Chapter 82

MAIN.30 Kumokawa and Saflee didn’t hesitate. They charged straight for Enshuu. The devices around her neck—a smartphone, a one-seg TV—all blinked and twinkled with countless graphs, shaking her side to side as she held her can of black tea in both hands. “Negative twenty degrees, negative twenty degrees, la-la-laaa!” Three meters. One long stride and they’d only be a step away. Enshuu simply splashed them with the contents of her can of tea. “Ngh?!” “Ah?!” Saflee immediately put on the brakes, while Kumokawa dodged to the side with a big cartwheel. The tea—which had been steaming hot before—was already starting to crackle and freeze in midair. The volume of matter changed when its phase—liquid, solid, and the like—did. If the tea hit them, it could rip up their skin. But it didn’t end up being a mortal wound. Kumokawa continued her cartwheel, changing directions as she did. As one of her legs moved upward, she wrenched it downward, aiming for Enshuu’s head. In response, Enshuu threw her empty can at her feet—or more accurately, the gap between her hands and the ground. It didn’t trip up Kumokawa, but it did force her to adjust her trajectory slightly to avoid it. And that left her vulnerable. “Too slow, too slow.” Using the time she’d just bought herself, Enshuu brought a hand behind her back. She took something out of her sweater—a multipurpose lighter, a long one. It was an odd one, though, as it had a trigger, and there was about thirty centimeters between her hand and the muzzle. Enshuu took a smooth step back, putting Saflee, who was trying to go around her, in her peripheral vision. She put her finger on the trigger of the lighter and twirled it around. Then she brought her arm from her side to the air. “On your marks! Get set!” She pulled the trigger. A crisp ka-chak rang out. In a position slightly diagonal from her head, in a spot where you could just barely brush a nearby stack of vegetable plant containers, Enshuu held up the flame of the lighter. “Boom!” An unnatural flame immediately engulfed the entire container. Obviously, the flame wasn’t something a normal lighter could create. Both its size and the rate at which it spread were clearly strange. Saflee automatically covered her face from the flash and hot wind. “Did she grease it beforehand?!” she shouted. “That’s not all!” Zunk. They heard the sound of something heavy sliding on the ground. The vegetable plant. The gap between containers. The second container from the bottom of the stack was steadily sliding away. Despite the dozens, even hundreds of tons of pressure weighing down on it from above, it slid out like it was moving across ice. “Skis and skates don’t slide so well because snow and ice are slippery. Instead, they borrow the power of the water melted by friction… Isn’t that right, Uncle Amata?” It slid. It swayed. It began to fall. “And when the frictional resistance reaches extremely low values, they’ll still slide, even if there are hundreds of pounds on top of them. Here’s a question for you: What happens if you take the bottom card out of a house of cards?!” Hundreds of vegetable plant containers would come raining down all at once. One of the many mountains of containers utterly collapsed. They were like dice, each one by two meters. And they weighed around a ton. But they were now tumbled toward them like an avalanche—a nightmare. Enshuu laughed and took two steps back. Containers dropped right in front of Saflee, who had flinched away out of reflex, forming a giant wall. The crates kicked the snow up into the air before being crushed by other containers, again and again, pieces of them like their outer walls and steel racks scattering everywhere. As the meteor shower of destruction continued, Enshuu twirled her lighter around her finger, then brought her lips to the muzzle. “Yep. Yeah. It’s embarrassing making so much noise. But this is how a Kihara would act, right?” She whispered into the weapon that had caused such a catastrophe as though it were a microphone. And then her tone leaped up. “Anyway! Presenting the grand opening of our super-exciting attraction that the viewers can directly participate in! Will anyone be able to win their way to the top and get the grand prize?!” As she called out, she swung the multipurpose lighter again. The “essence” of her bioweapon construction wasn’t in any of the containers nearby. And now the piles of containers that had barely avoided coming down finally collapsed, crushing the old ones under a second wave, then a third. Since some of them were falling near Enshuu, too, Saflee and Kumokawa couldn’t make out what she was doing with the naked eye. But she could use a helicopter toy linked to a smartphone to gather information from the air, and once she caused all the assumed containers to collapse, it would all be over. Enshuu had set it up in advance so that every single container in this area would fall—save for a very tiny safe spot. How very Kihara of her. Enshuu didn’t care how strong or talented her foes were. She would rattle the stage itself, destroy the rules everyone was working with, and toy with the “honors students” who got good grades given to them on a silver platter before taking them down. …There are containers falling around me, too. Which means they’ll be giant obstacles for them. Enshuu smiled as she fired at the nearby vegetable containers, creating watery films with