Chapter 121: The ship has sailed

As soon as the Cerberus APC's hatch opened, I kicked off the metallic plating and launched myself into the air. Like a bullet, I streaked above the sea and toward the massive battleship designated Alpha Zero Zero One. Right before I collided with the thick adamantium hull, I flipped my body in midair and landed on the deck.

"Superhero landing!" I shouted.

"…as stupid as always, aren't you, Tanaka?"

I glanced up when I recognized the sneering voice. Mizuno Umi was watching me with her arms folded, her pretty face screwed into a scowl. She glared at me, her long hair slightly rippling as waves of water spun around her.

It didn't take Absolute Appraisal to tell me that she was a water mage. Nonetheless, I activated it anyway.

Name: Mizuno Umi

Species: Human

Job/Rank: Priestess of Water/Hero

Special Abilities: Blessings of the Sea, Leviathan

Leviathan? Was that some sort of familiar? Swallowing, I began to make preparations against that sort of threat.

Fortunately, Mizuno Umi didn't seem to think that I was worth using her special ability on. At least not yet. Raising a hand, she fired off several sharp water arcs in my direction. I merely stepped to the side and ducked them, but was aware of the sharp, crescent-shaped water blasts slicing through metal as if it was mere paper.

"Oh wow." I pushed up my glasses to study the damage Mizuno's spells did. The railings surrounding the deck had been shredded neatly. If I had allowed even one of those spells to hit me, I would be a bloody mess right now.

Mizuno looked upset. "Why the hell did you dodge?!"

I stared at her in disbelief. "Why wouldn't I dodge? Were you expecting me to stand still and let you cut me apart?"

"YES!!!!"

Ladies and gentlemen, looks like we've another psychotic former classmate on the block again. Time to be a wet blanket and pour on the parade of this water priestess.

"I won't stop you from deluding yourself."

"You're just Tanaka! A weakling! A pathetic loser! Someone like you should just let us kill you! How did you come back to life even though Kobayashi-kun and the others killed you?! Just die for good already!"

"Don't wanna."

I slightly shifted my head to the side to avoid another crescent-shaped water blast, which only infuriated Mizuno further.

"I told you to stop dodging!"

The girl was definitely an idiot.

"I'm not gonna listen to you."

Firstly, I had no reason to obey or comply with any of Mizuno's rude orders. Secondly, she had to be deluded if she thought I would accept her inane reasoning and let her kill me. I should die because I'm a loser? I should let people beat me up and kill me or cut me into pieces because I'm a weakling? Regardless of whether I was actually weak or not, that kind of logic was still stupid. It made no sense whatsoever.

"Then I'll kill you!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that. You were already trying to kill me, girl. Even if I listened to you, you would still try to kill me anyway. Whatever decision I chose would make no difference in Mizuno's intended outcome.

Fortunately, the feeling was mutual. Mizuno Umi was on my list of targets for revenge. Unlike Umezu Shigeo and Kido Mayumi, Mizuno was one of those former classmates who actively bullied and abused me.

There could be no mercy shown to her.

While I stood on the deck, Mizuuno launched several whirlpools at me. I merely stood still and held my ground firmly as the whirlpools spun toward me.

Then I swung my hand and smacked the whirlpools. The raging torrents of water dissipated harmlessly as my hand smashed through them, turning them into fine sprays of tiny droplets that rained upon the deck.

"W…what…impossible…"

Mizuno was staring at me in disbelief, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Like I said, I just rained on your parade, girl.

"Is that it?"

Mizuno was trembling in rage. Even more whirlpools materialized behind her, but she didn't send them after me. Instead, she whirled around to yell at her subordinates.

"All of you! What are you doing?! Attack!"

Glancing around, I saw that there weren't many men left. Most of the naval armsmen that were left onboard the ship had been slain by Mkoll and his Marines. However, there were also the bodies of Legnica soldiers lying in bloodied tatters on the ground, having been torn apart by Mizuno's water spells. I was impressed to see an almost complete lack of Marine casualties, though.

"Mkoll, where are you?"

"Hiding in the shadows and taking out the reinforcements heading to your position." The vox-bead in my ear crackled to life as the scout sergeant reported to me. "Do you require our assistance? We can draw the hero's attention away from you."

"That will not be necessary. Just deny her reinforcements."

