Chapter 13: Chapter 11: Futaba Meiko part.2

Futaba Meiko and Kisaragi Ryouko smoothly progressed through the dungeon.

Every monster appearing along the way made for easy fodder against Ryouko’s ice magic. The dog-like mid-sized monsters ate her ‘Ice Sagitta’, the fang rats and insect type small-sized ones were blown away by ‘Ice Blast’.

Meiko had to only follow along behind her. Not a chance to make use of her vocation of ‘Knight’. It was a safe and happy stroll in the dungeon.

And several hours after the fang rat incident, the two of them finally arrived at the dungeon’s only known safe space, a fairy square.

“Looks like using these powers a lot can get you new ones. Look, Futaba-san—‘Ice Shield’”

While on their break, Ryouko tests out her newly gained skill. In front of where she held out her hand, suddenly from nothing, a mass of ice, nay, a shield of ice manifested. At around high, the ice, sprung forth from the ground, would protect the caster’s whole body from frontal attacks.

Blurting out “Waao—” as if she’d seen a splendid magic trick, Meiko listened to Ryouko’s explanation with her eyes bedazzled.

“Like the name says, it’s a defence magic. If possible, I’d like not to receive attacks where I’d be forced to use it though.”

Her battles with monsters using magic were, so far, flawless victories. Yet Ryouko did not grow pretentious, and seemed to be calmly analysing their situation.

Nevertheless, she was not someone exempt of danger. Indeed, danger is always sudden, hidden around the corner waiting its chance.

“—! This is bad, Futaba-san, get back!”

Ryouko’s voice, tinged with impatience, echoed throughout the dome packed in verdure.

The 2 girls, finishing their break at the fairy square in under an hour, again delved into the dungeon, and soon enough, arrived at a great circular area sizing at more than 3 times that of a gymnasium. Like the room where the fang rats appeared en masse, it was a place overflowing with arbre, giving the impression of a small forest. Looking above, there seemed to be what looked like steel arches which gave the area the shape of a dome, so rather than a forest, it could be seen as more of a botanical garden. Moreover, the rectangular panels devices that released white light were partially destroyed, making it seem more like a dark, deserted building.

In that place, Ryouko and Meiko were suddenly under attack.

From the shadows and trees, multiple forms emerged. These forms seemed human at first glance, but their stature, about a head or so shorter, and their permanently hunched posture, made you see them more like monkeys.

To summarize, these are humanoid monsters that dwelled in the dungeon. They actively attacked people and preyed on their meat, a detestable existence even to this world.

They are called ‘Goma’.

This information itself was procured from the magic circle just a few moments prior when checking it at the fairy square. Still, equating the written information with these ugly, obsidian beings in front of them was impossible for even the quick-witted Ryouko.

Still, her having defended successfully with her newly acquired ‘Ice Shield’ was indeed deserving of praise. Slashing attacks from the knives they wielded, arrows from beyond the thicket, they were all blocked by the bulky shield of ice.

Meanwhile, Futaba Meiko was in a daze, Ryouko used two shots of ‘Ice Sagitta’ to finish off the goma holding a knife and axe, at which point, the former finally let out a cry from fear.[1]

Boldly charging in with her ice magic was Ryouko. On the other hand, Meiko equipped with the sharp meat cleaver mostly just cried in disarray. That was perhaps still better than her swinging it wildly in the darkness.[2]

“These ones are, way too persistent!”

Up till this point, any monsters getting a taste of Ryouko’s ice chose swift retreat. After losing 2 or 3 of their pack, they’d understand their powerlessness, or perhaps think the compatibility was off, promptly scurrying away. Though called monsters, they likely had the reasonable instincts of a wild animal.

Yet, maybe they had a fixation with humans, or perhaps they were so demented, the 5 or 6— including the ones pierced in ice, 10 goma, show no intention of ceasing their assault.

“—‘Ice Shield’!”

What was more worrisome than their absurd tenacity, was the occasional arrow whistling by from the darkness.

From what Ryouko could perceive at a glance, they were using arrowheads uneven in both shape and length, certainly not of metal, but sharpened stone or perhaps of bone from monsters or animals. Possessing no such thing as a fletching, their aim was far from perfect; overall arrows of crude and unreliable make.

