Saychan and me, we"re childhood friends. Our houses were right next to each other, and we"d been playmates for as far back as I can remember. And at some point, I"d even… fallen in love with her.

I"d confessed my feelings in my junior year in kindergarten, and promised her that we"d get married in my senior year. Too precocious? Not at all. I was completely serious. Back then, and still now.

In the end, be it in elementary school, or middle school, I ended up confessing to her over and over again. And every time I did, she readily replied,

“I, love you too!”

Ahh, I must be the luckiest guy in the world.

Since I"ve had the absolute privilege of being together all my life with the girl I love, my one and only.

Saychan and me, we were so in sync with our feelings for each other… But despite that, despite how real life isn"t some cheap romance novel, we had our problems.

I first started noticing these problems in my 3rd year of elementary.

Boys and girls begin segregating a little starting at kindergarten, but come elementary, this goes into overdrive. Boys start playing amongst boys, and girls chatter amongst girls.

And between all that separation, what"d happen when one boy keeps sticking to a girl (Saychan) anywhere and everywhere?

“Touya~, I saw you with Hinagiku~”

“Me, I saw those two, HOLDING HANDS!”

“Holy moly! Are you two DATING~”

When they teased me like this, I… The pathetic brat of a kid that I was, I, of all things, felt embara.s.sed. I broke under the inquisitive gazes of everyone in cla.s.s, and under the pressure from the boys who jeered at me.

So, you think it couldn"t get worse?

“S-Saychan I… I"m not going home with you anymore!”

I told her. Man, if I had a time machine, I swear I"d go back to me at that very moment and sucker punch that brat. I still regret it, it was the worst mistake I"d made in my life.

I distanced myself from Saychan just to satisfy that sort of meaningless embarra.s.sment. I"d made her sad.

It was only after 3 days that I"d come to know that Saychan cried because of me.

“Sorry, Saychan…. I"m so sorry… I, I love you!! Saychan, I love you forever…”

I cried and begged with my life for her forgiveness. I cried as if trying to squeeze anything fluid out of my body. I later heard that I was crying so hard, Saychan"s parents were in a bit of panic about me.

Anyway, she forgave me. Saychan is so kind. I was only forgiven because of her profuse and bountiful kindness.

Thereafter, I swore to myself that I"d firmly oppose anyone who dared get in our way.

h.e.l.l to the rumors, h.e.l.l to the haters, and h.e.l.l to the pools of jealousy. My love for Saychan will prevail. Once I set my mind on it, I never backed down.

“Ahh, the h.e.l.l Touya, you"re still hanging with Hinagiku? You really wanna date someone that b.u.t.t ugly~?”

“I"ll f.u.c.king kill you.”

No mercy. No mercy to any enemies of my love. No mercy to anyone who insults my Saychan.

Luckily, I"d hit p.u.b.erty fast. I was also better than average at sports. No way I"d lose in some elementary school brawl. I had a lot more at stake.

Love, that was my greatest source of strength.

And yet, Saychan, my kindhearted, infinitely caring Saychan even went so far as to worry for me.

“Touykun, please, don"t get into fights because of me. I, I know I"m ugly, so…”

“Oh no you"re not! You"re the cutest girl in the world, Saychan! To me, there"s only you, I can"t even look at any other girl!”

“But Touykun, you"re so handsome… Someone like me, I don"t even suit you.”

“I"m the one who isn"t good enough for you!”

Saychan was the best, the cutest, the kindest, simply the best. I was working hard every day so I could become at least worthy of standing beside such an outstanding girl, so I could be worthy as her boyfriend. I worked out and studied hard. I even learned stuff about fas.h.i.+on, something I previously had no interest in, so I could look good to her.

All that hard work should"ve done something.

“Thank you. But me and you being an item, actually, some girls get jealous you know… So, don"t worry so much. I"m don"t care if people say stuff about me.”

“But, you… Dammit, I just want to be with you, why can"t they understand that.”

“Mm, I"ll be with you too. So don"t worry, I"ll be fine no matter what they do.”

I was getting diabetes with how sweet she was.

I would"ve personally enjoyed giving h.e.l.l to anyone who tired to mess with our love, but getting into too much trouble was a sure way to make Saychan sad. Can"t do that.

The thing about a relations.h.i.+p, I realized, maybe in junior high, that it wasn"t just about the two of us, but also involved the people around. It"s a sensitive age. Everyone gets really worked up about dating and all that despite still being kids.

