Jujutsushi 89

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Arc 8: Might of the King

Chapter 89: Tendou Ryuichi ( 1 )

“―― Fuck. How’s it even end up like this?” Tendou Ryuichi muttered as he woke up lying sprawled on top of a stone platform. The first thing he saw was the grey ceiling, and then the grey walls on all sides. He was quickly convinced that this sort of, what he assumed was a storeroom fully built with solid stone, wasn’t the sort of thing he’d see in modern Japan.

“Real bad day… for everyone I guess.”

Every student of class 2-7 of Shiramine Academy had been suddenly transported to another world, a place not anywhere on Earth―― or so the story goes. A mysterious voice had started explaining things over the class intercom, magic was apparently real, and in the end, the classroom itself broke apart culminating in Ryuichi finally waking up in this stone room.

Realistically, he’d never believe something so absurd. He’d confirm with his own two eyes just how real this whole summoning was. But strangely, Ryuichi didn’t feel the need to. He’d usually wave off something like this without a second thought, but he was somehow already convinced that this world and everything entailing it was all real. It was as if he was instinctively aware of the existence of this world that was different from his own.

Ryuichi sat up on his platform, lit a cigarette with practiced movements, took in a long puff of the thing, and while looking at the now much shorter stick, he came to a daunting realization: “Oh, fuck me. What if this world doesn’t have any? Arrgh, dammit Ryoko, did ya have to take a whole pack?”

He was beginning to regret letting that nagging Class Rep take a brand new, unopened pack from him. Which sucked, because the one he was on was the one, and only one he had kept hidden on him just in case.

“Yeah, let’s just go.” Not one to dwell on meaningless thoughts, Ryuichi finished off his cigarette which calmed him down (not that he was agitated to begin with), well anyway, he figured he should get moving.

“But first, let’s get that over with… Ugh.” Ryuichi opened his notebook to the page with the magic circle and, as he thought, it really was weird. He felt really lame having to rely on something like magic.

But he had no choice really. Magic certainly existed in this world, and currently, as they’d been informed, he was inside a dungeon with dangerous monsters at every other corner. Ryuichi wasn’t one to deny that he had a good punching hand, but he was still only human. Even he’d hesitate on going up against wild animals barehanded and alone. So, despite feeling lame about it, he opted to receive whatever magic power the gods or what have you were supposed to give him.

“Oh Gods above――” Ryuichi began chanting in a very annoyed monotone. This sort of thing didn’t suit him one bit. Putting his hand on the badly drawn magic circle and asking Gods for help with a cringeworthy incantation like an occult nerd not only made him feel like a complete idiot, but also felt like an act of poetic irony where a well established delinquent has to subject himself to this sort of shame.

In other words, Ryuichi didn’t like this, not one bit.

“―― For we shall adhere to thine decree.” He finished. It didn’t take as long as he thought, of that he was glad. So there he was, having performed the ritual just as instructed…

“Oi, the fuck, nothing’s happened.”

Indeed he seemed to see no change. He’d expected something akin to the glowing letters he saw on the classroom blackboard but he was seeing nothing of the sort.

“Tsk,” he clicked his tongue, “so much for magic. I feel like an idiot now―― Grrh!?”

Suddenly, a searing pain ran through Ryuichi’s whole body. This pain, this unforgiving, unbearable, unrelenting pain was so much worse than anything he had ever experienced. It was worse than being punched and kicked by a dozen other delinquents, it was worse than being stabbed in the stomach by one of them, it was worse than being thrown off his bike into the rough pavement, it was worse than any of that. Ryuichi wasn’t a pansy. He got back up on every one of those occasions, but this current, crippling pain he was under easily dropped him to the ground.

“Graahh!!” He screamed.

He felt his heart lurch in a single, loud beat. Pain, pain everywhere. Pain as if the liquid blood in his body had multiplied, and then multiplied again. Pain as if blood would start jetting out from every pore on his body.

“Ghr, ouff, aaaahh….” He groaned like he was about to die.

Ryuichi desperately held down his chest, at the place where his heart was furiously hammering away. He writhed in pain, but one thing he didn’t do was give up. He refused to die from this. This was pain on the level he’d never even imagined possible, it was pain enough to kill him if he let it… but he wouldn’t. Because he realized that this pain wasn’t being caused by sickness or poison.

It was power.

Tremendous forces were surging out from within him, his body being too small a vessel to hold it all. But in spite of that, the torrential surge of power only kept pouring out, only kept saturating inside his body.

“Aagh… Fff, aaghh… this, is, nothing...”

Ryuichi had underestimated just what this magic was. He had thought it would be like in fairy tales, chant a spell and voila, shout an attack move and bam. He had imagined it as easy, inconsequential.

