Ch.12: Overcoming the Past

Rimuru had just entered the Great Dungeon

Just as he said Kaori's healing magic had returned and she was healing Kouki and Ryutaru.

Shizuku seemed to be thinking about something as she looked at the ground.

Kaori approached her and spoke "Shizuku-chan, about Rimuru-kun..."

"Oh!? He's not the one I'm thinking about! He just stroked my head to calm me down! There's nothing between me and him! Not really!"

She spoke as she waved her hands trying to clarify.

"Ahhh okay. We'll talk about it later. I wanted to ask you what he meant when he said I attracted hatred for Hajime-kun?"

"Ahhh sure! About that I..."

She got her cheeks red from misunderstanding and then she got a complicated expression thinking about how to answer Kaori's question.

Seeing that expression Kaori realized that she knew something.

"Shizuku-chan what is it?"

"It's not just that... it's going to be painful to hear, are you sure you want to know that?"

"Yes. If it's something important about Hajime-kun I want to hear it."

Kaori and Shizuku went to Kaori's room to talk.

"Good how to start? Ah yes ! Kaori you are an airhead, that's the summary."

"Eh? What do you mean Shizuku-chan?"

She spoke confused by her friend's words.

"All right then... Finish healing them and meet me in your room later."

"Okay."

She healed the boys and asked them to report on the events to Meld.

"Kaori you're not at all aware of yourself, especially your beauty.

"My beauty?"

She looked at herself curiously.

"Yes, Kaori. Almost all the students wanted to date you in elementary school.

"Eh? There's no way that's true!"

She denied it with her head several times.

"Kaori, remember that boy who came up to us on our way home from school and said 'I really like you. And then you replied "Do I know you?" And he left crying.

"I really thought his reaction was over the top, but I didn't think that was it.

"It was."

"Okay, but this was a special case, right? It's not like I'm a boy magnet or anything.

"Kaori do you remember that boy who said "I wish we could be closer." And you replied "I'd love to be your FRIEND too." And he fell defeated to the floor?"

"You're not saying that..."

"Yes he did too. He also had the..."

Shizuku began listing boys who confessed to Kaori without her realizing it.

Kaori's reality shock increased with each listing. She couldn't take it anymore and interrupted Shizuku.

"Stooooooop! Stop! I don't want to hear any more iiiiit!"

Kaori put her hands to her ears and squirmed on the bed as she screamed.

"Prince Randell too."

"There's no way that's trueeeeeeee!"

"Kaori he asked you to be his personal healer."

"Pareeee!"

It seems that Kaori's reality shock from realizing her own charm was too great. She continued to squirm on the bed with her ears plugged like a child who didn't want to hear her to-do list.

"Kaori calm down."

She regained her composure as she sat up in bed.

"De-sorry. Get to the point Shizuku-chan."

"Ok. So first you need to know that in high school it was the same, your beauty charmed all the boys in our class. They just didn't propose because you always had Kouki and Ryutaru by your side who were kind of intimidating."

"Yeah...Okay, but what does that have to do with Hajime-kun?"

"So, how you were admired by everyone and how you always talked more to Nagumo-kun who was seen as an average person. And you were super kind to him, everyone is always burned with jealousy."

"Ah..."

Kaori finally realized why Hajime was always evasive when she tried to talk to him.

"And that made his life at school very difficult."

"What do you mean by that?"

Kaori got a worried expression.

"He couldn't make friends, they would bully him to try to diminish his image to you in the hope that it would keep you away from him and..."

Kaori was an expression of sadness and anger, but she realized that this was something she needed to hear this.

"Go on."

She clutched the mattress trying to hold herself together to keep from crying or exploding in anger.

"I asked Rimuru-kun once about a suspicion of mine he confirmed it. Kondo and his friends beat Nagumo-kun almost every day and he also told me that Hyama was really cruel cursing you all kinds of things when you weren't around."

Kaori had already started to shed tears from knowing all the suffering Hajime was going through because of her.

"Why didn't you...*I sob*...ever tell me? If you did I could..."

"There was nothing you could do. Anything you said would only make things worse for him whenever you weren't around."

Kaori started crying a lot more and Shizuku hugged her to try to make things better.

Since that day Kaori trained hard with the goal of saving Hajime. People began to notice that strangely she also refused to heal Hyama's gang and always left it to the secondary healer Ayako.

She would occasionally cast them hateful glances, but they thought they were imagining it. There was no way the gentle Kaori would make a look like that.

●●●

The same day that Hajime met Yue.

The students were on the 65th floor of the Dungeon. Not all the students were here, it was just Kouki, Shizuku, Ryutaru, Kaori, Suzu and her best friend Eri.

Suzu was always a lively girl, 1.60 meters tall with brown hair, she was very cute with her chiquita marias and could get along with anyone.

