He had also created a sister revolver to Donner, Schlag. Since he had a prosthetic arm, Hajime figured he could use two revolvers at once. His preferred style of combat was close quarter gun combat, gun fu basically, with Donner and Schlag overpowering his enemies. The reason he had settled on close combat was to work more efficiently with Yue, who was a stereotypical back liner. That being said, he could fill any role in a party with the variety of equipment he had at his disposal.
Hajime had created a wealth of other miscellaneous tools and equipment. However, the Divinity Stone had finally lost most of its original mana, and had ceased producing Ambrosia. He only had twelve precious vials of it left. He had tried suffusing it with mana again, but the stone had refused to produce any more Ambrosia. The reason being that mana had to be concentrated in the stone over centuries in order for it to take effect.
But even then, Hajime didn’t throw it away. It was, after all, the person— or rather stone, that had saved his life. It was a sheer stroke of luck that he had found it at all, and without it, he would have died for sure. Which was why he was so attached to it. He loved it as much as that one plane crash survivor from a certain movie had loved his volleyball.
So instead of discarding it, he had made use of the fact that it could store boundless amounts of mana to make his Demon Eye. He had then carved the remainder of the stone into a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a ring that he decided to gift to Yue.
Yue could use extremely powerful magic, all without incantations or magic circles, but because she could so easily pour mana into her spells, she quickly ran out and became unable to move. But by storing mana in her Divinity Stone jewelry beforehand, she would be able to use them as a battery, allowing her to fire off powerful spells one after another without collapsing.
With those thoughts in mind, Hajime had presented the Magic Stone Accessory series to Yue, but her reaction had been rather unexpected.
“...Are you proposing to me?”
“You wot mate?”
Hajime was so surprised he slipped into some weird accent.
“It’s to keep you from running out of mana quickly. I made these to protect you.”
“So you are proposing.”
“How many times do I have to say no before you get it? It’s just equipment I made for you.”
“Hajime, you’re so shy.”
“Do you just ignore the words coming out of my mouth or something, Yue?”
“...You’re shy in bed too.”
“Can we please not go there!? Please?”
“Hajime...”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Thanks... I really love you.”
“...You’re welcome.”
Almost all their conversations devolved into flirting after a while. They completed their preparations to the utmost over the past two months.
Ten days later, Hajime and Yue finally decided to return to the surface.
As he began activating the magic circle on the third floor, Hajime quietly spoke to Yue.
“Yue... my weapons and our powers are probably considered heresy to the Holy Church. I doubt they or the various human kingdoms are going to just let us roam free.”
“Yeah...”
“They’ll ask us to give up our artifacts or try and force us to help them in their war.”
“Yeah...”
“If it was just humans we had to deal with, it wouldn’t be a huge problem, but those crazy gods pulling everyone’s strings are probably gonna be after us too.”
“Yeah...”
“We might end up making the entire world our enemy. No matter how many lives we have, it might not be enough to come out unscathed.”
“So what...” Hajime smiled at Yue’s unconcerned response. She looked up at him, and he gently stroked her golden-blonde hair in response. He looked deeply into her crimson eyes, and saw that they were glowing with happiness. After a moment, he took a deep breath, then spoke aloud his hopes and convictions in order to carve them into his soul.
“I’ll protect you, and you’ll protect me. As long as we watch each other’s backs, we’ll be stronger than anyone. We’ll beat down anyone who stands against us and bust our way out of this shitty world!”
Yue held her hands up to her chest, as if carving Hajime’s words into her own soul as well. Her deadpan expression crumbled, fading away to reveal the most beautiful smile in the world.
Her reply was the same single syllable she always gave:
“Yeah!”
A Very Prologue-ish Epilogue
A vast ravine cut through the earth, a scar marring the land’s otherwise unblemished surface. Boulders of all sizes tumbled down into the parched canyon below. The howls of monsters punctuated the air, reminding any who passed by that this was a land where only the strong survived.
This was a land where humanity’s prized magic was ineffective, and food was scarce. Climbing out of the ravine required scaling a hundred-meter-tall cliff. A cliff that held no cover, and was filled with monsters waiting to feast on any foolish enough to attempt the climb.
There were staircases leading out on the eastern and western ends of the ravine, but once someone fell, the monsters lurking below had no intention of letting their prey escape.
To most people, the ravine was synonymous with hell. Though for some, it also made for a convenient execution grounds.
A solitary silhouette suddenly moved within that godforsaken canyon. A pair of rabbit ears poked out from below a boulder. They twitched a little, as if searching for any noises. Such a cute spectacle was completely at odds with the hellish surroundings of the ravine.
After ascertaining its surroundings were safe, the figure tentatively stuck its head out from behind the boulder. Surprisingly, the rabbit ears were attached not to a rabbit’s head, but a human’s. The figure was actually a bunny girl in her mid-teens. After poking her head out, she looked around, confirming once more by sight that there were no dangers around.
She was quite beautiful. She was covered in grime and her shabby clothes were in tatters, but that did nothing to mar her stunning looks. She had light blue hair and azure eyes, and gave off this aura of majestic mystery. And that dignified looking girl was currently...
