Rebuild world volume 7, p.18
Rebuild World: Volume 7, page 18
“All right then, looks like it’s time to get down to business!” Hikaru said. “I just got word from the security team, and you’re almost up. Get ready!”
“Roger that.”
In order to access the outside, Akira had to leave his room and head through the transport fully armed. There was no avoiding this. Hikaru wanted to think she was just worrying for nothing, but there was a nonzero possibility he’d run into Udajima on the way. Despite her mounting anxiety, however, she managed to give him a proper smile, and he grinned back, oblivious.
He finished his preparations quickly. Two of his LEOs were at his hip, ready to draw, while he attached the other two onto his suit’s legs as backup. He also had his AF laser cannon, folded up on his back, as well as a support arm carrying a backpack stuffed with spare ammo and energy packs. He certainly looked the part of a high-ranking hunter.
And yet, seeing him all geared up like that didn’t reassure Hikaru at all. To her, Akira was a dangerous individual, an explosive that could go off at the slightest provocation. And she couldn’t help but think that supplying him with all this gear had just made him all the more deadly.
“All right, I’m gonna head out.”
“R-Roger. Good luck!” she said.
Akira left the room. Hikaru watched his back retreat down the hallway, when on the spur of the moment, she ran to catch up with him.
“O-On second thought, I ought to at least escort you out! Since I’m your operator and all!”
“Ooookay...” Was this really part of an operator’s job description? Akira doubted that a little, but Hikaru seemed so enthusiastic about it that he decided not to ask.
They made their way to the transport’s roof. Until they reached the roof hatch, she treated him like a dangerous individual she couldn’t take her eyes off of for a second, all while remaining as wary of her surroundings as if she’d entered a dangerous ruin.
Intercity transports were almost always designed solid and rectangular—force-field armor was more effective when it was mounted on simple shapes. Therefore, save for the cannons mounted there, the roof of the Gigantas III was flat like the top of a rectangular prism. Here there were no obstacles to intercept the wind, and because the transport was as tall as a multistory building and as fast as any other moving vehicle, the wind blowing across the roof was fierce. The average person would probably have been blown off before they could even get their footing.
But the wind posed no problem for Akira. Thanks to his powered suit, he had no trouble standing like usual, and none of the other hunters there were struggling either—such was expected of any hunter qualified to guard an intercity transport. In fact, it was such a trifling matter that it wasn’t even mentioned as one of the minimum requirements for the job.
Akira’s job here was to intercept any monsters that attacked the vehicle. But so far, he had yet to fire a single bullet. The Gigantas III’s security team was on the lookout for any dangerous creatures approaching and would let him know if any appeared, so Akira didn’t have to do his own scouting. And as he and his team had already culled many of the monsters that might have otherwise shown up along this route, there weren’t likely to be many attacks to begin with. Every now and then, a monster would shoot at them from afar, but this was nothing a few hunters couldn’t handle. In rare cases, one would draw close enough to ram the vehicle, though most failed and were run over by the vehicle’s massive tires instead, or would latch onto the hull only to be shot to death by the hunters.
Akira and the other hunters dotted the large roof sparsely, yet the small group could comfortably handle any threat that came their way. So Akira mostly stood on the edge of the roof, looking bored as he stared off into the horizon.
Man, there’s a lot of downtime, he commented.
That’s because we’re still not all that far from Kugamayama yet, explained Alpha, considering the total length of our route. It’s only natural nothing’s presenting a challenge yet.
Then I guess all that monster-culling we did paid off. Well, since we’re working security, it’s a good thing nothing’s happening, right?
If you’re bored, wanna do some studying?
Sure, except Hikaru might get mad at me for slacking off. She can see what I’m doing, can’t she?
Don’t worry. I modify the data that gets sent to her before she receives it, Alpha said cheerfully. I’ll just make it look to her like you’re standing there diligently in silence.
Akira gave a small smile. This meant he’d be using Alpha’s support to deceive others, but in a sense, that had been the case ever since he’d met Alpha. Well, I couldn’t have gotten this far without you augmenting my skills anyway, so no use feeling guilty about fooling people now.
Books and other teaching materials appeared in his augmented vision, and Alpha’s outfit became that of a schoolteacher. A teaching pointer appeared in her hand.
Seeing her getup, Akira recalled a previous time they’d studied together. Uh, Alpha, you’re not gonna strip this time too, are you?
Don’t tell me you’d rather me put on more clothes instead?
I don’t care! Just don’t strip again!
All right, all right, if you say so!
On the roof of the Gigantas III, Alpha began her class. Their session lasted all the way until Akira’s day shift ended and the night-shift hunters took over. When Akira climbed back into the transport, Hikaru was already waiting for him at the roof entrance.
“Good work out there today!” she said. As the two of them headed back to Akira’s room, she appeared to have calmed down considerably.
◆
After seeing Akira off, Hikaru had returned to their room. By the time she returned hours later to pick him up, she had calmed down considerably.
