Their Journey So Far

In the lull between battles, now that things had finally settled down, I decided to ask Haru and Setsuna about the road they'd walked until now.

"U-um… it was nine months ago that Setsuna-chan and I came over to this side."

"I see. Looks like the transfers have been spaced out at three-month intervals."

"Now that you mention it… I think Nezu-kun said he came a year ago."

… You've already run into Nezu?

That part bothered me too, but they were about to explain everything from there, so there was no need to rush.

"So it goes something like this."

That was how I summed it up. Not that there was much I could take away from it.

There might still be Reido Academy students who hadn't transferred yet, and they could be coming over any time now. That was about the level of takeaway.

"… What we were really lucky about was that the first person to find us while we were panicking wasn't another Master, but an NPC named Yuria, a magic-user who'd come out to gather ingredients for medicine."

"Right. So our meeting was pure coincidence. Which means I've been with them in this world from the very start."

That was how Yuria put it.

When she whispered something sweet right next to my ear, it kind of put me in the mood.

In any case, between his hair color changing and meeting pink-haired Yuria, he must have realized he'd been transported to another world.

"… Wait, but at first you were a normal Master, right, Haru-kun? What was your hair color back then?"

"At first it was still black. It only became this color after I drank the Yin-Yang Divine Elixir and turned into a Garumon…"

I see. So the element thing didn't apply to Masters. My hair hadn't turned red or anything either.

"Yuria was a magic-user attached to this town of Seeds, and she took us in and taught us all sorts of things about this world."

And then Haru-kun started to tell the story.

Setsuna chimed in to help explain alongside him.

"Yuria was the one who told Haru-kun he should kiss me and form a slave contract… Of course, at first I resisted. I mean, kissing is something you do with someone you really love. And I have someone else I love…"

Setsuna said that, then looked over at me. Well, Setsuna had always been a brocon…

"But Yuria threatened us."

Whether it was because Setsuna was such a good storyteller or just sibling sympathy, I could practically picture the scene in my head.

…

…

"Setsuna. If you don't enter a contract with a specific Master, a Free Garumon is fair game for anyone. Once you become a slave, you have to absolutely obey that Master's commands. You'll never be able to defy them. If a normal man took a cute girl like you as his slave… can you even imagine the kinds of orders he'd give you? All a Free Garumon can do is search for a Master she can at least somewhat trust."

"That's…!"

"Same goes for you, Haru. A Master who can't form a Garumon contract is one step away from hell. Unless you're bound by the chain of contract, there's no way for a Master to capture a Garumon, who has vastly superior physical ability and can even use magic. You won't be protected by the Garumon Battle system either. The only future I can see for you is being captured by another Master, sold off, and worked to the bone as a male prostitute. Selling your body to homo Masters while spinning a gacha that only spits out trash Garumon, day in, day out."

"U-uuh…"

Threatened like that, the two of them were left completely terrified.

But then…

"I-I won't let that happen! … Haru-kun is Onii-chan's best friend, so I'll protect him!"

Setsuna had stepped in front of Haru-kun as if to shield him.

"Setsuna-chan…"

"Haru-kun… Onii-chan isn't beside us right now either. We're all alone in this world… so we have to help each other… If you don't hate the idea, let's form a contract."

"H-hate? Of course not! I-I'll… do my best too. I'm weak and pathetic, but I'll do my best to protect you, Setsuna-chan…!"

And so the two of them kissed.

Just a light, simple peck, lips touching together. That was enough.

That was how the two of them formed a Master-Garumon slave contract.

…

…

"… Onii-chan, what do… you think? About me forming a contract with Haru-kun… and becoming a slave… do you hate it?"

Setsuna asked me, sounding anxious.

"S-sorry, Naoto-kun. I ended up laying hands on Setsuna-chan, your precious little sister…"

Haru-kun apologized alongside her.

Hmm, looked like even after coming to this world, those two hadn't changed at all on the inside.

"I don't think there was any other choice. No other path would have kept the two of you safe… And besides, if Setsuna had to be entrusted to someone, I'm really glad it was you, Haru-kun. That's how I feel. Thank you, Haru-kun. For protecting my precious Setsuna all this time."

I answered them from the bottom of my heart.

"Naoto-kun…"

"Onii-chan…"

The two of them looked relieved to hear my answer.

"I want to hear what's been going on with you too, Onii-chan."

