《Gainers: The chronicles of The Nexus》 Prologue 1: Mister Piggy Prologue Mister Piggy Kyoka studied the pig like person or rather the person like pig that was standing a few meters in front of her. Maybe it was the so called male chauvinist pig? "Let us put bad jokes aside for now" she thought to herself as she started to analyze the situation. After she had received the strange message followed by the countdown from the mechanical sounding disembodied voice earlier, this pig (let''s call him Mister Piggy for now) had appeared before her. No, considering the fact that the environment around her had changed from her familiar school ground to a strange forest it was more reasonable to think that, somehow, she had appeared before him. And speaking of Mister Piggy, despite the cute name she had given him Mister Piggy was not particularly cute. Rather than an anthropomorphic pig character you might see in a children''s movie he was more closely resembling a monster you might see in a horror movie. He (because it was obviously very male) wore no clothes and instead his wide barrel like body was covered (although not covered enough) with coarse dark hair. He was standing on thick powerful looking legs that seemed somewhat short in comparison to his torso. His arms were similarly disproportionate but muscular enough to fit a bodybuilder. It seemed like a creature that had no business being bipedal but was so anyway. On top of the disproportionate hairy body sat a pig like, or rather boar like head that could only be described as evil looking. Its mouth was filled with uneven rows of long tusks and its small yellow eyes were glaring at her hungrily while he was making low pig like grunts and breathed heavily through his snout. She was sure that if the creature had lips it would be smacking or licking them. All in all, it reminded her of one of her father''s business associates, although Mister Piggy was definitely more fit than Mr. Yaemura. And while Mr. Yaemura was known as a somewhat ruthless and cutthroat businessman, she had never seen him wield an oversized wicked looking cleaver like Mister Piggy did. Studying the dark metal cleaver Mr. Piggy held in his three-fingered hand, and his evil looking face, She tensed up "Now, do not panic!" She thought as to calm herself down "Do not jump to conclusions, the fact that he is holding a tool means that he most likely has some level of sentience, which means I might be able to communicate with him peacefully" She let out a breath, relaxed her posture and gave Mister Piggy what she hoped was a polite smile. "Good day, my name is Tendoujin Kyoka, pleased to me..." the pig monster cut her off with a loud squeal and dashed towards her with his cleaver raised high. She threw herself aside just in time to dodge a wide swing of the cleaver. The pig creature had closed the distance with a surprising speed despite its large bulk and short legs. It continued to barrel its way through the underbrush almost colliding with a tree before coming to a halt. It turned around glaring at her, its hunger having seemingly turned into hatred letting out a menacing squeal as if to say "How dare a mere human dodge the attack of this great Mister Piggy?! Curse you Tendoujin Kyoka!", or something along those lines. "Well enough speculation about Mister Piggy''s emotional life for now" She thought as she instinctively took a fighting stance " It seems like he can move quickly thanks to sheer leg power. However, once he gets his momentum he has a hard time slowing down quickly, and in combination with the short legs he probably has a hard time changing direction while running" In theory, this should make him a perfect target for throwing techniques or counters, a large opponent rushing at her blindly with little control of his own momentum. Since her father in addition to her other lessons had made her learn martial arts for the sake of self defense, she had experience sparring with larger opponents, and there had even been times when she had used her techniques outside of practice. Mister Piggy was not that much taller than her, as she was quite tall for a Japanese teenage girl or for a woman in general for that matter. However, she had her doubts about how effective her techniques would be on Mister Piggy after all he was not a human being. He might not be much taller than the martial artist and delinquents she had faced, but in terms of bulk and power he probably surpassed the limits of any human being and his proportions were quite different compared to a human. "If I had been transported to this place a few minutes earlier, when I was still in the Kendo hall, I would at least have a bamboo sword in my hand" she thought as she was slowly backing away from her opponent while not breaking eye contact or lowering her guard. "No, if I had been transported a few minutes earlier I would have been barefoot out here in this forest" Her outdoor shoes may not be optimal for fights on the uneven and overgrown forest floor, but they were definitely better than nothing. Shoes aside, she still had her Kendogi on, rather than her school uniform, as she had been heading towards the groundskeepers shed before she was transported. " I need to find some sort of weapon quickly" she thought as she tried to take in her surroundings as much as she could without taking her eyes from the pig monster, and she noticed a branch lying on the ground between them. While Kyoka considered whether or not she should risk going for the branch, Mister Piggy had had enough of making pig noises and glaring and suddenly ran at her with yet another blood curling squeal. This time she was more prepared, and instead of throwing herself aside she sidestepped his attack and started to run towards the branch. When she passed by the creature however, she felt something bite into her left shoulder. "Did he cut me?" she thought as she let out as hiss of pain. "No matter, I must take the branch before he can turn around and go after me" She quickly reached the branch and scooped it up while turning around to face her opponent. Unfortunately, the pig monster was already upon her. She didn''t have the time to think, but thankfully her years of Kendo honed reflexes took over and she raised her branch in a two-handed proper sword grip to block the cleaver descending towards her. When the cleaver hit, her branch split like the useless piece of wood it apparently was, but at least the trajectory of the cleaver was changed and cut through the air above her, narrowly missing her head. For a moment, she felt the same rush she always felt while facing off with and standing her ground against strong opponent''s in matches or sparring. "You certainly aren''t lacking as an opponent Mister Piggy" she thought to herself, feeling her lips turn into an involuntary smile. Her grin of excitement turned into a grimace however, when a sharp pain washed over her from her wounded shoulder. She was not sure how badly wounded she was, but blocking an attack from an opponent with monstrous strength certainly had not made it any better. She avoided his next swing by stepping to his left side, giving up on trying to block his attack. Since the creature was holding the cleaver in his right hand, she was now facing his unguarded left side. "Right, no point in trying to block him, the differences in strength and weapons is simply too large. Instead I will strike him before he can strike me!" She thought while bringing down her branch on the creature''s head before he could turn around, loudly yelling "DOOO!" (Kendo Kiai for strikes against the head) out of habit, putting all her weight and strength into the attack. The strike landed cleanly on the creature''s temple, the already shortened branch splintering even further. For a second she allowed herself to feel triumphant, the creature turned towards her, letting out a snort while blinking testily. "You certainly are tough Mister Piggy", she thought before the creature backhanded her across the chest with his unarmed left arm, sending her flying several meters and falling to the ground with the air knocked out of her lungs. She desperately attempted to get back on her feet while gasping for air, her wounded shoulder throbbing with pain and her chest aching from the impact. "Why isn''t he attacking?" She wondered as she stood up slowly on shaking legs, leaning against a tree-trunk for support "I am in a completely unguarded state. Is he being cautious?" She turned to face the creature, her back leaning against the tree. Mister Piggy looked at her with a sneer on his pig face. "Standing my ground against a strong opponent?" she thought to herself, trying to catch her breath "To Mister Piggy I was not even an opponent to begin with, just a meal that caused him some slight annoyance" The creature approached her at a leisurely pace, not even bothering so raise his weapon. "Really, what am I doing? Running around swinging a stick and getting into fights? Father would say it was a behavior unbecoming of the only daughter of the Tendoujin family." She giggled to herself, feeling lightheaded probably from blood loss. The wound might be worse than she had thought. "Even thought Mister Piggy was the one who started it. Just like those delinquents who were harassing that girl. she thought remembering the incident just before summer break "Father is definitely going to lecture me when I get home, saying I should have run away and called for help instead of acting like some sort of hooligan". The creature, snorting in what she imagined was the pig equivalent of a chuckle, was now close enough for her to feel his foul-smelling breath on her face. She waited for the cleaver to come down and finish her off, but surprisingly, the final strike never came. Through her blurred vision she noticed that he had dropped his weapon to the ground, and instead of being concerned with killing her, he reached out and grabbed at her breast roughly with one hand and at her thigh with the other. What she thought of as hungry grin had in fact been a leer, Mister Piggy turned out to be much more like Mr. Yaemura than she had expected. "Well, maybe he''ll eat me when he''s finished" she half heartedly tried to twist away from him, but he was simply to strong or maybe the blood loss had made her to weak. "Why didn''t I run away instead of picking up that useless twig?" Mister Piggy seemed to grow frustrated by being unable to pull down her hakama, but with his strength he''d manage somehow even if he couldn''t untie the belt. "Why didn''t I run away...?" she wondered to herself "If I had run instead of trying to fight, I might have been able to get away. It was the same with those delinquents, I could have tried calling for help before stepping forward myself". She had had it drilled into her countless times by her martial arts instructors, that violence should be her last resort and not her first. Thinking back on it. she really had been acting reckless. Why was she like that? Did she have a childish desire to play hero? "No, that''s probably not it" what she had felt back then had not been any strong sense of concern for the girl, after all she barely remembered her face now. It had been a strong sense of exhilaration at being able to move and strike without the restraints of sparing or matches, the feeling of her body and mind being unshackled and free. "I''m sorry father, it seems like despite your efforts I did not grow up to be a respectable daughter of the Tendoujin family." She thought of her father as he lectured her calling her reckless and headstrong, though somehow his face seemed less stern and authoritative than she remembered and more concerned and frightened. "I''m sorry father..." She was snatched out of her thoughts as the creature grabbed her wounded left shoulder harshly as to hold her in place. The sudden jolt of pain cleared her half-conscious state of mind and made her realize something, she was still holding on to her broken branch in her right hand. Glancing down towards her right hand she noticed that the end cut off by the cleaver and then bashed against the creature''s head had turned into a sharp splintered mess (she also noticed that Mister Piggy''s little piggy was not so little anymore). "That''s right, I choose to fight because I wanted to fight, so I might as well stay true to myself and fight to the end! If I can still stand I can still move, if I can still move I can still fight!" She jammed her broken of branch into the wrist of the hand grasping at her belt and he pulled it away with a pained squeal. She didn''t know how much damage she actually inflicted considering his armor of muscles and pig''s hide, but all she needed was for him to let go of her lower body for a few seconds in order for her to land her next attack. As her father originally had her learn martial arts for the purpose of self-defense, she had studied several techniques prohibited in matches. She resorted to one of the most fundamental and ruthless doctrines, that of using your hard parts to target the opponent''s soft parts, putting all the strength she could muster to use, she kneed Mister Piggy between the legs. He squealed and stumbled backwards while bending over in pain grasping at his most treasured spheres as to ensure himself they were still there. It was of course the wrong course of action, but it takes discipline, adrenaline or madness to ignore pain.