AN: I have returned.
From here on I will be updating Arifureta bit by bit basically like usual at 6 PM Saturday.
It's a story that is being done as though for Shirakome to have fun, but I'll be happy if I can have fun with you readers again.
About the story of school trip at the previous chapter, unexpectedly there were a lot of voices asking to continue it, so I tried to write a bit.
Although, it's not a story that can continue for that much so, (or rather, I don't even think about the chronological order and so on of this story)
It feels somewhat half-hearted (sweat)
Maybe I'll write it properly again somewhere.
Also, the Cthulhu term and rule that appear here are different from the actual thing. I prioritize the mood. I'm sorry.
It turned out long so I split the chapter.
After this I'll upload one more chapter at 7 PM.
The school trip that they were only told just yesterday.
Their destination was Kyoto. The travel of several hours using bus ended in no time at all.
The rookie bus guide had taken out all the plans for killing time mid journey she had prepared and her cheek muscles were starting to cramp from making twitching smile too much. She was relieved from the bottom of her heart that they finally arrived.
It helped that the students had good mood. The students this day were relatively cold, they wouldn't react even when she prepared things like karaoke or quiz, but the students here (especially Nakano and Saitou) were really hyped up.
Although they frequently showed speech and conduct that were far removed from common sense, it was relatively endurable if she persisted in seeing and hearing nothing. The bus driver who was similarly seeing and hearing nothing casually giving her follow-up(mental analysis) was also a great help.
And so, even after watching the party trick (?) of the students that began from some time ago, even when currently right beside her there was a female student juggling countless knifes in a level that the video of it could be uploaded to the "World Shocking Video" even while looking like she felt it troublesome, the rookie bus guide was still enduring!
――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 50
「Sonobe~. You're finished with just ten? You can do more aren't you?」
Tamai Atsushi said such thing with a disappointed look. It seemed that he wasn't satisfied with the juggling of ten knifes.
The rookie bus guide thought.
In the first place it's already out for a student to carry knife! Sensei! That child is carrying knife see! What's more it's a lot! Why are you making face as though it's normal!?
「Well, if I get serious then I can do around thirty, but the ceiling is low so that's impossible.」
「Sonobe-san, that's amazing~」
Sensei! What do you mean 「That's amazing~」!? What's with that carefree expression! Sure it looks cute, sheesh. But! Your cute student look like she is going to spend a sharp cutting life you know!? Please give her your guidance!
The rookie bus guide acted the straight man in her heart and stared at Aiko. Reach, this unsaid feeling!
「??」
Aiko tilted her head in puzzlement. A beat later she smiled carefreely for some reason.
The rookie bus guide whispered 「Damn iiit」. It didn't reach. But she was cute――how should she deal with this helpless feeling……
But, there a small whisper entered the rookie bus guide's ear.
「Ten more minutes……」
「Ah, yes.」
The bus driver was wearing his hat so low over his eyes that it was unclear how he could see the front, giving other nothing but anxiety seeing it. According to such bus driver, it seemed that they would reach the first sight-seeing area for today in ten more minutes.
The rookie bus guide cleared her throat with a cough and pulled herself together, then she urged Yuuka who had moved to juggle playing cards without her noticing to return to her seat.
The cards weren't only juggled up, they also flew horizontally, furthermore they returned back like boomerang. Although the rookie bus guide was entranced by the artistic juggling of dozens of card moving like that, but she forced herself to do her job properly.
Yuuka returned to her seat while getting applause from everyone. Her cheeks were slightly red from feeling a bit embarrassed.
「Sonobe-san, thank you very much. Everyone else also have amazing skill. This is the first time for me seeing students this amazing.」
She smiled sweetly. Inside her heart she was trembling with fear, thunderstruck, and on the verge of madness, but as a bus guide she couldn't forget to smile. Muscular pain of facial muscles? Bring it on!
Saitou and Nakano reacted.
「Please say that "This is the first time for me" one more time!」
「Put your heart into it! Please say it while looking a bit embarrassed!」
Truly a straight sexual harassment. The rookie bus guide's expression was screaming.
Anyway, card abruptly stabbed into the forehead of the two. 「My head, my heaaad-」 The two idiots were writhing around on their seat.
