Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 13 - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Memories

Mikihiko’s suggestion was rather abrupt, but I didn’t have a reason to refuse.

“Anyway, why this all of a sudden?” I asked.

“There’s no grand reason for it,” Mikihiko said, laughing as he waved his hand. “Didn’t I tell you I’m here to play?”

“To play?”

“Yup, just to play.”

“I see...”

Well, I knew where he was coming from. While I was in Aker, I’d often sparred against knights and soldiers. It’d been a fulfilling and enjoyable experience. I hadn’t imagined doing the same with Mikihiko, though. I was a little bewildered, but I could still understand his reasoning.

“Okay. Let’s do it,” I said.

“Right on. Let’s go!”

We talked to my knight bodyguard, then moved to another location. The grand cathedral was a place of worship, but it was also the Holy Order’s headquarters. They had spaces dedicated to training, so Mikihiko had secured one of them through Elena.

“You sure it’s fine to go along with me on this?” I asked.

“What’re you saying? I’m the one who invited you,” Mikihiko said, chuckling.

“Yeah, but you know...”

“I should be the one apologizing, Takahiro. Having me as an opponent, I mean.” He looked at me with a somewhat suggestive smile. “It’s supposed to be time for you to enjoy with your girlfriend.”

“Well, you’ve got a point there.” He was teasing me, but I didn’t deny it. It was true, after all. “But I finally get to see you again. It’ll be fun in its own way. Thankfully, she understands that... I do plan to make up for it, though.”

“You’re not even acting the least bit shy!”

“I mean, it’s totally normal. You have to treat your loved ones dearly.”

“And now you’re giving me a glimpse of something sweet to deal me major damage?!”

He’d brought it upon himself. Mikihiko reeled back, clutching his chest in an exaggerated manner, then immediately recovered.

“Well, setting that aside, let’s start,” he said.

“Sure.”

Mikihiko had arranged for a training space in the same building we were staying in. The place had been cleared beforehand, so Gerbera and the others could come along too. That meant Mikihiko had discussed it with the Holy Order ahead of time.

Everyone was currently seated in chairs and in spectator mode. My knight and dragon escorts had come along too, so it looked a little like bleachers over there. Fortunately, there’d been far more spectators when I sparred in Aker, so it didn’t bother me much.

I took a wooden training sword and shield. Mikihiko also chose a sword, but in contrast to the one-handed sword I picked up, he took a two-handed one.

“Hm? Don’t you go with two swords?” I asked.

“Yeah, back then I did,” Mikihiko said, rotating his wrist and twirling the sword to check it out. “But that was only ’cause I didn’t have the strength to wield a weapon with some real reach. Now I’m different.”

Now that he mentioned it, that made sense. In other words, he’d become strong enough to wield a two-handed sword. So how strong had he gotten, exactly?

We readied ourselves at an appropriate distance from each other. I stared at Mikihiko head-on as we squared off.

I could sense mana flowing through his body, which was only natural since he said he could fight monsters, but it seemed his ability to reinforce his body through mana was good enough to be practical in combat. I estimated that he was beyond where I’d been when I arrived at Fort Tilia.

“Tch. I tried so hard, but it looks like I haven’t caught up to you when it comes to handling mana.”

Just as Mikihiko said, he wasn’t as good with mana as I was. Well, that was a matter of course. Normally, it took a very long time to learn to manipulate mana. I’d broken through that barrier by nearly dying from a mana deficiency—quite the abnormal experience. After that, I’d worked hard to control it so that I didn’t waste the portion of mana that flowed into me from the girls.

Strictly speaking, that mana was a crystallization of the bonds we’d formed, the times we’d clawed through the mud, and the environment where we’d constantly faced death. It’d be unthinkable for him to catch up to me so easily. That said, this argument only applied to the use of mana. One’s physique played a major role in battle, but that wasn’t the only deciding factor.

“Okay, here I come!” Mikihiko yelled, making his move.

He took a stance and kicked off the ground. He was swift, matching his improved ability to handle mana. No, he was even faster than I’d expected. Even so, it wasn’t beyond my ability. I intercepted him, keeping my guard up all the while.

“Taah!”

After closing the distance, Mikihiko swung hardily straight downward. I blocked with my shield, feeling a significant impact. Regardless, I’d defended without any problems. I was both stronger and faster than him. At the same time, I had another realization: it was a different story when it came to technique.

“Haaah!”

Mikihiko pulled back his sword and struck again in a flash. His strikes were fast. I blocked again, but he paid that no mind and flowed into another attack.

“It’s not over yet!”

His slashes left me no room to breathe. From left, right, up, and down, every slash was precise and fast—proof of his solid technique. I continued blocking with my shield and let out a sigh of admiration. It wasn’t at Shiran’s level, but his swordsmanship was beautiful.

To be frank, he was better than me. Despite being superior to him in terms of physique, a sword fight put us on equal ground. Instead of reinforcement through mana, he’d apparently overtaken me in swordsmanship.

That wasn’t all that surprising. Nearly a year had passed since we’d come to this world. Having a mere month of extra combat training didn’t give me much of an advantage. The rest was made up for through diligence and talent. That was reality. Honestly speaking, it was a little vexing.

Nevertheless, I felt far more admiration than irritation. Unlike me, Mikihiko definitely had talent. To top it all off, he must have desperately struggled to improve himself. That was the kind of guy he was. He seemed like a joker on the surface, but when it was necessary, he gave it everything he had. These were the fruits of his labor—not that I was going to lose to him in terms of effort.

“Oh come on,” Mikihiko groaned. He sounded out of breath, but he yelled in joy. “Takahiro! You’re way too tough to crack!”

“That’s my specialty.”

