Chapter 21 : Kabukicho Battle

[Nonsense!]

The ivory-colored armor aimed its rifles in both hands at Ichika.

The girl visible on the dim screen through night vision goggles was looking straight at her. And when she stood face to face with her.

Kohane couldn’t help but be startled by the sudden sound.

The armor’s hostile alert system, which hadn’t sounded even when the police stopped them, was now ringing loudly.

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

A warning in a dry mechanical voice.

The cockpit flashing red.

-Less than 5% chance of effective hit.

-Immediate withdrawal from combat area recommended.

-Retreat while spreading fire recommended.

‘I-Is this a reasonable figure for my first time fighting in armor?’

Although Kohane felt her hands and feet going cold.

Because she had to get past the girl in front of her, she aimed at the ground and pulled the firing trigger.

Squeeze

As Kohane put strength into her small finger gripping the trigger, a huge firing sound rang out with recoil that shook the cockpit.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The black curtain flickered with sparks illuminating the darkness in time with the huge explosion sounds.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The inside of the curtain, brightened by the occasional sparks, gradually filled with gunpowder smoke. And the faint shadow of the girl visible through the smoke emitted from the gunpowder didn’t disappear.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Firepower that would make an ordinary human’s whole body explode with one shot.

Dozens of large-caliber bullets devastated the surroundings, leaving an enormous amount of dust.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Tick―

Tick―

The armor, having emptied its magazine in an instant, stopped firing with a deflating sound.

Kohane quickly pressed the reload button while continuing to watch the direction where she had been standing.

Gulp.

‘Th-This much should have taken care of her, right? Better if she ran away.’

Kohane judged that the opponent would have retreated because she had spread fire with full power right from the start. But her hands and feet were still trembling, and she kept swallowing dry saliva with her thin throat.

An instinctive fear that if she didn’t subdue that girl here, she would be done for immediately. Because of that, her hands gripping the triggers on both sides turned white but never let go.

So she could be ready at any time.

Kohane felt pathetic for being completely frozen like a scared mouse despite riding in the giant armor.

‘What a sight, getting like this just from making eye contact once…!’

Click.

Click.

Having finished reloading and returned to full readiness, the armor still had its muzzles aimed forward.

[…]

The alarm sound that seemed to be shouting at the armor to run away quickly.

Thanks to that, she fired wildly enough to empty the rifle magazines while extremely tense.

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

The red alert in the cockpit still flashing.

“…”

This much should be enough.

Although the armor’s alert system was still sounding.

If she had made this much of a mess, she should have run away.

Kohane hoped desperately that was the case.

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

Contrary to Kohane’s wishes, the armor’s alert system continued to sound.

“…”

The dust slowly settled.

There was nothing inside.

With the silence that returned, only the armor was in the black curtain.

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

Nothing happened even if she waited quietly.

Kohane muttered slightly, containing her wish.

“D-Did I get her?”

Kohane, using the armor’s weapons for the first time, looked around moving the control stick with trembling hands from excitement and a sense of liberation.

Whirr

Along with the motor sound from the joints, the armor turned smoothly in place.

After carefully checking the image on the monitor, Kohane confirmed that no one was there.

“Phew.”

A sigh of relief.

Cold sweat flowing from her forehead.

Kohane wiggled her small feet and switched the armor back to normal mode.

‘I wasted some bullets, but they can be slowly replenished with starlight…’

They were bullets that should have been used to smash the unsightly Kabukicho with her friends.

But there’s more armor armament, so it should be enough.

[Nyufu. Wh-What, it’s nothing, right? As expected, super coo…]

“Are you done shooting?”

Right next to her.

Not from the armor’s camera.

A voice heard through the wall.

The girl was right beside her.

With green eyes shining brightly in the darkness, Ichika turned her head towards the mono-eye with night vision deployed. Grabbing the body’s protrusions with one hand, she was looking at the cockpit with a calm expression.

“Eek?!”

Kohane thought she might have wet herself a little at this moment if she hadn’t been riding in the armor. But she couldn’t stop the scream that burst out.

[Uwaaaaah?!]

Kohane instinctively activated the booster while stepping on the pedals with both feet at full power.

The joints of the ivory-colored armor glowed brightly with the suddenly increased output.

Heat that could be felt even in the cockpit.

Steam spewing from the engine’s cooler that had heated up.

Pshhh-!

Whirr―

The boosters on both sides of the ivory-colored armor’s backpack heated up and spewed blue flames.

Whoosh

With the help of boosters mounted on both shoulder ends and the backpack, the sluggish movements of the armor became agile.

‘It’s too close to use the rifle!’

