Does a Doll Deserve to Live a Happy Life? (Patreon)

Chapter 29: Beyond Heroic Reach

“Surrender, villains!” the teen shouted, striking a heroic pose. “This place is completely surrounded. You have nowhere to run!”

“Tsk, more pests keep appearing,” the monster, what Chisaki had become, said, irritated.

'The heroes are here,' I thought, but I didn’t dwell on it. I kept my focus on Chisaki and took a step forward.

“Stay out of the way, kid.” That was all I said to the teenaged hero before disappearing from view, leaving a crater where I had been, and immediately reappearing beside Chisaki. My blade came down, severing the left side of his body.

“GRAAAH!!” Chisaki screamed, leaping back and using his remaining hand to disassemble himself. He reassembled moments later, fully healed.

“I see. I was right, you need at least one hand to heal yourself.” I watched his quirk, keeping my distance and analyzing.

“What happens if I take both your arms, though?” I asked darkly. I was about to test that theory when the teen hero attacked out of nowhere, his kick forcing me to step back and dodge.

“Tsk. Why did you attack me?” I scowled, though I already suspected the answer.

“As long as I’m here, I will not allow you to kill each other.” The kid declared, throwing a punch I easily evaded. “I will take both of you down and turn you in to the authorities. I also want to know what happened to Eri-chan.”

At the mention of Eri, anger surged through me and I glared. “It’s none of your business where Eri is. It’s because you heroes failed that Eri was in that horrible situation.” My voice was flat, but the accusation landed.

The teen flinched, guilt crossing his face for a heartbeat before hardening again. “I won’t fail her a second time!”

“Both of you—die!”

Chisaki’s shout cut us off. The room reshaped itself again; spiky pillars shot up from the ground, forcing all of us to leap for cover.

I noticed, as I jumped away, that the teen was able to phase through most of the pillars as if he were a ghost, a clue to what his quirk might be.

He also phased into the room when he appeared. He either has an intangibility quirk or something that lets his body transform into a ghost. ‘It must have a limit, though,’ I thought, watching as he landed safely again.

‘Let's test it.’ Determined, I launched myself at the teen, and a quick look at my Bounty Tracker told me his name: Mirio Togata with Lemillion being his hero name. Besides, I had a feeling I'd need to incapacitate him before dealing with Chisaki.

In moments I was in front of him, taking him by surprise with my speed, and swung my sword with the flat side. I watched carefully as my attack phased through his body.

“Sorry,” Mirio said with a grin. “But that doesn’t work on me!” he shouted, then phased down into the ground and disappeared from view before reappearing at my back almost immediately with a punch aimed at my solar plexus, intending to knock me out.

“POWER!!”

I used Reinforcement on my body, let the punch hit, and heard something crack as his blow suddenly stopped on my stomach. Credit to the teen though since he didn’t even flinch at breaking a finger or two.

“And you’re too weak to do any real damage,” I said in return with a blank tone.

We were forced to separate again as Chisaki launched another attack.

“I should hurry up before more heroes show up,” I muttered, frowning.

We went at it for a few minutes, unfortunately not making any progress, I’d always get interrupted by the other person I wasn’t focusing on, forcing me to start over.

Mid-battle I suddenly heard Tamamo call through our Master–Servant bond and knew I had to finish things on my end.

“Sieg-kun, there are pesky heroes all over the building. Should I get rid of them?” Tamamo asked in a careless tone; she didn’t care much for heroes.

Artoria jumped into the conversation as if on cue. “Caster! These are heroes you’re talking about! They’ve done nothing nefarious for us to treat them like the fiends we came to defeat.”

“Don’t worry, Artoria. I have no plans to antagonize the heroes of this world if I can help it. That would be counterproductive,” I said, evading attacks from both Chisaki and Mirio without too much effort.

“Boo, that’s no fun~” Tamamo teased.

“Caster!” Artoria exclaimed in indignation.

“I got it, I got it. I was just trying to tease you, jeez. As if I would ever go against something my Sieg-kun said,” Tamamo replied with a pout.

“For now, try to avoid them if you can, and if you can’t, just knock them unconscious if they don’t want to leave you alone,” I instructed, launching an attack at Mirio that phased through him but forced him to retreat.

“Very well, I will do as you say,” Artoria said, sounding pleased.

“Okay~ But if some dumb human doesn’t take no for an answer, I will get a little rough,” Tamamo warned with a smile.

