224 義理と命
アキラは片腕とはいえ刀に
「ご心配なく。交戦の意思は御座いません。刀を納めてください」
今は戦闘中だ。そんなことは出来ない。そう思ったアキラがアイリ達の存在を思い出し、非常に焦った表情でアイリ達の方へ顔を向けた。そしてその表情を驚きに染める。アイリ達は全員床に倒れていた。
アキラが混乱を深めながら視線をツバキに戻し、思い付いた仮定から困惑を強めて尋ねる。
「......どうして俺を助けた?」
「私ではありません」
「じゃあ、あいつらは何で倒れてるんだ?」
「恐らくローカルネットワークの中枢を突如失ったことによる負荷の
に収める。交戦の意思が無いのなら好都合で、そもそも勝ち目など存在しない。アキラもそれぐらいは分かっていた。
「......それで、俺に何か用か?」
と少々お話を、と思いまして」
アルファのいない状況でツバキと話すのは
く忙しいんだ。また後にしてくれないか? ほら、ちょっと、戦ってたりとかしててさ」
「では、私と話している間は、私が
にカプセル状の物を乗せてアキラに差し出した。
「回復薬のようなものです」
アキラが微妙に
服用するとすぐに頭痛が治まる。全身の痛みも引いていき、疲労感も大幅に消えていく。いつもながら経口投与でどうしてこんなに素早く効き目が表れるのかと少し不思議に思ったが、旧世界製の回復薬ならそれぐらいは普通なのだろうと考えて、その手の疑問は棚上げした。
「ここは話をする場としては少々散らかっています。少し歩きましょう」
ツバキが床の惨状など全く気にせずに歩き始める。アキラは倒れているアイリ達を見て、
「延命機能は......、期待できないか。手遅れだろうが処置はしておこう。最悪、部品にはなる」
男はブレードを取り出し、既に縦に両断されている死体の首を横に両断した。
ツバキはアキラをビルの屋上まで連れてきた。その端で一緒に周囲の光景を眺めながら、少し感傷の
「あ、はい。そうですね」
アキラはハンターだ。つまり遺跡を荒れ果てさせる
ツバキの話には後でよく考えればいろいろ気になる部分もあったのだが、アキラには今それを追及する余裕など無かった。聞かれなかったので、ツバキも詳細の説明までは出来なかった。
「......では、本題に入りましょう。
アキラはかなりの混乱を見せていた。様々な疑問が頭の中に生まれ続けて思考を圧迫していた。近くに落ち着いた様子のツバキが立っているので、その慌て振りが際立っていた。
まずはとにかく落ち着いて冷静さを取り戻さなければならない。アキラは辛うじてそう判断すると、深呼吸を繰り返した。勝手に浮かんでくる様々な疑問から思わず思考を続けようとするたびに首を横に振り、意識を疑問から
アキラは最後に息を大きく吐いた。それで混乱から立ち直ると、落ち着いた頭で考えた答えを口に出す。
「すみません。その話は断ります」
「理由を伺っても?」
「えっと、前にも話したと思うんですけど、俺は今はアルファの依頼を受けている最中で、そういう話はアルファを通してほしいんです。それで、その、実は今、アルファとの接続が切れていて、ちょっと今話されても困るっていうか......」
「話している最中に直るかもしれないだろう?」
「通信障害を発生させているのが、私だからです」
く黙って事態の改善方法を思案していたが、何も思い浮かばなかった。
「......一応確認させてくれ。取引に応じないと殺す。そう脅しているのか?」
を放置して帰るだけです。それは見殺しで殺すのと同じだ、と言われても困りますけれど。取引に応じていただければ、報酬の一部としてクガマヤマ都市までお送りしますよ。申し訳ありませんが、私もいろいろと規則に縛られている身でして、そういう理由がなければ管理区画の外にはそうそう出歩けないのです。そこは御理解をお願いします」
アキラが再び悩み始める。アルファとの接続が回復すれば都市への帰還自体は可能だと考えている。だがその
「差し支え無ければ、その内容を伺っても?」
「アルファには借りが山ほどある。だからその借りを返す意味でも、アルファの依頼を出来るだけ優先したい。それだけだ。......まあ、最優先にしてるかって言われたら結構微妙で、アルファから嫌みも言われているけどさ。そこは、うん、適宜ってことで」
の命に関わることでもですか?」
「その程度のことなら、とっくに関わってるよ。あの時にアルファと出会わなかったら、俺はとっくに死んでいるからな。さっきも言ったが、俺はアルファから報酬の前払分を山ほど
アキラは自身の意思を再確認するように笑ってそう告げた。
