Vol 3 Chapter 7 (1/2)

The JSDF’s activities in the Iawara the support of the coion Expeditionary force had set up several bases of operation throughout the capital They were places like the warehouses of the ALC’s Imperial capital branch, or the second floor of a tavern, but the thing they had in common was that they were places where people couldnoticed The most obvious of these was a rented ate

It was technically within the capital’s city limits, but there were all kinds of different races and species here Ordinary citizens would never go near this place

Every few steps, a pickpocket would try their luck, and behind there would be people following It could be co’s Kowloon district

Aled to proper businesses

They sold all sorts of lewd tools, various drugs, and slaves captured from all over the continent

Of course, people had to live here, so there were also shops which sold food and clothing However, everything on sale here was strange The clothes on sale ht be stained with blood or rent frorass from the roadside As for the butchers, one always had to be suspicious of their purchases, lest one accidentally end up buying human meat

Because this place was called Akusho, a lot of the men here were either humans with blades bared, Werewolf Beastmen ere every bit as ferocious and bloodthirsty as the weapons they carried, or Four-Arre in the distance Many of the remnants of the Coalition Army came here to be thieves, enforcers, mercenaries, or to do some form of violent work In any event, they were all villains

As for the woirls who looked lewdly around their surroundings, or those who stared blankly into the distance like vegetables as fragrant smoke wreathed them None of them had a proper job, and most of them were prostitutes

The species present included: Hupeople, Laed species like Harpies or Winged Men The led the smiles, and a coy offer of, “Want to play?”

In this place, the strong fed on the weak Therefore, the people here paid no heed to corpses on the street Did it appear yesterday? Today? Well, even if it happened tomorrow, nobody would care, because this was a way of life for the people here This was not Arnus It absorbed the very worst ele in the darkness

The JSDF chose this place for a si pot of people, nobody would notice an extra strange fellow or two There were other gates where many people came and went, but the people there were ordinary cityfolk, and anyone who stood out would attract a lot of attention This place, on the other hand, here people who did dirty work lived It was important that these people were here

The thing hatever happened in Akusho would not make it out of the district In that sense, it was perfect for secrecy However, the flip side of that was that there were several notable individuals in Akusho

The JSDF were much better-mannered than the people on the streets, and they paid well

When they hired people for requests, they always paid twice as much as the criinning, and to these crime bosses — Gonzori, Medusa, Paramounte and Bessara — the JSDF were eyesores

These JSDF people caht a house, and then acted all secretive They did not even kno to properly greet the bosses They even dared to ignore the rules of the street and the power of the bosses And because they always paid so much, the people who traditionally feared the old bosses were now getting rebellious They were truly a bunch of annoying people

All these sravations piled up, and the bosses of the district becary

One of theot all thatstash Why don’t we nip over and help ourselves to soathered his men and punks from the street to attack the JSDF’s Akusobse of operations

And then, what greeted them was a baptism of hot lead

The looted H&K MP7s and FN P90s provided by Itami and friends found a use here Naturally, the servicemen were very well equipped In this sort of unconventional warfare, the rules were very si else mattered

And so, the bravethe base welcomed their attackers with a hail of bullets Bessara’s htered in seconds and their corpses piled up

It was over after the first round of fire

Not only had Bessara lost all his men, but his own ho place, Bessara had also lost the fighting power to protect hiive him authority And then, in the next moment he paid for his life of lawlessness

The residents of Akusho, many of whom had lost their wives, children and other relatives to his vile activities, surrounded him and stabbed him with knives and swords until he looked like a pincushi+on, and then dumped him in an alley

After seeing his gruesome remains, the people on the streets muttered to each other, “The JSDF is untouchable”

The Gonzori, Medusa and Paramounte families did not join the Bessaras in their attack, and so they were spared When they realised that the JSDF did not intend to claim the Bessaras’ share of profits, which was to say, the income froh of relief and reached a coainst the JSDF

Although they were an unpleasant bunch of people, they were good businessed their minds, and approached the JSDF for work

The JSDF wanted information, and pawns that could collect that inforathered their pickpockets and thieves and had them spy on the patricians’ actions Sometimes, they would enter their houses and steal books, and protected the their worth and usefulness

Simply put, the JSDF were treated like conquerors It was only natural that the strong could do whatever they wanted in Akusho Peopleon the surface, but in their hearts they would curse the defiant for fools, and these defiant people would not live long

In addition, when people approached the JSDF with evil intentions, they would maintain their composure and politely ask them to stop

When they saw illegal activity, they had frustrated looks on their faces, as well as feeling syht of others

