Vol 2 Chapter 1 (2/2)
“Hachita Company The latest forms of entertainment can be seen and touched Hachitama Electronics supports the Colosseum”
They were even adapting to it
They were riding this sudden wave and even egging it on
“In a way, this is even uglier than the Bright Cross itself”
“Shall I bring down the power in this area?”
That would have been oh-so-satisfying but ultiless
I entered the station and boarded a train
The electronic advertise text:
“The Circe Witch vs the Man-Eating Mermaid The billionaire’s countdown has reached 43:20 Buy your ticket now!”
When had the world gone insane?
I didn’t want to think it always had been
I wanted to believe soear to return everything to normal
After arriving near the broadcast station, I found a commotion there too
But it looked different froot it froroup had blown up a photo of Itou Helen and placed it all over the panels and placards they held
“Helen-taaan! Can you hear us cheering for you!?”
“Ohhhh! We’re on your side!! We’re praying for your victory!! Go, go, Helen-taaaan!!”
What do you mean you’re on her side?
If you really were, you wouldn’t push her toward an actual fight to the death!
“User, reaching the broadcast station is easy enough, but how do you intend to get inside?”
“I’ll rely on you”
I walked right up to the front gate
The guards on either side naturally glared at me, but…
“Good evening”
With that, I pressed lass door
…With my smartphone still in my hand
It was probably a vein scanner like at a bank ATM, but that didn’t matter with Maxwell’s machine power
With a standard beep, the entire panel glowed green to shoas approved
The tough-looking guards nodded at me
“Good evening”
“Yes, yes”
After that, I walked right through the glass gate
“It would be best to slip in as a part-ti past 8, so it would be easiest to pass you off as a baby-faced college student”
“Seriously? So in the data here, I’ in a world like that”
What I needed was data on the Colosseum’s live broadcast
“Hacking station intranet…” said Maxwell
The results were displayed 30 seconds later
“There are records of a great quantity ofhall The format is much like that of an MMA tournament”
“Where is the waiting room for contestants?”
“I searched for records of one, but did not find anything However…”
“What is it, Maxwell?”
“The delivery list contained two large anies They are the type used by vets and circuses and are built to contain even a Bengal tiger”
“Goddamn them!!”
At any rate, I had to get to the 7th floor
If I was lucky, the cages holding Itou Helen and her opponent would be there, but if not, I could still gather information from any computers or phones I found
Or so I thought
Until I actually rode the elevator up to the 7th floor, that is
“Ah”
I stared blankly for a moment
It was right there in the middle of the hallway
As if they had hired a e had been carried in by attaching wheels and handles to the box
I didn’t count howaround it
My eyes were drawn to the tearful blonde girl curled up in the cage
There was no sign of the baggy white sweater or chocolate-colored miniskirt from before
Instead, she wore a short black dress, a pointed wide-brilass wand that looked like a complex collection of clear tubes and protuberances She looked just like a witch from a children’s picture book, but I doubted Itou Helen would choose to dress like that after being abducted
So what had happened here?
What had happened to her original clothes?
The ansas obvious
They had been stripped from her
By thearound her
“Ohh”
I couldn’t hts beyond that point In fact, I was aed it that far
“Oaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”
I yelled
I let out a roar
The various stubblyon, but I was already charging straight toward theround, punched him in the face, and bit at another man’s arm that reached for me from the side The curse in my heart hoped to see the bone
“What’s wrong with this kid!? He’s gone insane!!”
They kicked me in the back
As I writhed on the ground, the soles of their shoes pressed down on ut, my chest, my back, and my head They pummeled me from all sides
To be honest, I could not stop the fire burning inside h; I honestly couldn’t feel the pain
Before long, I heard a shrill screa me
It was the girl in the cage
The witch thren the glass wand soe’s bars with her small hands as she cried
Not at her own circu punched and kicked
I learned for the first tiear
“Maxweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!”
