Volume 20 - CH 3

NOVEMBER 6, 2022 ~ FROZZENDETH

Kii no Kunii, so to speak, was a solitary island in a distant sea.

There is no way off of it. Aria and the others could not have gotten very far yet.

Ruru was gone now though, and I am all alone…

I waded through a sea of onis and looked out the keep’s windows onto Kii no Kuni.

Then,

“…”

Under the piercing direct sunlight, the scenery around me was completely different than when I arrived.

The tide had receded. It is low tide now.

The sea level had dropped, and the shallow seabed around Kii no Kuni was exposed as a sandy beach.

The gently sloping seabed seemed to have a particularly long and narrow beach stretching several kilometres in a northwesterly direction.

(A long strip of land only usable at low tide… a runway…!)

However, Aria and the others were nowhere to be found, even here.

…..doon, doo, doo, dodododododododododo…..

From a corner of Kii no Kuni, an earth-shaking explosion roars.

It was so loud that I did not recognize it for a moment, but it was undeniably the sound of an engine. A car engine normally has a fuel displacement of 2-3 litres, but this was a monstrous engine with potentially 60 litres.

I could hear three, no, four-six explosions at the same time.

“The Fugaku, or…!”

I look down upon the huge bomber, which was partially visible from this keep.

The Fugaku looked as if it was parked on the ground, due to the receding tides.

It was attempting a sudden launch without warming up, and smoke was billowing out from various parts of the wing as it began to taxi itself.

But this was a military aircraft. It began to move even while raising a creaking sound in agony.

The 4-blade contra-rotating propellers with a diameter of about 5m where striking like a guillotine, mowing down the surrounding mangrove forest.

“!”

At that moment, Hysteria mode’s vision caught something.

In the glass cockpit of the Fugaku… although it does not look like she was piloting the aircraft…

Seeking a wider field of vision, I could see the figures of Aria and the others looking out the glass.

“-Aria!”

Ba! And then…

I leap out of the keep through a broken window, hang a wire onto a tree branch, kick a tree branch to propel myself, and begin to fly toward the Fugaku.

After breaking my roll after landing on the beach, I kicked myself off the sand like a track and field runner and started running.

The Fugaku was already starting to accelerate on the ground, and was heading northwest on the runway.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…..!”

I chased after the Fugaku at full speed, not caring about the dust and wind caused by the propeller that was assaulting me.

Once the Fugaku was at top speed, even my legs in hysteria mode cannot chase it.

A khaki-coloured aircraft on a cream-coloured sandy beach.

A dark, black shadow of its huge wings following it.

Chasing, chasing, I was reaching out…

“–….!”

Under the left wing of the nearly gliding Fugaku, from behind the main landing gear I just touched the landing gear support post that was holding the huge double tires.

But the massive air pressure from the Fugaku’s takeoff caused my fingers to slip from the post.

The Fugaku was about to take off.

(No, I won’t be able to catch up…!)

And as I clenched my teeth.

–gui.

A pair of powerful hands grabbed me from behind.

“What!?”

At any rate I was still clinging to the post for the time being, but now my face was shoved into a womans breasts.

These… these breasts…

I remember these breasts since I had touched them before, albeit rather rudely. It was Yen’s.

And unsurprisingly, when I raised my gaze it was Yen who was clinging to the Fugaku’s post with me in her arms.

She seemed to have run as fast as she could, and so much like me she was breathing heavily.

It looked like she was a little dizzy after Habi blew her away, but she seemed to have somewhat recovered.

In addition, under the left wing of the plane,

“–Yen-neesama!”

tan,tan, someone was kicking the sand as they ran.

With the sleeves of her black kimono fluttering, as she leaped horizontally, Tsubaki, who was following us from behind, stretched out her hand.

I was running as fast as I could, but the scarlet oni were able to keep up with me with plenty of time to spare. That is what I call a speed demon. (TL Note: Oni is typically treated as “demon” in English, and “speed demon” is in Katakana which is used for foreign language words. This is a pun.)

Yen saw Tsubaki’s hand reaching to Fugaku’s main leg, which was now slightly floating…

“Tsubaki, thank you for your help.”

Kuki, and then, I pushed her back with all my strength.

Tsubaki fell back before my very eyes, gorogorogorogoro, rolling towards the back end of the Fugaku.

And then, as if she was a little girl, she was sitting and looking up at me in confusion.

Tsubaki, with a look of disbelief on her face, exchanged a distance glance with Yen.

“…Like a vain dream…”

Muttering this, she turned a gentle smile to Tsubaki, and Yen’s eyes were…

There was a look of realization in her eyes that she was about to go to her death.

Just as I am trying to save my friend Aria, Yen is trying to save her master Habi…

Neither of us know how to save our target, and yet, we are both desperate to take on the Scarlet Goddess.

But we were heading to combat with a literal goddess. In a fight with a God, there is a possibility that you could be killed immediately, even if you are a oni. No, that possibility was just as likely for an oni as it is for a human.

That is why… I pushed Tsubaki away.

I could not allow her to enter this Fugaku, a place that is about to become a temple of death.

Realizing the meaning of my actions, Tsubaki… horohoro, began to cry… to me and Yen, she slowly became a dot far behind the Fugaku which had now taken off the ground.

The Fugaku soared over the long sandy beach and accelerates, rising higher and higher over the transparent sea.

The Kii no kuni was now so far away that it could be hidden by my extended palm.

Yen’s rust-red hair fluttered in the air currents created by the giant propellers,

“… Toyama. Know that you will never return from here.”

She turned toward me as if to sever her own feelings for Kii no Kuni.

Yen had lived a thousand years already, she was prepared to die here if she has to.

She could not let her lord remain kidnapped.

She absolutely could not. Even if it meant death, she could not ignore this.

… she was, after all, a faithful, or rather, loyal demon, to a fault.

Isnt this oni more admirable than people today? For Yen to be willing to lay down her own life for her lord… Even I want her as my subordinate.

“… I have no desire to return. I must go.”

Already rappelling up into the wheel hangar, I responded with a line that was almost identical yo Yen’s but I made it sound a bit better.

I thanked Yen for earlier and reached out and put my hand on her shoulder, as she was holding onto my leg as she asked her question.

Yen, looking cooler than any man I know, smiled with a small smile on her face…

“It is strange. I never thought that the descendant of Yorimitsu-dono and the descendant of Shuten-sama would join hands after the death of Senchi Toshitose. (TL Note: last name I am not sure of, I cannot make sense of the raw. This is essentially just saying she never expected herself, a descendant of Shuten, to be allied with Kinji, a descendant of Yorimitsu.)

And Yen took my hand with her own sharp clawed hand.

Me and Yen. Two people, who once stood as enemies on this very planes wings…

Now, we have returned as friends and allies against the Scarlet Goddess.

I will never return, but regardless, I am determined.

Perhaps to reduce the weight, the two outer wheels of the double tire system were purged and dumped.

