Vol. 1 Chapter 7 – Speak with Your Fists

The bell of the clock tower announced the end of the morning classes.

Since yesterday, that had also been the sound of the bell announcing the end of school.

From the sense of freedom that came with class ending, the atmosphere inside the classroom changed into something light and restless.

Some of the quicker students had already experienced the newly opened dungeon dive, and there was no sense of pressure among the many students who would be challenging it from now on.

That was because none of them yet had any memories of being inside the dungeon.

Every single one of them thought of conquering a real dungeon in the same way they would think of a computer RPG.

Even after becoming upperclassmen, that VR-like game sensation did not change.

From the second year onward, students split into two extremes: the dungeon group, who steadily proceeded with conquering the dungeon, and the enjoy group, who could never get used to fighting in the dungeon no matter what and kept dying and returning.

That said, the benefits granted by the academy for conquering the dungeon were significant, so they were often called by their alternate names: the winners and the losers.

However, even those in the enjoy group would not be expelled as long as they continued trying the dungeon.

The reason the new students lacked any sense of tension was because they knew that.

The first wall awaiting new students who challenged a dungeon dive with a casual mindset was making it back alive from the dungeon.

It sounded like an obvious element but that was because the Rashoumon’s 『revival of the dead』 system was a flawed system from the perspective of dungeon conquest.

In 『death return』, where memories, emotions, and the body were all rewound and revived, there was no accumulation of experience.

The cause of the mistake, the elements they lacked for conquering the dungeon, coordination with their companions, the things they should have done to make it work better, all of it slipped away.

And then there was the complete reset of the EXP purely obtained from monsters.

The first step new students should aim for was to return alive.

The steady and cautious students had already begun finding the answer to what they should do.

One option new students could choose from among several conquest patterns was to delay the start time of their dungeon dive until just before the Rashoumon closed.

It was a safety measure that shortened the amount of time they would be active inside the dungeon, prioritizing survival above all else.

Since they could not escape under their own power, gradually extending the time spent conquering the dungeon was probably the proper path.

Dungeon escape items that could be used at will were also sold at the school store but they were not priced at an amount new students could afford.

New students who headed for the dungeon plaza at noon, right after the Rashoumon opened, were still seen as beginners who had not yet shaken off their country-bumpkin excitement.

“Hahaa, I guess it really does make you nervous.”

Mai, equipped with brand-new beginner gear recommended for new students, showed a smile as though trying to liven up the mood.

She wore the general course uniform: a navy jacket, a tartan-check skirt, black high socks, and combat boots.

The full set of uniforms supplied by the academy was actually a practical combat suit woven with materials such as Spectra fiber.

However, the sight of a high school girl who looked like she would be chatting away at some fast-food place in front of a station, wearing rugged body armor like something special police would equip over her uniform, looked like nothing but cosplay.

The presence of the short sword hanging at her waist ruined the sense of realism even further.

“Hey, Seiichi. There’s nothing weird about me anywhere, right?”

“Mm…… yeah, I guess it’s fine.”

Seiichi, who had not hidden his bad mood since morning, answered halfheartedly while still looking off somewhere that was not at anyone in particular.

“Jeez, you’re no fun. And here I went through the trouble of getting all dressed up.”

Mai, who had tied her usually loose, wavy hair into a short ponytail, crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks in an exaggerated manner.

In truth, Mai’s makeup had more effort put into it than usual and it was thicker than necessary.

Thick enough to hide the bruise around her mouth.

“It is almost time, isn’t it?”

Shizuka, who had begun to carry even a quiet yet dignified atmosphere, stood behind and beside Touma with a short spear resting on her shoulder.

Without impatience and without fear, she simply followed Touma.

In a certain sense, it was the result of an excessive dependency but there was no doubt that she was more composed than anyone else.

She had a frightening resolve that made it seem as though, if Touma ordered her to die, Shizuka would quietly take her own life.

Shizuka had noticed the meaning behind the heavy makeup worn by the roommate who had grown completely distant from her, as well as the awkward exchange between Mai and Seiichi.

That was because Shizuka understood all too well the way Mai fawned over a man like a puppy clinging to him.

