Saikyou Series

Jinrui Saikyou no Jun’ai – Nisioisin
p. 24-28

BecauseI’d gone a bit overboard, the roof of the public office building gotdemolished to a greater extent than I antic.i.p.ated—it wasn’t so muchbroken as it wassmashed to pieces. Like a typhoon had ripped the roof right off, itlooked like the cleanup would be a real ch.o.r.e; well, regardless, I’msure the bureaucracy will handle it just fine. Anyway, in the endShimegiwa and I fell from the rooftop into the building, and thoseextra few meters I bought to fall provided plenty of room to spinaround like a cat and stick the landing. A cool and stylish landing,of course (luckily, the room underneath us was a conference room withn.o.body inside). I think Shimegiwa could have done the same thing ifhe’d tried, but those few meters were several kilometers too shortfor him to recover from his panic. I looked over; Shimegiwa wasburied in rubble, and his right arm had gone back to being flesh andblood like before. Hmm… I still don’t get how that works.

“Uhh……Uhhhh…”

Despitegetting buried, his injuries can’t have been serious; a pro playerwouldn’t die from falling a single floor. However, our match hadclearly been settled. There was no disguising the fact that, buriedin the rubble, Shimegiwa’s back was lying on the conference roomfloor.

“……”

Heknew it, too; Shimegiwa was fiercely glaring at me without trying tohide any feelings of shame—it was so intense I thought his sanpakueyes might turn white. Heh heh heh; I answered his stare with alaugh. It doesn’t have to end here, you know? If you want to keepgoing, I’ll keep going. Now that you’ve shown me the tricks up yoursleeve, this could be fun. It’s more like flames up your sleeve thantricks, though. I’m excited to see what you’ll show me next.

“…No,let’s stop.”

Shimegiwasaid, continuing to glare at me. As soon as he said that, as ifenervated, I unwound from my combat posture.

“I’mnot in the mood anymore… What’s your deal, anyway. You’re a G.o.dd.a.m.nmaniac… Normally you don’t destroy the stage itself.”

Well,I’m not normal. Shouldn’t you know that from the rumors? And whileI’m at it, let me just say, that arm of yours is a lot crazier than Iam. Don’t be hypocritical.

“Itwas a good match, right? …Well, even if I lost. d.a.m.n… If this wasgonna happen, I shouldn’t have chosen a rooftop. Should’ve foughtright where we met.”

Iwanted to avoid attention, but with a public facility smashed up thisbadly, this will be a pain to straighten out, Shimegiwa grumbled. Ianswered; no, you were right to pick a rooftop. For all we know, ifwe’d fought on the ground, I might have destroyed the planet instead.

“Yousure talk big. But that kind of talk actually sounds natural for you.I’m not in a position to criticize.”

Isthat so? But either way, wasn’t a rooftop or someplace similar youronly option? Shimegiwa-kun.

“…?What do you mean?”

Oh?Was I wrong? Taking off the coat that hadn’t fulfilled its purpose, Itilted my head. Thanks to that arm of yours, my right arm looks likecrispy, burned bread; I had a hunch that you could only use itsomewhere with lots of sunlight or fresh air.

“……”

WhetherI was right or wrong, Shimegiwa fell silent—that’s why I thought hewouldn’t try to keep fighting now that we’ve gone partly indoors. Hisarm is back to normal, too; well, that’s fine. This isn’t all thatimportant. Well, Campfires, it’s about time to say our farewells. Thenext job is waiting. G"bye, g"bye. I closed and opened my burnedhand—good, seems like the nerves didn’t get burned. With a big mealand lots of sleep, it should be healed by tomorrow.

“Wait,Jun Aikawa. You leaving?”

I’mleaving, yes. What? You want something else?

“Thetruth about my arm, doesn’t it interest you? Don’t you want to knowthe truth about those flames?”

I’dbe lying if I said I wasn’t interested, but if you’re asking me if Iwant to know, then the answer is no. Seems like a mystery that wouldbe more fun to leave unexplained.

“Didn’tthink you’d be feel afraid, but my client hoped it’d pique yourinterest a little more…”

Yourclient, huh. I see; so that was the goal in sending this vigorousyouth after me. They tried to pique my interest by showing me atechnique, an art I’d never seen before—pretty roundabout, isn’tit. Naturally, they must have accounted for the possibility that I’dget turned into charcoal entirely. Along with, of course, thepossibility that I’d beat Shimegiwa black and blue.

“You’recorrect.”

Shimegiwastood up and brushed off the rubble covering his body, lookingannoyed.

“I’mhere because a certain individual asked me to be—I didn’t challengeyou of my own volition. To be honest, I’d hardly heard of you, theone called humanity’s strongest. I thought you were just a legendthat got out of control… but this individual seems to have thoughtotherwise.”

Hmph.Someone who knows about my wildest period, huh. Most of those peoplehave retired, died, or disappeared by now, so that really narrows itdown, I think.

“Asa matter of fact, this ‘arm’ is the fruit of this individual’sresearch. Technically it’s just one part of it, though…”

Research?A researcher, then? Hearing that made me tense up—after all, I’drecently had some rough alien-related run-ins with the ER3 System.And due to my origins, I’ve never had good a relationship withresearchers.

“Thisindividual wishes to meet with you. Wants you to help finish up someresearch. In other words, this is a job, contractor. Humanity’sstrongest contractor.”

……I answered with silence; unusual, given my talkativeness. You couldsay I instinctively—not logically—put up my guard. After all, ifhe had a job for me, he could have just said so from the beginning.Right? So there must be a reason he chose this method. At the veryleast, the reason can’t be something friendly like wanting to amazeand surprise me; taking a job in this circ.u.mstance would truly beplaying with fire.(1)

“What’sthe matter, Jun Aikawa? You’re smiling.”

Mmm.Is that so? I’m smiling? …That might mean I’m in a tough spot,then. I still don’t want to know about your fire arm, but I suppose Iought to know who the client is. Setting aside the question ofwhether I’ll take the job or not, at least tell me that. I’ll hearyou out. Who is it, Shimegiwa-kun? Who’s the researcher who sent youafter me? Is it somebody from the ER3 System?

“No…this individual is an extremely private researcher, and notaffiliated with any organization. Self-employed, without any backers,like you and me.”

Oh?Since I knew my fathers, it was hard for me to judge whether thatmeant they were tenacious or just a contrarian—enough already, giveme a name, Shimegiwa-kun.

“Doyou know Doctor Kitsuregawa?”

[]

Footnotes:
(1)In the original, Nisio uses the idiom “picking up chestnuts from afire”, meaning “taking a big risk”; I subst.i.tuted the Englishidiom “playing with fire” since it has a similar meaning andkeeps the play on words.