Thirty minutes later, the group had come to Training Area Five, located inside the base. It was an urban-style training ground, modeled on the train-station district of a provincial city, with tall, thick defensive walls encircling it. Compared to Training Area Two, where the screening exam had been held, this one was a bit more modest in size.
Ashiro, Hoshina, and a few other officers were with the television crew in the control room, positioned atop a confining wall. Here, they were able to monitor data on the positions of the kaiju inside the ground, as well as open or close the isolating walls. Meanwhile, Kikoru had headed downstairs, where she was getting ready for practice.
“Hoshina,” Ashiro whispered in his ear, softly so the reporters behind them couldn’t hear.
“What is it, Captain?”
“This went through way too easily. You were arranging this practice even before I spoke up about it.”
“Cat’s out of the bag, eh?” Hoshina said with a quiet chuckle. “You know how Shinomiya is. No way was a regular training drill going to be enough for her. And we’ve got TV cameras here, so it’s a perfect chance to impress the public. Those captured kaiju have some pretty cool characteristics too.”
“Okonogi, give me the data on those kaiju,” Ashiro ordered.
“Yes, ma’am. Let’s see. Here it is.” Detailed data was displayed on the screen.
“I caught these live on an out-of-town dispatch,” said Hoshina. “They move kinda slow and aren’t violent tempered. Not all that hard to catch. Although, well, if the job is to kill them, that’s a different story.”
“And you’re putting them up against Shinomiya,” Okonogi said flatly. “You have a marvelous personality.”
“May I take that as a compliment?”
“You may not,” Okonogi replied.
Hoshina smiled and flipped on the communicator switch.
“Well now, Shinomiya, everything in order?”
“I can head out anytime.”
Kikoru was climbing into a transport vehicle, where her weapon was loaded. An officer from the transport squad was serving as driver. Confinement Wall One, which connected to the training ground, opened, and the van began moving forward. Training Area Five had twofold confining walls to prevent kaiju escaping. Once they had entered the training ground, the driver got out and returned to the garage. This left Kikoru alone between the confining walls.
“Here we go—”
Loaded in the van was the enormous greatsword that was Kikoru’s custom weapon, as well as ammo and other weapons. Apparently, she could use whatever weapons she was familiar with. Kikoru was about to pull out the giant sword when she noticed a silvery case in the back of the van. It was even larger than the case that held the greatsword.
“Vice-Captain Hoshina, what’s that big thing in the back?”
“Oh, that’s another weapon prototype Izumo Tech came up with. It doesn’t meet the standards we asked for, though. So the project’s suspended.”
For just a moment, Kikoru’s interest had been stirred, but the thing in the back of the van was a failure, apparently.
In addition to the sword, Kikoru also grabbed a rifle, and then stepped out of the vehicle. High up in the sky, three drones were on patrol. One belonged to the Defense Force. The other two must have been launched by the news crew from the control room.
“All of the kaiju inside the training ground can be killed,” the vice-captain said. “There’s no need to hold back.”
“Acknowledged, sir.”
Kikoru unsealed the case using her biometric data. She pulled out the sword and rested it on her shoulder. “Now to find out what this baby’s really capable of!” she said. Kikoru tightened every muscle, and the suit harmonized with her body. Before her eyes, Confinement Wall Two slowly opened to the left and right. Hoshina hadn’t given her any details on the monsters. In combat, it was normal to battle kaiju about which little was known. All she could do was figure out their characteristics while fighting them. On top of that, they were challenging foes. This was going to be tricky. But Kikoru’s face was beaming with self-confidence. “Fungal? Reptilian? I’m up for anything you throw at me.”
I’ll slice ’em clean in two with this sword.
The doors finished opening all the way. Kikoru sprang into the training ground that had opened up in front of her. However —
“Hm?” It was an unexpected letdown. Unfurled before her eyes was a deserted rotary in front of a modest train station, as often found in small towns, including a bronze statue of some old historical samurai. Kikoru couldn’t spot any kaiju anywhere.
They’re not here. Does that mean they’re hiding somewhere?
Shops lined both sides of a street stretching away straight as an arrow in front of her, and by the road heading off to the right were rows of houses. Kikoru advanced toward the houses, on full alert for any kaiju lurking in the shadows.
Does this mean they aren’t aggressive? Okay, fine. I’ll find you—
It was in the midst of that thought that it happened. A house on her left suddenly began to shake. In the next instant, a huge, meter-long pincer exploded from its foyer and came racing at her. Kikoru leapt high and landed on the roof of a house. The house across the street was rattling as though struck by an earthquake. It heaved upward, and a great cloud of dust billowed up. Two large pincers were sticking out from underneath the house.
Wait just one minute here! Is this why Hoshina asked if I like crabs?
“Originally, they were discovered by high school students,” said Hoshina.
The incident had taken place in August of the previous year, in the mountains around Isehara in Kanagawa Prefecture. Four high school students had heard a rumor about an abandoned house haunted by a ghost and had gone there as a test of courage. As soon as they’d set foot on the property, the house had shuddered and started to move. And then a single pincer had broken through a window.
“One of the students was attacked at the scene. He sustained a serious injury that severed his right foot.”
At Hoshina’s words, the television crew gasped as they stared at the screen. “That shape—is that a crab-type kaiju?”
The kaiju lifted up the house, revealing its full form: two giant pincers, and on either side, three slender legs and one short one, for a total of eight limbs. Its entire body was covered in a hard-looking carapace.
“Good eye. It burrows underground, gnaws into the foundation, and infiltrates the house. When prey approaches, it attacks with its two pincer claws.” Hoshina made a peace sign next to his face, then moved his fingers in a snip-snip motion. “The explosive rounds the general officers carry couldn’t even break through the shell. Anyway, let’s see what you do, Shinomiya.”
Kikoru shouldered her rifle. She let loose a horizontal spread of burst rounds at the kaiju’s claws. Bright flashes of light and heat and the roars of explosions rang out. For someone with Kikoru’s high unleashed combat power, that should have been enough to finish off an ordinary yoju. The smoke from the explosions began clearing off. The kaiju was sitting there looking unperturbed, wearing the house on its back. That didn’t mean it was unharmed, though. Its carapace had taken some damage, but—
The shell’s just too hard.
It looked like this would take time even for Kikoru if she relied on head-on attacks with the gun. She set the gun down on the rooftop and firmly gripped the greatsword’s handle with both hands.
Okay, here I come!
The kaiju raised its legs up high. It stretched out its claws and came after her. Kikoru jumped from the roof. She swung the greatsword down, straight at the kaiju below. A heavy ka-chunk split the air, followed by the loud splurch of something being crushed. With just one swing, the kaiju’s claw had been severed. A pair of black eyes were sticking out from the kaiju’s head. They looked dazed, as if the creature couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
Again!
She struck the kaiju head-on with the greatsword, using all her momentum to drive the blade into its head. Kikoru crushed its rigid carapace as though it were a fruit. Clear, yellowish fluid splattered all around.
One down.
Next, Kikoru made use of her suit’s power to race up the side of a building and took a great skyward leap. She looked down on the entire town. Something moved at the right edge of her field of vision. A partially destroyed wooden house was swaying back and forth.
There!