Sasaki and Peeps - Volume 6 - Chapter 5.1

After a few minutes foraying through the mountains, we came within view of the scene.

It was unfolding on the overgrown mountainside along the winding road that led up to the pass. From between the trees, we could see people facing off out in the open, on the paved road. Thanks to the moonlight, we could even make out their faces. There were five in total.

One of them wore a robe and had white wings coming out of his back—an angel, no doubt. He looked like an attractive forty- or fifty-year old, with a huge frame and rippling muscles. In front of him, he held a large shield at the ready. The lady right next to him had to be his Disciple; she was probably around twenty.

A short distance away, I could see a horned figure—likely the demon. He appeared high school age, held a large knife in each hand, and wore a crude, single-layered loincloth. Nearby was a girl of similar age, probably his Disciple.

The last of the five, however, was someone I knew.

“Is that Magical Blue fighting the angel and demon?” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“It certainly seems like it,” I replied.

It was Ivy, the magical girl from our allied nation who acted alongside Captain Mason.

The angel and demon were both tenaciously attacking her, placing her at a disadvantage. Several balls of flames floated around the angel, who was sending them flying at Ivy one after another. The latter protected herself from a few with her Magical Barrier, while using Magical Flight to flit through the air, dodging the rest.

The demon boy was in the air, too, slashing at her with his knives. His relentless strikes bounced off the Magical Barrier, but eventually brought it down, forcing the girl to hastily erect another.

The cycle repeated with the demon serving as main attacker and the angel playing backup—I felt they made a rather excellent team.

“The angel and demon are working together,” I noted.

“I doubt this was a planned encounter,” mused Ms. Futarishizuka. “They must be putting their job first—abducting our poor coworker. And since Magical Blue’s association is well-known, they’re hoping to remove the biggest threat first.”

“You were right. This really is a battle royale.”

Like Abaddon and my neighbor, there certainly seemed to be plenty of participants who came to these battles with their own interests in mind. The former’s earnest plea, way back at the beginning, for our support outside the isolated spaces spoke to him having seen such things transpire in the past. It felt like the death game was finally getting started.

“I have to save her!” exclaimed Magical Pink.

“You can leave that to us,” I said, realizing immediately that she was referring to Magical Blue. I knew from the Kraken incident that the magical girls were all good friends—well, at least Pink and Blue were.

“Who shall we target, then?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“The angel.”

The death game participants didn’t appear to have noticed us yet, so I decided to go for a surprise attack using my laser beam spell. I didn’t want to attack the Disciple, but the angel, on the other hand—I could shoot him without a second thought, because according to Abaddon, all the angels and demons were simply copies, or Divisions, as he called them. Destroying one wouldn’t hurt its main body; it wouldn’t even scratch them.

“Here we go,” I said, thrusting my hands out in front of me and firing my laser beam spell. I narrowed its focus, making it about the thickness of a telephone pole.

Just before it went off, the angel noticed us. He skillfully repositioned his shield. The spell, traveling straight along its planned trajectory, struck the center.

The light, which had once engulfed an entire army of angels, was completely blocked by the huge shield. This angel had some pretty sturdy defenses. Maybe he was of a high rank, like the six-winged little Mika. It had been rash of me to think I could take him down in one hit. Lesson learned, I thought.

Still, the attempt hadn’t been completely worthless. The beam spell was powerful enough to push him back; his feet scraped across the ground as he held fast to his shield. He looked desperate. I got the feeling I’d be able to overpower him if I kept going.

That said, we were a little pressed for time. “Ms. Futarishizuka, could you—?”

“Keep firing that laser!”

My coworker was already dashing along the road before I could finish my sentence.

She was going straight for the angel’s Disciple, who froze in shock when she saw us through the trees. The shield-wielding angel quickly realized who the kimono-clad girl was after, but he had his hands full blocking my laser beam spell—he couldn’t move to assist. The same went for the demon, who was in the middle of a midair close combat battle with Magical Blue.

“Angels and demons may scare me,” she said, “but not their Disciples.”

Using her inhuman leg strength to take advantage of the opening, Ms. Futarishizuka arrived in front of the Disciple in a flash.

The rest took only a few seconds. She quickly reached out and touched the Disciple as the woman turned to flee.

“You can run as far as you like, but you’ll never escape the fear of death. Isn’t that right?”

“Huh…?!”

The Disciple’s face twisted with doubt. She didn’t seem to know who Ms. Futarishizuka was. A moment later, her knees buckled, and she fell. Her whole body went limp, and she collapsed face down onto the road with a thud.

From what I’d heard, some of these angel–demon proxy wars could last over a decade, and most of the participants were minors, with the eldest in their early twenties. I was extremely hesitant to attack people still so young.

But whether she was aware of my feelings on the matter or not, Ms. Futarishizuka declared her victory. “One point for us!” she cried. I didn’t need to ask what she meant.

I quickly deactivated my laser beam. A few moments after Ms. Futarishizuka’s victory shout, the chaos around us returned. Apparently, the woman had been the only angelic Disciple nearby, and now that she was gone, the isolated space had dispersed.

“Ivy!”

Immediately, Magical Pink burst out from the trees. She was still flying as she fired off a Magical Beam at the demon.

The demon tried to evade, but the shot struck his lower half, and he fell to the ground. Seeing a chance to turn the tables, Blue quickly shot a second Beam, thick as she could make it. The demon didn’t even have time to scream before vanishing altogether.

His Disciple, seeing this, panicked and withdrew.

Unfortunately, a moment after she began to run, a bullet took out part of her head. Right as we heard the bang, we saw her fall down onto the asphalt.

With the help of the moonlight, I could tell she’d been sniped by some organization or other hidden in the woods. Naturally, more bullets followed—aimed at us and the magical girl—but they were all nullified by our barriers.

After draining the Disciple’s energy, Ms. Futarishizuka quickly fled back into the trees. “You really like giving me all the dirty jobs, don’t you?” she grumbled.

“In return, you can have all the credit for beating the angel’s Disciple.”

“Oh, is that how it works? Then I suppose I don’t mind at all.”

“And you can be the one to tell Abaddon about it.”

“Aye, aye, sir!”

I quite liked this aspect of Ms. Futarishizuka’s personality. She was both refreshingly frank and dependable—almost to an extreme.

