ch81-ch100 · 087-ch86

Chapter 86

"Sorry. I've calmed down. I'm fine now."

Shirazawa Kana had clung to Toru for maybe two or three minutes, but her breathing gradually settled — and though he also got the sense she'd been sniffling at his scent partway through — anyway, she slowly pulled away.

Toru, who'd had his hands up in surrender the whole time, lowered them, hesitated a little, then went, "Ah," and nodded. He couldn't find anything else to say.

"Yo, lady-killer. What're ya doin' with the ex-monster over there? Can't exactly just leave him and head back, can ya. Want me to drag him for ya?"

Isaac Scale — S-rank explorer, short red hair, sleeveless coat over bare skin — said it. Surprisingly helpful, Toru thought — but given the situation, any decent explorer probably couldn't just leave it be, so he accepted it.

Probably a way more decent guy than his looks or his way of talking suggested.

"Ah — then how about using that chain lying over there?"

"Chain?"

Toru looked across the corridor where Tia was pointing and, sure enough, there was a chain lying there. It looked torn partway through, but it'd do as a rope for dragging a person. Dragging Seno Kyohei through a dungeon like a prisoner sentenced to the parading punishment wouldn't exactly pain Toru's heart — but why was a chain lying around here in the first place? He tilted his head.

"...That's my weapon. It got broken, though."

Shirazawa said, a little embarrassed.

"The chain? Like wrapping it around your fists like a Showa-era delinquent...?"

"N-no, not that. It's called a chain whip. I liked using it because I can fight monsters from a distance. Didn't work on Seno-kun at all, though."

"Huh."

"Ah — that's the 'huh' you use when you don't care, isn't it."

"Who knows. More importantly, can I use it as a rope?"

While they were talking, Tia had already come back with the dropped chain whip, like a dog retrieving a thrown ball.

"...Well, fine."

Shirazawa nodded after seeming to think it over for a second. Toru gave a nod back like, if you're fine with it, fine, and watched the chain get wound round and round the unconscious Seno Kyohei.

"All right, we're good. Head back? Or check out the scene first?"

"Uh... what's the situation again?"

"We opened the hidden door, there was a trap, and the President and Seno-kun, who'd gone in first, got attacked by a monster that teleported in. It was a pretty tight spot, but for some reason Seno-kun beat the monster. And then Seno-kun turned into a monster."

"Then let's go check out the scene first. That beauty over there isn't hurt or anything, right?"

He called out, just in case, to the beautiful young man who'd apparently been communicating with someone outside from a slight distance away. He'd been screaming while Tia was carrying him, but he probably wasn't hurt.

"Ah, uh, ah... yes. I'm not hurt. I'm Watanabe Yuki."

"Sorry, but could you use your 'special ability' to guide us to the hidden door?"

"Yes, of course. Takahashi-san's dropped camera should still be at the scene, and there might be something beyond the hidden door."

"Hey, Toru, Toru. Shouldn't we contact Sadoyama?"

Tia had suddenly come out with something sensible, and Toru was honestly surprised. Sure, it was correct — but being told that by this holy sword wielder, something just didn't sit right.

Of course, he didn't bother saying that out loud.

Even a non-delicate guy like him showed some tact.

◇◇◇

Contacting Sadoyama directly would mean a phone call, so Toru decided to send a message to Kawai Sakiho and have her relay that the situation had settled down for now and that they'd be back after checking the scene.

"This way."

Watanabe Yuki guided them through the labyrinth corridors as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Tia fell in alongside him in a position that looked like she was protecting the beauty; Toru and Shirazawa Kana came behind them. And behind them, Isaac followed, dragging Seno Kyohei by the chain.

Come to think of it, this reminded him of those old video games where, when a party member died, they turned into a coffin, and you had to drag the coffin around with you. You'd pay money at the church in town to revive them — but come to think of it, if it could be solved with money, that was awfully generous, wasn't it?

"...Hey, Hayasaka-kun. You thinking weird stuff again?"

"No, not at all. More importantly — Shirazawa and Watanabe, right? You guys are, uh... what're you gonna do from here... what do you think's gonna happen?"

"For now, club activities are probably canceled, I'd think. Yuki-kun, you're in contact with the President and the others, right? What about Shitani-senpai outside?"

