Chapter 89: Tendou Ryuichi ( 1 )

Chapter 89: Tendou Ryuichi ( 1 )

“―― Fuck. How’s it even end up like this?” Tendou Ryuichi muttered as he woke up lying sprawled on top of a stone platform. The first thing he saw was the grey ceiling, and then the grey walls on all sides. He was quickly convinced that this sort of, what he assumed was a storeroom fully built with solid stone, wasn’t the sort of thing he’d see in modern Japan.

“Real bad day... for everyone I guess.”

Every student of class 2-7 of Shiramine Academy had been suddenly transported to another world, a place not anywhere on Earth―― or so the story goes. A mysterious voice had started explaining things over the class intercom, magic was apparently real, and in the end, the classroom itself broke apart culminating in Ryuichi finally waking up in this stone room.

Realistically, he’d never believe something so absurd. He’d confirm with his own two eyes just how real this whole summoning was. But strangely, Ryuichi didn’t feel the need to. He’d usually wave off something like this without a second thought, but he was somehow already convinced that this world and everything entailing it was all real. It was as if he was instinctively aware of the existence of this world that was different from his own.

Ryuichi sat up on his platform, lit a cigarette with practiced movements, took in a long puff of the thing, and while looking at the now much shorter stick, he came to a daunting realization: “Oh, fuck me. What if this world doesn’t have any? Arrgh, dammit Ryoko, did ya have to take a whole pack?”

He was beginning to regret letting that nagging Class Rep take a brand new, unopened pack from him. Which sucked, because the one he was on was the one, and only one he had kept hidden on him just in case.

“Yeah, let’s just go.” Not one to dwell on meaningless thoughts, Ryuichi finished off his cigarette which calmed him down (not that he was agitated to begin with), well anyway, he figured he should get moving.

“But first, let’s get that over with... Ugh.” Ryuichi opened his notebook to the page with the magic circle and, as he thought, it really was weird. He felt really lame having to rely on something like magic.

But he had no choice really. Magic certainly existed in this world, and currently, as they’d been informed, he was inside a dungeon with dangerous monsters at every other corner. Ryuichi wasn’t one to deny that he had a good punching hand, but he was still only human. Even he’d hesitate on going up against wild animals barehanded and alone. So, despite feeling lame about it, he opted to receive whatever magic power the gods or what have you were supposed to give him.

“Oh Gods above――” Ryuichi began chanting in a very annoyed monotone. This sort of thing didn’t suit him one bit. Putting his hand on the badly drawn magic circle and asking Gods for help with a cringeworthy incantation like an occult nerd not only made him feel like a complete idiot, but also felt like an act of poetic irony where a well established delinquent has to subject himself to this sort of shame.

In other words, Ryuichi didn’t like this, not one bit.

“―― For we shall adhere to thine decree.” He finished. It didn’t take as long as he thought, of that he was glad. So there he was, having performed the ritual just as instructed...

“Oi, the fuck, nothing’s happened.”

Indeed he seemed to see no change. He’d expected something akin to the glowing letters he saw on the classroom blackboard but he was seeing nothing of the sort.

“Tsk,” he clicked his tongue, “so much for magic. I feel like an idiot now―― Grrh!?”

Suddenly, a searing pain ran through Ryuichi’s whole body. This pain, this unforgiving, unbearable, unrelenting pain was so much worse than anything he had ever experienced. It was worse than being punched and kicked by a dozen other delinquents, it was worse than being stabbed in the stomach by one of them, it was worse than being thrown off his bike into the rough pavement, it was worse than any of that. Ryuichi wasn’t a pansy. He got back up on every one of those occasions, but this current, crippling pain he was under easily dropped him to the ground.

“Graahh!!” He screamed.

He felt his heart lurch in a single, loud beat. Pain, pain everywhere. Pain as if the liquid blood in his body had multiplied, and then multiplied again. Pain as if blood would start jetting out from every pore on his body.

“Ghr, ouff, aaaahh....” He groaned like he was about to die.

Ryuichi desperately held down his chest, at the place where his heart was furiously hammering away. He writhed in pain, but one thing he didn’t do was give up. He refused to die from this. This was pain on the level he’d never even imagined possible, it was pain enough to kill him if he let it... but he wouldn’t. Because he realized that this pain wasn’t being caused by sickness or poison.

It was power.

Tremendous forces were surging out from within him, his body being too small a vessel to hold it all. But in spite of that, the torrential surge of power only kept pouring out, only kept saturating inside his body.

“Aagh... Fff, aaghh... this, is, nothing...”

Ryuichi had underestimated just what this magic was. He had thought it would be like in fairy tales, chant a spell and voila, shout an attack move and bam. He had imagined it as easy, inconsequential.

“T-this, power...” If this was the power, the true power of magic in this world, then it was no subject of a bedtime story, there was no hope, no dreams... only, purely, violence.

“Gh, ghaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!” His body exploded.

Or at least, that’s what he felt as the ravaging pain reached its apex. And it was at that very moment, that Ryuichi saw, no, he clearly felt this image, this information, get seared into his mind.

Succession Candidate: Tendou Ryuichi Calling: King

Innate Skill No.1 : Law of the Jungle

Innate Skill No.2 : ――――――

Candidacy Skills

Right of Rule

Royal Sword

Treasury

Ryuichi couldn’t tell how long he stayed passed out after that, but at the time he awoke next, he felt extremely groggy while searching through his pockets for a cigarette, only to click his tongue in frustration as he remembered that he’d finished the last one. Then, he also remembered the other thing that happened before he lost consciousness.

“... Haha, so this place is like a tv game.”

A particular sort of information had been engraved into his head. Terms like calling, innate skill, candidacy skill and other such jargon. The only connection Ryuichi could find with such words was video games.

