Starts from when Hajime falls off

Chapter 1

Kaori Shirasaki was slightly in shock. She wondered why as she watched someone she admired fall off the edge into an abyss- probably of death.

As she did so, memories that she had of him started flowing through her mind, as she came to the realization that she had fallen head over heels for the boy- no, man who fell, one Hajime Nagumo. Even restrained by two of her childhood friends, Kouki Amanogawa and Shizuku Yaegashi, she tried to rush over to his side, determined to at least tell him how she felt before they died.

"LET ME GO! NAGUMO-KUN NEEDS MY HELP!"

Kouki and Shizuku weren't having it, though, and Meld Loggins, the Commander of the Order of Knights of the Heiligh Kingdom decided that he would 'help'- in other words, he tried to knock Kaori out with a karate-chop to the back of her neck.

What happened, was that Kaori's newly acknowledged emotions overcame the blow that she took, while also doing something unprecedented. She, a Priestess, somehow managed to shake off her restraints, surprising them. Then, she ran towards the hole in the ground of the 65th floor of the Great Labyrinth of Orcus with a desperate scream of "NAGUMO-KUN!", intent on following Hajime Nagumo. Her speed matched Kouki's own speed, meaning that Shizuku was the only one in the group with any chance of catching up to her. Unfortunately, her strength was nowhere near Kouki's level, and so it was that Shizuku was dragged down the hole with Kaori.

Seeing that, Kouki was shocked and made to follow them, but Meld chopped the back of Kouki's neck with his sheathed sword, having learned from the incident with Kaori. Sighing and mentally apologizing to all three of the fallen, he ordered the rest to retreat, while thinking about the impact of losing two- no, Hajime had proven to Meld that he was one of the strongest in the group, despite being almost completely normal- three warriors to the Labyrinth.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the pits

Hajime Nagumo, Synergist, and overall hobbyist, had been struck unconscious by the fall that he had taken. When he regained consciousness and was able to process the scene in front of him, though, he realized a very important anomaly in his memories- Kaori Shirasaki and Shizuku Yaegashi had somehow decided to follow him.

It seemed as though Kaori was the only one who wanted to follow him though, as the argument that they were having proved beyond reproach, even with the only lines he heard.

"Shizuku-chan, why did you try to stop me!? You know full well that I hate breaking my promises!"

"Why else if not because you were too reckless? No one is insane enough to risk their life for other people, you-"

Hajime wasn't about to let that slide that easily.

"Maybe if a certain someone stopped Hiyama-kun from touching that jewel, I wouldn't have had to risk myself for the class, Yaegashi-san. Although, in this particular case, I did act a little insanely."

That stunned both girls in the middle of their argument- Anyone, when unconscious, possessed the same amount of presence as a certain Kousuke Endou normally did, and as neither had realized that he was there, his presence was not as easily detected when he became lucid.

"Nagumo-kun, are you okay, do you need any hea- Mmpf!?"

Kaori, in her distress, forgot about caution being a priority in unknown lands. Hajime, having realized that fact, immediately sealed her mouth. However, the position they ended up in was… just a little compromising.

While Kaori would've normally been happy in this situation, seeing as she was pushed down by her crush, in this situation, she realized that she was being noisy and clapped her hands together in apology, earning a glare from Shizuku, who also became cognizant of that fact.

Slowly, they calmed down, and Hajime got a healing spell done on him by Kaori. They then decided to start scouting the area after securing water from near their current position, near a waterfall and river. Soon, they realize that this floor was nothing like the previous floors, as they encountered a rabbit monster killing a two-tailed wolf monster in a rocky area, only to be killed by a giant bear monster.

As they watched from behind a boulder, and slowly made their escape, Kaori somehow accidentally kicked a rock. The bear monster heard the sound and turned to them. As both Hajime and Shizuku made to hide again, Kaori froze in fear. The Bear had finished eating the rabbit monster by then, and made to kill Kaori as well. Only Hajime's actions saved Kaori, using his right arm to pull her in as he put himself in the way.

Luckily, he didn't die. He did, however, lose his left arm from the elbow down. Acting on instinct, he transmuted a path from their position to an air-filled cavity in the ground. As the girls followed him in, they noticed the lack of a left arm on him and realized what he had given up. Hajime, however, focused only on moving ahead, while closing the path behind them to prevent pursuit.

When they reached the cavity, which was as large as a small cave and was large enough to give all three of them space to move, Kaori used her healing magic to stabilize Hajime's stump. Having no blood replenishing potions, however, she was forced to feed him some of the glowing water on the floor.

