Guyver was sitting on the driving seat with Akira next to him, while Colbert and Dale were sitting on the backseat. As not to get in the way in case of a fight, Sheryl was sent to the cart together with the rest of her gang.
Guyver offered to drive saying that it was to make up for not being present when the mansion was attacked by the swarm of monsters. To be honest, Akira did not mind at all, but since Colbert and Dale were pressuring Guyver to do that, he ended up driving the vehicle.
The vehicle was swaying left and right as it traversed the wasteland. There were wreckages scattered around the route that they were taking; with some of them not entirely buried under the ground, the vehicle shook as it bumped with those wreckages.
The one who picked that route was the driver, Guyver. So Akira asked him.
“Say, why are we taking this route?”
“It’s still better than getting stuck on a muddy road, right? This route should not have any muddy roads, but it’s a little bit bumpy though.”
“…Well, you’re right, but still.”
Although Guyver’s explanation was reasonable, Akira was not fully convinced by that.
Akira then asked Alpha.
“Say, Alpha, about that monster from before though…”
“Well, we do have time for that now, so let’s talk about it.”
“Don’t you think that it’s weird? I know that I have bad luck, but that swarm didn’t feel like a pure coincidence.”
“Let’s assume that it was not a coincidence and someone intentionally gathered those monsters there. There are only 2 possible ways of doing that, either that person runs around the wasteland to attract those monsters or by using a decoy device.”
“Decoy device?”
“Yep, that’s a device to attract monsters. It’s usually used to gather monsters in one place.”
Akira then turned to Dale and the others and asked them.
“Say, did you guys bring decoy devices with you?”
Dale, who did bring some before, answered that question.
“I did, but I don’t have it right now. Why do you ask…? Ahhh, about that swarm of monsters, huh?”
“So you did have them?”
“I left them in our vehicle. So I lost them when our vehicle went back to the city on autopilot. Well, even if I did have some back then, it was not a situation where you would use the decoy device, right?”
“…Yeah, you’re right.”
“…Wait for a sec! It’s possible that they got activated when our vehicle was attacked by the monster. It then might have dropped some of those devices on its way back to the city and attracted all the monsters around the route that it took to the city into that mansion. If that’s the case, then there’s nothing strange about the number of monsters that ended up coming there… Hmm, no no no, that shouldn’t be possible. No matter how unlucky we are, that’s just too unlucky. It’s not like anyone in this place has that level of bad luck, right?”
Dale laughed after he said that.
Akira just kept his face looking out to the wasteland without saying anything. It was because he knew the answer to that question, he might be the unlucky person that Dale was talking about.
Seeing how Akira was keeping silent, Alpha smiled teasingly at him. When Akira noticed it, he annoyedly jabbed at her.
“…What?”
“Don’t be angry. Even if that’s true, you did survive, right? And that’s all that matters. So in short, it was not that big of a trouble for the current you. You really got stronger, don’t you think so too?”
“Yeah yeah, I’ll leave it like that.”
Akira was just sitting there looking out to the wasteland without saying anything, Guyver who was beside him was also driving without saying anything. Although Dale found that sudden silence a bit weird, he just decided to ignore it.
Just like when he was leaving for the wasteland, Akira fixed his CWH anti-material rifle and DVTS minigun back on his vehicle. At the moment, he only had his AAH assault rifle and A2D assault rifle with him.
Guyver glanced at Akira’s equipment.
“Won’t you at least let the children on the back borrow some of those rifles?”
“Why should I?”
“It’s better to have more people equipped with guns if another swarm attacks us, right?”
“If you think so, you can just lend them yours.”
“I’m doing that already, you know? I’ve lent one of my guns to that Sebla guy. You have those big weapons on the back, so it’s okay to just lend them those assault rifles, right?”
Akira peeked back at Sebla who was in the back cart. It was true that he was holding a gun and some grenades. But even so, Akira did not feel any reassurance from seeing that.