She’d spent her time alone in the room mentally reviewing her conversation with Kibayashi. This time, she picked up on a few details she’d been too frazzled to properly notice before: most notably, that his explanation was a mix of facts and speculation. She had to acknowledge the facts—she’d briefly double-checked what Kibayashi had told her just to make sure he was telling the truth—but the rest was pure conjecture. So there was still a chance his ideas were way off base—or that once again, he was trying to guide her thoughts in a certain direction.
Having seen the facts for myself, I have no choice but to admit that Akira’s more dangerous than I’d guessed. But planning to assassinate Udajima, a city bigwig? There’s no way he’d go that far. And even if he did, he could never pull it off here on this transport, of all places. Kibayashi must be overthinking things.
According to Kibayashi, Akira was planning first to strip Udajima of his standing, then to kill him. In other words, even Akira himself hesitated to charge right in and murder the man. Inabe’s influence within the city, great as it was, wouldn’t suffice to erase the crime of killing a city executive—an act on a completely different level from killing a few Investigation Bureau personnel. In short, Akira didn’t want to antagonize the city and so was holding back for now.
Besides, there was a good chance Akira didn’t even know Udajima was on board. Kibayashi’s fears were groundless, she concluded.
“And that means I’ve been worrying for nothing too. But I probably ought to prepare some countermeasures, just in case.” She took out her terminal and pulled up Akira’s Hunter Office profile page. Then she edited it to add Akira’s current commission—security detail on the Gigantas III—to his job history.
“There. That ought to do it,” she said aloud. If Kibayashi’s suspicions were correct, Udajima was probably also monitoring Akira’s whereabouts and activities. Now, he would know Akira was on board and could take appropriate measures to avoid him.
That took care of Udajima. All that remained was to watch Akira and make sure he didn’t get into a fight with any other hunters during this trip, and all would be well.
She finally allowed herself a deep sigh of relief.
Then she spent the rest of Akira’s shift catching up on her work remotely. Because she’d suddenly decided to accompany Akira and so was absent from the office, she’d had to move around some appointments on her schedule. That was a little annoying, but she finished quickly and managed to meet up with Akira right on time.
◆
After they retired to their room for the night, Akira and Hikaru ordered dinner via room service and enjoyed a private meal, just the two of them. Amused by the bliss on Akira’s face as he voraciously consumed the delectable fare of the upper class, Hikaru grinned.
“It sounds like today was smooth sailing for you, but keep in mind the real job starts tomorrow,” she said. “This is no longer the periphery of the East—from here on out, we’ll be in true eastern territory.”
“No worries, I’ll work hard.”
“I know you will.”
After their dinner, they each took a turn in the bath and then headed straight to bed. Their first day on the Gigantas III had been a little turbulent—at least for Hikaru—but had ended without incident.
◆
The next day, Akira returned to the roof of the transport to guard against monster attacks. The Gigantas III had been running all night without stopping and so was now much farther east than the previous day. They were still a long way from the Front Line, which served as the border separating the corporation-ruled part of the East from the Uncharted Zone, but the scenery around him already looked markedly different from the wasteland he was used to.
Hey Alpha, am I seeing things? Are those objects that resemble gigantic islands in the sky real?
Yes, they’re real. Or at the very least, they’re not images I’m projecting into your vision.
Then that means those skyscrapers stretching down from underneath the islands are also real. To think these have actually been here in the East all this time...
He stole a brief glance at Alpha. What he saw was only an illusion in his augmented vision, and yet he couldn’t think of her as anything but real. Yet these skyscrapers supporting islands in the sky were actually real, even though he’d doubted his own eyes when he saw them. Just seeing something didn’t guarantee it existed.
“Feels like I can’t even trust my own eyes anymore,” he muttered with a frown.
Some things in this world just aren’t as they appear, Alpha commented.
“That’s not what I mean at all.”
Just then, he received a call from Hikaru, her AR figure appearing before him—another thing he could see, yet wasn’t actually there.
“Akira, some monsters are heading your way,” she informed him. “A group of giant insects is approaching the transport ahead of you. The elite hunters up there, armed with cannons and the like, will take care of the bigger bugs, but a few of the smaller ones might still head your way, so stay sharp. The security team will keep you updated on the best position for intercepting them, so just follow their instructions.”
“On it!”
The Gigantas III had departed Kugamayama City alone but overnight had fallen in line with a fleet of other transports and was now traveling in a convoy. When heading straight for a pack of monsters, generally the lead vehicle was in the most danger, while the transports behind were safer the farther back they stayed. But the security team on the rearmost transport also had to intercept monsters approaching from behind, so the safest transport in the convoy was actually the second to last.
The more dangerous the monsters that hunters killed, the more money the latter would be paid. So hunters looking to earn a lot needed to put themselves in greater danger, and those tasked with dangerous jobs needed to be up to the task. That meant the team guarding the second-to-last transport in line typically had the least skilled hunters among those participating.
At present, this was the Gigantas III—Akira’s transport.
Well aware of the situation, Hikaru decided to prod him a little. “Say, Akira. Doesn’t it bother you that you weren’t placed higher up in the convoy line?”
