Dungeon Streaming in a Chastity-Reversed World with 1:99 Male-to-Female Ratio! I Might Be a Rare Man, But I’ll Risk My Life to Find a Wife! - 50

Chapter 50: A Double-Edged Man and a Double-Edged Woman

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Ittou felt a sharpness hidden within Unohana’s round, adorable eyes, and his expression wavered in confusion.

“Th-That thing you said earlier about the H Team being terrible during the dungeon training ‘because I’m a man’… What does that even mean?”

Unable to understand Unohana’s remark, Ittou asked back, only for Unohana to now show a flicker of hesitation, a small wrinkle forming between her brows.

“Ah—hold on a second, okay? If I get too harsh, this one might get all depressed… Umm…”

Saying that, Unohana slipped down from Ittou’s arm and looked down, pressing a slender, pale finger against her forehead as she walked back and forth with a thoughtful hum. Ittou tilted his head, still not understanding her behavior, when a voice came from the opposite side.

“U-Um…”

“Whoa!? K-Katagiri-san!”

Hearing the soft voice by his ear, Ittou jolted in surprise. The girl he was holding, Katagiri, swayed unsteadily, and he hurriedly supported her with both hands. He let out a relieved sigh when she didn’t fall from his arms, then gently set her down. Katagiri gave a small sniff.

“Ah, as I thought, you forgot about me… It’s fine. I’m just a background mob girl anyway… No, that’s not it. Listen, Itsukushima-kun, let me explain about Ui-chan.”

“Ah, yeah. Please do. I mean, she suddenly started talking so differently… Her words got a lot sharper, or something…”

Until the moment he had saved Unohana and the others from the Blue Serpent, Ittou hadn’t noticed any change at all.

“When I was struggling with how to help Noshiro and the others after rescuing the two of them, Unohana-san already seemed different somehow…”

“Itsukushima-kun. You see, Ui-chan is a bit… Unusual. When her stress hits the peak, her personality changes.”

Raising one slim, elegant finger, Katagiri told him this. Ittou’s eyes widened as he remembered a phrase from a manga he used to read back home.

“Y-You mean, split personality?”

He had read about a blonde woman whose personality changed when she sneezed, and a police officer who became a different person when she got on her bike, in manga that sat in a small countryside café. He had even admired the “King of Games,” who carried two souls, and sometimes mimicked him.

Seeing something he’d only known from fiction in real life made Ittou’s eyes sparkle.

“We call the current her Urahana-chan. She’s probably a personality born from Ui-chan’s wish to become someone who can speak clearly and express herself properly. When she’s cornered, Urahana-chan takes over and says out loud what Ui-chan has been holding inside.”

As Katagiri explained this, Ittou nodded deeply and recalled the earlier battle.

Unohana hadn’t raised her voice, but she had given commands through Ittou. During the previous dungeon training, she had only mumbled softly and hardly spoke with him at all. Yet just now, she had spoken freely right by his ear. More than that, she had practically been sitting on his arm—almost clinging to him.

Ittou started to recall the lingering warmth of her touch and quickly shook his head.

“Itsukushima.”

Hearing that cute yet strong voice call his name, Ittou turned around to see Unohana—or rather, the version Katagiri called Urahana—gazing straight at him.

“Well, I guess I don’t need to explain myself anymore, so I’ll just get to the point from earlier. If this one tried to say it herself, we’d probably switch again.”

Scratching her head, Urahana locked eyes with Ittou. He returned her gaze, wanting to know why he was the cause, and how he could grow stronger. He felt as if Urahana held the answer.

“Well, it’s really not that complicated. It’s just that you still don’t fully understand what it means to be a man in this world.”

“Eh? To be a man? Uh, aren’t we rare and valuable or something?”

Ittou replied with a puzzled expression, and Urahana let out a deep, exaggerated sigh while covering her face with one hand.

“That vague answer is exactly why I said you don’t get it, dummy. Listen. Why things went wrong before it’s because… First, everyone on H Team, including this one, was tense around you because you’re a man. They didn’t know how to act, were afraid of offending you, and well… Some, like Katari, overthought things so much they couldn’t even talk to you.”

“H-Hey! Urahana-chan!”

For once, Katagiri raised her voice and lifted a small fist in protest. Urahana waved her hands dismissively with a grin.

“Anyway, that’s why, right from the start, everyone in H Team was thinking more about how to deal with a man than how to clear the dungeon. That part’s on us, sure… Actually, the rest of it’s mostly on us too. But when you saw how badly the team was moving, you thought you had to start giving orders.”

Ittou nodded. During the dungeon training, H Team’s movements had clearly been sluggish. They lacked coordination. It didn’t even look like teamwork. That was why he had panicked and started calling out instructions.

“Well, that in itself wasn’t wrong. Your orders were clumsy but decent. But you see, teams aren’t that simple. Kanzaki-san’s A Team is too perfect. They can just follow textbook moves and be fine. But H Team’s different. Dungeon explorers all have their own Unique Magic and Original. Those tend to make their coordination… Well, unique.”

“…Original?”

Ittou repeated, unfamiliar with the term. Katagiri leaned in again to whisper by his ear.

“Um, it’s when someone customizes their unique magic, gives it a name, and makes it their own technique. That can boost casting speed, power, or add special effects. At our school, that starts in second year. A-Also, sorry, but about what Urahana-chan said… H Team is particularly unusual, I think.”

“Katari, we’ll talk more about that later with everyone. For now, what I mean is, things didn’t go well because you just followed your own way.”

“B-But if that was the problem, they could’ve just told me…”

Before he could finish, Urahana stepped right up close, glaring sharply into his eyes. He thought he saw a faint red glint in them and swallowed hard.

“Listen up. You’re a rare man and not just that, a strong one who can hold his own in a dungeon. Do you think a bunch of girls who’ve never dealt with men before can just speak up to someone like that? Some of them might take your words as commands from a king. No, even from a god. One word from you could change their whole lives. That’s what it means to be a man here.”

Urahana’s tone was blunt, but Ittou could hear the kindness behind it. Even so, sweat trickled down his back, refusing to stop. The air in the cave felt strangely cold, and the heat inside him faded fast.

My words could change their lives…?

At that moment, Ittou finally began to understand what it meant when the girls spoke of “men.” To understand himself—and what it meant to be a man… It was something far more dangerous than the black longsword in his hand.

Staring at his reflection in the black blade, unmarked by a single scratch, Ittou stood surrounded by heaps of Blue Serpent corpses piled high around him, as if even in death they dared not approach him.

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