What followed was the carnage everyone was witnessing now. A devastation so thorough, it looked like the end of the world. Everything a good 500 meters in front of Hajime had been burnt to a crisp and charred monkey corpses littered the ground. The conflagration was so large, the other monsters living in the forest got caught up in it too.
Despite having completely lost it, Hajime was still careful to make sure the real Yue or Tio or Ryutarou weren’t in the radius of his bombs. He kept a number of crow-shaped Ornises by his side to observe the surrounding area. However, the combination of being wreathed in hellfire and surrounded by crows made him look a true demon lord.
Tears were still pouring down the hero’s eyes, so the only people available to stop him were two of the demon lord’s sworn vassals, Shea and Kaori.
“Don’t give up, you two! You’re the only ones who can stop Nagumo-kun now!”
“B-But Shizuku-san...”
“Sh-Shizuku-chan... it’s not that easy...”
“Don’t give me your whining! Listen up! If you throw in the towel here, this entire forest’ll burn to the ground! Come on, chin up! You can do it, girls! Remember, there’s nothing stronger than a maiden in love!” Shizuku tried to give the two girls a pep talk. In truth, she just didn’t want to stop Hajime herself, so she was trying to get them to do it instead.
Seeing how desperate Shizuku looked, Kaori and Shea exchanged glances. They nodded determinedly to each other and leaped at Hajime the moment they saw him reloading his Orkans. They both grabbed one of his arms and appealed to his sensibilities.
“Hajime-san, this is enough! No more!”
“Shea-san’s right, Hajime-kun! You need to calm down!”
Hajime turned to them, a displeased frown on his face. His expression resembled that of a disgruntled yakuza member. Still, the two of them had been traveling with Hajime for a long time. They continued gently persuading him to stop his assault, and eventually, he did start to calm down.
“Alright, I get it already. I’ll stop.”
Hajime shrugged his shoulders and called his Cross Bits back. He put them, along with his Ornises and Orkans, back into his Treasure Trove. Shea, Kaori, and Shizuku all heaved sighs of relief.
“Sorry for getting all worked up like that.”
“It’s okay, I got pretty mad too so I can understand.”
“Yeah, those monkeys really are the worst. But I guess I should have expected as much from a labyrinth.” Hajime smiled bitterly to himself while the two girls shook their heads. The two of them hadn’t been unaffected by fake Yue either.
The three of them chatted casually for a bit longer, the scorched forest still smoldering in the background. Shizuku gingerly walked up to the group and said,
“Nagumo-kun, if you’ve finally calmed down, could you please heal Kouki’s eyes?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” Hajime turned to Kouki, who was still in tears. Tortus’ greatest hero looked rather pitiful right now. Hajime gestured to Kaori, who nodded and cast healing magic on Kouki.
“I recognize this feeling. Am I being healed? Ah, I can see the light again...”
Kouki’s expression relaxed as he was enveloped in light. Since he was on his knees and gazing up at the sky, he looked almost like a priest being granted a divine revelation.
After his sight was fully restored, he glared at the source of his pain. His furious expression ruined his natural good looks.
“Nagumo, what do you have to say for yourself?” Kouki did his best to keep his voice even, but his body was still trembling with rage. He was this close to snapping himself.
“Yue’s fake appeared, barely clothed. I had no choice but to kill all other guys present. But since I didn’t want to kill you, Amanogawa, I stopped at just blinding you. There’s your explanation.”
“Explanation my ass!”
Hajime’s “explanation” did nothing to quell Kouki’s wrath. And so, Kouki swung his sword through the air and screamed at him.
“Look, Amanogawa. I’ll admit I probably should have held back more, but there was no way I could let another guy see my girlfriend like that. You have to admit... blinding you was the only option.”
“Quit trying to make it sound like that’s just common sense! I thought you’d crushed my eyes for a second there! Besides, we all knew it was a fake! It’s one thing if it was the real person, but I can’t believe you’d do that over just a fake.”
