The Great Dive to West Street
The chaotic cry of "Let's roll!" split the night as Orca's bike roared to life, ripping through the darkened streets. Dozens of motorcycles thundered in formation behind us. The whole thing made me feel like the leader of some outlaw biker gang, and a strange rush of excitement surged through me.
"You know the way, right?"
"What do you take us for? We know every back alley in this city like the back of our hands!"
Watching Orca weave fearlessly through the narrow passages, I figured it wouldn't take long to reach West Street. That was what I thought, anyway. The situation changed faster than I expected.
"Hmm?"
"What the hell? Is that a checkpoint?"
A barricade resembling some kind of inspection post completely blocked the alley ahead of us.
"Should I stop?"
"No. Just punch through it."
The words had barely left my mouth before Orca slammed the accelerator. Her bike howled as it smashed the steel fences and junk piled into the barricade like they were made of paper.
CRAAAAASH—!
Having blasted straight through the barrier in one go, Orca hit the brakes hard and executed a stylish turn. For a second I wondered if this was the work of Reverse Factory, but their light armament suggested otherwise.
"Mmph...! Mmph...!"
"Right. I wonder what they were trying to accomplish by blocking the road?"
Orca grabbed one of the hunters rolling on the ground and lifted his face. Since I couldn't see any Mental Image barriers, these seemed to be 2-Star hunters rather than 3-Star ones.
"Answer me. Quickly."
"...The rumor spread all over Hunter Net, so we figured we'd make a quick score too!"
"A quick score?"
"Yeah. When gold's discovered, who makes the most money?"
"The guy selling the tools?"
"Wrong! It's the guy who blocks the road. Just seal it off, steal the gold and the cash—simple!"
"I see. What a useless story."
Elly's eyes turned ice-cold as she disposed of the hunters without hesitation. The riders cleared the debris from the road and set off again. But it didn't end there.
"...This is getting annoying. Breaking through one by one won't work anymore."
More checkpoints like the first one began appearing all over the alleys. While the initial hunters had used crude wooden and scrap-metal barricades for ambushes, things were different now.
"Grow, grow, tree-tree!"
"Grow, grow, root-root!"
"Tsk...!"
The hunters in tattered robes chanted what sounded like ridiculous spells, and trees began sprouting from the ground to block our path. These guys actually knew how to use their abilities properly, which made them far more troublesome obstacles.
"Ah, damn it. We can't break through this."
"Then from above—"
"Haha! You won't pass through our Green Forest Mountain Fortress without paying the toll!"
The trees that had grown from the earth were sturdy enough to withstand even Elly's mist, and they'd formed a wall-like barrier that prevented us from going over. It was incredibly annoying. If this was what lay ahead all the way to West Street, the journey was going to be exhausting. I let out a sigh at the thought.
"Hmm. This distance should be about right."
Orca casually brought her bike to a stop and checked a map on her phone. Once she was done, she put on her helmet and tossed one to me as well.
"Wear it properly. From here on, we won't be stopping."
"What are you planning?"
"You'll see. Everyone, form up!"
"Yes, Boss!"
At Orca's command, the riders instantly gathered with her at the lead. Their movements were as smooth and coordinated as a school of fish swimming in perfect formation. Once the bikes had assembled, Orca declared boldly:
"We're diving!"
The moment Orca activated her ability, the surrounding riders plunged into the ground with a splash. The underground of the alley we'd submerged into was pitch-black darkness.
It made sense when I thought about it. Of course you couldn't see anything underground. The only thing visible to me was Orca's face right beside mine.
"Can you actually navigate like this?"
"Even if I can't see ahead, sound is enough. Down here, every noise gets amplified."
Dismissing my concern, Orca immediately began leading the pack of riders through the underground. The texture around us felt no different from water, but since we weren't actually in liquid, the bikes moved without any real resistance.
"Left side!"
"Left side!"
"Right turn!"
"Right turn!"
Following their leader Orca's commands, the bikes maintained formation even in complete darkness where you couldn't see an inch ahead. The fact that none of them fell behind—despite the risk of being buried alive the moment they left Orca's ability range—showed just how disciplined this group was.
When I glanced back, I saw flashing lights coming from the riders' backs. Were they communicating through those signals? It really was like how deep-sea creatures talked to each other. Just as that thought crossed my mind, sharp spear-like tree roots came stabbing down from above.
"Watch out!"
My warning proved unnecessary. Orca lightly twisted the handlebars and evaded the incoming roots. Her movements suggested she had known they were coming. She was navigating this complex maze of roots relying solely on her hearing in the pitch-black darkness.
"I told you. I can hear everything."
"You can even hear the sound of these roots moving?"
"It's more than that. I can hear their footsteps on the surface, their heartbeats—everything."
