Gate – Jietai Kare no Chi nite, Kaku Tatakeri

Translator: Nigel

Editor: Deus Ex-Machina, Skythewood

The rippling green fields of wheat extended toward the horizon, and the expanse of virgin land looked as beautiful as a painting.

That said, this lovely scenery was scarred by black lines, as though the artist’s hand had slipped or his pa.s.sions had raged out of control.

Villages burned, and the smoke rose.

Staff Sergeant Tomita of 3rd Recon watched the roiling black smoke in the distance. It made him think of a mighty dragon soaring toward the clouds. However, it had been created from the sacrifice of the lives, homes and harvest of the peaceful villages. With this in mind, if one were to give this view a name, perhaps “Rise of the Evil Wyrm” would be appropriate.

The large transport helicopter —— a CH-47 Chinook —— and its escorts practically sc.r.a.ped the roofs of the houses as it pa.s.sed over the smoke-shrouded villages.

He watched the blaze beneath him devour houses and their furnishings with fangs of searing flame. It was accompanied by a loud crackling as the fires chewed them all to pieces.

The vegetation burned loudly, licked by serpentine tongues of fire.

However, this sound was mercilessly stamped out by the roaring of the Chinook’s 4336hp turboshaft engines.

The forward and rear rotor blades tore the thick clouds of smoke apart, churning the air below them into a downwash and extinguishing the flames directly underneath.

The members of the JSDF Special Region Expeditionary Force’s 403rd Squadron —— who were not so much travelling with Tomita and the others as they were giving them a lift —— looked silently upon the tragic sight below them.

The only people who continued speaking were the television news reporters.

They had not asked for anyone’s permission before gravitating to the places with the best view, whereupon they trained their camera lenses on the village below them. The man with the microphone —— Komurasaki —— narrated the scene as if talking about secrets only he knew. He went on and on about plainly obvious facts like “there was a village here”, “the fire rises”, and “there are victims everywhere” as the smoke climbed lazily into the air.

As she watched this, Tomita whispered into the ear of Staff Sergeant Kuribayashi.

“When they said we would be protecting a member of the TV news staff, I thought it would be your little sister.”

“h.e.l.l if I know. We keep getting missions like these, does it even count as recon work any more?”

Their conversation was vaguely inappropriate for this scene. In truth, they were simply blowing off steam, so they did not exchange many words. Instead, they locked eyes, and shrugged helplessly.

“Lads, as you can see, this is a terrible sight. Our mission is to hunt down Zorzal’s lackeys. We will find the main body of their forces and crush them without mercy. Got that?!”

The team members nodded in unison as they heard their sergeant major’s bellowing. “We get you!”

“Good answer. Now load up!”

The members of 1st Team tapped their magazines against their helmets.

This was to ensure that the magazines —— which contained 20 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition —— were properly loaded. It was a small thing, but a rifle stoppage during combat could be a fatal matter. They were that careful because they were headed toward the battlefield, where the line between life and death was very fine indeed.

They loaded their Type 64 rifles with practiced movements. Sliding in the magazines, slapping them home, setting them to safe… the rifles they were holding transformed into savage instruments of murder in that instant.

“Rounds loaded! Weapon safe!”

That said, the rifles did not sport any threat displays, nor did they crouch with their hackles up or growl in readiness to pounce, like hounds. The ice-cold blue-black steel did not look any different, whether or not it was filled with bullets. That said, if their index fingers applied more than 2.7 to 4.3 kilograms of pressure to the triggers, it would exceed the break pressure and cause the firing pin to strike the primer charge of a loaded round. The weapon would then obediently spit a chunk of murderous lead in the direction its user desired.

In that sense, the team members were much the same as those rifles.

Under normal circ.u.mstances, they were friends, husbands and sons. They were not martial artists like one might see on a television sports program. At a glance, little about them stood out to an observer. There was no way of telling who they were once they were no longer wearing their uniforms.

That said, once they held loaded weapons with the safeties off, they became famished wolves, seeking their prey. They advanced fearlessly to exterminate their foes, impelled by the trigger-pull of their orders.

The team members applied black vinyl tape to secure small, loose parts and reduce the noise they made before they slung their rifles onto their backs. Some of them also had civilian-made dart sights attached onto their weapons via jury-rigged mounts. They peered through them in the darkness of the Chinook, verifying their sight pictures before stowing their rifles.

One of the men standing by the side asked:

“Are these sights really useful?”

“Well, it’s like having a sighting post and a reticle, though they’re on the verge of being written off… I think.”

Now that the fighting had begun in earnest, the JGSDF higher-ups had permitted their servicemen to modify their weapons. Targeting optics were one of them, as were barrel-mounted laser sights and foregrips.

The shadow of the second Chinook came to rest above the village square.

In the distance, one could see a Cobra attack helicopter hovering in mid-air, ready to support the JSDF servicemen on the ground.

Ropes unfurled to the ground, each of them as thick as those used in tug-of-war contests at school sports festivals, and the team leader lowered his upraised hands.

After that, the members of 1st Team fast-roped down, touching down one after the other.

The cameraman recorded their descent.

Beside him, Tomita and the others took aim at the ground, on guard against enemies who might attack the descending servicemen.

After the members of 1st Team had fast-roped down, the Chinook hurriedly reeled its lines back in and ascended once more.

In the quiet interior of the helicopter, Komurasaki turned toward the helmeted helicopter pilot.

