TLN: Happy New Year
{Chapter 2} The Divine Beast of Urban Defense
The capital Nephy—
Kiyoko, dressed in a white blouse and jeans, stood on the roof of the tallest building on the north side of Nephy and watched with a pleased smile as a vast horde of youma began moving toward the city.
“Fufufu… p-pu! They’ve come, they’ve come!”
“Kiyoko! We’ve started moving too!”
“Shiro-chan, okay here. How’s everyone else?”
“They’ve come!”
“Uga!”
“We can meet them anytime.”
“We’ve started moving—there are so many—”
“…We can do it.”
“Everyone’s so motivated! I can feel it~”
Kiyoko watched the massive wolf of youma with delight.
Below Kiyoko’s building, civilians were evacuating and the Kaliguda had fled, leaving the army’s command functions inadequate; soldiers jostled as they tried to head out to intercept the youma.
“Well, of course. Hiroto asked so seriously—who’d have thought something like this would make me so happy? Alright everyone! Like Hiroto said, we’ll go help Mr. Mathew’s reinforcements!”
“Got it! We just go talk to the big-shot soldiers, right?”
“Yes. It’s a bit of a stretch, but be sure to call out to them. In any case, monsters are attacking—this is not normal. Once they see what we can do, they’ll be thrilled—Hiroto included, of course.”
“Understood.”
“Roger!”
“Fufufu, you all know by now: Hiroto will definitely praise us, right? More than ever before! Maybe he’ll even let us beg for a reward, who knows?”
“!”
Though Kiyoko couldn’t see their faces, she could feel Shiro’s, Susan’s, Sally’s, Gokou’s, and Gen’s expressions as clearly as if they were in her hands.
“Uga!”
“All right! Time to go.”
Kiyoko felt the surge of everyone’s fighting spirit in her head.
Their enthusiasm, greater than ever before, pleased her immensely.
Then Kiyoko spun elegantly at the edge of the rooftop. In an instant her clothes transformed into a flowing kimono, and a fan as tall as she was appeared before her.
Taking hold of the ornate giant fan decorated in gold, silver, and vermilion, Kiyoko opened it with a sweeping motion and pointed it toward the direction of the approaching youma horde.
“Hiroto’s household, forward!!”
Kiyoko’s bright, loud voice rang out over Nephy, the capital of Miramar.
◆
Pinchin, the ancient city of Miramar—
“General Temaren! The monsters have begun to move!”
A young soldier’s voice—barely a shout—reported into the emergency command center hastily set up for this unprecedented crisis.
Pinchin was the city where orders to evacuate civilians and prepare to repel the youma had been given earliest among the cities under threat.
“They’re here… Intercept immediately! Order the artillery units! Do as in the drills! How is the civilian evacuation progressing?”
“Yes, sir! We’ve instructed civilians to take shelter in the central buildings of the city, but it’s not complete yet. Faced with those kinds of monsters, civilian panic has peaked, and we can’t spare many soldiers to guide them…”
Major General Temaren was an old commander of Miramar’s military regime, experienced and battle-hardened. That the troops under him were not falling into needless confusion even now was testament to how thoroughly Temaren had control over his soldiers.
“It can’t be helped. It’s my first time seeing creatures like that too.”
“General… what should we do in this situation? We’ve received information that the Nephy general headquarters has already fled.”
Hearing the soldier’s words, Temaren detected panic and weak thinking, and he barked a rebuke.
“Do not panic! What did you become a soldier for? For advancement? Or just to sleep the days away and freeload on others?”
Temaren’s scolding made the soldiers in the command center straighten their backs.
“I’ve told you all before! When in doubt, return to the basics! Remember the duties of a soldier! Listen, those monsters are advancing on Pinchin. I don’t know what sort they are, but they don’t look like guests we should be welcoming! We are the army that defends this city. In this situation, what must we do?”
“Sir! We must put civilians’ safety first and defend this city from external enemies!”
“That’s right! Let’s do it! I’ll head to the front lines to rally the troops! The Nephy general headquarters is of no use now! Contact the troops stationed in nearby towns and request reinforcements!”
“Yes, sir! But General, the nearest town, Torte, has forces loyal to the Mathew faction stationed there. Will they respond to our call?”
“Miramar is our homeland! There is no Mathew faction or military regime here! If anyone spouts such nonsense in a time like this, leave them be! Those people have no future!”
Temaren stood and walked out of the command center with a dignified bearing. His subordinates followed him, their eyes filled with reverence as they watched the old general’s back.
Temaren gazed out over the city beyond the ancient walls of Pinchin from the command post set into those very ramparts centuries ago. He stared, taut-lipped, at the artillery units arrayed along the wall and at the monsters slinking up like a black tide beyond them.
“Hey there, sir. Are you the commander of this town?”
Just outside the command post, Temaren was suddenly addressed by a strikingly handsome stranger he had never seen before, and he blinked. Temaren’s troops, startled by the outsider’s appearance, stepped forward to shield their commander and leveled pistols.
“You! Who are you? How did you get in here? Drop that—! Drop that spear!”
“No—my apologies. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Goukou bowed his head without changing his expression.
Temaren turned his face to the startlingly out-of-place, wake-up-call of a young man.
“Who are you? You don’t look like any Miramaran I’ve seen…”
“I serve Lord Hiroto, an ally of General Mathew. By my master’s orders I have come to reinforce you who defend Pinchin.”
“Huh?”
Temaren and his soldiers were dumbstruck by Goukou’s words.
“Mathew, you say? An allied force… I’ve never heard of this Hiroto you mention, but—are you really here to reinforce us?”
“I am. I was ordered to exterminate those fiends and protect the citizens.”
“General, this one’s suspicious! You! Drop that spear and get down on the ground! If you don’t obey, we’ll shoot—”
“Wait! You said you came on Mathew’s orders. Where are your troops?”
“I’m the only one who came as reinforcement.”
“What…? You’re alone? You idiot! Have you lost your mind? Or if this is true, are you making fools of us? Mathew’s brat—!”
“Commander, we don’t have time to argue like this. If you refuse to believe me, so be it. But by my lord’s command I will say this: I will charge into those monsters now. You are to handle any of the fiends I miss. Defend the city and its people.”
