『あの治療、かなり効果があったみたいだな』
『旧世界の遺物を解析して作成したって言っていたし、あれでも腕は良いようね。遺物の回復薬も手に入ったし、良いことだわ』
『運が良かったわけか。まあ、あれだけ不運なことがあったんだ。これで帳尻が合ったんだろうな』
本日の不運は終了したのだ。アキラは何となくそう思っていた。
そのアキラから少し離れた場所で、本部の指揮者が少し
がりません。仮設基地周辺の色無しの霧の濃度が低下するまでは無理です。やはり地下街のハンターを地上に派遣しては?」
「地下街のハンターは地下街での活動を前提に契約しているのが大半だ。依頼内容に反する可能性が高い。我々には独断で大部分のハンターの実働場所を変える権限もない。あの遺物強奪犯との戦闘もかなり契約違反すれすれだぞ? 無理だ」
本部はケイン達の対処に頭を痛めていた。ケイン達を地下街から追い出すことには成功した。しかしハンター側にも多数の被害が出ていた。
も角、地上にいて重装甲強化服を着用して高火力の装備を保有している者が最低でも2人いる集団に対して、ヤラタサソリの巣の討伐依頼を受けているハンター達に捜索追撃指示を出すのは、現場にいる職員の権限を越えていた。
更にケイン達は奪った遺物を持って既に遠くまで逃走している可能性が高いのだ。本部の指揮者は周囲を捜索しても彼らが見つかるとは思えなかった。
「仕方ない。誰かを直接仮設基地に派遣してこちらの状況を伝える。それで恐らく防衛隊がこちらに派遣されるだろう。要件に適したハンターを選び、交渉してすぐに派遣させてくれ」
「分かりました」
指示を受けた職員が端末を操作して要件に適したハンターを探し始める。
地下街の奥に派遣しているハンターは駄目だ。本部に呼び寄せるまで時間が掛かる。ドランカムのような徒党に所属しているハンターは駄目だ。契約外の行動を指示する
「......つまり、端末を持って仮設基地に行けば良いんだな?」
「そうだ。正確には仮設基地と通信が可能な範囲まで近付けばいい。そうすれば端末が自動で仮設基地と連絡を取るからな。頼むよ。終わったら今日はもう上がって良いからさ。治療を受けていたようだし、本調子じゃないんだろう? 終わったら帰ってゆっくり休めば良い。お前も早く帰りたいだろう? 帰るついでに仮設基地に寄るだけだ」
アキラが少し考える。随分とアキラに都合の良い指示だ。
(やっぱり今日の不運はあれで終わったってことだな。早く帰って、ゆっくり風呂にでも入って、たっぷり寝て、明日の不運に備えるか)
帰って良いと言われると、すぐにでも帰りたくなってしまっていた。アキラは職員の頼みを受け入れると、すぐに帰る準備を始めた。
アキラの最低経過時間はまだ大分残っている。アキラは予定より大分早く地下街から出ることができて上機嫌だ。地下街に続くビルの近くに
『仮設基地に行けば今日の仕事は終わりだ。早く宿に戻ってゆっくり休もう』
『そうしましょう。強化服の調子も悪いし、できれば修理に出したいわ。シズカの店で応急処置ぐらいはできると良いのだけれど』
『じゃあ帰りにシズカさんの店に寄らないとな』
アキラがバイクに乗って仮設基地を目指す。仮設基地に続く道は
アルファが大分気を緩めている様子のアキラに話す。
『アキラ。仮設基地周辺は色無しの霧が濃くなっているから、念のため速度を落として進むわよ』
『了解だ。この辺は大丈夫なのか? 色無しの霧が濃いと、アルファの索敵能力が落ちるんだろ?』
『大丈夫よ。色無しの霧がかなり濃い場合でも、クズスハラ街遺跡の地上部分なら地下街以上の能力で索敵が可能よ』
『ますます地下街に戻りたくなくなってきたな。何とか都市側に言い訳して、依頼の期間を短くできないかな』
『腕の良い交渉人でも雇うしかないわね』
『そんな伝も金もない。無理だな』
アキラは諦めてバイクを走らせた。
も実際にバイクを運転しているのはアルファだ。アキラはハンドルを握って座っているだけだ。そしてアルファは強化服の操作もしているので、厳密にはハンドルを握っているのもアルファと言って良い。つまりアキラはほぼ何もしていない。
そのためアルファが急にバイクを横転寸前まで傾けて強引に減速し、そのままほぼ直角に強引に移動方向を変更した時、アキラの驚きは非常に大きなものになった。
な挙動の理由をアルファに尋ねようとする。
『アルファ!? 一体何だ......!?』