“……Well then, shall we go die?”

Their turn came at the Rashoumon’s Second, Third, and Fourth Gates, where parties from various school years had been lining up.

Touma, who had been staring intently at Seiichi’s face, which was shaped into a thin, shallow smile, stepped forward first.

“Oh, you gonna play leader? Well, it’s all the same no matter who does it at first.”

The group stepped into Sangemon, one of the three central gates of the two-storied Karamon gate, and was enveloped by wavering space and a cold smell.

Touma stood at the center of the double transfer circle drawn underfoot, then turned around, crossed his arms, and waited for Seiichi and the others with an expressionless face.

Using the person standing at the center of the circle as the base marker, the Rashoumon set the transfer coordinates into the interior of the dungeon.

New students using the three central gates for the first time would be sent near the center of the starting floor, where the miasma concentration was said to be the thinnest.

Conversely, the Door of Beginning, which new students had used for the Rashoumon registration process, sent them through random transfer to places where the miasma density was thick and stagnant.

In order to stabilize the Underworld Pass Area, they were thrown there like firewood tossed into a furnace.

That was the important role of new students in the general course.

Shizuka slipped behind Touma like a shadow, and Mai, sensing the strange atmosphere, compared the two of their faces.

“Um, Touma-kun?”

“It would be better if no one interferes. Let’s start already.”

“That might be hard. Looks like new students are mostly sent to the same place, y’know. I hear running into other parties inside isn’t rare.”

There were often fights between new student parties over monsters.

That was how thin the miasma was at the original starting point.

Battles between students whose excitement had risen strangely high also happened, though they were not officially approved.

The reasons varied: to steal items, to violate members of a party they had set their eyes on, and more.

Since the ones who were killed would lose their memories, the risks afterward were almost nonexistent.

In a sense, it had even become customary for upperclassmen to relieve their frustration through new-student hunting.

“Ah…… That might be interesting too.”

With his eyes still clouded, Seiichi looked at the lines of parties that included many new students.

Every last one of them had carefree, ignorant, stupid-looking faces.

He thought that if he taught them the truth and twisted those faces in fear, maybe he would feel a little better.

Besides, it was the perfect chance to devour girls from other classes.

To rape and kill them one after another, then take his time with the ones who felt good, like Mai.

“Seiichi……”

His name was called with a smile that looked ready to cry, but since last night, Seiichi had become unable to look even Mai straight in the eyes.

Seiichi was the last to step into the double transfer circle.

Using the one who became the base marker as the reference point, the Rashoumon would transfer every member of the party to the same coordinates.

The timing at which the user’s coordinates were recorded was the moment the gate had closed last time.

The place where a survivor had been standing on their own two feet.

＊　＊　＊

──Piercing World Labyrinth 『YGGDRASILL』, Connected Branch World 『 Underworld Pass Area』────Third 『San』 Floor, 『Kichigai』 Region──

No one knew just how far down the depths of the dungeon, divided into floors, continued.

And even the full breadth of the floors considered conquered had not been completely mapped.

What Toyoashihara Academy understood and barely managed were only the boundary gates that connected the dungeon’s floors and the known regions surrounding them.

In other words, corridors spread even beyond the dungeon maps released by the academy, and those areas were called Outside the Known Regions.

Touma compared the surrounding terrain with his somewhat hazy memories, then looked at the 『empty』 wall where the stall spirit had once set up shop.

He accepted that when it automatically transferred, that apparently included even the shop-like thing.

“Eh…… um, this might be a little different from the image I had of my 『first dungeon』.”

Mai hugged her own body and looked around nervously trembling.

Groaning voices like sutra chanting, On-on, Goun-goun, shook the surrounding air.

The thick pressure, as though pressing down from the ceiling, floor, and walls, made their bodies shrink back.

Even Shizuka’s face had gone pale as she tightly gripped the shaft of the spear in her hands.

“Ha, hahaHA…… What the hell is this? This…… this thing is a dungeon?”

Seiichi, his face twitching, backed away.

It was as though his spirit had been broken just by touching the air of the floor.

