19 4

Enough!” Dif let out a sigh. The blood had rushed to his head for an instant, but he’d managed to restrain himself just in time.
“I will divide the Ogudon into two groups, the main force and a detachment. The main force, led by Wago Groa, will remain in the foothills of the Kurogane Mountain Range, monitoring the No-Life King and looking for an opportunity to make contact. Forgan and Zan Dogran will remain with Wago. Forgan are a valuable asset so long as they don’t betray us. As for Zan Dogran, I want to see how loyal he really is. The detachment will be led by Lieutenant General Maga Odoha, and they will return to Grozdendahl with Melderheid. If
Wago Groa makes a request for reinforcements, I will consider it.”
The bauhazzos slapped their thighs with both hands, signaling they had no objection.
Dif gave a satisfied nod, but internally he could feel waves starting to form on the sea of his emotions. “There’s a number of clans we’re going to have to watch closely, as well as the gray elves.”
Assuming the No-Life King was a god-like being, Dif Gogun had meant to take advantage of the legends surrounding him. The orc might not have been able to take the No-Life King’s place, but the great king could follow in his footsteps, emulating him where it made sense to and changing things where it didn’t. The Alliance of Kings that the No-Life King had championed would be useful.
Obviously, what Dif was really aiming for was the hegemony of the orcs, by the orcs, and for the orcs. However, the concept of what constituted an orc could be expanded. At his most extreme, he had even considered that it might be possible to do away with the boundaries of race. People could be divided so that those who agreed with him and shared his ideals were orcs and everyone else wasn’t. It would be incredibly difficult to make that a reality, but if he could push things that far, the name Dif Gogun would stand alongside that of the No-Life King in the history of Grimgar, or perhaps even surpass it.
But the No-Life King did not live merely in myths and legends. If they lived in the same era, then the two of them would have to face one another eventually.
Would Dif Gogun kneel before the No-Life King when that time came? Or would it be the other way around? He couldn’t tell just yet.



0111A660. Don’t Be Afraid, You Coward
“Fwehhhhyahahhh...!” What had started out as a breath turned into a sigh, and then a strange shout that Kikkawa used to motivate himself.
But, like, honestly, everything had gone nuts, and his head was ninety percent preoccupied with a sense of impending danger.
“Kicker!” Tada, whom he liked to call Tadacchi, shouted at him angrily.
Who’s Kicker? I’m Kikkawa, man. But, yeah, I guess you’re right, it’s no time for staring into space, huh? Things are totally whack here. Uh, what’s ‘whack’ mean again? Kikkawa thought as he smoothly climbed up the steps and shield-bashed one of those strange black creatures with a shout of exertion.
He’d have loved to be able to say it gave the thing pause, but that wasn’t how these guys played. The strike did push it back a little, though. Then he shouted and kicked it with a “Woo!” Swords didn’t work—you couldn’t cut them—so, with a “Hoo!” he smacked it with the flat of his blade instead. That forced the thing down a couple steps, but another came sliding up the stairs from behind it right away, so the fight would never end.
“Slash!”
Tall Mimori raced past Kikkawa on the right, smacking one of the black creatures with her longsword. Naturally, she was clobbering them with the flat of her blade too. Despite being a mage, and a female mage at that, Mimori had some serious arm strength. Kikkawa was going to start tearing up over how inadequate she made him feel. But at the same time, he was impressed. Mimori wasn’t just a powerhouse. If she had been all brawn and no brains, she wouldn’t have been able to dual-wield—no, double-up on swords—the way that she did. Double-up on swords? Wasn’t saying dual-wield good enough? Well, whatever, Mimori boldly swung her two swords, sending an enemy flying and even taking the one coming up from behind it along for the ride.
“I love you! Nice! Yeah...!” Anna-san shouted from up above, providing perfectly-timed encouragement. You couldn’t deny she was a big part of the reason the Tokkis could, like, keep on trying as hard as they did. Because she totally was.
