However, though it had veered a little off course, the Claw Bear still charged forward like a cannonball. Though he wasn’t directly in the bear’s trajectory any longer, his wounded leg prevented him from dodging, so the bear still managed to hurtle into him. It felt like being hit by a truck. Hajime was blasted backward from the force of the bear’s charge.
“Gahah!?” The impact forced the air out of his lungs, which made Hajime snarl ferociously.
Donner’s chamber held six bullets. He had fired five, but he still had one left. There was no way he would be able to reload in the middle of this fight, and his own stats weren’t high enough that he could beat the Claw Bear without Donner’s overwhelming firepower. Each shot that missed was a shot that had brought him that much closer to death. And yet, Hajime still grinned. Because with this, his victory was now assured.
As he slammed into the ground, he flung Donner into the air. He then pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at the injured Claw Bear.
“I’m quite proud of how this one turned out. You’d best be careful if you don’t want to die.” Though there was no way for the bear to understand Hajime’s words, it still looked down at the object that rolled to its feet when he mumbled that. What lay there was a small emerald ball, about five centimeters in diameter. And that ball suddenly burst in an explosion of light.
It was Hajime’s makeshift flash grenade. The principle behind it was simple. He had taken a piece of green glowstone and filled it to the brim with mana. After that he had applied a thin coating over it to keep the light from leaking through. He had then packed a small quantity of blastrock in the rock’s center, and created the blastrock fuse that led all the way to a coated surface.
Finally, he had lit the fuse by using Lightning Field. The blastrock on the outside burned slowly until it reached the packed center where it exploded violently. With the crystal shattered, the glowstone released its light all at once in a brilliant emerald flash. He had set the fuse to explode three seconds after he lit it. Though it had taken a great deal of effort to make, he was proud of the end result.
The bear, who had no knowledge of modern weaponry, naturally found its gaze drawn to the grenade, and when it exploded it blinded the Claw Bear. It roared in pain, wildly swinging its front paws. Being blinded had sent it into a panic.
And Hajime planned to take full advantage of that. He scooped Donner off the ground, took aim, and fired. The electrically accelerated bullet hit the rampaging bear squarely in its left shoulder, and ripped it clean off.
“Graaaaaaooooo!!!” Its roar was loud enough to crack eardrums. The Claw Bear had never suffered such pain before. Gouts of blood spurted from the stump that had once been its arm. The blown off left arm spun in the air a few times before losing its inertia and flopping back down to the ground with a wet thud.
“What an ironic twist of fate.” Hajime had not actually aimed for the Claw Bear’s left arm. He just wasn’t that good a shot yet. He had enough practice from fighting Twin-tailed Wolves and the like to hit an enemy that was charging straight at him, but he certainly wasn’t good enough to hit a flailing enemy with pinpoint accuracy. So the fact that Hajime had taken the bear’s left arm, just as it had done to him, was a complete coincidence.
Hajime kept a close eye on the bear, which was still flailing around blindly, and pushed Donner up against his body with his stump of a left arm and reloaded.
He fired once more. Though the bear was still disoriented, its beastlike sixth sense let it perceive Hajime’s bloodlust and it leaped to the side. It seemed it was Hajime’s bloodlust that gave the Claw Bear enough forewarning to dodge railgun accelerated bullets. Once he realized this, Hajime narrowed his eyes, and used Supersonic Step to dash past the bear, over to where his severed left arm lay.
The bear turned to look at him with its furious, hate-filled red eyes. It seemed it had finally recovered its eyesight. As it was watching, Hajime lifted up the bear’s left arm, and bit down on it. His jaws had been greatly strengthened from eating demon meat for so long, so he easily tore through the tough skin and sinew. It was a repetition of the time when the Claw Bear had eaten Hajime’s arm in front of him, except this time it was Hajime doing the eating.
