a catalyst forward .ᐟ

「 ✦ Rimuru Tempest ✦ 」

The silence was there for like three seconds before I decided to break it with what I thought was a perfectly reasonable social remark.

"Yo!" I raised my hand in a casual wave, Daisy still perched in her designer bag. "Fancy running into you two here. How've you been since—"

I didn't even get to finish the greeting.

Hajime's hand moved faster than people could blink, drawing some kind of modified revolver that was definitely different from the last one I saw him carrying. The shot rang out before I could properly process what was happening, and I found myself tilting my head to the side as the bullet whizzed past my ear.

"Seriously?" I said, more confused than anything else.

Yue was already standing, her hands glowing with what looked like lightning magic that was way more intense than anything she'd managed back in the labyrinth. The air around her began to vibrate with power that made the hair on my arms stand up.

But what really caught me off guard was the third person who suddenly vaulted over their table with a hammer that was bigger than she was.

"Where the hell did you come from?" I blurted out, staring at the rabbit-eared girl who was currently swinging what looked like a small building at my head.

I stepped back, letting the hammer crash into the floor where I'd been standing. The impact sent splinters flying and created a crater that definitely wasn't going to be covered by my room deposit.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I called out, raising my hands in what I hoped was a peaceful gesture. "Can we talk about this like civilized people? I don't even know who the rabbit is!"

The rabbit-eared girl—who I was already mentally calling Bunny—landed gracefully despite wielding a weapon that should have sent her flying. "I'm Shea Haulia," she announced, readying her hammer for another swing. "And you're the bastard who nearly killed Hajime-san and Yue-san!"

"Whoa! Hey?" I dodged another bullet from Hajime, this one accompanied by some kind of explosive round that took out half the bar. "I was going easy on them! It's really not that deep!"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Yue's lightning spell suddenly tripled in intensity and Hajime's expression went from angry to absolutely murderous.

The inn's other patrons were screaming and scrambling for the exits. I caught sight of what looked like a small group from a corner table—a familiar and petite woman who I recognized as Aiko Hatayama, a girl with chestnut-colored hair, and a few others who were clearly trying to get everyone else to safety while staying close enough to keep an eye on the fight.

"Look," I said, creating a barrier just in time to block another of Hajime's shots, "I'm really sorry about beating you guys up so badly back then, but—"

"Shut up." Hajime's voice was cold in a way that made the temperature in the room seem to drop.

"Why are you acting like it's all my fault? We both wanted to kill each other!" I protested, sidestepping Shea's hammer and wincing as it demolished what had probably been a really nice dining table. "What the hell was I supposed to do?"

Yue's response was to launch a spell that looked like concentrated blue flames. I threw up another barrier, but the impact still sent me sliding backward across the floor.

Okay, that was actually impressive. The power behind that attack was easily ten times what she'd been capable of before.

Hajime fired again, another one of those explosive rounds that I had to actually put effort into deflecting. The shockwave rattled the windows and sent tables sliding across the floor. I formed a barrier just in time to catch the worst of it, but even so, the force was impressive.

"Holy shit," I breathed, genuinely surprised. "You guys have been busy."

The power difference was staggering. Last time I'd fought them in the Orcus Labyrinth, they were insignificant. The Hajime now was moving with superhuman speed, and his weapons were hitting harder than anything I'd seen from him before. And Yue's magic had gained several layers of complexity that spoke of serious growth.

"You eat the grossest things in the grossest ways, Hajime Nagumo!" I called out as I ducked under another swing from Shea. "What the hell have you been eating?"

He didn't answer, but the next bullet he fired was clearly some kind of magical enhancement because it punched through my first barrier like it was made of paper. I had to layer three more barriers just to stop it completely.

The problem wasn't that they were stronger than me. Even with their improvements, I could confidently take all three of them if I actually wanted to. The real problem was that we were fighting in a crowded inn, and they clearly didn't care about collateral damage.

No, it's not that they don't care, I thought to myself. They know I care, and they're using that to their advantage.

Every time I tried to create some space, one of them would angle their attack toward the fleeing civilians. When I moved to intercept, the other two would press their advantage. It was actually pretty clever, in a completely infuriating way.

