One entire leg, unpetrified and ready for action—and it had taken me the better part of four hours to accomplish. Team Seven-minus-Sasuke-Plus-Rock Lee had all come and go at regular intervals and in different combinations, ostensibly to investigate the forest for any signs of the enemy shinobi encroaching on our turf. I'd managed to drag Status Removal all the way up to level eighteen in that time, and the four-point-five durability damage was putting in work. I helped the man draw his right leg up in an attempt to see if he could feel anything I'd missed.
"I cannot feel anything wrong," Kakeru admitted.
"Good enough for me," I said, "You want to roll over to let me get at your other leg, or are you feeling well enough to try sitting up?"
"I would very much prefer to sit up," Kakeru said, grasping at the chance to no longer have everyone and their dog standing over him. "If you would assist me?"
I slipped a hand behind his back and helped leverage him upwards into a sitting position—Kakeru scrunched his face up in pain as his stone-covered leg thumped onto the ground. Once he had the cave wall behind his back and he was properly supported, I dropped down to start on his left foot.
"Father?" Michiru murmured, rising up from where he'd been sleeping on the floor. "Are you well?"
"I'm well enough, my son," Kakeru said with a great sigh. "Michiru, what do you think of when you see these lands of ours?"
"What do I see?" Michiru asked, moving to sit beside me. "It's a wonderful place—I see beauty, wealth, and prosperity."
"Yes, I see it too," Kakeru said, "But is that all there is?"
"I don't understand," Michiru swallowed.
Michiru turned to look at me as if I might somehow have the answer—I was pretty sure this dude didn't even know my name, and I had no idea why he was looking at me as if I could somehow translate old-man speak for him.
"Wealth and beauty aren't all that matters; it's just a veneer that masks what lies beneath," Kakeru murmured, "What is underneath? Happiness? Joy? Or something more akin to greed, ignorance and cruelty?"
"Father?" Michiru managed.
"I sent you away, my son—you and Hikaru both—because I knew this would happen," Kakeru sighed, "Shabadaba and the rest of my ministers have been amassing their forces for a long time—I'd hoped to have spared you this and to have solved it before your return, but it would seem I'm nothing more than a weak fool."
"I don't believe that," Michiru said, shaking his head. "I'll never believe those words."
"Perhaps you won't," Kakeru murmured, "I'd hoped to transform our lands into something more than it is. I envisioned a place of happiness, realised hopes and fulfilled dreams, and I'd mistakenly thought that Shabadaba had shared that goal with me—what a waste."
"Hopes and dreams," Michiru managed, "You sound just like Amayo."
"Amayo?" Kakeru said, perking up a bit. "Are the two of you speaking once again?"
"No, father, she can't stand to be in my presence," Michiru admitted. "Amayo says that I have no clue what truly matters, but I cannot understand what that might be."
I tilted my head at the words—that had been a kind of side plot to the movie, hadn't it? Amayo had attempted to yoink Hikaru and run away but had been blocked by some contract? It was odd that the thing that stopped her had been a legal contract and not the pressure that a Prince of a kingdom could bring to bear on someone who crossed him—I supposed that spoke more about Michiru's good nature than anything else. It did leave me wondering what the problem between them had been—Michiru was royalty, he had power, and he had wealth—Ah.
