Outbreak Company: Volume 5

by Ichiro Sakaki

  “And that was your reasoning?” Amatena shook her head as if to say I made no sense at all. “You should know, Elvia is—”

  “Come to think of it, when I first saw you, Amatena, I thought maybe Elvia had changed her hair color somehow.”

  The two of them really, really looked like each other.

  That was when I realized what I had just effectively said.

  Elvia is cute. Elvia and Amatena look like each other. Therefore, Amatena is cute.

  What was I saying? What was I saying to someone who belonged to a group of people that wanted to pound a magical spike into my head?

  What, did I expect Amatena to blush and giggle like we were in some gal game, then help me escape? I mean, that would be exceedingly convenient right about now, but even I wasn’t stupid enough to think it might happen. I didn’t even remember tripping any flags for Amatena.

  “I see,” Amatena said after a moment. Was it just me, or had her voice and expression softened ever so slightly? Was she just happy to hear me speak kindly about her sister?

  “You two... You and Elvia. You really are each other’s spitting images.”

  “Of course we are,” Amatena said. “We are triplets.”

  “Triplets?!”

  “Why is this so surprising?” Amatena looked at me questioningly for a moment before she seemed to realize what was going on and said, “Ah, I see. Among humans, it is normal to bear only one child at a time, is it not?”

  “Huh? Are twins and triplets more common for werewolves?”

  “It would be quite unusual to have only one cub in a litter.”

  “Uh... huh.”

  Now that I thought about it, dogs were a symbol of safe birth exactly because they tended to have easy deliveries despite bearing a lot of young. It was perfectly typical for dogs and cats to have several offspring at once, and werewolves did appear to be more like dogs or wolves than humans.

  “So you became a soldier, Amatena. What about the third child?”

  “My older sister, Jijilea, is also a soldier. As are my mother and father. There are many such in my family. You could say the only one who didn’t become a proper soldier was that little fool.” She whispered, pained.

  Oopsie. I had to say, I couldn’t picture Elvia as a soldier.

  “She was a failure. She became a spy in hopes of escaping that fact.”

  So that was it: two successful, distinguished sisters, and the runt. That couldn’t have been any fun for Elvia. Thanks to my life with Shizuki, I knew what it was like to have an endlessly gifted sister. I hadn’t been thrilled.

  You had the ones who became soldiers and stuck around Bahairam. Then you had the one who became a spy infiltrating into enemy territory. Yeah, they were both technically military, but they were very different positions.

  Had Amatena deliberately been avoiding the subject of Elvia until now? Maybe she hadn’t wanted to even acknowledge that “failure” existed? Amatena was so serious, and having a younger sister who couldn’t hack it wouldn’t have done her any favors while she was trying to get ahead in the world...

  Amatena was muttering to herself now. “I can’t believe this. She was always so soft and indecisive, just following along behind everyone else. And then she would pick the strangest times to show resolution, to rebel... When she became a spy, she did it without even talking to the rest of us...”

  I didn’t feel like I heard any anger or hatred toward Elvia in her voice. It was almost like... “the more hopeless they get, the cuter they are.” A sort of fond resignation. Then again, maybe I was just reading too much into it.

  I wasn’t completely sure, but I thought just maybe, for the first time, I was hearing how Amatena really felt.

  “She’s family. She’s your sister. Of course you’d worry about her.”

  “Indeed. But that idiot—”

  Then she stopped cold. She frowned; it was obvious she’d said more than she meant to.

  Finally she let out a single sigh and heaved herself off the wall.

  “I’ve been here longer than I meant.” She took a step closer to the iron-barred door—a step closer to me—and said, “Incidentally, your spiking has been set for tomorrow.”

  “Guh?!”

  What was with the informational ambush?!

  I thought we were just getting to a good place! Give me back my expectations! Wait a second... Tomorrow?! Like, the day after this one? Like, ashita?! She was kidding, right?!

  “That was what I came to tell you in the first place,” Amatena said. Then she turned away from me and made to leave, her footsteps tapping hurriedly over the stone floor.

