Heretical Fishing

Chapter 82: Gang

The crab wasn't even relieved when he finally crawled free from the hole; he radiated fury.

A hole—a damn hole had kept him prisoner, delaying his magnificent reunion with the spiky mistress.

Finally free on the constricting tunnel, he sped toward where he suspected he'd find her, intent on venting his indignation.

He arrived at the shore within a matter of minutes, the distance not standing a chance against his improved body, even exhausted as he was.

He tore up the sands, hissing and gesturing emphatically with both claws.

Across the pond, standing in a group, was his beloved mistress.

Good, he thought. More beings to listen to my unfortunate tale.

He increased his speed, sprinting toward them.

***

As soon as I saw him, I recognized him; it was the crab with a penchant for being flung into the ocean.

He reached us but had eyes only for Snips, ignoring the rest of us entirely.

As his impressively vitriolic diatribe dragged on, I raised an eyebrow. All I got was hints of the tale, but it sounded full of struggle.

***

The relief Snips felt at seeing the missing crab return was dissipating at an impressive speed.

He was rattling off a self-absorbed story of his awakening and subsequent imprisonment beneath the ocean floor.

The story had some interesting points she'd like to delve into later, but the melodramatic embellishments of the tale were leaving a bad taste in her multi-segmented mouth. Worse, this was the first time he'd met their master as an awakened being, and he'd ignored their benefactor entirely.

She let out a sharp hiss, cutting the crab off.

With one claw, she pointed at the crab, then to Fischer, gesturing at him repeatedly as she hissed a warning, giving the crab a chance to atone for his mistake.

The crab looked at their master and shrugged, then resumed his story where he'd left off.

Sergeant Snips, first chosen of master Fischer, and leader of the rock crabs, saw red.

***

Following Snips' chastisement, the crab glanced up at me, shrugged, then continued hissing.

I smirked.

Cheeky little bugger...

Snips, taking much more umbrage with his dismissal of me than I did, trembled.

Water seemed to pour from her body, churning out and undulating in a non-existent wind.

She shot toward him with one claw pulled back, and as she reached him, it scooped under his carapace.

The blue liquid... er, was it energy? Whatever—the blue stuff flared from the joint of her claw, propelling it with unbelievable speed as she swung it up.

The rock crab never stood a chance, and his body flew out to sea as if shot from a trebuchet.

"Eeeeee—" was all he had the chance to say before he left hearing range, spinning chaotically as he soared toward the horizon.

Snips, releasing whatever power she'd used, returned to her normal, crabby self. She rubbed her claws together and shook her carapace, the very picture of disapproval.

"Uh..." Maria said. "Is that crab going to be okay?"

Snips shrugged, and I nodded.

"He'll be fine—he's awakened now, after all. Forget that, though! You unlocked a new power, Snips?"

She nodded, lifting her body from the sand in obvious pride.

The blue ability flooded from her again, and she extended a claw. Power swelled from deep within her, collected in the claw, then shot out with a sharp clack.

An arc—the same color as the ability wreathing her body—sliced out. Sand flew up behind it, dragged in the impressive attack's wake as it flew out to sea. It kept going, only dissipating when it was far, far away.

I dashed and scooped her up, laughing as I spun.

"Hot damn, Snips! You're amazing! How did—"

I shook my head.

"Never mind. We can handle that later. Everyone—this is Maria."

With their attention turning to her, her face flushed, and she hugged the bundle in her arms tighter.

"H-hi, everyone."

"You've already met Corporal Claws and the ever-reliable Sergeant Snips I told you about. This..." I gestured at the lobster, mouth moving but no sound coming out. "Er—he doesn't actually have a name yet."

The lobster blew bubbles of... reproach? They were different to Sergeant Snips', but definitely had a negative flavor to them.

Seeing my confusion, he pointed at himself and nodded.

"Uhhh... you mean you do have a name?"

The lobster nodded again.

He ambled forward, his massive body climbing over the pond's wall.

With one giant claw extended, he drew something into the sand.

I looked down at it, my brow furrowing.