ツバキはかなり意外そうな表情を浮かべている。しかし、そこに理解できないという疑念は浮かんでいなかった。そして表情を和らげる。
「随分と義理堅いのですね」
「金も力もねえスラム街のガキが出せるものなんか、義理と命ぐらいだ」
「他に出せるものが無いからといって、それを差し出す者ばかりではありませんよ。投げ出す者は幾らでもいますが」
『アキラ! 大丈夫!?』
アキラが驚きながら思わず視線をツバキに向ける。ツバキはアキラに
その直後、アキラの周囲の景色が砕けた。窓ガラス越しに見ていた景色が表示装置の映像だったように、景色が割れて落ちていく。そしてその割れ落ちた景色の裏から人型兵器が現れた。ザルモの機体だ。
アキラが驚くが、それはザルモも同じだった。機体のスピーカーから慌てふためく声が響く。
「アキラ!? 馬鹿な!」
機体の高度な索敵機器は、直前までその場に誰もいないことを示していた。アキラも同じで、機体の姿も気配も全く感じていなかった。ツバキが自分の周辺に高度な迷彩機能を展開していたのだ。
アキラが反射的に体感時間の操作を始める。その時の流れの中で、念話による口頭では不可能な高速の会話を行う。
『ちょっとにしてくれよ? 今日はもう無理は十分すぎるほどやったんだ』
アキラが苦笑を浮かべながら強化服の動きに身を任せる。更に超人もどきの身体能力で残った力を振り絞る。強化服が残存エネルギーを全て
機体がその場から急激に離脱しながら巨大な銃をアキラに向けようとする。だがアキラの方が速かった。既に刀を抜いたアキラの姿が機体のカメラに映し出されていた。刀の長さより大分遠い位置で、発光する刃を振り上げていた。
次の瞬間、その刀身が出力に耐えきれず砕け散る。どこまでも細かく砕けた破片が光の波となり、巨大な光刃へと姿を変える。アルファのサポートを得たアキラが、異常なまでに研ぎ澄まされた剣技を
く恨んでいても不思議は無い。だがアキラの態度からツバキへの負の感情は感じられない。その理由が、自分との接続が切れていた間にあった何かであるのならば、把握して対処しなければならない。
『アキラ。私との接続が切れている間に何があったのか教えてほしいのだけれど』
「俺は大義と共に在る。俺が死のうと大義は不滅。大義が不滅である以上、共に在る俺もまた不滅だ」
訳の分からない答えにアキラは頭を抱えた。だがすぐに気を切り替えた。
「そうか。それなら、何度でも死んでろ!」
『アルファ。前にシェリルの拠点を8人ぐらいで襲ってきたやつらがいて、1人凄く強いやつがいただろう? 殺したはずだけど、こいつはそいつらしい。いや、本人がそう言っていたんだけど、本当だと思うか?』
『確実に同一人物であると断定できるデータが無いから、分からないとしか答えられないわ』
『アキラ。私がいない間に、本当に何があったの?』
『そう。それならこれだけ先に教えて。彼女は味方と考えて良いの?』
アルファがそう言って空中を指差した。アキラがその方向を見ると、空中を走って自分の方に向かってきているネリアの姿があった。
『味方、......だと思いたい』
アキラには両手のブレードを握ったまま近付いてくるネリアを見て、助けに来てくれたと言い切る度胸はなかった。だが途中でブレードを
に着地する。そして両断された機体の残骸を見てから、アキラに楽しげに笑いかける。
「助けに来たわよ、と言おうと思ったけど、要らなかった?」
「ん? 飛んでいる敵を斬っていた最中にアキラを見付けたから、私だけ先に来ただけよ」
いろいろと要領を得ない返事だったが、狂人なりの理論があるのだろうと判断して、アキラは気にするのを止めた。
少し遅れて輸送機がビルの屋上に着陸する。降りてきたエレナ達がアキラの様子を見ると、表情を心配そうに険しくさせる。
「......アキラ。大丈夫なの?」
「あー、ちょっと大丈夫とは言えないですね。すみません。戦闘要員としては役に立てないと思います。あと、申し訳ないんですが、余ってる回復薬があれば頂けませんか? 手持ちのは使い切ったので。代金は後で払います」
「金なんか良いからすぐに全部使って」
「ありがとう御座います」
Ch 224
Although he had lost one arm, Akira did swing his blade with all his might. But even so, it amounted to nothing to Tsubaki as she was able to stop it with no effort at all.