"This is bullshit," I muttered, catching Shea's hammer mid-swing and using the momentum to redirect it into the wall instead of the group of people trying to get out the back door. "Can't we just sit down and—"

Yue hit me with a wind spell that sent me crashing through the front wall of the inn. I landed in the street outside, rolled to my feet, and immediately had to dodge as Hajime appeared in the hole I'd just created, firing some kind of rapid-shot combo that turned the cobblestones where I'd been standing into gravel.

"Okay, seriously, what is your problem?" I demanded, creating a spherical barrier around myself as Shea came flying out of the inn like a missile, hammer first. The impact rang like a bell and sent shock waves through the air.

"Our problem," Hajime said, reloading with movements that were way too smooth for someone who'd been a regular high school student a few months ago, "is that you're the ceiling. The absolute limit of what we can handle in this world."

"So?" I deflected another of Yue's lightning spells, this one so powerful it left afterimages in my vision. "That's not my fault!"

"We can't achieve our goal until we can handle anything this world throws at us," Shea said, swinging her hammer in a wide arc that I avoided. "And as long as you exist, we're not strong enough!"

"That's the dumbest logic I've ever heard!" I protested, but I was starting to understand their reasoning, even if I thought it was completely insane.

They weren't just fighting me because they were angry about our last encounter. They saw me as some kind of final boss that they needed to defeat before they could achieve their goals—which would have been flattering if it wasn't so completely ridiculous!

The fight moved into the town square, and I found myself constantly having to choose between pressing an advantage and protecting bystanders. Every time I tried to go on the offensive, one of them would "accidentally" send an attack toward a group of townspeople, forcing me to abandon whatever I was doing to intercept it.

Hajime's weapons had evolved from simple guns to things that looked like they belonged in a science fiction movie. And his speed—he was moving almost too fast for human perception.

Yue had apparently almost mastered casting multiple spells simultaneously, creating combination attacks that required me to analyze them on the fly just to figure out how to counter them.

And Shea is just a she-hulk. Her physical strength was extraordinary, and she seemed to have some kind of semi-precognition that let her predict where I was going to move. Every time I tried to get behind her, she was already turning to meet me with that ridiculous hammer.

<>

Great Sage's voice in my head was calm as always, even as I avoided getting my head hit by a coordinated attack from all three of them.

"About time," I muttered, creating a multi-layered barrier as Hajime fired another twelve rounds from his rocket launcher at me. What's the play?

<>

Yeah, I thought about that. As long as they could use the townspeople as unwitting human shields, I was stuck playing defense. But if I could get them somewhere with no civilians...

I waited for my moment. It came when Yue launched another of her combination spells—this one a massive tornado filled with lightning that was definitely overkill for a small lakeside town. I let it hit my barriers, using the impact to launch myself backward and up, landing on the roof of what looked like the town hall.

They followed, of course. Hajime used some kind of grappling device to swing up, Yue flew on wings of magical energy, and Shea just jumped.

The rooftops gave us more room to fight without worrying about civilians, and I finally felt like I could stop holding back quite so much. Not that I was going to go all out—I still didn't want to actually kill them outright—but at least I could stop constantly looking over my shoulder.

We had a momentary stand-off—just me against the three of them.

A bead of sweat made its way from Hajime's forehead to his chin—then dropped to the ground below. The fight intensified immediately. Without the restriction of protecting bystanders, all four of us could finally cut loose. Hajime's weapons grew even more ridiculous, firing things that looked like they could level this entire town in no time. Yue's output and spell combinations rose to absurd levels, and Shea…

Shea apparently had been holding back too, because her hammer strikes started generating shock waves that cracked the buildings we were fighting on.

I found myself actually having to exert quite a bit of work to keep up. Not because they were individually stronger than me, but because their coordination was flawless. Every attack was perfectly timed to follow up on the others. Every movement was calculated to give their teammates the best possible positioning.

It was actually pretty impressive. Frustrating, but impressive.

<>

I trusted Great Sage's timing. The moment the voice spoke in my head, I stopped playing defense and went on the attack.

"Alright. I'm locking in."

The tide turned overwhelmingly.

