chapter02 · 052-ep52
Episode 52: Black Shell Destroyed
【Honoka-sama】The Thread for Folding Paper Cranes and Praying for Japan's Peace, Part 100【Congratulations!】
57 Passing-by Anon
I'm so glad everything worked out, desu wa!
This might be the ten-thousandth time I've said it, but congratulations, Honoka-sama, desu no!
58 Passing-by Anon
Even with the eyes of this Reihaku ojou-sama, I couldn't foresee Honoka-sama unexpectedly landing a better job at the Anti-Dungeon Division...
59 Passing-by Anon
What CAN you ever foresee, though
60 Passing-by Anon
Her eyes are prosthetics, see...
61 Passing-by Anon
Well, to be fair, nobody could've seen THAT coming lol
And the biggest surprise of all was the commissioner-general collab lol
62 Passing-by Anon
Literally nobody could've predicted THAT lmao
62 Passing-by Anon
If you could, you'd have to be a time traveler, desu no!
63 Passing-by Anon
Even if somebody did predict it, they'd probably get called insane by everyone
63 Passing-by Anon
Speaking of, there was a joke thread like that lol
"I've come from the future, and there's no need to worry. Honoka-sama gets a new job with the Metropolitan Police Anti-Dungeon Division, Karin ojou-sama collabs with the police commissioner-general, and everything works out. Rest easy, everyone!"
"Are you nuts?"
"Time for your medicine, desu wa~"
"If you're gonna lie, at least make it believable"
"You have no talent as a time traveler, desu wa"
"Why don't you start over from your mother's womb?"
64 Passing-by Anon
Lmao
65 Passing-by Anon
Hiring all those <Divine Artisan> users was a god-tier response already, but dragging out the commissioner-general for a collab too... The police must be thinking of cleaning up not just Black Shell, but all the dungeon crime and delinquent clans they've been too understaffed to deal with. That stream was practically a declaration they'd joined forces with ojou-sama
66 Passing-by Anon
They can hardly send a minor from outside the force to arrest criminals, but just knowing Karin ojou-sama's behind them is one hell of a deterrent...
67 Passing-by Anon
It's not that the police have Karin ojou-sama backing them up—wait, it IS that. The police are the ones being backed up lmao
68 Passing-by Anon
Power! Power solves everything, desu no!
With power, there is nothing to fear, desu wa!
69 Passing-by Anon
Was Karin ojou-sama's muscle-brain wisdom right all along...?
70 Passing-by Anon
Seriously, I'm grateful to ojou-sama
A few days ago I never dreamed I'D find such an amazing new workplace
71 Passing-by Anon
! That voice... could it be my friend from another thread, 'Neglected <Divine Artisan> User 980'?
72 Passing-by Anon
Yep yep. I can't say much or prove it's really me, since I shouldn't write anything careless
But you listened to me vent, so here's a little update, desu no
73 Passing-by Anon
For real? Congrats!
74 Passing-by Anon
Not just Honoka-sama—you too! Congratulations, desu wa!?
75 Passing-by Anon
Thank you, desu wa!
My old workplace tried desperately to keep me by lecturing me about how rewarding the work was (without raising my pay), but the Anti-Dungeon Division was so sincere I changed jobs at the speed of light, desu no!
76 Passing-by Anon
Serves your old workplace right lol
77 Passing-by Anon
Why do these companies always make such stupid moves... (´•ω•`)
78 Passing-by Anon
If they were smart, they wouldn't have run a workplace their employees wanted to leave in the first place...
79 Passing-by Anon
Well, I still don't know if I'll manage at the Anti-Dungeon Division, but that's my news for now. I pledge lifelong loyalty to the police and ojou-sama, desu wa!
80 Passing-by Anon
That's the spirit, desu wa!
81 Passing-by Anon
Seriously, congrats, desu no!
82 Passing-by Anon
Come to think of it, hiring <Divine Artisan> users with incredible prospects AND maximum loyalty makes this a genuinely brilliant policy lmao
83 Passing-by Anon
Thinking someone came up with this overnight and persuaded all the relevant offices is terrifying AND reassuring, desu wa!
84 Passing-by Anon
I'm so glad everyone's happy, desu no!
All that's left is what'll happen to the cause of it all, Black Shell!
85 Passing-by Anon
Their downfall's guaranteed. Question is when and what it'll look like
86 Passing-by Anon
Oh, looks like there's breaking news—
●
Let's rewind a little, to before Honoka's hiring by the Anti-Dungeon Division was confirmed.
"H-heh heh heh. Made it back alive somehow. That useless girl finally did a good job holding up the enhanced variant."
The Black Shell members who'd abandoned Honoka returned from the dungeon with smug grins. To the guards they blandly reported that an irregular enhanced variant had killed a party member, and urged them to issue an alert so other explorers could flee.
They returned to the clan office, wondering how they'd explain losing a <Divine Artisan> user to their clan master. But just then—
"YOU BASTARDS! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?"
"Huh? GAAAAH!?"
The level-600 party leader who'd dragged Honoka to the lower layers was punched in the face and sent flying. The man who'd hit him was their level-900 clan master, a former Black Tiger member.
"Gah—huh!? Wh-what was that for!?"
"Don't you dare ask! What the hell is THIS!?"
The middle-aged clan master, face twisted with rage, thrust a tablet at the wide-eyed, bloody-nosed party leader. Onscreen was a clip of Japan's most famous dungeon streamer, Karin Yamada. It showed Black Shell members hurling abuse at Honoka as they abandoned her and fled.
While the party leader stared at the video, already viewed millions of times, the clan master frothed.
