VOLUME 2

Chapter 4: Part 7

The arcade had been reduced to a sorry-looking state. It was almost as if it had been hit by a small-area earthquake. The streetlamps buzzed and flickered.

There was n.o.body there. Not Haruna, not any normal humans, no one.

“A… yumu? Ayumu!”

When I turned around, I saw Haruna running at me wearing black and dirtied clothes, and I caught her in my arms. Thank G.o.d. It looked like I made it in time.

“What happened here?”

“Suddenly Megalo just started coming and coming and coming… and that girl was there too.”

“Kyouko?”

“Yes, probably. More importantly, that guy is amazing. To think that strange guy could hold up against Dai-sensei…”

“Where’s Dai-sensei?”

“Over there!” Haruna pulled me by the hand across two traffic lanes and led me onwards.

At that point, I could hear the sound of steel on steel.

I saw Dai-sensei, with her twin tails and wearing her laced white coat, fighting against Kyouko and a man. Under Dai-sensei’s white coat was a cute, cosplay-like masou shoujo outfit.

As expected from Dai-sensei. She was taking on two opponents but didn’t seem outmatched at all. In other words, if I could hold Kyouko back, then she should be able to win.

I quickly left Haruna there and joined in on the battle. Kyouko came at me from behind and I sent a punch at her, but she jumped out of the way. I met up with Dai-sensei, and I put my back to her back.

“Ahhhhh, Ayumu-san. Good afternoon~~~.”

She sounded as carefree as usual. But although she seemed pretty relaxed, she definitely looked hurt.

“It’s night right now. Should I take care of Kyouko?”

“Yes. Please~~.”

At the same exact moment, Dai-sensei and I both rushed at our respective enemies.

“Aikawa-san sure is annoying.”

Kyouko said that with a smile. She dodged a right straight jab, and cut off my arm with her tornado sword.

“You’re the last person I want to hear that from.”

I sent a kick at Kyouko, but she swung her body to the side, and from that position, sent a tornado attack back at me.

“Why are you going after Dai-sensei? Don’t you know how strong she is?”

“I was against it. However, that person said that he would rather have someone who could make new weapons than just having a weapon, so I’m… trying my best.”

A wind began to whirl up at my feet. I instantly dodged, but my arm was swept up high into the air.

I see. Dai-sensei had created that masou weapon. In other words, she could create more. But their miscalculation lay in how absurdly strong Dai-sensei was.

I had spent too much time thinking, and I found myself getting knocked into the air by Kyouko’s tornado. What a bad habit of mine.

And Dai-sensei was the one who pulled me back up.

… I had come to save her, and I was just being a hindrance. How uncool of me.

“Sorry about that, Dai-sensei.”

“No no. I’m really, honestly happy you caaame~~.”

With a building at our backs, we waited for Kyouko and the man.

“… About that masou weapon… how is he connected with Dai-sensei?”

“Ah, so you managed to meet him~? That’s good. Ah, don’t tell me, he was running wild~~?”

“Yeah. But I managed to restrain him, somehow.”

When I said that, I heard Dai-sensei muttering something. “Ahh, I see,” she whispered.

“As I expected, it was right to trust Ayumu-san with this. If anybody else found out that that girl was a weapon, then they would use her to defeat the Megalo. If that weapon runs wild again, Ayumu-san will be there to stop him for me, yes yes~?”

“I managed to stop him completely by blind luck last time, so please give me a break here.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. This happened with Haruna too, but you really are an amazing magician~~.”

“I didn’t use magic or anything like that. Exactly how do you think I stopped him?”

Dai-sensei laughed for longer than usual, and responded with a hint of teasing in her voice.

“Of course… with the magic of love.”

The magic of love, huh…? Dai-sensei seemed to want to find another place to fight, and ran in the opposite direction from our enemies.

“How does Dai-sensei know Tomonori? She’s not a masou shoujo, but a vampire ninja. There’s no point of relation between you two… hm? Don’t tell me that she’s somehow related to Virie?”

I called out to Dai-sensei as I chased after her. Kyouko and the man kept at a fixed distance and seemed to just be checking the situation out.

