“Here we go, Jiro.”
“Understood.”
It had only been a few hours since the New Year’s countdown, and now the countdown to the start of the operation echoed in my ears.
“Another countdown, different kind,” I thought with a wry smile, but I kept the words to myself. Matching the countdown coming from the earpiece in my right ear, I hurled myself into the air.
The moment I leaped from the helicopter, I felt a sense of weightlessness, and my body obeyed gravity, falling. Naturally, there was no deceleration; I accelerated rapidly. If this continued, I would crash into the brightly lit plaza, leaving a brutal aftermath. There were no parachute or other dropping equipment on my back. This was the result of minimal equipment to be as agile as possible and act swiftly afterward.
But I wasn’t just going to fall like this without doing anything.
“Power cut.”
While I was visually gauging the distance to the ground, a voice came from my earpiece, and the scene, which had been bright until then, suddenly went dark with a jarring sound. It seemed the lighting power had been cut as planned. They must be in an uproar down there now. There was no turning back. From here on, it was all about instinct.
“Operation start.”
The voice in my earpiece spoke again simultaneously. Meanwhile, I was about to make contact with the ground, but counting the time to impact in my head, the timing was perfect. I flowed into the landing, absorbing the shock. Rolling from my feet to my knees, then to my shoulders and elbows, protecting my head, I dispersed the impact and successfully landed. No practice, just the real thing. However, last year’s experience of knowing how to move my body to achieve anything made that technique possible. There were moments I thought I had become less than human.
“Well, Mom can do it without breaking a sweat, so maybe it’s a technique you can learn with experience?” I wondered, but not now.
“……”
I put aside extraneous thoughts for later and focused on what needed to be done. I had minimized the landing noise, but it wasn’t completely silent. Someone must have noticed something, so I scanned my surroundings. Through the night vision scope, I saw panicked civilians and a group of criminals debating whether to press the switch.
Watching that scene, I realized I couldn’t just stay put. Concentrating on acceleration, I felt my legs respond and, at the same time, sprinted with all my might. Not cutting through the wind, but piercing it, I ran like a gust of wind and approached one of the criminal groups. However, they were spaced closely together. There were others less than two meters away. I had to finish them quickly before they got used to the darkness and before the ringleader gave orders.
“Urgh.”
While the opponent was hesitating, I defeated as many as possible. And the method to defeat them? In this case, there were various ways to knock them unconscious and incapacitate them, but the fastest was a lethal technique that ended their lives. However, I couldn’t use that today. Kirie-san hadn’t explicitly forbidden it as a last resort, but she had told me to avoid it.
Electric weapons like stun guns were also an option, but since the bomb used electronic components, it could affect the detonator. And I couldn’t perform movie-like feats of knocking someone out by striking their neck. To be precise, I could do it without killing them, by crushing their spine in a way that left them with after-effects, but that would be too cruel. Moreover, it would take too long to take them down one by one with chokeholds. So, how to do it?
“Aaah.”
We’re a fantasy organization. We don’t have to rely solely on physical techniques. Ah, needless to say, convenient things exist. In our case, members like Suella and Memoria, who can use magic, would use spells to induce sleep or cause loss of consciousness through hypnosis, resolving it with magic. Something similar existed in Japan.
Already, one person collapsed, and I could hear their breathing. A tag was stuck to their face. A tag. It was a consumable item inscribed with a spell, like those used by Onmyoji. Various patterns were drawn depending on the purpose, but the one prepared this time was a low-level one, excellent in mass production and frequently used. I had the same item in my hand. Kirie-san had prepared sleeping tags. For those involved in Onmyodo, it was a basic tag and apparently not very effective against ability users, but against amateurs, it could produce such effects. It had a sleeping effect so powerful that even if I slapped their face a few times, they wouldn’t wake up. I inwardly chuckled when I heard that some insomniacs used it, thinking it was for medical purposes.
Thanks to that, even if it gets a bit rough, I can forcefully stick the tag onto their face like a jiangshi. Approaching at high speed, I strike once as I turn. Even if they show signs of attacking, I can slip through and land one blow, and that’s enough. Then they can be forcibly put to sleep. It’s that simple.
It’s such a simple task that I wonder if I’m even needed, but Mom’s intuition is also a factor. I can’t let my guard down.
“What, what’s happening!?”
A man who looked like a typical middle-aged salaryman was looking around in panic, but he was clutching the bomb’s switch. It’s as if he thought, “If the others aren’t exploding, I won’t either.”
“Eek!?”
