“Seems reasonable,” Akira offered.

  “So I was wondering whether it might be worth the risk of exposing our location if we try and make a run for it, and what our chances would look like in that scenario.”

  Akira nodded like he understood.

  “What do you think?” Elena pressed him.

  “H-Huh? Me? S-Sorry, I have no idea,” he replied honestly.

  “I see,” she said, determining that his sixth sense must not be kicking in at the moment.

  Shikarabe had been studying Akira as the boy intently listened to Elena’s explanation. So he doesn’t even know that much? His hunter knowledge is basically that of a complete beginner, yet he’s so strong. How the hell did that happen? No—perhaps that is the secret behind his strength?

  Knowledge was power—accurate knowledge led to correct decision-making, which circumvented risks and led to more efficient victories. Akira’s knowledge was severely lacking, impairing his power to make correct decisions. That had led him into danger after danger, fighting for his life constantly. But he’d survived—and perhaps all those desperate situations, born from bad choices, had strengthened him to a degree few novices could reach.

  There was no better way to get stronger than to overcome death. During the tankrantula fight, Akira had behaved incredibly recklessly—but to Shikarabe, the boy had seemed casual about it, as if this was just another day on the job for him. If his ignorance had gotten him into trouble so frequently that he’d had to cheat death on a regular basis, then no wonder Akira was so capable! Shikarabe finally felt like he was beginning to understand—but then shook his head.

  No, that’s wrong. Even if he’s just a kid, someone that strong wouldn’t look as weak as he does. So what gives? Shikarabe got the feeling that the more he looked at Akira, the more he would doubt his own intuition. So he instead turned his gaze to someone who was perfectly in line with his intuition—Togami. The veteran now nodded in satisfaction. Now this guy, he’s a kid too, but in terms of strength, he’s not too shabby—at least, he’s stronger than the rest of Group B. And it even seems that in the last few days he’s put a lid on that cockiness of his.

  With Togami, Shikarabe’s intuition didn’t betray him. There was nothing keeping him from evaluating the boy through an unbiased, objective lens, and he decided that Togami did indeed possess some skill. He was still a brat and had a long way to go, of course. But Shikarabe’s current assessment of Togami’s skill, plus the rookie’s recent shift in attitude, made the veteran’s opinion of him rise ever so slightly.

  Togami continued to stare outside, feeling melancholy. He’d recovered from Shikarabe’s harsh criticism enough to raise his head again, and his gloom had cleared enough that it wouldn’t hinder his performance.

  But his current mental state wasn’t doing him any favors either. The absolute confidence Togami had once possessed had been a bad influence on him overall, yet it had also improved his performance. Now that he was aware of this, he’d be stronger than ever before if he could just regain that confidence. But that seemed more and more unlikely as time went by.

  Out of the blue, Shiori addressed him. “Mr. Togami, do you have a moment?”

  “Oh—sure, what’s up?”

  “It’s about Mr. Ezio. If you’d like, I can take him off your hands for a while.”

  Togami hesitated at first. While it was true that Shikarabe had ordered him to carry Ezio’s head because Shikarabe didn’t see him as a valuable asset in combat, it also meant that the veteran trusted Togami enough to protect the cyborg. The boy felt that relinquishing his role to Shiori would lump him in with those who needed protection rather than those who protected them. But then he remembered Shikarabe had also tasked him with guarding Reina, so he complied. “All right. I appreciate it.”

  Shiori took Ezio’s head, thanked Togami, and walked away. She was probably going to hand the head over to Reina—Togami could figure out that much. But once Reina took it, what would she do? Would she try to take the burden off her maids and Togami by making an effort to protect herself? Or would she let everyone protect both her and Ezio? But even if he knew the answer it wouldn’t matter. Togami let that train of thought go.

  Feeling the gloom within him deepen, he turned to the window once more—and instantly forgot all his melancholy.

