Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter SS9

Uninhibited Familiars

[This short story contains spoilers so please read it after finishing the main series!]

“Kyuuuuuu!” A cute but spirited battle cry echoed through the halls of the Great Orcus Labyrinth as Inaba the Kickmaster Rabbit dashed through the air. His bulging hind legs were encased in sturdy metallic greaves.

“Hmph!”

His kick connected squarely with his target—Shea—but she didn’t budge an inch. She blocked his kick with her arms and grinned fearlessly at him.

“Kyuuu!”

Inaba launched a series of rapid-fire kicks, but Shea blocked them all. Finally, one of his heel drops managed to hit Shea on the head, but the moment it connected there was a loud clang of metal banging against metal, and Inaba’s eyes widened in surprise. Unfortunately, that left him open to Shea’s counterattack.

“You’ve still got a long way to go, Inaba!”

“Kyuu?!”

Shea grabbed his leg, then threw him with tremendous force. He just barely managed to right himself before crashing into the far wall, but as he absorbed the force of the impact with his legs, he looked up to see Shea’s knee centimeters from his face.

“Never lose sight of your foe!”

Inaba leaped out just in time, and Shea’s kick hit the wall with such force that half of it collapsed. The shockwave from the blow sent Inaba flying, so he was unable to stop Shea’s follow-up attack.

“You’re done for,” she said from behind him. A chill ran down his spine, and a second later, an impact on the back of his head knocked Inaba unconscious.

“Holy crap, you’re so good at fighting it’s scary,” Suzu said, running over to nurse her poor rabbit familiar.

“Shea-san, since when was your body made of metal?” Ryutarou asked in an awed voice.

“Hmm, you went all the way up to Level VII there, didn’t you? I’m impressed Inaba managed to push you that far,” Tio stated, walking over as well.

“Wait, that was just seventy percent of your full strength? That’s terrifying,” Kaori muttered.

“You really are some kind of monster. Can you stop blades with your bare hands too?” Shizuku asked.

“Sh-Shea, when did you get this strong?” Yue asked, stunned.

“Maybe it’s because she reached Level X once already? It looks like she can strengthen herself to that level without warming up now...” Hajime mused.

Even though Ragnarok was over, it seemed Shea was continuing to get even stronger, which amazed even Hajime.

“I know he’s the one who asked for this sparring match, but it turned out to be pretty good training for me too. No wonder he managed to take out the Hydra all on his own,” Shea said, handing Inaba back to Suzu.

Indeed, this sparring match was one he’d requested. Only a few days after everyone had returned from the Sanctuary, Inaba had headed into the Great Orcus Labyrinth alone and restarted his training. At this point, he was strong enough to take out the Hydra by himself, and since Hajime and the others had come down here for some other business, he’d decided to challenge Shea to a sparring match, since she was a fellow rabbit and close-combat specialist.

“Are you okay, Inaba-san?”

“Kyuuu, kyuuu!”

Thanks to the language-comprehension ear cuffs artifact Hajime had given Inaba, everyone could tell he was actually saying, “Goddammit, I didn’t even stand a chance against you. I’m not nearly strong enough yet.”

“B-But it was still amazing how well you fought!” Suzu said.

“That’s right, Inaba. You should be proud you managed to force me all the way to level VII,” Shea added.

“Shea’s gotten really arrogant...” Yue muttered.

“I guess she is technically Inaba-san’s teacher,” Kaori replied.

“It’s rare to see Shea so fired up,” Tio added.

“I guess they get along because they’re both rabbits?” Hajime said.

Of course, Shea’s and Inaba’s sensitive rabbit ears picked up their whispered conversation.

“A true warrior fights with his fists, not his words,” Inaba said, jumping out of Suzu’s arms.

“Inaba-san?”

Inaba turned to his master, a burning resolve in his eyes.

“Suzu! Please cancel your contract with me!”

“Huh? Why?! I give you plenty of food and days off, don’t I? What more could you want?! If I’m doing anything wrong, I promise I’ll fix it!”

