Disclaimer: I don't own Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekaisaikyou just like Isekai manga/light novels.
I didn't write this story alone. I posted it on my Google Docs to work on it with another fanfiction author but I don't recall his/her name. If you find a fanfiction on here that's word for word in the chapters please tell me so I can delete this story and let that author finish it for me. Thank you.
C=C=C=C
The sentimentality of humans means nothing to gods.
Over time humans became malignant and dacoits, but all that seemed to fade when they heard of a human strong enough to slay a god...
Or so it was thought.
Humanity's devilish traits persisted, and resumed life as it were.
It was pitiful, in a way. Even when shown the capabilities of humanity...
They walk away, unwilling to try again.
There was a mid-afternoon glare in the sky for a group of poor people who did only one thing: work with their hands lumbering things to their fortress. These were once good, honest people and not the kind who got involved in anything bad. It was a shame for them, they lived in a world where good deeds have a way of puncturing your shoulders, legs, heart, and even your mind.
Today, with only a few miles of horseback from their fortress, the same benevolent workers stole a child.
The child had been taken from home, to 'compensate' their lost workforce.
Truthfully, none of the workers had been lost. They merely wished for a way to 'vent their frustrations'.
They also didn't want the child to feel scared. What they lacked in for stuffed animals they made up for in well carved toys for the child to squeeze. They weren't as bad as some people, although taking an actual human child instead of a beastman was deplorable to others it wasn't like this kid was completely innocent: being a bully himself and puffing out his chest to look mean.
The person who knows this is Seani; the one who chops down the trees to bring back for work-sixty-four trees a day unless it was a busy day in which he cut down eighty. He was big arms no one could say were slabby with his iron strong chest, slender legs, bristling black facial hair, tan skin and brown hair short except for that one large tree trunk growing in the back.
"Whew, another long day. Now, I just have to pack this into the carriage, and I can call it a day." Seani took the last few trees to the carriage waiting for him, then he mounted it and started his journey back to the fortress.
Time went by, with Seani thoughtlessly guiding the horses, until he heard a quiet humming from behind him. He turned around, and grabbed his axe. He could only assume the jet black object racing towards him was a monster. He was only half wrong.
It wasn't what was racing towards him that was a monster, it was what was riding it. Or more specifically, WHO was riding it.
Seani saw a being with one eye and an arm made of something he's never seen. He wouldn't describe it as human-inhuman was only more like it in his bewildered mind. Thoughts raced through him as his courage made him raise his axe up high and charge towards the rider!
He expected a powerful crash, launching him far away. What he didn't expect was for the strange object to suddenly turn, and kick up dust. Seani had to close his eyes from all the dust. The figure stepped off, and walked up to Seani.
"Hey, I'm looking for a fortress around here. Where is it?" The stranger spoke to Seani, with an intimidating voice.
Seani was still holding his axe, intent on defending himself. But his senses were screaming at him to run away, or just tell the stranger what he wants.
"Nevermind. You seem like the kind of person heading that way, so if I go the same route as you...chances are I'll meet up with the front door. Ciao."
Seani felt a strong smack on his neck, enough force to knock him on the ground and choke blood trying to speak. And after that, his eyes turned black where he saw four different sets of feed behind the feet of the person who got past him.
They returned to their strange black box, and drove off at breakneck speeds towards the fortress. Seani tried to get back up, and got back to the carriage. "I have to warn the others..."
He took off after the strangers, but after a while he ditched the carriage and rode the horse. Even then, he had no chances of getting there first. The stranger's black box was already gone from his line of sight. It'd be too late by the time he got there.
(Dash)
There are very few lucky men who find a wife both attractive and good hearted. Seani just so happens to be one of those lucky men.
This wife of his was helping out the men working in the fortress. She has been working extra hard due to all the new cargo of metal being dragged inside.
She was talking with one of the other men there, when she heard a loud bang. It came from the door. She ran up there, along with several of the men.
She saw an individual with a black trench coat that draped down to his feet. His left arm was made from an unknown metal, and he wore an eye patch over his right eye. His left was red, and it was partially covered by his messy white hair.
Under the trench coat was a grey vest, and around his thighs were two brown leather straps, leading to a pair of two holsters, containing black, unknown weapons.
"Nice place you have here. Most fortresses are run by demons or a corrupt leader." He said,
"Well it wasn't always like this." She said, his voice was so deep and gritty, it was kind of attractive. "It used to be a two story house run by a hard working lumberjack like my husband, then more people wanted to get into his business and instead of fighting them, he opened up a shelter for them to stay and work. He made it big because...do I really need to say? There are two D words out there that will cook a person alive."
