Although Kōya hasn’t returned yet, we gathered Shiba-san, Daigo-san, and Ikezawa-san to discuss what’s to come.
“Not having Kōya-kun here is worrisome,” Shiba-san says, looking somewhat lonely as he gazes into the air.
Excluding me, Shiba-san has known Kōya the longest. Being partners who fight on the front lines together, he probably has his own concerns.
“For now, even though Kōya-kun isn’t here, we still need to continue with the streams. Let’s do what we can with the three of us,” Daigo-san says.
For Daigo-san, who has been active solo, it seems he thinks the team can still function well enough without Kōya.
In fact, as long as Shiba-san and Daigo-san are there, we won’t have too much trouble in the dungeon.
“About that, we’re in the process of officially bringing Makita-san on board, and we’re handling the necessary paperwork. We plan to complete the process before the next stream.”
Until now, Makita-san had been a guest, but his strength is unquestionable.
While there are some difficulties in dealing with him, it seems he admires Shiba-san, so we should be able to make use of that somehow.
On the other hand, if we don’t take him in, I feel like that wild dog might not fit in elsewhere.
That’s probably what decided the recruitment in the end.
“I see. So, it’s Jin-san… He’s perfect in terms of power, no doubt,” Shiba-san says, but there’s something of a subtle undertone in his words. Well, I understand how he feels.
The one who can give instructions to Makita-san would be Shiba-san, so his burden might increase.
“Shiba-san, I also plan to communicate well with Makita-san. I won’t make you bear the burden alone,” I say.
Makita-san listens to people he respects, so I just have to work hard to gain his approval.
“Anyway, it’s reassuring to have a new teammate. It looks like I’ll have a junior now,” Ikezawa-san says happily. While Makita-san has more experience, Ikezawa-san was the first to join the office, making him the senior in that regard.
That’s a bit complicated.
“With this, if Kōya-kun returns, we’ll be able to challenge dungeons as a team of five. The range of strategies will expand,” Ikezawa-san adds.
As someone who specializes in overall buffs, it makes sense that Ikezawa-san would be happy to have more teammates.
In terms of ability, Ikezawa-san and Makita-san seem to complement each other well.
Makita-san’s high base stats in power, speed, and defense can be further enhanced by Ikezawa-san.
“Well, we’ll think about strategies that include Makita-san going forward… Hm?” My phone rings. It’s a call from Kōya.
“Hello? Kōya? How are you feeling?”
“Ah, Eito-kun. Um… I went to the hospital.”
“Ah, I see. So? What did they say?”
“It looks like I won’t be able to return for a while.”
Kōya’s voice sounds a bit down. I have a bad feeling about this.
It couldn’t just be a simple cold keeping him out of action.
“Kōya, are you hiding something?” I ask.
As soon as I said this, I regretted it. I suddenly felt afraid to hear his answer.
My spine trembled. A few seconds felt like they stretched on for minutes.
In this tense moment, I hear Kōya’s voice clearly.
“Actually… I think I’ve been infected by some kind of unidentified pathogen.”
“Eh…? What do you mean?”
“I don’t really understand it either… But when I told the doctor about what happened in the dungeon, they decided to run some tests…”
My mind went blank. Kōya’s words were entering my head, but my brain was refusing to process them.
“They think the reason my fever won’t go down is because maybe the monsters carried some kind of pathogen…”
“T-That’s… No… that’s…”
Will it heal? I couldn’t bring myself to ask that question.
An unidentified pathogen. I had no idea whether such a thing could be cured.
It was something that should have been obvious with a little thought, but my mind refused to process it.
“Well, it’s not that big of a deal. Just because we can’t identify the pathogen doesn’t mean it’s an incurable disease or that he’s going to die,” Shiba-san said.
“Yeah, I know,” Kōya replied, trying to sound upbeat, but I could tell he was forcing it. His attempt at staying cheerful made me feel awful.
The one really worried here was Kōya himself. But he was trying so hard not to make me worry…
“Anyway, I’ll get in touch if anything else comes up. I’ll work hard so I can return as soon as possible,” Kōya said.
“Kōya… you don’t need to worry about us. Just rest properly… and try to get rid of that mysterious pathogen,” I said.
Humans have immune systems that can fight off diseases.
It would be best if the disease could be cured by the immune system.
But is that really the case?
Dungeons are still largely unknown. Who knows what kind of pathogens the monsters there might carry?
Who even knows how to deal with a new kind of disease?
“Well, don’t get too down, Eito-kun. I’m going to take this chance to rest properly too. I’ve got a lot of drama episodes saved up, so this is a good opportunity to watch them,” Kōya said.
“Yeah… you’re right,” I said.
Kōya’s attempt at being brave just sounded painful to me.
“Well then, I’ll hang up now. It wouldn’t be good to talk too much on the phone,” he said.
“Got it…” I replied.
After ending the call with Kōya, I visibly hung my head, feeling down. Everyone around me noticed and looked worried.
“Kōya seems to be infected by an unidentified pathogen,” I explained.
“Unidentified… does that mean it might be a pathogen that doesn’t exist outside the dungeon?” Shiba-san asked.
“Yeah. I think he probably got infected during the battle with the werewolf,” I said.
“But… wasn’t Kōya supposed to have gone to the hospital after that? Didn’t they say there was nothing wrong at the time?” Ikezawa -san said, flustered. I could understand his feelings. I felt like shouting too.
“At the time, Kōya didn’t report any symptoms, so I think the tests were not thorough enough. If doctors had done detailed tests every time someone was attacked by a monster, the medical system would have collapsed,” I explained.
It’s not unusual for people to go to the hospital after returning from the dungeon.
In most cases, they don’t catch any weird pathogens.
If the patient shows symptoms, then it’s a different story, but Kōya likely didn’t have any symptoms at that time.
“So it’s something that can show up later. Even if someone’s carrying the pathogen, it might not show up in tests until later. I can’t blame the doctors for that,” Shiba-san said calmly.
“Ikegano-san… we might need to prepare ourselves for the worst,” Shiba-san said.
His words felt cold. The worst-case scenario he was talking about was probably…
“Kōya must have been informed by the doctors. It’s not uncommon for people to develop fatal infections from wounds sustained in the dungeon,” Shiba-san continued.
Given his long experience as a dungeon streamer, his words had a weight to them.
“We don’t know whether this pathogen is fatal yet since it hasn’t been identified. However…” Shiba-san clenched his fist, his teeth gritted in frustration as he trembled.
“If only I had shared the proper strategy with Kōya back then, maybe he wouldn’t have done something reckless like that…” he muttered.
The standard tactic for dealing with a werewolf is to target its stamina, but Shiba-san felt guilty for not communicating that with Kōya.
Shiba-san had been cautious, avoiding the werewolf’s attacks himself, but he hadn’t been able to anticipate that Kōya would act recklessly.
Could anyone have predicted that?
“Shiba-san, stop blaming yourself. It’s easy to say that now, but it’s all hindsight,” I said.
That’s all I could say. I knew my words wouldn’t offer much comfort, but I had to say something.
I just didn’t want Shiba-san to despair.
