Forgotten But Not Lost

26

Haruhiro walked through the streets, all too aware of how light his purse was now that he had finished his Thief's training. Now if he wanted to survive, he would need to go out and fight monsters, a task he wasn't sure if he was prepared for. While he wouldn't exactly say the training wasn't worth it, he was hardly a master of the skills he learned there.

He raised a hand and tried to rub the exhaustion out of his trademarked tired eyes. They were so integral to his image that his mentor, Barbara, named him after them, calling him 'Sleepy Cat'. Haruhiro was very glad he didn't have to share his thief's name with people outside of the guild. It was too embarrassing.
As he approached the arranged meeting spot for his new party, he saw that he wasn't to be the first person there. Yume and Ranta both stood in front of Dory's Kebabs. Ranta was dressed in leather armor and had a long sword attached to one hip, while Yume had a bow and quiver on her back and two bladed weapons. One, a shorter weapon a little less than a foot and a half in length if you included the handle which attached to her hip. The other, a two and a half foot blade, including the hilt, which she wore across her back.
"Ranta! Yume!" Haruhiro called, feeling unexpectedly glad to see the two people he had barely gotten to known for more than a few short hours a week back. He supposed any human company was appreciated after his week with his sexy and sadistic mentor.
Yume's expression was cheerful as before as she half greeted him through a mouth full of kebab. Ranta looked at Haruhiro as if he was a weirdo for being so happy to see them. It actually made Haruhiro feel slightly embarrassed. If the curly haired redhead thought he was acting weird then things were pretty bad. He tried to reel it in and act more casual.
"So, how've you two been? Where is everyone else?" Haruhiro asked the two of them.
"Alright I guess." Ranta said with a disinterested shrug. "The others haven't shown up yet. So it's just us for now."
"Hrmph erm murmrph…" Yume struggled to speak around a mouthful of meat before she started to choke. Haruhiro was a little worried as she started to pound her chest before taking a large gasp of air.
"Are you alright?" Haruhiro asked her as she caught her breath.
"Fine. Down wrong pipe…" Yume pushed out her words between breaths.
"You shouldn't try to talk with your mouth full like that. Just swallow first, then talk." Haruhiro told her.
"Yume doesn't know why, but Yume always feels in a rush whenever she is eating. Sensei was always saying, 'Yume, you should try to eat more slowly.' Well, actually he was more like 'YUME, EAT MORE SLOWLY'!" The girl said, trying to imitate the deep voice of a man.
Ranta gave the girl a questioning look. "Can you actually use that bow? You don't really come across as a Hunter to me." The boy said bluntly. He was still rude as ever.
"Well, at first Yume's sensei said that Yume wasn't very good at archery, since no matter how much Yume practiced, she never seemed to improve, but then Yume's senpai helped her, and now Yume can hit the target just fine, though her senpai still says she has a long way to go." Yume said, hardly pausing for a breath. She sounded very happy about it. "Yume is going to be a good Hunter. Yume can't wait to get a wolfie as an animal companion."
"A wolf huh." Haruhiro said. Experienced Hunters were able to tame and share their thoughts and wills with wolves. Actual wolves too, and not just common dogs. It was rather kick ass, and Haruhiro could see the appeal in becoming a Hunter for that alone.
"Sounds like your senpai was just trying to be nice. I wouldn't be surprised if you were no good at all as a Hunter." Ranta said with a bit of disdain. "So we have an incompetent Hunter as well as a useless thief. It's going to be tough going from here on out."
"As if you're one to talk, Curly." Haruhiro shot back, not liking being assumed to be useless.
"Don't call me that!" Ranta shouted back, the same way he always did when anyone besides Renji called him Curly. He only didn't shout back at Renji because he was too busy pissing himself whenever the overly serious and tough silver haired boy was looking at him. Not that Haruhiro could blame him on that front. Renji had been different from the rest of them, and they all had felt it from the beginning. The only one willing to meet the man's gaze had been Manato.
"Um, excuse me." A small girl wearing a witch's hat said from directly behind Ranta, causing the boy to give a yelp of surprise and jump into the air. The girl's hat had a very broad rim, and since she was at least three or four inches shorter than even Yume, the boys weren't able to see her face. Even so, Haruhiro thought he knew who it was.
"Shihoru?" He asked, checking his prediction. The girl nodded her head.
