VOLUME 6

Chapter 5: Part 4

And so, we soon found ourselves on the roof of a really tall building. The wind wildly whooshed past us, and I trembled from the cold.

To think we would be able to find somewhere even colder than the graveyard in this city… there wasn’t even a railing on this roof, and just looking over the edge filled me with a nauseous sense of vertigo. I really don’t think we should be on this roof right now.

I was a bit worried about exactly how high we were right now, when Tomonori offered up an explanation.

“Welcome to the 74-meter-tall 100-meter steel railing das.h.!.+”

That sounded insanely, insanely familiar, that thing she just said! (1)

There were two steel beams leading from the top of this roof to the top of an adjacent roof. The frames were around the width of a human foot. I guess they were supposed to use those beams as a balance beam of sorts to get across.

“When it comes to speed, I will not lose.”

Sera’s jade-colored eyes were filled with the utmost confidence.

“Hmm, Seraphim. Has there ever been a time when you have been able to defeat me?”

Saras gave Sera a bold smile, and both of them headed for the starting line.

Honestly, did neither of them feel even the least bit cold? Ugh, it was so d.a.m.n cold…

“Okay… start!”

At Haruna’s signal, both of them mounted their steel beams.

If a normal person were to try something like this, they’d be super nervous, right? But these were ninjas who were used to running across rooftops, so…

Just as I had expected, the two of them didn’t waver in the slightest in the harsh wind, and just calmly ran across like pro circus acrobats.

“By the way, those railings will send out electric jolts if they touch them with their hands!”

That’s pretty tough. It’d be hard to not squat down and grab onto the railing in a wind like this.

“The electric jolts go to Ayumu, of course!”

Haruna’s ahoge jumped from side to side in the wind as she said that with a happy smile on her face

“Why? Hey, why is that?”

Haruna and Tomonori both ignored my questioning stare. These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…

Saras and Sera both looked at each other. And then…

“Oh my, it seems my feet have slipped.”

Saras bent down and touched the railing. It was obviously on purpose.

Ahh-h-h-h I g-g-g-guess-s-s-s-s it-t-t-t was-s-s h-h-h-hard not-t-t to t-t-t-touch the rail-l-l-ling in a s-s-s-s-spot-t-t-t l-l-l-l-like this-s-s-s-s.

“The wind is quite strong today, isn’t it?”

Sera didn’t seem to want to move until the wind settled down, or she just wanted to shock me. Either way, she bent down and just held onto the railing. Well, no, it was clearly the latter reason.

Seeing Sera do that, Saras leapt into a full sprint. Sera… seemed to still just want to shock me with electricity.

But Sera did seem to have an advantage in speed, and she began to close the gap between her and Saras. And then… well, she really seemed to want to shock me.

Anybody watching could clearly see that this was the reason for Sera’s defeat. In the end, Saras won the race.

“I was careless.” Sera ground her teeth in frustration.

“Way too careless! Way way way too careless!”

“Seraphim, I understand how you may feel.”

Saras nodded again and again.

“I wanna try too!”

Haruna raised her hand. What a huge genius she must be to think that crossing iron rails like this would be fun.

“Okay! Let’s race then!”

Tomonori and Haruna had probably been itching to do this from the start. They didn’t even wait for anybody’s signal, but just began das.h.i.+n gacross the iron rails.

H-Hey, they just want to shock me too, right?! Dammit!

“Stop it, you two! There’s only one way this can end, you know?! The future is already within our grasp!” (2)

They didn’t seem to pay my laments any heed, but just continued running across the iron beams.

“Well, it does seem like this is my victory.”

“Yes. We are now tied at one victory each.”

“Hm? … Fufu, Seraphim. It seems you have grown quite impertinent. Well, have it your way, then.”

Now that she mentioned it, I guess Sera did win the javelin compet.i.tion.

It looked like we were taking this battle into a third round.

I looked up at the night sky as electricity ran through my body.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Reference to a similar event in Kaiji.

(2) The last line is a reference to the Kaiji opening.