Chapter 44: Sacrifice, desperation

But he hadn’t had the time to gather himself enough to use his crafting skill. Well, even if he used it, what could it possibly do for him? He couldn’t interfere directly with other players, only build stuff and break objects that had no owner. Whatever weapon or contraption he made for himself now, it would be no use to him. At most, he could temporarily rebuild the remainder of the stolen liquid spear and try to use that against him, but even then he had no guarantees he could win. All Sixshot had to do was fire one of those ridiculously large light shots at him and he’d be toast… What would a mere arrow do against that?

He gasped for air, struggling with the idling dust.

The blue light ball shot right out of the hole on the ground once again, piercing through the air and dust as it readied itself for more.

“Matchsticks!?” the boy shouted desperately.

“It’s here again!!” echoed Akane.

The redhead jumped right in front of the two of them, charging up her own fists into fireballs and blasting away the projectile to smithereens…

Or rather, to countless smaller, barely discernible pieces of gleaming glue, which perfectly contoured her flames just far enough behind them that they could join up into a single, enormous whole again, charging towards the boy’s back once again at astounding speed.

He was able to roll away at just the last moment, followed closely by the middle schooler, as the projectile buried itself into yet another wall nearby and emerged right out yet again amid the lingering soot and sprung after them a fourth time, while Suzuka stood once again in the hovering sphere’s way, readying yet another storm of fireballs.

“Just be gone, already!!”

She blasted them furiously away, putting even more force into her throws than before. However, the scattered pieces of blue light reformed yet a third time, going after the boy in a renewed straight line.

He could not dodge it. The fifth, final lunge had been much too fast for him to see coming.

The blinding, blue blur rushed towards him, closing the gap between the two in the blink of an eye, and, unable to think of any plan or escape, the boy simply froze in place, closing his eyes shut and cursing his destiny.

But the blue light did not touch him. Not an inch.

At the very last moment, something else had gotten in the way. A clear obstruction.

Perplexed at the lack of any impact, or other odd sensation, he opened his eyes once again, coming face to face with the blue-haired girl, whose nose quivered weakly, no more than a single inch away from his own.

“I’m… sorry… big bro…”

Thick streams of tears barreled down her face, but there was nothing she could do to remedy the situation, now.

Her body jerked violently about, kneeling right next to him, as the blue light latched itself onto her back and quickly enveloped her torso and head, as she screamed in pain and fell back-first to the cold floor.

The blue light then vanished at once, and the girl wheezed once again as a small, gun-shaped symbol appeared on her neck.

“No way!!” groaned the man, much like a child struggling with their favorite video game. “That’s not how it’s supposed to go. Look at all the money you just made me waste!!”

As the middle school girl got to her knees once again, continuing to wail, Haruto remained in place, mesmerized.

“You… How…” he could only manage a whisper. “Why…? Why would you do something like that…?”

Any manner of breath had gotten caught in his throat. He could barely manage anything more.

“Because…” the girl heaved, fighting the throbbing in her neck. “I love you, big bro… Always have… I… Just wanted to meet you, at least one last time… But I don’t want your life to get ruined because of me…”

“But…”

“Please, just… Run… His weapon’s… Not ready yet… You have time…”

He glanced over at the mercenary, who gave him yet another one of his trademark grins.

He had certainly not given up yet.

But still, that weird girl was right. If he and Suzuka took their cue and ran now, even if they had to fight some of those gangsters along the way, they still had a good chance. Akane would be just a small price to pay in order for them to escape.

He smiled to himself, running the thought one time and another through his battered mind.

This would be for the best. To keep himself and his servant safe, this was the right decision.

Familiar or not, he did not know this girl.

He did not owe her anything. He had no reason to care for here, because he had no logical grounds to believe her, or her words.

And, even if she was right… She was a part of his previous life, not this one. She was his past, not his present.

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She had no place in here with him, now. Letting her go now, was, without a doubt, for the best. His thoughts were clear. His mind was cool, for once in his life. His conclusion was sound. His decision should be made, already.

But even so… Despite any way he tried to carry on with the clear, logical choice for his escape… Why did his heart ache so?

He sprung back up to his feet, and, without looking back at the girl on the floor, turned to Sixshot, who leered hungrily at the three of them.

