ch81-ch100 · 096-ch95

Chapter 95

"Well... it's an improvement, barely. Over my place, at least..."

The neighboring room, signed for via a call to the landlord, naturally had no furniture in it.

So while it was a touch more spacious than Toru's place, a 1LDK in a rickety old apartment building wasn't big to begin with.

Toru, Tia, Kawai Sakiho, Kujo Reiko, the butler Kashiwazaki Joichiro, the maid Azumaya Marika, plus Shirazawa Kana and Watanabe Yuki, and from next door the cat beast-person mother Sonoyama Shenna Sharyi and her daughter Mika Sharyi Sonoyama... ten bodies in all. Stuffing them into the living room was out of the question, so the cat beast-person mother and child and the maid had been evacuated into the kitchen space.

Not that there was any actual partition — it was more a "that side over there is the kitchen" sort of arrangement — so it was cramped all the same. The sheets draped over the walls and windows for filming were the handiwork of the butler and the maid, and Joichiro, setting up the stream camera, looked bizarrely pleased with himself.

This guy's a pretty serious weirdo too, huh, Toru found himself half-admiring.

The one thing he had in common with Kujo Reiko — they were enjoying themselves.

"Everybody's gathered here today for the explanation, but it's not like we all gotta assemble every single time — packed in like sardines once in a while ain't so bad, right?"

"Kinda turned into an every-time thing lately, though, hasn't it."

"And still you won't call it 'bad' — that's our Toru-bro-san for you."

The butler's mouth corner lifted. Couldn't tell whether he'd been got or had been thrown a point, so all Toru could manage was a wry smile.

"Toru, Toru. Streaming — it's been ages, huh. Wonder if everyone still remembers me~"

Said Tia, pat-patting away at the knee of the cross-legged Toru. Less that she seemed anxious — more that she was fidgety, like a kid on the eve of a field trip.

Not that Toru knew whether kids these days even looked forward to field trips.

"Come to think of it — your sister, Watanabe. If the tests come back clean after a few days, she gets discharged — that was it, right?"

"Yes. Truly, thank you so much for everything...! Um — if you wouldn't mind, I'd be glad if you would meet her. She was saved thanks to you, Hayasaka-san, and I'll be working as an explorer at Hayasaka-san's for a while, so..."

He probably wanted Toru to know her.

To the beauty pressing his hands together like a savior-worshipper and peering up at him, Toru offered a careless shrug.

"That's your call. But you're the one who bought the medicine for a hundred million — this one's your doing. I just sold a potion I happened to have."

"Toru-bro-sama, at that point in time you did not yet 'happen to have' it, did you?"

"Ah... so it's partly thanks to Kujo-san too. Wait, though — you took the return as-is, no cancellation fee or anything... now that I think about it, we left you eating a loss there — uh — didn't we. My bad."

"Kujo-san — truly, thank you as well!"

"Ohhoho. Think nothing of it. We are of the same clan... yes, the very same clan! Comrades, are we not! I shall be drilling you most thoroughly, so do brace yourselves — ah, um, that is, should it truly become too much, I would be much obliged if you would tell me."

"Ahaha... I'll do my best to keep up, I think."

To the head-bobbing Watanabe, Kujo Reiko returned a somewhat at-a-loss sort of smile. There was that story about her never having had friends — but that had less to do with her station or her personality, most likely, than with her having explored labyrinths so hard there was never any time left to build friendships.

"By the way, beauty-chan — the little sister. How old is she? She's the one who went comatose in the 'Dungeon Rampage' three years ago, right?"

Shenna, who'd been watching Toru and the rest while leaning against the edge of the sink, spoke up as if it had just occurred to her.

"She's fourteen this year. So when it happened, she was in fifth grade..."

"Then hey — if she's up for it, have her go and be friends with Mika. And how's this — when there's time, Kawai-chan or maid-chan could sit with her schoolwork?"

