Jujutsushi 97

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Chapter 97: The Power of a Geomancer ( 2 )

Rando-san was drained after her first zombie rush, so we’re taking a short break.

“... Hey Momokawa?” said Rando-san, her face awfully serious.

“What’s up?”

Maybe she wants to talk to someone about the experience just now. Not many people can get used to blood and gore that quickly.

“I think I just got a new spell.”

“Huh, WHAA!?”

She got a new spell after that easy-mode tutorial with dumb zombies? And here I had to do 1v1 a fucking armorbear at level 1 and the only thing I got out of it was Blackhair Bind.

No, well, Blackhair Bind is pretty good and all. It’s my all-purpose curse at this point.

“Nice, congrats, Kyoko.” said Nonomiya-san. “So what’s it called?”

“It’s uh, Tera Sagitta.”

“Huh.” I said finding it curious. “Isn’t that supposed to be the most basic one?”

Class Rep has Ice Sagitta and Souma Sakura has Lux Sagitta and those were part of their starters so this Tera version has to be in the same class.

“So? You gonna try it or what?” said Nonomiya-san.

“Do I have to?” complained Rando-san. “It’s gonna be another super slow magic anyway.”

“Come on∼ just do it, I’m curious now∼”

“Ah, fiiine.” And so, Rando-san was pushed into trying out her now spell. She put her arms in front of her, not exactly hyped about it. I was curious too, so I shut up and watched.

“Tera Sagitta.”

There was a vwoomp, then a thump, then after a few snaps and cracks, there was a loud crash.

One of the thin trees in front of us suddenly had a hole in the middle of its trunk. Its structure compromised, the tree fell. The series of events happened right in front of my eyes, and I could easily make as guess as to how, but I almost didn’t want to believe it.

“Wow, that was some crazy firepower, Kyoko!” cheered Nonomiya-san.

“Huh, wait, I did that?”

“Yes, you! That stone flew super fast!” Nonomiya-san, being a knight, has much better dynamic vision than me it seems. I couldn’t even see a blur.

“Now you can finally fight with us too!”

“I can? Huh, I can… I actually feel a little scared now...”

“You’ll be fine∼ Kill a few zombies, and you’ll get used to it in no time!”

“Huh, maybe you’re right. Maybe now, I can finally help you guys out a little.”

It’s a basic but effective attack spell. Our party didn’t have a mage who could actually attack after all. I’m sure Rando-san will be a bigger help than she thinks.

“Momokawa,” Rando-san said to me, “thanks.”

“Yeah, congrats on getting a good spell, Rando-san.” I replied, having heard what was probably her genuine gratitude… but it’s strange, isn’t this kind of, weird?

“Come to think of it,” started Nonomiya-san, “now that Kyoko can shoot down monsters, aren’t you gonna become the our weakest guy, Momokawa?”

“... I, guess so.” Right, of course I am.

I’m sorry Rando-san. When I heard that you didn’t even get past your starters, I got big headed about it. Like, finally, there’s someone weaker than me. Finally, someone that even I, a weakass Shaman, can teach the ropes.

I’d sort of gotten into a high, and I apologize.

“Alrighty!” I said chipperly. “Let’s go all out with training. Those zombies won’t see what’s coming to them!”

“Uhh, Momokawa, don’t be too hard on yourself.” said Rando-san in a worried face.

“I’m perfectly fine!”

“Then what’s with those tears?”

“Sand in my eyes!!”

Don’t worry, Rando-san. I always knew you had potential. I’m happy that your not dead weight to the party anymore.

“Come on, you two, onward!” I commenced my march, not interested in wasting training time.

“Geez, I get it I get it.” Rando-san followed after me, like she was dealing with a spoiled child.

“Pfft, real mature, Momokawa.” While Nonomiya-san held off an obvious chuckle behind us.

Nope. I’m not jealous at all!

“Hey∼ we’re back∼”

“Ah, you’re back, how was it?”

“Kyoko totally killed it.”

“You’re kidding!?”

The first round of the “Rando-san special level-up course” ended with results far surpassing expectations, and we’d returned to the fairy square. Nonomiya-san went straight to Yoshizaki-san, her fellow Glamourette who was holding down the fort, and was excitedly reporting on our day.

“Not joining them?” I said to Rando-san.

“Yeah, nah. I need sleep first. Lots of it.”

“Low on mana?”

“Not that, I’m just feeling a bit out of it from all that fighting.”

“Ah, makes sense, it was your first time in live combat.”