Guess I should count myself lucky, my heart was already set in stone. Saychan told me how she"d seen this stuff happening with uppercla.s.smen, so I"d already made sure to learn how to best avoid stepping into the so-called confession pitfalls.

Once junior high starts, love literally explodes, especially for girls. And these chicks I maybe talked to once started coming on to me.

I was confessed to, many times. So many of these, ‘b.i.t.c.h, do I even know you?" type girls.

I was a normal kid, just a bit taller than the other boys, somewhat OK at sports, and scored a little above average in grades. I didn"t think my face was particularly handsome, and if they did find me good looking, it was probably because of my hair that I styled up to look better. As for my clothes, I just had to wear things that suited my figure and it looked decent.

I actually got disgusted how these girls would flock to a guy just because he was a slight cut above the rest. These brainless thots, they never even tried to find true love―― But I couldn"t just lay out all my thoughts when these b.i.t.c.hes came confessing, I had to turn them down gently.

Women, oh creatures of envy they are. If I told them that I liked Saychan so f.u.c.k off, there was a 100% chance that they"d bite back at Saychan. b.i.t.c.h please, not only do you not see how much of an ugly creature you are, but you go so far as to get jealous of the cutest girl ever; stupid, just plain ugly and stupid. But that"s women for you. Meaning, Saychan wasn"t a girl, she was a G.o.ddess.

It was a matter of getting used to. Once the confessions went into the double digits, I was getting pretty good at turning them down. Well, at least they didn"t fly into a rage or start wailing anymore.

Like that, I"d somehow made it past junior high.

Once I got in high school, everything seemed to calm down, like they"d gone past the phase of blind love and all that mess. Kids had started forming more solid couples, boldly as if proclaiming, ‘Look at us, we"re dating!"

You could say I was finally about to catch a break…

“Wow, that Soumkun, he looks like an idol.”

Souma Yuuto, it was towards him that I first felt the meaning of the word ‘jealousy".

Ever since that incident in 3rd grade, I"d put in my utmost effort to become a man worthy of Saychan. I could even boast that I was near the top among the attractive boys in cla.s.s.

But Souma Yuuto was something else. His looks he was born with, and then, there was that aura on him. He was so d.a.m.n handsome, it was like he came right out of a TV show, like a fictional character described as incredibly beautiful.

I was d.a.m.n jealous. And d.a.m.n worried too.

W-wait, Saychan, don"t tell me you…

“But I still think you"re the best, Touykun. That"s why you"re my boyfriend.”

SAYCHAAAN! You mean it? You really, really mean that right?

You do don"t you. Alright, I don"t need to be jealous of Souma Yuuto anymore.

That guy was someone I myself didn"t think I could hope to match… But Saychan said I was the best, that"s all that mattered.

I didn"t have to be the best in the world. I just needed to be the best for Saychan, that"s all I cared about.

“Hey Saychan… Anyone else, seem like that?”

Please forgive my gutless self for asking you this.

“Anyone else, ah, like Tendou-kun? He"s pretty popular with the girls too.”

Tendou Ryuuichi. Right, he"s got the stuff too. He was better than me at least. I was someone who"d somehow slipped into the handsome group after lots of hard work, after all. He was the only other guy who"d be on par with Souma Yuuto.

“But, he"s kinda scary…”

Yup, he is, he is, you"re not someone to get involved with those delinquent types.

Don"t you worry, if anything happens, I"ll protect you, be it from Tendou, or the 4 kings of Black high.

“Anyone else?”

I was getting annoying, I know.

“Hmmm, other than those two, I think you"d be the most popular. You"re, um, actually a hot topic among the girls.”

Harumph, who cares what other girls consider their hot topic. Souma Yuuto and Tendou Ryuuichi can collect all those groupies for all I care. And then, I could flirt with my sweet Saychan without reserve.

“Ah, there is one more I guess, um, well… It"s Momok.a.w.kun.”

“EHH!?”

Momokawa, isn"t he that short dude who pretty much looks like a girl? D-do-don"t tell me, Saychan, you"re not into that, are you…

“Momok.a.w.kun, you see, he"s got a really cute and girly face and… Honestly, he looks a lot better than me… I didn"t think, I"d even lose to a boy in looks…”

Saychan suddenly had this dark aura about her.

What, the h.e.l.l, Momokawaa… You dare used that cute face of yours to mess with my Saychan"s delicate pride as a girl. I should make plans to snipe him one moonless night.

“So, yeah, Touykun… What about you, any interesting girls?”

“None at all.”