視界に映った物を見たアキラの表情が固まる。アキラは限界まで傾いた車体でアルファの方を、肩がすれそうな程に近い地面とは逆の方を見ていた。アキラの視界には、青い空と、一部が崩壊した高層ビルと、今まさに降り注ごうとしている大量の小型ミサイルが映っていた。
無数の小型ミサイルが色無しの霧を
ミサイルの着弾地点から少し離れた場所にケインとネリアが立っていた。地下街とは異なり地上には十分な広さがあるため、ケイン達が装備している重装強化服には拡張装備が取り付けられていた。
特にケインの装備は大型のものばかりで、本来は専用の車両や戦車に搭載するような小型のミサイルポッドまで取り付けられていた。
アキラを狙って大量の小型ミサイルを発射したのはケインだ。ケインが空になった小型のミサイルポッドを切り離す。切り離された小型ミサイルポッドが地面に激突して派手な音を立てた。
『地下街にいるあいつをどうやって殺そうかと考えていたが、向こうから外に出てきてくれるとは思わなかった! 運が良かったな! これで制御装置のロックは外れただろう!』
ケインの精神はかなりの高揚を見せていた。大量の小型ミサイルで敵を吹き飛ばす快感に加えて、旧世界の遺物の運搬を邪魔していた要因を排除できたからだ。
ネリアがいつも通りの声で答える。
『地下街に侵入する手段をいろいろ用意していたけど、無駄になったわね。まあ、手間が省けて良かったわ』
ケインとネリアは爆煙に包まれたクズスハラ街遺跡の光景を強化服のカメラを通して見ていた。小型のミサイルポッドを1箱使い切って一帯ごと吹き飛ばしたのだ。ケインはアキラの死亡を確信していた。
『ネリア。輸送車両の制御ユニットのロックは解除されたか?』
ネリアは強化服のカメラ越しに見ている映像を輸送車両の制御装置に送信していた。制御装置の死後報復依頼プログラムが映像を解析してアキラの死を認識すれば、制御装置のロックが解除されるはずなのだ。
ネリアが制御ユニットの状態を確認する。
『......駄目ね。外れてないわ』
『何でだ!? 今ので殺しただろ!?』
れて頭部に直撃したが、ケインの重装強化服は傷一つ付かなかった。
アキラがいた場所に到着したケインは頭部のカメラで周辺を確認する。飛び散った血や体の一部などを探したがそれらしいものは見つからない。
ケインの
『分かってるって。ちょっと待ってろよ』
ケインは巨大な手で
の下にアキラの死体はなかった。代わりに大破したバイクが転がっていた。アキラが乗っていたバイクだ。派手に壊れたバイクがケインの攻撃の威力を物語っていた。
『バイクを見つけてどうするのよ。本人を見つけて』
ちを解消するために派手な攻撃方法を選択してしまった。もっと周辺の被害がすくない攻撃にしておけば良かったと、ケインは自身の選択を少し後悔した。
ケインはアキラの死体が近くにあるものと決めつけて情報収集機器の収集範囲を狭めていた。その設定ならば
『......ねえな。爆風で吹き飛ばされたか?』
ケインはそう考えて情報収集機器の探知範囲を少し広げた。しかしアキラの死体らしい反応はない。少しずつ機器の探知範囲を広げていく。それでもアキラの死体は見つからない。
焦り始めたケインが
『そこか!』
ケインは喜びながら重装強化服の頭部カメラをその方向に向けた。ケインがカメラ越しに見た映像は、CWH対物突撃銃を構えてケインを狙うアキラの姿だった。
アキラがケインの攻撃を受けた時、アルファは可能な限りの回避行動を取っていた。
全ての小型ミサイルの着弾位置を計算して回避不可能だと判断すると、最も被害の少ない場所に全速力で移動した。そしてアキラの強化服の出力を限界まで上げると、意図的にバイクのバランスを崩しながら足を地面に付けて、慣性に流されながらバイクを持ち上げてミサイルの盾にした。
バイクを盾にしてミサイルの直撃を防ぎ、爆風に逆らわずに跳びのいて衝撃を軽減し、地面に
全てはほんの僅かな時間に異常なまでの精密さで行われていた。何かが少しでも狂えばアキラは死んでいた。アルファはアキラの強化服を操作して、僅かな狂いもなくそれを実行した。
それでもなおアキラへの被害は大きかった。無数のミサイルによる爆風の衝撃。強化服を全力で動かしたことによる負荷。地面に
(......何だ? ......何が起こっている? ......俺は寝ていたのか? ......いつ寝たんだ? どこで? 家で? 家に帰った? ......帰ったか? ......移動中だったか?)
