Suicides (3)
The news and video that Heros Academy students had been attacked by villains spread, quite literally, in the blink of an eye.
That was only to be expected in an age when even battles between heroes and villains were treated as entertainment and turned into headlines, but the biggest reason was a video filmed by an ordinary citizen.
People shuddered at the sight of a wall of fire so immense that even most hero-versus-villain fights would never produce anything like it.
Then, with guilty delight, they watched the villains hurl themselves into that wall without the slightest hesitation, only to be blasted back out beyond the fire along with chunks of sidewalk.
And finally, they stared in horror at the students who appeared at the end of the video, as well as the gate that swallowed those students in a single instant before vanishing.
It was an age when every object in the world could be given a price tag, so the citizens who watched the video were busy rendering their own judgments.
That red-haired girl was definitely going to become a ranked hero someday.
No, she’d be an S-rank hunter, not a hero.
Someone else had jumped into that argument, asking if they were blind, because no matter how they looked at it, it was the hero department’s uniform.
Then another person had charged in, telling them to shut up if they didn’t know anything, because that was obviously the hunter department.
Even the few voices that sounded concerned were only saying things like, “A gate appeared in the middle of downtown, so what the hell is Heros Corporation doing?” or “I live near there—am I screwed on housing prices?”
Any genuine concern for the students was buried almost immediately.
They were students of Heros Academy, after all. There were heroes there. Heros Corporation would step in.
Even if they’d been caught in the gate, somehow it would all work out.
That was what most people believed, and nothing more.
But those who grasped the seriousness of the situation had already gathered at the scene.
“That is the situation as it stands,” Yustitia said, conveying the rough details to those assembled there.
“So… our granddaughter got caught in a gate. And before she was swept into it, she killed the bastard who opened it. Meaning there’s no way for us to interfere from the outside?”
“I’m sorry to say… yes. This is the first time an individual has opened a gate, so if we interfere with a channel opened by someone else, we can’t predict how the inside will change. If we handle it wrong, the students could be put in danger…”
“Tch. So you’re saying you can’t do it after all.”
The dimension technician from Heros Corporation was breaking out in a cold sweat, desperately trying to smooth over her mood.
“That is… yes, but according to the footage, the villains came out from inside the gate, so there should only be a boss monster left in there. Monsters don’t distinguish between villains and heroes.”
But that wasn’t enough to soothe the feelings of a returnee who couldn’t even confirm whether her granddaughter was alive.
“So in the end, we still have to kill the boss. And we don’t even know what rank it is.”
“I’m terribly sorry, Altera-nim…”
The woman called Altera, clearly irritated, slammed her tail down hard enough to crack the floor, then twisted the earth itself into a chair.
“If anything happens to our precious little pebble, you’d better think very carefully about what comes next.”
The technician answered with a frightened yes, thinking that if this failed, his neck was forfeit, and fumbled with the dimensional controls.
“Please don’t worry too much. The students will be fine, and your granddaughter will be as well. Those kids are strong.”
Altera was about to snap back irritably, then realized he was the homeroom teacher and answered with a noticeably softened tone.
“I hope… so.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“B-Blanca. That way’s blocked. H-here, this way.”
The inside of the dungeon was a maze.
But thanks to Lapis, we were able to head straight for the boss room.
Apparently she could even sense vibrations, so she was tapping the walls and mapping things out in her head.
I knew her body was unusual because of her returnee bloodline, but seeing it in person was something else.
“Good job, Lapis. Let’s keep it up.”
“Y-yes!”
“A boss monster, huh… I wonder what it looks like…”
“Beats me. I’m just hoping it’s not too strong. Yeonhwa, is the lighter okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Then… Jinhyun. Keep control so we don’t get caught in the crossfire.”
“Got it.”
Honestly, if it were just Lapis, Yeonhwa, and me, I’d have been pretty uneasy.
But now that that bastard was coming along too, I really didn’t think we were going to lose.
The boss monster might be strong, but it wasn’t exactly going to be able to deal with someone who could call fire, ice, and lightning out of thin air.
Maybe I wouldn’t even need to get involved.
Even while knowing I shouldn’t, I found myself nursing the foolish hope that maybe this time things really could go that easily.
Then, at last, Lapis warned me that there was something huge ahead.
“There’s a big door or something, and, um… eek. Beyond it, there’s something… really, really scary…”
“That’s the boss monster. Good work finding it. Everyone ready? From here on out, this is the real thing. The moment you let your guard down, you could die. So don’t hold back—hit it with everything you’ve got.”
Yeonhwa’s face went a little pale, as if some memory had come back to her, but then she seemed to accept there was no helping it and quickly nodded.
