Translator: Reflet

「He’ll be fine even in that . 」

「Seems that way . 」

　Emerging from the flames, Taiyou dusted off his hems, answering Youran’s words . Without any ash to be wiped off, it was more of a casual action .

「You’ve already somewhat quit being a human, haven’t you? Coming out of the flames and all that . 」

「When all’s said and done, I suppose I’d be a phoenix?」

　Taiyou said with a silly face, but Youran didn’t bite .

　She wasn’t the type to like these sorts of banter .

「Honestly, its performance is too sharp and is difficult to handle . 」

「But in the right hands it has a lot of value . They say that rather than a.s.sembling the almighty, it’s better to dispatch the right people in the right places . 」

「You do seem like you’d like that . 」

「My subordinates are all people who are hard to deal with after all . 」

　Youran laughed depreciatively .

　While Taiyou who had returned from the flames was exchanging that sort of conversation with Youran, Leticia widened her eyes at the sight .

　Taiyou noticed that, thinking “come to think of it that’s the natural reaction”, secretly giving a bitter smile .

「What’s wrong?」

「Are ya…the Terminator or somethin’?」

「I have thought that if I had that refined voice then life would be good . 」

「……」

　Leticia was speechless . The blonde haired blue eyed girl looked strange, not bothering to close her opened mouth . Just a moment ago she had the awe-inspiring expression of one prepared for death, and Taiyou found that gap to be so weird .

「There’s another one coming . 」

「Move . 」

　He severed the remaining half of the car into half again, lifting it up . He aimed it at the pursuing rockets flying in and threw it . This time an explosion occurred at a location separated from the three of them, ending with a bomb blast enough to disturb their hair .

「This is absurd . 」

「And what will we do from here on?」

「Let’s keep using these . 」

　Taiyou said, lightly tapping the remaining one-fourth of the car frame that contained only the front wheels and driver’s seat .

「What’ll you do with that?」

「I’m going to do what I did before once more . Go ahead and ride . 」

「You mean inside?」

「Yeah . 」

「Ride in this condition…?」

「Well I’m riding . 」

　Just like she said, Youran preceded and got in the pa.s.senger seat . Having only two tires, the car leaned backward, but she still managed to somehow get in .

「See, you come quickly too . 」

「……Can I believe ya?」

「You don’t believe your close friend?」

「Yer unfair…」

　Leticia gave a light sigh, following Youran into the pa.s.senger seat . And with Taiyou’s instructions, the solid doors were closed, and glances questioning what to do next came from beyond the gla.s.s .

　Youran was the same . She did believe in him, but her eyes showed interest in what he would do .

　Taiyou grinned, picking up the car body that had been tilting .

　It was a hunk of metal remains, but to rephrase, there were still tires on both sides, and it was a wheeled vehicle that had stopped working as a machine .

　Taiyou knew something it resembled very well . He had once used it and it closely resembled something he had used to drive with his brides .

　Trailer .

　The only difference was that at that time, he had pulled it, but this time he would instead push it .

「Uwooooh!」

　Letting out a war cry, Taiyou pushed the car body, kicking the ground with all his might . It was inconvenient having no handle, but it wasn’t a big problem to Taiyou as of now .

　The pushed car began to move, running along the public road .

「Hey, am I dreamin’?」

「Unfortunately, it’s reality . Because he really is like that . 」

「……This is the point where ya’d be surprised, typically . 」

「I’d be surprised if a baby suddenly grew wings and flew, but after something like that, seeing a baby skip crawling and start walking, I might say “That’s impressive” and that would be it . 」

「But yer talkin’ ‘bout a baby coming up in the earth . Ya sure this guy ain’t the son of some great devil king?」

　While the two girls were conversing about that, Taiyou thought to himself as he pushed the car .

　While the two girls were conversing about that, Taiyou thought to himself as he pushed the car .

　His skill, long distance nullification, could apparently nullify the explosion fumes caused by the rocket ammunition . He was able to confirm that upon pus.h.i.+ng the back part of the car into the rocket ammunition earlier . Also, when he had thrown the one-fourth portion of the car and caused shock waves, his ability had gone into effect, and though it had blown into him, not a single hair on his head or cloth of his cuff had yielded .

　But, as expected, it did affect other humans . He had certainly seen Youran’s twintails and Leticia’s blonde hair yielding to the shock wave .

「If it’s a handgun then I can stop it, but bombs are no good . 」

　He muttered while pus.h.i.+ng the car .

　If he was on his own then neither of them would be an issue, but right now he had to protect the two girls .

　If it was a handgun that fired in a line then he could just move in front of the fire, but if it was an explosion that caused a shock wave face then he could not perfectly defend against it . It came down to either largely avoiding such a situation or shooting it down from a remote location and making it explode .

　With that as a precondition, he set to imprint ideas into his consciousness regarding their next actions .

