Kanata seems to have grown significantly as a soldier.
Facing the swarming enemy soldiers were fifteen of us from the Crystal Widow 1st Company. We are the cool thugs directly under Marika of the Scarlet Eye. We mercilessly smash, cut down, and shoot to kill the assorted riff-raff.
Vodka turns the enemy soldiers into mincemeat with his war hammer. The enemy soldiers falter; if they become mincemeat from Vodka’s hammer, they won’t even fit into a body bag, let alone a coffin.
“Scrap metal from the Mechanist Army’s weaklings wouldn’t even fetch ten Credits a gram. Huh? Who’s next to be displayed at the butcher’s shop!”
From Vodka’s blind spot directly behind his massive body, I form a Psyche-Barrier in a dish shape, utilizing its repulsion to leap over Vodka’s head like a bird of prey attacking from the air. In mid-air, I behead one soldier, and as I land, I crouch and sever the shins of another. The enemy soldier, having lost his legs below the knee, screams like a slaughtered chicken. To the tune of their screams, we continue to send the enemy soldiers to their deaths as if dancing a waltz.
As time passed, the assorted riff-raff, who relied on numbers, lost their numerical advantage and began to flee. Vodka, now resembling a horror movie monster with bits of crushed enemy soldiers clinging to him, approaches with a cheerful tone.
“You’ve gotten pretty good, haven’t you, Kanata? I’m glad I picked a fight with you and got paid upfront when you joined. I wouldn’t dare pick a fight with you now.”
“Vodka, you’re far scarier. You look like a monster walked right out of a horror movie.”
“Now you know why I hate hamburgers?”
“I understand. You probably can’t eat any ground meat dishes looking like that.”
Lilith’s voice comes through the bio-mic implanted in my ear.
“The area around the command vehicle is clear. You guys were impressive, rampaging like that. I got a little excited and… wet myself.”
Wet herself? What is she talking about! Is there no way to shut down her lewd comments?
Vodka sighs, looking dejected.
“Hey, Kanata. She’s a pretty amazing young lady in many ways.”
“Yeah, she’s so great I could cry.”
“It’s amazing you can put up with her every day, though. That young lady acts just like an old man. A beautiful old man, you might say.”
A beautiful old man, what a powerful phrase.
“I can hear you, Vodka! Who are you calling a beautiful old man!”
“Who else but you, you peculiar creature?”
“Who are you calling a creature? You’re quite the talker. As a reward, I’ll treat you to hamburgers when we get back to the Garden.”
“Knowing I hate hamburgers and still doing that, you monster!”
“You see, I have a policy of draining my opponents’ weak points until they die. So, I’ll ask the chef to make them rare and juicy. If you leave even a single bite, I’ll make you eat it through your ass.”
“…I have no words. You’re a devil.”
“Ah! Sergeant, go support Shuri’s squad! It looks like something troublesome has appeared.”
“Understood. Please send me the location to my eye camera. See ya, Vodka.”
“Yeah, leave the command vehicle to us.”
“Rimse, please go with the Sergeant and cover his back.”
“Yes, Sergeant. Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, I’m counting on you, Rimse.”
Rimse and I run towards the point transferred to our retinas to support Shuri’s squad. Rimse is a petite and cute girl, but she’s a capable soldier despite her appearance. She excels at simultaneous attacks using a tanto and her brainwave-guided boomerangs, and she must have taken down three enemy soldiers in the previous battle.
She’s wearing a headscarf with an unusual pattern.
“That’s an unusual headscarf.”
“Is it? It’s common in my hometown.”
“Is that so? Rimse, you’re from Izuruha, right?”
“Yes. Rimse is from an island in the northern part of the Izuruha archipelago. I came here to work and send food back to my family.”
An island in the northern part of the Izuruha archipelago? In the old world, that would be Hokkaido. Ah, right, I think I saw this pattern in a gourmet adventure manga set in Hokkaido. That’s right, Asirpa-san wore something like this. So this girl is Ainu.
“I see, you’re working to send food back to your family. That’s admirable.”
“It’s not admirable. In my village, warriors’ job is to earn food for everyone.”
“I see, then you must earn well.”
“Yes!”
By the time we finished talking, we had arrived where Shuri’s squad was. Shuri’s squad was fighting in a small clearing in the dense jungle, unusual for this world.
“Shuri, I’m here to help!”
“Kanata? Please support the rest of my squad instead of me!”
Shuri shouted this while fighting a man who seemed to be the leader of a squad, wielding a knuckleduster sword. Shuri was struggling with the man’s knuckle strikes and his needle-like blade. He’s quite skilled. I guess if it’s a Division, there will be some capable individuals.
“Shuri, swap out! I’ll handle him!”
“No, Kanata, you deal with the riff-raff. Make sure none of them escape.”
“B-but…”
“Trust me. I wouldn’t be the Company Captain for nothing.”
Trust him? Right, Shuri is the Company Captain. Like Hotaru, he must have something special. Rimse and I, as a two-man cell, begin dealing with the trash. While dealing with the riff-raff, my eyes occasionally dart towards Shuri. He’s my precious friend; I absolutely cannot let him die.
Shuri took a knuckle strike to the face. He dodged the subsequent thrust with a backflip at the last moment, and like a ninja, he continued to backflip, creating distance. The squad leader sneered at Shuri.
