By the time they were lucid again, the light had disappeared. Staggering, Shea and the others regained their balance and watched as that tremendous amount of mana poured into the key’s crystal. At long last, Hajime had created what he wanted. A key leading back home.
More specifically, a concept magic teleportation artifact known as the Crystal Key.
“Hajime-san! Yue-san! Are you okay!?”
Shea hurried over to her two companions. Hajime and Yue sat next to the Crystal Key, slumped against each other. They were still holding hands. Kaori and the others ran over to Hajime as well, a second after Shea.
“Kaori-san, how are they?”
Shea turned to Kaori, a worried look on her face. After a brief pause, Kaori relaxed and said, “They’re fine. They just used up so much mana they lost consciousness.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Kaori’s diagnosis. Kaori quickly cast a spell to transfer some of her mana to Hajime and Yue. After a few seconds, the two of them groaned and opened their eyes.
“Huh? How’d it go?”
“Mmm... Where’s the artifact?”
Kaori gave them a quick summary of the situation and handed them the Crystal Key.
“You two collapsed after using up all your mana. I’ve given you some of mine, so you should be fine now. I’m not sure if you succeeded or not, but this is the artifact...”
“I see. Thanks, Kaori. It’s been a long time since I’ve fainted from mana overuse. I wasn’t sure how much we’d need, so I just used everything I had, but... you’ll be able to adjust how much we use next time, right?”
“Mmm... Yeah. I think I’ve got the hang of it now. The question is if we’ll be able to exhibit a will that’s strong enough to be turned into a concept next time.”
Hajime turned to the key in his hands and examined it with his Demon Eye. It was saturated with more mana than anything he’d ever made before, and through his Demon Eye it looked like a tiny bundle of light.
“We did a pretty good job... I can feel the energy inside of it. It feels just like the Compass of Eternal Paths.”
Hajime smiled in satisfaction. Even Yue couldn’t read the emotions in his eyes as he looked down at the Crystal Key.
Hajime was so deeply moved that his hands were shaking. His entire journey up until now had all been for the sake of obtaining this key. The Crystal Key had the name it did because it was a crystallization of Hajime’s strongest feelings.
Yue smiled gently and put her hand over Hajime’s.
“Thank you, Yue.”
“Mmm...”
Hajime wasn’t just thanking her for helping him make this key. He was thanking her for keeping him human back when he first met her in the abyss, for always being by his side, for loving him, and of course for creating the embodiment of his will with him. He was thanking her for everything.
Looking up, he saw that Shea and the others were also looking gently at him. Feeling a little embarrassed, Hajime cleared his throat loudly and said, “Let’s test it out.”
He pulled the Compass of Eternal Paths out of his pocket. Unlike his Gate Keys, which could be used to open portals to the respective keyholes they connected to, the Crystal Key did exactly what its concept magic had designed it for. It opened a door leading to the user’s desired destination. But in order to do that, the user needed to have an accurate mental image of their destination, as well as a good grasp of the physical or metaphysical distance to it. But that meant so long as Hajime had the compass as well, he could have the key take him anywhere.
Hajime set a destination in mind and filled the Crystal Key with mana. The key glowed deep crimson, while the golden particles within the crystal set into its base began to dance.
A spiral of mana rose up from Hajime. Nervously, he thrust the key into the air in front of him. It melted seamlessly into the air as if there was some invisible door there. Its crimson and golden glow grew brighter.
Like they’d expected of an object enchanted with concept magic, it drained an enormous amount of mana to activate. Hajime could feel his mana leaving him at an alarming rate. Furrowing his brows, he glared at the shimmering air in front of him and took a deep breath. Then, he turned the key. It flashed, and a second later the space around it swirled, transforming into a circular portal.
Hajime had succeeded. Smiling happily, he turned to inform his comrades of his success.
“Aaaaaahn!”
But before he could say anything, he heard a girl moan in ecstasy from beyond the portal. It was followed by the distinctive sound of flesh slapping against flesh. Feeling as though they were peeking into the depths of the abyss, Hajime and the others peered inside the fully opened portal. What they saw scarred them.
