ch81-ch100 · 085-ch84

Chapter 84

"HAYASAKAAAA—!"

Having his name bellowed at him by the rock-skinned monster, Toru just watched the thing close in without really thinking anything.

Big. And fast.

But — not on the level of an S-rank monster.

In that instant, a 'Meteor' screamed in from the side and sent the rock-skinned monster flying. Probably hadn't put that much force into it, but even so, the two-and-a-half-meter giant bounced off the labyrinth's walls, ceiling, and floor like a pinball, getting knocked about twenty meters away... and for a moment, didn't get back up.

"You okay? Toru's friend, right?"

The holy sword user appeared — not that she'd been hiding, Toru had just gone on ahead so she could sock him from the side — and rushed over to Shirazawa Kana collapsed on the floor, casting recovery magic with zero hesitation.

Light of magical power covered her whole body, and the color returned to Shirazawa's face, which had been pretty pale. To his ex-girlfriend, gaping blankly up at him, Toru gave a small laugh and a shrug.

"Looks like you got pretty torn up — what exactly's the situation?"

Her explorer-style mobility-first clothes bore traces of being flown, bounced, thrown, and punched; her hair was pretty messed up too. She had on that shoulder pouch he'd wondered about at the department store the other day — what could even fit in something that size — and it might actually be a magic bag.

"Um... ah, first off, thank you, Tia-san. And Hayasaka-kun too. I'm glad you came. Really glad..."

Overcome with emotion, tears welled at the corners of Shirazawa's eyes — but it didn't get to the point where she couldn't hold a conversation. She sniffled once, then turned her gaze toward where the monster had been sent flying.

"That monster is Seno Kyohei-kun. In the hidden room, a monster teleported in and we thought we were in trouble — but then for some reason Seno-kun suddenly turned into a monster and attacked us. Only... whether he actually meant to kill us, I don't know..."

"Why was that guy screaming my last name?"

When Toru tilted his head, Shirazawa's eyes went wide for point-two seconds, then she let out a small breath like, "I figured."

"Hey, Hayasaka-kun. You don't remember Seno Kyohei? You really don't remember?"

"Ah... can't bring him to mind right off the bat... so... guess not..."

She glared at him with half-lidded eyes and he almost apologized on reflex, but then figured apologizing wouldn't accomplish anything.

Shirazawa let out another small breath, rubbed her shoulder and stomach as if confirming her injuries were healed, then stood, looked down the corridor, and spoke.

"The guy whose nose you broke in middle school."

"Ah. That monkey from the monkey mountain."

"You were in the same high school too — you don't remember?"

"...Now that you mention it, I feel like he was there... and also feel like he wasn't... but how come you know about breaking his nose?"

Shirazawa Kana was supposed to have been his classmate since high school. When Toru tilted his head, Shirazawa — no longer sighing — for some reason narrowed her eyes as if looking at something bright and gave a tiny laugh. Like, "What am I gonna do with you."

When they were dating, he felt like he used to see that smile from her a lot.

"Ah, Toru, Toru! That's the guy who picked a fight at city hall, isn't it? You know — that hair, the sky-blue mesh! Definitely him!"

Pointing at the monster slowly lumbering closer from down the corridor, Tia spoke. Her total lack of tension was probably because he wasn't worth being tense about.

True — from the look of him, he seemed weaker than an S-rank monster.

The sort of level Toru could handle even without using the cursed blade.

"Ah... Seno, was it? Sorry, don't really remember you — but why'd you go and turn into a monster? You just beat up Shirazawa without killing her, and you probably could've offed the other members too if you'd set your mind to it. What're you trying to pull?"

He didn't know if the guy could even hold a conversation, but he tried talking to him anyway.

A human form built up from rock. The right arm that should've been cut off by 'Kagetsu' had regenerated at some point — and on top of that, he was wrapped in far denser magical power than just a few seconds ago. Toru didn't know what about his words had set the guy off, but the monster that had apparently been Seno Kyohei bristled his hair and erupted with magical power across his whole body.

"Hayasaka! You—!"

Bellowing, the rock-skinned giant charged.

If this had been the Toru of a week ago, he wouldn't have even been able to react — would've just been slugged and died. Slugged in the head, his head would've vanished; slugged in the chest, it would've caved in and killed him. The same feeling as looking at a kitten or a baby and knowing you'd hurt it easily if you weren't careful. From a monster's perspective, humans were just that fragile.

But — it was no contest.

Bagonn — like a pro slugger easily batting back a middle-school pitcher's throw, Tia slipped in front of Toru and batted back Seno Kyohei's giant frame with the holy sword. A scorching line drive right back at the pitcher.

Well — in this case she batted back the pitcher who'd been charging in.

"Um... I went easy on him since he used to be human, but... what do we do?"

"Toru-bro, you bastard! Knock it off already, you hear me!"

Before Toru could answer Tia's question, the red-haired ridiculous coat — who'd apparently chased them all the way to the end — approached. For some reason he was dragging the beautiful 'special ability' user by the scruff of the neck, which Toru didn't get the meaning of at all.

"Um... who's that?"

Shirazawa said with a troubled look, but Toru didn't have an answer.