"I-is that really all right...?!"

"Sure, I'm fine with it. Ain't like it costs me a thing."

The daughter cat gave the nyahaha-ing mother cat a flat, half-lidded stare — but being a wise daughter cat, she let that go for the moment, went out of her way over to Watanabe, and gave his shoulder a pat.

"I'm okay with it."

"Mika-chan...!"

"Won't know if we can get along till we try talking, though."

"Nah, that part's a given. Thanks, hon."

The pairing of the utterly expressionless cat beast-person child and the beauty welling up with tears of gratitude — that wasn't bad either, thought Toru. Not bad at all.

"There should be several support programs for cases where labyrinth-related causes have produced hardship, so I'll look into them. Catching up on schoolwork will be hard for her too — I'll help however I can."

"Kawai-san...!"

"Naturally, I as well — though my strength is meager — shall be honored to lend assistance. If Watanabe-sama is any indication, his little sister must be exceedingly lovely... I look forward to the polishing."

"A-Azumaya-san...?"

At the maid — both fists balled up with a "hnngh" — even Watanabe showed, understandably, a small degree of distress. Kujo Reiko's eyes had gone somewhat distant, which invited speculation about some manner of backstory, but Toru made a point of not poking at it.

"Well then — shall we get this stream going?"

So said the butler, likewise skipping right past the maid.

Incidentally, through all of this Shirazawa Kana had sat off at the edge, smiling away happily — but what sort of smile it was, Toru couldn't quite get a read on.

◇◇◇

"IT'S STARTED AAAAAHHH!!"

"'Sup, bro!"

"Been waitin' forever, Toru-bro"

"What took you so long"

"We're suffering a serious Toru-bro and Tia-tan deficiency over here"

He'd put the stream announcement out on social media, and the stream had gone live at eight in the evening. Two minutes later the viewer count had already blown past eighty thousand, at which point Toru resolved on the spot to stop caring about the number of viewers. The comments scrolling through the chat were moving at explosive speed — no way on earth was that a current anyone could follow remark by remark.

"Ah... hey. Toru here."

"It's me! Yoo-hoo! Long time no see, everybody!"

"Ohh-hoh-hoho! Kujo Reiko, at your service!"

"Same as ever lmao" "At a glance, I can't tell what kinda group this even is" "Doesn't exactly look like a pack of mega-dangerous explorers" "Then what's it look like? Beats me lol" "Wait, are those new members?" "Did Toru-bro add to his harem?" "Kagurazaka Chizuru, the losing heroine lol" "Tia-tan heavy breathing"

"Ah... every time, this is unreal. Last stream was the Sugai Dungeon one, right? This one's more like — a bit of a status report, and what's ahead."

"First, an announcement for you all. Toru-bro-sama has established a clan — and into that clan, I, Kujo Reiko, have been admitted!"

"Ohhhh!" "He went and made a clan" "That ojou, in the bro's clan?!" "Ain't that backwards lol"

"For the record, me and the maid over there are members too. Kawai-san as well. Paperwork's easier to keep track of when clan members handle it, y'see."

"Follow-up appreciated" "Mr. Gets-It-Done Butler" "A maid!! Right here!!" "Who're the two in the back?" "Surely Mika-chan isn't a clan member?"

"Well, Mika's not, obviously. That woman over there, and that beauty over there — they became members too. Not picked for skill — there's some circumstances. Thing is, it's all a bit tangled, and explaining's a pain, so I'll skip it — but I myself will be away from S City for a while."

"Fast fast, talk's fast, that's a lotta info lol" "Quit droning on, Toru-bro lolol" "Nah, it sounds like a lotta info but he has literally said nothing"

He somehow managed to snag one of the "well, fair point, now that you mention it" comments — since a fair number of similar opinions were streaming past — and was about to launch into explaining this and that, but it turned into a pain, so he tossed it to Kujo Reiko and Joichiro.

