Fangaku:Volume1 Act2 Chapter4
▼002: How About You Try Dying Just Once?
“Why is this all based on the assumption that I’m dying?”
Previously[edit]
“Okay, it’s time to take down this Boss Wyvern! Does this mean I’m the protag?”
“If you are, then you have to take care of things after Hanako-san gets squished.”
“It’s not often someone has to be retrieved by the Asama Shrine on their first day. But I guess there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Chapter 4[edit]
●
The arena was in an uproar.
By reaching the boss, Angel Stare and its members were guaranteed to shoot up in the rankings.
The result information displayed at the bottom of the screen hinted at this. And…
“I see! I was honestly a bit skeptical that Level 1 even had a boss. With so many wyverns, I wasn’t sure what they could add for a boss.”
But…
“It was the leader of the wyverns encountered on the lower route! Once injured and furious, it pursues the runners as a boss. That solves the mystery over the reports of no boss and the lack of any sign of a boss along the upper route!”
“Makes sense! Now, Kisaragi-san, how do you see this boss battle going!?”
“As fierce as it is now, I just can’t imagine Hanako-kun wouldn’t be able to slay the boss of Level 1. Still, they can’t let their guard down.”
A breath.
“I don’t know if it’s only an act or what, but Hanako-kun has a tendency to get careless.”
●
The windy high-altitude field was suddenly disturbed by the landing of the leader wyvern.
At around 30m, it was big.
It was injured.
And it had a grudge against us.
“–––––!”
Its glaring roar was already rattling the surrounding stone pavement and air. And…
“Yikes!”
I could feel my own body trembling from the roar.
“Oh!? I haven’t seen that one in a while! That’s ‘Dragon Terror’! It’ll give you trouble moving for a bit, so watch out.”
“It already hit me! What do I do about it!?”
“If you’re higher level than him, you get a passive resistance to it, so don’t worry about it!”
“But I’m level 1!”
“Yes, yes,” said Shiroma-senpai, casting some kind of dispel spell.
I could move again.
And…
“Stand back! Cheer me on from as far back as you can get without falling off! Observation is an important part of training!”
●
“Phew,” sighed Kuroma-senpai.
“I guess not even that idiot will tell a level 1 to be a diversion for her.”
“I think that happens in those outsider-made dramas and in that bogus reproduction show. Was it called True Stories from the Depths Region?”
I honestly used to watch that show.
“So do those things actually happen?”
●
<Shiroma-sama is hosting a limited mode session.>
<Hmm, it’s not so much about if it actually happening as it is about the nuance.>
<Yeah. For example, if the entire exploration team would be wiped out if you didn’t act as a diversion, then you kind of have to do it, right? That can easily lead to everyone surviving or everyone being crystallized, so everyone sees it differently. Some people call it a shit strat even after it saved their skins, but others can laugh about it even after they got wiped out.>
<But it’s important to let everyone form their own opinion that way. For the most part, that’s the kind of people who are left here. It’s best to surround yourself with people who can accept disagreement and being told they did it wrong.>
<So there’s a lot of freedom, but you have to be open to a wider range of things?>
<Right, right. So if, when something happens, someone tries to guide people toward a certain opinion on it, those of us who are actually out here doing runs just wish they would leave us alone.>
<Believe it or not, some of the people who move here do it because they enjoy dying. Of course, they can only enjoy it because they’ll be retrieved after they crystallize.>
<Okay, yeah. I’m not that messed up.>
<Be careful, though. Most everything we do on a run is recorded, so if we cause someone any trouble and they sue us, we can be penalized after an official investigation. And the penalty sticks with you even if the team breaks up, so it’s best to avoid that.>
<It’s also common to get penalized for an accident or just being careless. And in this case, if you got stuck in a falling loop and you need to be pulled out by the official side, you will be penalized.>
<Oh, I see. I’ll be careful.>
<Heyyyyyy! Quit chatting and get back out here!>
<Oh, sorry, Hanako-san.>
<You are now exiting limited mode.>
“C’mon! Get ready to fight!”
To my right, I saw Hanako beginning to charge toward the wyvern.
