Prologue[]
[Code: Devil's Smile]
[Code accepted]
“You think you’re sooo funny, now don't ya?”
I shook my head. The cocky werewolf in front of me was getting unnecessarily aggravated over me saying, “You look like you’ve lost a lot of fights.”
“You,” he started saying, “You’re gonna regret saying that, little lady.” He cracked his knuckles emphatically, attempting to intimidate me. The brief yet audible sound irritated me, but not as much as I apparently irritated him. His voice grew very loud.
“I’ll show you who’s lost a lot of fights!”
It sounded a little strange, and didn't understand his wording completely, but decided that he said it on instinct and was now hostile.
He raised his fists high in the air, and threw them down with the force almost equal to that of a tank engine. Unfortunately for him, I stepped out of the strike zone a split second before impact and let his fists connect with the hard concrete. He cried out in pain as the 4 others that were with him quickly came to fight by his side. I analyzed them one by one, and determined that they were all of above-average strength and speed.
Normally, fighting against these types of people would be difficult. But this isn’t a normal situation. Calling my own strength and speed “above-average” would be a large understatement. They engaged me one at a time, giving me an easy way to bring them all down.
The first one was an orc that charged towards me with his arms spread apart, making a generic monster pose that left many openings. Right when he was about to get me, I ducked down to avoid his arms and stuck out a leg to trip him over.
The next opponent, another werewolf, came immediately, and ran towards me like an Olympic sprinter. He jumped at the last second to try and catch me off-guard. I clicked my tongue at him and roundhouse kicked him just as he was entering my striking range. His large body was sent crashing into a nearby wall.
The next target was an orc that had equipped a heavy-looking club. That was going to be a bit more difficult to dodge, so I took the initiative. I ran straight for the orc, jumped over him, and then climbed his back. He tried to throw me off, shaking vigorously in every direction. I held fast and grabbed hold of his scalp and chin, then twisted them horizontally to end his life. One more grunt-type enemy remaining.
“I’ll get you for that!” the last werewolf shouted.
I said nothing in reply, and waited for him to attack. He unsheathed a sword and, with a loud battlecry, charged straight at me. I reached for the holster on my side and took out my silver-loaded Springfield XVS. After quickly aiming in the werewolf’s general direction, I fired off five shots, three of which hit the target in different places. I fired off five more, aiming more carefully this time, and the silver bullets easily pierced the werewolf’s furry skin. He let out a growl of pain, and unsteadily took a step back. I walked over to the creature, aimed my gun between his eyebrows, and said, “I’ll give you two options. Die here and now, or be imprisoned and die slowly as you are interrogated more and more brutally with every passing day.”
The werewolf glared at me with eyes full of vengeance and destruction, but said nothing.
“Which is it?” I asked again.
The werewolf, seemingly agitated, snarled at me and shouted, “Like hell I’d be your prisoner, you *****!”
“Option 1 it is then.”
“Wha-“
I pulled the trigger, and sent a silver bullet straight through the beast’s cranium. The force was strong enough to penetrate even a 50mm steel wall. After double-checking to see ensure that every one of the goons was dead, I was going to head back to my original destination when I heard the sound of someone rapidly trying to hide. The sound of their feet hurriedly hitting the concrete floor was in no way stealthy. I walked over to the source of the sound and prepared my gun for whatever was hiding there. But when I turned the corner, instead of a suspicious enemy spy, I found an orange-haired boy cowering against the wall. Typical bystander. Following standard protocol, I pointed my gun at his forehead and said, “You shouldn’t have seen that.”
“What with that corny secret agent line?” he asked.
“What you saw just now is classified information. If you tell anyone, we will track you down.”
“So are you going to kill me?”
“Correct.”
“If you’re going to kill me right now, why bother tracking me down?”
“That part is going to be carried out in the real world.”
“O-Oh.”
“Any other questions?”
“Please don’t kill me.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
I held my gun to his neck when a voice suddenly shouted in my comlink.
“Tenshi, wait!”
I sighed. “What is it, Alpha?”
Alpha was already at base and was probably hacked into a nearby security camera, watching my fight and ensuring nothing bad happened.
“I’ve just gotten all the info and stats on the guy in front of you,” she said.
“So? What about them?”
“They’re not stable. They’re changing as we speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think this guy might be one of the Anomalies that Virtechs told us about.”
“…are you sure?”
“No, but the chance is…99 percent.”
I cast a glance at the boy who should’ve been dead by now and then went back to talking on the comlink.
“Alright, I’ll take him to base.”
“Thanks, Tenshi~”
And her voice cut out.
I holstered my guns and turned to the person in front of me. He looked more confused than relieved.
“Umm…”
“…”
“Why didn’t you kill me…?”
“I had other orders, so instead, you’re coming with me.”
“Am I being arrested or something?”
“No.”
“Then I hope you’re not lying.”
“Do I look like I’m trying to put handcuffs on you?”
“No…”
“There’s your answer.”
I walked out of the alleyway pulling the possible Anomaly by the arm and turned the corner to go towards the base. Just then, I heard an orc shout out “HEY!”
I stopped in my tracks and turned my head to see what looked like reinforcements that were called in by one of the werewolves. “There’s more of them?!” the possible Anomaly shouted. “Looks like it,” I responded, while letting the reinforcements get closer.
“Were you two the punks who did this to our guys?”
The possible Anomaly waved his hands like he was surrendering and tried to defend himself.
“N-No, you’ve got it all wrong! I’m just a passing off-duty soldier, I have no-
I cut him off by saying, “So what if we were?”
The possible Anomaly looked at me like I just told his mom that he’s into BDSM play.
“What are you doing?!” he whisper-shouted.
The enemy reinforcements replied, “Well, then you both are in for a world of pain.”
