He’s panicking. I wonder when he’ll realize he can’t move his legs either?
“You’ve been fighting me for twenty-four hours straight, so your exoforce is running low. I suspected you would attempt a close-range shot before you ran out. You haven’t cornered me—I’ve cornered you.”
Ginka started to focus her exoforce. It was weaker than when she had destroyed the pillar, but she knew she still had enough to do some damage.
“Next... I can radiate exoforce from anywhere on my body. From my back, for example.”
David didn’t react.
He must be utterly dumbfounded. Even though we’re in battle, he’s letting his cowardice get the better of him. That’s fine, because I’m ready to do this.
Exoforce sprouted like wings from Ginka’s back with so much intensity, David was launched into the air.
“Nooooooooooo!” he screamed.
Ginka heard a gunshot, but the bullet went in the wrong direction. Her exoforce had probably overwhelmed David’s gun. She turned around and saw him sprawled out on the ground, so she ran over and stomped on his wrist.
“Agh!” David’s wrist bones snapped. His hand twitched and released his silver gun. “I-I will not...fall...to such tactics...” He groaned.
That face he’s making... It looks more like frustration than pain. Well, his carefully crafted plan was crushed by a rather crude method. I can see why he can’t accept that, but I don’t care. Resorting to combat was illogical in the first place.
Ginka thrust her sword at him and declared, “You’ve lost, David Highgate.”
David’s face remained twisted for a moment, but he soon seemed to relax. His smile was resigned, like he had given up. “I lost, but we both suffered damages. You lost your friend, after all...” He gazed beyond Ginka and pointed to another area of the garage. “The retainers there are no longer moving, and I cannot hear your friend’s screams... I think we both know what has happened to her.”
Ginka sighed. He sounds confident for a sore loser, but he has no idea what he’s talking about.
“David, have your search capabilities dulled?” she asked.
“What do you—”
“I’ll give you time to take a proper look.” Ginka lowered her sword.
As David searched by dispersing small amounts of exoforce into the air, he broke out in a cold sweat. “What is this presence? It’s almost like...” He trailed off. His unsteady gray eyes reflected unease and confusion at what he could not understand.
Considering everything he has done, I could let him continue suffering... But there’s a lot to deal with after this. I suppose I should give him the answer.
Ginka turned to where David had been pointing and called out, “Ruka, we’re done! You can come here now!”
“Ooh, you are? Good work!” Ruka’s voice was so bright, it felt out of place in this half-destroyed parking garage. Her platinum-blonde hair trailed behind her as she ran toward Ginka. She also had bluish-purple color contacts, pierced ears, a choker, and a garter belt around one thigh.
That wasn’t all, though. A mist of silver bubbles that looked like they came from a carbonated drink were floating all around her.
David looked astonished. “E-Ex-Exo-Exoforce?!”
Exoforce made Ruka’s hair flutter as she casually walked over. “Yo, Davy-san, you really went all out! Hey, isn’t your hand bent kinda weird?”
“Ruka, behind you,” said Ginka.
“Huh? Ah, crap!”
As Ginka wondered if Ruka’s temptation blood might have drawn these retainers to her, Ruka just waved her hand like she was shooing them off. The exoforce on her fingers turned them to sand.
“Whoa, they melted again... This exoforce stuff is no joke.” Ruka flapped her hand a few more times.
That was how she had faced fierce attacks from retainers without getting a single scratch on her.
“Sh-She’s...a...v-vampire hunter...?” David was panting like a dog. He was beyond panicked now.
“No,” Ginka replied. “Ruka is an ordinary civilian.”
“Th-Then... How did she acquire exoforce...in such a short period of time...?”
“She didn’t. Performing the surgical procedure for that in a place like this is impossible.”
“D-Do you possess...the skill to grant another person exoforce?”
“That skill does exist, but I do not have it.”
“Th-Then how... H-How in the world is she using exoforce?!”
Ginka ignored him.
Ruka, on the other hand, pulled the perfume bottle out of her skirt pocket. “The right answer’s right here! Ta-da!”
“Wh-What is that bottle?”
“It’s perfume. You use it like so, and so.” Ruka sprayed some on her wrist, which started shining with silver particles and smelled like citrus too.
David’s eyes were so wide open, it looked like they were going to come out of his head. “Y-You... You mixed sacred silver dust...with perfume...?!”
Ruka nodded. “By the way, I did my nails with the stuff too. Looks cute like glitter, right?”
“N-No! Such a thing couldn’t possibly be possible...!”
“B-But I did—”
Ginka held up her hand to stop Ruka. She didn’t want the conversation to get any more off track.
But David was already lost in his own thoughts. He was mumbling to himself and seemed too shaken to keep English and Japanese separate. “The perfume oil bonded with, or the scent...? Is it volatile...? What about the durability...? But there are no precedents...”
Ginka was starting to feel some sympathy for David, but it was the tiniest, most minuscule amount possible. “I was surprised too, at first. But for those who cannot use exoforce, applying it to the body appears to be a more effective means of self-defense than throwing it. It’s an idea we exoforce users never would have thought of.”
“Th-That’s...” David’s mouth flapped open and shut. When he couldn’t come up with any more words, his head drooped as if he had been dealt a devastating blow.
Ginka supposed David had to admit that Ruka’s methods were effective. Perhaps he was humiliated by the fact that a Japanese high school girl had come up with such a simple technique he had never thought of as an engineer.
It wouldn’t hurt to rub it in a little more, she thought.
“David, allow me to give you one more important piece of information.”
“What...?”
Ginka grinned. “Makeup is freedom.”