Chapter 19 — Like Nobunaga Oda or Enchou Sanyuutei

 This is an announcement to all passengers. It appears a Sage is in combat with the nearby aggressor. In accordance with official policies regarding warzones, all contracts for transportation are hereby null and void. For a refund of the full ticket price, please inquire at any station.

 After making its announcement, the voice that was coming from nowhere in particular abruptly cut off.

 "What does that mean?" Tomochika said from under Yogiri, her mouth agape.

 "'It's none of our business anymore, do whatever you want.' Something like that, I guess?"

 "They aren't even going to evacuate the passengers?!"

 "If the same thing that just happened is going to happen again, the staff won't have the ability to do anything for their customers anyway."

 "Well, could you at least get off of me? If another attack hits, it's not like this will help."

 For the moment, there was no indication of an attack coming their way. As requested, Yogiri let Tomochika sit up. Looking around the car, it was clear that the train had suffered significant damage. A number of unidentified objects had passed through it, cleanly cutting away everything in their path.

 It reminded him of Higashida. The result was similar to the Fire Ball he had used. Whatever this attack was, several passengers had been caught up in it. None of those who had been struck had survived, leaving their lifeless bodies scattered about the scene. There weren't any entrails or blood, however; just the stench of burnt flesh thick in the air. Those who had survived the attack were now hurriedly disembarking from the train per the announcer's instructions.

 "If another one of those things comes for us, getting off the train isn't going to help much. But I suppose there's no point in staying here either, so I guess we should get ready to leave too."

 The train had sustained critical damage. Even after the Sage's battle was finished, it was hard to believe that it would ever be able to move again.

 Gathering their luggage, Yogiri and Tomochika stood up. Once the rest of the passengers had left, they took their time disembarking. Mokomoko followed them. As Tomochika's guardian spirit, they probably didn't need to worry about her.

 The tracks they had been following ran between the Haqua Forest and the Garula Canyon. The forest was situated on the left side of the tracks, with the canyon to their right. Yogiri looked towards the canyon, where he figured the attack had originated.

 Some distance away from the tracks was a cliff, at the bottom of which flowed a large river. Beyond the canyon were mountains bare of any vegetation. The river below split off in a number of directions, carving a complex piece of scenery into the landscape.

 "So what even happened?" Tomochika asked, looking in the same direction.

 It didn't take long for them to find a likely source for the attack.

 "Look! A robot!" she shouted.

 A giant was clinging to one of the mountain faces. Its frame was clearly made of metal, and it had some token bits of what Yogiri guessed were supposed to be armor fastened to it. It had four arms, the two on its left clinging to the rock, and the two on its right holding an enormous sword and shield. Perhaps its horned head was heavier than its size suggested, as it maintained a hunchbacked posture. As Tomochika had pointed out, it looked like some sort of machine; there was nothing about it that looked organic.

 "So that's the aggressor they were talking about. What about the Sage?"

 "Maybe over there?"

 Looking over to where Tomochika was pointing, Yogiri saw a small speck in front of the enormous automaton.

 "You really do have a good eye, don't you?" Yogiri was impressed. As he had noted before, her eyesight was truly exceptional.

 The Dannoura body is uniquely made. As with a certain historical battle manga, the blood of legends runs through Dannoura's veins! Those like Nobunaga Oda and Enchou Sanyuutei are all mixed in!

 "Wait, really? What kind of abilities do we get from the blood of a rakugo storyteller?" Apparently, this was the first Tomochika had ever heard of it.

 The overall result is good, so don't worry about the little details.

 As they were speaking, the battle by the canyon resumed. The Sage fired off a number of bolts of light, which the giant blocked with its shield. The bolts glanced off it, scattering in random directions and blowing away chunks of the nearby mountain. The damage to the train must have been caused by those bolts.

 The giant swung its sword down at the Sage. A weapon of that size must have been tremendously heavy, but the giant slashed through earth, stone, and air alike, as if the blade weighed nothing at all.

 And then the giant suddenly disappeared. As the mountain it had been clinging to collapsed, it reappeared on another nearby peak. Using its right arms, it pulled a rifle-like weapon from its back, firing off a few shots in quick succession. More mountains exploded and huge gouts of water were blasted upwards from the river below.

 Each time Yogiri blinked, the canyon had completely changed shape. Neither combatant was sparing a thought for their surroundings.

 His optimism was starting to fade away. A number of stray bolts of light struck the ground around them, cutting off — as well as cutting straight through — some of the fleeing passengers.