“Hamf, mmf, no matter how many times I eat it, demon meat still tastes like shit... Though for some reason this is just a little bit better than the others.” Hajime looked down at the bear, who was watching him warily by that point. It didn’t move. There was fear in its eyes, but the shock of seeing its own flesh eaten in front of it, combined with its still blurry eyesight, prevented it from moving.
Glad for the reprieve, Hajime continued chewing. Suddenly, he felt something. Sharp pains pulsed through his body, just like the first time he had eaten monster meat.
“Wha—!?” He quickly pulled out a vial of Ambrosia and ingested it. The pain wasn’t as bad as the first time, but it was still sharp enough that he fell to one knee, unable to keep himself upright. It appeared the Claw Bear was a different species entirely compared to the Twin-tailed Wolves or Kickmaster Rabbits, and absorbing its power brought with it the old pain.
Of course, the bear wasn’t about to let that chance slip past. It roared in defiance and charged forward. Hajime was still on one knee, unable to move. At this rate he would be trampled by the bear, and it would just be a repeat of their first encounter. But when that thought crossed his mind, something suddenly occurred to Hajime and he smirked.
He put his right hand on the ground... and wrapped it in lightning. All of the lightning released by his full power Lightning Field raced down the liquid coating the ground, and zapped the bear standing on the other end.
The liquid was of course the bear’s blood. The sea of blood that had poured out of its stump of a left arm. When Hajime had brandished the Claw Bear’s arm right in front of it, he had spilled drops of blood everywhere, and created a small puddle of it around where he stood.
He was not so arrogant that he would eat in the middle of a fight just to show off. He hadn’t predicted the pain of eating monster meat to return, but the rest of it had all been part of his trap. Even eating the arm right in front of the bear had been to goad it into charging headlong at him. The pain had thrown a bit of a wrench in his plans, but everything had still ended up working out just fine.
The moment the bear had stepped into the pool of its own blood, thousands of volts of electricity fried its entire body. The electricity burned the Claw Bear’s flesh, scorching some nerves as it did. However, though he had unleashed it at full power, its might was still a far cry from the actual thing. Unlike the Twin-tailed Wolves, he was unable to shoot lightning bolts, and his Lightning Field could only output half the power of the original. But even that much was still enough to paralyze the bear for a few seconds.
“Graooooo!” The Claw Bear let out a low growl, then collapsed to its knees, shivering in a puddle of its own electrically charged blood. Even down on all fours— or rather all threes— it still glared murderously at Hajime.
He glared right back at it, and painfully got to his feet. He slowly pulled Donner out of its holster, and walked over to the Claw Bear. He pushed the muzzle against its forehead.
“You’re my prey now,” he said with finality, pulling the trigger one last time. The taur bullet fulfilled its duty, utterly pulverizing the Claw Bear’s head.
One final gunshot echoed throughout the empty corridor.
Up until the moment of its death, the Claw Bear never took its gaze off Hajime. Similarly, Hajime never took his gaze off the Claw Bear.
The exhilarating rush of joy he had expected never came. But there was no sense of emptiness either. He had simply done what was necessary. Necessary in order to live, in order to earn the right to survive.
Hajime closed his eyes and rethought his mindset. After a moment of quiet deliberation, he resolved to continue living like this. He did not enjoy fighting. He just wanted to avoid pain. He just wanted to be able to eat his fill.
He
just... wanted to live.
Overthrowing his unreasonable fate, killing everything that opposed him, they were all simply steps he took in order to survive.
He swore to himself. That he would survive... and... make it back home.
“That’s right... I just want... to go home. I don’t care about anything else. I’ll make it home, no matter what I have to do. I’ll grant this one wish of mine, by my own hands. And no matter who they may be, anyone that tries to stand in my way...” Hajime opened his eyes and smiled viciously.
“Will die by these hands.”
