215 混戦
地面に倒れて気絶していたアキラが目を覚ます。何とか起き上がろうと鈍い動きで身を起こし、吐血する。そして近くの壁で体を支えながら立ち上がろうとした。だが激痛に耐えきれず転倒する。既に意識上の現実操作は切れている。脳は
と一緒に服用した。大量服用による悪影響など一切気にせずに、持っていた分を全て飲み込んだ。1箱1000万オーラムの回復薬が値段相応の効果を発揮する。痛みが引いていき、意識が鮮明になっていく。動ける程度の体力を取り戻すと、今度はしっかりと立ち上がった。周囲を見渡して、落としていた刀と銃を拾い、状況を把握し直す。
(......どれだけ気絶していたんだ? 数秒? 数分? 数時間? 死なずに済んだってことは、あいつは倒せたのか? 着地した記憶がない。強化服と防御コートの
める。頭部に装着している表示機器には、指示を求める理由が分かりやすく表示されていた。移動経路にしている後方連絡線への道が、大規模な戦闘と考えられる多数の反応で埋め尽くされていた。
「どうなってるんだ? またモンスターの襲撃か? 勘弁してくれ......」
待機状態だった車の制御装置が敵の攻撃を察知して自動的に急発進する。アキラがその慣性でベッドから落とされる。すぐに応戦の準備をしながら愚痴を吐く。
「早いぞ畜生!」
どの選択であれ、速やかに選択していればアキラの休憩時間はもう少し延びていた。そういう意味で、アキラの選択は最悪だった。
車の制御装置が損傷を受けた装甲タイルの位置から敵の攻撃方向を
アキラがそちらの方向に注意を向けると、ハンター風の少年が逃げるように走ってきていた。強化服を着て走るアキラ並みの速さだ。
アキラは取りあえず援護して話を聞こうと考えると、車の機銃を少年の後方に向ける。そして照準を合わせようとして、表情を驚きと困惑で
アキラは嫌な予感を覚えながらも走行中の車の扉を開けると、少年を問いただそうと声を荒らげる。
少年はアキラに銃を向け、
「また誰かあの世から帰ってきたのか!? 誰だよ! まさかセブラとか言い出すんじゃないだろうな!」
「誰だそいつは! 俺はティオルだ!」
「知るか! 誰だ!」
が着弾して爆発する。車の屋根に立っていたティオルもその爆発に飲み込まれたが、防御コートのようなもので身を守り軽微な被害に抑えていた。そのティオルの格好は、巨人となったティオルと戦っていた時のアキラの格好と非常によく似ていた。
ティオルは舌打ちして車から飛び降りると、併走しながらアキラに顔を向けて宣言する。
「後回しにしてやる。だが絶対殺してやるからな! あいつも、お前もだ!」
ティオルはそう言い残すと、自分を追ってきたハンター達をまるでアキラの車を援護するような動きで銃撃した後、異常なまでに高い身体能力でその場から離脱した。
アキラは続く不測の事態に僅かに
「あの野郎! 俺に押し付けやがった!」
ハンター達の攻撃の激しさは、アキラをティオルの仲間だと確実に誤解していることを示していた。事情を説明しようと思っても通信は圏外のままだ。
がる距離、
「全く、どうなってるんだ?」
ティオルを追っていたハンター達のリーダーが険しい表情を浮かべている。
リーダーの若手ハンターが決意を新たにする。
「どこの誰でどんな目的だったとしても邪魔はさせない! この大規模遺跡探索は絶対に成功させる! 絶対だ! こちらカツヤ! 被害を報告してくれ! 誰か見付けても、通信が回復するまで俺達以外は絶対に信用するな! また襲われるぞ!」
ティオルを追っていたのは、カツヤ達のチームだった。
アキラは状況を把握できないまま遺跡の中を移動し続けていた。状況は悪化し続けている。索敵機器で捉えた交戦反応は既に辺り一帯に広がっている。上空で人型兵器と機械系モンスターが交戦している様子も何度か捉えた。地上では大型モンスターとも何度か遭遇し、車載の機銃で粉砕して難を逃れた。
今回の大規模遺跡探索では都市の人型兵器部隊が安全を確保する。その当初の計画が既に破綻しているのは、
「今までアルファに頼りっぱなしだったツケが回ってきた結果か」
アキラは他のハンターを探して合流するのも
「久しぶりね。こんなところで会うなんて、やっぱりアキラとは縁があるようね。ちょうど良かったわ。ちょっと手伝ってくれない?」
「......誰だ?」
「私よ。ネリアよ」
アキラが慌てて周囲を見合わす。
「どこにいる?」
「近くに半壊した機体が転がっているでしょう? その中よ。自力で出られないから出してほしいの」
アキラは少し迷ったが、機体に慎重に近付くと出入口部分の
の再会なのに、随分な対応ね」
「そう? まあ良いわ。取りあえず仮設基地まで運んでもらえない?」
め息を吐く。そして銃を下ろした。ネリアの態度は自分が撃たないと思っているからではない。それはアキラにも分かっていた。相手は間違いなく狂人で、敵ではないことをその狂気が保証している。その妙な感覚にアキラは世の広さを思い知っていた。
「一応確認する。今は味方。その認識で良いんだな?」
「アキラもそう思っているのならね」
「分かった。敵に回る時は、その前に一声掛けてくれ」
「分かったわ。アキラもちゃんと声を掛けてね」
「運転、下手なのね。代わりましょうか?」
「この車種なら制御装置との接続用の端子とかあるでしょう? それで
「指揮官がよほどの馬鹿じゃなければ撤退したでしょうね。遠距離攻撃が効かなかったから接近戦特化の機体で仕掛けてみたんだけど、あっさり返り討ちにされたわ。近距離でも遠距離でも勝ち目無し。あの後にあの状況を覆す何かがあったとは思えないわ。何らかの手段があったのなら、とっくに使っていたはずよ」
「食い止めていた部隊がいなくなったのだから、今はそこらをうろちょろしていると思うわ。そもそもあの自動人形の
にでも後方連絡線を通って仮設基地まで撤退だ。後方連絡線への道にも大規模な戦闘の反応があったけど、ここに残るよりましだろう」