“What? Hey, what are you saying!?”
Goukou turned his body toward the direction from which the horde of monsters was approaching, presenting his back to Temaren and the others.
He brandished a gleaming spear in one hand and glared at the massed fiends.
“My name is Goukou! I bow to Lord Hiroto and Lord Hiroto alone, and I draw my blade only to spread my master’s radiance and mercy across this land! Fiends—feel my lord’s wrath!”
Goukou pulled his eyes wide and gave a grin.
“Goukou—onward!”
With those words, Goukou displayed an unbelievable leap before Temaren, effortlessly clearing Temaren’s artillery line and sprinting toward the horde of monsters.
“Ahh! Hey! Wh—what is that… Who is he! That man—General—”
“Hmm… I don’t know.”
“Is he—Japanese? A samurai or something? He’s pretty crazed… Is he really planning to charge them by himself?”
“A samurai… Now that you mention it, I heard Mathew had brought a few Japanese to serve as his guards.”
Left behind by the rising figure of Goukou, Temaren and his men watched the now-diminutive form as if abandoned on the spot.
The artillery crews were also in an uproar, having just seen a figure vault over them from the rear and, like a gale, plunge into the monstrous horde ahead.
Temaren gathered himself and, tightening his expression, rechecked the numbers of the enemy fiends spreading out on the horizon. Though still at a distance, the strange aura those monsters gave off chilled even the battle-hardened Temaren to the bone.
He issued orders quickly.
“Prepare the bombardment! Fire all at once! Do not let the enemy get close to Pinchin! Use sustained artillery to shred as much of the monsters’ fighting strength as possible!”
“Yes! Bombardment is already prepared, General!”
“Good! Then—”
Temaren squinted toward the mass of fiends and brought binoculars to his eyes.
Through them he saw the back of Goukou, who had been standing here only moments before. That was not a speed that human legs should be able to make. Temaren was bewildered by the man’s superhuman form, but more than that he was riveted by the fact that the youth truly intended to charge those monsters alone.
Honestly, he was a nuisance.
And besides, there was no room for slackening in this desperate situation.
But whatever else he might be, that samurai-like youth—mad as he might be—was charging those monsters for the sake of Pinchin’s defense.
Alone.
“Hey, for the first volley, avoid the center. Concentrate on the flanks—those wings spreading out to either side.”
“Huh? Yes!”
“Shooting from right behind that bloody samurai would be horridly bad form! Cover him—buy that fool some time to come back. He might be one of the Japanese who came to Mathew.”
“Hahaha! That’s true, all right—understood! All units, prepare to fire! Aim for the enemy’s flanks. Do not fire at the center! The one who just leapt over us is a damn samurai who came to reinforce us! He’s probably an idiot, but he seems intent on charging the enemy for our sake! Whether he lives or dies is up to his luck, but I won’t bear to have him caught in our artillery!”
This order drew an unexpected reaction from soldiers who had already steeled themselves.
“Samurai? Not a Miramaran? That was him?”
“The weird guy who flew over earlier? He was Japanese!?”
“For us? What an idiot! Too damned stupid! I’m about to piss myself just standing here!”
“All alone? Against that disgusting monster!? Hahaha! Okay! I kinda like that kind of idiot!”
Life returned to the previously silent ranks of Temaren’s soldiers.
These things in front of them looked almost unreal—monsters. They didn’t even know how strong those creepy enemies were, or whether they’d be able to make it back alive. The soldiers’ anxiety and fear had been enormous. And now, a smile had even appeared on their faces.
Temaren gave a wry smile at the soldiers’ reactions.
Then he raised his right hand to give the signal for the barrage.
Temaren checked the distance to the enemy through his binoculars and timed it.
Even in a situation like this, Temaren found himself unconsciously tracking Gokou.
Temaren found Gokou.
He could see Gokou hoist his spear in a great arc, gripping it between his right hand and his back.
“Fire———!!”
At Temaren’s command, the artillery opened fire all at once.
The shells traced calculated parabolas and headed for the edges of the horde of yokai.
Temaren should have been watching for the impacts through his binoculars, but he couldn’t help pointing them at Gokou. At the moment the shells struck, Gokou slammed into the center of the enemy horde that seemed to cover the horizon.
At the instant the unit’s shells hit, Temaren was shown a sight he couldn’t believe.
He watched dozens of enemy yokai on both wings blown away by their artillery.
But… the center that Gokou had charged into was shredded into pieces by a number of yokai many times greater than those taken by the barrage, and they were blown higher into the sky than the blast of the shells.
Temaren’s soldiers widened their eyes at the sight, their mouths hanging slack.
Temaren was the same.
The battlefield rules Temaren knew were being broken before his eyes in real time.
After slamming into the center, Gokou moved toward the right wing, which appeared to have the densest formations, and with a single sweep of his spear sent dozens of yokai flying—truly performing like a one-man army.
“Th—that samurai…?”
“We can win! If that samurai’s here!”
“Whooaa! Amazing! With this guy I can protect my family!”
Temaren snapped back to himself at the soldiers’ cheers.
It was an incredible sight, but it wasn’t a dream.
Temaren switched his mindset. Or rather, he was able to accept this absurdity because he had already seen and confirmed those things called yokai.
“Contact the artillery! Concentrate fire on the left flank—the side opposite where the samurai moved! Support the samurai! Always avoid firing where the samurai is; don’t impede him—anywhere else is fair game!”
“Ye—yes!”
“And contact Minra! Tell them to hand overall command of the army to Brigadier General Mathew! Our entire Pinchin force will abandon those Kaliguda bastards who fled from Nephy and attach to Brigadier General Mathew, who sent the best reinforcements!”
“Huh?”
“Any objections?”
“None at all! I’ll contact Minra immediately!”
“Good. Do that! And trace the samurai! He might tire—when that time comes, that’s our cue! Consider that samurai our lifeline!”
“Yes!”
At Temaren’s orders, Pinchin’s soldiers moved in concert.
Miramar’s third city, Tarketta—
“Ugaron, you just need to ram into the enemy! Leave the rest to me!”
“Uga!”
Ugaron aimed for the spot where the yokai masses crushed together and simply ran about.
