“Dyne! Move to the right more….”
At that point in her shout.
The two Laser Blaster users again appeared from their cover, aiming at the standing Dyne and firing without mercy arrows of light.
The range was way too close. The heat rays passed through Dyne’s defense field and hit his body one after another.
Dyne looked at Sinon for an instant. The he faced forward -
“Uooo!!”
With that single cry, he started running straight forward.
A rain of light bullets attacked Dyne. He dodged, slipped through, while fiercely dashing. But of course, he couldn’t avoid all the shots.
The last few seconds, Dyne pulled the protection talisman replacement Plasma Grenade from his waist and threw it at their cover. At the same time his HP was all gone, while his avatar was still facing away from Sinon, he broke into numerous polygon pieces and scattered away.
Subsequently, the world was dyed in white flash.
A giant hammer of God impacted the ground. Green white energy flow went crazy, a huge dust storm went up. Mixed in that, a Blaster user’s body flowed in the air, before it reached ground, it was smashed and annihilated.
- Nice Guts!
She gave a short elegy to Dyne who exited the battle, then squinting her eyes from the dust and quickly checked the battle field.
One of her two teammates who took the left wing seem to have been killed by the Minigun, and the Blaster user over there seem to have disappeared.
The right wing, due to Dyne’s self-destruction, was a mess, he took one enemy attacker with him, the one left over should be stunned.
Then - in the gradually dispersing dust, a huge silhouette approached her in a straight line.
If this continued, it would be Behemoth and her fighting face-to-face. But at that distance, her sniper rifle couldn’t win against the heavy machine gun.
She had to find a way to enter the Minigun’s blind spot while she was in a position to fire. But in one-on-one front fighting, there’s no blind spot or shit…
- No.
Sinon held her breath for a moment. While the dust that cover everything caused by Dyne’s grenade was still here, Behemoth couldn’t tell exactly where she was. Of course she couldn’t snipe since she couldn’t see him clearly either, but maybe she could go to the one place in this area where that bullet storm couldn’t reach.
While thinking that, she turned around and fiercely dashed out. She headed for the broken and fallen building ruin at the rear of the battlefield.
Jumping through the entrance, she couldn’t see that the rear of the building had collapsed and the yellow sky was visible, but she aimed for the right hand wall - there were stairs going up. While trying not to step on the broken tiles and make a noise, she ran carefully.
On the metal staircase, she should step lightly, but she went up without bothering to. She kicked the wall like a dancer to change her direction and went farther up.
She reached the fifth floor in less than twenty seconds, the stairs ended there. There was a huge window on the left.
From here, she should have a few seconds to take a sniping position without Behemoth noticing.
While thinking that, Sinon placed the Hecate II against her shoulder and looked out the window down at the battle field.
Suddenly her vision was painted red.
A few tens of meters below, Behemoth raised his Minigun to the maximum height and aimed straight at Sinon. He had read her. Her thought and battle plan, everything.
She had no time to retreat or lay down.
So strong. He was a real GGO player, no, a soldier.
However, this opponent was exactly the enemy that Sinon wished to fight. Kill him. Have to kill him.
She didn’t hesitate. Without taking a sniping position, she put her right foot on the window sill and jumped right out.
At the same time, like a burning flame, a flash of energy wave came rushing up from the ground. Whack!! Intense shock came from below Sinon’s left knee. Her avatar’s leg was blown away, and her HP bar went down a lot.
However, she was still alive. She flew past the Minigun’s line of fire and danced in space. She was directly above Behemoth’s imposing stance.
He probably want to shoot till he ran out of bullets, so he backed up, trying to keep Sinon in his firing line. But he couldn’t reach her. For a Minigun that was hung on a rail on his back, there’s no way it could aim directly above.
While falling, Sinon held Hecate II against her shoulder and peered through the scope.
Her view was full of Behemoth’s rough face. In that face, the usual smile disappeared. He showed his teeth, with surprise and anger burning lantern in his eyes.
Sinon barely noticed that her own mouth moved.
What appeared was a smile. Savage, cruel, cold-hearted smile.
While falling, she was not stable enough to shoot far, but the distance was way too close. When her gun muzzle was about one meter from Behemoth’s head, her green Bullet Circle shrunk, and fixed on the center of the man’s face.
“The End!”
While whispering, she pulled the trigger.
From the finger of the Goddess of the underworld, in this world, the largest energy spear from one bullet was released.
That instantly pierced a huge hole through Behemoth’s face and upper body, going deep into the rubble ground.
Subsequently, after the explosive roaring sound passed, Behemoth’s huge cylindrical body disassembled and scattered.
Chapter 4
The moment she stepped through the school gates, a dry and chill wind blew against her face.
Asada Shino paused, tightly re-wrapping her white muffler.
Wearing cell-frame glasses, with more than half her face hidden in the fabric of the muffler, she once again started walking. She continued at a brisk pace on the sidewalk covered by autumn leaves, heaving a small sigh from deep within her chest.