"You idiots...! Abandoning the brat with <Divine Artisan> is one thing, but since when did you become stupid enough to do it on a STREAM!? I told you a thousand times: do whatever you want in a dungeon, but watch out for streamers who'll broadcast the evidence before we can bury it!"
"...!? N-no, obviously we WERE careful! We'd run into an irregularity, remember! Even while I was panicking, I was paying closer attention to our surroundings than usual! There wasn't a single sign of a person nearby! No way we got caught on a streamer's camera!"
Especially if that streamer was Karin Yamada. They couldn't possibly have missed her nearby. Out in daily life, perhaps—but a monster with that kind of combat power couldn't charge around a dungeon without even leaking a trace of mana. Anything that could wasn't human.
Yet their outrage had clearly been broadcast without the party leader or his companions noticing a thing. The internet was overflowing with condemnation of Black Shell.
"N-no, but we don't have to panic yet!" the party leader said, trying to calm his clan master. "We must've gotten caught on camera somehow, sure. But no matter how big an online firestorm gets, if we dodge the questions or ignore it, we can ride it out!"
What people hated most was evil that went unpunished. That was why so many people piled into a firestorm and attacked the guilty party relentlessly. But they also hated seeing that punishment endlessly delayed. Feed them specious arguments and keep evading their accusations, and eventually they'd get sick of waiting for the satisfying moment that never came. They'd leave. No matter how fierce a firestorm, it would die out in under a month.
"Threaten that little weakling a bit and she'll withdraw her accusations. Besides, we have Black Tiger backing us. Keep calm and it'll blow over."
Black Tiger was one of Japan's strongest clans, with powerful influence in politics, business, the media, and even the Dungeon Bureau. Black Shell, as a subordinate organization handing over hefty subsidies day after day, was a valuable source of funds. Of course Black Tiger would protect them.
Karin Yamada might be a monster, but she was just a kaiju with brute force. Go●zilla could destroy a city, but it couldn't legally shut down a clan. No matter how hard the internet tried to burn them, if they simply waited it out, they'd escape.
So the Black Shell members confidently assumed. In less than twenty-four hours, though, everything changed.
"""""........................Huh?????"""""
The absurd leap in ability made by the brat they'd always thought would stay a weakling.
The Anti-Dungeon Division's emergency recruitment, obviously launched to protect Honoka and prevent Karin Yamada from forming her outrageous clan.
And finally, the commissioner-general himself collabing with that monster, tacitly demonstrating they wouldn't go easy on Black Shell.
They couldn't understand what was happening to them. Black Shell's members, assembled at their office to coordinate their next steps, had gone pale.
"...H-hey. This is seriously bad, isn't it...?"
"S-so what if it is!?" the party leader roared at the officers voicing their fears. "I told you yesterday, Black Tiger has our backs! Even if the police get serious now, it's not like they can just—"
The phone of the blue-faced, trembling clan master rang. It was Black Tiger's clan master, Kuroi.
"There we go! Follow the orders from up top and we'll be safe for now!" the party leader cheered. Then—
"It's such a shame... that a clan run by one of our former members was managed so terribly."
Kuroi's theatrically pained voice came through the phone.
"But while there's life, there are countless chances to reform. I hope you'll own up to your crimes and start afresh."
Click.
"Huh...?" The party leader stared in disbelief. "H-hey, what was that...?"
"They've cut us loose..." The Black Shell clan master slumped, his voice hoarse. "We hand over a great deal in subsidies, but we're not worth protecting at the cost of making enemies of the public and the police. That's what he means."
"...Huh?" The party leader stood there, dumbstruck. A moment later he shook with rage.
"Those bastards! They've skimmed our subsidies all this time, and NOW they do this!? Fine, then we've got ways of—"
"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, YOU IDIOT!?"
The clan master, who'd been slumped in defeat, punched the party leader in the face with far more force than the day before.
"Are you thinking of taking revenge on Kuroi!? You do that and it's not just your life in danger—mine is too! Getting arrested would be a hundred times better! Everything's over because of YOU! Don't you dare make things any worse!"
DOGOH! BAKI! GUSHHH!
"H-hey, are we really and truly screwed...?"
"Run! First, blast the office with magic, destroy anything that could be evidence, then—"
The sight of their half-crazed clan master continuing to beat the party leader finally drove the officers to prepare to go into hiding. But—
"Nobody move!"
As though they'd been waiting for that cue, the office door was kicked down. A flood of powerful people poured in, each radiating mana that put even level 1000 to shame.
"Yep, we've confirmed an attempt to destroy evidence! Emergency situation—unfortunately we'll have to beat you down!"
"For the sake of our †savior†, I'll make sure to legally beat—arrest every last one of you!"
"Tsk, no choice! If they're caught trying to fire magic in the middle of the city, a little rough treatment can't be helped, can it!?"
"Sigh... If only we got arrest warrants this quickly all the time, I'd have a lot less work to do."
""""AAAAAAAHHHHHH!?""""
The Metropolitan Police Department Criminal Affairs Division's Anti-Dungeon Division had deployed overwhelming force to a case in which, for many reasons, they could not allow anyone to escape or destroy evidence. The overkill-level team had secretly surrounded the office even before Karin's collab stream, and every last member of Black Shell was crushed.
On suspicion of abandoning a low-level explorer they'd forced into the lower layers of a dungeon, and with minor offenses hastily substantiated as grounds for arrest on separate charges, they were taken into custody in battered condition. Then the harsh questioning began, aimed at extracting the other crimes that would take longer to prove, including subsidy fraud and the exploitation of minors.
Later, school officials connected to Honoka were thoroughly pressed at a stormy parent-teacher meeting and joined them in answering for their crimes—but that's another story.
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Next time: the sleepover episode.