When the remaining wheels and their leg columns were stored in the wings, it was like me and Yen were put into a twin coffin set.

Although massive, Yen was still a woman, and although she herself didn’t care, I felt bad having to stick so tightly to her. First, we had to escape from the wheelhouse, but this was unexpectedly difficult and we lost a lot of time.

First of all, since I did not know the internal structure of the plane that well, I couldn’t just go around destroying the surrounding area, so I tapped the walls surface to look for thin sections.

From that it seemed… front and back, left and right, seemed to contain aviation volatile oil, but part of the top surface seemed to be empty.

Yen made a hole in the roof with her horn like it was a can opener, and we managed to get out to a small room inside of the left wing.

There is no sign of anyone in the apartments in the wing.

(For now, lets use this as a base and see what’s going on.)

And when I look out the narrow window, from the direction of the sun…

The plane was flying northwest. It was off the Ogasawara Islands, in the direction of Japan.

Its speed is about 700km/h, which is extremely fast for a plane. It does not seem to be equipped with bombs, but even so, considering the performance of the Fugaku, it is an extremely high speed.

… and so.

“This is a strange tilt and flight pattern.”

It was as Yen said, the floor of the Fugaku was tilted backward considerably.

In other words, it is rising at a rapid pace.

The plane is clearly taking too much of an Angle of Attack (AoA), which would put major strain on the aircraft hull and lead to a potential stall, if not an outright crash.

As if to prove this fact, the Fugaku was making a creaking sound as if a monster was roaring.

Checking the propeller through the window with a mirror taken out of my Butei Handbook, black smoke was blowing out from the engine, signifying an excessive fuel combustion.

I don’t know where their destination is, but even if they are aiming for Japan, the plane wont last long at this rate. If the destination is somewhere up high in the sky, then they might be fine…

“…!”

When this thought occurred to me, I gasped, thinking of the various uses of aircraft within the bounds of human common sense.

This flying style emphasized altitude over speed.

The oni must have neglected the distance to their destination, which may be ahead the direction of their travel.

Neglect, this is a possibility.

(…Imaginary Jump, or…!)

The Scarlet Goddess has the ability to instantaneously move.

However, it seems to be a technique that allows leaping only as far as one can see, that is, the target has to be in ones field of vision.

Even if she tried to jump far, the distance one can see is limited by the roundness of the earth. However, the higher the altitude, the farther one can see. This is simple geometry.

The Scarlet Goddess is trying to gain altitude rapidly in the Fugaku in order to extend her vision farther.

Then, when her destination is in sight, she would move instantaneously. The Fugaku would be abandoned mid-air. If the Fugaku was a disposable piece of equipment to you, it does not matter if you fly it so aggressively since you wont care if it breaks.

“… Hurry up, Yen.”

I don’t know how far the Scarlet Goddess intends to raise the Fugaku, how close she plans on getting to her target, or what she intends to move instantaneously when she does see it… but I guess the time limit on us is until she can see her target.

In other words, there was a time limit to solving this.

We can’t afford to be nonchalant about the situation.

“Let’s hurry up. The lack of oxygen will make my lungs ache in this cabin. Habi-sama herself has had difficulties in the Fugaku as well.”

As Yen said…

The airtight abilities of the cabin appears to be weakened due to the Scarlet Goddess’s violent manoeuvring.

I can understand the importance of this looking back on my experience of flying high in the ICBM and V-2, but in hysteria mode, I can unconsciously control my longs and bronchi with my pectoral muscles like a bird, and can also withstand a certain degree of hypoxia and decompression. I can tolerate these circumstances to some extent.

But that, too, was a physical limit that I could handle for only a few dozen seconds at around 9,000 meters, which was the approximate distance that Lisa and I flew.

Fugaku can fly up to an altitude of 10,000 meters according to its specifications. If the Scarlet Goddess intends to fly the Fugaku to that altitude, it would be a tricky thing to survive.

“Yen. This battle is three against two. That means one of us has to take on two Scarlet Goddess’s. If that happens, I will be the ace and fight two against one. Yen, please watch the situation and cover me or evacuate.”

Thanks to the oni’s habit of not locking doors, we can move effortlessly through the wings.

We don’t have much time, so Yen and I have a strategy meeting while we walk,

“I understand that in your hear you do not want someone weaker than yourself to stand in front of you, but it is unnecessary.”

Yen walked in front of me with big strides.

“… you are free to think that I am weaker than you, Yen. But the truth is I simply do not want to watch a girl fight.”

I once again sped up my pace, so the two of us naturally hurriedly ran into the wing…

“Isn’t this called “misogyny” among men?” (TL Note: Men in this context means mankind.)

“Then… the one who will stand before the Scarlet Goddess and the others will be the captain, and the one who follows behind will be the vice captain.”

“Understood.”

“By the way Yen, there was a one-cup Ozeki in the hallway just now.”

“Where are you?”

I stopped Yen in the hallway, and then… dokan! I kicked open the door leading to the main body of the plan with a Cherry Blossom kick by transferring the energy from my left leg to my right leg.

I entered first, and Yen, who was now blushing, said “Toyama, you are a schemer”, and also entered the Fugaku’s main body. (TL Note: Recall what Kinji said earlier, about how the Captain, who will fight the Scarlet Goddess and one other, goes first. He distracted Yen with the Ozeki allowing him to enter first. Smooth.)

“There is only two of you?”

Aria, who was standing in the glass-walled cockpit, was facing us with her arms folded.

Standing in front of Aria, with barely any space between her on either side,

“Then here as well…”

With a buun, Son waved her scimitar holding it at the ready, then,

“Two people will face each other.”

With a zun the figure of Habi entered, carrying her star shattering axe.

Each of the three lines were spoken by three separate people, and the voices were different, but somehow I could tell that the lines were all originating from the same person – the Scarlet Goddess. It was a strange dissonance.

Behind Aria, on the instrument panel in the cockpit, switches were moving and clicking with clunking and snapping sounds. The control stick was also moving little by little as well, even though no one was touching anything. It did not feel like it was being controlled by auto-pilot: in Butei terminology, it appeared that the Scarlet Goddess was controlling the Fugaku with telekinesis power or esper abilities. (TL Note: I changed the terms in the last line a bit as I did not recognize them. Terms are S-Ken and PK.)

“A tag-team match, huh? I’ll take it. A tag team of Sun Wu-Kong and Oda Nobunaga vs the tag team of Toyama no Kin-san’s and Shuten Doji’s descendants, involving the audience of Holmes the fourth. What an amazing card!” (TL Note: Card in this context is referring to WWE and other competitive fighting leagues I believe, as the term is used to refer to who is in a match.)

Whatever the circumstances may be now, I am absolutely certain that this is better than the three against two I had planned for earlier, so I said something to help liven up the situation before the Scarlet Goddess decides to change her mind.

(… I chased after her as if I had gone mad, but now… what do I do?)

