Chapter One: Well, Whaddaya Know — It’s Another Country!
My normal life ended when I opened my eyes.
I stared upward for a few seconds, not saying anything at first. I didn’t recognize the ceiling above me—leading me to reflexively mutter, “An unfamiliar... ceiling...”
I quoted from an anime that shall remain nameless (but which is so old that this particular quote is pretty much cliché by now), showing that I was still a total, lost-cause otaku. Which was another way of saying I was functioning normally.
Wait... What’s with this feeling of déjà vu?!
I vaguely recalled having been in this exact situation before, and even saying the exact same thing about it.
“I really don’t recognize this ceiling, though,” I said, refocusing my eyes upward.
On a normal day, the first thing I saw when I woke up was a sort of half-spherical ceiling worked with elaborate patterns.
That was because I slept in a canopy bed, as befitted my position—so the “ceiling” I’m referring to wasn’t the actual ceiling of my room... Anyway, forget it. I’m just trying to explain what I usually saw when I woke up.
Above me now, though, was a white, flat ceiling with no decoration whatsoever. If anything, it reminded me most of my room back in Japan—somewhere I hadn’t been in more than six months.
And that meant...
“No way...” I sat bolt upright in bed. “It turns out my entire story really was just a dream?!”
I was stunned.
Had all of it been nothing more than the unconscious imaginings of a pathetic home security guard? Every one of my adventures and experiences, just the passing fancies of adolescence?! Was my unconscious mind really that eager to run from reality?!
So was everything really just dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows?! Was the real world a dream, and my dreams reality? Was I actually just a butterfly?! Would I come back to myself to discover that I was just the product of the imagination of young ****ta, left in a vegetative state after a traffic accident?! What even is reality?!
.................................etc., etc.
But just as I was about to get sucked into the chuunibyou vortex, I realized something.
This wasn’t my room in Japan. This wasn’t my room at all.
If it had been, the first thing I would have seen upon opening my eyes would have been my life-sized poster of Madoka, heroine of the anime Rental☆Madoka. She’s a magical girl who bravely endures despite working for a really sucky company. But I saw no hint of her feeble smile.
“So where am I...?”
The bed I was sleeping in was definitely not canopied, but it was big enough to accommodate at least three full-grown adults. I knew my house in Japan hadn’t had a bed this large.
So this wasn’t my Japan house.
But it wasn’t my Eldant one, either.
So... Where?
Alert, I looked slowly around the room. I didn’t recognize the interior decoration at all. It was about the same size as my bedroom in my mansion, though—in other words, about twenty mats.
The windows were covered with thick drapes, lines of bright light leaking between them. It was enough to take the edge off the darkness in the room and allow me to see what was in there.
The furniture consisted of the bed I was in, a desk, and a chair. Not much in the way of furnishings, to be sure, but the wallpaper boasted an intricate pattern, the curtains were embroidered, and there were paintings hanging on the walls—not exactly spartan, either.
But still...
“It’s like...”
Something was different. The overall impression wasn’t the Middle Ages European one characteristic of Eldant houses. Instead the design was a little more Asian, maybe even kind of Middle Eastern. Tribal, almost. I mean, I was no anthropologist or anything; it just felt like it came from a different culture.
“Okay, seriously. Where am I?” I muttered. But then I caught my breath, struck by another wave of déjà vu.
The bed was different, and the room was different. The feeling of waking up and finding myself in a totally unfamiliar place, though? That I remembered.
“No way.”
This sort of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to a person several times in his life.
I had been tricked by the Japanese government, kidnapped by the Japan Self Defense Force, and before I knew it I was in a different world. Even lightning didn’t strike twice. Something as ridiculous as what had happened to me couldn’t happen a second time...
“No way...”
...Could it?
That was when I spotted something in my peripheral vision. I turned toward it with a start.
There was a single young woman, silently standing at attention.
She was standing up against the wall, almost as if she were part of the furniture.
That rang a bell, too.
So, wait, could this be—
“A loop?!” I exclaimed. “Am I trapped in an endless cycle?!”
Was some invisible force manipulating my world, rewinding it so I would experience the same things over and over again even as my memories remained unchanged?! How could I ever hope to eſcape from thiſ temporal maze?!
...Wooh. I was getting so out of sorts that I was thinking in old letterforms.
It was as I was having this moment of panic that I registered something: the girl by the wall wasn’t moving. Even though I had just been shouting in a language that she presumably didn’t understand, she just stood silently and watched me.
What was going on here? It had to mean...
“That’s... not Myusel?”
If it had been, I was sure she would have given a little yelp of surprise.
Or was she just that used to my strange behavior by now?
But then...
I squinted, taking a closer look at the girl. The darkness had kept me from realizing at first, but...
“Wuh-huh?!”
Her hair was black—or... green? In the dim light, her eyes shone a clear emerald color.
But it wasn’t her hair color that held me transfixed. It was cut short in a kind of boyish look, but that only made her most prominent features stand out all the more. Poking out from under her hair...
“IS THAT REALLY A BEAST GIRL?!” I found myself shouting, my hand clenching into a triumphant fist.
Yes! Those were animal ears!
They stood out exactly because the hair didn’t hide them. Those ears! So striking, so much a part of this girl’s particular beauty! Covered in short fur like a cat or a dog might have, they burst through her hair, making her look so real and alive!
“Ohhh...!” I trembled with admiration.
