It’s obvious: The only word for who I am is me.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”
At the end of the bloodstained path he walked, Accelerator severed every chain he’d bound himself with.
Nothing remained to fetter him.
He could go as far as he wanted.
He would forge down this path he believed in, to save that small life called Last Order.
Bloodying himself to do it.
Continuing the song.
And…
✦ ✦ ✦
Where had Rikou Takitsubo gone?
With his battle against Mugino over, plus confirmation of additional attackers’ descent from a bomber, what Shiage Hamazura needed to do was meet up with Takitsubo as fast as possible. Even if they put together a plan, he didn’t want to stay separated.
“Damn it!! Where are you?! Takitsubo! Where are you?!”
As he shouted her name, Hamazura was grabbing a thick branch. He was digging on and on, scraping away at all the snow at the foot of the mountain the avalanche had caused. He’d been separated from her around when his fight with Mugino had started. If he wasn’t getting any answer even after searching every nook and cranny of his surroundings and shouting in a loud voice, it was possible she was actually buried under snow.
Even in extremely cold regions, when doing manual labor, it was natural to sweat and get thirsty. Hamazura took a gulp of some carbonated water from an aluminum can. It remained water because he’d had it inside his parka the whole time. If he’d left it out, it would have quickly frozen.
Meanwhile, from a short distance away, Shizuri Mugino watched Hamazura in his confusion, seemingly bored.
“Hey!! Help me look for her, Mugino!! I can’t find her anywhere! I don’t have any clue where she could be!! Help me out here! I need as many hands as I can get!!”
“Why should I?”
“Crap, what now? Takitsubo is still far from fit even with the Crystals’ strain reduced and leaving her out in the cold like this would be unthinkable and I have to warm her up soon because she’s weak she’s a weak girl she’s a girl in a lot of trouble because of those Crystals!”
“…”
Academy City’s fourth-strongest Level Five, Shizuri Mugino, Meltdown, lost it.
With a boom, a lump of snow right next to Hamazura vaporized along a straight line. The intense force caused a water vapor explosion to go off, sending Hamazura’s body into the air.
“Whoa—crap. My head is spinning. It might be the Crystals…the Crystals, do you hear me…? …affecting me. I think there are a bunch of other ways to propel a body—but no, I might just take the most beautiful fall you’ve ever seen.”
“What did you do that for, Muginoooooooo!! Who knows where the frail little bunny-type Takitsubo could be buried, come onnnnn!!”
Face-first on the ground, Hamazura’s voice as he shouted was a girlish falsetto.
“…You’re such a damn pain. I just helped you dig.”
“Noooo!! Please draw a line between gags and serious stuff next time!! This is awful—I knew it! A completely harmless healing-type character is all I need!!”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Mugino gave him an incredibly unenthusiastic look and pointed behind him. “You mean the one sneaking up on you right now?”
“Uwaahh?!” screamed Hamazura, without meaning to, at the ghostly girl, Rikou Takitsubo, who had quietly approached him.
In any case, now they were all together.
With Mugino and Takitsubo, he confirmed the situation.
Then he looked up at the golden skies.
Amid the psychedelic scenery, he could see a dropped Academy City assailant about to land on the ground a short distance away. They wore a black combat uniform that didn’t match the white snowfield—the kind of thing that might be supplied to urban special forces. He couldn’t spot any sort of firearm.
“…”
She seemed to have fired it by momentum before, but Shizuri Mugino’s Meltdown would be useless in battle at this point.
She might be able to “fire” a few shots, but that would be as much as her Crystal-ravaged body could take. And firing at stationary targets was one thing—he didn’t know if she could hit a real enemy moving quickly and irregularly. However he looked at it, it wouldn’t be possible to wipe out the enemies about to approach with nothing but an attack that had such a harsh usage limit.
Rikou Takitsubo wouldn’t be able to provide any combat power in the first place. They’d been able to relieve the adverse effects of the Crystals to a certain degree but not so much that it fundamentally cured her. Besides, even if she was at full strength, she was meant more for rear support. She couldn’t use her ability for battle, and she certainly didn’t give the impression of being especially skilled in limb-based melee combat.
The attackers would know that.
That was why they’d made such an obvious approach by dropping out of the bomber. Otherwise, they would have been a little more careful.
Hamazura jumped into the conifer forest. A few dozen meters ahead…
He held his breath and watched the shadows as they moved without haste over the snow, slowly but surely getting closer.
They weren’t normal soldiers.
Only the gold and white of the flat masks covering their faces departed from their fully black uniforms; the masks were strange, looking over twice as wide as their faces. They didn’t feature any holes for the eyes or mouth. The entirety of their masks glistened with artificial light, like LED decorations for a cell phone, evidently able to depict patterns using several colors of light. Sometimes they would produce faint, indecipherable lights; Hamazura didn’t know what they meant. Judging from their constitution and the parts of their head and jawbones not covered up by their mask, the attacker was probably male.
“…”
The situation wouldn’t get any better if the enemy himself was the only thing Hamazura looked at.
He checked the surrounding area, searching for usable weapons.
Since Mugino and Takitsubo wouldn’t be any help, fighting together wasn’t a good idea. He had the girls evacuate to a cave near the woods. Hamazura had to fight the attacker while drawing the attention of the rest away from the cave.
Gripping his assault weapon in both hands, he flicked the bulky safety with his thumb.
…Did they want light, nimble movement in exchange for armor?
Hamazura stared between the trees at the unknown masked assailant from dozens of meters away.
With how thin his gear was, it seemed unlikely there would be a ballistic plate in it, but given the situation they’d brought this stuff out in…Maybe it was better to assume some good-for-nothing effects had been added with good-for-nothing tech.
Special fibers might hold the bullet back, but would the impact still get through? If it can, then 7.62mm bullets will get him. I think Anti-Skill’s armor is thicker, at least. He can probably move pretty fast in it, but maybe I can manage if I get him before he notices me.
Then it happened.
Whoom! The assailant’s neck turned his way.
He wasn’t holding anything that seemed like a firearm, but if he had electronically contracting springs reinforcing him—like Hard Taping—then he could rip a person in two with just his bare hands.
There was no delay. Hamazura’s hands bounced up, aimed the gun at the assailant, and pulled the trigger.
He felt an impact like he’d been punched in the right shoulder.
His first shot had hit a tree trunk on the way. His second headed straight for the attacker.
A shrill noise rang out as sparks flew.
The rifle bullet didn’t pierce his target, however. Wings, which had an extremely biological appearance, had suddenly extended out from the middle of his flat gold-and-white mask, unfurling like a shield and covering his slim frame.
“Wha—?!”
Hamazura thought he’d stop breathing, but not simply at how those organic wings had appeared.
Letters had appeared—letters he knew—lighting up the mask covering the attacker’s face.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Equ. Dark Matter.”
Wasn’t that the nickname of the second-strongest Level Five in Academy City—the one Shizuri Mugino had faced?