“...Yue, the size isn’t what’s important. It’s about whose boobs they are.”
“......”
He decided to dodge the question entirely, so he gave an answer that was neither yes nor no. What a coward. Yue closed her eyes and pondered that for a minute, before apparently accepting his answer and situating herself in the back seat.
Hajime could feel cold sweat running down his back. He cast about for a topic to break the awkward silence, but nothing came to mind. Even MasterCard couldn’t buy what he needed here.
As he was looking around, trying to find something to talk about, he noticed Shea had finally got her hands on the ground and was now earnestly trying to get her head unstuck. Fortunately, that made for a great topic.
“She’s still going... That girl has to be some kind of zombie. No matter how strong your body is, no normal person would be fine taking that attack...”
“......Yeah.”
Though it did take her longer than usual to reply, she still at least gave him one. Hajime breathed a sigh of relief as Shea popped out of the ground, her face and hair matted with dirt.
“Ugh, that was terrible. This scene wasn’t in my predictions, either...” Shea tearfully patted down her tattered clothes before crawling back to where Hajime and Yue were waiting. She still looked unhurt.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Being unhurt after all that isn’t normal... Just what are you?” Seeing that they were finally ready to listen, Shea settled herself down comfortably under Hajime’s puzzled gaze. Her expression grew serious once she’d sat herself in front of Steiff. Though it was a bit too late for anyone to take her seriously...
“Allow me to reintroduce myself. I’m Shea Haulia, the daughter of the Haulia tribe chieftain. The truth is...”
In essence, this was what Shea’s story boiled down to. Shea’s tribe, the Haulia, were a member of the rabbitmen subspecies of beastmen. There were a few hundred of them, and they lived in a village hidden deep within the Haltina Woods.
Though they possessed excellent hearing and were skilled at hiding themselves, their stats were a lot lower than most other beastmen. Plus, they had no other special traits to speak of. Because of that, they were considered weak by many others of their kind. In general they were a kind, peace-loving race that treated the whole of their village like family and cared deeply for each other. Most of them were also very good looking, but unlike elves which were renowned for their beauty, the rabbitmen were more known for their cuteness. Many collectors in the Hoelscher Empire coveted them for that very trait, so they were a popular target for slave traders.
Among those rabbitmen, one of the tribes, the Haulia, had given birth to a strange girl. Rabbitmen generally had dark blue hair, but this girl was born with very light blue hair. Furthermore, she was an anomaly among beastmen, as she had mana running through her body. What was even more shocking was that she could directly manipulate that mana, and even use a certain special magic like most monsters.
This, of course, caused a huge uproar within the village. This was unheard of in the entire history of rabbitmen—no, in beastmen history as a whole. Under normal circumstances, anyone with the same power as monsters would have been persecuted and ostracized. But this girl had been born to the one race that valued family above all else. The one race that treated an entire village of hundreds as one big family. Which was why the thought of abandoning her never even crossed any of the Haulia’s minds.
However, the forest was home to its own country, Verbergen, which was located deep within the sea of trees. If any of their ruling class learned of the girl’s existence, she would surely be executed. Such harshness was indicative of just how badly the beastmen hated monsters.
And so, the Haulia decided to raise the girl in secret. Sixteen years passed. However, a few days ago, someone from the outside learned of the girl’s existence. In order to escape Verbergen’s retribution, the entire village decided to flee the forest.
With no set destination in mind, they decided first to head for the mountains in the north. Their reasoning being that they would be able to live off the land there. The mountains were harsh, but it was still better than being sold off as slaves in the Hoelscher Empire or executed by Verbergen.
However, the very empire they were afraid of destroyed all of their plans. By an extreme stroke of misfortune, they ran into imperial soldiers right outside the forest. There was no way to know if they were on patrol, or just on a routine training exercise, but in the face of a battalion-sized army they had no choice but to flee to the south.
The men stayed behind to give the women and children more time to escape, but the gentle rabbitmen couldn’t hold a candle to the battle-hardened soldiers of the Hoelscher Empire, and in no time at all over half of them had been captured.