アキラは勝手に行き先を決められていたことに釈然としないものを覚えながらも、結果的には良かったので深くは突っ込まなかった。
「それにしても、アキラの話を聞く限りハンター側の統制も崩壊か。しかも何が原因にしろ、知り合い以外は信じられない状況とはね。面倒だわ。そんな状況で出会えたなんて、お互い運が良かったわね」
車載の索敵機器が高速で近付いてくる反応を捉える。アキラはそれに気付くと敵なら迎撃する
「ネリア。あの機体はお前の迎えとかか?」
「敵よ! 撃ち落として!」
ネリアの返事と同時に、敵機体が銃を構える。
でもあった。だが完全には避けきれず、人型兵器が構える巨大な銃から撃ち出された弾丸が車体の屋根や側面に激突した。
高価な装甲タイルが着弾の衝撃から車体を守り、その価値を示し終えて剥がれ落ちていく。それでも衝撃を完全には消しきれず、車体が転倒しかねないほどに大きく揺れる。それでも何とか転倒せずに車の体勢を維持できたのは、ネリアの高い運転技術のおかげだ。
敵の射線から逃れた車の中でアキラが敵の反応を確認する。反応の動きは敵が健在であることを示していた。
「ネリア。一応聞くぞ。あの機体に襲われる覚えは?」
「ないわ。アキラは?」
「何を言ってるのよ。反応の動きを見れば、友好的な接近行動ではないことぐらい分かるでしょう?」
アキラには分からなかった。だが、分からない、と正直に答えるのもどうかと思って黙っていると、その沈黙を不審と捉えたネリアが不満げに補足を入れてくる。
「まあ、確かに向こうもこちらを警戒しているだけだった可能性はあったわ。でも現状の通信状態で機体の識別コードを受信できる距離まで近付けるのは危険すぎるわ。敵ではないのなら、向こうもそれぐらい理解しているはず。その上で敵意のない接近行動をしなかったのだから、敵じゃなかったとしても敵で良いのよ。多少は結果論で、敵味方の識別手段を少し省いたのは否定しないけど、不意を
アキラがごまかしを兼ねて同意するとネリアも機嫌を戻した。
「しかし俺にもネリアにも心当たりがないとすると、人型兵器の部隊のやつが味方を全部失って半狂乱にでもなって、手当たり次第に襲ってるのか?」
その時、短距離通信がアキラ達の車に届いた。先ほどの機体が短距離通信の出力を限界まで上げて一方的に飛ばしてきたのだ。
「アキラ! 逃がさねえぞ! お前はここで殺す! 確実にだ!」
「......声で判断するなら、ザルモってやつだ」
「そう。それで彼とはどんな関係なの? 随分と
「誘う亡霊って、旧世界の管理人格とかじゃないのか? ビルの管理とかをやってるやつだ。ミハゾノ街遺跡のセランタルビルって場所でそんなのを見たぞ」
「誘う亡霊の正体には諸説あるのよ。まあ、それは別にしても、旧世界の医療技術なら、脳が吹き飛んだ程度の
を実現しかねないのが旧世界でしょう? アキラもハンターをやってるんだから、旧世界に限っては、有り得ない、なんてことこそ有り得ないって覚えておいた方が良いわよ?」
アキラは今まで常識外れのことを山ほど経験しながら、それでも常識が自分の中に色濃く残っていることに苦笑した。有り得ないほどの身体能力を与える強化服を着ても、有り得ないほどの弾を吐き出すSSB複合銃を両手に持っても、アルファという有り得ない存在と日々を過ごしていても、常識という固定観念がそう簡単には壊れないことを少し面白く思った。
「上よ! 来るわ!」
Ch 215
Akira woke up and found himself lying on the ground. He slowly pushed himself up and coughed out blood. He leaned his body against a nearby wall for support. But the sharp pain was too overwhelming and he tripped over again. His reality-bending mental mode had already been turned off. Thanks to that, his head was assaulted with an excruciating headache as he pledged, not to ever use it again. Both his legs and arms were screaming in pain. His augmented suit had also spent all of its energy. He used up all of it without holding back in that battle.
Akira squeezed all the remaining strength he had to reach for his medicine. He then gulped it down together with the blood in his mouth. Immediately, his throat reacted and made him cough, flinging some blood off. He ignored the possible side effects as he just took all the medicine that he had in one go. Thankfully, the 10 million Aurum box of medicine was quick to show its effect; suitable for its price tag. The pain slowly subsided and his consciousness became clearer. As he regained enough strength to move, he once again stood firmly on both feet. He then looked around, picked up his blade, which was lying on the ground nearby, and tried to reevaluate his current situation.
