Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 4

by Ryo Shirakome

  Shea told him Myu’s location and cut the telepathic link. Hansen could no longer breathe under Drucken’s weight, and his face was turning blue. He silently begged Shea to let him live.

  She canceled the gravity magic and hoisted the hammer back onto her shoulder. Though he was no longer being crushed, his consciousness was starting to grow dim due to the blood loss. He weakly reached out in supplication.

  “P-Please... call a doctor...”

  “Do you really think you deserve to live after what you did to those poor children? Besides, you’re our enemy now. If I let one of our enemies go, I’ll get scolded by Hajime-san and Yue-san. And so, goodbye!”

  “N-No, wai—” Shea crushed Hansen flat. There was a wet squelching noise as blood spurted from underneath Drucken. She shook the blood off and slung her hammer across her back, then turned to face Tio without so much as a backward glance at the pile of flesh that had once been Hansen.

  “Tio-san. Let’s finish off the survivors and meet up with Hajime as soon as possible!”

  “V-Very well. Your utter lack of mercy is... rather alluring...”

  “Hm? Did you say something?”

  “I-It was nothing.” Though she hadn’t been able to pick up what Tio had muttered, shivers still ran down Shea’s spine. She tilted her head in confusion for a moment, but then put it out of her mind as the two of them began systematically destroying Freidhof’s headquarters.

  By the time they were done, there was nothing but corpses and a pile of rubble left.

  In a single afternoon Freidhof, Fuhren’s largest criminal organization, had been utterly demolished.

  Meanwhile, as Shea and Tio were wreaking havoc, Hajime and Yue rushed toward the Myu’s location. Since she was meant to be auctioned off, Hajime assumed her life wasn’t in any danger, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t suffering. The faster they rescued her, the better.

  “This is the place... Ah, yeah, I can sense people below us.”

  “Okay.”

  There were two hulking figures clothed in all black guarding the entrance. Hajime didn’t want to cause a commotion and risk them moving Myu somewhere else, so he went around to a back alley and transmuted his way in.

  They both hid their presence and started searching the building. If only they’d had a cardboard box to hide under... They wouldn’t even have needed Hide Presence if they’d had that...

  Finally, they arrived at a vast underground prison. The lone guard guarding the entrance was dozing at his post. They slipped past him and found a group of ten human children huddled together inside a cell. These were most likely the children up for auction that night.

  Almost all humans were faithful believers of the Holy Church, and it was illegal to take any believers as slaves. It was, however, still acceptable to buy and sell criminals and heretics. Anyone who betrayed god was no longer protected by the laws of the Holy Church. Hajime highly doubted any of the children shivering on the cold stone floor were either criminals or heretics. It was obvious this was not a legal auction.

  However, Hajime didn’t see Myu anywhere in the cell. The children shrank back as he walked up to their cell, but he squatted down in front of them quietly asked a question.

  “Did any of you see a dagon girl come here?” They’d all been terrified it was their turn to go up, so his question took them by surprise. They all looked at each other.

  Sensing their reluctance to say anything, Yue squatted down next to Hajime and muttered something.

  “It’s okay, we won’t hurt you,” was what she said. A young boy of maybe eight fidgeted nervously for a few seconds before answering.

  “Umm, they took her a little while ago. Who are you?” Hajime clicked his tongue in frustration before answering the boy.

  “We’ve come here to save you.”

  “Wha—!? You’re here to save us!?” The boy shouted excitedly. His voice echoed across the stone walls. Realizing his mistake, the boy hurriedly clapped his hands over his mouth. But it was too late.

  “Quit making a racket!” The guard yelled that out as he came stomping toward their cell. He stiffened for a moment when he spotted Hajime and Yue, but recovered quickly.

  “Who the hell are you guys!” he screamed as he drew his short sword and charged. The children let out terrified shrieks, thinking their saviors were about to be killed.

  However, that didn’t happen. Hajime casually grabbed the sword’s blade with his artificial hand and crushed it. Shards of metal fell from his hand as he opened his fist.