But still, once nocked, drawn and released, the arrow will fly. Whether stone, or bone, it will pierce if sharpened. Soft human skin, possessing no such thing as a steel-like armor shell, wearing only a sailor uniform. She had no natural defences to prevent arrows.

Under the seemingly endless volley of arrows, Ryouko was slowly, but most assuredly, being cornered. Those poor excuses for arrows would never hit. But, if even one of them did, that would decide the match. With an arrow stuck somewhere in her body, could she use magic like right now, could she run away, could she, even think normally?

Ryouko was using ‘Ice Blast’ as a diversion, mixing in her main attack ‘Ice Sagitta’, in a desperate retreat from the forested dome.

Protecting the crying, uselessly large and largely useless pig behind her, Ryouko continued invoking her magic without a single complaint.

In the darkness, surrounded by trees, her visibility was quite limited. But the goma seemed to have good night vision even in that obscurity, and wouldn’t lose sight of them. They can’t see, the enemy can. One vs. many. It was a miracle she was able to hold off that long.

“—Got’cha!”

Not letting the slightest movement in the bushes slip, she would kill the bone short-spear wielding goma as soon as it jumped out. Ryouko had no doubt her magic having the power to do so.

Her strength, mana, concentration, none of them had yet to wane, but then—

“Kh, ouch!?”

Her lucky streak ran out. An arrow with a blue crystal head grazed Ryouko’s left thigh. On her clean white skin ran a painful line of scarlet.

It wasn’t fatal. But from the sudden shock of pain while running, she pitched forward and fell. Her falling posture(ukemi) perfect. With her level of athleticism, there’s no reason she’d let herself plunge face first into the ground.[3]

But from turning over to limit the shock, to getting back up again, there was a critical gap.

“Damn—”

When she got back up, she found 2 goma closing in.

One held a blunt-edged knife, and the other, a rusted hatchet. And both had an absolutely nauseating appearance with muddy yellow eyes, and squalid lines of teeth peeking from inside their mouths wide agape. From their filthy bodies drifted an odour, a horrendous melange of sulfur like from rotten eggs, and decaying fish. That along with their further ammonic smell like that of toilet cleaning fluid, it made for the worst stimulus to your senses.

Urggh, as she tried to suppress her nausea, knitting those elegant, thin brows, the goma swung up their weapons, their prey to be caught in another step.

“A, ah, Kisaragi-san!”

At this point, Meiko finally stopped her slow running, and turned around. Being one-sidedly protected, she had been facing forward, concentrating solely on moving her legs, and even with her piggish, slow self, a small distance had opened up between her and Ryouko.

Naturally, even if she turned back now, she had no means to save Ryouko. Meiko was of vocation Knight. She possessed no magic based ranged attacks.

Indeed, Kisaragi Ryouko wouldn’t be saved, unless of course, there was a third party involved.

“Ryouko-chan, you alright!?”

Along with the voice of a young girl rang dirty, hoarse screams.

What appeared first in Ryouko’s eyes was the scene of 2 goma that had come as close as face to face, grandly falling over. She got a glimpse of the rusted knives stuck, on the throat of one, and the chest of another.

“No way, Minami!? How—”

“Just by chance! Now, run!”

Ryouko began running alongside the other girl. Her leg was in pain, but didn’t seem to hinder movement. But more importantly, about this other girl.

Natsukawa Minami. That was the name of her classmate and savior.

Big, round, cat-like eyes were her charm point. Her bob-cut hair and well-tanned cocoa brown skin gave her an energetic image. Not undermining that impression, she was in fact even more lively and vigorous than she would initially let on.

She had allocated all that excess energy to the track and field club, being known as the new hope in her first year, and presently in her 2nd, attained the seat of ace. Naturally, her match was the sprint. With an explosive dash resembling her own personality, she had taken Shiramine Academy Track and Field all the way to the nationals.

This hardcore runner girl known as Minami and Kisaragi Ryouko were friends on a first name basis. She was the super girl of her club, and barely passing tests in class. Ryouko the class rep gallantly taking on the duty of aiding to improve her miserable grades was common fact in class 2-7. The super serious Ryouko would lend her homework to this Natsukawa Minami and Tendou Ryuuichi only.[4]

That aside, the hot and lively Minami, and cool and intelligent Ryouko. Their personalities may be the exact opposite, but their bond contrarily was just as strong. They wouldn’t even hesitate to call each other best friends.