“Oi, find a place to land. We can’t get down like this!”

The airman in the cabin looked troubled, but all he could do was smile and reply:

“Understood. However, we need to verify that the ground conditions are safe before landing.”

“That means we’ll miss out on the exciting parts, no?! Put us down right now!”

“Sure, we could do that… but do you know how to use this?”

The airman pointed to a descending line.

The most dangerous time for helicopters on the battlefield was the moment they landed or took off. Angled descent and fast-roping was used to minimize that particular risk. Naturally, this was not something that one could explain to an amateur who was demanding, “do this now”, so the reason they did not descend was to protect the craft and to ensure the safety of the media crew. In the face of that, all Komurasaki could was mutter “it can’t be helped” between curses.

As Komurasaki and his cameraman looked longingly toward the ground, the Chinook slowly gained alt.i.tude. Once the pilot was sure that they were safely away from the ground, the helicopter hovered in the sky above the burning village.

The team members immediately fanned out in all directions the instant they touched down.

It looked as though they were in some kind of race, given the way they held their weapons while sprinting. They surveyed their surroundings, vigilant eyes aiming down the sights of their weapons.

Their crosshairs swept over doors, trees, anywhere that people might be hiding. However, they did not discover anyone living. All they saw were people collapsed everywhere; men and women of all species who might have been alive until recently. Their bodies were covered in slashes and stabs made by swords, or torn by wild beasts.

“Use the infrared scanner!”

Obeying the team leader’s orders, one of the team members took out a device that resembled a raygun from a science-fiction movie, and pointed it at the nearby trees and dark places.

This device could pick up the infrared radiation emitted by warm-blooded creatures, and thus discover anyone who was hiding.

Its primary purpose was a tool to find prey while hunting. It could pick up large beasts within 900 meters and bird-sized creatures within 20 meters. In addition, one could also use it to find casualties buried under rubble. However, this device was not standard issue —— in other words, issued by the JSDF —— but the personal property of the team members. Regretfully, in the tight-budgeted JSDF, one had to make up a shortfall of personal equipment from one’s own funds.

“Picking up thermals from everywhere, it’s useless.”

It was a good piece of machinery, but the huge heat sources nearby had a large impact on its performance. The raging fires near the houses were the main contributor to that, and then one had to consider that the corpses scattered around were still warm.

“Cheh…”

If their technology was not effective, then they had to use their own eyes and ears to verify the truth.

In the end, the ability to observe their surroundings and notice the unusual was a core skill for these team members. This had been the case from antiquity. They had to hone these skills because no matter how far technology progressed, there were countless circ.u.mstances where said technology could not be used, or where both sides’ equipment impeded or cancelled each other out.

The soldiers looked for survivors among the fallen even as they looked for traces of hiding attackers. However, the crackling of burning wood made it difficult for the men to hear cries for help. Even the crunching of their boots across the ground hampered their ability to sense the presence of the enemy, and it put them all on edge.

Still, the members of the team calmly controlled their breathing, and they followed up on even the slightest of changes as they steadily advanced. Their eyes moved with unhurried speed; they scanned, inspected and searched everywhere around them.

The sudden sound of gunfire rang through the village.

“What’s going on?!”

A tense voice demanded a report over the radio.

The team members —— so on-edge that they were practically bleeding —— reacted swiftly.

They lowered their stances, and while some people looked in the direction of the gunshot, others turned to other directions to prevent anyone from slipping past their eyes.

“Over there… they’re fleeing toward the south of the village!”

The warning was accompanied by the sound of scattered gunfire.

The radio reported the numbers and heading of the enemy. After receiving the team leader’s orders, the squad leaders brought their people to the south, where the enemy planned to flee.

Advance!

Heeding the hand signals of their leaders, the squads dispersed to await the coming of the enemy.

The enemies that had attacked the surrounding region recently did not look like Imperial troops. Since they conducted their attacks in clothes similar to those of the local farmers, there was no way to tell if they were Imperial soldiers or fearful peasants who had taken up their farming implements as weapons in fear of those soldiers. Thus, the members of 1st Team had no choice but to treat anyone pointing weapons at them as a potential enemy. No —— even if they were unarmed, they still had to be considered as potential enemies.

“Anyone who runs is an enemy! Anyone who stands still is a well-disciplined enemy!” That line had been used in a war movie to mock the impossibility of reason on the battlefield, but the truth was, being able to retain one’s senses in the madness of the battlefield was abnormal. When one really thought about it, how could anyone rationalize the murder of a human being? Anybody who could calmly and logically take a life was probably more frightening than a madman. Thus, it was only natural to be driven by insanity on the battlefield, and it was those people who could not switch back from madness to normality who were considered mentally ill.

In addition, it had been a tradition that those people who did not identify themselves as friend or foe —— as well as those who did not dress themselves as combatants —— would not be accorded the rights of an armed combatant. Such behavior was deeply despicable, and hardly anyone would raise an eyebrow at their summary execution if they were to be captured. Even the Geneva Conventions —— to say nothing of the Hague Conventions —— mandated that “open carrying of weapons” was the minimum requirement for such status.

Still, there were the bleeding hearts who took the side of those who violated those rules of warfare, and sympathized with those people who used the common man as shields, the weak who blended into the populace and fought the strong with underhanded means. People who used civilians for protection would normally be condemned and destroyed, but said bleeding hearts instead pointed their fingers at the soldiers who hunted them, calling them “murderers” and “cold-blooded animals”.