Mizuno was literally frothing at the mouth when she saw that none of her men were arriving in time, having been felled by the Marines as they tried to rush up to the deck. Impatient, she unleashed her whirlpools at me, but I merely swatted them out of existence again.

"How are you doing that?!" she shriekd. I shrugged and swung my hand to demonstrate.

"Like this?"

"Don't screw with me!" Mizuno raged. I wasn't, though. But she wasn't going to listen to reason so I didn't bother to convince her.

Gritting her teeth, Mizuno conjured huge waves of water before shaping them into a pair of giant fists and hurling them at me. I responded by generating four blood appendages that curled around me defensively to parry the strike and then retaliated by lashing out with such speed that Mizuno wasn't able to follow their movements.

"!"

Despite erecting her own barrier of water, the impact from the four blood appendages was so tremendous it hurled Mizuno back. She managed to flip her body in midair and land on both her feet. Throwing out her hand again, Mizuno tossed a watery spear at me, but I batted it away with my blood appendages.

"What the hell are you?! What are those?!"

Someone clearly did not read or watch Tokyo Ghoul or Tokyo Ghoul: Re.

Instead of answering, I merely launched myself at Mizuno, stretching my elongated blood appendages and whacking her with full force. Mizuno crossed her arms defensively and created another wall of water, but I managed to crack the fluid shield apart with brute force, causing water to spray all over the deck.

"Damn it!" Mizuno hissed. "Water Dragon!"

A huge spiral of water pierced the heavens before descending to take the form of a watery, serpentine dragon. The water dragon roared before dashing at me. Even though I protected myself with my blood appendages, the water dragon shredded them apart and bit into me. I could feel the twelve barriers of my Redwood jacket resisting the deadly, sharp liquid teeth, but Mizuno's powerful spell managed to break at least five layers before finally stopping. However, my jacket wasn't able to prevent me from being hurtled across the air.

"Kuh!"

As I crashed back onto the deck, stunned, the water dragon reared up again and glared at me before lunging to devour my pitiful form.

"Now, Matsukaze!" I shouted. Above, an explosion rocked the skies and a colossal mecha crashed down heavily on the deck, pulverizing the water dragon and crouching down inside a shimmering blue dome. The waves of water splashed about violently, but they immediately drew back and reformed into the ferocious water dragon.

"What the hell is that?!"

I didn't answer Mizuno's question. Dashing forward. I slid across the slippery deck and right under Matsukaze, who reacted by straightening up and grabbing hold of me. Putting me inside the cockpit, the holographic visual images lit up in a perfect replication of the external environment. Above and below, auspexes, readings and meters appeared in blue-tinted light, showing the condition of my Titan, the cooldown of his Titan Core and weapon ammunition counters.

The water dragon didn't hesitate. It dashed toward me again, but I drew my katana and sliced through it. Blue arcs of electricity ran through its watery, serpentine body in a flashy display of lightning and the water dragon roared before evaporating into a dense cloud of steam.

"How…?!"

Mizuno was gaping at me in disbelief, but I was already bounding toward her and swinging my katana. The broadsword cleaved through a huge chunk of the battleship, and Mizuno did well to react in time by conjuring aother water barrier. But the sheer force of the colossal weapon smashed her watery shield apart and slammed into her. Blood spurted into the air as Mizuno was hurled across the ship, crashing into the wall of the bridge and cracking the adamantium structure.

"Hero-sama…"

"I don't believe it…"

"Hero-sama was taken out in one hit…!"

The surviving soldiers' morale took a huge blow when they saw the apparent defeat of their revered hero. Already at their wits' end from seeing their comrades dropped by Marine fire, they wree on the edge of losing it totally.

"We…we can't win!"

"We've to surrender!"

The soldier who shouted that last sentence suddenly staggered, his head disappearing into an explosion of blood. The headless body flopped a bit, as if unable to comprehend that it was dead, and then toppled over.

"Nobody surrenders. Not until I say so."

Snarling, Mizuno hauled herself out of the cratered dent of the adamantium wall, blood running down her face and body. She turned her glare on me, and her magical aura intensified ferociously, acting upon her rage.

"I'll kill you!"

"You've been trying so far," I replied with a shrug. "How's that working out for you?"

Mizuno spluttered, but then turned to yell something into the bridge.

"Contact the fleet! I want every single ship to fire upon this ship right now! Immediately!"

