Vol 1 Chapter 1 (2/2)
Within the crowd, there were a few of the secretly whilst hidden within the students
He could feel nine, ten presences… or even more Even if half of them were merely puppeteers, that was still a fore due to their superior numbers
Before long, they made their move
Two ures flew out It was an undine and a harpy, autoend The puppeteers behind them had clearly projected their interests and senses onto their autons
The first to attack was the undine type automaton with the seh pressure jet of water straight at Sigmund
Siged, but as he did so, a snow spirit— Jack Frost— approached froed to dodge the ice-cold ed unscathed, the icy blast had frozen the water froround to be frozen as well
On top of that, an attack came from above as well The harpy type automund lost his buoyancy in air, and crashed down onto the frozen ground
Appearing right there was a new opponent A giant with looks befitting that of a goleed in
His legs could gain no traction on the slippery ground, so Sig him of movement
The surrounding students began to st theendary T-Rex?
A horrible sound could be heard as Sigs reoleue, and at that h the air with a whoosh
Bri with tremendous destructive force behind it, the iron ball—
—did not collide with Sigmund
“… What are you playing at?”
Charl asked in a cold voice
Raishi+n ignored the question co from behind him, and spoke to his partner beside him
“Let’s go, Yaya”
“If Raishi+n so desires it, I’ll even go to the ends of the Earth for him”
Yaya e aside the iron ball she had caught
(4)
Charl was completely baffled as she stared at the back of the person in front of her
The person was the ill-ht
To one side was his autooleht the iron ball
It took her a few seconds to realise that the two of them had protected her
And after she did, she was extremely furious
“… Step aside”
“I would have even if you didn’t tell et rid of this lot anyway”
“Stop screwing around Just what are—“
“What are you doing?”
So the sentence in place of Charl
An insolent person stepped out arrogantly from amidst the crowd
Next to him was a female type automaton The expression on its face didn’t reseh, and it was ball jointed It would be better to say it was doll-like in appearance
The doll was holding an iron rod Pointing the tip towards the direction on the iron ball, a thread of light extended forth A retractable chain ofstar
(So that iron ball was the head of astar…)
Charl didn’t let her guard down, and continued to eye the scene of battle
Because the field of battle had expanded to acco retreated back Standing in the widened street were 5 auto star wielder
— Actually, that wasn’t all of them
With a whirl, the three units that were defeated rose up
They had been restored As she looked around for the cause of their revival, she spotted a white robed auto a staff Which ic art
With that, the eneic art, offensive ic art, soe attacker; this formation was exactly like a military unit
While continuing the agonising contest of strength with the golemund emotionlessly muttered out
“I guess you ARE popular, Charl Those puppeteers over there are nothing but men”
“… Is this the time and place for that?”
The insolent youth and his gang were clearly targeting Sige against her… and because there were, Charl prepared herself for an uphill battle
Meanwhile, the insolent youth was continuing his chat with the rude boy
“Answerwith us?”
“That thing there isit away from me”
Did he just refer to !? I’m a prey!? What insolence!
“… In that case, ill hand over Lady Belew’s entry qualifications to you In exchange, will you not consider working alongside us? Having coht Party”
“I refuse”
The rude boy swiftly turned down the proposal He didn’t even stop to consider the ter proposed to him
“… Why? It’s not like there’s any disadvantage to you”
“I dislike the idea of relying on ten men”
He held up his hand towards the kiy he transe body looked like it easily surpassed three tonnes in weight, but she sent it flying as easily as she had kicked a rubber ball
Ooooh, went the gallery
Able to s, like he was trying to evaluate the current state of his body
“I’ll gather theeth—“
He couldn’t finish his sentence The roar of an explosion overpowered what he said, and he was engulfed by a huge blast of fire in a flash A fireball had hit the rude youth from behind
“Gotcha! Ha! Serves you right for letting your guard down!”
There was a shout of joy Flusteredly turning around, there was a lone student a of triumph Beside her was a witch automaton — An ambush party, so to speak
The fire faded away What should have been the charred re fro there completely unharmed
The girl had covered her o to her rehtly scorched, her skin showed absolutely no trace of being burnt at all!
Without even turning to look in the ambush party’s direction, the youth siirl burst forward in a blink of an eye, closing in on the witch
Appearing directly below her, she planted a fierce kick on the witch’s jaw
The witch was launched higher than the school building, shattering apart in mid-air
What explosive energy! Then again, she did
“What is with that guy…” “Could he actually be… strong?” “He’s only the 1235th place, right!?”