"No idea. Ah... sorry, but — who might you be? We were in a bit of a hurry — actually, we're still in the middle of something."

While he was saying that, the batted-back Seno used the labyrinth's floor, walls, and ceiling as footholds to accelerate and charge in — but the ridiculous coat slugged him and sent him flying again.

If the guy could toss around Seno Kyohei in that state like it was nothing —

"The name's Isaac Scale, S-rank, with the S-rank explorer clan 'Slayer.' Got summoned to this town on a dungeon investigation gig — apparently some crazy shit's going down. Came to scope out the dungeon, and what do I find — the famous Toru-bro charging in like a madman, so I chased after him!"

"Ah... an acquaintance asked for help, so I came to help. That monster you also socked away — apparently used to be human."

"Hanh? What's that about?"

"No idea."

And honestly, how would he have known. Isaac glared at Toru with that "what're you looking at" energy of a Showa-era punk picking a fight, but Toru ignored him — too much hassle.

"Ahhhhhhhhh! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck youuuuu!"

The rock-skinned monster ranted at an incredible volume.

Take a kid throwing a tantrum because you wouldn't buy him toys or games, level him up about five thousand times, and you'd probably get something like that — or so Toru thought.

"Hayasaka! Hayasaka Toru! I wanna beat you to death!"

Screaming at ear-splitting volume, the rock-skinned monster strode closer. Toru could see Tia and Isaac dropping their weight into their stances, but he ignored them, stepped forward a few paces, and raised 'Kagetsu,' which he'd still been gripping in his right hand.

Held level to the ground, the hilt up near his face.

Edge to the sky, spine to the earth. Right grip loose, left hand resting against the pommel even more relaxed.

"Sorry to interrupt your little tantrum, but I don't really remember you. Still — you went out of your way to call me out by name. I'll humor you."

"HAYASAKAAAAA!"

"Shaddup. I hear you. All you do is screech and holler. Even looking like that, you're still dribbling on about how you wanna kill me. Don't start that 'if I won the lottery I'd buy this, I'd buy that' shit at this stage — too stupid for words. Let's do this like monsters — both of us."

He ended up grinning.

Seno Kyohei kicked off the ground, closing on Toru with an agility unthinkable from such a giant body. The magical power loaded into his raised arm would blow through Toru's magic defense without effort. A direct hit and he'd be smeared like a tomato slammed against a wall.

But — slow.

For Toru now, far too slow.

———— Znchuri,

One flash of the cursed blade that could cut anything that existed.

In that instant, scatter — like a pile of stones and concrete fragments of various sizes being dumped from two meters up, a collapse. And by the next moment, Toru had already let go of 'Kagetsu,' paid no mind to the cursed artifact dissolving into red particles, and kicked Seno Kyohei — with everything except his human parts severed — square in the gut.

Right — he'd cut away everything that wasn't human, so what was left was human.

Everything that wasn't human had been cut and scattered right there.

"Vwogh—?!"

Letting the groan — same one he'd heard a few days back — wash over him, Toru chased after the kicked Seno and caught up just as he was about to fall back-first to the ground. Without any hesitation or sentiment, he slugged him dead center in the face and broke his nose.

Gank — because he'd hit him in the head, Seno hit the floor back-of-the-skull first, but Toru didn't care. If he hadn't wanted to end up like this, he shouldn't have done what he did in the first place.

"'I'll hit you if you keep being a pest' — come to think of it, I think I said that back in middle school. You stopped picking on me after that, so you should've just kept it that way."

"...Uuh, uhh...!"

A grown man spilling tears from both eyes and leaking blood from his nose wasn't a pleasant sight. The fact that he had no clothes other than pants torn off around the knees was another point Toru didn't want to look directly at.

Anyway, Toru felt no particular nostalgia, nor did he want to attempt a conversation, so he lightly tapped the temple of the sobbing, teeth-grinding Seno with the toe of his boot and reaped his consciousness.

His chest was still rising and falling — proof of breathing — so he didn't seem to be dead.

"Don't know how you pulled that off, but that was some fancy work. Woulda been quicker to just kill him. Why didn'tcha? You soft or something?"

Standing in a spot where he could casually peer down at the unconscious half-naked grown man, S-rank explorer Isaac spoke. Tia was supporting a wobbly Shirazawa Kana, and the beautiful 'special ability' user — supposedly Shirazawa's teammate — was standing around in an awkward spot.

Toru ground his thumb into his brow and let out a small breath.

"Story was that this guy suddenly turned monster-like for some reason. Kill him and we can't figure out why — that's one."

"Hohhh? And here I heard it was something like, that gal over there asked you for help."

Isaac directed a glance with no ulterior motive at Shirazawa Kana. Shirazawa, on the receiving end, made a slightly troubled face and bowed her head — a "for now" sort of gesture.

"That gal... or guy...? Can't tell which — but you were saying something about being able to use a 'special ability.'"

"Y-yes. I'm a man. Sorry..."

"No need to apologize, though."

Scratching his head and speaking curtly — his tone was rough, but he probably wasn't that bad a guy. On the subject of foul mouths, Toru was in no position to call anyone out, so he stayed quiet for now.