「Hey hey, who exactly are ya?」

　Leticia suddenly asked .

「A gamer and high school student . That’s it . 」

　Taiyou played dumb . The extent in which someone could accept Hera’s appearance after genuinely seeing her was different for Leticia, who couldn’t see/wasn’t seeing her, so he felt it was best to play dumb .

「In what world is there a high school student like that?」

「According to a certain person, it’s only one in a hundred million . 」

　He recalled what Hera had said to him when they met . The conversation at the time was weird, and a smile appeared on his mouth .

「And, are you still doing that training?」

「Training?」

「Wearing a jacket, discarding it, picking it up and wearing it again . That training . 」

「What are you, Jackie-Chan!?」

「Or opening and closing windows . 」

「Wasn’t it wiping them!?」

「There was that time, yeah . 」

　Taiyou smiled, remembering Youran’s words that night .

　Right before they infiltrated the facility, what he did in order to raise his level even if slightly .

　Take off the jacket, then put it on .

　Open the window, then close it .

　Both of those actions were meaningless to regular humans, but for Taiyou they were actions to raise his power experience points .

　And it also had another meaning .

　At that point in time it didn’t have any kind of meaning, but as of now it was different .

　And it also had another meaning .

　At that point in time it didn’t have any kind of meaning, but as of now it was different .

　――Memories .

　Memories with Youran . Memories existing between the two of them and only with them .

「……」

「……」

　Silence fell over the mobilizing half-broken limousine .

　Their eyes met each other, gazing .

　Taiyou had something he wanted to ask her, something he wanted to say .

　That was the next objective for coming to this・・・・island, but as of this moment, the order of precedence had been swapped .

　His eyes were no longer looking at anything but her .

　And Youran as well――

「Two and one is two――Two and two is four――Two and three is six――」

　All of a sudden, Leticia began reciting the multiplication table .

　It was so abrupt and cryptic .

　But on the contrary that was a good thing . Taiyou and Youran quickly snapped out of it, and the atmosphere that was developing between the two of them flew off at once .

「W-What are you saying all of a sudden?」

「Huh? It ain’t nothing . I’d just been skipping out on my studies so I’m reviewing, is all . Three and one is――」

　She said, then beginning the three’s .

　It was certainly something, and it was clear that she was insinuating .

　But Taiyou as well as Youran couldn’t say anything . After all, they had created that atmosphere without discerning the situation .

「Huh? Ya ain’t gonna reflect on what ya did?」

「I will not! And there wasn’t even anything to reflect on in the first place!」

「Welp, go ‘head and do it slowly later . I’m j.a.panese, but even I can read the air . 」

「――Ngh！」

　Youran’s face turned red, letting out an inaudible groan . She wanted to retort but understood that no matter what she said it would be digging her own grave, so she couldn’t say anything .

　Taiyou was the same .

　Averting his eyes from Leticia who had started to relax, continuing to push the car silently .

　The presence of those behind them gradually got further away, and he thought they would be able to completely throw them off at this rate .

「Stop!」

　The presence of those behind them gradually got further away, and he thought they would be able to completely throw them off at this rate .

「Stop!」

「――Ngh！」

　Reacting to Youran’s yell, Taiyou grabbed the car body that he was pus.h.i.+ng, stomping his feet into the ground and putting on the brakes . The soles of his shoes had been worn down by the great force, but he somehow managed to stop it .

　He didn’t even need to ask what was wrong . Raising his head, he soon understood the reason for Youran’s yell .

　Ahead of the road, a helicopter was flying .

「That’s an armed helicopter, isn’t it?」

「Jeez, it just never ends . 」

「Hey, this is your fault, you know? Because if you hadn’t come then you wouldn’t have had your life targeted . 」

「Is that the way you talk to a close friend who came to save you?」

「Hey you, dump this girl in that cesspool over there . That way this attack will cease . 」

「If anythin’ you should leave this girl here . If they capture her alone then that’ll be enough to save the two of us . 」

「No no, come on everyone…」

　Taiyou made a strained laugh .

「So what’ll we do?」

「Nothing but observing their approach o’course . There are even people getting off like SWAT or something . 」

　Just as Leticia had said, men in special corps outfits were using the rope one by one descending the helicopter .

「True…Maybe we should get out of the car . 」

「Right . 」

　The two of them said, opening the door and getting out of the car . Taiyou stepped forward so as to protect said girls .

　Taiyou firmly gripped the shovel, and a reliable sensation transmitted .

　He felt that as long as he had this, he could do anything .

　Right when he was starting to think of possibly even launching a preemptive strike…

「It’s a visit from Maid-chan . 」

「Michiyo……」

　He could hear the voices of the two girls from behind . Unlike the lighthearted banter from earlier, these were tones with weight to them .

　As he looked, he certainly did see one maid disembarking from the helicopter .