“A transfer irregularity……? That’s impossible.”

“You were more boldly fearless than this, Seiichi.”

Originally, it should not have been like this. Before, he had acted more aloof while putting on a show of bravado.

Now, his heart had simply been broken from the very beginning.

“Touma, you bastard…… don’t tell me……”

“You played the fool from beginning to end to encourage us and died with a brazen smile. That was probably more like you.”

“……You survived? You’re lying, right? Hey?”

Seiichi looked pleadingly at Touma, who stood before him.

With his hips pulled back and his cheeks twitching, the thin smile on his face was utterly servile.

“I don’t know what you’re carrying. I don’t know your circumstances either. But as a fr…… as a friend, I’ll make you take yourself back.”

“Hah……?”

Seiichi could not understand what Touma was saying.

Still not understanding, his right cheek was struck through by a full swing.

“Seiichi!”

“Ow…… That hurts, you bastard!”

Touma grabbed the staggering Seiichi by the collar and hoisted him up in front of his face.

Mai, who had shouted and tried to rush over to Seiichi, was stopped when Shizuka caught her arm.

“What’s wrong, Seiichi? Aren’t you going to hit back? Are you the kind of man who can only rape and strike defenseless women?”

Seiichi’s body twitched and Touma’s knee slammed into his stomach.

Even through the body armor, Seiichi coughed from the merciless impact.

“Gehah…… ha, haha. What the hell? So that’s what this is……Did Shizuka tattle on me? Hey, come on, give me a break. I only doted on her a little, didn’t I? Sure, she was a whore who wasn’t half bad down below. At first, she kept saying no, no, but once I stuck my cock in, she started shaking her hips right away. Like, how many shots did she have to wring out before she was satisfied?”

While running his mouth with a story he had casually fabricated, his hand had slowly reached behind his waist.

The kachiri sound of the sheath lock coming undone and the dull sound of a slash striking landed almost simultaneously.

Holding the short sword in a reverse grip in his right hand, Seiichi backed away while remaining in the posture of having swept it horizontally.

The opponent who had been grabbing him by the collar clutched the chest that had taken the slash head-on and coughed.

The Spectra fiber used in both the boys’ and girls’ uniforms, as well as the Kevlar fiber used in the body armor, were synthetic materials that possessed extremely strong tensile strength.

The fabric, shaped with a special weaving method, had high resistance against cutting stress, but it did not soften impact.

As a result, the blow from the short sword Seiichi swung was equivalent to Touma being struck in the chest with an iron rod.

The thickness of the body armor had likely lessened the impact somewhat, so it would probably only leave a bruise like a drawn line.

“Don’t…… look down on me! You’re just some normie who’s lived his life shamelessly showing off that stupid face without a care in the world. What the hell do any of you know about me? Don’t act like some smug little goody-two-shoes. It makes me sick!”

“I’m sure I told you at the start. I know nothing about you. And so……”

After confirming that his chest had not been cut, Touma stared not at the blade pointed toward him, glittering even in the dim light of the dungeon, but at Seiichi’s face.

“Talk. I’ll make it easier for you to speak.”

“Hah, I bet you think you’re saying something cool, but you’re scared shitless of a real blade, aren’t you……? Ha, fine. Bring it on.”

Touma took the hand axe hanging at his waist, and somewhere in his mind, Seiichi understood that this guy would draw it. He steeled himself.

“……Seiichii.”

“Touma-san.”

What was about to begin was a fight to the death using real weapons.

Mai, not knowing what she should do, could only stand frozen with her hands pressed prayerfully to her mouth. Shizuka, who stood beside her watching, had also gone pale at the battlefield-like situation that exceeded what she had expected.

Touma threw the hand axe, its blade still covered, down at his feet.

He took the survival knife included in the recommended equipment set and threw that down at his feet as well.

He undid the fasteners on both sides of his body armor, pulled it cleanly off over his head, and threw it down at his feet.

After taking off his uniform jacket, he dropped his shirt too.

“……What are you trying to do?”

“Come at me. If you have the guts.”

“You bastard, you really are looking down on me to the very end.”

