Interlude: Magma Monster Battle
‘It has been one month since the battle with the monsters ended.’
The sound of the news on the TV echoes in the brand new shop.
As I glance at the news while grinding coffee beans, I feel annoyed that it’s this topic again.
‘The destruction brought about by the monsters is showing signs of reconstruction, and at last people must also feel at ease.’
The subjugation of the monsters that had plunged Japan into a crisis.
With the clear threat of monsters gone, the city was rebuilding, but the public eye was focused elsewhere rather than the monsters being defeated.
‘I wonder what has become of the Black Knight now?’
‘I hear he is currently being protected by the Justice Crusaders, but why protection?
‘Are they troubled over how to handle him? He is certainly a leading figure in the battles against the monsters but the Black Knight is still an unofficial existence, unlike the Justice Crusaders.’
‘So the idea of protection makes sense. His position is very difficult.’
The actions of the Black Knight, who fought and was captured by the Justice Crusaders after defeating the final mastermind monster.
It’s fair to say the entire world is focused on his existence.
In fact, even now commentators on TV were enthusiastically debating about the Black Knight.
“…They should just leave him be.”
The master of the small cafe on the street corner mutters, but it won’t change anything.
Ultimately, what happens to the Black Knight will be left to the judgement of the Justice Crusaders who protect him and the government.
No matter what speculation the general public makes, it’s meaningless.
‘So like, what’s the Black Knight actually like?’
‘He beat the monsters so he’s an ally right?’
Customers watching the news talk about the Black Knight.
Glancing over, they look like students.
‘I’m super curious about what he’s actually like.’
‘On Blue’s Tummutter he seems to be like a Siberian Husky lol.’
‘I know right!’
Looks like he’s pretty accepted among the youth.
Well, when you get older you get more suspicious I guess. Young people must be more adaptable.
“Master.”
“Hm? Refill on the coffee?”
While listening to their conversation out of the corner of my ear, a regular sitting at the counter calls out to me.
“What do you think about the Black Knight? You were a soldier right?”
“Ex-soldier. I retired now.”
I left the Self Defense Force a year ago and opened a cafe with connections.
I’m aware I’ve lived a strange life, but the reason I left the Self Defense Force…is because I didn’t have the will to continue anymore.
“Even ex-military, you’d know stuff right? Did you do operations like capturing the Black Knight?”
“Nothing fun like that happened, and unfortunately I know nothing about the Black Knight. Even if I did, there’d be a gag order so I couldn’t talk about it.”
If I did know about the Black Knight, the person called that, and carelessly let slip information, it would probably be treated as leaking important confidential info and I’d get punished to hell and back.
“I see.”
“That’s how it is.”
My words seem to dispel any further questions, as he falls silent bringing the coffee in front of him to his mouth.
To avoid any more annoying questions, I change the channel with the remote control and focus on grinding the coffee beans.
“…!”
“Hm, an earthquake? There sure are a lot of small ones today.”
Just a light shaking earthquake.
It only lasted a few seconds but I unconsciously stop moving.
My hands are shaking…
“…Fear isn’t something easily wiped away huh.”
When an earthquake happens, I remember it against my will.
One and a half years ago, back when I was still an active soldier.
The monster who bore the name of magma, the boy called the Black Knight who fought him as Japan plunged into a crisis of destruction.
That monster first confirmed it’s appearance when inactive volcanos across Japan suddenly showed signs of eruption with no forewarning.
Volcanos said to have extremely low chances of erupting even over the span of hundreds of years unexpectedly showing signs of eruption made the government anticipate an unprecedented major disaster.
Immediately after the government tried to respond, the volcanos fell silent and he appeared.
‘AAAAAARTH!’
A monster whose body seemed kneaded from glowing magma.
What’s more, he artificially made the volcanos erupt or the verge of eruption himself, completely absorbing the released energy and appearing above ground.
The government immediately assembled a response team to deal with the appeared monster [Magma Monster].
However, the humanoid monster with a magma-like body surface was impervious to bullets, explosives, and all firearms.
According to the opinion of esteemed scholars, this monster seemed to be absorbing some kind of energy from the earth to empower itself.
Therefore it would regenerate after taking attacks and could continue attacking indefinitely with near limitless energy.
An invincible monster that could absorb energy without limit from the earth.