“No, not at all. That girl is a true inhabitant of this world. If you want to know our relations.h.i.+p with each other… she’s the daughter of an important friend of mine. For various reasons, she was chosen as the hiding place for a weapon that we could no longer keep in Virie~~.”

“So you just tampered with someone’s body without their permission?”

I looked at Dai-sensei with slightly scornful eyes.

“Yes, precisely. After all, if we didn’t do that, that girl would have died.”

“What do you mean?”

Did something happen in Tomonori’s past? And how was Dai-sensei involved with that? There were a mountain of things I wanted to ask, but…

“L-Let. Me. Go!!”

Haruna seemed to have gotten caught, so I didn’t have time to ask anymore. Well, I could always ask later.

“Haruna’s such an idiot. She knew she was no match for us but she still came over. It’s really strange when you think about it. Ah, could it be that she knew Aikawa-san was here, so she wanted to show off?”

Kyouko raised her voice and laughed. Haruna grit and ground her teeth.

“Ahaha, it looks like I hit the bullseye.”

“Let Haruna go.”

I gave Kyouko a threatening glare, but she just looked bored.

The man wrapped his arms around Haruna’s neck as Haruna struggled to escape.

I shot up to him at top speed. I was going to punch him right in the face.

“Two hundred.” The man spoke. And then, I felt the unpleasant feeling of my brains being rattled and scowled.

What power this man had. He was a complete monster.

The tornado sword destroyed my legs. With a jerk, I crumpled to the asphalt. If I just hadn’t taken all that heat damage from the dragon back there, I would have been able to recover from this pretty quickly.

“Have you heard that people are unable to use a hundred percent of their own strength?”

Yes, I had heard that before. Or no, that wasn’t right.

I had said that myself before.

“If they used a hundred percent, their bodies wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

I completed his thought before he could say it out loud.

“But zombies have bodies that can handle it.”

Yes. He was a zombie, just like me. And just like me, he could exhibit strength beyond human limitations.

“That’s an easy way to put it, isn’t it? The word ‘zombie,’ that is. They have called me the King of the Night, but I will admit that ‘zombie’ also has quite a sweet ring to it.”

As the man said that, he tightened his arms.

Haruna seemed in pain and gasped for air. Even if he only used thirty percent of his strength to constrict her, Haruna would die, wouldn’t she?

Dammit!

“Umm, so what exactly is it that you want~~?”

Dai-sensei let go of her masou renki. She also dispelled her transformation, and she was left wearing a pleated skirt and a blouse. When her usual necktie appeared back again, she thrust her hands into the pockets of her white coat.

“There’s something I want you to make for me.”

The man slackened his arms, and Haruna gasped for oxygen.

“No good, Dai-sensei. Don’t talk with him.”

Dai-sensei ignored me, and slowly walked towards Kyouko.

“For now, can you ensure Ayumu-san and Haruna’s safety~?”

“If that’s what you wish.”

The man released Haruna. Haruna tried immediately to punch the man, but her arm was caught by Kyouko.

“Well, alright then~~.” Dai-sensei gave out a resigned sigh.

“Dai-sensei! Why are you doing that?! Why are you-“

Haruna tried to grab onto Dai-sensei’s white coat, but she was flung away.

“Because Haruna is an important friend of mine~~.”

Dai-sensei spoke slowly and leisurely, her cheeks blus.h.i.+ng red.

Move! Do you really think I would let them escape out from under my nose?! I’m going to punch them all and stop Dai-sensei!

That was all I could think about at that moment. But my body would not move the way I wanted it to.

A dark mist rolled in… and once again, I let Kyouko escape.

Haruna held Dai-sensei’s katanas and cried. I also wanted to cry. Why was it that it all had to come to this in the end?

I thought Haruna would just keep on crying and get depressed, but she stood straight up and wiped off her tears.

“Ayumu! Let’s go save Dai-sensei!”

“Well, it’s not like we can go now.”

“Not now! We’ll go back, think of a good strategy, and beat those people black and blue!”

Haruna’s eyes were tinged with regret, but they also shone with bright and confident hope.

Haruna sure was strong.

END CHAPTER 4

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES