Maid Will Go On Through Thick And Thin! Ss 4

Sh.e.l.l for a Sh.e.l.l

Suzumoto POV.
Timeline is chapter 1 to 2.
A bit of slightly cruel portrayl.
There is a fear of destroying character image.
As usual, there is no romance element.

Please take note.

We are weak. That’s why we needed a sh.e.l.l.

a bit filmsy

“Wake up! Forest! It’s a forest! Ora!”
When I was shaken awake with that confusing phrase, there was Maito in a ridiculous outfit.

meido~

I don’t really understand, either we are all seeing the same hallucination……or it seems we have been thrown into another world.
For now, thinking along the line of the latter, we chose to explore outside. As for why, I can only answer that it is because we were too much of realists to believe that the situation would improve just by staying here.
And on top of that, we chose to leave just Maito behind. After all, it can’t be helped. She alone, for some reason, really for some strange reason……even though we were in outfits that were like an other world fantasy, she alone……ridiculously, was wearing that thing known as a maid costume.
beyond her control
Maito’s athletic ability is not low. That time she ran in the corridor she was surprisingly fast. But, the clothes she is wearing is what they are, and most of all, even if her athletic abilities were slightly high, they were just that of someone in a cultural club. She has no stamina and is inferior to us in other parts anyway.
So that led to the conclusion of there being no need to force ourselves to bring along someone that would be a burden.
logical
After that, we distributed the equipment in the cleaning cabinet. The sword aside, at the point that there was a fantasy-like staff, I felt like this really might be that another world trip thing, but at that time I didn’t think too deeply into it.

escapism?

“It’s a forest.”
“It’s a forest.”
“It is a forest.”
When I went outside with Hagasaki-kun and President who happened to be in the same chemistry lab, a strange scenery spread out before us.
The forest with enormous trees growing densely together is clearly different from those in j.a.pan. And the calls that sound like they belong to animals that can be heard from somewhere in the forest are all things that shouldn’t exist.
……has anybody heard a b.e.s.t.i.a.l call filled with clear hostility in modern j.a.pan? And if they heard it for the first time. If a impossible grotesque creature that made that noise suddenly appeared.
Normally, they shouldn’t have been able to move.
Yet, I moved.
Without thinking, my body was moving.
When I kicked the group, my body floated up to an impossible height, and without enough time for me to even be surprised, I was cutting down one of the wings of a bird with my sword.
I don’t even know when I landed.
Staring at the bird that had lost its wing screaming, struggling on the ground, I finally came to my senses, and, unable to stand that sight, ended its life……this time we had to accept it. We really had come to that thing known as another world.
well, when you suddenly get buffed
By the time I noticed, the hand I was holding the sword with was clenched tightly regardless of my will and I had trouble releasing the sword.
If this is another world, I really think it is a world with bad taste. Once a monster is defeated, it should just disappear. The corpse of the bird I killed still remained there.
I don’t think I will ever forget the slimy feeling of the bird’s blood that flowed down the blade and reached my hand.

We found a riverbank nearby and I washed my hand and sword, but the unpleasant feeling somehow stayed on my hand.
My fingers felt cold and I couldn’t move them properly. It seems killing a living creature with blood flowing in it with my own hands without any preparations had given me too much of a shock.
I was a lot weaker than I myself thought I was.

we all are

“What is going on. Suzumoto’s movements just now, that’s impossible. And that bird too.”
There was a fruiting tree next to the riverbank and the instant we chose to rest there for a while, Hagasaki-kun spoke out as if a dam had broken.
“Yeah, I still can’t believe it myself.”
It feels like my own body is no longer mine. Were my legs able to kick the ground with so much force? I jumped to such a height and didn’t have any problems landing afterwards. No matter how you think about it, it’s strange.
“I could still understand if it is something like gravity is weak but……would it be better to simply think that our body’s abilities have bugged out?”
I had to agree with President’s words. I know this abnormality better than anyone here.
“And I’ve been strange since just now too. That tree’s fruits.”
Where President pointed, a fruit that we clearly didn’t know grew.
“It’s edible. I know, for some reason.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. At any rate, information just flows in when I focus my consciousness on a target.”
Saying that, President held his head, seeming to be in pain. Looks like he is being overwhelmed by the target’s information that flowed in regardless of his will. But when that settled down, President made an important discovery.
The discovery of skills. On the dog tags that we held, skills had been carved there at some point. It was only [Appraisal], but that was sufficiently impactful.
On my dog tag was also carved [Decapitate] and [Single-Handed Sword Skill]. That made sense, the reason I was able to kill that bird easily was because of these skill things.
Once he was aware of it, it seems he could control it, President began to [Appraise] everything around us. Being able to differentiate what is edible and what is not is a large advantage. If we couldn’t, then we most definitely wouldn’t have felt like eating strangely coloured fruits that we had never seen before.
find a type that has been eaten by animals
Ending our break, we began gathering fruits. If we had nothing to eat, we would starve to death. We don’t know how long this situation will continue.
When I had climbed up a tree and was throwing the fruits I picked to President and Hagasaki-kun, I spotted something like a box in a gap between the trees. When I focused my consciousness on it and took a closer look, I could tell that it was a wooden box with a hinged cover. My eyes weren’t bad before, but seeing this much is strange. I can even see the grain of the wood. As I was focusing my consciousness on that box, the sound of flapping came from behind.
Due to focusing my consciousness on a different location, I responded late. My sword is still sheathed. And this is on a tree. The footing is too bad. I have no time to keep my balance.
I won’t make it.
Thinking that far in an instant, but before I could scold my fingers which still haven’t moved, with hard heavy sounds, they crashed through the tree and fell to the ground. 3 big birds. And each of them had half their bodies frozen, dead.
“It, looks like I’m strange too.”
Peeling his fingers off his staff, Hagasaki-kun smiled shakily with a pale face.

