Natsumi had hidden herself and stayed close to Hieta instead of going to the shelter.
What she could see was the Vandersnatch unit filling the pitch-black night sky, and Hieta’s group slaughtering them.
"[Gabriel]――[March]!!"
When Miku manifested Gabriel and struck the keys, the speed at which the others were slaughtering their enemies began to increase.
It was because of the boost to their performance, one of her Angel Gabriel’s abilities.
"Come on, [Zadkiel]!"
Yoshino’s Angel, Zadkiel, unleashed a massive storm of ice from its mouth and swept the Vandersnatch away.
The bodies of the Vandersnatch caught in its path were riddled with holes, large and small, as if they had been hit by a shotgun.
"We can’t lose to that!"
"Agreed! Let’s smash them all!"
And as if refusing to be outdone, fierce currents of wind formed in the Yamai sisters’ hands.
Before long, those winds crashed into the Vandersnatch, and the machines were torn to pieces by the gale without being able to resist at all.
Among them was one spirit whose presence was the most overwhelming of all.
"[Kerubiel]!"
Answering Mayuri’s call, Kerubiel roared and fired beam after beam.
She still hadn’t obtained all of her authority, so she couldn’t use Lahat Haelev, her strongest single strike, but even so, her Angel was specialized in wide-area attacks.
She was destroying more Vandersnatch than any other spirit.
Watching that, Natsumi felt oddly relieved.
"Yeah. Someone like me wasn’t needed after all."
No, that was self-loathing dressed up as relief.
The thought that she would be useless no matter what she did.
The thought that maybe she should stay nearby in case she could help them, but that it had been a pointless choice.
As those negative thoughts began to gnaw at Natsumi, she realized one person was missing.
"Where did he go?"
Higakieta Hai was nowhere to be seen.
Had he abandoned everything and run off, leaving the spirits to handle it all?
Even though they had only spoken briefly and only met briefly, the version of him she had seen in that short time didn’t seem like someone who would run.
"...What am I even thinking?"
Natsumi shook her head hard and brushed away the stray thoughts.
"Right. That’s just the kind of guy he is."
After deciding that, Natsumi lowered her gaze from the sky and looked down, where Hieta was preparing something.
Hieta didn’t have the ability to fly freely through the air, so he was preparing his strongest strike from the ground, one powerful enough to smash the satellite in a single blow.
And one Vandersnatch was approaching him.
It was a machine that the other spirits hadn’t managed to deal with yet, and that they were too busy dealing with other Vandersnatch to notice.
Natsumi alone had spotted it.
"Why, why does no one notice that...?"
Inside, she hoped one of the spirits would notice the Vandersnatch approaching Hieta.
But the other spirits were already fighting in the air, so there was no one near Hieta who could help him.
Even if the others noticed and rushed over, it would already be too late.
The distance was so short that Hieta would be attacked long before they could help.
"There’s no one around him...!"
Realizing that, Natsumi inwardly prayed that someone else would appear and save him, but that was an impossible wish.
The Vandersnatch that had gotten behind Hieta finally swung its built-in laser blade at him.
"No!"
Seeing that, Natsumi finally gripped Haniel tightly and revealed herself without the slightest hesitation to block the attack.
Startled by Natsumi’s sudden voice, Hieta turned around for a moment, then grabbed her shoulder and yanked her behind him before she could be attacked by the Vandersnatch.
"Huh, wha?"
Natsumi, not even in transformed form, couldn’t resist Hieta’s strength and was dragged all the way behind him.
And then it was only natural that Hieta’s head was severed by the Vandersnatch.
"Ah, ah, ah..."
Natsumi began trembling as she stared at Hieta’s head, now separated from his body and fallen to the ground.
Part of it was the trauma from back then, when Ellen had attacked and blood had sprayed from her waist, and more than anything else, there was the despair of seeing the person she had tried to protect die in her place.
As Natsumi was consumed by fear and despair, trembling and collapsing in place, the Vandersnatch was about to continue its attack on her.
"Wow, it’s been a while since I died from someone else attacking me."
The voice of Hieta, who should have definitely been dead, rang out, and a spiral sword burst out from the Vandersnatch’s chest.
*******
After dying and coming back, I drove the spiral sword into the Vandersnatch from behind, and it started glitching out as if it were about to explode.
Those insane DEM bastards had engraved a self-destruct ritual into the Vandersnatch.
"Like hell I’ll let you."
But the Vandersnatch was already pierced by the spiral sword.
I triggered electricity and burned it down along with the ritual.
Pssshh-
Beyond the Vandersnatch, now burned to ash and scattered away by the wind, was a girl with green hair.
Natsumi was staring at me blankly, her face on the verge of tears.
