While Hiro had been admiring his reflection in the pool, the girls had started skinning, cleaning, and carving the boar monsters and starting several fires going to cook several of them at once for an early lunch. Unfortunately, while their starting equipment had provided them with knives for dismantling and flint and steel for starting the fire, they only had dry rations to eat and no seasoning. While these rations would have lasted them a week under normal circumstances, with Hiro's metabolism and appetite now boosted to anime levels, they would last them at most three days, so they needed to start gathering food immediately.
"Husband," Erza called out, "Could you gather some edible plants and see if you can find any that would work well as seasonings while you are out."
"Huh?" Hiro turned around, looking confused, "But I don't know the first thing about edible plants."
"You have encyclopedic knowledge of the world, don't you!" Kagetora teasingly reminded him.
"Oh. Right!" Hiro slapped his forehead, having forgotten he was a cheat protagonist now, "I'll take a look around."
"Don't go too far!" Erza called after him. Hiro waved back in reply as he disappeared between the trees.
Soon Hiro had lost sight of the lake, but he could still hear the sound of the waterfall, so he was confident in being able to find his way back even if he knew nothing about navigating through a forest having lived all his life in the city.
"Hmm, let's see here."
"Oh, these herbs are supposed to be good with pork. Monster boars are still pork, right?"
"Lucky! These berries are used in healing salves, but they can boost a person's vitality and mood even raw. Mmmm, taste a bit like cherries."
"Huh? Why do these bamboo stems have blue stripes? Hmmm. Oh! I see! These stripes mean that their roots have dug into a vein of magic minerals. The darker the stripes, the higher the mineral's mana quality, and the closer the stripes are packed together, the larger the mineral vein. Ummmm. Yeah. I have no idea how to judge this. I guess just having knowledge is different from being able to use that knowledge."
*Raaaawr* At that moment, while Hiro was distracted by bamboo, a feline monster with the body of a tiger, mane of a lion, and tail of a lizard with spines running down its back leaped at him from behind. Its roar of victory was the only thing that saved the newly isekaied otaku from an ignoble death as he tumbled and scrambled to the side and out of the way. However, while his uncoordinated movements did save his life, he could not wholly avoid the beast, and its claws lacerated his left shoulder.
[A taigon!] *Gyaaaaah* Hiro wailed as he scrambled backward on his butt, too scared to stand or remove his gaze from the ferocious predator. It snarled at its disobedient prey and leaped again. Blood red maw agape, razor-sharp fangs eager to tear into his tender throat.
*ROOOAAARRRR* The beast slammed headfirst into the transparent disk of brown light that suddenly materialized between them, chipping its teeth on its unyielding surface. It roared in pain and indignation. How dare its lunch resist it!?
[That's right!] Hiro thought to himself frantically, panting in fear behind his barrier as the monster raked its claws against the impenetrable disk, [I'm an OP Isekai protagonist now! I can't be afraid of some overgrown cat!] He rallied his courage as he staggered to his feet, drew his skinning knife, withdrew his mask from his inside jacket pocket, and put it on. Immediately he felt a change within him. Immediately he felt a part of him he hadn't known was missing. That he was complete.
[Ok. Calm down and think, Hiro. The duration of my barriers is equal to their diameter, and the cooldown for this power is equal to half that after the created barrier disappears. I panicked when I made this barrier, so it's about 10 meters wide, which is why it isn't trying to go around when it can still see me. So it should last for about three more seconds, and then I'll need to wait 5 seconds before I can cast again. By then, I'll be dead, so my only option is to kill it using Razor Trail or run away using Accelerate.] Hiro unconsciously smirked as something inside him awakened at the idea of spilling the blood of the creature before him, [Let's kill it.]
Holding his knife in a reverse grip as he had seen in the movies, Hiro prepared himself for his first life and death battle in Kamitsuki. The barrier disappeared. The monster charged. Hiro slashed.
Again and again and again, sending waves of invisible razor-sharp energy flying at his opponent.
*Snick Snick Snick* *Groooooooowwww* The blades of air tore into the unprepared predator, slicing it to ribbons. The mighty beast gave one last cry of pain and regret before collapsing dead at Hiro's feet.