“T-this, power...” If this was the power, the true power of magic in this world, then it was no subject of a bedtime story, there was no hope, no dreams… only, purely, violence.

“Gh, ghaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!” His body exploded.

Or at least, that’s what he felt as the ravaging pain reached its apex. And it was at that very moment, that Ryuichi saw, no, he clearly felt this image, this information, get seared into his mind.

Succession Candidate: Tendou Ryuichi

Calling: King

Innate Skill No.1 : Law of the Jungle

Innate Skill No.2 : ――――――

Candidacy Skills

    Right of Rule

    Royal Sword

    Treasury

Ryuichi couldn’t tell how long he stayed passed out after that, but at the time he awoke next, he felt extremely groggy while searching through his pockets for a cigarette, only to click his tongue in frustration as he remembered that he’d finished the last one. Then, he also remembered the other thing that happened before he lost consciousness.

“... Haha, so this place is like a tv game.”

A particular sort of information had been engraved into his head. Terms like calling, innate skill, candidacy skill and other such jargon. The only connection Ryuichi could find with such words was video games.

“Haven’t done that since I was a kid huh...” He reminisced back to his elementary school days, back when he was still a normal kid, before all the fights and mischief. He used to honestly enjoy playing on a home game console with his friend Yuuto.

For Ryuichi, those memories seemed like something far in the past, but it was those very same experiences that was helping him make sense of his situation.

“... Yeah, let’s just go.”

And so, Tendou Ryuichi, possessing the calling of King, took his first step into the dungeon.

Ryuichi had his first monster encounter in this world after approximately 5 minutes of walking along stone passages. This monster walked out from a corner up ahead.

“Oi oi, this is just ridiculous.” Not because they looked particularly strong, but familiar. Ryuichi had seen this sort of creature not only in his childhood video games, but also at the corner of his middle school science room. What appeared was a skeleton, a full set of human bones by the look of it, moving all on its own.

“What’d they call you again? Skeletons?” He asked, not really expecting an answer.

The skeleton did however answer by running toward him while making rattling sounds. It raised its wooden clubs over its head in order to attack.

“Heh,” he sniggered, “You wanna fight, I’ll give you a fight―― Oraa!!”

Ryuichi easily closed in on the skeleton before it could even think to swing down its weapon. He figured these wooden clubs were no different from the metal bats often used by the delinquents of Black High, so he was used to dealing with them. The difference was that, while those ruffians had skin and meat on their bodies, the enemy in front of him had quite literally none. Ryuichi instantly changed his mindset to recognize that what he was fighting was veritably a monster, an enemy of strength unknown to him. And so, he would go with his full power just in case.

It had been a long time since Ryuichi had to go all out on a punch, and it had been longer since he used his old partner from middle school: the brass knuckles. Which isn’t to say his fighting senses had dulled, because his movements were as adept as ever. In no time, he shoved, equipped and drew the knucks from his pocket. And now, possessing a weapon to multiply his damage output, Ryuichi socked the skeleton square on the jaw.

“Whoa!” He exclaimed, having almost effortlessly knocked the boney creature’s head off its shoulders. “Wasn’t that too easy, oi.”

He had honestly not expected the monster to be so brittle. Not only was it unable to evade, but it had the lower half of its skull, from the jaw to the nose, completely fall apart as the head flew off and hit a far away wall. And as that happened, the remainder of its body also stopped functioning. It skull-less skeleton dropped to the ground as if all of its stamina points had been drained to zero.

“So weak… no, maybe it’s supposed to be like that?”

Everything else was like a game, so why not the enemies too? It could be that this dungeon assumes that everyone starts at level 1 and provides the monsters accordingly. Though it could just be a coincidence that he encountered the weakest of monsters as his first. Ryuichi didn’t really care or want to think about it too deeply.

“I’ll just take this.” He figured having one was better than not, and picked up the club dropped by his first kill. And the moment he did,

Royal Sword: Create a sword fit for a king.

The skill name reacted intensely, as if demanding he use it.

“Yeah, but is this trashy club supposed to be my royal sword now―― Woah!?” Golden light enveloped the dirty old club in Ryuichi’s grasp. It was an intense light, but Ryuchi was able to see that the dead skeleton on the ground was similarly shining golden.

Setting target constituents…

Wooden Club

Skeleton Bones

Commencing synthesis: Royal Sword―― Finalized.

A few lines ran past Ryuichi’s mental eye before the golden light vanished. He then noticed that in his hand now was the synthesized Royal Sword. This thing was no longer the crude and chipped wooden club it used to be, but had transformed into a thick, spiky pole――

“It’s a damn nail bat alright.” not even close to a sword, Ryuichi couldn’t help but mentally retort.