“You like that, don’t you, you shameless little bitch!?”
“Aaah! Cam-sama! You really are Shea’s father! You’re amaaaaaazing!”
Cam was whipping Altina, who was lying on a bed beneath him.
“Bwah.”
Shea staggered backward, looking as though her soul had left her body. Kaori hurriedly patted her on the back, bringing Shea back to the land of the living. While the others hadn’t taken quite as huge a shock as Shea, they were nevertheless aghast.
Sensing there was someone there, Cam turned around. When he saw Hajime and the others on the other side of the portal, his eyes widened.
“B-Boss!? H-How did you manage to open a gate here!?”
“Huh? Shea! And everyone else, too!”
Cam looked utterly bewildered, while Altina quickly recovered from her confusion and smiled happily at the party.
Somehow managing to recover from his shock Hajime said, “Yo, Cam. Sorry for interrupting you. I didn’t realize you were in the middle of something.”
“Mmm... I didn’t know you two had that kind of relationship. Shea, don’t die on me now,” Yue added.
“Fufu, Comrade Altina. I am glad to see you have found a worthy master.”
Ignoring Tio entirely, Cam turned to Hajime and Yue and stammered, “Th-Th-Th-This is a misunderstanding!”
However, he wasn’t fooling anyone. Shea, who’d returned to her senses, trembled with rage. A pillar of pale blue mana rose from her body. She silently took a step forward and retrieved Drucken from her Treasure Trove. Glaring coldly at Cam and Altina, she transformed her warhammer into bombardment mode. Her hand rested on the trigger, ready to unload an exploding slug into her father.
“H-Hold on, Shea! This isn’t what it looks like! Your dad would never—”
“Shea! Cam-dono is a wonderful man! I should have expected as much from your father! I just wanted to sneak a peek at some of your stuff, but when he caught me, he punished me sooo hard!”
Altina smiled innocently, crushing any chance Cam might have had to talk his way out of this. He glared at Altina and growled, “Shut up, you!” But that only caused her to shiver in pleasure. It appeared Altina was beyond saving now.
According to Cam, the truth was that Altina had gotten so obsessed with Shea that she’d tried to sneak into Shea’s old room and look through some of her stuff. Cam had caught her and had been in the process of chastising her.
“You say that, but you looked like you were enjoying whipping her...”
“Boss!?”
Not only was Hajime not convinced, but Cam’s daughter also wasn’t either.
“Die, you shitty perverted dad!”
Shea mercilessly pulled the trigger on her father. An explosive slug hit him square in the torso. Hajime closed his eyes in sympathy, then closed the gate. Just before it shrunk to nothing, everyone was able to hear Cam and Altina’s screams. No one seemed inclined to help them, though.
“Shea, cheer up...”
“Don’t worry, Shea. That was just... a moment of weakness. I’m sure your dad will come to his senses now.”
“Hic... Yue-san, Kaori-san, thank you. But I know that wasn’t enough to kill Dad. Before we go to Hajime-san’s world, I need to make sure to finish
him off for good... by mincing him into little pieces.”
Shea couldn’t believe she’d seen her dad engaging in something borderline sexual with a girl her age. She had been well and truly scarred.
The unfortunate incident they’d witnessed notwithstanding, Hajime had at least confirmed the Crystal Key worked. Relieved, and feeling a little sorry for Shea, Hajime ruffled her bunny ears.
“Uhh, look Shea. I’ll discipline him properly, so please don’t cry.”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaah, Hajime-saaaaaaaaan!”
Shea leaped into Hajime’s arms. Her ears flopped back and forth as she tried to deny the reality she’d just seen. Every time they did, they hit Hajime in the eye. But he endured, for Shea’s sake.
Behind him, Suzu muttered, “I feel like their relationship isn’t any different from Nagumo-kun and Tio-san’s...”
For Shea’s sake, Hajime ignored that too.