I mean, not that this was the first time I had seen a beast girl. A werewolf named Elvia lived at my mansion. She had a very upbeat and cheerful personality; she really ticked all the beast-girl boxes. She had the friendly, outgoing nature that you look for in a beast person, especially a doglike one. It was terrific.
But. But.
There were more kinds of beast girls than just doglike ones.
That’s right: I’m referring to the manga—truly a classic, practically on the level of scripture—Nishiki no Kuni☆. As Chi**-neko demonstrates, the original beast girl was a cat!
So, yes. The beast girl in front of me was a cat. She was probably a weretiger or something of the sort. I guessed as much because her cheeks and body—like her belly and her arms—clearly had some differently colored fur mixed in. It seemed unique, almost like a tattoo.
What’s that? Why could I see so much of her midriff, you ask?
That, of course, is because it was bare.
How marvelous is a girl in skimpy clothing! (I was very excited.)
Her outfit reminded me of something from some desert country—or at least from the Arabian Nights. Her chest and hips—in other words, the definite no-go zones—were covered with clothes worked with a geometric design. But her belly button was right out there, although for some reason her arms and legs were covered with sheer cloth. It didn’t hide her limbs; their color and shape was plainly visible.
Incidentally, the girl’s body shape made it look like she wasn’t yet mature—I mean she was pretty clearly young, with an underdeveloped chest and narrow hips. Practically a child.
But even so—in fact, almost because of that—those clothes were deadly.
In some ways, it was more alluring than if she had been completely exposed: revealing a little bit of flesh makes you wonder what else she’s hiding. Beautiful is the flower that blooms in secret! The vibe she gave off walked the line between virtue and deviance the way only a young body can!
That which is exuded by a body just a step—no, a half-step!—from nudity... This, this itself, is truly eros!
.................................etc., etc.
Before I knew it, I had gotten carried away with a panegyric that would probably have caused people to recoil from me if I had spoken it aloud. Now I took a fresh look at the girl.
Huh...?
“Who... are you?”
Only now did it register with me: if this was really a loop, a repeat of what had happened before, then it should have been Myusel standing there. But Myusel was a half-elf; she was no beast girl. Then again, I supposed there was always the possibility that, suspecting my affinity for beast girls, she had stuck on ears and a tail before coming to wake me up.
But no, this was definitely the first time I had ever seen this girl.
Her face was part of what made her look young; her eyes were large and her nose was petite. She had small, pursed lips. Her youthful looks reminded me of a certain empress I knew, but the impression she gave was completely different. Almost the opposite, in fact.
This maid girl watched me with a soft, emotionless expression, not so much as moving a muscle. Her silence was overwhelming. She was almost like a doll.
Who or what in the world was she?
“Ummm...”
I put a hand to my cheek and searched my memory. What was the last thing I could remember before I woke up here?
I remembered waking up early in the morning at my mansion in Eldant. I didn’t feel like going back to sleep, so I decided to kill time with a little walk around the house.
And then...
“.....................Huh...?”
No good. My recollection went fuzzy at that point.
My head felt kind of heavy. I was sure I had slept well, and yet I felt like I hadn’t slept enough. I had the sense that what I wanted was just in front of me, but I couldn’t quite reach it...
This wasn’t getting me anywhere. I decided to question the girl.
“Hey.”
She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t seem to be ignoring me. She cocked her head quizzically at me.
Whoa! That innocent gesture— That gesture—!
I set my burgeoning feelings of moe aside and asked, “Who are you? And where am I?”
It looked like she was about to answer me, because she opened her mouth...
“This is the eastern city of Borfoi. You’re in the Kingdom of Bahairam.”
The voice, however, came from someone else. I looked over in shock.
I saw a door, one that looked quite severe compared to everything else around here. It was half-open, and a young woman was entering the room.
A soldier...?
This woman was definitely not half-naked, and the clothes she was wearing looked pretty somber—very much like a military uniform, in fact. For the most part her outfit was plain and unadorned, but at her shoulders, neck, and cuffs were colors bright enough to draw the eye. She even had a sword at her hip.
What surprised me most, though, was not her clothes.
“Huh...?”
I thought I remembered this girl.
Or rather, I thought she looked exactly like someone I knew.
Elvia?
She was a dead ringer for the beast girl from my house. Her face, her hair, her height, and even the animal ears on her head were all just like Elvia’s.
The only difference was the color. Whereas Elvia had dark hair and ears, the doppelgänger in front of me had white. If you only looked at her face, you would swear it was Elvia; it was like the palette-swapped version of a character you get when you drop in as player two in a video game.
“Wh-What’s with the outfit? Going for a new look?”
Maybe she had gotten a little too into the cosplay we had done a while back. Heh, probably not...
Elvia, however, typically dressed in clothes so skimpy that she might as well just be wearing underwear. This formal, almost entirely skin-free sort of dress was definitely not the werewolf I was used to.
I had to admit, it had a certain freshness to it. She had looked adorable in the sailor uniform we had given her for our movie shoot, sure, but this had a certain...
“New look?” 2P Elvia (temp name) asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “What are you mouthing off about?”
“Um...............”
I blinked. So this... wasn’t... Elvia?
I mean, yes, I’d had some sense that it wasn’t actually Elvia, but they looked so eerily identical that I had kind of thought maybe their personalities would be similar, too. But 2P Elvia (temp name) was pretty much the other Elvia’s polar opposite in tone and voice.
For one thing, I had never seen Elvia with an expression quite like this.