The shape, the length, the splintered bone shards sticking out all over, it looked just like the infamous weapon of choice of Nailbat MASA, one of Black High’s Elite Four. That midboss level delinquent would paint his bat white to make it have the semblance of bone. Ryuichi had cringed hard the first time he had the displeasure of witnessing it, and now… well, his own was made of actual skeleton bone fused around a wooden club, but that didn’t make him feel any better about it.

“Fine, whatever.” He’d make use of it. It was better than the crude club at least, and its new shape was more balanced too. Ryuichi continued on his way within the stone passages, now with a weapon.

“―― Getting a bit tired of these.” Ryuichi muttered while finishing off yet another batch of skeletons. Those seemed to be the only type of monster on his encountering roster. The skeletons carried weapons of course, a club here, a spear there, but their movement and dexterity was laughable, and even facing a number of them simultaneously became repetitious work for Ryuichi.

“Give me,” he swung wide, “A break already!!” destroying his umptieth skeleton, with a yell of frustration.

His Royal Sword skill seemed to do something occasionally after the frequent skeleton bashings. It would cause the defeated skeleton bodies to glow and sucked them into itself. It didn’t grow or change shape but was likely repairing itself. Ryuichi wasn’t exactly going easy on the weapon, and repeated swings naturally caused cracks to form and bone shards to break off. But once the skill did its thing, the weapon would return to its original, pristine state.

“And another thing. I’ve been walking for… damn long enough already, but I’m not getting any tired.” Rather than his oddly convenient ‘sword’, Ryuichi was more concerned about the bizarre changes in his body.

He had been walking for quite some time, dispatching every skeleton as they appeared. Ryuichi was no stranger to a little exercise, but walking and even fighting for so long without the smallest sign of weariness just felt off to him.

“Who knows, maybe I’m leveling up?” If we went by game logic again, the possibility wasn’t out of the question. Perhaps, the more enemies he defeated, the more his maximum stamina would increase. It could be any number of game mechanics.

“Or, it could be that mana stuff...” Ryuichi knew the basics from the messages popping up on his notebook. It explained some things, but nothing substantive on the changes happening to his body.

“No use worrying about that either.” Ryuichi sighed. “Gotta get myself to the end of this dungeon anyway.”

This trek continued for half a day before he found his first fairy square, which is where he discovered the use of his third candidacy skill.

Treasury: Storage fit for a king.

And the first royal item that found its way to the treasury was a fairy walnut.

“Not a 4d pocket at all.” Ryuchi mused cynically, and he would be correct, as it wasn’t a pocket, but a magic circle.

This shining, golden circle could appear on his palm with a thought, and took in any physical object to store inside who knows where. Ryuichi could feel that the object was inside, and he could freely withdraw it as well. As for how much he could store in there, while it wasn’t infinite like a true 4d pocket, it was certainly much more spacious than any volume a person could comfortably carry.

“Should’ve loaded up on all those extra bones and weapons when I had the chance.”

Just about every skeleton helt some sort of weapon. Some even had swords, actual bladed ones. The problem was that these swords were always covered in rust, so Ryuichi wasn’t so keen on using them. There was also the fact that swords or spears didn’t seem like they’d be as effective on skeletons as a blunt weapon. And since he hadn’t known about the uses of his treasury skill, Ryuichi had refrained from picking up any extra baggage.

“Plus, I’ve gotten nothing but the boney fucks this whole time. I can get more.” He might pick up something good along the way, Ryuichi convinced himself. He ate a tasteless dinner of walnut and water, and went on his way.

He never did find a drop weapon he really wanted to have.

“... Is this thing getting bigger?” Having obliterated countless skeletons, the Royal Sword had gradually gotten larger before he noticed. While it was initially the size of a baseball bat, something a person could comfortably swing, the spiky club had now surpassed a meter in length and its girth had essentially doubled.

The bigger the weapon, the more strength you’d need to wield it. With a club too big, he risked missing his mark, or worse, letting the skeletons get a hit on him… however, Ryuichi felt that the increased size was perfect for him.

This made him realize that it was not only his stamina being affected by the continuous fighting, but even his muscle strength.

“So I’m leveling up, and getting my weapon upgraded… now’s about the time a boss battle happens.” Ryuichi said, coming across a set of large double doors on an entrance quite unlike the rest of the place.

“No surprise there, even the boss is a skeleton.”

Inside the room behind the double doors, a large circular chamber the size of a baseball stadium mound, stood its sole occupant at the very center, the 3 meter giant, the skeleton boss.