"The President picked up Maeno-san, linked up with Takahashi-san who was waiting at the second-floor stairs, and they're out at the dungeon entrance. The Section Chief from the Labyrinth Department was waiting there, so they're standing by with him. Shitani-senpai is adjusting things so we can submit the recording data up to the midpoint. We'd like to recover the camera, but since we were transmitting, there probably isn't any particularly new info as footage."

"Guess we'll have to hear it from the man himself, huh. Uh... and you?"

He put the question to the S-rank explorer dragging a grown man bound in chains, and Isaac just nodded as if it were nothing.

"Yeah, I told ya we got called up, right? We're supposed to take over from 'Anthem' and start investigating this dungeon. Plan's probably to open the investigated floors up to general explorers one by one. If the reason this shithead turned into a monster is something in the dungeon, story changes, though."

"Uh-huh... S-rank explorer clan... cool..."

"It's 'Slayer'! I been thinkin' it since ya blew me off at the start, but you got some nerve, huh. Don'tcha know what an S-rank explorer clan is?!"

"Sorry."

Feeling bad about it, Toru apologized normally. Isaac snorted through his nose and accepted the apology. Toru found himself sort of liking this crude guy. He wryly smiled at himself — pretty easy to win over, huh.

"By the way, you're a dragon-person, right? Your name isn't Japanese either — were you originally from the other world? Or were you born here?"

Tia said it suddenly. It really did seem like a "by the way" sort of topic change — there was no weight to her words, and no apparent ulterior motive.

Isaac shrugged a little and let out a "heh" of a breath.

"Ya seriously don't know? Not like I'm hidin' it — it's common knowledge among labyrinth freaks. I ain't born here, I transferred over from the other side. The old couple livin' in the cold village where I got dumped took care of me, so I work as an explorer in Japan. That's why I took the 'Slayer' recruitment, too."

"The old couple took care of you?"

"I transferred over all alone, y'see. No comrades, and at first I didn't even know if there were other transferrees. Out in the mountains. Well, a crappy little mountain — walk a bit and I hit a village. The old couple livin' there treated me real nice."

"Sounds like a good old man and woman."

"Yep. Holy sword wielder — Tia, was it? You say you know about dragon-people, so does that mean you met one over there?"

"I have... but it seems I died more than two hundred years before you all transferred over, so I don't know. Do you know a woman named Sheil Jail? She had ice dragon factors — she'd stick blades of ice all over her body and punch and kick with them."

"Don't know her."

"Oh, okay."

Tia nodded without looking particularly disappointed, or even resigned. Like hearing "today's weather in Brazil is cloudy." Huh, okay. About that level of reaction.

Man, I dunno, he thought.

Almost impossible to put into words — too light to even call a feeling. It didn't even rise to the level of thought — less than an impression, less than a reaction. If anything, it leaned toward the bad kind.

Shirazawa Kana was looking up at Toru's face from beside him — but Toru was chewing on that man, I dunno feeling, so he didn't even notice.

◇◇◇

They picked up the short whip Shirazawa had dropped along the way, and around the time they reached the corridor with the hidden door, Seno Kyohei woke up. Thinking it'd be a pain to knock him out again, Toru looked over at Seno struggling and rattling the chains — he was struggling, sure, but not thrashing like he was trying to break loose. Seemed the chains were digging in and hurting.

"...It's fine already. I can walk on my own..."

With everyone's eyes on him, Seno undid the chains binding him on his own, plonked down cross-legged right there, and came out with a properly repentant line.

"Hey, shithead. Spit it out, in detail. What you did. What happened beyond the hidden door. And why the hell you turned into a monster like that."

"You... you're 'Slayer's Isaac-san...?"

"That I am."

Nodding at the shocked-looking Seno, Isaac then turned a smug face toward Toru. Someone you'd normally be expected to know.

Toru wanted to check whether Shirazawa Kana knew him, but held back. For now, he should hear Seno's account.

"...Beyond the hidden door, probably it's just a trap. The kind where a monster transfers in from some floor or another. I've seen it on a 'Slayer' stream before. Pretty mean trap for these low floors, though."

"Hoh. And?"

"The President thought it was bad, so he used the drug. For just a little while, your mana affinity gets stronger. He said if you use it in a labyrinth, your mana absorption gets way more powerful."

"Hah...? A drug...?"

