Chapter 17 — What? Wait, Why Are You Making It Sound Like I Lost?
The sound of gunfire came from the wall. Unlike the steady stream of shots that she had heard at first, this time there were some stretches of rapid fire mixed with the occasional explosion. Someone was making use of a variety of firearms, but the sounds of battle were getting farther away. It seemed they were fighting on the move.
“Sitting around doing nothing is kind of hard...”
Tomochika was hiding in a tree in the middle of the forest. She was totally undetectable. No one but Mokomoko could even hear what she was saying.
There is not much else we can do given the circumstances. In a normal fight, your skills combined with the abilities of that battle suit might be enough, but there are limits when it comes to the more underhanded tricks.
Tomochika was clad in her unique armor, ready for combat. She had no intention of picking a fight herself, but being prepared could make all the difference if one came her way. Whether she chose to defend herself or run, preparation was key.
“I wouldn’t want to fight them even if I could.” She had no desire to fight a classmate who was determined to kill her, so it would be best to reunite with Yogiri as soon as possible. With him, they would be able to escape their current predicament.
Oh? I thought there might be some with the ability to detect enemies, but I didn’t expect a method like this.
At Mokomoko’s comment, Tomochika inspected their surroundings carefully. She didn’t notice anything particularly strange.
Weak spirits. Someone is sending small fry ghosts out to surround us.
“Huh? Where?”
They’re floating all around.
“Really?!” Given her interactions with Mokomoko, Tomochika had thought she’d awakened the ability to see ghosts, but she couldn’t see the others. “Isn’t that bad? Can you, like, eat them or something?”
Fool! Why would I eat another ghost?!
“Well, I figured since you’re a ghost, you probably eat ghosts.”
This isn’t the time for such nonsense. There are quite a number of them. It’s best to assume their controller can see this entire area. In addition, they are blocking electronic signals. I can’t contact the boy like this.
“How are ghosts blocking electronic signals?”
Think about it. In horror movies, phones always suddenly stop working, right? The reason cell phones become unreliable is because of the spirits! Spirits like us, who don’t have physical bodies, are close in form to electromagnetic waves or light.
“Wow, that sounds totally preposterous. Putting that aside, you said someone is using them, but is there anyone in our class who can do that?” Considering the abilities she knew her classmates to possess, Tomochika couldn’t think of anyone with such a power. The closest would have been the Death God, but he was already gone.
There is always a possibility they had their power before receiving the Gift. Either that, or they kept their true class and abilities a secret. Regardless, now that we have been found, continuing to hide isn’t a good idea.
Tomochika jumped down from the tree. If they’d been discovered, she needed to move right away. She picked a direction at random and hurried off, but it wasn’t long before she saw someone. They were approaching her, making no effort to keep themselves hidden. Even with her exceptional eyesight, there was only so much she could see in the dark, and she couldn’t tell who it was.
“Tomochii!” It was Romiko’s voice.
Tomochika decided to flee. After all, if she had trusted her, she wouldn’t have taken off on her own in the first place. Though she considered Romiko a friend, she wasn’t confident that her classmate didn’t pose a danger in a situation like this.
She may be the one using the spirits. It’s too unlikely that she could tell who you were despite you not being able to see her.
So Tomochika ran, trying to get away as fast as possible. She sprinted in a direction where there was no sign of the others, but the appearance of someone from behind a tree brought her to a sudden stop.
Another weakling spirit! I wonder why you can see it?
Mokomoko threw a fist at the ghost, which was annihilated without issue. Unfortunately, as weak as it was, there were any number of replacements waiting to take its place. One after another, others started to appear around them.
“Hey, is it bad if I touch these things?”
You will receive some damage. Spiritual damage, it’s called. If there weren’t too many, you would be able to hold out for a time, but this many could be a problem. It would likely put your life in danger.
“Yeah, okay; I figured it would be something like that.”
It was only a vague feeling, but these ghosts seemed like the kind of enemies that would get stuck to you and do damage over time. If there were one or two, as Mokomoko said, she could probably break through them, but with the increasing numbers, things weren’t looking good.
As those thoughts whirled through her head, she heard the sound of footsteps slowly approaching.
“Tomochii, stop running.” Romiko appeared from behind a nearby tree, calling out in her usual relaxed voice.
“Are you the one doing this, Mikochi?” Tomochika asked cautiously. She wasn’t sure why else Romiko would have gone out of her way to find her.
“Yeah, I figured if I made it so that you could see the ghosts, you’d be startled and stop.”