Kohane pressed the close combat mode button on the control stick while simultaneously moving the acceleration pedal.

The armor, slightly lifted off the ground, moved this way and that trying to shake off Ichika. And deployed the blades stored in both arm compartments.

Blades shining with ivory-colored light.

Tremendous vibration ringing in the ears due to high-output energy.

Shing!

Ichika smiled contentedly even as she saw the blades rushing towards her.

Isn’t a fight supposed to have give and take of blows, not just exchanging projectiles?

“Ha, you should have done that from the start.”

[G-Get away!]

Rushing huge blades.

Chilling heat.

Ichika twisted her body to avoid the huge blades clumsily threatening her as if trying to catch a fly with a swatter, sticking to the body.

But the following consecutive attacks.

“Oops.”

Ichika made a weak sound while watching the attacks, then lightly jumped from the body to avoid them.

Whirr!

Whirr―

The red mono-eye left a red afterimage like a long ribbon.

The scene of the 10-meter-sized armor rushing at the delicate girl with threatening blades mounted on both hands.

That scene had an impact worthy of a sci-fi horror movie.

But at this moment, the relationship between prey and hunter was reversed.

Ichika looked at the approaching armor.

She took a deep breath, concentrating on the center of her body.

“Haaah-“

[Freedom] Magical Girl’s Unique Skill

Fighting Instinct

Green energy enveloped Ichika’s body, rising up and turning into a vortex, dominating the surrounding area.

Inside the dark curtain.

Where the red mono-eye was rushing, a green storm appeared.

She became a storm to meet the armor’s attack.

Fragments of sidewalk blocks scattered on the road.

Pieces of barricades crushed by the armor.

Holes dug by the fired bullets.

All these whispering information.

They were telling the most optimal route to victory.

The momentum is fierce, but the enemy is full of openings.

The key to victory seen among them is a single counter. It was a single flexibility to break the threatening iron man’s momentum.

Softness can control hardness.

The soft can subdue the strong.

The iron man’s momentum was powerful.

It was like a huge spear tip.

According to the will of the one holding the spear shaft far away.

It was a form of destruction stabbing straight towards Ichika.

A form of destruction that cannot be blocked by a human body.

The stone floor breaking with each step.

The air being cut by the fiercely burning blades.

Whoosh―

A realm that only a few geniuses who have attained enlightenment can glimpse.

It was violence of unreasonable mass comparable to that. But the straight line of force contained no subtlety at all.

‘Therefore, it only advances forward.’

In the gap of consciousness that seemed to stretch a moment into a minute.

Within it, Ichika gently spread both hands, extending one towards the sky and one towards the ground.

Drawing the taijitu.

Between Heaven and Earth was Human.

It was the most primal implementation of the taijitu that her master had taught.

-Strength and softness always coexist, and the greater the strength, the more vulnerable it becomes to the softness on the other side.

In Ichika’s consciousness with her eyes closed, this was no longer a threatening iron man.

A worn-out wooden dummy for training at the temple that can only perform straight attacks.

The wooden dummy had now completely approached and charged towards her.

Whirr!

Whoosh!

[This is the end!!]

The sword thrust by the wooden dummy.

A simple sword.

Simple force without any enlightenment.

Just before that force approached.

A thread-like gap.

Ichika twisted and deflected the side of the sword thrust by the wooden dummy.

Eight Trigrams Palm.

In the subtlety of the taijitu, the wooden dummy’s sword was twisted.

And simultaneously, all the force that had been deployed began to twist along with it.

The armor lost all its momentum in the taijitu and fell, unable to even overcome its own power.

Crunch!

Screech!

Crackle!

The armor crumpling and falling as if caught in a whirlwind.

In the gap existing between the armor’s attacks.

Twisting the force spewing from the armor and instantly transmitting it to the joints.

One of the armor’s arms burst off.

The armor that lost its balance collapsed with a roar, keeping its advancing momentum.

Rumble!

Crackle!

Crack!

[Uwaaah?! Crazy!! With bare hands!?]

Crash bang!

Thud!

Thud!

Pshhh―

Just before completely losing posture while rolling on the ground.

Kohane stepped on the pedals with all the strength in her legs, and held onto the control stick that was thrashing as if to throw her small body away.

Thanks to Kohane’s desperate control, the armor rolled on the ground a few times and then quickly regained its posture. But the aftermath was too significant to ignore.

[Huff, huff, ugh… my precious armor…]

Unlike the majestic momentum at first, with just one attack, one arm had completely become a rag and it was in a mess, covered in dust from the ground.

The joints here and there damaged by being swept up in Ichika’s counter, emergency lights in the cockpit repeatedly flashing recommending evacuation.