  “Hey! There’s someone out there! A lot of people, in fact!” he shouted. Before Togami’s eyes, a number of human figures were making their way through the rows of containers in the rain. Due to a combination of colorless fog and pure happenstance, Togami had noticed them even before Elena—who had been scanning their surroundings all this time.

  Nevertheless, Elena’s scanner was still much more accurate than Togami’s sight, and once she scanned the area for herself, Elena couldn’t hide her surprise.

  “He’s right—I can’t make everything out because of the rain, but there are a bunch of human figures making their way through the terminal. They seem to be heading somewhere—no, spreading out?”

  Shikarabe looked puzzled and let out a low groan. “A newly dispatched investigation team, maybe? No, there’s too many of them—and a team like that would’ve at least attempted to contact us by now. Something’s off.”

  Sara had a worried look on her face. “Well, maybe they tried to contact us, but couldn’t because of the weather? But yeah, they don’t look like a team—or that they’re investigating anything, for that matter.”

  Of course, this didn’t necessarily mean the newcomers were enemies, but everyone present agreed that they probably weren’t friendly. They wanted to go outside and get a closer look, but if they left the container now, their chances of being detected by Monica would drastically increase. So everyone used their scanners and eyes to glean as much information as they could without setting foot outside.

  They detected more bodies, apparently spread throughout the entire terminal. At first glance there hadn’t seemed to be that many—mainly because of all the containers in the way and how vast the terminal itself was to begin with—but they could already count well over a hundred total.

  Akira was the first to recognize them—because Alpha had upgraded his scanner’s analysis capabilities, the hazy figures in the pouring rain appeared clearly to him. “Yeah... Elena, I think they’re enemies. Definitely not friendly.” He sent the data from his scanner to everyone else, and they immediately realized why.

  “The corpses”—Reina’s face stiffened in fear—“are moving!”

  Even Togami, who had grown up in the slums and so was used to seeing dead bodies, looked freaked out by what he was witnessing. “What the hell?!”

  Some of the corpses’ faces merely looked sickly pale, had lost their natural skin color, or had bullet wounds on their foreheads. Others were more obviously dead—with more than half of a head blown off, or everything below the neck completely crushed. Some wore helmets, making it harder to tell, but through their broken visors the team could get a glimpse of the gruesome contents within, and the helmets were fixed in place atop the powered suits in almost exactly the same position they’d been when the hunters were alive.

  Akira grimaced. “Who do you think’s controlling them?”

  Togami looked at Akira in surprise. “Wait, someone’s controlling them?!”

  Akira realized he’d made a mistake. “U-Uh, I mean, they’re dead, so they can’t move on their own, right?” he said, trying to gloss it over.

  “Well, sure, you’ve got a point there, I guess,” the other boy replied.

  Akira breathed an inward sigh of relief. Because he was so used to Alpha controlling his own suit, the concept of someone other than the wearer manipulating one was normal to him, and he’d instantly jumped to that conclusion. But Togami’s reaction indicated that this idea wasn’t so normal for everyone else.

  Even Shikarabe hadn’t guessed it at first. But upon hearing Akira’s question, he thought the concept made sense and ran with it. “Those powered suits are probably the type that allow the user to hand over their authority over to someone else. Hunters working in teams use them frequently—if one of them gets knocked unconscious, it’s easier to just take control of their suit than to physically carry them away, and even if someone dies, their teammates won’t necessarily lose their firepower. Of course, that’s assuming you trust someone enough to take control of your own body...” He paused for a moment, then shook his head. “But I doubt that’s what’s happening here.”

  Carol smiled wryly. “Yeah, this is different. Those are probably the hunters who died here, in this district—the corpses that Monica cleared from the factory.”

  “I agree. Of course, they wouldn’t have given Monica permission to control their suits, and in this rain the interference should prevent her from controlling the bodies remotely anyway.” Shikarabe sighed. “You know, there is a ghost story about hunters who died in Mihazono and now wander the ruins looking for their teammates and attacking other people, but that’s supposedly in the business district. Don’t tell me it’s true here?”