"Any idea why that piece of shit turned into a monster?"

To Isaac's question, Shirazawa and the beautiful man shook their heads in perfect unison. To begin with, the story was that he'd turned monster-like for some unknown reason.

"Then guess we gotta ask the man himself. So?"

The question was directed at Toru. He'd said "that's one," so Isaac was asking for two.

Toru thought for a moment, looked at Seno Kyohei's sky-blue mesh hair, and let out a small breath. Try as he might to search his chest, he couldn't dig up any particular sentiment for this man. Just an annoying monkey from the monkey mountain.

But — still.

"...That guy's parents were really decent people, you know."

After Toru broke Seno's nose in middle school, a sit-down had been held between the Hayasaka and Seno families — and at the time, Seno's parents had been quite polite in demeanor, and even after learning their son had been endlessly harassing a classmate, they'd never dropped their attitude of "We are truly sorry." Toru's parents had likewise stuck to "We're sorry our son broke your son's nose"... but, well, it was a pretty unusual sight, he thought.

Toru didn't know how many parents could apologize properly after learning their kid had kept up a bizarre frequency of harassment, looking down on a classmate — but given that the saying "a frog's child is a frog" existed, he'd figured the parents would be much the same. They weren't, and he remembered being pretty surprised. That had left a deeper impression on him than Seno Kyohei himself.

If he died, they'd grieve. Normally.

"So you went easy on him. That it?"

"Ah... well, if Shirazawa had been killed, I'm pretty sure I would've just flat-out killed him. But — like, I'm just guessing here — even as a monster, he wasn't the type who could actually kill anyone. He can smirk and insult people all day, but actually slugging someone hard enough to break a nose, actually bringing the curtain down on someone's life — I don't think he had it in him... or, uh, so I figure, anyway."

"Don't start watching your mouth this late in the game."

Shoo, shoo — Isaac waved his hand like he was brushing off a fly. Apparently he was the type whose own mouth was filthy but who wasn't strict about how others spoke.

He gave off a rough impression, and was probably actually rough — but he wasn't the "I'm important, so show me the proper respect" type.

"By the way, Toru — what's the plan? Situation's kind of a mess, isn't it?"

"Ah... yeah, true."

Toru nodded at Tia's question, but he couldn't immediately think of what to do.

He'd been asked for help. He'd come to help. He'd helped. Great, great. Now break it up — wasn't gonna be that easy.

"Ah, I'll try contacting the president and Takahashi-san. The president's probably picked up Maeno-san by now, but — huh? Ah, right. Thank you."

The beauty had just opened his mouth with a suggestion, then suddenly started talking to someone who wasn't here — Toru found that odd, but looking closer, the guy had an earpiece in. He'd probably been in contact with someone outside when the emergency developed. That outside person had probably timed a call in to him.

On a why-not sort of whim, Toru pulled out his mobile terminal — his phone. There was a message from Kawai Sakiho.

"Contact me once the situation settles. I've asked Section Chief Sadoyama to wait on standby in front of Noumi Dungeon. Depending on the situation, you may be able to leave the cleanup to Section Chief Sadoyama."

"Ah... Sadoyama-san's apparently on standby at the dungeon entrance."

"Sadoyama?"

"Section chief of S City's Labyrinth Department. Pretty decent guy, so I think we can dump it all on him. Honestly, I don't know the details of Shirazawa and her team's situation either."

"Um, Hayasaka-kun. Can I have just a moment?"

Said Shirazawa. Isaac didn't seem to have any more questions, so Toru turned to face his ex-girlfriend, who wore an ambiguous expression.

She wore an ambiguous expression.

She looked like she was holding something back, but what exactly, he couldn't tell. When they were dating, they'd never faced each other in this kind of situation — so Toru couldn't even guess what Shirazawa Kana was thinking or feeling right now.

"What's up, Shirazawa?"

Instead of answering Toru's question, Shirazawa Kana stepped away from Tia, who'd been supporting her, and moved five paces. That put her right in front of him.

He felt nostalgia and distance at the same time, but figured that was probably just his own mood. They couldn't go back to how things were. Not at this point.

"Sorry, just — just for a bit —"

Her arms reached out, slipping under the arms of the frozen Toru, and she hugged him tight. The embrace was far stronger than in his memory — probably because she'd been active as an explorer. Toru knew nothing about Shirazawa as an explorer, but the feel of the mana inside her, the strength of her core, the power in her arms — all completely different from what he knew.

What was the same — was only the feeling of being held by her.

Like unhesitatingly offering up a terribly fragile soul. Far too defenseless a way of entrusting her heart. Not considering the possibility of rejection at all, not factoring in any chance of being hurt by Toru — that was how she entrusted her body and her heart.

"— I was scared. Thank you for saving me."

Unable to wrap his arms around the back of his quietly crying ex-girlfriend, Toru literally raised both hands in surrender and went, "Ah," with a nod.

He happened to notice Tia giving him a strangely awkward wry smile, but he didn't feel particularly annoyed. Because, well — fair enough, he thought.

What exactly was fair enough — Toru himself had no idea.