Chapter 15: A Little Jealousy
“Hinata, SNS?”
Ayaka asked Kitahara-san.
“Yeah. Try searching for ‘Kumamoto spear.’”
Ayaka took out her phone and started tapping away.
I leaned in to look as well, and one post immediately caught my eye.
“There was apparently a fight in downtown Kumamoto. A man with a spear injured several people. Police are pursuing him, so be careful going outside.”
There were several posts like this.
Multiple reports meant it was probably credible.
“A spear…”
“Makes me think of Minato…”
Minato’s weapon was a spear.
“Yeah… it sounds like Minato, doesn’t it?”
Hinata said.
“Do you think Oomura-kun is rampaging?”
He wasn’t the type to rampage.
“Still… we don’t know anymore. Even if Minato didn’t mean to, someone could’ve provoked him,”
I said.
That was true.
We had the power to deal with that kind of thing.
“Wait… does that mean Oomura-kun might be in Kumamoto?”
Ayaka asked.
“Seems like it. There’s no info on Riku though…”
Were they not together?
No—just because we were transported together didn’t mean Minato and Riku were. That god was sloppy, and maybe they hadn’t even been together in the other world either.
“So what do we do?”
Takamiya-san asked.
“If it’s Minato, I want to meet up.”
“That’s the point. I think so too, but if they come to us—or we go to them—we might end up splitting apart again.”
Kumamoto, huh.
It was closer to Beppu than Kokura.
“Maybe we go to Kumamoto first… but this info alone isn’t enough.”.
“You said spear users are rare.”
Ayaka added.
Yeah, that’s true.
“Minato isn’t unlikely… but still…”
He didn’t have a phone, and there was a high chance he still didn’t.
“You decide, Yuu-kun.”
“Leader,”
Hinata added.
“Just decide. We can come to you guys too.”
Hmm…
“Sorry. I’ll talk to Elvis. First, we need to know if we can even get to Kumamoto from here.”
Aso area was reportedly the frontline.
“Ah, right.”
“I’ll call back later. Keep digging for more info.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll stay up.”
The call ended.
I called Elvis’s phone.
“Yo? What’s up?”
“Sorry, can you come over? We got new information and need to talk.”
We didn’t even know his room.
“Hang on. I’ll be there.”
While we waited—
“Yuu-kun… what do you think? Do you think it’s Oomura-kun? I can’t imagine him fighting like that,”
Ayaka said.
“Same. That’s exactly why I doubt it. Minato isn’t that kind of guy.”
An introvert.
All four of us were.
We were the kind of party that avoided strong adventurers, eyes lowered at a 45-degree angle, walking along the edge of the road.
While we were thinking, there was a knock.
I opened the door. Elvis was there.
We brought him in and sat down.
“So what’s going on?”
“There might be information about one of our friends on SNS.”
Ayaka handed him the phone, and he stared at it.
“Your remaining two friends… spear and staff users, right?”
“Yeah. What do you think?”
“First, I said this before—spear users are rare.”
“I heard that. That’s why we think it might be him.”
“Right. But another thing—this happened in a city, correct? Do you think someone can walk around town carrying a spear?”
…It stood out too much.
“In the other world, sure. But not in the Japan we know.”
“Exactly. Even if humans are now fighting and weapons are being legalized, it’s still strange to see a spear in a downtown area.”
“…So spatial magic?”
“Probably. The ‘man with a spear’ likely had it hidden with spatial magic. And humans here still can’t use magic—or even if a few can, spatial magic is unlikely.”
In other words…
“So it’s one of our classmates.”
“Probably. The spear user would be?”
“…There are a few candidates. Swords and spears were the main weapons in the other world.”
Mages use staves.
There were also axes and bows, but the basics were swords or spears.
“Oomura-kun is definitely a possibility,”
Ayaka said.
“Yeah… the question is what we do. Elvis, can we even get to Kumamoto?”
“I can take you there, sure… but are you really going? It might not even be that Oomura guy. Worst case, you end up running into another classmate and causing trouble.”
That was true.
We had just decided to avoid contact with other classmates.
“I know that… but if it’s Minato, I want to meet him. Takamiya-san and Kitahara-san were both in Kyushu too, even though they were originally in the same town as us in the other world. So it’s possible Minato and Riku are also somewhere in Kyushu.”
“I see… so you want to try Kumamoto?”
“Is there a way to get there?”
That was the real issue.
“I’ll drive you near Mount Aso. From there, you can walk into human territory. You’re definitely humans, so you won’t be attacked. Humans try to avoid friendly fire as much as possible.”
Probably because it’s the Self-Defense Forces.
“And coming back… what then?”
I muttered.
We couldn’t drive.
“Want me to come with you? We’ll go to Kumamoto together, search around, then return to the car once we’re done. After that, we head back to Beppu. Then we continue on to Kokura like planned.”
“…Huh?”
“Wait—you’re a goblin. Can you even go into a human town?”
He technically looked humanoid, but there was no way he passed as human.
“I’ve got a way. Watch.”
Elvis said that—and I felt a surge of magic.
Then he began to glow.
“Too bright!”
“What the—?”
“…Huh?”
When the light faded, Elvis was gone.
But his magic was still there. He was somewhere.
“A concealment spell?”
Ayaka said.
“Wrong,” came a voice.
“…Huh?”
I looked down.
There, sitting on the floor, was a goblin about the size of a smartphone.
“…Cute!”
Is she serious?
That’s a goblin.
“Heh heh heh. How’s that? Like this, I won’t get noticed. Even if someone sees me, I just look like some creepy little figurine.”
He’s calling himself creepy…
“So there’s even a shrinking spell like that… interesting.”
“Compared to your alchemy thing, this is pretty normal.”
He shot back.
…Fair enough.
Point taken.