arc01 · 012-ep12

Episode 12: Dungeon Research Club

After school. As promised, I headed to the Class 1-D classroom to pick up Aizawa.

"Ah, there she is. Right—'Aizawa' puts her near the front in name order. Easy to spot. Handy."

I walked up to her desk and greeted her with a 'Yo' and a raised hand, and for some reason she timidly high-fived me back.

I had no idea what that was about, but I figured it was Aizawa's version of a greeting.

"Here to pick you up, like promised. You ready?"

"Y-y-yes!"

"Alright, off to the club room, then."

Aizawa stood up too, and the two of us set off. Except for some reason, she took up position directly behind me and followed along. Like a baby chick's imprinting response or something.

"Hey, why not walk next to me? This is kind of unnerving."

"Huh, uh, okay."

"Maybe you're nervous, but I'm nobody worth being nervous around, so feel free to relax."

"B-being a senpai alone is enough to make me nervous…"

"Hmm. So that's how it works. Well, I'm at least not the scary kind of senpai, so rest easy on that front."

"A-are you, K-Kobayakawa-kun, c-close with that senpai?"

"Nah, we only talked for the first time last week, so relationship-wise we're sitting at basically zero…"

"Huhhh…? K-Ko-Kobaya—"

"If it's hard to say, Takeru's fine too, you know?"

"Huh, um, huh? Um, o-okay! T-Takeru-kun, how are you so c-calm all the time?"

"Huh? Umm… Well, most people don't exactly attack you out of nowhere, so…"

"…………Th-that's kind of amazing…"

"Eh, give it time, Aizawa—you'll get there."

"I-I absolutely will not…"

And so, chatting away, the two of us made it to the club room.

"And—here we are. She should be in, so we'll knock and head in."

Knock knock.

"Yes, yes~! It's open, come on in~"

Invited in, I promptly opened the door.

"Yo-ho, senpai! Brought you a new member!"

"Whaaat?! Aren't you way too capable, Takeru-kun!?"

"Oh, it's nothing much. Anyway, this here is—"

Huh? Just as I went to introduce her, I found Aizawa hiding flush against my back, clutching the hem of my blazer in a tight grip.

"Aizawa, it's fine. Here, take a look at the senpai's face. That's the face of someone thrilled to welcome you."

"Um, um, uh, I-I'm Aizawa Midori. T-Takeru-kun invited me, s-so I came."

"Ooh, thanks for the introduction. I'm Takigawa Makoto. The president of this Dungeon Research Club—technically, anyway. Welcome to the Dungeon Research Club! Glad to have you!"

"See?"

"Y-yes!"

Her nerves loosening up a little, Aizawa timidly crept out from behind my back and traded introductions properly this time.

"Still, I never imagined you'd actually go out and recruit someone."

"Well, I just happened to stumble across a comrade."

"A comrade?"

"Yep. I spotted her at the guild last week."

"N-now that you mention it, you did say that at lunch… It's kind of embarrassing…"

"Huh?! Then Aizawa-san is an adventurer too?!"

"Um, um, um, I-I do have an adventurer guild's guild card, but… t-to be exact, I'm an 【Alchemist】 registered with the production guild…"

"Whaaat!?!"

"Why are you surprised too, Takeru-kun…"

"B-because I didn't know… I just figured she was an adventurer like me…"

"N-no way. I-I can't fight, you know!?"

"Fair enough. You're more on my side of the fence, Aizawa-san."

"N-no way… So we weren't comrades after all…"

"Ah, n-no, b-but I know plenty about dungeons! I've read tons of reference material!!"

"O-okay. It's fine. The club doesn't care whether you're an adventurer or not. Case in point: the president here is a civilian."

"That's right~. Monsters scare me half to death, you know."

"Ah, um, r-right. Th-that's true."

A totally unexpected fact had come to light—an Alchemist, of all things…

But wait, right. Holders of production-type skills can join the production guild too. So that meant Aizawa's starting skill was 【Alchemy】. Talk about a mega jackpot.

Honestly, even if my starting skill had been production-type, I wouldn't have joined the production guild—I'd be diving the dungeon and beating down monsters just like now, so it didn't really concern me. Still, Alchemy, huh. I wonder—if I handed her materials, could I get Aizawa to craft something?

While I was thinking that over, the club registration form somehow got filled out, and her membership was officially complete.

"And with that, our club's survival is officially decided! A round of applause!"

"Ooh—clap clap clap clap."

"You don't have to applaud out loud. Well, technically we're an interest group. We used to have a proper five members, so we were recognized as a 'club,' but now we're down to three."

"Um, um, I was wondering—what does the D-Dungeon Research Club actually r-research?"

Oh, right, good point. I'd been wondering that too, actually.

"Nothing, really."

"Huhhh…?"

"Well, last year there were the senpai in a four-person party. They've graduated since. They'd bring back things they found while exploring the dungeon, battle records, that kind of stuff, and I compiled it all into reference files."

"Ah, could the files on that shelf be…?"

"Yep, yep, that's them. The senpai actually went to the dungeon and did all kinds of research—I just organized it—so honestly, I've been wondering what to do from here on. You two aren't all that gung-ho about club activities yourselves, right?"

"Well, honestly, I'd rather dive the dungeon and hunt monsters nonstop… but if it's just occasional, I'm totally fine with doing club activities."

"F-for me, I actually use my Alchemy to put together reference files and keep records of materials, so if I could use this club room, i-it would raise my efficiency, and, that might be, nice, or, something, maybe, maybe not…"

"Huh, that's great! Feel free to use the room, totally! I'm just a civilian in the end, so organizing is about all I can do anyway. That's plenty of activity on record as far as I'm concerned—let's go with that!"

"Hmm. Then I'll bring back monster materials from the dungeon, and Aizawa, you craft something out of them."

"Huh?! I-is that really okay?! Thank you!"

"Uh, I'm pretty sure I'm the one who should be thanking you."

"Ooh, nice, nice! I don't know how, but this is suddenly feeling like a real club!"

Seriously, though—so true. I never had any intention of doing club activities in the first place, but by some twist of fate, it had turned into a setup where I could do the club thing without it getting in the way of my adventuring.

I originally invited Aizawa thinking she was an adventurer, but honestly, it might've worked out better that she isn't. If we were both adventurers, neither of us would probably have shown up to the club at all.

"Are you two heading to the guild now? I need to go report to our club advisor that we've got our members together, so let's call it a day here."

"Ah, yes. That was the plan, so that works out great."

"M-me too, that works out great."

"Then let's just exchange contact info, and if anything comes up we'll share it in the group chat."

"Roger that."

And so, as a high schooler, I belonged to a group outside my class for the very first time. Somehow, that feels like proper youth.