The ten sorcerers who had entered the Culling Game.
Assigned different missions, each of them built up their own base of operations.
Saving the world was all well and good, but they still had to eat, wash, and sleep, didn’t they?
In that sense, there were differences in level, but for the most part they were all living similar lives.
First, Junpei, who had defeated Ishigori and become the new ruler of Shinjuku, was enjoying the most luxurious life of all.
"I’ll be in your care from here on out, Boss."
"No, the same goes for me. If I don’t do this properly, I won’t have the face to look Ishigori in the eye."
"C-can I eat with you too?"
"Remi, it looks like [Idle Transfiguration] has blown away your conscience too. I’ll allow room service, so go eat in your room alone."
"Hiiing....."
The high-rise building Ishigori had originally used as a base was a business hotel for the wealthy.
The noncombatants gathered to suit his luxurious tastes were all professionals who had worked in the service industry.
Naturally, Junpei, who had become the new boss, inherited all of it, and thanks to that he was living a life without a single lack.
The responsibility of leading many people had come with it too, but that wasn’t such a big problem.
Kurusu and the three first-years were also living fairly decent lives.
"That time, Itadori just popped up and wiped all those guys out!"
"Ugh."
"What, Itadori, you were pretty much the same as me."
"He moved so fast I couldn’t even see him, and then he asked me, You okay? I got chills, seriously..."
"Could you maybe hold back a little on the stories from when I was a kid...?"
The neutral zone had long since fallen under Megumi’s control.
They didn’t monopolize supplies, but they did use the best lodging, and they never had to go hungry.
Above all, all four of them were orphans, so they were already used to living by taking care of themselves. That helped a lot.
But Todo and Kusakabe were not.
"The canned food’s all gone...."
"Another bust, huh."
They had at least landed close enough to each other to meet up quickly, but unfortunately they weren’t much help to one another.
Of all places, they had ended up in Koto Ward, where the sea was everywhere.
It was a place crawling with curses, with not a single intact building left standing.
On top of that, on the first day, the players who fled from the curses had swept up all the supplies, leaving almost nothing behind.
"Why is the tap water this color? Is this really okay to drink?"
"Just stick to bottled water. Ieiri-sensei isn’t here, so if you drink that for no reason, you’ll regret it."
"Guess we’ll have to go out and scrounge again tomorrow. Let’s call it a night for today."
"Huh, the kotatsu won’t turn on."
"?"
In this extreme situation, the electricity and water systems were both completely shot.
Find a private house in decent enough condition, stay the night, fight off the curses that came around after dark, and scour nearby convenience stores and supermarkets for whatever few essentials were left. That was Todo and Kusakabe’s daily routine.
Because they couldn’t properly wash or rest in the process, the two of them looked so rough that anyone seeing them for the first time would mistake them for beggars.
That said, getting out of Koto Ward wasn’t easy either.
At least, not for Kusakabe.
'Ah! A little girl over there!'
'Hey, Todo! Wait a second!'
'Isn’t saving people our job!'
Even if Koto Ward had become a ghost town, there were always people caught up in it who remained behind.
Non-sorcerer civilians without the courage to abandon their homes and hide instead.
Todo, whose sense of professional duty was too strong, couldn’t just ignore those pitiful souls, and Kusakabe, who had thought this would be over once he found Tsukumo, had to be dragged along by Todo’s enthusiastic rescue efforts.
He wanted to finish quickly, but... his previous record of slacking off in Shibuya was dragging at his ankles, and for now guilt was suppressing his instincts.
Though that would end today.
"T-thank you!"
"If you go to the stadium in the center, there’ll be people there. I’ve cleaned out all the curses in this area, so you can relax."
It had been five days since they started circling Koto Ward and rescuing survivors.
With this, they had confirmed everyone who was still left.
At last, they could return to their original mission.
'Goodbye, beggar life!'
Kusakabe shed tears of joy.
The moment he thought they’d finally get out of this shitty neighborhood and live like human beings again, Todo spoiled the mood.
"Now all that’s left is to take these people to the neutral zone."
"Huh?"
"What do you mean, huh? Realistically, you think these people can make it there on their own?"
There were quite a few injured people, and supplies were short. In this situation, sending them off to the neutral zone by themselves was impossible. At the very least, they’d have to escort them until their safety was secured.
Unable to come up with a rebuttal, Kusakabe clamped his mouth shut and nodded half-forced.
"You never know. Brother’s group or Hakari might be there."
"...Got it."
And so they left their familiar(?) Koto Ward behind and set off.
Fortunately, since they had already cleared out all the curses in the area, the road ahead wasn’t too rough.
They marched for hours, taking care of the injured and the elderly who lacked stamina.
Then something strange entered Todo’s field of vision.
"That is..."
Something with wings was flying rapidly across the sky.
It was a little too far away to see clearly, but the silhouette looked like a bipedal werewolf straight out of a nightmare.
