Chapter 6 - Trust

Yumemi became hysterical. Well, I can’t really blame her because she has to do it for real.

“You are not familiar with games? I think it’s mainstream to kill monsters to gain EXP though?”

“What? You don’t level up by collecting items!? Or pay money to get some!?”

Well, I think there exist consumable EXP giving items in games, but the only rare monsters that dropped drop items I encountered are only those RGB slimes.

“No, I only got 3 drops so far. Plus, I’ve found no money. I don’t think we can even find a shop in a cave, random shady merchants are different though.”

… I said all that somehow, even though I haven’t regained my memories of playing games anymore.

“... what are you saying?”

“Sorry, I didn’t really get it either. I think my mouth moved unconsciously because it seems I was so passionate about games at some point I still haven’t really remembered.”

“... regaining memories…” she stopped for a moment deep in thought. “That does sound strange, but I’ve got no memories either… Only blurry images of three people that always surround me, swinging me around in their arms…”

“That must be your family. It was the same for me.”

I pulled off my status panel back. It still bothers me how our job is written.

Job: [Irregular] (異常者)

Why are we Irregular? Why do we have to start with almost no memories? Why is Irregular a job, not something like a class?

“Hey… Shindou-kun.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“How long have you been here?”

“I can’t say for sure, but maybe around two days? I used most of it to make my first knife though. It was hell.”

She then looked at the knife I gave her.

“Back then, my status was maybe the same as yours now. Now that I think of it, I should’ve leveled up before making my first knife. Attack is so important to damage things after all. I was so dumb! I could’ve saved my time!”

“... fufu. You’re funny, Shindou-kun.” She finally chuckled. I’m glad.

“It was kinda easy this time, so don't worry about it.”

“... thank you,” she said, looking at the knife I gave her.

I think she’s somewhat fine now.

“I’ll investigate some path to search for easy prey.”

“Eh? Wa–”

Wasting no time, I went to check on which path will have the easy prey for her. In one shot, I found path N to have the slimes like path M’s, so I returned to the Safe Zone to tell her that.

“Hey, I’ve found harmless slimes that won’t spray blood, so–”

“Muu…!” she puffed her cheeks, glaring at me.

“Uhh… did I do something?”

“How can you leave a weak vulnerable girl like that!? What if something bad happens!?” she shouted at me.

“But I was checking out for monsters… besides, you’re in the Safe Zone…”

“Still! Being left alone was scary, you dumbass! Huwaaa…!” she started crying.

Uhh… I get her argument, but I don’t understand what was scary. Is it because I put my faith in the safe zone rulings?

“Okay-okay, my bad. But think of it, what if there is a level 10 monster lurking around?”

Come to think of it, finding only level 1 monsters so far was so lucky of me. But that does not scratch the possibility of us finding some high leveled monsters. Escaping them would be tough.

“... I’ll be a burden…” she said in a weak tone.

“Glad you understood. To make you get accustomed to killing monsters, let’s start with the harmless slime, okay?”

“... okay.”

>x<

I brought Yumemi to path N, and I immediately caught a slime barehanded. These things are unbelievably weak and harmless…

I hold the slime in front of me towards Yumemi.

“You see the round thing in the center? That’s the core. You break it, the slime’s gone.”

“Yes…” she’s still trembling.

She is trying her best to not let her hands be the one shaking. I think I should've had this kind of reaction when I first killed that bat… did I lose my humanity before I got here?

“Take a deep breath. You can do it.”

“Okay… fuu…”

After taking a deep breath, she took a stance, and leaped forward.

“Heeaaahh!”

The knife stabbed through the slime body and cracked its core. The slime disappeared, and I stopped Yumemi’s momentum by holding her shoulders.

“I… did it… Shindou-kun! I did it! My EXP Gauge filled up a bit!”

My EXP Gauge moved a bit too. Seems like forming a party shares the EXP we get, huh. That means we have to kill way more monsters, huh…

Well, two is better than one. Just think of this like it’s an investment… even though I don’t really know what investment means.

“Yeah, good job. You did well.” I patted her head like it’s the natural thing to do. I think I’ve done this a lot to my little sister later in my life I still haven’t remembered.

“... Shindou-kun…”

“Yeah?”

“Patting a random girl’s head like that is not good, you know. You can be sued for sexual harassment… though I’m not sure what that means.”

“... strange, I too am feeling like that sounds bad.”

Though, she didn’t shove me off.

>x<

Back to the safe zone after killing some more slimes, we both have filled our EXP gauge.

Yumemi barely got enough to raise her level. I guess that’s the downside of hunting only slimes with two people to share…

“I’ll level up first, so you can check what it looks like. I have a doubt that I will be vulnerable for a bit while sorting out the new memories.”

“... okay?”

And so, I leveled up.

…

My 6th birthday was mundane compared to how I felt last year.

Starting this year, I’ve entered elementary school and learned some new things. They called it education?

