ch381-ch400 · 383-ch383

Chapter 383: The Childhood Friend Is a Sword Saint Flag 【Sword Saint-chan】 Part 7

SIDE: Hoshino Chiharu ('Sword Saint-chan')

"Huh? No, I......"

A bewildered look crosses...... the girl's face.

How old is she, I wonder?

Young enough that "girl" is no overstatement.

But then, there's the dwarf girl's example.

Maybe she's actually older?

"That's right. This girl here is our shrine maiden."

The dwarf mother informs me that this girl is the very miko in question.

So it is true, then.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Miko grows even more bewildered.

Strange to say it myself, but I'm fairly famous.

If someone like me knew her name, no wonder she'd be startled.

'Sorry, dear. Mii-chan and Kasumi-chan won't be back for a while, so could I ask you to keep her company? That "Sword Saint-chan" has come to visit again, you know? If she becomes a regular, it's good advertising for the shop—please. She seems interested in the shrine, so I'd like you to show her around.'

'Ah—the shrine maiden of that place...... well, yes, that would be me. I do keep the key, after all.'

The dwarf mother pulls Miko aside and starts whispering.

Apparently she wants to use me as an advertisement for this shop.

That silver sword was a superb piece, so I don't mind.

I have business with Miko myself.

Trading favors back and forth isn't so bad.

"Is that girl an acquaintance of yours?"

Kuma-chan whispers from my other side.

"Yes. I am the shrine maiden!"

Miko turns back around and declares herself.

I see—she owns up to it.

I'd wondered if she was hiding from me because we could never meet, but apparently it really was coincidence.

No—maybe Watanabe Kasumi and Hiramatsu were keeping her hidden so we wouldn't cross paths.

We are bound for Floor 50, after all.

(What waits there is......)

I remember the dream.

The companions who died without ever getting a swing in......

And this girl, I......

No—I'm gathering companions so that it doesn't come to that.

With all five of us, the conditions are even.

If I pin down 'that girl' and this girl pins down THAT one, we have a real fighting chance.

So no one dies—I absolutely have to get her to join.

Even if I have to grind my forehead against the floor......

"Then before I take you to the shrine, I'll change and go explain things to my friends. They should be waiting. I'll be right back."

I see Miko off as she heads upstairs.

"Miko-san? What kind of person is she?"

"This is my first time meeting her too, but she was quite strong. I'd like to scout her for 'Blue Ocean.'"

We've made our recruiting public, so this much is safe to say.

"Ehh!? She looked about high-school age to me?"

Fair.

I've never seen her at HQ either, and someone stronger than the top-tier adventurers is an unnatural claim.

Strength like that—I'd notice just passing her on the street......

But I didn't know about Hiramatsu either. Japan may still have any number of unknown strong ones slumbering out there.

"That's right—she is, after all, the daughter of that Gen Ichiro Aikawa."

"Ehh!? The bear one's daughter? She looks nothing like him!"

Does she feel some kinship over the whole bear thing?

Kuma-chan was more surprised than the situation called for.

I see—that 'Bear Ossan's'......

Hm?

Aikawa?

So she's Miko Aikawa?

Not Hiramatsu?

Come to think of it, she looks nothing like Hiramatsu either, not just Bear Ossan.

Maybe she has a complicated family situation.

Perhaps I should avoid touching on it?

"Though she is at that delicate age, so she and her father don't get along right now. She left home over his remarriage and lives with us now."

So it's true......

Which would make her and Hiramatsu siblings with no blood between them.

She seems to have had a hard time of it.

"I'll take one of those wooden swords—and that wooden spear there as well."

Either way, what must be done must be done.

I know she's strong, but I'll have her show me her real ability.

"Huh? This wooden spear is 2,000 yen, but the wooden sword costs 5,000? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Kuma-chan is shocked by the prices.

Considering length alone, the spear should be the expensive one.

"Yes. The wooden swords carry the 'Chiba Dungeon' name, so they run a little steep. The spears, on the other hand, come with a subsidy."

Apparently the wooden swords are like the souvenirs you buy on school trips.

The subsidy part is news to me, though......

"Oh, right! May I take a photo? And an autograph too, please!"

As if struck by a brilliant idea, the dwarf mother snaps a photo of me holding the wooden sword.

I learned later that this photo got spread across the shop's homepage and every kind of social media.

And somehow, a rumor went around that buying name-engraved wooden swords at dungeons all over the country was my hobby......

︙ ︙

"Wh-what is THIS?"

Kuma-chan gapes at the giant spear.

Honestly, all she does is gape.

People tell me my own reactions are flat, but Kuma-chan delivers reactions you never get tired of watching.