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Now completely free of his grasp, she raised her broken branch to deal what she hoped would be the finishing strike. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she leapt towards him stick raised, and she heard a strange loud noise which she realized was her screaming. Not a martial arts kiai this time, but simply an animalistic noise . Mister Piggy was focusing his attention on her yet again and she could see in his eyes that he realized what was about to happen but it was too late to do anything about it and her broken of branch sank into his left eye socket and she sidestepped him as he fell to the ground, letting out a squeal loud enough to hurt her ears. For a second she allowed herself to think it was over, but the creature continued to thrash and squeal on the ground. She stared at him, dumbfounded and exhausted, as he started to push himself up from the ground on unsteady arms and legs, the decimeter long branch still sticking out of his eye socket. "Ha ha... you really are a monster, aren''t you Mister Piggy" she laughed tiredly, considering her options. Should she try to run away after all? No, she was sure her blood loss was pretty severe by now. Add to that her exhaustion and it seemed unlikely that she would be able to run very far before passing out "And besides, I want to win! If it''s the last thing I do I want to defeat this damn piggy somehow!" And then, through her blurred vision, she saw the cleaver that he had dropped to the ground earlier laying right between her and Mister Piggy and suddenly she yet again had the energy to act. "Discipline, adrenaline or madness?" She thought as she picked up the cleaver "I wonder which it is Mister Piggy?" She said out loud. She looked into his one remaining eye which was crying tears of pain? hatred? fear? all of the mentioned? "By the way, Mister Piggy earlier you were kind enough to let me get up back on my feet, i hope you''ll forgive me for not returning the kindness". She briskly closed the distance between them, kicking away his right arm from underneath him. She had been worried abou whether or not it would be enough considering his inhuman strength, but the pain was making him unsteady, and without the support of both of his arms his heavy frame crashed back to the ground. She grasped the cleaver in a two-handed grip. Although its shape was closer to a meat cleaver than any sword she had ever seen, it was obviously intended as a weapon considering its length (or possibly for butchering elephants). It was almost as long as a katana though heavier than any of the real blades she had tried out, which was not surprising considering the width of the blade. The blade was a dark shade of gray and looked like iron rather than steel. A heavy weapon made for crushing bone and cutting of large chunks of flesh. Not exactly suitable for elegant swordplay, but perfect for the current task at hand. She brought down the cleaver and cut into the creature''s thick neck. However, the wound was unexpectedly shallow and even as blood was splattering on her he squealed in pain and somehow managed to grab hold of her leg. "How tough are you Mister Piggy?" she let out, astounded at the life force of the creature. She quickly brought down the cleaver at his arm and managed to give him a deeper cut this time. She wasn''t sure, but she thought it reached the bones. At least he let go and she took the opportunity to deliver another chop to his neck. The second blow was still not enough to finish him off, but she continued hacking away not giving him any time to get his bearings, pain shooting through her left shoulder with each impact. Eventually he stopped struggling and squealing, but she continued chopping time and time again, as if working at a blood spurting piece of firewood, until eventually his head separated from his body. She collapsed on his back gasping, she had a notion she should be disgusted by laying on top of the creatures corpse, but considering she was already drenched in his blood it seemed a bit late to be concerned about cleanliness. As she laid there, trying to decide whether she should fall asleep and possibly die from blood loss on top of the decapitated Mister Piggy or whether she should try to do something to stay alive, she suddenly heard a disembodied mechanical voice talking straight into her head. Congratulations, you have reached Level 1, you now have access to your status screen, as well as 10% to allocate to your stats. Congratulations, you are the first of your system integration group to level up. As a bonus you will receive an art. You have received [Warriors rising] rank 1, please view your status screen for additional information. For a moment she was stunned, it was the same strange voice she had heard before she got transported to this forest, and yet again it said something incomprehensible. "What on earth does all this mean?" She had a vague recollection of overhearing some of those terms from her classmates talking, she thought they might have something to do with computers, but she did not really use computers for entertainment, so she was not quite sure. "The voice said that I had access to some sort of screen and that I could view it for information but how exactly do I access it?" The second she finished her thoughts she became aware of something in the back of her mind, like a memory trying to resurface. She focused inwardly and suddenly several symbols appeared in her mind. The symbols were extremely complex and seemed more like abstract pieces of 3D artwork rather than any type of written language she knew of. Yet, she somehow knew the meaning of the symbols. Name: Tendoujin Kyoka Race: Human Age: 18 Stats Strength: 14 (14) resilience: 10 (10) Vitality: 12 (12) Agility: 15 (15) Dexterity: 32 (32) Perception: 19 (19) Intelligence: 67 (67) Focus: 79 (79) Mana: 10 (10) Mana pool 100/100 Unallocated status upgrades available 10% Paths None currently Arts Warriors rising rank 1 Blessings Otherworldly gainer Kyoka frowned, name, race and age seemed obvious enough. The second part called stats appeared to be a list quantifying her physical and mental traits. She focused on Strength and the symbol somehow provided her with a bit of additional information. Strength The kinetic power produced by your muscles affects carrying capacity, striking and so on. "So strength determines how strong I am? It seems self-explanatory enough" She moved on to the next Stat in the list. Resilience The durability of your body when faced with external forces such as kinetic energy, combustion and corrosion. "In other words, it''s toughness I guess?". Vitality The body''s restorative abilities such as healing rate, immune system and overall health. "So, my overall health is rated 12? Considering the blood that I have lost and the risk of infection, I would certainly be glad for a somewhat higher number". Do you wish to upgrade your Vitality stat? The voice interrupted her thoughts. "Upgrade? Now that I think about it, there was some mention of unallocated upgrades. Is the voice suggesting that I can somehow upgrade my so-called stats?" Do you wish to upgrade your Vitality stat? The voice repeated itself. "Yes" She thought experimentally You have 10% worth of upgrades available, how much do you wish to put into vitality? "10%" At this point she needed all the health she could possible get. You wish to increase your vitality status by a factor of 10%. Please confirm. "Confirmed. Now let us hope this will really work". Vitality has been upgraded to 12 (13.2). A warm feeling flowed through her body and she immediately felt slightly less exhausted and listless, but she realized she needed to do more to ensure her survival. "First, I need to at least stop the bleeding, until I can find some way to take care of the wound properly". She pulled down her Kendogi jacket from her left shoulder, took a look at the wound for the first time and winced. The wound didn''t seem to be particularly deep, which explained why she was still able to move her left arm fairly well (as long as she could endure the pain). It was wide, however, like a really bad scrape and while blood was not squirting out at a rapid pace it had trickled out in a steady stream. Her left shoulder, upper arm and chest were colored red by half dried, sticky blood. Luckily she had her tenugui towel stuffed away inside her jacket. it was not exactly a sterile bandage, but it would have to do, although she wished she had something to clean the wound with first. "Is there nothing more I can do, apart from simply hoping that it won''t be infected?" Though she had certainly taken care of scrapes and cuts she gained during training, that had been with modern bandages and antiseptics. Wilderness survival skills had unfortunately not been part of the tutoring she had received. She raked her mind trying to find something she had overlooked "...Is urine sterile?" Later, her wound wrapped and taken care of for now, she returned to analyzing her stats Agility The overall mobility of the body including factors such as balance and movement in general. "It seems to be referring to motor skill, or maybe gross motor skill specifically". Dexterity Precision movement primarily focused in the appendages. "Dexterity on the other hand seems to be referring to fine motor skill". Perception The ability to perceive the world around you through the six senses. "Six senses? What would the sixth one be? Maybe intuition? Intelligence Your ability to assemble and utilize knowledge. "It seems like intelligence in this case, is defined as memorization or possibly learning capacity in general, and maybe logical analysis skills? Still, my intelligence is quite high compared to all the previous stats. Am I supposed to be considered some sort of genius? No, considering the fact that humans are somewhat slow, weak and frail compared to other animals our size while being many times more intelligent than most other animals, it makes sense that stats focusing on mental capabilities would be far higher than our physical stats. And the fact that my dexterity is also on the higher side is probably related to my opposable human thumbs" Focus Focus is the traits of willpower, concentration and self-control. It is an integral part of manipulating mana to use and develop your Arts. "Willpower, concentration and self-control?" she let out a soft chuckle and wondered whether her father would be proud of her seemingly high degree of self control or insist that she was simply willful. "But still, manipulating mana to use arts? I am fairly sure mana is supposed to be some sort of fictional force used to perform magic. Well, after all that has happened it really would not be surprising if some supernatural phenomena like magic existed. Speaking of magic, I did gain a so called art didn''t I? The one called [Warriors rising]". She was kind of curious about it, but decided to move on to her last stat first. Mana Determines the size of your mana pool and mana recovery rate. "So mana essentially determines how much of this supernatural force I have available for use. Since my mana pool shows one hundred, it seems like one mana in my stats equals ten mana in the mana pool". That reminded her, before she had been transported from the school ground the voice had said something about how she would gain ten mana because humans were supposedly defined as a lesser creature. So, that meant her mana had originally been zero before the transport. It made sense after all, until now her only knowledge of mana had been that it was some sort of fictional phenomena. However, it