“All external connections restored. Switching point of contact to normal operation.”

Type Twelve seemed to have soothed her loneliness just fine, too. Her knees had stopped shaking, and her voice sounded calm again.

Having slain the demon, the magical girls quickly joined us. They were probably trying to escape the veritable deluge of bullets and psychic powers. The road offered no cover; staying out there would only invite unprompted attacks.

“Thank you, magical middle-aged man.”

“It was no problem—this worked out well for us, too.”

Because Magical Blue had already been fighting, we were able to deal with the angel with minimal effort. The angel’s shield had been nigh impenetrable, and without the advantage of a surprise attack, we would have had a much rougher time of it.

As we spoke, we heard the sounds of brushing leaves and scraping branches behind us. They were regular, like human footsteps. We all turned around, expecting an attack. The two Magical Beams Pink and Blue had fired were flashy and had likely drawn a lot of attention.

But out of the dark, who should appear but another familiar face.

“<Ivy, you suddenly dropped off the radar. How did you end up with them?>”

It was Captain Mason, clad head to toe in military camo, holding a gun at the ready. A few other soldiers were with him, all dressed the same.

“<Captain Mason!>” Seeing her superior, Magical Blue headed over to him.

Now he, too, would be privy to information on the proxy war. Chances were high he already knew about it, but either way, this meant it would get around. I’d have to take the death game into account whenever we spoke to the chief from now on.

“<Everyone around me suddenly vanished, sir! And then I was attacked. One of them had horns on his head, and the other one had wings on his back. I didn’t think I was going to make it, but then these people helped me!>”

“<I see.>”

The captain and Ivy were speaking in English. I had no idea what they were saying. I could guess, though, that she was reporting on the situation, given all her excited gesticulations. Her charming behavior reminded me how young she was and warmed my heart.

“<She just told me what happened,>” the captain said to us. “<I’d like to extend my thanks for saving her.>”

“<That’s all well and good, but have you seen our coworker?>” asked Ms. Futarishizuka. “<I’m sure you came because you saw her on TV, though you must already know what she looks like, since she was with us when we met at Atsugi.>”

“<Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate her since she was taken into the mountains.>”

“<If you’re hiding anything, humanity’s going to be in big trouble, you know,>” warned Ms. Futarishizuka, shooting a glance at Type Twelve.

Was she using the UFO’s presence to threaten him? Captain Mason looked troubled; he probably knew what she was implying. It appeared our senior colleague was still nowhere to be found.

“<I’m serious,>” he said. “<Please believe me.>”

“<Well, it doesn’t matter much what I think,>” she replied. “<The final decision is up to her.>”

Type Twelve offered no comment, but she was attentive to their conversation, as though she fully understood their English exchange. I found myself wishing she could provide some simultaneous interpretation, but I decided to hold back—that would probably be asking too much. The way things were shaping up, it seemed like I really needed to learn some English. Unfortunately, I was uniquely terrible at it.

“<Could I ask a question, sir?!>” Ivy chirped.

“<What is it, Lieutenant?>”

“<I’m curious about how you said I suddenly vanished.>”

“<Right. I’ll debrief you on that later when this is all over.>”

“<Yes, sir! Understood!>”

It seemed Magical Blue had raised a question after picking up on her commanding officer’s distress. She was young but very perceptive. That said, I still had no idea what they were saying.

All this useless corporate drone could do was bow and scrape to his coworker and ask her for the details. “Ms. Futarishizuka, I’m sorry to interrupt, but what are they talking about?”

“The magical girl seems rather distraught over what she was caught up in,” she explained.

“I see.”

Captain Mason and the others must not have been inside the Magical Barrier; otherwise, they’d have been pulled into the isolated space along with her. I assumed that Magical Blue had been on her own, acting independently.

Against normal psychics, magical girls were virtually invincible. It would be more efficient for her to locate and secure Miss Hoshizaki alone than to fight alongside Captain Mason and the other soldiers. That was probably the very reason Mason had brought her along.

But there were always exceptions.

Just then, someone appeared on the road near the foliage keeping us hidden.

The figure floated down out of the air right beside the angel’s disciple that Ms. Futarishizuka had defeated. His slender silhouette was backed by the glow of the moon, but his anime T-shirt and the long hair stretching down to his shoulders stood out like a sore thumb.

He seemed to notice us right as he landed. Immediately, he turned our way and groaned. “Welp. Not exactly who I was hoping to see.”

It was the nerd—the person I had most wanted to avoid.

Though we remained hidden in the woods, he was staring straight at us as he spoke. The final two Magical Beams fired at the demon had gone off after the isolated space dissipated. He must have come to see what was going on only to bump into us.

“I’d love to resolve things peacefully,” he said. “Any chance we can talk it out?”

We couldn’t see anyone with him. He’d arrived alone.

His landing heralded a spray of gunfire and psychic powers from the surrounding area, all aimed at him. Every projectile vanished before touching him, though—disappearing into thin air a few centimeters before making contact, as though sucked into some invisible bag. He was using psychic powers to protect himself, just like Magical Barrier and my otherworld spell.

The nerd looked around. “I wasn’t talking to any of you,” he said.

At that, all the bullets and psychic powers that had just vanished around him shot back out, their trajectory reversed. A moment later, we heard a succession of screams, assumedly from those who had fired.

I couldn’t see the victims in the darkness—but I didn’t notice anyone firing back, either.

“I guess this happened too quickly to recruit any decent psychics.”

How is he so strong? I thought. He’s like a final boss.

Collecting everything thrown at him and sending it back whenever he felt like it—it was too convenient to be real, but he’d made it happen. You saw this sort of scene a lot in anime and manga. It wasn’t clear exactly what form it was taking here, though.

Also, personally, I was seriously concerned about the state of the forest. All the nearby trees were ablaze thanks to the fire-type psychic powers flying this way and that. And given the situation, the fire department couldn’t very well show up to put them out. Precious woodland resources were being consumed. I was overcome with the urge to blast them with water in an attempt to put out the flames.