"Very well — accepted. Then Joichiro, kindly put it in order!"

"In one ear, out the other, lmao" "Butler looks delighted though"

First came the self-introductions from Shirazawa Kana and Watanabe Yuki — Kana was Toru's former classmate, Watanabe her junior, a university student... and they'd gotten swept up in trouble and been rescued by 'Toru-bro' — the explanation wasn't precise, but the broad strokes held.

Then: in consideration of Toru's criminally sparse information output on social media, Kana and Watanabe had joined the clan as helpers on that front — which was a lie, but probably a lie that would turn true in the fullness of time. In actuality Toru had little intention of putting information out to the unspecified masses on social media at all. Too much of a pain.

As for Kujo Reiko, the butler, and the maid:

"We bowed our heads to Toru-bro-sama. You all saw it, did you not? The previous Sugai Dungeon exploration — no, the full-traversal stream! I wished to go on playing at Toru-bro-sama's side for a long while yet. And Toru-bro-sama graciously took me in!"

Thus, with a radiant smile that proclaimed there wasn't one shade of anything shady to it, Kujo Reiko declared the matter closed — and the viewers, faced with refreshment of that magnitude, were cleansed.

There was no rule saying you had to resent the labyrinths.

For reasons of his own, Toru personally didn't care for labyrinths one bit — but that labyrinth exploration was one of the important jobs of the modern era was beyond doubt. Exploration streaming was a recognized form of entertainment, and explorer ranked high among the jobs children dreamed of.

Any sort of person could be one.

As long as you weren't greatly inconveniencing others — well, then there was surely no need to go through life lugging a guilty conscience. As for small inconveniences — given that no way of living existed that bothered no one at all, you simply had to swallow a certain amount. Everyone's in the same boat. Probably.

"So — future plans?"

"The bro's leaving S City, right?"

"Ah, right, right. Can't go into details, but I've got business, so I'll be away from S City for a spell. 'Slayer' is in S City right now, so even if something happens, it'll be fine. I mean — even if something did happen, it's not like it'd all be over just because I wasn't there."

"I mean, that's true enough" "But that last 'Dungeon Rampage' — you and Tia-chan suppressed it, right?" "It woulda been real bad without you"

"Well, that's just how it happened to go."

"Talking about it like it's someone else's problem lmao" "Show a little pride lolol" "One could hardly call you anything short of a hero, mind you"

"Hmm... how do I put this... y'know."

Kneading the thought around in his head a moment, Toru cast a loose glance over the members gathered here. Counting the ones outside the camera's frame too, it really was too many.

The former hero possessing the holy sword; the golden-drill zaibatsu heiress who, devoid of talent, had climbed her way up through deranged effort; her butler and her maid; the reception-desk woman who had once looked down on Toru; the cat beast-person mother and child from next door; the beautiful university student who had managed to save his sister; and — the ex-girlfriend.

Each with a daily life of their own — for some it had been destroyed, by some it had been abandoned.

"You guys, you praise me and you trash me... well, your language and your attitudes are trash, so taking the trashing is fair enough — but you do praise me sometimes, don't you. But here's the thing — you guys are fighting too, I'd bet. Not that I think you're really aware of it."

"What do you mean???" "You mean there are explorers among the viewers?" "We're irresponsible viewers, for the record"

"Until just recently I was working as a cleaner, right — and on the way home I'd stop at the convenience store, or the twenty-four-hour supermarket. Without the night-shift part-timer kid at the conbini, we'd have been in trouble. If the roads weren't kept up, I couldn't have driven to the dungeon. Come home, take a shower, watch whatever random videos online, eat, sleep."

It brought on a fierce sort of nostalgia.

Thinking about it, Hayasaka Toru had harbored no burning dissatisfaction with that daily life. He had simply done what he could. That was surely how it was for everyone. Being one of the gears that kept society turning was nothing to be ashamed of.