Unable to halt his advance, the Magma Monster headed steadily towards human settlements destroying his surroundings with heat and magma, with no hesitation in his slow steps.
Seeing the situation as serious, the government took unexpected action.
They requested the cooperation of the unidentified masked man rumored to have defeated many monsters, the Black Knight.
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“Dammit, how did it come to this!!”
This operation was like transferring an impossibility directly to paperwork and slapping it in the troop’s faces.
A supposedly cutting edge large helicopter for long distance transport prepared by some huge corporation called the KANEZAKI Group.
Transporting the Magma Monster far from land out to sea and neutralizing him.
If the cargo was normal it would have been more bearable, but failure would endanger not just us but Japan itself.
It’s only natural to be afraid.
Comrades who have to operate this state of the art helicopter we’re touching for the first time today must not feel alive.
“Distance to destination point, around 3000!!”
The vast sea below us.
My comrade’s voice echoes as if from far away to answer.
The operation has entered its critical stage.
If we screw up here, not just our efforts and sacrifice, everything will be wasted.
“What’s happening down there…! Hey, Black Knight!”
Connected by wires to the helicopter below is a square cargo container.
The container, with interior space of about six tatami mats, is fortified by multiple layers of armor and made sturdy enough to withstand any attack.
But it’s not outside attacks this is preventing.
From inside the container I hear a heavy dull striking sound, Dodogo!, and the container shakes left and right.
“Ugh…!”
I grip the handles and endure the shaking.
My comrades are desperately working to control the posture, but one mistake could sever the wires and the container would plummet into the sea upside down.
Yet even as we do so, the sound of impacts continues echoing from within the container.
“Dammit, there should be more than just two of us…!”
“Don’t complain!! We’ve been entrusted with this!!”
“I know that!!”
There were supposed to be far more troops assigned to this operation.
But the Magma Bastard’s rampage heavily injured the troops meant to board the helicopter, leaving just us two able to get on.
Yet we still had to continue the mission.
“Is he alright!? The Black Knight!”
“How could we know!? To hold down that thing trying to escape the container, he went inside too!?”
If you’re in that cramped space with that thing, you’d be burnt to cinders in seconds.
But the fact is, the battle still continues inside that container.
Repeated impacts, and from the small openings made in the container, I hear wind blowing in and flames briefly spurting out and vanishing.
I don’t know if it’s thanks to that suit he wears.
The battle happening inside that container is on a different dimension from our common sense.
“Kh, arrival at destination point!”
“Confirmed!!”
I remove the cover on the switch in my hand and check the container below the helicopter.
I can still hear fighting sounds from inside.
I bring my hand to the intercom at my ear and send my voice to the Black Knight, with whom one-way communication is connected.
“Dropping in 3 seconds! Brace yourself! 3! 2! 1!”
I start the countdown out loud and grip the switch, pressing it on timing.
“Dropping!!”
Matching the timing, I remotely open the bottom of the container and drop the monster inside into the sea surface.
“OOOH!!”
With a roar like thunder, something wrapped in smoke falls towards the sea.
I can only confirm one water splash.
“Where is he!?”
Did he fall with it!? I can’t confirm!
My comrade pilot calls in a panicking voice.
“Him! Did he fall too!?”
“No good, can’t confirm his figure!!”
“Search carefully!!”
No joke, we can’t abandon him after coming this far!!
Anxiously peering at the sea surface, a black hand covered in a hand guard appears by my feet at the helicopter door I’m looking out of.
“Woah!?”
What climbed up the helicopter door was the man clad in a black suit, the one called the Black Knight.
Spewing smoke from his body, he sits at the edge of the door as if kicking his legs out and heaves a big sigh.
“Phew…thought I was gonna die.”
“Geez, you had me worried. Jeez.”
A girl appears, sitting next to the Black Knight as if she had always been there.
Finally relieved to have dropped that monster into the deep sea.
“It was tough huh? But you did it. Well, I’d expect no less from you.”
“…At least do a safety check.”
While watching their interaction, I check our surroundings and the Black Knight and confirm nothing seems off. Then try calling out while I’m at it.
“Are you…alright?”
“Yes, um, thank you for your hard work. It was difficult for all of us.”
A kid. Middle schooler? Maybe a first year high schooler?
From his gestures and voice, I vaguely realize this and feel conflicted emotions.
Do our superiors know?
That this person called the Black Knight is a child…?
