Chapter 0: Preview Extra

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/1/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

A pack of monsters in front of me.
Five combat magitech dolls. Even veteran adventurers are said to have a hard time handling that many without a party.

Facing something like that, my body shakes.
I’m scared. I want to run right now. Tears are about to come.
This is not an enemy a mere town girl should be taking on just because she was handed a weapon.
The sheer unreality of it chills me through to the pit of my stomach.
Ahh, I never should have taken that weird request at the Adventurer’s Guild.

Even so.
Behind me, there are still little children.
Kids huddled together, fighting not to cry.
To them, these expressionless monsters lurking in the mansion they snuck into on a test of courage must be a nightmare itself.

I have something I want to protect. People I want to save.
And if this hand holds the power to fight—borrowed or not.

There is no world in which I back down.

Fragments of mirror scattered everywhere catch my reflection.
Long black hair, black eyes. Slight, and short. Even I can see I look unreliable.
That is exactly why I put up a front and smile.

I draw the red-and-white handguns from the holsters at my hips and grip them.
I speak a single word to the ring hanging from a chain at my chest.

“Ring!”
“—Sakura-Drive Ready.”

A familiar, androgynous voice. I answer my reliable partner.

“Ignition!”

With the trigger word, vast sakura-pink mana-light wells out of my small body.
The usual sight, the one that gives me courage: it dances as if to light my black hair streaming in the wind.
Fear drains away. Fighting spirit rises.

The switch flips. From the everyday to the un-everyday.

“All right. Shall we dance?”

Pale crimson rippling around me, I take my stance.
Hips low, left hand forward, right hand in a reverse grip with the elbow up beside my face.
My usual fighting style.
Motions for battle I already know by heart.

 

One magitech doll lunges.
The rest break into a run as if pulled along.

A lifeless fist comes down.
I read the line and bat it aside with a gun butt.
The impact flings its arm outward; I put the muzzle to the now-unguarded chest and put a pale-crimson round into it.
In the same flow I kick it away, keeping the others off me.

Second, third. Fists swinging at once.
I drop until I’m almost licking the ground, dodge, and fire with both hands at the same time.
Mana shots at point-blank range punch through the cores in their chests as if it were nothing.

A long step, a spin. A fingertip skims a film of skin from my cheek as I close in.
Still low, I sweep the doll’s legs and kick up into the stagger.
My heel drives through its jaw; for an instant the magitech doll stops.
I take the opening and fire with both hands. A dry report, a spray of sparks, and it goes down on its back.

I accelerate after it.
I kick off with the back foot and drive that force straight forward, wasting none of it.

A spin—centrifugal force into stopping power—and I punch through the last one’s head.
The magitech doll reels. I spin again.
I twist, kick it in the gut, and send it flying.
I acquire it before the body hits the ground. The shot does not miss the core.

I hold the finish. I don’t drop the stance. I ask the partner at my chest.

“Ring. Hostile contacts?”
“—Search: no hostile readings. Annihilation confirmed.”
“Copy. Situation over.”

I return the handguns to their holsters.

The sakura-pink I’d been wearing comes apart into mist and melts into the dry air.

 

Aaaaaaah! That was so scary!!
Dolls! Expressionless is terrifying! Don’t you clack at me!
And my cheek! I’m bleeding! It doesn’t hurt that much, but still!
This isn’t going to leave a scar, right!?

“Um… Big Sis? Are you okay?”
“Hah!? Ah… yeah. More or less. You kids aren’t hurt?”
“We’re okay! Thank you!”

Yeah. Being able to say thank you properly—that’s a good kid.
I’ll pat their heads. There, there.

“Ah, but… we can’t pay you, so…”
“Hn? I already got my reward. More importantly—”

I pull a chicken katsu sandwich I’d made ahead from my item box.

Soy-based sweet glaze, soaked in, then double-fried until it shatters. Fresh lettuce packed in like I mean it.
Tartar sauce tucked inside, so it’s filling and still eats clean.

“Here. Food, food. Eat something good and smile, and most things work themselves out.”

I hand one to each of them and flash a grin.

“Delicious is justice, after all!”

 

This is the story of one ordinary town girl.
Tossed about by a strange fate.
Living her days with a power that isn’t even hers.