A ____ Reunion Part 1
“Stop!”
A single voice resonated throughout the room. It rocketed through the stale, bitter air of the library as it drew everyone’s attention.
Without so much as a glance, I already knew full well this voice belonged to Hina. The kind of bubbly, yet slightly annoying tone was one I’ve grown accustomed to throughout the times I’ve spent with her.
So In short, I wasn’t all to surprised by the sudden outburst. From an emotional person like herself, I actually expected something like this would happen. Rather than me, the glasses-wearing youth who I was just trading blows with showed quite an amazingly shocked expression.
“H-Hina?!”
A somewhat hollow, yet all the same, stunned voice leaked out. As if to mimic the President’s own internal dismay, his rectangular framed glasses askewed, while his mouth hanged agape. The face he made was pretty amusing.
I reflexively followed his pinpoint gaze, only to see a familiar face with an unfamiliar expression. There, a few paces away from us, stood Hina, out of breath and panting, as if that single yell took away all of her remaining strength. Torn books and loose pages fluttered around her figure as she leaned on a nearby oak shelf for support. Her usually messy ponytail was more disarrayed than usual, while a loose strand of hair fluttered in front of her face. Looking past that strand, her gaze fixated on us beneath scrunched eyebrows.
Ah, no, that wasn’t quite right.
Rather than staring at us, she was staring at the President. A stare that was met with the president’s own. Seeing their “passionate” gazes connect, even I felt like an intruding third party.
“...”
“....”
Well, despite the de-escalating situation, I didn’t quite let my guard down just then. Excluding the President, I could still feel the heat of animosity in the glares sent by the remaining members of the party.
Taking a furtive step back, I choose to quietly observe what was to come next, while keeping a vigilant eye on everybody else. The brown haired girl still had a dagger embedded in her thigh, so she wasn’t going anywhere soon, and from my brief contact with the teacher from before, I figured he wasn’t really an agility oriented character, so slipping away from him would be relatively easy. The remaining two were unconscious, so there wasn’t really anything to worry about, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.
Right now was probably the best opportunity to patch up this shaky situation. If things go well, then future negotiations won’t be out of the question.
I walked casually over towards the still cowering Cher, while keeping one eye on my enemies, and keeping the other on the “prime-time” drama-like commotion that was currently brewing between Hina and the President.
“H-Hoku.. *sniffle*” Hina’s voice came out a bit weak and frail. Her body seemingly moved automatically as she took a tentative step forward.
“H-Hina? Really, Hina? Is that really you? Is that really Hina?”
Delirious phrases like that spilled forth from the President’s open mouth. He was seemingly unfazed by the dagger in his arm, as he too took a step towards Hina.The earlier fight to the death type atmosphere had already vacated from his mindset. He even went so far as dropping his night black sword, all the while keeping his gaze fixated on Hina’s own.
Really, both their tear filled faces was quite a sight to see. It was amusing, yet I couldn’t help shake the… the cringe I felt from observing such a sappy reunion.
Anyways, forcefully removing my mind out of the gutter, I refocused back towards the duo.
The two exchanged silent stares. They didn’t say anything at all for over a minute or two, but I’m guessing it was the type of “wordless” conversation that was rumored to occur between people with intimate-friendly relations. Of course, I wouldn’t really know though, I wasn’t that close with anybody in the past.
After the silence persisted for a while, the President was the first person to break.
“Hina, y-you’re alive? How? No, that’s not- where have you been all this time? What happened? Were you together with him? What-”
Suddenly halting the President’s barrage of incoherent questioning, as if without a care in the world, Hina ran straight towards him, before finally enclosing him in an embrace. With a soft poof, Hina’s body collided with the president’s own, as her arms naturally encircled him. This action deflated much of the President’s words as he stood there, a rather dumb expression overtaking his face.
“...”
Such a tranquil scene only lasted for a moment though, as a pain filled yelp escaped from the President’s parted lips.
“O-ow, ow, ow!” He grimaced lamely, while his eyes suddenly darted towards his left arm, which still had a deeply imbedded dagger inside.
As if both parties just noticed, their gazes shifted towards that dagger. They quickly parted away from each other. Hina’s face scrunched up, as she mumbled softly, “S-sorry…” before she slowly took hold of the hilt and-
“A-ah? Hina, oi, what are you-”
-With an uncomfortable squelching sound, Hina mercilessly yanked the blade free from his arm, sending a splatter of blood and muscle flying through the air.
“GAHHHH!” A screech like that leaked out from the President, while he tried vainly to keep the accumulated tears from rolling down.
Hina showed of an uncharacteristically relieved smile while nonchalantly apologizing.
