chapter03 · 063-ep63
Episode 61: Confession
BOH!!!!
Karin's four slashes cut a perfect square out of the dungeon-wall ceiling of the lower layers. Reaching from her position on floor 2 to floor 1 of the lower layers, they instantly opened a shortcut wide enough for one person. But that meant a massive weight had been cut loose, and an incredibly heavy square column came falling down.
"HNNGH!"
Karin caught the severed wall with both arms. She absorbed the impact completely with the spring of her body, gently set it in a nearby passage, and leapt straight into the square hole. Kicking off the smooth-cut wall, she shot up to the floor above.
【WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?】
【WHAT WAS THAAAAAAAAAAT, DESU WA!?】
【She cut a hole in the lower-layer ceiling to make a shortcut!?】
【Huh!? Is she seriously on floor 1 of the lower layers already!?】
【What the hell just happened!?】
【Did she cut the dungeon wall without a sound or even an impact!?】
【She's literally cutting a path for herself!】
【Do you know how THICK the walls between floors are!?!?!?】
【How far do those slashes penetrate!?!?!?】
【The slash is crazy, but why is she casually catching the fallen wall and setting it gently aside!?】
【Don't give us 'HNNGH,' desu wa!?!?!?】
【That much dungeon wall must weigh TENS OF TONS!?!?!?】
【It's not STYROFOAM!?】
【I mean, she swung a large chimera around. Guess she could do this too!】
【Wait, look at her sword! That's not Chupacabra, is it!?】
【When did she make another giant sword that silently slices through dungeon walls, not just monsters!?】
【Just how much gear is Karin ojou-sama hiding!?】
【But whatever, this is GREAT, isn't it!?】
【Can she reach them before anybody dies now...!?】
【Even with no shock, is the dungeon going to be okay after this!?】
"Not a problem! Dungeon walls have dense mana running through them! I know exactly where and how to cut without causing a collapse or affecting anything else, and I know there are no people in the path of my slashes!"
She said it without hesitation and sliced through the wall again—BOH! She pressed onward along her forcibly created shortest route.
"So, everyone trapped down there! Rest assured! I am taking the shortest route to you as Elegantly as can be! Don't panic—stay calm! That is the Elegant way for all of us to survive!"
"K-Karin ojou-sama...!"
"She's such a monster I started laughing even now..."
"W-we'll all stay alive and meet you, Karin ojou-sama!"
"That's the spirit! No matter how many passages are blocked, I shall reach the upper layers in no time!"
Karin declared it with her usual Elegant smile. Yet the simple distance between the lower and upper layers remained. If she could smash everything in her way without worrying about further damage, that would be one thing. With her present method, even the shortest route would take a fair amount of time. And if another irregularity occurred...
(Please hold on, Mitsuki-sama, guides, everyone at the lesson...!)
She concealed the thought and even laughed aloud to keep the participants' spirits up. Ignoring the concurrents climbing at a terrifying rate—one million, then 1.2 million—Karin rushed toward the upper layers as fast as she possibly could.
〇
"...!?"
As Mitsuki cut down the endless monsters pouring from the passage ahead, she'd noticed a change behind her. The participants, previously on the verge of panic, had grown a little calmer despite their fear. She no longer had to keep as close an eye on them, which made fighting somewhat easier.
(The surface should still have a signal... Has a major clan or the guild answered the call for help and made a hopeful announcement...?)
With monster roars drowning out the participants, she couldn't tell what they were seeing or hearing. Several theories crossed her mind, but even with the fighting a little easier, the guides had no time whatsoever to check.
(...! It hasn't even been that long since the fighting started! How are we already this exhausted against upper- and middle-layer monsters, even if they're enraged...!?)
A level-900 explorer, discounting safety margins, was normally strong enough to begin solo exploration of the lower layers. Three such explorers shouldn't struggle with mere hordes from the upper and middle layers. Mitsuki in particular had exceptional fighting ability even among level-900 explorers, thanks to the masterful swordsmanship she'd practiced from childhood. Normally, endless upper- and middle-layer monsters flooding out of a passage wouldn't cost her a drop of sweat.
But this wasn't a normal dungeon expedition.
"! A pack is getting past us at ten o'clock! Stop them!"
"Heat lizards preparing a simultaneous volley! Brace yourselves!"
"Fly caterpillars! Watch for their needles! Don't let a single one past! Kill them first!"
They couldn't simply dodge the monsters as they appeared, but had to cut down every last one. They had to chase down and kill any monster approaching the participants from any angle. Needles they could ordinarily dodge had to be knocked from the air. Heat lizard fireballs had to be dispersed by force with the pressure of their sword swings.