“<Shit,>” said Captain Mason. “<Just our luck to run into him…>”

“<Captain, isn’t he the one we fought up in space?>”

“<Yes, and he’s dangerous, Lieutenant. We can’t fight him—not in this situation.>”

“<U-understood, sir!>”

The other day, while we were freestyling back into the earth’s atmosphere, Magical Blue and the nerd had been duking it out. The former’s exchange with the captain was incomprehensible to me, but the tension on their faces made it easy enough to guess what they were discussing.

This is dangerous, I thought. Extremely dangerous.

Even the smile of the anime girl on the man’s shirt struck me as ghastly. I wondered what show she was from. If I’d looked it up beforehand, maybe I could have stalled for time by asking his opinion on it. I’d have to check with Ms. Futarishizuka when I got a chance.

“Hey, are you just gonna leave me hanging?” he said. “It’s freaking me out a little. Doesn’t have to be an essay. I saw you hiding there before—the magical girl’s beam lit you up. And I can hear you whispering to each other, too.”

Once again, he encouraged us to speak. If we ignored him now, he probably wouldn’t give us another chance—he’d just attack. I didn’t want to involve any of the others, so I rallied my courage and put myself in the line of fire.

“Allow me to apologize,” I said. “We’re pretty confused ourselves.”

“See, I knew you were there. And I knew I recognized you, too.”

I parted the branches in front of me and walked out onto the road. While normally the hard sensation of asphalt under my soles would have reassured me, my increased proximity to the nerd canceled out the effect. I ended up coming to a stop a few meters away.

“Ah, so all of you are on this mountain scavenger hunt, too, then?” he said.

“She is our coworker, after all.”

“She is, isn’t she? I figured I’d probably run into you sooner or later.”

“Why are you here, then?”

“Because my business partner scared me into coming. I mean—look, I’m alone. Running into you all could end in a party wipe. No point letting valuable subordinates die in vain, eh?”

“As a fellow subordinate, that’s the kind of decision I would hope for in a boss.” That sounded like the total opposite of our section chief. I was a little envious.

“Hey, if you don’t like where you’re working, you’re always welcome to join us,” he offered.

“A very attractive proposal, but I’d like to keep my current job for now.”

“You said the same thing last time.”

Considering what happened in space, I assumed his organization and those under Captain Mason’s command were like cats and dogs. In a situation like this, I wanted to avoid any dangerous topics. Shooting a glance back at Captain Mason’s group, I saw all of them glaring at the nerd, ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

“If you’re all on the job already,” he continued, “then maybe I’ll just go home.”

“Personally, I don’t see a need for you to concern yourself with our coworker,” I agreed politely, glancing back to the side of the road from which I’d come—Type Twelve was standing there. The nerd would have seen her aboard the UFO.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fascinated,” he replied, “but my task was only to secure your coworker. And you do seem to have made a bedfellow out of the person from the UFO. I assumed you left the ship on bad terms with her, just like the rest of us. Was I wrong?”

Apparently, he was still wary of the sparrow from our last encounter. It didn’t seem like he had any desire to engage us in battle. To my great relief, even the presence of Type Twelve didn’t seem to rouse any enthusiasm.

Since we still hadn’t found Miss Hoshizaki, I wanted to use my wits to settle things quickly. If worse came to worst and we did end up fighting him without Peeps to help, we’d lose for certain.

“By the way,” said the nerd, “your shoulder is looking a little lonely today.”

Crap. Did he figure it out? I thought.

He glanced around as he spoke—doubtless searching for Peeps. “Does the bird suffer from night blindness, perhaps?”

“Who can say? I’ve never asked him, so I’m not sure.”

“You know, I did a bunch of internet research after what happened. Apparently, there aren’t that many birds affected by night blindness. Among the more familiar varieties, chickens are, but that’s it. In fact, they’re the reason we call it being bird-eyed in Japan. Most birds can fly around just fine at night.”

During his casual monologue, something burst out from underneath his feet. It zoomed past me, then lanced straight at the people hidden just off the road to my back.

“Aaagh!” someone screamed almost instantly.

I whipped around. The sound had come from one of the camo-clad soldiers in Captain Mason’s group. A knife was now sticking out of his eyeball. Perhaps the nerd had picked it up along with the other projectiles a moment ago. The soldier writhed for a few seconds, then fell to the ground and began to spasm.

“Welp. That got through pretty easily.”

“……”

The nerd sounded almost gleeful. He must not have expected his attack to hit—he’d probably assumed it would bounce off.

“<Captain!>” cried Ivy. “<It went through the Barrier!>”

“<Retreat! Use the trees as cover! Get away from him!>”

The knife stuck in the fallen soldier’s eye had a very interesting design. From Magical Blue’s panic, I guessed it had pierced her barrier. But that meant it was no normal knife. Maybe it was a product of his fantasies. He’d used a weapon last time that could erase a person’s existence.

“Still not up for calling your partner?” he asked me.

He was really making this difficult. If I called Peeps on the phone, he’d head over. But I couldn’t instantly summon him or anything like that. In the mountains at night, it would take him a few minutes at least to locate us. Would we be able to hold out against the nerd’s attacks in the meantime?

I had a very bad feeling about this.

“If I called him, I think he’d come right away,” I said.

“Oh? Then maybe this is my chance.”

Another knife appeared out of nowhere, right in front of the nerd. It sported the same design as the kind that had stabbed Captain Mason’s subordinate. And this time, it flew toward me.

“Ack…”

I had my barrier spell up, but I didn’t know how much good it would do. Not much, I figured, considering the last one had punched through the magical girl’s defenses. Weapons that could pierce barriers were a cliché in RPGs, after all.

Immediately, I raised my hands to protect my face.

Then Ms. Futarishizuka burst out from the roadside and got in front of me.

“We draw the short stick every time these days, eh?”

The knife stabbed her through the palm. It seemed she’d protected me.

I’d applied the barrier spell to her, too, so I was now sure we wouldn’t be able to handle the nerd’s knives—not with my abilities, at least. That was probably why he’d used the same attack again: to verify. And I guessed Ms. Futarishizuka had the same goal in mind when she jumped in front.

“You never learn, do you, Shizu?”

“Well, this guy is my coworker.”

“Wait, are you serious about him?”

“Oh, trust me, I wish he was worth it. But this man is absolutely flaccid.”

“For real?”

