CH 156

“See? There’s a manhole right here.”

“Ah, you’re right.”

I was showing Mei-chan to a round, metallic lid fixed on the roadside, a manhole from any angle you look at it. I’d noticed that these were here on the first day we started exploring this isekai town, but chose not to bother looking through dirty sewers since I had no particular reason to. Until now that is.

“I mean, Sakurai-kun can’t do anything if we’re underground, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t think he can penetrate this deep. Actually, I don’t think he’ll be able to sense us going through the sewers at all.”

Mei-chan affirmed my theory, and I believed in her intuition.

Now there was the issue of whether the sewers linked to the other side of the lake. I wasn’t exactly a fan of going in there if I could help it, but like the saying goes, when push comes to shove.

“Let’s get it over with I guess… huh, how are we supposed to get this open, anyway?”

I think they used some special metal rod that fit in the holes.

The dungeon’s manholes also had the little holes on the lid. Although, they weren’t something we could stick some fingers in and pull.

“Huh, this sure sucks. And with the shape its got, it doesn’t look like I can use my tentacles either――”

“Hmf!”

Mei-chan stomped and the manhole popped up and out of the way.

“There we go.”

“Thanks. Alright, so let’s send Rem in first.”

I thanked Mei-chan for her excellent usage of brute force, and had Rem #3, our proverbial canary, dive in and check for danger.

I scanned the sewers from above. Inside, I could see that it was lit up with the same white light panels found all over the dungeon, so there won’t be any problem checking our surroundings once inside.

This was a dungeon sewer so it wouldn’t be strange to find monsters living inside, for example, insect types or giant alligators. In the sewer zone I was previously at, there were Jiras, those fish-Goma like monsters, so those could be in there too.

“GUGO, GUGAGA!”

A little time later, #3, who I’d sent in to scout had returned.

“All clear, it looks like.”

“I’ll go in first then.”

“Sure, thanks.”

Mei-chan volunteered to go in first. She didn’t use the attached latter and just jumped all the way down.

""

There was a good bit of distance to the bottom but she… you know what, I’m not going to bother.

She was now very used to her Berserker body so she had no problem with feats of acrobatics like this, I’m sure. She wouldn’t do it if she was unsure of whether she’d land unscathed.

As a Shaman, I needed to do research and experiments to figure out the extent of my abilities, but maybe other types of Jobs had a learning curve more instinct based. Or at least, that’s how I think Mei-chan had it.

“Kotarou-kun~, it’s safe down here~”

Ok, Rem’s there and Mei-chan’s confirmed the safety too. This was more that enough. I should get going.

“KHSHASHA.”

“Ah, sorry Arachne, you’re gonna have to wait here.”

This was simply because of the fact that Arachne Mk. II was too big to fit through the hole.

Oh right, and Mei-chan’s main weapon, the halberd, and that big shield won’t fit either so we were not taking those.

We were only going in to see how the route looked, so we weren’t abandoning our stuff or anything like that.

“―― Huh. It’s not that different from the sewer zone actually.”

The construction was practically the same as the sewer zone I once traveled with Tendou-kun and the Yankee Party. So I was honestly expecting suddenly hearing ‘GyoGyoGyo!’ and getting assaulted by a school of Jiras… but that hadn’t happened at all. So far.

Since this was a people-less ancient town, there wasn’t any wastage flowing with the water in these sewers and it actually didn’t smell so bad. Actually, now that I think about it, every place where those Jiras popped up stunk like ass. I bet it was those fish mofos that were stinking up that whole zone.

“Kotarou-kun, I think around here should be where the lake is.”

Mei-chan, with ever the sharp senses, could easily navigate inside these repetitive sewer tunnels.

“You mean if we go straight through here, we’ll be on the other side?”

“Yeah, it should be this direction.”

Right, let’s go then. There weren’t any bends or branching paths so we just went straight―― For about 3 minutes, after which we had to stop.

