“Rrr... Raagh!”
However, it seemed the ogre was still reeling from the blow it had taken from Yorun’s hammer. It was staggering slightly. This might be my only chance!
“Take that!”
I threw the sword in my hand at the ogre’s face. The sword made a direct hit, impaling the blade right between the ogre’s eyes.
“Raagh!”
It roared once more, then froze in place.
“Yorun! Now!”
“Hiyah!”
Yorun saw the opportunity and took it. While the ogre’s guard was down, she smashed her hammer into its chest.
“Rrraaaaagh!”
The ogre roared then fell backwards, loudly crashing into the ground and disappearing into thin air like it had vaporized. Items and coins scattered everywhere in its place.
“Ugh...”
But it looked like Yorun was in trouble too. She dropped her hammer before collapsing to the ground.
“Yorun!”
I hurried to her side to help her.
▽
By the time we arrived at Goshi Town with the unconscious Yorun still on my back, the sun had already set.
“We need a doctor! Is there a doctor around here?!”
We ran through the town in a panic, but the NPCs that heard us asking for a doctor just looked at us funny. We were at a complete loss.
“Argh! There isn’t even a hospital in this town!”
In the midst of my raging, Tokiwa tapped me on the shoulder. Then she leaned in close and whispered into my ear...
“Try going to the inn?”
“Huh? But Yorun...”
“I think the inn will probably do,” she said, pointing down to the ground.
Or rather, to this world.
“Because we’re in a game, her health should be restored if she sleeps at the inn.”
“Oh!”
She had a point there, so I took her advice, and we hurried to the inn. Once inside, we made a beeline for the counter.
“Looking for a place to stay?” the proprietor asked with a smile.
“Yes! Please give us a room!”
“Did you need anything else?”
“No! But we’re in a hurry, so please make it quick!”
“Here you are. Have a nice stay,” he said as he handed us a key.
As soon as we got Yorun in bed, her breathing relaxed and she seemed to be at peace.
“Whew...”
We all heaved a collective sigh of relief, and I sat down on the edge of Yorun’s bed, exhausted.
“Man... Thank God.”
“I’m relieved too, honestly. But now that that’s over with, I’m starting to get hungry.”
Several of the other girls’ tummies grumbled when they heard Iris mention eating.
“Th-That wasn’t me, okay?!”
After Satsuki inadvertently admitted guilt, everyone agreed to head down to the tavern on the first floor for dinner.
“Aren’t you coming, problem child?”
“Nah, I think I’m gonna stay here and keep an eye on Yorun for a little while. Someone can swap with me when they’re done eating.”
“Hm... All right, then.”
President Momone nodded and then took everyone down for dinner. When the door clicked shut behind them, I let out a small sigh of relief for a different reason.
“Yorun ended up saving us again, huh?”
Treating her to a meal probably wouldn’t be enough to repay the debt this time. As I was pondering all this, my eyes fell upon the gear and bags everyone had left in the room.
“Guess I’ll clean up a bit.”
Since everyone had come and gone in a relative hurry, there was stuff just kinda thrown all over the place. And with little else to occupy me, I thought I’d do some organizing. I started by lining up the weapons over by the wall. Then...
“Oops, these are Yorun’s belongings.”
I picked up Yorun’s knapsack, which had gotten dropped on the floor at some point. It was lighter than I expected. She said there was something important inside it...
“Well, I guess I’ll leave it over here?”
I went to move the knapsack, but the drawstring had gotten loose. When I did, it opened, and something fell out of the bag.
“Ah, crap... Wait, this is...”
I froze in shock as I stared at the object that had fallen. It... It was a cellphone.
“H-How?”
It was definitely something that shouldn’t exist in this game world based on what we’d seen of it so far. Why did Yorun have it?
“Rekka?”
Right about then, Yorun opened her eyes and called out to me.
“Oh, Yorun...”
“Hey! You shouldn’t be peeking at a girl’s belongings!” she shouted, leaping out of the bed and snatching her knapsack and phone from me.
“I know. I’m sorry... But what’s with the cellphone?”
“Huh? This?” Yorun looked baffled until I pointed to the phone in her hand. “So this is called a cellphone? I had no idea.”
“You didn’t...? But that’s yours, isn’t it, Yorun?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’ve been carrying it since before I can remember, so I know it’s important. I just didn’t know what it was called,” Yorun said with a giggle. She didn’t seem mad anymore. “Anyway, did we make it to an inn? Is everyone down in the tavern?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Oh, boy, that means it’s dinnertime! I’m starved!”
“Yeah, why don’t you go on down? I think I’m gonna rest a bit more.”
“All right! But no more peeking, okay?”
After Yorun jokingly warned me away from her belongings, she left the room in a good mood. As I watched her go, I felt several times more exhaustion than earlier come over me and flung myself onto the bed.
“But still... How does she have a cellphone and not know what it is? Or did she forget that too?”
