Chương 108: Chapter 32 Feeling Cool (Part 1)

The viewing session had ended as well, and we had managed to talk things through to some extent. However, when it came to actual combat, it would inevitably come down to handling things on the spot. If we took the idea to its ultimate extreme, it would be efficient to remain inside the Gate and keep fighting monsters from a distance at which their attacks could not reach one another. But, as expected, that was impossible.

If we were going to do something like that, fighting near the exit gate of the 20th floor would give us some leeway when it came to wear and tear. It would be troublesome for us as well if any of them died. Besides, they needed time to think. Going in with a completely empty head would defeat the purpose, and it wasn't as though someone could become stronger simply by throwing themselves into danger with a willingness to die. Trial and error. Create an image and test it.

Then, based on the results, layer that image over and over again, building it up. Even so, no matter how much one piled up, once it collapsed, it could crumble away with surprising ease. In a sense, it was a process like a compressed version of life. Growing, suffering setbacks, coming to terms with things, and then walking forward again. In particular, there were a great many "small bones"—shobone—on the 35th floor. When confronting them, there was a high probability that the person's image would collapse.

Among the members participating this time, Hyodo, Akamine, and Miyafuji had all fought small bones. Of those three, Miyafuji stood out. After all, although he had lost an arm, he had defeated a small bone. In other words, he had an image of himself defeating one. That image was extremely important. Something experienced even once, whether by chance or deliberately, became a powerful success experience. That, in turn, made it easier to establish and solidify the image.

"Now, Miyafuji-san. I think we've managed to solidify our discussion to some extent, but do you have any concerns about what comes next?"

"Let's see... At the very least, I haven't given up on my arm yet. I intend to search for medicine, so when you accompany me inside the Gate, could you give me the medicine if you find it? I'll pay you a reward." I thought a chunibyo-style nickname like "The One-Armed Mage," which he would probably end up being called eventually, sounded pretty cool. But that was the sort of thing that worked in manga. In real life, losing an arm had to be nothing but inconvenient.

"That's fine. If I find it, one gold coin will be enough. And as for your arm, perhaps a healer could regenerate it. The abilities of this class are proliferation, regeneration, and bonding. Any one of them might have the potential to do it." As I said that, Miyafuji smiled, twisting his mouth into an expression that was unlike him. It wasn't a bad smile by any means. Rather, it was a fearless, provocative smile directed at his opponent, like that of a strong person who had decided to crush someone challenging him.

"Is that so? Then I can get my revenge. That time, it took my arm. Next time, I'll defeat it without a scratch.... By the way, Kuroe-san, wouldn't you give Suguru-kun some advice? It's probably different from what you and I have." Akihabara must have turned Miyafuji into a warrior. His arm had been taken. His comrades had been taken. His pride had been taken. And what he had received in return, as a small consolation, was a monster's crystal.

Whether he considered that revenge enough, or whether he looked closely at the enemy because he believed it still wasn't enough, was ultimately up to him. But looking closely at the enemy would give him more possibilities for the future. And Suguru, huh?

"Sure. Then first, Suguru-kun, why fire?"

"Eh? Why fire, you ask?"

"Yes. Three classes appear first. Those three are determined by aptitude. If that's the case, there should be some kind of feeling or intense experience behind each of them." Tachibana was still carrying the death of his friend with him. Therefore, all of the classes that had appeared to him were suited to capturing the criminal, as though responding to those feelings. The Tracker, who wanted to find the criminal. The Martial Artist, who wanted to destroy the car that had killed his friend.

The Scripter, who did not want to forget. And the Appraiser, who blamed himself and searched for evidence. The vocabulary used for the classes came from my own memories, so it was possible that the terminology itself differed from the actual names. But aptitude was a legitimate thing. If it was legitimate, there had to be some kind of affinity behind it. Choosing fire without having some kind of experience connected to it would be strange.

"... You won't laugh?"

"There's no reason to laugh. If I were going to laugh, it would probably be if you told me you closed your eyes and pressed it at random."

"... A long time ago, I saw a hero show. They kidnapped children, and as the show progressed toward its climax, Red unleashed his special fire attack and burned the villain. Looking back on it now, I understand that it was all just a performance. But when I was a little kid, I believed that the flames of justice would never go out, and that they would defeat the bad guys. That's why I chose fire." Hmm. Putting it all together, I suppose it amounted to: "If you defeat bad guys, it's fire!" I see.

It made sense that he wanted to follow Miyafuji. That's why he had projected a hero onto himself and talked about an unquenchable flame.