They all unsheathed their weapons and ran towards the boy and I. The boy had a look of disbelief and fear. I let the enemies get closer and closer, waiting for the right moment for attack, and when the opportunity presented itself…
The possible Anomaly went in front of me and spread out his arms like a wall. I did not know what made him want to do that. Just a moment ago, he was cowering in fear like a rat.
“Eh? What’s this?” the leading enemy orc said.
“If you want her, then you’ll have to get through me!” shouted the possible Anomaly.
I cringed a little. Isn’t that what generic shounen protagonists say?
The huge orc had no problem with what the possible Anomaly said and punched his lights out in one hit.
"For that clearly plot armor-filled sentence, I am very disappointed," I thought.
I decided to end this quickly and drew my guns. The enemies underestimated me, judging by my size and weapon choice, and all charged forward. I closed my eyes and focused for a second. The sounds of their footsteps and battle cries, the vibrations in the air from their movement and voices, the shaking of the ground from their large feet, I felt it all. My eyes opened. Each enemy was nailed right in the head with pinpoint accuracy two seconds later. I put my guns in their holders. "Now onto the bigger problem at hand."
I crouched down to examine the fallen boy beside me. He was complete knocked out. I tried patting his cheek a little. Then I tried patting his cheek a lot. Neither worked to get him up. I tried contacting Alpha for exfil, only to hear "YOU'RE BURNING THE POT" in the background. I let out a sigh. Looking around, I spotted a car parked in a handicap spot without the proper license plate. "Well, I guess it can't be helped."
Chapter 1[]
[Code: Fang of Collapse]
[Code accepted]
I woke up in an unfamiliar heavily white-colored room. The bed I was on was white, and so were the walls, the floors, and even the small coffee table near the bed. All of a sudden, my head started to throb with pain. I sat up and tried to remember what happened last night. The last thing I remember was that girl with the cyan-colored hair, and getting punched in the face by an angry orc.
That must be it, I thought. I was knocked out by that orc and brought here. But…where is here?
Suddenly, the door opened and a blonde foreign-looking girl carrying a tea tray appeared in the doorway. She had a white apron on, a ponytail, and gray clothing underneath. For some reason she was also wearing boots.
“Oh, you’re already awake,” she said and came in to the room, placing the tea tray on the coffee table. She closed the door and poured a cup of tea.
“Who are you?” I asked suspiciously.
She offered me the cup of tea and smiled.
“I am called Alpha. Starting today, you’ll be my pet.”
I was dumbfounded. “What?”
“I said, starting today, you’ll be my pet.”
“I heard you the first time, but why am I your pet?!”
The blonde called Alpha laughed.
“It was a joke, you know. A joke.”
I exhaled a heavy sigh. What was up with this girl?
She stopped laughing and said, “Anyway, the truth is, you were graciously kept alive by yours truly, and you were brought to this facility.”
I didn’t respond. Mostly because it had barely any connection to my last memories.
“You were a witness to that fight between Tenshi and those Bypassers.”
A fight? That’s right, I did see a fight between one girl and a bunch of tough-looking Orcs and Werewolves. Wait, so why was I “kept alive” if I didn’t participate?
“What did you mean when you said ‘kept alive’?” I asked.
“How do I explain this…” Alpha thought about it for a while, then finally said, “You weren’t supposed to see that fight. Normally, we would’ve killed anyone who saw something like that, but I told Tenshi to make and exception just~ for~ you~.”
This girl’s unusually flirty attitude was starting to put me off.
“Why was I not killed?”
“You were about to be. Your responses to Tenshi when she pointed the gun to your head gave me enough time to analyze you.”
“Huh…?”
“You’re a special one, Himeji Tsukasa.”
How did she know my name?
“I never told you my name.”
“Of course you didn’t. That’s why we used the game’s database to properly get your data.”
“The game’s database? But ho-“
She cut me off to say something that sounded interesting.
“Wait. I’m not done. We tried to get your data, but the thing was, it was glitched.”
“Glitched?”
“Yup. Your stat points are all over the place, you automatically get fully-filled out maps of places you’ve never been to before, and you don’t have anything like a mana or energy meter.”
“I thought that was for everyone.”
“Nope, just you. The game devs said that they messed up on one or two characters’ data and let them into ELO with a glitched interface.”
“I see…”
“Now,” she offered me the tea again. “Drink.”
“Oh. Thanks, I guess.”
I took a sip, noticing that the tea was a deep red.
Isn’t tea supposed to be brown…?
“Is this actually tea?” I asked.
“No, it’s blood. Now drink it, vampire.”
I looked down at the crimson red drink with steam rising slowly from the brim of the cup.
As my character in the game was of the vampire species, it made sense for her to think that I would want blood. Thing is, when I taste blood in this game, my tongue hates it because it tastes so bad. It doesn’t taste much different from real life, but that’s exactly why I was never fond of it. So, I simply said in response, “Sorry, but I don’t like blood.”
Alpha looked at me like I just said I was her long lost brother.
“Huh? A vampire that doesn’t like blood?”
“It tastes horrible to me.”
“Well then, you’re a weird one. Don’t drink it then. But I think you might regret not drinking it.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because soon you’re gonna join the team.”
Team? There were more of these strange people like her?
“We’re gonna need your abilities in the field, Himeji Tsukasa.”
My abilities…?
“The higher-ups have already created your codename. It’s [Maze].”
Maze, huh? That actually sounds kind of cool…no wait what am I even doing here?!
“Waiwaiwait, what do you mean ‘use my abilities’?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you? Starting today, you’ll be helping us eliminate threats to the whole game’s system, and maybe even the whole of Japan.”
What?!
A look of shock spread across my face. “Y-You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. If I was, would you think I would put all this effort into making sure this room was nice and tidy and making blood tea for you?” I lowered my head. “…guess not.”
“Yup. Now, since you’re awake and all, do you think you can stand by yourself?”
I moved my legs from under the covers to the bedside. “I have a splitting headache, but I can probably stand.” Placing my feet on the floor, I was able to get up with little difficulty. “How about walk?” she asked.