  “But tomorrow is—”

  I looked at my watch. It was currently six in the evening. I didn’t know exactly when tomorrow they had in mind, but one thing was for sure: within roughly the next thirty hours, I would have a magical spike in my brain.

  The one thing I definitely did not have was any way out of this situation.

  “Oh, man...”

  Now, at last, despair washed over me. Unable to withstand it, I threw myself on the bed. I didn’t know exactly what Bahairam’s magic was like, but I suspected having a spike pounded into your head and being turned into a zombie was likely to rank just below dying on the Fun-O-Meter. Not to mention, I was guessing this meant no going back to Eldant or Japan for me.

  I think normally, a person would think of their parents or lover at a moment like this. But what I saw was the faces of all my Eldant friends.

  Myusel. Minori-san. Petralka. Elvia. Brooke. Cerise. Garius. Prime Minister Zahar. Everyone at school. Even Matoba-san...

  I wondered what they were up to at that moment. I liked to think they were worried when I suddenly disappeared. (Well... Maybe not Matoba-san so much.)

  I gazed up at the bare ceiling of my jail cell and let out a long, disconsolate sigh.

  The city was already draped in the darkness of night. We could see the bluish glow of sprite-powered lamps here and there, but they weren’t very bright, leaving swaths of the town in darkness. Somehow, the panoply of shadows lying over the cold, gray town made it seem like there was a series of bottomless pits waiting for us to fall in. It was terribly eerie.

  Maybe I only felt that way because we were in Bahairam. Or perhaps...

  “She’s here,” Minori-sama whispered. We were right next to the home of Elvia-san’s older sister, Amatena-san. We were in a deserted back alley, hiding in the shadows. Elvia-san was with us, of course. “Just like we planned.”

  “Got it,” Elvia-san said, nodding to Minori-sama.

  Amatena-san had already refused to tell Elvia-san about Shinichi-sama’s location once, but we had nothing else to go on. With no idea where he was or when they might be planning to put the magical spike in him, our only option was to get the information from Amatena-san.

  By force, if necessary.

  Minori-sama and Elvia-san stalked out of the shadows together.

  They stopped right in front of Amatena-san, who was just coming down the street toward her house.

  “Big Sister Ama!”

  Amatena-san didn’t appear at all surprised, but only raised an eyebrow at Elvia-san. “Who’s this woman? An Eldant soldier?”

  “I’m not technically from the Eldant Empire,” Minori-sama said with a shrug, “but I guess you could say I’m in about the same position as Elvia.”

  “Hmph. Another offworlder.”

  “You got it. So you guys do know about that.” Minori-sama sounded a bit disappointed. “Looks like it’s leaks left, right, and center... Arrgh!”

  “Big Sister Ama! I want you to tell us where Shinichi-sama is.”

  “You’re wasting your breath,” Amatena-san spat. “I have no intention of telling a traitor anything. You should be grateful I haven’t yet reported you to my superiors.”

  “So you really won’t tell me?” Elvia-san asked, not quite able to look at her sister. “You won’t help, no matter what?”

  “I told you to st
op wasting your breath. What do you think you can do if I refuse?”

  I suspected Amatena-san had some idea. She had to assume there was a reason for Elvia-san showing herself again. Even from a distance, I could feel the air between Amatena-san, Minori-sama, and Elvia-san get tense.

  “Force it is, then!”

  Minori-sama and Elvia-san moved almost simultaneously. Minori-sama let loose a spinning roundhouse aimed at Amatena-san’s abdomen. It moved so fast I thought I could hear it whoosh through the air, yet Amatena-san blocked it with her upraised left arm.

  “You—!”

  With her other hand, Amatena-san went for the sword at her hip.

  But Elvia-san was coming at her from the opposite direction. Her fist appeared to be aimed directly at her sister’s face.

  “Yaaaahh!”

  But she changed direction in mid-strike, driving her fist toward the stomach. Amatena-san must have seen the trick coming, though, because she brought up a leg and sent Elvia-san flying with a kick.

  “Ugh!” Elvia-san gasped.

  To my surprise, though, Amatena-san grimaced and grunted, “Hrm?”