It was such a surreal sight—like a mutt playing among monsters—but wherever Ugaron passed, the yokai there turned to dust and dispersed as if they were monsters defeated in a game.
“Good work, Ugaron! All right, here we go! Stretch out! Water Style—Water Prison!”
Gen struck the ground with his log-like arms.
Then dozens of gigantic water pillars shot up from the ground on Tarketta’s west side in even intervals.
“Take that! Go!”
The pillars rose into the sky like a massive iron lattice of water and began moving forward.
While moving, the columns of water linked in a lattice with the ones to their left and right, forming rings that enclosed hundreds of fiends on the ground, including the gargoyles overhead, and the rings gradually shrank in size.
The fiends trapped inside the vast prison of water tried to break free by touching it. Wherever they touched, the extraordinary water pressure tore them apart, pulverizing them down to the bone.
Several of these enormous, ultra–high–pressure water cages formed on the west side of Tarketta, and as each cage contracted it dragged the fiends inside and disappeared into the ground.
“T-Commander! That—what do we do?!”
“I don’t know!”
“…Huh? Commander?”
“Contact General Mathew of Minra! Thank him for his aid and tell him we surrender to General Mathew! I don’t know anything beyond that! For now, whatever you do, do not upset that dog and that old man!”
“Y-yes!”
The young Tarketta staff officer answered with a strained voice as his superior hammered the warning into him.
Industrial city Soro—
“I’m going!”
Sally, spreading pure white wings and wielding a massive Death Scythe ill-suited to her gentle face, stood against a sky filled with gargoyles.
The wingbeats of those gargoyles—wings laced with vicious claws—stirred the terror of the humans below.
But Sally, who had appeared in an instant, freed Soro’s citizens and soldiers from their fear by her very divine presence.
“Hey!”
In a slightly silly voice, Sally swept her Death Scythe sideways at the gargoyles.
The horde of gargoyles that had threatened the city line and tried to pounce from above suddenly lost lift one after another, dropping like mosquitoes sprayed with insecticide.
“Phew—there’s a reward from Hiroto-san on the line—I’m not letting them through, and I’ll protect you all!”
Sally said that as she waved at the citizens and soldiers of Soro who were looking up at her and smiled brightly.
“Ahhh, it’s a goddess! A goddess in Soro!”
“Beautiful… Mom, look! There’s an angel over there!”
“I’ve seen a miracle… that smile—it’s a miracle.”
“Listen! Don’t let monsters near the goddess! She’s Soro’s guardian deity!”
“Yeah!”
The citizens frantically waved back at Sally.
“Ah, well, I’m actually a shinigami—I’m really happy you’re all so pleased, though—”
Miramar’s port city Pasawn—
Pasawn sits at the southernmost tip of Miramar and is home to the largest naval base in the region.
Of the cities attacked by the fiends, this one was perhaps in the most desperate situation.
“Status of civilian evacuations?”
“Yes, it looks like it’s finally getting started.”
“Hurry them up.”
Colonel Aunnain, intending to personally take command at the front lines, stared at the sea spreading out from the port with a grim face.
When he first received the order to defend the Pasawn base he had been incredulous; when he saw footage from other cities he’d thought it was CGI. But when he realized it was real, a chill had run down his back that had not left him.
Are we really supposed to fight that, he thought.
“Commander Aunnain! Look!”
A soldier riding with him, stunned, pointed out to sea.
Far ahead, ships had been swarmed by countless gargoyles, turning into black masses on the water before erupting in great flashes and flames.
Seventy of their comrades had been aboard one of those vessels—there was neither time nor room left to save them.
“Damn those monsters. Do not panic! Everyone, get to your positions! Prepare the rocket launchers!”
The troops moved at the order, but morale was clearly low. They were being ordered to fight sudden, incomprehensible monsters that seemed unreal. The soldiers had too many unknowns—what were those things, what did they want, could their weapons even stop them?
“Hurry! They’re coming this way! Knock them down before they land!”
Aunnain could understand their questions and fear, but there was nothing to be done now but fight.
“Huh? What’s that? A shadow on the surface… Hey, lend me the binoculars.”
“Y-yes.”
Aunnain frowned and shifted the binoculars’ view from the gargoyles high above down toward the sea and then closer to the near shore.
“N-no way!?”
For the first time in his life Aunnain trembled with despair.
The shadows on the surface weren’t just from gargoyles. Under the waves, something that was not marine life was moving in vast numbers toward them. Worse, those things were faster than the gargoyles, scattering countless red-black gleams across the sunlit, rippling surface—already close enough that they could easily land in a few minutes.
“Hey! A huge number of things are coming from underwater too! Set the machine guns to the front! Hurry!”
A massive, non-human hand clutched the tip of the forward pier.
“Ahhh—there! M-monsters are coming! They’re—huge!”
The vanguard soldiers screamed in strangled voices. At last, one of the fiends that had gone ahead appeared, showing its grotesque form to the troops. Over two meters long and heavily muscled, it had a shark-like face with red, pupil-less eyes.
“Kuh, shoot, shoot!!”
The vanguard opened fire on that single fiend regardless of unit. Terrified, they seemed to forget themselves; their shooting—almost excessive—focused on the lead fiend until it was literally a sieve.
And yet… the fiend did not stop. Its expression was unreadable. Still, taking hundreds, even thousands of bullets, it pressed forward and let out a howl.
“Don’t come—don’t come—don’t—!”
“You still not gonna die, huh!!”
“Fall! Fall! Fall down, damn you! What the hell—!”
Those who were attacking a lone enemy had completely lost their composure.
Finally, the fiend’s legs gave out and it collapsed, reduced to an unrecognizable ruin by the massive gunfire.
A momentary silence fell over the Pasaun base personnel on the scene.
In that instant, everyone stricken with fear thought the same thing. Should we retreat?
Aunnain was also left speechless, frozen where he stood.
(Th-this is this much tougher…? But what good does retreating do now? Can we fall back to the city and fight while evacuating civilians? No—we can’t. With the current training and morale, the unit would just collapse.)
Aunnain’s conclusion was probably correct. If he ordered a retreat now, everyone would stampede to get away.