I’d been periodically making sure all day, but Rando-san never even started to run out of mana no matter how much earth and stone she conjured up. So, understandably, the reason she’s so tired has to do with the physical strain on her body from all that walking around in addition to the mental strain that comes with experiencing a long first battle.

“You look fine.” She said to me.

“Yeah, just a little tired from walking, no big.”

“You were running around more than any of us, so it’s surprising.”

Including that first 50 meter zombie chase, we ran into trouble a few other times too. Things like jiras suddenly popping out of pools or the number of zombies being more than accounted for. Little things.

“Yeah, well, I’m used to it.”

Though I did have a tendency to panic, I was well within a margin of safety for the whole adventure. It’d be great if the difficulty stayed at this level. If possible, I’d like to avoid life and death battles entirely. I seriously don’t want another Higuchi battle.

“Heh...” Rando-san smiled, “You really are strong.”

“I think you’re a lot stronger at this point.”

Not even flattering, I mean it. The moment she got Tera Sagitta, her value as a mage multiplied instantly.

After the proverbial level up using the trip wire and spikes trap, we had her keep firing shot after shot of Tera Sagitta. And as a result, similar to Class Rep’s Ice Sagitta, Rando-san’s stone arrow also became very good at doing its job. Actually, I think in terms of pure DPS, Tera Sagitta might be higher than it’s ice based alternative.

The ‘arrow’ created by this spell is similar to Tera Kris Sagitta, a conic stone, while much shorter and more slender too. It’s really better described as a rifle shell than an arrow.

So anyway, these arrows fly at tremendous (for people like me, who didn’t get to have superhuman dynamic range) speeds. It’s range and shell size is also mostly regular. It can’t shoot like a machine gun, unfortunately. She can shoot once every 5 seconds. But once she gets good at it, I’m sure that interval will become a lot shorter and her accuracy will also improve with time. And best of all, the mana cost is almost nothing.

It’s sort of OP, if I’m being honest. Rando-san just needs a few seconds to cock her gun, but otherwise she has practically unlimited bullets.

Makes you wonder, why in the world did the god of geomancy not include this Tera Sagitta into her starter skillset? She obviously needed the bullet spell earlier than Tera Kris Sagitta, what is essentially a spell for growing bamboo shoots. Is this god actually dumb, or was it just a fuck up? Who knows, maybe tanned gals are just not his type?

Anyway, that doesn’t really matter anymore since she got Tera Sagitta and can now, finally get on her two feet as a mage.

“Momokawa, come here a bit.”

“Sure.”

Tendo-kun was sitting at the fountain, as usual, contemplating whether he should have another smoke. The Glamourettes were happy for Rando-san and were engaged in talking about the events of the day. And at a corner little away from there, Rando-san and I sat down to talk.

“I wanted to say thanks.” Rando-san began.

“Didn’t you already?”

“For the magic lessons yeah, but this one’s… for Julie and Marie.”

Right. Of course she’d notice.

“You talked to them about me, didn’t you?”

“I did. They weren’t exactly hiding the fact that they were avoiding you.”

I don’t know if they’d always been like this and I just didn’t notice, but having been in the same party, I could see that something was off.

Rando-san, Nonomiya-san, and Yoshizaki-san were always together in the classroom, as friends sharing an interest in gal fashion. Souma Sakura and the harem girls aside, they were the most stand-out group of girls in our class.

And since the time I met them in the dungeon, the other two never once tried to strike up a conversation with Rando-san.

“This might sound harsh to you, Rando-san, but you were kind of like dead weight for them all this time. They had to have been frustrated having to do all the fighting, I mean.”

I can sympathize with their plight, but staying like that wasn’t good.

I wanted to at least have everyone other than Tendo-kun be on friendly terms with each other. If we’re not on the same wavelength, I can easily imagine no semblance of teamwork, resulting in disaster at some point down the line.

Our targets are the powerful boss monsters that await us at the end of every zone. And aside from those, we also have to fight off swarms of monsters all throughout the journey.

It’s imperative that we can trust our backs to each other to overcome these arduous ordeals. And that trust isn’t earned by shutting up and going with the flow, as I’ve painfully understood first hand.

Which is why, I mustered up the few morsels of communication skill I have and made an attempt to negotiate with the Glamourettes. To lay the groundwork.

The relationship between the three girls had suffered a wound. But leaving it to fester would only make it worse, up until it's too late.

So I, being a neutral 3rd party, took the chance to mediate. I basically begged them to get along again as a favor, but yeah.

