chapter01 · 020-ep19

Episode 19: The Moment I Saved Her, My Mouth Moved On Its Own...

Alright. Time to head back.

I'd tested pretty much everything I wanted to test; as today's haul goes, this was more than enough.

I stuffed the cloak into my bag and started back the way I came. Almost to the door I'd come in through. I'd just pulled out my phone to check the bus times when I heard it.

Huh — a scream?

A woman's voice, distance maybe under a hundred meters. From one of the branch passages deeper in — not the one I came from.

There were people here, huh. Oh, right — the two bicycles in the rack. Someone else was diving besides me.

Another voice. This time, actual words.

"—Don't... don't come closer!"

That is COMPLETELY a bad one.

I put my back against the passage wall and thought for exactly two seconds.

Go help, and I'll definitely be seen. Right now I'm base-form Lv 69 — I can fight a little even base. But "a little" is all it is. Diving in blind, without even knowing what's there, is close to suicide.

Become the King, and I can save her. But then my face changes and my mouth talks on its own — full-power chuunibyou, in front of a total stranger.

...No. This isn't even a decision. I'm embarrassed I spent two whole seconds on it.

I yanked the cloak out of the bag, draped it, pulled the hood down deep. The top half of my vision sank into shadow.

Breath in.

"—Before the kalpa's dawn I came, and past its end I remain."

All five lines, in one breath.

I ran.

The world slows. Mud-water kicked up from a puddle gets left behind before it even falls. A hundred meters, in seconds.

Around the bend of the branch, a small open space — and someone was down there.

A girl. Probably about my age, in light, easy-to-move-in gear, gripping a slim sword.

And one leg sunk into the floor. A trap. The earthen floor has her swallowed past the ankle; she's using the sword as a cane, struggling, and it's not budging at all.

And ringing her in — frogs. The same Giant Frogs I'd spent all day beating down.

Not one or two, either. Over ten, closing in by degrees. The gulping croaks overlap from every direction, mixed with wet bellies scraping across earth and sticky tongues sliding in and out of mouths. Ugh, gross.

I turned my left eye on it.

Trap: Snare Bog (active)

Individuals nearby: 14

Fourteen? So the thing's built to swarm whatever falls in and eat it. Vicious.

The girl looked my way, and our eyes met. Her mouth opened — about to call for help — and froze.

Ah, right. To her, I'm a black cloak with a deep hood, some mystery man popping out of a dungeon's depths. From her side, I'm sketchier than the frogs.

I tried to say "Are you okay?" ...Like that was ever happening.

"—Fear not."

My own voice rang out low.

Oh no.

"Thy end is not this day."

(Shut up.)

I screamed it in my head, but the mouth wouldn't stop.

Why does the single most pretentious one come out NOW, of all times? "You okay?" is fine! Three words and you're done!

The frogs jumped as one.

Wet bodies lifted into the air all at once, shadows falling over her.

Bad — and the moment I thought it, I was already moving.

Kicked the nearest one. Bare-handed.

But a Lv 69 King's kick was more than enough to send a frog into a wall. A squishy weight landed on my instep for an instant and was gone. The gray-green body blasted sideways, hit the mossy wall, and became sand.

Landing, I turned half-sideways. Two from the left. The Magic Eye of Karma showed me the paths of their tongues as lines.

Two lines, crossing right in front of my chest.

I slipped my body through the gap between them. As the two tongues cut empty air past my nose, a spinning sweep took both together. Both dissolved into sand.

"—Stay back."

I did NOT plan to say that. The mouth just moves on its own.

The girl nodded, and nodded, and nodded.

Eleven left. She's the one surrounded, so I have to drive them outward — from inside, out.

I stood in front of her.

"—None shall pass beyond my back."

Please, I'm begging you, stop.

It is mortifyingly embarrassing, and the body just keeps working perfectly.

The three in front swelled their throats together. Three lines drew toward my chest.

I stepped inside the center line. The left and right tongues passed outside my shoulders. Kicked the center one's jaw from below, stepped in off the landing foot — fist to the left one's throat, heel to the right one. Three wet sounds in sequence, and three frogs' worth of sand spilled at my feet.

Next. Two from the right, jumping.

The lines show me where they'll land, in advance. Before it even came down, I put my heel into the first one's belly. The kicked body crashed into the second, and the pair tumbled together. Before they could rise, both crumbled away.