seemed that her body, or possibly her soul if such a thing existed, had been altered to produce or absorb this fictional substance. She focused inwards, trying to feel if something was different with her body. Though it was difficult to tell through the ache and exhaustion, she imagined she did feel a strange pulsating feeling slightly beneath her navel in the center of her body. The alterations made to her should probably alarm her. However the fact that she was able to increase her vitality had probably increased her chances of survival significantly, and she would take any advantage she could get for now. She tried focusing on the Mana pool symbol. Mana pool The current amount of mana available for use. No information she had not already learned from the mana stat, nothing about the speed of the mentioned recovery rate or anything else useful. Now finished with her stats she moved on to the next section of her status screen. Paths None currently. You have not yet reached the required level for unlocking a path. Even if she had not gained a path, it would have been helpful to be told what a path was and what the required level for unlocking one was. The explanations really varied a lot when it came to degree of helpfulness. "Oh well, it can''t be helped if there''s no information, for now let''s take a look at my one art" Warriors rising rank 1 A common body enhancement art with combat focus, that allows you to draw on your mana pool to temporarily increase all of your physical stats, Strength, Endurance, Vitality, Agility, Dexterity and Perception. You have reached the first rank out of ten "So this so-called art will increase my stats even further, although only temporarily I suppose it will only last as long as I have mana remaining, however long that might be". While the art seemed useful in various way, what caught her attention was that it would increase her vitality even further, if just temporary. At this point she had no reason to doubt that the explanations were truthful, and that she really would be able to use this seemingly supernatural ability. She tried focusing harder on the [warriors rising] symbol, and she felt her mana pool in the center of her body, open up like a blossoming flower while power spread throughout her body. The effect was not as dramatic as she had imagined, she felt slightly stronger, less exhausted and the world around her seemed a bit clearer and she was somehow more aware of her body. Fortunately, the increased awareness of her wounded shoulder did not make it more painful she did not understand the logic, but she was grateful. "It would be nice if I could get some exact percentage on how much my stats have increased, like when I leveled up" she thought while trying to see if she could get some more information on her [Warriors rising]. Nothing new came up however. She noticed that her mana pool was now showing 95/100 rather than 100/100. While the increased vitality would decrease the risk of infection and so on she decided she should be careful not to use up all the mana, and to keep some in spare. Having increased physical abilities, however slightly, would be useful in case she had to fight another Mister Piggy, or some other woodland critter. Keeping her mana pool in mind she took a look at the final section of her status screen. Blessings Otherworldly gainer As an individual integrated from another world into the Nexus, you will receive accelerated gains in levels, path compatibility andArt proficiency. "So this means I will level up faster than, the natives of this place I suppose. Will I have to kill other creatures like Mister Piggy to level up? I still do not know what a path is exactly, but supposedly this blessing will be helpful when it comes to paths as well and it seems like it will help me increase my rank in [Warriors rising]" Aside from the information about her increased gains, the description gave away another important piece of information: "So, this so-called Nexus is apparently another world after all" It wasn''t really at surprise at this point. Besides the monstrous creature she had named Mister Piggy, there were other clues. If you looked closely at the grass and the leaves the color was slightly bluish. Some of the stones had moss with a golden tint growing on them, one of the trees close by had a black trunk covered in knife sized curved barbs and while she was not exactly an ornithologist, the bird songs from the forest sounded strange to her. If it was birdsong at all, it sounded a bit like a car alarm operating in short burst. She summarized the situation to herself. "1. I have been transported to another world that seems to be inhabited by at least one type of life form best described as monstrous. 2.Being transported to this world has granted me strange abilities. First of all, the ability to upgrade my inherent traits also known as stats by leveling and then the ability to temporarily enhance myself further through the usage of the mysterious power known as mana. Both abilities are gained through the act of killing previously mentioned indigenous life form. 3.Considering the fact that other people in my surrounding seemed to be hearing the same message as I did and the message when I received my bonus mentioned that I was the first of my integration group to level up, it''s reasonable to assume that other people have been transported to this world. 4.I''m wounded and have lost a significant amount of blood and I have no medical supplies, food or water". Having summarized her situation, she moved on to her current priorities. "In order to survive in this world, I will need to obtain nourishment, try to find other people and, most likely, I will need to level up. Although it is possible that creatures Like Mister Piggy are rare, it is probably safe to assume that this world is quite dangerous, and increasing your abilities through leveling up is the best way of ensuring your survival. The most effective and safe way to level up, would probably be together with companions rather than alone, supposing I can find some reliable people or any people at all. As for my wounds, finding medical supplies seems unlikely so I will just have to hope the increase in my vitality stat and the continuous usage of [Warriors rising] will be enough to keep infection away. However, I will still need to find food to sustain myself and replenish my lost blood. Foresting is unfortunately not one of my skills, particularly not in an alien world. There is no way for me to tell which plants are edible, except for trying them out and potentially get poisoned, and I have no experience in hunting animals..." Her thoughts came to a stop. In her hand she held an oversized meat cleaver and on the ground laid a huge slab of bloody pork. Prologue 2: Of monkeys and girls "So, are you prepared for the upcoming battle Kohei-dono?" asked a somewhat lanky teenage boy as Kohei was about to exit the classroom and head home. "What are you going on about Tenya?" Kohei answered his classmate. Well, since it was Tenya talking it was undoubtedly about some game. "Needless to say, I''m speaking of the new expansion of Monkey Hunter Online!" Tenya answered as he adjusted his glasses in a dramatic manner "The jungles of Ragnarok will open up at midnight and we will have the whole weekend to immense ourselves on the path of monkey carnage!" "That was this weekend? Sorry man I was planning to go hiking and maybe do some fishing" "Nuoo..!?" Tenya made a sound like a dying villain from some old anime "How could this be (bakana) my sworn comrade forsaking me on the very eve of battle? Damn your healthy nature loving lifestyle unfit for a child of the 21st century!". Two underclassman girls passing by yelped in surprise at Tenyas loud outburst and hurried away quickly. "Calm down man, I''ll play with you some other time" Kohei tried to appease him before he went really out of control. "Sigh.. You are a good enough fellow, but as a gamer you have much to learn. There is a meaning in logging in at the release and playing without sleep until you collapse. Ah well more monkeys for me I suppose" Kohei looked at his disappointed friend as they walked down the hallway. Although on the scrawny side, his friend was pretty tall and had a sharp featured face that actually made him seem kind of cool and intellectual when he made his signature glasses push up. Actually he didn''t only seem intellectual. Despite the sleepless nights he spent on gaming Tenya usually ranked in the top on the school''s exams. "You know Tenya, if you exercised a bit more and acted a bit less like a weirdo you could actually be pretty popular" "Bah, spare me the adoration of the masses" his friend answered "And speaking of which..." Tenya nodded in the direction of the shoeboxes at the entrance where three girls were standing, talking to each other. "Yasaka-senpai, Haruna, Alisa -chan are you heading home?" Kohei called out to the girls, ignoring Tenya''s somewhat rude implication. "Oh, good afternoon, Kohei-kun and Sanada-kun" answered the oldest of the girls, Yasaka Mihoshi-senpai. Although she was only a year older than him, she somehow gave of a mature calm aura, that made him feel like a little kid. Maybe it was the soft tone of her voice, her warm smile or the way she filled out her uniform (which she did so well it was impossible not to notice). "The girls are heading home, I still have some student council business to take care of" She continued. "Ah I see, must be tough, being both a member of the astronomy club and Student council president" "It''s hard work sometimes, but in end I do it because I like it. Anyways... The student council elections are coming up soon, so it''s almost time for me to retire and focus on my college entrance exams" "I see, well thanks for the hard work" "And rest assure that we will honor your memory!" Tenya added in a loud dramatic manner "Even as the cruel ravages of time tears you from us, your name will remain ingrained into our hearts!" "That''s nice of you to say so Sanada-kun, but i''m not dying just graduating" as expected of the student council president, she was able to talk with Tenya as if he was a normal human being. "Uhm Ko-kun, if you are going home let''s go together" The girl speaking was Oyama Haruna, she was what you would call a childhood friend. His family and hers were neighbors and got along well, and they had been in the same school since kindergarten (though they were in different classes now). She had always been a bit timid, but he somehow had a feeling she had gotten more so the last few years. She blushed slightly, the color almost hiding the freckles in her round face. In combination with her reddish hair, it was easy to see why she had earned the unfortunate nickname Tomato in elementary school. "Sure, let''s go" he answered. They had been walking home together a lot lately, thinking about it that incident with those punks must still scare her. He was glad Tendoujin-senpai had shown up to help her. "Together Ko-kun.." His thought was interrupted by a monotone voice, coming from a small, blue-eyed, blonde girl. Sometimes it was hard believing that Alisa Alexandrova was a first-year high school student, with her petite frame, and the fact that she tended to use simple sentences further strengthened that impression. Well, it couldn''t be helped that she had some difficulties with the language, she had lived most of her life in Russia after all, and her Japanese was certainly better than any foreign language skills he had. Though she was an underclassman and hadn''t been at school for long, she had somehow quickly made friends with the normally shy Haruna, as they were club-mates in the astronomy club. "But Alisa-chan, don''t you live in the opposite direction from me and Haruna?" Kohei asked her. Alisa frowned somewhat thoughtfully before following up with "I will play at Harunas House" oddly triumphantly. "Eh what?" Haruna burst out surprised "Uhm, I suppose that''s okay" "You are all getting along well, as usual" Yasaka-senpai chuckled while Tenya rolled his eyes for some reason. After putting on their outdoor shoes, the four of them left. Tenya would be heading in the same direction at least part of the way, and he took the opportunity to loudly exclaim his expectations for "The Jungles of Ragnarok". Haruna seemed mostly confused, but Kohei thought Alisa seemed somewhat interested, although her face was mostly expressionless. Suddenly, out of nowhere, someone bumped into him. He turned around opening his mouth to apologize out of reflex. "Watch were the fuck you''re walking!" Kohei was interrupted before he had the chance to say anything and was glad he hadn''t had the time to apologize when he realized who it was. Although this was a fairly good school with high entrance points and a generally well behaved and hardworking student body, there were of course exceptions. Hijima Rei being the most exceptional amongst them, with his spiky hair colored an annoyingly bright shade of orange (did he really think that looked cool, pointy and orange like a bunch of carrots?) multiple piercings and unbuttoned shirt revealing a black tank-top with some kind of demonic skull and what was probably a band name underneath. While it was unfair that he could get away with breaking the dress code the other students were held to, that alone wouldn''t be much of a problem. There had been several students who had left the school after being targeted by Hijimas group, and there were even rumors that there had been incidents where the police had got involved, yet he somehow remained at the school.