“It’s not about that. Well, it’s also about that, but that’s not the point.” She let out a melancholic sigh and said, “It’s cause they both like Tendo.”

A bit hesitant, I asked, “... Were you and him going out?”

“I just talked to him sometimes. But some girls get jealous of that too; most of them can’t even talk to him normally.”

That makes sense. Unlike Soma-kun, Tendo-kun clearly isn’t the type to get along with anyone and everyone. If he doesn’t care about you, you’re practically invisible.

“So were Nonomiya-san and Yoshizaki-san included among those girls?”

“No, they had boyfriends. Julie was dating a guy from 2-3 and Marie, I think she was with a college guy.”

Not surprising considering their looks. It’d be odd if they were single.

“No, just that they were saying how it’d be crazy not to fall for Tendo-kun.”

I don’t know how serious they were about their old boyfriends, but so long as those bfs aren’t part of our class, they’re now something of the far past. We’re here now, in another world with magic and monsters, separated from Earth at a dimensional level.

“Personally, I’m fine with either of them going out with Tendo. Maybe all three of them can become an item too, who knows. Point is, I’m not after Tendo.”

“Then isn’t it fine to just tell them to go for it, and that you’re rooting for them?”

“Yeah… but it got messy. Since, at the end of the day, I was relying on him too.”

But isn’t that fine? Sure, if Rando-san had tried hard and beat a bunch of mobs she could’ve gotten that Tera Sagitta much earlier, but that’s speaking from the known conclusion. You can’t expect her to have figured out all that and somehow managed to beat monsters and survive with that shitty selection of starters. Not to even mention, she’d be scared out of her wits with practically no way to defend herself, in addition to the anxiety from ending up in a strange and dangerous dungeon one morning.

“Me and Tendo did at least talk before; Julie and Marie, not at all. So I thought that Tendo would at least protect me too. But just because he did, it didn’t mean I’d suddenly start having feelings for him… but I couldn’t really leave his side either… Haha, I must sound like a real bitch.”

Rando-san could’ve also fallen for Tendo-kun and the three of them would’ve had to settle it like normal love rivals. But that wasn’t the situation and if she tried to distance herself from Tendo-kun as a show of supporting her friends’ love, she risked endangering herself.

She’d die if she left, so she maintained the status quo, which inevitably led to the silence between friends.

“I don’t think it’s your fault Rando-san. But I also think you three should’ve at least talked to each other about it.”

It’s funny how easily they accepted my request. I’m sure they didn’t really want to hate Rando-san, but either side couldn’t bring it up.

“Yeah, we messed up...”

“You did. Those two don’t hate you, Rando-san. They’ve been wanting to make up too, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, I get that… but, I couldn’t do anything by myself… You know, when you joined us, I was secretly kind of glad… that there’s someone else like me now. Someone that the others don’t talk to.”

“Haha, I admit I was getting a bit worried about that.”

After my death match with Higuchi, I was just done. Completely out of mana, no weapons, no Rem, just powerless. I must’ve looked pretty pathetic to them.

“Sorry Momokawa. I’m sorry I kept only thinking about myself, kept staying weak and not even trying to change… I’m sorry I thought we were the same. You’re much better than that.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. I was honestly really happy when you called out to me back there.”

“Not just that, everything today, I couldn’t have done any of that. Learning Tera Sagitta, making up with Julie and Marie… It’s all thanks to you.”

That sort of open and sincere gratitude to the face is kind of, no, it’s pretty darn embarrassing.

“I did it in part for myself… but sure, you’re very welcome.”

If Rando-san wants to be honest with me, I’ll have to give back an honest response too. I’m not trying to be some kind of tsundere, after all.

“Fufufufu, I really do appreciate it, you know? In fact, you’re looking really charming to me right now.”

“If you really think that, could you please stop stroking my head?”

Like, are you kidding me? Just when I thought I’d raised a flag with her, I’m suddenly being treated like a kid. This is a whole other level of disappointment.

“Ahaha, come on, it’s fine. Looking at you always reminds be of the little punks (my little brothers) back home.”

Yeah yeah, drive the point home will you. Of course, she doesn’t see me as the opposite sex. Heheh, it’s no wonder. Real men are all looks. I can only begrudge my babyface and pathetic height.

“Sigh... whatever, I don’t care anymore.”

“Let’s turn that frown upside-down, here come the nails!”

“Ngaahh, staahp!”

Half happy, and the other half clearly not getting lucky, Rando-san and I messed around for a while before turning in for the night.

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