The actual reason was...
“Hya!”
“Shizuku-chan?”
“Shizuku?”
“Shizushizu?”
Shizuku’s scream was louder than before. It wasn’t just Kaori that noticed this time. Kouki Amanogawa, her childhood friend and the hero of the hero’s party noticed, along with their barrier master, Suzu Taniguchi. Kouki’s best friend, Ryutarou Sakagami, and Suzu’s best friend Eri Nakamura noticed as well, along with Jugo Nagayama, Kentarou Nomura, Ayako Tsuji, Mao Yoshino, Kousuke Endou, Daisuke Hiyama, Yoshiki Saitou, Reichi Kondou, and Shinji Nakano. Nagayama and Hiyama were both leaders of their respective units, and the entire party came to a halt as they stared at Shizuku.
Still shaken by what she’d just seen, Shizuku spoke in a faltering voice.
“Th-There was a demon mask. R-Right there, a demon mask, no a demon mask-san was floating in the air.” The others grew even more puzzled as Shizuku added “-san” to the demon mask. They each took out their artifacts and cautiously swept their surroundings.
“Shizuku...where did you see it? That demon mask-like monster?” Kouki asked and began pouring mana into his sword, causing it to glow pure white. Even using his Sense Presence skill he couldn’t sense any monsters nearby. Cold sweat poured down his forehead as he considered the possibility that they might be facing monsters skilled enough in stealth to evade his Sense Presence.
However Shizuku didn’t sense Kouki’s nervousness, and instead shot another suspicious glance at Kaori.
“...Ummm I saw it floating behind Kaori...”
“Huh!? Me!? No way, where!? Where is it!?”
Kaori began to panic. She circled in place with her head turned back, like a dog chasing its own tail, looking for the mask Shizuku’d seen. Her cleric’s robes fluttered around her, giving off the illusion that she was dancing.
Kaori’s adorable antics combined with Shizuku’s apologetic expression served to drain the tension from Kouki’s body.
“Sorry. I think I’m just seeing things.”
“Well, we are deep inside a dark dungeon. Don’t worry about it Shizuku. I’d rather you say something every time you think you see something than miss noticing an ambush. Meld-san said the same thing, remember?”
Kouki reassuringly patted Shizuku on the shoulder, and the other party members all nodded in agreement.
They had been making steady progress, and were now on the seventy-eighth floor. The reliable commander of the knight corps, Meld Loggins, was nowhere to be seen. Him, along with a retinue of handpicked elites were waiting on standby at the seventieth floor. They’d discovered a teleportation circle that went from there to the thirtieth floor. This was the first shortcut they’d ever discovered in this labyrinth, so Meld and his knights were making sure to guard it to guarantee safe passage through.
While Meld and his knights were the strongest the kingdom had to offer, they had been forced to retire around the seventieth floor. Even though their skills had grown as they’d continued exploring, the monsters they faced in the latter half of the seventies had proven too strong for the knights to handle, and they’d left the students to progress on their own.
Before they ’d set off on their own, Meld had repeated to them over and over all of the tips and tricks he’d learned about dungeon delving, to the point where Kouki and the others had gotten tired of his nagging.
At some point he’d started sounding less like a knight and more like their mother, saying things like “Do you all have handkerchiefs? Make sure you don’t scavenge for food in the dungeon okay? If you eat anything strange make sure to spit it out at once,” and so on. At some point they’d stopped being tricks about dungeon delving, and just plain fussing, as he said things like “Are you sure your equipment’s good enough?” The Kingdom’s treasure, the holy sword, had no longer been good enough for Meld, who was overcome with worry.
“These are the best treasures your kingdom has to offer!” Kouki and the others had retorted.
But in the end, it looked like this incident really had just been Shizuku seeing things.
“I guess even you get spooked sometimes, huh Shizuku?”
“I never thought I’d hear Shizuku say ’demon mask-san’... This is truly a day to remember.”
“Suzu, please stop snickering like that...”