As if to worsen the situation, she vigorously patted the man’s injured arm, causing him to turn pale while a silent scream expressed itself in his deadpan eyes.
Despite Hina’s nonchalant display, a sniffle or two could be heard every now and then, revealing the emotional turmoil she currently went through.
“You know Hoku, you should stop that bad habit of yours.”
“Ah? Where’s this coming from all of the sudden?”
“Picking fights with people all the time, you idiot! Talking things out would have been a much better solution! I don’t even know how you became president...”
“Ugh, you’re annoying personality is leaking out again.”
“Guh- T-that’s a rude thing to say! Are those seriously the type of words you want to say during our reunion?!”
“Hah! Like you’re one to talk! Suddenly chastising someone as a conversation starter, this is why you don’t have a boyfriend!”
“Y-you, bastard, I just haven’t met the right one yet…!”
“By then, he’d be long dead, you granny!”
Suddenly, the tranquil scene from before was utterly obliterated. A conversation, a rather childish conversation suddenly started. Both parties were yelling at each other, each getting more and more heated up as time went by. It got to a point where I worried whether Hina would start throwing fireballs around or not.
Constant bickering may have been a norm for these two though, as even an outsider like me felt a strange sort of nostalgia from watching the scene. Of course I wasn’t the only one watching this strange turn of events. From the corner of my eye, I could see the teacher finally rising to his feet. Seeing as how he stayed oblivious to the fluffy scene a little bit away from him while displaying a hate filled scowl, I naturally responded by maintaining a firm grip on Efhermet behind me.
Just as there conversation was about to reach a climax, Hina’s voice suddenly cracked, which caused resulted in a rather awkward expression to appear on the President’s face. A bit flustered, he looked at Hina who was now looking down at her feet. Her trembling became visible, while President’s feet shuffled around, unsure what to do when-
“Ah-”
That sort of gasp escaped from the President’s mouth, just as Hina suddenly pressed her tear stricken face in the nape of his neck.
For a moment, he just stood there with a flustered expression that reminded me a bit like a certain classmate, while Hina stifled sobs transformed to outright crying. I could imagine that the president’s blood smeared shirt was now smeared with a different type of liquid.
Eventually, as if finally accepting Hina’s existence, and survival, he placed a hand gently on top of her head, and while serenely stroking it as if she were some type of small woodland mammal, he whispered, “I was worried, you know,”
Hina made a small muffled noise as she nodded her head.
“I thought you had died.”
Another muffled nod.
“I was seriously depressed, you know,”
Another muffled nod.
The president lapsed into a brief silence before ultimately, he sighed. One that didn’t really express tiredness, but rather.... of relief. A relieved sigh as if expelling a large portion of his current worries. As if all his worries, as if all the danger this new world had to offer disappeared at that current moment; he looked on at her with gentle, kind eyes, expressing that catharsis.
“I’m just glad you’re safe.” He said a cool guy type of line like that before he forcibly separated from Hina. Grabbing her shoulders firmly, he extracted the mass of sweat and tears and looked at her face with fondness.
From the sidelines, I nodded to myself. This type of outcome was good. Rather, the current string of developments was ideal. In the first place, I didn’t come here to fight, but rather to gain allies (pawns). Seeing Hina and the President together like that, my own objective didn’t seem so far out of reach anymore. Plus, it’s a good thing too… reuniting people, that is.
With self centered thoughts like that swirling around inside me, I continued observing the scene. Since I maintained a firm view on them from my current position, there was no way I missed that sudden change.
The president’s face, one which was staring fixedly on Hina’s with a strong sense of longing, suddenly stiffened up.
“?”
A bit confused, I continued to watch as that same face, the one that had been serenely smiling a mere moment ago, began overflowing with cold sweat. In particular, his eyes were bulging out. They had shifted focus from what lay in front of him, to a little ways behind Hina.
I followed that beady gaze to a little crook between book the shelves. A place with books and pages scattered about, with the adorning piece being Cielle. Her usual silent demeanor was displayed as she slowly came to view, following the earlier commotion her sister created.
Cielle shot a quick glance at the two people who were practically clinging to one another. She stared quietly at them for the briefest moment before those eyes once again darted around the room, until ultimately they came to stop in front of me. We shared a glance with each other before the President moved.
“Ah, um…” He snapped back into reality, frantically surveying the scene around him. As if realizing what he had done, he coughed awkwardly, before stepping back to pick up his fallen weapon.
Aside from a slight wince due to his left arm’s new injury, he proceeded forward as if nothing was out of place.
While doing so, he attempted a casual conversation, which didn’t quite mask his awkwardness from before.