low coefficients of friction to topple even more of them. They have two obstacles to overcome: the mental one—their fear—and the physical one. When they finally stop moving, I can carpet bomb them until they’re dead! But that was where Enshuu’s thoughts cut off. Boom! Because Kumokawa had slammed her long legs on the crown of the girl’s head. The obstacles were like one-by-two-meter dice. Kumokawa had gotten a running start, leaped onto the wall of vegetable plants, used her hands to climb up them, rolled over the top of the container, and then wheeled her heel down straight at Enshuu Kihara. When one lays everything out like that, her acrobatic feats seemed reasonably plausible. Someone trained in street performances might be able to smoothly flow through all those motions. But hundreds of containers were still falling around them, and getting hit by just one would make you into mincemeat. The situation couldn’t be measured with simple probabilities. Normally, it would close around your mind, trapping it. Nobody should have been able to move so athletically. Yes. Someone bound by their fear of the Kiharas could never pull that off. And yet… “Gh, gah…agh…! Is it my Kihara? Is my Kihara malfunctioning? Is that why the mental trap didn’t work?!” With unnatural motions, like a toy with missing gears, Enshuu withdrew from Kumokawa, putting distance between her. She voluntarily left the safe spot she’d set up for herself. In response, Kumokawa realized why Enshuu had been sticking to that position and, now in the safe spot, slowly raised her guard. “…You’re not like any Kihara I know,” she said, white breath puffing from her lips. “I doubt Kagun Kihara would ever set up something like this. If he was that clever, that incident would have never happened, and he wouldn’t have had to leave school.” “Wait, you don’t think just by beating Uncle Amata that you beat a Kihara, did you?” The patterns of the graphs on the smartphone and one-seg TV around Enshuu’s neck made a clear change. Her lips moved. “Uncle Ransuu, Grandpa Gensei, Auntie Byouri, Nayu, Yui, Jou, Konny, Choku, Uncle Doutai, Uncle Kagun, Bunri, Sai, Auntie Kenbi, Bunshi, Auntie Telestina, Kou-kou.” Enshuu Kihara spread her arms wide and made her declaration. “I may not be Kihara enough, but I’ve got the combat patterns of five thousand Kiharas supporting me! And meanwhile, you can’t even step into the darkness of Academy City! There’s no way a weed like you could topple a tree like me!” New combat patterns entered her mind. Her Kihara budded. And as the monster did… Crrrick-craaack-criiick! Daring to step outside the safe spot, Kumokawa buried the sole of her shoe into Enshuu’s cheek. “Buh…?” In that moment, as her cheek twisted and her face twisted, Enshuu wore an expression of pure surprise. Kumokawa ignored her, swinging her leg all the way to the side. “Bhgohvehgobuhchaeh?!” Producing a cry that didn’t count as language, Enshuu tumbled across the snow. Kumokawa ignored the containers raining down from above and charged even farther forward—to finish her off. To defeat Enshuu and get rid of the biological weapon she was creating. “Buh, guh!” Holding her bloodied nose and mouth as she got up, Enshuu retreated farther. “There are two reasons you lost,” said Kumokawa. “I don’t know about these ‘five thousand Kiharas’ or whatever, but how did you analyze their combat patterns? Did you give them psychological tests? Or borrow help from a psychometer esper? Or did you just watch them for a long time like some kind of stalker? Whatever the case, let me ask you something: The combat patterns you think you’ve analyzed—are you certain you did it perfectly? You’re only borrowing the strength of others. Are you telling me you got perfect results out of it?” “Rgh…?!” “Guess you didn’t like that, huh? Then go ahead. Test it out. I’m very curious now that you mentioned Kagun Kihara. I mean, if it’s true and you do perfectly replicate him, then I won’t stand a chance.” The smartphone and one-seg TV around Enshuu’s neck clearly changed again. Innumerable graphs began to give her power. “Yep. Yeah, I understand, Uncle Kagun. In a situation like this, a Kihara would—” “Get real.” Brrkkkkkkkk!!!!!!! Kumokawa stepped in deep and delivered a hard right straight, knocking Enshuu to the ground. “This is it? You think you’re anywhere near Kagun’s level like this? …Then it looks like the quality of your replication has been proven. You can’t replicate anyone with toys like those. You keep throwing out names like Kagun and Amata, but all you’re doing is trying to strike fear into anyone who knows them.” “Kamijo—” “My older sister is one thing, but I’m not scared of him, either.” “I understand! Then Maria Kumokawa would—” “Come on, are you even serious?” Every time Enshuu’s movements changed, Kumokawa used all her limbs in a phantasmagoric attack to swat them away. The look on Enshuu’s face changed a little more with every counter. Kumokawa just kept talking, ignoring her. Or maybe she wasn’t showing any mercy because they were both girls. “I don’t care if you have five thousand Kiharas or if this is the ten thousandth Touma Kamijou. You’re just collecting all the same cards in the game as your opponents. You can’t become Touma Kamijou. You’re just making the same deck as him. But it doesn’t matter what kind of deck you make. Because you, personally, are the one deciding which cards to play during