Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta ore wa Meikyuu o Samayou
Author: Hiru k.u.ma
—
The Vending Machine"s Independent Actions A few hours before the date changed, I was set up on the terrace once again.
Half of the surviving hunters and all of the members who had returned from the Lamentations of the Dead Level, except for the old couple, lined up smartly.
The old couple aren"t partic.i.p.ating because it seems that old age is making their recoveries difficult, so everyone agreed that they shouldn"t overdo it.
Also, President Bear wanted to partic.i.p.ate despite not getting any sleep, so we made him swallow Hyurumi"s homemade sleeping medicine and forced him to rest his body in the President"s room.
It appears that the monsters will gather together again and come attacking all together in just a little while longer. In these past four days, it seems like the majority of the defenders" injuries occurred while defending late at night.
Humans are at a disadvantage in the dark, so magic users that can use light magic granted illumination around so that just area around the a.s.sociation has good visibility.
There aren"t any monsters in sight yet. The night is so quiet it"s scary; this is the so-called calm before the storm, na.
"Be careful. There are four figures coming this way!"
Mishael was the first to sense the presences, and he urged us to take caution.
All members readied their weapons and turned their bodies to face the direction Mishael was glaring in.
"We"re back~, huh? Everyone came back!"
The four shadows that leapt onto the tense terrace were the Big Eaters Brigade.
They had said they"d been out scouting since two days ago, and since then I hadn"t seen them at all so I had given up on their survival, but …. haa, I"m so relieved.
I had trusted that they wouldn"t be so easily done in with their excellent speed and detection abilities, but after confirming their safety, my electric flow seems to have calmed down.
"Waa, it"s Hakkon! Food, food, give us some food!"
It"s very much like the Big Eaters to run to me demanding food rather than being glad for our reunion, so it makes me feel relieved.
When I provided them with a ton of their beloved kara"age, they began stuffing their cheeks full, eating greedily. S
"We were running all over, nomnom , in the community, chewchew, for survivors, gulp, and food."1
Hey, speak after you"ve finished swallowing, Mikene.
"Fuu, I"ve calmed down. Let"s see, we were running all over the place, as for survivors and food, as well as what little information we could find about the monsters, within the community, but unfortunately, we weren"t able to find any survivors."
Mikene scratched his head with an apologetic look.
There isn"t anyone who would complain at them when they"ve run around among the enemy lines in such a dangerous situation.
"And also, there wasn"t much food left around, so sorry that we couldn"t bring any back."
"But Mikene, we don"t have to worry about meals now that Hakkon"s back. Meat"s sho gooood."
Pel is still eating? Maa, you worked hard, so eat as much as you want.
"And also, about the enemy, around evening time, it seems they were gathering around the wall to eat and sleep. They"re cl.u.s.tered around the big hole in the wall. Over half of them went outside of the community for a bit. I wonder if they aren"t comfortable inside the community area."
It might be difficult for them to rest in a place without even a bit of nature. It"s probably something like an intrinsic trait for them.
"We also went outside to take a look, but the monsters" reinforcements are still coming. Although they won"t be among the guys coming to attack all at once, we could see a number of large ones in the distance, so a number of king-frogman demons might show up tomorrow or the day after."
The hunters gave a huge sigh at that "worst news." Was it because of all the consecutive hards.h.i.+ps that they"re not shocked and dismayed?
"Everyone, Mishael will be the one leading the command this time."
President Bear can"t be in charge right here and now, so it fell1 to Mishael, the one with the most famous name.
With furtive glances, his eyes go towards the paper hidden in his hand.
, the back of his neck and all are dripping with sweat. Good luck, Mishael! I know it"s tough with your communication disorder, but everyone here doesn"t know about it, so … And besides, when you take his abilities and fame into account, the one with the most persuasive power would be him.
"Our priority should be retaining this place. My abilities are not sufficient, but I will devote everything I have to it. With all of our strengths combined, there should be no problems in repelling the enemy. In the case of a troublesome enemy appearing, please immediately let me know. I will cut them up and toss them away."
Oo, you"re so cool, Mishael. In ikemen mode, he speaks so confidently, and you can really see his charm. If only his tightly grasped fist wasn"t faintly shaking …
"Like he said. Everyone, don"t be reckless. If you get injured, withdraw indoors immediately. The healing team are on standby on the other side of the door."
And here, Karios switched to give the explanations.
Like he was escaping from everyone"s eyes, Mishael went around behind me and patted his chest.
"You did well."
"Thank you very much, Master Hakkon."
Isn"t he half-crying? They were just paying attention because he was the one in charge, but it looks like it was too painful for Mishael. Seriously, you"ve done well. Drink some cold cocoa and calm down.
"Hakkon. We"ll protect everyone, right? We won"t let anyone else be killed."
Saying her strong determination, Ramis was way too worked up. As I thought, it"s not so easy for her to overcome the trauma from when her village was attacked.
With her current abilities I think it will be fine even if her movements get dulled a little … but it"s not just her; in order to raise the survival rates of all the other people, I"ll devote everything I have.
"Ra - is"
I don"t have a "mi," so no matter what, I sound like an idiot.
"What is it~, Hakkon."
She seems to be very happy that I called her name, so she turned her head with a face full of smiles.
"Put me ov er"
"Th ere."
So saying, I made an arrow with plastic bottles using , pointing to a spot in the wasteland in front of the Hunters a.s.sociation.