“S-so, Hina, why are you here?” He coughed once more. “Y-you’re even here with Cielle, I’m actually quite surprised that the two of you managed to survive.”
“Ah, yeah…” Hina answered, a bit confused at his sudden change in demeanor but still, clearly oblivious as to the cause. “It’s all since Hide, helped us.”
“Hide? Ah, you mean that fellow…”
He turned towards me while expressing a different sort of awkward expression. I returned his stare with a glare of my own, before wordlessly walking towards a certain direction.
By this point, everyone’s eyes fixated on me, but I payed it no heed, as I continued solemnly forward.
-A bit of intimidation would be good about now…
With that in mind, I quickly walked over towards one of the few people still on the ground, the brown haired girl whose eyes locked on to me with a suspicious glare.
Looking closely, her own face wasn’t half bad, although it paled in comparison with Hina, but that wasn’t really important.
While keeping an indifferent expression on my face, I slowly leaned down over her. My sudden action caused the girl’s shoulders to stiffen, and her face cramped. Although she was still sprawled along the floor in an upright position, her hands quickly went towards her bat.
Of course, I easily stopped that with a single foot, which held the wooden bat firmly in place. She struggle in response, but no matter how hard she tried, the bat wouldn’t budge.
“Don’t be so scared.” I suddenly spoke, causing her to jerk up in surprise while her attention shifted from the bat over to me. While maintaining a deadpan eye contact, I continued speaking, “I won’t hurt you, if you couldn’t tell, the fighting’s already over.”
In response, an effeminate voice, which was interlaced with slight fear came out, “T-then what are you-”
“I’m just here to get something that’s mine.”
With my last remaining words, the girls head tilted slightly as her face masked in confusion. That face of confusion though quickly darkened as her eyes followed my next action.
Silently, wordlessly, I moved my hand over towards her lower body.
Her already shortened skirt (girls and their fashion) had ridden up due to her awkward seating position, causing a large portion of exposed thigh to reveal itself. My gaze nonchalantly scanned over those thighs. They were well proportioned thighs, the result of obvious vigorous exercise. Those same thighs, were a bit milky weight, and despite the grime and occasional blood that stained it, I could tell, with a good rinse, they’d be something most guys would oogle over.
My hand was currently hovering over those thighs.
“H-hey, d-don’t tell me… Hey, you, stop…. Hey,”
Ignoring her please, my hand continued approaching, slowly and slowly, now mere inches away from what I desired.
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“Hey, I said stop. Listen to me damn it! Listen, stop already!” The girl’s voice rang besides me ear while her face paled, although as expected, I fully ignored her.
Without paying her any heed, I stretched my calloused palm over, and-
“AAAGH!”
A pain filled screech escaped from the brown haired girl’s parted lips, as the dagger that had lodged itself into her thigh was quickly freed by me. The tears that had welled up before were now openly leaking, as soft, “u-uuu…” could be occasionally heard.
With my dagger retrieved, I stood back up, a refreshed smile plastered on my face. I had gotten what I came here for, all while adding a bit of intimidation to the negotiation table. All in all, it was a good haul.
“Y-your friend’s kind of…”
“Hahaha… Well, he’s like that sometimes….”
I could hear voices from behind me, but I ignored them while I simply cleaned the blood off of the blade of my dagger using the sleeve of my jacket.
*****
After the siblings regained consciousness, and the President and the Brown haired girl’s injuries were tended to with last minute bandaging, we sorted out most of our hostility, and decided that for the current time being, we would cease all conflict.
Currently, We were seated in one of the many rectangular tables within the 2nd floor of the library. Although a bit dusty from neglect, it was still fairly usable. On one side of the table sat the President’s group, with the lineup being the teacher, the brown haired student, the president, then the siblings (naturally the president was in the middle). On our side, I sat in the middle, with Hina on my right (directly in front of the president), and Cielle to my left. Cher was besides Cielle, cowering next to her due to the reproachful glares that emanated from the others.
After we had all settled down, the President took this chance to start the conversation.
“Well, since we’re all seated here like this, I’d like to serve a bit of tea but the current situation doesn’t really allow for that…”
““....””
After five seconds passed, and nobody responded to his opening banter, the President sighed dejectedly before proceeding forward, “I take it that you guys didn’t simply come here on a whim. Especially when you have her in tow.”
His glance brushed over Cher for a moment before they returned to normal.
With an awkward chuckle, Hina said something along the lines of “Still the same as always,” before she began to speak. She relayed our current predicament regarding the Boss and his group. Although the topic was a bit dark, the demeanor did not match as she maintained the same excitement from when the president and her reunited.
