“Yo, looks like ya came to. Guess I should say it"s good to see ya again?”

“Higuchi, Kyouya…”

“Woah there, you can relax man. I ain"t looking for a fight, promise.”

What kind of idiot did he think I was? There was no way he forgot what he did to me… no wait, knowing this piece of c.r.a.p, he might"ve actually did.

He was the sort of sc.u.m that could go on ruining others" lives without a care. His victims would obviously never forget, but for him, it"d be just another day.

Just my luck. If only Mei-chan was here. I"d even encourage her bas.h.i.+ng his s.h.i.+t sideways, which I"d follow up by stripping him to his underwear, tying him up with my Blackhair Bind rope, and tossing him into the middle of a monster infested room.

“Stop right there, don"t you come any closer,” I cautioned him.

“Haha, I"m not gonna bite.”

Higuchi was still talking casually, but he listened and stopped coming closer. He also had his hands raised as if to show that he didn"t mean me any harm.

There was a good amount of distance between us, but then again, I knew that he was a Thief. Natsukawsan, the other Thief I knew, would be able to dash across this distance before I could react, so if I a.s.sumed that Higuchi was at least as strong as her, I was already within his range.

Rem and #2 had, of course, sensed my distress and had swiftly taken up arms to defend me. But in all honesty, Rem, as she was currently, just wouldn"t match up to an actual Job holder. The most she could do was buy a few seconds for me to prepare my next move.

But there was still the fact that he hadn"t tried to kill me instantly when I warped into this Fairy Square… Which meant that he, Higuchi, had something he wanted, something big enough that he"d try to get friendly with someone he once tried to kill for no reason other than convenience.

“I don"t want to fight you either. But I have no plans to join your party, or talk to you for that matter. I"ll be leaving right now, and I hope we don"t cross paths again.”

“Aw, don"t be like that man. This zone"s Boss is a real tough one, help us out will ya?”

“You haven"t tried any other routes?”

“Getting past this Boss is the easiest one.”

“What about Masaru and Ayase-san? Are they dead?”

“‘Course not. They"re still with me. Oi~, it"s safe now.”

Maybe he"d somehow sensed that I was teleporting in and made them hide just in case.

On Higuchi"s call, Reina A. Ayase peeked inside from the Square"s entrance, and then quickly ran in with her usual cutesy manner. She maintained enough distance from me so that we wouldn"t need to communicate.

“Kotarou…”

Masaru followed soon after, his face looking extremely awkward. He obviously had a lot of things to say to me, but I didn"t want to have to bother. I didn"t have to deal with whatever sort of guilt he might"ve been feeling and I wasn"t the sort of big-hearted person that could simply forgive a once friend turned traitor.

“See? I know I don"t look it, but I treat the people on my side real nice. And those two are living proof, aren"t they? Seeing as I"ve brought them all the way here.”

“Sure, and since you have 3 people already, you don"t need me, right?”

“Gotta admit, there was a time when I was thinking along those lines, but uh, you could say I"ve seen the light? Anyway, I realized that the dungeon"s too tough with a party of only three.”

‘Too tough" as in he couldn"t beat this zone"s Boss.

That being said, Higuchi"s proposal itself wasn"t all that strange. I"d even experienced it once when the Hirano x Nis.h.i.+yama couple requested basically the same thing of me and Mei-chan. Even for trash like Higuchi, he"d have the sensibility to cooperate in beating a Boss before yapping on about the 3 people rule.

So if that really was their current situation, I at least didn"t carry the risk of getting back-stabbed before we beat this Boss.

“Alright, fine. I can work with you… but in return, once I show you how capable I am, you need to make me your 3rd member. Masaru"s the 3rd now, but he"s a slave, so be sure to get rid of him when that happens.”

“Sure, I"m totally okay with that. It"s true that we gotta decide who to keep on the team based on merit. It"s only fair, right?”

“Fair, yeah.”

So Masaru"s standing in the party hadn"t changed since I last saw them. Since Higuchi could still say he was fine getting rid of him, Masaru didn"t matter to him at all.

And currently, that traitor was very overtly listening in to our conversation, but didn"t dare cut in. He"d already been made to know that he was in the lowest rung, a place from which he even lacked the right to speak without proper permission.

“So, what do you say, Momokawa? Deal?”

“I"m not exactly happy about it but… sure. I"ll cooperate.”

