chapter02 · 044-ep38
Episode 38: Golden Week, Days One and Two
The weekend came and went, and in the end I didn't dive anywhere. Nagakute, Nisshin — every entrance had a line from the pre-Golden-Week crowds, and I turned back before anyone could get a look at my face.
And then, the night before Golden Week.
Out of the bath, I knocked on big sis's door.
"Big sis — got a sec?"
"Hm."
Opening the door, I found her on her bed, reading what looked like Clan paperwork.
"Golden Week starts tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah."
"Tomorrow I'm at Moriyama with my middle-school friends, and the day after that it's karaoke with my high-school friends."
"Yeah."
"And, kind of — I feel like I might get found out at either one."
Big sis looked up from the paperwork.
"'Dungeon Strolls' is already known at school — the middle-school guys know too — and there are people on Tritter hunting for my face, my voice. If somebody calls out to me while I'm with my friends, I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to do."
Saying it out loud, I got a little embarrassed.
But in this house, there's exactly one person I can ask about this stuff.
Big sis closed the paperwork. Then she patted the edge of the bed.
"Sit."
I sat.
"One."
Big sis held up a finger.
"Carry yourself openly. Try to hide, and you stand out more."
"Got it."
"Two. If someone calls out to you — smile, one word, don't stop."
"One word — what word?"
"'Thank you very much.' That's all you need."
"Three."
A third finger joined.
"You're allowed to turn down photos. 'I'm off the clock today.' Even if they make a sour face, don't let it bother you."
"Wait — I'm allowed to turn them down?"
"You are. Your break belongs to you, Saku."
A fourth finger went up.
"When you're with friends, friends come first. The person next to you outranks whoever's calling out."
"Yeah. That one I'll absolutely do."
"Last one."
Big sis raised the fifth finger — and then, just barely, one corner of her mouth.
"Have fun. Worry about whether you get found out, fail to enjoy the time with your friends — that's a pure loss."
This person.
Most days she speaks in two-word or three-word sentences, but at times like this, she explains every last bit of it, properly.
"Thanks, big sis."
"Hm."
"Kind of incredibly reliable, you know that?"
"I know."
Full smug face.
Modesty, apparently, is not on the menu.
Golden Week, Day One.
I was awake before the alarm.
Out of the futon in one bounce, lining up my gear at the front door. The 12,000-yen iron sword. The 180,000-yen black cloak stays home today — an F-rank doesn't need a cloak, and anyway I don't have the courage to wear it in front of my friends.
In the end, I left the house a full hour before the meeting time.
"Saku — aren't you EARLY?!"
When I reached the Moriyama dungeon, Osawa's eyes went round.
Osawa was plenty early himself. Thirty minutes early, in fact.
"So are you."
"I've got an excuse! I've been LOOKING FORWARD to this!"
"Same here. I was up at six-thirty."
While the two of us were laughing, the other three arrived one after another. Miyake, Yamabuki, Fujidou. Every one of them ahead of the meeting time.
"...We're all early."
Fujidou said it, low.
"You too."
"I'm a principle-of-arriving-on-time man."
"Fifteen minutes early is not 'on time.'"
The five of us had just started for the gate when a voice came from the side.
"Um... excuse me?"
Two explorers, college-aged or so, were looking this way, phones in hand.
"Are you, by any chance, the Dungeon Strolls guy?"
My heart jumped.
To those who know, apparently, it shows. The voice Osawa and I were goofing around with just now, or my build.
Steady. I got taught this only yesterday.
Open and confident. Smile, one word, keep walking.
"Thank you very much."
I smiled and gave a small bow.
And kept right on walking toward the gate.
"Ah — um — a photo, maybe—"
"Sorry — I'm off the clock today."
One more smile, no looking back.
Beside me, Miyake casually adjusted the shield on his back and slid himself between me and the two of them. Osawa called out, deliberately loud: "Saku! Let's gooo!"
Through the gate, inside the door — only then did I breathe out.
"I-I did it."
"That was flawless, just now."
Fujidou, low again.
"That was professional-grade handling!"
"Right? Straight from my big sis."
"The S-rank big sis delivers!"
And, somehow, I felt a tiny bit proud.
A five-man dive — first in three weeks.
Last time, we pushed to Floor 12 and called it: "Next target — Floor 25."
"Today's the day — Floor 25!"
Miyake raised his shield.
"We're registering that transfer circle!"
"YEAH!"
The Moriyama dungeon is F-rank.
From where I stand at Lv100 — honestly, the monsters look stopped in place.
So today, I had an assignment.
Holding back.
"Saku, right!"
"On it."
I stepped in at the goblin coming from the right.
Half a beat late — so as not to overcommit.
Cut.
Light — so as not to overcut.
The goblin became sand.
"Nice!"
