“Really? Wow!” Surprise snapped him out of his hot-water-induced reverie, and he thought for a moment about what she’d said. If Alpha had left him any later than she had, Monica’s defenses wouldn’t have been lowered at that critical moment, and the corpses would have kept attacking his allies. Akira guessed that even if Alpha had stayed by his side, the team probably wouldn’t have been able to win. “I guess it was worthwhile to let you head off on your own after all,” he mused, impressed by Alpha’s foresight.

  I’m glad you understand! I know I put you in a rough spot, but if I hadn’t left right then, I wouldn’t have returned soon enough.

  “Yeah, I know that now. I wouldn’t have been able to win on my own, so I’m just grateful you showed up when you did. No complaints here! Thanks, Alpha. You saved me again.” He grinned, but there was a hint of regret in his smile.

  You’re very welcome, she replied cheerfully.

  With that doubt no longer hanging over his head, another smaller one came to mind. “Say, wasn’t Monica wearing a protective coat before Shiori and Kanae attacked her? Why’d she get rid of it? Was it just a disguise so we wouldn’t know she was wearing Old World gear underneath? Now that I think of it, where’d that coat go, anyway? It was like it just vanished.”

  It got blown to pieces. Its remains are probably still all over the ground back there.

  That just puzzled Akira even more. “Why? Didn’t her force-field shield block those attacks?”

  This is just my guess, but here’s what I think. Alpha explained that Monica’s force-field armor, generated from the Old World suit she’d been wearing underneath, had been fortifying her New World coat. But the burden of the force field would have drastically weakened the coat’s own defensive capabilities—in fact, the force-field armor had likely been the only thing keeping the coat together at that point. When Shiori and Kanae had attacked Monica, the suit’s energy had been rerouted to strengthen her shield instead. With her coat’s defenses already reduced to zero, it had fallen apart, unable to support even its own weight. Again, that’s just a theory, Alpha concluded. Although it probably did also function as a disguise for her, like you guessed.

  “Makes sense. If she didn’t get rid of the coat on purpose, then I guess she lost it because she was using Old World and New World gear simultaneously, then?” With that, he allowed himself to indulge in the pleasure of the bath once more. His mind hazy with bliss, no further questions came to him for the rest of his soak. When he got out, he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Alpha watched him sleep with a satisfied smile.

  ◆

  Several days had passed since Akira and the others had come back from Mihazono. Upon reaching the city outpost, they’d still had some things to take care of before their assignment was complete. After giving the official a brief report of what had happened, they handed over Ezio—the only survivor they’d found—and Monica’s corpse. Of course, the official had wanted to know all the details right away, but Elena had put him off by stressing how exhausted she and her teammates were and promising she’d explain at a later date. The official, who’d practically forced them to take Monica along to begin with, had had no room to argue and reluctantly agreed.

  Today, Akira and the others were gathered once more, summoned to the Kugama Building—a skyscraper integrated into the city walls—in order to give their detailed account of the events in Mihazono. Once they were all present and accounted for, they were escorted to a meeting room, and the city’s officials got down to business. However, there wasn’t that much more to explain: the report Elena had already submitted and the data from each of the team members’ scanners painted a clear enough picture of what had happened, so the officials only asked for clarification on a few points.

  If that was all they were going to ask, then why did they have to call all of us here? Akira thought.

  Then the officials moved onto the real reason for the meeting.

  In order to compensate the team for their trouble, the city offered to recognize Monica as a wanted criminal and put a bounty on her head. At least, that was what it seemed like on the surface (and to Akira), but everyone else immediately understood the city’s true intent: if she was declared wanted by the city, her body—and her Old World gear—would become city property. Realizing that was the reason they’d actually been called here, each of the expert negotiators—the city officials, intermediaries from Druncam, and Elena and Carol—began trying to hash out a deal they could all agree on, and a heated discussion ensued.

  As the intense negotiations wore on, Akira remained in the room but stayed silent. He got the feeling that the city had only called him here with the rest of the team to reassure him that no one would make any final decisions without his knowledge. As he waited patiently for them to finish, Reina came up to him with a serious look on her face.

  “Hey Akira, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Shoot,” he replied.

  “I heard from Shiori that you took down Monica on your own. Is that true?”

  “Well, I technically only delivered the final blow, but yeah, I guess.”

  “So it is true,” Reina mused. “You really are amazing.”

  Akira looked baffled. From Shiori’s perspective, it should have only seemed at that moment as if some unknown phenomenon had breached Monica’s defenses. So he found Reina’s reaction unexpected.

  “Hey,” she probed. “How’d you get so strong, anyway?”

  “You’re overestimating me. As I keep saying to everyone, I’m not sure how I did it myself.”

  “Come on, we all know that’s not true. Tell me! I really want to know!”

  As she pressed him for an answer, she unconsciously took a step forward. Akira drew back. Shiori, who’d been watching them, sensed a conflict on the horizon and stepped in.

  “Mr. Akira, I may not know how you defeated that woman, but the skill you displayed even up to that point was truly impressive. For my mistress’s future reference, I too would like to know how you gained such strength.”

