Index

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

Akira took another aim at Nelias head and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew and landed right beside Nelias head, sending her head flying again.

I still cant hit her, huh!!

Alpha smiled trying to calm him down.

Calm down, if you lose your cool you wont be able to hit the target that you normally could.

Can you do something with your support?

Your augmented suit is damaged to the point that its not working normally. If I try to control it now, it might cause a malfunction, in the worst-case scenario, it might even tear your limbs. So, are you sure you want me to control it?

Nah, please dont.

Alpha had already turned back to her usual self. She was floating beside Akira, just like always.

But at this point, Nelia could no longer see Alpha. It was because the relic that she used to connect to the Kuzusuhara map was destroyed by Akiras attack and Alpha knew about it.

Akira pointed his rifle at Nelia once more, she just smiled and said.

If you kill me, youll die too.

Akira ignored her and pulled the trigger. The bullet landed near Nelia and threw her head up in the air again. Even so, she continued.

My friend has betrayed me and hes planning to kill both you and me now. He has sent his powered suit here, setting it in autopilot. His powered suit is equipped with a self-destruct sequence to take anyone around it down together with it. You cant run away from it. Its set to chase you no matter where you go and itll explode the moment you get in its explosion radius. I bet its loaded with enough explosive to take down this whole building.

Akira ignored Nelias warning as he kept walking towards her. He then took another shot which destroyed her upper half, leaving her only with her neck and head.

Your only chance to turn off the self-destruct sequence is by either destroying or deactivating its control device. I bet it would be very difficult to destroy its control device since its hidden behind its thick armour. But if you leave it to me, I can hack into its control device and deactivate it. As a matter of fact, Im actually doing that right now and preventing it from exploding. But if you kill me now, itll immediately explode.

Akira ignored her yet again and took another shot. The bullet grazed Nelias ear and hit the floor. Her head got thrown once more by the bullets shockwave.

I see, well, its up to you. Youre in the position to decide here. I guess its not a bad thing to die together with someone who I tried to hit-on.

Nelia smiled. It was the same smile she had when she flirted with Akira.

Akira stood beside Nelia and picked her head up by pulling her hair. He locked gaze with her.

Any proof?

Nope.

Akira asked her if it was only a lie to save herself or she had some kind of proof that she was saying the truth.

But Nelia said that she did not have any proof. She even told Akira that he could go ahead and do anything he wanted if he did not believe her words.

Akira could not tell if she was lying or not. Alpha looked grim as she suddenly told him, who was still confused, to quickly get away from that place.

Akira, you need to get away from this place first, quickly.

Akira immediately followed Alphas instruction. He ran away from that place, bringing Nelias head with him.

The whole building was rumbling. It was because Kains powered suit was forcing its way into that building.

That powered suit, which was set to auto-pilot, ignored any damage on itself as it forced its way in from the side of the building that was weakened by the missile barrage earlier.

It broke through the wall, floor and ceiling of the building with its huge body. It used its powerful firepower to drill its way through that building. It did not care about its energy expense or its output safety limit as it headed straight to where Akira was.

Although it could not accurately detect Akiras location, with the absence of colourless mist it could at least guess where he was.

It kept shooting with its huge guns towards Akira, but the warheads released by those guns could only hit the walls in front of it and turn them into dust. The inner walls of that building were not as strong as its outer walls, so they were no match for the warheads. The walls and ceilings inside that building crumbled down into a big pile of rubbles. The autopilot did not give any regards to its remaining ammo. It would keep shooting until it ran out of ammo.

Akira quickly ran away from that place, away from Kains powered suit. He asked Nelia while still running.

Why do you guys want to kill me that much? Or is that thing only to cover your friend while hes running away?

Thats not it. We cant take the relics that we gathered if we dont kill you.

How is that even connected to killing me?

The guy that you killed, Yajima, he had his post-mortem revenge program set you as its target. Because of that, the truck that were using to transport the relics wont move unless we kill you.

Akira remembered the words that Yajima left before he was killed. He did say that his friends would take revenge if Akira killed him, but at that time, Akira thought that it was only an empty bluff.

Akiras face twitched, he was obviously annoyed.