The wyvern was performing a front dash that was a lot like a high-speed jump.
It also opened its jaws for…
“Dragon cannon incoming!”
●
“It takes a wyvern of that size to have enough strength to dash and fire a dragon cannon at the same time.”
“And to combat that, Hanako is moving in for a full swing of her hammer!”
●
“It’s going your way, Hanako!”
“Here it comes! And it’s about to shoot that dragon cannon!”
As I shouted, I saw Hanako about 10m directly to my right.
“Oooookay!!”
She instantly moved right up to the charging wyvern’s nose.
And she made a horizontal hammer strike.
The spell-boosted attack had the intended effect.
The impact rang loud.
“Got him!!”
“Wow, that’s impressive in more ways than one.”
The hammer blow turned the wyvern’s jaws toward me.
Our eyes met.
●
“–––––––”
“…Oh.”
“Love at first sight?”
“No, that’s a blast roar!”
“–––––!”
“The blast roar meant for Hanako flew toward us instead.
We frantically retreated out of the way.
“Ahhhhhhh!?”
●
<Kuroma-sama is hosting a limited mode session.>
<Ah ha ha! My bad! I won’t do it again, so don’t let it bother you!>
<Y-you know we were just talking about the penalty if you get sued, right!?>
<Why would you make a full swing toward us?>
<What!? I’m a big fan of Tabuchi of the Lions, so I always swing to the right! That’s his one-legged batting form from the Pacific League! Don’t you know anything!?>
<Did not expect to hear Showa era trivia here.>
<Hanako-san! Getting the full team a penalty from some trivia no one else gets is garbage behavior for a leader, so please stop!>
<Wait, wasn’t there a Tabuchi with Rakuten?>
<No! Don’t encourage her! She’s never stopping now!>
<Oh, so you’ve heard of him! We can watch the DVD in the team room later!>
<Oh.>
<Hm? What is it?>
<Well, uh, Kuroma-sama, may I display some outside information?>
<Huh? I mean, if you want.>
<Hanako-sama was slapped by the wyvern’s left wing.>
<Ahhhhh!!>
<You are now exiting limited mode.>
●
Kuroma watched Hanako roll rapidly across the ground before springing back to her feet.
“Ow ow ow ow! I just about crystallized!”
“Hanako-san? Did some rare recovery items or artifacts just activate automatically? I saw a ton of sign frames opening…”
“Those artifacts you’re wasting at an unprecedented rate are the ones other teams get wiped out on the lower levels searching for, you know!?”
“Sh-shut up! It’s not my fault they suck too much to survive!”
“She is the worst…”
“She is, isn’t she?”
“Anyway, up top! How are things, Shiroma!?”
●
“Up top?” asked Deko right as Shiroma-senpai opened a sign frame.
“Seijo-san? How are things on your end?”
She called out to someone.
And a female voice answered her, sounding a bit out of breath.
“I think I’ve arrived directly above you, give or take 5m! I really do need to get a small vehicle license! I mean it!”
Who was that?
But Kuroma-senpai raised her voice after hearing it.
“Hanako! Seijo is here! Don’t move!”
“Eh?”
Hanako stopped just in time to receive a slap from the wyvern’s right wing.
●
<Kuroma-sama is hosting a limited mode session.>
<You’re terrible at Monster Hunter, aren’t you?>
<You told me not to move! How about you remember the role you played before blaming me!?>
<Hanako-saaan… It looked to me like you just used a recovery item you really shouldn’t be using on Level 1.>
<So what if I did!? It’s mine, so I can use it when I want!>
<…>
<Hey! You! You’re searching for the best words to criticize me, aren’t you!? I just know you are! Damn, I’m being bullied out here! I’m the victim!>
<Um, it would be great if you could set aside your persecution complex and hurry it up.>
<Are you saying this is my fault!?>
<It clearly is your fault, idiot.>
<You are now exiting limited mode.>
●
Deko saw Hanako swear and run toward the rest of them.
The wyvern immediately began pursuit.
Its wing thrusters powered an accelerated charge of unbelievable speed for being on the ground.