"Interesting story. Mind if I look around?" The stranger crossed his arms. "I happen to be looking for someone.
She nodded. She was either trying to look auspicious, or she really didn't know there was a person in here that wasn't a worker or a child but a slave.
"Thanks. I'm Nagumo Hajime, and these four are friends of mine." He gestured towards the four girls behind him.
One of them was short, and they looked young. But despite her appearance, her bewitching atmosphere was very mature. She had blonde hair and red eyes. She wore a white coat over her top, and a black miniskirt. She wore a black ribbon on her head.
The one next to her was a rabbitman. She had long, pale blue hair, and white rabbit ears. She had big, pale blue eyes. Her outfit was… provocative, to say the least.
The one that also had a mature atmosphere but also seemed to have a lustful side to her had a long black woven hairstyle with needles sticking out of the top and a small red ribbon underneath. She wore a very colorful kimono with the most colorful thing being the red rose on the back. She had golden, piercing eyes and pointed ears.
The fourth lady-probably a girl in this boy's harem since many people not from around here have many members of the opposite sex near them- looked inhuman. She had silver hair and blue eyes, and her expression looked very kind and soft. She wore armor for her upper arms, as well as her hips. She wore some kind of metal headdress, making her look like a Valkyrie of sorts.
"Yue, Shea, Tio, and Kaori." With every name he gave the girl in question bowed to her.
She had a different way of greeting them. She walked over to them and shook their hands. Despite how skinny or small they looked-except the big breasted one in the kimono-they had strong handshakes, but it felt a little limp; they weren't really squeezing very hard.
"Nice to meet you. If you need a tour of the workplace, you can walk with my son. I'll have him down here in a jiffy."
Despite her warm welcome, the boy with the white hair was frowning at her. He didn't seem to be someone trying to be mean, but he wasn't returning her kind gesture.
"Thanks, but we are perfectly capable of touring this fortress ourselves." Hajime activated his Sense Presence skill, and detected his target below him. Their presence was smaller and weaker than everyone else here, so it was easy to find.
"Hajime, have you found them?" Yue spoke up.
"Yeah, it looks like they're in a basement or something." Hajime pointed down, which confused Seani's wife.
"Um… I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. There's no one downstairs right now."
"Well, we're here to find a kid. And from what I can tell, he's downstairs. Right now, I'd rather not blast a hole in the floor, so I'll just take the stairs.
Hajime began to walk past the confused woman in his way. The men looked like they wanted to stop him, but before they could, all five people were behind them.
They didn't need him to unholster his special guns to know these five were far too strong for them. They tried reasoning with him.
"Look, let's talk about this. We are not hurting anyone despite being hurt."
The white haired boy did unholster his weapon this time, and he pressed it between this whelching man's eyes. "I show no mercy. Not to anyone who gets in my way."
The man in front of him went down a peaceful way to try negotiating with Hajime, but another man picked up an axe ready to cleave it through his left arm.
"Die you arrogant prick!" He swung down.
"Shithead." Hajime murmured.
Instead of cutting through, the axe stopped dead in its tracks when it hit. A mere axe couldn't cut through the same metal arm he used to kill a god.
Yue stepped in to hurt the axeman for her husband. With one arm she created a ball of fire that exploded into a burning spew flow of torrential fire. He was engulfed in the fire almost hiding that he was there, if not for his graveyard startling cry of pain.
"Sorry, I can heal almost anything but I can't heal death." Hajime said to the man with less than five seconds before he was turned into ashes; wasn't even alive to hear his apology. "Anyone else tries to fight, they end up like-"
A giant axe was hurled from behind almost tearing into his backside. It was fortunate for him Kaori was there to stop the axe. "I could tell that was there, you know."
Kaori ignored him, and cut into the attacker. He fell to the floor, when Shia hit him and sent him flying into the wall. Hajime grabbed Schlag, his other revolver, and pointed it at the heads of two other people. "I tried to be reasonable. You had your chance." Hajime pulled the trigger, not needing to use lightning clad to blow their heads off. The massacre continued, with Hajime's group not sustaining a single injury.
Next was Tio's attack, she unleashed a spew of purple flames engulfed a worker...her flames also enveloped another person, the sweet mother who didn't know anything. She died standing up, perplexed, and afraid. When the fire cleared...she was in ashes.
