Like Nobunaga Oda or Enchou Sanyuutei

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.