In my experience, she was the picture of innocence, always smiling cheerfully. I had never known her to stare someone down the way this person was doing to me. She was kind of expressionless, a lot like the beast-girl maid I’d seen first, but this girl had a strength of will that came through just the same.
I was reminded anew how important facial expressions were for communication. One face with two different expressions could give you a very different impression.
“Um... Who... are you?”
2P Elvia came in, closing the door behind her; it shut with a click that sounded like an automatic lock. She approached the foot of the bed where I was still sitting upright and said, “I am Amatena Harneiman.”
Harneiman. That was Elvia’s family name, too.
Did that mean they were related by blood? That would explain why they looked so alike. A little too alike, really. Could they be twins or something?
I just stared stupidly at 2P Elvia—er, Amatena.
Then I finally registered something.
“Did you say Bahairam?”
I was sure she had. The eastern city of Borfoi. The Kingdom of Bahairam.
It looked like I wasn’t in the Holy Eldant Empire anymore.
Not long before, we’d made a movie featuring Petralka as a magical girl. It had actually started as a cover-up for a flub on the part of the Japanese government, but we got so into it that we ended up completing the film (however crude it was) and then showing it both at Eldant Castle and at several sites around the city.
And boy, did it take off with the populace.
We never expected Her Majesty’s popularity to shoot up the way it did. Petralka herself was profoundly embarrassed by the film, but it resulted in her subjects adoring her as a person as well as an empress.
“We demand that you do something just like this,” Amatena said.
“Like this?” I asked, frowning.
Was Bahairam ordering me to produce a movie? Or just portrait pictures like this one? It didn’t really matter, because I didn’t have the equipment to make a movie, and the technology for producing prints like this had been around since long before I had.
Either way, kidnapping me wasn’t looking very useful.
“Here,” Amatena said, thrusting another piece of paper at me. This one depicted a bearded man in fancy clothes.
It took me a second, but the beard clued me in: it was the King of Bahairam. They had prettied him up so much in this picture that I almost didn’t recognize him, but I thought this was intended to be a portrait of the nation’s ruler. This, too, looked like a colored woodblock print; like the one of Petralka, it was extremely realistic, but if you looked closely, you could see it wasn’t a photograph.
I stared silently at one picture, then the other.
So Amatena was saying...
“You want me to turn this guy into a magical girl?”
An image passed through my mind of the “father-ruler” in a frilly miniskirt and knee-high socks, holding a stick and winking as he exclaimed, “That was a big meowstake!☆” Not forgetting the flirty pose, of course.
..................
..................
Urgh.
“No.” Amatena shook her head as I battled a wave of nausea.
“Thank goodness. Obviously, I guess. Why would you need something like that?”
Granted, there was probably a deeper question than one of necessity.
But wait... Could it work as a gag?!
Around and around went my irreverent thoughts.
“Kanou Shinichi,” Amatena said, staring me full in the face, “you did something that caused Petralka an Eldant III’s popularity in the Eldant Empire to increase dramatically.”
“Huh? Er, yeah, I guess.”
I guess that was me, wasn’t it? Yeah, okay, it was. I think it’s a good thing for an administrator to be popular with the people.
“You will do the same thing for our country.”
“I’m sorry...?”
“You will use your abilities to make the children many times more loyal to the father-ruler. They will work harder for him, fight harder for him, and be more overjoyed to do so.”
“............Huh?”
This request was sort of kitty-corner from what I’d been imagining, and all I could respond with was a vacant grunt. It was drowned out by the shouting and cheering, though, and I wasn’t sure Amatena even heard me.
Chapter Two: The Country Called Bahairam
I was all too aware that my hands were trembling.
“Please, don’t move...”
The object I was holding was unquestionably a weapon.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time I had held a weapon. In order to gain citizenship, I had spent some time in the imperial army of the Holy Eldant Empire, where I had learned how to use the sword and the spear, in addition to offensive magic.
But the lump of metal in my hands at that moment was something else entirely.
This was a weapon from the country of Ja-pan. I believed I had heard Minori-sama refer to it as a “nine milli-meter hand-gun.”
“Myu... Myusel?” Elvia-san watched me dimly. Her usual cheerful smile was gone. Instead, I saw her face harden as the situation dawned on her. Her tail stood straight up against her back, motionless, perhaps from alarm.
She understood that a careless move could get her killed.
Living under the same roof had given us ample opportunity to see Minori-sama’s various tools in action. I was sure the nature of this weapon wasn’t lost on Elvia-san.
I had purposely taken Minori-sama’s nine milli-meter hand-gun because without it, I had no leverage against a werewolf. Elvia-san was stronger and faster than me; I would never have been able to defeat her with a bladed weapon. I could have tried magic, but chanting and targeting would have given away what I was doing, and my spell would have been simple enough to evade. Moreover, Elvia-san would have been just as aware of this as I was, and she wouldn’t have been intimidated by my threats.
So as bad as I felt about it, I had snuck into Minori-sama’s room and borrowed her nine milli-meter hand-gun. In addition to the one she normally carried on her person, she had a spare that I knew she kept in her room.
“Q-Quit it already,” Elvia-san said, frowning. “Th-That’s Minori-sama’s, innit? Wont’cha get in trouble for taking it?”
Trouble. Yes, that seemed likely. There was every chance this wouldn’t end with a simple scolding.
At that moment, however, it was my only choice... My only hope.
“I’m begging you, Elvia-san.” My voice shook as violently as my hands.
