Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? 285

No Christmas special this year, but instead we get a proper chapter.

285 – No matter how you look at it, he’s the heroine

Yamada-kun and co have taken refuge in a hiding place prepared by the third prince. Well, though it’s called a hiding place, because I overheard it, it’s not hidden at all. I’ve now arranged for a raid to be made on this hiding place. The one in command of the unit, is Ooshima-kun. I wonder how Yamada-kun will react when he finds out that the person who has always been beside him and supporting him since their previous lives has been brainwashed and is betraying him.

The reason why I’ve contrived such a tasteless plan, has nothing to do with wanting to bully Yamada-kun. While Natsume-kun seems extremely likely to do such a thing, I’m not that cruel at least. I’m not, okay?

My objective for having Ooshima-kun attack Yamada-kun, is to check the limits of the poorly understood Divine Protection of Heaven skill that Yamada-kun has. Divine Protection of Heaven. That’s the inherent skill that Yamada-kun has, which I found out from the brainwashed Ooshima-kun and Hasebe-san. Yamada-kun has talked about his inherent skill to his fellow reincarnators without trying to conceal it, it seems. Because of that I was able to confirm the existence of this skill without difficulty. It seems that the effect of the skill is to make it easier to achieve the desired result regardless of the situation. While many of the skills received as a reincarnation perk are unique skills, even amongst those this is a distinctive skill.

Just from hearing the effects you’d think that this is a cheat-like ability. Taking it to the extreme, it’s an opportunistic skill where if Yamada-kun thinks “I want this!”, then that could actually happen. Well, it only makes it easier to achieve the desired result though, so it probably doesn’t mean that the desired result will be achieved with certainty. If the desired result could be achieved with certainty, then it would exceed a certain dragon from somewhere that grants wishes when seven balls are gathered. That would totally be a cheat-of-cheats. A patch is required. Please update quickly.

Yamada-kun possesses such an opportunistic skill. But, Yamada-kun possesses yet another opportunistic ability on top of that. That is, the Hero title. The Hero title is so that humans can compete with demons on a level playing field, having several opportunistic hidden abilities. In the situation where that generation’s Demon King is so overpowering that the balance is broken, as if they were a desperate cornered protagonist, the Hero will gain a power-up.

「There is no way that I can lose here! YAHHHH!!!」
「Impossible! Where have you gotten such power from!?」
「This is for the sake of saving the world, the power of the Hero!」

Such cliched developments could actually occur, with this. Well, the Demon King is typically selected from the demons after all, and since demons live longer than humans they have higher status values by nature, so naturally it’s easy for them to be stronger than the Hero. So the title has a relief measure to keep the balance. It’s the Demon Kings who have to suffer from being affected by that. Even though the current Demon King is overpoweringly strong she would still get dragged into this matter. If the Demon King and Yamada-kun fought, then Yamada-kun would definitely gain a super power-up, with this.

The skill’s opportunism and the title’s opportunism. Yamada-kun possesses these two opportunism inducing factors. His own abilities are nothing special. Yet, with these uncertain factors he could be. Which is why it’s necessary to ascertain just to what degree will Yamada-kun’s opportunistic factors manifest.

If Ooshima-kun stands in his way, since they had a strong relationship even in their previous lives as well, then Yamada-kun should want Ooshima-kun’s brainwashing to be cancelled. Just what will result from that? Based on that I’ll estimate just how far Yamada-kun’s opportunism will go. Will it be possible to defeat the brainwashing from the broken skill of the Seven Deadly Sins series? If that can actually be done, then it means that Yamada-kun’s skill is more troublesome than a Seven Deadly Sins series skill.

Thus, while I’m watching over them, Yamada-kun and Ooshima-kun fought each other.

To summarise the results: normies, go explode. I doubt you understand what I’m saying, but this is my unfiltered impression!

「The heck? I wish they’d just go explode.」

Beside me, vampire girl mutters the same impression as me. Yep. You’d want to say that right?

The result went beyond my expectations. As if anyone could expect this! Amazingly enough, Ooshima-kun threw off Natsume-kun’s brainwashing by himself. Even so, without being able to completely remove the power of the brainwashing, he stopped himself by self-destructing. His proficiency as the heroine is incredible! For the sake of the hero, and without concern for injuring himself, he actually self-destructed with all his power!

What followed on from that was also amazing. The self-destructing Ooshima-kun was healed by Yamada-kun. As a side effect of self-destructing, Ooshima-kun completely threw off Natsume-kun’s brainwashing and returned to sanity. Yamada-kun made a beautiful retreat while holding Ooshima-kun in a princess carry. “P R I N C E S S C A R R Y! P R I N C E S S C A R R Y!” Ooshima-kun had a heart-throbbing face expressing that before he fell unconscious. Yeah, he’s fallen in love. He’s completely fallen in love. No matter how you look at it, he’s the heroine. Thank you very much.

