Chapter 90: Tendou Ryuichi ( 2 )

Chapter 90: Tendou Ryuichi ( 2 )

“.... this is, different.”

After arriving at a fairy square upon his magical transfer following the skeleton boss fight, Ryuichi went outside to fine not stone passages that spawned skeletons like the previous area, but a zone full of green.

It wasn’t exactly a real jungle, as the floors and walls were still stone, but flora had clearly dominated the construction. The architecture of the zone also seemed to be different in that, while before there had been mainly passages branching out to small rooms, now there were large forest like areas, domes to be exact, with short passages connecting them. Basically, it could be called a jungle zone.

“GuBeaaah!!”

“Shut it.”

The first monsters ryuichi encountered here were a black humanoid type called gomas. They tried to use the environment to their advantage, hiding behind bushes and on branches, and had launched an attack on Ryuichi from all directions. Not an issue.

“These are easy too.”

He designated them as smallfry from the moment he first saw one. They could come in swarms and Ryuichi would have no trouble at all dealing with them. Of course, these short, black monsters held bladed weapons that could potentially injure him, but he felt not an iota of threat. He almost felt like yawning at the whole affair, but since they were kind enough to welcome him, he figured he could at least show some gratitude by testing his new sword on them.

Ryuichi needed only one swing to not only cut down the poorly armed gomas leaping at him from all directions, but the slash even chopped down the tree where their archer lay hiding, bringing it equal death.

“This thing’s pretty sharp.”

He was afraid that his sword would be as sharp as a block of wood, but thankfully, it wasn’t. He wasn’t sure if it was the skeleton boss’ sword that was of high quality or if his Royal Sword skill did the magic.

Whatever it was, Ryuichi was satisfied with his new, reliable sword, and continued his march through the jungle zone in steady steps.

Some time later, and with a sigh, “... Guess zone bosses are the only things that’ll give me a fight.”

This zone was different from the previous, skeleton-only area in that there were a variety of monsters here. There were humanoid ones like gomas and other ones that looked like animals.

A weird, red dog that spat fireballs, horned monkeys that hopped around like bunnies, wild boars whose only course of action seemed to be ‘charge’, yellow toads with poison tongues, and many, many giant bug type monsters: man sized ants, bees and mantises, just everywhere.

Predated skills

Red Spark: Let off hot sparks.

Sidestep: Make agile side steps.

Charge‘n Dash: Build up potential and perform a powerful charge.

Paralyzer: Produce paralysis poison.

Power of the Ant: Lift things many times your weight.

Dissolver: Produce acidic fluid.

Mantis Slash: A quick and deadly double slash with scythes.

Arriving at his second fairy square, Ryuichi reluctantly ate the least disgusting of the monster parts... mostly a single piece of bone from each monster, and learned a number of new skills. He did not eat any gomas, however. Not because they were humanoid and it would be wrong, but because his gut sense had told him that eating that disgusting creature wouldn’t get him anything.

The skills he did gain didn’t seem like they would be useful at all at the moment, but since this world worked on rpg mechanics, they might just come in handy somewhere down the line.

After that, he went on to traverse more of the jungle zone, coming to a point where he didn’t seem to find any new types of monsters, which was when he came to a dome much larger and higher than any he’d seen before. And as he took the first step inside,

“ ―― Woah!” Ryuichi was met with an explosion right in front of him, followed by a hot gust of wind to the face. The powerful blast shook the large jungle trees and threw up Ryuichi’s hair.

“Could be a runaway boss?” he thought, never fearing a challenge. He took a bold stride inside and discovered the cause of the explosion.

“Oh? You’re... Tendo Ryuichi.”

At the center of the dome that had opened up into a wide field, Ryuichi found the giant red creature.

“Wow, it’s... a fucking dragon.” He noted.

A ‘red dragon’ perhaps, as it could be called in a fantasy game.

“Hehe, surprised are we? This ‘Salamander’ is my familiar, my obedient servant.”

It’s face was unlike that of a lizard and nor was it crocodilian. It had the ferocious look that could only be described as a dragon’s. Rows of razor-sharp teeth lined its massive jaws and small sparks could be seen escaping the gaps in between. Its red wings were lifted outstretched and its two bulky legs allowed it to stand upright, giving the beast a certain regality, like that of a ruler of all monsters. Its long tail looked flexible and was yet covered in tough red scales that gave of a metallic sheen. One strike from such a tail could surely break human bone.

However, Ryuichi noted that overall, the color of this dragon felt faded... giving the impression that it was an old, aged dragon.