Pasaun had long been considered the safest base in the country. The reason was that the main force of the democratic faction under Brigadier General Mathew was located north of Miramar. That meant Pasaun, at Miramar’s southernmost tip, wouldn’t suddenly be overrun if civil war broke out.
Because of that, the children and relatives of the military regime’s heavyweights were assigned here in large numbers. That background explained the low level of training.
But Aunnain steeled himself.
This was no time to worry about the offspring of regime leaders or to talk politics.
(If we don’t fight here, there’ll be nothing left of our pride as Miramar soldiers! We’ll buy time so the civilians can flee!)
“Don’t stand there like idiots—get ready for the next wave! We planned the operation accounting for that sort of thing. You lot just clear out the insolent bastards who’ve trampled into the base!”
Once, Aunnain had read a book that said, “Sometimes a commander must tell lies,” but he never imagined he’d have to do that in the supposedly safe Pasaun.
Hearing their commander’s orders, the soldiers came to their senses and glanced at each other as if to say, Really?
“Take your positions! Don’t let those monsters into the town!”
A mass of gargoyles entered the base’s airspace and began diving.
From the sea, hundreds of fiends appeared along the coastal edge of the base, and not content with that, more and more of the nauseating things swarmed up from the rear.
The soldiers had been terrified by the one monster earlier, but Aunnain’s prior orders somehow kept them from breaking.
Aunnain fixed a grim resolution: this would be an all-out battle, and he looked ahead.
Still, the men, now understanding they faced monsters, were slowed by extreme fear.
Even the commander Aunnain found them terrifying. But he had enough composure to know what would happen to the town of Pasaun if they withdrew.
“If we don’t hold here, the base will fall in a flash, and those things will surge into the town where our families live! If we don’t fight here, who will fight?!”
The urgent, fierce tone and the content of the order finally put tension and a sense of duty on the soldiers’ faces.
“Charge! Fire!!”
A desperate attack began.
At that moment… something happened that far exceeded Aunnain’s imagination.
The hundreds of monsters that had landed from the sea were suddenly engulfed in flame from head to toe.
The fiends that had not fallen even after taking hundreds of bullets writhed in agony, unable to move, and were reduced to dust.
Moreover, the numerous gargoyles that had plunged in from the sky flared like the climax of a fireworks display—blazing and exploding as they fell.
The inferno was so intense that the heat rode the sea breeze and reached all the way to this unit.
“…Wha—?”
Aunnain, who had issued the attack order, gaped. The soldiers did the same.
(Huh? Were my troops ever this strong? No—rather, did the enemy have a weapon that could inflict that kind of damage?)
Of course not.
There could be no weapon unknown to the commander.
Aunnain and every soldier simply stared in stunned silence.
They looked at their own weapons and tilted their heads, as if trying to understand what had happened and what had caused it.
Then… perhaps it was his imagination, but Aunnain felt the ambient temperature rise.
“Co-Commander! There’s a civilian over there!”
“What!?”
When his subordinate pointed it out, there was a girl standing just before the pier ahead.
The small girl had startling red hair — you could tell even from a distance.
“…Just in time.”
The girl muttered, emotionless but somehow relieved.
Meanwhile, the defense forces panicked at the sudden appearance of a civilian right at the front line.
“Wh-Where did she come from!? Someone bring her here, quick! There’s a horde of monsters coming!”
They didn’t understand how those fiends had been defeated by the earlier attack; those burned to ash were only a tiny fraction of the total enemy force.
Immediately, from beyond the pier before them, fiends poured out again in numbers far greater than before.
Above, thousands of gargoyles hovering in the sky increased their speed and plunged down.
It felt like the real fight was just beginning; the pressure was overwhelming.
“Wha—! All units, intercept!”
Aunnain’s eyes widened as he shouted the order to attack, but the fire didn’t start — a girl was standing dead center of the firing line.
Blood rushed to Aunnain’s head. What an amateur force, he thought.
True, civilians shouldn’t be caught up in this. But looking at the situation, the priority was obvious. We are soldiers defending the city.
If we don’t fight now, we’ll die and the city’s citizens will die.
It was regrettable for the red-haired girl, but in such an emergency she had the misfortune to trespass into a military facility. She would just have to accept it. He would take responsibility.
“Fools! Attack already!”
Aunnain raised his voice until his vocal cords seemed about to snap.
—It happened then.
Suddenly, a pair of deep-red wings sprouted from the slender back of the red-haired girl.
They were enormous, spanning more than ten meters left to right. As if to shield the soldiers, the monsters hid behind those crimson wings.
The girl’s eyes flushed red as she spread both wings toward the sea.
“You’re in the way…”
She murmured the words and a red wind fanned out from her in a broad arc. The massed fiends caught in it were engulfed in flames. The heat was tremendous, and it even began to spread to the defense troops behind.
The soldiers of Pasaun could only watch.
Everyone there held their breath — no, they stared as if entranced by the scene.
The red-haired girl burned the fiends away with ease.
Then she made a face as if she had remembered something — “Ah…” — turned on her heel and came toward them in a cute little trot.
The soldiers trembled at the red hair and wings, but when she drew near they inhaled sharply at her porcelain-doll–like, perfectly formed face.
Before one soldier, the red-haired girl Susan stopped.
“I got lost… I’m late. Please keep this a secret…”
“Huh? W-Well…okay.”
The flustered soldier did not understand what Susan meant.
Susan came up to the soldier at the very front, put her hand in the pocket of her red-dominant dress, drew out a sheet of paper, and handed it to the dazed soldier.
“Wh-What is this?”
“Give it… to the most important person.”
She said that, then spread her crimson wings.
“Eek!”
Ignoring the soldier who had collapsed to his knees, Susan leapt into the air and looked down at the troops with an expressionless face.
“Stand back… or everyone will burn.”
“Who are you… no, who are you, ma’am!?”
“Sh-She’s flying!?”
“Everyone will burn…?”
“Am I dreaming? Is this even real?”
Suddenly Susan’s crimson wings transformed into crimson flames, and she pointed toward the mass of fiends.
“For a reward… I’ll get a little serious.”