Yes, I had been in the military, but I had no experience of actual combat. I had never personally confronted anyone with weapon in hand.
On top of that, a nine milli-meter hand-gun was different from a sword. According to what I had heard, there was no need to swing this weapon. In fact, all you had to do was move your finger a little bit, and it would push your opponent with a force vastly quicker and more powerful than a blade. If it impacted any vital point—the head or the throat, or even the heart—its killing power was much greater than a sword. With this weapon, it wasn’t possible to hold back or to temper one’s attack.
“This is... This is the only way...”
Roooooaaaarrrr!!
The puppet drake rose up slightly and howled, whether from pain or anger I wasn’t sure.
“Launch a kick, Romilda!”
“Right!”
As Romilda shouted enthusiastically, the Faldra rotated its blade-like leg, throwing a kick diagonally at the puppet drake’s head. As I expected by now, there was a magic gem in the Faldra’s hip, or kind of in its shin, which glowed green, ensconcing the entire body in that defensive magic.
This boom! was even louder than the punch. Several of the dragon’s scales shattered, and we could see startled sprites letting off sparks and lightning bolts around it.
Awesome! This Faldra was so strong!
Or was it Romilda who was so powerful? Hmm.
At the moment, though, it was an academic question.
Rooooaaarrrrrrrr!!
This time the puppet drake was even noisier. It made a half-turn, then lashed out with its long tail as if it were a whip.
“Anti-impact defense!” Minori-san cried out.
“Got it!” Myusel responded.
Almost simultaneously, a whirlwind enveloped the Faldra’s left arm. It was an instantaneously-created layer of pressurized air that acted like a shield, deflecting the dragon’s tail and neutralizing its power.
The dragon next tried to take a bite out of the Faldra, then scratch at it with its claws, but we deflected or dodged each attack.
At the same time, though, despite how loud and impressive they were, several of the Faldra’s attacks didn’t seem to have slowed down the puppet drake. Was this just because our opponent was reptilian and didn’t feel much pain? Was it really that tough? Or did being a puppet mean it didn’t feel pain and fatigue?
But that suggested...
“Aim for the spike!” I yelled.
That was pretty obviously its weak point. In fact, I kind of wished Bahairam’s mages had thought a little harder, you know? If they had succeeded in turning me into a puppet, I would have just kept running into everything, and then eventually... (shiver).
“Got it!” Romilda said, a kick from the Faldra slamming into the puppet drake’s forehead. It hit the spike square on.
Roooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!
The drake shook its head violently and backed off.
Awesome! It was working!
“This is our chance!” Loek said. “Finish it! Use the special move—Drill Hand!”
“Sure thing!”
The Faldra’s hand pulled way back, its fingers joining to form a point, which started spinning very much like a drill bit.
Yeah. These kids know how it’s done.
A drill! And a spear hand, at that!
Now that’s a special move!
You’ve made your sensei so happy, kids! You’ve learned his lessons so well!
But while I was busy being moved by how much Loek and Romilda had grown as otaku...
“H-Huh...?”
...Romilda was not sounding very triumphant.
The Faldra’s right hand suddenly slowed and then stopped rotating altogether. In fact, the mech’s movements all seemed to be growing sluggish.
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than the puppet drake’s tail hit us.
Boooooonggg!!
“Eeeek!” The girls gave a collective scream when we got hit. Even the wall of wind that was supposed to defend against attacks like that didn’t seem to be working. What in the world was going on?!
“It’s not... moving like it’s supposed to...”
“Huh...?” Loek and Romilda exchanged dark looks.
And then I put the pieces together.
The magic gems in the Faldra’s chest, legs, and shoulders. The vein-like pattern that ran along its armor. The green glow that suffused all of it was obviously getting weaker, flickering like a fluorescent lamp at the end of its life.
“But why?!” Loek shouted.
The Faldra was clearly running out of gas, but... Wait. Gas?
“The dragon’s energy drain!” I exclaimed.
Dragons—especially the huge creatures properly known as True Drakes—were immune to magic. Because they used sprites themselves to support their huge bodies, breathe fire, and even fly, they had bodily organs that allowed them to metabolize magic and sprite power. So when unstable magical power like that from a human got anywhere near a dragon, it was simply absorbed.
We had completely forgotten about that as we engaged with the puppet drake.
When the magic was simply latent inside the gem, that was one thing, but because we were constantly using magical power to control the Faldra, that power was always coursing over the vehicle’s surface. We needed even more magic to kick or punch, or to stop an opponent’s attack. Fighting the dragon in that state was as good as begging it to absorb our energy...
The premise was sound: you couldn’t fight a dragon with magic, so you would have to do it hand to hand. Powering your hand-to-hand fighter with magic defeated the point.
“Ahhhh, Romilda, you idiot!”
“You’re the idiot, Loek!”
Gosh. And they had been getting along so well.
And frankly, they were probably both idiots.
“Eeek!”
“Ahhhh!”
More blows assaulted the Faldra.
Crap. We’ll never hold up to this.
But without even the power to move an arm, let alone a leg, running away wasn’t looking very likely...
“Th-That’s it!” Romilda exclaimed suddenly. “We can use the emergency power supply!”
“Huh? Do we have one of those?” I asked.
“Yes!” she nodded, then gave the magical gem above our heads a very solid smack.
“Yipes!”
The crystal had already nearly gone dim; now it cracked down the middle, and I saw something emerge from within. Wait, so that thing wasn’t solid?
What came out was...
“A... wheel?”