*He Hehe AHehe AHAHAHAHAHA* Hiro's chuckle of relief turned into a full-blown raucous roar of triumphant laughter at his victory. This feeling of victory. Of overcoming. Of dancing on the edge of the reapers scythe and surviving. It was exhilarating. Intoxicating. He didn't know if this was always a part of him or something that his Warmonger drawback had created in him, and quite frankly, he didn't care. Right now, he just wanted to enjoy the pleasure of being alive and his opponent being dead.
Once he got his laughter back under control, Hiro observed the mangled carcass before him and tried to decide what to do with it. In the end, he chose just to sever its head and leave the rest. Being half again as big as him, it was simply too big to bring back the whole thing on his own, but Hiro wanted to keep its head as a memento. He would look up how to stuff and preserve a skull when he got back to his original world so that he could keep it as a trophy of his first victory. As for what to do with the rest, it felt like a waste, but he could only leave it here.
[Seriously, how is Part-timer a drawback. Every time I go to sleep, I switch which world I'm in. Granted, I can't use any of my gifts in my original world, not even my eternal youth, but I can use the knowledge of modern society to improve my life here. I really don't see the downside.]
"I'm back!" Hiro called as he returned to the lake.
""Welcome home, Husband/Darling"" Kagetora and Erza greeted him. While he had been gone, they had finished preparing the kameshishis for roasting and had two of them slowly turning over a makeshift roasting pit beside the lake. Hiro handed the herbs he had collected over to Erza and explained which ones were supposed to go well with roasted boar.
*Growl* The delicious smell of roasting meat wafting through the air soon became even more mouthwatering as she liberally applied a mixture of the herbs based entirely on her gut feeling. Honestly, neither she nor Kagetora could be considered more than passable cooks. Still, they knew enough to make a decent meal out of the wild game they hunted, and at least any food their hands prepared wouldn't turn into black unmentionables like a certain somebody they both loved.
*Grooowl* [How can I possibly be this hungry] Hiro silently whimpered as gazed at the roasting monster, his drool rivaling that of the waterfall. His stomach had been making its presence known ever since he killed that taigon. [Taking that Hungry drawback may have been a mistake. I Need FOOD!]
Thankfully, thanks to his lovely waifus who had seen this coming, his suffering didn't last long.
*Om nom scarf nom nom gulp gulp gulp om nom nom* It was a scene of absolute carnage. All manners were utterly forgotten as Hiro focused solely on filling the bottomless void that had replaced his stomach. It was disgusting. Even Hiro couldn't stand it. But he couldn't stop as tears of humiliation, at his actions, and happiness, at how good it felt to satisfy the beast gnawing at his insides, flowed down his face. No matter how much they loved him, Kagetora and Erza couldn't stand watching him eat and had instead taken their share further down the bank to eat with their backs to him. Soon 170 kgs of kameshishi pork had disappeared into an 86 kg man.
*Groan* "That was so good." Hiro murmured as he laid on his back, his stomach as round as a beach ball.
*Chi Chi Chi* Kagetora walked over and began to playfully poke his inflated belly that jiggled like a bowl of jelly. *Mmung* While, Hiro could only moan in protest as she played with his bloated tummy.
*Haa* "Honestly, you two." Erza complained, with a smile as she watched their playful interaction, "Darling, why don't you and Kage work off some of that meal? Kage can start teaching you how to fight properly."
*Yahoooo* "Let's do it! Don't worry. With me guiding you, you'll be a fighting machine in no time, Husband." Kage jerked Hiro to his feet as she leaped for joy. She then dragged her beloved farther away so that they wouldn't disturb Erza's clean up.
*Fufu* Erza laughed as she saw her slightly green beloved and her dear overexcited sister start their first training session.
"Ok. I saw the beast head you brought back, so you have already gotten a taste of lethal combat. Why don't we start there? Show me how you killed it." Kage encouraged Hiro with a predatory grin on her face as she summoned her seven-branched spear from inside her and entered a defensive stance with the spear held diagonally across her body. Her spear's body was a 170cm long red-black-red sectioned wooden shaft with a weighted gold-colored metal ball with black vertical stripes on either end. Its spearhead was a 60 cm long double-edged blade with three jagged flame-shaped prongs jutting out and forward on both sides from the main blade over the first 30 cm. It was indeed a weapon as beautiful and ferocious as its owner.