This was clearly going to hit the others as well.
…Oh, no!
Deko was in danger. Even if she did manage to defend…
“It’s trying to knock us off the edge!”
“Yeah, that’s how these things work! These lesser dragons are too wild!”
Once in front of the others, Hanako turned toward the wyvern. And…
“Give me my holy sword!!”
●
Holy sword.
As that word was spoken, Kuroma-senpai and Shiroma-senpai took action.
They held their gunbrooms up horizontally so their bellies faced each other. And…
“The white basket and the white harvest.
“The white furnace and the white quarry
“Endless white, white here.”
“The black box and the black compensation.
“The black spring and the black stream.
“Black here, endless black.”
Their voices joined as one.
“Reciprocal Casket!!”
●
A moment later, the air shook and something appeared between the two of them.
Standing around 3m tall was a giant coffin made of white and black ether.
It connected to their raised gunbrooms to support their cowling.
“We’re ready!!”
“Hanako-san! Quickly now!”
The white and black coffin was fixed in space by the white and black witches’ cowling brooms.
But that wasn’t all.
Hanako stuck the end of her hammer against the slit near the head of the coffin.
A metallic clang rang out.
Sparks of collision flew.
And a voice came over the divine transmission.
It was the one they had called Seijo before.
“Confirmed. Reciprocity has been established. I shall cast my blessing upon the borderline.”
I heard a voice.
But not from the divine transmission.
…From the sky!?
Instead of using sound, the voice traveled through the world itself.
●
Kyouko heard the voice traveling through space.
“What’s this!? A voice is traveling across the entire Depths Region! This can only mean-”
She was about to provide more commentary when she felt a nudge from the side.
She looked over toward Kisaragi.
“––––––”
Kisaragi raised her right index finger in front of her nose.
As if to say “show some tact”.
And as if to emphasize that point, the words arrived with too much piercing strength to simply say it rang clear.
The sun shines from the heavens.
Vegetation buds across the earth.
A holy voice speaks without end.
May that endless voice sound in the farthest reaches.
––Cry out, world.
Everyone in the audience responded by raising their voices together.
And stamping their feet.
“––Cry out, world.”
●
In that moment, Deko saw a color overhead.
…White!
It took the form of light.
A straight line of light stabbed down from the sky, reaching the giant coffin Shiroma-senpai and Kuroma-senpai were holding up.
“…!”
A crowd of sign frames opened with a sound like shattering glass.
“There! You are authorized to begin ether generation! Classification: holy sword! You are authorized up to a generation level of +2! That is enough for Durandal-level generation!”
“3D generation…of a holy sword!?”
■Ether 3D Injection Molding Device – Reciprocal Casket
Reciprocal Casket: An ether 3D printer which uses the output of Shiroma and Kuroma’s gunbrooms to create holy swords. The time-limited holy swords are consecrated by Seijo.
<Allow me to explain. The Ether 3D Injection Molding Device known as Reciprocal Casket is a combined spell used by Angel Stare. It is in effect an ether material 3D printer. The ether material is formed from the contradiction allowance which permits the reciprocal natures of white magic and black magic to be combined, granting the material an “anything goes” property. Seijo then blesses it to consecrate it. The end result is a +1 to +5 holy sword, albeit only for a limited time.>
Rapid, straining keystrokes that somehow also sounded like harp music came from the giant white and black coffin.
Hanako held the grip up to the coffin, seeing how it felt in her hand.
“Okay, I’ll just say it then!” she said. “There is nothing my holy sword cannot cut!”
Hanako then pulled her hammer “out from” the coffin.
A siren sounded and red torii-style warning lights appeared as something was extracted from the coffin.
It was a giant glowing blade.
Seijo’s Holy Sword: Seijo can grant this holy sword to an approved person in an approved situation using the Reciprocal Casket. It is made of ether and it does not last long. When Hanako uses it, it is called the Plunger Blade and anyone it hits is given an embarrassment boost of ☆1000%.
●
Ether light.
That blade wasn’t real. It was a temporary ether blade created using the hammer as its hilt.