In contrast, the President had a somewhat troubled face while he nodded throughout Hina’s explanation. Afterwards, he sighed.
Waving his uninjured arm around, he leaned back against his chair while he spoke, “I get the jist of what happened, but still… that damn Satou, causing trouble again and again when now should be the time we all worked together…!”
A bit of a hypocritical statement, considering he just tried to kill me only moments ago, but nonetheless, I kept quiet about it.
“Satou’s been causing trouble ever since this whole apocalypse started. While he did participate in the initial subjugation of the slimes, to think his true nature was…”
As if overcome by anger and malice, with the President’s words, hate filled glares were enticed within his fellow comrades. They held incredible contempt towards this person named Satou.
After taking a deep breath to calm himself down, the President leaned his body forward on the table. With his arms crossed, he stared directly at our group (ignoring Cher), before he solemnly asked, “How much do you know about Satou?”
I exchanged a brief glance between Cielle and Hina, before Hina, as our representative, answered.
“Well… aside from the fact that he stole a portion of the cafeteria’s food, and the fact that he currently controls a small group within the school… not much else.”
The fact that she didn’t mention that we knew about his skill didn’t completely fly over me, but I ignored it as the President resumed speaking.
“Ah, I see… so you really don’t know alot, huh…” After mumbling to himself, he sighed once more, before proceeding forward. “ In actuality, Satou was once part of our group.
Back when the countdown first ended, the main building was overrun with Slime like monsters- you know those beginner mobs in rpgs?- anyways, due to the initial confusion, and the Slime’s own acidic nature, a lot of people died. Most of the people who were the main school building in fact.
Although death was inevitable, it didn’t take long for the survivors to rally together. The first major surviving group gathered in the cafeteria, where the Slimes were least frequent. They were led by the Captain of the Soccer Club, a third year named Tanimura.” Upon the mention of his name, the president, as well as the rest of his party, had melancholic eyes coupled by a faint, yet somehow saddening smile.
“Tanimura was a good guy. A great guy in fact. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have had as much survivors as we do now. He was charismatic, reliable, and trustworthy, but most importantly, he was a good leader. While everyone ran around and panicked, Tanimura fought and gathered the first group of 10 within the Cafeteria. Satou and I were part of the initial group.
Together, we went around the first floor and saved as much people as we could. By the, time we finished, we had gathered about 30 survivors. We took refuge in the Cafeteria, during the first night.”
Recounting his story, the President had a strangely melancholic expression. One that conveyed a few emotions, none of which I could properly identify.
“While Tanimura was the leader, Satou was the first person to notice how… how “gamey” everything was. Back then, I didn’t know him very well, but he seemed like a quiet, reclusive type of guy. The type who played and immersed himself in his hobbies but was nonetheless harmless.
Anyways, he told everyone about his suspicion, and together we began trying to figure out how the system worked. Upon Satou’s suggestion, we formed party-like formations, as we distributed our stats to correspond with various classes, like DPS, and Ranged.
With that, fighting became immensely easier. With our new formation, we were able to clear out the 1st floor by the end of the 2nd day. About 15 people fought, while the remaining people huddled themselves in the Cafeteria. On the 3rd day, we began tackling the 2nd and 3rd floors. In the process, our numbers swelled to a total of over 150 people. About a third of that number chose to stay within the cafeteria. These people… those people firmly held onto the belief that we would soon be rescued… hahaha… thinking back, they-no, we were naive…”
He bitterly laughed, while his eyes turned hollow. Hina, who had been engrossed in the story so far, frowned upon seeing the sudden change in her childhood friend’s expression. But as if that change never happened, he quickly returned to normal as he talked once more.
“By the 3rd day, we had all known that the school had already turned into a dungeon. That escaping without killing the boss would result in death. We had know knowledge as to the fate of those within the Old School and New School Buildings. Hardly any survivors showed up, and those that did, only described their experience as utter hell. For the next 2 days, we did nothing but fight. Fight through never ending hordes of slimes, that continuously spilled forth. Even when we cleared the first floor, more would show up. The same type of situation occurred in the 2nd and 3rd floors.
We were all at our wits end, even Tanimura. His smile, which had always given everyone around him inspiration and sense of safety, showed signs of cracking. We would have stumbled into despair had not one of the survivors we managed to save told us about a… peculiarity.
Do you know? About the existence of Elite Monsters?”
This was the first time he addressed us directly, ever since he started telling his little tale. For a moment, we didn’t answer. In the face of his solemn, yet overpowering stare, we couldn’t. Eventually though, before the girls could answer, I was the first to speak.
