Chapter 87

「God… DAMN IT! F*ck!」

Currently, I’m spouting obscenities at the trap which I just walked into while trying to decelerate by plunging my spirit sword into the wall.

「Damn, stop!」

As the sword is scraping the stone surface of the wall with a rattling sound, the speed of my fall somehow gets a bit slower.

In order to stop myself completely, I apply more force to plunge the sword even deeper.

It has been confirmed at the first pitfall that this body will not suffer a single injury or even any pain at all as long as I mitigate the impact to some degree.

Considering that there was no real need to restrain my fall, but well, I probably got stubborn. I did not want to lose.

「Barely stopped, huh.」

And before I reached the end of this pitfall, which was not as deep as the previous one, I was able to reduce my velocity to zero.

I was hanging onto my sword that was stabbed 10 cm deep into the wall, holding it with one hand. Right at that moment when I looked below, I heard:

「Mm, What? Who are you?」

「…」

I could not reply to that voice.

What I saw there was a petite girl with the skin akin to white silk, with hair brimming with the color of deep crimson, and with black eyes that shined richer than black pearls.

The girl, that looked both beautiful and innocent, gave me the impression of being more than a child yet less than an adult.

To put it bluntly, she was a very cute girl. If this was my peaceful previous world, I might have fallen for her at first sight.

Both Alesia and Yumis were beautiful and cute girls as well but if we were to talk about preferences then this girl was the closest to my type.

The girl was sitting on the ground and continuously stirring something that was resembling soup.

However, the current me couldn’t care less about a person’s face, beauty, and figure.

This girl was wearing something that I have never seen in this world.

It was a traditional, national costume from my world, from my country, the「Kimono」.

With black as its base color, which went well with her red hair, it had a pattern of several white birds on it.

It seems that it wasn’t an authentic kimono. It appeared to be quite short, its length barely reaching to her knees. Rather than kimono, it would be more appropriate to call it a kimono dress.

Still, for the first time since I got to this world, I saw something with Japanese flavor to it.

A fleeting shadow of my original world that I so yearned for, felt like a blow to the head.

「？ I don’t know who you are, but could it be, that your aim is this pot? If so, I shall not permit it! This pot belongs to me, depart from this place at once.」

「？！ Whoa?!」

After showing a dubious expression for a moment, the girl let go of the stick that she used to stir the contents of the pot and with the palm of her hand, that she aimed my way, she instantly formed a fireball and threw it at me.

The magic activation was so smooth and so fast that I could only respond to it haphazardly.

The fireball lightly grazed my ear and exploded after colliding with the pitfall’s wall.

Seems like she only wanted to intimidate me and although the fireball did not have enough power to give a serious injury but due to the shockwave from the explosion, the「Soul Sword of the Beginning」that was stuck into the wall came out of it.

「I’m going to fall…」

「Ah!, Idiot, do not fall this way!!!」

I could see that the girl once again turned her hands to me.

「Damn, I am not going to just take it one after another!!」

Is it a fireball again or is it water this time? Or maybe it is wind? Or earth?

I don’t care which one is it, I will just cut it with my all!

「Eeh?」

But, the magic that was used, was of a different, unexpected nature.

A dome-shaped protective barrier, probably of the wind attribute, appeared in the direction of my fall and surrounded the girl.

No intention to attack could be felt. Most likely, this spell was really just used to prevent me from falling that way.

Moreover, if I didn’t try to do anything, it would not only cleanly stop me from falling but also would slowly lower me to the ground.

As impressed as I was by the delicate control over magic that would not allow you to suspect that the spell was cast in the spur of the moment, I knew full well that sadly, it will not be possible to stop my sword once I started to swing it downwards.

「Wha, it was cut…?!」

(Ah, damn, sorry, I guess.)

The girl surely did not expect that the wind membrane could be cut. Her face gets distorted, forming a shocked expression.

While looking at her surprised face, I, obeying the laws of gravity, fell to the ground. Right on top of that boiling pot.

「HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!」

With a loud bang, the pot tumbles over and something muddy spills on my right hand.

I hurriedly pulled out the leather bag containing water from the tool bag and splashed it over the burnt area, then I splashed some HP potion over it as well and healed the burn.

「Ah, Aaaaa!!! Even though it finally, finally became something more or less normal…」

In front of the tumbled over pot was the girl on her hands and knees, her head hanging down in despair.

「Ah, this, well…」

I could not say a word to the girl that was giving off such a strong feeling of tragedy.

Looking around, this room has a pretty similar design to the one where I was before falling down here. The only differences were that the room had something similar to a small water spring in one corner of the room and remains of a mysterious substance X that gave a subtle impression of being results of some kind of cooking in another.

From that alone, I already could understand a lot about this situation. In the name of a woman’s honor, I will omit how the “more or less normal” food actually looked.

First, I have to apologize.

「I am so…」

「You fool! What have you done!」

When I tried to lower my head, I received a hit in the form of a right hook.

(It, it hurts?! And that magic from before, just what is going on with this girl?!)

In this world, there are no gender-related differences in strength. No matter how frail the girl might look, in this world, depending on her Status, she might even be able to destroy buildings with her fists alone.

Even so, being able to damage me with a normal punch is definitely not normal.

Is she perhaps a skilled adventurer or something? I thought that I became accustomed to this gap between appearance and strength, but this gap is too extreme.

Well, this girl most likely calmed down a bit with this. Or so I thought…

「Not even a shred of hesitation, huh? Well, for now, let’s call us even with this」

「As if I will agree to that!!! You blank-faced bastard!!」

As I got careless, I was hit again. This time, slapped from the other side.

