VOLUME 1

Chapter 2: Part 4

It was nearly sunset, and the after-rain sunlight that lightly peeked through the clouds burned the sky an orange color.

After exiting the hospital, I crossed the street and began to head for a convenience store. Next to me, Orito spun his deep blue umbrella around and around.

“Thanks, Aikawa.”

Walking across the still-wet asphalt, Orito pushed his gla.s.ses up and patted down his chest.

“For what? I didn’t do anything.”

“Kyouko was satisfied enough just from seeing your face.”

A serious expression appeared on Orito’s face. Feeling a bit self-conscious, I turned my gaze away from Orito’s gla.s.ses.

“Hmph. What’s so good about this thing?”

Hm? This cute voice…

When I turned in the direction I had heard the voice from, I saw a certain bishoujo with a bouncing chestnut-colored ahoge with the usual creases in her brow. Today’s outfit consisted of a dress s.h.i.+rt and a pink thong. I really had to buy her some trousers or a skirt. Also, some shoes.

“H-Hey, Aikawa, what’s with this first-rate bishoujo?”

Orito stood in shock, forgetting even to blink.

Well, there’s no helping that. After all, she’s that cute and she’s also in this outfit. Oh also, from his words, it seemed like he had completely forgotten about the incident with the crayfish yesterday. Thank goodness.

“Hey! Don’t look over here!”

She desperately tried to hide her panties with her dress s.h.i.+rt. If you’re that embarra.s.sed by it, why the h.e.l.l didn’t you put on some trousers? And is that my little brother’s s.h.i.+rt? That won’t actually hide your panties, you know.

“Ah. Umm… this girl is…”

If she showed up so suddenly looking like that, a Megalo is probably involved. And if that’s true, we’re going to end up wiping Orito’s memories later anyways, so there’s no point in making introductions now. So I didn’t really know how to respond to Orito.

“Ayumu! Here it comes!”

Haruna hid behind my back and tugged on my sleeve. Even if you say it’s coming, I can’t see a single sparkle in the sky. They usually fly down like a meteorite, but is this time different?

Looking up, my mouth dropped to the floor. Up there was indeed something that looked like a Megalo, replete in the usual schoolboy’s uniform.

Right above the hospital I had just come out of, there was a huge, mile long (1) blue whale Megalo… my G.o.d that was just way too big.

Like a blimp, it was longer than it was wide, and drifted across the cloudy skies.

It advanced slowly like a cloud, and like a paraglider gradually descended. At this rate, bad things were going to happen.

“That’s a triple A rank Megalo, All Loss No Victory s.h.i.+ronaga!”

Oh? Her mistake this time is pretty easy to understand. There’s way too much losing in that name.

“No, that’s not right. Um… Ehhh… Umm… Demon Baron s.h.i.+ronaga!”

I already knew that when she was out of ideas, she would call everything a Demon Baron.

Well, right now, I was also pretty out of ideas. I’ve never fought something that freakishly huge. It’s not like I’m a Sentai hero or a three minute limit hero. (2) I’m just a zombie.

Would my attacks even get through? No no, there’s no time to be thinking that. If that huge thing actually comes down, bad things would happen to this town.

“Haruna, please take care of Orito!”

“Hueh? Take care of who?”

“That spiky haired guy with gla.s.ses over there! Get him out of harm’s way!”

“Why does a genius like me have to do something like that? I don’t care if all the humans on this world go off and die.”

“Hey hey. What the h.e.l.l is with that bombsh.e.l.l of an announcement? Why are you fighting then? I was sure it was for the sake of this world…”

“There is only one reason I am working to defeat Megalo! To get school credit! If I defeat enough Megalo, I can graduate even if I don’t attend enough cla.s.s. This is a much more certain way to earn credits than going to that boring school!”

And while she went on and on about that she puffed out her underdeveloped chest. How the h.e.l.l can she be so proud of her own laziness like that?

“What a selfish girl.”

“Don’t call me selfis.h.!.+ Go defeat him quickly! For me! Because it’s for me!”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t doing what I was doing for Haruna’s sake, but either way I kicked off the asphalt.

I jumped on top of a fence, scaled a telephone pole, and headed in the direction of the hospital via rooftop. Of course, the people walking down the road stared at me dumbfounded with their mouths open. They were probably thinking “What the h.e.l.l, are you a ninja or something?” or something like that. Unfortunately, the ninja is at home. The one here is a zombie.