If she had one and couldn’t remember it or where she’d gotten it, then... it had to be...
“Yorun’s from the real world just like us, isn’t she?” I asked.
“Who knows?” R replied with her usual feigned ignorance.
Not that I was expecting much else...
Anyway, what was really important here was why Yorun had lost her memories. Was it the result of an injury? Maybe she’d encountered a magic item or a monster that had stolen them? There were too many possibilities to consider. Including...
“...Staying in the game world for too long?”
It wasn’t impossible. Yorun was clearly different from the NPCs, but she fully believed she was a denizen of this world. Maybe she got sucked into the cursed game like we did; she just didn’t know any better.
“If so, this is bad.”
If that was the case, there was no way of knowing how long she’d been here. We’d been in the game a whole day already, and I hadn’t forgotten who I was. But what about tomorrow? The day after? Next week? We may have a lot less time to get out of here than we initially thought.
“We have to find a way to leave this game as quickly as possible!”
Too bad we still didn’t have any idea how to do that. If we completed the story and beaten the final boss—in other words, defeating the Demon King—the game should end. We would most likely be able to leave then, but now there was no guarantee we’d still remember who we were when the time came. Worse yet, we were in a game world—one where everything was bound by rules and programming. It wasn’t like I could just whip out a laser gun I got from Iris and shoot down the Demon King here to win.
“Damn it... Isn’t there any other way? Some way to leave this world without defeating the Demon Ki—wait.”
It suddenly dawned on me. I was getting too caught up on the wrong things. This was a game world, after all. One that ran on all sorts of rules and cliches. One where a vampire couldn’t deal any damage without a weapon equipped, and one where even grievous wounds inflicted by monsters
could be healed just by sleeping in a specific bed. And if all of that followed... then shouldn’t I be able to do that too?
“If so, where would I do it? The church? Or do I need an item to do it?”
Thinking through it all, I suddenly remembered the words of the innkeep when we first talked to him.
“...”
The instant the pieces all came together in my mind, I flew out of the room. I ran down to the first floor and straight to the counter.
“Oh, hey, Rekka.”
“Where’s the fire?”
The girls were all seated at a table nearby, and everyone had questions when they saw me moving like greased lightning. But if I was right, showing them would be easier than explaining.
“Looking for a place to stay?” the innkeep asked with a smile just like before.
“Nope, not this time.”
“Did you need anything else?”
This was it! The NPCs’ dialogue was scripted, meaning the innkeep wouldn’t ask that if there wasn’t a reason for it. And that meant there had to be something else we could do at the inn other than stay the night. Hopefully it would lead to some kind of menu, and if I was right, then that menu would let us...
“Can I save and quit the game?”
“Understood. Now saving and quitting.”
A few seconds after he said that, we were all thrown into darkness.
▽
The next thing I knew, I was no longer at the inn, but the light literature club room in front of the computer. We did it! We were back!
“Whaaat?! Where’s my dinner?!” Iris immediately screamed.
She’d apparently been in the middle of eating.
“Calm down, Iris. We’re back in our own world now.”
“You could have at least waited until after dinner! There was some weird gamey meat in it I’d never had before! I wanted to finish it!”
Iris almost looked like she was on the verge of tears. She must have really liked it... I honestly had to giggle a little, but I stopped dead when I realized Yorun was standing there with us looking dazed.
“Wh... Where are we?” she asked, glancing around and blinking repeatedly.
I took a deep breath before approaching her.
“This is the real world. We were only in a video game before.”
“A... video game?”
Yorun blinked slowly once more. There was a faraway look in her eyes as several silent seconds passed.
“That’s right... I remember now,” she murmured quietly.
She no longer had her hammer or any of her other gear with her. The only thing she still had was probably the one item she’d brought into the game world with her to begin with—her cellphone.
“What... What should... What should I...” Yorun continuously muttered to herself as she stared down at her phone.
I had no way of knowing how long she’d been in the game or how much of her memory she’d regained by leaving it. Surely it would take some time for everything to make sense.
For now, I could only imagine that she was feeling overwhelmed and confused. She was probably disoriented and didn’t know what to do but just sit there... despite feeling like there was something she needed to do. The knightly, reliable Yorun we’d known in-game was now reduced to feeling like a lost child. It was only fair, then...
“Yorun.”
“Eek! Y-Yes?”
“You saved our butts all the time in-game. Now it’s our turn to help you out,” I said, extending my hand to Yorun who was huddled up on the floor.
She really had saved us numerous times. Without her, I’m not sure we ever would’ve made it back to the real world safely. And now that we were here, I was determined to make sure we returned the favor. On behalf of everyone who’d probably been looking for her here in the real world, I smiled at her and said...
“Welcome home, Yorun.”
