Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai - Chapter 104.1 - Nakajima Haruma

Chapter 104.1 : Nakajima Haruma

His name was Nakajima Haruma. A normal high school boy you could find anywhere―― a really normal face without anything worth mentioning, and even his hobbies, grades, and fashion sense were normal. Overall, he was just above average.

His relationships with others were favorable. He often interacted with girls. He didn’t stand out in the class, and was what is commonly known as a mob.

And now, that exceedingly normal Nakajima Haruma kept asking himself…

「How the hell did it turn out like this?」

First of all, about the event of the entire class being summoned to another world to survive in a dungeon. When Nakajima Haruma was summoned, he was forced to accept the current situation and had to start thinking about what to do to survive. Though he really didn’t want to accept reality just then, he couldn’t just avert his eyes from what lay before him.

After a while though, he had gotten used to fighting monsters inside the labyrinth.

The vocation granted to him was『Magic Swordsman』.

『Slash』 ：A strengthened slash attack.

『Ignis Sagita』 ：Lower ranking attack magic of the fire attribute.

『Hi-Walk』 ：Increases mobility.

Martial arts for close combat, magic for long range attack, and a skill to increase his mobility. It was an extremely balanced initial skill set for the amateur high school student to combat demons. The only thing he had to do was to use them to fight.

It doesn’t mean that Nakajima Haruma had the courage to stand up against his fears, nor was he a cruel person who could kill without batting his eyes. He just did what he needed to do, that was all there was to it. Scary things are still scary, but there was no need to excessively worry about them, there was always a greater danger hiding around. In short, it was the kind of mentality that only a normal boy like him could attain.

To Nakajima Haruma, the act of him being suddenly thrown into the dungeon, defeating one enemy after another by making full use of his vocation was an extremely normal situation. He had easily adapted to his new environment. Nakajima Haruma employed every single bit of wisdom and courage that he could muster as he advanced even deeper into the labyrinth by himself.

At least, until just recently.

「Are you okay, Haruma-ku~n? Any injuries? 」

「I’m okay, at least Airi isn’t injured too.」

「Aa~h, this is no good, there’s a scratch on your hand! I’ll patch it up in a jiffy, Haruma-kun――『Lesser Heal』! 」

The one who approached him after he had defeated the skeletons was Himeno Airi, the girl he came upon by chance at the first fairy plaza. She came up to him saying such words with a sweet voice and applied healing on the little scratch on his hand.

If even he, a man, was scared of the dungeon, there was no need to say what a girl like Himeno would feel in this situation. Haruma guessed the reason for her crying, and why she ceased crying after seeing him.

There was no reason for him not to cooperate with classmates that he met in the dungeon. Though only a while later, he became aware of the devastating news that only three people could leave the dungeon. Since there were only him and Himeno in a party right now, there was no need to break up for the time being.

Therefore, as if it was the most natural thing… Nakajima Haruma ended up becoming a knight who protected Himeno Airi.

「A’right, its patched up now!」

「T-Thank you, Airi.」

She had unleashed the combo of having upturned moist eyes while clasping her hands together. Even Haruma ended up feeling that she was a little too sly.

Even if her act was no match compared to the likes of Reina A Ayase or Takanashi Kotori, and her appearance deviation value was in fact below the average of the 40 other students, Haruma still found himself troubled by her act.

“Heck, was Himeno Airi ever this kind of person?”

Though he never really interacted with her, all of his classmates including him thought of her as a simple and docile girl who didn’t stand out in any way. She wasn’t the kind of person that would butter up a man in such an unnatural way like some sort of galge protagonist.

But, Haruma felt that he had fought to protect Himeno Airi’s life to such a point that she fell for him and that feeling was….. Not that bad.

「Ha~…. 」

Naturally, his inclinations as a young man made him feel like that alone wasn’t enough. To be honest, Himeno Airi wasn’t even his type. If he was to be given a choice, he would choose a girl of his type rather than an ugly one.

And most of all, Nakajima Haruma already had someone he liked.

「I wonder how she’s doing right now….. Nagae-san.」

Nagae Yukiko was the one he loved. He had fallen in love with her a year ago.

Though she wasn’t conspicuous, or a simple and docile girl like Himeno Airi, Haruma was completely captivated by the charm of that quiet and transient literature girl ever since he went to the same class as her, the year before.

Having wished for more interactions with her, even if just a little, he had held an unjustified resentment against Momokawa, the young man who joined the literature club with an unconcerned face. Haruma abandoned his decision of joining the literature club to follow Nagae at that time. He now however no longer had such resentment against Momokawa, because he knew that Momokawa was a geek who joined the literature club only because he really wanted to become a light novel writer and not for chasing after Nagae Yukiko.

In the end, Haruma became a member of the book committee, and used that position to talk about books with Nagae-san from time to time, and that was already enough for him.

Though many male students in the class were captivated by the group of beauties with Souma Sakura at the top of the list, Haruma understood Nagae Yukiko’s charm. Since she was outside of the radar of many male students in the class he wanted to confess his love to her, but―― Nakajima Haruma suddenly realized that it was Himeno Airi who was sleeping beside him right now.

「…. Ha~h…」

Himeno Airi was sleeping right beside him in one corner of the Fairy Plaza. They were just sleeping and doing nothing more.

No matter how relaxed one could feel in the safety area called Fairy Plaza, Himeno Airi had become extremely frightened and said to Haruma,「Please, sleep with me, Haruma-ku~n」 . It was such a situation in which he couldn’t refuse her pleas.

