11 Journey 9# Rabbit Girl
Their view was filled by the light from the magic circle; the air definitely felt different, although nothing could be seen. It was clearly different from the air at the depths of hell.
The sight that came into view after the light settled was…
A cave.
"Wait, what?" Hajime felt disappointed.
Akihiro noticed his friend appeared perplexed, he sighed.
"It's a secret passage, Hajime. Do you even play Dungeon games?"
Yue nodded at Akihiro's words, wait, does she even understand what Dungeon games were in the first place?
"A-ah, is that so? It certainly is. There is no way that the entrance to the Abode of Traitors wouldn't be hidden, right?" Hajime felt embarrassed to not realize something simple. He pulled himself together while scratching his head.
The three then advanced through the pitch-black cave without any problems.
On the way, although there were many doors with seals and traps, the Orcus Ring would react at every instance, canceling their activation altogether. The three of them were cautious at first as they continued but soon lost interest as nothing happened. Their uneventful advance continued until they finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. It was the sun; the light which Hajime and Akihiro, for the past few months, and Yue, for the past three hundred years, had sought after.
Hajime, Akihiro and Yue came to a stop; they grinned. Exchanging glances, they simultaneously ran towards the light that they yearned for.
As they approached the light that was gradually growing larger, they could feel and breathe the air from the surface. It was different from the stagnant air of hell, being cool and refreshing.
Hajime never knew how delicious fresh air could be until this moment. Akihiro is holding his tears. He's different from Hajime, who's an introverted type. Akihiro is an extrovert type.
Feeling renewed and gratified, Akihiro, Hajime and Yue both jumped into the light and reached the long-awaited surface.
To the humans who lived above the ground, the place that Hajime, Akihiro and Yue entered was hell on Tortus: an execution ground. An unknown number of powerful and brutal monsters lived there. As if that weren't enough, magic could hardly be used where they were standing. An average of 1-2 kilometers deep, 900 meters wide, while spanning 8 kilometers from the [Gruen Great Desert] in the west to the [Haltina Sea of Trees] in the east, the great scar that divides the north and south of the continent, the people named;
The [Raisen Great Canyon]
Hajime, Akihiro and Yue were currently outside of the cave at the bottom of the Raisen Grand Canyon. Although they were at the bottom of the canyon; bright, warm light poured down from above. The fragrance of the earth mixed with the wind tickled their noses.
Compared to the kind of place it could have been, this place was surely the paradise known as the surface. While they were in a daze looking at the sun above their heads, Hajime, Akihiro and Yue's facial expressions of shock and awe gradually turned into a smile whilst Akihiro began to cry happy tears. Even Yue, who was expressionless by default, could be seen smiling in broad daylight.
"We… made it back…" Hajime mutter.
"...Nn"
"Yeah..." Akihiro replied as he wipes his tears.
After a moment of silence, the three were finally hit by the euphoric realization that they no longer stood in hell. They turned away from the sun, glanced at each other. With all their might, they embraced each other.
"Alriiight~~!! We're ooouuuut~!"
"Oouuut~~!!"
"Yoosshaaaa!!"
They rejoice together. They successfully made it back to the surface after months of suffering in the Orcus Dungeon, but it was all worth it as they got stronger.
At last, when the three's laughter settled down, they found themselves... surrounded by monsters.
Akihiro and Hajime smirked as they pulled out their weapons.
* * *
After slaughtering these poor monsters, they are heading towards [Haltina Sea of Trees] to find a village.
They are using a motorcycle made by Hajime. Yue, straddling the vehicle dashingly, clung to Hajime's waist while Akihiro rode his motorcycle alone. Aside from not being powered by gasoline, like on Earth, the vehicle required magic manipulation to directly move the parts that were connected to the wheels, so the engine was silent, like an electric automobile. Below the vehicle frame, a mechanism was installed to level the road with transmutation as they advanced, making it truly a comfortable ride. Hajime thought that the sound of a roaring engine would have felt more romantic, but he didn't have the knowledge required to reproduce the sound. The speed was dependent on how much magic power was poured in, however the magic power efficiency inside the [Raisen Great Canyon] was terrible, so it could not be used for a prolonged amount of time.
Driving the motorcycles around the protruding rocks on the cliff face, a large monster appeared. It was a tyrannical monster with two heads: a "Two-Headed Tyrannosaurus"-like monster.
But the one they paid attention to wasn't the "terrifying" monster, but a girl with rabbit ears running away from it with a half-crying face.
Hajime and Akihiro stopped the motorcycles to get a good look at the suspicious-looking, "about to get eaten" rabbit-eared girl.
"Uwaah~ Rabbit girl, I think this is the first time I see a member of the Rabbitman Tribe in person." Akihiro smiled widely. He always loved to see other demi-humans.
"… a member of the Rabbitman Tribe?" Yue mutter to herself.
"Why are they in this place? Does the Rabbitman Tribe inhabit this place?" Hajime narrow his eyes.
Yue: "..."
