“I get chills just thinking about what could’ve happened were we not here.”
“Yeah, casualties are bound to pop up among the tourist before the police and the countermeasure department could arrive.”
“In the end, I don’t know if Shinichi is really unlucky or lucky…”
As the three women cut down the herd of deer-type raybeasts, they were horrified by the thought of what could’ve been.
〈Incoming energy unchanged. Remaining dimensional energy in the area: 68%. The consumption is overwhelming. Please wipe out the raybeasts first.〉
“You don’t have to tell me!”
As a new group emerged, Frire came cutting with Myuhi and Tomoe in tow.
She was fighting while dressed in a suit she wasn’t used to, but the enemy was so frail that she didn’t struggle at all.
In fact, she was having such an easy time it would be laughable to even call this a battle.
“…Turns out they didn’t even need me. I don’t have to lend a hand, but this should be a good test run.”
Shinichi had been keeping watch in case raybeasts managed to slip past them, but when he saw that that was unlikely, he took out a shield as big as him from his foster and stood it on the ground.
That was one of the weapons that Wernher asked him to test.
Just that alone would suggest there was gimmick behind it, but even without that, the strange shape of the shield more than suggested as such.
“That guy really likes weapons like this, huh… Scatter!”
At his behest, an unlocking sound resounded from the large shield, then the shield scattered like puzzle pieces and floated in the air.
“Blade expand, IFF activate… Now then, just how far will I be able to manipulate this thing on my first try?”
This weapon was an Independent Floating Type Guidance Remote-Controlled Weapon, in other words, a bits type weapon.
Each of the seven
With his consciousness divided into the seven bits, he commanded them to move.
“Go.”
Then the bits deployed short blades of photon and wove through the air, tearing through the raybeasts surrounding the girls as they continued onward for their next foe. The girls could see them through their foster, and they weren’t particularly surprised by their abilities, but then they saw just how many there were all in all.
“…Huh? Five, no, seven!?”
“He makes it look so easy even though four is usually the max during battle.”
“Icchi, probably doesn’t know that, though.”
Tomoe was amazed, while Frire’s head ached, and Myuhi wryly smiled.
Guided weapons like that needed to be manually controlled to some extent even with an AI.
As important as multitasking was to the students of the academy and the warriors of Garesto, controlling more than five bits at the same time consumed so much attention that they’d start becoming negligent of the rest of the battlefield.
That’s bound to create a dangerous opening or cause a fatal mistake, so a rule was made that marked four as the limit.
The academy taught that too, but just as Myuhi suspected, Shinichi didn’t know anything about that. That’s why the bits could move so freely, while the girls were completely stunned.
“Uwaah… He’s tearing them all apart.”
“I should tell him later that he can’t do that in front of others.”
“Looks like he found another toys that ought to be restricted from him.”
The seven bladed bits fluttered about where the energies converged, instantly skewering any raybeast that tried to materialize at a speed a normal human’s kinetic vision could only hope to catch.
The raybeasts didn’t even have the time to fight back.
In fact, they died so quickly that they didn’t even have the time to disperse, causing the places that the bits passed by to paint a ghastly sight.
Heads would launch into the air, while limbs would roll off, and bodies would be scattered.
Though that dreadful sight lasted for but an instant, it was not a pleasant thing to behold.
But of course, everyone here was experienced, so their expressions just twitched.
“Looks like you didn’t need us here anyway.”
“Sorry… I didn’t think I would be able to handle them this well.”
Realizing that there was no need to be alert anymore, Myuhi turned around to see Shinichi leisurely approach with a wry smile.
Despite how unaffected he seemed, none of the bits flying about crashed into each other or touched the trees, they just single-mindedly tore through the raybeasts.
It wasn’t hard to understand why he would be showered with so many shocked gazes.
Alas, he himself has heard that this was supposed to be difficult, so he didn’t expect to be able to pull it off so easily.
He wore a distant look and sighed at how ridiculous his brain’s specs were.
“Well, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, my brain could even read stuff like external hard drives.”
Shinichi shook his head. Receiving the powers of the evil god understandably elevated his abilities, but it was only at times like this that he could really feel that.
Wernher knew about the bits limit, so he had actually designed this weapon under the premise that it would use three to four bits at most, while the rest would be used as a shield and as spares.
In other words, Shinichi was the one at fault here because he didn’t read the manual.
“Using seven bits at that speed isn’t normally something that would ever come up, though.”
Frire glared at him as though his existence itself lacked common sense, but deep inside, she was actually trying to figure out how to get past those bits and get up close to him in a battle.
The thought of fighting him with those bits was just too fun that she couldn’t help herself.
“…I’m not doing it, at least not during the trip.”
“I-I got it already… Tch.”
Shinichi could tell exactly what she was thinking with those sparkling eyes of hers, so he shot down the idea before she could even suggest it.
Frire pouted despite there being students here that didn’t know the real her.
“Teacher?” Tomoe said.
“Oh, it’s nothing! Don’t worry about it!” Frire said.
When she remembered that Tomoe was around, she panicked and immediately tried to fix her attitude. The other two girls just wryly smiled.
However, only Myuhi’s expression continued to twitch. Shinichi never stopped tearing apart the raybeasts with those seven bits.
It was all too easy to imagine him shaking hands with someone with a smile while those bits laid to waste everything in the backdrop.
In fact, that was a very likely future, and Myuhi found herself trembling with a chill.