Haruna chased after me. Even though she hadn’t transformed, it seemed she could keep up with me just fine. Well, she should be the one fighting then.

That thought pa.s.sed through my mind, but I knew better. Without transforming, there’s no way either of us could beat that Megalo, right?

I knew that. It wasn’t weak enough that I could beat it without transforming. After all, this was a rank AAA Megalo, even higher than the rank AA Zarii-san.

“Haruna, have you ever fought against something that huge before?”

“Naturally. That type of thing is common in my world.”

She seemed pretty smug about that.

“I see. To put it frankly, I’m not confident this time. If it was just a question of myself, that would be fine, but I can’t do this while simultaneously protecting the city.”

Even if that huge thing moved a bit, houses would be destroyed. And if the hospital were destroyed, that would be guaranteed to be disastrous, and I didn’t have enough strength to fight while protecting that building.

“I see. You can’t defend against s.h.i.+ronaga’s attacks by yourself. Well, it would be easy for me though.”

“Really?”

“Of course, really. When it comes to this genius bishoujo demon baroness Haruna-chan, there is not a single thing I can’t do!”

As her ahoge bounced to and fro like a puppy’s tail and she beat her smallish chest, what sounded like a horn or something echoed through the area.

A very low frequency sound echoed through the middle of town. It was the vibrations of the atmosphere that the whale had caused. Along with this bwoohhn (3) sound, a purple wind was sent through the area.

Now that I think about it, Zarii-san also had done something similar.

“Haruna, that purple wind…”

“You should know just from looking at it… that’s the Megalo releasing magical energy…”

The purple wind coiled around Haruna’s body.

And when it did that, Haruna’s shoulders suddenly jumped. Maybe she could feel a chill or something, but she quickly shook her head back and forth, and after opening her eyes wide, she hazily opened her mouth.

“Oo… aaa… aaah…”

Even though she had been so energetic up to now, Haruna crouched down into the fetal position. The same thing had happened when we were fighting with that crayfish.

“Hey, Haruna.”

“… What… is this…? What… this feeling…”

Haruna looked like a frightened puppy. She bit down on her lightly trembling lips.

“Haruna? Haruna!”

At my yells, Haruna raised her head up. Her eyes were filled with irritation.

“What should I do, Ayumu… I…”

With that trembling voice, that lonely-sounding voice, she continued to wring out her words.

“I’m… afraid of Megalo…”

That confession hit me like a ton of bricks. I had never thought I would hear her say she was afraid of anything.

Bwoohhn.

The low frequency sound once again echoed through the area. Haruna’s body had stiffened and she once again bit her lip. She was desperately trying to force down her fear.

“It’ll be alright, Haruna.”

“Alright? Are you an idiot?! I can’t do this! I’ll… be killed!”

“It’ll be alright, Haruna.”

“Don’t say irresponsible things! Someone like you-“

“Don’t you know? I’m strong.”

“Don’t get c.o.c.ky! Someone like you will never be able to protect me!”

“That might be true. But, don’t you know? There’s not a single thing Haruna can’t do.”

“Hueh…?”

“Maybe I can’t protect Haruna. And maybe Haruna, who can’t transform into a masou shoujo, can’t do anything about that huge thing. But I’m strong. And Haruna can do anything. So what if those two people joined forces?”

For some reason, Haruna blushed and blinked in surprise. Then, the corners of her lips turned upwards, and she gave me a splendid boyish smile.

“There’s no enemy we can’t take down!”

“Right? So please help me. Please.”

“Hmph, I guess there’s no choice. Just this once.”

Looking happy for some reason, Haruna stepped out in front of me. Hey, I can see your panties, you know.

“I can’t transform so I can’t use attack magic, but I can at least set up a barrier. It’ll be fine if I just make one that protects the surrounding people and buildings, right? Making a single barrier like that is easy. Also, s.h.i.+ronaga uses the power of water. I’ll also do something about that with a barrier, so you don’t hold anything back and strike him dead. OK?”

“OK. That’s more than I had expected.”

I sent a kamikaze attack at the towering body in front of me. Jumping towards the hospital wall from this house’s roof, I kicked off the wall and jumped up towards s.h.i.+ronaga’s head.

“This is all of a sudden, but 400%!!”

