Origin of the Ojou-sama (Second Half)

Young Saya, rescued by the Ojou-sama.

"So. Afterwards, we tried to evacuate together, but…"

"… Aah, I really thought I was going to die… whoops. Are you alright, little ojou-chan?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"To be swallowed up by a dungeon, of all things… what a precious experience… We are absolutely going to survive this! Yoroshikutte? Tiny little ojou-san."

"Eh? Ah, um…"

"You reply with 'Yoroshikutte yo!' Always carry grace in your heart. The moment you lose your composure, even what could have survived won't. Now then, yoroshikutte?"

"… Yep! Yoroshikutte yo!"

"Fufu, I'll give you a passing mark."

"Paashing mark?"

"It means perfect! Now, let us be on our way. It's this way, probably!"

And so the Ojou-sama took young Karona's hand and pushed on through the shopping mall that had turned into a dungeon.

In the Ojou-sama's hand was a makeshift halberd, cobbled together from the pillar of a broken shelf with a boar's tusk lashed onto it.

… Very casually, the Ojou-sama had been harvesting materials. Never missing a trick.

Specifically, right around the time she'd been saying "Aah, I thought I was going to die," she was busy crack-crack-ing open the boar to carve it up. With the box cutters and saws and hammers she'd grabbed from the shops in the shopping mall, going at it crack-crunch-crack.

Her handiwork looked very much like the practiced motions of someone who'd done this sort of thing plenty of times before.

"an instant weapon from monster materials huh. wait, a halberd? that's badass"

"early-days counter-tactic. but spot-on. seriously, who was this Ojou-sama?"

"… Now that I think about it, it's a bit of a mystery why she didn't just arm herself with the saw and the rest directly, isn't it? At the time, the effectiveness of dungeon-forged weapons hadn't been proven yet."

"you mean the thing where inside a materialized dungeon, dungeon-made weapons are the ones that work"

"these days we know it's the interaction between Debris-sourced materials. but back then, guns… well, regular bullets were barely effective, so the SDF and the military were getting pushed around"

These days, anti-dungeon weaponry like Debris-rounds made from dungeon materials has been developed, so it's not like humanity is helpless anymore. Still, in real terms, a world where no dungeons appear is best.

Which is why intervening early through BCD, before materialization, remains the top solution.

"Anyway, that onee-sama was just casually mowing down slimes and wolves and whatnot. Every time, she'd harvest and refine, and her weapons kept getting stronger and stronger… and then she'd just push forward in whatever direction the monsters she'd beaten had come from… yeah. That onee-sama, seriously, who was she?"

"that's what WE want to know!?"

"that's nuts. I remember a game where you upgraded weapons by crafting like that…"

"if it were me facing a real monster, I'd be frozen stiff. she's got the guts of a saint"

Really, just who was she? You can't help but cock your head in wonder.

"Well, one thing led to another, and with 'Ojou-sama is the strongest! Ojou-sama is the most graceful! Ojou-sama is invincible!' carrying us onward, before we knew it there was the Dungeon Core, right in front of us."

"hm???"

"huh??? weren't you evacuating???"

"why are you pushing deeper??"

"I mean, isn't the path where you've already beaten everything you can beat the safer one? You know?"

"well, true?"

"this woman is permanently advancing…"

"so this is where ojou's Ojou-sama-ness originated…?"

"And then, we smashed the Dungeon Core."

"o-oh"

"… well yeah, I guess that's how it went"

"a regular civilian who got caught up in it reached the Dungeon Core solo…"

"Ojou-sama is amazing… I'm thinking that anew"

"For now, shall we try breaking this?"

"Eh? Is it really okay to break this sparkly thing?"

"Somehow, just looking at this glowing stone irritates me. — Dosseeeeeiii!!!!"

And so the Ojou-sama slammed the boar tusk down and split the Dungeon Core clean in two.

With that, the dungeonification anomaly ceased, and the monsters began to vanish.

Thus, this Dungeon Disaster was, through the grand efforts of a single Ojou-sama, resolved at an unprecedented early stage —

"… was the incident that took place. That Ojou-sama is my ideal."

"yeah, um, that was heavier than I expected"

"so that's what gave rise to ojou's love of Ojou-samas"

"yeah. just who was this Ojou-sama…"

"I mean, if it was that big a deal, shouldn't it be easy to figure out who she was?"

"About that, the incident itself was recorded, but nowhere in the records is there any mention of an Ojou-sama matching her description. I searched, you know?"

"eeh? really?"

"wait, was the Ojou-sama a monster or something too…?"

"no, but, isn't it weird that the name of the hero who solved the whole thing isn't on record? ojou, did you add some fake details?"

"Back then there were many Dungeon Disaster casualties, and there were quite a few cases where it wasn't clear who'd been caught up and who had survived… well, thanks to that Ojou-sama, here I am, bursting with health and able to do dungeon streams on BCD!"

Surely, that Ojou-sama had cleared the dungeon without anyone realizing, walked out, and coolly gone on her way without ever giving her name. That was the conclusion Karona had reached.

"Someday, I'd like to properly thank her… hafuu."

"hope you get to"

"yeah, really"

"for that to happen, we've gotta spread the name of Ryutanji Karona further!"

"hope that Ojou-sama gets to see ojou one day"

"Yes. If that onee-sama were to watch me, I would be so happy… And so, from here on out, as a dungeon-streaming B-Caster Ojou-sama, I shall continue to do my very best～!!"

Karona thrust a clenched fist into the air.