Everyone silently returned to the living room. No one wanted to talk about what they’d just seen, and the atmosphere was awkward. But soon enough, Shea stopped crying and everyone put the sight out of their mind.
Hajime and the others lounged on the living room sofas and rested for a bit. Once they were recovered, Hajime looked at everyone with a smile.
“Alright, the first test had some unforeseen hiccups, but...”
He held up the Crystal Key. Choking up with emotion, he said, “It works. We have a way home, guys.”
Suzu jumped to her feet, grinning. Ryutarou also got up and pumped his fist in the air, whooping with joy. Shizuku and Kaori hugged each other, broad smiles on their faces. Even Kouki, who’d been depressed this whole time, couldn’t help but smile a little.
Hajime smiled, a profound sense of accomplishment washing over him. Seeing such a genuine smile on his face, Yue, Shea, and Tio smiled as well. Everyone was in a festive mood. For a good thirty minutes, everyone cheered and laughed and joked with each other.
Once people started settling down again Hajime said, “That’s great and all but... it looks like it’s going to take some time before I can work out concept magic that’ll protect us from being resummoned.”
Just creating the Crystal Key had left Hajime and Yue more exhausted than ever. It seemed the process of turning a concept into reality left the casters in a state of such weariness that not even spirit or restoration magic could cure it.
It made sense, considering casting concept magic required a level of knowledge and stamina that could only be attained by clearing all seven labyrinths. The only way for Hajime and Yue to recover was regular old rest.
Furthermore, Hajime now knew just how “unbelievably powerful” of an unbelievably powerful will he needed to cast concept magic. His desire for something had to be as great as his desire to return home. But of course, it was obvious his desire to return home was much greater than his desire not to be resummoned. In order to cover for his lack of will, he needed to have a much more concrete understanding of what it was he was trying to achieve.
Was he trying to block magic from any other world from affecting him? Was he trying to repel only Ehit’s power? Or was he trying to nullify summoning magic itself? Moreover, he needed to make sure whatever concept magic he created, it didn’t prevent him from returning of his own free will. Otherwise, Myu, Remia, Shea, and Tio wouldn’t be able to see their friends and families again. And that was something he wouldn’t allow.
“So yeah, I’m going to need to do a lot more trial and error. I guess I can try stuff out while we’re going to grab Myu and see Tio’s family... but I’m not 100% sure I’ll be able to do it.”
Hajime scratched his head apologetically, but honestly, Kaori and the others could care less about not being 100% sure they wouldn’t be called back.
“Even then, this means we can actually go home... This is... amazing... Hic... Hajime-kun... Thank you...”
Overcome with emotion, Kaori grabbed Hajime’s hand and started crying. Her thank you was as packed with feeling as Hajime’s earlier thank you to Yue had been. She was especially grateful after having seen his memories. She was thankful he was still alive, thankful he hadn’t given up back in the abyss, thankful that he’d come to save her when she needed him most, thankful that he cared for her, and thankful that he’d found them a way home.
Hajime used his free hand to scratch his cheek. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he hugged her. Kaori’s eyes widened, but then a second later, she smiled and hugged him back, burying her face in his chest. Seeing that, Yue just shrugged her shoulders and gently patted Kaori’s shoulder.
“I’ll forgive it just this once,” she said.
Shizuku watched Kaori enviously for a moment, but then glanced back at Kouki, shook her head to herself, and smiled at Hajime and Kaori. In all honesty, she wanted to hug Hajime too, but she didn’t want to risk destabilizing Kouki any further right now.
Of course, now that she’d decided to live for herself more, she wasn’t going to be satisfied just watching. Later, when Kouki wasn’t around, she’d get Hajime to hug her. She had no idea if she’d be able to work up the courage to actually ask, but she’d at least hold his hand. Despite the fact that she’d already kissed him on the cheek, Shizuku was easily embarrassed still.
Hajime was able to read Shizuku’s thoughts just by looking at her expression, but he pretended not to and instead talked about their future plans.
“I want to spend some time trying to make a summon blocking artifact, so we’ll take Fernir to go get Myu.”