I mostly blocked with my shield and used my sword if the former wouldn’t make it in time. I handled every single swing he took at me. I wasn’t a knight or anything of the sort, so I didn’t care about losing in terms of swordsmanship. As a result of Gerbera thoroughly beating me black and blue, my singular point of confidence was my ability to defend myself. What’s more, I clearly had the superior physique here, so there was no reason for me to allow an attack through.

If this were an actual fight, Lily and the others would run over while I hardened my defenses, leading to my victory. Even in this situation, the outcome was clear.

“There!” I yelled.

If he were a master at Shiran’s level, it’d be one thing, but his attacks couldn’t not leave gaps between them. I weaved a thrust through his chain of strikes.

“Whoa?!”

Mikihiko reacted on the spur of the moment and just barely blocked my sword. He’d lost his balance doing so, however.

“Ugh! Not yet!”

It was impressive of him to recover from that. The fact that he’d managed to stand his ground was proof of his strength. Nevertheless, this made him lose focus. The gaps between his attacks grew larger, giving me far easier openings to exploit. All that was left was to rinse and repeat. I continued carefully, weaving my way between his slashes.

And then, with a solid thunk, a wooden sword flew into the air.

◆ ◆ ◆

“You got me...”

Having lost his weapon, Mikihiko raised his hands. He’d hung in there for quite some time, but the scales of victory had tipped in my favor from beginning to end because of the difference in our fighting capabilities.

“Looks like it’s decided,” Mikihiko said, being a good sport. “It’s my loss.”

He sighed. He looked frustrated but also refreshed.

“Man, I really lost. Totally and utterly. I thought I’d gotten stronger, but it was no good.”

“What’re you saying?” I said, relaxing my stance. “You still haven’t used Aerial Knight.”

“Ha ha. If you put it like that, then you didn’t have Asarina fighting with you either.”

He had a point. This had been nothing more than a mock battle. It was meant to improve our technique, so neither of us had done anything to counter that. This was the result from taking that into consideration.

“You sure are strong, Takahiro,” Mikihiko said. He seemed strangely happy about it. “It kinda makes me remember old times.”

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

“Come on,” Mikihiko said, smiling. “Back in middle school, we played basketball a lot during lunch, remember?”

His nostalgic reminiscence was like a surprise attack, rendering me silent. Mikihiko hadn’t intended it that way, of course; the problem was with me. I’d just gotten a real sense for it in my internal world last night; I’d lost a significant portion of my memories from my old world. I didn’t give it much thought normally, but when someone talked to me about old times like this, I couldn’t help but notice things were missing.

“Well...”

Because I was aware of this, I managed to hide how perturbed I was and deal with it. I shook off the slight chills and searched my memories. Many parts were missing. Majima Takahiro’s existence had been especially damaged when I crushed Travis. Still, not everything had been lost yet.

Middle school hadn’t been that long ago, and this was an everyday occurrence he was talking about. Normally, such pages in my memories would still be fresh and detailed. Even if the pages faded rapidly, I could still read what was there if I strained my eyes.

“Yeah, we did,” I said, remembering after a few seconds. “We all played together at the basketball court next to the south building.”

“Yup, that,” Mikihiko said, grinning widely. “We went one-on-one every now and then, yeah? This kinda reminds me of that.”

Now that he said that, it was somewhat similar.

“How nostalgic,” I said.

“We’ve come a long way since then. Just about everything’s changed. But some things haven’t.”

Mikihiko walked over to his fallen sword. After picking it up, he turned to me once more.

“How ’bout another round?” he said, his smile just like the one from back in those days.

“Sure,” I answered with a smile of my own. “We’ve still got plenty of time.”

My own words felt nostalgic to me. Maybe it was because we’d had this exact exchange in the past. We were so far away from those days, and our environment and positions had changed so much. We were doing something completely different too. Nevertheless, it felt the same. This was a valuable experience that showed that not everything had changed since then.

◆ ◆ ◆

After several more bouts, we parted ways with Mikihiko. I went back to my room with Lily and the others. We had lunch, after which we were going to see the exploration team. While we took a breather before that, Lily brought up the mock battles I’d just had.

“Kaneki really has gotten stronger. It startled me,” she said.

“Is that so? He was gifted to begin with,” Gerbera replied. “According to what I saw on our way to Serrata, he looked like he had the talent for it.”

“Really? Aah, now that you mention it, during the chaos at Fort Tilia, he supported our master pretty well too, huh? Back then, he shouldn’t have had a lick of combat experience.”

“I always figured that so long as he learned to use mana, he would make progress. It isn’t all that surprising if he’s grown even more than that, is it now?”

“Hmm. He has that much talent?”

“Indeed. I remember talking with him about it before. I can’t measure things on a human scale, though, so I don’t know how much talent he actually has,” Gerbera added, cocking her head.

In the not-too-distant future, he was sure to surpass me in this type of contest. It’d be different in a real fight where anything goes, though.

“Takahiro, even though he might surpass you, you sure look happy,” Lobivia said curiously.

“Do I?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I see...” It was a little embarrassing. I scratched my cheek. “Mikihiko told me something before. He wants to become a knight.”

“My goal is to be a master of everything! I’m aiming to be the commander’s knight.”

Back when we’d just reunited at Fort Tilia, Mikihiko had told me that. Much like me, he’d discovered something dear to him in this world.

“He fell for the commander when she saved him from wandering the Woodlands, so he’s been giving it everything he has to become a knight that can support her. I was just thinking of how those efforts are bearing fruit now. I feel more happy than vexed about it.”

“Is that how it works?”

“Yeah. He’s my friend.”

I brushed Lobivia’s head, then stood up. We’d started the morning off depressingly, but now I felt refreshed. That wasn’t only because I’d gotten some exercise; I had Mikihiko to thank for it.

“Now then, it’s about time to go see the exploration team.”