Now half-naked, Touma silently beckoned with both palms facing up toward the ceiling.

He was asking whether Seiichi had the resolve to point that sword at him, even when it was not over anti-blade armor.

“……Fine. I’ll play along with your provocation.”

Seiichi, his eyes fixed and sharp, sheathed his short sword and threw it to the floor along with the sword belt.

He removed his body armor and put his hands on his uniform, but at that point, he regained his senses and realized there was no need to go that far.

Perhaps because the inside of his mouth had been cut when his right cheek was struck, he spat out saliva that tasted of rusty iron.

He cracked his shoulders as though shrugging his neck, then bounced against the floor with the toes of his boots.

“Hey…… Touma. You seem pretty damn confident in a barehanded fight, but……”

He raised both hands and lightly clenched them in front of his chest. His feet, spread shoulder-width apart, stepped as though gliding over the floor.

With a speed that made Mai, who had been staring at Seiichi, lose sight of him for an instant, he stepped into Touma’s chest range, and his fist punched through Touma’s left cheek.

“I can tell by your footwork. In the end, you’re an amateur.”

“Gh, t……”

“I’ll teach you. What『real』means.”

He dodged Touma’s outstretched hand with a sway and fired a series of light jabs toward his face.

Touma, who did not even know how to properly handle punches, was nothing more than a standing sandbag from Seiichi’s point of view.

“Kuku……What’s this, Seiichi? So you can hit men too.”

“Aaah! You’re still running your mouth, you bastard!”

From footwork that swayed left and right, Seiichi’s fists struck Touma’s face.

Barehanded punches, unprotected by gloves, returned damage to the hand doing the striking as well.

The hook knocked Touma’s face aside and Seiichi felt a sharp pain in his right hand. After driving a blow into Touma’s body, he put some distance between them.

“Do you get your place now? ……Hey, what’s the big deal? It’s just one or two women. I’ll even lend you Mai. She’s a pretty decent woman, y’know.”

Mai’s hand, which had unconsciously been clasped together with Shizuka’s, tightened.

“Let’s just take it easy and do things half-assed, yeah? Nothing good comes from being stubborn……”

“I see.”

Touma wiped the blood seeping from the cut at the corner of his mouth, then raised that corner ever so slightly.

So that was what finally came spilling out. Was that this guy’s true feelings?

“So you came to this academy because you had a stubborn will you wanted to force through.”

“……Hey. Stop.”

“But, Seiichi. Isn’t it too early? For you to break, I mean. Or was your stubborn will nothing more than trash you could throw away that easily?”

Seiichi’s mouth exposed bloodstained gums and his eyes were bloodshot red, twisted upward.

With thick veins bulging at his temples, Seiichi’s face was truly the expression of an ogre.

“You don’t know anything, so don’t just say whatever the hell you want!”

“Ah, there was one thing I forgot to say. I’m aware that Mai feels good.”

“……Eh?”

Mai trembled at the spearhead suddenly turned toward her.

“It’d be a pain if she kept pestering me. So I dealt with her casually, then chased her out. But I’ll say this clearly so there’s no misunderstanding: Shizuka feels better than you. So there’s no point in trying to fawn over me……Well, I don’t mind giving you attention once in a while.”

“N-no……stop, that’s not true. Seiichi, that’s not true……”

It was plainly delivered in a stiff, monotone way, but Mai had turned deathly pale and was shaking her head.

As a matter of fact, it was completely baseless.

However, it was true that she had compared Touma and Seiichi and considered choosing the one more convenient for her and that tiny bit of truth mixed into the lie stabbed Mai’s heart.

“I was honestly impressed that you could shake your hips on top of a man that shamelessly. I can understand why Seiichi got fed up and tried to push you onto me.”

“That’s not true…… stop, stop it……”

Mai covered her face with both hands and let out sobs.

Touma’s nonsense, fabricated for the purpose of provoking Seiichi, had gouged into the trauma carved into Mai’s heart and body in the past.

“Don’t make Mai cry!”

“Guh.”

A telegraphed punch, with no boxing form or anything of the sort, simply swung with all his strength, made Touma’s body bend backward.

