Twilight (3)
Miro reached the port—the Tamo organization's territory—and hid behind a row of containers.
"Arius, go check how many there are." Miro said. Arius gave a small bark.
Arius had always been clever, but lately he seemed to understand human speech.
Behind a crate holding thirty bombs, Shirone sat with an indifferent expression.
"Oppa, if we take the weapons from the armory with our abilities, the adults won't have to get hurt."
Arius barked softly.
The reason they could move boxes weighing hundreds of kilograms was their psychic power.
Arius padded back from a perimeter check and gave a small bark.
"Let's go, Oppa."
The two who'd lifted the bomb crate activated their powers and moved.
Among roughly twenty armories, they aimed for the one with the weakest guard.
"There—"
Two Tamo men armed with firearms stood watch at the entrance, and a sentry was posted on the tower.
"That's the problem," Miro said to Shirone.
"Oppa, I'll climb up and shove that guy off. You drop the bombs. Can you do it?"
She didn't falter.
"...It's dangerous."
"It'll be fine. By now Dad will know. The Merchants' Guild will have to move too. While they lure the enemies back to their base, the adults will grab the weapons. I'll finish it inside."
Arius whined softly.
In the real world, Miro was the sort of person who would do anything to protect what mattered.
'I'm the strongest, so I have to do it. If the adults take charge, people will die.'
She was risking her life, but if her hypothesis was right, it should be possible.
"Okay. Please."
When Miro moved, Shirone made a heavy, deliberate motion and scanned the armory location.
'Do I have to do this?'
He didn't want to think about the reason.
He couldn't remember clearly, but it felt like he'd decided to accept the world in the most passive way possible.
'Why?'
Part of him felt life was everything, yet another part refused to dig deeper.
Silently, Shirone sent the thirty bombs to the armory Miro had designated.
"Huh?"
The sentry widened his eyes at the slithering shadow on the armory's roof.
"What's that?"
As he watched in confusion, his eyes suddenly opened wide and he shouted.
"B—!"
His voice was trapped behind a veil of air, and Miro, having climbed the tower, launched a physical attack.
"Now!"
It was steel resolve.
No hesitation, no conflict, no doubt—so even in a twelve-year-old body, she could overpower an adult.
"Argh!"
The sentry, struck from behind, didn't even get a chance to react and fell over the railing.
They muffled his cry, but couldn't deaden the dull thud as he hit the ground.
"Who—!"
The guards protecting the armory turned toward the sound and spotted Miro.
"Shoot!"
They couldn't tell she was a kid—but even if they could, it wouldn't have made a difference.
As bullets rained from every direction, Miro's concentration soared to its limit.
'I didn't tell Dad, but—'
Above her head appeared the child-faced avatar of the Thousand-Armed Kannon.
'I can see it.'
Time splintered into countless shards, and Miro's mind flowed into each one.
'Bounce them all back.'
Each time the Kannon's hands moved like afterimages, sparks flew from where they swept.
Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!
Bullets glanced off her, and she made a pained face.
"Ugh!"
The manifestation took most of the impact, but she still felt as if her palms had been pierced.
The Tamo crew stood stunned.
"What? The bullets—"
"Miro! Now!" she shouted to Shirone.
The crisp sound of safety pins being pulled rang out in succession. The Tamo guards looked up.
"Huh?"
The moment they realized they were bombs, everyone bolted from their posts.
"Get out! Move!"
Fire and an ear-splitting roar exploded as the armory they'd been guarding blew wide open.
"Success!"
Miro, who had already descended the tower, ran to Shirone and Arius.
"Hurry, move! That really hurt!"
In the dream, physical force obeyed different rules, but the force still landed the same.
"What's going on!"
As the Tamo crew surged toward the blast site, a survivor—barely alive—shouted.
"Bombs! And that kid... she bounced the bullets back!"
"Nonsense! After them!"
Because they were armed intruders using firearms, the organization tensed even more.
"Oppa! Hurry!"
Woof! Woof!
Exposed, Shirone and the others ran straight toward the Tamo stronghold.
They shoved people aside with their powers, but the organization's mobility was unusually high.
"Stop right there!"
When dozens of men leveled guns at them at once, Miro's heart dropped.
'Huh?'
It felt as if the bullets never arrived.
Startled by the odd sensation, she looked back and saw Shirone had suddenly stopped. She shouted.
"Oppa! Danger!"
At the same time, the second volley began and Miro's vision filled with countless sparks.
'I can do this.'
Shirone thought so.
Whether thirty bombs or three hundred—in the mental world where physical mass doesn't apply, mass didn't matter.
'Speed matters too.'
Human eyes can't truly see bullets, but the mind's eye can.
'Catch them.'
As soon as he thought it, hundreds of rounds froze midair in front of Shirone.
"Fire! I said shoot!"
The shooters, who had emptied their magazines, stared blankly and lowered their rifles.
"What the—"
A dark curtain of spent rounds stretched out before Shirone.
"Quick, come here!"
When Miro's shout reached Shirone and he turned and moved away, the bullets clattered to the ground.
Stunned by the incomprehensible scene, a man cried out in frustration.
"See? I told you so!" Gaold and Kangnan arrived at the port.