Anna-san had been keeping up support magic like Protection and Assist until a little while ago, but she needed to heal them too, so it was getting hard on her. The source of magic was a mage’s magic power, which was a sort of spiritual energy. Basically, magic was kind of like a test of endurance. If Anna-san got worn out and collapsed on them, the Tokkis wouldn’t be the Tokkis anymore. That was why they wanted her to rest as much as she could, and everyone would hold out while she cheered them on.

 

“Gotta stay buff...”
Strange words came out of Kikkawa’s mouth. He’d meant to say “stay tough,” but it came out wrong. Oh, and super quiet too. He almost doubted it was his own voice.
Mimori tried to take another swing with her two longswords but stumbled and fell against the staircase wall.
Oh, yeah, of course that’d happen, thought Kikkawa.
Mimori-san’s totally bushed.
Like, how could she not be?
It’s up to me. This is my time to shine, isn’t it? Mimori-san’s out there covering for me. She moved to the back a while ago because she was totally winded, but she came up front again to help me. Now it’s my turn to step up.
His thoughts raced, but his body did nothing to obey them. Even on sad nights, when he was wrapped in cold shame over how pathetic he was, he couldn’t shed a single tear.
Why?
Kikkawa wanted to cry.
Come on, man, be a hero. Now’s your moment. It’s gotta be. What’re you gonna do if not become a hero?
“Move, move, moooove!” Even without Tada shouting for him to step aside, Kikkawa knew.
It’s not. It’s really not.
It just isn’t.
Isn’t what?
Isn’t my time. I’m the wrong guy for this.
Kikkawa wasn’t a hero, and he couldn’t become one. Guys like Kikkawa couldn’t unleash their power while on the edge.
Nah, I want to, y’know?
I do, okay?
I want to. I wanna let loose.
I want to unleash everything I’ve got, I do, but I can’t...
But it wasn’t just that; it was that he’d run into a thick wall. When the time came to rouse himself to action, he couldn’t put it all out there and really show his stuff, because, well, he had no stuff to show.
No power.
No talent.
No potential.
The kind of guy who could become a hero had something fundamentally different about them. The way Kikkawa saw it, maybe it wasn’t the sort of thing you could change through hard work. Because Kikkawa had worked as hard as anyone, probably harder, though he’d have be embarrassed to admit it. There were walls you couldn’t climb over or smash through with hard work alone.
Basically, a hero was born a hero. They became one because they were always meant to be. They were blessed with the capacity for being a hero. Like, when an ordinary person had given their all, had nothing left, and was running on empty, then that would be it for them, but a hero? Not so much.
They kept on going. They still had more to give.
Like, the lake had run dry, but somehow a spring welled up. Not just welled up—it erupted forth.
“Eloim, Essaim, I seek and beseech theeeeee...!”
Tada was shouting some nonsense as he came rolling down the stairs. Kikkawa quickly made way, pushing himself against the wall. A moment later, he was overcome with a wave of despair.
What the hell? What the absolute hell?! It does move. My body can do what I tell it to. I’ve still got strength left. So uncool!
Tada rolled down the stairs past Kikkawa, and then past Mimori, plunging toward the strange black creatures. You could maybe have described them as dudes in full-body tights that were completely black, without a hint of glossiness. But it was clear that they weren’t human. They weren’t stiff, but they weren’t soft either. More springy. They had a sense of weight to them, but they weren’t hard like rock. You couldn’t cut them or break them. Though he’d say they were humanoid, there were just two arms and two legs growing out of a torso that narrowed toward the bottom. They didn’t have a head, or anything resembling hands or feet.
“Tsagahtoreah...!”
Tada body-slammed the black creatures as they tried to make their way up a narrow stairway that couldn’t have been more than a couple meters across. No, that wasn’t it. He’d rolled down the stairs, ending up on his feet in front of the enemy when he was almost close enough to touch them, then let loose with the warhammer he’d been hugging close to his body and sent them flying. It was a trick only Tada could have pulled off. He was truly one of a kind.
If you’d asked Kikkawa, he’d have said, That’s inhuman.
