Chapter 49: The Strongest Hero

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/50/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Eyes honed like ice pierce me.
Like a different person from the one talking a moment ago.
The air is heavy. I can’t breathe. Like something is squeezing me.

“…Not drawing?”

Told that, I hurriedly draw the handguns from the holster.
Yikes. I don’t really get it, but this person is serious.

“Then, here I go.”

She sways loosely and runs as if falling in.
Uwah, fast!

“Ring!”
“—Sakura-Drive Ready.”

“Ignition!”

Trailing sakura-pink, I ignite boosters at once.
Me sliding straight sideways and a cutting light running through where I was are almost simultaneous.

I switch my thinking.
That is an enemy.

“I don’t know the reason. But if we’re doing this, I’ll dance.”

I switch from boosters to rounds and spray.
Everything thrown to stall is cut down.
As expected. I open the interval with boosters, switch, keep shooting.
A barrage mixed with maximum-compression rounds, she cuts, slips, and closes the interval without a hitch.

Her reactions are too good. She slips the max-compression rounds, cuts only the ordinary ones, and comes forward as she is.
Range is no good. I’ll get into her interval eventually.
Then.

Stance low. Legs open, left hand forward.
Right reverse-grip in front of my face, gaze still on the enemy.

A big step. I bend the left, drive the elbow.
Easily flowed inside, I borrow that momentum, spin while opening the interval a little.
I swing the right handgun and get slipped. I turn further; the roundhouse aimed at the gut is stepped back from.
I spin, tilt sideways, and go forward. I drive a gun butt up from diagonally below.
The spine of the sword throws the line off; I put a hand to the ground and reset.
A water-surface kick at her feet, hopped over as a matter of course, and I pour shots into the opening.
But she sets the blade and the mana round is cut in two.

A monster. She visually confirmed a round from this distance and cut it.

After landing she steps in. I spin with it; left gun butt loaded with centrifugal force as a decoy, the real shot with the right.
Both slipped by sharpening the step-in.
My reactions can’t keep up.

The right is slapped away with a palm.
The left I yank back in desperation at the back of her head is stopped on the elbow as if she’d seen it.

Melee. Close enough to feel breath.
Toward my wide-open chest, a lightly opened hand reaches.

I got groped.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”

The open-hand strike I throw on the instant catches the maiden’s enemy’s cheek clean.
That was probably the fastest move of my life.

○○○○○○○○

“Sorry sorry!! My hand moved on its own!!”
“Fuuuuuuu!”

Currently entrenched using Kaede as a shield.
Damn. Not once but twice… I seriously won’t forgive this.

“Well, anyway I achieved the objective so it’s fine!!”
“…Pervert.”
“No not that!? I knew it, Ouka, you move like Arei!!”
“…Ah, I feel like Toono Tsukasa said something like that too.”

What was it. Toono style, or something.

“Probably the base of the basic combat data is Arei!! The efficiency of the force flow is insane!!”
“…Eh. You drew a sword just to see that?”

Couldn’t you have just had me show it normally.

“No no!! This is actually a pretty important talk!?
Only someone who knows Arei’s combat behavior could make a combat record, right!? But Ouka, you’re fifteen now, right!?”

…Ah. Right. The Hero was summoned five years ago.

“There’s no way you knew from the start!!
Meaning someone did something after Ouka was born!!
And maybe that someone’s the fake-Hero mastermind!!”
“Oh. I didn’t think you’d thought that far.”

She’s bouncing around at full volume, but the content was quite sound.
Maybe I should revise my view a little.

“Well Arei’s the one who thought it!!”
“Ah. That I accept.”

The evaluation that had started to rise went back to its original place.
This person is just a pervert after all, yep.

“Arya!? Am I being insanely guarded!?”
“There’s rather no reason not to be.”
“It’s just skinship!! Right, Kaede!?”
“Eh. I refuse with all my, strength.”
“I mean it felt serious and it’s scary.”

For real. It only looks like serious sexual harassment.
This person is not at the girl-to-girl skinship level.

“Eeeeeh!! This is no fuuun!!”
“…So can I go home already?”
“Yah!! One last thing!! A personal hope!!”
“…I’ll listen, just listen. What?”

At my words. The color of her eyes changes, smoothly.

“Someday, when you step into my world…”

Index finger to her lips, winking.

“Let’s fight again, okay?”

A smile like a child who just thought of a prank.
But only the eyes are very sharp.
A way of smiling like a beast’s threat.
…Scary.

“…I don’t feel like I can win, so next time I’ll run with everything I have.”
“Nishishi!! Well, that’s fine too!!”
“Then I’m going home today. If something comes up I’ll come share information.”
“Nn, see you, later.”
“Come play again soon!!”
“…I’ll think about it if you don’t sexually harass me.”

I bow toward Kaede and leave the place in a hurry.

○○○○○○○○

Uhyaa. That’s it, Heroes are messed up.
My palms are insanely sweaty. Heart pounding too. I wonder if it showed.

One of the world’s strongest, Kodama Renju.
The Hero with the blessing Idaten, fastest of all living things.

But in that fight she didn’t use the blessing at all.
From her side it probably wasn’t even a fight.
She treated my full power lightly.

When I step into her world, huh.
Speed that leaves sound behind. What kind of sight is that world. I can’t even imagine.
Even acting like that, that person is a Hero.

No, before that she’s a maiden’s enemy.
Next time something happens I’m clinging to Arei with everything I have.

◆ POV shift: Kodama Renju ◆

“Man, first time in a while I got a little serious!!”
“Good work, it was.”
“That beam is crazy!! If it hits even Tsukasa’d get a hole, right!?”
“And that at that speed, in rapid fire, see.”

As expected, excessive force to call a mere town girl.
I understand well now why Kanon was wary at first.
That is beyond the scope of power a civilian should have.

“I get real well now why Arei left it to me!!
If you miss the restraint either of us dies!!”
“…If it were me I’d run without, hesitation.”

Nn. For a mage it might be a natural enemy, true.
Irregular high-speed mobility, and long-range attacks that punch through an improvised barrier easy.
And they come without a break. That was a bit of a pain.

“But still!! She’s a good kid so I think it’s fine!! A little shaky, though!!”

Once that girl entered combat, she felt no fear.
Not even the reflex to instinctively avoid death; just a combat style that calmly puts out the optimal move.
That is too dangerous. When her power doesn’t reach, that principle of action becomes fatal.

“Nn… I want to follow up as much as I, can.”
“Well!! I’ll do the hated role!! The rest I leave to you!!”
“Renju, that doesn’t suit you, though.”
“It’s normally Arei’s exclusive patent!! Not my style, see!!”

That idiot always says that and takes everyone’s burdens himself.
As the Heroes’ leader. As an adult. As a guardian.
Then I have to take a little at least, or he’ll break someday.

“…He would say, that.”
“Anyway!! I’ll go get a reward from Arei!! Kaede, baaibaii!!”

Now then, what shall I squeeze out of him.
Really I don’t need anything, but if I don’t demand he’ll just carry it again.
Sake, or snacks. Around there is reasonable.

Still, Ouka. I’m looking forward to it.
Will she catch up to me someday.
When that time comes, I want to talk with swords again.