Rebuild world volume 7, p.23
Rebuild World: Volume 7, page 23
“If you’re really so scared, why’d you even ask to come along?”
Akira had originally wanted to go alone. But as he was getting dressed, Hikaru had woken up and voiced her desire to accompany him.
“I-I want to see the sunrise too, okay?! Is that a crime?!”
“Couldn’t you have just watched it from that monitor in the room or whatever?”
“Well, you’re the one who said that was too dull, weren’t you?! If it’s really as impressive as you say, I want to see it for myself!”
Akira realized she was raising her voice to distract herself from her terror. “All right, all right. I get it, so just calm down already. I’m holding on to you, so you’ll be safe.”
He squeezed her a little more tightly, hoping this would help her settle down. She didn’t say another word.
“Oh, looks like it’s almost time,” he said eagerly, gazing toward the horizon.
To keep up her pretense for coming up here, Hikaru also glanced in that direction, even though she couldn’t have cared less about the sunrise.
The real reason she’d accompanied Akira was to keep him in her sight. While there weren’t any monsters on the roof at the moment, there were still a decent number of hunters standing guard on the night shift. In order to prevent any possible confrontations or arguments, she wanted to stay by his side at all times. And so it was that she now found herself here, battered by the wind on top of a dangerous transport roof at the crack of dawn. She was so terrified she didn’t even have the capacity to feel embarrassed that she was desperately clinging to Akira.
At least there were no monsters around—she’d made sure to check before heading up here. But being up on the roof was still scary, and the moment Akira had his fill of the sunrise, she was determined to drag him back to his room. Her eyes were on the horizon, but her mind was focused on this plan.
Then, as she watched, the sky brightened, and the sun gradually began to climb up from the horizon. Its light purged the distant ruins of their darkness. Though these illuminated remains were now only husks of their former glory, the same sun lit them up that had once shone on the prosperous Old World, just as captivating to the people then as it was today.
Akira found himself glad that he’d made the trip to come up here and see it. Then he noticed the look on Hikaru’s face. There was no longer any trace of fear or apprehension present—her eyes were wide with awe. He was a little surprised but didn’t say a word, not wanting to ruin the moment for her.
Finally, the sun rose above the horizon, and the sky filled with normal daylight. The moving scene was over. Feeling she’d seen something truly incredible, Hikaru’s heart swelled with satisfaction.
Then she realized Akira was looking at her smugly, and she flushed with embarrassment. “W-Well, that wasn’t too bad, I suppose,” she announced. “I’m at least glad I got to see it in person, rather than on the screen.”
“See? I was right, wasn’t I?”
“A-Anyway, we’ve seen what we came here to see, so time to head back! Come on, Akira, let’s go!”
“Sure, sure.”
He didn’t sense any more fear from her at all. However, the wind was still blowing fiercely, so he continued to hug her tight as they made their way back into the vehicle.
Hikaru tried her best not to feel conscious of his embrace. As he held her close, the fear of being on the roof waned considerably, and the swell of satisfaction was also gone now that the sun had risen. All that remained within her was the embarrassment of being hugged by a boy who was not too far from her in age.
Even Hikaru, as capable as she was, couldn’t manage this emotion. And even once they were back in the room, her face remained beet red for some time.
◆
Akira was once again on the roof of the transport, assigned to security duty. He’d nearly used all of his ammo over the course of the previous day, but as he hadn’t quite emptied his backpacks before switching them out, he could still scrape together enough leftover shots to participate again.
Looking out over the wasteland while standing on the edge of the roof, Akira detected an enemy—a monster with a distorted, stumpy-looking cannon for a torso, with arms and legs like a cyborg grasshopper.
The creature’s cannon fired gigantic shells from its three-meter-tall muzzle, which exploded on impact as they struck the side of the Gigantas III. But because the transport was protected by such powerful force-field armor, it wasn’t even scratched. So the monster used its grasshopper legs to leap onto the roof, or at least it tried to—until it encountered a barrage of gunfire in midair from Akira and was blown to bits.