In front of me were three hyper stealth warriors artificially enhanced by the Scarlet Goddess.

The Fugaku’s altitude increased without stopping, and its engines were on the verge of exploding due to the relentless rapid ascent.

If the Scarlet Goddess and the others were to disappear in an instant, it’s over, and neither me nor Yen know when that will happen or where the leap will take them. Therefore, our time limit is also unknown.

… I don’t even know how to start this fight or where to start it.

I cannot see the win condition, never mind a way to achieve it, and now I am beginning to panic.

But in times like these…

I remember my lessons at Butei High. “Defeat enemies one at a time.”

In other words, I should steadily and carefully take them down one by one.

If I rush around and try to take everyone down at once, I wont be able to defeat even a single one, I would just waste time and make things even worse.

In this case, Habi, Son, and Aria. Three people I have to knock out, trying not to hurt them more than is necessary. That is my first goal. After that, me and Yen need to deal with the Fugaku.

… even though the Scarlet Goddess has possessed them, the bodies of Aria and the others is still each their own.

This was proven earlier in Nogizaka when Kana had knocked out Aria.

I have to prevent their bodies from moving without hurting them.

However, our opponents are the literally incarnation of the Scarlet Goddess. This tactic is easier said than done, and to make women faint is unbearable for me in hysteria mode.

Then, at least…

“… Yen. Let’s deal with the each others target, as it would be difficult to fight with our friends or lord. Yen, you deal with Yen. I will play with Habi. I don’t think I can win by cutting corners though, so I may have to give Habi a serious beating. Please, though, do not intervene.”

“Don’t worry. I am aware you are not doing this for your own goals, but are doing it for Habi-sama’s sake. I do not know what must be done, but… we have to exorcise the Scarlet Goddess who has entered her heart. This is unavoidable.”

Me and Yen proceeded to walk side-by-side as we talk, towards Habi and Son.

But then, in front of the smirking Aria…

“Then, what will you do if I do this?”

–batsu!

And Habi and Son…

Both of them jumped towards me!

“…!”

I was somehow able to respond immediately to the unexpected and concentrated attack.

I was able to deal with Son’s scimitar, which was thrust out at subsonic speed, by grabbing the handle with my elbow, and at the same time I was able to parry Habi’s axe by parrying it with a palm strike to its side.

The Fugaku’s floor was made of an alloy, but if this huge-axe were dropped, the aircraft could very well disintegrate mid-air.

I managed to guide the axe back to her shoulders, but…

After jumping and still in the air, Habi let the axe bounce up and down vigorously on her shoulders like the axe was at a rodeo… and then… Gatsun! She dug the axe into the ceiling and papapapapapapapapapapapa!

“…ahahahahahahahaha!”

The fired a series of strike from above my head that looked like the afterimage of dozens of hands, the recoil from my blocks managing to keep her in the air.

A hail of sub-machine gun speed, albeit regular, flat, and yet penetrating fist make a explosive sounding burst of air that sounds like a sub-machine gun to match its speed.

The fists poured down on my upper body without pause.

The hits look like random strikes, but this was a torrential downpour of desperate attacks on the eyes, between the eyebrows, at the seams of the skull, at the ears, nose, mouth, throat, carotid artery, and collarbone, all hits aimed without a single one aimed at a non-weak point.

I had to use my left and right fingers, wrists, forearms, elbows, shoulders, and even my own head to either parry, duck, or shift the impact point to prevent an instant death from the thrusts.

Below me, as I was struggling to deal with the Habi overhead,

“–hihi!”

Katsun!　Son, who had slammed her scimitar on the floor, lot go of it.

She then bent her elbows to 90-degress, spread her legs wide back and forth like in gymnastics, stooped low, and lowered her hips low.

It was an old fashioned style, but this was a stance seen in Chinese Kung-Fu. Wait, are you coming at me at the same time…!

“U~oryaaaaa!”

Zazazazazazazazaza! Then, spinning on the spot, Son’s blows attacked my lower body like a spinning firework wheel. (TL Note: for the “spinning firework wheel” think of two fireworks connected by a string, causing them to spin around rapidly.)

In addition to the blade like hands, foot strikes, and claw strikes, the lower half of my body was assaulted by roundhouse kicks, back fist blows, and even tail blows. Like Habi, Son also attacked my Achilles tendon, front and rear cruciate ligaments, femoral artery, dorsal leg artery, and genitals. (TL Note: last one is accurate as far as I can tell. Son fights cheaply it would seem.)

I have to keep both my feet on the ground, spinning and retreating on the spot to fend off Son.

Kicking a foot away, somersaulting a few times – there were moments when I had to respond to Son with a fist and Habi with a kick.

This “Hundred Fiery Strikes” struck from both the sky and earth without pause.

It was a pincer struck like being stuck between a hailstorm and a volcanic eruption.

“…Toyama…!”

Yen…

She stopped her foot that was about to break into this fight.

She seemed to have decided that it was more dangerous for me if she were to interfere.

Fighting with two Scarlet Goddess’s at once requires more concentration than surviving the barrage from Sherlock.

Each blow that comes at me had the power to kill me then and there.

… If I was distracted for even a moment, it would be fatal. I am not saying that we have to stick to our original plan, but stay out of this fight. I will dance with these two until it is over.

Doooo! Ddodododo!

Each tremor that shook my left and right arms and legs carried the gravity of this hopeless situation with it. (TL Note: I am not certain on this sentence.)

Beyond the window that was just captured at the edge of my vision, the 6 engines on the Fugaku which was still travelling north… were all either on fire, either big or small.

I could see that the fire was sizzling and slowly covering the rest of the wings.

Damn it, the wings are about as fireproof as paper!

Even though the Fugaku was built with new science materials, it is an aircraft based on the design philosophy of the old Japanese military, which tried to increase mobility and cruising capacity even at the expense of defensive capabilities.

(….1352–1421–1508–….!)

In less than a minute, the number of blows from above and below by Habi and Son exceeded 1,500.

Approximately 27 strikes per second.

Habi and Son were pounding me with their deadly blows at 13.5 shots each, per second.

… These are the strikes of a God, is it? I am impressed.

But surely there will be a pause in this one-sided onslaught. Both Habi and Son must have to breath eventually.

At that moment, I will unleash a counter.

Endure, endure, and wait. Wait for a chance to fight back.

As if to mock my attempts for a counter,

“– we’re still coming!”

The axe, which was still braced against the ceiling with its blade stuck into it, gaiiiiiiii!

Habi hit the side of the axe with the back of her fist like a gong.

She caught the falling axe handle with the nape of her wrist, and without stopping her attacks on me – she began to rotate the axe, as if she was brushing the handle with her wrist and the back of her knees, she began to rotate the axe… it was a hula-hoop centred on Habi herself.

Papapa! Bao! Papapapan! Ba! Papapapapa! Buun!

