Jinrui Saikyou no Jun’ai – Nisioisin

p. 24-28

Because

I’d gone a bit overboard, the roof of the public office building got

demolished to a greater extent than I antic.i.p.ated—it wasn’t so much

broken as it was

smashed to pieces. Like a typhoon had ripped the roof right off, it

looked like the cleanup would be a real ch.o.r.e; well, regardless, I’m

sure the bureaucracy will handle it just fine. Anyway, in the end

s.h.i.+megiwa and I fell from the rooftop into the building, and those

extra few meters I bought to fall provided plenty of room to spin

around like a cat and stick the landing. A cool and stylish landing,

of course (luckily, the room underneath us was a conference room with

n.o.body inside). I think s.h.i.+megiwa could have done the same thing if

he’d tried, but those few meters were several kilometers too short

for him to recover from his panic. I looked over; s.h.i.+megiwa was

buried in rubble, and his right arm had gone back to being flesh and

blood like before. Hmm… I still don’t get how that works.

“Uhh……

Uhhhh…”

Despite

getting buried, his injuries can’t have been serious; a pro player

wouldn’t die from falling a single floor. However, our match had

clearly been settled. There was no disguising the fact that, buried

in the rubble, s.h.i.+megiwa’s back was lying on the conference room

floor.

“……”

He

knew it, too; s.h.i.+megiwa was fiercely glaring at me without trying to

hide any feelings of shame—it was so intense I thought his sanpaku

eyes might turn white. Heh heh heh; I answered his stare with a

laugh. It doesn’t have to end here, you know? If you want to keep

going, I’ll keep going. Now that you’ve shown me the tricks up your

sleeve, this could be fun. It’s more like flames up your sleeve than

tricks, though. I’m excited to see what you’ll show me next.

“…No,

let’s stop.”

s.h.i.+megiwa

said, continuing to glare at me. As soon as he said that, as if

enervated, I unwound from my combat posture.

“I’m

not in the mood anymore… What’s your deal, anyway. You’re a G.o.dd.a.m.n

maniac… Normally you don’t destroy the stage itself.”

Well,

I’m not normal. Shouldn’t you know that from the rumors? And while

I’m at it, let me just say, that arm of yours is a lot crazier than I

am. Don’t be hypocritical.

“It

was a good match, right? …Well, even if I lost. d.a.m.n… If this was

gonna happen, I shouldn’t have chosen a rooftop. Should’ve fought

right where we met.”

I

wanted to avoid attention, but with a public facility smashed up this

badly, this will be a pain to straighten out, s.h.i.+megiwa grumbled. I

answered; no, you were right to pick a rooftop. For all we know, if

we’d fought on the ground, I might have destroyed the planet instead.

“You

sure talk big. But that kind of talk actually sounds natural for you.

I’m not in a position to criticize.”

Is

that so? But either way, wasn’t a rooftop or someplace similar your

only option? s.h.i.+megiwa-kun.

“…?

What do you mean?”

Oh?

Was I wrong? Taking off the coat that hadn’t fulfilled its purpose, I

tilted my head. Thanks to that arm of yours, my right arm looks like

crispy, burned bread; I had a hunch that you could only use it

somewhere with lots of sunlight or fresh air.

“……”

Whether

I was right or wrong, s.h.i.+megiwa fell silent—that’s why I thought he

wouldn’t try to keep fighting now that we’ve gone partly indoors. His

arm is back to normal, too; well, that’s fine. This isn’t all that

important. Well, Campfires, it’s about time to say our farewells. The

next job is waiting. G'bye, g'bye. I closed and opened my burned

hand—good, seems like the nerves didn’t get burned. With a big meal

and lots of sleep, it should be healed by tomorrow.

“Wait,

Jun Aikawa. You leaving?”

I’m

leaving, yes. What? You want something else?

“The

truth about my arm, doesn’t it interest you? Don’t you want to know

the truth about those flames?”

I’d

be lying if I said I wasn’t interested, but if you’re asking me if I

want to know, then the answer is no. Seems like a mystery that would

be more fun to leave unexplained.

“Didn’t

think you’d be feel afraid, but my client hoped it’d pique your

interest a little more…”

Your

client, huh. I see; so that was the goal in sending this vigorous

youth after me. They tried to pique my interest by showing me a

technique, an art I’d never seen before—pretty roundabout, isn’t

it. Naturally, they must have accounted for the possibility that I’d

get turned into charcoal entirely. Along with, of course, the

possibility that I’d beat s.h.i.+megiwa black and blue.

“You’re

correct.”

s.h.i.+megiwa

stood up and brushed off the rubble covering his body, looking

annoyed.

“I’m

here because a certain individual asked me to be—I didn’t challenge

you of my own volition. To be honest, I’d hardly heard of you, the

one called humanity’s strongest. I thought you were just a legend

that got out of control… but this individual seems to have thought

otherwise.”

Hmph.

Someone who knows about my wildest period, huh. Most of those people

have retired, died, or disappeared by now, so that really narrows it

down, I think.

“As

a matter of fact, this ‘arm’ is the fruit of this individual’s

research. Technically it’s just one part of it, though…”

Research?

A researcher, then? Hearing that made me tense up—after all, I’d

recently had some rough alien-related run-ins with the ER3 System.

And due to my origins, I’ve never had good a relations.h.i.+p with

researchers.

“This

individual wishes to meet with you. Wants you to help finish up some

research. In other words, this is a job, contractor. Humanity’s

strongest contractor.”

……

I answered with silence; unusual, given my talkativeness. You could

say I instinctively—not logically—put up my guard. After all, if

he had a job for me, he could have just said so from the beginning.

Right? So there must be a reason he chose this method. At the very

least, the reason can’t be something friendly like wanting to amaze

and surprise me; taking a job in this circ.u.mstance would truly be

playing with fire.(1)

“What’s

the matter, Jun Aikawa? You’re smiling.”

Mmm.

Is that so? I’m smiling? …That might mean I’m in a tough spot,

then. I still don’t want to know about your fire arm, but I suppose I

ought to know who the client is. Setting aside the question of

whether I’ll take the job or not, at least tell me that. I’ll hear

you out. Who is it, s.h.i.+megiwa-kun? Who’s the researcher who sent you

after me? Is it somebody from the ER3 System?

“No…

this individual is an extremely private researcher, and not

affiliated with any organization. Self-employed, without any backers,

like you and me.”

Oh?

Since I knew my fathers, it was hard for me to judge whether that

meant they were tenacious or just a contrarian—enough already, give

me a name, s.h.i.+megiwa-kun.

“Do

you know Doctor Kitsuregawa?”

[]

Footnotes:

(1)

In the original, Nisio uses the idiom “picking up chestnuts from a

fire”, meaning “taking a big risk”; I subst.i.tuted the English

idiom “playing with fire” since it has a similar meaning and

keeps the play on words.