Hajime was almost out of energy, and so were the other two, so while he fell unconscious, the other two finally released their emotions and cried, Shizuku in relief that they were alive and as well as can be and Kaori in grief that she had caused Hajime to lose his arm. They resolved to be Hajime's allies, even against the world, so that he never had to suffer anymore.

In that moment, Shizuku wondered why she was more concerned about him than Kaori, and also started replaying all the memories she had with him. Having realized that she was also in love with Hajime, she resolved to talk to Kaori as soon as possible about their feelings and what they should do about it.

Days passed. Hajime flitted in and out of consciousness so many times. Kaori and Shizuku decided to sleep to conserve any mana that they could, and to stave off the pangs of hunger and thirst and Hajime started thinking about how he came to be in this situation.

'What did I do to Hiyama and the others?'

'Why was I the only one to receive the worst status'

'Why was it that I was hit by a stray-wait, that Fireball was aimed at me. Who would want me dead?'

At that time, sensing something dark, Kaori woke up and woke Shizuku up as well. Finding the source of bloodlust, they stared at Hajime, who was awake and in deep and dark thoughts.

'Maybe I should just- NO! I can't! Now I have Shirasaki and Yaegashi as well to think of. If I die, there would've been no point to their being here!'

'So what do I want? I want to live. Who gets in someone's way? An enemy. So what should I do? KILL! Anyone who gets in my way, except for Shirasaki and Yaegashi- no, Kaori and Shizuku, my only allies now- are my enemies! I WILL get out of this abyss, and I WILL find a way back home. The god who kidnapped us here- Ehit or whatever- is not someone to care for. Ignore him. And that monster that took my arm off? With no food, we have no choice but to kill and devour it!'

It was then, that the kind and weak, yet strong-willed Hajime Nagumo, who the girls fell for, was almost completely wiped away. The thought of Kaori and Shizuku with him kept him from turning into a completely uncaring monster, even if he turned into the Monster of the Pits.

As Kaori and Shizuku watched Hajime changing, they also realized that they had to be as willing to survive as he was and their thoughts also began going dark, realizing that the stray Fireball was on purpose, and wondering who fired it. They were so disgusted that one their classmates would do something as despicable as trying to kill a comrade, that they decided to cut all connections with their classmates and abandon the world, instead deciding to find a way home.

When Hajime began lapping the glowing water like a dog, the girls helped him do so, Shizuku helping him up to sit, while Kaori used one of her empty potion vials to feed him the liquid. Once he was conscious enough to talk normally, he discussed their next actions.

"Thanks. Now, I need to tell you two something. Even if we get out of this pit of hell, I will not rejoin the Hero's Party. If either of you wish to do so, then there is no problem with it. Are we clear?"

"Listen well, Hajime-kun. I will not return to a group of people who tried killing their comrade. I'm sticking with you, even if you don't want me to!"

"I agree with Kaori. I don't know how bad it was before the shot, but it definitely was bad enough to see that I couldn't even trust Kouki to do the right thing. No, Hajime, you'll have two very loyal allies in us for as long as we live."

"You two… thanks. Now, Kaori, do you have any aversion to eating monster meat? Shizuku, you too." Asked Hajime, moved to tears by their declaration of resolve and happy to have reliable allies at l(e)ast.{1}

Both of them replied in the negative, knowing that they had no choice.

A sudden thought struck Hajime and he transmuted the rock above the puddle of glowing water, revealing a glowing stone about 50cm in diameter. On seeing it, he gasped, recognizing it.

"A Divinity Stone! So that's why the water is revitalizing! It's Ambrosia!"

"What's a Divinity Stone, Hajime-kun?" asked Kaori, confused.

"It's a stone formed from mana condensing in one spot for centuries, which is so saturated with the stuff that it is leaked out as a liquid, which is called Ambrosia! Legend states that the rotten god, Ehit, used it to heal his followers. We really struck gold here, girls!" he explained excitedly.

"You say that, but is it that good? I can't- wait! My mana recovered after I drank it! Does it also have mana regenerative properties!?"

"Probably. Anyway, let's go hunt some food!"

""Yeah!""

1- At last, Hajime has found true friends, and at least he found them in the hell known as true labyrinth before he completely lost his humanity. In canon, Yue had somehow miraculously restored his humanity, but really, you need to have some humanity remaining to have someone restore it. That somehow struck me as odd, as no one had shown a sense of solidarity with him, so who would've helped him retain it? Kaori and Shizuku- read canon to find how I assert this fact.

This has been updated to correct some errors and explain this fact.

Well, that's the first chapter. Hope I did the premise justice. PLEASE REVIEW!