Part 10[edit]
Espers who reached the higher levels could mostly be divided into two types.
The one-point types that used one exceedingly powerful attack.
And the all-purpose types that put together many different varied forms of attack.
Military Oil espers like Aizono Mio and Hyoudou Maki fell into the latter category. Their single power gave them strength by having many different ways it could be used offensively.
And of course the number of different means of attack increased overwhelmingly when more than one such esper worked together.
Starting with Maki, the three girls jumped over the railings of the midair walkways without hesitation. Wing-like parts grew from their backs and thighs, slowing their speed and angle of descent. When their feet came in contact with the sides of the tanks or stairways, a highly-elastic rubber-like power repelled them along through the air. Together, they formed a ring surrounding Aizono, and they tried to disturb her with the changes in speed and angle.
As the Military Oil girls approached accompanied by rapid explosive sounds that were similar to a machine gun firing, Aizono clicked her tongue.
Aizono Mio had been trained to fight the #7 who could move faster than the speed of sound, the #4 who could freely use extremely high-speed projectiles, the #3, and others, so she did not feel threatened by pure speed.
The problem was…
(s.h.i.+t. Their feints are clearly coordinated to work against me specifically! They’re throwing off their timing and going with the hardest speed and angles for me to deal with!!)
They may have resented her as a fellow White Alligator member. Trying to follow each one individually by eye while within that spiral of movement would be playing right into their hands. Aizono chose to get some distance and then attack them one by one, so she used oil at her feet to move at high speed as if sliding along the ground.
Or that was what she had meant to do.
Instead, her body came to a stop like she was bolted to the ground.
“We control the same oil,” said Maki with a smile and a giant blade on her arm. “So the precedence of control will be decided by numbers. I don’t think you can win in a game of tug of war.”
“!!”
Before Aizono could take her next action, the other three girls counteracted her attempt.
With an unpleasant noise, Aizono Mio’s silhouette split into multiple pieces.
Lightly swinging the blade on her right arm, Kohina spoke to Maki.
“Did we do it?”
“I definitely felt the resistance of slicing through her backbone,” added Sayori.
“We didn’t.”
Maki pointed toward the remains of what had been sliced to pieces by giant blades. The surface seemed like that of a human, but the inside visible where it was sliced was black.
“It’s a silicone doll made to look like her. To make it feel real, she even divided up the parts to make fat and muscle.”
Maki swung her huge blade and the instrumentation for a large refrigeration unit was sliced diagonally. The blade itself had not cut it; something like a guillotine had flown out.
This was followed by a hard thunk.
The instrumentation had been sliced through, but Aizono Mio had stopped the guillotine-like object with an attack of her own from within the instrumentation.
While shutting one eye, she said, “They may be life-sized, but they’re quite cheap. You’ll never have to worry about lonely nights again.”
“Since you’re purposefully keeping your chatter light to keep your mind stable, you must be more worried than you let on,” said Maki in a blunt a.n.a.lysis.
Kohina added, “It looks like we can’t completely take away her control of the oil even with three of us. But the data from this battle will tell us how much it weakened her.”
“Yes. And since she did not use that subst.i.tution technique (tentative name) from the beginning, it must have been something like a last resort. In other words, she can’t use it freely.”
With the sound of the air being sliced, the three Military Oil girls held their blades up once more.
“We’ll start with that composite armor. We’ll strip you bare in front of your precious teacher.”
Aizono tilted her head a bit and said, “Hmm. Maybe I should have tried something more heavy-handed like that to get through that good, thickheaded smile barrier of his.”
An explosive noise roared up.
As the three figures approached at close range, Aizono transformed the oil at her feet into something like highly elastic rubber and she jumped straight up. She jumped higher and higher landing on the tanks and the hanging remnants of walkways destroyed by the napalm before jumping again. Of course, the other Military Oil users interfered with her control of the oil, but it was not enough to rob her of all control. If she added the interference into her calculations, she could control the oil just fine even if she was weakened somewhat.
With their prey escaped, the other three immediately changed their direction by 90 degrees to pursue her.
Aizono had expected that.
“Ah?” said Sayori in confusion.