 "Hmm, this is problematic. Even running away doesn't seem like a very good option."

 "You say that, but you don't sound all that worried."

 Yogiri pulled out their map. Considering the time they had spent traveling and the landmarks nearby, he tried to pinpoint their precise location. It seemed they were fairly close to Hanabusa Station.

 "Looks like it's about ten kilometers. But walking there while dodging stray magic attacks seems a bit too risky. Maybe we'd be better off heading into the forest for a bit."

 The other passengers on the train had split into three groups: those who were following the rails, heading towards Hanabusa, those who were fleeing to the forest, and the stragglers who had yet to decide on a course of action and were standing around in a state of confused panic.

 "Hey! Why don't you just get rid of that monster?"

 "Why?"

 "What do you mean 'why?' It's in our way, isn't it?" Tomochika looked surprised, as if the reason was perfectly obvious.

 "If that's the only excuse I need, I could say the people walking in front of us on the street are in the way, so I might as well kill them too."

 "But it tried to kill us earlier! Bullets were flying at us and everything."

 "It's not like it was targeting us personally. It only happened once, so it was probably a mistake."

 "Geez, how are you so calm about this?! And it fired multiple shots, by the way!"

 "If I don't follow some set of personal rules, I'm going to end up killing people just because they annoy me. I'd like to avoid that, if possible."

 Tomochika deflated a little. "Oh. Well...sorry, I guess. That was kind of naive of me..."

 "I'm not criticizing you or anything, so don't worry about it."

 The fighting was going on fairly far away, so Yogiri figured if they were careful, they could avoid most of the trouble. Killing everyone they came across would be more trouble than it was worth, anyway.

 "It doesn't look like it's going to be difficult to avoid their attacks, so if we move carefully —" There should be no problem, is what he had wanted to say. But before he could, the sound of an explosion filled the air around them. At the same time, an intense gust of wind kicked up a huge cloud of dust. It took a moment for Yogiri to process what had just happened, but once he noticed that everything had gone dark, he understood instantly.

 Something was blocking the sun.

 As the dust dissipated, Yogiri looked up to see the giant looming over them. Standing on the train, its feet had completely flattened the cars beneath them. Although the giant had been quite a distance away just moments before, it had closed the gap between them without warning. In an instant, they had found themselves in the most dangerous possible place.

 "You bastard! You can't run from me!"

 One step behind, the Sage came flying over. His enormous cloak accentuated just how small he was, adding an unbalanced appearance to his image. Floating in the air, he was glaring at the giant. And then, without warning, he snapped out his hand.

 "Dannoura, can you step over here for a second?"

 Grabbing Tomochika's hand, Yogiri pulled her towards him. With a short cry, she jumped back just in time to see something strike the ground where they had been standing.

 The earth had been completely buried in hail, covering an area about a meter wide. Each chunk of ice was only a few centimeters long, but there were so many of them, stretching out as far as Yogiri could see.

 Unsurprisingly, such an attack had no effect on the giant, but the ordinary humans in its path weren't so lucky. The passengers who had hesitated and failed to run were now scattered about in a tragic, gruesome display.

 "But...why...? Why would you even do that?!" Tomochika shouted as she saw the carnage before them.

 Hearing her, the Sage turned. "What? You were all lined up so nicely that I figured I'd take you out in one go...but some of you survived?" Keeping an eye on the giant, he glanced over at Yogiri and Tomochika.

 "I don't understand either. Why are you attacking us? We have nothing to do with this, right?"

 The boy before them was supposed to be fighting the giant. There wasn't any reason for him to be killing the passengers of a passing train.

 "Are you talking back to me? Why are you even looking at me? You should be bowing with your face in the dirt when you see a Sage, you disgusting peasants!"

 Yogiri was relieved. The Sage's behavior simplified the issue. "You're the disgusting one here," he replied, unleashing his power as he spoke.

 The boy fell. A dull thud marked his impact with the ground. It looked like his neck had broken from the fall, but that would hardly be an issue for him now.

 "Did you kill him?"

 "Yeah. That was the right reason to kill someone, don't you think?" There was no need to hesitate against an enemy who was happy to attack them without a second thought.

 Yogiri looked at the giant. He had no idea how it would react now that the Sage it had been fighting was dead. As he considered whether or not to take it down preemptively, the giant spoke.

 "Wait. I. Intend. No. Harm."

 A sound like a chorus of people speaking in unison reverberated from the massive creature above them.

 It appeared to be the giant's voice.