Chapter 6: Adab, Karma, Haima
"Not shashak, shushushuk! Shushushuk!!"
"L-Like... this?"
"No, that’s sususuk!"
How on earth...
"Relax your arm... yeah! Like that, like th—ah, that was good!!"
...had things turned out like this?
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About three hours earlier.
"Pa-pa bam-paaa-bap pa-pa-pparara-pabappa!!! Wake up! Wake up!"
"Uwaaaah??!!"
The morning after I told Eclipse about my plan, she was clanging a small gong she’d gotten from God knows where. Ah, it’s loud!! I’m up, I’m up!
"Strike the gong with all your might!!"
"I said I’m up!!"
"Eheh☆"
Oops, oops. Eclipse bonked herself on the head.
More importantly,
"You want to do it?"
"Yep! Now! Right away! Right now!"
Don’t get the wrong idea. After discussing the plan last night, Eclipse and I were going to, this morning—
"Practice your skills!!"
—train the skills Queen had implanted in me.
...You weren’t thinking anything weird, were you?
Maybe because we were going to kill Queen, Eclipse’s eyes were halfway gone.
"Hehehehe everyone’s dead now."
She’d completely lost it.
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.
.
And now,
"Holy shit, you can’t do this? You caaaan’t do this??!!"
"Can this even be done?"
"Of course it can!!"
[Adab] (A.T).
A skill Queen gave me when she made me—and it was telekinesis! Telekinesis!
At that one explanation guaranteed to stir any man’s heart, I immediately asked Eclipse to train me.
But...
"Already... the ninety-ninth attempt..."
"Aaargh."
It was miserable.
I had no idea where I was going wrong. I swung and bent my arms, pulling every bizarre stunt imaginable, but the pebble we’d placed far away for the experiment hadn’t budged an inch.
Of course, Eclipse had rolled up both sleeves to help me, but...
"Maybe it’s shashak instead of shushushuk...?"
I had suddenly turned into a stone statue that looked like it would be good at a drum solo.
"...Want to try something else first?"
"...What if I can’t do that either?"
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While the A.I. and the boy clutched their heads, in a conference room, a red-haired woman was pressing down hard on a white-haired girl’s head.
"Why is everyone taking so long...?"
"Why are you only picking on me, Red Hood?"
"Huh? Our little girl is—"
Squeeeze!!
"Mmph!"
"—talking back now? My, you’ve grown up so much, haven’t you?"
Using her enormous motherly affection and her arms together, she squeezed Snow White like a squirrel stuffing peanuts into its cheeks, making Snow White struggle even harder.
"Oh my, what’s going on with my little sister?"
"Liliweiss!"
A short-haired woman entered the conference room, followed by the others. The commotion settled down, and conversation soon began to flow.
"All right, let’s discuss what everyone found. Rapunzel, would you tell us about your investigation first?"
At the Commander’s question, the NIKKE in a nun’s habit rose from her seat and handed out photographs. Every one of them showed a different part of Gluttony’s corpse.
"Based on the examination of the body, Gluttony was not attacked by a weapon like a gun."
"Then a sword?"
"We believe it was something similar."
Scarlet, who had been listening quietly with her arms crossed, furrowed her brow at Rapunzel’s words and asked,
"Hah. We still do not know the cause? Are you sure you investigated it proper—"
"Scarlet?"
"...Tch. That mechanical gorilla."
As Scarlet subtly tried to pick a fight, Liliweiss carefully clenched her fist. Scarlet immediately backed down.
"Ahem. So it is still unclear how that thing died. Dorothy, have you found where it came flying from?"
"Yes. The body fell yesterday at 7 p.m. It is estimated to have come from a city more than 300 kilometers away from here, roughly a minute before that..."
"Um... miss? I think you added an extra zero. Isn’t it thirty kilometers, not three hundred...?"
Red Hood questioned the strange number as she listened to Dorothy’s explanation.
"Don’t call me miss... Whatever. You heard correctly. It was 300 kilometers."
"What?" "What does that even..." "Huh?"
The conference room stirred at Dorothy’s words. Who on earth possessed that kind of monstrous strength...?
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
(Staaaaare.)
"...Look, I know why you’re suspicious of me, but I wasn’t even there then, okay?"
As a single hypothesis formed, everyone in the room looked simultaneously at one person.
Even though that person was being unfairly accused!
"Hmm... No one is to report this matter to higher command yet."
"Um...?"
"Understood. If we mishandle this, an order to immediately subjugate Gluttony will come down."
"For once, I agree."
"Scarlet, I’m telling you, it wasn’t me..."
"Liliweiss, you mustn’t overexert yourself..."
"Huh? O-Overexert myself?"
"All right, then this meeting is—"
"Commander, come over here for a moment."
"—adjourned."
As Liliweiss and the Commander left, the remaining members gradually rose from their seats as well.
"If it wasn’t Liliweiss... what could have attacked Gluttony?"
"It may have self-destructed..."
"Is there even a possibility that it could self-destruct?"
"Scarlet, do you realize you’ve been trying to pick fights throughout this entire meeting?"
"Come with me to the training grounds."