“Thanks, I owe you one, Minami”

“Nihaha, getting Ryouko-chan to owe me one, it’s a once-in-a-life-time miracle!”

Her road to absolute despair had transformed into a path of hope thanks to her friend’s smile, fiercely brilliant like the sun. Ryouko’s heart, halfway given up, newly overflowed with strength.

“I’d love to celebrate our reunion, but we need to get away from those guys first”

“No probs, got you covered—”

Minami smiled like a mischievous child, and pointed at one of the passages connected to the wall. Indeed, there was no need to point it out as they had been rushing that way already.

Incidentally, having confirmed the saving grace of Minami, Meiko resumed her mad, wild-boar rush, coincidentally towards the same direction. Her head in chaos, there being no way to know if she was intentionally following Ryouko, but luckily they were all running in the same direction.

Moreover, having splendidly tripped on the curb of the intersection between the dome and passage and fallen inside, she had no clue of her astounding luck.

When the two others reached a Meiko in her embarrassing full view display of blush pink panties tight around her large butt, Minami shouted out,

“Now, Satou-chan! Shoot!”

In place of a reply, a single arrow flew through between the two. Its shining head spawned from inside the passage, and flew out into the dome. Its aim, not the goma chasing after them, but a strangely crooked tree, hitting right in the middle of its trunk as wide as a bunch of people. Making the abundant green leafage quiver, it made a dull sound.

A miss— jumping to the conclusion to quick, Ryouko realized that it had hit its mark perfectly.

brrr, the ground trembled and then, disappeared. Not that of the passage they were on, but of inside the dome they had just escaped from a couple moments ago. Just beyond the curb, the earth in a diameter, turned to mist and vanished.

“Eh, the heck is this…”

Having the solid ground she had just stepped on, vanishing in front her eyes as if a mirage, made Ryouko mutter out astoundedly.

“It’s a pitfall. Seems like you can set up these kind of traps in quite a few spots here.”

Minami said casually as if live commentating on a game.

“Are pitfalls like, supposed to suddenly disappear like that?”

“Who knows? Isn’t it like a magic trap?”

It was a Minami-style thoughtless response, and truthfully, she couldn’t think of anything better. Ryouko herself had been exercising the phenomenon known as magic. That in mind, there’s nothing strange about there being traps impossible to replicate back on Earth. No, this being a place called dungeon, there’s no way they would be.

“Anyway, now those uglies won’t be coming after us anymore, so let’s get going”

The pit was made as if protecting the entrance of the passage they had jumped into. Peeking over the edge, one could see, not an everlasting abyss of black, but a white mist like dry ice blocking the view to the bottom. But undoubtedly, its depth was greater than human height.

The goma gradually gathered on the other side of the opening, as if chagrined at the loss of easy prey. Gyaagyaa, they screeched obnoxiously, but not one attempted to jump over to the other side.

Perhaps they knew the dangers of falling in there, or maybe even they had some reserves toward unforeseen traps. At the very least, this proved that goma weren’t able to make a 10-meter jump. Their strength was likely not so different from that of humans.

“Right, I want to hear a lot of things, but we should get moving for now”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

With that, having narrowly escaped danger, Ryouko and Meiko leave behind the dome, and the screeching goma.

“Natsukawa-san’s vocation would be ‘Thief’ right?”[5]

“Um, yes it is… how’d you know?”

With her round face and round eyes, Futaba-san asks utterly flabbergasted.

The one saving Kisaragi Ryouko at the nick of time was our track and field ace, Natsukawa Minami. Knowing her talents anyone could easily imagine her as— or is that just my gamer brain running wild again?

“No well, she was using knives and traps, so I kinda guessed”

“Yup, right, Natsukawa-san was using a knife, and could make pitfalls and find hidden doors you know”

Knife throwing and detection skills should be considered a given.

“Do you know her skill names?”

“Err, yeah… there was ‘Throw Dagger’ that made her good at throwing knives, and ‘Search Sense’ and uh… oh yeah something called ‘Quick Step’… umm, I think she said something about martial arts and was happily running really fast“[6]

I see, so knife throwing, trap searching, and speed enhancing skills. They do seem like novice skills for a Thief.