“Fret not. So long as I hold command over it, Salamander will not attack you.”

“Huh? Wait, when’d you get there?” Ryuichi said as he finally noticed the young man standing arms crossed in front of the red dragon, looking awfully proud of himself.... From the fact that he was wearing the school uniform, Ryuichi quickly understood that he must be a classmate.

“I have been here this whole time! You see this Salamander? This is mine!”

“Uh, yeah. Who are you again?”

“W-who am I...? Are you seriously asking that!? I am your Class Rep, for goodness’ sake!”

“No? You’re definitely not Ryoko―― Ah, right, there was the boy’s rep too, I guess. Oh yeah, you’re Kazuma, right?”

“Azuma! My name is Azuma Shinichi!”

“Sure, close enough.”

Ryuichi was frankly terrible with names. Or rather, he found it a pain to remember people. Just didn’t give a crap, basically. Then again, he kind-of-sort-of did remember seeing this guy stand at the class podium along with Ryoko a couple of times. Maybe?

Ryuichi finally connected the boy in front of him to the boy’s Class Rep of 2-7.

“Alright, now what? You’re gonna sic your amazing dragon on me, that how it’s gonna go?”

“Sic him on you? Me? It is truly drôle how the first thing you delinquents think of is fighting. It is because of people like you that young adults of our age have gotten the label of being ‘too short tempered’. I personally think it is the adults who put all us youths into the same category as some hot-blooded muscle-brains need to get their own heads examined―― but I digress. Let me just say, that I have no intention of instigating any form of violence against you. Let us think about this logically, yes? What reason would I, a classmate of yours, have to attack a fellow of mine when we should be joining hands one and all in order to surmount this catastrophe that has befallen us. In fact, the very suggestion of such barbarism is so carelessly nonsensical that――”

“Quit your bullshit.” Ryuichi put a swift end to Azuma’s monologue. “Your little pet almost went and attacked me and you had to stop it.”

“Hmph, if you can that is. I judge a person not by their words but by their actions, I’ll have you know.”

“So let’s say I do that, and even fight my share. You’re fine with that, right?”

“Of course. If you do as you say, I will gladly admit that I had misjudged your character.”

“Hm...” Ryuichi made a testing hum. “So yeah, I know this isn’t related, but about Ryouko yeah? She’s pregnant.”

“Hu h!?”

“I knocked her up.”

Azuma let out a comically shaken voice followed with an equally dumbstruck expression. Ryuichi imagined that even a circus clown couldn’t make a face this funny.

“Wh-wh-what, are you even...” Azuma began muttering, “no, that can’t, how could she... Kisaragi-kun is preg...”

“I’m not kidding. It was on our summer trip to Hawaii, you know, the one with Yuuto and a bunch of others. Kind of just happened.”

He was in fact, lying. About the pregnancy, and about the child being his. All a simple lie. It was simply unfathomable to Ryuichi how such a strict and uptight girl like Ryoko would even begin to like him, the class’ number one delinquent. Cheezy scenarios like that belonged in cheezy shoujo manga.

But they had in fact gone to Hawaii last summer break. Ryuichi would claim he was practically dragged along by Yuuto but the fact remains that he went there. They’d even given out souvenirs to some of their friends in class, and talk of the trip had become common gossip soon enough. Anyone and everyone knew about it.

For the record, the trip included 9 members: the Souma brother and sister of course, along with Tendo Ryuichi, Kousaka Hiroki, Kisaragi Ryoko, Natsukawa Minami, Kenzaki Asuna, Takanashi Kotori and Reina A. Ayase. Evidently, the above listing consisted of practically all the top beauties of the classroom, and so, many a jealous glare flew about. Not toward Ryuichi of course, as the only boy who could even work up the courage to give him any looks would be Higuchi Kyouya, who, by all accounts, seemed very docile and uninterested about the whole affair. As such, and alas, all the eyes of envy fell on Kousaka Hiroki alone.

Which was not only unfortunate, but greatly unfair, as most of the female attendee’s on the overseas trip had eyes for Souma Yuuto, and thus, Hiroki had experienced not a single spicy event throughout the whole adventure. Truly, he was the ultimate victim of it all.

“That’s, just crazy...”

“Yeah man, we must’ve been. I mean, we even kept fucking for a while after coming back. No condom or anything.” Shit happens, am I right? Ha-ha-ha, Ryuichi finished, thinking how bad his makeshift acting must’ve looked.

Now to see just how Mr. Straight-laced Class Rep, how Azuma Shinichi will react to this sudden revelation...

“ ―― Yup.”