It looked like something a hamster would run on, but about ten times bigger. About human-size, actually.
“This thing was originally built as a marionette, remember?” Romilda said. “It has some gears to help it do things that strings alone couldn’t manage.”
“Wasn’t that for when it was flying?!”
“The mechanism is still there! Our range of movement will be limited, but if we turn this wheel, we should at least be able to walk—and it won’t use magic!”
“W-Will that really work?” Would the Faldra really move if we turned this wheel? I mean in this armored configuration, and with six passengers?
Talk about your hostile working conditions...
And all this was to say nothing of the fact that the wheel only looked big enough for one person...
“Elvia!” I said suddenly, turning to the werewolf girl and grabbing her by the shoulders.
“Y-Yes?” she said, startled.
“We need your strength!”
“Wh-Who, me? Mine?”
“Only you can do this!”
“Only I can—?” Her eyes got bigger.
I understand that forcing a young woman to do this kind of physical labor is a questionable proposition, but all our lives were on the line here; this was no time to be getting caught up in notions of chivalry. Elvia, as a werewolf, was far and away the strongest of any of us.
“We need you!”
“But I...”
Hey, why are your cheeks getting so red?
No! Not the time to be wondering about that!
“Run, Elvia! Run for our future!”
“Uh... Okay? Whatever you say!” She nodded and jumped on the wheel.
Then she started to run.
“Whoaaaa!”
Fzzzzzz! The wheel spun with a very familiar sound, the Faldra creaking in time along with it. Meanwhile, Romilda had taken hold of a collection of exposed pegs, a smile on her face. Apparently, those pegs were what would let her control the Faldra by hand.
“It’s working!” Although with much less fluidity than before, the Faldra had started to move. “We can do this, Sensei!”
“Great! L-Let’s start by getting some distance.”
“Sounds good,” Romilda said, nodding. Our ride began, totteringly but unmistakably, to put some space between itself and the puppet drake.
Our enemy was holding station up in the air. Maybe it thought it could use its fire breath again.
“Hrrraaaaaahhhhh!” Elvia bellowed as she ran and ran and ran. She was already covered in sweat, her breath coming in ragged gasps, but somehow she kept going faster and faster. I had never seen anyone work so hard. It was incredible. Thanks to her, the Faldra was able to walk without falling over.
But even so...
“This is bad...!”
We still couldn’t jump or fly. Those actions were obviously enabled by magic. Worse, our gems seemed to still be recovering; the green glow wasn’t quite back at full strength. And there was no way we could move the entire Faldra using just our personal magic...
In this state, we wouldn’t be dodging any fire breath.
I thought I saw despair peeking over the horizon of panic.
Is there something we can do? Anything! Anything at all!
Myusel, Minori-san, Elvia, Loek and Romilda—they had all come specifically to rescue me! And now they were going to be slaughtered for their troubles...
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Minori-san look up resolutely. Did she mean to take on the dragon in bare-handed combat like she had before?!
No, Minori-san! It just isn’t possible!
“Looks like there’s no choice. Romilda, open up the cockpit!”
“Wha? But Minori-sensei, that’s—”
“Open it! That’s an order!”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
Romilda flipped something, and the armor that had been protecting the cockpit suddenly opened, connecting us directly to the outside world. Now I could see the glowing globe forming in the dragon’s jaws with my own eyes. Crap! We’re all—
“Everyone, get down!” Minori-san shouted, then grabbed something in the cockpit and jumped out of the Faldra.
“Hey—Minori-san?!”
“Sensei!”
Romilda quickly directed the Faldra to bring its hand down to Minori-san. She jumped on its open palm, then I heard her yell:
“So-Crazy-It-Just-Might-Work Finishing Move!!” She sounded so loud. So proud. “Panzerfaust Drei!!”
W-Wait just a second...!
Before I could even get a smart remark out of my mouth, Minori-san had braced the object against her shoulder—it was a rocket-boosted recoilless weapon—and fired.
The exhaust gasses came flying out the back.
“Waaahothothot!”
They obviously didn’t come directly at us, but the gout of smoke and flame from the shot built up against the cockpit armor, immediately and dramatically driving up the temperature.
As for the 110-millimeter personal anti-tank shell, it went flying off, trailing white smoke.
It was headed straight for the dragon, which probably couldn’t even see the rocket in the glare from the magical globe in its own mouth. The projectile scored a direct hit.
The sound of the ensuing explosion filled the area. Half the puppet drake was obscured by a cloud of white smoke.
We took in a collective breath: when the smoke cleared, we saw that the dragon’s head had been blown clean off.
“Yikes...”
Even from this distance, it wasn’t a pleasant sight. But at the same time, it meant the dragon had been neutralized...!
“M-Minori-san...”
“Heh heh!” Minori-san chuckled as she climbed back into the cockpit. “Crazy like a fox. I’m glad I brought this puppy along.”
“That thing’s not exactly a travel necessity! Are you a lab coat-wearing nutzoid scientist, too?!” There’s a line to draw when you’re packing for a trip! “And what do you mean ‘puppy,’ anyway?! You could at least call it a 110-millimeter personal anti-tank weapon or a LAM or something!”
“But can’t you just imagine it being glossed Finishing Move in a manga?”
Well, yes, I could, but...
“Anyway, thank God it only took one shot.” Since, Minori-san added, I only brought one with me.
In point of fact, except for the sight and grip, a Panzerfaust 3 is entirely disposable.