Conclusion: this is a rom-com? Er, no, no. Not that. Conclusion: Yamada-kun’s skill is quite dangerous. Regarding Ooshima-kun throwing off the brainwashing – while his strength of will and so on might have been part of it, I can’t believe that was enough to create such a dramatic development by itself. There should have been some influence from Yamada-kun’s skill. Considering that, it means that Yamada-kun’s skill is more troublesome than the Seven Deadly Sins series skills.

However, the third prince who stayed behind as the rear guard to allow Yamada-kun to escape was able to be captured without any problems. If everything had gone according to Yamada-kun’s wishes, then it would be strange for the third prince to not be able to escape as well. Which means that there’s also limits to Yamada-kun’s skill. Maybe there’s no influence unless Yamada-kun is nearby, for example. Hmm-mm. It’s hard to see the influence of the effect itself – I have absolutely no idea how far the power of Yamada-kun’s skill goes. I’ll be vigilant about it, but it might be hard to deal with it.

At any rate, isn’t the Ruler skill that Yamada-kun possesses breaking the rules? The healing that Yamada-kun performed on Ooshima-kun wasn’t any ordinary healing. After all, even if it was just for an instant, Ooshima-kun was dead. Ordinary healing magic will never be able to revive the dead. What made that possible, was the Ruler skill of Kindness that Yamada-kun possesses. The effect of that is resurrection from death. Using that power, Yamada-kun was able to revive Ooshima-kun who had died from self-destruction.

To be honest, I panicked a bit when Ooshima-kun self-destructed. That was clearly a fatal wound after all. Unsurprisingly, Ooshima-kun then died. If Yamada-kun had been even a second slower in applying resurrection, I would probably have rushed over there with teleportation. The moment that Ooshima-kun self-destructed, I had unconsciously stood up as well. Even though I knew that Yamada-kun possessed Kindness, I still panicked a bit.

However, this might be a chance instead. As compensation for using the Kindness skill, the level of Taboo rises. The Kindness skill makes resurrection from death possible, something virtually impossible to do within the System of this world. However, by continuing to revive the dead, what lies ahead is Taboo, which informs you about the truth of the System. Once he knows that, there’s no way he wouldn’t realise just what it means to resurrect the dead.

D’s work is as nasty as ever. It could fucking break one’s heart. However, I shall make use of that.

I’ll lay bait for Yamada-kun and cause people to die before his eyes. Yamada-kun would surely then perform resurrection of the dead. Which will cause his Taboo level to rise. Then when Taboo reaches the maximum, it will result in Yamada-kun learning about the other side of this world.

When that happens, Yamada-kun will be forced to choose. Whether to oppose us. Or otherwise, whether to join forces with us. Well, it’s also possible that he’ll choose to turn a blind eye to it all. The fate of the world is such a heavy responsibility that a normal person would not be able to shoulder it.

If he decides to oppose us, then I’ll crush him with all my might. However, I don’t think Yamada-kun will be able to do that. After all, he’s from an ordinary background. Although he actually became the Hero, originally he was an ordinary boy you could find anywhere. Which is why he surely wouldn’t be able to shoulder the fate of the world. I’ll have him learn the truth as soon as possible and induce him to stand down.

Author’s note: This covers “K2 The last obstinacy of a man”.

Translation notes:

“No matter how you look at it, he’s the heroine” – the use of “he” is intentional. In Japanese third person pronouns (such as “he” or “him”) are generally not used but it’s more or less unavoidable in English. So when Shiro has a line like the title or “he stopped himself by self-destructing” when referring to Ooshima-kun, it’s actually gender neutral in Japanese even though “Ooshima-kun” is currently Katia, ie female. I’m using male pronouns in the translation because Shiro uses -kun, which somewhat implies that the person being referred to is male. This does get a bit odd when Shiro also refers to Ooshima-kun as the “heroine” (ie being like the female lead character in a story), but please endure this for now. Maybe Shiro will change how she refers to Ooshima-kun, in which case I’ll probably use female pronouns in the translation.

“normies, go explode” – this is similar to the “Death to Normies” phrase that came up in the 2015 Christmas special. It’s more or less a literal translation of the phrase リア充爆発しろ.

“For the sake of the hero” – here, “hero” is deliberately not capitalised. It’s not referring to the Hero title that Shun has but as if Shun was a character in a story. Ie Shun would be the “hero” (the main male character) and Katia / Ooshima-kun would be the “heroine” (the main female character and typically the love interest).