Yo, looks like ya came to. Guess I should say its good to see ya again?
Higuchi, Kyouya
Woah there, you can relax man. I aint looking for a fight, promise.
What kind of idiot did he think I was? There was no way he forgot what he did to me no wait, knowing this piece of crap, he mightve actually did.
He was the sort of scum that could go on ruining others lives without a care. His victims would obviously never forget, but for him, itd be just another day.
Just my luck. If only Mei-chan was here. Id even encourage her bashing his ** sideways, which Id follow up by stripping him to his underwear, tying him up with my Blackhair Bind rope, and tossing him into the middle of a monster infested room.
Stop right there, dont you come any closer, I cautioned him.
Haha, Im not gonna bite.
Higuchi was still talking casually, but he listened and stopped coming closer. He also had his hands raised as if to show that he didnt mean me any harm.
There was a good amount of distance between us, but then again, I knew that he was a Thief. Natsukawa-san, the other Thief I knew, would be able to dash across this distance before I could react, so if I assumed that Higuchi was at least as strong as her, I was already within his range.
Rem and #2 had, of course, sensed my distress and had swiftly taken up arms to defend me. But in all honesty, Rem, as she was currently, just wouldnt match up to an actual Job holder. The most she could do was buy a few seconds for me to prepare my next move.
But there was still the fact that he hadnt tried to kill me instantly when I warped into this Fairy Square Which meant that he, Higuchi, had something he wanted, something big enough that hed try to get friendly with someone he once tried to kill for no reason other than convenience.
I dont want to fight you either. But I have no plans to join your party, or talk to you for that matter. Ill be leaving right now, and I hope we dont cross paths again.
Aw, dont be like that man. This zones Boss is a real tough one, help us out will ya?
You havent tried any other routes?
Getting past this Boss is the easiest one.
What about Masaru and Ayase-san? Are they dead?
Course not. Theyre still with me. Oi~, its safe now.
Maybe hed somehow sensed that I was teleporting in and made them hide just in case.
On Higuchis call, Reina A. Ayase peeked inside from the Squares entrance, and then quickly ran in with her usual cutesy manner. She maintained enough distance from me so that we wouldnt need to communicate.
Kotarou
Masaru followed soon after, his face looking extremely awkward. He obviously had a lot of things to say to me, but I didnt want to have to bother. I didnt have to deal with whatever sort of guilt he mightve been feeling and I wasnt the sort of big-hearted person that could simply forgive a once friend turned traitor.
See? I know I dont look it, but I treat the people on my side real nice. And those two are living proof, arent they? Seeing as Ive brought them all the way here.
Sure, and since you have 3 people already, you dont need me, right?
Gotta admit, there was a time when I was thinking along those lines, but uh, you could say Ive seen the light? Anyway, I realized that the dungeons too tough with a party of only three.
Too tough as in he couldnt beat this zones Boss.
That being said, Higuchis proposal itself wasnt all that strange. Id even experienced it once when the Hirano x Nishiyama couple requested basically the same thing of me and Mei-chan. Even for trash like Higuchi, hed have the sensibility to cooperate in beating a Boss before yapping on about the 3 people rule.
So if that really was their current situation, I at least didnt carry the risk of getting back-stabbed before we beat this Boss.
Alright, fine. I can work with you but in return, once I show you how capable I am, you need to make me your 3rd member. Masarus the 3rd now, but hes a slave, so be sure to get rid of him when that happens.
Sure, Im totally okay with that. Its true that we gotta decide who to keep on the team based on merit. Its only fair, right?
Fair, yeah.
So Masarus standing in the party hadnt changed since I last saw them. Since Higuchi could still say he was fine getting rid of him, Masaru didnt matter to him at all.
And currently, that traitor was very overtly listening in to our conversation, but didnt dare cut in. Hed already been made to know that he was in the lowest rung, a place from which he even lacked the right to speak without proper permission.
So, what do you say, Momokawa? Deal?
Im not exactly happy about it but sure. Ill cooperate.