「Chih, it got dirty.」
Blood stuck to the card. Yuuka treated it like a dirty thing just as she said by wiping the card on Saitou's cloth. Her eyes were completely cold that if anyone faint of heart saw her they would become weak in the knees. Though all the other female students also had the same eyes.
「Guide-san, sorry. The girls in the class will firmly punish these two idiots.」
「Be, before that, blood is going spu~rt, spu~~rt out from their forehead like fountain though-. The hospital-」
It was a sudden bloodshed. The rookie bus guide was flustered.
There Kaori sighed while coming their way. Her gaze was unusually cold. She slapped a large band-aid on the two's forehead. 「Higii!?」 Saitou and Nakano screamed in harmony. *twitch twitch*.
「Geez, you shouldn't dirty the bus with blood! Nakano-kun and Saitou-kun is also playing too much!」
Seeing Kaori giving a scolding, the rookie bus guide had a thought. 「No, that's not the problem!」 She thought.
――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 46
「I, I'm sorry for my students behavior! I'll scold them for this later. I'm really sorry!」
The small animal teacher bowed her head repeatedly. Her figure apologizing for her students who were screwing around too much really looked like a teacher, but as expected it seemed like she wasn't concerned by the bloodshed itself.
――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 43
For a moment the bus guide was assaulted by a feeling that wanted to scream loudly while escaping by crashing through the window, but she would die if she did that so she barely desisted from doing it. Above all else, as a bus guide, there was no way she could abandon the guest!
「E, e~rr, everyone, looks like you all are full of energy there! After this, in less than ten minutes, we will arrive at our first sightseeing area for today, the Fushimi Inari Shrine. After that, we will go around several sightseeing area just as written in the guidebook before we head toward our hotel for today.」
'Yee~~s!' The students replied back energetically again with liveliness that was different from student these days. The rookie bus guide's mind that was almost toppled was slightly healed from that. These students were actually welcomed guest for a bus guide if the supernatural something they nonchalantly showed frequently wasn't counted.
'I'll do my best!' The rookie bus guide fired up herself while taking a bold action of releasing her personal information in order to shrink the distance a little between herself and the students.
「Honestly speaking, I came from Kyoto. I lived at the area slightly north from here, near famous places like Kurama hot spring and Kuramadera that everyone surely has heard before. Because of that, I know about various things like the good hidden places and so on, so please ask me anything without reservation.」
'Ooo~' The students immediately showed surprise good-spiritedly. How should she say it, this calls had an amazing sense of unity, they looked like they really got along with each other.
She was putting her guard up because they were the "returnees", and in actuality their many speech and conduct were removed from common sense, but it was completely unthinkable to see them as an object to be avoided.
Perhaps the rookie bus guide had also got a bit used to the students because her shoulders relaxed a bit. It felt like her willpower was recovering.
「Kurama hot spring and Kuramadera? Are they famous place desu~?」
Shia raised her hand *pyon* and quickly threw a question.
Seeing from how the other students weren't making wondering face, certainly it seemed those places were quite popular, but for Shia it was a name that her rabbit ears heard for the first time. It seemed Yue was also the same because she was going 「Nn?」 with tilted head.
From the face of the two that were obviously foreigner, the rookie bus guide thought 「It's not unreasonable that they don't know」, she smiled sweetly while giving more explanation.
「It's a really lovely inn that is surrounded by nature. The winter hot spring that is surrounded by trees with winter make-up is especially recommended. Kuramadera is known as a power spot that is famous even in Kyoto. It's also introduced as the home of the tengu(long-nosed goblin) and so on. About the detail of the history, I will tell it at another chance if you are interested but……」
The rookie bus guide chose her words so that even youngster from foreign country could easily understood and also pickled their curiosity at the same time. She then continued speaking full of playfulness.
「It was also said that far in the past, "the demon king descended" there or something, it's a lovely place.」
All the students without a single exception sent their gaze toward the back seat.
「E, eh? Everyone? Wha, what's the matter?」
Their reaction was different from what she had in mind. Or rather, their reaction was more than she expected! Furthermore it was an incomprehensible reaction!
The rookie bus guide was confused!
When she followed the gaze of the students, she reached the center of the back seat――a single male student who sat firmly like a mountain right in front of the rookie bus guide.
The eyes of the rookie bus guide and him――Hajime met.
If one had to give an allusion about Hajime's mental state here, then Hajime-san in Japan was relatively high-tensioned. Actually, he also nonchalantly joined in at all the energetic replies until now. Even when they were doing karaoke he was enthusiastically singing out anime song.
If the gazes that were saying things like 「She said the demon king descended there」「In other words, Nagumo descended there?」 were directed toward such unusually high-tensioned Hajime, how would he react……
He grinned widely, and released a tiny bit of "Pressure"! Indeed, I am the demon king-sama!
The students got roused up saying 「Oo! Nagumo played along!」「Yoo, our demon king-sama!」!
However, even though it was only a pressure that was nothing for the students who had been trained at another world, the rookie bus guide who was right at the front of that demon king was completely a different case……
「くぁ(kua)wせ(se)drftgyふじこ(fujiko)lp！？」
Such weird shriek resounded through the parking lot of the Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Shrine they had just arrived at.
――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 23
Liberated from the long bus travel, the students stretched their body.
Perhaps because it was a school trip that was a bit out of season, the surrounding was throwing glances at the students because it was rare for a group of students to visit at this period of time.
Amidst that atmosphere, the female students were gathering around the rookie bus guide. For some reason Kaori and Shizuku were holding her left and right hand respectively, while other girls like Yuuka, Taeko, Nana and so on were surrounding them like guards. It was a bit of harem situation in a sense.
「E, err, everyone? I'll be leading, so if possible stay behind me……or rather, why do I have my hand being hold?」
「It's fine, it's fine okay?」
「We are at your side.」
「Err……guide-san. You want candy? It's sweet milk taste. I think it will surely heal you.」
Kaori, Shizuku, and Yuka were sending extremely considerate expression and voice toward the rookie bus guide. The other female students were also sending her kind words one after another.
She was really happy that they would get along with her. Especially because it was the female students and not the male students.
However, still however.
As expected she couldn't hide her bewilderment toward this strange consideration and kindness. Rather, it felt a bit scary instead because they were too kind.
「E, excuse me. Everyone, did I do something? Everyone seems to act a little different compared to before……eh? Come to think of it, since when we arrived at the parking lot? Eh? Eeeh? I remember talking about the local……after that…….」
「It's fine if you don't remember!」
「Now now, guide-san. Let's go ahead, okay? Okay?」
Kaori panicked while Shizuku hurriedly pulled at her hand and asked her for being area guide.
Certainly, right now it was time to work. For some reason her memory of a few minutes ago was a bit fuzzy, but the students were hoping for the area guide. Her guide soul would die out if she didn't respond enthusiastically!
The rookie bus guide switched her attitude and walked. All the female students moved simultaneously with her like a colony. Behind them the male students were following in groups.
「Say, Yue. Is that person really okay? I don't think we need to go as far as erasing her memory though.」
At the back of the group, Hajime asked Yue with a really awkward expression.
The demon king-sama never expected that the guide would go mad just from that degree of Pressure. The speech and conduct of the whole class until then that considerably lowered the SAN value of the rookie bus guide was also one cause, but it was himself who dealt the finishing blow, so as expected Hajime was unusually in the middle of introspection of fooling around too much.
Though the biggest cause of his introspection was because Yue said 「Bad!」 to him.
「……Nn. She should be okay because she was healed with Soul Magic. In the first place, it looks like she have an amazingly strong willpower that is rare for an ordinary person……perhaps, she even have some kind of amazing experience in the past?」
It was as though the rookie bus guide possessed toughness as if she even had the skill of Fear Resistance. Yue was looking at the rookie bus guide with eyes as though she was seeing a mysterious thing.
「What kind of amazing experience that would make a rookie bus guide obtain Fear Resistance……that would be too amazing for the work of bus guide.」
「……By the way, I didn't manipulate her memory. She has resistance, but it seems that her memory was normally blown away.」
「……Perhaps I'll give her something later as apology.」
A rookie bus guide who was given apology present from the demon king. There was no doubt that if the people of Tortus heard about it they would get a distant look.
From a glance, it looked like the bus guide-san was greatly popular with the students. The group looked around Fushimi Inari Shrine like that.
Yue and Shia reflexively leaked out voice of admiration toward place that gave off history and mystique like the famous "Torii Corridor" and so on.
The rookie bus guide stood still at a certain place.
