ch361-ch380 · 378-ch378

Chapter 378: The Spear That Shakes the Realm

"I've got shrine training tomorrow morning too, so dungeon conquering from the afternoon works, right?"

Back from the World Tree dungeon. And yes, I studied properly, thank you.

At curfew time, we confirm tomorrow's plans.

"Mmm-mmm-mmm. Rain is forecast from tomorrow morning, though. Training in that?"

"Oh, is it? Well, I did tell them I'd come again tomorrow, so I'll at least show my face."

It feels wrong to intrude every single day, call it incidental or not, so maybe I should build the schedule around their side.

Mimiko's papa isn't exactly idle either, I imagine.

He's the chief priest, after all...... What does he do normally?

Groundbreaking ceremonies at construction sites, that sort of thing?

It's New Year's, so the shrine's probably busy too—maybe daily visits are a bad idea after all.

"Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm. I see...... I would love to pay my respects in person, but I'm busy until my next day off—I can't come along...... Give them my regards."

How exactly am I supposed to pass that along?

"My girlfriend says hi"?

That bar's a little high.

"Then we're off to buy rain gear. Ponchos OK?"

"First time in this dungeon, isn't it? Shouldn't we bring rope and other stuff too? Let's go look at that while we're out."

Aikawa and Soushi: off on a date, then.

"Let's keep it to Floor 19 tomorrow, please? Once I'm back, we'll take our best guesses at what the Floor 20 boss is and work out how to beat it together."

We can guess what the Floor 20 boss is from the monsters along the way, after all.

You might think I'm being dramatic over a mere Floor 20 boss—but if it's an aquatic monster, we might not manage a single thing.

Failing to beat it and getting sealed inside the boss room is a real possibility in a new dungeon with no information.

Not that it matters for me—I'd just 【Gate】 home.

Still, I really should've checked the teens-floor monsters while I was down there.

Hm? "Exam students should study, not dungeon"?

It's fine.

This time of year, it's dark by 4 PM, so starting after lunch means a three-hour adventure at most.

Studying can happen after.

Honestly, whether we even reach Floor 19 tomorrow alone is doubtful.

︙ ︙

"Mimiko will clean Haruki's armor for him!"

Today it rained from morning as forecast, so instead of training, I learn armor maintenance.

"Then it's hardly practice, is it? Mimiko, you do your papa's."

"Nooo! Haruki's is better, right? Right?"

Mimiko's papa slumps, utterly defeated.

So this is the storied rebellious phase, is it?

Maybe everything that belongs to Papa is just hateful right now.

"Then we'll do it together. Sit next to me."

I say that, but this stuff is steel-plated and seriously heavy.

Dropping it on your feet would be a disaster, so we do it as a team.

"Grrrnnnn."

The rebellious phase is beyond anyone's help, after all.

"No, not like that—like THIS! You wipe this way! See!"

Mimiko only learned this herself just now, yet she teaches me with everything she's got.

No, wait—wiping has a DIRECTION?

"......Hiramatsu-ryu traces its origin to a single jumonji spear and a scroll, dedicated at this shrine at the end of the age of warring states."

"Eh?"

Mimiko's papa, who'd been silently polishing armor, just started TALKING!

"The spear's owner is said to have been a warlord who fell in the last great battle of the Sengoku era."

"Mimiko, that story's a killer, so Mimiko's out! Call me when it's done!"

Mimiko gets up and leaves.

Papa's stories are a no too, apparently.

This is a full-blown rebellious phase, all right.

Then again, this IS the founding story of Hiramatsu-ryu—for the heir, she's probably heard it until her ears grew calluses.

......Or maybe she just got bored of wiping armor.

"Ununu. ......The scroll contained the secret art of a single spear."

"One? And wasn't Hiramatsu-ryu supposed to have no secret art?"

What does that mean?

"Indeed. Hiramatsu-ryu has no secret art. This is the tale of how Hiramatsu-ryu began—of its birth. I told you as much, didn't I?"

