Chapter 94.2 - Volume 10 (2/2)

“Damn, so troublesome…”

While spitting out curses, Hajime expanded red magic bullets around his body like a satellite, also activating “Lightspeed”(??) swiftly tidied up his surroundings. It was a concern to him that he could not hear Kaori’s voice.

Hajime was concerned that he couldn’t hear Kaori’s reply.  While spitting out curses Hajime launched bullets of red magic and made them orbit his body like satellites. At the same time he activated ‘Lightspeed’ and swiftly tidied up his surroundings.

Shifting to Kaori, with Hajime gone from her sight she was finding it hard to keep up a brave front.  Kaori was really bad with horror, it would be very difficult to overcome her current predicament even under normal circumstances, but now her body wanted to freeze up just from the fear of being alone. Add in her strong inferiority complex, though she wouldn’t admit it to herself, and the bottom line was that all she wanted to do was curl herself up and cry.

Kaori scolded herself, she mustn’t let herself be found cowering like this, and forced her body to stand back up. As soon as she was upright again she felt a hand on her shoulder. Hajime would often encourage her by patting her on the shoulder. Overcome by happiness, Kaori found herself turning around in delight.

“Hajime-ku-”

However, as she turned around Kaori noticed that something felt off about the hand on her shoulder. To be more accurate, it felt too thin and too cold. Kaori felt chills run down her spine as her intuition warned her that what was behind her was not Hajime.

If it wasn’t Hajime, then who on earth was it?  Continuing to turn, now like a rusty machine, Kaori saw it.  Eyes, nose, mouth… and then even more holes.  It was the face of a woman dyed in a darkness as black as the abyss.

“Fuwah~”

Kaori’s spirit was over in an instant, and her defensive instincts rendered her unconscious.

In the 2 minutes it took Kaori to get up and faint, Hajime had already destroyed 50 ghostly warriors. This was only his rough estimate based on killing one of the ghostly veterans every 2-3 seconds.

Just as he was beginning to think he had wiped them all out, a large man wielding a greatsword tore out from the fog, charged straight at him and swung a blow that boasted of enormous hidden strength.

Hajime dodged the attack with the smallest movement of his body. However it wasn’t over yet. The warrior bounced the greatsword back into the air using the recoil from the blow to the ground and moved to attack again.

Hajime responded by activating ‘Vajra’, stopping the blow with his mechanical arm and jumping up onto the greatsword with his knees, forcing it from his opponents hands and trapping it against the ground. Then, with a swift motion he raised his gun and fired a magic bullet straight into the large man’s head.

At the same time the large man’s head was blown off the surrounding fog begins to fade away.

“Kaori! Where are you?”

Hajime focused all of his senses on finding Kaori’s presence. However, even without doing that Kaori was easily found.

“I’m over here, Hajime-kun.”

“Kaori, are you alright?”

Hajime divulged a sigh of relief upon seeing Kaori walking towards him with a smile. Once Kaori reached his side she snuggled up against against him with a beautiful smile.

“It was… very scary…”

“Is that so?…”

“Un. That’s why I want to be comforted”

As she said this Kaori threw her arms around Hajime’s neck and hugged him. At a distance so close they were practically nose-to-nose, Kaori locates Hajime’s mouth with her eyes and began to draw herself closer…

Gotsu (TN: Sound effect. *thunk*)

With a Gotsu~tsu sound (TN: *thunk*) Donner’s muzzle met Kaori’s temple.

“Wh-what…?”

Kaori appeared to be confused as Hajime narrowed his brutal-looking eyes and directed murderous intent towards her.

“What? Of course I’ll kill enemies, no matter how they look like” and without a beat of hesitation he pulled the trigger.

Karankara  (*Clang-clang*)

There was the sound of a knife hitting the ground, it had fallen out of the hand of Kaori when she was shot. She had intended to stab him in the back as she was hugging him. With steady footsteps Hajime approached the collapsed Kaori.

Getting back up, Kaori begins talking to Hajime in a frightened and trembling voice.

“Hajime-kun, why would you do such a thing!?”

However Hajime response was to fire another magic bullet at Kaori.

“Don’t you dare speak with Kaori’s voice! Do not degrade her body by moving it! Did you think I couldn’t see the truth? You are nothing but a piece of trash possessing her body.”

Hajime’s ‘Magic Stone Eye’ had already revealed to him that there was a ghostly woman possessing Kaori.

With the truth clearly exposed Kaori, who until just a moment ago had been cowering on the ground, instantly changed her expression and burst into mocking laughter.

“Nyahahaha, even if you know the truth it is of no matter.  You can’t do anything…this girl’s body is already mine!