Azuma said, no waver in his voice.

“Yup. I’m done.”

“Ah?” Ryuichi looked at him. At his bulging eyes but otherwise emotionless face. He wasn’t sure where this was going, but he sensed that it was strange. Very strange.

“You know, Tendo Ryuichi, I wanted to be a good person.” Azuma began. Ryuichi’s first thought was that he was going to go off on another tirade, but his tone was placid. It was as if all the anger and frustration from just now had vanished into thin air. “I am strong. It’s because I’m strong that I was granted such great power. Power that I would use responsibly. That is how it was meant to be. I aspired to use this strength wisely and protect my classmates, take care of them, lead them back home, to Earth, to Japan. I truly wanted that, you know? Even if I knew―― ”

At this point, Azuma’s wide-open eyes had gone wet and glossy.

“ ―― Even if I knew, that only three of us could go back!”

“Only three? Oi, what the f―― !?” The dragon attacked.

Ryuichi heard a whistling intake of air, then saw from the red behemoth’s gaping jaws, a flash of orange.

Dragon breath. Dragons are creatures that breathe fire. It was the stuff of legends and folklore back on Earth, and in this world, a concrete and undeniable truth.

Ryuichi already knew that though. He knew that the explosion he was met with upon his entry into this dome was caused by the fire of this very same dragon.

Even Ryuichi, with his powered up body, couldn’t take such an explosion head on. Before his ears began ringing, he not only made the split-second decision to dodge with one of his predation skills, Sidestep, but he additionally used his Royal Sword to shield himself from the blast wave. Even then, he was blown back. That was a powerful attack. If he hadn’t evaded, he would’ve ended up as a smudge on the charred ground.

“Tsk... chances ain’t so good here” Ryuichi judged that the open area he had tumbled to would only leave him open to attacks, and so, quickly standing up, he ran for the trees.

“Fuh, fufu, fwahahahaha!! You see now, Tendo Ryuichi! This, this is my power!”

Uh, no, your dragon’s doing all the work, Ryuichi wanted to retort but now wasn’t the time.

He was more or less hidden now, and didn’t expect the dragon to burn down the whole forest. Even Azuma wouldn’t risk that.

“This is all your fault, Tendo Ryuichi... Here I was, trying to SAVE everyone using the STRONGEST power that only I was granted, and you just had to... you, youuuuuuu!!!”

The lie that Ryuichi had fathered a child with Kisaragi Ryoko had caused this madness within Azuma. Ryuichi had expected to rile him up, but he didn’t expect the guy to go absolutely ballistic.

“Great...” Ryuichi sighed, “You just had to get a nutcase go for you huh, Ryoko.”

Ryuichi knew how Azuma Shinichi had a thing for Kisaragi Ryoko. It was common knowledge for the better half of their class, a staple topic for those interested in love gossip. Azuma was just that obvious about it.

And that’s exactly why Ryuichi told the lie that he did. To test him.

Azuma had made noble and virtuous claims. Like how he would gather and lead his classmates through these troubled times, leaving no one behind and all that. But how far was he really willing to follow through with those ideals?

For instance, what if it turned out that the girl he likes was carrying another man’s child? What if the father turned out to be the type of scum that he simply despised, someone who boasted about their lewd deed in vulgar detail? Could he still make peace with such a man, in the name of his noble cause; could he work together with such a man, knowing all this?

The answer to those questions, as it has been shown, is evidently, a big, fat NO.

“I’m done! I’m done being the stupid Class Rep! I’ll escape! Me and, and the girl I love, only the two of us will survive and return back to Japan, we’ll even start a family!”

“Oh yeah? Then take good care of my kid will ya? I’m sure you’ll be a great dad!”

“Aaaaaah!” Azuma screamed. “Kill him! Salamander!!”

Another massive explosion. The forest was being set ablaze at an alarming rate―― but the red heat of the huge fireballs were flying at random while Ryuichi was still hidden behind the thick green.

“So you do wanna fight, after all. Bring it on, Azuma―― ” A fireball flew toward the direction of his voice, but its lack in accuracy made dodging easy. Each time the dragon’s breath missed, it was an opportunity to get used to it.

Firing rate, damage output, attack range and accuracy, Ryuichi observed and learned.

Ryuichi knew just how strong he was. So he knew that if he were to give it his all here, he had a decent chance at winning against that thing.

The risk was exhilarating, fun even. Without realizing, Ryuichi’s mouth had curved into a wide grin as he took on the challenge:

“ ―― I’m ready, anytime.”

This chapter was sponsored by Nolan N. The next one is out too