"Then, what is it? Was she dropped here as a criminal? Isn't this place also used as an execution ground?" Hajime trying to figure out what the rabbit girl doing here.
"…Bad rabbit?" Yue said.
Hajime and Yue inclined their heads while carefreely talking about the rabbit-eared girl. They seemed to have no intention of helping her, particularly because they knew the [Raisen Great Canyon] was used as an execution method. Rather than helping a stranger, they thought that it would be bothersome and so didn't have any real interest in doing it.
While Akihiro particularly doesn't like being a "hero", he decides to observe the situation first. If the rabbit girl can escape the Two-Headed Tyrannosaurus, then he wouldn't bother to help, but if the girl decides to die in front of him, he'd rather save her rather than watch someone die and make his mood worse.
The aftereffects of Hajime's change in mentality were displayed brutally whilst Akihiro's mentality was always the same except something inside him broken. The circumstances were different compared with Yue. Hajime felt no sympathy towards the rabbit-eared girl, her situation didn't even move Hajime's heart. If he extended a hand to help now, there would be no end to it. The present Hajime had already deserted the world to its fate.
However, it seemed that the rabbit-eared girl had detected the carefree Hajime, Akihiro and Yue. After being blown away by the Two-Headed Tyrant and falling into the shade of a boulder, she hurriedly stood back up to run away, all while staring at Akihiro.
"Eh, did she just stare at me?" Akihiro wonder.
Once again, the Two-Headed Tyrant swung its claw at the rock where she was hiding, blowing it up. Grumbling while rolling across the ground, she escaped from the fierce killing attack while using that momentum to roll… towards Akihiro.
"Damn, why is my luck today seems bad." Akihiro groaned.
Though there was some distance between them, the desperate shout from the rabbit-eared girl echoed through the canyon and reached Akihiro's ears.
Hajime pats Akihiro's shoulder and gives Akihiro a thumbs up which makes Akihiro wince as he tried to resist the urge to punch Hajime's smirking face.
"Heelph me~e! Hiiiiii~~? I'm dying! I'm dyiiing! Help mee~, pleasee~!"
She ran desperately while floods of tears flowed down her face. Right behind her was the approaching Two-Headed Tyrant that wanted to eat the rabbit-eared girl. At the current rate, the rabbit-eared girl would be eaten even before she could reach Akihiro.
As one would expect, even after being directly asked for help, Akihiro stay silent while Hajime responded-
"I refuse!"
"…It's bothersome." Yue murmured.
Suddenly the rabbit girl's gaze became intense on Akihiro.
Akihiro sighed and took a relaxed step forward. He unsheathed his Azaroth Sword while the Rabbit girl and Two-Headed Tyrant closed in.
"Duck!" Akihiro suddenly yelled. The rabbit girl immediately does what Akihiro said.
Akihiro slashes the air making the rabbit girl confused.
Seeing that the Two-Headed Tyrant didn't attack the rabbit girl, she turned around to see two heads falling down, making the rabbit girl flabbergasted.
The body collapsed to the ground as Akihiro sheathed his Azaroth sword back.
Akihiro nonchalantly walked to the rabbit girl and pats her bunny ears.
"Hmm, soft! This is beneficial to remove my stress."
The rabbit girl blushed.
Hajime and Yue follow from behind as they watch Akihiro doing shameless things.
"Ohh~ how the nice boy has fallen, doing shameless things to the girl he first met." Hajime chuckled as Akihiro realize his action.
"Aki is pervert now." Yue nodded to herself as she acquire the new information.
Akihiro flushed as he rebuked, "How about you guys? You two aren't helping at all!"
"What's the point of helping anyway? You can easily kill it." Hajime shrug.
"Umu." Yue nodded again.
The rabbit girl suddenly spoke.
"A-Ano, Thank you for saving me! my name is Shea from Haulia Rabbitman Tribe."
Akihiro nodded, "I see, my name is Akihiro Tomioka."
Akihiro points at Hajime and says, "That's edgy motherfucker is Hajime Nagumo."
"Oi, I'm listening, you know." Akihiro ignores Hajime as he continues. Akihiro then pointed at Yue.
"Lastly, that blonde loli is Yue." Yue winced at being called "Loli."
"Nice to meet you, Shea." Akihiro smiled at Shea as he hold out his hand.
Shea reaches Akihiro's hand as she gets up, "Nice to meet you too, Tomioka-san."
Without Akihiro's notice, the red string of fate intertwined once their hands met. Maybe Shea can repair something inside Akihiro that's broken. I don't know, let's just watch and see.
-To be continued.
(A/N: I know that Shea is a little OOC in here but whatever, I don't really plan to make Shea a bit different from the original one, I wanted to make her more likeable.
Oh yeah, Blue and Pink Love is still not published yet. I'm still deciding if it's good enough to publish.
Sorry if there are mistakes in this chapter, I'm too lazy checking since it's midnight.
Well, do I have anything to say anymore? I don't really think so)