  Had their foes been ordinary zombies, anti-monster weapons would have made short work of them. Walking corpses would be a bit eerie but hardly a threat. These, however, were all hunters who’d gone to investigate the ruins, and so had been well-equipped. And judging from how quickly they were drawing their guns, they could use them without difficulty. In other words, they posed an actual threat.

  But that wasn’t all. Monica’s movements had also changed. She leaped from the mouth of the high corridor she had been standing in and began flying around the terminal as though searching for something. Finally she landed on top of a tall stack of containers nearby and surveyed the area around her.

  Akira and the others in the container watched Monica intently. She’d gotten close, but it had to be coincidence—she couldn’t know where they were. Still, they couldn’t help but feel anxious—what if she did?

  All at once, Monica’s gaze turned toward their container—and she smiled, training her laser cannon in their direction.

  “She found us?! How?!” Carol cried out. Nothing could have given them away—she’d been certain of that when she’d picked this container.

  Akira didn’t think this was one of Monica’s bluffs—after all, the cannon’s muzzle was lighting up. The image of the multigun snail’s powerful laser cannon blasting away the two billion aurum bounty monster replayed in the back of his mind, and he panicked. “C-Carol? If that blast hits us...will the container be able to withstand it?”

  Carol smiled grimly. “You know, that’s a good question.”

  “Everyone, evacuate!” Elena shouted. “Carol, get the door!”

  Carol made a beeline for the entrance and flung it open. Akira, Sara, and Shikarabe readied their weapons as they ran out so they’d be prepared to deal with Monica. But Shiori and Kanae stayed behind.

  “Kanae!” called Shiori.

  “I gotcha, sis!”

  Kanae jerked Reina backward just as she was about to follow Akira and the others, throwing the girl off-balance. Togami saw this and stopped in his tracks, stunned. At the same moment, Shiori prepared to unsheathe her blade in Monica’s direction.

  Monica fired. A blast of dense energy—even stronger than the shot that had effortlessly destroyed the two powered armors—erupted from the laser cannon, razing everything in its path.

  Shiori unleashed her blade at the exact same time. Her weapon—having drained both the energy pack on the hilt and the one on the sheath—was brimming with energy. Even the blade itself couldn’t handle the sheer amount of power infused into it, and as she swung, it dissolved into energy particles. But rather than being repelled by the force-field armor surrounding the weapon, the particles gathered around it, forming an enormous blade of light. In an instant, the blade sliced through the container Akira and the others had been in—so easily that there might as well have been no obstruction in the first place—and met the beam from Monica’s Old World laser cannon head on.

  The sheer force of the collision blasted away all the rainwater in the area, allowing everyone to see its aftermath: a sphere of destruction rapidly expanding from the point of impact, swallowing up everything in its path.

  Chapter 120: Divide and Conquer

  Akira awoke with a start. In the short time he’d been out, blood and rainwater had filled his mouth. Coughing, he quickly got to his feet.

  H-Huh? Wh-What happened?! His body felt sluggish, and his thoughts were a haze as he tried to remember, but the pain coursing through him got in the way of thinking. He took out several capsules and stuffed them into his mouth. The medicine started to make its way through his system, but it would be some time before he could fight again.

  As the rain beat down on him, he took deep breaths to regain his composure. Gradually he began to recall what had happened before he’d passed out.

  Right—Monica! She was about to attack us right as we fled the container... And there was an explosion, I think? Did I get caught up in it? I can’t remember... Akira groaned and began to look around for clues. Hmm... I don’t see the others or the remains of the container anywhere. Am I not in the terminal anymore? Did I get blasted that far? No wonder it hurts so bad!

  He checked his equipment and sighed in relief—his powered suit was working just fine, and he hadn’t lost any of his weapons. “Well, that’s good, at least,” he said to himself. “I can feel the medicine already kicking in too, so now I just gotta find Elena and the rest so we can figure out what to do next.”

