WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ Black Badger ◈
Chapter 36: Rescue Mission (2)
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There was a man with a Japanese sword.
More precisely, a man wore a Japanese sword’s scabbard at his waist. He held a well-maintained Japanese sword in his right hand.
He’d put a lot of care into it.
I stared blankly at the drawn blade.
That was some impressive maintenance work.
I approached the man standing with his back to me. A purple coat, a sword in his right hand. He stood like a statue among the panicked people.
The bestiary I had shoved into my pocket reacted.
[Creature “Fire Shield”]
The creature was panting beside a ruined fountain.
[Level 5. A floating creature. It slowly floats through the air and spews powerful pillars of fire. The more skilled it is, the stronger its flames become. Chemical attacks are more effective than physical attacks. When approached, it grows larger and devours its target. Its weaknesses are water and fire. Frequently sighted in deserts.]
I watched the ember-like thing floating beside the melted fountain.
Until the motionless man turned his head to look at me.
There was not even a trace of interest in his eyes.
“I’ll make sure no civilians are caught in the fire pillars.”
I looked at the handsome young man with a firm expression.
“I won’t get in your way, Senior.”
“Motorcycle.”
Jonathan Kudo raised his Japanese sword and pointed at a motorcycle on display on the first floor.
His voice held just as little interest as his gaze.
“Move it.”
I did not even have time to answer yes.
He swung his arm, gripped the Japanese sword properly, and ran straight at the creature.
I lifted the motorcycle and ran.
Keeping my eyes on Jonathan Kudo, I assessed the situation as I moved. A spacious, open lobby typical of a shopping mall. A collapsed fountain in the center. Escalators.
A short run from the escalators would lead to the exit. The elevators seemed to have stopped. Everyone on the second floor was crowding onto the escalators.
A vortex formed in the middle of the fireball floating beside the fountain.
The senior stopped right in front of it.
Whoosh!
An enormous wave of heat poured out.
“Argh!”
“Run! Hurry!”
The fleeing people screamed.
I moved the motorcycle into a corner and spun around. I turned my gaze toward the center of the lobby to check what had happened.
The man had taken the creature’s powerful fire pillar head-on.
He smoothly brought down his long sword.
It looked as though he had blocked the heat with his blade.
Screeeech!
Kudo’s heat-scorched sword scraped across the marble floor.
The floor did not crack easily. It was thick, so that was only natural. The flame floating above the marble formed another vortex around itself. It would spew fire again soon.
I quickly turned my head to find the people I had to protect.
Most of the people in the first-floor lobby had escaped. The people from the upper floors were the problem. They were running desperately down the stopped escalators.
They were focused only on running toward the exit.
There was quite a distance from the escalators to the front doors. I would have to protect that stretch.
I would have to become a human firewall.
I ran toward the escalators.
“Argh!”
“Got you.”
I caught a man who tripped while running for the exit.
I helped the flustered man back to his feet and pushed him forward.
“Keep running.”
“Y-yes. Thank you.”
“I think that’s a Badger.”
Students jumping off the escalator whispered.
“Thank you!”
“Protect us properly!”
I let the voices wash over me.
With my arms stretched out, I kept the people running to the front doors separated from the creature. I made a wall with my body and watched them ride down the escalators and head for the exit.
Shu seemed to be moving quickly upstairs. I heard the hoverboard slicing through the air, people mumbling their thanks, and those who had landed on the second floor running toward the escalators leading to the lobby.
I could also hear the creature spewing fire again...
“Over there!”
“Argh! Move!”
“Ah!”
Boom!
A scorching heat burned my back.
I hugged a sturdy man and rolled across the lobby. I rolled and rolled. After several rolls, I sprang up and saw the senior standing in front of us.
The hem of the purple coat crumbled into ash as it burned.
Once again, he had cut through the flames with his sword. My back had not burned while I protected the civilian because of him.
There was no time to thank him, though.
“Run!”
“Yes! Thank you!”
“Hey, wait! You!”
Screeeech!
Jonathan Kudo began scraping the floor again with his heated sword.
The thick marble was cracking. I jumped to my feet and ran to protect the escaping people, watching Kudo and the creature.
He was trying to cut it. He was cutting through the floor to burst the water pipes inside.
The pipes connected to the fountain.
Boom!
“Argh, damn, that’s hot!”
“Run! Run!”
“Almost everyone has evacuated!”
Shu’s voice came from above.
“These are the last ones!”
“Hey!”
As I protected the people running for the exit, someone shouted behind me.
“You! White hair! Protect me!”
“No!”
A woman supporting someone who had trouble walking down the last steps of the escalator shouted.
“Don’t go! There are more people here!”
“I said protect me! Badgers are supposed to protect civilians!”
“Here it comes again!”
Whoosh!
Intense pain covered my back.
There had been two attacks. Kudo smoothly cut through one fire pillar, but he could not block the attack that followed. Fortunately, the flames poured down close to me. I could rush over in a single stride and protect the civilians.
I was not even wearing a combat uniform, so the pain was intense.
Unable to relax my grimace, I pushed the woman I had protected toward the exit.
“Run.”
“Ah, ah...”
“Hurry!”
