ch321-ch340 · 332-ch332

Chapter 332: The Masked Man, Matsumoto 【Umemoto Atsushi】 Part 2

SIDE: Umemoto Atsushi (【Berserker】)

I'd forgotten I brought Furuta Yukiya home with me yesterday.

He did pay the bill—no way I could just leave him at the bar......

I'm sure I laid him out on the floor, but apparently he crawled into bed beside me at some point.

"Oi, Yukiya. Up. It's morning."

"Uu...... can't. My head's killing me. I feel sick......"

A hangover, apparently.

Well, of course—he drank all day yesterday.

I should go buy him some medicine, but I have no money.

No—actually, I do have some.

The money Jun sends me every month.

(If I dip into that......)

There's still no trace of Jun.

The other three ex-party members are confirmed working as staff at regional branches, which put my mind at ease—but Jun alone has vanished.

He sends a tidy sum every month, so presumably some branch or other is sheltering him.

If things went smoothly and he took an upper recovery job, he'd be in demand everywhere and could pull strings.

But why he's hiding, I can't fathom.

If he didn't want to see me, that would take away his reason to send money too.

I just hope he hasn't sold himself to some strange organization overseas......

"Wa...... water......"

"Haah."

I sigh and get the water ready.

I can't exactly leave him like this.

In the end, I withdrew Jun's money and bought the medicine.

And food, while I was at it......

It made a good excuse, at least.

I was worried about tonight's dinner too.

I'll work and pay it all back.

Just this once, I'll borrow from Jun......

︙

︙

"Right, I'm off."

It's been several days since Furuta Yukiya took up residence in my home.

Every evening, Yukiya goes out.

Apparently he's been dueling that Hiramatsu-san every day.

He says he can't show his face back at 'Blue Ocean' until he beats him, at the very least......

But the videos floating around make it obvious the man isn't someone you beat overnight.

If anything, he'd stand a better chance challenging Watanabe-san inside the dungeon.

"Hold it—I'm coming too."

I started to worry that being dogged every day by a guy like Yukiya must be a nuisance, so today I'm tagging along to watch.

"That's rare. What happened to the job hunt?"

"Everybody needs a break now and then."

There IS day labor to be had, but if I'm working anyway, I'd rather find something steady.

It isn't going well.

I had an interview this morning too, and judging by their manner, it's a no.

A man with a record—and for murder, at that.

Finding people who'll treat you normally is the hard part.

Since my treatment ended and I stopped going to the Chiba branch, I hadn't spoken to a single person until I ran into Akai and Yukiya.

(Taking Yukiya in may have been about exactly that......)

I imagine it's the same for him.

He says it's because he lives close, but he has money.

He could stay at a hotel.

It would be far more comfortable than my place.

He simply wanted someone to talk to.

At night we drink the booze he buys and shoot the breeze.

I honestly feel like it's been saving me......

"Atsushi, not that way."

"Huh? The branch is this way, isn't it? Shopping?"

Yukiya starts walking in the opposite direction from the branch.

"Huh? Didn't I mention? Today's the day I fight Hiramatsu before his shift."

So he isn't always fighting at the branch......

"Huh? You mean you do matches—or mock battles, rather? Where?"

Mind you, the branch parking lot only barely tolerates it—swing a staff around outside anywhere else and the police get called, you know?

"Look, right up there."

What Yukiya pointed to was a steep flight of steps.

A sign stands at the side......

"A shrine, is it?"

I see—so they're fighting on the shrine grounds.

Has he even gotten permission?

"Oh, Atsushi-san! What brings you here? Did you come to see me?"

At the top of the steps stood several familiar faces.

One was the woman who'd just called out—Miko-san.

"Huh? Hiramatsu-san, don't tell me......"

"Fighting alone today? That one is...... Umemoto, is it? Why are you here?"

And there was the other Hiramatsu-san—the one I was here to see.

"Oh, this is my older brother. Do you two know each other?"

So the older brother was the branch staffer Hiramatsu-san—the one who beat Yukiya in their Chiba match.

And then there was one more......

"I TOLD you! Hands go the other way! Like THIS!"

Is that Hiramatsu-san's child? I know the boy being scolded by the little girl.

That boy is my fellow hospital patient, Kasugano Haruki-kun.

Ai-san told me he hit his head in the dungeon and his memory is in disarray.

He apparently didn't even remember Ai-san, so he may not remember me either.

"That one is the elder brother's daughter—Mimiko. You were acquainted with Haruki-kun, weren't you?"

The elder brother?

The way she put it, Mimiko-chan isn't the daughter of the Hiramatsu-san standing here......

"Yes, but......"

Haruki-kun glanced at me for a moment—that was all.

He always used to greet me properly, so he really must not remember me either.

"You know him, then? He's forgotten me as well. Haruki-kun can't enter the dungeon until five, so until then he's over there like that, learning the basics of Hiramatsu-ryu Jumonji Spear Arts."

"I see? And yet......"

His movements are terrible.

Mimiko-chan is correcting him, and he shows no sign of fixing anything.

"Footwork, everything—he's forgotten it ALL. It's worse than when I first saw Haruki's spear. They say the body remembers, but that kid seems to have forgotten with his body too. Still, being THIS talentless is rare...... He must have worked incredibly hard. I understand it now, seeing this."

So the elder Hiramatsu-san was Haruki-kun's spear master.

He's teaching him again, and it still isn't going well.

"Tch. What do you mean, talent. Fight me, Hiramatsu! Today I take you down!"

Yukiya and Hiramatsu-san begin their mock battle.

In Yukiya's hand is a staff far too long to call a wooden sword.

His stance is a spearman's.

So it seems he isn't just trying to beat Hiramatsu-san—he means to steal the techniques and grow stronger.

Yukiya said he has no talent.

He must have clawed his way up to Quadruple adventurer through exactly this kind of grinding, too.

Ah, he lost......

"Next—Atsushi! Come at me!"

"Huh? Me?"

Why me?

"Go get him, Atsushi-san! Knock my big brother right out!"

"Fine, fine."

No sooner had I taken the staff from Yukiya than Hiramatsu-san's thrust came flying at me.

"Whoa there—"

"Dodged that one, hm? But I'll not be handing over my little sister!"

He seems to be laboring under some misunderstanding.

︙

︙

"Oh—it's about time. Haruki, let's head out."

I got pummeled until time ran out.

At one point I somehow ended up fighting Yukiya too, and I even lost to Miko-san.

The only one I beat was Haruki-kun.

But it was fun.

It had been so long since I'd fought anything.

How long has it been?

It hit me all over again—I really did love being an adventurer.

(But there's no going back now......)

That night I drank myself into a hangover, and was late for the next day's interview......