“Ugh, I’m so scared. I wish I were in bed eating snacks right now.” Her rather undignified outburst ruined the entire effect her looks had.
The bunny girl continued muttering complaints for a while, but then she suddenly slapped her cheeks and renewed her determination.
“If I don’t do something, then it’s my family that’ll end up being the monsters’ snacks,” she muttered to herself, her eyes shimmering with resolve.
“...I’ve gotta hurry. I need to make it to that future, to that person.” She straightened her back and dashed off deeper into the ravine.
A few minutes later, a pathetic scream echoed throughout the gorge.
“Hiiii! I’m not tasty, don’t eat meeeee!”
Extra Chapter: An Unwinnable Battle
A vast underground cavern. Two figures were dimly illuminated by the green glowstone that suffused the room with a faint light.
Massive pillars engraved with bas-relief carvings were present at regular intervals, forming a passage around the two figures.
The moment the two figures stepped out from behind the shadows of the pillars, one of them hurled a burning spear of flame at the other. The burning spear illuminated the room, and bent its course like a homing missile to head straight for the second figure.
An instant later— Bang! A red flash briefly added to the illumination as an explosive noise echoed throughout the room. A single streak of light passed through the spear, impacting against the core of the spell, and vanished into the ceiling. The spear scattered into a thousand tiny embers and vanished.
Unconcerned, the first figure quickly crafted a second spear, this one of ice, and flung it off to the side. The spear curved in a beautiful arc, heading for the second figure from around the other side of the
pillars.
This one, too, was destroyed by a single bullet.
“...Hm. So I can’t get you with single attacks anymore. In that case...”
The first figure leaned back against a pillar, her charming voice, golden-blonde hair, and crimson eyes reminiscent of a beautiful bisque doll. Yue, for the figure was, of course, Yue, created numerous balls of fire. One, two, four, eight; finally, she stopped at sixty-four fireballs.
It took her a mere two seconds to form that many. Had any modern-day magician seen how effortlessly she wielded such magic, their jaw would have dropped down to the floor. Being able to bring out so much mana instantly without even an incantation or magic circle was beyond common sense.
Yue didn’t even bat an eyelid as she performed such a godlike feat. Then, like an orchestra conductor, she began waving her slender finger around. Following her finger’s movements, the barrage of fireballs headed straight toward the second figure. A meteor shower of fire trailed a sea of sparks as it headed toward its target, Hajime.
“Tch. Don’t you think that’s a little overkill?”
He complained loudly enough that Yue could hear him. There was a sudden barrage of gunshots, and Yue’s fireballs began to be shot down one after another. She had staggered her fireballs a little so they wouldn’t hit all at once, but even then it was a difference of milliseconds.
The fact that Hajime was accurately shooting each one down meant he had to be decently skilled as well. Or rather, exceptionally skilled.
About one month had passed since the day Hajime and Yue had conquered the Great Orcus Labyrinth and sworn never to lose to anyone again. They had spent that time preparing better equipment and training their skills. In that time, Hajime had practiced seeing through a spell’s core with his Demon Eye, mastering two-handed gun combat, the art of the aerial reload, and the precision shooting required to destroy the spell’s core.
He had been training with Yue, getting her to fire spell after spell at him so that he could practice shooting them down. At first he could barely hit a stationary spell, but now he had reached the level where he could shoot down moving spells in mock battles. If he focused on just a single attack, he could shoot it down with almost 100% accuracy, and he was able to hit successfully half the time when attempting to shoot down a barrage.
His enhanced stats and Riftwalk’s ability to increase his speed and reaction time a dozenfold were what made it possible at all, but the main reason he could acquire such an inhuman skill was because of his dedicated concentration in training that single skill nonstop for an entire month.
His unflagging zeal toward training stemmed of course from his burning desire to make it back home. Along with his wish to stay together with Yue forever. Yue had seen how hard Hajime was working up close, and the fact that part of the reason he was doing it was because of her made her unbearably happy.
“...Hajime, here’s the next one.” Yue lovingly muttered Hajime’s name as she prepared the next attack. However, letting such emotions get the better of her during a mock battle was a grave mistake. Not because she let her guard down, but because she forgot to control the strength of her magic when her emotions were heightened.
“W-Wait! That’s way too many!”
“...Huh?”
Hajime’s words brought Yue back to reality. It was then that she suddenly realized that she’d sent over a hundred fireballs hurtling in his direction. They were dancing around Hajime as they surrounded him, occasionally rushing at him from all directions simultaneously.
It seemed she had gotten a little too into their practice while thinking of Hajime. She had unconsciously created even more fireballs, and her happiness had set them dancing around him. Before she knew it, the attacks that were supposed to be part of training had become an actual barrage meant to hit him.
Unconsciously releasing magic like that wasn’t exactly the same as being unable to control it properly, but it was close enough. And Yue, who had spent her life being called a genius of magic, couldn’t stand that she had slipped up. But even that was because she wanted to be more useful to Hajime.