"Don't worry, I have no wish to fight you. So please sheath your blade."
Akira could not do that since he was still in the middle of a battle. He suddenly remembered about Airi and the rest of the girls and quickly glanced around to check on them. That was when he was surprised. Other than him, everyone was unconscious.
Akira's confusion only got deeper as he looked back at Tsubaki. His guesses only served to give more questions than answers.
"...Why did you save me?"
"I didn't do anything."
"Then why are they unconscious?"
"Probably because their local network connection had been suddenly cut-off, which placed them under an immense burden. They relied too much on the head of the node to process data. Losing the head caused a big amount of data to stream to their individual nodes. I bet they couldn't withstand the stream of data and fainted."
Tsubaki let go of his blade. Akira was still not sure what the heck was going on but he sheathed his blade. If Tsubaki had no wish to fight him, it was a good thing for him as well, after all, he did not have any hope of winning in the first place. He understood at least that much.
"...So then, what do you need from me?"
"Just some small talk, if I may."
Akira thought that it might be bad to have a conversation with Tsubaki without Alpha around. But at the same time, he also thought that it would be a bad idea to tell Tsubaki that he had lost connection to Alpha. So he deliberately stiffened his expression and gave a vague reply.
"Sorry but I'm busy right now, can you save it for later? Like, you know, with all these fighting around the area..."
"In that case, I can guarantee your safety while you're having a conversation with me, how about that?"
Tsubaki offered a capsule to Akira.
"Some kind of medicine."
Akira could not help but frown.
The moment Akira swallowed the capsule, he could feel it immediately take effect. The stinging pain in his head quickly retreated together with the pain all over his body. It also greatly helped him recover from his fatigue. The medicine was extremely effective as always, although he found that weird, he decided to put that question for later thinking that it might be normal for old-world medicines.
"This place is rather dirty for a friendly chat, shall we change location?"
Tsubaki just ignored the atrocities on the floor and started walking casually. Akira glanced at the unconscious girls and thought that it might be a good idea to finish them while he still had the chance. But since it did not seem Tsubaki would wait for him to do that, he decided to just leave and followed Tsubaki with a conflicted face.
"I guess even the emergency life support system will not save him. It might be too late but I guess I'll still clean this up. In the worst-case scenario, it can at least be a good material to use."
The guy took out his blade and cut Katsuya, who was already cut into two, horizontally into 4 different pieces.
Tsubaki took Akira to the roof of the building. There, she looked at what was going on around the building and said with a rather pained voice.
"Ah, right, I see."
Akira was a Hunter. Basically, he was on the side of those who helped to cause the awful state of the ruin. He ended up interpreting Tsubaki's words as a roundabout way to sarcastically reproach him. The awkwardness caused him to only be able to give an equally awkward reply.
Although when Akira looked back at this exchange later, there would most likely be a lot of questions spawning from that statement. But he did not have the leeway to think about it at the moment. And since he did not ask anything, Tsubaki also did not explain anything further.