Romiko’s ability was supposed to be the power to count things, so if she was the one doing all this, Tomochika had no choice but to completely reevaluate her as a threat.
“What are you doing here? You realize we’re in the middle of a fight to the death, right?”
“Come on, I know it’s me we’re talking about, but I still figured out that much,” Romiko answered. “But I don’t think we’ll kill each other. You couldn’t bring yourself to do it, could you?”
I must warn you, this girl is actually a dangerous beast who gouged out her own father’s eye at the age of ten, Mokomoko warned Romiko.
“I did what?!”
“Oh, really?” Romiko replied. “Your poor dad.”
“I never did that! And hey, didn’t you say it was my grandfather last time?!”
Well, I guess you took one from each of them...
“What am I, an eye collector?!” As Tomochika snapped back at the ghost, it occurred to her that Romiko had directly responded to Mokomoko’s comment. She really did seem to have some sort of power relating to spirits. “Hey, where’s Jiyuna?” Their classmate’s absence was bothering her. Mokomoko had said that Jiyuna and Romiko initially fled together, but now her friend was alone.
“I don’t know. I lost track of her.”
Tomochika assumed she was lying. If they had been separated unintentionally, Romiko wouldn’t be this calm. And either way, her behavior was strange.
“I’ll ask you one more time. What are you doing here?” If Romiko was planning on killing her, the smarter strategy would have been to stay hidden and send the ghosts out after other students. But she had come straight over to Tomochika and showed herself without hesitation. Tomochika didn’t understand why.
“I’m the same as you, Tomochii. I have a guardian spirit too.” As Romiko spoke, a ghostly figure appeared behind her.
“What is that?! I want one like that!”
Tomochika couldn’t help but compare the new arrival to her own companion. Mokomoko was round and enormous, wore old-fashioned clothes, and had the type of features that made her age indiscernible. In contrast, Romiko’s guardian spirit was slender yet voluptuous, wearing a magnificent dress. Her blonde hair, pale complexion, and fine features gave her an undeniable allure. Even the air around her glittered, drawing further attention to her beauty.
Hey! Mokomoko’s face flushed with anger.
“She’s an ancient princess. Her name is Tiannu.”
“Mine is named something dumb like Mokomoko! How is that fair?!”
I-I was also called a princess once! The Dannoura family was a powerful household, and I was their princess! And what’s wrong with my name?!
“Man, I already lost, and we didn’t even fight yet. Mokomoko said she was a divine spirit, but yours seems much more divine than mine. Look, she’s even glowing! She’s like an angel or something!” Tomochika was not impressed by the clear difference between the two. She had assumed all guardians looked more or less the same. She’d told herself it was lucky she didn’t have one constantly mumbling weird, cryptic things to her, but she never thought there were any out there as gorgeous and powerful as Romiko’s ghost.
I-I won’t lose if we fight!
“Really? You lost in looks, so now you want a fistfight? Come on.”
What? Wait, why are you making it sound like I lost?
“Tomochii, can I continue?”
“Oh, right, you were talking. What is it?” She had gotten caught up in her conversation with Mokomoko, but aside from stepping a little closer, Romiko hadn’t done anything in the meantime. The small fry spirits were still floating all around them.
“Tiannu is really pretty, but all she can do is count things, so she isn’t very strong. I’m sure she’d lose if she fought your guardian spirit.”
S-See! Even she recognizes my strength!
“So,” Romiko continued, “can I have her?”
What?!
Mokomoko suddenly flew towards Romiko. Shocked by the sudden development, Tomochika could only watch as her ancestral spirit was absorbed into her classmate.
“Ah, my apologies. It appears this child has forced me to possess her,” Romiko said in Mokomoko’s voice.
Romiko was someone who was ready to do whatever it took to survive. Her desire to avoid standing out or working hard only mattered if she was alive. If her life was in danger, however, she couldn’t afford to sit back and relax. So, after leaving the fortress, she went over the facts.
She could subdue spirits of the dead.
She could manipulate them freely.
She could gain any knowledge those spirits possessed.
She could make the spirits visible.
She could have them possess her and thereby gain a portion of their powers.
That made things simple. With those abilities, killing someone would be easy, in theory. She just needed to send the spirits to fight her target for her. Most humans couldn’t even see them, so the spiritual damage would eventually weaken them to the point of death. But that method would take time. For those who were especially resilient, it could take ages to actually die. At the very least, one hour was far too short.
With that in mind, it was better to borrow the abilities of a spirit instead, but the ones under her control so far weren’t especially powerful. They were just the remnants of regular people. Those like Tiannu, who had retained their sapience and abilities from life were the exception. She had been lucky to come across the former princess at the start.