Soon everyone was dead because everyone else picked a fight. The unfeeling, almost antagonistic group carried on with their mission of finding the stairs to the basement.
They walked down two flights of stairs before they made it to the basement-Hajime sensing a human again on the first flight but feeling sure about him this time. And in no time at all they reached the large steel door with black ivory paint in a long line through it. This seemed like the kind of door that needed a strong lock; not that they needed a key to open it.
"Master, I think I found the place they're keeping him." Tio said with facetiousness in her voice.
"Thanks, Tio." Hajime walked up to the door. He heard some faint shifting behind it, but couldn't tell what was happening.
After a few seconds, the door was sent flying. It slammed against the wall, and fell to the ground.
Hajime, Yue, Shia, Tio, and Kaori walked into a room with only one lightbulb and what was over a hundred small cages. These men were once lumberjack's so why they had all these cages was a mystery, unless they used it to capture small animals. They weren't making it easy to find that kidnapped child hiding it in a cage farther from the ones in the front door, but Hajime's senses could tell he wasn't far away.
He walked up to the cage with the kid in it. He had a tough time determining the kid's features, until he used his Night Vision Skill. The kid looked kinda like Myu if their genders were changed, a little pudgier in the arms, had brown shorts that were once jeans until something ripped off the pant legs, white shirt, orange eyes, blonde hair, and a few dimples on his face. He had a bit of drool dripping from his right lip.
Hajime ripped open the cage, and pulled the kid out. They tried fighting back, but unlike Myu, Hajime had no problems fighting this kid. He held the kid still, and had Kaori carry him. They seemed to calm down after that.
They were up one flight of stairs when Hajime sensed two presences nearby. One of them still wasn't that intimidating, but the lurking second presence made him unholster Donner. And then, another axe fell from the top floor nearly cleaving into Hajime's head…
He fired a bullet through the axe, turning the handle into splinters. The rest of the axe fell like a frisbee into a floorboard. But then, Seani fell from the first floor!
Hajime was introduced to what a man who came home to see his wife in ashes could feel like. He slugged him on his way falling down, and this punch hit harder than a hammer swing from Shea. It hurt more than Hajime thought a human was capable of, when it came to his defense. Less than Shea's attacks, but it carried the same force.
His wives were around him, but unlike most fights the enemy was latching onto Hajime with his big hand on his fleshy shoulder. And then, he toppled backwards just falling down the stairs with Hajime still in his arms. Both of them were in for a massive headache as their necks were hit over and over by the staircase boards.
When they reached the bottom, Hajime stood up first. Rather than forgive the man or just leave him hurt by his own asinine recklessness, he took out Donner again.
"Any last words?" He asked while his gun was pointed at the burly man.
"You may rescue a child, but you killed a whole shelter of the most hardworking, honest people I've ever known. I hope it's worth it saving a boy...taking a father's life." Seani's last words to Hajime.
Hajime pulled the trigger, shooting him right through the head. Hajime expected silence from his team-seeing him only acting in self-defence against this man. What he didn't count on was a cry of fear from that other presence.
"No, father!" A boy screamed...and then he trampled down the same stairs.
Hajime mostly ignored him, letting him grieve his father's death. He didn't even spare a glance as he walked back to his team. "Let's get out of here. The sooner we get back to Fuhren, the better."
"Hajime-kun…" Kaori seemed upset by this turn of events. Even after spending so much time with Hajime, all the sadness, death, fear, regret, it was still a bit much for her.
Hajime walked past them, and they all followed slowly. Kaori looked back to the boy, at least wanting to learn how he looked.
He was Hajime's age and size when he was first summoned, or rather forced into this world with her and all of her classmates-not all of them getting a happy ending through their journey. His hair was blue with one tuft of it combed out to look like a tide, a prominent choice of hairstyle his family share. He had a white shirt with three buttons with a brown jacket over him, mesh green shorts sewn by his mother, almost resembling the swim shorts back on Earth, and he had eyes that were completely blue. Both of them were crying a waterfall over the bullethole Hajime shot through his father.
Less of a bullethole, and more of a large crevice, or the fatal wound a wolf makes when it gnaws through an arm or a leg. His bullets did carry the force of a railgun, afterall. Kaori wanted to apologize, but Hajime called her name. She looked back between the top and bottom of the stairs, but decided to follow who she loved. Leaving the boy alone with his emotions.
Soon, the sadness turned to anger, then emptiness. "I will avenge you. I swear it on my name, Razi Seani."