"Your flame is pure. Yes. Then it won't go out. As long as you remain yourself, you're the only one who can extinguish your own flame. Even a tiny flame, once it catches, will grow into a crimson blaze. You should begin by believing in yourself. Fortunately, there's someone nearby whom you can use as your goal."

"So I should keep going like this?"

"Who knows? But it's better to be angry than to take a cynical stance. Rather than sneering at someone, you should be angry with justifiable anger."

"Justifiable anger..." A hero of justice was, for better or worse, a spokesperson for someone. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. They defeated evil on behalf of powerless people. It was self-righteous, but even so, there were certainly people who were saved by it. It was a difficult image. Once you became an adult, you inevitably started shouting things like, "Whose sake is this justice for?"

You might also start thinking about how the other side—the enemy—had its own claims and circumstances. But if the opponent was a monster, there was no need to think about the opponent's side. There, you had the legitimate right to crush it with pure anger.

"Somehow, you're not all that different from me, either."

"... Is there something wrong with that?"

"Isn't it fine? There are plenty of monsters, and a hero can't take a hiatus." Yuji said that to Suguru with a smirk. A partner was in just the right place. Naturally, a hero of justice had comrades. After that, it was up to Suguru himself. He had to decide for himself what kind of justice he would follow along the path he walked.

"It's quite different from me, after all. Since I use fire with a relatively fun image, if I were in a hero show, I probably would have told you, 'Enjoy it.'""Eh! Turning monsters into ash was a fun image for you?" Suguru asked in surprise. Turning monsters into ash—I found it fun too, but Miyafuji was probably different. In the first place, Miyafuji's image had been a house fire. For that to be fun... He's not an arsonist. If that's the case, then probably...

"Is it one of those situations where 'all you can do is laugh'?"

"Yes. A fire broke out and everything turned to ash, but my father, mother, and siblings were all safe. In fact, a nice house was built with the insurance money afterward. So all we could do was laugh. There were memories in the house that burned to ash, but we could make new memories from then on, too." Both of them were Mage: Fire, but because the direction of their images was different, they would probably be able to do things that were similar yet distinct. Miyafuji's fireballs probably came from sparks.

Suguru's fireballs probably came from a hero's attack. As their images overlapped, the weight of those differences would become even greater. When that happened, even within the same class, the direction would change, and it would become each person's own unique flame. Yes. Magic had to be thought about first.

"Tsukasa, you can give me advice too, you know?"

"That'll be later. I'm going to go smoke a cigarette. As expected, paper cigarettes are too smoky here." The room wasn't particularly narrow, but I felt hesitant about smoking in front of people who didn't smoke, so I left the room to look for a smoking area. I'd come up here by elevator, but there were winding staircases on both the left and right sides of the barracks. At one of the landings, there was an ashtray and a bench, so I sat down and had a smoke.

Since it was during duty hours, I could hear the voices of soldiers running somewhere below.

"Oh! Long time no see, Kuroe-san."

"Ah, Hyodo-san. Long time no see. Has it really been since Akihabara? I knew you were safe, but there weren't many opportunities to meet. I couldn't contact the Special Forces Group privately, and even if I had, it probably would have been kicked back, so there just wasn't an opportunity. More than anything, I'm glad you're safe." Hyodo came up from the floor below. Those past thirty people were apparently sent to off-base housing even if they were unmarried, so he probably normally commuted.

But since he was participating this time, he might be staying on base. He was dressed casually, wearing a camouflage T-shirt, jeans, and slippers.

"Are you doing a preliminary inspection today? I only arrived yesterday, so I can't show you around much, but..."

"You don't need to worry about that. Come to think of it, I'll give you this. You're the first person I'm giving one to."

"A business card? Special Specified Harmful Beast Control Headquarters, Director-General, Chloe First. Is it a pseudonym? Well, 'First' is more famous than your real name, after all."

"Well, with this, they won't be able to trace me easily." This name, which was more famous than my real name, was easy to handle if I treated it as a symbol. The image of "Gate First" was quite powerful. I was glad that the surname sounded foreign. There was no doubt that I was Japanese, but my current appearance didn't look particularly Japanese. Rather, I'd be troubled if someone asked what my nationality was.

"I'll also be participating in the training sessions starting tomorrow, so I look forward to working with you. If there's anything needed for the training that we can get at the garrison, I can arrange it." Oh, that's good to hear. I had been wondering what to do about armored vehicles, but if we could borrow them from the garrison, I'd gladly use them. Rather, if we could just borrow vehicles from the Self-Defense Forces, that would eliminate the whole issue of worrying about vehicles.

Well, I only had a medium-capacity motorcycle license, and I preferred the motorcycle I was accustomed to riding, so I'd have them arrange the same one again.