"Y-you...!"
"What about me?"
"I definitely saw you die, so how...!"
Seeing her pointing at me with trembling fingers, it looked like the shock of my death had hit her pretty hard.
"Ah. I’ve got a pretty stubborn life, that’s all."
"That’s not the issue!"
When I answered jokingly, trying to calm her down, what came back was Natsumi’s anger.
"I, I thought you were dead...!"
No, that wasn’t anger.
It was worry for me and self-reproach toward herself.
And a whole mess of other emotions tangled together in her eyes as she looked at me.
"So...!"
"Whoa, whoa. Calm down. I’m right here in front of you, aren’t I?"
I matched her eye level as she looked ready to cry and tried to calm her down.
Natsumi wiped away the tears spilling from her eyes and clenched her fist.
"Na, Natsumi?"
"Don’t make me worry like that!"
With a thwack, her fist landed on my shoulder.
She was so small that there wasn’t much force behind it, so it didn’t really hurt.
Still, the fact that that fist carried concern let me understand how she felt about me.
"I appreciate you worrying about me, but..."
I was grateful for her concern, but there was still one problem left unresolved.
Looking up at the sky, I saw the huge object still falling toward Tengushi City.
I let out a long sigh and called to Natsumi.
"Natsumi."
"...What."
"In a little while, a satellite engraved with a self-destruct ritual is going to crash into Tengushi City and cause massive damage. I’m going to shoot it down, of course, but you could still get caught in the explosion, so run to the shelter. Now."
My words must have been a bit shocking, because Natsumi didn’t answer.
Wondering if she had already gone to the shelter, I looked down beside me, and Natsumi was still there.
Had this girl finally lost it?
As I stared at her with that question in my mind, she grabbed my sleeve tightly.
"Then what about you...? What are you going to do...?"
"I won’t die. You just saw it, didn’t you? I die and come back."
"But you still die!"
I shrugged at Natsumi’s shout.
After all, my body had already died hundreds, thousands of times. I could say with confidence that I was more used to death than anyone.
Her words didn’t really bother me.
If anything, the only thing I was worried about was whether she and the other spirits might get caught in the blast and be hurt.
But apparently she didn’t like my answer, because Natsumi, still refusing to go to the shelter, tightened her grip on my sleeve.
"Hey, hey! I said go already."
"...I can’t accept that."
"What?"
Natsumi suddenly made a displeased face and pointed Haniel at the satellite.
"[Haniel]――!!!"
At her call, Haniel’s tip split open to reveal a mirror, and a brilliant light burst forth from it.
Before long, that light swallowed the satellite, and when it faded, the satellite had turned into a pig plushie.
Stunned by Natsumi’s sudden move, I just stared at her blankly, and she crossed her arms and spoke as if to ask what the problem was.
"There. Problem solved. So stop talking nonsense about running away and finish it already."
"...Haha."
Thanks to Natsumi, I didn’t have to worry about the explosion anymore, and a small laugh slipped out.
"Thanks."
As I said that, I raised the weapon I had been preparing.
It was Lahat, the weapon I had obtained by sealing Mayuri.
This weapon, which resembled Lahat Haelev, the most destructive form shown by Mayuri’s Angel, was the thing that let me fly, more or less, by crude means.
"What is that tiny drill-looking thing? What are you even going to do with it?"
"Like this."
When I activated Lahat’s electricity, its fist-sized body began growing until it was about the size of my own body.
"All right, let’s go."
With Lahat in my hand, I used a heavy attack, and the drill attached to it began to spin.
"Eep!"
The wind generated by that made Natsumi scream, but there was still something big left.
Vwoooom-!
"My drill is a drill that will pierce the heavens!"
The drill’s rotation transferred directly to me, and I started spinning too, rocketing upward toward the satellite like a helicopter.
"W-what is that!???"
I could hear Natsumi shouting in shock from below, but I didn’t have time to care about that.
Just before I reached the satellite, a [Territory] unfolded and blocked my attack.
But that was far too little to stop me.
"Giga! Drill! Break!!!"
As if answering my shout, Lahat spun faster and harder.
KRAK-KRKRK!
With a vicious sound, cracks spread across the [Territory], and then, with the sound of glass shattering, the [Territory] was completely destroyed.
"Hyaaaaaah!!!"
With my battle cry, a huge hole was punched through the satellite, and by the time I had completely pierced it, it had been reduced to almost nothing but powder.
"Ow, my throat."
After yelling too much and nursing my sore throat, I realized something was missing.
"Ah."
I’m going to fall now.
"Hyaaaaaaah!"
That day, there were occasional reports of people seeing a meteor shower in the sky.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register