Using the airship to travel instead of the Crystal Key would help preserve Hajime’s mana, which he would need if he was attempting more concept magic. He’d also need to conserve his mana to get back home. Opening a gateway to earth would take far more mana than Hajime possessed. At least 4-5 times as much as his maximum mana pool. And while he did have his Gate Keys, which used comparatively little mana, he could only use them to open portals to locations he’d set up Gate Holes in beforehand. Since he’d only developed the Gate Key after returning to the capital, he hadn’t been able to set a hall in Erisen yet.
“In that case, we’ll go to the demon capital in the meantime. Now that we finally have this cool ancient magic, I want to tame some monsters to take with me, but...”
Suzu wasn’t sure how useful taming monsters from within the Frost Caverns would be. While labyrinth monsters were far stronger than the variety you found outside, the ones in these caverns were all ice-based. Here, where the sub-zero temperatures nullified most fire magic, that wasn’t much of a problem. But most other places weren’t this cold. Not only would the monsters here easily be shot down by fire magic up on the surface, but they also wouldn’t even be able to regenerate like they could using the ice down here.
Hajime considered Suzu’s plight for a bit, then casually threw one of his Gate Keys at her. Fumbling, Suzu barely managed to catch it. She gave Hajime a confused look.
“Yue and I are gonna rest here for a bit to get our mana back. That Gate Key connects to Verbergen, so why don’t you guys go there to tame some monsters from the forest while we’re resting here? Most of the monsters there are good at manipulating their presence. If you tame and strengthen them, they’ll definitely come in handy.”
“I see... Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Thanks, Nagumo-kun!”
Suzu smiled at Hajime, and he waved at her to go on.
In the end, Suzu, Ryutarou, Shizuku, Kouki, and Kaori all decided to go to Verbergen, while Hajime and Yue recovered as much as they could from the exhaustion of using concept magic. Kaori was tagging along because she was worried about leaving Suzu and the others alone, while Kouki was ostensibly going to help his friends. In truth, he just couldn’t bear to stay in the same place as Hajime.
Once they left, the living room felt a lot emptier. Of those who remained, Tio decided that rather than trying to tame monsters, she would be better off using her newly acquired metamorphosis magic to strengthen her dragon transformation. Shea, on the other hand, was much l
ike Hajime in that her aptitude for metamorphosis magic was woefully low. She could have gone with the others anyway, but right now, she really didn’t want to meet with her Dad or Altina. If she saw them now, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop herself from crushing them flat.
Hajime and Yue lounged for a while longer, regaining their strength. Hajime’s expression was more peaceful and relaxed than it had ever been. He looked as though he was sunbathing on a pleasant spring day. Having finally found a way home, Hajime was returning more and more to his old, kind self. It made sense, considering his long, arduous journey was finally behind him.
As Hajime and the others rested, they discussed in greater detail everything that had happened during their respective battles against their copies. After Tio finished her tale, she once again begged Hajime to punish her for daring to use him as a tool to get her revenge. And though everyone knew he was growing kinder, Shea and Yue were utterly shocked when Hajime started lightly patting her on the back instead of flicking her away like usual.
In fact, even Tio was surprised. So surprised that the strength drained from her limbs and she started fidgeting in embarrassment. It was only after Shea shouted, “Did you stop being a pervert for once!?” that she returned to her senses.
“H-Hrmm. You’re too kind, Master... but while I enjoy being tormented, this feels surprisingly pleasant in its own way. Though it’s quite embarrassing as well.”
“Tio-san, if only you were like this all the time. You’d be the most charming and capable woman around...”
“Mmm... Hajime definitely needs to take responsibility for ruining her.”
Blushing, Tio straightened her back and sat formally in front of Hajime. Shea and Yue smiled wryly as they watched.
Hajime smiled too and said, “Well, I guess I wouldn’t want Tio calling some other guy Master, so I’ll have to take responsibility...”
“H-Huh? Master, are you saying that you finally see me as a worthy lover... just like Shea?”
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 10 Page 21