"...So then, let's get into the main subject. I've come to you with an offer."
Akira looked so confused. He was overwhelmed by all the questions that suddenly popped out of his mind. And since Tsubaki just stood calmly and gracefully next to him, it made his expression stick out even more.
Akira managed to gather his focus and reminded himself to calm down. He repeatedly took deep breaths. Every time his mind wandered to pursue one of the questions that popped up in his mind, he shook his head to get his mind back on track. He did so while still controlling his breathing. Thanks to that, he was able to force himself to calm down.
Akira heaved a final big sigh. With this, he had fully returned back to his usual self. After using his calm mind to think of his options, Akira then gave his answer.
"I'm sorry but I have to refuse."
"May I ask why?"
"Well, as I said before, I'm in the middle of a request from Alpha, so I would have to get your offer through Alpha first. And actually, at the moment, I can't connect to Alpha at all. So it's rather problematic for me if you bring me that offer right now, you see..."
"The jamming might fade away in the middle of our conversation though?"
"Because I'm the source of that jamming."
Akira sighed and rubbed his hair with his remaining hand. He went silent to think of a way to fix his situation, but nothing came up in his mind.
"...Let me at least ask you this. It's not like you'll kill me if I refuse your offer, right?"
"Of course, I won't do that. I'll just leave you here. Although, it's not like I will do anything more than that even if you consider that the same as me abandoning you here to die. But if you accept the offer, I'll at least escort you back to Kugamayama city. I'm really sorry but I'm under strict policy as well, so I can't just leave the area under my care without a good reason. I hope you can understand."
Akira once again was at loss on what to do next. He was hoping to rely on Alpha's support to get back to the city, but in order to do that, he would have to make Tsubaki turn off the jamming. Even if he wanted to postpone the negotiation indefinitely, he did not have anything to offer in exchange. It would have been easy if he just accepted that offer, but that would defeat the purpose of contacting Alpha in the first place.
"If you're okay with it, may I ask for further explanation?"
"I have a huge debt to Alpha. That's why I want to prioritize her request in order to repay that debt. That's all... Well, although, to be honest, I don't think it's at the top of my priority list though and Alpha tends to complain about that as well. But, you know, that part is not as simple."
"Even if it's something that concerns your life?"
"If that's what you're worried about, I already had my life on the line from the start. If I had not met Alpha back then, I would have been dead by now. Not only have I received so much support from her as upfront payment for her request, but the current me is also still far away from being able to accomplish her request. I'm not working as much as I should for the payment that I've received. It's a completely different matter if Alpha says that I don't have to repay her. But as long as she doesn't say that, I have no wish to just abandon that debt. That's all there is to it."
Akira said so as if to reconfirm his own line of thinking as he smiled lightly.
Tsubaki was caught by surprise. But it seemed that she could understand his argument. Her face softened as she commented.
"You're a very dutiful person."
"For a slum kid with no money or power, loyalty and life are the only things that I can offer."
"Just because you have nothing else to offer, not that many people can do the same, you know. Although, you can always find people who would throw those two things away meaninglessly."
"Akira! Are you okay!?"
Akira was surprised by her sudden appearance, but his gaze shifted to Tsubaki instead of Alpha and Tsubaki returned his gaze with an amicable smile. But that was not the case for Alpha, she immediately glared toward Tsubaki. Tsubaki did not show any particular reaction to that except for her usual gentle smile. As Alpha and Tsubaki were locking gaze, Akira was the only one getting flustered.
Right after that, the scenes around Akira suddenly shattered. The scene that he saw turned out to be nothing more than images. Soon, a powered suit was revealed behind the shattered images, it was Zalmo.
Akira and Zalmo were both equally surprised. Zalmo's surprise could be heard from the powered suit's speaker.
"Akira!? What a coincidence!"
The powerful radar of his powered suit did not detect any signals, that was also the case for Akira as well - he was not able to detect Zalmo at all. It was thanks to the powerful camouflage that Tsubaki used to encapsulate him.
Akira compressed his time perception by pure reaction. During that time, he exchanged words with Alpha through telepathy.