As I pushed the dazed woman away, I sharpened all my senses.
Once I saw her drag her trembling legs away, I turned my head.
The fireball trembled in the melted lobby.
I did not like that it had suddenly spewed two fire pillars in a row.
Screeeech!
The sharp sound rang out again.
At the moment Kudo drew his sword back in a straight line, I saw water burst from the pipes.
Hissssss!
“Mom!”
“Oh! Water!”
“White hair! I told you to protect me!”
“Excuse me.”
Shu came down to the first floor and picked up the stragglers. I also began lifting up the few people left and helping them escape.
I ignored the noises behind me. There was only one man’s voice coming from that direction.
In a situation like this, I had to make the choice that would save even one more person.
If I had no choice but to choose...
Thanks to Shu and me running around frantically, the civilians escaped fairly quickly.
While Shu set three children down at the exit, I turned to rescue the last civilian.
“You can run, right?”
“Yes.”
I helped the man who had been the last to run down the escalator escape.
I protected him from the flames as we reached the front doors, but the doors opened and a woman shouted urgently.
“Have you seen two children?”
“Please stay outside. We’ll find them, ma’am.”
“I can’t find my two children!”
“What?”
Amazingly, I could still hear the voice of the man behind me.
“What’s with that thing?!”
Boom!
There was an explosion.
The heavy force of it slammed into everything around us. The light painfully filled my vision.
Thankfully, I could cover the man who kept calling me white hair in a single stride. I hugged the man who had demanded my protection and rolled across the floor.
A groan escaped me as the shockwave struck my back.
Had everyone else made it out safely...?
My body would not listen because of the impact.
My voice would not come out properly either. I tried to raise my upper body while shielding the man with my body.
I forced my eyes open to assess the situation.
The lobby was a mess from the explosion.
The fountain had melted away without a trace, and the water pouring from the pipes had weakened. Broken glass windows. Glass shards scattered across the melted marble floor.
The creature wriggled in the air, now blue.
Fortunately, it seemed that all the civilians had evacuated.
There was no one in the lobby. Everyone seemed to have made it outside by a narrow margin. Except for the man I was protecting. He looked shocked, but otherwise unhurt.
I turned away from the man and looked at Kudo across from me, who had probably been caught closest to the explosion. He was bracing himself against the wall and staggering to his feet.
“Are you all right?”
There was no answer.
But he gripped his sword neatly again, so I knew he would be fine.
“I’ll get this man out and come right back.”
“Don’t.”
The senior roughly threw off the coat that had become rags.
Without sparing even a glance for me as I forced myself up, he declared,
“You’ll only get in the way.”
Well, I had expected that response.
But shouldn’t we check whether there were more civilians inside? That woman had been shouting about not finding her children.
I did not answer the senior. I smiled faintly and turned toward the civilian.
I did not know when that thing would explode again, so I had to get the man out quickly.
I reached out and pulled the dazed man to his feet. He looked to be in his late thirties and wore a neat suit.
“Let’s go.”
I lightly gripped the dazed man’s shoulder.
“It’s dangerous here.”
“Why did that suddenly explode...?”
“I don’t know. Either way, you should leave before it explodes again.”
“Senior!”
Shu’s voice sounded from the air.
Kudo did not respond. Shu was clearly calling him, but the senior holding the Japanese sword ran through the lobby, cutting through the fire pillars that came at him one after another.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The fire pillars exploded as the Japanese sword blocked them.
Shu’s hoverboard disappeared from view.
“I’ll burst the aquarium tank on the third floor!”
“Hey! Wait! Why would you burst that?!”
“Let’s go.”
Realizing the man would not leave on his own, I quickly picked him up.
“It’s dangerous here, so I’ll escort you as you wish.”
“Do you know how much I spent on that?! Don’t burst it! Don’t!”
“Headquarters.”
As I carried the man on my back and ran for the front doors, I heard Kudo report into the communicator in his ear.
“H Tower civilian evacuation compl...”
Crash!
The impact struck my body.
It was twice as strong as before. Strong enough to make my mind go blank for a moment before it returned.
My vision turned upside down.
A ringing filled my ears. My body was swept up in the powerful explosion. Heavy pain struck my entire body.
Amid the wildly shaking sensation, I tried to protect the man.
For a long time, I lay sprawled on the floor, covering him. Even after the explosion swept past, and even after ominous cracking sounds began as soon as the shockwave had passed.
It felt like the building would collapse soon. The tower, unable to withstand the earlier explosion, would probably collapse within minutes.
But my body would not move.
Get up.
Get up, pick this man up, and run.
Right now...
Crack! Crash!
A huge sound, comparable to an explosion, filled the hall.
I gathered all my strength and got up. I remembered picking up the civilian and running toward somewhere that looked safe. I only remembered running. As I ran, stones poured down from above, and my consciousness cut out.
Along with the sound of a rain of stones.
I lost consciousness.
* * *
I heard the sound of stones being moved.
“Senior Kudo.”
Stones rolled away to the side. Light streamed in.
I saw the face before me and smiled faintly.
“Are you all right? I was worried you’d been crushed to death.”
Jonathan Kudo, covered in dried blood, looked down at me coldly.
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