I came back but the world is still a fantasy!? – Garesto Academy – Exam Arc: Chapter I – Those Who Take Advantage of the Test – 04-10: Romance, Weapons, Wild Dance II (3/4)

“If I knew this would happen, I would have put up a field barrier first. Unfortunately, Ruona and Padyuel’s appearance was just too shocking,” Werner said.

The shock from their appearance and the excitement from the succeeding events made him forget to erect a field.

“Are you saying its our… On second thought, perhaps it is,” Aristel said.

“It’s almost as if you’re saying it’s our… Ok, maybe it is,” Myuhi said.

It sounded like he was indirectly saying it was their fault, so the girls became angry, but then they realized at roughly the same time that they were indeed at fault.

“Ari-chan, I put up a field around the cage where the teachers have been confined,” Myuhi said.

“I-I also put up a field around those people to ward off the raybeasts,” Aristel said.

Although they had gone berserk and needed to be bound, they still needed to put some measures in place to protect them.

Those decisions were correct, but the problem was that they didn’t have any fields set up where they presently were.

“Ahh, I see. This area is probably in between those two fields. That’s why they’re attack us from two sides,” Shinichi said with a laugh when he realized the implication behind their words.

They had placed two different barriers that were close to each other.

They hadn’t forgotten to take their surroundings into consideration despite their panic at the time, but as coincidence or fate would have it, Grandfizer just had to be blown away right along the path in between those two barriers.

Because of that the raybeasts were basically being led toward them.

“M-My deepest apologies,” Aristel said.

“Why didn’t I put up a field around here earlier?” Myuhi said.

There wasn’t any point in putting up a barrier now that the raybeasts have already noticed them.

The raybeast repellent fields worked by emitting an energy that interfered with their dimensional energies.

Put in human terms, the fields released an energy that ‘irritated’ the raybeasts, that’s why they didn’t approach, but once they’ve opened hostiles, the field barriers will no longer be able to stop them.

“Hey, it’s not all bad. I have a new weapon to test after all,” Shinichi said.

“Icchi?” Myuhi said.

They had surrounded the only non-combatant among them, Werner, but suddenly, Shinichi stepped out.

Just as before, he had the pile bunker on his left hand, while the snake belly sword was on his right.

He turned toward the approaching raybeasts that were attacking them from both sides.

A black ball that looked like a giant dumpling bug was rolling over the trees in its path.

There were other raybeasts too behind it.

“I mean isn’t it more our fault? It was because we got too heated talking about Grandfizer that you forgot. After all, anyone would be shocked seeing something like that.”

A horde of raybeasts was headed for him, but Shinichi calmly talked like that amidst wry smiles before he swung his right arm and unleashed the giant steel snake.

In the next moment, the dumpling bug was launched high up into the sky, but Shinichi was not done just yet.

With a flick from his right hand, he sent another raybeast flying.

After blocking the raybeasts that came from the flanks, the giant snake undulated and slithered about in the sky.

“That’s why you should just me take care of this. I want to see how far these weapons can go anyway.”

There wasn’t the slightest bit of urgency in the smile Shinichi showed the girls, but perhaps because they were told not to do anything or because they were curious what he would do, the girls and the passionate engineer quietly looked up at the giant snake dancing in the sky.

Raybeasts of all sorts came one after another at it, but it deflected them all the same.

As though the giant snake was protecting them, it never stopped moving, and the raybeasts deflected by it were sent flying again when they fell.

“Uwaah, the raybeasts were turned into jackstones,” Myuhi could only describe it as such.

It was as if there really was a giant steel snake there playing with the raybeasts. It was such a surreal sight that Myuhi’s mouth was left hanging.

But when she realized where the raybeasts were headed, she froze.

“!”

It was curious which of them gulped, though perhaps it was in fact all of them that did, but regardless, as though the raybeasts had talked about it beforehand, all of the raybeasts that were sent flying were lined up(・・・・・) nicely in front of Shinichi.

And then before anyone knew it, in Shinichi’s right hand was no longer a sword but a gun. A chill ran down the three students’ back.

“How about trying this with setting at 7:7?”

Shinichi casually said before pulling the trigger. In the next moment, a bullet of compressed air shot forth in a straight line, perforating a hole through each one of them just like it did before to that one tree.

With the damage incurred too great, the raybeasts began to vanish, but Shinichi wasn’t done just yet.

Eyes straight forward, he aimed his pile bunker up toward the sky and punched up.

“!?”

The stake unleashed, it shot through a black ball falling from the sky, and the latter immediately burst, but even then the people gathered here would still never mistake what that black ball was.

It was that dumpling bug from before that was sent flying that just so happened to fall at this moment.

No, that’s not quite right. Shinichi had sent it flying and intentionally timed it to fall at this moment. When they realized that, they gulped again.

As the three of them slowly turned around to Shinichi, they each looked at him differently.

Suspicious eyes, dazzling eyes, surprised eyes.

“Hey—”

“Tch!”

Someone was about to say something, but before that person could, the sound of a clicking tongue loudly resounded.

Of the three, the only ones who noticed her approaching(・・) were Myuhi and Aristel.

When they looked up, they saw a person wearing an exoskeleton armor rushing forward in a straight line.

