Arifureta After III Abyss Lord Arc Chapter 2 The Respective Battle Middle
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「Uoii! Shinji-kuuunn!? Won’t you revive soon!?」
A voice of someone at his wits’ end was resounding in a corner of the back alley that was away from a shopping district’s main street. It was Saitou Yoshiki.
Right beside him, there was also a figure sitting on the middle of the alley while hugging his legs and burying his face on his knee, weeping *hics hics*. It was Nakano Shinji.
From the bottom of his heart Yoshiki thought, 「This guy, is seriously annoying……」.
After all, right now they were in the middle of assault from multiple humans who clearly weren’t normal and unseen enemy――the so called demon. It was reasonable for Yoshiki to want Shinji to stand up right away and escape or fight. Shinji’s figure that was too unsightly made him started to think that perhaps he should just leave him behind.
Although,
(Well, it’s impossible though.)
Yoshiki smiled wryly while firing wind cannon to a foreign man that was attacking by swing metal bat.
The invisible wind ball accurately hit the man’s legs, snapping both his legs to the wrong direction.
Furthermore, the moment he felt unnatural flow of wind behind him, Yoshiki swung his arm while turning around as though he was unsheathing a katana.
「――”Wind Blade”!」
By doing that, a sharp blade of wind flew following the trajectory of his arm, and right after that a repulsive shriek echoed.
Yoshiki ran his gaze alertly at the surrounding while sighin when he saw Shinji who was still weeping. However, he was unable to abandon him. He didn’t even think to do it.
Shadow ran on the wall. He sent wind blade flying there. ……He didn’t hear the shriek of death agony.
Missed, he thought. At that time the wind above his head shook.
Without delay, he kicked the sitting Shinji flying while he himself backed away.
「――”Wind Wall”!」
He felt multiple undulation of wind around him, at the same time he deployed wind barrier that blew to all direction.
――iIIIIIIIII-!!
A voice that sounded irritated resounded.
「Oi, Shinji! Are you okay!?」
「Shinji is……not okay.」
「Certainly you doesn’t sound okay at all huh, goddamn it!」
Shinji rolled on the ground from the kick’s momentum, and then he returned back to sitting while hugging his knees which looked artistic in a sense. Yoshiki’s expression was greatly twitching seeing that.
Really, he was thinking 「This useless bastard, just what is he doing」, but as expected abandoning him wasn’t an option.
……He had already, lost two friends. In the other world.
Furthermore one of them, Kondou Reiichi was killed by the betrayal of none other than that other friend――the man called Hiyama Daisuke.
He wondered if it was only him who thought of that person as friend.
Certainly, their usual action in the past wasn’t something praiseworthy. They were, so to speak a gathering of delinquents.
But, was their relationship, their life so light that it could be so easily sacrificed in order to fulfill one’s own desire……
There was also a time when he shut himself together with Shinji in a room inside the palace, holding their head and unable to move because of how cornered their mind was.
That was why, Saitou Yoshiki was,
「There ain’t no way, I’ll lose even more friend than this!」
In a “fight where it was possible to lose” something, he absolutely wouldn’t draw back. That will of his was firm and sharp.
The wind of Yoshiki whose vocation was “Wind Mage” was filled with his will and it was fired with even more sharpness. With his ability “Wind Perception”, he could sense the flow of wind with even more sensitivity. Even an invisible enemy couldn’t escape from the sharp sense of Yoshiki who was protecting his friend.
Although,
「Nowah!? That’s dangerous! Shinjii! You, just now you almost got stabbed by a beautiful blond haired miss you know!? Did you notice!?」
Yoshiki focused too much on the demon’s movement that he reacted lately to a foreigner woman who was approaching from the alley’s darkness.
The knife that the woman was holding had its tip almost reached toward the mentally unstable Shinji who weeping. Yoshiki felt cold sweat drenching his body.
The wind pebble that he fired with the fastest speed because it was the basic of the basic magic barely made it in time, but if he was slower just by a moment, then perhaps a knife would be growing bloodily on Shinji’s head.
――GYAAAAAAAA
――Strengthhh! Hand over, your streeength!!
「This rotten world is ending! The world is ending! Feel honored that you can become the cornerstone for that!」
「You are living without any worry and inconvenience aren’t youuu!? That’s just unfaiiiir!!」
Voice of desire that was hard to describe resounded from here and there. Man and woman, young and old appeared one after another with bloodshot eyes.
「Hahah. ……Will my magic power, hold?」
The number of enemy caused Yoshiki’s cheeks to twitch with cold sweat. He thought that if only he at least carried his artifact――a stiletto that possessed immense support ability in regard to wind element magic, but today he was only wandering in the city.
Or rather, frankly speaking his objective was to hit on girl. Even though he was going to hit on girl, carrying a stiletto around would be completely bad. Normally he would get reported to police.
Inside his heart he was screaming 「Help me right away, Abyss!」. It was then,
「……Blonde haired, miss?」
Suddenly, there was a muttering voice.
Yoshiki was taken aback and turned his gaze to the side. There Shinji was unexpectedly looking up!