saved

And then after taking another break for Hagasaki-kun who seemed to have exhausted his mental strength, we went back with the fruits, the corpses of the birds Hagasaki-kun froze with [Ice Magic] and a kitchen knife that came out from the box that was under the tree.
The indescribable feeling of relief from seeing the familiar door of the cla.s.sroom in an unfamiliar place was amazing. When I knocked on the door as we had agreed on beforehand while feeling my tensed body relax, clattering sounds came from inside, then the door was unlocked and opened energetically.
“We’re back.”
“Welcome back, masters.”
Unlike us who were exhausted, it seems Maito still had the energy to joke around.
“Stop that, it’s disgusting when you say it.”
“How cruel.”
The tension that was already starting to relax completely relaxed with this.
She doesn’t know the abnormality or fear we felt. She can laugh because she doesn’t know. She can make jokes. Because she doesn’t know……she can stay normal. That was irritating but at the same time relieving. I finally realised that in those mere 30 minutes, we had been getting further from normality.
well…its another world
After that we put down our luggage and roughly explained the situation, the words were coming out of my mouth, but it felt like it was about someone else. It was like I was telling a fairytale.
In the middle of the explanation that didn’t feel real, we discovered that Maito did not have combat abilities like us. What is that, [Cleaning]? Maito’s expression of despair at that moment was funny. No, that is definitely not a bad thing. At that instant, we were normal.

normal life

At time, I somehow feel like the 3 of us were thinking the same thing at that time. After that we talked about this and that and then went out to get water.
“We will definitely break at this rate.”
President laughed self-derisively as he mercilessly speared a bird with [Earth Magic]. President is way stronger than someone like me. Unlike me, he is clear on what is necessary.
“What do you mean?”
Hagasaki was collecting water from the riverbank. It is the place I washed off the blood just now, but we can’t complain.
“At this rate we will probably get used to this strange situation. To skills, to our strange physical abilities too.”
“Yeah.”
“And, we will also get used to killing. We will definitely get worn out.”
Saying getting used to as getting worn out strangely fit. I see, I was getting worn out. Worn down. That’s why it hurts this much.
“By the time we completely got used to killing, what would we become.”
We were too removed from the taking of life. We could eat meat without dirtying our hands and extermination of dangerous animals were stories of a far away world.
If I think about it as that coming back at us, I can accept it. Without slowly getting used to it, we have suddenly come face to face with taking of lives, that’s why we will probably break. In exchange for having it easy, we will lose something important.
“Simply deciding that reality is fiction is a choice.”
This is a lie, this is a dream, or a game. Thinking that way, beliving it, make it a sh.e.l.l to protect myself. That was actually quite an attractive proposal. But, if I did that, that wouldn’t be [me].
“That, somehow makes me mad.”
Just like Hagasaki-kun. Mad, with that word, he would choose the pain of being worn down. I think that this part of Hagasaki-kun is cool.
“The moment we make reality fiction, we are effectively broken.”
“That’s true. We hate those kind of things.”
Stoppering the flask, Hagasaki-kun stood up. For now, this much should somehow last for today and tomorrow.
“That’s why, how about doing this. In order to not break, let’s make a reason and meaning in being worn down.”
“……what does that, mean?”
“It means depending on something. On the one person among us that is least likely to break, the one who can stay normal, depending on her emotionally.”
I see, President also felt the same thing I had felt.
“Females naturally have a better ability to handle stressful situations. In exchange, their combat ability is lower than men, but this time that is convenient. It’s relaxing to see a creature weaker than yourself.”
“Depend on her?”
“Rely on her, make her our emotional support. We just need to look at Maito-san and regain our sense of normality. For that, we need to keep Maito-san normal. If we have Maito-san as an excuse, we should also be able to endure being worn down.”
Not to keep ourselves alive, but using the excuse of keeping someone else alive. In a certain sense, it is a worse way of escaping reality than hiding in the sh.e.l.l of fiction. But, if we don’t do that we won’t be able to endure. We are weak.
“She doesn’t wish for that. Because she wants to share.”
“Yeah, she does.”
Maito tries to be part of everything she can. That is likely to fill the gap between us. Even though she knows it will never be filled, Maito does it. ……it might be egoism, but this dependency is both ways. Because she is also dependent on us emotionally.
“It’s fine if she doesn’t find out. As long as she doesn’t find out, it’s fine.”
President finished packing the flasks filled with water into a bag. It’s time to go back. The sun will set soon.
“Well, if she doesn’t find out, it’s fine.”
This is also the compromise for Hagasaki-kun. Making it fiction can be kept to inside the chemistry lab, no, only when with Maito. This is not a sh.e.l.l for us to hide in, but a sh.e.l.l for us to shut Maito in. [Protecting] a weaker creature than us is nothing but egoism. Maito does not wish for that. I know that, but I will make that a sh.e.l.l too, I will protect myself.
If Maito found out, she would be get angry, not wanting something like that. Or maybe.

maybe?

“Like this we are partners in crime.”
Grinning, President grasped his staff.
“Yeah.”
Hagasaki-kun also had a somewhat relieved expression.
“Now then, Presdient, don’t break the flasks okay?”
3 birds were flying this way, but at some point I had become able to move my fingers as I liked.
I drew my sword out of my own will.
end

Explanation for how I’m gonna slot in these short stories is in the TOC. Yes, this is the 4th one, the timings are very scattered and a significant portion of them are actually before the start of the main story which I’m skipping for now.

One of the rare serious short stories, the story overall including most of the short stories is usually not this heavy.