Chapter 2: A Mysterious Forewarning and the School Festival
Preparations for it were absolute chaos, but we somehow managed to make it to the day of the festival. Thanks to all President Momone’s efforts, this year’s school festival was far more extravagant than previous years’. First and foremost, it had been extended to three days: Saturday through Monday. Secondly, it was being held in collaboration with Juumonji High School, so there was more to do and see than ever. There was even a shuttle bus going between the campuses, and events at local shops between the schools and the station for commuters to enjoy. Going to as many attractions at both schools as possible would also give stamps used to enter in a special event on the third and final day. An event I was scheduled to be involved in...
“Oops!”
I fell prey to the dangers of daydreaming while walking and accidentally bumped into a visitor.
“I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“Yes, thank you,” the girl said before bowing and walking off.
“Well, I’m glad she wasn’t hurt.”
With a sigh of relief, I resumed my patrol of the school. You see, today I was granted the privilege of wearing a festival committee armband even though I wasn’t actually part of the festival committee. That was President Momone’s doing.
I thought she and I were even after I saved us from the game world the other day, but according to her, I still owed her one. I thought my grand debt was only three favors, which I thought I’d paid off by taking care of Tokiwa when she was sick, helping President Momone out with the student council, and then saving her from the cursed game. But when I brought this up with her, the conversation went something like this...
“There was the ghost business with Sakuya, the yokai business with Ai... twice. But that still only makes three favors, right?”
“There also was the camp during Obon. That makes four.”
“Huh? That was doing me a favor?”
“You’re a member of the light literature club too, aren’t you? I even helped look after Midori while I was there.”
“Ugh...”
“What? Are you saying you’re too busy to help me out?”
“No...”
And now here I was, patrolling the school during the festival because she’d asked me to. With this, I would finally be in the black. And the gig wasn’t too bad, I guess. All she said I had to do was keep an eye out for any problems. I’d promised to meet up with Satsuki and the others later, so this was actually a perfect opportunity for me to scout the festival out beforehand, too.
Just as I had that carefree thought, I idly stuck my hand into the pocket of my school uniform.
Rustle...
“Hm?”
I felt something odd in my pocket, so I grabbed it and pulled it out. It was a single piece of stationery.
“A letter?”
“So it seems,” said R as she peered at it.
“That’s strange...”
I didn’t recall putting it there. Where on earth had it come from? Or, more importantly, who put it there?
“...”
For now, I opened up the folded piece of paper. Written on it in very plain language was the following...
Greetings.
This may seem abrupt, but a bomb has been placed somewhere in the school.
If you want the festival to end without incident, find the four odd ones out.
The only condition is that the search must be conducted by Rekka Namidare alone.
Yours sincerely.
“Wh-What...?”
At a glance, there was no sense of urgency in the note. But the contents were disturbing to say the least. Was this a genuine bomb threat? Moreover...
“Why have I been singled out?”
Did that mean the culprit knew me? Not only had they mentioned me by name, but they’d somehow managed to sneak the note into my pocket. There was no mistaking that they’d come after me specifically. But why?
Even though I’d been involved in all sorts of stories, at the end of the day, I was still your average high school student. I wasn’t a policeman,
and I wasn’t a detective. And I certainly wasn’t part of the bomb squad. If you asked me if I had any enemies, I couldn’t deny the possibility... But come on! This was a bit much!
“Is it some kind of elaborate prank?”
That was my first thought. It was just too unbelievable otherwise. That might sound weird coming from a guy who’s been to outer space and other worlds, but magic and bombs are two totally different ballgames! Magic was unbelievable in a very fantastical way. But bombs were unbelievable in an all too realistic way.
I knew they existed, sure. But I couldn’t even get my head around there being one at school. As a resident of peace-loving Japan, bombs were something I only ever saw in movies. There was no way one should be here at school... And there was no way anyone should be here if there was. Some of the students might love for the school to get blown up. Who knows how long we’d be out of class if that happened? But that was wishful daydreaming, and this was real life with very real dangers attached.
That being the case, could I really just dismiss the note as a prank and throw it away? If there was even a chance it was serious... It said I had to conduct the search alone, so I couldn’t even discuss this with President Momone.
“...”
My palms were sweating so much right now that the note was now practically glued to my hand.
“Uwah!”
What was I supposed to do? If this was a real crime, then wasn’t the note important evidence? I took another look at it. The ink was smudged a little now, but it was still legible.
“Whew...”
Relieved, I carefully peeled the note from my hand. If I folded it up like it was, it would basically just glue itself together, never to be opened again. To prevent that, I went and opened a window to dry it out in the stiff autumn breeze.
“...I wonder what the four odd ones out are?”
I didn’t really get that part. Judging from the contents of the note, finding those was what I had to do in order to prevent tragedy. But even if I complied and did what I was told, I was still a little hazy on why anyone would do this. What were they getting out of it?
“I could understand if they wanted money or for the festival to be canceled or something, but...”
I had no idea what they were after. Their motives were totally unclear. If this was a prank, were they just trying to cause trouble for me? As I was debating what the answer could be, without any warning...
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 13 Page 4