With Setsuna asking as well, I started telling my own story.

"All right, then I'll talk about how I formed a contract with Kanan next. Kanan and I transferred about three months ago, and through a coincidence… or rather, my misunderstanding…"

Ahaha… laughter spread through the room.

"You actually went through with the contract ritual because of a coincidence like that? Naoto-kun, you're amazing… I just knew you had talent as a Master."

"That's not…"

I was happy that Haru-kun praised me like that without making a big deal of it.

… On the other hand, had I ever praised Haru-kun that way?

… I didn't think I had, much. I'd told him he was earnest, or that he was kind, sure, but…

I mean, telling a guy he's cute or pretty wasn't really the kind of thing you'd usually say to another man, so I'd held back…

But now…

"But Haru-kun, you were already extremely cute, like a peerless beautiful girl… and now you really are exactly that, a peerless beautiful girl. Could you tell me how you came to have such a wonderful body?"

"… N-Naoto-kun… that's, that's embarrassing… but, thank you."

Haru-kun blushed but seemed genuinely happy… C-cute…

"Um, but…"

"Right. We aren't supposed to disclose a customer's information without permission, so we'll keep things about the S-Class Master a secret. And no prying either. You're free to guess 'maybe it was that person,' but I won't tell you the answer."

Yuria added that.

Even hearing it, I didn't know the face or name of a single S-Class Master, so there was no way for me to even guess.

I supposed I wasn't all that interested in the world's top players. Well, I was busy enough just trying to live day by day, so it couldn't be helped.

"Okay then, I'll explain… After forming a contract with Setsuna-chan and becoming a Master, Yuria-san recommended I enter Garumon Battles as a Master. I don't really play games at all, so I had no idea what I was doing, but Yuria-san gave me advice, and more than anything, Setsuna-chan was such a strong Garumon that we kept winning. So in about three months, we steadily climbed all the way up to D-Class."

"You didn't take any other Garumon besides Setsuna into your party?"

"Mm… I know it's the standard, but I didn't want to take Garumon that other people cherish away from them…"

Haru-kun was even kinder than I was.

"And Yuria-san said she didn't want me to take in any Garumon other than ones beautiful enough to match Setsuna-chan."

"I see. I get that completely. You don't want to bring anything unnecessary into this beautiful space. I feel exactly the same way."

"Oh, you get it too? Right? Haru and Setsuna together… they make such a picture!"

Yuria agreed with me and grabbed my hand.

This girl really liked physical contact… You'll make a guy fall for you.

"But once we got to D-Class, even Setsuna-chan started to struggle on her own. It was right around then. That S-Class Master… well, he was an A-Class Master back then… he came…"

"It'll be easier if I explain. They'd been looking into the existence of the Yin-Yang Divine Elixir, and they'd also done their research on me being one of the world's leading Potion Creators. The materials for the Yin-Yang Divine Elixir all have to be gathered from the deepest parts of monster territory, so they're hard to collect, but they pulled it off magnificently… They even gathered enough for three doses. They were debating whether to use just one or two of the elixirs, but after a lot of discussion they decided to use only one, so the materials for two more ended up as surplus. As a result of our negotiations, I got the leftover elixirs… That's when I recommended Haru drink one. I think I explained that part before."

"In the middle of those tough D-Class battles, a Garumon as strong as Setsuna, just as cute, who understands Setsuna perfectly and has flawless coordination with her. I told him there was a way to get a Garumon like that right now. Just like that. I mean, since he was already as cute as a girl from the start, drinking this elixir was guaranteed to make him even cuter."

Hmm, hadn't she initially made it sound more like she'd forced him to drink it as some kind of human experiment? Ah well.

"Y-yeah… the D-Class battles were tough, and at the rate things were going Setsuna-chan was going to start losing because of me… so I drank the elixir right away. After I drank it, um… a lot of really intense things happened, but Yuria-san and Setsuna-chan took care of me… And several days later, I'd ended up with this hermaphrodite body, both man and woman…"

"What do you mean, intense things?"

"… That, w-well, I got really aroused, and until my body completely finished changing, I had to ejaculate again and again…"

"A Master's semen has the effect of boosting a Garumon's abilities, you know. So during the bodily transformation, drinking semen is actually beneficial. Setsuna-chan and I took turns giving Haru fellatio and paizuri, and when he came, we'd transfer it mouth-to-mouth so he could swallow it. We kept up that nursing care for several days."

