We’re lucky to have Narumi with us. I got us into a bad position by being reckless, but with her plan, we now have a way out of this. She really bailed us out…

  Although in the end, I’m left doing what I do best. Walking up to a group of enemies and facing them head-on.

  *Step, step…* Ayumu had Katja surrounded, and she was in the middle of an interrogation when they suddenly went quiet. She faintly noticed my footstep and paused.

  *Clank! Clank!* I’m not scared of you anymore. With my sword, I tapped the railing next to me and announced myself.

  “Hey, Ayumu… Is there room for one more?” I almost didn’t recognize her… Why is her hair pink now?

  Ayumu and all her monsters immediately turned to face me. “Iroha…” She glared while muttering to herself. After a second, a mocking grin appeared on her face. “What’s with that dress? I didn’t know you had a sense of fashion!”

  “Wha?! It works as protective armor, thank you very much.” Sigh… Still nitpicking things as always. “I’m glad you like it, though. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

  “Hmm…” I answered with a cheeky smile, and she looked down on me. “I also didn’t know you were capable of sarcasm…”

  “Looks like you’re learning a lot today…”

  “And here I was avoiding going to school…” Her composed smile didn’t crack, and she shrugged, resigned. “What are you doing here anyway?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? I’m here to take Katja back.” The one who was still encircled by Ayumu’s puppets, holding her shoulder and barely able to stand on her own feet. “She’s important to me.”

  “Important…” Ayumu looked uninterested, distant… “What are you two again? Are you really members of some secret organization? What do you even do?”

  “Didn’t you already get an answer to that? We fight monsters.” I lifted my sword and pointed at the puppets. “You know, those things you’ve been making.”

  “So she was telling the truth… Since when?” Ayumu looked at me. “You’re a somewhat recent member, aren’t you? I was able to corner Katja, so I’m not scared of you. Time for us to settle things!” It’s a good thing she doesn’t perceive me as a threat yet…

  She clapped, and as soon as she did, one of the wooden soldiers charged forward with sabers in hand.

  Slash Flu—No. It’d be easy to do that, but I need to do something first! *Cling!* I intercepted the puppet’s blade, and by putting in extra strength… *Snap!* I managed to break the blade. “There!” I swung my sword in an exaggerated arc, and the broken bit flew into a nearby camera, breaking it.

  Two more to go. Thanks to Narumi, I know the location of the cameras nearby. I need to take them down before unleashing my skills. Could just shoot at them… But that’d look too suspicious… Better to make it look like accidents.

  “Not bad. So you’ve learned how to use a sword too. I gotta ask again, do you not have any better weapons? Or are you like Katja and think you don’t need them? I’ll make you regret that!”

  After destroying the camera, the next swing cut the pullet in half. For some reason, despite being made of wood, the puppet still bled. Drops of blood landed on my hair and skin.

  Ayumu gave me no room to breathe, and when the monster’s body hit the floor, the next wave charged forward.

  I dodged in between their sabers while retaliating with my sword. Three were cut, one of them dead. As for the other ones… *Bang! Bang!* I shot them before they could get away and attack again. Finally… *Bang!* A third shot that missed all my attackers. Oh no… I’m so clumsy! And poof! There goes another camera.

  “Okay… I take back what I said… Maybe you do know what real weapons are.” Ayumu calmly crouched and reached for one of the mannequins. One of the soldiers that had been slain and returned to him to life. The mannequins transformed into a soldier and stood in front of her with a riot shield.

  Geez… Did she think I was gonna shoot her? Now I wanna send a couple bullets her way just to scare her. Either way, I have to deal with the ones on me first.

  Dodge dodge dodge! Slash slash slash! The ones with sabers aren’t that dangerous, and I’m sure even Katja was able to deal with this. I culled down their number until there were only a few left, and… *Bang!* There goes the final camera.

  I cut down more than 10 by now, but Ayumu’s army was still as big as it started. As long as Ayumu could reach the mannequins, they’d keep coming back. But the number of enemies with sabers was going down. More now held shields and muskets.

  “Why would you go this far, Ayumu?” I shot a few bullets her way, which were all blocked by shields. They were going to miss anyway, but I don’t think she knew that. “Do you hate me that much?”

  “Hate?” She kept the sarcastic smile on her face. “I can’t stand seeing you ever again… Can’t stand your lies.”

  Doesn’t look like we’re gonna talk this out… “Well… The feeling’s mutual… You’ve been nothing but a source of stress for a long time now…”

  “And apparently, you deserved it.” Ayumu glared. “I should have done this earlier…”

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  I deserved it?! That’s fucking mean… “Why can you do this in the first place? How did you get the skill to create monsters?”