“This’ll be fun.” Ryuichi had been getting increasingly bored with all those skeletons after all.

The skeleton boss, nimble as it was large, turned to face the new intruder boldly entering its lair. It drew out the gigantic blade stuck in the ground next to it and was ready for battle.

“Get some.” The skeleton boss responded to Ryuichi’s taunt by closing in with swift steps, swinging its huge cruciform sword just as fast, likely faster than an ordinary human could see. Not to mention its length gave the undead wielder a tremendous advantage in reach.

“ ―― Woah, fast fucker ain'tcha?” Ryuichi commented as he back stepped away from the massive blade coming from over head. The heavy impact caused the floor to crack and raised up stone dust. Ryuichi was finally getting into the mood as the draft caused by the swing raised his blond dyed hair.

“But you’re nowhere near as good as Yuuto. He’s at least got technique.” Ryuichi mocked as he jumped all the way up to the giant’s chest. And he swung his supersized nail bat with all his might.

“Oraa!!” It struck. His full power swing made a clean hit on one of the skeleton boss’ kneecaps. It produced a dull sound like a hammer hitting a wall, creating cracks but not breaking the joint.

“Can’t one shot this one!” He figured that breaking its legs would give him a clear speed advantage. But although he couldn’t bust that kneecap, Ryuichi had succeeded in making the skeleton boss’ movements much slower. It probably didn’t feel pain, but the damage had been substantial enough to hamper normal movement.

“I’ve practically won already… but I shouldn’t take it easy against a boss. Yeah, better just finish it off.”

From there, it was simply a matter of time before Ryuichi bashed enough times to completely destroy the monster. He first finished the job on the already fractured knee. Having now lost a leg, the boss lost balance and toppled over, letting Ryuichi concentrate his efforts on its skull, the most likely weak point, and its right hand that held the sword, its only weapon.

During that time, the skeleton boss had managed to swing, or rather, meaninglessly flail its sword, a total of two times as the blade didn’t even graze Ryuichi, what with his superhuman stamina and reaction speed. He continued bashing his targeted locations.

“Oh, got the hand first, now――” The fingers on its boney right hand were broken to the point that the skeleton boss couldn’t maintain its hold on its weapon. And before the giant could reach out with its remaining left hand, Ryuichi picked up the dropped weapon with both arms. This sword was sized to match its 3 meter tall wielder, and would clearly not be easy for a human to use with any measure of accuracy.

Swinging it down on an immobile, defenseless enemy flailing on the ground, however, was another matter entirely.

“ ―― time to die!!” Ryuichi brought the hulking sword down on the skeleton boss’ neck, the latter of whom having no way to defend against an impact of such caliber, easily lost its head, bringing the battle to a close.

“... I’m supposed to step inside there?”

The notebook mail service had already informed him about boss rooms containing transfer circles and also on how to use them. Still, Ryuichi wasn’t very keen on walking into the magic glowy thing on the floor without a second thought.

He had already collected the boss core of course. It was inside the skull.

“Let’s try something first.”

The magic circle at the center of the room was ready and waiting, but Ryuichi had some unfinished business, particularly with the boss and its big ass sword.

“Might just get a real sword out of this one.”

And he was right, as his skill did exactly that.

Setting target constituents…

Large Skeleton Bones

Greatsword

Commencing synthesis: Royal Sword―― Finalized.

The golden light vanished, leaving Ryuichi with a new greatsword in hand.

“Not bad, not bad at all.”

The weapon had a rustic design, appearing as if a blade had grown out of the boney grip. It wasn’t pretty, it had no art, it was a very rough sword. But it was a sword custom made for Ryuichi’s use. Both its size and weight felt just right. And let’s not forget that this weapon had an actual blade which would greatly boost Ryuichi’s destructive potential.

With this greatsword, Ryuichi felt that he could cut a similar Large Skeleton in half on the first swing. Satisfied, Ryuichi was about to turn away from the remaining bones which were missing some bits here and there, and that’s when he realized something.

Law of the Jungle: Feast! Reach the greatest heights by consuming the flesh of beaten foes.

“No, that’s just…” Ryuichi brought down his eyebrows and tightly shut his eyes in contemplation. It was an act he’d done not once in any of his fights so far, the act of worrying. Worrying should he really test out his innate skill.

Coming to a decision, Ryuichi took a small, finger length piece of bone and bit down on it, like it was no different from having a smoke.

Skill Predation

    Bonecrusher: Increased attack power toward bones.

    New Bone: Improved mending of bones.

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This chapter is sponsored by Nolan N.
Also, if you missed it, I posted illustrations from the first vol of jujutsushi. It has art from the first three arcs.

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