Akuto looked at Hiroshi again. He looked very tired, but the way he talked and the sparkle in his eyes showed that he was feeling fulfilled. Come to think of it, Hiroshi seemed to have changed lately. He’d always been cheerful and friendly, but lately he seemed to be confident too.
“But something’s changed, right?” Akuto asked, and Hiroshi laughed, embarrassed.
“Nah, that’s not true. I’m just starting to understand how you feel a little.”
“How I feel?”
“You know. How you want to be useful to people.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Akuto laughed, and for some reason Hiroshi turned red and looked away, pointing to the TV instead.
“L-Look, it’s Yuri Hoshino, the idol.”
A tiny, pretty girl was smiling at them from the screen. It was a report from some event being held out in the countryside. Behind the idol named Yuri Hoshino was a big advertising screen and a series of tents. It was some kind of company exhibition.
“Is she popular?” Akuto asked. He didn’t know a lot about that stuff.
“That’s right. You’re a little behind the times, boss. She’s a singer, and an actress, and she’s also a popular guest on TV shows. It’s been barely any time since her debut and she’s at the top in all her fields,” Hiroshi explained, a little excitedly.
“She’s really amazing then. But I think I’ve seen her somewhere...” Akuto tilted his head. He didn’t recognize her face, yet he had a feeling that he’d met her somewhere.
“Aww, come on, boss. You must’ve seen her on TV without realizing it.” Hiroshi poked Akuto with his elbow.
“You might be right. Man, I’m silly,” Akuto laughed, and then he heard a scream from the screen.
He looked in surprise and saw people running and screaming. The cameraman must have been panicking too, because the screen was panning between the sky and the ground, and he could see short images of black shadows.
“Demon beasts?” Hiroshi said in surprise.
The next moment, the camera showed a huge bird-shaped demon beast. More than one of them, in fact. They were flying and attacking the tents.
“Oh no! Where is that?” Akuto asked. Hiroshi looked into the screen.
“It’s the floating island near the coast, I’ve been there before. It’s an event grounds that floats using magic. Unless you can fly, you can’t escape!”
“There has to be some kind of escape boat for accidents, right?”
“There is, but it’s for accidents. If they could line up and get on it, they could all escape in minutes, but the way they’re under attack, there’ll be a lot of casualties!”
“Where are the knights?”
“I think they’ll be there, but only the light knights can fly...”
As if to prove what he said, several knights rushed onto the screen. The people shouted in joy, thinking they were saved. But the knights’ magic and guns didn’t seem to work on the demon beasts, and they were easily knocked down.
“This is bad. Could the heavy knights do something?”
“No, it’ll take time for them to get there. They’ll have to get aboard a boat at the airfield...” Hiroshi said, and for some reason he looked at Akuto, upset.
“Um, boss, I... I gotta go.”
“Huh?”
It was a strange thing to say at a time like this, but Hiroshi was very serious. And then he said something even stranger.
“S-Something really brutal might happen after this, so don’t watch the TV! I-I’m gonna turn it off!” Hiroshi closed the mana screen and ran off.
—What was that?
Akuto shrugged. But he had a somewhat compliant personality at times, so he watched Hiroshi go without turning on the TV.
But it didn’t seem right to just do nothing. He stood up, and told Keena he was leaving for a minute. Then he went to talk to the student council president, who probably hadn’t left for home yet.
○
Hiroshi ran outside, and after making sure no one was around, put the bracelet on his wrist up to his face. And then he said one word:
“Brave.”
A mechanical voice sounded from the bracelet.
“Command received. Activating unit. Dimensional fault activated. Removing any material within five centimeters of user.”
Then there was a loud bang as Hiroshi’s body was surrounded by light.
“Welcome, Brave. Transferring unit. The transfer will require 0.2 seconds. Transfer complete. Electrical systems functioning normally. Life support systems functioning normally. External air circulation mode selected. Please use thought input to activate nuclear reactor engine.”
Before the voice was done speaking, Hiroshi’s body was completely covered in the suit. The suit was form-fitting, except for the helmet which exposed his mouth.
It didn’t use mana for its power source, which was rare these days. It was an anti-magic combat suit that had been passed down in Hiroshi’s family for reasons he didn’t fully understand. It acted according to his will, and gave him incredible powers.
“Display the map. Show me my current location,” Hiroshi whispered, and an image appeared on the screen.
“I want to get there in one minute, no, 30 seconds.”
With the suit on, he was able to float off the ground with just a small jump. He accelerated quickly into the sky, and then leveled off. The light on the map got closer and closer to the floating island.
Ever since he’d learned that Akuto’s existence was causing the demon beasts to become active, he’d been working in secret to eliminate them. He didn’t expect it to benefit Akuto in any way, but if he kept it up, he felt like it might make things better somehow. And even though he’d only been doing this for a short time, the mysterious hero who fought the demon beasts was already the talk of the people, and he’d heard the rumors too. It gave him an indescribable pleasure to realize that he was helping others, and being a real hero.
