I’m fucked.
Sorry for opening with a curse.
But I really am completely fucked right now!!
"Stop right there!!"
"Do you think you can escape?"
"Rukh!! We’re completely FUCKED!!"
A spear whizzed past on my left, bullets on my right.
"H-Hey~ do you think you can catch me?"
"Are you insane?!!"
Please save meplease save meplease save meplease save meI’m sorryreally
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Three months ago. To understand how this happened, we have to go back to the day I met Janghwa.
Janghwa was looking at me like a samurai, one knee on the ground and one sword planted in the earth. Her eyes glimmered in the campfire like a blade fresh from the forge.
She... wasn’t originally this kind of character, was she?
"Gasp... damn... this big sister’s flirting game is no joke."
Oh, Eclipse, come on...
I pulled myself together, cleared my throat, and opened my mouth to answer Janghwa. Ahem.
"You’re saying you’ll follow me?"
"Yeah."
"...Based on what?"
"...Huh?"
"You’re saying you’ll follow someone you just met... no, a ‘thing’ whose identity you don’t even know?"
"You saved a NIKKE you’d never seen before and treated her this well. Wouldn’t it be stranger not to trust you?"
Janghwa’s answer struck right at the heart of it, and for a moment, I had no response. One hundred points! ...No, that’s not it!
"No, no... shouldn’t you be suspicious of that kindness instead?"
Sure, I had intended to make Janghwa my companion. That was why I revived her.
But she was trusting me that easily? In this harsh world? The A-hye inside me says this is unsettling, and the second A-hye says it’s unsettling too!
Janghwa quietly listened to me, then tilted her head to the left.
"Whyyyyy?"
"Because that kind—"
"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"
"Interrupting people when they’re talking is—"
"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"
"...Don’t interrupt—"
"I don’t wannnnnnnnnnna~"
She dragged out every word and completely blockaded my speech. Aaargh.
Maybe she found how irritated I looked amusing, because Janghwa covered her mouth and snickered.
"Did you perhaps co-sign somebody’s loan? Why are you so incapable of trusting people? In a situation like this..."
"Shouldn’t we trust each other even more?"
"Ah..."
"Wow."
They say people can’t speak when they’re flustered. Maybe because what she said was so right, all I could do was gape.
"I... suppose so."
"Hehe, right?"
Janghwa put one hand on her waist with a smug little huff, then held out the other to me.
"So... since this is a time when we need companions... pleased to meet you?"
"...The honor is mine, Janghwa."
Squeeze.
In answer, I clasped her hand and gave it a short shake.
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Three months passed after that.
We made our home in a cave. Whenever we came across people, we sometimes helped them out or pulverized some Raptures.
The supplies in the truck were enough to feed us, but we helped people and got a little something in return through give-and-take.
But if we happened to run into NIKKEs?
I’d grab Janghwa and run like a madman.
At present, the Human Allied Forces regarded Janghwa as nothing more than a rebel, meaning she could easily become a public enemy. So we avoided contact with NIKKEs.
What was Mori doing, you ask?
"Snnnnnnore..."
She was sleeping beside Bippy like the queen from that cheek-slapping game next door.
Well, it made sense.
Maybe because she saw a bit of Scarlet in Mori, Janghwa volunteered to teach Mori how to fight. Their weapons were different, but still...
‘Um... me? Why?’
‘Looking at your frame... I think you’ll manage with just a little training.’
‘But I’m a NIKKE?’
‘A refusal is refused! Get over here!’
‘Aaaagh! Rukh, please save me!!’
And so, Mori became a delicious-looking newbie who had caught the eye of a veteran master who’d been steeped in the game for ages, and underwent training...
W-Well, of course I trained too~
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It was dawn, with morning dew still clinging to everything. As the air warmed and the light came in, I carefully rose from my spot.
#@#@ !!@(#(@!!!!!!!
"Shut it."
Booom!!
As I landed the finishing blow on this typhoon chicken—
Crunch.
@?₩&₩&×@?? ?#,?@?¿°##?@@?!!!!!! !!!*
"Nom nom."
I tore off and ate its wing.
Storm Bringers—the name means those who bring storms. Because of these things, humanity had become unable to fight in the sky.
And yet this one had just flown right up to me while I was out getting my morning exercise???
To a Heretic, no less.
So I immediately began my chicken-butcher show.
Halfway through, it must have realized something was wrong, because it started flapping its wings like mad. But when I pounded its head hard enough to make the ground shake, it went quiet.
"Mmm~ Twenty-eight different parts, and a device that generates wind power... hoho! Aseei! Enjoy your meal!"
"Where on earth did you learn that kind of literature...?"
"Hoho! Aseei! There’s even wire spaghetti! Eat that too, and... hehehehe, Queen, you bitch, you’re dead!!"
Ugh, Eclipse got like that sometimes. Whenever I ate even a little of a Tyrant-class specimen, she would get all worked up and obsess over killing the Queen.
Well, she had practically been used as a slave.
...Still, I think I hit it a little too hard earlier. There’s no way I caused an earthquake, right?
Eh, who cares? Besides, maybe it tasted good because it was chicken?
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Bang!
"Everyone, attention!! Another tremor, like the one before, has just been detected within fifteen hundred kilometers of this location!"
The Commander of the Goddess Squad kicked open the strategy room door, drawing everyone’s attention.
The Human Allied Forces had a major headache on their hands. The number of survivors had suddenly increased, leaving them short on room, so construction of the Ark had to be accelerated even further.
A humanoid Rapture had been sighted among survivors and mass-produced NIKKEs, but they had still been unable to find it.
"Again?"
"That’s right, Rapunzel."
But they were gradually beginning to trace the humanoid Rapture. Every other week, or sometimes every day, the ground shook at regular intervals in locations thousands of kilometers away.
With P-waves.
"And one of the survivors got images of that Rapture, didn’t they, Liliweiss?"
"Yes."
Beep.
When Liliweiss pressed a button on the tablet, several photographs and videos appeared over the table.
A figure in black clothing with its face obscured by something, and though it was unclear, its hands appeared to be bent at grotesque angles.
Then, with a ruined city behind it, the camera footage was cracked as though the camera itself had been smashed, yet a black figure stood there motionless.
"Uh... isn’t that just a person—"
"Shh."
The screen crackled several times, then—
Crack, cruuunch.
BOOOOM!!
"Run! Run!!&#&@&! Is that a NIKKE?#&@&&@?!!"
"@&@&×&&! [₩[Hahahahahaha!!!"
A laugh steeped in madness intertwined with people’s screams. There came the sound of metal grinding together, and then—
"What...!"
"Gasp..."
"Heh... this is... quite something..."
Crack... cruuunch.
A figure was shaking a Rapture fragment with its neck bent at a grotesque angle.
A fragment of a Tyrant-class Rapture.
At the sight of such near-slaughter, Scarlet gripped the sheath of Hwamu Sipilhong tightly, while Rapunzel clenched her spear with a sweaty hand.
"Beyond that, it has been witnessed hunting other Raptures as well."
"A Rapture hunting Raptures?"
"Yes. But the strange part is that it seems to hunt Tyrant-class Raptures in particular, and there are reports that it lets NIKKEs and survivors go."
The Goddess Squad could not help but be astonished by the Commander’s words. Raptures were creatures that slaughtered people like beasts, yet this one was suddenly showing mercy?
"Its codename is Sicarius—the Butcher! From this moment on, we will capture it or deactivate it!"
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"Hah... this is really bringing out my old temper."
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"Huh? Why do I have chills...?"
Was it just my imagination?
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