Towards a Glory Not Worth Taking Read online

  “All right!” Tokimune called.

  The frontliners, including Tokimune, Tada, Kikkawa, Inui, and Kuzaku all pulled back as one. At almost exactly the same time, the white giant made its big jump.

  “Pharaoh?!” Kikkawa exclaimed bizarrely.

  What’s a pharaoh? Haruhiro thought.

  The white giant leapt seven, eight meters, then landed with an earthshaking crash. No one got crushed, but if they had been even a little late in backing away, there was a risk that they might have.

  Now. Haruhiro didn’t even have to issue the order.

  “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ranta, who had been lurking in the alleyway, lifted his Lightning Sword Dolphin aloft and charged at the white giant.

  Ranta didn’t so much slash it as whack it with the sword. He was targeting the white giant’s right leg.

  “Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!” Without giving it pause for breath, Ranta struck, and struck, and struck.

  Each time the white giant was hit with his Lightning Sword Dolphin, though only for a very short period, its giant, sculpture-like body would convulse.

  This was it: the Super Stunning Strategy. What a terrible name.

  The name aside, this tactic was highly effective, and by stopping its movement like this, it opened up a chance to fell the white giant. Only a chance, though. From here on, the battle would be decided by pure firepower... or destructive power, really.

  “Tada-san!” Haruhiro called.

  Tada licked his lips and charged forth. “Don’t tell me everything. Just let witnessing my power send you to heaven.”

  No, I’m not going to heaven, Haruhiro wanted to mutter, but he restrained himself. If he took a comedic jab at every little thing the Tokkis said, he’d never last.

  “Now, my killer attack—” Tada did a run-up before launching into a forward somersault and slamming his warhammer down on the white giant’s left knee with both hands. “Somersault Bomb!”

  But man, Tada-san’s seriously amazing, thought Haruhiro.

  Tada’s warhammer sank into the white giant’s left knee, sending lots of shards flying.

  “Take that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and thaaaat!” Ranta hollered. He kept swinging his Lightning Sword Dolphin and stunning the white giant.

  Tada took a single breath, adjusted the position of his glasses, then unhurriedly put some distance between himself and the white giant.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” Ranta shouted, looking at Tada while beating his Lightning Sword Dolphin against the white giant’s leg. “Hurry the hell up, man! This is pretty tough, dammit! Gwahhhhhhhhhh!”

  Tada cocked his head to the side, swinging his warhammer around. “Did you just curse at me?”

  “No, sir, I did not! You’re hearing things, man! Just hearing things! Nwahhhhhhhhh!”

  “I am, huh? So, is that tough?”

  “It’s super, super tough, man! Hurry up! Like, seriously, seriously, get another hit in!”

  “Like I care,” said Tada.

  “Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

  “If it’s tough for you, that’s your problem, not mine.”

  “Heyyyyyyyyyy, you ass!”

  “‘You ass’?” Tada repeated.

  “Tada-san! Tada-sama! Tada the God!”

  “I’m joking.” Tada smirked and then raced forward.

  —Yeah, Haruhiro thought. I don’t get it. Tada’s jokes are always incomprehensible.

  “Ahaha! That rocked! I love Taddachi’s surreal gags!” yelled Kikkawa.

  Since the only one laughing is Kikkawa, and he has ridiculously high social skills, that probably means even the Tokkis don’t get Tada’s jokes, Haruhiro thought. That’s slightly reassuring. If they were the sort of people who burst out laughing at that, I’d never be able to put up with them.

  “Kwahhhh! Kwahhh! Kwahhh! Kwahhhhh! Kwahhhhh! Uwahhhh!” Ranta let out what sounded like his death screams, wringing out the last of his power to keep whaling on the white giant’s right leg.

  “Now that I think about it—” Tada did a forward somersault and unleashed another Somersault Bomb. “—this killer attack isn’t killing it at all, is it?!”

  This time he went for the right knee. There was a resounding crunch.

  Tada glanced over to see that Ranta was still working hard, then followed up with another two or three hits.

  “Yume!” Haruhiro shouted, to which she responded, “Meow!” and started to fire arrows.