「This girl… Getting so full of herself just because I’m being humble…」

「Shut your trap, baldie!!!」

*Thud* This time, along with the uppercut, came a completely groundless insult.

I felt like deep inside my mind, some restraints have snapped.

This whole situation, the feeling of fatigue in various ways, the nostalgia for my previous world stirred up by the sight of a kimono, the reasons why I was summoned to another world in the first place, the troubles that just keep popping up one after another even though I am in hurry, myself not capable of returning home, with me being this weak.

Getting beaten up was nothing more than a small spark, but it ignited all the emotions and frustrations that has piled up in me until now and brought them bursting out.

「I am not bald, you dumb woman!」

All that my last remaining shred of reason could tell me was「You should not hit a woman directly」, so I instantly formed the 「Heavy Feather Slapstick Sword」and hit her on the head with full force.

「Ouch! What was that?!」

*SLAP*The hit made a loud sound but unless you infuse it with magic power, this sword is no different from a paper fan, so there is no possibility that it would cause an injury.

The「Heavy Feather Slapstick Sword」is a spirit sword capable of repelling or dispersing constructs made with magic once you charge it with magic power. But its direct offensive power is almost nonexistent.

In other words, I can swing this paper fan with no remorse.

「It’s just food!!! Actually, it actually does not even resemble cooking!!! Most likely, it is on the same level as that garbage in the corner, you damn redhead!

「Ouch, OUCH?! You, Yoou!!! Of all things, how dare you call it a garbage?! And on top of that, you insulted this red hair that I inherited from my mother!!!」

「I only stated the facts, you little runt!!! I have no idea what kind of dish that is supposed to be but how do you even make something like that?! It’s gooey, makes strange bubbles, has an incomprehensible color with a marble pattern, there is no way a person can eat that!!! Also, in reality, your hair color is red!!!」

「There was malice in the way you said it earlier!! And I am not a runt!!! I am just of moderate and cute height! Do you have holes instead of eyes?! This height brings perfection to my beauty, you fool!!!

「Ha? To spout「My beauty」while talking about yourself, now that is hilarious! There is a limit to how excessively self-conscious one can get hahaha.」

「What. Did. You. Say?! I won’t forgive you, I absolutely won’t, even if you start crying, I will not forgive you!!!」

「…?!」

Sensing that she began to manipulate magic power, I jumped back one step and put up my guard. Considering what happened before, a spell should come flying in a moment.

However, this spell takes a lot more time to prepare. Still, it’s only a difference between fractions of a second that she used for the previous spell and almost two seconds for this one.

But the spell that was activated was different from the slew of offensive magic spells that I imagined.

*Whoosh*The girl, no, the redhead, disappeared from my sight and re-appeared some distance away.

「Short range teleport?!」

Not sparing the astonished me any time, she raised her hand, turning the palm of her hand to the ceiling and in the next moment, already had 5 magic spheres on standby. Amazing magic control.

(Water and Earth, another one is Darkness, that coconut looking one… Is that a plant?! And what is that last one with red and ash color mixed in a marbled pattern?)

「Hey, Wa!…」

「I will not wait, I told you that I will not forgive you!!!」

Shouting that, the girl swings her hand downward.

Five spheres scatter in all directions at a speed impossible for orb type magic and on top of that, they follow complex trajectories while approaching me.

Like before, it didn’t take her even a second to activate this spell. Moreover, she used multiple attributes at the same time, even including some that weren’t part of the six basic elements…

Even for Yumis, the most skilled magician among those that I know, such feat is not possible.

「Tch!!!」

Judging that unfortunately, it will be impossible for me to avoid them all, I decided to counterattack while being prepared to get hit by at least one of those.

I could see both the redhead that was smugly smiling while looking at me and the magic controlled by her.

(That coconut looking one appears to be the most harmless one. I am going to evade the spheres of water, earth and darkness. What’s left is that strange looking one.)

「I am going to hit back!!! Urryaa!!!」

Infused with magic power, the slapstick sword changes its color to metallic gray. With a sweeping motion from left to right, I send back that last unidentified orb.

「Fuuaaa?! Tha, That’s ridiculous…!!! Mwaaa?!」

「Gah?! Just what is this?!」

I dodged 3 spheres and around the same time, I reflected that strange orb, then the coconut looking one hit me.

Mysterious liquid poured onto me from the orb that fractured upon impact.

I saw the orb that I sent flying with my mighty swing hitting the redhead. Apparently, that magic was by nature, some kind of smoke. After making contact with the redhead, it spread around and wrapped her in a cloud that had some fluctuations of red to it.

However, I quickly lost the leeway to calmly observe its effects.

「I, ITCHIIING!!! My whole body is itching!!!」

「Sti, STINGING!!! Eyes! MY EYES!!! My nose, mucosa!!! 」

Itches, itching, itching, itching!!

My body is assaulted by itches as if it was bitten by mosquitoes.

On the other hand, the redhead that crawled out of the smoke has rivers of tears streaming from her eyes.

「YOOOO, Yo, YOU! What did you do!!!」

「Hm, Humph! It’s a sap of ushir. By touching the skin, it causes itching for one houuurr, its stiiingiing, my skin is pricking!!! 」

It seemed that she was trying to declare her victory while laughing with a bold face but it was not convincing at all since she was crying non-stop with a red nose. In the end, she once again crouched up, covering herself.

「One, ONE HOUR? ONE HOUR OF THIS?」

Such a hopeless statement made me a bit light-headed. It would be better if I just lost consciousness right then and there but the itching would not allow that.

「Soo iiitchy!」

「It buuuuurns!!!」

And so for a while, we ended up rolling on the ground while going through such hellish suffering.