"You scared me, sneaking up on me like that!" Ranta shouted at the girl, embarrassed at having been surprised in such a manner. "You've become a Mage, but you act more like a Thief."
"I'm sorry. No one noticed me, so I didn't know how to approach everyone…" Shihoru said weakly.
"Can't you just say something normal? Like, 'hey' or 'hi', or just call out our names?" Ranta said crossing his arms, he was quickly calming back down, but Shihoru was still a little frightened.
"I… I couldn't think of anything. I'm truly sorry." The girl said.
"Quit apologizing for everything. You're making me look like the bad guy." Ranta said giving the girl an annoyed look that made her tremble a little.
"If it were between you and Shihoru, I think we all know who the bad guy was. No need to get so pissed off at her." Haruhiro said, putting himself between Ranta and the girl.
"Oh, and you're a good guy then? Shihoru may keep them well hidden, but all you want are her HUGE BOOBS." Ranta said pointing an accusatory finger at Haruhiro.
"Wha… hidden?" Haruhiro stammered, his eyes reflexively going to Shihoru's chest. The girl blushed and quickly wrapped her arm around her chest so that people couldn't look at them. Realizing what he had just done, Haruhiro quickly looked away. "Sorry."
"It's okay." Shihoru replied softly.
"You're hiding them, but you can't fool these eyes! They can see right through padding and pushups!" Ranta shouted loudly.
Haruhiro's eye twitched. "What kind of skill is that?"
"It's not a skill, it's a natural gift!" Ranta responded a little too proudly.
"Shihoru, your boobs are so big." Yume said as she looked at the smaller girl and then at her own small chest, poking at the her little breasts with one finger. "Must be nice to have big boobs. Yume's chest is really flat. It'd be okay if Yume were skinny, but Yume's flabby and fat. It makes Yume sad ~yan."
"It's… it's just because I'm fat, that's all." Shihoru said, acting as though she wanted to shrink in on herself and disappear.
"Really?" Yume said looking closer at the small girl. "Shihoru doesn't look fat at all though."
"My clothes just cover it up." Shihoru insisted.
Ranta snorted. "Other girls must really hate you."
"…Why?" Shihoru said in surprise. No one liked being hated.
"You're not fat, but you insist that you are. Girls hate other girls who say they're fat when it's not true." Ranta said with a shrug, as if this was common knowledge.
"I didn't mean to… I mean, I really am fat." Shihoru said, her shoulders beginning to tremble.
"H…hey. It's nothing to cry about." Ranta said, seeming to start feeling guilty now that the water works were on the way.
"I'm not crying." Shihoru said, though she obviously was.
"It's okay Shihoru, don't cry." Yume said wrapping her arms around Shihoru and bringing her into a tight hug and knocking her funny hat off of her head. "Yume doesn't hate Shihoru. Though Yume doesn't really know Shihoru very well yet either…"
"That… isn't exactly reassuring her, Yume." Haruhiro said with a sigh.
"Oh? Is that so? But Shihoru's body feels really nice. So soft and squishy." Yume said closing her eyes and smiling as she gave Shihoru a tight squeeze and took in a large breath through her nose, as if smelling the smaller girl's hair.
"P…please stop. This is embarrassing." Shihoru squeaked, though Yume didn't seem to hear her. She just kept smiling and kept hugging the girl.
The boys both blushed at the display. Haruhiro watched on in silence while Ranta decided to instead try to encourage them further. Even once Manato arrived and he and Haruhiro begin to talk, the two girls were still there, Yume holding onto the smaller girl while the blushing Shihoru tried to squirm her way free.
Yume knew that she should have just let Shihoru go at this point. The little mage had already stopped crying, but Yume couldn't help it. She was so soft and warm, and she smelled so nice.
Yume had noticed that ever since she had started to use energy more and more, different things started to smell differently. People in particular seemed to have distinct scents to them, though they were often too weak or too complicated for Yume to describe them properly. Shihoru smelled of a thick layer of leaves resting on the ground during a light rain, capturing the humid air and awakening scent of the Earth, but with also a sort of darkness to it.
Like Yume said, it was hard to put into words, but Shihoru's was one of the strongest that Yume had smelled so far.
Her senpai had a strong smell to him as well, but it had always made Yume feel a little sad whenever she smelled it. For the most part her senpai smelled like swords, if swords could be said to have a distinct scent, but beyond that he had this sort of cold void like smell to him. Like a once stronger furnace that's fire had been allowed to burn out, leaving it cold and empty. It made Yume feel very very sad ~yan.