アキラが混乱しながら答えの出ない自問を繰り返す。混乱しながらも意識の混濁から回復していく。そこでアキラは
『アキラ! 起きなさい! アキラ! 死にたくなかったら今すぐに起きなさい!』
アルファに怒鳴られている。過去の窮地でアキラが状況を悲観的に捉えても、そのアキラとは正反対に余裕の
『敵に反撃しなさい! すぐに! 急いで!』
アキラの手が地面に転がっているCWH対物突撃銃に勝手に伸びる。アキラが激痛に耐えながらアルファの指示を実行しようとする。
アキラは今までの経験で理解している。アルファの指示を速やかに確実に実施しなければ、アキラの生存確率が限りなく下がっていくことを。
アキラはケインの腕が動き始めた直後に回避行動を取って辛うじてその銃弾の嵐から逃げ延びた。
ネリアからケインに通信が入る。
『ケイン? 何があったの? モンスターでもいたの?』
『あいつだ! 生きてやがった!』
『そうなの? ミサイルの着弾位置を死体が残るように調整したら、殺せずに
『違う! あいつ、俺のミサイルを避けてやがった! しかも俺に一撃入れた上に、今の攻撃もしっかり
力場装甲
『知らないわ。ヤジマを殺したやつなんだから、多少は強いかもと思ってはいたけどね。それはケインも知ってることでしょう?』
『そ、そうだけどよ......』
ネリアが状況から推察した内容をケインに話す。
『ヤジマが死ぬ前に言っていたわ。都市のエージェントと遭遇した可能性があるって。あいつがそうなのかもね。ヤジマが準備をしくじって都市側に計画が漏れていた。少なくとも遺物が奪取される可能性があると判断された。それで都市が地下街にいるハンターの中にエージェントを紛れ込ませておいたのかもしれない。遺物奪取犯を相手にする可能性があるのなら、CWH対物突撃銃の専用弾を持っていても不思議はないわ』
ネリアの推察は全て間違っているのだが、現在の状況に自然に一致している。ケインが更に慌て始める。
『どうするんだ? それが正しいなら、最悪、都市の防衛隊がここに来るぞ?