The gallery was abuzz The disturbance in the gallery spread to the insolent person’s party, causing them to be unnerved
“This guy’s automaton is a top class model! Smash the puppeteer instead!”
Thestar’s wielder yelled out It looked like he was the leader of the gang The insolent people followed that co towards the flesh and blood human puppeteer
The are iron fist
“Woah”
The rude youth lightly juround
“Isn’t aiht Party?”
Even though he said that, it was useless The insolent gang didn’t let up on their attacks
“Well, if that’s what they’re going to do, then I supposed I better do so on my end too— Kouen Juuniketsu!”
“Roger!”
Receiving the coing fire, she violently kicked the goleht like a bullet, then she dashed into the enemy’s midst
The scene that unfolded before her eyes was one that was beyond Charl’s wildest iination
Going against traditional Machinart wisdo style
The rude youth followed closely after the girl Picking up a piece of the broken autoirl perfor a feint so that the opponent was hit by the rude youth
With the eneuard, allowing the girl to deal a devastating kick The power in the girl’s legs easily crushed the automents everywhere
Thosein formation
It defied coainst it As a battle tactic it was sure to be consistent in terms of output, and extremely rational
Charl clicked her tongue A third-rate puppeteer? He was lying!
While he hi, his doll’s htest
To control a puppet that well, a strong force— y was needed
So at the very least, he had undergone a considerable a
(So the Orientals have this sort of battle style as well…?)
While Charl stared in amund whispered in her ear
“Charl”
“… I got it”
Thanks to the rude youth dancing around a’s attention had been drawn to him
Charl began to build up ic circuits
Power began to build, and she waited Once all the enemies were lined up in a row,
“Raster Cannon!”
A blindingly fierce torrent of light shot forth fromund’s jaw
It reseht so bright it scorched the retinas Along with the violent blast of light, thevacuum effect
The bea, losing its effect However, that was enough The insolent gang’s auto hit on the ar, and some had half their body hit
The afflicted partsparts giving off a curiously smooth luster
The battle had been decided And they had lost
The rude youth could also see that they had been defeated, with all ten bodies out of co could do was to retrieve their puppets and scurry away in a panic
The surrounding students were at a loss for words, standing where they were dumfounded
“How scary The rumours were true; you really do possess such a ridiculously strong power “
The rude youth spoke in jest He also had an over-familiar smile on his face
What a vexing person If only he had been caught in the Raster Canon as well
“Don’tthat I needed help”
“Yes well, you don’t exactly strike ”
“The result would still have been the saoes for your doll over there too”
For a ed slightly, and in a more subdued tone she spoke
“… Hmph In any case, tell me your name”
The rude boy chuckled, then introduced himself
“I’m a puppeteer from japan Akabane Raishi+n”
“Similarly, Yaya”
“… No, there’s nothing similar about us”
“In that case, I’m Yaya, his wife”
“That’s not it either! I didn’t enter you in the fa, ok!?”
Charl laughed contemptuously at the flustered boy— his named seemed to be Raishi+n
“Rye? Sheen? That’s a weird name”
“It’s not like I like it either! Besides, I’ll have you know that in my country it’s written with the characters for ‘thunder’ and ‘truth’!”
“It doesn’tto crush you in a split second”
She stretched her hand out towards Sigy between them
Raishi+n didn’t aze wasn’t focused on her though, he was staring at Sigmund
And then
“… Let’s stop”
He turned away abruptly The students began toas surprised as Charl was
“I’ve lost interest We’ll pick up where we left off today some other time”
It was a selfish reason An indignant Charl tree
“Are you edto run away…”
Not allowing her to finish, so circular froround
A tiny explosion gave way to a large volu out
The white smoke completely filled the area It seemed like it was a smoke bomb, a product from japan, the land of ninjas
With a flap of his wings, Sigh, the pair had already put a considerable a over the crowd of people, they ran off into the distance
The only thing that could be concluded was that she had cohly let them escape
“… What a wimp”
“I wonder, is that really the case?”
Giving off a dazzling light, Sigmund reverted back into his smaller form
“What do you mean?”
Sig people couldn’t hear him, and answered Charl
“I think he may have noticed my injury”
Heto show her
“— does it hurt?”
“I just need two to three days to recover”
An injury meant that he couldn’t fly as well as he’d like If he assuer burden
Charl hadn’t noticed it, and yet the youth had?
