After Hikaru lost connection to Akira due to the increased output of the transport vehicle’s forcefield armour, she proceeded to make arrangements to use the temporary connection line. After she received confirmation and it automatically adjusted the line, she sighed.
“…Good grief, what is it now? Wasn’t that giant bug swarm more than enough? Just what is it this time?”
The last message that she received was a warning from the HQ that the increased forcefield armour output might cause some jamming on the communication line.
But even so, Hikaru still perceived the situation as not too bad. She knew well how strong Akira was from yesterday’s battle record. She also had heard that the escort team added more men to its rooster. So, she was just calmly gathering information about the current situation from inside the room.
Not too long after that, the interphone suddenly rang. Although she tried to answer it through the information terminal, it could not properly connect to the interphone. As she thought that she did not have any other choice, she went and stood right in front of the door to answer it. She first used the information terminal to check who was standing on the other side of the door. It was 3 men in security attire.
“Who is it?”
The man who led that team replied.
“We’re from the escort team. There’s an order from HQ to evacuate the transport. Will you please cooperate with us?”
“…Evacuation? Is it that bad?”
Hikaru unconsciously raised her voice. The men replied calmly as if to calm Hikaru down, but his smile somehow deepened.
“Unfortunately, transport vehicle number 4 got hit by the flying monster and can no longer move. So, we’re helping with the evacuation of the crews at the moment. Just to be safe, we were directed to evacuate the other transport vehicles.”
Hikaru was so surprised and tried to open the door. But before she reached for the door’s panel, her hand suddenly stopped. She then tilted her head.
[…Flying monster?]
She suddenly had a bad feeling and pondered. It all made perfect sense that after the flying monster destroyed one of the transport vehicles, the rest of the surviving transport vehicles suddenly increased their forcefield armour output while the crew urged everyone to evacuate.
But during the communication with HQ, she did not hear anything about the flying monster. Thus, in short, HQ decided not to inform her of this. After all, spreading such information might cause a panic instead. So, the problem now was why the people on the other side of the door told her that piece of information? Was it because they were lax people who could not answer as long as not asked about the information restriction, or was it because they were suspicious people, or might the reason lie somewhere else?
“I’m really sorry, but can you please hurry up? We will guide you to evacuate.”
Hikaru hesitated, but she decided to lightly lock the door.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going on, but the panel is not responding. Can you open it from that side? I’m sure you have a master key with you during this emergency situation, right?”
The guy lightly bowed.
“We’re really sorry, it would cause trouble for us to open our customer’s room with our master key even in this situation. We do have one-time use emergency code, but if possible, we want to keep it for those who need them more. So, can’t you do something from inside?”
“I’m trying here, but it seems that nothing is working… Well, you can go ahead and evacuate the other people and come back here later.”
“But if we do that then, your safety would be compromised…”
“It’s fine. I’m a city management staff, so I already prepared myself for all possibilities the moment I stepped out into the wasteland. You should prioritize evacuating the other passengers. Ah, just tell me where I should evacuate, I will go there myself if I somehow manage to open this thing before you come back.”
“The evacuation point might change depending on the situation. The security inside the vehicle might also change during the emergency, so there is a good chance that you might get locked in if we’re not around.”
The guy’s tone suddenly slightly changed.
“…I’m sorry. We’re really in a hurry here, can’t you really do something from your side?”
Hikaru was with a guy by the name of Erde who was the leader of that team. Erde seemed to be slightly irritated, and he became rather impatient. It was understandable for someone from the escort team, who was evacuating the passengers, to have that expression.
Hikaru who saw that hesitated, but she still refused to touch the panel.
“I’m still trying here. Ah, is it because I’m the last person here so you can’t close the bulkhead before I evacuate?”
“Yes, with the forcefield armour has been set to its maximum output and we need to close the bulkheads. It’ll be difficult to reopen it later, that’s why we need to evacuate everyone right now.”
“I-is that so!? Wait for a sec!! I’ll open it!!… It still won’t open!! What’s going on here? Can’t you please try using the master key? It just won’t open from here!!”
Hikaru still had not touched the panel. She thought that she might have overdone it there, but her heart was telling her to still wait. She was planning to open the door later after Erde and his men left that place.
Erde’s face which already had a stern expression slightly changed.
“…Can’t you open it no matter what?”
“I’m already trying to open it here right now!”
In response to Hikaru’s voice that sounded as if she was panicking, Erde’s face turned cold for a split second, but it was immediately replaced by an ominous smile.