Fortunately, no one had identified him. This suit was illegal. If he wanted to keep doing this, he’d need to hide who he was. And he wanted to keep this a secret from Akuto and his friends, no matter what.
A moment after he’d seen the floating island, he was already in the sky above it. He could see several people below him in the plaza. Instead of running, the majority seemed to simply be in shock. They may have been waiting for their turn on the emergency escape boats, because they were just forming little groups, seemingly watching and praying that the demon beasts didn’t come close.
The light knights were fighting back as best they could, but they seemed fully occupied with protecting themselves. Despite that, they were still getting close to the demon beasts and then falling back, hoping to draw their attention away from the people.
“ID and track the location of the demon beasts. I’ll use the high-frequency blade,” Hiroshi said.
A claw-shaped blade stretched out from the gauntlet on his right wrist. He gave it a quick shake, and then let gravity take him down. Accelerating at an incredible rate, he slammed straight into one of the demon beasts.
It was a large, bird-like creature, and it had just been about to crush the face of a light knight in between its claws. But when Hiroshi flew by, it stopped moving.
The knight’s face changed from a look of fear to confusion. The claws that had been covering his vision suddenly fell away.
The demon beasts’ body had been sliced apart vertically in three straight lines. Without even time to scream, it fell apart in a storm of blood and feathers.
The people quickly realized what had just happened.
“That’s...!”
“It’s Brave! Brave the Demon Beast Slayer!” someone screamed, and the people began to cheer.
Hiroshi waved at them, and the men and women below, much older than he was, waved back with faces like children. He shook with joy at the exhilarating feeling, but he knew he had to focus.
Hiroshi checked the locations of the demon beasts, which were shown as shining
dots on his map, and got behind the nearest one of them in an instant, ripping it apart with the high-frequency blade. And before it hit the ground, he was on to the next. He was so fast, and his cuts so clean, that not a single drop of blood made it onto his suit.
The Demon Beasts must have decided that he was the biggest threat, because they began to gather around him. By the time he’d taken out two or three of them, he was surrounded. About a dozen meters away, the bird-like demon beasts began to circle him.
“I’m surrounded. I can’t use any explosives or I’ll hurt the people below. I don’t know if I can dodge when they all attack at once...” Hiroshi muttered.
The beasts’ animal instincts must have sensed his plight, because they all started to circle closer. Sharp claws and beaks attacked him from every angle.
“Summon particle cutter.”
“Roger. Summoning particle cutter.”
A dull light surrounded the left hand of the suit. At the same time, the demon beasts all lunged at him, so many that you couldn’t see him through the mass of feathers.
The people below began to murmur in fear and surprise. But a moment later, they saw something unbelievable.
The ball of demon beasts surrounding him split open in the middle. It looked just like the round capsules used for prizes and medicine that split open from the inside.
“Particle cutter... I’ve never used it before, but...” Hiroshi’s voice shook with surprise and a little fear.
Beams of light were stretching out from the fingers of his left hand. At the end of them was a tiny device floating in the air, that looked like a claw separated from its fingers. Between the claw and the fingers were fine wires that were like sharp blades.
That’s what he’d used to rip them apart.
“The molecular cutter’s strength has degraded due to absorbing other material. If there are no further orders, it will be discarded,” the suit’s cyberbrain said.
The weapon was sharp, but it seemed that it dulled easily.
Hiroshi dodged the pieces of demon beast that were falling from above him like rain and he looked around to see if there were any more. There was just one.
He ordered the cutter discarded and it vanished immediately — he didn’t know to where. The main unit of the suit itself seemed to be located in another dimension, and it transferred all his weapons and power to this one. Discarding seemed to work the same way.
He couldn’t see the last beast at first glance. As he tried to hurry to the point on the map, he heard cheers from below. The people below him didn’t realize that there was still one left.
The last dot was at the end of a row of tents for advertisers. He ran through them quickly and found the reason why he wasn’t able to see it. At the end of the row was a warehouse, and the demon beast must’ve been inside.
It was a large building, with room for exhibits inside as well. There was a big door for bringing materials in and out. It was shut. There was also a door for people to go in and out, but he decided it would be faster to break the window while flying than go inside that way.
He made sure there was nobody below him, and then broke through the window as he leapt inside.
He immediately saw what had happened: someone had run into the warehouse to escape, only to be discovered. His eyes looked past the piles of boxes and saw the monster trying to break down a door. The door was made of iron bars, and there was a person inside. It looked like a room for the warehouse’s security. They’d managed to escape, but they were completely visible from the outside, and there was nowhere for them to run.
Hiroshi got close to the demon beast, and before it even noticed, he’d sliced its wings off its torso. Since it was a bird, it was using its wings for balance even as it rammed the door. It lost its balance and felt to the floor, screaming. Hiroshi put it out of its misery with the blade.
“Whew.”
He stepped over the body and went to open the door, but was met with unexpected resistance. The person inside was still panicking — he could hear a frantic voice inside, seemingly that of a young girl. Hiroshi tried to calm her down.
“It’s okay. The demon beast is gone. I defeated it.”