“...It’s hard loving you this much, Hajime.”
“Where on earth did that come from? Also, it’s way harder dodging this many fireballs!”
Hajime was desperately shooting down the flames that were closing in on him. He was unable to shoot all of them down, and had to resort to dodging and swiping them away with Donner and Schlag. This was meant to be training that incorporated shooting down magic cores with the rest of his standard combat patterns, so in a sense, it made for very good practice, but...
“Shit—” He had been at it for over ten hours now, and the irregular dancing motions of the flames were bound to cause him to misstep eventually.
The sound of six gunshots echoed throughout the room, and six fireballs scattered into nothing. Hajime twirled Donner in his hands, planning on reloading his now empty chamber. But he messed up his reloading motion.
Another barrage of fireballs closed in on Hajime, and he had no way to intercept them. Because he had been planning on shooting them down and not dodging, he was one step too late in twisting his body away, and he had to resort to using Diamond Skin.
But before they even reached him—
“Okay. Time for a break,” Yue muttered softly. She then snapped her fingers, dismissing her army of fireballs.
“Haaah... Haaah... Damn, I still can’t get it down perfect.” Hajime holstered Donner and Schlag, then rested his hands on his knees as he panted heavily. He ground his teeth in frustration. His real eye was bloodshot, and veins bulged prominently on his forehead from beneath his white bangs.
Yue wanted to congratulate Hajime on working so hard, but she knew words of praise weren’t what he was looking to hear. Instead, she walked up to Hajime, sat down beside him, and gently patted her thighs.
She was currently dressed in a frilly dress shirt, a mini skirt, and knee-high socks. In other words, her outfit was currently showing off the famous zettai ryouiki. Her knee socks tightly hugged the soft flesh of her thighs.
Ever since he had his chastity taken from him in the bath, Hajime had grown used to a woman’s, or at least Yue’s, body, and no longer got flustered over something as innocent as a lap pillow. However, that being said...
“You’re not going to assault me, are you?” There was still always that worry. Hajime was currently exhausted from long hours of training. If she pounced on him, he would be helpless. It was only natural for him to be so cautious when he was living with a wolf like Yue. Though normally, the position of the wolf would be reversed.
“...How mean. You make it sound like I’m forcing you.”
“You kind of did when you took my first... but well, I’ll just stop there. Any more and I’m just asking for it.” Hajime shook his head after saying that, then gratefully sunk his head into Yue’s lap. Bliss spread throughout his body as Yue gently stroked his hair. This is what happiness must feel like.
Yue smiled as she watched Hajime relax, but she still felt a little uneasy about what he had just said.
“...Did you not like it?”
“Are you kidding? If I didn’t like it, I would’ve just stopped you. I’m just worried about stupid things like a man’s pride and stuff. You don’t have to worry about it.”
The unease vanished from Yue’s eyes, and she replied with a simple “Yeah.” She then gently brought her lips down on Hajime’s forehead. Her lips slowly trailed down his head as she kissed his nose, then his cheeks, and finally his mouth. Any man without a girlfriend would have wanted to blow Hajime away with an anti-materiel rifle if they’d caught sight of that scene.
Hajime blushed and averted his gaze. Yue smiled playfully as she saw him shy away.
“...Then did you like it?”
“Hey, Yue, can we just drop this subject already?”
“So you didn’t like it?” Hajime tried to change the topic, but Yue sadly lamented her own lack of experience and let out a
depressed sigh.
“Umm, well... I liked it.” Hajime looked as if he couldn’t believe the words that had just come out of his mouth, but the fact that he couldn’t bear to see her sad was enough proof that he was already hopelessly in love.
Yue looked relieved and gazed off into the distance as she softly muttered her thoughts aloud.
“Hmm... I should thank Master, then.”
“I’m not sure if I should thank her or not, personally.”
The “Master” that Yue was referring to was the one who had taught her about the world back when she was still a princess. Yue didn’t know what had happened to her after she was sealed away, but her master had taken care of her until the day she was imprisoned.
The reason Yue was thanking her now was because she had also apparently taught her about how to seduce a man. Because she was royalty though, she had of course protected her chastity for marriage. That being said, as royalty she had still had a duty to produce an heir. Which was why her master had taught her how to properly please a man. The reason Yue always had her way with Hajime at night was surely thanks to those lessons.
By the way, this discussion had started because Hajime had initially thought Yue might not have been a virgin. Thanks to her auto-regeneration, he had considered the possibility that even her hymen had recovered, but... Hajime would never forget Yue’s expression when he brought the subject up with her. Even the monster of the abyss, the Hydra, hadn’t been able to strike fear in Hajime’s heart, but Yue’s expression at that moment had terrified him beyond belief.
The result being that he of course apologized. What happened after he got down on his knees and begged forgiveness for ever doubting Yue, who had offered up her chastity to him, was of course more of what had occurred prior.
“Alright, let’s just do one more mock battle. We can go eat dinner after that.”
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 1 (Premium) Page 30