“I understand, we’ll open it with our master key.”
His smile was gone from his face.
“It’ll be dangerous, so please step back from the door.”
Erde looked at the other men to tell them to start working. Hikaru, who was noticed that, frowned. On the other side of the transparent door from her side, he could see them putting explosives on the door.
Erde and his men then opened up some distance, Hikaru also got away from the door in a hurry. In the next moment, the explosives finally exploded.
The boom travelled through the hallway together with a strong gust of wind. After both died down, Erde went to check the door and frowned. The door was so strong that it was left mostly undamaged.
“…Next!”
Erde’s men started putting the next explosive behind them, Erde thought.
[…Is she suspicious of us right from the start…? No, there was no trouble in the beginning. Which meant that the problem is the way I spoke…? I really have no idea though… I’m sure I made a blunder somewhere. Well, it doesn’t matter, I can just ask her directly later.]
Erde then shouted toward the room.
[Get away from the door if you don’t want to die!]
They then placed the explosives and activated them. Erde returned to check the door again, this time, it was enough to bend the door.
“…Next one!”
After 3 explosives, the bent grew bigger on the door.
Hikaru was a bit panicking, although her ominous feeling was on the mark, she did not understand what was going on.
The escort crew of the transport convoy were using explosives to open the door. Especially in this situation where the inside of the transport vehicle, and the whole transport convoy, were considered as a part of the inner city area. It was blatant disrespect toward Sakashita Heavy Industry, which was maintaining the area. In the worst-case scenario, it could even be considered as picking a fight against the whole Corporate Government.
The people who were doing that without showing any hesitation seemed to be aiming for her, who was nothing special but a normal city staff. Hikaru really did not understand the reason why.
She tried to contact HQ in a panic to report the situation to them, but she could not reach them. Thus, her choice quickly shifted to Akira. Unfortunately, the result was the same even after she increased the comm output to maximum. Hikaru then inadvertently screamed.
“What in the world is going on here!??”
But her voice was drowned by the explosion that echoed into the room. Hikaru flinched back and checked the door, it was doing its job very well. But even so, it was only a matter of time before it broke.
Hikaru frowned and scrambled over to try to contact anyone, she used her quick wits to look for a loophole in the communication line.
While back in the hallway, Erde looked at the bent door and frowned.
[…That’s one hell of a door. I guess it’s to be expected for an isolation room, huh?]
Each transport vehicle had a number of strongly built rooms called isolation rooms. They were made to withstand powerful attacks from the outside. It did sound like a very safe room, but at the same time, it also protects the area outside from whatever happened inside. Thus, it was often used to transport criminals or dangerous people. This included the superhuman with enhanced physical strength. Because of this bad impression, many isolation rooms were unoccupied although they could be filled with expensive facilities for transporting VIPs.
Akira was assigned to one of those isolation rooms. It was because Hikaru managed to get Akira into that escort request at the very last moment. She thought that it should be fine as long as she did not tell Akira about it. After hearing about Akira from Kibayashi, she then realized that the isolation room could be used to minimize the damage in case something happened. It was also one of the reasons why she did not cancel that escort request.
Although that was the real reason, Erde interpreted that situation differently.
[Did they send the escort outside because they think it would be fine as long as they have this isolated room? They are pretending to be a Hunter and his operator. I guess it would be suspicious unless they don’t do that much, huh? Which means this one is the jackpot, right?]
Erde, who read too much into the situation, frowned and said.
“Put the next one up! Add more explosives this time!”
“But we might damage the room or even the transport vehicle if we do that.”
“It doesn’t matter! Just do it!”
Erde’s men just did what they were told to and installed more explosives on the door.
They kept trying to break the door after that and they used more explosives for each try, causing the room to shake harder with every explosion. Although the explosions also shook the vehicle, it was minor compared to what was going on outside. The violent shaking filled Hikaru with desperation and terror. Even after it was badly bent, the door was still devoting itself to its duty. Nonetheless, the bend eventually created small holes that air could get through. Each explosion would start to send a strong gust of wind into the room.
“Whoah!? This is an isolation room, you know!? And it’s not like I’m an officer from Sakashita Heavy Industry! Then why are they even going that far?!”
“Get the next one!! Hurry up!!”