Normal people couldn’t do stuff like that.
Hmm? Normal?
No, no, no, no.
Even if they were abnormal, there was no way to do that.
“Nnahahh! Boitreh! Mackerehl! Vinegared mackerehhhl!”
Each swing of Tada’s warhammer knocked an enemy down. He wasn’t just hitting them, though. Tada’s warhammer also collided with the walls and stairs, sending smashed bits of masonry flying.
Wow! Ciao! Er, no, ciao’s something else, huh? Awesome!
Was it okay for Kikkawa to just look on all impressed like this?
No, of course not.
Tada fought with a warhammer. He was a hammer-lover, a hammermaster, but had changed classes to become a priest. Why? Because rather than cause trouble for Anna-san every time he got hurt, it was easier if he could fix himself up. Tada had become a priest so he could go totally wild, swinging a warhammer to his heart’s content.
That said, Tada wasn’t all that big of a guy. He looked incredible without his clothes on, sure. Like, muscles everywhere. But he wasn’t actually a fighter who relied on strength. Kikkawa had seen Tada like this before, dripping with sweat, swinging his warhammer around awfully slow. But with swing after swing, he gradually picked up speed.
Tada had considered every possible situation that could happen on the battlefield and had come up with techniques to deal with them, which he’d practiced and refined to perfection. The way his warhammer moved, the recoil, his body had absorbed all of it. You could say the warhammer was a part of him. Or rather, Tada was the warhammer, and the warhammer was Tada.
“Kwahadah...! Swohrdfeesh...! Cohnger eeeel...! Eeegg...!”
Now Tada was losing control. Once he started swinging, he couldn’t stop. That was why he would hit the walls and stairs to stop himself. He had no other choice. The warhammer could have slipped out of his hands at any moment. Now, this was Tada. So long as he had his warhammer, he’d keep swinging until his last breath. But if he lost the all-important hammer, then what? He would probably try to keep on swinging it anyway.
Barehanded.
Kikkawa imagined Tada doing practice swings without his warhammer, making a face like a fierce devil.
“Tadacchi...! Tada-saaan...!”
Kikkawa tried to descend the steps, but he slipped.
Seriously? he thought.
I don’t care if I can’t become a hero, so long as I can just hold out here a little longer.
Is that not possible? Am I such a loser I can’t even manage that?
Wow, it’s almost like I’m trash. Nah, forget “almost.” I’m just trash.
The definitive edition of trash.
“Demon...!”
At that moment, a sinister wind blew past, pushing the trash named Kikkawa to the side.
The sinister wind had a ponytail.
Wait, that’s Inui.
Inui raced past, a ponytail that had increasingly more gray hairs in it lately flapping about behind him.
“Hold on, you’ve been MIA for a while now, Inui...”
Kikkawa was taken aback. Not that this was anything new, though. It was a common occurrence in the Tokkis for Inui to up and disappear without a word to anyone. Who knew what nonsense he’d pull now that he was back.
“Hyah!” Inui cried as he grabbed Tada by the collar.
“Gweh!” Tada sputtered, almost choking. He’d been in the middle of a full swing of his warhammer, only for it to rebound off the wall, nearly falling out of his hands. But this was Tada. He’d never let go of his warhammer.
“Well done!”
Whose voice was that?
No, it went without saying. The man came dancing down the stairs, past Inui who was currently dragging Tada away.
“Whoa! Whuh? No way! You can move already?!” Kikkawa was shocked to the core.
Did the man have no limits? His strenuous efforts were the reason the Tokkis had managed to hold out this long. He’d sweated the most out of everyone present. Shed blood, even. Despite his many wounds, he had stood on the front line longer than any of them, protecting his comrades with his life.
“I can’t hold out any longer, let me rest a little,” he’d said. Up until then, aside from when his wounds were being healed, he’d said he was resting while he fought, like he was sleeping on his feet, so no matter how impressive he was, he had to be at his limit.
