chapter01 · 002-ep2

Episode 2: The Dropkick Ojou-sama

The man stood at a spot still a good distance from Karin, muttering something at the dungeon's sturdy wall.

"Haah? A nuisance to my fellow adventurers? Who the hell d'you think you're talkin' to? This is the great Saiga Kagerou-sama, achieved a solo conquest of the lower layers at twenty-four, yeah? Any monsters that spawn, I'll mow every last one of 'em down in one hit. Unlike you lot, I've actually thought my cleanup through, see. 'Sides, only an idiot dives into the lower layers without plannin' for irregulars like monster stampedes in the first place. Aight, blowin' up the dungeon wall now~"

A tone that sneered at somebody, mocking and contemptuous.

But that muttering wasn't the real problem.

What the man held in his hand: an igniting flame. And bathed in its light, a crimson stone.

"Eh."

Karin's eyes flew wide as she made it out clearly from that distance.

Because that was a hazardous substance even Karin knew about.

The blast stone.

A rare dungeon-born mineral discovered only a few years ago, it unleashes tremendous destructive power from even a small quantity—all it needs is a flame. It could blow away even giant monsters with hardened carapaces, but it had one great flaw: the scent scattered by its explosion draws in monsters en masse and drives them berserk.

The Dungeon Bureau has issued repeated appeals to refrain from using it anywhere other than boss rooms—a hazardous substance notorious enough that even Karin, who's hopeless about the ways of the world, knows of it.

The instant she realized that very thing was about to be detonated in the dungeon's lower layers—

"Whatcha think you're DOIN', ORAAAAAAAAA!?"

"Hah? BWOOHHHHHHHHHHH!?"

DOGOOOOOON!

She had unleashed a blistering-fast dropkick.

Lighting a blast stone in the lower layers with no emergency to speak of—unquestionably the work of a terrorist-grade hoodlum. But even setting that aside, Karin was already on edge after having her stream branded a fake and then racking up a spectacular 0 concurrents.

And with not a moment to spare before ignition, she closed the distance between them to zero in an instant, kicking him flying with speed and mercilessness to spare.

"'The hell were you thinkin', desu no!? A blast stone in the lower layers—that's dangerous as hell! You got nothin' packed in that skull of yours, desu no!? HUHN!?"

Her ojou-sama speech fraying from sheer outrage, she seized the man by the collar where he'd been slammed into the wall, the blast stone fallen from his hand.

"Ngh!? Wha—!? Gahk!? Gahh!? Wh-what the—? Wh-who the hell're you, when did you—? Sneakin' in a cheap shot like that—do you have any idea who I—"

"Whoever you are, it makes no difference, desu wa!"

BOGOH!

"Guhaaah!?"

At Karin's headbutt, the man screamed once more.

Perhaps sensing his life was in danger, the man—'Why, you—!?'—gripped his weapon, fully braced for combat.

But—

"You would still resist, desu no!?"

DOGOON!

"GAHAAHAAAH!?"

Far faster than the man could swing his weapon, Karin's gut punch had detonated.

The impact knocked the weapon clean from his hands—but Karin, having sensed his killing intent a moment before, did not stop.

"Doing something this idiotic! You are an adult, are you not, desu wa!? Have you no shame toward the mother who hurt her lady parts bringin' you into this world, desu no!?"

DOGOH! BACHII! BESHII! DOGOH!

Gut punch, alternating slaps left and right, then a knee strike.

For several seconds straight, the blows of a lecturing Karin simply rained into the man.

"Oh my?"

"……"

Before she knew it, the man was thoroughly unconscious, and Karin abruptly came back to herself.

"Perhaps I overdid it just a touch... Well, this gentleman surely carries at least a first-aid potion or two, so I shall simply use one of those—wait, the only one not smashed by my gut punch!? Tch, how stingy of an adult explorer..."

Karin, who had read the state of the potions from the mana enveloping the man, let out a sigh.

"It cannot be helped, desu wa. By way of apology, I shall share just a little of the one and only potion I possess."

After retrieving the blast stone that had gone flying, Karin gave the man a single sip of the first-aid potion.

"Still... I had merely intended to stop him in an ordinary manner, yet he went and lost consciousness. One would think anyone in the lower layers could weather blows of that degree. How terribly weak he is, desu wa.... Hm? Weak?"

And in that moment—

Her calm restored, Karin suddenly arrived at a certain possibility.

A man who was, come to think of it, awfully weak. And on top of that, the deranged act of igniting a blast stone in the lower layers.

"H-huh? Could it be that he simply wandered into the lower layers through some irregularity and was in a state of panic...?"

The blood drained from Karin's entire body in a flash.

"Th-that's right, desu wa. Come to think of it, even supposing his aim was this 'flame bait'? or whatever it's called, no one would do something quite this foolish—and this area is close to the middle layers. Th-this person must be a lost soul from the middle layers!? I-in which case, however much he was about to detonate a blast stone, I have done something very wrong, desu no!"

Panicking, Karin poured every last drop of her precious potion into the man.

Even so, first-aid potions are not an instant cure, and perhaps owing to the sheer damage, the man showed no sign whatsoever of waking.

"I-I've gone and done it, desu wa!"

Man in her arms, Karin made a frantic escape from the dungeon.

She asked the guard at the dungeon entrance to look after him, and desperately explained how she had come to pummel a fellow streamer.

But despite her submitting the blast stone as material evidence, her story was somehow waved off, and no blame was laid.

Before she knew it, Karin had been carted to the hospital by ambulance alongside the man she'd clobbered, where the doctors' diagnoses came back: "Frighteningly healthy." "I heard he was in a state of confusion... so why are you here?" "Mind if we use you as a sample of a healthy sixteen-year-old female?" And so, tilting her head—"It defies understanding, desu wa...?"—she returned home without incident.

"I do not really understand what happened... but if there was no punishment for pummeling a fellow streamer, then I suppose there was no problem... It will be fine, will it not...?"

Home safe, Karin murmured as much over her belated dinner.

"But thank goodness it happened after I'd ended the stream, desu wa. It is true my way of stopping him turned rough, unavoidable as it was... There were ever so many moments where my words slipped a little—moments that would have shattered my oh-so-elegant image, after all."

Then again, with 0 concurrents, whether the stream was ended or not hardly made any difference either way... Well, whatever the case—all's well that ends well, desu wa.

Thinking such thoughts, worn out and relieved by all that had happened, Karin fell asleep almost the moment she was home.

—But at this moment, Karin had noticed nothing at all.

【Who the hell was that thug ojou-sama!?】

【Wait, Kagerou—strongest of the young generation—just got onesidedly wrecked!?】

【Also, why a dress in the LOWER LAYERS!?】

【Is she not, in fact, completely insane!?】

The man who'd been trying to blow up the labyrinth wall was 'Kagerou,' a nuisance streamer notorious in the scene... and the camera mounted on him had, miraculously, survived. His channel—riding the first-class flame bait of an attempted blast stone detonation to concurrents in the tens of thousands—had broadcast the whole affair from start to finish, ultimately recording concurrents far beyond a mere few tens of thousands, with the clips breaking several million views almost instantly.

And then there was the fact that, on Karin's end, the stream had never properly cut off—so her channel was identified in record time and the internet had erupted into festival mode.

"Sleeping soundly, desu wa!"—Karin, out like a light, still knew none of it.