“I expected more from the strongest Company Captain of the Asura Unit, Crystal Widow! To be this weak? All you can do is dart around annoyingly. If the Company Captain is like this, then that slut Marika of the Scarlet Eye must be nothing special either.”
You bastard! How dare you insult Marika-san! Shuri wiped the blood from the corner of his lip and spoke quietly.
“…With those words, you just died. I’ll show you my art as a parting gift for the underworld.”
Shuri’s body flickered slightly, then split into three figures that moved to his left and right. Is he a Baltan Seijin? Still, the squad leader showed no sign of panic.
“Using holograms, an old trick as your trump card? How laughable. Don’t you know that with the implementation of thermal sensors, that trick is rendered useless? Even if you can project illusions, they don’t generate heat… no…”
“Hmm? Heat… what did you say?”
“Impossible! Why is there heat…!”
The heat sensors in my eyes also show Shuri as three figures. It’s not a hologram. There’s no way a three-dimensional projection can even generate heat. …Could he actually be able to split himself…? No, no, that’s absurd! The squad leader seems to be caught in the same confusion as I am. Sweat trickles down his forehead.
“…Well then, here I go. Since you insulted Lady Marika, you will die.”
The three Shuris alternated positions and charged at the squad leader, shuffling simultaneously. It was like a one-man Jet Stream Attack; I couldn’t tell which was which!
“Uooooooooooo!”
The squad leader let out a tremendous roar and thrust his full strength at one of the three Shuris. The thrust indeed penetrated the chest of one Shuri, but no blood came out. Does that clone have mass as well as heat? What kind of technique is this?
“…Too bad, you missed. Now, goodbye.”
Shuri’s quiet, enraged attack pierced the squad leader’s chest. This time, blood sprayed out violently. Shuri’s cold parting words were sent to the squad leader.
“I’m the Company Captain of the 1st Unit, and I’m the only one without an epithet, do you know why? Because anyone who witnesses my art… dies.”
“…Wh-what… what… happened…”
The squad leader died with a question in his eyes. The three Shuris returned to one. Utsusemi Shurin-nosuke, my friend, was a man who used terrifying arts. If I had been subjected to that art… I don’t even want to imagine it. We annihilated the enemy soldiers who had lost their leader. We showed no mercy to those who tried to escape; it was unpleasant, but unavoidable. These guys saw Shuri’s art.
“Alright, this is the last of them. Kanata, I’m sorry to have made you experience something unpleasant.”
“It can’t be helped. It was their bad luck to witness Shuri’s art. But I was surprised, what an amazing art.”
Shuri shrugged.
“It’s a matter of pride for an incomplete person. Do you want to know the secret to my art?”
“Of course I do, but is it okay? To reveal the trick of a magician’s magic?”
“You’re my friend, Kanata, so I want you to know what I can and cannot do.”
“Understood, tell me. What kind of art is it?”
“It’s pyrokinesis. I move Psyche-Barrier dolls imbued with very weak pyrokinesis. That’s the truth of my art.”
As he said this, Shuri picked up a hologram generating device lying in the grass. So, the appearance is generated by holograms. A Psyche-Barrier is formed in a human shape to match the hologram, and it’s imbued with pyrokinesis at the temperature of human skin. The movements are pre-programmed into the hologram, and the dolls move in accordance with them. This is the reality of Shuri’s art. No, but that requires an incredible amount of training and effort! It’s different from forming a shield-shaped Psyche-Barrier; tracing movements with a human-shaped barrier is… For me, it’s an impossible feat. I probably couldn’t even form a barrier in a human shape.
“How did you come up with that? No, even if you thought of it, to actually achieve it…”
“…I had no choice. Many ninjas from our village, Hinokagure, are pyrokinesis users. I was one of them, too. Except for the fact that it was extremely weak.”
“Weak?”
“It was weak. Unlike Marika-san or Rasen-, who has the epithet ‘Blazing Fire,’ I couldn’t generate more than the heat of coffee ready to drink, even at maximum output. It’s laughable, isn’t it? Pyrokinesis that can’t even light a cigarette. Only I am like that. I tried desperately to increase the output, but it was no use.”
Shuri laughed. It was a cynical laugh, but one that conveyed pride and determination.
“Shigure-san advised me, who was tormented by inferiority complex and suffering. She told me to compete with what I have. ‘Don’t think of it as a weakness, think of it as a strength.’ So, I thought and thought about how to utilize pyrokinesis with the heat of coffee ready to drink. My answer was, if I can’t raise it, I’ll lower it.”
He’s an incredible guy. Unlike me, who became despairing over failing a mere high school entrance exam.
“But then it got tough. Controlling the pyrokinesis to the level of human skin temperature was smooth sailing, but forming a human-shaped Psyche-Barrier and overlaying it on a hologram to move it was difficult. I almost gave up many times, but if I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t be able to stay in the same place as Hotaru, who has rare tracking abilities. I couldn’t give up. Fortunately, I seem to have had a talent for precise control of Psyche-Barriers. Though I don’t want you to dismiss it as just talent.”
“Ah, I understand. Shuri’s art is a crystallization of his pride and perseverance. You wanted to stay by Hotaru’s side even if it meant bleeding through your efforts, didn’t you? Shuri, you’re really… for Hotaru…”
My question was interrupted by a communication from Lilith.
“Sergeant, Shuri! A large group of enemies is heading your way! It’s too many to fight head-on! Retreat for now!”
Well, the Asura Unit’s missions are always a high hurdle.
I have many things I’m worried about.