Her next thought was to employ the spirits of her deceased classmates, but that hadn’t gone well either. Those who became lingering spirits after death were rare, with most simply dissipating once they died, according to Tiannu. So, it was a given that such a useful ghost wouldn’t be easy to get her hands on, but Romiko did know of one possibility: Tomochika’s family guardian.
The first time she saw that ghost, she’d recognized its incredible strength. If she could get her hands on it, her own strength would increase many times over. Combining that with her ability to control spirits would greatly increase her chances of victory. Up until now, she hadn’t done anything to Tomochika’s guardian spirit because she hadn’t wanted to bother, but at this point she had no other choice.
The question was, how could she get her hands on it? In order to take control of the ghost, she would need to get fairly close. She also couldn’t kill Tomochika beforehand. The guardian spirit was tied to the target of its protection. If Tomochika died, the spirit would be free and would no doubt flee at once.
So she had used her lesser spirits to find Tomochika and get close to her. She was well aware of Tomochika’s softhearted nature and doubted the other would attack her first.
Her plan had worked. After some meaningless conversation, she had managed to get close enough to take control of the guardian spirit.
How dare you! You have some nerve, restraining me like this!
Wow, you can still fight back, huh? Romiko replied in her head. That’s amazing.
Mokomoko was physically under Romiko’s control, but her mind hadn’t been subjugated yet. It was only a matter of time, though. She could feel the ancient spirit’s strength feeding her now.
“What do you mean, possess her? What’s going on?”
“Well, I am just barely able to continue talking, but this girl has absorbed most of my powers.”
The moment she finished speaking, Romiko had all but appeared directly in front of Tomochika. The Dannoura Style Arrow Step — a way of moving that closed the gap between the user and their target instantly. The user became like an arrow, striking forward to pierce through their opponent.
Tomochika considered the possible follow-ups. She could step onto her enemy’s foot or knee. At the same time, her hand would strike for the throat, or she could send a palm to the jaw. Backing away was impossible, as Romiko could use her forward momentum to keep up the attack, so she would have to dodge instead.
Pulling one foot back, she spun to the side but quickly bent backwards as she felt something near her face.
It was a pebble. She didn’t know how, but Romiko had thrown a stone at her as she stepped in. Barely dodging it, Tomochika flipped backwards as her classmate’s momentum carried her forward, where she struck a tree with both hands. Huge chunks were torn out of its trunk, bringing it down with a tremendous crash.
“Wait, what the hell is that?! Even with my battle suit, I can hardly keep up!” Tomochika had only just dodged the attack. Even the supplemental strength offered by her battle suit had barely been enough to get out of the way.
“Well, that’s the difference in our strength. Still, combining a striking attack with a throwing one is an elementary technique in the Dannoura school. Why are you letting it catch you off guard? You should have no problem dealing with an attack like that.”
“Why are you so ready to hurt me, though?!”
“No, I’m not trying to harm you at all. I don’t want to, but she can use my abilities freely.”
“That’s not very convincing!”
Tomochika could hardly fight this way, and she hesitated to attack Romiko, who she still saw as a friend. The only thing she could do was run. Using the battle suit’s full power, she figured she could get away fast enough.
“Oh, sorry. Unfortunately, I still have full control over the armor. Purge!”
Countless lines spidered across the suit, unraveling it in moments and leaving Tomochika in her underwear.
“Uhh...I’ll make you pay for this.” Suddenly stripped of her clothes, she was too bewildered to come up with a clever response.
“Good job, Mokomoko!”
“My eyes, my eyeeesssss!!!!”
Tomochika turned at the sound of voices behind her. She saw Yogiri standing nearby, David lying on the ground, and Hanakawa covering his eyes and rolling around wildly for some reason.
“Takatou?! Could you have gotten here at a worse time?! Actually, wait, I’m glad you’re here! Hey, what do you mean, ‘good job’?!”
In her confusion, she couldn’t even keep track of what she was saying. As she tried to collect her thoughts, Yogiri stepped over. Removing his blazer, he handed it to her, and she gratefully used it to cover herself.
“That’s Mokomoko, right?”
“I’m surprised you guessed.”
“I could kind of tell by the way she spoke. I don’t know what’s going on here, but if she’s going to attack us, I’ll have to kill her.”
Tomochika looked at Romiko, who suddenly appeared to be frozen in place. Looking closely, Tomochika saw that she was shaking as if absolutely terrified.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login