“Sure”
His response was immediate
I heard so from the chests and hips of the men around me
It was the lithium batteries of their radios and cellphones
The explosion in their pockets and right next to their skin was enough to smash the bone
As the men screamed and writhed in pain, I slowly stood up
The cage’s lock…was analog I thought it was called a dimple lock, but I didn’t know the details and I couldn’t just leave it to Maxwell
Then it didn’t matter who
I grabbed one of the ainst the hallall
“Gah!?”
“Where’s the key?”
“I-I don’t know We’re…oe’re just bottom level ADs! I don’t know about any key!!”
“Maxwell”
“Sure User, please press your set’s ear”
“Are you going to use ultrasonic waves?”
“No This is a mobile phone, so I can directly use e “An international health agency has reported that a conversation of more than 20 minutes increases the risk of a brain tuet’s craniurim reaper there Let us induce cancer cells in an entirely inoperable location”
I was pretty sure this was a bluff
But part of me didn’t care if it wasn’t
“W-wait! You’re kidding, right!?”
“You can believe it or not But do you really think this is an innocent prank after I blasted your leg with a cyber-attack?”
“I-I really don’t know! C’mon, I’m sorry! So, waaaaaaait!?”
“Cancer risk…304050”
“This is taking too long Maxwell, kick it up to 100 right away We can have hionna die Just like a head blinking after being reuillotine”
I heard a loud thud
The man’s eyes had rolled back in his head and he cruround I’d prefer to leave out this detail, but he also pissed himself
“He didn’t talk even after that, so he really must not have known,” surmised Maxwell
“I’m not so sure”
But even without the key, I had e
As long as I could keep her fro the Colosseue outside of the building
Itou Helen sobbed in the cage
“Um, Senpai, um, uh, why…?”
“I don’t know What do you think? Is this also just like your ‘Onii-chan’?”
“…”
“Anyway, leave the rest to et you out of the TV station-…”
I trailed off
A voice spoke from the broadcast equipment in the hallway
“Ding dong dong dong The legal gaather in the studio I repeat…”
I checked my smartphone’s clock and saas nearly 10
damn!
All the doors around me opened Men and women exited thelass wand and held it to her flat chest as she cowered inside the cage They were approaching!!
“Maxwell”
“You are outnuhty”
“I wasn’t asking for that How far have you made it into the TV station’s system? Can you place a fake ID for me in there?”
“Sure But you have no time Make your order quickly”
That hen I threwstaff
“What is theabout the condition of hter!?”
“Who are you…?”
“Amatsu Satori”
I was hesitant to use my real name with theseup a cool fake name
“You can check if you want, but I’m from that witch’s school! I’m here as her second!! I know you’ve probably paid a lot of ot a ton ofon this too! Don’t treat her so carelessly! How is she supposed to win like this!?”
I had to buy some time
Until Maxwell could finish his work
“Or what? Is this whole thing fixed froo reveal it all on sos, and SNSs!? If it turns out this new legal ga was fixed fro all their onna riot, don’t you think!?”
A heard a quiet beep from my smartphone
At the sa my identity on their tablet
“He really is the Archene the studio”
“Our apologies”
As the female staff member relaxed, I clenched and unclenched my hands in front of my face
“I’lad you understand”
“A Please follow us to the stage”
“Fine But! Next tioose without my permission!”
I grabbed at the handle of Itou Helen’s cage as if snatching her away froy
The small animal style of blonde witch looked confused, so I secretly showed her my smartphone screen
It said:
“Sorry I pro this one match for now”
And…
“We’re in this together I won’t abandon you Let’s both get out of here alive”
The studio was close by
As soon as the soundproofed double doors opened, I was hit by an overwhelht
“Ladies and gentleame that is sure to excite any reasonable adult!!”