With a loud Bam! I scored a critical hit to s.h.i.+ronaga’s stupidly huge face with a midair roundhouse kick. Receiving my attack, s.h.i.+ronaga’s huge body began to topple to the side.

c.r.a.p! He’s going to crush the houses! Is what I thought, but ripples appears in midair and s.h.i.+ronaga’s huge body stopped as if it had hit a wall.

And then, s.h.i.+ronaga began to be pushed back to his original position.

I see. So this is what Haruna meant by a barrier. It would be incredibly effective if s.h.i.+ronaga were surrounded by these barriers, right?

s.h.i.+ronaga’s huge fin became even huger. The air around his fin rippled like it had before in an effort to stop the expansion, but the fin easily broke through. Something showered down to the ground like broken gla.s.s and disappeared. It seemed that the strategy to surround him with barriers had failed.

“Can this guy really be taken down?”

s.h.i.+ronaga calmly lingered about and we exchanged stares. He slowly descended, but the moment he approached the hospital, ripples formed once again and repelled him. The strength of these ripples were in a different cla.s.s as those before.

Now that I took a closer look, I could see Haruna on the roof of the hospital. She was enveloped in a ruby-colored light and both her hands were extended in s.h.i.+ronaga’s direction, almost as if she was holding him at bay by herself. Well, that was actually the case.

“Hurry up and transform into a masou shoujo! Didn’t I tell you I can only stop him like this four times?!”

Definitely not. Is that honestly something you should be telling me this late in the game?!

Hm? Hasn’t she already stopped him three times? First when I knocked him down, then when the fin expanded, and now while he was descending.

… So, she only could do that one more time…?

Geez… I guess I’m out of options. I didn’t want to transform though…

I went over to Haruna’s location and picked up the chainsaw that had been dropped there. I chanted the spell with a dullness that exceeded the dullness I felt when made to read from a textbook in j.a.panese cla.s.s.

“Nomobuyo, wos.h.i.+, has.h.i.+tawa, dokeda, gunmiicha, dei, ribura.”

I was enveloped in a brilliant light, and my clothes ripped. And then, that skirt… I could feel the tears coming on. Battles are hard things, aren’t they…?

Having transformed into a masou shoujo, I could fly into the sky just by thinking about it. I pierced the whale’s stomach with the chainsaw and like that, ripped it apart… masou shoujo are just way too powerful.

I thought it was over, but in the end I was being optimistic, and I saw the wound gradually close up from the point at which I had first pierced his stomach. It was faster than even I would heal with my zombie body.

So, what should I do now? Did he have vital organs I could attack or something?

As I was thinking that, it happened. s.h.i.+ronaga finally began to do something flashy. Speaking of movements that whales were known to do…

Yes, it was that.

Like a volcano erupting, a thick spray of salt water flew up from s.h.i.+ronaga’s head. An absurd amount of water began to descend like a waterfall from the sky.

I ran desperately from the water, and stared at it from a long distance away.

As if a thick fog had set in, the sky became dyed with white. It was like watching a huge water fountain. Not good. If this continued, this entire city would get swallowed up, wouldn’t it? It really did seem like enough water to do that. And the whale just continued and continued and continued to spray out salt water.

Looking down at the city sprawled out below me, I saw the entire city flooded under the surging waves… or so I thought, but the city didn’t seem different at all. It looked completely normal.

Ah, I see. Haruna had defended the city against the attack. I gave her a standing ovation from the bottom of my heart, and hurriedly returned to the hospital roof.

“Ayumu! What the h.e.l.l are you doing?! Take it down fast! I’m at my limit!”

She looked at me and raised what was close to a desperate shriek. Well, if I could take it down, I would have already done that…

“How exactly do I kill that thing?”

“Ughh!! If you cut off its head it’ll die, right?! Do. It. Fast!!”

I see. Wait, you want me to cut off that thing? His neck is huge.

If only there was someone else here that could fly and was just about as strong as I was…

Ah, there was.

“h.e.l.lscythe-dono told me to come to check out the situation… this city has quite a number of strange things in it, doesn’t it?”

Very conveniently, a beautiful girl clad in a black cloak flew down onto the hospital roof with a swirl of green leaves.

“That is really great timing.”

“Ayumu. That outfit is really quite disgusting… that outfit is really quite disgusting.”