battle.” And that was why Enshuu couldn’t win. It didn’t matter how many rare cards she did or didn’t have. Without skills as a player, Enshuu could accomplish nothing. “You may have made the right rules, but your table talk isn’t working. That’s why you say things that Kagun Kihara would never. The same goes for battle. The cards in your hand work differently when you constantly misplay them.” “I can’t…win…?” “That’s right.” “Then I… My brain… No matter what Kihara I use, I’ll never win, even if I can execute the same commands as Touma Kamijou and you…?” “I’ll give it to you straight: I feel like I’m playing chess against a badly programmed computer opponent.” Enshuu’s eyes wavered unsteadily. They even went out of sync for a moment. But then she forced away the confusion, the hesitation. The smartphone and one-seg TV hanging from her neck began to depict a far more chaotic series of graphs. Ignoring how Kumokawa shook her head, Enshuu cried out. “No, I can win! I have a solution! I’m a Kihara, after all! A Kihara is a Kihara just by being called a Kihara! That’s what Uncle Amata and Uncle Ransuu and Uncle Kagun and Auntie Byouri all tell me!” “…If you really think Kagun Kihara would say that, then your analysis of him is all wrong. The Kagun I know wouldn’t say that.” Her opponent wasn’t listening to her, though. Krrr-keee. The multipurpose lighter in Enshuu’s hand produced a strange noise. Perhaps she had turned it into a weapon by messing with the gas exhaust nozzle and given it flamethrower-like capabilities. With the strange graphs still in her eyes, Enshuu charged forward. In that moment. Enshuu had one chance of winning. Maybe she couldn’t beat Kumokawa using the tactics from the graphs on her smartphone and one-seg TV. But she had one more Kihara. One final Kihara. Herself. Since it was herself, she didn’t need to go to the trouble of analyzing anything or getting combat patterns from the graphs. She was inexperienced, but she had her own hidden Kihara pattern. Kumokawa had exposed the weakness inherent in all the combat patterns the graphs had imbued her with, but Enshuu’s personal pattern was a different story. If Kumokawa was only certain she could deal with any of the patterns the graphs could produce, then that was a security hole, and Enshuu could go through it and kill her. So she smiled. She licked her lips. She was determined to burn everything with her multipurpose lighter, using it as a flamethrower, so she unleashed her inner Kihara and charged. And a moment later. Her train of thought cut off. Her Kihara dissipated. The cause was Kumokawa’s leg. A brutal roundhouse had just struck Enshuu in the temple. “I said there were two reasons you lost,” spat Kumokawa as she stopped her rotation, speaking to Enshuu as she careened away and landed deep in the snow. “Through all the decks you’ve used, I could still detect you, Enshuu. I learned what you were like through your fighting. In essence, I analyzed your combat patterns before you even used your Enshuu Kihara deck. So it isn’t a problem. It poses no threat. I can intercept your deck—all according to plan—just like I can with all the other Kiharas.” “Urgh…” Enshuu fired a two-meter spout of flame from her multipurpose lighter. Her dark eyes, squirming as she lay in the snow, were set directly on Kumokawa. “Aim that fire at me, and the reflected heat will burn you something awful, too… Not that you’re listening at this point.” There had been a charging attack. A different kind, one without any of the complex combat patterns from before. Enshuu was prepared to die in the assault but also ready to take her enemy down with her. Even driven into the corner and delusional, she chose the chance of a dangerous victory over a safe defeat. That certainly made her one of the Kiharas. Kumokawa spun around, attacking her from normally impossible angles with her arms and legs. With a dull noise, Enshuu bent over. But she didn’t fall. This wasn’t like reason or intelligence. Something more fundamental to the Kiharas was driving her actions. To begin with, Enshuu wasn’t even considering normal ideas, like trying to evade or defend against attacks, despite being in pain. Enshuu reaffirmed her grip on the multipurpose lighter. She squeezed her index finger as hard as she could on the trigger. The multipurpose lighter, clearly expelling more gas than it did before, could now keep throwing two-meter flames for thirty seconds straight. “Die by fire, whore!” Bang! A dull noise rang out, and a moment later… …something resembling a garden spade plunged into Enshuu’s right forearm. It was a kunai used by the Koga shinobi. “Gah…?” The energy drained from her index finger. Aware that Kumokawa’s knee was coming straight for her temple, En-shuu heard a woman’s voice. The voice of Saflee Opendays, who had finally climbed over all the containers. “I don’t know this girl or anything. I was just trying to recruit anyone who seemed useful. Didn’t expect a ninja or someone with an EM wave obsession would be right behind a maid, did you? Though I sounded out the ninja with that paper plane, I guess.” Enshuu didn’t spare a glance at the weapon falling from her hand. Her mind was focused on Kumokawa’s words as they slid into her ears. “Friends aren’t about combat patterns or decks. This is what they’re really for.” A moment later, a hammer-like blow finally knocked out Enshuu for good. A lot of