I moved one foot in front of the other slowly, making sure that I wouldn’t cause anything to ache, if there was anything that could ache. “Walking should be fine,” I said. Alpha gestured to herself. “Then come follow me, I’ll show you around and introduce you to everyone~” At that, she turned around and happily strolled out the door. I was still suspicious, so I called out. “Why should I follow you? I haven’t accepted this offer or anything yet!” Alpha’s head peeked out sideways from the doorway. “I’m showing you the benefits, so come on already,” she said. I sighed and decided to play along for now. It didn’t seem like I would have anything else to do, anyway.
Alpha waited for me right outside the room, and smiled as I walked into an expansive and well-lit hallway. “Your teammates are gonna be so psyched to have you with us!” she said and started walking. “Possible teammates. I haven’t accepted the offer yet. I need to know some other things first.” I followed close behind Alpha, looking at my surroundings trying to find anything that might be suspicious or dangerous. “That’s like asking for the Terms and Conditions.”
“No, it’s more like reading the description,” I reply.
“Sure, sure, whatever you say.”
Alpha led me through the vast expanse of hallways which all had walls that appeared to be made of shining steel. The floors had large, repetitive white tiles that seemed to go on and on, with no sign of stopping. Alpha turned a few corners and stopped at a pair of double doors. There was a panel above them that said “Training Room.” “Seeing as you just looked up at that panel that says ‘Training Room’, I probably don’t have to tell you what this place is. Come on in.” She opened one of the doors and went in, with me following her inside. Upon entrance, I saw what looked like a huge battle between two armies in a desert and, deciding that this place was very dangerous after all, turned around to walk straight out.
But my escape was halted, as Alpha then grabbed my arm with a surprising amount of strength, and I wasn’t able to get away so easily. “You can’t escape, you know,” Alpha said with the same tone she had been using since she came into my room. “Look, do you see that blur of darkness over there?” I turned my attention to the battle, and saw a black silhouette moving like an out-of-control dance machine, throwing other silhouettes in all directions. Deciding that it was worth a closer look, I took a few steps forward, and visibility cleared enough for me to see a lone figure fighting off hordes of grunt-type enemies by himself. The fact that the grunts were all from different factions and seemed to be never-ending wasn’t even the strangest part.
The figure didn’t seem to be using any weapons at all against this onslaught of foes, yet it was able to decimate each and every one with little effort. Several bodies had already fallen near to where I was standing. As a soldier that fought on the front lines in the War of Conquerors, seeing something like this was completely unbelievable. “What is that thing over there?! Is it some kind of monster you’ve chained up until now?!” I proclaimed. Alpha responded like it was completely normal. “That’s one of your soon-to-be comrades.”
The moment I heard “comrades” I instantly shuddered in fear. That thing is going to be one of my teammates? I thought. You’ve got to be kidding. There’s no way I would be able to play nice with a beast of that caliber. No way in hell. I was filled with imminent terror and anxiety from just watching. The absolute raw carnage wrought by the creature made me start to shake. The martial arts and gun skills I picked up as a soldier were nothing compared to this. All I could do was watch and stare as the figure dominated the battle.
From where I was standing, I could just barely make out the general shape of the figure, that was all I could discern about its appearance. I assumed it had to be a hideous monster with enough strength to crack the earth with a single step or rip off streetlights or building girders to use as weapons.
When the enemies finally started to thin out, Alpha started walking towards the figure, my arm still in her grasp. “Whoa, no, wait, stop!” I protested as I tried to make her release me, while still being dragged towards the source of my fear. The dust that was being kicked up from the feet of the combatants got in my eyes, but Alpha didn’t falter one bit, her powerful grip not slackening either. We were heading straight towards the mysterious figure in the center. I felt a petrifying feeling of terror and anxiety. The “comrade” I was about to meet was possibly going to roar at my face and throw me through a wall. No, not a possibility, a fact. I'm going to die now. I'm going to have to restart my life in ELO. And feel the immense amount of pain for being thrown through a wall. I’m sorry to everyone I might have offended. May my new character not be a sleazebag.
“Oiiiii~!” said Alpha, forcibly throwing my attention back to the situation at hand. I tried to quickly formulate a plan to escape, but it was no use. We reached the figure just as the last grunt was struck down. As I got a closer look, I noticed that this person wasn’t a terrifying monster, but rather someone of normal human stature, somewhat shorter than my own height. “Eh? It’s not a giant creature of horrifying proportions?” I said out loud, only to get no response. Alpha smiled at the figure and said, “Good work, Kagecchi~” I was utterly confused. “Huh? ‘Kagecchi’…?”
The dust finally cleared, and before me was definitely not a hideous monster like I previously expected, but instead a young girl, with long hair the color of midnight and a matching dress. There was a gleaming silver-colored katana in her gloved right hand.
“What’s this about a hideous monster?” said the girl with a quiet yet determined voice. She turned around and looked straight at me. Her piercing gaze made it feel like she was staring straight into my soul. Examining her features, she had a beautiful face, but with what appeared to be scales on her cheeks and her bright scarlet eyes were reminiscent of blood. I was shocked at this revelation. What am I supposed to do in this situation?!
“Who…are you?” she asked.
I couldn’t open my mouth at all, much less speak. Alpha gave me a hearty pat on the back. “This is our soon-to-be brother in arms, Himeji Tsukasa, codename: Maze!” she said with pride and excitement. I was extremely nervous and tried to say something. “I I haven’t fully accepted the offer yet though, haha…”
The girl nodded. “I see. I look forward to working with you.” She bowed. Huh? Is that it? I could think of no response that would fit the situation and stayed silent. The girl then paid my existence no mind and sheathed her katana.
“Oi, Kagecchi, you introduce yourself.”
“Oh, that’s right. Hello newcomer. I am Kagerou. Please do not call me ‘Kagecchi’. I would like the number of people saying that to be as low as possible. Nice to meet you.”