“Suzu sounds like a clingy girlfriend right now...” Yue said.

“Oh, I never knew she was such a devoted woman,” Tio mused.

“I just hope she doesn’t end up stuck with a shitty dude,” Shizuku stated, turning to Ryutarou.

“Wait, why are you looking at me when you say that, Shizuku? It’s not like Nagumo’s much better!” Ryutarou retorted.

“Ryutarou-kun, what did you just say about Hajime-kun?” Kaori asked, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Suzu ignored all of them, though. Most of the monsters she’d been able to turn into familiars were insects, so Inaba was the only cute fluffy familiar she had. There was no way she was going to let him go that easily.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got nothing against you, Suzu. If anything, I think of you as a dear friend.”

“Then why do you want to cancel our contract?!”

“I want to train myself from the ground up without your help!”

“Are you saying I’m getting in your way?! But all I want is to help you!”

“Please understand! This is a journey I need to take by myself!”

“Wait! Please don’t leave me, Inaba-saaaaaan!”

Suzu dropped to her knees and stretched her hand out as Inaba bounded off deeper into the labyrinth. It really did look like a man going off to chase his dreams and his girlfriend desperately trying to bring him back.

“Umm...is this my fault?” Shea asked awkwardly.

Yue and the others could only shrug. Just then, a large black silhouette drew close to Suzu.

“Mrrr...”

“Huh? What?”

A small black dragon was nuzzling Suzu’s nose. Naturally, it wasn’t Tio, but it was one of her black dragon familiars that had managed to escape the destruction of the Sanctuary by hiding in one of Suzu’s monster balls. The dragonmen were taking care of most of Tio’s surviving familiars, and they’d been putting them to work to help with Heiligh’s restoration effort as well as hunt down the few thousand monsters that had escaped the Sanctuary and hidden away in the northern mountains. A few of them had been dispatched to the Great Orcus Labyrinth as well to keep an eye on who went in and out. Hajime wasn’t planning on stopping anyone from trying to conquer the labyrinths, but he did want to know who’d managed to do so. He’d also placed a surveillance artifact in Oscar’s house for that same reason, but it helped to also have living creatures keeping an eye on things.

At any rate, it seemed one of those lookout dragons had taken a liking to Suzu.

“Mrrr... Mrrr...?”

“Hm? ‘What’s wrong? If you need to vent, I’ll listen. Also, where do you live?’”

“Why is it that you can understand what my familiar is saying when even I can’t, Suzu?”

Though Tio could sense her familiars’ feelings, she definitely couldn’t parse their cries as regular human speech. Also, it was rather worrying that Tio’s dragon was acting like a playboy hitting on a girl while she was still recovering from getting dumped by another guy.

Kaori and the others exchanged worried glances, but Suzu was just glad to get a chance to make a contract with anything other than an insect.

“If you become my familiar, I promise I’ll feed you well, and I’ll do most of the work so you don’t even have to lift a finger!”

“Suzu-chan?! I really think you should value yourself more!”

“Suzu-san...if you’re like that, then people will just walk all over you...”

“Ryutarou, you need to get it together for Suzu’s sake.”

“Why are you telling me that?! I mean, I am worried about her, but still!”

Once again, Suzu ignored the comments from the peanut gallery.

“What was that? ‘Works for me. Let’s get that contract set up?’ Hell yes!”

It seemed Suzu had already made a contract with the dragon, and she was quite happy to have one more noninsect familiar. For his part, it seemed like the dragon was grinning, though it was hard to tell.

“Hey, Tio, are you sure that dragon familiar’s...safe?”

“What kind of stuff did you teach him? He’s way too much of a playboy!”

“Don’t pin this on me! I didn’t do anything except transform him into my familiar!”

Tio wanted to believe a black dragon that had once served her couldn’t possibly be evil, but there was a surprising amount of evidence to the contrary. Seeing how the other black dragons who’d been watching this whole spectacle seemed to be having similar thoughts, she decided she probably needed to have a stern talking-to with all of them sometime soon.