Bounty Hunter (4)
Looking at the number of mermaids, I was certain. There were hundreds of them—and at this point in time, only one Awakener could command monsters on that scale.
Mirzam, a villain affiliated with Regulus. Even among A-Rank Awakeners she possessed a rare monster-control ability, and depending on the situation, she could display power that surpassed her own rank.
"I never thought she'd actually be here."
Her lethality didn't fall far short of Dimer, the villain already on this ship. If anything her destructive power was lower, but her ability was far more of a nuisance—especially on terrain like the ocean.
The sea teemed with mermaids in numbers that put anything on land to shame. Their usual range of activity rarely brought them up from the deep, so they weren't monsters you ran into often. Mirzam had used her ability to draw them all the way up onto the ship, and this was the result.
"Hah."
A mermaid charged at me with a sharp spear. Slash—! So I cut its throat with my dagger. Crimson blood fountained out and soaked my face and body.
"This isn't good..."
The pleasure of it was greater than I'd expected. Time passed, and before I knew it the number of mermaids I'd killed was approaching thirty. How long had it been since I'd slaughtered this many monsters?
It had been far too long since I'd killed a monster—a living thing that, until a moment ago, had still been moving—and my emotions began to swell. A smile formed on my face without my noticing, and my body heat crept slowly upward.
"...Get a grip. You're doing it again."
I shook my head over and over, shaking the feeling off. For Elena's sake—waiting in the hospital for her only sister—it was better to kill off emotions like these.
First, sort out the situation. Somewhere on this ship, Mirzam was hiding: an A-Rank villain just like Dimer. She was controlling the mermaids on deck, and outside, a giant monster some forty meters long was circling the vessel.
"She can't sink the ship. If she did, she'd just end up as fish food herself."
So what was her goal in pulling this? Eliminating Dimer? No. That wasn't it. Dimer was originally supposed to show up alive and well even five years from now. If something like this had happened in the original story, one of them—Dimer or Mirzam—would have died. But both of them appear later, perfectly alive. They were hostile toward each other, though.
...Wait.
I looked around once.
"Aaaagh! Get away from me, you monsters!"
"We can't get through to Hero City?! Do you have any idea who I am, treating me like this...?!"
Mermaids attacking passengers. Security Awakeners on the liner holding them back. Plus private bodyguards protecting specific individuals. This luxury liner wasn't carrying ordinary passengers alone—there were celebrities and high-ranking figures from Hero City on board as well. And right now the ship was immobilized by the monsters.
So she was after ransom. Considering that Dimer's bombs had been a diversion to draw attention, it was more than plausible. Of course, one thing still nagged at me: why hadn't I known about an incident this big...
"Doesn't particularly matter."
If anything, this was convenient. Two A-Rank villains meant that much more bounty money, and with so many people already dead from the mermaid attack, slipping away unnoticed would be easy.
Which left only one thing: finding Mirzam's location. I'd captured Dimer more easily than expected, so I still had weapons I'd prepared. Using those, I could take her down without much trouble.
"What? Why isn't he here?"
Mirzam headed for the cabin where Dimer was supposed to be, but strangely, the room was quietly empty. She wasn't looking with her own eyes—she was borrowing a mermaid's vision—but no matter how she searched, she couldn't find a trace of him.
Instead, there were bloodstains on the floor. Not a great deal of blood, but hardly a small amount either, pooled across the boards. No mermaid had reached the cabin ahead of her. Had he sensed something was wrong and fled in advance?
"...What a boring man."
She'd gone to the trouble of sending specially selected mermaids, and Dimer wasn't even waiting. A real letdown. He would have been fun to fight. Especially Dimer, specialized in mass slaughter—he would have been able to handle her mermaid monsters. Of course, given they were on a passenger liner, he couldn't have used his ability freely. Still, as a veteran mercenary, wouldn't he have been far better than the C- to B-Rank Awakeners hired as security?
Those people could fight the mermaids, but they didn't have the power to turn this situation around. She wanted a thrilling rush and bright crimson blood, but the lives aboard this vast ship held no particular value. Dimer had definitely been on the passenger list. If she searched the ship from corner to corner, could she find him?