the vegetable containers had collapsed, but over half of them were still stacked up. The stacks were over twenty meters high, and a person was on them, lying on their stomach, covered in white snow. “That’s one Kihara down. The transformer facility was destroyed, putting a stop to Ranny’s mold from being turned into a biological weapon.” Then a giggle. The owner of the female voice that sounded, at first, to be a gentle one was Byouri Kihara. Her targets—Maria Kumokawa, Shuri Oumi, and Saflee Opendays—finished tying up the unconscious Enshuu, then bunched up in one place. Apparently, they had calmed down enough that they could trade casual conversation and joke around. “…Well, if I’m going to target them, this is the time. If I got mixed up in the battle, then I’d risk the unexpected causing me to miss my shot. Above all, if Enshuu knew I was here, she’d probably have attacked me. The most surefire way to make them give up would be to wait until she isn’t moving anymore.” Byouri took out a large metal nail. Her arm produced an awful sound, like plastic cracking. She hadn’t been using Number Two Dark Matter for her leg alone. The modifications affected her whole body. After borrowing Touma Kamijou’s power, Enshuu had beaten Byouri’s upper body to a pulp and seemed satisfied with that. But Byouri could repair injuries with a single command, even if her heart was crushed or her liver destroyed. And her alterations went beyond mere repair work. “Form change. Reference: skyfish.” When you threw something lying down, you could only use your forearm, like when throwing darts. Baseball pitchers used their whole body to throw the ball, so normally, this stance limited force and flight distance. But her physical modifications blew established theory out of the water. Something frilled had appeared next to her right arm—a skyfish. By incorporating into her arm the speculative construction of an unidentified creature, one that flew around so fast the human eye couldn’t track it, just tossing the metal nail like a dart would allow it to penetrate a container a thousand meters away. “The main enemy of the Kiharas currently is Gremlin, but the overarching objective is to eliminate the Anti–Academy City Science Guardians controlling Baggage City, along with anyone who would defend them. I’m sure they’ll have plenty of regrets now that they’re part of that category.” One throw and it would be over. Perhaps her opponents would flee with superhuman speed. But that wouldn’t last long. To her sniping attacks delivered from a high vantage point, they would need to run through long rows of containers and flee behind cover. She would have about eight chances to carefully snipe them in the meantime, or if she went for the rapid-fire approach, about three hundred. And if they fled behind the vegetable plant containers—well, she had the force to pierce through them. At that point, it was just about probability. Imagine loading a revolver with five bullets, then playing Russian roulette for one hundred rounds. If one spun the cylinder at random after every shot, there was a chance they could survive until the end, but it went without saying that it was quite slim. But even though Kumokawa, Saflee, and Oumi were all wide open, the supersonic nails never pierced their heads or hearts. Because right before she launched her sniping attack, Byouri heard something. A clunk. A footstep—from a nearby container. “Ngh!” Still lying flat, Byouri twisted herself and fired the nail in her hands toward the source of the sound. She didn’t think for a second about who it was. She just aimed her bullet right between her target’s eyes—and did actually strike them in their vital spot. The person was wearing a coat. The person was wearing a full-face helmet. The thick nail lodged itself in the helmet where the brow would be, causing countless fractures to appear in the visor. It didn’t take longer than a second for the whole helmet to go to pieces. And with the hard helmet destroyed, the person’s face was revealed. A face without a single scratch. A face that should have been a disaster, skull destroyed, brain matter splattered everywhere. And above all. A face that belonged to a man Byouri knew very well. “Kagun…Kihara…?!” The nail that should have shattered his skull bounced away, spinning, then fell somewhere. The man ignored it and spoke. “…I went through a lot of trouble for this one moment.” His vital spot should have been shot through, and yet the man was unwounded. He took a step forward. “I outwitted Enshuu, reused her and made her bait so I could take down my target—all for this one moment when you were basking in your Kihara’s glee. The same as that which you harbored against Maria Kumokawa’s group. I waited for the very moment the situation stabilized. Your wheelchair, your leg-assistant robots, your legs composed of Dark Matter, your body—just killing you normally and being satisfied with it wouldn’t guarantee all your safety mechanisms had been destroyed.” So he’d waited. Waited for the moment Byouri was somewhat injured, the moment she had no safety mechanisms left. Waited for the moment Byouri was utterly exposed. Waited for the moment she, brimming with confidence, took out her final weapon. “All out of safeties now?” he asked. “Finished with your transformations? I would really appreciate it if you were. Because now I finally have a chance to kill you.”