Chương 25: Worthless Rabbit
In a certain location there existed a dark cave where the rays of the sun never reached. The inside of the cave was so silent that one could not even hear the rustling of insects. There was no sign that human hands had ever shaped the rock, and the walls, floors, and ceiling all appeared naturally formed. Still, despite the exceedingly natural semblance of the cavern, it had not a single entrance or exit. One unnatural aspect of this otherwise nature-shaped cave.
It was, of course, possible that an air pocket had given way to this enclosed space in the ground. However, there was just one other irregularity sitting in the cave's center that made it quite obvious that this cavern was man-made. A complex and detailed circular geometric pattern carved into that ground. In other words, a magic circle. Were anyone of this era to lay eyes on such a sophisticated circle, their jaws would surely drop. Some of the more faint-hearted might even collapse on the spot. That was just how impressive a circle it was.
Had it ever been discovered, then it would have been enshrined as a rare national treasure, but as it was it sat languishing under centuries of dirt in a dark cavern. It clearly hadn't been activated in ages. The magic circle sat there quietly, waiting for its destined master to appear, just like the sacred sword Excalibur.
Then, for the first time in god knows how long, it began to glow. Tendrils of scarlet mana began tracing their way around the circle's inscriptions. The light was faint at first, no more than a pinprick, but it continued growing in intensity until the entire room was set ablaze with scarlet light.
Finally there was a blinding flash. The brilliant red light drove away the last vestiges of darkness huddling in the corners of the cavern. It was a truly awe-inspiring sight. Anyone present would have been convinced that whatever was coming from the other side of the circle couldn't possibly have been human.
However, the light eventually began to fade, and three figures that at least appeared human materialized in the center of the circle.
"What in tarnation?" One of the figures spoke, his ridiculous outburst destroying the aura of solemnity.
"What are you, a hillbilly now?" The second figure retorted, before smirking and continuing, "Hold your horses. Just imagine if we did get teleported to the surface? It wouldn't be much of a secret hideout, now wouldn't it?"
The shortest of the three tugs on the first figure's sleeve, getting his attention. "It's a secret passage… so he probably had to hide it."
The figures were revealed to be Hajime, Selena, and Yue. Hajime and Selena were the earthlings who had been consigned to the depths of hell by one particularly jealous classmate during an excursion in the Great Orcus Labyrinth. Yue was a prisoner that was locked up in one of the floors of the abyss of the labyrinth, sealed up by her own uncle.
Pulling out a lantern artifact, Hajime tried to move on from his little outburst. "Let's get moving. I want to see the sky sometime today!" Knowing that the party was well and able to see in the darkness.
As they walked up, Selena was in the rear and she had time to think about the future events to happen.
'We should be meeting up with Shea next. Although, now that I think about it, I am pretty sure that I did a piss poor job at explaining myself to Hajime. I don't see him in a romantic light, I see him like a brother. But at the same time, I want him to be open to a harem much sooner than in the original work. Seeing him treat Shea like that was funny, but boy did she put up with a lot. I kind of want to skip past that as soon as possible, if I can help it. And then there is the stuff I can't recall beyond the attack on the kingdom that Eri is already working towards. I'm just too weak, at the moment, to truly change those events right now. I need to keep pushing forward on Hajime's course till, at least, before the fall happens.'
Her expression was grave at the thought of the loss of lives that she knew were going to occur in the near future. Time went on in silence since the party was more looking forward to seeing the sky after the last two months.
The traps that were set were all being disabled by the ring of Orcus. Soon a wall opened after they climbed a few hundred feet from the hidden cavern. Hajime started to dash at the opening as he felt a breeze coming from the new opening. Selena smiled since he was acting so childish.
"Yeaaa we did it!!" Hajime cheered enthusiastically.
"Yea!" Yue cheered in a subdued manner.
"The air feels so nice out here. I can understand what miners feel like, having been trapped in a cave for so long." Hajime said as he hugged Yue and twirled her around. Tripping on a rock, they both ended up falling on the ground, lying spread-eagle. Both of them looking at the blue sky.
"The rock wall kinda reminds me of Colorado canyons when I was little." Selena watched them just enjoy the moment. All the while a lot of what looked to be Raptors came charging at the party. Selena quickly flew through some hand movements, she took a deep breath, and shot out a multitude of ice spears on one side, killing some of the incoming enemies.
"Can you guys just give us a minute to enjoy the moment?" Hajime asks as he gets up and pulls out Donner and Schlag. He then began to annihilate the other side where Selena's attacks were not pointed at.
Yue looked at Selena's attack, and it didn't seem to be hindered by where she thought they were. To test her theory, Yue created a fireball in her hand, and the spell quickly disappeared into mana. "Hmm, my magic is very weak here, I think we are in the Reisen Gorge."