『都市側が本気で警備する気だったのなら、あいつ1人ってことはないはずよ。つまり、念のために一応配備しておいたって程度ね。急いであいつを殺しさえすれば問題ないわ。都合の良いことに、仮設基地周辺は色無しの霧が濃いみたいで仮設基地と連絡が取れないはずよ。時間はあるわ』
『そういうこと。行きましょう』
ケインとネリアがアキラの後を追い始める。都市の防衛隊がこの場に駆けつける可能性は確かにある。しかしケイン達にとって都合の良いことに、アキラを殺す程度の時間はありそうなのだ。
ケイン達が集めた旧世界の遺物の売却金は
ケインの攻撃から逃れたアキラがクズスハラ街遺跡を走っている。バイクは破壊された。走るしかないのだ。
アキラは走りながらヤツバヤシから買った回復薬を飲み込む。アキラの全身を
『違う! 知りたいのは技術解説じゃなくて、どうすれば良いのかだ! CWH対物突撃銃の専用弾を防がれた対応方法だ!』
『相手が無傷ではないことを期待して撃ち続けるしかないわね』
『弱点とかないのか!?』
アキラが険しい表情を浮かべる。CWH対物突撃銃の専用弾はこの周辺のモンスターへ使用するには過剰な威力だ。命中さえすればほぼ確実に撃破できる威力だ。アキラはその威力に安心を覚えていた。
だが今はその直撃を食らっても倒せるどころか反撃してくる敵に襲われているのだ。アキラの動揺は大きかった。
『今は何も考えずに距離を取りなさい。回復薬も使い切って。私に何とかできるのなら、私が必ず何とかするわ。今までのようにね』
『......。そうだな。頼んだ』
『任せなさい』
アルファはアキラにしっかりそう答えた。しかし
アルファはアキラの少し前を浮かびながら、真剣な表情でアキラを先導している。アキラはそのアルファの表情を見て、この不運がアルファのサポートで対処可能なものであることを願いながら走り続けた。
アルファがアキラに体の治癒具合を尋ねる。
『アキラ。体の調子はどう?』
『......痛みはない。でもこれは回復薬の鎮痛作用だな。手足もちゃんと動くけど、中身がどうなっているかまでは分からないな』
アキラの手足は一見問題なく動いているように見える。しかしそれは強化服がアキラの意思通りに動いているだけだ。強化服の中身が真っ当な状態かどうかは分からない。アキラは強化服の内側がどうなっているか想像したくなかった。
『アキラはできる限り動かずに、回復薬の治療効果をできるだけ高めておいて。敵が追ってきたら、ここで迎え撃つわ。覚悟を決めなさい』
『......分かった。逃げ切るのは無理そうなんだな?』
『向こうの機動力、索敵範囲、武器の射程を推測した結果から考えて、かなり困難だわ。遮蔽物の少ない開けた場所に誘導されたら、相手の初回の攻撃から判断すると勝ち目はゼロね。あれでも周囲のビルや
く狭くて、運良く相手の武器の有効射程も短くて、運良く相手がもう弾切れなことを期待して、分の悪い賭に出て、頑張って逃げてみる?』
アキラが苦笑して答える。
『止めとくよ。アルファに出会えたこと以外の幸運は期待しないことにしてるんだ』
アキラはアルファと出会って人生の残りの幸運を使い切った。だから
アキラは念話での返答と一緒に、その思考の一部を、言語化されていない感情を、無意識にアルファに飛ばしていた。
それを認識したアルファが口調を強めてアキラに話す。
『アキラ。言っておくけれど、私は負ける気なんて
アルファはそこに実在しているわけではない。アキラの視界を拡張してアルファがそこにいるように描画しているだけだ。アキラはそれを知っている。それを知った上で、アキラはアルファをじっと見ている。
アキラを見るアルファの姿は、アキラを見ているように描画されているだけだ。その両目でアキラを見ているわけではない。それでもアルファはアキラをしっかり見ていた。
『アキラ。覚悟を決めなさい。そうすればいつも通りよ』
アルファが笑ってそう言った。アキラが見るアルファの笑顔には、いつも通りの信頼があった。アキラの精神の指向性が、勝ち目のない敵に死ぬまで抵抗する、から、生き延びるために全力を尽くす、に切り替わる。
『覚悟を決めるのは俺の役目、だったか。分かった。ちょっと弱気になってたな。悪い。良し! 覚悟は決めた!』
アキラの実力では生還不可能な状況で生き残る
しそうに笑っていた。その時のアルファの表情と内心は一致していると言って良いだろう。
アキラの意思をアルファの言葉でより良い状態に推移させたことを、アルファの計算推測予測の通りに制御調整誘導できたことを確認できたのだから。
"It seems that treatment actually works, huh."
"Well, he did say that he made the liquid by analyzing old-world medicine. Your arms seem to be properly healed, and not to mention that we got old-world medicine too. All in all, that was a good decision."
"So basically it was good luck, huh. Well, after all of that bad luck, I guess this will reset the score back to zero."
He thought that he had already gone through the last bad luck for the day.