"That one was good."
Osawa and Miyake threw up their hands.
"Woooo."
Smack, smack. High-fives with both of them. Even a pulled punch feels honestly good when it earns praise.
Good. Not caught.
Probably.
"Saku."
Fujidou raised his face from his terminal.
"That step-in just now. You delayed it on purpose."
"Wha—"
"Half a beat. On the entry."
Caught.
"Y-you're imagining things!"
"I see."
Fujidou said nothing more.
He typed something into his terminal, looked up again, faced forward.
He doesn't ask.
Grateful — and terrifying.
But even holding back — it was fun.
"Three! Two front, one left!"
"Taking them."
"Firing."
"Left — going in."
"I take the leakers!"
Of the two up front, one stood a head taller than the rest. Hauling a thick club up like a shoulder-slung bat, winding back for a swing.
Miyake stepped up, shield set.
GONK — a heavy sound rolled down the passage.
Miyake took the club square and his feet skidded back. The second goblin leapt onto the shield's rim, shoving, shoving from the side.
The shield tilted.
My feet nearly moved on their own.
No. Wait.
Miyake ground his teeth and sank his hips. The skidding feet stopped.
"Still good! I've got this!"
"Osawa, drop the left one. The big one up front."
Fujidou's voice, as ever, was short.
"Got it!"
Osawa cut short his step toward the left. He swung wide around the shield's blind side and came out behind the big goblin. Twin swords flashed twice, back to back.
The goblin's knees dropped out from under it.
"Firing!"
Yamabuki's fire wrapped the one still clinging to the shield, from the side.
In that gap, the last one on the left slipped past Miyake's flank.
There. My turn.
Half a beat late, I stepped in. Cut light.
I watched it turn to sand, spun around — and caught Miyake ramming shield-first, toppling the big one where it knelt. Osawa's twin swords came down on its neck as it fell.
Three goblins' worth of sand scattered down the passage.
Miyake lowered the shield and let out a long breath. His left arm was still trembling.
"We stopped that one. Just now."
"We stopped it!"
Osawa and Miyake bumped fists.
In the end, I never had to step into Miyake's fight.
Without me, they still stopped it.
And somehow that made me as happy as if it had been my own doing.
Five voices rang through the passage.
Nothing like diving alone. Nothing like diving as the King, or with the soldier, either.
Someone takes the hit, someone whittles them down, someone fires, and I finish them off. With the guys I've known since middle school, moving forward as one shape.
Past Floor 15.
Past Floor 20.
Everyone's levels had climbed a good way, too. Osawa twenty-seven, Miyake twenty-five. Yamabuki twenty-six — and Fujidou didn't say.
"Fujidou — you're not saying yours?"
"You don't say yours, Saku."
"How is that related?"
"It's related."
And just barely, Fujidou's mouth-corner rose.
And then — Floor 25.
At the bottom of the stairs, in the floor of a broad chamber, lay a faintly glowing circle.
"...There it is."
Miyake whispered it.
"The transfer circle!"
"IT'S HEEERE!"
Osawa roared, Yamabuki bounced, Miyake hurled his shield away, and Fujidou caught the shield on its way down.
Me — I had an arm around Osawa's shoulders, bouncing right along with him.
"Miyake, no throwing the shield."
"Too happy NOT to!"
The five of us took turns holding our Guild cards over it.
A chirp — and a display came up.
Moriyama dungeon, Floor 25 — transfer circle registered
"YESSSS!"
Five voices' worth of shouting filled the chamber.
Mine included.
Akazu's Floor 50 was far deeper. I killed something far stronger there.
But today's Floor 25 carried a happiness nothing like that one.
A target the five of us set — achieved by the five of us.
And that felt unbelievably good.
For the trip back, we rode the freshly registered transfer circle straight to the surface.
Evening, by the station, we filed into a ramen shop. Same shop as three weeks ago, and once again Miyake added chashu.
"Next stop, Floor 50!"
"The deepest floor of an F-rank."
"Think we'll make it by summer break?"
"We'll make it, we'll make it. Absolutely."
Amid the general hype, Yamabuki happened to glance my way.
"Come to think of it — Saku, you're the Dungeon Strolls guy, right?"
I sprayed my soup.
"W-why THAT, why NOW?!"
"Well — I've been wanting to ask the whole time. It's just, mid-dive we were all focused."
"We watched it too. That."
Osawa pointed his chopsticks at me, grinning hard.
"'Gather, light. Banish the night, scorch the shadows, leave no trace.'"
"STOP."
"Miyake — you hear that? Say it to his face and THIS is the reaction you get."
"I heard it! I HEARD it!"
"Seriously, knock it off — my ramen's going soggy."
The four of them were dying.
Embarrassing. Mortally embarrassing.
But — why is it.