“It"s great that you catch on fast. Thanks man. Oh, and sorry about last time. Let"s both try to forgive and forget since you"re joining us and all.”

“I can promise to not bring in my personal grudges while we"re cooperating.”

“That works too. Looks like, we got ourselves a deal. Thanks Momokawa, you"re a real lifesaver.”

“Sure, don"t mention it, Higuchi-kun.”

Higuchi and I exchanged a stiff handshake. And then, at that moment, I made my resolve ―― I"d kill him. Here. I swore it.

But first, I needed sleep. I stationed Rem and #2 to stand guard, but going to sleep here was my biggest anxiety, to be quite honest.

Higuchi had left me alone as I slept. I hadn"t woken up to find a knife in my chest and neither had I been bound and gagged. This at least confirmed that the previous conversation wasn"t just some big charade to make me let my guard down. His story about the high difficulty Boss now seemed a lot more plausible.

“*Yawn*…”

I yawned, looking a bit dazed as I"d just woken up, but in my head, I was already thinking up plans.

The first and foremost thing on my list was to kill Higuchi.

Why? Naturally, because of the simple fact that this guy was crazy.

Even if everything he said was true and he genuinely wanted my cooperation, I"d still want to kill him.

It was his psychopathic mentality. His att.i.tude towards me on our first encounter and his treatment of Masaru clearly showed how far gone he was. I didn"t consider that a bad thing, per se. His ability to make on-the-spot, ruthless decisions could be considered an important factor for survival.

But it was that sort of mentality that completely negated any form of trust I could have towards him. Sure, I could work with him, we might even beat this zone Boss with me on the team. But then what? Higuchi was unfeeling to the point that any sum of effort on my part would garner not even the slightest amount of his loyalty or trust. Even if I, say, saved him from a grave wound with my ointments, he wouldn"t turn into a trusting companion like Mei-chan. He wouldn"t bat an eye at letting me be fatally wounded even if he had the means of defending me.

Higuchi Kyouya was a threat to me, maybe not now, but eventually, and definitely. So since we had this chance re-encounter, it was only natural that I try to eliminate him as soon as possible.

But maybe I was just as crazy as him, what with how I was already making plans to commit first degree murder. No, I wasn"t the same, I wasn"t always like this. My mentality was learned.

That time Higuchi stole my core from inside the Armorbear that I killed. That was when I learned true humiliation.

And that time when Yokomichi attacked our party. That was when I learned that one of us students could, and had, killed another.

I had a clear motive, and even a logically just cause to kill Higuchi. So I just needed to do it. Kill him.

I wasn"t harboring any doubts. There was no law and order in the dungeon. I had to do everything in my power to survive. When I attacked Yokomichi with my spear, I struck him with the intent to kill. I just had to do that again. My conscience hadn"t stopped my hands back then, and it wouldn"t do it this time either.

Anyway, enough about my resolve, that wasn"t an issue.

The big problem was the how. How was I supposed to kill this powerful Thief with the measly abilities of a Shaman? I had to think up a viable plan, and fast.

“Yo, had a good sleep there?”

“Sure, whatever… morning.”

“Hey man, you don"t need to glare. What, you the type that gets cranky in the morning?”

“Nah, I was born with this face.”

“Oh, that"s right, isn"t it.”

Higuchi was acting too friendly for my liking. He was the type that would wait right up until we beat the Boss together, and then pat me on the back saying good job, while simultaneously plunging his knife. And I wasn"t the sort of naive idiot who"d start getting friendly just because he was.

What was he really thinking? That if he acted friendly, I"d let my guard down? Or did he really not care… It felt stupid to think too much about it. If he wanted small talk, I"d just give him small talk.

“Ya didn"t eat yet right? Want walnuts?”

“Just asking, but you don"t have anything else, right… like snake meat?”

“Huh? Snake?”

“Snake meat can be surprisingly tasty. Ah, I mean the non-monster variety.”

I mean, I couldn"t exactly say since I hadn"t had snake monsters.

“Momokawa, you really eat snakes? Like, no joke?”

“Yeah. You can roast them over a fire and use the rocksalt that Gomas use.”

“That"s pretty out there, you a hero or something?”

What did Souma Yuuto have to do with this?

“Try catching a snake if you see one.”