The party resumed their search. Kouki took the lead, with Shizuku and Kaori following behind. Shizuku continued sneaking glances at Kaori as they walked.
“H-Hey, Kaori.”
“What is it, Shizuku-chan?”
“Are you okay?”
“?”
Kaori tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what Shizuku meant. However, a second later, her face went pale and she asked Shizuku a question in a shaky voice.
“S-Shizuku-chan. Don’t tell me that thing is still behind me? Shizuku-chan, how long has it been there!? Have I been cursed!?”
“N-No it’s not that! I don’t see anything, don’t worry!”
“R-Really?”
Kaori continued glancing over her shoulder making sure nothing was there. It was just like when walking home alone one felt like there was someone behind them, and looked back only to see no one. Even knowing there’s no one following them, they still become paranoid. Kaori was terrible with scary things like ghosts and demons, so she was doubly scared of the “demon mask-san” Shizuku had seen.
However when she glanced back for the hundredth time, Kaori actually did spot a black shadow out of the corner of her eye.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah it’s the demon mask-saaaaaaaaaan!”
“Wait, wha— Hebagfh!?”
Kaori let out a shrill scream, closed her eyes, and started wildly swinging her staff around. A second later she felt a thud as it hit something, and one of the male students screamed.
“Kousuke!”
“So that’s where you were hiding!?”
“Endou-kun just went flying.”
“Wow he really got some air time there!”
The person Kaori had mistaken as a demon mask-san had actually been Kousuke Endou, a member of Nagayama’s party and the world’s most inconspicuous person. He had such a weak presence that before they’d been whisked away to Tortus, even automatic doors in Japan had ignored him.
His job, quite aptly, was Assassin.
He’d been friends with Jugo and Kentarou for ages, but even they’d go “Wait, where’d Kousuke go?” “The bathroom, maybe?” “But he was right here...” almost every day, even when he was standing right next to them. Even before he’d been summoned his invisibility had practically been a super power, but after coming to Tortus, he’d honed his stealth skills even further.
So much so that, despite the fact that he’d been right behind Kaori, directly in her line of sight every time she turned back, she hadn’t even noticed him.
Seeing her tearful expression every time she turned back had been bad for his heart. His heartbeat accelerated to dangerous levels, and he decided for the safety of his health that he should move somewhere else. But just as he’d begun to do so Kaori had turned back, catching a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye... resulting in him getting smacked.
Which was bad for his health in a different sense.
“Huh!? Endou-kun!? Awawa, I’m so sorry!” It seemed the true identity of the demon mask-san had been Endou. The force of Kaori’s blow had sent him sprawling, and he was sitting on his knees, dazed. Embarrassed, she walked up to him and cast a healing spell. He looked off into the distance as Kaori’s light purple mana enveloped him. He looked truly pitiable.
Kaori apologized over and over, bowing her head as low as it could go, before Kousuke finally responded.
“It’s fine, really. I’m used to it... And besides, Hiyama’s starting to give me scary looks.” That only served to make him look more pitiable, and Jugo came over to comfort him. Finally the party’s best scout was fit for duty once more, and they resumed exploring the seventy-eighth floor
.
“I’m sorry for scaring you, Kaori.”
“It’s fine. I was the one that overreacted. Don’t worry about it.”
Shizuku apologized, as it was her initial scream that had been the cause of all this. She let out a sigh of relief when Kaori forgave her. Then, thinking back on everything she’d seen recently, she expanded on her previous question.
“Anyway, Kaori, are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been feeling kind of different recently. You keep brooding over something... and sometimes it feels like you’re not all there, like you’re staring at something far off in the distance... or am I just imagining things?”
“Huh? Really? I don’t feel like I’m any different, though...”
“I see...”
Is it really just my imagination then? Shizuku tilted her head in confusion, but if Kaori was insisting she was fine, Shizuku told herself there was no reason to doubt her. But before she could say as much, Kaori suddenly remembered something and dropped her fist in her palm.