When Haruma looked down at Airi who was sleeping calmly, he realized that even her sleeping face was ugly. [ED: DAAAAAIUM! Our boy is SAVAGE][TL : It’s reality man]

How many times now had he hoped that it was Nagae Yukiko who was the one sleeping next to him? If the one beside him was Yukiko instead of Airi, Haruma had the feeling that he would be able to go through any kind of danger.

The one he truly loved was Nagae-san. Haruma didn’t really care about someone like Himeno Airi, and would definitely not fall for her whether or not she called his name with that sickening sweet voice or even if she called his given name with honorifics. Himeno Airi definitely wouldn’t become special to Nakajima Haruma.

「U~uuh…」

Or so he thought, but this male instinct of his reacted differently.

He was more or less sleeping right beside a defenseless female classmate. Though, her attempt to ensnare him with such a blatant trap wouldn’t work…

「Gimme a break here, like hell I would fall for such an ugly girl. Like hell I’m gonna push her down…」

Haruma had already decided to give his virginity to the one he loved, but his manhood had raised a revolt after he was thrown into this hell called dungeon survival.

There was a doubtful theory that Haruma had come across before. It was that a man who is constantly on the razor’s edge, having close encounters with death, would act on his instincts to leave behind a child as soon as possible.

That theory was definitely a hoax and yet, the third day after Haruma was sent into the dungeon, his body that had constantly gone into high gear without any spare time to release the pent up desires was currently in an extremely excited state.

Moreover, that excited state kept growing the more he fought his demons. Haruma led a normal life, unlike those yankees with excess vigor.He did not he have something like a hidden destructive impulse or uncontrollable killing intent like some sort of protagonist. But then again, any single man would always have this belligerent instinct sleeping within them.

To protect his life and survive the dungeon, Haruma had to kill the demons with his own hands. It was pure violence brought to light with a justified reason.

If there’s a woman sleeping right beside a man in this kind of condition…

「Aah, it’s time to sleep… We’re going deeper into the dungeon tomorrow. It’ll be bad If I don’t get a proper rest.」

In order to shake off his worldly desires, Haruma slept with his back facing towards Airi who had exposed her defenseless sleeping figure.

Excitement aside, he was already dead tired, so he went to the dream world as soon as he shut his eyes.

「…. You can do it you know, Haruma-kun.」

The whisper from behind didn’t even reach him as he fell into a deep slumber.

———————————————

「Let’s take a break for today, Haruma-kun.」

Said Airi, with a worried look on her face upon seeing Haruma rise up from his sleep with a listless look on his face.

「Eh, but if we don’t hurry up….」

「Even so, I’m more worried about your condition! 」

She was overly worried about his condition.

But she was right, continuing a dungeon capture when he wasn’t in a good condition was just like looking to die. Haruma guessed that he would have to prepare both equipment and other things so that they were absolutely ready once they continued on the dungeon capture.

「Hey? Shall we rest for today? 」

「You’re right…. Let’s take a rest for today.」

He needed a proper rest, both physically and mentally.

When he moved together with Airi, he was too absorbed with men’s sense of duty to protect women. Moreover, since she was a 『Healer』, a scratch shouldn’t be a problem for him.

Nevertheless, in spite of having splendid offensive magic like 『Lux Sagita』, Airi didn’t even participate in battle. The best contribution she made in battle was only firing 『Flash』 when they had to escape.

When it came to combat, Haruma was heavily relied on. Thus, it was natural for him to become extremely weary. But, he just couldn’t blame Airi for her uncooperative attitude since it can’t be helped that she didn’t have much in regards to combat power.

Haruma was extremely relieved that their opponents thus far had been weak demons, the likes of Red Dogs or Skeletons wouldn’t be enough to corner him.

「Hey Haruma-kun, do you want to try a lap pillow? 」

「Eh, N-Nah….」

「Come on, don’t force yourself, see, it’s ready~」

No, Haruma wasn’t really happy about it at all. But, he still ended up doing it anyway under Airi’s persuasion.

「How do you feel? 」

「Uhm…. So-so, I guess.」

Unfortunately, the owner of the lap was that ugly Himeno Airi. However, she was still a girl, and so it was hard to resist her soft and warm legs. Not to mention the fact that since Haruma had fallen asleep immediately last night, his little one was already standing proud once he awoke.

It felt like it could easily pierce heaven right now.

「Thank you for always protecting me, Haruma-kun.」

Haruma expected that he would be troubled to hear such sugar coated words from a girl that clearly was not in his radar, but somehow, he could easily accept Airi’s gratitude.

That day, Airi did not even try to separate herself from Haruma as she launched her skinship attack, beginning with that pillow lap. There weren’t any outrageous actions, just things like holding his hands or embracing him. But, after all of her unnaturally clinging acts, Haruma didn’t feel any discomfort around her anymore.

He was slowly numbed by her actions, Haruma found himself sleeping together with her that night. They slept in the corner of the Fairy Plaza, just like yesterday. They slept under the big fairy walnut tree which obstructed most of the light.

「Are you still awake, Haruma-kun? 」

Airi whispered in a small voice as if taking into consideration his tiredness, her gentle breath teasing his ears.

She whispered in a way that was as if she was waiting for the perfect timing to launch her attack after he had turned his back toward her, just to shake his worldly desire.

Actually, it wasn’t just her breath.

「A-AIRI! ? 」