[...How long was I unconscious? A few seconds? Minutes? Hours? Since I'm still alive, it means that the other guy is dead, right? I don't even remember landing on the ground. My augmented suit and the force field armour on my coat must have been off while I was unconscious, huh. Well, that means that I got pretty lucky there. I guess my luck isn't all bad...]
Akira frowned. The display on his head showed the reason why the vehicle was asking for further command. The signals showed that there might be a huge ongoing battle along his route back to the base.
"What the heck is going on? Another ambush from monsters? Good grief, give me a break already..."
Suddenly the radar of the vehicle, which was in standby mode, picked up signals from enemies and the vehicle immediately accelerated. Akira was dropped off from the bed due to inertia, but he quickly reacted and readied himself for a fight while cursing.
"That was fast goddammit!!"
No matter which decision he took, he might have gotten more resting time if he had made up his mind sooner. Seeing from that perspective, his decision back there was indeed the worst one.
The control device of the vehicle made a rough estimation of the enemy's position based on the damaged armour tiles, as the vehicle accelerated away from that direction. The source of that attack seemed to be coming from the general direction of a nearby ongoing battle.
When Akira looked in that direction, he could see a young boy in a Hunter augmented suit running in his direction. He was running at the same speed as Akira would if he used his augmented suit.
As Akira was considering helping that Hunter and to confirm the situation with him afterwards, he aimed the APC's machine gun past that young boy and frowned. The ones chasing after that boy were multiple armed vehicles, there was no doubt that those vehicles belonged to the other Hunters.
Akira had a bad feeling and opened the back door while the APC was still running. He then tried to ask what was going on to that young boy.
But the young boy suddenly aimed his rifle at Akira and came for his life without any warning. Thanks to the ominous feeling that he got, Akira was ready and was able to react. In a blink of an eye, bullets immediately flew in and out of the APC.