When he’d pulled back, Kikkawa had prepared for the worst. There was no way the man was going to retreat from the front for a breather, then get right back into the action. They were going to have to hold on without him for a while.
Tadacchi’s not looking so good, Mimori-san’s in pretty bad shape, and Inui’s nowhere to be seen, so I’ve gotta step up, he’d thought.
In the end, though, he couldn’t.
It was too great a burden for Kikkawa.
Well, what can you do? he thought meekly.
Now that the man, Tokimune, had reappeared, this place wasn’t the stairs in the ninth tower out of fourteen at Riverside Iron Fortress anymore. It was a stage prepared just for him.
“Okay, are you ready?!”
Tokimune was a paladin of Lumiaris, so he had light magic. He had probably cast Trance on himself, the effect of which made him braver and more robust. He’d also cast Luminous to make his shield glow. Not every paladin could become like Tokimune, though. No, not a chance.
Tokimune wasn’t just fast, he was so light on his feet he appeared weightless. He closed in on the black creatures, going, “Hey...!” and not so much bashing one of them with his shield as pushing it aside. When he did, it was lifted into the air and sent flying. By that point, Tokimune was already on the next one, pushing his shield into it with another “Hey!” It looked like a light tap, and the sound it made wasn’t a loud bashing, but something heavier. What in the world was he doing? Kikkawa didn’t know, but he was probably using his shield with the perfect angle and power at the exact right time. It wasn’t just the shield either. Tokimune twirled his longsword with a “Hey! Hey!” pushing the enemy back like he was scooping them up.
It’s zero-G, thought Kikkawa.
Okay, no, it probably wasn’t, but he seemed to be ignoring gravity. Tokimune shifted his feet around rapidly, adjusting his position.
It’s like he’s teleporting.
“Hey! Hey! He-he-hey! He-he-hey! He-he-he-heyyyy...!”
“It’s Tokimune’s one-man show...”
Kikkawa couldn’t help but laugh. He laughed so hard he cried—yeah, no. No matter what, he wasn’t going to laugh that hard. So why was Kikkawa tearing up, then?
Am I feeling moved?
That was Kikkawa’s first thought. Among the Tokkis, Tokimune was the main attraction. He was their leader, of course, and charismatic too. It was like he was everyone’s dad. He was a super paladin, a real hero. Kikkawa was being struck once again by what an absolute star the man was.
Is that it?
“Mimori, Kikkawa! We’re pulling back for now! Can you move?!” Tokimune shouted, his hands never stopping as he pushed the black creatures back with his longsword and shield. Actually, it wasn’t just his hands, his whole body was getting in on the action.
“Uhkay!” Mimori turned to go immediately. She looked pretty sluggish, but still managed to move somehow. Am I one to talk? Kikkawa mentally chastised himself as he started making his way up the stairs.
“Gotcha! Roger! Aye, aye, sir!” Kikkawa tried to respond with as much cheer as he could muster. Being bright and optimistic, ultra happy and super positive. That was what Kikkawa had going for him. Because, in all honesty, he had nothing else. He didn’t need a heart full of passion now, he needed nerves of steel. It was time to go, go, go.
But why, despite that, were the tears refusing to stop?
Kikkawa caught up to Mimori in no time. When she looked to the side and saw him, her eyes bugged out. They seemed so big it was unreal in the lantern light inside the tower.
“You okay?!” she asked.
“Healthy as Helsinki!” Kikkawa instantly replied with a beaming smile.
What’s a Helsinki? he wondered. I’m crying, aren’t I? Crying and smiling at the same time is pretty gross, huh? Yeah, it is. So gross. Totally yucky.
Become nothing, Kikkawa willed himself. He didn’t want to think. Didn’t want to feel. Nothingness was good. He wanted to become nothing.
They climbed the stairs, with Mimori ahead of Kikkawa. She could have left him behind. But she wouldn’t. She must’ve been worried for him. He wouldn’t have expected that. Mimori was tall, so she felt like a big sister in that way, but her personality was more little-sistery.