As a last ditch measure, the group ran toward Reisen Gorge in order to avoid complete annihilation. They hoped that the inability to use magic around it would give the soldiers pause, and their caution would overrule their desire to capture more slaves. It was a complete gamble. There was no telling if the soldiers would tire before the remaining rabbitmen were eaten by stray monsters.
However, contrary to all expectations, the imperial troops continued to give chase. At the eastern and western ends of the gorge were stairs cut directly into the cliffs, allowing one to descend safely. Most of the troops went back, but they left a battalion to guard the stairs. Once the rabbitmen came under attack by monsters, they would have no choice but to run right back into the waiting soldiers’ arms.
As expected, monsters eventually came to attack the rabbitmen. Deciding they would rather surrender to the Hoelscher Empire than be eaten, the Haulia were ready to run back even if it meant slavery. However, the monsters would not allow them such a luxury, and instead chased them deeper into the ravine. And so, the rabbitmen were trapped within the gorge, forced to constantly run around to survive.
“...Before we knew it, our group of sixty had been whittled down to forty. At this rate we’ll all be killed. Please, please you have to save us! I’m begging you!” The grief on Shea’s face was nothing like the comedic expressions she’d had before when she was crying.
Once she finished her story, Hajime nodded.
“I see.” That simple, short statement was all he said in response. It seemed just like Yue and Hajime, Shea was another one of the misfits of this world. The reason she was so resilient was because she was most likely unconsciously strengthening her body with mana manipulation. Maybe it was a form of atavism like Yue’s ability.
Satisfied that the mystery had now been cleared up, Hajime looked squarely at Shea and, after careful deliberation, gave his reply.
“No.” Time itself came to a halt. Or at least, that was what it felt like.
Shea’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly, her mind unable to comprehend what had just come out of Hajime’s mouth. It was only when Hajime started getting ready to power up Steiff again that she finally came back to her senses and started protesting.
“W-W-Wait a second! Why!? Isn’t the normal reaction to smile reassuringly and say ‘Oh, you poor thing, don’t worry. I’ll save your tribe!’ or something!? Even I’m starting to get fed up with this! What kind of heartless monster abandons a beautiful girl alone in this dangerous gorge!? Hey, quit ignoring me. I won’t let you get away no matter how hard you try!” Hajime ignored Shea’s complaints and tried to start Steiff again, but was stopped when the bunny girl threw herself at him once more. The solemn rabbit that had been sitting there moments ago vanished, and the worthless one returned to take its place.
No matter how hard he tried, Hajime couldn’t shake her off his leg, so he finally sighed exasperatedly and glared at the rabbit.
“So what do I get out of saving your family?”
“Y-Y-You want a reward?”
“You’ve been exiled from your old kingdom, are on the run from the Hoelscher Empire, and are considered dangerous elements by every other member of your spe
cies. So far, it sounds like all I get for saving you is a heap of trouble. Besides, even if I do get you out of this gorge, where are you going to go? From the sounds of it, you’re all doomed to get captured anyway. So are you going to ask for my help with that too? Protect you from the Hoelscher Empire until you make it all the way to the mountains?”
“Umm, I-I... B-But!”
“We have our own goals too, you know? Carrying someone as troublesome as you around would make our job harder.”
“But... But I saw you protecting us!”
“...You mentioned something like that before too. What do you mean, you saw? Does it have something to do with your special magic?”
“This isn’t the future I saw!” Shea wailed tearfully at how stubborn Hajime was being. Hajime guessed that her strange utterances had something to do with why she was acting independently from her tribe.
He wasn’t exactly dying to know what it was, but since he’d heard her out thus far, he figured he might as well ask. Shea was dumbfounded by Hajime’s question for a moment, before realizing this might be her last chance to convince him. Gesturing wildly, she began explaining.