"Yea, my bullets didn't have as much power. I feel as though keeping up the lighting field takes much more mana." Looking down at his hand as try to keep his Lightning Field going, but it kept dispersing.
"It feels as though I have used enough mana for a master class spell so that the spell doesn't break up mid-cast and the distance it can travel isn't very far."
Selena looked away and began to sweat since her chakra wasn't affected by this area's mana dispersion properties. The creator never took chakra as a factor, since it never existed in this world. "That's weird, my spell didn't seem all that affected. Maybe it's due to me making all the changes inside my body before the spell is cast?"
"Mmm maybe," Yue thought since her body strengthening seems to be working just fine.
"Well at least one of us can still run at full power I guess."
"Not actually true." Selena stated as she used her lighting field and, just like Hajime, it quickly disappeared into the air.
"Hmm, so whatever spell you cast from your mouth will be unaffected then."
"Ya it seems like it." 'I'm not going to try any other ninjutsu. I think that it also does not care for the magic dispelling effect.'
As Hajime was about to say something, they heard a noise from the distance. The party turned and saw a bunny girl coming at them wearing very revealing clothes, and what looked to be a two headed t-rex.
"Um, are bunny people supposed to be here?" Hajime looks at the girl running towards them.
"No. Maybe she is a criminal?" Yue said.
"So, are we going to help?" Selena tilts her head.
"I guess so," Hajime pulls out his pistols and shoots both of its heads off at the same time. The rabbit girl's ears folded in on themselves, not knowing what that loud noise came from. As the body of the two-headed t-rex falls, shaking the nearby ground. She turned and saw that what had been chasing her was already dead. Smiling at being saved, she turned to us and looked confused and said "Who are you?" Point at me.
"Well she is not a very thankful bunny." Yue said. "Not even a thank you."
"I'm over this." Hajime uses his storage ring and spawns two motorcycles.
"No wait, please help me." Ignoring Selena, she saw her saviors were getting ready to leave already. So for some reason her speed picked up out of nowhere and she started clinging onto Hajime's coat.
Yue started to try to pull off the random bunny girl. "No manners, no thank you, and no name. Stranger danger."
At that moment the bunny girl stop clinging onto the coat and said "I'm so sorry. My name is Shea, from the Haulia Tribe. Can you please save my family." Shea put her head on the ground pleading at Hajime. As she did that, he couldn't help but look at her butt and the fluffy tail she had.
Seeing where his gaze was, Yue pinched his hand to get him to focus. "Yea, no. We're on a quest and we don't have time to save your family."
"Please, I'll do anything. I'm a beautiful girl," gesturing at herself, "I'll do anything."
"Yea, no. The sexiest girls I know are right here," as he gestured to both of us.
Shea looked over at us. "Once again, who are you? I have never seen you in any of my visions."
"What are you talking about?" Selena could guess since she wasn't supposed to be here in the original timeline.
"In all my visions, I only saw them," Shea says, pointing at Yue and Hajime.
"Well, I'm here now, so deal with it?"
"Yea, I guess so," Shea said, changing gears so fast as she took it at face value.
"We are moving on Selena, Yue." Hajime was getting ready to hop on to his motorcycle, but Shea once again started to cling on to him. Hugging him from the waist. "No, I saw this before. You help me and my family." Getting annoyed, Yue hit Shea on the head with right hand. "You keep saying that and I don't understand what that means."
"You sure just face your problem head on and fight to the best of your ability." Yue was looking like she was ready to kill someone.
"No, if I don't get you to help, a lot of worse things will happen to my family."
"Sigh, what do you mean you saw us help you exactly?"
Seeing that she had their attention she got up. "Well it is my special skill you see. I can use mana directly just like a monster and my skill is future sight and I saw you help me."
"Mmm, why don't you just change the event from happening instead of being here?"
"Well you see," she says, getting very uncomfortable, "I see something that, no matter what I do, it will just happen."
Seeing that she was very driven to get the best outcome for her family, he looked up at the sky.
Shea, thinking he was about to say no, said "would you want the two of us as your pillow?" thinking Selena was in his harem given she was with them. "I mean she is flat as a board." as she points at Yue.
Hajime looks back at Shea and claps his hands together. "Ooo" could be heard not too far from his side.
"Ready to die?!" An ominous voice could be heard from behind Shea. Wind gathering right under Shea, launching her up into the sky. As Both Hajime and Selena watch, Yue kicks Selena into the same tornado.
"WHY I never said anything!" Screams could be heard as Hajime looked back at Yue.
"She was thinking many rude things. I could feel it."
"If you say so." Hajime decided not to get involved with girl things.
"By the way Hajime, do you like big boobs?" Soon after a slam could be heard right in front of them. As a worthless rabbit head got stuck in the ground.