As a result, the ardless of species, both fearful and respectful of the JSDF

In contrast, the wos about them

Simply put, they could not like them

No matter what temptations they used, the men of the JSDF were un with spending a little on them? But no matter how they fluttered their eyelashes, or what seductive words they spoke, the JSDF men did not respond

It was true that the men on the streets were richer thanks to thes However, the women still wanted the JSDF to spend money on them, because that was hooman’s heart worked

But even when they shouted, “Are you reallyand steadfastly refuse to take the bait

This hy they seemed sweet on them on the surface, but inwardly resented them

However, what changed everything was the clinic run by a feed every few days It offered checkups, pregnancy tests as well as infor related to contraception and other related issues It changed the way their lives went

The contraceptives and other such devices sold here were an irreplaceable aid for their jobs

“Oh, is Kurokawa on duty tonight?”

The woman called Mizari, as surrounded in a cloud of marijuana-infused smoke, entered the treatment room Unlike the way she was on the streets, she had lowered her guard

After all, this was the only place on the street which was safe, besides her nest No, she could not even relax in her own nest This uard down After all, when a certain criainst the JSDF, they had been massacred for their audacity

Everyone kneould happen when the JSDF raised their hand to strike

Kurokaas dressed in comfortable jeans and a tube top She took a couple of copper coins fro froed Woman), and handed Mizari a box of the rubber contraceptives They took payment because “This was not a charity” The people who lived in Akusho did so with pride, so the JSDF had to respect that pride and their ability to earntheir coins

A self-righteous personbehavior, but in truth this sort of thing had a powerful social impact

When one was poor, one did not have the time to worry about pretty ideals Instead, a person had to eat, and selling one’s body was a perfectly acceptable way to earn one’s nextothers by doing it It was all well and good to try and assail their way of life with logic, but one had to consider the situation they were in first The thing which troubled thenancies Given the ht well result in death, so the risk to their health was very high

In addition, it was unclear if there were sexually-transion

The reason why Kurokawa and her fellow servicewo this was because the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare wanted to find out if they existed

They were concerned that the JSDF personnel ion, ht syphilis back to Europe and caused an epidemic The male servicemen had also been strictly warned about this

“Kurokawa, you won’t tell , will you?”

The other WACs (wo Mizari to stop That was because the Special Region’s tobacco was infused with strange herbs which were bad for the skin and internal organs Regardless of whether it was good or bad, they nagged her anyway

However, Kurokawa siht?”

“Huh, you understand? Do you have experience with this sort of thing?”

Mizari was referring to prostitution

“No, I was just thinking, I couldn’t do your job if I couldn’t smoke”

The Winged Woman’s pretty mouth turned doard into a frown

“Cheh I hate high-and-hty women like you”

“That’s fine, I’m not here to win a popularity contest”

Mizari frowned at Kurokawa Kurokawa, not to be outdone, ers After a while, the tension between thehed

“You’re so childish Just like me”

“That’s true I don’t feel much different froo would be much different from myself today”

This ht, I’d best get back tomoney” Then she puffed a cloud of smoke into Kurokawa’s face

Kurokaaved her hand to disperse the smoke It was plainly deliberate The two of them lived in different worlds, so it would be best if they kept their distance

Then, she suddenly thought of so else, and asked a question

“What if… what if I told you there was a way for you to not have to smoke this, or work like this?”

However, Mizari simply looked at Kurokawa like she was an idiot

“How could someone like me work such a wonderful job like that? All I kno to do is spread s for men and show them my ass That’s what I do That’s all I do”

“Have you heard of a place called Arnus?”

“Ah, that place I heard it’s like Heaven But don’t you need a recoet in? Besides, I don’t have any special skills If I went there, I’d just be doing what I do now”

And what if I told you I could give you such a recommendation? What about that? These words started in Kurokawa’s throat But just as she was about to open herher, “What can you do?” Her resentment toward Itami from that time remained in her heart, and when Mizari said “I don’t have any special skills”, she felt that there was a lot the Winged Wo

If she could find a proper job in Arnus, Mizari wouldn’t need to stand in the dark at night, Kurokawa thought

Mizari s away She took a puff, and returned to her working girl’s full-hipped sashay as she hit the streets once again

When Mizari visited Kurokawa again, it ell past ht

Most of the tiotten one or two, perhaps even three johns by now The only ones ht oht

While those soiled doves who had not gotten any business yet would be throwing themselves at ht would retire to their homes to rest In other words, one could tell which of the whores knew their trade well

It was at this tiht her fellow prostitutes to the JSDF base of operations, which momentarily panicked Kurokawa After all, the Bessara attack had been fairly recent

She grabbed her handgun from a drawer and stuffed it into her pants As a servicewoman, she was very familiar with its use

“Kurokae’ve got so to tell you”

When she opened the door, she saw a very nervous-looking Mizari She seeh she were afraid of so

The streetwalkers with her also see abnor on

Kurokawa opened the door to let them in

“Inside Hurry”

And so, the ladies of the evening poured into the basement, whose pitch-dark interior was brilliantly lit by the fluorescent laenerator within

The girls could not help but be frightened of the fluorescent lights, having only ever been exposed to candlelight or laht and squinted However, light had a way of wiping away unease Mizari s help for h to share their thoughts on the situation before flopping down onto the chairs and the bed used for treatment, while those who couldn’t find a space either sat on the floor or leaned against the walls

After everyone found their place, Kurokawa spoke

“All right, what happened? Why did all of you come here?”