“Damn, it’s completely caved in.”

Great. Just great. The whole tunnel was caved in right at the point where we’d be completely across. Large blocks of the concrete-like stone had closed off our path.

Though it wasn’t exactly sealed tight. There was just enough space to let a little amount of sewage through.

“GU, GAGA”

I tried having #3 squeeze in from somewhere, but she found no gaps wide enough. And even if we could squeeze into the sewage way somehow, I don’t know how long we’d have to hold our breath before coming out the other side. And I wasn’t willing to go that risk.

“Looks like this is a dead end. Let’s go back and look for another route,” I suggested.

“Yeah, too bad huh,” Mei-chan agreed.

We headed back the way we came.

We arrived at the bottom of the manhole where Arachne was on standby. I put my hand on the ladder to climb up when,

“Ah, wait, Kotarou-kun. I’ll go up first. No telling if there’s a monster waiting outside, right?”

I mean, Arachne was outside and she could probably drive most things off, but Mei-chan had a point. Say, the moment I pop out my head, a raging Roylopse stampedes over the manhole like an out of control truck, I’d have my head turned to paste before I know it. Plus, I didn’t think Arachne would be able to handle that large a beast if it does decide to charge.

I mean, there’s always the possibility of such an attack, but the chances of it really happening was incredibly low. Still, Mei-chan asked to go first with my safety in mind, so the least I could do was agree to her kindness.

And as I was watching her climb up, suddenly, a bolt of electricity passed through my head.

Wait, wait, wait. Isn’t this where, I get to see her panties!?

She only had on that swaying, pleated skirt while she was making the climb. In addition, Mei-chan didn’t wear spats, those accursed barriers that subverted panty shots. In other word, from underneath, the only piece of shielding that separated my eyes from her flesh would be a mere pair of panties.

I’d painstakingly held myself back from a lot of similar situations, situations that drove my self-control to its very edges, but this, this I could actualize by simply looking up. If this isn’t what you call a once in a lifetime chance, I don’t know what is.

“No wait, think about this. This is definitely Mei-chan’s trap…”

The moment I lose to my libido, I look up, and then, Mei-chan and my eyes meet, thus spelling the end of my dungeon survival.

She was testing me, fully aware of the possibility that her panties were in plain view. This was my battlefield, my chance to prove that I was in fact a gentleman!

“D-dammit… I, I won’t, but I, I…”

“Kotarou-kun~, all clear up here, come on up~”

Oh, ok. Fan-service time was already up, ok.

In the time I spent pathetically deliberating, Mei-chan had already climbed to the top, which wasn’t that far up, and called down to me.

Damn it all. I just wasted that big chance. No, I know, it was better this way, twas for the best….

“Haaah, bad day today…”

In the end, we couldn’t find a sewer tunnel that led to the other side of the lake.

This was just a bad day for me.

First, the bridge was blocked by Sniper Sakurai. Then, my big plan about using the sewers as a safe route only led to dead ends. Finally, I even had to endure the sheer pain of resisting the act of looking at Mei-chan’s panties.

Nothing good at all was happening today.

After all that walking and climbing without any result, I’d gotten pretty tired, and checking my watch, it was night time already, so we ended up heading back to the Fairy Square. All my energy from the morning when I thought we’d be finally leaving our first Fairy Square in this zone, and this is where we end up, returning after a day-trip.

“Kotarou-kun, dinner’s ready~”

Looks like it’s German fries for dinner today. She made it using bananatatoes and Roylopse bacon.

Apparently she’d used some of the plants I’d collected that worked well as spices… but I wasn’t able to get a good taste of it. I was constantly thinking how we’d really have to fight Sakurai-kun at this rate.

“Seriously, how the hell…”

How the hell am I supposed to bypass that Archer who’s become so incredibly over powered? I needed a way to get close to him, specifically, I needed a way to get Mei-chan close enough to him. Close enough to give her a fighting chance.

