Ishura - Volume 7 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3- In Front of Gaiwa Irrigation Ditch

“Heeey! She over there?”

“Nah, ain’t here! Probably hiding in one of the wood boxes or bags outside a store, yeah? Just a tiny kid ’n’ all.”

“This whole thing’s starting to feel ridiculous. I’m beat, too. Wanna head home?”

The scoundrels’ voices echoed through the narrow street along the channel.

They seemed to be chasing after someone, but there wasn’t any tension in their voices. They sounded almost pastoral, even.

If they really want to capture me… Kia thought.

She could clearly hear what the men were talking about since she was sitting down on the corner right beside where they were chatting.

However, she had concealed herself with Word Arts.

…Then they should try being a bit more desperate about it. It’s appalling, honestly.

Kia the World Word was a mere fourteen years old, and she was the subject of an unprecedented manhunt by Aureatia since she was an almighty Word Arts caster who had brought Rosclay the Absolute to the brink of death in the fourth match.

Nevertheless, no matter how many ruffians they lured in with her bounty like this, no matter how shrewd of a detective or hunter they employed, or even if they mobilized Aureatia’s world-largest military force in its entirety, it was inconceivable that Kia would be captured.

She could deal with low-level grunts simply by making herself invisible like this, and even if she needed to run, she could go through walls or even fly up into the air. She could create her own food so she wouldn’t starve, and far beyond that, she could even take baths and make her own bedding, too.

If they fought her head-on, her enemy’s chances of victory were even more hopeless. As long as nothing strange happened like it had in the arena against Rosclay, there was no way another person would best Kia’s omnipotent Word Arts.

After all, I’m totally invincible…

The scoundrels’ voices faded into the distance, but it wouldn’t be for long. For today, it was best for her not to reveal herself in this area.

Although she was able to turn everything into reality, she was in doubt.

She had an objective: To vindicate Elea the Red Tag’s besmirched name, whom she had separated from following the fourth match.

In that match, the one who had truly acted dishonestly was Rosclay—Kia wasn’t the one who deserved to be chased.

However, if she was going to wield her all-powerful Word Arts, what were the correct steps to follow in order to lead things toward her desired outcome?

Maybe, if the law…like the highest legal authority decided I was right, would everyone understand that Rosclay was at fault? I don’t even know the faces of Aureatia’s Twenty-Nine Officials. Whose decision would it be to forgive Elea…and how am I supposed to talk to them to get them to understand?

There might not have been any need to convince them. Kia thought that as long as she wielded absolute power, she should be able to make anyone listen to what she had to say.

Yet each time she imagined her doing so, the wretched sight of Rosclay during the fourth match floated up from the back of her mind. Assuming she was capable of using extreme violence in negotiation, if whoever she talked to was just as unbreakable as Rosclay was…would the lone young girl Kia be unable to do anything once again?

…Sephite.

Her entangled, circular questions always came back to the simplest conclusion.

The Queen’s the highest authority in Aureatia, after all. Obviously, the Queen is going to have more authority than the government or the law’s…super-important person. Besides, with Sephite…

She recalled Sephite’s face. She had been a pale and beautiful girl, like a flower.

Though she was queen, she was still an eleven-year-old girl. Kia had even studied together with her at Iznock Royal High School.

That said, Kia certainly couldn’t claim that they were friends. They had shared a dubious relationship.

I could talk to her…without using Word Arts to threaten her. It’s possible…maybe. I was even thinking that I’d really try to be better friends with her the next time we met, too…

Sephite must not have wanted to see the Sixways Exhibition rife with foul play, either.

The only thing Kia could do was to make contact with Sephite, get her to understand the Kia and Elea’s current situation, and exert her influence in Aureatia somehow. From what Kia could understand, this seemed like the most realistic idea.

There was, however, a problem with this plan, too. Under the present circumstances—with her being a wanted criminal and widely recognized as a villain—when, and how, exactly, could she make contact with Sephite and get her to listen to Kia’s explanation…?

“I knew it, the brat’s over in this alley! See, you guys did miss something!”

The men, running back with heavy footsteps, broke down the wooden boxes piled up in the alleyway and rudely peeked into the residential homes. Passersby merely shot them disapproving glares.