"But Hero-sama, we're still on The Emperor's Glory…"

The soldier who protested vanished in an explosion of blood. Mizuno glowered at the remaining naval crewmen, who shrank back in fear.

"I just gave an order. The entire armada is to fire upon The Emperor's Glory. Immediately. Is that understood?"

"Y…yes, ma'am!"

"And I won't die. Not from something like this."

The sneer on her face was evident. Even though she wouldn't die because she was a hero capable of generating a water barrier, the same couldn't be said for her men. And she didn't care about her men. They were expendable. As long as she could kill me, it didn't matter if she sacrificed her entire crew to do it.

There was a moment of silence, and Mizuno turned upon the poor comnsman who was trying to hail the other ships on the bridge.

"What's taking so long, you incompetent trash?!"

Honestly, you're the most incompetent trash out of everyone here.

"They…they're not answering! None of them is responding!"

"What!?"

Mizuno roared and then stomped into the bridge. Snatching the comns from her quivering comns officer, she began to bellow in the vox.

"This is Mizuno Umi, your Hero of the human kingdoms! Respond!"

Nothing but static or silence.

"Answer me, you useless fools! I want you to fire upon The Emperor's Glory immediately! And I want it done now! Anybody who defies my orders will be executed on the spot!"

Still nothing.

"Can't anyone hear me?!" Mizuno shrieked.

"We can," I piped up, only to earn a glare from her.

"I'll shut that fucking mouth of yours!"

"Go ahead and try." I pointed the Houkai-pattern triple barrel shotgun at her and squeezed the trigger. The leadwall slugs bounced about the inside of the bridge and decimated the crew stupid enough to remain inside, and only Mizuno survived by virtue of her water barrier. I noticed that she didn't bother to shield her crew with her defensive spells.

Seething, Mizuno jumped outside of the bridge and summoned another two water dragons. The twin serpents roared as they lunged at me, but I calmly holstered the shotgun and drew my katana. Annihilating the first one with an arc wave, I used sword block to parry the second one's charge, but the impact drove my Titan back. Matsukaze's metallic feet left twin scourges on the deck, a horrible screech that split the air and caused soldiers to drop.

While I was occupied by her Water Dragon, Mizuno seized the change to jump out and grab a couple of soldiers before throwing them physically into the bridge.

"You! And you!" she hollered. "Get the weapon controls! Aim every single gun on this ship at that mecha! Blow it to smithereens!"

"Uh, ma'am, but that's impossible…"

The soldier who protested was cut into half. Mizuno seized a third, terrified soldier, and threw him into the bridge.

"Do it," she ordered in a chilly tone. The two men could only nod dumbly.

"At this rate, you won't have any men left," I observed as I continued to hold off the water dragon that continued to bite at me.

"That's none of your business!"

Actually, it was. It was great business, at that, especially since it was highly advantageous to me. I wouldn't even have bothered to mention it if I thought Mizuno would take my "advice" seriously. She was way too insane to listen.

To be honest, the two men in the bridge were the only survivors. The rest of the crew were either killed by Mkoll and his Marines, or executed by Mizuno herself. There was also the fact that the majority of the crew had been sent ashore to deal with the "enemy assault", otherwise it would have been a much more difficult victory.

I finally blasted the water dragon apart with another arc wave and was boosting toward Mizuno, who blasted me with another whirlpool of water. I hacked it apart and was about to bear down on her when heavy ordance reduced the deck in front of me to smithereens, carving a massive crater in the adamantium.

"!"

Looking up, I understood. While the battleship wasn't able to fire its broadside gauss turret cannons or rail cannons or cruise missiles, it had several short-ranged Gatling cannons and anti-air turrets that could rotate in position to fire upon an enemy that had boarded the ship. Unleashing a torrent of depleted uranium rounds in the direction of my Titan, the two crewmen devastated the prow of the ship with armor-piercing ammunition.

Remembering that Mizuno had ordered the entire fleet to sink the flagship, I knew that she didn't care if the ship was destroyed. But this wasn't the time to worry about that. I wanted to take the ship intact if possible, but she was making it difficult for me. I couldn't allow the flagship to fire upon the rest of fleet and ended up losing more than I gained.

Phase Dash.

Flooring the accelerator, I had Matsukaze temporarily disappeared into an alternate, quantum dimension, and then emerged into reality behind one fo the anti-air Gatling turrets. Swinging my katana, I sliced it at the base, sending the gun barrels toppling harmlessly onto the deck. Then I dashed away to cut apart its neighboring turret, which had swung over to fire at me. Dancing around the deck with a grace that only a Ronin¬-class Titan was capable of, I decapitated the ship's defenses, slicing and hacking the turrets into pieces.