Behind them were children who had only just gained their first levels, or injured people without levels at all. There was no convenient thing like a healing potion, and some were seriously hurt. Let just one attack through, and it could be fatal. The guides had to watch every direction at full intensity to prevent it.
In a battle permitting not a single mistake, their mental stamina drained as fast as their mana. Three level-900 guides could barely maintain the balance. And with no rescue in sight no matter how long they fought, the dim underground chamber ground away at their will.
But—
(...! Their spirits have picked up again...!?)
Perhaps a major clan had formed a rescue team, or they'd brought in someone extraordinarily strong. Mitsuki, pouring everything she had into combat, still had no time to work it out. Yet—
(Now I can give all my attention to attack and defense...! With our level-900 stamina, we can grit our teeth and keep this balance for a whole day...!)
Even after a day, there was little chance help would arrive. One mistake could still kill someone. But the eased fighting and the hope she sensed from the participants encouraged Mitsuki and the other guides to steel themselves to protect everyone to the bitter end.
That was when the dungeon—or perhaps someone else's malice—bared its fangs.
Tap.
In the middle of the fierce battle, it was almost too small a disturbance to notice. Just a few little pebbles dropping from a gap in the blocked ceiling, shaken loose by the combat, monster cries and vibrations.
But the moment Mitsuki and the others whipped around toward the strange mana inside those tiny scarlet stones, a heat lizard fired a fireball at them as if aiming deliberately. The blood drained from all three guides' faces.
"Wa—!"
They moved almost by reflex. They should have fled from the stones, but instead the guides activated their skills without regard for their own safety.
DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
The enormous shock blew away the guides who'd shielded the participants, and Mitsuki, who'd run to deflect the fireball.
Blast stones had exploded. Fortunately there were only a few small fragments, so the blast caused no further large-scale collapse. But blast stones contained enough force to critically injure a lower-layer boss. Even the blast wave from a few small pieces could seriously hurt abnormally tough level-900 explorers.
"Ah... ngh..."
Mitsuki groaned where she'd landed. The other two guides collapsed in agony as well, having bought the participants' safety with their own bodies. Though they hadn't suffered severe burns or lost limbs, the blast had injured them so badly they could barely stand.
"Mitsuki-chan!"
"Nitta-san! Arakawa-san!"
"No, this can't...!"
Without the cries of the participants, somehow unharmed, they might have lost consciousness. And no monster would take pity on them.
""""GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAH!""""
The fresh scent of blast stone drove the monsters into a greater frenzy. Replacing those knocked aside by the explosion, more charged madly from the passage. A march of despair. Nevertheless—
"U-AAAAAAAAH!"
Mitsuki stood. She gripped her sword and unleashed the swordsmanship she'd cultivated on the monsters.
(Not yet...! As long as I'm alive, I won't let anyone die! The Shijou family of every generation would do the same—and so would Karin ojou-sama!)
She cut. Cut again. Slashed through monsters advancing amid sprays of blood.
"—! We can't keep saying we'll only get in the way if we try anything! We have to fight instead of just defending! If we start with the few upper-layer monsters Mitsuki-chan misses, maybe...!"
"Just a few of us need to gain levels! Then we could help even a little...!"
"Hold on just a bit longer, and surely...!"
Out of options, the participants made up their minds and began to fight alongside Mitsuki. But—
"Ah...?"
Mitsuki reached her limit first. Her knees buckled as if her strings had been cut. Her body had no strength left; she could barely hold her sword. The damage from the explosion had been more severe than she'd realized. It was already far beyond what duty and sheer will could compensate for.
"""GRRRROOOOOH!"""
The instant she fell, monsters rushed past her toward the participants.
"Ah... ngh... I'm sorry... I wasn't strong enough..."
An apology escaped Mitsuki for failing to protect them. And of course, sharp claws came down toward her as well.
(If only... I'd apologized properly to Karin ojou-sama back then—)
At the brink of death, Mitsuki started to close her eyes on that regret.
ZWAP!
"Huh...?"
A slash shot up from beneath the floor and split the monsters about to finish her vertically in two. And they weren't the only ones. Every monster poised to attack the participants was cut vertically down the middle an instant before impact. Finally, the dungeon-wall floor itself was cut into a perfect square. The severed floor dropped away without a sound, and—
"That was CLOSE! There were, like, three brushes with disaster, not just one, desu wa!"
An ojou-sama in a dress burst out of the hole.