"…"

I would have really, really liked to see that…

"… Fufufu, you're thinking you would've liked to see that, aren't you? Well, here's an item I just so happen to have."

Yuria showed me a single beautiful little stone. About the size of my thumb, transparent, and emitting light from within.

This was…

"It's an item called a magic stone. Have you heard of them?"

"Ah, the items that seal a Garumon's fire or lightning techniques inside so they can be used as tools, right?"

"Fufufu… that's right. But the most popular kind among them is the magic stone that seals magic for recording the surrounding sights and sounds. The official name is 'image-and-sound magic stone,' but they're so popular that 'magic stone' alone usually refers to these specifically."

"… Ohhh."

"Sooo… here's a digest of Haru's growth, as a special presentation!"

"Yuria, t-this is embarrassing…"

And then the magic stone began to play.

"Oooh…"

A 3D holographic image!

It floated in a space about two meters in diameter above the stone. Basically life-size.

It was faintly translucent, but the picture quality was extremely high and crisp.

This was incredible. Better than current Earth tech.

… But never mind the picture quality, let's focus on what's being projected.

"Nn, nnn, ah, hot, it's so hot…"

The Haru-kun moaning sweetly like that still had black hair and no swell to his chest yet. His was a slim, slender boy's body.

"Setsuna, we're going to take care of him together. Once he drinks this elixir he has to drink lots of semen, so we have to work hard to make him ejaculate."

"Y-yeah…"

To his left and right were Yuria and Setsuna. The two of them were completely naked… I ended up focusing on Yuria's groin, but yes, back then she'd had no penis, just a pure girl's body.

This was precious footage.

The audio quality was good too, like all three of them were actually talking right in front of me.

"It's about time. I'll go first."

With that, Yuria swallowed Haru's penis.

"Nn, nnn…"

Whether the footage had been edited or it really was that fast, Haru-kun ejaculated in an instant.

Yuria held it in her mouth without swallowing, brought her lips to Haru's, and…

Toro, toro toro…

She fed Haru the white fluid.

The moment she did, Haru-kun's chest swelled, just the tiniest bit. From a boy's chest to a girl's chest… it had clearly begun to change.

"Haru-kun… I-I'll help out too!"

Next, Setsuna swallowed Haru's penis.

And from there the two of them took turns making him ejaculate and feeding him the semen.

Each time, Haru-kun's breasts grew a little bigger. Little by little, little by little, developing from a girl's chest into a young woman's chest.

A small slit was born between his legs, and bit by bit it grew deeper.

His body shape, too, transformed from boyish to girlish. Not just the breasts, but his whole body filled out with fat, gaining curves.

It was so gradual I hadn't noticed, but his hair color was apparently changing little by little too. Before I knew it, it had turned green.

The thing that had kept growing right to the very end was the breasts. They filled out fully… grew big enough to easily be called large breasts… and still kept getting bigger. Until they reached a magnificent size better described as "bomb-sized" breasts.

It seemed to be a digest sped up from several days of footage. In about thirty minutes, he had become exactly the Haru-kun in front of me now, a beautiful futanari girl.

"Oh… wonderful."

It was erotic, fascinating, and above all erotic, a wonderful piece of footage.

"I-it's so embarrassing…"

The leading lady, Haru-kun, was deeply embarrassed.

"… Still, an elixir that can change a human's sex is incredible, huh?"

I guessed it was thanks to magic existing. In areas like this, this place was ahead of Earth.

"Divine Elixir is the highest title given to medicines. The ranks go: Lesser Tonic, Tonic, Greater Tonic, Secret Elixir, Spirit Elixir, Divine Elixir. Divine Elixirs are powerful enough to actually intervene in the system."

Lyuka added that note for me.

"… Yeah, thanks to Yuria, I was able to fight as a Garumon too. Between the two of us, we managed to fight stably even in D-Class."

Haru-kun pulled himself together and continued the explanation.

So from that point on, Haru and Setsuna had been fighting as a pair. Adding a Defender brought a huge boost in stability.

Just like how Kanan and Adelia alone had been able to fight, getting through D-Class was probably possible.

But…

"At this point Haru-kun was the Master. How come Yuria's the Master now?"

I'd assumed Haru-kun, like me, hated being Kanan's slave. That was why we'd commiserated and become friends.