Habi’s blows to my upper body were now joined by the slash of a rotating guillotine-like axe.

The precise blows were joined by the slash attacks, complicating the mental lethal zone that was being processed in my head.

But if I don’t handle this, I will end up crushed up top and turned into ribbons down below.

As the airtight seal was violently ripped and a cracked formed in the ceiling caused by the axe, the cabin pressure started to drop…

“There we go! Time to cut off your legs!” (TL Note: This is not 100% accurate. I think she is saying an attack name, but cannot make sense of it.)

… Son picks up the fallen scimitar with her toes.

And then, byuun! Hyuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyubyunbyunbyunbyun!

Like Habi, she began to spin the scimtar around under her feet. While doing this though, like Habi as well, she never once stopped her barrage of strikes on me.

The naginata not only was aiming to cut me in my stomach, but also served to strike my legs with its long handle and make me fall down.

If I were to trip, I would be squished like a carrot in a blender.

I was being hit by machine gun fire from above and below, and now I was being slashed by the rotor blades of a helicopter…

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Aria the Scarlet Goddess laughing at me with amusement on her face.

No… Stop it, Scarlet Goddess.

Yes, Aria laughs often at me, but never with a face like that…!

“””–You cannot afford to look away! Toyama!”””

Aria, with her hands cupped like a megaphone, Habi harmonizing her voice, and Son shouting as loud as she could…

I realized I had been caught.

(…shoot!)

She did that on purpose.

The Scarlet Goddess, knowing I would not like it, made that laugh with that face on purpose.

“Ascending Dragon Sprouting Legs!” (TL Note: Another attack name, I am again unsure what exactly is being said.)

Taking advantage of my slipping attention, Son put her hands in a big motion as if she was going to fall backwards…

Baoooooooooo!

While doing a handstand, she unleashes a kick up towards the sky.

“–!”

I managed to catch the kick between the scimitar and the great axe, while bending my knees to dodge the rest of the kick.

Habi, though, was able to read this.

Habi put her hands onto Son’s bare feet that had been kicked up, and combined with the strength of her own arms and with the strength of the kick, jumped upwards — Daaaaaaaan!

Upside down, she hit the roof of the Fugaku cabin.

And from there, baaaaan!

She feel onto me like a shooting star.

The way Habi and Son worked and breathed together was truly one of a kind. It was even better coordination than the Coco sisters demonstrated on the bullet train.

That must be because while those were sisters… Habi and Son were essentially the same person.

Using a combination of martial arts and divine power on her forehead…

–Shaaaa! Habi’s headbutt that came down grazed me.

“…!”

It seems that Habi’s goal was to rip open a hole in my skull using her horns and smash open the rest of my head…

My Hysteria Mode reflexes saves my life.

The Hysteria Mode twisting movement was done just in time, and I managed to only get some cuts in my skin.

But I was still cut.

The wound was on my forehead, normally covered by my hair. (TL Note: sound familiar?)

Because I was unfamiliar with fighting against horns, I misjudged and suffered a very deep wound.

The wound reached the pericranial membrane, and a flashy stream of blood flowed out from the cut that the horn had cut open.

It wasn’t a gush of blood, but it was a stream. Fresh blood…

–right, eye.

(… damn it…!)

When things that are common in old shonen manga like this happens in real life, it is no longer a joke or fiction.

Even if the view out of my right eye is not completely blocked, it is certainly restricted.

From this point on, it will become even more difficult to outrun the onslaught of Habi and Son.

First, I have to distance myself from them, secure some time, and wipe the blood away.

And then I would have to endure those fierce attacks once again, and somehow take advantage of an opportunity. That is the only way ahead for me.

I decided on that, and shook my head to get the drops of blood out of my eye, and at that same time…

–Bah!

As soon as she lands, she retreated backwards.

And then, saaaa.

In my bloody, narrow field of vision, Son disappeared in my lower right corner field of view.

With a snake like movement she crawled across the floor, and ran into my blind-spot while holding her scimitar.

“–!”

I looked down, being forced to jump to avoid an attack.

“Look ahead, Toyama!”

I heard Yen’s cry.

Ahead of me, in the gap I looked away, Habi’s 700kg axe was now coming from above.

Holding her great axe, Habi, with a bouncing leap from the floor, slammed a body-spinning kick into it after letting go, ejecting it towards me who had just managed to take a step back. She had pointed the top end of the handle towards me instead of the axe head, with the handle seemingly being sharp like a spear.

It seems her technique of kicking the axe mid air as if it was a javelin was a common trick of hers, and the axe was designed for such.

Habi, taking advantage of the double-bladed axe’s unique properties, kicked it away towards me at an angle that would impale me.

I am still up in the air because of my leaping motion. In the air, naturally my movements are extremely restricted.

(I can’t dodge like this…!)

An axe, with blade like horizontal wings, was racing towards me who was still in the air.

… Just as the term “attack fatigue” suggests, attacking is more exhaustive than defending.

Therefore, I had let my opponent attack, again and again, and when they get tired of attacking, I counterattack. This is the most basic of basic for counterattack strategies.

The beauty of this tactic is that you can retreat over and over again without attacking. So, having suffered a deep head wound earlier, I was now making the decision to use the enemies opening to retreat temporarily.

After you retreat from an onslaught, typically the enemy takes a breather.

The enemy will attack, over and over again, but once they can they rest. In this way, the attacker trys to recover from the fatigue of attacking. Usually.

But the reaction of the Scarlet Goddess was different.

They attacked, and attacked, and never stopped.

If there is even a tenth of a zero point zero second opportunity, they would attack. All their time was spent attacking.

So this is how the Scarlet Goddess fights…!

Furthermore.

Habi was not the only one who was attacking.

Just before Habi kicked out the great axe, in my bloody blind spot – I could only grasp this happening by sound alone – Son, who had run up the side of the Fugaku’s round cockpit, was running upside down on the ceiling somehow.

This three-dimensional movement was like a rollercoaster spinning throughout the air, but instead of 360 degrees it was only 270 degrees. In front of me, on the other side of the axe and the cockpit, I can hear something suddenly stopping…

Standing vertically with her long, black hair floating in the air, Sun crouched down on the window, where we could now see the Pacific coast of Japan in the distance.

She was holding her blue dragon scimitar like a throwing spear.

“–haaaa!”

The small hands and bare feet of the Fighting Buddha, Son Goku, stretched out all at once.

The launched Blue Dragon scimitar created a ring of conical vapour in front of Son.

The scimitar came flying at me at the speed of a cannonball.

I cannot dodge this one either. Even Yen, who had the strength to stop this, couldn’t even breath before it hits me. I have no technique to stop this. My plan relying on them regrouping failed spectacularly.

I realized my defeat when I saw the scimitar and the axe coming at me at the same time…

“Nuuuuuu!”

Dogoooo! Suddenly, a shoulder hit me from the side.

Yen pushed me away, saving me from the two attacking weapons.