What a huge pain in the bum. So you can even get that kind of program, huh?

Yeah, you can. If its not for that, we wont even spend our energy trying to kill you. If you can believe me now, how about we make a deal? Ill stop Kains powered suit, and as an exchange, youll help me.

Ill just keep on running like this. Itll take a lot of time for that powered suit to push through the building, so Im sure I can outrun it by then.

Didnt you run to this building since you knew you cant outrun it?

Theres no guarantee that you wont use it to attack me after you take control of that powered suit. After all, you can get all of your relics if you kill me, right?

Well, you have no other choice but to trust me on that one. You beat me real good, you know? I have no wish to fight you again. Not to mention that my friend even chose to run away from here in order to avoid having to fight you, even if it meant leaving behind the expensive relics that we gathered. I dont think its a bad offer since itll save your life too. Well, I wont go as far as to demand you to be my boyfriend though. After all, I dont want to get a boyfriend by threatening him.

Nelia was still smiling even though she was only left with nothing but her head. Akira frowned seeing her expression.

Alpha, is she telling the truth? You can detect it if shes actually lying, right?

Alpha shook her head.

Unfortunately, as I said before, I cant read whether shes lying or not because of her cyborg body. So I cant say anything else other than I cant say for sure now.

Akira looked obviously troubled. If he took Nelias offer, not only would he let go of the enemy who he had pushed to a corner, there was also a possibility that she would use the powered suit to attack him. While on the other hand, there was no guarantee that he would be able to outrun that powered suit outside that building. If he went outside that building, Kain might also use his cyborg body to quickly catch up with him and kill him.

So either I risk it by running away from that powered suit or by placing my trust in her offer, huh

As Akira was still thinking about what to do, Alpha came up with a third choice.

You do have another choice. You can try to fight that powered suit.

But like, that thing will explode if I get too close, right?

First of all, we dont know for sure if it really has a self-destruct sequence. And even if it has one, theres no real proof that shes trying to prevent it from setting off the explosion. Since it hasnt exploded yet, it might mean that the explosion radius is actually pretty small, so you can just keep your distance from it to make sure that it wont explode. As for the self-destruct sequence, it might have explosives installed inside it or its set to make an explosion by rerouting the energy inside it. If its the latter, it should also be using a portion of its energy for its force field. So if you keep shooting at it and shaving its energy, you might exhaust its energy and prevent it from creating an explosion. And if it goes well, you might even be able to destroy its control device.

It was not like Alpha had any proof when she made those guesses. She was only speaking of possibilities. But it did not change the fact that it presented Akira with a third option.

So either I take her offer or run away or fight it, huh?

I can only give you suggestions. All of them depend on your luck, so I have no recommendation on which one to pick. You should decide, Akira. Ill give you my full support no matter which one you pick.

I understand.

Akira threw Nelias head to the ground.

Nelia stared at Akira while he made his decision.

Ill try fighting back first before asking you for help, so you just wait here.

After saying that, Akira started running back to fight Kains powered suit.

Nelia was smiling as she watched Akira run.

Although Kains powered suit was following an autopilot program, it was not a smart autopilot program. It was not clear whether it was targeting someone inside that building or just randomly rampaging. It was not like it was aiming its guns accurately at Akira. It was only attacking any signal picked by its information-gathering device. That powered suit was set to attack any human-like signal that it could find.

Even if there were some obstacles between it and its target, it would not take alternative route but use its guns or its body to push them aside. 2 of the 4 big guns on its arms had already run out of ammo and turned into mere decorations.

With the help of his enhanced vision, Akira could see the big powered suit that was on a rampage not too far from where he was. He could notice that some of its guns had already run out of ammo.

Wait, if I just hide, wont it use all of its ammo at this rate?

Well, yes it would. But I hope it wont explode the moment it runs out of ammo. It would be really bad if the whole building crumbles down, you know.

That sounds really likely to happen. So it cant be helped, lets go.

The rampaging powered suit created new holes on the buildings walls. Akira used those holes to snipe that powered suit and thanks to its huge size, the shot landed.

