ch261-ch280 · 267-ch267

Chapter 267: The Blood-Sucking Girl 【Nishino Miki】 Part 1

SIDE: Nishino Miki (the girl with the 【Blood Suck】 special skill)

"Hey, we're going again today?"

"Of course. We promised, remember—on days we don't have our shift, we earn money in the dungeon."

Some day before summer break. Today, too, my childhood friend Higashi Hina—Hina-chan—is apparently set on going to the dungeon.

Honestly, I don't want to go.

Last time a single hobgoblin put us through the wringer, and she STILL wants to go?

Besides, that promise was something Hina-chan decided all on her own.

Right now, with my part-time job at the Saitama Dungeon beach house nearly every day over summer break, I'd quit my old job, so my body is free.

That beach house job was also something Hina-chan just went and arranged herself.

She's always like this.

"Will Coco-sis be in today?"

Cherishing a faint hope, I enter the headquarters dungeon and head for Mia-san's shop.

If you leave weapons at the counter, picking them up means queueing and takes forever, so we keep our gear at Mia-san's shop.

Word is, once summer break ends, Coco-sis will get us hired here.

That said, I've only met Mia-san, the shop manager, a handful of times.

"Rumor is this shop's closing, you know?"

A shattering piece of news, delivered by the adventurer lady minding the shop.

Mia-san is apparently opening a new shop in the Chiba Dungeon, and this one is closing down.

The reason she hasn't shown her face here lately is that she's been going to Chiba......

Incidentally, Coco-sis wasn't there either.

Coco-sis has her own party, and she always goes into the dungeon with them.

She's probably deep inside somewhere today too.

"Then we'll just work at her Chiba shop, won't we? It's right there—no difference, right?"

Hina-chan is ever the optimist.

We don't have money.

Me, Hina-chan, and Coco-sis—Kokoa—grew up in the same children's welfare facility.

A facility where children who can't live with their parents for one reason or another live together.

In my case, my parents divorced over my father's affair. I was taken in by my mother—but when she remarried, I became an inconvenience, and off to the facility I went, happily ever after.

My mother had no relatives, and my father had already remarried his affair partner and refused to take me in.

There I met Hina-chan and Coco-sis.

The two of them had apparently been at the facility since before they could remember, and they'd grown up like true sisters.

In time, Coco-sis graduated high school, left the facility, and became an adventurer.

Lots of facility graduates become adventurers—then quit almost immediately, unable to keep it up.

Amid all that, Hina-chan admiring Coco-sis, a success story, was only natural.

When Hina-chan said she was becoming an adventurer, I thought, well, of course she is. When she said I should come along too, though, honestly, it was a bother.

I'd finally gotten to where I could see a path through university, juggling study and part-time work......

Just being a facility kid turns the world cold on you.

The moment anything happens, you're the first suspect. I know the whispers behind my back at school too.

And of course, treated like that, a child goes bad.

Hina-chan and Coco-sis both would fall under the "delinquent" heading.

I lived in the shadow of those two.

A full year of high school still ahead of me.

I couldn't help but cling to Hina-chan.

"Crowded again today."

They say the headquarters dungeon has more people than goblins.

Not a single free goblin all the way to Floor 5......

"Ah, one spawned! Over there, hurry!"

Even among that, this Floor 5 is said to be the most crowded of all.

The floor where lone hobgoblins are scattered about—it's the perfect leveling spot for beginners.

A few minutes of searching for a hobgoblin, and Hina-chan suddenly bolts.

Monsters go to the swift—the adventurers at the front of the line have priority.

"Hina-chan, pitfall!"

"Got it—【Digging】!"

The moment the hobgoblin charges at us, Hina-chan uses her special skill, 【Digging】, to open a hole in the ground.

But whether she used it too early or picked a bad spot, the hobgoblin clears it with an easy hop.

"Ahh! Le-let's run!"

"O-one more time. 【Digging】! Eek!"

This time the hole opens right under the hobgoblin's feet—but we're too close.

The hobgoblin drops into the hole, but its raised club comes down on Hina-chan's head too.

"Ow, ow. Is it swelling?"

"Yeah. No blood, but it's swollen a bit."

She had her helmet on, so luckily nothing serious.

We somehow manage to bring the hobgoblin down, but we decide to call it a day.

Today's haul: one hobgoblin magic stone.

Over an hour's round trip included, for 500 yen.

And split in half, at that.

The pay is a total rip-off.

"Hey. Miki's special skill...... want to try it?"

On the way home, Hina-chan brings that up.

"Eh? But Coco-sis told us never to......"

【Blood Suck】.

That is the special skill I was given.

An adventurer overseas who had this same skill used it in a crime, so keeping it secret goes without saying—and Coco-sis and Anego-san both told me never, ever to use it.

"Just once wouldn't get found out. And today got cut short because of me...... It's fine, okay?"

She says it's fine and rolls up her sleeve, thrusting her arm out.

Am I meant to just bite into that?

Obviously I can't do that.

"That is NOT fine!"

"But at this rate we can't keep being adventurers, you know? Coco-sis won't help us at all, and I won't even get to go to university!"

Things aren't going well for us.

Especially me—I'm bad at exercise, and I struggle to bring down even a Floor 2 goblin.

Failing at adventuring wouldn't bother me.

Honestly, I'd rather quit.

So I suppose I'll try it once, just this once...... or so I found myself thinking.

"......All right. Here I go."

"Yeah...... be gentle with me......"

Please stop making the atmosphere weird.

"【Blood Suck】"

It's not the first time I've activated the skill itself.

When I use my special skill, 【Blood Suck】, my canines lengthen.

I've done that much before.

All that's left is to bite into Hina-chan's arm and drink her blood.

I sink my fangs into Hina-chan's pale white arm.

"Mgh...... Ah."

Don't make that noise......

(It's soooo goooooood. What IS this, what IS this)

My throat burns!

A flavor beyond anything I've ever drunk or eaten in my life.

So food this delicious existed—and I drink, obsessed.

I can't stop!

"Stah...... this,...... no......,...... aahhh......"

Hina-chan collapses against me, and only then do I come back to myself, mouth off her arm.

"H-Hina-chan? Hina-chan?"

"Uuu......"

Did I drink too much?

She's breathing.

But she's out cold, or unconscious, or something......

Something warm is spilling across the ground......