Why did she have to say that twice? I could feel an aura signaling “I don’t want it to seem like we know each other, so stay away from me” coming off her in huge waves.

“Well, I’m sorry about that. But without this, I wouldn’t be able to fly.”

I felt a gaze like a sharp spear near the area of my skirt. Is she really so offended by my outfit? Well I’m really sorry.

“Ayumu. What is that?”

I don’t know if she had accepted my outfit, or if she just didn’t care anymore, but her gaze turned towards s.h.i.+ronaga.

“Well, for now, let’s just say it doesn’t look like a friend.”

“Ahh, certainly. An enemy, then?”

With her piercing red eyes, Sera gazed at s.h.i.+ronaga.

To stop the water, Haruna had activated her barrier for the fourth time. If he rained water down like that again, the houses would be crushed to powder. We had to hurry.

“Will you help?”

“Understood. Here I go.”

Flapping her green-colored wings, Sera flew. Her retreating figure was beautiful and dependable. I took off and chased after her. Showing off everything under my skirt.

At this time, I finally came to understand how girls must feel when they wanted to hide their panties.

Telling Sera that we had to cut off his head, in order to be able to cut through faster than he could heal, we surrounded s.h.i.+ronaga on the left and right.

Thrusting my chainsaw violently around the collar of his school uniform, I flew along the whale’s body. Sera was probably doing working on the other side of the whale.

“Ayumu! I can’t… hold on anymore…!”

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

I felt the pressure building up.

I see it! There’s where Sera had started. The sound was gradually closing, but I was faster.

Just a bit more… Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

The wound I was carving met up with the beginning point of the wound Sera had made. With this, we had completed the circle. Sera was faster than I was so there was no mistaking it. Phew.

Hm? s.h.i.+ronaga’s neck didn’t move. Why? We definitely cut the complete circle.

At that point, a ringing sound, as if a bell had been broken, echoed through the area. The water fell and covered the city. The barrier that had been holding it back had shattered. It was like a dam had broken. Water ran through the streets between buildings like rivers and washed away cars. The roar of water echoed from throughout the city.

And what’s more, the wound that we had inflicted on s.h.i.+ronaga had disappeared. What just happened?

Then I realized it. I cursed myself for being so stupid and dimwitted.

If I cut my arm in a circle with a thin razor (4), there’s no reason my arm would fall off from that. There’s no way this small chainsaw blade could cut off that huge of a head.

Her green wings fluttering, Sera returned to my position. Her usually cool facial expression had cracked a bit. Seeing the flooded streets, even someone like Sera would feel a bit pressured.

“Ayumu, this is not good. The town is being washed away!”

“I know that.”

“Do you have a counter-plan?!”

“… I know, I know. I’m thinking.”

“What are you being so calm about?!”

“Sera, don’t be in such a hurry. All that’s going to do is make things worse.”

“… Ugh.”

With a bitter expression, Sera covered her mouth with her hand.

When I looked down, I saw houses being attacked by what looked almost like a tsunami. Were the people inside alright?

The water still hadn’t reached the second story of the buildings, but even then it was enough to cover the cars on the street. It was more than enough to swallow up people.

Even though I couldn’t feel pain, I felt a stinging in my heart. It was disappointment. I couldn’t protect them.

What should I do? Should I prioritize aiding the city or taking down the Megalo? Was human life the most important thing here? Sera also seemed at a loss, and clenched her fists tight.

“Ayumu! Take it down fast! The only way to stop this water is to take him down!”

Sounding out of breath, Haruna yelled at me from the hospital roof. If we defeated him, the water would disappear?

When I asked her that, she screamed back “No s.h.i.+t!” (5) Well, tell me that earlier, dammit.

“Alright. Sera, can you do another half-circle? If possible, with a sword around five times as long as last time.”

“It is possible. What do you intend to do?”

“I’m going to kick him with all my strength. Like this, I can exceed any and all of my limitations. If you cut the lower half with a longer sword, and I kick him with all my strength, it’ll definitely be torn off, right?”

“Understood. I have faith in your strength. Ahh, you might be a hentai, but I have faith in your strength.”

You didn’t have to go back and qualify the first statement, you know.

Sera quickly flew off.

s.h.i.+ronaga once again spewed out salt water, and it seemed like it would be difficult to approach him. But as expected from a ninja, Sera dodged the water skillfully and successfully approached the whale.

Alright.