The knife’s ability to pierce was terrifying, but the physical object didn’t seem to pose much threat. At least, not to Ms. Futarishizuka. She pulled out the blade, and the wound healed itself instantly. I probably would have been able to handle it with my healing spell, too. The knife’s only strong point was its piercing ability, but depending on where it hit, I might not have the time to use magic.

I started to wonder where he was getting this stuff. Maybe I ought to take the time to watch some anime or read some novels and manga to see if I could figure it out.

“Still,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “I can’t imagine you stand to gain much from picking a fight with us.” She used her eyes to point to Type Twelve, who was still at the side of the road.

Captain Mason and his group were already retreating, leaving behind the four of us—Ms. Futarishizuka, Type Twelve, Magical Pink, and me. Those hiding nearby were all gone now, thanks to the volley from before, and the surrounding area had grown quiet.

“Personally, I just want to shoot the stupid thing out of the sky,” replied the nerd. “I think trying to secure it is way more dangerous. What about all of you? The alien said she’s going to wipe out humanity. Don’t you want to make all that go away?”

Finally, we had his true intentions. Sooner or later, it seemed he planned to attack the UFO. The current situation had practically forced his hand. With Peeps absent, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him. In fact, he would likely end up fighting both the sparrow and Type Twelve if he let this chance slip by—a serious difficulty spike.

Despite his friendly nerd exterior, thinking back, he’d always been a bit wild and aggressive.

“That’s pretty rude,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “She’s right there, you know. Don’t you feel bad for her?”

“She flung us into outer space and declared war on us without even explaining what was going on.”

“Don’t you think it’s best we humans show her how patient and understanding we can be? Impatience punishes itself.”

Even now, Ms. Futarishizuka was ingratiating herself to Type Twelve. Both of them were trying to remove the alien from Earth, but their approaches were strikingly different.

The mark on the back of Futarishizuka’s hand probably had something to do with her attitude. If not for the curse threatening to eat away at her, she might have used this chance to defect. The thought reminded me how important it was to keep training at magic.

“You’re making me sad, Shizu,” said the nerd. “Don’t you remember how we once ate at the same table?”

“I don’t remember eating that much, now that you mention it,” Ms. Futarishizuka remarked.

“Ah, I know. You’re trying to get your crush to think you’re pure. You want him to think you’re a virgin.”

“Hey, he thinks you only go after virgins,” she said to me. “Shouldn’t you be denying that?”

“I don’t intend to deny any specific sexual proclivities,” I replied. “You may make whatever judgments you wish.”

“Wait, are you for real?” she said incredulously.

In all honesty, I didn’t care much about sex. That kind of relationship between a man and a woman was more trouble than it was worth.

“And the alien isn’t the only one I want to bring down, if you catch my drift,” said the nerd, ignoring Ms. Futarishizuka’s confusion.

Dozens of knives, the same kind he’d launched earlier, began to form a shape around him. Had his power created each one individually, or had he materialized an item that could copy other objects? I wasn’t sure what to think.

If it was the latter, it would imply a limitation to his psychic power—he could only bring so many fantasies into reality at once. But if it was the former, we were done for. We didn’t stand a chance against someone with quality and quantity on his side.

“You, magic girlie!” shouted Ms. Futarishizuka after seeing what was happening. “Join us!”

“Okay.”

Perhaps because we’d just helped rescue Magical Blue, Magical Pink simply agreed, despite the command having come from a psychic. Using Magical Flight, she floated up into the air and over to us.

I quickly used flight magic as well, lifting my body into the air. It didn’t matter who saw me—I no longer had the luxury to hold back. I decided to lift the ban on all my otherworldly magic.

“Let’s end this right here. You’ve been a real thorn in my side,” said the nerd, unleashing his knives. Once he’d spoken, the weapons all fired at once.

I was the main target—90 percent of them were headed my way. Barrier magic couldn’t block them, so I’d have to handle this another way. Using flight magic, I launched myself backward as hard as I could. At the same time, I unleashed a spell to make the asphalt below swell up. It formed a wall, two or three meters high, right in the weapons’ path.

But then the knives swerved to avoid it. Their movements were so vivid, so flowing—like bait balls of small fish forming clumps in the ocean. They popped up above the wall, before quickly reorienting to point at me where I stood behind it.

A moment later, they were after me again. I’d considered this possibility, too. Had he materialized a telekinetic psychic and had them stand by somewhere we couldn’t see? Or did the items he’d created have this sort of ability to begin with?

I didn’t know which it was, but that didn’t change what I had to do. I instantly flung my body up into the sky, positioning myself so that the swarm of knives was right between the nerd and me. I couldn’t see Ms. Futarishizuka or Magical Pink nearby. They were both busy escaping the knives, just like I was.

That meant I didn’t need to hesitate. I fired the laser beam spell I’d already prepared. Light engulfed the knives and kept going, headed straight for the nerd.

“Ugh…”

Its radiance lit up the entire area like it was daytime. It hurt my eyes, which were already adjusted to the dark. I was sure Captain Mason’s group had seen it clearly as they retreated.

I waited a few moments but no knives came through. Evidently, I’d gotten rid of them all. They might have been excellent at piercing barriers, but the blades themselves weren’t that durable, it seemed.

When the light of the beam spell faded, however, the nerd was still on the ground. It didn’t seem like he’d moved at all; he was standing in the same place. Bullets and fireballs were one thing—but could he absorb even the beam spell? I felt a cold sweat trickle down my back.

“Even without the bird, you still have plenty of moves in your arsenal,” he remarked. “What on earth is your psychic power? I never figured it out. I’m really racking my brain here. Since you’re about to die anyway, what do you say we compare notes?”

“Isn’t your psychic power something similar?” I asked him.

“You can’t possibly have the same one as me. Can you?”

“Who knows?”

“If you do, I really need to kill you right now.”

A moment later, the beam spell fired back—launched from a spot in front of the nerd and aimed directly at me.

He was reflecting it, as I’d feared. I barely avoided it with my flight spell—and only because I was prepared for the possibility. The ray stretched up and up, blasting high into the sky, before finally dissipating and vanishing. The only casualty was the top of a tree it had caught along the way.

I was out of options. He’d blocked the most powerful attack I had.

“Nwooohhh! Why are you following me?! Stay away!”

“I’ll shoot down the knives with Magical Beam.”

“Yes, and me along with them, I’ll bet…”

A short distance away, Magical Pink—dealing with the knives in the same way I had—was assisting Ms. Futarishizuka. With a volley of Magical Beams, she whittled down the weapons persistently following my colleague.

Come to think of it, what’s Type Twelve doing? I wondered. The version of her accompanying us was but one of many points of contact under her control. Even if this one was destroyed, she’d implied a replacement could be manufactured, so I hadn’t been worrying too much about her. Unlike us, she didn’t stand to lose everything, after all.

Curious, I glanced around and saw that, at some point, she’d moved onto the road. I couldn’t see any injuries. Several knives lay at her feet, their blades shattered. Had the point of contact done that—or one of her so-called terminals up in the sky? I wasn’t sure how, but she seemed to have dealt with the issue by physically breaking the weapons.

A moment later, she called out in a loud voice, “Sasaki, Futarishizuka, Pink One—please distance yourselves from the target as quickly as possible.”

Just then, I was several meters away from the nerd, but I had a really bad feeling about whatever was coming. Panicking, I ran as fast as I could.

Ms. Futarishizuka and Magical Pink did the same. The latter used Magical Flight to speed through the air like me. Ms. Futarishizuka dashed after her at full speed over the asphalt.

Then, as if we’d planned it in advance, all three of us flocked to Type Twelve. Beside her had to be the safest place here, right?

The alien’s next words were chilling. “Target locked. Terminal standing by above will now eradicate the enemy human.”

The nerd didn’t move.

Not a second later, brilliant light rained down from above.

Everything within a few meters of him was engulfed by the radiant torrent. The pillar of light reached from one side of the mountain road to the other, even extending past the asphalt to the mountain’s surface. It was like the magical girl or I had fired one of our beams from the air straight down to the ground.

I looked up. The ray of light extended from above the clouds and continued to rain down for more than ten seconds, causing the air around us to buzz and vibrate.

Eventually, Type Twelve said, “…Abandoning eradication of the target.”

“What? Are you serious?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka, startled. The magical girl and I were making the same expression.

As we looked on in bafflement, the glow raining down from the heavens began to fade, losing its strength. Like an open faucet being squeezed shut, the terminal’s attack came to an end. The beam’s rumbling presence disappeared, and the area fell quiet.

A deep hole marked the point the light had struck. From where we stood, we couldn’t even see the bottom.

But there, right above it, near the center—and I can’t say I was surprised—was the nerd. It didn’t look like he’d moved a single step. Despite the loss of solid ground, his body remained in the air via some sort of fantasy; he was standing just as before, in the very same place, as if nothing had happened.

Upon seeing him, Type Twelve said, “This human is scary. This human is hateful.”

“You’re far too quick to give up, girl!” exclaimed Ms. Futarishizuka. “Have a little more stamina, would you?!”

“I lack the requisite pampering. Right now, the loneliness in my heart is accelerating.”

“Aha, the truth comes out.”

“She said mechanical life-forms never lie,” I interjected. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Type Twelve’s heart was broken. Her mouth was twitching repeatedly, disrupting her perpetual poker face. I had no doubt this was a result of all the stress she was suddenly feeling. And yet she stayed where she was—she didn’t run. I appreciated that about her.

I, too, was reaching my limit. Our only option now was to contact Peeps. But would we have enough time to do that?

“I have a very, very bad feeling about this,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“What a coincidence,” I replied. “Me too.”

“Maybe we should run away for now—,” Magical Pink began.

“Sasaki, Futarishizuka,” interrupted Type Twelve, “I can ensure a swift escape by abandoning this point of contact—”

Right then, the exact same light we’d just witnessed suddenly fired at us from the nerd. The incredible brightness turned our vision white. I shut my eyes, unable to keep them open.

Trusting in my barrier spell, I held fast. Just in case, I put the same spell over Magical Pink as well.

After a few moments enduring the terminal’s reflected attack, the light past my lids began to dim; sensing it was dissipating, I opened my eyes again.

“Ah, we made it…,” breathed Ms. Futarishizuka.

“What did you do?” asked Magical Pink. She had been protecting herself the whole time with Magical Barrier. I assumed she was looking at me because she hadn’t felt anything hit it.

“I reinforced our defenses,” I explained. I had covered all four of us with my barrier spell.

“Even without the bird, you certainly know how to defend yourself,” mused Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Maybe,” I replied. “But I don’t have much in the way of attacks, unfortunately.”

“If only I had an opening to touch him.”

“He knows your tricks, so I doubt it’ll be easy.”

“You think?”

Fortunately, the road here was sloped, and the nerd was standing at a lower position than we were. He’d fired the beam at an angle. Though only slightly, his attack had bent up toward the sky and disappeared into the void. If we’d been in opposite positions, the ground beneath us would have been utterly destroyed.

“Sasaki, Futarishizuka, I propose an immediate withdrawal.”

“And to think you were once brave enough to declare war on all of humanity,” teased Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I am aware of the existence on your planet of a concept known as the PDCA cycle. When you do something, and obstacles arise, you immediately run a check, evaluate the results, and correct your mistakes. I had thought this common knowledge among you humans.”

“I can’t believe you’re bringing up some obscure term you found in an online dictionary,” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka. “What a show-off!”

“I have determined this is not a situation warranting jokes.”

“Then are you going to abandon our friend? I thought you wanted to thank her.”

“Ah…”

Even I wasn’t sure where Ms. Futarishizuka was going with this. Was she still trying to cover for my identity as a magical middle-aged man? Did she really think she could beat this nerd?

Type Twelve was on the verge of a mental breakdown. It wasn’t just her mouth anymore; her cheeks and brow had started trembling and shaking, too. The emotions flowing out of her core module were threatening to exceed the point of contact’s capacity. She looked as terrified as a puppy waiting for a shot at the vet.

“Losing one point of contact is no problem for you, right?”

“I…”

“She’s being considerate of us, you know. I think we should respond in kind.”

“Yes. That is an excellent point, Sasaki,” said Type Twelve, sounding improved.

Though she’d said she didn’t lie, I couldn’t be sure what the truth was. Communication between us was growing precarious. Our alliance was held together by a thread; it was like a candle in the wind—the wind being our superstrong opponent.

All of it could be blamed on the man in front of us.