“C’mon, let’s call it… We’ll get more money hunting down corpses and stuff.”

“Yeah, right. It’s hard to know even how many of those we’ll find. The bounty’s not much, neither.”

“Oh, you didn’t know, Boss? Catch one corpse and you can make more, so depending on how you go about it…”

They really are worthless…

Kia sighed. Seeing these types made her remember Jivlart the Ash Border, which soured her mood completely. Every time she thought of him, Kia felt her distaste for his unscrupulous way of doing things intensify.

Although she was wanted on false charges, Kia bore the slightest bit of responsibility and was against anything that would continue to cause trouble for others.

So, she simply needed to quiet them a little bit.

Yet, after she took her breath, she wavered slightly.

If I said, “Sleep”…would that clog up the street?

“An insolent bunch, aren’t they?”

“Huh?” A surprised gasp escaped her mouth instead of her Word Arts.

The young man, wearing a red feathered cap, was standing still beside Kia. From the neck down, he was dressed in an overcoat that seemed to just be a regular pullover, and she couldn’t really tell what was underneath.

His facial features were youthful and clean-cut, yet his expression was anything but natural.

“No need to fear. My name is Acromdo the Variety. I’ve come to help you.”

He was talking next to Kia while she was invisible, so to any onlooker, he seemed to be mumbling to himself. Was he actually talking to her?

Before any of that, though—

Who is this person…?

Kia wasn’t acquainted with anyone like this, and she couldn’t understand how he was so certain that Kia was there to speak with her.

Kia was only visually concealing her form at present; that much was true. Had he become cognizant of her location from the almost imperceptible traces of her scent and the sounds of her breathing?

Acromdo fixed his aim on the three ruffians continuing their search one alleyway over from where they were.

“Fwoo…”

Heaving ragged breaths, his body lurched to the side.

It was a bizarre movement, like a scarecrow toppling over.

The explosive striking sound echoed all the way to Kia’s position.

“Ah…!” Kia gasped, wholly forgetting that she was concealing herself.

One of the ruffian’s heads splattered. The shattered remains of his skull adorned a minian arm. The arm, launched at super-high speeds, had reduced the man’s head to a mess of blood, meat, and bone shrapnel.

Whose arm was that?

As an aftereffect of the movement, Acromdo’s overcoat flapped in the wind as he stood right next to her. Underneath, the right arm that was supposed to be there was gone. It was his. Kia couldn’t possibly imagine why, or what sort of benefit this technique even had, however—

He had removed his own flesh-and-blood arm, sent it flying, and killed the man standing on the other side of the alleyway.

“Whoa?! What the hell’s all this?!”

“E-eep, he’s, he’s dead…”

The remaining two men were delayed noticing their companion, killed without even the sound of a gunshot, and they rushed over to the corpse. If they were on the battlefield, the pair likely wouldn’t have moved so carelessly.

However, this was Aureatia, in broad daylight. Even shady men like them couldn’t have imagined that someone would be trying to kill them without reason in the land’s biggest, and supposedly safest, metropolis.

Kia saw the right arm autonomously fly off the wall, as if it had been spring loaded.

The two men, focused on the corpse, didn’t notice. Tracing a loose parabola as it fell, the right arm landed on the back of the closer man’s head and grabbed the nape of his neck.

“Ngh, hrgh…hrgnnngh!”

“…! Stop!”

Kia stood up without thinking.

Lifting the Word Arts concealing her, she yelled at Acromdo. There wasn’t any point in continuing to hide herself. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!”

“…? Well, I’m disposing of these villains who are chasing after you, am I not? Did I do something to upset you?”

“…Something to upset me? Of course I’d be upset about that! Nothing’s more annoying than someone acting like they’re doing me a favor by killing lowlifes! Make that arm stop!”

Kia looked sidelong at the man across the way. He was being strangled, and his arms and legs were thrashing wildly about.

“Now!”

“Okay. Got it.”

Acromdo seemed dissatisfied as he raised his left arm.

The right arm that was gripping the man went limp at the same time.

“I apologize for any offense. Erm… I also apologize for my lack of judgment. I really just wanted to become friends with you. I figured that if you were being chased by the Aureatia army, then I could help you out…”

“Well I don’t need the help. Are you serious? You’re the one who should get captured by the Aureatia army.”