(TL Note: the JP term is 病的な潔癖症, lit. "cleanliness obsession", or cleanliness-oriented OCD. Probably refers to the moral guardians that want to keep their hands spotless and clean.)

Indeed, they were not here to call out the insurgents or flush them out, but to utterly annihilate them. Anyone who used innocent people as their armor deserved nothing but extermination, as though they were vermin like c.o.c.kroaches or rats. Terrorists spread hatred and suffering, threatening order and reason with madness. They blurred the line between peacetime and wartime, which was a supremely despicable act. Normally speaking, one would blame those who hid behind civilians for involving them in the fighting.

That said, uniformed soldiers were compelled to play their part as flawlessly as possible.

The battlefield was a place where momentary misunderstandings and failures in judgement compounded with each other. To protect one’s comrades and survive, there was one ironclad rule —— “If it looks like an enemy, open fire”. However, soldiers were required to have perfect discrimination of their targets, as though they were killing machines. If they could not do that, they were criticized as being “flawed”.

In this way, soldiers were shot in the back by the ones who they were protecting. Their hearts filled with guilt, they were mentally defeated even before facing the bullets and bombs of the foe.

The members of 1st Team saw what appeared to be merchants on a trading wagon, and trained their weapons on them. There were eight people in total, human beings of the Special Region.

As they began to pull back their triggers, the men hesitated.

There was the urge to turn these people —— who might harm them and their comrades —— into corpses, which could do them no harm. However, they were not that fatigued yet. With sheer force of will, they fought off that impulse, waiting for orders despite the dangerous circ.u.mstances around them.

“Halt!”

The members of 1st Team called out to the wagons with their broken command of the Special Region’s language that they had learned in Arnus, while covering the traders with their weapons.

Perhaps they did not hear it, or perhaps there was another reason, but the traders ignored the team members and attempted to break through. The squad leader let off a warning shot near a horse’s leg to frighten them into submission. A sh.e.l.l casing tinkled onto the ground, and the startled horse reared up on its hind legs.

The panicked driver pulled tightly on the reins to calm his horse down. After a great struggle to get the beast under control, he obediently put his hands up.

The goods wagon slowly ground to a halt.

The soldiers backed off to form a semicircle around the wagon. This was so that they would not get in the way of their comrades’ line of fire. Then, with the greatest of care, they trained their weapons on those people and ordered them off the wagon.

“May I know what you gentlemen want? We are travelling merchants; do you require anything?”

This humble and polite voice came from the man with the messy moustache on the driver’s seat.

The members of 1st Team took aim at his crotch.

Imperial soldiers were adept at the use of the sword and spear, and their defensive techniques were comparable to that of a skilled boxer. Thus, they were trained to respond quickly to attacks aimed at their heads and chests. However, the abdomen and groin could not move without the help of the legs. Thus, they had lower mobility, and were easier targets even in the heat of battle.

“Why were you fleeing?”

The squad leader began his interrogation while maintaining a separation of several paces.

The messy-moustached man seemed to be the representative of his group. He shrugged and replied:

“Is that not obvious?! We were pa.s.sing by this village, and then we found smoke rising from it. We wanted to see what was going on, but then we discovered that the village was in this state. Nothing good will come of being involved with this sort of thing, so running away would make sense, right...?”

In short, the man was mumbling about how the village had already been like this when they had gotten there.

It was a plausible enough reason. But if they let them go just like that, there would be no point in stopping them. The squad leader reported to the team leader, and then he asked: “May we inspect your cargo?”

“Ah… ah… well, about that…”

“Or is there something you’d rather not let us see?”

The traders looked to each other, and reluctantly pulled the canvas off the cargo bed of their wagon.

There was a veritable mountain of furniture, supplies and other valuables in there. It was hard to tell if they were new or second-hand. The squad leader gave the pile an once-over before saying:

“Looks like they were taken from the nearby homes.”

The large container at the base of the cargo bed piqued the squad leader’s attention. It seemed to be moving, even though n.o.body was touching it. He was just about to order them to “open that box up”, but before that the mustachioed man tried to splutter out some kind of protest.

“Come on, give us a break, it’s all good merchandise.”

The man sighed, long and deep.

“Well, yes, some of it is slightly used (stolen goods). But we can’t do business if everyone keeps asking about it.”

“Where were you planning to take these?”

“Anywhere. In times of war, you can sell anything anywhere.”

“By which you mean?”

“Anything? You can sell anything. Food, furniture, daily necessities, alcohol too. Slaves as well, by the way. Ah yes, female slaves. Do you want a woman? We have all sorts here. There’s sure to be one that suits your tastes in there. We can provide anything —— or anybody —— you want.”

The moustached man smiled lewdly as he said that.

“If you’re a local trader, you ought to have an Imperial trading permit or a pa.s.s issued by House Formal. Could I take a look at it?”

In response to the squad leader’s question, the trader replied, “Ah, yes, of course I do.” Then he opened the bag at the driver’s seat.

“Now where did it go? It’s very important, I should have put it in a safe place. Don’t tell me it vanished all of a sudden. Everyone, please be patient, if you think this is taking too long, maybe you should go do something else in the meantime…”

The squad leader said: “It’s fine. There’s no rush. Take your time.”

The moustached man seemed very nervous, and muttered, “You are most kind.” His colleagues seemed to be holding their breath as they watched this.

“Ah, yes, I’ve got it. This is it…”

“You, the representative in front. Bring it here. I permit you to approach me.”