[I-If it’s like this, I can’t show off the armor to my assistant… To get my assistant out of there…]

Kohane, who had been muttering for a moment, growled while gathering her wits.

[I don’t want to kill people so I wasn’t using it, but I have no choice!]

“You were firing bullets just fine earlier, what are you saying?”

Ignoring Ichika’s answer, Kohane swung her fist to press the switch in the middle of the control stick that was covered with hard protective glass.

Crack-!

Whirr!

Click!

The gun barrel that had been boasting its presence on the armor’s back.

It finally came out of the backpack and mounted on one of the armor’s shoulders.

The secret weapon that had been saved to use as the final salute.

It was creating a threatening atmosphere, reflecting the light of the armor’s mono-eye in the darkness.

[Super Cool Armor No. 1’s strongest weapon! I’ll bring out the Super Cool Cannon No. 1!]

Kohane warned, squeezing out her delicate voice.

[If you get hit by this, you’ll really die even if you’re a strong magical girl! It’s better to get out of the way!]

Ichika replied with a deflated laugh.

“You should open a naming agency with our leader.”

[What nonsense are you saying! Does my words sound like a joke to you?!]

-Super Cool Cannon No. 1 loading complete.

The mechanical voice saying preparations were complete.

Kohane bit her lower lip hard.

Now this was all that was left.

[…Don’t say I didn’t warn you!]

Click!

Boom!

Light spewing out and the cannon hitting right in front.

Flash.

Roar.

Destruction.

Only light filled the curtain that was full of darkness.

And the approaching aftershock and vibration.

While feeling the armor shaking from the aftershock of the cannon exploding at close range not even 50 meters away, Kohane desperately looked at the monitor to check the situation.

‘Please… please…!’

It was about time to stop.

Kohane hadn’t resolved with her friends just to be held back in a place like this.

Smash that unsightly Kabukicho.

She had to be recognized as a proud magical girl by the noble magical girl of [Beginning] and let people know that they existed.

The settled smoke.

Green eyes.

Their eyes met.

[Aaaah!! Please!!! Stop already!!!]

Kohane activated all the armor’s armaments while wailing.

Ratatatatatatata

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Click- Boom!

Endless explosions.

Endless sounds.

But Ichika, momentarily visible through the gunpowder smoke and dust clouds, was approaching one step with each flash.

The green eyes that had somehow come right in front.

Kohane moved the control stick while sobbing, but it was useless.

Ichika, who had lightly landed on the ivory-colored body, filled her fist with green energy and struck repeatedly.

The green storm was contained in her fists, drawing numerous trajectories while slowly crushing the armor.

Bang!

Crack!

Thud!

The cockpit shook and the armor slowly crumpled with each strike.

The armor’s body damaged to the point of no longer being able to perform control.

Boom!

Crash!

Crack!

Vibration.

Warning sounds.

Red screen.

Evacuation recommendation broadcast.

Inside, Kohane could only scream in panic.

[Uwah!! S-Stop it!!]

Bang!

Bang!

Her body shaking from the impact felt through the dented metal plate with each punch.

With the second impact, she felt the armor creaking.

[Get away!!]

She tried to remove Ichika with the armor’s remaining hand.

But Ichika shook it off with a light step and prepared for the final attack by raising one leg high.

Green energy seeped into the tip of the leg completely split towards the sky.

Thunder sounded from the toe striking down towards the ground.

“Let’s see your face!”

Boom!

With one vertical stomping, the metal plate protecting the cockpit finally dented.

Kohane gripping the control stick in terror.

Ichika standing in a majestic posture.

The eyes of the two finally met.

“Eek?!”

“This is a total baby face, isn’t it?”

Ichika, who let out a laugh at the unexpectedly small girl’s appearance, reached out and grabbed the girl’s collar, pulling her up.

“Let… go…!”

Kohane resisted with her feet in slippers towards Ichika who had grabbed her loose gown, but Ichika didn’t budge.

“Stay still, you!”

Thwack!

“…”

A righteous flick that struck the girl’s plump forehead, and the girl’s kicking that had been continuing resistance stopped and went limp.

Ichika leisurely walked out of the curtain, dragging the limp girl by her collar.

“Oh, nice curtain setup.”

A fiercer battle than imagined.

Ichika, who had been worried about harming passersby outside, thought it was fortunate that the effects of the battle hadn’t spread outside the curtain.

“Leader! We’re done here!”

“…”

“Leader?”

“…”

“Seems busy?”

Drag drag

Ichika held the limp girl in one hand.

She trudged towards the building where the leader had given orders.