With a jolt that almost permanently switched the position of my internal organs, I was blown towards the window. The Fugaku has already reached a high enough altitude to see the curvature of the earth.

Somehow though, I was able to take a Kikka-like passive stance, and managed to stop myself from breaking and flying out through the wall of the aircraft.

But through my blood and wavering vision…

“-Yen!!!”

The axe kicked by Habi and the scimitar thrown by Son penetrated into Yen’s right thigh and right arm.

She had taken the hit for me.

“…!”

Yen had gritted her teeth so as not to scream – Dogoooooooooooooo!

The two weapons hit Yen, and crashed her near Habi’s throne.

Originally, Habi and Sun must have thrown the great axe and scimitar with the intention of sticking me onto the throne.

But Yen, who had been hit by the weapons at a different angle, was stuck up in a sitting position besides the now unoccupied throne.

Yen’s body might have been as tough as a truck, but the Scarlet Goddess had unleashed both the star-shattering axe and Son’s Blue Dragon scimitar…

Both weapons easily penetrated her tough body.

“…guu… ouuu…!”

Yen was writhing around trying to dislodge the weapons, but her body positioning was poor and she lacked the strength.

“–Yen!”

I tried to help, flames now coming from the left and right wings of the plane…

“…!”

The window, now melting from the heat, was distorted, cracked from the pressure, and blown outward.

The pressurized air was leaking even more now, wind blowing around the cabin.

Beyond the metal wings, which had now turned into a phoenix’s wings of fire, although I did not recognize it for a moment because it was oriented different than on a map, but I could see the coastline of the Tohoku region north of Fukushima, Honshu Japan, beneath a low, thin, haze-like break in the clouds.

I knew it…

(The Scarlet Goddess’s destination is Japan…!)

Since we could see Japan now, the Fugaku is no longer of any use.

The engines were already ceasing to function, but the Fugaku was still maintaining its high altitude and speed by inertia. The direction of the aircraft must be finely adjusted on the tail side since it was relatively stable still.

Flames rising from the lower half of the Fugaku were rising up here now with smoke pooling on the floor.

I turned my head towards Yen. Yen, now buried in flames, was showing only slight movement.

“Yen…!”

“… It-…. it’s nothing to worry about… Toyama… I don’t need any, help, for this…”

I could hear Yen’s voice coming from behind the flames, she sounded rather relieved that the flames had hidden her unsightly injuries from me. It was a blessing in disguise that it was her that took the hit, as she would not bleed out anytime soon.

Nevertheless, however…

When I had boarded the Fugaku, I was all set to defeat each and every one of them…

But instead, I myself am injured, and Yen was pinned to the wall and cannot be rescued.

Habi, Son, Aria, and the Fugaku. I had not been able to complete any of my objectives, let alone defeat any of the three girls.

The situation had gone up in flames.

Even though I, Enable, was in Hysteria Mode… even then, the Scarlet Goddess…

… The load I took on was too heavy, wasn’t it?

Regardless of the weight though… this is a terrible loss. I could not counterattack against Habi or Son, not even a single blow.

The Scarlet Goddess Aria was not only unscathed, she did not have to move even a single finger.

All she did was laugh at me.

Aria as she is now would not even look at me or Yen…

“Mountains are a nuisance.”

She said this, looking at Japan from the glass-enclosed cockpit.

Shortly after, Habi and Son leapt through the flames to get to Aria.

While Son looked at me with a devilish grin on her face,

“–But, Hihi. I saw something interesting between the clouds. Fine, fine, lets go.”

Habi said, looking out of the plane through the glass, puffing up her flat chest.

…kira…kira, kira… kirakira…

A small golden light appeared. It doubled, and doubled, from two, to four, to eight.

Light began to fly throughout the space, like stars in a miniature galaxy.

The cockpit became its own realm, with an eclipse forming a football shape that contained Aria, Habi, and Son.

(Thats… Imaginary Jump…!)

I cannot stall… now I know for sure that the Scarlet Goddess is going to use it.

Since both Son Goku in Hong Kong and Scarlet Goddess Aria could use it in Nogizaka, I am not surprised that Habi could use it too.

However, right now, only Habi was using this technique…

This made me aware of something.

Something important that I should have realized long, long ago.

Son said this in Hong Kong, she can only use Imaginary Jump once a day.

That is probably still true though. The fact that Fugaku was being used as a relay from Kinokuni to Japan is proof enough that the art does not have unlimited uses, even for a Scarlet Goddess.

Earlier as well, the Scarlet Goddess said something about her destination being obstructed from sight. She must be intending to teleport somewhere as a relay.

But she did not seem too disappointed by that.

This must mean, maybe…

Scarlet Goddess Aria, Scarlet Goddess Habi, and Scarlet Goddess Son… in other words… each can use Imaginary Jump once a day.

This seems to be a reasonable assumption.

In other words, the Scarlet Goddess’s still have 2 more moves left.

From the Fugaku, I would guess that they would jump to somewhere with a good view, such as a tower or the top of a mountain, and then repeat those jumps until they get to their destination.

Perhaps their Imaginary Jump is not the only thing limited to three moves as well.

If each of them can use Imaginary Jump once.. then… their laser beam…!

These girls…

Impossible. Not just difficult, but impossible.

Seriously, Kinji, what can you even do against that?

(come to think of it, there was a game called “Gradius” that Riko brought to my room once.)

I used to play it during the night because it was a pretty fun game…

If we considered Aria to be her own ship… Habi and Son are just convenient copies that can use the same techniques.

Therefore, me and Yen only had to beat Aria to win.

And the player controlling Aria and her copies… was the Scarlet God.

Unfortunately, like the player playing a game, the Scarlet Goddess will not suffer a single injury, no matter what kind of attack she takes. It is like Mash’s drone in the Nevada, taking down the drone did not injure him.

As my Hysteria Mode mind comprehends this fact, I am distracted by a sense of despair.

I was confident before, but after realizing this fact… Shit.

… kirakirakira… kirakira…

And so, the golden light particles that surrounded Habi, Son, and Aria spread out.

They are going to jump.

But I cannot let this happen.

(… I have to intervene.)

Son once told me something in Hong Kong.

”Imaginary Leap”, or their teleport ability, is the ability to transporting someone within the space surrounded by that cloud of light.

If the person is even slightly out of the cloud of light at the moment of activation, he or she will not move, and conversely, should I enter the ring of light in my entirety, I will simply teleport with them.

I was also told that there was a limit as to how many people it can move at once, but if I remember correctly, when compared to Son’s luminescence, Habi’s is much grander. Maybe they can now use this ability more effectively since the Scarlet God is in an awakened state?

… maybe the scale is 3-4…?

“Yen, they are preparing for an Imaginary Jump! If we can get in the circle, we can get off of the Fugaku! This way! Can you still move?!”

“…okay! I finally managed to remove both the axe and the sword. I am coming now, Toyama…! Once the flames start to die down, I will cross over to you!”