As she said this the possessed Kaori raised herself off the ground and pushed Hajime down onto the ground into the mounted position.

“Wait, what are you doing? This is your woman! Do you plan to hurt her!?”

“Shut up! You’re giving me a headache. Didn’t I tell you not to move? I’m not going to hurt Kaori, the magic bullets will pass right through her body, the only one who will suffer is you.”

“If I disappear this woman’s soul will shatter! Is that really alright with you!?”

At those words Hajime inclined his head slightly in thought.  Although there was a good chance it wasn’t a bluff, there was no way to verify if it was true.

Most people would probably become trapped by indecision in this situation, was the possessed Kaori hoping for this?  She was giving her cat-like laugh again while motioning for him to step aside.  Seeing this Hajime gave her his reply.

Zupan~! Zupan!

It was a pair of magic bullets. The possessed Kaori’s expression was too shocked to reveal as to whether she had felt any pain. Soon her expression shifted into one of frustration as she shouted at Hajime in an angry voice.

“Are you insane!? Do you not care what happens to this woman!?”

“Shut up you pile of trash! If I don’t attack then Kaori’s body would remain possessed. However, as long as you aren’t killed her soul won’t break, right? Until you feel like leaving her body everything will be fine if I just torment you without killing you.”

The ghostly woman was left speechless at his words. When she looked into Hajime’s eyes she was being stabbed by his murderous intent that dwelt there.

“I’ll make you regret thinking you could touch what’s ‘important’ to me. Even though you’re an enemy I won’t kill you, I won’t let you experience the relief of death. I’ll make it so you can’t escape Kaori’s body even if you want to.  I’ll force you to suffer until you go mad from the pain.”

Red magic flowed out from Hajime’s body, his white hair was caught in the eddies and slowly began to sway in the energy. There was no rage, bloodthirst or insanity in his eyes, they were like frozen chips of ice.

Hajime was furious, more so than ever before. He wouldn’t be satisfied with just kill his enemy this time, they must experience cruelty akin to the depths of hell.

The ghost possessing Kaori had been too dense to realise she had picked a fight with something that should never be disturbed.  Only now, as she felt her gaze trapped in Hajime eyes, did she finally realise what she had awakened; a monster, one you would normally pray to never meet.

With Donner’s muzzle again pressed against her forehead, the ghostly woman earnestly begged for release. Even if all it bought her was permission to disappear a single second faster, when she imagined what this monster would probably do to her even one second seemed like a blessing.

She was just an ordinary ghost. Although it did seem that her lingering essence was greater than than any of the other apparitions they had encountered, in the face of this atmosphere it all amounted to nothing. The frozen wrath Hajime was giving off was just that terrifying.

“Iwanttodisappear!Iwanttodisappear!Iwanttodisappear!Iwanttodisappear!Iwanttodisappear!Iwanttodisappear!”

The ghost’s sobs echoed louder as Hajime’s finger moved to pull the trigger, when suddenly the Kaori’s body began to shine. It was the sparkle of the restore-all-abnormal-status recovery magic ‘Ten Thousand Heavens’, which Kaori had prepared as a precaution ahead of time using the ability of ‘Delayed Invocation’.

While left dumbfounded by the feeling of unbelievable relief the ghost heard a voice from inside her.

“–It’s okay, I’ll send you off properly.”

Alongside these words the shining, pure white, light intensified. The ghost felt afraid as the light wrapped around her, dragging her gently along with it towards the heavens. However, as she gradually passed on to the next world and her consciousness began to fade she was overcome with a feeling of peace and relief.

With one clap, Kaori sent her off and slowly began to open her trembling eyelids. Hajime, still lying underneath Kaori in the mounted position, looked directly up into Kaori’s eyes. Ever since Kaori began to shine, the fading presence of the ghost’s existence had been reflected in Hajime’s Magic Stone Eye. For the moment he released his killing intent and focused on confirming whether the ghost had truly left Kaori.

Their faces were so close, and with Hajime’s lying underneath her, his gaze filled with a mixture of relief and worry as he focused his eyes intently on her pupils, it would’ve been enough to make anyone feel moved.

Gently lowering her head Kaori pressed her lips on Hajime’s.  It was only the barest meeting of their lips, but for Kaori it was still her precious first kiss.

Hajime whole body went stiffened in surprise for a moment. In order to be certain that Kaori had been released Hajime had used almost all his concentration to examine her. With his mind so distracted, naturally it wasn’t possible for him to avoid a kiss.

After a while Kaori gently released his lips.

“What are you…?”

“Perhaps it’s my answer?”