Her usual defensive equipment, the Dark Tower Shield, was quite bulky and looked like it could withstand massive blows. But would it be enough to block a serious shot from Sakurai-kun? I didn’t know, and I was worried. I had a feeling that if he used one of his archery Battle Arts, he might just pierce it through.

This led me to believe that trying for a mad dash across the bridge holding only the shield overhead was a suicidal idea.

Then what if I add Rem to the mix… No, even if there’s two enemies running across, Sakurai-kun would know to target Mei-chan first. The guy had an insane level of intuition, and he was very likely to figure out that Rem wasn’t that tough an opponent.

Then there’s the problem of whether, even if Rem makes it there, can she, with her increased strength from the Goliath parts, even defeat this Archer? He might not have specialized Battle Arts for melee combat, but he might still be flexible enough to use a dagger or sword, and might still have decent enough skill in close combat to beat Rem. This tactic is unreliable.

Getting Mei-chan to face him is definitely the more practical choice.

But I didn’t have a way to accomplish that safely.

“Haah… if only my clone had Pain Return…”

Pain Return was one of the Skills that only worked with my real body, and didn’t transfer over at all to my 2Shade clone. Heck, if I could get that sort of cheat combo attack, I would’ve become a master suicider.

“No wait, he won’t actually know it’s the clone, will he?”

I already told him about my Pain Return.

Meaning, that he definitely won’t headshot me immediately. He’d probably try grazing an arrow past my skin to see if the damage does get reflected.

“Yeah, won’t work. The moment he does that, he’ll kill the clone in the second shot.”

He’ll see that Pain Return wasn’t happening when he hurt something that looks just like me, so inevitably, he’ll think that I was just bluffing about this countering skill and will mercilessly shoot to kill from there on after.

As a result, the most I could do with the clone was have it die in combat in the middle of the bridge, still far from Sakurai-kun’s location.

“Oh, I know. I don’t actually have to make the clone go by itself.”

There was finally a plan unravelling in my mind.

“That’s it, I’ll just have Mei-chan carry clone me as her shield!”

I yelled in a stroke of genius and stood up from the bath Cauldron in that state of excitement.

“Kotarou-kun~, you called me~?”

“I-I didn’t! I didn’t call you so relax!”

I was sure that if I didn’t stop her right away, Mei-chan would easily sweep aside the thin blackhair curtain and invade my bathing area.

Like, holy crap, if I was another 2 seconds late, we’d definitely be in a ridiculously awkward situation right now. I mean, sure I had a hidden desire to somehow accidentally end up peeking on Mei-chan taking a bath, but then again, I wasn’t exactly enthused about revealing my own birthday suit to her. I’m just saying that my you-know-what isn’t exactly a size I can boast about. But that doesn’t mean it’s especially short or small or anything. It’s normal sized. Yup, completely normal.

“Alright, I’ll try it out as soon as I’m done with the bath.”

I ended my soak in a little less than 5 minutes, after which I called Mei-chan, for real this time.

“I’m thinking of doing a little experiment so help me out.”

“Experiment?”

“Yeah, I want to see if you can tell me apart from my clone.”

I’d of course already told Mei-chan about my newly acquired Curses, including 2Shade, but I had yet to show her this one in action. This will be the first time she’s seeing my clone Curse.

“So can you turn around for a bit?”

“Sure.”

Alright, let’s do this nice and proper.

“Expand, Reflect, and so Walk. It is All yet is One, for Reality is None―― 2Shade.”

I used the full canto for maximum effect. Fuzzy black smoke began rising up from the shadow extending from my feet, and in the blink of an eye, the darkness moulded into human form and took a shape completely identical to me.

The clones I’d used before, when fighting Reina, were all wearing the school gakuran, but since this Curse copies whatever I’m wearing currently, this time, it was more casual, with an open tracksuit and t-shirt inside.

“Ok, done. You can turn back this way.”