Akira then replied to Guyver.
“No.”
“Why?”
“They’re my weapons. Even if we get attacked by monsters again, it’s much more useful when they’re with me.”
“…I see. Well, I won’t force you.”
Akira did not get to encounter any monsters even after they got out from the Higaraka residence ruin. He prayed that nothing would happen until they reached the city. But it was quickly proven that his prayer would not come true.
“Akira, it’s a monster.”
“…I guess it won’t go that easy, huh?”
Akira turned to the direction where Alpha was pointing, he quickly spotted a monster running toward the vehicle. It was obvious from their distance that the monster was a carnivorous monster.
“It’s closer than I thought.”
“Blame the rain, there’s still some effect left from the rain, so it’s like we’re still in a colourless mist. That’s why I was late detecting that monster.”
As Akira’s gaze was fixed in one direction in the wide wasteland, Dale and the other Hunters found it weird and followed his gaze, thus they quickly spotted that monster too.
Guyver stopped the vehicle, Akira immediately criticized him.
“Oi, why are we stopping?”
“You won’t be able to get a good aim while the vehicle is rocking, right? We can get off the vehicle and take a good aim on that monster now.”
After he said that, Guyver hopped off the vehicle. Dale and Colbert looked at each other before hopping off the vehicle too.
Akira decided to stay in the vehicle just to be safe. Guyver kept his eyes on Akira who did not hop off from the vehicle.
He then shifted his gaze from Akira to the back cart. When he did that, Sebla hopped off from the cart and joined Dale and the other Hunters.
“Whoah there, are you planning to make him fight too?”
Guyver laughed lightly and said.
“Isn’t that exactly why I’m lending my gun to him? If you’re worried, you can just hop off from there and help us too.”
Akira thought for a bit.
“Alpha, are there any other monsters?”
“None. I’ll let you know when I find any.”
Akira then hopped off from the vehicle. It was not for keeping Sebla’s safe, but it was to make sure that Sebla would not cause extra trouble. It was also to help take out that monster and get back to the vehicle as soon as possible.
There were 4 Hunters against one monster. So Akira thought that there was no need to take out his CWH anti-material rifle and DVTS minigun. Thus, he just left them on the vehicle.
Colbert readied his rifle and took an aim at that monster. Sebla just stood there in silence. Dale ignored Sebla, he just kept his eyes on the surroundings while making sure that he was not blocking Colbert’s aim.
Akira kept his eyes on that monster, he was ready to jump in to help if Colbert was having some trouble taking out that monster.
Everyone there thought that they just needed to quickly take out their target and return back to the vehicle. But there was a minor difference in what they were calling as their targets.
Guyver was being careful of Akira and the other Hunters, he was observing them as if he was looking for an opportunity.
He suddenly jumped away from that place. The other Hunters thought that Guyver jumped out because of that monster’s attack, thus they immediately focused their attention on that monster. But the very next moment, a blinding light and deafening ring drowned Akira and the other Hunters as they were thrown on the ground.
For some reason, Akira was able to keep himself conscious. But because of that light and that loud ringing, he was severely dazed thus preventing him from making any swift reaction. He thought that there was a monster nearby, so he felt the urge to get back on his feet as soon as possible and confirm his situation. Although he knew that well, he just could not do that.
“…W-what was that? Alpha?”
“Akira! Get up!! Quickly!!”
Alpha shouted at him. Akira understood that it meant he was in a deadly situation. In that case, he had to get on his feet as fast as he could. He did not care about the reason, for now, he just had to get on his feet. Akira understood very well that following Alpha’s instructions as fast as he could was the best possible choice to fix his situation.
So, Akira, who was lying face down on the ground, slowly pulled himself back up. He was trying to get on his feet while still severely dazed. But in that situation, when he was still so dizzy, it would be almost impossible to make any quick manoeuvres. He was still swaying left and right as he pushed his body against the ground, got on his knee, and looked up.