After some time climbing, they saw what looked like a landing. There was a door that led out into a corridor there. The fourteen towers of Riverside Iron Fortress were connected by bridges. Well, they called them bridges, but they had roofs over them, so they were more like skyways. Anna-san, Tada, and Inui were in front of the skyway.
“Hurry up...! Mimorin! Shitty Kikkawa! Hurry, yeah!” Anna-san was waving at them vigorously. That made Kikkawa finally start to wonder what was going on behind him. “What about Tokimune?!”
“You is alive, so climb quickly, yeah!”
“Don’t say it like that!”
Kikkawa was shocked by the way he’d snapped at her. It was pretty weird for him to get mad about something Anna-san said. No matter what came out of her mouth, you were supposed to accept it with gratitude. That was the unwritten rule of the Tokkis.
Become nothing, Kikkawa willed himself again. Seriously, nothing.
He didn’t want to empty his head, he wanted to erase his very existence. He was better off not existing if he was going to be like this. Kikkawa felt fresh tears spilling forth.
Yeah, I ought to become nothing, return to nothingness.
He felt hopelessly pathetic, but Kikkawa rushed out onto the skyway, still sobbing. Then, once he got to the other side and was entering the next tower, he tripped.
“Bwugh?!” Kikkawa toppled over onto the stone floor. His shield protected his face, but he wasn’t going to be getting up.
“You’re in the way, asshole!” Tada kicked him aside, but Kikkawa just lay there, unmoving. Inui or someone else dragged Kikkawa behind them as they moved on.
“Okay, we’re good!”
Hearing Tokimune’s voice, a vague thought entered Kikkawa’s head. Oh... Thank goodness. That was it.
Tokimune hadn’t stayed behind by himself. Well, yeah, of course not. There was something wrong with Kikkawa if he’d thought even for a moment that Tokimune had pulled an “I’ll handle things here! The rest of you go on ahead!” Like, that wasn’t their thing, was it? The Tokkis didn’t do that stuff.
The Tokkis were different. No matter how bad things got, they’d all get out of it together. That was their style. Sure, self-sacrifice was cool and all, and maybe it was worthy of respect, but it was hard on the people you saved, so in the end, it was better to all survive together. That was why it was a core tenet of Tokkis-ism to always aim for no losses.
Basically, the point of Tokimune’s one-man show had always been to buy time for his comrades to retreat. He’d pushed the enemy back and then once everyone else had retreated he’d climbed the stairs himself. After that, he’d dashed across the skyway, and was now gloriously reunited with his comrades. It was up to Tada to do the rest.
Kikkawa got up, wiped the tears from his eyes with a sniffle, and bore witness to Tada’s demolition job.
“Tunahhhhhhhh!”
Tada did a flying somersault inside the tower, slamming his warhammer down on the skyway. Somersault Bomb. That was one of the warriors’ guild’s heavy-equipment fighting skills. Kikkawa had learned it too, but rarely ever used it. It was hard putting your weight behind the force of the spin properly. It was also exhausting and easy to miss with. Tada’s sense for aiming it must have come to him naturally. Sure, when his target was the floor, he could hit it with his eyes closed, but it was still a trick Kikkawa couldn’t hope to emulate.
“Bonnn...!” The moment Tada’s Somersault Bomb landed, he jumped again. “Itohhh...!”
With a smash, he unleashed another Somersault Bomb.
“Sahrdine! Fatty tunah! Salmon rohh! Amberjahck!”
He pulled off six Somersault Bombs in a row. That was abnormal. This wasn’t Somersault Bomb anymore. Shouldn’t it have been considered a new skill, in an entirely different class? And he wasn’t even finished. After unleashing the Six Bomb, he took a short breath and then swung again.
“Sahmohn...!”
Tada’s warhammer tore into the left side of the skyway.
“Scahllophhh...!”
Next, he slammed it into the right side. Hard.
Idiot that he was, Kikkawa didn’t realize this, but the skyway had already taken massive damage from the Six Bomb. In short, it was on the verge of breaking. One powerful blow to the left and right gave it a good push.