Hajime's abdomen connected with my punch, and he was sent flying through the air fast enough to break the sound barrier. Shea's hammer met my fist and shattered like glass. Yue's next fire spell simply ceased to exist as I overrode her authority using Law Manipulation, where I manipulated the laws governing heat transfer, making the flame disperse harmlessly into the air.

"Wait, what—" Hajime started to say as he coughed up blood, but I was already there, my hand around his throat as I lifted him off the ground and punched him in the face strong enough to dislocate his jaw.

What followed wasn't really a fight anymore.

Hajime was nothing when I could move faster than he could perceive. Yue's regeneration was useless when I started using black flames. Shea's ridiculous strength was a joke compared to what I could bring to bear when I stopped playing around.

In less than thirty seconds, all three of them were down and thoroughly defeated. The look of disbelief on their faces was priceless.

"It's over," I said calmly. "You fought well, but—"

That's when the explosion happened.

The blast came from directly beneath us, powerful enough to engulf the entire building and send me flying. For a moment, everything was fire and smoke and the sound of collapsing masonry.

When the dust settled, I was sitting in what had been the town square, surrounded by the rubble of what had been several buildings. The Water Sprite Inn was completely gone, reduced to a pile of splinters and stone.

And Hajime, Yue, and Shea were nowhere to be seen.

I sat there for a moment, processing what had just happened. They'd used the explosion as cover to escape, which meant they'd planned it in advance. Probably some kind of delayed explosive that Hajime had set while we were fighting.

They knew they were going to lose.

"Haha," I let out a small laugh, genuinely impressed. "Not bad."

They'd come a long way, haven't they?

"You alright?" I checked on Daisy, who had somehow managed to sleep through the entire fight while secured in her designer bag.

I had to admire their ability to completely conceal their presence, though. Even now, I couldn't detect any trace of where they'd gone. They'd simply vanished like they'd never been there at all.

The townspeople were starting to emerge from wherever they'd taken shelter, staring at the destruction with expressions ranging from shock to anger to something that might have been awe.

"Gosh. What a mess," I called out to no one in particular.

I sighed and stood up, stretching my limbs. Well, this was definitely going to be expensive to fix. Daisy opened one blue eye, looked around at the destruction, then went back to sleep.

And before the growing crowd could turn into an angry mob demanding answers—and more importantly, compensation—I spotted the inn owner's wife standing near what used to be her livelihood. Her face was pale, and she kept staring at the rubble like she couldn't quite process what had happened.

I walked over to her, fishing around in my coat pocket for something I really, really didn't want to part with.

"Ma'am," I said, and she turned to look at me with eyes that were somewhere between shock and the early stages of what would probably become rage. "I'm terribly sorry about your inn."

Before she could respond, I pressed the black card into her hands. The Runecard felt heavier than it should have, probably because it contained almost every coin I had left to my name—save for a few pieces I still had in my pocket.

"This should cover the damages," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "And then some."

She looked down at the card, then back at me, then down at the card again. Her mouth moved silently as she apparently tried to process the amount displayed on its surface.

"Sir, this is..." she stammered. "This is enough to rebuild the entire district."

"Yeah, well, that's the point, isn't it?" I said, already backing away before I could change my mind, "accidents just happen."

I vanished before she could say anything else, reappearing on a rooftop several blocks away from the destruction using Shadow Motion. The cool night air hit my face, and I realized I was breathing a little harder than I should have been.

Not from the fight, but from giving away what was essentially my entire fortune. Even though I'd emerged from the battle without a scratch, I felt completely drained. Frustrated in a way that had nothing to do with physical exhaustion.

Daisy poked her head out of her designer bag, probably sensing my mood. She gave me one of those long, judgmental looks that cats are famous for, then gently bumped her head against my chin.

"Yeah, I know," I muttered, scratching behind her ears. "At least one of us is having a good day."

That's when I heard the slow clapping behind me.

I turned around to find a man standing on the opposite edge of the rooftop, and my first thought was black superman. He was dressed in all black—expensive black. His skin was dark, his features sharp and handsome in a way that probably made him very popular with certain crowds.

"Impressive show," he said, his voice carrying just enough accent to suggest he wasn't from around here. "Though I have to say, your exit strategy could use some work."