  Akira glanced back at Reina, who looked like she could barely contain her curiosity. Now that he understood better why they were asking, he gave the matter a moment’s thought before responding. “Well, if you want to get stronger, the best way is to train a lot and buy good gear, right?”

  Hearing him state the obvious, Reina automatically scowled as if to say, “That’s not what I meant!” Kanae, who’d been eavesdropping on the conversation, also shook her head as if disappointed by his reply.

  “C’mon, can’t you offer a little more than that?” the maid asked.

  “No,” Akira said flatly. There was more, of course, but he couldn’t tell them about Alpha. So he pretended to be irritated, hoping they wouldn’t ask anymore. “The gear’s the most important thing, though,” he added. “I spent all my pay from the bounty hunts upgrading my equipment, so it’s great stuff.”

  “Oh, so you’re the type that goes around thinking they’re strong just ’cause their gear’s top of the line, huh? Wouldn’t have pegged you for one of those,” Kanae said with a hint of disgust.

  “I wouldn’t go that far. I’m just saying you can do more with better gear, is all. Like Monica, for instance: she could pull off everything she did because she was outfitted with stuff from the Old World.”

  “That’s an extreme example,” Kanae countered. “And she still lost, didn’t she? She was too confident in her gear and let her guard down. Her cockiness got the best of her in the end.”

  “And without that confidence and cockiness, she would’ve won. That’s how important having good gear is,” Akira argued back.

  He was only trying to cover up Alpha’s existence, and Kanae didn’t necessarily disagree with his argument in the first place—she was just playing the devil’s advocate to mess with him. So their “debate” was largely moot. But Reina was listening intently, drinking in each word.

  Togami, who’d also started paying attention partway through, suddenly cut in. “Hey Akira, can I ask you something as well?” He, too, looked serious. “Suppose that, just hypothetically, there was a hunter who made a name for himself. He had really powerful gear, but his skills weren’t all that impressive. What would you think of that person?”

  “What would I think? Nothing, I guess.”

  Togami appeared puzzled. “What do you mean, ‘nothing’? You wouldn’t think, for instance, that they’re getting too cocky or too big for their britches or anything like that?”

  “I mean, even if someone got a big head because their gear was really powerful, why should I care?”

  “W-Well, sure, but... Okay, let me change the question: What if it was the opposite? What if you had gotten really powerful gear back when you were still a weakling? If people started talking about you, what would you do?”

  “I’d take extra care to make sure they didn’t kill me.”

  “Say what?! No one’s gonna kill you just ’cause you have high-spec gear! Or are you saying you shouldn’t rely only on your gear to keep you alive?”

  “If someone like that got strong gear and everybody knew he was weak, they’d definitely try to kill him in order to steal it,” Akira replied. “Unless you’re talking about something so powerful that you become invincible just by wearing it, or that can attack anyone who tries to kill you, even while you’re sleeping?”

  The scenarios they were imagining in their heads were so different that their conversation had failed to get off the ground.

  “Then Mr. Akira, how about this?” Shiori asked, intervening once again. “Let’s say there’s someone who already has this ‘powerful gear’ you speak of. There is no risk or consequence, nor are they limited to using it in any way. Yet for some reason, they refuse. If you had to convince this person otherwise, how would you go about doing it?”

  Akira looked perplexed—he doubted he’d ever find himself in such a scenario. Still, he tried imagining it and shook his head. “I wouldn’t. I’d give up.”

  “I asked how you would convince them, not if.”

  “And I told you, I’d give up. It’d be impossible for me. I might not know why, but if they’re refusing to use gear that they know could save their life, it means they’d rather die than use it. So what could I possibly say to change their mind?”

  Shiori glanced furtively at Reina, but Akira didn’t notice and went on.

  “Even if it might seem like pure stubbornness to me, or selfishness to anyone else, to them it must be an important enough reason that they’re willing to die for it. I can’t think of a single thing I could say to overturn that kind of will and resolve. So I wouldn’t even try.”

  Now Kanae also glanced at Reina. Reina looked ashamed, but Kanae didn’t seem concerned about that in the least. She just added, “Well, yeah. I mean, everybody’s got their own preferences and hangups with gear. Like how I don’t use guns, for instance.”

  “No, you really ought to be using guns,” Akira said.

  “Wait, Akira kiddo?! That’s what you’re hung up on?! What about ‘will and resolve’?! I’ve got that too, y’know!”

  He retorted, “Out of all of us on the team, why were you the only one fighting with your fists? I said nothing back then since Elena gave it the okay, but seriously—are you nuts?”

  “Hey now, you’d be surprised how many hunters out there use martial arts to fight monsters. There’s at least enough demand for gauntlets like these on the market, right?”

  As Akira and Kanae continued to talk about weaponry (instead of the topic they’d greatly digressed from), Reina and Togami stayed silent, hanging their heads. But by the time the negotiators had decided that the talks were too involved to be settled in one day and to save the rest for later, the rookies were looking up and facing forward once more, their faces brimming with newfound resolve.