"...........................What?"
Mitsuki thought at first she was seeing a convenient hallucination before death. How else could her favorite person cut through the dungeon wall and appear at the very moment she was going to die? But the girl had a presence no hallucination could possess.
"Good, everyone made it somehow!? In that case, time to murder these monsters—pardon me, tidy them away, desu wa!"
"""GRYAAAAAAAAAH!?"""
Before a stunned Mitsuki, Karin went on a rampage. She now held Famous Sword Chupacabra-chan rather than the sword she'd used to cut the wall, its edge growing sharper as it drank blood. A punch that smashed monsters to bits might send fragments into the participants, so she refrained. Instead she silently sliced through them, her dress swirling as she danced across the battlefield and wiped out the horde in moments.
"""GRRRRROOOOOH!!!"""
More enraged monsters charged from deeper in the passage, but—
"These endless spawns are SO DAMN ANNOYING, desu waaaaa!"
ZWAP!
With the other huge sword, Karin cut through the dungeon wall. At the same time as opening a route to the surface, she casually lifted the wall she'd cut loose and carried it at breakneck speed to block the passage the monsters were charging down.
"Phew! We must stay on our guard, but for now we can return to the surface without those crazed monsters interrupting us! You all held out wonderfully! Every one of you here was damn well Elegant, desu no!"
"...!?"
Mitsuki seriously wondered if it was a hallucination after all. This was too outrageous to be real. But the burst of cheers told her it was.
"W-AAAAAAAAH! Karin ojou-samaaaaa!"
"She really came... she really did...!"
"We're saved...? Really...?"
"Ahaha... she actually cut through a dungeon wall..."
【WHAAAAA! SHE MADE IT IN TIME!】
【When the second lot of blast stones went off, I seriously thought it was over...】
【No way...!?】
【AAAAAAAAH! KARIN OJOU-SAMA KARIN OJOU-SAMA KARIN OJOU-SAMAAAA!】
【You're the best ojou-sama ever, apart from being completely out of your mind!】
【How'd she cut monsters through a dungeon wall!?】
【I mean, she's obviously cutting through a thick wall WAY farther than her blade reaches, so why not...】
【Ever seen a flying slash?】
【On the internet】
【That doesn't explain SHIT, desu wa!? But everyone survived, so who cares about details!】
【Oh, I get it! Open a path to the surface, and use the cut-out dungeon wall to block the passage the crazed monsters are coming from! Simple, desu no????】
【Flawless solution! As long as you ignore that nobody but Karin ojou-sama could pull it off!】
【Nobody's even calling out how Karin ojou-sama seems to have mangled 'brush with disaster' or how her thug side's spilling out all over the place—it's TOO incredible!】
Now that the monsters were gone, Mitsuki could finally hear the participants. They had clearly known Karin was coming. So the source of their hope—the person who'd been encouraging them all this time—had been...
"Oh, Mitsuki-sama! Thank goodness!"
Karin rushed to her as Mitsuki finally began to accept this was real. Taking Mitsuki's hand with a radiant smile, she said, "I saw some of your fight! I made it here because of everyone's efforts, and because you kept fighting until the very last moment, Mitsuki-sama!"
"Huh, ah..."
"You truly didn't give up, even at the end! That was the very height of Elegance!"
Those words finally broke through everything Mitsuki had been holding inside.
"Ah, ah, aaaaaah... Karin ojou-samaaaaa!"
She resisted hugging Karin with the last of her reason, unwilling to dirty her dress. Instead, she clung to her hand and sobbed.
"Oh, my... I've made someone older than me cry again... You really did try so hard."
【Oho~】
【Oh, this is GOOD~】
【Mitsuki-sama didn't seem to like Karin ojou-sama, but I sense enemies-to-lovers yuri...!】
【The sound of my brain healing~!】
【Yes! More classic stuff like this, desu wa!】
【Careful! Her best friend will get so jealous it'll be as humid as rainy season!】
【And there's Honoka-sama now too!】
【Yuri triangles, quadrangles—there's no such thing as too many】
【Best friend: 'There IS, damn it (# ﾟДﾟ)'】
Karin blushed at being cried on. Chat, after nervously watching a situation that could have killed any number of people, erupted with relief.
But the next moment—overwhelmed by emotion beyond all reason, still clinging to Karin—Mitsuki cried out:
"AAAAAAAAH! You really, really came and saved us... even though it's MY fault you became the Fist-Fuck Ojou-sama, Karin ojou-samaaaaa!"
"Fwuh!?"
