Is it Tough Being a Friend?

Is it Tough Being a Friend? v5 Chapter 4 Part 5

The cemetery night had grown tense.

Qiongqi’s subordinates, Shima and Saihiru, made an entry. Furthermore, an angry Tao had appeared. Ryuuga and the heroines also entered after being summoned by a mysterious person. On top of all that, the three princesses also arrived.

Almost all of the story’s central figures have met. The only ones who haven’t appeared yet are the two “Stupid Evil Spirits” of mine.

(How should I control this situation…?)

The Aogasaki vs. Shima and Elmira vs. Saihiru battles continued.

Meanwhile, Ryuuga and Kurogame were confronting the three princesses protecting the “Evil Spirit.” She had a very confused expression on her face.

“Three princesses…what are you planning? Why are you allying with the ‘Evil Spirit’?”

“Oh, is it strange for the ‘Apostles of Hell’ to protect an ‘Evil Spirit’?”

When Mion calmly responded, Ryuuga continued asking questions.

“Wasn’t Taotie your lord? Do you have a reason to protect other ‘Evil Spirits’?”

“Hinomori Ryuuga. Aren’t you misunderstanding? Us three princesses aren’t your allies. There’s no reason for you to pry into our situation.”

“What we will say is that Taowu cannot be defeated here. That is the consensus of us three princesses.”

“We will not let you bully Earl Tao.”

Ryuuga, noticing that the three princesses weren’t willing to surrender, immediately took action. It seems that our trueborn protagonist decided to prioritize “saving a companion” above all else.

Ryuuga knows about Yukimiya’s state. She wasn’t able to ‘convert’ Tao and had her consciousness hijacked.

“Three princesses! If you plan on getting in the way, then I will not hold back!”

“Don’t make light of Ranshou Mion!”

Once the heron apostle started attacking, a battle beyond comprehension began. The Hokkaido wolf apostle also participated, forcing Ryuuga to deal with two opponents at once.

“Guh…she’s fast!”

“Of course. No one can beat me in a race, whether in the spirit world or the human world.”

“Oh, Hinomori Ryuuga! Should you really be so preoccupied with her footsteps?!”

Mion swooped down from above, the protagonist avoiding her by a paper-thin margin.

Ryuuga was having a hard time with two people. They weren’t generals just for show.

With attacks coming from both the ground and the sky, Ryuuga could only dodge, dodge, and dodge again. That alone was already a feat, but she also looked for any openings to counterattack.

As expected, the protagonist was amazing. She was adept at multitasking.

“Ryu!”

Seeing that, Kurogame attempted to offer assistance, but faced an obstacle before her.

“You’re as energetic as usual. How about we play?”

“Out of the way!”

Jyuri skillfully fended against Kurogame’s rapid fist strikes. Using her tail, she knocked off any punch she couldn’t dodge. Surprisingly, she was an equal match for the tortoise in close combat.

“Ngaaaaaah!”

“Kurogame Rina──look into my eyes.”

“Huh?”

The one-track-minded tortoise reflexively did what Jyuri said and made eye contact. Immediately following, she fell down and started sleeping like a log.

“I think this is the first time that worked so easily.”

The king cobra apostle shrugged her shoulders at the anticlimactic moment. It seems she used some kind of hypnosis.

Jyuri, also known as Genshou, was a bad opponent for the reckless Kurogame…did they intentionally arrange this matchup? These guys are pretty cunning!

(This isn’t the time to be impressed! I need to stop the fight! Shima and Saihiru are bad enough already, but the three princesses battling Ryuga’s team is even worse! Their odd friendship that took so long to form is crumbling away!)

At any rate, I think the first step is to take care of Shima and Saihiru. As long as they’re here, there won’t be any room for discussion. With that in mind, I was about to move.

However, the rhinoceros beetle apostle facing Elmira suddenly spread his wings and flew.

“Shima, we will retreat.”

“Huh? Retreat?!”

In response, the cheetah apostle on the ground roared in dissatisfaction.

“Stop kidding around, Saihiru! As if I’d return without killing this girl!”

Saihiru continued turning around in the sky while Shima bared her fangs and glared at Aogasaki.

“We’ve already fulfilled our duty. We are not to stay any longer than necessary.”

“Then you can just flee by yourself! I’ll deal with this sword girl…”

“No. Do you plan on disobeying the orders of our lord, Qiongqi?”

“Guh…”

After being reprimanded, Shima reluctantly leapt away. As soon as her figure faded into the darkness, the rhinoceros beetle apostle flew away.

I’m surprised that they just suddenly retreated, but that relieves me. Now I need to stop the battle between Ryuuga and the three princesses and have everyone cool down…

“Elmira! No need to follow them! We need to assist Ryuuga!”

“Understood! Rina’s fast asleep!”

Aogasaki and Elmira immediately turned around and rushed towards Ryuuga as the three princesses surrounded her. I chased after them in a hurry, but the team battle had already started. Wait for me!

Aogasaki fiercely attempted to slash Mion.

“What’s the meaning of this, Mion?! Depending on your reply, I might forgive you!”

“I don’t need your forgiveness! Though, it’s not a bad idea to settle this immediately!”

With one hand, Elmira hurled orbs of fire at Kiki.

“Kiki! Why are you protecting Taowu?! You’ll make Shizuma sad if he knows about this!”

“I have my reasons! That’s all I’ll say!”

Ryuuga unleashed a golden aura and struck Jyuri with a fist.

“Jyuri! Didn’t you open your heart to the school students as Hebizuka?!”

“That’s just my job! And this is my job as well!”