“What the!? There really are two Kotarou-kuns!?”

Mei-chan was super surprised. I’d had this reaction from others too so I knew that me and my clone were one in the same as far as outside appearance goes. You could look at it from any side or angle you want, but there’d be absolutely no difference. There was no player 2 color scheme and neither was the clone slightly transparent. No difference at all.

“As you can see, there’s no difference on the outside, but I’m trying to test if people with good instincts can tell somehow.”

“Basically, since you have really good Berserker instincts, I want you to see if you can tell which one the real me is. Sakurai-kun seems to have good instinctive judgement too so I want to make sure I can use this against him.”

I had the clone talk first, and I continued after. One thing to note here is that the voice didn’t change at all between the two of us. So pretty much like no changes in the VA.

“Oh, huh, I see? … Let’s see, mmm, nope, I can’t tell at all,” Mei-chan sulked.

“Really? You can’t tell?” I asked.

“I’m the real Kotarou, can’t you tell!?” I forced.

“He’s lying, I’m the real one, it’s me, Mei-chan!” I pleaded.

“Eh, EH!? I, wait, what, umm, I don’t know~” Mei-chan began deliberating nervously.

I thought I’d mess around a bit, and started doing the old cliche where a shape-shifting monster starts causing confusion among friends and allies. Mei-chan was looking to back and forth to the two of us with an increasingly frustrated expression.

“So you really can’t tell?”

“Yeah, I honestly really can’t tell. But I have a feeling―― it’s you!”

And without any warning to me or hesitation on her part, Mei-chan picked out the real body, in other words, my body, and swooped me up in a tight hug.

“What the, hey――”

Her chest was touching my face. No, it was more correct to describe my face as completely muffled. H-holy moly. What is this soft and warm, what’s with this great smell. What in the what is I don’t even.

“Did I get it right?”

“S-sure did.”

“Hurray~”

She cheered and squeezed me even tighter. Yeah, I can die, like this, in boobies…

“Phew…” I sighed to calm myself after being released, “So how did you get it anyway?”

“I wonder, intuition maybe? I just kind of got this ‘this has to be Kotarou-kun’s real body’ kind of feeling.”

“Oh.”

Oh shit. If her intuition is this hardcore, there’s a big chance Sakurai-kun might be able to do it too. Once he figures out that my shield clone is in fact a clone, the whole plan will go up in smoke.

“Ok, can I try again?”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

I needed to see what sort of success rate this intuition of hers was capable of. If it turns out that she gets it right 50% of the time, I can still mark it down as dumb luck…

“―― I got it, you’re the real Kotarou-kun!”

And so I kept getting smothered in boobies.

Mei-chan, what compels you to hug me so?

Having had my face drowned in those enormous jugs 10 times in a row, my brain had already turned to mush and I lost the mental faculties to even question her actions anymore. Yeah, this is fine…

“HA!?” I came to my senses with a start.

“Kotarou-kun, you seemed really out of it, what’s wrong?”

I mean, I’d have to be legitimately homosexual if I didn’t feel anything from that sheer amount of boobs-to-the-face goodness.

But now was not the time to lose myself to pleasure. Dammit, my head still wasn’t working straight. It was still filled to the brim with Mei-chan’s boobs.

“Well, uh, anyway, so Mei-chan, you kinda just had 100% accuracy there. Was it really that easy to tell?”

“Well,” she said, thinking on her words, “I can somehow just tell y’know? … But I don’t think others could do it as well as me.”

“So you mean, it’s because we’ve known each other for a this long? Maybe you can sense a vague difference in presence or something.”

“Yeah, I bet it’s just that. I’m pretty sure I can say that I know you best.”

That sweet yet deadly experiment done with, what I learned was that there wasn’t a big chance that Sakurai-kun would see through the clone decoy. But then again, it wasn’t perfect… and I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.

I wanted to get one more counter-measure in place, if at all possible. So what is it that I’m missing?