Yume didn't even notice Manato approach, save for his smell. He smelled like the light of a single candle; dim but hopeful, only with the slight bit of fear that something would snuff that candle out.
The others talked and Ranta announced that he had gone behind everyone's backs and joined the Dread Knight's guild instead of becoming a warrior, just because he thought the name Dread Knight was cool. Apparently he was able to summon a demon to help him out, but he couldn't during the day, because he wasn't strong enough. The demon didn't sound all that helpful anyways, and she doubted it would be as cute as the wolfie she would get one day.
Even though they didn't have a warrior to act as a tank on the front lines, they had to keep moving. Those who don't work don't eat.
Yume would admit that she really couldn't wait to leave the city walls again. It wasn't so much because she couldn't wait to get back to killing more muffins, or whatever they were called, as she still hadn't fully gotten used to that, but rather because she wanted to get back to the wilds.
While out in the trees, she had been able to feel Eldritch's love all around her. It had been like being constantly drawn into the hug of a loving mother, which had filled her with warmth and strength and made Yume feel all tingly inside. While the feeling of love was still there while she was in the city, it was like hearing a voice through water. The bits of it that she could still feel just made her long for its full embrace even more.
But as they were walking towards the city gate, they spotted someone familiar sitting at the side of the road dressed in dirty looking chainmail.
"Moguzo?" Haruhiro said when he saw the large boy.
The man lifted his head, recognizing someone calling out his name. He blinked as he saw all them and his mouth opened up, but then he just closed it again and hung his head back down, as if in shame.
"Huh, Moguzo? Weren't you dragged off by Ragmound to join his party?" Yume said, looking the boy over.
"Not Ragmound, Raghill." Haruhiro said corrected Yume. "Is something wrong? Are you here all alone?" Moguzo only nodded in response.
"I got it!" Ranta said, smacking a closed fist into his open palm. "They threw you out, didn't they? Raghill asked you to join, but when he found out how useless and dim-witted you are, he changed his mind and kicked out out!"
"Ranta…" Haruhiro tried to stop Ranta, but the boy was so stupid. Yume didn't think anything could stop the boy short of an arrow through the throat… maybe she had been around senpai for too long.
"My money." Moguzo said sadly. "He took it all. He told me to hand it all over and that he would show me the ropes… but…"
"That's horrible." Shihoru whispered softly. Yume also felt sorry for Moguzo. Ragmound hadn't been a good senpai and had taken advantage of him.
"I told you so." Ranta huffed, crossing his arms. "I told you not to go with him, but you didn't listen to me did you. I knew all along that he was a heap of rags, a hill of trash."
"Cut it out Ranta, you aren't helping." Haruhiro snapped at the boy. Ranta looked about to say something back, but Manato interrupted him.
"Moguzo, you joined the Warriors Guild, right?" Manato asked, squatting down next to Moguzo.
Moguzo glanced at Manato before looking back at the ground again and nodded. "I joined the Warrior's Guild."
"That's right!" Haruhiro said, clapping his hands together. "Because of Ranta's idiocy, our party's missing a Warrior…"
"You're the idiot, not me!" Ranta shouted in response, though he was ignored.
Haruhiro turned to Shihoru and Yume. "What do you two think?" He asked them.
"I think it would be great." Shihoru said with a sharp nod.
"Yume is lost, what would be good?" Yume asked, not quite sure what Haruhiro was asking them about.
"Our party is missing a Warrior, and Moguzo is a Warrior without a party at the moment. It's perfect, don't you think?" Shihoru explained to Yume.
"Ohh…" Yume said, finally seeing what they were on about. She looked over to Moguzo who was still staring at the ground. "Moguzo, would you like to join Yume's party?"
Moguzo's eyes widened and he looked up at them. "Is that… would it really be okay for me to join?" The man asked. The lost look in his eyes was enough to make Yume nod at him with an affirmative smile without a second thought. It was like a large dopey puppy, especially with the leather cape on his head making it look like he had floppy ears.
"I, for one, would like it if you joined." Manato said encouragingly. "Though it's up to you."