The tech-priests could fix the ship later, but for now this would have to do.

"This is…impossible!"

Mizuno was shaking her head, denying the reality right in front of her. That bitch had been repeating that same line at least five times in one chapter. I was getting sick of it.

Reversing my grip on the katana, I suddenly spun around and boosted toward her, ignoring the deadly hail of fire that the panicking crewmen were unleashing on me. Maybe if I was lucky, I could get that fucking bitch caught in the fire as well. It would be highy ironic for her to get shot by her own battleship's turrets.

And well-deserved too.

However, Mizuno deftly dodged the huge swing of Matsukaze's katana and jumped away, widening the distance between us. Raising both her hands, she conjured a couple of new spells and got ready to launch water projectiles at me. At the same time, the turrets' fire drew closer. Having stopped to attack, I was barely able to dodge…but fortunately the cooldown of Phase Dash had finished and I could escape to the quantum dimension momentarily…

…or so I thought, but the firing suddenly ceased.

"That should take care of it, boss."

"Mkoll?"

The Marine sergeant had reported in, and from a glance at a holographic screen, I saw the corpses of the two crewmen slumped over the gun controls. The Marines weren't going to let me hog all the fun.

"Thanks!"

I turned to a trembling Mizuno, who was livid and furious.

"I don't believe this! This just can't be possible! You're Tanaka, the weakling! The pathetic loser! There's no way you can win against me! This is a nightmare! It has to be!"

Then her vox-bead crackled into life. Smiling, Mizuno nodded.

"Yes! Bring them back! Board the ships! I want every men back on the ships! Find out what's going on, and execute the crews for disobeying a direct order from me! That includes you, Commodore. If you live through this, you'll take responsibility for this gross incompetence."

Matsukaze's enhanced sensors picked up the commodore spluttering on the other side of the vox, but Mizuno paid him no attention.

"Do it! Now!"

Las-beams lit up from afar as navy crewmen and armsmen streamed in from the naval harbor and toward the ships, but before they could reach the jetty, the armada opened fire.

"…what?!"

Mizuno's jaw dropped when she saw the pier reduced to a smoldering pyre as dozens of ordnance struck the naval base. Huge chunks of the naval personnel were incinerated, whole companies of navy soldiers decimated or wiped out from the single bombardment.

"Wondering why none of the ships in the fleet is responding to your orders?" I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "That's the reason."

"You…when did you…?"

"Long ago."

Then I dashed forward to slice her in half. Mizuno leaped back, blasting my Titan with water spells. But the water spears bounced off the light energy shield that encased Matsukaze. Though not as powerful as the dome-shield that protected him whenever he commenced Titanfall, the light energy shield served as extra health and an adequate buffer against damage.

Mizuno rolled to her feet and launched triple water dragons this time. I used Phase Dash to avoid the first two and then destroyed the third one with an arc wave. Spinning around on the balls of Matsukaze's feet, I then blocked the other two's charges.

"No way, no way, no way! This can't be real! It can't be real! It's not real!"

Mizuno was screaming.

"I can't be defeated by the likes of Tanaka! I can't possibly be outsmarted by an idiot like him! He's just a loser! A weakling! An idiot! There's absolutely no way I can lose to a stupid, weak, pathetic loser like him!"

Sometimes the delusions my former classmates buried themselves in were so ridiculous that they still couldn't wake up despite being hit in the face by reality.

The moment the cooldown for Arc Wave finished, I obliterated both water dragons at the same time and then turned to cut Mizuno down.

But she had retreated to the top of the battleship, standing on the highest point of The Emperor's Glory.

"I can't believe you forced me to use this!"

With a yell, Mizuno unleashed a massive spell. The heavens churned, the seas roiled and waves splashed about, causing even the colossal battleships to be thrown about in the violent waters. For a moment, it seemed as if the ocean was being split apart.

And then a gargantuan leviathan emerged from the abysmal depths, a sea monster of such epic proportions that it dwarfed even the largest battleship. The monster had to be at least three hundred meters in length.

"Leviathan," Mizuno snarled as she commanded the newly materialized behemoth. "Destroy the entire armada. Don't stop until everything has been devoured."