However, his trembling figure suggested he might press it at any moment. I had to avoid that. I quickly picked up a small stone and threw it at his hand. Hitting the back of his hand, I confirmed he dropped the switch and then immediately stuck the tag on his face. That’s four down. If this continues, I should be able to subdue them in less than ten seconds. No one has spotted me.
So, I continued to subdue them swiftly. Without any gunshots or impact sounds, or if there were, I moved faster than the sound, faster than anyone, to subdue them one after another.
“Comrades!!”
However, there was one person who understood what needed to be done even in this darkness.
“Illuminate the darkness! Comrades, the sacred flame bestowed upon us, this land…”
Everyone here understood what that meant. And they understood that the object in that man’s hand was the switch to detonate this bomb. But I had been waiting for this timing. In this incident, the man giving this speech was undoubtedly the first person who should have been subdued. However, in this darkness, even if I had a general idea of his location, once he left my sight, finding him would be a bit troublesome.
Still, I landed nearby to avoid losing sight of him. And I kept him in my peripheral vision. It would be logical to subdue him first, but that alone wasn’t enough.
“This whole affair, it’s unlikely that the man who appears to be the ringleader planned it.”
Kirie-san seemed to think that while the fanatical speech might be genuine, she didn’t think he could have planned the operation or prepared the materials. The more she investigated, the more she found that the identified individuals were no different from ordinary civilians. The man giving the speech was just involved with a suspicious religious group, and otherwise, he was just running a small business. And his business didn’t seem to deal with anything suspicious.
Therefore, there must be someone pulling the strings from behind. Kirie-san said that if possible, they wanted to let him operate a little and investigate what was behind him. That’s why I was subduing the obvious criminals. In the midst of the sudden trouble and commotion, the culprits would be allowed to act, surveillance from above would investigate the background, and I or Mom would go to subdue them. If the ringleader made any move to contact someone or confirm something, it would be a bonus.
It was only a matter of ten-odd seconds, but it was undeniably a chance. However, that chance ended up being a miss. Were they more skilled, or was no one planning this whole affair? The time limit had arrived. The opponent was fully prepared to detonate the bomb, so there was nothing else to be done.
“I will subdue him.”
I uttered just one word into the communication device and unleashed the full power of my divine artifact. If I were thinking about the aftermath, I should conserve my strength, but the opponent looked like they were about to press the switch at any moment. Every second was a matter of life and death. There was no room for error. So, I sprinted with all my might.
As I engage in close-quarters combat repeatedly, the flow of time slows down, or rather, I gain a sense of my own consciousness accelerating. It’s the same this time. As I concentrate my consciousness and sharpen my senses further, the scene before my eyes begins to flow slowly. It’s what athletes call entering “the zone.”
I decided to do it. Just that alone made the flow of time feel slower, and the mouth of the man giving the speech slowed down.
“Guh… My… Lord…”
And for me, it was slow, but for him, it was instantaneous. Accelerated by the divine artifact, my fist, which had become a shadow, transformed the man’s blissful smile into a grimace of agony in that instant. My left hand crunched, breaking the ringleader’s wrist, and my right hand gouged into his abdomen. Just these two actions.
I grabbed the switch that fell from my left hand and, after confirming he had collapsed and stopped moving, I attacked his subordinates. When the ringleader is suddenly incapacitated, fanatics become fragile. No one anticipates that. “Her words are correct. If I follow her words, it’s fine.” Obedience, blindness, and fanaticism—these three elements cause people to abandon the act of thinking. Therefore, they don’t know what to do.
They don’t inherit their comrades’ will, nor do they press the detonator switch to achieve this incident. Such opponents are no different from puppets. Especially if they were told to give instructions and were in a receptive posture, only to have the directive interrupted. I rushed at the standing opponents, primarily targeting their wrists, being careful not to let them press the switches, and finally ended the task by breaking the last person’s wrist and sticking a tag on their face.
Then I looked around. This was the stage for an event. In the distance, Mom waved, indicating she was safe, and it seemed personnel who had landed in other areas had also completed their subjugation safely. A sigh of relief escaped my lips; it couldn’t be helped. Even though I had switched to work mode, it wasn’t like I wasn’t tense. I wasn’t letting my guard down, just taking a moment to regain my breath.
And even during that time, I remained vigilant, but it seemed the situation had been successfully suppressed. The atmosphere seemed to have conveyed this to the surroundings, and a buzz began to spread from the civilians who had been huddled quietly. The electricity would be restored soon. So, there was no need to linger. I would remove the equipment from this ringleader and drag him away from here.