The CWH special ammo hit that powered suits torso. The impact threw its huge body into the narrow halls. It was moving very slow, although Akiras body was in a bad shape, he was still able to move faster than that huge powered suit.

The force field absorbed the impact of the CWH special ammo. A huge bang and a flash of blinding light enveloped the area. The powered suit reacted by turning its guns at Akira, but its arms and guns got caught in the rubbles, thus slowing it down and giving Akira a chance to move somewhere safe.

Akira kept doing that hit-and-run sniping and hammered that powered suit with CWH special ammo. While at the same time, that powered suit kept on shooting randomly inside the building, destroying the walls, floors and ceilings as warheads flew around the area.

Although it seemed like Akira was one-sidedly shooting at that powered suit, one hit from it was enough to kill him. While on the other hand, although each impact threw its body off balance, Kains powered suit did not stop spewing out warheads from its huge guns. Those warheads turned wreckages and rubbles in the area into dust, thus Akira had fewer and fewer places to hide. Akira did not think even for the slightest that he had the upper hand there.

Then suddenly, the sound of the bullet impact changed. The force field had run out of energy, so the CWH special bullet was able to directly hit the powered suits body. It started getting obvious as its movement got worse.

Akira did not let that slide as he kept on shooting at its torso. It was not for naught, Akira eventually dealt some damages to its control device. When that happened, the control device sent an emergency signal and caused the powered suit to violently flung its limbs around as if it was in pain.

But it did not stop Akira. As he kept on shooting at it, the powered suit eventually stopped moving.

Akira carefully checked the stopped powered suit while exchanging the magazine on his rifle. It seemed that the powered suit had stopped for good.

Did we Win?

That seems to be the case. At least, it doesnt seem like it poses any danger anymore.

Yeaahhh!!

Akira shouted in delight. It was a shout of victory since he was finally able to escape from his deadly situation and defeat the big enemy who he originally did not expect to defeat.

Akira, this is not the end yet. Dont drop your guard until we finish everything.

I know, lets go.

Akira firmly replied before running to finish the rest of his business there.

Nelia was waiting for Akira, it was not like she could do anything other than waiting for the result of her gamble.

And finally, she could see the result coming back.

Akira returned to where Nelia was, she smiled and welcomed him.

Welcome back. It seems that you somehow destroyed Kains powered suit, huh. Its amazing for you to be able to do that in this situation.

It was as Nelia said, Akiras body was in such bad shape. Both his body and his augmented suit were near their limit. But even so, he somehow survived and stood there in front of her.

Looking at how Nelia was still smiling even in that situation, Akira obviously looked puzzled and asked.

You look so relaxed, are you not afraid of dying?

Nope, not at all. But it would be great if you can let me live.

I see, well, I dont want to die either.

We really think alike. As I thought, wont you be my boyfriend?

No thanks. I dont want to date someone who tried to kill me and I dont want to date a dead girl either.

Akira answered back swiftly. He then readied his CWH anti-material rifle and pointed it at Nelia. There was no way he would miss his shot at this range. He just needed to pull the trigger to assure his victory and he still had enough power to at least do that much.

But then Nelia smiled and said.

Well, its going to be fine.

Akira looked puzzled.

What do you mean by that?

Before Nelia could answer that question, Alpha suddenly interjected.

Akira!! Dont move!!

Akira followed Alphas order, he stopped moving. His finger was still resting on the trigger. Then the next moment, the CWH anti-material rifle in his hand was suddenly sent flying.

He was taken aback by what happened as few guys suddenly appeared around him. They appeared all of a sudden from nowhere, or at least, Akira did not notice them before at all. The person who shot and sent Akiras CWH anti-material rifle flying was one of those men.

As Akira was still confused by what was going on, more of those people appeared around him.

Alpha! Where did these people come from?! I didnt notice them at all!!

They just came. All of them are using camouflaging devices, thats why you didnt notice them.

C-camouflaging devices?

Those are devices that prevent other people from detecting your location. There are many types of camouflaging devices, starting from heat camouflage, movement camouflage, sound camouflage

Thats not what Im asking about

Then one of those guys said something that answered Akiras question.