Hikaru, who heard that, panicked even more. But at the same time, she realized something. Whoever was on the other side of the door was in a hurry. Basically, they did not have much time. That reason might be because they only had a short time before the escort team noticed them. So, things might turn for the better if she could buy some time. As she thought so, Hikaru looked around the room for whatever might help her buy more time. After a short span of time, she came up with a small plan. She went to hide somewhere hard to find while she kept trying to contact someone.
The door finally gave up. The explosion and the banging sound that followed it let Hikaru know and made her freeze. That was when her connection to Akira recovered.
“Ah! It finally got connected!! Akira!! Help me!!”
That was right when Erde and his men stormed the room.
—*—*—*—
After hearing that plea from Hikaru, Akira returned back inside as soon as he could. He went to the gate on the rooftop, parked his bike beside the gate, and ran inside. Since he already knew that the inside of the vehicle was no longer safe, he did not hesitate as he stepped in carefully with his rifles ready. When he reached the hallway, he looked slightly confused, the hallway seemed to be slightly bent.
“Alpha, is that colourless mist?”
Alpha had a slightly stern look on her face as she replied.
“No, it’s some kind of enhanced particles that imitate the effect of the colourless mist.”
“Enhanced particles?”
“They’re basically dust particles that have the special characteristic of enhancing the basic properties of air. For now, just think of it as colourless mist. It also carries a jamming effect as well. My bet is that it has already spread all over the inside of the transport vehicle.”
Akira raised his guard. But he had no plan to retreat, he already resolved himself to charge forward as he asked Alpha.
“Basically, I just need to think of it as a thick colourless mist, right?”
“Yes, let’s do that while we move forward. I’ll try my best to help you if something happens.”
“Alright then.”
Akira ran straight through the hallway. With the help of his augmented suit, he was able to run so fast that he could feel a strong drag from the air. This phenomenon was not new to him, and it was exactly because he was used to it, that he noticed the air was slightly heavier than usual. It felt like he was moving his body inside a body of water but on a much lower level. But since it did not cause any noticeable effect on his speed, Akira decided to push forward and into his room.
Akira could see traces of explosions inside the hallway. They were from when Erde and his men broke through the isolation room. The force that leaked from the directional explosion left the ceiling, wall, and floor cracked. It showed just how powerful the isolation room was. Seeing that, Akira could not help but frown.
“I heard that the inside of the transport vehicle is very well guarded just like the area in the inner wall, but it seems that doesn’t mean it’s exactly peaceful, huh? Was I too late?”
He already lost contact with Hikaru. Although the line was still connected, he did not get any reply even when he tried to call her. Either she was not in a situation where she could say anything, or she was taken by whoever came for her after that last call. In the worst-case scenario, she might already be dead. Either way, Akira did not know which one was the case.
“Let’s check the room first.”
“You’re right.”
As he was running toward his room, suddenly two guys jumped out from the destroyed door and into the hallway.
Akira who saw that knitted his eyebrows. Thanks to the size of the transport vehicle, the hallway was pretty wide. But even so, it was not wide enough that it was possible to get away from a barrage of bullets. Even so, both of them were running fully open in the hallway with knives in hand as they closed the distance to Akira.
Akira was slightly confused, but he understood that they were enemies as he started shooting at them without any hesitation. The LEO multi-rifles in both of his hands filled the hallway, leaving no space for them to hide. With no place to take cover, those bullets hit those two men, or so it should have been.
Right in the next moment, Akira was so surprised that he froze up for a split second. All the bullets that he shot could not fly far enough to reach those men. Not even a single bullet hit them. The bullets flew a few metres forward while leaving a visible track behind them before they created a small shockwave as if they just hit an invisible wall and greatly slowed down. Some of the following bullets then hit the bullets in front of them and ricocheted inside the hallway.
Knowing that shooting was futile, Alpha stopped forcibly stopped Akira’s rifles. While still confused about what just happened, Akira recollected himself.
“Alpha, what did they do there just now?”
“Save it for later! They’re coming!!”
The two men closed the distance with their inhuman physical capability. But they were still far away from Akira. At least, they still could not reach Akira with their knives as the man on the right swung the knife with both of his hands. Akira saw that and the blade that was made of light extending out from that knife. He knew that it would reach him, so Akira took evasive action. Right at the next moment, a cross-shaped blade made of light passed right beside Akira.
At the same time Akira moved his body to evade that attack, he also activated his time perception compression and reality manipulation. Inside that distorted world, Akira ducked low to evade the incoming slash and charged forward to close their distance. Seeing what the man on the left was trying to do, Akira aimed both of his rifles toward that man.
