Chapter 98: VS. Yuri, Part Two

“Ratchet, how about appealing to the bond between parent and child?”

“I’ll try. I’ll try, but it’s pointless, you know?”

“Even so, we will be able to rest for a little, yes? I am counting on you.”

“…”

What an absurd thing to throw at me.

I let out a breath tinged with resignation. I tried to scratch my head with the grip of my gun, but the head armor got in the way. It made a dull gon. I let both hands hang loosely at my sides and took one step forward.

“That’s how it is. Would you be willing to let us go?”

I shaped the words wearily.

A cool voice answered.

“Do you know why torture is prohibited against prisoners?”

“Human kindness. Forgiving one’s enemies. That is the strength of humanity.”

“Don’t say things you don’t believe.”

“Then,” I prefaced, and continued. “Is it so that the same protection will be given when you become a prisoner yourself?”

“That answer is much more like you. And that is correct too. But there are other reasons. For example, to choose how you lose.”

“…I see.”

If the prisoners were unharmed, negotiation was possible. You could hand them over and have the other side ease its grip.

That was what she meant.

“The three of them are unharmed, though.”

“Only three of them are unharmed.”

“…If I remember correctly, your job was to protect the researchers. Eliminating hostile forces was not included in that job, was it?”

So please overlook us.

“If all the researchers were safe, that path might have existed. But you overdid it, idiot.”

“Company face. Mercenary face. Is that what this is? Still, could you not bend that a little out of parental affection?”

“No.”

“I see.”

“Well, it is parental affection. I will leave you alive.”

“I see.”

Then I would go at her with the intent to kill. Unfortunately, I did not have enough skill to be arrogant.

One deep breath.

Keeping Yuri in my field of vision, I slowly lowered my hips.

“Rikan, as you can see.”

“You may still get away with your life, but we will be killed, yes.”

“…If you want to run, I’ll cover you.”

“Do not be stupid. Battle against the strong is the honor of a Leone man.”

What a difficult way to live you have, Leone clan.

That was the end of my conversation with Rikan.

Rikan stepped out in front of me, the rear guard.

Watching us, Yuri swayed into a stance.

The observing eye.

That was the technique at the root of Yuri’s perception.

To watch with a sway. To watch the whole. To watch the beginning of movement.

In martial arts, it was apparently not that rare a technique.

But when refined to its extreme, it became this. At this level, “not rare” no longer applied.

It was not merely watching the start of movement. She watched the stage before that, the stage of killing intent, and formed her movements from there.

That was why attacks did not hit her.

That was why she could dodge.

But honestly, that could not be all.

That was simply as far as I could put it into words. Nothing more. Otherwise, there would be no reason she could dodge a sniper shot from a distance where visual confirmation was impossible.

Yuri’s perception did not rely on sight.

In other words, Yuri had no blind spots.

“…Ratchet, do you have a plan?”

“…The one with the highest chance of success is for you and me to die so the others can escape.”

“And what is the success rate of that?”

“Did you know, Rikan? A man is only allowed to count up to three.”

“…”

“So the odds of us defeating Yuri and the odds of that plan working are the same. ‘A lot.’”

“That is enough manliness to make me fall for you, Ratchet.”

“Thanks.”

I looked at Rat and nodded. I operated my terminal and sent A1 and S2 the code we had decided on in advance. Then I stepped ahead of Likan, who had already moved forward, and brought my right hand behind my back.

I struck the back of my waist once with my fist, struck it once more with my raised thumb, and finally pointed with my index finger toward the exit I carried on my back.

“Rikan, Wild Hunt.”

I used the end of the sentence as the signal.

I dropped the Lacquer Type in my left hand and took a grenade instead. Using the pin-puller attached to the Centipede, I pulled the pin and threw it.

I saw Yuri jump. Backward, to avoid the grenade.

The moment her feet left the ground, Likan and I backstepped toward the exit. We turned the corner. I gently placed a grenade with its pin pulled on the floor.

Likan threw away his curved swords and the heavy machine gun on his back, lightening himself. Then, as his replacement load, he picked me up.

“I do not know the way!”

“Follow Rat.”

I left route selection to him. Rat would probably take us to the entrance leading underground where S2 was waiting, while linking up nicely with Rikan’s subordinates and A1 along the way.

So I focused on Yuri.

My brain crackled.

Even so, I kept thinking, kept calculating, kept acting.

Now, what happens next?

Yuri chases us and reaches the exit. What will she do when she gets there? I imagined it. Once she came, she would dislike the grenade placed at her feet and kick it rolling toward us. The chance that she would stop, use the claymore as a shield, and endure it was low.

“…”

I stopped breathing.

Still sitting on Rikan’s swaying shoulder, I stilled my body. I placed a bullet into the future I had imagined.

Yuri came there.

Yes. You would do that. You would choose to kick the grenade, wouldn’t you? Then, for an instant, you would stop there, wouldn’t you?

I aimed at her stomach.

I had placed the bullet there.

That was all.

As I thought, it was not her eyes.

Yuri responded to that move even though I was not looking at her.

She stabbed the claymore into the ground and jumped. As my bullet struck the claymore in vain, she planted her feet on the ceiling and jumped again. With the explosion at her back, she landed on the floor and came forward like a bouncing ball.

I had barely cost her any time.

She alone was absolutely in the wrong genre.

But fine.

There was something I had over Yuri.

Range.

A fighting style that made use of that was not wrong.

Humans are weaker than bears. Weaker than wolves, and weaker than the dogs they domesticated from wolves.

But long before my era, humans had already been able to hunt them.

At first, stones. Then throwing spears, maybe. Then bows, and eventually guns.

Humans won because they won in range.

So I would follow the example of my great predecessors.

Next.

Yuri started running. I fired at the place I thought she would step. It did not hit. Even so, I forced her to change her stride. That was enough. To widen the time I had gained, I threw a grenade.

She batted it back.

I shot the grenade that came flying back at us. It exploded in midair. Yuri’s pace did not slow.

Scary.

But fine. I had earned distance and time.

So I threw another grenade.

First, I pulled the pin on the first one. I did not throw it yet. I pulled the pin on the second, threw that, then threw the first.

“Stun.”

I said it quietly, so only Rikan could hear.

Rikan’s lion ears flattened.

It soothed me a little.

My Centipede, the Hound Model, looked at the first grenade hanging in midair and activated its anti-flash function. My vision darkened. Sound was cut off. Yuri’s side was probably the same. Since I was being carried by Likan, our speed did not drop.

Yuri, however, was different.

Again, I earned time and distance.

A bullet passed beside me. Yuri disliked it and dodged.

Snake’s sniping.

The scenery around us drew closer to the entrance to the underground passage.

“How is the entrance secured?”

“Complete! The defense of Leone heavy infantry will not be broken so easily!”

“That helps.”

For an instant, I checked behind us.

A1 and Likan’s subordinates were the main force securing the entrance.

Yuri’s Monoz seemed few in number.

Eight machines. Two were missing.

Why? I thought.

If they were acting separately, that would be troublesome.

What was it?

Ah, right.

Protecting the surviving researchers.

Then fine.