There were actually a lot of attractive girls in our cla.s.s. Starting with Souma Yuuto"s little sister, Souma Sakura, there were a number of them whom I wouldn"t be surprised if they appeared on magazines and TV.

But I was only speaking objectively, about their looks, nothing else.

“Saychan, you"re my one and only.”

“Fufuh, you too, my one and only, Touykun.”

We connected lips, as if natural.

We"d already had our first kiss way back in kindergarten. In elementary, we did it sometimes, no actually, quite a few times.

But the first kiss we shared while mutually acknowledging our love was probably some time in junior high.

Ever since then, I"d kissed Saychan fully aware of my desire for her. Every single time, my heart pounded as if it wanted to break out.

I love her, I love her, I lovehersomuch… Ahhh, I love you.

I was born only to meet you. I"m alive only to be with you.

I"ll be with you. Forever, forever.

So――

“Haah… Haah… SAYCHANN!”

The first thing I did after waking up in this abhorrent dungeon was search frantically for Saychan.

With the little calm I had remaining, I decided that I"d need all the strength I could get, and quickly dealt with receiving my Job.

I got the Job: Archer.

Of course I did. I"d been doing archery club since elementary. It wasn"t anything serious, Saychan started doing it, so I simply followed.

But since I was doing the same thing as her, I had to make sure I did it well. I took club very seriously. I"d like to think I got good too. Not national level, but pretty good.

But what use is an Archer without a bow.

My equipment from club? That was all obviously in the club store room. Souma Sakura was the weird one for bringing her bow and quiver to cla.s.s.

If I knew this would happen, I would"ve taken them from her, by force if need be.

No, well, the cla.s.sroom was crumbling away and all I could do was hug Saychan tight so we wouldn"t be separated… s.h.i.+t, she was there, right there in my arms, I lost consciousness in the darkness after the cla.s.sroom was no more. Must"ve let her go then.

Please, just let her land close by…

“Kyaaaaaaa!!”

“SAYCHAN!!”

A scream. I recognized it, why wouldn"t I? I could tell it was her, absolutely.

I ran as fast as my feet would carry. I ran to my girlfriend, my most precious, my one and only, my Hinagiku Saya.

Touykun and I, we"re childhood friends. Our houses were right next to each other, and we"d been playmates for as far back as I can remember. And at some point, I"d even… fallen in love with him.

He confessed to me in junior kindergarten.

“Saychan, I love you!”

“I, love you too!”

I confirmed in a grin. I was so happy.

I was a girl who had learned the joy of mutual love at a very tender age. Quite a luxury, if I do say so myself.

Maybe that"s why… I was ugly, ugly to the point where I felt shame to even dare to love a boy.

“Ahh, the h.e.l.l Touya, you"re still hanging with Hinagiku? You really wanna date someone that b.u.t.t ugly~?”

This was in elementary school, a boy spoke this out loud in cla.s.s, loud enough for all to hear.

It was mean. But it was the truth.

That boy wasn"t trying to bully me or anything. He was actually trying to get friendly with Touya, he didn"t mean anything bad.

Anyone else would think so too.

Since Touykun, he was already really cool.

In elementary school, boys who were fast were the popular ones. And Touykun was the fastest. He was always the anchor in our sports day relay races. He was everyone"s hero who always got 1st prize for the cla.s.s. I remember this one time in 6th grade, the runner before him tripped and fell, putting his team dead last, but Touykun was so fast, he pa.s.sed all the others like the wind… Ahh, Touykun was so cool back there.

Ah! Wait wait, now"s not the time to reminisce about him, well, anyway, Touykun was really popular.

He had this daring look in his eyes, and with a perfect straight nose and defined face, along with his fast growth, he was quickly gaining all the attractive features of a young man. He was tall and slender, but still had quite a bit of muscle and knew how to use it. He wasn"t just fast, he was great at any sport.

Not to mention the school tournaments, he was the hero there too. If Touykun was there, we"d win for sure.

He was so cool and handsome, if a boy like that won the game, and then, still covered in sweat, made that bright, refres.h.i.+ng smile that boys made, well, any girl would instantly fall for him.

But that smile of his was always directed at me.

That made me happy. I felt so happy―― But, that wasn"t all I felt. Someone like me, someone so ugly like me was monopolizing someone as wonderful as Touykun.

I had these narrow eyes, and a round, eggish face. My nose was low, and my hair was always frizzy like seaweed… I guess I could say I had good, well-formed teeth, but that"s it.