  It was because she no longer had a sword. Elvia-san had grabbed onto it with all four limbs when she went flying, pulling it away. That had been her objective all along.

  “Hah!”

  “Hrr—!”

  Minori-sama was already moving into her next attack. Her fist flew with tremendous speed, but Amatena-san blocked her with the palm of one hand.

  Minori-sama let loose another blow, and another and another. Fists, feet, elbows. But Amatena-san deflected or blocked most of them, and Minori-sama never managed to hit her anywhere important. Yes, she landed a few glancing blows, but nothing decisive.

  She’s so strong!

  I was sure Minori-sama wasn’t holding back, yet she couldn’t defeat Amatena-san. And this was the woman who had gone hand-to-hand with a dragon!

  Perhaps seeing that she wasn’t getting anywhere, Minori-sama backed off and made some distance.

  A human couldn’t best a werewolf when it came to stamina and sheer brute strength. If the fight went on too long, it was undoubtedly Minori-sama who would run out of steam first.

  “Elvia is predictably disappointing, but you—” Amatena-san said, narrowing her eyes. “You are a talented fighter. Who are you?”

  “I don’t have to answer that,” Minori-sama said. “For that matter, who are you? I assumed you’d be a pushover like Elvia—”

  “I encourage you not to underestimate me. I’m embarrassed even to hear myself compared to that good-for-nothing failure.”

  “Eeyaaahhh!”

  Elvia-san flung the sword aside and launched herself at Amatena-san once more. She closed the distance immediately, her limbs flailing wildly in hopes of landing a blow on her sister. The violence of it was incredible; she used the full strength and agility of a werewolf. If she’d been attacking me, I probably would have gone down in a single hit. Every strike had the power to kill, and they came in a flurry almost too fast for the eye to follow.

  But of course, none of that mattered if the blows didn’t land.

  Amatena-san blocked and passed every single one of Elvia-san’s strikes without so much as appearing nervous. It was abundantly obvious that Elvia-san alone would never beat Amatena-san. The difference in their abilities was simply too great.

  “Pathetic, as ever,” she said. “Haah!”

  She sent Elvia-san flying again with another kick.

  Elvia-san was in the air, and then, an instant later, so was Amatena-san, jumping straight up.

  “Hrk—?!” Minori-sama, who had somehow gotten behind Amatena-san, gave a tremendous sweep through the place where the other woman had been standing until an instant before.

  Her defense was impenetrable; it was as if she had eyes in the back of her head. What was more, Amatena-san twisted in the air so that she came down behind Minori-sama. A trained tumbler couldn’t have done it better. Minori-sama turned and punched, but this too Amatena-san blocked. In fact, unbelievably, she grabbed the fist in midair, leaving Minori-sama’s movements constricted.

  “Hiyah!” With a sharp exhalation, Amatena-san drove a punch straight into Minori-sama’s solar plexus.

  “Hrgh!” Minori-sama tried to pass the strike, but with her right hand immobilized, she didn’t have a chance. She wasn’t able to brace herself; with a painful little gasp, she dropped to one knee.

  Amatena-san was truly powerful. Too powerful.

  Almost unable to believe what I was seeing, I felt a tremor run through my body. We had known that a werewolf like Amatena-san was going to be physically powerful and very quick. That was why we had decided to have Minori-sama and Elvia-san attack her together. But we had never counted on Amatena-san being so tremendously skilled in unarmed combat.

  Now Elvia-san was lying on the ground, and Minori-sama was down on one knee. Amatena-san, however, didn’t look like she was planning to finish either of them off. Most likely, she felt she had made her point: even when they attacked her simultaneously, she had gotten the better of them with almost no effort. This wasn’t a show of pride; it was a simple fact.

  But it was also—not an opening, exactly; but just what I was looking for.

  I had already chanted my spell. This was why I had stayed in the shadows. Now, when Minori-sama and Elvia-san weren’t involved in combat with Amatena-san, was my best opportunity.

  “Tifu Murottsu!”

  The moment my magic activated, I saw Amatena-san make a movement as if she were tossing something.