  It was the archery skill, Rapid Fire. With no gap in between, she would nock arrows to her composite bow, then fire. She fired, and fired.

  Inui’s a hunter, too, and he has a bow, but I’ve never seen him use it—I think. That thought suddenly occurred to Haruhiro. Maybe I should ask him the next time I get a chance. “Aren’t you gonna use your bow?” No, maybe it should be, “Can’t you use your bow?” Of course, Inui might snap. But he might fight harder because of it. Would he? I dunno. I mean, it’s Inui.

  Yume fired off six shots in rapid succession, two of which hit the white giant’s eye. It was a good result coming from Yume, who was a poor archer despite being a hunter.

  “Gwah!” Ranta fell back, stumbling. “I’m at my limit!”

  “Good job, Ranta! You have nice a butt hole, yeah!” Anna-san’s compliments were pretty effective. It was little wonder why the Tokkis kept her as their mascot and idol. Though you had to question why she’d compliment his butt hole, of all things.

  “All right! Leave it to me!” Tokimune’s voice came from up above—

  Wait, when did he get there?

  He had been in the street until just moments ago, but now Tokimune was on top of the building ahead of Haruhiro and to the left.

  “Hahhh!” Tokimune shouted. He leapt off the building with a cry.

  Or rather, he leapt from it to something else. From the roof to the white giant’s shoulder.

  Ranta had exhausted himself, and his Lightning Sword Dolphin’s stunning effect had worn off.

  “Gu, go, ga, go!” The white giant tried flailing around.

  Before it could, Tokimune buried his sword in its one eye. Tokimune didn’t just thrust it in, though, he twisted it around.

  “There it is! Tokimune-san’s deadly skill, Saint Arpeggio!” Kikkawa cried.

  Kikkawa was saying something, but if Haruhiro started wonder why it was an arpeggio, of all things, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, so he wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard the comment.

  No, but seriously, why is it an arpeggio? Is it music now?

  “Hah!” Tokimune immediately jumped away from the white giant, returning to the building.

  Between Yume’s arrows and Tokimune’s Saint Arpeggio, or whatever it was called, the white giant had taken more damage to its one eye than it could handle.

  “Pull back!” Haruhiro shouted as he backed away himself.

  Yume and the other girls, Ranta, and everyone on the front line except for Tokimune put some distance between themselves and the white giant. Tokimune alone was different. On top of the building, he was literally watching from on high.

  “Go, go, go!” The white giant swung both of its arms around, unsteady on its feet. It likely wanted to attack Haruhiro and the others somehow, but it was blind. On top of that, both its knees were damaged. The white giant fell into a building on the right hand side, opposite from where Tokimune was. The outer wall, while it didn’t collapse outright, took some damage.

  “Go, go!” The white giant tried to steady itself, but it couldn’t brace its legs, so that wasn’t going so well for it. It looked like it might trip.

  “Atta—” Haruhiro began to shout, then swallowed the word. Tada was already surging towards the white giant.

  The white giant didn’t fully trip, but it fell to one knee. Tada leapt towards that knee with a forward somersault, then...

  “Somersault Bomb!”

  It was a single strike—no, a single
blast. Having been hit by a second Somersault Bomb, its left knee was half-destroyed. It probably wouldn’t be getting back on its feet like that.

  “Go!” The white giant reached out to grab Tada, but it didn’t even graze him.

  “Yeah, that’s how awesome I am!” Tada shouted. While singing his own praises, he not only didn’t run, he landed a solid blow on the white giant’s right hand with his warhammer.

  Having figured out Tada’s location based on that, the white giant reached out for him with its left hand. Tada knocked this one back with his warhammer, too.

  “If you think you can beat me, try again in a million years!” Tada hollered.

  “Nothing to do...” Kuzaku muttered.

  Oh, are you sure about that? Haruhiro turned to look behind him. Things happened sometimes, so he could never let his guard down. And sure enough, from the other side of the road, a number of Pansukes were running this way with their spears ready.

  “Enemy reinforcements!” he shouted. “Pansukes, three of them! Kuzaku, Kikkawa, Inui-san!”

  “Gotcha!” Kuzaku called.