Its great that you catch on fast. Thanks man. Oh, and sorry about last time. Lets both try to forgive and forget since youre joining us and all.
I can promise to not bring in my personal grudges while were cooperating.
That works too. Looks like, we got ourselves a deal. Thanks Momokawa, youre a real lifesaver.
Sure, dont mention it, Higuchi-kun.
Higuchi and I exchanged a stiff handshake. And then, at that moment, I made my resolve Id kill him. Here. I swore it.
But first, I needed sleep. I stationed Rem and #2 to stand guard, but going to sleep here was my biggest anxiety, to be quite honest.
Higuchi had left me alone as I slept. I hadnt woken up to find a knife in my chest and neither had I been bound and gagged. This at least confirmed that the previous conversation wasnt just some big charade to make me let my guard down. His story about the high difficulty Boss now seemed a lot more plausible.
*Yawn*
I yawned, looking a bit dazed as Id just woken up, but in my head, I was already thinking up plans.
The first and foremost thing on my list was to kill Higuchi.
Why? Naturally, because of the simple fact that this guy was crazy.
Even if everything he said was true and he genuinely wanted my cooperation, Id still want to kill him.
It was his psychopathic mentality. His attitude towards me on our first encounter and his treatment of Masaru clearly showed how far gone he was. I didnt consider that a bad thing, per se. His ability to make on-the-spot, ruthless decisions could be considered an important factor for survival.
But it was that sort of mentality that completely negated any form of trust I could have towards him. Sure, I could work with him, we might even beat this zone Boss with me on the team. But then what? Higuchi was unfeeling to the point that any sum of effort on my part would garner not even the slightest amount of his loyalty or trust. Even if I, say, saved him from a grave wound with my ointments, he wouldnt turn into a trusting companion like Mei-chan. He wouldnt bat an eye at letting me be fatally wounded even if he had the means of defending me.
Higuchi Kyouya was a threat to me, maybe not now, but eventually, and definitely. So since we had this chance re-encounter, it was only natural that I try to eliminate him as soon as possible.
But maybe I was just as crazy as him, what with how I was already making plans to commit first degree murder. No, I wasnt the same, I wasnt always like this. My mentality was learned.
That time Higuchi stole my core from inside the Armorbear that I killed. That was when I learned true humiliation.
And that time when Yokomichi attacked our party. That was when I learned that one of us students could, and had, killed another.
I had a clear motive, and even a logically just cause to kill Higuchi. So I just needed to do it. Kill him.
I wasnt harboring any doubts. There was no law and order in the dungeon. I had to do everything in my power to survive. When I attacked Yokomichi with my spear, I struck him with the intent to kill. I just had to do that again. My conscience hadnt stopped my hands back then, and it wouldnt do it this time either.
Anyway, enough about my resolve, that wasnt an issue.
The big problem was the how. How was I supposed to kill this powerful Thief with the measly abilities of a Shaman? I had to think up a viable plan, and fast.
Yo, had a good sleep there?
Sure, whatever morning.
Hey man, you dont need to glare. What, you the type that gets cranky in the morning?
Nah, I was born with this face.
Oh, thats right, isnt it.
Higuchi was acting too friendly for my liking. He was the type that would wait right up until we beat the Boss together, and then pat me on the back saying good job, while simultaneously plunging his knife. And I wasnt the sort of naive idiot whod start getting friendly just because he was.
What was he really thinking? That if he acted friendly, Id let my guard down? Or did he really not care It felt stupid to think too much about it. If he wanted small talk, Id just give him small talk.
Ya didnt eat yet right? Want walnuts?
Just asking, but you dont have anything else, right like snake meat?
Huh? Snake?
Snake meat can be surprisingly tasty. Ah, I mean the non-monster variety.FOlloow ewest stories at n(v)el/bi/n(.)com
I mean, I couldnt exactly say since I hadnt had snake monsters.
Momokawa, you really eat snakes? Like, no joke?
Yeah. You can roast them over a fire and use the rocksalt that Gomas use.