“Moron. Your eyesight’s worthless compared to saving even a fake Yue from disgrace... It’s like comparing a pebble and a diamond.”
“My eyesight’s worth more than a pebble!” Kouki lunged at Hajime, but Shizuku grabbed him and held him back.
“Anyway, it should be easier to search the place now that it’s not covered in trees.”
Hajime ignored Kouki and set off once more. His nonchalant attitude irked Kouki to no end, but Shizuku and Suzu managed to calm him down. Both Kouki and Hajime often had to be restrained by the girls around them. It wasn’t something Hajime was particularly happy to have in common with Kouki, though.
“Hm?” Before they got very far, Hajime sensed something coming straight toward them. Whatever it was, it was alone and running no faster than a trot. And judging from the mana Hajime sensed from it, it wasn’t very strong either.
Puzzled, he turned back to the forest. Shea had sensed it as well, and her bunny ears tilted in the direction of the trees. Kouki and the others could tell something was closing in from Hajime and Shea’s reactions, and they quickly readied themselves.
“What is it this time?” Kouki muttered. With a faint rustling of leaves, a goblin trotted out from between the trees. It had dark-green skin, a twisted, ugly face, and a small, childlike body. Also, it was only wearing dirty rags. Upon spotting Hajime and the others, the goblin let out a startled “Gyaah!” Then, it stopped in its tracks and stared at Hajime. Because of how its face naturally looked, it seemed like it was glaring. Or at the very least, Kouki seemed to think so.
“I won’t let you!” Kouki still hadn’t been able to contribute much to their fights, and that knowledge made him impatient. His desire to be even a little useful spurred him into action without considering the situation. He rushed toward the goblin, his sword held aloft. Yet despite the threat to its life, the goblin remained stationary. In fact, it seemed neither shaken nor aggressive. It simply stood there, blankly watching Hajime.
Kouki did note its strange behavior, but he had no intention of showing mercy to a labyrinth monster. Unwilling to let his guard down for even a second, he swung his sword with all his might. Seconds before his glowing sword sliced the goblin in two—
“What the hell are you doing, moron!?”
“Huh— Bwah!?”
Hajime leaped forward and knocked Kouki away with a rolling kick. Kouki screamed and went flying with such force it was like a dump truck had hit him. He crashed through a number of bushes and vanished from sight.
First a poke in the eyes, now this. Shizuku and Suzu were understandably shocked. They rounded on Hajime and chewed him out.
“Hey, Nagumo-kun, what do you think you’re doing!? This is completely uncalled for! Kouki was just killing a monster this time!”
“Yeah! Is Kouki-kun even alright!? It looks like you sent him flying really far.”
Even Shea and Kaori looked confused as to why Hajime had done that this time. However, Hajime ignored Shizuku and the others and focused his entire attention on the goblin. The girls, who had totally forgotten about the goblin in the commotion, drew their weapons and glared at it as well.
Just then, Kouki came barreling back into the clearing they were in. From the looks of it, he was unhurt. Though Hajime’s kick had looked flashy, he’d made sure to hold back. That didn’t change the fact that Hajime had attacked his own ally a second time, however. And honestly, Kouki looked ready to eviscerate Hajime.
“Nagumo, what the hell are you doing? This isn’t like last time, so you better have a damn good explanatio
n for getting in my way. Or have you totally lost it and are protecting monsters—”
“That’s no monster.”
Kouki was so taken aback he stopped talking, and looked suspiciously at the goblin again. That was all the explanation Hajime gave as he knelt in front of the tiny creature.
Kouki and the others opened their eyes wide in surprise. Shea was the only one who’d guessed what was going through Hajime’s mind. “It can’t be...” she muttered.
Hajime looked the goblin in the eyes, and smiled happily, choosing to speak to it in an overly kind tone...
“It’s you, isn’t it, Yue?”
“Gyaaah!”
“What?”
Hajime’s unbelievable statement left Kouki and the others dumbfounded. However, Hajime took the goblin’s hand without hesitation and muttered something. “I knew it, it’s you...”
“I knew it... It is you...”