Our biggest problem was that the nerd was simply too OP. In fact, I was beginning to think he was a much bigger threat than the UFO.

“Looks like you’re out of moves,” he said. “I guess it’s game over.”

Still floating above the hole, his body moved horizontally in our direction. He then alighted on the asphalt a few meters in front of us.

Judging by what he’d said, he probably let each of us attack him to see how the magical middle-aged man fought without Peeps and what sort of arsenal Type Twelve had at her disposal. If that was true, he certainly had guts. It seemed a little strange to me, though, in light of his instant surrender to the Java sparrow.

“I don’t think running will be very easy at this point,” noted Ms. Futarishizuka.

“The data accumulated inside this point of contact has already been fully uploaded to the mothership. By disconnecting the external link and shutting off the main power source, escape is possible. I can have the terminal standing by in the area simultaneously move outside the atmosphere.”

“You’re not trying to leave by yourself, are you?”

“I cannot deny that possibility.”

“If you do that, he’ll get his hands on your discarded point of contact. Are you sure that’s all right?”

“By activating the self-detonator installed in this point of contact, it can be blown to smithereens.”

“But wouldn’t that blow us to smithereens, too?”

“I believe protecting yourself from the explosion is possible with the defense you utilized before. And in an ideal situation, the blast will not only penetrate that human’s defenses but also deal damage to his body. In brief, it is a superb plan, excelling in both offense and defense.”

“All right, I get it. You want to escape no matter what. That shows a lot of spunk.”

Type Twelve had completely lost her will to fight. At this rate, I couldn’t see any chance of us winning, either. Our only hope was Ms. Futarishizuka’s energy drain. But the nerd would never let her near him, and the girl in the kimono seemed to have mostly given up on the idea already.

Meanwhile, Magical Pink was still raring to go.

“I will kill the psychic.”

“You know, in this situation, those words actually reassure me. How frustrating.”

It was just as Ms. Futarishizuka said—with her glare fixed on the nerd and her wand gripped tightly in her hand, the magical girl gave off an air of power and dependability far beyond her apparent years. Unfortunately for us, her defeat seemed all but assured.

While we were busy losing our cool, the nerd held out an arm and said, “I believe this will finish things.”

Knives appeared all around him—many more than before. I estimated three digits’ worth of them. They all glittered in the moonlight, terrifying but beautiful, too. And the closer I looked, the more I noticed blades of a different design, here and there.

Those were the ones he’d used against Peeps last time. They were absolutely vicious—if one of their edges drew even a little blood, they would erase your very existence.

“If I’m seeing things right,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “a few of those daggers won’t be giving him any experience points.”

“It certainly looks that way,” I agreed.

The item in question was from a game Ms. Futarishizuka was into. They didn’t affect bosses, and if you used them on basic enemies, you didn’t get any experience for it. I wondered what would happen if we managed to get classified as bosses, though I had no idea how we’d go about doing that. Could we get some title that would confer the status on us?

“Those have got to be meant for me,” she murmured.

“Are you classified as a boss?” I asked her.

“Before, I might have said yes. But I lost a lot of confidence after meeting you and that bird. At most, I think I’d be an early game mid-boss who reappears as a random enemy near the end.”

“But enemies like that have such high attack power, they can be even more of a struggle than some of the bosses, right?”

“Would you possibly mind scooping me up into your arms and carrying me away? To Karuizawa, perhaps?”

“What a coincidence. I was just thinking that was our only option.”

I have no confidence whatsoever against someone flinging thousands of knives everywhere, I thought. If we had any chance at all, it rested with the Starsage, who was waiting in the Karuizawa villa. If we can just get to him, maybe…

As I took a step toward Futarishizuka, something happened: A clear voice rang out through the darkness of the quiet mountain road.

“Sasaki! Make water!”

The familiar sound shook this corporate drone to his core. Those words—I’d heard them so many times. I almost obeyed them on reflex alone.

Wasn’t this exactly the person we were searching for?

I shifted my gaze toward the voice and saw Miss Hoshizaki weaving through the trees, heading in our direction. Her clothes were covered in dirt, with what looked like splashes of blood here and there. Scrapes and bruises covered her limbs and cheeks; she looked like she’d really been through it.

Surprisingly, she seemed to have escaped her captors on her own. Or maybe she’d been released from the car just before it exploded and caught fire.

She was about halfway between us and the nerd; I assumed she’d seen Type Twelve’s bombardment and headed over. You probably could have seen that pillar of light from the next prefecture over.

“Make as much as you possibly can!” she cried. “Fill the area!”

“All right.” Following her instructions, I used my magic to create water.

Once, before I’d learned flight magic, I’d been plummeting from the otherworld’s sky, only to save myself by using everything I had to shoot out huge streams of water. This time, I pushed out even more than back then, aiming it straight in front of me, from my higher vantage point.

A huge torrent of water splashed down onto our surroundings, like a big swimming pool had been turned on its head. I narrowed the scope of it to the nerd, excluding the area where Miss Hoshizaki stood. Otherwise, I might have crushed her with the weight of the water.

My hope that this would wash away the knives was naive, however. None of the floating weapons moved a millimeter. The same went for the nerd himself, who was using his psychic powers to stock up the water pouring on him. His clothes weren’t even wet.

The water that he didn’t stock continued to flow downward, flooding the entire mountain road. I doubted even a typhoon making landfall would turn the place into this much of a swamp.

“You,” said the nerd once he saw Miss Hoshizaki. “You’re the one who caused all this. What have you been doing this whole time?”

I thought she’d make her move right away once she had her water, but she didn’t. All the water I’d created just kept making the surroundings wetter and wetter. She didn’t move it, or freeze it, or anything.

If there was one thing worth keeping an eye on, though, it was our feet. A puddle on the road now connected Miss Hoshizaki to the nerd. Their shoes were soaked. But I really doubted she could do anything just by bending a puddle of water to her will.

What was her plan?

The nerd seemed to be suspicious as well. He looked around, sighing. “Playing with water now? You got my shoes soaking wet.”

“Don’t mess with my juniors,” she said.

A portion of the knives aimed at us swung around to point at Miss Hoshizaki.

Just as they did, it happened—suddenly, with a wmphhh, the nerd’s body burst apart. It was one hell of a sight.

In an instant, all his parts scattered, like a bomb had gone off inside him. A huge amount of blood, scraps of flesh, and internal organs splattered all around, smacking onto the ground with awful, sticky noises. The vivid color of the intestines was grotesque.

A few scraps landed near us. Miss Hoshizaki, who had been closer, ended up covered in blood—and yet she stood there calmly, looking at the nerd’s remains.

She didn’t seem disturbed in the least. It must have been her.

What I didn’t understand was how.

It was Ms. Futarishizuka, standing right next to me, who offered an answer to my question. “Did your power level up?”

“You got it in one,” she replied. “Not that I’d expect any less from you.”

“If you can now freely manipulate the fluid in someone else’s body, that’s a big upgrade.”

“To be precise, it’s more like I gained the ability to manipulate it across thin barriers, such as human skin. I could control spit and blood from wounds already.”

“And you could access his bodily fluids through the water underneath us?”

“That’s right.”

Miss Hoshizaki’s psychic power used to be the ability to control any water she directly touched. Now she could do the same thing through barriers of a certain thickness. In this case, she’d used the puddle on the road, gone through the man’s soaked shoes, and arrived at his skin.

And as a result, he’d exploded.

Given that the mess of flesh was still steaming, she’d probably caused all his fluids to instantly boil. The skin of his face had been ripped off his skull in the blast and now lay on the asphalt. It was terrifying.

Incidentally, all the knives he’d created had vanished when he blew up.

“And what have you been up to?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“If you’re all here, you must know about me getting kidnapped,” said Miss Hoshizaki.

“Yes, though it’s a long story.”

“We saw the recording from a surveillance camera set up near the scene,” I explained.

Now that the nerd was confirmed dead, Miss Hoshizaki came over to us.

As she drew closer, I felt my expression stiffen. Her attack just now had been vicious.

But once I calmed down a little, I realized my own sparrow could probably do something similar. In that light, it was a little silly for me to be afraid of my senior’s new powers. Thinking of my pet bird naturally soothed my tension, too. Thanks, Peeps.

“Once we reached this mountain road,” she told us, “someone else attacked the car I was in. Then they dragged me out and took me deeper into the woods. They held me down, pointed a gun at me, and said a bunch of stuff in English…”

According to Miss Hoshizaki’s explanation, she’d been traveling in the minivan that exploded and caught fire, just as we’d thought. It seemed a different group had already kidnapped her by the time we arrived.

“I was so desperate to survive that I unconsciously used my power.”

“And made them explode?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka. “Like you just did with him?”

“That’s right.”

I’d asked her once in the past whether she could manipulate the blood in someone’s body by touching their skin. She’d told me no, but that she was working hard to make it possible. And now, faced with an emergency, at the very last moment, those efforts had borne fruit.

“After that, I was totally lost,” she went on. “I was starving and parched—and thought for sure I’d wither up and die. And then that big pillar of light came out of the sky, right? I knew I was grasping at straws, but I figured I’d come over anyway.”

“Then my action was correct, after all,” said Type Twelve. I saw her nostrils flare somewhat. She must have really been craving that affirmation.

“You did that?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Hoshizaki, your thinking is correct.”

“Well, then thank you. You saved me.”

“Ah…! Hoshizaki, those words are very good.”

“A-are they?”

“They soothe the loneliness in my heart very effectively.”

“Quick to change your tune, I see,” murmured Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I was not wrong for believing in your advice, Hoshizaki.”

Type Twelve seemed to think even more highly of Miss Hoshizaki now. That was a much better outcome than the opposite. In fact, maybe we could simply leave the alien in her hands for the time being. Though with Miss Hoshizaki’s younger sister in the picture, their relationship would need skillful mediation. I’d have to discuss it with Ms. Futarishizuka later.

“By the way, could I have some water to drink, Sasaki?” she asked, walking over to me.

“Well, sure…,” I replied, producing some.

She deftly controlled it and began slaking her thirst. For some reason, the gesture struck me as a little erotic, but maybe that was just my imagination. At the moment, my senior colleague seemed much more mature than usual.

Next to us, Ms. Futarishizuka—her eyes still focused on the nerd’s remains—said, “I never thought he’d die.”

“You knew that psychic, didn’t you?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Even on a global scale, he’s rank A, and a high A, at that,” Ms. Futarishizuka pointed out. “You don’t know how many have tried to do him in, do you? This is one for the history books.”

“W-well, I couldn’t help it. It looked like he was about to kill the rest of you…”

“You rescued us from a very dangerous situation,” I said. “You have my sincere gratitude.”

“I have nothing to say but my honest thanks. No teasing this time,” agreed Ms. Futarishizuka. “You saved our bacon, seriously.”

“Sasaki’s one thing, but it feels weird to have you thanking me so earnestly.”

“It’s a special occasion. Just take it as intended, all right?”

But we only had a few moments to rest before something began to happen nearby.

The nerd’s flesh and blood strewn about the road—the pieces on the ground, big and small, all floated into the air, radiating a faint light, and began to reassemble in one place. The sight of the intestines squirming under the moonlight was grotesquely vivid.

“Wait, what the…?!” exclaimed Ms. Futarishizuka.

“He’s not about to revive, is he?” I asked. “The parts are all going to the same place.”

“I can think of plenty of revival items like that, but come on! This is against the rules!”

Certain items could automatically resurrect a dead character when equipped. Even I could think of a few off the top of my head. Special rings or pendants, for example, that bestowed the effect on a character when worn.

Was that why the nerd had seemed so confident?

“Can psychics bring back the dead?” asked Magical Pink.

“I’ve never heard of one who could,” I replied.

“Even if one existed, we’d never hear about it,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “We’re at the bottom of the ladder.”

As we’d anticipated, the scattered flesh and blood continued to gather in one spot.

Once it was all together, it began to writhe and squirm—much like Abaddon’s meat form—as it regained a humanoid shape. Yet another terrible sight. It looked like pieces of a human-shaped model kit were floating through the air, reconstructing the whole.

When this kind of thing happened in games, an angel or something would enter from off-screen and bathe a character in a pale glow, resurrecting them immediately. What happened to all that? The process occurring before us wasn’t immediate, but it was still fast; in no time at all, the flesh had regained its original shape.

In mere minutes, the nerd had been revived right where he’d been standing before. His eyes opened, and then he spoke.