The senses of these beastkin really were incredible no matter how many times I witnessed them. While I was inwardly marveling at that, Orca muttered as if the timing was right.
"Getting hit without fighting back is annoying. Shall we feed them a counterattack?"
"What are you going to do?"
"Do you know how whales hunt?"
"...Not really. No idea."
"We don't just charge in relying on our bodies like fish or dumb sharks. We use our heads."
"Heads?"
"It should be about time. Good. It's complete."
Complete? What was? As I tilted my head in confusion, I suddenly realized Orca had been making the entire group of riders spin in place for a while now. While dodging the spear-like roots, they were all rotating together as if creating a vortex.
"Increase speed!"
At Orca's command, the roar from the bikes grew even louder. The exhaust gases spewing from them formed a single air bubble that rose upward in droplets. The moment those bubbles touched the surface above—
BOOOOOOOOM!
The underground space shook with violent tremors. The bubbles that had burst on the surface triggered a chain explosion, shredding the tightly intertwined tree roots to pieces. Dirt and wooden debris rained down like a storm as their Green Forest Mountain Fortress began to collapse.
"What the..."
"I used a special custom fuel. When the exhaust concentration gets high enough, even a small stimulus causes an explosion. Something like bubbles popping is more than enough."
While Orca snorted and explained the principle, screams from the mountain fortress guys echoed from above ground.
"U-uwaaaaagh?!"
"The ground! The ground is exploding!"
Hearing those screams, Orca turned her bike upward as if the timing was perfect.
"Shall we head up now? Let's go!"
With a thunderous roar, Orca's bike shot toward the surface, leaping upward like a whale breaching. The scene that greeted us upon emerging was one of hunters completely torn apart by the explosion. Orca showed no reaction whatsoever to their state and simply ran them over with her wheels. The following riders proceeded to thoroughly crush the hunters beneath their tires as well.
"Good. From here it's just straight ahead to West Street."
No more obstacles appeared after that. It seemed we could simply keep going forward as Orca had said. As we continued down the road, Orca roughly pulled off her helmet and wiped her visor with an irritated expression.
"Ptui."
She spat violently while cleaning her helmet's visor. Some remains from the hunters we'd just run over must have splattered onto it, because she looked thoroughly displeased.
"Ugh, it's gross! My precious baby got that trash's blood on it!"
"At least it helped you loosen up a bit, right?"
"Hmph. Loosen up? It just ruined my mood. This is one hundred percent—no, ten thousand percent—the work of those creepy factory bastards!"
Orca gripped the handlebars tightly, grinding her teeth. At her claim that this was Reverse Factory's doing, I tilted my head and asked for her evidence.
"Um. Do you have any proof?"
"No. But my intuition is more than enough. Listen. I haven't checked yet, but those guys' equipment was definitely produced by Reverse Factory. It's always been like that. Anyone who picks a fight with us ends up using their stuff."
"Hmm... Isn't that just because Reverse Factory holds the top market share in hunter equipment?"
Statistically speaking, wouldn't the probability of encountering hunters using Reverse Factory gear be the highest? Even the parts on the motorcycle Orca was riding probably included components made by them.
"Ah, shut up! Statistics don't mean anything!"
Orca shook her head as if she didn't want to hear my logical point and shouted.
"All the misfortune in this world is because of them. Behind every conspiracy that happens in Shion, that damn factory is pulling the strings."
"R-really?"
"Yeah. They were the ones who came up with that insane plan to summon an angel, right? A plan that anyone else would dismiss as conspiracy theory nonsense!"
"Well. That is true."
When she brought up the angel summoning plan, even I had nothing to say. That thought lasted only a moment before Orca's continued grumbling made it fly right out of my head.
"Ever since they saw that angel, they've been interfering with me specifically. You think I wouldn't notice?"
Orca pounded the handlebars in frustration and began passionately venting.
"Like last week when my bike chain broke! I maintain it so carefully—how could it just snap? It's one hundred percent those bastards sending micro drones while I was sleeping to saw through it!"
"...Couldn't that just be because you ride it too roughly?"
"No way! And what about the sudden increase in drunk customers picking fights at the bars in our territory lately? That's all psychological warfare by Reverse Factory trying to raise our members' stress levels and cause internal division!"
"That's just because public safety in Shion is bad."
"And where do you think Black Horn got the funds to expand their business? It's obviously Reverse Factory backing them with money to cut off our lifeline!"
I was left speechless by her creativity in linking every misfortune in the world to Reverse Factory as some grand axis of evil. In the end, I gave up on arguing and simply went along with her grumbling. They say you shouldn't provoke the person who's driving, after all.
"Just wait and see. I'll definitely crush those damn bastards' wicked schemes."
With Orca's curse-filled vow, the outskirts of West Street finally came into view ahead of us.
You have arrived at West Street.
This is the street of outlaws. But even lawlessness follows its own laws.