It had been a month since my sister found out about my ability.
Our clan had spent that entire month preparing for war.
The reason for preparing for war was nothing special.
We crushed a group of raiders,
and the gang backing them declared war on us.
My sister went ballistic over that declaration of war,
gathered the friendly clans around us,
and had been preparing a full-scale offensive ever since.
So what was I doing in all this?
Using the transformation I had practiced for the past month,
I would infiltrate their headquarters.
For the record,
my sister was still the only one who knew about my transformation.
That was why there had been some pushback from the clan members this time.
But after my sister and I pushed for it,
today, I would transform into a sparrow and begin the infiltration.
As I smiled, filled with a strange excitement and anticipation,
Timothy approached me
with a shadowed expression.
"Bane, can you really pull this off?
If you don't think you can, say so now."
"Yeah, I can't do it."
"All right, I'll go talk to the leader right—"
"I can't fail."
"Pfft! I knew I was worrying for nothing."
He ruffled my hair,
then climbed into the car with me in his arms.
"You're here, Bane. You ready?"
"Of course I am, Virgin Mary."
Our driver was Maria.
Her name was Maria, so everyone called her Virgin Mary.
There were five people in this car, including me.
Timothy, Janet, Maria, Rex, and me.
We were the infiltration team.
Our mission was to sneak in, set off a spectacular explosion,
and immediately begin the fight.
I would infiltrate first,
and once I gave the signal, the others would plant the bombs.
My sister's team would see the explosion,
then charge in and wipe them out.
"We're leaving! If anyone wants out, get out now!"
Despite Maria's words, no one got out.
Everyone had solemn looks on their faces, steel in their eyes.
Brrr—brrr—brrr.
The car's outdated engine rumbled,
and before long, we pulled out.
"Bane, don't be nervous.
You won't get hurt."
"You're the one who should stop looking so tense."
Inside the car, we traded
all kinds of stupid jokes and chatter,
easing each other's nerves.
"We're here."
The place where we would begin our mission
was about a kilometer from their headquarters.
Now it was time for me to get to work.
I got out of the car and immediately ran toward the forest.
I found a large boulder in the woods and marked it,
then slowly pictured my skeletal system in order to transform into a sparrow.
Once I had pictured everything down to my excretory system,
I became a small, white sparrow.
Now I just had to fly in undetected.
I had more than enough stamina to fly one kilometer.
At my flying speed, one kilometer
would take eight to ten minutes at most.
Chirp!
ㆍ
ㆍ
ㆍ
ㆍ
While Bane, transformed into a sparrow, quickly flew
toward the enemy headquarters,
his sister Morian had gathered the clans together
and was holding a brief strategy meeting about the order of the charge.
"Our clan will take the lead."
"No, we'll be at the front."
"How do you expect the weaklings in your clan
to lead the charge?"
"If we're weaklings, then you're nothing
but skeletal scarecrows."
"What?! Skeletal scarecrows?!"
Bang!
"..."
"I, Morian, will take the lead.
I assume there are no objections."
Thanks to her unilateral declaration,
the order of the remaining groups was quickly settled.
As she waited for the signal her little brother would send,
she maintained her guns.
Every one of them had been modified by her own hand.
Monsters built with no thought for safety, only firepower.
She had always wanted to use those monsters,
but had never had the opportunity. This war, at last, was the day they would shake off their thick layer of dust and run wild.
Booom!!!
The deafening blast was the signal.
It meant her little brother had succeeded,
and that it was time for her to go wild.
But there was something she did not know.
Her little brother had indeed succeeded,
but it was a success that fell twenty percent short.
Bane had successfully infiltrated the place in secret.
The problem came after that.
He had planted the bomb near an abandoned oil pipeline,
which meant he was currently running for his life.
"Fuuuck!"
This was crazy! Completely fucking crazy.
Why did we plant the bomb by an oil pipeline
and volunteer ourselves for this hellish mess?
"Huff, huff, I'm dying here."
"We're dying too, Bane!"
"Isn't it thrilling?"
"Sis, if I get thrilled like this twice, I'll be dead!"
"Still, the mission was a success."
"Now we just have to go out, fight, and win."
"Let's wrap this up fast and go have a drink."
"All right! Let's do this!"
Still, the situation was resolved on a cheerful note.
Once we caught our breath and linked up with my sister's team,
everything would be settled in no time.
It felt like we could finally relax a little.
Bang! Bang!
Boom! Boom!
That was, if we had not heard those thunderous gunshots.
The instant we heard them,
we all tensed up and opened the garage door.
Beyond the opened garage door was, quite literally,
a spectacle of red and mechanical parts.
Put simply, there were no bodies,
but you could vividly imagine the scene.
"♪ Hey, Bane, your sister really did a number on them."
"Mori really let herself off the leash."
The words from the others beside me
barely registered.
I knew she was like this, but I never expected
her trigger-happy streak to be this extreme in battle.
"Hey, Bane! Good job!"
She was drenched in red blood,
yet smiling as brightly as could be.
Judging by that expression alone, she looked like the heroine of some innocent romance manga.
It was just completely at odds with this horrific sight.
"All right! Everyone, wipe off the blood
and let's go have a nice cold beer."
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