Half the Tamo force had chased Shirone's group; the other half stayed to guard the armory.
"Damn it! What are these people doing?"
"I know her. That brat's Miro. Sein's daughter. What a cursed kid."
"Goddamn. If we catch her—!"
Before the sentence finished, Gaold leapt from a container with a short blade in hand.
"Who are you!"
As a thug turned and sprayed with his rifle, his comrade's body became a sieve in an instant.
Gaold had already moved; from behind he slashed the other's nape with his knife.
"Guh..."
Hearing the gunfire, the enemies charged.
"Intruders!"
Even with their lives on the line, Gaold calmly strode into the warehouse.
"Take it."
Kangnan hefted a heavy rifle with both hands.
"Do you know how to use it?"
Even in the world called reality, he didn't know much about guns.
"No."
Gaold cocked the weapon, stepped out the door, and pulled the trigger; bullets screamed forward.
"Damn! Shoot! Shoot!"
Enemy return fire punched holes in the container; a few rounds grazed earlobes.
Kangnan grabbed Gaold back.
"Are you crazy? If you get hit out there we're finished!"
Gaold grabbed a new rifle from inside and worked the bolt.
"That goes both ways. If momentum shifts, we'll die without getting a shot off."
Gaold knew how to fight.
He stood at the doorway with the gun again; this time there was no return fire.
Kangnan remembered something.
'Right... he's not the type to do something just because he can.'
"Ha ha ha, this is great."
Having picked up firearm use in combat, Gaold grabbed anything he could and emptied magazines forward.
"That bastard—"
Someone from Tamo hoisted a bazooka onto his shoulder and climbed atop a crate.
A streak of flame followed, and a grenade arced into the warehouse door.
"Damn it—!"
Bang—the warehouse exploded, and the Tamo men unleashed a massive hail of bullets.
"Check it!"
Two lower-ranking members pushed through the smoke.
"What? Nothing?"
At that moment, two hands like ghosts appeared behind one of the men and throttled him.
"Guh!"
Gaold felled one man to the floor; the comrade reflexively turned.
"What the—!"
A dull strike to the solar plexus. Kangnan yanked the man's neck and drove his knee up.
Crack—the sound of a broken vertebra; the man's body went limp and toppled.
"Where's Miro?"
Gaold pressed a blade to the throat of the man he'd brought down.
"G-Gaold! It's me! Asto!" Through the smoke they found a street delivery boy.
Gaold's blade entered Asto's left cheek, passed under his tongue, and exited the right cheek.
"Eek! I-I don't know! He—he ran away!"
Had she already left?
"P-please spare me, Mr. Gaold! I... I'll—"
"Asto, listen. I'm the sort who won't fight if putting up with it today won't change tomorrow."
He hated trouble.
"Ughhh!"
Asto clawed at the pistol's grip on the ground like a madman.
"But if you mess with my life—"
The moment Asto gripped the gun, Gaold pulled hard, dragging the blade through his cheek.
"Just kill him."
"Gah!"
His cheek split; in the next instant the short blade pierced Asto's neck and severed his spine.
"Gah... urgh!"
A convulsion shook Asto; his eyes rolled and then he stopped breathing.
Kangnan patted Gaold's back.
"He was going to kill you."
"I know. Doesn't matter. I would've killed him anyway. The foul feeling is..." Gaold wiped blood from the blade. "If you're going to interfere in someone's life, at least be prepared to die for it."
As Kangnan silently watched Gaold's back, the explosion's smoke cleared completely.
Dozens of men leveled guns at them.
"…Dammit."
It would be at least twenty more minutes before the Merchants' Guild Sein had gone to fetch would arrive.
"Who are you lot? No, that doesn't matter. What comes next is harsh punishment."
A thug nodded.
"Drag the woman out."
As a rifle-armed man stepped toward Kangnan, Gaold's expression tightened.
"Run. I'll hold them."
"What are you talking about? I will never leave your side—"
Ignoring Kangnan's words, Gaold charged the enemy line.
'This is why you lot never amount to anything.' He didn't know how to fight.
Once Gaold started, the thousands of things that had tormented Kangnan were swept away in an instant.
"Ugh!"
Kangnan dashed to the side; every barrel focused on Gaold's charge.
Booming gunfire.
'Gaold!'
Kangnan felt his heart stop and looked toward Gaold.
"What—?"
What he saw was—
"Krrrr—"
Someone, hair bleached white, stood there stopping bullets.
"Shoot! I said shoot!"
The air curtain centered on Gaold diverted every round.
Kangnan's head snapped upright.
"What is... that?"
Countless eyes in the dark sky watched the ground.
"Kraaaaah!"
Gaold screamed in unbearable pain and instinctively splayed all five fingers.
An air gun.
A torrent of air projectiles fired; the enemies in front burst like watermelons.
"S-somebody save me!"
The organization tried to flee, but they were shredded by the blast.
"Grrr!"
Dazed, Gaold sank to his knees, and the eyes in the night sky dimmed and faded.
Kangnan understood.
"Awakening."
The more one opened their real-world abilities, the weaker the 1.5-floor barrier inevitably became.
'And outside...'
Imir was already waiting to swallow this world whole.