food. And a beer. And actual seats.
"Kuso, kuso, chikushou!!" Some frustrated growling came from Wriggle as Mystia attempted to get the webbings off of the poor girl's wings. "Tsubasa ni yasashiku- kuso!"
She seemed to repeat that word often, Gianna noticed. And with that tone of voice, she got the feeling it wasn't something nice . . .
To relieve the stress of today, she thought of something funny.
"Wriggle, urusai!" Mystia chided in a warbly way, "Anta wa jibun jishin ni kore o shimashita, ne."
"Hmmph."
"Hey, Wriggle." Gianna said with amusement lined in her voice.
"Nandayo?" Wriggle grumbled.
Gianna couldn't help the chuckle that escaped. "Kuso bug." Before Wriggle could react, Gianna spedran to the front with Cirno with a cheeky smile. Consider that a taste of your own medicine, kid. Yes, it was absolutely petty, but it felt nice to finally be in control of something today, even if it was something as small as a long-awaited comeback.
"Cirno, daijoubu desuka?" Gianna asked, a worried stare at the little ice fairy's wings. Now out of the steaming heat of the sauna and cavern, the ice wings appeared to be rebuilding themselves with a frosty air surrounding them.
"Ah? Mmhmm, genki desu." Cirno nodded and gave a thumbs up with a bright smile.
Gianna nodded back. "Cool." ' Genki' means the same as 'daijoubu' I guess, she thought, opening her book to write that down. Now that I think about it, there's a lot of things I need to put down. And so, she started scribbling away.
Where = ど(do) こ(ko)
Feels good = き(ki) mo(も) chi(ち) i(い)
Sorry = ご(go) め(me) ん(n)
What = な(na) に(ni) /な(na) ん(n) だ(da)/な(na) ん(n) だ(da) よ(yo)? Anything with "nan"
Fuck = く(ku) そ(so)
She had a chuckle at that one, though she didn't dare to look back at Wriggle. Silly kid.
Fisherman = りょ(ryo) う(u) し(shi)
Fish = さ(sa) か(ka) な(na)
How = ど(do) う(u) や( ya) て(tta)
This should be good for now, Gianna thought with satisfaction, bookmarking her spot with her pencil. As she walked alongside Cirno's happy babblings, she looked up to the sky. That plea I made back in the cave . . . was that you, Lady in the Sky?
Whatever force brought her here has grown silent, but Gianna had a feeling this wasn't just a one time thing that she hallucinated.
"You still got my faith, Lady," She murmured under her breath. With that, she continued to walk with a goal on her mind, nothing in her stomach, and friends by her side.
- - -
Gonna take a break so I can focus on midterm season at school rn. Translator's copy will come in tomorrow.
Stay cool, amigos!