As for my body, don"t get me started. My chest was so small, I sometimes doubted if a bra was necessary, and my legs were short too. At least I wasn"t fat, that was good, right?

That was me. That dull pebble from the roadside of a girl. And Touykun, the boy who s.h.i.+ned like a diamond was directing all his affection towards me, and only me. And the result?

Jealousy, jealousy, fierce storms of jealousy. Vilification and slander hailed down from all directions.

Touykun, you know those friends I had with me in junior high? Those cute girls, they weren"t my friends at all. If they were with me, they could be with you. So they just had to pretend to be my friend.

“Hey b.i.t.c.h, break up with Touya already.”

“Don"t you feel sorry Touykun has to date an ugly b.i.t.c.h like you?”

“Where"s your phone? Call him right now, tell him you want to break up!”

I"m sorry. I"m sorry. I"m sorry.

I felt a lot more pathetic about my weak self than any hate I could have for those girls.

Touykun is my boyfriend. I couldn"t even tell them that so they would back off.

Because, in some corner of my mind, I was thinking. I was, always thinking.

I kept thinking, Touykun, isn"t there someone better than me you"d rather love?

I was neither cute, nor beautiful. I furthermore was not blessed with any talent that could counterbalance my lack of beauty, and nor did I have the brains to be categorized as intelligent. No beauty, no talent, and worst of all, weak. My heart was weak, I was inferior.

If only, if only my heart had just a little more strength. And if only, I had a pinch more courage and confidence… Surely I would"ve boldly accepted all his love. I would"ve been happy.

But I wasn"t. I didn"t have that tiny bit of the strength I so desired.

They would say many awful things, but I couldn"t talk back. I could only, silently take it. No, this ‘taking it" wasn"t so n.o.ble an act. I was simply at their mercy, letting them do as they pleased.

I didn"t say anything, I didn"t do anything, I just cried quietly, weak, pathetic me.

Eventually, they"d had enough of that. They started confessing to him. They probably thought it"d be easy. I was the worst kind of girl, ugly in both heart and body, it"d be so very easy to steal a man away from someone like me.

True, I was weak. But Touykun was strong.

In essence, no matter how cute the girl, he was quick to turn down every one of them.

And every time he did I was… Ahh, I"m so glad. I"m so glad I"m still his girlfriend. I was even ugly in relief.

Here I was, doing nothing, nothing but counting on Touykun"s strength, relying on him… I was exactly as they said, the worst kind of girl.

“So, yeah, Touykun… What about you, any interesting girls?”

“None at all. Saychan, you"re my one and only.”

“Fufuh, you too, my one and only, Touykun.”

Once we"d entered s.h.i.+ramine, most of that storm of malicious jealousy was gone.

Must"ve been because of Soumkun and Tendou-kun, they were a lot more popular than Touykun. Most of the girls had their eyes on those two. Though, there were some who thought they were out of their league so tried to aim for Touykun who could be easily placed third in terms of looks.

But even that was much more peaceful than our issues in junior high.

Friends, I"d made real friends. Especially Nagae Yukiko-san, she"s the best.

She was a plain and quiet girl compared to many of the pretty ones in cla.s.s. But Nagae-san, even though she was still much prettier than me, she actually wished for me and Touykun to have a good relations.h.i.+p together. She was the first person my age to ever say that to me.

Even when they had no interest in Touykun, girls were bound to get jealous if someone as ugly as me were dating a super handsome guy like him.

But mysteriously, Nagae-san wasn"t like that at all.

No, actually, it wasn"t too much of a mystery. She simply had her heart set for another. Thing is though, that other turned out to be Higuchi-kun, and man is he scary… No, it"s fine Nagae-san, I haven"t told anyone about this, don"t worry!

At any rate, it was thanks to Nagae-san"s friends.h.i.+p with me, that I"d learned something very important. I still remember those words, words that shook me to the core.

“Hinagiku-san, what are you doing? You need to properly reciprocate Sakurai-kun"s feelings!”

I"d finally been made to realized that I was only thinking about myself. That one line gouged at my heart deeper than any and all spite I was showered with in junior high.

But once I realized it, I accepted it, acknowledged it, and finally, little by little, I began to better myself.

Touykun had grown far past me, both in heart and body. He"d turned into a charming young man―― While I, ugly as I am, finally started thinking that I could put in the effort to at least try to get on his level.

It was no time to keep despairing on my shortcomings.

Touykun had cherished me ever since we were children.

And I had to reciprocate those feelings, give back to his love.

This was not about whether I was worthy. If he wanted it, even right now, I was ready and willing to give my everything to him.