  “Sigh… It’s a complicated story, but I got them from another world…” She then grinned mockingly. “Oh wait, you don’t believe there’s anything on the other side of the portals, right? My bad…”

  Katja didn’t, but I obviously knew. I kept my mouth shut and neither confirmed nor denied it. I can’t while Katja’s still here… “Wait… Do you?”

  Ayumu picked up on it and looked surprised. Let’s change topics! “Why did you target the House? If you had a problem with me, why would you attack our group? Why not just me?”

  “I didn’t target your group… Only people I found annoying… Like the orange-haired girl you arrived with, I’ve never even seen her before… Speaking of which… Where is she…?”

  Fuck… She noticed… I don’t know if it will interfere with the plan, but I’d rather she focus on me. “What about the monsters in the cruiser, the art gallery, and the courthouse? Who were you targeting with those?”

  Ayumu scratched her head as if she just remembered. “Wait, no, not those… Those were just experiments… No real meaning to them.”

  Ayumu raised her arm, ready to give the next order. At that moment, I saw something from the corner of my eye. There was a hole in the ceiling with a familiar face there. Narumi was in position, signaling that she was ready to drop down.

  “Go!” Ayumu gave her command, but before her army could move…

  Burst Dash! Slash Flurry! Butterfly’s Wings! I shot forward far faster than anyone there expected and made it to Katja’s side. Slashes from every direction made mincemeat of every soldier I passed by, and the shockwaves cleared up a big path.

  Wooden body parts flew everywhere, spraying blood as they spun through the air.

  “Iroha…? What did you…?” Katja looked up, confused.

  “Shh! Don’t say anything!” I turned my back on her and faced the soldiers before they could close the gap.

  “Grab on!” Narumi dropped down and immediately lifted Katja. “I’m getting us out of here. Iroha will keep the path clear!”

  “Alone? That’s…” We started sprinting. She had no time to say anything else.

  Ayumu barely had time to react before we started to get away. “Where did you show up… Block them!” The best she could do was send one of her shield dudes to stand in our way.

  “Heart Piercer!” I lunged forward without hesitation. The shield was tough, but the puppet not so much. The armor-piercing effect made it through and opened a hole right through his chest. The shield dropped to the ground, and another bleeding soldier turned back into a mannequin.

  “Now go! Go, Narumi! Get her to safety. I’ll deal with Ayumu!”

  “Got it!” Narumi ran while carrying Katja, and Ayumu didn’t look too pleased.

  “Tsk… Was this your goal all along?” Ayumu watched as Narumi ran away with Katja, disappearing from view. “Look at how cocky you’ve gotten…”

  Her soldiers were back in action and more aggressive than ever. I was rushed down by her swordsmen. She might have been able to overwhelm me before, but not anymore…

  “I’m not cocky, just happy. Now that Narumi and Katja are out of the way, I don’t need to hold back anymore!”

  Parrying Strike! My sword met their strikes one after the other. Burst Dash! Heart Piercer! Slash Flurry! Swords broke, and blood sprayed, bodies falling one by one.

  “H- how? Not even Katja could do that…” Ayumu muttered under her breath. “Alright… Let’s see how happy you are after this!”

  One of the soldiers armed with a musket raised it and aimed at me. *Boom!* Parrying Strike! A sharp sound echoed, and the projectile was cut in half. Ayumu had yet to process what happened, and the soldiers waited in place. Agility Burst into Heart Piercer! In less than a second, the guy who shot me was dead. The puppet bled as he fell to the floor, and his body turned back.

  “No- no way… You- you can… Dammit! Everyone, fire!” The one I killed wasn’t the only one with a gun, and it didn’t seem like there was a limit to how many Ayumu could make. More than 10 barrels were pointed at me and fired almost simultaneously. I could just dodge, but…

  Slash Flurry Parrying Strikes! All their shots were cut or deflected, and I didn’t waste a single moment. I lunged forward and killed the shooters one after the other.

  “Your powers are on a different level from Katja’s… You also got them from going into the other world, didn’t you?” She gritted her teeth while running to the fallen mannequins.

  “You could say that…”

  “Yeah. I knew it… And you didn’t tell them about any of that, huh? As expected of a liar like you.” The shooters were dead, and my momentum came to a halt. That one stung… “Whatever… You’re gonna run out of steam eventually… I can keep reviving them forever!”

  More gunners appeared on the battlefield and started shooting right away. They were more disorganized now, giving me plenty of gaps to keep killing and keep their numbers low. “You can keep reviving them forever? Can you, though?”

  Impact Round! “Ahh!” Ayumu was reaching down for her next revival when the mannequin exploded. A bullet imbued with magic obliterated the mannequin and created a small crater on the floor. I repeated that a couple more times until there were so many holes that the mall started looking like a battlefield.