Anyway, I had the most fun taking care of my little sister rather than playing with the others… until I stumbled upon a game called Collect Monsters: Mythical Dungeon and was so into it.

After that, I occasionally bought games with similar genres and cleared their main story quickly. Nothing was giving me the same feelings as ColleMyth though.

Taking care of my little sister is still the most fun I had throughout the year.

…

I woke up and saw Yumemi looking at me.

“That was shorter than usual. Now I get how I was so familiar with RPGs though. So, how long have I been sleeping?"

“Around 5 minutes.”

“Okay, that’s longer than I expected. If it’s not a path with only slimes, I think leveling up there means our death.”

“... Shindou-kun.”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you not doubting me?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“I mean, like dragging you while unconscious and killing you outside the safe zone just to get EXP quickly.”

Now that she said that, it’s definitely something that could happen in a do or die situation. Some of the brutal RPGs I laid my hands to had that option, but I didn’t choose to do them because of my morality.

“Sacrificing others for instant benefit is not my thing, and not your thing either. I can tell by your eyes. Even when you kill those slimes, you are making a shaken face. You must’ve still thought it is wrong to kill things even now, right?”

“... Shindou-kun, your observation is too detailed, it's creeping me out.”

“Why are your comments always harsh to me!?”

“Fufu, just joking. It makes me happy that you can tell that much by just looking at me.”

… even now, I can tell that she’s just calming herself by making some jokes.

“Thank you so much, Shindou-kun.”

She then leaned herself to the tree, and raised her level without saying a thing.

Now that I take a good look at her, she’s pretty cute.

In a cave with summer stylish clothes… I don’t know if it’ll help reassure her or not, but I took off my jacket to cover her up hoping it’ll keep her warm and feel safe.

>x<

“She’s not waking up…”

It’s been an hour already… She's still not giving me any sign of waking up.

I wonder if it’s because the first time her brain is sorting out memories?

If so, it’s a close call for me back then when I was in the path full of Starwing Bats. I would be dead meat.

If that happens to every [Irregular], calling it a beginner killer won’t be enough. It’s just a nasty trap.

“… maybe dying here means we can return home?”

Like, waking up from a weird dream that you can’t really control. Though… I won’t even dare to try it.

“YOU CAAAN’T!”

Ah, she woke up.

“You mustn't!”

She stood up, rushed and grabbed my knife at the blade.

“Hey, wait! You’ll hurt your hand!”

“Better than you trying to kill yourself just to test something!”

“Calm down! I have no intention of doing that.”

“You’re lying!”

“Why do I have to lie about this!? Hurry up and release the knife! You’re bleeding!”

In the safe zone, our HP won’t decrease. And after some time not in combat, your HP and MP will recover. It’s just, you can still feel the pain!

… after some time persuading her to let go, she finally released her grip.

Blood is still dripping down from her palm, and the wound is still open.

I hurriedly took my T-shirt off and dipped it in the river.

“Wha- why are you suddenly taking off your clothes!?” She tried to cover her eyes, because I suddenly took my T-shirt off.

But yeah, other than my jacket, this is the only bandage replacement I had.

I hurriedly covered the wound in her left palm.

“Put your hand up to prevent the bleeding, and stay still until the wound closes. 20 minutes should be enough.”

Thank goodness my knife was crude enough it wasn’t digging deep.

“Bu- but…”

“Don’t worry about staining it. It’s also my fault for making you misunderstand, by saying my hypothesis out loud."

I took my jacket that was left on the ground, wore it and zipped it up.

“There, you don’t have to worry.”

“... I’m sorry.”

Ah, I made her apologize. She took action without thinking about the consequences, a really dangerous nature to have.

“... but, you’re thinking I would kill myself, right?”

“... yes.”

“Then, you’re someone who would stop a blade from a suicidal guy. That fact alone is nice to know.”

She’s a good girl in the heart, thoroughly. It’s just, she screams and protests like a child, but maybe that was just because she knows nothing and got surrounded by those slimes.

“... Shindou-kun… were you just thinking something rude about me?”

“...”

“At least try to defend yourself!”

“... no comment.” (“... I plead the fifth.”)

“Hey! Look at my eyes!”

This part of her is what makes me think so.

“You are doing it again just now, aren’t you!?”

She’s unbelievably sharp.

It took a while for her to finally let me off the rope.

“But still, I’m not suicidal or anything. So how about I tell you about all the memories I’ve regained, and you will tell me yours?”

“... okay. Even though mine still only have the memories of 2 years old me.”

“No problem.”

… and so, we told each other about our memories so far. It seems like she was in Tokyo, by her describing the building that's most likely the Skytree. On the other hand, I think I lived in Osaka.

We talked for what felt like an hour. I learnt almost nothing about her, but I think she learnt a lot about me.

I know enough to trust her with her actions before, and I hope she can trust me too.