The others steeled themselves as well.
“…All right. Let’s go. I’ll draw its attention from the front, so blast it with big attacks as long as you don’t catch me in them.”
“Are you sure, Blanca? I mean, you did live in the outskirts, but…”
Hm. I’d only been improvising a little, but it seemed to have landed a bit too well.
Still, it wasn’t entirely wrong. The laboratory had been in the outskirts, after all.
“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourselves instead.”
Not that it would come to this, but if all of you died, I was confident I’d still survive.
I tapped my chest with a fist and grinned.
But the mood only sank further. Maybe solemn was the word for it.
It was supposed to be a joke. Instead, I’d apparently made things worse.
“Right. Let’s do this…!”
Still, they really were fired up now, so I supposed that was fine.
I placed my hand on the enormous door, and the pictographs carved into it began to glow strangely as it slowly opened.
Beyond the heavy iron door, a giant minotaur came into view, seated motionless with chains wrapped around its body.
About the size of a three-story building, maybe.
“…Grrrr—”
The minotaur tensed, trying to snap its chains and rise to its feet, only to be engulfed by a storm of flames that slammed into it at once, and it let out a monstrous shriek.
“KRAAAAAAAHHH!!!!”
“Now, Jinhyun! Lapis! Before Blanca has to step in, let’s bring it down!!!”
Before I could even get close, the kids unleashed big moves at a pace that made me wonder whether they’d have any mana left at all.
Lapis quite literally whipped the ceiling, the walls, and the floor with her ability, smashing the minotaur again and again, while Jinhyun froze its limbs even as it kept staggering forward through the beatdown.
Yeonhwa was literally creating a cyclone of fire and roasting the monster’s torso with it.
“Grrrr, KAAARGH!!! KWAEEEK!!!”
I couldn’t have helped even if I wanted to.
With all the flames and pressure blasting through the air, if I released gas, it would just get blown right back toward us.
At times like this, my inability to launch attacks at range really did make my powers feel a little shabby.
If I could control what I emitted from my body, or at least fire it off somehow, that would’ve been nice.
But since I couldn’t do that, all I could do was stand there and suck on my finger while watching.
“Hah, hah…! I can’t… let everyone… keep suffering…! Ngh…!”
And yet, somehow, their attacks seemed to be losing power the further it went.
No—no, they really were weakening.
At first the minotaur had been getting beaten senseless, but now it was resisting and crawling its way forward.
Yeonhwa’s flames were still strong, but Jinhyun was the problem.
He barely had any experience using his ability, so his efficiency was horrible; he was already gasping like his mana was about to run dry.
“J-just… die, already… you… stupid… bastard!!!”
Lapis looked pretty exhausted too, but compared to Jinhyun, she still seemed much better off.
Still, you know.
If you two collapsed, how the hell was I supposed to fight?
As expected of kids, they really didn’t listen worth a damn.
...If they’d just been a little stronger, or if Jinhyun had even a little more mastery over his ability, then maybe this kind of fight would’ve been fine.
But as things stood, the three of them weren’t enough.
In the end, I’d have to step in. I let out a sigh and made a request of the others.
“Lapis. Open that horse-faced idiot’s mouth. And Jinhyun—bind it. Yeonhwa, can you put the fire out?”
“B-Blanca? N-no, we can still—!”
“It’s too much for you. I’ll do it. But I do appreciate the thought. You’ve helped take some of the strain off me. I’ll take it from here.”
Yeonhwa bit her lip in frustration, angry at her own lack of strength, and withdrew the flames.
Sorry. I’ll buy you all a meal later.
Feeling guilty, I gave them a crooked smile and sprinted toward the minotaur.
From behind me came a roar, and gigantic hands rose from the wall to seize the monster’s upper and lower jaws.
The minotaur of course resisted, but Jinhyun twisted his body and squeezed out the last lump of ice he had left, freezing it in that exact position.
As I drew up my mana, I made something foul inside my body at the same time.
Something with a ridiculously simple molecular formula, yet a ridiculously lethal effect.
A normal body would melt the moment something like that was held inside it.
But mine wasn’t normal.
...That was why my ability was a special-type one.
I could strengthen my body with drugs and hormones, which made it a strengthening type.
I could recombine substances inside my body to create entirely different ones, which made it a transformation type.
I could expel the substances I’d made from my body, which made it an emission type.
And ordinary poisons and acids didn’t work on me at all; in fact, I could break them down and convert them into something else, which made it an aberrant type.
I reached toward the minotaur’s gaping mouth.
Then I sprayed high-purity hydrochloric acid gas.