“Ah, are you with the police?”
Just as I thought that, I heard a voice timidly asking me. Looking in that direction, I saw a group clustered on the stage. Through the night vision scope, they were TV staff and celebrities I recognized. One of them, an announcer perhaps, who I even knew, was looking at me. It was natural for them to wonder what had happened when the fighting suddenly went quiet and they heard groans in the darkness. She must have gathered her courage and spoken to me.
“Yes. The perpetrators have been apprehended. If you wait a little longer, the lights will be restored. Rest assured.”
It wasn’t entirely true, but saying otherwise here would only cause more confusion. To reassure them, I decided to go along with it, my voice muffled through my mask.
“Thank goodness.”
“We’re saved.”
Whether it was because they knew I was law enforcement or because the perpetrators had been subdued, the voices of those who thought the incident was resolved began to echo. It was unfortunate to be attacked by terrorists, but it couldn’t be helped.
“For safety’s sake, please remain still for a while longer. There may still be perpetrators lurking.”
I felt bad sprinkling cold water on their relief, but given the atmosphere of them about to wander around, I had to put a stop to it. It was also problematic for me to be seen.
“All units, begin withdrawal. Power will be restored in three minutes. By then, move to your designated points. Keep the perpetrators immobilized with the tags. The police will apprehend them.”
“Understood.”
Following the instructions from my earpiece, I responded after the other members. I let out a sigh of relief, thinking that Mom’s intuition had been wrong after all.
“Haha.”
It was then. As I followed the instructions and placed a tag on the still groaning ringleader, extracting his consciousness when I heard that laughter. It was so faint it could have been a hallucination, but a warning bell rang within me, telling me not to miss that laughter.
“!”
Was it a coincidence that I heard it, or was it thanks to my training? It didn’t matter. To pinpoint its source, I looked in the direction of the laughter and saw a glittering light on the opposite side of the group of celebrities, who were embracing each other in relief and joy, effectively sandwiched between them.
“Ngh, hey, hey, hey, who are you?”
It was a stroke of luck that I could move instantly. I moved smoothly and slipped into the source of the glittering light. The impact I felt through the iron-plated protector on my gauntlet made me grimace as I looked at his face. Even in the darkness, I could see his eyes shining brightly, and a crescent moon-like smile. Ah, I understand. I tried to speak to him, but I wasn’t expecting anything.
Seeing the way his eyes, which should not move like that, fixed on my face, I thought I shouldn’t expect a reply, let alone a conversation.
“Jiro! Be careful! There’s someone strange mixed in.”
“Yeah, I’m facing him right now.”
Ignoring Mom’s warning, I subtly scanned the surroundings. Like the presence before me, there were figures standing ethereally, their eyes far more crazed than those of the previous fanatics. Such beings were appearing here and there, and overlapping with them, screams echoed.
“Orah!”
There was no holding back on the short sword being brought down with my left hand, which was still trying to push it in. The clattering sound alone indicated no sign of him letting go of the weapon. If I hadn’t shielded them, the announcer behind me would have been submerged in blood. I sensed a spirit mixed with such madness.
“Damn it, if the bomb didn’t work, then it’s time for direct action, huh?”
“Sacrifice, to this land, sacrifice.”
The man before me was muttering something, but I didn’t think the words themselves had any meaning. But why did these guys show up at this timing? If they had the bomb, it would have been more efficient to hide and detonate it.
“No, are they inciting fear?”
I thought that would have been better, a surprise attack, but I quickly realized their objective was different. And while I was thinking this, one by one, more beings began to rise, a weapon in their hands.
“Damn it!”
It was as clear as day where it would be swung. Wasn’t it supposed to be over once the bomb was subdued? Now I had to fight while protecting these hostages.
“So, Mom’s intuition was right after all.”
I realized that this incident ran quite deep.
Today’s word:
It’s not good to do things you’re not used to.
This concludes today’s update.
Thank you for pointing out any typos and for your feedback.
If you enjoyed it, please leave your thoughts, ratings, and bookmarks.
*The first volume has been decided to be published by Hayakawa Bunko JA.
It was released on October 18, 2018.
The e-book version was released on October 31 of the same year.
The second volume was released on December 19.
The third volume was released on February 20, 2019.
The content has been revised and expanded from the original submission to Shousetsuka ni Narou, with the addition of unpublished interlude chapters.
Please also check out the new releases!*
*Furthermore, a comic adaptation has been decided for Kodansha’s “Young Magazine The Third.”*