Isaac stared blankly at Seno. An S-rank explorer making that face meant Seno was probably saying something impossible. Even thinking about it a little, Toru could understand that such a thing couldn't possibly be in circulation.

In this world fused with the other world, if there were a drug that raised mana affinity, it would be a blessing for humanity. If it was ever put to practical use, it would literally be world-changing-level stuff. Why would Seno Kyohei have something like that...?

"After I ran into Hayasaka at city hall, I dunno why, but I passed out... and my aunt woke me up. I had her get me a Noumi Dungeon exploration permit, and on the way home, this old guy in a hat and suit called out to me. Said he was with the Labyrinth Agency."

"Was that a guy with stick-thin arms and legs, with a few strands of bangs hanging down in front?"

Toru cut in without thinking. Surprisingly, Seno turned an unguarded gaze on Toru and lightly shook his head. Meaning: no.

In other words — not Habaki Ryo.

"Tall old guy, real long legs, but he didn't give a stick impression. He had a cane in his left hand, but it didn't seem like his leg was bad."

"—Gilgeil!"

Tia said. And right now, no one here but Tia and Toru understood what those words meant. Isaac, Shirazawa, Watanabe Yuki — and of course Seno Kyohei — did nothing but float a question mark at the name Gilgeil.

For the moment, Toru held a palm out toward Tia to quiet her, and motioned with his chin for Seno to continue.

"Ah... right. That guy gave me the drug I mentioned. It was a disposable syringe with no needle — the kind where you press it against your skin and push the button on the end. Came in a small box... felt, like, proper, y'know. Like the box you get when you buy a mobile device."

In other words, it probably looked like a "product."

Toru was exasperated — you actually injected some weird drug a stranger handed you? — but come to think of it, Toru himself had pulled an obviously shady-looking sword and katana out of the hidden room he'd fled into and passed out. When you figure you're gonna die anyway, maybe that's just how it goes. He did what he could do.

"For now — let's go take a look at that hidden room. The empty syringe might still be lying around. Did you throw away the box the syringe came in?"

"...I think it's still in my trash can at home."

"You'd better submit that to Sadoyama-san too. If it's a properly packaged product, there's something behind it. No matter how you look at it."

"You gettin' tangled up in something complicated, Toru-bro?"

"Toru's fine. Probably that high-up at the Labyrinth Agency... that annoying old guy, Habaki or whatever... will give an explanation. If not, you should complain."

"Umm, then should we go to the hidden room? I'll go grab it."

"Sorry to trouble you, but while you're at it... my magic bag should be lying around somewhere... if you find it, I'd appreciate it if you'd pick it up."

Seno said it, looking genuinely sorry.

Thinking about it calmly, Toru had no desire to keep staring at a man wearing nothing but knee-length pants, so he was all for it.

About thirty meters ahead was the hidden room, and around it lay a camera the club had apparently been using and the magic bag that had been sent flying when Seno turned into a monster.

Tia and Isaac were the ones who went into the hidden room, and they came back out in under a minute — probably because the room was small and the trap was meaningless to the two of them.

"I went ahead and opened the treasure chest in the back, but... it was a dud. Empty inside. Probably just a room where they show you a treasure chest to make you trip the trap."

Tia said as she came back, and tossed the recovered syringe to Toru. He thought, don't touch it bare-handed — but he'd forgotten to say it, and reasoned that probably only Seno's fingerprints would be detected anyway, so he tossed it into the magic bag.

"Well then, let's head back. Sadoyama-san's probably waiting, too."

"...Before that, Hayasaka-kun. Got a sec?"

Toru sighed, and Shirazawa said it with a serious face. It didn't seem like she was going to hug him again, so he just nodded silently.

Shirazawa Kana's gaze went — to Seno Kyohei, who'd put on a change of clothes from his magic bag.

"Got something to say?"

"...I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry..."

Seno muttered, looking down. Toru thought, maybe his reason had flown off while he was a monster — but as far as he was concerned, he didn't really care.

Shirazawa took the words, gave a small nod, and said:

"Mm... well, I'm not forgiving you or anything. But I can tell you mean the apology."

"Let's go, then," Shirazawa said, looking up at Toru. He answered in polite Japanese — "Understood" — and she thumped him in the chest. She was sort of smiling, so Toru smiled wryly back.

This would be it for now — or so it didn't seem.

Maybe it was only natural.