Between Distrust and Trust

"……What's he even saying?"

"Saying about what?"

They don't believe me. That's fine, for now. The monster hasn't realized it's been found out either, and we still haven't stepped inside its perception range. For the moment, we're safe.

"So this time Jeongguk isn't just talking off a feeling."

The gang leader bent his knees and sank down until we were eye to eye.

"What did you see?"

"I studied."

"I think I follow what you're getting at, but—"

He went over the tree in question, slow and careful. So he knew something too.

"……Not bad. A chameleon-type. Boss-class. Disguised as a tree. It can't hide the size, though. It's the only one that stands too tall."

He hadn't gotten to be gang leader for nothing.

"Chief!? You're saying that thing's a monster?"

"Boss-class specimen. I'd wager more than a few of you have spent your whole lives looking at minnows and never once seen one of these."

A different order of creature from any ordinary monster.

"I was taught how to tell a few types apart myself, and every time they told me the same thing. That it'd be useless in a real fight. That you can't go around fretting over identification methods one by one. They were right. I was looking straight at it and never knew."

The gang leader dropped back down to my eye level. Up and down like that every time had to be hard on him. His own sort of courtesy, maybe.

"How did you spot it? This is your first time on this road. It can't be that something felt off and you decided to look closer."

"If that were the only way to tell, you wouldn't survive. You have to be able to recognize them even in a place you've never been. Otherwise there's no point in having studied."

"……Yeah. You're right."

"Uh, Chief? We still don't actually know whether the kid's telling the truth, do we?"

"Hm."

They'd know soon enough.

"Hit it first. The way I said."

"Hm……."

"A chameleon-type won't leave its spot until prey shows up, not if it can help it. You said this is a road your crew travels often, didn't you? You're going to have to clear that thing out anyway, aren't you?"

"Leave it, and something besides us might walk into it, but—"

"After it hunts, it'll throw up a new disguise somewhere else, and you'll have to find ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it all over again. Better to deal with it while you know where it is."

"True enough……."

The gang leader seemed to have made up his mind.

"Do you know how to bring one down, too?"

"What's everyone's gear like?"

"All of you. Get your gear out."

I'd heard they ran much finer equipment than an ordinary band of raiders. For all that, it didn't help.

"No good. You don't have a single Core Ability User who can actually attack, do you."

The men only scratched their heads. The gang leader let out a long sigh and drew something from inside his coat. Special rounds, saved for a true crisis and for nothing else. Sniper special rounds, no less. Ammunition for his own gun.

"Nearly every attribute, huh?"

"I'll say this now. Burn through all of these, and that's a crisis of its own."

"Even if we spend every last one, we still can't kill it. They don't have the punch to bring down a chameleon-class specimen."

"Ngh."

"Even so—"

Getting out of this alive, that much we could manage.

"At least you'll learn why Gwanghwamun is something to fear."

The crew moved exactly as I'd told them. More precisely, the gang leader moved as I'd told him, and everyone else moved as the gang leader said. There was exactly one point on which he hadn't listened.

He really doesn't seem to trust me.

"We're ready."

"This side's ready too!"

With the chameleon-type between them, the crew had split into two teams and crouched well back on either side.

"Good. Everyone, stand by."

They'd also knotted their coats together into one enormous screen apiece. Before long, those would have to go up over their heads.

"Is this really right……?"

"The Chief must have thought it through."

"You mean the slave's the one who thought it through?"

"Anybody here ever seen a boss-class specimen?"

"……What, nobody?"

"Thought we had a few."

"Maybe they're over on the other side?"

"We split the teams wrong!"

"Wrong how? Seen one or not, what difference does it make? Hold still."

A ragged mood. It didn't matter. They only had to move the way the plan said.

The gang leader and I took our place dead in front of the chameleon-type. A good spot for a shot.

"If even one round goes wide, this turns dangerous."

I'd told him that if he wanted to spare the special rounds, he ought to hand me the sniper rifle. He never gave me the gun.

"However well you shoot, I don't miss either. Don't worry."

Saving him the cost wasn't really the point. I was afraid that if even one shot missed, I'd be the one who died. His gun was a Model 700 Tactical. Bolt-action. Special rounds were fussier still to chamber. Miss even once, and while he was loading the next, the chameleon-type's tongue would cut him to pieces. All I could do was hope he hit every time.

"So I'm trusting no one but you, Jeongguk?"

"No problem."

"Oh? Sure of yourself."

I wondered what he saw in me that made him willing to trust me, but I didn't ask. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter.

"Then tell your men to start."

"All right. We begin!"

"He says start!"

"Get the spears up!"

Split to either side, the crew put their strength together and each team hoisted one enormous spear—giant things, made by lashing their blades end to end.

"Don't drop it!"

"Put your backs into it!"