Yen’s confident voice echoes from beyond the black smoke and flames that are filling the cabin.

Okay, and so…

“… you better make it. It would be an honour to share this ride with you.”

And I pulled my gun out and jumped into the cockpit, right into the ring of light.

Squinting in the glare, I look around and see…

“I knew you’d come.”

Although I could not see clearly, I could hear Habi’s voice coming from behind the golden light.

“I guess you have not had enough of a fight yet? Luckily this golden cloud can just barely fit you too.” (TL Note: Brutally translated, I think I got the right meaning.)

I cold also hear the sound of Son Goku.

“… I have a plus one with me. She has god a good build, she it might be over limits. Why don’t you use Aria or Son to increase the light and not just Habi?”

I told them that Yen was coming too, and tried to encourage them to waste their instantaneous movements.

If they can teleport a limited amount of times, they will be at a huge advantage fighting or running later if I can get them to waste them now. If they can only teleport 3 times a day, I might be able to get them to use 2 or 3 of them here right now.

This is another thing I learned at Butei High, but if an enemy is too strong, the ironclad rule is to destroy or impede their means of transportation. By preventing them from going where they want to go, you prevent them from taking their desired course of actions. Doing this will always work towards your advantage.

If even one of them managed to escape there is nothing I could do about that right now, however… if I could somehow limit their potential movement or even stop them altogether…

In response to my taunt though…

“fufufufu” “ahahahahahahahaha!” … they are laughing in chorus….

“… Toyama…”

From behind the golden light, the black smoke shadows, and the red flames…

“I am sorry… I told a lie to you earlier.”

The now husky voice of the unseen Yen could be heard.

The place where the voice was coming from had not moved from before, from under the throne.

Yen… you…!

You couldn’t remove the scimitar and axe..! But had you told me that… I would have come to your rescue… so you lied to me… all to save me…

“–Yen!”

Gugogogogo….. gugogogogogogogogo… the squeaking and crunching sounds of the Fugoku reminded of the surrounding hell..

The Fugaku’s burned-out exterior peeled off, flying off into the sky.

The wings were now most just its skeleton.

The black smoke from the cabin was blown out into the open air, and now I could see behind the flames…

Along with flowing blood, Yen was blackened like a burnt corpse by soot and charcoal…

She lovingly raised her hand, which was covered with broken nails, to her masters axe, which has pinned her to the Fugaku.

“I am asking you… save my master.”

She turned a powerless smile towards me.

Right after that, like a balloon popping…

The Fugaku disintegrates in the air without a sound.

Judging from the Horizon I saw earlier, the altitude is at least 12,000 meters. The outside air temperature is nearly -60C, and the atmospheric pressure is about one-seventh that of the ground.

Fugaku debris scattered in the sky as the jumbo jet flew on… as soon as the fuel leaking out of the debris burned up, it froze white in the blink of an eye.

With that scene around us, Aria, myself, son, and Habi…

… we disappeared, from the sky.

.. as soon as the golden light subsided, a cold blast of air slammed into me.

Where are we…? The landscape is moving too quickly for me to tell.

The X, Y, and Z coordinates in the Cartesian coordinate system were messed up and interchanging non-stop.

I was seemingly falling in all directions, left, right, up, and down, front, and back.

The next thing my body could sense was the air pressure.

My lungs, which were about to burst from the low air pressure, suddenly was suppressed due to a return to normal pressure.

The pressure revealed it. We were right now on the ground.

To continue, the gravity.

when my back hit the ground, which was some kind of metal, I realized what was up and what was down.

In addition, suddenly a silvery light jumped into view.

The light flies at me countless times from the wind, passing through me on the right and left.

(… this is… snow…!?)

The freezing temperature must be from the snow… I was in a high velocity blizzard that was beating down on me from the front in gusts of wind.

And… this blizzard was fast. I must be on top of something moving incredibly fast. Maybe the Scarlet Goddess and the others chose this location to avoid the kinetic energy suddenly dropping to zero right after teleportation.

The speed we are moving at… would be better expressed in terms of the speed of sound.

About Mach 0.5…!

But where are we? What am I on?

For some reason I am lying on top of a fast moving vehicle that was moving at almost the same speed as the Fugaku’s end speed from earlier…

Daan, dadaan. Suddenly, the footsteps of the three of them was echoing as they were disembarking.

“Hey, Toyama, did you slip and fall down!?”

In the direction we were travelling, was Aria the Scarlet Goddess.

“ahhh, it’s so cold!”

To the right and behind was Son.

“Ahahahaha! Come on, get up!”

To the left and behind her, was Habi.

Each of the three was shouting as they were talking to me.

—gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo—

(What… what is that sound… what is this feeling…?)

When I opened my sound after that sound, I saw… a white body with a blue border… a Shinkansen? (TL Note: Shinkansen is a bullet train.)

It looks like we are on a bullet train, like the one that we once fought the Coco sisters on.

But this is different. There are no overhead wires or pantographs.

Weirdest of all, there is no sound coming from the wheels running on the tracks.

We are probably flying.

This is… an express trip that is flying low over the ground.

It was a funny thing to think of, but this was the conclusion my hazy senses came to.

A snowy forest that looked distorted due to excessive speed. I was on top of a mach 0.5 vehicle travelling at super high speed…

“Toyama. I am going to do something that suits you. Let’s conclude this fight with “high-jack”.”

Aria’s voice, which seemed to come from all directions, sounded like an echo in my head. It sounded godly, reminding me again who I was dealing with.

“……!”

… I know where we are now!

This is a magnetic levitation linear motor car! This is the Aomori experimental line of the superconducting linear bullet train!

The Aomori Experimental Line is a JR East experimental line running from Hachinohe to Shin-Hirozen. Aiming for a future export path to Russia and Canada, the line is an endurance test line equipped with a cold-resistant structure and snow-melting guideways, and is designed to run through heavy snowfall areas such as the Hakkouda Mountains and the Shirakami Mountains.

On that single track, this linear Shinkanensen is rushing westward in a two-car formation.

“… high jacking the super express. Do you like it? Toyama, you have been familiar with high-jackings ever since you met Aria.” “This is also a fitting stage for a decisive battle that matches the 21st century.” “Let’s fight.”

I was surrounded by three scarlet Gods, who spoke to me, and in response,

“… well, I thinks this is the best vehicle I have ridden so far. There is no possibility of a derailment due to its structure.”

Whether or not I could be heard I spoke to them… my words might sound calm and pretentious, but I still stood towards the Scarlet Gods with anger. This was a battle of mourning over Yen, after all.

However, despite these intense feelings, I cannot stand tall.

That is because of the gust of wind that is blowing from the front.

I have ridden on one before, but this floating bullet train thing is…

It might sound strange coming from me, but this is a strange vehicle to ride on.

There is little or no sound, nor is there any shaking coming from this vehicle.