…This is getting worse. Now that it’s come to “the main characters vs. the three princesses,” their alliance is collapsing.

I’m ninety percent sure that this is Qiongqi’s scheme. He must want Ryuuga’s team to fight with Tao and exhaust them both. The fact that the three princesses are here as well only solidifies that.

(So he brought Ryuga here while Shima and Saihiru initiated the fight…? He probably looked up my home’s phone number through a phonebook, but how did he know Ryuga’s email address?)

No, that’s not the problem I should be focusing on right now. At this rate, someone will get injured.

I summoned Taotie in order to intervene. He’ll probably work something out. For some reason, I regarded his fighting power highly.

“Come out, Tie! Stop everyone!”

(Roger that! Please transfer my remuneration to my Swiss bank account!)

“No remuneration! How does an ‘Evil Spirit’ open an account in the first place?!”

(I just wanted to try saying that! Anyways, here comes Taotie!)

While shouting like Amuro, the silhouette of a jet black ‘Evil Spirit’ jumped out of me. He was already in his battle form.1Taotie’s shout seems to be a reference to Mobile Suit Gundam. The protagonist, Amuro, seems to have a similar yell as a catchphrase.

“Guys, stop! You shouldn’t──”

The moment he tried to break in…

Someone charged towards him from the side and knocked him off his feet. It was the “Black Tortoise,” Kurogame, who woke up at some point.

“Ouch!”

“Hey ‘Evil Spirit’! Give back Shio…huh? Tie?”

“That’s right! It’s me! Why did you punch me?!”

“Haha, I only just woke up, so I mistook you for someone else.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, stupid tortoise! Are you only capable of comedy?!”

“Same to you.”

Taotie stood up with tears in his eyes and headed towards Ryuuga and the others while enduring the pain, something that I’ll commend him for.

“S, stop it already!”

However, before he could do anything, Tao screamed and retreated into Yukimiya.

Funnily enough, thanks to her scream, the battle finally stopped.

Everyone paid close attention to Yukimiya as she fell down. It’s good that she switched with Tao, but it seems she fainted. Was she affected by the “Evil Spirit’s” violent emotion?

“S, Shiori!”

“Tao!”

The main characters and three princesses both rushed towards her at the same time. However, neither of them reached her first.

Yukimiya’s body floated in the air and flung itself into the darkness behind her. Looking closely, there were countless threads tangled around her.

(Spider threads?! Could that be…Renie?!)

Immediately realizing that, I chased after Yukimiya. I’ve got a lot of questions for that spider butler. If possible, I’d like to talk to him away from Ryuuga and the others.

“I, Ichirou?!”

“Leave Yukimiya to me! I’ll contact you later, so go home! Three princesses, retreat! Tie, withdraw back into me!”

I ran through the dark cemetery while quickly speaking.

I jumped from tombstone to tombstone, leapt from tree branch to tree branch, chasing Yukimiya like I was maneuvering an obstacle course. However…

In the end, I couldn’t rescue her.

Yukimiya’s presence suddenly ceased once I reached the exit of the cemetery.

(Damn it, Renie…I even stepped out of my boundaries as a friend character to chase after her…!)

However, with this, my suspicions have been proven. Renie is working with Qiongqi’s faction.

(What if Renie’s goal is to have Qiongqi and Tao work together? It’s more likely than him just betraying Tao.)

I thought about it before, the idea of a two-on-two power balance between “Evil Spirits”…did that spider butler have the same vision?

With nothing else to lose, I tried to reach into my pocket and take out my phone to call Renie.

──Suddenly, in an alley to the right of the graveyard, I saw someone hiding in the corner about twenty meters away.

“!”

I immediately closed my phone and rushed towards the person.

However, nobody was there anymore. Just a road dimly illuminated by street lights.

(Was I seeing things? Just now…)

In the darkness, I thought I spotted a white uniform belonging to Hakubou Private high school. A glimpse of a model-like ikemen high schooler who wore a glove in his left hand.

It was the mysterious transfer student, Tenryouin Agito…


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15 thoughts on “Is it Tough Being a Friend? v5 Chapter 4 Part 5”

      1. 20 bucks that Kurogame is the enemy support. Cause she just always quietly doing her job while pretend that she is the noisy one, always come home first, the one that close to everyone here, and most importantly, she just punch Taotie while pretend to sleep.

    1. Finally. It sucks that his plans are still shit but the story is tense at this point!! Good!!

  1. Part three is weird man. It’s not exactly filler, there is clear foreshadowing and a lot of serious developments. But this is primarily a comedy?

  2. I waiting for MC to explode from all stress.? Is even possible to resolve this in this volume? Or probably two-volume story? Thanks for the translations.

  3. Thank you for the chapter, volume coming to an end soon, so pretty much confirms that Agito is Qiongi’s host or something.

  4. Its abt time our secretly(not really) high spec MC shows his stuff. Really do hope we see more of it
    I’m really hoping this arc would be the stress point for Ichirou to break

  5. Hmm, I think Tenryouin is the same as our MC. Both are quite the meta fans so they want the story to follow their format. Ichirou as a friend and Agito as an enemy, but the heroines aren’t helping at all.
    Many thanks for the translations!!

  6. Thanks for the chapter!

    Damn MC.. Finally stops worrying about the friend character for a while.

  7. Thanks for the chapter, okay, i’m slowly feeling like the evil spirits aren’t really “controlled” by the mc as much as they are just freeloading off him to a painful degree, it seemed more like like the two evil spirits were unable to do anything because of the plot rather then anything else. I just find it a bit annoying.

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