“Okay, I’ll get you a bouquet of rare flowers, so let’s go on a date.”
But instead of giving up, he just switched targets to Suzuran. I didn’t even know what to say about this guy...
“Rekka, you should take a lesson from him,” R whispered in my ear.
No, I mean, I’ll admit I was kind of impressed, but there was no way I was gonna take a page out of this guy’s book!
“Rain, are we at the annex yet?”
“We’re almost there. Once we cross this walkway...”
Rain was walking ahead of us, so she looked back over her shoulder to answer me, but when she did, she stopped dead in her tracks and stared towards the front gate of Ryugu Palace like she was frozen. There were rails on the walkway, but no walls, so we could see the gate clearly.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just that the town seems a little busier than usual...”
And then suddenly—
BOOM!
—the gate burst into tiny pieces.
“Wh-What...?!”
What just happened?!
As we all stood there in shock, a group of dangerous-looking toughs ran through the broken gate and flooded onto the palace grounds. Among them was a man much, much bigger than the others. He was wearing a mask over his face, so I couldn’t read his expression, but the others seemed to be following his orders. So that was their boss, huh?
“Who are those guys?”
“Those are the Seageists. They’re pirates.”
Surprisingly enough, it was Raul who answered my question.
“Pirates?”
“Space pirates, to be exact. Look at their limbs. See how the light reflects off them? They’ve all had cyborg implants to load themselves up with weapons. That’s how you can tell they’re Seageists.”
When Raul finished his explanation, he jumped up on the railing and put his hand on the edge of the roof covering it.
“...Wait, where are you going?”
“I just remembered there’s somewhere I have to be. Oh, wait.”
He pulled a gun with some kind of special design on it out of his breast pocket and tossed it to me.
“This is a stungun. All it does is temporarily paralyze your target, so even a beginner shouldn’t have too much to worry about when shooting it. Use it to protect yourself. And with that, farewell!”
“Hey, wait!”
Before I could say another word, Raul flipped up onto the roof and vanished. I would have been concerned, but with everything else going on, I didn’t have time to waste on him. More and more pirates were rushing into the palace by the second.
“Rekka, what do we do?” Rosalind asked.
“Let’s head back to our room for now. Does that work for you, Rain?”
“Y-Yes!”
Rain looked really nervous, so we took her with us as we quickly headed back the way we came. But when we got back to the main building...
“Wait!” I called to the girls as I raised my hand to get them to stop.
“What is it, Rekka?”
“The pirates are here already.”
I’d tried to act as fast as I could, but the pirates had already reached the third floor. We had to go past a stairwell to get back to our room, but there were five ruffians standing there keeping watch as more of them climbed the stairs up to the fourth floor.
“They’re going up?” Rain gasped. “My mother is up there!”
Oh, crap. That’s right. She’d mentioned earlier that she and her mother lived on the top floor. Unless we were going to be extremely optimistic, it was pretty clear her mother would be in danger.
“Rosalind, Suzuran, can you take out those guards?”
“Hmph. I could do it on my own. Easily, mind you,” Rosalind replied.
“Glad to hear it. Okay then, Suzuran, can you get back to the room on your own?”
“Not a problem.”
Suzuran lifted the hem of her yukata and revealed a belt strapped with silver knives. Old habits die hard, I guess. But don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t complaining right now.
“Got it. Then let’s split into two groups.”
I told Suzuran to get back to the room and have Harissa turn everyone invisible until the pirates were gone. Rosalind, Rain, and I were going to head to the top floor and rescue the queen.
“All right, let’s go.”
At my signal, Rosalind and Suzuran started to run. I readied the stungun that Raul had given me and had Rain, who couldn’t fight, stand behind me.
The pirates noticed us, but Rosalind was faster than they were.
“Too slow!” she cried in a battle roar.
In the instant it took for the pirates to transform their cyber-arms into guns and blades, she was on already on top of them. The first man got his legs knocked out from under him, and the second was sent flying across the hall with a punch to the chest. The third managed to raise his blade-arm, but he took one of Suzuran’s silver knives to the shoulder. Rosalind gave him a swift front kick, and he took out a fourth man as he was knocked backwards.
“I hope Raul was telling the truth and this just stuns you!”
The fifth pirate was practically in a daze at what had just happened. I saw my chance, aimed the stungun, and pulled the trigger. There was a “bzzt” sound as a blast of something like lightning flew out of the barrel and struck him. He began to spasm before falling to the floor. Well... It sure didn’t kill him, but that was pretty brutal.
“Okay, Suzuran! Go take care of the other girls!”
“Understood.”
We parted ways with Suzuran and headed up the stairs. The fourth floor was guarded, as well, but Rosalind didn’t have any trouble taking care of that for us.
“Wait, is this the top floor?”
“No. The stairs to the fifth floor are on the other side of this floor in a place where the guests can’t get to them.”
That made sense. I mean, it was where the queen and her daughter lived. Normal customers wouldn’t be allowed there, so it’s not like there would be stairs going straight to it.