The resistance on the door suddenly stopped. He turned the knob and a girl came running out. He looked at her and was shocked. It was Yuri Hoshino, the idol from the TV.
Yuri Hoshino started to sob in relief when she saw him.
“U... Uwaaah! I was so scared!”
She was sobbing incredibly loudly. Hiroshi had to turn down the volume on his helmet. But even then...
—She really is cute...
Hiroshi saw her and instantly fell in love.
She stopped crying after a while, and then looked up and down at him.
“You saved me! Thank you! I really hate demon beasts! So, you’re the famous Brave, right? You really are cool!”
She suddenly jumped on him. And even more shockingly, she gave him a little kiss on his uncovered lips.
—Uwah...
Hiroshi stood up straight in surprise. He took a step back and looked at her.
She was smaller than he was, and looked a little childish, but there was something grown-up about her; a kind of aura she gave off that came from within and made others kneel to her. She had a mischievous look, and there was a sense that you had to be on guard around her, like she might try something at any minute. It all came together to make you feel like wherever she was, the whole room would revolve around her.
“Keep this a secret,” she said as she put her fingers to her lips and winked.
And then the big door to the warehouse burst open, and the knights stormed in. Hiroshi saw it with his visor, without turning around, so he decided to show off a little for Yuri.
“Then keep what you know about me a secret, too. The knights are probably going to want to know who I am.”
“Really? But tell me! I’ll keep it a secret! I want to go see you!”
Hiroshi was honestly tempted, but he managed to remain silent. He waved towards Yuri and then leapt up and turned to face the knights. They leapt up to catch him too, but they couldn’t match his speed. In an instant he was out the door. He circled in the sky to the applause and cheers of the crowd, then flew up higher to dodge his pursuers and vanished.
○
After Akuto left, Keena finished her rice. Now that she was sleepy, she left the cafeteria to take a nap in Akuto’s room.
Then she stopped. She saw a young man in white clothes standing in the dorm hallway.
He was tall and very handsome. His hair was a little long for a man’s, and he had a statuesque face and a calm smile. He was the kind of guy who’d make any girl’s heart skip a beat. He looked the same age as Keena, or maybe a little older.
When he saw her, he bowed a little and walked over.
“Hmm?” Keena seemed confused. She didn’t know him.
“Hello,” he bowed politely, and Keena bowed back.
“Hello. Who might you be? What can I do for you?” Keena asked, and he frowned a little. But then he smiled, as if he thought she must be confused, and took out a handbook from his pocket.
“I’m with the Cabinet. I’m here on business with the school, but I got lost.”
Keena looked at the badge displayed inside the handbook. It was really elaborate, so it must be real, she thought.
“Where do you want to go? I’ll take you there, sir.”
Her tone was different than usual. The man seemed upset by that as well.
“I’d like to meet whoever’s in charge of security.”
“I see. At our school, the student council handles that job instead of a dedicated staff. I’ll take you to the student council room... Is something wrong?”
Keena peered at his face. He looked back at her, and narrowed his eyes like he was looking at something very bright.
“No, but when I look at you, it just feels like I know you.”
“That’s such a wonderful thing to say, sir. But have we
met?”
“I couldn’t say. My name is Boichiro. Boichiro Yamato.”
Keena seemed confused again.
“I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“I see.” Boichiro suddenly sighed. “As long as you can tell me where the student council room is, you don’t need to take me there. I’ll go there myself.”
“Oh, I see.”
Keena explained where it was, and Boichiro bowed and started to walk.
“Thank you. Until we meet again, then.”
“Huh? Will we meet again?” Keena’s voice returned to normal. It was like a different aspect of her personality emerged when she was talking to him.
Boichiro turned around and smiled.
“As long as you are you, we will.”
○
When Akuto knocked on the door of the Student Council Room, Student Council President Lily Shiraishi was inside, working at her desk. She raised her head and welcomed him inside.
She was a small girl in a classy hat. She wore a mischievous and strong-willed expression, and didn’t seem like what you’d expect from a student council president, but she had a commanding air about her.
“What is it?” Lily asked with an easygoing smile as she flicked the rim of her hat with her finger.
“It’s nothing that important, but...”
Lily’s face grew tense as he told her about the demon beast attack. She knew that he was essentially creating them, but she’d decided that right now it wasn’t the right move to tell him. “I’m sure the government has some reason for not taking action. But I’ll find out what that reason is,” was her private decision.
“Just look at the all the local news broadcasts here. My hobby is watching all the different stations at once,” she said, sliding her hand across the desk.
A flood of mana screens appeared, each tuned to a different channel. Lily limited her search to only channels reporting on the attack, and several disappeared, leaving around twenty. The stations were all reporting on the heroics of Brave (Hiroshi), though neither of the people in the room knew who Brave really was.
Still, ever since Akuto had encountered him at the Seaside Retreat, he’d suspected something was going on. But Akuto was the kind of person who wanted to believe in his friends, so he was doing his best to avoid bringing up Hiroshi’s strange behavior.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 4 Page 3