The only thing tormenting me right now is this fierce air pressure assaulting me.

I feel like I am surfing on top of a UFO.

Could I fight properly? In such strange conditions?

“Kinji. I can’t control my feelings for you anymore!” “I can’t, I can’t control myself anymore!” “I wonder if this love?” (TL Note: God I wish that was me.)

And now, the stage is set, three to one.

“… love, huh? I am honoured to hear that from you.”

The three girls, arranged like an isosceles triangle, surrounded me with me at the centre, and spoke to me.

This time, for once, I cannot do anything to get out of this… and the reality that I realized earlier is coming back to haunt me. (TL Note: Kinji’s realization on the plane that this time there truly is nothing he could do.)

Still, usually I leave it to Hysteria Mode to come up with something.

But now, I’m in Hysterical Mode and I can’t think of anything else to solve this situation.

Regardless, I will keep chasing after Aria. I will get Aria back.

But I will fight knowing that I will probably lose. No, in fact, I will lose, but I will lose chasing after Aria and my allies while licking my wounds.

… I am an idiot.

But I was the one who let this happen.

My feelings for my partner.

My feelings for Aria…!

“Love!” “Love means fighting!” “Let’s fight, Toyama! Hahaha!”

… Scarlet Goddess.

You are a clumsy woman for calling yourself a God.

You want to fight those with a strong will.

It is quite embarrassing to admit that a Scarlet Goddess likes me, but…

You are the type of girl who likes to bully the guy she likes. You are just the ultimate version of that.

You really do control and promote both love and war.

You and I are like this two-car linear train.

Driven by the power of superconductivity, constantly moving back and forth…

–We are out of control, with hearts that cannot be helped anymore.

“Okay, sweetheart. Let’s go as far as we can tonight.”

In a blizzard of mach 0.5. On top of a linear bullet train.

I duck down and pull out my knife just in case I fall. Just before I put the claw on my belt buckle on my shoe, since the knife might not prove to be enough.

Now… on this super-express that has been High-Jacked.

My opponent is a Scarlet God. And there are three of them. Top copies of the perfect Scarlet God, “Aria the Scarlet God”, with almost exactly the same attack power. That means effectively I am fighting the same person, three times, at once. Even if they take the form of Aria, they must be considered a completely different concept of existence from us mere mortals. Aria the Scarlet Bullet.

Yes, Aria the Scarlet Ammo…

… she is beyond comprehension, beyond reason, and I do not understand a milligram of her abilities.

But so what?

But girls are like that begin with, right?

(Holmes in front, Goku behind to the right, Nobunaga behind left.)

It is kind of an uneven fight, but that’s the kind of fight that suits me.

The scariest of the 3 is Aria.

I know it’s only intuitive, but I could feel twice the presence coming out of Aria than Habi or Son.

This feeling… bishi…bishibibishi…bishibishibishi… was transmitted physically to me as well…

There was a slight tremor in the air. The forest. The mountains. The space itself, swirling in a blizzard.

And…

A scarlet light arises in this silvery white world.

Aria’s right eye began to glow.

Scarlet.

Scarlet, scarlet, scarlet, scarletscarletscarlet…!

“Come one, Toyama. How are you going to deal with this?”

…tsu.

Aria…

At her words, I turn around and… saw Son and Habi.

All three of them were posed, looking at me from three directions, from the front, right rear, and left rear.

And all of their right eyes are glowing scarlet.

With each passing moment, the red light grew stronger.

(… laser beam…!)

And not just a laser beam, this was 3 laser beams.

I had never even envisioned such a situation.

The Earth began to shake slightly from the fighting spirit of the 3 girls. The surrounding trees began to shake and snap, flying off into the distance, bashi, bishi, even though nothing was touching them.

And then, suddenly,

“… Kinji. If it’s one shot, I can offset it.”

I heard a different voice in my head, different from Aria and the others.

…it was Rurugami.

“Use the technique that you used in Hong Kong. If I widen the optical path of the laser during melting, and disrupt the increased phase on both sides of space-time to weaken the coherence – even with this knife length, I am sure I can catch the Monkey’s laser.” (TL Note: from what my monkey brain can figure out here, basically make the small, compact laser, into a wider laser, limiting its damage.)

My butterfly knife, a memento of my brothers, coated Irokane…

It was starting to glow blue.

Even in Hysteria Mode, I cannot create the knowledge necessary to understand this, so I could not understand Rurugami’s reasoning that the laser could be stopped…

But the technique I used in Hong Kong, the Excalibur Umbrella.

Rurugami. Are you implying that I do that technique with a knife of this length?

“Yes, it is possible. I can surely stop one shot. In return though, I will be killed here. Even though I only attempted to, I tried to kill my own sister. This is my atonement. Therefore, Toyama, I will not hesitate here to offer up my life.”

“Ruru, you…!”

“Kinji. If it was possible, I would have wanted to watch this battle till its ends. But from here one, I will be of zero help to you. I wish you the best of luck-“

After saying this, the light coming from Rurugami intensified.

Blue, blueblueblueblue–!

“wow” “So what?” “How are you going to avoid the other two shots?” “Toyama, you…” “What are you going to do about it?” “Can you do anything?”

Aria, Son, and Habi watched this happen, and…

I heard them speak from three directions, as they walked around me.

Their questions are pointless. That’s right.

Rurugami could block one shot, but the other two were my job.

I have to do something. But I can’t.

(Um, the laser…)

Light emitted from the right pupil of each of the girls.

If I could somehow get them to look away, they can’t hit me.

But right now I am standing in front of Aria, staring right into her red camellia eyes.

A man and a women who are destined to look at each other should never do anything to go against that.

I don’t want to avert my eyes either from those adorably cute twinkling eyes.

So, let us instead receive Aria’s light head on.

As well, even though I have a different view of life and death than Rurugami, I must respect her will to fight even though it might end her life…

I held my butterfly knife, shining blue like sapphire, out in a thrust.

It looked like a spear, but for me, it was a shield.

This must be the first time a contradiction like this has occurred in Japan. (TL Note: not sure exactly what is being said here, this is my best educated guess.)

“If you were being attacked from one direction, it might have been possible to prevent it.” “but this time, you are stuck in a triangle, I am attacking you from three different directions with you at the centre of the lasers.” “No matter where you run, the only thing that will change is the angle that the laser will hit you at.”

… way to tell it like it is, Scarlet Goddess.

Actually, your statement sparked an epiphany.

I am not a geometry guy, but I know a way to keep three straight lines from intersecting.

Also, doing this will be an apology to Habi and Son, as an apology for keeping my eyes on Aria only so far.

Well, this will be called…

(–“Nonuguale”–)

As soon as I named that new technique, I flew behind me using the wind pressure and Ouka.

The whole time, I kept my shining blue knife pointed at the red shining Aria.