"I'm sorry—what?"

I'm more curious about that secret art than about Hiramatsu-ryu, though......

"That warlord, that secret art, that spear's edge—said to have reached even the ruler of the realm in his day. Our ancestor judged the scroll far too dangerous to leave behind for posterity. A thing that would needlessly disturb the peace."

One spear is never reaching an enemy commander, no matter how you slice it.

An ambush, maybe?

Attaboy, Hiramatsu-ryu!

No—wait, this isn't Hiramatsu-ryu......

"Eh? Then what happened to the technique? Don't tell me the scroll wasn't preserved?"

It wasn't thrown out, right?

"......It was not preserved."

(You have GOT to be kidding me!)

So the story is: from the dedicated spear alone, Hiramatsu-ryu was born, and that's that......

"But at the same time, our ancestor thought it a shame for the technique to vanish outright. What if, someday, some wicked thing appeared to end the peace—and this technique was needed then......"

(But how does ONE SPEAR do that, though......)

The scroll wasn't secretly an assassination manual, was it?

"After much, much deliberation, our ancestor decided to split the secret art into four katas. In the image of the Sengoku warlord the jumonji spear's owner once served—Wind, Grove, Fire, Mountain, four katas......"

(Whooooaaa. It all CONNECTS!)

I thought it back when I first saw the Fire Kata.

All the katas connect, and the final 'Mountain Kata' would be the secret art.

But the Mountain Kata I was actually taught wasn't it.

And there was the whole "Hiramatsu-ryu has no secret art" thing......

Yet there it WAS—beyond all that, a secret art that isn't Hiramatsu-ryu!

"Hiramatsu-ryu is a school born for one purpose alone: to inherit the secret art recorded in that scroll. Four hundred years have refined it for real combat and added many techniques—but the four foundational katas are passed down unchanged to this day."

"I-is there no name? For the technique—the secret art?"

I'm getting excited here.

"None. The ancestor who founded Hiramatsu-ryu erased it, scroll and all—so it would never fall into wicked hands...... But over the long years, the inheritors came to call it by a name in code: 'The Hiramatsu-ryu Hidden Secret Art—Wind, Grove, Fire, Mountain!'"

(That is SO COOL!)

A secret art that is Hiramatsu-ryu and yet is not.

The hidden secret art—Wind, Grove, Fire, Mountain, huh......

I got to HEAR all this, but there's no way they'll actually teach me, right?

"Hiramatsu-ryu isn't passed to a single heir alone, but it's a school that permits no branch lines—inherited only through blood. Beg all you like, only the public techniques get taught."

(True enough......)

Hiramatsu-san taught me a wind TECHNIQUE, 'Windmill'—not the Wind Kata itself.

The kata was taught to me by Mimiko, who doesn't really understand what it means.

"This story, too, is told only to candidates for inheritance. Besides me, the only ones who know are my father, my fool of a little brother, and Mimiko. You understand what that means...... don't you?"

So he told ME, when even Miko-san doesn't know?

Something THAT important?

Hiramatsu-ryu's duty must be to entrust the secret art to the right person, should something come to disturb the peace.

And as it happens, the world has just seen the rise of a peace-disturbing thing called the dungeon.

In other words: take the secret art, conquer the dungeon, and seize the realm! Got it!

"Understood! The secret art of Hiramatsu-ryu—please teach it to me!"

Maybe it's not that he saw talent in me. Maybe it's just a father's heart—he can't send Mimiko into a dungeon to fight, so the inheritance falls to me.

But I don't care either way.

Let that spear be entrusted to me.

"I-is that so...... Sniff. I'm...... counting on you......"

Mimiko's papa, tearful.

This man, too, has finally been released from Hiramatsu-ryu's long-held duty.

What a touching tale, that.

Oh right—we should sort out the training schedule going forward.

Exams and all—once a week should do, right?