“M-More importantly, Shirayuki. How’s the residual energy?”
〈…The residual dimensional energy is rapidly declining. The raybeasts that have appeared have been eliminated, but there is no change in the amount of incoming energy. The same amount of energy will likely accumulate in 18 hours.〉
“Looks like it’s over for now. What normally happens after this?”
Just like that, and without the slightest hint of tension, the last raybeast was exterminated.
Shinichi called back the seven bits and asked that question while they floated around him.
With how unaffected he appeared, it didn’t even seem as though he’d overworked his brain.
At that, emotions swirled within Myuhi and Tomoe while a complex expression surfaced on them.
“This should be a good thing, but for some reason, I’m feeling really complicated,” Myuhi said.
“…Give us back our tension from a few minutes ago, you dummy,” Tomoe said.
Only Frire responded as a teacher, albeit with a joyful look.
“Right. If it’s like this, then we just have to observe it and wait for the barrier to naturally repair itself. Shirayuki, how long will that take?”
〈The energy inflow should cease in approximately 20 hours. The full restoration will complete approximately 3 hours after.〉
The barrier needed about a whole day to naturally recover, so raybeasts were bound to spawn again.
There’s no telling whether that’s going to result in a herd or just one specimen, but regardless, it would take too much time at this rate, so Shinichi offered another solution.
“Can’t we just repair the crack?”
“We would need a large device to accomplish that. A crack this big is just barely repairable, but it would need a few days. It’s a field that’s still being researched, and since the barrier can fix itself quickly on Earth, research on it isn’t as proactive here.”
Though there were indeed places more prone or more resistant to cracks, that wasn’t the norm on Earth, and the technology wasn’t as desired compared to Garesto, whose dimensional space was always full of energy, frail, and took longer to naturally recover.
It was more practical and affordable to focus on sharpening Earth’s detection system and just monitor the cracks with their anti-raybeast units until the cracks recovered on their own.
Another way of putting it is that they’d rather just wait for the technologically superior Garesto to figure out the technology first.
“I see, but that puts us in a pickle…”
Shinichi was troubled about how to deal with the situation.
At this rate, not only would this place have to be cleared of people for the next 24 hours, a unit would also have to be deployed.
It was also bound to get noisy as people start asking why the crack wasn’t noticed sooner.
The resulting investigation from that would likely cause Nara Park to be closed for the next few days.
The school could gain prestige from solving the issue, but they might just get caught up in something troublesome.
It wouldn’t be surprising if they received unjust complaints along the lines of ‘it’s bad for business’, so Shinichi would really rather he went about this the way he usually did, which was to make it as though nothing happened.
He had a way to make that happen, but he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.
He didn’t know enough to make this decision, and his mutterings left everyone doubtful.
“What are you thinking about, Icchi? There should be only one choice here, normally,” Myuhi said.
“Normally, I’d be okay with that too, but…” Shinichi said.
“Hey, don’t tell me… This incident isn’t normal? Are you saying this wasn’t just negligence?” Frire said.
Yet despite saying that, she didn’t actually believe it.
It was certainly possible to open a hole with a vast amount of energy and the necessary knowledge in dimension science.
But opening a crack like that would require a device that could precisely manipulate energy, and the knowledge needed to execute such a plan was classified in both worlds.
Yet Shinichi nodded. This was not a normal situation, and the reason was something equally ridiculous as well.
“It’s impossible for me to happen into a trouble that’s not connected to an even deeper conspiracy.”
“Welp… I’m actually convinced.”
“Don’t worry, Ruona. You’re not alone.”
It might be a crazy reason, but it wasn’t something the two women could easily refute.
“Ridiculous… Just what kind of life have you been living until now?”
It seemed as though Shinichi was merely playing off what had happened in the past, so Tomoe couldn’t help but wonder what kind of life he’d been living in to draw such conclusions just from his history.
“When the wind blows, the dog walks and crashes into a pole, and the bucket shop makes money. Something like that?”
“Even a Japanese could barely understand that!”
Despite that Tomoe was able to barely make out what he was trying to say – whenever he moved, he would get caught up in an incident that’s connected to various things.
Unfortunately, the message was completely lost on the two Garestonians.
“Kyui,” ‘she’ said
Ignoring the two confused women, the faithful servant finally returned and cried by his feet.
Shinichi didn’t appear surprised as he looked at her sharply and asked.
“Welcome back. So, how did it go?”
“Kyu.”
In response, Youko scattered those things caught in her mouth.
At a glance, they appeared to be no different from your usual insects, but a closer look would show a metallic sheen in between the colors that seemed to blend with nature.
“Eh!?” Tomoe said.
“Insect-Type Drones… Moreover, real-sized?” Myuhi said.
“Those are meant for reconnaissance and surveillance in areas teeming with nature,” Frire said.
Amidst the voice of surprise, the two Garestonians calmly explained what the amaryllis had brought them. They wore a difficult expression.
The drones at Garesto Academy were either meant to help one get used to fighting against raybeasts or meant to aid the students in combat, but no matter how small, they were at most the size of a pup.
A drone built in the same size as an insect would be a rare find even in Kutoria.
Moreover, insect-type drones wouldn’t be useful outside of the fields, the parks, and the roadside trees.
Kutoria didn’t have a lot of green, so such drones would be impractical.
Moreover, overly small drones weren’t popular because they caused problems in maintenance and had limited application.
In other words, these were drones made specifically for a place like this.
That came with a grave connotation.
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