Akira looked puzzled. “That’s odd. The bugs from yesterday were definitely tougher.”
Monsters were stronger the farther east one went, and the Gigantas III had been traveling eastward all night, nonstop. So Akira had been expecting even more powerful monsters than the ones he’d been dealing with, and he was surprised at how weak they were proving to be.
That’s because we’re on the outskirts of a city, Alpha answered matter-of-factly. Any monsters that would have proven a threat to the city are already dead.
“Oh, that makes sense,” Akira said with a nod. At the same time, he was still surprised at just how strong this monster had been. Before Akira had become a hunter, when he’d been nothing more than a child of the slums, he had taken out a few monsters with a handgun. Those creatures had been so small that they posed no threat to the city and thus were permitted to draw breath on the Kugamayama outskirts.
The monsters left alive here were much stronger. If this was one of the smaller ones, then just how strong were those that were considered a threat?
Suddenly his kill a moment ago didn’t seem so impressive. He chided himself for his complacency.
“We’ve made it pretty far east, but we’re still not at the Front Line, are we? The world sure is vast.”
It certainly is. So let’s not get cocky about taking down one of the smaller beasts.
“All right,” he said with a sheepish smile.
After a while, Hikaru’s voice came through his comms. “Looks like your job’s over. Come back to the room right away. If you don’t return before we get to Zegelt, that might create some hassles.”
“All right, I’ll be right there,” he replied. Heading for the exit, he looked off past the front of the transport.
There, before his eyes, was his destination—an enormous domed city.
◆
The enormous dome covered Zegelt City completely. Its base served as a defensive wall, much like the one in Kugamayama, but this rose up into a hemisphere built with a thin exoskeletal framework underneath transparent, polyhedral planks. There was no district outside the walls like in Kugamayama—all of Zegelt lay underneath the dome.
As the convoy of transports approached, a portion of the defensive wall parted to allow it to enter. The Gigantas III, carrying Akira and Hikaru, drove up to a station platform so large it looked like it had been built for giants and rolled to a stop.
On the roof, Hikaru grinned at Akira. “Welcome to Zegelt City! As of this moment, we’re halfway done with your security mission here. First off, let me thank you for all your hard work until now.”
“Don’t mention it! So we’re at the midpoint now, huh? In that case, the rest probably won’t be too bad—provided my supply of ammo holds out.”
“Not to worry! I’m going to make sure you’re all resupplied before we head back out. You’ll have to work just as hard on the journey home, you know.”
All of Akira’s ammo—meant for his round-trip run to Zegelt City and back—was gone, spent on the first leg of the journey alone. To make sure he could continue helping with security rather than becoming just another dead-weight passenger—and more importantly, to make sure she wouldn’t have to trudge out and resupply him in the middle of combat—Hikaru was already planning to provide him with plenty of ammunition.
“We’ll be heading out tomorrow night,” she informed him. “Until then, you’re free to do whatever you want—but unfortunately, you’ll have to stay within the confines of your room. To be perfectly transparent, there’s been a hiccup regarding your entry into Zegelt City right now. But everything will be fine if you stay in the vehicle.”
She added that permission to enter one city’s defensive wall applied to any city with a defensive wall, as long as the person in question wasn’t hostile or had no business whatsoever being there. But Akira’s permission to enter Kugamayama’s inner city was only temporary. There was a chance Kugamayama could determine that Akira had exceeded his authority by using his clearance to enter Zegelt City as well, which could very well cause an intercity conflict.
“And so,” she finished, “I know it’s a bummer, but you can’t leave the vehicle while we’re here.”
Akira frowned. “Seriously? ‘Bummer’ is right. You sure there’s nothing you can do about this?”
“Possibly, but one thing’s for sure: if you were hoping to go around and do some sightseeing, forget it.”
