(to Draedon's Forge: Rimuru/Ciel is the only true ship to me, dood)
It had been around four days after the canyon incident. His teacher had deemed him healthy enough to continue training yesterday.
That didn't mean he was at full power, though. When he tried to use his skill, it failed to activate. The Voice of the World informed him that because he had overused his skill, he had to wait a week for it to cool down. In other words he still had three days to go.
"Thirty one, thirty two, thirty three," counted Jack as he did his handstand push ups.
Ever since his teacher taught him how to handstand, he'd been doing it almost all the time. When he did this yesterday on the field, he earned the stares and giggles of the local girls and the jealousy of several boys.
Just as he was getting smug over his daily training routine, his teacher had to ruin it by saying, "Oh? Trying to impress girls, are you? Well, then. You should be able to do your daily THOUSAND push ups right now."
That cut him down a peg. Even if he did get used to training every day, asking an eleven year old to do a thousand handstand push ups would be a bit too much. Of course, he still did it (who knows what his teacher would've done if he skipped training), but he came out much more pathetic and tired in the end. That taught him to stop focusing on girls and keep focusing on getting stronger.
Which brought him to a question, "Why am I trying to become strong?"
The first thing he could think of was that he wanted to get his teacher's approval. Second was to be more like Johnson, who vowed to protect the orphanage. Third was because being strong is great. He wanted to be like the Great Nine; the group of heroes from all over the world united against the forces of the demon lord.
But he knew that if his teacher asked him that question, she would be dissatisfied with his answer. He didn't know why, he just had a gut feeling.
So, why was he doing this?
...
Jack walked around the place for a bit. From what he had gathered, this place was a nameless village in a fairly remote area in the forest near the canyons.
When he was walking, he was called out by some of the village children to play together. At first he felt conflicted. He was a disciple to a great sword master. He shouldn't be goofing around like this.
"Hey there," he heard someone call out to him. He looked to the side and saw a group of girls waving and giggling at him.
And just like that, his teacher's lesson yesterday was all but forgotten.
"H-hey," Jack tried to reply coolly as he walked over to the group.
The girl who called him waved at him and smiled, "Haven't seen you around here before. Are you new?"
To which he nodded and answered, "Yeah. I'm just passing by."
He then suddenly heard a wooshing sound from behind and immediately turned around and immediately kicked at it. He had left his bokken at the inn.
The thing he now realized was a ball then flew over back to the field. He saw a group of boys on the field looking at him, surprised.
The boy who looked like the other group's leader clicked his tongue before asking, "Yo. You wanna play ball?"
The boy didn't like the attention the new kid was getting and wanted to mess with him. He tried punting a ball to his head, but the new kid was more agile than he'd thought. He then thought of a new idea.
"Yeah, sure," Jack, ignorant of the boy's malicious intent, went ahead to the field, his head thinking that this would make him be able to show off to the first group.
One can't really expect a child to be mature about certain things. Kids would almost always try to show off when they can. And so, in true kid fashion, Jack did.
He annihilated the other kids with his training, kicking and swerving and scoring many goals, getting the cheers from the first group and the jeers from the second.
The boy now looked very annoyed. He tried to punch the new kid in the back, but the kid turned around and grabbed his fist.
Jack asked confusedly, "Hey, what gives?"
The boy answered, "You! You're the problem! You look dumb trying to show off! Stop stealing my show!"
Jack instantly got pissed and shouted, "Oh yeah? You wanna go!?"
"Please stop," pleaded the girl from earlier as she ran over to them.
It appeared the two weren't willing to. The girl then said, "If you're trying to see who's better, then I know a way to do that without getting us into trouble! What would our parents think if you guys fought right now?"
The two then paused. That's right. His teacher would've been pissed at him, or worse... be disappointed in him for beating up the kid.
Both then turned and agreed with the girl.
The girl nodded and said, "Good. Follow me."
...
"...I'm not sure if this a good idea," the boy from earlier said.
The groups were currently standing in front of a forest. Jack was filled in about the danger. It seemed some kids have gone missing in this area of the forest recently. The girl had told them who stayed in the forest longer would be declared better than the other.
Jack taunted the boy, "What's the matter? Chicken?"
"You," the boy grit his teeth, but then turned around and said, "whatever. You won't even stay here for long."
It was clear that the kids were unnerved by this place. They had heard one time a scream arose from this place at night. So they weren't willing to enter this place. The boy group followed as the first boy left.
Jack felt more smug. He'd proven himself to be better.
He then heard the girl speak, "So, you wanna explore this place together?"
"I don't think that's a good idea," said one of the other girls.
"Nah, there's no need to worry. This guy's strong. He'll be able to protect me," the first girl waved her off.
The other girl tried to reason, "But--"
"Come on, let's go," the girl pulled Jack's arm.
Jack complied, still in his high.
The girl lead him around grasping his arm the whole time, which made his heart beat faster. They then came across a steep mound of dirt. On the side was something Jack thought looked like a rabbit hole.
The girl pointed at it and said, "Let's check that out!"
Both neared it.
The girl asked him, "What do you think is inside?"
"Rabbits, probably," he answered.
The girl's face lit up and she asked, "Oh! Can you go get them for me? I want to pet them!"
Jack nodded. There was no way he could resist the cute girl's request. He went down crawling until he was halfway in.
He then said, his voice echoing, "Wow. This hole is bigger than I thought! I wonder how big it is?"
He then heard the girl say, "Why don't you... find out!"
"Wha-- Ahhh!!"
The girl stepped on his behind, pushing him inside.
A malicious chuckle let out from the girl's mouth. Her eyes inverted color.
The disguised demon grinned and exclaimed, "Enjoy my dungeon, human!"
...
"...aaaahh!"
Jack fell to the floor. After a few seconds, he slowly pushed himself up. He tried to look around but saw only darkness. He then heard the sound of clicking and teeth grinding before he saw many pairs of red dots moving all across the floor.
"...oh, shit."
(I've read about Diabolos ex Machina. It's kind of like the opposite of Deus ex Machina. I want to ask how you guys feel about it.)
(Also, please type down a review whenever you feel like you want to! I really like to read your responses!)