The person shot down from the sky with a blade in one hand, and before they knew it, that person was already before them.

“Can’t you wait, you indiscriminate dog!!?”

Before the girls, who put on their exoskeletons reflexively, could even move, Shinichi spat that out unhappily as he pushed up with his pile bunker.

In the next moment, a blade appeared in that spot and was parried by it. The blade slipped along the surface of the pile bunker and missed its target.

“Ah!? Damn! It’s the usual—,” a panicked voice said, but it was already too late.

The sword baited, the other arm left open, in the next moment, a red muzzle pointed at the exposed armor and a hammer of compressed air was unleashed.

“Fly.”

Scatter Mode shot at point blank, the person in exoskeleton launched through the air.

Although the armor that person was wearing was meant for teachers(・・・) and had a different head shape, it was still a mass-produced type and couldn’t neutralize all that power.

Even the barrier covering the armor was blown away as the assailant was launched into the trees.

“Gu! I’m not done yet!”

But the opponent was a formidable foe too, as seen by how she was able to fix her posture midair and land on the trees for cushion.

Unfortunately, because of that the poor trees were sacrificed and turned to scrap.

Alas, despite the valiant efforts of this formidable foe, not all of the force could be mitigated, and the exoskeleton couldn’t move right away.

“What!?”

And Shinichi wasn’t soft enough to let that off. No, that’s not quite right. It’s because she(・・) did something like this that he was so merciless this time.

Already he’d switched his gun for his sword, and that giant snake was already coiled around her exoskeleton.

“You need to be disciplined. Come.”

Shinichi showed a ghastly smile to the immobilized teacher as he pulled back his sword.

Because of how quickly the extended blade returned, she couldn’t even think of resisting.

“Young miss, your punishment shall be a strike from my iron fist.”

“GAH!!??”

After he said that, the iron fist(pile bunker) descended and the poor teacher was buried into the ground.

The pile bunker was only used as a dull weapon without the stake being released, but with its gargantuan weight, sparks still scattered, and a huge crack was left on the chest armor.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The three students were speechless. They had just been given a hands-on experience what it was like to ‘doubt one’s eyes’.

Who was the person who attacked? Why did she attack? Was she related to the incident?

Such questions should’ve been a given, but the sight before them was so absurd that they were all blown away.

“H-Huh? I think my eyes are failing me. I was checking the animé I recorded yesterday, so I ended up staying late, and… Uh, for some reason, my eyes are showing me a student beating up an exoskeleton while in his uniform.”

“Ahahahaha… Ha ha ha ha… Icchi, enough with the jokes! You’re killing me!! What’s up, Icchi!? Why are you giving us so much service today!?”

“In his uniform, what’s more with weapons he’s using for the first time! Ahh… W-What ever shall I do? My chest and my face are burning up!”

One of them was saying something different while blushing, but either way, it was perfectly understandable for them to be shocked.

Regardless how abnormal Werner’s weapons were, Shinichi had still defeated an exoskeleton without using one himself.

Although it wasn’t a completely impossible feat, this exoskeleton didn’t just fight him, it had even pulled a fast one on him, and yet this was the result.

It had many names, but that otherworldly armor wasn’t so weak that it could be beaten just by having a powerful weapon, and yet…

That’s why Werner couldn’t be blamed for running away from reality.

But alas, there was no denying it… That this was the result of the weapons’ power and Shinichi’s ability. When he blocked that first attack, that was undoubtedly his true skill.

Had a normal D Ranker taken that head on, he would have surely been blown away.

Werner may have been on the technical side of things, but he wasn’t so blind that he wouldn’t realize that. And it was also because Aristel instinctively knew that that she was attracted to Shinichi and her chest beat so loudly.

Only Myuhi was troubled by this boy who always acted differently.

“Hah, ku… N-Not yet!”

The impact was so great that it made the assailant feel like she was expelling air from her lungs, but she still struggled.

But try as she might to get up, the numbness in her body wouldn’t let her.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t mind? If the iron fist wasn’t enough, then I really will have to punish you, sensei(・・).”

“Ah, don’t, wait!”

In the face of that cold voice and the pressure emanating from his smile, the person inside the exoskeleton came to her senses.

But as expected, it was a little too late.

“If I recall correctly, weapons have a safety feature that makes it so that only the registered person can use them, right?”

“W-What are you trying to say?”

When Shinichi suddenly started talking about something anyone from school knew, the person inside the exoskeleton started to sweat buckets.

That was a feature meant to prevent Garesto weapons from being stolen.

Such features ranged from locking the trigger all the way to completely stopping all functions.

The reason why everyone could use Werner’s weapons was because they hadn’t been registered just yet.

But the moment the weapons were transferred to Shinichi, they became his and those functions became active.

The most popular of those functions was the sort that released high-voltage current.

“You’re holding(・・・・) my weapon right now, right?”

“!?”

When Shinichi said that with a huge grin plastered onto his face, her back froze.

Why was he talking about something everyone knew? It all clicked.

She may have been wearing an exoskeleton, but she was still bound by his sword.

“Oh no, my weapon was stolen,” Shinichi said shamelessly with a grin as he dropped his sword.

In that moment, the system detected that an unregistered user was holding his weapon.

As a result—

“AHHHHHHH!!!???”