But if it functioned as a holy sword…
“Did I just wander into a fantasy world?”
“This isn’t fantasy – it’s modern technology. You’ll learn how to use a 3D printer in engineering class.”
“And, well, it’s a consecrated weapon. It can be injection molded to finish a battle quick.”
That did appear to be what Hanako had drawn.
The head of her pole weapon hammer acted as the guard and a glowing blade extended for more than 4m from there.
She gave it a quick swing and moved in.
●
Several moments blended together.
“…!”
Raising the holy sword with just her right arm, Hanako dashed forward.
The wyvern counterattacked with a blast roar.
“–––––!!”
Its roar echoed out and resistance spell sign frames shattered all around Deko.
The large coffin also shattered into ether light and the white and black witches scattered.
Then Hanako held her left hand out in front.
“Stall door attaaaack!”
She made a long-range shield bash.
A glowing wall shot out.
She had used this move already. But…
“…!”
The dragon resisted.
But not with a blast roar or with a charge.
“It dodged!?”
Its wing thrusters launched its right side upwards, allowing the shield to pass below on that side.
The force passed on through without hitting.
Its next move couldn’t have been more obvious.
Its right wing was already raised.
It swung its foreleg and claws toward Hanako with a whiplike motion.
●
A great tremor sent rock flying.
With that timing, it had to have been a direct hit.
“––––”
The term “killed instantly” came to mind.
Unlike before, I didn’t see Hanako rolling away surrounded by artifact usage sign frames.
She was dead.
●
“…!?”
Hanako was dead.
She must have been crushed by that right foreleg.
And what happened then?
I had been taught this, but this was my first time seeing it in person.
…Wow.
I didn’t like it.
She had been there speaking just a bit ago.
I had been baselessly confident that she wasn’t going to die, but now she was gone.
That fact…
“––––!”
And the wyvern’s roar made me freeze up.
I didn’t even have time to think “uh, oh”.
This was the “terror”.
I couldn’t escape or stop the feeling making my entire body tremble.
Because the previous roar had destroyed the resistance spells and because the wyvern had chosen me as its next target.
It was coming for me.
The wyvern swept its right wing out as if scratching at the ground after crushing Hanako.
“Look out ahead!”
That sudden command refocused my mind.
●
How can you ask that of me? I thought.
I couldn’t move thanks to the terror, so that was an absurd thing to ask me.
But…
“Eh?”
I could see something there.
Past the wyvern.
I saw something glowing.
It was a wall.
Simply standing there below the blue sky was…
…Hanako’s shield!?
That was the stall door she had used as an attack before.
It stood facing me.
Why?
Hanako had been crushed.
So why was the door standing there?
And why was it facing me?
Yes, I could tell.
Hanako had launched that door so it would be there like this.
●
I was familiar with a certain urban legend.
…Could it be…?
●
She was beyond that door.
●
That settled it.
She was beyond that door.
She had not been destroyed by the dragon’s attack.
Because she was beyond the door.
That had to be it.
…What do I do?
I knew the answer.
Not all of the conditions had been met, but I knew what to do in a situation like this.
I knew what I had to do.
There was only one option.
●
I called the name of the being beyond the door.
●
“Hanakooooo!!”
I called her name.
And I received a response.
“Cooooooming!?”
●
That voice produced a few different reactions. From the people on the field and also…
“…!?”
It must have recognized the danger.
The wyvern used both its wings’ thrusters to perform an 180-degree spin.
It swept its tail around to keep its balance as it turned around backwards.
Then it launched an attack.
With its right wing.
That forearm struck.
The rapid blow accurately shattered the glowing wall.
At that exact moment, a short figure leapt over the shattering door.
Long red hair with black peekaboo highlights soared through the air.
She was wielding a blade.
“Don’t just call me ‘Hanako’, idiot.”
She spoke.
“That’s ‘Hanako-san’ to you, Dekosuke! Did I forget to tell you that!?”
●
The powerful swing from above was sped up by a buff spell.
The wyvern launched a full-power counterattack into the air where Hanako was.
“…!”