Moguzo still looked unsure of himself, but surprisingly enough Ranta was the one who walked up behind Moguzo and started to try to drag the guy up off the ground and onto his feet. "I suppose there's no choice then! I'll take good care of you, so become a good shield for me! Be prepared to die for me, Moguzo!"
"You are just… unbelievable." Haruhiro said with a sigh. Yume didn't understand a word that had come out of the boy's mouth. She was sure she had just been mishearing things again.
"What? Did I say something weird? Nope. Not at all. It's a Warrior's job to stand in the frontline and tank, right? They're the ones that are supposed to take the brunt of the enemies' attacks. That's why their entire bodies are covered in chainmail." Ranta reasoned.
"Ranta is right." Manato said, not really sounding as upbeat about it. "I'm not saying this to frighten you, but Warriors have it tougher than anyone else. But you can count on all of us to support you and if anything happens, I'll use my Light Magic to heal you."
Moguzo nodded slowly. "I'll do the best I can. But…" Moguzo looked down again and started to rub at his stomach. "I have no money…"
"That's okay. Yume can give you some." Yume said, surprising the others as she started to take her supply bag off of her shoulder.
"You know you don't have much money either, right Yume?" Haruhiro reminded her. "Though if all of us chipped in a little…"
"No, Yume has money. Part of Yume's training was going out beyond the walls with her senpai. Yume and senpai hunted mud muffins, and lemon muffins, and mulls too. Well, senpai killed most of them, but he let Yume have the money when we exchanged in everything that we had got. So Yume's already made a little money." Yume said as she dug around in her bag.
"You hunted what?" Ranta said.
"Mud goblins, lesser goblins, and ghouls." Haruhiro corrected.
"What he said." Yume said, nodding towards Haruhiro.
"How in the world did you get that out of what she said!?" Ranta half shouted, giving Haruhiro a dirty look. "Does your role in life as a straight man give you some kind of super human ability to understand what people are trying to say?"
"Even if it did, I still wouldn't be able to understand you, Ranta." Haruhiro said with a sigh.
"Damn straight you can't! No one can understand me! Even I can't understand me!" Ranta shouted in something like pride.
"Here we go." Yume said proudly as she lifted out the sack of coins that she had gotten from Bri that first day, only the sack was notably fatter than before. She opened the bag up and pulled out two silver coins to give to Moguzo, letting the others see the contents inside the bag as she did so.
Jaws dropped.
"Where in the world did you get all that money?" Ranta said in surprise.
"Senpai killed a lot of muflins." Yume said with an awkward smile as she thought about the group of twenty muflins from the time her senpai had taken to show her how to sneak about and track inside of the Ruin City. It had been a lot harder than in the dense forest to go unnoticed, and Yume had gotten them spotted. Yume knew that her senpai was nice, but he could be really scary at times. The smell from all the blood made Yume feel sick.
"Goblins." Haruhiro corrected Yume again. Yume swore that sooner or later, she would say it right.
"Goblees."
"Yume, just how much money did you make?" Shihoru asked.
"About fifty silver." Yume admitted as she put her sack of coins back away in her pack.
"You mean your senpai just let you have it all? That's more than six times as much money as the training cost." Moguzo said, his jaw hanging open. "I wish I had met him instead of Raghill."
"Senpai said that it wasn't that much money to him and that Yume would need it more." Yume said then she smiled even wider than before and took her sword off her back. "He also gave Yume Kaa-tan." She said, drawing the blade a little so that they could see the surface and edge of the noticeably higher quality weapon. "Isn't it pretty?"
"…I wonder if Barbara-sensei has any former students I could met."
Just a scene from the LN to introduce the main cast of Grimgar a little. This and a bit of their first fight will be the only scenes that are pretty close to the original story line. After that things start to change directions for them as Rin and Shirou start to influence their decisions more and more.
Starting with drawing Mary in before Manato dies. Telling Manato that if he wants to fight at the frontline, then they need to have a second healer around for when he gets hurt to the extent that he can't heal himself.
Next chapter will be skipping to the end of the group's first unsuccessful day of hunting and them going to the barracks and meeting Shirou.
People asked how much Yume's Katana would be worth. Well, a normal steel sword that is in good condition would probably be worth around 30 silver, so I'd say it would probably be worth around 30 gold, since making Damascus steel is actually a pretty complex process. Not so much as weapons with magical properties, but still more than your average steel weapon. (to give a reference point, the sword they got from Death Spot was supposed to be worth 40 gold.)