A push to where?
“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees...!” Anna-san’s cry of delight was swallowed up by the rumble of the skyway’s rapid collapse.
Tada flopped over. No, before he could hit his head on the ground, Tokimune caught him and laid him down gently. The Tokkis’ hero was a sophisticated gentleman.
And so, the skyway went down with the black creatures that had been chasing them on it.
Tokimune had come up with this plan while he’d been away from the front line in order to rest. In other words, a hero never rested.
The Tokkis had been in tower nine of fourteen. Which tower had the skyway Tada destroyed brought them to? Kikkawa didn’t even know. What about Inui? Yeah, Inui. Inui would have checked. No doubt about it.
The Tokkis had abandoned the defense of the ninth tower and retreated to another tower of uncertain number. If this tower had already been overtaken by those strange black creatures, it’d be a disaster.
Inui hadn’t just up and vanished on them. He’d probably had instructions from Tokimune. Inui had gone ahead to scout and reported back that this tower, whichever number it was, was safe. Then Tokimune had put the retreat plan into action.
Kikkawa hadn’t been thinking.
Not one thought of value existed inside his skull.
“Oh, us? We’re like a family, y’know? No, wait, we are a family! Like, Tokimune’s the daddy, Anna-san’s the mommy, Tadacchi’s the big brother, Mimori-san’s the big sister, I’m the youngest child, and Inui’s our pet dog or something.” He’d said that to Haruhiro once.
For some reason, Kikkawa could clearly remember his exact tone of voice and expression from then. He could hear his own voice, so that was fine, but he couldn’t see his own face, so there was no way he should have remembered it.
But Kikkawa could say this for certain: back then, he’d been wearing a goofy grin, his facial muscles all relaxed in an unflattering way, making him look kind of flaky.
“The youngest child, huh?”
He’d never used the excuse, Well, hey, I’m the youngest child, so you can’t really expect any more than this from me. He’d never even thought that way before.
No, maybe he’d been acting like the youngest child of the family all this time without realizing it. If he hadn’t been, the idea wouldn’t have come up so readily in his conversation with Haruhiro.
At some point, Kikkawa found himself sitting down, hugging his knees.
“What’s wrong?” Tokimune asked, tapping him on the shoulder. If he hadn’t, Kikkawa might’ve stayed like that forever. Kikkawa looked up.
“Nothing...”
“You’ve got a look on your face like the world just ended,” Tokimune said with a flash of his white teeth. Even if he was exhausted—and it was starting to show—the hero’s face displayed endless good cheer.
His smile had always encouraged Kikkawa. No matter what they got themselves into, it made him think, Welp, guess we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do, every time.
He’s so amazing. Tokimune’s totally the man. I wanna be like him. The guy’s a hero to the core. How could I not look up to that? But at this particular moment, Tokimune’s smile looked so brilliant to him that it just hurt to see it. It hurt him in his heart. Man, it’s rough. Real rough. It hurts so bad.
Kikkawa was painfully aware now that he hadn’t fully comprehended just how big the difference between the two of them was. Man, thinking I wanted to be like him? That’s just embarrassing. I mean, like, that’s just impossible for me, y’know? The difference between Kikkawa and Tokimune was as great as the difference between a soaring eagle and a lowly turtle. Nah, more like a lowly turtle’s shit.
I could never be like him. Could never even get close. ’Cause I’m turtle shit... But I knew that.
That’s right.
He’d figured it out a long time ago.
The Tokkis were a band of loud personalities with unusual abilities.
And who was Kikkawa in that group?
Mr. Ordinary.
Kikkawa was so bland compared to the rest of them.
At a stretch, you could say he was a total airhead, but was his superficial, laid-back personality really all that far from what was normal? However, despite his superficiality, he was also shameless, so he’d been able to hang around like he was one of them just fine.
That said, he couldn’t deny he struggled with feelings of inferiority. He’d honestly gotten depressed about it sometimes. Normally, a good sleep took care of that.

Chapter end