“That’s fine.” I sighed inwardly, knowing it was the best commitment I was going to get from her. “I’ll finish things here as soon as possible and reunite with you two later.”

Cutting the connection, I focused on the fight again and stopped holding back. I released all the magic I’d been keeping in, creating a wide crater around me that surprised both opponents.

“It seems I can no longer afford to hold back,” I muttered, stepping out of the crater. Chisaki and Mirio watched me closely, nervous sweat beading on their faces. “I will finish this quickly.”

The ground beneath my feet cracked with every step, the sheer weight of my magic pressing against the walls like a storm trying to break free.

Mirio hesitated for the first time, his stance wavered, his heroic grin faltering. I couldn’t blame him. Dragons and Demigods weren’t meant to fight men.

He vanished into the floor, phasing through like a shadow. I closed my eyes, letting instinct guide me instead of sight. I could feel the vibration in the air, the moment his body started to solidify behind me.

“Too predictable,” I whispered.

I spun, catching his fist mid-swing and using his own momentum to send him crashing into the wall with a thunderous impact. He phased again, escaping the follow-up, but this time, he was slower. The magic leaking from me distorted the air around us, forcing his body to flicker like static whenever he tried to vanish.

There was a reason Campione and Dragons were said to be monsters when it came to warping the world around them to their whim. And I was still growing, who knows what I would be capable of in the future.

“Sorry, kid,” I said quietly as I stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder just as he reappeared. “But this isn’t your fight.”

A flash of blue light burst from my palm, a condensed shockwave of mana, and Mirio’s body went limp, collapsing gently to the floor. He had just lost consciousness from his body being invaded by my foreign magic. I had made sure to use just enough mana to not hurt him too much as too much and his body would have been torn to shreds.

That left one.

Chisaki’s breathing was ragged, but his eyes still burned with madness. “You think you’re some kind of hero!? I’ll rebuild everything you destroy after I kill you and get back Eri!”

His hands slammed into the floor again, sending stone spikes and writhing tendrils shooting up from every angle. I moved faster than his eyes could track, a blur of blue and white light. The first swing took his left arm at the elbow. He screamed, falling to one knee, but before he could touch the ground again with his remaining hand—

“Don’t even think about it.”

The second strike came like lightning, clean and merciless. His right arm hit the ground with a dull thud. The entire room fell silent except for his ragged gasps.

I stepped closer, my sword resting on my shoulder, and looked down at him with contempt. “Now you can’t hurt anyone ever again. Not Eri. Not anyone.”

He glared up at me, sweat and blood mixing on his face even as a look of despair slowly took over his features. “You monster…”

“Yes,” I said simply, and turned away. “And you managed to piss off this monster.”

With nothing left to say, I stamped him, before knocking him unconscious with the flat of my sword.

And just like that, it was done.

Or at least, it should have been.

Because the next instant, the wall to the room we were fighting in exploded, and another kid dressed in green came flying through with a middle-aged man in a suit and glasses right behind him.

The green-haired hero, because really, who else would dress in that ridiculous outfit, quickly took stock of the battlefield. His eyes widened as he spotted the downed forms of Mirio and Chisaki, with the latter slowly bleeding out across the floor.

“Mirio!!” he shouted, sparks of green lightning flaring from his body as he dashed to his friend’s side.

“He’s fine,” I answered before he could even ask, not bothering to look his way as I restrained my magic and started walking toward the exit. “Just unconscious.”

The teen didn’t get a chance to respond. The man in glasses moved first, stepping into my path and pulling out what looked suspiciously like chess pieces, holding them like they were weapons.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow you to leave,” he said with sharp, professional calm. “You’re coming with us. There are many questions we’d like answered.”

“…Haah, you heroes just don’t learn, do you?” I sighed, raising my sword slightly as I prepared for the next confrontation.

‘I wonder if Tamamo and Artoria are having as much trouble as me…’

=====

With Tamamo

“I really hate pushy men, you know~?” Tamamo asked sweetly, too sweetly, her smile a little too wide, her eyebrow twitching dangerously.

In front of her stood several heroes, the most recognizable being a middle-aged man dressed in black with a yellow visor covering his eyes, and a blue-haired teen with animal-like limbs bristling in tension.

“So, I’ll only warn you once,” she said cheerfully, though her mana was already leaking into the air like a storm waiting to strike. “Since I don’t want my beloved to think I’m one of those crazy women who resort to violence at the slightest opportunity~”

Her tails swished lazily behind her, the kind of lazy that made predators nervous.

