Rebuild World

to Akira with a strong but gentle voice.

 

“Everyone starts as a weak person.
Akira, you’ve done all you could and that’s all that matters.
Since you just launched a surprise attack on someone far stronger than you and were able to retreat safely, I think that alone was pretty amazing.
As for your current lack of skill, later you can train as hard as you can to improve.
I’ll keep training you even if you say that you already had enough of it, so there’s no need to worry about that.”

 

Hearing Alpha saying something that was so obvious to him and how she behaved as if surviving this encounter was a certainty, Akira was able to pick himself up and let out a forced smile.

 

“…You’re right, I’ll be counting on you.”

 

“Just leave it to me.
And also, from that surprise attack just now, I was able to confirm the enemy’s equipment and his line of thinking.
I’ve also completely analyzed his habits.
You should be able to kill him next time.”

 

“Really? You’re really something, you know.”

 

“I’ve told you before that I have a high level of competency in these areas, haven’t I? Now, to get him next time, you’ll need to get really close to him, so get yourself ready for that.”

 

“I understand, don’t worry, I’m ready for it.”

 

He knew well that all he should do was to give his best for the next move too.
He blazed towards his next position.
His resolve could be seen on his face.

 

—

 

Hayya’s attention was not distracted by Alpha since he was very angry.
He moved deeper into the building while being vigilant of Akira.
But with time, his vigilance started to loosen up again.
Since nothing out of ordinary happened, he began to calm down and relax.
Moreover, as long as Alpha was guiding him, he had to look at Alpha’s back.
Hence, he was once again lured by that beautiful back.
And even if he tried to look away, it only made him more and more bothered by that mesmerizing view.
As a result, he stopped being vigilant of his surroundings.
Moreover, since he consciously tried not to look at Alpha, he was being careless of what was in front of him.

 

Even he himself started to think that this was getting pretty bad.
His attention was divided between the distraction in front of him and watching his surroundings.
He did not have the leeway of dividing his attention for something else other than those two things.
This time, when he looked back at Alpha after scanning his surroundings, she was already standing near an intersection just ahead of him while pointing at a  direction.

 

[…That boy is over there, huh!]

 

Hayya made a guess that Alpha was pointing at where Akira was hiding.
He ran and stopped right before the intersection as he judged he was safe from that distance.
With half of his chest peeking out from the intersection, he pulled the trigger on his finger and keep shooting at Akira’s probable location. 

 

The sound of the gunshots echoed through the hallway.
Most of the high speed bullets landed on the floor, wall and ceiling.
Countless shrapnel ricocheted through the hallway and hit all the blind side of the hallway.

 

When Hayya was about to change the cartridge of the gun which was now empty, Alpha lowered her hand.
Hayya noticed that and interpreted it as a sign that his target has been eliminated.

Sponsored Content

 

“Alright, he’s dead, huh!?”

 

Thinking that he had won, Hayya felt relieved and he stepped into the hallway without changing his gun’s cartridge and tried to confirm that he had killed Akira.
But he could only see a hallway that was destroyed by the flying bullets.
His relieved expression suddenly turned grim.

 

“Oii, the boy isn’t here, you know?!!”

 

Hayya walked back to Alpha while he kept shouting at her.
But Alpha just smiled and  moved her lips.
Hayya could not hear her voice, so he angrily shouted at her again.

 

“The boy!! Show me the damn boy!!”

 

Again Alpha pointed to the direction behind Hayya and he looked back without thinking twice, but no one was there.

 

Suddenly, another gunshot echoed.
Hayya knew that he was hit from the pain coming from his abdomen.
He was stunned from the shock, this gave an opening to the assailant, who then fired  multiple bullets at him.
Although he was wearing only a cheap armor, it was enough to prevent him from getting any fatal wounds as the bullets could not pierce through it.
But it was enough to take him down.
He fell down on the ground while screaming angrily.

 

Hayya tried to make sense of what had happened just now as he was lying down on the ground writhing in pain.

 

[…I got shot?! From where? I didn’t see anyone though!! There is only that girl… Wait, that girl shot me!? Impossible!! She is just an image!! There’s no way she was able to shoot me…]

 

Hayya was confused by the impossible situation he was in.
But his confusion was quickly cleared up as Akira stepped out from inside Alpha.

 

[He was right inside her so I couldn’t see him, huh!?]

 

Akira came closer to Hayya with both his hands gripping on his gun.
He lifted his gun and aimed for Hayya’s head.

 

Hayya gritted his teeth to withstand the incoming pain as he pointed his gun at Akira and pulled the trigger.
But nothing happened, he then remembered that the cartridge in his gun was empty.

 

In front of his imminent death, Hayya racked all his brainpower, that he normally did not use, in order to survive.
Then, right before his death, when everything was moving slowly he realized something.

 

[…So it was all a trap right from the beginning, huh?]

 

Alpha made him look away when Akira launched his surprise attack in order to take his attention away from Akira.
She stopped in a strange location and pointed her finger so that he would waste all his bullets.
She stopped pointing her finger so that he would stop exchanging the cartridge.
She looked and smiled at him in order to lower his guard.