"Ok," Hiro agreed proudly and proceeded to show her how he had killed the taigon, making sure to leave out his ungraceful start, of course. By the end of his explanation, Kage was staring at him with a deadpan face. Her twitching left eyebrow the only sign of her inner feelings. When Hiro showed her how he had used his Razor Trail power to release flying slashes at the taigon, she had had enough. Instead of blocking the crescents of blade energy, she vanished in a burst of speed and reappeared behind Hiro, her leg cocked back.
"ARE YOU AN IDIOT!!" *GYOOOW* Kage screamed in anger as she kicked him ferociously in the butt, causing him to cry out in pain and surprise as he was launched into the air. Kage snatched the tumbling dagger he had dropped out of the air as he landed pitifully on the ground, holding his aching rump in his hands as he looked up in confusion and resentment at his furious waifu with tears in his eyes.
"ARE YOU A YANDERE GIRLFRIEND OR SOMETHING!?!"
"Wha-?"
"HOLDING A KNIFE IN A REVERSE GRIP IS THE WORST WAY TO HOLD A DAGGER FOR SLASHING UNLESS YOU INTEND TO SLASH SOMEONE AS YOU RUN PASS! BUT TO DO IT WHILE SITTING ON YOUR A*S!! LUDICROUS!!!" Kage was really on a tear. She was absolutely enraged at her husband's complete lack of combat sense. Both her spirit as a warrior and her concern as a wife demanded she correct his daffy fighting style before he got himself killed or worse.
"The only competent people who hold knives like that are Yanderes, who are stabbing their unfaithful boyfriends!" Kage jabbed the dagger at Hiro while holding it in a reverse grip to hammer her point home. "Got it."
"Yes, Ma'am!" Hiro hurriedly nodded in acknowledgment.
"Good," the sunny smile on Kage's face was in sharp contrast to the killing intent she had just been leaking.
"But…" Hiro hesitated to continue.
"HMMMMM!!!!" Kage stared intently at her husband, pressing him to either spit it out or agree already.
"But… I have Instant Mastery with weapons, so won't I instantly know how to use you when I wield you?" Hiro timidly asked.
""HAAAAAHHHHH!!!"" Even Erza rounded on him when they heard that both of them absolutely infuriated by his words.
"DO YOU THINK WE ARE SOME SORT OF USED GOODS!!" Kage shouted, grabbing him by his collar and headbutting him as she jerked his face in close to make her point clear.
"Darling, I'm very disappointed in you. You are, of course, our first and only master." Erza's stern reprimand cut even deeper than Kage's screams.
"I'm sorry!" Hiro promptly apologized. He would have dropped into a dogeza if Kage hadn't had a firm grasp on his collar.
"Apology accepted. But don't ever say something like that again. We are your waifus. We were created for you alone. Everything we are is for you. Please don't disregard that." Erza accepted his apology and then proceeded to convince her sister to let their husband go. Which she finally did after a couple more minutes of staring daggers into Hiro's eyes.
*Hmph* "Fine. Don't do it again." Kagetora warned him one last time before shoving him back. Taking a moment to compose herself, Kage returned to the topic at hand.
"Now before I EVER let you touch a bladed weapon again. Let alone us. We are going to do some serious martial training starting with the common sense of combat, then combat awareness, then hand-to-hand combat. Only after you have completed all of that will I let you pick up a dagger again, then we will work on your archery, and only then will I allow you even to touch us. Oh, and Husband, just to be clear." Kage leaned in close to the sitting Hiro with a smile that was not a smile. "When I say 'touch us' I mean in both our weapon and human forms. That means no snu-snu until you master the kill-kill." She said the last bit in a cutesy voice while lightly poking his chest with the dagger.
"But what about my Warmonger drawback?" Hiro meekly tried to protest.
*HAA* Kage sighed in exasperation, "I guess Erza and I will just have to catch you something to kill. Now on your feet, slacker! It's time you learned the true meaning of sweat now, or bleed later!" Kage vanished again and delivered a swift kick to Hiro's shoulder from behind. "Come on! The sooner you hone those combat instincts. The less this will hurt!" Driven by her urges as both a warrior seeking a partner and a lover protecting their beloved, she was a merciless instructor.
"No sleeping! You think I'll let you run away in the middle of training! You won't be going back till I've beaten at least the basics into you!" The relentless training continued throughout the day and the night and into the next.