Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter SS6

Be Careful How You Use Spirit Magic 

Hajime walked down the halls of the royal palace, glancing about as he went. 
“I can’t find Yue and the others anywhere... Man, where’d they go?” Unable to find the people he was looking for, Hajime stopped and scratched his cheek. After thinking about it for a few minutes, he suddenly remembered something and pulled a metal plate out of his pocket. 
“I forgot I made a new communicator with spirit magic... It’s still just a prototype, but let’s test it out.” One of spirit magic’s spells, Soul Resonance, worked in a similar way to Telepathy. Unlike Telepathy though, it was extremely difficult to intercept or eavesdrop on. That was why Hajime had made a new artifact that utilized it instead. Hajime poured mana into the plate to activate the artifact. 
“Hm? What’s this? The mana inside it keeps expanding... Wait, crap. At this rate it’ll go berserk—” A blinding flash of light engulfed the hallway. 
“You leave for Haltina tomorrow, right? Be careful, Shizuku.” 
“Thanks for worrying about me, Yuka. Take care of everyone here, alright? You’re basically our leader while we’re gone.” 
“I’m not really the leading type. Well, as long as Nagayama and the others are here, we should be fine, but... Hm? Nagumo?” Yuka broke off and looked up at the person approaching them. The two girls thought to call out to him, but hesitated when they saw how strange he was acting. 
“Oh no, what do I do? This probably happened because someone used spirit magic, but... to think things would end up like this.” 
The person in front of the two girls was unmistakably Hajime Nagumo. It was obviously the same boy who wrapped arrogance and irrationality around him like a second skin. And right now, he was fidgeting like a nervous child. Shizuku and Yuka exchanged confused glances. Somehow, Hajime seemed rather feminine. Before they could say anything, Hajime suddenly blushed and started poking himself. 
“So this is what a boy’s body is like... what Hajime-kun’s body is like... It’s so hard Gulp...” Hajime gulped and looked down at his own crotch. 
What on earth is that strange, disgusting creature? Shizuku and Yuka thought simultaneously. Unable to watch any longer, Shizuku squeezed out her courage and called out to Hajime. 
“U-Um, Nagumo-kun?” 
“Sh-Shizuku-chan!? And Yuka-chan!” 
Seeing Hajime light up like that and speak to them in such a friendly and excited manner sent shivers down their spines. 
“Thank goodness! The truth is, I have a bit of a problem right now and I could... Umm, Shizuku-chan? Yuka-chan? Why are you guys backing away?” Hajime walked toward Shizuku and Yuka, tears in his eyes. 
“C-Calm down, Nagumo. You’ve just exhausted yourself from working too hard, so just stop right there for now!” 
“Nagumo-kun, let’s go see Kaori, okay? She’ll be able to fix you right up, I’m sure!” 
Shizuku and Yuka took one step back for every single step Hajime took toward them. 
“Huh!? Oh yeah, I’m Hajime-kun right now! It’s okay, you two! I’m Kaori!” 
Shizuku and Yuka exchanged glances. Then, after a moment’s delay, they turned on their heels and ran. 
“Waaaaaait! Why are you running away from me, Shizuku-chaaan, Yuka-chaaaaaan!?” 
“Eeek, he’s coming after us! Someone help! Nagumo’s gone crazy!” 
“Kaoriii! Where are you!? We need you to fix Nagumo-kun!” 
“Like I said, I am Kaori! Stop running away from me!” 
“Sorry, but you’re creeping us out too much, so we can’t!” 
Hajime crying was such a horrifying sight that Shizuku and Yuka couldn’t even bring themselves to turn back. 
Kouki and Ryutarou had headed out into the city to stock up on supplies for the journey ahead. As they passed by a side street, Ryutarou looked and saw something that puzzled him. 
“Hm? Isn’t that Yue-san and Shea-san over there?” 
“Huh? Oh, you’re right. What are they doing in a place like—” Kouki trailed off. The scene unfolding before him was so surreal that his thoughts ground to a halt. 
“You fucking perverted dragon. What were you doing with Yue’s body!?” 
“I-I just acted on instinct! Please forgive me! Her body was just so pretty that I couldn’t help myself!” 
Shea stared coldly down at Yue as she kicked her in the stomach. Kouki and Ryutarou’s jaws dropped open. Both Yue’s strange fetishes and Shea’s sadistic streak were something they’d never seen before. Moreover, they’d never seen Shea torment at all… 
“Ugh, thanks to Yue’s automatically healing body, being kicked brings me no pleasure... She heals right away. I swear, it’s like torture! Her body does not suit me in the slightest!” 
“Thank god, you masochistic freak.” 
“However, I must say! Seeing the normally gentle Shea glare at me with such cold eyes is a rare and exquisite experience! I cannot get enough of it! Haaah... Haaah...!” 
“Tch, so you can find pleasure in any situation, huh? I better hurry up and do something before this pervert ruins Yue’s body.” 
Yue was on the ground, panting, while Shea clicked her tongue like a certain other boy often did. The sight was so shocking that Kouki and Ryutarou simply averted their gaze and hurriedly walked away. 