"That's because, in order to obtain Haru, I set a wicked trap that…"

"No, you can drop the villain act now."

I could tell there must have been some kind of circumstances behind it, not just selfish desires.

"… Yuria, I really don't think we can explain this without telling him about that…"

"Uggh… I was going to keep that quiet until the very end of the explanation."

The two of them conferred about something.

"… But I don't want to keep any more secrets from Naoto-kun…"

"… All right, can't be helped…"

It seemed they'd decided to talk.

"Hm, you know, if it's hard to talk about, you don't have to."

I said that, but it looked like they intended to explain anyway.

"Y-yeah… actually, the D-Class battles themselves were going well. We could see ourselves making it to C-Class. But there was trouble around that point… That's when we ran into Nezu-kun. Around three or four months ago."

"… Nezu, huh."

So at last, they had run into him.

"Seeds is a C-Class town, so as a D-Class Master, I had Yuria connect a gate for me to the D-Class town of Mills, and I battled there. But I was usually living with Yuria here in this town. That's where I ran into Nezu-kun, who'd become a C-Class Master."

The events that followed were explained to me by Haru-kun, in his beautiful face and adorable voice, but at that rate not even a millimeter of how unpleasant and awful Nezu was would come through, so I'd lay it out as a reenactment-style report.

When Haru and Setsuna had been walking through the town of Seeds shopping for dinner ingredients…

"You… is that you, Haru? … That is you, Haru!"

A grating, high-pitched voice suddenly called out to them.

Masayuki Nezu. He shared the kanji "正" in his name with Masaomi Noda, but where in him was anything "right"?

He was one of Kanan's fellow slaves and ranked top three on my "people I hate" list, alongside Noda and Ishiguro, an absolute scumbag.

Appearance-wise, he had a pointy mouth and buck teeth, and he was overall kind of grayish, looking remarkably like a mouse.

Looks aside, his personality was rotten, sneaky, just the worst. The moment he opened his mouth, all that came out was something to make people uncomfortable.

Compared to Noda's three-pack of flaws (oppressively dirty, snide, and violent), Nezu's single flaw of snideness alone was just as unpleasant.

You might wonder how Kanan put up with treating a guy like that as her slave, but like with Noda, he had family connections, plus he was exceptionally good at sucking up to those above him. In front of Kanan, he'd only ever sing her praises, so for Kanan, he probably wasn't all that unpleasant.

"Ah, Kanan-sama is here, how beautiful she is!"

He was the kind of guy who could come out with manga-style mob-character exposition lines like that, openly in the hallway, so in noble society where standing out was the whole point, he might actually have been useful.

"Yeah, it really is you! Haru Midoriya! Kekeke! So you ended up over here too…! What's with that body?! I always thought you looked like a girl, but you actually went and turned into one?!"

Nezu approached, contorting that face anyone would call mouse-like and not exactly handsome.

"U-um… h-hello, Nezu-kun…"

Haru-kun politely greeted him. At that moment, the two of them checked each other's status through the system.

Haru-kun's expression dimmed slightly, while Nezu grinned niii, realizing he had the advantage.

"Hah?! I thought you were a girl, but you're a Master? What's that?! Disgusting! You're the worst! Gross! Like a gore image!"

Nezu spat out the abuse.

… If I'd been there, I would have told him: "You can't appreciate Haru-kun's beauty because you're a worthless existence. You're the gore image. Get lost."

"You're still in D-Class?! Keke! Slow as ever! What're you doing in this C-Class town, Seeds?"

"Nezu-kun, you're… 28th in C-Class, huh. That's, that's amazing…"

Even with someone like Nezu, Haru-kun kept the conversation going with a polite smile.

"Keke! This world is the greatest! Every woman is my slave! It's literally the dream stage! Kekeke!"

Laughing like that…

"Come, Riko!"

He called over a girl.

Riko Harada.

I knew her face and name. She'd been the leading lady of the drama club, and there'd even been rumors she'd passed some audition or other. She was one of Reido Academy's renowned beauties.

She was part of the second tier, just below the top group of Kanan, Maika, and the rest.

The girl who'd been so articulate and lively…

"Masayuki-samaaa, fellatio? Boobs? Or is iiit… sex?"

Mumbled like that, eyes somehow vacant and tinged with madness.

