Chapter 69

SUB.17 Kumokawa and Oumi walked down a clean underground passage, though they didn’t know where it led. Occasionally, the passage would shake, though not at regular intervals. Was there a large-scale battle happening up above? As they went, Oumi said in a quiet voice, “Mind if I ask something?” “No, what is it?” “Have you ever heard of this individual named Touma Kamijou?” She continued, not particularly changing her expression, “The man in the helmet and coat… That was the name he gave—the one you’re probably after. Now that we’re involved in all this, finding him is our only way to make it out alive, apparently.” “…I’ve only heard the name. My older sister would probably know more.” “So it’s safe to assume he’s from Academy City. If he can deal with a situation like this, he must live pretty deep in the underworld.” “Actually, I’ve heard he doesn’t have ties to anything shady. Adorable, right?” “?” Oumi frowned, but she didn’t get a clear answer from Kumokawa. And it wasn’t because she was putting on airs—but because the situation changed dramatically. Boom! All of a sudden, right in front of them, the ceiling of the hallway collapsed. A heavy tank fell in amid a deluge of sand and dirt. Kumokawa started coughing madly from the scattered dust. “What was that?!” In contrast, Oumi—accustomed to chemicals and smoke screens—had a calm look on her face as she gave her reply. “A fifty-ton Russian bento box. The ground must have given way. Those things were never designed to be used in cities!” “Russian…? Would that make it Baggage City’s?” The hatch located under the machine gun on the turret had been open the whole time. Kumokawa approached the tank, meaning to drag out the wounded soldiers, if nothing else. “Don’t, you idiot! Do you have a death wish?!” Oumi pushed Kumokawa to the floor and covered her with her body. A moment later, there was an explosion on the tank’s outer surface. It didn’t seem like the fuel or munitions had ignited—it was more like a huge shotgun blast. “That thing’s covered in explosive reactive armor,” she explained. “It’s like one big bomb waiting to blow. If you get too close, you’ll get caught in the blast.” “I see. Then it’s time for static electricity.” “?” “I’ll force the fuses to react and explode from a safe distance. There’s dust all over, so it should be easy to get as much charge going as in a science class experiment.” “Like lightning bolts in volcanic ash?” “Was that written in one of your books of ninja secrets?” Kumokawa would have to artificially produce static electricity—but they didn’t have to look around for anything that could produce it. The friction from the dust in the air would do the job nicely. They did need, however, a tool to move the dust in a specified direction with a specified force. In other words, a fan of some sort—electric or otherwise. “Which is why I took my maid clothes off.” “…Couldn’t you have just used the apron?” “It’s impolite to point that out when I’m already stripped down, you know.” Now only wearing her underwear, Kumokawa waved her maid outfit up and down as hard as she could, as though trying to dry washed sheets. Swoosh! The light gray dust all moved at once. Lights twinkled bluish white, and a moment later, small bursting noises began erupting from various parts of the tank blocking the passage. They sounded like oversized firecrackers. “The popcorn’s all popped now? All right, time to save some lives,” said Kumokawa, gleefully putting her maid outfit back on. But before she could peer into the open hatch right under the machine gun emplacement, Oumi frowned. “…It might be empty.” “What? Empty?” “There’s a motor attached to the machine gun. The cable goes down inside the tank. There’s an antenna, too—you wouldn’t need that for search operations.” “Well, then I suppose there isn’t much point rescuing anyone.” Kumokawa looked down into the hatch with Oumi and saw the kunoichi was right—nobody was on board. The control panel covers had been removed, with a tablet attached via a cable to the internal circuitry. The words S. BERYLAN were displayed on the screen. Was that the operator’s name? “…Looks like they hacked the controls to operate it mostly remotely,” observed Kumokawa. “But the machine gun is outside the program’s control, so they needed to put a motor on it.” “I don’t know much about Academy City technology, but that seems pretty cobbled together,” said Oumi. “It makes sense. This thing came out of a thought experiment about how to reuse older weapons—basically, it’s just a product version of one of those ideas that people argue about on message boards. They’re basically messing with something that’s already been messed with, and that means it’s easily hijacked, so Academy City wouldn’t use something like it.” “Then Baggage City’s using it, huh? What do you think of that?” “I think that maybe they had less actual combat forces than they advertised.” Whatever the case, the underground passage was now crowded with sand, dirt, and a tank. They’d have to go up to the surface using the big hole the tank made in order to keep going. But two seconds after crawling up there, they regretted it. There was a fierce blizzard outside. It was hell out there—negative twenty degrees Celsius. “Ack, that’s cold!” exclaimed Kumokawa. “I can’t move around in maid clothes out here!” “I’m not sure where you could move around in clothes like those,” remarked Oumi. “What was that, Cheerleader Kunoichi? I’m not sure I heard you. Anyway, let’s just get to the nearest building—I don’t care what it is! We can make a plan once we’re inside!” But the gas station Kumokawa pointed to almost immediately exploded with great force. The flames had a stickiness to them, like a Molotov cocktail, and they rained down on the other buildings nearby, too. Kumokawa, capsized by the shock wave, finally spotted the line of black smoke cutting through the air overhead. She couldn’t see what was causing the smoke, though. But she did see some kind of incomprehensible aircraft—it looked like an amalgamation of wires—zooming through the air along with the smoke. She decided to give voice to her speculation. “Is that smoke from an Academy City supersonic bomber flying through? It must be really busted up. It’s spraying fragments and bombs all over the place!” “Well, we won’t want for warmth now,” pointed out Oumi. Kumokawa spotted a soldier a short distance away tossing aside a tablet and fleeing. She didn’t know which side they belonged to, but maybe they were the one remote-controlling the tank before. “You mean this hot wind? It’s just kind of hurting my skin. It’s not warm at all. That’s bad. There—it’s coming! That building is collapsing!” The two picked themselves up out of the snow and rushed away from it. Unlike the controlled destruction of a building explosion, this structure was just falling over, some of its support beams having been severed. Since the lower floors couldn’t hold up the rest of the building, it looked kind of like a giant falling to its knees, toppling over in stages toward them. They just barely managed to get far enough away from it in time. However, they’d just been traveling through the sprawling passages right under their feet. And so, unable to endure the massive weight, the ground caved in, sucking in Kumokawa and Oumi. The former started coughing. “The surface is awful, too!” “We should count ourselves lucky the underground isn’t a sewer system or something,” said Oumi. They crawled through the gaps in the destroyed underground passage, managing to get to a safe place. Oumi took a seat, her back against the wall, and asked an abrupt question. “So this Touma Kamijou guy,” she said. “What on earth is he doing in a place like this anyway?” “I, uh, I don’t know,” said Kumokawa. “Let’s just pray he didn’t randomly die. Anything’s possible in this city.” There was no spare time to rely on others. If they wanted to survive, they’d have to use their own feet to do so.