17. Interdimensional Assassins (3)
Several days passed.
Sometimes, our door was banged on.
When this happened, we scrambled to the bedroom and covered our mouths. Jarari seemed to enjoy this. Perhaps she thought it was a game.
Other times, there were strange sounds outside our home. Like the sound of growling, or weapons being sharpened.
When that happened, we didn’t do anything. I mean, what were we supposed to do?
Thus, just like that, a week passed.
“Oh my god. Did you seriously just pee in the sink again?”
“Ehe. Sorry!!☆”
Don’t attach something like a star to the end of your sentence. Don’t wink at me while sticking out your tongue slightly in an attempt to look cute. My blood pressure is going up. I’ll rip that tongue out.
Sigh.
I pinched the bridge of my nose with one hand.
“What am I going to do with you–”
“Hellooo~”
“...!”
Suddenly, from the other side of the door was a voice.
I looked at Usavich and Jarari. We nodded in silent agreement, then scurried into the bedroom.
“Hello…?”
I raised a finger to my mouth.
“It’s bad manners to keep a guest waiting.”
Keep waiting forever then, you bastard.
Go away, damn it!
“Okaaay, guess I’ll have to welcome myself in!”
Clang!
“...!”
The walls shook from that one impact alone. It had the same effect of a mini-earthquake.
Clang!
I began to have a bad feeling.
That this one at the door was not like the others that had come before.
Clang! Clang!
“Oh jeez, won’t you just open it?”
The surroundings were shaking like crazy now. The souvenirs I had put on the shelves had fallen and cracked. I’ll have to clean that up later.
Just how strong was this person…? If I had to guess, excessively so.
Clang!!
“Finally! Tsk, I got dust all over me.”
There was the sound of something metallic clattering outside my bedroom. Most likely, the door had finally given in and toppled over. Thank you for your service.
In addition, the voice that was muffled had now become clear.
In other words, the stranger had entered our home.
[Jarari’s stress has increased greatly.]
Well… the situation wasn’t looking good. But on the bright side, it's not like it was completely over either. If we played our cards right, it’s winnable.
“...Usavich.”
I whispered to Usavich and gave the signal to begin the assault.
“...Artillerya.”
The mermaid nodded with a serious expression and whispered a word in an other-worldly language. Her fingers snapped rapidly, and her gaze became unfocused.
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
“Oh…!!”
The deafening roars of cannons firing all at once filled the apartment.
I covered Jarari’s ears with my hands, and lowered my head, wincing from the sheer loudness of the sound.
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
Usavich continued snapping, beads of sweat forming on her shiny forehead.
A few days ago, I had asked her what her strongest weapons were.
“Cannons.”
Then, I asked her how many cannons she could summon at once.
“As many as there are on my ship!”
“And how much is that…?”
“Hmmm… about… one hundred?”
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
An autonomous firing squad of one hundred cannons.
Surely…
Surely…!!
“Oho, that was pretty dangerous!”
…
I grit my teeth and swallowed nervously.
The stranger was still alive, somehow.
“Erghh… human.”
Usavich’s face had turned deathly pale, sweat pouring down her face and body.
“Did I get her…?
“Indeed, you did.”
“N-Nice… let’s eat some ice cream, later, human…”
“Of course.”
I lied to Usavich, who had now closed her eyes.
The summoning of all those cannons must have taken a toll.
With a swift motion, I rolled the unconscious Usavich underneath my bed, and then pushed Jarari into my closet.
“...!”
[Jarari wishes to stay with you.]
“I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
“...”
“Just stay here and protect Usavich, okay?”
“...”
“Our strong Jarari can do that for me, right?”
“...”
In between the small slits in the closet, I could make out the wolf girl slowly nodding her head.
“Thank you… Jarari.”
With that, I was ready.
“Ohhh? Is someone theeeere?”
I pulled out the needle artifact from my pocket and clutched it in the palm of my hand.
“Yeah. I’m right here.”
“Took you long enough!”
The stranger was a woman.
She had a youthful expression, but for some reason, I was certain that she wasn’t in the latter years of her teens.
Her eyes were gazing into mine.
There was something hypnotic about her.
…
I bit my tongue and looked away, focusing on her hands.
She had a ring on each and every one of her ten fingers, and a bracelet on both her wrists.
There was only one word I could use to describe her: parvenue.
Furthermore, the fact that her fingernails were all painted black and that there was a tattoo on the back of both of her hands, boosted that parvenue-like feeling further.
Matching her hair, she was wearing a white cowboy coat embroidered with golden threads and balls of fluff were attached to the seams and sleeves of her coat. Even the long shirt and skirt that she had on underneath were a matching white color. But for some reason, only her belt and her high socks that reached up to her knees were black.
Moreover, for some unknown reason, she wasn’t wearing shoes.
Normally, it would be fitting to say that she had a look straight out of one of those old western movies. But I couldn’t recommend that expression. Since every caucasian girl on Earth could never look like her. No, any girl on Earth most likely couldn’t look like her.
Especially her eyes… her pupils were different. The strange feeling that I felt when I first met her was more obvious now since I was in an open space.
Located in the center of her eye, a scar that looked like something that was formed when smashing a pickaxe into a wall of ice with all your strength. A rupture.
I understood two things.
First, the fact that this fellow and I were absolutely not part of the same ‘humankind’. The same way I knew immediately that Usavich was not a person like me.
Second, the fact that this is the same feeling I had when I met my ex-girlfriend for the first time. That this is fate, that this will be an ill-fated relationship, this feeling passed by after having left my heart tightly bound.
“Are ya’ gonna say anything?"
“Ah, sorry about that."
“No worries, a looot of people get a little empty-headed when they look at me."
The snake-like woman’s gaze narrowed.
“Now…"
Click.
She took a step towards me, her heels snapping against the wooden flooring.
“Where's the girl?"
This person in front of me was an assassin. That was a fact I was sure of.
A dangerous aura was being emitted. Despite her harmless appearance, it was all a facade. There was something truly skin-crawling about the way she acted.
“What girl? I don’t understand what you’re talking about… you have my apologies."
Now that I was looking closely, Usavich’s attack had affected the stranger slightly.
The woman’s right shoe had been broken near the heel area, and there was a long scratch running down the bridge of her nose.
… but at what cost.
My apartment had been utterly destroyed.
The walls had been turned into swiss cheese and nearly every single piece of furniture had exploded.
I suddenly felt a flash of anger, but I suppressed it and smiled at dangerous the woman in front of me.
“Don’t lie. I don’t like liars."
I extended the needle in my hand.
“I know she’s in here. The Wolf Princess."
I took a step backwards.
“I’m going to kill you, if you don’t tell me."
I felt my heart rate quickening.
“I’ll kill your friends, too."
What do I do.
What do I do, what do I do, what do I do.
The question repeated itself in my head. I suddenly felt foolish.
I had prepared, yet here I was, cornered like a little mouse in front of the cat.
“I’m foolish."
“Hmm?"
“I’m a foolish man, so you’ll have to forgive me."
I walked towards her, but she didn’t take any action. Perhaps she thought I was too weak to do anything that could ever possibly harm her.
I was a pathetic human being, after all.
[Infamous Knight’s Needle]
[When stabbed into a target, initiate an absolute duel where outsiders cannot interfere.]
“What..!!"
But, as a human being, this was the only thing my pride and dignity could accept.