  The guard stared dumbly at Hajime for a few seconds before looking down at the sword in his hands. All that was left was the hilt. Comprehension dawned on him and he took a faltering step backward.

  Hajime took a step forward, crushed the guard’s throat with a quick jab, and tripped him as he pitched backward. At the same time, he grabbed the guard’s skull and slammed it into the ground.

  There was a wet crunching noise as he hit the stone floor. He died instantly.

  “If you’re a guard, then the first thing you should have done was raise the alarm.” Hajime looked down at the corpse in disgust. The children’s eyes were as round as dinner plates as they looked at him.

  He ignored their shocked stares and transmuted the iron bars around their cell. The children’s surprise grew even greater as the bars keeping them trapped crumbled to dust. They just sat there, their mouths hanging open.

  “Yue. Sorry, but can you look after them for me? It looks like I’m gonna have to go on another rampage.”

  “Okay... Leave it to me.”

  “My guess is the safety department people will get here soon. When they do, you can hand the children off to them. I’ve got Ilwa working behind the scenes, so... we can dump all of the little things on him.”

  Yue looked off in the distance sympathetically. Her gaze was directed toward the adventurer’s guild building.

  Some time before they’d started destroying Freidhof, Hajime had grabbed a random adventurer and had him deliver a telepathy stone to Ilwa. Since then, he’d been keeping Ilwa up to date on events.

  Being a gold adventurer came in handy during times like these. The moment Hajime had shown that random adventurer his Status Plate, they’d been ready to do anything he asked. It was just like if a Hollywood star had spoken to a stranger back on earth. The adventurer had even saluted Hajime before running off.

  The stone Hajime had given Ilwa couldn’t be activated from his side, so Ilwa had been forced to one-sidedly listen to reports about how Hajime had picked a fight with a massive criminal organization, and how he was leaving the cleanup to them. The people back at the guild had probably been furious.

  He was already making good use of Ilwa’s promise to support him. When Ilwa had started hearing the reports, he’d smiled ruefully.

  Hajime transmuted a passage heading to the ground floor and stepped into it, leaving the children in Yue’s care. Just before he dashed out of sight, the young boy who had answered Hajime’s question called out to him.

  “Mister, thank you for saving us! Save that other girl too, okay! She looked really scared! I couldn’t do anything to help when they took her...”

  The fact that Myu was a beastman apparently hadn’t mattered at all this boy. He had guts, considering he’d been trapped in the same situation as her. Hajime turned back and ruffled the young boy’s hair.

  “Hey, wh-what are you doing?”

  “It’s frustrating, right? In that case, you just have to get stronger. That’s the only way to make sure you never feel like that again. I mean, I was around to save you this time, but if you get stronger, next time you can save everyone.” With those parting remarks, Hajime turned on his heel and vanished through the tunnel he’d made. The boy covered his hair with both of his hands. He sat there for a few seconds before curling his tiny fingers into a fist. There was a new sparkle in his eyes.

  Yue smiled gently down at him and started herding the children out of the building.

 
A heavy silence filled the auction hall. There were around a hundred buyers seated in the stands. Each and every one of them was wearing a mask, and none of them were saying a word. Whenever something a customer wanted to buy appeared, they’d just silently raise their number tag. They didn’t want to give any hints away about their identities.

  Still, even they couldn’t suppress their cries of surprise when the next item was brought to the stage. A two meter long water tank holding a young dagon girl... Myu.

  She’d been stripped naked and was currently hugging her knees in a corner of the tank. The reason she’d been put in the tank was to prove that she was a real dagon, as they were the only race that could breathe underwater. And because she’d managed to escape once before, they’d shackled her this time. The metal shackles had been fastened so tight that her skin was chafed underneath them.

  The auctioneers examined the trembling girl for a few seconds, then the bidding began. Prices soared, yet the bidding war showed no sign of stopping. Even though her existence had now been made aware to the public, most of the auctioneers seemed confident they could transport her discreetly. Or perhaps they simply weren’t aware of the commotion that had happened that afternoon.