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Hijima was like one of those rich kid delinquents you commonly see in manga and anime that uses their parents influence to get away with basically anything. You''d think that in real life parents would eventually get tired of having to clean up their children''s messes and set down their foot, but apparently Hijima''s father had no intention of raising his son to become a decent human being. "You''re the one that bumped into me! How about an apology?" Actually, Kohei hadn''t really paid attention, but it seemed pretty safe to assume that Hijima had walked into him on purpose. "The fuck did you say!?" Hijima screeched while grabbing a hold of Kohei''s collar. "I said apologize Carrot-kun!" Kohei said pulling away Hijima''s arm. "Shit, maybe I should have backed of considering the girls are with me" he thought as he looked into Hijima''s face that had turned red with anger "To late now, I guess..." "Rei" A deep voice interrupted them as the owner of that voice put his hand on Hijima''s shoulder. Goda Ryouta had at one point been the hope of the karate club, before he got kicked out, and although he now seemed content to be Hijima''s lackey full time, he still maintained a hulking muscular body (the guy really didn''t look like he belonged in high school, whether it was his body or face). "What!?" Hijima snarled Goda glanced in the direction of the school building where an even more hulking and fierce looking man exited the entrance. If Goda looked out of place in high school, the massive thick browed Moriyama-sensei looked out of place in a peaceful Japan. "Shit! I''ll remember this" Hijima spat out as he walked away before he caught Moriyama-sensei''s attention. Kohei breathed out a sigh of relief as Hijima walked off somewhere. Still he couldn''t help but worry, Hijima was definitely the type to hold grudges. "Huh, I guess even Hijima will think twice before starting trouble in front of Goriyama-Sensei" Tenya interrupted his thoughts "Perfectly understandable. After all while he might be posing as a normal high school teacher, his true identity is that of a gorilla modified into a killing machine by an evil organization" A strange noise could be heard from Alisa, it seemed like she was struggling to hold back her laughter (Did she really find that stupid gorilla joke funny?). "Ehm, are you okay Ko-kun?" Haruna asked him worriedly while Tenya went on with the sorrowful back-story of Goriyama-sensei, seemingly unconcerned at being ignored. "Yes, I''m fine, no need to worry. I''ll deal with it somehow" "But.." Haruna was clearly not convinced. "Ko-kun will beat that carrot head up" Alisa interrupted (where did that baseless belief in him come from?) "Do your best, my sworn comrade" Tenya said pompously "And rest assure that I will give you my full moral support from a safe distance while you chop that carrot up for cooking" "I''m moved by your support and friendship Tenya" " Think nothing of it" Tenya answered magnanimously, using his special skill ignore sarcasm. Kohei sighed, although he tried to reassure Haruna earlier he really had a bad feeling about the upcoming Monday, and the rest of his school life. Maybe he should have tried to keep his head down and avoid confrontation, but he just couldn''t stand it when people acted unreasonable and just expected the people around them to accept It. Having walked for a while, they had almost arrived at the school gate (the school grounds really were unnecessarily large). Kohei noticed someone walking from the Kendo Dojo and came to a halt. She was immediately recognizable even at a distance. After all, Tendoujin Kyoka-senpai was beautiful in a way you really don''t expect to see outside of magazines and TV. Tall and slender in an athletic way, yet with curves clearly visible underneath her kendo gi. Her long, ink black hair was tied up in a horsetail falling down her back and her facial features were sharp and elegant. In her kendo jacket and hakama she looked like an actress, taken straight out of some samurai movie, and for a second he imagined her wielding a katana with cherry blossom petals falling around her. "So that''s your aim Kohei-dono" Tenya pulled him close and spoke in a low conspiratorial voice "A girl-next-door childhood friend, a blonde loli and a busty big sister type is not enough for you? You intend to sink your filthy riajuu claws into a cool beauty as well?" "You''re being rude in so many ways, first of all don''t use fetishes as a way to describe people!" "If you understand who I''m talking about it''s a good description, isn''t it? But never mind that, it seems you have a situation to deal with" Tenya nodded towards Alisa and Haruna who was staring at him. "Ko-kun! About Tendoujin-senpai What? Why?" Haruna burst out more forcefully than he had heard her talk in years (and with a redder face than he had seen in years), but she was seemingly unable to find the right words. "What''s with this intensity? I suddenly feel overwhelmed with guilt. No, I''m innocent!" "Ko-kun you sex-fiend..." Alisa followed up monotonously. "Oi, why suddenly sex-fiend!? at least call me lecher or pervert or something! And don''t just stand there snickering Tenya! Help me!" "Now, calm down Oyama-kun and Alexandrova-kun" As if hearing Koheis inner call for help, Tenya stepped in "Rest assured that whatever obscene desires Kohei holds, the target for those filthy cravings are way out of his league" "Obscene...?" Haruna''s face now looked green rather than red. "Ko-kun you sex-fiend..." Alisa followed up yet again. "Nooo! damn you four eyes! This is bad, this situation is really bad. I don''t quite understand it, but it''s bad!" "No, um, the thing is" Kohei started off, trying to salvage his dignity as a human being, "It''s just that since Tendoujin-senpai came to Haruna''s rescue a while back, I thought that maybe I should thank her... right?" "I''s that all?" Haruna asked suspiciously "Me and my parents have already thanked her for her help, grandma even baked her cookies and brought to her house you know" "Sex-fiend..." "Um, well, but we are childhood friends after all and since I am grateful shouldn''t I thank her?" "Ah, using your childhood friend as an excuse to talk to a beautiful upperclassman" Tenya said while adjusting his glasses, determined to pour gasoline on the almost extinguished fire "That''s quite an advanced technique Kohei-dono, you ladykiller" And the mood took a turn for the worse again "Sex-fiend..." "Damn you! You damned four eyed demon! What is your problem? Does the grudge of me not playing Monkey Hunter with you really go this deep? Just you wait I will break your glasses!" Congratulations you have been chosen for integration into The Nexus system Suddenly, the explosive situation was interrupted by a strange, mechanical sounding voice. As a newly integrated lesser creature type human, you will have 10 mana added to your stats as well as the standard bonuses for sentient type integrated creatures. He started to look around for the source of the voice, but all he could see was his friends and the other students in their surrounding, looking as confused as he felt. Transport to The Nexus and Nexus system integration will commence in 100 seconds. Good luck and may your integration advance The Nexus. 100 99 98... For a while, all the four of them could do was stare at each other in silence. Tenya opened his mouth, then closed it, seemingly unable to find the words to say. What was it about the voice that made Kohei feel such a sense of dread? 81... "In a movie this type of voice counting down always leads to an explosion" he thought to himself "But it said we would be transported, but how..." And then he came to a realization about why he couldn''t just disregard the voice as some nonsense recording. 65... "The voice it''s not coming from anywhere" He almost whispered "it''s sounding directly inside our heads". 55... "T-thats ridiculous Ko-kun" Haruna said, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself "That''s just not possible, right?" she added looking around at the other two. 43... "No Kohei is right" Tenya said, doing his signature glasses push up despite the seriousness of the situation. "Then what will happen to us!?" Haruna was shouting now "It said we would be transported but how!? It doesn''t make any sense! none of this does" 30... For yet another while, none of them could say anything. At some point, people had started shouting in the background. 22... "Haruna..." Alisa said sounding and looking very much like a scared, lost child 16... " It will be okay Alisa-chan me and Ko-kun are with you" Haruna said softly as she hugged the lost-looking Alisa "...and Sanada-san as well" she added after a short pause. 10... "Hmpf, why am I the afterthought?" Tenya grumbled 5... "Together..." Alisa whispered as she reached out and grabbed Kohei and Tenya''s hands 4... "That''s right, together" Kohei said trying to give her a reassuring smile while squeezing her hand back. 2... Out of the corner of his vision he noticed Tendoujin-senpai standing a bit away looking stoic and defiant, ready to take on whatever was about to happen. 1... "I wish I had talked to her...." And the world disappeared. Chapter 1: Unknown stars The instant the familiar school ground disappeared, another scenery appeared around them. At first glance it was a forest, at second glance it was a strange forest. The leaves and grass had a slightly bluish tint to them, and the tree trunks were also somewhat of in their coloration, with reddish and blackish tones. He had of course seen plants with strange colors before, but that was in gardens or on nature programs. If there was an entire forest like that, it certainly was not in Japan. "Where are we?" Asked Haruna, while still hugging Alisa tightly. As a matter of fact wasn''t she hugging her to tightly? Alisa''s face was getting red and she started to squirm uncomfortably "Alisa-chan, I get that you''re uncomfortable, but why are you squeezing my hand harder? It''s not a competition, right?" Meanwhile, Tenya apparently also having his hands squeezed, made an exaggerated grimace while making some strange noises "Tenya man, are you joking around in this situation? Or are you really that frail? " "Before discussing our situation, maybe you should let go of Alexandrova-kun, Nuoo...!" "Oh no, I''m sorry Alisa-chan" Haruna let go of her smaller friend, who took a deep breath. "Freedom..." She gasped "...Jiggly hell..." "What exactly was jiggly, Alisa-chan?" "As for where we are..." Tenya said thoughtfully "In forest obviously, but... well" "Yeah definitely not Japan" Kohei finished studying their odd surroundings suddenly coming to a realization "Where are everyone else? The people around us were definitely hearing the message and the countdown as well, so why are we the only ones here?" Then followed a moment of silence, except for the noises of the forest. "Well, I guess we ended up here together because we stuck together... Maybe?" Haruna said hesitantly. "And the people around us ended up somewhere else" Tenya added "I guess that''s the most reasonable explanation. Good work, Oyama-kun and Alexandrov-kun". Alisa puffed her somewhat modest chest out proudly at the praise. "Ah.." Haruna suddenly started going through her school bag. Having rummaged around for a bit she brought out her cell-phone and made a call. The others exchanged