Still not having a complete grasp of the situation, I stuttered as I tried to speak my response. “A-Ah…yeah…nice to meet you too, I guess…”
“What’s with that sudden lack of enthusiasm and energy? Were you too shaken up by her abilities? Pretty much everyone on this team is that good, so that’s not something you should be shocked at, you know. If you’re going to join, you’re going to have to get used to this kind of thing from now on.” Alpha said that with a tone like a mother telling her child that he can’t always have chicken nuggets at restaurants.
“No, it’s not like I wanted to join whatever this team is in the first pla-“
“Hey, Kagecchi, we’re going to meet the others now. Wanna come with?” Alpha blatantly cut me off.
Kagerou shook her head and placed a hand on the hilt of her sword. “Not really, but is it alright if I test the strength of newcomer?”
That sentence came out of nowhere. “Huh?”
“Ah, but we might not have enough time…” said Alpha.
“There’s still plenty of time left for you two to walk through the building together, right? I think it’ll be fine.” I couldn’t answer. The mere thought of me fighting this girl made me want to rather throw myself in front of a Javelin missile.
She got into an intimidating fighting stance, looking ready to draw her katana and slice my face off with one movement.
“Uhm…not now. Maybe when I get a bit stronger.”
She seemed to relax and went back to a neutral stance.
“I see. You should hurry up and strengthen then.”
I scratched the back of my head. “I haven’t even agreed to join you guys yet.”
“I see. You should hurry up and join then.”
My glance shifted elsewhere. “I don’t know if this place will be a good place for me to work…”
“I see. You should hurry up and go then.”
My eyes went back to Kagerou. “You sound very monotonic, you know.”
“See, I do. Hurry up and go then, you should.”
“That’s not much better…”
Alpha burst in. “Alright, let’s actually go this time. Onto the next person! Say goodbye, Maze, Kagecchi!”
Alpha grabbed hold of my arm and started pulling me towards the door with an amount of strength which was quite amazing for a woman. No, even for a person. It was incredible.
“Wait, I haven’t accepted yet, so please call me Himeji or something.” I turned back to Kagerou and said, “See you around, I guess,” on the way out.
Kagerou waved lightly. “Bye bye.”
I was led out the doors and Alpha let go when we walked through the halls again. They didn’t look much different from the last few corridors, save for a small puddle of what looked like pudding outside a door labeled “Recreation Room”.
Alpha looked annoyed and threw open the doors.
The Recreation Room was a mess. Soda and chips, opened and unopened lay scattered everywhere. Exercise equipment that had been placed in the room seemed out of place, like someone had tried to move them but gave up partway through. Pillows were flung about every corner of the area. A few beanbags and chairs had been ripped or broken.
I heard Alpha take in a deep breath.
“OOOMEGAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Alpha shouted, and at that point I noticed a person in the center of the room playing a video game. Wait, a video game? We’re in a video game. Why is he playing a video game in a video game?
“H-Huh?! Alpha?!” said the person in the center of the room. Alpha moved closer to him and picked him up by the collar. “I told you to keep the room clean, didn’t I?! Didn’t I?!”
The person Alpha had grabbed had blonde hair the same color as Alpha, his eyes the same color, and his face was similar to hers. I could only assume them to be siblings. Alpha shouted “Omega” and went to him, so that must be his name.
“You did say that, but a lot of stuff happened so…” said Omega, trying to defend himself. “Don’t give me that! I even had Kai-chan help you out! Where is she anyway?” Omega pointed to a pile of pillows. I moved to that spot out of curiosity and started to remove some of the pillows there. Digging through the unexpectedly large pile, I uncovered a round-looking grey object.
It looked as if it was moving slightly. Not sure as to what the thing was, I poked it lightly with my finger. It had the same consistency as the pillows around it. Then it tensed suddenly. Puzzled, I was about to poke it again when the surrounding pillows all flew in different directions, knocking me backwards and onto my bottom.
“Ow…” I moaned as I rubbed the impact location. “What was that?” I looked back to where the pillow pile was, but instead saw a figure with silver hair covering its chest with its arms. It appeared to be human, except the area where the face was supposed to be was covered by a dark screen of some sort.
Judging from the shape of the body and the length of the hair, which reached just below the underarms, it was a woman, or at least feminine. She was wearing some sort of dark grey jumpsuit. The screen on her face was currently displaying what looked like exaggerated blush effects that would usually be drawn on manga characters. She then covered the top of her torso with one arm and used the other to start pointing at me in a flustered manner while the screen displayed the words, “You pervert! Lecher! Go die! Burn in hell!”
I had so many questions. Who was this person? Why was she flustered? What was she doing underneath all those pillows? Why was she shouting at me like that? I was in complete bewilderment. “What?! I have no idea what you’re saying!” I replied as quickly as I could. She retracted her arm in apparent anger and the words “Y-You touched my chest, you womanizer!” appeared on the screen.
“Chest?”
My eyes moved to where her chest would be, and the round-looking grey object I found earlier was there. My mind came to a realization, and I was suddenly filled with embarrassment. “Ah……HUH?! T-THAT…THAT WAS YOUR……I’M SORRY! IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK, I SWEAR!”
“Top o’ the mornin’ to ya, Kai-chan!” said Alpha out of nowhere. “My, my, Maze, already trying for second base when you haven’t even reached first? How bold.” Alpha wasn’t coming to my defense at all, and instead was laughing. “I told you, don’t call me Maze. My name is Himeji. Himeji.” I said, getting a little annoyed from that.
Omega sighed. “You’ve gotta be more careful, new member. Now you’ve gone and given yourself a bad first impression with Shinkai here.”
Shinkai? Was that this person’s name?
Shinkai seemed to growl and then covered her chest with her arms. I felt terribly embarrassed of myself. What do I do in this situation? Apologize? I already did that, but I should do it again, just in case. This time with more feeling. I fell down onto my knees and bowed down in front of Shinkai. “I sincerely apologize!”