  The auction hall grew noisy for the first time, and Myu shrank as far back as the tank would allow her to. Her fingers were curled tightly around a black piece of cloth. Hajime’s eyepatch. He’d been so preoccupied with trying to calm Myu down that he’d forgotten to take it back. The one he was wearing right now was a spare.

  Right now, that eyepatch was the last thing Myu had left to cling to. She’d been taken from her mother, forced to travel a long way, been thrown in a dark cell, and swam through literal filth to escape. Finally, when she’d thought all hope was lost, she’d found herself wrapped in something warm.

  When she’d opened her eyes, she’d found herself face to face with a young silver-haired boy wearing an eyepatch. She’d stared at him in surprise, and he’d stared back. Both of them had been too stubborn to be the first to break eye contact, but then Myu’d been distracted by the smell of something delicious.

  He’d asked for her name, and she’d told him. Then, there’d been a pretty red flash, and he’d plopped her into a bath. After that a pretty girl with light blue hair had started washing her. The bath had been pleasantly warm, and the girl had been really gentle. Soon enough, Myu had let her guard down enough that she was calling the pretty girl, Shea, “onee-chan.”

  Myu didn’t think she’d forget the taste of the skewers Shea had fed her for the rest of her life. And, while she’d been busy eating, the boy named Hajime had come back.

  She’d been a little scared of him, but then he helped her put on these really cute clothes and dried and combed her hair, so she started feeling better around him, too.

  When they’d said she couldn’t stay with them and that they’d give her to these people called the safety department, she’d been devastated. She’d been so lonely ever since she’d been separated from her mom. She didn’t think she could take being lonely like that again after having found such kind people.

  And so, Myu did everything she could to stay.

  She pulled at Hajime’s hair, slapped his cheeks, and even took his eyepatch. If he wanted it back, he’d have to let her stay with them.

  However, in the end, the kind people she’d finally found left her in a strange and unfamiliar place.

  As she huddled in her tank, she thought back on what happened.

  Did they leave me because I did something bad? Is it because I took the black thingy? Do Onii-chan and Onee-chan hate me? Tears welled up in her eyes. If she ever saw them again she’d apologize. She’d even give Hajime his eyepatch back. She’d do anything they asked. She just wanted to go with them.

  Onii-chan... Onee-chan... Suddenly, there was a loud thud and her tank shook. She squealed in terror and hurriedly opened her eyes. There was a masked man wearing a tuxedo standing next to her tank. He was yelling something and kicking the glass repeatedly.

  The auction manager had wanted to Myu to swim around a little in order to make the guests bid higher, but she’d just stayed curled up in a ball. Tired of waiting, he’d finally snapped and started kicking her tank.

  That only served to frighten Myu further, however, as she curled into a ball and attempted to look as small as possible. All she could do was try to drown out the yelling and the kicking.

  The Freidhof member managing the auction grew even angrier. He was worried people would think she was sick, and not bid as high. If she sold low, he was the one who’d be punished for it. Seeing this wasn’t working, he resorted to drastic measures. Feeling pressured by the crowd, he started insulting Myu in the hopes of eliciting a reaction.

  “Move, you sniveling little brat. Stop causing us humans so much trouble, you stupid fish-freak!” He climbed up the ladder next to the tank as he berated her, intending to poke her with the cane he was carrying. Myu shut her eyes and braced herself.

  Oddly, the impact she was waiting for never came. Instead, she heard a familiar voice.

  “What was that, you fucking bastard?” Hajime leaped from the ceiling, grinding both the auction manager and the ladder into the ground. A fountain of blood spurted from underneath his foot. The manager had been killed instantly.

  Hajime didn’t even look at the man he’d just killed. Instead, he turned around and smashed the water tank with his artificial arm. The glass pane shattered into a thousand pieces, and a torrent of water came flooding out.

  “Hyaaah!” The current carried Myu out with it. But before she got very far, a warm hand caught her, and she timidly opened her eyes.