  “Okie-dokie!” Kikkawa yelled.

  “Heh... What choice do I have?” Inui called back.

  Kuzaku, Kikkawa, and Inui immediately broke off from the front line, running past Haruhiro and the girls in the back line to deal with the enemy reinforcements. Merry glanced over in that direction quickly, but immediately looked back to the white giant. The power of the God of Light, Lumiaris, didn’t reach the Dusk Realm, so she couldn’t use light magic here. Even if all she could do was act as a bodyguard for Shihoru, Merry was staying focused.

  That’s not what I’m worried about, Haruhiro thought. Merry is overly serious by nature. Because of that, once she’s done what she ought to, she tends to start thinking, “Is this good enough?” and “Isn’t there anything else I can do?” I need to watch out for that, and take care of her. Naturally, I mean that as a leader. Nothing more than that. There are no other feelings involved. None. Zero, okay? Zero.

  “Now you give it one last push, yeah! Fight on! Yeah!” Anna-san gave some welcome encouragement.

  “Delm, hel, en, rig, arve!” Mimorin chanted as she drew elemental sigils with her staff.

  Fire Pillar. This was the strongest spell that the former warrior Mimorin had. A pillar of flame rose at the white giant’s feet. That said, it was smaller than Mimorin herself, and actually kind of cutesy. It was facing a massive white giant, so it wasn’t likely to have much of an effect.

  If she’s aiming to become an Arve Magic user, shouldn’t she at least acquire the Blast spell? Haruhiro thought. It wasn’t something for a thief, and a member of another party at that, to give his opinion about, and Haruhiro had a somewhat complicated relationship with Mimorin, so while he thought that, he didn’t say it. Even if he found himself wanting to say it occasionally, he really couldn’t.

  “Ohm, rel, ect, el, vel, darsh!” Shihoru used the Shadow Echo spell to launch three shadow elementals, which hit the white giant. The damage was trivial, no doubt, but her magic was purely meant as support here.

  “...Whew.” Ranta came up beside Haruhiro and squatted.

  “Good work,” Haruhiro told him, looking around as he did.

  While he did, he flexed his knees so that he was ready to move at any time. Thanks to that, at times like this, Haruhiro was in a slightly forward-leaning position, both arms hanging loosely at his sides, and looking around restlessly with sleepy eyes. If someone who didn’t know any better saw him, the way he looked, they’d probably think, Is that guy all right?

  Haruhiro was aware that it wasn’t a good look, but this was also the optimal stance for him to be in, so there wasn’t much he could do about it. He’d given up on looking cool. For now, he had to focus on utility. Haruhiro could never be Tokimune.

  Speaking of Tokimune, he reached the new enemies before Kuzaku did. “The true art of killing in midair!”

  Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, then jumping down from there, he landed a splendid kick of Pansuke F’s head. Then, once he had knocked Pansuke F flying and landed, he swept Pansuke G’s spear away with his shield and thrust his sword through the cultist’s eyehole. Without missing a beat, he closed in on Pansuke H and whacked him with Bash and Double Thrust. Pansuke H managed to twist his body around and avoid a lethal blow through his eyehole, but he was overwhelmed and recoiling. When Kuzaku and the other two finally made it, the fight was already won.

  Tokimune was strong. He was strong when he got carried away, and also strong when pushed into a corner. Basically, he was always strong. He had charisma, too, and a good personality.

  If he had one shortcoming, it was perhaps that he was impulsive, arbitrary, and he would run off and do things all by himself. But that was a trend with all of the Tokkis.

  When people are similar, they often are hostile to and reject those like them, but that didn’t happen with the Tokkis. Everyone seemed to be getting along and having fun, so they must have been doing something right.

  “Go, go!” The white giant must have measured things out poorly or something, because it slammed into a building while moving at almost a crawl. No, it couldn’t see, so it couldn’t measure things at all.

  “You clumsy oaf!” Tada hollered.

  As if he had been waiting for just this moment, Tada landed a series of strikes on the white giant’s elbow and half-destroyed it. Now an enormous blow had been dealt to both the white giant’s left knee and elbow. Then, targeting the white giant’s right foot, Tada showered blows on its ankle, following it up by knocking its heel off. It had taken a blow to the right knee as well, so the white giant’s range of motion was fairly limited now.

