“Teleport Stone? What’s that?”
“Isn’t it easier in a less crowded place?”
Kiraboshi invited Ayado and the others not to the gate connected to the station, but to a nearby park.
“This place is less crowded, and it’s more convenient because it’s less conspicuous, right?” Kiraboshi said matter-of-factly, taking out a “Teleport Stone” from her Inventory—an item that allows the entire party to start from a specific floor. It was also the item used to start from the fifth floor of the “Underwater Crystal Cave” when subjugating the Mother Sphere.
Using it, Kiraboshi nonchalantly brought everyone to the second floor of the middle stratum of the “Nagi Plains.”
Even though the “Nagi Plains” is an S-Rank Dungeon, only the first two floors of the lower stratum are open to the general public. From the third floor onwards, the Monsters become stronger, making it impossible for ordinary people to handle.
As for the middle stratum… anyone would be surprised the moment they were teleported there.
Taking advantage of that gap, Kiraboshi silently struck the two blonde women accompanying Ayado on the back of their heads.
Without even looking at the two paralyzed by the additional effect “Paralyze” on her Brass Knuckles, she immediately struck the surprised Ayado, taking her down. Then,
“Shirogasaki-san, carry them. …I used Detection, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone around, and there weren’t any people at the park gate entrance, so I think it’s okay.”
As ordered, Shirogasaki dragged the three of them into the shadows, and then a human sandbag was ready.
Kiraboshi mercilessly stomped on Ayado’s face as she screamed, “Stop, please!”
The scene flashed back to the previous incident, and Shirogasaki, on the verge of losing consciousness, could only watch, trembling.
The damage inflicted was purely Magical Power damage, and Kiraboshi was also moderating her strength, so they wouldn’t die, but…
“Ah. A straightforward villain is really great, isn’t it? They have such easy-to-punch bodies, really…!”
There wasn’t a trace of the Class Representative’s seriousness in Kiraboshi as she continued to punch while muttering.
A crazy woman with a twisted mind, driven by wild instinct and madness, throwing punches.
“P, police! Hime-chan, the police…!”
“Are you sure? Calling the police? I could just leave you as Monster bait, you know?”
“Wh…”
“I know this area because I level up here sometimes, and there are Headhunting Rabbits in the middle stratum. Even Rank C Adventurers can die if they’re careless. I could just throw you out there, you know?”
“…”
Ayado’s jaw trembled, and her face crumpled with tears.
Of course, that wouldn’t be forgiven, and Kiraboshi’s eyes gleamed more fiercely.
“I’m just letting you off with a beating. I’m even making sure to leave no evidence so you can go home alive later. So, if you don’t thank me more and let me punch you, I might change my mind…”
“Hii…”
“Hey. Don’t you have something to say? To me?”
“…”
Kiraboshi smiled at the pale Ayado, saying, “Hmm?”
“T, thank youuu! Thank you for punching me, thank you…!”
“Good, good♪ I like kids who understand quickly. I’ll give good kids a reward.”
With a beaming smile, Kiraboshi swung her fist down again.
Beside her, the two blonde women, still paralyzed, lay twitching…
“Ah. I’ll ask those girls over there who are pretending to be beaten up and trying to escape the same question later… okay?”
Kiraboshi’s glasses gleamed as she raised her lips into a smile at the trembling, nameless women.
–Shirogasaki, who had been blankly watching such a scene of tyranny, suddenly felt Kiraboshi’s gaze shift to her.
“That’s right. Shirogasaki-san, do you want to try it too?”
“Eh?”
“I don’t know what your relationship with these people is… but it’s not a very good one, is it?”
“…W, well, I… she’s my friend…”
That’s right. A friend.
…A friend? Was that really the case?
As Shirogasaki’s heart creaked, Kiraboshi’s voice slipped in like honey.
“You might have been friends in the past, but I don’t think someone who talks to you like that is a friend. …Weren’t you actually being deceived?”
“…Th, that’s…”
“Judging from this, it’s been going on for a long time, right? …Aren’t you angry?”
That’s right. Shirogasaki had been deceived by her all along.
Even if it was her mother’s doing, she had still believed they were friends all along.
…Your friendship was just a fun little game of friends that Mama made.
It’s laughable that you didn’t even know you were being manipulated like a puppet–
…These girls too.
Actually… while pretending to be my friends, they were whispering such things behind my back, weren’t they?
“…………”
Hallucinations could be heard.
With a creak, a crack ran through Shirogasaki’s heart.
Friend.
Friend.
The “friend” who had always been so important to me… was actually, actually–
“Right? Let’s do it together?”
“…A, ah…!”
“Ah. But even if I suddenly say something like that, you can’t sort out your feelings, right? …Besides, Shirogasaki-san is considerate of her friends, so you might want to forgive her. So…”
Kiraboshi stood up from her mount position on the stripped-naked Ayado, softening her lips into a smile.
Then, she smoothly… moved behind Shirogasaki.
She grabbed Shirogasaki’s neck with both hands, gently showing the motion of tightening her grip…
Gently.
As if bestowing God’s blessing upon you, gently.
“Choose, Shirogasaki-san. Either bully that girl with me… or you get beaten up in her place.”
“—Eh?”
“If you think of that girl as a real friend, you can be a substitute, right?”
That was… that was.
A, ah… a sob that couldn’t form words leaked from her mouth.
A substitute. In place of my friend, I… get beaten up?
–Memories resurfaced.
The hateful memory of being beaten by her just the other day, her limbs torn off, rolling around like a daruma doll.
Even so.
Perhaps–if it were the old Shirogasaki, she might have nodded.
Because she is my friend.