"Pistachio?" Maria asked.

The lobster nodded.

"Er..." I said. "Your name is Pistachio?"

It nodded again, blowing bubbles that brooked no nonsense.

"Okay, then... odd name for a lobster, but I can dig it."

I snapped my fingers.

"Private Pistachio! What do you think, buddy? Can you get behind the rank of 'Private,' or would you rather just 'Pistachio'?"

The lobster—Pistachio—didn't move for a long moment. His mouth slowly undulated, chewing the words.

Then he stepped forward with finality, drawing another word in the sand.

I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Maria, whispering.

"Just checking—he wrote 'private' in the sand just now in front of 'Pistachio', right?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, he—wait, you can't read?"

"No, but that's not important right now. Focus, Maria."

I smiled at her, and she squinted back at me, her lips pursed in confusion.

I stepped toward the creatures arrayed before us.

"We have a new friend, and that's all that matters!"

I held a fist out toward Private Pistachio, seeing as though he wasn't a big fan of scritches.

He stared at it, lacking even a modicum of comprehension.

I mimed fist-bumping it with my other hand.

Blowing bubbles of sheer bewilderment, he reached a meaty claw out, bumping it against my fist.

"Welcome to the gang, Pistachio. It's a pleasure to meet you, mate."

He nodded back at me, blowing bubbles of agreement.

"It's nice to meet you, Pistachio," Maria said.

He bobbed his head.

Then, unsurprisingly, Corporal Claws lost her composure.

She let out an indignant chirp, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Claws, you goose," I said, shaking my head. "I already introduced you. Don't get all pissy."

Corporal Claws, looking like nothing so much as a petulant child, raised her chin and looked away.

"You're gonna have to pet her," I said to Maria.

"I... will?"

"Yes, I'm afraid. Better to indulge her than deal with the silent treatment."

Claws still looked away, but I caught the smile curling the corner of her lips.

I held out my arms, and Maria passed me the bunny-laden blanket.

She stepped toward Claws, bent, and pet her across the head.

Claws made an effort to appear indifferent—it lasted all of two seconds before she was leaning into it, unleashing a sing-song series of chirps.

"Well," I said, clapping my hands together. "Now that introductions are taken care of, we have something important to tend to."

Maria snapped upright, and Claws almost fell over with how hard she'd been leaning into the pets.

"O-oh. Sorry, Claws." She bent and patted her head in an attempt to dispel the otter's glare. "We have an injured friend."

At the last statement, Claws' scowl disappeared, and she cocked her head, looking between the both of us.

I nodded, unwrapping the bundle in my arms. I squatted down, and all three of them approached—even the stoic Pistachio.

They peered down, and the cinnamon bunny lifted its nose, sniffing the air.

Then, she glanced at Pistachio, who was leaning in rather close, and swiftly buried her head back into the blankets.

"It has an injured back leg," I said, covering her head back up. "I thought the pool might be able to help it."

"Uhhhh," Maria said. "The pool?"

I gestured at the saltwater pool with my head.

"Yep. It has some sort of healing power, far as I can tell?"

She blinked at me.

"You're serious?"

"Maria. In the last five minutes, you've seen an otter riding lightning, a crab using water ninjutsu like some kind of anime protagonist, a lobster that can write his own name, and a sentient rock crab get turned into a frisbee and launched out over the horizon, which, I might add, he’s going to survive."

She raised an eyebrow, then she nodded.

"Alright, yeah, that's true. I don't know who Anna-Mae is, but you've got a good point."

I barked a laugh.

"Don't you worry about Anna-Mae. We won't be seeing her on this world—er—continent. We won't see her on this continent."

Forging past the verbal whoopsie, I strode for the pond and carefully stepped down the wall.

Maria followed, walking right behind me.

I unwrapped the blankets, exposed the bunny’s hurt back leg, then carefully drizzled water from the pond over it.

The entire limb was soaked after only a few palmfuls, and I sat back, wrapping the blankets back over its body.

Maria sat down beside me, peering at the bundle.