…Now, out of the total 608 days for 3 years worth of high school, 156 days have passed.
A quarter at last. With that thought, she was staggered by the asceticism that was imposed on her for much too long. However, if she were to add in middle school, then already 60 percent of the days had faded away into the past. It will end, someday… it will end, someday. She repeated those words in her mind like a mantra.
Of course, although graduation day was approaching, it wasn’t as if she had something she wanted to do or someone she wanted to become. Simply, her current self was in the middle of being forced to belong; she wanted to be free from the group known as «high school students».
Attending that asylum-like place day by day, listening to the lectures of lethargic teachers, exercising and doing other things alongside a bunch of people whom she doubted had changed in even a single way since childhood. What kind of meaning was there in doing any of that? Shino really could not understand. In very exceptional circumstances, there were also teachers who gave lessons which she found meaningful, and there were also students who should be respected. But to Shino, none of their existences were essential.
Shino had once told her grandparents, now her legal guardians, that she wanted to work immediately or train for employment at a vocational school, rather than go to high school. Her old-fashioned grandfather had turned red with anger, while her grandmother had cried, saying that she wanted Shino to properly go to a good school and marry into a good family, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to stand apologizing to Shino’s father. She had little choice but to study desperately, getting admitted into a fairly well-known metropolitan high school in Tokyo, but she was surprised when she entered and got a look. There was essentially no change at all from the public middle school in her hometown.
In the end Shino, just as she had in middle school, routinely counted the remaining days as she journeyed out of the school gates each day.
Shino lived alone in an apartment located halfway between the school and the JR train station. Although
it was only the size of six tatami mats, no larger than a small household kitchen, it was nice and conveniently situated right next to the shopping district.
The shopping district at half-past three in the afternoon still did not have many people in sight.
First, Shino browsed through the shelf display of the bookstore. Though she found a new book from her favorite author, she held back because it was a hard cover copy and left the store. If she reserved it online, in about a month she could borrow it from the municipal library.
Next, she went to the stationery store to buy an eraser and a grid-ruled notebook. After checking the remaining amount in her purse, she headed to the supermarket located in the middle of the shopping district while thinking about the menu for dinner. Naturally, Shino’s dinners were simple and basic meals. As long as the balance of nutrition, calories, and cost was met, taste and appearance were of secondary importance.
While thinking of making carrot and celery soup along with a tofu hamburger, she passed the front of the game center next to the supermarket she was about to enter.
“Asada~—”
In the space between the two shops, a voice called out to Shino from the narrow alley.
Recoiling reflexively, Shino slowly turned 90 degrees to her right.
Three female students, dressed in uniforms identical to Shino’s—except with a significant difference in skirt length—stood in the alley. One of them was squatting down and manipulating her cell phone. The other two were leaning against the wall of the supermarket, smiling while watching Shino.
While Shino remained silent, one of them who was standing made an arrogant gesture, jerking with her chin.
“Come over here.”
But Shino did not move, asking in a small voice.
“…What?”
At that moment, another one of them approached and, without hesitation, grabbed Shino’s right wrist.
“Whatever, just come.”
With that, she was pulled before she could even respond.
Shino was shoved in the direction of the alley and out of sight of the shopping district, and the squatting student looked up at her. The leader of the three was a girl named Endou. Her eyes, suspended by black eyeliner, and her pointed chin gave off the impression of some sort of predatory insect.
Contorting her glittered lips into a smile, Endou spoke.
“Sorry, Asada. We just sang so much karaoke, and now we have no money to ride the train home. We’ll pay you back tomorrow, so lend us some just for now.”
She put up a finger. She meant not a hundred, not a thousand, but ten thousand yen.
They sang and sang but it wasn’t even twenty minutes since the end of the class, all three of them even had cards for the regular train fare, and, furthermore, why take as much as ten thousand yen just for the train fare? With that, Shino had listed the logical discrepancies in her mind in quick succession, but would not voice her thoughts.
It was the second time these three had bluntly requested money from her. Last time, she had refused by saying that she did not have any.
While considering that playing the same hand would have a very low chance of success, Shino replied.
“There’s no way I would have so much.”
Endou’s smile disappeared for a moment, and then reappeared. “Then, go withdraw some more.”
“…”
Shino silently walked toward the shopping district.. They probably wouldn’t follow her to the bank where other people could see anyway. Who would honestly be stupid enough to do something like coming back if you could just leave—as she thought that, Endou’s words continued.
“The bag, leave it here. Your purse, too. As long as you have your card it’s okay, right?”
Shino stopped and turned around. Though Endou’s lips didn’t change from the shape of a smile, those two narrow eyes lit up—like an excited cat toying with its prey.
These three people, she had once believed them to be her friends. When she remembered that, Shino could not forgive her own folly.