  Haruhiro nodded. “Ranta. One more time, it’s your turn.”

  “Heh.” Ranta got up and shook his head back and forth, rotating his shoulders and taking a deep breath. “Fine, if you insist. I’ll do it!”

  “Tada-san!” Haruhiro shouted.

  When Haruhiro gave the signal, Tada backed down and Ranta stepped up to take his place.

  Tada went into the alley. He probably meant to climb up onto the roof.

  “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ranta hit the white giant with his Lightning Sword Dolphin. He hit it. He hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it.

  It looked like Tokimune and the others were done mopping up the enemy reinforcements. They were headed back this way.

  Tada did a forward somersault off of the roof.

  Still, I’m amazed he can do something that dangerous, thought Haruhiro. At this point, it no longer surprised him, but it did impress him.

  “Ultra! Somersault! Booooomb!” Tada’s warhammer thudded into the nape of the white giant’s neck with incredible force.

  They had tried a lot of different things, but a white giant’s weak points seemed to be its one eye and the nape of its neck. Or rather, compared to its body as a whole, the skin there was a bit thinner. It wasn’t just that their necks were especially vulnerable to impacts; they seemed to have something analogous to the spinal cord in humans there, too. It was a hard area to target, but attacks that landed there were extremely effective.

  “That’s enough, Ranta!” Haruhiro called.

  “Yeah, I know, duh!” Ranta put some distance between himself and the white giant.

  While Tada had fallen to the ground after unleashing his Somersault Bomb, he seemed to have landed well.

  The white giant slumped over and fell on its front. At this point, Haruhiro didn’t need to urge anyone on.

  “All right! Party time! Yeah?!” Anna-san called.

  With that declaration by Anna-san, Mimorin was the first to begin climbing up the white giant’s back. Tokimune quickly caught up and got ahead of her, then Kikkawa and Inui followed. Kuzaku followed a little bit after them. Ranta and then Tada rushed up to the white giant and hit it. Stabbed it.

  Haruhiro felt himself wanting to join in, too, but he refrained. There was no need,
and more cultists might show up. It was even possible another white giant might come this way.

  Haruhiro, Yume, Shihoru, and Merry stayed on the sidelines of this merciless celebration, not taking part. They cheered them on along with Anna-san.

  I have to keep a cool head at all times, Haruhiro thought. Of course, there will be times when I have to gamble with my life, too. When those times come, rather than calm thought, the only option is to entrust my body to instinct and wild frenzy, then count on agility to carry me through, I’m sure. But I don’t want to invite those sorts of situations, and to avoid them, I really do have to try and stay calm.

  You’re boring, you know that, Ranta often said to him. Haruhiro didn’t think he was an interesting person. If he was being told he was boring, it was probably true.

  My personality is plain. My face looks average. Middle of the middle, or lower, even. I’m not tall, either. I’m not especially shrewd, and I’m not someone who’s actually really talented but trying to keep my skills a secret, or anything like that. The best I can say is I’m middle-of-the-road. Well, I’m normal.

  The thing is, I don’t mind my current self, a person who can say, “I’m fine with being normal,” and not look down on himself for it.

  I’m normal, and I’m sure I’m going to keep being normal. I can’t become anyone special, and I’m not trying to. Though it’s not like I’m satisfied with the current state of things, either.

  I’d say to take it step by step, but that’s asking for too much, so half-steps will be fine. Even if it’s only one quarter of one step, and even if we can’t make that much progress day to day, ten days from now, I want to have gotten just a little bit farther ahead.

  Somehow, I get the sense that we’re managing that.

  That may be why I’m able to not hate myself.

  I’m doing my best, right? What’s more, I have results to show for it, which means I’m being rewarded, right? Being rewarded for your effort is a blessing, isn’t it? That means I’m pretty fortunate, aren’t I? I can look up into the sky and report to Manato and Moguzo, who we’ll never see again, “We’re still working at it, guys.” Isn’t that amazing?