I will protect my friend with my beliefs. She might have declared loudly and accepted Kiraboshi’s actions… it wasn’t impossible.
But, but.
The current Shirogasaki understood the horror of the Monstrosity behind her better than anyone else.
Besides, what was rolling around in front of her now was…
“H, Hime… help me…”
Something that used to be a friend was screaming.
The woman who pitifully reached out her hand for help was, however, the root of all evil who had been deceiving me all along.
To save such a woman–
To save a fake friend, sacrificing myself…
To receive that storm of tyranny again, it was too much–
“Shirogasaki-san. You haven’t done anything wrong, you know.”
“…Eh?”
“Because right now, you’re being threatened by me.”
Kiraboshi’s whispering voice.
Coldly… gently echoing in her ear.
…I can’t turn around.
Behind Shirogasaki, there is an invisible demon.
“I understand. Even if it’s for the sake of a friend, you don’t want to be beaten up. That’s only natural. It’s normal. So, you don’t have to sacrifice yourself. Right?”
“…Ah…”
“You have a reason to abandon your friend. And that friend was making fun of you behind your back, a fake friend. …You don’t have to sacrifice yourself for such a person, do you?”
It’s a transaction. It’s a fair and just presentation of value, she slipped the excuse into her heart.
I can see Kiraboshi’s hand on my neck.
The steel gleam of the Brass Knuckles she wore.
The dull glimmer that gleamed on her fist distorted Shirogasaki’s thoughts eerily, crushing everything as if painting over it.
“So, you’re not guilty of going along with my proposal.
You can bully those women with me.
You have a reason to abandon your friend…
You’re being threatened by me, and you have to hurt your friend or you’ll be hurt yourself, that’s the reason. …Right?”
It can’t be helped.
It’s not abandoning a friend, but a defensive act to protect oneself.
Self-defense is a right recognized as human, and so, Shirogasaki was forced to do it to protect herself–this was, forced–
“Choose, Shirogasaki-san. Do you want to be bullied by me again? To be scarred? Or–”
“…”
“Do you want to bully the Monster who has been deceiving you all along, with me?”
“…………”
“Right. We…”
“Are friends, right?”
The moment those words were whispered in her ear–snap, something snapped inside Shirogasaki.
An invisible chain shattered, as if torn into pieces.
Like mud that had been submerged beneath the pristine earth like the first snow, something like mud that had been submerged beneath the bottom of her heart, something that even Shirogasaki herself was not yet aware of, gushed out with a puff of smoke.
Shirogasaki stood up silently and ran through the grassland, not caring that her skirt was getting dirty.
Out of breath. Vigorously.
Just running straight ahead, mindlessly, without thinking, she rushed towards Ayado, who was rolling on the ground—
And kicked his face like a soccer ball.
A dull thud and a scream were probably just her imagination.
The voice coming from her feet wasn’t human. It was the scream of a Monster that had deceived her, and Shirogasaki was only fighting it because she was being threatened.
Panting, she kicked the soccer ball that wouldn’t fly properly, over and over again.
The area she could kick was quite large for a ball, so she changed her stance, changed the angle, and kicked it again and again.
Her ankles hurt. Her whole body creaked.
Even so, Shirogasaki kept attacking the Monster relentlessly.
A strange groan echoed each time, but she didn’t have time to worry about the Monster’s cries.
If I don’t do it, I’ll be done for.
Following her instincts, Shirogasaki kicked and kicked, continuing her attacks until her toes hurt, abandoning all pretense of being a refined young lady—and then, suddenly.
She was enveloped in an unknown sensation that she had never experienced before.
The universe.
Or the bottom of the sea.
Something with unfathomable heat, like a volcanic eruption.
It was the first time in Shirogasaki’s life that she had experienced the texture of life.
A path completely different from the flower garden world she had lived in, a path she had jumped into with her own hands, her own feet, and her own body—beyond a spirit driven to its limits, the feeling of sweating to live, to fight… and.
Inside.
Something that had been sealed away deep in her heart was stirring, like sludge.
Like a serpent.
Like a beast.
Like an abandoned, rotten infant.
Something that reeked of a fierce stench and scattered appalling hatred and madness crawled out from the depths of hell, and something that Shirogasaki had been enduring for so long smeared her, whispering—destroy, destroy.
——Crush everything that deceived me.
——Crush this shitty world, rotten like sludge.
Shirogasaki lost her breath at the sudden change within herself.
She didn’t even understand that it was something deep inside her, and she shook her head violently, trying to suppress it.
…No. No.
I’m just exterminating Monsters because Kiraboshi-san threatened me.
No to violence. Peace is the best.
People can solve problems by talking to each other. You must never resort to violence.
Dialogue. Dialogue is the most important thing in relationships with friends—Shirogasaki chanted this repeatedly in her heart, kicking the Monster rolling at her feet like a madwoman, and continued to shout the voice of peace in her heart.
“Ihi, ihihihih… Aha, ahahaha…!”
Repeating the given excuse, praying for peace, and defeating the Monster with her friend, her profile—
Would probably never be seen by anyone except Kiraboshi.
A lovely young lady.
Naive and a bit of an outcast in class, but a flower-like girl who had never even killed a bug, they said.
A girl who was a little too quick to jump to conclusions, but not a bad kid, they said.
Her eyes gleamed red, drool dripping like a hungry stray dog.
The fact that she had an expression exactly like Kiraboshi’s, who was standing next to her—
Except for her only friend.
No one has noticed yet.
With this story, Chapter 2 is almost complete.
With the last episode, tomorrow’s update, the update of this work will be temporarily suspended.
I would be happy if you could give me your impressions, evaluations, reviews, etc.
This 114th episode is the culmination of Chapter 2, so if you are satisfied, please do!