“Ah, but I do feel weird sometimes.”
“Weird how?”
“Hmm. I’m not really sure how to explain it, but...”
She tilted her head and looked around for a moment... then her face suddenly went blank. Her face was utterly devoid of expression, like she’d just turned into a robot of some kind.
“It’s kind of like someone just stole something important to me... you know?”
“K-Kaori? Umm Kaori-san?”
“Fufufu, funny isn’t it? Fufufu.”
“Kaori! I’m sorry! I won’t ask you weird stuff anymore so come back to us, please!”
Even though she was laughing, her expression remained blank, and even her laughter sounded monotone. Happening, cannot be! Shizuku was so shocked her thoughts became an incomprehensible jumble, and she tried to bring Kaori back to her normal self.
She had no way of knowing the cause of her best friend’s strange actions was due to a white-haired boy with an eyepatch flirting with a vampire princess thousands of miles away, and could only lightly slap Kaori’s cheeks.
“Hey Shizuku-chan, why are you slapping my cheek? Cut it out.”
“You’ve finally come back to us, Kaori. Thank goodness.”
The spell passed as quickly as it had come, and Shizuku sighed in relief as Kaori returned to normal. Shizuku couldn’t tell how or why, but it seemed like Kaori was reacting to some unpleasant events happening far away. She couldn’t tell how she knew that either, but she was worried Kaori was gradually slipping closer to the dark side.
This was a different world. If magic and monsters and even gods could exist, there was no reason strange psychic powers couldn’t... Probably. Shizuku tried to convince herself that was the case. Even if she didn’t fully understand the reason, her job was to make sure she brought Kaori back to her senses every time before she turned into Black Kaori for good.
As Shizuku was making that resolution, Kouki suddenly stopped a few paces ahead.
“Be on your guard, everyone. There’s something up ahead. I can sense it. There’s only one though.”
“Do you want me to go ahead and scout?”
“There’s only one of ’em right? Then we don’t need to bother scouting. Let’s just rush in and slaughter it.”
Normally whenever they encountered enemies that had yet to spot them they would send Kousuke out ahead to assess the monsters’ abilities. Hence why Kousuke offered to go preemptively, but Ryutarou smacked his fists together and suggested they fight instead.
When they ran into small groups or lone monsters the party often decided to fight without bothering to scout ahead. Which is why Kouki decided to adopt Ryutarou’s plan this time, and advance.
They continued through the dim corridor for a few seconds longer before spotting...
“Is that... a person?” Kouki muttered in surprise, and everyone else’s eyes went round as they saw what lay up ahead. The figure up ahead certainly looked human. Though it looked the lower half of their body had been trapped inside the wall. Long bangs covered their face, making it impossible to make out their features or whether they were even alive or dead. However their small frame suggested they were a girl.
“O-Oh no. We’ve got to help them!”
“Wait up, Kouki!”
Thinking it might be an adventurer that had been kidnapped by monsters, or caught in some trap that had teleported them further below, Kouki hurried over. Shizuku tried to stop him, but Kouki’s high stats made him too fast.
“Are you alright!?” Kouki yelled as he reached a hand out to them. A second later, Kouki’s feet sank into the ground. He just barely managed to keep his balance and avoid faceplanting. When he looked down he saw that the ground, which had been hard seconds ago, had turned into a murky quagmire, and was slowly sucking his legs into the floor. The mud in front of Kouki rose up and formed the rough shape of a human. It was a mud doll in the shape of a person... In other words, a Clay Golem. More Clay Golems rose up around Kouki, who was struggling to break free. They molded their arms into scythe shapes and swing them down at him.
“Kuh!” Kouki quickly wrapped his sword in mana and swung it around in a circle. When his right arm could stretch no further he quickly swapped his sword to his left and continued the arc. This was one of the Yaegashi-style techniques he’d learned at her dojo, Pale Moon. However halfway through the circle, he stumbled.