It was such a loaded question, "Now Yue, it's not the size of the boobs, but who they are on, that matters."
At that moment Selena has used air step to slow her descent so as to not crash onto the ground like Shea and overheard the answer. "Lies! All of the posters in his room are all big breast girls!!!"
"That is not true, Selena! I got a poster of C.C in my room too, and she doesnt have big ones…" once again another tornado started, but this time it was under Hajime feet, "no, wait, wait!" and it sent Hajime and Selena flying. And since the two were very close Hajime started to give Selena a nuggie. "You sold me out!!!"
"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't make you look so good in front of your girlfriend!!" Soon they started falling and Hajime used Selena's back as cushion after falling through a few air step platforms that kept dissipating as fast she called the skill. It was like a person falling through many glass windows.
"Oww, that just mean." Selena pushed Hajime off as he fell on ground and Selena was patt herself off from all dust since she had been sent flying two times now and her hair was a mess. "Can you give me a brush, Haji?" Hajime calls one from the ring and quickly throws it at her. She was not aware of what Hajime did since was too focused on trying to wrangle her messy hair. The brush hit her and she also fell on the ground and started laughing, with Yue following suit.
All this time, Shea had finally managed to get her head unstuck and watch the three of them fool around, she guessed, since they were kinda violent.
Shea went up to Hajime and asked, "So can you please help me and my family?" Just as Hajime was getting ready to say no, Yue stepped in. "Let's help them. She can guide us in the sea of trees since normal people get lost in the forest."
Closing his lips, he nodded. "Yay!" Shea grabbed his hand and jumped up and down, all happy.
"Can you get off, go over with Selena, and ride on her bike," Hajime pulled his hand away to get on his bike. "Are your family members near here?"
"Oh, yes. They are back the way I came from."
"Okay, let's get going." Yue jumps on Hajime back and hugs him tight.
Selena, just finished fixing her hair, and she jumps on her bike as well and Shea copies Yue and hugs Selena tight as well.
"It doesn't have to be that tight." Selena said with a bit of red showing on her face.
"Okay.'' And with that, the earthlings started pouring in their mana to bike and riding fast in the way Shea had come from.
"Hey, why couldn't I see you with my skill? It has never missed anyone before."
"Hmm, I'm not sure. I've been with Hajime since we were in school."
"What's a school?"
"It is where people gather and learn."
"What do you learn?"
"Things that should help us in the future I guess. However I don't know when I will need math after a certain point, or history."
"I see. I don't know what those things are." she said.
"I wouldn't worry about it for now."
At the same time Hajime and Yue were having their own chat.
"What do you think about how Selena was not in her vision?" Yue asks.
"I'm not sure to be honest. We aren't originally part of this world to begin with, you know."
"That's true, but she said she saw us in her vision though."
"This world is pretty much messed up as it is. Maybe the skill doesn't work on people like us. We can check if and when we meet others from my world."
"Yea," Yue looked at Selena and Shea in their own discussion. "She is very durable. You hit her and I sent her flying, and she kept getting up like an undead."
"Yea, it's kinda creepy, but I get it too since it must be hard to see something and not being able to change the outcome."
They rode on, soon going to a big alcove and a lot of rabbit men were just around trying to dodge incoming attacks from what looked to be pterodactyl.
A little rabbit boy at that time had just fallen and one of pterodactyl like monster were going in try to take a bite the child. When out of nowhere, they heard a noise that they hadn't heard before and the head exploded, saving the child. All the rabbit men turn toward the sound of the noise and saw two of the same thing coming at them, one was blue and other was black and Shea was standing on the back so that she could wave at them. "Heeyy everyone! I got us help." Selena was in heaven since she didn't have anyone in either life do this for her and she just let the moment ride out.
Hajime stopped his bike and pulled out both his guns and shot all other monsters in the sky. He missed a few shots since the speed was a bit low, but his reloading technique he had been working on saved almost no time between reload and shot them all down.
"Hey everyone, I brought help!" Shea was in a chipper mood and waved her hands. Seeing the coast was clear, all of the rabbit men, women, and children came out and saw the party as Hajime pulled up. The kid ran up to Hajime and waved at him since they had seen him take out all the monsters. Hajime had a smirk on his face since he didn't want to smile for some reason.
"Yay! I knew you would help up!" Shea says as she jumps onto Hajime's back.
Not wanting to deal with the useless rabbit's 'assault' and fires a rubber bullet at her head.
"Hakyun!" Shea arched her back in the direction of the bullet, with steam wafting off her forehead. She collapsed on the ground and rolled in pain, screaming "My head… My Heaaad!"
Being the sturdy bunny that she was, Shea quickly recovered and started hotly protesting her treatment. Which resulted in Hajime shooting her again to shut her up, thus starting the cycle again. Just before it could happen a third time, the rabbitmen all crowded around Shea.