 

Once he realized that, everything about her, her dress, the hallway that she lured him into, her movement speed when she was guiding him, and all the other minor things, all of them were in order to kill him.
He kept thinking of all these useless things in the short time that he was still alive.
He just wasted his precious time and brainpower for these meaningless things right before his death.
And like that Hayya had spent all the time he had left.

 

Hayya muttered while making a crooked smile out of fear.

 

“… The beguiling… Ghost…”

 

After that, Akira’s bullet pierced through his head and ended his life.
The last thing that he saw was Alpha’s ruthless smile as she approached and hugged Akira.

 

Kahimo’s voice burst out from Hayya’s communication device.

 

“Hayya, what happened? Did you finish that boy?”

 

But then Alpha warned Akira.

 

“You shouldn’t answer that.
He would notice the situation if you do.”

 

Akira quickly stopped himself from making any sound and nodded.

 

“Let’s quickly take off his equipment.
With this, we’ll have more weapons.”

 

Akira took Hayya’s equipment.
Although it did not really fit him, at least he had better equipment now compared to before when he had his gun only.

 

“Then for the next step, throw his corpse out through that window.”

 

Akira was rather surprised to that unexpected order.
But Alpha just smiled at him like usual.

 

—

 

Kahimo, who was on the first floor of the abandoned building, more or less understood what was going on and his face turned grim.

 

[There’s no mistaking it, I heard gunshots.
After that, he stopped responding.
It means that he’s at least in a condition where he can’t answer me or he might even be dead already.
Did he do something stupid and was caught off guard again? No, judging from the sound, it was at least a shoot out between them, huh?]

 

Kahimo was at a loss as to whether he should go and check the situation or just keep standing there.

 

[If I go and check them.
I might get lucky and get to monopolize the relics.
I can also sell his equipment for money.
But, there’s a good chance that we were actually lured here, the problem is, how far are we going to get lured in? And what if the fabled relics actually don’t exist? What if that boy is actually luring hunters that can see that girl in order to kill them and then take their equipment? What if this building is actually his hunting ground? If that’s true, then it’s dangerous to assume that boy as a novice… Wait, am I over thinking here?]

 

The fabled relics and his dead companion.
Both of these factors made Kahimo more suspicious.
His mind was telling him to run away, he involuntarily shifted his gaze towards the exit of the building.

 

But right at that moment, he saw Hayya’s body falling down.
Hayya’s corpse was stripped off its equipment.
It made a huge sound as it landed on the ground.
Kahimo was surprised and approached Hayya’s corpse.
But he stopped right before he stepped outside the building.

 

[The boy took Hayya’s equipment.
He is still alive and he deliberately threw his corpse outside.
He knows my position…]

 

Kahimo raised his head and looked up with a dreadful expression.
He could see the boy who killed Hayya running towards him with his  handgun aiming to shoot him.

 

“…That damn boy!”

 

His opponent was just a small kid, the word patience and vigilance had gone from Kahimo’s head.
He changed his mind and started moving in order to kill Akira.
When he pulled out the information terminal and checked for Hayya’s location, he could see Hayya’s indicator was moving.
It showed that Akira had Hayya’s information terminal.

 

[I knew it, he’s upstairs.
It would be great if he misunderstands that he is the only one who knows others position.
I can still outsmart him then.]

 

Kahimo let out a small laugh and rushed inside  the building.

 

—

 

Akira received another instruction from Alpha for the next place for the surprise attack.

Sponsored Content

 

“Akira, take out the knife that you didn’t sell back then.”

 

“This one?”

 

The knife that he took out was a relic of the old world that he found during his first time in Kuzusuhara City ruin.
Its blade looked dull and it looked as if it would not be able to cut anything.

 

“Yes, that one.
There’s something prodding out on the bottom of that knife, right? Take your gun and shoot right through it.”

 

Akira stuck the knife on the ground and got his gun ready.
As he was getting his gun closer to the knife, he asked Alpha.

 

“…Excuse me for asking this, it will break if I shoot it, right?”

 

“Yes, it will break.”

 

“It feels like it’s such a waste.
This is also a relic of the old world, right? I should be able to get quite a lot of money from selling this…”

 

“Think of it as a necessary expense and get over it.
Or instead, I have another way to get over this situation which is 3 times more dangerous, so which one you would choose?”

 

Seeing how Alpha was smiling full of confidence, Akira just shut his mouth and pulled the trigger.

 

—

 

Kahimo checked his terminal again for Hayya’s location.
Hayya’s indicator was standing in the same place for 10 minutes.
Akira might be waiting to jump on him there, or it could be some kind of a trap.
Kahimo thought of both possibilities as he kept moving deeper into the building carefully.

 

Kahimo found Hayya’s information terminal discarded in the middle of a hallway.
He then took it while looking annoyed.

 

“…Did he leave it here because he knew that I could track his position using this?”