The moment he did that, he saw Guyver in front of him with the muzzle of his rifle pointing at him.
Guyver’s finger moved ever so slowly as he was pulling the trigger. He was staring at Akira full of killing intent, Akira was able to see even the slightest change in Guyver’s expression. Akira could clearly feel his time perception stretched out as the passage of time from his point of view considerably slowed down.
“Move away from there!!”
Akira did not wait for Alpha’s instruction as he quickly leapt away from that spot.
Guyver pulled the trigger, his rifle spewed out countless bullets that just sliced through the air right where Akira was just a moment ago and hit the wreckage on their trajectories. The bullets made rattling sounds as they hit those wreckages.
Akira instinctively scanned the area for his rifle as he leapt from that spot, he was in perfect sync with the movements of his augmented suit that was controlled by Alpha. Thanks to that, Akira was able to quickly reach out and grab his rifle. He then got on his feet, aimed at Guyver, and pulled the trigger. But because he was still severely dazed, he was not able to hit Guyver at all.
But even so, Guyver was taken aback by that swift move. He quickly jumped to the nearest wreckage and hid behind it.
Akira’s face turned grim. His consciousness was still not fully recovered yet. In the middle of that hazy situation, Akira asked for Alpha’s help.
“…Alpha, I’m sorry but I can’t get a good aim, can you help me with that?”
“I’m already doing it. I’m already increasing your accuracy as high as possible in your current situation.”
“And my shot missed even after that, huh. Did that attack damage my augmented suit?”
“That’s not the problem. Although I’m controlling your augmented suit right now, I’m controlling it through your body. So if you lose your consciousness or have a hazy mind, my support will also get diminished. That’s why you missed your shots.”
“…I understand. I just need to recover… The medicine, where did I put my medicine? Did I leave it on the vehicle? Or is it inside my rucksack? Where did I drop it? Hm? Where is it?”
Akira’s still dazed mind started to veer off into something unnecessary, thus Alpha quickly straightened that up.
“Akira, calm down, I’ll give you my instruction. You need to reposition yourself first.”
“…Alright.”
Akira followed Alpha’s instruction as he repositioned himself.
Guyver was still hiding behind the wreckage as he started cursing Akira.
“Dammit!! Not only did he evade my shot in that situation, he even started shooting back at me too, huh!! I thought he was just a normal boy with dangerous weapons?!! This is not what I expected at all!! That damn brat!! Giving me wrong information like that!!”
After he listened to Sebla’s information and decided to take the relics in the cart for himself, Guyver was determined to kill Akira and the other Hunters.
Guyver was the one who shot at Dale’s rental vehicle and activated its auto-drive function. There was a good possibility that Akira would move separately once the rain stopped, thus Guyver took out the only means for Dale’s team to get back to the city in order to come up with an excuse so that they could go back together to the city with Akira. And in case if Akira refused to give them a ride back home, Guyver was planning to get Dale’s and Colbert’s help to start a fight against Akira.
The reason why Akira had to fight the monster swarm not too long ago was also because of the decoy devices that Guyver set near the area. Guyver took the decoy devices from Dale’s vehicle and put them around the mansion after setting it to activate after a few minutes. He intentionally left the decoy devices in the area where those monsters would be able to easily spot Akira and the other Hunters and then he evacuated himself to a safe place.
If Akira and the other Hunters were killed by the monster, then he just needed to recover the relics from the vehicle later. Even if no one got killed, there was a good chance that the monsters would wound some of them, or at least exhaust their ammo reserve. Whatever it was, it would give Guyver some extra advantage when he fought them. Although none of them were wounded, it was at least enough to provoke Dale and Colbert.
Guyver also included Sebla in his plan, Sebla was given a different role and had made him promise to help out. Then in order to win Sebla’s trust, Guyver lent some of his equipment to him. Guyver had mixed a remote detonation stun grenade among all of those equipment that he lent to Sebla. Of course, he did not tell Sebla about that.