  I realized almost immediately that it was a bladed object glittering in the moonlight. Almost before I could think, my hand was pointing toward it. The wind sprites gathered in my palm went where my fingers were pointed—in this case, flying at and knocking away the small object.

  It was a shuriken. It spun away from me and buried itself in the ground nearby.

  Startled, I began to intone a second spell. If you used the same spell twice in a row, you could execute it the second time with less than half the incantation necessary for the—

  But in the next instant, Amatena-san filled my vision.

  “Eeek!”

  I felt myself being grabbed by the collar and spun around in a wide arc before I slammed against the ground. I had fallen on my back, and the force of the impact knocked the air from my lungs. For a fraction of a second, I felt myself grow faint from the pain.

  I let out a gasping cough.

  “Myusel!” I heard Minori-sama calling out to me, but I didn’t have the wherewithal to call back. More specifically, I was coughing so hard that I couldn’t form words.

  “Ugah!”

  My situation got worse when Amatena-san followed up by wrapping my neck in a choke.

  It was the natural and indeed necessary thing to do against an enemy who could use magic. First, you stopped them from breathing so they couldn’t incant any spells. Using throws and chokes instead of strikes allowed you to attack while simultaneously preventing the use of magic.

  “Aggghh!” I grabbed at Amatena-san’s arm, trying to pry it off my neck, but my physical strength was no match for that of a werewolf. My vision was starting to turn red when suddenly, Elvia-san jumped at Amatena-san from behind.

  “Let Myusel go!”

  Amatena-san, however, kept her right hand wrapped around my neck while executing a half-turn and using her left to grab Elvia-san’s face. Elvia-san’s fist never reached Amatena-san; instead, the elder sister used her grip on the younger’s head to force her to the ground beside me.

  “Ee-eyowowowow!”

  It seemed like she was hurt less by going to the ground than by the fingers digging into her cheeks and grasping her hair. Elvia-san struggled and flailed her limbs, but Amatena-san never let go.

  “Give up, Elvia,” Amatena-san said, her face impassive.

  “I won’t,” Elvia-san managed to gasp. “I won’t! I won’t! I never will!”

  “Elvia�
�”

  “I never, never, never will!” she shouted, thrashing wildly.

  “Idiot! Is this man so important to you?” I thought there was a hint of annoyance in her voice. “Is he so—”

  “Yes!” Elvia-san finally stopped her ineffectual writhing, instead planting both her hands on the hand Amatena-san was using to hold her face, as if she thought she could simply crush it.

  “Hrrgh...”

  They might not have had equal skills, but they were still both werewolves. In a simple contest of strength, they might be almost equal. Pain began to twist Amatena-san’s expression.

  “Myusel! Elvia!”

  No sooner had we heard the shout than a blinding flash washed over us. Amatena-san had looked back at the sound of the voice; the light had probably blinded her.

  Even so, she didn’t loosen her grip on my throat or Elvia-san’s face.

  “Hiyah!”

  That was when I saw Minori-sama, a shadow against the light, send a kick flying at Amatena-san.

  She immediately brought up her hands in an attempt at defense, but couldn’t take up her stance quickly enough—so Minori-sama’s blow sent her flying.

  “Urgh!”

  There was a dry thump as she rolled along the ground. Maybe the kick hadn’t been square enough, though, because she rose up immediately; even though she was still on one knee, I see she was ready to fight.

  “Myusel, Elvia, are you okay?” Minori-sama asked, moving over to us. She was still focused on Amatena-san, and there was some kind of short, black stick in her right hand. It seemed to be this stick that had produced the light.

  “Jeez,” Minori-sama said, “I was worried there. I wasn’t able to use my pistol. Good thing I brought my SureFire from home, huh?”

  “Huh? Huh...”

  She obviously thought I should agree with her, but I didn’t really know what I was agreeing to. In any event, Elvia-san had already climbed to her feet and lent me a hand as I got off the ground.

  Amatena-san, meanwhile, seemed wary of the light; she took up a fighting stance but didn’t make any big movements. Now that we knew exactly how strong she was, though, we couldn’t afford to attack her indiscriminately, either. I could try chanting magic, but without the element of surprise, Amatena-san would just dodge me.