Eri, her best friend was also a beautiful girl with black hair and a similar height. She wore glasses and stylish dark clothes that made people describe her as 'smart and responsible'.

Hyama's gang and 10 other students were also here.

Hyama had apologized for setting the trap. At lunchtime in front of all the people and was forgiven. But Shizuku realized that he chose the moment when Kouki would be around, because he knew that the righteous hero would easily forgive him, leading the others to do the same.

Shizuku not at all happy about her friends being manipulated told Kaori her view of things and Kaori who was already angry with Hyama after finding out what he and his gang did to Hajime was even angrier.

Kaori was so angry that when Hyama came to apologize to her personally. She simply ignored him and walked away she did the same thing with his other attempts and ignored him even when he talked about other things.

Back to the point. The reason there were few students here was because Hajime's death had left a heavy impression on everyone's mind. The church wanted to force them to fight, but Aiko stopped them.

Aiko had one of the rarest classes, the 'Farmer', this class could manipulate crops and make them grow faster. So as long as they had Aiko humanity would have no food problems during the war.

So they couldn't ignore Aiko's protest and allowed only the students who wanted to go to war.

The students had grown stronger and Meld who was standing next to them spoke about how with their current strength they could defeat Behemoth.

Yet this floor reminded them of the death of their classmate and it had been traumatic for them all.

They were resting as they spotted the stairs leading to the Behemoth's bridge.

Kaori was staring thoughtfully at the stairs.

"Kaori..."

Shizuku called out to her nervously.

"It's okay Shizuku-chan.

She spoke with a reassuring smile.

"Don't try too hard and anything talk to me."

"Ehehe thanks."

'As I imagined Kaori is strong.' Shizuku thought.

Even though Hajime's death was almost certain Kaori didn't give up and trained tirelessly just for the slightest chance of survival.

Shizuku was also here with a goal, she wanted to find Rimuru who came here alone. The other classmates had this as their main goal and didn't even think about the possibility that Hajime was alive.

Then someone who didn't understand the situation and also didn't read the mood approached to speak, obviously it was Kouki.

"Kaori I love your kind side, but you can't let yourself get carried away with the death of a classmate forever. You need to get over it! Surely Nagumo would wish that."

"Hey Kouki..."

"Be quiet for a while Shizuku! I as Kaori's childhood friend have to say this. Kaori it's okay I will stay by your side. I won't allow anyone else to die and I won't let Kaori be sad."

To this Kouki who kept repeatedly indicating that Hajime had died Kaori replied

"Shut up you idiot!"

She stalked his head causing him to walk away with a confused groan. She turned away from her classmates and sat on the stairs while shedding tears.

Both her colleagues and Kouki were perplexed. Kouki didn't understand what he had done wrong, to him those words were the right thing to do. The classmates were perplexed because they could not imagine the gentle and cute Kaori hitting someone and cursing him.

But Kaori was not so nice anymore. Since Hajime's downfall she began to realize that life was not like an anime where everyone was nice and the villains surrendered without resistance. This new worldview was solidified when Shizuku told her about Hajime's suffering.

She realized how naive she had been. Kaori kept wondering why Hajime went to the library so much before, but now she realized. Hajime was the only one who understood how dangerous this world was. He went to read to gain knowledge.

Meanwhile Kaori who was a big fan of Light novels and manga was having fun with the Isekai adventure. After Hajime fell into the abyss every time she and Shizuku weren't training they were reading.

They discovered several things that the church had made them misunderstand. For example, demons were not evil by nature as it was explained to them. They were also told that demi-humans were creatures that went against God and humanity, but in the books it says that demi-humans just stay in their forest and do nothing for humans. After realizing several things and realizing her naivety Kaori was no longer so kind.

Shizuku sat down next to Kaori and put her hand on her shoulder.

"Kaori..."

"Don't worry Shizuku-chan I'm fine..."

She wiped her tears and continued to speak

"I know he had no bad intentions I think I was too hard on Kouki-Kun maybe I should apologize to him."

"No. This will be good for him to learn to read the weather."

"If Shizuku-chan says so then fine."

Kaori and Shizuku who were used to ignoring Kouki's words since they were children.

Shizuku who was raised surrounded by mature people already knew the reality of the world from a young age and also knew from a young age that Kouki's sense of justice was his biggest flaw. Kaori was the same and only considered him an important friend. That's why they didn't feel feelings for him and didn't even walk away with his phrases like "I won't leave you" or :I won't let you be sad anymore."

Surely any other girl in the school who heard that would melt.

Suzu and Eri also tried to cheer Kaori up with some jokes and amusing ideas.

Meanwhile there was someone staring at Kaori with dull eyes. Hyama, who realized how Kaori had been ignoring him lately, became more and more obsessed with getting her.

The horrible plans of that person made him shiver.

"That person is crazy, but if I follow her Kaori will be mine." He repeated several times in his mind.

