Vol 2 Chapter 2.3 (2/2)

[I remember you, Umea. Your father is a human, yes? And I have heard that the ‘Black Sisters’ have trained you so that you may join their ranks, is that not correct?]

[...] Sergeant Aroha flinched.

The caption again did not fail to explain this new development.

--Black Sisters: The highest level Asa Council of Elders. Controls the politics of all Asa nations.

[You’re not trying to say that you’re my little sister, are you?]

[What are you talking about? I’m only interested in the Umea that the Black Sisters once wanted to recruit. Now, become my handmaiden! If you promise to repent for your past with the Federation and become a part of the Alliance, then I will forgive your sins!]

--The Generous Harakal!

Terrible show! That act was so fake that I’d rather believe an Easter musical at a Sunday school was the real deal! And that caption ruined it even further!

But now it was clear-- they wanted to show that they would even take Federation soldiers into the Alliance if they intended to jump s.h.i.+p. Gross! This is the most blatant, up-front propaganda I’ve ever seen! They could not have expected Sergeant Aroha to accept that!

And Sergeant Aroha was a Federation soldier, after all. If she had said ‘Yeah, sure!’, she would earn a free ticket to the Federation military prison if she were to be rescued and returned. There were too many witnesses around to avoid that fate.

But if she made a mockery out of the Asa princess instead, then her life would be put in danger. What could she do? She may very well accept the Alliance…

[Can we talk about this again when we know each other better? We’re not at that level yet, I don’t think.] said Sergeant Aroha, smiling. She was expected to beg for her life and look cowardly, but she looked like she was enjoying the situation, instead. That was her charisma.

In any case, that was a great response. She had earned extra time for us

The broadcast went quiet as the tense moment pa.s.sed by.

“Eh…” Mayer turned back around, snapping out of confusion from the broadcast. He looked absolutely befuddled, as if he drowned in bottles of vodka not a second ago. “Anyway, you--”

But I was already on the bike with Admiral Luise in my arms, with Ensign Meihowa sitting at the back seat with her Colion rifle trained on Mayer.

“Wait, what?!”

“Sorry, friend, I have to go save that lady in the television. Could you kindly not get in my way? Or would you like to join me as a bargaining hostage?”

“Argh! You’re insane! You’re going to die if you go there! And it looks like she was that Asa girl after all!” Mayer warned me. The soldiers around him immediately pointed their guns at us.

“Thanks to that broadcast, everything is clear now. There really is a way to move an entire city’s population from Critik to someplace else, huh?”

My rhetorical question surprised Mayer. “H-how did you know that?!”

“Well, because they went through the trouble of doing that broadcast. If you guys are bringing people to the stadium while making a show like that one, you’re trying to convince them what a nice time they’ll have when they’re with the Alliance, right?”

“...”

“Are you sure you people are from this age? All these things are the oldest tricks in the book! You might have a better time convincing people back on eighteenth century Earth. h.e.l.l, the act was so hilariously bad, I have to give it to Sergeant Aroha for not laughing through the whole thing. No, wait, you guys will probably take it as a compliment if I said it was funny. Let’s just stop at ‘you suck’.”

Mayer ground his teeth after listening to my stream of insults. But soon, even he had to agree. “I-I can’t refute that. The Asa and the Elcro are culturally equivalent to sixteenth century Earth, so their sense of dramatics is… outdated. But she’s also the Rear Admiral of the Alliance…”

Ah, so he went unheard because of his inferior rank. The rebellion took on the full risk at the start of this coup, but it seemed that the Alliance took full control of the situation over time. So that’s why these poor people had to play along…

“You should think about quitting while it’s still early. Anyway, see you later!”

“Wait!”

I revved up the bike and spun around, and then I was off. The soldiers panicked and reached for the triggers on their guns, but I had already used telekinesis to accelerate the bike forward. We blasted forward at an amazing speed, while plasma sh.e.l.ls from behind harmlessly bounced off of my projected black barrier.

Normal force barriers were able to effectively deflect an average plasma sh.e.l.l. However, an untrained pract.i.tioner occasionally burned or blinded himself from plasma sh.e.l.ls creating powerful light and heat from friction with the barrier.