It used a blast roar.
The ranged attack had an advantage over an enemy leaping in through the air.
But…
“Weren’t you listening? There is nothing my holy sword cannot cut.”
Sign frames with several different effects shattered from the holy sword blade.
At the same time, the sword’s path slammed into the incoming blast.
It bisected it.
The roar was split in two.
One half was an ultra-high pitch slice.
The other half was an ultra-low pitch rupture.
Only a moment later, the holy sword blade reached the dragon.
In an instant, the attack sliced the wyvern through from jaw to lower chest, following the path of her leap.
Hanako landed below the great beast’s belly, still in slashing form, but her sword did not reach the rocky floor.
She stopped in a follow-through pose.
Her attack was complete.
And then…
“––––”
As the split roar scattered, the wyvern itself came apart.
●
“––––”
I was speechless.
A massive amount of ether light scattered around us.
It spread out like an exploding waterfall.
“Mission complete!”
●
Deko watched the wind carry away the shards of the destroyed wyvern’s ether light.
She saw the space around her “open up”.
“The clouds…”
Why was it?
Nothing about the sky, the land, or the air had changed, but something about it seemed to have “changed” nevertheless.
“Defeating the boss upped the completion rate. That doesn’t change how it looks, but you perceive it differently.”
“It’s like white or dark clouds becoming distant clouds or a sky full of thick blue air, I guess? We haven’t explored everywhere that was changed after the update, so completion isn’t up to 100% yet, though.”
“Oh, I see,” said Deko, shifting her gaze from the scattering shards of destruction to something more distant.
The blue sky.
The white clouds.
She felt some kind of emotional reaction coming on.
“––––”
●
It was an “Oh, I’m just about to have an important thought” kind of feeling.
…But what is that thought?
I had never seen that blue sky or those clouds before.
Everything I had seen in past 10 minutes was new to me.
Furthermore, the scene before me now seemed to have “changed”.
My perception of it had been altered.
So even if the things I was looking at were the same as they had been…
“I’m looking at them differently?”
●
What was it?
I really did feel like I was close to a critically important realization.
Still unsure what it was, I reached a hand out into the emptiness, like I was trying to grab something. What, I didn’t know.
I had a feeling this was a positive thought, like I was glad I had come to the Depths Region.
…Is it something that will help me find an answer to my unanswered questions?
What could it be?
I didn’t know.
But that line of thinking was forcibly interrupted.
“Ah! Deko-san!”
“Ah, that idiot.”
“Ah.”
Their outbursts forced me to take another look around. And…
“Ah.”
Overhead, I saw a giant wyvern tail.
●
The wyvern’s body was still coming apart, starting from the front end Hanako had sliced through.
That meant the tail was still intact and it was swinging far enough overhead I had to look up to see it.
With the rest of the wyvern breaking apart into ether light, the remaining tail had nothing left to support it.
“Eh!?”
It hit me.
●
<Hanako-sama is hosting a limited mode session.>
<Okay, let’s have one last chat before Deko is crystallized!>
<Wait, wait, wait, wait! Is this really necessary!?>
<Of course it is! When else are you going to get real-time external data on being squashed from the head down at 300s/1s!?>
<Excuse me. Can someone do something about her?>
<Just ask the screen to kick you out. You’ll be out in no time…aaaand now I feel like I’m assisting a suicide.>
<Huh? I guess that kind of is what you’re doing, isn’t it?>
<Just so you know, anytime someone is about to be crystallized, we want someone to immediately begin a limited mode session. Being crystallized means dropping out of the mission, but this gives them a chance to tell us what to do after they’ve been recovered and to pass on anything they’d noticed but hadn’t had a chance to mention.>
<Oh…that makes sense. I can see how that would be useful.>
<We do have it set up to automatically trigger, but you can’t rely on that because it’s impossible to programmatically define every single “about to die” situation. So do it manually if you can, okay?>
<Yes, that about sums it up. …Now, Deko-san. Good luck with your crystallization!>
<Does luck influence it? Well, I guess I’ll find out soon enough.>
<You are now exiting limited mode.>
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