Thats pretty out there, you a hero or something?
What did Souma Yuuto have to do with this?
Try catching a snake if you see one.
Haha, sure, Ill think about it.
Fucking Higuchi, he made a face like hed rather bear it with those tasteless walnuts than deal with eating snakes all of a sudden. What a fool, to not have realized the true bliss that is meat.
I tried not to commit even a trace of this meaningless dialogue into memory while I ate a dreary breakfast of walnuts and water. Everything said and done, I hadnt thought up any good ideas on how to kill Higuchi.
If youre done, lets go for the Boss.
You what now?
As if he was waiting for the moment I finished eating, Higuchi went and said something that heavily implied that we were somehow ready to face off against a Boss that I knew nothing about. Of course, my response was a firm no.
Ah? The hell Momokawa, dont be a lazy ass.
Im not going. You havent told me a plan or anything.
We dont need that. Itll be fine.
Im saying it wont be fine. Arent you stuck on that Boss yourself?
If this was Mei-chan with her Berserker strength, we couldve viably attempted winging a fight against strength based Bosses, and come out on top most of the time. But let me just put this out there: a Shaman is someone that needs precise information about his target, and even after aiming only at its weaknesses can the Shaman only barely manage to win.
Ah well, you got a point.
This idiot No wait, maybe his apparent idiocy was a ruse.
Yeah, I couldnt imagine Higuchi actually being that stupid. Hed made it this deep into the dungeon mostly relying on himself, that is, he didnt have a strong supporter like Mei-chan or Class Rep to rely on. Heck, he was practically carrying 2 extra pieces of baggage.
If he was only relying on his Skills like Yokomichi, he wouldve parted ways with Ayase-san and Masaru by now. And unlike me, Higuchi had the power of sociability. He had The totempole trio as underlings, and could communicate fine with girls too.
There were even rumors of him going out with Randou-san, the one girl who was even close to Mei-chan in terms of bust size.
In other words, unlike me who was always minding my own business and being an otaku in a corner of the classroom, he was making connections to people left and right. There was no way someone of his smarts would talk this senselessly for no reason.
Just as Id been acting friendly while biding my time Higuchi was also showing me a facade.
Meaning that he was only pretending to be retarded, just to see if I would let my guard down.
For instance, say I accepted his offer just now. Say I went with the flow, didnt at all try to get more info about the Boss, made no plan or preparation, and just went for it. What would he think of me then? He would, from that point on, think of me as a pawn, that I was sure off.
And once he thought that, Higuchi, being the scumbag he was, was sure to make full use of me until I wasnt needed any more. Id be a second Masaru, his slave number 2.
Like hell Id let that happen.
You need to tell me everything you know about this Boss first. How it moves, how it attacks, any special abilities, weaknesses, even things you might think it can do, I need everything.
Sure sure, but relax man. The Boss aint going anywhere.
I know, so we dont need to hurry. But Ill still need to know everything first.
Ah yeah, explainings gonna be a pain in the, I mean, Im not really that good at that stuff, so instead Oi, Saitou, you do it.
Eh?
Gasped Masaru, clearly alarmed at suddenly being called. This whole time, he was sitting still at a corner of the Square.
I dont really,
I was trying to say no .
Come on Momokawa, dont be like that. Sure, there might be some bad blood between you two, but back then, I was the one who forced him to do it, and you know, hes been pretty sorry about it.
Of course Masaru didnt do it by his own will, and I knew that. I could also imagine him being depressed over the fact that he was made to do that to me. But that didnt mean I was ready to forgive him. Actually, did Higuchi really expect me to listen to his platitudes when he was the root of that whole incident?
Look, were gonna have to fight a Boss as a team, right? And I know you two were best pals, Im sure you can get along again like old times.
I dont think I can get along, but I can talk to him.
Good good. You gotta start somewhere.
I wanted to tell him to shut the ** up.
Aight, hes all yours.
Higuchi showed me a smile, that I knew was fake, as he switched places with Masaru.
Novel Bin 