Thump...
“I won...”
The bergbear and I collapsed in sync: it landed on its back, while my knees collapsed out from under me.
My body was completely drained of strength. I tried to push myself up with my elbows, only to fall back down to the ground.
[—Analysis complete.
—Stoppage of target’s life functions confirmed.
—Status: Overheated.
—Currently proceeding with calculated cooldown process.]
As always, I’ve got no idea what you’re saying...
What about all this is “calculated”...? I just plunged right in and smashed into it, right...?
Hisssssss...
The gears all over my body all suddenly ground to a halt and spewed out white smoke. It was the same sound you hear when you toss vegetables into a heated frying pan.
“Miss Ann!”
Yuuta and Ana came running with a tmp, tmp, tmp from their hiding place in the thicket.
...Couldn’t you two have hidden at least a little farther out? And, like, not yell like you did earlier?
“You two... You’re not hurt, are you?”
“You’re the one who’s injured, Miss Ann!”
When they went to help lift me up from both sides, pain shot all through my body. My left shoulder and right thigh were bleeding, and I was covered in bruises. Haha, guess that makes sense, what with all the jumping and flying around I’ve done. I suppose I should actually be glad I got off this lightly.
Crackle, crackle... Whoooosh...
Ah, there goes another tree.
It was as bright as noontime on the small mountain now. Even though I’d defeated the bergbear, it still turned out like this...
“Don’t worry about me. You two just get out of here.”
“What’re you saying?!”
“There are townsfolk on the way. I saw their torches earlier.”
“B-But you’ve gotta come with us, Miss Ann!”
“My legs... just won’t move.”
They felt like they were cramping up or something. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t move anymore. My gears had stopped cold, too. Did I use up too much power at once?
Man, I’m sleepy. I can’t go with you guys.
Ah, Ana’s broken out in tears. Yuuta was gritting his teeth.
“Here, this is yours. Take it and get going.”
I gave Yuuta back his wooden sword. I’d had it on me the whole time I was fighting the bergbear.
“I don’t need this thing...!”
“Huh?”
“I lit the mountain on fire! I’m nothing but a fake hero!”
Hey, hey... We don’t have time for this. That bergbear brought down a bunch of burning trees when it busted up the cliff earlier. This place’ll be an inferno soon, too.
“Well, duh! You’re just a kid! Of course you aren’t a hero!”
Yuuta looked dumbfounded.
“You’re a child! What you need to do now is accept that! That’s more than enough! And then you just have to eat and sleep and play, and decide what you want to be somewhere down the line!”
“B-But I...”
“Think stuff like, ‘I didn’t want you to have to come stop me! If only I had done this back then! Thank god I didn’t do that!’ That’s how you grow up and become an adult!”
“...”
“Knock yourself out apologizing. Apologize, and apologize, and apologize till you feel like you can’t apologize anymore, and then pull yourself together. You can just go ahead and apologize for your own sake, so you don’t have any regrets. So you can keep on moving forward... So... So run away. The townsfolk are coming...”
Please, just hurry up and get away from here.
“You’re lying...”
“Wha—?”
“W-Well it may not be a lie, but you’re not telling the truth!”
“Yuuta...”
“I get it! It’s because we’re kids! But the fire will be here soon! If... If we run away now, then you’ll die! Right?!”
Oh, you figured it out, huh...?
“But we can’t! You saved us! There’s no way we can just leave you! I’d definitely, definitely regret that! Forever and ever!”
“I don’t want Miss Ann to die, either!”
Ow, could you two not cling so tight? I’m hurting all over, remember?
“I’m staying with you till the townsfolk get here!”
“Me, too!”
You dummies. You’re just runts... What’re you trying to act cool for? It’s 10 years too soon for that...
Man, but still, what am I going to do? If I die here, this two are gonna have a real dark future. There’s no coming back from something like that...
Seriously, give me a break. It was doomed from the start. If I die, then I’ll be dragging them down with me.
Hey, can you hear me up there, partner?
I reached my right arm up to the sky.
“Crown... My power’s stopped right now, yeah?”
[—Affirmative. Gearcraft mechanisms are currently undergoing a calculated cooldown period.]
Yeah, that’s right. But even so... I can’t go dying right now...
“We’ve got nothing to lose, so I’ve got a request... I want to protect these kids’ futures, and make sure they still have a home to return to. And to do that, we’ve got to get rid of this fire. I know it’s a lot to ask... But, but still, Crown...”
Somewhere in the middle of saying all that, I broke out in a smile and started crying.
I knew it was impossible. I mean, I knew I don’t even have a skill to get rid of a forest fire to start with... But still, I wanted to keep on struggling... along with this strange partner of mine.
And so...
“Is there any way we can use our power... to get rid of the whole Cardiff fire situation?”
[—Ready.
—In accordance with leveling up of Gearcraft, foundational skills have also been strengthened.
—Continuous use of fundamental skills deemed possible.
—Releasing upper limit of item storage function.]
“Wha...?”
Swoosh! Baaaang!
The gear around my wrist suddenly grew bigger, then flew off into the sky. I thought there had only been one of them, but before I knew it, it had split into five. The gears overlapped each other slightly while remaining somewhat separate, like the petals of a giant metal flower.
Vrrrrrr...!
Vrrrrrr...!!
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...!!!
They all started to turn, and then kept on going. It made a huge, flower-shaped gate...
The first thing to change was the breeze.
“T-The wind!”
A roaring gale whipped up, blowing towards the gate. Wait, it wasn’t blowing, it was getting sucked in!
H-Hold on a— Gaaaaah!
“Waaaah!!” the two runts cried out.
“Ah, Ana! Yuuta!”
Phew, I managed to grab hold of their clothes!
It was like some sort of flying saucer was sucking up everything! Seriously, I would’ve believed that’s just what it was, if I didn’t know flying saucers were an urban legend started by the Publishers’ Guild.
Ack, now I’m starting to float, too!
I wrapped my arms and legs around a tree limb, holding me and the kids in place.
Gyah! This is seriously scary!!
When I finally somehow managed to force my gaze back to my gear gate, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
Ruuuuuuuumble!!!
The fire... was getting sucked up...!
The blaze had turned into countless whirlwinds and was being pulled up off the mountain. And the destination for all those flaming tornadoes was my five gears.
It was almost like a gate to the afterlife.
Ugh, this damn skill... Gah!
Ruuuuuuuuuuuuumble!!!
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Hold on tight, you two!!” I warned the two panicked runts. I looked away from the sudden apocalyptic scenery back up to the sky. Now the gate looked like a giant flaming pinwheel...
Huh? Was that a headless bear that just went through? No, I must be seeing things...
And then, suddenly, it was over.
With one last doofy whoomph sound, the area was returned to its normal nighttime darkness, with the light of the moon gently shining down.
[—Item name: “Cardiff Fire,” storage complete.]
“Wait, a forest fire can be an item...?”
The wind stopped and the big branch we clung to bent down, plopping us back on the ground. Fortunately, we hadn’t been all that high up.
Oof, thank god we didn’t get sucked up...
“...—ti!”
Oh, a voice. That’s...
“He—— ti!!”
It’s a search party from town.
Thank god. It’s finally over...
“Miss Ann...” Yuuta started, just as I was about to shut my eyes.
“Hmm?”
“Are you a hero?”
“...”
I brought up my index finger in front of my mouth.
“Hehe, that’s right... Let’s keep it a secret from the townsfolk though, alright?”
[—Overheat line updated.
—Placing temporary freeze on skill.
—Entering cooldown time.]
With that, I lost consciousness.