The reason why Guyver offered to drive the vehicle himself was so that he could select a situation where he would have the upper hand when he fought Akira and the other Hunters. The reason why he suggested Akira to lend his rifles to the other children in the back cart was so that Akira would lose some of his weapons and to check if he still had some ammo left for his powerful CWH anti-material rifle and DVTS minigun.
To be honest, Guyver wanted to activate the stun gun after making sure that he was staying away as far as possible from it. But there was a good chance that the leftover effect from the rain might interfere with its activation, thus he could not stay too far away from that stun grenade. Then fortunately enough, Akira and the other Hunters decided to stay close near Sebla to make sure that he would not cause any trouble and to give him support when needed. So Guyver did not even take a second guess before he activated the stun gun.
And this was the aftermath. He could not kill Akira and he was forced to hide behind a wreckage.
Guyver looked grim as he mumbled.
“Is this because I trusted the information from that boy? Nah, I guess it doesn’t really matter now. I just need to kill him and take the relics for myself, I still can fix this!!”
Guyver had to take out Akira and the other two Hunters while they were still dazed from the effect of the stun grenade. Once they recovered, it would be 1 against 3 and he would not have any chance to win.
He made his decision and leapt out from behind the wreckage.
Akira was still hiding behind another wreckage while waiting to recover. But he had no other choice but to cut that short as Guyver was not the only threat present. They hopped off from the vehicle to take out a monster that was running in their direction.
The monster had already gotten close to where Akira was, and he could not afford to let that monster too close to the cart attached behind his vehicle. He peeked out from behind the wreckage with his rifle ready on his hand. But his vision was still blurry and he still could not stand up straight. Since he was sure that he would not hit his shots on target, Akira changed his aim from killing that monster to just provoking its attention.
Akira scattered bullets around that monster. Although none of them hit that monster, it was enough to attract its attention. That monster quickly moved behind a wreckage to take shelter from Akira’s shots.
Akira clicked his tongue, it was because even though he shot that many bullets, none of them hit that monster. He had hoped that at least some of them would get hit even if it was by pure chance. With his luck, he might miss some of his shots even if he took a careful aim, but it was strange that he would not get a hit even if he scattered a lot of bullets at his target.
Moreover, although that monster was not strong enough to charge at Akira while eating those bullets, it was also not that weak to just run away after such provocation. Akira had hoped that it was actually just a weak monster with a scary appearance, but that was not the case either.
If it was a strong monster, Guyver would not have done what he just did. After all, if it was really a strong monster, even if Guyver was able to kill Akira and the other Hunters, he then would have to face that monster alone. So in that case, Guyver would have waited until 4 of them killed that monster before activating the stun grenade. But unfortunately for Akira and the other two, that monster was not weak enough to just run away after that barrage and it was not strong enough to make Guyver wait until they killed it.
“Jump to your right!!”
Alpha shouted at Akira and moved his augmented suit at the same time. Akira did not resist that movement as he followed Alpha’s instruction and jumped to his right. The moment he did that, a bullet passed through beside him.
Guyver did not stop shooting as he aimed his rifle at Akira. Although Akira was still a bit dazed, he was able to quickly roll over and evade those shots thanks to his augmented suit.
Guyver looked completely desperate. He never thought that Akira would be able to evade it. According to his experience, he should have been able to fatally wound Akira with that shot.
Guyver’s face twisted with terror, but he quickly overwrote it with irritation and anger.
“He even evaded that?! I’m shooting from his flank, you know?! Did he foresee that I’ll do that? That’s just impossible!! Even if he somehow noticed my position from his information-gathering device or something and predicted my shooting trajectory, there was no way he could measure my timing too!! That must be just a pure coincidence!!”
Akira started shooting back while peeking out from behind wreckage. Although he was aiming at where Guyver was, the bullets just flew randomly around the target without hitting their real target, as such, they were only enough to prevent Guyver from returning shots.
Guyver noticed Akira’s inaccurate shooting and said to himself.