In accordance with the squad leader’s directions, the representative produced a piece of folded paper. The squad leader looked at it and noticed reddish-black stains on the edges.

“This has been stained by blood.”

“No, no, I cut my hand recently, and then I touched it…”

The moustached man waved his hands as he said this.

“Gregor Benton, I presume?”

“Gregory Ha Bayton. That is my name.”

The moustached man had a look on his face which said “I won’t fall for that”.

“That should be it, right? It’s the real thing, right?”

Indeed, this was a genuine pa.s.s issued by House Formal. That said, the pa.s.s only recorded the name of the trader in the language of the Special Region and j.a.panese, as well as the goods he traded, and the names of the n.o.bles who were sponsoring him.

What the squad leader was concerned about was the reports filed with them when a pa.s.s was issued. The people of the Special Region did not understand the meaning of the barcode at the base of the doc.u.ment.

“This doc.u.ment is genuine.”

With that, the members of 1st Team visibly relaxed. This was because it meant that the chances of them being enemies had gone down, while the probability of them being safe had gone up.

After the squad leader verified the pa.s.s’ date of issue, he pointed the device he was holding at the barcode at the base of the doc.u.ment. A picture of Gregory Ha Bayton appeared on the device’s LCD screen.

“...Hm~”

The man beside the squad leader glanced at the image, and then told him in j.a.panese: “These people are fakes.” The picture displayed was of an old man that looked completely unlike the moustached man before him.

“What’s wrong?”

The moustached man seemed to have sensed the change in the air, and began asking if the doc.u.mentation was incomplete or if it was because there was blood on it. However, the people behind him could no longer take the tension in the air. As one, they drew their concealed weapons and prepared to engage the JSDF servicemen in a life or death melee.

However, they had antic.i.p.ated this development. The team members had already backed off, and they had no difficulty dealing with this situation.

They shot the armed men in the gut. Said men bent double like they had been folded in half. Others simply keeled over, and the moustached man was arrested at gunpoint before he could draw his sword.

“They must be the ones who attacked the village!” one of the team members shouted at the dead men while pointing at the weapons they carried.

The swords they held were still stained with blood; blood which probably belonged to the villagers. The hilt of the sword bore the crest of the Imperial Army.

“Oi! Hold on, you lot! What are you doing? Ma.s.sacring civilians!?”

Komurasaki and his cameraman had just rushed over.

“No. These are Imperial guerillas.”

“Really now? Are you trying to keep us from uncovering the truth about how you were murdering civilians in cold blood?”

Komurasaki called out to the cameraman, who was filming the deceased.

“Oi, I want you to get a good shot of the corpses. Make sure you get the faces. And make sure you don’t put the JSDF insignia or whatever into it!”

In accordance with Komurasaki’s directions, the cameraman began recording the Imperial soldiers masquerading as traders.

The squad leader sensed that this might end up making the nightly news, so he explained the meaning of the bloodstained sword and the crest of the Imperial Army, and then ordered the captive moustached man to open the containers and luggage on the wagon.

They opened all the boxes and found bottles of all kinds. After that, the team members steadily discovered articles of what looked like camouflage uniform —— speckled green and dark green —— among the stolen property.

“Cheh… these Imperial soldiers did their plundering in these clothes, huh.”

The team members insisted that Komurasaki record that as well.

It did not look like JSDF camouflage battle dress at all, but these things would be enough for their victims to spread fearful rumors about “the Men in Green”.

Even Komurasaki could not refute that ironclad evidence.

“You’ve got proof, good for you, then!” Komurasaki said resentfully as he turned to the cameraman, saying:

“It would seem soldiers of the Imperial Army have disguised themselves and attacked the village. But was there a need to kill them? The servicemen of the JSDF did not concern themselves at all with capturing them to be dealt with by due process, and so I must question their actions,” and so on.

“We’re not cops,” the members of the squad grumbled. Everyone in the group seemed to share that opinion.

The squad leader ordered the moustached man to open the box which had gotten his attention in the first place.

There was a girl in there, curled up and covered in mud and blood. She trembled in fear. She seemed to be of a feline species, with a pair of cat eyes and pointy ears. Her fur was brown and her hands and feet were tipped in sharp claws, while she had a bamboo flute on her neck.

The squad leader patted her head to comfort her, and asked:

“What’s your name?”

“...Kucy.”

The squad leader turned back to the moustached man, whose arms were raised high, and loudly demanded:

“Well then, where’s your hideout? Where’s your area of operation? Your main force? Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you spit it all out for us!”

It should be emphasised that people who used civilians as cover while they bombed, shot, and stabbed others had and deserved no rights. However, the bleeding hearts would probably insist that even people like these had to be treated like proper prisoners of war.

They would hand the moustached man to House Formal, per their agreement.

That said, outsiders would not know if being interrogated by them was a good thing or a bad thing.

The frightened, twitching expression of the moustached man was dutifully captured on film.

“What? Say again? ...You’ve spotted a pack of Black Dogs near the village?”

The soldiers went tense as they heard the squad leader’s words.

“Burack Dawgs?”

(TL Note: The JP is 黑妖犬, which Komurasaki p.r.o.nounces as こくようけん to show that he has no idea what it means)

Tomita —— who was escorting Komurasaki and the cameraman from behind —— explained for him.