“… 460%.” In midair, I relaxed my limbs. I closed my eyes, and slowly gathered my strength.

“… 680. As expected from a masou shoujo. I’m still not at full power.”

“Ayumu! Do it fast!”

I could hear voices. The sound of destruction and despair. Sorry everyone, just wait a little bit longer. Everything will be over soon.

“840. Is this the limit? No, I still can go a bit further.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw that Sera had just finished with her half-circle. Looking closely, I saw that she had descended within inches of the hospital roof.

Shall I do it? If I don’t do it quickly, the wound’s going to close.

“Ugeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhh!!!”

I struck with enough speed to break the sound barrier. With all my might, I kicked s.h.i.+ronaga in his terribly huge jaw.

I was expecting his neck to snap like how you would split a baked sweet potato.

But s.h.i.+ronaga’s head exploded. From the impact of my kick.

Pieces of pulpy meat fell to the ground and disappeared, and the water also drew back. His huge body turned into white particles and scattered in all directions, returning to the sky and disappearing.

It looked like we had done it.

I joined back with Haruna and while receiving another lecture on how to manipulate memories (which I had forgotten), I healed the water-damaged city.

Yes, this time, I had to perform the memory manipulation in a very wide area. And when I did so, Sera was naturally affected as well since she was in this area. And it was difficult to control to what extent the target’s memories were manipulated. It’s fine if her memories disappeared, but it’d be nice if Sera could be aware of the situation since we were living together… Should I just tell her? Ugh, I’m so worn out…

But leaving that aside, masou shoujo are pretty amazing, aren’t they? They really might be able to do anything like Haruna had said.

“Ayumu. How long are you planning on staying in that disgusting outfit?”

As Sera stared at me with cold eyes, I took one deep breath and I explained the situation as simply as I could. “If I changed out of this, I would become naked, right? And that’s even more disgusting, right?”

But then, Haruna spoke up.

“You can just repair your clothes.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

When she explained it to me, for the first time ever, I wanted to smack Haruna.

With the magic I had used to repair the buildings, I could also restore my clothes. Normally, masou shoujo used that kind of magic to return to their normal forms. Well that’s the first time I’ve heard of that. You should have told me that after we fought Zarii. Or rather, you should have told me that when you taught me the transformation spell. There’s too much you haven’t explained. Well, whatever, she’s cute so I’ll let her off the hook.

For now, I had finished manipulating the memories, so shall we return home?

“Ayumu!”

Sera once again transformed a few leaves into swords and held them in both hands. Her red eyes pierced straight through mine. Don’t make such a scary face, dammit.

“What’s wrong?”

Crrkk!

Something pierced through my heart. Attacking me from the back… how cowardly. But what had pierced my heart was not a sword. And it was not a spear… what the h.e.l.l was this?

I felt someone pus.h.i.+ng my back, and I was caught by Sera. When I looked back, I saw an anteater in a schoolboy’s uniform. The second one today, then…?

“That’s the heavyweight Megalo, Muhammad Kui!” (6)

As if matching Haruna’s words, the anteater jumped back and forth with light footwork while it stared at me. As always, the Megalo’s eyes were round, cute things.

Geez. Do I have to transform again? I just changed back.

Gripping the chainsaw tightly, I begrudgingly began to chant again, when Haruna inferred what I was trying to do and stopped me.

“You can only become a masou shoujo once every twenty-four hours! If only I could transform…”

You’re kidding me. That’s another thing you should have told me earlier.

So, what should I do if I can’t transform? And also, exactly what cla.s.s is this heavy-weight Megalo? If it’s in the same cla.s.s as Zarii was, then that would be bad.

Well, at least there was a reliable swordsman here. She was stronger than I was.

Sera’s green wings disappeared. She only had her black cloak and those two swords, and leaves no longer danced around her. Could it be that this was her last weapon?

“Sera.”

Let’s go. Is what I tried to say, but Sera was not there, and the anteater was. In a moment, my vision blurred and I spun around. I had been knocked very quickly off my feet.

The anteater moved his feet rhythmically and was quite an impressive sight. Were anteaters this fast? Anteaters and sloths were close relatives, weren’t they?

What looked like purple vapor emitted from his fist.

Haruna had said that this was the Megalo releasing magical energy.

Ahh, I see. When Megalo got ready to fight, they released magical energy.