“Wait a second,” I said. “If you had something like that along, why didn’t you use it in the first place?!”
“It’s surprisingly hard to just, y’know, use,” she said. “You have to be careful of what’s behind you.”
“You weren’t!”
“Plus, if you’re too close, you get hurt, but if you’re not close enough, you won’t hit anything. Normally you at least get to brace yourself against the ground when you’re using it.” Minori-san shrugged.
If nothing else, she was right that you didn’t normally fire one from atop a giant robot.
“Not to mention, I wanted to keep Bahairam from learning about that technology if I could.”
“Ah...”
Now that she mentioned it, that made sense. We didn’t know how much the Kingdom of Bahairam actually knew about Japan, but based on what Amatena had said, we at least knew that they entertained the possibility of conquering it if they got the chance.
That meant this kingdom was a potential enemy. The less they knew about our weapons and technology—even if ours were vastly superior—the better. Personal weapons like the Type 89, the Minimi, or the M9 were one thing, but anti-tank munitions would definitely be something of a military secret vis-à-vis a country like Bahairam.
“And then there’s the fact that unlike a handgun or small arms,” Minori-san said, her eyes growing distant, “when you use one of those things, the paperwork is a huge headache.”
“Don’t tell me that’s the real reason you wanted to avoid it.”
“...............................Okay. I won’t tell you.”
She was pointedly not looking at me.
“Can you look me in the eye and say that, PFC Koganuma Minori?”
“The point is, Shinichi-kun, we have to get out of here!”
What a bold change of subject.
I looked around. Maybe it was because the puppet drake was dead, or maybe our magic regeneration had finally caught up with us, but in any event, the Faldra’s crystal was glowing at full strength again.
“After that sort of noise, Bahairamanian reinforcements are sure to be on the way!” Minori-san said.
“Right!” Loek and Romilda nodded, and then the Faldra’s armor started shifting again, returning us to the flight mode that would get us into the sky and out of Dodge.
We kept flying, straight out of the eastern city of Borfoi.
The only catch was, the Faldra was sounding kind of creaky, maybe on account of having just done hand-to-hand combat with a dragon, and we weren’t sure it was fit for a long-distance flight.
So we were just looking for a place to set down and do some simple repairs on the mech when...
“Huh...?”
I looked out across a wasteland of sand and rocks, toward the mountains that formed the border with Eldant. Smack in the middle of it stood two figures.
Were those...?
“Sorry, Minori-san, but can I borrow your binoculars?”
“Sure, here.” She handed me a pair of folding binoculars. I held them up and set the magnification.
“Hey...”
It was just what I had sort of almost expected. In fact, it was exactly what I had expected: Amatena and Clara. And for some reason, Amatena wasn’t wearing her usual military uniform, but a traditional outfit much like Clara’s. A lot like Elvia’s, for that matter. It showed a lot of skin (or fur), and yeah, I have to admit, it definitely turned me on... But even ignoring the part of my mind that was in the gutter, I personally thought the outfit looked really good on her.
“Stop here!” I cried. “Er, I mean, put ’er down!”
There was a collective “Wha?”
“You see those people there? I want you to set down there for a moment.”
“Wait. Isn’t that—”
I might have guessed Elvia would have good eyes. She didn’t seem sure about this.
“Shinichi-sama, that’s...!”
“It’s okay, trust me,” I said, my tone admitting little argument.
There was no sign of other Bahairamanian soldiers in the immediate area, and neither Amatena nor Clara was dressed for battle. Finally, at a nod from Minori-san, Loek and Romilda brought the Faldra down to land next to the two beast girls.
I immediately jumped off the fake dragon. Minori-san, ever my bodyguard, was right behind me with her M9 at the ready, but everyone else stayed on the Faldra. Even Elvia didn’t make any move to dismount. In fact, she perched watching Amatena and Clara like a wary animal.
“I had a feeling it might come to this,” Amatena said with a sigh as Minori-san and I approached. It didn’t seem like word had reached the army yet of my escape. Well, we had flown straight here after busting out of the research facility. If anything, it suggested that Amatena had known this might happen.
“Thanks,” I said earnestly.
It was because of Amatena that Minori-san and the others had known where I was. Her position in the military had prevented her from personally helping me escape, but without the hint she gave Minori-san, I would probably still be on my way to get spiked.
“I hear this is all thanks to you,” I said.
“Me? I didn’t do anything,” she said expressionlessly. “If anything I did happened to benefit you pieces of filth, I certainly didn’t do it for that purpose.”
“Sure, I know,” I said, smiling at this display of tsundere-ishness.
“I believed that someone like you was absolutely necessary to the future of this country.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. In its quest for power, the Kingdom of Bahairam was starting to treat people like mass-produced consumables (even if this world, not yet having experienced an industrial revolution, probably didn’t have that concept). A rich traditional culture had been thrown away wholesale, replaced with attempts to control the populace and a philosophical fixation on a strong army.
And maybe, just maybe, that didn’t sit right with Amatena.
Or maybe the other citizens of this country, either. Maybe that was exactly why the king and his advisors thought it was so important to reinforce the people’s loyalty. They could probably sense the discontent spreading.
“Elvia is... different now,” Amatena said suddenly.
“Huh?” The voice came from the back of the Faldra—from Elvia.
Maybe she hadn’t realized it herself. Honestly, I hadn’t known Elvia long enough to be sure either way.
Something tugged at Amatena’s lips; she looked perilously close to a smile. A wry smile, maybe.