“They are Special Region Type B Dangerous Beasts, also known as “Black Dogs”. They look like dogs, but they’re the size of a tiger. They hunt in packs and they’re coming for us. Recently, Zorzal’s troops have been using creatures like that as weapons.”

(TL Note: Black Dogs probably refers to  

Tomita and Kuribayashi formed up on both sides on Komurasaki and watched their surroundings. Under Nishina’s orders, Tozu and Azuma formed up to protect the cameraman and the sound technician with his enormous boom mike.

“This area is very dangerous, let’s go. I’m calling the Chinook to get us.”

“Don’t be foolish! If there’s such a dangerous creature around, what would we be if we didn’t film it?”

Komurasaki said that and pointed to the soldiers, who were facing the west. “Aren’t you all coming with us? We’ll be safe for sure, right?”

However, that was not the case. The commander of the 403rd Squadron had decided to defeat the monsters that showed themselves.

The Dangerous Beasts of the Special Region were a threat, but they were not creatures which could be controlled from a distance. Thus, if they were nearby, it implied that forces of the enemy must be present as well. Granted, it was very risky, but one had to reach into the fire to take the chestnuts cooking within. Defeating these creatures would allow them to exterminate Zorzal’s guerillas.

The leader of 1st Team bundled up the girl and turned her and the prisoner over to Kuribayashi, saying “Look after them for me” before rushing off to the west.

“Oi, what do you want me to do with them?”

“Give her milk, duh. Judging by your size, you’ve got a lot in there, right?”

“Are you kidding me? I can’t produce milk if I haven’t had a baby!”

Kuribayashi was left dumbfounded, embracing the girl.

On the other hand, Tomita advanced in front of Komurasaki —— who was intending to move to the frontline —— and spread his arms to block him.

“Wait, please wait! I told you, we can’t do this!”

Komurasaki jabbed his finger into Tomita’s chest and yelled at him for getting in the way.

“Your duty as servicemen is to provide the maximum cooperation with members of the press!”

However, Komurasaki’s shout was drowned out by a thunderous roar that ripped through the air. A series of explosions went off from the west side of the village.

The fire support had begun

The Cobra attack helicopters were ripple-firing their rockets, while the infantry on the ground opened fire as well. Explosions went off everywhere, and Tomita and Komurasaki reflexively shrank against them.

The crawling beasts were torn apart and their blood spurted through the air. However, the four-legged beasts did not know how to retreat, and they continued their foolhardy charge by sheer weight of numbers.

“You can still shoot a powerful scene from the air!”

“You can’t compare filming on the ground to filming safely in the air! Our enemies are just a few dogs; what’s there to be afraid of?”

“There’s a lot to be afraid of! They’re fast, they move low to the ground and they’re very dangerous. And they hunt in packs!”

As a combat specialist, Tomita swiftly narrated the fearsome nature of military dogs, which he had picked up in his daily life. He went on to inform Komurasaki of exactly how much more dangerous these Black Dogs were.

A moment’s carelessness might cost them their lives. The enemy was going to come at them from all sides. There was no safe zone like the “rear echelon” for them, so finding a place where they would not be attacked was very difficult.

“And how about that girl? We have to follow you because we’re your escorts, but if this keeps up, you’ll involve that girl in the fighting too!”

As Tomita asked Komurasaki what they should do about the girl called Kucy, hesitation crossed Komurasaki’s face for the first time.

The intense downwash churned up the soil.

The Chinook Tomita had called touched down. The rear door opened, as though welcoming Tomita.

“This is bad! They’re coming, I can see them!” the cameraman shouted as he studied his viewfinder.

He had been surveying the world through his high definition camera, and so he swiftly learned of the enemy’s status.

“Oh, they’re Giant Ogres, and there’s what look like Mammoths among them. There’s a Special Region monster gallery out there and they’re coming right for us!”

The forms of heavily-armored Giant Ogres loomed among the bodies of the countless Black Dogs.

They held clubs that were the size of telephone poles. Anyone foolish enough to close in with them would be crushed by their tremendous might.

Lined up into a solid wall, they advanced through the storm of bullets and sh.e.l.ls like heavy infantry. Their presence seemed more oppressive than that of a tank.

Since they did not have a solid defensive line, the JSDF commander decided not to take them head on. Instead, he elected to flank the enemy from both sides and crush them. The soldiers went into action upon receiving their orders.

“Hurry! Hurry! We need to be airborne before the next bombardment starts!”

The airman waved his gun and gestured for them to get on after taking the captives aboard.

“Just hand the girl to the helicopter. We’ll continue filming on the ground.”

As he heard Komurasaki’s words, the cameraman looked uneasily at him. Could he keep up through the repet.i.tious fighting and moving while carrying his heavy camera? The doubts boiled up in his heart.

“Komurasaki-san, this isn’t good. It’s very dangerous,” the cameraman ventured, hoping to change the man’s mind.

“You stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You’ll never amount to anything because you half-a.s.s everything!”

Komurasaki cursed and grabbed the cameraman by the collar and dragged him out in front. They started out toward the frontline, where the men of the JSDF were engaging the enemy.

Tomita looked back to Kuribayashi and had her board the Chinook with the girl.

“What are you going to do?”

“We’ll bring these people back. Please have the helicopter hold station and support us, if possible!”

“Can’t we just leave these imbeciles behind?” Kuribayashi bellowed.

“Of course we can’t. Lieutenant Itami said so, didn’t he? We’re the JSDF, loved by the people.”

Tomita smiled and winked, then caressed the head of the girl clinging to Kuribayashi.

