CH 57

By Effugium December 28, 2022

The girl had neither dreams nor goals to call her own.

Ten years ago, Kirika Mayuzumi, who was seven years old at the time, lost everything. Amidst the flames of the fire, only the grass around the girl remained lush and green, as if it were a sanctuary.

「It’s a miracle……」

The emergency workers who arrived at the scene of the accident exclaimed.

――Mt. Fuji Explosion Disaster――

The disaster was so severe that more than 100,000 people were affected throughout the Kanto region, and the five lakes of Fuji were replaced by a single lake, Fuji. Some experts believe that it was a local human disaster caused by a war between monsters.

Kirika was the only survivor in the area who was found in close proximity to the hypocenter.

Left in the care of her paternal grandparents in place of her missing parents, Kirika spent many empty days.  She rarely spoke, instead silently staring up at the sky, which was the same color as her eyes.

Her grandfather, out of concern, sent her to a swordsmanship dojo run by an acquaintance, and by the time she graduated from elementary school, she had improved to the point of defeating her instructor with a perfect score. She was a doll-like girl who never took any interest in other people and simply did what she was told, but she had more than enough talent.

The reason why she decided to transfer to a hero school immediately after graduating from a compulsory education course was only because she was “good at it”.

「As expected of Kirika-sama!」

「Kirika-sama is a treasure of Japan!」

「Hooray! Hooray for Kirika-sama!」

「…………Is that so.」

She has changed all the records of the Hero School, and is now revered as a rare genius. The frequency of being dragged into fights with senior students increased day by day.

「Please do it, Kirika-sama!」

「As long as we have Kirika-sama, we can definitely beat the upperclassmen!」

「Don’t get cocky just because you’re upperclassmen! We have Kirika-sama here, you know!?」

「…………Is that so.」

Apparently, “winning” a fight is something special for them.

For Kirika, victory is as natural as the moon rising and setting.

Therefore, when asked about her dreams and goals, they do not resonate with her. This is because all of these are just paths that Kirika will eventually take. 

Even though she had everything that many people were looking for, Kirika herself always felt that something was missing.

It was then that she met that man.

「Oh, so you’re the rumored Mayuzumi Kirika.」

「…………That’s right.」

She was expecting a bit of a surprise when she heard that there was a bad guy in the upperclassmen, but Kirika’s shoulders slumped. The reason was that he seemed to be a man with no talent and no luck.

He said he was there to settle a fight with an underclassman, but he didn’t look like the type to talk with his fists. His lean figure in a green jersey and glasses did not give off any aura.

「I’m Rintaro Kuriyama and I’m in charge of the upperclassmen. Nice to meet you.」

The man smiled a lousy smile, bent forward, and asked for a handshake.She was honestly not fond of men who tried to flirt with her, but it would not do to aggravate the relationship between the upperclassman and the underclassman by bluntly refusing his offer.

「……Hello, I’m Mayuzumi.」

Kirika shook his hand, looking deeply bored.

Toukun……!

At the moment their hands touched, an electric current ran through Kirika’s heart.

She remember one of her classmates telling her that a maiden’s love is just like being struck by lightning. It was the first time for Kirika to feel this kind of feeling in her heart.

(No way……Me? Towards a man like this……?)

Or rather, the electric current was really flowing.

Baribaribaribaribaribaribaribari! ! !

「Ababababababababababababababa! ! ! ! !」

「Ha-ha-ha! Aren’t you being a little too careless, Mayuzumi! How do you like the taste of my palm-sized stun gun? Numbly spicy, isn’t it?」

「Guh……You……!!」

Kirika put her hands around Rintaro’s waist, who was laughing wickedly. Inevitably, the two looked like they were hugging.

Naturally, the electric current that Rintaro had triggered coursed through Kirika’s body and attacked Rintaro.

「Hey, stop, wait, Agyaaaaaaaaa!」

Their hearts beat faster than ever due to a biological reaction. This was the  first encounter between Kirika and Rintaro.

…………

――And now ――。

「Kyaaaaaaa!!!」

「Ha-ha-ha-ha! That looks great, Mayuzumi! I’m glad that you seemed to be having fun, above all! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!」

Kirika, a.k.a. Victo Black, was experiencing a reverse bungee 40 meters above the ground, pulled by a rope that was tangled around her legs. It was the zakko fighters pulling the rope as hard as they could on top of the skyscraper.