"And you are?" I asked, though I was already getting a pretty good idea of what kind of person I was dealing with.

"Brixton," he said, walking toward me with a confidence that probably meant he either had backup or was very, very good at what he did. "I represent certain interests within the Hoelscher Empire."

Ah. A spy. Or an agent? Whatever.

"Let me guess," I said. "You want to talk business."

"Smart man." He gestured toward the edge of the roof, where a set of stairs led down to street level. "There's a decent restaurant a few blocks from here that managed to avoid tonight's excitement. Care to join me for a late dinner?"

I considered declining, but honestly, I was hungry, and the prospect of a good meal was more appealing than sitting on a rooftop feeling sorry for myself.

"Fine," I said. "But I'm ordering the expensive stuff."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

The restaurant was one of those places that managed to feel both cozy and upscale at the same time. Soft lighting, comfortable chairs, and the kind of menu where half the items required explanation. We got seated at a corner table that gave us privacy while still allowing both of us to keep an eye on the exits.

"So," I said after we'd ordered—I'd gone with the most expensive fish on the menu (using what remained of my pocket coins), while Brixton had chosen something called 'hunter's medallions'—"what does the Empire want with me?"

"Straight to the point. I like that." Brixton leaned back in his chair. "We have a situation that requires your particular skill set."

"My particular skill set," I repeated. "You mean the kind of work I've been doing for you people over the past week?"

"Precisely." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You've proven quite good at what you do, in fact."

That was one way to put it. Over the past week, I'd taken on several jobs for the Empire—all of them involving people who had very much deserved what they got. Dirty work, but necessary work—as I reassured myself. And it had paid very well.

"The Empire has another problem that needs resolving," Brixton continued. "Something discreet."

I felt my eye twitch at his phrasing. "Are you ordering me to take this job?"

"I'm offering you an opportunity," he said smoothly. "One that comes with considerable compensation."

"That's not what I asked." I leaned forward slightly, letting just enough edge creep into my voice to make my point. "Because if you're under the impression that I work for the Empire, then you're very much mistaken. I don't work under anyone."

To his credit, Brixton didn't flinch. But I saw his posture shift slightly, the way someone's does when they realize they've miscalculated.

"Of course," he said. "My apologies if I gave the wrong impression."

We sat in silence for a moment. Then Brixton's expression changed into something that looked suspiciously like amusement.

"Though, Mr. Rimuru," he said casually, "for someone who's supposedly independent, you certainly seem eager to take on paying work."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," he said, cutting into his food, "word is you just gave away quite a fortune to cover tonight's damages. Can't imagine that leaves you in the best financial position."

I felt my jaw clench. "I'm doing fine."

"Are you?" He raised an eyebrow. "Because from where I'm sitting, I see someone who spends more on clothes in a week than most people make in a year. Someone who stays in the finest hotels, travels by private carriage, and..." He glanced at Daisy, who was currently being served her own plate of fish by an attentive waiter. "Someone whose cat eats better than most nobles."

"Daisy deserves the best," I said defensively.

"I'm sure she does. But that designer bag she's in? That custom-made collar made of rubies? The fact that you're currently paying for a suite at three different hotels because you can't decide which one has the best room service?" He smiled that annoying smile again. "It all adds up."

I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it again. Because the bastard wasn't wrong.

My lifestyle was expensive. Very expensive. The clothes, the jewelry, the carriages, the horses, the hotels—it all cost money. A lot of money. And Daisy's maintenance alone probably exceeded what most families spent in a month. But I'd been making good money from those jobs. Surely I wasn't—

"How much did you give away tonight?" Brixton asked quietly.

I didn't answer, but I could feel my face going pale.

"Ah," he said, reading my expression. "All of it?"

The realization hit me like a lightning strike. I'd given away essentially everything I had. The Runecard had contained almost my entire savings, and now it was in the hands of an inn owner's wife who was probably still trying to figure out how many zeros were on it.

I was broke.

Actually, completely broke.

The mighty Rimuru Tempest, reduced to counting small change like some common— "The job," I said, my voice coming out more strained than I'd intended.

"I'm sorry?"

I looked up at him, and I could feel my eyes beginning to glow with that familiar golden light. "What's the job?"