Body's LIGHT. The King's body solves it before I do; I'm just trailing half a beat behind, catching up.

Then, at the edge of my vision, a single line streaked.

From behind me?

Somewhere in the shuffle, one had circled around beyond the girl, throat swelling, aimed at her back. The line ran dead straight for her neck.

She was watching me in front of her — hadn't noticed a thing. Her foot's still in the floor, too.

Like hell.

Mid-turn, I thrust my left arm out over her shoulder.

The tongue came.

I swept it with my arm. The wet tongue wound around my wrist and cinched tight, slimy.

I pulled. With everything I had.

Frog and all, ripped bodily into the air. Over her head, flying straight at me.

I placed my right fist where it was arriving.

The frog that met the fist did not advance one millimeter past it. It stopped in its struck shape, and crumbled right there. The tongue unwound off my wrist, and sand pattered down over her shoulder.

She flinched, shoulders jumping. I don't think she has any idea what just happened — which is fine.

None shall pass beyond my back. The mouth said it — but I'm the one doing the protecting.

Five left.

After that it was just threading the gaps in the lines and placing fists and heels. Step, punch, kick, step again. Three of them lost their shapes one after another.

Of the last two, one tried to leap away and flee. Hey — no running.

It jumped with its back turned; I caught its hind leg right out of the air. Swung it around just like that and slammed it down onto the other one. Two bodies collided and became a single mound of sand.

Total time, under a minute, and my breathing hasn't even picked up. When I came back to myself, the only ones left in the open space were me and her.

I crouched at her feet — the earth had hardened, gripping her ankle fast. I poked it with a finger; harder than expected.

How to disarm a trap, I do not know. Don't know, so I broke it. A dry crack, and the clod of earth shattered.

"Ah—"

Her foot came free and she pitched forward; I caught her arm and steadied her.

I wanted to ask if she was hurt. Wanted to.

"—Can you walk?"

Well, comparatively, that's one of the tamer ones today. It's still roughly human language.

"...Yes. Um — thank you very much."

Her voice is shaking like crazy. Well, sure — surrounded by THAT many, anyone would be terrified.

She looked up, trying to peer inside my hood. Couldn't see, it seems — her eyes are swimming all over the place.

And at her chest, a small camera pointed my way. Red light, on.

Wait. Am I being filmed?

This is a STREAM. She's diving while STREAMING?!

My body started to lock up, but the King state wouldn't allow it. My spine stayed ramrod straight on its own. Probably at a flattering camera angle, too.

Calm down. The hood's up. But how I'm actually coming across on camera, I have no idea.

"Um—!"

She took a step toward me.

"May I ask your name? You saved me, so, um... I'd like to thank you properly."

My name, she says. I can't say Ichinose Saku — and the other one's even further out.

The "Hmph. I see it all" I practiced... no. Someone asks your name and you answer "I see it all," that's not a conversation anymore.

So: silence. Stay quiet, turn around, walk. That's the move, and it's the best one.

...That was the plan.

"—I am not one worth naming."

I said it. And what's worse, it landed PERFECTLY. Landing it perfectly is the WORST part!

"My name is not for thee to know. Remember only this:"

Stop.

"This ground is not where thou shouldst stand. Next time, begin from somewhere shallower."

Finished, and I walked. No looking back. Correction — I COULDN'T look back.

Around the bend, out of her sight, I put a hand on the wall and released the King. Bangs back, body heavy. A beat behind, sanity too.

"Aaaaaaaaah......"

Voice strangled, I crouched right there on the spot.

I am not one worth naming.

Next time, begin from somewhere shallower.

I said all of that, straight-faced, to a girl I'd just met. In front of a rolling camera. And the second half was — plain and simple — a lecture. Lecturing the person I rescued. Who do I think I am? The King?

...It's over. Completely, entirely over.

No — hold on. I never said my name. That much is absolutely certain.

Then what about the face?

The hood was up. It was up, but how much it actually covered, I can't say. She might have seen in when I crouched. I might have leaned too close when I caught her arm. The more I think, the less certain I get.

There is exactly one way to check. Watch the stream.

Trembling finger on the streaming app's icon... nope. Bus schedule first. Next one's in seventeen minutes.

I came here to test everything where nobody could see me — and on my way OUT, the one moment I least wanted anyone to witness gets recorded. What is that about. And the bus — seventeen minutes?! That's an eternity.