●●●

"Well I told you that could happen. Be careful!"

Meld spoke as he looked at the Behemoth Revived in front of him

"Meld-san don't worry! we've gotten stronger! We are not the same as before!"

Kouki confidently declared as he smiled.

Meld and Ryutaru also gave a fearless smile and set out to attack.

"Gugaaaaaaa!"

Behemoth stomped on the ground AND faced The group with a terrible murderous intent.

"No one else is going down. We're all going to defeat him!"

Kaori proclaimed confidently.

Kouki's Current Status:

Name:

Amanogawa Kouki

17 years old

Male

Class:

Hero

Level:

46 (36↑)

Strength:

560 (360↑)

Vitality:

560 (360↑)

Endurance:

560 (360↑)

Agility:

560 (360↑)

Magic Power:

560 (360↑)

Magic Resistance:

560 (360↑)

SKILLS

Aptitude with All Elements ⋯ Resistance against All Elements ⋯ Physical Resistance ⋯ Complex Magic ⋯ Fencing ⋯ Herculean Strength ⋯ Teleportation⋯ Foresight ⋯ High Speed Magic Recovery ⋯ Presence Detection ⋯ Magic Detection ⋯ Overcoming Limit ⋯ Language Comprehension

"Reach for the rising lightning skies!"

Kouki moved first making several slashes of light strike Behemoth.

"Gygaah!?"

Howling as he backed away confused Behemoth had his chest dripping dark red blood.

"Great! We definitely got stronger! Nagayama and his team on the left. Hyama and his team in the rear. We'll take the front. Meld-san and the knights to the right. Rearguard, prepare your spells!

Kouki confirmed the plan they had beforehand.

The vanguard formed lines of defense to stop the Behemoth from getting through

"Guaaaaaaa!"

Behemoth began to run

Nagayama Jugo and Ryutaru who were the two muscular ones in the class used Herculean strength to strengthen themselves and held Behemoth back.

"Gaaaaaaaa!"

"Raaaaaaaaaa!"

"Oooooohh!"

They roared at the same time as they pushed each other.

"A flash that rips everything apart, Absolute Breakthrough!"

Shizuku used her unsheathing technique to hit Behemoth's horn.

"Ku!"

Her sword sliced halfway through and stuck in the horn, Meld seized the opportunity. And used his Great Sword to cut the horn.

Behemoth was angry at having his horn cut off and used all his strength to throw them away.

Kaori used a null impact magic when the 4 were thrown and a Halo of light appeared on the ground that made them feel as if they had fallen into a mattress.

She also used a healing magic on the 4.

"Explosion of light!"

A huge magic power flowed from Kouki's sacred sword and flew into Behemoth's wound.

"Gaaaa!!!"

He gave a scream of pain. He took the opportunity that Kouki had just launched an attack and threw him away.

Kouki gave a groan as he was thrown far away.

"Heaven's blessing grant power once again, scorched sky."

Kaori immediately healed him.

Behemoth's horn began to glow red.

"It's coming!"

Meld shouted in warning and at that same moment someone from the vanguard had finished chanting his spell .

"Absolute Virtue!"

Taniguchi Suzu who was a master of barriers used her best barrier to stop the raging Behemoth. Behemoth repeatedly hit the barrier to break it

The barrier was almost giving way, but Kaori used a restoration magic on Suzu that reinforced the barrier immediately.

"This! I love you Kaorin!"

The barrier and Behemoth were Fighting for a while. Even Behemoth's what horn lost its red color and he stepped back breathing hard.

"Fall back rear!"

The representative of the Eri rearguard gave the warning and they did as commanded.

At this moment...

"Scorching sun!"

This fire magic that required 5 people attacked Behemoth. The power of the magic was so great that Behemoth started to run away.

"Guyaaaaaaaa!"

He gave a wailing shriek and disappeared along with the flames.

"We won..."

"Looks like we did..."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

Kouki raised his sacred sword and said.

"We won!"

Cheers of joy resounded the boys were patting each other on the back and the girls were happily hugging each other.

Meanwhile Shizuku called Kaori who was staring at the spot where Behemoth died.

"Kaori what's the matter?"

"Eh, ah, it's nothing. I was just thinking that we actually came back here..."

She spoke with a bitter smile.

At this moment a cheerful voice resounded.

"Kaorin!"

"Huwah?"

"Ehehe I love Kaorin so much, that healing magic was amazing! Without you we would be devastated. Thanks for the help!"

"Hey suzu-chan, where are you playing?"

"Gehehe. Do you prefer when I play here? Or here? Or is it... argh!?"

Suzu was groping Kaori's Body like an old pervert and Shizuku who couldn't stand to see this any longer used her sheathed sword to smack her on the head.

"No mercy for perverts."

She ended with that statement and The returning students continued exploring.

***

Sorry guys late upload my are is having an power interruption.