"N, you want me to put you there … eh-? N,no way! There are a ton of enemies coming right now!"
"I kn ow."
"Be cause I"m hard."
"B,but, even so, it"s too dangerous. I won"t let you-"
She"s turning her face away, so she"s firmly vetoing it, huh?
If she"s like this, she won"t listen no matter what I say. If that"s the case, should I ask Hyurumi? She"s right next to us.
"P lea se."
When I said so towards Hyurumi, she made a dissatisfied face. Why?
"Hakkon, won"t ya say my name?"
Eeeeeh- you mean, she"s sulking a little? That"s true. It would hurt if one of your good friends gets called by name but you don"t, huh?
But, see? The phonemes I can say are "a, i, u, o, ka, ku, ko, sa, s.h.i.+, su, se, ni, ne, no, ta, chi, te, to, ma, mo, ra, ri, yo, o, n, ga, go, za, da, de, bo, -, ya, yu,"only those thirty-four. If you remove the voiced notations(ga/go/za/da/de/bo/-/ya), then it"s only twenty-five. I can"t use half of the j.a.panese syllabary.
Within those, I don"t have the "h," "ru," or "mi" of Hyurumi. Just how am I supposed to call her?
, the corners of Hyurumi"s mouth have relaxed. She understands which sounds I can say, and she has a face like she was just testing me. So she wants me to use what I have to put together something that will satisfy her.
Alright, I"ll go along with it. It"s speaking practice for me, after all. In other words, it will be fine if I can say something that will surprise her, I suppose.
"Are n"t you cu te"
"Heeh-!? W,what"re ya saying, all of a sudden? Y,you"re being too blunt; don"t think you can b,brush it off with flattery!"
As she speaks, her face went red, and she wound her milk-tea colored hair around her fingers. It"s pretty easy to tell she"s worked up.
Hyurumi"s strong will is p.r.o.nounced, so she probably isn"t used to these kinds of words. She seems to be weak to direct praise. I"m not sure what we were competing with, but looks like I won.
"Hmm, so Hakkon likes Hyurumi. Hmm."
Ah, now Ramis is sulking.
I thought it would be easier to be convey my intentions better than I have been once I can speak,but looks like that"s not the case. While I soothe Ramis, I reconsidered my naive thoughts.
I was able to make her feel better, but moving me to in front of the Hunters a.s.sociation is still a no, huh?
"Ramis. Looks like Hakkon"s thinkin" of something. Won"t you leave it to him? He also has the Barrier. Ain"t anything they can do to him."
Ramis" cheeks puffed out more and more at the happy Hyurumi"s persuasion. Looks like it"s having the opposite effect. She"s becoming more and more upset.
Hyurumi patted Ramis on the shoulder, separating her from me. The wink I saw at that moment probably means that I should go now. Thanks, Hyurumi. You"ve helped a lot.
In the time she had her back to me while talking, I became the and filled the interior of with balloons as usual. And I became the and floated away.
Then, opening up a whole in the Barrier"s side, I took a balloon with , released the gas inside all at once, and obtained propulsion to move forward.
When I had smoothly moved to directly over the place that had become wastelands in front of the a.s.sociation, I started releasing the balloons one by one, slowly landing on the ground.
Returning to the original vending machine, I checked my internal clock. There"s still a little over an hour before the clock switches to 0:00. I"ve used Form Change quite a bit today, but there"s still over an hour that I can be transformed left.
It should be fine to remain in a different frame from hereon, I guess. Since, when the date changes, the time limit will reset.
Alright, then let"s become the . And the form is that big one.
Faced with the giant structure that suddenly appeared n front of the Hunters a.s.sociation,
"W,what the heck is that!?"
"Where did that suddenly sprout from!?"
The hunters are making a fuss, but I"ll have to let the members that were acting with me before explain it over there.
Spitting out a large amount of ice, I shot them out of the all around the Hunters a.s.sociation"s surroundings.
The enemy"s mainly snake, frog, and crocodile monsters. On Earth those kinds were cold-blooded, so it"s highly likely that they"re weak to hot and cold. And in reality, the crocodileman demons were weak to cold.
And because of that, I was thinking of burying the a.s.sociation"s surroundings in ice and suddenly dropping the temperature. If it was the normal ice vending machine then I wouldn"t make it in time, and it would melt away in the meantime, but this is the vending machine that provides large amounts of ice for commercial fis.h.i.+ng boats. If I use my enhanced Speed, then I can produce an unbelievable amount of ice in no time.
A wall of ice has formed in front of the Hunters a.s.sociation entrance. My Dexterity was raised, so I hit my mark when I shoot them out of the . It flies where I want it to, so it"s become somewhat fun.
If this was during the intense sunlight of noon then this would all be a waste, but thankfully it"s night right now. If it goes well, then this should last a while… that would be nice.
I wonder if the reason I can fling the ice quite far is due to the effects of Strength. If that"s the case, then that means the stat I thought was meaningless isn"t completely useless.
If I can shoot them this strongly, then aren"t there more interesting possibilities? While thinking like that, engrossed in making the ice wall, the monsters began showing up in my surroundings.
Literally "the one the white arrow stands for," meaning the selected sacrifice
Sorry for the wait. It"s been a snowpocalypse over here … andIgotdistracted.
I"m so relieved Hakkon told us what he can say. It helps me out greatly. >