“Enough of this circus.”

“Huh? What’re you going to do now, boy? Glare me down to death?? The little girl is mine, now, and if you and the other one do not comply, who knows what might just happen to her?”

As the man remained distracted in his own wild delusions, he’d been able to open up the inventory window behind his back, pulling out the black gauntlet onto his right arm.

“This ends now!” he roared, pointing the dark, closed fist of the glove directly at the man.

Suzuka stood right next to him, her fists still lit up into flames strong enough that their light got in the way of the boy himself. He could only hope that visual distraction, coupled with the distance between the two of them, would suffice to obfuscate the man’s view of the actual state of his own gauntlet.

“I’m tired of playing around with you,” he continued “you poor excuse for an errand boy!!!”

“Hoho, scary!” Sixshot wheezed, whittling his own tone of voice. “But how could you possibly care for that useless brat after everything she’s done to you? I actually thought you were going to run off there for a second!”

“Drop your weapon. One shot of the liquid spear and you’re gone. Do you really want to try it?”

Far from relenting, however, Sixshot cackled again, staring the boy down in disbelief.

“You’re a fascinating little git, you know that? Why would you throw your life away for someone like this? She’s not even part of your family. What do you know about her, at all?”

Haruto nodded. That guy had hit the nail on the head. There was nothing more to say, regarding that, particularly. However…

“... Yeah… You’re right. She’s not my sister. I don’t know her. Her name barely even rings any bells. But that’s not even the point. It stopped being the point the moment you and your friends there showed up to bother us.”

This Akane Fujiwara meant nothing to him for who she was… She held no value to him based on her past whether he could sense any odd affinity towards her or not.

“Oh? What would it be, then?” asked the leering gangster. “Have you perhaps decided to throw your soul away? Many do so out of desperation, in this world…”

Whether she knew him or not, whether she was a liar or not, she had jumped to his aid and taken the brunt of the crimson gauntlet’s shot. She had no reason to do so. She had nothing to gain from foolishly laying down her own life, her own free-will like that, just to save some no-good scumbag like him.

Regardless, in the end, she still had. All for some absurd, arbitrary reason such as ‘because I love you’. It irked him to see it happen. Rather, it completely pissed him off just thinking about it… That wasn’t how it went. That wasn’t how it was supposed to be… To be willing to give out your life for someone like that, wasn’t that something only imbeciles did?

Above all, it frustrated him to see it happen, because deep inside, even if he wouldn’t admit it, such an action was something he could not help but to admire. He envied it, to a degree. To have the will to act in such a way… He could see beauty in it.

For the first time since he’d arrived in this world, he had been able to see true beauty in something. Not just simple theatrics. Someone so naive, so pure that they could throw their life away for others. That was something he could never hope to achieve for himself. It didn’t matter whether she had been with him before or not. For all she knew, he could have abandoned her and left at any moment, if he hadn’t been willing to even listen.

For that reason, he had decided someone like that, even a dubious, ineffectual buffoon who couldn’t so much as tell when she was being stalked by the same faction she had allied herself with, was a life worth preserving.

Even if it meant his end, he would save someone like that. Even if for such a selfish reason, he would still fight.

“No.” he retorted, at last. “The point here is, either you get your horse’s face out of my sight in the next five seconds, or so help me, I will make sure no one gets to see it ever again.”

“How so?”

“It’ll just take me one arrow.”

Naturally, he was at a disadvantage there. The liquid spear no longer worked, and he couldn’t risk using his skill now to fix it, for fear it might clue that thug in on his plan and make him shoot him down with one of those spheres preemptively. All he had going for himself were lies.

This was a gamble he wasn’t particularly proud of, but the boy saw no other choice.

One wrong move, and their lives would be over as they knew them…

Sixshot snorted, as though these last few words of his had offended him beyond the fathomable.

“How conceited of you. You’ve terribly underestimated my charging time, boy.”

That very instant, the barely visible orbs around the red gauntlet’s wrist had quickly started to multiply, increasing in size and forming up into the familiar spear of blue light.

“It’s roaring and ready to go again, already…” he smirked, triumphant. “Even without my ability in play, do you truly believe you can fire that arrow of yours any faster than my light bullets can hit you? You’re in over your head, kid.”

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