「「「Ouis! Ouis!」」」

Death Green had no such thing as a “one-on-one” fight in his mind. Instead of taking the powerful monsters who went to the heroes’ headquarters, he borrowed all the zakko fighters he could get his hands on.

「Hyahahaha!!! Come on, laugh when it’s fun, Mayuzumi! How about we take a picture!?」

「I- It’s a really fun attraction, like an amusement park … Fuh!」

Kirika severed the rope in mid-air and scattered a large number of small black balls toward the ground.

Papapapapapapapapapapapan!!!

The ground was filled with smoke, accompanied by a loud, piercing explosion. The vision of Rintaro and his fellow combatants instantly went blank.

「Damn, another smoke screen! What a nuisance!」

「Death Green-san! This is a smoke scre……」

Kirika grins wickedly under her black mask and pulls out the remote control keys to her motorcycle.

「Fireworks are always a part of amusement parks, right?」

The engine of a parked black motorcycle caught fire. The next moment, the dust that filled the area was ignited, and the ground was enveloped in red flames.

The dust explosion is so large that the asphalt is torn up, and the windows of buildings in the surrounding area are shattered into pieces. The combatants caught in the blast will be rendered useless.

「Waaaaaaaan…………!」

And Retto, who was lying on the ground, was also caught up in the incident and sent flying somewhere. Both Kirika and Rintaro decided not to worry about that. The fellow was a tough guy, so he probably wasn’t dead.

「Oh so you can do it! Yooshi, snipers, show us what you got!」

At Rintaro’s signal, the zakko fighters waiting on the rooftop of a building across the street all raise their guns at once. In their hands are assault rifles, which are so heavy that they do not resemble the weapons of a gang of zakos. They simultaneously erupted into flames, and the sound of gunfire played a symphony of zero kindness in the space between the buildings.

「So impudent……!」

With her superhuman strength, Kirika easily dodged the hail of bullets that came down on her. She then threw a black box toward the first floor of the building where the snipers were.

Do~uuuuuuun! ! !

With a roaring sound that struck at the very core of the body, an entire commercial building crumbled to the ground.

「Why do you have such an ugly bomb!」

「It’s the sign of a hero.」

In the city center late at night, the two sides engaged in a dizzying exchange of fire with no mercy at all. The fighters were so much in the thick of the fighting that they were all completely overwhelmed.

As a cloud of smoke fills her field of vision, a pair of glowing eyes suddenly appears in front of Kirika.

「――!?」

It was a large trailer driven by a zako fighter. With zero visibility, Kirika was unable to evade in time, and her whole body was hit by the impact.

「Kuh……!」

The front of the trailer is coated with a sticky adhesive for catching rats, and it grabs Kirika’s body and does not let go.

「You are really smart, aren’t you!!」

The trailer plunged into a residential building with Kirika strapped to it. Concrete slammed into Kirika’s back with a violent impact.

「Alright!」

Rintaro struck a gut-punch like a coach when he gets a hit in a baseball game. The fighter jumped out of the driver’s seat of the trailer in a panic.

When Rintaro saw that the fighters were prone on the ground, he pressed the detonation switch in his hand.

「Play hero in hell, baby!!」

At least six tons of explosives loaded onto a trailer exploded at once, wiping out an entire section of the city.

「As expected, she would be dead, right, ui……?」

「I don’t know, ui……?」

As the zako fighters looked on anxiously, the debris crumbled away.

「Hyaaaaa! She is still alive, ui!」

「Sh- She is a monster, ui!!」

Seeing Victor Black standing brilliantly in a pile of rubble after being caught in an explosion of that magnitude, the zako fighters ran for cover in terror. However, as expected, she was not unscathed, her mask was cracked.

「Haaa……Haaaa……」

「Oi oi, are you kidding me……You can still move……?」

「I…… have always had a strong…… body…….」

「You- you’d better go back to Krypton.」

Sweat trickles down under his death-green mask. Rintaro’s objective in this mission was to buy time. Without pushing too hard at this point, he would win if he could destroy the Hero Headquarters building in Jimbocho.

However, Mayuzumi Kirika had the momentum to crush Rintaro head-on and break through.

The zako fighters were no longer of any use to him. However, they had inflicted enough damage, and there was no chance of victory.

「Well then, I guess we have no choice but to go for round two.」

「I’ll make this the final round.」

Fierce sword fights echoed through the ruined city.