The weight had to be considerable, and the spears didn't even run straight. On the ground several people had to bear them together, so that stretch was a clean line—but the eyes they actually had to hit were up above, and from the middle on the spears bent and climbed toward the sky. Bent spears. Hard enough just to carry at a run, and there was no hoping for any real striking power. The best they could manage was to endure the weight and barely hold an aim.

It didn't matter. The spears only had to draw the thing's eyes. Bait, and nothing more.

"You all remember where Jeongguk said the eyes were, right? You hit them dead on!"

One from each side, the two huge spears broke into a charge, each aimed at one of the chameleon-type's eyes.

"Too slow. Tell them to quit freezing. It's going to stay put anyway."

"Nobody freeze! Jeongguk's clicking his tongue!"

"When did I!"

"Run, you bastards!"

"Ram it!"

The gang leader had to get ready too.

"Load the first round."

We'd open with a freeze round.

Chk.

"Aim for the brow."

A chameleon-type's brow is thin and delicate. Easy enough to break, comparatively, and break it and the brain lies open. At last the two spears, one from each flank, had nearly reached the eyes.

"Whatever happens, do not drop those spears."

"Hold fast! No matter what, you do not let go!"

The instant the spears were about to touch its eyes—

Shwack!

Its tongue lashed a full circle around it in the space of a blink.

Krack!

Over in an instant.

"Aaaagh!"

"Wh-what the—!"

The forest in front of us went bare between one blink and the next. The ground was littered with nothing but trunks sheared off below the waist, and overhead the leafy crowns were tumbling away in countless pieces, cut clean through. The two spears had been flung far from where they'd stood.

"They couldn't hold at all……. Like this, we're in trouble."

"Jeongguk says we're in trouble!"

"This is no joke!"

"It's way stronger than we thought!"

Even so, the weapons really were high-grade. Take a blow like that a few more times and I still didn't think the spears would break. That, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at least, was a mercy. Meanwhile the tongue it had fired out so long was slowly rolling back into its mouth, as if something were reeling it in.

That habit.

Just as the book had said.

Stick to the plan. The Chief had said he'd make the shots, and the question was whether the rest of the crew could hold. They barely got the spears reset and pushed forward again, back toward the eyes, and still too slow. I'd only had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them run it once, to see what their speed was.

"They need to be twice as fast."

"He says you've got to be three times faster than this!"

"When did I!"

"We'll show you we can do it!"

"Here we go!"

A chameleon-type's camouflage devours a tremendous amount of energy. While the disguise is up, every motion but the tongue is sealed. It can fool an enemy completely with the camouflage and finish them in a single stroke with that sharp, quick tongue, and it judges that to be enough. A state not unlike a gun turret. We didn't have the strength to fight it up close, so it was to our advantage if the thing refused to move.

But it won't stay still forever.

There were a few conditions under which it abandoned that turret state, and a living creature crossing the approach line was one of them. That was why we were fighting at a distance, with nothing but the giant spears and the rifle.

"I'm getting the knack of this!"

"We're picking up speed!"

Once more the two spears closed on its eyes.

"Yes, sir!"

"Running ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like our lives depend on it!"

When the two spears, charging at full tilt, reached the eyes—

Shwack!

The tongue churned the air around it again.

"Ghk—!"

"Hold!"

And then—

Fssss…….

The camouflage finally let go. It knew, for certain, that it had been found. The tree that had stood unusually tall was gone. In its place a massive reptile balanced on its hind legs and its tail, and once it had flung away every lush branch torn from the trees around it, a bare reptilian head stood out plain.

From here, it was real.

"Camouflage's down!"

"This is the real thing now!"

"Charge!"

Once more, slowly, the tongue coiled back into its mouth.

"Well? Do we shoot this time?"

What to do. Once the shooting started, it had to be finished. Follow the plan, and we fired now. Give up, and we didn't fire a single round. Anything else would only be stirring a hornet's nest. The problem was—

"The spears are still slow."

They'd gotten a good deal faster than before, and it still wasn't enough.

"Don't worry. Everything until now was practice, wasn't it? I called for three times the speed, so once it's real they'll manage at least double."

Not a scrap of logic in it. Still, I could see how the gang leader had brought this crew as far as he had.

"So you've come this far by believing in them first."

"Hm?"

He and I were alike in one respect. We'd both been lucky, up to now.

He leads people on faith.

Possible only when a good commander meets good subordinates. Impossible, unless the luck holds. In that case—

"Shoot this time."

Worth a try.

"That's the spirit! All of you, listen! This time it's real! You run three times as fast! Everyone, by the plan!"

"By the plan!"

"Shields up!"

The crew moved as one. The gang leader steadied his breath, eyes fixed to the scope. Now and then I remember the tests my brother used to set for me.

I miss it.

And my sister.

I miss her.