Like a rocket, Susan shot up into the sky, made a ninety-degree turn, and dove into the center of the gargoyle swarm. The soldiers left behind watched in stunned silence, clutching the note Susan had given them.
Shot high into the air in an instant, Susan plunged into the very heart of the gargoyle cluster. Her speed far outpaced the gargoyles’ reaction time.
“I shall…incinerate the evil that comes from the south.”
It was like a chant yet not a chant, her words explaining some law of the world. Susan’s demeanor was solemn and serene. Every soldier who followed her with their eyes felt an urge to worship, right there on the spot.
Very few realized that this was divine aura.
Still, everyone sensed that, facing these calamity-bringing fiends, their fear and anxiety were somehow swept away.
Susan’s crimson eyes turned scarlet as she spread her fiery wings and both arms wide.
“I like Yuuto’s wishes… I want to grant them.”
At once, a blast charged with intense heat tore through the center of the gargoyle horde. Aunnain and the other soldiers could only watch as the monsters were shown, one after another, turning to ash and dust.
Moreover… that blast of hot wind slammed into Aunnain and the soldiers.
“Eh!? It’s hot!”
“Guah—! Everyone, hit the deck! Shield your eyes!”
After the hot wind blew past, the faces of the front-line soldiers went pale. Because they could see Susan was about to do something again.
“Wait! She’s going to do something else!?”
“Eeeek! This is bad!”
Aunnain shouted on reflex at the sight. He didn’t know what that girl beyond human comprehension truly was, but, like the men at the front, he had a very bad feeling about what was about to happen.
“Fall back! Get away from the sea, now!”
Whether it was the order or the instinct to move faster, the entire army retreated like hares.
As they fled, every soldier felt the warmth at their backs.
At that moment, everyone instinctively knew they absolutely must not look back, and they ran without glancing aside.
Among them, one person mustered courage—or acted foolishly—and looked back.
What they saw was…
Susan, whose wings of flame were even broader than before, thrusting both palms downward.
Susan stared at the sea with an expressionless face, but anyone who knew how to read her would have noticed the corners of her mouth were slackening. Of course, the only ones likely to notice that were Kiyoko and Hiroto.
Because at that moment, Hiroto, praising her, rose up in Susan’s mind.
Hiroto patted Susan’s head and smiled gently. “Well done, Susan.” “As expected of my Susan.” He kept stroking her until he was satisfied.
How wonderful, how lovely.
Susan decided, here and now, that if she defeated all of these youma, she would surely obtain that.
“…I’ll beat them. All of them.”
She said it, and a massive spiritual power was unleashed toward the sea.
For an instant, a gigantic hole opened in the ocean.
Saying it like that might sound strange to anyone, but once you saw the scene you couldn’t help but call it that.
To say something even more absurd—and yet true—that single blow from Susan erased the countless youma beneath the waves along with the sea itself. A vast amount of superheated steam billowed up and robbed the area of visibility.
At that moment, a soldier who had looked back and witnessed this impossibility shouted through tears.
“Whoaaa! Run faster! Move faster! A tidal wave’s coming!”
Everyone was drawn in by that cry and turned to look.
They saw the sea wildly churning as water rushed to fill the hole Susan had made. That upheaval swelled into a towering wave and bore down on Pasaun’s naval port.
“Nooo, it’s hopeless! We won’t make it in time!”
“Grab onto something! Don’t let go of each other!”
Some of the fleeing soldiers were caught by the surge, desperately clinging to nearby buildings to avoid being dragged into the sea, supporting one another where they could.
“We’re gonna die!”
“Are you all right!?”
Honestly, the thing that felt more immediately life-threatening to the soldiers than the mass of youma was Susan herself.
Eventually the sea wind cleared the steam, and Susan looked around.
She wore a satisfied expression at having sent most of the youma to their deaths. But when she looked toward the harbor, the battered Pasaun defense force came into view, crawling forward on the brink of survival.
She stared at them for a moment, then made a face of realization—”…ah.”
She remembered Hiroto’s request.
“Everyone, go to the cities the enemy summoner’s youma are likely to attack, and protect the people of this country, Miramar!”
A short beat passed, and Susan murmured, “…Did I overdo it?”
Then, as if pulling herself together, she beat her wings toward the remaining youma.
Minutes later, the Pasaun defense force, having somehow regained their composure, looked up to the sky.
“The enemy… the monsters are being burned away!”
“What on earth is that girl!? Hey… everyone, fall back a little.”
Susan spread crimson wings of flame tens of meters to each side and repeatedly streaked through the remaining youma, barrel-rolling through both air and ground targets as she plunged in and pulled back.
Her tremendous heat reached units hundreds of meters away.
The soldiers could only follow that unreal figure with their eyes.
They watched with a mix of reassurance and a nagging fear that they might be caught up in it.
Amid that, one soldier ran up to Commander Aunnain and handed him a sheet of paper.
“General, this!”
“What is it?”
“It’s a letter from that girl.”
“What!? Did you read it? What did it say!?”
“I read it. But there were a lot of parts I didn’t really understand, so I’m not sure how to interpret it… But I believe that girl did come as reinforcements for Pasaun!”
“Reinforcements!? They came to help us… is that true?”
Aunnain unfolded the memo-like letter as he received the report.
“I’ll take down the demons under orders from Mathew-san. Also, when the demons are defeated, please tell Hiroto he did an amazing job. I want a reward too.”
“Brigadier General Mathew!?” “And what else… Hiroto?”
The memo contained some odd wording and a few strange expressions, but it was possible to read it as saying that Brigadier General Mathew had sent reinforcements.
“Hmm…”
Could Mathew, who would surely become our enemy if civil war broke out, really have sent reinforcements to help us?
Still, repeated calls to the capital Nephy had gone completely unanswered, and word had already come in that Marshal Kaliguda had fled. At the same time, they had reports that Brigadier General Mathew had sent reinforcements to other cities.
Aunnain looked up at Susan, who had spread her crimson wings in the sky, and watched that surreal, dogfight-like battle.
Impossible things had already happened so many times they were sickening.
But the unshakable facts were that Marshal Kaliguda had fled and Brigadier General Mathew had sent reinforcements.
Aunnain couldn’t help but stare as Susan’s flaming wings fluttered and, with overwhelming power, she drove the demons away and protected the city of Pasawn.