"Are you another guy from the afterlife?! Who are you? Don't tell me you're Sebla!"
"Who's that Sebla? I'm Tiol!"
"The heck?! Tiol who!?"
Grenades rained down on and around the vehicle. The explosion also consumed Tiol, but he protected himself using some kind of protective outer coat. The equipment that Tiol was using, was unnervingly similar to the ones that Akira used during his fight against the monster Tiol in the past.
Tiol clicked his tongue and jumped down. He then ran along Akira's APC and said to Akira while looking straight at his face.
"I'll get back to you later. Don't worry, I'll definitely be back to kill you! Both you and that guy!!"
Tiol only said so and started shooting at the Hunters who were coming at him as if he was protecting Akira's APC. After that, he left the place using his augmented physical strength.
Akira was still a bit confused by that sudden turn of events, but the shaking coming from the barrage from the incoming Hunters pulled him back to reality.
"That bastard!! He left those Hunters for me to deal with!"
Judging from the intensity of the incoming fires, Akira understood that those Hunters were mistaking Akira as Tiol's ally. Even if he wanted to tell the truth, they were outside his communication range.
Akira used that chance to get away as far as possible from them. Setting the acceleration to the maximum, he was able to open up some distance between them. After he got away far enough that they could not shoot at each other any longer, Akira went back inside the APC and sighed.
"For real though, what exactly is going on?"
The leader of the Hunter team that was chasing Tiol made a grim face and said.
The young leader then renewed his resolve.
"I don't know who that was and what his aim was, but I won't let him disrupt the expedition!! I'll definitely make this expedition a success no matter what!! Katsuya here!! How is the damage!? As long as the connection has not recovered, don't trust anyone you meet! You'll get ambushed otherwise!!"
The team chasing Tiol was Katsuya's.
Akira was still not sure what just happened as he drove through the ruin. The situation was only getting worse, according to the radar, it seems that the ongoing battle was only spreading wider. He spotted some flying monsters fighting flying powered suits. He was only barely able to get away from those on the ground with the help from his APC's machine gun.
In this expedition, the city management sent in the powered suit squad first to secure the area. Even someone like Akira knew that plans had gone awry at this point. But that did not give any hint as to how the situation would evolve from there.
"I guess this is the rebound from relying too much on Alpha all the time"
Akira hesitated to look for another Hunter in order to group up with them. The reason was simple, he got attacked by other Hunters numerous times in the past. The line of command among Hunters was also already completely destroyed. He did find an underground parking lot on his way and thought of hiding there for the time being, but the other Hunters already taking shelter within those places suddenly started shooting at him without any warning. Of course, he did try to talk with them since they were close enough for short-range communication, but the only returning words that he received was 'don't come any closer!'. It was a messy situation where everyone could not trust those they did not know.
"Long time no see. To think that we meet in this place, it must be some kind of fate. Anyway, you came at the right time, can you help me for a bit?"
"Who's this?"
"It's me, Nelia."
Akira immediately looked around.
"Where are you calling me from?"
"You see a destroyed powered suit nearby, right? I'm inside it. But I can't get out by myself, so like, can you help me?"
Akira hesitated for a bit, but then he carefully approached the blast door and grabbed the bent handle. He swiftly opened the door and switched to his rifle as he aimed inside.
"That was a rather cold reaction from you considering that we don't get that many opportunities to see each other."
"Is that so? Well, it doesn't really matter. Can you take me back to the temporary base for now?"
Akira sighed exasperatedly and lowered his rifle. It was not because he was sure that Nelia would not shoot at him in this situation. He understood that very well. Nelia was an insane Hunter, there was no doubt about it, but her madness was the thing that guaranteed her as non-hostile at this moment. This strange feeling reminded him that there were many things out there that he did not know about in this world.
"Let me at least confirm this first. You're not hostile at the moment, right?"
"Sure, if you think so."
"Alright, do tell me beforehand if you're going to attack me, okay?"
"Of course, I'll be sure to tell you beforehand."
"You're bad at driving, do you want me to drive instead?"
"The control device in this vehicle is connected to one of the terminals, right? You just need me to connect to that terminal. Although I can't fight with this body, I feel bad leaving everything to you without helping at all."