Dont move!! Were Kugamayama Defense Squad!! Surrender yourself and dont try to fight back!! If you dont obey our orders, we might judge that youre against the City Management!! We even have the permission to take you out in that case!!

Those guys were soldiers from Kugamayama Defense Squad. More of them kept appearing as they surrounded Akira.

Other than Akira, there were many who were trying to make contact between the underground exploration HQ and the temporary base. Although Akira failed to make contact with the temporary base, other people successfully conveyed the message from the underground exploration HQ. The Head Commander of the temporary base thought that the situation was pretty bad and decided to quickly send out the citys defense squad.

The defense squad quickly patrolled the area around the underground exploration HQ. In the midst of their patrol, they noticed explosions as if someone was fighting nearby. That was when Kain sent his powered suit to the building where Akira and Nelia were. The defense squad thought that it might be the relic thieves fighting against monsters, so they sent some of their men to check the source of that sound.

When they arrived, they saw Akira aiming his CWH anti-material rifle at Nelia.

Akira looked at the people who were surrounding him and let out a sigh. It was obvious that they were more skilled and had better equipment than him. They looked completely cautious as they pointed their rifles at him. They could kill him anytime if he made any suspicious move.

I feel like this has happened before.

What a coincidence, actually I too feel the same.

Akira was talking about the experience he had when he was about to kill Yajima. At that time, he should have quickly pulled the trigger, because he didnt do it he had to pay for that mistake by fighting Shiori. But with that being said, its not like he could do that in this situation.

He quickly raised his hands and yelled before Nelia could say anything. After all, it would be problematic if she said something that would complicate the situation.

Im Akira!! Im a Hunter working in the underground city exploration operation! The relic thieves ambushed me when I was on my way to the temporary base! You can ask them for confirmation!!

Chain them!! You have permission to shoot them if they fight back!! Weve received reports of dead Hunters from the underground!! So keep your guard up!!

Im just a Hunter!!

A few men restrained Akira and handcuffed him, he did not fight back when they did that. The defense squad then took him and Nelia away from that place.

Akira could feel the tension inside his body and mind loosen. No matter what the outcome was, his battle had finally come to an end. Both his body and psyche were very tired. Akira, who did faint once, did not have the ability to fight back that tiredness now.

His eyes were slowly closing. Before he lost consciousness, he could hear Alphas voice.

Its okay, dont worry, just take a good rest.

Alpha smiled to reassure Akira. It was a smile telling him that there was no longer any danger.

I see Good night then.

He was relieved as his consciousness slowly faded away. The defense squad panicked as they supported Akira, who suddenly went unconscious.

The target has lost consciousness!!!

Check for his vitals and respond accordingly!! He might be one of the relic thieves!! Dont let him die no matter what before we can extract all the information that we can get from him! Call the medical squad from the underground exploration HQ and tell them to be on standby!! B squad, search the building!! There might be more relic thieves around!! If you find any of them, take them alive if its possible!! If its not, you have the permission to kill!

The rest of the men quickly got into their job, following their commanders order.

Just like Akira, Nelia was also secured by the defense squad. Although she was only left with her head, the device installed inside her head allowed her to make a long-range call with other people. Because of which she came to know about the situation outside.

Although Nelia could not control her body, she caught a glimpse of Akira when she was carried away.

[You see, just like I said, its going to be fine.]

Nelia was smiling. She knew that if she bought time until the defense squad arrived, she might be able to get out of that situation alive, and she actually did.

Her luck allowed her to survive. It could also be said that it was Akiras luck that allowed her to survive.

Kain escaped until he reached the outskirts of the Kuzusuhara ruin. He met up with some men there. Although they looked different from one another, it was obvious from their appearance that they were cyborgs just like Kain.

They then saluted Kain. The representative among those men stepped forward and said.

Welcome back, sir!

Kain replied back.

Thanks for the hard work, give me a sitrep.

Yessir!! Weve withdrawn everyone that weve dispatched. Weve also received reports that our moles have successfully pulled back.

I see. We should pull back too. Just to be safe, well not visit Kugamayama city and head straight to another city. Lets go.

Are we going to just leave them alone?

When they mentioned them, they meant the people who Kain was working with when he was stealing the relics from the underground city. They were still waiting for him and Nelia near the truck, but they were no longer his friends at this point.