* * *
* * *
Hajime Nagumo Age: 17 Male Level: 17
Job: Synergist
Strength: 300
Vitality: 400
Defense: 300
Agility: 450
Magic: 400
Magic Defense: 400
Skills: Transmute [+Ore Appraisal] [+Precision Transmutation] [+Ore Perception] [+Ore Desynthesis] [+Ore Synthesis] — Mana Manipulation — Iron Stomach — Lightning Field — Air Dance [+Aerodynamic] [+Supersonic Step] — Gale Claw — Language Comprehension
* * *
* * *
Let us turn back the clock a few weeks.
Shizuku Yaegashi gazed sorrowfully at her still-sleeping friend. The summoned heroes had all been granted private rooms in the Heiligh Palace, and Shizuku was currently resting in one of them.
It had been five days since their desperate life and death struggle in the labyrinth. They had rested one night in Horaud’s inn before taking an express carriage back to the palace. After having tasted death and despair, the students were in no condition to continue their practical training course. Furthermore, even if he had been treated as a useless hanger-on, a member of the hero’s party had died and that fact needed to be reported to the king and the Holy Church.
And though they knew they were being cruel, the knights couldn’t allow the heroes’ fighting spirits to break. They had to restore the mental stability of the students before their psyches shattered completely.
As Shizuku recalled the events that had transpired since Hajime’s death, part of her wished that Kaori would wake up quickly, while another part of her hoped that she might just sleep forever.
Every single person who heard the report of Hajime’s death was first shocked that a member of the hero’s group could have died, and then relieved when they heard it was just the “worthless” Hajime.
Even the king and Ishtar reacted similarly. One of the powerful heroes who would save this nation couldn’t be allowed to die in a dungeon. Someone who couldn’t survive a dungeon excursion would stand no chance against the demons, and would only serve to spread further unease among the people. The messengers of Ehit, the heroes brought forth from another world, had to be invincible.
At least the king and Ishtar had been somewhat respectful. There were some nobles within the palace that had insulted and belittled Hajime behind his back instead.
Of course they said nothing incriminating publicly, but when they were talking privately among fellow nobles, many of them had whispered their scorn for him. They all abased him with statements like “Thank god it was the worthless one that died,” and “I’m so glad the incompetent got weeded out from God’s messengers.” Shizuku had trembled with rage when she had heard such snide comments, and had nearly come to blows with those nobles multiple times.
And had Kouki not flown off the handle before her, she probably would have beaten them to a pulp. Because of Kouki’s heated protests, the king and the Holy Church seemingly decided that it would be dangerous to let a negative opinion of Hajime spread. Therefore, they quietly dealt with anyone who badmouthed him... However, all that served to accomplish was increase Kouki’s popularity. Most people saw Kouki’s anger as proof that he was kindhearted enough to care for even the weakest of his party, and the general opinion that Hajime had been nothing more than a burden to such a noble hero remained cemented in the minds of the people.
Despite the fact that the only reason the rest of them were still alive was because Hajime had held back a monster not even the great hero Kouki had been able to touch. Despite the fact that he was only dead because some idiotic classmate had fired a stray fireball that had hit him.
However, as if by some unwritten agreement, the students all agreed not to talk about that stray fireball. Everyone was sure they had kept perfect control over their magic, but it had been a veritable storm of spells, and no one wanted to consider the possibility that it could have been their misaimed fireball that had led to Hajime’s demise. Because if it had been them, they would become a murderer.
As a result, they all closed their eyes to reality, choosing instead to pretend that it was some mistake on Hajime’s part that had led to his death. After all, dead men tell no tales. Rather than worry about who had killed Hajime, it was far easier to pretend he had died due to his own mistakes. That way none of them would have to worry. Without any collusion on their part, the students all came to that conclusion, and thus the topic was not discussed.
In order to uncover the truth behind Hajime’s death, Captain Meld decided it would be necessary to interrogate the students. He did not think the truth was something as innocent as a stray fireball. And even if it were, that was all the more reason to uncover the truth, so he could give the student who had accidentally killed Hajime the counseling they needed.