“My word… how beautiful. Ha! I can’t just stand here! Nephy can wait! Contact Minra! Put me through to General Mathew!”
Decades after Pasawn was saved, Aunnain remembered and said this.
“Even now I can’t tell where reality ended and where the dream began in that moment. But one thing is certain—the image of those flaming wings is still burned into my heart.”
Miramar’s second-ranked city, Youngra—
“Absolutely! I’m gonna make Hiroto praise me! Ah, there! There’s one hiding behind!”
Shiro jumped several dozen meters. She raised both hands toward the demons that poured out one after another from the mountain north of Youngra.
Tiny whirlwinds issued one after another from the small palms of Shiro, sucking the newly spawned demons and the trees on the mountainside behind them into the vortexes.
From the seemingly random directions the wide-ranging whirlwinds were sent, an unbelievable number of demons—by rough estimate nearly a thousand—were blown into the air as if ping-pong balls had bounced.
“Ugh, that’s way too many! Sorry, this might hurt a little!”
Shiro spread her fingers wide and slashed the air with her claws toward the mass of demons launched skyward, swinging both arms repeatedly as though cutting through the atmosphere.
“Oh, they’re coming over here too! Jeez! You can’t sneak around from behind!”
Behind the turned Shiro, the dismembered demons fell into the forest and disappeared.
The capital Nephy—
“Captain! I’ve informed Minra’s General Mathew of the transfer of command. We are currently awaiting orders from General Mathew.”
“I see. Understood.”
“But… was that the right thing to do…?”
“Huh? Of course it was! That bastard Kaliguda ran off without even telling us, in the middle of Miramar’s crisis! Who’s gonna keep working for a guy like that?”
“Yes… you’re right! So from now on Miramar will be under General Mathew?”
“That’s right. Miramar will change. We’ll watch how General Mathew intends to shape Miramar. That’s our job from now on.”
“Yes…”
“Also. I have something to take care of.”
“Huh?”
“Miramar’s going to change, right? So I’m gonna change too. I’m going to propose.”
“Eh!? Captain, what are you saying… I mean, to whom!? Now is not the time!”
“That one.”
The young commander who had propped up a chaotic Nephy after Kaliguda and the higher-ups vanished pointed to a spot several hundred meters from Nephy’s main gate.
The reporting soldier squinted but couldn’t make it out, so he raised his binoculars in the captain’s direction.
There stood a woman in a kimono, dressed in a strangely alluring manner.
“Oh! That’s Nephy’s savior! Seeing her like this… she’s sexy.”
“Right!? I’m giving up my bachelorhood! I’m going for it, even if it’s hopeless. And that outfit—she must be Japanese. Maybe a geisha. You don’t meet a woman that strong and breathtakingly beautiful in a lifetime!”
“No, Captain. I think she’s beyond ‘strong’ and into a whole other level…”
“Shut up! I’m going!”
“Haah… well, suit yourself. Ah, when you’re rejected, hurry back, okay? We need to have a meeting about the future.”
“Don’t jinx it! Don’t go assuming I’ll be turned down! You guys go find a congratulatory gift!”
Saying that, the young captain fixed his hair, left his subordinates behind, and ran off.
The soldier watched his superior’s sadly receding back.
“Ah—man, the captain’s excellent, but he knows way too little about women. Well, that’s the downside of going around declaring you’re going to stay single and never interacting with them. To look at that girl’s face and feel nothing—jeez. That’s the expression of a woman in love, all giddy thinking about what the man she likes will do for her. Honestly. Well then, I should get some booze ready, not a congratulatory gift—for the sake of the future military brass…”
The soldier shrugged and turned on his heel to prepare for the meeting.
“Ahhh, I’m exhausted~. When I get home… pffft, I already decided the reward~”
Kiyoko, sitting atop a great rock on the outskirts of Nephy, said it with utter delight. She wore a loose kimono and the porcelain-like sweep of her limbs peeked out now and then, but she paid it no mind.
“I’m definitely getting a massage! A full-body massage! I’ve already got the outfit picked out for that moment! Heh heh… ah, I can’t wait to go home. Oh, I’ll keep it a secret from Sally. That kid sneaks peeks at my magazines, you know.”
Propped on her hands, Kiyoko blushed and grinned foolishly. Spread out before her—stretching as far as the eye could see—were the corpses of the enemy youma.
◆
“Hey, hey, hey, what’s the meaning of this!? Huh? Liang!”
“This is… sorry, I don’t know either, Junhao.”
Wang Junhao, SS-rank “Ten’i Muhō” of the Agency, stood on the rooftop of a high-rise hotel in Yangla, Miramar’s second-ranked city, scowling at the scene below.
A few hours earlier Junhao had been on the outskirts of Yangla and had spotted a conspicuous horde of youma heading for the city.
He gave it a bored, contemptuous glance, told Wang Liang to head to Yangla, let out a loud “ahhh,” and pulled a guan dao wrapped in cloth toward him.
But when they arrived, the youma were already being wiped out.
Junhao glared, knitting his brow at the one in white who was clearing them before the city, and clicked his tongue. At a distance where an ordinary person would see only a speck, Junhao could make things out clearly.
“That’s not human. Someone with a very high spiritual rank. Is the practitioner a summoner? Or a contractor?”
“Wait a sec, I’m checking now.”
Liang, Junhao’s attendant, leaned over his tablet PC and efficiently scanned the ability data he’d compiled.
“No good, Junhao. None of the ability-holders we have in Miramar match a contractor with that kind of spiritual rank. No summoner data either. The three sent from the Japan branch are all rookies—led by Rank-A spirit-user Mizuho Shitenji from the Shitenji family, and the Rank-A exorcist Marion Mia Shulian. The other one is Rank D…”
“Enough! But Liang, anyone in theory can contract with a non-human. If they’ve got the skill, it’s possible. One of those Japanese rookies could secretly be the contractor.”
“That’s true, but contracts require proper preparation. And high-spiritual-rank non-humans are insanely proud—just getting them to manifest is difficult. Families with the knowledge and power to pull that off number fewer than ten in the world…”
“I know that! Still—there are exceptions, right, Liang?”
