Chapter 55: So It Begins...

The armadillo swung its arms around, attempting to knock away my allies. However, having been hit once already, Furuwa and Ichigo weren't about to go down the same way again. Horiya once again went for the tail, the relatively safest part to attack since the beast's main focus was in front.

"Whatever yer tryin' to do, kid, hurry the hell up!" Jim yelled. "We can't hold on 'ere for much longer!"

I tightened my grip on my dagger even further, and managed to remain patient. If I rushed in now without waiting for the perfect opportunity to arise, this mission would fail, and we wouldn't get another chance as the beast would realize what we were trying to do.

And then, that moment came.

Both of the armadillo's arms were busy dealing with Ichigo and Furuwa respectively, while Hina-nee and Jim kept going for the beast's throat without rest. It had no way of dealing with another attacker at this exact moment - and that is when I will strike.

'Vanishing Clouds.'

Closing the distance between my target and I in an instant, I held my dagger firmly in my hands as I slid directly underneath the beast. Using my momentum, I sank my dagger deep into the armadillo's underbody as I continued to slide. I felt my weapon sinking into flesh instead of armor, and immediately knew:

My plan had worked.

More accurately, it was a hunch. A gamble. But it was a necessary one that allowed us to come out on top in this fight. I felt my momentum wearing out, but that was fine. I had already reached the end of the armadillo's massive body. I slid out on the other side, dagger stained with glistening purple blood, leaving behind an enormous, fatal cut on the underside of the beast.

The armadillo couldn't even cry out in pain. The whole assault I had made was so smooth and fluent that it had no time to react.

With a loud crash, the beast collapsed onto the ground, shaking the entire terrain.

The others watched this scene with awe as I let out a deep breath, knowing that I had succeeded.

"Wow…" Horiya, who was closest to me, eyed me in wonder.

The beast's corpse soon disappeared straight after, evaporating into a billion little pieces of dark light and flowing into my body. No one complained that I got all the XP for myself.

"Woah, Kaze-kun, that was amazing!" Hina-nee exclaimed happily. "Here, as a reward, you get a hug~"

Saying this, she embraced me as Ichigo and Horiya watched on in jealousy.

"… Kid, I think I've said this before, but… yer one hell of a bloody maniac," Jim muttered, but his face was smiling.

I laughed awkwardly. "I'll take that as a compliment, I suppose."

Then, holograms appeared in front of all of us, and Hina-nee pulled away from me so that we could both read it.

[Monsters]

[Monsters are any living beings that have become Tainted by the Malevolence. Be it human, beast, plantlike, elven, or any other race, no living organisms are safe from the Malevolence. The Malevolence is born from dark feelings and emotions such as the seven deadly sins - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. When the natural malevolence within oneself exceeds their limit, they will become Tainted and turn into a Monster. Monsters do not provide any item drops, but are extremely useful for leveling up.]

Below was an image of the massive armadillo we had just killed in the middle of its death process. When we killed Magic Beasts, they became shards of bright white light. However, when I killed this 'Monster' just now, the light was black. A pop-up suddenly appeared in front of me, in front of the new database entry on Monsters. I glanced around and saw that no one else had gotten it.

[Obtained: Venomized Monster Crystal (Tier IV) x1.]

Monster Crystal...? Didn't the hologram just now say Monsters didn't have any item drops? I decided not to mention this to the others.

"So this was a Monster, huh?" Furuwa muttered before dismissing her hologram. The rest of us did the same.

"This would've been nice to know earlier, before the fight began," Ichigo complained, rolling his eyes.

"I doubt that would've helped much," I said. "This is a very general description, and it doesn't tell us any strengths or weaknesses of the Monster we just fought. Because any and all lifeforms possess the capability of turning into a Monster, it's pretty obvious why there aren't specific entries for every Monster we come across."

"Yeah, I guess that's true…"

"Well. Shall we continue our journey, then?" Jim said with a chuckle.

"After some rest, of course," Horiya added, luckily.

We sat down once more to take a break. I decided to take a look at my inventory. I opened up my system and went to the 'Inventory' tab. Once there, I tapped on Dokujin, my currently equipped weapon. As I am right now, it was only possible for me to wield one weapon at a time. However, I was almost certain it was possible to use more than one simultaneously… but perhaps there was a level requirement or I had to do some specific quest to unlock that ability.

In any case, the stats of Dokujin were as follows:

[Name: Dokujin]

[Type: Weapon]

[ATK: 18]

[DUR: N/A]

Wait… N/A? Does that mean this dagger didn't have a durability factor? It could be used forever, is that it? Judging from appearance alone, it did seem like Dokujin didn't have any sign of wearing down, but… it's not like I've been using it for all that long anyway.

That aside, I didn't really understand the whole ATK stat of weapons. In this game, enemies didn't have HP bars or anything, in order to make this as realistic as possible. So, what exactly did the number in the ATK stat of weapons really mean? I get that it was how much 'damage' they could do, but…

Whatever. This wasn't really important anyway; I didn't see a point in asking A.R.X.A. about this.

Fifteen minutes later, we set out, continuing our journey downwards.

*****

The rest of the trip was more or less uneventful. We spent the time just talking about what had happened earlier.

"Igarashi, you still haven't answered my question from earlier," Ichigo said with a frown. "How the hell did you manage to 'accidentally' piss on such a huge armadillo?"

"Well… you see, it looked just like a small spherical rock back then," I murmured quietly, scratching my head.

"A rock?"

"Yeah. But just as I finished, things went downhill from there."

"… So what you're saying is that this 'rock' became a giant armadillo and started chasing you through the forest," Furuwa said emotionlessly, looking at me with an unamused expression on her face.

"Y-Yeah, that about sums it up," I shrugged.

"So... how did it end up as a small rock?" Ichigo scratched his head in confusion.

"Maybe it shrinks after eating?" Horiya murmured. "I don't know, just a wild guess."

"Wait... so like, post-nut clarity, but for eating?"

"..."

"..."

"... Ichigo, you bastard," Horiya said as he began laughing. Ichigo joined in as well.

I sighed at their dirty jokes.

Ichigo, noticing my disapproving reaction, couldn't take it anymore. "But still... it's a literal ROCK, dude! You got chased down by a ROCK, Igarashi?"

"And you almost got killed by that same rock," I shot back, before rolling my eyes. "It clearly wasn't just a rock, if it became a massive armadillo. I just said it LOOKED like one."

"O-Okay, I guess that's fair…"

"Heh, Ichigo, losing against Igarashi in an argument?" Horiya laughed, much to Ichigo's chagrin.

"Still, that thing really had some loud roars," he continued in disdain. "My eardrums are still hurting, even now."

"Hmph. As if your hearing was good in the first place," Furuwa scoffed.

"W-Wha-!"

"Heh, Horiya, losing against a girl in an argument?" Ichigo laughed boldly.

"There's nothing inferior about girls, y'know," Hina-nee interjected, pursing her lips.

"Yeah… your very existence proves that, Hina-nee…" I muttered with a wry smile.

"Oi, I think I see somethin' up ahead. Looks like a city," Jim suddenly cut in as he observed the horizon.

The rest of us all crowded around him to see what he was talking about, and sure enough, we could see buildings in the distance, below us. We just had a little more to walk.

"Seems like quite the big one, too," Ichigo mused. "A lot bigger than Tianyin, that's for sure."

"Looks like we'll be staying here for quite some time then," Hina-nee smiled. "Ahh… I can't wait to just chill in one place again. All this traveling has got me longing for a good night's rest… together with Kaze-kun, of course, hehe~"

She cackled evilly, and I sent her a disapproving glance. Ichigo and Horiya looked to each other, then pulled me away from Hina-nee.

"Oi, Igarashi… tell me the truth. You and Sakura-senpai aren't blood-related, right?"

I looked at Ichigo with a deadpan glare. "… Why is this relevant?"

"Well, uh… y'know. If you've done that," Horiya snickered. "You know what I'm talking about."

I sighed and pushed the two of them away. "No, we haven't. And besides, even if we have, why would I tell you? It's not like we're suddenly best friends."

"Yeah…" the two of them exchanged glances and sighed.

"Look… we're not asking for immediate forgiveness or anything, but we just wanted to say that we're… really sorry. For everything that we've done to you."

"… It would be a lie if I said apology accepted," I said with a sigh.

"That's fine. We'll keep treating you like one of our friends, though. Whether or not you want to reciprocate, that's up to you," Horiya said. "Just know that we're genuinely sorry."

"Yeah," I replied briskly, and with that, the two let me off.

It would be a lie if I said I believed them. The things they've done to me in the past just automatically lowered the credibility of their words. Though, it was true I helped Ichigo out a lot in the Vault of Corruption, both emotionally and physically, Without my advice and warnings, he would've died already.

I sighed and remained in place as the others went on ahead. Hina-nee, noticing this, discretely crept back to stay with me. Together, the two of us looked out at the beautiful sunset over the horizon.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Hina-nee said, standing beside me and leaning on my shoulder.

"Yeah…"

"I wonder, when was the last time we did this?

It was practically impossible to witness such a sight of nature back in Japan - where we lived, anyway: metropolitan Tokyo.

"… I think we went on vacation once to Okinawa Miyakojima Island, right? I remember back then, you asked me if it was beautiful as well."

"That's right. I'm surprised you still remember, Kaze-kun…" Hina-nee grabbed my arm and hugged it tightly. "That happened many years ago… I think when I was seven? You were six at the time."

I chuckled. "Yeah."

"Back then, I was so much taller than you. But now… we're around the same height. You might even be taller. Hehe, funny how time flows so quickly, huh?" she sniffled her nose slightly, and I turned to look at her.

"Hina-nee… do you… miss our old world?"

She met my gaze, and she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Hina-nee dove into my arms as I held her gently.

"I'm happy here. Being together with you, Kaze-kun, is my greatest joy. It's just… knowing the fact that we won't be able to return to our home again anytime soon… I…"

Tightening her grip on my clothes, she trailed off and began crying softly.

I patted her on the back in an attempt to comfort her. "I understand… we'll make it back to our old world really soon. Don't worry, Hina-nee. Even if it kills me… I'll take you back."

"Kaze-kun… don't say that…" Hina-nee rubbed her face deeper against my chest.

As she continued to sob softly, I gazed at the orange sunset, and smiled.

The beginning was over. I now had a clear goal in mind, and would stop at nothing to achieve it.

I will return. For both Hina-nee's sake, and my own.

This, marks the beginning of a new journey. One in an alternate reality.