Yuusha no Segare

Volume 2, Chapter 1 – A New Emissary Part 3

Part 6

“N-N-N-N-No way, she thought I and Yasuo were g-g-g-g-going out!?”

They were on their way back home after finishing dinner in celebration of Diana moving into a new house. Diana had once again asked Nodoka what her exchange with Shouko earlier meant.

“Eh? You really don’t know? That person called Tatewaki-san, she thinks you and Onii-chan are going out.”

Diana got back such an unbelievable answer.

“Eh!? Seriously!?”

Seeing her brother looking honestly shocked as well, Nodoka made an expression like she was giving up and shook her head.

“That’s why she suddenly changed the way she called you and became all polite. Moreover, she’s the person that Diana-san called an enemy once before, right?”

“B-But… I didn’t mean it in that way…”

“No, but still, would it make her think like that?”

“Of course. Even I would try and put my guard up if I saw something like that without knowing the circumstances.”

“What do you mean by ‘something like that?’ And ‘putting your guard up?’”

“Diana-san is partially to blame for saying stuff that could easily be misconstrued. Onii-chan, make sure you don’t get any strange ideas as well, okay?”

“W-What do you mean, strange ideas…!”

“Ah… Don’t you think the taste of that curry place has changed from before?”

“It looks like they got a new cook. The naans were larger than before, though.”

Looking at the children talking from behind, their mother and father pretended not to hear as they discussed the food from the Indian restaurant that they had eaten at earlier.

“W-What do you think I should do? Assuming she really does have the wrong idea?”

“Eh? I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it.”

“N-No way…”

“I mean, if Tatewaki-san doesn’t really care who you go out with, bringing up the topic again and saying that Diana-san is not your girlfriend will just make you look overly self-conscious. Although it’s different if you’re interested in Tatewaki-san, Onii-chan.”

“You really haven’t been holding anything back since earlier…!”

“I’m just telling you the truth. Also, in the one in a million chance that Tatewaki-san likes you, it might be a good idea clear up the misunderstanding, but you only met her recently after not seeing her for a long time, right? So that idea is pretty much impossible, so the only thing you can do is to let it be.”

“L-Let it be… but…”

“I mean, what other choice do you have? I mean, even elementary school kids are talking about dating these days, how can you be so flustered even though you’re in the third year of high school?”

The eighteen-year-old boy had no response to this far too casual opinion of the fourteen-year-old girl.

Nodoka glanced back at Diana, who was looking downwards and blushing to the tips of her ears.

“Well, if it’s really bothering you, why not just tell her that she has the wrong idea the next time you meet, or send her a message on ROPE? I don’t know what sort of impression Tatewaki-san has about you, Onii-chan, but I’m pretty sure doing that will make the atmosphere really uncomfortable, though.”

“That’s not helpful at all…”

Yasuo regretted his own lack of experience as he could do nothing to refute his little sister’s words.

“Umm, I’m sorry. Because of my thoughtlessness, people are seeing you in such a light with someone like me……”

Yasuo felt his blood pressure fall again after hearing Diana apologize in a depressed voice.

Depending on the viewpoint, Yasuo realized that his words so far could be construed as Diana getting in the way of his interpersonal relationships.

“N-No, I didn’t mean it like that. How do I put it, I just want people to properly understand my circumstances, it’s not like I don’t think you’re attractive or that I don’t see you as a girl… Ah, but I don’t mean this in a weird way either, umm… I don’t know how to explain it…”

“Digging. Yourself. Deeper.”

Nodoka said as she watched her brother try and come up with excuses, while looking like she was enjoying it.

“Mom, Dad, what’s wrong?”

Yasuo suddenly realized that his parents had stopped walking and were standing still.

Before they could reply,

“Yasuo, Nodoka, please bend down a little.”

Diana had been blushing a deep red until just earlier, but she suddenly looked like a different person as she looked at his parents with a strong gaze.

They were already close to their house. It was a dark residential district where the only things they could see were the streetlights and the lights from the houses.

The Kenzaki house was within sight, just on the other side of the road.

“Madoka, take care of the kids. Diana-chan, I’ll leave the rear to you.”

“Okay.”

“There are three of them. Please leave this area to me.”

Diana dropped her shopping bags at her feet and formed a sword of light in her left hand from the otherworld Techno Weapon, Pollux, that she had pulled out from somewhere.

It was originally a weapon that was supposed to be used along with Castor that was wielded in the right hand, but that particular weapon had been broken in the fight during the incident with William and was left at home.

“D-Don’t tell me…”

Nodoka went pale and looked around at the surroundings. Yasuo realized that his heart rate had increased due to nervousness, but somehow managed to withstand it and tried to get a handle on the situation.