Aizono Mio had affixed a thick rubber panel near the ceiling and headed forcefully toward it. The rubber shot her like a bullet in the opposite direction. With the sound of wind roaring in her ears, she flew toward Sayori at a speed much greater than Sayori had expected. She was unable to evade. Aizono’s feet were pressed together side to side, and the soles of her shoes slammed mercilessly into Sayori’s face.
A great roar exploded out that did not sound like something that could come from two people colliding.
Still in midair, Aizono Mio gave a slight smile at the dull feeling she felt through her shoes.
“Rope techniques are the best of pro wrestling, baby!”
“…But if you fail, you open yourself up to a lariat.”
“!?”
An unpleasant noise vibrated through the soles of her shoes. Aizono saw two eyes glare out at her through the gaps in the black coloration covering the pale skin. The black oil armor had accurately distributed the force of that blunt impact.
Sayori’s lips writhed.
“One can counterbalance you.”
Aizono heard the sound of something slicing through the air on her left and right. Maki and Kohina were approaching fast.
“Three can overwhelm you.”
“Tch!!”
Aizono sent another kick toward Sayori who was beneath her feet and used the repelling force of rubber to jump up high. By ascending, she avoided the blades approaching from left and right and the spear thrust up by Sayori. She landed on top of one of the three-story tall tanks.
Meanwhile, the other three once more smoothly planted their feet on the facility floor.
Maki opened her mouth to speak.
“If you’re hoping to retrieve Saitou Souta and flee, give up now. Your prize does not lie in that tank and you could never lose us while carrying such a heavy burden.”
“I suppose I should praise you for not using him as a s.h.i.+eld.”
“That would be too boring.” Maki turned the giant blade made of processed petroleum products back into its original dripping oil. “If we wanted to, we could finish Saitou Souta off on our own, but we would do it in a rather predictable way. There is a limit to how cruel we can be. However, the higher ups who seriously wanted to create and control something like White Alligator and then actually did it are a different matter. They would surely put an end to Saitou Souta in some twisted way we could never even imagine.”
“…”
Aizono remained silent and Kohina continued for Maki.
“It would be something like having your lover a.s.saulted by a stranger. And while it may be horrible, it would still be effective. After all, those adults are the ones who messed us up so badly. Whatever it is you’re waiting for, there is no help there. If you were honest with yourself, you would know that.”
Then Sayori spoke. “Even if we sliced you to pieces, we’d keep it at the level where you could still be hooked up to some horrible life support machine. After all, just finis.h.i.+ng off Saitou Souta would be too boring. It’s only any fun if it comes with someone to scream as they watch.”
Their chatting was silenced by the sound of something slicing through the air.
Aizono Mio strongly swung the blade in her hand.
“…I’ll turn you into gator food.”
“You idiot. You really are stupid. What did you learn in that h.e.l.l? I thought we learned more than we wanted back in White Alligator that this is not a world where being more determined or having more guts is going to get you anywhere.”
In response to the three girls’ wills, the oil in the area all started writhing at once. A number of black bands were being created. The ends of the bands connected to the metal tanks or the midair walkways. The center portion of the bands bent in U-shape and gathered in Maki’s hand.
It looked something like a huge strange flower or a giant slingshot, but it was something else.
“The Multiphase Straight Hammer. Well, you were in White Alligator, so I don’t really need to explain it to you, but it combines the elasticity of rubber, the explosive power of burnable oil, and super high speed propellers to fire a projectile at high speed.”
“…”
“Originally, five of them would be prepared by a group of 8 of us each. The remaining ten people would hold down the target while the ma.s.sive high speed projectiles would fire from multiple directions and reliably kill the target. That was a strategy to be used against the #4 or the #3. I have no idea how much the power will be reduced with only three of us, but the technical numbers don’t really matter. As long as it’s powerful enough to break through the metal tanks that are the greatest cover around here, we can shoot you down wherever you try to run.”
The sound of straining thick rubber could be heard.
With a thin smile, Maki said, “Your composite armor isn’t working as well as it should be, so you’re going to have to pull this off with determination and guts. How about you give this a nice, moving ending that will bring a tear to people’s eyes?”
“So you’re just a carbon copy of how things were back then. I hadn’t expected you to change much, but I never thought it would be this-…”
“Achoo!”
A tremendous vibration that seemed to penetrate the entire facility exploded out.