looks with each other and quickly followed her example, pulling out their phones. Kohei immediately noticed that his cell-phone showed zero reception bars. He tried to call his home anyway, but all he got was a service unavailable message after a few beeps. "Anyone else had any luck?" He asked, after trying a few different emergency numbers. "No, we seem to be completely out of range, wherever we are..." Tenya answered without any of his usual annoying vigor. Alisa shook her head and then glanced at Haruna, the only one still trying to call looking increasingly desperate. Seeing her, Kohei felt increasingly desperate himself. What was going on? Where were they? Would they ever see their families again? He felt like he had a painful lump inside of him that grew bigger the more he thought about it, he needed to do something, anything to take his mind of it. He took a deep breath and put his hand on Haruna''s shoulder. "Haruna..." "Ko-kun, I can''t reach anyone. Mom, dad, grandma or Souta, I even tried Yasaka-senpai but..." Haruna started to sniffle. "I know, there''s no reception, wherever we are, I guess we must be pretty far away from civilization..." Kohei paused to settle himself down, then continued "But you know, Haruna, our families are safe back home, and for now we must do what we can to stay safe in this forest until we can go home" "But we will go home, right Ko-kun?" Haruna said swallowing her tears "Promise?" "Of course we will, I promise" as he patted her shoulder, he exchanged glances with the other two, Alisa was unreadable as usual but Tenya looked morose and he was probably thinking similar thoughts as Kohei. "The plants.. is there really a forest like this on earth? But.. the colors aren''t that weird are they? I mean, it''s not like the leaves are purple or anything" He showed those thought''s aside and cleared his throat. "For now, we should go over our equipment. Fortunately, we all brought with us our school bags, hopefully we should have some things we can use". After sitting down on the ground, they started going through their belongings one by one, starting with Tenya. "I don''t have much I''m afraid. Aside from my cell-phone, keys and handkerchief, I only have the usual school stuff: a few textbooks, a notebook and a pencil" Kohei took a few moments to think through the possible uses of Tenyas stuff. "Even if we don''t have reception, the cell-phone can still be used as a clock and as a light source when it gets dark. Speaking of which, we should probably turn our phones of to save the batteries, since there''s no way to recharge them out here after all. "But Ko-kun what if we get reception, but miss it because the phones are turned off?" Haruna asked. "Ah, right.." "We can have them turned on in shifts" Tenya followed up quickly "Let''s start with having your phone turned on, Oyama-kun" "Right let''s do that!" Kohei added, maybe a bit forced, but Haruna didn''t seem to notice "Thanks for the follow up, man" He added mentally to Tenya. "Now let''s move on with Tenyas stuff, the keys can be used in case we need to cut something for lack of better equipment. And when it comes to the school stuff, we might need to write something down later on, otherwise the paper can be used to start a fire or as toilet paper" "As expected of a hardened hiking expert, you sure are used to living roughly" Tenya said, seemingly starting to regain his habit to annoy people. "Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult Tenya?" "Whatever do you mean? I have nothing but the utmost respect for Kohei-donos survival skills, I''m sure without your guidance we would end up wiping our butts with poisonous leaves and.." "Whatever man, let''s move on to Haruna''s belongings" Kohei cut Tenya short, before he ended up leading the conversation in a direction that would end up with Kohei being labeled a Sex-fiend yet again. "I basically have the same things as Sanada-kun, except for a half empty water bottle, an empty bento-box and a pair of chopsticks" "Okay, at least we have a little bit of water. We should probably ration it for now, if that''s okay with you Haruna?" "Of course" Haruna nodded. "What about you Alisa-chan" "Same school stuff... and a chocolate bar and...." Alisa suddenly came to a halt, but since that was the way she usually talked Kohei waited for her to continue. "....." "And..?" after waiting for a while Kohei tried to pry her into continuing. "....." Alisa looked away, refusing to meet his eyes. "What''s the matter Alisa-chan?" somehow the atmosphere was turning very awkward. "Ko-kun.." Haruna sounded annoyed and sent a glare towards him "Wait.. what?" Had he been condemned for a crime he did not commit? what was going on? "Kohei-dono" Tenya pulled him close and whispered conspiratorially "Alexandrov-kun might be on the petite side, but she is still a developing teenage girl blossoming into adulthood" "Oh.. Um, sorry?" Kohei came to a sudden realization and desperately searched his mind for a way to move the conversation along "The chocolate! Right we need to eat the chocolate sparsely as well! Right Alisa-chan!?" "Ko-kun, you sex-fiend..." "Noo!" Kohei screamed out inside his mind "Not this again! I''m innocent!" "With that let''s forgive Kohei for now, and move on for now shall we?" Tenya said, even when being somewhat helpful he was annoying. "Right, only my stuff left. Let''s see here..." Kohei started rummaging through his backpack "Ah well the same stuff school stuff as everyone else, and two granola bars, well keep them for later as well, and then there''s my cellphone and keys of course..." He came to a stop. "What''s the matter man?" Tenya asked. "Well, it''s just that I''ve been carrying it around out of habit for so long that I completely forgot about it" Kohei said, as he folded out the blade of an old pocket-knife attached to his keychain. "Ko-kun! you were carrying that to school!?" Haruna burst out. "Well, it''s a memento from my grandpa so I just..." "Even so, Yasaka-senpai would be disappointed in you Ko-kun!" "Delinquent..." Alisa added. "Now,now, Kohei might be a delinquent, but him having a knife will be a great help when he fight of any bears we might encounter" "Don''t just throw me to the bears, Tenya!" "Oh, I''m just having faith in you, I''m sure a bear or two is no match for you with your savage survival skills" "Ko-kun..." Alisa looked at him with eyes sparkling "You can do it..." "Alisa-chan, where does that confidence in me come from? What sort of bear fighting delinquent am I in your eyes?" "Anyway, now that we''ve gone through our belongings, let''s decide on our priorities for now" Tenya said picking up his notebook and pencil It seemed like he had volunteered himself as secretary. "Ko-kun''s grandfather said that if we ever got lost in the forest, we should stay put and wait for rescue" Haruna said glancing at Kohei. When they were younger she had gone with Kohei and his grandfather on a few camping trips. "Normally, that would be the correct course of action " Kohei answered "However, that rests on the condition that someone have a rough idea on where we are and will go looking for us or that we are close enough to civilization that we can somehow signal our location..." "But in this case, we have been mysteriously transported to a strange forest in some unknown country" Tenya continued "Although the Japanese authorities will certainly be looking for us, they wouldn''t know where to start. And as far as signals go we, have no idea how close we are to civilization". "Right, so therefore I think we should try to find our way out of this forest ourselves" Kohei continued quickly, sensing the mood dropping. He took a look at the sky "Luckily we have several hours of daytime left..." "Wait, that''s right, the sun is in about the same position as it was right before the transfer" Kohei thought "That would mean that we are still at the same longitude as Japan. And the temperature is about the same as before the transfer, meaning roughly the same latitude as well? But that''s impossible, going by the vegetation this is clearly not Japan, nor any of the countries nearby..." "Ko-kun..." Alisa''s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. She was looking at him frowning in concern "Are you... okay?". "Yeah, Sorry I was just spacing out for a second" Kohei answered, hoping he sounded reassuring "Now, as I said, we still have some daylight left, so I think we should try to at least cover some distance". "I see, well, you''re the wilderness expert Kohei-dono, if you think that''s the best course of action I have no objection" Tenya said and the other two nodded in agreement "However, how do we decide which direction to go in, just pick one at random?". "Actually, I have an idea about that" Kohei pointed in a direction that he thought was roughly south going by the suns position "The ground is sloping downwards in that direction, if only slightly".Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. "I see, walking downwards would certainly be easier than walking upwards" Tenya added thoughtfully. "That''s part of it, however there''s also the fact that we have no compass. By continuously going downwards, we would at least be able to avoid going around in circles. And finally, since water flows downwards, we are more likely to find a source of water on lower ground. We have no idea how long we will be in this forest, so we should be on the lookout for food as well, but water is our highest priority". Since none of the others had any objections to Koheis suggestion, they were soon on the move, walking through the strange forest and making their way through the underbrush. The fact that the others seemed to trust his judgment so completely left him somewhat unsettled. Tenya might be calling him an expert, but he was nowhere near as sure of himself as the others seemed to be. The downwards slope wasn''t that steep, and there was no guarantee for how long it would continue. What would they do if the ground suddenly started going upwards? Turn around? They had been walking for around an hour, mostly in silence except for the occasional attempt at humor from Tenya. Walking in the lead, Kohei glanced backwards at the girls. Alisa looking expressionless as usual, was she frightened? Tired? Hungry? Since he couldn''t tell, should he talk to her? But what would he say? Wouldn''t he just make her think about the things that he himself didn''t want to think about? He had hoped that Haruna would take it upon herself to look after Alisa, if nothing else it would have distracted her from her own concerns. However, Haruna just trudged along, seemingly more aware of her cell phone than her surrounding, checking for reception bars and occasionally trying to make a call. So far she hadn''t had any luck "Well, of course she hadn''t, after all..." "Kohei look!" Tenya''s excited voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Kohei turned to see what his friend had discovered. The first thing he noticed was that the slope of the ground ahead had gotten steeper. The second thing he noticed was the trail, going through the underbrush. "Finally, some sign of people!" Tenya continued, proud of his discovery. "Really?" Haruna said, lifting her eyes from her cell phone with a look of relief on her face. "Good work, Ten-kun..." Alisa added (when did he give him that nickname?) "Actually, looking at it, I have a feeling this might be an animal trail" Kohei said, making Haruna''s expression turn gloomy again. "Bad work, Ten-kun" Alisa withdrew her previous praise, making Tenya deflate. "No, this is still great" Kohei said quickly, trying to salvage the mood "Animal trails often lead to sources of water, we should take a quick break and rest up for a while, before following it". There was a look of relief on the others faces at the mention of rest, even Alisa''s. They might not have walked that far, but walking through a forest was quite different from walking on paved road, especially with shoes unsuitable for the task, and honestly none of the other three were particularly fit. Tenya might be tall, but his indoor lifestyle hadn''t exactly made him muscular. According to what he heard from Haruna, Alisa was fond of P.E and quite energetic, but she wasn''t part of an athletic club and was by far the smallest of the group. As for Haruna herself... to be honest, the last few years she had gotten a bit on the chubby side. It wasn''t like she was getting fat or anything, just a bit plump. It seemed to bother Haruna