"It's the sacred object. This shrine enshrines the god of spears, and they say if you can lift this spear and cast 'Weapon Enhancement,' your wish will be granted."

What kind of pitch is that?

When I saw it at the dwarf girl's shop before, the claim was that anyone who managed that was upper-rank adventurer material?

"Ehh? But my job can't do spear enhancement, you know?"

"I hear lifting it alone grants half the wish, so please, give it a try."

Well thought out, that.

If it's just lifting, even jobs without spear enhancement can have a go.

Not that it has anything to do with me.

"Can't dooo it! Too heavy! Chiharu-san. You could do it, right, Chiharu-san?"

And here I thought her size would do the trick.

A Single really can't manage it, huh.

Well, even I can't unless I put a proper swing into it.

(【Status Allocation】)

I return my stats to default.

Now my Strength is 250.

Ngi-gi-gii, so heavy.

Should have kept it a little higher......

"K-Kuma-chan. Hit it."

I use 【Weapon Enhancement・Sword】 to enhance the spear.

When Kuma-chan strikes it with the hammer mounted on the pedestal, that clear metallic ring unique to enhancement rings out.

"As expected of Chiharu-san! ......Huh? This is a spear, though, right? How did you enhance it?"

"Hahh...... hahh...... at my...... level...... it's...... easy."

I set the spear down gently and answer.

Kobo chooses no brush, Taigong Wang chooses no lure, and a Sword Saint chooses no weapon.

The world talks about 【Flying Slash】 range as the condition for becoming a 【Sword Saint】, but I believe the truth is simpler: once you can enhance whatever you hold with 【Weapon Enhancement・Sword】, the 【Sword Saint】 appears.

I can 'Weapon Enhance' my own arm and swing it as a sword even barehanded, after all.

Incidentally, holding a sword, I can even enhance my whole body.

The 'Sword Saint of the North' can probably do the same—but that old man is firmly anti-weapon-enhancement.

"A sword breaks because its wielder's arm is unskilled"...... or so he says.

He apparently forbids his disciples from weapon enhancement too.

As I see it, it's exactly backwards.

Skills are the model.

Use them, and learn them into your body.

Learn the correct cut with 【Slash】, then make it possible even without the skill.

Someday, I believe, weapon enhancement will activate without the skill at all.

That, I think, is a 'Sword Saint' in the true sense.

"Amazing, amazing. So what did you wish for?"

"Ah—I forgot. What should I wish for, I wonder?"

I glance at Miko. My wish is......

"Ah—no good. You have to wish WHILE lifting it and enhancing. Those are the rules."

Ehh, what a bother.

But I suppose it's shrine etiquette, so fine.

(【Status Allocation】)

I pull a little over from Magic and raise Strength to 300.

This time it should come up easily.

【Status Allocation】.

That is my special skill.

Just as it says: I can allocate my own stats.

At first I could only swap numbers wholesale—Strength and Magic, that sort of exchange—but it has since grown to the point where I can adjust them in single units.

Normally, when I dive, I keep Strength low and raise Agility to 300 to fight.

Even against hard monsters, 'Weapon Enhancement' does away with any need for Strength.

And when I truly need power, I lower Magic and raise Strength.

I had never once raised my Magic number before, but unable to deal with the Lich's 【Blast Ball】, I ended up putting points into Magic too.

Offense looks solved with the silver sword, but I can't call us fully prepared without an answer to 【Blast Ball】.

I'd been counting on Ao-senpai to manage that part, and yet......

"Wow! It rang even more beautifully than before!"

Because this time I used 【Weapon Enhancement・Sword・Extreme】, of course.

Without lowering the spear, I look Miko in the eye and speak my wish.

"Miko. I want you to be my companion. I have been searching for you all this time. Let's aim for Floor 50 together."

That is my wish.

Offered up proper, by the book.

Surely it will be granted.

"Foe?"

Miko and Kuma-chan both make the same dumbfounded sound.

"M-me? Not Watanabe-san? Me, into 'Blue Ocean'?"

"Watanabe Kasumi as well, of course. But I need your strength too. That said, I haven't yet seen your ability with these eyes. So show me."

Kuma-chan swiftly picks up one of the weapons laid on the ground and offers it to Miko.

"Why me? Joining 'Blue Ocean' means appearing in videos and such, right? Could it be—my talent as an 'Idol'? Why don't we all just join 'Blue Ocean' together? ......Oh, thanks."

The weapon the muttering Miko ended up taking was...... the wooden sword.

Why?

And what came to MY hands was the wooden spear......

Well—blood relation or not, she IS Hiramatsu's sister.

This may be high-level psychological warfare.

So the duel had already begun.