Not too far from where Akira was, there was an HQ staff who was talking with his subordinates, he sounded a bit irritated.
"We're still trying to contact them, but we can't get any connections at all. We won't be able to contact the temporary base until the colourless mist weakens. It might be a better idea to send some Hunters from the underground to the surface."
"Most of the Hunters here are contracted to work underground. We might need to change the details of the request if we have to send them to the surface, but we don't have the right to do so. Sending them to fight those relics thieves is already barely outside their job description, you know? So we can't do that!"
The HQ was having a huge headache in deciding how to deal with the rest of Yajima's friends. Although the HQ successfully flushed them out from the underground, the HQ sacrificed a lot of Hunters to do so.
It was possible for them to request Hunters to go down there due to the lack of information. But now they knew there were a group of at least 2 people in the surface equipped with powered suits and powerful weaponry. So they did not have the authority to send the Hunters, who came for the Yarata Scorpion nests extermination request, to hunt for that group.
Not to mention, there was a good chance they already ran far away from the ruin with all the relics that they stole. The HQ did not think that they would be able to find that group even if they searched around the area.
"It can't be helped then. We have no other choice but to send someone to the temporary base and directly convey the message. I'm sure they're also thinking of sending someone this way. Find a Hunter suitable for the job and dispatch him immediately."
"Yessir."
His men immediately operated their terminal to look for a suitable Hunter for the job.
They could not pick Hunters who were already deep inside the underground city since it would take some time for that Hunter to return to the HQ. They also could not pick someone from Drankam. If they assigned someone affiliated with a particular organization to a job outside their contract, the HQ would need to negotiate with the manager of that organization which would take some time.
"...So in short, I just need to carry this terminal to the temporary base, right?"
"That's right. To be more precise, you just need to go close enough to get a connection with the temporary base and the terminal will automatically send the message. So please, can you do that for us? You may finish your shift and immediately return back home right after that. You just got yourself treated, right? So you must be injured. You can just go, quickly finish it, return back home and then take a good rest. I'm sure you also want to go back home as soon as possible, you just need to visit the temporary base on your way back home."
Akira thought for a while. It sounded too good to be true for him.
[Welp, it seems that I really exhausted all of my bad luck for today. I guess I should quickly go back home, take a good bath, sleep well and get myself ready for my tomorrow's share of bad luck.]
Since he was told that he was allowed to finish his shift and return back immediately after doing that, it made him really want to go back home as soon as possible. So Akira accepted that request and got himself ready to return back home.
Akira actually still had a lot of time left until he finished his shift. So he was happy that he could leave the underground city sooner than expected. He went to pick up his bike that he parked not too far away from the building connected to the underground city. He was smiling happily as he said to Alpha.
"My job for today will be finished after I visit the temporary base. Let's finish this, quickly return back to the inn, and take a good rest."
"Yep, let's do that. Your augmented suit is also damaged, so you might want to send it for repair as soon as possible. It would be great if we can get it temporarily fixed in Shizuka's shop though."
"Well, in that case, I guess I have to visit Shizuka-san's shop on my way back."
Akira got on his bike and headed to the temporary base. Most of the rubbles and wreckages were already cleaned out from the road connecting to the temporary base. If nothing bad happened, he would be able to reach the temporary base in no time.
Alpha looked relaxed as she said to Akira.
"Akira, it seems that the colourless mist around the temporary base is getting thicker. Just to be safe, I'll lower the speed."
"Roger that. How about this area? Your detection ability falls off inside a thick colourless mist, right?"
"It's alright. Although we're in a thick colourless mist, my detection ability is still better in this open place compared to when we were in the underground."
"Haah, that only makes me not want to go back to the underground even more. I wonder if we can come up with some kind of excuses so that the city would reduce the length of my contract."
"Your only chance is if you pay someone with good negotiating skill."
"I have neither the connection nor the money to do that."
Akira just gave up as he rode his bike through the wasteland.
He paced his bike to the temporary base. But in all actuality, it was Alpha who was controlling the bike. He was just gripping on the handle and sitting on the seat. But since Alpha was also controlling his augmented suit, it could be said that it was her who was gripping the handle too. So in short, he was actually doing nothing, it was all done by Alpha.