As the large helicopter with Kuribayashi on it lifted off, Tomita smiled comfortingly as he watched them leave.

“Ahhh, this is bad. I think I felt something,” Kuribayashi muttered.

She blushed as she watched Tomita hurry toward the frontlines.

“This is a good place. There’re gaps all over the wall, just what we need. We’ll be able to see what’s outside even if we close the door.”

Komurasaki opened the door of the little cottage at the village’s edge and peered around the inside.

This dwelling place looked crude, as though construction had been rushed, but it was built to last, and so there were many pillars within.

A winged female lay on the ground where she had been raped. She appeared to be a resident here. The fact that such a beautiful woman lived out in the boondocks was quite surprising, but then again, that might have been what inflamed her attackers’ b.e.s.t.i.a.l l.u.s.ts.

Beside her was the body of a young man, a sword protruding from his belly. He appeared to have been trying to protect her.

However, Komurasaki paid the life and origins of these people no heed. He turned to the cameraman and said:

“Here, f.u.kushima. Start from here!”

“Ah, we can’t. It’s too dangerous here, Komurasaki-san. Wild beasts are sensitive to the scent of corpses and they’ll find us.”

“It’ll be fine. There’re corpses everywhere. Once we blend in with the stink, they won’t find us!”

Komurasaki seemed abnormally excited. As they saw the brilliance of madness in his eyes, the cameraman and the sound technician could not help but back away from him. However, they could not flee now, not even if they wanted. As though to tell them that their time was up, the Chinook flew over their heads.

In addition, the legion of monsters —— composed largely of Black Dogs —— was closing in. Like Komurasaki said, all they could do was hide in this little hovel and pray the enemies pa.s.sed them over.

The cameraman and the others —— including Nishina and the other JSDF servicemen —— rushed into the house and closed the door behind them.

Shortly after that, there was a tremendous crash as a gigantic canine creature crashed against the door. The savage breathing of the wild beast and the way it tore at the door filled them with terror, and they were keenly aware of the dire situation they were in.

“What are you lot doing? Go block the door up!”

They did as Komurasaki indicated and began piling obstacles on the door.

“Use the bigger pieces of furniture as barricades and put them on the bottom. Flip the bed over so there’s more surface area in contact with the ground! Use the logs as wedges to jam it in!”

“Ko-Komurasaki-san, you sound pretty experienced with this sort of thing,” Matsuzaki of the press team said as he put his mike aside and piled the obstacles on.

“Don’t look down on us; we were veterans of the anti-war protests... I’ve got live combat experience of climbing over chain link fences and fighting with metal pipes! Bring that wood over and shove it in there!”

(TL Note: This part probably refers to the anti-Vietnam War protests in j.a.pan which sparked a lot of student violence in universities. The JP uses the word 全共闘内ゲバ世代)

Everyone piled the furniture up, blocking up the doorway and obstructing it.

The Chinook hovering overhead launched a fierce attack. Even if it only made a small difference, Kuribayashi was doing her best to wipe the monsters out.

However, it was not effective against the heavily armored Giant Ogres. The bullets simply bounced off them, and their wildly-flailing clubs smashed through the unoccupied houses nearby and demolished them.

Some of the Ogres even tried throwing their clubs, in the hope of bringing down the Chinook.

They missed, but there was a feeling that if they connected, they could cut the helicopter out of the sky in a single hit. Just watching the scene made the onlookers break out in a cold sweat.

Komurasaki and the cameraman f.u.kushima were beside themselves in ecstasy as they filmed the scene.

“Wonderful, wonderful! How moving! How powerful! We’ve got the Pulitzer Prize in the bag now!”

“These, these guys are weirdos,” Tomita muttered as he sat down and watched Komurasaki.

Granted, he had run into the battlefield of his own accord, so he was hardly normal himself. However, Tomita had discovered that the creatures called newsmen took that to the next level. They could have taken a helicopter and gone as they pleased, but instead they recorded scenes of people about to be killed or swallowed up by disaster. They did not warn them or aid them, but instead calmly watched from the side, preserving it for posterity. One could not make a living this way without being exceptionally cold-hearted.

Newsmen were the people who ordered their pilots to lower alt.i.tude so they could film trucks and the like being devoured by natural disasters, but they would never do anything like warn the truck that it was speeding into danger.

Suddenly, Nishina and the others poked his shoulder with a “Oi, oi, Tomita.”

What was the matter? Tomita turned, and Master Sergeant Nishina pointed to the Winged Woman on the ground.

“Look at her.”

“This… this… isn’t this Tuwal-san?”

The name from Leading Private Azuma’s lips sounded familiar.

“Eh?” Tomita went as he got closer and looked at the woman’s face.

She was Tuwal, the Harpy from Akusho who had foretold the earthquake. She had left the Imperial Capital with her lover to live her life correctly in a frontier village.

Tomita gently prodded her still-warm cheek.

Was she alive, or was she dead?

Cough.

Though it was weak, there was a reaction from Tuwal.

“She, she’s still alive!”

“Ohh, she’s still alive?!”

Nishina and the others cheered up immediately, now that they knew that she could be saved. However, the weak flame of her life was on the verge of guttering out. They had to get her to medical treatment as soon as possible.

“If this keeps up, she’ll die!”

“Nishina-san, there’s no time.”

Nishina nodded in response to Tozu and Azuma’s words.

“All right! Tomita, get the Chinook. We’re getting out of here!”