The longer the matter remained unsettled, the more problems it would cause down the line. And most importantly, Captain Meld simply wanted to know. Even though he had promised to save Hajime after they had fled to safety, his words had turned out to be as hollow as he now felt.
However, Captain Meld was not allowed to go through with his plan. Because Ishtar had forbidden him from questioning the students. He had protested the ban hotly, but even the king forbade him from meeting with them, so he had no choice but to comply.
“If you knew... you’d be furious, wouldn’t you?” Shizuku whispered quietly, then took Kaori’s hand. She had not woken since that day in the labyrinth.
According to the doctor there was nothing wrong with her physically. She had apparently just fallen into a self-imposed slumber to protect herself from the mental shock. The doctor had said she would awaken on her own eventually.
Shizuku tightly gripped Kaori’s hand and prayed to no one in particular, “Please, please don’t let any further harm come to my kind and gentle friend.” And at those words, Kaori’s hand twitched slightly.
“Huh!? Kaori!? Can you hear me!? Kaori!” Shizuku yelled out her name over and over. Eventually, Kaori’s eyelids began to flutter. Shizuku kept calling out her best friend’s name. As if responding to her words, Kaori’s fingers curled around Shizuku’s hand. And slowly, she opened her eyes.
“Kaori!” Shizuku leaned over the bed and looked down at Kaori, tears in her eyes. Kaori looked around dazedly, before her mind finally started working again, and her eyes fell on Shizuku.
“Shizuku-chan?”
“Yes, it’s me. Shizuku. How do you feel, Kaori? Does it hurt anywhere?”
“N-No I’m fine. My body does feel a bit heavy... but that’s probably because I slept for so long...”
“That’s right, you slept for five whole days... so it’s normal to feel a little numb.” Shizuku hurried to help Kaori, who was trying to rise, and smiled sadly as she told her how long she’d slept for. Kaori started acting odd when she heard that.
“Five days? How did I sleep... for that long... I thought I was in the labyrinth... and then I...” As she saw Kaori’s eyes grow more and more distant, Shizuku panicked and quickly tried to change the subject. However, Kaori’s memories returned before Shizuku could get even a word out.
“And then... Ah... What happened to Nagumo-kun?”
“...Well...”
Shizuku grimaced, unsure of how to explain. From Shizuku’s pained expression, Kaori was able to surmise that the nightmare she saw in her memories was indeed true. However, Kaori
was still unable to accept that harsh reality.
“...It can’t be true. Please, tell me it’s a lie, Shizuku-chan. You guys saved Nagumo-kun after I fainted, right? Right? Tell me you did. I’m in the castle right now, right? We all made it back safely to the castle, right? Nagumo-kun’s just... out training, right? He’s down at the parade grounds, right? Right, that has to be it... I’m going to go check right now. I have to thank him... so can you please let me go, Shizuku-chan?”
Incoherent ramblings spilled from Kaori’s mouth as she tried to get up and go look for Hajime, but Shizuku firmly grabbed on to Kaori’s arm and refused to let go.
Despite Shizuku’s anguished expression, she kept a strong grip on Kaori’s arm.
“Kaori... You understand, don’t you...? He’s not here anymore.”
“Stop it...”
“It’s just like you remembered, Kaori.”
“Stop it.”
“He’s... Nagumo-kun’s...”
“Stop, I said stop it!”
“Kaori! He’s dead!”
“No! He’s not dead! I know it! Stop saying such cruel things! I won’t forgive anyone for saying that, not even you, Shizuku-chan!”
Kaori kept shaking her head, struggling to break free from Shizuku’s grasp all the while. But Shizuku refused to loosen her grip even a smidge. Instead, she hugged Kaori, trying to warm her frozen heart.
“Let me go! Let me go right now! I have to go look for Nagumo-kun! Please, I’m begging you... I know he’s still alive somewhere... so please!” She yelled at Shizuku to let her go, but was still sobbing into her chest as she did.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 1 (Premium) Page 14