Rain led us down the hall, and Rosalind took out pirate after pirate as we went, but we didn’t seem to be getting any closer to the stairs.
“There are just so many pirates... Wait, doesn’t Berano have police force or an army or something?”
“We have our own police, but they’re mostly for handling disputes and petty crimes in town. We’d have to ask Estashion for help with something serious like pirates...”
That’s right. Iris had said they were under Estashion’s protection.
“How long will it take for help from Estashion to get here?”
“I’m sure our police have already sent out an SOS, so it should be less than an hour.”
There was no way of knowing exactly when the distress signal was sent, but a good amount of time should have passed between when the pirates first arrived at the undersea dome and when they’d hit Ryugu Palace. That meant we had to hold out for another... 30 minutes? Forty, maybe? If we could get to the queen and hide her somewhere until they arrived, would we be safe?
“The door!” Rain screamed as we ran.
I looked down the hallway to see a heavy door—so heavy it seemed drastically out of place with the rest of the palace interior—that had been shattered. It was probably an end-of-the-line security measure to protect the royal family, but there was barely anything left of it. It had been completely destroyed. A cold chill ran down my spine at the sight.
“Let’s hurry!”
We ran up the stairs to the fifth floor and came up on the north side of the building. It seemed to be where Rain and her mother lived, but there wasn’t a soul in sight.
“She’s not here? Is there somewhere else she could be?”
“There’s a room in the southern wing that holds the Mermaid Princess’s Tear.”
“What’s that? Some kind of merfolk treasure?” Rosalind asked Rain with a raised eyebrow.
“We can get into that later! Let’s go!”
There was no time to waste. I hurried them both along as we traversed the fifth floor, but I couldn’t shake the chills I was getting. If the Mermaid Princess’s Tear really was some important merfolk treasure, the queen might be trying to protect it. And if she was, then...
“Mother!”
Rain’s scream was loud enough to shake my eardrums. It turns out my guess was right.
Entering the room, we were confronted by the sight of the huge man in the mask, the guy I figured was the leader. With him, he had a woman in a suit that looked like a secretary of some kind and a young girl with a headband that didn’t appear to be of any particular importance. But we weren’t looking at them. Rain’s mother was there, too, lying on the ground covered in blood.
“Ah... aaah...”
Rain collapsed when she saw what had happened to her mother.
The huge man, whose presence was even more looming this close up, turned towards us with a giant blade in his right hand. In his left was a beautiful, pearl-like jewel that shone with the colors of the sea. I figured that was probably the Mermaid Princess’s Tear. Was he here to try and steal it? Was that why he’d done... that?!
“Damn it...!”
My legs were shaking. It was the first time I’d seen someone die. I hadn’t made it in time...
“Rekka, get a hold of yourself.”
“Y-Yeah...”
Rosalind brought me back to my senses. I choked down the urge to vomit and put my finger on the trigger of the stungun. If I couldn’t save her mother, I had to at least try and protect Rain.
“What are these kids doing here?” the girl with the headband asked in disgust.
She was calling us “kids,” but she was clearly younger than we were.
“Just go sit in the corner and stay put. That way we won’t have to hurt you.”
She gestured as if to shoo us away like we were just some annoyance to her.
“Hah! Listen to you, little girl,” Rosalind growled. “Do you have any idea how many of your pirate friends I’ve left lying broken on the floor on my way here?”
“What?”
The girl frowned in confusion just as Rosalind leaped forward.
“Rosalind!” I called after her.
“If we can take out their boss here, we win, right?”
Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean we should attack them! The important part is keeping Rain safe!
“Rain, stay close to me!”
I raised the stungun and ran after Rosalind. I had to back her up, but I couldn’t move too far ahead or else I wouldn’t be able to protect Rain. I just had to try to stay at a safe distance and wait for my chance to help.
“I ain’t letting you touch the boss!”
“Out of my way!”
“Ngyaah!”
The girl with the headband defiantly tried to block Rosalind’s path, but Rosalind easily pushed her aside and kept heading for the big guy. She lunged at him, but the man blocked Rosalind’s attack with the flat of his blade.
“Hmph. You’re better than your men, at least.”
He stared at Rosalind in silence, then swung his blade to the side. Rosalind evaded by jumping backwards and putting some distance between them. Still silent, the big guy handed the Mermaid Princess’s Tear to his secretary and came at Rosalind again.
“Boss, she’s just a kid!” the girl yelled in surprise from the floor.
She seemed shocked that the man had attacked Rosalind, but I wasn’t quite sure why. Rosalind’s kick must have hit her hard. It looked like she still couldn’t stand. The secretary in the suit didn’t participate in the battle, but rather stood on the sidelines away from the large man. Like him, she was silent the entire time. Compared to the emotional young girl, her expression was cold and indifferent. It was a little creepy.
But I got distracted from that when the man’s left arm began to change shape. Wait, was that... a cannon?
“Rekka! Get down!”
Yikes!