The room went silent. I heard the sounds of digital words being typed onto a computer and looked up, to see that Shinkai had displayed “P-Please get up, it’s more embarrassing if you’re groveling in front of me.” I got up immediately and apologized again. Shinkai appeared to sigh.
“I’ll let it slide for now, but only because I’m not sure what’s going on.” Shinkai turned to her side and displayed “Oi, Alpha, who is this degenerate?”
Alpha happily answered, “This degenerate is our soon-to-be new teammate, Himeji Tsukasa. Codename: Maze. Get along well, okay~?”
Shinkai finally seemed to relax and put her arms behind her back.
“Himeji. And yeah, let’s get alo- wait, who are you calling a degenerate?!” I blurted out.
Shinkai tilted her head. “It’s you, isn’t it?” she displayed.
“No, please stop with that, I’m not even a full-fledged member of this organization yet and I’m already receiving harassment.”
“Well, if you join, you’ll get used to it soon, so don’t worry too much.”
“Are you just going to not apologize or anything for calling me those things at all…?”
“Nope. Because it’s true.”
I sighed. If I were to join this group, this one would definitely be a pain to deal with, I thought. She’s called me several versions of ‘pervert’ already and I hadn’t even heard her actually speak. I hope any other members are going to be more amicable than this.
Alpha cut in. “Hey, Kai-chan, what were you doing under all those pillows?” “What do you mean?”
“Maze found you while digging through a pile of pillows. Part of your chest was the first thing he found, though.”
“As expected of the deviant.” Shinkai then turned to me and bowed. “Sorry,” she displayed when she looked up. “What?” I responded. Shinkai returned to normal standing position and displayed “I called you a pervert more times than necessary. Nevertheless, you still did touch my chest.” She covered it up with her arms again. “I’m not going to forgive you for that.” I sighed.
“If I remember correctly,” displayed Shinkai, “I was competing against Omega in that video game he always plays, and overstuffed myself with junk food accidentally, causing me to pass out.”
“Mostly right,” said Omega. Our attention turned to him. “Huh? Mostly right? What do you mean?” Shinkai displayed as she tilted her head.
“After you overstuffed yourself, you continued to play and went on a huge losing streak, causing you to throw a huge tantrum and throw everything everywhere. You also wanted a comfortable chair to relax, but broke any which you didn’t like. It was really exhausting trying to deal with that, you know! I had to cover you in pillows before you drew any of your weapons and dealt even more damage.”
“Eh?” displayed Shinkai. “This entire mess was…my fault?”
“Yeah. I’m glad no one got hurt though.”
Shinkai displayed “T-T” on her screen along with “I’m really sorry everyone. For this mess. It’s all my fault. I pushed the limits of my consumable intake and lost control.” She covered her “face” with her hands and knelt down.
“I wonder what game they were playing,” I said. I looked over to the large TV, and noticed something odd about the game. “Shinkai,” I began. “Were you player one or player two?”
Shinkai lifted her hands from her face. “Um, player two. Omega was insistent on being player one.”
“When you lost, did you have to do anything?”
“Yes. Whenever someone lost, they had to drink a quarter gallon of soda.”
“Then I think I just figured something out. Over there.”
I motioned towards the screen. Under the settings for player two, there was a portion where it said “Handicap: 500%”.
“Since when was that there?!” displayed Shinkai in a large font.
“Ahaha…you found it…” said Omega meekly.
Shinkai started displaying a stream of sentences from the screen. “I-I didn’t see that he put that there…ah…I’m such an idiot for not realizing earlier…I’m relieved that I’m actually not as terrible at the game as I thought…but now I know why I lost, I think it’s understandable for me to get mad, right?!”
Omega had a look of fear and worry on his face. What was Shinkai like when she was really angry and not just flustered, I wondered.
“Alright, alright~!” said Alpha, clapping lightly, just as Shinkai looked like she was about to burst. “Maze, it’s time for you to go and meet the next member, so we’re just gonna leave, okay?” I was surprised at the fact that she made Shinkai pause in place, and just nodded. Alpha grabbed my arm. “Now onto-“
Red sirens suddenly blared all around us. “Aww…another alert already?” said Alpha despondently. “We were about to get to the good part too…”
“What? What’s happening? What are those sirens for? Why are they so loud? What’s going on?!” I chained my sentences together in a flurry of questions. Shinkai looked quite calm, and Omega sighed. Is this normal? I thought to myself. “Come on everyone, let’s go to the command center,” said Alpha as she ran out the door, motioning for the rest of us to follow. Shinkai and Omega went straight out the door behind Alpha, leaving me in the Recreation Room. Looks like I have no choice then, I thought. I moved into the hallway and chased after the others.
The sound of sirens blasted throughout the building. After a minute or so of full-on sprinting just to keep up with them, I found myself in a large room with a number of technological devices installed in the center and on the walls. Alpha seemed to be interacting with a large computer on one side. There was also now a sheath hung along the side of her waist. Slightly out of breath, I took a moment to examine the sheer size of the computer screen and the complexity of the devices all around the room. Once I recovered, I asked, “What’s going on? Why were you all running?”
“Something just came up, Maze. Lucky you~! You’ll get to see us in action,” said Alpha cheerfully, glancing back to look at me. Shinkai turned her screen to face me and displayed “I can’t guarantee your safety. Mostly because I don’t like you that much.” Still confused, I answered, “Huh? What do you mean?”
“You haven’t realized it yet?” asked Omega.
“What?”
“It’s obvious, we’re taking you along with us,” said a quiet voice that came from the darkness. I turned around. Standing there behind me was a girl with a midnight-colored dress and hair.
“Kagerou?” I asked. “You’re here too?”
“Of course. Why else would I be here…?”
“O-Oh. Right.”
“Make your decision yet, newcomer?”
“Not yet.”
“I see. Hurry up and decide then.”