"Who's keeping it all running? Right now... hold on, a hundred thousand people are watching this? With that many, they've gotta be in here. The guys laying down roads, guys working at the power company, guys maintaining the systems at the waterworks — maybe guys working at car maintenance plants too. All sorts of others, beyond that. Of course there are. Those guys are fighting — to protect everyday life."

That deserved respect.

He thought so from the bottom of his heart.

For more or less the same reason he thought there was nothing to be ashamed of in having worked as a cleaner.

"You hear how in some countries it all went explorer-first, and they ended up with some fantasy-world-style order, right? I mean — if 'labyrinths' come into being and start yielding resources better than oil, then think about it normally, and that's just what happens. Not that I've got much schooling, so that's strictly a 'feels that way to me' claim. But this country didn't go that way, did it."

Once, the world had gone completely to hell.

At the end of the last century it fused with the 'other world'; into this world came 'labyrinths' at the head of a whole host of other-world things, and the everyday life there had been until then collapsed away — so the story goes.

In the era of the 'Chain Dungeon Rampage,' when the damage from neglected, run-amok 'labyrinths' piled up one after the next, those who fought like their lives depended on it later came to be called explorers — but the explorers within Japan never tried to rule the country with that power of theirs. Keep the everyday life maintained, came the request — and to that 'everyday' as it had been, they lent their strength.

Personally, Toru thought it hadn't been a bad choice.

You could buy bread on a whim at the convenience store; in the mood for it, you could eat ramen in the dead of night. Stupid TV programs were still airing today, and comedians and commentators whose names he didn't know were, this day as ever, reacting to the news about this and that.

He didn't feel that everything was wonderful.

That powerful men like Sasamori Takeshi existed meant others existed too. There was no shortage of crap. Among the viewers too, there were surely assholes. A hundred thousand of them watching — no way there weren't.

And yet — that was the thing.

"I told you guys before, right — on the day of the 'Dungeon Rampage' three years back, I'd gone back to my dad's family home for the grave visit. That day I was in bad shape... summer cold or something, I figure, so I was laid up sleeping at Grandpa's place. Grandma got worried and said, I'll go buy you some fruit, okay — and Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma all went to the department store. It was a pretty old house, so — the sound of the car engine turning over, and pulling out of the lot. I still remember it."

In a fantasy world where explorers held the power, could they have simply driven to the department store to buy peaches and mandarins? In a world ruled over by some being of overwhelming might, would his grandmother have worried over her under-the-weather grandson quite like that?

A glance to his side, and the holy sword's hero was watching Toru with a smile so gentle it made him want to cry — the woman who had once fought only to protect, and had probably been used up and thrown away, nodding along as if to say: yes, exactly that.

That she never met a decent end must mean she had gotten something wrong. And in all likelihood Toru himself was fatally wrong about something too.

What that was, he didn't know.

What he did know — was that when it came down to it, he could not do other than this.

"Ah... I'm no good at putting this stuff into words, but... I probably respect you guys. And that everyday life you're fighting to protect — I don't want to see it broken."

"Toru-bro..." "I watch streams, and this is the first time one's ever said that to me" "I get what you're trying to say" "True — we're protected by explorers, and we enjoy watching their exploits. But the ones keeping the world those explorers are fighting to protect running — that's us"

"Anyway, that's how it is — so now I want to hear from you. You've got stuff, right? Like — things are getting a little shaky over here, but the administration's too weak to call in high-rank explorers. Or — low-rank, sure, but a labyrinth the explorers don't really bother with, sitting there half-neglected. Other things too — stuff I don't know well, but you guys know."

"You're saying you want intel from the viewers?" "Say we deigned to hand you intel — then what're you gonna do with it, Toru-bro?"

"Go there and clean, obviously. 'Cleaning Sword' — that's the clan's name. Labyrinth cleaning's probably gonna be the main activity, I figure? Dunno, though."