Right there in the middle of the road, Nezu suddenly stripped Riko Harada completely naked, then with practiced ease whipped out his own black, mouse-tail-like genitals and unceremoniously thrust himself into Riko.

"Kekeke! I get to have sex with a great woman like this any time I want! It's the best… this world is the best!"

He shrieked and thrust his hips, while…

"U-um, Nezu-kun looks busy, so we'll just be going…"

"What is that…"

Haru-kun and Setsuna were horrified and tried to flee. But…

"Hey, hey hey hey… wait!"

Twitch, twitch. Finishing as quickly as a small animal, he called out to stop Haru-kun.

"I'm a C-Class Master, get it? If a C-Class is a god, then a D-Class is a slave. And me, a C-Class…"

Thwack!

He suddenly kicked Riko, the same girl he'd just been having sex with, the one he'd even ejaculated inside.

"Why is the woman you've got way better than the one I've got, huh?! What's with that smoking-hot babe?! Setsuna Akai?! Face! Tits! From head to toe! She's an absolutely top-shelf woman who could rival even Kanan-sama! Why are you, a trash slave on Naoto's level, the one with such a fine woman?! Huh?! That's not fair!"

He raved unreasonably.

Haru-kun was overwhelmed and stepped back.

"… Heeh… so she's Setsuna Akai-chan, huh… Kekeke… shit, she's too cute…! Heh, hngh… my dick's getting hard…"

Nezu sidled closer with his erect penis on display.

"Eek… wh-what is this…?!"

Setsuna trembled at his utter creepiness.

"S-Setsuna-chan…! L-let's get out of here!"

Haru-kun also got scared, finally realizing that getting tangled up with the guy at all was the worst thing that could happen, and tried to escape.

"You're not getting away…! Haru!"

But Nezu's confident words made him stop short again.

"This town of Seeds, see… for us C-Class Masters, it's a really nice town… In other towns, once you hit C-Class they spout some weird crap about how you have to focus on raising your Garumon from here on, and you can't take Garumon away anymore like before… That's bullshit! You snatch the woman you want, you rape her! And you toss her aside, you sell her off, and you snatch and rape and toss away another woman! That's the whole point of this world! Don't fuck with me! … But this town is great. If you've got money, even women you couldn't normally rape, you can rape to your heart's content! Which means it doesn't matter that you're D-Class! Setsuna Akaaai-chan! You're so cuuute! I'll make you my slave instead of being trash like Haru's! Be glad!"

Howling like that, Nezu manipulated the system.

"I'm sending a forced-conditional battle request! Right now… gah, two million! No way! At one month, one million… two months, 800k… three months and still 600k, not enough! Four months later… 400k. I can do that. Shit! Too long! But oh well, can't be helped! Kekeke, since such a cute girl is going to be my slave, I'll wait four months! … Don't need this one. I haven't gotten enough out of her yet, but… whatever. Compared to Setsuna-chan's tits and pussy, she's garbage. I'll sell this one too, and… yes, I've got the 400k!"

Beep! Nezu manipulated the system.

"Eh… what is this…?!"

"Kekeke! You don't know? Idiot! This is this town's unique system! As long as you pay, you can attach conditions and battle even people you normally couldn't! With this, I'll get my hands on Setsuna-chan! Kekekekeke! Thanks, Haru! Thanks for bringing me a top-tier woman! As thanks, I'll put you, you disgusting freak, to use as my toilet-cleaning slave! Clean my semen-toilets!"

Nezu shrieked and laughed maniacally.

Haru-kun and Setsuna had no choice but to flee from that crazed laughter.

…

…

This was exactly how kind people who'd listen to even the weirdos who cornered them in town ended up falling for scams…

When a weird person comes up to you, you have to ignore them and run, no chatting.

Although, given the town of Seeds' system where you could do anything as long as you had money, maybe even running wouldn't have saved them once their existence was known.

"… Which means you bumped into him by chance in town and got targeted, and you've been trying every which way to escape from Nezu, or to fight back against him?"

"That's right. After hearing the story, to set up our battle line within four months, I became their Master first. I thought if I made Haru and Setsuna my slaves, the promise Haru had made would be voided… Unfortunately, the promise carried over to me."

"Hmm, so when I made Setsuna my Garumon a moment ago…?"

"Yeah, the promise should have carried over to you, Naoto. Didn't you see the system message?"

