[Edogawa City — Matsue High School — Kinouchi Mari]
The boys were playing soccer during PE. Matsue High School was especially famous for its rubber-ball baseball club, but we also had a number of other clubs, including track and field and handball clubs. The members of these clubs usually stood around a lot during PE classes, but...
“Damn! Again?!”
One of the boys was intercepting passes and dribbling with an incredible reaction speed. He did not belong to any clubs and had never stood out much at school until recently. However...
“Shingo-kun!!!”
The girls were watching his plays and squealing. On the other hand, the rest of the boys didn’t seem to be having much fun. He was so strong at every single sport that even club members didn’t hold a candle to him. His grades were also at the top of the class. On top of that, he came to school on a motorbike, had a very mature air, and was incredibly popular with girls not only the same age as he but also younger.
I was talking about Yamaoka Shingo, my boyfriend, of course.
“I’m not sure I should be the one saying this, but it may really not be the best idea to let high schoolers be adventurers.”
We didn’t do it every day, but Shingo-kun and I sometimes met up after school to go on dates. Today, we were headed to an all-you-can-eat hot pot place on Keiyou Street. We had quite a lot of pocket money for high school students, but we still couldn’t afford to eat at high-class restaurants all the time, like Kazu-san. We both ate a lot, and thus often ended up at all-you-can-eat places. We also both loved hot pot and could gobble up kilograms of meat on our own.
“Well, there also seems to be a lot of debate on whether to accept the achievements of an Olympic athlete who trained inside dungeons. He only participated in the Boot Camp once before the Tokyo Olympics, so it’ll probably be accepted, but there will definitely be more restrictions next time.”
Shingo and I were both D-Rankers, treading the line between normal people and Species Limit Breakers. If we ever decided to try, we probably could break a few world records here and there. The truth was that Shingo-kun had seemed to have been holding back the whole time during PE earlier today. I had mixed feelings about watching girls go crazy over him, but it was probably better than having a completely unpopular boyfriend.
“Oh, by the way,” I started, “I received a message from Kazu-san earlier. They finished clearing the Taiwanese dungeon and are flying back tomorrow.”
“Taiwan, huh? They’ll probably end up going to Sina and Gamerica in the future too. There may be no dungeons left in Japan by the time we become full-fledged adventurers. Maybe the first dungeon we clear will be abroad.”
“Yeah. You really are thinking about your future, aren’t you?”
“Well... I’ve been thinking of going to a Gamerican University. And, if possible, I want you to come with me, Mari,” he said, his expression serious.
My heart skipped a beat.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency — Flying Monsters Research Team]
At about the same time Ezoe Kazuhiko and the team of busters he led finished clearing Taipei Dungeon, a heated debate was taking place at the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency, a subordinate organization of the Ministry of Defense, regarding the scenario currently regarded as most likely in the event of the Monster Stampede: an attack of flying monsters coming from Eurasia.
“I’ve said this a million times! Weapons designed to fight wyverns, dragons, or even a monster like Mot*ra don’t need supersonic speed or stealth functions! Hit-and-run tactics and missile-based distance attacks do not work on wyverns. Our enemies will not be aircraft. We’ll come face-to-face with tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands—of wyverns. We need a durable aircraft on par with their incredible mobility, able to handle close combat as well as powerful autocannons to get through their thick skin!”
“But the JASDF’s aircraft have all been designed with modern warfare in mind. Even the F-15J has only been equipped with rockets and missiles aside from its single twenty-millimeter Vulcan cannon. This would force us to design a completely new fighter from scratch. How much time and how many resources do you think such a project would take?!”
The fifth-generation fighters currently in use had all been created from the same basic concept. The idea was to make fighters difficult to detect, spotting the enemy and shooting it down with a missile first being their top priority. However, that strategy had been devised to face other human beings. No one had ever taken the possibility of having to face wyverns or dragons into account.
Experiments using wyverns had shown that explosive projectiles were somewhat effective, but air-to-air missiles such as the R-40 were barely able to shoot them down. Twenty-millimeter autocannons had not succeeded in killing them either. All in all, this meant the current arsenal used by the JASDF was no good when facing monsters in aerial battles.
“Wyverns are slow. There’s no need for jet engines to fight them. As long as the fighters can fly at more or less seven hundred kilometers per hour, that’s more than enough,” the young researcher continued to ardently explain.
You could feel a certain kind of passion from him. After the war, Japan had stopped developing new aircraft technology, and the JASDF had mostly relied on Gamerican imports to secure fighters. Still, fighting monsters did not require cutting-edge aircraft.
The young researcher put both of his palms on his desk and took a good look at the people in the room before continuing.
“Didn’t our country succeed in developing fighters that combined overwhelming air mobility and heavy weaponry in the past? Let us bring back the aircraft that once left the world in awe!” he pushed for his idea—or rather, his dream. “Let this be the start of ‘Project Zero’!”
The picture of a graceful, aerodynamic aircraft most Japanese people had seen at least once in their lives appeared on the projector. It was a propeller plane. The young researcher’s superior brought a hand to his forehead before looking at the ceiling.