Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume1 Chapter3 (section)

===9: Heavy Body, Heavy User===

That special combat unit was called Samurai Armor Mk. III – Mountain Beast.

All the necessary armor and motors had been added on atop the human body. That had “just so happened” to make them enormous and it had been declared a success. The wearer’s flesh and blood had gone through a unique change to endure the internal pressure and overall weight, so their body had completely fused with the artificial muscles on the armor’s interior surface and any overhauls or updates to the device literally required major surgery. The armor was not simply removed; it had to be cut off and peeled away. There was no dividing line between flesh and steel and it was the exterior armor panels that divided inside from outside. That was how dedicated they were to combat. Those obsessed freaks had started to forget that they were even human. Protecting their family’s honor and displaying valor in combat was only an excuse at this point.

Those berserkers had so fused with their armor that there were urban legends saying they would produce flesh and steel children if they were to reproduce.

According to their specs, those monsters could instantly move their 600kg weight at speeds exceeding 250km/h. Their bodies had enough power to level buildings and they were also equipped with weapons of war such as Gatling guns and grenade launchers.

Meanwhile, his opponent was a washed-up ninja who could not even carry a 10kg bag.

“Is this some kinda joke? Well?” growled the armored samurai while towering above the boy like a carnivorous dinosaur.

He carefully observed the air-pressure kunai that Sugiyado Souha held.

“Did you think you could dance around my attacks because I’m a big lumbering beast? Well, think again. Do you have any idea how many sensors and radars I’ve got in this thing!? Throw that toy at 10 times the speed of sound and I’ll still shoot it down with 100% accuracy!! Meanwhile, a skinbag like you has no hope of dodging my very first shot!!!!!!”

With heavy metallic sounds, the Gatling gun and grenade launcher on his shoulder took precise aim.

Lasers and microwaves had already accurately located his target. No matter what the boy did, he was doomed to be mincemeat.

And yet.

Nevertheless.

It was a captivating sight.

By the time the ninja flipped through the air, he had already fully dodged the Gatling gun barrage.

“Wha-?”

This was not possible.

This went beyond misjudging the distance with the naked eye. The boy was being tracked and automatically targeted with radars and lasers superior to human senses. Missing even once would have been surprise enough, but the machinegun sprayed 6000 rounds a minute without a single one hitting.

“What the- this thing doesn’t need to be defragged, does it!?”

The armored samurai fired the Gatling gun again, but it could not keep up with Sugiyado Souha as he ran right to left in a circle around his foe. His speed was not even the issue here. The targeting reticle could not keep up and the original lock could not be maintained.

(What? That chaff he used doesn’t explain this. He must have some other way of messing with my sensors.)

Then the samurai noticed something sparkling in the light of the setting sun.

“Water spray? Is that the sprinkler for the home garden!?”

Water could reflect radar waves and obstruct lasers. In fact, weather maps used more than just satellite photos; they also used a weather station’s doppler radar to measure the distribution of clouds.

However, pure raindrops would not fully incapacitate a radar.

Fortunately, this was a home garden. It contained chemical fertilizer and other agrochemicals. Mix those in with the sprinkler and the water might gain some extra effects.

But understanding how it worked did not present a solution.

It would be a bad idea for Kuhou Ouka, Hanasawa Bara, Nantou Hoozuki, or Shizukuma Asagao to take on a fully-equipped armored samurai head on.

But things were different for this boy who had been eliminated from the list of Elite Ninjas when he became a Hidden One.

After performing a flip to dodge the ferocious storm of lead, he landed and raced across the roof. He could not be hit by the wild gunfire of the armored samurai whose targeting system had been neutralized.

Meanwhile, the armored samurai sensed no real danger in the boy’s approach.

His guns did not work on the boy, but so what? That was not his only weapon. He still had free use of his 600kg body that could move at speeds greater than 250km/h. His fist alone possessed the power to break down a reinforced concrete building. If the puny human moved too close, he was the one who would be turned to mincemeat.

True, the samurai’s sensors could not get a solid lock, but that just meant he had to use an attack that did not require a mechanical lock. He would aim by eye and kill that exposed flesh that was getting cocky after taking out just one or two cards in the samurai’s deck.

Thick, heavy metal blades extended from the index and middle fingers of that mass of artificial muscle’s right hand. They were a katana and a wakizashi. Those true samurai weapons could cut right through a bank vault door.

“I’ll slice your spine in two!!”

The attack scorched the surrounding air with friction. A flesh-and-blood human had no chance of dodging or defending against this deadly attack.

Nevertheless, the samurai man clearly saw the ninja holding a Fierce Fang air-pressure kunai in each hand and wrapping them around his attack with a spiraling motion.

Before even seeing the result, he was strangely certain that he had screwed this up.

Then his vision flipped around.

At 600kg, that mass of special steel rivaled a bulletproof European car, but he was twirled as easily as a baton.

