[Nikke] Gentlemen? I Prefer Happy Endings*

Is this what it feels like when your heart is actually torn apart?

I think I spent about three minutes rolling around because I stupidly touched the core.

I will never touch the core again. Ever. Never.

I barely managed to get up, clutching my aching chest.

Still, this body of mine sure is tough.

As I looked over my mechanical body, a setting I had forgotten suddenly came to mind.

Heretic.

Thinking back to what happened in space, Queen called me... what was it... ah, something King, and she said something about giving me a heart. That definitely means I became a Heretic.

But I’m a man...?

Heretics are NIKKEs who became Raptures, so they’re all women.

That... one that looked like a sphinx? And the red-whatever one, too...

...Guess Queen changed her tastes.

Anyway, now I should get out of he—

Grrrrumble.

...re?

My stomach, utterly oblivious to the situation, began protesting for food.

But there’s nothing to eat...

Oh, wait. There is?

Raptures mainly eat NIKKE bodies, or the corpses of their own comrades.

Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom.

When I read that story about starfish as a kid, I wondered what iron could possibly taste like...

Nom nom, drool nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom, chomp nom nom nom, delicious.

I think I finally understand now.

Because I’m eating the leg of that Rapture I killed earlier.

I’m a Heretic too, basically a kind of Rapture, so I tried it to see whether I could eat one.

And would you look at that.

It tastes like absolutely nothing.

Sorry. I baited you just to make that joke.

I’m forcing it down with fifty percent regret over eating it and fifty percent determination to just finish it.

If I had to describe it... the awful pork ribs from Atashin’chi?

...What a terrible comparison.

Whatever. I need to leave this place now. If a huge one like that was here, it means there are more of them.

Raptures are divided into ranks.

There are Servants (trash mobs), Exceeds (middling), Masters (tough), Lords (fucking tough), and Tyrants (ridiculously fucking tough).

Beep.

Yeah, that little thing is a Servant—

...The fuck?!

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Even if it’s just a trash mob, it’s still a Rapture. In other words, something that could lop off the head of an unarmed guy like me in an instant.

Get lost, asshole! Huh?! Wanna go?!

When I swung a piece of Rapture wreckage lying on the ground, it slowly backed away from me.

What are you staring at with those red eyes?

It looked at me from way over there, then started making noises all by itself like an alarm clock. Was it going to self-destruct or something?

Since there was only one of it, I turned away to continue on my way.

First, I need to get some clothes. And then... cover up my eyes, too...

...Huh?

Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep.

The one that had been alone...

The thing that had been alone just moments ago had multiplied dozens—

No, thousands of times over, and was looking down at me.

Red lights were slowly emerging from building walls, streetlamps, and even rooftops far away.

Ah... hehe. No, why is everyone... um... doing this...? I didn’t do anything...?

Di... did I maybe eat your boss?

Excuse me, gentlemen? How about we talk this out?

Gentlemen...? Gentlemen? Gentlemen?!

Queen-fucking Sihun!! I’m a Heretic! I’m a Heretic!

"Don’t come near me!! I said don’t come near me, you motherf(beeeep)ers!!"

Beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep. Beep.

"Don’t come any closer!!"

"S-sniff... I’m a Heretic, though. I’m a Heretic...!"

Outside, the sound of metal clashing still rang out. The whirring of machinery and the sounds of something activating surrounded the building in a discordant symphony.

Where did it all go wrong, and why?

I have no answers for how I ended up in another world, why Queen made me, or even who I was. It’s so unfair I could die.

And on top of that, why—why!—does a Heretic, basically the middle boss of the Raptures, have to run from those things?!

I barely shook them off and hid myself inside a decrepit abandoned building.

What do I do? Go outside? Stay here?

I don’t even know what my abilities are in detail. What if I go berserk or something? What if I get torn apart because of some kind of limit?

I tore at my hair over the bleak future ahead.

Think, asshole. You’re smart, aren’t you? Huh?

Beep.

"Ah..."

As I was swallowed by my thoughts, the sound those things had made earlier rang out right in front of me.

It was one of them.

Clack, clack... whiiiiir.

"Fuckfuckfuck!!"

As its gun barrel opened with a mechanical sound and slowly began heating up, my mind went blank.

Was I going to die like this? Without accomplishing anything?

All strength left my body. Was I really going to die? Just get hit once by Queen, then get taken out by those little grunts?

Haha... hahaha.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

"...Fuck it!!! If I’m dying, you’re dying with me!!"

My resentment and disbelief had somehow congealed into rage, and I hurled myself at the bastard’s face.

Hahaha☆ Lord Yama, I’ll be seeing you soon☆

Ah... I wanted to take Queen’s head first, though...

................

[Tyrant, Samodur] Awakening.

Activation.

...............

Did I get shot? I should be bleeding, right? No, I’m a machine, so maybe I’m fine?... Am I dead?

When I charged at it, I had thrown myself at it in despair, but I still couldn’t shake off my fear of death.

Just looking at that gun earlier had been terrifying...!

"Ugh... ngh... ah..."

My mind was still soaked in fear, so only strange noises came out of my mouth.

But something strange had been in my hand this whole time.

Hard... and somehow hot...

Bzzzt... bzzzt... bzzzzk.

"What is this?"

Tangled crimson wires, red as blood, wrapped around a circular red object that was barely giving off any light in my hand.

"...A Rapture... core?"

Bzzzt... zzt...

It was a core. A Rapture core, at that!!

And when I looked behind me just in case, I had no choice but to cover my mouth before I screamed.

The Rapture that had been perfectly fine just moments ago, aiming its gun barrel at me, had been reduced to Rapture scraps and twisted grotesquely out of shape.

"Good lord... what the... good lord, good lord..."

Clang, clatter.

When I dropped the core in my hand, I could see its corpse more clearly.

And it wasn’t simply bent. Every joint... ugh... I’ll spare you the description.

More importantly, I need to leave fast. That sound earlier was pretty loud, wasn’t it—

...Why did it suddenly get so quiet...?

My frantic thoughts, my anxious eyes, and the things watching them...

Beep.

The Raptures...

The Raptures had entered the building before I knew it and were staring at me.

Beep. (Nod.)

Beep-beep. (Nod.)

Then they suddenly nodded to one another.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

And opened fire on me.

Time, time, time!!

"Agh, urk! Agh! Hey, wait! Agh!!"

If getting hit in the leg with a BB pellet in front of a stationery store as a kid was pain level ten, getting shot is one thousand.

These lunatics were firing miniguns at me nonstop.

Do you bastards never reload?! Aaaagh!!!

The bullets hitting my body with ting ting sounds piled up across the floor.

As I instinctively curled up under their assault to minimize the places getting hit, I noticed something strange.

Wait a second.

Those are guns.

I just got swarmed by bullets...?

I got shot and didn’t die?

With miniguns, no less?

That means...

These fuckers are all dead now.

[Current Situation]

Chapter 3: Surviving on the Surface - 2 (The Start Isn’t Going Smoothly)

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Chapter 3: Surviving on the Surface - 2 (The Start Isn’t Going Smoothly)

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