Thus Akira was caught off guard when Alpha suddenly made a 90 degrees turn.
He turned to Alpha in reflex and asked her why she did that so suddenly.
"Alpha!? Why did you do that...?!"
Akira's face froze the moment he saw what was coming at him. He was leaning so low that his shoulder almost touched the ground as he turned his head away from the ground. Far away from him, he could see a tall building crumbling down against the backdrop of the blue sky together with hundreds of small missiles that were pouring down in his direction.
The countless small missiles cut through the colourless mist and left traces in the sky as they rained down on the area around him. Some of them hit the ground while some of them hit the walls of the buildings scattered around the area followed by loud explosions that echoed through the area. They wrapped the area with explosions and smokes as they destroyed buildings and the paved road, leaving the area filled with new rubbles.
Kain and Nelia were standing not too far from the area where the missiles rained down. Since the surface was wide open compared to the cramped underground, they could freely use the new heavy weapons that they installed on their powered suits.
Especially Kain, he was carrying nothing but heavy weaponry. He was even carrying missile pods that were normally only installed on a special type of tank or vehicle.
Kain was the one who unleashed those small missiles toward Akira. He detached the empty missile pod from his powered suit, the missile pod made a loud banging sound as it fell to the ground.
"And here I was at loss on how we are going to kill that boy, but to think that he would come out to the surface by himself!! We're really lucky, aren't we? There won't be much trouble now to remove the lock from the truck's control device."
Kain was in high spirits. He was savouring the feeling of satisfaction from killing his target by pouring down countless missiles at him. But that was not all, it was also because he thought he was finally able to remove the person who was preventing him from carrying all the old-world relics that he had gathered.
Nelia sounded completely normal as she replied back.
"Although I've prepared so many different plans to go back to the underground, I guess they're all for naught now, huh. Well, it doesn't really matter, it's a good thing that he reduced the work for us."
Kain and Nelia were gazing towards the Kuzusuhara ruin, which was blanketed in smoke, through the camera of their powered suits. Kain emptied 1 whole missile pod at Akira, so he thought that Akira would be dead for sure.
"Nelia, is the lock on the truck removed yet?"
Nelia sent the image captured from her powered suit's camera to the truck's control device. If the control device could confirm Akira's death from that image, it should be able to remove the lock on the control device.
Nelia checked the control unit.
"...Nope. It's still locked."
"Huh?! But how?! That should kill him, right?!!"
Kain went to look for Akira's corpse. The powerful reverse joint of his powered suit crushed the wreckages under him as he walked towards the ruin. Suddenly, a building close to him crumbled right onto his head, but it did not even damage Kain's powered suit.
When he arrived at where Akira was, he used his head camera to look for Akira's body. But he could not find anything, not even a trace of flesh or blood.
Nelia could hear Kain's mumbling, so she snapped at him.
"Yeah yeah. Give me a few minutes."
Kain grabbed the wreckages using his huge hand and threw them out of the road. The huge wreckage made a loud banging sound as they landed on the ground. It simply showed the strength of his powered suit.
But even then, he could not find Akira's body under the rubbles. But instead, he found a destroyed bike. It was the bike that Akira was riding. The completely destroyed bike was a testament to Kain's overwhelming firepower.
"There's nothing we can do with the bike, find the body!!"
Kain had vented his irritation by using his overwhelming firepower. He regretted his choice now as he thought that he should have used something that would have caused less damage to the area.
He thought that Akira's body should be around, so he pulled out his information-gathering device to scan the area. With its current setting, it should be able to find any corpse buried under the rubbles.
"...Still nothing. Did his body get thrown away because of the explosion?"
He thought so and increased the scan-range of his information-gathering device. But he still could not find any signal that looked like Akira's dead body. So he slowly increased the scan range, even then, he still could not find anything.
Kain started to get impatient and set the scan range to the max. He got a signal right after he did it.
"Over there, huh!!"
He sounded happy as he turned the camera of his powered suit towards the direction of that signal. But the moment he did that, he could see Akira's CWH anti-material rifle's muzzle staring straight at him.