however, considering that he had overheard her little brother Souta tease her for trying out strange diets. The four of them found suitable spots on the ground to sit down and rest, passing around Haruna''s water bottle to take a small sip of the lukewarm water each, and they each took a small piece of Alisa''s chocolate bar. After a while Alisa leaned over to whisper something to Haruna and the two of them got up and started to walk of, taking Alisa''s school bag with them. "Don''t go off too far" Kohei called, guessing what they were up to. "We won''t, but you two make sure you stay here" Haruna answered, blushing slightly "and don''t look in our direction" "Don''t look..." Alisa echoed. After the girl''s had left to do their business, Tenya opened his mouth to speak. "You know, when I saw that trail I really thought for a second that everything was going to be okay..." at first Kohei had expected some sort of bad joke about what the girls were up to, however his friend had a somber look on his face and talked in a tired voice "That we would follow the path, and then quickly end up on one of those camping grounds used for school trips. We would be able to call for help, and after being driven home by the police or something my parents would scold me for getting in to trouble, saying all those computer games had messed up my head..." Kohei sat in silence, waiting for Tenya to continue. " But there''s no way that would happen, this isn''t Japan, after all, we have been transported to another world..." "Yeah..." Kohei almost whispered. He had known from the start of course, he had tried to pretend otherwise, but once his friend said it out loud he could do nothing but admit the obvious truth. Except for discussing why the four of them had ended up together while the surrounding students were nowhere in sight, none of them had mentioned the strange voice and the event itself. As if acknowledging the clearly supernatural event would make it real. "I guess Alexandrova-kun also knows. After all, despite her stature she is not a child" Tenya continued "But what about Oyama-kun? The way she keeps trying to call on her cell phone...?" "Haruna..." Kohei kun sighed before continuing "Haruna isn''t stupid or anything, it''s probably shock" "Then what will you do about it?" Tenya asked "She''s going to find out eventually and when that happens..." "I don''t know!" Kohei burst out somewhat irritated, why did he have to be the one to think of everything? as if he wasn''t as scared as the rest of them" I don''t know okay! Why don''t you try to think of something for once!" "Calm down man! She''s your childhood friend so..." They were interrupted by the Alisa and Haruna returning, the two girls looking at them suspiciously. "Were you two fighting?" Haruna asked in a concerned voice. "No, not really we just had a disagreement about..." Kohei searched his mind for some excuse, not wanting to worry her. "Boobs!" Tenya Declared loudly "Kohei here insist That MisaMisa of AK-47 has the largest boobs in the group, although it''s clearly RuriRuri! Really, this is why I can''t stand casual fans!" "...." Haruna was looking at the two of them coldly in silence, as they were two particularly disgusting bugs. "Sex-fiends..." eventually the silence was broken by Alisa''s monotone voice. "Damn you four eyes! No, I was the one in the wrong earlier so I guess I''ll let you have that one" He really shouldn''t have snapped at Tenya, and he was glad they had been interrupted before he said something he couldn''t take back "I guess I can live with cold gazes and accusations for a while". After taking a few more minutes to rest up, they took of following the animal trail downwards. As they walked, Kohei studied the forest. The colors of the vegetation might be odd, but not unpleasant in fact he found some of the surrounding trees quite beautiful with their dark reddish trunks and their light colored leaves with hints of blue and sometimes silver. As they proceeded, the surroundings started to gradually change the undergrowth growing thicker with fern-like plants and vines as thick as his fingers crawling across the grounds and climbing up the tree trunks. If it hadn''t been for the trail, he imagined they would have a much harder time making their way forward. Idly, he wondered what kinds of animals had made the trail. They hadn''t seen any animals aside from bugs, though they could occasionally hear high pitched noise that he assumed were birds, but since this was another world who knew? "That''s right, this is another world..." he came to an unpleasant realization. They were following a trail, that he assumed was made by large animals. Back in Japan, he was used to wild animals being generally harmless to humans. Boars and bears might attack you if you stumbled over them and surprised them, but generally they would try to stay out of the way of humans. He didn''t know anything about the animals of this world however, and now they were walking down the trail completely unarmed except for his pocket knife. He hesitated, should they leave the path in case whatever animal made it showed up "No, that way we would just end up walking aimlessly, I''m sure we are approaching water considering the increased thickness of the vegetation. No matter what we do there will be risks involved, so we should at least choose the risk that is likely to reward us. Still, I must be more vigilant". With that in mind, he scanned the ground for anything he could use as a weapon until he noticed a fallen branch about 80cm long and one end ticker than the other giving it a somewhat club like shape, it''s color completely black rather than dark brown or red. He picked up the branch and weighted it in his hand, it''s bark was smooth to the touch and it was a bit heavier than it looked. He lifted his club and struck a nearby tree with a loud smack, the branch seemed to have survived the impact mostly intact "Not bad" "Ko-kun, what are you doing?" He turned around to face Haruna who was looking at him questioningly. "Uhm, well, since the underbrush is growing thicker I figured we might need something to clear the way" He answered. Considering the state of mind Haruna was in, still clutching her cell phone like a protective charm, he didn''t want to cause her more worry for now " I will have to talk to her eventually though". Haruna seemed to accept his answer with a "boys and their sticks" eye roll. Alisa on the other hand tilted her head, looking at him somewhat suspiciously. Tenya glanced around the forest nervously, probably suspecting what was on Koheis mind. As they moved along, Kohei continued to study his surroundings. This time, however, he was looking for potential dangers rather than taking in the beauty around him. Occasionally, he thought he heard something move around in the underbrush, but when he looked around he never saw anything suspicious. Seeing however was definitely getting harder, the sun had started to set. "Should we stop here and start to make camp, before it gets dark?" If they were going to sleep here they would have to clear away some plants, and he wanted to try to get a fire going. His thoughts were interrupted by a sound coming from up ahead. "Come on, just a bit further" he said as he turned around smiling to face his friends. "what.." Tenya gasped, looking exhausted. The other two were in a similar state. "Come on, you''ll see" he picked up his pace, walking briskly. He was almost tempted to run but didn''t want to risk leaving his friends to far behind. Eventually he reached the end of the trail and there he found small clearing with a stream pouring through, making a murmuring sound. For a moment he was tempted to dip his head into the stream and drink but stopped himself. "No, we better make a fire to purify the water before drinking". As the other three came stumbling into the clearing, he had to stop Alisa and Tenya from following the same initial impulse. "Right, I know we are all tired, but we have things that needs to be done before nightfall, and the faster we get a fire going, the faster we get to drink" The group started working immediately following Kohei''s instructions, clearing away underbrush and gathering dry wood as well as stones to put around the campfire. Tenya grumbled about his dignity as a civilized human being and not being suited for manual labor, but he did his job. Alisa worked mostly in silence except for the occasional: "Work Ten-kun..." or "Lazy four eyes...". It fell on Kohei alone to inspect the others work, He had hoped that Haruna would show some initiative and instruct the others, since she had at least some camping experience, but she just mechanically followed his instructions with a lifeless look on her face. Still, they did manage to find plenty of fire wood, and Kohei even managed to get the fire started before it turned completely dark. Turns out the hand drill method of fire starting is a bit easier to use when you can include pieces of math book pages in your tinder nest (he wished someone had told his grandpa), although it was still pretty rough on his hands. Eventually, they were all sitting by their campfire, snacking on half a granola bar each, and waiting for the water they had gathered from the stream to be ready to drink. Luckily Haruna''s bento-box was made of metal, so they could just fill the box with water and place it right next to the fire. Kohei had considered making some sort of contraption to hold the box above the fire instead, but he did not have the energy, and his hands were aching from rolling the spindle between his palms. The fire wasn''t all that large, but it was enough. It wasn''t all that cold to begin with, roughly the same late summer temperature as it had been back in Japan (although the air was dryer here), and even in the short sleeved summer uniforms they were wearing, they were in no real danger from the cold. The real purpose of the fire was to purify the water, give them some comforting light and hopefully keep away whatever animals that were moving around in the darkness of the night. Of course he knew that not all animals avoided fire, but at least having a fire would help them detect any curious (or hungry) visitor. He studied his black wooden club which was currently their only weapon. aside from his pocket knife. He considered cutting down a few saplings to make some spears "Oh, and we will also need to decide on the order we will take watch. Should I include Haruna, considering the state she''s in? But wouldn''t it look weird if she was the only one excluded? Maybe if I say that us guys can handle it and let both Haruna and Alisa sleep through the night?" "...And that is why DoDo''s mysterious shenanigans is clearly the superior work! Both from an artistic and storytelling point of view!" his thoughts were interrupted by Tenya, who had gotten into full, loud nerd mode. "Cyclop cube..." Alisa disagreed. "Really, your arguments rely solely on the nostalgia value and the influence on later works! You need to be able to view the works on its own merits as well, rather than just the larger historical context! Besides, if we used your criteria DoDo''s mysterious shenanigans would also..." Tenya continued his rant. What sort of discussion had they had? Could Tenya really interpret Alisa''s short sentences into elaborate arguments? Or was he just talking loudly to himself a crazy person? "Quiet... Four eyes..." After a while Alisa had seemingly had enough of Tenya and laid down, placing her head in Haruna''s lap. "Eh..?" Haruna let out a surprised sound as her attention was snatched away from her cell-phone. Alisa stared up at her with a somewhat demanding look in her eyes. Eventually, Haruna started stroking the smaller girls blonde head. Kohei was relieved that Alisa was looking after Haruna in her own way, distracting her from her fears and worries, but in the end, it would be him that would have to talk to Haruna about the reality of their situation, Tenya was right about that. He didn''t look forward to that discussion, but it was probably best not to wait for too long. Kohei sighed "I''ll let her have a night''s sleep, then I''ll find some way to break it to her tomorrow" Haruna followed Alisa''s gaze upwards toward the sky. Kohei and Tenya followed their example leanings backwards to take in the starry sky. "Hmpf, I suppose the great outdoors isn''t entirely without its merits" Tenya said, begrudgingly. Kohei nodded in agreement, not bothering to make a comeback. The night sky away from the lights and pollutions of the city was truly a thing of beauty. Alisa and Haruna seemed completely absorbed in gazing at the stars. "Well, they are members of the astronomy club after all, so of course they would be interested ". "This reminds me of the times we slept under the open sky, when we went camping with grandpa" Kohei said after a while, for a moment thinking that he saw some iridescent string like thing shimmering across the sky. Just his imagination? "Right Haruna?" "It''s wrong..." Haruna almost whispered. "What?" Kohei answered, confused for a second "The stars are wrong, Ko-kun!" Haruna burst out. "Oh no" he thought "None of the Constellations are there! None of it makes any sense!" at this point she was screaming and sobbing "This place this isn''t earth!" "Haruna..." he could think of nothing to say. "You knew..." Haruna looked into his eyes with tears streaming down her face. "You all knew..." she stood up looking around at the faces of the other''s. "Haruna..." Alisa said softly before turning away with a pained look on her face. "Look, Oyama-kun..." Tenya tried, before being interrupted "Ko-kun, you liar!" she screamed, while throwing her cell-phone into the ground "You''re all liars" "We are never going home..." she whispered, before rushing off into the dark forest. For a moment the three of them could do nothing but sit there in stunned silence except for some soft sobs from Alisa. "Wait, Haruna!" Kohei shouted as he stood up, grabbing his wooden club, and rushed after her. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" He thought as he ran through the forest not knowing if he others followed him. "Why the hell did this have to happen? Why the hell did we get taken to this place? And why the hell do they have to rely on me? Damnit!" Fortunately, the moonlight gave him at least some illumination and he was definitely a faster runner than Haruna. He soon caught up with Haruna and found her lying on the ground. Well of course, if you ran around in a forest at night you would trip eventually. "Haruna, are you okay!" He said as he started to pull her up. "No, don''t come close..." she whimpered "Look, Haruna, I''m sorry but..." "Noo..." He realized that she was staring at something ahead of her. He followed her gaze and saw several shapes moving around amongst the trees, almost invisible in the darkness except for the eyes reflecting the moonlight and long wicked teeth. "Dammit". Chapter 2: Encounter "Wolves?" was the first thought that came to Kohei''s mind staring at the dark shapes moving around amongst the trees ahead of them. "No, the size seems about right but there is something of about them". He couldn''t make them out clearly, but from what little he could tell their shoulders seemed to slope too much and their heads seemed overly large. "Monkeys? Large monkeys with oversized glistening fangs? How many are they, three? No, there''s another one moving around in the back, it looks a bit bigger than the rest" "Ko-kun..." Haruna was now standing up, clinging to his right hand and trembling, or was that him trembling? He had a notion that he should run away dragging her with him. Or maybe he should shake her of, so he could grab his wooden club with his right hand, and try to fight them? He knew he had to do something, but in the end all he could do was stand there, unable to move. The creatures started to make some whistling noises. He guessed that they had realized he and Haruna could see them and, as a consequence, had given up on stealth, and instead communicate openly with each other. Or, possibly, they were trying to intimidate their intended prey. With Haruna still clinging to his right arm he raised his weapon with his left hand, trying to get himself ready to fight. "Fighting a pack of wild animals, in the darkness, with just a branch? No matter how you look at it, it''s impossible. Then, should we run? But turning our back to them and run away, there''s no way we could outrun them, especially while clinging to each other..." He came to a sudden realization. Whatever the creatures out there in the darkness were, they were obviously pack hunters. "Meaning that, if two preys flee, they are likely to gang up on the slower one as a group". He glanced at Haruna looking as terrified as he felt, feeling her weight and body heat on his arm. Thinking about it, wasn''t all this her fault? "If she hadn''t run of, we wouldn''t be standing here facing off with those creatures, whatever they are. Why the heck should I be the one responsible for her safety, after she was the one who put them into danger in the first place. Yeah, I should just run and..." His thoughts came to a halt, with a shock. Had he seriously considered running of leaving Haruna behind as a bait to those creatures? Earlier, he had whined about how he had to take care of everyone. And now, when the situation had taken a turn for the worse he was just going to leave his oldest friend to die, and make justifications like she had it coming. He felt sick, like he had something vile inside of him that he needed to throw up. He looked at her again, remembering the freckled little girl that had cried when she tripped on the playground, putt all her determination into blowing out the candles on her birthday cake and who had watched the starry sky with him while on camping trips with him and his grandpa. Really, he was such a piece of thrash. "I''m sorry Haruna..." He whispered as he gently pulled his arm away, stepping in front of her while raising his wooden club in booth his hands. Was he crying? He was pretty sure he was crying. "Well, at this point, I don''t care how lame I look" He thought, facing the creatures "After all, I really am a lame piece of thrash!" As he was berating himself the creatures struck. Three of them were running out from amongst the trees while continuously making the whistling sound. "Definitely not wolves and definitely not monkeys". The way they ran with forelegs longer than their hind legs, was somewhat monkey like, but their long, spindly forelimbs ended in two long, wicked looking claws instead of monkey hands. And on their spindly dark bodies sat overly large, flat faced heads with large ears and grinning mouths full of teeth. The creatures spread out a bit, with one of the rushing straight towards him. He guessed the other two would try to flank him, but he didn''t have the time to check. The creature in front of him took a long leap forward, flying through the air with its claws spread out and his mouth wide open. Without any time to think, he planted his foot forward and swung his club in one smooth motion like a baseball player. The club hit the creature square in the face, and it actually flew backwards and tumbled on the ground screeching and whistling. It''s body felt surprisingly light. "No time to celebrate" he thought as he turned to face the one to his left, heart beating like crazy. Surprisingly, the creature stopped it''s approach and instead jumped backwards out of the reach of his wooden club scuttling away into the darkness. "Ko-kun! Look out!" Before he could even let out a sigh of relief, Haruna called out to him. He tried to turn around, realizing what must be about happen, but it was too late. He felt a weight crashing into him from behind and sharp claws raking his back. "Gah...!" He cried out, feeling sharp stings of pain. Thanks to Haruna calling out he had at least had the time to brace himself. He planted his feet and managed to remain standing despite the impact. The creature was whistling and screeching into his ear holding onto his body with sharp claws. "Get away from him!" he heard Haruna scream, and suddenly he could feel another impact. The creature let go of him, leaping through the air and landing several meters away. He turned around to see Haruna standing at his side with her arms stretched out after having pushed the creature of him. Her face had gone completely pale, except a for a thin red cut on her cheek. Somehow the creature had managed to scratch her before leaping away. "Thank you Haruna..." he gasped. He wanted to say more, to apologize again, but there was no time. He scanned the area quickly. Two of the creatures were scuttling around sideways, seemingly taking care to stay out of his reach. The larger creature was still lurking back amongst the trees, making whistling noises. Considering how they didn''t just rush him and Haruna were they actually afraid of them? After all, even the largest one was probably smaller than a human, though it was difficult to tell in the dark. Maybe the situation wasn''t actually as bad as he had thought. "No, they definitely hold the advantage, they''re just being careful wearing us down" he thought, then he realized something. "Haruna!" he called, not taking his eyes of the three creatures in his field of vision "There was another one that ran off somewhere, keep your eyes open!" Suddenly, the large on gave of a loud shriek and came rushing towards him while the other two spread out, likely planning to flank him again. "Shit!" he hadn''t realized just how much larger the large one was before it came rushing through the underbrush, it was probably about twice the size of the others. The wounds on his back seemed to hurt more just looking at its curved claws, looking long enough to gut him in one sweep. "Haruna! Run away!" He screamed. If he stayed behind they might ignore her and settle for the wounded prey. In the end, he would be the one acting as bait. "Well, it''s better this way" He thought as he raised his club, determined to at least get a good hit in on the creature, hoping Haruna had started to run "Please, Haruna. Please escape". "Kohei, Oyama-kun!" He heard Tenya''s loud voice as he saw a light flicker at the edge of his vision. His friend appeared at his side panting heavily and carrying a torch. The light seemed to frighten the creature who came to a halt screeched and immediately started to back away, almost stumbling over its own spindly legs Kohei managed to get a brief look at the creature''s face in the firelight, aside from the already clearly visible fangs he managed to get an impression of a wrinkly, misshapen face with a flat, snout like nose and black beady eyes. "Are you guys okay?" Tenya panted, out of breath "Haruna..." he could hear Alisa''s voice behind him. "Damn, man, when did you suddenly get skilled and smart enough to make a torch? Kohei thought "No, wait, maybe Alisa is the one responsible?" "We''re... Not really okay" He said out loud "But thanks, you guys probably saved our lives". "Hmpf a-as if I would let my sworn c-comrade die in a place like this" Tenya stammered while adjusting his glasses with a somewhat shaky hand "but what are those things anyway?" He glanced at the three creatures who had slunk back amongst the trees" "Don''t know man" Kohei said as he took a step backwards "But whatever they are, they don''t seem to like the fire, so let''s back away slowly while holding up the torch" "Things might work out after all" the second he allowed himself the hopeful thought, he was interrupted by aloud shriek coming from above and remembered the fourth creature. He turned his gaze upwards just in time to see the creature coming dropping down, presumably from a tree, it crashed into Tenya, sending him sprawling backwards and used his body as a springboard to pounce Kohei. As he fell on his back, the wounds struck the ground wracking his body with pain. He tried to struggle, but the creature had pinned his arms to the ground.