  ◆

  When Reina got back home, she turned to Shiori and Kanae with a determined look on her face. Shiori felt thrilled to see that Reina had snapped out of her funk at last, but she kept her attitude composed to match her mistress’s. Kanae, for her part, looked as nonchalant as ever.

  “Did you need something, Miss?” Shiori asked.

  “Yes. But before that...” She bowed to the two of them. “I’d like to apologize to both of you for everything up until now.”

  Shiori looked startled. Even Kanae was caught off guard. And when Reina raised her head, her look of determination hadn’t wavered.

  “Shiori, I know I’m late in asking this, but I’d like my equipment upgraded. Get me the most powerful gear you possibly can. I don’t care what other people think of me anymore.”

  “Understood, Miss! I’ll send an order out right away. Just leave it to me!” Shiori responded.

  “Kanae, I’d like you to continue protecting me from now on.”

  “Roger. I was gonna do it even if you didn’t ask—it’s my job, after all.”

  Reina had always known she was weak. She knew that without powerful gear and strong bodyguards, she wouldn’t last long. But her stubborn pride hadn’t allowed her to admit this until now.

  “Also, I have another request,” she added. “This one’s for both of you. I want you to train me to get stronger—at least until I’m not a burden to you anymore.”

  Kanae looked shocked for just a split second, then taunted, “You really sure you want that? You know I’m not gonna go easy on you, right?”

  “I know. I’m prepared.” Her expression said as much—it was clear at a glance that her resolve and determination weren’t weak enough to waver at something like that.

  Akira’s words back at the Kugama Building had shaken Reina to her core.

  In a sense, her current gear complemented her: it was just as low-spec as she was. When Shiori had ordered it, she’d wanted to get equipment as powerful as hers and Kanae’s. Reina had refused, however, thinking that relying on powerful gear would stagnate her own growth as a hunter. Rather than using her money and connections to purchase equipment strong enough to win every battle automatically, she had intended to start with common gear and gradually work her way up like everybody else, succeeding on her own merits. Such a slow, rigorous process (she had felt) was the only way to become truly strong.

  But after hearing Akira’s thoughts on the matter, she realized that way of thinking in itself had caused her growth to stagnate. Now she didn’t even have powerful equipment to fall back on—she was just weak, inexperienced, and useless. Worst of all, she had made herself this way through her own foolishness.

  Whether out in the wasteland or inside a ruin, hunters always danced with death. Intentionally weakening yourself wasn’t noble or admirable—it only made you that much more likely to end up dead. She could’ve had all the strength she wanted, and she’d rejected it. What’s more, she hadn’t even been prepared to die because of her choice.

  Perhaps if she were the only one at risk, she’d just be facing the consequences for her own actions, and that would be that. But in reality her bodyguards, Shiori and Kanae, would die first—die because of her own stubbornness. If she wasn’t ready to face that outcome, then she’d never had determination or resolve to begin with—just foolish selfishness and pride all along.

  This epiphany had been devastating to her. But she’d recovered and raised her head. She might have been a fool, not having realized any of that until now, but the important thing was that she had realized it. Now she just needed to turn that regret into nourishment for her new self from now on—into the will, resolve, and determination she’d need to get stronger from here on out.

  For—she swore to herself in her heart—she would get stronger.

  Kanae could tell from Reina’s expression that, at least for now, her resolve was genuine, and the maid couldn’t help but grin. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Finally ready to graduate to greenhorn status, eh, missy? That’s a relief. Frankly, if it wasn’t my job, I certainly wouldn’t put my life on the line for someone with skill and gear as mediocre as yours—and especially someone who insists on getting on the front lines to ‘prove themselves’ anyway. I wonder if this will finally shape you up into a full-fledged beginner.”

  But Reina didn’t even flinch at this scathing critique. “I hope so. I look forward to working with you.”

  “Ditto! I’m counting on you to keep up that enthusiasm all the way through!”

  Shiori heaved a sigh, though she interpreted Kanae’s volley of insults as an effort to encourage Reina in her own way. “In that case, Miss, rather than undergoing the standard Druncam regimen, Kanae and I will oversee all of your training from now on. But be warned—our course will be much more unforgiving. I must ask you to prepare yourself for this.”

  “I understand. Thank you!” Reina smiled to show Shiori that not only was she prepared, she had complete faith in her.

  That made Shiori smile as well. Anyone looking onto the scene would have been able to feel the strong bond between the maid and her mistress—anyone except Kanae, that is.

  “You’re the one that ought to prepare yourself, sis! You’re gonna have a rough time holding yourself back from going easy on her.”

  “I-I would not do that!” Shiori protested. “And Kanae, watch your tongue! Show some restraint!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Kanae replied without a hint of sincerity.

  Shiori glared at her, but Kanae pretended not to notice. Reina, meanwhile, was lost in her own thoughts.

  I’ve been worrying all this time about how I was going to get stronger. But I finally understand—it’ll never happen if I don’t put in the effort first. Until now I haven’t even done that much. Regret became fuel for her determination. But I will become stronger! I swear it!

  On that day, in order to gain a level of strength she herself could take pride in, Reina had started down a brand-new path.

 

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