“S-Shizuku!?” The reason he’d messed up despite practicing this swing hundreds of times was because the golem in front of him had Shizuku’s face. More precisely, it had molded its face to look like Shizuku’s. As the rest of its body was still that of a golem it only took a single glance to realize his opponent wasn’t Shizuku. But seeing his childhood friend suddenly appear in the path of his swing was enough to break his concentration for a split second. In a way, it was only natural for him to hesitate a little.
But natural or not, that hesitation would have proven fatal, under normal circumstances that is.
“Hah!”
“Divine Shackles!”
The golems on Kouki’s right were cut down by a slash faster than light, while the ones on his left were shackled by chains of purple light. The golems quickly tried to dissolve back into mud to free themselves, but they were sliced in half by another sword slash. This was the next level of the technique Kouki had used, Rippling Pale Moon. The one who had cut them down was of course Shizuku.
“Are you alright, Kouki?”
“I’m fine. Sorry, and thanks!”
Kaori used her Divine Shackles to lift Kouki out the quagmire. More golems started sprouting up, surrounding not just Kouki’s party, but Hiyama and Nagayama’s units as well. They were using their face-morphing abilities and sharp scythes to press the students back.
“Damn it, there’s no end to them! How’re we supposed to beat these things!?”
“Even if we cut one down, it just reforms!”
Ryutarou blasted one of them away with a well-placed thrust, but it just dissolved into a pile of mud and reformed. The other students weren’t faring any better.
Kouki was running around assisting whoever was in trouble, but that was only a temporary measure. As he was pondering how to break out of this deadlock, he spotted Shizuku coming toward him. This time he was sure it wasn’t a golem. She looked like Shizuku from the neck down as well. Hoping to avail himself of Shizuku’s wisdom, he started wading his way through the golems toward her as well.
But as he drew closer, he noticed something. The person that had originally been trapped in the wall was no longer there. They should have been directly behind Shizuku. He suddenly felt shivers run down his spine. Where was she? He hurriedly glanced around the area.
“Shizuku, watch out! Whoever was trapped in the wall isn’t there anymore! They might be hiding—”
“Idiot, they’re right in front of you!”
Someone suddenly grabbed him by the back of his neck and threw him back. A gust of wind whooshed past his face an inst
ant later. Coughing, he looked up. Standing in front of him was something that looked exactly like Shizuku, but had a longsword for a right arm. A few of Kouki’s hairs fell to the ground. He’d just barely avoided being decapitated.
“Looks like that thing’s their boss. It looks like it can mimic people’s body types and even clothes.” Kouki heard Shizuku’s calm voice directly behind him. Looking back, he saw the exact same Shizuku, except this one had a normal right arm. As Shizuku had said, the golem that had come from the wall seemed to be their leader.
The Grey Golem boss morphed its left arm into a sword as well and charged.
“I won’t fall for that a third time!”
The two swords came slashing down at him in a winding arc, almost like they were whips. He parried one with his sword and dodged the other. He tried to close the distance between them, but the golem summoned scythes made of mud and flung them at him. The barrage of scythes kept coming, forcing Kouki back. No matter how many of them he cut down, the golem just created more.
The only saving grace is that they were all made of mud, so while the scythes were deadly, they were easily ripped apart. So even weak swings could take them out, as long as they landed. But as their surroundings were filled with mud, the golems had a near infinite amount of resources to work with. Hence why Kouki had his hands full just defending against the boss golem’s onslaught. The other students were all being hard pressed by the golems as well.
Just around the time Kouki was debating using his Limit Break skill to blow them all away at once, someone jumped behind the boss golem. Kouki’s lips curled up into a grin.
I knew you could do it Shizuku! I’m counting on you! Roger. They had a short conversation with a single exchange of glances. Shizuku had used her vaunted speed to circle behind the golem. She cut down the golems guarding the boss golem with a single swing of her sword, her signature ponytail swinging from side to side. She resheathed her sword and leaped toward the boss golem with frightening speed.
In an instant, the golem changed its appearance. Into that of Kaori.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 3 Page 16