Here they go again...
Snow White, the youngest member of Goddess Squad, rose from her seat with a bitter smile at her teammates acting as they always did.
Let’s see, grab my equipment, then head to the training ground... Hm?
A tablet lay where Liliweiss had been sitting. What had she been about to show them earlier?
Scurry scurry scurry
Snow White stretched out her arm to grab the tablet sitting on the table, but—
"Nnngh..."
—she was too short to reach it.
"J-Just a little... just a liiittle more..."
"Oh, Snow White, I’ll help you."
Rapunzel, who had still been there organizing the documents, handed her the tablet.
"Thank you, Rapunzel."
"It’s nothing. More importantly, why do you want that tablet...?"
Rapunzel looked at the tablet in Snow White’s hands with eyes full of curiosity, so Snow White added an explanation.
"I think Liliweiss was about to show us something on it earlier..."
"S-Show... show show show youuuuu??!"
"I-I wasn’t trying to look at it secretly..."
"S-Secreeeetlyyy??!!!"
Rapunzel was the medic of Goddess Squad. With her good nature, she got along well with the other NIKKEs and human soldiers alike.
But she had one flaw...
"Hah... hah... haaah!!!!"
She was a pervert.
"No, Rapunzel, it’s not like that..."
"G-G-G-Guiltyyyyy!!!"
At last, spraying a nosebleed as she ran off, Rapunzel left Snow White staring blankly for five seconds before Snow White turned her gaze to the tablet. What on earth had gotten into her...?
"Hm? A video?"
The tablet displayed footage of a city.
Hmm... should I... watch it?
Like a child sneaking a piece of candy without her mother knowing, Snow White looked around quickly, made sure she was alone, and pressed the play button.
Click.
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"J-Just one! One more!!"
"Mmph... E-Eclipse... I can’t... any more..."
"Bweep!"
There’s no method like this in the world... Is this torture, or a meal... mmph!!
"Mmph... Eclip...se...! Get out of the way!!"
The bath... room...!!
I can’t hold it anymore. Not another second...!
"Bleeergh!!"
"Oh, oh, oh!! Oh dear, oh dear!"
"Bweep-bweep bweebweepbweep!"
I ran toward the reed field, but the instant nausea surged up my throat, I collapsed where I stood.
"Cough, hack, bleeeergh!"
I vomited black sludge.
The ground became covered in black like a mudflat, and my head spun.
"Ugh... are you... okay...?"
"I-I’m f-fine... bleeeergh!!"
"Bweep! Bweep-bweep!"
Fortunately, the skills aside from [Adab] worked properly. The remaining skills were [Karma] and [Haima].
[Haima] was self-healing, while [Karma] created my servants—meaning I could make Raptures of my own... mmph!!
As acid rose back up my throat like a salmon swimming upstream, I had no choice but to brace myself against the ground again.
"Ugh... sorry..."
"I told you I couldn’t take any more!!"
Ten minutes earlier.
After learning the other two skills, I tried telekinesis again. When it still wouldn’t work, Eclipse finally resorted to her last measure.
"Eat!"
"W-What?"
"Raptures grow by eating their comrades and NIKKEs. So—
eat.
Eat the Rapture corpses!!"
"That... makes sense!"
So I forced those tasteless things down my throat.
Ninety-five of them!!
Japan might have all-you-can-eat somen noodles, but this place had all-you-can-eat Raptures.
Eclipse and Bippy placed Rapture corpses from God knew where beside me and shoved them into my mouth.
"D-Don’t...! S-Stop...!"
"Come on, try it, try it. Only eighty-nine left now."
"Mmph...! Mmmph!!!"
Of course, I resisted, but they subdued me...
"Bleeergh... ughhh."
I never imagined it would come to this...!
Pat, pat.
"Bweep."
"Ugh... thanks..."
A white Rapture with a round outline gently patted my back.
Its name was Bippy. It was my very own Rapture, the one I had made earlier using [Karma].
I had made it by putting my blood into a corpse with a little help from Eclipse, and it had zero aggression.
"Bweep-bweep bweep!"
"Ugh, I have no idea what you’re saying, but thanks."
Leaving the black puddle behind, I got back to my feet. I’d done this much; surely it had to work now?
"Eclipse."
"Okaaay."
At my word, Eclipse went far away and stood a pebble upright.
In time with that, I gathered strength from my fingertips through my wrist and into my arm—
Whoosh!!
—and swung it.
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.
And the pebble remained completely still.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!"
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
What the hell is the problem?!! After all that goddamn bullshit, it should work alreadyyyyyy!!!
"This is so goddamn frustratiiiing!!!!!"
The world is screwing me overrrrrr!!!!!
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"...Sniff..."
"You’re probably having the hardest time of all..."
"Bweep..."
Sadness, rage, and irritation swirled through my mind.
Seriously...
What on earth...
What the hell...!
"Is...!!!"
Inhale...!
"THE PROBLEEEEEEM?!!!"
I shouted until my throat tore.
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"Huh? What’s that? A Rapture?"
"It has a human... shape?"
"...Then it’s a NIKKE?"
Unaware that someone was approaching from far away.
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