Yuria pulled up her own system screen to show me.

"… Huh, where was this screen, exactly?"

This was bad. If I'd taken in a Garumon without realizing that kind of condition existed, and the loser hadn't told me about the promise, I'd have ended up losing without realizing it.

"You tap this part of the system to bring up the information screen. All sorts of information shows up here, so be careful."

Yuria taught me.

"Whoa, that's an icon? You wouldn't notice that without being told…!"

I'd thought it was just background coloring. I tried tapping on it…

So all the important information was properly displayed.

"Oh, this is handy. Thanks, Yuria."

… I'll be more careful going forward.

That said, one question.

"Do you really need to run that scared of someone like Nezu? Isn't that being pretty passive?"

"This is the party Haru confirmed Nezu has."

… High in both LV and Value. Iijima-san and Yoshioka-san…

"Kazumi Iijima-san, that's the one in the karate club, right?"

"Ah, the Inter-High competitor."

"That's Iino-san. The pretty one in the women's karate club intro photo."

… Ah, I did recognize her face from the club intro photos.

"Yoshioka-san is in the shooting club, I think. A 'beautiful sniper girl' was being approached for a feature in a shooting magazine. I'd been in contact with her about it."

Maika told me that.

Apparently she was part of the second group, just like Harada-san.

"At least three of them are likely SSR-Class. That's the strongest force in C-Class. It tracks that he's currently 12th-ranked. And the battle being demanded is 6 vs. 6. With the forces we have now, there's no way to win, no matter how we go about it."

"… I had her take over as leader as part of all that. Yuria's smarter and has better judgment than I do, so she's better suited as a leader… To protect Setsuna-chan, I had to be willing to do anything."

"So I became their Master, the team grew to three, and then I won battle after battle at breakneck speed. I climbed up to C-Class in just over a month.

"But even so, with only a little over two months left, getting our levels up to 50 is impossible, and on top of that, there was no way at all to figure out the remaining three members.

"So I struggled to find some way out, but couldn't escape…

"While I was agonizing over what to do, the news Lyuka brought happened to come in.

"When Lyuka reported to us, 'It seems Naoto Akai is looking for Setsuna…!', and I saw the beaming smiles on Setsuna and Haru's faces… I have to admit, I felt a twinge of jealousy.

"I was the one who'd been working hard to protect them all this time, and yet the two of them turned to rely on this Naoto Akai person they'd never met.

"… But when I heard the details from Lyuka, I learned he was still in D-Class, with such low levels.

"I was downright disappointed.

"… Still, there was no doubt this was a single ray of hope to escape from this hopeless situation.

"So at this point I decided to put on a one-woman act and dive into training you up.

"Even if Naoto turned out to be useless, I figured it'd be fine as long as we leveled up."

That was how Yuria monologued.

… Huh, weren't you saying you wanted to keep that part quiet until everything was over?

The reason Yuria had put on her weird villain act was so that we, and they, could level up.

Masters are nothing but rivals to each other, fighting over Garumon.

But if you have a Master you're on good terms with, the option of teaming up to rapidly level up by trading wins and losses through Garumon Battles is something anyone with a friendly Master would think of pretty quickly.

I'd never had any Masters I was on good terms with until then, but having reunited with my best friend Haru-kun, that had become a possibility.

However, in such friendly play-fighting battles, no experience points get awarded.

Whether it was automatic through some kind of value-evaluation system, or whether AI or human surveillance was involved, I didn't know.

So Yuria worked hard to play the villain, telling me 'Your best friend Haru and your sister Setsuna have become my slaves. To take them back, you've got to fight me seriously,' to make me fight her with everything I had.

I'd never been angry with or resentful of Yuria from the start, but understanding it now, she just seemed even cuter, and any sense of hostility evaporated entirely.

I'd been a little jealous about her having Setsuna give her fellatio, but even that, with how erotic Yuria was while getting fellated, I couldn't bring myself to resent it. If anything, I wanted to see more.

For now, at least, my inner thoughts hadn't been exposed by the system.

Whatever I personally felt about Yuria, the fact that I was giving it my all to defeat her, that part wasn't a lie at all.

Right now, every battle was netting me a sizeable amount of experience, and my levels were climbing.

Once this special training was over, first I had to defeat Nezu and crush that absurd plan to take Setsuna away.

For that purpose too, I figured I should keep up the pace of leveling up.