The goblin smiled and replied in a high-pitched tone.
“Gyaaah!”
“Umm, Hajime-san. Are you sure that’s Yue-san? All I see is a monster...”
“Y-Yeah, it looks just like a monster to me too. Is that really Yue?”
Shea and Kaori stared dubiously at the goblin.
“Gogya... Gugooo... Gyaaah!” The goblin cried, clearly trying to convey something. Its shoulders drooped as it realized it could only make unintelligible noises with its mouth.
However, Hajime understood Yue on such a deep level that even her goblin grunts made sense to him.
“Hm? Mm, so basically right after you’d been teleported you already looked like this?”
“Gyaaah! Gugooo.”
“So your physical body was transformed into something else...”
“Gugyaaah... Gyaaah... Gug.”
“I see... So you lost all your equipment too.”
“Gug... Gogooo.”
“And when you heard the explosion you thought it might be me? Well, you weren’t wrong, but...”
“Gyuuu... Gogooo.”
“You can’t use any of your magic? Well, as far as I can tell you won’t transform any further at least.”
“Gigigigagi.”
“It’ll be fine. This is probably part of the trial as well. If they made it impossible to clear from the start, it wouldn’t be a trial, right?”
“Gyuuu?”
“Yeah, we’re missing Tio and Sakagami too. They’ve probably been transformed like you. Into what, I don’t know... but no need to worry, Yue. We always figure something out in the end.”
“Gyaaah!”
Unbelievable as it seemed, Hajime was conversing fluently with goblin-Yue.
“.....” Kouki and the others watched silently. And eventually, still smiling, Hajime turned back and spoke to them.
“There you have it, guys. Also Kaori, could you try using restoration magic on her?”
“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait, what.”
“There’s something off here, Nagumo-kun. This doesn’t make any sense.”
“Hold up a second, Nagumo-kun. I can’t even follow what’s going on here!”
Kouki, Shizuku, and Suzu all interjected at the same time. Hajime gave them a puzzled look as if he couldn’t understand what there was to be surprised about. Shea on the other hand just mumbled “Yeah, yeah, I should have guessed this is what would happen,” with a resigned smile on her face. Kaori, meanwhile just whispered “This is too weird...” with a distant look.
“Don’t you think it’s weird? Like really weird? How are you able to understand her so easily!?”
“What are you talking about...? She’s speaking normally.”
“All I’m hearing is Gyaaah and Gogooo! Does that even count as a language!? How the heck do you get what she’s saying!? Nagumo-kun, did your Language Comprehension skill get upgraded too or something!?”
Shizuku and Suzu continued pressing Hajime. Him being able to understand the goblin was so incomprehensible to them that they were getting mentally overloaded. Hajime scratched his cheek awkwardly, unable to really give them an explanation.
“I guess I’m just, feeling what she’s saying, or something? Like I can tell what she’s saying by the look in her eyes.”
“Well, the two of you do always get lost in each other’s eyes. Maybe you just spent so long doing it that you can talk through eye contact now. But you know, that’s still weird.”
“Isn’t it pretty normal to be able to do that with people you love?”
“No it’s not, Hajime-kun. You might think it is, but I can tell you for sure it’s not... What am I going to do? Becoming someone special to Hajime-kun keeps getting harder and harder...” Kaori’s voice grew uncharacteristically bitter. She couldn’t ever see herself reaching Yue’s level. The road ahead was beginning to grow uncertain.
Now that he understood the situation, Kouki’s anger faded away.
“Wait, Nagumo. How could you even tell it was her? The fact that you stopped me means you knew from the start, right?”
“Come on, shouldn’t it be obvious?”
At that, everyone simultaneously heaved a weary sigh. At this point, it wasn’t too hard to guess. Hajime then turned back to the Yue goblin and kept going.
“I’d never mistake Yue just because her appearance changed a little. That’s all there is to it.”
“I see...” came the monotone reply.
“Gyaaah!”
The others were already tired of this conversation. This was probably the one and only time Kouki and Shea were in sync. Also the only time anyone would see a goblin grin like that.