“Ah…”
“Oi, Kagecchi, you’re late!” said Alpha, interrupting the same way she did last time. “These kinds of things are important, you know!”
“Ah. Sorry. I ran into Tenshi, saying she was going to meet us there.”
Alpha showed a bit of disappointment. “Whaaat? I wanted us to all go together this time, like when the Amazing Alter Battle Guardians get into their Xards and all go attack the enemy or something.”
“Alpha, we travel by foot,” said Omega, as if attempting to shut down Alpha’s idea.
“Kai-chan flies there!”
“No, I don’t,” Shinkai displayed.
“You kind of do!”
“I use my thrusters to boost myself and glide there, in order to keep up with your pace.”
Alpha puffed up her cheeks, seemingly disgruntled at the fact that no one seemed to like her idea.
“Anyway, back to the mission,” Omega began. “Someone’s started a factory for mass-producing weapons that could make robbing the banks here a cakewalk, or make the battlefield for the War of Conquerors ten times more deadly than it already is. We’ve been assigned to shut it down, but not completely destroy it, as the game devs want to have a look at what they did when we’re done so they can make precautions and prevent this from happening again.”
I raised my hand. Omega pointed to me. “What is it, new member?”
“Who assigns you these missions?” I asked.
“Virtechs.”
“The government.”
Alpha and Omega gave different answers at the same time. Both of which were hard to believe. Shinkai happened to be in the middle of them. She pointed at both of them, displayed “<- ->” and beneath it, “Both.”
“…are you serious?”
“Of course. I see no reason to lie to a potential teammate. I’m acting as the advertiser here. If I was messing with you, you could sue me and win. But I’m not messing with you. So, think working for the game devs and the government is cool? Does it make you want to be part of this team? We’re all girls here, you could potentially start a harem or something like in all those anime shows~.”
“Oi. You forgot about me,” said Omega, irked by the fact that Alpha didn’t bother to mention him.
“Right. There’s Omega too, but he’s just kind of out there.”
Omega just looked more irritated.
“Harem…?” Shinkai displayed. “What is that?”
Alpha whispered to Shinkai.
“!?!” she displayed. Shinkai took a few steps back. “I’m more comfortable over here.”
“Harem? I refuse. It’s kind of gross, so I’m just going to avoid newcomer for a while now.” Kagerou stepped away from me.
“Why did you have to go and say that…” I dejectedly asked Alpha.
“I thought it would’ve been a plus,” she said.
Omega put a hand on Alpha’s shoulder. “We should go now. You know, since this is an urgent alert and all.”
Alpha seemed like she had forgotten all about it and said, “That’s right! We have to go!” Alpha ran out the door. “It’s in that one weird-looking factory in the city! Mission plan is to do whatever you’re good at and don’t hit any of your teammates!”
Omega sighed. “She’s always like this. New member, if you really become a new member, just know that this is what you’ll have to deal with.” Then he walked out after Alpha. “Well then, see you later I guess,” said Kagerou as she followed. Shinkai was the last one in the room. She seemed to be memorizing the map, along with other data. She turned around and started to display words on her screen. “Alright everyone, I think our best option is to-“ Then she noticed the room was empty, save for me. “Where did everyone go?”
“They all left,” I responded. “I also have no way to get there, so are you the one who’s going to take me there…?”
Shinkai paused for a moment, then displayed “No.” and left.
I stood there alone for a few moments, wondering what I should do.
I’m supposed to go with them, but I don’t know where to go. Omega said they travel by foot, so I guess I could run there or something…no, I don’t know where it is. “That one weird looking factory” doesn’t ring any bells at all…I guess I could walk around this place a bit, try to find an exit at least…yeah, let’s do that.
I walked to the doorway when suddenly I bumped into someone, causing both of us to fall over backwards. “Ow…oh! Sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was-“ A closer look let me recognize the person I bumped into. “Alpha? I thought you already left.”
“Huh? No, I forgot something,” Alpha replied as she rubbed her bottom.
“What did you forget?” I asked.
“You.”
“Oh. Right. So you’re taking me there?”
“Well, no one else wanted to, so I thought, might as well, since all the others would probably give you a really uncomfortable ride.”
“Ah…”
“So? Ready to go?”
“Well, yeah, sure.”
“I’m going to carry you in the most comfortable position I can think of, so hold on tight, alright?”
“Alright.”
Then Alpha picked my whole body up and placed me under her arm. I was astonished and could not say anything for fear of being dropped and also of what would happen if I got into a fight with this girl.
“Let’s gooooo~!”
Alpha broke into an extremely fast run, with me under her arm. I could not see very much, but I knew we were going quickly because of the speed of the objects passing by. Pretty soon I felt the cool breeze of the nighttime air and I knew we were probably on a roof. Wait, a roof?!
“Wooooo!”
Alpha jumped. I felt the strong pull of gravity as we descended through the air and started screaming. Then it stopped, and Alpha had continued her run. “Why are you screaming?” she asked. “It’s the most comfortable position, isn’t it?” It was then that I realized that something soft was pressing against the back of my head. “You’ve got to be kidding…” I said.
“Nope! This is a limited edition chance, so enjoy it while you can!” Alpha said. I tried turning my head upwards, and caught a glimpse of Alpha’s face. It seemed redder than usual, and she was saying to herself, “It’s to get him to join, it’s to get him to join, it’s to get him to join…” I could tell she was embarrassed, so I said, “Um, if this makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to do it.”
“Uncomfortable! Please, this is nothing! I’m a warrior, I can handle something like this!” Alpha said. “Although, please try not to move your head so much. It’s dangerous to both of us.”
“I-I see…” I refrained from saying anything more. It made me feel bad to think that she felt inclined to do this all for the sake of getting me to join. Then Alpha jumped again, and I felt the sensation of falling. Trusting that Alpha wouldn’t get us killed, I tried to keep my mouth shut so I wouldn’t scream again. This continued for a few minutes, until we finally reached the objective location.
