Chapter 371: Gratitude
Whether Kaguya's guess was right, she couldn't be sure — maybe the newcomer was just genuinely, almost naively trusting?
That last theory didn't hold up long, though. The invitation quest had already established Ahri as a nine-tailed fox spirit — and a creature of that species, much like Yukari's own shikigami, ought to have lived a very long time. A being that old, still this trusting? Unlikely. Deeply unlikely.
Still, now that the newcomer had actually come out of hiding, Kaguya felt a measure of relief — at least she wouldn't need to spend more effort talking her down.
Glancing between the medical supplies on the ground and the wounds covering Ahri's body, Kaguya offered, "You should get those bandaged first. If you don't mind, I can help."
Ahri looked down at the supplies, then back up at the black-haired, red-eyed girl standing before her.
Honestly, she had no idea who this girl was, or why she'd bother extending a hand to a stranger. But there wasn't a trace of ill will radiating off her — only genuine goodwill.
That alone had been enough to convince Ahri to finally step into the open.
Her injuries were, in fact, quite severe. A clean, deep gash along her ribs — clearly the work of some bladed weapon. Scrapes and bruises littered the rest of her, and no shortage of cuts besides.
Clearly she'd just come out of a brutal fight — and lost, badly enough to flee into this forest.
Her clothes were soaked red with blood, and even her tails were stained with dark, crimson smears.
She looked genuinely weak, her lips pale, blood loss plainly catching up to her.
Had she been human rather than a nine-tailed fox spirit with an unusually tenacious life force, she'd have almost certainly bled out long before now.
Ahri didn't reach for the supplies right away. She pressed her pale lips together and asked, hesitant, "Why are you helping me? We've never even met before. I don't sense any ill intent from you, though."
Kaguya answered with a faint, warm smile. "Because you're one of us. Helping each other out is practically a proud tradition of the Dimensional Chat Group."
"The... Dimensional Chat Group? Is that... some kind of organization you belong to? And why am I 'one of you'? Are you trying to recruit me?"
Ahri wasn't slow on the uptake. There was a lot buried in that black-haired girl's words, and she'd caught most of it.
She had no idea what the Dimensional Chat Group actually was, but this girl clearly belonged to it. And offering help while also claiming Ahri was "one of them" — that could only mean one thing: recruitment.
Whether her read was accurate or not, she couldn't say for sure. But it felt close enough to the truth.
Kaguya didn't dodge the question or try to hide anything. She nodded. "Think of it as a powerful organization, for now. And yes — recruiting you is more or less the idea, more or less."
Ahri hesitated a moment, then let her pale, delicate hand settle on the medical supplies, murmuring, "I don't really know what I've got that's worth all this trouble — coming here yourselves, no less. But... thank you."
The supplies Kaguya had brought were simple enough that Ahri had no trouble using them on her own.
She cleaned the wounds with the antiseptic, then dusted them with the hemostatic powder.
The moment the powder touched raw flesh, a sharp, brain-jolting sting shot through her, and her fine brows creased.
She pushed through the pain regardless, wrapping the wounds crudely in bandages, and finally let out a small breath of relief.
She had at least five or six separate wounds actively bleeding. Good thing Kaguya had brought plenty of bandages — otherwise there wouldn't have been nearly enough.
Both of them being women didn't exactly give them much common ground to chat over — a girl and a fox spirit who barely knew each other, after all.
Ahri had already confirmed the black-haired girl in front of her wasn't an enemy, that she genuinely meant to help. But she still hadn't escaped whoever was hunting her, and the tension of that hadn't left her for a moment — so there wasn't much room for conversation regardless.
After several minutes of silence between them, Kaguya finally spoke up. "If you don't mind me asking — do you know anything about who's been hunting you?"
Ahri blinked, hesitated for a few seconds, then answered. "Ahri doesn't know who they are. They don't dress like Demacians, or Noxians either — some style I've never seen before."
"They don't even feel like they're from Valoran at all, honestly. But one thing's certain — they're strong. And they're human, like you, though every single one of them was male."
"That's all Ahri really knows. Ahri doesn't understand any of the rest of it — why they'd even want her dead in the first place. Ahri's never crossed them, not once."
"..."
Kaguya listened to the whole account and nodded thoughtfully.
Hearing it laid out like that, one possibility came to mind immediately: rule-breaking reincarnators.
The odds felt genuinely high. Reincarnators came from other worlds entirely and, more often than not, spent their time causing chaos wherever they landed.
Only that particular breed would go out of their way to hunt down a nine-tailed fox spirit with no history, no grudge, nothing between them at all — that kind of senseless cruelty had their fingerprints all over it.
Ahri had been watching Kaguya's expression the whole time, and when she caught the shift in it, she asked, startled, "Do you actually know who they are?"
Kaguya nodded, then quickly shook her head instead. "I couldn't say for sure if my guess is right — just a theory that seems fairly solid to me. If I'm not mistaken, they're rule-breaking reincarnators."
Ahri blinked. "Rule-breaking reincarnators? Is that another strange organization?"
"You could call it that, loosely. Though the group actually splits into two factions — rule-breaking reincarnators and rule-abiding ones. The rule-breakers are the troublemakers, and they're enemies of the Dimensional Chat Group. Or, well... more like our prey."
"...Prey?"
"That's right. Hunting down rule-breaking reincarnators happens to be something the Dimensional Chat Group is very, very good at. We've got plenty of experience."
"..."
Just as Ahri opened her mouth to say something else, a two-meter-tall gap suddenly split open in the space between them.
And along the inner walls of that gap, a cluster of crimson, eye-like markings stared out — leaving Ahri with an unmistakable sense of dread.
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