However, Komurasaki protested Master Sergeant Nishina’s decision.

“Are you r.e.t.a.r.ded? You’re telling me we’re going out now?”

There was no doubt that the monsters roaming outside would spot them if they left.

Even an amateur like him knew that the four JSDF servicemen here could not stand against that alarming horde outside.

“So you want us to abandon this girl?! You lot go on and on about how we take life and death into our own hands, but aren’t you just as ruthless yourselves?”

However, Komurasaki tried to deflect the matter away from himself.

“Why don’t you consider your priorities? Saving a dying girl of the Special Region is very important, but are you telling me that you want to endanger j.a.panese citizens like ourselves to save her? Really, you lot care more about them than your own people.”

Nishina and Komurasaki glared at each other.

However, Tomita separated the two of them.

“It’s fine. We can get her to the chopper without going outside.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“We punch a hole in the ceiling. Then we put her on a rope.”

Tomita pointed to the ceiling, and then turned a disdainful eye to Komurasaki.

“We’re not the IJA of the past. I will show you what it means to be a modern man of the JGSDF.”

Putting a hole in the half-wrecked ceiling was not very difficult. First, they opened fire on the ceiling struts to cut them, then climbed up the pillars to prise open the roof timbers.

However, as they hacked away at the support frame of the crudely-built cottage, the walls that had felt st.u.r.dy until just now began to waver. It would seem this house was supported by that frame. Without it, the hovel began to shake like a two-bit stage prop.

In addition, the Chinook conducting the helicopter casualty evacuation seemed to have gotten the monsters’ attention. Monsters flooded toward the house from all sides, and a rain of 120mm mortars pelted down on their heads.

Dust flew everywhere, and these fiends of the Special Region were blown to smithereens and buried under the dirt.

The airborne Cobras fired their rockets, raking them over the armored Ogres.

In the face of the spine-chilling explosions and the no-longer reliable wall, Komurasaki covered his ears and shouted, “Son of a b.i.t.c.h, it won’t hold!”

The snouts of the Black Dogs began poking in through the gaps in the walls. The startled cameraman scrambled back in fear and fell flat on his b.u.t.t.

“Fire! Fire! Fire!”

Tomita raised his rifle —— with bayonet affixed —— and fired it as soon as the blade bit into the beast’s flesh. The recoil helped him wrench his bayonet loose, and it had certainly dealt his foe a wound.

Tomita and the others opened fire through the walls —— at the beasts poking their noses through it —— to keep them away.

“You’re up next.”

Komurasaki raised his head as he heard Nishina’s voice. He saw Tozu, carrying Tuwal from behind, being winched into the Chinook.

“You, go!”

Komurasaki pointed out Matsuzaki the sound technician as the next evacuee. Nishina pa.s.sed the rope under Matsuzaki’s armpits and secured it.

“f.u.kushima, your turn.”

“Ko-Komurasaki-san, what about you?””

“I’ll be the last of the civilians to go. Say what you will, I’m one of the people in charge here. Make sure you get a good shot of me coming up.”

Before he finished, there was a sound like a dump truck smashing into the shaking house.

Dust and wood chips rained down from above. The walls creaked and split, and a gigantic monster which looked like a rhino was visible through the gaps in the wall. It was trying to break through the walls with its thick and sharp horn.

Tomita deftly changed out his magazine and fired on it.

The rhino-like monster was riddled with bullets and fell back as a corpse. However, the hole in the wall it had made became an entry point, and the monsters swarmed in. Among them were the forms of the rare Trolls and Kobolds.

Private Azuma pulled his trigger and ran dry of rounds in no time.

Panicked, he worked to change his empty magazine, but as he did, an axe-wielding Goblin closed in on him.

Tomita drew his sidearm and fired at the Goblin’s belly over Azuma’s shoulder. Once it was on the ground, he kicked and kicked at it, then raised his pistol at the Troll crawling over the corpse into the breach.

Azuma had finished reloading in this time, and renewed his shooting. He and Tomita covered each other while they were reloading, in a spectacular display of effective support fire.

Fortunately, their enemies were not that smart.

Now that there was a gap, they single-mindedly tried to break through it. Thus, all they had to do was hold the line there and they could keep them at bay.

“All right, we’re next.”

He glanced behind him, seeing Komurasaki’s legs vanish through the hole in the ceiling.

“Rope extraction! The two of you are going up together!”

With that, Nishina tied the ropes to Azuma and Tomita, who were too busy shooting to do it themselves.

“All right! Do it!”

In response to Nishina’s roar over the radio, the Chinook suddenly ascended at a speed of 600 meters per minute.

The three of them soared into the air above the little house at an alarming rate.

They pointed their muzzles down, expending all their remaining ammunition in their former perimeter. Then, as a farewell gift, they dropped all their grenades below them.

Below their eyes, the little cottage collapsed under the explosions, burying many monsters underneath.

An F-4 Phantom pa.s.sed Tomita and the others as they rose. It dropped napalm bombs, instantly turning the battlefield into an inferno.

The stench of monsters burning and their cries of pain echoed through the land.

If one looked into the distance, one could see 403rd Squadron heading toward the place where the monsters had come from. From the air, there was a formation of Imperial troops with their banners waving.

The Imperial troops knew that the operation was a failure, and decided to flee.

Their plan was to attack the frontier village, then attack the j.a.panese troops that showed up while posing as traders and villagers, and then bring in their monster army during the confusion.