 

If he did not realize that Kahimo could track his position through that information terminal, then Kahimo could still set up a surprise attack on him.
But if Akira noticed that Hayya was moving straight towards his position without taking any wrong turns, then he would have left the information terminal as a bait in order to prepare a surprise attack.
If that was the case, Kahimo was thinking of predicting Akira’s surprise attack and taking him by surprise instead.
It was rather unexpected for him to be able to think like that in this situation.

 

Kahimo’s face turned grim.
He knew that it would not be easy to hide oneself in this place and shoot at him.
But even so, he could not clear his bad feeling.
Instead, it was only getting worse.
The enemy must have set up a surprise attack.
His intuition was telling him that he was correct, and in fact, he was actually correct.

 

On the next instance.
Kahimo’s body was split into two.
His armor was completely useless.
As the upper and the lower part of his body fell and rolled down onto the ground, he could see his blood and organs spilling out.
Kahimo was shocked by the pain.
In the short moment of his last remaining life, he noticed that there was a big cut on the wall right beside him.
He understood that something cut him in half through the wall.
But before he could finish his thought as to what exactly cut him, he drew his last breath.

 

—

 

On the other side of the cut wall, Akira was frozen still after he swung his knife sideways.

 

Just like Alpha instructed, he swung the knife sideways right after he destroyed the bottom part of the knife with his gun.
And when he did that, a blue light shot out and cut Kahimo and the wall in front of him.
The knife could not reach the wall from where Akira was, but even so, it left a 5 meters wide cut mark on the wall.
He could barely see what was on the other side of the wall from the 1 cm thick opening on the wall.
Smoke came out from the cut mark and there was a burning smell.
After that, the knife vibrated and disintegrated into dust.

 

Akira was shocked and stood still while holding what was left of the knife.
While on his side, Alpha smiled and nodded.

 

“Alright, you’ve killed him.
We are safe for now.”

 

“…Eh, Ah, Right, I see.”

 

Alpha was behaving as if they just accomplished something small and minor.
Akira’s mind could not catch up with what was going as he was standing there perplexed.
And then he looked back to the knife which caused that situation, only its handle was left.

 

“Alpha, what exactly is this knife?”

 

“Well, even if you ask me, all I know is that it’s just a knife of the old world.
It was meant to be used by common people and was sold freely.”

 

“Did the commoners of the old world need a knife that could even cut open walls?”

 

“It’s not like its main use is to cut walls, you know.
It’s just that because they kept aiming for a better sharpness and durability, they somehow ended up with something that could even cut the wall.
If you had not destroyed the safety device, you wouldn’t be able to do such a thing.
You did destroy its main body, remember? With that, it could muster the maximum cutting power just this once.
By doing so, it would be able to ignore its limit and use the maximum stored power, that should normally be used for maintaining its durability, to increase its cutting ability.
If we had not done that, then it wouldn’t be able to cut open the wall together with the person behind it.”

 

“…But, that in itself is already dangerous enough, isn’t it?”

 

“It’s a safe tool as long as you use it properly.
But since we used it for such a purpose, that’s why it looks dangerous to you.
But that is something to be expected, right?”

 

“Well, you’re right, I understand it now.”

 

Although he thought what Alpha said was indeed correct, he still could not help but think that the knife was a dangerous tool.
And to think that something like that was distributed freely in the old world, it only made him to admire the old world even more.

 

Alpha giggled as if she was teasing Akira.

 

“So now, are you satisfied with my support? Although we had to destroy a relic from the old world, we were able to defeat 2 hunters who were way out of your league.
You may be feeling really thankful for having me, right?”

 

In contrast to Alpha who said that as if she was joking, Akira nodded with a serious face.

 

“Yeah, it’s thanks to you that I was able to survive this situation.
Thank you.
I’m sorry that I did not fully trust you up until now.”

 

Alpha returned back to normal and smiled gently.

 

“There’s no need to worry about that.
I’m happy that it was enough to make you trust me.
So then, what do you want to do now? Should we return to look for relics like we originally planned? Or instead, should we just go back home?…Akira, you’re tired, right? It’s not efficient to keep pushing forward when you’re tired.
There’s no need to push yourself too hard.”

 

Akira made a difficult face.

 

“…If I am to be honest.
I’m really tired right now so I want to go back home.
But we still haven’t gotten anything yet.
If I want to get the rest of the money from the Exchange Center, I should bring something home…”

 

“In that case, how about we only search around this place.
If I help you, we should at least be able to find some relics that other Hunters have missed.”

 

Akira then decided to follow Alpha’s suggestion to look only around that place before going home.
He was only able to find some handkerchiefs.
But these handkerchiefs were in such a bad condition that normal Hunters would have ignored them.
Even for Akira, if it was not because Alpha told him that they were relics of the old world, he would have ignored them too.
But even so, he decided to take them and concluded the search.
And then he took as much stuff as he could from Kahimo and Hayya’s corpses before returning back to the city.

 

The building was left empty except for Kahimo and Hayya’s corpse.
Hunters fighting against each other and not going back home was a common happening in the eastern region.