In truth, getting Akira permission to enter Zegelt City wouldn’t have been as hard for her as she was letting on. Because Kugamayama’s lower district lay outside its walls—which ensured that hopefuls looking to enter the city had a place to stay even if they were denied entry—the security around its defensive wall was actually stricter than other cities. Zegelt, however, was entirely walled in: any hunter who was turned away at the gates would effectively be forced to camp out in the wasteland, exposed to the roaming monsters there. This would reflect poorly on the city, so as long as hunters weren’t known criminals, they could enter Zegelt City comparatively easily.
Hikaru deliberately kept that little detail from Akira because she wanted him to stay in the transport—she hadn’t even filled out his entry paperwork. At first, she had merely wanted to make sure he didn’t get so engrossed in sightseeing that he missed his ride back home, but now she also didn’t want him to run into anyone else and cause a scene.
But Akira had other things on his mind than sightseeing. “A-Actually, well... I was kinda hoping to shop around for a new bike.”
“A bike?”
“Yeah. Since we’re farther east now, I figured the motorbikes sold here would be better than those in Kugamayama.”
While Akira had a contract with Kiryou to only purchase powered suits from them, there was no such stipulation regarding where he had to buy his vehicles. Currently, he had no bike, since he’d lost it during the nationalist incident, and more than likely he wouldn’t travel this far east again for a while. Moreover, he knew that the monsters he’d be fighting would only get tougher as time went on. So he didn’t want to waste this opportunity.
A bike designed for the high-ranking hunters of Zegelt would be absurdly expensive, but he could probably afford one, at least. Thanks to Hikaru, he’d gotten his powered suit and other gear at virtually no charge, so he had the budget for it.
When Hikaru understood what he wanted, she found herself conflicted. She could have stopped him from sightseeing with the excuse that they weren’t here on vacation. But preventing him from procuring gear would cause trouble—and Inabe would definitely chew her out as well.
Then Akira had an inspiration. “Oh, but wait! You could act on my behalf, right? I mean, you’re my handler and all. Why don’t you go buy one for me?”
Now Hikaru was even more torn. His request was pragmatic, and she couldn’t find a good reason to turn him down. But if she left the transport without him, she wouldn’t be able to watch over him. And she wanted to monitor him as much as possible—after all, had she not intervened the previous day when Mercia had approached him, trouble could have arisen. There was also the possibility, however unlikely, of him encountering Udajima. Outside of combat or when she otherwise couldn’t be with him, she wanted to err on the side of caution by staying next to him.
“If that’s the case, maybe it’d just be better to take you with me,” she said. “That way, you’ll be able to test-drive the vehicle before you buy it and make sure it’s one you really want. I’ll see if I can get you clearance to enter the city.”
“Whoa, really?! That sounds like it’ll be a pain on your end, but I definitely appreciate it!”
“Don’t mention it! I’m your handler, after all. This is well within my scope,” she said proudly.
And so, in the end, Hikaru made arrangements for Akira to enter Zegelt City. While she was at it, she set up an appointment for the two of them at a motorbike shop the following day.
The next morning, Akira headed into the city with Hikaru bright and early to find a bike. As they sat opposite each other and rode through the city on an unmanned vehicle, Akira let out a murmur of fascination at the scenery surrounding him. “Wow, talk about impressive!”
By contrast, Hikaru didn’t look impressed at all. “Why? It’s nothing you didn’t see back in Kugamayama.”
“Are you sure? Kugamayama doesn’t have those.”
Self-driving vehicles were darting this way and that overhead. They had no feathers or wings on them he could see, nor were they traveling along some sort of invisible path. They were truly flying, just like the containers he’d seen in the Mihazono Town Ruins.
“Also,” he continued, “a dome this large has gotta be protected by unbelievably powerful force-field armor, right? I mean, with monsters like those gigantic bugs from yesterday flying outside, it would have to be.” The dome’s ceiling rose so high that there was ample room for even the tallest skyscrapers in the city. Zegelt didn’t feel like an enclosed space at all.