Mizari answered on their behalf

“All of us can sense what’s going to happen on the streets, no, in the Capital But the trick is that we don’t tell, don’t ask, and pretend nothing happened That’s hoe survive in these streets”

The girls nodded as one

“So with that in mind, this child’s name is Tuwal Please listen to her, and help us”

As Mizari said that, she brought out Tuho had wings like she did, but was fros on their backs, but Harpies had wings in place of their arms

“Please, help us”

Kurokaas unable to answer After all, they had not explained anything at all

She asked the on After all, she could not help them if she did not knohere to start

However, Mizari siain All she said was that she hoped Kurokawa could help them

“Ahhhh, what a pain! If you help us, we’ll do anything you want in future!”

In the end, Kurokawa gave up She realised she could not handle this by herself, so she went upstairs to wake up Sergeant-Major Kuwabara

That night, the Imperial Capital was shaken by an earthquake

After hearing a distant ruan to shake violently

The problem was that the city had never experienced an earthquake before, and so the buildings were not protected against the violent shaking They were made of stones stacked on top of each other, and so the s collapsed

That being the case, the foundations of the Capital’s streets were not coe was to the hearts of the cityfolk

Because there was no seisures could be taken, but fronitude 4 to 5 earthquake

The earthquake occurred in the ht, so it took the Capital completely by surprise

They were thrown out of bed while soundly asleep, and they were too drowsy froan falling to the floor like rain, including things like shelves and objects hanging fro

When the cabinets collapsed, the sharp fragh to cause cuts The fragments littered the floor, so there was no place to stand

The people of the Capital believed that the earth would not move That hat it meant to be “as solid as a rock”

Water floind blew, fire burned, wood grew But the earth did not move That was a fundamental principle of the world When that preconception was shattered, everyone thought the world was going to end This terror was deeply engraved on the people’s souls, leaving grievous spiritual wounds

Predicting this disaster would have been difficult even for the scientifically advanced japan It was not i with far better sensory abilities than a human could have done it

However, in the Special Region, there were people who approached these two categories There were so

The Harpy Tuwal felt a sudden chill throughout her body as she saw off her second john

At first, she thought it was a cold, because her body eating profusely

Because the second man had a lot of stamina, she did not even have the time to collect her money and clean up She wanted to stand up a few tith in her body and her skin was gradually getting colder However, the shaking in her body was slightly different fro her hair fros, like she was afraid

Then, she re like this before

In the past, she and her kind lived in the South, where the volcanoes were She had felt like this just before the volcanoes erupted Yes, this was a premonition of an “earthquake”

But even if she felt that way, there were no volcanoes near the Imperial Capital

She had not been here long, but she had never heard of an earthquake here before Therefore, she wondered if she had gotten things wrong However, thefrustration and fear in her heart would not die down Therefore, Tuwal sought out Mizari, her s

The fact was that Mizari and the other prostitutes also felt the sa which told them they could not stay here, that they had to run as quickly as possible

However, she had never experienced or heard of an earthquake before, so she did not understand why she was feeling uneasy and afraid Fortunately, she understood because of Tuwal Thus, they immediately went to look for the men who usually protected them Usually, they would take off their shi+rts and say, “I’ll protect you” That attitude would have been useful now

However, theand refused to acknowledge their fears Their reactions were along the lines of, “Earthquake? You’d best go back and make more money” Of course, they felt the sa thee it

The unease grew stronger and stronger in the meantime In the end, they decided to abandon the useless men and went to Kurokawa for help

The commander of the JGSDF Akusho Operations Base (as it was commonly known), Major Nyutabara, received Kurokawa and Kuwabara’s reports, and promptly had a headache He had no experience when it ca earthquake reports, and he doubted the provenance of the reports in any case

However, Tuwal’s ancestors were avian species Nyutabara had been stationed at Hiata, and he had personally experienced earthquakes twice For some reason, the memory of how the wild birds near the bases had vanished just before the earthquakes stood out brilliantly in his mind If they could have spoken to the birds, perhaps they could have predicted those earthquakes