  When she’d first heard his voice, she’d desperately hoped she hadn’t been imagining it. And now she knew she hadn’t. The person holding her right now was Hajime. Myu blinked a few times before staring at him, much like she had when they first met.

  “Yo, Myu. How come you’re always soaked whenever I see you?” Still staring at him, she quietly whispered a single word.

  “Onii-chan?”

  “I wouldn’t say I’m your brother, but I am the same guy you scratched, kicked, and stole an eyepatch from.” Hajime smiled at Myu, and the tears started dripping from her eyes. After a second of silence—

  “Onii-chan!” She wrapped her arms around Hajime and started sobbing. Hajime awkwardly patted her back in an attempt to comfort her. Then, he wrapped her in another blanket.

  Black-robed men burst into the main hall and surrounded the two, cutting their reunion short. The auctioneers were certain the men could handle Hajime, so none of them made any move to flee.

  “Hey, brat. Do you know what happens to morons who try and mess with Freidhof? If you hand over the girl, then we’ll at least grant you a painless death.” Myu lifted her face from Hajime’s neck and looked at him worriedly. Twenty burly men stood between them and safety.

  “Onii-chan...”

  “Don’t worry. I’m here with you. It’ll get a little noisy though, so you should close your eyes and cover your ears.” Hajime peeled Myu’s fingers off his neck and placed them over her ears. His confident tone assuaged Myu’s worries. Still a little confused, she nodded, closed her eyes, and buried her face in Hajime’s chest.

  “Think you can just ignore us, huh!?”

  “Kill the brat! But don’t lay a hand on the merchandise!” The leader angrily ordered his men to charge.

  A second later there was a loud bang and the leader was suddenly missing his head. The remnants of his brain splattered the faces of his comrades.

  Unable to grasp what had just happened, everyone silently watched as the leader’s corpse crumpled to the ground.

  And while they stood there, still confused, Hajime fired again. And again. And again. Gunshots echoed throughout the chamber, each one marking another death. Eleven people fell before the rest finally realized what was going on.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! He’s a monster!”

  “H-He’s a demon! We’
re all gonna be killed!” The men in black started backing away from him, while the auctioneers screamed and swarmed for the exits.

  A monster huh? That’s rich, coming from people who buy and sell slaves. He wanted to teach those fleeing slavers a thing or two, but he kept his attention firmly focused on the threat in front of him.

  “Wh-Who the hell are you!? What, why... How did you do that!?” The man trembled in fear as he shouted in what he hoped was an intimidating voice. Another dozen men in black ran into the hall, but they faltered when they saw the bodies littering the floor.

  Hajime scoffed at the man who’d spoken.

  “Why? Isn’t it obvious? I came to take back what’s mine. Oh... and to make an example out of you guys. This is what happens if you touch my friends. Now then, you’ll join me for the grand finale, right?” Hajime used Aerodynamic to jump up to the ceiling. Then, he transmuted a hole into the ceiling and leaped through it.

  “Yue, I’ve got Myu. How are things on your end?”

  “Good. Everyone evacuated. The guests are running out of the hall.”

  “I see. Well, let’s end this with a bang, then.”

  “Okay!”

  As Hajime zipped through the air, he looked down at Myu. Up until now she had done as he’d asked, covering her ears and closing her eyes. He gently removed one of her hands and talked to her.

  “It’s alright now, Myu.” Her eyes snapped open and she looked around. As she took in the scenery, she let out a gasp of surprise. The view was spectacular. From their vantage point, they could see the entire city of Fuhren. The sun was a blazing ball of red, slowly sinking below the horizon. Underneath the crimson sky, they could see lights dotting the city; people had started lighting the streetlamps.

  Myu’s eyes sparkled as she took all of it in. She excitedly grabbed Hajime’s collar and started pointing things out.

  “It’s amazing, Onii-chan! We’re flying through the sky!”

  “We’re more jumping through it than flying but... Well, whatever. Anyway, Myu, look over there. There’s going to be some huge fireworks soon.”