  “Fuck…” Ayumu glared as she was left with no other choice but to watch from behind the shields. “You still had another trick up your sleeve?!”

  “Well… I’ve just run out of bullets, so feel free to revive the next ones. To be honest, I don’t need to stop you from doing that to begin with. If you can really revive them forever, I can keep killing them forever. And faster than you…”

  The Violence stacks were building up. Faster… Each slash was getting more and more powerful, and the fallen mannequins piled up.

  “I can move faster too! You’ll get tired eventually!” Ayumu chased me as I opened gashes on her soldiers left and right. She ran with a hand close to the floor and raised as many mannequins as she could. Blood sprayed everywhere, and she kept her head low to duck under.

  This is good… It’s been a while since I’ve been able to get so many stacks. My body’s getting lighter and lighter. “Keep it up… I’m not ready to stop yet… Give me more!”

  “What the hell? It’s not working! How can you keep getting faster?”

  More! More! Let’s go… I can get even faster! Die die die die die! Nothing can stop me now… This is what it’s all about!

  We started with hundreds of soldiers, and at first, she was able to keep their numbers relatively steady. But not anymore. She stopped for a moment, and more than half her army died. We’re down to double digits now. Ahh… It won’t be long now…

  “I don’t mean to brag… But you’re not the only one who got some cool powers.” There were less than a dozen left between me and her, and the outcome had more or less been decided. “For every enemy I kill, I get a small temporary burst of speed and strength. Individually, it’s nothing that crazy, but when you put a lot of them together, this is what happens…”

  Ayumu stood with one leg behind the other and an arm defensively in front of her. She’s feeling cornered, huh? “I think it shows when the stacks are in effect, but I’m not sure how…”

  “It’s your eyes… And hair… well, the blood on it… They’re redder and… pulsating?” What’s different exactly? I played with a lock of hair, and it seemed normal… Blonde like always…

  “Either way, if you wanna defeat me, you’ll have a better time with a single, super-powerful monster. Against lots of small fry, you’re just giving me fuel, you know? Time to finish this!”

  I flexed my legs and shot forward. I didn’t need to kill her, so I passed my sword to my offhand and raised my fist. “Ah!”

  “A super-powerful monster…” Ayumu raised her handbag as a shield and put it between her and my fist. “Ahahahahaha! Nice hint!”

  Before my punch landed, the bag shone brightly, and Ayumu disappeared. A furry and cylindrical shape appeared in front of me and blocked my fist.

  “What the hell is that?!” A giant, hunching, yellow-furred creature loomed protectively over Ayumu. He looked like a disproportionate, roided-up gorilla. His arms were bigger than anything else, and he used them to create a barrier around Ayumu.

  This might be a problem… I readied my sword and prepared the next attack. Unfortunately, I spent a bit too much time talking, and some of my older stacks are gone… I can’t believe she really did have a secret weapon ready! I let my guard down!

  “Whatever… That’s not gonna stop me!”

  “But it is… Because we’re done here.” Ayumu raised her phone behind her new guardian and made it shine. The phone flew out of her hand, now transformed into a small, metallic fairy. The fairy zigzagged behind the big monster and cast a certain spell…

  “No way…” A blue, otherworldly color formed a swirly circle behind her big enough for a person to pass through. “A portal?!”

  “Yep!” Ayumu casually walked over to it. “I have to give it to you. You got me this time… Not only did you figure out my secret, but you even managed to corner me. If I stay here any longer with you swinging that sword around, you might end up killing me.”

  “No no no no! No way! You’re not getting away!” Burst Dash! The yellow creature stood in my way as soon as I tried to give chase. Heart Piercer! She is not getting away!

  My sword stabbed the gorilla-looking monster’s arm, but that was it. The monster was still capable of fighting and slammed his other fist down, cracking the floor. Dammit! I pulled my sword and wobbled back while Ayumu escaped. Both monsters she created followed closely behind, covering for her.

  “Don’t worry… My business with you is not settled yet… I’ll repay you for everything one day…”

  The last thing I saw was her cold, piercing eyes disappearing into the blue of the portal. As quickly as it appeared, the circle rapidly shrunk and disappeared, leaving me alone with the numerous mannequins.

  “Dammit! It’s over…” I let my legs rest and fell back on my butt. The was floor covered with blood stains and rubble. Ahhhh… It’s a complete mess, but I fit in quite nicely, covered in dust and blood. “*Sigh…* I need a shower…”

  This wasn’t the development any of us wanted, was it? But given the position we started from, it’s not that bad. She sure caught us by surprise, cornering Katja that quickly… But thanks to Narumi, we’ve all made it out safely…

  “I’ll take it.”