“Huh? Oh, uh, yes! My special magic is called Future Sight, and it lets me see into possible futures. As in, if I choose x, y will happen kind of... It also just activates by itself when I’m in danger. Though, the futures I see aren’t absolute... Still, I promise I’ll come in handy! You’ll see danger coming thanks to my Future Sight... I used it back there too! It showed me a vision of you guys saving me! I’m so glad the future I saw of meeting you two actually came true!”
As she had explained, Shea’s Future Sight was a special magic ability that let her see what future outcomes would result of certain choices. However, it consumed a great deal of mana, enough to usually leave her exhausted after use. It also activated automatically whenever Shea was in danger. Whether or not this danger was a direct threat to her, or something that would indirectly harm her didn’t matter. This took up a great deal of mana too, but not nearly as much as activating it voluntarily did. Specifically, it only took up a third as much.
From the sound of it, Shea had seen a future where Hajime was protecting her and her family. Which was why she set out to find him.
“If you’ve got an ability like that, how did those Verbergen guys find you? Shouldn’t you have been able to avoid them because you can see the future?” The smile Shea gave Hajime was one he couldn’t read. He couldn’t tell if it was self-deprecating, sad, or simply her trying to act tough. It might have even been all three. Even her voice was inscrutable.
“...The future is something we always have the power to change. At least, that’s what I believe. But there are some things you can’t change no matter how hard you try... I realize that again every time I fail to change something. I couldn’t change the one future I really wanted to. Maybe if I’d just tried a little harder, I could have...”
“You...” Hajime couldn’t fathom what it must feel like to know the future. If it was a future one desired, of course they’d happily be counting down the days until it came. But what if the future one saw was full of tragedy? Could they really just sit there and accept it as inevitable? He couldn’t tell earlier because of her energetically annoying personality, but maybe Shea had been lashing out against it all this time. And up until now, there must have been countless other visions she couldn’t prevent either. That was the burden this bunny girl had to bear.
Even right now, her precious family was being captured and killed before her eyes because she couldn’t do anything about the future she saw. That explained why she tried so hard to enlist their help, no matter how much they abused her. She was trying to achieve that “little harder” she couldn’t before.
Shea Haulia was literally betting the fate of her entire tribe on being able to enlist Hajime’s help. For the first time, Hajime’s expression clouded over. He certainly could understand the feelings of someone crawling desperately forward for the sake of their desired future, trying to survive the only way they knew how. However, when he thought of his own goals, he began to feel a little conflicted. That was how much Hajime had changed.
Finally, he decided that no matter how hard she begged, he’d just forcibly leave her behind... But before he could start Steiff, Shea found herself an unexpected ally.
“...Hajime, let’s help her.”
“Yue?”
“Oh! I knew you were a good person when I first saw you! I’m sorry for calling you flat earlier!”
Shea’s eyes sparkled excitedly, while Hajime’s were filled with feelings of bewilderment, as they both looked at Yue. But before anything else could happen, Shea’s unnecessary comments earned her a slap from Yue. The serious atmosphere from earlier had all but vanished. It was only natural, though. Despairing one second and jumping for joy the next was just how Shea was.
Yue turned away from Shea, who was rubbing her stinging cheek, and explained her reasons to Hajime.
“...She can guide us through the sea of trees.”
“Aaah, you’ve got a point there.” There was a dense fog that permeated Haltina Woods, and only the beastmen could navigate their way properly through it. Having a bunny girl guide would certainly be a great help. They did have a makeshift plan for navigating the forest themselves, but it was pretty rough and there was no guarantee it’d work. Worst case, they could have captured a beastman and asked them to be their guide, but having someone who would willingly guide them would be easier on their conscience.
Considering how troublesome Shea’s request was, though, Hajime still hesitated to say yes. But Yue’s next words blew away all of his hesitation.
“...Don’t worry. Together we’re stronger than anyone.” Those were the same words he’d said back in Orcus’ room. They’d hold nothing back against anything that stood against them, even if it was the whole world. As long as they had each other’s backs, they’d be stronger than anyone. Hajime smiled wryly; he never thought he’d have his own words thrown back at him in such a manner.