I heard a sound like iron striking iron as Sera’s sword made out of leaves met with the anteater’s small fist. But even if I could see the moment they connected with each other, I couldn’t follow their movements. For a zombie like me, it was impossible to follow them when they were moving so fast.

“Haruna, can you see them?”

“O-Of course! It’s not like it’s… that big of a deal!”

Her face was flushed red, and spat out that desperate denial.

“Hey, is everything alright?”

“What are you talking about?”

Haruna’s words were as rea.s.sured as ever, but her tight fists were trembling. It seemed that even now, once she was. .h.i.t by that purple vapor she would become scared of Megalo. She was probably putting on a bluff right now so that Sera wouldn’t realize she was scared.

If that’s the case, I won’t push the issue.

“No, nevermind.”

As if we were watching a tennis match, our necks twisted left and right as we watched over the battle. Could I jump in and help? I can’t even follow them though…

He was much faster than Zarii had been. That heavyweight champion…

Ah, wait, I never heard if he was a champion or not.

Being able to watch Sera’s swordsmans.h.i.+p from the side like this really gave me a sense of how elegant and magnificent she was. Dodging her opponent’s attacks, and warding him off while slas.h.i.+ng and slas.h.i.+ng again. Ah, that was just a Tsubame Gaes.h.i.+, wasn’t it?

If Sera weren’t here, we probably wouldn’t be able to win.

“Ayumu. Switch with me for a while.”

She suddenly called to me, and I reluctantly came forwards. When I asked her what happened…

“My weapon disappeared. I don’t have enough blood.”

She spoke with as elegant a facial expression as always. In an instant, the sword she was holding had changed to normal tree leaves. That was a huge problem.

“OK. I’ll take over from here.”

The anteater came at me with a punch, but I somehow stood firm and took his attack. Even though I guarded with my arm, I was just struck in a different place. I was just so outcla.s.sed in terms of speed. The bones in my body broke one after the other, but because I was a zombie they soon healed. The sound of breaking bones echoed through the area a countless number of times.

Jab jab jab jab… he punched at me repeatedly. (7)

His left jab repeatedly gouged into my cheek.

I returned some punches while trying my best to not get sent flying. Granted, I couldn’t hit him at all.

“Haruna. I have one request.”

“W-What? If it’s something weird, I’m going to kick you.”

“I want your blood.”

Haruna stiffened at Sera’s very vampire-like words. Without even waiting for a response, Sera closed in on Haruna. Sure sure, meanwhile, I’m getting punched full of holes.

“Nn?! Nn…….nn….”

For some reason, Sera locked her lips with Haruna’s. Haruna flushed red and struggled, but soon her body relaxed and she stopped resisting. Sera, when we get home, please do that to me. I beg of you.

Sera then pulled back, and bit into Haruna’s white neck. It was like a scene right out of a vampire movie. Blood oozed out of Haruna’s neck, but her face was still flushed and her eyes looked drowsy.

“Ah! … nn… ahh…”

She looked like she was in a trance, and let out what sounded like a thirsty groan. G.o.d, looking at her made my face heat up. Sera-san, please suck my blood too. If you’re fine with someone dead like me. Yes yes, I’m getting beat full of holes over here. Please don’t forget that, alright?

Even while I continued to get punched, to prevent the anteater from targeting those two, I continued to attack with punches I knew wouldn’t connect and attract his attention.

Let me just be frank about it and say that I can’t take down this anteater. How should I go about taking an enemy down that I can’t hit? It would be different if I could transform, though.

But, more importantly!

Haruna was definitely on my mind. It annoyed me to no end that I couldn’t take more than momentary glances in her direction. Hey, anteater-san, you want to watch too, don’t you? Just a little while is fine, so let’s stop fighting.

Completely unaffected by my silent request, the anteater hit me in the face with a right, straight punch. I was knocked off my feet and hit the fence, when I remembered that this was the roof of the hospital. I lost my balance, and something pierced right through my heart. It was the same attack that I had been hit with at the very beginning.

It was the anteater’s long tongue. If it were Haruna’s or Sera’s tongue, I would have welcomed it with open arms, but the anteater’s tongue was a bit…

I slowly fell to the floor. Did that anteater’s tongue have the ability to drain my strength or something?

I couldn’t get up, but in front of me I saw fresh leaves flying about.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

I heard a cold voice. And while the sound of iron striking iron once again filled the air, I crawled back to Haruna’s location.