Just like last time, the bullets did not even reach that man. But as those bullets lost their momentum and started slowly falling down to the ground, the barrage created a wall of bullets between Akira and that man. The man on the left used more than half of the power of his blade to get through that wall.
The weakened light blade touched Akira’s forcefield armour and Akira just forced his way forward. A blinding light flashed from where the light blade touched Akira’s augmented suit.
Akira then used the power of his augmented suit to launch himself forward as if he was a bullet to close the distance. The moment his enemies entered the distance that his bullets would suddenly slow down, Akira aimed his rifles at them and pulled the trigger.
Those two men nimbly evaded the bullets. Since they were already close enough to exchange blows, the bullets could not form a wall, so there was no need for them to make a big move to evade them. It was easier to evade them compared to the bullets that were shot from afar. Moreover, in order to break Akira’s stance, they launched a coordinated attack on Akira. Blade extended out from their knives. This time, it was not as long as a sword but slightly longer than a knife, thus maintaining their mobility and accuracy in that range.
One of them forced Akira’s attention by attacking him, while the other one jumped from the floor and bounced off the ceiling to find Akira’s back. They then both attacked Akira from 2 sides simultaneously. The blade of their knives drew an arc through the space that extended endlessly.
Akira also evaded that as he aimed his rifle at both of them. Although he no longer had the leeway to glance at them, Akira knew very well where they were and what they were doing. He quickly evaded and countered. He swung both of his rifles accurately and used the rapid-fire function to draw a line.
All of them were no longer only using the floor as their footings, they used walls and ceilings as well to exchange and evade attacks. They kicked whatever they were using as footings to suddenly stop and launch their body around. They jumped around inside the hallway as if gravity did not affect them. Meanwhile, they were swinging around blades and rifles to the point that the hallway was the first one to admit defeat.
Even the slightest delay would result in death. Even the slightest hesitation would turn into a game over. One wrong move and everything would end. Akira pushed his mind and body to survive such a situation. The medicines that he took beforehand kept repairing the unending damages on his body since he was constantly pushing it past its limit, preventing the bones inside his augmented suit from turning into ground dust. He had no leeway to worry about what was going on inside his augmented suit. All of his attention was focused on evading the incoming attack. Otherwise, he would be dead in no time.
During that fight, his augmented suit was burning through its energy reserve rapidly. Unless he pushed the speed of his augmented suit to its limit, he would not be able to catch up with the opponents’ moves. But due to that, the time that Akira had left until he ran out of energy was greatly shortened. That anxiety caused him to get impatient and impatience might lead to mistakes which would then lead to death.
Akira narrowly passed by multiple borders to death each second, and those seconds eventually turned into minutes. Akira desperately used all that he had to keep his life.
Then, in the next second, finally one of them made a mistake. The area was becoming more and more fragile during the fight. Both Akira and his opponents were tiptoeing their foothold so that their balance would not break. They even used forcefield armour to reinforce their footing in order to do that. However, there was a limit to how much it could help. Basically, there were only a limited number of spots where they could step on in the midst of that high-speed fight, and one of Akira’s opponents stepped on the wrong spot.
That blunder originally would only lightly throw him off balance. But in front of Alpha, it was turned into a fatal mistake. Even during the battle, Alpha was recording the situation of the hallway, she knew the spots that took too much damage. As such, she knew the spots that were dangerous to step on. She conveyed that information to Akira. Thus, even before his opponent made that opening because he was thrown off-balance due to footing, Akira already launched an attack to strike him.
The moment the guy touched the ground, he slightly slipped, which threw him off balance. The moment it disrupted his movement, Akira’s powerful kick was thrust into him. He did not have the chance to evade due to his broken posture and took that kick head-on. It sent his body flying powerlessly and planted his body into the wall, leaving a huge crack on the wall.
But even after receiving such an intense attack, his augmented suit saved him from any fatal injury. Unfortunately, that was all there was to it. Akira landed right next to him with one rifle aimed at his head while the other at his torso. Akira quickly released an intense short barrage. The point-blank shots allowed Akira’s bullets to hit their target without losing any momentum, turning the guy’s head and body into minced meat.
The other guy used that opening to slash toward Akira. But the sudden turn of events slowed him, albeit only slightly. On the other hand, Akira, who already knew what was going to happen, had the advantage. It allowed him to evade that slash. A cross-shaped slice was graved on the wall, but Akira ducked under the slash. Since Akira was able to fight even when it was 2 against 1, it was an easy thing for Akira to corner his opponent when it was one on one.