As Kou had once said…

The Scarlet God’s laser has a moment when it becomes uncancelable. It is about 1.2 seconds before activation. Once the red glow of the eye suddenly becomes brighter, it can no longer be stopped.

I was aiming for that exact moment.

“””!”””

Due to my movement, the triple laser, instead of piercing me from three direction like an asterisk (*)…

… [≠] …

The laser was released in an irregular sequence, like the emblematic nonuguale symbols of Rome Butei High.

The butterfly knife, which I had let go the moment the lasers shot, was melted by Aria’s laser and spread out like a blue flower.

There was no sound after it took the laser head on.

(…Ruru…!)

The Goddess Ruru took the Scarlet God’s deadly blow head on.

The expansion of the knife looked like an umbrella as it slowly opened.

Rurugami used her supernatural ability to weaken the laser as it impacted the knife.

The two of the other shots I dealt with myself.

Son’s laser passed by in front of me while Habi’s went behind me. They flew off into the sky.

Their lasers hit nothing but sky.

It was honestly really easy to do.

Even children could do this if they wanted to.

All I did…

The moment the laser shot, I was right in the middle with Habi on one side and Son on the other.

Since we were in a straight line, if Habi shot, she would pierce me and hit Son, and should Son have fired, she would hit Habi.

So, in order to protect myself and them a well…

I had to make them avert their gaze and shoot in the form of a ‘=’.

And with myself in the centre, I escaped the situation.

Even with that dodge though, this strategy would have been impossible, and undesirable, without also protecting both Habi and Son. Dodging their lasers meant also protecting them. (TL Note: not sure exactly what is being said here, but basically Kinji is saying that either he, Habi, and Son all lived or all died.)

I suppose to her losing two allies was worth it if it meant dealing with me.

Does that mean that being seen as cheap pawns saved their lives? That honestly must hurt a little bit, huh?

Like a flower being blown away by the wind and snow, the butterfly knife that had lived and now died in my hands for so long flew away in a linear backward motion.

With that knife went Rurugami’s thoughts and life.

“… a Non uguale is a negative equal sign. It means that it is not equal. Aria, Son, Habi. You are not a Scarlet God, nor are you equal to one. I still believe that.”

The top of the train is slippery with now, and I slide backwards due to the inertia of my dodges.

Aria, Son, and Habi were now all in front of me.

But luckily, all three can no longer fire lasers.

… I finally realized just how lucky I was that all three shot their lasers at once.

“How is that, Scarlet Goddess? I dodged your greatest attack.”

There is no use fighting anymore.

I was about to ask her to calm down and stop taking over Aria and the others…

“… stupid Kinji.”

Aria the Scarlet Goddess, who was mimicking Yoriyoshi’s habit of speaking, folded her arms and grins.

Son, with her long black hair blowing in the snowstorm, and Habi, with her short reddish-bronze hair flailing wildly, slowly walking up to Aria on either side of her…

“That wasn’t a serious attack. It was a way to kill time.”

Killing time…?

However, her tone was not one of a sore loser.

“It took me a while to get into the rhythm and for it speed up.”

Following Aria’s line, guguguguu–!

and the train started to accelerate rapidly.

(…!)

… that was a surprise.

Aria and her team are manipulating the magnets or something to accelerate the train.

The normal operating speed of this Linear Shinkansen was supposed to be mach 0.4-0.5… but right now the speed is…Mach 0.6-0.7 by feel… it is 1.5 times higher than that…!

Although the noise was only beginning to increase little by little… this was only an endurance test line. The train is not supposed to be going through it full throttle, never mind over.

It was like a rocket flying horizontally.

I hunched my body over and just managed to stay on my feet, relying on the claws on my shoes…

Son and Habi walked on the liners without a care in the world, their cutoff sailor skirts, blouses, and kimono hems flapping as if they might be torn off by the wind pressure. They were now beside Aria.

And then, they acted strangely.

(…?)

It was like gymnastics or cheer leading.

Aria turned her back to us and faced towards the direction we were travelling, and Son and Habi each grabbed a hand from her side.

They acted in perfect unison, perfect coordination.

“”Yo, to!”” (TL Note: this is just a cute sound effect girls make in anime. Only way I can really describe it.)

Habi and Son, who were still holding Aria’s hand, held it up, and Aria was lifted up into a push-up position in the air. It was like a gymnastics routine, with her legs pointing towards me.

And then, basabasa–!

The pink-blonde twin tails, which had been previously blowing behind her, spread out to the left and right.

It was like wings.

“…!”

It was around this I noticed.

I could see the flow of the air around the twin tails by the way the snow was flowing under it.

Lift was being generated.

Her hair was being used like the wings of a plan.

(… She is planning on flying!)

As if to prove my deduction, Aria’s legs, which she had been lifting previously herself, was slowly breaking away from the grasp of gravity.

Son and Habi no longer put any strength into the hands they were using to lift Aria.

The Scarlet Goddess did not move from the Fugaku to her at a moments notice just for this high-jacking battle that I have been involved with so many times.

This train…

Aria the Scarlet Goddess is using it as a catapult!

–fuwa—

Aria’s body floats in the air. We were now travelling at Mach 0.75.

Son and Habi opened their hands, separating from the departing Aria, the two of them in a pose as if they were sending Aria off with a banzai.

(Aria…!)

Was she manipulate the magnetic force again, or did she move something in the car with telekinesis…

–Gokun–!

Suddenly, the train started to slow down.

Mach 0.6-0.5 or 300km/h or 200km/h.

Aria, moving still at the previous high speed, is moving forward, leaving the train behind.

“– Aria….. ARIAAAAAAA!”

The deceleration meant the wind pressure was reduced, and I was able to move again, running towards the front of the train…

Already, Aria was flying ahead in the clouds in the sky, far ahead.

And…

As the train reached speeds of less than 100km/h, dosa, dosa.

And then suddenly, Son and Habi fall down.

“……!”

It was so sudden I had to hold their small bodies to keep them from tumbling off the side – they only seemed to be unconscious – and my eyes wandered to off into the snowstorm, barely able to see Aria anymore.

(Aria…!)

Thanks to her bright rouge-colored Butei uniform and the scarlet luminescence of her aura, I was just able to get a faint idea of her location.

Aria was catching the rising air currents that travelled over the mountain ridges, higher and higher, taking altitude.

There was no hesitation in the way she flew.

It would seem that the Scarlet Goddess was going somewhere in particular after all.

Clearly, she had an objective already in mind.

“…!”

Aria’s light soared higher than the mountains.

It would seem that her desired trajectory was not visible as it was hidden behind the mountains on the Fugaku. Aria was tracing a path in the sky that seemed to head toward the north side of the Shirakami Mountains.

Her scarlet light was glittering… kirakira… kirakira…

and she began to grow a golden circle.

(Imaginary Jump…!)

And the next thing I knew, pa…

… the light surrounding Aria suddenly disappeared.

She disappeared… she had left Habi and Son here, and went somewhere else.