"Just a bit, okay? I've done more than enough crazy things for today."
Akria smiled bitterly and allowed Alpha to take over his augmented suit, allowing him to completely regain his superhuman physical ability. Moreover, he dumped all the remaining energy he had to increase the power output of his augmented suit way past the safety limit. It was bordering close to getting himself killed. Then, Akira leapt forward like a master to close the distance.
The powered suit immediately tried to open some distance between them while trying to shoot Akira down. But Akira was too fast. Zalmo could already see him ready with a blade in hand from the powered suit's camera. Akira swung the blade down when Zalmo was still out of the blade's range.
Right at the next moment, the blade could no longer maintain its form and started to crumble. It turned into dust and was carried away by the wind. Due to Alpha's support, Akira was able to execute a masterful swing with that blade.
As usual, although Alpha was smiling from the outside, she was digesting and calculating information while smiling. Due to the jamming, Akira lost his connection to her and he must have gone through a lot of crazy things when that happened. Moreover, he had lost an arm. There would have been no surprise if he looked at Tsubaki with hostility. But Akira did not seem to have any grudge against her. If the loss of his arm was because of something that happened while they lost contact, there was a need for Alpha to know what had transpired.
"Akira, it would be great if you can tell me what happened while we weren't connected."
"I'm one with the great cause. I will only die when the great cause dies. As long as the great cause is alive, then I will never die."
Akira rubbed his head, he did not have a single idea as to what Zalmo was saying. But he immediately threw that out of his mind and declared.
"Well, in that case, you can go ahead and die a thousand times!"
"Alpha, do you remember the eight people who attacked Sheryl's base the other day and there was one of them who was particularly strong? I'm pretty sure I killed that guy but it seems that this guy is the same guy from back then. Wait, he did say that but that doesn't mean that it is true, right? Do you think he's telling the truth?"
"I don't have enough data to confirm if he's really the same person, so I can only say that I don't know."
"Akira, just what exactly happened when I was not around?"
"I see, in that case, can you let me know first if she's friendly or not."
Alpha said so and pointed her finger to the sky. Akira looked in the direction that Alpha was pointing at and saw Nelia running in the sky. Even Akira did not expect that at all.
"She's not hostile... I hope."
Seeing how Nelia was running at him with blades on both of her hands, Akira could not say for certain that she was there to help him. But in the midst of running, Nelia sheathed her blades, giving Akira confirmation that she was friendly; for now.
Nelia landed next to him, she glanced at the split powered suit first before smiling amusedly at Akira.
"I'm here to help you, or so I want to say, but it doesn't seem you need it, hmm?"
"Hm? I was fighting the flying monsters when I saw you, that's why I came down here."
It was a very weird answer, but considering that Nelia was a battle maniac, Akira thought that it was completely normal for her.
Not too long after that, a transport aircraft also arrived. Elena's team who boarded off the aircraft scanned the area and looked worriedly at him.
"...Akira, are you okay?"
"Yeah. Although, I don't think I can say I'm okay in this state. I'm sorry but I don't think I can handle any more fights. And also, sorry but can you share some of your medicine? I've exhausted mine. I'll pay for it later."
"There's no need to pay, just take all of it."
"Thank you very much!"
Rebuild World (WN)
リビルドワールド
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/rebuild-world/
Action Adventure Drama Harem Mecha Mystery Sci-fi Seinen
Abandoned Children Adapted to Manga Adventurers Alternate World Anti-social Protagonist Apocalypse Artificial Intelligence Beautiful Female Lead Cautious Protagonist Child Protagonist Dense Protagonist Determined Protagonist Distrustful Protagonist Futuristic Setting Gangs Gunfighters Harsh Training Lack of Common Sense Male Protagonist Manipulative Characters Monsters Near-Death Experience Older Love Interests Poor Protagonist Poor to Rich Ruthless Protagonist Shota Sudden Strength Gain Survival Twisted Personality Unlucky Protagonist Weak to Strong
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n9736dt/
非公開