Queen's Blade Unlimited Story: Chapter 1-1(g-2)

Regarding the poll on the VII Virtues spin-off, "looking forward to it!" won with 16v-43%, followed by an almost tie between "interested like you wouldn't believe!!", "dunno about the concept" and "can't say the idea interests me" with 7v-18%, 6v-16% and 5v-13%, and lastly there was "the 7 what now??" with 3v-8%.
If you ask me, it's actually kind of a fun series, they condense fanservice and some humor in 4 mins in a similar way to how Bikini Warriors did... :3

Next poll, we repeat one we did some time ago, about those funky QB attributes!
...Speaking of which, lately we're kinda coming up empty when trying to think of new polls (guess it's been some years now, huh...). Do you guys have any idea for a poll that could be exciting or fun to ask? :D

Now, it took a while, but we finished chapter 1-1! Next chapters won't be so long, thankfully. More info on Michel gets revealed...?

Enjoy!




Chapter 1 : Elina's Journey (Part 1)

Escape! Keeper of the Forest Depths Vs The Radiant Priestess (II)

“By the way…”
The Vance girl took her eyes off the match and used the moment to speak to the boy by her side.
“What’s your name?”
She’d already heard it during their earlier encounter with Airi of course, but it was only good manners to allow the boy a chance to introduce it himself.
“Michel Rivaranciel… Please, call me Michel.”
“Right, and who are you supposed to be exactly?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t remember anything aside from my name.”
The boy answered with a troubled look. A child who only knew his name…
“Well, I’m Elina.”
“Elina…”
“Ah ah, no addressing me by first name alone. You may call me, Lady Elina.”
“Understood, Lady Elina.”
“That’s better… Now, I have a fair share of questions.”
She shot him a serious look, while she may have been the one to offer her help in the first place, there was still at least one little matter they had to attend to before anything else.
“Isn’t there something you’d like to say to me?”
“Thank you for helping me.”
“You’re welcome. But that’s not what I meant, I didn’t help you because I expected anything in return.”
“Err…”
With a slight tinge to her cheeks, the blonde clued him in by pointed to her breasts.
“Ah…”
Reminded of the soft sensation that’d filled his palm earlier, Michel’s face took on a similar hue to Elina’s.
“Err… Well, they were really soft. They’re just about the perfect size too…”
“NO!”
Elina roared, caught by surprise at the boy’s idiocy. She was already plenty happy with their size and shape, she didn’t need anyone else telling her how great they were.
“Knocking a woman over is bad enough, but… groping her too…? That’s just awful, wouldn’t you agree?”
Michel considered voicing another apology, but guessed Elina might not be satisfied hearing just that.
“I-I overstepped my bounds.”
Taking a cue from her attitude, the boy prostrated himself before her.
“Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to.”
She had to be aware that he never meant her any harm, right? It was all an accident after all, plain and simple. True, he did humiliate her by groping her breasts in public, but…
Well… she did say she was a ruler, if she was one of those unforgiving ones with a tendency to be stubborn, he wouldn’t know what to do.
“I’ll forgive you.”
Hearing those words, the boy lifted his head.

“So, why was Airi after you?”
“I don’t know. Before I even realized, I was already being chased… I can remember my own name, but every other memory feels like a blur, bathed in some kind of thick, unending fog…”
“Must be one of those amnesia things, huh?”
Elina muttered, pulling out the whistle she’d confiscated from him earlier.
“Mnngh!”
“Cat caught your tongue just now?”
“P-Please, be careful with that. It’s important.”
“Important, huh?”
The noble traced the whistle’s surface with a fingertip.
“Eep! I mean it… s-stop…”
Michel sank even lower to the ground, his legs crossed inwards.
“I mean, sure it looks like expensive, but a whistle that doesn’t make any noise can’t be all that useful, can it?”
A musical instrument that produced no sound felt about as useful as a knife that couldn’t cut.
“I bet you could probably sell it for a good price though.”
She gingerly placed a couple of fingers on the silver lining and wrapped her index finger and thumb in a circle around the tip.
“Ah…”
Elina slowly stroked, rubbing the two fingers up and down. As vulgar a motion at it may have seemed, it was one a spear-user like her would be fairly familiar with.
“Hn, that’s… no, don’t…”
Just as Michel whimpered that from his nice spot on the roof, the whistle’s shape started to change.
“Wha-? That’s… new…”
A new, golden set of lines had slowly began forming around the whistle’s surface, bringing its total girth up from its previous size.
“That whistle is known as Cathedral… Aside from the fact that it is one with my body, it is also the key to the Holy Land of Maramaks.”
Elina’s eyes suddenly widened, hearing his raspy words.
“Maramaks!?”

An unexpected clue to Leina’s whereabouts. If the whistle really was the key to opening a path to the land of Maramaks like the kid said, then this accursed chain of events leading her to becoming Michel’s protector could actually be a blessing in disguise!
“Only when turned towards Maramaks will Cathedral produce a sound.”
To confirm this, Elina took the whistle in both hands and began blowing on it.
“Uugh… g-gentler, please…”
That the whistle shared whatever contact it received to Michel, likely due to some magic or whatever, certainly gave his story a lot of credence already. It really was, ‘one with his body.’
Turning slowly in place as she blew, she eventually noticed the whistle making a soft sound when faced in one particular direction… but that wasn’t all she noticed, as she blew, she could feel the fatigue in her muscles, tired from all the running they had done using the steel wire earlier, fading away.

“That was… amazing…”
“Y-Yeah… it was…”

Michel looked up to Elina with flushed cheeks… only to immediately avert his gaze back down. From where he was resting, sunk down to the ground, he had a clear view of her underwear. He covered his lower region. Bad enough he’d been stimulated this much due to Cathedral already, but adding this view to the mix? That was just pushing things over the edge.

“Just, what are you…?”
“If only I knew… All I know is there’s a small voice in my head, constantly telling me, that I must go to the land of Maramaks with a strong beautiful fighter by my side.”
“H-mm…”
The Vance girl pouted, sulking lightly. She wasn’t a Beautiful Fighter. While it did feel like her ending up as Michel’s protector was fate, if she didn’t meet the conditions… then that would put a wrench in things. Then again, if that was all it took to get the key to the place where Leina was heading…

Elina turned away from the battle; she never really much cared about other people’s fights anyways. She didn’t need this, she needed a place to gather her thoughts.

“That’ll do.”
She focused her gaze on a building with smoke rising from its chimney not too far away.
Only it wasn’t smoke, it was steam.

“Why don't we go and get ourselves cleaned up?”

While she wasn’t particularly tired anymore, thanks to the whistle’s effects, the lingering smell of sweat did remain a pressing matter.

“Cleaned up?”

“You know what they say, our best ideas tend to come in bed or in the bath.”