Monica avoided her gaze, and Carol’s glare became sharp.

  “You did, didn’t you?”

  Monica finally replied. “Look, it was a last resort, which was why I didn’t tell you. But, well, I really am sorry for keeping it to myself.” She looked sincerely apologetic.

  For some moments, an awkward silence fell between them. Then Carol broke into a smile. “Well, the important thing is that we’re both alive, so let’s let bygones be bygones. Besides, I can understand why you’d want to keep such valuable information to yourself.”

  “Just for the record, you know, if we hadn’t gotten separated, I planned to escape with you on that route together,” Monica said.

  “I know, I know.”

  They both grinned and dropped the matter entirely. Akira watched them, feeling like he’d just witnessed an entirely new type of team dynamic.

  Now that Monica had joined them, Carol finally ordered her meal. Monica also requested a portion for herself, and the three of them resumed their dinner, talking as they ate. The conversation turned to what the women had been up to for the past three months. While on the surface it seemed like friendly banter between surveyors, anyone more in the know could have seen that Carol and Monica were seeking to gather information from one another on the sly. Of course, Akira didn’t pick up on this and was simply enraptured to hear firsthand accounts of the professional surveyors’ experiences.

  Eventually the conversation shifted from their activities to the map of the Mihazono business district Carol was working on, then to the map of the Serantal Building, which she anticipated would be in high demand once finished. During the course of their discussion, Carol referred to the building as “devouring” several more times, and Akira at last asked what that meant.

  Carol looked surprised. “You mean you don’t know? That building’s the most famous in the entire ruin, thanks to all the strange rumors surrounding it.”

  “News to me,” he replied. “What kind of rumors?”

  “Well, basically, for a while now there have been reports of hunters and monsters occasionally disappearing from the business district without warning. Like, poof, vanished. And since the Serantal sits in the center of the district, rumors have spread that the building itself has been devouring them.”

  “Yikes!” Akira said, grimacing. “But that’s just a rumor, right? I mean, if it was true, I doubt many hunters would be so eager to visit.”

  Monica gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. It’s just a ghost story someone cooked up—I’m not so sure there’s even a grain of truth to it. In the first place, it supposedly only happens rarely—otherwise no one would even want to go near the place.”

  “That’s true,” Akira said, and relaxed.

  But Carol grinned mischievously. “That said, I wouldn’t let my guard down if I were you. This is an Old World ruin after all, so anything could happen. Ghost stories usually don’t just pop out of thin air—they’re often based on some terrible event. So beware!”

  Despite her words, though, Carol’s grin couldn’t have been any bigger, so she was clearly just messing with Akira to get a rise out of him. Monica smiled thinly. For some time afterward, Akira found himself subjected to other ghost stories and strange rumors that circulated the area—“for his own safety,” according to Carol.

  By the time the three of them had finished their leisurely and delectable dinner, it was late into the night. Carol and Akira had already finished hashing out the compensation for Akira’s lost relic, so he was about to head home. “Thank you very much, Carol. That was delicious!” he told her, patting his stomach in satisfaction.

  However, Carol looked less than satisfied. “Just wonderful.” She sighed. “So even after I offered to treat you after dinner in other ways, you’re really gonna leave me high and dry, huh?”

  “Yeah. I’m really sorry, but as I said, I just like food a lot more right now. For that other stuff, you’re better off finding someone else. Of course, if you’d rather treat me to more food instead, I’m all in.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Maybe some other time,” Carol said, now cheerful again. She’d mostly been teasing him in the first place, but she couldn’t help but smile at his earnestness. “Well, if the mood ever strikes you, feel free to call. I wouldn’t mind being your partner sometime—either in the ruins or in the bedroom. Later!”

  Once Akira had left, Carol finally noticed that Monica had been watching her with a huge grin on her face. “What’s so funny?”

  “Oh, nothing,” said Monica. “I was just thinking that it’s rare for someone to show so little interest in you. What do you think—should we pool our money to hire him for a while?”