「Everyone, this here is called "Omokaru Stone". If you lift the head of the stone lantern, it's said that your wish will come true if the stone is lighter than you thought, but your wish won't come true if you think it's heavy. Does anyone want to try~」
When the students turned their gaze following those words, there were two stone lanterns. The students made racket with chitter-chatter while trying it out one after another.
「I wish to get a girlfriend today!」
Nakano yelled a wish that was extremely reckless without shame while sending a glance toward the rookie bus guide and lifted the stone.
「-!? ……It, it's lighttt! Very liiight!」
It seemed that it was really heavy far than what he thought. Even though he had another world cheat, but he still felt that it was heavy for some reason……. Perhaps his wish was just that "impossible~".
Sympathizing gazes gathered toward Nakano. Saitou who saw that gave up giving a try and quietly took distance from Nakano.
The next who reached out his hand was Nomura Kentarou who showed a fine play when the bus departed at the beginning, and his party member who took the healing role, Tsuji Ayako. Both of them glanced at each other while reaching their hand, and slowly lifted up the stones.
「Tsuji, how's yours?」
「U, uh. I thought that it's normally light though……Nomura-kun, you?」
「Me too, I think it's light. ……Tsuji, your wish is……」
「That's a secret!」
Both of them blushed slightly while glancing at each other with their hand still holding the stone.
「Can you believe it? Those two, they aren't going out even like that you know?」
「Who cares, put down the stone quickly already, Nomura. Or I'm going to crush your head along with the stone.」
Atsushi and Noboru were peevish. Seeing the two who were both conscious of each other since returning to earth and yet still hadn't gone out with each other, not just Atsushi and Noboru, the other classmates were also making doubtful expression.
The students were making noise like that while at the end Shizuku and Kaori made their attempt. Shia asked the two with an excited voice.
「What kind of wish the two of you want to have come true? Please tell me before lifting up the stone desu.」
「I……as I thought, I want to be able to keep being together with Hajime-kun from here on forever, I think?」
「Let's see……I wish, that my family will be a bit more quiet, something like that.」
Kaori looked a bit embarrassed while Shizuku got a distant look when saying their wish. Pitying gazes gathered at Shizuku.
Like that, Kaori and Shizuku reached their hand toward the Omokaru Stone……
「My, it's light. I wonder if my family will restrain themselves a bit with this?」
Shizuku lightly lifted up and down the Omokaru Stone really happily. Even more pitying gazes gathered toward her.
But, beside her an abnormal situation occurred. Kaori wasn't trying to lift up the Omokaru Stone from above the stone lantern.
No, looking at how she was shaking all over, it wasn't that she wasn't lifting up the stone, it looked like she "couldn't lift up the stone".
「Nnuuuuuuuuh!? What's this!? Why is it this heavy!? It doesn't twitch for even an inch though!?」
'Could it be, the stone is glued?' In her confusion Kaori-san even forgot the fact that just before this everyone was normally lifting up the stone.
「Is it getting stuck……」
The rookie bus guide who was watching over the students smilingly picked up the Omokaru Stone with a bewildered expression.
'Hyoi-', it was lifted up really lightly.
「……」
「……」
An inexpressible atmosphere was flowing. The air felt even heavier from the fact that Kaori had spoken out her wish before this.
「This, this time it will surely be okay!」
「Tha, that's right!」
The rookie bus guide desperately followed up. Kaori was getting teary eyed while reaching her hand toward the Omokaru Stone once more.
It didn't even twitch.
「WHYYYYYYY!? Is my wish that difficult!? Is it really that impossible of a wish, so much so that the weight isn't just simply heavy anymore!? UWAAAAAAAHN」
Kaori's posture was already clinging on the stone lantern, tyring to somehow lift up the Omokaru Stone at the head part. Naturally, she very much gathered pitying gazes.
Amidst that, Yue-sama came forward with trotting steps.
She sent a warm gaze at Kaori who was struggling hard to lift up the Omokaru Stone with tear-stained face and then,
「……Kaori. Do you know the words, knowing your place?」
「What does that mean!?」
'Wanting to be at Hajime's side is a wish that is beyond you, you know?', those words implicitly conveyed that.
The strange situation where the Omokaru Stone couldn't be lifted up no matter what she tried even began to gather curious attention from the surrounding people who came for sightseeing.