“Sorry. It’s just… Honestly, I really… I thought that killing the bad guys chasing you would garner me praise, if anything…but if you’re saying that wasn’t good, then I’d like to think of some way to make it up to you.”

“Never come near me again. You give me the creeps.”

“Hmmm… I’ll try.”

Although she was chewing him out, Kia couldn’t keep her mind off Acromdo’s right shoulder.

It wasn’t hard, as artificial arms typically were. It looked unmistakably like a cross section of a flesh and blood body. While he may be able to attack like that, how had he intended to use the arm afterward? Acromdo had the appearance of a minia, but what was the logic behind his ability to manipulate his severed arm like that?

Even with her omnipotent Word Arts, this was one technique that Kia had no interest in using herself…

“Hey! That brat…!” The unharmed ruffian shouted as he tried to wake up the other one collapsed on the ground. “Get up! Kia’s here! She’s probably the one who blew off our bro’s head!”

“Oh great, now them too…”

Her only choice was to flee from this district as well.

Her frustration and anger messily jumbled inside her chest like paint, melting together. Kia had never killed anyone before. She was even being nice enough to avoid killing them, too.

“Vanish, flow.”

Mumbling her Word Arts, she followed up shortly afterward with a command. “Don’t follow me. I mean it.”

“I get it. But what do I have to do to become friends with you?”

“…” Kia didn’t answer and immediately left the area by turning invisible and speeding along the ground.

No matter how skilled one may have been, no one in the world could track down Kia.

Running, hiding… It’s nothing but this over and over again.

Just how long had it been since she had spoken to a store clerk or a kid her age?

She had no need for such mundane things with her power, of course. She would likely never know “need” again. She could manifest anything she required, and she did need to rely on friends to aid her.

However, amidst the emotions in her chest, coalescing like many shades of paint, there was one color that would always remain.

…I want to see somebody. I want to talk with Elea again. If I head back home, then I’d…

With her omnipotent powers, was it possible for her to erase these very thoughts from her head too?

Acromdo the Variety stood motionless in the alley, even after Kia’s departure.

His mission was to secure Kia the World Word before Aureatia could, but he didn’t intend on chasing after her, either.

Since that was what he had been asked to do.

“Instead of bringing her along by force, I’m supposed to build a friendly relationship and have her join our side… There shouldn’t be anything wrong with the plan itself, so she must’ve had some problem with my behavior—”

“Move outta the way, you idiot! Which way did that brat run off to…?!”

The ruffian shoved Acromdo. He was dragging his gasping buddy behind him.

Acromdo had been the one who caused their wounds, but whether it was because his severed-arm attack had been too fast to detect, or because the ruffian was too frenzied to see sense, it appeared he hadn’t caught on to that fact yet.

“That’s it! I can just have you guys chase after her for me.”

“What the hell are you mumbling about? You wanna die?”

“Oh, it’s just, she’ll dislike me if I go after her myself, so…”

Acromdo’s left arm blurred.

A light cracking sound, like a bug being crushed, echoed with a delay.

“Gahak!”

A dull sound escaped from both ruffian’s throats, neither a voice nor a scream.

It was the sound of their blood gushing out all at once from a deep cut.

Acromdo finished the follow-through of his left hand, spread out flat. In the midday metropolis, he had ended both of their lives in an instant, the method a compete mystery.

“How about you two help me out with something…?”

“……”

“……”

The citizens passing by hadn’t realized the abnormal phenomenon unfolding.

The two men, killed in an instant, hadn’t fallen over. Not only the one standing, but even the man borrowing the standing man’s arm, dragging his feet along, was supporting his own body weight and still upright.

The bleeding from the wounds on their throats had almost stopped as well. Acromdo cleanly wiped up the blood with his large scarf.

“Okay, you can go now.”

The two ruffians started walking in the direction Kia had gone. Their stilted footsteps seemed almost like the movements of a doll being forcibly manipulated by someone else.

Acromdo wiped the blood from his fingers.

He was smiling, but there was still an unnatural edge on his face.

“I wonder what I have to do to get everyone to like me.”

Half of the Sixways Exhibition matches had concluded, and the remaining participants would need to make their next moves sooner rather than later.

The same rang true for those who had yet to emerge from the shadows.