Seiichi, whose posture had collapsed, was also struck back by Touma’s blatantly amateurish punch.

“Don’t get heated, Seiichi. Isn’t it fine? You can hold Shizuka however you like too. Ah, let’s forget everything and just get by half-assed.”

“──Shut up already.”

“Hey, Seiichi……”

“That’s enough, Touma. I got so pissed off that I came all the way back around and my head’s clear now……”

When people became emotional, they could not control themselves and ended up exposing what was inside.

Seiichi had also realized why Touma had been provoking him as though trying to rile him up.

It almost made him laugh. This was the exact opposite.

“I don’t know what you were trying to dig out of me. Ah, did I say something during our first dungeon dive? Well, whatever.”

Seiichi’s tension, the same as usual, no, even clearer than usual, had no awareness that it was like a balloon just about to burst.

“Hey, Touma. What did you want to hear from me?”

Touma spat out saliva that tasted of rusty iron and thought.

The reason Seiichi had broken. How could the stubborn will this aloof man had given up on be recovered?

“──What did you leave behind, Seiichi?”

“……Hah?”

“Is that really something you can just throw away?”

Fear dwelled in Seiichi’s eyes as he looked at Touma.

Even if vague words did not hit the true essence directly, they could scoop that up from the bottom of the heart.

“Even if you give up, will you really not regret it?”

“I don’t know…… I don’t know why you’re asking me that. Something like that has nothing to do with you at all, does it?”

“When a friend is about to break, reaching out a hand is what a man does, isn’t it?”

“Ha, haha, I seriously don’t get you. I don’t even think of you as a friend. ……Besides, it’s already too late.”

After receiving Seiichi’s declaration that they were not friends, Touma thought, What a guy trying to hide his embarrassment.

“Me, Mai, Shizuka, every single person other than you, we’re all already finished!”

“If you really are trapped by something that truly cannot be taken back, by something that is already over, then give up.”

“Wha……”

“But if, even slightly, there is still a possibility that something can be done about it.……Hey, Seiichi. Hurry up and start doing something about it.”

“I’m telling you, it’s impossible……”

If it truly were impossible, then his heart would not have broken over something like that.

When one understood that something was over, the heart died before it could break.

A stubborn will broke when the trial stood in its way, the goal that had to be overcome, the destination that had to be reached, was something one had given up on as impossible for oneself.

“Even if it’s impossible, do it. Struggle until it turns into 『it was impossible』Seiichi.”

“You don’t know anything, so what the hell are you acting so high and mighty for? ……What, are you saying any wish will come true as long as you don’t give up?”

“Yes.”

Seiichi stared blankly at Touma, who asserted it without hesitation.

Even if it was a wish that was absolutely impossible.

As long as one was challenging the impossible in an attempt to overturn it, it certainly was not over yet.

“It becomes impossible when you give up. You didn’t give up because it was impossible. You simply threw it away because it became painful, Seiichi.”

“Enough. I get it already. You’re an idiot with a messed-up head who can’t see reality.”

Seiichi spat that out in a flat voice, then took a boxing crouching stance.

In his face, from which all expression had fallen away, his bloodshot eyes were fixed to the very end.

“I’ll make you the same as us. If you can still say the same thing after that…… I’ll at least hear you out.”

With a papan, Touma’s face snapped left and right, and he bent backward, staggering.

The textbook-perfect one-two, like something straight out of a manual, was not proof that Seiichi’s reason had returned. It was simply that cold killing intent toward Touma was surging through him.

Touma looked upward and let out a deep sigh.

He had somehow managed to make it this far.

He was facing Seiichi’s bare ego, something Seiichi could make no excuse for.

Touma understood that he was clumsy.

He was inefficient and he did not have the quick-thinking mind needed to respond flexibly.

Even so, he raised his fists toward Seiichi, who was glaring straight at him with eyes holding cold killing intent.

Just as someone had once shown him the path, he should at least be able to guide one friend.

“Come at me, Seiichi.”

“I’m telling you, that looking-down-on-me attitude pisses me off!”

A combination blow was unleashed, mixing a one-two, hooks and uppercuts.