【!?】
【!?】
【!?】
【HUH!?】
"I'm sorryyyyy! I'm sorry I posted 'Fist Fuck' in the commentssss!"
"W-wait, Mitsuki-sama!? What are you saying!? The camera is still rolling!"
"I've wanted to apologize foreverrrrr! But I was afraid if the Karin ojou-sama I love hated me, I couldn't go on living, so I kept putting it off and acting weird...! And then you came to save ME...! Even though I made such an amazing streamer as you into the Fist-Fuck Ojou-samaaaaa!"
"Mitsuki-samaaaaa! Please listen! TWO MILLION PEOPLE ARE WATCHING RIGHT NOW!"
【Uh, wait, WHAT!?】
【What is this!? What is happening!?】
【What is Mitsuki-sama SAYING!?】
【Where did that precious moment go!?】
【Mitsuki-sama's panic has taken a turn so far out of left field lmao】
【Wait, IS she panicking!?】
【As a longtime Mitsuki-chan fan, I'M about to panic seeing her so out of character????????】
【Oho~????????????????????】
【Yuri fans AND Mitsuki-sama fans are going nuts lmao】
【Forget yuri fans and Mitsuki-sama fans, EVERYONE is freaking out!】
【S-so what the hell does all this MEAN!?】
【Uh, from what Mitsuki-sama said, she was already a Karin ojou-sama fan, but she also wrote that Fist Fuck comment and had no idea how to act around her... right????】
【So what the hell does all this MEEEEAN!?!?!?】
【I'm making the space-cat face right now, desu wa????】
【This is Unlimited Void at this point...】
【M-Mitsuki-chan would never post 'Fist Fuck'! Get real!】
【K-Karin ojou-sama is MAKING her say it. Yeah. Definitely】
【D-damn you, Karin Yamada...!】
【Mitsuki-sama fans are trying to escape reality and failing against a confession THAT emphatic lmao】
【I was about to type 'and then they kissed and lived happily ever after,' but I froze for several seconds at that plot twist】
"AAAAAAAAH! I'M the real Fist-Fuck Ojou-sama! So let me bear that disgrace from now on...! And if you ask, I'll even cut my stomach open to apologize, Karin ojou-samaaaaa!"
"M-Mitsuki-samaaaaa!? Please calm down! Don't bring it up AGAIN!"
—Despite that spectacular last-minute commotion, Karin escorted everyone out of the dungeon safely. Both the dramatic rescue and Mitsuki's subsequent apology stream, where she proved the Fist Fuck comment was hers by revealing her alt account's ID, made the internet explode for various reasons.
With viewers also flowing between their channels, Mitsuki reached six million subscribers and Karin eight million. Naturally, Karin didn't reproach Mitsuki for taking full responsibility for (part of) her disgrace and becoming 'Shin Fist-Fuck Ojou-sama.' With not a single casualty, the dungeon collapse incident ended happily for everyone.
—But elsewhere...
【Man, Karin ojou-sama's incredible. Zero casualties AGAIN? That's insane】
【Yeah, that Karin Yamada person is impressive. But... doesn't it all seem a bit too convenient?】
【Thought so too. If it were just the dungeon collapse, maybe, but then the incident with the corrupt clan abandoning someone, and this cave-in... Does one person normally run into that much? Especially so quickly?】
【Twice, maybe, but three times is a bit...】
【It's honestly pretty suspicious】
【Could Karin Yamada have... staged all of this herself?】
【Possible. We know for sure she can cause a cave-in. Maybe she can even trigger a dungeon collapse with some <Divine Artisan> item we can't imagine...】
【There WAS a reason, but keeping her stream up to encourage the participants when someone could've died any second felt pretty calculated...】
【Did she cause these huge incidents and pretend to be the hero just to gain subscribers?】
【Normally that'd be ridiculous, but with someone as beyond common sense as her... you know?】
【This is a serious allegation】
As most people celebrated Karin's feat and the birth of Shin Fist-Fuck Ojou-sama, posts like these began sprouting across the internet, everywhere and all at once, to an unnatural degree.
Accompanied by the vicious smile of a tiger hiding in the dark.
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I couldn't mention the new greatsword's name because of the length and structure of this episode, so I'll post a bonus short story about it tomorrow, desu wa!
Also, personally I don't like carrying stressful developments over multiple episodes, so I'm sorry, but the next main installment, episode 62, will be a huge 13,000-character update...!
And we've reached 15,000 stars and four million page views! Thank you so much, everyone, desu no! Your ratings and follows help bring in new readers too, and they're damn motivating, desu wa!