<h4>Volume 4 Chapter 7.2</h4>


    Trantor: Reflet


    Editor: Weasalopes


    Bikini armor was definitely stretching it a bit far for Mio as she immediately threw a quick retort Makoto’s way and Haruna threw in her own two-sense. But this was clearly a joke and Makoto didn’t take any real damage from hearing theirments.


    「Oh yeah, I always wonder why those kinds of bikini armor are so high defense. Is it magic?」


    「Hm～?　Thinking about it logically, it’s probably just as Tatsuya said about having some sort of special magic on it……」


    「One vote for martial arts that make you stronger the more you strip」


    Mio made an unnecessary remark at Haruna’s attempted answer to Tatsuya’s question.


    「But I don’t think you’d need bikini armor if you get stronger the more you strip……」


    「Maybe it’s abination of shyness,mon sense, and battle prowess?」


    「So shyness is actually part of it, huh…Wait, does such a martial art exist?」


    「In one of those dungeon crawlers where you get inside the wall via teleportation, being fully nude actually gives you the most defense if you’re one of those ninjas who lop off the heads of coin monsters or slimes with their bare hands.」


    Bringing up a certain game where high level ninjas could in fact lop off the head of the final boss, Mio casually brought up her personal opinion. Mio in fact knew that there were card battle adventure games in which girls could fight while stripping and gained power from abination of shyness, defense, and attack.


    But Mio knew no one would understand her if she discussed products from back before they were born where you just booted up the PC with ROM and BASIC, the supply medium consisting of a floppy disk, OS being DOS, etc. Therefore she had brought up games with partial settings like that which had been recently released as new releases or remakes.


    「Nah, you do realize that ninja is already being misunderstood, right?」


    「But in someic releases, it was normal for their faces to be covered and everything else naked」


    「Eh? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t how it goes……」


    Tatsuya attempted to reason why these ninjas were in fact misunderstood, all with a sour face. But misunderstandings like these that had already spread around were not going to go away so easily. Especially not interesting memes like this.


    「At any rate, if we’re going to have anyone wear that specification of armor……」


    Mio brought the topic slightly back, and all eyes fell on Haruna.


    「Eh? Why am I supposed to wear that?」


    「It’ll only be a sad sight if someone like me or Mako were to wear a bikini.」


    「No, I mean before any of that, why is there a need to wear armor like that……?」


    「Fanservice?」


    「What fans……」


    She had no obligation to wear armor like that for fanservice to males, and in Hiroshi’s case it would only have the opposite effect. Having understood that, Haruna would much rather die than wear armor that did nothing but embarrass her.


    「So Sensei, with that being said」


    「I have no reason nor do I see any meaning in makin’ it. Not gonna happen」


    「Cheapskate……」


    Hiroshi immediately shot down Mio’s inquiry. Besides, if he could actually make something as outrageous as bikini armor, then he should also be able to make Haruna or Mio’s underwear. He could technically make the basic shape and then have it auto-adjust to size, but Hiroshi had no inclination of going to all that trouble just to be met with cold gazes from the other girls. He was no masochist.


    「Then Haru, if you had to choose between wearing bikini armor or one of those transforming/magical girl outfits, which would you go for?」


    「All I can see in either route is a future filled with disaster, but I’d say the transforming heroine one sounds slightly better……」


    「I see」


    Mio seemed to be content after hearing that, and Haruna got the strange feeling she had been a bit too quick to answer there.


    「Ah, Mako. Unidentified snakeing from the front.」


    「Alright」


    Finishing this rather bizarre conversation, the group entered into exploration mode. Whatwith the floor being close to the service, the group still had plenty of ease.


    「Our footsteps sound quite a bit different now, mate.」


    「We might need to be more careful now」


    Passing the first poison gas region and using a variety of tools to travel on foot through the area after the tunnel (which did a 180 from the tunnel’s smoother surface, now with bad footing), Hiroshi and Mio called out to everyone letting them know to be careful. Hearing the details, Haruna lightly kicked the ground to check the touch of it.


    「……Yep, something’s definitely off」


    「It might just suddenly copse, so we gotta really watch ourselves, mate」


    Hiroshi mentioned this type of trap from past experience to warn the group, who all nodded and proceeded with caution. Mio, who had been tapping the ground ten feet ahead, suddenly had a rare expression of doubt on her face as she turned back.


    「Sensei」


    「Find somethin’ weird?」


    「I got a real bad feeling」


    「Lemme see?」


    Hiroshi took the pole from Mio and lightly tapped the ground. He might not be as sensitive to traps as Mio, but he was far more knowledgeable regarding architectural structure, geological features, etc. In a suspicious case such as this, it was best to leave things to Hiroshi, the expert.


    「……Hey y’all, there’s a super ginormous cavern.」


    「A pitfall?」


    「Nope. Feels more like a hole that was created after underground water dried up, or maybe after some worm-like creature passed through it. It’s thick enough to not copse if we walk on it, I think, but there’s somethin’ kinda dicey about it.」


    Lightly tapping the area ten feet ahead of them, Hiroshi gave Mio his conclusion. After poking around some more here and there, Hiroshi stuck a stake deep in the ground at their feet and secured it with rope.


    On a sidenote, this rope was even more firm than your typical strong wires, made by twisting all the abundant amount of spirit thread that remained in storage. The length went well over a hundred meters. You’d be hard-pressed to find rope or wire in the game that had specs as magnificent as this monstrosity.


    Wrapping several coils of rope around his waist, Hiroshi began carefully prodding the area for inspection as soon as the sound changed. And his conclusion…


    「It’s too dangerous to pick fights in this area, so how bout we break it in ‘n head right on down?」


    …was this.


    「Is that even safe?」


    「I dunno till we try, but it’ll definitely be better than dealin’ with somethin’ appearing up here.」


    「And how do we go about breaking it?」


    「All I know is that we can rupture the center with a king-size pom, but then the other areas might burst too, so eh.」


    Everyone nodded with stiff faces. Apparently Hiroshi actually had enough restraint to not use the king size pom in this situation.


    「So what now?」


    「I’ll try ‘n give it a light dig to where it don’t go overboard. I think it’ll b fine, but I’d like y’all to wait up ahead from where ya hear different sounds with yer feet, from where I have the rope. Also, ya best keep it wrapped around ya just in case.」


    「Alright」


    Moving to where Hiroshi instructed, Makoto stood by on the ready. Haruna and Tatsuya moved a bit ahead of her, readying themselves to cast any assist magic if need be. Mio was in charge of perimeter security.


    「Alright, let’s-a-go!」