"Becomes a hero, and his big move is janitor duty lol" "I love it — that's Toru-bro for you" "High-difficulty labyrinth runs are already the existing high-rankers' turf" "So the bro's gonna do what everyone else won't, huh" "What a goody-two-shoes lmao" "Just so we're clear, I'm a NEET, so I'm not fighting anything" "Get a job, trash" "Straight up brutal lmao"

"So that is what Toru-bro-sama wishes to do."

To Kujo Reiko, proud as a mother at a graduation ceremony, Toru nodded with a certain bewilderment.

"Well — for now, at this point... uh, yeah, I s'pose."

"And of course I, Kujo Reiko, shall be joining Toru-bro-sama's activities! Yes — for we are members of the very same clan! Ohh-hoh-hoho!"

"Whoa. That maternal instinct just now was scary" "Back to the usual ojou in one second flat, lmao" "When she's being serious, a certified beauty of an ojou-sama" "This humble one asks — might I request a seat change?" "Knock yourself out lolol" "UOOOH! Ojou strongest! Ojou strongest!"

"And that's the cue — butler, butting in. Per Toru-bro-san's request, we've put together a webpage for taking in tips from viewers. Fill out the required fields on the form, we vet it on our end, and off we go to the site. Where we're headed stays under wraps until the last minute — but let it be noted that tipsters willing to show up on stream will likely get priority."

"I see" "Understood, perfectly" "Show us Mika-chan"

"Ahaha. Well, basically it's prank-proofing, and a question of whether you've got pressing enough circumstances to justify being on stream at all. Just so it's said: cooking up 'shakiness' to farm the name value is not recommended. We'll be vetting the intel on this end too — and as for dishonesty, 'you guys,' as Toru-bro-san calls them, will tear you apart all on their own."

"As expected of Mr. Gets-It-Done Butler" "So this is how you put the Kujo name to work" "As public service goes, I've got genuinely zero complaints" "And if they're ever strapped for cash, they can just dive a high-rank dungeon"

"Ah... alright then, that's that. The rest of you — chat about whatever."

With a good-grief sigh, Toru dumped it all on Tia — who was checking the comments on the mobile device — and stood up.

"'Kay, but where're you going?"

"'M too embarrassed, so I'm duckin' out. Wrap the stream whenever's fine. So — sorry, but it's on you guys now."

The second half of which was fielded by the butler.

"Rojer that. Then, dear viewers, allow this butler to deliver you a service cut. Now — this is just between us, but that beauty over there, Watanabe Yuki-san... is, in fact, a man. Haah! How d'you like that! If this ain't a spectacul—ovela!?"

"Straight-up decked him lolol" "How d'you land a punch that clean sittin' seiza, ojou lolol" "Great plains lmao" "The streamer bailing first thing is lmao too" "On brand for him, honestly" "Later, Toru-bro"

"...Yeah. See ya."

With a vague wry smile for the camera, Toru left the room without his mobile device.

Back in his own home — two seconds on foot away — the cackling of the golden-drill ojou-sama came ringing through the thin wall, but he didn't find it noisy.

He did have a feeling the 'Cursed Blade' in his left hand was exasperated with him, though.

Days like this are allowed too, aren't they — and with that, he squared his shoulders and owned it.

As for whether they really were — that was nobody's business but nobody's.

◇◇◇

Two days later.

Riding the newly delivered light van, Toru and Tia were to make for the 'Kagurazaka house,' with Kagurazaka Chizuru as their guide.

No one else was coming along.

That it really was Kagurazaka Chizuru and no one else — call it slightly unexpected.

"Th-this — this time, to have had the honor of guiding Toru-sama bestowed upon me, I am truly and deeply humbled. What is being carried out behind my family's home, I know not — but the Kagurazaka branch houses and the main house alike would, I am certain, have me entreat you: pray trample them precisely as Toru-sama pleases."

Don't go thinking that, he laughed.

...Though it really wasn't a laughing matter.