“She would never have stood against me like that before. She would have quietly run away. I suppose it’s meeting you that has wrought this change in her.”
I was hardly in a position to be all, “Oh yeah, obviously. You should be grateful.” I hadn’t even thought of myself as having enough influence with Elvia to cause her to act differently. Literally all I did was to have her stay at the mansion drawing pictures.
“For all the beating and shouting we gave her, we were unable to change Elvia. Not us her sisters, not her parents. Perhaps it only shows that such things lack the power to change people.”
I didn’t say anything.
“All the more reason why revolutionaries like you are crucial for this country. So I simply... I would have hated to see you used up as nothing more than a test subject for puppet technology. That’s all there is to it. And with you escaping, my efforts have come to little.”
“Revolutionary, huh...?”
Amatena really was worried about the future of her country. But given her particular position and talents, there was nothing she could do about it alone.
So instead, she looked for someone like me to kidnap under the guise of strengthening control over the population, in hopes that I might bring even the slightest bit of new thinking to the country... Or was that just my overactive imagination?
“Amatena,” I said.
“Yes. What?”
“If instead of ordering me to create something that would cause the people to be more loyal to the king, you had asked me to think of something that everyone could enjoy together... I would gladly have helped.”
This time it was her turn to be silent, but she shook her head. Did she mean she wouldn’t have done that? Or that what-ifs weren’t worth talking about? Or maybe something else? I simply didn’t know.
Then Amatena said, “You should go now. If you stay here for very long, the pursuit squadron will catch up with you.”
That wouldn’t be any better for her than it would be for us. After all, Amatena had deliberately let Myusel and the others know where I was and when I would be there, and at the same time had failed to inform the research facility that my rescuers knew... And now here she was, practically seeing us off. The government would certainly consider her to be lending aid and comfort to the enemy.
Even if what she was really doing was trying to help Bahairam.
“You’re right. We’re on our way. But... really, thank you.”
Amatena stayed quiet, but she shrugged.
“And... Clara.”
“Yes...?” she asked in surprise. Maybe she had expected me to just ignore her at this point. But instead I said...
“Do you want to come with us?”
“What...?” This time Amatena looked as surprised as Clara. “Why? Why me?”
“No special reason,” I said evasively. After all, Amatena was standing right there.
I didn’t know how serious she had been, but Amatena had once threatened to kill Clara if I didn’t do what she said. It seemed clear that despite the way this society trumpeted equality of all its citizens, there was a pretty clear-cut system of status, and Clara was probably not very high on the ladder.
Amatena had enough station in this country that she could take care of herself, but I thought maybe it would be better for Clara if she came with us.
The girl was silent for a moment, thinking about it. Then she said, “Thank you very much,” and gave me the first smile I’d ever seen from her.
Whoa! Cuteness alert!
“But I’m not coming,” she said. “I’m going to stay with my sister.”
“That so?” I had sort of thought she might say that, so I wasn’t really shocked.
I nodded to Clara and then to Amatena. “We’ll be on our way, then. You both take care of yourselves.”
I turned around and was about to walk away.
“Shinichi-sama.”
I felt a tug on my arm.
It was Clara.
She was surprisingly strong.
“Uh... Wha—?”
I had turned halfway back toward her when...
Smooch.
I felt something warm and soft on my cheek.
“!#$%&~ッ?!”
My gray matter lit up in absolute astonishment.
A second later, she was sliding away from me.
“C—Clara?!”
Was this—could it be—uh—you know—that thing?! That, uh, the—!!
“You told me once that this is what you do to someone you care about, right?”
“Er, I mean, yeah, but...”
“Though you’re still second to my big sister.”
Clara’s mission to ensnare me was supposed to be over. So did that mean she was doing this freely...?
I might be second to Amatena, but didn’t that mean I was number one on her list of boys?!
Whoaaaaaaaa!!
WAS THAT REALLY A GIRL’S FIRST CONFESSION OF LOVE FOR ME?!
My internal monologue was going nuts, but Amatena sounded characteristically unimpressed.
“You should get going, and soon. Everyone’s waiting for you.”
“Y-Yeah, sure.”
Still feeling shaken and stirred, I obediently headed back to the Faldra. Jogging alongside me, Minori-san looked at me with her eyes half-closed behind her glasses.
“Gosh, Shinichi-kun. We put our lives on the line to rescue you, and it turns out you’ve already got yourself a little wife here?”
“Huh? No, we’re not—”
“And so young!
“I told you, she isn’t—”
“What will Her Majesty think?!” Minori-san was practically chortling as we jumped aboard the Faldra.
“No! You can’t—”
“Shinichi-sama...” Now Myusel was looking at me with brimming eyes. “Is it... Is it possible we’ve...” She could hardly bring herself to look at me. “Have we done the wrong thing by rescuing you?”
“Don’t take this so seriously, Myusel!” I said, starting to sound a little desperate. “You do know I was about to have a spike pounded into my brain, don’t you?!”
“Time for liftoff!”
Thankfully, Loek interrupted us with a change of subject. Myusel, still not looking very sure, started chanting a spell that put wind under the Faldra’s wings and started lifting us into the air.
“Big Sis Ama!” Elvia called from the mech’s back.
Amatena squinted up at us. Despite impulsively calling to her sister, Elvia didn’t quite seem to know how to follow up. “Um... Uh...” she said, looking at her sister with a pained expression.
Instead it was Amatena who spoke. “Show your face around here sometimes,” she said. “Big Sister Jiji will want to see you. And Father and Mother, too.”