“Anyway, Kaori. Try using restoration magic on her.”
“Ah, umm, okay... Here I go, Yue. Tetragrammaton!”
White light rained down on Yue. As restoration magic was ancient magic, there was theoretically nothing that couldn’t be restored by its power.
“Gyaaah?”
“Huh? How come it’s not working!? L-Let me try again... Tetragrammaton!”
However, Yue remained a goblin. Kaori’s spell had properly gone off; the light surrounding Yue and the steady drop in Kaori’s mana was proof enough of that. Yet Yue remained unchanged.
“Why won’t it...” Kaori muttered, dumbfounded.
“Gugyaaa...” Yue’s shoulders drooped.
Shea and the others looked at her worriedly. Hajime folded his arms and tapped his forehead thoughtfully. There had to be a logical explanation for what was going on. Yue tugged on Hajime’s sleeve and looked up at him with a worried expression. Since she was still a goblin, it looked more like she was glaring though. Upon seeing that, Hajime broke out of his musing and smiled reassuringly at her.
“It’ll be alright, Yue. Like I said before, this probably isn’t a trap, and since this is a trial they wouldn’t want to eliminate us right at the start. There has to be some way to get you back to normal.” Hajime’s voice was filled with such confidence that Yue and the others smiled.
“My guess is restoration magic didn’t work because whatever turned you into a goblin was another form of ancient magic. That magic circle probably had something special built into it.”
Since we needed restoration magic to get in here, the labyrinth designer obviously factored in that we’d be able to use it. So they wouldn’t have made a trial that could be easily beat with it. Hajime explained his reasoning to everyone, who nodded in agreement.
“In other words, if we keep going forward, we’ll find a way to bring you back eventually.”
“Gugyaaa...”
“Exactly, there’s nothing to worry about. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Try using this, Yue.”
“Gigi?”
Hajime handed her a jeweled earring. Being transformed into a goblin had robbed her of the ability to use magic, but it appeared she could still manipulate her mana just fine. Meaning she could use artifacts. Yue poured mana into the earring he’d given her, which was a telepathy stone, and finally voiced her thoughts.
“Hajime? Can you hear me, Hajime?” Her voice see
med to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, much like Tio’s when she was in her dragon form. They hadn’t been apart for very long, but it still felt like it had been ages since Hajime had heard Yue’s voice, so the sound made his expression soften, and he smiled. Kouki and the others had still been a little suspicious, but now that they were hearing Yue’s voice, they had no choice but to admit that the goblin in front of them really was Yue.
“Loud and clear, Yue. It sucks that you got transformed... but I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Mmm... I knew you’d be able to tell.”
“Of course. How long do you think I’ve spent looking at you?”
“Mmm... But I’m still happy. I love you, Hajime.”
Hajime’s smile grew wider. He’d been tense ever since learning about Yue’s disappearance, but now he finally relaxed.
A human and a goblin stared into each other’s eyes with more passion than any human-goblin pair likely had before. It appeared even when Yue was a goblin, Hajime was more than ready to flirt with her.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party’s eyes glazed over. Eventually, Kaori grew impatient and coughed loudly to get Hajime’s attention.
“Ahem! Can we get going now? Also, Yue, I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Mmm... I’m sorry Hajime loves me more than you even when I look like this, Kaori.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight!? Because it sounds like it!”
No matter what she looked like, Yue was still Yue. If her voice hadn’t been enough to convince Kaori, that abrasive personality of hers definitely was.
“I promise I’ll get you back to normal, Yue-san! No matter what! So until then, just leave everything to me!”
“Mmm... Thanks, Shea. I can’t fight right now, so I’ll be counting on you.”
Yue’s goblin features twisted into a smile. It should have looked grotesque, but knowing Yue was inside made it seem charming.
Kouki walked over and spoke in an apologetic tone.
“Yue-san, I’m sorry I attacked you. I didn’t know it was you... and I almost killed you.”
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 8 Page 10