Not bad, Miko!

"Come at me!"

That said, she doesn't have Watanabe Kasumi's stats, nor Hiramatsu's pressure.

So I press her instead.

A clean stance.

Her fundamentals seem solid.

"Hnk."

But when I close in step by step, she gives back a single step.

Facing her like this, the strength I sensed earlier hasn't changed much.

What's going on?

Is she really the true body of that 'naked skeleton'?

But then, even between me and 'that girl,' our fighting styles were completely different.

Just as 'that girl' fights in a way more befitting a 【Sword Saint】, the 'naked skeleton' may simply be pulled along by its job.

In that case, what is her job?

From the armor-manipulating, her sub-job is probably something like 【Puppeteer】.

But where does that extraordinary speed come from?

Ah—my focus is drifting.

Is this too part of her scheme?

Last time I got careless and Hiramatsu took an ippon off me.

I won't repeat that mistake.

If she won't come to me, I'll go to her!

"Yah!"

"Kyah!"

I meant the thrust as a stop-short, but Miko, already trying to retreat, sat down hard right there.

"......That's my win, then?"

"S-sorry. I'm not good at fighting people......"

Fair enough.

I did sense something like fear from her.

Less startled by the thrust than scared of ME—her stance crumbled, and down she went.

I wondered for a moment whether even this was a trick to make me drop my guard, but it wasn't.

"Want to go another round?"

"No...... I think it would end the same. Do I fail?"

"I wasn't exactly grading pass or fail...... And I can tell your potential is high."

Even if she isn't the 'naked skeleton,' even if she can't be taken to Floor 50 the way Mami-tan can, as long as I can entrust her with escorting us there, that's enough.

We're after plenty of that kind of personnel too.

All that was left was to hear about her special skill and confirm whether she really was the 'naked skeleton'......

"Lucky—! 'Blue Ocean,' huh—. What about me, then?"

Well, Kuma-chan IS here today.

"Kuma-chan is practically one of our staff already, though. If you quit the SDF, any time you like...... No—never mind. They'd only send a different escort in your place. Give it up."

"Nooo waaay—"

There are parts of this arrangement that only work because it's Kuma-chan.

The dedicated escort has in fact changed hands several times, and it finally settled on her.

She comes to Chiba often lately, and the last thing I need is someone prying into unnecessary things.

"Eh? So do I pass, then?"

"Of course. But I'll need the other members' approval too, so let's have a face-to-face at HQ."

It went so smoothly you'd ask what all that past trouble to even meet her was for.

Now if only I can persuade Watanabe Kasumi......

︙ ︙

"You should tell them honestly, I think."

An unexpected gain, but the main topic is only now beginning.

So—I told the newly returned Watanabe Kasumi about the dream, and this is her answer.

"......And what am I supposed to do if they say they won't go?"

Yukiya-senpai might well declare he's going anyway—but that would be its own problem.

"Shouldn't THAT be the thing to put a stop to? If you knew the outcome and took them along without telling them, that would be the same as murder."

"I never said I'd keep it a secret! I was expecting advice like—when to tell them, or keeping it under wraps until we find a solution—things like that!"

My voice got a little sharp.

It's not that she struck a sore spot.

It's just, when I think about what happens if no solution ever turns up......

"Why do you want Floor 50 so badly? What reason is worth sacrificing companions for?"

"I'm not thinking of it as sacrificing companions. You—if all five of us are assembled, the situation changes. In the dream, the three of us went to Floor 50, but what came out was five skeletons' worth. If each of us faces our own skeleton, we should be able to win. I won't go until we can win in the dream. So please—lend me your strength."

I bow my head.

"......I cannot. Even if you all die...... I...... If at all possible, I want you to give up on Floor 50. No—find companions other than us, and when you have a dream where no one dies, challenge it then. That is for both our sakes."

Refused, as always.

No—this time is different. She refuses, yet she looks like she's suffering too.

"If I tell you my reason—my reason for wanting Floor 50—will you be my companion?"

"That is not the issue. Besides, that story is one for Kinoshita-san and Furuta-san, not for me. ...With three of you, a solution might just come to mind, you know?"

Absolutely right.

First tell the two of them, then the three of us think it over.

And then the three of us—no, the four of us—will come to persuade her!

"Thank you. Next time, we come as four."

"Four? Mmm-mmm-mmm, mm?"

She makes a face like, what on earth are you saying?

Against all expectation, my fifth companion became Watanabe Kasumi, not Miko.

With four of us, a good plan for persuading Kasumi might just surface.

It'll be fine—the fortune slip said 'Great Blessing.'

'The one you await has already come.'

It was spot on.

After all, I already know exactly who my companions are......