"Shea! You were safe!"
"Father!"
"Shea!"
"Kiss already" Selena said with heavy sarcasm, just not wanting this moment to drag on.
And out of nowhere Shea's dad started to kiss her cheeks on both sides.
He was an old man with cropped navy blue hair that looked like he was in his forties. 'There is no reason for an old dude to have bunny ears' Hajime says telepathically to Selena and Yue.
'Here here' Selena agrees without a second doubt.
After the two finished talking, they both turned towards Hajime.
You must be Hajime-dono, right? My name is Cam Haulia and I'm the leader of the Haulia tribe." He was smiling at our group.
"So these are my companions, Selena and Yue. Although we didn't save you for free, you will be helping us navigate through the sea of trees after this. Also, I'm surprised you all trust me so easily. I thought humans and beastmen didn't get along too well…"
He had almost forgotten because of how eclectic Shea was, but the beastmen were supposedly being persecuted by the other races. In fact, the reason they were stuck in this gorge in the first place was because of humans. Yet despite that, they were all bowing their head to Hajime, another human, and truly seemed to believe he would save them. While it may have been true that he was their only hope at this point, he still found it suspicious that they seemed to harbor no resentment toward him at all, and that they were so easily willing to accept him.
Cam smiled awkwardly as he replied.
"You're someone Shea trusts. That's why we're also putting our faith in you. We're all one big family, so…"
As they made their way back the way the Haulia ran from lead by Hajime and co. "Man, I wonder who carved these stairs. It looks amazing."
"It was a great feat of magic since the era of gods. This has been here since my time." Yue said.
"Wasn't this a place to kill people without directly doing it, if I remember correctly" humming to himself recall all the information he read about in the early days of their training when they were first summoned to this world.
"It is a very cruel and unusual way to put people to death in a world where a magic fireball could end things faster." Selena was confused why they would use such a roundabout way to put people to death.
"That's very true but…" just as he was about to finish the thought he saw the soldier look at the party coming up. Shea came up pulling on his sleeve. "Can you do it?"
"What?"
"Kill humans?"
"Aah I don't care. We made a deal and I do whatever it takes in order to accomplish the deal."
"I see.." Didn't have anything else to say he just wanted to believe in her vision that she has seen even though there was an add variable look at Selena. What she had seen before was a much rougher time to get the help she sought out. To this point Hajime was nice but was going out of his way to be cruel to her even though they were still standoffish. Selena seems to be kinda one among them so far, but feelings were budding, see how Hajime seems to be a man of his word standing tall facing their current problem without even batting an eye. Something in her chest started to beat faster.
"I will show you. Yue, Selena, I will take care of this just watch."
"Okay" they both said.
Soon after they stood in front of a company of soldiers.
"Holy shit they're still alive. Hey boss, the blue-haired girl is with them too." One of the random soldiers said.
"Yea boss, can we test the merchandise?" a lot of them were giving lascivious looks to the Female rabbit men.
"Hey kid," what seemed to be their commander spoke up since he was dressed differently from the rest it was assumed by the group. "What are you a slave trader? Very dedicated to your trade aren't you? However, those rabbit men belong to the Hoelscher empire, kid. So I am going to ask that you leave."
"No"
"Excuse me?"
"I said no. What are you deaf?"
"Look here. If you don't get out of the way, we are going to have to teach you how cruel this world is."
"You can try, but I don't think you'll make it that far if you want to become my enemies."
Just before he said something he saw the two normal girls by his side. One was short and hung off him while the other was wearing a very tight suit and he started to grin evilly. "Look here, now I am running out of patience. So I need you to leave your fiends behind too or else I have to capture you and rape them in front of your face before I kil-…."
He didn't get to finish that sentence as Hajime had already pulled out donner and shot him through his skull.
The soldier instead of panicking ran into a formation with tower shields coming up to defend them and the cast in the back line started chanting. While they started chanting a small metal pineapple like object was thrown into the formation but didn't stop the back line from keeping the chanting up. That was till all that could be seen was an explosion. From that only about 3 soldiers were still trying to crawl away since they couldn't seem to get up and run.
"Stop or else." At that moment all three of the soldiers were stiff. "Now I want to know where the rest of the rabbit men are."
One of the soldiers shakily asked "Will you let us live?"
"Can't say it's information I need that badly either way, but it wouldn't hurt your chances."
"They were taken away about a day ago. After the numbers were culled of course."
Hearing that, the rabbit men in the background started to cry, hearing the fact that the people they had known for so long were either dead or being dragged off to become slaves.
"Now that I told you what you want to know, let us live."
"Yes, please." But at that moment all of them were shot down including the ones that were groaning near the blast site.
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