“Let’s pretend we never saw that.” 
That was the day the two of them learned a valuable lesson. Never make a rabbit angry. No matter what. Incidentally, Shea was currently enjoying herself in Tio’s body. She flew high up in the sky screaming, “Yahoooooooooo! This is awesome!” It seemed Shea wasn’t the least bit bothered by the fact that she’d swapped bodies with someone. 
Suzu, Taeko, and Nana were on their way back from the training grounds when they spotted Kaori in one of the hallways. 
“Ah, Kaoriiin!” Suzu waved her hand and called out to her in a loud voice. Kaori turned to the three of them and nodded quietly. 
“...Hi.” 
Kaori seemed somewhat different from usual, but the three girls paid it no mind. The four of them started walking back to their rooms together, and Nana eventually started talking. 
“By the way, Kaoricchi, your new body’s amazing! It used to belong to someone named Noint, right? You were cute before, but now you have like this, divine beauty inside you too.” 
“I can’t believe you were willing to change bodies just for Nagumo-kun.” 
Kaori’s lips split into a grin before she replied. 
“It’s for the man she loves. This much is to be expected.” 
Wow, that’s some deep devotion. Seeing all three of them at a loss for words, Kaori chuckled. There was something oddly mature about her expression. And she seemed to be oozing an unusual amount of sensuality to boot. 
“Y-You feel different somehow, Kaorin...” Suzu gulped. The atmosphere grew a little weird, so Nana tried to crack a joke to bring things back to normal. 
“Is it because you did, you know, those things with Nagumocchi?” 
“What do you mean by ‘those things?’” 
That wasn’t the reply Nana was expecting. She stiffened, then blushed. Though she, Taeko, and Yuka had been known as some of the more wild girls in their class, the three of them were surprisingly pure. Suzu and Taeko blushed too. After a bit, Kaori smiled seductively and spoke. 
“Hajime was delicious.” With those parting remarks, she walked off. Suzu and the others remained rooted to the spot, too stunned to even respond. 
Shortly afterward, the body swapping incident brought about by Hajime’s spirit magic artifact going out of control resolved itself when the artifact ran out of mana. 
“Eeek, you’re acting like a disgusting creep! Return to your senses, Nagumo! What are you trying to do to us!?” Cornered, Yuka collapsed into a crying heap while Shizuku said “I hate this Nagumo-kun” over and over with soulless eyes. 
“Huh? Who the fuck are you calling a disgusting creep? You wanna go?” Suddenly, Hajime returned to normal, and he went back to yelling angrily at people. 
“He’s back! Nagumo’s back!” 
“The world’s been saved!” 
Yuka and Shizuku clung to Hajime and wept tears of relief. 
Meanwhile, in another location… 
“Shea, you’ve got guts squeezing my head like this.” 
“Hweh!? Why am I grabbing you like this, Yue-san!?” 
Yue’s angry voice echoed through the tiny alley they were in. Shea’s ears folded over timidly as she awaited her punishment. A second later, lightning rained from the sky, terrifying the nearby residents. 
Meanwhile, in yet another location… 
“Ah, Suzu-chan, Nana-chan, Taeko-chan! Hey, listen to this. Something terrible just happened to me. I was... Wait, what’s wrong?” 
Kaori’s three friends were acting odd. At her voice, though, they snapped back to reality. 
“Kaorin, you climbed the stairs to adulthood before us! You left us all behind!” 
“Kaoricchi... No, I suppose I should call you Kaori-san now.” 
“Forget that, we should be calling her onee-sama! You don’t mind, do you Kaori-oneesama!?” 
Who on earth was in my body!? And what did they do!? 
For some time after, all three of them called Kaori onee-sama and treated her with reverence. It garnered more than a few odd looks. 
Meanwhile, high up in the sky... 
Tio regained consciousness, only to realize she was free-falling. Then, she slammed into one of the capital’s buildings and lay twitching atop its roof. 
“Owww! What in heaven’s name just happened!? I can feel an indescribable pleasure spreading through every inch of my body! Haaah... Haaah... I have no idea who was using my body before, but you have my heartfelt gratitude for leaving me with such a wonderful reward! Thank you!” 
Naturally, when Heiligh’s residents found her, they called the city watch on her.