“Wait, what!?”

Sugiyado had not touched the blades or the armor. The air-pressure kunais’ cartridges had burst and disturbed the air current produced by the blades. Since none of the weight bore down on him, the 10kg weight limit did not show itself here. Yes, that limit was only in theory.

Using those swords had been a mistake.

The samurai could have flailed his arms like a small child to crush that squishy flesh and those brittle bones. He would not even have needed to know any martial arts. But by drawing those swords, he had allowed his enemy to predict their path. When swung at such high speeds, the blades were greatly influenced by the air, so a change there had twisted the samurai’s arm and thrown his entire body around like an airplane flying through turbulence.

Still, was this really possible?

Most modern martial arts were divided into different weight classes because differences in size could be used as a weapon. There were legends of people killing bears or tigers with older martial arts designed for use in actual combat, but the true masters who could accomplish that were few and far between. And most of those were exaggerations made by people hoping to become a legend.

Yet this boy had not hesitated to stand up to a carnivorous dinosaur made of armor and artificial muscles.

Facing a powerful foe required precise movements without the slightest mistake, but that was a lot like performing a tightrope walk between tall buildings. The more it was necessary, the more people’s bodies would freeze up with fear and excitement.

This was a monster.

This boy was a monster.

The armored samurai barely had time to realize that before Sugiyado Souha twisted around and threw multiple Fierce Fangs. They flew true toward the gaps in the joints at the neck and along the torso. They had only been thrown with his physical strength, so they could not pierce through. Only the very tip lightly lodged itself in the gap.

But did you forget about the 600kg weight of that armored samurai? That was twice the weight of a man-eating tiger.

And it was falling.

The Fierce Fangs were caught between the ground and the samurai, so they could not escape that pressure. They were driven further and deeper in. They tore through everything in the way to move from the joint gap and inside the special combat unit.

Just like someone stepping on a rusty nail sticking out of an old board.

“Agwah!? Bwah, gbeh! Ggbgegh!!”

The samurai could only produce a distorted voice and he could no longer get up, suggesting some crucial artificial muscles or nerves had been severed.

“Here’s a lesson for you.” Sugiyado Souha did not bat an eye. “The kunai was not created as a projectile weapon. It’s a ninja tool meant to dig into dirt, snow, or whatever else.”

This time, that “whatever else” was the samurai’s armored body. The kunais played their role perfectly, just like they were digging a hole in a garden.

“W-wipe that smug look off your face. We’re not so different, you know!”

“…”

“You ninjas aren’t fighting without assistance either! You couldn’t! Human strength isn’t enough to throw a 600kg weight through the air! I bet you’re wearing one of those spider silk ninja outfits below your clothes. This is all thanks to the program-controlled assistance of those chemical winches made from a high-polymer water-absorbing gel and those electric-potential-elastic belt cylinders. It all comes down to tech! It’s all about the compatibility between branches of the military! Don’t act so tough just because your spring-loaded rock beat my scissors!!”

But the broken dinosaur’s words ended there.

The boy crouched down and collected something: the buttons that had popped off of his short-sleeved dress shirt during all his vigorous movement. As he did, the shirt fluttered open in front of the stabbed samurai.

There was nothing there.

Not a single piece of technological enhancement.

“A-are you- wait- are you kidding me?”

It was all pure martial arts.

This boy had polished it beyond a tactical level to reach a strategic level. He was one of the Hidden Ones who existed outside the standard ninja ranking system and whose total numbers were unknown. Skills like his were known as “ballistic stealth” because sending him overseas would have political meaning on the level of launching a ballistic missile.

“Are we done here?”

“You had nothing? You really destroyed my Mountain Beast with nothing but your body? Are you kidding me!? I have my honor to preserve!!”

“Are we done here?”

He slowly repeated himself as if to end all of this.

Someone with their family crest emblazoned on his chest desperately continued speaking. He might as well have been begging for his life now.

“Do you have any idea who I am!? You won’t get away with treating me like this!”

“Stop. I thought you had no name so worthless you would give it to a lowly gofer like me.”

That exasperated comment stopped that someone’s words. He had lost the ability to resist even verbally.

The items Sugiyado Souha held were not just traditional digging implements.

Those air-pressure kunais were a combination of instant nitrogen foam and a device used to pry open bent doors. By adjusting the time limit using the dial on the grip, they could trigger 15 tons of force, enough to pry open a tank’s hatch and break the lock. These were handmade tools that would blow off the fingers of anyone else who tried to use them and he had never submitted the design to anyone, including the Shogunate.

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Everything he had done was for his adorable students.

But once that wolf threw off all the chains binding him and bared his true fangs and claws, this was what he could accomplish.

With his mouth hidden behind his large scarf, he made one final statement.

“You can go to your grave without anyone knowing your name, monster.”

A moment later, the old wolf’s fangs shredded the flesh of that fat pig from within.