“Look at his shots, he doesn’t know my position for sure and he’s not in a condition where he can aim properly!! His previous evasion must have been just a pure coincidence, that boy is still dazed from the stun grenade!!”
Guyver was mostly saying that to reassure himself. But his brave front was quickly cracked.
[But he got up sooner than Dale and Colbert. It must be just a pure chance too. It’s also by pure luck that he evaded my shot right after he got up.]
Guyver wanted to think that it was all just a pure coincidence. Although he did not know the reason behind Akira’s actions, he didn’t even try to think about it. It was basically the limit of his ability as a Hunter.
Akira got back to hiding behind wreckage and tried to recover. Although he was slowly recovering, it would still take a few minutes before he could get back to fighting normally.
“Akira, over there.”
Alpha pointed her finger at something. Akira immediately turned to the direction that she was pointing and saw Dale and Colbert slowly getting back on their feet. Seeing that, Akira immediately shouted at them.
“Guyver is trying to kill us!! And the monster is also somewhere nearby!! If you guys are not my enemies, then go and kill the monster!! I’ll deal with Guyver!!”
But both looked confused. Akira did not know whether it was because they could not hear him since they were still recovering, or because they could not process what was going on, or because they were just feigning ignorance.
Dale and Colbert noticed Akira. He was pointing his finger at the monster that was closeby. Colbert who saw that quickly pointed his rifle at that direction and carefully checked the area for that monster, Dale quickly followed suit.
“It seems that they’ll take care of that monster.”
Akira let out a long breath.
“…Alright then. It seems that I don’t need to fight those guys. This is getting better, so then, where’s the other guy?”
“He’s over there.”
Alpha pointed in another direction and Akira’s gaze quickly turned there. Thanks to his enhanced view due to Alpha’s support, Akira was able to see Guyver’s body outlined in red behind a wreckage.
“…This reminds me of how nice this function is. How exactly are you doing this?”
“It’s by using my advanced calculation ability to analyze all the information I gather around you. Right now, I focus on analyzing the data especially around that guy.”
“Is it from the information gathered through my information-gathering device?”
“That’s one of them. Of course, I’m also using the information from your information-gathering device too. Other than that, I’m mostly using the information from your 5 senses. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the human body is an amalgamation of information-gathering devices.”
“I don’t feel like I’m gathering that level of information though.”
“Gathering information and understanding the information that you get is not the same. It’s crucial to ignore the information that you don’t need. If you try to analyze all the information that you receive from all of your 5 senses, it would quickly fry your brain.”
“And you’re saying that you can do that, huh?”
“Yep, that’s the gist of it. But for some reason, there are sometimes people who could unconsciously pick out important information from other unimportant information and analyze them. These people usually have sharp intuition. I guess it’s because they have a lot of chances where they can unintentionally hone that ability.”
“Intuition, huh? I guess it’s the same as that bad feeling that I sometimes get from time to time, huh. I had a lot of opportunities to hone my intuition after all.”
Akira remembered his past and realized it.
“Well, as for your good premonition that usually misses, I’ll make it up for you so you don’t need it anymore. So just hang around with me, okay?”
“For example?”
“Let’s see. First of all, I’m giving you my support even right now. This is the best example and it does help you a lot, don’t you think so? Because of that, you’re able to explore dangerous ruins, find expensive relics, and learn important information as well as fighting skills.”
“Well, you’re right about that. Thanks.”
“Other than that, you’re able to monopolize this beautiful body created through an advanced calculation, right? Isn’t that just wonderful? Right?”
Alpha took a pose as if she was showing her body to Akira. Akira glanced at her, his face was saying that he had no comments at all.
“Uhh, uhh, w-well, yeah.”
Akira stuttered as if he was evading that question. His answer was directed both to Alpha and to himself.
“Wait there, that was a rather vague reaction. Is there anything that you don’t like about my body?”
“Not really, it’s just your imagination.”