「Shinji! You finally return to your sanity!?」
「……Hey, Yoshiki. Where is the blonde haired miss?」
「Shit-, you still ain’t sane huh-」
A wind bullet to vent his anger! It shot through the leg of a grandpa holding a long sword that he got from who know where! Did this grandpa just come back from Asakusa? When he visited there before, there was a sword that looked really similar decorating one of the shop there. Why did the grandpa intentionally choose that kind of weapon……the grandpa’s madness could be felt from it.
Yoshiki dealt with the advancing enemies slightly somewhat out of frustration. Shinji sent a brief glance at such Yoshiki before looking around. And then, he found a blonde haired miss reaching out her hand toward him.
With bloodshot eyes that were shining red abnormally, she was exposing an evil face that was just like Hannya noh mask while reaching out a hand that was holding a knife!
「――trayed」
「What!? Just now, did you say something!?」
Shinji looked down, and leaked out a small voice that was unclear.
Yoshiki was launched to the sky while screaming 「Gyaa~」, however he immediately killed the demon with striking wind & wind blade while falling. Shinji didn’t even register that in his sight while making words one more time that sounded clear this time.
「My feeling is betrayed!」
「You, what are you saying!?」
Shinji-kun stood up. From weeping, changing into anger. He was shedding tears like waterfall while glaring back at the mad blonde haired miss with mad crying face.
「Yoshiki! I’m sad!」
「Yeah, I’m also sad to have friend with screwed head!」
Yoshiki activated whirling wind to surround him and his screwed up friend. Yoshiki blew away all the demons trying to squash them with number while screaming back angrily at Shinji.
「For the first time in my life, I succeeded at hitting on girl. I was really happy from my heart. I was holding hope from my heart that I might be able to get a college student girlfriend! Because, she was all over me with her body pressing on me mon! When I invited her to karaoke, she said okay with a smile mon! She even gave me her contact number mon! No way, this is jackpot! That was what I thought mon!」 (TN: Sometime in light novel or anime, girl would add ‘mon’ to their sentence when they are sulking or pleading cutely)
「That’s well, I agree. But, stop adding “mon” at the end of your sentence. I’m going to cut my friendship with you y’know.」
To say the truth, Yoshiki and Shinji’s effort in picking up girl more or less succeeded. They saw a single girl college student who looked cute standing alone, so they tried calling out to her thinking that they got nothing to lose.
And when they did that, the girl said that her friend cancelled their appointment at the last minute, so she was wondering what to do now, and then she accepted Shinji’s invitation.
‘God hasn’t forsaken me! Demon king! Lord! Today I will stand on the same stage like you guys!’ That was what Shinji thought.
Well, he almost got stabbed the moment he entered a back alley with that girl though.
In other words, the girl was a cultist.
In proportion with the great happiness that he felt, the despair was also equally great. It was to the dgree that his mind’s equilibrium collapsed when the demon took advantage of the opening and whispered to him.
「I who am like the main character of a tragedy drama, don’t you think such me is pitiful?」
「Yeah, now I’m thinking that your head is really pitiful just so you know.」
「And yet, that blonde haired miss, she tried to finish off me who is like this! This is too much!」
「I feel like the meaning of the finishing off you say isn’t really right though……」
「These people, every last one of them is playing with my pure heart!」
「The one who said 『For now, let’s just call out a lot to all the girls. Surely we will land a jackpot if attempt a lot right?』 before we went to hit on girl was you yeah? Don’t you remember? Oi, the self-proclaimed pure hearted man.」
Yoshiki sent a scornful stare to Shinji who was increasingly stamping his feet in frustation while dispelling the whirlwind. At the same time he sent the cultists leaping on them flying with a squall onto the building and electric pole.
「But, but even so, a main character surpass the tragedy and become strong.」
「Ah, you aren’t listening to me huh?」
「The vicious treatment of many women, and the whisper of the demon who is telling me to surrender myself to desire are inviting me to a new front.」
「Certainly, it really feel like a new front. The you right now is unprecedentally disgusting.」
Yoshiki was slowly taking distance from Shinji who was making a fearless smile (?) with ’ehe eheh’ voice. Perhaps even his friendship could only go this far. His resolve from the other world almost crumbled.
「――”Flame Fortress”!!」
Shinji whose vocation was “Flame Mage” instantly created a wall of flame. The demons who seemed to be approaching shrieked.
The brilliantly blazing flame drove away the darkness, and covered the advancing Shinji with a gloom.
Shinji looked over his shoulder to Yoshiki who was watching him dumbfounded from behind.
「Yoshiki, I’ve made you wait huh. I’m fine already.」
「No, you doesn’t look fine at all. Rather you are worsening.」
Shinji-kun whose pure heart was toyed with and received the whisper by the demon wretchedly. Certainly, somehow various things felt wrong from him. His atmosphere was abnormal, like he had gone a full circle right to the perfect form.
The proof of that was how he wholly ignored Yoshiki’s tsukkomi.
「Thinking back now, we already know about the summit. Yes, it’s Nagumo. Our demon king who crawled up from the very bottom. The harem king!」