  “I won’t say no, but I’d like to hear your reasoning first. And don’t tell me it’s just because he’s strong—I know you have some ulterior motive.”

  “All right. Put simply, if we hire him, you’ll be so preoccupied with seducing him that you won’t have time to come on to anyone else when you’re supposed to be doing surveyor work. So by all means continue getting turned down,” Monica teased.

  “Fine, but when I finally crack him, you’re going to regret letting him join us all the same,” Carol retorted, grinning just as boldly.

  ◆

  After retrieving his truck from the garage and leaving the Mihazono Town Ruins, Akira drove through the wasteland in the dead of night toward Kugamayama City.

  “Man, a lot sure did happen today. Ruins really are completely different from out in the wasteland, huh, Alpha?”

  Alpha smiled at him from the passenger seat. Indeed. And we didn’t come home with nothing to show for it after all, did we?

  “Yeah. No relics in the end, but Carol more than made up for it, what with the amount she offered and treating me to all that expensive yummy food besides. I can’t complain.”

  That’s not all, Akira.

  “Huh? Was there something else?”

  There was. Think about it.

  Akira had no clue what Alpha was referring to. He scrunched up his face in thought, going back over everything that had happened that day. But in the end, he came up blank. “No idea. What do you mean?”

  Alpha wore a triumphant grin. Today, Akira, you showed me just how deep your faith in me runs!

  Startled, Akira jerked the steering wheel without meaning to.

  It really made me happy. After all, you must have seriously trusted me for you to recklessly run down a building like you did—twice, no less!

  Responding to his driving, the vehicle abruptly made a sharp turn. Akira tried to regain control of the truck, but to no avail.

  You said you trusted me, and I never doubted you! But you know, even if those were honest words at the time, humans often tend to change their mind when push comes to shove. So to tell the truth, I was a little worried.

  Realizing that at this rate the truck would flip over, he slammed his foot on the brake.

  But it looks like my worries were unfounded—you proved your loyalty to me with actions, not words. That makes me happier than you could ever know!

  The vehicle lurched to a stop, and Akira breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced toward the passenger seat at Alpha. She’d said she was happy, but Akira couldn’t see the grin on her face as anything but teasing.

  Mutual trust between partners is important, you know. Now that you’ve shown you truly trust me, I feel a bit more comfortable ramping my support up another level. Let’s continue to build our relationship just like this from now on. I’ll be counting on you, Akira!

  “Oh, yeah?” he replied. Narrowly avoiding disaster left him feeling on edge. But he added, “The feeling’s mutual. Let’s do our best, Alpha!” While he felt that her words had been said in earnest, he could clearly tell she was messing with him. But he didn’t mind—in fact, for some reason it made him feel good. Yet in order to hide his embarrassment at his own feelings, his response was unnaturally terse as he pressed his foot on the gas once more.

  Alpha smiled from the passenger’s seat—a genuinely happy smile.

  Chapter 110: An Unexpected Job and an Unlikely Companion

  The next day, Akira headed to Shizuka’s shop to stock up on ammo. When Shizuka glanced at the order sheet he handed her, she let out a low groan.

  “Akira, these are all extended magazines. They’re quite expensive, you know? A few rounds are fine, but for the emergency stock that’s just going to sit in your truck, wouldn’t the normal ones be good enough?”

  “It’s fine. Even if it’s a bit pricey, I want all of my ammo to be extended this time.” He paused. “I mean, if I went to a ruin to grab some relics and couldn’t carry them back because I was already weighed down with spare ammunition, that would kind of defeat the purpose.” He grimaced, recalling the events of Mihazono.

  Shizuka sensed from his attitude that something had happened and smiled to try and cheer him up. “Well, safety’s the most important thing. I’d rather you come back safe and sound than get seriously injured because you got a bit greedy. And, well, I can’t deny that selling you all that ammo would help my shop out immensely.”

  “Then since you’ve helped me out so much, I’d be happy to oblige.”

  “Thank you for your kind patronage,” she said cheerfully.