When Alpha let me down, I understood what she meant when she said “weird-looking factory” earlier. The whole place looked more like a radioactive theme park, and it barely fit in with the rest of the city. “Is this really where the mission is?” I asked. Alpha turned to look at me and said, “Well of course! Doesn’t this look like the kind of place that would have a really weird event quest that makes you fight monsters that were probably inspired by some 5-year-old kid’s drawings?”
“That was a really specific analogy, but yeah, it does.”
Suddenly an explosion came from the side of the factory, along multiple sounds of manly screams of pain. Alpha looked visibly chuffed. “Geez, I told them to not start without me!” She then rushed off to the explosion site. Since this area seemed like it would be extremely dangerous to someone on the low rank of infantry in the war, I decided to follow her. “Ah, Maze, make sure you take cover, alright? These guys don’t mess around.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, yeah,” I responded. “I may just be infantry, but I’ve dodged quite a few shots on the battlefield, you know?” It was true. I don’t have much health or experience compared to some other people on the field, but I was proud of my good reflexes and perception.
Then out of nowhere a bullet the size of my entire hand just flew past my face. “Oh, these shots again. Wow, they must be getting popular,” Alpha said nonchalantly. Again?! I thought. These bullets are normal for her?! Just as I thought, this is much too dangerous and risky for me- A bomb exploded just then directly behind me. It made me jump, and I sprinted to catch up with Alpha. The intensity of this battle terrified me. “Uh, Alpha?”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll join.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“This is dangerous! I’m not cut out for this kind of thing! That bullet back there just barely missed me, you know!”
“Oh? Well, lucky you! You didn’t die.”
“Yeah, but if I stay any longer, I will! Please, just get me out of here!”
“Ah…well, that might be troublesome.”
“Why?!”
Suddenly, several vans with color schemes similar to the factory stopped on the street, and ran over to us, shouting things like “Open fire!” and “Get them!” It only added to my fear, and I tried staying as close to Alpha as possible.
“That’s why it might be troublesome,” she said.
I started panicking. “Haaaa…I can’t take any more of this! I’m gonna get killed at this rate!”
“Don’t worry.”
Alpha turned to look at me and smiled. “I’m not going to let you die here, Himeji-kun.”
Somehow, seeing her like that and hearing her words seemed to calm me down a little. I nodded and continued to follow her. “Come on, it’ll easier inside.” Alpha motioned to the huge hole in the wall created by the blast from earlier, with dead grunts’ bodies lying around. It intimidated me, seeing how each grunt seemed bigger and stronger than I was. “Should I take one of their guns?” I asked. “No, they’ll only slow you down. And anyway, you don’t need a gun. I’ll protect you.” Alpha went in through the hole and I followed.
The inside of the factory was much duller than the outside. It was all shades of gray, even more than just fifty. “Come on, this way.” Alpha motioned for me to follow her, so I did. We weaved through the factory hallways, eventually finding two soldiers standing still in the middle of it. The radio of one of the soldiers suddenly gave static, and then a voice came out.
“We need reinforcements in the transport area! All available personnel, get over here now!” The two soldiers nodded at each other and they started running off in the direction opposite from us.
“Looks like we found ourselves some prey,” Alpha said. “Let’s follow them, the party’s probably where they’re headed.” I nodded. The soldiers led us along, sprinting the whole way. Keeping up with them was a trivial matter for Alpha, however I wasn’t nearly as fast and she ended up dragging me by the arm just so I wouldn’t get left behind.
After a minute or so of following, the sounds of explosions, gunshots, and screams had grown to the point of making my ears ring. Alpha grinned.
“Here it is, here it is~!”
Alpha suddenly pulled out a sword from the sheath on her waist and sped towards the soldiers. Just as she was about to make collision, she jumped over them and sliced both their heads off in one clean swipe. Left in awe, I stood there with my mouth open, half in fear and half in amazement, while Alpha stabbed her blade into the wall and proceeded to cut a large circular hole in it. “What are you standing around for? Come on, let’s go!” she said.
I blinked and shook my head vigorously. Come on Tsukasa, this is a battlefield. Spacing out won’t do you any good at all. “Right!” I caught up to Alpha and followed through the hole and into what I assumed to be the Transport Room. There were shipping containers everywhere, and the sounds of battle echoed and boomed across the room. Alpha started rushing off in the general direction of the gunfire, with me following close behind, and reached a large open area with blast marks, cracks in the floor, bullet holes, and other signs of combat all over. Bullets and other projectiles flew through the air with no signs of stopping.
“You’re all so unfair!” she said as she charged straight into the crossfire with her sword drawn. Her blade deflected everything that was supposed to hit her as if it were possessed. The sheer speed and precision was terrifying. “I thought I told you all to wait for me!” Alpha pouted.
“It’s your fault that you were so slow.” I heard Omega’s voice, and saw him using a shipping container as cover and firing a hunting rifle. As soon as he pulled the trigger an enemy soldier cried out in pain. “Headshot number 26,” he said as he fired again. Another cry of pain. “That’s number 27.”
A thunderous roar was heard, and then a large orc with an equally large shield began walking towards Omega. A brief flash of grey and orange suddenly flew past me at that moment. Omega fired his rifle, but the bullet was completely blocked by the orc’s shield. “Ugh. There goes my streak.” The orc laughed and kept pushing on towards Omega, slowly but surely. “It was getting really good too…” Omega sighed.
“No need to show off, idiot. Just get the job done,” was displayed on the screen of Shinkai, who had just appeared behind the orc and used an assault rifle to fire several shots into his back. The orc staggered forward and then turned to try and find his assailant, who had already escaped using a grappling hook of some sort. Tentatively giving up his search, he turned back to his original objective and marched forward.