In moving away from the countryside, she had left behind everyone she once knew. And after entering high school, Shino had nothing in common with her classmates, having no shared interest to talk about, and so remained silent everyday. Endou and her friends were the first to reach out to her.
After they invited her to eat lunch with them, the four of them eventually stopped at fast food restaurants on the way home from school. Shino mostly just listened to their conversations. Even though she secretly couldn’t stand what they talked about at times, she was still happy. Endou and company were her first friends in a long time who were unaware of «that incident». She had believed, if it was at this school, she could become a normal student.. Shino did not learn the truth until much later. The three had only approached her after seeing her address on the class register and guessing that she lived alone.
‘Can we go to your house to play?’ When they asked her that, Shino had immediately agreed. Her apartment had been praised and admired by Endou and her friends, surrounded by snacks and chatting until it was dark.
The next day, and even the days after that, they came to Shino’s apartment.
Before long, the three of them used Shino’s room to change into casual clothing, then ride the train to go play. One day, they left their belongings at Shino’s room and, from that day on, the clothes of the three began to occupy her small closet.
Shoes. Bags. Cosmetics. Endou and her friends’ personal belongings began to increase more and more. By the start of May, the three of them would go out to play and return drunk, and then even stay overnight just like that.
Finally, at some point, Shino had timidly complained that if they came here too often, she would be troubled if she couldn’t study.
Endou simply responded, “We’re friends right?” And the next day, they requested a spare key.
Then, it was on that Saturday in late May.
While Shino was standing in front of her door after coming home from the library, she heard loud laughing voices echoing from inside her room. It was not just the voices of Endou and her friends.
Shino held her breath to listen carefully. The thought of checking her own room was absurd, an act she did not want to do. Clearly, she heard the laughter of several men.
In her own room, there were men she did not know. With such a thought, Shino cowered in fear. It was followed by a burst of anger. She had finally realized the truth.
She walked down the stairs of the apartment, using her cell phone to call the police. Though the police officer that came seemed to be perplexed by the stories told by both parties, Shino had intently repeated, “I don’t know them.”
“For the time being we’ll go to the police station,” the police officer told Endou, who then shot a terrible look at Shino.
“Hmph, I see,” Endou responded, packed up her stuff, and left the room.
Retaliation came quickly.
Using devil-like investigative abilities, unheard of for their usual group, Endou had looked up the reason Shino lived by herself: five years ago in a far away prefecture, she was involved in the «incident» that has almost been forgotten even on the net. Her past was exposed to the whole school. The students willing to talk to Shino disappeared completely, and even the teachers avoided looking directly at her.
Everything returned to the same as it was back in middle school.
But Shino thought that would be fine.
Her weakness of wanting a friend had clouded her eyes. There is no one who can save you but yourself. She have no choice but to get stronger through her own power, to overcome the wounds left by that incident. In order to do that, friends were not needed. Rather, enemies were fine. Enemies to fight - everything around her, enemies.
After a gulp, Shino took a deep breath, and looked straight into Endou’s eyes.
A dangerous light dwelled in those two narrow eyes. This time the smile disappeared completely. Endou spoke in a low voice.
/> “What? Hurry up and go already.”
“I don’t want to.”
“…Huh?”
“I don’t want to. I have no intention of lending you any money.”
Without averting her gaze, Shino replied.
Such a firm rejection would provoke even more hostility and malice. Despite knowing this, Shino would not follow their request. To follow their request was to run away and betray a weak resolve, something she didn’t want to do. Not because it was Endou, but because she did not want to show herself «a weak self». To become strong, she spent the last five years thinking like this. If she yielded here, then those efforts would have been in vain.
“You bitch… don’t you dare look down on me.”
With her right eye twitching, Endou took a step forward. The other two girls quickly circled behind Shino, surrounding her from a close range.
“—I’m leaving now, so move aside.” Shino said in a low voice. No matter how much they threatened her, Endou did not have the guts to take real action. These girls were just normal, good children when at home. They should have learned from before not to make it into a police issue.
But.
Endou was very familiar with Shino’s weak point—the one spot Shino couldn’t defend.
The fancy color on her lips shined as a mocking smile grew.
Endou slowly raised her right fist and pointed it toward the bridge of Shino’s glasses. She extended her thumb and index finger from her fist, forming a child’s imitation of a handgun. A silly, childish caricature.
However, with only that, Shino’s whole body was enveloped by a chilling sensation.
She gradually lost strength in both of her legs. Her balance felt distant. In her eyes, the alley began to lose its color in contrast to Endou’s finger before her. Shino could not take her eyes off the index finger’s long nail with a glossy shine. Her heartbeat quickened, a high-frequency sound rang in her ears, increasing in pitch rapidly…
“Bang!”
Endou suddenly called out. Almost simultaneously, Shino let out a blood-curdling scream. She could not stop the trembling coming from the core of her body.