“There are, sure. Like me. But—”
Junhao stopped Liang with a hand.
“So then, is this your doing? Huh? Bartolo!”
Junhao turned his face toward the rooftop door.
Liang followed his gaze.
“Heh, you noticed.”
Bartolo opened the door quietly and stepped out, followed by two men. The two behind him both had brown hair and wore close-fitting dark clothes clearly chosen for mobility.
“If you’re here, show yourselves now! So this is your handiwork? You sure are taking liberties. The Agency that strapped for cash, is it!?”
“You’re being presumptuous, Ten’i Muhō. But you have the wrong idea.”
“…Huh?”
“Whatever this is, it’s not something under our control. To be frank, we’re just as confused as you are.”
“What…? What do you mean by that?”
“What we do know is this: hordes of youma attacked Miramar’s seven major cities. In six of those cities—except Minra—powerful non-humans capable of taking humanoid form appeared, intercepted the youma, and have been driving them back and eradicating them.”
“What!?”
Liang blurted out before Junhao could.
There were two reasons he was shocked. One, he was certain the being showing such overwhelming power was a non-human that had been anthropomorphized. And two, that high-ranking non-humans capable of even taking humanoid form had appeared simultaneously in the other cities. The very fact that such high-level non-humans had materialized and manifested was nearly miraculous. He had never heard of multiple such occurrences happening at once.
Shungo narrowed his eyes and looked toward the one in white, who was driving the horde of wicked spirits attacking Yangla to the brink of annihilation.
“So? How do you lot see this? Is that thing an ally? And what about Rokiarum, the leader of Surtur’s Sword? You came to see me because you got some information, right? Otherwise you wouldn’t have bothered showing up here after trying to outmaneuver me.”
“Heh, that’s right. We came to clear up the misunderstanding that Ten’i Muhou would inevitably have on seeing this scene, and to share information and show good faith as the client. We don’t want to put Ten’i Muhou in a bad mood. I’ll admit we struggled with the overly high reward, though.”
Bartolo gave a practiced, unflappable smile, and Shungo clicked his tongue.
“All right, about this situation—I’ll tell you what we’ve found. First off, at the moment, armies of wicked spirits numbering from seven thousand to ten thousand have simultaneously assaulted each of Miramar’s seven major cities.”
Shungo listened to Bartolo with a cold expression, but Ryo’s eyes widened and his face stiffened. In his knowledge there was no summoner who could call forth that many wicked spirits at once, nor any precedent for it.
“The escort target for this mission, Brigadier General Mathew, is currently holding them off in Minra in cooperation with rookie ability users the Japan branch dispatched. They’re apparently some really competent newcomers. And… the other six cities, including Yangla, are in the same state.”
Bartolo said that while pointing toward the one in white standing outside Yangla.
“I imagine this is what you want to hear most, but the motives of the high-ranking non-humans defending each major city, and the summoner or contractor for each of them, are unknown. There are seven non-human entities in total. Each of them has reportedly repelled those wicked spirits almost without sustaining injuries. My subordinates are heading to the cities now, and I’ve instructed them to attempt contact with these non-humans.”
Shungo folded his arms and listened to Bartolo, but snorted in disappointment.
“So what, you barely know anything.”
“In a word, yes. But we’ve already received reports from subordinates who’ve contacted some of these non-humans. According to them, it’s possible that one person is their master. We haven’t investigated all of them yet, though.”
“Wha… what?”
Shungo reacted, but Ryo was even more aghast and took a step forward.
“No way! Seven high-level non-humans all bound to one person!? That can’t be! Summoning… no, that’s impossible! So there must be someone who contracted them? Bartolo, how did you figure that out?”
“That’s a corporate secret… I’d like to say, but it’s not exactly anything impressive. I’ll tell you as a show of good faith, Ryo-kun. You probably already know that we’re a unit within the Agency that handles counter-ability user operations. We call ourselves a clandestine unit, but we haven’t been hiding it that strictly. It’s necessary to some extent to signal to the world that the Agency isn’t driven by pure ideals alone. Especially while there are folks nursing grudges against the Agency and eyeing its privileges.”
Ryo tightened his expression and nodded cautiously at Bartolo’s words.
What Bartolo said was indeed something Ryo already knew.
Bartolo’s unit performed part of the social role the World Ability Agency publicly claimed and, behind the scenes, sought recognition and eventual elevation to a public institution. The Agency’s original purpose was to avoid interfering with ordinary people as much as possible and to rescue those plagued by non-humans and spiritual phenomena—their steady, painstaking efforts were meant to earn them a place in society.
It would take many years, but that accumulation was the means to disclose themselves to the public without causing massive turmoil.
Bartolo’s unit’s primary mission, however, was not that.
There were organizations that would openly obstruct the Agency’s altruistic goals. Groups like Surtur’s Sword existed, and similar moves could be seen even within national institutions.
If those organizations judged the Agency to be defenseless, they would use any trick to hoard ability users. Ability users were that useful—especially in the back-and-forth of the world’s hidden conflicts.
Bartolo’s unit served as a deterrent against such global moves targeting the Agency.
Therefore, if anyone tried to harm or disrupt the Agency’s governance of ability users, Bartolo’s unit would act at once.
Ryo also understood why Bartolo didn’t strictly hide that fact. In practice, even national intelligence agencies keep their agents’ actions secret but don’t deny their existence.
It’s different in detail, but having something be known can make an opponent think twice; pretending it doesn’t exist is often less effective than deliberately not hiding its presence.
Bartolo read Ryo’s expression, sensed a rational air about him, and smiled.
“We have a specialist for dealing with summoners and contractors. A psychic who can tell which person a contracted non-human is connected to. He was originally a natural-born ability user, and thanks to him attacks from contractors with non-humans against our agency have quieted down a good deal. We can’t see it ourselves, but this fellow apparently sees a thread-like connection between contracted non-humans and their masters.”
Ryo showed a face of surprise at a power that could truly be called a special ability.
Shungo narrowed his eyes; Bartolo grinned.