However, the technique had only worked the first few times they tried it. The enemy had instantly improved their response rate, and even their main force had been discovered. Now, they were the ones being hounded instead.

Helm, the guerilla leader, had no choice but to find another way. He spurred his horse on as he agonized over the problem.

“Flee into the forest! You’ll be found more easily if you scatter!”

That said, the soldiers naturally wanted to run in all directions. They felt that since the enemy was hunting down their formation, then leaving the group might give them a better chance of survival. However, once they dispersed, they would not be able to partic.i.p.ate in future battles.

He felt that the monsters running beside his horse were an eyesore, but at the moment they were necessary for Zorzal’s forces.

“Eh, it can’t be helped.’

Helm stopped his horse and produced a flute from an inner pocket.

“General, do you plan to use the trump card you have in store?”

One of his adjutants asked him that as he bellowed at his men not to scatter.

As Helm played an inaudible note, he paused briefly to respond, “This is to save our lives too. It might not do much, but I want to give the enemy some trouble.”

After saying that, Helm continued playing the silent flute.

After being taken into the Chinook, Tomita was so tired that he was laid out and panting on the floor of the cabin, but he managed to proudly ask Komurasaki: “Heh… how about that? ...Did you see that!?”

A visibly displeased Komurasaki replied, “Aye, I did. I saw it all. The soldiers don’t protect the people. That’s what I believe, and I won’t back down on it. But you guys aren’t regular soldiers. To be precise, you’re men of the JSDF… oi, what are you filming? Don’t film me!”

Komurasaki glared at f.u.kushima the cameraman, who was grinning while training the lens on him.

He was probably upset by someone recording himself agreeing with Tomita, and gently pushed the camera away.

However, the cameraman instead continued filming the floor of the Chinook.

“Oi! What’s going on?!”

f.u.kushima stared at his camera. His entire body was stiff, fresh blood leaked from his mouth, and he collapsed onto the ground.

As Komurasaki looked at the spreading patch of reddish black, he screamed,

“What the h.e.l.l is going on?!”

At some point, a large monster had appeared behind f.u.kushima the cameraman.

The monster had plunged its thick claws into f.u.kushima’s back. It was croaking and screeching even as it grew larger.

Its limbs were sheathed in rippling muscle, and its claws were growing ever longer and sharper. It was clearly bad news.

Its fur was brown and tan. Its face was savage, a carnivore that was neither feline nor canine. However, its chest was a clear sign that it was female. That strangely human-like feature made them think it might have human blood in its veins.

Kucy had been a little girl until recently, but her head now touched the ceiling of the Chinook, forcing it to hunch over as it grew to a great size.

The Chinook’s ceiling had never been high to begin with, and this forced the large monster to curl up into a ball. There was no trace of reason in its eyes, only base savagery.

Nishina and the other servicemen could only stare dumbfoundedly, unable to move as the girl turned into a monstrous beast.

They could not open fire from this position.

The creature was coming from the front of the aircraft, where the c.o.c.kpit was. If they missed, they might end up shooting into the c.o.c.kpit, where they would most likely hit the pilot or an important flight system.

The monstrous Kucy swiped with her powerful limbs at anything she saw.

Matsuzaki was still cradling his boom mike when he was knocked back by the fearsome power of that hand, and he flew out the rear door of the cabin, which had not yet been fully closed.

“Ah, aieeeee!!!!!!”

Scared senseless by this scene, Komurasaki collapsed just as he was about to rise.

Fortunately for him, it meant that the monster’s arm swiped a head’s distance above him. It would seem the creature prioritized nearby targets over distant ones, and Komurasaki was next.

The monster raised an arm, and it whistled through the air to carve a chunk out of Komurasaki’s flesh...

Just as that was about to happen, the sound of a heavy metallic impact rang out, and Komurasaki’s body slid toward the back of the cabin.

Kuribayashi warded off the monster’s claw with a reverse-gripped knife.

“Ku-Kuribayashi!” Tomita shouted.

“Protect Tuwal and Komurasaki-san!” she shouted back.

Tomita picked up his rifle and grabbed Tuwal, while Nishina dragged Komurasaki by the lapels toward the rear of the craft. Still, they could only bring them to the rear hatch; any further and they would be outside, which meant an a.s.suredly fatal fall.

Kuribayashi cast aside her gouged helmet and faced the beast head on. The helmet could not stop the creature’s claws, and blood dripped from her forehead, down her cheek, and stained the tip of her combat boots.

Kuribayashi wiped the blood from her forehead with her sleeve, standing with her knife ready as she carefully studied Kucy for weaknesses.

“You looked like such a cute kid… to think your true form was a monster like this. You really pulled a fast one on us, huh?”

Confused, the monster looked at the tiny female human fighting back against it.

The difference between their physical statures was readily apparent. The conclusion was clear to all, even if they did not fight. Still, that little body did not flee, but strode forward in challenge. The creature could not understand that.

“Haaaaaaaaah!”

With a great cry, Kuribayashi brandished her knife and lunged in for an attack.

A high-pitched sound rang out as the knife hit the beast’s claw.

Kuribayashi worked her knife again. That shrill sound echoed through the cabin once more, and sparks flew as steel met claw.

The monster bared its fangs to frighten its foe, swinging its arms with brute force.

Kuribayashi dropped to the ground, rolling to avoid the steadily advancing swipes of its claws. She slipped past the thrust of the attack and worked her way into her opponen