There were three in the direction his father was facing. Similarly, there were three more in the direction Diana was facing.

They were the monsters from the other world, Shii.

They were wrapped in dark flames that looked like the darkness of the night itself had been condensed, and from within glowed ominous red eyes.

“There are still people on the streets at this time. Let’s finish it quickly.”

“Yes.”

“Yasuo, Nodoka, don’t move from that spot.”

An orange-colored light was released from Madoka’s hand, and it formed a dome around Yasuo, Nodoka, and the shopping bags that Madoka and Diana had dropped.

There was no need to confirm it. It was definitely a magical defence that their mother had erected, a barrier of sorts.

Nodoka slightly relaxed under the slightly warm light of the barrier, but Yasuo had his sight fixed on Diana’s and his father’s fights.

His father was up against three Shii that stood across the road as if to block their way.

They appeared to be fairly large, but his father, who was dressed like an ordinary salaryman on his day off, did not hesitate at all as he faced them.

Something appeared to have been emitted from his fist as he stuck it out, as the pressure of his punch instantly decapitated the Shii. One of the Shii had lightning run throughout its body, and another Shii was blasted into the sky by a whirlwind, black flames and all.

All of this happened in a mere ten seconds.

His father had not even used his Holy Sword, and he looked like it was no big deal.

Looking over at Diana.

This time, there were three Shii that had appeared separately, one each on a different rooftop.

All three of them jumped towards Diana at the same time, but Diana shot one of them down with a magic bullet from Pollux.

The attacks of the other two faltered as they landed and Diana calmly avoided them. As they turned around, Diana stabbed one of them right in the middle of its chest with the blade of light.

Seeing her empty handed, the remaining Shii pulled out something that looked like a sword wrapped in dark flames and jumped at her from behind, but Diana didn’t even bother looking back.

“Wheel of flame that sleeps beneath the earth, open the door to wisdom with the furrows of your passing!”

Along with that short incantation, she stamped upon the ground strongly with her right foot.

In the next instant, the Shii that had been closing in on Diana from behind was trapped in a number of flame pillars that rose from the asphalt surface of the street, and after the flames disappeared, they could see that the Shii had lost its strength and was crumbling from the feet upwards.

“Haa… I-Is it over…?”

“Probably. Are you okay, Nodoka?”

“Y-Yeah I am.”

In terms of time, it hadn’t taken even 30 seconds overall. Thankfully, no one had seen them.

Nodoka was sitting down on the ground and patting herself on the chest, but Yasuo had a complicated expression on his face after seeing his father’s overpowering strength and Diana’s superhuman actions.

This was the first time that Shii had appeared around them since the incident with William.

Maybe because of that, Yasuo was not able to relax even though all the enemies had been put down.

The appearance of the Shii was definitely not a coincidence.

At the very least, two of the previous attacks had been caused by William’s influence, and targeted Hideo the Hero and his family.

That is why, Yasuo was convinced: the Shii that appeared in Japan were not like random mobs that were encountered in a game field, instead they were sent here by someone with malicious intent.

Also, there was no 『Leader-type』 Shii among these six, similar to Alexei’s Shii.

“Diana! On the roof!”

Everyone looked up in shock after hearing Yasuo shout, and saw that a new Shii was just about to jump on top of Diana.

It was a small-sized Shii.

Compared to the Shii from earlier, it was definitely one size smaller.

However, it moved so fast that Diana had no choice but to evade.

The small Shii landed on all fours, stretched its twisted joints, and leaped straight at Diana.

“Wha—!”

Diana was taken by surprise and managed to block the attack with Pollux, but her stance was broken by the Shii’s full-body tackle.

Diana’s physical strength was superhuman, partly due to her magical abilities.

No matter how heavy that last attack was physically, was it really enough to destroy to her stance to that extent with just a tackle?

“Are you okay?”

Hideo rushed in to support Diana, and the small Shii stopped attacking after noticing that.

“So this guy is the leader this time.”

“Yes, that’s probably the case. Its attack was strangely heavy. Please be careful.”

As Diana urged Hideo to be careful, Yasuo suddenly looked backwards.

The three Shii that his father had defeated were lying on the ground. However the black flames were still smoldering and giving off soot.

“That’s right, we need to send them off or they’ll just come back. Hmm….”

This was the only thing that he knew that even he was capable of, having already done it once before.

The requiem from Ante Lande.

Yasuo had already memorized the song that soothed the flames of the Shii and send them to Heaven.

『Oh, wide sky, please welcome him. Oh, wide ocean, please welcome him.』

Yasuo’s song reached them even through the barrier that his mother had set up, and the flames of the three Shii that his father had defeated came undone. The remnants of the Shii were swept into the air like the ashes of a wood fire, and they disappeared without a trace.