While he wasn’t paying attention, Shinkai dropped down over his head from a grapple line she had attached to the ceiling. There was an extra large sniper rifle in her hands. She fired off two more grapple lines to her side and downwards, and fired at the enemy from point blank range. The projectile went straight through the skull and punctured everything in the way until it embedded itself in the concrete floor on the other side. The orc fell forward and Shinkai moved to find a new target.
“You say not to show off, but what you did just now was pretty show off-y…” said Omega as he sighed and continued firing. More and more enemies started appearing. “Alright, it seems like it’s my turn to steal the spotlight now~!” said Alpha. She ran straight into the crossfire, disregarding common sense and her safety.
“Wait, stop! That’s dangerous!” I shouted, trying to stop her from doing something extremely stupid and reckless. But it seemed my message had no use. The moment bullets started flying at her, she blocked them all seamlessly with her blade.
“…Ah.” I was left speechless by the display. That’s something you’d only see in ninja or science fiction films. W-Well…this is a video game, so it shouldn’t be impossible…I thought. “Hey! If you space out, you’ll be killed, you know!”
Alpha shouted back to me while still deflecting bullets. Her sword must be made of some magical metal to be able to do all that, I thought. I took her advice and tried to find some good cover. There was a ladder nearby, and looking up, I saw it led to a series of catwalks high above the transport area. If I climbed that, I’ll probably be safe above. I started running to it, then realized, If I climbed that, everyone will notice that a person’s climbing a really tall ladder to the catwalks above. It’s not a good idea.
Deciding that it was a better idea to stay on the ground, I hid in a nearby shipping container that had been ripped open by some sort of extraordinary force. From there, I was able to safely observe the battle going on outside through several bullet holes in the container walls. It was then I noticed that there was something else in the container besides me.
I slowly turned around, and saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring straight through my soul. The eyes blinked. It also seemed to be breathing heavily. Gripped by fear, I backed up, only to hit the wall behind me. The eyes moved closer. I was petrified and couldn’t move. Then it spoke.
“Are you actually not as tough as you’re supposed to be?” it asked. “Huh?” I took a closer look at the thing, examining it using the light flowing in from the bullet holes. It was the midnight hair I noticed earlier.
“K-Kagerou? Why are you here?” I asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m fighting.”
“I didn’t notice anyone else in here…”
“You didn’t? Hmm…am I getting an invisibility power too?”
“What? And also, why are your eyes glowing so red? I thought you were a terrifying monster.”
“I think I’m a monster too…” she murmured.
“Huh? What did you say?” I asked.
“My eyes are red because of one of my Gorgon powers.”
“Which is?”
“I’ll tell you when I feel like it. Right now, my priority is completing the mission.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll see you later.”
Then Kagerou unsheathed a katana and tore through the shipping container ceiling with a single swipe. She jumped out, and then I heard the sounds of flesh being slashed repeatedly outside. What did she say just then? Did she say she thought she was a monster…? Well, it doesn’t matter right now. “Oiiii! Maze! Over here!”
Alpha called for me after the sounds died down without me noticing. I went over to where she was, and the others were already there. “So? What do you think? Pretty awesome, right?” Alpha struck a pose. I didn’t understand why, and Omega put his hand on his face in disappointment.
“W-Well, more overwhelming than anything, actually, haha…” I replied, not wanting to sound like I was rendered completely speechless due to the sheer amount of power these people had. “Overwhelming? Was it really that intense to you?” Alpha asked.
“He’s used to the normal battlefields, like on the War of Conquerors. They don’t have people like us there,” Omega replied.
“I see, you’re probably right. Oh well. So have you decided yet?”
The attention turned back to me. “What? Oh…no, not yet. I still don’t think I’m cut out for this kind of work. It seems cool and all, but it’s also extremely dangerous and I don’t stand a chance.” I rubbed the back of my head to make it seem like I was more relaxed about it.
“Don’t worry about that,” Alpha said. “After all, we’ll be here to protect you, and we’re the best fighters in the world!”
Crash!
Out of nowhere, a huge explosion tore out one of the far walls, and a gigantic mech emerged through the hole it made. It was carrying multi-missile launchers in its right arm and a repeating energy cannon in its left. “Destroy the intruders!” said a man on a loudspeaker that came from the mech’s cockpit. “Kill them now!”
Alpha turned around and saw the mech. “Are you kidding me?! I was just getting to the good part!” The mech readied its energy cannon and fired at Alpha and the others, who dodged out of the way easily. I just barely evaded the attack at the last second and hit my head on the ground. There was hard impact from the fall, so it took me some time to recuperate. My ears and eyes were temporarily damaged, so I could just barely make out sounds of gunfire and that Alpha was shouting.
By the time I was able to get myself to sit up, the mech was almost nothing more than a huge hunk of scrap. I smiled, knowing that there were players in this world that were more than just “Shoot, shoot, shoot, kill, kill, kill”
Alpha and the others all landed on the ground near each other, right in front of the now-destroyed enemy mech. She turned, waved, and smiled at me. But suddenly her expression changed to one of shock. Her eyes moved to something above me. I didn’t notice it because my ears were damaged, but another mech had broken through the ceiling and landed a few meters behind me. My eyes widened.
I’m going to die now, I thought. Everything went into slow motion. Alpha looked terrified. She and the others were running towards me, but I knew they wouldn’t make it. The mech’s energy repeater pointed down at me and started charging, when I noticed a figure dropped from the hole in the ceiling and onto the mech.
It threw a small object, and the mech started shorting out, sparks and bolts flying everywhere. Then I heard gunfire, glass breaking, and the scream of a man from high above. A few seconds later, the mech had backed up slowly, and then exploded into a pile of scrap metal.
The figure stood in front of me. It was a girl with cyan-colored hair wearing a black suit. She looked down on me like I was a failed recruit, watching me with her dagger-like stare. Then she opened her mouth to speak. I still couldn’t hear very well, but judging from her lips, I knew exactly what she was saying.
“Why the hell are you here?”