“As expected of the Black Knight I scouted. Of course.”
“Alpha, you’re annoying. Don’t cling to me, it’s irritating.”
“Clingy cling~”
Seeing what looks like close friends, I forget about the fierce battle earlier and my feelings settle.
Maybe because the tension faded, I unconsciously call out to them.
“You two seem very close. Like a couple.”
“Yes, a couple. I told you that right?”
“Oh right, you did say that. You two are a couple then. Yeah, I heard from my superior.”
Haha, I’ve asked something strange.
Considering the circumstances, a smile escapes from the relief.
“Alpha, cut it out.”
“Okaaay, I’ll stop. We’re just friends, that’s why we’re together here, right?”
“Oh right, that’s how it was. Sorry, I forgot.”
I properly heard from my superior that the girl and Black Knight are “friends”.
My memory is intact and there’s no mistake.
…Oh right, I forgot something important.
“Did you…defeat that Magma Bastard?”
I ask the Black Knight glaring at the girl if he was able to defeat the monster.
“No, I can’t defeat that thing yet it seems.”
“Wait, then that means…”
“I can’t defeat it now, but next time I should be able to prepare countermeasures. So please call me again next time. I really can’t let it destroy the country I live in after all.”
He’ll take on that terrifying enemy again?
Just being close by made me cower, how pathetic.
“Thank you. Thanks to you we were saved.”
“…P-please, I wasn’t moving for that purpose.”
“Are you embarrassed? Could it be you’re embarrassed?”
“…!”
He tries to brush the girl aside with his right hand.
There I notice something black and cracked attached to his right arm.
“That arm!?”
“Ah, it’s…that thing’s arm. It seems when it grabbed me, I tore it off… Do you need it?
To think he tore off the arm of that monster somehow?
Without any trouble he pulls the arm off from his right arm as if peeling it, and tries to stand up wiping off the soot, then looks down at the sea surface.
“Could you…wait here a bit?”
“What’s wrong?”
“It looks like it’s still coming up.”
“!!”
I spontaneously look in the direction of his gaze.
‘OOOHRTH!!!’
The face surfacing from the sea gasping for air belongs to the monster, encased in a blackened magma-like shell.
It floated up forcibly!?
No, at this rate it should only be a matter of time before it sinks.
“If left alone, it would sink to the seafloor upside down but…”
“Fufu, it seems you understand there’s something that must be properly done.”
“Don’t look so smug just because things went as you expected…!”
He looks silently at the sea surface.
Feeling uneasy, I try to say something but faster than that he grips the monster’s arm he held in his right hand again.
“I should prepare for the next time. To fight it again…”
“Yeah, that’s right. Use that arm. If you do even that thing can’t melt it.”
Staring at the monster’s arm, he turns his masked face here.
“If I don’t come back, please move away from here.”
He intends to go.
Even though he kept fighting until collapsing with exhaustion just earlier.
The figure before my eyes is an incomprehensible existence.
But he is decidedly not a monster or villain.
A child with clumsy kindness.
“No, we’ll wait here! You definitely have to come back too!!”
Thoughtlessly I say that regardless of position.
I think I’ve made words that could become a responsibility issue, but hearing that, even through his mask I can tell he looks very surprised.
“Go safely~”
“…I’ll be back.”
“You never say it when going to school but…this is big progress.”
“I didn’t tell you, so shaddup!”
Muttering something last, he jumps down from the helicopter.
Falling towards the rampaging monster on the sea surface, he drives the monster’s arm he held into its magma blackened torso.
‘Gaaah!?’
The sinking monster and Black Knight.
The shocks from their battle reach the sea surface.
Anxiously, so as not to miss sight of him, I stare fixedly at the sea surface.
“But still, after all, still…there’s no one but you.”
The girl’s voice comes from right next to me.
Nothing seems off.
There’s only me and my comrade in this large helicopter.
So there’s nothing weird about this girl being here.
Because she’s the Black Knight’s friend.
“…Huh?”
“Hey! He came up! Confirmed over here!”
“Wha-, oh, n-pulling him up now!”
Confirming his figure surfaced from the sea, I hurriedly prepare the rope ladder.
“Hehe.”
And so the extremely difficult operation came to an end.
The fact that the Black Knight and government formed a cooperative relationship was concealed, but fighting alongside him still held meaning for us. I continue believing that even now.
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