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it As the creature lowered its head, dripping saliva from its fanged maw all over his face, he saw the other creatures approach from the left at a quick pace. He turned to the right, hoping that at least Haruna and Alisa would be able to run away, but instead he saw them staring wide eyed at something... Behind him? Suddenly the monstrous head above his face disappeared in a fountain of blood, squirting all over his face. Blinded by the blood he could hear the other creatures shriek in rage? grief? fear? Blinking away the blood in his eyes he looked up to see a tall, beautiful girl, with long jet-black hair tied up in a horse tail, pale skinned with strong yet elegant features. "...thin neck..." Tendoujin Kyoka-senpai said lowly as she flicked her wrist, splattering blood from a great, cruel looking cleaver. Change pov "How long have I been walking? Kyoka wondered as she stumbled through the dark forest, exhausted and slightly feverish "Should I just stop for the night and try to get some sleep?" She hesitated, on the one hand falling asleep alone and unguarded in this strange forest had it''s obvious risks. She was sure she had heard something move around in the underbrush, though she had no idea what it was. On the other hand, there was only so much the human body could take. Even with her leveling up her vitality and using her [Warriors rising], she would eventually collapse of exhaustion if she just continued walking without rest. Furthermore, she had no idea where she was heading. For all she knew she could be walking around in circles in the darkness. "Honestly, what am I doing? Sloppily taking care of my wound and hope not to get an infection. Eating raw monster flesh and hope not to get food poisoning. Taking off into an alien forest and hope to find someone" She sighed. She knew that she had made the wrong choices. However in this situation with her lack of information, equipment and forest survival skills, there essentially were no right choices. "Father told me that I needed to be a reliable person myself, before relying on others. But here I am not even being able to rest because there is no one to guard me when I sleep. Not being able to do anything except to walk and hope for the best.." She was shaken out of her thoughts by noises coming from up ahead, strange whistling noises that she assumed was animal calls or maybe monster calls considering the existence of Mister Piggy. "No wait, are those human voices as well?" while wondering about the noises, she noticed a light source moving through the darkness towards the direction of the sounds. The reasonable explanation would be that there were people fighting something up ahead. Of course, nothing about the situation was reasonable so she might be completely wrong. However, if there was fighting ahead there was at least something she was able to do. She clutched the handle of her cleaver and focused inwards at her mana pool, receiving the information Mana pool 17/100. By her estimate she would have enough mana to use her Art for slightly more than five minutes (although she was less than confident in that estimate). Trying to conserve her mana for the fight, only to end up arriving to late was not an option. So, she activated her [Warriors rising]. With her body invigorated and her senses sharpened, she immediately started running in the direction of the noises and the light. Even taking into account the moonlight and the slight increase in her night vision thanks to her temporarily heightened perception, it was somewhat surprising how she managed to reach her destination without stumbling and falling a single time. Soon, she was right upon the flickering light and the noises, it was now apparent that there were human voices aside from the animalistic shrieks. As she emerged from amongst the trees she quickly assessed the situation. Four human beings. Two girls standing up turned their gazes towards her as she barreled her way out from the darkness. Wearing her school''s uniform, one of the girls was immediately recognizable as the first year Alisa Alexandrova-san, with her western features and long golden hair she stood out after all. She did not recognize the other girl, who was of average height and build with shoulder length dark hair and had no features that immediately stood out. On the ground laid two boys also wearing her school''s uniform. The one farthest away holding a torch and wearing glasses seemed vaguely familiar. She did not recognize the other boy at all , but then of course the dark spindly creature on top of him made it hard to get a good look. Aside from the creature atop the boy, there were three others approaching in a strange scuttling run. As there was no time for a closer inspection, she immediately stepped forwards towards the boy with the creature on top of him. At first, she gripped her cleaver in a standard two-handed kendo grip by reflex, but after realizing a downwards chopping strike might hit the boy as well, she changed her grip mid-step to a one-handed grip. The creature pinning down the struggling boy lifted its twisted fanged his face, finally noticing her approach when it was already too late. She swung her cleaver in a downwards pendulous motion, hoping to strike the creatures head from the side rather than from above and thereby avoid the risk of hitting the boy underneath it. However, rather than hitting the creature''s head, the cleaver bit into the creature''s neck and sent its decapitated head flying in one smooth motion. For a moment she was stunned, looking at the head tumbling across the ground, then she looked down on her bloodied cleaver and the creatures body spurting blood all over the boy boys face from its decapitated neck. "Compared to Mister Piggy, you certainly had a thin neck" she said while turning towards the other creatures, flicking her wrist to remove some of the blood from her blade. The other three had come to a halt, staring at her while shrieking and whistling loudly. Were they trying to intimidate her? Then the smaller two suddenly started to move sideways spreading out. She guessed that they were planning on surrounding her. Not a bad plan, it would be hard for her to guard from attacks coming from three different directions. "However, that is assuming that I will be on the defense!" She thought as she started to run towards the larger one. "Quickly, the other!" She heard someone shouting behind her, the boy she just saved? "Use the torch!" There was no time to see what was going on, all she could do was to continue her advance. The creature crouched, as if preparing to leap at her. However Kyoka had no intention of letting it. Before the creature could act she closed the distance between them and brought down her cleaver over his head while yelling. As she struck the front of its head she could feel her cleaver impacting its skull before it gave way and the blade sunk into its brain, continuing its path making a deep cut between the creature''s eyes and splitting its nose. With a gurgling sound, the creature collapsed like a puppet having it strings cut. She was not quite sure, since she obviously had little experience in cutting through flesh and bone (aside from Mister Piggy), but she had the impression that its skull bone had been quite thin. She heard some high pitched noises behind her and was reminded of the two remaining creatures. She turned around to in time to see the two creatures running off into the darkness. One retreating from Alisa Alexandrova, who was now holding the torch the boy with glasses had carried. The other one scurrying away from the boy that had been pinned underneath the creature she decapitated. The boy, whose face and shirt front had been colored completely red by the creature''s blood, held a black wooden club raised as a baseball bat, eyes focused on the creature running away. "Hmm, he might actually be a member of the baseball team" She thought looking at him "His arms and shoulders looks fairly strong, and his posture is not bad overall" Seemingly assured that the two remaining creatures had fled, he slumped his shoulders and started trembling. As if his fear and exhaustion had finally caught up to him. "Not only that, looking closer isn''t he wounded?" She thought, noticing that aside from the creature''s blood covering his front he also had several bloody tears on the back of his shirt. "Ko-kun!" the dark-haired girl shouted, as she rushed forward grabbing on to him as if too support him and prevent him from collapsing. "Are you... okay?" Alexandrova-san said in a low voice as she walked up to them still carrying the torch. "Hmpf, as if something of this level would be enough to beat my sworn comrade Kohei-dono" the tall glasses-wearing boy said in a somewhat pompous voice, while adjusting his glasses "For he is a savage man of the wild that will...Ouch!" "Annoying... four eyes..." Alexandrova muttered after having stomped down on the glasses-wearing boys foot. "Yeah.. I''m fine, thanks to you guys... and Tendoujin-senpai" The boy named Kohei, who apparently knew her name, looked at her, his broad face still covered in blood, and smiled weakly "Thank you Tendoujin-senpai, you really saved us". The other three followed up and thanked her as well while casting some questioning glances at her cleaver. "Not at all, I am just glad that I was finally able to meet..." Suddenly, mid sentence the dark surroundings became less clear to her eyes and her exhaustion became even more severe. She had run out of mana and her [Warriors rising] had lost its effect. "Are you alright Tendoujin-senpai?" Kohei asked, sounding concerned. The effects of her loss of her Art must have been visible. "Ah yes, my apologies for making you worry" She answered, deciding that explanations about her Art could wait for later "It has been quite am exhausting day for me, as I imagine it has been for the four of you as well" "Uhm yeah..." Kohei answered, he and the other three looked at her a bit oddly. Did she say something strange? After a prolonged silence the dark haired girl started to speak. "Uhm, Tendoujin-senpai, we have a camp a bit away from here, it''s not much but we have a campfire and water and uhm.." "Chocolate..." Alexandrova-san added. "Right! So, would you like to come back with us?" the dark-haired girl asked somewhat hesitantly. "Water, campfire and chocolate, sounds lovely" Kyoka answered "I will be glad to accompany you" "Well then, let us depart!" the glasses-wearing boy declared. She had noticed that he tended to talk in a loud voice, did he perhaps have some sort of hearing impairment? "After our glorious battle we all deserve a bit of well earned rest wouldn''t you say so my comrades?" "Annoying four-eyes..." Alexandrova-san said yet again "While it''s true that he is an annoying four-eyes, we should get going" Kohei said and the dark haired girl nodded in agreement "But before that, help me with this Tenya". Kohei walked up to the decapitated corpse of the smaller creature and grabbed it by the forelegs. "Help you with what excactly?" the glasses wearing boy apparently named Tenya asked with a frown" "We''re carrying this back to camp of course, I want to get a good look at this thing in daylight, we need whatever information we can get" It seemed the boy named Kohei, who was obviously the group''s leader, had quite the sharp mind. "Geh.." Tenya made a disgusted sound. "Come on man, it''s lighter than it looks" "Thats not really the issue here..." "Tenya" "Alright, alright..." Still grumbling, he helped lifting the creature by grabbing its back legs. "Well then, I will..." as she turned to pick up the creatures head, she was interrupted by the dark-haired girl. "It''s okay Tendoujin-senpai I''ll carry it" "Are you quite sure?" Kyoka asked. Somehow, she didn''t seem like the sort of girl who would be comfortable with carrying the severed head of an unidentified creature, still dripping blood. "Yes, you''re exhausted, right senpai?" The girl lifted the ugly head by one of its large ears, holding it away from her body, while making a disgusted face "And besides, you are already carrying your..." she nodded towards the cleaver Kyoka was carrying in her right hand. "Well then I will take you up on your kind offer" Declining the other girl''s kindness would be rude, and in truth she was quite exhausted, her arms and shoulders aching from wielding a weapon intended for a stronger user with her wounded left shoulder hurting particularly bad. After walking for a while, they reached a small clearing with a stream running through and a small campfire burning. "Ah, if you will all excuse me, I will just sit down for a while" She sat down leaning against a tree and letting out a heavy sigh. "Oh no, I can''t believe I am making such a slovenly appearance" she thought. "Right, let''s put a bit more wood on the fire and then get some sleep" Kohei said "I''ll take the first watch" "Oh no, I have not even introduced myself properly..." her eyelids felt as heavy as lead "I will just close my eyes for a few seconds and then..." "You''ve done enough, Kohei!" someone burst out... the dark-haired girl? "just sit down and pull up your shirt so I can clean your wounds" "That''s right, first impressions are important... Father says.. "I''m sorry Kohei it''s all my fault..." someone sobbed. "Haruna..." "Haruna... thats the name off..." "Oh my... Tendoujin-senpai" "Let... her sleep..." "Sleep? No I am awake, I just... need to rest my eyes for a while..."