Touma reacted easily to feints and Seiichi’s fists struck him one-sidedly.

By this point, the pain Seiichi felt in his fists no longer made him hold back.

“Kuh, Muay Thai, is it…… Not bad, Seiichi.”

“No, it’s literally boxing! I haven’t kicked you once!”

Even though Seiichi understood in his head that it was a provocation, his tension, with its restraints broken, kept heating up.

The hopeless part was that Touma had genuinely misunderstood.

“It’s true that foreign martial arts must be wonderful too. But now, I’ll teach you the secret technique of Japanese ancient martial arts.”

“Ancient martial arts? Are you some guy living in a manga world?! Aaah, fine, I’ll shut that mouth of yours!”

For Seiichi, who was fundamentally the type to retort, this was a painful development.

Touma planted his feet flat and lowered his hips, entering what was called a 『Sanchin stance』 in karate and similar arts.

His feet turned inward in a figure-eight shape, and he held both clenched fists out in front of his body.

The Sanchin stance, called a defensive form, was also a hard-body technique that tightened the muscles throughout the body to withstand strikes.

Tightening the muscles allowed one to gain power but speed was lost.

It was the complete opposite of modern martial arts like boxing, which prioritized speed by using the muscles like a flexible whip.

A straight punch from the Sanchin stance. That alone was the only technique Touma could use.

It was a special move Touma, who had been the indoor type during middle school, had looked up online and learned for the purpose of punching a certain teacher.

“No way! What the hell do you mean, you looked it up online? Even correspondence-course karate would be better than that!”

“Seiichi……learn firsthand that most truths can be picked up online. This is Mubyouji.”

[In martial arts context, it means attacking without an obvious preparatory motion, rhythm, or timing that the opponent can read]

“Is this a fighting game or what?”

Seiichi had been growing tired from hitting Touma no matter how many times without any sign of him collapsing, but for the first time since he had gotten serious, he touched the face that had just been struck.

Touma, his right fist thrust out, took the Sanchin stance once more.

“What…… did you just do?”

“Mubyouji.”

As Seiichi held his arms up in front of his body, Touma’s left straight punch slipped through his guard and struck his face.

“Gah…… Are you serious? I-I can’t see it. I-is it some kind of skill? Guh, ah!”

“Se-Seiichi!”

Mai, who had been watching their fistfight wordlessly, squeezed her hands tightly when Seiichi suddenly began getting hit.

To Mai and Shizuka, who were watching from nearby, they could not tell what was different between Touma’s punches that had been missing exaggeratedly and the punch just now.

All they could understand was that Seiichi, who had begun being hit one-sidedly, had fallen to his knees.

“Stand up, Seiichi.”

“Shit, this is impossible…… What kind of cheat ability do you have?”

“You’ve already made enough excuses for yourself, haven’t you, Seiichi? No matter who or what your opponent is, it doesn’t become a reason to throw away your stubborn will.”

“Shut……up. Like someone『born with it』like you people could ever understand how trash like us feel……”

“Seiichi. It’s enough already, right? Please, stop already……”

Mai ran over to Seiichi, who was crouched on his knees.

“Will it end here? That cannot be helped either. In the end, it means you were only this much of a man.”

“Say whatever…… you want.”

“Why are you doing something this awful? Stop already, Touma-kun!”

In front of Mai, who stood blocking him as though shielding Seiichi behind her back, Touma picked up the hand axe he had thrown onto the floor.

At the blade tip that gleamed dully, Mai swallowed and began trembling.

“Th-that’s a lie, right? Touma-kun?”

“Move, Mai. You’re in the way…… No, it would not really matter if you stayed there with him, would it?”

The loser, trembling, raised his face.

“S-stop. Mai has nothing to do with this.”

“It’s all right, Seiichi. You and Mai will both forget everything. Right?”

“Shit! Maiii!”

Mai was frozen in front of Seiichi as though her legs had given out. Seiichi reached out, grabbed her and pulled her close, shielding her against his chest.

With a zogin, the sound of flesh being split by a heavy, blunt blade rang out and warm droplets splashed, wetting his back.