On its back was the shadow of what looked like a person.
'A human. A player?'
"Everyone, fall back!"
Todo and Kusakabe took combat stances, raised their cursed energy, and rushed out.
Judging by the aura they felt, this was a pretty strong opponent.
At worst, they might be wiped out here.
'Damn it, I never should’ve come into the Culling Game!'
As Kusakabe lamented inwardly and drew his sword, the unidentified creature began closing the distance at high speed.
"It’s coming!"
"Wait!"
Just before impact, Todo stopped Kusakabe, who had taken a iai stance.
In front of the bewildered Kusakabe, someone leaped down from atop the creature.
"We searched for you all this time, but couldn’t find you. So you were here."
The leader of the angel escort unit and the boss of the neutral zone.
"Fushiguro!"
"W-we finally found youuuu!!!"
"Why are you so happy about this?"
It was Fushiguro Megumi.
Noon on the sixth day.
The first thing Kusakabe and Todo felt when they woke from oversleeping was the softness of a bed beneath them.
"Oh...!"
"Ahh... this is what you call a bed. It’s soft and feels so good that once you lie down, you don’t want to get back up."
Until now, they’d been sleeping on hard stone floors or cold wooden floors with nothing but a few cloths laid down roughly, so getting to enjoy the blessings of civilization again after so long was enough to move them to tears.
They say the hardest time to get up is in the morning. Even though they’d usually trained hard and kept regular routines, once the tension built up from the extreme situation finally loosened, laziness came flooding in.
The contrast between the still-warm sheets and the cool breeze drifting in from outside felt almost unbearably pleasant.
After lying there with slack expressions and rolling around on the bed for a while, the two of them snapped to attention at the sound of knocking from outside.
"Good morning."
"Morning~"
"G-good morning...?"
The three first-years, who had already gotten up, opened the door and came in.
They hurriedly straightened up and greeted them awkwardly, and the others set something down on the table.
"Th-this is...!"
"Lunch. You must’ve been hungry."
A few simple side dishes, rice, and soup were set out in an instant.
It looked freshly cooked, still steaming warmly, and a homely smell tickled their noses.
Todo and Kusakabe exchanged blank looks, then, without even getting a chance to say anything, began shoveling the meal into their mouths like a storm.
-Gulp gulp, hooof, huff
-Munch, munch, sluuurp, slurp
"Wow, gross."
"Todo really eats like a starving pig, huh."
"What did you just say...?"
"I said you’re eating like you’re ravenous."
The onlookers clicked their tongues with disdain at the sight of them not even bothering to save face, but it didn’t matter.
Up until then they’d mostly filled their stomachs with cup noodles, and if they were lucky, canned food or instant rice. After eating proper food for the first time in ages, it felt like both their tongues and stomachs were screaming at once.
Ignoring whatever the people around them said, Todo and Kusakabe focused on the meal and emptied their bowls in no time.
"Hngh, it’s delicious!"
"Who made this?"
"I’m on meal duty today."
"B-brotherrrrrr!!!!"
"Whoa!"
Yuji roughly shoved Todo away as he came crashing in, crying from emotion.
It wasn’t so much that he meant to do it on purpose; it was more a motion mixed with surprise.
Yuji gave the dumbstruck Todo a once-over from head to toe, then pinched his nose with a sorry expression.
"Ngh..."
"Brother...?"
"Todo, I’m really sorry, but you smell kind of...."
Only then did the two of them properly see what they looked like.
Clothes that had practically turned into rags, filthy skin, and a stink that only got worse the more they became aware of it.
They looked like they could pass for homeless men sleeping on the street at night.
"I-I made such a mistake...!"
Todo, who was usually obsessively neat, was shocked.
Even for him, someone who always smelled nice and paid close attention to cleanliness, this time there was no avoiding the wreck.
After going nearly five days without properly washing and getting drenched in the blood and bodily fluids of curses, this disaster was inevitable.
Megumi and Nobara had already backed away the moment they saw the two of them inhaling food like starving beasts.
"The shower’s over there."
"....."
Todo and Kusakabe silently headed in the direction the finger pointed.
Water could be heard beyond the closed door, and only then did they let out the breath they’d been holding.
"Phew."
"What the hell is that smell... Did the air purifier break or something?"
"Let’s air this place out."
They opened the window and used the flapping wings of a shikigami to blow the room’s god-awful stench away, then turned their gaze to the bed.
The sheets and blankets already stank too, and there were ominous black stains in several places.
No one would want to lie down there again, not even the people who had slept in it once themselves.
"What should we do about that? They crashed there and passed out, so they didn’t get it ready. Should we throw it out and bring in a new one?"
"Let’s just make them wash it themselves. Say nothing."
"Wouldn’t that hurt even more?"
Anyway....
Todo Aoi and Kusakabe Atsuya had escaped their beggar lives.
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