Haruna was flushed a brilliant apple red as always, and sat there while putting pressure on her neck.

“Don’t look at me.”

She said it softly but forcefully, so I turned my gaze back to Sera.

“Hiken, Tsubame Gaes.h.i.+!”

A two-part strike from the sword in her right hand. Afterwards, she added on another strike with the sword in her left hand. It was something only a pract.i.tioner of the two-sword style could do.

The attacks left but a scratch on the anteater, who then sent out another series of sharp jabs. A single leaf sprung up and defended against them.

Watching this back and forth, attack and defense was like watching a sports match, and I felt my chest heating up.

“Hiken, Tsubame Gaes.h.i.+!”

I saw a series of perpendicular sword flashes, and the anteater jumped backwards. This is really not going anywhere, wouldn’t you say?

And then, the anteater made a hand seal of some kind (8), and thrust out both his hands. A ball of energy formed in front of his palms.

There was no doubt in my mind that this was a big move. Sera, will you be alright? In the worst case scenario, if I have to protect you, I’d like to know whether that attack is going to be a light beam or a light bullet.

I glanced at Sera.

“The secret of my blade lay not in the blade that is hidden.”

Sera stared fixedly at what the anteater was doing, and the swords in both her hands vanished. In a flurry of sound, large quant.i.ties of leaves filled the surroundings.

“Blades that fly as leaves on a tree, that is…”

The leaves all turned into large swords.

“Flying Sword, Hyakkizensatsu.” (9)

The swords all attacked the anteater at once.

“Oohh…” I raised my voice in admiration.

Maybe he realized the situation he was in, but the anteater began to run away without releasing the energy he had been building up. But swords pierced his legs, his arms, and then his entire body. With incredible speed, the anteater soon looked like a pop-up pirate. (10) But what flew off was not his head, but rather quant.i.ties of blood.

Sera turned her back to the anteater that had been immobilized by the swords that had pierced his body and walked back in our direction.

It seemed like it was over.

“Idiot! Why are you acting like it’s over?!”

Haruna screamed with a desperate expression.

Sera turned back to the anteater, but he was no longer there. From Sera’s chest, the anteater sent out a vicious uppercut.

I had forgotten. That when Megalo died, they turned into particles.

But what was sent flying by the anteater’s vicious uppercut was a log wearing a black cloak. It was the fundamental, strongest ninja skill, the body switching technique.

The anteater quickly turned around and went in pursuit of Sera. Had he managed to follow Sera with his eyes while she performed her body switching technique? For some reason, in the face of this anteater who was still so fast despite having been pierced by so many swords, Sera turned in the other direction.

At his opponent so suddenly turning her back on him, the anteater faltered for a second. That was probably what Sera was aiming for.

“Hiken, Ryuubi Gaes.h.i.+” (11)

In an instant, the anteater had been split into two. I couldn’t even follow the sword flashes with my eyes.

She had performed an incredibly fast slash while turning around. Having faltered for just a second, the anteater couldn’t hope to dodge that.

Having been separated into two halves, the anteater fell to the ground and turned into particles, vanis.h.i.+ng in the wind. Just like she had done before, Sera didn’t even glance in that direction and walked towards us.

I raised my hand up to around face level, and Sera, without a hint of a smile, gave me a high five.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) The measure he gives is 1830 meters.

(2) Super Sentai and Ultraman references, respectively. Ultraman can only exist on earth for 3 minutes. Or something. Don’t look at me. I’m not translating Zombie because I love Ultraman or something.

(3) Onomatopoeia is hard people. Give me a break.

(4) Ayumu is a licensed professional. Do not try this at home.

(5) She actually screams back “obviously!” but I didn’t think that conveyed the urgency of the situation.

(6) Obviously a play on Muhammad Ali. Anteater in j.a.panese is “Arikui.”

(7) Something here that is sort of impossible to translate. He goes “Jabujabujabujabu… it wasn’t the sound of water. They were punches.” Jabujabujabujabu is the onomatopoeia for splas.h.i.+ng water.

(8) If this turns into Naruto I’m abandoning s.h.i.+p. Not before burning the s.h.i.+p. Crew and all.

(9) Hundred Demon Slow Death? Or something.

(10) Cute.

(11) Ryuubi translates to “Dragon Tail.”