When the missiles rained down on Akira, Alpha moved his body and tried her best to avoid the missiles.
The moment her calculation showed that it was impossible to evade all of the small missiles, she quickly decided to move Akira to the safest place possible near him. She increased the output of the augmented suit to the maximum and intentionally let the bike fall to the ground. Using the inertia, Akira slid on his leg under the bike and used the bike as a shield from the missiles.
Akira was able to defend himself from the missiles by using his bike as a shield. He also did not fight the explosions as he let the shockwave throw his body and quickly fixed his body position before landing to soften the blow.
Everything happened in a short span of time with unbelievable accuracy. Even the slightest error would have spelt doom for Akira. Alpha controlled his augmented suit and moved his body with absolute accuracy.
But even so, the damage was not small. The impact from the shockwave of the missiles, the stress that the augmented suit put on his body to pull those crazy manoeuvres, plus the countless impacts that his body absorbed when he was slammed to the ground, all of them drained Akira's consciousness bit by bit.
[...What... What just happened...? Did I just fall asleep...? Since when I fell asleep? Where am I? Is this my room? Did I get back to my room...? Am I already in my room? Or am I still on my way back?]
Akira kept asking himself those questions in confusion. He slowly got his senses back and eventually noticed Alpha who was calling him.
"Akira!! Wake up!! Akira!! If you don't want to die here, get up!!"
Alpha was yelling at him. In the past, no matter how bad the situation was, in contrast to Akira who was panicking, she would always smile. But that Alpha was yelling at him right now. The moment he noticed it, he quickly snapped back to his senses.
"Shoot back at the enemy!! Right now!! Quickly!!"
Akira quickly extended his hand to the CWH anti-material rifle that was lying on the ground. He gritted his teeth enduring the pain while trying to follow Alpha's orders.
He understood very well from his experience that if he did not do what Alpha told him as fast as he could, his survival chance would take a dive.
The moment he saw Kain's arms move, Akira quickly took evasive action. Thanks to that, he was able to avoid the bullets' barrage.
Nelia called Kain.
"Kain? What just happened? Did you find a monster or something?"
"It's that boy!! He's still alive!!"
"Is that so? Was he on the verge of death? You adjusted the missiles to at least leave a corpse behind, right? So then, did you just shoot him to make sure that he's dead? Did you properly kill him this time?"
"That's not it!! That boy evaded the missiles barrage!! Moreover, he got a shot at me!! And he also evaded my shot just now!! He even depleted a huge chunk of my force field energy with his shot!! Was that CWH special ammo?!! That's the ammo you usually use for hunting tanks or mechanical monsters, right?! Isn't there only Yarata scorpions in the underground?!! So why the heck he's using that ammo?!! This is just too strange!!"
"Judging from the flash of light that the force field made, his shot packed a powerful punch! Nelia!! You sent me first since you knew that this would happen, didn't you?!!"
"Like hell if I knew. But I did expect him to be someone pretty strong since he killed Yajima. You should at least know that much, right?"
"W-well, you're right, but still..."
Nelia made a guess about the situation and said to Kain.
"Before he died, Yajima did say that it might be an agent sent by the city, remember? So that might be him. Yajima might have made a mistake during the planning and got the whole plan leaked out. Or at least, something leaked out and the city somehow got suspicious that he would be stealing the relics. So that boy might be an agent who was sent by the city to blend in with the Hunters in the underground. It won't be strange for him to be using CWH special ammo if he was expecting to fight against relics burglars."
Although Nelia was absolutely wrong, her explanation fit the current situation. Kain was getting more and more panicked now.
"What should we do then? If that's true, then in the worst-case scenario, the city might even have sent its army this way, you know? There's no way we can deal with that."
"If the city was seriously expecting this to happen, there's no way they would send him alone like this. So in short, he was sent just for caution's sake. There should be no problem if we kill him quickly. Fortunately, thanks to the colourless mist, he shouldn't be able to contact the temporary base at the moment. So we have some time to kill him."
"Yep, that's right. Let's go."
Kain and Nelia chased Akira. There was a good chance that the defense squad from the city was heading their way. But fortunately, they had plenty of time to kill Akira.