“And she also learned ‘Slash’ and, ‘Abandon’ like I have on the way”

“What does ‘Slash’ do?”

“Well, I was always watching from behind so I don’t really get it… but I think she said it makes cutting much easier”

As the simplistic name states, it would have the effect of raising the power in a swing when the knife is used to cut. This should probably also be categorized as a ‘Martial Art’. From these names and descriptions, I get the image of a skill system separated from magic. Well, I don’t really care what the official types are though.

“What can I say, she seems pretty strong, that Natsukawa-san”

“Yeah, really strong! When the monsters came, she was always fighting at the very front”

Seems she’s been playing the role of vanguard quite well. With Kisaragi-san using her ice magic as rear guard, they must’ve made a great combo. It’s like they got the standard fantasy arrangement going well with the melee fighter as a wall, and attack mage shooting from the back.

“But I was… just so useless…”

I guess she got reminded of her inferiority in power to Natsukawa-san while we were on the subject. The thought cast a cloud over Futaba-san’s visage, slight tears gathering at the edges of her round eyes.

If I act now with kind, gentle, and overall compassionate words to her, I too can become one of the winners in life, but sorry to say, I let that chance go to waste.

This girl’s been a useless load on everyone’s shoulders in the story till now, just my humble opinion. I may not be cool and handsome, but I can at least read the mood which reads not to speak that opinion out.

“S-so um… The Satou who shot the arrow, was it Satou-kun the guy, or Satou-san the girl?”

To conclude, the option I picked was, pretending not to hear Futaba-san’s self-deprecating mutterings, and continue with the story. Ignore is a useful skill I believe.

“Ah, sorry… It’s Satou-san the girl. Satou Aya-san”

So that her first name. Honestly, I just knew the surname.

She, like me, wasn’t someone who stood out. Speaking of which, there’s too much of a gap between the normal people in our class and the super high-spec ones like Souma-kun and Tendou-kun. When I saw my class roster, I thought they must’ve wanted to put all these cheat-status guys in one place. Of course, Kisaragi Ryouko and Natsukawa Minami were also of the superior group.

“Satou-san’s an Archer?”

“Yup, she said she was in the archery club in middle school”

Since we’re supposed to get a ’Vocation’ best suited to our abilities, well, I guess having a bit of experience doesn’t hurt. If they weren’t completely useless at everything, even the gods would grant something they were familiar with.

Not saying I’ve seen how skilled Satou Aya is, but she wouldn’t be better than Souma Sakura with her nationals tier talent.

“So you guys met up with Natsukawa-san and Satou-san, only those two?”

“Yeah, as for others… We found someone’s bag on the way, but didn’t meet anyone else”

What came into mind was the scene of those demons called goma that were eating a girl. If they were eaten like that, no way there’d be any body left.

Shit, remembering it made me sick to my stomach. Let’s not—

“So you guys were now a 4 person team…”

Oh man, this number 4, made it worse. As in, the punchline’s already been revealed.

Revealed to be exactly what I imagined when I found Futaba-san left dying in this fairy square.

===

[1]So I’ll declare now that the plural of goma is goma. No particular reason I just don’t like the sound of ’gomas’. Like fish, or anime. If you say animes… I hate you.

[2]Retcon: Butcher knife -> meat cleaver

[3]Ukemi: it’s a Judo thing, she fell without much damage basically.

[4]So I write fullnames as [Lastname Firstname] like in jap. Also I try to use the name exactly as it is in the raw. Now to the point: I don’t think I need to say this but calling each other by first name is a big-ish thing for japs. Well atleast in these weeb media things. I think most readers have an understanding of this concept, but yeah, only buddies call each other by first name. And super buddies even drop the -chan -kun honorific bs. Not really, it all really depends on the story, but you can generally tell how close people are by what they call each other.

[5]3rd person → Momokawa POV. desu.

[6]So, ‘Throw Dagger’ and ‘Search Sense’ are english, as in katakana from the author, so I’ve kept them as is. ‘Quick Step’ is a bit troubling. the kanji (疾駆) is the same as Yuuto’s (hero) ‘High Walk’ but instead of the katakana, it was it said something different/ same meaning in hiragana. I think it’s ok to think of these two as the same thing but who knows, the hero’s one might be special. So I renamed it.