A black barrier, on the other hand, operated purely through the force of gravity, by creating a localized ergosphere. It wasn’t something that could be created on the spot-- I had to remember the universal location of micro-black holes created by the Sole Power of Heaven and Earth, and their ergosphere was projected at a location at my will. The black barrier ignored the limits of distance of a conventional teleportation.

“Whoa! What the h.e.l.l is that?!”

“A power user?!”

“No way! How can anyone use psionic powers at a casino city?!”

I continued onwards, leaving the shocked soldiers behind me.

“Ugh! What do those Asa think they’re doing?!” Ensign Meihowa groaned from behind, hanging onto me as the bike gained speed.

“How should I know?! Our first course of action is retrieving Colorado and Rabbitte the Rabbit! And we’ll rescue Sergeant Aroha after that! I can’t believe she has to deal with those insane maniacs alone!”

I felt like I was committing a terrible crime. Sergeant Aroha was a very strong woman, so that alone bought some time for us. I imagined that anyone else would have gone completely insane after being thrown into a reality show produced by writers from the medieval age. My own body couldn’t take it after taking a short glimpse of their act-- what would it feel like, being the center of attention within it?

--Haah… Haah…

I heard someone breathing roughly. I looked down in surprise, and there I saw Admiral Luise heaving deep breaths as she latched tightly onto me. Was it too hard to breathe at the speed we were going?

“Are you alright?”

“I’m not-.... I-I’m alright. Don’t worry about me.”

“...How can I not worry?”

I became overly conscious of Admiral Luise’s soft breaths brus.h.i.+ng against my chest. Whoa, no way, I shouldn’t have become aware of it! I tried to separate away from her a little. But suddenly, Admiral Luise shook violently and hugged me tightly.

O-okay, so she was holding on because the bike was jerking around too much. No other reason, right?

By the time I came back to focus, we had already made our return to Chinatown. Even the Chinatown entrance was guarded by soldiers and Tri-Walkers.

“Should we make a forceful breakthrough?” I asked.

Ensign Meihowa shook her head. “No, that’s going to bring more of them here. I’ll lure them away.” She set her Colion to remote control mode and approached a worn car on the road. She struck the winds.h.i.+eld with the back of her rifle and fit it between the broken bits. She opened the door to the driver’s seat, set the car on automatic driving mode, and held down the trigger to the rifle remotely.

--*Pewpewpewpewpew--!*

The Colion rifle sprayed its plasma sh.e.l.ls around Chinatown. The car drove itself on the road encircling the area. The stationed soldiers, Alter-Armours, and Tri-Walkers all turned their attention to it and dispersed. We used the opening to sneak to the antique shop, but its door was closed for the time being.

“One and a half billion credits… Is it really going to be okay for us to take them? Shouldn’t we at least get the owner’s consent?” Admiral Luise spoke nervously. She was worried that, instead of working up the proper quest line to acquiring these items, we were stealing it in the end.

I shook my head. “We can’t be choosy at a dangerous time like this. Necessity of defense! The laws of the world protect us with that reasoning.”

Ensign Meihowa had already begun picking the lock to the display case while I spoke. It was a traditional metal lock, rather than a modern, electronic lock, so Ensign Meihowa had to physically work it herself.

“Wait, when did you learn how to pick locks, Ensign Meihowa?”

“You know, I like to watch old movies from Earth. I practiced with it, but the real thing isn’t as easy as I thought.”

“Hmm…”

I could have gone inside myself by phase s.h.i.+fting, but it was meaningless for me to go inside alone. W-wait, what if I just brought everything out through the display window?

But then--

“Customers?”

A voice called out from behind us. Behind us was an old man, slouched down and staring at us.

“Erk!”

“Kyaa!”

“Ah!”

The too-suspicious trio ceased their burglary and jumped in surprise. How did the old man approach us without us noticing?

“Hm. Looks to me that you came here for Colorado and Rabbitte. Since you have an Elcro with you, I presume you’re the hagglers that William Mayer worked for. But-- I am not selling these to you. Please leave me be.”

The old man asked us to leave and turned around to leave, when it was obvious that we were trying to steal from him.

“But wait, there’s a price tag…”

The old man answered Ensign Meihowa. “They are my personal values for Colorado and Rabbitte the Rabbit. They are meant to show how much they’re worth to me! I do not mean to sell them off!”

