Akira and Ai stared, in disbelief, at this squirrel they'd found wearing Vash's neck tie.
"It...HAS to be Vash!" Akira exclaimed. "A memento can't be traded off a living player, or equipped by anyone else!"
Vash squeaked in annoyance—thinking, 'Wow! Took you guys long enough...'
The transformation had occurred just after he sent all those squirrels to their early graves—an agonizing, drawn-out process of skin and bone compressing, and folding, to render him into the shape he had currently found himself in, stripped of both his ability to speak and his magic.
"Sorry, but we'll have to figure this out later." Akira said hurriedly. "Kanna's gone missing!"
'Missing!' Vash's ears perked. At the same time, he caught a whiff of a familiar aroma on the air.
It was a distinct scent of rose petals—only, it struck him as being of a far greater intensity than what he was accustomed to.
'It's...Kanna's scent!' He thought, as he barreled off along its trail. 'My squirrel nose is picking it up!'
After briefly exchanging glances, Akira and Ai followed, until he lead them to the exact partition in the wall that Kanna had fallen through.
"GOOD pervy squirrely." Ai cooed, as she stooped to reward him with a head scratch.
However, Vash wasn't interested. He whipped her hand away with his tail, and avoided her reach.
'Forget about me, you vapid little whore!' He raged internally. 'Go rescue Kanna!'
Akira, Vash-squirrel and Ai's ears all twitched at the noises of Kanna fighting, so they didn't dally.
Once taking a tumble through the wall, it was clear that her skeletal adversaries had given her a rough time, but the tough girl was nonetheless still standing.
The [Level 10] [Kankala] back away as Akira and Ai enter into the crawlspace.
Akira's [Leg Sweep] was handy, for its ability to stun multiple foes, in tandem with Kanna's hammer tornadoes.
Ai attacked from stealth, with a focus on guarding the backs of the other two.
As the fighting droned on, however, the cramped side-chamber quickly became overrun with more and more of the Kankala spawning out of the floor—cracking through the tiles like it were eggshell.
"There's too many!" Kanna cried out. "There's a tunnel ahead—let's run for it!"
Akira and company were chased out of the chamber down a tunnel with a dim circle of light at the end. As they were running, Kanna first noticed the Vash-squirrel that had, at some point, alighted upon her shoulder.
"What the Hell?" She said, and was about to brush it off when Akira interrupted her with a laugh.
"I know it sounds crazy, but Ai and I both think that squirrel might actually be Vash!"
Kanna looked to the Vash-squirrel again, with perplexity—being met with a tiny squeak.
That's when she recognized the tie drooping off its neck, and gasped.
Akira explained, "After we lost you, Ai and I went back to search, and found all his stuff lying in a pile of squirrels he roasted."
Kanna seemed to become lost in thought upon hearing these words, as she looked away.
"Squirrels...he...roasted..." She mused—the gears in her head already turning.
It wasn't long before the tunnel culminated in a large dome-roofed space—containing an entire parcel of forest, replete with nut-bearing trees and berry bushes. It was here, with plenty of room and nowhere else to run, that Akira and company turned against the pursuing onslaught of Kankala in a last stand.
Just as they were bracing themselves, however, the hitherto concealed denizens of this peculiar woodland made their presence known...
A swarm of squirrels cascaded from the treetops—bombing down on the three from all directions.
Akira and Ai were about to employ their weapons in their efforts to rid themselves of the furry menace, but Kanna held up a hand to halt them.
"Wait...don't hurt them!" She said. "I think I know how Vash was transformed!"
"Squirrels are considered as sacred beasts in the scriptures, never to be harmed by people..."
"I think by killing the squirrels in this temple, a curse will be placed upon you!"
With this hindrance in mind, the situation looked dire. It meant Kanna had to continue the fight in a weakened state, on top of not being able to wield her hammer to create whirlwinds properly—what with a whole heap of diplomatically immune squirrels crawling all over her.
Still, the Kankala were closing in, so Akira had to think fast.
Desperate, she retrieved the golden bow she'd acquired earlier and checked over its description.
[Gandiva]: [Legendary bow-type weapon. Drains user's HP to fire projectiles.]
"I may have gotten us all killed, just to get my hands on this thing."
She gulped, as she slowly raised the bow to line up with her sights—aiming it at the fast-approaching throngs of Kankala.
"I hope it was worth it!" She said, as the bowstring became dyed a deep red from her touch.
Akira was not prepared for what happened next.
In rapid-fire succession, she mowed down wave after wave of the skelly dudes with great beams of red and golden light, rather than arrows, shot forth from the "Legendary" bow. Yet, with each pull of the string, Akira was keenly aware of the growing strain it was inflicting unto her body.
Sensing her pain, Ai rushed to her side wanting to take over, but Akira declined.
"I brought us...into danger..." She gasped between her breaths. "So it's...my job...to get us out!"
To make matters worse, a [Level 15] [Giant Kankala] leaps out of a nearby grove of trees!
It swung its big bone arm to knock down some trees, creating a wide fissure through the earth.
Akira pulled back on the Danut, as hard as she could, and fired an immense final blast of light that enveloped the entire forest.
In the aftermath, it was seen that the boss and all remaining Kankala were destroyed by the attack.
The native squirrels, as if simply content with peace having been restored to their home, promptly retreated to the trees and shrubs of the forest, without any further fuss.
Exhausted, Akira fell to her knees, listening to the fanfare of her progression to [Level 8].
'Hah...I leveled up? That's cool, I guess.' She pondered dizzily.
Ai and Kanna quickly came to her aid as all were silent for a moment, staring in awe at the golden bow in her grasp—still pulsating red, as with blood in a vein.
"That was...amazing!" Kanna exclaimed. "I've never seen such a powerful skill before!"
Ai's lip was trembling, with a distressful look. "B-b-baka!" She spat at Akira furiously. "You almost could've DIED, by using that bow!"
It was true: Akira's HP bar was left dangerously low—flashing an urgent red.
Nonetheless, she possessed the strength still to pull her girls in closer, with a cracked smile.
"It's fine, Ai-chan...so long as you two are alright."
In the middle of the embrace, however, Ai turned away. In truth, something had been weighing on her mind for quite some time.
'I don't deserve someone as kind and forgiving as you, Akira-sama.'
Meanwhile, the Vash-squirrel sunk into a depressed pile—feeling that all too familiar urge to expel the contents of his guts, rising up within him.
'As if things couldn't have gotten any worse for me...now THIS had to go and happen!'
Vash could sense there was still to be a long...long...LONG journey ahead.