"If the commander was not that stupid, we would have retreated instead. I tried to use a melee weapon since none of our ranged attacks worked, but then this happened. So yes, close-range, long-range, nothing worked. I don't think they have anything to turn the tide at this point. If they had any trump card, they would have already used it at this point."
"Now that the powered suit squad is gone, there is no one to stop them. I think they're roaming around the area right now. In the first place, thanks to that old-world automaton, the squad was not able to stop any monsters at all."
"Alright then, Let's force our way back to the temporary base. Although judging  by the signal, there's a huge battle near the supply line, but that's still better than just staying here."
Akira was surprised that Nelia just decided where the APC was heading without consulting with him first. But since it was a good thing that they were already heading toward the temporary base, Akira decided not to say anything about it.
"But still, after hearing your story, this means that our chain of command has been destroyed. And then, for some reason, we're now caught in a situation where the Hunters don't trust others that they do not know. This is quite an issue. But to think that we would meet each other in this situation like this, I wonder if we're connected by fate or something."
The APC's radar picked up some new signals. Akira noticed that and went to open the back door of the APC to clear his line of fire, in case those signals were enemies. He more or less had a grasp on how many enemies there were thanks to those signals detected. As he aimed his rifle, he suddenly spotted a powered suit flying from behind a building, still far away from him.
"Nelia, are those powered suits here to pick you up?"
"They are enemies! Shoot them down!"
Right at the instance Nelia said that, the powered suit aimed its rifle at Akira's APC.
Nelia made the APC do sharp turns in order to evade the incoming bullets. But even so, some of them still hit the APC's sidewall and rooftop. Each shot was huge, fired from an equally large rifle equipped on the enemy's powered suit.
The expensive armour plating protected the APC from those shots, but eventually, some plates had their durability worn out and fell to the ground. But even so, the barrage did not stop at all. The force from the bullets pushed the APC to the point that it almost rolled over, but Nelia was able to skillfully control the APC, preventing it from rolling over.
Now that the APC was out of the hostile powered suit's line of sight, Akira went to his terminal to check for its signal. The signal was still moving, indicating that their enemy was still alive.
"Nelia, just a question, have you fought against that powered suit before?"
"Nope, how about you?"
"What are you talking about? Just look at how it moved from the signal. It's obvious that it did not come in peace, no?"
Akira could not tell. But he thought that it was unwise to say that he did not know, so he decided to just shut up. Nelia found that silence suspicious as she then continued.
"Well, it's true that it might just have been careful of us, moreover, it's dangerous to try and come this close. Close enough till it can send its identification code. Even if that powered suit held no hostility, it should be aware that we might be hostile against it. Although my judgement is basically based on the end result, I don't deny that I was not being that careful when deciding if it was hostile or not. But do you think we should let it close considering that it might suddenly spring an ambush and get us killed?"
Akira just tried to end the subject as he agreed with Nelia, thus she returned back to her usual mood.
"But still, since both of us don't remember fighting it at all, then why is it attacking us? Did the user go on a rampage after losing the rest of his team?"
Right after Nelia said that, someone suddenly connected to the vehicle's short-range communication feature. It was because the user of that powered suit had dialled his device communication output to maximum, allowing him to only send his voice to Akira.
"Akira!! I'm not going to let you run away!! You're going to die here! That I can guarantee!!"
"...This voice, it's Zalmo."
"I see, so, what is your connection with that guy? It seems that guy really hates you, did you cuckold him or something?"
"That story about the beguiling ghost, wasn't it supposed to be the old-world area managers? You know, those AI managing the old-world buildings? I saw one back in Mihazono ruin when I went to Seranthal building"
"There are many different theories about that beguiling ghost. Well, putting that aside, it might be possible to resurrect someone with a destroyed brain with old-world technology. "
"And old-world technology is such a thing that turned such absurdities into reality, right? You are a Hunter yourself. So it's better to keep in mind that nothing is impossible for the old-world technology"
Akira indeed had gone through a lot of things that were out of the ordinary, so he found it interesting that he still had some common sense left inside him as he smiled wryly. Even after using an augmented suit that boosted his physical strength outside the realm of common sense, the SSB rifle that could spit out an impossible amount of bullets; and had spent days living together with something as absurd as Alpha, Akira found it interesting how resilient this so-called common sense could be.
"He's coming from above!!"
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