"Please handle the vehicle-related matters when we dive into the Gate. The ride quality is the worst, but if it's to protect ourselves, I'll reluctantly ride in the flatbed of a 3. 5-ton truck. It hurts my rear, though."

"The flatbed on that thing is made of wooden planks, so of course it's painful... So, diving into the Gate means the practical training target is around the 20th floor?"

"No. The final goal is the 35th floor. I've done a preliminary inspection too, so I think they can make it if they train." If we were going to place people in charge as chiefs in each prefecture, though I honestly had no idea where we'd find enough people, I wanted them to reach around the middle layers, where the absurdity began. None of the members participating this time had reached the middle layers. Even Tachibana, who had reached them, had accumulated experience in an abnormal way.

According to what Tachibana had said when we chatted, if someone wanted to accumulate experience through Appraisal, apparently the fastest method was to examine artifacts unearthed from Gates. The reason was simple. Appraising an incomprehensible foreign object helped one understand how to handle it, which in turn led to a new image. Apparently, even ordinary things could provide experience. A car engine or its control system, for example, could be appraised and used to accumulate experience.

But in terms of sensory experience, things from the Gates were apparently much better. Because of his position as a police officer and police superintendent, Tachibana appraised almost every artifact that was unearthed, so when it came to growth speed alone, he probably left everyone else far behind. Well, his own aptitude had to be a factor as well.

"... A picnic by yourself?"

"Yes. It was fun. There's a video, so I might use it for the training. Originally, it was borrowed from Chiyoda-san... Maybe I'll stream that too." It was a video that made people recoil in disgust, but if people knew what kind of monsters were waiting ahead, it could serve as a warning to those who entered later and make it easier for them to formulate countermeasures. It would need editing, and most of it consisted of a scene of annihilation by magic. Even so, there was probably something to be gained from it.

The problem was that I myself would become something people recoiled from. But if fear went too far, people would begin ignoring the target as a form of self-defense. If uploading the video could deter people from laying hands on my family, then it might be useful to warn various quarters not to do anything foolish. As for people I had no connection with continuing to fear me on their own, I would ignore them. People were relatively insensitive, after all.

Even though the greatest fear was always lurking nearby, people calmly slept, woke up, ate their meals, and carried the stress of their jobs. Hello, Death. Mine is gone, but I won't forget. Memento mori.

"... Can we make it there?" Hyodo spoke with a distant look in his eyes. He must have had some painful experience in Akihabara. The death of a friend he had known—something I knew nothing about.

"The training location is near the exit gate of the 20th floor. We care about casualties on our side, but as for the opponent, there's no need to worry about damage. If anything, no one will complain even if you change the terrain. Feel free to run wild."

"Is it the kind of thing where we're supposed to enjoy it without being trapped by fear?... Yes, that's right. There's nothing we can do but resign ourselves to it. Even if we beg for mercy, the opponent won't answer."

"Yes. A single cry... There was one that made a sound, but if words don't get through, it's meaningless." Whether they would do it or not, and whether they could do it or not, ultimately depended on them. The thirty people participating this time might have all sorts of thoughts and expectations. But before any of that, they had to survive first.

"Well, I should probably be leaving soon. I look forward to working with you starting tomorrow, okay? And let's have that promised drink, too."

"Yes, I'll also look—""Hyodo-san, who are you talking to... Wait, is that First-san's voice?"

"Eh, is she here?"

"I heard from the guard that she had arrived, but is she here?"

"Stealing a march?" Several women's voices could be heard from below. Since they had called him Hyodo, were they his subordinates? Perhaps Hyodo had been asked to take a position like a squad leader for this training session. I caught a glimpse of the WACs coming up the stairs, and they seemed quite beautiful. I'd talked with Hyodo before about whether he had a wife or girlfriend, but if he still didn't have one, this might be a good opportunity. I didn't think workplace romance was a bad thing.

In the first place, when you worked, you spent most of your time bound to your workplace, so the people you could naturally meet as potential partners were limited.

"How nice. Flowers in both hands. You might get yourself a girlfriend on this occasion, you know? I've stayed long enough, so I'll leave now."

"I suppose..." Hyodo saw me off with a complicated expression. I wondered if there was something going on. They seemed beautiful, but perhaps they weren't his type. Or maybe the WAC actually had a higher rank than him. I'd heard stories about people marrying across different ranks. They said that even at home, it could feel as though they were still a superior and subordinate. They had no complaints about their wives, but they did feel constrained.

In the rank-based society of the Self-Defense Forces, perhaps that was what Hyodo was worried about. Well, even if it was meddling on my part, if I met them, I'd flatter Hyodo a little.