Being laughed at by these guys didn't really sting.
Middle school was the same. I'd do something dumb, and these guys would laugh with everything they had. And somehow, that made it feel forgiven.
"But hey."
Osawa said it, wiping the tears of laughing too hard.
"It was cool. That thing. Genuinely."
"Huh — for real?"
"You gouged a wall, right? World first. I bragged about it in class. To my middle-school friends, even."
"Again with that. Well — can't say it feels bad."
"It SHOULD feel bad!"
Miyake and Yamabuki nodded along.
Fujidou alone slurped his ramen in silence.
But he was smiling. Just a little.
Golden Week, Day Two.
Today was karaoke with the high-school crew.
"Ichinose-kun, he's here!"
Outside the karaoke place by the station, Yano was waving. Horiguchi, Nishino, Kuzumi, and Matoba were all there too.
"Morning."
"It's already NOON!"
"Good morning, then."
"You didn't have to correct it!"
At the desk, writing my name, I caught the clerk looking at my face — eyes widening, just a little.
Ah. Caught, maybe.
But the clerk said nothing. Just smiled brightly, said "Take your time and enjoy," and handed over the tab.
A professional.
Big sis's "carry yourself openly" — this, probably, is what it meant. If I act normal, they'll keep it normal too.
Into the room.
Same as last time: everyone started off singing their own picks. Yano belted the current idol hit with full-power choreography, Matoba filmed it, Horiguchi fell asleep partway.
"Horiguchi, wake up!"
"...Wasn't sleeping."
"You were SO sleeping."
Nishino passed the Denmoku over.
"Ichinose-kun — harmonize with Kuzumi again! Last time was amazing!"
"Oh — I'm in. Kuzumi, you good?"
"...Good."
Kuzumi took the mic without a word.
Same song as last time.
The second the intro started, Matoba raised his phone.
"Don't film it."
"Filming!"
It got filmed.
But once we started singing, none of that mattered anymore.
Kuzumi's low voice and mine layered together. At the last chorus, Kuzumi went up. I held the bottom.
We finished — and the room went quiet for a second, and then the applause came.
"Insane!"
"Are you two BETTER than last time?"
"Did you two practice?"
"Nope, nope."
"...Nope."
My eyes met Kuzumi's.
And just barely, Kuzumi's mouth-corner rose.
Break time. I was pouring juice at the drink bar when Yano came up beside me.
"Hey. Ichinose-kun."
"Hm? What's up?"
"Were you at a dungeon yesterday too?"
"I was. Moriyama, with my middle-school friends."
"Moriyama's F-rank, right?"
"Yep. We made Floor 25 and registered the transfer circle. All five of us!"
As I talked, my voice kept getting louder and louder.
"At first we were all over the place, but partway through the roles started locking together. Miyake takes them on the shield, Osawa loops around, Yamabuki fires, and I clean up whatever leaks through. And when that all clicked — the feeling, I just — I can't even—"
Before I knew it, I was gesturing with my whole body.
Yano was watching me, fixedly.
"Ah — sorry. Derailed into rambling again."
"No, no."
Yano stood there, paper cup held in both hands, with something like a thinking face.
"Ichinose-kun — when you talk about dungeons, you really do look happy."
"I do?"
"You do. Your face is completely different."
Yano took a sip from her cup.
"...Are dungeons really that much fun?"
"They're fun!"
Instant answer.
"Unbelievably fun."
"...Hmmm."
Yano said nothing more.
But all the way back to the room, she stayed quiet — like she was turning something over.
Evening. We broke up in front of the karaoke place.
"Ichinose-kun — from tomorrow it's all dungeons?"
"All dungeons. Glorious, right?"
"I see. Stay safe out there!"
"Yeah. Thanks."
"...Ichinose-kun."
"Hm?"
Yano started to say something — and stopped.
"...It's nothing. See you!"
Waving, Yano walked off toward the station.
What was that about?
Well. Whatever.
On the train home, I opened my phone.
From tomorrow — the real thing.
Day Three of Golden Week through the day before the last: all Toda. The target — Floor 150 of a designated dungeon.
I opened Tritter and searched: Dungeon Strolls stakeouts.
Again today, photos were up of crowds gathered at one D-rank or another. Golden Week, maybe — it felt like more than before.
But yesterday and today had taught me something.
Even with people around, it's manageable.
Toda is the designated dungeon everyone gunning for C-rank gravitates to. There will probably be loads of people. Maybe even people waiting specifically because they think I'll come.
But if there are people — I dive openly as Dungeon Strolls. And once I'm deep enough that they thin out, there I become the King.
Either way: I can dive.
"Heh."
In the train window, my own grinning face was reflected.
Calling big sis's five fingers back to mind, I started checking the map for tomorrow's route to Toda.