Yeah, Im sure the defense squad would take care of them for us. If we take care of them ourselves, it would only make it easier for the defense squad to track us. Although it might be okay if they discover about me, it would be a hindrance to our operation if they found out about the others too.

Roger that, lets move out!!

Kain then left that place together with those men. In the middle of their travel, one of those men asked him.

Sir, I heard that you changed the plan during the last hour. Is there any reason why you did that?

The main reason was because a guy named Yajima got killed. He was responsible for the transportation. Things got complicated after his death. Because of that, we had to cancel our original plan.

Was it impossible to somehow save that man?

His death shouldnt have caused much trouble in our original plan. That man was supposed to be alive only until he brought the old world relics to our place If you want to mock me for my inability to predict something like this, which had turned the whole operation into a failure, you can go ahead and do that, Ill take full responsibility.

No, thats not it. I can understand that something bad happened which was outside of your control and it was not something that we can deal with. I apologize if my question rubbed you the wrong way.

That man noticed that Kains mood was worsened. So he decided to stop asking any more questions.

Kain fell into deep thought.

[But still, how did it end up like this? According to the men from inside the Long-term Strategic Division, there should be no Hunter in this area who can take out Yajima or Nelia. Nelia did say that there might be an agent mixed among the young Hunters from Drankam. Now that I think about it, Drankam did send some young Hunters to the underground city, and I heard that there was someone among them who was actually a good Hunter. Did the city send some agents to Drankam in order to control that big gang from the inside? And did we encounter one of those agents by pure chance? If hes really an agent from the city, that explains why hes that strong. I guess Ill look into it more later.]

He then asked the guy near him.

I heard that there was a big group among the Drankams young Hunters, do you know whos the centre of that group? Since were talking about a young Hunter here, simple propaganda should be enough to pull him in, they should at least come up with such a plan.

Certainly The target name should be Katsuya. Do you need us to make a detailed doc.u.ment about him?

No need. Ill investigate about him myself later. Ill ask you to make one later in case if I need it.

Yessir.

That man decided not to say anything needless in order not to make Kains mood worse again. But because of that, he lost the chance to correct their misunderstanding.

Kain and those men left Kuzusuhara ruin and vanished into the wasteland.

Nelia was imprisoned in a solitary cell inside the Kugamayama citys prison. It was equipped with devices to restraint a cyborg. There was a table inside that solitary cell. Nelia was fixed above that table. She was still only a head.

There were a lot of cables connected through her neck. Most of them were for keeping her alive while some of them were to block her from contacting other people. So she couldnt do anything and felt bored to death.

Shortly after, a man came in. He smiled at Nelia.

Uhhh, Nelia-san, right? Im Yanagisawa. How are you, I guess?

Nelia smiled and replied.

I cant say that Im doing good. Im feeling so bored. I dont mind if you put a filter on, but can you at least let me connect with the outside world?

Yanagisawa smiled and shook his head.

Im sorry, but sadly, I dont have the authority to do that. But I can at least accompany you in wasting some time. Dont worry, well just have a good talk. In short, I just need to get information out from you, but it doesnt mean that we cant have a good civilized talk.

I have told you everything though. Well, I dont mind talking to you, but this is an exchange, okay? For everything that Ill tell you, make sure that itll reduce my sentence, okay?

After saying that, Nelia smiled invincibly.

Yanagisawa smiled back.

Of course, Im someone who thinks that human rights apply even to criminals. That also includes the right to make a deal. Making a deal is important. Its one thing that binds people together. Its a means to communicate with people in different positions. Those who cant make a deal with other people are the same as monsters. After all, its not like you can negotiate with them.

Nelia seemed to be a bit annoyed by Yanagisawas attitude. She stopped smiling and asked.

So then, what do you want to ask me?

We want to know more about this Kain.

Ive told you everything before. Do you want me to tell you the same thing one more time?

Well, its true that you did. Weve heard about him both from you and your friends. We followed the information you gave and tried to chase this guy named Kain. But then theres one thing that we discovered, this Kain guy doesnt exist. Im not here to complain to you that Kain is a fake name. If its fake, then its fake. One thing for sure, this guy whos using this fake Kain name does exist.