Having the rabbitmen’s help would definitely make navigating the woods a lot easier. Of course, that came with the caveat that they would become embroiled in the Hoelscher Empire and rabbitmen’s little war. Hajime had no intention of purposely sticking his nose into trouble, but avoiding the simplest option because it came with some obstacles went against his personal creed. Enemies that stood in his way were to be killed.
“You’re right. You’re absolutely right, Yue. We’ll use everything we can. And kill everyone that gets in our way. That’s all there is to it.”
“Yeah.” Yue replied with her trademark as Hajime gently patted her head.
“Did they forget I’m still here?” Shea muttered to herself as she watched the two of them flirt. Finally, Hajime turned around to look at Shea.
“Rejoice, you stupid rabbit. We’re hiring you as our forest guide. In return, we’ll guarantee your family’s safety. You better not have any complaints.” He was agreeing to her request, but the way he phrased it made him sound completely like a mafia boss. Though, perhaps it was fitting as Shea had just gotten the cooperation of the kind of demon that took down hordes of monsters without batting an eye. For her part, she was overjoyed that she’d safely managed to bring about her desired future.
“O-Of course not! Thank you so much! Hic, really, dank you shoo mush!!” This time she was crying tears of happiness. But for the sake of her comrades, she couldn’t afford to celebrate for too long. She quickly regained her composure and stood up.
“U-Umm, really, thank you so much for agreeing to help! M-May I ask what your names...”
“Huh? Oh, I guess we didn’t introduce ourselves yet, did we...? I’m Hajime. Hajime Nagumo.”
“...Yue.”
“So Hajime-san and Yue-chan, then.”
Shea repeated them to herself a few times to make sure she didn’t forget. However, Yue didn’t seem satisfied with the way she was being addressed.
“...Call
me Yue-san, you stupid rabbit.”
“Fweh?” It was rare for Yue to order anyone around, and Shea clearly hadn’t been expecting it either. It appeared Shea had thought Yue was younger than her, which was why she’d called her Yue-chan. But once Yue explained that she was an ancient vampire princess, Shea got on her knees and started begging for forgiveness. It appeared that Shea had managed to get on Yue’s bad side. Though Hajime couldn’t exactly tell why Yue held such resentment against Shea... Just because she was always staring hatefully at a certain part of Shea’s body didn’t mean that had to be the reason!
“Hey, get on already, you stupid rabbit.” In the end, Hajime decided to ignore Yue’s complex entirely. Shea looked at Hajime blankly. That was hardly surprising. Motorcycles didn’t exist in this world. All Shea could tell was that this was some kind of vehicle. Timidly, she edged herself onto the bike behind Yue.
The back seat was made of monster leather, and because of how small Yue was there was more than enough space for Shea too. Shea wrapped her arms around Yue, surprised by how soft the seat beneath her was. As she did so, her two deadly weapons pressed against Yue’s back.
Yue jumped a little as Shea’s soft mounds made contact with her back, and she suddenly stood up and crawled over Hajime so she was sitting in the front. She was small enough that Hajime had no problem reaching over her to drive. It looked like having Shea’s boobs press up against her made Yue uncomfortable. She sullenly leaned back against Hajime, and all he could do in response was smile awkwardly.
“Huh? What’s going on?” Shea asked, clearly confused. But then she cheerfully sidled forward and hugged Hajime’s waist instead. Unlike Yue, Hajime didn’t even notice and nonchalantly started up Steiff. He definitely didn’t even notice Shea’s boobs pressing up against him. That was an undeniable fact.
Unaware of the turmoil in their hearts, Shea inquisitively peeked her head out from behind Hajime’s shoulder and asked a question.
“U-Umm... I was so caught up in getting you to help that I forgot to ask, but... what is this thing? Is it some kind of carriage? Also, Hajime-san and Yue-san, both of you used magic back there, right? I thought you couldn’t use magic inside the gorge...”
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 2 Page 3