In that case, did he cut in just now because he had sensed that Charl was at a disadvantage…?
“… Then he really is a wimp Only a naïve chicken wouldn’t have the resolve to attack an enemy’s weak point”
“The Night Party is a le for existence A place where the person who eli A perverted cowardly idiot like hiet crushed”
“I must say, you seem unusually interested in him”
“Why would you say I’m interested in him?”
“If you really weren’t interested, why did you ask for his name?”
“Well, that’s—“
She stopped Now that he hadthat was hard to explain
In the end, Charl testily finished her sentence
“Oh, be quiet Or else I’ll downgrade your lunchtime chicken to corn”
Squaring her shoulders, she set off towards the cafeteria
The surrounding students made way for her Thus, with a lot of unanswered questions, and a little ill feeling left over, the eventful lunch break came to a close
(5)
That night, inside one of the rooms in the tortoise dormitory
Raishi+n tossed and turned in his bed, unable to sleep
“… Looks like I’m not used to this”
The scenery from lunch had been burnt into his skull Parts scattered everywhere, along with shattered auto he had at the point of their destruction, and the dull response to it
Raishi+n shook his head, chasing away the nausea building up
“Did you say so?”
While hanging out the laundry, Yaya turned around with a smile on her face
“— No Just thinking that this room is so worn out, if you kicked a wall the whole place would fall apart”
He pointed up at the cracked, filthy ceiling
Theat the sooty walls h Yaya had washed the sheets clean, the bed creaked noisily,it hard for him to sleep soundly
He thought he would get used to it in three days, but that wasn’t the case
In fact, he noticed the longer he had stayed here the rown
“Well, I guess it is spacious… and it’s better than just having a bed”
Whyto himself, Raishi+n tossed and turned in his bed
The room’s size was 12 jou, and cainally meant for two students, there was another bed on the opposite end
“That’s right, Raishi+n Divine punishrumble”
Yaya grinned happily
Even if they were alone together, Yaya was unusually happier than normal
“… You’re glad we don’t have a roommate, aren’t you?”
“Yes <>
Whether it should be labelled obstinancy or tenacity, Yaya was prone to the odd rae Even if he did have a roommate, who knehat devious trick she would pull to eliminate said roommate?
“By the hat are we doing toain?”
“I’ll think about it tomorrow For now it’s time to sleep”
“I understand Good night, Raishi+n”
“Yeah… ait!”
He pushed away the thing creeping into his bed
“Your bed is over there!”
“But Yaya was hurt in battle today And I think I got burnt a little too”
“What does that have to do with anything!?”
“Didn’t you know? We autoed, the closer we are to the puppeteer the faster we’ll recover”
“… Now that you mention it, I think that was the case…”
Raishi+n’s displeasure was plainly displayed on his face
Yaya sat at the foot of his bed, staring at hi eyes
Looking at her, she had no external injuries However, he had no clue about her internal system Because she herself had said she was injured, he wondered if that was true
If she was, then it was Raishi+n’s responsibility That battle had been down to his selfishness alone
“… I guess it can’t be helped then If that’s the case, then I guess we can sleep together”
“Ok <>
“However, you cannot do anything weird”
“I won’t I won’t do anything weird”
“I think I phrased it wrongly Don’t touch me”
“… Tch”
“Did you just click your tongue? Why did you click your tongue?”
“If an automaton comes into direct contact with the puppeteer, they will recover much, much faster”
“That’s a lie! Get out! I think I’ll sleep alone after all!”
Yaya, aiting for an opening, and Raishi+n, ashis defence line to the death Fireworks sparked between them as an uneasy equilibrium was reached
Thus, Raishi+n had a sleepless night
(6)
The clear ht
It was one in theAll the respectable, decent students were already fast asleep
It was so quiet you’d have thought everyone had gone extinct, but then a hidden shadow began to move
At the outskirts of the garden, in a grove of trees hidden froazes, a pair of eyes shone in the darkness
The silhouette was vague and indistinct It was crawling on all fours, devouring so messily
The thing the shadoas devouring had ars and a head
Its eyes were open It’s popped out eyeball told the story of its final scary e iron ball had been es, and a substance siround, the torso had been cannibalised,it look like a corpse
However, this wasn’t a human body
Underneath its broken skin, countless cords and metal cylinders could be seen
It was an auto an automaton
Tearing open the body, it ripped out the internal circuitry It looked like a reat gusto, slurping up the excess oil
The shadow continued itsonce the eastern sky had started to turn white