The bullets that Akira shot from his 2 LEO multi-rifles suddenly lost momentum as if they hit an invisible wall and fell to the ground, but that only happened after they pierced through his remaining opponent. The shockwave, which was focused on the enemy’s head and body, threw the remaining opponent off the ground with his half-destroyed corpse.
Even after that, Akira still had a stern look on his face. He quickly released his rifles off his grip as he reached for his medicine and his left hand to reload a new energy tank. The LEO rifles that he had left on the air ejected their magazines. Akira grabbed 2 new magazines, threw them in the air, and grabbed his rifles, and with one smooth sweep, reloaded the new magazines into his rifles before quickly aiming them at the door leading into his room.
If there was another opponent that came before Akira could finish tending to his injuries and equipment, he would have been dead. But fortunately, no one came. Akira inadvertently let out a sigh.
“…That was close! Alpha, was that already everyone?”
“No idea. The jamming is too strong, I can’t search the inside of the room. So be careful.”
“Roger that!”
Akira glanced at the already dead opponents.
“…Are these guys the people that Hikaru told me about? So why are they trying to get Hikaru? These guys are more troublesome than those white powered suits out there, you know?”
“Let’s ask that question straight to Hikaru. That is as long as she’s not already kidnapped or killed. But before that, if you have no plan to retreat, let’s take a 30-second break here. One thing for sure is that you won’t be able to keep going without rest at the moment. Also, if you decided to take a break here, take in some more medicine.”
Akira put back one of his rifles and took a large dose of medicine. His face was saying that he was in utter pain.
“…My head hurts so bad. That thing that allows me to see the world with better precision… It’s better if I don’t do that twice in one day.”
“If you’re not retreating, you might want to prepare yourself to do that three times today. Just to let you know, retreating is a viable option.”
“Uhh, well, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. But if it’s way out of what I can handle, I have no problem retreating right away. Is your support not enough this time?”
“Not at all.”
“Well, it’s decided then.”
Akira smiled wryly and started adjusting his breathing. Seeing that, Alpha also smiled wryly.
Akira had his attention to the front of him while repeatedly taking a deep breath. Slowly taking off the pressure from his tensed body. During that short break, Akira thought of something.
“By the way, how did they block my bullets? That thing is not forcefield armour, right?”
“That is a speed filter effect from the enhanced dust particle.”
The analysis of the colourless mist produced many kinds of results. One of them was its effect on high-speed objects. Certain particles would expand and create a stronger drag force proportional to the speed of the object going through them. So, people would use this effect to create an anti-bullet defence gas. It was often used by the escort team to protect important targets. The only downside was that the effect would only be realized when it was dense enough, so it was only usable inside an enclosed space.
After hearing that explanation, Akira pursed his lips.
“Which means that it could have stopped bullets the moment they left the barrel, no?”
“It would be bad for them as well if it gets that dense, so I bet they only spread enough particles so the effect would only come out when the bullets travel fast enough to form a dense enough barrier of air in front of them.”
“But they were throwing light blades too though?”
“Those were nothing more than light waves with cutting edge sharpness. They were not physical objects. Moreover, they were not as fast as the bullets, right?”
“…So, basically, they had no problem with that effect, huh?”
“I bet they’re the ones who spread the enhanced dust, so of course, they set it up to give them an advantage.”
Using something like that was basically meaningless when it was used out in the open. They would be only effective for a very short period of time. Not to mention, the amount of enhanced dust particles that they had to use, as a method to counter the opponent’s bullets, was quite inefficient.
But even so, attackers still sometimes chose this method when their aim was to capture rather than to kill their target. It was to reduce the chance of killing their target by mistake while at the same time, it also protected them from the escorts’ bullets. Basically, most of the people who use this method were skilled close-range fighters.
Since this method was often used by skilled close-range fighters in the eastern district that was ruled by guns, it must have been not easy to gather enough people who could fight effectively under such conditions. This meant that their target must be important enough for them to spare that effort and cost. This meant that their target was most likely either a top researcher or officer from the Corporate Government.
After listening to that explanation, Akira tilted his head.
“So why is Hikaru being targeted by these people? If I’m not mistaken, Hikaru is not someone that important, right?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. If she’s still around, we can just ask her later. Akira, it’s time to move again soon, this is your last chance to retreat, you know?”
Alpha was smiling challenging at Akira, He threw a sidelong glance and broke out a smile before he changed gear and went straight into his room.