“...But why is Colorado cheaper than Rabbitte?”

“Hmm?!”

“N-nothing.” I immediately shut up. Admiral Luise shrugged at me and smiled. She probably meant to look smug, but with her face, she just looked like a little girl doing a preschool exercise routine. In a good way, of course, not to make fun of her.

“Hold on, wait.” I came back to my senses and stood in the old man’s way. “I really, really need Colorado. A friend of mine is being held by a dangerous enemy…”

“Humph! You think you can use Colorado?”

“Of course.”

“Do you take that sword for a fruit knife, boy? That sword is…”

Ensign Meihowa sighed as the old man began a lengthy grumble. “Lezirth, you don’t have to deal with an old loony like him.”

“Hmm? ‘Lezirth’?”

The old man fell silent and inspected me from head to toe. Erk, what’s going on?! I felt like I was being touched by his eyes, like hardened prisoners looking at a fresh inmate at a max security prison…

“Hmm. Well-built body, and, hum, hmm…”

“E-excuse me?”

“Maybe? No, no, that cannot be.”

The old man muttered to himself, and pa.s.sed by me to the door. He produced a key from his pockets and opened the case to Rabbitte the Rabbit and Colorado.

“Try using it.”

“...”

I took Colorado. I felt a wave of nostalgia wash upon me. The heavy weight on my hand was exactly that of the last feeling I had, when it had fell from my grip a hundred and twenty years ago. My companion blade had been waiting for me for more than a century.

‘Even if it had become so arrogant and took upon such a ridiculous price for itself.’

The blade had gone from being a free, military-issued blade to being an antique worth five hundred million credits. What a promotion! Meanwhile, its owner had gone from being the Vice Admiral to a shopkeeper on a resort planet.

I sighed, and raised the sword above my head.

And then,

“Hey, there they are!”

“I knew they’d be here!”

A crowd of soldiers ran towards us. Even an Alter-Armour came after us, smas.h.i.+ng into walls left and right as it staggered forth.

“Surrender now!”

[We’ll let you live if you do so!] The Alter-Armour aimed its rifle at us.

I smiled.

--Sacred Sword!

At that moment, Colorado became a crimson, blinding beam of light within my hands. It had been quantized, so naked eyes saw nothing but light. I gently swung the blade down, and cut apart the Alter-Armour’s rifle.

[Kwargh!] The Alter-Armour’s pilot screamed.

The soldiers reacted by aiming their rifles at me, but I swung my blade once more to destroy their rifles. Those who continued to resist found that their rifles were no longer operational.

Admiral Luise hugged the robotic rabbit like it was a child’s toy. Light emanated from beneath the rabbit’s face and projected comical expressions. It opened its enamel-red eyes.

Rabbitte the Rabbit-- it was the first reboot after more than a century of sleep.

From the robotic rabbit, multiple transparent lines flew forth and penetrated the soldiers’ weapons and the Alter-Armour. That was all it took to shut them down completely. Even reverting to factory mode could not get the guns to fire-- it was more than a digital shutdown.

[h.e.l.lo, mistress! Great to see you again! Our last meeting was a hundred and twenty years, twenty-eight days, and fourteen hours ago!] Rabbitte spoke in a robotic tone. Its AI was highly advanced, but most of the AI was designed for Admiral Luise’s convenience, and it did not have emotions or a personality. Yet, Admiral Luise calmly pet its head-- as if she was proud of it for staying operational after more than a century of our absence.

The old man was utterly shocked to see these events unfold.

“Whoah! Oooooooaahh!”

Take a breather, old man! The man suddenly ran towards us and held my hand. He looked pleased to see us, like looking at an old friend. Unfortunately, he looked like a decaying zombie when he lurched towards us, as if he was from an old horror movie.

“That was the real Sacred Sword! Th-then, you are…!”

“Ah…”

I regretted what I had done. I had revealed my true ident.i.ty to the old man. Admiral Luise had also revealed herself by having Rabitte call her its master.

But the old man’s next words defeated my expectations.

“I was waiting for you, Vice Admiral Lezirth! Admiral Luise! Finally, the Prophecy is set in motion!”

“...What?”

What’s going on?!

<script>