The backlight was too bright to see anything
Finally, a square ring caht
But it was not surrounded by ropes like for boxing or professional wrestling It was a giant 15 lass That was the stage for the deadly battles
And the cheers ca it in every direction
It was not all that different fro or mixed martial arts
But where had all these people come from?
This was a Colosseuht to the death The location was supposed to be a secret
My question was answered by the bunny girl standing on top of the bug cage
Her long hair and the bunny costuht blue of a rainforest butterfly
She stood tall with microphone in hand and she vied for everyone’s attention as the flood of light seemed to stab doard her
“Good evening, all of you on the strict lottery based on your ticket nuamble is entirely decided on the result of the battle itself I hope you didn’t use up all your luck just getting here”
I couldn’t believe them
There was soirl and the cheerful crowd! There were so h email or whatever, did none of them run to the police? Really? Not even one!?
“On one side we have the motivated Itou Helen who has been certified as a witch! How does it feel to have deceived all your friends at school for so long? But tonight let’s throw out those lies and fight with everything we’ve got! We need a real battle between monsters!!”
…You!!
My underclasshts and camera lenses turned her way, but did she really look that wicked?
I clenched my teeth
“Maxwell”
“Sure”
“Turn my smartphone’s HDin front of the TV ca her be forgotten”
“Understood I will also record her behavior and stance and create a color chart for her face That way, I can search for her even without a front-on shot”
“And if they’re going to throw out theirbunny is going to look down on le shots of her crotch!!
Isn’t it strange how the tighter the fabric over a girl’s crotch, the puffier it looks!?”
“User, I must question your character here”
Meanwhile, the situation advanced
There was no escape now, so ould have to overcome this rather than avoid it
“We e of sters of the sea These ainst drowning humans Please welcome Kuroyama Hinoki!!”
On the other side of the giant bug cage, an identical cage was carted in It contained a girl with long black hair who looked the sae as if not a little older thanIt looked htly around her bare legs to create a silhouette much like a fish’s tail fin
She was not wearing any clothes Her chest and lower stomach were hidden by the hair wrapped around her torso
“What…is that? That’s a mermaid?”
“Sure There are a variety of theories as to the origin of mermaids, but one says they nores when they arrive on land This may be that subspecies”
Even if it was a part of her body, this Archene other than her own skin to achieve new function while h the water
“And if the seal skin is taken from her while she is on land, the mermaid must marry that person While naked”
“Dammit, just analyze this opponent Dammit!!”
“User, please do not tap the shutter icon so quickly while pointing the lens at a naked hair-wrapped girl People ht question my character as well”
A man had a tense expression
That was probably her second
He was the one and only person who had decided to take the side of the e Unlike the foolish prince from the fairy tale, he had realized what the mermaid was and still accepted her
“…”
“…”
Our eyes met for just a brief moment
His eyes showed hopeless panic but also hostility
“Is everyone ready? Are you clutching your tickets? Then let’s get started! Let’s begin this new entertaine! japan’s dawn is nigh Fly into the world, Colosseuins now!!!!!!”
[Search Engine] From a Security Company Intercom [Absolute NOAH]
“Onii-chan left,” said Ayumi in the entranceway “Onee-chan, you understand that Onii-chan has no chance of winning, right? He’s aler”
“Well, it is true that real life isn’t like a melodrama”
But Erika had more to say
“But how could we stop hi for this ere trapped in that dark space underground? Hoping and praying that a knight in shi+ning armor we had never met would come to save us?”
That knight had not arrived in time for them
Erika and Ayumi had bravely paved their oay to survival
But what if soht now? And what if there was soht in shi+ning armor?
“There’s really nothing we can do about this”
“Yeah, but what if Onii-chan is captured by the Bright Cross?”
“Oh? I think you know exactly e do then, Ayumi-chan”
The sisters sether
And those residents of the night answered in unison
“If it comes to that, we’ll have to drown the world in a sea of blood”
“If it comes to that, we’ll have to drown the world in a sea of blood”