  Akira grinned back, and she went to fetch the goods. As he was stuffing his newly bought ammunition into the large, extraresilient backpack he’d also just purchased, he had a sudden thought. “Hey Shizuka, there’s no way to carry backpacks or large weaponry without holding them or lugging them on your back, right?”

  “Oh, interested in large weaponry now, are we? Looks like I’ve hit the jackpot!”

  Akira took Shizuka’s obvious joke at face value. “Ah—no, not quite. I mean...”

  “Just kidding, sorry. I don’t expect you to buy anything else, so please don’t feel pressured.”

  She was quick to apologize, but Akira shook his head. “No, it’s not that—in fact, if it was something I could carry around conveniently enough, I would be interested.” If he entered a ruin carrying his AAH and A2D assault rifles in their holsters at his hip, his CWH anti-materiel rifle and DVTS minigun in his hands, and an ammo pack on his back, he would already be nearly at full capacity. He wouldn’t be able to carry any relics back with him without getting creative—or reckless like he had in Mihazono. The extra weight wouldn’t be a problem thanks to his powered suit—he just had a limit to the number of things he could carry on his person. Since he knew that toting a heavy firearm on top of all his other gear would be impossible, he’d hesitated to ask her about them up until now. But what if there were some other method he hadn’t previously considered?

  He described his current equipment set to her, at which she looked shocked.

  “You’re, er, carrying all that with you everywhere you go?”

  “Yes.” When she didn’t respond, Akira grew flustered. “I-I mean, you never know what you’re going to run into out there, so, well, better to be prepared, right?” In fact, if Akira hadn’t had taken his CWH and DVTS into Mihazono with him, he would’ve been in a seriously tight spot. Fewer weapons meant less firepower, which he didn’t want to ever be short on.

  Shizuka understood. Up until now Akira had been reckless and rash over and over—but every time she’d asked him about it, he’d replied that he’d had no choice, that he just wanted to even the odds that were overwhelmingly against him. And she believed him—in fact, she suspected he only wanted more force in order to keep out of desperate situations in the first place, and so felt the need to carry all those weapons on his person even if they were weighing him down.

  “Well, you’re right about that. But then you won’t be able to bring any relics home, which, as you said, does indeed defeat the purpose. Quite the conundrum.”

  “The easiest option I see would be to exchange the guns I have now for stronger models, but even I can’t afford those,” he told her. The newest models Shizuka had for sale were incredibly powerful, so they’d easily replace and surpass his old guns in performance.

  But Shizuka couldn’t in good faith recommend those cutting-edge weapons to Akira, as they were outrageously expensive. So she proposed something else instead.

  “Hmm. I think I might have a solution. Wait here for a bit—I’ll be back.” She disappeared into the storage room behind her. When she returned, she held a strange device in her hands. “This is a support arm, which you can attach to your powered suit. Want to try it out?” Support arms weren’t something that Shizuka normally sold in her shop, but she got enough orders for powered suits that she’d decided to stock some add-ons for her customers just in case.

  The robotic arm was sturdy and thick, but it moved sluggishly and couldn’t function like a cyborg arm did in combat. However, it supported a lot of weight, so it could carry heavy objects with ease.

  Akira decided to try it out. After attaching it to his powered suit at the hip, he borrowed a massive weapon from Shizuka to test how it would feel. The gun was so massive that it required a powered suit to wield—yet the arm handled its weight with no issues whatsoever.

  “Oh, wow! Yeah, I think this could work!” he marveled. It was an elegant solution: he typically had both arms occupied with weapons, but he wanted to carry another gun—so he’d just buy another arm. It didn’t need to be super responsive like a cyborg’s—Akira only needed it to carry his belongings.

  He looked at his now-free hands, then back at the arm that secured the heavy weapon. Now I can actually bring some relics home without worry! he thought with glee.

  “I’ll take several!”

  “Thank you most kindly,” Shizuka said cheerfully. Seeing Akira’s childish excitement at his new “toys” brought a warm smile to her face.