Futuristic cities. Old World cities. Walled cities. Cities where cars flew and buildings looked super cool. Perhaps even massive domes. Back when Akira had lived on the streets, this had been the larger world he’d envisioned. And now, seeing that Zegelt City was not too far off from the scenes he had imagined, he found himself a little giddy.
Hikaru, meanwhile, was growing increasingly unhappy. But as an employee of Kugamayama City, and as Akira’s handler, she couldn’t let her displeasure show, and she tried her best to maintain a cheerful smile. Still, she couldn’t conceal her true feelings entirely, and her smile appeared somewhat forced—enough for Akira to notice.
Say, Alpha, Hikaru doesn’t look too happy. Was it something I said?
She’s probably upset that you’re oohing and aahing over the scenery here but weren’t as impressed upon seeing Kugamayama’s middle district for the first time.
Oh, is that all? It’s not like that was my fault. I can’t help how I feel.
Well, we’re not here to sightsee anyway, so for now, maybe just stop gawking at everything before her mood gets even worse.
R-Right, good plan. Akira quit leaning against the car window and pressing his face to the glass in awe, instead sitting up straight in his seat.
When he did, Hikaru’s eyes met his.
“U-Um,” he stammered, “c-come to think of it, you’re right! Kugamayama’s middle district was just as impressive, wasn’t it?”
She broke into a smile. “Thanks, Akira. I appreciate that.” Even though she knew his words were just flattery, the fact that he was actively trying to improve her mood made her happy.
Akira said no more. He just turned his gaze away from her and toward the window—and this time, it wasn’t because he wanted to enjoy the view.
◆
Upon their arrival at the store, an employee greeted the two of them. As Hikaru had already made an appointment, the staff knew they were here to purchase a bike, and the employee guided them right to the bike display area. This store sold vehicles for hunters, and its wares were all kept in large showroom-like cases. They didn’t just sell cars and bikes—combat automobiles like tanks and mechs were also lined up on display. In other words, for the hunters in this area, tanks and mechs fell into the same category as cars and bikes. It wasn’t quite true that riding a tank was as commonplace as carrying a handgun, but Zegelt City at least came closer to that point than Kugamayama did.
Akira was expecting the bikes sold here to be more cutting-edge than the ones he was used to, so he was eager to see the selection. Finally, they reached a showroom where bikes the staff had hand-selected for him were all lined up.
“Mr. Akira, I’ve been informed your budget is somewhere around the three to four billion range, is that correct?” began the sales rep. “These are the products we’d recommend in that price range. Now, I’ll go over each of them in order, starting with this one right here.”
As Akira listened to the employee with great interest, Hikaru stared at the eight bikes lined up before her. So these bikes each cost three billion aurum or more? Now that I think about it, that’s ridiculously expensive. Do all high-ranking hunters regularly spend that kind of money?
As long as someone didn’t splurge or live an extravagant lifestyle, three billion aurum was more than enough for a person to live comfortably for the rest of their life, and certainly enough to convince the average citizen to retire from the daily grind. Yet high-rankers regularly spent more than that on just one gear upgrade—it was still a ton of money, but its value varied greatly depending on whether hunters or normal citizens were spending it.
Hikaru thought about the sheer amount of talent and luck combined required to earn the same amount while working a regular job or even owning a business. No wonder most people stood a better chance of earning such a sum by risking their lives and attempting to rise through the ranks as hunters. Guess that’s why there’s no shortage of hunter hopefuls despite more and more of them dying every year.
She also knew the ones who stood to gain the most profit from the hunter profession were not the people gathering relics and culling monsters out in the wasteland, but those who sold those hunters tools to do their jobs—like the employee delivering a sales pitch to her and Akira right then, for instance. Today, like every other day, many companies would profit from pricing their products far beyond what any normal citizen would earn in a lifetime, targeting the hunters who made enough money to afford them.