“Haven’t done that since I was a kid huh...” He reminisced back to his elementary school days, back when he was still a normal kid, before all the fights and mischief. He used to honestly enjoy playing on a home game console with his friend Yuuto.

For Ryuichi, those memories seemed like something far in the past, but it was those very same experiences that was helping him make sense of his situation.

“... Yeah, let’s just go.”

Wooden ClubSkeleton Bones

The bigger the weapon, the more strength you’d need to wield it. With a club too big, he risked missing his mark, or worse, letting the skeletons get a hit on him... however, Ryuichi felt that the increased size was perfect for him.

This made him realize that it was not only his stamina being affected by the continuous fighting, but even his muscle strength.

“So I’m leveling up, and getting my weapon upgraded... now’s about the time a boss battle happens.” Ryuichi said, coming across a set of large double doors on an entrance quite unlike the rest of the place.

“No surprise there, even the boss is a skeleton.”

Inside the room behind the double doors, a large circular chamber the size of a baseball stadium mound, stood its sole occupant at the very center, the 3 meter giant, the skeleton boss.

“This’ll be fun.” Ryuichi had been getting increasingly bored with all those skeletons after all.

The skeleton boss, nimble as it was large, turned to face the new intruder boldly entering its lair. It drew out the gigantic blade stuck in the ground next to it and was ready for battle.

“Get some.” The skeleton boss responded to Ryuichi’s taunt by closing in with swift steps, swinging its huge cruciform sword just as fast, likely faster than an ordinary human could see. Not to mention its length gave the undead wielder a tremendous advantage in reach.

“ ―― Woah, fast fucker ain'tcha?” Ryuichi commented as he back stepped away from the massive blade coming from over head. The heavy impact caused the floor to crack and raised up stone dust. Ryuichi was finally getting into the mood as the draft caused by the swing raised his blond dyed hair.

“But you’re nowhere near as good as Yuuto. He’s at least got technique.” Ryuichi mocked as he jumped all the way up to the giant’s chest. And he swung his supersized nail bat with all his might.

“Oraa!!” It struck. His full power swing made a clean hit on one of the skeleton boss’ kneecaps. It produced a dull sound like a hammer hitting a wall, creating cracks but not breaking the joint.

“Can’t one shot this one!” He figured that breaking its legs would give him a clear speed advantage. But although he couldn’t bust that kneecap, Ryuichi had succeeded in making the skeleton boss’ movements much slower. It probably didn’t feel pain, but the damage had been substantial enough to hamper normal movement.

“I’ve practically won already... but I shouldn’t take it easy against a boss. Yeah, better just finish it off.”

From there, it was simply a matter of time before Ryuichi bashed enough times to completely destroy the monster. He first finished the job on the already fractured knee. Having now lost a leg, the boss lost balance and toppled over, letting Ryuichi concentrate his efforts on its skull, the most likely weak point, and its right hand that held the sword, its only weapon.

During that time, the skeleton boss had managed to swing, or rather, meaninglessly flail its sword, a total of two times as the blade didn’t even graze Ryuichi, what with his superhuman stamina and reaction speed. He continued bashing his targeted locations.

“Oh, got the hand first, now――” The fingers on its boney right hand were broken to the point that the skeleton boss couldn’t maintain its hold on its weapon. And before the giant could reach out with its remaining left hand, Ryuichi picked up the dropped weapon with both arms. This sword was sized to match its 3 meter tall wielder, and would clearly not be easy for a human to use with any measure of accuracy.

Swinging it down on an immobile, defenseless enemy flailing on the ground, however, was another matter entirely.

“ ―― time to die!!” Ryuichi brought the hulking sword down on the skeleton boss’ neck, the latter of whom having no way to defend against an impact of such caliber, easily lost its head, bringing the battle to a close.

“... I’m supposed to step inside there?”

The notebook mail service had already informed him about boss rooms containing transfer circles and also on how to use them. Still, Ryuichi wasn’t very keen on walking into the magic glowy thing on the floor without a second thought.

He had already collected the boss core of course. It was inside the skull.

“Let’s try something first.”

The magic circle at the center of the room was ready and waiting, but Ryuichi had some unfinished business, particularly with the boss and its big ass sword.

“Might just get a real sword out of this one.”

And he was right, as his skill did exactly that.

Setting target constituents...

Large Skeleton BonesGreatsword

Commencing synthesis: Royal Sword―― Finalized.

The golden light vanished, leaving Ryuichi with a new greatsword in hand.

“Not bad, not bad at all.”

The weapon had a rustic design, appearing as if a blade had grown out of the boney grip. It wasn’t pretty, it had no art, it was a very rough sword. But it was a sword custom made for Ryuichi’s use. Both its size and weight felt just right. And let’s not forget that this weapon had an actual blade which would greatly boost Ryuichi’s destructive potential.

With this greatsword, Ryuichi felt that he could cut a similar Large Skeleton in half on the first swing. Satisfied, Ryuichi was about to turn away from the remaining bones which were missing some bits here and there, and that’s when he realized something.

Law of the Jungle: Feast! Reach the greatest heights by consuming the flesh of beaten foes.

“No, that’s just...” Ryuichi brought down his eyebrows and tightly shut his eyes in contemplation. It was an act he’d done not once in any of his fights so far, the act of worrying. Worrying should he really test out his innate skill.

Coming to a decision, Ryuichi took a small, finger length piece of bone and bit down on it, like it was no different from having a smoke.

Skill Predation

Bonecrusher: Increased attack power toward bones.

New Bone: Improved mending of bones.

This chapter is sponsored by Nolan N.

Also, if you missed it, I posted illustrations from the first vol of jujutsushi. It has art from the first three arcs.