So it wasn"t scary, nor was it embarra.s.sing. No honestly, I was a little scared, and really, really embarra.s.sed… I"d always heard that your first time hurts, but hey, um, why are you the one crying, Touykun? But, I"m so happy, you"re so gentle, Touykun.

My name is Hinagiku Saya. Sakurai Touya"s girlfriend.

I love him with all my heart, and would do anything for him… Can do anything for him.

So please… Please… G.o.d, if you"re listening, please give me courage!

“Saychan, don"t worry… I"m here, I"ll, protect you…”

Summoned to another world.

Scared and confused, I"d been attacked my monsters in this scary dungeon.

These black, like c.o.c.kroaches given human form, monsters had surrounded us. They were vile, ugly things, and had weapons like rusted knives or axes.

When I screamed out in terror after seeing these things, Touykun came.

But really… It should be scary for him too.

“B-but, Touykun you… ”

“It"s OK, I"m fine.”

There were too many of them.

These black monsters were short, had thin limbs, and didn"t look too strong. But there were more than ten of them, and every one had a weapon.

On the other hand, Touykun was unarmed. He had on the same clothes he was wearing when we were ejected from the crumbling cla.s.sroom.

There was no way he could win like this.

“BuGeGe!”

“GuBa! GaBuRaa!”

The monsters had put us down as weak, helpless prey and laughed as they surrounded us even closer. It was as if they were joyfully considering how they"d torture and kill us, they weren"t attacking just yet.

But their rusted brown weapons could attack any time, finish us off in an instant.

We"ll die. We were going to die.

I was so scared… But Touykun dying, that was even more scary.

I could care less about myself. I could die, whatever. Because all this time, Touykun, he"s loved me so, soo much!

If I had the power to let him survive, I――

“P-pl-please, work―― Poison!”

I yelled, clasping my hands in prayer, I believed in the power I"d been granted.

“Buh, Geh… OBAAAHHH!?”

And then, one of those monster close to Touykun, the one with the knife, vomited blood as it collapsed.

“ Poison! Poison! Poison!”

I just kept at yelling. It seemed to be a magic for poison. I just kept blasting with that one power.

“UGEEEHHH!!”

The monsters suffered and collapsed one after the other. Again, and again. My magic, it worked!

“BuGuGu, BuRuGAAAAHH!!”

But I was so focused on yelling out my magic, I was only looking in front of me. The monsters numbered in the double digits and had formed a circle around us, meaning, many were behind me too.

My spell, Poison only worked on one target for one shot. I could only beat them one by one, in order, and only if I could see them.

Meaning, I couldn"t deal with the monsters behind me.

By the time I reacted to it"s fierce screech and hurriedly turned around, the axe-swinging monster was practically under my nose.

“―― Don"t you dare lay a hand on my Saychan, f.u.c.king roach!”

In contrast to his chilling roar, an arrow swiftly and silently pierced itself inside the monsters head.

“GUH, gehh… ”

The monster wavered, with the axe still over its head, and plonked backwards to the ground.

“Haha! This"ll be easy now that I have a bow.”

Touykun had picked up a bow from one of the monsters I"d defeated with Poison. He was laughing as he boldly held that flimsy little bow.

Wow, Touykun, you"re always so cool… As I was getting smitten yet again, the fight was already over.

“Phew, glad those arrows lasted. Yeah, this Job thing really is something, I got 100% accuracy.”

“Touykun… You"re safe, I"m so glad…”

“I"m really sorry, Saychan, I couldn"t protect you right away. Actually, you ended up saving me”

Now released from the fear and unease, we embraced each other and I started bawling.

We really shouldn"t have made ourselves so defenseless, but Touykun didn"t mind at all. As he"d always done, he hugged me back gently.

Then, after I"d finally calmed down, I asked him,

“Hey, so, you"re an Archer, now?”

“Yeah, I am”

In a way, this was inevitable. We"d been always doing archery club together, but I never improved, basically, I sucked at it. On the other hand, Touykun had talent. He was, after all, the only one in s.h.i.+ramine who could even compare in skill to Soumsan.

“So I guess you got a different Job?”

“Ah! Um… I, well you see, my Job is, um…”

“Saychan, it"s fine if you don"t want to say, I understand.”

“No no, it"s alright, I don"t mind telling you at all.”

Come on, you"re such a worry-wart Touykun.

Well, it"s true I got a bit hesitant saying it out loud. It"s, kind of a weird one.

“I"m… a Shaman.”