“Your answer?”

“Un. Why did I follow you? Why do I want to keep on following you?…. This is my answer to Hajime’s questions.”

When she said this Kaori smiled at Hajime. It was smile he had always seen her wearing, warm like a ray of light from the sun. Ever since coming here it had become clouded and covered up by a false laugh, but now it shone once again.

In fact Kaori had still retained her consciousness while possessed, though it felt like watching the world outside while trapped inside a glass room. She had still been able to see Hajime in never seen before state of fury, saying things like Kaori was ‘important’ to him. It had flowed right through the ghost and reached her heart.

At the sight of this Hajime unbearable sadness had risen up in her chest, but at the same time she felt the nervous passion she had when she first confessed to him.

If she wanted to explain it, it was a feeling of selfish, of always wanting to be indulged, always make them vividly aware of your presence. Mixed in amongst the circle of girls Yue allowed to surround Hajime, Kaori found it intolerable that she wasn’t allowed to hoard him all to herself, yet at the same time she didn’t even want to imagine a future where she wasn’t by Hajime’s side.

She wanted to make them recognise that even if her capabilities were nowhere near Yue and the others, her feelings weren’t any less.

“I like you Hajime-kun, no, I love you. That’s why from here on I want our futures to be entwined.”

“Won’t it only leave you feeling bitter? Just like it is with Shia, even if Yue weren’t there, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I will love you back.”

“That’s true, it’ll probably be painful at times…. I want to be monopolised, I want you to only look at me. I feel so jealous of Yue sometimes, and so inferior when I compare myself to her”

“If that’s the case…”

“But I’ll only regret it if I allow myself to be separated from you here, I’m sure of it. For me, just being near Hajime is wonderful….and that’s how I’ve always felt. In time I want to close the gap between us even more, but for right now this is enough.”

Pinching Hajime’s cheeks between both her hands, Kaori smiled softly.

The expression on Hajime’s face was a complex mix of troubled and amazed, but Kaori had decided on her own, and if she believes that it’s the best decision for herself, Hajime wouldn’t say another word. Each person had their own idea of happiness, deciding Kaori’s happiness for her is something he couldn’t do, nor did he want to.

“…. I see. If Kaori is fine with this then I won’t say any more.”

“Un. Although I’ll probably cause a lot of trouble, please don’t hate me, alright?”

“What are you saying at such a late hour? From our time at school, up to our time here, you have always been an terrible troublemaker.”

“That’s not true!”

“Really? Back at school you never read the situation and would casually come over and talk to me, completely unaware of the word bombs you were dropping everywhere, and never noticing that every time the guys around us would seethe with anger. And then let’s not forget when a negligee-clad lady decided to visit a man’s room in the middle of the night…”

“Uu, I remember, all I wanted to do was talk to you…. Un, it was really embarrassing when I realized later that I had come to your room dressed like that.”

While Kaori was covering her blushing face with her hands, Hajime got up and offered Kaori a hand up. Then, with a grin, patted Kaori on the shoulder gently, and turned to start walking towards the magic circle that had begun to shine further inside the storeroom once the fog had lifted.

However, he was stopped by Kaori tightly grabbing onto his sleeve. If he looked carefully he could see that she was still a little unsteady. Apparently the possession had dulled her body’s senses a little. Now that the body had been released it hopefully wouldn’t take long for it to return back to it’s normal state.

“Let’s rest for a little bit.”

Hajime had suggested this, but it seems Kaori had an idea of her own and with a smile she hopped up onto Hajime’s back.

“….What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it better if we progress quickly? I don’t know when my magic power will return and if we hang around here the fog will surely come back, right?”

There was definitely some truth to her words,so Hajime replied with a “It can’t be helped” while scratching his head, and walked towards the magic circle while carrying Kaori.

Kaori wrapped her arms around Hajime’s neck and clung on tightly to his back. Although he didn’t say anything, Hajime was trying his best to ignore the soft feeling that pressing up against his back.

Kaori moved close enough that he could feel her hot breath in his ear.  Her lips, close enough that they were almost touching his earlobe, opened gently and a sweet sound reverberated inside his ears.

“Hajime-kun… I want to asking you something about what happened earlier.”

“Earlier?”

“Yes. Why was it that you got so angry during that fight?”

“Saa, why was I angry? I don’t know.” (TN: “Don’t make a move on what’s ‘important’ to me.” …..Was he really an otaku before?)

“Mouu, please tell me~.”

Refusing to answer her questions or get caught up in her flirtatious atmosphere, Hajime continued to carry Kaori while moving forward at a brisk pace and without hesitation stepped into the magic circle.