“Uh...” Elvia looked shocked for a moment, but then she said, “I will!” and waved to her sister, a huge grin on her face and her tail wagging wildly.
At last the Faldra got some altitude, took one big turn, and picked up speed.
Amatena and Clara grew smaller and smaller in the distance, but Elvia kept craning her neck farther, always looking in their direction.
“Right,” Minori-san said with a bit of a sigh. “Now we can finally go home to Eldant.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. It was funny: I had been dragged here basically against my will, but now I didn’t really feel homesick for Japan. It was Eldant I was eager to get back to—even though I had only been away for about two weeks.
Why? It had to be because of all the people who were there.
People like Myusel. Minori-san. Petralka. Elvia. Brooke. Cerise. Everyone at the school...
For me, it really was “going home.”
I pointed to the blue sky and shouted, “Destination: Eldant. Full speed ahead!”
“Right!” Loek and Romilda nodded in unison, and the Faldra accelerated even more.
And with the sudden rush of air across its back.................................... I nearly fell off.
Epilogue: Cultural Invasion Redux
Actually arriving home presented its own challenges.
They started at the mansion that served as Amutech’s headquarters. Brooke and Cerise met me at the door.
“Good t’ see y’ again, Master.”
The two lizardmen looked exactly the same as always, which immediately gave me a comforting feeling of ahh, I’m back......... Kind of.
“Uh... Brooke?”
“Yessir.”
“What’s with the sword?” I asked, looking at the blade in his left hand. It was still in its sheathe, but from the workmanship, it was obviously a real weapon. The kind of undistinguished item a soldier might be issued to carry into battle.
Yes, I was aware Brooke had once been a famous hero, but when I thought about it, I realized I had never seen him with a weapon.
“Aherm.”
He gave the sword to Cerise, then knelt in front of me, like a condemned criminal awaiting judgment.
“It was m’ own inattention that allowed those villains to get close enough to this mansion to capture you, sir.”
“...Huh?”
“You’d be within your rights to have my head, Master. But I’ve a wife now, and t’aint just my own life anymore. I beg of you to show mercy and take only an arm or leg, or maybe—”
“I don’t need to take anything!” I cried. What was he, a member of the yakuza? Heck, even they usually settled for just a finger! Anyway, cutting off Brooke’s appendages wasn’t going to make me happy! It wouldn’t do anything for me!
“Just forget about it!” I insisted.
“Y’ mean you’ll be merciful to me?”
“Yes! Merciful! Magnanimous, forgiving, whatever you want! Cerise, don’t raise that sword like that! You’re scaring me!” While I had been talking (?) with Brooke, Cerise had raised the sword above her head like she was about to help Brooke commit ritual suicide.
“Brooke, you’re not even officially my bodyguard!”
“That is true,” the lizardman said, looking up. “Do you mean y’ intend to cut off Minori-sama’s arm instead?”
“No, I don’t!” I shouted, holding my head. Intercultural communication could be real tricky sometimes...
As this commotion was going on in front of the house, a contingent of knights and a carriage from Eldant Castle arrived for us. Maybe Loek and Romilda, who had left earlier, had told them we were back. In any event, we were pretty much forced to make an immediate appearance at the castle.
“Shinichi!” A familiar voice greeted me the moment I walked into the audience chamber.
It was Petralka. The loli(-looking) empress was, as always, seated on a huge throne that dwarfed her small body.
“It is you, isn’t it?! You aren’t hurt?!”
“Your Majesty...”
She had almost jumped to her feet when I came in, but slowly sat back down at the urging of Garius, her knight and trusted confidant. She’s so cute. And it made me happy to realize she had been worried about me, too.
But I’m definitely not the empress’s lover, okay?
I decided to keep the thought to myself.
Afterword
Hiyo, light novelist Sakaki here.
I humbly bring you Volume 5 of Outbreak Company: The Power of Moe.
I handled this story a little differently than in the past. Well, not that differently; I mostly mean there were multiple perspectives. I decided to treat Myusel, who (seems) quite popular with readers, as almost a second protagonist. As I worked with her perspective, I was surprised to find myself, well, surprised by the character I was discovering.
I mean, for one thing, she seems like the type who could be very violent when cornered. I mentally revived the possibility of making her a yandere.
As a point of fact, the reason Myusel doesn’t use a 9mm or a Type 89, but a Squad Automatic Weapon, started with a request from my illustrator, Yuugen-shi. I give it some thought and figured that Myusel did do a stint in the military, and maid work involves quite a bit of physical labor (carrying lots of laundry, for example. Plus, using a washboard is supposed to be pretty taxing), so I decided, sure, why not?
Setting aside the convoluted explanations, though, I think we can all agree that a beautiful half-elf girl in fantasy garb carrying a huge gun makes for a great picture.
For the record, the Minimi that Myusel uses (and gets via Minori), along with the equipment from the Eldant garrison, is in my view considered to be obtained from the same place that special forces get these sorts of things. That is, these weapons don’t officially exist (on the JSDF manifests, for example). So the Minimi, the gunstocks, and so on aren’t technically those used by the Self-Defense Force. Just an obsessive little detail—not that it makes any difference (grin).
So then. Following the rule of ever-intensifying threats, I would expect the next volume to introduce a character who threatens Shinichi’s very existence, but how could such a thing happen??
I would love to see you again for the next volume.
Ichiro Sakaki
31 October 2012