「Err, Hajime-san. Could it be……」
「Aa~, yep. It's absurdly concealed skillfully but, from what I see with my magic stone eye, it's that Yue's doing.」
Just as Shia's instinct told her, it was Yue-sama's doing.
Yes, in front of the public she was concealing her magic power while activating gravity magic in a miraculous feat!
The proof of that was how the weight was added in proportion with the strength Kaori used. The stone lantern where the Omokaru Stone was placed was starting to make ominous sound *crack crack*.
Even Kaori seemed to notice from that sound.
「This is……YUU~~EE~~~-!! You are bullying me again! What are you thinking doing that in this kind of place!? Dispel it quickly! Now, right away!」
「……I don't understand what are you talking about desu.」
'Pyu~pyu pyuh pyu pyu~~~' Yue averted her gaze while whistling unnaturally. If it was for the sake of bullying Kaori, then she wouldn't shirk from doing miraculous feat!
Kaori who sensed that Yue had no intention of dispelling the gravity magic had a vein emerged angrily on her forehead.
The classmates who guessed the situation from the two's conversation showed exasperated face or amused face. Amidst that, Kaori took a dee~~p breath one more time.
「Tha, that, Kaori? I know what's going on but, there are a lot of people here, it's better to give up……」
「Shizuku-chan. There is battle that a woman cannot withdraw from.」
Shizuku thought 'At the very least don't fight using body reinforcement at a sightseeing area, seriously', but Kaori was already――activating her charging maiden mode!
「THIS STONEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! I'LL ABSOLUU~~~TELY, LIFT YOU UUUUUUUUUUP」
A surging war cry! Kaori displayed the physical strength of god's apostle all out, pouring her all into conquering the Omokaru Stone! It seemed she still have some reasoning left to at least suppress the visualization of her magic power light, it was fortunate at that point but……
「……Muh. Unreasonably stubborn!」
「Watch me-, Hajime-kun! I'm, not going to lose!」
'I cannot watch this in various sense', Hajime's straight man retort didn't enter the ear of the two.
Shizuku and Aiko tried to stop them in panic.
However, before they could *crack*, an ominous sound resounded and the two reflexively stopped moving.
Looking carefully, the stone lantern finally couldn't endure the super heavy weight and had crack entered it!
「Please spare me from sudden destruction of tourist area~~a!」
「A, anyway everyone! Form a wall! Become human wall so that other tourists cannot see!」
Aiko tried to stop the two while half-crying, while Shizuku gave instruction to the students to form a crowd.
Kaori didn't yield against the attention from around her, she didn't even yield against the super heavy weight, finally she succeeded to hold the Omokaru Stone in her arms. And then, she raised it high above her head with the cry 'DAAA――――!' even while shaking all over.
Her pose looked like an athlete of barbell weight lifting, or perhaps like a combat race that went "Share your strength with me!". (TN: This is Dragon Ball reference I think.)
At the same time, a depression formed at the ground under Kaori's feet in radial shape. Countless fissures spread outward like spider web.
「Look, look-, Hajime-kun! I properly lifted it! My wish will come true!」
「……Nuu. Damn Kaori. She did it.」
It seemed that Kaori-san who was immersed in her sense of accomplishment already forgot. About the fact of "It's out if it feel heavier than what you imagined". It was already out for her right from the beginning.
But, no one could say that to her looking at that brightly glowing expression.
Anyway, while the classmates were blocking people's gaze, Hajime punished the two with Shockwave attached forehead flick while fixing the ground and stone lantern with transmutation.
Everything was fixed in the blink of eye so there shouldn't be any witness.
Yes, no one except the rookie bus guide who was among the students.
The rookie bus guide who witnessed the whole sequence of events was making twitching smile for a while before,
「……fuhih」
She fainted, leaving behind a strange snicker.
――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 18
AN: Thank you very much for reading this every time.
Thank you very much too for the thoughts, opinions, and reports about misspelling and omitted words.
There is one more chapter posting after this!
It's a story that I wrote without thinking of the setting or anything, so the chronological order is also vague.
And so, I won't make any allusion regarding Kouki.
Whether he is there or not, please see it with your eye of the heart.
PS
Arifureta Nichijou chapter 6 is updated at Overlap-sama's homepage.
Please take a look if you like.