Dont blame me for your inability to make a proper investigation.

Yanagisawa just smiled silently. That smile somehow made Nelia worry.

He suddenly said.

By the way, what do you think will happen for your punishment?

Hmmm, lets see. I guess my cyborg body will be confiscated by the city and theyll make me do forced labour. Theyll send me to dangerous ruins controlled by the City Management. Then theyll use me like an expendable good until I can repay my debt to the city. So until then, Ill be spending my days excavating relics from that dangerous ruin.

Yanagisawa smiled and said.

Thats correct. But theres only this one thing that you are misunderstanding here, you see. What you said would be your punishment if youre a relic thief. That is if they think that youre only a common relic thief that you can find in abundance in this eastern district.

Nelias expression turned grim. Even when Akira pointed his rifle at her, she did not make this face.

What do you mean?

Yanagisawa smiled, it only made her even more worried.

We believe that this guy by the name of Kain is one of the Nationalist. Moreover, hes not a goon, hes one of their upper echelons.

Nelia was shocked. Looking at her, Yanagisawas smile widened as he continued.

We have quite a lot of problems in the eastern district because of those Nationalist, you see. Not only do they encourage common thugs to steal relics from under the City Management, they then robbed them off those relics. They caused the City Management so much losses to the point that we can no longer ignore them. Then we noticed from all the troubles that happened around the city that there must be someone orchestrating them, but we didnt know for sure who that person was. We believe that Kain is the person in question. The defense squad that secured you guys were all well armed, right? Those men were originally sent to capture the Nationalist.

Nelias face turned pale, after hearing what he said, she understood her situation.

Yanagisawa continued. He kept talking about the subject that made Nelia even more worried. It made her understand just how bad the situation that she was in.

Right now, the city is suspicious of you since it seems that youre pretty close to this Nationalist officer. So were rather suspicious if youre actually hiding some information that might help us identify that person. Some of us even think that you might be one of those Nationalist that stands against not only this city but against the whole Corporate Government. If this misunderstanding doesnt get cleared up, your punishment will be very very. miserable. To be more precise, youll be used in the Rebuild laboratory experiment.

Nelia sounded terrified as she asked.

W-wait. Didnt that laboratory get disbanded?

Of course, the Rebuild laboratory was publicly disbanded. But its not like we killed all the researchers or scrapped all the research results from that lab. Theyre still researching even now. But this time, theyre doing more ethical experiments compared to before. As long as they keep producing results, the Corporate Government is willing to turn their eyes away. Under the management of the Corporate Government, theyre producing a huge amount of results at the expense of the human rights of a very small number of people. But of course, these people are chosen from unredeemable criminals, Im talking about criminals who have caused quite a significant loss to the City Management.

Nelia was so scared that she had trouble saying anything, but she somehow was able to raise her voice although only barely.

Bb-but I-Im not

Well, Im sure thats the case. Im sure youre not one of them and you have nothing to do with those Nationalist. Thats why you better try your best to prove that youre telling the truth. Tell us something that will make us believe you. Like I said before, Im someone who believes that human rights apply even to criminals. I believe that we need to at least uphold the minimal level of human rights like sentencing criminals to death by turning them into minced meat, or by injecting them with poison, or by feeding them to the monsters. Thats why I dont really agree with the idea of handing criminals over to the Rebuild laboratory for experiments. But I have duties that I need to fulfil too, you see. Thats why I hope that you cooperate with me. And also, to be honest, I dont know for sure what they do inside the Rebuild laboratory. After all, its a secret that only the Corporate Government knows.

Nelia was frozen in fear. Yanagisawa smiled and continued.

So then, youll tell me everything, right? Dont worry, we have a lot of time in our hands. Not to mention that you did say youre bored, right? Now you have something to spend your time on.

It could be said that it was Nelias luck that was keeping her alive, it could also be said that it was Akiras luck too. But she regretted the fact that she was still alive as she was desperately trying to make excuses so that she could continue to stay alive.

Whether it was a lucky thing or an unlucky thing, no one knew for sure yet.

Index