  Before he could even take a step forward, however, he froze—Monica was walking toward him through the downpour. Unlike Akira, who was completely drenched, she didn’t have a drop of water on her. Her force-field shield, normally difficult to see with the naked eye, was now clearly outlined in the rain beating against it.

  With a smirk, she started speaking. He couldn’t hear her through the rain, but she was close enough that her mocking voice came over the comms even though the weather was interfering with the signal. “Hoping that would kill me? Sorry to disappoint you! A puny attack like that won’t work on me!”

  Akira hesitated before responding via his own wireless. “Oh yeah? I say you’re bluffing. You think it’s safer to come after me because I can’t pull off what Shiori did, right?”

  “Think whatever you want if it makes you feel better. Running from reality is all you can do now.”

  “Oh yeah? Ditto!” he shot back.

  Normally, he would have already trained a weapon on her by now, but in his daze from just regaining consciousness, shock at her sudden appearance delayed his reaction. He was only thinking of counterattacking when she raised her gun. But to his surprise, Monica just strolled toward him—so casually that had it not been for her shield, she would have looked completely defenseless. She only did so because she was confident he wasn’t a threat, but in his present frame of mind Akira missed his chance to aim first.

  “How’d you know where we were hiding?” he demanded. “There were too many containers for you to guess right on your first try.” Sensing her confidence, Akira refrained from attacking, instead striking up a conversation to stall for time. Monica could have caught and killed Akira unawares in an instant if she’d wanted to. But she hadn’t—maybe that kind of victory wouldn’t have satisfied her. He got the feeling she was the type to taunt her opponent first, fully savoring their despair in defeat. And if he stoked her sense of superiority, perhaps she would eventually slip up.

  “No, I really did just pick it randomly,” Monica replied.

  “You’re lying! That container allowed us to observe everything outside, and I saw the way you were looking around the terminal—you were searching for the right container to shoot! You must’ve used some sort of method—what was it?!”

  Akira was desperate to drag the conversation out as long as he could. But Monica observed his frantic expression and looked smug.

  “Pure coincidence. I just happened to be right on the money, that’s all.”

  In fact, the truth was not that simple. Afraid that the rain might greatly aid Akira and the others in escaping, she’d already made peace with having to destroy at least one container (the system might fire her, sure, but that was better than the city finding out about her betrayal). Still, she couldn’t choose at random—the less property she destroyed, the more likely she’d be able to convince her employer to accept the loss as a necessary trade-off for eliminating the intruders. So she’d decided to aim for the most sturdy-looking container she could find. By doing so, she’d hoped to make Akira and the others think that there was no point in hiding, so that they would come out on their own.

  From her perspective, it really was a coincidence that Akira and the rest had been hiding in that particular container. She’d had no way of knowing that Carol had chosen it because it was so tough. So Monica’s claim was half true.

  But Akira had no way of knowing all this and concluded they really had just suffered a stroke of bad luck. The surprise on his face was apparent. “Y-You’ve gotta be kidding me...”

  Monica couldn’t see his expression clearly through the rain, so she zoomed her scanner in on his face. Seeing the hopelessness and dismay present there, she felt such a thrill go through her that she couldn’t help but chortle. “I was going to keep smashing containers until I found you, but to think I hit pay dirt on the very first try! Even I was surprised! Looks like your luck in escaping me has finally run out!”

  Hearing his enemy taunt his bad luck made him despair even more. Monica saw the effect on his face, and her grin widened.

  “Oh, and just to let you know,” she sneered, delivering the coup de grâce, “if you’re trying to stall for time, it’s no use.”

  “Wh-What?!”

  Akira’s genuinely shocked reaction satisfied Monica immensely. She longed to tell him more, to further dye his face with the awareness of his own defeat! She couldn’t restrain her lips from announcing, “Reason number one! The container transport won’t come back online, no matter how long you wait! So if you thought you could just hop into another bin once things start up again, too bad!”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39