“No, we’ve never ran into that type of monster. Why, is it special?” I lied while keeping my signature facade on.
Hearing my reply, the President stared at me for a good second or two, before he resumed back with his story.
“It’s not surprising that you’ve never heard of it. Elite Monsters are… well, as their names imply their monsters that are stronger that the regular mobs you run into. Their much rarer than the others, and if you kill a certain Elite Monster of a certain monster type then, at least within this dungeon, the mob monsters of the same type will stop “spawning”.
We found an Elite “Slime” within the 3rd floor. At the time, we didn’t know that its death would cause the rest of the mobs to stop spawning, but by that point, we were desperate enough to try anything. The sudden appearance of a “different” monster spurred our resolve.
We then gathered a group of roughly about 30 students, and with Tanimura as the lead, we set off to attack the Elite monster. As expected, it was a difficult battle. The Slime was levels ahead of our own, and to add to that, mob slimes infinitely spewed forth from the giant Slime. The battle lasted over 2 hours, but luckily none of us died. At the end of the battle, when we had cornered the Giant Slime and brought its hp to less than 1%.... He… he… that fucking Satou, he…”
As if recounting the memories, the President’s expression twisted into a malicious scowl. The rest of his part members also shared the same expression as they seethe in the memory of it all. After a quick pause, the President once again resumed, this time, his voice took on an air of coldness, one detached from the experience.
“When we were about to bring it down, Satou betrayed us. The first thing he did was back stab Tanimura. Satou, who had told us how to distribute our stat points, had acted as a ranged attacker, or at the very least, that’s what he told everyone else. In actuality, he had lied to everyone about his stats and created a build similar to Tanimura’s a DPS- main attacker type.
As to why he lied, I don’t know, but posing as a ranged attacker gave him the opportunity to stand behind Tanimura without any suspicion. Tanimura, who was severely weakened due to the earlier battle, could only feebly die at the hands of Satou.
Before anyone could react to the sudden betrayal, Satou had already gone on ahead. With a maniacal smile on his face, he quickly stole Tanimura’s weapon - a rusty long sword a mob happened to drop- and stole the Elite Monster kill for himself. As a result, he acquired a skill as well as a new weapon.
After that, the room went silent. Nobody moved except for Satou, who strode confidently towards Tanimura’s corpse and started stabbing it, repeatedly. Not long after, the vice president who happened to be Tanimura’s best friend rushed at Satou. The results were… less than spectacular. In the end, it was a short battle, ending with a demonstration of Satou’s new skill.
The Vice Prez… or at least his corpse… part of it was melted off. A puddle of acid and blood congregated beneath his lifeless husk of a body. With the Vice Prez’s death, the room erupted into chaos. At first, I thought we could have overpowered Satou. After all it was 1 vs 28. In the end, I was wrong. What actually happened was a 20 vs 10 dog fight. Satou commanded the 20, while the remaining ten, without their leader, could only be pushed back.
I don’t know how Satou was able to gather so many under his wing, but the outcome resulted in 5 of the 10 dead. We are the remaining five that survived.”
He waved his hand rather grandly at his part members. Their faces were all coated in melancholy as they could only stare down with clenched fists and shut lips.
“After Satou overpowered us, his group immediately ran back towards the cafeteria… By the time we got their, it was already too late. Satou was gone. He had stolen about 60% of the food, and, and he had killed more people. the 120 people that remained… by the time we got their, that number had been reduced to less than 50.
From what I heard afterwards, Satou was solely responsible for the majority of those deaths. He had killed of approximately 70 people in his made descent into lunacy.”
“““....”””
By the end of the President’s story, we could do nothing but stay silent. I shot a glance towards the rest of my group, to gauge their own reactions. Hina was shocked. Her hands covered her lips as her eyes widened like saucers. Cielle, who stood the opposite side of me, was equally silent. I couldn’t quite read her expression due to that mass of familiar hair, but I could see the tightly clenched fist under the table.
Cher, a person who was part of the responsible party, didn’t say anything. For the first time, her usual pitiful expression left her, as a grim sort of face overtook it. She bit down on her lip while she stared directly down at her own clenched fists.
After a long, after what felt like an impossibly long silence, the president once again spoke.
“As you’ve heard the story, I’m sure you can understand, but to keep this short, we can’t take you guys in with us.”
While shaking his head feebly, as if to further emphasis, he added, “Given the current circumstances, it's simply impossible.”
*****
Author's Note: In this chapter, a bit of the past is revealed, and Hina is like always, being Hina.
If you like, this chapter or this fiction in general, please leave a review or at the very least a rating. It helps me out.