Akira was obviously playing dumb there. Those words were both for teasing Alpha as well as to dodge from having to seriously answer that question.
Alpha smiled at Akira, it seemed that she had returned to her usual self.
“Now then, since it seems that you’ve recovered enough to do some silly talk like this. How about we go and start our counter-attack?”
“Yeah, I’m more or less already recovered. Let’s go.”
Akira had recovered from the effect of the stun grenade. So, in short, Alpha’s support through his augmented suit had returned to 100 percent. He basically had recovered back to his usual condition. Akira’s expression turned sharp, his mind changed from defending himself to aggressively attacking his opponent.
He jumped out from behind the wreckage where he was hiding and made a beeline for Guyver. If Guyver came out and aimed at him, it would have been very dangerous. But thanks to Alpha’s support, Akira could clearly see where Guyver was hiding.
Although he had the choice of waiting for Guyver to peek out from behind the wreckage and snipe him the moment he did that, Akira thought that the other two might have some problem dealing with the monster behind him. Not to mention, the monster might attack Sheryl and her gang too. As such, Akira decided to quickly take out Guyver and go back to protect Sheryl and her gang.
Guyver was hiding behind a half-destroyed wall. In order to shoot him, Akira had to take a big detour and shoot him from the side or from above. Akira thought so as he asked Alpha while still running.
“Alpha, which route should I take? Left? Right? Above?”
“Let’s take a much safer route, run straight at him.”
“Straight at him? Do you mean shooting through the wall? This rifle is not enough to do that, you know?”
Akira was carrying an AAH assault rifle with him. Both the magazine and the bullet were not of piercing type. As long as he did not have the CWH anti-material rifle that he had left in the vehicle, it would be impossible to shoot Guyver through that wall.
“It’s no problem.”
Alpha just said that and smiled.
Guyver was able to notice Akira, who was approaching him, both from Akira’s footsteps and the signal detected from his cheap information-gathering device. His face distorted with fear as he readied his gun and looked left and right. His brave front had already completely crumbled down since his position was swapped from the hunter to the hunted.
“Where is he coming from? Which direction?!”
Since he was hiding behind a half-destroyed wall, he could not climb it and shoot at Akira because he felt like he would be showered in bullets and drop dead the moment he did that.
He could feel that Akira was already right on the other side of that wall. With his augmented suit, it was not impossible for Akira to jump over.
Guyver thought that Akira would do that, thus he readied his gun and shifted his focus to above him, waiting for Akira to show himself.
Guyver’s attention was completely focused on watching above him. He was ready to shoot anything that flew over him.
But the next moment, the wall in front of him suddenly crumbled down.
After Akira arrived next to that wall, he mustered all the power of his augmented suit to deliver a destructive kick on that wall. With the help of Alpha’s support, the leg part of Akira’s augmented suit turned hard the moment his kick touched that wall thus increasing the destructive power of his kick. That powerful kick was enough to destroy the wall that was already withered because of the harsh environment in the wasteland.
The wall crumbled down on top of Guyver, thus making him lose balance. He pulled the trigger on his rifle by accident and fell on his back. The bullet that flew from the muzzle cut through the air and flew away aimlessly.
That sudden turn of events completely caught Guyver off guard. But his confusion immediately cleared up the moment he saw Akira pointing his rifle at him from the other side of the crumbled wall. He would be dead now, for him, there was nothing more urgent than that.
Akira did not hesitate at all as he pulled the trigger and released a barrage of bullets at Guyver.
[…This boy is super strong… That damn brat… Telling me… False info…]
In the last few seconds of his life, as he was on the death door, he cursed Sebla.
Akira looked at Guyver’s dead corpse, which was drenched in blood, with cold eyes.
“Is he dead?”
“He’s not a cyborg, so I guess he’s dead for good.”
“Nice, let’s head back then.”
After receiving confirmation from Alpha, Akira quickly lost interest in Guyver and headed back to his vehicle.
