Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume20 Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 5===

“Oh, dear. This might be our worst mistake yet. I think we joined the wrong side of this fight,” said Alisa Martini Sweet inside their amphibious armored truck.

“B-but it’s too late to change sides now,” protested the ordinary young man, trembling.

“Gh!?”

“Oh, did that hurt, Alisa? S-sorry!!”

Everyone knew he couldn’t relax his grip while pale and trembling like that. Even the timid young man himself.

Alisa Martini Sweet’s right arm had been broken when the force of several simultaneous blasts had rocked the floating armored truck hard enough to slam her against the wall. This wasn’t a hospital and it had no real medical equipment, so they had made do by removing the extendible stock from a submachinegun and wrapping a bandage around that as a makeshift splint. For some reason she stubbornly refused to take the general-use painkiller used by the military (which was a lot stronger than the commercial variety).

The triplet was pale and sweating but also thinly smiling for some reason.

In fact, she had a string of drool dripping from her corner of her mouth.

“Yes, yes. Heh heh heh,” she laughed, breathing somewhat heavily. “A single broken arm is a small price to pay for all the attention it gets me. Too bad, Orsia and Rica. He’s mine today☆”

“Bff!? What is wrong with you?”

“Look, I can prop my boobs up on my arm sling. Behold the power of the biggest boobs in the family.”

“Again, what is wrong with you!? You’re just going to hurt your broken arm that way! A-anyway, no one likes someone who goes back on their word. We chose this path, so we just have to stick with it to the end!”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Then Rica Martini Medium, who had her upper body sticking out of the hatch in the ceiling, gathered their attention by kicking the ladder she stood on.

“I’ve found her. The Legitimacy Kingdom Pilot Elite is floating in the ocean. Dunno if she’s alive or not, but we can still collect her and earn their favor.”

“(Medium, what if we turn her over to the Information Alliance as a gift instead?)”

“(Dry, don’t be ridiculous. An Elite without an Object is fairly worthless. The Manhattan 000 is too powerful, so she wouldn’t be much use in the fight anymore. And if she’s dead, she might not even be worth slicing open to study. …Besides, I seriously doubt our kind friend down there will agree to that kind of coldhearted negotiation.)”

That was a no then.

And they would get nothing if there was no one left to negotiate with, so they would have to continue resisting and protect everyone from the Manhattan 000’s deadly attacks.

They were willing to sacrifice their own lives, but they could not let that helpless and ordinary young man die.

For now, they had to retrieve that Pilot Elite.

The young man nervously tapped the control lever.

“U-um, should I bring us in closer?”

“She’d be reduced to mincemeat if the propeller caught her, so no. We’ll climb up top and find something to use as a net…or if we can’t find one, a long stick will do.”

On the triplets’ guidance, the young man climbed up onto the amphibious armored truck’s roof and noticed the occasional glimpse of a distinctive blue coloration between the waves.

But could they reach her from here?

She was too far to crouch down and reach by arm, but then Orsia Martini Dry handed him something.

“Here, use this.”

“A-an anti-materiel rifle!?”

“It’s a fishing rod☆ Or maybe a hand net? I say it’s 50/50 she’s alive or dead, but stretch out and reach the tip toward that Elite. You’re good at goldfish scooping, right? You always win it for us.”

That weapon could shoot down the more thinly-armored varieties of attack helicopter in a single shot, but this was about all it was good for in the fight against the Manhattan 000. The young man was left speechless by the overwhelming scale of it all, but he still took the anti-materiel rifle, crouched down, and reached it out toward the dark ocean.

Noticing something, the triplets exchanged a nod and then shoved him into the ocean.

He was confused until the end.

The three girls in love smiled thinly just before a blast from the Manhattan 000 mercilessly eliminated the armored truck floating in the ocean.