  After he’d calmed down a bit, he said, “All right, one problem down. Now let’s talk about what heavy weapons might be in my price range.”

  “Oh, you were serious about that?” Shizuka said in surprise.

  “Huh? Y-Yes, please. If you don’t mind,” he replied, wondering why she looked so shocked.

  As the owner of Cartridge Freak, a business geared toward hunters of all kinds, Shizuka couldn’t simply refuse a customer who wanted to purchase her wares. “All right, then. I’ll tell you what I’ve got in stock, and which ones I might recommend for your needs.”

  But she knew his new arms would only serve to let him carry larger weapons, and more of them. Even as she launched into her sales pitch, she was imagining how much less human he’d look with all those extra limbs, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she was truly making the right decision.

  ◆

  After returning home from Shizuka’s shop, Akira went to his garage and immediately got to work. He installed another emplacement on the bed of his truck and mounted on it his new weapon—an A4WM grenade launcher. The A4WM, which he’d bought on Shizuka’s recommendation, was an automatic weapon able to fire projectiles in quick succession. Naturally, such a shower of grenades would make short work of an otherwise threatening monster swarm. But her primary rationale was that the explosions would keep those monsters from chasing him. He’d told her about his experience escaping the mechanical horde in Mihazono, and she explained that this weapon might help him avoid a repeat of that in the future.

  With her suggestion in mind, he’d purchased an automatic emplacement modification for the grenade launcher as well. Now, by merely flipping a switch and pulling the trigger, the launcher would fix itself to the ground and automatically fire grenades at his pursuers while he made his escape—a cheap mod, but sure to be useful in a pinch. Of course, in that case he’d lose his launcher, but sacrificing a weapon and using up ammo in order to survive was better than getting trampled before he had the chance to fight back. He’d also bought several mods for his support arms to allow him to quickly add and remove his weapons. Now he was able to freely attach his CWH, A4WM, or DVTS to any of his arms and switch them out as needed. Once again, Akira marveled at the versatility of support arms.

  He’d purchased four arms in total, two for his right side and two for his left. That way, even if he loaded all three weapons into them, he’d still have one support arm free. Of course, he didn’t want to walk around looking like a monstrosity all the time, so he only planned to use them as needed. For normal situations he’d still default to one gun in each hand (or at least one gun in one hand). When relic hunting in the ruins, however, he’d have all four arms and could use the fourth to carry his pack of spare ammo. He tested it out—even packed to the brim with extended magazines, the backpack’s weight was easily supported by the arm.

  “Man, this really is convenient—totally worth the price! Though I do kind of wish Shizuka had told me about this sort of thing earlier.” He was so satisfied with his purchase that he was almost upset he’d gone this long without knowing about it.

  Alpha smiled sympathetically. She was probably thinking that you’d eventually make allies and form a team so you wouldn’t need extra weaponry in the first place. More manpower equals more firepower, after all. It’s wiser to travel in groups to begin with, so hers would be a natural assumption.

  “Yeah, I’d say you’re probably right,” Akira agreed.

  Unfortunately, though, our circumstances won’t allow for that. It’s difficult for us to take on any companions when we can’t risk letting any other hunters know the whereabouts of undiscovered ruins.

  “True enough.”

  And, Alpha continued, giving him a teasing grin, considering how you seem to have a thing for running down the sides of buildings, I doubt very many hunters would be able to keep up.

  He grimaced. “True enough!”

  Now listen: just as a warning, you’re free to add all the extra arms and weapons you want, but they’ll make it that much harder to move during combat. Battles will become even more dangerous. I’d guess that’s the primary reason Shizuka hesitated to recommend them from the start. Then her expression became stern. And Akira, if I feel things are getting too risky, I won’t hesitate to take control of your suit and make you drop a relic, no matter how valuable, if it’s a hindrance to your survival. Understand that it’s not as simple as “more arms means I can carry more”—there are consequences to carrying more. Capisce?

 

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