I grabbed Rain and got as far out of the path of the cannon as I could. There was a flash of light, and a burst of plasma far larger than the one from my borrowed stungun destroyed a huge chunk of the palace. It was powerful enough that it reminded me of the time that I’d fought the ultimate mage.
“Man, that’s really not what I wanted to be thinking about right now...”
Since that was a magic duel, I’d been able to use the anti-magic powers of the Hero’s Sword to win, but this was clearly the power of science. I couldn’t think of a way to overcome it. But I had to do something. And fast. I needed to end this before he fired again!
“If I can hit him with this and stun him...”
I glanced at the stungun in my hands. The hulking man looked like he’d fashioned his whole body with cyborg parts, including boosters on his back and heels that let him accelerate instantly. Not only was he agile, he was also fast enough to keep up with a vampire like Rosalind. And me? I didn’t even know how to aim a gun while running. One miss, and I’d be his next target.
I either had to wait for him to stop moving or fire practically point blank to make sure I wouldn’t miss, and there certainly didn’t seem to be any way to get close without him noticing. If only I had Harissa’s invisibility magic... No, wait. Of course. There was another way to make sure he couldn’t see me!
I checked to see where his two allies were. The girl was still on the floor, and the secretary was on the other side of the room. Rain wouldn’t be in danger if I disappeared for a second.
“Rain, stay here for a minute!”
“Rekka!”
I made a break for it while holding the stungun tightly in my hands. I ran past the girl on the ground, heading for the giant man as he fought with Rosalind. Rosalind noticed me getting close.
“Rosalind! Turn into bats!”
“Right!”
Thankfully, she seemed to realize exactly what I was trying to do. She instantly transformed into countless red bats and swarmed the big guy to blind him.
He had no reaction other than to raise his blade. He took out several of the bats, but they quickly regenerated and formed a red wall around him. While he was occupied and couldn’t see anything else, I moved around behind him.
“His back!” I shouted.
An opening appeared in the red wall of bats, exposing the man’s back. I jammed the stungun right up against it and fired. The man moaned in pain, and the bats reformed into the shape of Rosalind.
“This is the end!”
Rosalind brought down her right hand in a chop to finish him off from above.
“Guhh...”
But he just barely managed to move out of the way. How was he still conscious after the blast from the stungun? He must’ve been even tougher than I thought.
“Hmph. A tough one, aren’t you?”
“Hey, Rosalind, are you okay?”
“I’m not even scratched. More importantly, that was great work there, Rekka. You and I really are quite a team.” Rosalind smiled happily.
Well, I’m just glad I managed to do something useful.
Bzzt! Bzzt! Snap!
We watched as the man’s mask split in two. I guess Rosalind’s attack had hit him after all.
“Well, would you look at that... Talk about an ugly mug.”
“An ugly mug?”
“See for yourself.”
That’s really mean, Rosalind. I mean, sure, he does look like some kind of fish-man, but you don’t have to be so harsh. If we were being generous, I guess you could say he looks kind of gallant...
“...Are you a merman?”
Huh?
I turned around and saw Rain gasping at the sight of the man’s face.
“Rain, do you know him?”
“...No.”
Rain denied it, but I could tell she was shaking. She was definitely hiding something.
“Rekka, what do we do with him?”
“Hmm... One more blast from
the stungun should knock him out.”
That would be enough to keep him from hurting us. Not that I had any plans past that. I turned the gun on him, deciding to shoot first and think later, but...
“I won’t let you!”
The girl with the headband suddenly grabbed me from behind.
“Waah!”
“Grr! Don’t you dare grab Rekka like that!”
Rosalind was mad about something, but I wasn’t quite sure what. Either way, the girl refused to let go.
“I won’t let you hurt the boss!”
Her legs were still trembling and weak, but she seemed to have cyborg augmentations in her arms. They were incredibly powerful. I didn’t think I could shake her off.
“Uh-oh...”
Apparently the big guy had come to his senses at some point, because when I looked up, I saw him silently standing over my shoulder with his blade raised in the air.
Man, I really let my guard down! I thought he couldn’t move anymore! But nope, there he was! Right about to cut me in half! I really needed to get out of the way!
My mind was racing a million miles a minute, but my body reacted much slower than that. Just as the huge blade was about to meet my face...
“Boss! What are you doing?!”
The girl who I thought was my enemy turned her own right arm into a blade and blocked his attack. Of course, it was a far more powerful attack than a young girl standing on two trembling legs could handle. She and I both went flying back through some Japanese-style paper sliding doors and slammed against a railing.
“Ow! Hey, are you okay?”
“Ugh...”
The girl, who’d been caught between me and the railing and had taken most of the blow, just moaned.
Creeeeeaaak...
But more alarming than that was the sound I heard coming from behind her.
Snap!
The railing gave way, and both of us lost the only thing that was holding us up. If it was just me, I might’ve been able to grab on to what was left of the railing, but...
“Damn it!”
That didn’t matter. I put my feet against the wall as we fell and pushed off of it as I reached out for the girl. I was able to grab her, but with nothing to catch us, we both fell five stories to the ground.
Intermission
“Rekka!”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 5 Page 6