The relics that they had gathered would earn them a huge amount of money. Because of that, they just could not easily give up on killing Akira.
After escaping the barrage from Kain, Akira was running among the ruins. His bike was already destroyed, so he had no choice but to use his legs.
Akira popped out the medicines that he bought from Yatsubayashi. The intense pain slowly subsided from his body, but it was no more than the effect of painkillers from the medicines, his body was still in a very bad condition.
"That's not it!! I wasn't asking about how he did that, I was asking what I should do now?! He can take CWH special ammo head-on, so what can I do to fight him?!!"
"I guess there's no other choice but to keep shooting at him hoping that it would at least deal some damages."
"Isn't there any weakness?"
Akira became worried. The CWH special ammo had more than enough firepower to kill any kind of monsters that he could find in that area. It could destroy any monsters as long as he hit his shot, he knew that and took solace in its firepower.
But right now, he was fighting against someone who could survive his bullet and even shoot back at him right after. It was a shocking thing to him.
"Just don't think about it for now and get some distance from him. You also have run out of medicines too. I'll do anything that I can, just like always."
"...You're right. I'll be counting on you."
"Leave it to me."
Alpha replied back firmly, but she was still not smiling.
She was floating ahead of Akira while guiding him with a serious face. Akira, who saw her expression, kept running while hoping that her support would be able to handle this bad luck.
Alpha asked Akira about his body condition.
"Akira, how are you feeling right now?"
"...I don't feel pain anymore. But I think this is because of the painkiller. Although I can move my limbs, I don't know if they're okay inside."
Akira seemed to be able to move his limbs just fine. But that was only because of his augmented suit, he had no idea how it looked under his augmented suit, or more like, he did not even want to imagine it.
"Akira, try not to move at all to maximize the effect of the medicines. If they chase you all the way here, you'll make your stand in this place. So get your resolve ready."
"...I understand. It doesn't look like I can run away, huh?"
"Looking at their ability to move, search, and the power of their weaponry, I think it's highly unlikely that you can run away from them. Judging from their first attack, you would have zero chance to win if you get out into an open space. Even back then with that amount of wreckages and buildings around, you were only able to get out in one piece from there by using your bike as a shield, you remember?"
"Want to try running away from them hoping that you're lucky that they don't have the expected mobility or scanning range or firepower?"
Akira smiled bitterly.
"No thanks. I'm not expecting to find any more good luck after I met you."
Akira used all his life-worth of luck when he met Alpha. That was why during his dangerous Hunter work, he would try to do good deeds to replenish his scarce supply of good luck and then use it in tandem with Alpha's support to overcome any problems. She also told him something similar to that in the past and he believed it.
As Akira replied back through telepathy, a part of his feeling and emotion that he did not convert into words were also unintentionally sent to Alpha.
Alpha who received that message said to him resolutely.
"Akira, I'll say this to you upfront. I have no plan of losing. Do you think that my support is something so worthless that it would not be able to fight back this level of a bad situation?"
It was not like Alpha was actually there. Akira was only seeing her image that was added into his vision. He understood that very well, but even so, he kept his eyes locked at that image of Alpha.
The image of Alpha that he was staring at was looking back at him. It was not like those eyes were actually looking at him, but even so, Alpha kept staring at him.
"Akira, get your resolve ready. If you do so, this will just be like business as usual."
Alpha smiled. Akira stared at her smile, there was a trace of his usual trust in his eyes. His subconscious shifted from fighting back as hard as he could in a futile fight into fighting back as hard as he could to survive the fight.
"Getting my resolve ready is my responsibility, huh? Alright, I'm sorry I got all pessimistic. Alright then! I'm ready!"
Just like he always did until now, in order to survive the harsh life that he was living or to cross the countless dangerous bridges that he had faced, Akira stood up.
Seeing how Akira stood up, leaving all his hesitations behind, Alpha smiled happily. At that moment, it could be said that her expression agreed with her honest feeling.
After all, seeing how her words could change Akira's inner will to a better direction, showed the fact that she was able to manipulate his will the way she wanted and that her will adjustment protocol was functioning as expected.
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/
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