“Mind you, he’s hopeless in a fight. But he says he confirmed about three of those non-humans, and each had a thicker, more brilliantly shining thread than he’d ever seen before, and all those threads were pointing in the same direction. He said he’d never seen such a strong master-servant bond. And this time, because those threads each showed the same qualities, he wondered whether the master might be a single person.”
“What!? That many non-humans!? Those are already god-class divine beasts. Multiple of them… And if there’s such a solid bond, it means some household that secretly produces a number of prominent contractors is involved… the Liu family, the Hebakui family—no way! The Schwarzhaare family!”
“Calm down, Ryo. None of those families are involved. We checked them immediately, and there was nothing. Besides, none of those houses have any motive to protect Miramar. In truth, we have no idea at all why this mysterious contractor would be trying to defend Miramar. Well, the world’s a big place. At an extremely low probability, there could be an ability user among the people of Miramar we don’t know about who moved to defend their homeland. Or perhaps Brigadier General Mathew hired an ability user through a different channel… that’s also conceivable.”
…
Ryo listened to Bartolo but found that idea absolutely impossible.
It wasn’t literally zero that there could be contractors within Miramar unknown to the agency. But it wasn’t normal for this many contractors to have never come out into the open until now.
Moreover, the very ability to contract with such high-grade non-humans is rare; for one person to have contracted with several of them would be astronomically unlikely.
And Mathew having his own independent route was out of the question. If he had connections to ability users of that caliber, he wouldn’t have come to the agency in the first place.
(…Bartolo must know that too…)
Ryo wore a grave expression while Bartolo remained relaxed. Shungo cut in with an irritated tone.
“None of that matters! So—those threads coming from those non-humans, where are they pointing? Bartolo.”
Bartolo stiffened his gaze in response to Shungo’s question.
“Gurwa Mountain.”
Ryo was shocked by the answer; Shungo laughed defiantly.
“Gurwa Mountain… that’s where Rokiarum is!”
“Hah! Which means their master is…”
“Yes. Given their clear hostile actions against Surtur’s Sword, it’s reasonable to assume the master of those non-humans is trying to destroy Surtur’s Sword. Who they are… we also considered infighting, but that wouldn’t explain sending contracted non-humans to defend each city. It would bring them no benefit.”
“Ku-ku-ku! Ha—ha-ha!”
Shungo suddenly burst out laughing.
“This is interesting! Whoever this is, they’re trying to save Miramar all on their own? For no gain, no money!”
Ryo was taken aback by Shungo’s sudden good humor.
“…Shungo?”
“Hey, Ryo. We’re leaving.”
“Huh!? Wait, Shungo!”
“I don’t like that somebody grabbed my job and money out from under me, but they’re going at this scale alone. It’d be gauche for me to intervene here.”
“But! You accepted the request!”
Shungo slung his glaive over his shoulder and looked at Bartolo.
“Hey, Bartolo. I’ll refund the whole fee. You were the one who insisted on payment by results anyway, so it’s fine, right?”
Even Bartolo, surprised by the proposal, hesitated for a moment, but seeing the strength of will in Shungo’s eyes, he exhaled deeply.
“…All right. We find it regrettable, but it’s true the situation has changed too much since the request. But are you sure? Ten’i Muhou is going to walk away from the reward?”
“Hah! I take payment for my value on my battlefield. That’s Ten’i Muhou’s pride. I’m not the sort of man who takes leftovers on someone else’s field. My measure of excellence is money. Still, there might be people who aren’t like that—probably up on Gurwa Mountain. Call ’em fools if you like; I don’t understand them and I don’t want to, but I don’t dislike them.”
“Ugh… Shungo, you’re always so selfish! My head’s starting to hurt.”
“Shut up, stop whining. Hmph! Well then, I’m off. Bartolo.”
Junhao slipped past Bartolo and the others and headed for the rooftop exit of the building; Ryo hurried after him.
Junhao glanced back at the silent Bartolo and his men.
“Bartolo. This is about you. You’re going to thoroughly investigate that Contractor afterward, right?”
“Mm. Yes, that’s what we’ll do. Why?”
“Sorry, but could you tell me what you find? Tell me too.”
“Oh…? And why would that be?”
“This guy owes me a favor, doesn’t he? I’ll make him pay me back later.”
“A favor…?”
“I let him withdraw without pay because of me, Ten’i Muhō. I’ll make him pay up proper. I’m curious what kind of fellow he is. I’ll make him show his face and—special treat—I’ll force him to buy me a drink.”
“Good grief… That Contractor really picked the wrong kind of people to attract.”[TN: Touché]
“Hmph! Don’t forget it, Bartolo.”
Leaving those words behind, [Ten’i Muhō] Wang Junhao, for the first time in his career, completed a job without receiving any pay and disappeared through the door.
Bartolo let out a long breath, ordered his men to conduct a thorough information sweep, and hurriedly began preparations to head for Mount Gurwa, where Rokiahrm, sword leader of Surtur, was believed to be.
◆
“General Mathew! We’re receiving messages from the cities thanking us for the reinforcements and offering to surrender to General Mathew!”
In the garden of the Mathew estate, where Minra’s defense headquarters had been set up, reports from the communications men kept coming in without pause.
“What’s going on? Reinforcements…?”
Mathew turned to Teintan standing beside him; Teintan tilted his head as well.
“I don’t know. What’s happening? I’ve ordered reports to be sent to each city to gather information, but reinforcements… Certainly, I had instructed our compatriots stationed outside the attacked cities to go help nearby towns. But these reports are coming from all over Miramar. Some places shouldn’t have had reinforcements arrive yet, and the southern part of Miramar isn’t under our control—there’s no way reinforcements could have been sent from there.”
At present, Minra was driving the enemy yokai horde back thanks to the efforts of Mizuho and Marion, and the attack units centered on Mizuho were maintaining an overwhelmingly superior front. Even so, they could not afford to let their guard down, and there was no time to investigate these details.
Just then another report came in.
“Message from Pasaun. They thank General Mathew for the reinforcements and offer to surrender to General Mathew! Also—report to Hiroto? They say the reinforcements have done an incredible job driving off the enemy. Um… is this ‘Hiroto’ some kind of code name or something?”
For a moment Mathew and Teintan, hearing the communications man’s words, looked puzzled, but then their expressions snapped into place and they glanced at each other.
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