“Not especially,” he answered. “I mean, even though I’m rank 50, that’s still pretty green compared to everyone else here, right?”
“I suppose that’s fair. But it seems to me less that they’re treating you like a novice and more that you’re working as a one-man team.”
Hunters were assigned to their respective transports based on their overall capability as a team. Therefore, it was more or less a given that a lone hunter who was a novice (in the transport security team’s eyes, at least) would be assigned to the safest transport.
“But I know you’re capable of so much more,” she continued. “You could cover any of these more dangerous transports—no fuss, no muss. So if you excel here and prove to them what you can really handle, they might switch you over to a transport where you can earn a higher paycheck! Let’s aim for that, shall we?”
Here was the biggest reason Hikaru had put Akira on this security job to begin with. She was hoping this arrangement would yield results that accurately reflected his real abilities. The monster-culling campaign needed a larger margin of safety since the team had to travel back to the city afterward, but here, Akira could always just take refuge in the transport when things were too dangerous. And as Akira was the only member on his team with the skill to take on this mission, he didn’t have to worry about covering for any less capable teammates—anyone from the monster-culling job who would normally have held him back was no longer here to do so.
To make her ambitions a reality, Hikaru had deliberately chosen the Gigantas III, which was scheduled to arrive at a vast settlement far to the east known as Zegelt City. She knew the area to the west of Zegelt was teeming with extraordinarily deadly monsters. By assigning Akira to this task, she could let him loose in the safest, most efficient, and most effective manner possible. Now she just had to wait for Akira to show what he could do, and the more she thought about it, the more her anticipation grew.
“I’m not asking you to bite off more than you can chew, of course,” she told him. “But if you feel undervalued and want to show them you’re capable of a lot more, then I say go ahead and show them!”
Sensing her high hopes for him, Akira grinned. “Are you giving me carte blanche to spend every single bit of the ammo you supplied me with? Considering how expensive it is, don’t blame me if this puts the city deep in the red.”
“As long as you bring results, go right ahead.”
“Hell yeah! I’m holding you to that, okay? Now just sit back and wait—I’ll show you what I can do!”
“I have no doubt about that,” Hikaru said cheerfully and vanished from his sight.
All right, Alpha, you heard her, he said. Full throttle.
Indeed, she replied with a smirk. It sounds to me like she’s expecting us to put the city way over budget. Let’s not disappoint her, shall we?
The cloud of massive insects was drawing nearer, flying toward them from up ahead. Akira could already see them with the naked eye. The security team had provided him with an overhead map of the region, on which he could see the creatures’ positions marked. After comparing the map with what he could see for himself, however, he looked puzzled.
“Are they really that far away still?” He focused his eyes on the monsters, and his scanner automatically zoomed in on one of them. Now he could see the distant enemy more clearly, but he just seemed to be looking at a normal insect under a magnifying glass.
Actually, Alpha explained, you’re having a hard time judging how far away they are because they’re so enormous. There’s nothing nearby in the sky that you can compare their size to. Here, let me add a frame of reference to make it easier.
As he continued watching with his vision zoomed in, an image of Alpha appeared beside the giant insect. Since he was familiar with how she looked, he was immediately able to tell how large the insect was in comparison—and he grimaced. Its head was only a tiny part of its gargantuan body—and Alpha was even smaller than one of its eyes.
The monster looked like a tiny insect that might land on one’s finger, but enlarged to the size of an island—and it was merely one of the vast throng headed his way.
“Those’re just way too huge... What the hell are those things?”
They’re giant bugs, and when they cluster together like this, they’re known as a swarm, for reasons that should be obvious at a glance.
And we’re actually going to fight them? How can we possibly win?
Don’t worry! Hikaru said we’ll only be dealing with the smaller ones, right? Look over there.
A cannon mounted on the roof of the transport swiveled in the direction of the approaching monsters. Massive vehicles like the intercity transports had to carry an astonishing amount of energy to function, and so its ordnance could fire off devastating shots. Light began to gather in the cannon’s muzzle, foreshadowing how powerful the blast would be once released. Nor was the cannon alone—an entire arsenal of similar weapons began lighting up.
Then, as one, they unleashed massive beams of energy so powerful they scorched the very sky.
The beams pierced right through the enormous insects, tearing holes in their resilient armor and incinerating the flesh inside. Despite the enhanced vitality of their island-sized bodies, pieces of the swarm began dropping to the ground like rocks, one after another. Yet because they were so large, it looked to Akira like they were falling in slow motion.
But the battle was far from over. As the large corpses continued their descent, countless smaller insects burst from them. Speeding toward the convoy, they each grew rapidly until the largest were around eighty meters tall.
The hunters on the roof of the tenth vehicle from the rear engaged them in combat. The roof of their transport was so wide that they had brought along tanks and mechs. Their gunfire and artillery annihilated many of the insects in an instant. Then the hunters—all high-rankers, all used to dealing with the monsters of the far East—joined in with powerful weapons that matched their ranks. Such weapons could have easily destroyed any of the bounty monsters around Kugamayama single-handedly, and they overwhelmed the giant bugs one after another.