“Good thing last time wasn’t a fluke.”

Nodoka teased Yasuo after seeing the Shii vanish.

“Shut up. Alright, now for the ones over…”

He still had to deal with the three Shii that Diana had defeated.

Looking around, Yasuo saw something strange.

“…What?”

The small Shii was standing on its hind legs.

It had been dashing around at high speed and overpowered Diana with a powerful attack earlier, but now it was standing still, and even Yasuo could tell that it was full of openings to attack.

“W-What’s wrong? Both of you, hurry up and kill it—”

“But…”

“I mean…”

Both Hideo and Diana looked like they had lost interest in taking it down for some reason, but Yasuo couldn’t tell why they were waiting.

“Well, I’ll send off the three over there as well for now. So hurry up and take it down, okay?”

It may have been making some strange movements, but that was no reason to not take down a Shii.

He was sure that it would be okay to leave it to his father and Diana, and tried to sing the requiem again to send off the remaining three Shii, but,

『Aa…….Aa…….Aa……』

For some reason, even the small Shii seemed to be affected by the requiem and its flames started to disappear.

The effect was not as strong as it was against the three that had already been defeated.

However, the phenomenon was similar to when the Shii were sent off, the flames of the small Shii were slowly being wiped away.

“This is…?”

Diana’s eyes were wide in surprise as she looked at that situation. The three defeated Shii disappeared into the sky, and the small Shii was backing away as if overwhelmed by the song.

Was it possible that the Shii could be purified just with this?

Yasuo had almost reached the end of the requiem and prepared to start it from the beginning again. In the next instant,

『Gaaar!?』

The Shii suddenly gave a ferocious roar and jumped up high.

A loud sound was released from the area where the Shii had been until an instant ago, and both Diana and Hideo suddenly tensed their bodies.

As if someone was sniping at it from afar, a strong sound reverberated from the street and chased the Shii that was attempting to escape.

“This attack is…!”

As Diana looked around, attempting to identify the position of the sniper, the source of the attack suddenly descended in between Diana and the Shii.

“What are you waiting for!? Major Krone!”

A strict, female voice chased after the small Shii.

“What kind of fool hesitates to attack when faced with a Shii!?”

The hair that was illuminated by the street lights was silver in color.

The figure landed without a sound and immediately closed the distance with the small Shii in a single, fluid jump. Looking at her from behind, her clothing appeared to be the uniform of Resteria’s Magitech Knights.

“Seeeeeaaah!”

Brandishing the long, staff-like weapon in her hands, she attempted to deliver the final strike on the small Shii, but,

“Kuh!”

The attack missed by a hair.

That was because the Shii’s body rapidly withered, turned into a pillar of dark flame, and disappeared into the ground.

So that’s how Shii escaped if they were not sent off properly.

Even if you thought a Shii was defeated, if it was not sent off properly with the requiem, it would escape into the ground like that and appear again elsewhere.

“It escaped.”

The new Magitech Knight clicked her tongue at not being able to deliver the final strike to the Shii, but immediately recovered her poise and rested the staff-shaped weapon against the ground.

After separating the staff into two segments at the middle, the Magitech Knight put them into holsters at her waist like a pair of pistols and finally turned around to face Yasuo and the others.

Silver hair and blue eyes.

She gave off a cold impression, but her clothing was the same as what Diana was wearing when Yasuo saw her for the first time, light armor worn by the Magitech Knights of Resteria.

The cross-shaped decoration on her chest was gold-colored unlike Diana’s, which was deep blue, and there were bangles shaped like snakes around both of her wrists. On her forehead was a circlet with a deep-orange colored stone embedded in it.

Seeing the face of the person who had appeared under the streetlights, Diana corrected her posture and raised her right hand.

After seeing the new Magitech Knight do the same, Yasuo understood that it was a salute.

“Good work on your mission, Major Krone.”

“Thank you, Colonel Welleger.”

As he had thought, it was a Magitech Knight from Resteria. What’s more, she was Diana’s superior.

Perhaps it was to be expected, but she was speaking fluent Japanese as well.

Both his father and mother had not yet let down their guard and were watching the new person, but the person whom Diana had called Colonel Welleger unhesitatingly turned towards Hideo.

“I assume you are the Hero, Hideo Kenzaki.”

“…It’s been a very long time since I was known by that title.”

“It is an honor to meet you.”

After confirming the identity of his father, she saluted once again and introduced herself.

“I am Colonel Khalija Welleger of Resteria Kingdom’s Magitech Knights. I have been deployed here by the orders of His Majesty, Borad IX. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”