"Do you really think that will help?"

"Snips," I called over my shoulder. "How's your eye doing?"

She scuttled down between us as she removed the eyepatch, and her healing eyestalk poked up.

As I stared into it, I realized 'healing' wasn't the correct word—it was healed.

"Snips! Can you see out of it?"

She nodded, her body poised, proud.

"Why do you still wear the patch, then?"

She pointed at me, the eyepatch, then blew bubbles of adoration.

"Aww, Snips. I love you too, but wouldn't it help you see better if you removed it...?"

She shrugged.

"Well, whatever you want to do, I support you."

Maria arrested our attention by clearing her throat.

"I... don't get it."

"Oh. Right... sorry. When I came across Snips, she was just a regular ol' rock crab. She was covered in scars and half-healed wounds, one of which was a missing eye."

I pointed at the healthy-looking appendage now standing firm.

"Stepping on the stairs to ascension, or whatever it is that Barry usually says, didn't heal her eye—sitting in this pond did."

Maria sighed, then chuckled as she shook her head.

"This is all too much for me to take in, but if it can heal our little bunny friend, I'm willing to try anything."

"There's something else we can try," I said, “but I'd rather not talk about it unless we have to use it.”

Maria raised an eyebrow, but didn’t press the issue.

"Well, hopefully this works, and we won't need your secret method."

I smiled.

"I don't see why it wouldn't, to be honest. It—"

The bunny kicked from within the blanket, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Did you see that?" I asked Maria.

"No...?"

I peeled open the back of the blankets, revealing the bunny's rear legs. The right one was planted firmly on the blanket resting against my leg. The left leg—that which was injured—still sat at an odd angle, but as we watched, it twitched, kicking out spasmodically.

My animal pals, having realized something exciting was occurring, had all crawled into the water. They peered up at us and the bunny with curiosity clear in their eyes.

Maria and I both looked at each other; her eyes went wide, and I smiled.

"Movement has to be a good thing... right? It didn't move at all before."

Maria nodded fervently.

"Pour more water on!"

I beamed at her.

"Exactly what I was thinking."

I cupped my hand in the pond's warm water, then dripped it over the leg, taking care not to get the blanket wet.

When the leg was once more soaked, I wrapped it back up, holding it tight.

"Will you try something with me?" I asked.

Maria's head tilted to the side, causing her hair to hang down.

"What is it?"

"So, I'm pretty sure this world—and the System—functions, in large part, on will."

"... how do you know that?"

I shrugged.

"Just something I've picked up."

"You want to use our will to help the bunny...?"

I nodded.

"I could be wrong, but it couldn't hurt to try, right?"

"Okay... how do we do it?"

"Well, it's worked previously by closing my eyes and meditating on stuff. Come closer and put your hands atop the blanket."

She shuffled over, her small hands resting on the bundle.

I put my hands over hers and closed my eyes.

"Focus on sending waves of healing down into the bunny. Imagine it becoming healthy and whole."

I cracked an eye open, locking eyes with Snips, Claws, and Pistachio.

"Would you guys help, too?"

They all agreed with various bubbles, hisses, and chirps, then joined us, leaning over us to put claws and paws atop the blanket.

"Okay. Let's do it."

I closed my eyes, willing the bunny's body to repair. I pictured green light radiating from my hands and those of my friends. In my mind's eye, the beams pulsed into the bunny below, permeating and taking hold deep within.

"Good job, everyone," I whispered. "Keep it—"

Something surged from my core, zooming up my chest, down my arms, and through my hands in an instant.

The System tugged at me, sending me a notification. It had done so multiple times during our trip away, but they’d been growing muted, ignorable—this pulse was anything but.

I shuddered and opened my eyes.

"What...?" Maria's hands tensed under mine, and she pulled them to her chest as if burned. "What was that...?"

I pulled my hands back, and Claws, Snips, and Pistachio followed suit, eyes locked on the blanket.

I started to peel back a corner, hesitated, then unfolded it.

When I caught sight of the bunny, my jaw dropped open.