“Haha, sure, I"ll think about it.”

f.u.c.king Higuchi, he made a face like he"d rather bear it with those tasteless walnuts than deal with eating snakes all of a sudden. What a fool, to not have realized the true bliss that is meat.

I tried not to commit even a trace of this meaningless dialogue into memory while I ate a dreary breakfast of walnuts and water. Everything said and done, I hadn"t thought up any good ideas on how to kill Higuchi.

“If you"re done, let"s go for the Boss.”

“You what now?”

As if he was waiting for the moment I finished eating, Higuchi went and said something that heavily implied that we were somehow ready to face off against a Boss that I knew nothing about. Of course, my response was a firm ‘no".

“Ah? The h.e.l.l Momokawa, don"t be a lazy a.s.s.”

“I"m not going. You haven"t told me a plan or anything.”

“We don"t need that. It"ll be fine.”

“I"m saying it won"t be fine. Aren"t you stuck on that Boss yourself?”

If this was Mei-chan with her Berserker strength, we could"ve viably attempted winging a fight against strength based Bosses, and come out on top most of the time. But let me just put this out there: a Shaman is someone that needs precise information about his target, and even after aiming only at its weaknesses can the Shaman only barely manage to win.

“Ah well, you got a point.”

This idiot… No wait, maybe his apparent idiocy was a ruse.

Yeah, I couldn"t imagine Higuchi actually being that stupid. He"d made it this deep into the dungeon mostly relying on himself, that is, he didn"t have a strong supporter like Mei-chan or Cla.s.s Rep to rely on. Heck, he was practically carrying 2 extra pieces of baggage.

If he was only relying on his Skills like Yokomichi, he would"ve parted ways with Ayase-san and Masaru by now. And unlike me, Higuchi had the power of sociability. He had The totempole trio as underlings, and could communicate fine with girls too.

There were even rumors of him going out with Randou-san, the one girl who was even close to Mei-chan in terms of bust size.

In other words, unlike me who was always minding my own business and being an otaku in a corner of the cla.s.sroom, he was making connections to people left and right. There was no way someone of his smarts would talk this senselessly for no reason.

Just as I"d been acting friendly while biding my time… Higuchi was also showing me a facade.

Meaning that he was only pretending to be r.e.t.a.r.ded, just to see if I would let my guard down.

For instance, say I accepted his offer just now. Say I went with the flow, didn"t at all try to get more info about the Boss, made no plan or preparation, and just went for it. What would he think of me then? He would, from that point on, think of me as a p.a.w.n, that I was sure off.

And once he thought that, Higuchi, being the sc.u.mbag he was, was sure to make full use of me until I wasn"t needed any more. I"d be a second Masaru, his slave number 2.

Like h.e.l.l I"d let that happen.

“You need to tell me everything you know about this Boss first. How it moves, how it attacks, any special abilities, weaknesses, even things you might think it can do, I need everything.”

“Sure sure, but relax man. The Boss ain"t going anywhere.”

“I know, so we don"t need to hurry. But I"ll still need to know everything first.”

“Ah yeah, explaining"s gonna be a pain in the, I mean, I"m not really that good at that stuff, so instead―― Oi, Saitou, you do it.”

“Eh?”

Gasped Masaru, clearly alarmed at suddenly being called. This whole time, he was sitting still at a corner of the Square.

“I don"t really,”

I was trying to say ‘no" .

“Come on Momokawa, don"t be like that. Sure, there might be some bad blood between you two, but back then, I was the one who forced him to do it, and you know, he"s been pretty sorry about it.”

Of course Masaru didn"t do it by his own will, and I knew that. I could also imagine him being depressed over the fact that he was made to do that to me. But that didn"t mean I was ready to forgive him. Actually, did Higuchi really expect me to listen to his plat.i.tudes when he was the root of that whole incident?

“Look, we"re gonna have to fight a Boss as a team, right? And I know you two were best pals, I"m sure you can get along again like old times.”

“… I don"t think I can get along, but I can talk to him.”

“Good good. You gotta start somewhere.”

I wanted to tell him to shut the f.u.c.k up.

“A"ight, he"s all yours.”

Higuchi showed me a smile, that I knew was fake, as he switched places with Masaru.

Shaman/Jujutsus.h.i.+ - 30
Kuro no Maou - 30
Nidome no Yuusha - 23
Nii-san - 27