The girls’ senses , then they could laugh it off as a joke Therefore, it made sense to treat their words as the truth, and adopt the requisite counterht about this, and made his decision

The preparations were not a big deal, for the serviceions They had learned how to deal with these problee They used the wireless to cohout the Capital and ordered therabbed their equipment, weapons, food andwary of things whichcare to stay away froe

These were very sis, but for people who had never experienced earthquakes before, they would have had a hard ti of these

Piña gruaoke her up for a walk in the forest outside the palace Hamilton followed her in a half-asleep state After all, her job as a scribe was very tiring

Itauards, so after they received Nyutabara’s wireless transht Piña and the others to a safe place despite doubting the reports In addition, Itami was in his uniforues and fully armed, with an extra pistol each

The uards could not hide their worry They were only following because they knew they had to follow Piña no matter what

Even if they explained that the earth would shake and ould happen after that, theto understand what it would be like to fall from the sky

Therefore, when the earthquake came, they received a massive shock

First, there was the gentle trees of an earthquake

“Oh, it’s co…”

The length of this periodone”

There was a correlation between the length of the initial tre and the distance to the epicenter of the earthquake This meant that when one calculated the distance to the epicenter, the stronger the early vibrations, the bigger the earthquake would be

After this, the real shaking started

The earth heaved as though it had been struck htily

It was roughly 30 to 40 seconds before the quake tapered off However, for those people in the Imperial Capital who had encountered an earthquake for the first time, it seemed like an eternity

Piña wailed She thought that the world was collapsing Beside her, Sugawara and Itami said, “Ohh, it really came”

As she saw Ita around calmly, Piña’s eyes filled with fearlessness and a deterined that they would probably round vanished from under their feet

Itami was a man ould look for excuses to slack off when he was tired of annoying things Either that, or he would immediately flee them He did not seem to have any of the qualities of a warrior Yet, at this moment, he seemed perfectly calm and composed

The maids and soldiers fell prone in terror

The sounds of the rooted trees swaying and the sound of the leaves grinding against the wind sounded like the e monster The maids cried and screamed, while the soldiers shouted in response However, they, like Piña, saw the sa around their surroundings like nothing was happening

The steadfast forms reminded them of the Gods

The s one after the other, while the soldiers looked at theh they were invincible heroes

“Well, if it’s only this much, it shouldn’t be a probleht collapse, but the rest should be fine Can’t say the sah”

The shaking stopped after a while

Piña heard Itami’s calm analysis as she was left adrift in detached silence, but her thought processes were on hold, so she could only nod and answer “Mm”

As the guards heard Toht? Is anyone hurt?” they i the words of their heroes They were currently in a state of abject subical impact of an earthquake on people who had never experienced it before

It was roughly the same in Akusho

The quake struck as they were leading the woate Fearful cries and shouts came from all over the streets

Because the paths in Akusho were very narrow, all sorts of things fell off the roofs

Nyutabara shouted, ordering everyone to gather in the center of the street, then Kuwabara and Kurokawa echoed the shout down the line

The wo their hair and wailing as they did After that, they knelt down one by one

Kuwabara and the others began bantering, “Ohh, it’s starting” “Really? Seeet a job at the japanese Meteorological Agency” Naturally, anyone would think they were reliable, and so the wos

The irls plastered themselves onto them

In particular, Kurata was tres are happy too as a group of Beastwoed him

Kurokaas not particularly interested in this sort of thing, but she did not ently patted Mizari to calm her down as she sobbed on Kurokawa’s chest

Because Itami and the others protected and helped to evacuate them, Piña’s spirit returned quickly When she heard that thereearthquake, she said, “I need to get to his Majesty” She orried for her father, but also concerned about the state of the court

Since Piña said so, Itami and co had no objections “Is that so Then, take care when you go” Piña looked like she had seen the apocalypse as she heard those words, orjilted by her lover Either way, she pressed her pale face against Itami

“Won’t, won’t you go with me?”

“It’s not that, I’ht not be good”

From Piña’s point of view, Ita the herself If this were a RTS ga in one’s home base

However, the fact was that Ita like pointing a gun at the Emperor was absolutely forbidden However, the JSDF’s words were just words Piña had to be ready for anything

Still, Piña was insisting that they go with her Ita as to be done

“Itami-dono Please, stay by my side”

In other words, what she o with me”

Behind them, Hamilton nodded with a pale face They were scared silly, and then there was supposed to be an aftershock on top of that It could not be helped that none of them wanted to leave Ita behind the that they did not want him to leave

And so, Piña brought her guards, the maids, Itami, and the others into the Imperial Palace

The palace which Piña led theed into chaos

One could see various items and furniture tumbled to the floor