"Mermaids, remember the scent of the blood on the floor. If you catch even a trace of it nearby, report in at once."
Maybe she would. Empty liquor bottles and expensive cheese wrappers were left in Dimer's room, so before the commotion started he'd probably been rolling around in bed with a woman. If she couldn't find him within thirty minutes, she would kill all but a handful of the passengers. If she found Dimer, she would pinpoint his location and send every last mermaid after him.
A man like that deserved at least that much. Using mermaids in unnecessary places ran a real risk of being outgunned, and if the ship sank even by accident, she herself could be in danger.
"By the way."
Mirzam's brow furrowed. The reason: the number of mermaids had dropped more than she'd expected. Mermaids were C- to B-Rank monsters. Naturally, the Awakeners inside this liner were capable of handling them to some degree. But the difference in numbers was overwhelming, and the security personnel, whose stamina was steadily draining, couldn't hold out.
Strangely, though, the drain against a single Awakener was larger than anticipated. And it wasn't as if that Awakener had been dealt with, either. Mirzam shifted her consciousness to the mermaids in the corridor. Their vision was tracking a woman.
"Who the hell is this vixen, making herself such a pain."
A girl with red eyes. She didn't even look like an adult yet, but she was fighting the mermaids far better than expected. Mirzam didn't remember anyone like this on the passenger list, but she might be on the stronger side even among B-Ranks.
Shlick—!
"Ugh?!"
The mermaid whose vision she was linked to went down—stabbed through the right eye with a dagger, killed instantly. From Mirzam's perspective, connected to that mermaid's sight, it was as if her own eye had been stabbed.
"...You filthy little bitch!"
There was no pain, but a chill ran through her.
"Find that woman and kill her! No—bring her in front of me! I'll gouge her eyes out myself!"
She'd already been irritated that Dimer, her original target, was nowhere to be found. Now this on top of it, and her rage boiled over. She could find Dimer later. On a sea like this there was nowhere to run, and even if he went overboard, facing marine monsters in the water was practically suicide.
"...Mirzam, can you hear me?"
"What is it? Spit it out."
Mirzam took the incoming transmission as she prepared to leave. She was about to step outside briefly to call in more mermaids.
Thud.
"What's this?"
Something strange came rolling into the room where Mirzam was standing. A cylindrical object that looked like it would fit in one hand.
"Plans have changed. Get off that ship immedi—"
Boom—!
"Kyaaaah?! M-my eyes! Aaaaagh...!"
It erupted with a tremendous blast and a blinding flash, and Mirzam's hearing and vision were paralyzed.
"Ah, ugh... an explosion... Don't tell me that's Dimer?!"
Well, I don't know if Dimer can produce flash-type explosions. As far as I knew, he never used anything like this. Surprisingly, there's nothing quite as effective against Awakeners—who are practically superhuman—as a flashbang. If anything, the better their eyesight and hearing, the more lethal a strong light and a loud noise might be.
"W-who are you?!"
Obviously a lie. Right now he was locked inside a special containment pouch I'd prepared. When you needed to move a captured villain without attracting attention, there was nothing better than a special artifact manufactured by the Vellir Federation.
"If you don't want to die the same way, you'd better send those mermaids back right now."
"...!"
I rested my dagger lightly against Mirzam's throat. A bead of red blood ran down the blade.
And yet, even though I'd captured two A-Rank villains, I didn't feel particularly good. Why was that? Because a lot of people on the liner had died? Not a chance. In this world, civilians got ground up whenever things got boring.
"D-damn it..."
People dying didn't bother me at all. It was just seeing Mirzam's true form that did this.
"Tch."
I never would have guessed that the true identity of Mirzam—the notorious A-Rank villain from the original story—would be a child who looked barely a year or two older than Elena. Given the nature of her ability, she never had reason to reveal her true appearance, and her first appearance was years from now. And even then, she'd been in a wheelchair, missing both ankles.
No wonder I felt filthy and disgusted.
"Mirzam! What's going on! Mirzam!"
Crunch!
I stomped the communicator pouring out that disgusting voice and smashed it to pieces.
...Yeah. This world is cursed.