“With that being said, please kindly step aside and don’t follow me.”

“M-Maybe we should l-listen to her,” the blue-haired teen stammered, sweating bullets.

“…Tsk. Seems she’s a Mutant-Type,” the man with the visor muttered, sizing her up.

It was the wrong thing to say.

Tamamo’s aura spiked in an instant, her twitching smile freezing into a sharp grin.

“M-Mutant?” she repeated softly, her golden eyes flashing dangerously. “Did you just call me ugly!?”

“I-I really think we should leave her be,” the blue-haired teen whimpered, now trembling in place.

He wasn’t the only one, the heroes behind him were equally pale.

“Okay,” Tamamo said brightly, folding her fan with a snap. “I asked nicely. So my darling can’t say I didn’t try.”

Her four tails fanned out, glowing faintly as her aura surged like a tidal wave.

“I want to go home…” the blue-haired teen whimpered.

=====

With Artoria

“I apologize, but I cannot allow you to detain me here. Though I respect your professions, there are things that can only be completed when one is not tied to a system, especially a system made by humans who are easily corrupted.” Artoria declared solemnly as she stood before a small group of heroes.

Four of them stood out. A blonde woman who could take the form of a dragon; a blue-haired girl hovering in the air, emitting yellow shockwaves from her feet to keep herself afloat; a girl in a green spandex outfit with green hair and a faintly frog-like appearance; and a brown-haired girl in a blue-and-pink costume wearing a pink helmet.

“I would kindly ask you to step aside and let me leave. Do so and I promise we can put this day behind us,” Artoria requested sincerely.

“I’m sorry, but as heroes we can’t do that,” the blonde, now in dragon form, replied, shaking her head.

“That’s right~” the blue-haired girl chimed in, upbeat. “We don’t know your intentions, but if you haven’t done anything wrong you have nothing to fear. We just want to ask a few questions, then you’re free to go~”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Artoria shook her head, already expecting this wouldn’t end peacefully. “I promised my companions to meet them soon, and I will not break that promise.”

“You don’t seem like a villain. You can still surrender and this can end peacefully,” the dragon-shaped woman tried to persuade her.

“My apologies, but my mind is made up. There is nothing you can say that will change it. The least I can do is promise I will be gentle when I knock you unconscious.” Artoria declared, calling forth her sword, Excalibur, still cloaked by magic, and gripping it tightly.

“You don’t really think you can take on all of us, do you?” the frog-like girl asked, tilting her head in a cute, challenging way.

“I have not lost a battle yet, and I don’t see myself losing to a bunch of kids and a dragon. Prepare yourselves!” Artoria said confidently, settling into a fighting stance.

=====

Back With Sieg

Letting the middle-aged man with glasses drop gently to the floor after knocking him unconscious, I raised my hand to block a punch coming from my left without even looking. The impact released a gust of wind that shook the nearby debris.

Turning toward the green-haired teen—Izuku Midoriya, or Deku, as I recalled—I regarded him impassively as he strained against my palm, doing his utmost to move me even an inch. He failed. Spectacularly.

“Like I already told you, kid,” I said flatly, “your current strength isn’t enough for me to take you seriously.”

Using his own momentum, I pivoted and tossed him across the room as easily as one might shoo away a persistent fly.

Izuku flipped midair and managed to land in a crouch, his face twisting in frustration. “Where is Eri-chan!?” he demanded again, voice sharp with anger and worry.

With a sigh, I gave him the same answer I’d given his blond friend. “Like I said before, I have no reason to answer that. The only thing you need to know is that Eri’s fine.”

“Full Cowl—twenty percent!” Izuku shouted, green lightning crackling over his body as he shot forward like a cannonball. “St. Louis Smash!”

I caught his kick one-handed. The shockwave shattered the tiles beneath us, but I didn’t so much as flinch.

“…I’ve had enough.” My voice came out colder this time. I shifted my stance, raised my arm, and in one swift motion delivered a lariat that sent the boy crashing into the floor. The impact rattled the entire room and left him unconscious, a small crater forming where he landed.

“I’ve wasted enough time here,” I muttered, brushing off my sleeve as I turned away. “We still need to go shopping.”

Without another glance back, I walked out, leaving the young hero sprawled motionless amid the dust and rubble.