“…This feeling must mean my auto-revive triggered.”

“So that’s why you’ve been on your high horse, eh?” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka.

Apparently, she’d had doubts about the man’s attitude as well. He was usually much more careful.

“I don’t remember the moment I died, though,” he said. “Did I go down before realizing what happened? But that would mean this woman has power equal to a ToD—or even an LoD, depending on the situation…”

“And I’d thank you not to underestimate her, hmm? She’s pretty much the strongest.”

“W-wait! Don’t start making stuff up about me,” complained Miss Hoshizaki.

“I’m only telling the truth. You outclassed me just now.”

Unfamiliar words were spilling from the nerd’s lips. ToD and LoD. They seemed to be some kind of specialist lingo used among psychics. “What is a ToD?” I asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Touch of death,” she explained. “It refers to a psychic power that can kill with a single touch.”

“I see.”

Then LoD probably meant “look of death” or something. Did psychics like that exist? Ones who could kill at a glance? The thought was terrifying. But with Miss Hoshizaki’s new powers, if it was raining, she could potentially pull off the same thing.

“Yeah, I don’t like my chances anymore. I’ll give up and go home like a good little boy,” the man grumbled after hearing our exchange.

It seemed he’d acknowledged Miss Hoshizaki as a threat. I remembered his fight against Peeps—when he’d decided to flee, he did so incredibly quickly. It seemed he was partial to making snap decisions.

“Oh, you thought we’d let you?”

And Ms. Futarishizuka was just as quick. As she shouted enthusiastically, she glanced at Miss Hoshizaki. Just a moment ago, she’d been ready to flee, and now she was trying to kill the guy. It was very impressive.

“Get him!” she called out to Miss Hoshizaki.

“But what’s the point if he just revives again?” she objected.

“Then you can just keep going, as many times as it takes!”

“Oh, very scary. I think I’ll be leaving now,” said the nerd, disappearing almost instantly. I was reminded of Peeps’s teleportation magic.

If he’d prepared an escape route, then he’d probably foreseen an encounter with the Java sparrow. It was difficult to say for sure whether he’d envisioned engaging us in battle, though.

A moment later, Miss Hoshizaki’s power proved the nerd had done as he said. “I can’t sense him anywhere nearby. It seems he escaped.”

“Ugh. We almost had him,” said Ms. Futarishizuka bitterly. Though he was her former employer, there seemed to be no love lost between them.

Meanwhile, after hearing Miss Hoshizaki’s remark, Type Twelve went over to her. Looking her straight in the eye, she said, “I feel very pleased that you are safe, Hoshizaki.”

“O-oh,” she replied. “It seems like you’ve had a change of heart.”

“Yeah, right,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “She was the first one of us to try to run away.”

“Mechanical life-forms do not lie. Hoshizaki, I request an opportunity to defend myself from that woman’s claim.”

Despite her “do not lie” spiel, she was sure trying to make herself look good in front of our coworker. Was this sudden display of subtlety a manifestation of her newfound emotions?

“Anyway,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “You can kill people instantly by boiling their bodily fluids now? That’s a pretty brutal power.”

“As if you have any right to talk,” Miss Hoshizaki replied.

“Oh, but my power is so much more—how should I put it—elegant? Highbrow? Something like that.”

“It’s all the same in the end!”

You’re equally terrifying, I thought. I knew they’d both glare at me if I said that out loud, though, so I kept my mouth shut. Miss Hoshizaki had been frightening before, and now she was even scarier. She had begun to make me slightly uneasy.

As we were reveling in our mutual survival, Magical Pink suddenly left her place next to me.

“I will kill the psychics,” she said.

After seeing Type Twelve head straight for Miss Hoshizaki, Magical Pink approached the alien, brandished her wand, and asked, “Are you a psychic?”

“No. To state my name in accordance with the rules of your language, I am Independent Multipurpose Early-Model Frontier Sector-Pioneering Long-Range Space Cruiser Type Three-Seven-Six-Nine. However, this point of contact possesses a unique manufacturing name.”

“…Early-Model…Multipurpose…Space Cruiser?”

“And when you point that stick at me, it makes my heart feel lonely.”

“……”

Magical Pink froze up at the unexpected introduction. She was probably having trouble grasping the situation. We couldn’t handle any more fighting at this point, so I—the magical middle-aged man—decided to mediate.

“She’s an android,” I told the magical girl. “A robot. Have you seen the news recently? There have been stories of people all over the world seeing unidentified flying objects. Well, all of those belong to this girl.”

“……”

Magical Pink seemed suspicious of my explanation but quickly asked a follow-up question. “Why would a robot look like a child?”

“This point of contact was manufactured for the purpose of communicating with humans. A survey of significant length conducted on human civilization showed that this form would be optimal in seeking out more harmonious communication.”

Type Twelve’s answer came immediately. So that’s why, I thought, keenly understanding her logic.

Fortunately, Magical Pink lowered her wand right away.

“Look, Sasaki,” said Miss Hoshizaki, “can we go somewhere else already? I really need a shower.”

“Hoshizaki, I would like to respect your viewpoint. I will prepare a terminal for transport at once.”

“Why only her?” grumbled Ms. Futarishizuka. “Why do you only become so brisk, so animated, when it comes to her?”

“Come on, Ms. Futarishizuka,” I said. “It’s not doing any harm.”

Not only had Miss Hoshizaki given Type Twelve useful advice, but she’d even rescued her from a dangerous situation. The alien’s affection for our coworker was skyrocketing. Miss Hoshizaki didn’t know the circumstances, though, so the sudden friendliness left her at a loss for how to react.

Ignoring them, the magical girl said, “I want to kill psychics, but I’ll go home for today.”

“Actually,” I interrupted, “if it’s okay with you, why don’t you come—?”

Miss Hoshizaki had saved her again, too, and the magical girl had probably decided to spare her. Despite my attempt to get her attention, she completely ignored me. Her Magical Field appeared and expanded, showing a blackness even darker than our surroundings, and she hoisted her injured body through it.

Every time I watched her go, she looked sad and lonely. Her solitary view of the world was bleak to the extreme, and her serious, gloomy outlook pained me.

After she disappeared, the rest of us boarded Type Twelve’s terminal and left the chaotic site behind.